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godtier · 3 months

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so i wasn't gonna make a separate post about this but @sapphire-weapon had a post (that i reblogged a few days ago) in which someone mentioned that they think it was a missed opportunity in RE6 for jake to not have spoken to wesker. i had a p long conversation with sirea about it and my thoughts about that sentiment, but it was also nearly 3 AM my time when that happened so i dunno if i was even articulating my thoughts properly lmao

and yes... this is technically a meta post and i know i said i was gonna do the mmx meta post first... but this one isn't gonna be nearly as long (i hope) and i gotta get the brainworms out before i die

(quick edit note: i reworded the list item below from saying he was "likely a drug addict" to "likely a recreational drug user" because i feel like that better encompasses what i'm trying to get across

(another edit note: i made another post regarding jake's usage of drugs that stemmed from this post! it's marked as mature bc of drug usage, so it won't show up in tag search. if you're interested in that, look here!)

so the idea that wesker being alive in OG RE6 would have brought an opportunity for jake's character is kinda, imo, antithetical to the purpose of jake's character in the first place.

when we meet jake, we know a few things about him, right off the bat:

he's a mercenary

he's likely a recreational drug user or at least heavy/risk-taking user

he doesn't give a fuck about anything but making money

his whole character journey is going from this selfish, money-focused dickhead to someone who actually cares about doing something good, just because it's the right thing to do. at the start, jake refuses to simply give his blood away when sherry mentions needing it for a vaccine. no, he wants a cash payout. 50 million dollery-doos for a pint of his blood. by the end, he lowers the price to a mere 50 dollars. one could argue that was symbolic and he actually didn't care if he was paid or not, but that's neither here nor there.

but why was he like this? because his childhood was shite; his mother was sickly, he had no father figure, and by 15-ish, jake had to learn how to hustle to keep food on the table. and by "hustle" i mean "do a bunch of mercenary work and killing people." and when shit went south with his little group of mercenaries (their entire group was sold out by a heel-turner), jake basically went "fuck alla y'all" and lost all sense of conviction or morals.

during the game, he expresses his bitterness for his father, wesker, pretty clearly. even though his mother still loved wesker, tried to raise jake to respect him despite never knowing him, it didn't matter to jake. he hated that guy. well, really, who doesn't?

we're not gonna talk about excella rn ok

jake's entire character arc is built up around this hatred as well as a subconscious fear of becoming his father. the fear part doesn't show up until later in the story, after he and sherry were captured by the Big Bad's organization. they were both experimented on for several months, during which jake overheard the researchers talking about his father, wesker. this gives jake a sort of "explanation" as to why he is the way he is; he takes the "nature" side of the nature vs nurture argument.

ofc sherry scolds his ass and basically tells him "grow up and take responsibility for your actions."

and here's the thing... this fear, narratively, works just fine without wesker being there.

(since this got obscenely long, pls continue below for the actual explanation lmao)

jake eventually comes to the conclusion that yeah no it's definitely up to him to not become wesker, not his genetics. he does this without wesker being there. that's the entire point of his character journey. in order for an interaction with wesker to even matter or have any sort of impact on jake's character arc, his character arc as a whole would need to change.

see, imo, wesker being there diminishes a lot of the power of that journey. in the game, he isn't there for jake to scream at, to question. all those thoughts in his head that might be circulating around, like why he left his mother, why he did what he did, etc, cannot be answered. this is not a bad thing in a character arc as this is shit that happens to people all the time. people don't always get the answers they may want from family members because those family members are dead. they have to learn to move on without those answers or they have to rely on people who knew that person to fill in the blanks. this is what jake already does in game. he has to rely on sherry, and by a smaller extent, chris, to fill in those blanks for him.

but we as players, observers of the narrative, already know the answers to some of those questions. why wesker did what he did, primarily. anything else is only pertinent to jake and him knowing those answers doesn't change anything for his character arc as it is.

if wesker was there in the game, what would that even add to jake's narrative? a scene where jake yells at his dad? asks him "why did you leave?" when wesker wasn't even aware that he had a kid in the first place? remember: wesker had no fucking idea that he had a child. there would be no reason for wesker to even believe jake in the first place. sure, there could be a scene where he goes "well i'll be damned, ig he really is my misfired chromosome," but... then what? what does that add?

you could argue that wesker could use jake, maybe try to manipulate him into doing shit for his plans, but... that wouldn't work with the way jake's characterization is mapped out. his entire characterization would have to change for this to work in a satisfying way.

jake already hates wesker without ever meeting him. he would not willingly participate in anything wesker offered to him. he already knows that wesker nearly destroyed the world multiple times and had a hand in destroying an entire city. even if jake has no moral compass at the start of the game, by the time he learns about what wesker really did, who he really was, he's already showing that he does have one, it was just dormant up until that point. he's clearly disgusted by what wesker did. what foothold would wesker have that wouldn't immediately result in it just falling flat?

given how wesker is, i could see him perhaps belittling jake, maybe saying "wow you suck for being my spawn," or something during a fight with the intent to rile him up. would that work? no, not narratively nor not in the way jake is characterized. again, jake doesn't want to be like wesker. why would insulting him and saying he's not "as good" as wesker expected him to be motivate jake or even anger him? it shouldn't, because jake doesn't want to be anything like wesker. if anything, it may annoy him, but that's kind of a lame reaction, right?

if anything, the most i could see culminating out of this would be jake standing over wesker after he's defeated again (because it's resident evil and obviously wesker can't win) and having a "wow idk what i was worried about" moment. that's it.

but he doesn't need that. having a scene like that cheapens the weight of him figuring that out himself, without wesker there as "proof."

because the point of his story, of his character arc, is that he figures that out on his own (and with the help of sherry and the events he witnesses) because he has to. he doesn't need wesker there to spoon-feed that to him. he figures that out by working with sherry, by seeing the effects of the C-Virus on everything that it infects. wesker being an abstract entity in his life is enough, because the frustration of not seeing him, not being able to put a bullet in his skull himself, fuels the rest of his journey.

this is where i think that people who make these observations or criticisms (primarily those who think that jake's character would have been improved if wesker was there) need to understand the difference between what's good for a character as a person and what's good for their arc.

interacting with wesker would be good for jake as a person, in that he would no longer need to wonder about it. the answers would be spelled out for him, and he wouldn't have to do any wondering about the what-if. he wouldn't have any doubts left that he'd need to untangle.

but in doing that, it cheapens his arc; it would do more of a disservice to it, imo, than anything else. it would make his journey more formulaic and boring.

it would also clutter up the already cluttered narrative of that game. you have him not only struggling with his heritage, struggling with the fear of becoming his father, struggling with needing to be the "savior" by giving his blood, struggling with his moral compass, but now also struggling with seeing his father for the first time in person?

it makes his arc top-heavy. in that scenario, you could easily replace him with another, completely new character who has zero ties to wesker and the story wouldn't change in any meaningful way. the reason why it works the way to does now is because wesker is already dead. it creates that internal conflict, that internal frustration, that jake has to learn how to deal with since he cannot take that frustration out on his father in-person. he has to make peace with that struggle in other ways.

now, that's not to say there aren't ways that adding wesker into the story of RE6 that don't disrupt that balance. primarily, when it comes to a potential RE6 remake, the writing team can (and hopefully will) rework aspects of the entire game to make the plot more streamlined. this could include adding wesker in and redoing jake's characterization and character arc entirely.

this would be the only way i could see it working out. if jake's entire motivation was changed, his entire backstory was tweaked, then wesker being around could probably work! an interaction between them could be made to make sense and not bog down the rest of the plot as a result.

sirea also mentioned to me in our conversation that adding wesker in to RE6 remake could actually help streamline the plot and i do agree with that. she mentioned that all of the main characters have a tie to wesker in some way, which is absolutely true. having him there would neatly tie their campaigns together in the plotline and make the game as a whole feel less disjointed and messy.

this is especially true when we consider there are 4 fuckin campaigns that all run alongside one another and intersect at random points. it gets so fucking difficult to page through and figure out when certain things happen in the plot. you'll see them happen in order in chris's campaign, for example, then you go start leon's campaign and have to start over again and try to remember what happened at the same time during chris's campaign and so on.

now imagine that not with just two campaigns but four. it gets gross quick. sure, there are parts where the characters run into each other and that helps ground a general timeline in your head, but as far as time elapsed... it's so fuckin hard u guise

there's a reason why it's so hard to summarize the plot of RE6. it's because there is just so much going on in that fucking game.

anyway, that's my rant/sort of meta analysis about why i think wesker didn't need to be in OG RE6 and probably would have made jake's entire arc stupider than it already was

#resident evil #resident evil 6 #jake muller #albert wesker #meta analysis #pls don't look at me i only write posts about characters no one cares about #stay tuned for my meta analysis on HUNK next #(may or may not be serious about that)#(also this post is the epitome of tl;dr)#(u been warned)#text post

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slasher-male-wife · 10 months

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David and Michael from TLB with a reader who loves animals? Like he’s constantly bringing home strays and injured animals to take care of

Thanks:]

Maybe it's the autism empathy or the fact I have a very soft spot for animals but I totally relate to this. Because I have two dogs and I'm allergic to cats I can't help as many animals as I wish I could but still.

David and Michael TLB with a gn reader who brings home stray animals

Warnings: Talk of stray, injured, and sick animals, mentions of roadkill, taxidermy mentioned, brief mention of insects in Michael's part

David

David can understand your empathy to a degree but he really refused to let you bring stray animals into the cave. If you do end up bringing in an animal he makes you take it to the nearest animal shelter or a wildlife center depending on the animal.

Marko and Dwayne grew up around lots of animals so they don't mind but David still insists you don't bring animals in. If he hears far off calls of animals he's already getting up and walking to the entrance of the cave to meet you there.

The people at wildlife centers and animal shelters nearby already know you by name. David doesn't go in with you but he makes sure to watch from outside.

He lets some animals stick around longer than others. Like if you bring in a friendly cat that ends up eating mice around the cave he'll let it stay around for a couple of days before bringing it to the animal shelter.

This also applies to baby animals. Mostly only a few, quiet puppies or kittens. He makes it clear you're taking care of them but the other boys can't help but play with them.

He doesn't really tolerate you bringing in wild or feral animals. Especially one that's sick. So you two are basically going to the animal shelter every week.

If you keep a ton of animals at your house he won't complain but he will try to talk about what happens if you move in with him in the cave. After a lot of back and forth the two of you decide you can just keep all of them there.

He keeps the roads by the cave clear of roadkill just so you don't see it. He'd never admit that he does that for you though so don't ask him about it.

If you bring in an animal that you can't save he's there to somewhat awkwardly comfort you after it. He's buried plenty of animals with you before.

He's pulled you away from countless feral and street cats before. He's constantly talking about making sure you're up to date on your vaccines because he doesn't want you to get rabies from a dog you found on the side of the street.

But he will stop being leaniant if you do something really dangerous like bring in an injured hawk. If you bring in anything really dangerous you're the one who's going to take it to the animal shelter.

Michael

Will keep you away from his grandpa's taxidermy room as much as possible. Will also keep you away from any kind of roadkill he finds. But you'll find out eventually and he'll still try to keep you away from the taxidermy room.

