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wanderinginksplot · 2 years

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Refuge Chapter Two

Second chapter of Refuge, an eventual Delta Squad/fem!reader fic. (Very eventual. You know how I love my slow burns!)

This is a heavy chapter! It puts a lot of plot in motion, but please pay attention to the warnings! I can summarize the plot in a PM or ask if you're uncomfortable reading this chapter but want to follow the story!

(For those wondering why they're tagged, this is the 'first chapter of a new fic' option on my taglist)

Word Count: 6,600

Warnings: mentions of retaliation, survival situations, destruction of home and property, accusations of treason, attempted murder, near drowning, vomit, enemy attack.

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---

Traitor

“Boss!” Scorch called, picking up speed as he approached the trooper in his orange-accented armor. “Sarge, wait!”

Boss sighed and impatiently held his position until Scorch reached him. “What is it, Scorch? I can’t be late for this meeting.”

“Boss, Voubos fell to the Separatists,” Scorch told him.

His powerful mind took a half-moment to process that information, and another half to think through how it impacted the war effort as well as the Voubosian civilians. The answers were, respectively: ‘not at all’ and ‘poorly’.

Still, he did his best to sound both regretful and stoic when he replied, “Sounds like they made their choice.”

“Yeah, but how do you think she’s doing with it?”

He hadn’t said exactly who ‘she’ was, but Boss knew exactly who the demolitions expert was talking about. The civvie who had offered them a place to stay for the night, a warm meal, and a new skill. She had given Delta Squad a brief glance into the lives of those who were only brushed by the galaxy-wide war instead of embroiled in it. It had been a surprisingly refreshing bit of perspective.

Despite his own misgivings about the situation, Boss shook his head. “Not well, I’d guess. Nothing we can do, though.”

“You don’t even want to try?” Scorch asked, sounding disappointed.

It wasn’t often Boss heard his men sound disappointed in him, and he didn’t care for the role reversal. “Fine. Try to contact her. See what you can find out.”

“We already tried,” Scorch reported. “No response.”

“Who did you say gave you permission to use the long-distance comms?” Boss asked. Voubos was now considered Separatist space. Long-distance comms were carefully guarded and calls to Seppie space were only to be made with great care in dire situations.

“You.” Scorch didn’t sound at all concerned by this retroactive permission. “What are we gonna do about it, Boss?”

“I don’t think there’s anything we can do.” It wasn’t something Boss enjoyed saying, but the civilian had chosen to stay on Voubos. They had offered to let her leave with them, but she had refused. Nothing wrong with that, but it didn’t mean the Republic owed her a chance to rethink her decision.

“Are you serious?” Scorch demanded. “She could be injured or in danger. The planet fell to the Seppies. If they know she helped us, they’ll take it out on her. And, knowing them, they’ll do it as publicly as possible to send a message.”

“I still haven’t heard a good enough reason to go back,” Boss shut down. “And I’m late for a meeting.”

“This has to be bothering you at least as much as it’s bothering us,” Scorch said, and it made Boss’s back teeth hurt that he was right. “Even Sev feels bad and you know he doesn’t feel.”

“I have to go,” Boss said, walking away before Scorch could fight to continue the conversation.

But despite it all, he found his mind wandering to the civvie they had left behind on Voubos. There was really nothing Delta Squad could do, not unless the Republic decided that Voubos was somehow strategically important.

"Further details will be given as we learn more," General Windu concluded, bringing the meeting to a close. "Keep an eye on your datapads for that communication."

Boss saluted, silently thanking Jango's genes for allowing him to listen even while he was so preoccupied with other matters. It didn't make much of a difference anyway - Delta was only being included in this scenario in the unlikely event that an ARC-trained group of CTs was unable to handle a small incursion.

"Sergeant Boss, a word?"

Boss stayed behind as the other officers left, waiting patiently for the room to empty so Windu could speak in peace.

When he did, however, the general put Boss on-edge. "Your focus was lacking today, Sergeant. Something on your mind?"

"No, sir," Boss said, the denial reflexive and utterly false.

From the skeptical look Windu shot his way, both of them knew it. "Do you want to try that again?"

Boss sighed. "The men are upset, sir. When we were gathering information on Voubos, we were housed by a civilian."

"I'm aware of that," Windu told him with the shadow of a smile. "I do read your reports, you know."

"Then you already know that Voubos fell to the Separatists recently."

"Very recently," Windu said with a nod. "I take it your squad is worried about how the fall will impact her."

"Yes, sir," Boss agreed. "They've tried to contact her, but nothing comes back. Not a good sign."

"I understand," General Windu sympathized. "It can be difficult to leave people behind, especially when they helped you. Try to find a way to motivate your squad with this, Sergeant. It will give them something better to focus on."

"With respect, sir, I think the only thing that could motivate them is a transport and the chance to pull an extraction maneuver."

Windu shook his head immediately and Boss felt his hopes - low as they had been - fall. "I'm afraid that isn't possible. Unless you can think of a reason that she may be valuable to the Republic?"

"No, sir," Boss admitted, feeling the sharp sting of defeat."Nothing other than that she helped us out of kindness and we're repaying her by leaving her to the Seppies."

Boss knew that the words were too fervent, his tone too intense for the situation, but he couldn't hold them back. General Windu studied him, dark eyes taking in every bit of his appearance and - Boss was somehow sure - studying his mind and motivations just as closely.

"I cannot allow you to risk your squad for a civilian on a Separatist-controlled planet that holds no benefit for the Republic," Windu said sternly.

Boss bowed his head, ready to acquiesce and go break the news to his squad, but the general wasn't finished.

"There's no guarantee that we'll need you and your squad for this next mission, but we do need you in place by the start of it, four days from now," Windu explained, passing Boss a piece of flimsi with a code scrawled on it. "Here is the code for the ship you'll be using. If memory serves, it has some mechanical issues, including a broken location tracking system."

Boss quickly met the General's eyes as he nodded in confirmation. "With that in mind, you would be better served to leave sooner and wait for further orders on one of the nearby planets. I believe the closest ones to our target are Renatasia, Thon Boka, and Voubos."

"...sir?" Boss asked, glancing from the code in his hands to General Windu.

"Sergeant," Windu said simply, letting Boss's rank serve as a question, an answer, and a farewell. With that single, hardworking word, he simply left.

Boss stayed for a minute, thinking over everything he had learned from that exchange. He could return to Delta Squad, lay it all out, and let them help him make a decision, but that would put them partially at fault if something went wrong. Windu had given him leeway, but the civvies had an old saying about ‘enough rope to hang yourself with’...

No. Responsibility couldn’t fall on anyone but Boss. That’s what it meant to be a leader.

When he finally made it out into the hallway, Fixer, Sev, and Scorch were waiting for him. Boss wasn’t really surprised. They had been together their entire lives and they knew each other better than they knew themselves.

“Men,” he said with a nod. “We have our orders.”

And he started down the hallway toward the hangar. The ship would have everything they needed on it. There wasn’t any use in delaying their departure. Especially now that they were trying to fit two missions into one.

Sev fell into step beside Boss. With a conversational tone in his gruff voice, he said, “I hear we’re leaving people behind now.”

“She’s not one of our people,” Boss answered truthfully.

“That doesn’t mean she didn’t risk everything to help us,” Fixer argued.

“Let’s get to the ship,” Boss ordered. “We only have four days before we need to be in place.”

When they reached their ship, the men watched closely as Boss input the proper coordinates. “Are we going to-?”

“The next mission will take place on Zebitrope - a tibanna-rich planet in the Outer Rim,” Boss announced, giving all of them a firm look. “We’ll be traveling a known route through established trade routes, so it should be an easy flight.”

“That’ll only take about a day and a half,” Fixer told him, running through the calculations in his head.

“Yes, it will,” Boss agreed, voice bland.

“Boss, I finished the pre-flight checks,” Scorch announced. “It looks like this ship took some serious damage to the tracking system. Want me to fix it?”

“No.” Boss ignored all of them, navigating the ship out of Coruscant as Delta Squad glanced at each other with delight. After they had cleared the planet’s atmosphere, the men were all still gathered nearby. Boss quickly brought them back down to reality.

“Here’s what we’re looking at, gentlemen,” he said, bracing momentarily when they entered hyperspace. ”This is an unauthorized mission. We need to be in place outside of Zebitrope in four days. The journey there will take approximately a day and a half, with another few hours of flight time to Voubos. That leaves us two days to infiltrate the planet and try to find out what happened. We all know there’s a chance we’ll find her dead.”

There was a thick silence in the cabin. Boss gave them all a look. “Yes, she’s resourceful, but we know how well civvies usually do against the Separatists. It’s possible we’ll find something we don’t want to find.”

“It’s better to know,” Sev insisted.

“But we also need to prepare for the other side of things,” Fixer pointed out. “If she’s alive, will we have time for an extraction?”

“Depends on where they have her,” Scorch told him before Boss could say the same. “If she’s imprisoned somewhere high-security, is there a chance we could steal some more time after the Zebitrope mission to circle back and do it right?”

“No,” Boss told him. “We only have these few days to work with. Even worse, we can’t jeopardize the Zebitrope mission. If it comes down to hard contact, we have to pull away.”

“So the odds are against us,” Sev summarized. When Boss nodded, the grin that spread across his scarred face was chilling. “Good thing we’ve never paid much attention to the odds.”

---

You blew out a breath, glancing around before you made even a single move. Bathing was dangerous, the most vulnerable you could be here. It had to be done carefully, quickly, or you could end up worse off than you ever had been.

You stripped off your clothes as rapidly as you could, setting them aside before stepping gently into the small pond. It was cold. Thankfully, it wasn’t frozen or you would have been out of luck, but it was certainly brisk enough that jumping in would have been easier. You couldn’t risk the noise that a splash would make, though, so you gritted your teeth and fought against making any sounds of complaint.

As you scrubbed your skin and hair, all of the mud and leaves that had been caked on your body floated away. It was a pity that you would have to start from scratch, but you needed to bathe. The natural oils on your skin and hair had started to build under the camouflage and had been warning animals about your presence.

When you were finished, you shook your arms and legs to remove as much water as you could, then did what you could with your hair. With that done, you put your clothes back on - carefully neutral browns and tans that fit tightly enough not to drag on the ground.

You knelt by the pond, scooping up a thick handful of mud and smoothing it over your skin. It felt counterintuitive given what you had just done to get clean, but when you were covered in mud again, you retreated into the woodline and dropped to the ground. A few rolls in the narrow space let you pick up leaf pieces, dirt clods, and even a few small sticks. You draped a large piece of moss you had found over one shoulder to disrupt your silhouette and you were as ready as you were going to be.

It hadn’t been an easy week. Despite your hopes and expectations for your planet, Voubos had fallen to the Separatists. Well, you weren’t sure whether ‘fallen’ was the right word or not. For all you knew, the politicians could have given the planet over to the CIS.

Either way, the other citizens of Toporik hadn’t hesitated to point out the fact that you had harbored a group of Republic soldiers shortly before the planet lost its neutrality.

The droids had come knocking at your door, a round-voiced Neimoidian male declaring that you were to be taken into Separatist custody for treason. The fact that the planet had still been neutral at the time of your ‘treason’ didn’t seem to bother them.

They had captured you easily. Though daring escape plans danced through your head, there were no opportunities. Besides, you had no combat skills and winter was approaching quickly. You would be lucky to last a week out on your own, especially considering the natural predators on Voubos.

All of that logic disappeared the moment your camp was attacked that night as you were marching back to wherever the Separatists had made their base.

The low screams of hunting animals paired horribly with their mirrored eyes flashing back light from the campfire. They went almost entirely for the droids. Clearly, no predator would get nourishment from them, but the metal soldiers kept making noise and attracting more and more attention. The Neimoidian had disappeared into a tank and kept the hatch closed as the animals pawed at it. You could hear him shouting even through the tank’s metal hull.

You had disappeared in the chaos.

Well, ‘disappeared’ might be giving yourself too much credit. You panic-ran into the woods, luckily running in a direction where there was nothing but trees. You survived the night in your thin clothes and tried to go back to your home the moment the sun rose. If nothing else, you reasoned, you could salvage some goods from it.

But when you got close, you smelled smoke and knew that wasn’t going to happen. And so, hidden in the forest, you saw your house engulfed in flames while your neighbors stood around chatting about what they had managed to take before the droids set it on fire.

As you left, you could still see them holding your favorite blankets and the vegetables you had carefully preserved for the winter. You retreated into the forest with nothing.

Fortunately, you had remembered reading about natural camouflage in one of your books. With a little bit of tweaking, you had figured out a system. During the day, you hunted for whatever food you could find. You tried to keep to berries, roots, and vegetables when you could. Killing animals was a sure way to draw predators, and you couldn’t risk building a fire to cook meat every day. When the sun started to set, you climbed the tallest tree you could find and lashed yourself to its trunk so you could sleep with a lessened fear of being attacked.

It was difficult to track time when it seemed to speed past and drag by in turns, but you believed it had been almost ten days since you had escaped the droids.

With any luck, the Separatists would think you had been killed in the attack on the camp, but there was every chance they were still looking for you. Still, you knew your time on Voubos was drawing to a close. You wouldn’t be able to survive a Voubosian winter, not without thicker clothes, a permanent shelter, and a sustainable food source. Since you didn’t have any money, those seemed unlikely.

You had never been lost in Voubos’s forests and you weren’t now. You had stayed around Toporik for the first few days, foraging the best places for food, but that had changed without you realizing it. Now, you were working your way closer to Beryod, the capital and largest city of Voubos. You also had a gut feeling that this would be where the Separatists would have set up camp. But, as you had noted, your time on Voubos would end soon. Whether it would end with you stealing a transport or being caught and executed by the Separatists, you didn’t really know.

And, in your moments of clarity, you weren’t sure that you cared.

