#thats not what the agents of atlas are because what is the atlas part you know???

[avengerphobic]

How you feeling about the Agents of Atlas rumours for the next MCU Shang-Chi film?

im. if its not the original agents of atlas im not interested. I like the new agents of atlas but the original agents of atlas are My Team. but they've already vastly changed all the original agents of atlas in the mcu so theres no way they can use them so ig theyre just gonna just do like asian avengers and call it agents of atlas which doesnt make sense cuz theyre the Agents of Atlas because they all have comics during marvels predecessor Atlas Comics

[mugentakeda]

SOME EXTRA STUFF I FORGOT TO ADD IN THE NOTES i pulled an all nighter and im completely insane my bad

-the bandage face look is inspired by killer from one piece (specifically his wano look)!!!! lots of one piece inspiration in my atla art I KNOWWWWW. its mental illness i cant help it

-the "pseudo father-son dynamic" i speak of is one half of two parts of their dynamic. long feng balances "parent-child" with "boss-bodyguard" equally, because that balance will keep lu ten exactly how long feng wants him to be: 1. professionally subservient in the way a student should be with their master, easier to accept harsh punishments without severing the trust or making lu ten afraid of long feng. being reprimanded by your boss is different and more disconnected than being reprimanded by your parent. 2. the father-son parts are what keep the leash short, and what keep lu ten a practiced, steady, few paces behind long feng, willingly. in that way, long fengs thought process is kind of similar to ozais- except he actually does reward lu ten with affection rather than dangling it over his head like ozai does with azula and zuko. the easily given affection is (unsurprisingly) more effective than dangling it over his head.

(if i HAD to compare it to anything, id say silco and jinx, but like. if silco was just horrible and evil. because he actually did love jinx. but when long feng and lu ten are casual and shit on any other thursday afternoon, think silco and jinx esque.)

-specific dai li agents are trained to perform the brainwashing, but long feng has a secret group of actual scientists that come up with the shit and improve on it. the head scientist has a weird rivalry with long feng despite being loyal to him, mostly because he knows that if lu ten poses a true danger to long feng then long feng will just dispose of him, and the head scientist sees lu ten as the teams proudest work that continues to shine. pieces of work like that dont deserve to just get tossed out like trash.

-the "punishments" are basically just torture that long feng has successfully warped lu ten into seeing as tests of endurance. they gradually get worse and more creative as time goes on, even if the mistake this time wasnt as bad as the last one. eventually lu ten is basically just waking up the next day for work at the ass crack of dawn after surviving a saw trap the night before. and mind you this went on for 6 years. lu tens Least reoccurring favorite is probably The Hook. there are Many reasons why iroh would be so out of his mind over all of this

-lu tens brainwashing does a falter at the first sight of iroh. The reason in the comic why lu ten even showed up was because the firebender in him sensed their inner flame, and followed them, but ended up doing a double take when he actually Saw his dad. i think what would actually be the first big crack in the glacier of shit in his head would be long feng trying to attack zuko, because thats instinct that his body and heart know and always will, even if his brain doesnt.

-im still at loss for how id approach the azula part of this??? i hc that azula was VERY close with lu ten. like close as in he changed her diapers more than ursa, inspired her and continues to inspire her, etc. i think azula would actually kill long feng for this if iroh didnt already beat him to death in any case which would be very awesome of her but who knows. im not a fic writer

i saw fanart for this age old unfinished fic and was so interested by the premise that i simply HAD to give the concept my own spin.... Ill put my notes under the cut cus it got kinda long lol