Because of Nanook you can't really keep animals at Michael's house so if you have the space, they're staying there or at the animal shelter, which he's happy to drive you too.

He's grown used to getting calls at all hours of the day and night because you need help bringing an animal to the shelter or a wildlife center. At some point he's going to keep a bottle of caffeine pills in his room.

He also keeps baby formula for animals at his house because of how often you bring over abandoned baby animals. He'll help you keep domestic baby animals but he draws the line at wild animals.

Has the number for the animal shelters within a 40 mile radius memorized at this point. He also has the one for the wildlife center. Probably calls them at least once a week because of you.

But because I'm pretty sure his grandpa keeps horses he's willing to keep around a few cats you brought home because they could use them as barn cats.

He's basically an unofficial vet at this point. He keeps vet equipment somewhere in the house and is ready at a moments notice to help a cat give birth or give a dog a flea and tick bath.

While your love of animals can be a pain in the ass to him at times, he still loves you and your compassion for animals. He often stares at you with a smile on his face while you talk with people at the animal shelter.

He's gotten into some arguments with you about the animals you bring home. Mainly wild animals or reptiles. You could have at least warned him you put meal worms in the fridge for the lizard you're taking care of.

When you suggest keeping out bowls of cat food for stray cats he has to remind you that raccoons and possums can get it then convince you why feeding wild animals isn't a good idea.

But he compromises with you and keeps an extra bag of cat food with his dog food for Nanook. He has to compromise a lot with you because of your insistence on bringing home animals and getting attached to them.

#david lost boys #david x reader #david the lost boys #david tlb #michael emerson x reader #michael emerson

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voltstone · 2 months

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…about the clementine comic (again): why is she illiterate?

I've already written an exhaustive essay about the Clementine comics written by Tillie Walden, and that was before the first book was out. It was more of a discussion of what was already seen from the teaser, Walden being an…interesting choice to write this, but more than that, it was to preemptively stake the claim that no, it isn't canon. Not in the way that's just "ew I hate this I refuse," but more so, "the games (and character) by design and functionality do not allow for single interpretations to adequately continue the story."

These comics can be…a canon. But not the canon.

In the same way as The Walking Dead Game's (TWDG) fanfiction, like my own where I'm writing only my canon interpretation, the others who do the same, and so on.

(This right here is the essay, by the by.)

It has been a couple years since then. I have read both comics, and there is a lot I can say about them. I may one day, but not right now.

Instead, I want to direct attention to how…weirdly anti-apocalyptic it is?? Because it bothers me. A lot. That I'm watching a Clementine as a character get reduced to a kid who doesn't know how to read or write, doesn't know how to dress and care after a wound...

All things necessary for survival—the reading especially within an apocalyptic setting. Which. No. I'm not kidding. I do mean that.

Before I really indulge in my grievances, however, I will start by outlining the world that TWDG has established, and what it actually takes to survive within it.

(And yes, this is another lengthy post.)

[Surviving the Apocalypse]

Throughout the games, we ultimately see the apocalypse under two overarching eras. The initial stage is calamity. The walkers swiftly overrun what people upheld as a stable, and very secure way of life. And the fact that it only takes one factor to destroy the "we're untouchable" notion, it's terrifying. (Which, on that note, though the undead is an extreme, we did maybe learn this post-COVID. Ergo, stories like these may resonate a little bit better than they had before.)

What's different about The Walking Dead (TWD) as a universe is that…, the true calamity arguably doesn't hit until later, because the dead themselves aren't what really destroys the untouchable mindset as before. In most universes, such as The Last of Us, it's something contagious that you don't want. However, it is also something to overcome and fix. Though the dead in TWDG's cousin is far more brutal, if you isolate them, or find a way to vaccinate…, there could feasibly be a future where the fungus is more akin to rabies or the black plague rather than a devastating change in society.

Because that's how diseases like these work. They will never go away, especially if humanity mishandled their responses to them. Rabies is still out there, because it is a violent disease (am also under the impression that walkers is very synonymous with rabies, but I digress). The Black Plague? That whole thing? Yeah, the plague itself is also still out there. The problem was solved by nature, where a fire torched all of London.

But since then, we have vaccines. We know better (…I hope) in how to appropriately respond. And…that's the best we can do. Pathogens will always dictate life.

Of course, this isn't to undermind what outbreaks as seen in those other stories do to the world. They evidently are a turning point, if not the end, of humanity's way of life. The reason why, however, falls more in-line with a society being greatly unprepared, and a virus, fungus, whatever being the perfect amalgamation that spreads rapidly. It's what we as humans have gone through, will go through, to an absolutely extreme. Complete annihilation. That kind of deal.

Here's the thing about TWD, and I honestly could go on and on with this (and why it's my favorite apocalypse I've seen in fiction):

The bite is not what does it. Everyone is infected.

And the longer you think about it, that in itself will not end. I'm in the camp that it would be maternally passed-down given how blood circulation works within pregnancy, so. You know.

The point here is TWD as an apocalypse is very unique in this one change. It fundamentally breaks how people approached these kinds of stories. The walkers are not particularly fast because they don't have to be. They are a looming presence. As they deteriorate, because they're so slow-moving (as apposed to clickers), they manage to tell their own stories in how they died. You can see if they were bit, or starved, or shot… List goes on.

They are representative of nature reclaiming the world, and on top of that, a dangling threat to anyone who has the gall to think they're above it.

Because they're not. So either make sure your head is shot, or deal with walking around like a mangy pile of rot.

It changed how people approached this because rather than a devastating outbreak, this feels like a sort of damnation. There is a very bleak sense of finality to this universe—to the point where… Yeah. They could live on, try to find a cure, but this is it.

This is the true calamity of this world—not the walkers themselves, but the fact that they are there to stay, there is no going back. At least, for a long, long, long time. You can't just isolate them. If someone dies the wrong way, there could be one in the room right with you. Hence…making sure your head is shot.

And as with in the games, it is such a bleak reality that it forces people to just move on.

Which they do. The way to survive this initial era is, amongst a wide scope of things, to accept the fact and carry forth.

The characters that don't, and are simply too rooted in the past, like Katjaa… Well, they don't make it, do they? There's a reason why we don't see that many unable to let go after the first season, because they don't last. If they do, like with Tenn, it's because they got lucky and had a community to fall back on. Regardless, given what we see with Katjaa, Season One (S1) is this time.

The second era of the apocalypse is seeding. Both in the literal sense, and symbolic.

I'm not talking established communities, no. The closest we get to that is the boarding school, given they do have established practices. But, with how many things need to be done, the schoolkids are still within this second era.

Season Three (S3) is arguably the first season of the four solidly within the second era. Sure, there are still scavengers, but there are also several communities at once—enough so that the conflicts between end up being why they fail, not purely the dead. This leaves Season Two (S2) to be the fitting chaos that ensues between the eras, where much of the world is scavenging, they're reminded of how cruel winter is actually, but there are already solid efforts in building communities; then, Season 4 (S4) as well within the second era, with clear signs that there is the gradual chance of establishment.

The second era requires not only what the first proposes—moving on—, but also a sense of ingenuity. They're left with the scraps of the past world, but that past world also grew out of the earth, so they can cobble those scraps and earth together and make something out of it. We have Prescott on the airstrip; that is the epitome of cobbling things together. There's Richmond, and Howe's Hardware as well, where it's making use of the scraps left behind to establish proper farms. Then Ericson's as a meld of both—the kids have their structure, but they needed to feed off the land. (Not quite at the farm stage like the others were.)

All of what I've discussed thus far, however, is on an overarching scale (and isn't exactly exhaustive either). It can be extrapolated and used in reference to an individual's survival, but there are ways to better articulate an individual's survival than just…get the fuck over it, and build a farm.

And what's interesting is there is a vast difference in requirements depending on how they choose to survive.

With a community. Or. Alone.

The benefits to a community is you yourself don't have to encompass the three traits to survive. (Oh, yeah, this essay will have three primary traits of surviving on an individual scale; obviously there will forever be more nuance, but…shush. I'm typing.) Within a community, you can rely upon others that do encompass the three traits—and it doesn't have to be all in one person. The people within a community can specialize in skills.

And the schoolkids best emulate this.

Tenn and Willy, though they have their own skillsets, are example of those who need to rely on others. Both have the school, though they are closest to Violet and Mitch respectively—those, if asked, would likely be considered the closest thing to caretakers that either boys have.

And right alongside them, Louis, because my man…would like to say he's allergic to work, but really, it's the self-doubt. Now, if not a person who is reliant, he is good for raising spirits. He knows games to play. He brings entertainment.

There's Marlon, who's the well-spoken leader. Ruby, who plays nurse. Aasim, who…writes? Writing's important and stuff in the apocalypse, right?

(Yes. It is. Again, we will get to that, so, hush-up.)

Rosie. Dog. (This is also very important. You can pet her!)

Mitch was likely the muscle, or something along those lines. Omar, the cook.

I would say Brody sits near the "needs to rely" camp, given her anxiety, though, she does actually pull her weight, ergo, support. You can task her with anything. She'll likely be able to do it, such as with fishing and hunting.

Violet was also probably another support, though it is difficult to really tell at the beginning because she's withdrawn from the rest of her people. (I've always felt the Violet we meet at the start isn't who she was before the twins left. Of course, Violet is Violet, but… Depression, and stuff. Probably BPD stuff.) Here's the thing though: come to find, Violet is also another thing.

That being deputy. She can step-up and play leader when need be, but will step down because that isn't quite what she is—hence why the leadership ultimately goes from Marlon to Clementine by the end. This has Violet be the ultimate support. She can do whatever, fill in the leadership role, so on and so forth.

As the community develops, the others will find more nuances in themselves like these. Beyond what I've outlined, and the present nuances already in S4.

The thing with this line-up to understand is there's huge variety here. Not only in the nature of each role, but also their complexity. Because…, turns out, there's a lot to living.

Which. I mean. All of that is no shit, Sherlock. Because yeah.

When I go on about, say, Violet, it's to explain a very specific concept that one word is not going to do. There's a specific reason why I say deputy, and not second-hand; there is a thing where roles will and do change depending on circumstance, and time. (As with Willy (and Tenn) when he grows up, and when Louis becomes more confident.) But this doesn't mean it's more important. When I say "Omar, the cook," or "Ruby, who plays nurse," neither are to designate either as lesser roles.

They're actually crucial. Because no fucking shit. You need to eat. You need to learn how to mend yourself.

It's why those roles are so…simple. Because title alone says everything.

Certain roles, like Violet's (which…may or may not be ironic), are very community-centric. Others, like Omar and Ruby's, are fundamental to just life. And what you see is within communities, those fundamentals go from just skillsets to an art or to a science. When you have people who specialize in each, they are given the time and space to truly understand the ins and outs of what they're doing.

Cut to alone.

Those like Clementine.

Surviving alone is difficult because not only are all of these crucial roles in the community on one set of shoulders, there has to be great sacrifice. Of course, a leader or deputy isn't needed because there's just one. The social aspect of a community is not present.

With that social aspect follows specialization of the core fundamentals.

You need to eat. You need to learn how to mend yourself. And defend...

