#Timeline Convergence-S1

[that-one-ink]

a Little green ghost is seen in the background past Mac. they see you. they know you. don't they?

" . . . i know that look . . . "

[maliciousalice]

Hear me out (or don't... it's fine I'm just venting and mean) yeah um I don't believe Chakotay was saved in Prod*gy s2.

[butterflydm]

WoT 3x08 Deep Dive (additional book spoilers)

Spoilers for all of s3 and through the books in A Memory of Light.

So, much like linking has been made more dangerous in the show (in the books, being in a circle protects you from burning out) and swearing to the Dark One is made more dangerous (we saw how Melindhra died in this episode), visiting the Aelfinn has also been made more dangerous -- in the books, the Eelfinn were a risky trip, but the Aelfinn doorway was used relatively frequently with no mention of people vanishing and not returning that I can recall.

Are there only these two doorways or will we find another Aelfinn doorway in Tear? Will Mat get his prophecies or does he only get his boons?

This change from the books to the show also fits in with how we have deadlier villains and more deaths than the books, so it all ties together thematically.

Why did Alviarin vote for Siuan instead of Elaida, now with book knowledge: Why did the Black Ajah vote for Siuan instead of Elaida?

Maybe it does come down to viewing Elaida as more reckless and more of a loose canon than Siuan. The Black Ajah has their fingers inside every Ajah of the White Tower, and now that Elaida has gotten this answer from the Aelfinn, Alviarin knows that Siuan is potentially destined for a short stint as the Amrylin. The Black Ajah learns at some point that the Dragon has been reborn, though they have less information than Siuan and Moiraine were working with in terms of the timeline. I believe that it's implied that the Vileness* was the Black Ajah using the Red Ajah in order to try to find the Dragon Reborn, but they had to cast a much wider net than Moiraine and Siuan, because they had an even less firm grasp on how old the Dragon Reborn was.

(*which led to Thom's nephew being gentled, which led to Thom leaving Morgase's court, and being able to save Rand and Mat in Bree)

Though both Ishamael and Moiraine do hone in on the Two Rivers at roughly the same time, converging together in 1x01 but with Moiraine getting just enough of an edge that she's able to get the Dragon (and his companions) out of the Two Rivers, though that leads to its own complications.

Alviarin also may have been voting for maximum instability, because that has been a long-term goal of Ishamael and the Black Ajah throughout the course of the last three thousand years. The show version of the Black Ajah has been more effective than the book version -- we learn in s1 that the location of the Dark One's prison was lost, due to Tower books that were burnt by darkfriends, and the White Tower believed that the Dark One was imprisoned at the Eye of the World when it was really Ishamael who was sealed there.

More knowledge has been lost to time, like the knowledge of how to tie off weaves. It's all part of the show making the villains more effective than they were in the books and thus a harder challenge for the heroes to overcome (and requiring more sacrifice).

Voting for Siuan here sets Elaida's enmity towards her even further into stone, essentially given Alviarin something to use against Siuan whenever it becomes convenient. And Alvairin likely was able to lean on 'logic' (and, being Black Ajah, lies) in order to get Elaida not to hold the vote-switching against her.

Now that we've seen the formal Aes Sedai shawls in the show, I wonder if we're going to see them more and more as Elaida's reign goes on and the divide between the Ajahs deepens, just as happened in the books.

When Alviarin casts her vote for Siuan, we really see Liandrin's frustration -- I'm guessing she knows that Alviarin is the Highest of the Black Ajah and that her vote is going to mean every Black Ajah Sister (apart from Liandrin herself) is going to fall in line and vote along with her.

Kerene was, I assume, not Black Ajah so I wonder if her standing up in Siuan's favor meant that Liandrin was off the hook of needing to be a Red Sitter voting against her own Ajah. Or if there were yet more Black Ajah Sitters who could have stood up if needed.

Hearing that title of "Watcher of the Seals" feels even more ironic in this version than it did in the books. I mean, in both cases, the White Tower didn't know where the seals were but in this case, they're all getting broken way before the Last Battle happens.

I was sad that we were given yet another example of Egwene and Rand failing to communicate instead of getting a scene to close out the Aviendha and Rand thread that we've had this season, but putting a more positive scene with Aviendha and Rand here would probably make Aviendha's question to Egwene later feel jarring, and it's clear that the show wants to hammer home the death of the Randgwene relationship, so I'm assuming that's why that was prioritized.

I do feel like we got too little of Egwene's inner life this season, but hopefully we'll get more from her next season, when she has a chance to talk again to people she trusts.

On the topic of finding Rand a teacher, there are two main options -- we're getting Asmodean in s4 and he will be Rand's teacher, or Lews Therin is going to be Rand's teacher. We do catch a glimpse of what I assume is LTT in this episode, though I didn't catch it myself until it was pointed out by a great gifset. It's a great blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment for both the audience and for Rand himself -- that distant figure on the horizon that disappears in a blink of an eye (it's right before Rand's conversation with Moiraine).

I could go either way -- I do enjoy Asmodean as a character, but now that Sammael is dead, the Shadow does appear to lack a general, so they might want to put in Demandred to serve that purpose.

Egwene and Aviendha's conversation has a double-meaning for book readers, of course, because Aviendha's words are actually more about herself and less about Egwene (maybe they will become friends in the time-skip between s3 &4, but they've shown no particular friendship up to this point -- Elayne and Perrin were the only wetlanders that Aviendha had a positive relationship with in 3x01 per what Mat said).

