Hi! Silent admirer of your RE stuff (it's been so long since I've played these games, but you've been re-inspiring me!) - so I'm curious about "Madrid, 1996" for the WIP asks? 👀
ohh god— going for the only one legitimately named and simultaneously the one most unpolished bdhdjsjkl
as of right now, “Madrid, 1996” is a series of snippets intertwined with meta about itself and records of my convos with @bennidraws (which is what started it all!!), written somewhat as a branch of my luis study project. set entirely pre-games, it follows the story of Luis and Carlos who meet, by chance, at an Umbrella conference, and in two weeks develop a particularly deep relationship. Carlos falls in love with an older man freshly out of a personality crisis, Luis falls for a repressed boy who's just discovering himself for the first time, and both of them turn each other's world upside down. contains dog imagery, yearning, cigarettes, and—on many occasions—Carlos' dog tags clinking against Luis' cross
it's rough and unpolished and not even fully planned out, branching within itself into multiple endings. but i've been chipping away at it when i'm not working on anything else and i feel like eventually something will come out of it. too much love has been put into those conversations for the fic to amount to nothing ❤️
*
“They ever give you a break, soldier boy?”
Carlos turned towards the voice, surprised to see anyone out of the building at this hour, especially in such a downpour. It belonged to the same man he had seen earlier, except the well-cut suit was nowhere to be found, now replaced by an intricately decorated leather jacket and a pair of well-worn jeans. He held a single cigarette between his teeth and a lighter in one hand, looking at him with curiosity through the hair falling into his eyes; and chuckled, clearly having noticed Carlos' persistent gaze on him.
“You look like a rabbit in headlights,” he teased, weaving the lighter between skilled fingers. It lit up with a quiet click a moment later, and Carlos took a while to admire the way the flame illuminated the man's face when he leaned into the light.
"No breaks.” He watched how his thin lips curled around a puff of smoke. “The shifts are short though.”
The stranger hummed, as if amused by the answer, and leaned back comfortably against the wall before extending a pack of cigarettes towards Carlos.
“Care for a smoke?”
*
“You should come find me later, soldier boy. When your shift is done,” the man said, throwing the butt of his cigarette on the ground. “Room 102. On the fourth floor,” he added with a wink, turning back, but Carlos' hand wrapped around his wrist before he could go.
“Who am I asking for?”
The stranger smirked, leaning in so close their noses almost touched.
“Name's Luis,” he said, a teasing note in his voice. “And who am I waiting for?”
“Carlos.”
*
and, as a bonus, a bit of the relevant note i made for this part (and for what's supposed to follow)
something about the terrifying act of inviting a stranger to your room, something about that stranger being a soldier; something about being invited to a hotel room by a man older than you, and something about the confidence with which he does it.
the way every night spent with a stranger might've been your last; the way he didn't know if he was gonna wake up the next morning, and then he did—and then they both did.
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ill be real i dont know mych abt halo despite u talking abt it a lot those couple of times. whats thel's deal thats the one w the mandables right . what w him
he is indeed the one w the mandibles! hes one of multiple w mandibles!
arbiter thel 'vadam (formerly supreme commander thel 'vadamee) is the leader of the swords of sangheilios and kaidon of the house of 'vadam. he was the last serving arbiter* of the covenant.
thel commanded multiple fleets over the course of his time in the covenant, most notably the fleet of particular justice (naming coventions in halo are really good honestly). this fleet was instrumental in the fall of reach, and would later fight the crew of the unsc pillar of autumn on instillation 04, the first halo ring discovered by the covenant. he was responsible for over 1 billion human casualties and the glassing of at least 7 human colonies.
the great schism caused thel to take up a leading role among the sangheili (sang-heelie) and work alongside the unsc to stop the high prophet of truth from activating the halo array. he and many sangheili fought alongside master chief petty officer john-117 on instillation 05, earth, and instillation 00 in the final weeks of the war.
thel would become a symbol of sangheili honor and resistance in the face of betrayal after the war, and would attempt to unite the feudal factions so as to form the first coalition government since the war of beginnings. some sangheili factions would deem his actions in opposition to traditional sangheili belief, or decide humans were not trustworthy, and this would spill over into a civil war. the swords of sangheilios would be locked in conflict with groups such as jul 'mdama's covenant and the servants of the abiding truth, but would ultimately win the war, thanks in part to unsc assistance.