When you are on your own, without the security of a home, you are not given the time nor the space to truly know those ins and outs. So, when you look at those like Clementine, yes. She's not going to know little tricks, or the sciences, in what she does. The stitching for example:

Clean it. Sew the fucking body part shut. Wrap if you can. There you go, you just did stitching.

Which she does. However, S2, part of why the dog bite (oh, and yes, comic people? yeah, there's supposed to be a deep, concerning scar down her left forearm) scarred the way it did is because 1) …um, she was in a shed, dunking-back apple juice in between sutures in my case, getting jumped by a dead dude, and 2) the stitch-work was very rudimentary. Enough to close the wound and have it heal, sure. Then, S3, the same with Javi; Kate upon inspection does mention that she sees it bleeding through, indicating that again, it's very rudimentary. But, we have Eleanor examine it, and she notes that it is satisfactory, so long as it's looked after.

Had someone like Ruby, or better yet Eleanor (who Dr. Lingard complimented this exact skill) done it, they would have known different stitch techniques that not only closes the wound tight, but also leaves minimal scarring. And the other things, like how to adapt the techniques to different parts of the body, because…no, you really can't just stitch a knee like you would a back.

But again, Clementine didn't have the time to really learn the specifics. She's busy learning how to cook, and hunt, and defend, and scavenge supplies, drive, shoot, car maintenance, feeding a child, taking care of the child, protecting the child, prioritizing necessities…

Essentially, in terms of community vs solo, it's an argument between the specialized, and the jack of all trades.

Stay with me now. I'm not exactly done going over what is needed to survive, because there are more. There's the three traits I mentioned. But as I babble on, once the discussion over the comic begins, I do hope it's clear as to why I am going through these things as meticulously as I am.

Now we get to why Clementine of all girls would be able to live in this kind of environment. She's a kid, but like…young adult given the context. (I'm sure the medieval ages wouldn't argue.) She's like…stupid, or something. She only went to so much school, and we all know that only smart people graduate from school. I never met a dumbfuck at college ever! No!

…got a little side-tracked.

Genuinely though, what is it about Clementine?

I'll start this with a curveball:

What is the dumbest thing that she has ever done within the games?

There's room for debate, but the majority will probably point to S1, where she goes on to trust the voice at the other end of her radio—the voice being the Stranger's.

It's the decision that we, as an audience, thought Clementine was above doing even at that age. It's also what ultimately kills Lee.

Here's the thing, though:

Clementine putting faith into the Stranger wasn't just a child being stupid. For one, she is…eight/nine. So. A child. But, two, it was an exercise of her greatest flaw:

"She's a puzzle."

Something that is brought up, time and time again. To my mind, it's most notably done by Katjaa, whenever they're beside the train, and Duck is of ailing health. Clementine sits on her own log. Doesn't respond much to Lee, not until Chuck (as a breath of fresh air) comes to join the party.

See, she heard a voice from the other end of this radio—one of two (including the hat) mementos she has of her family—, and the one thing that she had in way of sanctuary. The Stranger said the right things, so she kept to herself with that radio, and let her desperation flourish.

Finding her parents was the one thing she wanted. So yes, through a child's gullibility, and a man's manipulation, she believed the wrong person.

We see this sort of flaw propagate time and time again. Granted, it does depend on the player's interpretation of her for S2 and S4, given we play as her, but in S3 where she's (quite literally, for the most part) out of our hands, what does she do? She keeps to herself. What happened to A.J? was a question on our minds, largely because of her reluctance to open up. Clementine lies to Javi about the New Frontier, then she turns around and explains her lie…, reveals her branding…, purely for survival's sake, not because she wholeheartedly trusts him.

Of course, in S3 it's understandable that she doesn't just open up to Javi. That game covers only a handful of days—short of a week by the end—, with the exception of the flashback sequences. (As opposed to S1, across several months, S2, a few weeks to a month, give or take, and S4, which sits about the same.)

Still, however. This is absolutely a part of Clementine's character: she's reserved. Without the player, her first inkling is to keep herself from the topic of conversation.

The thing to understand about this flaw, and how it bleeds into the comics, is that…I think(?) Walden acknowledged this part of her character. But…half of it.

The reason why comic Clementine pulled away from the boarding school is because she…, as she does…, kept to herself after her leg, got into her own head, and thusly ran off. I will say, I do agree that Clementine would be an absolute fucking mess with her leg gone because she has to rely on people again. (Which is devastating because of her specific trauma: à la parentification.)

Now…, run away…? Um…

(…it's also this specific trauma that… Um. Yeah no, she would not leave A.J.)

Whatever. Not the point of this essay.

The other half of this flaw, the half that the comics blatantly miss, speaks to quite an…insightful aspect of Clementine:

She is a very, very perceptive individual. Because the thing we see in S1 is that she's not just quiet. She's watching. She's observant. Clementine is quiet, not only because she gets into her own head, but because she's taking in the world, and so she notices things that other people don't pick up on.

Throughout S1, there will be moments where Lee can try to sugarcoat things, particularly after Duck's bite, only for Clementine to say it plainly:

"You don't know that."

Those moments speak to a kid who knows the difference between reality and not, and telling Clementine that she won't get snatched or bit is…not reality. It will likely happen, and it does.

Other moments, she'll notice details in the environment. She can point them out. Help Lee, as with getting into the train station. Make a comment, like in Hershel's barn with the "dookie"/shit/manure.

Or, back in the drugstore, where Carley (…not too subtly) outs Lee as a murderer in front of Clementine. …which, of course, Clementine picks up on. (The trigger for this is to pick up the photo of Lee with his family, hence why it can be before or after moving the desk.) To which, upon leaving the drugstore's office, she'll ask about it, and you'll have the option of being open and honest, sugarcoating it, or just flat out lie.

Staying in the drugstore! Lee asks for something to bar the entrance. Walkers are scratching to get a nibble. And? Immediately, she goes to his dad's cane (cuz that man ain't using anymore!).

S2. Same spiel. Because…, oh boy, incompetence is rampant as it turns out, and as I've stepped into adulthood for myself, I've come to appreciate that season as essentially "Clementine learns why the motel family fell apart, adults are grown ass children, she has to babysit them— KENNY, DOWN! STOP IT! STOP BITING THE RUSSIAN!— throughout a winter."

Because. Newsflash. Adults? About as stable of a concept as a table with a missing leg, then another one of mangled-together cutlery. And I will forever adore stories from a kid's perspective slowly realizing this fact.

(…also, parentification's a knocking. It wants in.)

Then, S3, where she gave up being the hero, but still…, somehow…, rattles off exactly what the player needs to do and where to get the tools when stealing a truck because she just can't help herself.

…okay, I think I've done enough. S4 also speaks for itself.

Point being, Clementine is a very perceptive, very resilient, and very adaptive person. It's why she out of all the kids she comes across is the one to survive.

Sarah immediately comes to mind as someone who really struggled with adapting. She can, but the tragedy of it is that it's not in time. Too little, too late. (Circumstances also don't help.)

With Gabe (if he dies), same kind of thing. He always struck me as someone painfully unaware of how good he had it, and how bad everything else was. And he needed to grow up. Fast. But again, that alone isn't what saves him—his uncle, and/or Clementine do(es). If he's saved at all, anyway.

Duck? Same fucking thing. And it was his death, through Chuck, that spurred Lee to start teaching Clementine the basics.

To which she adapts, and she adapts well. Their first outing doesn't go…all that great. Clementine freezes. But, throughout S1, she does shoot her first walker (with Omid, or in Crawford). If Lee cannot fight off the Stranger, she will be the one to kill him. And then, of course, the whole Lee death scene thing.

The second season starts off with Omid dropping because of a neglected gun. (Clementine freezes again.) Change is always on rocky road—despite the season prior, she still had a lot to learn, and she did throughout said season.

Perceptive, and resilient, and adaptive. To be those is the ticket to survival. Those are the three.

So why…does it seem like the comics don't know?

[VANCOMYCIN]

To anyone unaware, vancomycin is not a random string of letters for Clementine to work her mouth through. In fact, she knows how to read it. Had to, in order to inject this medicine into A.J within S3—whether or not she goes through with it is dependent on player choice.

Vancomycin, to give a better idea of the sheer desperation she was in, is not something to treat the common cold or flu. It's to treat Gram-positive bacterial infections—hence why it wouldn't necessarily work for colds or flu, given most are virus-borne—, and is generally synonymous with more serious infections.

Meaning. A.J was genuinely sick.

(My hunch is bacteria-borne pneumonia.)

I don't know what most of the fandom assumed, but it was not just a little bug. It was…bad. And a legit miracle that he survived (whether it be without the injection, or…with the injection where Clementine poked the syringe through his shirt? Game? Graphics?).

What likely happened was, somewhere down the line, he either just caught something on an off chance (the world hasn't been sanitized), or he got too close to danger and got himself sick that way off of one of the walkers/animals around. (If it was pneumonia, he likely inhaled something.) Regardless, Clementine was at a point where she…just did not have the resources to help him, would not know where to look, wouldn't feasibly be able to scavenge for it, and so she joined the New Frontier (whether or not you had her agree initially) because it was just that bad.

It is a heavy drug. Not only does it give insight as to why Clementine chose to join regardless of your choice for her, it also explains why the group threw her out for even handling it. It's not like aspirin that's easy to come by.

And, of course, there's the pronunciation of it. As with every medical term like this, it looks and sounds convoluted, but as you break it down, it's pretty straightforward.

Keep this in mind as I rattle on further. I find the vancomycin to be a very succinct contrast to what I take issue with in the comics.

Speaking of, the comics.

Hello there.

…Clementine.

The Clementine Comics, by Tillie Walden, read as a hard reset on the series, from S1 onward. Which yes, is the core issue. There was no effort in even trying to continue off from S4, it was just a way to have Clementine still run around, while avoiding the whole Telltale-RPG implications of a continuation.

So, if you're somehow out of the fandom and you're reading this, hi? Welcome. This is why people are upset about the comic, and for once, no, it's not just because this fanbase is being…unhinged. (In a bad way.)

On top of the plot decisions, however, there are things that just prove Walden was not the artist for this project. The artstyle is an interesting(?) fit for TWDG, but ultimately is an aside. There's the focus on romance. There's the dull characters.

And then there's Clementine herself. Very out of character, and that's coming from someone whose Clementine has…made decisions in her life.

What this essay will focus on, however, is the choices made to have Clementine incompetent.

Medically so.

In the first book, Clementine is taught how to clean and dress her amputated leg. I can get behind learning how to wrap the thing properly, because it is a different part of the body, and it's a different angle—on herself, not someone else.

But she asks…why she needs to clean it. Like she doesn't know. Clementine has to be taught that.

This kind of ignorance then follows her into the second book, because she fell ill (and slipped into a month-long coma??), largely due to her not cleaning the wound. Her leg had an infection. And it spread.

…okay. Um.

That's very interesting considering Clementine:

(S2) Got bit by a dog, felt like she needed to take care of it herself due to circumstances, cleaned it, sutured the wound with fishing wire, and then went to bandage it (before getting attacked). (By the way, the scar is not on comic Clementine. So.)

(S2; optional) Can sit beside Rebecca during her pregnancy to help, but then does have to assist with the walker/lurker problem.

(S2) Tended to Kenny's lost eye because he was beaten by a walkie-talkie by cleaning it.

