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orionsangel86 · 3 years

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SPN Conspiracies - Applying Logic to Chaos

Its been over 2 months now since the Supernatural finale aired. I am still so angry, hurt, and confused by it and I don’t think I will ever get closure unless someone like Andrew Dabb, or Jensen Ackles, actually opens up and gives us an explanation that makes sense.

What annoys me most right now is people trying to gaslight fans into believing that we should accept the narrative we have been given at face value: That the finale was always planned to be that way, that Destiel was never on the cards, that there was no Network interference, that the only changes made were due to covid and were minor at best.

This harmful gaslighting is FALSE.

NO ONE KNOWS THE TRUTH OF WHAT HAPPENED.

Look, I don’t agree with some of the crazier conspiracy theories. I don’t believe that there was some huge campaign among the CW Network execs to remove anything remotely gay out of homophobia. I don’t believe that the finale was changed because of some desire to make it into a Walker promo. I don’t believe that the finale was really bad on purpose in protest by Dabb for not getting to do an ending he truly wanted. I don’t believe that Dabb left us smart fans a bunch of secret messages in the finale to hint that he was on our side all along and that everything was fake.

I do, however, believe that all of these conspiracy theories have some elements in them that are plausible. At least, more plausible than the bullshit narrative mentioned above that some people are pushing in some desperate attempt to defend the Network (which imo is really strange behaviour anyway - why would anyone care about a TV network with a history of terrible behaviour?!?)

We have facts, based on information provided before the covid lockdown, which for some reason, people like Misha have since backpeddled on. So let me try to outline some of the information that makes no sense.

Below the cut I go on a deep dive into the conspiracies and statements I have heard about the SPN finale and try to make some sense of this whole fucked up situation. It gets long.

1. “Cas was never gonna be in the finale”.

False: We have many fan accounts of Misha confirming that he was filming the finale. We have video evidence of Misha confirming he was going back to film the finale after the lockdown. We have confirmation from fans in Misha M&Gs from March that he had about 5 days of filming left.

We also had fan accounts of discussions with Alex Calvert (I think) where he confirmed the final shot of the final episode was all four of them though I would LOVE if someone can find a source for this.

2. Okay, Misha was gonna be in the finale, but only as Jimmy Novak

False: I heavily side eyed Misha when he said this. But I think I can come up with a plausible explanation for it. Per above, Misha was supposed to film for 5 days. This does not align with the half a day he described of filming as Jimmy Novak. My own belief is that after Cas was cut from the finale (for whatever reason we don’t know) someone (probably Jensen Ackles) put up a fight and complained that Misha should be there for the final episode. The writers probably tried to come up with a way to bring Misha back without having to deal with Cas, and pitched the idea of Jimmy Novak being in Heaven. Misha, obviously annoyed about this, turned this stupid pitch down.

3. Destiel was never a thing, never planned, never part of Dabb’s ending. Bobo and Misha pushing the confession was the part of the season that was Wrong.

False: We have a SPN writer on record saying that Castiel’s confession was the first thing written for Season 15 when the writers returned to the writers room. If it wasn’t planned, why was it the first thing written, why does it align so well with the rest of season 15? Look I know some people either a. hate destiel and refuse to see it even if it slaps them in the face, or b. have major heteronormative goggles on, or c. are just homophobes in denial, but 15x18 fits in perfectly with the narrative of season 15. Everything Cas says, everything that happened in that scene was so in character it just works. It fit. If you just rewatch the season whilst applying some critical thinking skills and pay attention to the narrative and character arcs, trust me, the confession fits in with pretty much every other plot point, and character story in the season.

Also: We have known for a while that the network did market research into Destiel, wanting to know if it would go down well or not. They were well aware of its popularity and considering it. Where would this have come from if not pitched by the showrunner? Dabb must have at least been considering it. If you take all of Dabb era into consideration, starting with mid season 11, all the way through the season 12 build up, season 13 grief arc, and then Bobo’s Destiel break up arc in late season 14, early season 15, it is clear that there was some toing and froing on the issue of Destiel, but ultimately, I still believe that Dabb was on board. He wrote 13x01 for christs sake. No way he wasn’t taking it seriously.

4. It’s always been about the brothers. The finale just stays true to what Supernatural is all about.

*rubs temples* Fundamentally FALSE: The show has time and again reasserted the message of “Family don’t end with blood”, as well as the messages of AKF and YANA. Sam and Dean may be at the heart of the show, but a heart can’t exist without a body to support it. Without bones, and lungs, and blood, and muscles, and a BRAIN. The finale abandons the shows core messages. It forces the characters back into their season 1 characterisations and the whole thing becomes hollow and souless. But I’m not here to complain, I’m here to lay down the facts. Dean’s heaven was supposed to be surrounded by loved ones right? We know OG Charlie Bradbury was gonna be in his Heaven, we also know CAS was gonna be in there. So this idea that the finale as it currently stands was how it was meant to be is wrong. Dean was supposed to die and reunite with his found family and loved ones. This alone would have been a far better ending than the one given. Do I think this was solely a covid issue? Fuck no.

The randoms that WERE in the finale are proof alone that they could have got people in and quarantined. We also have several actors on record saying that they WOULD have quarantined for the finale had they been asked to return but they WEREN’T.

Lies have been told. Samantha Ferris and Chad Limberg have confirmed that we have been lied to about the original plans for the finale.

This alone is proof enough that there is more plausibility in some of the conspiracy theories than any bullshit narrative some people are pushing in defence of the barbaric mess of a finale we were given.

So lets address some of the conspiracy theories now:

Conspiracy No.1: The CW Network reviewed Supernatural during the covid break, and due to homophobia, refused any Destiel arc that wasn’t already filmed, shut down any potential reciprocation from Dean, and forced Dabb to change his finale.

I don’t think this is entirely what happened. But I do think it is very strange how there is a such a huge disconnect particularly in Dean’s characterisations between what had come before the lockdown, and what came after. The one fact we have here, and please someone provide a source if you can find it because I know there is one, the finale script was still going through changes up to only 2 weeks before it was filmed. We know that there was some weird editing in 15x18 (which was still in post and uncompleted before lockdown) and we know from Jensen’s own mouth that there was more to the confession scene on Dean’s side that was cut. We also know that this isn’t the first time that Destiel heavy moments have been changed in post - the prayer scene is another big scene that went through a lot of changes and Bobo fought to have his script play out the way he wanted it.

There are certain things that in my own opinions, are basically true of SPN which I have put together from years of keeping one eye on the writers room, the network, and all the various comments made. My opinion is this:

The writers room has always been split on Destiel. Some writers heavily supported making it canon, others did not care, or were against it.

The Network considered it over the course of several years, did market research, green lit it, then changed their minds, possibly several times over the course of Dabb’s era. Destiel was pitched to the Network early in Dabb era.

The crew on set were also split. Some people heavily supported it, and worked to assist the reading, whereas others did not care/did not support it. The same can be said for the editing room.

Bob Singer supported the subtextual homoeroticism, but never supported bringing it into text (this is an opinion, but I think it aligns with everything we know about him.) IMO Bob Singer also supported subtextual homoeroticism between Sam and Dean - the guy is gross is what I’m saying. He isn’t exactly a progressive person.

Fun fact - a while back our old enemy Sera Gamble went on a Twitter rant about writers rooms and the ways a script goes through changes. I don’t think this was in relation to the SPN finale wank but she basically inadvertantly confirmed that the Network can step in and make sweeping changes to a script if they want to and if they decide they don’t like the direction of a story. Sera Gamble confirmed this as a fact.

Now. I’m not saying that this is what the CW did with Destiel. I just think its very strange how pre lockdown, the last thing filmed is a heartfelt homosexual declaration of love between Dean and Cas, and we have a finale script that Misha had not seen, but knew that he was meant to film as Castiel for 5 days (5 days on set is over half of an episode as far as I know). Then all of a sudden, Covid happens, and Cas is cut from the finale completely, a desperate attempt to bring Misha back only as Jimmy Novak takes place, which Misha rightly refuses, leading to a finale which makes zero sense narratively and appears in every way completely and utterly butchered.

The only explanation provided by anyone involved is that Covid meant changes had to happen - but that covid didn’t change the actual story at all.

But this makes no sense because we know that Cas was cut from the finale. This is FACT. Do not let anyone gaslight you into thinking otherwise. Misha was preparing to quaranting to return to set as Cas post Covid, so whatever happened to cut Cas from the finale, it wasn’t Covid.

I’m gonna have to Occum’s Razor this and say that the most logical explanation here is the one that is most likely true. Someone got cold feet with the Destiel story, and to prevent any possible interpretation that included Dean reciprocating, any hints of Destiel were removed from the finale script, including Castiel’s whole appearance.

Now, this isn’t me saying I think that Dabb’s original finale was full of Destiel love confessions and a homosexual kiss or whatever, but I am asking you all to really think about it and ask yourselves WHY Cas would have been totally cut from an episode he was supposed to be in at LEAST half of?

We will probably never know the real reason Cas was cut, but he WAS cut. I’m not saying it was all homophobia, but some fuckery went down.

Conspiracy No. 2: The CW Network changed the finale to make it into a Walker promo because they only cared about raising up Jared and not Jensen and Misha as they were losing them anyway.

I don’t agree with this in terms of the finale being butchered solely to make it into a Walker promo. There are however moments in the finale that are clearly supposed to be Walker Easter Eggs and added to excite fans of Jared/Sam in particular such as Sam’s gratuitous and unnecessary topless scene, as well as the call on the “case in Austin”.

I will take this moment to say something pretty damn controversial though.

*Deep breath*

The fact is, Dean Winchester has been the “lead” character of Supernatural’s narrative for years now, with Sam often being sidelined and not given great storylines himself. Even in Season 15, right up until the finale, I myself felt bad for Sam sometimes because so much of this show has become all about Dean. Jensen Ackles is clearly the better actor when it comes to emotional story arcs, so the emotional heart of the story has most often leant on him.

So you can understand my confusion, when this is turned on its head in the final episode, to make Sam carry all the emotional weight, and have the most lines/screentime, and story resolution (even if his story resolution was just as crappy as Dean’s).

If we pretend that Destiel is not a thing, and ignore Cas’s confession, the story change in the finale from Dean focus to Sam focus is still rather suspicious. Again, I’m not saying I completely approve of or agree to the conspiracy theory that Walker influenced the butchering of the script, but I can believe that perhaps a note went down from the CW to someone like Bob Singer, to emphasise Sam/Jared more than they perhaps would normally, because the CW wanted to shine the spotlight on Jared to raise excitement for Walker.

I can also believe this note might have said something like “we wanna cater to fans of Sam/Jared the most - don’t do anything to piss them off.” but now I am getting into my own conspiracy theories so by all means dismiss this as me being bitter.

Conspiracy No.3: Dabb purposely made it bad, as a secret message to Destiel fans that he had been silenced, by layering meta clues into the episode that he knew fans would notice.

I doubt this one is true. Though some of the theories are quite compelling. The old vampire silent movie theory for instance starts off quite well, but loses me the moment it brings up Urban Dictionary slang.

Sometimes I have just had to accept that Supernatural is a bad show that is sometimes accidentally a masterpiece. However, some writers really did go That Deep with their stories - anything by Ben Edlund or Steve Yockey for instance, their episodes are meta masterpieces with a hundred different layers of beautiful subtextual storytelling and are a joy to analyse. Bobo Berens has certainly done some A+++ work especially now we KNOW that he was working hard all this time to bring Destiel to canon text (so any analysis of Destiel in the subtext in his episodes is very accurate). There have been many other key elements analysed over the years which have been confirmed true. Cas’s death in Season 12, Dean’s time as a demon in season 10, Season 11 ending in unity of dark and light, these were all plot points predicted by meta writers just by analysing the narrative. Sometimes the writers really have been very smart and they do add things to the show to aid us in our meta.

Richard Speight Jr for instance, confirmed that SPN has a visual library that the production team use to give clues and hints in the narrative. Pizza, for example, always means a lie has been told. Whenever Pizza is being eaten or even just mentioned on screen, there is dishonesty in that particular moment.

The beers also have a very specific message and the one thing I can’t let go about the finale, was that Dean was drinking El Sol beer. The beer his dad gave him, that was terrible.

El Sol has been used in the show to indicate something being wrong, a fake reality, or another lie, for the longest time. It is the beer of deception.

The fact that in the final episode of this entire show, Dean is in Heaven, supposedly at peace, and then he gets handed an El Sol beer to drink? Thats a HUGE red flag for any meta writer watching who can read SPNs visual library.

If they had given him the Margiekugel beer of family then it would make sense. Dean is in Heaven, with Bobby, his family, at peace. Margiekugel should have been the beer of choice. But nope. El Sol. Something is wrong.

I don’t know if it was Dabb, or Singer, or some disgruntled ADs and crew members who added these elements into the finale, but their very presence confirms some message of Wrongness.

I could go into a huge rant about Vampire Mimes not making sense and the very glaringly obvious symbolism of cutting out peoples tongues too, but that is high school level film analysis. It’s obvious. It means to silence someone. There is validity in interpreting this as Dabb saying he was silenced. I don’t know how true it is, but i can’t 100% dismiss it, because as I said, this is high school analysis levels of obvious subtextual storytelling.

So in summary, whilst I don’t think that Dabb intentionally went out of his way to sabotage his own script, and leave a breadtrail of secret messages for savvy fans to put together to confirm that he was silenced by an evil network into not getting what he wanted... I do think that there is validity in questioning these odd choices for the finale. Cutting out tongues? Vampire Mimes? El Sol beer?

The evidence is somewhat compelling is all I’m saying. I don’t believe the full conspiracy theories, but as I have said many times before, some fuckery went down.

So What Do I Believe?

That some fuckery went down and whatever company line they are pushing is bullshit.

I believe that the original script included Cas (since thats fact). I believe that the original script probably always had Dean dying on a vampire hunt (due to Jensen’s issues with it and in particular, his sarcastic comments about vampires in the past year or so which in hindsight are hilarious and prove he never really came to terms with Dean’s idiotic death). I believe Dabb’s original script was some less crappy version of what we got, which potentially included showing Jack rescuing Cas from the Empty and resolving the outstanding Empty plot points (potentially this was actually a 15x19 plot since Mark P commented that his final scenes were supposed to be with Jack and Cas), had Cas reunite with Dean in Heaven and had them have a discussion about Cas’s confession. I believe that there was probably a lot of back and forth over how to handle that with some people wanting Dean to obviously reciprocate and others believing they should keep it ambiguous. I believe that Dean and Cas would have reunited with Charlie Bradbury, and Bobby Singer, and possibly others (though if this was the case it must have been very early on since no one ever looped in Sam Ferris, Chad Linberg or any other Roadhouse people).

I believe that Sam’s ending probably didn’t change much, but I do feel that initially they were planning on him ending up with Eileen, because it is the only thing that narratively makes sense. Cutting Eileen and giving him a blurry wife is something I won’t ever understand and Jared’s bullshit explanations are quite clearly pulled out of his ass to appease bronly types. I believe the reunion on the bridge would have included Cas and Jack, with a final shot of all four of them together, at peace (as this aligns with Alex’s comments from around a year or so ago that the final shot was all four of them). (I also am not sure it was always supposed to be on a bridge since the foreshadowing in an earlier episode showed Dean, Cas and Sam all in the Roadhouse together).

I believe that script went through countless changes and redrafts, and not even production people or the types that some fandom people claim as their “sources” would even have seen those early scripts, since even Misha never saw it. I believe that these rumours of Dabb never having Cas in his finale and ignoring all Destiel elements likely come from people who only saw later versions, weren’t party to network discussions and felt bitter about the final scripts they did see (being the crappy butchered one that was ultimately filmed). Those “sources” are now spreading rumours to discredit Dabb.

I obviously believe Dabb is a weak ass pushover who either didn’t care enough to fight back, or gave up since he’s been stuck with fucking Bob Singer on his back for years, but I will NEVER believe he didn’t care about the DeanCas love story, because he has been one of the few writers who has championed for it for years. You can’t look back at Dabb’s episodes in earlier seasons and claim he didn’t care. Dabb was a writer whose creative ideas were beaten out of him by an unforgiving Network only concerned about where their future money was coming from. Do I think he gave up too easily? Yes. But I also have one other huge reason for not believing the bullshit about Dabb being this anti-Destiel villain.

Bobo. Because if Bobo truly believed Dabb was gonna fuck that up at the end, I don’t think he would have given us Cas’s love confession to begin with. If he had known it was gonna end like that, I think he would have reconsidered, because had Cas not confessed his love, I don’t think he would have been cut from the finale. Bobo - a gay man, would not have wanted such a horrible message for queer fans being put across in the show he worked so hard on. He started writing that confession scene the day they returned to the writers room. Dabb would have been there, would have seen what he was writing, probably discussed it with him, after all, other episodes were written with the confession in mind. No way was Dabb planning to fuck up the ending knowing what Bobo was giving us. Nope.

Something went very wrong over lockdown. Someone, somewhere up the chain of power caught wind of the confession scene in 15x18, realised that it demanded a resolution which would make Dean Winchester, their protagonist, queer, and pulled the plug. I believe this did not come from a place of homophobia, but of bad business sense.

The CW is constantly trying to win the approval and attention of the one demo group that they seem to fail at getting the most: young straight men. Supernatural was one of their only remaining shows that appeals to young straight men, and Dean Winchester is more often than not the fave character of those young straight men who project onto him. Making Dean Winchester, established Han Solo of Supernatural, queer and in love with his best friend in the finale would have come across as a betrayal to those young straight men. The CW probably feared they would lose that demo group for good, and with a show like Walker starting soon with Jared at the helm, they couldn’t take the risk.

Hence there was probably a whole bunch of back and forth script redrafts with the Network, with Dabb and Singer fighting to make a finale that would appeal to everyone. There was most likely no way that they could bring Cas back without addressing what had already been filmed, because any resolution of that plot would either a. make Dean queer, or b. address it awkwardly by having Dean reject Cas (this storyline would probably have been slammed by critics worse than the finale because it meant addressing it. It might have got the attention of LGBTQ activist groups and caused a bigger shitstorm than what we got). The best option was therefore C. Bury it and Cas, pretend it never happened. Never address it again and distract Dean with other things. Hope that Destiel fans will accept no answer from Dean as ambiguous enough to imagine a future reunion rather than shutting it down with a rejection, and still keep hold of the blissfully ignorant heteronormative straight boys so they can carry over to Walker when it starts.

I also believe (controversially probably) that there was concern that any resolution of Dean and Cas would have overshadowed network darling Jared Padalecki. If Dean and Cas had come together in the finale, with a very clearly textual homosexual reunion, then that would have been all anyone talked about. The reviewers, the critics, the audience, everyone. It would have been nothing but Dean and Cas (and look, if they did think this, they were right, Destiel trending over the US ELECTION.)

So what is the network to do, when they are losing the two stars who would get the most attention from this storyline? The one star they were holding on to and getting his own show, relegated to third place in the finale of the show where he was first on the call sheet? Nope. That’s pretty unacceptable. Even without Walker I can imagine people at all levels side eyeing the Destiel thing over the years. This IS a show about two brothers, and their relationship should be the core relationship, we can’t have one brother pushed aside in the finale to make way for a queer relationship that will get all the attention instead. It was never gonna get approved for this reason ALONE.

At the end of the day, if I look at it from a business perspective, it makes far more sense that the CW shut down Destiel, rather than “oh Dabb never cared and ruined it because he’s an idiot.” The writers cared, and had built on that story over years. But their mistake was leaving any Destiel resolution to the finale. If they had instead gone and got Dean and Cas together in early season 15, then they could have ended it in a way that satisfied everyone. Destiel wouldn’t have threatened pulling focus away from Sam and Dean, and the show could have gone out on a high.

When I lay out all the conspiracy theories, and line them up next to the cold hard facts, the conspiracy theories in some way or another, make more sense. To believe the company line, the narrative we have been fed, is to ignore your own eyes, ears, and memories pre March 2020.

All I’m asking people to do is take a look at the show, the narrative presented in the show, and the information presented above. I’m not telling you to believe what I’ve written here, half of which is just my own opinion. I’m asking you to ask yourselves if it makes sense to you. Because it sure as hell doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t think I’ll ever be satisfied.

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thetrap · 3 years

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episodes that were Game Changers for destiel that is episodes that took the romantic narrative to a whole new level:

- the man who would be king. no but really this WAS the first big turning point for destiel imo this episode was framed as a love story like even if it wasn't intentional it was. it was. sorry mr. edlund you can't brother zone your way out of cas watching dean rake leaves and dean's orpheus turn.

- the born again identity. i've said it before and i'll say it again: the moment cas showed up on that porch he became the love interest. like. "what's your issue?" [insert one of the most baffling acting choices jensen ever made]. the trenchcoat. he kept the trenchcoat and moved it from car to car. i can't BELIEVE that aired on network television.

- a little slice of kevin. was almost tempted to put 8.02 instead purely because "where's the angel?" and "i prayed to you cas, every night!" are both fucking insane but what can i say dean hallucinating/seeing cas in a scene so romantically framed it makes me black out every time i watch it and repressing his memories so he doesn't have to deal with the pain of cas choosing to leave him won out. i've always said that s8 was the point of no return in the sense that it made destiel so blatantly romantic on both sides that it could never be truly removed from the narrative moving forward - prior to this they had at least like. SOME plausible deniability re dean - but this is always the episode i think of in particular. like i think there are a lot of reasons that the spn writers decided not to make cas' love explicitly unrequited and i won't get into it all now but i am fairly certain that dean's "i did not leave you" being a line that exists was among them like. they KNEW that it would be bullshit they knew it wouldn't fit.

- goodbye stranger. like. literal power of love breaks the curse à la ella enchanted. AND. as if that wasn't enough. the titular needle drop and sam vs. dean's reactions like guys it has BEEN canon. and god that's not even mentioning the fact that "i need you" was originally "i love you" like robbie thompson was NOT messing around.

- the future. a mixtape is not platonic. especially considering the context it was used in. moving on!

- lost and found. i mean widower arc as a whole obviously but the intensity of dean's reaction to cas' death in this particular episode is fucking stunning. the scene where dean prepares his body was NOT needed they very easily could've had dean walk in uncover him look sad and then cut to the funeral pyre. they didn't. instead they had dean prepare cas' body - alone - because cas was his significant other. like it's really that simple.

- the trap. insane episode especially in hindsight because we know the romantic dialogue/framing was purposeful. i left but you didn't stop me i should've stopped you ever since the mark made cas go crazy ever since i had to BURY him in a ma'lak box ever since then etc. etc. anyways for me this was a game changer because it's a huge part of why i started watching again at all like. yes the august promo got me interested but it wasn't until i watched the destiel scenes from this episode on youtube (+ the breakup scene) that i went. oh fuck. and promptly created this blog.

- despair. no explanation needed ❤️

#honorable mentions: the executioner's song and lily sunder

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paper-n-ashes · 3 years

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sparks and embers - chapter 1

Characters: Poe Dameron x Original Female Character, Kylo Ren x Original Female Character

Story Tags: Explicit (18+), Canon Compliant/Divergent (Set after TLJ), First Person POV, Love Triangle, Slow Burn, Enemies to Lovers, Porn with Plot, Hurt/Comfort, Kylo Ren hates Poe Dameron

Summary: Alexys is a doctor living a life of exclusivity on Raxus, hoping to survive through a peaceful existence, concealing herself from those she believes would use her, or kill her. When fate intervenes and instigates a perilous journey she'd been desperately trying to avoid, Alex finds herself caught in the middle of two sides in both war and love.

Preface: Let me say, I am immensely nervous about this. After months of back and forth inside my mind, I’ve decided to go for it and begin the long process of moving my long running series to Tumblr, along with changing the name (something I’ve wanted to do for a long time). I hit a big emotional road block after over a year of writing and posting, so I’m hoping this move will eventually get me back into the swing. But for now, I’m looking forward to revisiting the beginning of this space love triangle.

If you’ve already read the saga, absolutely NO pressure to read again. Each chapter will be edited a little, but no major plot points will change. To any newcomers who find themselves interested, the story is already posted on AO3 if you are desperate to continue. Otherwise if you prefer reading on Tumblr, or simply like the forced breaks between chapters, I’ll be posting a new chapter every couple of days. I know it’s not written as reader insert, but I just couldn’t make the story work out in any other fashion. I poured a lot of love and heart into Alexys so I hope you’ll give her a chance.

Chapter 1 - Crash Landing

Words: 3.4k

Chapter Tags/Warnings: descriptions of severe injury including blood and bone, medical procedures

Read on AO3

I felt it before I heard it.

A booming crash of metal and glass, sending a shattering vibration through the walls and furniture around me. After the years of mostly silence I’d become accustomed to, the noise that came pummelling into my ears almost made me shriek in surprise. It was short lived, coming and going in a flicker so quick I had to wonder if it was real at all.

Lights began to flash, blinking rapidly in uneven time. The mixture of harsh beeps indicated something was faulting my electricity circuits, plunging me into the darkness of night over and over.

I could only question myself again at the plausibility of this being a dream, but the slow, increasing creak emanating from beyond the walls of this building brought me to a certainty.

Something had crashed outside.

Fear radiated through my limbs, leaving me stuck where I was standing for a few moments, before an uncontrollable urge of selflessness and honestly, curiosity, forced me to move and exit the safety of my clinic.

There wasn’t really a way to prepare for what I saw not metres away from my front entrance. A ship, an X-wing of some variety, was wrecked into itself, varying metals twisted and curled over each other, flames beginning to billow out from the creases. I could feel the heat of them rise as I cautiously stepped forward, taking in the scene with wide eyes. Only seconds had passed when I saw it – the movement of something – no, a person, demanding my attention. The pilot of this battered machine had been thrown just beyond the edge of its hull, broken transparisteel smattering the ground around them.

Hm, the Resistance should probably investigate their flight safety measures.

That thought quickly flittered away when the pilot moved again, this time with a painful moan echoing into the atmosphere. The switch inside quickly flipped, and an all too familiar feeling of conviction flooded through.

This is your cue Alexys.

I raced quickly to the pilot and knelt on the ground before them, fingers carefully removing the black and red helmet with both urgency and restraint as to not cause any more possible damage to their head or neck. The moan I'd heard just moments before let me know this person had some kind of airway, but it was pertinent I assess further. With the helmet gone I noticed the short, lightly waved black hair of a man, his eyes pulled closed, a few bruises and smudges of grey soot smattered over his face. His chest was moving, laboured breathing with the occasional heave on inhale.

At least he’s breathing.

“It’s alright,” I insisted. “I’m here to help you.”

There wasn’t any discernible response from the pilot other than a groan that withered away slowly, and that in itself was worrying. Kneeling over his body, I placed two fingers under the line of his jaw, halfway down, trying to feel for a pulse. I could sense the thump of blood under my fingertips, but it was too slow, too faint, too uneven.

Not great, but it was enough for now.

I began to scan over his body, knowing it was time to assess what was giving him reason to cry out in pain. There were severe burns on his left arm which had caused some of his flight suit to stick to the skin, with more scalds reaching down to his torso and abdomen. His right arm was almost definitely broken with the limb morphed into an irregular angle almost halfway along.

