#trying to put into words how this series is at war with itself in some interesting ways

[mononijikayu]

we can’t be friends (wait for your love) — gojo satoru.

GENRE: alternate universe - reincarnation

WARNING/S: romance, domesticity, fluff, family, break up, comfort/no comfort, angst, trauma, implied death, hurt/comfort, character death, depiction of death, depictions of loss and depression, depiction of graphic content, depiction of emotional breakdown, depiction of anxiety, mention of death, mention of grief;

WORD COUNT: 1.7k

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you were always reminded of how beautiful and sad wintertime is. when you were younger, you excitedly put on your winter boots and puffer jacket, hurriedly running out to play in the snow, your muffler trailing behind you. you had fond memories of those snowy days, and that sentiment only deepened as you grew older.

winter became even more special the night you met gojo satoru at his birthday party, when your friend had dragged you along. you were so happy then, to have been able to have this man steal your heart. since then, winter had been warmer, happier. but lately, it wasn’t the case.

that was what you hated about winter—sometimes, all it brought was bitterness and a putrid cold. the nights were frightening, and the breath you took felt like it punched the air out of your lungs. everything stayed frozen in time, suspended by the snow that seemed to crush the earth with its weight.

nowadays, you can’t remember if you ever waited eagerly for the snow to fall. you don't look forward to winter as you did when you were a child. it was too hard to smile at the falling snow. but you still try. you really want to. you think that maybe, if you smile, it would be easier. if you smile, maybe your face will remember only the warmth. maybe if you smile, you won’t feel the bitterness—you don’t want to turn into winter itself.

you tear your gaze away from the narrow echoes of the windowpane. and for a moment, winter tears itself in two, into that bitterness and warmth. sometimes, looking at him makes it easier, and some days, it makes it harder. you supposed you always knew he was like snow itself—pure as the driven snow and yet so brutal with the weight you bear for it.

gojo satoru shifts carefully on the mattress, and before you can think, you are instantly beside him. you couldn’t help but put his hand gingerly in yours, making sure not to jostle him too much. you never expected this. that he would be in such a state. he had been so healthy all his life, and now he wasn’t even able to stand up by himself anymore.

it's very hard not to worry over someone whom you've loved your entire life. satoru, whom you would gladly go to war for. satoru, the man you had called yours at one point. the very same satoru from the life before this. from all the lives before this one. you look at him and see not the previous version of him you've once held in your arms, but the young boy you first met so many years ago.

“how are you, 'toru?” you ask him tenderly.

there is hurt and pain in these isolated walls, this stupid little winter cabin of his. there is the looming knowledge of what is to come, too, and it is something you can’t face. you already knew the answer to the question. the doctor told you. but you didn’t care about what science says. you wanted to hear it from him.

at the end of the day, you are still hopeful. because he's here. satoru is still here with you. his usually warm hand is cold; it had never been cold when it touched yours. not until recently. but you think that it doesn’t matter. cold or warm, you still held his hand.

it was still yours to hold. and you were together. the world didn’t matter right now. your own husband, your career, your reality—nothing mattered. you wanted to be here. you wanted to be by his side. you wanted to be his world again, just as he was yours.

“it’s cold today, darlin’." satoru whispers to you, trying to squeeze your hand, as though to reassure you that he was still here with you.

he wasn’t as strong as he would have liked, you knew that well. but he still held you. he still held your hand and would not let go. you don’t realize too late that you’ve been holding your breath.

you squeeze his hand and you try to smile for him, to be happy for him. satoru opens his eyes to look at you, a ghost of a smile playing across his lips. he likes it when he can see you smile for him, as you always did years ago.

you don’t think it will ever sink in. this isn’t real. this isn’t happening. you could feel the bile stuck in your throat. you already knew that this isn’t how it’s supposed to go. you have experienced much worse together. you have done much worse to each other.

you have pulled each other through collapsed barricades just to find safety elsewhere. even when you weren’t together anymore, you have managed to survive it all. because you still had each other.

that was then, and this is now. here you are, huddled together for warmth, satoru’s lips chapped and blue. your ex-husband could only try and make a front for you, one that you think he could not hold for much longer. even if he wished he could, there would come a time when it would all be over.

the room is silent except for the faint sound of the wind howling outside, the winter storm a harsh reminder of the reality you are facing. you clutch satoru’s hand tighter, as if your grip alone could keep him tethered to this world.

“satoru, love.” you whisper, your voice trembling. “stay with me.”

his eyes flutter open once more, and he looks at you with a softness that breaks your heart. “i’m trying, darlin'.” he murmurs, his voice barely audible. “for you, i’m trying.”

you bite back the sob that threatens to escape, not wanting him to see you fall apart. you need to be strong, for him, for both of you. you lean closer, pressing your forehead against his, your breath mingling in the cold air.

“i know, love.” you say softly. “i know you are.”

the moments stretch on, each second feeling like an eternity. you talk to him about anything and everything, recounting memories of happier times, of your first meeting, of the countless winters you spent together. you tell him about the future you once dreamed of, the life you wanted to build together. you pour your heart out, hoping that your words can keep him here a little longer.

but as the hours pass, you can see the light in his cerulean eyes dimming, the strength in his grip weakening. he is slipping away, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. you feel a crushing weight in your chest, the pain of losing him more than you can bear.

“satoru, my love.” you say again, your voice breaking. “please don’t go. i can’t do this without you.”

he looks at you with a sad, knowing smile. “you’re stronger than you think,” he whispers. “you always have been.”

tears spill down your cheeks, and you shake your head. “not without you,” you insist. “i need you.”

his hand moves to your cheek, his touch feather-light. “i’ll always be with you." he says softly. “in here.” he taps his chest weakly, indicating his heart.

"how do i live on without you?" your tears blur everything in sight, even him. but you don't want to. you don't want it to.

"you learnt how, when we got divorced, darlin'." he smiles at you. you can tell, he was having a harder time speaking. "you'll learn again. you've always been a fighter. my darlin'. you've always been a fighter."

you nod, even though it feels like your heart is shattering into a million pieces. you lean down, pressing a gentle kiss to his lips, savoring the warmth and love you’ve shared. as you closed your eyes, you could feel it tremble with tears once again.

“i love you.” you say, your voice barely a whisper.

“i love you too.” he replies, his voice fading. “always.”

you hold him close as his breathing grows shallower, his grip on your hand loosening. you can feel his life slipping away, each moment more painful than the last. and then, with one final, shuddering breath, he is gone.

the room feels impossibly quiet, the weight of his absence suffocating. you hold onto him, your tears soaking into his shirt, your heart breaking in ways you never thought possible. the world outside is a blur of white, the snow falling relentlessly, indifferent to your pain.

winter has never felt colder than in that moment.

you stay there for what feels like hours, unable to let go. you waited for the paramedics to arrive. you call his kids, to tell him what happened. and then....nothing. emptiness. the quiet. not even the snow falling made a sound.

the memories of your life together play in your mind, a bittersweet reminder of all you’ve lost. you remember the warmth of his smile, the sound of his laughter, the way he made you feel alive. and though he is gone, those memories are yours to keep. you fall in love again. and that tears you apart. it kills you whole.

eventually, you find the strength to stand, to face the world without him. you know it won’t be easy, that the days ahead will be filled with pain and heartache. but you also know that satoru would want you to keep going, to find a way to live life as you always have.

when everyone arrived, you knew it was time to go. you didn't want to leave his body. but you have no right to be there anymore. his kids tell you that it was too dangerous out. but he was gone. you say your goodbyes, you walk over to the coat hanger. your eyes red, your heart heavy - you make your way to leave the cabin.

you could feel how cold it was when you stepped out into the echoing blizzard, this unforgiving winter. the snow crunches beneath your feet, each step a reminder of the journey ahead. you look up at the sky, the falling snow blurring your vision, and you take a deep breath.

winter will continue for a long time, you think. and perhaps, you’ll only ever breathe winter snow again, as bitterly as you could. but you hope maybe, one day—you’ll think of him and be warm again. you bit your lips, tears flowing freely.

maybe if you're lucky?

you'll be reborn again.

maybe you'll love him again.

[hestzhyen]

Chapter 57 Cope Posting

Not like this, dear void... not like this. The blessing/curse of Kagurabachi chapters ending in 7 being absolute banger cliffhangers continues and there is not enough copium in the world to get me through to next week. This entry is an absolute mess...

Let's start with practicing on the editor's comments again. Sorry if the colours are hard to read on brighter backgrounds, I live in Dark Mode as much as possible.

First page: ハクリが飛宗の転送に成功! そして- [Hakuri ga Tobimune no tensou ni seikou! Soshite-, Hakuri successfully transfers Tobimune! And then-] Last page: 座村, 漆羽… 事態は混沌へ… [Samura, Uruha... jitai ha konton he..., Samura, Uruha... the situation turns chaotic...] noting that the word used for "situation", jitai (事態), specifically has negative connotations (as opposed to 状況 [joukyou], which is neutral).

These comments are rarely more than fluff just to give the editors some presence in the work itself, so I don't take them as definite indicators of anything going on in the plot. But man. Man. "Bad situation" seems to be putting it lightly. I was ready to take you off the list of possible traitors, Samura! I was seriously going to do it! Whyyyyyyyyyyy

Chihiro and the Pink Menace

Fine, first up... school?

How does our cast stack up to the average student after getting home schooled in murder and cool action poses?

It was obvious to everyone that this arc would involve Chihiro learning about the unpleasant sides of his dad's legacy. So this is just a "hey don't forget" moment for us that also highlights how far removed Hiruhiko and Chihiro are from regular society. Those two (and Hakuri) should be in their last year of high school, complaining about homework or stressing about their future college/job plans right now instead of fighting to the death. Poor guys.

I don't want to presume too much about Hokazono-sensei's views, but I really like directly acknowledging that winners write history and so their wartime cruelty is often downplayed or re-framed as heroism. These kids and even Chihiro only know the revised version of what happened, not the truth of the matter.

Home schooled Chihiro confirmed! Kinda!

Anyway, some more John Plan Reveal. He wants Chihiro to learn the truth about his father's legacy and the impact it's had- that's why he hasn't been "harvested" yet. This implies that there's some terrible thing that could upend Chihiro's entire worldview to be learned. But we kind of already knew that based on everything I just said.

I hope this isn't a flag for John trying to convince Chihiro to join him. There are awful secrets that are going to be unearthed about Kunishige and the Kamunabi this arc for sure, but it's kind of a waste of our time to do the "oooh it was worse than you thought why don't you join us to set things right" rigamarole.

Obviously the Hishaku have some compelling reasons to do all this if they can get someone as loath to kill as Samura on their side to murk his war buddies. It's just never gonna convince Chihiro so I hope we don't get a moralizing yapfest to accompany John's outstretched hand. I trust the writing though! So far it's been almost nothing but excellence so... chill, me. Just wait and see.

I think that no matter what happens Chihiro will continue to forge his own path with allies who care for him at his side. He won't choose the government's path, or the Hishaku's, or even his dad's- he'll create something new. Standard stuff for a shounen series but I never get tired of seeing it!

Before moving on to the coping session, there's something neat in this scene that I want to ramble about:

Local yapper yaps while the guy listening to him literally overthinks

I'll use the JP version if I have to, but I like how Chihiro's inner monologue deliberately overruns Hiruhiko's speech bubble to show that he's not paying full attention while his thoughts are in overdrive. He's still partially listening but he's not quite as composed as he appears to be on the outside, which is confirmed by the close-up zoom into his stressed look with the sweat drops. Yet when we zoom out, he seems a bit more put-together like usual. He's still exhausted from yesterday, man! Really should have rested up... at least the author acknowledges it. (Forced bed rest soon? Hopefully?)

This is how Hiruhiko was able to get the drop on Chihiro. Chihiro's got a lot on his mind and he has trouble focusing, just like Uruha chided him for on the train. His resolve is unshaken but he's still prone to wavering in the moment as he tries to process things. He even misses the fist time Samura's name was mentioned! Clearly Chihiro needs Hakuri or Uruha or someone there to yell encouragement at the right time to stop him from getting lost in his own head. But he's got a lot to think about and work through right now, so it's understandable why he's so stressed out.

Poor Chihiro. He's coming to the conclusions that we, the readers privileged with having weeks IRL to ponder new information, came to long ago. The Master is not treated like a hero but a prisoner, and probably for very, very good reasons. Ones good enough to convince Samura to make a deal with the devil.

What Actually Happened?!

Not all the blades have themes from nature, it seems. Geisha offered many different types of entertainment to guests, from performing music to conversation to serving sake. So now we have the idea behind the name [Swaying Sake]!

First up to delay just a little longer: Kumeyuri power reveal! Seems to be based in some kind of performing arts aesthetic with the geisha that were conjured. Fitting for the guy who wears kabuki eye make-up right? ...And for the next bearer, who interrupted a kabuki performance to pick it up in a theater... I see you and your foreshadowing, Hokazono-sensei.

Fine. I'll admit it. The ending of the chapter makes it crystal clear that Hiruhiko is the new bearer contracted to Kumeyuri by having his origami butterflies come undone as he grasps the hilt in his teeth. Can't even hope it's another case of someone "borrowing" power like Kyora did with the Shinuchi of the bunch.

Magatsumi's the only blade that can be used by someone not contracted to it, hence the extra protections it needed.

So that means... yeah. Uruha's gone. Just like that.

There will be thousands of theories about what exactly happened to Uruha, why Samura made a deal with John, what the details of that deal were- we'll get the truth soon. I'm most interested in the reasoning that ties into Samura's sincere beliefs of killing being an evil act.

The burden of death weighs so heavily on him that he blinded himself in penance. But he's willing to let his own apprentice die -probably even kill him himself!- because of... what? What was so horrible about fighting with the Master and Kunishige's weapons for the good of the nation? What compelled him to help the Hishaku kill the remaining bearers and upend the peace they earned?!

Hey, Samura. Is it really so bad to be called a war hero while being treated like a prisoner in a comfortable government-provided jail facility? Is it so horrible that "alternative facts" pass for real history to bury whatever horrors you witnessed and possibly perpetrated? Is it truly awful to have people willing to die for you despite all the grave sins you've committed? That they're likely completely unaware of thanks to government propaganda and being too young to have witnessed the truth?

...I need those Seitei War flashbacks pronto.

*----------------------------------------------------------------------------*

Wait a minute. Jail? Even the friggin' onsen?

Yup! The Master's the only one being treated like a dangerous criminal outright, but the 慚箱 [sanso] are just dressed up prisons for the Bearers. The Kamunabi ain't even subtle about it.

慚 [san] - to feel shame 箱 [sou] - box

The government put these guys in specially-constructed (or repurposed) buildings officially referred to as "shame boxes" and told them they couldn't leave. Even the name given to one of them is a bit much! 国獄温泉 [Kokugoku Onsen] translates to:

国 [koku]- country/state/national government 獄 [goku]- jail/prison 温泉 [onsen] - hot spring

Gee, I wonder if Uruha was having a good time at State Prison Hot Springs?

That said, while there may well be some bitterness between the Bearers and the Kamunabi, it's not the main motivating factor for Samura. His is definitely rooted in how they all acted during the war and how guilty he feels now that they're promoted as heroes.

*----------------------------------------------------------------------------*

It looks like Chihiro's being summoned by Hakuri in the very last panel so we might get some perspective on Samura's reasoning next week. Probably no clear answers right away, but at least enough to see if he really was the one who killed Uruha and a bit of insight into why. And to see if Uruha's dead at all... I mean, if we don't see a body... let me be delusional, okay?!

I'm just not able to go all-in on believing Uruha's dead. But it's not because I don't think he actually is... it just doesn't feel real after spending weeks preparing to let go of Samura. Not to mention the tried-and-true tactic of baiting out strong emotions with implied character deaths.

Normally I don't take death foreshadowing like this too seriously in shounen series. I just wait to see if the author is faking me out or not before getting stressed (unless it's Hakuri, in which case I stress responsibly). But Kagurabachi is a series that lured the MC with a child's severed leg and showed two suicide attempts on-screen, one of which was horrifically successful- right in front of someone who was already traumatized too. Hell we lost most of the anti-Kuregumo squad without much fanfare back in the Sojo arc! Only actually showing a child being tortured on-screen is too much, apparently. This series is dark as hell when the author wants it to be and Uruha's death is probably another one of those times.

There's hope in me that Uruha can still come out of this alive just because I like him so much, but I want the author to follow through on his death when it's presented as such an ominously real scenario. All signs point to Uruha being a goner, so don't make it look iron-clad then say "nah" the next chapter with some technicality that we couldn't have known about until the reveal. I would rather lose Uruha in an unexpectedly painful way than be faked out just to get the reaction out of me, y'know? Don't toy with me. Commit to crushing my heart, dammit.

But, God... oh man. I fell for the bait and got stupidly attached to a Bearer in the arc named after killing them. I even knew bad times were coming because of all the levity at the start of the arc but still went on hoping nothing would happen so soon. Laugh at me, I deserve it. I probably helped this manifest by mentioning how awful it would be if Chihiro found out a Bearer died because Hiruhiko was able to contract with one of the blades. Saying "I crave the angst that will come from this situation with every fiber of my being" in a post tag was overkill. It's just:

Author: names the arc after assassinating the bearers

Reader: gets attached anyway

Author: assassinates a bearer

Reader: ╚(•⌂•)╝

Coping Theory

May as well put my two cents in on how it could have gone down while I'm here...

I wonder if he planned to die in the raid instead so it looked like an unavoidable accident, sparing everyone else from the carnage.

This exact sequence- the Makizumi talking about honor in death for saving Samura, and Uruha's words that the Bearer's lives need to be valued above others'- is what solidifies Samura's resolve. This man is filled to the brim with guilt and self-loathing (much like another swordsman we know). He cannot save himself, but... perhaps he can take some equally bad sinners down with him for the greater good. He's not only a mirror for Hakuri, but Chihiro as well- one's resolve to save no matter the cost to one's self, and one's resolve to go to hell for what they believe is right. That's how I'm reading this until we get his own insight on the matter, at least.

It's not a stretch to infer that Samura thinks the Bearers are better off dead in large part due to the powers they command and things that were done during the war. That's still a huge mystery to be unraveled but I mean:

Seeing the bare minimum of Magatsumi in action really drives home how horrific these "heroes" could seem out on the battle field doesn't it? No wonder the clone sorcerer described the Seitei war as "hell on earth". But the public has no knowledge of this. They only got the sanitized version fit for PR purposes and feel-good stories.

The Hishaku seem to be intent on dismantling this image. Perhaps that's how they got Samura on their side? Not sure how the current Bearers dying and giving the Hishaku access to that dreadful power is better than the status quo, but that's something that will become clear with more reveals about the ideology driving the group. Maybe Samura doesn't care so much about the rest of the world and just wants to do what's best for the truth that's been buried under nearly two decade's worth of secrecy.

As to what happened with Uruha... two things come to mind. One I think is more likely, and one I want to cling to until it's ripped away as I sob and beg for just one little bit of comfort.

Most likely, I think Samura and Uruha had an exchange about ideals and the value of their lives. Samura overpowered Uruha per the plan as the "trump card" and that was that.

In delulu land, I want Samura to have been double-crossed. As in he made a deal on the condition that the lives of the people he cared about would be spared, but of course Uruha couldn't be allowed to live. So the Hishaku ensured that he'd die there no matter what. It's a bunk theory since Mr. Hatshaku left once the situation turned against him... maybe incorporate some of the datenseki mind control stuff in there somehow? I don't know. Just let me have this until canon proves otherwise.

Hakuri and Chihiro, Though?! And Miscellaneous Questions

(Ch. 46) I'm not going to be okay for a while and neither are they.

Best boys are really gonna go through it no matter what Chihiro is summoned back to. They'll be in a rough way... not only did they lose Uruha and hand Kumeyuri to Hiruhiko, but Samura betrayed them all... oof. So much for proving themselves to the Kamunabi. They're going to get an earful and be set back in the "negotiations" big time.

No doubt Chihiro will put this burden on his shoulders too, even if no one could have predicted Samura's defection to the enemy. It's his dad's legacy that's causing all this strife right now. He'll be more motivated than ever to unravel the war's true history and I'll be right there with him hoping he doesn't push himself too hard or harshly. The son shouldn't be responsible for the sins his father committed before he was even born. But that's just like, my opinion, man.

Meanwhile...

"I'm still good for it," wheezes the guy with blood gushing out of his nose at an alarming rate.

Hakuri will probably blame himself too. Depending on how things shake out, it could be for anything from accidentally arming a traitor to seeing someone die in front of him again. There's a good chance he'll (temporarily) lose the thing that makes him useful too, so that'll be an extra layer of angst for him to deal with. What value does a broken tool that couldn't fulfill it's one purpose have?