"There is no choice in what has already been seen. It is the Aiel's duty to follow him but you are not Aiel, Egwene. He has lain with a Shadowsouled and promises a future of destruction and madness. Yours is a future you can choose. Is he worthy of your strength?"

Which is the same vibe from the books at this point in time -- Aviendha sees her future in the rings and tries to run from it, just like how she tried to run from being a Wise One. She actively resents every moment when Rand shows himself to be more than she expected him to be, and yet also resents it when, for example, he says that wetlanders don't usually share lovers. Aviendha is an emotional mess right now and she is projecting all of that onto Egwene, and likely resenting that Egwene does get more of a choice than Aviendha feels like she gets in her own life. Egwene walked out on the White Tower in order to follow Rand, whatever her reasons -- Aviendha ran away from the Wise Ones for a time, but she can't abandon her duty to her people and she resents Egwene for her ability to choose where she goes and what she does.

"Duty" is a strong thread that runs through Aviendha-Elayne-Rand's plotlines this season. Where does your duty lie? Elayne longs for a taste of freedom but knows her duty will always take her back to the Lion Throne; Aviendha ran away in order to have some more time as a Maiden but now must learn how to put away her spears; Rand is trying to figure out the best way to meet his own obligations and duties to the world.

"There is no choice in what has already been seen." (Aviendha; 3x08) "The Wheel never gives anyone what they want. Least of all me." (Rand; 2x04) "You know, the only thing I ever wonder about is what it must be like to choose your own fate." (Elayne 2x04)

It does feel like they are setting themselves up to make the Avirandlayne romance more difficult next season, which might be the goal -- easily slipping into a solid relationship isn't very dramatic. I go back to Alanna's words from 2x01, "Things have to be messy before they are perfect". So, if we do get our s4, I am expecting messiness at the start of Avirandlayne, potentially centered around Aviendha having seen the worst of Rand due to seeing the fallout of his relationship with Egwene and yet also seeing him embracing his duty here in 3x08, as Elayne promised that he would.

And, by contrast, Elayne can potentially be the person who understands the hard choices that Rand needs to make and she actually feel perfectly positioned to be the one to hear him out about what happened with Lanfear, because she's also been tricked by one of the Forsaken into caring about them (though her trickery was more magical in nature, due to being down to Rahvin's Compulsion). In the books, Elayne is the person that Rand first confides in about what happened on Dragonmount (his epiphany).

For Aviendha, seeing Rand embrace his duty so strongly must make it feel even more glaring to her how she has kicked and fought against her duty and tried to run away from it for so long. Plus, she also learns that her entire way of life up to this point has been a lie (when Rand reveals the truth of Rhuidean), so there's also that for her to deal with in s4.

So, Thom's story about Elayne taking apart the clocks -- @markantonys reminded me that this was originally a story about Mat, and it got me to thinking about how they've moved a lot of these things around, to emphasis certain parts of character's interests or backstories or the journey that they will take going forward.

There's this example about the clocks -- originally a Mat story to explain why he liked to mess around with things and find out how they work. I feel like there's a pretty solid chance that Aludra and the cannons/guns storylines might be a cut side plot, so it makes sense to shift that interest in "how things work" over to Elayne, who is going to be our resident ter'angreal tinkerer, and who we've already shown has an interest in tinkering around with weaves.

An example from earlier this season was Moiraine getting the moment that Mat has in the books about carrying tons of knives on him and needing to remove them all before Rhuidean -- used in the show to illustrate Moiraine's paranoia and the need to have a physical weapon to depend on after she went through most of s2 shielded and unable to use the One Power.

And a big one from this episode is Min being the person who saves Mat's life after the doorway instead of it being Rand. Used to have Min fully redeemed from her earlier choices in the eyes of the audience, I would guess? I will probably always mourn that Mat got shifted from the Aiel Waste trip to Tanchico, though I will remind myself that I always have the books. I assume that the show probably feels like the Rand & Mat friendship was established enough with their time together in s1 & s2 and didn't need any more emphasis right now.

There's also moving Melindhra-the-Darkfriend from Mat's plot to Lan's, where it was used to tell us more about Malkier and to show us what happens when someone chooses to betray their Dark Oaths.

Not all of the shifted moments are Mat-related! I also feel like shifting the "learning Aiel culture" subplot from Egwene to Rand falls under this category and fits under the same general idea as the clocks one -- the Aiel are going to be much more relevant to Rand going forward than they will to Egwene, and the show is also interested in telling a story where Rand gets more invested in his birth heritage, including making him more deeply affected by his journey in the columns.

I bet there are other examples of this happening too, but those were the ones that came to mind most readily.

So, Elaida spoke to the Aelfinn and not the Eelfinn, so I am going to tentatively assume that they deal in questions and not needs, like in the books. What questions did Elaida ask? We know that she learned that she would become the Amyrlin Seat, so that's one of the questions. Given that she'd had that Foretelling about Andor ten years prior, I feel like she might have asked something about Andor. Would her third question have been about the Dragon Reborn? We don't really have any reason to think that she had guessed about the Dragon being reborn, so I'm going to guess not. I'd love to know her exact questions and answers because, knowing Elaida, I'm sure she interpreted them incorrectly.