You were alone in the galaxy. Even if you survived this situation, you would be forced from your home planet, left adrift in an unfamiliar galaxy. You didn’t know anyone who didn’t live on Voubos… An image of four highly trained men wearing new scarves under their armor flashed through your mind, but you pushed it away.

You didn’t really know anyone outside of Voubos.

Your progress to Beryod, the capital city of Voubos, was slow but steady.

When you had finally run short on gathered food, you took half a day to regroup. Your gut told you that the river you were camped beside would help you. Sure enough, you had managed to find a torn net tangled in the reeds beside a river.

It had taken some time to free the net and longer to patch it with the limited materials you could find in the forest, but with some time and a handful of thin roots, you had salvaged the net. With some work, you had caught a few fish and set about cooking them.

The risks of lighting a fire were the same as they had always been. There was a chance you could start a wildfire, since this autumn had been strangely dry. There was also a chance you could attract attention from curious residents of the area or any droids that had heat-tracking equipment. Still, they were risks you had to accept. You didn’t have the time or means to dry the fish, but a solid meal would help you stretch your meager rations.

You soaked a few segments of branches from fallen trees, arranging them in a circle under the cover of the trees, sweeping away as much debris as possible before using that fluff to serve as kindling. Fortunately, you knew how to start a fire with very little fuss. Even after the fire had started to burn in earnest, the wet wood seemed to be a successful barrier between the fire and the forest.

As you carefully turned the fish - rudimentarily cleaned and skewered on sticks - you tried to plot out the rest of your journey. You were no more than a day’s travel from Beryod now, even taking your lessened speed into account. When you reached the capital city, you would take some time to survey it before you made your move. If you managed to steal a ship, you were familiar only with inner-atmosphere transports and had to hope you would be able to puzzle out the differences quickly enough to escape. Even then, droid armies probably wouldn’t have rations stocked on their ships…

You turned the fish, idly trying to plot out whether you could manage to survive a short trip to a nearby neutral planet on your rations or if you would have to spend even more time foraging for additional food.

There was something in the woods behind you.

With a quick motion, you turned and stared in the direction that was sending your instincts jangling. “Who’s there?” you asked. If it was a person, they would answer, and if it was an animal, maybe it would be frightened away by the sound of your voice.

A man stepped out from behind a pile of underbrush. His hands were raised in a non-threatening pose, but your instincts continued to jangle. You knew him, which didn’t put you any more at ease.

“Olavi,” you greeted warily.

“You’re wandering far from Toporik,” he said by way of greeting, easing closer to the fire… and, by extension, you.

“Yes,” you answered shortly. Maybe Olavi hadn’t heard what had happened since he lived on the outskirts of Toporik on the opposite side from your home, but you doubted it. The fact that you were covered in mud and bits of leaves was probably a hint that something was wrong anyway. But since he kept getting closer, you decided to try to throw him off. “Come sit by the fire, Olavi. Warm yourself, have some fish.”

Olavi froze in place, watching you with confusion, but slowly nodded. “Thank you.”

He eased down to the ground, not quite on the opposite side of the fire, but far enough away that you didn’t fear that he would attack you immediately. You handed him one of the skewered fish and took another for yourself. Your gut told you he meant you harm, but you reasoned that you couldn’t do anything without eating first. It had been almost a full day since you had eaten, and that meal had been less than satisfying.

You and Olavi ate in silence - you much more quickly than him. It helped that you had given him the most recently cooked fish, so he was still picking delicately at the steaming flesh while you polished off two cooled ones in rapid succession.

And now, the test of his intentions: You stood, dusting yourself off carefully. The motion was ridiculous considering your clothing, skin, and hair was still caked with mud, but you did your best. “Sorry to run off, Olavi, but I’m on a tight schedule. Help yourself to the rest of the fish.”

Olavi straightened as well, abandoning his fish. His hand dipped behind his hips and you tensed, knowing what you would see before he revealed the glinting knife.

“The droids are offering a reward for you,” he told you, voice low. “I need the money. I’m taking you to Beryod.”

“I’m already going to Beryod, Olavi,” you said soothingly. “You’re more than welcome to come with me.”

He shook his head. “We’re going on the main roads. I won’t let you run.”

You changed tactics. “They plan to imprison me. You would subject me to that?”

“Imprison you?” Your heart sank at his scoff. “They plan to execute you as a traitor. From what I hear, you deserve it.”

“I deserve execution? For what?”

Olavi scowled at you. “You protected soldiers of the Republic. They would have died in the forests if you hadn’t brought them into your home.”

“Ignoring, of course, that Voubos was neutral at the time,” you argued. “I won’t go with you, Olavi.”

He shrugged, stepping toward you as he brandished the knife. “The reward is almost as high if I only bring your body to Beryod. The droids appreciate loyalty.”

You stared at him blankly, unable to process the idea that he hated you so deeply, and was determined to see you dead by the end of this. No, it was worse than that - Olavi didn’t hate you. None of his actions were rooted in dislike for you. He was just a man looking for a reward. That somehow managed to be more insulting, but it didn’t really matter.

You would be dead either way.

In a beat, you had plucked a stick from the fire and tossed it into Olavi’s face. Sparks exploded at the impact and he stumbled back, swiping at his face. You didn’t wait for him to recover, running instinctively back to the river where you could hide in the tall, thick reeds that grew along the bank. Your mud-covered clothing would help you blend in, especially with the head start you had gotten. With any luck, he would think you had dove into the river and would either follow you downstream or give up.

You were seconds away from sprinting into the reeds when something heavy hit you around the waist. You stumbled forward, landing heavily on your hands and knees.

You had enough presence of him to throw yourself to the side, hard, and felt Olavi’s knife skitter across your back. It definitely caught your clothing, but the adrenaline roaring through your system was too much for you to guess whether he had sliced through your skin as well.

You kicked and thrashed wildly, hearing the heavy thump of his knife sailing out of his hand. Like a trained massiff, you tracked the sound and launched yourself at the place where you knew you would find the knife.

Success!

With Olavi’s knife clutched in your fist, you pushed yourself to your feet and staggered away from him, barely managing to dodge when he tried to tackle you again. To get away from him, you were forced into the river’s shallows, struggling to keep your balance with the silt of the river washing away under the pressure of your feet.

Olavi followed you in, the fool, and you tried to back away from him. You nearly stumbled when your calf caught something, but you had just enough time to reach down and snatch up another discarded net. This one was in far better shape than the one you had used, most likely from a fisherman upstream who had cursed the loss of such a fine piece of equipment.

You had half a moment to process that before Olavi was on you again. You tossed the net at him, twisting your wrist to help the net spread out over him. Olavi’s arms had spread, but a combination of the reeds and his own thrashing served to hold the net in place around him.

“Just stop, Olavi!” you cried. “We can both walk away from this!”

Olavi snarled and pushed toward you again. He struggled for the knife, which you were holding with every bit of strength you could muster even as the river bottom was growing deeper and more slippery every moment. He grabbed at the knife with his hands still entangled in the net, which only served to make you lose the knife at the same time as he lost his balance.

It felt like you had an eternity to stare at him, to watch as his feet went out from under him. Olavi’s eyes went wide as he fell, grabbing at anything he could on the way down.

Unfortunately, the only thing his searching hands found was you.

With the edges of your mud-soaked clothing caught fast in his grip, you lost your careful footing and fell forward into the river. The current caught you like it had been waiting its entire existence for that moment.

You had spent summers swimming in the rivers and lakes of Voubos. There was little else for entertainment on the planet, and the icy mountain runoff had been a refreshing way to cool off on the warmest days. Swimming was a love of yours, and you considered yourself proficient, if not amazing.

In the current of the river, none of that mattered.

You were surrounded by water, tumbling over and over until you didn't know which way the surface was. Stars, you were starting to wonder if there was a surface. You had always been taught to follow the direction of an air bubble if you got disoriented, but the current of the river was strong enough that you couldn't find the trail of a single bubble to follow in the frothing mass.

You felt the autumn air on your face, the chill air warm in comparison to the frigid water, and gasped in a breath. Before you had finished filling your lungs, the river whipped you over once more and you coughed and sputtered trying to expel the water from your mouth. Then you lost the surface again.

You were bobbing down the river, thoroughly caught in the current now and unable to reach the bottom at all. You were pushed deeper and pulled shallower every moment, the lack of pattern depriving you of the chance to plan a way out of your situation.

Your lungs began to ache, then burn, then they resorted to tricks. They started trying to convince your mind that you would be just fine if you opened your mouth and took a deep breath. You knew that you would be breathing water, but that knowledge started to feel theoretical at best.

When it seemed unavoidable, your mouth opened, but you exhaled the carbon dioxide in your lungs with a huff. Something had caught you, hitting your abdomen hard enough to force air from you.

Out of pure instinct, you scrabbled for what had hit you and clung with all of your might. It felt like a partially-submerged tree, so you might still have a chance to survive this. Even better, the trunk, oddly slender, was almost perfectly smooth. It would be hard to hold onto, but it must have been in the river for a while. It wasn't going to wash away with your additional pull. You grabbed it, fighting to keep your grip strong.

Then the tree twisted sickeningly in the water and you lost your grip… but the tree reached out and grabbed you. You released it again from the shock, but you were lifted from the water anyway.

You blinked up at the tree, coughing and spitting river water. "...Boss?!"

The commando was hanging from a low-hanging tree trunk that jutted out over the river. One of his arms was wrapped around the trunk, along with one leg. His free hand was wrapped around your arm while his leg dangled into the river. That had been what you hit and grabbed so firmly.

"I need you to climb up," Boss called, voice raised to be heard over the rushing furor of the nearby rapids.

You didn't bother answering him directly, letting your slow movements up his arm speak for you.

The process got significantly faster when Sev appeared on the trunk as well, reaching down to pull you up between them.

"Be careful," he warned, his rough voice only audible because of how close he was. "If you fall back in, we won't have the space to pull another rescue."

You glanced backward, looking past Boss at the river that you had just left. Sure enough, just past your position was a collection of rocks, sending the strong current surging every which direction. Rapids, rough ones at that. You wondered distantly if that was where Olavi had ended up and shuddered, but Boss’s hand against your shoulder brought you back to the moment.

“Can you do this or do you need one of us to help?”

It was a steady, non-accusatory question. If you needed help, Boss would find a way to help you. That was enough to make you shake your head. “I think I’ll be okay.”

His affirmative hum sounded skeptical, but you managed to climb across the narrow tree trunk until you could slide down the curved trunk to land on the rocky mud of the riverbank. You had lost your shoes in the river, Fixer caught your arm as you slid, helping to soften your landing.

“Boss, I’m tracking convergence on our position,” Scorch reported, his visor moving back and forth almost imperceptibly as if the helmet were helping him see things beyond natural sight.

“Hostiles?” Boss checked.

“Safe bet, there,” Sev told him with a scoff.

“We need to make a quick exit, then.” Boss glanced at you. “The ship is about two klicks away. If you can’t keep up, tell us and we’ll figure something out.”

You nodded and they took off. Scorch took the lead, clearly still tracking whatever was coming in your direction. Sev followed behind him, a blaster cradled steadily in his hands as he ran. You and Boss were next. You knew any of the commandos could outpace you in a heartbeat, but Boss matched his speed to yours, calling out adjustments to the two in the lead as necessary. Fixer stayed at the tail end of the group, clearly also watching for threats, if you were to judge based on how he would occasionally freeze, swivel around with his blaster aimed at the treeline, then catch up with the group when he found nothing.

“Hold- on-” you panted, hoping you were almost to their ship. “I need- I have to stop…”

“We need to keep moving,” Fixer reminded you sternly, but you had already stopped and braced your hands against your knees.

The moment you put all the sloshing water and bits of fish into motion, your body had started to protest. It was fitting, then, that your body would rebel entirely when you stopped.

No sooner had you braced your hands and lowered your head than you started to heave. You tried not to look too closely at what came out, but you caught enough to know that the fish you had eaten was gone now, and that the water from the river had been muddier than you had anticipated. Or maybe that was just what happened when it was shaken around in your stomach.

Either way, you felt a great deal better when you had finished. You straightened up, spitting thickly onto the ground. Wordlessly, Scorch handed you his canteen. You glanced up to find that the commandos had fallen into defensive positions around you in your moment of weakness. You were oddly touched by the gesture, and made sure not to touch your lips to the neck of Scorch’s canteen while you rinsed your mouth.

“Let’s go,” you croaked after passing the half-empty canteen back to Scorch.

They took you at your word, matching the speed you had been running before your stop. Your lungs were screaming by the time you reached an edge of the forest and Fixer told you, "Our ship is behind that group of boulders. Almost there."

You eyed the distance skeptically. It wasn't far, especially given how far you had already come, but it meant you would be crossing over a clearing. You would be running unprotected by the trees that had shielded you up to this point.

"We're gonna have company soon," Scorch announced. Your heart sank, but he didn't seem concerned. None of them did.

"Good," Boss said, sounding satisfied with the knowledge. "You just volunteered to help me plan the welcome party while the others head for the ship."

"I do love a good surprise," Scorch agreed, and it sounded like there was a grin hidden beneath his helmet.

You, Fixer, and Sev were only about halfway across the distance when that company appeared - a group of six droids on speeders.

"Fixer, how fast do you think you can get us in the air?" Sev asked as casually as if you weren't running full-speed away from the sound of blaster fire.

"Under a minute from the time my shebs hit the pilot's seat," he answered.

Sev nodded. "Go. I'll get her there by the time you're ready."

Fixer took off and you stared. How could someone wearing that much armor and gear run so quickly?

More blaster fire echoed from behind you. "Don't they need our help?" you asked Sev.

"The best way we can help them is to get the ship ready," Sev told you. "Can you run any faster than this?"

Though there was nothing pointed in his question, you bristled. "No, I can't."

"Hang on, then," he warned, hosting you up and into his arms before you could even begin to brace for the movement.

You were held close to his chest. It wasn't comfortable being pressed against the white armor, but it stopped you from bouncing around and hitting against the hard material as he ran, so you were grateful. One of Sev's hands around your back held you in place while the one hooked under your knees still held his blaster.

