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smash-64 · 3 years

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Ok so I typed up a super long review of Starlink: Battle for Atlas, and I spared nothing in what you might call a scathing review. It’s below the cut, but if you’d like the TL;DR part, I’d summarize it as follows:

The Starfox stuff is fun, but the rest isn’t. 5/10

Starlink Battle for Atlas review

Being a huge fan of Starfox, I’ve had my eye on this game for a very long time. However, the whole “toys as games” thing was a huge turnoff, coupled with the fact that apparently even getting the physical version meant you needed to devote 15GB of storage space to the game, which makes no sense to me.

Anyway, I watched the reception closely, and it was pretty lukewarm, at best. People generally had very little to say about the game, so I only ever occasionally looked into whether it was on sale or not. Luckily for me, I got my hands on a 400GB microSD card for my Switch at the same time that the digital version went on super sale at 70% off, so I decided the time was right to try it out.

The Good

The Starfox team is at their graphical best in this game, by far. They looked great in Starfox Zero, but they look exactly how I pictured they would in my most fantastical dreams from when I was little. They all move smoothly, have perfect fur and feathers, emotive expressions, and they just fit so well with all the other characters in Starlink. There is a wide variety of allies and NPCs in this game, and they all have just as wide a variety of races and species. One guy looks like he should be a grass type Pokemon. I really think the character design is fantastic in this game. The fact that the entire inclusion of Starfox was an afterthought, yet they all fit in so perfectly is really a huge victory for Starlink.

In addition to how they look, the Starfox team also sounds great. They got the original voice actors back for Fox and Slippy (and I do mean the originals from Nintendo 64!), and the rest of the squad, plus Wolf, came back from the 2011 remaster of Starfox 64 for the 3DS. That game was a great remaster, and the voice work was phenomenal. The characters and their personalities all shine through just as you expect them. They banter slightly less than on the N64, but part of that might just be because sound bytes were at a premium on that system, so they had to pick and choose what lines to include more carefully. So, I don’t think you can really count that against Starlink, which is a game that can include just about as many lines of dialogue as it wants. Fox, for one, has a TON of dialogue and I loved every bit of it. I kind of wish I lived in the Seattle area so I could hear Mike West’s radio show (and hear Fox’s voice all the time), which is how Nintendo discovered him for the original voice of Fox McCloud way back in 1997. Another great piece of work here.

In what very well might have been the source of the “Star Fox Grand Prix” fake leak a few years ago, there is a planet called the Crimson Moon where you can take part in what is essentially pod racing with your Arwing. Now, I really did not enjoy the pod race scene of Star Wars Episode I, and aside from Mario Kart 64, I really don’t find racing games very rewarding. However, these racing levels are actually pretty fun. There are hidden shortcuts you can take, plenty of obstacles, and the computer racers are actually fairly difficult. I honestly found myself getting really into these races. The only downside is, there aren’t very many of them. They’re also kind of long, which is no problem for a veteran of N64’s Rainbow Road, but I was a bit surprised at the length of some of the courses.

The Meh

The music, which I have come to believe might be the element of games that really determines whether I just like a game, or love it, is fairly generic. It sounds like your average Marvel movie soundtrack, except without any real bangers. The Corneria remix is too short and not often played, and the Star Wolf theme is the same deal. That’s just about it for Starfox music, and the rest of it is just so generic that I can’t even comment any further. A real letdown for me, although it doesn’t particularly take away from the game or produce any grating tracks.

The difficulty was a mixed bag as well. I played about 70% of the game on Hard mode because I’m very experienced with Ace Combat and Starfox games, so I thought I’d be fine with the air/space combat. But, the difficulty slider didn’t really make the game more difficult, it just made it take a lot longer. I guess that could be seen as a good thing for people who get upset about dying really quickly on harder difficulties, but it felt like a way to cheat at padding the game’s playtime. I ended up lowering the difficulty just so I could finish faster.

The Starlink characters are a really big missed opportunity. They all have very distinct personalities, but I was shocked at how little content actually featured them. They each have a backstory cutscene that highlights them, but those scenes are so short that it’s more of a 30 second elevator pitch than anything else. None of the characters have more than a sentence or two to comment about said cutscenes, and none of them ever show any growth. Even the “main” character of Mason is basically the same by the end of the game. Although, I do think their designs are excellent and their personalities stand out from one another well enough.

The Bad

Spoilers ahead for the next three paragraphs! The story itself is pretty crappy. I’m still not really sure what was going on or why the Equinox (the main ship) was where it was. In more than one of the character-specific backstory cutscenes I already mentioned, they talk about Earth. So, ok, we understand that almost everyone on the Equinox is human, that’s fine. But...how exactly did they get here and why do they want to recapture the solar system of Atlas? As you play, you essentially claim territory in the name of Atlas, but it’s not clear at all who that exactly is. Does that mean the Equinox is in charge? Is there a government somewhere? Military affiliations or alliances? Because plenty of territory seems to be independent, in addition to enemy-controlled territory. Maybe there was a single line of dialogue I missed somewhere.

But, ok, we just want to fly spaceships and shoot stuff, who cares about politics! Well, there are still issues with the story because I honestly could scarcely care less about any of the plot in this game, which makes it tough to get into any of the battles or things at stake. The entire Starlink team was so unimportant that I literally never used ANY of them even one time, and the game never encouraged me too, either. Maybe I’ve been spoiled by the unparalleled writing and character development of the Kiseki series of JRPGs, or maybe I just really don’t like the storytelling methods and style of western RPGs, but I feel like the story should make you WANT to learn more about characters. Instead, I was just constantly asking questions like “Why does any of this matter?”

Now, that would be a totally unimportant question if the game was all about space battles and explosions and pew pews, but it pretends to have this really deep, engrossing story with characters wracked over the (spoiler!) kidnapping and death of their leader and captain. We barely even get to know who this dude is before he’s kidnapped, and then the rest of the story is so bare-bones that most of what we’re “supposed” to be feeling has to be completely assumed under the guise of “Well, I guess he was the captain so we’re supposed to feel bad, right?” He did apparently act like a father figure for many of the Starlink pilots, but we are only briefly told that in those previously mentioned 30 second elevator pitches. We never actually see it.

Ok spoilers done, but I’m not. The enemies that you fight in this game are also horribly boring and repetitive. We get about 10 enemies in total throughout the entire game, and most of those only have very slight variations. They try to spice it up a bit by adding in “elements,” but about 70% of what I fought ended up always being the fire type anyway. Sure, we get five or so “boss” type enemies, but they’re not particularly special, either. Most of these enemies are copy-pasted all over the planets you visit to give the impression of a planet full of activity, but really it’s just the same things over and over.

The real issue here is how the Big Bad, a bird guy named Grax, is supposed to be really feared but we only get like two cutscenes about him. His army is completely faceless. It’s really shocking that we got significantly more development from the Star Wolf team almost 25 years ago on the Nintendo 64, and all of that was delivered in five second one-liners spread through only a couple levels!

All I’m going to say about the “toys as games” thing is that it’s stupid and clunky and should never be used, especially the way they make you mount the ship onto your controller. What an absolutely idiotic method. I can understand having a portal like they did with Skylanders. Still not a fan, but you can toss something onto it and it doesn’t weigh down your controller. If it was required to play, I would have never even tried this game.

Gameplay is supposed to be the real winning point here, with an honestly unbelievable amount of content available for each planet you visit. I think there were six or seven planets you could visit, so there was actually a ton to do. But I can’t imagine beating my head against the wall so many times on each planet to complete any of it. If you really enjoy grinding, monotonous, pointless gameplay, then by all means, try this game.

Conclusion

I mean, if you like Starfox, I think you’ll have at least some fun with it. The Starfox levels are fun, and it feels like legitimate Starfox content. It also shows that Starfox could branch out into something different, but I’m not sure I’d be a big fan of it going such a repetitive route with regards to gameplay. If a game like this were fully devoted to a Starfox story, and not just including Starfox as an afterthought, then I do think it could be a good game. But as it stands, Starlink: Battle for Atlas is an example of something that looks and sounds great, but revels in gameplay mediocrity and fails at story-telling. 5/10. If there was no Starfox content, it’s honestly a 3/10.

#i'm not even going to tag this with the game because it's pretty harsh

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punkpoemprose · 4 years

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December 15th- Pen Pals

Universe: 1940′s AU/ WWII American Homefront AU

Rating: G (General Audiences, this is fluffy)

Length: 4222 Words

A/N: I wanted to write smut for this one, but it just came out fluffy AF. It’s pretty saccharine but I loved writing it <3

She wasn’t quite a Rosie. Other women she knew, those she’d went to school with or knew in town were, but she wasn’t. Her family had always had money and she didn’t need to work. All the local factories were well staffed, and while she was certain she would be capable of factory work if called to it, she’d been raised a debutante. Her parents had taught her about society, dressing well, throwing parties and being well spoken when the occasion called. They’d also raised her and her sister to take over the family business, which now, with their parents passed on, and most men off to war, she was taking to well enough.

Had Anna been a nurse she would have been in Europe already doing her part. Had she been trained as a secretary she would have been on a base somewhere taking notes and making calls and rushing about to ensure that things were moving smoothly. Had she been a pilot she would have been out fighting. But she wasn’t any of those things, and the war had come upon them so quickly that it had left Anna, 18, just out of school, no time to train. So, she worked with what she had.

She put little strawberries on the tops of the cupcakes she’d baked and frosted. They’d go in her car soon with the rest. That her parents had allowed her to learn to drive had been a blessing. Most of the girls didn’t drive, so she spent plenty of time doing all the running. It was an essential part of her duties as a head hostess after all.

She’d found her part of the war effort with the USO. She wasn’t much for a fighter or a builder, but she had a quick wit and she was good at planning things and brining people together. She’d made and served hundreds of meals, planned dances, talked to soldiers to give them a bit of solace, though what she was proudest of was the letter writing campaign she’d organized. No soldier from their hometown was going to go more than a week without a letter from some girl or another down at the USO. Anna herself wrote to three men religiously, week after week. Updates about town, little care packages of cookies and homemade jam and silly photographs she’d take with the girls, whatever she could do to let them know that they were being thought of and watched over.

Two wrote back religiously, both a bit older than her. They had wives that wrote to them too, so while they were always happy to get Anna’s letters, she was grateful that they didn’t flirt back. Anna was happy enough to be their reporter and secret “ace in the hole” on the home front. For Valentine’s day last year she’d picked up and delivered chocolates to their wives in their names, she sometimes would call and pay for a service technician to go over and fix something at home that they normally would. She had the money and she had the time, and it was one less thing they had to worry about, and one more thing she could do.

The third however, he was just a little older than her, and he so rarely wrote back that her heart was eternally skipping a beat. He was on the Eastern Front, where exactly she didn’t know, which meant that every week when she sent him a letter, she had to hope it would find him. Every week when she wrote him a letter, she begged him to write back, because she lived for the days when she saw his handwriting in her mailbox. Private First-Class Kristoff Bjorgman was, by all accounts, what kept her up at night. She knew of him but didn’t really know him. He’d gone to the all boy’s school in town, and someone told her in a whisper that he’d been a ward of the court, that he had no family to speak of and was very quiet. She didn’t even know what he looked like.

She did know how he wrote to her though. She’d saved every letter. The most recent, from over a month ago, she kept in her pocket. Hostesses were supposed to be sweet and happy and helpful. They were supposed to sit at the side of servicemen and women when they were home, whether they were shipping out soon or whether they were back for some time. To write letters, to be a piece of the home front was not necessarily expected, but it was appreciated and endorsed. Having feelings for enlisted men, however. That was something they were warned against in their training.

No one had warned her how mere letters could make her feel.

Dear Anna,

It’s still strange to me to address you as such given that we’ve never met, but I’m starting to feel like I know you and Ms. Arendelle is, as you put it “terribly formal and boring”.

I’m grateful for the sweets you sent along, military chocolate is all fine and good, but your cookies are better. I never had much for baked goods growing up, you’re spoiling me. Some of the other men get care packages too, but none as good as yours. They joke that they want you to teach their girls how to bake, and after this last batch I think they’ve become quite serious about it.

Thank you too for the photograph. You didn’t have to drive all the way out to the bluffs to take it but seeing the lake again after what feels like years really lifted my spirits. The one you sent of you standing in front of the scenery gave me a smile too. You look like you’re about to deliver some clever line in a movie. You looked pretty lovely beautiful, if that’s not too much for me to say. If it is, you can write me and let me know and I won’t say so again, but if not, I do mean it.

I wanted to let you know every time one of your letters comes through, or sometimes when I get a whole batch of them at once, it just makes me happy to know that you’re back home writing them. You’ve become a lifeline for me Anna, and I can’t ever thank you enough for that. If When I make it home I hope you’ll let me try.

If I know where I’m heading next I’ll send along an address. If not, I’ll just hope your letters make it.

I miss you, even though that doesn’t make sense.

I hope this finds you well. Don’t let them work you too hard at the USO. You’re already doing so much.

Yours,

Pfc Kristoff Bjorgman

Kris

P.S. I forgot to answer your questions, I was so taken by the photos and the sweets. I don’t smoke, it never really interested me much. I played a bit of baseball in school, and it’s the only sport I follow much. If you want to send me scores, I wouldn’t mind, even if they’re late. Though we do get updates here every now and then on baseball, football, and boxing. Problem with baseball is that most of the players I followed have been drafted too. Bet we could have a hell of a game with just enlisted. I hear there’s a women’s league now that’s making news? If you happen to catch a game on the radio I’d love to hear about it. What about you Anna? You smoke? You follow any sports?

When he wrote her, his writing was full of strike outs and rewrites and while everything he said was well thought out, it gave her the distinct impression that he wasn’t used to corresponding with others, let alone with a woman. She thought maybe he was flirting with her from time to time, and while she’d never admit it to a soul, she was a relentless flirt back, because after all the letters they’d exchanged, she’d gotten to know him. He’d been a fireman before the draft made him a soldier, and oh while she didn’t know what he looked like, she imagined he was strong. All the firemen she’d ever seen were strong, and he’d played sports in school, so he had to be at least a little bit athletic. She imagined him from the pieces she had. He liked good food, and animals and being out in nature. He liked the lake, and she’d spent hours driving down to the bluffs, not only to send him photos, but to just imagine him there. It was hard to imagine someone without knowing what they looked like, but she could imagine the conversations they’d have.

He was shy and sweet, but unafraid to share his thoughts. He’d seem gruff to others, but she’d written to him and heard his thoughts on life and love and the war, so she wouldn’t be put off by it. She’d imagined meeting him for the first time. She thought about how he’d smile at her, maybe they’d share a hug. In her most daring daydreams, she thought that she’d press a kiss to his cheek to welcome him home. It would completely scandalize her sister, Anna kissing a perfect stranger, and yet she smiled at the thought because he wasn’t a stranger at all.

She sighed, picking up the box of strawberry topped cupcakes and bringing it out to her car. She didn’t have time to daydream. She had a dinner dance to put on, and while she was already dressed for it, she had cupcakes to drive over, dinner to cook, a band to instruct, makeup and hair to touch up, girls to prep, and ultimately men to serve and chat and dance with.

Her heels clicked against the blacktop of her driveway as she went, the breeze catching the stubborn hairs that were refusing to stay tucked into her victory rolls. She’d tackle them soon enough, packing her tools for the war effort in her vehicle; cupcakes, decorations, a makeup bag, a clipboard, and of course, herself.

***

When everything was sorted, dinner and dessert served, and the band just starting to play, Anna finally let herself walk out of the back room and into the dancehall.

She did this every week, and yet it always worried and exhausted her. She was always waiting for the other shoe to drop, for one of the girls to be sick, for her USO uniform to rip, for the band to simply not show up in time.

Tonight though, everything had gone according to plan, and she had even had enough time to change out of her uniform and into one of her dresses for the dance.

“Anna,” one of the girls called to her when she stepped out to where the action was happening. She almost didn’t hear her over the sound of the band playing “Begin the Beguine” and the giggling of the other ladies, dancing out on the floor with the various servicemen they were entertaining for the night.

She nodded and walked over to have a better chance at hearing what she was saying. Anna loved a good dance, but she found herself wishing that this one was a bit quieter. She’d had a headache since noon, and she was trying to keep in a good mood, but the noise wasn’t helping matters.