With Nynaeve's block broken (in an underwater scene, no less), we've cut out yet another element of Ebou Dar. It really does feel like we've either already taken care of or eliminated a lot of Ebou Dar.

A brief recap:

Renna: dead

Seta: dead

Carridin: dead

Suroth: dead

Avilayne cultural bonding: accomplished

Matlayne friendship: accomplished

Nynaeve's block broken: accomplished

While I am definitely influenced by how much I dislike some of the events that happen in Ebou Dar... it really does seem like they've taken a lot of it off the board already.

And here's a question -- the way that Rand's storm in this episode is treated... this is a storm that touched as far as Tanchico. Do we need the Bowl of the Winds when Rand is capable of doing that?

Given the prophecy they closed out the season on, they appear to be leaning into "the Dragon is one with the land" theme, which might mean tying any downturns in the weather of the world directly into Rand's downward spiral, and make it so that it's Rand's emotional epiphany that heals the weather (hey, which would mean that Elayne, Aviendha, Nynaeve, and Mat could still be key to that plotline).

Or maybe we'll get the Bowl of the Winds plotline as written but... Rand created a storm in the Aiel Waste that the characters in Tanchico were reacting to. That's a pretty big weather event.

We also once again have Rand doing the more 'philosophical' battle while someone else does the 'physical' battle, foreshadowing the kind of battle that Rand needs to fight at the end of the series. All of the incredible power that Rand has exists to get him to the point where he can make that philosophical choice (or present it to others, in this case); the power isn't the point.

The choice is.

People making the choice to let the Light shine through them and stand up against what's wrong. And that's exactly what Siuan tells Elaida and the rest of the Hall.

For Elaida, and for Lanfear... the power is the point.

That's the difference between Elaida and Siuan. The difference between Lanfear and Moiraine.

The prophecy that we end on. We didn't hear the very first line in the show, and that line makes the prophecy more ominous.

There can be no health in us, nor any good thing grow For the land is one with the Dragon Reborn, and he is one with the land. Soul of fire, heart of stone, in pride he conquers, forcing the proud to yield. He calls upon the mountains to kneel, and the seas to give way, and the very skies to bow. Pray that the heart of stone remembers tears, and the soul of fire, love

It feels very significant that, in a season where Rand was breaking off his previous romantic relationships and believing that he needs to embrace Moiraine's more ruthless philosophy about how he should engage with the world, we end on a prophecy telling us of the importance that the Dragon Reborn remember compassion and love.

"Remember who you are, Rand al'Thor, no matter what you may become," Nynaeve says to him in 3x01, as they part. But Rand hasn't had anyone with him to remind him of it -- he and Egwene weren't talking about anything, each of them silo'd off into their separate worlds, touching and yet not connecting. Both of his closest friends were gone. Nynaeve was gone.

But it is important that Rand be Rand, just as much as it's important that he be the Dragon.

So, yeah, it does feel noteworthy that we're reminded of the importance of Rand remembering love right after he's had a definitive break-up with both of his previous significant romantic entanglements.

Because as long as Rand is on a path that leads to him putting away love and empathy, he is on a collision course with disaster and the doom of the world, even though he thinks that he's doing the right thing and putting fewer people in danger.

For us book readers, we know that Rand following this path could end the world as surely as agreeing to go with Lanfear world.

We watch Rand willingly vanishing into his own prophecy here, and that is just as dangerous as him denying the truth of the prophecy.

As Aviendha said at the start of the season, there needs to be balance.

Given that all outside of the show indicators and in-show hints do imply that we are going to be getting Rand's polycule (Avirandlayne definitely, and maybe also Rand-Min, though that has not been touched on at all since 1x07, despite the show having opportunities for it), s4 also feels like the time we'd be moving into showing it.

I don't want to get too involved in speculating, both because the show has done an excellent job of swerving me in a lot of places and because we don't have that renewal yet, but a little bit of speculation -- the implication is that s4 will be the season of Avirandlayne. Rand's emotional entanglements with both Lanfear and Egwene have been cleared out (at least for him) and though he's determined to keep it that way, our ending prophecy (and Rand's own nature) implies that love is going to be a key aspect for him going forward.

We know that Aviendha's stance on romance is that it's just Too Much to expect only two people to share the emotional weight of a relationship, you need more people than that. It's also really obvious to book readers that she definitely saw Rand in the rings in the show, just like she did in the books. Her reaction to seeing him in Rhuidean and then the way she keeps poking at various things afterwards. Subtle enough that it flew under the radar for non-book readers, but very much a "if you know, you know" situation. The very first thing she asks Rand in their cultural exchange is whether or not wetlanders share lovers and she gets testy and takes it out on him when he says that they don't usually.

So that is Avirand set up to mostly do a slowburn situation for s4.

As for Rand, though he seems determined to try to stay away from love now, we also know that he is an extremely heart-first sort of person. His relationship with 'Selene' started out as transactional, but his feeling got involved because Rand isn't built for sleeping with people and not developing feelings (which she took advantage of). Josha talked about this in an interview of his that was released after the finale aired -- Rand loves easy, and it's actually good and important for the world that his heart is full of love, because that is what ends up saving the world in the end. The Dragon Reborn needs to care. It's incredibly important that he not become stone, that he not become steel. But he believes the opposite right now, so that's the challenge that the show is putting in front of him for s4.

How is Elayne going to come back into things?

(are we going to end up with a throuple Far Snows situation in s4?)