-FIRST OF ALL. i headcanon lu ten as a powerful firebender (like, lightning bending powerful. not an expert at it yet, but can generate it at will. only recently picked it up before the siege.) that can Also use a weapon. he picked it up for funsies and ended up taking it seriously and then excelling. he learned under piandao and in turn later introduced him to zuko. His weapon that he made with piandao was a more traditional jogekama yari, which he had on him when he was captured. long feng destroyed it and had a new jogekama yari made for lu ten in a more sleek earth kingdom style, with longer and more savage blades. **ALSO: lu tens jogekama yari is based on saras yari from samurai champloo!!!! i just made the side blades curved in opposite directions (which made it a jogekama instead of saras type of yari) -lu ten does not interact with the other agents. whether brainwashed or amnesic in this, hes not even one of the secret police that go around arresting people. hes a lone agent that works Directly under long feng and is more of an assassin and spy thats permitted in and out of ba sing se for the missions and jobs long feng sends him on, unlike the rest of the agents. as a gift for his (made up) birthday, long feng gave him a hand carved stone earring. Yes, its a tracker. yes, lu ten knows that. No, he doesn't care and wears it anyway. his boss can do what he wants, and he trusts his boss with his life (lol). the other dai li agents know of lu tens existence, less have seen him with their own eyes, none are permitted to speak to him if they do. they dont know hes a "nonbender". -i havent decided on whether or not i want lu ten brainwashed in this or simply amnesic?? it would be neat if he was the brainwash soft launch since the ba sing se conspiracy brainwashing only started After the siege. lu ten is a firebender, has that fn royalty brand iron willpower, so youd think thats hard to brainwash especially if he was the soft launch, but if long feng kept up the sessions regularly over the course of 6-ish years (and as their brainwashing techniques improved), id doubt it would rub off. its a seven layer salad of brainwashing. and even if he was amnesic rather than brainwashed, theyd still need to do some adjustments in lu tens head to TOTALLY wipe out any idea of firebending, on top of regular chi blocking. -as for the amnesic part, i read a theory that introduced the idea that lu ten being killed was an inside job orchestrated by ozai. which i dont think would be canon, but it would be pretty cool?? like especially considering how FAST he jumped on azulon about heirs. very suspicious indeed. and all too convenient: have a group of moles set in irohs army, once lu ten moves out away from iroh then corner him, kill him, make it look like the earth army did it, sneak back to the fire nation, ozai gets the crown. easy as pie. -and to combine one of MY OWN aus with the above, aka the one where zhao and lu ten were both taught together under jeong jeong, the first time that zhao REALLY made a big move into ozais pocket was offering to be the head mole in irohs army. it made perfect sense to ozai, and he gladly sent zhao on his way- him being close rivals with him will catch him off guard and make the job far easier. and if zhao succeeds, and KEEPS succeeding, when ozai undoubtedly snatches the crown, he will grant zhao all the rewards and titles he could ever want until the cows come home. snazzy deal.

so whichever one of those you guys find cooler will be the one i go with because frankly both of them have the same amount of fun angst and drama idk......................

-as for lu tens face and arm, i base that off how i think lu ten died, not even gna lie. in the case where he is dead i think half his skull got crushed open and his arm was blown right off from the bicep. the stitches are just for aesthetic purposes. i was inspired by how scars are drawn in one piece, and because they give a "frankensteins monster" type look, which i found fitting, since this is a 'came back wrong' trope/winter soldier-esque au. the bandages covering his face was a suggestion from an anxious long feng to hide his face in public, while the ba sing se conspiracy was still fresh and the citizens might recognize the spawn of the dragon of the west if they looked long enough.

-as for lu ten and long fengs relationship, i havent thought about it enough, but im definitely imagining smthn along the lines of "you were always working for me, i picked you up and trained you when you had nothing, you owe me your life and loyalty", mixed with some gentle stockholm syndrome. like, a combination of "the king and his most loyal guard dog", a very strange psuedo father-son relationship??? (which was honestly accidental on long fengs part. but he kept it up because he found the irony amusing. yes he will try and rub that in irohs face. yes iroh will beat his skull in for it. its chill)

-this has nothing to do with the au but please see iroh and zukos body language in the third panel of the comic... i love to portray them as protective of each other... zukos blade placed before iroh, irohs arm switching from shoulder to shoulder as zuko turns, always placed between him and whatever is approaching... Heurghhh (GRIPS HEAD

[actualbird]

which of the nxx boys can haggle?

wc: 1k

TIER 1: people who are sane and knowledgeable about purchasing

artem wing: can haggle but doesnt

artem knows how to haggle. hes seen his mother do it as he grew up and then he saw neil do it later on in his life and artem is a fast enough learner to understand how to do it himself.