Without being able to look at them directly to ascertain whether I was going to be able to move him, I pressed on his hips gently, silently praying he hadn’t broken his pelvis. He muffled softly, but anyone who had actually shattered the bone would have screamed. As my eyes continued to scan down, it became obvious all too suddenly the shattered edge of his right femur bone poking out of the orange flight suit.

Kriff, this is not ideal.

I wanted to kick myself for not noticing it before, but there was no time, not with the very real possibility of him bleeding out in front of my eyes. My feet moved under me, racing back to the clinic room, knowing where the bandage and splint lay waiting, along with the anaesthetic injections I had stocked in the pharmacy cupboard.

He was certainly going to need them.

Within minutes I was back to the ground with the pilot, clicking together the injector handle and vial, piercing the needle straight into his thigh above the fracture site. I wouldn’t be able to wait for it to dull most of the pain, so internally, I braced myself for the scream I was about to elicit from this poor human's chest. The second I started to wrap the bandage around the splint, a piercing wail echoed through the air, almost causing me to hesitate. Still, my hands continued to haphazardly wrap the white material around his leg, pushing through the guilt it ignited.

Suddenly, the noise stopped.

My eyes darted to his face as his head slumped over on its side. “Hey!” I shouted into his face as I scrambled back to the top end of his limp body. “Hey can you hear me? Open your eyes if you can hear me!”

There was no response.

I pinched at the muscle on his shoulder, harder and harder to elicit any kind of reaction. Nothing. My hand pulled into a closed fist and grinded against his sternum. “Come on, open those eyes if you can feel this!”

Still nothing.

Again I took check of his breathing, chest still rising and falling, yet shallow and with little power. His heartbeat had begun to race, but through my fingertips I could feel the strain in the muscle. Something was seriously wrong, even more so than his other injuries. Something internally. If I didn’t get him into the clinic, he was going to die.

In a snap decision, I chose to forgo an attempt to run back and locate the hover-stretcher. It would take too much time to set up and power on, time this man didn’t have. I would have to move him myself.

How the hell am I going to do this?

With my arms hooked and locked under his armpits I began to drag the pilots hefty body backwards towards the clinic behind me, thankfully only a few meters away, barely making it past the entryway when a roar of flames overtook the X-wing. I looked up to see the blaze almost completely engulfing the ship, a ferocious heat searing into my eyes and face. With even more urgency I heaved the body into the large clinic room, getting up and slamming the door just in time. Just before a house rattling explosion sent shockwaves into the atmosphere.

Lucky didn’t seem to be an appropriate feeling considering the situation I was in, but at least no one had died. Yet. With my last bit of brute strength, I hoisted the pilots limp body onto the closest hospital bed, noticing then the trail of red liquid I’d brought along with me.

Oh no no no.

With him still lifeless, I tugged at his body and limbs to lie flat on the bed, scurrying to my medical trolley and hauling it back to where the pilot laid, ragged breaths still thankfully escaping into the air. Snatching the heavy shears from the top drawer, I began to tear through the thick fabric of the flight suit, unclipping and removing as much of the life support vest and belt as I could. I had to be careful not to rip away the fabric that melted into the burns scattered all over his body, the number of them increasing as I peeled away the suit, starting from his legs, up to his abdomen and chest over to his upper arms. His torso was in full view now, a smattering of dark hair over his pectorals, underneath which showed the bruises of his crash’s impact.

Oh he’s definitely got some broken ribs.

As my gaze scanned over his skin, I could finally isolate where all that blood had escaped from. A deep penetrating wound just below the last rib on his left flank. As I registered his quick shallow breaths and the uneven rise in his chest, it became obvious.

Collapsed lung.

Whatever had pierced through his chest had poked an extremely damaging hole in his lung, the pleural space now filling with air, leaving no room for his lung to expand. My following movements were swift and calculated, almost automatic. A pointed scalpel was soon in my hand, poised to cut. But I couldn’t help but hesitate. It had been so long since I’d had to do this. And yet, somehow, concern for this stranger’s life was quick to weave it’s way through, dissolving my fear into pure resolve.

I made my incision in between the 4th and 5th ribs, using a clamp to push into the underlying tissue and past the pleural cavity, a gloved hand then entering to check I’d made it through. With an instinctive confidence, I guided the chest tube between the layers of tissue, undoing the ratchet of the clamp to an immediate rush of air. The pilot’s chest heaved in relief, along with my own.

One crisis averted.

But there was more to do. Connecting a drain to the tube, I haphazardly sutured it in place, before flying to the pharmacy cupboard. My stock of bacta was limited, returning with an already prepared vial into the pressurised injector, reminding myself I would need to use it sparingly if this stranger was going to make it through the full extend of his injuries. I had cursed at myself only a few times in the years past at being so far removed from a higher level medical centre that would be overflowing with bacta and medical droids that could help in exactly this kind of situation, but the thought had never burned me so badly. There was no way to know if I could keep this man alive with the resources that yesterday I had been more than comfortable with. I would just have to try.

I injected some of the bacta solution throughout the surrounding area of the wound and covered it with heavy dressing, knowing the bleeding would quickly be curbed. Unfortunately, the wound itself would take a few days to fully close, only ever being able to afford lower quality bacta. Before moving on to the burns, I placed some basic monitoring, lines extending from electrical dots over his chest, wrist and neck to the data monitor above the bed. As the numbers lit up on the holo screen, I felt myself breathe a small sigh of relief, having prepared for a much worse result. His heart rate was better, oxygen levels returning to normal, blood pressure not optimal by any means but high enough to sustain his life, for now.

After securing an oxygen filter over his battered face, I continued to inspect and clean as many of the small and more sizeable burns dotting his body. Even with the many I had uncovered, the one extending from his shoulder past his elbow was the one of most concern. Third degree and extremely unhappy looking. If I wasn’t quick to treat this, it could leak even more fluid from his already compromised circulatory system. I was thankful he still remained unconscious when I began to slowly shed the charred material melted into the skin layer. I couldn’t help but shudder as I remembered the initial scream this man had let out, knowing I would be hearing it now if not for his comatose state.

Covering the immense scald in as much salve as I could spare, I began to wrap it in protective antibacterial bandage, soon moving on to protect his many blisters and deeper burns with dressings. Glancing at the monitor screen, he was still stable, and swallowed hard. Now it was time to attempt possibly the most daunting part of this patient’s treatment.

His femur was still sticking through the tissue of his thigh, slightly dried dark red blood creating lightning strike looking lines extending from the wound.

I need to get some blood into him before moving this.

I quickly got to work on an IV cannula, his poor blood pressure making it significantly more difficult than it should have been. Two bags of O- blood were all I had, and a wave of dread coursed through me with the thought of that not being enough if this all went wrong. My fist squeezed the fast flow pump of the IV line, pushing fresh blood urgently into his system, making his blood pressure rise only slightly. With the last of the red liquid trickling through the line I wheeled over the portable X-Ray. It was so old the mechanical arm screeched at me as I positioned it into place over the pilot’s leg. The bone had to be at least somewhat in place before getting the bacta to work its magic or this guy might walk with two uneven legs for the rest of his life.

If he actually made it through the rest of his injuries, that is.

Shaking my arms out at my side, I sucked in a few deep breaths to build my stamina. Unfortunately, this stranger was stuck with a small framed female to attempt reducing his severe fracture. With one last inhale, I drew the courage to pull as hard as I could horizontally at the knee joint, digging my fingers into a vice grip around the limb and yanking it towards me. To my relief, the fractured edge of the femur to slipped back into the hole it was peeking out from, settling back under the skin.

Thank all the stars in the galaxy he’s not awake for this.

I quickly pressed the image button on the X-ray to assess the progress I’d made. The faint white lines of bone edges were stark enough on the grey background of the image. The fracture wasn’t reduced even nearly enough. I prepared myself again, with another deep breath I pulled hard. This time my efforts were forced into angling the lower portion of bone to try and lock it back into place. The grinding of bone edges could be felt through my fingers, pushing myself to pull even harder, creating more space between the fracture in the hope of giving a fighting chance of lining up the splintered edges. My muscles were whining, begging for this to be over, tears of exhaustion soon stinging at the edges of my eyes.

With one final twisting motion there was a sudden click.

Finally.

My relief was short lived.

It was slow at first, before racing faster. A stream of dark red blood pooling at the wound the broken bone had made.

Oh maker no.

Within moments the pace of the blood quickened. I shot my hands to the open flesh site, pressing down hard in an attempt to disturb the flow. The liquid quickly covered my gloved hands, already sure I’d sliced into the femoral artery. The pressure of my hands into the area made the blood spurt out onto my arms, my clothes, my face, everywhere. The monitor was screaming, blood pressure falling quickly. Wiping some of the hot coppery fluid away from my left eye, I slid my fingers back into the gash, moving desperately to stop the overflow before the man lying in front of me bled out, knowing it would all be my fault.

You have to do it Alexys. He will die if you don’t.

The voice nagged at me, pleading to do what it wanted.

He’s with the Resistance! If he survives, if he contacts them, they’ll find me. And they’ll know.

It is time to decide. His life. Or yours.

Seconds ticked by fleetingly, numbers flashing on the monitor trickling down, the speed of blood flow from the pilot’s leg stubbornly keeping it’s intensity.

Everything I’d done to get here, to isolate myself so no one could find me. It would all amount to nothing. My easy, albeit lonely life, would be gone. All because of this stranger.

But I couldn’t let him die. Not like this.

In one flash, I removed my hands from inside the wound, ripping off my gloves and placing two palms at either side of the leg. With closed eyes, I willed the energy out of the depths of its slumber. From the darkened corner of my mind I pulled it back into existence, opening the gate I’d locked it inside for so long, letting it finally burst through and fill up my brain. From there it down through my neck, through my chest and down my arms, right to the end of my fingertips. Its warming glow was almost comforting, friendly. I would have basked in it for a while if not for the life that hung in the balance before me.

Through the pads of my fingerprints I pushed the stream outwards, connecting past the skin of this innocent human being, and felt the overwhelming heat of pain and dimming of energy.

Hurry, he’s dying.

I began to map out the tissue of his leg, frustratingly slowly, starting at the smallest of capillaries, weaving and winding through the flesh, connecting them through the maze of fat and muscle. I could feel the sweat forming on my forehead, my breathing forced and harsh. The vessels grew bigger as I pushed the energy through, skipping past broken points of other smaller injuries. I could fix them later.

Finally, I felt a molten warmth radiating close to where the maze had guided me. Racing to it, I sensed something pushing me back, the pressure of escaping fluid holding my efforts. I’d found the cut, but now I had to somehow knit it back together.

You’re taking too long.

The alarms of the monitor started to echo with a hollow ring inside my ear, fading until I could hear almost nothing. The world around me was blurry, only the image of vessel tissue and all-consuming redness visible in my minds eye. The energy I was expending began to burn me - I wouldn’t be able to keep this up for much longer. I reached out with it, what felt like many hands grasping desperately at the severed edge of the vessel, frantic yet delicate, pulling whatever tissue I could hold back into place.

Several fringes connected, the pressure pushing forcefully against me, making it harder to hold. I couldn’t help but begin to shake at the strain, the sound of my own heart pounding over the slowing heartbeat of the pilot. My grip was already beginning to fade before I started to sew the pieces of artery back together, an ache growing behind my eyes as I pierced an invisible needle through the tissue, over and over, still clawing at the unsewn edges as I made my way around the tube.

I was so close, the tension of the fluid still being driven out of the broken seal almost overcoming me. The unseen thread had almost made its way full circle. I was almost there.

My entire body rattled with exhaustion and pain. One final thread wove itself around the artery, its abrupt closure alleviating the strain on invisible fingers that had been clutching it all together.

You did it.

The energy dissipated quickly in a rolling wave, letting it retreat back into my mind, scampering to the secluded area of my brain, hidden once more. I felt light suddenly, dizzy, the world coming back into focus, screaming alarms growing louder. It was too much, all at once.

A sharp pang of fatigue enveloped every part of my senses and I faltered back, knees giving way, slumping to the floor.

Then, there was only darkness.

Next Chapter

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phoenixyfriend · 3 years

Note

I’ve been trying to figure out the best obi wan ship. They all have one slightly problematic thing this way or that. I’ve landed on the idea of obi wan and an equal is pretty top tier. But then I saw a picture of Coran from voltron. Coran and Obiwan might be a disaster but also both are dad shaped, both are bad ass, both are ginger, both have an accent. I think it could work. But another part of me is like Coran is just obi and jarjar mashed together. At the very least they hooked up.

Hey I just had restaurant ramen and Starbucks and actually feel like a human being so let's do something unnecessary but funny. I'm taking this as a challenge, anon.

Also IMO Coran has more in common with C3P0 than with JarJar

So obviously, both of these happen in Big Space, but the difference appears to be density. We see about the same complexity of culture and species interactions, but Voltron covers more galaxies. It's vaguely implied that Earth, at least, is the only planet with sapient life in the Milky Way.

I think the way I want to play this out, culturally, is that the Voltron area of the universe covers a much wider, but much more sparsely populated area, while the SW-verse is just the one very densely populated (in part because apparently humans just went Literally Everywhere) galaxy, where they didn't necessarily bother with developing the tech to go to other galaxies (except Rishi, which only sort of counts) because they haven't really even charted out their own yet. It was never contacted by the Voltron side of things because [checks notecards full of excuses] it's really far away from Altea and all that, and the Force shielded the galaxy from Galra interests because Reasons.

All this to say that the two franchises didn't interact until after the Voltron plotline was already over. We'll say it went mostly canon, except Allura survived because uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh fuck that.

We'll say that this is mid-TCW, you know, before Obi-Wan is a bundle of repressed traumas and bad coping mechanisms that's lost almost everyone he's ever loved to the dark side through death or corruption. He's still (mostly) okay! Anakin's not dark (or at least, not as dark as he could be; Obi-Wan doesn't know about the Tuskens), and Ahsoka's still in good standing and most people are alive and--and okay the army is a massive ethical violation he hates with his very soul and he misses Qui-Gon and Anakin's keeping secrets and pulling away from him every day but He's Fine, Guys.

He's Fine.

In comes a ship from not Wild Space, but beyond that. Intergalactic visitors, from the direction of the deeply concerning Force bullshit they felt a few years ago. Translation tech is decent enough on both sides that they get to talking pretty quickly. The explorer is actually a member of the Blade of Marmora, who gets the absolute most basic info (approximately this many inhabited planets, approximately this many trillions of sapients in the recorded galaxy, basic structure of the government for the past however many years, most recent conflict, etc.)

BoM person is like "cool, okay so you guys are really well set-up so I'm just gonna head back and kick this up a few rungs of the coalition ladder because this is way above my paygrade, I'll make sure you get some diplomats who can maybe help out with the whole galactic civil war situation as neutral parties."

The Voltron Coalition does send a diplomat! They, uh, also send Coran, who isn't technically a diplomat, but he's high-level.

The thing is, okay, that Coran is mostly just... passably competent at things. He's a jack of all trades, master of none type. He knows a lot of things, actually, but his practical knowledge in high pressure situations tends to be up in the air. He knows how to fix the Castle Ship and various technologies, but all of that info is ten thousand years out of date. He was a competent fighter at one point but these days his back gives out. He's very knowledgeable regarding intergalactic politics but, again, that information is ten thousand years out of date. He's also a little prone to social gaffs in dicey situations (e.g. the inciting incident in the Voltron Show episode where he misses the single day with clear skies), but puts in so much goddamn effort to make things happen.

In this manner, he's like a warped mirror of what Obi-Wan is and could be.

THAT SAID

Coran is actually really good with teenagers, and specifically with training them.

And Obi-Wan... isn't.

Obi-Wan's snarky and snippy and sassy, and he's decent enough at teaching and he's great at being a jokey friend and all, but he's not necessarily very good at emotions. And unfortunately for Obi-Wan, the teenagers he spends the most time with are Really Full Of Emotions. He tries, bless him, but he's just... he doesn't respond well to emotional conversations at the best of times.

His son-figure saying "You're like a father to me" leads to a response of... radio silence. Guys. That's not the mark of a man who knows how to talk about his feelings with the people he cares about.

In swans Coran with the various other diplomatic envoys of the visiting extragalactic community. The entire situation is really leading to a lull in the war because nobody wants to risk pissing off this clearly well-funded, well-powered third party. As a result, many of the High Generals can interact with the envoys, even if they spend quite a bit of time eyeing the Separatist representatives on the other side of the room, because clearly Everyone Needs A Seat At This Table.

It's a very tense situation.

Obviously, Coran is exactly the weird uncle that goes around telling plausibly-exaggerated stories about Weblums and Yalmors and Balmeras. I'm going to say at least one former Paladin is there, maybe Hunk. Hunk's fun, and also very willing to help Coran make friends and seem Amicable instead of Distant by correcting some of the exaggerations. There's a nice, calm atmosphere in a bubble around Coran and his nonsense, and it's a weird situation but arguably just... you know. It's good. He's good at making people feel safe around him.

Cue the hissed argument between Skywalker and Kenobi. The actual cause of said argument isn't important, just the fact that, in a dark corner where they're less likely to cause a PR issue, Anakin and Obi-Wan are having it out. Anakin's maybe twenty, still a lanky ragebaby, all that fun stuff. Obi-Wan is a the endpoint of every too-young brotherdad. He's thirty-six but feels like he's sixty-three. He's tired, but trying so damn hard to still connect with Anakin and just--just--

Obi-Wan gives himself a few minutes to calm down before following Anakin. He doesn't even remember what they were arguing about, really, but he has to mend the bridge before it frays even more than it already has. If Anakin goes to Palpatine for advice again, he's going to... do something. Obi-Wan isn't sure what, but he just has to fix this.

What he finds is... well, Anakin did end up going to vent to a man of an earlier generation who acts like a slightly eccentric older relative, but it's not Palpatine for once.

The goofy, slightly abrasive but mostly charming, brightly-colored representative of the Voltron Coalition is standing in the little balcony that Anakin's made it to, listening as Obi-Wan's recently-knighted padawan vents. The man nods and makes noises at the appropriate times, and then asks questions that are... maybe a little too accurate.

"You said that you view him as a father, that he raised you after you left your mother."

"Well, yeah, but he doesn't think I'm ready, or--"

"No parent ever does."

"...my mom thought I was ready to become a Jedi."

"I can't speak for your mother," the representative says, "but the princess of my people, Allura... I half-raised that girl from the beginning, and after the destruction of Altea, we were all the other had left. I watched her lead battles and bring life to planets, trying to rebuild a universe out of the ashes of what we'd left behind... I saw the evidence with my own eyes, and I still, every time, I worried for her."

"Why?"

"I worried that she'd be hurt, that she wasn't ready, that she'd make a decision she regretted. Often, she did, and I had to help her back up, and while she's always come back, stronger than before... she is the closest thing I have ever had to a daughter, and I will always worry for her. Every parent does. Do you think, perhaps, that your own Jedi Master, that you consider a father, may worry because he looks at you like a son? That it's not that he doesn't trust you, but that he doesn't trust the world around you?"

Obi-Wan feels his heart in his throat.

The conversation continues in that vein. While Obi-Wan can't say he likes the fact that this stranger is putting words in his mouth, if only as hypotheticals, he can't deny that there's a part of him that relaxes as Anakin does, as every frustrated fresh-knight question gets a measured elderly-steward response that's angled to consider the interpretation that favors Anakin and Obi-Wan in equal measure. Every word encourages Anakin to talk things out and lay boundaries and express his frustrations to Obi-Wan in the plainest words possible.

There's a story in there, more than one. The representative tends to go off on tangents, ones that Anakin sometimes finds interesting and sometimes just resigns himself to. Mostly, though, it goes well, and Obi-Wan... well, he's always been 'a nosy little bastard,' according to quite a few people.

(In his defense, the terms they'd used about Quinlan's 'investigative personality' had been quite a bit stronger.)

He eavesdrops to the end, and Anakin doesn't notice at all. Obi-Wan's not sure if he should try to address Anakin's lack of awareness of the world around him. He's not technically Anakin's master anymore. The comment may be taken as a criticism of his worth and capability, rather than a sincere desire to see his padawan not die.

He approaches the representative instead. He intends to introduce himself. Instead, the first words that tumble out of his mouth are:

"How do you do it?"

The man--older than he looks from a distance, more wrinkles than the bright hair would suggest, but not quite elderly yet--turns and lifts a brow. "Hm?"

"I'm sorry, I'm--" Obi-Wan grimaces. "I'm Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. The young man you were just talking to is my former padawan, er, my former apprentice. I've been finding it harder and harder to speak with him over the past few years, and it seems that every interaction we have leads to an argument. How do you... manage that? I can't get him to listen to me at all."

"Ah, teenagers," the man sighs.

"He's twenty."

The representative pauses, and turns to him. "Are you the one he says raised him? The father?"

"Well... yes, I suppose that's one way to phrase it," Obi-Wan says, eyes darting to the side. He doesn't know how to explain the whole attachment situation to someone who barely knows what a Jedi is. He has even less of an idea of how to explain his own broken ability to speak of emotion, the parts of his mind that Bant clucks over and attributes to his own complicated relationship with Qui-Gon. "I had custody as his primary guardian from ages nine to nineteen and was the primary individual for handling his schooling, health, and general upbringing."

"That sounds to me like a very convoluted way of saying you were his father in all but name."

Obi-Wan grimaces. "I'm not exactly old enough to be his father, and I wasn't exactly the person he was supposed to learn from; I was the... back-up option."

"It seems he cares for you very much."

"He didn't have much of a choice," Obi-Wan says, with the kind of helpless smile and awkward shrug he's long gotten used to sharing with people when they ask. "And I assure you he'd have been happier with the man that was meant to teach him."

"I'd say that the 'would have' in this situation is much less important than what is," the representative says. Obi-Wan probably should have paid more attention to his name. "I wasn't in a position to define my relation to Allura or her father in the way that truly suited our situation, by... oh, tradition, social norms, public relations, take your pick. I was a very well-regarded official, of course, but I wasn't royalty, not even nobility, and I certainly wasn't wasn't legally or publicly part of the family. But for all the limitations there, I was still able to find ways to tell her and her family what they meant to me, and they in return. Your apprentice cares for you very much, and I'm sure you care back, but I'd hazard quite the guess that you've no idea how to tell him that."

"I... I shouldn't," Obi-Wan says. "I'm fond of him, of course, but I've no wish to smother him, and to simply say it would be undignified. I imagine he'd laugh in my face."

The representative raises one eyebrow and takes a sip of his drink.

"Master Kenobi," he says carefully. "Might I suggest you go find your young man, tell him you love him, and perhaps give him a hug?"

Obi-Wan's face flares red. It's been years since anyone short of Yoda has spoken to him like that.

"I'm not a child," he sniffs, trying to angle enough away that the blush isn't as noticeable. He's damnably prone to such things. "You're not that much older than me."

The man laughs, and Obi-Wan lifts his glass to his lips in a futile attempt to hid the embarrassment a little more. "Oh, not counting the stasis, I've well reached the age of six hundred and twenty-four, my boy!"

Obi-Wan chokes on his drink.

The man laughs a little more, but thumps him on the back until he's breathing normally again.

"Yes, most of the humans I've told have had quite the reaction!" the representative assures him. "But yes, even with the times adjusted to what any given local year is, I am significantly longer-lived than most species."

"No kidding," Obi-Wan manages. He wipes at his mouth with the back of his hand and looks over at the representative. He takes in the wrinkles and bright eyes, and says, "Well, I must say you look very well for a near-human of such an age. I can only name one person in that category that has managed better, and I haven't seen her since I was a child."

"I shall take that as the compliment it's intended to be," the representative says, twisting the edge of his mustache and beaming.

The man is... well, goofy, really, and quite a bit older than Obi-Wan had thought, but he's quite the charmer. Obi-Wan faintly compares him to a few different people in the back of his mind, but nothing quite fits. For all that the man is quite the jokester and--going by some things he'd seen from the corner of his eye in the main party--a master of physical comedy, the representative is actually more competent than he looks, and for all his visible age, not bad to look at. He is also, seemingly, an expert in dealing with teenagers and young adults, something Obi-Wan himself is... decidedly not.

He really should go speak with Anakin.

And there's a war to fight.

He doesn't really have much time, even with the recent lull.

He's in no place to be looking at the clean-shaven jaw and wondering what it would feel like under his lips, or to let himself consider whether this man would be the kind to have an hours-long discussion as to the narrative forms common in other galaxies, and whether they have anything paralleled to those in Obi-Wan's own, or if this man would show the same enthusiasm over teas that he'd shown over the hors d'oeuvres inside.

He should... really go find Anakin.

"I suppose it's time to find my padawan," he says, more to fill the air than anything. "Er... thank you, both for speaking with him, and for speaking with me."

"Not a problem at all, Master Kenobi!" the representative says, and Obi-Wan realizes that there's one last thing he may have... forgotten.

"This is terribly embarrassing, but I don't believe I caught your name?" Obi-Wan says.

"Coran Hieronymus Wimbleton Smythe, at your service!" the man says, with a sweeping bow. "As you can imagine, most simply call me Coran."

"Then I insist you call me Obi-Wan," he says, and before he can stop himself, "Might I bother you with an invitation to a shared tea time? You seem a knowledgeable fellow, and I'd appreciate the chance to... eh, pick your brain, shall we say."

It's not the smoothest come on he's ever put out there, or the most easily interpreted, but... well. Perhaps it's for the best. He's rather often found his tastes going in irresponsible directions, and it'll be much easier to brush this off without diplomatic incident if there's room for Coran to politely ignore the less platonic options.

Obi-Wan hopes he doesn't.

It's very selfish of him, but a dalliance with an older gentleman... well. He does, perhaps, make such irresponsible decisions, even now.

"I do believe I'd enjoy such a thing!" Coran enthuses, grabbing Obi-Wan's hand and shaking it in large, effusive movements.

Oh, this is a terrible idea, Obi-Wan thinks, even as he exchanges comm numbers and says goodbye.

Still.

He likes the idea of having at least a little fun, sedate or less so, while they have some time to themselves.

#Obi Wan Kenobi #Coran Smythe #Coran #coran hieronymus wimbleton smythe #anakin skywalker #Star Wars #Voltron #crossovers #Phoenix Posts #Phoenix Answers Asks #parenting

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dotthings · 4 years

Text

Ok, here’s the thing. I don’t find it at all plausible Misha would have been cut from 15.20 filming due to covid. If he’s not in it, it’s because it wasn’t part of the plan in the first place. If it wasn’t part of the plan in the first place, then I do have some questions for the writers, because not having Cas be a key figure in ep 15.20 makes no sense for the story they’ve been telling.

We’ve got Cas revealed as the only Cas in all of Chuck’s worlds who wouldn’t follow the rules. The only spanner in the works, the only Cas with a crack in his chassis. And oh by the way, the only Cas in all the worlds who fell in love with Dean Winchester.

We’ve got Cas getting yeeted away to The Empty, where he’s already come back from it twice.

We’ve got a heavy emphasis not just on found family, but on how important Eileen is to Sam, and Cas is to Dean.