“What can I do for you?” she asked. The girl was newer, just recently volunteered, and Anna was used to the girls only calling on her when they needed a hand with something. They were friendly enough, of course, but none of the girls really chatted with each other once an event was on unless they really needed to.

“It’s more about what I can do for you,” the girl said, coyly smiling, “There’s a man here asking for you by name. He just got back into town, must be important.”

“Well who is it?” she asked, trying her best not to nervously straighten her dress as the girl caught her up to speed.

“I didn’t ask his name,” she replied, “but he’s one of the only men still sitting at a table without someone chatting with him. I tried, but he just smiled all shy and asked if you were here.”

That, Anna decided, was odd. Usually she was so busy behind the scenes keeping things working that no one knew she was there, let alone asked for her. There were some enlisted men she knew well enough before the war started for them to be able to ask for her by name, but really, none of them were particularly shy and probably would have been just as happy talking to another woman. It certainly wasn’t her ex-boyfriend. He’d run up into Canada to dodge the draft, and she’d broken up with him before that.

She nodded politely to the girl and decided it best to go and see for herself.

There was only one table with a lone man, and while she couldn’t really get a good look at him with the lights dimmed for dancing, he didn’t look at all familiar to her. She turned her charm on high as she approached him, wishing that she’d checked her teeth for lipstick before walking out.

“Hi there,” she ventured as she sat down at the circular table across from him. She smoothed down her skirt and smiled, getting a better look at his face in the light of the candle that sat in the center of the table.

She didn’t recognize him. He had the sort of face she’d remember. Dark eyes, light hair, and a wide nose. He was wearing his uniform, a few other men in the room were too, but most wore suits. Most were trying to forget for a few hours that even though they were home, they were at war.

He recognized her. She saw it in his eyes when he looked at her. He smiled and his eyes did too. Her stomach twisted into knots, there was nothing she hated more than forgetting a face. She didn’t want anyone she ever met at the USO thinking that they were forgettable.

She stuck out her hand anyway, better to act as she should and then tell him later that she had simply not recognized him in the dark, or that he was even handsomer than when they last met, should she realize that they did in fact know each other.

“Anna Arendelle,” she said with a smile, “I don’t think we’ve had the pleasure?”

He took her hand carefully and she felt butterflies in her stomach when their fingers touched. His hands were so much larger than hers, so much rougher. He was probably a good foot or more taller than she was, and she knew so even sitting down.

“Not officially,” he said by way of response, adding, a bit nervously, “You’re lovelier in person… if that’s not too bold of me to say.”

It clicked then. No other man would ever question his boldness at the provision of a compliment. No other man would recognize her and smile without her recognizing him. She couldn’t believe it, she couldn’t even voice the thought for fear of being wrong.

“It’s kind, not bold,” she replied. “It’s a wonderful compliment to give a girl.”

“Is it?” he asked, giving her a coy smile, “I wouldn’t really know, I’ve only ever tried to compliment one girl.”

It was him. It was definitely, and without a doubt, him. She thought about all her daydreams. The ones where she hugged him, the ones where she kissed him and welcomed him home. She could hardly muster the strength of will to hold herself together let alone be so bold.

When she hadn’t heard from him she’d thought the worst. She always thought the worst when he didn’t reply within a month. It was so easy to be scared when she heard everyday about how brutal the war was. She put up a brave face at the dancehall, at the meetings and at the get togethers, but the truth was that when she went home to find no letters, she worried herself half to death.

“She sounds like a very lucky girl.”

He laughed, and it was a wonderful sound. Anna’s heart skipped a beat. She’d been so worried about him; she’d never expected to be able to hear him laugh. She hadn’t even been able to imagine his face, and she was glad that she hadn’t tried very much, because nothing she could come up with would be as perfect as what he was.

“Oh I don’t know about that…” he trailed off, and for a minute looked thoughtful, “I just realized you might not actually know who I am… I never sent you a picture did I?”

She laughed at that, at the way he looked so concerned after just teasing her back that she might not know who he was.

She shook her head, more certain now than she’d been even moments before. She was also certain that she was correct in her assumptions that he was, in fact, a man who had never or only extremely rarely, spoken to women. He was good at it so far she had to admit, but he also seemed terribly nervous at it, like someone just learning to drive a car.

“You didn’t, but I think I figured it out anyway. I’m not one of those girls that writes to every single serviceman you know. You’re special Kristoff.”

The smile that spread across his face warmed her from head to toe.

He squeezed her hand gently and she couldn’t help herself but to intertwine her fingers with his. This was not protocol in the hostess handbook, but she’d really never been one for rules anyhow. Structure was good and important, but rules were made to be broken.

“I’m so sorry I didn’t write you back. I was in the hospital… shrapnel… and even though I healed fast, they sent me back home. I don’t know for how long, but once I knew they were sending me back, I just… I needed to come see you.”

Anna flushed. She almost wondered if the room had suddenly warmed by a few degrees, but of course she knew it was just her reaction to him. He was real, and there, and holding her hand while giving her a look like she was the only woman on Earth. She normally took flirting in stride from the men who came to her dinner dances, but that the man she’d been writing to for so many months was there was so inconceivable to her that she threw out the whole rule book.

“You were hurt?” That had been her worst nightmare when she hadn’t heard back from him, that he was injured or worse.

“It’s alright,” he said, “I can’t really walk on the leg much yet, but what doesn’t kill you…”

She shook her head, “Guess I shouldn’t ask you to dance then.”

He shook his head and chuckled, “I’d try to if you wanted me to, but I’ve always had two left feet anyway.”

“Oh I doubt that,” she replied, trying her best to breathe as he openly admitted that he’d dance on an injured leg to please her. She was used to flirting, but this wasn’t flirting. This was his honest interest in her, this was talking to someone she’d already made a connection with. “I’m sure you’re a wonderful dancer when you’re not hurting.”

He took the compliment and grinned, “To be honest I’ve never really tried enough to know.”

“Well when you’re feeling up to it, we’ll have to try.”

She only noticed the crutch leaning against the chair to their side after he’d mentioned being injured. It was a relief to know what whatever had happened, or however badly he’d been hurt, he was getting around on his own now. That was a good sign if nothing else.

“I’d like that,” he said, then looked thoughtful for a moment, “Do you want to go someplace quieter?”

Oh she did. She very much did. She wanted to sweep him off to some dark corner and kiss him, but despite her willingness to throw out the rulebook, it wasn’t really an option.

“I do, but I have to stay here and clean up and make sure the girls head off home with their chaperones instead of…”

She flushed, then added, “Well there’s some rules…”

He nodded.

“What if I stay until after you’re done?”

“Oh!” she was surprised to hear him say that he planned to stay, to wait for her. It was absolutely against the rules, and she knew she should politely decline, but she’d rather hang up her uniform than not spend time with him. “I would love that.”

***

The last girl was off before the cleaning was done. Anna was perfectly content to do the rest herself, and she found, with great pleasure that Kristoff was an enthusiastic assistant for the last of her evening tasks.

“So you’ve really never gone to a baseball game?”

She was washing dishes and he, sitting on a barstool she’d brought in to keep him off his leg, was drying.

“I really haven’t. I heard them on the radio, and my dad bought a television not long before he passed, so I watched a few of the televised games, but I’ve never gone in person. My parents didn’t take me out much unless it was to a social event or something.”

He shook his head and took a cup from her hand, their fingers brushing as he did so. She knew she shouldn’t be blushing so, that she shouldn’t be alone with him in the first place but seeing him there had been like seeing an old friend, and she wouldn’t trade these moments of comfortable small talk for the world. Unless, of course, he offered something a little more than friendly, in which case she’d gladly trade up.

She’d started to form a crush on him when they were writing to each other. He was reserved at first when he wrote, gruff, uninterested in her charity, but as time went on he softened to her, he wrote to her about the dreams he had, about the places he wanted to go and about how he’d always wanted a dog. Most recently he’d written about how he wanted a family, about how if he made it out of the war in one piece he wanted to settle down and make a life with someone. It had been so easy for Anna to imagine being that someone, and now that she was meeting him well and truly, she could see it even clearer.

“We’re going to have to change that,” he said as he wiped the glass down and set it with the rest of the dry dishes on the counter, “It’s America’s pastime after all. You’re a patriotic gal, makes sense you should go see a game.”

She smiled and lowered her head to hide her blush. She didn’t know if he knew he was implying he’d take her to a game as a date. He wasn’t really a flirt, he was straightforward and true and she liked that about him. She liked everything about him really. He was so different than the sort of person she thought she’d fall for, the kind of person her parents had always thought that she would fall for. He was an honest man, he worked hard, he didn’t have much but himself to give, but Anna liked that. He wasn’t tactful, just kind.

“Are you asking me on a date?”

She couldn’t meet his eyes. She could be coy. She could flirt, but she didn’t want to. She wanted to show him that the girl who wrote him letters, was hoping that he meant that he wanted to take her on a date. She couldn’t bear to see him give her an apologetic look if it wasn’t what he meant.

His hand reached out and touched her arm gently. She was learning that about him too, the despite how large and strong he was, he was gentle. Every touch he’d given her was tentative, gentle, borderline tender.

“Yes. I’m trying to anyway.”

Anna grinned at that and turned to look at him.

His smile was nervous, and that was just another endearing thing about him.

“I’d like that very much then,” she replied, not bothering to duck her head down to hide her flush.

“Good,” he said, and then cleared his throat, “I mean, that’s… thank you?”

She laughed at that. He was new at this. She loved that.

“Thank you for offering to take me,” she replied, trying to keep herself from giggling more when he smiled at her laugh, “I’m looking forward to it already.”

She was looking forward to more than the baseball. She already wanted to give him a kiss, to put that victory red lipstick to work. She thought though, what could be more patriotic than kissing a soldier at a baseball game and leaving that symbolic red on his lips?

She was nothing if not an all-American girl.

#kristanna advent 2019 #kristanna #WWII AU #WW2 AU #USO Hostess! Anna #Soldier! Kristoff

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calliecat93 · 4 years

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...nope, I got nothing. Last chapter winded me so much that even a week later I am still shaken. It feels like the last batch of RWBY V3 chapters aaalll over again… so needless to say, I am terrified over what’s coming. We’re at the penultimate episode folks, so let’s waste no time and get the show on the road.

Overview

We begin with the reactions to Ruby’s call. Robyn and Qrow are not happy. Clover tries to say that Ironwood would have his reasons… when he gets a notification. RWBYJNOQ are not all wanted, and are ordered to be detained on sight. Clover stands, ready to apprehend Qrow and informs him of this, much to Qrow’s shock. Robyn is miffed at all of this, raising her weapon even when Clover says that she herself in’ wanted. Robyn refuses to stand down, and while Qrow tries to calm them all down, a fight breaks out. Tyrian is having the time of his life with this before he makes his move. He gets into the pilot cockpit, gleefully making the jet crash. In Atlas, Winter is stunned… but nevertheless heads forward to claim the Winter Maiden powers. But Penny is upset, knowing that leaving an entire city to die is wrong and can’t understand how Winter can just shove this aside. Winter tries to talk to her, saying that Ironwood is doing what he thinks is right so that they don’t have to and for the good of Remnant. Penny follows, yet she remains conflicted.

Back at the Academy, RWBY tries to reason with Ace-Ops, but they aren’t listening and intend to follow their orders. As such, they all prepared to fight, with only Marrow being hesitant about all of this, but nevertheless both sides are armed and ready… no pun intended there. Harriet questions if they really think that they can beat the best Huntsmen and Huntresses of Atlas, but Ruby only replies “You were… but then you trained us.” and speeds out of the room. Harriet chases her, leaving Weiss against Marrow and the Bees against Elm and Vine. The girls continue to try to reason with them, Ruby pointing out that they’re playing into Salem’s hands and Blake pointing out that they’re betraying those who need them. But whether it be through blind duty, feelings of betrayal, or hesitation, the Ace-Ops don’t listen. Marrow even tries to convince Weiss to stand down, saying that he knows Schnee’s are used to getting what they want, but Weiss isn’t going to let her home go without a fight.

Out in the tundra, Qrow emerges from the wreckage none the worse for wear. Robyn, however, has been knocked out though she is alive. Clover is also fine, telling Qrow to surrender and then he can get Robyn help. Yep, he’s trying to leverage Robyn’s safety to get at Qrow, which only makes said person more upset. Clover says they don’t have to fight… but Qrow isn’t hearing any of it, miffed that once more he pretty much got turned on by his so-called friends. As such, the two fight… but unfortunately for them, Tyrian also survived and he’s broken free of his cuffs. When he realizes this, Qrow tries to take him down… but Clover continues to interfere and apprehend him. Tyrian even suggests they team-up to get Clover out, though Qrow only tries to continue the onslaught. Only once it becomes clear that Clover isn’t going to let up does Qrow turn his attention back on him… and Tyrian as well.

Back with the fight, Harriet gets on Marrow for going easy on Weiss, though he counters that he’s trying to arrest her, not kill her. Harriet is getting excessive… but she doesn’t see any problem with that. Elm is running on blind hurt due to the betrayal, while VIne is trying to be more calm about this. In short, the Ace-Ops are not on the same page… and Team RWBY takes advantage of this. We get a new song at this point, an absolutley badass one called War. We not only have Casey, but three, yes three other vocalists. Adrienne Cowan (who did Nevermore with Case), Dawn M. Bennett (the VA for Elm) and a singer named Erin Reilly. I say this every week… but this is my fav song of the volume, and this one may just rank into my Top 10 RWBY songs of all time. The fights end with the Bees taking down Vine, and eventually Elm, Weiss defeats Marrow, and Ruby is able to bind Harriet though she is still able to fight via her speed. It ends when Weiss shields Ruby with an ice wall, knocking Harriet out.

With Ace-Ops down, the girls scramble. If they want to stop Ironwood, they have to make sure that the Vault doesn’t get open. As such, it looks like Ruby and Weiss are going to head for the Winter Maiden’s location while the Bees go to help the others. But the comms are still offline… though fortunately help arrives when Pietro and Maria show up. Back with JNR, they try to find Oscar… and it seems like Nora does… but the real one shows up and punches the other. Yep, it was Neo. She had gotten the lamp… but the punch makes her drop it and Oscar grabs it back. JNR recognizes Neo from what they’ve heard told to them before, and stand ready to fight her. Meanwhile, Winter has Fria loaded into the Transfer Pods and hopes that the process will be painless. Penny questions this since WInter said they have to ignore their feelings, but Winter clarifies that they need to acknowledge them still to know that they are on the right path. But before Winter can get into the pod… the facility goes into Red Alert. Yep, it’s Cinder. Only Winter and Penny stand in her way and recognizing CInder as the one behind the Fall of Beacon and her previous demise, Penny stands combat-ready for some payback.

The fight in the Tundra continues, with Tyrian continuing to make it so Qrow and Clover are fighting each other. Qrow is angry that Clover is blindly following Ironwood and refusing to do the right thing, despite knowing better. Clover is upset that Qrow won’t just come peacefully, declaring his loyalty to Atlas and says that he trusts Ironwood with his life… and those turn out to be his cruelly ironic last words. At this point, Clover’s Aura has been broken and Qrow has been disarmed of Harbinger… but unfortunately, Tyrian’s gotten ahold of it. He uses the blade to attack Clover, stabbing him fatally through the back. Qrow is horrified, charging at Tyrian and swears to kill him. Tyrian just asks “Like how you killed Clover?”, tossing the bloodied blade aside as the authorities begin to fly overhead. Tyrian flees… but Qrow decides to not give chase, instead going to Clover as he dies. Qrow says that Ironwood will take the fall for this, and Clover wishes him luck before succumbing to his injury. With one friend who just stood against him dead, another having betrayed him, and himself now framed to look like the killer, a tearful Qrow can only scream in sorrow as day breaks across Solitas.

Review

I have been… struggling with this review. Not because of the episode quality. Not because I’m at a loss for words. But… well… I had a feeling for a while now that Clover likely wasn’t going to survive. I wanna say it was around Chapter 3 that I suspected and was convinced in between Chapters 8 and 9. I even know when I realized it aside from the Semblance, it’s when I realized that he was a male Pyrrha. This guy who seems so good at what he does and like such a good, nice guy. Add that to him being the leader of Ace-Ops, his described fierce loyalty, and him being the anti-Qrow with a Good Luck Semblance, and it just seemed fated to happen.