however, when he was a child, his mother started giving him an allowance so he could learn how to manage finances. one day, he saw a snack he really wanted to buy with his own money but then it was Way Too Expensive. and so in the way all children do, hes like "why's it cost so much!" to which mrs. wing replies with "because of The Economy, baby."

and so artem decides to learn about The Economy and ends up with a pretty solid understanding of supply and demand, market trends, and other factors that go into the final price. he learns this all at AGE 10 and he decides that as long as all of these processes are done justly, the price is nothing to complain about ever.

and so he just doesnt haggle!!! but also, hes not somebody people wanna scam because fully grown artem wing at the supermarket exudes SUCH an intense and focused aura that stepping into that range surely deals immense psychic damage to anybody who has ill intent

-

luke pearce: can haggle and does

luke doesnt have to haggle. hes working so many fucking jobs (for fun?? for the benefit of satisfying his horrid urge to be a benefit for only other people???) and he does those jobs really damn well, so im sure hes got money!! but his personality just strikes me more as "if i can get it a lower price, i will, because it's a waste if you dont take that opportunity."

hes a pretty chill haggler tho. he'll smile and laugh and tease with the shop owner on how "i'll buy 3 more packs of these noodles if you bring the whole price down a bit, so technically, youre making more profit, yeah?" and honestly, his haggling works mostly because hes so earnest and charming and even if you do turn him down, he kinda just shrugs and goes "fair enough!" and buys what he was planning to buy anyway.

luke is unscammable tho. not bc of his vibes, mind you, cuz luke pearce's vibes (NOT agent raven's vibes, to be clear, thats a whole other animal) are vibes of a puppy that will apologize to YOU if you spill milk on his lap. hes got very kind vibes and that seems like a scammer's dream come true but nobody in stellis has the heart to scam him bc luke is often seen rummaging around trash cans or metal dumpsters

he is not dumpster diving for food. hes just curious if anybody threw out some cool appliances he can nab spare parts from or make into new gadgets. but stellis city doesnt know that. all they know is that the puppy boy who owns time's antiquities frequently sticks his head in the rubbish and theyre all collectively like "NOBODY SCAM HIM EVER, WE NEED TO PROTECT HIM"

-

TIER 2: i mean, it's one banana, rosa. what could it cost? 10 dollars?

marius von hagen: cant haggle and doesnt

marius is self aware enough to know that hes obscenely rich and does NOT know jackshit about small money management. like, hes great with money in large amounts. he knows the best amount of money for investments and stocks and how to plan finances long term for businesses, so he knows how money works!!!

he just doesnt know how it works at a 7/11

which usually isnt a problem. marius isnt the one doing most of the purchasing, thats left to the house staff or vincent, buuuuut when hes hanging out with mc, just the two of them, hes atlas carrying the world on his shoulders in regards to purchases.

theres a 50/50 percent chance mc will save him when hes having trouble figuring out how much to pay. she mostly saves him when hes about to do something wayy too stupid (like trade his horrendously expensive watch for an ice cream cone, HE ALMOST DID THIS IN CANON in Marius SSR Fabulous Feast) but anything less than that and hes on his own

which tbh, marius doesnt mind. it seems to make her happy seeing him fumble and be out of his element and also this is never gonna affect his funds. so if hes getting overcharged, it's never a problem

this does however mean that marius von hagen, when hanging out with a certain lawyer, is PRIME SCAM MATERIAL.

all of stellis city is like "when u see rich boy with the girl, GET HIS ASS"

vyn richter: cant haggle but does

[spoilers] vyn is of a royal lineage. hes the son of a duke. im damn sure that for all of his early life when he was still living in svart, he never had to purchase a gosh dang thing because all of it was done by house staff.

however, once vyn leaves svart and goes to stellis, he does have to learn quickly, so now hes not COMPLETELY naive. still, i cant imagine vyn richter walking around in like, a wet market or a bodega/cornerstore. i think vyn gets all of his food purchases from very upscale farmer's markets and all his other purchases in similarly hoity toity establishments.