We’ve got Cas getting to make a confession, and Dean left just...not dealing and not getting to speak, how is that an arc resolution? It’s not.

We’ve got Cas as consistently for 12 seasons always a key player in the A-level mytharc plots and pivotal in emotional plots. Suddenly he’s dropped off the board completely for the series finale of the entire show? For what, so the end can be all about Sam and Dean? Thus...throwing under a bus the point S15 has been attempting to drive into people’s heads with a mallet about family don’t end with blood and this love story between Dean and Cas and how unique Cas is in his own right. Don’t listen to ultrabitter nonsense about how unimportant he is and it’s all a brosonly conspiracy there at spn because that’s just insulting to this character and the actual role he plays on SPN.

We’ve got in S15 Destiel as an A-plot. Look at the way 15.18 was hinted up towards and talked about after by the spn writers and adjacent crew on twitter. 15.18 was clearly considered a pivotal episode, one of the most important episodes, if not the most important, of S15.

We’ve got in S15 Dean’s entire personal self-fulfillment arc heavily tied to Cas. To the point where the last missing piece that enabled Dean to step off Chuck’s hamster wheel was Cas’s love confession. Cas saved everyone not just Dean by loving Dean. Yet Dean’s self-fulfillment arc isn’t done (neither is Sam’s fyi, but he’s not as closely tied to Cas in this).

We’ve got this immensely important character knocked off the board 2 eps before the ending, with a majority of the fandom losing its godamn mind because we just aren’t buying that this was the end of his story.

We’ve got Cas’s self-fullfillment arc incomplete. Yes, I know, he felt fulfilled in saying the love and was happy as The Empty consumed him. But we’re still missing some major steps. Don’t even try to tell me that his arc is filled because he thinks dying for love is the best it can ever get for him. There’s big BIG missing steps here like uh...if Sam and Dean are able to pursue figuring out who they are now, when they’re off Chuck’s hamster wheel, but Cas just sleeps forever in the empty dreaming his regrets and that’s considered a resolution? Seriously?

With all this season has given us, do you really think the season was planned out with Cas’s absence in 15.20?

And do you really think, if the original plan is to have him be in 15.20, given the precedents here, the arcing of S15, the huge dangling lack of resolution here screaming for resolution that they have set up, that they wouldn’t make arrangements to have Misha film for 15.20 despite covid regulations? That he wouldn’t be pivotal enough to warrant it? Really???

You can say you’re worried the writers didn’t plan for him to be in there, that he’s not going to come back, that Dean’s never going to speak his heart’s truth back to Cas. I understand those worries. I personally would find that unsatisfying, and the argument I have always made is that if he was knocked down for a time, he’d be back. I’ve never rooted for Cas to be cut off and have his end be this.

Taking him off the board just so the ending can focus on Sam and Dean would be wrong, even if it was a covid consideration, it’s bad for the story, bad for Cas’s story, and bad for Dean’s story and bad for the show’s themes. There’s a lot of unresolved aspects to Cas, individually, just as there is for Dean right now. I’m sorry that Cas wound up cloaked in secrecy, that fandom is being so jerked around on this, to build suspense for a twist, or because he won’t be there and they don’t want to reveal the spoilers either way. That's been a pain in the neck. Please try to take deep breaths. Remember PR isn’t the story.

What has the story been telling you.

What is the story now crying out for resolution on, when we had a pseudo ending already but there is still one whole episode left.

And remember that the people trying to make pronouncements on the negative side of the speccing chain here don’t know any more than the people basing our spec on the substance of the story that’s aired so far. And we’ve all seen the same baffling and often contradictory PR and bts scraps of evidence. There’s nobody itk right now. I would also particularly mistrust meta takes that insist that it’s superior for the story to not have Cas return and not have Dean get to speak his heart’s truth to his face. That just seems like it’s short-changing Dean and Cas individually, not just Destiel.

But I don’t think covid was a factor. Things are set up the way they are in canon. Cas is too key a player every season for it to be feasible they could just last minute cut Misha from 15.20 filming because you can only have X number of people on set under covid regulations. My instinct is that he was always planned to be there, or he always wasn’t.

Cas deserves to have a full resolution on his arc just as much as Dean does and knocking him out too early just so SPN could be about Just Sam and Dean at the end...for those who grokked onto the inauthentic feeling of the end of 15.19, with its purposeful air of outdated nostalgia, and Sam and Dean not quite looking joyful about this freedom they just achieved, you really think this writing team would do that? With Castiel’s name carved on the table. Dean showing his grief for Cas throughout 15.19. After all the story we’ve seen. It makes no sense to me to cut each of these characters arcs off at the knees. No that is not a superior story if that happens. And Dean’s personal fulfillment arc is so entwined with Cas now, and Cas with Dean. You know, Dean. His north star, the one who taught him how to love.

Roll the dice. That’s all any of us are doing. I think this writing team knows what it’s doing, I hope I’m right and this pays off beautifully, because the set up is amazing, the tension is beautifully set.

#Castiel #spn #supernatural #supernatural season 15 #supernatural season 15 spoilers #meta

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autisticshadowthehedgehog · 4 years

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Team Chaotix found out how to Time-Travel and are (probably?) using their powers for good

[I.D.: Screenshot of Shadow the Hedgehog, the cutscene before “Mad Matrix.” Shadow approaches Team Chaotix, standing in front of Eggman’s computer. Vector says “Well, we need your help to hack into [Eggman’s] computer... and don’t ask why!” End I.D.]

What a title, huh? Let me complicate this more by explaining this is going to deal near exclusively with the 2005 game Shadow the Hedgehog and Chaotix’s role in it.

My thesis statement for this is as thus: In Shadow the Hedgehog, all endings are actually technically canon; the universe was reset back at the end of them all until the True Ending was reached, and the universe was reset by none other than Team Chaotix.

Is this theory going to make at least two insane reaches? Yes. Is it a crack theory? uuuuuuuuh depends on how people react to it

So, let’s get into the logistics of how and why I think this went down.

Part One: What was Team Chaotix’s Mission?

Team Chaotix appears very briefly in ShTH; Charmy is on a solo mission on “Prison Island,” the whole team seems to be in “Mad Matrix” with Vector in “Cosmic Fall”, and they appear briefly aboard the ARK at the end of the game. (Which... I don’t think they left? Were they up there when Shadow isolated himself inside? Is that why he wasn’t gone for long, did he get sick of their shit and pilot them back to the planet--)

The point is, from the few appearances of the team in the game, we know that they are on a mission, one so secret/confidential that no team members tell anyone what it is- even Charmy, who has the impulse control of a kid left alone in a room with a million buttons.

Of course, with their appearances, we can figure out some elements of their mission, and it becomes quite clear that their mission has something to do with the Space Colony ARK.

Charmy’s solo mission, for starters, in “Prison Island.” Charmy is there to collect five discs from GUN, discs that I don’t believe the player ever finds out the contents of.

[I.D.: Three screenshots from Shadow the Hedgehog, of Charmy’s dialogue in the “Prison Island” stage. He says, “Heeey, Shadow! I gotta ask you something! Vector told me that he wants to find five top secret discks... but, like... what’s a top secret disk?” End i.D.]

As the Hero Route of Prison Island immediately transitions to “Mad Matrix”, the implication is the GUN discs have something to do with hacking into Eggman’s computer.

Oh, yeah, the team needed to hack into the files of Eggman’s computer, with Espio having to gather data himself. Again, what they were looking for is never revealed, but Vector insists that it’s urgent.

[I.D.: Screenshots from the beginning of the “Mad Matrix” cutscene. Espio is sitting at a computer, attempting to hack. Vector says, “Are you done yet? At this rate, the entire day will be wasted.” Espio turns and says, “Hey, back off! Data retrieval isn’t exactly my specialty.” End i.D.]

Vector attempts to locate the ARK’s computer room, again for no stated reason.

[I.D.: Vector at the beginning of the “Cosmic Fall” route. He says to Shadow, “We’ve got to make it to the computer room before this place collapses!” End I.D.]

Upon it being found in the True Ending, Team Chaotix once again hack inside the computer. After Gerald’s video begins playing, we don’t see them again.

So, to recap: they are all gathering information from GUN- which was pretty much the only organization with any information on the colony- and Eggman, a member of the Robotnik family; with the fact they were later on the ARK and stealing GUN documents, it’s likely they were looking for information on Gerald on Eggman’s computer.

So, while we don’t have the explicit mission, we can clarify that it definitely has something to do with the ARK. An important question, though, which might be able to clarify their entire mission, is who is their client?

Part Two: Who Sent Team Chaotix on this mission?

Team Chaotix’s missions are almost exclusively client-based, and even if we say that they don’t have one, there has to be something that tipped them off that they needed to get to the ARK.

The client themself is a bit of a mystery- it can’t be any non-chaotix main character, as literally nobody seems wise to what they’re up to. And considering Charmy was, uh, pretty much literally stealing GUN files, we can safely assume they’re not working for GUN.

But their client had to be someone who knew there was important information on the ARK, which was pretty much unknown to everyone before SA2, and afterwards, even if we assume the ARK incident is common knowledge, there has to be something specific the Chaotix were sent after.

And something important.

In case you haven’t played ShTH, during the entire game, the world is being attacked by demon aliens intent on murdering and eating everything on the planet while also setting it on fire. You’d think that Chaotix would want to deal with that above a relatively unimportant mission. So whatever they were doing was more important than fighting/hiding from/investigating the apocalyptic monsters attacking them.

What would be important than the, as I said, apocalyptic demon monsters?

Potentially... a way to stop them.

[I.D.: Screenshots from a cutscene in the Last Story. Team Chaotix are attempting to hack into the ARK’s computer. Vector says, “Espio, we need you to focus, cuz if we don’t hurry all the data we recovered will be lost.” End I.D.]

So. You know how in every one of my metas there’s a part where I leap off the deep end?

Let me just say this outright.

What if the one who sent them on their mission... was none other than Gerald Robotnik?

So, here’s my mission statement.

Gerald Robotnik, sensing that something bad was going to happen on the ARK, made his video message for Shadow. We know this because of, you know, the content of the message.

After the ARK massacre, Gerald obviously cracked, but left behind some hint of the video’s existence, or a hint of a way to defeat the Black Arms that nobody picked up cause nobody knew they existed except the people on the ARK. Who, you know, GUN massacred. Thanks GUN.

What the hint exactly was I’m not sure-- in Sonic X he wrote a shitton of stuff on the walls of his prison island jail cell, maybe he left something there. [Something to note-- Sonic X begun airing before production of ShTH, and it second and third seasons, the ones featuring Shadow, would probably be being made while ShTH was in production.]

[I.D.: Screenshots from Sonic X of Gerald Robotnik’s prison island cell, which has multiple scientific notes scribbled across the walls. End I.D.]

We already know the Chaotix know of Prison Island and can get there from Charmy’s appearance in his route, so them being there and seeing something left behind isn’t impossible.

So this hint was discovered by the Chaotix, who pieced together that this ARK message would give the information needed to defeat the Black Arms-- I believe they knew that there was a message specifically, as they seem unsurprised and happy when the message appears at the end of the game, meaning it was among the things they were looking for, if not the only thing. They also figured out that the only one who could defeat said Black Arms was Shadow. Hence why they’re not only hacking into the computers of two Robotniks, but they, in different timelines, accompany and assist Shadow in his little angst party missions.

[I.D.: Screenshots from the end of the “Cosmic Fall” Hero Route. As Shadow walks away, depressed that he’s what he considers a failed experiment, Vector says, “Hey... don’t go there... yet! Things may not be what they seem. You could be...” End I.D.]

But then why wouldn’t they tell Shadow what they were up to? Sure, he has amnesia, so you can’t just say “your granddad might have a secret way to kill the demon aliens,” but you could say “we think there’s a message for you.” So why didn’t they?

Because, my dear friends, they only have twenty-four hours, and it takes quite a while to explain and prove time travel to an amnesiac hedgehog.

Part Three: What Route leads to the True Ending? The Time Travel One

Here’s where we get into crack.

Let’s put everything together and then go into Connie’s HellBrainMode™

The Chaotix’s mission is so secret that either they didn’t dare tell Charmy, or the ADHD 6yo understood that he had to shut up for once (and I say that with love) and thus not a single one of them dares reveal it.

The Mission definitely pertains to the ARK, Black Arms, Robotnik Family, and Shadow.

The Chaotix vaguely knew of the message that was needed to defeat the aliens, and so they were attempting to hack Robotnik computers to find it.

For some reason, they don’t even tell Shadow what’s up, even though due to their penchant for traveling with him and protecting him, they likely are aware he’s a bit important at the moment.

...so why does Shadow the Hedgehog have so many endings anyway?

On that last point... ShTH has an insane amount of routes, but really only eleven endings, with #11 being the final, canon ending. But all the endings are plausible routes, no matter how goddamn dark they can get. It seems the only thing that separates the endings is Shadow’s choices; whether he remains neutral, assists the Black Arms, or fights for Earth. Of course, the true ending involves him fighting for Earth, his friends, and Maria’s final wish, but the path he takes over the day of the Black Arms invasion needs to lead him there.

Does that mean he must follow a Hero route to reach that? By the time he gathers all the chaos emeralds, he can’t be in the depths of despair or convinced he’s an android, etc.; he’s definitely not in one of the endings where Eggman or Sonic die, seeing as they help him out in the True Ending. So if Eggman and Sonic are alive and Shadow’s not literally losing all hope in everything, we have to assume neither a Dark nor Neutral route was taken, as Dark tends to end with dead Sonic and Neutral tends to end with Dead Eggman.

Something interesting-- several Hero Routes involve helping the Chaotix. Gathering the discs for Charmy, helping Espio collect necessary data, helping Vector find the infamous computer room... Of course, most Hero Routes involve helping your friends when you see them, but the Chaotix specifically are looking for GUN/Ark/Robotnik/BlackArms information. While they will not share this information with Shadow, helping them puts him on the Hero Route, aka closer to the True Ending.

But which ending leads to the true ending? None of them, and yet all of them.

None of them end in the place where the true ending begins-- Shadow alone with the Chaos Emeralds, ready to discover the truth about his past, and about to be ambushed by an uninjured Black Doom while his friends are about to burst in to try and save him, having apparently discovered more about what’s happening.

Hero endings end with Shadow defeating Black Doom earlier, Neutral ends with depressed Shadow and dead Eggman, Dark ends with angry Shadow and dead Sonic. So a whole nother timeline was taken. Then what was the point of the first ten?

Well, through the first ten, you do learn certain information, don’t you? So who’s to say someone else going through the first ten endings wouldn’t learn something as well? If someone could, say, reset the day to the beginning every time Shadow has an angst moment and fails to save the world, and then use what they learned the last time in order to try and steer Shadow on a better path...

And in the True Ending, when Shadow and his friends are attacked by Black Doom, Shadow hears voices in his head-- voices from several different routes. Almost as if something in his mind clicks, something that feeds every route into him to make a final decision.

[I.D.: Gif from the Last Story of Shadow the Hedgehog; Shadow is on the ground, and voices are heard, represented here by captions, which read, in order: “I will avenge those whose blood has been spilled!” “Did I... die?” “That’s why you were created...” and “Please help me, Shadow.” End I.D.]

So what route leads to the last ending? All of them. All of them, so that the information gathered... gets the Chaotix on the ARK. To get the message out to Shadow.

Part Four: The Timeline of the Chaotix Time Travel

Every route begins with the same cutscene-- the beginning of the day, as the Black Arms invade... as their comet gets close enough to reach the planet. Let’s say, hmm, Gerald, for example, realized something might go horribly wrong when the Black Arms showed up if Shadow was traumatized and confused, and tried to make some kind of safeguard. The safeguard ended up being a reset button,* but it relied on the position of the Black Arms’ comet-- so thus, you can only reset to the beginning of its approach. The beginning of the day. And only the one(s) pressing the button remembers the reset, that could be an issue.

*Note: we’re using “reset button” as a general term, obviously it doesn’t have to be a literal button.

The Chaotix break into the remains of Prison Island sometime before the Black Arms attack; perhaps they sensed something was up, perhaps they noticed some weird stuff was going on, who knows. But they get in there, and find Gerald’s notes, and figure out some important stuff-- the Black Arms are invading, there’s a way to stop them on the ARK, and... oh, what’s this, this thing that the GUN scientists could never figure out how to use but hid away in case they figured it out one day. It’s a comet reset button?

Oh, comet, like the one right overhead-- oops.

The Chaotix are unable to stop the comet from arriving in the first place. So Vector puts together all the pieces-- “ultimate lifeform,” fifty-year timeskiip, whatever hints Gerald left-- and figures out that, likely, Gerald knew about the Black Arms, how to stop them, and that his ultimate lifeform, Shadow, is the key to saving the planet.

He sends Charmy to retrieve discs from GUN involving the ARK and Gerald on Prison Island, and then sets Espio to hacking into Eggman’s systems. Once they’ve got the info they need, they hop on a spaceship and race to the ARK. Thing is... each of these steps could go wrong in any way. Charmy doesn’t find the discs, Espio can’t reach the data, Vector can’t find the computer room, they fail to reach the ARK, or, above all, Shadow shows up and fucks up their shit.

Thankfully, the Chaotix have the day reset. Every time the planet starts to go to shit, Vector resets. Shadow just killed Sonic? Reset it, now, before those demons crash into Earth. Omega just texted Rouge to tell her that Shadow is convinced he’s destined to lead a robot uprising? Reset. Shadow is depressed thinking he’s a failed experiment that never should have been created and thus literally falls into such a state he can’t or won’t fight the Black Arms? Gotta reset that shit. They reset at least ten times, each time gaining more information and figuring out what they have to do. Charmy gets Shadow’s help in one route, then in the next timeline repeat remembers the locations. Espio knows how to break into Eggman’s computer. Vector figures out where they need to go. They figure out where the Chaos Emeralds are and where and when to get them to Shadow.

The eleventh and final reset begins, and Chaotix informs the Sonic Squad that the Black Arms need the Chaos Emeralds to destroy the planet and that they need to go keep an eye on Shadow. Somehow they get Eggman onboard-- idk they probably just namedropped Gerald and he listened to whatever they had to say. Once they’re sent off, they rush to the ARK.

Shadow, in the Last Route, has gathered the Chaos Emeralds off the ARK, somewhere on the below planet. Everyone else is on Earth, including Sonic, Black Doom, Eggman...

Everyone but the Chaotix.

The Chaotix, who continue working on this Big Case even after the Black Comet has descended through Earth’s atmosphere and the Black Arms are killing everyone on the planet.

The Chaotix, who are trying to hack into Gerald’s computer, looking for something important.

The Chaotix, who show absolutely no surprise or concern when Gerald’s message appears, implying that this could be what they were looking for.

The Chaotix, who are not seen again after the message is played.

Because their work is done.

Shadow’s choices lead him to make the right decision, but that final push he needs to defeat Black Doom is Gerald and Maria’s message. And once it’s played, he saves the goddamn world.

And then is stuck on the ARK with the Chaotix until the next game. Oops.

#shadow the hedgehog #shadow the hedgehog 2005 #team chaotix #vector the crocodile #charmy bee #espio the chameleon #sonic theory #sonic meta #mine #connie writes #connie theories

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jimmygibbsjrrr · 3 years

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I have a lot of thoughts about the Slaters

namely, I've been wonderin why the Fairfield Survivors got thrown off the boat in Death Toll

in this panel of The Sacrifice comic, Francis confirms the fates of three of the rescue vehicles:

Image ID:

A panel from The Sacrifice: Part 1. Francis is sat in the rescue vehicle from Blood Harvest, speaking to Louis. His dialogue is as follows:

"Louis, I hate to be the one to break this to ya, but we been heading to the safe zone four times now. Helicopter: crashed. Plane: crashed. Boat: kicked us out and left us to die."

/end ID

the chopper from No Mercy was confirmed crashed in Crash Course, and as for the plane from Dead Air, it was pretty easy to guess (and would have been confirmed in the cut campaign Dam It).

but the part about the boat? that's the Slaters' boat from Death Toll. this is the first time we learn this information.

so...why? what happened?

(more under the cut, ended up writing wayyyy more than I expected over these past few days and don't wanna clog people's dashes lol)

so. let's take a quick dive into the last chapter of Death Toll, to see what we can discern about the Slaters from their dialogue.

the rescue vehicle in Death Toll is a civilian boat, Saint Lidia II, owned by John and Amanda Slater, a married couple. Amanda is never heard in-game, but John's reactions to her can be heard over the radio.

the Slaters are explicitly looking for "anyone out there with firearms". John later adds that "once you get on this boat? Your job is keeping our asses alive". it appears that their motivation for saving the Survivors is selfish from the get-go.

this is undoubtedly true in Amanda's case, however, some of John's lines betray a more selfless attitude. he will berate Amanda for not "think[ing] about the little guy". he will ask, "So what, then? We leave 'em to die? I can't do that, Amanda." whilst Amanda is thinking purely of their own survival, John still feels compassionate towards his fellow survivors. despite this, he says that "I don't want our first act of kindness to be our last", acknowledging the conflict between his compassion and his self-preservation.

so. these are the Survivor's saviours in Death Toll. a conflicted married couple looking for bodyguards, offering to take the Survivors upriver to a military safe zone in exchange for protection.

as for why they get thrown off the boat...well, the easiest explanation would be Amanda.

but, stay with me here, because I think it's a little more complicated than that.

this boat? fulla tension. there's the obvious tension between the Slaters, who we've established seem to fight and disagree regularly. then there's the inevitable tension between them and the Survivors. I reckon Louis, with his generally positive and friendly attitude, wouldn't have much of a problem with them, might even attempt some friendly conversation or something. however, he's about the only one.

the comic fully establishes Bill as caring about nobody except the Fairfield Survivors - the most obvious evidence of this being the words he lives and dies by, "we look after our own". he isn't particularly interested in other people, unless they can help the group out. and he'd likely recognise the unstable and conditional nature of their rescue. while I'm sure he'd try and keep the peace, in any reasonable disagreement or fight Bill's likely to take his friends' side, and if anyone's getting thrown off the boat Bill is going with them. this goes for the whole group, to be honest; I don't think they'd want to split up at this point.

Francis hates boats, hates water, and can't swim, so (and I'm getting a little speculate-y here) would probably be in an even sourer mood than usual on the journey. being as abrasive as he is, plus this additional stress, it's fully possible he could piss off the Slaters enough to get himself (or all of them) thrown off the boat.

as for Zoey? well, I don't imagine a married couple who constantly argues is gonna sit well with her, considering her backstory. similarly to Francis, the situation they're in would make her far more stressed, making it more likely for her to lash out.

Amanda didn't want to save the Survivors in the first place, so while I think that John wouldn't throw them off the boat without reason, I reckon she could persuade him to throw them off if they 'caused trouble' - and they would get into an argument with her far easier than they would with John.

in short: yeah, I can see them getting thrown off the boat by the Slaters after some huge fight or disagreement. I think that's a reasonable interpretation of canon, and definitely an interesting concept.

...however, I do wonder if this tension would really be enough to destabilise their mutual need, after everything they went through to come together.

which is why I'm going to bring up The Last Stand!

I gotta quickly address something before this segment: yeah, I'm totally aware this campaign isn't canon. this evidence works with the fact that it exists in an 'alternate timeline'. also, I am missing a few citations for this section - if anyone can provide them I'd really appreciate it, but just a disclaimer that I currently can't prove some of the things the wiki claims members of the Last Stand Community Update Team have said. here and here are the wiki pages where I got this information. in short - the above explanation is simpler and more canon compliant, the conclusion I draw at the end of this post is backed by shakier evidence but I believe is more interesting, and you can make of all that what you will.

allegedly, members of the Last Stand Community Update Team confirmed a strongly-suspected fan theory about The Last Stand: that it branches off from Death Toll in some way, in a non-canon alternative timeline. as well as this, they allegedly confirmed that in this alternative timeline, the Survivors still end up in Newburg for Dead Air. even without the confirmation, this remains a solid fan theory, due to the constant references to Riverside and re-use of many of Death Toll's assets.

who rescues the Survivors in The Last Stand? John Slater. no Amanda - just John. despite her lack of voice actress, if she was still present John would give some indication of this at some point. it can be speculated that whatever happened to her contributed to the lack of rescue at the boathouse that forced the Survivors to take an alternative route. either way, he ends up at the lighthouse when the Survivors call for rescue, alone, and picks them up.

and then later...throws them off the boat. into Newburg.

what reason would John have to do that? without Amanda, surely he wouldn't have that push, as he wanted to rescue the Survivors for multiple reasons in the first place. without his constant arguments with Amanda, Zoey wouldn't be nearly as stressed. and between the three of them I'm sure the other Fairfield Survivors would stop Francis from pissing John off enough to get them thrown off the boat. in short, less Amanda = less tension, and no reason for the Survivors getting chucked off the boat.

...right?

I'd like to remind you that a symptom of the Infection is paranoia.

what if, in both The Last Stand and Death Toll, John and Amanda are infected by the Survivors on the way to the military safe zone? after all, the virus is confirmed to occasionally be airborne, and I doubt two civilians have completely effective, sustained protection against that. likely the only reason they hadn't already been Infected is because they got out on the water early on in the pandemic, and hadn't come into contact with anyone else since. it's unlikely that one of them is immune, and even more unlikely that they're both immune (especially considering those with XX chromosomes may be genetically less likely to be carriers). wouldn't Francis have mentioned it if their rescuers turned or were obviously Infected? yes, but it's possible that the airborne strain works slower as well, meaning that the Survivors are thrown off of the boat after the symptoms kick in but before the Slaters fully turn. even Church Guy had at least an hour from being Infected to turning, and he was bitten. Newburg isn't too far from where the Survivors are rescued in Death Toll anyway (the burning city in the background of the finale is Newburg), so the Survivors clearly didn't last long on the boat anyway. as a result, the Survivors wouldn't realise it was the Infection intensifying the Slaters' paranoia - they'd just think the Slaters were being dicks. Francis also explicitly mentions that they were "left to die", implying negativity or even hostility from the Slaters as the Survivors were being thrown off.

so yeah. that's why I think they got thrown off of the boat in Death Toll - a combination of the intense tension between the two parties, and the Slaters falling victim to Infection-induced paranoia. but an explanation minus the Infection is equally as plausible. it all depends on what you find most interesting, I suppose, and both feel like they fit pretty well into the world.

lord this is a long chunk o text. I know most fandoms prefer art and fanfic over this sorta thing, so please let me know in replies or something if you're interested in more stuff like this. also if any of this makes sense because I like to ramble.

oh and if you'd like to use any of my interpretations in fanworks like art or fic, I'd love to see it :)

#l4d #l4d2 #left 4 dead #left 4 dead 2 #jrrrambles #not gonna tag any characters #because I mention a ton #and I don't think the Slaters have tags #i spent way too much time on this </3

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thecupcakewritesmorethings · 3 years

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Amgry Kingdom Hearts Theory: Fox in a Box

Hi I’m mad.

I’m mad because of Kingdom Hearts. I’m aLSO MAD BECAUSE I THOUGHT OF THIS THEORY AND IT MAKES SOME(?) SORT OF SENSE.

Caplock rant over, crackpot theory Under The Cut.