(S2) Probably had to deal with that whole wound in her shoulder, you know, from the FUCKING RIFLE SHOT, either with Kenny, Jane, those at Wellington, or on her own (feat A.J). (No, they did not patch it up because time, and it went clean through. When Jane and Kenny fought, Clementine just had an open bullet hole.)

(S2/S3) Had to take care of a baby. With Jane or Kenny or in Wellington, and/or on her own.

(S3; alone S2 ending) Broke her finger on a car door to the point where she (presumably) had to amputate and cauterize the finger herself.

(S3) THE WHOLE VANCOMYCIN THING. I WILL GET BACK TO THAT.

(S3) Cleaned and sutured Javi's arm after he got shanked (cuz Gabe… never mind).

(S4) Twas a great start. Car accident—boo boo head.

(S4) Had to patch-up A.J cuz he got shot by a shotgun. And was in recovery for two weeks.

(S4; optional) Louis/Violet gets their finger chopped off. Probably helped deal with that.

(S4) Um. Her leg? You know. The one she lost, and the schoolkids managed to get her stable. Willing to bet Ruby would lose her fucking shit if it wasn't cleaned properly.

And that's just what we do see, in regards to Clementine personally.

Do I…have to go on and explain why it's fucking stupid that she doesn't know the basic information she had to learn in the comics? No?

Okay. Good.

I will get back to it, because I think this choice is indicative of a larger issue. We'll get to that weird…bias the comics have with Clementine being negligent and ignorant to all things medical.

Because now, we're here.

Not only is Clementine ignorant medically, she struggles to read her way through a dictionary. There's scenes of her sounding out words like she's in preschool.

For what reason?! Because in a world where people don't have higher education, they just don't read and write?! What?!

Okay, so, no, I didn't outline precisely why reading and writing (more so reading) is crucial of a skillset to have within an apocalyptic setting. I will do so now.

Because it's the crux of this essay. Hence why I've given it its own section. (…that's what this is, by the way.)

Why is it, exactly, "so" important Volt? Society's gone!! You don't need to read!

Listen up, ✨ dipshit ✨ This is an apocalypse. Not a nomadic setting.

Okay, that was a little mean. If you're asking this, you're not a dipshit.

Anyway, I am being genuine here. To the point where even implying that nomads by nature are illiterate is also…wrong. Because that's not necessarily true either, but assuming so falls into such an ignorant bias that people in 1st world countries have. (The same that the comics have.)

And this bias is the reason why I really, really want to have this discussion because the comics really rubbed me the wrong way with this, and, I'm kinda sick and tired of reading other people implying the same thing.

So let's start here:

What distinguishes us from the rest of the animal kingdom? Why is it we consider ourselves more intelligent?

The answer boils down to one thing:

Our mouths.

We can talk. And in doing so, we can communicate to each other very complex and nuanced concepts that require articulation beyond body language and emotion.

It's why we're able to distinguish things like envy versus just being irritated by someone. Because frankly? They physically feel the same because they are the same emotion. The context is what differentiates envy vs irritability. The why.

"I feel [this] because I want what they have." vs "I feel [this] because they're being stupid right now."

The [this] is the same. The body only has so many ways it can tell you what you're feeling, so it ends up boiling down to very basic emotions, where they can be felt at different extremes, or in unison. So. You know. Think Inside Out. What makes envy special is…you have to take context into consideration. Yes, it is also irritability, but it goes beyond that. And it requires language to communicate such a thing.

When you look at animals, that's why they're "unintelligent." They respond to what they feel the way they do because they don't have a way to articulate it. So they just react. Rather blindly in our eyes. Same thing with babies. They haven't gone through language acquisition just yet—they're in the same boat. It's also why a lot of dog breeds are said to "have the same intelligence as a 3 year old." It's related to language. They feel the same emotions, or whatever equivalent (can't claim I know how their bodies process emotions). However, they physically cannot exercise language verbally. Ergo, they're more or less stunted in the acquisition.

And then you have that we are wired to speak. Our mouths by design are made to verbalize complex sounds. A lot of our brain power is in being able to talk, or at least comprehend patterns in speech if the individual is mute. I for one was a child who rarely spoke for my first ~4/5 years, but I knew what people were saying. (Funnily enough, I was a lot like A.J.)

Beyond emotions, it's also to communicate things rather than [follow me, are you following, I'm looking at you, follow me,] it's "okay, I'm going over here, meet me by this tree." There's immediate clarification. There's a passage of thought between two brains. We don't have to interpret body language as much, we have to comprehend words.

To the rest of the animal kingdom, that makes us already mind-readers. Given that people are honest, and can articulate well, we literally are.

…it's also this emphasis on verbal language that has people be real fucking shit a reading body language, but whatever.

The point here is language is so fucking important. And there's a reason why we started writing things down. Some of the first records of written language, hundreds upon hundreds of years ago, were to keep track of agriculture. We also forget things, so we wrote those down. Heard of the Iliad? The Odyssey? Those were orally passed down for generations, but Homer decided to scribe them so they weren't forgotten. (From what I remember, he wrote those during the Hellenistic era of the mythos. …I want to say the stories come from the Mycenaean times?)

And above all.

Long distance communication. Or. Leaving behind knowledge.

So there would be couriers. There would be scholars who learned from scrolls of scribes decades before them.

(In modern times…, labels on products so that you know what it is, how to use it… Just a thought.)

Language is what makes us different. And by proxy, writing helps us retain that.

It is never something people are just going to abandon when the world goes to shit. If anything, it's going to be the one thing people will grapple onto by the skin of their teeth.

Out of the two, yes, language would come first. There are many cultures that lived (even thrived) without having a true writing system, and did just fine because the culture had such an emphasis on oral tradition, or other ways in cementing their culture to the test of time. A lot of the Native American cultures come to mind. Nowadays, however, there's been an effort to have them written so they aren't lost because…colonialism. I don't really need to explain that, but I do think the history is important to understand (the linguist in me is also morbidly fascinated). In summary, however, the way in which these cultures were torn apart rattled people, and people saw their way of life was evaporating with every person lost. They couldn't leave anything physical behind.

I do bring this contrast to light, however, because there is a detail to understand about an apocalyptic setting, and its relationship with written word: it's reflective of what society fell. If the society before was like a lot of the Native cultures, where their culture was recorded through oral traditions and other practices, then sure, I would expect the people left behind to be "illiterate". …at least, in terms of writing. They're literate in those oral traditions and practices.

But, that's not TWDG. What we have is a society that is reliant on writing. So much of our world is articulated through an alphabet printed onto a surface.

In any case, back to the apocalyptic setting.

Another thing is, yes, we do see language come before writing. In survival, it does land people in situations where it's "I don't have time, I've been starving, I'm going to grab all the food in this place before the books." Of course. Then you have that books are heavy. You're not going to realistically carry a library around. You're going to choose other things that would help immediately.

Like a knife. Or a gun.

Those do better bashing heads in than a book (but a tome wouldn't do that bad).

Here's the thing though. To step back to how reliant our society is on writing, I don't think people realize just how much they read. (Hint: you're reading right now. You had to read in order to navigate this page.) So here's the follow images of things that, in an apocalypse, are pivotal for survival, and requires of you reading comprehension:

Signs. Food labels. First Aid labels. Maps. Manuals. Guidebooks.

You need to know where you're at. You need to understand what it is you're eating, how to cook it, and quality (ex: expiration). You need to understand first aid, what you're working with and how to apply it. You need to know where you're going. If you have equipment (like, say, a car) that you're not privy to, but need it, you need to learn basic maintenance. If you're not familiar with how to do certain activities (how to make jerky, how and where to put your urine/fecal matter), you can learn in a guidebook.

Literacy is about self-sufficiency. And each of these represent different aspects of how to live off of the scraps of a failed society.

Signs are pretty straightforward. They're articulated landmarks, and given how streets are, they're good to follow for navigation. If they're signs for complexes, they're a good way to know where you should scavenge should you be looking for a specific thing. Ex: hardware supplies; you're trying to build a camp. Either it's get lucky, or go over to someone's garage, or go over to a hardware store.

Food and First Aid labels are different things—the way they're organized is very different—, however, they serve the same purpose: those are there to inform consumers how to eat/utilize. Even though each have a very specific language, they are designed so that people not specialized in food or medicine can use them. This also applies to a lot of agriculture. Things like seed packets. Or anything that can be planted. If it has a consumer-base, there's a label on it. If it doesn't have instructions, it will most likely inform what it is.

Maps is where we start to get into more "optional" territory. Do you necessarily need a map to survive? No. It would be a life-saver to know where you are, even away from where the society was established. It would also tell you where the next town vs city is (which, to someone like Clementine who may be inclined to avoid cities, she would know which roads to take).

Manuals and guidebooks, again, are the same. They also fall into the kind of thing where weight now has to be considered.

But. Here's the thing: how many people know how to go camping? How many people were ever in boy/girl scouts? And how many more people didn't have to learn any of that because society promised security and the fact that…we don't need to focus on survival?

Okay sure, go on and on and on about how people who knew those skills already and prepped for the apocalypse would be the ones to survive. Because, uh, don't know about you, that's not necessarily how that works (luck is always a thing, and people surprise you), but also, within TWDG, I can only come up with so many people who would fall into that camp: Lilly, Mark, maybe Larry (military experience), Christa (got the vibe), Pete. Um… …Carver? He talked about, like, sheep and stuff. In reference to people, sure, but like… Uh. Hm. Well shit.

You know all the people who didn't have the experience before the apocalypse? Everyone. Fucking. Else. Including Clementine.

This is the reason why manuals and guidebooks are invaluable. They speak to a luxury because you do have the space and capacity to carry them around, so that you can gather what knowledge they have. And people just don't know this shit. Community helps, because you may meet someone who does, or has read up on it, so you don't have to. But when you're alone? …kinda a really, really good thing to have.

And none of that is going into how important books are in just passing the time. People get bored. Books are nice if you got a bum leg.

Regardless, my point should be quite clear. Sure, reading and writing will not be important in the same immediate regard, and neither will be as prolifically done as it was before. Within an apocalypse, it's not about texting, or emails, or news reports, or essays… None of that. Ergo, they're designated as an investment that weighs heavy (quite literally). It takes time to read. It takes strength and space to lug them around. You may not have any.

However. With all of what I raised, it goes back why it is, actually, so fucking important to be literate to some capacity. And to build upon that literacy. Because these people are not just living in caves. They're not in a place where humans have never gone before—quite the opposite.

Which makes it an apocalypse.

In order to navigate within the carcass of a fallen society, you need to be able to comprehend the very scraps that you're taking from said society. It left behind food, and medicine, and tools, and machinery, and knowledge. To just put that all to waste because you can't read?! Really?!

And what about a life-and-death situation where it entirely depends upon your skills in being able to read and comprehend information given to you?

I'm going to go back to the vancomycin now.

It's not something the game harps upon, but it is significant enough to Clementine's arc in S3. This medicine, regardless of injection, is why she could not see A.J, and why she had such a resentment for the New Frontier. They said they could help. In her eyes, they instead left him to die.