Obviously, while everyone was horrified, some people… took it hard. Very hard. Fair Game blew up pretty fast. I think it did even before the two even interacted. But this isn’t about those people’s views, this is mine. And speaking from my own opinion… I am okay with it. I didn’t ship Far Game to begin with, nor did I view any of their interactions as romantic. However this is coming from a person who took over six years to ship Bumblebee and couldn’t tell what direction they were going with regarding Renora, or even Arkos until you know what. So maybe I’m just ship blind. I’m someone who doesn’t subscribe to most ships unless it is either confirmed, or it’s been long enough that canon or not I’m fine with it. Look at my fav RvB ship for proof. But no, I never saw anything romantic with Qrow and Clover. Now was Clover a character I really felt invested in. It just felt like one guy being a friend to this other guy because that’s the kind of person he was. He wasn’t looking for something like Pyrrha did via Jaune, he was happy with where he was. Believe it or not, sometimes two people can just be friends, and that’s it. That was always my personal take on it.

What Clover, in my opinion, was meant to be is the reflection of Qrow. He was this model soldier with a Good Luck Semblance, He blindly followed an authority figure, despite not understanding all of their actions. Just like how Qrow blindly followed Oz until all the lies came out. Clover followed his orders, and it cost him in the end. Qrow stood by what was right, knowing that Ironwood has lost it and he even tired to shift focus on Tyrian during the fight when he realized he was alive. Tyrian manipulating things to cause Clover’s death and pin it on Qrow. Qrow is the man cured with Misfortune, but he lives. Clover is the man blessed with Good Fortune, and he perished. What will happen in the wake? It’s too soon to say… and I get the feeling that this volume won’t leave a definite answer. But from a story perspective and character perspective, I see why CRWBY did what they did, and that has always come first. I’m not angry at CRWBY for it, and I plan to keep supporting them. If you are upset or angry, that’s okay. Your feelings are valid. Just remember to be respectful, and that includes to CRWBY, and move forward. Hopefully, if anything, they’ll take the reception and do some genuine, official m|m rep in the future. I think they’ve earned the right to at least give them the chance, at least.

I guess the big question now is, what happens with Qrow? Well… it’s hard to say. Tyrian’s pretty much framed him for murder, but Qrow was already wanted so unless he escapes, IDK how important that will be. But Qrow is going to blame himself. While his demeanor has improved, he still has a lot of issues that he hasn’t been able to properly get help for. This chapter alone has him express his bitterness over his various broken friendships His team, Oz, now Ironwood and even Clover. The latter, despite being an encouraging figure, still stood by Ironwood despite knowing that it was wrong instead of doing what was right. He kept doing this even when Qrow was trying to take down Tyrian because that’s how much blind loyalty has been hammered into him, just like his four teammates. That’s what cost him in the end… well that and Tyrian being a manipulative ass and playing mind games with them. He was the one offering team-ups that Qrow clearly was against and manipulating their every move that they made. It was an utter tragedy no matter what lens you look at it with, and it’s probably going to have repercussions for Qrow and his still-struggling state of self-worth. I do think that in the end, he’ll rise above it, but it’s going to be awhile. And especially right now, when James is probably at the point of ‘never forgiven’ with Qrow… yeah, it’s gonna be a looong while.

But that’s enough on that. Let’s go over everything else.

To lighten the mood a little, the fight scenes were fantastic. After how I felt the Tyrian fight last week was anti-climactic, this made up for it tenfold. I hate the scorpion man more than ever now, but damn he’s an excellent fighter. The Qrow vs Tyrian vs Clover fight was just freakin’ fantastic especially with Tyrian’s manipulations both on the battlefield and on a psychological level. The man is crazy, but damn is he smart. But the best fight was RWBY vs Ace-Ops. Not just because of the choreography, which was brilliant. But it shows just how the two groups differ. Ace-Ops is more professional, but as Harriet said, they aren’t friends. They aren’t connected like Team RWBY are. And here, where they’re all emotional and not on the same page, they can’t work together. RWBY though? They are best friends. They love and trust each other unconditionally. They kept their wits and fought for what was right. That is why they won. Via trusting each other. The only one of the Ace-Ops who didn’t blindly follow was Marrow, and even then despite asking questions, he stood by the orders anyways. RWBY did what was right. The moment Ruby said they were the best? It’s not just to boast, it’s because the Ace-Ops threw away their duty as Huntsmen and Huntresses. They’re just Ironwood’s puppets now, while RWBY are devoted to their duty to the bitter end. That’s what this fight represented. Add that to the badass song, and you have a fight for the ages.

We also have Penny and Winter’s scenes. It’s just… sad. Winter is putting aside her own feelings, believing that what they’re doing is for the best for all of Remnant. She knows that it’s wrong. She hates having to do it. She acknowledges that. But in the end, she has her orders, and in her mind they are trying to do the right thing. Penny knows better. This isn’t right. People are going to die. People that she is meant to protect, and she calls Winter out on it. Sure she still follows Winter, but she is against it. Even at the end, where she says that she understands what Winter is doing, doing what she thinks is right above her feelings but still acknowledging their existence, you can tell that Penny is not on board with this. If Cinder hadn’t interfered, I wouldn’t be shocked if Penny tried to stop Winter. But of course, Cinder did interfere. Now it’s her against Winter and Penny. Ho boy, is next week gonna be a crazy ride folks.

Everything here is a major reflection of the themes of this volume: trust and the right thing. Clover blindly followed his orders despite them being wrong, and it cost him his life. Winter is doing the same, despite feeling bad about it, and this could very well end in her own demise. The Ace-Ops are blindly ignoring what’s right just because Ironwood told them to, and this and their lack of trust/teamwork ended in their downfall. It’s clear here that Atlas cares more about loyalty than it does feelings, and that is not good. It’s consistently shown that doing this, just following an authority figure without questioning it and opposing it if you know that it’s wrong, will only end in misery. Doing what’ best is not the same as what’s right, and the latter is what our heroes are trying to do. Heck, take Qrow at the end. It would have been best for him to chase after Tyrian… but he chose the right thing and comforted Clover as he died. Yeah, Tyrian getting away is bad, but it shows that Qrow is a good man. And it looks like in his final moments, Clover realized this and wished him luck. And boy, is Qrow going to need that.

Finale Predictions

From what I can tell, the White Rose duo is going to the Winter Maiden while the Bees go to help JNRO, with Maria and Pietro I assume getting the comms back online. Qrow and Robyn I imagine are about to be arrested, and I get the feeling that the heroes aren’t going to have the chance to bust them out right now. Qrow might be able to escape, but at the same time, he’s going to want to confront Ironwood. IDK if that’s going to happen, at this point it’s pretty likely that a LOT is going to be pushed into V8. I would imagine that Qrow’s part will continue then, but we’ll see.

As for how these fights will go… well even if the Bees don’t reach JNRO, I don’t see Neo winning. She may be a strong fighter and she may be crafty with her illusions, but four/six against one? Yeah… her odds look pretty horrible. Maybe he can nab the Lamp and escape, but I don’t see her actually winning the fight even if she plays dirty. Then for the others… IDK. I want to say that Cinder won’t get the Maiden powers, though IDT WInter will either, or at least not all of it I legit think that there is a very good chance that Penny may get the powers. After all, she’s acting more human than any of her colleagues, so I can see it. As for Ruby and Weiss… well… if Winter gets seriously hurt, Weiss will have to see it sot hat sucks. But Ruby? Well… we know that Cinder won’t kill her. But you know how we’ve all had ‘’Ruby loses an eye’ for a while now? Well… this may be the day.

Episode Stats

Favorite Character: Team RWBY as a whole Favorite Scene: RWBY vs Ace-Ops Least Favorite Scene: JNR finding Oscar and Neo, just cause it felt kind of anti-climactic after last week, but that’s the only reason. Favorite Voice Actor: Chris Wehkamp (Clover) and Jason Liebrecht (Qrow) Favorite Animation: All the fights and Clover’s death. It was animated perfectly and made it hit all the harder. Rating: 9/10

Final Thoughts

I get the feeling that I’m not gonna be able to look at this one for a while for the same reason as V5: negative connotations sour it for me despite my own feelings. But in the end, this chapter was a shock, but a well-executed one. The fights were amazing, the emotions were on point, and the ending was horrifying yet emotional. I know that a lot of people are upset, but as I said, I understand why they did this and I support CRWBY. This show hasn’t let me down yet, and when I felt it did they went and proved that there was no reason to feel that way. I’ve come this far not just with this volume, but this whole series. I’m not ready to back out yet. We’ve got one more chapter to go folks. Whatever happens, we’ll get through it together. So bring it on RWBY!

#rwby #rwby7 #rwby reviews #callie reviews

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ayankun · 4 years

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yalright let’s do this

AGENTS OF SHIELD SEASON ONE REWATCH COMPLETE BREAKDOWN MEGAPOST

hella spoilers for the entire canon up through season 5, but not 6 because I only saw it the once and am having a hard time remembering ANYthing about it.

I cannot determine specifically what it was about this season that caused to be branded “literal garbage” in my mind-hole for seven years.

Best guesses:

there’s some cheesy stuff that probably didn’t sit well with me at the time, and, at the time, there was no way of knowing that that kind of stuff was going to be ultimately eradicated

there’s some good stuff, like character stuff and plot stuff, but it didn’t successfully implant positive emotional responses in my brain-hole, leading me to be frustrated/offended at its own self-importance

there’s some stuff that just Doesn’t Work. I won’t call anybody out, but there are some main side characters whose casting, in my opinion, leaves much to be desired. when it comes to acting ability, I feel that it’s important to have the ranges of your entire cast match each other. if you’re gonna hire B-listers, at least make sure they’re ALL B-listers. if you’re gonna splurge and get some S-tier talent, pleeeeease don’t embarrass the B-listers by thinking you’re doing them a favor by including them on your project. Understood, this opinion is highly subjective and I can’t expect everyone in front or behind the screen to buy into it, but it’s definitely a pet peeve of mine that causes strong reactions in me*

some of the plots are tired and/or straight up boring. I got through them easily this time through because I was able to focus on the things I like, which is largely character interactions and re-learning the backstory for stuff that I know will continue to be important later on. imagine listening to your grandpa’s stories about his life, but instead of telling you the cool stories about going to the moon or whatever, he’s telling you in great detail about the time he got his shoelaces stuck on like, a rusty nail sticking out of a fence. It’s not a great story but it does explain why his mom only bought him velcro shoes after that and one time when they were trying on shoes in the store a couple of years later, some other kid started making fun of him for having velcro shoes and long story short your grandpa’s relationship with that kid is what got him interested in astrophysics and also he married that kid twenty-five years later -- but right now the story is specifically about spending forty minutes trying not to get tetanus.

Now that I’m older and wiser, what really surprised me throughout, though, was that not only was I not having any type of reaction that validated my “literal garbage” classification, I was noticing that there was A Lot of stuff that ticked a lot of boxes.

I’m talking technical stuff, the textbook basic filmmaking stuff, the stuff that I subjectively find objectively “Good” because it means that creative decisions were made with intent and were also executed proficiently enough to make that intent clear.

I’m talking SYMMETRICAL NARRATIVE which has to be one of my all-time favorite techniques, one that I personally use a lot, and I’m very biased in responding favorably when I see it, so I think ultimately this is a huge reason why this season cannot be classified as garbage this time around. Because it shows that they cared! It shows that they had A Plan! It’s an emotionally satisfying technique that can be used to great effect when tipping the audience off to how far we’ve come from where we started. It creates this nice tidy structural loop which I find very appealing.

Just real quick, you see this in individual episodes or even scenes, too. Here’s a classic A+ example from episode 2:

Simmons has given Skye a bottle of water as a gag because that’s what happens on planes, and that bit is a set up to this bit, where Coulson is talking about how he rebuilt the Bus from the “studs up” and it demands to be treated with kid gloves; ergo:

Only to have the thing completely wrecked over the course of the episode. In the denouement, “just starting to warm up to this place,” Coulson says ruefully, righting a broken glass as if that will put the plane back together; Skye immediately tosses a coaster down and moves the glass on top of it.

As a callback, it juxtaposes the starting-state and ending-state in your mind and highlights the contrast between the two. And it’s also a nice character-building beat where you, the audience, get to observe Skye’s character in that she remembers a trivial detail that happened to be important to Coulson. You also get to see Coulson observing the same, and you understand a little bit more about both of them. *chef’s kiss*

So this is a pretty powerful and common technique, and I guess you could say that any well-resolved narrative is by definition going to recall you to the specifics of how it started. Like ep 1 we start with Mike and Ace, their call and response “what are we/we’re a team,” and an understanding of Mike’s desire to be his kid’s guardian and hero and his desperate search for the tools that will allow him to become that. In the finale, we see the pay off where Ace (via Skye) reminds Mike of this motivation, and Mike is finally in the position to protect his kid by taking out the Big Bad.

But I don’t want to go through the list to demonstrate that everyone’s character arcs likewise left them in a thematically resolved position relative to where they started. Obviously this is an expectation of all (well structured) narratives.

(And I don’t really mean to talk about callbacks themselves, such as Fitz’s obsession with monkeys or May’s repeated demand of “don’t call me that.”)

Stuff that only comes up at the beginning and the end. Here’s the kind of symmetry that I mean:

Skye’s use of GPS encryption and the location of the diner where she first meets Mike. Both topics come up in ep 1, and are revisited in ep 20 when she’s stalling for time against Ward and brings him to the diner by telling him that it’s the GPS coordinates necessary for decrypting the drive. It says, last time you were here, Skye, you were living out of a van and fangirling over people with superpowers; now you’re an official agent of SHIELD (fun while it lasted, anyway) and you’re currently doublecrossing your own doublecrosser who was directly responsible for transforming you into the competent spy you are today.

Same thing: the only time we see Lola fly is at the end of ep 1, when Coulson and Skye are heading back to the Bus, and in ep 20 when Coulson rescues Skye from off the Bus.

Ep 2: 0-8-4. We’re introduced to the very first object with the titular designation, and Simmons idly wonders “imagine what it would do to a person.” Ep 22, it’s used to evaporate Garrett. Same ep, we also meet the little, what even is it, that dendrotoxin EMP (??? I don’t recall whether the gadget is named) that Ward uses, and Coulson uses it in ep 17 to incapacitate Garrett.

Similarly, all the cool alien gadgets we spent the first few episodes gathering and locking up, including that first 0-8-4, are all broken out into the wrong hands in ep 18.

Also in ep 2 we are introduced to the idea of being thrown out of the airplane and Skye & co specifically prevent Ward from being sucked out. We’re introduced to the concept of Coulson’s cellist! Fury also makes a cameo (”talkin to me about authority”) !

It’s a little later on, but ep 6 has Simmons jumping out the plane, and Ward proving his Good Teammate status by jumping out after her (while Fitz is struggling on his way to do the same). Ep 21, Ward boots FitzSimmons out the plane, and in ep 22 Fitz finally has the chance to properly save Simmons himself.

Ep 19 Coulson has a chance to save his cellist (again)

Ep 22, Fury comes back all Deus ex Machina and relinquishes authority of SHIELD directly to Coulson.

There’s also some dialogue recycled on purpose to make a point, like Fitz-Simmons introductory scene is recreated almost verbatim in ep 21:

Ep 2, talking to Skye about his mission vs ep 18 talking to Raina about his mission

(gotta admit, the man took this role seriously. check out that cheekbone game he achieved in such a short time)

And again, Ep 1 Ward vs Ep 18 Ward. They even framed it the same!!

All this to say, Season 1 is Structurally Sound and it has my blessing.

Now let’s move on to the list of things I liked that surprised me:

It’s pretty well polished, visually. Joss Whedon’s veteran control of the director’s chair is readily apparent in the pilot, setting the visual tone for the series. There are some made-for-tv shots over the course of the season, sure, and the least impressive compositions tend to involve CGI backdrops, but they do make the most of their interior sets and work hard to dress up various LA locations to, er, inspire the idea of the international scope of the show. In my last update, I talked about ep 8 The Well in the context of Quality Directing, so it definitely goes above and beyond the basic shot-reverse shot when it wants to.