Before I actually talk about the theory itself I have to establish a few things that lead me to believe any of this is a plausibility aside from how it’s Kingdom Hearts; and it’s just like though.

.Basis.

First of all, I am running with several theories here which haven’t been outright confirmed, though it’s pretty blatant a few of these things are meant to be implicitly deduced, not downright explained. Whether it’s because Nemura may decide to re-neg on some of these or not is anyone’s guess.

I’m running with the ideas that Ava is The Traitor, Is Darkness, and is also the Disembodied Keyblade Wielder in the final world at the end of Melody of Memory. Also, I feel like I should note that Ava is technically alive/has the chance of becoming a force in later games.

Ava, however, NOT Subject 0. Such an honor belongs to Skuld... For reasons you may already be guessing.

In fact, I’m going to do you a solid. The only game events you need to know in order for this to make sense is the general plot of Union X, The Kingdom Hearts 3, and Melody of Memory. Or even just the general plot of Union X, the end of Kingdom Hearts 3, and the end of Melody of Memory.

In Union X we uncover the general back bone of the theory. When we get through the entirety of the Keyblade story foam we come with the pieces of evidence we really need to back up this theory.

Time Travel works, but with limitations (Tm). Everyone from the Original Keyblade War is saved to the Book of Prophecies all USB style,but this doesn’t stop people from potentially dying. WHEN SOMEONE “DIES”, or more precisely their heart gets destroyed, their body vanishes (in the case of Strelitzia).

WE ALSO know, in the case of Luxu/Braig that bodies outside of this Data world still age. This is why Luxu has apparently hopped multiple hosts, and also why Braig’s body ages when he’s a Nobody.

I also would like to propose another tag-along theory that doesn’t ultimately change what I am about to say; but Braig and Luxu are very much so aware of each other and while Luxu is riding passenger on Xigbar’s consciousness; they are in fact separate people. Xibar/Braig will just do things for Luxu when Luxu asks. It’s not super important, but I think it does add another layer of depth to the role Luxu had since his only job was to observe, and he chose to observe through Braig’s eyes. Braig/Xigbar is entirely at fault for his actions which led him to becoming a Nobody/Nort.

Get it? Got it. Okay. Moving on.

.Schrodinger’s Fox.

The overwhelming problem that is in Union X that isn't in the other games is actual consequences one would normally think of when considering wars: death and permanent injury.

In the span of the series we have seen ONE person die for real, and despite how sad it is; Strelitzia is likely never going to come back. The good news is for everyone playing Union X after KH1-KH3 (ish) is that this sets up the stakes of the game perfectly. The fact she hasn’t miraculously re-appeared due to some Keyblade Miracle really sets the stakes for that time period. When people die; they stay dead in Union X.

This provides the foundation of the problem. The Master of Masters KNOWS a war is going to happen due to the use of No-Name, and the efforts of Luxu passing from body to body in the future. This is also why I believe Braig/Xigbar has agency and isn’t just possessed. Either way, he knows a lot of people, potentially great and revolutionary Keyblade wielders, are going to die.

Whether or not his motivations are noble, just, or even at all reasonable: MoM sets out to try and stop it. By sending Luxu forward to do his observations MoM has a direct lay-line to the future which allow him to make the book of Prophecies... Which, as we all know from playing Union X, act as databases that the participants of the Keyblade war are stored to... Or maybe just their memories? It’s rather unclear.

Basically the people died but their memories were backed up, giving them a potential chance to live on in memory. Just... You know. Literally.

However, this is not just some grand gesture. MoM uses the Foretellers to set up his data world and keep the proverbial fires stoke while Luxu and the Traitor (Ava) confront each other.

This is where a lot of speculating begins. If Ava is that soul in the Final World; then she must have lost her body at some point, right? Well. She did.

MoM, knowing Ava is the traitor and she will inadvertently set of the war herself, travels into time to go and retrieve her body before she totally fades away and stuffs her into a device devoid of time, space, light, dark, and meant to keep her body functioning without perishing. Luxu doesn’t seem to have realized that Ava perished, or hasn’t realized he’s carting around her life support.

Anyway, MoM returns to the past, and he gives the box to Luxu, and tasks him to keep it safe and never to open it. The reason WHY it’s crucial the box is never opened is because Ava’s heart is in the Final World chilling with the people who died in the Keyblade war. If he were to open the box without going to the final world, Ava would actually perish.

Luxu probably suspects that Darkness is Ava, which is true, but that’s not the entire picture. In order to keep Luxu from figuring out too much, MoM makes a backup copy of Ava and names her darkness. This is something he could have easily done in the Data World, since he basically did this to create it. We also see data copies of Kingdom Hearts characters later in the series.

.Scientific Revelation.

Anyway, we jump forward several games. We could stop at Birth By Sleep, but aside from Braig appearing canonically for the first time not much happens here to serve the theory. All we do know is that Luxu and Braig are DEFINITELY rocking the same body by KH2 (not a phrase I ever thought I’d say). At the end of Kingdom Hearts 3 Luxu pulls the other Foretellers out of the Data World from the book of Prophecies.

There has to be a reason for this; and I propose Luxu’s goal was to wait and observe until the ability to bring people back from the dead/ bringing people out of the data world became a possibility they could achieve.

The Xigbar and Repliku fight was the second big fight in the maze, and I gather that Xigbar/Luxu chose to back off then because of Replica Riku’s sacrifice left him speculating something big may have been happening.

And lo and behold, something did. Xion is back and Xion has a heart? Old Xemnas becomes Tera again? ROXAS EXISTS AGAIN AND HAS A HEART? Yeah this has to be the sign he was looking for. He packs up his box, goes to the Keyblade Graveyard and summons/waits.

It is unknown whether or not he knows that Namine is walking around, but at this point he knows what he knows. Sora and Co can now bring people back from basically thin air, even giving life to people who shouldn’t exist, provided they have a vessel.

.”Ava had her own Mission, and she carried it out”.

I would say FAMOUS last words, but these weren’t Luxu’s last words. At least, I don’t think they will be. It seems rather uncharacteristic of Xig/Luxu to let things be, and even if Luxu’s task is done Xigbar lives for chaos. I doubt either of them will be gone.

Anyway, Ava did complete her task. By being duped into becoming the “Traitor” and having her body and heart separated, she was able to take care of the memories in the Final World, where the Fairy God Mother takes Kairi to meet at the end of Melody of memories. It’s unclear if she knows her body is in the waking world stuffed in a box, but I’m going to say she doesn’t, just like Luxu/Xigbar.

.”Like a Seeds of a Dandelion, Let them Fly to the Another World”.

I would like to cycle back to the beginning on this... Why Ava? What makes her so special out of the other Foretellers, barring Luxu? Something must have made her specific for this role, and it may have been Ava’s own good nature that made her the candidate. After all, if any of the other Foretellers took her role, it’s entirely possible that Ava could have quelled any infighting among the Foretellers, especially if one of the more hot-headed Foretellers was put in the box instead.

Another possible theory is that it was a fail-safe. When MoM speaks to Ava he’s not as dramatic as he is with the other Foretellers, so it would not surprise me if there was a large grain of truth to what he said to her. He told her that she was the last chance of hope for Light, but unfortunately that may have lead her into the box. Ava was tricked into being the traitor, but by becoming the traitor, she actually managed to land herself a very safe place. I think that the Master of Masters wanted her to be revived if his plan didn’t pan out. Just to be sure that Light survived.

#Kingdom hearts #Kingdom hearts theory #Ava #luxu #Master of Masters #MoM #Xigbar #Braig #Spoilers

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actuallylorelaigilmore · 4 years

Text

a primary walks into a bar...

jennifer x deacon, 12 monkeys. also on ao3.

the first fic i drafted for these two, just a bit of fun set immediately post-canon. jennifer POV.

(i’ve decided to embrace imperfections instead of holding onto my stories for these two until i feel better acquainted with them. if my later fics are more in character, then at least i’ll have written more fics, which is a net positive.)

“I don’t want to forget the past.” She tried to press meaning into every syllable, tried to gift him their history in code, if only it were possible. “I want to keep the past.”

He nodded, still leaned in close, like he actually cared about what she had to say. Excellent customer service. Five stars, above and beyond.

“But I’m not here to remember it, either. I don’t need a bar, or a drink, for that.” Jennifer grinned at him, the unbalanced scales of her smile a contrast to the sharp edges of his. “I just wish I could do it over again.”

“Don’t we all.” He glanced at the door when the bell above it rang. A new customer, somebody else to focus on, to cater to. He was good at this, Jennifer thought, the way she had every night she visited. It suited him, this destiny, the one he was always meant to have.

Just sucked that hers was meant to be so separate from his.

“But I guess until somebody invents time travel, we’re all stuck with the lives we’ve got, huh?” Deacon asked, and Jennifer’s eyes snapped to his, searching.

What was a Primary, once Time wasn’t broken anymore?

Jennifer could still see it, see it all: how things fit together, how they should run. But now things ran as they should. Parallel tracks, a train she didn’t have to fall in front of. Time didn’t need her, to hold itself together or to make sense.

Nobody needed her, now that the world was saved.

When Time rewound and she waited on that beach for Cole, salt in the air and her lungs, sun making it stick to her skin...most of her was just grateful she could finally rest. Take a breath on the beach. Close her eyes against the sun. Feel what Time was like when it didn’t need her so much.

She was free.

Freedom was lonely.

People who couldn’t see Time’s motions, those people were leading singular ordinary lives. Though she could visit Cassie and Cole in their happy after, it wasn’t her life to share.

And the small part of Jennifer that missed Deacon, a man who was now a boy who didn’t know her, again--she could live with that part. She could console that part the way she consoled her lonely Daughters when they needed it. This mood will pass, you are better off as you are, everything is as it should be.

So she waited.

She lived her life.

Jennifer Goines--genius CEO girlboss--had better things to do than spend decades wishing for a reunion with one guy.

She monitored his budding business because she had time to spare, Jennifer told herself. Not because she wanted to see him. Certainly not because she needed to. That cat dying of curiosity was an awfully convenient explanation anyway.

But the need was there. Ignoring it didn’t lessen it--made it worse, in fact. A new voice in her head, one that didn’t sound like her at all, but also not like a Primary calling out across time.

Just a voice inside, saying, go to him. Saying, it doesn’t matter if he can’t see it, if he doesn’t know you now.

Go, and there you’ll find home.

************************************

“Forget or remember?”

Jennifer blinked. Time kept on ticking.

“What?”

It was Deacon asking, and she’d heard him, but her mind had been elsewhere before he spoke. Other than taking her order when she sat down at the bar, he hadn’t spoken to her all night.

Not like she expected him to; not like she was there at Brothers Deacon waiting for long heart-to-hearts with a guy who didn’t know her.

We saved the world together, she thought whenever he looked her way. Sometimes she yelled it internally, raising a voice only she could hear. We saved them all, together, you were there! And now you don’t even know my name.

“Are you drinking to forget, or to remember?” Deacon tried again, more slowly. “I like to ask. I always wonder.”

It was a slow Tuesday evening, which might explain his stab at conversation. Maybe he was curious because she’d come in every night that week--staking her claim as a new regular. An irregular regular, she thought with a snort.

The other days, he’d left her alone, letting her people-watch and laugh at her own jokes. But now, he noticed her, turning her world around just like he did the first time.

He was the only one who ever had, who saw her as a person-not-Primary and deemed her worthy of notice. In another life, Jennifer reminded herself, tugging her focus back to this one.

“Do people drink to remember?” She considered that concept. Not one she’d thought about before, but it sounded plausible. Like the first time she saw a unicorn and thought, I believe it. If that’s not real it should be. Then, of course, it was. Good times.

Deacon offered her an easy grin, relaxed against the bar like they had all the time in the world for a philosophical discussion. There was an intimacy to it that Jennifer wanted to believe came from experience--that some piece of Deacon was linked to some piece of her, no matter what Time had to say about it.

“Sure they do. Haven’t you ever missed somebody?”

“Yes.” You, she told him with her eyes. His were mirrors reflecting back; she couldn’t tell if the reflection was one-way. Wrong room for an interrogation. Even worse for ballet.

She had taken ballet classes as a little girl--Mother’s idea, of course. The funhouse mirrors never blinked, always staring, staring with their watchful eyes. Jennifer switched to tap.

“Well, I can tell you, as a proprietor of this fine establishment, lots of people find it a little bit easier...a little less painful...to lubricate the process. You want to forget the past, you get blind drunk until you can barely stumble home from here. You want to remember it, you nurse rounds slowly; you savor.”

Deacon grinned at her again, that slice of a smile she could feel down to her toes. “I keep myself entertained when it’s not busy, trying to guess which customers are which. Most people are easy, but you--I’m still trying to figure it out.”

She laughed. “Easy is definitely not a word that’s often applied to me.”

All the words that had been still lived inside her like brands, burning hot and painful even then. Murderer. Crazy. Fool. Once upon a time he gave her better ones, ones that sparkled. Sorry. Purpose. Take it.

Deacon didn’t know that, though. She could keep his words in her pockets like gifts but he was not the giver. Jennifer shook her head, cleared it of the past-future. Never was, in this reality.

“Wanna give me a hint?” Theodore of the Brothers Deacon asked, shifting closer so his elbows were resting on the clean bar.

Call it wishful thinking--wouldn’t be the first time, she remembered a pair of otter eyes and a head full of lies--but it almost felt flirtatious, the way he was looking at her and waiting to see what she said.

The tragedy of time was that when they were walking parallel lines, he just kept dying--and now that the world was saved, her line was thirty years too late. Didn’t mean she couldn’t have a little fun, Jennifer decided. If Deacon had a thing for older women, who was she to argue?

So she curled her fingers into her palms, roots into the earth grounding her where she sat, and told the truth. Wrapped her lips around the words like Jennifer would wrap herself around Deacon again, if she could go back. Time is a snake that only moves forward; no going back, not anymore.

“I don’t want to forget the past.” She tried to press meaning into every syllable, tried to gift him their history in code, if only it were possible. “I want to keep the past.”

He nodded, still leaned in close, like he actually cared about what she had to say. Excellent customer service. Five stars, above and beyond.

Just sucked that hers was meant to be so separate from his.

“But I guess until somebody invents time travel, we’re all stuck with the lives we’ve got, huh?” Deacon asked, and Jennifer’s eyes snapped to his, searching.

Too good to be true, too easy to hope. Somewhere in there, she wanted to see the man she used to believe in, the one she believed loved her a little.

A little was everything, compared to what she’d had before.

So Jennifer knew better than to believe her lying hopeful heart, coming here to drink and pass the hours and cross her fingers in case today was the day time unfurled again and they’d have to team back up to fix it.

Cole and Cassie were out of the pool, they got their happy future and it was where Time needed them to stay...so if anybody was gonna be called to new adventures, it might as well be her. And if anything else was going to be asked of her, there was no one she would trust by her side more than Deacon.

Excuses, really. It’d been thirty years, and Time was still ticking along, no hiccups.

And while those two had landed a little bit outside of Time, just enough to remember what happened, most people only seemed to have room for one reality in their heads. Nothing felt more lonely than being Primary in a world where Jones and Hannah didn’t know her...except maybe being Primary in this bar, missing Deacon while he was three feet away.

“Yep,” she told him with a hollow laugh. It was just a coincidence, his comment. She could find needles anywhere with a big enough magnet. What did that prove to the haystack? “I guess we’re all stuck.”

He was already shifting his weight in the direction of the guy who came through the door, ready to move on to other business, but Deacon paused long enough to aim that smile at her a final time.

“How about the next round’s on me.” Well, now. He’d certainly never done that before, offered to pay for her beer.

First time for everything, she thought, wondering what had gotten into him that made the day different from other days. Frequent drinker program nobody told her about? Whatever it was, she wasn’t going to complain.

Deacon passed the drink to her before crossing to the other side of the bar, tossing his last words over his shoulder--she could barely hear them above the music that filled the space. In every reality, he was still stuck in the 80s.

“Let me know if you need me for anything else, ma’am.”

A part of her bristled at the end of that sentence, annoyed by the way strangers treated her these days with extra years sketched on her face. Everybody likes a good chicken, until it clucks for itself.

She couldn’t take it personally coming from him, though, Jennifer decided. After all, Deacon called her ma’am when she was his own age, when he barely knew her yet.

Wait.

Something about his use of the word, the glint in his eyes, the ease of his handing her a pint. It tripped that fucking hope again, and she couldn’t help it, her eyes followed him as he worked down the other end of the bar.

Taking folded bills from the new guy, pouring him a shot, then another. Polishing a glass while New Guy knocked them back, nodding when he held up a finger.

Deacon served the only other person sitting in front of him, and Jennifer wondered how long it would take for him to head back in her direction. Would she be able to see it, if there was something in his eyes? Was there any difference in the way he carried himself, now that he wasn’t carrying a lifetime of scars?

Her head was a magic eight ball brimming with questions, like always. Shake it, you get answers. Or ask again later, seventeen times in a row ‘til you want to smash it against the wall and make the truth come out.

From her vantage point on the stool she couldn’t make guesses about his eyes, and he moved like always--coiled energy, potential for danger. Indoors in winter, nobody but Deacon could list his own scars.

New Guy was talking to him about a football game, and Deacon was making engaged listening noises, though it was obvious he didn’t really care.

She should have known better, of course, Jennifer scolded herself later. Time wasted looking for hints, subtle traces. Of all the things Theodore Deacon is-was-will-forever-be, subtle never made it onto the list.

His customer was a quick drunk--looking to forget, she thought with a twitch of her lips--and he required the barest show of interest. Deacon’s volume grew alongside his, their discussion more spirited, and her eyes were starting to glaze over.

But Jennifer was still facing their way, and in the end it didn’t matter that she wasn’t actively listening. When it came to Deacon, she was pretty sure she could hear him in a hurricane.

She could hear him even when he was silent. He was the hurricane.

After he slid New Guy another shot, Deacon glanced Jennifer’s way. His carelessly friendly expression faded, replaced by an unblinking intensity.

The bar wasn’t packed, but it held noise and people enough to entertain her on a slow night. She shouldn’t have been able to sense the room closing in, a narrowing tunnel and a ringing in her ears.

Among the noise and the oblivious customers, Deacon was staring at her like they were the only two people left on Earth, and Jennifer felt the kind of shiver she hadn’t in thirty years, because nobody looked at her that way anymore.

Nobody else ever had, swallowing hard across a table like his words were bees that would sting them both if they escaped. Jennifer wasn’t allergic to bees; she still wondered what they might have spelled out in the sky if he’d let them fly.

Sometimes after Time took what it was owed, it gave a little something back. She’d assumed that gift was reserved for Cole alone, but maybe Time had generosity left for its favorite cog in the wheel. Maybe it took pity on her fall from Primary grace to ordinary human living on a barstool.

The reason didn’t really matter, did it? Not when the horse was there, to keep its mouth closed and unexamined?

Sometimes, Jennifer remembered as Deacon’s eyes stayed on hers, Time understood that it owed you, too.

She’d already set her drink down, knew her mouth was gaping a little, didn’t care if she looked like a moron. Deacon tipped back his own beer before he smiled at her again, and she let the shiver repeat, run through her.

Maybe hope wasn’t dead, a man on his knees in a crowd filled with blades. Maybe hope had been hibernating.

Deacon pointed at her beer, raised his eyebrows like he was asking if she wanted another, and she nodded, answering whatever question might’ve been buried beneath that one.

He took his time getting to her with it, dusting off a shelf and straightening a handful of vodka bottles along the way.

“Here you go,” he said when he arrived, the click of his tongue a punctuation mark and a memory.

Deacon set the fresh beer down in front of her, leaned against the back wall of his bar, and winked.

#honestly i shouldn't be posting this before bed i'm sleepy and if there are typos i'll catch them tomorrow--but i want it out there #jennifer goines #theodore deacon #jennifer x deacon #12 monkeys #otp: like a fox #jennifer goines fic #theodore deacon fic #jennifer x deacon fic #12 monkeys fic #my fic

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makiema · 5 years

Text

I was just reading Snk 123 again and somehow I’m just so sad that Isayama literally flipped Levi out of Eren’s life just like that. I mean this has been hard to accept for a long time now but with all the miscommunication between AM and Eren in this chapter, it is even harder to take in. Levi has played such a big role in Eren’s development and has always understood Eren better than anybody. His pov is extremely important at this point. And I’m just a lot frustrated at how Isayama keeps pushing him out of the whole conundrum. So basically I wanted to write a meta but I was just too sad to write a meta so below the cut is just a whole rant about Levi and Eren and why we need Levi back in Eren’s life. Eh, it’s like really long but I just had to get this off my chest.

I just want Levi to talk with Eren once more before the manga concludes. His POV is extremely important rn, more than ever, given that he was the only one who acknowledged Eren for his whole self ( yes both his darker side and the baby side). Additionally he was the only one who talked to Eren in his language (like freedom and choice) something that would later influence Eren’s outlook and consequently his speeches too. I don’t have anything against AM (in fact I love both of them a lot) but really the fact that they CHOSE to see only one side of Eren is something that’s undesirable and unfortunate. I mean, every living person has a darker twist associated with them. Nobody is flawless and it’s important for us as well as people around us to acknowledge the flaws, to accept a person for who he is. Choosing to ignore the darker aspects and accepting only the idealised version of someone is rather naive and immature behaviour.

And here I just wanna point out how Levi was always aware about the darkness that Eren possesses inside him. He has always spoken in terms of duality when it came to Eren like to him, Eren was both a “tameless monster” that might be dangerous and also his “source of all miracles” ,i.e., his hope. Levi is someone who never had a Romantic perception of Eren. But for AM, it was just the opposite. Could it be because AM were somewhat afraid that if they chose to see Eren’s darkness it might make them love him less and also shatter the idealism they associate with him? And am I blaming AM for having this outlook? Hell no. It’s a personal take but tbh as teenagers that’s not uncommon. I mean we do like to think that the people closest to us are absolutely perfect. We like to believe that they can never be in the wrong, specially when it comes to family and childhood friends who’ve been there for us since forever. It’s hard to accept that they might have a darker side to them. AM love Eren so much that it makes them turn a blind eye to reality and they “did not want to see” the slow transformation in Eren because that could lead them to confront Eren’s demons.

However, coming back to Levi, he really foreshadowed Eren’s whole character arc in his understanding of Eren’s nature. Yes, Eren does have a darker psychological side: he is essentially a monster that cannot be hold in check by anybody. Mikasa and Armin tried in 112, but sadly they couldn’t get through to him. And also, let’s talk about the difference in approaching Eren when it comes to AM and Levi. Armin, in all the instances he managed to talk Eren out of his delirious state, has always made references to the outside world and elaborated on the beauty and variety that lies there. It was kind of like projecting his own dreams onto Eren and not realizing that Eren doesn’t care about oceans or mountains or deserts or anything. For Eren, it is not about the beauty of the world or the variety in it, it is the FREEDOM and the FREEDOM OF CHOICE that a person who’s not oppressed has when it comes to seeing and experiencing the world. In contrast to Armin’s way, we have Levi’s way of approaching Eren where he talks about the different taste in air outside the walls because the outside has what BOTH OF THEM value: FREEDOM. Levi also talked about how hellish the outside is, in contrast to Armin always associating beauty with it. And when Eren later talks to Falco he tells that what awaits him might just be another hell, but it could be hope too- the hope of finally being free. Levi has a superior understanding of Eren, of what he needs to hear, etc.- something that can’t be just thrown out of the window. (Isayama did just that by denying any involvement from Levi when it comes to Eren’s recent actions/attitude. He denied us the talk that was much needed)

Now the VN isn’t exactly canon given that it wasn’t written by Isayama but we can consider it semi-canon as it required Isayama’s approval. So, the whole thing highlighted the message that “Humanity’s strongest understands Eren Jaeger very well” and yeah, even going by the manga we know Levi is integral in Eren’s development and is the only one who saw through the duality in Eren, understood his drive and his will. So why all the focus on Levi’s understanding of Eren if it is supposed to amount to nothing in the end? I get that Isayama wanted to set it up like Levi’s role in Eren’s life is over but it is just so abrupt?? I mean, okay I accept that when Levi said “He’s fifteen. Everyone has a phase like that”, it was an indirect reference to the fact that Eren is in the teenage phase™️ where he wants to be left alone with only his friends and therefore, Hange shouldn’t be so inquisitive (and maybe Levi too should not concern himself with Eren as much as he used to before??) Like, if we look at this way, it justifies Levi’s distance from Eren post the basement revelation. Since then, we got no other moment of conversation between them while before that, there’d be plenty. I get Isayama’s motif of taking Levi out of Eren’s life to add fuel to Eren’s gradual isolation from everybody but then why did he bother to put so much emphasis on Levi’s understanding of Eren in the beginning? It should have some ulterior purpose right? If the Rumbling does happen and the world is really destroyed (i’m not ruling out the possibility of the world destruction not happening im just considering the situation if it really does comes to the worst), there has to be someone who reproaches Eren, someone who berates him in a way that he understands and reflects on what he has done; someone who brings up the topic of if this is really what freedom demands and actually gives us the answer to the pertinent question: if this was the only way? And I cant think about anyone else really suited for this other than Levi- someone who realized the potential for danger that Eren holds? someone who always realized his desire for freedom? (Also, Levi and Hange are the only senior officers left right now so it ideally should be either of them but because Levi played a greater role in Eren’s life compared to Hange, I side more for him being the one to deal with Eren.)

Also, Armin pointed out how he always thought he understood Eren even more than Mikasa but it turned out that he actually didn’t; the same went for Mikasa in 123 when she accepted that she’s been seeing only one side of Eren. Both of them could never accept the plausibility of Eren doing something so monstrous. But, Levi could. From the very beginning. Not that it made him love Eren any less I mean, he did say that he’d willingly go to war again to protect Eren. Besides the vow he made to Erwin, the fact that Zeke could be controlling Eren and it’s Zeke’s fault that the higher-ups don’t trust Eren, also became a crucial factor for Levi to decide going against authority and killing Zeke. That’s how much Levi still loves Eren, even after Liberio. So all I am saying is that Levi should be let in Eren’s life once this all is over and the manga concludes because imo there is no one better qualified to address Eren and talk to him as he is now. Only someone who had a vague idea about Eren’s darkness can and also should talk him down. If the Rumbling really happens, and all hell is really let loose, then is this really the freedom that Eren wanted? Is this a price worth paying? Given that Levi is the only one who has spoken explicitly about freedom to Eren, his take on this becomes extremely important and that’s why we need a Levi-Eren talk or at least Levi’s pov on Eren and the Rumbling.

The manga has established that Levi understands Eren’s drive for freedom and his monstrous essence better than anybody else. In fact, it is an undeniably important aspect of his character arc and unless he gets to have a final conversation with Eren then his arc will never really get a proper closure. At least, this is how I feel and I’m also sad that Isa made him so non-inclusive in Eren’s life just like that and in his place, AM couldn’t understand Eren at all. I mean let’s face it he is Eren’s mentor and his influence on Eren is so visible that this cutting away of Levi from Eren’s life just doesn’t sit well with me. Maybe it’s because I’m biased idk but I strongly feel like Levi should get a final say on Eren and his behaviour, because right now, as it stands, he is the only one who got the closest to understanding Eren, all of him.