I also wonder what prompted Hakuri to summon Chihiro away from Hiruhiko. He's kind of in rough shape to do it just 'cause he misses his (boy)friend. They have cell phones to communicate with so it seems a bit abrupt to summon him back without checking first. Hakuri's also not the type to impose on someone to protect him. Nor is he the type to drop Chihiro into the middle of a life-or-death situation without a sense of mutual understanding first. So there had to be some kind of pressing need. The timeline of events means he's summoning Chihiro right after Uruha was killed, so... more soulmate stuff maybe? Their souls call out to each other and resonate when they're in distress, after all (it's canon baybeeeeee). They're in perfect harmony and all that. Sorry for the shipping nonsense I just need any bit of fluff I can get right now.

So many questions that might not get answered...

What about the Makizumi? Will they defect to serve Samura? Or will they try to help get Hakuri to safety with the Kamunabi? Samura doesn't want to kill them at all so no matter what happens they'll live at least. Hooray an elite squad that didn't bite the dust... (I think they will choose Samura because of everything he did for them).

How did Hiruhiko know when Kumeyuri was usable anyway?! Was it some signal from his mystery supporter that was lurking outside the window? And who was that- did Worst Jeanist show up?

Samura's loath to kill innocents, but does Hakuri count as one? Would losing his sorcery be enough to count him as neutralized for the Hishaku's purposes? Was exhausting Hakuri the main reason why Hiruhiko sent all the forces to the temple in the first place?

Hiruhiko wasn't surprised to see Tobimune disappear, so the Hishaku probably know about Hakuri's power. Their mole within the Kamunabi should get a bonus for the turnaround time on learning that bit of info and sending it on. Unless John's playing 5D chess and knew about Hakuri's awakening and team-up with Chihiro before they even met the Kamunabi anyway... perhaps even orchestrated it too... that would definitely need a very good explanation.

Alright. Okay. Let's wait on tenterhooks together, dear void. No waterworks until they show the body, got it?

[sob]

[hoenn-pride]

Man do you ever just think about how.... hardenshipping was ALWAYS going to be the natural conclusion of the game from the moment they sat down and decided that the gimmick of the region was going to have two warring teams.

Like hardenshipping has some sort of pre-baked, innate canonicity with the way that Pokemon games always resolve themselves. Especially as it pertains to the way the Hoenn region was designed.

What I mean by this is,

In Pokemon, the lesson is always "working together makes us stronger." It is always about the power of friendship, it is always about found families, it is always about settling differences with love etc etc etc. Except. This is on STEROIDS in the Hoenn region because this is a theme and a message that was deliberately sought out when they designed the game.

The Hoenn region is a region of duality. It is all about opposites and counterbalance. The names of the cities are mostly two words put together as opposed to color names in the past. Team Aqua and Team Magma. Groudon and Kyogre. Plusle and Minun. Latios and Latias. Solrock and Lunatone. Zangoose and Seviper. Volbeat and Illumise. How Wurmple can evolve into either Silcoon or Cascoon. How Clamperl can evolve into either Huntail or Gorebyss, making both of those sets of Pokemon counterparts to one another.

The REGION itself is split almost evenly in physical makeup between land and water. Which is what made it seem like there was a shit ton of water because there was. There has never been as much water in a Pokemon game as there was in Hoenn, and it was because they were physically trying to balance the water and the land. There's a giant uninhabitable volcano in the center of the region perfectly counterbalanced on the map by a giant, habitable crater in the center of the ocean. Complements and counterparts color the entire region, often quite literally in red and blue. Like almost anywhere you look in Hoenn, it is ideologically (and sometimes physically) symmetrical in design.

The name of the region comes from love and relationships, for god's sake.

And so then you have the Hoenn region, named after a word that literally means love and relationships, being themed around this very concept, in a game series that ALREADY focuses on those things. As like. The core component of the franchise.

So the Hoenn region has "the power of love and friendship" on fucking STEROIDS.

And they DOUBLE and TRIPLE down on this metaphor that they already did not need to double and triple down on in the remakes with the inclusion of the "Hoenn Rangers Coexistence Force," whose sole existence seems only to be to call out Archie and Maxie specifically, as they are about promoting the peaceful coexistence of people, nature, and pokemon. Blatant passive-aggressive reference to Archie and Maxie, who are locked in some sort of odd, eco-ideological warfare with each other playing out over the large-scale arena of the entire fucking region.

And the fact that they canon used to be on a team together and clearly split due to their differences (you know. Like how a lot of these region's Pokemon have split evolutions and counterparts etc etc etc).

The Hoenn region is rife with all this fucking duality.

And so, naturally, the Pokemon plot does what Pokemon plots do, and uses like a 12 year old child to tell our bad guys that the power of love and friendship is actually all they need.

And for the most part, in most games, that would be where it would end. The villain and the evil team fades off into obscurity, after they learned their lesson.

Except, Archie and Maxie don't have that option. Because they have each other.

Team Rocket, while still technically present, disappears from the game after you beat them. Cyrus disappears. Ghetsis disappears. Colress just fucking hangs out with you, kind of. Lysander disappears. Lusamine disappears. I don't fucking know what Rose does but god in hell I'm sure he doesn't contribute anything meaningful. Turo and Sada go off to a different fucking reality altogether.

All of the other villains disappear because they have learned their lesson. What are they going to do? Be besties with the player in the post game? Colress is the only one who gets remotely close to this, and he's locked on a little ship in one area once you beat the game. These individual leaders rightfully learn their lesson, rightfully go off on their own to reflect and grow or go to prison or die, and we just assume that because we beat them, that's the end. There is nothing more for them to resolve, because they have resolved their conflict with us.

But not Archie and Maxie. Because Archie and Maxie's main point of conflict was not with you. It was with each other.

ALL of the other villains have NO ONE to amend with once you finish the main line story of the game, because they have already ended the conflict with you. Therefore, in all other iterations of them that exist (for example, in Masters) they can just be "Ho ho ho I am GenericEvilTeamLeader" who did a bad thing.

But not Archie and Maxie. Because Archie and Maxie were depicted having their main conflict with each other, and not you, any piece of media that wishes to depict them post-events of their games (aka, post their lessons-learned) MUST depict them together. In order to demonstrate that they have taken this lesson about the "true power of friendship" to heart, we must see them putting that into practice.

And due to the nature of Hoenn being about coexistence, natural complements, and duality, Archie and Maxie must then conclude to work together and harmonize with one another just as their opposing elements do, just as the entire rest of their fucking region does. They are the living embodiments of the inner conflict, the duality and complement and turmoil and harmony that the entire region of Hoenn was built upon.

And THIS is why, to this day, in the year of our good Groudon 2023, we are STILL getting new content of them being so close to one another. Why Pokemon Masters has just basically become Hardenshipping Truthers DLC. Because now, in order to demonstrate that Archie and Maxie have taken some semblance of their lesson to heart, they must be depicted working together. As they were always created to do.

Archie and Maxie were created to be at war with one another, but this was because they were also created to learn the lesson that they must work with one another, because that is the lesson of Hoenn, and that is the lesson of Pokemon as a whole.

So from the very moment the devs sat down and said "we are going to make two warring teams," Archie and Maxie's destinies were invariably linked together, and basically hardenshipping content was always going to be the natural conclusion of that.

They really invented gay people with this one. I just..,,

*slaps Hoenn region* this bad boy can fit so much fucking symbolism in it

[ricanvvas]

Hinata Hyuga Slander and why it is obnoxiously idiotic.

I actually thought the Hinata Slander was a joke or one or two people sided with it. But I am totally taken aback to realize that it’s actually real—and a little popular—it’s real?

Prepare for a run down through Naruto Series kids, because some few fellas clearly did not watch it properly. Either that, orrr…they’re filled with unreasonable hatred for a character who should be the last to be hated. By literally anybody.

I’m going to try to keep this short (I’m lying), but there are going to be topics on Hinata I’m going to go over so it’s not a messy bunch and rather organized and you can skip to which ever you find most relevant.

Before anything, a remark, I never overly cared for Hinata’s existence and she isn’t even in my top 15 Naruto characters but that does not mean I dislike her nor do I look down at her character. Now imagine a person like me going out of their way to take time and write an entire blog for her—yeah, it’s that ridiculous.

There will be that one person—and I’m saying this beforehand—who will barely skim through this and childishly reply to my blog. Catch me caring though!

All of the topics will include manga based evidence as well as a breakdown of the scene and what they portray, therefore, canon reasonings. There are plenty of other and more evidence out there, I will only provide some and main ones that back up claims. Here are topics I will be going over:

Hinata Hyuga as an anime character/character writing

Personality

Goals & Dedications

Skills & Strength

Incessant Love for Naruto Uzumaki

#1 Character Writing

While many people believe that Kishimoto is terrible at writing female characters, I’d like to disagree. Females like Temari, Konan, Ino, and Karin all pass the main checkmarks of being an exceptionally “good” character; a solid background/past, special abilities, and set personality. What I do agree with though is that he does not know how to put them to use, and it is obvious why. These females were not the only ones tossed aside—so were good characters like Lee, Neji, Jiraiya, and so on, all because of the author’s obsession with the Uchiha as well as Sasuke’s story.

Hinata is included in the “good” character checklist, and rather exceeds. The difference between her and the rest of the women is that she is the best representation of an individualistic woman and had incredible character development.

↓ How did we go from a girl so easily shaken and brought down with mere words

↓ To the girl who had the guts to charge against an Akatsuki member,

↓ And seeked frontlines during the war?

It may look like it’s only for the sake of Naruto, but it’s not entirely the reason, only partial. Everybody was set on saving Naruto anyway, instead of fighting the war themselves because they knew Naruto was their key to winning.

Hinata’s introduction may have started with her admiration for Naruto Uzumaki, and it did play a big part, but her entire existence never just revolved around romance. She had way more to her. Hinata’s character itself promotes women empowerment despite her not being the main female protagonist.

Through her writing, we learn that women don’t need to not seek love in order to be independent and a powerful female with goals and dedications that have nothing to do with romance. Hinata is a perfect example of this.

As a side-side character, Hinata excels in character writing, and is interesting enough to keep the audience invested in her existence. The next few manga pages and break-downs will explain it well.

#2 Personality

Her personality did not revolve around her undying love for Naruto only. She was her own person, too.

↓ While shy and timid, Hinata is also a pure and kind hearted soul, as we do not know any character she actually has bad blood with, making her somebody easy to be around with. She’s very gentle, making the atmosphere around her almost tranquil.

↓ Her conflict with Neji was very one-sided, and despite his harsh treatments, she still used honorifics and respected him.

↓ Yes, she might be a soft human being, but not to the point she is unable to pick out flaws in other people.

She seems more warmed up in Shippuden than she was in Classic, and it’s fair to say that ever since Chunin exams, she had gained confidence with the help of Naruto’s cheering. Confidence in herself and her skills. (Panels above may help)

Something to keep in mind is that Neji was known to be more cold, arrogant, and stronger than Sasuke during this time, by Kakashi’s words.

↓ Yet Hinata did not back away even after being told to, multiple times I believe, even by Kiba himself.

↓ This was the beginning of her journey of trying to be more assertive about herself, as she believes she could keep on going without chickening out.

↓ And she didn't back away when someone from the Hyuga Clan told her to do so--she was persistent.

Hinata was never meant to be somebody with great leadership skills; she has always been a follower, almost, who takes a lot of inspiration from people she looks up to. The obvious person, Naruto, and Neji were mentioned.

#3 Goals & Dedications

Her goal had never been only to be a wife and a lover to Naruto. It was one of her goals, the hope to get Naruto to acknowledge her, which he did several times. But that was not it, there was more.

Hinata did not seem so close with her family, so she had no certain goals regarding the Hyuga Clan. She was almost avoiding them and was deemed to be a shinobi, which she probably preferred, participated, and found likeness to, rather than the next heir to the Hyuga Clan, simply because her father did not believe her feather-like personality was fit for it, nor did Hinata seem too interested to lead a clan with such twisted rules and laws.

Despite her father's harsh, degrading words (and Neji's), she did not let it effect her because she continued to get stronger later on.

Hinata always wanted to be self-assured, and wanted to be as confident as Naruto always has been. She wanted to be of use, somehow. Refer to #2, second last image.

↓ Here, too, we see her admitting that she never believed in herself, until she did.

"I stared liking myself a little more..." shows she had very little fondness for herself.

Hinata wanted to change herself for a very long time. She did not ever want to stay the way she used to be--scared.

Another admittance,

But then...

All of these images show that Hinata had something she was thriving for, something she was dedicated to achieve that was not just romance. So, props to Hinata (and Tenten, but that's another story) for actually having a goal/objective.

#4 Skills & Strength

All powers Hinata has been shown to use/possess:

Byakugan (Kekkei Genkai)

Gentle Fist (Specific Taijutsu)

The Eight Trigrams (Air Palm, Palm Rotation, 64-Palms)

The Gentle Step; Twin Lion Fist

The Eight Trigram; Twin Lions Surging Shots (Utilizes Hagoromo's Chakra)

Hamura Otsutsuki's Chakra

And some others I might’ve missed

I'm not going to make this section breaking down each ability, but I'm going to use this information to factually prove that Hinata has more amounts of known and used abilities than probably all female characters, as well as like 90% of overall Naruto characters or something. And she's definitely stronger than a lot of characters, logically, despite her not having been in fights very often.

During younger years, Hinata Hyuga was put against Neji Hyuga—once again, claimed to be possibly stronger than Sasuke at that time—and Hinata was actually able to put up with Neji. For a bit, or a while, it doesn't matter. For a young, scared girl who has never been in a fight before to be able to do so speaks for her skills.

Inexperienced against the nearly strongest genin, one filled with hatred, among her generation, Hinata exceeded enough.

↓ In Shippuden, we even get a scene where she protects Neji!

There's a very few people Hinata actually canonically fought, but when she did, she did plenty well for being a side-side character.

↓...And that same side-side character, Hinata Hyuga, was the only kunoichi in the entire show to actually land a hit on Pain, during Pain Arc. The inevitable praise.

Here comes the cries of, “but she was flung LOL” “hinata didn’t achieve shit from this” “he threw her like she was nothing”

Frankly, those are most ignorant things you can say regarding her actions. To stand up against an Akatsuki member? That takes a lot of balls, considering that nobody was standing up for Naruto, and practically gave up, giving into Pain’s near-victory.

The entire point was not even to defeat Pain—it was to defend Naruto. And in doing so, she stalled for a bit, preventing him from immediately killing Naruto. In that amount of time, the few who remained could’ve backed her up, they could’ve offered some sense of rescue, but because of twist of fate, and the expected, Hinata was unable to keep Pain off of Naruto. It brought her to near-death, triggering Naruto Uzumaki’s 9-Tail-Fox.

Hinata was the fiercest woman. She wasn’t stupid, she accepted she was weaker and couldn't win before she even got onto the battle field. But she tried.

The scene was never about physical strength to begin with; it was her strong mindset and dedication. She was aware of the consequences and still stepped in, demonstrating her everlasting commitment for Naruto. This entirely proves that she not only had great self-development, she had the audacity to stand against the strongest Akatsuki member (excluding Obito), who killed a Legendary Sannin.

#5 Incessant Love for Naruto Uzumaki

In the entirety of Naruto Anime existence (excluding Boruto), only one of its movies have been considered canon, that being Naruto: The Last.

While I hoped it would show us Naruto promoting to Hokage, all of it was focused on Hinata and Naruto's relationship, and we found out a lot through it. Like, a lot.

There are very few couple/characters in Naruto that actually have past together/some story and strong reasoning to start liking their love interest. Such characters being Kushina, Karin, Konan (the K's lol), and of course, Hinata.

There are filler episodes that go before The Last, but I wouldn't count them (even if they add on to the actual story), but in The Last, we figure out that Hinata and Naruto first met when he protected her from getting bullied due to her Byakugan, and he gets beaten up for it.

"Never go back on my word" was one of Naruto's internal rules that he stuck by and it made up his entire personality, almost. Hinata really seemed to respect it and use it for herself.

She tend to turn his imperfections into motivations,

Those feelings seem to get more bold in Shippuden and more confronting. So much so she did not hesitate to put her life on the line for the boy. Not "just because." Hinata gave a list of unavoidable reasonings, that we were able to point out, too.

And vice-versa, she did make a difference in Naruto's life pre-marriage. She gave him courage, motivation, and a reason to keep going. Refer to the fourth image in this section, too.

Then, our closure, he finally realized that Hinata has been there for him since the beginning of the times (also in The Last).

“…but…but…! Hinata is a stalker! She was always watching Naruto! She’s so creepy!”

Okay, but her canonically shown watching Naruto was like, twice in 700 episodes… ↓

And...honestly...it's not really...that...deep...lol? Old Japanese humor. And don't act like girls nowadays don't stalk the shit out of the boy they like--let's get real here. Just get over it. It's an exaggerated cartoon.

People have different views when it comes to love. But one thing I heavily disagree with are weak or false reasonings to fall in love with somebody. You’ll screw yourself over. Seeing a guy walk through the door and finding him physically attractive should not be your reason to “fall in love” and keeping that reason forever; you’re falling in love with his body, not him. It could be the start of your interest. Taking your time to get to know what kind of individual they are, and then accepting their personality, and falling in love with that person is guaranteed success. Reasons are important.

And Hinata understood that well, unlike someone who didn’t (I’m throwing shade!)

(A very quick addition and counter-argument I might get is that Hinata was the cause of Neji's death. I didn't want to put this into an entire section because it'll involve mentioning Neji's own character. But to be frank, Neji chose to protect Hinata and died that way. And I idiotically love Neji far more than Hinata. You don't need somebody's permission to protect them, nor did Neji do it just because he was the lower branch of the Hyuga Clan. Neji and Hinata’s relationship was beyond that. Way beyond. Reread the manga, or even rewatch the anime, and listen and figure out why he did what he did. It had nothing to do with Hinata being a higher rank than him, at least not entirely at all.)

__________________________________________

I was going to add another section titled, "Comparison", but because of image restrictions and as well as the thought that this blog is only about Hinata, I scratched it out.

I don't even praise Hinata. She isn't my favorite Naruto female, either. Personally, for me, she just existed as a character. But I'd be damned if I threw any dirt on her for any reason.

If anything, I believe Hinata Hyuga's character is underappreciated in the way she should be appreciated. She's not just some...loyal, attractive girl (hell, Kishimoto never canonically even drew her with tight/exposing clothing, they were always baggy. So, screw the anime studio.) She was a figure of a powerful woman, better written than any other female in Naruto, and a strong individual, with more story than several, several other characters.

So when I heard "Hinata Slander" was a real thing, truly, I was baffled. I'll admit my blog was quite messy despite my effort to keep it organized with main claims and obvious evidence, but there are still multiple more panels that back up everything I've mentioned that make up Hinata's character.

After all this, I really don't think there's anything that can be said against her in the context (and lie) of "she is a horrible character." And there aren't a lot of characters she can fairly be compared to, anyway. She's just awesome.

As a person, and a side-side anime character, Hinata Hyuga undeniably exceeded.

"Hinata Slander" is fake. Find something better to do than embarrassing yourself.

[saintsenara]

the war of the roses - a snippet

sirius black/severus snape explicit

here’s a wee look at the next chapter of the war of the roses to tide you over before the weekend...

featuring tonks being a bonafide baddie with a terrible taste in men, sirius moping [as per], and me shoehorning in my "everything in the series connects to contemporary anglo-irish history" agenda....

Tonks has a black eye (courtesy of Augustus Rookwood) and a grey complexion (courtesy of being dragged back to work weeks earlier than she should have been). She looks exhausted. She’s lost weight. She has dark circles under her eyes and hollows under her cheekbones and he finds it almost terrifying to look directly at her.

Not because growing thinner has made it all the clearer how much she looks like Bella - he knew that; he can handle that - but because her specific brand of wan and worn-out looks so much like the one he remembers his mother putting on during his childhood - a cloak of pale skin and mourning robes and staring at the woven roses on the rug and not leaving the house - and never taking off.

Only the fact that her hair is electric blue and her aura opalescent and her appetite undiminished quells the shiver working its way down his spine, stopping him from panicking that there’s been some rip in time and the old bitch isn’t dead anymore.

‘- started quacking like a duck,’ she says, cheeks bulging out like a hamster’s with pasta bake, her luminescence - a gemstone sheen that no Death Eater’s curse could rob from her - so magnificent that even Molly smiles indulgently at her lack of table manners.

(Sirius wonders how long it took Andy - she was hardly as much of a prig as Cissy, but she’d nonetheless never gone in for eating like she lived in a pig-sty - to give up on trying to drum some decorum into her.)

‘The Muggles all thought he’d lost his gobstones - obviously - but the portrait in the PM’s office alerted the Accidents and Catastrophes lot just before they could cart him off to see one of their - oh bollocks, what do they call them? Y’know - the healers for the mind?’

‘Sike-trists,’ says Kingsley.

‘That’s the word I was looking for!’ she squeals, waving her fork in his direction with transparent glee. ‘I was going to say “suck-tits”, but I knew that wasn’t right…’

Kingsley chuckles. Moony chokes on his beer.

And Tonks stares at him, her dark eyes - Bella’s eyes; his mother’s eyes - gleaming, the dancing flames from the fireplace reflected within them. She looks thrilled, triumphant. Like making Moony shed his stiffness - the meek and restrained act he’s been perfecting since he was eleven - and reveal himself to be capable of spontaneity, of looking dishevelled and coming undone, was her goal.