Ward. Just for the record, I think Brett Dalton is great at his job and really brought exactly what they wanted to this character. Eps 1 and 2 are a little shaky and stiff, but everyone’s performances are, as they let these characters coalesce around them. I remember not liking Ward when I was watching this live, and honestly I think this was intentional. He’s that character that you expect that you’re expected to like, you know, the traditional cocky savior type that lots of those fancy heroes are. But because he’s so tropey in his characterization, you’re just ... over it? And then when they flip the script and you’re supposed to hate him -- WOW. It’s like two Christmases at once. They took something you were already doing and rewarded you for it.

I’m not unaware of the “redeem grant ward” phenomenon. I’m aware that the character had fans who were honestly drawn to and appreciative of the character before that persona was revealed to be a lie.

And honestly, it’s not that I like OR dislike Ward at all. As a person. It’s annoying that he’s a cocky bad-boy. But it’s sweet when he plays nice with Simmons. It’s embarrassing that he and May have “a thing.” But it’s cathartic when he opens up to Skye about his past. And Then, the sequence where we know he’s Hydra but Skye doesn’t. And Then, the sequence where Skye knows he’s Hydra but he doesn’t. And Then, his weird yucky confusion where he still wants to pursue something with Skye or doesn’t want to put down puppy-dog-eyed Fitz.

As a character, Ward is a great character. His set up is so bland that the twist does appear to come out of nowhere, but on a rewatch all the groundwork is there. His characterization as a baddie is enthralling. I’m forecasting into season 2 a bit, but you want to follow his nefarious exploits just as much as you want to see his ex-friends smash his face in. Brett Dalton played it right, A+ good job. It makes Framework!Ward just that much more of a beautiful thing, to get to see what it would have been like if the Season 1 persona had actually been the man.

Also as covered in the last update, I was really very pleased to see how much character work was being done in this season. Because I only watch and rewatch starting from the second season, there are important plot points that I’d been grudgingly attributing to this season about which I’d forgotten the specifics, such as, what’s the deal with Gravitonium, howcome we hate Ward so much, where did they get that memory-torture-machine, why are you acting like I recognize Titus Welliver’s character? What surprised me was how much of a focus there is on character development as well. A lot of good origin story stuff, like how green FitzSimmons is and how soft and good-hearted Skye is and all the reasons we respect and trust May and all the reasons we would follow Coulson to the ends of the earth. Watching a found family start to put down roots is worth it, too, ten times out of ten.

The tie-in stuff wasn’t as overstated and stifling as I remembered it being. They were allowed quite a long leash even this far back. Centipede is based on Extremis, but helms a a unique narrative. The Asgardians-of-the-week are just MacGuffins for driving character stories. Turns out all of SHIELD has been Hydra all along! Sucks to be you, a show about the Agents of SHIELD ... oh wait, Daddy MCU’s insane twist is mirrored in the DNA of your team’s composition AND baked into your overall season arc? Well then. Carry on!

Engaging with Season 1 explicitly as a prequel is a powerful thing. First time through, I had the distinct realization that “too much of a good thing” was at play regarding Coulson. He’s everybody’s favorite MCU character in 2013, hands down, but ... getting intimate with him for 40 minutes a week really waters down his mysterious G-man appeal. BUT. After spending six+ years with the man, Season 1!Coulson is a precursor to the 3-dimensional Director you’ll fall in love with, rather than a distortion of the one-liner MCU!Coulson you thought you wanted.

So what’s next! Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and here all all the things I associate with AoS that were not present in Season 1:

Robot hand.

DaISy JoHnsOn

AGENT/DIRECTOR MACK where is he I need him

Fitz’s facial hair

Their underground SSR base with the exposed brick, I miss that place all the time

Hive, Bobbi*, Hunter, Kyle MacLachlan, Maveth (everything** about Seasons 2 and 3, really). Robbie Reyes. Aida and Kasius!! I know these things are temporary, but they’re so important to the best bits and I love them.

Getting to see episode after episode where there are scenes at a time containing a majority (up to 100%) of women and/or POC characters with executive agency, and none of those characters are token or temporary but were placed there with intent to normalize a diversified cast.

My absolute favorite episode of all time, 4x15 Self Control.

Things I am not looking forward to:

**Lincoln. I’ve seen these seasons four times and just now I had to google his name because I wasn’t sure it wasn’t Logan. He’s garbage and I’m glad he’s dead. Other opinions are available.

Misc. Thoughts

*I said I wouldn’t name names but Adrianne Palicki is a C-lister who can swing a B+ if the stars align. I love Bobbi, though, especially the way the character’s reputation precedes her, how her adorableness complements her badassness. In fact, the character’s a great foil to May, who is also a badass lady and S-tier agent but has a completely different approach to being those things. Bobbi’s a reminder that badassness and aloofness are not correlated at all. Also there’s a headcanon out there that she’s non-binary (one of the reasons she prefers Bobbi over Barbara) and that is a concept I can get behind. Bobbi’s perfect and I’ll fight you if you don’t agree.

Poor Trip!!!!!!! When you always start from Season 2, he’s really just a flash in the pan, there and gone. I’ve always been like, “well, he didn’t really have a home here, no carved-out niche, so I guess getting Coulson’d and becoming something to avenge is the best a character like him is gonna get.” But now that I see that he comes late to the game as a literal stand in for Ward, his story is that much sadder. He was never intended to BE a character. He’s introduced with Garrett as a pawn/distraction during this arc’s who-is-Hydra shell game, he’s kept to demonstrate what kind of friend and agent Ward should have been, his defining character trait as a gentle flirt only serves as a catalyst for Fitz’s coming to terms with his feelings for Simmons. The poor guy is just a walking plot point, up until the bitter end. :<

I had entirely forgotten and/or never tracked the fact that Fury put together Coulson’s team specifically to monitor him after project T.A.H.I.T.I. I’d forgotten the distrust Coulson has for May after he perceives that she has betrayed him by being a part of this. It’s a season-specific reveal that is literally never mentioned again. It’s important to the fabric of the narrative of that particular arc, offering up May alongside Ward and Trip as fodder for the aforementioned shell game, but the true inciting incident of this entire show just gets swept under the rug and ceases to matter. I’m kind of :/ about that.

When you’re bi and non-binary, you’ll get a lot of mileage out of wanting to be/be with Daisy and/or Fitz, don’t judge me

In conclusion, Season 1 is the opposite of literal garbage, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is my favorite show and my favorite MCU movie, Daisy Johnson is my favorite Marvel superhero (not related to Season 1 but still true), and nobody had better spoil Season 7 for me pleaAAASE don’t let it happen.

#agents of shield #aos #so I guess this is what I ended up doing today #v productive

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goldstonegolem64 · 5 years

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Book 1 Hope returns Chapter 38 Unleash the beast By Goldstonegolem64

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JQ820nUujk&t=21s

Haggar sat in her lab looking through the record of Root rot see as he had the biggest profile out of all four of her new pilots. the report was from a Subcommander that was well known for hunting dangerous game and was the first and only to survive being hunted By Root rot and his clan on there home world. The original reason the subcommander was because they had caught wind a the beasts on this moon had a weird ability to Evolve rapidly to survive the harsh jungles. The report Told of How this subcommander had found this clan of Florian's light years away from their homeworld.The report told her that the Florains there had grown to have the same ability as the rest of the wild life an had build there village in side of a old abandoned temple and the clan had adopted the religion of the temple. The rest of the report was just the subcommander watching the clan over for about six deca phebes. Nothing of interest happened through the phebes but that was until the last deca phebes in which one of the sub commander troops decide to hunt one of the florian despite his orders and killed it.

It turned out that the florian was pregnant with twins and that was when everything started going down hill. It all started when the same troop that disobeyed went missing along with three plasma rilfs .Then came the feeling of being watched and unit that was sent to find the missing soldier also went missing followed by their warship being destroyed by a overcharged plasma rifle placed in the armory causing a chain reaction that trapped the crew there. She then read as that the crew was picked off one by one by a unforeseen force that seemingly adapted to whatever strategy they had come up with to hunt it. The subcommander then write that maybe the florain that was killed was the mate of what was hunting them and this was all just revegen for what was taken from them. But what happened next caught her attention. The report read that The florian that was hunting them was the.

The report stopped before she could see what had been hunting them.She assumed that it was root rot. But there were some things that didn’t add up. Like how did he get onto the warship without being seen. How did he get on learn how to work blaster or even overload it to begin with. She then looked through the rest of the reports and saw something that caught her eye. Root rot was a know Bioterrorist and used gases of different varieties to mark targets , grow small hounds or mindless minions ,some paralyzed other corroded flesh and metal. one caused anyone to in haul it to laugh themself to death if exposed to it for too long. One send crowds into rage fueled blood bath . As she was looking through the reports the door to her lab opened

“ What is it ?” Haggar said not looking toward who ever entered her lab

“ lord Zarkon has requested your pressaion. “ the druid said

“ Alright “ Haggar said as she closed the report and got up from her seat and left the lab.toward the throne room.

Elsewhere the Castle of lions was hovering over a desert world where the s.o.s came from

“ I know were all going down there but before that What's the game plan?” Jay asked

“ well we have made contact to the other two outposts on the neighboring planets. Both are untouched but Hq as order a quick evac just in case they’ve been compromised “Ace said as she walked into the room

“ So we're not gonna go down there to see what happened there” Hunk said a little hopeful

“ Yes you would be correct hu-” Allura was cut off when another message

A screen appeared to reveal a rebel soldier that was galra with a huge cut across their face. There was two other soldiers in the background one was dead on the floor and the other had wings and their face was hide behind them as they were looking out into the hallway .

“ If anyone can hear this please come help us were the only survivors here and were being hunt by that thing. It killed everyone with no remorse and it started to hunt who was ever left” the sound of footsteps could be heard in the background” Shit it found us please be quick come on sky lets going “ then the message stopped

“ Well here we go.” Hunk said

Jay coulded help but think that the rebels voice sounded. But he just pushed that though to the back of his minded.” So let's get down there and save those people” Jay said as he was walking out of the room towards the hanger bay thinking that all this seemed a little fishy

“ You heard the Man lets get going” Ace said to her team as she followed Jay

A few minutes later

The lions, The valkyrie, Two rebel ship and the Prometheus were flying down toward the outpost

“ So how many people were working at that outpost anyway?” Adam Asked

“ Normally there are about fifty to a hundred depending on the importance of the outpost location” Ace said

“ Ok my confidence has lowered a bit” Lance said feeling a little unsure about there chances of find those to guys alive.

“ Hey jay you’ve been unusually quiet something on your mind?” Adam asked

“ it’s nothing i just don’t have anything to say on the matter at hand” Jay said

“He things this whole thing is a bit fishy but he doesn’t have enough evidence to prove it” Val said outing her pilot

“ Why would you think it was a trap? “ Shiro asked

“ It just something doesn’t feel right about this whole thing. i mean it might be just the way i was raised to question anything that seems just out of place. like the second message or the person who sent it and no it’s not because he was galra/ It because he’s voice sounded familiar and i can’t remember where i heard his voice before.It suck that i can’t remember and i normally remember this things ” Jay said

“ Like how you remembered to tell Adam and i about the mix up” Shiro said

“ Or that you have a huge bow for long range attacks” Adam said

“ Or the fact that you can turn into a hucking lizard monster.” pidge said

“ Ok i get it i have a bad memory. I get it but still i dont trust this. Also pidge i do remember that i can turn into a ten foot tall hulk lizard i just don’t trust myself to be incontrol when i go into that form . Mainly do to the fact i haven’t turn fully into berserker state yet and there is no way to say for sure that i won’t kill you all if i full turn” Jay said

“Well it’s good to hear that your concerned for us. But now i’m kinda scared for you to turn.”Lance said

“ Ok i don’t know what this berserker state is but Um can we talk about the out of place Jungle that is seemingly growing out of the listening outpost in the middle of the desert.”Ace said as she looked at the now overgrown outpost that was protected by a dome that covered the roof

“ Alright everyone be ready for anything down there “ Shiro said as he started to Land the black lion near the entrance of the out post

“ Ok quick question why how is this place hidden if it’s out in the open like this?” Pidge asked as she land the green lion

“ it’s an abandoned colony who would ever look here. But i guess someone came looking ” Rolo said

“ Well let’s not dread on the past they knew what they were getting into when they join up with us “ Ace said

A few minutes later the team entered the outpost and slowly moved through out the seemingly abandoned outpost. Everything in the outpost was covered in vine with buds growing on them that were weirdly pulsating

“ Ok Jay do you know why there pulsating ?” Hunk asked

“ My dad might but hell if i know” Jay walked away from the group to investigate the closet vine.” i may not be in the same league as my dad when it comes to things like this but if you gave me sometime i could probably figure this out” As Jay got closer to the vine Jay could hear the sound of a heartbeat coming from the vine.” Ok that is weird “ Jay reached and touched the vine it was weirdly warm and the heart beat started to get faster. Jay then removed his hand and the heart beat started to slow down “ I’m not going to do that ever again.” Jay said as he stepped away slowly.

“ Good to know now lets keep going “ Keith said

The team continued to move. As they did the the vines begane to cover the floor as the bud were now about the size of people and the heart beat sound was now louder than before.

“Thank god shay stayed behind with Allura and the others” Hunk said

“ Hey guys i know this should have been asked earlier but seeing as at the highest there would being about a hundred. lowest being about fifty people that were stationed here. I’m just curious where are the bodies?” Lance asked as he looked at one of the buds that was close to them.

“Your right lance where are the bodies?” Matt asked as the sound of things moving around in the distacts

“ Ok that doesn’t sound good. We need to find those survivors quick “ Hunk said as the motion sensor went off showing two dots moving towards them.

Everyone turned to face what was coming weapon drawn. they All waited for a few seconds to see what came and what they say was the two rebels that were from the second message.The two looked surprised to see them and raised there hand up

“ Please don’t shoot were not your enemies “ the first rebel said

“ Yeah we were the ones who called you here “ the second rebel said

“ Ok we found the survivors now lets get ou” Lance was cut by the sound of an alarm and flashing red lights going off followed by the sound of huge metal doors closing. Then the alarm and the Lights stopped

“What was that ?“ Matt asked

“ That was the sandstrom Alarm were going to be stuck he for a bit.My names is Quill by the way and this guy next to me is Sky now before were found by that thing let's get inside of the safe house we set up just in case we were here for a while” Quill said

Shiro noticed that both of this two’s armor had very obvious damage and blood splatter that would only occur if someone's throat was slit or had their head bashed. Shiro had seen and done many horrible things during his time as a gladiator which did help him see somethings that other wouldn’t notice. He was coming up with a plan to see who this two were. Only for ace to step forwards

“ Who are you two and why do you to reek of the empire?” Ace asked with a growl in her voice

“ I Don’t know what you mean by tha-”

“ Don’t lie i can tell that blood and armor isn’t your now i will ask again. Who are you?’ Ace asked as she raised her blaster.

Quinn and Skyver looked at each other then back to the paladins. Both notice that a root was snaking its way towards the silver paladin unseen by all twelve paladin in front of them.

“ Well it looks like the gig is up” Skyver said

“ Yes it is. Well one of you already knows me . Hello Jay it got to meet Face to mask” Quinn said with a smile on his face

Jay felt dumb that he couldn’t remember what Quinn sounded like.’ Well it’s good to finally put a face to a voice. How's your sister doing?” Jay asked genuinely concerned for his frenemies sibling

“ She lives thank the goddess and it good to see that your friends made it out alive too. Good to know “Quienn said as he watched the root slowly wrapped around Jay’s ankle

“ Stop stalling where is that thing “ Ace barked

“ You’ll meet him shortly” Skyver said

“ Say hello to hi when you meet him Jay” Quinn said

“Wait wh Shit “ Jay suddenly lose his balance and felt himself being lift into the air then was quickly slammed into the ground followed by being very quickly pulled away from his teammate

“ Jay !?!?!?” everyone yelled as there friend was being dragged away.pidge was the closest to jay an quickly ran after him

Everyone was about to Follow them but stopped in their tracks as the sound of the heart beats got louder and the bud that was near Lance started to shake violently

“ We should get out of here before All hell breaks loose “ Quinn whispered

“ We should “ Skyver said as he heard the Sounds of water rushing nearby followed by the sounds of hyena like laughing. So he grabbed onto Quinn and took to the Sky before the paladin could notice

“ What the Hell is going on ?”Lance said as he leveled his Bayard to the bud he was standing next too.