#idk im just rambling #and im sad #it just hurts that Levi would become so unimportant #like idk why all the focus if it means nothing in the end #im bleh #snk #ereri #sorry for the rant #levi ackerman #eren jaeger #levieren #snk 123

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mittensmorgul · 5 years

Note

You and the show itself have repeatedly called Chuck a hack writer... ("Ayn Rand after firing her editor" hahahahah), and yet the story is deep, moving, multilayered, endlessly engaging. So what gives? Or is it the fact that Chuck-the-writer himself is a character?... *gets a headache*

HAAAA.

Well, first off, I thought I’d said “Anne Rice after firing her editor.” *goes to check* yup, that’s what I said. :’D

https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/188632630880/i-know-this-is-a-weird-question-but-with-his

(for context, early in her career after her first brush with success, she just... unilaterally decided that she would have sole control over her creations, and has since refused any and all editorial guidance. And it’s... noticeable...)

but YES I mean ~Chuck the Character~. Since he’s not the one writing the show we’re watching. He’s writing his own thing in-universe. Which we know for a fact is... not exactly true to what *we* have seen happen.

I mean, one of the first things we learn about his books is that he never used Sam and Dean’s last name in the books. We also learn that he HEAVILY edited stuff out to suit the story. Like, in the Supernatural books in canon, there’s no mention of Sam’s blood drinking. Chuck left it out because he thought it made Sam seem “unsympathetic.” So what else has he left out, or changed, to suit the story he ~actually~ wanted to tell?

Lizbob wrote a great piece years ago about this-- the in-narrative “book fandom” vs “our tv show fandom.” This was from January 2015, so it’s been a while, and doesn’t include current... developments... regarding Chuck. (so please don’t go asking lizbob for an update on this one... she’s still half a dozen episodes behind and doesn’t know things yet... thanks!)

https://elizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com/post/108911450713/he-seems-helpful-and-dreamy

So that’s for what he actually LITERALLY writes in canon, as a character. But as for what he metaphorically writes as GOD? As the creator of the universe in-narrative, who set the stage by his own creation, and then repeatedly manipulated circumstances to attempt to force his characters to enact certain plotlines? And then when they finally REFUSED? Because as part of the story he’d not only given his characters free will, but also spent the last 14 years testing that sense of free will by fire at every opportunity, hardening it into a rock-solid foundation they finally stood upon in 14.20? And ultimately defied him?

Yeah, he had a temper tantrum.

This is the point in my reply where I begin to feel a bit dizzy, because it’s one of those mind-bendy sorts of situations. So apologies in advance if I go a bit *wobbles hand back and forth*

When they introduced Chuck as a character, I don’t know if there was already intent, or even long-term thought put into him secretly being God playing a hack writer in his own story. But I do know that Kripke told Rob that he’d been essentially playing God, and joked with him about it. So even if it hadn’t started with the firm conviction that Chuck was actually God, it was definitely the intent by the time 5.22 aired.

That said, how much influence over creation did Chuck really have? How much was his characters surprising him, and defying his original intent? Supernatural has played with this concept repeatedly since then, but especially heavily in Dabb era. Which, as I’ve stated many times in the past, I firmly believe began at the midpoint of s11 when he quietly took over the showrunning duties. I believe Chuck As Final Boss had been his intent since he took over, and he’d been setting up the pieces all along. He could’ve run another season on the AU!Michael arc, he could’ve drawn out the story for several more seasons after that if everyone had wanted to keep going. But I believe that what we’re seeing unfold now had always been the Bigger Picture Plan. Which makes him very un-Chuck-like.

And this is what makes the whole thing incredibly meta. Because the writers in ~our universe~ have been creating this story all along, deliberately writing Chuck as a mediocre writer. Sure he had some interesting ideas, but remember those characters with Free Will? Who he gave this power to make choices for themselves? Yeah, they’ve been getting better and better at ~interfering~ with Chuck’s big plots. And Chuck... has been getting worse and worse at thinking up plausible alternate scenarios to throw at them to wrench them around to the tragic plots CHUCK wanted to write for them.

Chuck is NOT an in-story symbol for the current writers. He’s The Original Storyteller. He’s also a handy metaphor for the “Supernatural should go back to what it used to be” crowd. It can NEVER go back to what it was at the beginning, because the characters have grown and evolved so much since then, because remember, in story THEY ARE AUTONOMOUS BEINGS WITH FREE WILL! And Chuck doesn’t WANT them to be. He wants them to be actors on his personal stage, willing to follow the script, even when it doesn’t make SENSE. Even when none of the characters even like the play.

He created this world, and has spent years tormenting Sam, Dean, and Cas (and now Rowena, Jack, and everyone else too) for his own personal entertainment. And he refuses to let them rest. The moment they earn themselves a win, he throws yet another problem at them. To the point where he’s had to break his own “storytelling rules” to divert them back into the story numerous times.

Have a gun that can kill anything? Great! Try shooting the devil in the face with it! WHOMP-WHOMP. Sorry, there’s only five things in the world that gun can’t kill, and Lucifer’s one of them! Sucks to be you guys!

Angels don’t have weapons, they just have glowy mojo! WHOMP-WHOMP! Except this one sword that can kill other angels! Wait, you like that? OKAY SO MAYBE ALL angels have swords from now on! Sucks to be you guys!

Oh, you have a magical necklace that glows in my presence? WHOMP-WHOMP! Sorry, I switched it off. Blocked your number. Wasn’t taking calls. Too busy writing my masterpiece to be interrupted by your pestering. Sucks to be you guys!

He’s repeatedly blamed all the worlds problems on anyone but himself, despite most of the problems his characters have complained about to his face... were literally of his own design. They’ve got a list of complaints about his storytelling about five miles long by now, and he just shrugs and goes on writing.

And he’s so completely lost touch with his own “characters” and now so CONVINCED that he’s actually telling a good story that it’s become the Last Job of his characters to somehow (by the end of the series) wrest control of their own story from him, one way or another.

He’s “written” countless other universes that he considers (and that AU!Michael referred to as) “failed drafts.” He didn’t like the way the story was going, and abandoned ship to create a new universe, with a different story. But all the stories are essentially the same, or at least similar enough to see his pet themes and plotlines play out over and over in different permutations.

His attempt to control the story had faltered so badly by 14.20 that he finally felt compelled to turn up in person to set things back on track, to wrangle in his misbehaving characters by literally having Dean kill both Jack and himself. I mean... this was Chuck’s last ditch attempt to force all their hands back into compliance.

So... the entire “story” of Supernatural the television show hasn’t been a contrivance by Chuck, you know? The characters of Sam, Dean, Cas, and Jack (and all the rest) haven’t been all Chuck’s doing. The characters do have free will (to an extent, as Chuck’s narratives have sometimes limited their choices they have available to them), but he’d finally driven them to a point where they refused to keep acting out his dramas.

But Chuck’s so not done with them yet.

I hope this makes sense... because I think it’s incredibly clear what Chuck is arranging, what he’s manipulating, and what’s just ~life~, or what’s just ~characters acting out of their own free will.~ But that distinction is not clear at all at the moment to, say, Dean for example. Because he’s inside the story, and can’t see what the truth of the situation actually is yet. He doesn’t realize he’s STILL inside Chuck’s story, and that Chuck isn’t done with them yet, you know?

But they will. And it’s OUR writers in THIS universe that have written ALL of this.

So THAT’S where your incredibly nuanced and layered storytelling has come from. Chuck writes the setup, but the characters don’t have a script. I said in something a while back that it’s like he puts the characters into an escape room with a set of parameters and then watches them work out how to escape on their own, only to find themselves still stuck in an even bigger escape room. As the creator, he can manipulate the room they’re stuck in, arbitrarily change the rules on them, but he can’t manipulate THEM DIRECTLY. That pesky free will at work!

But OUR writers in OUR universe are the ones telling the ENTIRE story, including those characters with free will. And isn’t that just incredible?

#spn 15.03 #spn 14.20 #if you say 'mysterious ways' so help me i will kick your ass #this is the most meta thing i have ever seen a television show attempt to execute and it's wild :'D #Anonymous

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lululawlawlu-writes · 5 years

Text

Softly Stained with Spring

Part 5: Memento

note: This fic was written for @lawlu-week!!

rating: T

tags: canon universe, fluff and angst, hanahaki possible trigger warning: mentions of death, dead bodies

_______

“You ever hunt beetles?” Luffy asks, his feet shwish-shwishing back and forth over Law’s thick, weighted blanket.

Law doesn’t begrudge Luffy for having followed him back to the Polar Tang, to his room, to make his bed his own for the night. Conveniently enough, it will make it easier for Law to scan his body for spores once he falls asleep. Law just wishes that he would sleep so he could get to it.

“No,” Law says simply, sitting on the corner of his bed. He runs his fingers through Luffy’s knotted hair, muses around the thought of disguising his scan as routine medical procedure, though now is neither the time nor place. He can’t give Luffy any undue anxiety, knowing how grim his situation may read.

“Don’t worry Torao, I’ll show you how to find the best ones.” Luffy’s smile curves wide across his face. Anxiety—what a strange thing to have to diagnose Luffy with. He just has no other plausible explanation for the mysterious pains that have been plaguing him even before he’d eaten the flowers.

“How do I know you won’t just give me bad advice to make sure I don’t find the biggest one?” It’s hard to resist the urge to engage in banter if Luffy will go along with it. Luffy inspires this kind of lighthearted feeling to slip into his words, his actions, his life.

“I wouldn’t do that.” Luffy’s smile flips into a slight pout.

“Sure,” Law teases, doing his best to subdue a smile. He catches himself still stroking Luffy’s hair, and it suddenly feels a little too soft, too intimate. He ruffles his hair instead, ends the physical contact there.

“No, you-“ Luffy’s words seize in his throat. His smile twists into a grimace he holds just long enough to tip Law off that something’s not right.

“You feeling alright?” Law jumps to ask, ignoring the topic of beetles.

Luffy hums in thought a minute before answering with “I’m okay.”

Law’s personal involvement may have his judgement clouded, but he feels that Luffy shouldn’t have needed to think about his answer. He can hear Luffy's shaky breath as he sits there tracing the hem of the blanket beneath his fingertips, suddenly so much less chatty. Law wants to say something to cut the awkward quiet, do something to make Luffy feel better.

“This blanket is heavy,” Luffy notes then, crawling under it.

“It’s supposed to be,” Law explains. “It‘s a weighted blanket,” he adds, leaving out the part where he confesses that it gives him a feeling of security, eases his own anxieties. It helps to keep away nightmares that would have him relive his past. Maybe it could help Luffy too.

Luffy squirms, turning this way and that until he finds a comfortable position. “It’s like it’s hugging my whole body,” he notes.

“It’s nice, isn’t it?” Law confirms, crawling in beside him. He wants to hold Luffy, comfort him with his own embrace. He inches closer to the possibility of more physical contact, no matter how nervous the prospect makes him.

“Hugs from you would feel nicer than the blanket,” Luffy presses.

“How about this then?” Law asks, slipping an arm around him.

“Yeah,” Luffy confirms, “all hugs from all sides. A kiss would be good too.”

Law’s already so close. The tips of their noses are nearly brushing. He can almost taste the sweetness on Luffy’s breath. He’s aching to kiss him back with the same kind of passion Luffy showed him earlier, but only if Luffy’s really alright now, his pain subsided. It would be so easy if Law could just quit overthinking enough to act.

“I’ll have to win another one tomorrow,” Luffy chuckles, and Law’s will to act falls away. The moment dismissed, there’s no way he can try to kiss him now.

His thumb smooths over Luffy’s shoulder. His eyes follow the curve of his face, count the few sparse freckles that dot his sun-kissed skin. Luffy just blinks at him slowly, tired eyes full of shared emotion still too fragile to put into words.

He should probably be thankful that Luffy assumes kisses are only part of their game. It buys him time to completely consider the implications of getting in too deep with an ally, but he doesn’t need it. Even though he’ll never admit it, Law’s already in over his head.

Luffy curls into him, tucking his head in the nook of his shoulder and Law wills time to slow, wishes he had that power. This time they’re sharing in private, however fleeting, is sacred and precious. It should be terrifying how much Luffy has warmed his way into his heart, but it feels natural, feels right. He can’t resist placing a soft kiss on his temple. He hopes Luffy will forgive him for bending the rules.

… … … … ...

The morning sun wakes Law before he realizes he’s fallen asleep. Thankful for the wakeup call that comes with having the sub surfaced, he wastes no time summoning a room. He shambles himself out from under Luffy, gets right to initiating a scan with his powers.

Scanning his body for spores isn’t as hard as anyone might expect. Law’s so well versed in anatomy, he could even construct a human from the marrow up if given the right ingredients. It’s so easy for him to locate foreign presences, signs of things that shouldn’t be. His ability is so great it’s almost shocking even to himself—almost as shocking as his evident ignorance.

His oversight could cost Luffy his life.

Law has been careless. He’s been stupid. He’s a doctor and he should know better. He should never have been dismissive about Luffy’s symptoms. The situation is now deadly serious and he’s to blame. The spores have already rooted themselves into the walls of Luffy’s lungs. They’re so well fused now that he’d have to cut out the majority of the organs themselves.

His quivering hand reaches for Kikoku, his mind racing to come up with options. He considers for a moment swapping Luffy’s lungs out for his own. Not simply changing whose body they are in, but actually transplanting them. He’s not sure it’s possible for him to even do such complicated procedure involving himself without passing out, but he can’t stand the thought of how much pain Luffy must be in. It’s his fault for acting like some lovesick youth around Luffy instead of a medical professional as he should have.

It will do Law no good to obsess over his mistake, but he’s finding it difficult to focus on anything else. He has to fix this. He’s going to fix this before it gets any worse. What he needs is more knowledge about the illness in order to cure it. He just hopes Luffy won’t be too disappointed if he heads out to the island first. He’s going to seek out the religious devotee they’d met before instead of hunting beetles anyway.

The forest is already awake and lively with birdsong and chirping insects by the time he reaches it. Morning dew soaks through his pant legs but he’s far too preoccupied with his thoughts to really care.

Law’s instincts had cautioned him not to trust Luffy when he said he was okay. He was not okay—not in the least. Law should have picked up on it before now. He should’ve taken into account that he was dealing with Luffy of all people—Luffy who hasn’t let being beaten, poisoned or stabbed hinder him. This is the Luffy who he’s had to put back together, who even after suffering vicious wounds, was still more concerned with his brother over his own pain. Law of all people should know well Luffy’s ability to bear pain—that Luffy’s own judgement may be skewed. He’s got to be suffering badly whether he fully recognizes it or not.

He’s too busy thinking of Luffy, he doesn’t consider what he’ll do when he reaches the clearing on the hill to find no one there except the stone gods. He has an impulse to vent his irritation by slicing them up, leaving them in ruins, but that won’t help him cure Luffy.

There aren’t any flowers offered to those gods yet this morning it seems, so he can’t even take a sample to study. He’ll have to find their source if he wants to take one. He hadn’t seen any of them growing along his way up even though he’d run into the odd religious woman on his way the first time. She’d had an armful of them then.

Law backtracks down the hill, through the trees, looking for subtle signs of a side trail. The birdsong trills overhead as if they’re laughing at his expense. It makes him think of how he’d been lied to, lead to believe that poison was the least of it. It irks him to consider how much of an idiot he’d been for not taking Luffy’s symptoms more seriously.

He uses his haki to sense for life around him, picking up only on the native creatures skittering about, wary of him. He can’t find any indication of a human presence, but off to his left there does seem to be a void—a strong force either repelling of any kind of life or blocking out his haki. Evidence of a trail is still lacking, so he follows his senses, brushing aside briars and undergrowth as he goes. The forest seems to be growing dimmer, dark clouds gathering over the canopy. Wind carries a chill through the air, picking up a faint, metallic scent. The closer he gets, the more the scent starts to sour his senses, turning sickeningly pungent as rotting flesh. The rain finding its way through the canopy does little to diminish the smell.

Red catches Law’s eyes through the trees. The vibrant display entices him in on fixation alone. The colour spills out from a small fenced-in area on the petals of crimson flowers. They drip red, dying the rainwater that pools in their centers. It trickles out over the petals, bleeding onto the ground.

A tiny stone structure—almost like a house of some sort sits opposite him on the property, flanked by two hooded stone figures much like the gods on the hill. The atmosphere feels so abstract, otherworldly. It’s as if the flowers have crept into the garden to choke out anything else that may have been growing there, and the residents have simply allowed it, or even encouraged it. The sight of it feels all the more foreboding in light of the ever-present stench.

A chill crawls its up Law’s skin from fingertip to the nape of his neck, making his hairs stand on end. He can sense death in this place. This place is heavy with it even if he can’t see it. His instincts prickle against him, warning him to be afraid. Law smirks—after the life he’s had it’ll take far worse to get him to run.

His fingers tighten around Kikoku, ready to call on her the moment there’s trouble. He cautiously crosses the fence into grounds, paying no mind to the flowers he’s trampling. He almost takes pleasure in it as a kind of petty revenge. His footsteps sink into the soil, unsettling. He’s no gardener but he’d imagine such loose ground would be too unstable, though he hasn’t uprooted any flowers.

His heels slip, uneasy against the slick foliage, sending him reeling forward. He can’t hope to find balance over the slippery foliage, tripping forward, catching himself on hands and knees.

Tinted rainwater splashes against his jeans, staining them bloody-red. The loose soil beneath his fingertips yields something solid, yellow-white. He feels with his fingertips to unearth it, feel the curve of it—unmistakably bone.

“Careful or you’ll unearth the bodies.” It’s the woman’s voice—the one from before, the religious devotee he’d wanted to meet. She’s lying among the flowers just out of his reach.

“Bodies?” Law questions.

“The ones buried here,” she offers as way of explanation. She sits up, long hair falling in her face, making her look near-ghoulish.

“Seems like an extreme thing to use for fertilizer,” Law says, rising to his feet. His fingers curl around Kikoku’s hilt.

“Don’t disrespect the dead or our customs,” she barks, standing to face him. “Especially when you’re the one trespassing in our cemetery. You damned pirates have no manners.”

“How about you tell me about those customs then?” Law proposes coldly. He won't confess neither his ignorance about not realizing this place is a cemetery, nor his oversights as a doctor. He’s short on time and needs information.

“You’re not interested in why we bury the unloved here,” she accuses. “By the way, how’s your friend?”

How dare she—the smug look on her face is all too telling. She gives as much of a shit about how Luffy’s doing as Law does about her people’s customs. She probably wants him dead. She probably wants to bury him here, to let the flowers that are growing in him to consume him. She likely thinks he’d deserve to rot in her cemetery for having defiled her gods or some such thing.

“Is he really resistant enough to the poison?” She asks stepping forward.

“You liar.” Law seethes, his hands shaking as he forms a room. “There’s not really any poison in those flowers, is there?”

“Well, legend has it this flower, the Lover’s Curse, is poisonous,” she says apathetic, turning to walk away from him, “and people really used to think so”.

The audacity of this woman, sparing no thought to how badly this plant is affecting Luffy—how he’s suffering because of her. Law strips the blame from Luffy for having eaten the flowers, from himself for having dismissed them as a threat. Instead he arms himself with it—the blame, the fear and the rage that stem from his oversight.

He affords himself no time to revel in his enemy’s fear. This woman likely wouldn’t give him the satisfaction anyway. She appears unsurprised, unbothered at being at his mercy, having her heart safely in her chest one second, and in Law’s hand the next.

He ought to crush it, make her feel the pain Luffy’s feeling tenfold. He ought to murder her nice and slow and merciless, but something’s not right, hasn’t been right. She looks back at him like she’s more curious what he’ll do than worried for her life. It’s because she’s really not concerned for her life in the slightest. The heart in his grasp, it’s still. It’s cold. It’s dead.

“Oh look, now mister Surgeon of Death has stolen my heart,” she speaks, patronizing. “You want to keep it as a memento to remember the time you let your ally die?” she asks.

“I could still-”

“Cut me to pieces? You’d better not. That would ruin your chances of me helping you save him,” she states with a frown, her eyebrows drawn together.

“What do you want in return?” He asks cautiously, unsure if he’ll play to her wishes, short as he is on time. She’s going to trying to manipulate him, but he’s not guaranteed help elsewhere. The locals who had been friendly when they first arrived had later leveled heavy stigmatization at Luffy for being afflicted. Their hospitality turned to whispered pity. Nobody had offered help.

“Your heart,” she says. “You trade your heart for my help to save his life.”

“Why should I trust you?” He doesn’t think he should agree to the deal, but Luffy’s suffering is getting worse. He’s dying. “You’ve already lied to me once. About the poison.”

“Nobody else on this island knows as much as I do about the Lover’s Curse,” she speaks, snatching her heart back. “Everyone else wants to stay as far away from ‘the curse’ as possible. They don’t even come here to visit the unloved dead.”

Law isn’t wholly convinced, but he has to act quickly. Luffy might not last much longer. His illness is already beyond something Law can handle alone whether his pride wants to let him outright admit it or not.

“Make your decision now,” the woman demands.

_______

Sorry but updates will happen when the happen since my brain keeps trying to abort itself... err I mean the chronic migraines have been more troublesome than usual lately. So pls be patient and thanks for reading~~

#lawlu #lulaw #lawlu fanfic #lawlu fanfiction

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catflowerqueen · 5 years

Text

Déjà vu (Oh, the Irony)

Summary:

Jirachi comes to the Wigglytuff Guild for a visit, and inadvertently grants a wish with some interesting consequences for Team Rainbow. After all, it's one thing to know, mentally, that Paula and Laura are rather young for being such being good explorers. But this... this is something else entirely. Also, Drowzee gets a new appreciation for the meaning of the word "irony."

Knowledge of my “The World’s Treasure” and “Missing Scenes” story is vital for understanding this. Feel free to view those stories, as well as this one,on my fanfiction .net account or ao3 as well. My username is the same in both places.

And my askbox is open if you have questions.

Author’s Note: This is somewhat of a new series of stories that I’m going to attempt, but don’t expect updates too often, as I’m still getting back into the swing of creative writing. Also, with this story in particular… don’t expect updates for at least the next two weeks, because I have a lot of major papers due for school soon as the semester is ending, as well as paperwork to grade, and I already spent today writing this when I really should have been working on those instead.

This is technically non-canon for the eventual storyline I have planned, but all backgrounds and histories—both for the characters and for specific locations/things discovered through use of the Dimensional Scream ability—are the same as those in the World’s Treasure and Missing Scenes series—it’s just that this is not the method in which those histories and backstories are going to be revealed when it comes to that point in actual canon. …assuming I eventually find the time to actually write said canon out. I still want to! I’m just continually busy with other things, because Real Life is complicated. Also, I have some stories in another fandom that I want to write as well.

As this technically takes place in the future of the TWT and MS universe, there are a few things that might be spoilers. I’ll try to be vague in the story to avoid that as much as possible, but I can’t guarantee that some things won’t slip through.

Check the author’s notes at the end if you want a bit of background for what exactly is going on in this universe at the time of this non-canon scenario. Otherwise, please enjoy the story.

-----

Chapter One: Bidoof’s Wish

“Are you two sure you’re up for this already?” Chatot asked, glancing between the two girls of Team Rainbow with a look of concern on his face.

It wasn’t the first time they had been asked this question today. Even though the… incident… with the outlaw known as the “Dreamy Blackmailer” had finally resolved and Laura was given a clean bill of health by Nurse Blissey from Magnezone’s Police Headquarters, and then taken an additional week off to try and heal a bit mentally, their friends throughout Treasure Town and the Guild were still concerned. After all, not only had the incident had brought both of them face to face with some of their worst nightmares—literally speaking—it hadn’t happened too long after the Weathered Peak expedition. And while no one had been in the best of spirits after that expedition, what with the overwhelming failure to actually find anything of interest aside from a new definition of “extreme weather phenomenon” and, in Chatot’s case, a rather horrifying lesson from an injured and delirious Laura about the myriad of ways that one could construct prison cells and stockades from repurposed caves and rock formations, Paula and Laura had definitely been hit the hardest. Sure, Chatot was a close contender for that position, what with the aforementioned front row seat to that lesson on prison cells and stockades, but Laura had been the one to actually suffer the injury and the experience of reliving some terrible memories during an expedition she hadn’t really wanted to go on in the first place; and Paula had to endure what was technically blackmail—and from the Guildmaster, of all people!—which forced her to be split from her partner during the exploration, meaning that she wasn’t there to stop her from getting injured or provide moral support in the aftermath, compounded with the fact that the lack of treasure meant that they had gone through all that pain for nothing. Or at least close to nothing, since even though the goal of the blackmail—to get Laura and Chatot to spend some time alone together so that they could clear the air between them, make up from their recent fight, and get back on friendly terms—had technically worked, even Wigglytuff agreed that it really wasn’t worth it when the price had been injury and trauma on one hand and betrayal and worry on the other. He still felt guilty about it now—especially since the memory of the blackmail probably did not help Paula at all during the aforementioned Dreamy Blackmailer debacle—even though Paula, Laura, and Chatot had forgiven him for it.

Suffice to say, Team Rainbow had really been put through the ringer lately, so it wouldn’t have been surprising if they weren’t quite ready to get back to exploring yet. Then again, this was Team Rainbow they were talking about, who had the unfortunate tendency to downplay any problems they were having via overworking themselves in an attempt to get people to stop worrying about them. Which of course just made people worry about them even more.

But at least it meant that Paula’s response of “Yes. We’ll be fine—don’t worry!” as she adjusted her treasure bag, her partner nodding beside her from where she was just finishing up a swap with Croagunk, didn’t come as a surprise.

So it was with a resigned sigh that Chatot finally waved them off with only a minor admonishment to be careful, and the two ascended from the lowest guild level in order to head off on a day of exploring. But he couldn’t help but follow them with his gaze, and once they left his line of sight his eyes still lingered a bit on the top of the ladder before he blinked and shook his head, determined to put the inevitable worry he still felt out of his mind and get back to work running the guild. Today, after all, he also had the additional task of preparing some informational pamphlets for Drowzee to look at in regards to how to manage an exploration team. He didn’t actually expect the Hypnosis Pokémon to arrive in town from the little exploration he had decided to undertake as a sort of goodbye to being a solo explorer until tomorrow—or possibly later tonight, at the earliest, in which case it would likely still be too late for him to actually have time to meet with Chatot—but it never hurt o be prepared.

He sighed again before glancing about, noticing that everyone else who was with him on the lower level was in the same boat, despite their attempts to hide their true feelings. Croagunk was determinedly looking down and organizing his items in pure silence, with none of his usual mutterings and praise towards his prized Swap Cauldron. Loudred was attempting to use a stage whisper—with an emphasis on “attempting”—to get Diglett to let him know when Team Rainbow fully left the premises, even though Diglett’s job was only to monitor those coming in rather than those leaving, since determining moving footprints wasn’t an easy task. Wigglytuff had his door cracked open, and his mouth was quivering, as if it wanted to form into an uncharacteristic frown.