Elayne & co will probably want to meet up with Rand & co as soon as possible, to warn him about the collar being in the hands of the Black Ajah and/or the Forsaken, and Elayne needs to be in Rand's plotline for any romance to kick off between them.

Elayne, Thom, and Mat are all people who can be extremely helpful for Rand's upcoming "conquering nations in the wetlands" arc -- Elayne and Thom to help with politics and Mat to help with military matters. This is actually one of the reasons that I figured Moiraine might die in 3x08 -- because Rand already has teachers lined up. But Moiraine is also positioned as much less politically-savvy in the show than she was in the books -- she tells Siuan that she never would have managed to become Amyrlin Seat because she makes enemies too easily, and she's mostly been on the road for the last two decades. So Moiraine will probably wrangle prophecy and One Power related things, with Elayne & Thom being politics, and Mat being military.

While I do like both Bashere and Ituralde in the books, I'm kinda hoping that Mat will basically absorb them in the show as far as plot lines go, because they both kinda exist to steal Mat's potential plots so that he can go off and do random shit instead.

So, in terms of what has been set up for s4 (expanding on what I said in the show-only post):

I think that Couladin will take the Aiel to attack Tear, as opposed to Cairhien, because Tear seems like it's going to be one of our main locations next season.

We have several groups already implied to need to go to Tear:

Rand, to get Callandor

Elayne & co, to warn Rand about the collar being taken (Tear is the one place that they know he needs to go eventually, plus Elayne has a family friend there)

There was a cut scene about Leane, Verin, & Ryma leaving to go to where Siuan was born, so I think Salidar's location is being shifted to Tear, which is gonna make it a LOT easier to have all of the characters who visit Salidar in the books go there in the show too, while still being able to join Rand's plotline (or leave it, in the case of Egwene)

Lanfear urging Rahvin to go for Callandor

And then Perrin will potentially be doing his late-series "whitecloak trial" plotline, as well as possibly the wolf dream stuff.

So very tentative thoughts on s4 (fingers crossed for renewal!):

I was originally thinking that it might open with the battle for Tear but if that ends up being a Mat focal episode as he pulls together the Band of the Red Hand, it feels more likely to be slightly later in the season. Hopefully no later than 4x03, though.

4x04 feels like the most likely place for Moiraine to get sent through the doorway, unless it doesn't happen until 4x08. Those feel like the most likely "spots", because they always have a game-changing event in the fourth episode (Nynaeve revealing her power in 1x04; Selene being revealed as Lanfear in 2x04; Rhuidean in 3x04).

(Will Moiraine get doorway'd or Die For Real? idk)

Moiraine is firmly in "trusted adviser" space for Rand, but I'm curious how that might interact with Elayne's advice once she is reunited with Rand (hopefully early on in the season -- both the show itself and Rafe outside the show imply that love is key for Rand, but that doesn't tell us how quickly or how deeply that will be explored right off the bat in s4). It was Elayne's advice to Rand in 3x01 that made him decide to go to the Aiel Waste.

Is Egwene going to go to the "Salidar" location early on in s4 and then get raised later on, or will she only go there when it's time for her to become Amyrlin? (relocating it to much closer to Tear does make all of this a lot easier)

Moiraine making a point of saying that the White Tower "bending the knee" to Rand is a key part of him winning the Last Battle vs the show making a point of Egwene (future Amyrlin) not bowing to Rand and the show tying it to Lanfear's claims of never bowing to LTT sets up a potential point of tension for the future -- obviously Elaida would never do never "bend the knee" to Rand, but show has set up Egwene as not willing to do that either, which would mean the end of the world, basically.

In the books, this was kinda a focal point of what ended up being the negotiations between Rand and the Seanchan Empress, where the Seanchan prophecies said that the Dragon had to kneel before the Crystal Throne or the Last Battle would be lost. Are they shifting that to the conflict between Rand and Egwene instead?

(if so, I would imagine there would be a subversion or a twist involved at some point, which is kinda what happens in the books between Rand & the Seanchan Empress)

[aemiron-main]

Hi! Since you've seen the play a few times, would you mind answering a quick question? Does the Hawkins Library make any kind of appearance or otherwise get mentioned in the play?

Between its clock tower which chimes like Vecna's grandfather clock as the four gates converge at its location, and the fact it's where Will was taken to get slugged, the library is clearly a place of significance for Vecna -- but as far as I've been able to gather, the play doesn't seem to offer any explanation as to why.

Does The Hawkins Library Appear In TFS?

HELLO!! <3 Great question- sadly, the play does NOT touch on the library at all. It’s honestly a little weird that it’s literally never brought up whatsoever!

Which, I think it’s extra weird that the library never got brought up considering how the ST library clock tower parallels the clock tower in Back To The Future. Especially since in TFS, Henry is always running late, much like Marty McFly, and his code name was George during the auditions (much like George McFly), and then there’s also the changing newspapers about George McFly that change based on changes to the timeline, versus a.) the Henry vs Edward papers about the Creel murders in-show and b.) the weird TFS newspapers about the Creel murders that are completely different from the in-show newspapers about the Creel murders.

There’s also the whole thing re: “you have to be your dad” in TFS vs Marty McFly almost accidentally becoming his own father/erasing himself from existence.

Which, the newspaper thing is especially interesting re: the missing library considering that the newspapers were down in the library basement in s4 (well, specifically, the weekly watcher was/thats where we get the scene of robin grabbing the weekly watcher to look at) vs will being in the UD library’s basement in S1.