“ I don’t know “Hunk said as the sound of laughter and screech's could be heard coming towards them

“ Where the hell did those two go“ Ace Yelled looking for Skyver and Quinn

“ Forget about them and look around us” Rolo said as dozens of dog like creatures that looked like they were made up of the same vines and flowers that covered the floor were walking toward them followed by Humanoid being that looked like shorter version of the thing they all saw on the first message

“ Everyone stay together.” Shiro said as he activated his arm.

“ What about Jay and pidge ?” Matt asked worried about his sister

“ Jay and pidge can handle themselves and if they get into trouble Jay can call val into help“ Shiro said

“ Here they come” Nyma yelled as the crowd of enemies started running towards them.

“ Fire at will” Ace said as she opened fire onto the crowd Followed by everyone else as keith and Shiro ran into the charging crowd.

Elsewhere Jay was being dragged across the city streets. He was being slammed into walls every time he turned a corner. Until he grabbed onto his bayard and flipped onto his back and aimed for the vine that was wrapped around his foot. His first few shots missed. Then stopped aiming for the vine and aimed for his boot.But before he pulled the trigger he changed his foots size then fired bowing the boot apart along with the vine. Jay slide across the ground before stopping

“Go to Phobos they said . It will be easy money they said . You’d be back in a few days they said. Fuck you Damien for telling me about this job.” Jay started removed his now destroyed boot followed by the his other boot then he put both in to his pack. Jay then got to his feet and looked around the area “ Where the hell am i.” Jay then heard the sound of claws clarting against the floor “ Jay turned to look towards what was running towards him. It was a dog like creature was running toward him it teeth were bared as it ran towards him. Jay pulled his revolor and Shoot the beasts front leg of causing the beast to tumbled forwards and stopped a few feet away from jay .the beast struggled to get back onto it’s feet . Jay felt bad for this thing as it struggled to get back up. jay then leveled his revolor again,closed his eyes and fired again.

The sound of a body hit the floor. Jay open his eyes to see the beast on the ground dead. Jay quickly remove the shells and replaced them as he did the sound of something being dragging across the ground “ Great what now “ Jay said as he again turned to look were the sound was coming from. to see two humanoid being walking towards him the bigger one had a huge piece of dedre while the other just had its sharp claws “ So are you here to kill me ?” Jay asked

The two stood there not taking before both of them charging forwards

Jay was caught off guard by how fast the the two were as he nearly dodged the big one’s debre club only to be kicked in the side by the smaller one which was follow by the big one clubbing Jay in the face knocking Jay backward. His view started to see the red hue again.But he had to fight back the urge to let into his rage. Jay quickly got back to his feet and dodge another swing of the big ones club and summoned his Bayard two his left hand and fired both guns into the big one . Both shoot tore through the big ones chest killing it instantly. Jay turn to face the smaller one as it tried to tackled him. But Jay sidestepped and avoid the tackle he quickly turned and pointed his bayard at the back of his attacker’s head and pulled the trigger . But the thing avoid the shoot and slapped the Bayard and the revolver out of Jay’s hands followed by a punch to Jay’s gut . Jay was surprised by how quick it reacted to the shoot.

Jay stumbled backward before a few feet as a Flurry of punches and Clawed swipes hit him . Jay’s anger started to build up again and this time he let the anger take control an as another punch came toward him. He grabbed the fist and pull his attacker in close and smash the thing in the face with his left hand followed by a right hook to the jaw that caused the thing to stumble backwards as this happened jay grabbed the Ax off his back and swung it and caught the thing in the neck and detached it’s head from it’s body. Jay watched as the thing’s body and head hit the ground. Jay was breath heavily as his anger subsided. Jay noticed that his helmet’s visor was cracked. he pleased his ax back and he moved the helmet.

“ I really need to be move careful. I can’t afford to die right know” Jay said as he dropped his helmet and walked towards his Bayard and revolver . As he made his was there he heard the sound of something running towards him again. He turned to see Pidge running towards him. A smile of relief came across his face but that quickly turned to a pain as he felt something punch through his gut . He watched as a look of terror came across pidge’s face .

“ I’m not going to lie you look not like I thought you would “ A raspy voice said behind jay. Jay looked down to see a thorn popping out of his stomach “ But what you are will make lady Haggar happy and see how you fight I wonder how she’ll make you better” Jay felt the thorn being pulled out of him” unless you die here “

Pidge was petrified as she watch her friend fall to the floor as a pool of blood started to form where he lye. she didn’t know what to do because fear had paralyzed her body as she watch a goliath of a man walked out of one of the nearby building

“ Run Pidge run and tell the other to leave. “ Jay said as he struggled to get back up. But as he did a Val's voice appeared in the back of his head

“ What is wrong ?” she asked

“ I’ve been impaled and. No You stay away from her! ”Jay yelled as he grabbed on to the foot of the new foe as he was walking toward

“ Such heroic nonsense.” root rot turned and looked down towards jay and picked him up by the throat “ What will you do if I don’t stay away from her. Kill me hunt me down. Chase me to the ends of the universe. I’ve heard it all from thousands of different people from hundreds of different races and I kill or out live them all. So tell boy what are you going to do them if I do this?” Root rot said with a twisted smile as he raised his free hand an shootout a vine toward the now running pidge. The vine screamed throw the air and stabbing pidge right below the calf muscle of her right leg She let out a scream of pain as she to fell to the ground as the vine came out of her leg “ No running “

“ NOOOOO!!!!!” Jay yelled as his rage burst forwards as he grabbed the ax off his back and slammed it in his foes face as his shin started to turn a dark red

“ Ha HaHahHahahahahahaha. Did you thing that would work boy “ Root rot said as he remove it from his face and dropped it on the floor “ What was that suppo AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” Root rot screamed as his hand was cut off . He quickly regrow his hand and looked toward the silver paladin. He noticed that the paladins left hand was glowing a bright purple he also notice how the paladin’s skin had changed color and the hole in his stomach was slowly closing as his body ” What are you boy?” Root rot asked as excitement start to appear in his voice

Pidge was still on the ground holding her leg she was no long in pain do to her suits healing unit. but she was still bleeding. So she pulled out her Bayard. bite down on her gloved knuckle and began to cauterize the hole in her leg . She screamed into her hand as the hot plasma burned her skin. She slammed he fist in the ground. She continued with her work only to stop when the sound of bones popping and snapping out of place joint . She turned to see her teammate start grow in size his skin turned a dark red .She watched as his arms and legs started to double in size as well as elongating along with his head which turned into a gator’s his eye had a farrell look to them. The she heard the sound of ripping clothes and the cracking of metal as jay’s armor broke open to reveal small spikes that line the back of his spine and final a two ended tail ripped it’s self out of the black jump suit. Pidge remember that jay had changed once before back on the balmera but it looked nothing like this or what the file on berserkers had show . she guess this was what happened when he let the beast take control or maybe each berserker looked different in their berserk form and she was not going to stick around to find out if this form of her friend could tell the difference between friend or foe. She tried to get up only to fall back down when she tried to place weight on her right leg

“Oh that’s not good “ She said to herself as she started to crawl away from the area

“ Don’t go to far little one because when I'm done with this one your next” Root rot yelled . Then the vines that make up his body part to show of the handled of a blade that he quickly grabbed it and pulled out his hunting knife “ If only we were back on my home world you would have made a great tribute to the blighted one. “ Root said as he watched his prey slowly walk around him on all fours it’s teeth beard it’s tails swaying slowly and in a blink of an eye it was on top of him. Root unraveled his lower half and used it to tangle and stabbed shut the beast mouth to prevent it’ s teeth from ripping him apart only to have it’s claws rack across his body a few times . He laugh as he felt the pain shoot throw his body . he return the favor by burring his knife deep in to his foe back.

The beast let loss a roar of pain and began to rampage through out the intersection he had been dragged. Slamming his head into the streets light poles and abandon buildings when that proved useless the beast charged forward and slammed through the nearest building and it kept charging through building after building leaving pidge by herself.

Pidge wanted to followed her friend but she couldn’t really walk and she decide to leave rover back on the castle so la-Sai could upgrade him. The she remembered that her Bayard had a grappling hook as she summoned his Bayard something caught her eye. IT was jay’s revolve it was just lying there on the floor she used her Bayard to drag it over to her. She quickly picked it up only to be caught off guard how heavy this thing was but it also made sense seeing how strong the bullets were. As she looked at the revolver in here hand. then she throw the grappling hook toward the light post behind her and she pulled the trigger and slide across the street slowly down before hitting the light post she did the several more times before she nearly hit someone that turned the corner

“ Woah watch here your throwing thing Pidge Pidge !?” lance yelled as he saw his teammate on the ground

“ What happened to your leg” Hunk asked as both boy ran to her side

pidge was happy to see her two teammates “ i’ve been stabbed in the leg and i lost a lot of blood “ pidge said as she slowly started to feel dizzy

“ You were stabbed in the leg by who “ Lance asked as he pick up his teammate

“ By the guy who killed everyone so we should get as soon as possible “ she said as everything was coming in and out of focus

“ Where’s jay?” Hunk asked now every more worried then before

“ fighting that thing in his berserk so i think he can handle it but we should tell the other about as they can help him just in case “ pidge said before passing out from the blood lost

“ We need to get her back to the castle now “lance said as he started running back to the rest of the group

“ What about Jay ?” Hunk asked as he followed lances

“ He is a literal tank with a healing factor he can handle himself “ Lance said

Elsewhere

the beast had ran aimlessly through building hoping to dislodge. As his foe bombarded him with gas that melted his armor and skin and a knife stabbed in his back over and over again. But he pushed through the pain for the other that their other half cared for. For the ones he was charged with protecting. as he changed he could smell gasoline or something similar and changed direction towards it .

“Hey boy where do you think your going “ Root said as he grabbed his hunting knife again and dragged the knife Across his preys back then he unleashed as tornten of corrosive gas into the wound and listened to his prey scream in pain. It brought him unending joy to hear this. But that stopped as he was slammed into something metal and the smell of gasoline perforated the area.He felt fear running through his body for the first time in a long time . he quickly unraveled himself his vines and pulled out his knife and stabbed this prey in the eye causing his target to stumble backward .The beast roared out in pain the charged straight toward his foe. Root quickly side step and swung his blade cutting off one of the two tail.That was counter by The beast’s back leg kicking him in the back “What are you boy one minute your mindless the next you think you can outsmart me not going to lie i’m impressed i never thought i would fight something like you “ Root watched has the tail he cut off started to regrow along with every wound that he had inflected on to his prey back. then the beast turned around to face him and pointed it’s left hand towards something behind him.

Root looked behind him to see what was behind him only to head butted into a building and the smell of gas got stronger then he was pinned down by the beast then it’s claws ripped him apart. He watched as his limbs were being torn off him then the beast stepped back a few second and opened his maw about to eat bite of his head . “ Ok you earned this one boy but no i’m not dying here to day also ” Root said as a bud appears on his chest and release gas into the beast mouth. The beast started to cough violently do to the fact that his lungs were on fire. Root watched as the beast started to shrink in size and returned to it normal human form he watch as the beast now boy was on the ground blooded beaten and struggle to breathe . Root laughed at this as his body slowly started to regrow itself” But i’m sorry but you need to die. But if it make you feel any better it will be quick and painless or less pain then the last few minutes” Root got up and cleaned of his blade as he walked towards his prey “ To be honest you weren’t the strongest berzerk i fought but your young so you don’t have the exprain like the others “ Root got closer to his prey and grabbed him by the face to see the fear in his eyes only to see rage and spite and that the right eye was fully healed .He smiled seeing this “ Good you die like a man then” Root Then raised the knife then lowered it after seeing the marks on the boys face then a smile came on his face.then it disappeared when his teammates appeared “ What do you want

“Lady haggar’s has new orders for us” Skyver said

“What are they “ Root rot growled

“We are to return to base now” Quinn said as he look at the beat face of his rival as

“ What about the boy can i kill him”

“ No She wants him alive but she doesn’t want him to be captured for some reason” Skyver said

“It’s because they can’t have Voltron go on a rampage to get him back “ Quinn said

Root rot growled loudly before looking down “ Got news boy you get to live another day . “ Root rot said

“ I {cough} Haerd {Cough} You{cough} Ass{ cough}” Jay said throw coughs

“ What did you do to him?” Skyver asked.

“ i starved his body of oxygen so he could no longer hold his monstrous form. “ root rot said as he started to walk away followed by his teammates

Jay lied there barely breathing his body fatigued from changing covered in his own blood and was wearing melted armor as the smell of gas slowly caused him to fall asleep. His last thought before he passed out was am i going to die here and as he passed out he heard the sound of metal bending and the sound of wind whipping wildly out side then he passed out

Val had ripped through the metal wall off the listening outpost them moment she felt her pilots heartbeat started to fade. She flow over the city and found her pilot lying there not moving. She knew that he was alive and she very carefully picked her pilot back carefully with her wing and slowly slide her pilot into the cockpit through the hatch on the top of her head. She then turned back to the hole she created. She could hear her pilots breath

“ It alright my pilot everything will be alright “ Val said as she flow towards the castle of lions.

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seeaddywrite · 5 years

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stars, hide your fires: chapter four

this chapter wouldn’t exist without @soberqueerinthewild‘s cheerleading, handholding, willingness to let me rant at her about my plot holes, & assistance with the word ‘soldier,’ which really shouldn’t be this hard to avoid. also, big thanks to @lire-casander for her cheerleading, assistance with middle names, & general fabulousness.

the plan is to upload chapter five by Thursday evening :) thanks for reading this crazy adventure of mine.

AO3 LINK

chapter index: 1 || 2 || 3 || 4

It’s frighteningly easy to get a meeting set up with the oldest of Alex’s brothers. Charlie responds almost instantly to the email he sends requesting a face-to-face, and surprises everyone by saying that he’s already in Roswell, and would love to see Alex the next day at 0900. His presence doesn’t bode well for the secrets they’re trying to keep; Charlie’s a sniper in the Air Force Special Operations Task Force. He’s rarely stateside, and for him to be in Roswell either signifies that he knows something, or that there’s something else going on that Alex doesn’t know. Neither option makes Alex particularly optimistic, but he can’t allow it to change anything.

Going in the next day isn’t ideal. Alex had been hoping for longer to research and develop his narrative, but there’s no stalling now. He’d been the one to request the meet -- it’ll look suspicious if he asks to postpone now, which is the last thing he needs. Charlie always had a soft spot for Alex when they were kids, but Alex knows better than to think that will matter if he gives the slightest reason for Charlie to doubt his sincerity. While Charlie may have smuggled him snacks when their father locked him in his room, and brought painkillers to the shed when Alex hid there after a beating, he’s still Jesse Manes’ son. There’s no such thing as the benefit of the doubt in that world.

And, well -- Kyle had said it best, the evening before, when they’d finally settled down to review files and put together a game plan. “Aren’t any of you Manes guys normal meatheads?” he’d demanded, thumbing through Charlie’s file with increasingly anxious fingers. “Look at this! Charles A. Manes. Air Force Silver Star Recipient three different times. Sniper. Special Operations Task Force. Best known for taking out thirteen armed terrorists in a shoot-out by himself -- this is the guy you think has a soft spot for you? Seriously? What if he’s already talked to Flint and decides to shoot you on sight?”

At the time, Alex had waved off the concern and pointed out that none of Jesse Manes’ sons could ever be average. Not if they wanted his approval. Charlie was Spec Ops, Hunter was an ace pilot, and Flint was head of Research and Development in several major projects. They were all brilliant in their fields -- but Alex had the distinct advantage of being the only one who’d given orders. The rest of them, as he’d once accused Flint, are sheep. They’re exceptional as long as there are directives in play; without them, they’ll fall like marionettes with their strings cut.

At least, that’s Alex’s hope. As he stands in the middle of the bunker he’d requisitioned from Jesse Manes all those months ago, face-to-face with a brother he hasn’t seen in close to a decade, he’s not so sure. Valenti may have had a point, after all. Charlie looks nothing like the young man Alex remembers from brief visits between deployments; where once there’d been a liveliness to his dark eyes, there’s now only a cool, calculating stare. Age seems to have wiped away all traces of similarity to their mother, and Alex feels an uncomfortable wave of deja vu. Staring Charlie down in this bunker bears way too much similarity to the day he’d played the same game with their father and come out on top.

Sandy colored hair, shorn in military style that hides the greys just beginning at the temples, posture so ramrod straight that it looks painful, and features that may as well be carved out of granite -- Charlie’s entire appearance screams ‘Jesse Manes’ son,’ and Alex can’t help but wonder if he’s made a mistake, expecting any measure of softness from this man.