so he can buy things. but his reference for how much things cost is HORRIBLY SKEWED by his luxurious upscale tastes. bring him to a garage sale and he will not know the general price of anything. he cant haggle

yet he does anyway, so he can be IMPRESSIVE. which he wants to be so much to the point that self awareness briefly exits his brain.

he haggles only around mc so he can be impressive cool. and he succeeds at looking impressive cool!!! in contrast to luke who is the chillest haggler ever, vyn channels such unsettling haggling energy that sellers can do nothing but agree to his terms.

but his terms.

are bad.

because since he doesnt know what normal shit costs, he actually ends up haggling the price WAY FUCKING HIGHER THAN IT ORIGINALLY WAS

vyn, smugly presenting mc with a banana he had haggled to 5x the original price: for you, my lady :)

mc: //trying so hard to not burst into laughter

(nobody is scamming vyn, they wouldnt be brave enough to....vyn is just continually scamming HIMSELF.....)

[gilded-green]

@persononplanet​ replied to your post @persononplanet replied to your post Okay but if...

Oh definitely, being a Dai Li agent that tortures definitely does not help the entire ‘I like walking over people and feeling superior to them’ part XD.

And one of my assessments was quite right! Yay! He likes the power and control he has over others (because of vague handwave yong doesnt know and will not just stop a sec for self reflection)

And yup, i’m very certain yong is overall disliked by the entirety of re-education because of that little stunt he pulled, woop.

And yes, actually, if due to some reason Tuan, Yong, and Shirong were stuck together, then Shirong would out of plain annoyance of them and pure boredom just continue thinking and analyzing the situation and then just sigh and try to solve a bit of the issue. 

Cuz your work may be torture and dark stuff, it’s no excuse to be an overall dick. (Which Shirong, coincidentally, is a perfect example of. That man is a psychological torturer. In a way, it’s worse.

He drives people to insanity, watches, pushes his victims some more, and then manipulates them into trusting him so that he can do whatever the feels like. It’s dark, terrifying, and its really underplayed in the overall atla fandom how fucking terrifying and terrible brainwashing is.)

And despite that all, Shirong isn’t an asshole. He can make friends (sure he got like...one...but thats more than actual friends Yong has) and he can treat people with more respect and care than yong. 

Plus, shirong is a wholesome godfather. Cuz eventho he overall dislikes to be surrounded by people (like banquets etc etc) he likes that little family so he’ll put up with them and try to be nice to his friend’s little kiddo. 

Yong has a family, we see them briefly in that winter solstice party fic, but I doubt Yong would be a good and loving husband and father. He has literally never shown any semblance of caring about anyone or treating anyone with respect, 

So i kinda feel bad for her, living with the Head of Investigation, a man who doesnt care about anyone but himself and has a big time hunger for power and, more importantly, a feel of having power, musn’t be a happy home situation.

Then again we’ve never really seen yong’s home situation, who knows, maybe his wife is literally the only person he actually cares about but personally I doubt it. If many, many years of being dai li partners can’t make him care even a tad bit about tuan,

Then why would yong care for the wife that was higher in status than him and - probably - has some wealth and power as well? He probably doesnt. And while thats alright in a society where arranged marriages and political marriages take place, you *are* supposed to treat her with some respect. Which i doubt he does.

But the most sad part would be the daughter. His poor daughter.

Her father is basically the biggest jerk in the kingdom and only the jade emperor knows what she has seen happen between her mother and father...

If yong is how yong always is, even at home, then i feel so damn bad for that child. I know exactly what its like to feel unloved, alone, and forgotten and I wouldn’t wish that to this innocent little kiddo. 

At least tuan’s her godfather and her mother -probably- tries her best

*coughs* Actually you don’t have to worry about Yong’s wife and kid at all.

Like you really don’t.

Not like that, anyway. I mean maybe worry about them a little? But not like that.

See I have this thing where I’m not super fond of villains having to be awful in literally all aspects. I don’t like it when creators decide “Well that’s the bad guy so we can use them as a dumping ground for every awful character trait possible.” It’s annoying and uninspired and lazy and pretty much my only exception is Ozai because Ozai is just Bad At Everything, except also I do still headcanon he and Ursa did actually have a romantic relationship and The Search never changed that so never mind Ozai isn’t as much of an exception as I thought.