It is also a significant point of interest as far as this essay is concerned. Because this scene alone encapsulates all of what I'm rattling on about:

The medicine itself is a scrap of her past society. They're not making these anymore, and while I can…question how good that medicine would be by this point in time after the apocalypse (shots do have an expiration date; they also need to be stored appropriately, like in refrigerators or freezers), the vancomycin represents a limited, valuable resource.

Clementine's comprehension of what this medicine is, and why she needs it, speaks to something far from an ignorance medically. She is competent. She even knows to ensure there aren't air bubbles trapped in the syringe (hence why she lets some of the drug out before injecting; air bubbles can lead to…really nasty ways to die).

How she actually knows which drug to use, well… Either someone wrote it down for her, or she wrote it down herself. Maybe Dr. Lingard told her, or she found a resource somewhere and realized that's what she needed. It speaks to literacy, despite the challenge medical terms often have—even for medical professionals themselves.

This…is what it takes to live in an apocalypse. You have to be perceptive, and resilient, and adaptive.

Part of that adaptation is being perceptive of your environment. This environment asks you to read it—because it says everything, wears its heart on its sleeve. Ergo, you have to adapt by learning how to read.

Maybe not novels, or scriptures, but specific things. Like signs, or labels. Maps.

But this comic, it falls into a bias that a lot of people have.

And that bias bothers me. A lot.

[Why Does This Hurt Me So?]

There are three reason why this just does not work for me.

First of which, Clementine's characterization. The continuity of it. I really don't have to go on about this, since if I do, I'd just regurgitate all of what I've established before. For the sake of this section, it's just that Clementine is medically competent, just not in a specialized sense, and she knows how to read to get by. (She even starts to teach A.J how to both read and write.)

Now we'll get to the larger points of discussion.

Secondly...

How the fuck did Tillie Walden get this project?

Say what you want about the artstyle, or the characterizations, or the narrative. None of that is really what this essay is on, but are all viable criticisms down this same line of thought. You have the artstyle being very whimsical…, but…since when has TWDG been about whimsy? Or the characterizations? Which…, by now, we know about that—again, I don't need to regurgitate. Then, the narrative too? Why does it read like a romance by the time the second book comes around, rather than a story of survival?

Actually, that last one may be relevant to this after all.

Walden does not write apocalyptic works. Of course, there is no correct way in writing an apocalypse, but I'd argue this is one of the wrong ways. Not only do these comics misinterpret the bulk of Clementine's character, and precisely why she's been able to survive as long as she has—to the point where her playing the games at all is put into question—, these comics also have a strange notion on basic intelligence, and does the thing where people without school are just…stupid, almost, if not plainly illiterate.

It goes against what I've outlined as a mark of an apocalyptic setting—the survival both within nature, and within the rotting shell of the society it once was.

And, it feeds into this bias that I keep bringing up.

That bias is the third reason, and it's not a comment on Walden herself, because she's far from the only person I've seen/heard make the same assumption(s).

The bias I refer to is what I'd like to call the Modern Intelligence Fallacy. I'm confident that I and this essay are far from the first to comment on this…thing people do.

Essentially, it's whenever people judge the past and/or present group of people for being "dumber" than the current society they're based on, solely because "we're modern; we have technology, and medicine, and schools. And we know how to read and write too." It's when people undermine other cultures and/or time periods because they themselves are ignorant to what intelligence actually means.

Going back to Native Americans, and any cultures alike that didn't have a written structure. I've heard people make comments and assumptions, rather ignorant ones. But the fact is, no. The lack of a writing system is not indicative of intelligence, it's indicative of what the culture valued, and how they wanted to express that.

Part of why writing is such a core element in many European cultures, for example, is because…colonization. Look at English, and why it's such a patchwork language. They had to find ways to communicate long distance, because have of them were separated be countries between. Ergo, they wrote. Nowadays, there's telephone, or video. Then, there are other contexts which beckoned for writing, but I digress.

With a lot of these Native cultures, they valued community. That's why so many of their traditions fall within that, and that's how they communicated and passed down their history. Essentially, they just found other ways to do what the other cultures around the world were doing, and it worked for them, so what of it?

The attitudes behind this fallacy doesn't care, however. This bias does put value on the presence of language in written word in regards to intelligence, and an overall sense of superiority.

Yes, I've gone through and maintained that I do not believe, for a second, that Clementine is illiterate, and I've been defending that tooth and nail. I also do put value in language—I'm a writer, and I love linguistics. Of course I do.

And that's the awkward bent in this essay.

So, I must say, the thing to understand is…it's not really about the language itself. It's the attitudes behind the bias.

You here to argue that Clementine isn't as competent reader/writer like a girl her age would be now? (…present issues with the school system aside,) yeah. Probably.

But then why…does the comic have her be negligent with medicine? To the point where it comes across as, "Yeah, Clementine! Clean your wound! Everybody should know that! And that's just the basics!

"Silly kid in an apocalypse! She needed a grown adult to carefully explain it to her!! Oh boy, we would be so lost without our society now!"

This is why I've also taken note on the medical throughout all this. Because the medical practices aren't really related to literacy. You can be told, like Clementine was in the games, and go from there.

In the comics, however, the moments where she's told about how to take care of her leg, and the moments where she is learning how to read… They read the same. Because they are the same. They're commenting on this weird idea that humans would be stupid without our current advances, which is ridiculous because in order to have said advances…, we needed to be learning this shit before in order to create them.

These moments come from this Modern Intelligence Fallacy, and it bothers me because, let's face it, we're just as smart as we've always been.We have more knowledge. Whether it's we pass them down through specific traditions, or we've written them down to share beyond time and distance. But in terms of intelligence… No.

Do you know how many stupidass people there are out there?

There's tons of them. If anything, there's more of them now because they can rely on their communities to do the heavy lifting. And they saddle themselves right beside the people who need to rely on others, and not by choice.

I'm talking as though I'm not one of them. I don't know. I might be.

I did accidentally melt two plates in microwaves on two separate occasions so. If you want to take my words with a grain of salt, fine.

With that, though, hopefully my point(s) came across well enough.

[Conclusion]

And now I am left here. With…this.

I'm not as resigned as I was of TWDG since the comics came out, because quite frankly, there's so much to these comics where…it just feels like I'm not watching Clementine. Whether it be I'm on a couch silently judging someone else play the games, but nodding along to play nice, or just…this isn't the character at all… Yeah, I'm still stewing on it. But, I have my fanfiction, and I have the games. It is easy to ignore the comics.

The reason why I've decided to write this is 1) I find it interesting, 2) the bias people have is SUCH a pet peeve of mine, and 3) I am BAFFLED by Skybound. I honestly don't know what qualified Tillie Walden to write this, to the point where I'm frankly impressed.

It's one thing to hire someone who's unfamiliar with the franchise in hopes of an objective and new perspective, or an artstyle to try something new and unique...

And entirely another to hire someone who either isn't interested in writing, or doesn't know how to write, the genre. There are so many ways to go about writing in an apocalypse, but at its core, it will always be "no matter what, humans are going to human." This is how you can have stories of hope in an apocalypse. Or have them be bleak. And so on. With TWD, it's always been a meld of both.

Because it's human are going to human, this…bias towards any scenario where people are not traditionally educated gets in the way. Because "traditional education" is not traditional, actually. It's societal. What is traditional is people learning an array of skills to survive, much of which is medicinal, and with writing… That's dependent on the environment. Way back when, in times where the world didn't rely on literacy, absolutely not many people would be literate. But in eras where so much hinges on at least being able to navigate?

Or or, in times where you are relying on a recent past that did write and read as much as it did for survival? Um. Yeah. You do need to be able to at least read, if not write as well, for communication's sake. Which I didn't go much into, but oh well.

And this right here is what TWD is set in. This universe isn't a hard reset. You're effectively just going back a couple hundred years. All the infrastructures and scraps left behind are still there, just not maintained.

So… Yeah. I don't get it. The most I can fault Walden for is being negligent, but this is just…Skybound, not caring enough about this story to the point where they'll hire anybody for some reason.

I also don't get the bias people have about intelligence, and stuff, but I really…, really don't want to go on a spiel again. It incites violence within me. I've already gone and done a mini spiral over the comics themselves, and they were kinda but not even the point.

Ah well. I'll just crawl back to my hovel now. The links to some of the linguistic concepts I raised are below, if you want to do any additional research. The specific articles are more generalized to give a broad picture, but can be used as a jumping off point should they pique an interest.

I'm just gonna continue to write about my alcoholic Clementine.

Hope you enjoyed.

Linguistic Articles:

History of Writing Systems (1), (2) ; Language Acquisition (1)

Native American Language History (1), (2), (3)

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catchyhuh · 5 months

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It's flu season. How would they live through the sickness + would they take care of each other? Bonus: how did they survive the pancemic / quarantine situations?

you know the funny thing is the only time i’ve ever had the flu (which was miserable and lasted a full week WITH the vaccine already in my system so remember to ALWAYS KEEP UP WITH YOUR SHOTS) i had been into lupin for about a yearish, and i watched fuma AND napoleon’s dictionary in one night to pass the time and only at that moment did i truly understand the. variety of animation quality present in the lupin the third franchise. i can still taste that medicine in my mouth whenever i see either of them. but anyway

lupin:

lupin has two sick modes: not feeling too peachy but will act like he’s dying to exploit special treatment and being pampered, and actually very, very sick, but will deny he’s that sick because he feels weird having people truly, honestly, sincerely worried for him.

would he take care of others? well. yes. not in a very tender way, but he doesn’t want them DYING at least. like, if jigen is bundled up on the couch, red nosed, blanket over his head, and pathetically asks for the remote, lupin will get up and give it to him, but he’s not holding his hair back when he’s vomming lol. he WILL offer a hairtie though. you see? it’s about that level of care. you’ll be far from miserable, but in all honesty, he COULD do more

would you believe people standing multiple feet away from you in a museum makes it twice as easy to plant secret tracking devices and tiny bombs and shit? would you believe? would you believe masks made facial recognition tech twice as easy to crack since most people turned it off anyway? WOULD YOU BELIEVE?

jigen:

jigen feels this weird defensive embarrassment about being sick. people like jigen don’t GET sick. or so they all tell themselves. so when he’s actually like, SICK sick, miserable and nauseous and coughing, it bothers him MENTALLY more than it does PHYSICALLY

as a result he doesn’t want people taking care of him. it’s going to happen anyway, usually from lupin, so he doesn’t waste energy fighting, but he’ll only barely acknowledge the fact he’s the picture of death right now

his usual personality is in full play when he’s taking care of someone ELSE though. you’re only getting the help if you beg or if he can immediately tell you’re going through it, but if you DO get his help, he’s going to talk and talk and talk about how you KNOW better than to hang around after someone tells you to your face they’ve been sick. you’re lucky he gives enough of a damn to get you the big stack of tissues with the special lotion in them so you don’t rub your stupid nose raw. you’re welcome btw,

fujiko:

oh the emotional turmoil of being “too perfect to get sick” but also LOVING getting whatever you want under the guise of “please? i’m sick :(“ it's so hard to be her. so difficult to have her lavish life

fujiko is not. the most doting person. you wanna talk about someone who will just stand in the next room over while you’re hunched over a toilet bowl all pitiful and green in the face. it’s not that she doesn’t care! she just. would rather never ever ever see that shit lol

fujiko’s usual targets are selfish, hateful, yet unbearably idiotic and easy to manipulate. so… she kinda loved when covid was at its full peak, because she got an IMMEDIATE visual shorthand for who was deserving of her sugar baby schemes. ESPECIALLY if they constantly made a big deal about how they refused to mask up. so… yeah, made her life incredibly easy!