Moony blushes. Tonks waggles her eyebrows extravagantly at him and then collapses into giggles.

(Sirius wonders what Andy would say. There’s no way she hasn’t warned her daughter to beware the hungry glint which lurks in wolfish eyes, betraying the monster which coils beneath an affable, moderate veneer, ready to strike. After all, she’d seen a similar heart-shaped face staring rapt and worshipping.)

‘It’s no laughing matter, Tonks,’ says Arthur, sternly, gamely diving into the fire which seems to have sprung up around her and Moony. ‘We’re very lucky that Herbert Chorley had a bad reaction to the Imperius Curse… If it had taken, the Prime Minister would be dead.’

Tonks doesn’t look remotely chagrined.

(Sirius wonders if Andy would say that passion’s flame - no matter how dangerous; no matter how quickly it burns itself out - is better than the alternative. He remembers his mother and father, drifting past each other on the stairs like ships in the night. He remembers Bella sitting awkwardly beside her new husband at her wedding breakfast, and how he and Reg had spent the next seven years - until he’d fled, for Godric’s Hollow and its fields of golden wheat - convinced that Rodolphus was genuinely incapable of smiling.)

But Kingsley is possessed by the spirit of irritation at government incompetence which all civil servants must indulge. ‘The worst thing is,’ he spits, ‘we didn’t have a fucking clue the Prime Minister was at risk until this Imperius was buggered up. It doesn’t seem to have occurred to anyone that they might not confine their attacks on Muggles to this shit with the giants… Scrimgeour told me that I’m going to be the first ever liaison we’ve had in the Muggle government. The fucking first! Voldemort probably has dozens!’

‘Why would he bother with all that, though?’ asks Tonks, still shovelling food into her mouth. ‘He wouldn’t get any credit for offing the PM. The Muggles would just blame it on their own terrorists.’

‘Exactly,’ says Arthur. ‘The Muggles would blame their own terrorists, which would give You-Know-Who the cover to keep attacking them on the pretence that the terror threat was escalating, which would involve him doing more and more magic in plain sight, which would keep the Ministry busy scrambling to cover everything up.’

‘And it hurts the Ministry’s standing with the Muggles,’ says Kingsley. ‘The relationship between the Minister and the PM is sold to them on the basis that we don’t affect their affairs in any way. We’re on thin ice with them as it is - the PM took a lot of shit about rising crime rates in February, after the breakout from Azkaban; it’s hit his polling hard - and I guarantee Voldemort knows it. It’s why he’s going after Muggle targets in the way he is. If the PM stops talking to the Minister, because he’s pissed off that he’s having to look unpopular for things which are our fault, then the Death Eaters have a clear run at creating chaos in the Muggle world.’ He picks up his fork again, jabs it with an irritated stab into a piece of pasta. ‘D’you remember in the last war, Arthur, that massacre in Belfast -’

‘- where he had all the Death Eaters dress up like Muggle soldiers. Of course I do. The Prime Minister was furious. There were genuinely worries he was going to renege on the terms of the Statute of Secrecy. We were working overtime for months to sort it all out.’

‘It killed Eugenia Jenkins’ career.’

‘I remember that Mad-Eye used to be convinced that it was Voldemort who got Mountbatten,’ says Moony, his gaze still fixed on Tonks.

‘I’m pretty sure Mad-Eye’s still convinced of that,’ mutters Kingsley.

‘Yeah,’ says Tonks, with a roll of her eyes, ‘but since Mad-Eye’s also convinced that You-Know-Who stopped the Kestrels winning the league in ‘79, I take everything he says with a pinch of salt.’

Everyone laughs, dragged back to levity by her refusal to take anything too seriously. She’s basking in it - their adulation - being cocky and cheeky, so sure that nothing truly evil hides in the lengthening shadows on the other side of the walls that they can almost believe she might be onto something, and let themselves forget the slog which grinds them down and makes exhausted bodies - horses fit for the knacker’s yard - out of young men.

She doesn’t realise that her swagger makes her susceptible, Sirius thinks. She hasn’t noticed that her eyes are glassy with something which could be fever, as she watches Moony watching her, neither of them pretending he isn’t. Sirius has never seen him so overt in his desire, so unwilling to merely pine from afar.

He wonders if something lupine in him has caught the scent of easy prey.

She takes a swig of beer, lips lingering for just a little longer than necessary around the bottle-top when she draws it away.

‘Scrimgeour’s putting liaisons everywhere,’ she says. ‘Ankunda’s going to be guarding Tony Blair. I asked if I could get the gig protecting Princess Diana.’

‘And did you?’ Moony asks. A purr has come into his voice, something low and sultry, like the embers of a fire.

Tonks chuckles. ‘Nah. Scrimgeour thinks that it wouldn’t do to have me pictured near her.’ She gestures at her hair. ‘Says it might ruin her mystique… It’s gone to Savage. He reckons he’s going to have a crack at her.’

‘Poor woman.’

‘Oh, I dunno.’ She winks at him. ‘She’s done worse.’

[tobiasdrake]

Dragon Ball Daima 01x07 - Collar

Well, that's an episode title. Guess it's time to talk about that collar that Third Worlders have to wear.

...hehe...

...hehehehehehe....

...a lot of time, you say?

<.< >.> There's a room for that. Right here in this temple. Room meant for just such a scenario as this.

It's a perfect solution. Take the ship into the Room of Spirit and Time! Bulma can go in there, immediately implode from the intense atmosphere pressure, and then this is all-a y'all's problem now, fuckos. Wish me back when it's done.

Don't worry, Bulma. This feels primed to become important to the story later down the road, after we've been to Daimakai once and conveniently picked up the missing element.

It could just have been a goose chase to give these characters something to do while waiting for their turn at the plot, but I'm going to give it the benefit of doubt and assume the ship's been set up as a Chekhov's Gun.

At some point we'll be back here like "But we need to get back to Daimakai! How do we do that? Oh, I brought this neat rock back with us...."

The way Vegeta takes one step to the side as he turns, with audible footstep as the only sound that breaks the silence. Moving positions specifically to shield Bulma from whatever fresh Hell this is.

He only has one job around here but he is going to fucking do it.

Bulma: If I had a nickel for every time a Majin conveniently showed up right here in a spaceship to take us to King Kadan while I was working on this ship, I'd have two nickels....

WHO'S READY FOR ANOTHER EXCITING ROUND OF DEBATES ABOUT GOKU'S FATHERHOOD LET'S GO

What. XD Why isn't Popo looking after the temple? When did it suddenly become Kibito's job to do housekeeping for terrestrial deity Dende?

Did Popo pull "Pecking Order" the second Kibito was left alone with him for the first time?

Daima is going so hard to assure the audience that it remembers all of Goku's abilities. Trafficking him through a surprise inspection by remembering that he can just fucking teleport. XD

While also once again marking itself as not existing in continuity with Super. "Goku can't sense God Ki" is not a thing in this series.

It's funny that, despite the clever scheme to avoid suspicion, we end up having to beat up the soldiers anyway. Sometimes plans go awry. That's just how it is.

And the worst-case scenario happens!

STOP. WRECKING. THEIR. PLANES.

GUYS. GUYS.

WE SHOULD STEAL ONE OF THOSE.

GOKU YOU CAN TELEPORT

WE LITERALLY JUST WENT OVER THAT YOU CAN TELEPORT

TELEPORT ONTO THE PLANE AND CLEAR IT OUT SO WE CAN HAVE IT FOR OURSELVES

no

okay

BUT NOT FOR LACK OF TRYING

Incidentally, "Gendarmerie" is a weird way for the subtitles to translate 憲兵 kenpei. It means "Military Police". Gendarmerie isn't incorrect, but it is a weird French word that nobody says so I'm not sure how many native English speakers even know what that means.

Like. Imperial Stormtroopers are a Gendarmerie. But if you said "You know the gendarmerie from Star Wars?" nobody would have any idea what you're talking about. What the fuck is a gendarmerie?

I'm pretty sure this happened because if you stick 憲兵隊 kenpeitai or "Military Police Squad" into Google Translate it comes out:

Thanks, Google. That's French, but sure.

That is probably not what they're going to be called in the dub.

You know, I was wondering about that. If you put an indestructible collar on an infant it's going to strangle them eventually. The size has to be adjustable in some way or another or else the logistics just don't work out.

I'm glad they didn't drag the collar drama out too much. Panzy had it for just long enough to establish what it is and explain how much it fucking sucks, and now it's gone.

KAIOSHIN OFFICIALLY HAS A REAL NAME

Bootleg Bulma has a Bootleg Dragon Radar. She uses it for something else but still. The audacity. They aren't even trying to hide that she's derivative.

Okay he says that, and I'm sure Goku will abide by it because Goku's an athlete first and foremost. He's in it for love of the game. He wouldn't have it any other way than a 1v1 match.

But. Like.

What actually enforces that? That's a weird thing to have as a rule. The way this works is there's a big scary robot man with a Dragon Ball in its chest, and you have to defeat the robot man to get the Dragon Ball, right?

What's to stop three guys from jumping the Tamagami, beating the shit out of it, and taking the Dragon Ball? I mean, if they can win that, then... I mean, a win's a win. You're beaten to a bloody pulp; You aren't exactly in a position to contest the victory.

What stops "cheaters" from taking the Dragon Ball? Will the Tamagami file a formal complaint with the Wish Dragon Committee?

I dunno. I get the concept of "There are these insanely powerful warriors who are so OP that no one has ever matched them, and they guard the Plot Tokens." What I don't get is how there would be traditional Rules of Engagement for challenging such entities, or why anyone not named Son Goku would abide by them.

I love how Panzy's scarf initially disguised the fact that she was wearing a collar, and now it disguises the fact that she isn't.

Oh, this is definitely related to Glorio.

Some of the lines in the subs have this weird conversion artifacting that you'd expect to see from poorly encoded fansubs but not in an official product. Between that and the Google Translating I caught them doing, I have concerns.

It's fun when characters use powerful characters as yardsticks without realizing that our protagonists surpassed them a while ago. Remember that time Kaioshin tried to convey how strong he was to the Super Saiyans by comparing himself to Frieza? Same energy. XD

Dabra's a more relevant yardstick than Frieza was at that time. But still, what Panzy doesn't know is that the only one of the Saiyans Dabra was a threat to was Gohan, and only because he was out-of-practice.

I was not prepared for these things to have personalities and I am so, so happy that they do.

This is gonna be fun.

Ahh, what a fun episode. This one kept things moving and never felt dull. We learned some interesting new details about the characters. Panzy got her collar off. And now Goku's going to fight his first Tamagami. Looking forward to the next.

Also Team Bulma is finally in Daimakai. I wonder when they'll catch up to Team Goku? It'd be kinda funny if they just remained in pursuit for the entire series. XD

[magnusbae]

13 books

What’s up readers?! How about a little show and tell? Answer these 13 questions, tag 13 lucky readers and if you’re feeling extra bookish add a shelfie! Let’s Go!

Tagged by @cuubism Thank you!! 💖 Heads up: if you're tagged, you don't need to read it alllll even if you do want to participate 😌

1) The Last book I read:

I'm pretty sure it was Tress of the Emerald Sea, what a delight!

2) A book I recommend:

.... The Way of Kings... (The Stormlight Archive)

3) A book that I couldn’t put down:

The second book of The Stormlight Archive, Words of Radiance had me by my throat like nothing else. wow. 👏🏻

4) A book I’ve read twice (or more):

Listen. I'll list something other than The Stormlight Archive just because this is getting embarrassing. The books I used to regularly reread were: HP, Eragon and Assassin's Apprentice. (full series rereads, crossing the 10 each) 😌

5) A book on my TBR:

I have a hefty amount of books I bought and never read. Ranging from classics to cheap fantasy-- but alas, my brain is fixated on the other author who doesn't disappoint me and so I just stick to his books XD

Some of the books sitting on my ineffective 'shame you into reading' shelf are: Captive Prince, the rest of the Wolfsong series, the.... shadowhunters books... the new trilogy about Fitz which I have in hardcovers yet never read. And some... others...

6) A book I’ve put down:

One of the reasons I am avoidant of taking on new books at all is because I have a very hard time putting down books I started. I'll suffer through entire series just for the few grains of gratification in the end. Or to... spitefullfy and confidently say it sucked balls.

However... three series managed to break me.

First being GoT, I just didn't manage to get through, not even 10 chapters. A true oddedity for me, but I just couldn't.

Second being The Witcher. I managed to power through like 4-5 books? And then I just couldn't do this to myself anymore. It was so, so, so not my vibe. (even while the pc game is about my most favorite game ever.) 🤷🏻‍♀️

And lastly, although I think I did finish the entire series before deciding that if ever a new book came out, I'll never read it, was the-- god what's the name of it... the First Law Trilogy – The Blade Itself etc from joe abercrombie. What a bleak series! Oh my god!

7) A book on my wish list:

My honest wishlist is just to keep on reading Brando Sando in my slow and enjoying-it phase... Although I admit that there's a large amount of those new spicy fantasy books apparently being released that shorts recommend and older folk rant about, so I naturally do want to check it out to see what's up with that but.... in truth... I just want to keep on enjoying Brando Sando XD

8) A favorite book from childhood:

I genuinely really loved Eragon. Oh and Artemis Fowl was all fun. I also really loved Tunnel in the Sky, like really.

9) A book you would give to a friend:

ngl it'll be an unapologetic The Way of Kings with big and passionate begging session of 'please give it a try' like for real.

In case any one of you is actually interested--- (you don't have to read this part) -inhales deeply-

The Way of Kings is a truly misleading book, that might leave you with the impression that the book is all about wars and kings but that is the furthest from the truth a description and a cover and a name can go.

It has fantasy, it has deep and rich world building, elaborate magic system that is deeply embedded into the story, culture and literal every single stone of the world. There's politics, culture, introspection, deep and varied characters, each reading like the main character of the story, having unique and vibrant personality and motivations.

It is not just a book, it is a work of true and deep love for the genre and writing in general. Beautifully done, enriching and enticing.

And what's most important for people who read too many books?

Hard to predict. It managed to pull the rug from underneath my feet in the most surprising and pleasing ways. Brandon writes in a way that is not 'shock just to shock' nor 'drama just for drama'. Every single scene is true, and forward. You always have everything right in front of you, the key is that you do not know how to put it all together just yet.

That can finally give that refreshing 'I don't know where it's heading but I'm enjoying the experience" I feel I had lost over the years, being able to recognize patterns too easily and predict writing intentions.

God, what a book! It does however have a rough learning curve, being such a massive world, it takes time to ease you in. Say about at least 5 chapters in at the minimum. On a personal note, I recommend the audiobooks read by kate reading and michael kramer, literally the best experience I've ever had, listening to those two bring to life every character and accent and scene, wow!

10) A book of poetry or lyrics that you own:

Come to think of it, I don't actually own any. Ha.

11) A nonfiction book you own:

I don't haha! Looking back, it's a lie, I have a few phycology books gathering dust in various hiding spots.

12) What are you currently reading:

........The Way of Kings....

13) What are you planning on reading next?

.....Words of Radiance.... haha. 😋

Y'all don't need to read all them answers in case you just want to answer it for yourself, or you can skip, too 😊😊😊

@mayhemspreadingguy, @pollyp, @nonbinary-nicolo, @msmongoose, @hardly-an-escape,

@ladymatt, @underacalicosky, @grapenehifics, @your-lordsherlockholmes-posts

@acedragontype, @palfriendpatine66, @heretolurkandnothingmore , @virahaus, @wallsinmyhead

@kittttycakes, @elcaballerodragon, @justsuffilike, @pumpkinkingsalem, @handahbear

@willameena

I am certain this is 13, I am certain. Cheers 💖💖💖

[queer-geordie-dyke]

I talk about Mira a lot, and I’m doing so again 🤷🏻‍♀️

She was a beautiful woman, and a powerful and talented actor and writer, no doubt, but much more importantly, I feel, she was also a woman of vast and deep integrity - she fought against injustice and nationalism/racism all of her life and her principled and public stance against the war and ethnic divisions in Yugoslavia cost her dearly and yet, it was a position she never ever moved away from and believed in profoundly. It is very easy to have principles when they are not being tested, and another thing entirely to stake your very life on those principles.

Even when her stance cost her her home, her career, and her friendships, and the enormous amount of threats against her life forced her to leave her country, she never once backed down from her belief in unity and cooperation.

The anti war essay she wrote and published as she fled is still one of the most powerful pieces of writing I’ve ever read and I am going to post it here in its entirety because it is fierce and amazing:

Letter to my co-citizens

I hereby wish to thank my co-citizens who have joined so unreservedly in this small, marginal, and apparently not particularly significant campaign against me. Although marginal, it will change and mark my whole life. Which is, of course, totally irrelevant in the context of the death, destruction, devastation, and blood-chilling crimes within which our life now goes on.

This is happening, however, to the one and only life I have. It seems that I’ve been chosen for some reason to be the filthy rag everyone uses to wipe the mud off their shoes. I am far too desperate to embark on a series of public polemics in the papers. I do, however, feel that I owe myself and my city at least a few words. Like at the end of some clumsy, painful love story, when you keep wanting, wrongly, to explain something more, even though you know at the bottom of your heart that words are wasted; there is no one left to hear them. It is over.

Listening to my answering machine, to the incredible quantities of indescribably disgusting messages from my co-citizens, I longed to hear at least one message from a friend. Or not even a friend, a mere acquaintance, a colleague. But there was none. Not a single familiar voice, not a single friend. Nevertheless, I am grateful to them, to those noble patriots who kindly promise me a “massacre the Serbian way”; and to those colleagues, friends, and acquaintances who, by remaining silent, are letting me know that I cannot count on them any more.

I am grateful also to all my colleagues in the theatre with whom I played Drzic, Moliere, Turgenev, and Shaw, I am grateful to them for their silence, I am grateful to them for not even trying to understand, let alone attempting to vindicate, my statement concerning my appearance at the BITEF Festival in Belgrade, the statement in which I tried to explain that taking part in that production at that moment was for me a defense of our profession which must not and cannot put itself in the service of any political or national ideas, which must not and cannot be bound by political or national limits because it is simply against its nature, which must, even at the worst of times, establish bridges and ties. In its very essence it is a vocation which knows no boundaries.

I know that all this talk about the cosmopolitanism of art seems inappropriate at a moment like this. I know that it may seem out of place to swear to pacifism, to swear to love and to the brotherhood of all peoples while people are dying, while children are dying, while young men are returning home crippled and mangled forever.

How can I say anything which won’t sound like an ill-fitted nonsense at the moment when, for absolutely unfathomable reasons, Dubrovnik is being threatened, the city where I played my favorite role, Gloria?

But I have no other way of thinking. I cannot accept war as the only solution, I cannot force myself to hate, I cannot believe that weapons, killing, revenge, hatred, that such an accumulation of evil will ever solve anything. Each individual who personally accepts the war is in fact an accessory to the crime; must he not then take a part of the guilt for the war, a part of the responsibility?

In any case, I think, I know and I feel that it is my duty, the duty of our profession, to build bridges. To never give up on cooperation and community. Not the national community. The professional community.

The human community. And even when things are at their very worst, as they are now, we must insist to our last breath on building and sustaining bonds between people. This is how we pledge to the future.

And one day it will come. For my part, until recently I was willing to endure all manner of problems in transportation, communication, and finances to trek the 20 hours across Austria and Hungary between Zagreb and Belgrade. I was willing to use risky, even dangerous modes of travel, just to keep holding my performances in the two warring cities, to appear at precisely 7:30 on stage with my Zagreb or Belgrade colleagues and to alternate Corneille and Turgenev for the sake of professional continuity, for the sake of something that would outlive this war and this hatred which is so foreign to me. Time and time again I was willing to make my life a symbol of a pledge to the future which must be waiting for us, until that day when some ardent patriot finally does slaughter me as so many have promised to do.

I was willing and I would still be willing to undertake all and any efforts, if the hatred hadn’t suddenly overwhelmed me with its horrendous ferocity, hatred welling from the city I was born in. I am appalled by the force and magnitude of that hatred, by its perfect unanimity, by the fact that there was absolutely nobody who could see my gesture as my defense of the integrity of the profession, as my attempt to defend at least one excellent theatre performance. I had no intention of acting further in performances outside the BITEF Festival, as I stated in my letter. BITEF as an international theatre event attended by the English, Russians, French, Belgians, and even one Slovene seemed to me worth participating in, especially because any decision not to participate would have meant betraying a performance I had worked on under the most difficult circumstances during the March 9th Belgrade tanks, daily threats of a military coup, etc., etc.

It is terribly sad when one is forced to justification without having done anything wrong. There is nothing but despair, nausea, and horror.

I no longer have any decisions to make. Others have decided for me.