It also struck me as weird that there’s so many other things/parts of Hawkins that are mentioned on the posters in the theatre and that are relevant in-show (such as the first Snow Ball), but don’t even get a single throwaway line in the play. Even though there’s other locations (such as Henderson Liquors) that have the entire building on stage, both interior and exterior/Henry walks into it- not to mention the giant USS Eldridhe ship on stage. Point is, if they wanted to show us a location, whether interior or exterior, they would, so it’s a pointed choice for them Not to.

Which, this whole location weirdness is extra weird when we consider what I talked about in this post re: almost every location in TFS also being Hawkins High for some reason.

However, Will’s scenes underneath the library in S1 definitely have cave vibes IMO, and I think that’s definitely going to tie into some Henry parallels re: the cave that Henry was in when he was in Nevada/when he contracted the shadow.

And like I’ve talked about on here before, the clock also never shows up in TFS, even though we hear it, we never see it, despite the fact that there’s a whole scene in the Creel foyer, it’s a.) conveniently dark and b.) the clock just. Isn’t there, so there’s smthn rattling about that vs the library clock also not showing up in TFS and the parallels between the Creel clock and the library clock in S4.

I also wonder if the library’s significance to Vecna is going to tie into the whole Brenner-As-Vecna/Beenner having merged himself with Henry or Edward thing, and if the library was significant to Brenner because a.) we do get him tied to the library in S1 when Hopper reads those articles about him in the library and b.) TFS straight up had Vecna’s shadow pop up behind Brenner, and IMO, the Brenner-Vecna connection just gets stronger every day.

Anyway! I hope this answers your question/helps! :DD Thanks for the ask! <333

[harleyxhoward]

The Umbrella Academy S4 (thoughts & opinions)

- HOT TAKE: The issue I had with Five and Lila getting together wasn’t the bizarre age gap or insensitivity of Five sleeping with his brother’s wife, but how they don’t resolve the tension properly before they all cease to exist. Specifically Diego and Five don’t get to hold hands the way Lila and Five did, even though it wasn’t really up to Lila to “forgive” Five, but whatever. I thought that had this affair been treated with an ounce of consideration it would reveal a lot more about both characters shared desperation for affection and emotional stimulation. Five spent decades in complete social isolation to the point where he legitimately fell in love with a mannequin and you want me to believe that, given the similar scenario that most certainly triggered the same “well I guess I’m stuck in this shit now for an indefinite amount of time” area of his brain, he wouldn’t have resorted to falling in love with the fist available person regardless of what it meant outside of the subway? Lila too seemed to get with Diego because while they did click in S2, she had never lived a life that allowed her to experience romance or starting a family like she could with Diego. She pumped out three kids to seemingly force herself to enjoy what she knows could be taken away from her at the throwing of a time traveling briefcase, but her behavior this season is baffling because what do you mean after seven years of searching for a way home she never once brings up missing those three children until the opportunity to return home presents itself? She tries to wipe her hands of the situation, but then the show just kind of ends without meaningful conclusion, so…

- The ending was sloppy. I know you know that, but my issue wasn’t the actual end. The Hargreeves having to sacrifice themselves in a way indicative of the S1 finale makes perfect sense, especially with the painfully shallow Five Diner down in that unexplained subway station where they all indirectly allude to the fact that there’s never a condition where at least one of the family doesn’t end the world. Had the Fives took time to explain that each Hargreeve possesses earth shattering abilities that eventually snowball out of control regardless of the condition, and all resistance is futile, I would accept that the ending makes more sense than just blaming the marigold despite the fact that Victor can/has been able to syphon marigold out of people, and could’ve just taken it all himself but you know, whatever.

- I also deeply resent that a show about familial trauma and bonding despite the shared adversity ultimately concluded on everyone giving up. No. You don’t get to say that they “didn’t just give up” because yes, them saying “oh no, well, there’s ten minutes left of the episode, guess we should cease to exist now” is the definition of not even trying to venture down into the subway as a family and fix the other timelines one at a time, using their newfound familial unity to solve every timeline until they converge into one. I’m not saying that needed to happen at all, or that they should have succeeded even if they tried, but AT LEAST THEN THEY WOULD HAVE TRIED. The writers gave up, the characters gave up, and the metaphor of grief and family issues the show spent so long to cultivate were just abandoned.

- Klaus regressed with no substantial reason or impact other than to provide slapstick humor and comedic relief antics that didn’t amount to any of what he had spent the last few seasons building and working towards. Ben shouldn’t have been brought back after his noble and meaningful sacrifice of S2 only to be made into the most obnoxious version of himself. Allison didn’t even get to say “I heard a rumor” this season nor did she address attempting to sexually assault Luther, and Diego’s relationship with Lila was the absolute worst case scenario for both characters. Viktor was the only one with an arc worth watching this season, which is why I thought him having a solo sacrifice would have been even more gut wrenching but whatever.

- There is an insurmountable amount of plot holes that prove this show just got lazy. There should be a kugelblitz in the finale’s timeline. If Lila/Allison were never born then there could never be Grace/Lila’s children. You don’t get to say “well what about the subway” because that doesn’t protect them from the grandfather paradox, unless outright stated which the writers didn’t even bother to do.