Anyway, Yong is neither a terrible husband nor a terrible father.

He’s not exactly a great father, either, but like. He’s a dad. It’s part of his identity, which he has carefully built for himself. And sure, in some ways, he sees his wife and daughter as tools and stepping stones to get where he wants, but uhhhhhh....that’s how it works in his society. That’s pretty normal.

Normal to the point that he uses his wife as much as she uses him. They met, had a whirlwind romance, he realized this upper-middle class young woman and her family could definitely help him in his career, she realized this up-and-coming regular-middle class young man was going places and it’d be beneficial to hitch a wagon to his shining star, and they formalized the whole arrangement with a marriage. And welp, that sure did turn out to be a good investment for the both of them! He became one of the highest officials in the government, she gets to be the wife of someone super important, and they both get to live in the Upper Ring and chill with nobility despite being Middle Ring commoners. Also her family gets all sorts of business deals thanks to their brilliant son-in-law’s connections. So everyone’s gotten what they want, and Yong’s wife probably doesn’t know the details of what he does at work, and she probably doesn’t care to, and if she did know about the torture, she’d probably shrug like “Well sometimes that’s just how it goes, isn’t it? How else is my husband supposed to keep the city safe?”

She’s not affected by it, and more importantly she doesn’t want to be affected by it. If you try to bring her attention to the torture, she is not going to be shocked or aghast or even teary over how you’ve opened her eyes to her husband’s horrible practices. She’s going to be very annoyed at you for attempting to throw a wrench into the gears of the privilege machine that is her life. And then she’s going to complain to Yong about you, because she knows her powerful husband will fix it.

She probably knows about his extra-marital activities, too, and she also probably doesn’t care so long as everyone knows she’s his wife and no other partners matter. It’s a small price to pay for the life she’s leading. Plenty of powerful people in Ba Sing Se have lovers on the side! Heck she might too, who knows?

As for their daughter, well, having a kid was part and parcel of the whole enterprise. That’s what you do, isn’t it? Get married, have a kid, pass on the family lineage? Also they just kinda liked the idea of it. So they had a kid, and Thi is growing up to be another privileged little lady. Her father is very powerful and her life is very nice and she wants for nothing and she doesn’t know what her dad does all day but she does know he’s a hero who protects the city.

Yong may not be winning Father of the Year anytime soon, but he’s not a bad dad. If anything he’s kinda like the stereotypical Victorian father who provides for his family and is loved and respected but maybe not necessarily close to his kid, and then proceeds to go to the office where he continues to subjugate the empire’s colonies using the power of coal mined by impoverished children. The main difference is that Yong is a bit more hands-on, but eh. *handwave* Storytelling. Whatever.

There are lots of people out there who got raised by loving parents who were also just...not great people. There are lots of people out there who were raised by their loving parents to be just as not-great. And they don’t even realize it, because to them their privilege is normal, and they aren’t going to be very bothered with changing things. Or they won’t want to because it’ll mean they’ll have to confront the fact that they might not be great people. Or their parents weren’t great people, and the way they were raised was wrong. That can be a scary and hard and upsetting process to go through.

And Yong’s family really has no reason to want to go through it. Why would they? Their husband/father is an important man who protects the city and provides for his family. What else could they possibly want?

[vehlika-pelican]