Just as he’s psyching himself out, though, Charlie steps forward and slaps Alex’s back in greeting. It’s as close to real affection as any of the Manes boys get, and, paired with a cool smile, it signifies that things are going even better than Alex could have hoped for. “It’s good to see you, kid,” Charlie tells him, glancing around the underground headquarters as if he was reacquainting himself with a space he hadn’t seen in a while. “You’re looking pretty good for a guy who got on the wrong end of an IED not so long ago. I’m impressed.”

Alex can’t help but stand a little straighter as Charlie looks him over, the response as automatic and ingrained as jerking awake at the first ray of sun on his face or jumping to attention when he hears the order. He’s spent a lot of time on base acting as if he’s still got two legs -- pity isn’t something he can tolerate, and at first, there’d been no escaping it. It’s not pity that he’s worried about with Charlie, though; he just doesn’t want to give away any weaknesses. His missing leg is something that can’t be helped, nor can his brother’s knowledge of the injury, but he can damn well be sure that it’s made clear that the prosthetic doesn’t slow him down.

“Sorry I couldn’t get back Stateside when you lost the leg,” Charlie continues, still scrutinizing Alex from all sides. “I tried, but I got shipped overseas two days later. Did you get my letter?”

It’s so far from the suspicious welcome that Alex had been bracing for that he’s momentarily speechless.

“I -- uh, yeah, I did,” Alex says when he pulls himself back together, and nods jerkily. “I meant to write back, but -”

Charlie shakes his head, a bizarrely affable smile on his face. “Don’t worry about it. You had more important things to worry about.” He moves around one of the temporary tables Alex has set up in the bunker, his every step infused with the sort of deadly grace that Alex could never hope to emulate. Charlie glances at some of the carefully-selected files spread out on top of the table. He never pauses long, but the laser-focus of his gaze tells Alex that he’s cataloguing every detail for later perusal.

It’s part of the plan, for Charlie to see the work Alex has been doing, to believe he’s as dedicated to protecting the world from aliens as the rest of the men in their family, but he still has to clench his fists in the pockets of his jacket to stop from fidgeting. There’s nothing about Michael or the Evans’ twins in the contents of those pages; Alex refuses to endanger them further, even though Max and Guerin had both told him to use whatever he had to in order to get the information he needed. There are too many ways for that to backfire, though, and he refuses to risk it. There are other ways to earn his way into Project Shepherd than by throwing his people under the bus.

“So,” Charlie says, after another moment of rifling through the files. “Dad decided to read you in, huh?”

This is where it starts to get tricky, and Alex feels every muscle in his body tense. It’s an effort to maintain his nonchalant facade, but he manages it. “I had to hack into his databases first,” he tells the other man honestly. “But, yeah. Eventually.” He’s talked through his story with Kyle and Guerin at least twenty times the night before, and he’s prepared for anything Charlie might ask. Anxiety ebbs away as he slides into the well-rehearsed cover, and Alex feels himself becoming steadier, more dangerous -- more of the man who’d survived Baghdad and ten years of active duty service.

“You know Dad would never trust me voluntarily. That hasn’t changed.” It’s no use pretending that Jesse had a magic change of heart about Alex’s ‘weakness.’ No one would be fooled. So the narrative isn’t so different from the truth, at least to begin. “But since I figured out the truth, even he can’t deny how useful I can be. At the very least, I can shore up your cyber defenses, because it took me less than half an hour to break in and get all of the intel on the Project’s servers. His access password was ‘password,’ for Christ’s sake.” There’s no pride in his tone, just matter-of-fact honestly and scorn for Jesse’s computer illiteracy.

“And then I found out about Caulfield, and I wanted to see it for myself, you know? I thought Dad was crazy, but if there was proof …” Alex lets the thought trail off deliberately, knowing that sometimes less is more when it comes to this sort of story.

The mention of the off-books base makes Charlie’s expression darken, just enough that Alex notices. He leans back against the wall, arms crossed over his chest in a way that makes his muscles stand out in stark relief against his brown t-shirt, and Alex’s jaw tightens momentarily. If Charlie thinks things like overt displays of physical dominance are enough to scare him, he’s got another thing coming -- after growing up in a house with their father, Alex is pretty much desensitized to anything that Charlie could possibly try.

“And then you went to Caulfield,” he prompts expectantly, eyes narrowed shrewdly. It’s a standard interrogation tactic employed by the military: don’t give away any of the answer when the question is asked. Use prompts rather than specifics. Lets the detained person say what’s really on their mind, take the answer in the direction they want -- and usually, they’ll implicate themselves.

Alex isn’t that stupid. He blinks wide, guileless eyes, and nods slowly. “Yeah. Then I went to Caulfield.” He leaves Kyle out of the story for now. Flint knows, so it’ll come up at some point, but Alex isn’t eager to bring his friend into the tale, and it’s not really relevant at the moment, anyway. “I had to see them for myself, Charlie. I mean, aliens? It sounds like something out of a fucking Star Wars movie, not real life. I needed to see it. So I went.”

As he speaks, Alex is careful to maintain that careful air of naivete. The act balances on the knife’s edge between uselessness and innocence, and he needs to stay just on the side of innocence. If he takes it too far, Charlie will write him off as foolish and unhelpful, and that’s the last thing he wants -- but it’s important he play the awed younger brother just trying to follow in the family footsteps. That’s his ticket into the game.

Charlie nods, his expression no less guarded. “And?”

Christ, he’s not making this easy. Not that Alex had expected him to -- but it would have been nice.

“And it’s hard to deny the truth when you’re standing right in front of them,” Alex says bluntly, letting some of the incredulity and fear he’d felt in that place seep into his expression. It feels odd, to be so calculating of his every movement and facial tic around someone that’s supposed to be his family, but he doesn’t let that stop him from doing it anyway. “Dad’s right. You’re all right. There are fucking aliens invading our planet -- and I want to be part of trying to stop them.”

Silence echoes in the space between the two men, and Alex doesn’t look away from Charlie, doesn’t give him the chance to think that he might be lying. Instead, he lets that announcement sink in for a moment, then continues: “I know you’ve heard Dad saying that I’m weak for our entire lives, but I’ve served three tours on active duty, and did my time on the ground, just like the rest of you. I signed up to serve and protect my country, and I’ve done it. That’s part of who I am, now, and I can’t just ignore the alien threat. Dad may not like it, but I’m part of this family, too. Protecting people is in my DNA just as much as it is yours -- I want to be a part of Project Shepherd. I want to help.”

The lies taste like ash in his mouth, and everything integral to Alex’s being rebels against the idea of being just another Manes sheep with no free will of his own. He’s had literal nightmares about that, about what he could have been capable of if his father had been able to crush his will. But he knows what Charlie wants to hear -- it’s the same thing all of his brothers have wanted to hear for his entire life. They want him to be one of them, another nameless airman in the generational parade, want him to stop asking questions and fall in line. And, most importantly, Alex knows what Charlie will be willing to believe. He’s learned from experience that people remember their first encounters with a person more than anything else. And to Charlie, Alex is always going to be the little boy determined to follow in his big brother’s footsteps, desperate for approval and in need of protection and advice.

Charlie shifts his weight on his shiny, black boots, and looks at Alex steadily. “We’ve already got three people trying to run things here, Alex,” he says carefully, and the omission of ‘kid�� is either a sign of respect, or a signal that Charlie is trying to distance himself from Alex. Guessing which is dangerous, so Alex doesn’t try. “And even if I say yes, Dad’s not likely to be happy about it when he gets back. He’s been pretty clear about not wanting you onboard for a long time.”

He appreciates that Charlie doesn’t try to pretend that Jesse Manes gives two shits about Alex. It’s easier that way, with at least some honesty between them -- and Alex has always hated it when someone tried to tell him that his father does care about him. Fathers who love their sons don’t break their bones to show it. They don’t spend years attempting to reshape their souls with their fists, like it’s nothing more than clay on a potter’s wheel.

Alex snorts. “Dad’s never wanted me around, Charlie. That’s not news to me. But you said ‘when he gets back,’ right?” He’s walking the razor’s edge, now, and knows that if he over or under sells the act here, this is as far his mission will go. “If he’s not here, you’re running things.” It’s not a guess; Alex is no stranger to chain of command, and Charlie’s the highest ranking of the brothers by virtue of age, at the very least.

“I’ve been stateside for three days, Alex,” Charlie says with a sigh, running a hand over his shorn hair. It’s the first sign of stress that he’s shown since arrival, and it’s enough to tell Alex that he’s getting somewhere. Charlie wants the extra help, wants to have another person to depend on -- it’s a fair bet he’s got access to Alex’s personnel file, too, and knows that Alex has the skills to actually be helpful.

In other words, Alex has got an opening, and he’s going to exploit it.

“And I’ve only been in Roswell for less than twenty-four hours. Dad fucked off somewhere without any warning months ago, and Flint and Hunter have taken on most of the responsibility here. I can’t just read you in without talking to them first. It wouldn’t be right -- especially since Flint is pretty damned sure you purposefully blew up Caulfield with Kyle fucking Valenti.”

The words don’t particularly surprise Alex; of course Charlie and Flint would have been in contact in the last six months if they’ve been working together. To make matters worse, Flint likely would have contacted Jesse as soon as it happened. Alex can’t be certain, but he’d be willing to be that intel is why Jesse showed up in Roswell despite Alex’s warnings and tried to kill Kyle, around the same time Max brought Rosa back to life. So no, he’s not thrown off by the fact that Charlie knows more than he let on initially -- but it’s still irritating to have it thrown back in his face.

Alex narrows his eyes and crosses his own arms over his chest, keeping his weight perfectly centered on his legs to hide the ache that’s started in his bad knee from standing and posturing for so long. “Flint thinks I blew up a secure facility and nearly killed myself on purpose?” he asks, acid dripping from the words. “No wonder he’s been stuck in R&D for ten years. He’s clearly got no fucking common sense.”

Charlie quirks an eyebrow in an expression that Alex recognizes from looking in the mirror. “So you didn’t blow it up on purpose?”

“I didn’t blow it up at all!” Alex says, the anger in his exclamation genuine. He’s not willing to take all of those deaths on his conscience, not even in a lie. “Some security protocol went off and the whole damn base self-destructed before I could do much more than stare at an old woman through the glass door, and get some insane story about a cancer-causing alien that sent Valenti off the deep end.” He sits slowly at the computer desk and tapped out a short sequence on the keyboard. On the monitors, the security footage of Valenti Sr. being shoved into the alien’s containment unit and, presumably, contracting brain cancer. Alex watches steadily, refusing to waver now. “If I’d realized that Valenti was going to find out our father murdered his, I would’ve left him in Roswell.”

Talking about something that is still causing Kyle so much pain in such a cavalier fashion makes Alex hate himself. He wants to scream when Charlie just nods, his lips twisted in disdain, like Kyle’s reaction to realizing his father had been murdered was somehow pathetic instead of justified. Thankfully, Alex doesn’t have to work very hard to hide his reaction; both he and Charlie are looking at the screens. “My guess is that he cracked one of containment cells, trying to get at the one who gave Jim the tumor, and it sparked the self-destruct.”

Guerin hasn’t been mentioned thus far, and Alex knows Flint had no idea of his presence at Caulfield, so there’s no hesitation as Alex rewrites the truth to fit his needs. It would be stupid, if he didn’t know for a fact that Guerin’s not on any surveillance footage from that day -- Alex had been sure of that. He’d torn his way through the cyber defenses of whatever server the video had been backed-up on without any finesse and erased everything, practically daring them to trace the data trail back to him. It hadn’t been smart, but Alex hadn’t been in the right headspace to be smart, back then. Not after witnessing Michael losing his mother a moment after finding her. Not after their near-escape from a deadly explosion. Not after being shoved out of Michael’s life and losing the only sense of family he’d ever known for his best friend --

At the time, Alex had almost hoped they’d come for him.

But Guerin is safe, for now, because of that stupidity, so Alex can’t bring himself to regret it.

Charlie’s brows furrow as he digests that explanation, and Alex can see his certainty waver. In that moment, Alex goes for the throat -- figuratively, of course. “Charlie, please,” he says, closing the video on the server and spinning his chair back around to look at his brother head-on. “You and Flint and Hunter are the only family I’ve got left. And you know I can be useful. None of you have the tech skills that I do, or the inside knowledge of Roswell. I’ve been here for months. I still have roots and connections here that none of you do. I can help. All you have to do is let me. And when Dad gets back, I promise, he won’t be able to deny that I’ve done good work.”

As he speaks, Alex is eight and standing in the kitchen of the house they all grew up in, begging a twenty-year-old Charlie to stay home after their mother had finally had enough and left. Then it’s Charlie, coming back on leave and swinging a six-year-old Alex around while he laughs. Or Charlie, smirking as Alex proudly smashed a guitar over Flint’s head at twelve, or the man in uniform, boarding the plane to take him back to the Middle East with a small smile over his shoulder just for Alex, who’s fifteen and cradling a broken wrist against his chest. It’s almost easy to want Charlie to believe him, to want to truly be on his brother’s side -- because despite everything he knows about Project Shepherd and the horrible things his brothers have done, a small, childish part of Alex is always going to want their acceptance.

But as much as Alex cherishes the memories of Charlie’s kindness, he hates the feelings of helplessness and impotence they evoke more. Since enlisting, Alex has built his life on the pillars of control and logic, his own sort of power, to make up for the lack in his childhood, and stepping into this situation has cost him all that work.

But this is for Michael, for Liz and Kyle and everyone in that group who’d come to mean something to him, and for them, Alex will allow his foundations to crumble, if that’s what it takes. This is only shaking them a little -- and tonight, at least, Alex has the promise of returning home to the one person who always makes him feel safe and stable.

“I’ll talk to Flint and Hunter,” Charlie says after a long, fraught silence.

Alex can read the answer in his eyes, though -- he’s convinced the man that he can be trusted, and he’s done a good enough job that he can be sure Charlie will persuade the others one way or another. The calculating, ruthless part of his mind that Alex tries to keep locked down is pleased at the ease with which he manipulated Charlie -- the rest of him, the human parts, just feel cold.

“I can’t guarantee anything until I talk to them, and I’d be thinking of some specific ways to show them you’re worth the risk,” Charlie continues, and Alex’s stomach sinks. Proving his worth to an anti-alien task force is going to involve doing a lot of shit he doesn’t want to think about, he’s sure -- but that’s a problem for another day. He made it through today’s set, and Alex has every intention of taking the whole match. And he’ll have some time to plan, now -- if Hunter’s still in Afghanistan, as his records indicate, there’s no way Charlie will have a response for him in the next day or even two. Alex will make damn sure to take advantage of that time.

“Thanks, Charlie,” Alex says with a smile that rings false to himself, but would fool anyone who didn’t know him well -- which, ironically enough, described his brother perfectly.

“Don’t thank me yet,” the older man says with a grim twist of his lips, and for a moment, Alex wonders why he looks so unhappy. Is he really that worried about selling the idea to Flint and Hunter, who hang off of his every word? Or is this fear of their father -- reluctance to go against his will? Alex doesn’t know, but he wishes Charlie would stop looking at him with those pitying, worried eyes. It’s making it harder to keep the smile on his face.

To the younger brother’s unending surprise, Charlie pushes away from the wall he’s been leaning against and moves closer, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “Take a couple of days of leave and think this over while I reach out, huh? This isn’t like the other ops you’ve been involved in. It’s not something you ever get to walk away from. Just -- remember that. Consider your options. You never wanted this life, kid, and you’ve already lost enough.” Dark eyes, so close in color to Alex’s own, sweep over his body to linger on his bad leg, and Alex shivers despite himself.

Shock jolts like electricity down Alex’s spine at the thinly-veiled warning, and he opens his mouth to ask why Charlie is suddenly so worried about his choices -- or maybe to deny that he wants anything but the mission? Alex isn’t even sure. But Charlie is already walking away by the time Alex pulls himself together enough to speak. “I’ll call when I’ve got an answer for you,” he says over his shoulder, deep voice echoing off of the cavernous walls of the bunker as he begins the ascent to the surface.