- Why didn’t they just kill Jennifer? Who put her in the squid? If it was Reggie’s wife then why didn’t she just kill her? Why didn’t Reggie kill her when he built the town to “protect” her? Why did she react with pure terror when shown the squid? How did Jean and Gene get their hands on it? Was it a normal giant squid or an alien? Was it her mother? No, because then how did she speak English when she emerged from its stomach? Why did she say “the cleanse” like she knew what it meant when she didn’t? Ben should’ve been able to remember in the OG timeline how he died because absolutely every other spirit does and the show can’t just rewrite its own lore to cater to a last minute subplot that went nowhere. I don’t want to be mean but Jennifer never should have existed as a S4 add in because she did absolutely nothing for the plot other than confusing the audience with the persistent question of why didn’t they just kill her to prevent the cleanse from happening. Reginald said one of them had to die, but in the OG timeline he killed both just to be…cruel? What’s the point of writing that it just had to be one of them if you’re just going to act like it’s a package deal? This entire plot line made me truly believe this season was written by AI, I’m sorry.

[hauntingofhouses]

Hi! What do you think about the usage of time in Blue Eye Samurai? And do you think Mizu is closer to 20 towards the ending of s1?

Hi there!

Hmm... This is an interesting question, and one I find a little difficult to answer if I'm being honest. "Usage of time" is kind of broad, and I'm afraid I'm not too sure of what you're asking, so I don't know if I can give a comprehensive response. But! I will try.

Time as a narrative device in the show is honestly something I haven't thought much of. Overall the story is quite linear, and the flashbacks are also rather linear.

The most notable usage of flashbacks is of course in The Tale of the Ronin and the Bride. The way it juxtaposes past and present, making us believe past Mizu is the Bride and present Mizu is the Ronin, only for both past and present Mizu to converge into the Onryo—it's masterful storytelling, and it's no wonder most viewers (including myself) consider Episode 5 to be the best in the season.

Also, now that I recall, the first episode of the show actually starts off by framing the whole story as a "legend of a swordsman, of a sword, of revenge." You could interpret this as the story being related to an audience by an unknown invisible narrator, which might come into play at the very end of series, or it could just be a stylistic choice, which is my personal take on it.

On the other hand, time as it unfolds in the present day makes more sense the less you think about it, and I say this mostly in a nitpicky CinemaSins type way (sorry) whereby the time it takes to travel from one place to another seems incredibly fast, rather than spanning days or weeks, considering Mizu mostly travels by foot. The time it takes for Mizu (and Taigen) to recover from their wounds is twice as fast. But again, these are details that are quite irrelevant to the story itself, and I just like to hand-wave them away by saying that the show follows video game logic in many regards, and the passing of time is one of them.

On a slight tangent though, while I'm on the subject of the show stretching the bounds of what's realistic or accurate, I'd also like to point out that the show seemingly takes place in an alternate timeline from our own, or at least just a completely fictionalised version of history. I say this because the Shogun im the show is from the Itoh clan, which is in fact a real clan (more commonly spelled as Itō) that ruled the Obi-han during the Edo period. However, they were not the ruling clan of the shogunate as they are in the show. Rather, the shogunate was led by the Tokugawa clan, who ruled Edo between 1603 to 1868. So! Yeah. Thought it'd be an interesting fact to mention.

Now, for the second half of your question, I actually think Mizu is a little older than 20.

I doubt that the show will give us a concrete answer to this, so this is all speculation, but hear me out. Japan closed its borders in 1633. The Great Fire of Edo takes place in the spring of 1657. In present day (assuming early 1657), Heiji Shindo and Fowler mention that they've known each other for 20 years, which could possibly allude to Fowler being in Japan for 20 years, or their partnership lasting 20 years. I took it to mean the latter, which means that Fowler must've been in Japan for at least 24 years. This gives us the maximum plausible age limit for Mizu. She cannot be any older than 24.

She also cannot be any younger than 19. This is because the character sheets tell us that she starts to look like herself as we see her today, at age 19. We can thus infer that this is the age when she first leaves Master Eiji's house (during winter), reunites with Mama (in the spring), and marries Mikio. Her marriage with Mikio, iirc, lasts less than a year, spanning from spring to autumn.

We can then roughly assume she's about 20 when she leaves the farm behind and resumes her revenge quest. Between then and the present, Mizu kills Violet. Assuming this gap of time is about a year long, that means Mizu is roughly 21 upon meeting Ringo in Ep1. So it's possible that at the end of the season she's either 21, or nearing 22, depending on if the season begins in early 1657, around January or February (the year of the Great Fire), or around December of 1656, the previous year. Personally, because I like my blorbos on the older end, I like to interpret her as the latter.

So yeah! I hope I answered your question anon, even if a little bit. These are fun little exercises for me to work my noggin, so I appreciate the ask! <3

[wordswhisperinthedark]

WAIT.

(stuff from Link Click S2'S first 2 eps mentioned below the cut!)

Aren't this season's op and ed also kind of like warning us to not believe everything we're seeing? Especially if the current theory going around that not everyone is from the same time line holds true?

We start with s1's intro about the rules of their jumps, and Lu Guang's warning to not meddle with the past, or worry about the future. Which then gives us a quick run of the first season's events, focusing on the final overarching plot line — a plot that occurs because CXS wanted to change Emma's fate.

Yet now we've learned that LG hasn't actually died, but Liu Min, and we're given this small comfort the trio are all together, they're ok, they're going to work this out.

