#yeah this is my favorite character *dropkicks him down a flight of stairs*

[stellar-collective]

Your thoughts on Matchstick Ollie? 👀

oh man ok. so imagine this. you’re some kid who loves the ocean who wants to do some good in the world and you hear about this job opening for Zoraxis Defense. they’re experimenting with shields and protection and they’re in an UNDERWATER LAB (!!!! how cool is that?!) and you think this is your big chance to make a difference! so you take the job and it’s weird. Zoraxis is a very strange company; the higher-ups use call signs instead of names, a lot of the scientists there feel a little rough around the edges, and the two project leads have a fascination with dangerous wildlife. but all you have to do is sit in your little storage room and be quick about getting people what they need, and when things get rough, you can just look out your window at the sea and remember that this is in service of a greater good and everything is fine.

then, they send you an assistant. and there’s something… off about them. something distinctly unhinged. they have a call sign instead of a name, like the project leads, and they clearly do not want to be helping you, so you try to more or less leave them alone. you’re still friendly and polite, though, because of course you are, but they react to your polite attempts at conversation with hostility. no, with fear. they’re scared of something, and it’s making them angry, and that makes you curious. so you keep chipping away, trying to coax them into friendship like they’re a feral dog who snaps at your hand when you hold it out. and you don’t really think it’s working until one day, one of the scientists plays a little too rough and you get hurt, and it’s not a big deal but they EXPLODE. and you’re thinking “huh, maybe we are friends after all” and then the experiments wrap up and you’re told to stay put and keep an eye on things until your replacement comes, and you’re fine with that (it’ll only be a couple days, after all!) but then they drag you into the tiny escape pod with them and pull you out.

and you ask them why in the world they did that. and they say “they were leaving you down there to die.” and then they tell you the truth about Zoraxis, and you believe them. you weren’t helping people. well, you were; you were helping people make weapons. and you didn’t even know it.

and you tell them that you want to quit, and they bark a laugh and say you can try but the last person who did got Zoraxis operatives sent after her to kill her. and they say “i don’t want to kill you, Ollie” and so you stay. they give you a new job, a desk one, just doing paperwork, and you hate it but what else can you do? you’re in too deep. you have to keep helping these bad people do bad things. and you can’t even look out the window and see the ocean anymore. and wow, that makes you a bad person too, doesn’t it? Matchstick is still around, and they scare you, but they scare you in a very different way from the rest of Zoraxis, and they take care of you. and they keep you company and you change their bandages and sometimes you ask what happened on their latest mission, and they’ll tell you what Zoraxis made them do, and you start to think you should stop asking but at least they’re talking to you. and you’re vaguely aware that they’re protecting you from the worst of it, and you’re not sure you deserve that.

and one day they walk in on you crying in your office and they tell you that Zoraxis personnel don’t cry, and you ask what to do instead, and they tell you to laugh. and they try to teach you to cackle like a villain, but you just can’t seem to get it but they think your pathetic attempts are funny so it’s fine. and one day, you finally get it, but by then it’s too late to show them and wow, you’re not just a bad person, you’re stupid for thinking you could do any good.

@wyvchard since u wanna be tagged