goemon:

actually gets the sick the most out of them because he forces his body to withstand extremes that NOBODY’S BODY SHOULD REALLY BE WITHSTANDING. gets the flu almost every year despite getting shots and the like, but he survives.

all of them WOULD take care of him, but he rejects the help. it’s not fully a pride thing; he’s heard many times that you heal faster by working your body as normal, so it can readjust quicker. but… he doesn’t really question why they’ve already got some warm soup lightly simmering on the stove so it doesn’t get cold before he pours himself a bowl, or why they just HAPPENED to have the nausea medicine right on the coffee table…

the same “get better faster by getting off your ass” technique is in full swing when he’s watching OVER somebody sick though, so… very much a tough love approach. but if you act even a smidgeon MORE miserable during the process you might get him to back down a tiny bit

zenigata:

(sticking the DO NOT EMULATE sticker on his forehead again) zenigata could stand sopping wet in negative degree weather with the patient 0 covid guy standing right in front of him, breathing right into his nose, and there’s ONLY a 50% chance he’ll actually get sick. and even if he does get sick, IT WON’T STOP HIM IN THE SLIGHTEST.

zenigata is weird because if he’s taking care of one of the gang, first he gets this HAHA IDIOT YOU SHOULD’VE KNOWN YOU’D GET SICK but when they actually start paling and getting weak he’s like “oh my god you lost a shit ton of electrolytes. we need some gatorade” so once you get past that initial gloating stage he’s not bad. just. very overwhelming, as he usually is

gets touchy about being taken care of depending on who the caretaker in question is. for 85% of people, he’s brushing off the help, insisting he’ll be back on his feet, and really, you shouldn’t hang around him either or you might catch it too. but if it’s somebody who’s already seen him drunkenly sobbing over the smallest act of kindness or quite literally jumping out of windows in a lupin-filled blind rage then. yeah, he’s a little more accepting of the help.

#SORRY I'M GETTIN THROUGH THESE ASKS KINDA SLOW #I DON'T WANNA HALFASS ANY OF THESE SO. ITS A GRADUAL PROCESS #lupin iii #lupin the third #lupin #jigen #fujiko #goemon #zenigata #asks

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lucysweatslove · 4 months

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I got my new car today!!! I haven’t actually driven it yet. Because new things are scary for me and it takes me a little while to get used to something like driving a new car, I wanted to drive it around my parents’ a little before going in a busy road. Rob said it has “responsive break” and i wanna get that “feel” down before I’m in heavy traffic. I like it though and am very grateful and excited!!

Being at my parents’ hasn’t been too triggering this time around. Usually there are some kind of comments about my body or what I’m eating, but we have such a short turn around this year that thankfully it hasn’t been too bad…

Did have to listen to my mom talk about this guy who has multiple myeloma (my mom has a precursor to MM) and apparently is in “full remission” using an antiviral but it came back because he got the covid vaccine…. Tried to explain why that’s probably not true actually but you know… I think she just desperately wants there to be simple/easier answers to the cancer she might develop, which I get, but I also feel like this is how misinformation takes roots.

(We don’t have a perfect system here in the US by far, but we aren’t lagging behind in the cancer treatment realm…. If antivirals worked to cure MM, there would be research on it… and people would do it… contrary to popular belief, Big Pharma isn’t pushing ineffective expensive drugs to steal your money and keep you sick…drugs are ridiculously expensive, but it’s not malicious… insurance companies are far more malicious for refusing coverage than the pharma companies imo)

Also listening to some people talk about pot shop workers (specifically managerial roles) not deserving to be paid a certain amount, all the gender critical bs, like yall, I don’t like government regulations in general and I have my views on how we attempt legislating morality and why it doesn’t work, but like…… when you use that argument to justify why people who “don’t have any education and just know drugs” (not a real quote just a paraphase) don’t deserve to be paid a certain amount, AND you don’t use it to say that like, gov shouldn’t restrict access to health care like abortions and gender affirming care… that’s not “government shouldn’t legislate morality,” that’s “government should legislate the morality I agree with” which is… the same thing you’re complaining about the “other side” doing.

Especially the gender stuff. It takes very little actual energy to use somebody’s preferred, correct pronouns. Affirming care literally saves lives. When you spend a lot of energy and time lobbying against these things, it really just tells me how uncomfortable you are with the idea that somebody could have a different life experience than you. The only person who should be spending that much time and energy caring about those things… should be the person themselves. Partners or family ofc should care too, but in a “how do we support this person so they can live a fulfilling life” way, not in a “i can’t handle anybody having a different lived experience than me” kind of way.

And also if you’re gonna complain about federal spending and budgets, can you at least acknowledge the ridiculous defense budget? Even if your viewpoint is “I don’t know how we can realistically and safely scale that back,” just like… recognize how little the government actually spends on programs like VA health care in relation to the massive defense budget. We rank third in the world for per capita military spending… I’m not saying you need answers on how to solve anything, but if you’re gonna criticize the drops in the bucket, acknowledging that they are in fact drops in the bucket comparatively would be nice.

#political bs sorry #I’m grateful for my parents in so many ways #but it would be great if they could acknowledge their own biases #and also look at the actual data #like no you don’t care about the trans persons health #because if you did you’d realize that gender affirming care and BEING A KIND HUMAN is the most life sustaining thing you can do #lord forbid they ever find out I like neutral pronouns and hate the concept of gender all together #also like yeah a pot shop manager might not have advanced degrees #but that doesn’t mean they don’t deserve the same pay as managers in other retail fields???#so much work these days actually doesn’t require higher Ed #and not pursuing higher Ed doesn’t mean you’re incapable or contributing less to society #it’s giving ‘burger flippers dont deserve more than minimum wage because I don’t actually see them as valuable people’#call me radical but I’d like to see people who work full time regardless of industry be able to afford to live #I’m not saying push legislature through to ensure everybody is making enough to buy a 4 bed house in their own #just like maybe don’t talk about pot shop workers with disgust and vitriol #like the TONE man it’s the TONE

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audhdnight · 7 months

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Anyone else really fucking sick of the whole edgelord “we don’t need school it’s all bullshit when will I even need to know any of this” crowd who will also immediately turn around and violently shame and attack anyone who says something misinformed or asks a question that they deem to be “common knowledge”???

Like yeah, I remember highschool. It sucked, but not because of what I was learning. It sucked because teachers are overworked and underpaid/under supported, and the school system doesn’t give half a shit about disabled kids or kids with different neurological conditions or really any of the kids.

We do need schools. Whatever issues the system as a whole has, it needs to be reformed, not done away with. You cannot sit and gripe about how we don’t need any of these history classes because it’s all stuff you don’t want to know anyway, and then go absolutely batshit insane when someone doesn’t know about Pearl Harbor.

Because those people aren’t stupid. They are being intentionally misled, neglected, misinformed, or all three. They are ignorant, not because they chose it but because someone else chose it to further their own desires.

Ignorance leads to harm. Ignorance leads to manipulation. Ignorance is why we have slews of people in the US who are so scared of autism (which IS NOT SOMETHING TO BE SCARED OF) that they refuse to vaccinate their children, which is a form of medical neglect. They are actively endangering people they care about because they have been lied to by political parties and religious leaders who benefit from uneducated mobs.

Ignorance is how you get cults. Ignorance is how people get taken advantage of. Ignorance is how you get genocide. ONE person decides they want power and they use the lack of education to amass followers who will support them blindly because they don’t know any better.

Everyone is appalled when ex-Mormons get on the internet and talk about all the things they had to learn as adults, who by all accounts should have known those things by the time they were fifteen. People lose their fucking minds when ex-Mormons mention they didn’t know how babies were made until after they got married at like thirty. I saw someone make an entire six minute video about how he’s pretty sure all these deconstructers are lying for clout online, because how could they possibly not know?

They don’t know because they were intentionally kept in the dark. That is how high-control religions and cults operate. That is how you keep people under your thumb.

You ask how Christians could possibly think that evolution isn’t real? As someone who was raised that way, I’ll tell you.

From the moment my education started, I was fed misinformation. In kindergarten I learned about how God made dinosaurs, but they all died in the flood and the earth was too damaged afterward to support such big species even after they came off the ark. In middle school I watched Ken Ham and Kent Hovind videos about how carbon-dating is all bogus and if any scientist tries to use it to debate you, you can say “Aha! I knew you were wrong!” and end the discussion there. In highschool I took apologetics, where we learned how to “defend our faith” by constantly moving the goalposts when we spoke to atheists. We were taught that “What happened to the Missing Link?” is a gotcha that no scientist would ever be able to dispute, and so obviously we were the ones in the right. I was told at every possible opportunity that Bill Nye is literally the antichrist, that he doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about, and that any Creationist (Christian “scientists”) could debate him into the ground because he’s so stupid.

I didn’t question any of it because that wasn’t an option. It was *literally* all I knew. I had such a fundamental misunderstanding of science as a whole that when I was exposed to true scientific facts and processes and studies for the first time, I could scoff and say “Don’t they know that’s not even a real thing? How ridiculous that they’d think I would believe it!”

I’m doing the work now to re-educate myself. I have learned so much in just two years that I genuinely can’t speak to half of my family because it makes them so angry. And when I hear people talk about anything happening or existing “billions of years ago”, my knee-jerk reaction is still “The earth is nowhere near that old! That’s how I know they’re lying!” I have to intentionally reprogram my thinking every. single. time. that I engage with scientific literature or media.

It’s hard. It’s frustrating. And it all could’ve been avoided if my own parents hadn’t also been misled their whole lives. I’m not going to make excuses for them as adults, because learning and doing better is your own responsibility once you’re not a kid. But I will say that if their parents hadn’t also been misinformed, they wouldn’t have learned the same lies that they later went on to teach me and my siblings. It’s a vicious cycle, one that is designed to keep people ignorant. It is purposely designed not to have an out.

So yeah, I don’t really know how to end this post but please for the love of god, have some empathy for people who don’t know “common knowledge” facts about science or history. Most likely, it’s not their fault. And the way they push back at you with nothing but misinformation and a dream has been programmed into them probably since birth. This is why we need education, why we need schools, and why it is so vitally important that we as a society do the work to reform our education system.

#I still have even more thoughts on this but it’s getting long now #so yeah #please feel free to ask any questions you have #I’d love to help people understand the fundie methods of education better #ex fundie #deconstructing christianity #deconstructing religion #deconstructing faith #ken ham #bill nye #creationism #science #education reform #school system #long post #text post #things that fucking matter #nightramblestm

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macgyvermedical · 2 years

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This kinda turns into a ramble, but I was listening to a podcast that was recorded in 2015 about how technology would be impacted by a variety of apocalyptic events.

One of them was a pandemic that caused a reduction in population.

And one of the things they mentioned was that in a reduction in population, we couldn't replace a workforce with labor-saving robots quickly enough to shore up important facets of modern life like the power grid or healthcare systems, and that those systems would have a limited number of days before total collapse occurred.