They have decided I must shut up, give up, vanish; they have abolished my right to do my job the way I feel it should be done, they have abolished my right to come home to my own city, they have abolished my right to return to my theatre and act in my performances. Someone decided that I should be fired from my job. Thank you, Croatian National Theatre; thank you, my colleague Dragan Milivojevic, who signed my dismissal slip. I know that lots of people are losing jobs, that I am just one of many, simply part of a surplus work force. I constantly ask myself whether I have any right, at this moment of communal horror, to make any demands of my own. One thing seems certain: I plan for quite some time (how long?) not to perform on any stage in this crumbling, mangled land. Perhaps they needn’t have hurried so in firing me. Perhaps this would have simply taken care of itself. With more decency. And dignity. Not so crudely. Of course, this is not a moment for tenderness. But won’t someone out there have to be ashamed of this? And will this someone necessarily be me, as my fellow actors try to convince me in their orthodox interviews? Can the horror of war be used as a justification for every single nasty bit of filth we commit against our fellow man? Are we allowed to remain silent in the face of injustice done to a friend or a colleague and justify our silence by the importance of the great bright national objective? I ask my friends in Zagreb, who are now silent, while at the same time they condemn Belgrade for its silence.

It is hard to write without bitterness. I would like to be able to do that, because we should “Love Our Enemy.” I wish we all could. Herein perhaps lies the solution for all of us. But I fear that we are very far from the ways of the Lord. His is the way of love. Not hatred.

To whom am I addressing this letter? Who will read it? Who will even care to read it? Everyone is so caught up by the great cause that small personal fates are not important any more. How many friends do you have to betray to keep from committing the only socially acknowledged betrayal, the betrayal of the nation? How many petty treacheries, how many pathetic little dirty tricks must one do to remain “clean in the eyes of the nation?”

I am sorry, my system of values is different. For me there have always existed, and always will exist, only human beings, individual people, and those human beings (God, how few of them there are !) will always be excepted from generalizations of any kind, regardless of events, however catastrophic. I, unfortunately, shall never be able to “hate all Serbs,” nor even understand what that really means. I shall always, perhaps until the moment the kind threats on the phone are finally carried out, hold my hand out to an anonymous person on the “other side,” a person who is as desperate and lost as I am, who is as sad, bewildered, and frightened. There are such people in this city where I write my letter, the city my love took me to, a feeling it seems almost indecent to mention these days. Nothing can provide an excuse any more, everything that does not directly serve the great objective has been trampled upon and appears despicable, and with it what love, what marriage, what friendship, what theatre performances!

I reject, I refuse to accept such a crippling of myself and my own life. I played those last performances in Belgrade for those anguished people who were not “Serbs”; but human beings, human beings like me, human beings who recoil before this monstrous Grand Guignol farce in which dead heads are flying. It is to these people, both here and there, that I am addressing my words. Perhaps someone will hear me.

The punishment meted me by my city, my only city and my theatre, my only theatre, the only theatre I felt was mine, is a punishment I feel I do not deserve. I was working in the way I have always felt I had to work, believing in people and our vocation which is supposed to bring people together, not tear them apart. I will never “give up my Belgrade friends”; as some of my colleagues have, because I do not feel that these friends have in any way brought about this catastrophe which has afflicted us, just as I will not turn my back on my Zagreb friends, not even those who have turned their backs on me. I will try in every way possible to understand their panic, their fear, their bitterness, even their hatred, but I plead for the same dose of understanding for me, that is, for a story which is different than many others, for a life which has deviated, due to the so-called destiny, from the expected and customary. Why must everything be the same, so frighteningly uniform, leveled, standardized? Haven’t we had enough of that? I know this is the time of uniforms and they are all the same, but I am no soldier and cannot be one. I haven’t got it in me to be a soldier, soldiering just isn’t my calling.

Regardless of whether we will be living in one, or five, or fifty states, let us not forget the people, each individual, regardless of which side of this Wall of ours the person happens to be on. We were born here by accident, we are this or that by accident, so there must be more than that, mustn’t there?

I am sending this letter into a void, into darkness, without an inkling of who will read it and how, or in how many different ways it will be misused or abused. Chances are it will serve as food for the eternally hungry propaganda beast. Perhaps someone with a pure heart will read it after all.

I will be grateful to that someone.

Mira Furlan,

From Belgrade and Zagreb, November 1, 1991.

[brevityisnotmywit]

Soldiers Of The Fall Series (RvB)

General Warnings: Locington, Angst

3 Fics

WAR

CW: Nightmares, Coping,

The first note is discovered when Locus is going through his current alias’ mailbox. The paper isn’t crisp, but there’s a clear exactness to the way it’s folded over itself. The same can be said of the cryptic contents within.

[‘Do you remember standing on a broken field

White crippled wings beating the sky

The harbingers of war with their nature revealed

And our chances flowing by’]

-We need to talk.

The writing is, at a glance, flawless. When Locus looks more closely, there’s a delicate tremble running throughout the pen strokes. The only thing that’s clear cut is that the bulk of it is made up of song lyrics. Probably some locals pulling a prank. A small part of him wants to save the letter, for some reason.

Locus elects to burn it instead.

---

He’s on another Earth-controlled planet when the datapad is slipped to him. The man hardly gets anything at this place, so he’s not ‘blown away’ when the text flickers to life. Unprepared, yes. Awestruck, no.  

[‘If I can let the memory heal

I will remember you with me on that field

When I thought that I fought this war alone

You were there by my side on the frontline

When I thought that I fought without a cause

You gave me a reason to try ’]

-Not as hard to track as you think you are.

Well, if they found Locus predictable, they were going to learn just how elusive he could really be if he put his mind to it. The ex-mercenary leaves everything but his armor and vanishes into the night.

---

Locus has come to the understanding that his enigmatic letter writer is equally equipped to roam the universe as he himself is. The song gradually winds its was towards its end, be it on paper, digital media, or in one instance a singing-telegram service. (The poor sap almost pissed himself when Locus came to the door.)

If he can’t put a stop to it, Locus might as well put forth some effort in deciphering the meaning of it all.

While it was simple to find the song that contained the lyrics, Locus is doubtful it will help him in the long run. He’d started to pick up on a trend running through the whole debacle. Locus pulls out a pen, noting the underlined words and which notes they belonged to.

1st) WORDS- Remember, Crippled, Nature revealed, chances. NOTE- We need to talk.

2nd) WORDS- Memory, Will remember, Thought, Frontline, Thought, Try. NOTE- Not as hard to track as you think you are.

3rd) WORDS- Something new, Torn, Stunted view, Dogs, Memory heal, Remember. No note, just an outdated map of North America.

4th) SINGER- Kid handed me the directions he was given. WORDS- Thought, Alone, My side, Impossible, War, Without, Reason why. NOTE- Having a good trip through the stars?

Then the fifth arrived on a flashdrive. It was a clip of the rest of the song set to footage of Chorus. The words were superimposed over top of the video, underlines still present as in all before it.

[‘With no-one wearing their real face

It's a whiteout of emotion

And I've only got my brittle bones to break the fall

When the love in letters fade

It's like moving in slow motion

And we're already too late if we arrive at all

And then we're caught up in the arms race

An involuntary addiction

And we're shedding every value our mothers taught-]

Suddenly the video shifts to the footage of Felix monologuing to the-...no. There’s no way they could have pulled this off...could they?

[‘-So will you please show me your real face -]

Then it shows a scan of the North American map he’d been given. As the last of the words flash by, it slowly zooms in. By the time it stops, Locus feels like a fool for not connecting the dots sooner.

[-Draw the line in the horizon

Cos I only need your name to call the reasons why I fought.’]

The ending goes unheeded by Locus because the map is centered on Washington State. The theme of emphasizing terms relating to thought and memory all makes sense now. As if he was unsure if Locus had finally come to the solution himself, an all too familiar steel and yellow gauntlet slides a datapad into the feed of the map with clear coordinates. Below is a final, rather slyly worded note.

-Memory is the Key, Locus. Don’t keep making me wait.

---

When Locus approaches the rendezvous spot, he notices that someone (Presumably Washington.) had taken great care in selecting the site. It wasn’t in the middle of a field where snipers like himself would feel on edge. Yet, it isn’t caged in by the region's well-known mountain ranges. It was a fairly young forest, with trees unsuitable for gunners to take as vantage points.

Leave it to ever paranoid Washington to be sure he had at least some form of advantage, regardless of however minor it may be. Anything to compensate for that perceived lack of skill.

Speaking of the agent, Locus hears a shrill whistle and whips around. Washington is beckoning the cloaked man over, seemingly uncaring if it looked like he was waving at thin air to anyone who didn’t know better.

Locus hesitates before dropping his invisibility and it takes a shamefully large amount of restraint to suppress a childish pout. “I am unsure why I even bother at this point, if you just continue to spot me.”

"Can't be sure myself. " Washington’s voice sounds rough, like the bad end of a faulty transmission. It couldn’t just be the helmet to blame, not when Locus had witnessed the crimson spraying from the agent’s throat first hand.

Locus was pushing A’rynasea as fast as it could manage with one hand. The other was occupied with trying to keep pressure on Washington’s wounds. The agent lets out a wet sounding whine, struggling to move. Before Locus can push him back down, he makes out the man trying to speak.

“Mn? Mhn?” There’s not much beyond that, as the hospital looms ever closer in Locus’ line of sight

-

Locus hid, unseen by the staff and listened to what the doctor was going to report to the Reds and Blues.

“So he’s getting the hang of that new vocalizer I whipped up for him, now that he’s coming around from the anesthesia. Hey, Parker, did you catch the one that dropped him here?”

The medi-vac pilot glances at her like this was a frankly silly thing to ask, and shakes his head.

“Well that sure is a shame, huh? He keeps asking for us to go find Maine and wants to know what the deal with his new armor is!”

Locus freezes.

“Buuuut, he’s also having an ‘Autotune fight with the Autobots’ in his words, so it’s probably nothing!”

“Hey, Earth to Locus? You went all quiet. Not even your broody kind, either.” Washington has moved right up to the edges of Locus’ massive personal space bubble.

The former mercenary clears his throat, still coming off a touch sheepish. “My apologies, Agent Washington-”

“You know it’s okay to use Wash, right?”

Locus huffs a bit, looking off into the forest. “Why are we here?”

“Because you saved me.” The freelancer leans on a tree trunk, visor not hiding how he intensely watched Locus’ every move. “I’d like a chance to say thanks.”

“You tailed me across the cosmos to say that?”

Washington laughs like a worn down toy’s voice box. (Likely because he now spoke with one.) It wasn’t like the old footage Locus had snatched from the PFL servers. Before he would laugh in this breathy way that sounded like sunshine felt. Locus tries to shake that comparison from his mind, frowning.

“Of course I didn’t. You forgot to yank the standard issue GPS out of that new helmet of yours. Simmons gave me a hand in tracking it. I’d send you something once you stayed put for more than a month.”

“Fuck.” Locus hissed to himself. He was getting lazy now that Fel-...hmph.

Washington shrugs. “I’ve also got an offer for you.”

Locus waves in a ‘well don’t let me stop you.’ way.

“I’ve got a place you can use. I don’t stay there, so I want you to have it.” The agent kicks over a rock at his feet.

Locus scoffs, shaking his head. “I don’t need your charity. I’m not poor by any stretch of the imagination.”

“Did I call you poor?” the older man challenges. “I’d feel better knowing you’re nearby.”

The ex-mercenary sighs, turning on his heel. “Is that all, Agent Washington?”

“For now. Here.” Washington chucks a ring of keys to Locus. “I know you have my contact info, so keep in touch, yeah?”

“We will see. Goodbye, Agent.”

“See you soon.”

---

Locus found the cabin convenient. He had no other reasons for why he stayed as often as he did. (He had many reasons.) It was well stocked with dry firewood, electricity, and a spacious kitchen to make it comfortable for extended use. The first time Locus wandered into the house, he was taken aback that the fridge was brimming with his favored foods.

Locus likes to think he’s not a fool. He’s mulling over the discovery in his mind when he hears the distinctive crunch of tires on snow. In an instant, he’s cloaked and slinks out the back.

There’s a beat up SUV out front and it doesn’t take a sniper's eye to spot Washington in civilian clothes sliding out of the cab. Locus silently stalks around so Washington is sandwiched between himself and his cabin. Locus knows better. Locus knows the agent is too aware of his surroundings, but still he reaches out for the freelancer’s throat as he checks his phone.

Just before he can make contact, “Evening, Loc’s.”

Locus goes still on the snowy drive. Silence reigns for many long moments. “Why are you doing this.”

Washington glances over his shoulder at the invisible sniper. “Because I’ve been there, Locus.”

“Not your problem.”

There’s a scoff, wispy clouds escaping Washington’s teeth. “I don’t care. You need someone on your side. I know I did.”

That gives Locus pause. His silhouette shimmers before fading into nothing. With some thought, he settles he hand hovering near Washington’s chin onto his shoulder. This soldier was watching out for him, the sheep standing guard over the sleeping wolf.

Locus finds the attention is not unwelcome.

---

Washington turns up a few weeks later, one small bag at his side. “I just need some time off from the Reds and Blues. Let me go set up the futon, can you get the fire going? A storm’s rolling in sometime tonight.”

Locus nods quietly, trying to stamp out the panic bubbling up into his throat. ‘Washington isn’t going to care about seeing your face.’ He scolds himself. ‘You get to see his face, it’s only fair.’

There’s a pathetic, rusty shriek of hinges when Washington pulls at the frame of the longer of the two couches. After a minor struggle, it gives up, flopping open  The freelancer rasps out a chuckle. “Y’know, this is the only thing I have from before I enlisted. Kept it in a storage unit we all shared during PFL.” Something shifts in his tone so subtly it almost went over Locus’ head. “Everything here used to be in it. I couldn’t stand to see it rotting away in there.”

Locus glances around with a deeper understanding, and things make a bit more sense. “Are you willing to elaborate?” He asks while striking a match to set the tinder alight.

The futon creaks loudly when Washington sits on it. “Yeah, I can. The stuff in the kitchen came from pretty much everyone outside of Tex. Even the freelancers the Director didn’t give a shit about, Like West and Indi’s crew. The table was C.T.’s that’s why it’s covered up. She used to stab the shit out of it when she was learning knife skills. The butcher block is hers too, but she took good care of it for obvious reasons. The bed’s Carolina’s, didn’t even remember we had that unit when I asked to go get everything from it.” The older man smiles softly, staring up at the ceiling.

“York had the barstools, the chairs at the table were Wyoming’s. Florida had the other couch, and a few of the quilts. The deck chairs were from Illinois. North had a couple bookshelves. South had the footlockers and the old ass TV.” Washington's voice wavers, going faint. “...Maine had the rest of the blankets and the dressers.”

Locus resolutely focuses on arranging the logs, watching how the sparks swirl throughout the hearth.

“You look like him…” is whispered, as if the freelancer is scared to admit to it. “...but your skin is darker, less scars, more hair. Your eyes, they’re the biggest difference. His were like those little bits of amber they sell at museums.” Washington's voice trembles. “Sorry…”

Locus shakes his head. “Don’t be. It’s quite apparent he meant a great deal to you, so I consider it a compliment.” He sneaks a glance over his shoulder.

Washington has thrown an arm over his eyes, but the corners of his mouth draw up into a wistful smile. “That’s what I was going for with it.”

The fire pops, and the conversation ends.

---

Locus is startled awake by a panicked, broken scream. When he throws open the door, pistol in hand, he sees Washington arching off the futon, fingers clawing at the back of his neck.

“Agent Washington.” The ex-mercenary tries, stalking over to the freelancer. “Agent Washington!”

The noises that tumble from Washington can’t be classified as words. In the dark of night, it’s all too clear how lasting the damage had been. Locus can’t let this continue, lest Washington lose what little recovery he had. The man strides forward, grabbing an arm as it swings out without a thought.

Washington’s eyes fly open, still foggy with sleep. He expertly breaks Locus’ grip before twisting the younger man’s arm violently.

On reflex, Locus jerks away, thankful that Washington didn’t have the leverage or brute strength to snap his wrist. “ Wash! ”

The freelancer stills, blinking up at him in confusion. “Who?” He sounds even more off than before.

“You. I was speaking to you.”

“Use my name then, dipshit. You the new rookie, or something? Name’s Church, so get it right next time.” Washington scowls at him in a way that is very unlike himself.

Locus wished he was less understanding of what was going on, but the freelancer wasn’t the only one with wicked night terrors. In that mindset, anyone could lose themselves. The key difference was that Locus didn’t have someone else's memories to sift through. Maybe he could help somehow.

“No, I’m not a new recruit, and your name is not Church. You go by Washington. You are in your cabin in the middle of a snow storm.” Locus is treading carefully, wary of how the older man would react.

Washington just searches him with a haughty air of suspicion. “I’m just expected to buy into that?”

On a hunch, Locus points to the mirror hanging behind the living room. “Look at yourself, if you don’t.”

Washington tsk’s, lazily throwing a look over his shoulder, then double takes. “I-what the fuck?” Then he looks at his hands, flexing them many times, like they’re a puzzle in need of solving. Eventually, Locus can see the haze dissipate from his eyes. Once more he searches Locus for something only Washington knows.

“I had a nightmare, didn’t I?”

Locus nods, stopping Washington, predicting his reaction. “Don’t beat yourself up over it. I’m glad I could help out.”

In the dark cabin, Washington looks so very small. His eyes are watery, catching the barest hints of light. “...Will you stay with me?”

There’s not even a fraction of hesitation before Locus says, “Of course.” He sits carefully at the edge of the futon, not expecting a trembling hand to close around his arm.

“Thank you.”

Sharing a bed with Washington is so fundamentally different from sharing a bed with Felix, it gives Locus emotional whiplash. Felix usually needled him relentlessly, only stopping when he had what he wanted from Locus. (Sex, usually.) When he eventually did sleep, Felix as always jabbing with an elbow or a knee, all points and hard edges.

Washington allowed Locus the space he always craved. All he seemed to require was to hold onto Locus’ hand until he fell back to sleep. That was some how intensely more intimate than anything Felix had ever done to Locus. Maybe it was that Washington let Locus decide for himself. It bothered Locus too much to think about it.

---

Locus learned many things from the year that followed.

Locus always felt the cabin was too big when Wash wasn’t visiting.

Wash showed up every other Sunday with fresh food.

Locus worried more than he should about Wash’s safety.

Wash had a caffeine problem.

Locus had adjusted to civilian life better than Felix said he could.

Wash liked to sit on the same couch as Locus, but didn’t touch without his permission.

Locus liked how Wash curled against his side when he did give permission.

Wash wanted to help him get better, but allowed Locus to decide if he was alright with going to a therapist.

Locus realized he might have gotten in too deep when he stopped calling Wash ‘Agent Washington’ in his head.

Wash liked Locus for the ways he wasn’t Maine, rather than liking him for the ways they were the same.

Locus liked Wash. He liked him quite a lot.

CHILDREN OF THE SUN

To say Locus was apprehensive about meeting the Reds and Blues was technically accurate. Accurate in the same way that a rocket could be called a big firecracker. There was a reason the ex-mercenary left after making certain that Wash was safe. He wasn't a foolish man by any means. After the clusterfuck of Chorus he had no intentions of ever contacting them. Life had other ideas, clearly.

Locus isn't sure why his ship started malfunctioning when it had, but it led him to Grif babbling like a lunatic to a set of sports equipment painted in a childish manner. When they'd taken off, the endless stream of questions about Locus’ intentionally secretive life began. Things the man never wanted to think about again under normal circumstances.

They meet at a coffee house that is a favorite haunt of Wash. He'd cashed in a favor and after it had officially closed for the night, the Reds and Blues were huddled inside to avoid the brutal January weather. Outside, Locus can see them from the window, able to mostly guess on their identities. Sarge was fairly obvious with his bright red polo and buzzcut. The tall one with thick, messy curls must be Caboose. Simmons arm gave him away, despite the long-sleeved sweater doing it's damndest to hide the well oiled chrome, though the long braid trailing over his shoulder was a surprise. Tucker was the one who tried to spend as little time as possible in his armor, so Locus was quite familiar with his cropped hair and dimples. Carolina was almost exactly how she had been in Freelancer. Shorter hair, but still red as fire. Grif was snoring away on a couch, with who Locus thinks must be the medic and some fellow in a pink parka.

He's startled from the old habit of memorising people's faces by a hand slipping into his. Wash glances up at Locus with one of those tired, lopsided smiles he seems prone to.

“C’mon. Let's get this done.” The older man inclines his head to the door, gently tugging Locus along.

The door chimes when Wash opens it and everyone's attention is on the pair in an instant. Locus’ lingering doubts snap at him. Mentally he chides himself, “ You agreed to this. You promised no armor, remember? Wash is right there, you’ll be fine.”

“What the fuck , why is Locus a trashy romance novel beefcake?!” Tucker balks, nearly spilling his drink over the table.

The room erupts in a mix of cackling and irritated demands for silence. Locus clutches Wash’s hand firmly, his desire to remain hidden growing into a nigh unbearable need. A sharp whistle slices neatly through the din.

“All of you shut up and pay attention.” Wash rasps irritably. “Locus isn't here for you to gawk at. You asked to meet him, so get on with it.” The Freelancer's calloused fingers tighten around Locus’ palm. At some point he had placed himself between the ex-mercenary and his comrades.