*arbiter as a term here has some history. before the san'shyuum convinced the sangheili to join the covenant, the title "arbiter" was used for the best combatant and leader, who would unite and lead multiple keeps. the context and meaning changed under the covenant, as an arbiter was made an example of when he challenged the san'shyuum (san-shy-oom) on their beliefs and lost. the title then became a mark of shame, for those who failed or were otherwise heretics in a significant manner. thel's reclamation of the term here serves to both reclaim a title used to abuse him and sangheili before him and reconnect himself and those who joined him in leaving the covenant to the original sangheili culture.
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QSMP English speaking fans:
I wanted to clarify some things because it seems like some of you are confused about the nationalities/ ethnic groups of the content creators on the server. So... If you want to educate yourself keep reading.
Spanish creators: A Spanish person is a person born in Spain. You may only call Spanish to the creators that were born in Spain.
Hispanic creators: A Hispanic person is a person whose mother language is Spanish but that person might not necessarily be from Spain (you may call them Spanish speaking creators as well but please don't call someone from Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, etc. just "Spanish". If you're gonna use it make sure to put the "speaking" in front of it).
For example: Vegetta and Quackity are both Hispanic because both of them come from countries that speak Spanish (Spain and Mexico). Quackity, however is not Spanish while Vegetta is.
Latin American creators: A Latin American (most of the time people just use the word Latin) person is someone who was born in the Latin American region (a series of countries with historical, political and social similarities). Most countries in Latin American speak Spanish. However, not every country in Latín America speak Spanish.
Brazil, for example, speaks Portuguese.
Therefore: A Brazilian content creator is Latin American but not Hispanic (because they don't speak Spanish).
EDIT: (This is very important).
Please refrain from calling people from Brazil "Portuguese" they speak Portuguese because they were colonized by Portugal but Brazil is an independent country)
Another tip: Latin American people are vastly diverse.
So, Latinos can be Indigenous, black, white, mixed. Asian, etc.
EXAMPLES:
Roier (from Mexico) and Spreen (from Argentina) are both Hispanic and Latino.
Roier and Spreen, on the other hand, are not Spanish content creators because they do not come from Spain.
Rubius and Vegetta (from Spain): Can be called both Spanish (born in Spain) and Hispanic (born in a country that speaks Spanish).
Rubius and Vegetta however, cannot be called Latin American (Because they were born in a European country)
Cellbit and Forever (from Brazil) are Latin American.
Cellbit and Forever, however, are not Spanish (they weren't born in Spain) or Hispanic (they don't belong to a Spanish speaking country)
Spanish creators:
Vegetta
Rubius
Maximus
Luzu
Hispanic creators:
Vegetta
Rubius
Maximus
Luzu
Quackity
Mariana
Roier
Missa
Spreen
Latin American creators:
Quackity
Mariana
Roier
Missa
Spreen
Cellbit
Forever
Pac
Mike
Felps
Lastly. I'm sorry if it seems like I'm over explaining.
I've seen some confusion and I wanted to clarify.
If you have any questions on any creator let me know.
(I'll leave a map I stole from the internet lol)
Again, I don't want to offend anyone, just educate
EDIT 2: There are countries missing on the map. I'm sorry, it is a very simple map I tried my best. If any of you find a better one let me know.
Or do your own post :)
There are more terms missing but if I add them this post will be too long. I apologize for that as well.
.