You reached the ship in a thankfully short time and Sev set you on your feet before joining Fixer in the cockpit. In moments, the ship had lifted into the air, the take-off so rapid that you stumbled. The whole thing rotated and you heard the sound of a blaster cannon firing, then the ship lowered once more. The door to the small cargo bay behind you opened, allowing Boss and Scorch to step inside.

"Just had to take the last one from me, huh, Sev?" Scorch asked, pulling off his helmet with an irritated huff.

"It looked like it might have finished you off," Sev called back from the cockpit and Scorch swaggered in his direction, calling threats that sounded improbable.

Boss took his helmet off, too, but much more sedately. When you glanced over, he was watching you. "I don't want to leave you here. Voubos isn't safe anymore, and I think you know that. But I don't like the idea of forcing you out of here."

"Does she still want to stay?" Fixer asked loudly, clearly listening from the cockpit.

"There's no way," Sev denied.

"They burned your house down," Boss told you, looking serious.

You sighed. "Yeah, I saw that."

"She does!" Scorch said disbelievingly, popping his head back out of the doorway to the cockpit. "What are you gonna do, rebuild so they can burn it down again? Maybe they'll even make sure you're inside this time!"

"Scorch," Boss reprimanded. "If she wants to stay, she wants to stay."

"I don't want that," you finally interrupted. Boss and Scorch stared at you while utter silence emanated from the cockpit. "They burned down my house and tried to charge me for treason. I would have been executed. I don't know where I'm going to go, but I don't want to stay here."

"Fixer?" Boss called.

"Already done, Sergeant," Fixer replied. The cargo bay door closed and the ship began to rise through the atmosphere of Voubos.

Despite your unease, you stepped forward until you could see into the cockpit and through the transparisteel at the front of the ship. Voubos disappeared slowly, and your heart ached as it was replaced by a sea of stars.

It was only when you were clear of the atmosphere that you noticed all four of the troopers were watching you. With the intense realization that you had no idea what expression you were wearing, you admitted, "I always wondered what it would feel like to do that."

You turned away from their curious looks, returning to the rear portion of the ship.

"We don't have much onboard," Sev told you carefully. "But there's a sonic shower. Or if you feel like eating, we have rations."

"A sonic shower?" Scorch repeated derisively. "Do you see her? What's a sonic shower gonna do?"

"Scorch!" Boss warned. "Cut back on the attitude."

"It is a valid question, though," Fixer said, looking you up and down. "How do you still have mud in your hair after nearly drowning?"

For some reason, that struck you as being insanely, ridiculously funny and you started to laugh. You laughed until your cheeks hurt, laughed until your ribs ached, you laughed until tears snaked down your face.

And then, all of a sudden, you were crying.

Deafening silence reigned in the ship, and then you found yourself shrouded in four emergency blankets before the commandos made excuses to get back in the cockpit.

You smiled to yourself, still sniffling, and pulled the blankets a little tighter. So maybe you did know people who didn't live on Voubos. You were away, you were safe. Now, you just had to figure out a new life.

---

Author's Note - I reference natural camouflage a lot in my fics, and this is a good example of it! That's what reader is doing when she covers herself in mud and twigs, and disrupts her silhouette. Just in case anyone thought I was being ridiculously weird!

Though this is not the first chapter of Refuge, I consider it to be the beginning. I'm tagging people who signed up to be tagged in the first chapter of new stories on my taglist, but I've added an option for Refuge on my taglist. Please submit a new form if you want to be on the taglist for this fic specifically! If you don't want to see any more of Refuge, don't do anything and I won't tag you in the next.

Also, be warned that updates for this fic will probably be sporadic as I focus on Gar Cyare!

Taglist: @rexs-wife @sugarpuffsstuff @just-some-girl-92 @kimageddon @ladysongmaster @carodealmeida @nomercyforthewarrior @bitchylittleredhead @lackofhonor @salaminus @hikime @808tsuika @ladykatakuri @shawtyitsyou @bikerlorian @torchbearerkyle @frietiemeloen @justanothersadperson93 @leotatombs @mavendeb @rain-on-kamino @itsagrimm @dancingwiththeplanets @hummellchen @theclonesdeservebetter @rosmariner @staycalmandhugaclone @marennial @notvalidblogname @coruscanticoffee @crookedwiings @eyecandyeoz @fordo-kixed-rex @musigrusi @lucyysthings

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trufannekiawilson · 2 years

Text

What if The Vault Tec Rep was a companion? This idea has popped into my head since my first post of re-writing the original Fallout 4 story. Because some characters were shifted around and motivations changed, this gave the opportunity for other characters to fill roles. In this post I will explain what a player would experience if The Vault Tec Rep was a companion. Please feel free to read the first re-write here.

In my original re-write post the player is released from cryo sleep by Codsworth who was hacked by Shaun. The player character has amnesia and must use The Memory Den to uncover why you’re the sole survivor of Vault 111. I felt like having the opening later in the story made for a more engaging plot. And as a result the Vault Tec Rep loses his role as the guy who you chose the stats from. Instead he will merely repeat back to your stats back to you. The Vault Rep based on your interaction with him will cause him to have different dialogue when you meet him later.

When you go to The Hotel Rexford, talk to Clair Hutchins at the front desk, She will tell you that one of the tenants is being a nuisance. Of course this tenant will be our Vault Rep. Clair will also mention her boss Marowski wants him gone. And if you go talk to Marowski, he will give you the option to get rid of the tenant “permanently” but discreetly for double the caps.

The best part of Fallout is having different options and learning about the world. Would your character ask this tenant to just leave? Maybe your character is evil and would hurt someone for caps? Whatever you decide the choice is yours. Learning stuff is boring when done through a terminal or holotape. It robs the player of meaningful interactions. Just think about it. Would you rather learn that The Vault Rep was just living in Hotel Rexford as a recluse on a terminal. Or would you rather hear it from a mob boss character like Marowski? And he will explain that the tenant could always come back so he would rather have them killed. The hotel is barely scrapping by since Hancock took over. He would get one of his boys to do it but Hancock is a bleeding heart and he could end up kicked out of Goodneighbor So that’s why he asks you to do it. We’ve not only expanded characters but we also learn a bit more about the world in a more natural way.

After accepting the quest and going to the tenant's room you’ll get a prompt to knock on the door. The tenant will not open the door but ask you to leave. So you’ll either have to convince him to open the door through a speech check. Or if you fail the speech check you can pick the lock. How ever you get the door open the tenant will be revealed to be the ghoulified Vault Tec Rep. He’ll be very surprised to see you and based on how you treated him in the flash back he’ll have unique dialogue. For example if you were mean he’ll say “I-It’s you! You’re that asshole from two hundred years ago! How’s this possible?” Afterwards you can convince him to leave, kill him for the caps or convince him to follow you.

As a companion The Vault Tec Rep will like it when you help innocents and ask for more money. He’ll dislike when you steal or pick owned locks. And he’ll hate when you use intimidation or use chems. His personality can be hash and bitter but he’ll also show a remorseful sad side. He’ll hate what the world is now but then he’ll have moments when he’ll ask you if you had fond memories of old places.

Like other companions in Fallout 4 The Rep will have a personal quest. The moment you reach the “liked” status The Vault Tec Rep will take you aside. He’ll tell you how lonely the pass two hundred years has been. Surviving wasn’t easy and he’s honestly not sure how he managed to survive at all. He will then thank you for travelling with him. When you reach the “admired” status he will apologize for playing a part in what caused the tragedy that be fell your family. He will lament that he devoted so much time working for Vault Tec he never had a family or social life. He was and still is Vault Tec. And how did he get re-paid for his loyalty? By being turned into a freak that no one wants to be around. Vault tec was so much of his identity that even after all this time he has forgotten his name. He will ask you to go to his old office to help find something to help him remember his name. This is so he can finally be rid of Vault Tec and move on. If you agree to his request the rep will warn you that the place you’re going will be highly irradiated. So be sure you to have a lot of radaway or have a radiation suit.

Before you can enter the old Vault Tec building The Vault Rep will take you aside. He will tell you he has a concern of what the radiation will do to him. But you can convince him that it’ll be fine or tell him he can stay at the door. Both options will have a different out come to what perks you get in the end..

If you were to leave the rep outside and return to him he will be distraught that you couldn’t find something that would make him remember his name. It is due to age that all of the documents were corrupted or damaged. By passing speech checks you remind him that vault tec is gone. He can make a new identity and you’ll reassure him that you’ll be by his side as he figures himself out. He will then thank the player and decide that he’ll keep his identify as Vault Tec but promise to make the name mean something good. After this you’ll be “idolized” by The Vault Rep and this will give you the Silver Tongue perk. The perk gives you more caps when you sell items. However if you decided to bring the Vault Tec Rep through the radiation. When he finds that there’s nothing to remind him of his life he will say something is wrong and quickly exit the office. When you leave you’ll find that the rep has become a glowing one. He will beg you to put him down because living as a ghoul was hard enough but he can’t continue like this. To save him you’ll have to pass red speech checks. You’ll have to convince him that he can always make a new life. He will say that he fears being alone and nobody will want him around now that he looks like this. You’ll comfort him by saying that you’ll always be his friend. And he’ll remind you that you’ll eventually die and he’ll be alone again. You’ll tell him that although it will be hard, he will find someone who will be there for him so don’t lose hope. And once you are able to pass those hard speech checks he will again apologize for the hand he had in destroying your family. He’ll remember his name and thank the player. Also promising that after they’re gone he’ll continue to live his life the best that he can. Afterward you’ll get Atom’s Glow perk. This perk makes it that when The Rep (now going by his name) is in your party feral ghouls become non- hostile. The downside is that you’re more easily spotted by enemies. Do I need to explain why? It’s hard to hide when you have someone with you that glowing like a light.

So which out come for our dear Vault Rep would you choose? Would you rather him stay a normal ghoul still stuck with The Vault Tec name? Or would you rather him become a glowing one that remembers his name but it’s now harder for him to fit in? Maybe you don’t care about him and killed him for caps. I’d love to hear which one you’d go for and why? A big inspiration for this re-write was from New Vegas characters like Raul and Lilly. I just feel like it not only makes for an interesting story but you feel a connection as the decision you made for better or worse would have a major effect on their lives. It made you ask did I make the right choice?

#fallout 4 #fo4 #fallout 4 companions #fallout 4 headcanons #vault 111 #Vault-Tec Rep #sole survivor #fallout 4 story #fallout 4 quest

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bluerosesburnblue · 3 years

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I don't suppose you could explain the ending for khux for me?? i've watched it and i've been following the translated storyline for it and this ending just. does not make a ton of sense to me. i can usually figure out kh endings no problem but this time i'm just lost.

Isn't that just the state of the writing for it, where even people familiar with the series are having trouble understanding it. And, of course, the game dies as it lived: screwing over Global so we can't even compare/contrast with an official English version yet to see if it's more clear

Anyway, sure, I'll try to break it down scene by scene (Note: these aren't the actual scene titles, I just needed a way to delineate them so I made titles up)

Scene 1: The Master and Luxu

The update begins with a continuation of the past flashbacks expanding on the Case of Luxu and the Master of Masters' instructions to him. He explains that he knew that Darkness could only truly be defeated in the future, and so he made sure that Keyblade wielders would exist to fight it by recruiting many Keyblade wielders in Daybreak Town (as per the start of KHx) and then using the Dandelions to stall Darkness's takeover and give them time to make sure that the Keyblade legacy would live on. As Luxu turns to leave, though, the Master stops him with one more bit of information that he feels Luxu needs to know

He explains that back when he was younger, the being known as Darkness tried to gain the advantage in their battle by becoming incorporeal and attacking people's hearts instead of their bodies. There were 13 of these original Darkness beings, and because they lack bodies they aim to win by quantity and so created the Heartless as lesser, but more physical versions of themselves. The original 13 still haven't given up their desire to regain a physical form, however, and so they target those with strong hearts to take their bodies for themselves

The Master of Masters, knowing this and knowing that something without a physical body can't be destroyed, came up with a plan. He took in six children, his apprentices, and raised them to be a prison for Darkness. To foster light so strongly within them that Darkness couldn't possibly taint it, and then seal the strongest 7 of the 13 Darknesses within himself and his students, trapping the Darknesses inside their impenetrable hearts of light. Then, he instigated the Keyblade War. This is only my interpretation of the line, but it sounds to me like the purpose was to get the Foretellers killed in the War and the Darkness sealed inside of them along with them. How this relates to them coming back in KH3 is unclear

When Luxu asks if the War and the idea of a traitor were necessary, the Master goes on to say that the purpose of making the Foretellers believe there was a traitor was to instill negative emotions like fear and doubt in them. Darkness feeds on those emotions, and so by making sure that his students would produce them and yet not have their light tainted, he would attract Darkness into their hearts by giving it something to eat, only for it to realize that it was trapped in light that couldn't be consumed. The infighting amongst the Foretellers was bait to lock Darkness in their hearts the entire time

After that, there's only six left and so the Master chose five individuals, the Union Leaders, to be the uncorruptable lights that would house the weaker Darknesses. The final one, he would simply trap in the Data Daybreak Town

At this, Luxu flies into a rage at his master, angrily shouting that he can't possibly accept a plan that sacrifices so many people, but the Master stands up and starts talking over him. He's made it clear that he doesn't see Darkness as human, and he's seen this inhuman thing take countless lives, including people he's cared about. He doesn't believe them to be heroes, and he doesn't care. The entire purpose is just to ensure that in the end, humanity is what survives the war. He knows it's a tragedy, but for one who believes that tragedy can't be fully avoided, this is a solution that will at least save some

Luxu accepts this answer and leaves, but behind his back the Master muses on what Luxu, the traitor, needs to do. Luxu was the traitor from the lost page the entire time, given a role to take him out of the infighting so that his identity as the traitor wouldn't be discovered (or at least, that's how it seems to me considering that he needed the Foretellers to fear and doubt to attract Darkness to them)