But Chen Bin, one of their allies, has died (and in the first episode!! with a pregnant wife waiting for him that was so twisted of them, but I had a feeling their introduction was a death flag), bringing us back to reality: the game isn't over. There are new players, new pieces that we have yet to see where they fit — even how do current pieces fit, with all the new knowledge.

So. What do we trust?

Episode 2 reminds us no one is safe. It even ends on a cliffhanger of Lu Guang already in trouble, directly crossing paths with Red Eyes. Does he die for real this time? 2 funerals still seem to be going on, so is one for Chen Bin and another for Lu Guang (especially with the outfit in that obscured picture)? Or will they actually focus on Liu Min, someone who is shown to not be appreciated by his father?

Also, knowing CXS, he will probably try to find a way to save everyone, to get justice for everyone — and if we are to take the imagery from the ED, new knowledge of their powers could help him do that. At a cost.

Like, these lines from VORTEX:

Where do we end up when we save the world?

Wanting it all / And the whole world will crumble and fall

It's as if there will be a point this season where it seems like they've done it. Like they've won. But the rules of time remind them that they can't have everything. That everything as they know it will crumble if they get what they want.

What if reality fractures, timelines converging and distorting the truth, until we don't know where one timeline ends and another begins; which timeline each character belongs to.

Shattered mirrors our reflection

So this is where The TIDES comes in. If VORTEX is a song that blends determination to "win this silly game" with warnings of what happens when you play with destiny, The TIDES seems reflect uncovering the truth about the powers held in this world and its inner workings.

Open your eyes... passing through lies.

I got lost in the trap of time lapse / Cut through the night

The lyrics seem to act as a reminder to remain vigilant with what we are seeing, to not take things at face value. That the characters must cut through the darkness, to find their way out of the traps of the various timeliness. That there is a truth to be revealed to place all the pieces together.

Guess we'll just have to wait and see ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[camellcat]

I keep thinking about this one fic, where amy gets sent back in time to the beginning of s1 by a weeping angel, and like. idk. I want to see clara in s1. idk how'd she get there. probably some wackiness of converging timelines or whatever since we already know she's, like, woven throughout his entire life. but I just wanna see her reaction to nine and rose. specifically nine. and then seeing how different s2 ten is to ANY doctor she's ever known. I want her there!!! plus her and rose would be best friends SORRY I keep saying it but it's TRUE

[that-one-ink]

" . . . not this again . . ."

[angst-fairygodmother]

What are your feelings now that The Witcher has cast a canon Valdo Marx?

Complicated. Conflicted. Confused.

On the one hand, I am looking forward to Jaskier having someone to banter off of/face off with that is his equal. I know he's been on a slow level-up path, but he's still outclassed by Witchers and Sorceresses and etc. Plus, I think having more regular people and intrigue could be really interesting for plot direction. (The actor they chose is also quite pretty, so I can't complain there either). And I assume as a bard they cast someone who, like Joey, can sing with the best of them, and that gives me great hope for a Bard-Off and/or some fantastic season 3 songs.

On the other hand, there are already So. Many. Characters. and I don't think, as someone who is essentially a canon foreigner, Valdo is necessary. Jaskier vs Cahir would still be a battle of the Regular™ Men. Jaskier has at this point earned his ability to go toe to toe with spymasters and generals I think. It would be a better way to highlight his skill and how one of the things that makes him dangerous is that he's underestimated.

I also think that casting Valdo is an attempt to cash in on the love we all have for him among the fandom. But the thing that makes him loveable is that he's such a blank slate and there can be 1000 wildly different takes, and all of them make us go "Yup. Classic Valdo." You know, for example some of us write him as Jaskier's rival, or Jaskier in a moustache, or Jaskier's ex. Some of us have reinterpreted him as a jerk with a heart of gold and made him into a love interest for an OC or reader-insert. Some of us made him the Phantom of the Opera. And all of us were correct. Except now, none of us are?

There is also a little part of me that wants to respond to the casting by deleting all of my Valdo fics, and then maybe rewriting them to fit the show Valdo if I decide I like him, but that's probably the imposter syndrome talking.

[shippingfangirl013]

Stranger Things S5 Conglomerate Twelvegate Theory (Part 1):

Because I have no clue what to call this and it’s basically a massive convergence of all the gates/theories into one?

@chirpsythismorning and I had to solve Twelvegate to figure out the rest and… I think we stumbled across the answer just off of rambling… and playing ping-pong with ideas…

This also heavily pulls from Stranger Things parallels to Back to The Future Parts I & II (because re-watching my favorite trilogy helped me to figure out the timeline for Stranger Things).

If you do NOT want spoilers for S5, I suggest you do not read any further.

Because… this is… a doozy. And likely has some MAJOR spoilers, we’re just good at playing detective and dedicating a little too much time to this show.

———————————————————

First, we have to go back to season 1. . .

So, when we first meet the original four kids in the Party, they’re playing D&D. Will knows that he has to roll a 13 or higher here. Will is under the steps, crawling to find the d20.

This is the ORIGINAL timeline. We don’t know much more about the timeline other than seeing 2 minutes into the show. Will is still 12 years old and has a watch on, but we never get a close-up of the watch.

We’ve got a pizza one box, and two regular Coca-Cola cans… okay? Keep that in mind, it’s important later on.

When the Tv flickers, that’s Vecna using his power, likely to alter memories or the timeline/reality itself.