The sheep diligently watches over the wolf.

“Fine-” Tucker sniffs dismissively. “-how about what the hell were you thinking, running off like that?”

“I don’t-” Locus tries before Sarge snappily adds on.

“It ain't rocket science, kid. Y’ could’a stuck around fer a few days, at least. Hell, what if we needed yer help with Susie Spec’ Ops’ over there?” He grumbles, nodding to Wash.

The man in question looks offended, opening his mouth to interject when Caboose cuts him off.

“Oh oh! Can I also have another hug??”

Everyone throws dirty looks at the Blue trooper.

“So Tucker can call him a book but I don't get a nice hug?” Caboose pouts dramatically.

They drop the subject. Grif rolls over, unkempt hair flopping into his eyes. “Sup Locs. Sorry I went nuts on you before... actually I'm not, but whatever.” He shrugs a shoulder. “You probably do owe Simmons a 'good job’ since he helped Wash track your dumb ass.”

Locus glances over at Simmons, finding he isn't the only one who wasn't thrilled with the whole situation. The thin soldier wrings the tail end of his braid, practically jumping out of his skin at the mention of his name.

“I-It was no big deal, don't worry about it!” He stammers rapidly, shoulders hunching, giving the impression that he was sinking back into his turtleneck.

“It was a big deal, nerd!” Grif retorts, pushing away from the lumpy overstuffed sofa, arms folded across his chest. “You kept bitching about how it was gonna be a pain with our old tech!”

Before another squabble can break out, Wash lets go of Locus’ hand to intervene. There’s a clear exhaustion threaded along the bow of his spine. He’s holding his arms out, glaring at both of them. “Don’t start. I need everyone to cool it.” The Freelancer drags his fingers through his hair, sighing. “Let Locus get a word in too. This isn’t an intervention, it’s a conversation.”

The medic pipes up from the far end of the sofa. “This is pretty normal for us, remember?”

“Of course he remembers, what a stupid question.” Locus thinks, shoving his hands into the pockets of his slacks. He’d grown used to Wash’s personality when it was just the two of them in that cabin. He wasn’t like the overly intense facade Locus had observed in the limited recordings of his time chasing the Meta. Not the intimidating soldier that had been sent after Epsilon, or the (admittedly lovable) goofball from the Freelancer era. He was quiet but shouted at the appliances when they didn’t work well. (The oven had been the target of many rants.) He didn’t sleep well but would pass out on Locus’ lap when they occasionally watched movies. He made dry-jokes, chuckling to himself quietly. He certainly wasn’t a pushover. They had argued like anyone with their histories would. Wash could be a force to reckon with if he was so inclined.

Yet here in this little room, he seemed to wilt. It was as though the intensity of these people made him lesser somehow. He didn’t feel able to fly his true colours. A memory flickers, triggering many more.

“I just need some time off from the Reds and Blues.”

“Hey, sorry, needed a bit of quiet time.”

“I’m fine, Car’s just...y’know.”

"I can't sleep, can we go do something?"

"I needed a peaceful place."

It’s just enough to push the ex-mercenary to speak.

Locus clears his throat, squaring his shoulders. Wash’s head snaps up, eyeing the ex-mercenary cautiously. “Normal changes sometimes. It isn’t exactly...efficient to argue all the time.”

“Part of our charm, numbnuts.” Tucker snorts, a snide smirk on his face. “Did you miss the memo?”

Locus wants to punch something.

He takes a breath instead. “It’s not the most charming habit, if you want my honesty.”

“Yeah, because killing people totally charms the underpants off’a folks!” The one in the pink parka taunts.

That thread holding Wash in check snaps in an instant. “Donut!”

The blonde jumps, upending his mug onto the floor.

“All of you can say what you want but Locus is trying. He’s known war just as long as we have, if not longer.” The Freelancer starts pacing (A nervous habit.) around an empty table. “We’ve all been assholes to each other so what makes him any different than me?”

“You weren’t a mercenary.” Carolina coldly states from the booth she’s taken over.

“I-” Wash stumbles over the tip of his boot, eyes a fraction too wide.

“You didn’t perpetuate a planet wide civil war, or spring a prison ship-” She calmly adds a finger for each reason, ignoring the way Wash tries to interject. “-You didn’t plot an elaborate trap to kill our troops, didn’t murder them, and you didn’t betray your own-”

The sheep had kept the wolf safe for so long now. Time to return the favor.

Locus steps between the two, putting a hand on Wash’s shoulder. “If I recall properly, Project Freelancer had just as bloody a record as I myself did. You may not have sent a government into death throes as was done to Chorus, but you did ruin countless lives. Wash and yourself are evidence of that fact.”

Carolina levels him with a glare, cheeks darkening. She starts to speak, but Locus isn’t exactly invested in hearing out her predictably fragile argument.

“From my research of the footage, you raided many innocent cargo vessels without thinking twice. Orders are orders . Right Agent Carolina?” Locus drones, brushing hair from his eyes. “While it was by no means as elaborate as what you’re alluding to, you and Wash have both done harm to these simulation troopers. If you want to argue that I’m wrong, I have numerous instances I can bring up. Though they weren’t fully successful, I have a remarkably clear clip of Wash shooting one of the Red troopers point blank in the stomach.”

“Oh yeahhhh, you did try to kill me Washy! I almost forgot about that…” Donut chuckles, scratching at his belly through the down coat.

Locus wasn’t sure why he didn’t remember this being the same soldier but it does give his words a solid weight with which to fight. Felix used to claim the best way to win an argument was when someone on the opposing side willingly vocalized you had a point.

“A point-” He claimed. “-is how a knife so easily slides into a beating heart.”

Not everything Felix had taught him was bad, it seemed.

“Maine.”

All eyes are on Wash again. Carolina blinks owlishly, tilting her head. “Wash what-”

“I betrayed Maine. I had a chance to save him, and I didn’t. I saved myself.” Wash glances over at the Reds and Blues. “I saved them. Not before I betrayed them, though. I took the offer that I was given for a chance at freedom. I turned on them, and…” He bites his lip, gaze drifting aside. “In all honesty, I didn’t feel bad about doing it. It gave me an insight into how the world really works. Everyone can be good and bad. They’re not a mutually exclusive thing. The Reds and Blues aren’t heroes, but they changed a lot of things for the better. They can be douchebags but also save a planet. I can be the mean Freelancer but also try and support these troops because I don’t have to pick one. I just have to adjust to what they need me to be. Maine wasn’t a monster but he made a choice at the end. I made my choice.”

Wash exhales, the very sound itself laced with deeply repressed hurt. “We promised we’d stop looking back Car’. That we would better ourselves. That’s why we all left. We needed time to be ourselves again. Not just soldiers, or war heros, or guns for hire. Just...us.” He looks up at Locus, a fleeting smile crosses his face. “ All of us deserve another chance.”

Locus stills, glancing to Carolina. He’s not expecting how steady his voice is when he starts. “I’m here to make amends. If that means you choose not to speak to me after this, that’s acceptable. All I need from you is to promise me you won’t intentionally prevent my goal from being reached.”

The room is by no means silent, Grif ‘whispering’ to Simmons, Caboose humming absentmindedly, Tucker sighing, Sarge grumbling a string of curses. It’s the quiet  that Locus has come to associate with these troops. They always had something going on, but the fact that they thought to lower their typical volume meant quiet to them.

Carolina huffs softly, thumb running over a small metal object tucked into her palm. She looks up, sharp green eyes catching the light from the lamps overhead. “Fine. If you really want to do better, I won’t be the one to mess it up.”

On a rare impulsive whim, Locus asks, “I’d also like it if you tried to work on your relationship with Wash. He seems to almost cower when it comes to you. He deserves better than just playing dumb to avoid your temper.”

Wash startles under his palm, stammering. “I mean I-I don’t think you’re...I don’t-...uh…” He fidgets with the edge of his jacket until Locus gently nudges him forward, yet still keeping a protective grip on his shoulder. “I mean, playing dumb is kinda harsh, but Locus has a point.”

Hopefully the point hit home for once.

“We’re equals in this Car’. I’m all too quick to just give you the right of way because of the Freelancer days. I shouldn’t roll over and let you take responsibility for all our choices because that’s not how communication works. There’s only so much I can do, though. We should all feel free to ask for things. That we can speak up when we feel we’re being neglected. Car’...it’s time to let us grow up. We’re not kids any more.”

There’s an overly dramatic gasp from Caboose. “Whaaat?! You two were brother and sister this whole time?” His voice turns smug. “I knew it allll along, I said you know they don’t look it but I’m telling you Washingtub is Carol-Timer’s baby brother!”

Wash yelps, “Wait, what?! No! It was a metaphor, we’re not related! Also I’m older than her by a long shot!”

Caboose just keeps grinning and repeating, “I called it.”

The rest of the night went better, by the end Simmons had rigged a monitor to run some terrible movie called Thankskilling which had the room erupting in horrified laughter and repeated cries of ‘WHAT?!’. Wash ended up taking Caboose aside to make hot chocolate and they emerged with a stack of paper and a fistful of crayons from the depths of the kitchen. A clever ploy to avoid traumatizing the Blue soldier.

By the time the credits rolled, Simmons wrestled the controller from Grif threatening to break his arm if he didn’t let them change channels. Considering the power in his cybernetic limb, it wasn’t the emptiest of promises. Wash drifted back over with Caboose in his wake. The young man excitedly shows Locus a crude (yet oddly charming) scribble of what he claimed to be all of them. The ex-mercenary takes it gently, taking it all in.

The biggest was Caboose who was the only one who had hair of them all. He was labeled as both the ‘best!!’ and ‘me!’. To his right the medic and Red team. The medic (Locus really needed to get his name at some point) was in his signature purple, smiling with an outdated headband that Locus is fairly sure was worn by dentists rather than doctors. He was described with ‘nice!’. Then Donut, grin breaking from the confines of his face and hands thrown over his head, the descriptor this time is ‘hapy’. Shouting next to him must be Sarge in fire engine red. His head is square for some reason, and he’s noted for being ‘angry’. At the bottom right corner are Grif and Simmons, the former of which looks like he swallowed a balloon, the latter with one green eye. Surprising attention to detail there. When he takes another look he realizes Grif seems to be kissing Simmons. If they thought they were being subtle, they failed to fool even Caboose’s notice. Grif is simply stated to be ‘fat’ and Simmons is ‘smart!’.

The rest are to Caboose’s left, starting with Carolina. She’s got a rather grumpy look on with exaggerated eyelashes and her hands on her hips. At her feet is the word ‘mean’. Then to her left is Tucker who is either doing his recently named “finger guns” or flipping someone off. Hard to tell. In faint crayon above him he’s credited with being ‘dum’. With his grey body and yellow limbs, Wash looks almost depressed compared to the rest of the bunch. He’s just named ‘tub!’ rather than any actual description like the others. Oh, Locus was part of this too. His arms and legs are a forest green along with the detail of his scar. The rest of him is grey with an irritated look on his face. Above him in grey is the word ‘scary’. Below him in green however, it says ‘hug’.

When he squints he realizes he’s holding Wash’s hand. Maybe Caboose was more observant than he gave him credit for. “You...you did a good job.” Locus says finally.

Caboose lights up light a firecracker, bouncing on his feet before delivering a crushing hug to the ex-mercenary. He can hear the room burst out into laughter, even catching the wheezy edge of Wash’s own chuckles.

“Okay, Caboose, he needs some air now.” Wash swallows another giggle fit, patting at his shoulder.

When he’s released Locus knows everyone’s staring. They keep staring and they don’t scowl like they did before. With an unusually nervous chuckle he shrugs at the rest.

“It’s not exactly the first time he’s done that to me.”

FALSE KINGS

CW: Nightmares, Suicidal Thoughts

To say Locus was apprehensive about meeting the Reds and Blues was technically accurate. Accurate in the same way that a rocket could be called a big firecracker. There was a reason the ex-mercenary left after making certain that Wash was safe. He wasn't a foolish man by any means. After the clusterfuck of Chorus he had no intentions of ever contacting them. Life had other ideas, clearly.

Locus isn't sure why his ship started malfunctioning when it had, but it led him to Grif babbling like a lunatic to a set of sports equipment painted in a childish manner. When they'd taken off, the endless stream of questions about Locus’ intentionally secretive life began. Things the man never wanted to think about again under normal circumstances.

They meet at a coffee house that is a favorite haunt of Wash. He'd cashed in a favor and after it had officially closed for the night, the Reds and Blues were huddled inside to avoid the brutal January weather. Outside, Locus can see them from the window, able to mostly guess on their identities. Sarge was fairly obvious with his bright red polo and buzzcut. The tall one with thick, messy curls must be Caboose. Simmons arm gave him away, despite the long-sleeved sweater doing it's damndest to hide the well oiled chrome, though the long braid trailing over his shoulder was a surprise. Tucker was the one who tried to spend as little time as possible in his armor, so Locus was quite familiar with his cropped hair and dimples. Carolina was almost exactly how she had been in Freelancer. Shorter hair, but still red as fire. Grif was snoring away on a couch, with who Locus thinks must be the medic and some fellow in a pink parka.

He's startled from the old habit of memorising people's faces by a hand slipping into his. Wash glances up at Locus with one of those tired, lopsided smiles he seems prone to.

“C’mon. Let's get this done.” The older man inclines his head to the door, gently tugging Locus along.

The door chimes when Wash opens it and everyone's attention is on the pair in an instant. Locus’ lingering doubts snap at him. Mentally he chides himself, “ You agreed to this. You promised no armor, remember? Wash is right there, you’ll be fine.”

“What the fuck , why is Locus a trashy romance novel beefcake?!” Tucker balks, nearly spilling his drink over the table.

The room erupts in a mix of cackling and irritated demands for silence. Locus clutches Wash’s hand firmly, his desire to remain hidden growing into a nigh unbearable need. A sharp whistle slices neatly through the din.

“All of you shut up and pay attention.” Wash rasps irritably. “Locus isn't here for you to gawk at. You asked to meet him, so get on with it.” The Freelancer's calloused fingers tighten around Locus’ palm. At some point he had placed himself between the ex-mercenary and his comrades.

The sheep diligently watches over the wolf.

“Fine-” Tucker sniffs dismissively. “-how about what the hell were you thinking, running off like that?”

“I don’t-” Locus tries before Sarge snappily adds on.

“It ain't rocket science, kid. Y’ could’a stuck around fer a few days, at least. Hell, what if we needed yer help with Susie Spec’ Ops’ over there?” He grumbles, nodding to Wash.

The man in question looks offended, opening his mouth to interject when Caboose cuts him off.

“Oh oh! Can I also have another hug??”

Everyone throws dirty looks at the Blue trooper.

“So Tucker can call him a book but I don't get a nice hug?” Caboose pouts dramatically.

They drop the subject. Grif rolls over, unkempt hair flopping into his eyes. “Sup Locs. Sorry I went nuts on you before... actually I'm not, but whatever.” He shrugs a shoulder. “You probably do owe Simmons a 'good job’ since he helped Wash track your dumb ass.”

Locus glances over at Simmons, finding he isn't the only one who wasn't thrilled with the whole situation. The thin soldier wrings the tail end of his braid, practically jumping out of his skin at the mention of his name.

“I-It was no big deal, don't worry about it!” He stammers rapidly, shoulders hunching, giving the impression that he was sinking back into his turtleneck.

“It was a big deal, nerd!” Grif retorts, pushing away from the lumpy overstuffed sofa, arms folded across his chest. “You kept bitching about how it was gonna be a pain with our old tech!”

Before another squabble can break out, Wash lets go of Locus’ hand to intervene. There’s a clear exhaustion threaded along the bow of his spine. He’s holding his arms out, glaring at both of them. “Don’t start. I need everyone to cool it.” The Freelancer drags his fingers through his hair, sighing. “Let Locus get a word in too. This isn’t an intervention, it’s a conversation.”

The medic pipes up from the far end of the sofa. “This is pretty normal for us, remember?”

“Of course he remembers, what a stupid question.” Locus thinks, shoving his hands into the pockets of his slacks. He’d grown used to Wash’s personality when it was just the two of them in that cabin. He wasn’t like the overly intense facade Locus had observed in the limited recordings of his time chasing the Meta. Not the intimidating soldier that had been sent after Epsilon, or the (admittedly lovable) goofball from the Freelancer era. He was quiet but shouted at the appliances when they didn’t work well. (The oven had been the target of many rants.) He didn’t sleep well but would pass out on Locus’ lap when they occasionally watched movies. He made dry-jokes, chuckling to himself quietly. He certainly wasn’t a pushover. They had argued like anyone with their histories would. Wash could be a force to reckon with if he was so inclined.

Yet here in this little room, he seemed to wilt. It was as though the intensity of these people made him lesser somehow. He didn’t feel able to fly his true colours. A memory flickers, triggering many more.

“I just need some time off from the Reds and Blues.”

“Hey, sorry, needed a bit of quiet time.”

“I’m fine, Car’s just...y’know.”

"I can't sleep, can we go do something?"

"I needed a peaceful place."

It’s just enough to push the ex-mercenary to speak.

Locus clears his throat, squaring his shoulders. Wash’s head snaps up, eyeing the ex-mercenary cautiously. “Normal changes sometimes. It isn’t exactly...efficient to argue all the time.”

“Part of our charm, numbnuts.” Tucker snorts, a snide smirk on his face. “Did you miss the memo?”

Locus wants to punch something.

He takes a breath instead. “It’s not the most charming habit, if you want my honesty.”

“Yeah, because killing people totally charms the underpants off’a folks!” The one in the pink parka taunts.

That thread holding Wash in check snaps in an instant. “Donut!”

The blonde jumps, upending his mug onto the floor.

“All of you can say what you want but Locus is trying. He’s known war just as long as we have, if not longer.” The Freelancer starts pacing (A nervous habit.) around an empty table. “We’ve all been assholes to each other so what makes him any different than me?”

“You weren’t a mercenary.” Carolina coldly states from the booth she’s taken over.

“I-” Wash stumbles over the tip of his boot, eyes a fraction too wide.

“You didn’t perpetuate a planet wide civil war, or spring a prison ship-” She calmly adds a finger for each reason, ignoring the way Wash tries to interject. “-You didn’t plot an elaborate trap to kill our troops, didn’t murder them, and you didn’t betray your own-”

The sheep had kept the wolf safe for so long now. Time to return the favor.

Locus steps between the two, putting a hand on Wash’s shoulder. “If I recall properly, Project Freelancer had just as bloody a record as I myself did. You may not have sent a government into death throes as was done to Chorus, but you did ruin countless lives. Wash and yourself are evidence of that fact.”

Carolina levels him with a glare, cheeks darkening. She starts to speak, but Locus isn’t exactly invested in hearing out her predictably fragile argument.

“From my research of the footage, you raided many innocent cargo vessels without thinking twice. Orders are orders . Right Agent Carolina?” Locus drones, brushing hair from his eyes. “While it was by no means as elaborate as what you’re alluding to, you and Wash have both done harm to these simulation troopers. If you want to argue that I’m wrong, I have numerous instances I can bring up. Though they weren’t fully successful, I have a remarkably clear clip of Wash shooting one of the Red troopers point blank in the stomach.”

“Oh yeahhhh, you did try to kill me Washy! I almost forgot about that…” Donut chuckles, scratching at his belly through the down coat.

Locus wasn’t sure why he didn’t remember this being the same soldier but it does give his words a solid weight with which to fight. Felix used to claim the best way to win an argument was when someone on the opposing side willingly vocalized you had a point.

“A point-” He claimed. “-is how a knife so easily slides into a beating heart.”

Not everything Felix had taught him was bad, it seemed.

“Maine.”

All eyes are on Wash again. Carolina blinks owlishly, tilting her head. “Wash what-”

“I betrayed Maine. I had a chance to save him, and I didn’t. I saved myself.” Wash glances over at the Reds and Blues. “I saved them. Not before I betrayed them, though. I took the offer that I was given for a chance at freedom. I turned on them, and…” He bites his lip, gaze drifting aside. “In all honesty, I didn’t feel bad about doing it. It gave me an insight into how the world really works. Everyone can be good and bad. They’re not a mutually exclusive thing. The Reds and Blues aren’t heroes, but they changed a lot of things for the better. They can be douchebags but also save a planet. I can be the mean Freelancer but also try and support these troops because I don’t have to pick one. I just have to adjust to what they need me to be. Maine wasn’t a monster but he made a choice at the end. I made my choice.”

Wash exhales, the very sound itself laced with deeply repressed hurt. “We promised we’d stop looking back Car’. That we would better ourselves. That’s why we all left. We needed time to be ourselves again. Not just soldiers, or war heros, or guns for hire. Just...us.” He looks up at Locus, a fleeting smile crosses his face. “ All of us deserve another chance.”

Locus stills, glancing to Carolina. He’s not expecting how steady his voice is when he starts. “I’m here to make amends. If that means you choose not to speak to me after this, that’s acceptable. All I need from you is to promise me you won’t intentionally prevent my goal from being reached.”