This, Chatot determined, was where he should focus his energies for the time being, as an upset Wigglytuff was never a good thing. It would also be a good segue into preparing those pamphlets for Drowzee, as a seasoned explorer such as Wigglytuff would be sure to have some good advice for the ex-outlaw, especially considering his own past as the apprentice of an explorer with a history as an outlaw. But before he could start to make his way over, he was interrupted by Bidoof coming down the ladder with a very perturbed look on his face.

“Bidoof? What are you doing back down here?” Chatot asked, equally as thankful for the interruption as he was annoyed at the fact that the apprentice was ignoring his orders. “I thought that I told you to look over the job boards today.”

Bidoof cringed at the glare on Chatot’s face, even though it wasn’t at its usual levels of scariness. “Oof… Sorry Chatot, I.. I really would like to do that but…”

“‘But?’” Chatot sharply prompted.

“But… but the boards are both empty, by golly!”

“Squawk! What? What do you mean they’re empty?!”

“There’s… there’s no jobs left on them, no siree!” Bidoof shook his head, “I think Team Rainbow took most of them for themselves… and then the other teams hanging around took the rest of them… and by the time I got there, there was only an S-class outlaw job left… which I don’t think I’m ready for anyways… but then Team Poochy snatched it right out of my paws before I even got the chance to look at it too closely, yup yup!”

“That’s…” Chatot got a twitch beneath his eye before sighing in defeat. The sequence of events was extremely plausible, as unfortunate as it was—especially the part about Team Rainbow grabbing the majority of the jobs from the boards before anyone else got the chance. Chatot could remember very well that same scenario happening shortly after Laura asked her goddess’ permission to stay in the Pokémon World, rather than return with her to Earth… and even before then, there was that incident with Laura right after she returned from wherever she had been after the future was saved. Add Paula’s exuberance and love of exploring into the mix—especially when she, too, was trying to convince everyone that she was actually fine and recovered—and it was practically a given that the two would ignore the guidelines for how many requests that a single team should realistically take on at once. It wasn’t that they couldn’t do all of those jobs successfully, but more that they shouldn’t. Although Chatot did appreciate the influx in treasures, bounty, and reward money that it generated for the guild, it was a bit inconsiderate to the other exploration teams that would come to the Wigglytuff Guild specifically for the use of the boards, not to mention that it denied those still apprenticing in the guild the chance at a little training. Also, it left them all worrying over the two girls’ mental and physical health even more, since they had all seen the consequences of their overworking themselves in this manner many, many times. It made Chatot consider, not for the first time, the possibility of him and Wifflytuff setting up a board specifically for Team Rainbow’s exclusive use, just so that the two could ensure their precious graduates safety and wellbeing. But on the other wing, he supposed that it rather defeated the point of their having graduated if he and the Guildmaster were still regulating what the two could and could not do…

But all of that was something to consider at a future point in time. He would definitely have a little talk with the two of the two members of Team Rainbow when they finally returned to town at the end of the day, but for now he needed to figure out something else for Bidoof to do.

“Very well,” he said, “I suppose I can’t exactly fault you for that, so for now why don’t you—”

But he was cut off by a surprised exclamation from Loudred over by the sentry post. “WHAT?!” he yelled, before hollering again, “Hey, BIDOOF! Diglett says you have a VISITOR at the entrance!”

“A visitor?!” Bidoof repeated in surprise as he and Chatot headed over. “Golly, that’s sure a surprise! Who is it?”

Loudred turned to call back down to Diglett, intending to ask for more information “HEY Diglett—!”

“Yes, I heard!” Diglett called back up before Loudred got the chance to finish his question. “Give me just a moment… Okay. He says that he is… Jirachi!”

“W-WHAT?! J-Jirachi?!” Loudred and Chatot repeated incredulously. “Wh-Why would Jirachi come here? And to meet Bidoof, of all pokémon?”

Bidoof frowned in confusion. “Jirachi… Jirachi… do I know a Jirachi…? Maybe… oh!” He smiled as he finally remembered. “Diglett! Ask him if he’s the one from Star Cave!”

Then, the others understood as well, remembering the Snover incident from so long ago, when Bidoof took the initiative to go on an ill-advised and technically against the rules trip to Star Cave after having been tricked by Snover, and how he was able to explore the depths all on his own after the rest of the guild rescued him, culminating in his meeting with the legendary Wish Pokémon. He never did them what he ended up wishing for, though—only that it was granted, but the effects would take a while to actually manifest. There had been some wild speculation running through the guild for a while, until the incident was nearly forgotten in the excitement over Team Rainbow joining the guild a few months later.

“The answer is… yes!” Diglett called back in excitement. “This is the Jirachi from Star Cave!”

“Well don’t just STAND there!” Loudred whipped around and demanded of Bidoof. “Go up and MEET him! And then bring him down HERE so we can see him, too!”

-----

A few minutes later saw Jirachi in the bottom-most level of the guild. He didn’t seem at all bothered by the fact that he had amassed an audience, as all of the apprentices who were left in the guild (which ended up being everyone but Dugtrio, basically, as he was out getting more job requests in order to fill up the boards while the others were stuck waiting for his return since they, like, Bidoof, had been a bit too slow to pick any before Laura and Paula nabbed them all). Instead, when he wasn’t turning this way and that as he levitated, taking in all the sights, he was focused on his friend.

“Ooh… This place is really interesting!” Jirachi told Bidoof in excitement. “If it’s always like this, then I can see why you like exploring so much, Bidoof. I thought that I would be tired after journeying all this way, but the energy surrounding this place is so exciting! It’s perking me right up!”

“Yup, yup! The guild is pretty great!” Bidoof agreed with a smile. “And… gosh, it sure is nice to see you again Jirachi… I must admit, I’ve been meaning to come see you for a while now… I wanted to thank you for granting that wish for me, but it’s been so busy that I never had the time to!”

Jirachi smiled. “Ha ha… That’s all right, Bidoof. With a wish like yours… it’s only to be expected that you would be too busy to find the time to visit. And… I’ve been sleeping a lot again lately, so I may not have noticed even if you did come by,” he admitted with a sheepish grin. “But that wish of yours… well, it’s not exactly why I came by, but now I’m curious; where are those buddies of yours you wished for? Have you been teaching them lots?”

Bidoof blushed a bit, slightly embarrassed about the fact that everyone in the guild now more or less knew what he wished for so long ago, but he also couldn’t help but smile at the thought of his friends on Team Rainbow. “They’re out exploring right now! They already graduated from the guild, see, and… well, gosh, I don’t know how much of it is do to anything I taught them, but… I’m real proud of Team Rainbow, yup yup! It was so much fun to be with them when they were still apprentices, and they still live nearby so I get to see Laura and Paula nearly every day!”

Jirachi’s mouth formed an “o” of shock. “Did you say that one of the buddies I influenced to come here was… Laura? Of Team Rainbow? That’s what you said, right?” He looked around at the others, verifying if what he’d heard was correct.

“Hey, hey! That’s what he said, alright!” Corphish nodded

“Oh, wow, wow!” Jirachi clapped his hands and spun in excitement. “That’s great! That’s actually exactly why I came in the first place!”

“Oh, oh?” Wigglytuff asked. “You wanted to meet friendly-friend Laura? Why?”

“You see, I don’t really get out much,” Jirachi admitted, to the surprise of no one, “so I’m a little… or, rather, a lot… behind the times when it comes to some things… or, really, a lot of things… but… sometimes while I’m dreaming, my psychic powers act up a little, and I hear whispers of conversations. Rumors. And sometimes they’re really interesting! So, I wake up in excitement! But… I don’t really have a way to know if these rumors are true, since I live so out of the way, and travelling can get so tiring so I usually just fall back to sleep.” He huffed a bit in frustration before brightening again. “But! This time! This time I heard some rumors about a girl named Laura… who joined an exploration team called Rainbow… who is currently a treecko, but who some say used to be a human!” He paused again to clap and spin with excitement. “So I just had to know if they were true. I had to! And I remembered! This time I had a way to verify those rumors! You, Bidoof!”

“H-huh? Me?!”

“Yes! You told that you were a part of a guild—and not just any guild, the Wigglytuff Guild! That place—this place—has tons of information, right? And tons of explorers! And you! My friend! So I thought… if I came here… I could verify the rumors! And that hopefully…” Jirachi got quieter, and seemed almost wistful. “Hopefully… hopefully some of them would be true. And that it would mean… well, it would mean what I hoped. That they… that she… well. I’d better not say… just in case I’m wrong… I don’t want to get my hopes up too much.”

“Well… golly! I’m honored, Jirachi!” Bidoof said, slightly nervous about potentially disappointing his powerful friend, but still hopeful that he would be able to help, and happy to get the chance to ramble on about Laura, and Team Rainbow in general. “So let’s see… Laura… well, first off—yup yup! The Laura that I know, who joined Team Rainbow and the guild here… she really did used to be a human!” Bidoof verified. Then, when Jirachi’s grin turned from wistful back to gleeful, he decided to add, “She is a treecko right now, but she surely did used to be a human, yup yup! And we even got to see her human form for a little bit, too! I don’t know to much about humans in general, but I thought she was really pretty, so I reckon other humans would think so too. Especially her eyes—they looked like rainbows, and still do even though she’s back to being a treecko now, yup yup.”

“Oh… oh…!” Jirachi clasped his hands in front of his mouth, his eyes widening and starting to shine with unshed tears of joy. “And… and one more thing! Did she… does she… the Dimensional Scream? Is that an ability she possesses?”

“Yup yup! It surely is!”

“Hooray!” Jirachi exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air and spinning in ecstasy, laughing as happy tears escaped his eyes and rolled down his cheeks. “Finally… finally a Rainbow Child is visiting again!” He slowed down his spinning, sighing wistfully again as he slowly calmed down. “It’s been… so very long. I know I slept through most of it, but… it must have been nearly a thousand years since I last… since she last…” he sighed again, this time in resignation. “But… you said that she’s out exploring now, right? So I guess that means I’ll still need to wait a while to actually see her again…”

“Oof… I reckon that’s true,” Bidoof said, frowning at sad his friend sounded about that fact, and feeling bit sad himself at the thought of how long Jirachi had waited to see the Rainbow Child return, even as he was shocked at the timespan and surprised at the fact that Laura’s past incarnations apparently used to visit the pokémon world a lot… as well as curiosity and unease about the fact that they had apparently stopped some thousand years ago.

“Oh!” Wigglytuff suddenly explained, clapping his hands together. “I know! I know! Bidoof, while we wait for Team Rainbow to come back… why don’t you show Jirachi around Treasure Town? Give him a tour! It will be fun!

“Ah! Yes, guildmaster, I concur!” Chatot agreed with the flap of his wings. “That is an excellent idea! And while you’re there… as I was about to say earlier… Regarding the day’s duties, since Dugtrio is not yet back with replacement jobs… please do a survey of the shops in town; it is important to know which get the most use from the members of our esteemed guild, and in what ways… and if any of them will be offering new services soon which we should be aware of.”

“Oof… I, uh… yes siree, I will do that,” Bidoof said, his happy mood at the thought of getting to show Jirachi around town becoming slightly dampened by the fact that it wouldn’t be a day off, like he’d thought, but rather an exercise in multitasking. “Come on, Jirachi, I think I’ll show you Spinda’s Café first…”

With that, the two headed off, and Chatot set the rest of the guild to do some mild cleaning and reorganizing until Dugtrio finally made it back and they could do some real exploration work.

-----

Team Rainbow still wasn’t back by the time that Bidoof’s tour/survey was completed. This was a bit surprising, as the whole endeavor had taken a bit longer that Bidoof anticipated, since Jirachi stopped frequently to either admire something or because he needed to rest a little bit before continuing. He was, after all, a sleepy pokémon in general, and hadn’t been lying about how long his journey had been. Some of the things he stopped to admire seemed a bit mundane by Bidoof’s standards, but if he really had been sleeping for nearly a thousand years, then he figured that it would make sense that Jirachi would have missed an invention or innovation or two that was commonplace now. …Though he wasn’t sure if that fully explained why the legendary seemed so enamored by the dandelions dotting the path in some places. Surely those existed for far longer, right?

In any case, the tour was also lengthened by the fact that many of the shopkeepers seemed ecstatic to talk about their shops and wares, especially the Kecleon brothers… and Marowak, who seemed to take the opportunity as a chance to test out the new pitches he was considering to entice more pokémon to come train at his dojo… but Bidoof figured that at least part of that was excitement over seeing a legendary wandering through town. The last time that had happened had been with Cresselia, after all, and while it had been fairly recent, the circumstances surrounding it had… not been the greatest. By the time that Bidoof was finally finished and ready to report back to Chatot, Jirachi was understandably bored and uninterested in hearing a bunch of information that he’d already heard throughout the day. So, he opted to go visit the Beach for a while instead. He seemed weirdly excited by the prospect, too, but Bidoof figured that it had something to do with Laura, or the Rainbow Child in general, so he let it go without too much comment. He invited Jirachi to come have dinner with the guild when he was finished at the Beach, but Jirachi declined, citing interest in seeing what the Café’s menu was like in the evening. Though he did promise to come and stay at the guild for the evening if Team Rainbow still wasn’t back by then.

So this is why, when Jirachi failed to return to the guild like he promised a few hours later, long after dinner was finished and with still no sign of Team Rainbow, Bidoof found himself heading towards the Beach, intent on finding the legendary. Dinner had been a bit earlier than usual today, so the sun hadn’t yet fully set and he found the Wish Pokémon fairly easily. Unfortunately for Bidoof, the reason that said pokémon hadn’t returned to the guild yet was because he—rather predictably, in hindsight—had fallen asleep. So then Bidoof was faced with the somewhat arduous task of waking him back up.

One fight and several bruises on Bidoof’s part later, and a more-or-less awake Jirachi was yawning drowsily and looking around at his surroundings in mild confusion. “Hah… yawn… Ah, I’m still on the Beach…?”

“Erg…” Bidoof groaned a little, “Yup yup… I reckon you fell asleep here.”

“Oh… right… I was going to head over to the Café, but I felt so tired that I decided to rest for just a little bit longer… and then… well.” Jirachi said, blinking, as he finally noticed Bidoof. He easily spotted the bruising and ruffled fur, and had the tact to look sheepish as he put two and two together. “I must have attacked you in my sleep, huh?” he guessed. “But I see that you managed to wake me up again, so that’s good! I… probably owe you another wish for the trouble,” he finished, the last part in a mutter.

“H-huh?” Bidoof said, a bit confused before it clicked what Jirachi meant. “Oh! No, no, that’s fine,” Bidoof shook his head. “I don’t really need anything. But… you said that you wanted to stay in the guild if Team Rainbow didn’t come back in time, right? And, well, they’re still not back yet, so…”

“They’re still not back?” Jirachi tilted his head. “Is it normal for them to be out exploring so late?”

Bidoof shook his head, a frown on his face. “No siree, it really isn’t…” He sighed in sadness. “To tell you the truth, everyone at the guild… we’re all really worried about them. Some real stressful stuff has happened to the two of them recently, and I reckon that working hard like this is probably the only real way they know to cope with it, but… golly, it just isn’t right!” He stomped his foot in frustration. “It’s so unfair… all of these stressful and trying things seem to happen to them… the whole Temporal Tower thing from years ago… the thing with Darkrai… the other thing with Darkrai… and then what’s been going on recently… and they’re still so young! Paul is only sixteen… and Laura is just fourteen… and… golly, I know exploring is really fun for them, but with all the other stuff… sometimes I just…” Bidoof’s frustration simmered down a bit and he sighed mournfully.

“What is it, Bidoof?” Jirachi asked, worry and empathy on his face for both his friend and the plight of Team Rainbow.

Bidoof sighed again, looking down at his feet. “Sometimes… I wish that the two of them had the chance to just be kids again. Even if just for a little while…”

At those words, Jirachi twitched a little as something resonated inside him. “I see,” he said, his eyes starting to take on a faraway look. “Bidoof… you never fail to amaze me. Of all the possible wishes in the world… all of the things people have asked me for before… and you always, always choose not to be greedy; you always choose to help others… it makes me like you even more!”

“I… wait. What?” Bidoof asked, blinking in confusion and looking up before cringing back in shock at the sight of Jirachi, who was floating even higher in the air than he typically did, eyes glowing.

“And I suppose, technically, this is my fault a bit, too,” Jirachi said, more to himself than to Bidoof, in a voice that seemed to echo slightly with power. “I could have chosen someone other than Paula to nudge in the direction of the guild… and if I’d been more aware… I could have eased that poor girl’s suffering… and maybe the visits wouldn’t have stopped… or if not, I could have spent those years preparing… I could have done something to ease the suffering of the last one, instead of wallowing in loneliness… I’m the selfish one this time, so really…”

Jirachi tilted backwards as his eyes slowly closed… but as they did so, the one on his stomach—which Bidoof hadn’t even known existed—opened instead, brimming with even more light and power. But its owner took no notice.

“Really…” he repeated, as his true eye fully opened. “Granting this wish… it’s the least I could do!

Bidoof screamed and slammed his own eyes shut as the brightness spilling out of Jirachi’s true eye grew to blinding, and the wave of power that Jirachi unleashed was so huge that Bidoof briefly lost his footing. He thought he heard a thump as something fell to the sand, but other than that… there was stillness and quiet for a few minutes before Bidoof dared to risk opening his eyes again to try and figure out what happened. He glanced around… and then immediately jumped to his feet with a cry of alarm when he saw that Jirachi was facedown on the sand, shaking with the aftereffects of whatever he had just unleashed.

“Jirachi!” Bidoof called, rushing over and helping him to sit up. “Are you okay?! What just… what just happened?! What did you do?!”

“Oh… Bidoof…” Jirachi slurred, one of his regular eyes cracking open lazily. “I think I… ngh… I think I… overdid it… a little…”

“Overdid… what?! What just… what just happened?!”

“That wish… sigh… it was… really good… but… really draining. I think… sigh… I think I need to sleep for a while again. I should wake up soon… to fulfill the rest of it, but… yawn… until then… please take care of me… zzz. Zzz…”

And with that, Jirachi fell asleep. He was so completely dead to the world that even his psychic powers were inactive, and nothing Bidoof tried could wake him up. He had no choice but to struggle and shift Jirachi onto his back so that he could carry him to the guild, all the while wondering what exactly just happened, and getting a sense of foreboding that he’d accidentally done something wrong…

-----

“…I see,” Chatot said, glancing at where Jirachi lay asleep—and drooling a little bit—on the bed in the room at the end of the hall where they’d placed him after Bidoof had returned, shouting frantically about there being trouble. He’d had to shoo everyone else except Wigglytuff away because, as usual, the other apprentices were too nosy for their own good, but after doing so he’d had Bidoof recount exactly what happened to leave Jirachi in this state.

“And you have no idea what happened when that power was unleashed?” he confirmed. “Or why Jirachi even did… whatever it is he did… in the first place?”

Bidoof looked uncomfortable as he shook his head. “No! No siree, I have no idea! I’m just as lost as you are! Except…” he paused.

“Except…?” Chatot prompted.

“Well… last time… when I met Jirachi the first time in Star Cave… he told me that he granted wishes to those who managed to wake him up. And… and when I found him on the Beach, I had to wake him up so that I could bring him back here, so… so I reckon that maybe he counted that, too? As fulfilling those conditions?”

“I see…” Chatot murmured, nodding to himself, “that makes sense… So then that power… I would assume that means…” he raised his voice back to normal levels and asked, “Did you make a wish? Or say something that could be interpreted as such?”

“Oh, gosh… uh… I don’t think so… lemme think…” Bidoof started muttering to himself and pacing, trying to push past the worry and remember what it was that he said right before Jirachi went all strange and glowy. “I said that… and then there was that… and then Paula and Laura came up and… and… oh.” Bidoof stopped dead in his tracks. “I think… uh… oh golly, I think I made a big mistake…” he whimpered.

“Don’t worry Bidoof, it can’t be that bad!” Wigglytuff assured him. “What happened? What did you say to friendly-friend Jirachi?”

“I j-just…” Bidoof gulped, before continuing, “I was just talking about how worried we’ve all been since Team Rainbow has been under a lot of stress lately… and I was frustrated today, especially, since they still aren’t back yet after taking on so much… and I was saying how it was so unfair considering how young they are… so I uh, I may have accidentally told Jirachi that ‘sometimes I wish that the two of them had the chance to just be—’”

But the end of his inadvertent wish was cut off when the three of them heard shouts of alarm coming from the main area.

“Eek! Oh my gosh!”

“What in the…?!”

“Hey, hey! What the heck?!”

“Dad, why are… how can…?!”

“Is that…?”

“What in the WORLD is going on here?!”

The three of them rushed out just in time to hear a voice which they hadn’t expected to hear until tomorrow begging, “H-hey, can everyone please calm down a little bit? Or at least your voices? You’re scaring them!”

“Squawk! What is going on out here?!” Chatot demanded.

“Chatot!” Drowzee, who had indeed arrived a day early and stopped in at the guild despite the late hour, answered brightly, looking highly relieved to see him. For some reason, he had Team Rainbow’s treasure bag slung over his shoulder, and in his right hand…

“I know I’m early… and I wasn’t planning on stopping in so late, “Drowzee started to explain, a bit of suppressed panic mixed in with the awkwardness he still often felt around the guild members, despite everything that they’d been through together recently, “but there was… I ran into, uh, a bit of a problem as I was heading into to town, and I’m really, really hoping that you know how to fix it,” he finished, glancing down a bit to the right as he did so.

Chatot followed his gaze, and was then dumbstruck by what he saw. “But that’s… what is… what?” he demanded. “I just… what?”

In Drowzee’s right hand was held the hand of another… and this hand belonged to a human. She was tiny, Chatot supposed, at least compared to the last human he’d seen. Her outfit, a cute little dress with matching leggings, was… well, he could tell that it would have been white, if not for the grass and dirt stains covering it. Her hair was equally white, rather than the brown that he would have expected, considering the girls eyes—which were the familiar, rainbow-colored ones belonging to his dear friend and precious graduate…

She looked like she was relaxing a bit after holding herself tense—likely in response to the yelling earlier—and she looked around, making small noises of excitement as her smile grew and grew. She spotted him and gasped in wonder, leaning forward and unconsciously trying to tug her hand out of Drowzee’s grasp, as if she wanted to dash forward and get a closer look at the pretty, talking bird in front of her. But she couldn’t really make any serious attempts to do so, as her other hand—and the attached arm—were too occupied holding onto a tiny, adorable, pichu who was teary-eyed and sniffling, periodically turning her head to hide her face in the human’s collar.

That combination… an electric-type rodent with a human companion… appearing at the guild around the same time that Team Rainbow was expected back… Team Rainbow’s treasure bag in Drowzee’s grasp… it couldn’t be… and yet…!

“Drowzee… is this… are they…?” Chatot couldn’t quite formulate the question, his voice sounding strangled from sheer disbelief in spite of the fact that there was no denying the proof in front of him.

“Yeah…” Drowzee nodded, still feeling shocked himself at the situation. “I happened to meet Team Rainbow at the crossroads when I was headed into town, and then while we were talking, Laura and Paula… they suddenly turned into… well. This.”

Chatot was struck silent, but Wigglytuff was finally able to break his own as he turned to Bidoof and asked, “So… what was it, exactly, that you said to Jirachi?”

“Th-that…” Bidoof whispered, shaking his head at the sheer absurdity of the situation “that sometimes…. I wish that the two of them had the chance to just be kids again.”

No one had a response. The entire guild was silent as they all took his words in…

…and then, with a singular voice, Drowzee, Chatot, and the other apprentices all screamed, “YOU DID WHAAAAAAAT?!!!”

-----

Author’s Notes: Important background for this story: This takes place when Laura is about 14 and Paula is about 16. The two girls have recently had some very emotional things happen to them recently, with the most notable things being Laura getting injured and then trapped in a cave with Chatot during an exploration to a place that she already had some mixed emotions about in the first place. Throughout this Paula was upset that; first off, Laura and Chatot hadn’t been getting along recently; secondly, in a somewhat misguided attempt to get his friends to get along again, Wigglytuff pulled rank and declared that Laura and Chatot had to explore together, alone, so Paula wasn’t there to stop Laura from getting hurt or help her through the emotional memories; and thirdly that—inevitable successful reconciliation between Chatot and Laura aside—it was all for nothing since no one even found any treasure anyways.

The second big emotional thing to happen was that some outlaw with the ability to travel through dreams—so probably, like, a gengar or some other ghost- or psychic-type—struck Treasure Town while Laura was away visiting Mason/recovering from the recent emotional stress and started plaguing everyone with nightmares and diving into their subconscious thoughts in order to acquire blackmail material (which is part of why they were able to stay at large for so long). This of course includes Paula, who was probably among the primary targets since her fame and notoriety would have been too enticing to pass up. They are eventually caught around the time that Laura gets back, and then they decide that the best way to hide/escape would be to essentially take Laura hostage by diving into her mind and forcing her into a nightmare—similar to what happened to Azurill. Except this turns out to be a huge mistake on their part, since Laura’s mind ends up so confusing and cavernous due to the fact that she’s had so many reincarnations that the outlaw basically gets lost and trapped, necessitating outside help. This leads to Drowzee and Cresselia—who had been using their abilities to help catch the outlaw in the first place—to have to team up with a different outlaw with dream walking abilities and more familiarity with Laura’s mind in order to successfully rescue her—and the perpetrator themselves, by this point. Unfortunately, Paula is, once more, stuck behind and unable to help her friend, which of course does not help her mindset—which is still recovering from her own stint at being this outlaw’s victim, especially in light of how big a role blackmail played in this incident, considering her experiences with it on the recent expedition. Also not helping is the fact that she and Laura have somewhat of a bad history with the person teaming up with Drowzee and Cresselia, and has not forgiven him for what he did even though Laura has.

But the trio is successful, and decide to form a more permanent team together—partially with the intent that it will help the third member with parole/rehabilitation.

So at the moment this story begins, Team Rainbow is suffering from emotional exhaustion—Paula feeling useless and Laura just… a mess in general—and is only just starting to get back into exploration work, all the guild members are upset after having watched their friends suffer—and in some cases being to blame for some of the suffering—and are continually being struck with just how young these two actually are despite having been through so much. Drowzee is also still hanging around town, or at least close enough to it to visit frequently—both because he, too, needs to recover mentally from the rescue mission and because there are some logistical issues regarding his new team and circumstances that need to be finalized. Mason may or may not be helping with that, since he also has a history with the third team member, but one that is decidedly less fraught with tension and bad blood, on the whole—which may actually be one of the things that everyone else finds so surprising/unnerving about the whole situation, to be honest.

#pokemon mystery dungeon #explorers of sky #the world's treasure #what if...?#deja vu (oh the irony)#fanfiction #writing

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commentaryvorg · 5 years

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Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Part 2.7

Be aware that this is not a blind playthrough! This will contain spoilers for the entire game, regardless of the part of the game I’m commenting on. A major focus of this commentary is to talk about all of the hints and foreshadowing of events that are going to happen and facts that are going to be revealed in the future of the story. It is emphatically not intended for someone experiencing the game for their first time.