warning for long post! i always get my best ideas at night when im on mobile and cant do a read-more. sorry. blacklist "vehl's headcannons" to stop seeing my stuff. no rvb season 15 spoilers i dont think. me3 is like 5 years old now so im not tagging it as spoilers for any of the games. OKAY, RVB X MASS EFFECT TRILOGY CROSSOVER ( mostly ME 1 because its been two hours since i started writing this post now and oh shit) #TuckerFightsARobotArmy is gonna be the tag for this and the inevitable sequel posts at first i thought, with default Femshep being a badass red-head that would make our local badass red-head Carolina the obvious choice for the role but it occurred to me that she would make a better Miranda Lawson than Commander Shepard. The Director is The Illussive Man (Tim). Aside from the daddy issues, Miranda is a big supporter of Tim's until she finally sees his dark side and resigns during the end of ME 2 just like Carolina was a staunch believer in the Director until she had to face the music. The Freelancers are involved in Project Phoenix and ultimately its every man for himself when the Director starts indoctrinating/reaperfying troops. She gets assigned to the Normandy SR-2 just before the agents make their escape and she's left out of the loop and feeling betrayed. She carries that well into hunting the Collectors and her loyalty mission involves maybe saving York and getting answers. Carolina goes into hiding just like Miranda during ME3, trying to take down her former employer and his organization on her own until she needs help. Thats where our best dudes come in. but then if she's taking the place of Miranda, who could be Shepard? let's start with the Reds. Sarge is too...Sarge. Maybe he could take Admiral Hackett's place as Admiral Colonel Sarge because obviously (everyone knows he's crazy but going from enlisted man to fleet admiral makes him a legend, and he really earned a name for himself during the First Contact War. that name was legally changed to Colonel.) Grif would be Joker, so our esteemed pilot/vehicle operator who's all back-talk and bitching. Simmons is where it gets tricky. Simmons could be an engineer, possibly a quarian, who got prosthetic limbs from when he temporarily served with Sarge on a joint human-quarian deployment and became enamored with the freedom to experiment in the Alliance opposed to the strict policies in the Migrant Fleet and sought to return to his service by trying to kiss ass. but i also like him as EDI because of the proximity to Grif and how they would develop that friendship leading up to Joker's Mission when Grif unshackles Simmons to save the Normandy in ME 2. i also kind of like krogan!Grif, and you know the two of them would have the greatest time messing with the Alliance's engineers during the retrofits. then when Simmons gets a body in ME3 he tries to get a faux-skin to look human but there's a problem and its missing in places on the left side and Grif decides to tell people he's just got some prosthetics from an accident. all shiny and chrome on the fury road. Donut is Kelly Chambers. trained in psychology but rarely clinical, loving all the species, somehow spreading a space-dog STD around the ship, a bit too naive if pretty gung-ho about the mission but give him a belt of lift grenades and hot damn we're in business. Lopez is the AI who robbed the bank? embezelled money? (ME 1) and threatened to detonate a nuclear bomb inside a shopping center but actually managed to buy and download himself into a ship and set sail for sweet robot freedom in the Persius Veil. he was caught by Sarge and officially "destroyed" when he's really locked in a Rampart mech with AI shackles that force him to aid Sarge in his crazy science endeavors. he refuses to speak anything other than spanish out of spite even when he genuinely needs assistance. now the Blues. Washington will have been with Cerberus until about the beginning of ME3 which is when Tim starts indoctrinating troops and members of Project Phoenix take their chances so thats too late to start trying to save the galaxy from the Reaper threat. Caboose takes the place of David (i might be getting the name wrong), an autistic savant who can communicate with a race of alien AI (the quarian-made geth) and is unwillingly mentally linked to the geth for an unknown period of time by his own brother (one of his sisters then? my poor boy imsorry). This would cause the neural trauma/scarring resulting in Caboose being... more Caboose. but he isn't found until sometime in ME2 by Shepard and co. Freckles is the mad AI who goes rogue on Luna (not EDI or part of Simmons in this au) but ends up being befriended by Caboose. he inhabits an Atlas/Titan mech and together they're unstoppable. Tex is an attempt to recreate Allison as an AI inside a cloned body made by the Director during the early stages of his madness. now she's taking Ashley's place as a trigger happy space racist, a double agent inside the Alliance and on Tucker's squad. Church almost