The room is by no means silent, Grif ‘whispering’ to Simmons, Caboose humming absentmindedly, Tucker sighing, Sarge grumbling a string of curses. It’s the quiet  that Locus has come to associate with these troops. They always had something going on, but the fact that they thought to lower their typical volume meant quiet to them.

Carolina huffs softly, thumb running over a small metal object tucked into her palm. She looks up, sharp green eyes catching the light from the lamps overhead. “Fine. If you really want to do better, I won’t be the one to mess it up.”

On a rare impulsive whim, Locus asks, “I’d also like it if you tried to work on your relationship with Wash. He seems to almost cower when it comes to you. He deserves better than just playing dumb to avoid your temper.”

Wash startles under his palm, stammering. “I mean I-I don’t think you’re...I don’t-...uh…” He fidgets with the edge of his jacket until Locus gently nudges him forward, yet still keeping a protective grip on his shoulder. “I mean, playing dumb is kinda harsh, but Locus has a point.”

Hopefully the point hit home for once.

“We’re equals in this Car’. I’m all too quick to just give you the right of way because of the Freelancer days. I shouldn’t roll over and let you take responsibility for all our choices because that’s not how communication works. There’s only so much I can do, though. We should all feel free to ask for things. That we can speak up when we feel we’re being neglected. Car’...it’s time to let us grow up. We’re not kids any more.”

There’s an overly dramatic gasp from Caboose. “Whaaat?! You two were brother and sister this whole time?” His voice turns smug. “I knew it allll along, I said you know they don’t look it but I’m telling you Washingtub is Carol-Timer’s baby brother!”

Wash yelps, “Wait, what?! No! It was a metaphor, we’re not related! Also I’m older than her by a long shot!”

Caboose just keeps grinning and repeating, “I called it.”

The rest of the night went better, by the end Simmons had rigged a monitor to run some terrible movie called Thankskilling which had the room erupting in horrified laughter and repeated cries of ‘WHAT?!’. Wash ended up taking Caboose aside to make hot chocolate and they emerged with a stack of paper and a fistful of crayons from the depths of the kitchen. A clever ploy to avoid traumatizing the Blue soldier.

By the time the credits rolled, Simmons wrestled the controller from Grif threatening to break his arm if he didn’t let them change channels. Considering the power in his cybernetic limb, it wasn’t the emptiest of promises. Wash drifted back over with Caboose in his wake. The young man excitedly shows Locus a crude (yet oddly charming) scribble of what he claimed to be all of them. The ex-mercenary takes it gently, taking it all in.

The biggest was Caboose who was the only one who had hair of them all. He was labeled as both the ‘best!!’ and ‘me!’. To his right the medic and Red team. The medic (Locus really needed to get his name at some point) was in his signature purple, smiling with an outdated headband that Locus is fairly sure was worn by dentists rather than doctors. He was described with ‘nice!’. Then Donut, grin breaking from the confines of his face and hands thrown over his head, the descriptor this time is ‘hapy’. Shouting next to him must be Sarge in fire engine red. His head is square for some reason, and he’s noted for being ‘angry’. At the bottom right corner are Grif and Simmons, the former of which looks like he swallowed a balloon, the latter with one green eye. Surprising attention to detail there. When he takes another look he realizes Grif seems to be kissing Simmons. If they thought they were being subtle, they failed to fool even Caboose’s notice. Grif is simply stated to be ‘fat’ and Simmons is ‘smart!’.

The rest are to Caboose’s left, starting with Carolina. She’s got a rather grumpy look on with exaggerated eyelashes and her hands on her hips. At her feet is the word ‘mean’. Then to her left is Tucker who is either doing his recently named “finger guns” or flipping someone off. Hard to tell. In faint crayon above him he’s credited with being ‘dum’. With his grey body and yellow limbs, Wash looks almost depressed compared to the rest of the bunch. He’s just named ‘tub!’ rather than any actual description like the others. Oh, Locus was part of this too. His arms and legs are a forest green along with the detail of his scar. The rest of him is grey with an irritated look on his face. Above him in grey is the word ‘scary’. Below him in green however, it says ‘hug’.

When he squints he realizes he’s holding Wash’s hand. Maybe Caboose was more observant than he gave him credit for. “You...you did a good job.” Locus says finally.

Caboose lights up light a firecracker, bouncing on his feet before delivering a crushing hug to the ex-mercenary. He can hear the room burst out into laughter, even catching the wheezy edge of Wash’s own chuckles.

“Okay, Caboose, he needs some air now.” Wash swallows another giggle fit, patting at his shoulder.

When he’s released Locus knows everyone’s staring. They keep staring and they don’t scowl like they did before. With an unusually nervous chuckle he shrugs at the rest.

“It’s not exactly the first time he’s done that to me.”

FALSE KINGS

CW: Nightmares, Suicidal Thoughts

Locus knows something's a miss when he hears the rusty shriek of the brakes on Wash’s SUV that Monday morning. The freelancer should be at his job by now. Wash was well known to never miss a day.

The engine cuts off and the car door slams. Heavy work boots crunch over the gravel that makes up the driveway. Wash shoulders open the screen door, glancing around the cabin. (The habit of checking for threats still stuck with the stout man.)

With no words, the older man strides over to his well loved coffee machine. He gets it set up to brew espresso, drumming his fingers on the countertop.

The stormy silence reigns until the shadows on the porch grow long, hints of starlight peeking through the blue sky.

“I lost my job.”

Locus glances up from the fruit he’s slicing for a pie. “...How?”

“Had a flashback. Thought my supervisor was the Director. Broke his jaw.” Wash grumbles, opening a tin of pain relieving gel.

Locus makes his way over, taking the container before the freelancer can dip his fingers into it. The ex-mercenary drags a thumb over the surface of the balm to work into the shoulders of his boyf-

The thought skids off the rails. He had never considered Wash as a boyfriend, a partner, even with the clear relationship they had. Was Locus allowed to think like that? It makes his chest ache as he returns to the task at hand.

Rough fingers massage scarred, tense shoulders. The distinctive smell spreads throughout the cabin.

They don't speak for the rest of the night.

---

Wash has a whiteboard because his therapist insisted that it was a good idea for Wash to write his thoughts after an episode. The only times Locus saw it being used was when Wash woke from nightmares. (Often writing as if he was someone else.)

The words he finds this morning sends a stab of familiarity through his heart.

[Getting lost singing their song.

Caught up in, all I've done.

It's all I know , but not what I need.

Cut by my love, cut till I bleed. ]

Locus takes a photo of it on instinct. The next time he walks by, the board is clean. The ex-mercenary gets the feeling that this was just the start of something new.

---

A month passes, and Wash gets a new job. He’s there for two days before he’s fired again. The company refuses to pay him, and Locus knows all too well that the seething freelancer won't take the matter to court.

That night, Wash wakes up, referring to Locus as Maine for three hours.

The whiteboard gives up more when Locus gets up at noon to make pancakes for lunch.

[So I want to run to your shelter tonight.

Run to your shelter tonight.

United in silent resistance,

Of bowing to false kings.

So let me run to your shelter tonight.

Run from this meaningless pantomime.

I'll swallow my pride, give up the pretense,

Of bowing to false kings .]

Locus takes another picture and starts his motorcycle.

The tall man seeks out Tucker, because he knows the man's crude jokes are a thin veil for how deeply he cares about the freelancer.

The sim trooper gnaws at his thumb as he reads. “Loc’s this is like...this shit scares me.”

For once, Locus wholeheartedly agrees with Tucker.

“I need you to help me find a decent place for him to work. Some place that helps veterans. You know the town better.” Locus pleads softly. “I need- no, Wash needs all the assistance we can offer.”

Tucker nods, eyes glinting with steely determination. “I've got this.”

---

It's a week before the next part shows up.

[ Bought their smiles, liquid and smooth.

Took their words, for the truth .

Edge of light and shade.

My broken soul , once more enslaved -]

It trails back into the chorus, and Locus goes looking for a pen. He still has his notes from the first time Wash used music to relay a message. He already knows that the tone had taken a far darker tone this time.

Lost, All I've done, I know, what I need, I bleed.

Want to run, tonight, run, tonight, silent, false kings, run, tonight, run, I'll, give up, false kings.

Bought, took, the truth, edge of, shade, soul, enslaved, let me run, tonight, run, I see, I see, end.

Alarmingly when Locus walks into the living room, there's more scrawled across the windows. His heart sinks like a stone.

When, cold blood runs, without grace, do I, soar? Need, your, new ways, end, wars, I'm yours.

Want to run to you-, run, tonight, united, kings, let me run, from, my pride.

Locus abandons his notebook, going to search the bedroom. He can hear Wash's rattling snores from where he stands, fear lacing through him like puppet strings that compel him to check Wash's vitals. Regardless of the knowledge that the freelancer could, and would likely see him as a threat in Wash’s sleep addled mind. The ex-mercenary doesn't care if he gets busted up as long as Wash is safe.

The instant the door latch clicks, the snoring stops. Rough muttering is muffled by the bed clothes.

Locus goes to draw back the quilt and can't quite avoid a strike to his face. It's a glancing blow, but it still stings like a bitch.

Wash pauses, blinking a few times before squinting at Locus. Guilt sinks into his frame. “Shit, I'm sorry Loc’s…”

Locus shrugs lamely. “I'm well aware of the risks of startling you. Especially from sleep.”

“Oh...why did you wake me up?”

The ex-mercenary takes a breath to soothe the tremble threatening to creep into his voice. “The writing.”

Wash sighs in a way not in line with a man being confronted over dark thoughts. “Did I do more?”

Locus nods. “You moved to the windows this time.”

“Son of a bitch.” Wash grouses, dragging a hand down his face. “Sorry, I'll go clea-”

“I didn't wake you up to make you clean up. I'm worried that…” the tall man stills, biting his lip. “The words you underlined this time paint a... significantly darker picture than before.”

Wash stops mid-stride. He stares up at Locus, so intense it's overwhelming. The younger man looks away from the other. “...You think I'm gonna kill myself.”

There's no question to be found. A cold, hard statement of facts.

Locus holds out the notebook, still unable to meet Wash's eyes.

The freelancer skims the page, shoulders slumping. “...Locus, you know I'd never go through with it.”

“What I know, is that nothing is certain. I... I love you too much to just ignore something like this.”

Wash's cheeks flush darker, head ducking down. “I-I mean, when you put it like that... yeah, it makes sense.” With a tiny snippet of static from his vodacoder, the older man adds, “Thanks for looking out for me. I love you too. Sorry if I’m bad at showing it.”

“You’re not bad.” Locus insists. “You show affection how you feel is right. You’re fine.”

Wash hesitates before holding out his arms to ask for an embrace.

Locus pulls the freelancer close, holding fast to him. Wash’s hair smells like the regulation toiletries that he must have stashed from the years of military service. Maybe he even ordered it online for the sake of consistency. The older man tucks his head under Locus’ chin, evening out his breaths. His ribs expand and contract smoothly under Locus’ palms.

It’s a nice sort of calm that settles over them after that lingering fear. Then Locus’ phone shrieks out some bland, royalty-free nonsense.

Jolting, Locus extracts himself from their embrace. Glaring at the screen, it kindly informs him that Tucker is calling. Locus swipes the answer button, responding with a snappy, “What is it.”

“I found Wash’s dream job, and they’re hiring.”

---

Leave it to Tucker to find the one cafe Wash didn’t know about. It goes by the title of Research Roasts. Apparently some big-shot Smithsonian scientist bought the building where the cafe was now located, then badgered her friend into taking his coffee house idea seriously. Low overhead in a high class part of town would do that to most people. Totally free overhead would get just about anyone to bite.

The real kicker for Locus was they only hired veterans. Especially ones suffering from mental issues after their experiences with the war. It sounds better with every word out of Tucker’s mouth.

They get Wash an interview with the promise that Locus would get to accompany him as well. Whatever it took to pull Wash from his most recent spiral was perfectly acceptable.

The place is what one expects at first. Posters with microscopes and technobabble, the table of elements and beakers. Science stuff. Yet when Locus takes a closer look, he also sees diagrams of many standard issue firearms from the war.

The man behind the counter is slender, with fluffy dark hair piled into a messy bun. He’s got what Locus likes to call ‘Felix Syndrome.’ Basically, when someone looks perfectly normal, attractive, or otherwise harmless. Yet something gives away a glimpse of something altogether dangerous, if not downright lethal.

“You’re the ones that called, yeah?” Even his voice is perfectly soothing, but leaves a lingering sense of paranoia. Sibley (that’s what his name tag says.) nods towards the back. “Go on. Boss knows you’ll be dropping by soon.”

Wash mutters a nervous thanks, whereas Locus gives a simple nod to the mysterious cashier as they pass.

Everyone they pass by either has Felix Syndrome, or looks like they’d fit right in with Wash and Locus’ crowd. Tired eyes with exhausted smiles. They were, however, pretty clearly happy. Happier than Wash had been for many months.

They reach the door mentioned in the email and Wash’s hand hovers an inch or two away from the wood. He swallows around the lump in his throat. Locus takes his free hand and squeezes it.

“I’m here.” He offers gently.

Wash knocks.

Instead of being told to come in, Locus hears the squeak of a chair, leading to uneven footsteps. The door swings open, and Locus’ spine stiffens.

Siris. Mason fucking Wu himself is looking back with an equally startled expression.

“I-...Locus?” Siris whispers just loud enough for his former teammate to hear.

There’s a nod that straddles the line between polite acknowledgement and nervous tick. “Siris.”

Wash looks justifiably baffled, but Siris just brushes the hair from his eyes and beckons the two in. When they do, the door clicks shut.

“We worked together.” Locus answers Wash’s question before his partner can even ask it.

“Oh.” Is the only reaction Wash gives, taking a seat in the nearest chair.

“You…” Siris starts, trying to focus. “You must be Wash.” He extends a hand. “Mason Wu. I’ve been accused of running the show here.”

That does earn a weak chuckle from Wash, though it doesn’t get a smile. He does take Siris’ hand, shaking firmly. “Hope the rumors are true.” He offers dryly.

Siris smirks at that, sitting at the chair behind the plain desk. He’s still warily keeping Locus in sight. In all honesty, Locus is doing the exact same thing.

As they get down to brass tacks, Locus actually finds himself desperately hoping Wash gets this job. He knows Siris. Siris is the sort of man who would get through to the paranoid freelancer just by chatting. He was who taught Locus many of the essential tools that he used to keep Wash happy and healthy.

Two wolves circling the sheep. Both know their own motives. They haven’t a clue of the other’s thoughts.

They speak.

---

It seems to go well. From where Locus sits that is. He’s almost certain Wash got the job. Before they can go, Siris grabs Locus’ arm.

“I’m trusting you, Ortez.” he whispers sternly. “Don’t make me regret that.”

“Funny. I was going to say something similar.” Locus realizes that that may have come off as sarcastic. He scrambles, tacking on, “Wash means a very great deal to me, so-”

Siris snorts, patting Locus’ arm. “I know what you meant, kid.”

Locus’ cheeks darken with embarrassment. “I’m not that much younger than you.”

“Ten years isn’t something to sneeze at.” Siris grins slyly.

Out of the corner of his eye, Locus sees Wash trying to hide a matching grin of his own behind his palm.

It’s a good start.

[sokkastyles]

Hi, what do you think about the whole "Zuko never felt sorry for burning down Suki's village" argument? Because it didn't feel to me like the place was destroyed at all, no more than Aaag, Katara and Sokka destroyed Omashu.

Well, we are shown the damage that Zuko's bending caused and Suki does confront Zuko with it later, so we are supposed to treat this as damage Zuko caused that he should feel sorry for that is distinct from the gaang accidentally destroying things with cartoon shenanigans. Zuko came to Kyoshi to capture Aang and he didn't care about the damage he caused to the village as long as he got what he wanted. He's the bad guy there.

That said, there is a limit to how much the show can take this seriously and that's why they don't, and it is absolutely ridiculous how some people will demand that Zuko needs to further atone in some way or that he doesn't care or that what he did was worse than it was.

It's not like Zuko went there and razed the village, which is an intentional war crime. He only cared about capturing Aang and the fires were caused by reckless bending. It's still bad, and fits in very nicely with the responsibility of firebending that is part of both Zuko and Aang's storyline, plus Zuko's arc of learning personal accountability and having a more balanced perspective on things vs only thinking about himself at the beginning of the story. But it's not akin to knowingly destroying an entire village - something which Jet tried to do, in contrast - and I've even seen people insist that Zuko burned down "multiple" villages and like...lol where?

It also can't be treated like it's similar to razing villages in the real world because the fire gets put out by Aang riding a giant sea monster. Like in the Omashu situation you mentioned, there's an extent to how seriously you can take this when the show itself treats it like cartoon shenanigans. And if you DID want to hold these characters accountable in that way, then you have to treat every instance of the gaang destroying something like it's serious business. And that's completely ignoring that ATLA is a fantasy comedy action cartoon created for children. It is not a serious drama about war, even if it deals with those topics at times.

That's why Suki herself doesn't bring up what Zuko did to her village beyond that one humorous exchange. The other reason is because he's clearly changed by the time he meets her again. It would be really strange for her to constantly hold this against him when he's currently trying to break her out of prison. And I don't know where people are getting that he "never felt sorry." Zuko has shown enough regret for his past actions that he doesn't need to speak about every single one to prove he's sorry. What, you think Zuko is sorry for all the things he explicitly apologized for in the series, like trying to capture Aang, hunting the gaang, attacking the Water Tribe, hiring Combustion man, and betraying Katara and Iroh in Ba Sing Se, but he's not sorry for attacking Suki's village because he didn't explicitly say those words onscreen? Be serious. Accountability is not about constantly self-flagellating, and if risking his life to rescue her from the most secure Fire Nation prison is good enough for Suki to forgive and trust Zuko and think he is genuinely sorry, it's good enough for me.

[quitefair]

From Sea to Shore: A Josephine Montilyet lore/meta project

Start reading here!

Hi, hello. I suppose introductions are in order.  

My name is Meera and I am a fan (derogatory) of Dragon Age. Have been since 2014, the moment my ears heard the Dragon Age Inquisition theme. (I’m a sucker for soundtracks, I can count on my hand the number of interests I’ve dived into solely because of the soundtrack.)

The reason I’m so fascinated with Dragon Age, as with many people on this site and beyond are, is because of the rich and complex lore that is contained within the world of Thedas. Whether it be within the games themselves, or the massive catalogue of supplemental media – books, comics, short stories published online, the massive hardcover bible of The World of Thedas, etc.

I think you can see where I’m going with this.

Dragon Age is known for… well. Not putting shit into their game. Which is arguably, the most important part of Dragon Age. Yknow. The games? Couple this with the fact that the writers are known to retcon things left right and centre… leaving fans with a, if you don’t mind my language, piss poor understanding of anything beyond surface level.

Now I’m not going to argue semantics about topics that I am clearly not qualified to talk about. I’m still learning things. So while I do read some absolutely delightful discussions on the Mage-Templar war, Tranquility, the Dalish, the Qun… I’m not qualified enough to write proper discussions on these serious and interesting topics.

Instead, I’m armed with having read too many books and watched too many shows. So, what I can do is to look at characters within Dragon Age that I have an unhealthy obsession with, and try to make sense of their stories.

And guess who I’ve decided to start talking about first?

[source]

I’m gonna start off by mentioning that I haven’t done anything like this before. My only credentials are having been unhealthily obsessed with this game franchise for coming onto 9 years now, and owning The World of Thedas 2. Which I haven’t read in its entirety. (Bioware please… put your motherfucking lore in your games, im beggin…) But I have been researching a lot of things recently while planning a frankly quite complicated Dragon Age fic, and after reading a lot of very well written meta on tumblr, and also realizing I enjoy writing my own, I thought I’d take a stab at it myself.

One of the main things I’ve been researching is Josephine and her backstory. On a surface level, it is easy to love her. She’s kind and sweet and absolutely adorable. Her romance fuels my entire existence. She is my Wife and I love her character to the ends of the earth.

But as with a lot of the characters newly introduced in Inquisition, she suffers from a scattered plot, a very superficial stance in the political scheme of things (despite being the political ambassador of Inquisition??? hello???), and is often reduced to several one-dimensional tropes that grate on my nerves.

I’m not discrediting people who enjoy her character as it is. Hell, I spent years loving her story as it is. But I am doing this as an aspiring writer and lover of stories, and a lover of complex, nuanced characters. I see Josephine as a character, much like many others in Dragon Age, who has so much potential to be more. I also see her story in the base game as being quite solid in itself, but is presented in a very scattered, messy way, that you as a player character, might not understand the full impact of.

This series is going to be equal parts laying down the lore of Josephine and the Montilyet family, in a way that people can easily understand and build their own meta and headcanons off, and also for me to speculate and build on my own meta that I’ve been working on. I’m not sure how many parts it’s going to be, we’ll take things as they come.

If you’ve made it this far, kudos for listening to this dude ramble for a thousand words. The real shit comes in a bit. Hope you enjoy.

(Josie in this picture is so me coded when I’m ranting in my Word document so I had to leave this here.)