Last time in chapter 2’s Daily Life/Deadly Life transition, Ryoma’s corpse put a bit of a damper on Himiko’s magic show, Shuichi officially became Kaito’s sidekick and recognised this for exactly what it is, namely Kaito encouraging and supporting him, Kaito had more words for Gonta about being sure of himself and learned that Ryoma was trying to get stronger, and we left off as the newly-formed duo finished investigating the gym and headed out to check the other places of interest.

Let’s investigate everywhere else, then, starting with Himiko’s lab since it’s the closest on the way out of the gym.

Kokichi and Tsumugi are in here, even though just a second ago Kokichi appeared to be in the gym. Tsumugi says she’s here specifically to keep an eye on Kokichi because of the whole investigate-in-pairs thing, meaning she probably followed him here from the gym. So when on earth did Kokichi get the chance to sneak into Ryoma’s room and steal the motive video? He really should have just been suspiciously not there during the gym investigation and then turned up here now, making you assume he’d been here all along.

Kaito mentions that revealing Himiko’s trick would make things kind of boring.

Kokichi: “Ooh! Kaito believes in Himiko’s magic!”

Kaito: “That’s not what I mean. I was just thinking that her tricks are like magic that brings smiles to people.”

Tsumugi: “Ah, yeah, I guess you could think about it that way…”

Kaito: “Besides, it’s just like my dream to go to space! I believe I can travel across the Milky Way! I believe I will meet aliens! Flying around space with thoughts like that is the true spirit of adventure!”

He’s such a dork. And it makes sense that someone like Kaito would feel this way – he likes to believe in fantastical, impossible things not because he genuinely thinks they’re true but because pretending they are makes life more fun. This is why he kept insisting that those “adventures” of his he told us about in his FTEs were real things that totally happened to him!

He’s also practical enough to know when to drop the playfulness and actually be realistic, which is why he was trying to get Himiko to admit what the trick was earlier because people’s lives are on the line, but even so he finds it a shame to have to ruin the fun part.

And all this is quite relevant to the theme of fiction. Fiction is fun not because you genuinely believe it’s true, like when you’ve been lied to, but because even though you know it’s not true, for a little while you can immerse yourself in that world, suspend your disbelief and imagine that it’s true.

Kokichi: “Kaito, that’s… the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard! Your idealistic dreams won’t help this situation!”

Says the one who’s constantly insisting that lies are more exciting than the truth.

When you know what’s up, Kirumi’s meeting with Kokichi to lecture him and be motherly at him is quite obviously her desperate attempt to get herself an alibi for the time before nighttime when anyone could have entered the gym. Shuichi assumes that it’s because she’s fulfilling Kokichi’s earlier “request” for her to be his mom, but that’s just something Kirumi uses as an excuse to be doing this. In fact, there is a line in one of her FTEs where she mentions that she does not appreciate being called a mother, meaning that this is not a request she would usually take. If anyone happened to have got that FTE with her before this case, I wonder if that’d have raised some more suspicions about her actions.

Kokichi: “She was starting to bore me, so I turned around to leave, and then…”

…

Kirumi: “Stop right there… Our conversation is not over yet.”

Kokichi: “I don’t gotta listen to you! You’re not worthy of lecturing the Ultimate Supreme Leader! C’mon, Miss Maid! Catch me if you can!”

Kirumi: “Is that… a request?”

…

Kokichi: “And then… I guess Kirumi decided to take tag super seriously…”

And this part, too. You can just see her thinking “wait, don’t leave yet, I still need my alibi!” She pretends it’s because of Kokichi’s “request” again just to try and give a plausible reason for why she’s doing this.

I find it a little odd that Shuichi doesn’t think he needs to confirm Kokichi’s account with Kirumi. It’s partially being presented as Kokichi’s alibi, after all, and if anyone would make up their alibi out of thin air, it’d be him.

Kokichi: “By the way… you didn’t get captured by Gonta yesterday, did you, Kaito? Where were you? And what were you doing?”

Kaito: “I was running around the whole time. I hid in bathrooms, bedrooms, all over the school…”

Kokichi: “Hmmm, I see. …”

Kokichi has one of his sly grins for that last line. He knows that Maki and Ryoma had each others’ motive videos, and he knows Maki’s talent, so he assumes Maki’s the culprit. Here, he’s just learned that the only person without an alibi for before nightime other than Maki is Kaito. So what I think this is is him getting the idea for his plan to turn them against each other – or rather, to turn Kaito against Maki – during the trial.

Next I’m heading not to Ryoma’s lab even though the stairs to the upper floors are closest, but rather to the pool first, for reasons that’ll make sense later.

Kaito: “The culprit probably got in and out from here! Alright! Investigate every nook and cranny!”

Kaito won’t rest until his sidekick has investigated every suspicious-looking nook and cranny!

*cough* Sorry, that was my Ace Attorney coming through again.

Monokuma: “And then, that person will be rrrrrripped apart by the Exisals!”

Kaito: “Y-You’d go that far?”

Heh, remembering the time you almost got ripped apart by an Exisal, Kaito?

Shuichi: “It looks like… a little piece of fabric.”

Kaito: “It’s just trash, right? Nothing to be worried about. We’re looking for the culprit! We don’t have time to pick up trash!”

Again with Kaito’s investigative skills being… not great. He does not have a good intuition for what’s likely to be important during an investigation.

Shuichi: (Perhaps it’s just my intuition, but it does bother me. …I should learn to trust it sometimes. My intuition as the Ultimate Detective…)

But of course, Shuichi’s investigative intuition is good, and here’s him starting to believe in it even without Kaito’s direct encouragement!

Kaito: “Hey, Shuichi… Does this pool really have anything to do with the case? We got all psyched up about it, but it doesn’t seem like there were any clues here…”

Yes, there were, Kaito. You’re pretty bad at this detective thing.

Kaito: “Then why not just jump in and fish it out by hand? Oh! That’s right! They couldn’t get in the water!”

However, this does seem to be Kaito having figured out that the murderer only left stuff in the pool because it was nighttime, so props there I guess? Shuichi has also clearly figured that out, so it’s a little strange that he doesn’t try and argue earlier in the trial that the murder could have taken place at nighttime. I guess that’s part of the reason why he’s so unwilling to assume that only Maki or Kaito could be the culprit during that part, since that’s still in the back of his mind.

Kaito: “Let’s go check out the other places. There’s no time to waste! Isn’t that right, sidekick!?”

Kaito is encouraging and good and a friend.

And now we’re heading back up to the third floor to Ryoma’s lab, even though the dorms are on the way to that. There is also method to my madness there.

Shuichi mentions the lab feels different from before but doesn’t spot why. Kaito doesn’t notice anything at all. Guys, both of you were hanging out in this very room two days ago; you should be more observant than this. The tennis net being down is kind of obvious.

While looking at the pool through the shower room window, because they already checked out the pool earlier, they think back to what Monokuma told them about the pool rules:

Shuichi: “…can we assume no one was in the gym or pool at nighttime?”

Monokuma: “…Well, at the very least, no one alive.”

…

Kaito: “Why’d he say ‘no one alive’?”

Shuichi: “I believe he was hinting that a dead person wouldn’t be considered to be ‘breaking the rules.’ Which means it’s possible that a dead body was in the gym or the pool at nighttime…”

Kaito: “So there’s a chance Ryoma was carried to the gym after he was killed?”

You only get this exchange if you’ve been to the pool first, and it’s a helpful addition to figure things out, so I did things this way around because this gives me reason to assume this is the “canon” order that Shuichi investigated things in.

Kaito’s statement during the Debate Scrum in the trial is, “Rules probably don’t apply to corpses, you know”. For a long time before I knew this extra exchange existed, I assumed Kaito had managed to figure that out by himself. But, well… apparently not. Sorry, Kaito, I overestimated your detective skills.

Kaito notices the marks on this window frame, and…

Kaito: “Now you understand, right, Shuichi?”

Shuichi: “What?”

Kaito: “How amazing I am to have noticed such a super, ultra important clue… It’s all in a day’s work for Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars!!!”

What a dork. Someone might be overcompensating a little for having not noticed anything else or contributed to the investigation in any way other than this. He apparently wants people to think he is good at investigating, even though he really really isn’t.

Shuichi deduces in his inner monologue that the shower room is quite likely to be the true crime scene…

Kaito: “It seems like you figured something out… You seem more confident.”

…and Kaito notices this and encourages him because he is Good and definitely can contribute to the investigation by boosting Shuichi’s morale.

While investigating the tennis net, we learn that Kaito used to play a lot of tennis.

Shuichi: “You were in the tennis club?”

Kaito: “That’s why… it pissed me off so much that Ryoma was acting like that…”

Shuichi: “Did you… know Ryoma from before?”

Kaito: “I never met him, but I heard a lot about him. I mean, these days, there’s no one who’s played tennis that hasn’t heard of him. He’s been a tennis legend since middle school. He was like a hero to every tennis kid. And then… once I finally got to meet him, he became a coward…”

Here’s the reason Kaito has been so harsh on Ryoma and only Ryoma. Because Kaito looked up to him, like a hero. Because he was expecting Ryoma to be strong and cool and awesome and when he saw that he wasn’t, it really got to him.

Kaito: “That pissed me off so much, I ended up being too hard on him. But regretting that now won’t help. There’s nothing I can do…”

And so, Kaito was too busy being hung up on that that he didn’t reach out to support Ryoma with his weaknesses like he absolutely would have done if it had been anyone else. If Kaito had done that, maybe Ryoma would have found a reason to live simply from their friendship and wouldn’t have sacrificed himself for Kirumi. Kaito’s trying not to wallow in regret because that’s not what he likes to do, but he’s saying this because he does regret not helping and knows he could have made a difference if only he hadn’t been so angry at him.

If you think about it, tennis really isn’t the obvious choice for Kaito’s favourite sport – you’d think he’d be more into a team sport that involves communication and working together. You know the reason I believe the writers had it be the case that Kaito was into tennis? So that Ryoma could die when he was supposed to. The whole point of Ryoma’s character was to tell the story of someone who willingly became a victim for a greater cause because he’d lost everything and had no reason to live. But that story is being told as part of a story which also contains the Luminary of the Stars, someone who instinctively tries to support anyone who’s weak and suffering and help them get stronger, and is really, really good at it. Just from that alone, Kaito would have helped Ryoma find a new reason to live and Ryoma wouldn’t have died the way the writers wanted him to. So there needed to be a reason why Kaito, despite his nature, wouldn’t help out Ryoma in particular, and to do that they had to give Kaito this history of having looked up to Ryoma, making him disillusioned and harsh on him when they meet.

In short: Kaito was too powerful and the writers had to nerf him to make this chapter work.

When I say “writers” here, I don’t think it’s particularly likely to include the in-universe writers. It’s possible, since clearly the no-reason-to-live thing was exactly what they were going for with Ryoma, motive video and all, and they also clearly intended Kaito to be someone who encourages and supports others. But I don’t know if the in-universe writers could necessarily have predicted the way that Kaito having looked up to him in the past would make him react to Ryoma’s weakness. After all, for most people, you’d expect having admired someone to be even more reason to want to help them, not less. The out-universe writers have the benefit of always being in Kaito’s head and therefore being able to know exactly how he would react to any situation. They can retroactively add things to his character on the fly to change his reaction and make the situation turn out how they want it to. But the in-universe writers just wrote everything about Kaito’s character into a Flashback Light at the beginning, and after that point they had no more control because he became a real person and not just their character any more. So it’d be much harder for them to predict exactly how he’d respond to things, and if it wasn’t the response they wanted, there’s a lot less they could do to change it.

(The alternative explanation from an in-universe writing perspective is simply that the writers had Kaito know about Ryoma because they thought it’d seem more realistic if a few of the Ultimates knew of each other, such as how Shuichi had heard of Kirumi too.)

Next, since we’re on the third floor, we’re heading to Maki’s lab to question her and Kirumi. Shuichi didn’t include this in his list of places he wanted to investigate other than the gym, so I’ve seen a lot of first-time players miss it and awkwardly wander around not knowing where to go. He really should have mentioned it.

Kaito: “Hey, once we’re done with the trial, can I get a massage?”

Kirumi: “But of course…”

I like how Kirumi casually agrees to this request despite knowing it’s impossible because by the end of the trial either one or the other of them will be dead.

Kaito: “I didn’t see him at all yesterday, actually.”

Kaito did see Ryoma, actually, in the morning at the casino. But that was an optional scene that some players might not have got, so, yeah.

It’s interesting for Kirumi to be having this conversation about who was the last to see Ryoma alive… right in front of Maki, who was the actual last person to see him alive other than Kirumi herself, but she’s still not going to admit to it because she’s afraid of being suspected. Quite understandably, since she met with him alone in the middle of the night when she could easily have killed him and not been seen doing it.

Kokichi is also lying about the last time he saw Ryoma, mind you, since Ryoma came to him to ask who had his motive video, which had to have been after Kokichi had seen the videos and therefore after 11pm. So Kokichi is also keeping important information from everyone just because he thinks it’ll be ~hilarious~ to try and turn Kaito and Maki against each other and wouldn’t be able to do that if we knew the murder happened at nighttime. What a wonderfully helpful person.

Kaito: “Hahaha! That’s pretty harsh! But my sidekick is working his ass off!”

Maki: “…Sidekick?”

Kaito: “Yup! Shuichi’s my sidekick now!”

Maki: “Shouldn’t it be… the other way around? The dumb one should be the sidekick.”

Hee, I still love Maki’s jabs at Kaito. And Kaito being such a goof that he’s excitedly telling everyone about Shuichi being his sidekick now. Mind you, I think it might be significant that he’s choosing to tell this to Maki in particular, since he probably already has plans to try and make her into his next sidekick.

Kaito: “Th-The dumb one? I’m more of a scientist type of guy… so this stuff really isn’t my thing.”

Maki: “…Wouldn’t being a scientist be helpful for an investigation?”

Kaito: “More importantly…”

I like how both Shuichi and Maki pointed out that being a scientist should be useful in investigations (thus proving that Kaito probably wouldn’t actually make a very good research scientist). And how Kaito conspicuously changes the topic.

Shuichi: “You’ve been in here ever since this room opened up. Almost as if… you’re keeping watch. Making sure no one else enters.”

Maki: “… Is this… an interrogation?”

Gah, Maki, assuming that he’s interrogating her because she has so much to hide and she’s terrified of anyone managing to get it out of her, even though all Shuichi wants right now is to know anything she knows about the case. (That said, his detective’s instincts are still honing in on the question of why she’s guarding this place even though it’s irrelevant to the current case, so she isn’t wrong to be wary.)

Shuichi: “But you should at least cooperate with our investigation… Because all our lives are on the line.”

Maki: “Even if I did cooperate, I wouldn’t be any help.”

Except for the part where she can tell them that Ryoma was alive at nighttime. That would be helpful. But she’s too afraid of being suspected, because she’s so used to the idea that everyone should suspect her that it doesn’t even occur to her that they wouldn’t.

Maki: “Gonta did stop by, but I managed to chase him off somehow. All I did was tell him… ‘If you lay a hand on me, you’ll choke to death on your own tongue.’ That’s all.”

Kaito: “So Gonta got scared off by that? Well, I guess he would hold back against a girl.”

This reads like another instance of Kaito being grazed by a Misogyny Bullet, like he’s supposedly brushing off how intimidating Maki is by going “lol but she’s only a girl, right?”. But I actually don’t think that’s it in this case. Kaito genuinely does not find Maki intimidating – even when he learns that she’s an assassin, he’s not the slightest bit afraid of her, because he trusts his instincts that she’s a good person. Therefore, it doesn’t occur to Kaito that her threat might scare someone, so he figures Gonta wouldn’t have been that scared either, and therefore assumes that Gonta took her gender into account, because after all Gonta has his gentleman thing and gentlemen must be considerate towards ladies.

Maki: “Are we done here? You’re wasting your time talking to me. I don’t know anything.”

Kaito: “Okay, I’m done here.”

Shuichi: “Huh? You are?”

Kaito: “Well, her alibi is a little shaky, but I don’t think she killed Ryoma. That’s what my instincts are telling me.”

Maki: “…”

Look at Kaito believing in Maki, because his instincts are telling him she’s a good person and they’re right! And I love Maki’s silent glance away, like she’s wondering how the hell he can think that about her without any proof.

I also wouldn’t be surprised if Kaito could sense that Maki has more she’s not telling them – the way she ended the conversation really does sound like she’s trying to because she doesn’t want to have to say any more. Even if he did, though, Kaito wouldn’t ask her to tell them whatever she’s hiding, because he trusts that whatever it is isn’t anything malicious and that forcing it out of her won’t help things.

Kaito: “But if you remember anything, be sure to tell Shuichi, okay? He’s my sidekick, y’know? He’s pretty good.”

Maki: “…”

Maki’s silence this time looks like she’s sighing, probably in exasperation at Kaito’s… Kaito-ness. And I like how Kaito is asking her to tell Shuichi, not himself, if she remembers anything. More signs that this really isn’t about Kaito and Kaito’s just acting this way to give Shuichi as much help as he can to solve this case.

Finally, off to Ryoma’s dorm room. But while we’re in the dorms, before heading into his room, I examined Kaede’s door.

Shuichi: (… Kaede… Your wish… the promise that we would make it out of here together…) [starting to cry] (I promised you… but…)

Kaito: [looking away and wincing] “Shuichi, let’s think later. First we gotta deal with Ryoma’s case.”

Shuichi: [smiling slightly] “Ah, right…”

(Descriptions of their expressions included because they’re important and most people probably haven’t seen this exchange.)

I love this little moment. It really shows how much good Kaito is doing for Shuichi here, even though he’s been basically no help in terms of actual investigative work. Kaito obviously notices Shuichi staring sadly at Kaede’s door and starting to cry, and even though Kaito’s also in a lot of pain over the fact that they couldn’t keep their promise of not letting another murder happen, he’s able to help Shuichi stay focused on what needs to be done. And Shuichi’s small smile shows that he really does appreciate that Kaito’s here and understands what he’s going through and is giving him the nudge he needs. It would be hell for Shuichi to have to force himself through this investigation while feeling like this if he were alone. Friends are especially important in a situation like this, and Kaito is such a good friend.

Shuichi: “You see, if we suppose the motive for the crime was the video… There’s a high possibility that Ryoma had the culprit’s motive video.”

This is a bit of a stretch, I think. He’s assuming something along the lines of what I’d been saying earlier – that the culprit committed murder simply to get their hands on their video. If the culprit committed the murder because they saw their video and were driven to murder because of it, there’d be no reason to specifically murder the person who had their video rather than anyone else. Unless there was something extra-incriminating in their video such as “this person is secretly an assassin”. But, you know, too bad Maki’s not the murderer and Kokichi is just causing Shuichi to jump to false conclusions because he stole the video for the sake of making things ~fun~.

…If Kokichi hadn’t stolen the video, then Kaito and Shuichi would have ended up watching Maki’s motive video right here. Huh. That would have been interesting.

I wonder if that’s actually the real reason that Kokichi stole the video: because he wanted to keep a monopoly on the knowledge of Maki’s talent, so he could reveal it whenever he chose. He brings out the video in the trial to talk about it being Maki’s, but he never actually plays it to prove that it’s hers, so he could still have talked about whose video it was without needing to physically have it with him.

Kaito: “Alright! That’s just what I’d expect from my top sidekick!”

He’s your only sidekick right now, Kaito, of course he’s the top one. Also I really can’t see Kaito picking favourites among his sidekicks when he does have multiple of them.

Shuichi briefly flashes back to Kaito’s motive video and looks worried. I’m not sure why this worries him – he’s just decided that the culprit is likely to be the owner of the video Ryoma had, which would make Kaito less suspicious.

Kaito mentions that he’s been thinking maybe they should have watched the motive videos after all.

Kaito: “They showed the most important people to us, right? So… maybe we should’ve watched them… Without looking away from the truth… At the time, I agreed with Keebo, but after thinking about it… I changed my mind. And… if we were worried about watching them alone, we coulda just watched them together.”

Shuichi: “Watch them together?”

Kaito: “Yeah… we shoulda gathered together and watched all the videos. Share everybody’s motives. Even if it’s something you can’t bear by yourself, it’d be possible with everyone. That’s what cooperation is, right?”

It’s a really interesting outlook he has on this. He knows that the videos show something awful and terrifying – your loved ones in horrible danger – but he thinks it’d be better to face up to that truth rather than running away from it while knowing that your motive video still exists and so your loved ones probably still are in some kind of danger that you just don’t know about.

And most importantly, he believes that if everyone watched them together, with the spirit of co-operation in their minds, then things would be okay. Someone seeing their motive alone would potentially become desperate to kill out of fear for their loved ones, but if everyone watched them all together and saw that everyone else also had loved ones that were just as important to them, they’d be less likely to do something selfish. The point of the videos is to drive people to murder by making them scared and desperate, but if everyone understands what everyone else is going through and they all support each other through that fear, then a murder should be less likely than if everyone tries to deal with their fears alone. That’s such a wonderfully Kaito outlook to have.

It’s also interesting that Kaito never tried to suggest this to everyone else earlier. He says that he agreed with Keebo at the time, but the thing is, Kaito didn’t say all that much during that initial conversation they had about what to do with the videos. I think it’s more that at the time, Kaito just wasn’t sure about the right thing to do, and so he didn’t object to Keebo’s decision despite not necessarily strongly agreeing with it either – being Kaito, of course he wouldn’t advocate something unless he was sure of himself. By the time he had made up his mind about this, it was probably too late to really bring it up in a way that was likely to persuade anyone, since they’d been decided on the opposite approach for a while and trying to rock the boat would only end up making him sound like Kokichi, which wouldn’t help at all in getting them on board with an idea rooted in co-operation and trust.

If Kaito had happened to make up his mind about this sooner, soon enough to bring it up during the initial conversation everyone had about the videos, then he almost certainly would have done – and if he’d brought it up in that context, maybe he’d have been able to get enough people to agree with him. This chapter would have gone very interestingly differently if they’d gone with his approach.

Shuichi: “That’s… what Kokichi was trying to do.”

Kaito: “Huh?”

Shuichi: “Kokichi was trying to get us to participate in a motive video viewing party of sorts. That’s why he forced us into the same room. Do you think that was his way of ‘cooperating’? Do you think the same way?”

See, Kokichi was trying to get everyone to watch all the videos, but there was absolutely no spirit of co-operation involved in his way of going about it. He literally described the scenario in which everyone shows each other their videos as “not co-operating” a few days ago. All Kokichi wanted to do was make sure everyone saw their videos and let them all stew in their own fear and desperation alone, and then he could be sure that everyone and anyone could be out to get him and wouldn’t have to fear being “betrayed”, and Monokuma would get the murder he wanted and not cause them even more problems than they already had.

Kaito: “N-No… if that’s what he wanted, he coulda just asked us.”

Exactly. If Kokichi actually thought of what he was doing as “co-operation”, then there would have been no need for him to go about it in such a coercive way. He could have just made the same argument Kaito made just now, if he really felt that way, and it might have convinced people.

Kaito: “That’s what a normal person woulda done, but the thing is, he’s *not* normal. Maybe he did want us to cooperate, but there’s no way to know for sure. He’d never tell us.”

If Kokichi actually does want everyone to co-operate, then he is the most terrible person at actually getting that to happen. Trying to get people to co-operate by being as much of an unco-operative asshole as possible doesn’t seem very likely to work. He should be smart enough to know that.

Hm, you know, this discussion about Kaito and Kokichi’s opinions on sharing the motive videos serves as another example of both of them wanting to do the same literal thing but for completely contrasting reasons, which is also what happens in case 5.

Kaito: “Looks like it’s time, bro.”

Shuichi: “Y-Yeah… …”

Kaito: “Hey, why do you look so worried now!? Don’t worry! You can do it. I believe in you.”

Shuichi: (Believe in me…?) “Why? Why do you trust me, Kaito? There’s a chance that I’m the cul—”

This is a good time to point out something notable about the idea of “believing in” someone, namely that there’s kind of two versions of it. First there’s simply trusting that someone is a decent person and didn’t or won’t murder anyone. Then, once you already believe that about a person, there’s a further level of belief in their potential to be able to do amazing things. Kaito is affirming the latter kind of belief in Shuichi, because to him the idea that Shuichi wouldn’t kill anyone is already so obvious that it doesn’t even need saying.

But Shuichi seemed to mostly get hung up on the idea of the former kind of belief, to the point of asking Kaito about it. It’s probably because he’s just spent the whole investigation in Ultimate Detective mode where he has to suspect everyone and everything – especially after what happened last time with Kaede. I also wonder if he’s asking this because he’s still a little afraid to trust Kaito even though he wants to, and wants to know how trusting people can come so easily to Kaito.

Kaito: “I believe in you because I want to. Do I need a reason other than that?”

Shuichi: “…What?”

Kaito: “Isn’t that why you believed in Kaede? I mean, sure, I might get betrayed in the end, but… If I worry about that, I won’t be able to believe in the people I wanna believe in!”

Kaito’s philosophy about believing in people is so good! He is not being stupid to believe in people the way he does. He’s fully aware of the possibility that his judgement might be wrong and he might get betrayed – but his desire to believe in them and the joy that’ll come from being able to do so wholeheartedly without letting himself worry about betrayal is worth that risk in his mind. By believing in people just because he wants to without any concrete proof, Kaito is simply being brave, and maybe a little reckless. And isn’t that just exactly how Kaito always is?

(This conversation about believing in people takes place in whichever location you happen to finish investigating in. But when it’s flashed back to during the trial, the background is always Ryoma’s room. So apparently that’s the canon place they have this conversation, which is why I saved this room for last. It would be nice to imagine they had this conversation within earshot of Maki, but apparently that’s not how it actually went.)

Kaito: “Shuichi, we’re still young… I can’t die before I’ve had my first drink or gone to space!”

KAITO CAN’T DIE BEFORE HE’S GONE TO SPACE, YOU GUYS. I’m sure you know how Very Important this is. He will be mentioning something to this effect multiple times because it is so very important.

Kaito: “If you’re not going to get yourself in gear now, then when!? Now’s all you’ve got!”

Some fuel for the “Kaito’s parents died” train, I think, with the sense that he knows life is short and you’ve got to make the most of every moment while you still have it, because there might not be a later.

Shuichi: “… Yeah, Kaito. I know.”

Kaito: “Yeah, that’s the expression I wanted to see. Heh, that’s my sidekick.”

Kaito is so proud of his sidekick for managing to push past his negativity and stay positive and it’s adorable.

Shuichi: (I have to believe in myself. I have to *believe* that I can do this.)

And believe in the Kaito who believes in you!

…okay, look, I’m probably going to feel compelled to make that reference a few times, shush. It could not be more appropriate.

Tsumugi: “But I don’t even know where to start unraveling the truth… Aah… I should’ve played more point-and-click adventure games…”

Nah, Tsumugi, I’m pretty sure you’ve already played more than enough of those.

Tenko: “I hear males pick on girls they like to get their attention! Which means Kokichi must like Himiko!”

Kokichi: “Huh!? How’d you know!?”