dates her but something...feels off...and instead spends his time fighting with her because it feels...familiar? like when he used to argue with his mom when she was alive. huh. Kaikaina and Grif petitioned to serve together so she's on the squad as an infilitrator of all things. she and Wrex commiserate over the story of how she stole a krogan warlord's biotic hammer and she tramatizes Grif by flirting with his 800-pound ass. (not that it goes anywhere. Wrex thinks humans are too squishy.) which leaves...Tucker. because who else. Commander Shepard took the responsibility of proving the existence and defeating the Reapers only because they happened to be at Eden Prime when the prothean beacon was to be recovered. it could have been anyone caught in the beacon- Ashley or Kaidan or any other marine- and that person would have tried to do the same. Tucker in RVB isnt so much chosen to be the savior of an alien race (Doc said he was but that was more Junior) as he gets caught in a bunch of shit that went down in ways he was not expecting when he interacted with an ancient alien artifact thank you very much. so he's on the Normandy SR-1 because he's an N7-in-training or outright failed to get past N1 (which is still impressive because he was considered and thats not easy criteria to meet. let my man be a badass space marine. just a little bit. badass-in-training. HE'LL GET THERE.) but is noticed for his potential and is to be evaluated by turian!/salarian!Felix for Spectre candidacy. the first human Spectre. he's a biotic, i can't decide between adept and vanguard. Tucker and Grif are Totally On To the mission's importance because "spectre's(Felix) dont come along for shake-down runs" in their new experiental human-turian ship and they arrive at Eden Prime mid-attack. Tucker and his squad try to clear a path to the beacon while Felix scouts ahead. but then they find his body and eyewitnesses say it was someone he knew by name that shot him once he let his guard down and his back was turned. "Locus" they say. supposedly leading the assault with an army of heretic-geth and a massive ship emitting a terrible sound. they fight to the beacon, disable bombs along the way, and find it just as Locus's ship departs. as the squad's engineer is scanning it, Tucker notices they're starting to levitate and rushes in to grab them and throw them aside only to get caught himself. he gets the prothean vision-warning about the Reapers and maybe a special prothean omni-blade and its on. he has to prove to the Citadel Council that their Spectre Locus is a traitor and that the Reapers are real but visions? galactic extinction cycles? oh you humans are so full of it. you've been part of the galactic community for 30 years and now you're here with a conspiracy theory at best? i cant believe we thought you could work for us. blah. Tucker marches off but meets Church who's been trying to take Locus down from within the system to no avail. Alpha!Church is the Director's son but Allison got custody after the divorce and now he's a grouchy C-Sec cop getting nowhere real quick. Tucker invites him along and he's a shitty sniper but actually pretty decent with the Mako's cannon considering it handles like a drunk krogan who can do a flip it you drive off the cliff edge fast enough (what are mass effect booster jets for?). they track down a krogan mercenary (Wrex is probably still Wrex. because who could hope to live up to him?) and fight through a strip club and kill Fist and rescue a quarian (Palomo? make that Jensen) with evidence proving Locus is guilty. then they save Dr. Emily Grey and help her keep her small clinic in the wards from being shut down and she gives them sweet discounts and all the free medigel they can shove into their pockets. they rescue asari!Doc from inside a prothean ruin (got lost on a yoga retreat and panicked when geth started attacking...i guess he could be an archeologist but maybe they drag Grey along for the ride instead...) but he's developed a split personality due to how long he's been alone in there and its kinda murderous but coupled with biotics its pretty useful. (and yes, asari are mono-gendered and are all "female" but ME: Andromeda confirmed that some asari use masculine pronouns/identify as "male" and there's no way that wasn't a thing in ME 1 canon so Doc is he/him). on Virmire, he almost shoots Tex AND Wrex on the beach- put down your shotguns you fucking lunatics i will biotically throw you into the ocean! he helped Wrex get his family armor so Tucker manages to talk him down but man Tex could you chill its been months already. he has to leave Tex behind though to protect the bomb while he and Wrex save Kaikaina and Kirahee and fight Locus. they evacuate and the bomb detonates and atleast it was instantaneous. she wouldn't have felt herself be vaporized, it was quick and we stopped Locus from getting an army of krogan. Church is devastated and knowing that Tucker leaving Tex behind was a conscious choice splinters their