[honeyconez]

Cone cave

there’s cones and pans and honey everywhere… I wonder why…

updated January 1st

I go by Conez or Ed

I’m TRANS and pansexual

He/They and she on thursdays and saturdays

Becoming a middle aged adult with a midlife crisis speedrun

I’m learning French (ew spy reference)

I LOOOVEVEE tf2 i will mostly be posting tf2 related stuff and soldier is my FAVORITE and SOLJAH IS MY FAVORITE FREAK I LOVE FREAK FORTRESS

My favorite ships are helmet party, zhannasoldier, boots n bombs, fruit scones, pyrosoldier, freedom fries, huttah huttah, magic missiles MY FAVORITE CRACKSHIP FUNNY FUNNY, flashfire holy fuck ones that aren’t with soldier, napoleon complex, science party, and speeding bullet

yes I am a huge multi shipper and I have intricate little headcanons about all the soldier ships I mentioned above and each combination of the teams

And I have a shitload of soldier ocs. One of them is named honeycock.

Some specific tf2 series or videos I LVOE SO MUCH are lil pootis, Emesis blue, bizzare bucket, unusual troubles, hoovydundy, THE ALL MY FELLAS SFM REEEEE, Team Neighborhood, badwater videos and I’m pretty sure there’s more but I have 3 braincel

Some of my smaller interests are the SCP Foundation, HLVRAI, OFF, Endoparasitic, rocket launchers, digging holes, and grilled cheese

I’m pretty socially goofy so if I don’t respond to a comment or I respond in a weird way it’s because I don’t know how to RESPOND because I DUNNO 😭😭😭

I don’t mean to be an asshole but sometimes I feel like can come off as one but I don’t mean to be offensive I’m sowwy 👉👈 I’m never fucking doing that again

✨ My Tags ✨

Conezdumbideas - shitposts

Conezmakeart - art tag

Conezyappityyap - me rambling

Conepookies - me irl frens

Conezdoesthegmog - gmod sillies

Conezgoofyassocs - my gooby ocs

🧦 Tags to find my shitty comics idk ✨

Conezsillyvoidcomic - void comic (on hiatus indefinitely)

(there was a tag here but I forgot what the idea was gonna be so I put this here to forever be reminded that I probably had a great idea)

Allthatwelost - surprise…

Old tags below cut and dni list yadda yadda

I dont tag reblogs usually so you can probably find all my shitty art by doing a tag

🥖🥖🥖 Old Tags 💔🥖🥖

conezeatspencils - pencil drawings

wholetconezcook - drawings

and also about the comics!!

void comic thing - I might start this one again but I probably won’t I don’t really like it it feels kind of unoriginal I dunno how to explain but PLEASE send me an ask if you were actually interested in it

the one I forgot about - ok I had a good idea and I forgot. ok.

all that we lost - this is a big one!! I’m trying to turn the fic “All that we lost” by mx_boxlocks on ao3 into a comic. It’s 32,000 words but I would like to have fun and not completely copy it and just take parts of the main plot. The fic itself is also unfinished as of writing this and I always wanted to write an end for it!! (also I wrote this before I revealed what the fic is so uh. if you see this before I did hi.)

Other general stuff I find neat

•Computer viruses(stuxnet……)

•World Wars 1 & 2

•Patterns in math…. My beloved….

•Paradoxes

•Spaceeeeeeeee

•Geology

•Math in general I guess

•Coding

•Rules of robotics

•History

•War strategies

•The Art of War by Sun Tzu IM BEING FR

Games me like or play

• Undertale/Deltarune

• Minecraft

• Celeste

• Rayman

• Subnautica

• Cat Quest I & II

• Stardew Valley

• Cuphead

• Cult Of the Lamb

Movies

• Emesis Blue

• Deadpool 1, 2, and 3

• Howl’s Moving Castle

• Magnificent Nine

• Steven Universe the Movie

• Mitchels vs the Machines

(Will add more I remember)

Cartoons / Shows / Series idk

• Lil Pootis

• Adventure Time

• Fionna & Cake

• Adventure Time Distant Lands

• Steven Universe

• Minecraft Storymode (I watched the Netflix thingy before it was removed)

• Captain Underpants

• Team Neighborhood

• Over the Garden Wall (one of my favs)

Books / Comics

• Curse Of the Werepenguin

• Dogman (huge inspiration)

• Breaking Cat News (huger inspiration)

• Bunnicula

• The Outsiders (could yap forever)

• Midsummer’s Nights Dream

• Adventure Time Comics

Youtube series or Youtubers I like

PLEASE TELL ME IF ANYONE HERES A BAD PERSON

also it’s all tf2

• Honorcrocketts

• Rubberfruit

• Kostamonien

• STBlackST / Unusual Troubles

• Kitty0706

• Requiem For A Pizza

• Badwatervideos2009

• HoovyTube

• Team Neighborhood

• Kugawattan

• TheInvertedShadow

• DamashiDX

• KIEGKILLSREALITY THIS DUDE IS AMAZING HOLY SHART IVE WATCHED EVERY VIDEO THRICE

• Yup Kup

Musics

• Lemon Demon

• Penelope Scott

• Weird Al Yankovic!!!!

• ARTHUR

• The Scary Jokes

• Metric

• Widdly 2 Diddly / Marina Hova

DNI

Homophobes, transphobes, racists, pedos, pervs, proshit, pro-Israel, zionists, zoophiles, completely NSFW blogs, TERFs and SWERFs yknow like basic peoples who be shitty

Also some very specific stuff

-People who ship emesis blue solly and spy idk about you… you’re welcome I guess but I’ll sideye you (I could on a whole rant about how shitty jaques is he’s so mean to soldier 😭😭) -People who genuinely like lunchly gtfo you’re witerawy an npc… lunchables are so much better -That girl from 2nd grade who told me to smell her ass bc it smelled liked bubblegum and also told me that adventure time made me stupider fuck you -People who are like really aggressively vegetarian or vegan??? I’ll eat as much steak as I want. I’ll respect your life choices if you respect mine -Ppl who don’t like Bluey? I didn’t even know Bluey haters existed -IF YOU LIKE JIMMY FROM MOUTHWASHING -People who like brussel sprouts wtf? No one likes them -People who say Minecraft was ruined and the old versions were better GET OUT GET OUT I’LL POLITELY HOLD THE EXIT DOOR OPEN FOR YOU JUST PLAY THE OLDER VERSIONS THEN FUCKWAD -People who aggressively shit on people for liking dark humor (or aggressively shit on people at all. Unless you’re both into that then idk what to say good for you) -People who aren’t comfortable with objectum, nothing against you but there will be the occasional jokes about objectum so just block me for your comfort if you don’t like that I don’t talk about it a lot tho -People who still use Dr bright or support him. What the fuck? -People who don’t find the schlatt joke funny where they put schl at the schleginning of schlords it’s the funniest thing you schlarty schlooper -Lack toes and told her aunt

(Obviously most of these are a joke)

[aurim-fact-daily]

Aurim worldbuilding day 20!

no explicit world building of aurim right now, i just briefly want to talk about the history of it!

the initial idea for a world building project started about 5 or 4 years ago, intially starting as a "beastiary" that people could plug into already existing games.

more spesifcally they were little tid bits of lore in books about suprisingly normal subjects. the first idea was for a book to put it in was an encyclopedia of plants in a fantasy world! though there wouldve been other books like travel guides and etc etc all written within the cannon of the world.

in fact the few ideas i had back then still kind of apply to this, mostly kings fruit and deathblooms.

there was also this god of the library, who took every book he can. in fact the series of books were going to be named after him!

there was even some lore with him too!

early in aurim history i wanted to explain why there was so much time between progress (of course theres a much better explanation now) and at the time i had this organization called the occult (creative i know), where they would seek scientific and magical progress at any costs. and by the time people discovered steam engines, theyd be about our modern level.

ofc they found out that gods could be created through belief (which is where the idea came from actually) and they wanted to create a god. so they found a tomb of the four horsemen of the apocalypse and woke up famine, and then put him immediately back to sleep.

(btw the designs for the horsemen were actually pretty cool. plague was a sentient swarm of bugs, war was actually a mamal that flew, and a bird that was stuck on the ground and they were constantly fighting. and death was... i dont remember)

and what they did was they somehow turned his physical hunger into a hunger of knowledge or something? and then SCP style implanted the idea that he was always a god into peoples heads.

now i should explain: THE OCCULT NO LONGER EXISTS IN AURIM. in fact its so old that aurim was still called ennisis at the time. (aurim is technically a rewrite of ennisis)

the occult was my attempt to give the world building of ennisis a "story". to force it to create a narrative. of course this is not the direction i want to go with aurim anymore, aurim doesnt have a villian.

lets talk more about my design process for aurim itself actually.

as aurim exists now, i try to world build for it "naturalistically". in other words, everything in aurim conforms to the rules aurim has set, and its nature. i think arcano curcuitry is a really good example of this, as though i say its a different casting system, its actually just a different more understandable method of the SAME spell casting system.

this is also why i dont create a map for aurim, nor its countries quite yet. because aurim is more a set of rules then an actual place. aurim is a world built to allow me to tell any story i want within its boundries.

oh who wants to hear about the very first incarnation of ennisis?

this comes from a story called the celeste invictus, it was a story based on spelljammer, and was firmly set in the dnd world. but i changed alot of what was in between different solar systems.

but the idea was that there was this pink blue yellowish gas out in space (this is where the colors for sourile comes from) that had a very spesific flow (IDK MAYBE LIKE SOURILE DOES???), it always flowed away from this giant center storm in space (idk ever head of OFAN STORMS??).

and the interesting part about it is how it interacted with solar systems! because solar systems were surrounded by this oily black crystal with little holes in them (which made up the night sky). as this material (called phlogiston at the time) made its way through these holes, it dispersed into this energy almost that could be used to cast magic (HM?????). in fact its only because that energy was there is why gods could exist in the first place (HM?????????)

back to that storm, in the center of it WAS ennisis, but a very very old version i remember nearly nothing about, besides the fact that there was a giant dragon that took up half the planet.

i think thats about as much misc things aboht aurim i can remember now. but its nice to look back on the past of aurim and see what changed and where inspiration for my modern ideas comes from. ig it makes me wonder how much of todays aurim is going to be thrown out in the future? but yeah thats all rn

[disgruntledexplainer]

AI

i think a lot of people really misunderstand what the actual threat that "AI" poses is. AI is not going to try to wipe us out for any reason intrinsic to it, because AI is not capable of having intrinsic motivation (thankfully). rather, AI is a problem because it increases the power of those already powerful, and further marginalizes anyone who isn't powerful. In other words, the problem with AI isn't AI itself, the problem is those who use it, who are altogether too human.

Two major threats come to mind, both of them incredibly obvious when you think about it.

First, corporations will naturally favor any innovation which cuts costs or gives them an edge over their competition, regardless of the consequences to both their workers and their customers. Those in charge of the corporation will always seek to automate any part of the company that isn't them to cut costs, even if it is significantly less efficient or more infuriating to work with. This means that, as with the agricultural revolution and the various periods of automation during the industrial revolution, we are on the cusp of a massive loss of employment across all sectors as humans are replaced with machines.

however, this will be worse than previous periods, because while in previous centuries the removal of some jobs would introduce new jobs to replace them, such will likely not be the case for jobs replaced by AI. Further, certain occupations which we had assumed would be safe have turned out to not be safe from automation at all. Nobody seemed to care about how automation will destroy jobs until "AI art" became a thing, and do you know why? because everyone assumed that creative work was safe. and while algorithms cannot truly match an actual gifted artist in skill and creativity, it doesn't need to, because it's just more convenient, and much more cost-efficient to generate an image procedurally rather than commission it.

maybe next time the art community will take the threats posed to the working class by automation more seriously smh. But i guess it's too late now.

And when I say that corporations will replace humans regardless as to it's efficiency, I mean it. Have you noticed that almost no major company has an actually useful customer support system any more? it's all automated, and it's all useless. Some companies are flat out just not hiring humans for customer support any more, instead relying on a series of generic automated response trees that do nothing to solve the problem and just make the customer angry. What's to stop them from doing the same thing, but with everything from marketing to janitorial work?

AI will continue to replace jobs over and over again until the only jobs left will be the ones that are actually doing the replacement themselves. In other words, at a certain point we will reach a point where the only jobs are government jobs, high-level corporate jobs, and the engineers who are designing the AIs. And if any engineer is stupid enough to design an AI that can design other AIs, that job may be gone too.

the other major problem with AI is what happens when it gets into the hands of government agencies. Which it already has, to an extent. We have been using simple, dumb AI in drone targeting systems for quite awhile now. Despite the fact that it doesn't really work and gets civilians killed more often than not, governments still use this software because it doesn't put their own men at risk. Likewise, the government will almost certainly begin employing robotic soldiers as soon as they become available, even if they don't work very well, because it means they aren't putting their own people at risk. But often in war you need people to be there, in order to make judgement calls. What if a lazy commander tells the machines to "kill everyone in that bunker", but the bunker turns out to be a civilian residence and now dozens of civilians have been killed? The issue here is that AI WILL obey whoever orders it to do something, regardless as to if the order makes any sense or has been negated by unforeseen circumstances.

all this to say that if AI destroys civilization as we know it, it will be because humans told it to. in order to survive, we must restructure society, remove the focus from profit and place it on human dignity. We must deliberately employ people even if it would be cheaper not to do so, because not doing so will have horrific repercussions. Also because it's the right thing to do.

while we're at it, it would probably be best to decentralize government and corporations so they don't get the chance to do something like this. *cough distributism cough principle of subsidiarity cough*

[mwolf0epsilon]

The Umbaran Pathogen - Day 17: Hypothermia

Summary: Fives, Kix and Rex arrive at the medical facility first, which doesn't help them all that much considering they have no idea what they are looking for.

Warning: N/A

Prev / Next

[In which the events on Umbara are worsened by an unknown pathogen taking hold of both the 501st and 212th. These series of drabbles will follow a non-linear timeline based on the AI-less Whumptober prompt list for 2023.]

THIS STORY IS ALSO ON AO3

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"It's freezing in here..." Rex hissed between chattering teeth, immediately regretting having taken off his bucket as soon as they entered the Umbaran medical facility.

The Captain was right too. The quick preliminary scans that Fives had done upon the trio sneaking in, revealed that the entire building was at almost sub-zero levels of cold. For what reason, he couldn't be sure, but it probably had something to do about storing bacterial culture samples or whatever the hell it was that natborn doctors did with the stuff they collected off their patients during tests.

He had already lived through a lifetime of medical tests performed by plenty of Long-Necks and Droids, that didn't particularly care about his or his vode's comfort during said procedures. He didn't really need to know what the nattie docs got up to outside of the war efforts.

"Put your helmet back on." Kix ordered as he uneasily looked around the hall they'd ended up in, after climbing out of the dusty ventilation system. "Your armor's thermal regulation system should keep you from freezing your shebs off."

"Tell me something I don't know..." The blond grumbled as he put his bucket back on, sighing in relief as the bitter cold was chased away in mere instants. "Much better... But moving on, we need to find a floor plan for this place..."

A wise idea, as they couldn't waste time running around blindly. If they got their hands on a map of the facility's various floors, they'd be able to find what they were looking for much faster, rather than risk getting lost in a maze of recovery areas, operation theaters, or even storage closets.

There was no telling how long they'd have before General Kenobi and the 212th could no longer stall for them, and with no word from Coric's group things were starting to look a little grim.

Getting to the facility itself had been a struggle. Between hiding from the Umbaran scouting parties, avoiding the aggressive wildlife, and keeping an eye out for the infected, the journey had been a constant uphill battle where they couldn't even resort to using their blasters. Unwilling to bring unwanted attention to their positions.

Given that they hadn't encountered the other medics, they assumed the others were struggling just as terribly. If not worse. They had no idea if they'd escaped from the base unscathed. For all they knew, Coric, Pitch, Twitch and Sponge had already been caught. Or worse...

And with only a vague idea that they needed to access a database to seek out some critical (but not very explicitly elaborated upon) information, the trio really wasn't all that prepared for this sort of excursion.

One medic would definitely not be enough, should they find a cure. That much they figured, considering the number of infected troopers in the 501st alone. Kix wouldn't be able to tackle the issue on his own.

"You think the others are ok?" Fives asked as he looked around, somewhat unsure if the way they'd chosen to go first would get them anywhere of use. He was walking slowly, steps as light as the bulk of his armor would allow, keeping an ear out for trouble.

"They're tough." Rex nodded slowly. Trying to be optimistic, considering he knew how frighteningly stubborn the medics could be, but still coming off as somewhat unsure in the end. The circumstances weren't easy ones after all. "They're probably just being careful, like we were..."

"Yeah... Yeah probably." The ARC nodded back, before motioning for the other two to stop near a corner where the hallway turned. He had a very quick look, and then gave them the all clear. Moving just a bit quicker now that he had a goal in sight.

Down the hall was a flight of emergency stairs. Besides it, attached to the wall as per standard safety regulations, was the digital emergency floor plan. The three rushed forward to have a look, barely containing their elation as they realized the interactive floor plan had pages that displayed the other floor layouts.

Thumbing through the available information, they saw exactly what they were looking for. The main datahub, which would contain all kinds of data-banks stock full of useful medical information.

"Basement floor." Fives groaned. "Of course the dang thing is in the creepy basement..."

"Not so much creepy, as probably absolutely frozen over..." Kix shook his head in disbelief. Sounding somewhat put-off at the possibility of facing even lower temperatures. "The entire basement of this huge building is dedicated to computers and the server banks. The amount of heat generated would need to be mitigated by considerably frigid mini-climate..."

"Kix, it's already pretty cold out here. I doubt the basement will be much worse..." Rex pointed out. "That said, if it IS worse, we should be as quick as possible. Even if our armor will protect us from the bitter cold, it won't do us any good if we stall and end up overworking the thermo regulation system. We'd freeze on the spot."

"Wouldn't want a case of frostbitten tootsies." Fives nodded, sounding morbidly amused at the idea. "Or hypothermia."

"If there ever was a place to catch your death, I suppose a hospital isn't the worst of options..." The medic responded with his own amusement.

They carried on, hoping their fellow troopers would meet with them soon. They could really use some help looking for the correct data at least... Hopefully the cause for their delay was indeed caution.

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

What if the Tails Polycule managed to stop nine from enacting his plan at the end of the series and Nine joining the polycule.

Interesting...👀👀👀

Okay so, just to warn you before you begin reading, I have some things I need to unpack and talk about first before I can answer this question. With that, the post itself will probably be long, so I'm putting my answer/thoughts under the cut

ㅤ

So given that the au as it is doesn't stray too far from Sonic Prime canon, the "polycule" at that time would just Mangey and Sails (who wouldn't officially be together yet in the actual au) as Tails is where the rest of the og cast is.

To answer this ask, there are two things I need to tackle

Nine's plan at the end of Sonic Prime. What was that exactly?

How would the story of Sonic Prime need to change for there to be a focus on Mangey and Sails specifically "stopping" Nine? (As this au takes place post canon and is largely compliant with the og series before that point, more drastic divergences from canon are like a spin off concept for this au)

ㅤ

Starting with Nine's plan, I think there's an important distinction to make between "Nine's plan" and "how things became exacerbated by the war"

Nine's original plan as of Season 1 was to spend his time crafting the Grim into a home with Sonic. In episode 6 of that season, he expresses that he doesn't care about what's going on in the other shatterspaces like New Yoke. He says he wants to create a perfect world, but we see that he'd only ever wanted to exert control over the Grim (not New Yoke, not the whole shatterverse). Given that he never seeks out any other shards aside from the two he already had until after the chaos council captures him and a shard, and also given the speech he gave to Sonic in ep 6, Sonic was the last component to his plan. Had Sonic chosen to stay with him in Episode 6 in the Grim, the two (under his plan) would merely have used the two prism shards to shape the world into a home and live there alone together.

After being captured by the Chaos Council in Episode 6, Nine had to alter his plan. One of the main reasons he and Sonic had partnered up to gather the shards at this time was to keep them out of the hands of the Chaos Council. The Chaos Council having an ounce of shard energy and access to the whole shatterverse was a very dangerous prospect, and with all the ways they fucked up the shatterspaces and contributed to reality beginning to fall apart (after their portal stunt), the show shows us exactly what Sonic and Nine had to fear in regards to the Council having any shards (much less the completed prism). Now, as we can see from Nine's words during episode 7 to Sonic and during the season finale, he'd assumed that after getting all the shards, the two of them would return to the Grim to build their new world. I think it's safe to say Nine's plan by Season 2 was to gather all of the shards to keep them out of the Chaos Council's hands (and keep them from exerting control over the whole shatterverse), complete the prism so he could fix the damage to the shatterverse's reality, and then use prism energy so he and Sonic could continue the original plan of crafting their new world/home. The end goal is the same as the original plan, Nine is home and closed off from the rest of the shatterverse, and Sonic is there with him.