Alex stays seated in his desk chair long after Charlie disappears, staring at the blank wall in front of him. Doubt and insecurity encroaches on him, flickering like shadows in the corner of his mind, and for the first time, Alex allows himself to wonder if he’s gotten in over his head. For a long, dark hour, he lets his mind conjure one possible scenario after another, each one growing darker and darker, and all ending in the death of everyone he cares about. What if Charlie’s warning was a hint that they know his plan? What if his brothers are three steps ahead while Alex is lagging behind? What if they’re going after Guerin and the others as he sits here feeling sorry for himself? What if he loses the few parts of his soul that the war left him with?

Eventually, Alex can’t take it anymore. The walls of the bunker are closing in on him, and if he doesn’t leave this place soon, he’s not sure he’ll be able to pull himself out of the spiral Charlie’s warnings had started. It’s so stupid that he’s reacting this way -- but he’s been running on caffeine and adrenaline and sheer stubborn determination for the last thirty-six hours, and now that the immediate threat is past, everything else is crashing down on him at once. The burden he’d taken on. The responsibility he’s shouldering. The fact that to succeed in this mission, he’s going to have to send Charlie and the rest of his biological family to prison.

Usually, when he has moments like this, Alex finds himself sitting behind the bar at the Wild Pony, or in the middle of Liz’s living room, or even with Mimi DeLuca in her little apartment. Being alone had never been particularly good for Alex’s mental health, and he knows that none of them would turn him away.

But there’s only one other place he wants to be right now, and it’s not with any of them -- and for once, Alex is pretty sure that he won’t be turned away.

Drawing in a deep, determined breath, Alex stands slowly, finds his equilibrium, and points himself toward home.

#stars hide your fires #malex fic [at least it will be]#multi chapter

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tarnishedhalo · 6 years

Note

Ship meme: The whiskey three

Married Life || Accepting { @therealgamble, @whiskeyandtwoshotglasses}

If We Don’t Die, It’ll Make a Helluva Story

leaves their dirty clothes on the floor

The night before…

“Jesus, Riley, do you have to be such a slob?” “You were the one that said I couldn’t bring B-”“Say her name one more time-”

“Guys…honestly, is it so hard to-” It was all fun and games before the whiskey got knocked over and the tee-shirt was used to mop it up.

forgets to run the dish washer

It’s a land of empty mre packets and plastic utensil forests. There’s empty 3.2 cans, packed in such a way that they’d been claimed as tactical gear…and somehow, the brass bought it. All to avoid Punto Negro the Second of its Name.

Hunter still refuses to tell Gamble the story, and as predicted, uses security clearance as his excuse. Riley just laughs.

pumps gas for the car

It’s a known fact that Gamble drives. Riley pumps the gas because it’s better than waiting ~but it’s so he can stretch and pull tension out of his spine, his leg~ and Hunter…Hunter is the one that sits in the back, dreaming of margaritas and warm sands. Until they hit the roadblock. Then there’s a burst of thirty second activity. Before the car moves an inch, Brian’s now in the back, black case at his feet, looks like a suitcase. They know better. Hunter’s behind the wheel because he’s the one that speaks the local language. And Riley’s the one muttering it’s never going to work until Gamble kicks his seat.

It’s a fire-drill every few dozen clicks, lather rinse and repeat as it was before. Their shirts stick to their skin, rivers of damp down their spine, their brow, every part of them that isn’t covered with dirt.

drives when they’re going somewhere

It’s old hat by now. Squad forward to the release point.

Bravo is silent because there’s none, which makes some things better, some worse.

“Kumbaya, kids.”

The claymores are in place, camouflaged. The moon is low giving limited visibility so they have to rely on Gamble who is far too cheerful. The patrol they’ve set up against is destined to make its rounds and Riley and Hunter have established a crossfire. It will be a kill zone for forty-five seconds. Then green smoke between their position and the objective.

“You should see the look on your faces.”Riley knows Gamble’s keeping up moral in his way and because he knows neither Riley nor Hunter can smack-talk back. It’s both a comfort and an annoyance.

Gamble lets out a low, sharp whistle over the comms and time starts. Patrol is at Nine and Twelve. A deviation from what recon had gathered but it makes no difference. There’s barely sound as the first shots don’t ring out, weapons suppressed.

“My granny leap-frogs better than you two old ladies. And she’s been dead twenty years. Don’t make me come down there and show you how it’s done.”

They move, covering each other while Gamble watches over, picks off the extras with well placed shots.

They hit the door and kick down the door, smoke obscuring everything, even breath. The masks do little to filter out the acrid taste but at least they aren’t crying.

“Five…four….three….two….white.”

Moments later, out they come, dragging the limp frame between them. Riley hands over his rifle, Hunter slings his over his shoulder. The objective gets slung over Riley’s shoulder and it’s a running back’s rush as the PJ eats ground. The Brit’s not far behind him, pulling a pin with his teeth and lobbing the grenade into the building’s open maw.

rearranges the furniture

There’s four of them now, crammed into a space barely bigger than a couple of jail cells, and the civvie’s getting antsy. Keeps asking questions none of the Whiskey Three have answers for. Gamble’s given up trying to allay the engineer’s fears and has started ignoring him. Riley just keeps pouring drinks. Hunter thinks both of them are pretty shitty when it comes to intel.

He pulls a cable spool over to make a makeshift table, used chalk and a sharpie to make a board. Pebbles for pieces. Talks to him in his own language over the longest checkers game in history, because, as he reminds the other two…

This man is afraid. Was rescued from his own murder because he was willing to betray his god and his family to do the right thing. He’s still human.

Later, when the night gets cold because the desert’s a bitch that way, Hunter pulls the spare sleeping bag closer to the portable heat source, and gives the guy an extra blanket, and space to pray.

He notices though, that their guest isn’t the only one. Gamble’s got a well worn picture of Tabby that he may or may not just have brushed a thumb over, and he knows without a doubt that it’s a rosary Riley’s murmuring over. In moments like that, Hunter bites his tongue and doesn’t ask him if it’s Mary or his sister that he’s praying to. Low hanging fruit, and all.

falls asleep with the TV on

Three days on and things have scraped the bottom of the barrel for boring. And Riley’s going out of his mind. Waiting was always the worst part of the job, the hours and hours of nothing but watching sand-flies crawl up the crumbling mud walls, and the heat shimmer parching the dirt outside, micro-waving the horizon.

Muzzani and Hunter have grown tired of checkers, and are dozing off the afternoon heat. Gamble’s turn on the radio.

“You ever think about retiring from this? Getting a joe-job and-”“Naw. Where would you two be without me saving your asses?”“But we could be home right now, cold beer, game on the tv, yelling at the refs for shitty calls.”

“And who would you put in our place?”

“You make a valid point.”“Sure as shit I do.”

Riley shacks up in a corner, back against the wall, legs stretched out and crossed at the ankle. He refuses to complain, but some part of him knows he’s starting to get too old for this. He pulls his lid down over his eyes and closes them for just a minute…

gets to use the bathroom first

It’s the only time that Hunter’s had to himself, and of course, he’s stuck inside three and a bit canvas walls. He steals from it a moment of serenity from Riley’s constant complaint and Gamble’s murderous sarcasm. Even Muzzani’s hopelessness and fears. It gives him a moment of focus and clarity, to remind himself that they just need to wait a little longer.

Patience, after all, was a virtue, even here.

Patience is also what he calls the camel-spider lurking near the toilet paper.He doesn’t mention Patience because you have to laugh about something.

decides the temperature for the ac/heater

From temperatures that can soar upwards of a 105 degrees during the day, down to less than 40 at night, each one of them believes this is hell, and there’s nothing they can do about it.

sets up holiday decorations

“Uh…what are you doing?”

“Herding sheep. The fuck does it look like I’m doing?”

“….where did you even get flowers?”

“Muzzani and Hunter helped me out.”“And you’re stringing them together with…suture thread and a needle from the med kit?”

“It’s tradition.”“For…what?”

“It’s June 11th. Kamehameha day. So I’m making a lei.”

“You…need…fuckin’ therapy.”

leaves the lights on

Gamble’s set up the left side, Riley the right. They aren’t exactly landing lights but you do what you can. The road flares glow with a sickly pale red light, but it’ll be enough for the chopper to pick up a visual. It’s a bittersweet sensation; on one hand, it means finally going home. On the other, it means giving away your location and things have been going too smoothly, too quietly…

They’re all thinking it, but no one wants to be the asshole who says it out loud.

uses the bathroom with the door open

Man was raised in a bar, can’t be bothered to walk the hundred paces to make it from the door way to the latrine. Just unzips and lets it go, shakes. All with one hand, rifle steady in the other.“Do you do that at home?”Riley flashes Hunter a grin, even in the dark.

Gamble bites back on the first, second, thirty-fifth thing that comes to mind.

fixes the plumbing (or calls the plumber)

Sand scours the few exposed bits of flesh as the chopper blades whip it into a frenzy, not that they notice. Their luck didn’t hold out like it promised to. The night is filled with the staccato burst of automatic fire on both sides, Hunter’s running point with Muzzani and they’re half way toward the dark silhouette and the open doors that mean extraction.

Gamble and Riley are laying down cover fire and they’re running low; four heart beats later, Gamble’s shouting for them to haul ass and…nothing happens. He’s gotten about a third of the way when he notices he’s running alone.“Shit. Shit. Shit.”The pilot’s signaling, Hunter’s screaming…And fucktard’s not moving at all.

Keying his radio, Gamble barks a change in plan, from gun-run to cas-evac. And as soon as they get back to civilization, he’s going to kick Riley’s ass.

He turns back to drag his friend from the shadow of the building.

#Thanks!G #The Whiskey Three|Gamble and Hunter and Riley #excerpts from the 'drabble' I'm writing for Gamble-mun's other prompt #tw: violence #tw: strong language #tw: stupidly long post under cut #therealgamble

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ashtail-scribbles-blog · 6 years

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Found: One Stray, No Tags (Chapter Three)

Summary: Alfredo wants very few things in his life after his last gang falls apart. He wants a quiet life with his plants and his games. To make some connections. But Los Santos is a grinder, it takes people like him and twists them, bends them to its will.

He makes a mistake. He crosses the wrong people and now he has to serve in the most feared crew in an effort to avoid a harsher punishment. But in a world where magic is in half the population and there’s a family in the crew who holds his leash, maybe he can find a something a little better than debts paid.

Rating: M

Tags: GTA AU, Magic, Crew as Family, Found Family

Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence

At ten to ten the next morning, just as the orderly was settling Alfredo's arm in a sling, there was a knock. "Come in." He called out and a there was a brief hesitance before it opened to reveal a runty looking kid in slacks and a polo.

"I'm your escort this morning, Mr. Diaz. Are you ready to go?" Alfredo looked towards his orderly who nodded.

"You're as good as you're going to be, dude. I've put the pain killers and antibiotics in your pack. Caleb will be by nightly for the next week for some spot healing." He turned towards the escort and handed him a manilla envelope. "These are his care instructions. They're to go straight to Mr. Ramsey or Ms. Pattillo, whichever you see first." The escort nodded, though Alfredo swore he saw his face crease in annoyance for a minute before it smoothed back out into a mask of professionalism.

"Of course. Now, right this way Mr. Diaz. The boss is expecting us by ten-thirty and there's a little backed up traffic on our route." Alfredo grabbed his little pack of medical supplies and medications and followed the escort out of the facility to a sleek black SUV. It took a little bit of doing, and the escort was no help, but eventually he made it into the SUV and settled himself in.

He was seldom on this side of the city, so he tried to enjoy the sights of it, even as nerves built in his gut. While he knew he wasn't being driven towards his death, he was still understandably nervous. He was restricted in his activities for the next week, Caleb had said as much, but as soon as his spot healing was done, who knew what kinds of things they'd make him do.

"We're here, Mr. Diaz. You'll go in the front and the building secretary will let you up. I need to get the car put away and find someone to hand these documents off to." Alfredo sighed and grabbed his pack, shimmying out of the vehicle carefully. He hissed as his chest twisted a little. God this was so annoying. He felt like a kid waiting for his first day at a new school. Except with a lot more guns and explosions.

The lobby of the building was all sleek glass and silver metal and he felt out of place in his scrubs and looking beat up. Luckily, the front desk was easy to find and the secretary was warm and welcoming. She compared his face against an image one of the bosses had given her and then handed him a paper badge. It would get him in the penthouse elevator today, until a more permanent solution was settled upon.

And at last he was on his way up, the glass elevator giving him a fairly spectacular view of the city. Ten floors, twenty, up and and up and up until it dinged on the 70th floor. The penthouse. He swiped the badge and the elevator slid open, revealing a hallway. A very nice hallway. Soft cream carpets and dark wood paneling and various plants lent it a very nice look, and one would never guess that it was the entryway to the home of one of the most feared crews in the states. Scattered about were pairs of shoes and jackets, little touches that made it look lived in.

"You must be Alfredo!" He would never admit the noise that left him as he startled at the new voice and his head whipped in the direction of the voice. The woman the voice belonged to was reasonably tall, curvy, with long red locks falling around her shoulders. It took his brain a minute to put a name to a face.

Jack Pattillo, second in command and ace pilot of the FAHC crew.

"No need to be scared." At Alfredo's incredulous look she chuckled a little. "Well, not so scared anyway. Geoff had to deal with a last minute problem, so I'll be handling introductions today. Come on in for now. I just put breakfast on the table and the others should be waking up shortly." She turned around and started in, obviously expecting Alfredo to follow.

So follow he did. He paused just long enough to toe off the sandals the hospital had given him and then padded in after her. The penthouse was just as neat and modern as the hallway, but definitely looked lived in. It was open and bright, the carpet underfoot sinfully soft. Scattered around were books and games and hoodies and other odds and ends. It was a home. Did they all live here?

"It's nice, isn't it? Took a while to get everything right but we make it work." He nodded and followed her into what he guessed was a dining room. The table was dark wood and practically groaning under the weight of all the food that was on it. Eggs, bacon, toast, waffles and more. At his surprised look Jack laughed, the sound echoing in the bright room like bells.

"Geoff invited B-Team over as well, so you can meet everyone in one swoop. Even without them though the lads eat enough for double the people and Ryan's no slouch either." She settled herself comfortably at a seat to the left of the head chair and gestured to the chair next to her. "Help yourself while it's fresh and the hoard hasn't gotten to it."

He placed his bag under the chair and grabbed the plate. He was still on soft solids, would be for another week thanks to the combination of injuries and medications, but in this case he wasn't limited overmuch in his options. A piece of the lighter toasted bread with butter, a scoop of eggs and a smaller waffle drenched in syrup were placed onto his plate. He deliberated over a few other things before deciding against them. No sense in eating himself sick.

"You don't want anymore?" Alfredo shook his head. Even without his restricted choices, his appetite had always been weird when he was on anything stronger than tylenol. Instead of pushing it, as he feared she would, Jack merely smiled at him gently and dished her own plate. They ate in surprisingly comfortable silence, and while it didn't completely do away with his apprehension, it was nice.

Slowly, people began to filter in through the door. Most only spared him a glance before descending on the food and some not even that. By the time the table was full, lacking only Geoff and Trevor, Alfredo had been coaxed into a cup of tea by Jack and was watching as everyone slowly came alive. Conversation flickered to life around the table, never breaking a quiet murmur but there was a feeling of burgeoning chaos in the room, like they were just waiting for the thing that would set them off.

Finally, as most people were finishing eating, Jack sat forward in her chair. Instantly everyone's attention was on her and, by default, him as well. "So, as everyone knows, we've procured ourselves someone for the crew." That was...a nice way for putting it. "Everyone, this is Alfredo. Once he's healed up, he'll be driving and sniping for us, as well as some day to day errands." The table murmured greetings and Alfredo nodded, trying to look more confident than he felt.

"Alfredo, going around the table starting next you is Matt, Lindsay, Mica, Andy, Larry, Michael, Gavin, Jeremy and Ryan. You've met Geoff, Trevor and Caleb already. Matt, Mica, Andy and Larry are B-Team. Lindsay runs B-Team and they handle the minions, security and minor deals." He waved with his good arm and got assorted waves and grins back.

"Jeremy, Michael and Gavin do their own thing outside of heists, and they handle a lot of the mid-teir and high-end deals, especially with our subordinate crews. Ryan handles information and day-to-day enforcement." Alfredo figured he also handled gathering that information, using whatever means required but he wasn't stupid enough to do more than think that.