Scene 2: Fleeing Daybreak Town

We now cut to the real Daybreak Town in the present, where Lauriam, Elrena, Ventus, and Brain have just emerged from the Data Daybreak Town into the real-world version of the lifeboat room. Daybreak Town is breaking down around them, about to be fully consumed by the aftermath of the Keyblade War which had been temporarily staved off while the Data simulation was running

Brain is attempting to enact his plan to extract all of the Dandelions from Data Daybreak Town and bring them into the real world, but he's worried that there won't be enough time to actually do it before the simulation shuts down and the real Daybreak Town is destroyed. The only thing he has time to do is get their three remaining friends (Ephemer, Skuld, and Player) out to the real world, and the only way that he can think to do this is to send Lauriam, Elrena, and Ven away to the future and to safety and then send the remaining lifeboats back into the datascape so that there's enough for the three trapped in there to use

Brain is willing to stay behind to man this operation, but he wants to ensure that at least one of the true Union Leaders (Lauriam) manages to live on in case things go wrong and save as many of them as he can, so those going to the future must be sent first. Lauriam, etching his mission to finally find Strelitzia (or even just her data) into his heart, departs with Elrena and Ven. Once they're gone, however, Brain notices someone enter the room and turns to find Luxu approaching him

Scene 3: Those Trapped in Data

We now cut to Player, Ephemer, and Skuld in the data version of the lifeboat room, contemplating how the others are doing. Just as they muse about how quiet the end of this world feels, Player turns to find that four of the remaining six Darknesses have entered the room (presumably the other two are the one sealed in Ven and the one that Luxu was fighting in the real world and who helped Maleficent, who seems to be gone by the time Brain and the others end up back in the real world)

The Darknesses, it seems, have come to politely ask the gang to open up a way out of the Data Daybreak Town for them, so that they can spread to other worlds. They don't want to fight, and obviously even if they did they'd win, so just open a gate for them to escape with already. They could always just take over Ephemer's friends and force him to watch as they rip them away until he complies

Ephemer mocks this and moves in to attack, but before he fully commits he whispers his plan to Player: he and Skuld will hold them off to buy time for Player to get into the last pod and run. To his shock, however, Player begins mimicking Darkness's speaking patterns and then goes to attack their friends. It seems that Darkness has done to Player what they did to Ven, taking them over and forcing them to act out. Player is now their bargaining chip; they'll only give Player back if Ephemer opens the gate. And since Darkness can only be defeated if it has a body, their options are to give in or destroy the possessed Player

This initiates the final boss fight against Ephemer and Skuld, Player's dearest friends who have been with them since before the war

And the duo prove no match for the Darkness-possessed Player, who taunts them about not just leaving when they had the chance. Ephemer begs his friend to stop as Player goes in to finish off Skuld, and in his desperation to protect one friend, he opens up the portal to Game Central Station and forces his fallen friend though. As it closes, Ephemer breaks down in tears, muttering apologies to the friend that he was unable to save

Scene 4: Luxu and Brain

We cut back to where we left off in Scene 2, with Luxu confronting Brain in the real lifeboat room. He introduces himself, and Brain is taken aback that one of the missing masters has finally returned. Luxu asks Brain if he's a Union Leader, and when Brain confirms that he is, Luxu then gestures to the missing pods and asks where the others are. Brain tells him that one escaped, and the other two are still trapped in the data. Luxu's confused; there should be five Union Leaders, but Brain only listed four. He asks what happened to the fifth, and Brain confirms that they were struck down

Luxu assumes that Brain is going to make his escape, but Brain denies this. They have a friend who he calls a Dandelion (even though Player did not consider themself one) who is trapped alongside the other two Union Leaders, and he intends to get all three out no matter what. Furthermore, Brain has no intention of using one of the real lifeboats. Rather, he has resigned himself to staying behind in the past and finding some way to survive the end of the world to eventually extract the rest of the Dandelions from the data as well, and wake them from their data sleep

Luxu, however, has some bad news. While normally that would be true, the Data Daybreak Town was designed to lock Darkness away. Once it's locked up, nothing will ever be able to get out of it again. If anything could get out, then Darkness would as well. It was meant to be a grave for an intangible being

Not only that, but Luxu expresses doubt that Brain has properly prepared for his friends who use the lifeboats to awaken in the future. What does Brain plan to use for mediums? Who are the memories going to come from? Brain doesn't have an answer, but he has to do this and he's willing to put his life on the line for it

This seems to earn Luxu's respect

Scene 5: The Two Who Remain

We now resume with Ephemer and Skuld in the data lifeboat room, having just sealed Player away. The two real pods that weren't used yet are digitized and sent to Ephemer and Skuld to use for their escape. Ephemer picks up the weakened Skuld and places her in a lifeboat, then looks forlornly over to the one on the other side of the room. The one meant for Player. Then he reclines back into his own pod and the two leave the Data Daybreak Town

Scene 6: "You're So Gullible"

We now join Player inside of the familiar tunnel that joined the Data Daybreak Town to Game Central Station

The four Darknesses swarm around Player, commending them for goading Ephemer into being desperate enough to open up a gateway for them, implying that Player was at least partially in control by the end of the fight. In a bizarre way, they seem to be trying to help Player as they warn them they must cast off their body if they don't want to be destroyed by the simulation shutting down

Player laughs

They ask if Darkness is always this easy to trick. After all, it can't go anywhere without a Keyblade and without a body it can't use one, either, which is why it needed one of them to open a path for it. Player turns, and locks the end of the pathway that leads to Game Central Station. And since Ephemer sealed the Data Daybreak Town end when he cast Player and the Darknesses through the portal, all five of them are now trapped in this space between worlds on the cusp of shutting down along with Data Daybreak Town. This was Player's plan all along, opening their heart up just enough for the four Darknesses to try and use them as a host and then provoking their friends into sealing them away and taking Darkness with them

Darkness flies into an anger-fueled frenzy but is unable to do anything to escape. Player collapses, and Chirithy appears. Petting them much like they did during the Keyblade War, Player apologizes for forcing Chirithy to be sealed away with them since their hearts are bound. Chirithy shakes their head, signaling that they don't hold it against Player, and the two go in for a final hug and are bathed in light

Scene 7: The Destruction of Daybreak Town

Back in the real lifeboat room again, Ephemer and Skuld emerge and are met with blaring sirens signaling that the world is at its end. The other are gone, including Brain and Luxu, and the two have no idea what happened to them (or that Luxu was involved). They simply hope that they made it out safely, and decide to check outside just to see what's going on

They're met with the destruction of Daybreak Town. Smoke is everywhere, the sky is red, and pieces of debris are being drawn into a swirling dark orb in the sky not unlike the destruction of Destiny Islands from KH1. Ephemer decides that they need to leave, now, and Skuld muses about how it takes a lot of time and effort to build something, but none at all to destroy. The two retreat back into the lifeboat room to make their exit

Scene 8: The Master's Plans

We now cut to our final continuation of the flashback of Master of Masters' talk with Darkness from before he disappeared

Darkness muses that it truly does not understand the Master of Masters at all. The Master asks if it wants to, and Darkness replies with a very clinical, "Yes, understanding your enemy is important." The Master muses if it means all of the Darknesses or just the one who is speaking, and Darkness states that it's speaking for all of them

The Master muses for a bit about how small worlds are easy to control. If this small world simply expands gradually over time, then eventually there will become parts of it that the light can't reach, but Darkness will have free reign over anywhere it pleases (much like real light can only shine so far, and anywhere it doesn't reach is filled with shadow). This skews everything in Darkness's favor when vying for control and is precisely what would happen if the world of the Age of Fairtytales continued to expand

Darkness simply notes that of course it will always be around, that's what "friends" do, but the Master says that sometimes he'd like to be left alone. And so, to get away from Darkness, he plans to flee to a world that Darkness does not know about. One where neither Darkness nor Light can be controlled. Darkness asks what this world is, and the Master says that humanity, even if their lives end, want to believe in a world that exists for them in the future. For him, this is a world of fiction and imagination. This implies that he plans to flee into the world of Quadratum, the fictional world that we learned about in Melody of Memory that exists on the other side of the "real world"

Darkness is clearly lost as it asks if he's talking about the Data World. The Master simply says that even if it started out as fiction, you can make it real. But he won't explain any more. After all, the point is that this is a world that Darkness doesn't know about. It cannot reach it, even if it tried

Of note is that he mimics what the illusory Xehanort remarks about Sora in Melody of Memory by calling this a place where neither your "eyes nor voice" can reach, much like Sora's voice could not reach Kairi in The Final World from Quadratum. His final description of it is as "a world of [symbol]." It's unclear if this is an actual term that is unpronounceable and unspeakable in-universe, or if this is simply done to censor the word for the players

Scene 9: Goodbye

We once again return to the real lifeboat room amidst the destruction of Daybreak Town. As she gets into her pod, Skuld starts sobbing and thanks Ephemer through her tears for staying with her until the end. Ephemer tells her that she can't give up until it's all over. As he goes into his pod, he flashes back to all of the time that he spent with Player, and mutters their name through his tears as their pods close and the room caves in around them

(AND THIS IS WHERE IT SHOULD'VE ENDED BECAUSE IT WAS ACTUALLY PRETTY GOOD UP TO THIS POINT BUT HERE WE GO)

Scene 10: Where Do Dream Eaters Come From?

Player and Chirithy are floating in a white void alongside all of the other Dandelions that were trapped in the Data Daybreak Town and their Chirithies. Some of them are familiar faces, like the "My friends aren't my power" kid and the squad of four kids that Player had befriended and their ex-teammate. As Player awakens, they watch these sleeping Dandelions revert to the forms of hearts that are then eaten by those Chirithies, transforming them into the Spirits seen in Dream Drop Distance

Player's Chirithy explains that because Chirithies are bonded to their Keyblade wielder's heart, they take on a state to match their wielder. If the wielder dies, so do they. And if the wielder falls into a deep sleep, they take on a stronger form to protect it

Contrary to what the fandom is saying, NO, Spirits aren't dead Keykids. Rather, the Chirithies are simply taking their sleeping hearts into their bodies and transforming into a stronger form to keep them safe. This is only my assumption, but I would assume that this is possible since they don't technically have bodies anyway, having been digitized. Therefore, their body-less hearts would otherwise have been sent directly to sleep with no protection, hence the Chirithies moving in

Now, this still doesn't make sense regarding Dream Drop Distance by overriding the lore that all Dream Eaters are simply the form that Darkness takes in Sleeping Worlds, which made sense from a metaphorical perspective of "you sleep at night which is dark, so dreams are darkness and both good and bad dreams are made of the same stuff." And also you can totally craft Spirits and have them explode if they take too much damage, all with zero indication that a keykid heart was involved in the creation process or released on destruction, but whatever, let's just move on

Player asks if this is what will happen to them and their Chirithy, and Chirithy responds that they have a choice. If Player doesn't want to go to sleep, then their heart will be broken down and reconstructed as an entirely new heart to live a new life

Smash cut to an unfamiliar town where a woman in purple with black hair and silver eyes hand over what is obviously a baby Xehanort to a hunched figure in a blue cloak, holding a cane. She sobs. Cut again to the figure in blue holding baby Xehanort standing on Destiny Islands' play island. Cut once more and Xehanort is now his teenage self from Dark Road on the beach of the play island. The figure in blue is standing on the ledge behind him, and as Xehanort stands up to walk to the shoreline, the figure collapses onto the ground. Xehanort does not notice this. Two more cuts, this time to the day that Xehanort found himself in Scala ad Caelum and a chess match with Eraqus

We return to Player, who closes their eyes peacefully and decided to move on to another life. Chirithy is confused, but goes in for a final hug as both of them dissolve into light, Player's heart flying off into the white void

The implication of all of this being that not only did Player reincarnate as Xehanort, introducing reincarnation into a series that it has never been a part of and overcomplicating the lore even worse, but that Xehanort isn't even from Destiny Islands in the first place, invalidating nearly all of his character motivation from the series

This is so bad that it deserves its own post though, so we're moving on

Credits Roll: Scenes From the Game Play Over It

Post Credits: Aftermath

We find our scene in a vast expanse of water, littered with debris. A lone lifeboat floats amongst the rubble. Some houses from Daybreak Town can be seen partially submerged, setting this after its destruction. The lifeboat comes to a stop and opens up, revealing Ephemer's silhouette. He looks around

It's unclear why Ephemer seems to have landed so far back in the past compared to the others, though some people have noted that he also doesn't appear to have lost his body, so it could be that his pod simply didn't activate (note how we only saw it close, not disappear into light like Lauriam and crew's) and that Ephemer didn't time travel at all but simply rode out the destruction of Daybreak Town inside the lifeboat

We see a rendition of the scene from KH2 where Diablo the raven brings Maleficent's cloak to the three fairies and she revives, showing that this scene was, indeed, her coming back from her time travel adventure

Lauriam wakes up in the field of flowers from Dwarf Woodlands, and looks confused and startled as a white butterfly flits about him. The flowers clearly a nod to his element among the Organization

Elrena is shown still unconscious along the cliffs that lead to Maleficent's castle in Enchanted Dominion. Much like Lauriam, her element is represented in the thunderstorm that rages around her

Ventus is shown unconscious in the Keyblade Graveyard, and a silhouette approaches him. Many believe this to be Xehanort finding him, though as of now the figure's identity is unconfirmed

We cut to a scene of Luxu dragging the black box behind him in the Keyblade Graveyard, much like a certain scene from the end of Back Cover. However, this time the scene continues and he removes his hood to reveal Brain's face. The implication here is that after Scene 4 above, Luxu took Brain's body as the first of many that he would steal to prolong his own life. This is why neither of them are seen when Ephemer and Skuld emerge from the datascape; Luxu has already taken Brain's body for his own and made his escape to survive the destruction of the world with the black box