Which of course we know to be accurate- while we're not at the point of total collapse (yet) you don't even need black plague numbers to reduce the workforce to the point of a substantial reduction in service.

Except that instead of people going "oh well, seeing as there are fewer living, able-bodied people capable of working due to the pandemic we are currently experiencing together, I can't really have the same expectations of service I did 5 years ago because it took a lot more people to provide that level of service" they're complaining about how people "no longer want to work" and that service has become "completely unacceptable".

Like, I've been yelled and cussed at, fired (by a patient, which means (and has always meant) literally nothing in the grand scheme of things), and told that my service was outright negligence (when it was actually far above the crisis standard of care we are operating under, and will be operating under I assume indefinitely because I don't see us coming back from this for a few solid generations).

Talk to a few bedside nurses (or literally anyone in the service industry, I just happen to be in healthcare) and you'll learn that people got mean in February of 2021. That time when the confluence of a staffing crisis and people running out of emotional energy to care about the multiple simultaneous crises that were (and continue to be) going on all the time. And a lot of them just started yelling.

Like, I'm rambling now, but it's not even about reminding everyone that everyone is doing their best, working flat out doing 2 or 3 people's jobs at a minimum and that's beyond anyone's ability to do well.

It's about asking people to remember that the reason for this now permanent reduction in service is not some nebulous personal failing of an individual who is serving you inadequately, it's that too many people are dead or disabled to provide 2019 service, and that's going to be ever again in your life.

So if you don't want to be constantly angry at service industry people for literally the rest of that life, accept that you're living through the hellish alternate ending of Contagion where the EIS personnel were spit on and the population refused to isolate and get the vaccine, thus creating an unthinkable superbug that people proceeded to completely ignore until they caught it and became disabled or died.

And we get to listen to podcasts from a time before where such things were laid out as "could be's" of an apocalyptic future.

#collapse #hospital life #I'm mad #nursing #nurblr

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prolifeproliberty · 2 years

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This is REALLY rich coming from the people who wanted vaccine passports for interstate travel.

Tl;dr: no state is actually considering any kind of restrictions on travel. Missouri is considering a law allowing people to sue anyone who helps a woman get an abortion out of state (not the woman herself). This is only if she actually got an abortion - not if she went on vacation or traveled for other medical care.

Nobody’s right to travel is being threatened - it’s the supposed “right” to kill your baby that is in question. Do you have the right to cross state lines, kill your baby, and come back?

Now, enforcement of such a law would be difficult, but these kinds of rules might push more geographic polarization - women who are concerned about being able to get an abortion may choose to move to a state that allows it, rather than depending on their employer to pay for their travel.

While I wish we could protect every preborn child from abortion, I know that’s not realistic. What we can do is ban abortion in as many states as possible, while simultaneously building a culture that values life in the womb and supports mothers, regardless of how they got pregnant.

What will inevitably happen is pro-abortion people will move to pro-abortion states, and those states will enact extreme and horrifying laws, such as those proposed in California and Maryland that would allow “perinatal death” (death within a week or so of a baby’s birth) to not be investigated.

Hopefully, the contrast between the pro-life and pro-abortion states will become clearer, and one of two things will happen: either people in pro-abortion states will finally realize they’re the baddies (less likely), or the country will split or Balkanize along these lines. Hopefully that Balkanization will be peaceful.

Since the article mentions slavery and the fugitive slave act, quick reminder of what actually happened in the lead up to the Civil War:

Northern states abolished slavery because it violated the rights of human beings. Slaves escaped to northern states, and Northern states refused to follow federal mandates to facilitate slavery in Southern states. The South cited the North’s refusal to follow federal law (requiring the return of escaped slaves) as one of the main reasons for secession.

It’s hard to make a direct comparison, because preborn babies - the ones whose rights are being violated - can’t escape to pro-life states (neither could a toddler). But the similarities we DO have show slavery correlating with abortion (both being grave human rights violations) and one part of the country abolishing the practice, while the other half continues it.

There will necessarily be division and conflict if half the country abolishes a human rights violation and the other half celebrates it.

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thedisablednaturalist · 3 months

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Watching the news and they went around in pro-trump areas and asked people if they'd prefer a dictator or 4 more years of Biden and so many people immediately went ID LOVE IF TRUMP WAS A DICTATOR I WANT HIM TO BE PRESIDENT FOREVER!!! Like they know exactly what a dictator is. They WANT him to be a dictator. They want all the powerlessness and cruelty and fascism that comes with that. Even minorities who would absolutely be victimized by that authoritarian system! Because somehow they feel exempt? Or that their loyalty will protect them somehow? Its scary. Looking into their eyes and seeing them say that with joy in their hearts. Maddening...sickening..I want to throw up.

So many people fought and died so we wouldn't be led by dictators. Protestors and suffragettes and panthers. WE ARE STILL FIGHTING. It's just like how so many fought and died to bring vaccines to isolated areas but now people easily dismiss and villanize those life-saving medications. Because they can EASILY access them and have the PRIVILEGE to go to the hospital when they eventually get sick. I'm finally able to get my covid booster and these people who HAVE INSURANCE AND CAN EASILY GET THE VACCINE refuse to. Based on what? A paper they didn't read by a disgraced and disbarred doctor? I wish I could get the vaccine using their privilege. I wish I could give all the vaccines to people who actually want them and can't get them.

Why would you think that YOU'D be safe? You'd be the exception? That Trump would see you as anything more than a tiny piece of dirt that he can exploit and grind into dust for even an inch of power. Even if you are a white, cis, abled, heterosexual, evangelical, neurotypical man. He does not care about you. And you want him to have absolute power? I thought you weren't supposed to have any other gods but you easily bow down to the first rich man to talk to you and worship him like dogs. You suck his boots and thank him for the privilege. You greedily lap up the brainwashing and act like somehow you are the rebel, the badass, for letting him use and discard you. Handing over everything to a man you've never met just because he hates the people you hate. Well he hates you too. Actually, he doesn't care enough to hate you like he does us. You're nothing to him. Not even a pawn, you're not even on the board. You excitedly praise that nazi fascist shithead like hes some kind of messiah. Because you think he'll make your life better, take from those hippie liberals and mexicans and what? Give it all to you? His supporters? He would rather give it all to fucking Biden himself than give you anything more than a sneer.

You could be on the side that's trying and bleeding to prevent suffering. That's trying to HELP YOU. That wants everyone to have a good life. That have way more in common with you than you have with that fuck. That's trying to let you keep your house and keep the air you breathe and the water you drink clean, and let you go to the doctor when you're sick and let you worship in peace but you would give that all up because not everyone wants to go to your church? That some guy wants to wear a dress? That *gasp* you might see some men kissing? That your sons and daughters might be brought up in a school that feeds them, cares for them no matter what, gives them an education FOR FREE because theres a chance they might have to sit next to a kid with brown skin? That our mission is love? You would rather fight for hate? Even if that hate is against you? You refuse the flower to take the gun and point it at yourself while the rich and powerful laugh? They don't care about God or Jesus or whoever your favorite saint is. They don't care about hard-working people (they love exploiting them though), they don't care about children or mothers or fetuses. They'll take your guns eventually and lie about praying for your murdered children. They ONLY care about themselves and will lump you in with us as soon as you're no longer useful. They don't protect Christians, good cops, kids, or unborn babies or anyone else they hide behind. They don't care that you've voted for Trump. He'd be a dictator he wouldn't have to care about anyone but himself.

#wrenfea.vent #im tired of all the hate #I know all the different factors that make someone fall into the white supremacy pipeline #but it still doesn't make sense #ive met people who are just ignorant and dont pay attention. i can understand and sympathize with them (not that I agree)#and i fight for a world where they have easy access to education and news that isn't full of brainwashing #but the people who know exactly what theyre doing? i cant come to terms with it #i think a lot of it has to do with lack of community and diversity in thinking and perspective #when youve been around only people like you for a long time...you become scared and tend to get caught in the echo chamber

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vodika-vibes · 9 months

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Post Order 66 - Part 15

Padawan Kanna Rae has the most stressful conversation of her life. Lots of other things happen! Tagging: @starrrgazingbunny, @thestarwarslesbian, @xylionet

"So, Padawan Rae," Mace Windu pinned her in place with a severe stare that made her feel like a misbehaving child, rather than a woman in her mid-twenties, "I'm very curious to hear about what's been going on in the last three years."

"There's no need to be so harsh, Master Windu," Knight Aayla Secura said with a warm smile, "I'm sure Kanna will tell us everything," She favored the slightly younger woman with a fond smile.

"Right. So...a lot has happened," Kanna admitted, "We're headed to Outpost Thresh, in the Outer Rim. It's where the majority of the Jedi live now, as well as a large number of the Vod'e."

"Majority of the Jedi?" Mace asked with a tilt of his head.

"Well, the Emperor kind of ignored the corps. I guess they weren't Jedi enough?" Kanna replied with a shrug, "So Home has become very welcoming for our people. And the addition of the MediCorps has been a boon, since the Vod'e all need their control chips removed, as well as some gene therapy."

"You've been busy," Aayla said with a delighted smile.

"It's been three years." Kanna murmured, "The only reason I survived the Purge was because my Master flung herself over me, and then Master Vos smuggled me out of the temple." She shook her head, "Anyway, the Starsinger will be meeting us at Outpost Thresh."

"And that's where Bly is?" Aayla asked.

"On the ship, yes." Kanna nodded, "He's under the care of Master Obi-Wan, seeing as you managed to make him force sensitive. Somehow."

Aayla blinked, "I did?"

"A pretty powerful force sensitive at that, or maybe just willful. He was able to lift me with little trouble, after all."

"Huh." Aayla looked even more surprised, "Curious."

"This is all well and good," Mace said, shooting Aayla a quelling look, "But what is the state of the Galaxy at the moment?"

"Uh...bad?"

"Be more specific."

"Right. Well, the Temple is being turned into the Emperor's palace. The Inquisitors are out there hunting Jedi and force sensitives. And Vader still has the 501st under his thumb.'' Kanna listed, "Alderaan is now firmly under Imperial command, with the Organa's having to fake their deaths to protect their daughter. Naboo is being watched closely, which never made sense to me but now does."

"Who's Vader?" Aayla asked, her lips turning down in thought.

"Darth Vader, the Emperor's Enforcer." Kanna paused, and her lips curled up into a bitter smile, "Known to the Jedi as Anakin Skywalker."

"...fuck." Mace pinched the bridge of his nose, "I was hoping that his fall wasn't going to be quite that serious." He admitted through a sigh, "Who's in command of Outpost Thresh?"

"Ah...technically Captain Rex, I believe. But Breha Organa might be the one in charge there now." Kanna replied with a thoughtful frown, "As I understand it, she is a warrior queen."

"And who else from the Council is still alive?" Mace asked.

"Ah, well. Obi-Wan is, he's on the Starsinger. He says that Master Yoda is alive somewhere in the galaxy. Master Fisto is dead," Kanna glances at Aayla, who nods in agreement, "And I was able to verify the deaths of Master Mundi and Master Poof."

"And the others?"

Kanna shook her head, "I don't know. Wolffe swears that he's directly responsible for the death of Master Koon, but as he was shot down...and I don't know about the others."