friendship. but. Tucker has to finish this. its bullshit and why us. why'd it have to be us on this ship in this life shewasmyfriendtoo- but its a race against the clock to the lost relay and Ilos and theres no time to have a real talk. its complete bullshit. they get to Ilos but Locus is ahead of them and they have to fight so many geth and find a 50,000 year old message which only Tucker can understand but fuck this we're being left in Locus' dust openthisstupid templedoor*swish* oh shit this things a fucking key "guess we didnt have to fight all them robots" he said stepping over the mountain of slain robots because fuck my life. Wrex how'd you live so long life fucking sucks. "i've been drunk for a lot of it" great. yup. can the Mako go any faster. and then they meet Vigil but dont record it because they're still idiots who forget/dont mind the details until Simmons shows up in the sequel you morons but hey remember THAT CHASE WE WERE IN LETSGO and they drive the Mako into a relay and if Tucker made sure to crash into a geth colossus no one says anything- and they fly out into the Presidium Commons like if the Mako had wings but itfuckingdoesnt and why are there even jets on this tank. Locus and Sovereign beat them to the Citadel and the arms are closed but Hal-9000 over there is just chillin' on the Citadel Tower like he's shishing the kebab himself. then gravity goes off and they fight sideways all the way up the tower and those turrets sure are being turrets you know and not differentiating between us and the assholes ahead of us. but they finally make it and stop Locus short of the apocalypse. Tucker goes all renegade Locus was just afraid, the Reapers put his life in persepective and we are all so small and insignificant, "is servitude not preferable to extinction?" you're just a puppet, they're using you because you're weak, because you let them, do yourself a favor-! but Locus claims its too late and they fight and kill him. but he rises anyway. the fight the first and only Possessed Marauder- Sovereign controlig Locus' corpse through implants. he was mostly implants. and once its ash ashashashes Tex didnt even get to be ashes its unfa- and Sarge is over the comm, open the Citadel's arms son so the Alliance can save the day and Tucker has a choice. save the Council and sacrifice thousands of soldiers. or kill the Reaper and worry about new leadership later. its Tex again. worse. i need to think, theres no time, you know what this thing can do you saw in the vision i believe you so what do we do. make the call. and Tucker needs the Council's support...but the Reaper needs to be killed...but saving the Council will cost too much...but the Reaper could still call the others from dark space...they'll trust me... will the new ones? will the Alliance? Anyone? no. but someone will definitely be alive. kill Sovereign. the Council dies. the Destiny Ascention is destroyed. the Alliance suffers minimal loses. humanity fills the vacuum of power. humanity is no longer trusted. they blame him. he does too. have any of his choices been good enough? right? much of the crew goes their own way. Church goes back to C-Sec. maybe he'll call. Wrex returns to Tuchanka, faith in his people restored. Doc joins Grey at her small clinic. Jensen returns to the Migrant Fleet with geth data. and Tucker and the rest are... disgraced. no one says but they dont have to. every breath is a reminder of his failures and what he did. so much potential in him once, they say. he could have been great. instead he did this. and they fight geth. chase geth. fight more. they head to Alchera. more geth, they said. it isnt. the ship is blown apart. Kaikaina shoves anyone who cant walk into the escape pods. The XO is killed almost immediately. Grif won't leave. Tucker, please, Dex! Get Dex! she yells as she's dragged into an escape pod by a Yeoman and he storms over because he wont lose anyone else but the hull is gone and you can't run in mag boots. Grif is fighting for Normandy. Tucker can hear him asking for just a little more just enough to- to- but Tucker's having none of it and pulls and heaves and forces his idiot pilot into the pod. of all the times Grif chose to be the opposite of lazy. a streak of yellow catches his eye and its coming this way and he pushes off and hits the launch button but the engines blow and he hits something as he is set adrift. he's losing air. fuck, its- its behind him. he panics and scrambles for the puncture but his arms are geting heavier and he's already wheezing short little breaths shortlittlefailures youfailedyoukilledthem youkilledher. the sun in the distance is bright. he can feel his body tilt toward the planet, sees the sunlight cresting over the horizon. his vision goes dark around the edges. but the sun is bright and he doesnt notice he isnt afraid and he falls *maniacal laughter* someone should have stopped me. i think its super out of character but this is a rambling monster and not meant to go super in-depth or anything. god help me.