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Everything we know about Project Apple (and, by extension, Anya's past) thus far
thought i'd compile all of that now while endo's on break Just In Case the next chapter happens to start anya's backstory (i don't Think it will but endo likes surprising us LSDFKLFS)
important disclaimer that project apple and the organization in charge of anya's experiments have not been confirmed to be related! there's evidence that they have things in common, in particular employees, but that's our only real connection between the two thus far. still! worth looking into
more under the cut!
so, starting very strongly with the very first mention of anything related to the project: anya's introduction in chapter 1
despite her being a main character, we know very little about her past at the moment, and this little blurb at the beginning makes up a very big portion of what we know.
things to note here:
as an experiment, her name was "Test Subject 007". important to note that the notation differs between her and bond: she was Test Subject 007, bond was Subject 8, no zeroes in there;
she had been made thus by accident, the phrasing itself implying quite heavily that she was just a normal child before said accident (but this is the translation! i don't know japanese so i can't cross-reference with the raws to clarify if the phrasing changes anything, but the fanbook uses the word "gained" to describe her powers too);
because her mind-reading is an unintended consequence, that means the scientists were presumably not, at least initially, trying to achieve cognitive enhancements in humans, and were instead trying to achieve something else, whatever that might've been;
she escaped from the facility and then moved from institution to institution, looking for a family.
so, crucially, through this little introduction we learn that there is an organization, government-funded or otherwise, that is or was conducting human experiments for unknown purposes. we also learn that whatever family anya had prior to being involved in the experiments is more than likely unreachable, at least as far as she knows, and so she has settled for finding a new family to take care of her instead.
in terms of the facility itself, here we see they clearly drilled it into her that she can't ever reveal her secret (and the darn plush is there too -- in the anime it's even more emphasized, as you can see in the gif i made)
through her reminiscing though, we get our very first look at the scientists that were in charge of her! they're in the gif above but here they are in the manga too. it's so interesting that the anime actually shows their eyes behind the glasses though, fascinating choice.
the insistence on world peace is important, as it explains her own personal obsession with it and shows that it's not just because of twilight's own focus on preserving the peace. i also don't think twilight ever really talks about "world peace," only about "preserving the current peace between westalis and ostania" -- anya seems to be the only one talking about WORLD peace (even in the very first scene where either of them mention it in proximity to each other in ch 1, loid says "understanding the other party is the first step towards peace" and anya's interpretation is "understanding me makes world peace?") but take this with a grain of salt because i might be wrong! going through every single mention of peace in the story just to fact check this one little trivia fact is a bit much i think so i'm not doing it JSDFKLSD
but yes
remember mr hair strand and baldy, we'll see them again. not her though, ig she wasn't in charge of bond
now, fast-forwarding to chapter 19, we finally get a name and a premise for the experiments:
"but oana," you might say, "this is talking about animals only! how do we know it's the same project as anya's, which involved human experimentation?"
i don't think it is, is the thing! i think it's related to the experiments anya was a part of, which is evidenced by the same scientists being featured in project apple too, but there's more going on that we don't know about. there wouldn't be such adamancy on keeping the two separate in every official mention of them if they were just the same thing, imo!
back to the evidence, we learn that the project, conducted and funded by the previous ostanian regime (meaning donovan's related to it one way or another, since he was prime minister), was marked by franticness and desperation -- a prime place for accidents like anya's telepathy and bond's future vision.
we also learn that the project was sacked by the new administration and that the former test subjects ended up on the black market.