We get a title card, but are treated to one final scene. Brain wakes up (sans hat) in the same town that we saw baby Xehanort being given away in. A hooded figure in strange garb arrives, holding Brain's hat, and asks if he is Brain. At Brain's confirmation, the figure returns the hat and introduces themself as Sigurd (a Norse mythology name much like the other Scala ad Caelum characters so far). They seem to have been waiting for Brain and report that they found him into an earpiece of sorts

Brain is understandably confused, and Sigurd explains that they know of the Brain who escaped Daybreak Town's destruction and that he would appear in this spot on this day. Brain panics, realizing that he doesn't know where any of his seven other friends are and if they made it to safety. Sigurd tells Brain that he's the only one who made it to this spot. Brain, utterly crushed that all of his friends have seemingly perished, listlessly follows Sigurd as Sigurd leads him to their headquarters

On the way there, however, something catches Brain's eye. He sprints to the fountain and looks up at something that's not in the frame in shock. Sigurd explains that this is a statue of this town, Scala ad Caelum’s founder (so Xehanort's actually from Scala...) and the first ever Keyblade Master, Master Ephemer. The camera pans up to show the statue of Ephemer as we know him holding the Master Keeper Keyblade that he got from Brain

Brain is overcome with emotions, and through his tears states that he knows exactly who that is. That's his best friend, and he's so proud of him for rebuilding

This is just my speculation, but what I believe is going on in the final scene with Brain is that when Luxu took his body, he ejected Brain's heart from it. A lifeboat wasn't used up, so Luxu must have either used time travel on his own to send Brain's heart to the future or simply left Brain's heart stranded and waiting in the ruins of Daybreak Town. This would let Luxu have his body, but Brain's stranded heart could make a new one with the proper resources in the future like the other hearts sent via the pods. That's what I think the focus on the hat is about. Luxu is shown without it after he takes Brain's body, and Sigurd has it. So my assumption would be that the hat was the medium used to bring Brain's body back like Maleficent's cloak was for her. It’s possible that Luxu set this up, but I can’t confirm. As for the memories, I couldn't say

I would also speculate that this scene takes place a decent amount of time before Dark Road, since Eraqus has been implied to be a descendant of Brain due to their similar looks. If Brain is in Scala ad Caelum in the past, then he could easily be the grandfather that Eraqus mentioned

My final bit of speculation is that the reason Sigurd and crew know who Brain is is because Ephemer, the founder of Scala ad Caelum and the inheritor of the Book of Prophecies, likely saw when Brain would emerge and set up a system to take care of him, knowing that he wouldn't survive to see him again

Apologies for the length, the ending was 40 minutes long. But, hopefully, I've made it clear which scenes are connected to which and what is actually happening. If it wasn't actually clear, there's two flashback sequences involving the Master of Masters that take place before KHx, the scenes in the data and real lifeboat rooms are running concurrently with each other (Brain and Luxu are having their conversation at the same time as Player is being possessed by the Darknesses, etc.) and everything else is roughly chronological with the exception of the scenes where Maleficent, Lauriam, Elrena, and Ven are revived after time traveling. Lauriam, Elrena, and Ven's scenes all must take place sometime before or around BBS (Lauriam and Elrena for their ages to match up, Ven because he's in BBS). Maleficent's is at the beginning of KH2

#kingdom hearts #khux #khux spoilers #anon asks #liz answers #between the amount it cuts around and the entirety of scene 10 which is really my only problem area i can see why you'd be confused #i think this would actually be a decent ending without scene 10 but scene 10 is SO BAD #it leaves such a bad taste in your mouth for the ENTIRE FRANCHISE that it ends up bringing literally everything else down with it

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van-zieksy · 2 years

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Hello again! I don't even remember why I deactivated receiving asks on my blog, I fixed that now 😅

I didn't see the complete Dracula Musical either, I just found the songs on Spotify by coincidence and enjoyed a few of them.

Sadly I never saw Thomas Borchert on stage and Munich is far away from where I live and I don't really see an opportunity to go there in the near future.

Back to TGAA: Of course Barok doesn't really fit the role, the Dracula thing is more about the aesthetics than anything else for me too, plus just a fun thing to think about, like I mentioned an AU where he...either is evil or gets possessed by something evil, who knows? lol.

I probably won't make a fully fledged AU out of any of this, but maybe I'll draw a little doodle with him and Kazuma singing when I feel motivated.

And I really like your idea with Barok and Kazuma as a vampire hunting duo!

Now I imagine a silly scene where Kazuma is careful to be stealthy while Barok can simply walk into a group of vampires they are hunting down who just go like "that guy looks like he belongs here, I don't see a problem" 😂

Nice! That means I can now send you asks.

Woah, a possessed Barok sounds delightful. I'm very much into seeing characters possessed. They make for some of the most interesting bosses in video games because we have to but do not want to fight them. They are people we care about and want to bring back. I've actually written something similar a few months ago and how we have to fight a possessed Kazuma in a Castlevania x AA crossover (here we go again lol). So yes, I love that idea!

Your last paragraph made me laugh so much! :D Haha, yes, Barok could very much go undercover in a vampire hideout without arousing too much suspicion. Now, if they can smell that he's a mortal though, then that could be an issue, but let's assume they are not capable of detecting this. Barok the Trojan Horse. Excellent.

While Barok distracts the vampires, Kazuma is stealthily incapacitating (not killing...yet) them out one after another. I actually am in favour of them having found a way to ensure vampires don't rely on blood anymore to survive, so the vampires have a choice if they want to receive the antidote or not. If they refuse to let go of their ways, continuing to bring harm to people, our two vampire hunters have to fight them. The ones who decide they want to change their ways, well, here our hunters have a choice: spare them, administer the antidote and essentially trust them to abide by their pledge, or take them out just to be on the safe side. I love moral choices, also in video games. Of course an antidote that turns them back into humans works, too, but in a different way.

When they find Stronghart, Barok and Kazuma fight him at first but then convince him to accept the antidote because they a) realise he's suffering in his own way and b) they want Stronghart to live. Having to live knowing that he's killed innocent humans but his life has just been spared by the very human he inflicted much harm on (i.e. Barok) is greater punishment than allowing him to sleep permanently. Maybe even someone like him can become a better human being (well, vampire being lol) and start doing good for others. They'll definitely keep a close eye on him in the future.

Barok and Kazuma also understand that everyone is allowed a choice and that most beings (mortal and immortal) should be afforded a second chance in life and have the option to change their ways. They don't just kill, which would turn them into even worse beings than vampires, who actually only kill to survive (with a few exceptions, like big boss Stronghart).

Vampire/Dracula infused into DGS/TGAA would be such a delight.

Whatever you may end up doing, if you decide to draw or do something else, I hope you'll keep me posted.

Thanks again! :)

#barok van zieks #kazuma asogi #ace attorney #the great ace attorney chronicles #tgaac #dgs #dai gyakuten saiban #asks #lordvanyeets ask #tgaa spoilers #dgs spoilers

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anime-watch · 3 years

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Aggretsuko

This was a cool anime. With the cute animation but realistic predicaments, the watch was an odd mixture of relaxing and stressful.

One thing I loved was its great characterization. Voices of characters poignantly capture what you expect for the characters. There's a replayed theme of setting up somebody's exterior image, then breaking through it and seeing a contrasting image underneath. Retsuko is an obvious example, but nearly all characters also have this personality dynamic to some degree. It's a really fun-to-watch take on the old saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover."

Some of the topics examined in Retsuko's life tug at heart strings. I imagine that watching this anime at various stages in life has very different reactions, as different ages may relate to different characters. We see the class's discussion on the conflicts of Japanese work culture and the gap between generations portrayed by Big Pig Boss and Retsuko. We see the mother and grown-up child struggle between Retsuko and her mother. We see other characters as small windows into their own familial life and roles, each complicated in their own way.

A lot of Retsuko's struggles are based on an expected view that her life will go normally. She expects to survive her job, get married, and have children. This does not seem like any powerful want; it is more like she does not see any other viable option. This is sad, maybe? It is hard to tell. If she has powerful desires for the direction of her life, they are either evanescent or she does not pay attention to them, leaving herself trapped in the current place she is in. This makes me wonder about my own life. I don't have any set direction that I am powerfully passionate about. I sometimes wonder if tomorrow I might change my life plan over something new, or if I will continue down my expectations for many years to come. The question is, how do we choose? My curiousity and uncertainty about my own life makes me really eager to know more about how Retsuko's life goes. We have already seen shifts. She familiarizes herself with new friends, takes a better stage on her work life, and in the newer episodes, she has to deal with a new member full of surprises, Anai. Maybe with the small yet significant changes that Retsuko has been pushing through, things are already okay and settled in yet another phase of life.

The idea of constructed gender and identity discussed in the paper matches this anime well. The characters in the show have their own constructed identity, build from an interaction between personal preference/values and social pressures. For example, Deer Girl has a preference to using her charm and does not mind letting others hear what they want to hear: she conforms to the authoritative pressures of the work place in this way. Similarly, in a contrasting way, Red Panda Girl has a preference to keeping her spicy side to herself, as well as deciding to abide by the pressures to be a model student-daughter-girlfriend-etc. The overall feel of this show is that, though we are agents of our own identity, we are still forced to construct ourselves in certain ways based on influential factors and our feelings towards those factors.

It's a great coincidence how this anime is both the most Endless Everyday and the first to have animal characters, fitting together our discussion of atomization and animalization.

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marvelvsmarvel · 3 years

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MCU Sinister Six Roster Speculation (long-form)

Spider-Man No Way Home is all but confirmed to include the multiverse, Doctor Strange, and the Sinister Six which features three of the previous Sony cinematic Spidey villains:

Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock

Jamie Foxx’s Electro

& William Dafoe’s Green Goblin

If we take into consideration that this is in fact the MCU’s Sinister Six and not to be part of the Sony-Disney joint custody Venom/Morbius limbo then we should also include:

Michael Keaton’s Vulture

& Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio

Four out of these five make up the original Six from the comics (no Goblin) with Sandman and Kraven the Hunter rounding them off. Here’s where it does get iffy because if he do consider limbo picks we know that Sony recently cast the real MCU Quicksilver actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson as its Kraven the Hunter for a solo film. And then we also know that MCU Vulture was supposed to crossover in Sony’s Morbius presumably in a prison scene where Vulture and Morbius meet.

Either one makes Six but now let’s focus back on the MCU. There is Bokeem Woodbine’s Shocker and Michael Mando’s Mac Gargan who is set up to be Scorpion both of whom could possibly reprise their roles but where either one of them make Six again. So what options are there to kinda limit this search for Six?

My guess is that whoever the mystery Sixth person is would be in charge seemingly cancelling out thugs like Shocker and Scorpion. They would also need to be able to have the capabilities of accessing the multiverse to cross over the previous villains which cancels out the Kraven and Morbius as well. So while that doesn’t seem to have limited the guesses I have three that I feel incredibly strong about:

Kingpin Wilson Fisk: You mean like what Sony’s Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse did? I mean EXACTLY like the Academy Award Winning Best Animated Feature Film that beat not one but TWO Disney movies! Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk already exists in the MCU proper but recently he was rumored to have been added to the Hawkeye series as well. I have been rambling how Sonny Burch (Ant-Man and The Wasp) works for someone pretty powerful but he also made note to Hope “You think that I don't know what you've been building with all of this Quantum Technology? You can forget nano-tech. Forget A.I. Forget cryptocurrency. Quantum Energy is the future. It's the next gold rush. I want in.” That’s some serious knowledge for a mid-level shot-caller. What if Fisk is Burch’s boss? You follow the general plot that Fisk wants to reclaim legitimate power and authority behind philanthropic/business fronts. One of his investments is in a crazy former AIM (bring them back) Quantum Physicist named Dr Otto Octavius (Molina) who is trying to crack Quantum Energy. Octavius uses a harness he wears that controls four powerful limbs that assist in building massive Quantum tunnels because in no way can you get Quantum Energy from a machine that fits in the back of a truck... Anyways Octavius succeeds in finding a way into another dimension. Fisk takes this news and instead of simply running to a big press conference he sees an opportunity to become a hero to society if he can kill this public menace who murdered the superhero Mysterio assuming he actually died. In order to not have the murder trace back to him he doesn’t just use out of town killers but out of dimension killers which includes Green Goblin and Electro, and now a real multiversal Mysterio Daniel Berkhart (not Quentin Beck but still played by Gyllenhaal) who has some crazy illusion tech from his own dimension. Fisk also financially leverages a reluctant Vulture because he has experience against Spidey. This plays out level boss battle style with Kingpin being the final boss. This guess supports the rumor the Charlie Cox will reprise his role as Daredevil Matt Murdock within the film.

MCU Norman Osborn (not played by Dafoe): Talk about multiverse! Continuing me doubling down on my big guesses have Osborn be the person who bought Avengers Tower in Spider-Man Homecoming and rename it OSCORP. Within it and over the past 5+ MCU years Norman Osborn has been experimenting with Quantum Energy with the goal of solving time travel much like Tony Stark did (that no one knows about but the brilliant Norman Osborn came to that conclusion with Quantum tech himself). Have him succeed only then fall under Doctor Strange’s radar. Strange who then has his hands full with what Loki and Wanda are doing to the multiverse decides to ask Peter to stop Norman from messing with things beyond his control because “the universe depends on it”. Spidey agrees and does it in the most Spidey way which is just unintentional destruction of property seemingly destroying the machine which ends in an accident that exposes Norman to Quantum Energy that will later turn him into the Goblin. Norman starts to hear voices believing he is going crazy when it is really Quantum Entanglement just like between Janet Van Dyne and Scott Lang. Villains from other universes are calling out to kill the bug and so Norman gets back to work rebuilding the Quantum tunnel like a maniac to silence the voices. Doc Ock and Electro are brought to the MCU along with another Norman Osborn (Dafoe) who is already full on crazy. Mysterio Quentin Beck is revealed to have only faked his death and comes to MCU Norman with a plan to kill Spidey after learning about what he did at Oscorp. Vulture is again reluctantly recruited with money because of his previous experience. This plays out mob style with relentless combinations of team up attacks the ultimately leads to a Six on bug boss battle. This guess supports the growing concept of multiverse in the MCU by having two Norman’s from different timelines while also bringing the franchise in full circle paying off the moving day from Homecoming.