While this part about Kokichi liking Himiko is almost certainly a lie, it’s interesting to see it come up here… when it also comes up in trial 5 from “Exisal Kokichi”. Either Kokichi was attached enough to this stupid little lie that he put it in his script, or Kaito was paying attention to this here and somehow decided that jokingly hitting on Himiko would be a way to make himself seem more convincingly like Kokichi.

Maki: “…Sorry, but I don’t know anything. If you think a child caregiver can help solve a murder case… then we’re all in trouble.”

Maki’s making the same weak argument she was earlier. She’s just really hoping no-one is going to prod her too hard for information and force her to reveal that she met Ryoma at nighttime, because she’s convinced they’ll all think she did it if they knew that.

Kiyo: “To kill because you have a reason to live… To die because you have no reason to live… Which, I wonder, is correct?”

Is there any reason they can’t both be? Or they can’t both be wrong? Also, the killer didn’t kill just because they wanted to live, but because they wanted to escape. Killing simply in order to survive is a foolish strategy in this killing game, unless you happen to have a life-threatening illness; I’ve been over this.

Kaito: “You’re thinking too hard about it… Living things just gotta live. Anyway, no matter what happens to us, we gotta live!”

I appreciate Kaito butting into Kiyo’s weird amoral philosophising with his straightforwardness.

Kokichi: “Yeah… you don’t really need a reason to live. That’s just the icing on the cake.”

This implies that Kokichi maybe doesn’t have a particularly strong reason to live and is just kind of along for the ride in life. He still does want to live, but if his determination to survive isn’t as strong as others’ might be then this goes some way towards explaining why he ends up willing to throw his life away just to “win”.

Kaito: “Shuichi… before we head over there, let me give you some advice, hero-to-sidekick.”

Kaito considers himself the “hero” to Shuichi’s “sidekick”. I think this is the first time he’s mentioned this, and it’s a very important thing to keep in mind. Especially considering what we just learned about how he thought of Ryoma.

Kaito: “If you want to give up, wait until after you’ve done everything you possibly can! Wait, no. That’s still no good… Okay! I won’t forgive you if you give up! You got it?”

Shuichi: “Yeah… got it, Kaito.” (He’s right… I can’t give up. I made a promise to Kaede.)

Of course that would be Kaito’s advice, heh. And Shuichi is on board with it, since he’s so determined not to let Kaede down!

There’s a conspicuous gap next to Shuichi in the elevator where Kaede stood before. I know the elevator scenes always just keep everyone in the same positions, but I’d have really liked it if Kaito had moved into that spot instead, as the one now giving Shuichi emotional support. It doesn’t seem right that he’d just keep standing in front of Shuichi not even looking at him now that they’re “hero and sidekick”.

Kokichi: “You put a lot of elaborate detail into this courtroom. Almost like it’s for show.”

So in other words, Kokichi has deduced that this is being watched. And is he going to help us figure out what’s going on and escape by telling anyone else this fact? No, of course not.

Kirumi: “Is this just for show? Are you showing this to the people outside and—”

Kirumi seems a little worried that her most important people might be about to find out that she became a killer for them. Not that that would stop her from doing everything in her power to save them. I guess she’s also reacting to this because if it’s true then it proves that everyone is currently still alive and she’s not too late to save them.

Monokuma: “Puhuhu. Those people aren’t with us, so you don’t need to worry about them. Get it? They’re not with us. As in, they’re no longer with us, y’know what I mean? In other words, you 13 are the only ones left in the world.”

At first this kind of reads like Monokuma’s just saying the people outside aren’t relevant because they’re on the other side of the fourth wall so they don’t matter to this fiction… but then he implies they’re all dead, meaning he is actually playing along with the backstory after all. (And Kirumi is probably desperately hoping he’s lying about this, otherwise whoops.)

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#danganronpa #danganronpa v3 #drv3 #ndrv3 #chapter 2 #deadly life #commentary

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haruki-ya · 5 years

Text

Icy

Summary: Ok so, here's another self indulgent non-canon complacent aged up AU thing where Kaneda and the Capsules, who are more a gang of friends as opposed to a real gang, work with Joker at his automotive shop. Joker runs a black market parts ring under the table which brings all kinds of customers into the shop: Kei is one of them, still a prominent member of the Resistance that continues to fight against the government's unethical and unlawful treatment of it's citizens. Going into the shop, Kei naturally means business so of course, in comparison, Kaneda does not.

What follows is a tense test of wills. One icy, iron clad, seemingly impenetrable. The other aloof, arrogant, endlessly aggravating. Despite the mutual pain they cause one another, both get something out if it in the end. Even if it's not exactly what either of them really wants.

A/N: tbh it’s p much just an excuse for me to write out how I see the foundation of kaneda and kei’s relationship, who are 18 and 20 here respectively...and for me to keep everyone alive lmao. also full disclosure I know nothing about tanks and just picked some parts at random to throw in the story and this is really long i’m sorry haha ok bye

The bell ringing on the shop door as it opens catches Kaneda’s attention, makes him look up past his Shonen Jump and crossed feet on the counter.

There are a few customers wandering around the store, but they’ve been here for at least ten minutes, discouraged by his inattentive, uncaring demeanor- good. He doesn’t wanna explain to them which motor oil would be best for their shitty Honda Accords or where exactly you’re supposed to put the damn transmission fluid. It may be his job, but god damn if it isn’t annoying answering the same stupid questions day in day out. Kaneda hopes whoever entered won’t bother him with twenty useless questions, but with his luck they’ll be askin thirty-five.

The door closes softly with a tinkle and Kaneda takes a cursory glance at the woman who entered before turning his attention back to his magazine- hoping to keep up the air of “leave me the fuck alone" -but that’s before his brain really processes who exactly walked in the store. Or more like what. An angel? He does an unashamed double take.

Kaneda is drawn immediately in by her tight clothes, her straight posture, her well coiffed appearance. The coldness of her features are striking against the warmth of her yellow toned coat, the tan of her flawless skin. Her very presence is captivating, even from across the small store: his eyes are positively glued to the tall, trim figure that sticks out like a sore thumb in the dirty lobby of Joker’s Automotive Inc.

If Kaneda were any less observant, he would immediately write her off as just another flirt lookin’ for a fly to catch- for a free tune up from the eager boys in back. But her hands, while well manicured, look worn, scarred. The sweep of her head left to right is observant, but not of the products lining their isles of shelves: of the people moving between them. Calculating risks, weighing options.

Those are not qualities you find in your run of the mill city girl.

She treads softly towards Kaneda, but her gait speaks purpose. Her heels click click click steadily on the checkered linoleum floor, not asking for attention, demanding. Her eyes are covered by darkly tinted shades, but Kaneda can still see that she is looking at him…and he can’t fight a dopey smile from spreading on his face. She doesn’t smile back.

Oh, this is gonna be fun.

“What can I do for ya’ miss?” She’s only about two feet away now and her approach slows as Kaneda uncrosses his feet and tosses his magazine off to the side. She stops right as Kaneda’s feet stomp on the ground and he pushes himself up to his full height, only slightly bothered by the fact that she lords over him a solid three inches. Must be the heels.

“I’m here to speak with Joker.” Her voice oh shit is sweet like honey, burns in his veins like aged whiskey. She sounds just like she looks: bold, purposeful, husky in that sensual feminine way. Ready to cut to the chase and get down to business. Kaneda idly thinks he hasn’t taken to a girl so quickly in his whole life- and that may actually be true this time.

Kaneda keeps up his wide smile and air of politeness as he spreads his hands in an apologetic manner. Her face remains coldly detached- unimpressed. Time to up the ante.

“Sorry miss, but Joker’s not in right now. What is it you’re lookin’ for? I’m sure I could be much more helpful in satisfying your needs.” Now that garners a reaction. A slight twitch of the lips, one slowly raised eyebrow. She takes a step forward, now standing more around four inches taller than Kaneda. He cocks his head to the side as her eyes narrow behind her shades.

“You misunderstood. I’m here to talk to Joker, in private.” And that garners a reaction from him.

Sure, people come in asking for Joker all the time. It is his shop after all. Kaneda and the boys just work here. But people only ask twice and in private for jobs that don’t get written into the books- not the federally taxed ones anyway.

Joker runs a black market parts ring under the table, steals and deals high demand items for a specific type of clientele: a specific high paying type of clientele. Joker meets with the customer, estimates the plausibility of their demand, Joker gets paid to complete it, the boys help make arrangements for it, Joker gets it, the boys deliver it. Simple as that.

It’s become as easy as breathing for Kaneda and co., who have no problem with the risks and dangers of such a, well, risky and dangerous job. It’s only cause the pay is borderline lucrative and Kaneda and the boys never really have been good at being good.

What is a pretty girl like her doing asking for a service like that? Kaneda is only growing more intrigued- more eager to make her lose her temper. Something in Kaneda wants so desperately to see that cool facade crack, to see her calm, poised air fall under his “charismatic” ways. He’s always been good at pushing buttons. It really is a wonder he usually gets stuck with counter duty.

“Well, I understand alright, but there’s not much I can do for you since he’s not in right now.” Her face falls back into it’s stony mask and Kaneda shoves his foot in his mouth trying to remedy the situation, wanting to keep up the progression of facial expressions, not shut them down before the real fun starts.

“I can take a name and message though no sweat...and if you’re feeling generous maybe you could throw in your number, just for me.” She crosses her arms swiftly at Kaneda’s broad smile, at his wink- worth a shot.

“When will he be back in?” She chooses not to acknowledge Kaneda’s advance, bold choice he will admit, but only because that means he has to try harder now.

Kaneda shrugs, starts picking at his nails as if he doesn’t really care- but he does, of course. Anyone coming through looking for Joker is just as important to Kaneda as to the big lard-ass himself. They’re both paying his bills after all.

“Not sure miss, I’m not his damn secretary...I’m sure he’d consider you for the job though. One look at you and you’re hired. It'd be nice to have a pretty face hangin' around for once.” Yet another twitch of the lips, a shift in her solid stance.

“Is there a manager in store aside from Joker?” There’s a hint of thinly veiled impatience in her voice and Kaneda grins to himself on the inside. Jackpot.

“Yup! You’re looking at ‘em! All special requests go through me, the right hand man.” Kaneda too crosses his arms, puffs out his chest and widens his stance a little bit to mirror her power pose. “But that’s beside the point, your number on the other hand…”

Something like a smile- more a smirk than anything holy shit -melts away her frown as she slowly, deliberately lowers her shades down the bridge of her nose to glance at Kaneda’s chest. Impressed by his buff arms, no doubt.

“You’re no manager. That much is clear.” Kaneda’s smile twitches, but holds strong. That obvious challenge of his authority, the combative look that glitters in her bright eyes, is not what he expected, but certainly isn’t enough to throw him off balance. Right?

“And what makes you say that?”

“Your name tag is upside down...Mr. Shotaro.” Kaneda flushes at her mocking tone, her confident smirk, resists the urge to fix his name tag which upon a quick glance downwards- yup, is indeed upside down. He plays it cool instead. Or tries to.

“That’s-that’s just the new style. Someone like you wouldn’t know how the working class operates anyhow!”

“Oh, and what exactly makes you say that?” There’s a real edge to her voice now as she parrots Kaneda’s words and he doesn’t miss the way her hands clench slowly into fists. As is she wants to smack him right where he stands, but is holding herself back. A real spitfire he sees. Kaneda uncrosses his arms to throw a hand on his hip and a cocky smile on his face and goes in for the kill.

“Haha really? You look like you haven’t worked a day in your whole life. Probably live off of daddy’s hard earned money. You even know what a tax refund is doll face?”

The woman’s whole demeanor seems to shift at that. There’s nothing subtle about it, like watching fast approaching thunderclouds roll quickly, all encompassing, over skyscrapers and cityscapes. Throwing the people caught underneath into a panic. Powerless against the force of Mother Nature.

Kaneda swallows hard and strains his smile in the hopes that she can’t sense his sudden discomfort. Maybe he shouldn’t have called her doll face...

“I’ll leave a message for Joker. I’d hate to run into you again were I to come back. Get a pen and paper ready, I won’t repeat myself.” Her voice has dropped an octave, entered a dangerous, very obvious territory of “try me again ”.

And so naturally, of course, Kaneda does.

“Hah, pen and paper, how hard can your order be babe? Need an oil change? A custom made paint job for your bug? Want me to show you how to properly lubricate your bearings while we’re at it?” Still, despite his nasty jest, he lazily reaches for a pad of paper and a pen. Just to humor her.

And well, to write down her order with.

He’s a jackass and a dumbass, but rarely both at the same time. Is leaning more towards the former at this particular moment.

A fierce scowl mars her pretty face and god damn how does that make her more attractive? She takes another step closer, body flush with the counter, and Kaneda gets a good whiff of her perfume: green tea leaves, bright citrus, and just a hint of earthy sandalwood. Definitely angelic then.

“You’re absolutely disgustingly insufferable.” Her eyes, like her words, are sharp, a biting amber that cut straight through Kaneda, make his knees almost feel weak. Her lashes are long, bat furiously against the rim of her shades.

“And you’re just too damn sweet.” And honestly, he does mean that. Kaneda’s certainly been called much worse.

Sighing sharply out her nose, she uncrosses her arms and leans away. Shakes her head almost imperceptibly in - disgust? disapproval? Probably both if Kaneda’s involved, but he’s confident she’ll come around. That he’ll be able to coax a smile out of her after he makes her scowl a whole bunch more first. He wants to see the calm beyond her stormy demeanor, to know what else can be found beyond her icy expressions.

Right as he’s about to try again, she jerks her head towards him and speaks lowly. Drops her crossed arms to cock her hip and place her hand on her waist, a mirror image of Kaneda's own posture. He notices the fingers of her other hand tap steadily at her thigh.

“I need one GE T700 gas turbine engine, two M1 fume extractors, four drive sprockets, two sixteen toothed the other twenty, approximately seven and a half gallons of liquid EN 1063, and maybe if you’re feeling generous you could throw in a little respect ...just for me and my high paying associates. Does that sound doable?”

Kaneda’s jaw flaps like a fish out of water, both at her deadpan tone and the order itself. Does that sound doable?

“Are you trying to build a fucking tank?!” Is what he blurts out and it’s obviously the wrong thing to say, even Kaneda knows that before seeing her face close off again and something downright unpleasant twist her features. Long gone is that pretty girl scowl, replaced in turn by pure scorn.

Man, cute but intimidating. Who knew that was his type?

“...Right, tell Joker Ryu won’t be happy. Especially not with you, Shotaro Kaneda.” The threat in her voice is just that, a threat. Very real, very pressing, and Kaneda actually does know why he’s put on counter duty so often- he’s good at weeding out potential, at differentiating between empty threats and real ones. And this bitch of a beauty is dishing out some serious, “you’re gonna regret this” vibes.

His words stumble over themselves as she turns sharply on her heel, as if to leave, because Kaneda just can’t have that, pride and joy be damned.

“Wait, wait, wait, look, I’m sorry! I, uh, I’m sorry I haven’t been taking you seriously. I just, well...don’t see a lot of pretty faces like yours 'round here. I couldn’t help myself…and that order request? Totally not what I was expecting either.” She halts suddenly, spins around once again and glowers at him before re-crossing her arms. They’re just feeding off one another’s tension at this point.

“And what were you expecting? That I’d come straight in asking for the Shotaro Special and have you take me to the break room for a good time?” God damn, she fired that one back quick as a whip, a fire in her voice that ignites so suddenly even Kaneda is weary of continuing his little game with her.

“Uh, well...if that’s what you want, I only aim to please the high paying customer.” But he’s truly sincerely never been good with self control.

“You’re arrogance has no end, does it…”

“Don’t worry, I’ll grow on ya’.” He always does.

“Who says I’ll be back?” And at this Kaneda raises a brow, smirks at her ruffled expression and leans towards it with both palms flush on the counter. There’s a newfound confidence in his words with the ball safely back in his court.

“If you’re serious about this order, no one but Joker can get what you need...I can call him up right now and toss it his way, see what he has to say about it. Or you can go try your luck elsewhere. Be my guest, miss. You won’t find service quite like ours anywhere else though.”

She stares at him intensely with those bright amber eyes of hers, unblinking, unmoving. Pensive. Kaneda thinks he broke her up until the point where she sighs out her nose and uncrosses her arms. It’s as good an invitation to continue as any. Kaneda smiles and pushes off the counter, picks up the pen by his hand and starts to twirl it.

“You mentioned the name Rua?”

“...Ryu. He’s made orders with Joker before. Shouldn’t be a problem but if he asks tell him Kei personally came in to meet with him.” The woman- no, Kei -speaks through a frown, obviously not wanting to accept his apology, but willing to work with it anyway. Smart, sassy, sexy. She just keeps getting better and better.

“Kei, huh.” Three different meanings come to mind: respect, blessing, wise. “…It suits you.”

Kei must sense the shift in his tone, the sincerity in his voice because her brows furrow in thought before she accepts the comment. “...Thank you.” Although begrudgingly, if her hesitation is anything to go by.

Kaneda sends her a smile, not sarcastic, not teasing. About as genuine as Kaneda can manage in this situation. It quickly warps into one of sheepishness though, as he begins to rub nervously at the back of his neck with his free hand.

“Uh, hey though, listen...I know you said you wouldn’t repeat yourself…” Kei sighs and holds out her hand, acting put upon by his attitude and really...it’s probably not an act at this point. Maybe he should tone it down.

“Give me that, I’ll write the order down.” With a laugh he hands over the pad of paper, stained with an aged brown coffee ring, and the pen he’s been fiddling with. Their skin brushes against one another during the exchange and Kaneda’s attention is once more drawn to the elegant shape of her hands, the scars both old and new that mar them. Her skin is soft despite the raised tissue, the callouses, and he swallows around an urge to feel her hands held fully within his own.

“I gotta know, since me and my boys will be the ones getting all this shit…are you trying to build a tank?” He diverts both their attention with that one, tries to keep his mind strictly business from here on out. Kei hums to acknowledge she heard him, but has bent low over the counter to focus on what she’s writing.

“Ultimately...yes. With some minor adjustments here and there.”

“What the ever loving hell do you need a tank for? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I think that’s incredibly se-super badass of you but also uh...a bit big to be riding down the street to the grocery store with.” Nice save, Shotaro. Pet names and compliments, not compatible with Kei. Time to keep it strictly business.

Kei glances at him above the rim of her sunglasses, before turning her attention back to the paper. “...I don’t think you’re a trustworthy person to confide in with such information, Shotaro.” The finality of her tone almost makes Kaneda pout, almost, but he has appearances to uphold here.

“Awe come on! S’not like anyone would believe me if I told them some chick named Kei walked in with her heels and shades asking for parts to build a tank with.” Where Kaneda laughs, Kei scowls. Sends him another shaded glare. She’s just bursting at the seams with those isn’t she?

“So that means you would tell someone.” Not a question so much a statement and Kaneda backtracks again as her eyes stare accusingly at him. She straightens to her full height and damn, is she five inches taller than him now?

“Wha-wait, no, that was just a what if scenario-” Kei cuts him off with a clipped tone. Strictly business.

“The people I work with don’t have time for loose lipped gossip let alone what if scenarios, do you understand? There is more at stake here than you could ever understand.”

Kaneda, believe it or not, is growing tired of her cold seriousness, of her combative nature- despite himself probably being the driving cause behind it. He thinks at the very least there’s more to her than a pretty face and bitchy attitude and he's just about past the point of wanting to get a rise out of her, bored with his own tactics. He knows now that joking and flirting with her only tightens the reins on her formal cordiality, so he’s at least trying to make an effort and level with her here.

He just hopes not too late.

“Then help me understand. I got things at stake here too, this job, running parts, I like to know what I’m getting myself into beforehand. I’d be putting my ass on the line for you in this situation after all…I’ll personally accept a date as safety insurance though.” Kaneda, acting on instinct as always, is unable to keep that last bit to himself. Is sure she’ll roll her eyes at that one, maybe shoot him a scorching look, but all he gets is an exasperated sigh. A considerate head tilt.

Is that a hint of amusement he sees on her face?

“...When Joker gets in, ask him about the Resistance. I trust him to tell you more about it, about us. Ryu is a strong figurehead in the fight against government tyranny...he’s truly an inspiring man. These parts are detrimental to the success of our next plan to keep the fight in our favor. The last engine we had failed on us before we even left the compound.”

Kaneda, ever curious, can’t help but ask, “And that was?”

“Honeywell AGT1500. A little too old to keep up with our movements, I think.” Kaneda whistles lowly and crosses his arms at her response, a polar shift in their dynamics from the beginning of their fast paced back and forth banter. The tension between them is all but gone now and Kei’s words seem to flow freely and easily. That chip on her shoulder gone with Kaneda’s flirtiness- almost -in check.

“Now where the hell did you get an engine like that?”

“Probably the same place Joker will be getting this newer model.” She pauses to hold up the piece of paper with the order details written neatly on it before sliding it face down towards him.

“This city is full of surprises if you know where to look.”

“Huh…” Kaneda makes a thoughtful noise as he presses his palm flat over the paper. “I gotta say Kei, you’re not what I expected.”

And that comment, the one that usually always rubs people the wrong way, makes her lips curve into the closest thing to a true smile Kaneda has seen throughout the past ten minutes of conversation. If her scowl is hot, makes his knees weak, Kaneda can’t even begin to describe what her small little grin does to him.

Kei tucks a piece of hair behind her ear before replying and Kaneda has to hold himself back from chasing the action, from feeling the softness of her short hair between his own fingers. Damn, he’s got it bad for this girl.

“Let me guess, you thought you had me pegged the moment I walked in. You seem the type to care solely about appearances. Or should I say shallowly .” Kaneda laughs at her comment, lost on cloud nine, and opts to take it lightly despite the slight insult to her words.

Puts a spin on his response, just for her.

“I’m a simple man, can’t deny that, but you...you hold yourself in a different way. Your hands aren’t those of a good for nothin' free loader, I was lying when I said you probably haven’t worked a day in your life. You work plenty, and you work hard at that. Can see it in your eyes, the set of your shoulders too…there’s definitely more to you than just a pretty face.”

Kei is silent at that, her small smile gone. On her face is a new expression, one that almost looks frightened. For a moment Kaneda thinks he said something wrong, should have held his tongue like he’s never been good at doing. Strictly business and all that.

Kei's eyes bore into Kaneda’s own, gleaming in the fluorescent light like two firm copper coins. Her lips part slowly as if she is about to speak, but she quickly purses her lips instead and pushes her shades up to settle more firmly on the bridge of her nose. She takes a step back and...is that a flush Kaneda sees on her cheeks?

Check and mate.

“...I guess looks can be deceiving, no?” Her voice has gone low, almost soft, just shy of sweet and Kaneda very suddenly thinks he might be in love.

“You’re not wrong there.” Is what he says quietly in response and they stand, facing each other, for a long moment. It’s almost tender, their silence. Almost pleasant.

Until Kei clears her throat suddenly and clasps her hands behind her back. The moment is broken, but will be long from forgotten.

“Well...I’ve got to head out, handle a few more matters. Thank you for your help Kaneda, I hope to hear from Joker soon. Although, before I go, I must admit...I’m glad you recognize that I’m not one to mess around.”

Before Kaneda can say anything else, throw back some smart ass rebuttal or maybe just gawk at this amazingly unexpectedly enigmatic woman, Kei turns on her heel and click click clicks her way out the door just like she came in. Kaneda stares after her for a minute, caught up in the faint trace of her perfume that still lingers in the air. He’s not so sure she’s an angel anymore...maybe a devil in disguise.

But that works even better in his favor.

A loud klang from the door behind him makes Kaneda jump to attention and jerk around. Tetsuo is standing there, scowl on his face, oil smeared on his forehead, wiping a lug wrench clean(ish) with a dirty rag.

“I thought Joker said no more girls on the job.” Kaneda rolls his eyes and snags the list of items Kei wrote out from the counter. Very deliberately doesn’t correct Tetsuo and let’s him think she is his girl. No harm no foul.

“You’re just jealous that I’m not stuck doin’ oil changes.”

That seems to bowl away whatever comment Tetsuo had, because he scowls and mutters something- not kindly -under his breath. Kaneda can’t even be bothered. A goofy grin that’s been itching to surface manages to overtake his face now that Kei is gone- not for good. She’ll be frequenting his thoughts for probably the rest of the week.

“Whatever asshole, I’m off on lunch right now. Want Kai to take over and grab a bite with me since it’s slow?” Kaneda is touched by Tetsuo’s offer and expresses as much by clasping his hands over his heart, batting his eyes dramatically. He’s feeling all kinds of giddy after his talk with mysterious miss Kei.

“Oh Tetsuo! I thought you’d never ask! I’m so flattered that you feel this way for me, so strongly that you’d ask me out to lunch!” Tetsuo rolls his eyes at Kaneda’s antics and chucks the dirty rag in his hand at Kaneda, who throws his arm up to block the nasty thing from touching his face.

It’s then, when he’s face to face with her elegant scrawl, that Kaneda realizes he’s still holding the list of items that Kei wrote down. And that there’s also a phone number hastily scrawled below a separate note near the bottom. Kaneda shakes the rag off his forearm and eagerly reads Kei's elegant script.

Don’t even think of contacting me outside of business matters. This number isn’t for personal use, I have a separate phone for that. Maybe if you weren’t

Be less of an ass next time.

- Kei

Kaneda stops moving, stops thinking, stops breathing. There’s no way...He’s always been good at recognizing an opportunity when he sees one. And that hesitantly written note right there, with it’s crossed out words and clumsy scrawl in stark contrast to the rest of Kei’s neatly written list, means he has a chance.

He has a goddamn chance!

“A chance for what?” Tetsuo, once again, ruins the moment with his sour tone but Kaneda is through the roof with excitement, can’t hold back the whoop of happiness he lets out as he throws himself suddenly at Tetsuo, locks him into a bear hug. He ignores Tetsuo’s indignation, “Hey dumbass, let me go! What the hell is your problem?!”, and instead places a fat kiss on his friends grimy cheek. Laughs at the flush that colors Tetsuo’s face when he pulls away.

“Sorry Tets, rain check on lunch! I’ve got “after hours” business to discuss with Joker. Oh, but grab me a bento while you’re out!” Tetsuo scowls at him and rolls his eyes while violently wiping his cheek with the back of his hand.

“Yeah right asshole. Don’t fuck around for too long or Yama will rip you a new one!” Tetsuo ducks quickly back through the doorway leading to the garage, probably hoping to evade another Kaneda brand affection attack, but it’s a useless gesture.

He’s only got one person in mind he wants to really share those with.

After hurling back a customary, “No promises!”, Kaneda resumes his stationary position in the chair behind the counter, kicks his feet up and reaches for the phone. Impatient to start his homework. After dialing the familiar number, it takes only a short moment for the person on the other end to pick up. Kaneda can’t hide the smile in his voice.

“Hey Joker, it’s Kaneda...had someone come in looking for you a minute ago, she went by the name Kei...yeah, she did...tell me first though, how much do you know about her?”

This is going to be fun.

#akira #kanekei #kaneda #kei #akira au #fuck me honestly #ughdbdhdj #my writing #just throw me off a cliff now #my work here is DONE #there's so much djknklnsdjcna #like where the hell did this come from......i really don't kno

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