"Ryan's requested your help starting next week. You'll be helping me in the meantime, and we'll use that time to get you an ID for the building and get you geared up." As Jack was talking the others were leaving. Michael, Gavin and Jeremy hovered for a bit before Jack sent them a sharp look and they scuttled, all without saying anything. Ryan leveled him with a blue gaze, black hair cascading around his shoulders.

And then he smiled.

Alfredo startled again in his chair and Ryan's gaze turned amused and warm. This was the Vagabond. Why was he smiling at him?! Ryan rose from the table and started gathering up the dishes. "I'll handle this. You look exhausted. You should rest while you can. The Lads are...excited you're here and they won't be so easily cowed this afternoon." The man set about his work with a contented easiness and Jack seemed to agree with his sentiment because she grabbed his bag and began to usher him out of the dining hall.

"Caleb warned us you'll be easily tired for the first week, so this week is gonna be nice and easy. And he's right. I love those boys but they're not gonna be content until they've cornered you for a while, so the more rested you are the better." Cornered him? Oh he didn't like the sound of that really, but he doubted there was much he could do.

The hall split off in a couple directions. "Down the left and right halls are the bedrooms. You'll be on the same sides as the Lads, since it's the larger one. Down the center hall is the office, the planning room and a small armory. We own this entire building. On the floor below us is the gym and the entertainment area. Your pass will get you there as well, so feel free to come and go in your free time."

Her hand was gentle but firm on his back. They passed three doors, two across from each other and one by itself. Each had a sign painted on it, an emblem. There was the bear on one door and across from that the door was painted with a golden eagle. Down the hall a pretty decent way, almost startlingly so, was a door painted with a monster truck. The door across from the monster truck was blank but there they stopped.

"You'll need to pick an emblem eventually, but this is your room. There's some clothes in the en suite if you need them. Someone will wake you when they want you." Here she smiled, and it filled him with a lot of warmth as she handed him his pack. "I know there were some...concerns about your apartment, but I think you'll like this." She patted his shoulder and wandered off out of sight.

Alfredo didn't move at first, almost afraid to. What was he going to find behind the door? There was really only one way to find out, and he could already feel tiredness dragging at his body. He just wanted to lie down somewhere and sleep it off. He was due another dose of medication as well. Steeling himself, he opened the door and stepped in.

He stopped in surprise. The room was...nicer than he expected? He had been expecting something spartan, a place they would have him close at hand for when they needed him, but he hadn't expected them to do much beyond provide him a place.

The floor had that same sinfully soft carpet as the hallways in a soft slate gray and there were touches of seafoam and grass green and white in the bedding and the couch. It was bright and warm and he felt...not safe, because he didn't think he could ever feel safe this deep in enemy territory but, settled maybe? Less like he was under the gun and more like he was protected enough for the moment to wind down.

He looked around a little more, trying to get the lay of the land. His plants were here! Settled around the room his lovingly cultivated ivies and ferns were vibrant splashes of color, his little cactus sat on the bedside table and his succulents were in pride of place next to a sturdy looking desk where sat his laptop and the unmistakable shapes of his sketchbooks. There was a reasonably sized TV across from the couch and his game collection was neatly shelved.

It was all his stuff. Everything that had made his apartment home was here. Had they done this? Why? To make him feel welcome? Or to lure him into a false sense of security? Were they playing a long con here? Make him feel welcome, like he was part of the crew, one of them? What would happen then? Would Geoff call his debt paid and he'd find himself out on his own again, bereft of the people he had to come to-what? Protect? Call his own? Love? The trinket on his wrist tinkled as he tugged at his hair angrily. He pulled his arm down to look at his wrist and disgust, hot and suffocating, pooled in his chest. Collared. Like a fucking dog. This had to be a mockery of their tattoos, letting everyone know who owned him now, but making it obvious it was only temporary.

He groaned aloud and fished into his pack for his medicine and a bottle of water, with a handy flip cap for one-handed use, and he took his dose and growled softly to himself. He was so tired, and his chest was beginning to throb in time with his heartbeat. The bed looked amazing, huge and soft, with plenty of pillows. It was obviously going for welcoming, but all it did was cause Alfredo's head to churn with distrust. He stood there for a minute, oscillating between heading for the bed or the couch or even the floor but eventually exhaustion and pain and medication won out and he trudged towards the bed. He peeled back the covers and slid underneath, an involuntary happy sigh leaving him as he was cradled by plush blankets

He'd done this before, in the time before he clawed his way up the ranks of IGN. Been at the mercy of someone stronger than him, in a higher position of power than him. It was simple, when it boiled down to it. Keep his responses to "yes sir" and "no sir", eyes down, prepared to roll over and show his belly if it made his life easier, kept him out of danger. Back then it had been a matter of getting fed, of keeping himself out of the basement or the ring when the other kids couldn't or wouldn't cooperate. Now it was a matter of keeping himself alive, but the principal was the same. He could do this, just had to find that frame of mind again.

It took some doing to get comfortable, to get the disgusting amount of pillows present to cradle his injuries comfortably but soon, he was drifting off to sleep, his mind still a jumble and his gut still churning, but medicine and exhaustion won out in the end.

#ragehappy #FAHC #GTA AU #Ashtail's scribbles

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xseedgames · 7 years

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Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection - Localization Blog #1

Excelsior, true believers! Nick here again, penning these gladsome tidings from my grand scriptorium full of musty scrolls and ancient cartridges. Alas, it’s been quite a while since I checked in with all of you – well over a year, in fact, with the release of the first Trails of Cold Steel. With that giant title now roaming free in the wild like the majestic brachiosaurs in Jurassic Park, you may have wondered what I’ve been working on over the course of the last year. It always seems to unintentionally happen that I get assigned to projects I can’t talk about for significant lengths of time, but this stretch has easily been the longest. So many times I’ve wanted to tell you some quirky story or fun little side-note about this game as I worked through its script, but alas, the official XSEED duct tape was covering my mouth – until very recently, that is.

In our yearly lead-up to the gaming extravaganza that is E3, we finally announced my long-in-coming project: the classic Falcom action RPG Zwei 2, making its debut outside of Japan as Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection!

Of course, I’ve also helped out with a variety of other, more time-sensitive projects, leading to Zwei taking a bit longer to bring to you than it would have otherwise, but I think we’ve got something you’ll really enjoy in the making here. And conveniently, the benefit of the slow going is that the release isn’t too far off now. As Zwei II enters its final stretch before release, I wanted to tell you more about the game – which is exactly what I’ll do, over the course of the next couple weeks.

Zwei II has an interesting history: released in 2008, it was the very last game Falcom developed exclusively for PC. Back then, the PC gaming market was far from being the robust, thriving scene we know it as today, especially the Japanese market. Thus, the title seemed almost fated to fly under the radar despite its quality craftsmanship and hours of fun. But now, with the worldwide PC game market booming and digital storefronts ensuring copies can get into the hands of anyone who wants to play, it felt like the right time to fill this conspicuous gap in Falcom’s lineage.

“But...what about the first Zwei?” you may be pondering aloud to your monitor. If you’re wondering whether you’ll be at a disadvantage playing the second game in the series before the first, worry not! I’ve played both (thanks to Tom’s Japanese boxed copies) and can confirm that Zwei II gives you all the info you need to understand the world, its plot, and its characters. There was a 7-year gap between the first and second Zwei games in Japan, and Falcom couldn’t assume players would’ve played the earlier entry, so the structure is something more akin to Trails in the Sky versus Trails of Cold Steel, where the games take place in the same world, but in different locations and with different casts. This makes it easy to jump right in.

To start things off, I wanted to sit down and flesh out the game a little for you, since compared to its siblings in the Ys series, and even Xanadu, it’s far less known by fans. What is the Zwei series? What makes it great? How does it play? Why is it cool?

Let’s start from the ground up: the name of the game. “Zwei” is simply the German word for “two” and, as you’ll soon discover, it’s a very fitting title – the game features not one, but two protagonists. Our leads in Zwei II are Ragna Valentine, a lively treasure hunter and pilot-for-hire, and Alwen du Moonbria, a confident vampire princess looking to avenge herself against an unknown enemy. How these two very different people meet and come to really understand (and maybe even appreciate) each other is the relationship that forms the heart of the game, and I’ve done my best to make that journey of growth and understanding a fun and memorable one. And, as with any good RPG, the journey is not without obstacles to overcome. Fortunately, our hero and heroine are up to the task, with Ragna skilled at mixing it up in melee, and Alwen versed in the ways of magic. You can swap between them at any time, and whoever you’re not controlling runs along behind you, ready to leap into the lead role at the press of a button.

Zwei II’s combat is action-based, not unlike the Ys games or Gurumin, but the two-character setup creates an interesting dynamic in combat. Over the course of the game, Ragna will be able to upgrade his weapon, the half chain-whip/half katar Anchor Gear, into several different forms, and Alwen (who begins the game bereft of most of her magic) will regain her powerful spells. You end up being able to do some interesting things, like using a claw-variant of Ragna’s Anchor Gear to grab an enemy, then throw it into another enemy, knocking both into a corner, then swapping to Alwen and unloading a fiery salvo on them. Or have Alwen cast her whirlwind magic to sweep up a couple enemies and keep them stun-locked, then swap to Ragna to leap into the air and string together a midair combo on them. In many dungeons, I often found myself favoring one or the other to take the lead because of the strategies I came up with to best deal with certain types of enemies, and you’ll likely fall into styles of play that fit the way you prefer to approach the game’s combat as well.

And speaking of approaches to combat, Zwei II has a rather unique leveling system, too. In the game, you don’t earn EXP from quests, or from beating up monsters. You actually earn it by eating food – the same food you use to heal yourself when you’re running low on HP. There’s even a “food exchange” service available at the restaurant in the main village of Artte that lets you trade 10 of any one type of food for one of another type that gives more EXP than the ten individual pieces of food would have if eaten on their own (example: trade 10 cheeses worth 10 EXP each for a single pizza worth 150 EXP). Will you chow down now, or hoard in the hopes of cashing in for savory plates of EXP-rich cuisine? You decide! It probably sounds weird (it certainly did to me when I first learned about it), but in practice, it actually works really well. It frees you up from having to grind in dungeons, or feel like you absolutely MUST kill every enemy on the way to your destination. It also gives you a lot of control over your own challenge level. When I was playing the Japanese version of the game, my loose rule was that I’d never eat food just to level – I’d just use it when I was hurt, to restore HP. I ended up going through most of the game under-leveled because of this, but never TOO under-leveled, because the more under-leveled I was, the more damage I’d take, thus getting infusions of EXP more frequently from using food to heal myself. There’s a strange sort of balance to it, and the game isn’t stingy about giving you food in chests, as drops from enemies, and even from giant slot machines you’ll find in each dungeon, so you can decide whether you want to blow through the game as a force of nature but with less on-demand healing available, or a bit underpowered but with a fully-stocked pantry.

If that talk of slot machines that dispense food or trading wedges of cheese for a pizza sounds a little...weird, that’s by design. More than any Falcom game I can think of, the Zwei series embraces its sense of humor, poking in good-spirited fun at its two main characters, the townspeople, and even many of the foes you face down along the way. It’s got a lively, colorful, and cartoonish art style that has helped the graphics hold up well, too. You probably know from personal experience that stories more focused on being comedic sometimes run the risk of not being able to successfully shift into a more serious mode when the story calls for it, but thankfully, Zwei II doesn’t suffer from this issue. It’s surprisingly adept at conveying a serious atmosphere when the story calls for it, making for some excellent dramatic moments, and even a dab of pathos here and there. But on the whole, Zwei II is a game that feels deeply informed by 90s anime and manga, with all the oddness and charm that comes with that. I can certainly say that being rooted in that style proved fertile ground for my work to help the game achieve its comedic potential (speaking as a weeb from ancient times), and I’m already planning my next blog post to focus on some of the details of the writing and the characters.

One thing I love about Zwei II is that it reaches out and really grabs you from the start. In just the first 20-30 minutes, you get the following ace setup (obviously, skip these next two paragraphs if you want to go in totally blind):

The game begins in the skies, as courier pilot Ragna Valentine is cruising in his cool red biplane, the Tristan, toward the island of Ilvard on a routine delivery mission. Suddenly, he’s ambushed by unknown assailants, and after a dogfight against a pair of dragon-riders in the skies over Ilvard, his plane takes a bad hit and plummets toward the land below. The next thing he knows, he wakes up in a bed in the nearby town of Artte as the town doctor marvels at how he came out of such a crushing impact with barely a scratch. After all, his plane didn’t fare nearly as well. Going out to investigate the crash site, Ragna finds his plane on a hill on the outskirts of town, busted up and snapped in half just as the doctor said. So how did he even survive such a nasty crash?

Well...he almost didn’t. After that crash, as he lay among the wreckage, broken of body and bleeding out, he was rescued from his mortal fate by none other than Princess Alwen du Moonbria. Alwen isn’t your ordinary RPG princess, though: she’s a sharp-tongued shut-in vampire princess. Not too long before the start of the story, Alwen’s castle was invaded by a mysterious foe who ultimately seized the stronghold and gave her the boot, after stripping her of her ancestral magic. Seeing the outsider Ragna as her best bet to help her search for her magic and retake her castle, she takes some of his blood and gives him some of hers, sealing a pact that turns him into her ‘Blood Knight’ – a warrior in thrall to a powerful Trueblood vampire whose physical abilities and regenerative capacity far exceed what humans are capable of. But Ragna, see, is all about freedom and doing things his way, and he hates the idea of working as anyone’s lackey. After realizing the situation he’s in, though, he strikes a deal with Alwen: he’ll help her get her castle back as thanks for saving his life...but instead of being master and servant, they’ll do it as equals.

And so, our story begins.

Cool, right? And that all happens in fairly short order – no longwinded tutorials, no hours of quests before the gears really start to spin. Zwei II has a lot of heart and a lot of dialogue, and to its credit, it seldom feels like it drags. The story starts with a bang and keeps things moving at a good clip.

That’s not to say there isn’t plenty to do, though. The island of Ilvard is dotted with thriving communities and, in the fashion of the Trails or Ys games, they’re populated with fleshed-out NPCs who have their own small story arcs and conflicts to overcome over the course of the game, with dialogue that changes frequently after progressing the main story. Some of the residents are funny, some are petulant, and some are just downright strange, so I hope you enjoy getting to know all of them over the many times you’ll visit the towns. You might even stumble upon unique scenes, a secret hint, or a good ol’ fashioned RPG quest (you know, the kind from back before there were convenient quest logs to keep track of things). And of course, what with Zwei II being focused on Ragna and Alwen as dual protagonists, they’ll often have unique things to say in response to other characters depending on whom you’ve got in the lead.

In the course of working on the game’s script, I observed with no small amount of fascination that in some ways, it almost seems like Zwei II was made more with Westerners in mind than the Japanese market. Ragna himself is an incredibly un-Japanese character, with his bravado, easygoing swagger, and sass, but he’s a character that I know will click instantly with the North American audience in particular. We see Ragnas in our books and films; we all probably know someone like him, or who has elements of his personality. Alwen, too, is a character I think will be well-liked by the West. Not content to lament the loss of her home or sit idly by, she picks herself up and decides to get even and take back everything that was taken from her even though it promises to be an uphill battle. The core of her personality is her self-assured nature – even when confronting a world she’s mainly just read about (in books that were, sadly, out of date on the latest trends and customs). Quick-witted and keen, she matches Ragna tit-for-tat, helping the two play well off each other. Beyond just them, there’s the wild west-flavored bounty hunter Odessa, chain-smoking nun Isabella, the worldly jazz pianist Shester, dependable engineer Miriam, and of course, the irrepressible luchador-masked man of mystery, Gallandeau, among many others. Having a zany cast of characters like this all together in one place feels like the kind of storytelling we enjoy so much in Japanese games. But at the same time, after seeing so many forgettably milquetoast light novel-style characters in the games and anime of recent years, it’s refreshing to come upon a game where the characters have an abundance of personality – where I know they’ll resonate with the audience I’m localizing the game for.

So...there you go. In a nutshell, this and more is what you have to look forward to when Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection finally makes its debut. Like a time capsule laden with the charms of a bygone era of RPGs, I think it’ll prove its worth to you as more than simply a pleasant surprise – I think it has the merit to stand proudly as one of Falcom’s finest.

#xseed blog #xseed #zwei: the ilvard insurrection #post: nick #long post #Falcom

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