Nightmare/Other: Ultimately this would be the Doctor Strange 2 villain who is rumored to be Nightmare but regardless should be a multidimensional threat but I’ll use him for now. With Wanda and Loki breaking the timelines this threat is freed from the limits of or the imprisonment of their dimension and are out to send the multiverse into madness. In doing so they find themselves on earth where they will begin their takeover but must first defeat their greatest threat there. Tracing power back to the Sanctum Sanctorum they find Peter Parker hiding out there instead of Strange. Mistakening Peter for Strange in the case of Nightmare he feeds on Peter’s fears which after recent events is that ALL his villains would come after his friends and family. Nightmare existing as a multi-dimensional being therefore summons Spidey rogues Green Goblin, Doc Ock, and Electro from multiple timelines and a couple from the MCU which in turn frees Vulture from jail and reveals Mysterio as alive from wherever he was hiding out at. Nightmare incites the rest of the Six to do his bidding through their own fears but Strange of course returns in time to reclaim Nightmare back into his own dimension for a future showdown. This plays out Nightmare of Elm Street (horror) style with the villains hiding out for Peter and attacking when he least expects it with the goal for Peter to survive the night until Strange arrives as opposed to battles to win. This guess doubles down on Strange’s confirmed cameo in the film because why else need the help of the Sorcerer Supreme if not because of a threat that “could destroy life on a scale hitherto undreamt of”.

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metalheadsforblacklivesmatter · 3 years

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*rants cutely* i just love the fact that i just had a mental breakdown because my school hasn't taught me anything about how to economically manage my life after college and i literally don't know ANYTHING about ANYTHING like i literally don't they haven't taught us anything and i only have one year left before college i genuinely don't know how i'm going to survive after college i have too bad of depression and adhd to actually hold down a job or a place which means i won't be able to pay for my anti-depressants, i'm aromantic so i won't be able to get marriage benefits so i won't be able to have kids even though i really want them because i won't even be able to take care of myself let alone my kids, and i can't do anyting about any of it and i'm terrified and argh.

i know you're busy and you don't know me but i could really use some reassurance that i'll be okay even if it's not true because i've seen what happens to mentally ill queer people when it's hard for us to work or do anything and i know it could happen to me and i'm really really scared and i just need to know i'll be okay even if i won't because i'm so scared of ending up homeless

sorry i don't mean to put pressure on a random internet stranger i'm not asking for help it's not your job i just want to know that it's not impossible to make it in the world because right about now it feels like it

You REALLY know know how to pick them for emotional support.

I have major depression, anxiety, and panic attacks. I am not okay 🤣

But as a mentally ill queer person myself you'll probably be fine.

First but if advice is get some customer service experience before you graduate college. You'll do better.

Second bit of advice is get a paid internship in your field preferably Junior and Senior year of college. It'll help you get a job right off the bat.

Third bit of advice is don't choose a major where you will experience discrimination. My life would be a thousand times easier if I weren't a femme in STEM.

Fourth but if advice is check out the insurance options on the open market. Call a medical insurance broker and review your options. If there's viable options in your state, you might want to look at contract jobs. They generally pay more (account for the fact that they don't contribute to your taxes or insurance). The only downside is you don't get PTO.

And medical insurance is a pain in the ass, but get an insurance broker. You don't have to pay anything, and they'll help you with the just stressful parts. I legit wouldn't have had insurance last year without it.

And as long as your pay is pretty straightforward (no tips or anything like that) you can use a free tax service. Your job will mail you you're W2, and you just enter the numbers from that into a free tax service. Taxes are easy if your pay is straight forward.

You'll be fine. You just have to get a job that's good for you. I recommend if looking for a new job every year or so is too stressful, try to find a well-rounded job. I'm a full-stack developer, so my job changes every day and sometimes every few hours and it's great.

Another thing if you want to find a job you like ask your interviewer if they'd let you switch to different roles or projects relatively easily if something else caught your interest. My favorite (as a developer) is "I understand this role is front-end, but if in five years I wanted a more backend role, would I be able to move around in the department like that?" If they say yes, that's a good job for ADHD.

Just always be sure to have questions about the company ready at an interview, and always frame your questions like "in five to ten years" this does 2 things. 1) it gets the image of you working there in their mind. 2) it shows if they hire you, you'll stick around. They like that.

Hope that helps. I've only been adulting for a few years, so I'm always happy to infodump the 101 things I wish people told me. Maybe my life would be easier if I had someone do the same for me.

Remember, if you get hired and it doesn't work out? Change jobs. I've been at my job a year and a half, but they don't quite have the pay/benefits I think I deserve, so I'll look elsewhere.

Most importantly, when participating in capitalism, always put yourself first. Remember your employer won't put you first. Their first priority is the company.

MOST IMPORTANTLY DON'T FORGET TO UNIONIZE. Don't talk union at your job, obviously, but the only way to ensure you're treated fair is to talk openly with your coworkers about everyone's pay and unionizing (outside of work, obviously, and only with your coworkers not your boss or manager).

-fae

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kemifatoba · 3 years

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C/O Berlin Magazine | It’s a space for everyone, and everyone can come in — Thoughts for the future

“I cringe when I hear words like ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion.” To quote the civil rights activist, philosopher, and writer Angela Davis, “diversity” and “inclusion” are terms that you, dear reader, might have also stumbled across in recent months, whether you wanted to or not. Inspired by global Black Lives Matter protests, mainstream media, corporations, and other institutions finally realized – in some cases as it seems overnight – that racism is also an intractable problem in Germany. Unfortunately, we need more than just hollow words and empty promises to solve this problem. You might be thinking to yourself: “But didn’t people take to the streets or write opinion pieces in newspapers to protest structural racism? And didn’t major institutions promise to offer diversity and inclusion workshops in discussion after discussion on television?” Perhaps, but don’t be fooled. Instead of critically questioning the role that white decision-makers play in perpetuating systemic racism, “society” was blamed. Over and over again, Black* people were asked to answer if they had really experienced racism through scrutiny of their real-life stories, while predominantly white “experts” were invited onto talk shows to discuss the so-called “racism debate”. Profound, structural changes are still lacking, at least as of the time this text goes to print.

Presence equals power. This brings us to the current moment where you are reading these words about British photographer Nadine Ijewere’s solo show at C/O Berlin. Nadine Ijewere is the first Black woman to be given a space that has previously been occupied almost exclusively by white men. As such, this exhibition is significant not only for Black photographers, but for everyone more used to being treated as the object than the artist or curator in spaces like this where many people don’t feel welcome or simply don’t exist. As trivial as it may sound, visibility comes from being able to hang pictures on a wall—or write these lines.

Joy as an act of resistance. Nadine Ijewere belongs to a generation of artists and creatives who have realized that there are more options than simply following the traditional path. Knowing that society has long since changed—even if many gatekeepers in fashion, art, and the media still cling to the status quo—this DIY generation is creating its own platforms to elevate their own role models with an army of loyal followers. In their work, representatives of this generation create worlds that rarely center Eurocentric beauty norms. The same goes for this young British artist, whose work shows people in all their beauty and uniqueness. Her photographs regularly appear on the pages of British, American and Italian Vogue, i-D, or Garage, and she has collaborated with brands such as Nina Ricci and Stella McCartney. Ijewere proves that beauty is multifaceted and that fashion is fun and for everyone.

More than a seat at the table. When artists like Ijewere make it to the top, it’s not because of nepotism, tokenism, or diversity as a trend, but despite all the obstacles that have been put in their way. And instead of assimilating after being accepted by the old guard, they continue to write their own rules. In Ijewere’s case, this means not only working with diverse models and teams, but also passing her knowledge on as a mentor to keep the proverbial door open. She’s less driven by the desire to stand out from the mainstream than she is to give back by inspiring younger generations, who are able to see themselves in magazines. “Within the time I have, I’ll use every opportunity I get and every space I can get into to expand the horizon of others.”

Representation matters. Celebrating Black people and people of color in a traditionally white space was also the goal of “Visibility is key – #RepresentationMatters,” a watershed moment for the German lifestyle magazine industry when it launched on vogue.de in spring 2019. The goal was to take first steps toward a forward-thinking future where inclusion and diversity would no longer be mere buzzwords, but lived practices. Part of that effort meant ensuring representation in front of as well as behind the camera. The results weren’t perfect and they might not have led to social change, but we proved that there isn’t a lack of creative talent among Black and Brown people in Germany. If anything, we proved that these talents are often denied the space to develop their full potential.

Ideas for the future. As you see, dear reader, it takes teamwork to bring about long-term change, and for the first time the doors are open a bit. Nadine Ijewere's exhibition shows this, as does being able to write these very words in the C/O Berlin Newspaper. In the statements below, we asked German and international artists and creatives to envision a future where representation and inclusion are lived practices instead of rare exceptions. The results are ideas for a future that is reachable—as long as we all keep working towards it every day. Together.

Nadine Ijewere, artist Art is about art. It’s not about you personally. That’s why artists need to be seen as artists. We all get stereotyped and put into the same box—but we have our own identity. We are put into the same space just because we are Black, but we are all very different people.

Edward Enninful, OBE, Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue Nadine is one of the leading fashion photographers of her generation. She’s not only inherently British in her work, she’s also Black British. She really understands the complex mix of culture, fashion, beauty, and the inner working of a woman, so when you see her images, it’s never just a photograph. There’s also a story and a narrative behind it.

Benjamin Alexander Huseby & Serhat Işık, designers for the label GmbH Our work has always been about wanting to show our community and culture to tell our stories as authentically as we can. It was never about “diversity”, but about being seen. We want to create a world where not only exceptional Black and Brown talents no longer have to be truly exceptional to get recognition for their work, a world where we no longer are the only non-white person in the room because we built the motherfucking house ourselves.

Mohamed Amjahid, freelance journalist and author, whose book Der weiße Fleck will be published by Piper Verlag on March 1, 2021. It's time that Black women become bosses. Gay Arabs should get to call the shots. Refugees belong on the executive boards of big corporations. Children of so-called “guest workers” should move into management positions too. People with disabilities should not just have a say, they should make the decisions. Vulnerable groups deserve to put their talents and ideas to work in the service of the whole society. Not every person of color is automatically a good leader by virtue of their background, but all-white, cis-male executive boards are certainly incapable of making decisions that are right for everyone. That’s why we need more representation at the very top, where the decisions are made.

Melisa Karakuş, founder of renk., the first German-Turkish magazine For a better future, I demand that we educate our children to be anti-racist and to resist when others or when they themselves are subjected to racism. I demand that discrimination is understood through the lens of intersectionality and solidarity! I demand that even those who are not affected by racism stand up against it! This fight is not one that we as Black people and people of color fight alone—for a better future, we all have to work together.

Tarik Tesfu, host of shows including the NDR talk show deep und deutlich When I look in the mirror, I see someone who grew up in the Ruhr region and loves currywurst with French fries as much as Whitney Houston. I see a person who has his pros and cons and who is so much more than his skin color. I see a subject. But the German media and cultural system seem to see it differently because far too often, Black people are degraded and made into objects for the reproduction of racist bullshit. I'm tired of explaining racism to Annette and Thomas because I really have better things to do (for example, my job). So get out of my light and let me shine.

Ronan Mckenzie, photographer The future of our industry needs to be one with more consideration for those that are within it. One that isn’t shrouded in burnout and the stresses of late payments, and one that doesn’t make anyone question whether they have been booked for the quality of their work or to be tokenized for the color of their skin. The future of our industry needs to go beyond the performative Instagram posts and mean-nothing awards, to truly sharing resources and lifting up one another. Our industry needs to put its money where its mouth is when words like “support”, “community” or “diversity” slip out, instead of using buzzwords that create an illusion of championing us. How there can be so much money in this industry yet so many struggle to keep up with their rent, feed themselves, or just rest without worrying about money is truly a travesty. If this industry is to survive then we who make it what it is need to be able to thrive.

Ferda Ataman, journalist and chair of Neue deutsche Medienmacher*innen A recent survey of the country's most important editors-in-chief revealed that many of them think diversity is good, but they don't want to do anything about it. This is based on the assumption that everyone good will succeed. Unfortunately, that’s not true. It’s not just a person’s qualifications that are decisive, but other criteria as well, such as similarity and habit (“XY fits in with us”). It's high time that all of us—everywhere—demand a serious commitment to openness and diversity. Something is seriously wrong in pure white spaces that can’t be explained by people’s professional qualifications alone. Or to put it differently: a good diversity strategy always has an anti-racist effect.

Nana Addison, founder of CURL CON and CURL Agency Being sustainable and inclusive means thinking about all skin tones, all hair textures, and all body shapes—in the beauty industry, in marketing communications, as well as in the media landscape. These three industries work hand in hand in shaping people’s perceptions of themselves and others. It’s important to take responsibility and be proactive and progressive to ensure inclusivity.

Dogukan Nesanir, stylist The current system is not designed to help minorities. By giving advantages to certain people and groups, it automatically deprives others of the chance to attain certain positions in the first place. That's why I don't even ask myself the question "What if?" anymore. My work is not about advancing a fake worldview, but about highlighting all the real in the good and the bad. I strongly believe that if some powerful gatekeepers gave in, if representation and diversity happened behind the scenes and we had the chance to show what the world REALLY looks like, we wouldn't be having these discussions at all. I don't just want an invitation to the table, I want to own the table and change things.