(this makes it very important, imo, to learn when anya escaped the facility vs. when the project was sacked. it's clearly no longer in function, but while we've heard nothing from them thus far, i'm willing to bet the shady dealings around the desmond group are NOT related to the war, as W.I.S.E. has been led to believe, but rather to reignite project apple. that is speculation however so i'm going to refrain from theorising much on why the desmond group is focused on acquiring pharmaceutical companies!!)
ok speculation tangent over, back on track
so, that's already a decent amount of info! but moving to chapter 22, when bond is finally home, and we finally see some familiar faces
behold! baldy and mr hair strand!
and 2 other guys we don't know but will see again in another bond flashback!
that's 2 out of the 3 scientists we've seen thus far from anya's own time as subject 007, confirming that there IS a connection between anya and bond's experiments, regardless of whatever the project anya was a part of might've been named.
this is also the chapter in which we learn that bond himself was subject 8 (or, if we take it from the fanbook, subject #8. still, diff notation from anya!)
in chapter 31, we learn an interesting tiny piece of trivia. we don't get any further info on it, but it IS mentioned as something that is known by W.I.S.E.:
ostania is rumoured to have done human experimentation! and W.I.S.E., and by extension loid, are aware of that.
do i know how them knowing may be important later? not really!
the next droplet of info we get is in chapter 40. we see that project apple had collaborators that are still functioning unhindered.
of course, born industries is only rumoured to have been involved with project apple, but regardless of whether or not they actually were, the rumour itself implies that the project likely pulled scientists from various other companies' R&D departments.
(this makes the desmond group's acquisition of glooman pharmaceuticals shadier, but anyway)
as a side note, twilight is emoting so much at just his wrong assumption that bond is seeking revenge against the scientists. imagine how he's going to react when he finds out about anya JKSDFKLFSD
and now aaaaall the way in chapter 58, we see the bald guy who anya also knows, the two scientists from bond's previous flashback, and one whole new guy!
and thus ends our current knowledge of it all!
the only other thing worth discussing is anya's knowledge of classical language
but plenty people have already discussed these scenes, especially recently, so here are some links: 1 | 2 | 3
the only thing i can add is that i'm fairly certain that classical language is a lot more likely to be latin than old english, because it's a very common language to learn in school (in europe at least, and ostania is based on east germany so it makes sense to me. i learned mandatory latin in school for a few good years too, even if i wasn't that good at it lol) and because one of the most common modern usages of latin are in medicine and science, it would make sense that she'd be better at it due to exposure.
a possibility is also that the scientists would think in latin to conceal their thoughts from her, and that's how she ended up learning so much. she's not fluent in latin, she's just well acquainted and that cicumstance would explain the how.
BUT THAT'S SPECULATIONNN
also i don't think "ANIA" is an acronym, nor do i think anya's been misspelling her own name out of lack of knowledge. "ania" is a polish diminutive of anna and an alternate transcription of Аня, so i think it's far more likely that anya isn't ostanian or westalian than it is that her name comes from an acronym.
now,
TL;DR!
what we know about project apple (and the "mysterious organization"):
project apple was funded and conducted by what appears to have been donovan's regime and, from what W.I.S.E. knows, aimed to create highly intelligent animals for military purposes;
W.I.S.E. is aware that ostania is at the very least rumoured to have dabbled in human experimentation;
the project is presumably no longer on-going, though it is likely there are efforts behind the scenes to revive it;
it is rumoured but not confirmed that project apple had collaborating companies that are still functioning perfectly fine;
the same scientists who were in charge of bond were also in charge of anya, signalling that there is a very significant connection between project apple and the "mysterious organization;"
based on what they were telling anya, they were/are very focused on "world peace";
their experimentation methods include but likely aren't limited to electrocution.
and what we (vaguely) know about anya that relates to this:
she is at the youngest, 4 years old, and at the oldest, 5 nearing 6. we don't know her real age, all we know is she definitely lied about being 6;
she is very fixated on specifically world peace while twilight is focused on peace between ostania and westalis. the scientists are the very first we see talking about this, so it's likely their fault;
she is unreasonably well acquainted with classical language;
she has escaped the facility at LEAST 1 year ago;
and, one tidbit from the fanbook (page 29): "Anya has been reading minds for as long as she can remember," implying that her memory of a life before the lab is muddy at best and absent at worst.
that's all we know that i know of!!
if you got this far, thank you for reading :D hope any of this was interesting or sparked any theories >:] have a good day!
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