Aayla frowned, "I can't believe that Master Quin refused to come with us," She muttered grouchily.

"I get it. Master Antilles is a good man, but Quin doesn't trust him much." Kanna replied, "I doubt that he'd do something to risk the Jedi at this point, but-"

Mace shook his head, "Jon is a fine Jedi. It's a shame that his actions never endeared him to the wider Jedi population. Specifically Vokara and you,"

Kanna scowled and folded her arms, "I know keeping grudges isn't the jedi way, but he set back out work on the Rakghoul vaccine centuries."

"And he was censured for it." Mace reminded Kanna, before he turned to look out the side window as the ship lurched in a way that indicated that it was about to land. There was a massive ship, that looked more like a yacht than anything else. He paused, "Does anyone know that you've found us?"

"Nope." Kanna stood and stretced as the ship landed on the landing platform, "Respite is secret, even now." She pressed a button allowing the door to open and she stepped off the ship, a bright grin crossing her face as a small blond blur flung itself at her.

"Ma!"

"Hey kiddo!" Kanna scooped the little boy into her arms, and snuggled him close, "Were you good for your buir'e?"

"Always!" Luke giggled as he hugged her tightly.

Mace and Aayla stepped off the ship after her, and the people who had gathered stilled, and became quiet. And then they erupted into movement.

Commander Bly, supported by his brothers, stared at General Secura with wide, wet, eyes. And Aayla saw him, smiled, and ran over to him. She stopped just before she reached him, and she reached out and touched his cheek.

Bly didn't say anything, he just stumbled forward and fell into her arms.

And while they were reuniting, Obi-Wan walked over to Mace and was hugging the older man, they were speaking to each other in quiet voices, but both were radiating joy into the force.

***********

"This is a terrible idea," Red eyes lingered on the massive battleship just outside the viewport, before she turned and regarded the man sitting next to her, "We're two people-"

"We'll be fine," He glanced at her with a small smile, before he focused on the battleship once again, "No one knows that ship better than you do, and with the jamming device you made, we'll be able to knock out the vod'e without hurting them."

"What if Vader's on the ship?" Anxiety twisted in her stomach, and her grip around the steering yoke tightened.

"He's not."

"But-"

"He isn't." He looked at her again, "Come on, cyar'ika. I did my own recon before suggesting this. Vader isn't even in the system at the moment. I promise." He smiled at her, "Trust me."

She gnawed on her lower lip for a moment, and then she sighed, "I do trust you, there's just so much that can go wrong with this-"

"The plan is simple. Simple enough that it can't go wrong," He replied gently, as he reached out a tucked a strand of hair out of her face, "We'll get in, and you'll activate the jamming device. The Vod'e will fall unconscious, and we'll release the mouse droids," He glanced back at the crates of mouse droids behind them, "The droid will traverse the ship and destroy any trackers that might be in, or on, the ship. And then we'll knock out...or kill...any of the natborn soldiers on board, and we'll steal the ship."

"You make it sound so easy,"

"That's because it is easy. Don't worry, cyare. I won't let you get hurt."

"I'm more worried about you, honestly." But his confidence in the plan was comforting, so she rolled her shoulders and directed the shuttle towards the hanger.

He laughed, "Come on, cyar'ika, this plan has been three years in the making, and made by people much smarter than either of us. All we have to do is not mess it up."

"Yeah, yeah."

The comm crackled to life, "Imperial Shuttle 2378. You are late for your normal delivery." The vod'e on the other end of the line said flatly.

She pressed a button on the console, "Affirmative, Dock Control. We had to take a round-about route to avoid pirates."

There was silence for a moment, "Understood. Please proceed to docking bay three. Welcome back to the Resolute." The line crackled shut, and she exhaled slowly.

"In for a credit, so they say," She said with a wry twist of her lips, as she carefully directed the shuttle to the correct dock. She directed the ship through the barrier, and settled it on the landing pad, and then she glanced to the side, "Alright. You're up."

He grinned at her, pulled on his helmet, and pressed the button on the device that was located at his feet. It activated slowly, at first, then then it lit up like a Life Day Tree.

She looked out the front window and watched as the men in the hanger slowly crumpled to the ground. As soon as there was no movement in the hanger, she reached back and opened the first of the crates holding the mouse droids.

"Seems to be working," Her partner said quietly as he opened the door to the ship and allowed the small army of droids off his ship. "And now for the hard part." He strapped twin blasters to his hips and stepped onto the ramp.

"Be careful, Jesse."

"You worry overmuch, Raiya." His helmet tilts towards her, "I'll be back in a bit, cyare."

***********

"And your name, for the record?" It was utterly dehumanizing, the way that the Clones were being treated. Completely blank armor, nothing denoting rank or any individualism.

It was sick.

"You want me to spell it for you, mate?" Cal's gaze flickered to the side, to where Spark was sitting, looking like he was having a casual lunch with a friend, rather than talking to someone who could, and would, kill them if he was ordered to.

"Yes."

"Sure thing! It's F-U-C-" Spark grunted as the second clone punched, "Hey now, that's not very nice." He managed to get out, after he spat some blood on the table.

The first clone stared at him impassively, or, at least, she thought so. The helmet made it really difficult for her to determine if there was any emotion there at at.

He turned his gaze towards her, and Cal lifted her chin slightly, a small smile on her bright red lips, "Will you be more corporative?"

"Not likely, no." Cal said agreeably, "Tell me, darling, what happened to your paint?"

The clone stilled, and the pen in his hand shook slightly, "I am a clone, I don't have the right to any distinguishing marks."

"Hm. You used to though. What color did you wear?"

"...blue."

"Didn't know the 501st was still on Coruscant," She flickered her gaze over to Spark, concern on her face, "Thought you all fucked off after you murdered the babies at the temple." There was something cruel and biting on Spark's face. But then...they had taken the Jedi Massacre hard.

"The Jedi were traitors-"

"Oh, aye. Those babies were definitely shifty little shits. Out there learning how to walk and talk." Spark said, sarcasm dripping from his tongue, "Completely nefarious."

The pair of clones in the room were tense, "Good soldier's follow orders," The interrogator finally said.

"Bullshit," Cal spat, "Good Soldiers question shit orders! Good Soldiers think!"

The interrogator slammed his hand on the table, and Spark shifted, as though to try and fling himself between the clone and Cal, "The pair of you are being questioned in regards to the terrorist activity that has been seen on Coruscant recently."

"Then why are we in binders," Spark snapped.

"You resisted arrest."

"Yeah, because people who go off with you lot, don't get seen again," Cal grumbled.

The interrogator stilled, and he reached up and ripped off his helmet.

A familiar face with a perfectly regulation haircut. And a very distinctive and familiar tattoo on his face.

Cal felt her heart sink into her stomach. Dogma.

She glanced at Spark, who had gone completely still. His eyes scanning the face of the man sitting across from him. The man he once planned to spend the rest of his life with. There was no recognition on Dogma's face.

Spark didn't wilt, didn't look away from the cold, hard, truth staring him in the face. Instead his face went cold, and he lifted his chin, "If you're not charging us with anything, let us go."

"We could really use your help." Dogma said.

"I don't give a fuck." Spark spat, "I don't help baby killers."

There was silence, for almost a whole minute, and Cal had to fight to not squirm in discomfort.

"You're both free to go."

And then the cuffs were removed and they were unceremoniously dropped outside the building, escorted by droids.

"...Spark."

"Don't." He rubbed his face, and for a moment Cal saw the deep grief etched there, "It was like he didn't even recognize me, Cal. Like I was nothing to him, like I was never anything to him."

She reached out and touched his hand, "Maybe it's time we reached out to Senator Chuchi?" Cal asked softly.

He looked at her, so pained, and then he tugged her into a hug and dropped his head on top of hers, "This was never supposed to be our fight." He murmured into her pink hair.

Cal closed her eyes, and she remembered loud laugh, gentle hands on her skin, and a deep voice whispering promises in her ear. She remembered how Fives looked at her, the last time she saw him. And she realized that she was the lucky one. Fives was dead...but at least he died knowing that she loved him.

Dogma didn't remember Spark. Or her. Or the long nights spent at the Daines' house listening to too loud music, and eating too greasy food.

"I think this became our fight the day we fell in love with soldiers in the GAR, my friend."

"...this fucking sucks, Cal."

"Yeah. I know."

*********

Rex stared at the display, his heart in his throat.

This was...well, bad was an understatement. He looked up at his vod'e, to see if any of them had any ideas as to how to make this situation better.

"How did he find us," Bail asked, his gaze locked on the display of the Resolute. The massive war ship was slowly entering the atmosphere, and looked like it would land on the outskirts of the settlement, "We were so careful."

"The Galaxy is only so big," Kanna was trying to sound calm, but her arms were tight around Luke, and Fox was leaning heavily against her, "We were bound to lose eventually."

"Could we fight?" Ahsoka asked, her voice panicked as she kept glancing to where the kids were playing, "Or at least start an evacuation?"

"And go where?" Rex asked, feeling very numb.

"Why is the ship moving so slow?" Obi-Wan asked, frowning at the image, "Normally the ship should have landed by now."

"Maybe they're enjoying our panic?" Dusk asked.

Actually...Rex focused on the ship again, and he frowned as well. He knew the Resolute, and there was no reason the ship would be moving that slow. "It...almost seems like whoever is piloting isn't used to something that big."

"That can't be right." Fives said with a frown, "I can't see Sky-...Vader getting rid of his pilots."

Mace closed his eyes, and he seemed to focus on something, "...there aren't any jedi on board that ship." He said, sounding awed, "In fact, there are a lot of people alive, but most of them feel like they're very deeply asleep."

The room descended into confusion.

"Hail the ship," Breha said, sounding every inch the Queen that she used to be. All eyes turned to her, "Hail the ship and find out who they are and why they're here."

"...alright." Rex reached out to the comm, and he entered a code he knew by heart.

There was nothing for a moment, and then the holo-table flickered to life. And Rex stared, stunned.

At the other end of the holo was a very familiar Chiss woman. "...Raiya?" Rex asked, stunned.

She blinked, and looked just as surprised as Rex did, "Captain?"

"What are you doing on the Resolute?" Rex demanded, "I heard you left the GAR!"

"I did! I moved to a civilian job-"

"Raiya! Who's on the horn?" Another voice, a vod, called from out of view.

"It's Captain Rex," Raiya called.

"Really?" There was movement, and then a familiar figure pressed into view, "Shit. It is. Hey vod."

"Jess-...What? How? You died!"

"Eh, not so much. Look, We can catch up after we land the ship. We have the entirety of the 501st with us, and they all need to be de-chipped." Jesse said, "And they need gene therapy, but we might need to reach out to the doc for that."

"Why aren't they awake?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Well, because we technically kidnapped them and stole the ship," Raiya said cheerfully, "We'll be landed in about 10 minutes. I've never piloted something this big, so I'm taking my time."

The holo cut off, and the room was silent again.

And then people sprang into movement, Rex sent out a call to the medical jedi, informing them of what was about to arrive, and while he did that, Bail was sending an update across the settlement so people wouldn't panic any longer.

And then Rex left the base, to go to the landing site. He missed his brother, and he wanted, needed, to know how he survived.

#star wars #tcw #Post Order 66 #vod'ika writings

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