Arpana Aischa Berndt & Raquel Dukpa, editors of the catalog I See You – Thoughts on the Film “Futur drei” In the German film and television industry, production teams and casting directors are increasingly looking for a “diverse” cast. Casting calls are almost exclusively formulated by white people who profit from telling stories of people of color and Black people by using them, but without changing their own structures in the process. Application requirements and selection processes in film schools even shut out marginalized people by denying them the opportunities that come with being in these institutions. People of color and migrants as well as Black, indigenous, Jewish, queer, and disabled people can all tell stories, too. Production companies need to understand that expertise doesn’t necessarily come with a film degree.

Vanessa Vu & Minh Thu Tran, hosts of the podcast Rice and Shine It may be convenient to ignore entire groups, but we are and have been so much more for a very long time. We contribute to culture by making films or plays and bring new perspectives to science, politics, and journalism. We’re Olympic athletes, curators, artists, singers, dancers, and inventors. We dazzle and shine despite not always being seen. Because we have each other and we’ve created opportunities to do the things we love. We’ve created platforms for each other and built communities. Slowly but surely we are finally getting applause and recognition for the fact that we exist. That's nice. But what we really need is not just the opportunity to exist, but the opportunity to continue to grow and to stop basing our work primarily on self-exploitation. We need security, reliability, and money. That's the hard currency of recognition. That would mean being truly seen.

*Black is a political self-designation and is capitalized to indicate that being Black is about connectedness due to shared experiences of racism.

Written by: Alexandra Bondi de Antoni & Kemi Fatoba C/O Berlin Magazine April 2021

#editorial #coberlin

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dialovers-translations · 4 years

Text

Diabolik Lovers GRAND EDITION for Switch ;; More, Blood ー Yuma Ecstasy [Epilogue]

ー The scene starts with a flashback in the forest

Bear: Haah...Haah...

( Once I’ve safely escaped...I’m heading straight to the hideout. I’m worried about the lil’ ones. )

( Besides, some of the other guys who got lucky and survived might have returned there as well. )

( I’m sure Ruki-kun and the others will tag along once I explain the situation to them. )

( ...Even if there’s nothing left, that’ fine too...When that happensーー )

*BANG*

Bear: ...Ah?

Orphanage employee: There they are! There’s four of them in total!! Seize them!

ー The screen fades to black

Bear: ( ...Why...? My legs are...giving in... )

*THUD*

ー The scene shifts to the orphanage

Bear: ( ...My body hurts...The fuck is going on...? I can’t move. I can’t...hear very well either... )

( ...The smell of blood...Is it coming from me...? )

( Aah...Honestly, I don’t even know if it hurts or not at this point... )

...I’m sorry...Boss...

ー A flashback ensues to Boss’ death

Bear: ーー Boss! Oi, you’ve gotta be kidding me!? Hang in there!

Lucks: ...Bear...Run...

Bear: Fuck off! What kind of henchman would I be if I just left my Boss for dead!?

Oi, I’m begging you...! Stand! Let’s run away together...!!

Lucks: Please, just go! You dumbass...! The soldiers...Will be back soーー ...Ugh...!

Bear: Boss!!

Lucks: ...Look up, Bear...

Aah...Damnit...I’m about to die over here...Yet the sky is so frustratingly...blue...

Say...I told you, didn’t I...? That under this sky, everyone’s...equal...

ー The flashback ends

Bear: ( ...If I had known I would die in this hellhole...I would have much rather perished back then... )

( If I have to die...I’d at least want to go underneath the same sky as Boss did...Fuck... )

( ...I don’t want to die here...I still haven’t...accomplished anything... )

( ... )

???: ーー Poor child.

Bear: ( ...Who’s there? )

???: ...Would you perhaps care for eternal life?

Bear: ( ...I don’t care who you are. If I die here, things will end before I get to do anything... )

( I’m gonna...fulfill Boss’ wish...right...!? )

...I do...

*TIMESKIP*

ー The scene shifts to Karlheinz’ room

Karlheinz: Ruki, Kou, Yuma, Azusa. Come here.

Yuma: ...

Ruki: Oi, Yuma.

Yuma: Ah? ...Oh, you’re talking to me?

Karlheinz: Are you still having trouble adjusting to your new name?

Yuma: My bad...

Karlheinz: Just take your time. You still have plenty of time ahead of you after all.

Well then, come here. Let us enjoy a cup of tea.

*Cling*

Yuma: ...

Karlheinz: Is something the matter, Yuma?

Yuma: What’s this? ...No, what could this be? (1)

Karlheinz: Hm? Aah, this is sugar. You’ve never seen it before?

Yuma: Sugar? ...It has a weird shape.

Karlheinz: They’re shaped like flowers. These are called roses. Show me your hand, Yuma. You should try one.

Yuma: ...Thank you very much. Nn...

Karlheinz: What do you think?

Yuma: ....Hella delicious!! I’ve never had somethin’ this good!

Ruki: Yuma! Watch your language!

Karlheinz: Ruki, I don’t mind. Do you want another one, Yuma?

Yuma: Hell yeah!! ...I mean yes. (2)

Karlheinz: Then how about this? If you make me happy, I shall give you sugar as a reward.

Yuma: Make you happy...What should I do then?

Karlheinz: As a Vampire, I want you to become a formidable individual. (3) You will have to try your very hardest for that.

For you children to become Adam. That would make me happier than anything.

Yuma: Try my best to become Adam...?

Karlheinz: Is that a little difficult still? Then for starters, I shall give you some if you study hard tomorrow.

Yuma: ...Yes!

Kou: You’re so easy, Yuma-kun~

Yuma: Shut it!

ー The flashback ends as the scene shifts to Yuma’s room

Yuma: ...

( ...I owe him my life. I have to return the favor. )

( ...But... )

ー Yui enters the room

Yui: Yuma-kun, the tea is ready.

...Huh? You’re eating sugar again? But I brought you some cake as well.

Yuma: Don’t worry. There’s always room for sugar. (4)

Yui: You’re talking like a girl...

*Cling*

Yuma: You’ll get what I mean if ya have a taste as well. It’s addicting, ya know?

Yui: If I start eating sugar cubes whole, I’ll gain weight in no time.

Actually, how come you never pack on the pounds? It’s no fair...

Yuma: Who knows? Maybe ‘cause I’m a Vampire? Maybe you’ll understand if ya become one as well? Wanna put it to the test?

Yui: It’s a little tempting, so please don’t tempt me...

Yuma: Hah, you’re so easy. Well, not that I can judge ya.

Come on, open yer mouth.

Yui: You’ll give me some?

Yuma: Today’s an exception. I’ll make ya my partner in crime.

Yui: Partner in crime? Nom...

Yuma: It melted a lil’. Lick my finger while you’re at it.

Yui: ...Nn...

Yuma: Good, right?

Yui: Nn, it’s good but...Very sweet.

Yuma: It’s sugar after all.

Yui: I’ve been wondering about this for a while but, how come you like sugar this much?

You don’t really eat that many other desserts, do you?

Yuma: ...

'Cause sugar tastes of sin.

Yui: Taste of sin?

Yuma: I remember every time I eat it. ...The crime I’m ‘bout to commit.

Yui: ...I don’t quite get it.

Yuma: In short, you’re my partner in crime since ya had some alongside me.

ー Yuma moves closer

Yuma: ...Don’t try and get away, Yui.

Yui: Eh...?

*Rustle*

*Thud*

Yuma: You’re the one who told me not to give up. If there’s even a sliver of hope left for me to become Adam, I will keep fightin’ for it.

I’ll take yer everythin’...Makin’ it so ya can’t think ‘bout anyone but me.

Yui: ...

Yuma: Don’t tremble...I’m not tryin’ to spook ya or anythin’.

I won’t be gentle with ya, but I’ll at least listen to yer wishes, ‘kay? ...What do ya want me to do?

Yui: ...I guess ‘nothing’ isn’t an option...?

Yuma: Unfortunately for you, it isn’t. Besides...Right now, yer smell is tellin’ me ya don’t really dislike this, ya know?

Yui: M-My scent...?

Yuma: Yer expression too...If anything, ya seem to be waitin’ for it?

Yui: That’s not...

Yuma: Really?

*Rustle*

Yui: Nn...!

Yuma: See? I can smell it. This scent...of you waitin’ for me...

Yui: Nn...Phew...

Yuma: ...Haah...

*Creaaak*

Yuma: ...I won’t betray him.

However...I won’t hand you over either...Not to anyone...!

Yui: ( Yuma-kun’s lips taste sweet...Like sugar... )

Yuma: ...Sugar really tastes of sin. It keeps on temptin’ me.

Don’t ya feel the same? Right, Yui...?

ーー TO BE CONTINUED ーー

Translation notes

(1) Yuma fixes his own speech when talking to Karlheinz, using the casual なんだ or ‘nanda’ first, before changing it to the much more polite なんですか or ‘nan desu ka?’

(2) Once again, he initially just says 食べたい or ‘tabetai’ which is casual, but then quickly adds the ‘desu’. Since these are linguistic features typical of the Japanese language, it is very difficult to translate them to English. ^^;;

(3) 一人前 or ‘ichininmae’ is one of those concepts which is very much linked to Japanese culture. It is often referred to people who have found a stable job and are contributing to society, fulfilling their role in life.

(4) This is a pun on the Japanese idiom 甘いものは別腹 or ‘amai mono wa betsubara’, which literally means ‘sweets go into a different stomach’.

→ LIKE MY TRANSLATIONS? SUPPORT ME ON KO-FI!

[ ENDING 1 ] [ ENDING 2 ] [ ENDING 3 ]

#diabolik lovers #dialovers #yuma mukami #more blood #diabolik lovers translation #mbyumaectasyepilog

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stillness-in-green · 3 years

Note

I saw speculation on this going around & I’m curious to get your thoughts on it: where do you think Geten’s story might be going in the future, & do u think it’s possible Dabi will kill him? I saw ppl talking about Dabi’s noted distaste for him & how the PLF seems more of a temporary alliance in the LoV’s mind (Compress’ noted rejection of the name in his thoughts, Dabi’s use of Skeptic against his will, etc), & w/ AFO back in the picture they theorized Dabi may get his quirk & kill Geten.

Okay, so, it took me a while to grapple with this one, and in the end, I'm going to have to break my reply up into two parts. Because you asked a very simple question, anon, and my answer to the question you actually asked is pretty simple (if characteristically rambly)! But you also provided a bunch of contextualizing information about what prompted your ask, and I have a lot to say about that contextualizing information, stuff that is only tangentially related to your actual question.

Note that some of this is going to get pretty salty, but I assume you wouldn't have brought a Known MLA Stan a question like this if you didn't want at least a bit of that. Most of the salt will be in the second part, though! This first part is pretty safe!

So, to answer the actual question: I don't have a lot of solid thoughts on where Geten's story is going, because from the looks of the way the series as a whole is going, it may well be that the MLA’s story is already done. I have previously expressed concerns about the current status of the MLA mainly because of all the speculation that Horikoshi is trying to rush to get to the ending, and if Hori’s rushing the ending, I don’t know that I’d bet on Geten coming back at all. In fact, given what I can guess about the scenario, I’d kind of rather he not.

The thing is, the MLA have always been far more relevant to the League than they have been to anyone else in the cast. They’re Tomura's victory spoils; their plot beats were established to connect to the League, not the heroes, the students, or even All For One. There’s just no personal connection there, and lacking a personal connection, all they’d do is be fodder for background fights to fill page space and give the side characters something to do.

And there’s just no drama in that! Not even any tension! We've already seen the MLA characters beaten--first by the villains, and then by the heroes. Hell, we've seen Re-Destro beaten three times!(1) Based on how the raid went, there are maybe three people in the entire MLA that present a credible threat--Hose Face, whose name we don’t even know, Re-Destro, who has a repeatedly-illustrated weak point in the form of his new legs, and Geten.

While I definitely think Geten could give any of the students save Deku a run for their money,(2) what would be the point? Who would he be slotted in to have a dramatic fight with? Geten hurt Cementoss, but he didn't kill him, and none of the students are uniquely close to Cementoss anyway. Geten has never personally offended or harmed any of the kids directly. There was a time people theorized that Shouto's end game boss would be a combination of Geten and Dabi, but with the PLF scattered, that looks less likely.

From the other side of things, Geten himself has no particular beef with the kids. If he'd been on the front lines to witness the opening moments of the battle, maybe he'd have a bone to pick with Kaminari, Kinoko, Juzo, and particularly Tokoyami, but it took Geten a bit to get to the front; he has no particular way of knowing about those four, and at the moment, he certainly has more pressing matters on his mind.

Geten's primary interest, when it comes right down to it, is Re-Destro. He talks a big game about the MLA's goals, but when the pivotal moment comes in Deika, he bails on the battle that was assigned to him to try and help RD instead. He claims that pure strength is to be valued above all else, but his loyalties don’t change when Gigantomachia bats him aside like a fly or when Shigaraki proves himself to be An Strongest. Even up to Jakku, Geten is still concerned solely with Re-Destro. With no real reason to pit RD against the kids, there’s no reason to throw Geten against them, either.

The only person Geten has an established rivalry with is, of course, Dabi, but getting the two of them even in the same vicinity again is going to require breaking the MLA leaders out of jail, which clearly isn't a priority of AFO's, and he's the one running the show right now. Would Shigaraki bother? He might, particularly if RD, Trumpet and Geten all get shipped to whatever Tartarus Lite Mr. Compress and Machia are likewise bound for. But if the story is headed to its conclusion, is Shigaraki ever going to get that option?

Is AFO the final boss? If so, it doesn't seem to leave much of an opening for the MLA to become relevant again, because, again, the MLA are all about Tomura's victory, Tomura’s ascendant arc as a villain, his status as a hero to other villains (namely RD). If Deku "saving" Shigaraki from All For One is going to magically resolve all of Tomura's issues with society as a whole, because hey, at least this kid is a good person, so his society can't be so bad after all! (GAG), that doesn't seem to leave much room to get into the myriad issues with society that all of Tomura's followers have. Frankly, the only thing the MLA has to offer Deku right now that's remotely relevant to his current goals is Re-Destro's starry-eyed explanation about why he's fallen so hard for Shigaraki, and Spinner is better suited for that role on basically every level.