His plan changes again after the Season 2 finale. Remember that in that finale, Nine also feels as if it's Sonic who betrayed him. He thought Sonic was just using him as a replacement for Tails and just using him to get to the paradox prism, which he'd then use to try to bring back Green Hill and his original friends without any regard for how that would impact Nine's existence. For Nine this is a moment of finding out someone he cares deeply about wasn’t the kind of guy he thought he was, and perhaps never liked him exactly for who he was. The first thing Nine does after completing the prism is not to get ready to exert control over the shatterverse though. Instead, he builds himself a citadel to stay in with the prism, and he sets up a large force field immediately afterwards. The first thing he does is take the first step into turning the Grim into a home, and he puts up walls/sets up defenses so no one can intrude on it. The only thing that changes from his original plan is that he takes Sonic out of it. And his setting up of defenses immediately speaks to two things. The first is him literally walling himself off from anyone as a reaction to opening his heart up to one person (Sonic) only to get betrayed (from his pov), a physical representation of him closing his heart off again. The second is because he's not an idiot. He knows that even if he's the only one with a source of prism energy, Sonic could come after him and try to get the prism. After all, Sonic expressed that he and Shadow had their own plan for using it (one that could potentially result in his erasure). So immediately at the start of S3 after the S2 finale, Nine's plan is literally: "Secure my safety so no one can take the prism, create my home, fix the reality issues, live here alone."

His plan shifts again when the Grim starts to decay, to which he seems frustrated that this is happening, since he was sure the prism was completed (perhaps implying that he'd assumed the decay of reality would cease when the paradox prism was complete). A major shift in his plan has to occur here, as he can't have his home intact (much less keep his defenses up) if the entirety of reality shatters/collapses/what have you. And so Sonic re-enters the plan when Nine realizes how he can fix reality. Keep in mind, this is a moment where emotions are already high. The "betrayal" happened not too long ago, he doesn't feel great about Sonic, he was already afraid his world would be taken from him, and now he needs to fix reality as fast as possible so anything can continue to exist. So, here's his new plan by the end of episode 1 of season 3: capture sonic, drain Sonic's energy to fix reality and the Grim, use the paradox prism to keep up his force field, continue to use the prism to build his new world, be alone (aside from the robots he created as "friends"). At this point he is still not planning on exerting control over the shatterverse or messing with the other shatterspaces. He's sticking to his original plan and prioritizing his existence.

And then the plan from there undergoes impromptu changes as the situation in season 3 continues to worsen, which leads us into "how things became exacerbated by the war".

First, Shadow throws Sonic out of the Grim, so Nine takes the first step to extend his plan outside the Grim (Which, again, he hadn’t done since the s2 finale and hadn’t planned to do). Keeping himself in the safety of his defenses, he sends Alpha Grim Birdie and the Grim Birdies to retrieve Sonic. At this time it's worth mentioning that no one knows what Nine's actual plans are (the ones he's had the whole series), despite Nine telling them to Sonic's face in Episode 6 of the series, and Sonic won't figure out his plans until the series finale. So although Sonic spends season 3 not having given up on Nine's ability to change his mind, pretty much everyone is under the assumption that Nine is in it for the power to bend the shatterverse to his will (despite signs the audience can see that this is not the case). This is why Sonic himself refuses to give his energy to Nine, because he cannot trust blindly (or without a deal) that Nine will choose to preserve the other shatterspaces and won't put people in danger for his goals.

So, when Sonic escapes to New Yoke to get help, Nine has to extend his plan from the void (where there is no one else to bother with but Sonic) to New Yoke. Part of his goal is to drain Sonic's energy to restabilize the shattervserse, so naturally he extends his gaze there for the purpose of getting Sonic specifically. It's also telling here that when Nine first makes use of his giant floating head, he uses it to talk to Sonic alone and directly. When Sonic asks if Nine was causing all the destruction, Nine takes a shot at Sonic, saying that Sonic’s concern for the shatterspaces is odd considering he only seems to care about his own home. Then, he clarifies that the breaking down of the shatterspaces had already begun due to all that the chaos council had done. Essentially, everything was already breaking down, so he was merely sapping what energy he needed from the other shatterspaces to keep the Grim from collapsing (which, while the action proves he doesn't really care about others, it's worth mentioning that it shows off just how he's prioritizing his well-being and his literal home in the face of losing his entire existence, and also isn't a conscious choice to hurt people so much as a potential result. Which...still would happen without his interferance). So, Sonic expresses "You'll have to catch me first"

Of course, with Sonic choosing to run, Nine decides to flex his power. He doesn't give Sonic ultimatums, nor does the camera focus on people Sonic cares about so Nine can strategically offer up their lives in a deal/put them in danger. Up to this point in Episode 2, the only non robot entities we've seen in New Yoke are Sonic and Nine, so Nine specifically talks up his power and makes a show of it (messing with gravity) specifically so he can convince Sonic to surrender to him (to convince Sonic that he's too poweful to oppose, so he should give up soon). Nine is quite literally acting to mess with the other shatterspaces the bare minimum he feels like he needs to to keep his home intact and to capture Sonic for his plan.

But then, Nine's show of power happens to put an innocent bystander in visible danger.

(Yes. Nine makes this EXACT face in s3 e2 when he realizes that an innocent was caught during that show of power. He is surprised, here. Like he didn't expect it or didn't realize his deed would have hurt someone. And it is worth noting that while Nine is pretty much always fine keeping to himself and not bothering with other people's problems as long as he keeps himself isolated, he does have a reaction when he can see his actions potentially put a person in danger)

So, Nine realizes has to shift his plan (since he's accidentally involved others he can see), and Sonic saves that innocent. This is where Nine consciously decides to involve other people in his plan, and he only does this for a couple main reasons. The first is that he's already put someone in danger (and while trying to build up how powerful he is image wise he can't afford to look like he can't handle the power or that he did something accidentally) and knows that Sonic will try to save innocent people in front of him. The second is specifically because he can trust that Sonic is fast enough to save anyone here. Essentially, Nine's plan here is quite literally to either tire Sonic out or put enough people in danger that it convinces Sonic to give himself up for their sake. He is resting on the fact that Sonic will save them all, and the moment that he can't is the moment Sonic gives himself over. He does not have to deal with the moral dilemma of possibly harming an innocent person, because under this plan no innocents can possibly meet their doom. It is still all about getting Sonic by involving the outside world to the bare minimum to achieve this.

And this new plan fails to force Sonic to give up for the sake of the innocents because the other variants show up to help, meaning that Nine has to shift his plan once again. His hold over the prism energy also fails for a moment. So this does stop him from messing with gravity during this portion, but I should mention that once he regains control over the prism energy again, he never again tries that exact same stunt (messing with gravity and putting people in danger). Nine sends the Grim Birdies into New Yoke after Sonic specifically (to bring him back alive). Sonic flees into the city so as to not put others in danger, and, as commanded, the Grim Birdies go after Sonic specifically. They (and Nine by extension) do not go out of their way to attack or pursue anyone who is not Sonic.

But of course chasing Sonic down with Grim Birdies isn't working. He just keeps running and getting back up, so Nine flexes his power once more (with the intent on forcing Sonic to surrender). Nine commands Alpha Grim Birdie to go for the Yoke. Which, despite still not having commanded it to attack/seek anything other than Sonic, it is a clear signal from Nine. "Surrender, or everyone else is put in danger. Can you really save them all?" It does not matter if Nine is bluffing or not. But, Nine is still doing the bare minimum. After all, despite the threat, the moment Sonic reaches the Yoke, the Grim Birdies surround him (and target only him) once more. Nine employs more language, trying to make Sonic feel powerless and alone so he'll give in. He still is not involving others outside of Sonic if he isn't required to. Heck, the Grim Birdies still haven't even attacked anyone other than Sonic, despite the fact that other people have entered Nine's view.

And what happens when the chaos council enters the arena? The Grim Birdies all pause, and they look just as surprised at this turn of events as Sonic does. They don't go to immediately attack the council either. In fact, their first moves upon being blasted at by Dr. Done It are to defend themsleves, and it's a long period before they decide to fight the council. But, again, only because the council are fighting them. They're defending themselves so they can go back to retrieving Sonic. They aren't going out of their way to fight innocents. And while Dr. Deep so confidently states that New Yoke city will fall apart if they don’t stop Nine, it's still worth mentioning just how much Nine has avoided messing with anyone outside of Sonic, how he's still only been drawing as much power from the other shatterspaces required to keep his home from falling apart, and that everything is already falling apart without Nine's interference because of the Chaos Council.

And Nine's only interference here is to again use his words to try to convince Sonic to give up, that it's not worth him continuing to try to stop him. We know later in the series that Nine could have made a multitude of grim robots to overwhelm Sonic and everyone else, but he's still doing the bare minimum with 3 grim birdies. He doesn't even give commands to the birds to do anything other than what they're already doing, which is defending themselves so they can fulfill the command to go after Sonic.

And then, Nine loses control of the prism, visibly loses control over his image, and beholds the decay of his home once more as his protective wall flickers in and out of existence. His Grim Birdies are down, the situation is getting worse, and Sonic is in the middle of a large building. So, Nine shifts his plan once more, starting to get more desperate. He puts on a great image. For the first time, he purposely appears for the whole shatterspace to see, bringing dark storm clouds with him to bolster his image. And he strikes the Yoke with one great blast of lighting. But then, after the council makes it clear that they'll all be in great great danger if Nine strikes them with another blast (the building collapsing), Nine chooses instead to make a speech. Though we can see the storm clouds produce lighting (which pointedly doesn't strike anything in particular) he doesn't finish the job. He specifically announces that nothing will stop him from getting to Sonic, and he sends the repaired Grim Birdies after the Yoke (presumably to retrieve Sonic and only retrieve him). In fact, pointedly, despite having all the time in the world to charge up a devastating lighting strike, Nine waits with gritted teeth for his Birdies to infiltrate the Yoke to get Sonic, and he only releases another lightning strike (which isn't presented as a huge moment like before) upon the force field with intent to make an opening. He continues to only focus on Sonic, only put people as in danger (but not actually harmed) as needed to get to Sonic, and presents himself as a powerful being to intimidate everyone into giving up. And Nine desperately tries to take down that force field.

So, Nine is forced to switch plans again after the barrier is put up and it's clear that he can't pierce it. Now, the end of Episode 2 seems to imply that Nine's plan is to put the citizens of No Place in jeapoardy so Sonic will leave his precious dome to come save them, but this is not exactly the case. Nine does not actually intend on putting the No Place gang in danger and forcing Sonic to come to the decaying No Place to save them. As No Place and the Grim are decaying (again showing us why Nine would grow more desperate, towards the beginning of Season 3 Episode 3, he asks the Grim Birdies to bring the pirates in No Place to him. This scene presents it as Nine finally becoming desperate enough to outright use people as an ultimatum but as prisoners. He was never intending on attacking them in No Place to draw Sonic in. In other words, Nine's new plan to draw Sonic to him was to save the No Place citizens, bring them alive to the Grim, and for Nine to force Sonic to come to him to get them. Nine explicitly was going to save the pirates and use them just as much as needed to get Sonic.

And what does Nine do when Sonic and the others go to No Place while Nine is already intending on capturing the pirates alive?

He calls them fools. This was not the preferred turn of events I would say.

Of course, Sonic being there in No Place forces Nine to change his plans again. This is the first time during the whole season Nine has explicitly directed his Grim Birdies to attack innocents rather than either to attack Sonic or to make Sonic afraid that they would attack innocents. Nine was planning on saving them before, but now that his previous plans are dashed (and everything is rapidly decaying everywhere), he truly shows that he's willing to do anything to get to Sonic or to get Sonic to surrender.

Although, of course, once the pirates are "safely" inside the Kracken and Sonic is outside, the Grim Birdies go back to prime directive 1 of trying to get Sonic.

In any case, with desperation rising, Nine laser focuses in on getting Sonic no matter the cost. He literally announces that he won't let Sonic escape no matter what, because he needs him to "finish the Grim". Despite the fact that he's opened up his plans to purposesly put people in danger if it means getting Sonic (no matter the cost), he is still only focused on fixing reality and finishing his world. His plans may be shifting, but his original plan to finish the Grim still remains. As tensions rise, he still is only interacting with the other shatterspaces and messing with other people as needed to get Sonic specifically, and has not announced any plan to take the whole shatterverse for himself. Also, as we can see with the scene where Sonic almost falls off the Kracken, the Grim Birdies still take any chance they can (where Sonic is alone or vulnerable) to take him away rather than attack anyone else.

Nine would be forced to change his plan once more after Sonic and the rest escape from No Place, but it's actually Sonic who calls Nine to appear in New Yoke again. No Grim Birdies flying around, no storm clouds and lightning, no smiles and the maintaining of a huge powerful image. When Nine appears to Sonic, it's just Nine's giant head appearing where he can look Sonic eye to eye, and he accepts every condition Sonic throws at him without question. Because in the end, all he wants is to get Sonic and to live safely in his new home. He allows Sonic to come to him, in the safety of his dome, face to face (very very vulnerable for Nine at this moment), and he no longer focuses on the other shatterspaces or trying to purposely put other people in danger. To Nine in this moment, his plan has finally succeeded. He has Sonic, so he no longer has to concern himself with anything other than stabilizing the shatterverse and finishing his home.

Although he does stalls for time despite them pointedly being close to running out of it, trying to speak to Sonic more even after Sonic suggests they get this over with and Nine drain him.

In fact, Nine makes this explicitly clear. Once Sonic takes a second to ask how he knows he can trust Nine will keep his promise, Nine says he'll have the power to restore everything with Sonic’s energy, and that as long as everyone else leaves him alone, everyone else can have their "silly lives in their silly spaces". He has no reason, as long as they don't intrude on his home, to attack them or endanger their existences.

But then everyone else quite literally intrudes on Nine's space. They breach his protective walls in a moment of great vulnerability (emotional and literal) for Nine, and he begins to visibly start panicking.

And the situation gets exponentially worse from here. The fact that existence is collapsing and the Grim is tearing apart (with it eventually being all that's left of the shatterverse), added with the fact that both parties know there's very little time before everyone loses and existence as they know it is gone, tensions just grow worse and worse.

The war at the end of Sonic Prime is not a war about beating the bad guy to restore reality. It's a war about who gets to preserve their existence.

Sonic aside, the variants don't trust Nine. They have reason to fear that if Nine drains Sonic's energy, he'll use his power to retaliate against them all after fixing reality. I'm sure their best case scenario is that Nine torments them with the prism energy, and their worst case scenario is that Nine erases them, leaving only himself and the Grim in the entire shatterverse.

Likewise, Nine has no reason to trust them either. We can visibly see as tensions get worse over the war, just how willing multiple characters are to wail on Nine the moment they get a chance, who want to destroy him, who would enjoy a chance to torture him or "make him pay". And to Nine, on top of everything in existence rapidly collapsing, the entire war is happening in his safe space, behind the walls he tried to put up to keep everyone out, becoming smaller and smaller. As he becomes more and more cornered, how can Nine trust losing the war means his existence will be preserved either? At best, after restoring the shatterverse completely, the variants will likely imprison him and keep him from ever having the chance to really live again, much less in the home he desired from the beginning. At worst, they'll torture him to take out their anger (retributive justice) and/or erase his existence.

The ending of Sonic Prime does not present Nine's plan at its most pure, nor does it show his true colors. It presents a large portion of the cast at their worst, at their most angry or frustrated or afraid, with Nine and Sonic specifically being at their most exhausted. At some point it becomes a no holds barred battle to live, forgetting anything else but the desperation to survive.

And if Sonic hadn't intervened at the series finale, existence would have collapsed before anyone could have won. After all, by then, the only "existence" there was even was just a small patch of the Grim that contained the citadel and just a bit outside it. Sonic himself bids everyone to recognize it.

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So, with all that being said, what's the tldr? What are the common threads? What is Nine's plan?

Nine's plan always involved creating a home for himself in The Grim, away from everyone else. Even as his plan changes and shifts, that he wants to live and to control only the Grim while everyone else lives as they are (leaving him alone) is a constant. The other common thread is that he only opens up his plans and lightens up on his morals in his desperation. At his most clear in the head, he doesn't like to put others in danger or to mess with other shatterspaces without reason. And multiple other characters are willing to give into their worst emotions and be just as desperate as Nine is when their very existence is at stake.

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I think it's clear that in an au where Mangey and Sails wanted to stop Nine and save him, they wouldn't be wanting to stop his actual plan. Just like Sonic, if any of them knew his actual plan, they would take a different approach. They wouldn't want Nine to lose his home, and they'd want Nine to be able to have one for himself.

And this leads me to the second point I set out to tackle.

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How would the story of Sonic Prime need to change for there to be a focus on Mangey and Sails specifically "stopping" Nine?

Okay, so for starters, the two would need to care about Nine. While Mangey and Sails aren't initially antagonistic towards Nine when they first see him in Prime S2, the fact that they don't really interact with him before S3 occurs is a big catalyst as to why there aren't mutual positive feelings to start out with. If they were neutral to him before, it's understandable why they'd dislike him during the events of S3.

For them to care about Nine, they'll most likely need to spend some time with him. We've seen with the other variants (especially the Roses), that prolonged contact with each other and the ability to interact in a more positive manner gives them the chance to care about each other, even if they had bad first impressions to start out with. Given that Sails and Mangey don't go outside of their shatterspaces before S3 and don't really meet each other, the best way to do this would have to have Nine meet them.

Perhaps the simplest way I'd achieve this within canon would be by making Nine have some misadventures in the shatterspaces, preferably after he leaves New Yoke for the first time. The idea is that instead of coming across the Grim first, he at least hits Boscage Maze and No Place before reaching it. Here, for some reason or another, Nine would be stuck for a period of time before he can exit the shatterspace, and would end up interacting with Mangey and Sails in particular on this journey. No matter the first impressions, the prolonged contact and chance to get to know and care about each other would serve to get Mangey and Sails to baseline see Nine as an acquaintance or friend.

But the real hurdle is Nine caring about them. Even if the two can interact with Nine in such a way where they like him to any extent, this doesn't guarantee that Nine will like them enough to deeply care about or trust them.

So, how do you make Nine care for someone's well-being in specific? Well, there really is only one example we can look to. While there are people that Nine are neutral to, and plenty of people he doesn't like as well, he's a pretty closed off guy. The only person that he's ever let into his heart is...

Sonic.

And Sonic is also the only person, even up til the series finale, who was willing to believe in Nine in any capacity, and who advocated for Nine to be able to live the life he wants alone.

So here's what it comes down to. Let's say that Mangey and Sails have spent enough time with Nine that they like him a lot and wouldn't easily believe that he's just some evil fox. Let's say Nine lets them into his heart.

Well, for Nine to be able to care that much about them, here's the main thing that have to change. Bonding moments would have to occur that would allow Nine to be willing to let them into his heart and willing to believe in them (as he did Sonic). And honestly, if this did happen before the ending of Season 1, I'd almost guarantee you that Nine would also ask the two of them to join them in the Grim as he did with Sonic. Nine wants to be alone in his new home save the only people he likes and trusts not to hurt him. But again keeping in mind that Sonic is the only person, even through to Season 3, who Nine can be vulnerable around, they would have to be on the same level of care he has for Sonic. He would have to be able to be vulnerable around them as well.

So, in the interest of not delving too deep into it, this is the concensus. For Mangey and Sails not simply just want to stop Nine's perceived plan to exert control over the shatterverse (not his actual plan to save his home for himself), but also want to save Nine, they have to interact with Nine more and grow to care about and trust him. For them to succeed in stopping the fighting, convince both parties to stop fighting, and save Nine from a terrible fate, they either need to replace Sonic's role, or to share Sonic's role in relation to Nine. While there's a chance of the variants listening to Mangey and Sails, especially if they put themselves physically in the way as Sonic did in the last episode and mandate it, Nine would not also listen to them the same as he eventually does for Sonic if he doesn't hold them in his heart the same/a similar way as he does Sonic.

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So, finally, the original question. Apologies for taking so long to get here.

"What if the Tails polycule managed to stop Nine from enacting his plan at the end of the series and Nine joining the polycule."

Well, sadly I must admit that there aren't many options. Even if they managed to convince everyone (Nine and all the variants) to play nice early on, there are only two options going forward until everyone is able to replicate intershatterspace travel again.

Mangey and Sails choose to stay with Nine in the Grim (unlikely. Even if they care deeply for Nine, just as Sonic they already have homes and friends that they wouldn't just want to leave)

Mangey, Sails, and Nine bittersweetly part ways, each returning to their own shatterspace home of choice. (More likely. Again, like with Sonic, Nine wouldn't be able to expect them to leave their homes and friends to live in an empty world with just Nine)

In the end, no matter what, when the paradox prism is completed, reality restored, and the shatterspaces rebuilt, without shard energy, no one will be able to move between shatterspaces for a time.

Not all is lost though. If the three of them really did manage to build a polycule by then and Nine had spent sufficient time working on such a thing, I'd say that in such an au Nine could potentially craft communication devices that would allow them to talk or send messages despite being worlds apart. So, while bittersweet, in an au such as this, at least the three would be able to converse with each other despite being separated for a time.

And then, given this au of an au would inevitably go a similar route as the actual au, they would be able to meet again someday! I'm sure that in this au of an au it would be very heartfelt