So that’s all been one big if. The other alternative is the ending I'm hoping we get, in which Deku and Shigaraki join forces to put an end to AFO, only for Shigaraki to thank Deku cordially and then get right back to destroying things because, surprise surprise, Midoriya Izuku being a good person doesn't absolve Hero Society of all of its many, many sins. Then I can see there being room for the MLA to return. At that point, not only is there RD’s devotion to Shigaraki on offer, but also the MLA’s ideology of Liberation, what it is, what it offers, along with, for example, more on whatever Harima Oji’s complaints were about heroes, more on what has to change systemically to satisfy Shigaraki’s grudge. That’s a story the MLA can meaningfully contribute to, and therefore a story in which Geten and his quirk supremacist beliefs are more likely to be addressed.

However, I’m not optimistic that we’re going to get that ending, and until we find out whether Shigaraki will be satisfied with being rescued from AFO (if, indeed, he survives the process at all), or whether he and his compatriots’ societal issues will be left by the wayside, I’m not yet prepared to spend a lot of time theorizing on how the MLA’s role in it would look.

As to the specific question of Dabi killing Geten--honestly? I think that moment is past. While I said earlier that Dabi is Geten’s only established rivalry, that is frankly being more generous than their relationship actually warrants. After all, we haven’t seen them interact since Deika, and literally the only time one of them has so much as thought of the other in that period was Dabi grumbling, “That icy punk sure knows how to let loose,” after Geten’s big wall of ice attack allows Tokoyami to get away with Hawks. If their continued animosity were going to be a plot point, and especially if Dabi were going to murder him in cold blood eventually, Horikoshi should have shown us the two of them antagonizing each other as co-lieutenants of the Violet Regiment.

At this point, Dabi has made his big play, revealed his identity to the world. I think he's pretty locked into the Todoroki Drama now; he has bigger concerns than going back and winning a grudge match against Geten. Also too, given the point he's trying to prove about the strength of his/Endeavor's flames, would he even want Geten's quirk? If he were to get it, would he get the "evolved" version or just the basic one?(3) Because given the precedent set by both the mechanics of Monoma's Copy and AFO's comments about Jeanist's Fiber Master, I'd be inclined to think the latter, and Geten's ice powers are way less badass without the temperature control, especially for a dude trying to wield them in concert with flames of the temperature Dabi uses.

From a narrative standpoint, Geten has already been punished for his hubris with a personal defeat, the humbling of his leader, a loss of pride in his organization, and then a second, much more damning defeat and subsequent capture at the hands of heroes. Dabi taking his quirk and killing him at this point would just be kicking--indeed, killing--him when he’s already down. It doesn’t feel like karma; it just feels malicious.

That said, in the rather dubiously scaffolded scenario that the MLA gets free and finds their way back to the League and AFO/Shigaraki takes Geten's quirk(4) and Dabi accepts it, would Dabi then kill Geten with it?

…I mean, maybe? Do people think that Dabi is that much of a sadist? Because it would be the act of a sadist, to murder a kid who's almost certainly younger than he is and might even still be a teenager, one who has just been violently stripped of any ability to defend himself, all out of a desire for petty revenge over a months-old slight--a slight consisting of Geten parroting rhetoric he learned from the weird cult he grew up in, and which Dabi has very possibly been working with Skeptic long enough to know is maybe not all that accurate a characterization of the cult's ideals anyway!

And that brings me to Part 2. ---------------------------------------

(1) Four, if you count the clone’s destruction.

(2) Even 1-A's two remaining powerhouses don't present any more of a threat to Geten's ice than Dabi did, and Shouto will only give him more of it to work with. Their advantage over Dabi is that they can both sort of fly, which might well tip the balance--one of Geten's major advantages is his ability to manipulate ice from a considerable distance away, farther away than Dabi's flames can reach, but flying opponents deprive him of that advantage. Now, Shouto's flying is fairly unstable, so I suspect Geten is more maneuverable in the air, but his maneuverability wouldn't save him from Bakugou, the human equivalent of the anger-powered jetpack.

(3) Set aside the Doylist explanations about anyone who stole Geten's quirk getting the version the audience already knows purely out of laziness, forgetfulness, or authorial fiat.

(4) And look me dead in the eye and tell me Geten would just let Shigaraki Tomura or anything currently inhabiting his body just casually stroll up and lay hands on him without protest. Not to say I think AFOmura couldn't do it, but doing it in a "cool," dramatic way would probably involve some lightning movements we have not seen him make thus far.

#bnha #stillness answers #geten #meta liberation army #dabi

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candyradium · 4 years

Photo

Finally got around to typing up my Technoblade D&D build!!! I’ve been working on making these for a lot of the Dream SMP characters, and I thought it would be fun to have him in stat block format, so you too can throw c!Technoblade at your players as a final boss! (Disclaimer: I don’t know how accurate the CR level is, I just set it to 8 since the build is a lv8 build PC build.)

Image description and explanation/rambling below the cut!

[Image ID: A D&D stat block for Technoblade. It reads:

Technoblade

Medium humanoid (firbolg), Lawful Neutral

Armor Class: 18 (Half plate, defense fighting style)

Hit Points: 72 (8d12+24)

Speed: 40 ft.

STR: 18 (+4)

DEX: 14 (+2)

CON: 16 (+3)

INT: 14 (+2)

WIS: 13 (+1)

CHA: 6 (-2)

Saving Throws: Str +7, Con +6

Skills: Athletics +7, Intimidation +1, Perception +4, Survival +4

Damage Resistances: bludgeoning, piercing, slashing

Senses: passive Perception 14

Languages: Common, Elvish, Giant, Goblin

Challenge: 8 (3,900 XP)

Innate spellcasting. Technoblade's innate spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 12). He can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:

1/short rest each: detect magic, disguise self

Speech of beast and leaf. Technoblade has the ability to communicate in a limited manner with beasts and plants. They can understand the meaning of his words, though he has no special ability to understand them in return. He has advantage on all Charisma checks he makes to influence them.

Powerful build. Technoblade counts as one size larger when determining his carrying capacity and the weight he can push, drag, or lift.

Unarmoured defense. When not wearing any armour, Technoblade's defense equals 15. He can use a shield and still gain this benefit.

Reckless. At the start of his turn, Technoblade can gain advantage on all melee weapon attack rolls he makes during that turn, but attack rolls against him have advantage until the start of his next turn.

Great weapon master. When Technoblade scores a critical hit with a melee weapon or reduces a creature to 0 hit points with one, he can make one melee weapon attack as a bonus action. Additionally, before Technoblade makes a melee weapon attack with a heavy weapon that he is proficient with, he can choose to take a -5 penalty to the attack roll. If the attack hits, he adds +10 to the attack's damage.

Warrior of the Gods. If a spell, such as Raise Dead, has the sole effect of restoring Technoblade to life (but not undeath), the caster doesn't need material components to cast the spell on Technoblade.

Divine fury. While Technoblade is raging, the first creature he hits on each of his turns with a weapon attack takes extra necrotic damage equal to 1d6 + 3.

Action surge (1/rest). Technoblade takes one additional action on his turn.

Combat superiority (4/rest). Technoblade can apply the following maneuvers using his four superiority die (d8s):

Feinting attack: Technoblade expends one superiority die and uses a bonus action on his turn to feint, choosing one creature within 5 feet of his as his target. He has advantage on his next attack roll against that creature before the end of his turn. If that attack hits, add the superiority die to the attack's damage roll.

Menacing attack: When Technoblade hits a creature with a weapon attack, he can expend one superiority die to attempt to frighten the target. He adds the superiority die to the attack's damage roll, and the target must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, it is frightened of him until the end of his next turn.

Trip attack: When Technoblade hits a creature with a weapon attack, he can expend one superiority die to attempt to knock the target down. He adds the superiority die to the attack's damage roll, and if the target is Large or smaller, it must make a Strength saving throw (DC 15). On a failed save, he knocks the target prone.ActionsHidden step (1/rest).

As a bonus action, Technoblade can magically turn invisible until the start of his next turn or until he attacks, makes a damage roll, or forces someone to make a saving throw.

Greatsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage.

Heavy Crossbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 100/400 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d10 + 2) piercing damage.

Multiattack. Technoblade can make 2 weapon attacks.

Rage (4/day). As a bonus action, Technoblade enters a rage that lasts for 1 minute, ending early if knocked unconscious or if Technoblade's turn ends and he hasn't attacked a hostile creature since his last turn or taken damage since then. He can also end his rage on his turn as a bonus action. While raging, Technoblade deals +2 damage, has advantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws, and has resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage. Technoblade cannot cast spells during a rage.

End ID.]

Okay. Rambling time.

Holy SHIT I loved making this. I tend to play spellcasters or dex based characters, so it was a lot of fun to make a str character for once.

Stats first. As a barbarian/fighter and also as a force of nature, str is his highest stat. I could have made it 20, but I have a weird aversion to writing up characters with maxed out stats for some reason? Anyway, that’s what he has. He can always boost it if he takes another level in fighter. I also decided to give him pretty high intelligence and wisdom, which are rare in barbarian characters, since, y’know, their main point is to hit things very hard. But Techno is so, SO resourceful, and one of the main reasons that he’s so good at fighting is because he does his research and acquires the best items for it and puts himself in the right place at the right time. Hence the high-ish int. I feel a little bad making his charisma so low, but cha represents several things, most notably the ability to talk to people and force of personality. Also known as: how hard it is to be swayed or controlled, magically or otherwise. Remember what happened at the festival? That’s low charisma. Also I had to give him a low stat to balance the fact that he’s insanely good at so many fucking things. Why.

As a side note, when picking his proficiencies, I was using the homebrew rule that you can use your strength modifier when you roll for intimidation. So his Strength (Intimidation) check would actually have a +7, which is MUCH better than the Charisma (Intimidation) check of +1. Big strong characters are absolutely scary, damnit, and I will die on that hill.

Next up: race. I HAD to make him a firbolg. They’re connected with nature and are often portrayed with animalistic features (e.g. Caduceus Clay from Critical Role), and it means we can have both pig Techno and anime Techno, since firbolgs naturally have the disguise self spell. I just think that’s neat. They also get the ability to turn invisible! Which Techno has been doing a LOT recently! Sure, firbolgs can only do it for a turn, but it still fits.

Onto classes. Barbarian was a dead certain for Techno, honestly - his battle prowess, how he acts when he fights, it just fits so well. Even his use of potions - he gets a lot of buffs from them, increased damage and damage resistance being the two most notable and the two that best translate to D&D rage. Even speed potions - barbarians get +10ft movement speed at level 5. And barbarians are made for two-handed weapons, so obviously I HAD to give him a greatsword. The Orphan Obliterator is a deadly weapon. He also still favours swords even when axes are better in the newest version, so a greatsword was a must. Also I just really like greatswords.

I wavered a bit when picking a subclass, to be honest. I’m not really a big fan of any of the official subclasses (they don’t really fir my playstyle, which is why I homebrewed an entire new subclass for my barbarian character, but that’s a post for another day), but looking through, there were a few that could work. Originally, I picked Juggernaut - this was because of how he fought during the Dream battle, moving Dream around the arena into a more advantageous position for Techno, which is the Juggernaut’s 3rd level ability in a nutshell. They also can’t be knocked prone, and both of these things work INCREDIBLY well for skywars/bedwars style combat - staying put on this island and knocking off your opponents.

However, in the end, I decided to go with Zealot. It was inevitable after he REALLY started building his character on the Dream SMP, which is what this is mostly based on. Zealots have two main points: they follow a God, and it’s very, VERY hard to kill them.

Sound familiar?

Techno isn’t just a barbarian - he also has three levels of Battlemaster fighter. The barbarian/fighter combo is one of the best there is for sheer combat power (bested only, in my opinion, by barbarian/moon druid - those characters are actually unkillable) and the choice of Battlemaster specifically opened up so many options in combat. I had debated going with champion, just for the crit probability boost, but ultimately decided that Battlemaster was infinitely more fun. The three maneuvers were picked for a combination of reasons - they’re all incredibly useful in combat, but I also just thought they were thematically accurate and/or funny. I just had to give him Menacing Attack, because one of the few constants in Technoblade’s combat is people running the hell away from him during competitions. Feinting is for pure combat ability, and Trip is just. Really funny to me. It worked better when he was Juggernaut and literally couldn’t be knocked prone, but I just like the idea of someone using their full action to try and knock over this eight foot tall firbolg (they’re so fucking tall! This bitch is massive!) Technoblade just. Looking down at them before knocking them clean off of their feet with one swing of his Greatsword.

And finally, weapons and magical items. The magic ones didn’t actually make it onto the stat block, because I wanted it to be purely basic character building, but I absolutely had some ideas. Some of these were rolled on loot tables, some were completely homebrewed to fit Techno’s canon weapons. Guess which ones lmao.

magical heavy crossbow (use charge to fire 3 bolts simultaneously, using only one arrow, rolling an attack for each. Each target must be within 10ft of each other. 7 charges per day)

explosive bolts (10ft radius, double dice of the weapon it’s fired from, dex save)

mithral half-plate

ring of feather falling

trident of flight (attunement) (30ft swim and flight speed, 120ft flight speed when its raining)

upgraded cape of the mountebank (8 charges, 2 for misty step, 4 for dimension door) (yes it looks like his normal cape)

bag of holding

sword of life-stealing (attunement) (I don’t know why I added this except Techno’s canon sword would be VERY hard to homebrew and also he can do enough damage with a normal one so he could literally just have like a +2 or something. Do what you want)

#candy posts #dream smp #technoblade #dnd #dream smp dnd builds #ive been working on these fucking things for MONTHS i cannot wait to post more #i have dreams stat block made too and i have a lot of other builds finished that i just havent typed up yet lol

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