Right after this instance?

We get this scene:

Now, why would Will go from knowing that a 13 counts and is high enough to take out the Demogorgon, to asking if a 7 is high enough? If a 7 counts, right after the TV flickers?

Also, notice that Will is standing framed with the two coke cans and pizza one box behind him. That yellow and blue pen is important too.

(I play D&D, most times, anything below a 13 or 14 is a bad roll and you take a lot of damage. It all depends on if your Dungeon Master wants to be forgiving or not. )

So, the first 3 minutes of season 1, is the original timeline (Timeline A) differentiating/being altered; I say this because, we don’t know anything about that point in time aside from our main Party playing D&D in Mike’s basement.

A key factor here that Jo mentioned while we were talking, is that we don’t see Hopper, Joyce, Lonnie, or Jonathan during the scene in Mike’s basement. We only see Will, Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and briefly, Karen.

Timeline A is altered at 8:15 pm on November 6, 1983.

Each point after the TV flickers is a part of Timeline B. But I think Will actually cast protection on the extended party; El, Max, Lucas, Dustin, Mike, Jonathan, Joyce, Hopper, possibly Murray, and maybe on the others’ families.

But Timeline B was Henry altering the timeline, creating a new reality for our cast of characters. (Putting them in a silly little play, perhaps?) Henry stole Will's powers when Will was kidnapped; but what powers could Will have that Henry needs to re-shape the world?

Time-altering powers and creation powers.

Here's the thing, Henry can manipulate what others see, he can manipulate and alter memories, and it is very likely he was able to take Will's time-altering powers while Will was trapped in the Upside Down. Henry is easily able to use time travel powers to his advantage.

But. . . Henry CAN'T create something out of nothing; as evidenced by his using others' memories to make them see what they fear. He can re-shape the particles that made up the Mind Flayer, however, Henry cannot create to the extent that Will (an artist!) is able to. This is how Will is able to do things like cast Fog Cloud in S2. In S1, Will's True Sight is used.

(I'll come back to this later, because this is literally going to be like a 10-part theory, which may literally just be 100% spoilers)

Timeline B is an altered reality; Henry gave our cast of characters new roles to play. Not just anyone though, primarily: Joyce, Jonathan, Will, El, Hopper, Terry, Sarah, and Diane.

(You may be wondering why I mentioned Sarah, Diane, and Terry; I'll get to that in a bit, if not in this one, then in part 2.)

Joyce is the ex-wife of Lonnie Byers and she is Will and Jonathan's mom. Hopper is the small-town police chief who moved back to Hawkins after his divorce from Diane, and the loss of his daughter Sarah. Terry Ives is El's mama, and Eleven is the girl with powers that escaped from Hawkins Lab. Basically, the events of S1 equate to an altered timeline, or therefore, are the repercussions of an altered timeline.

Timeline A still exists after the original event that alters Timeline A to create the altered reality in Timeline B.

The event that alters Timeline A is an occurrence on the day of Will and El's birth. Henry swaps the families of Joyce and Hopper's twins.

Henry went back in time after taking Will's powers in S1, to alter the timeline, by swapping El and Will at birth in the hospital, so that Will and El (011 & 012) grew up together in the lab, never knowing that they are twins. Will grows up with Lonnie Byers as his father, El grows up in the lab, and Hopper lives in New York for seven years and has a family with Diane. Henry alters Terry Ives' memories and scrambles the signals in her brain via Brenner.

In this altered timeline that is Timeline B, El was taken by the lab at birth, and El's Mama is Terry Ives. Will's mom stays the same, but his father (and Jonathan's father) is changed to Lonnie Byers.

In Timeline A, El was kidnapped first in 1976, and Will was taken second in 1978.

In 1976, there was a drowning at Sattler's Quarry. Seven years prior to 1983; now, for a while, I thought that might be Will, but that didn't add up.

El was taken first at five years old, by the lab. . . on her first day of kindergarten. . . which is why Mike found Will alone and scared on the swing set. El's disappearance was covered up as a drowning in the quarry in 1976. This is why El is paralleled with Maria from Frankenstein (1931) in season 1, with Nancy's pink dress, because Maria drowns in a lake after trying to play a game with Frankenstein's monster.

Now, Will was also kidnapped and taken to the lab in Timeline A, but this gets a little harder to figure out how Will got there in the first place. I think Lonnie has something to do with it, because there are one too many instances of Will being paired with trunks, and we see Jonathan check for Will in Lonnie's Oldsmobile in season 1. However, I'm not 100% certain about that and I will update this if I find anything that changes my thoughts on that.

I know that Will had to have been taken to the lab around 1978, at the age of 7, if he and El were not taken at the same time in 1976. This means, that Will's kidnapping was covered up as a death, (maybe a death from a fatal illness?) that was then altered by a character with the ability to fabricate fake memories. . . shifting the death of a son, to that of a daughter. Sarah's death is the cover-up for Will being taken.

Jonathan doesn't remember much of this either, he would have been 8 years old when El was kidnapped, and 10 years old when Will was kidnapped; if we go off of El being taken at the age of 5 and Will being taken at the age of 7.

1978 is an important year in Timeline A. This is because in Timeline B, it is the year that:

Lonnie took Jonathan hunting at 10 years old

Terry was electrocuted/had her signals scrambled

Sarah dies

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- -

Another thing that I need to address, is Hopper's role in Timeline B.

In 1983, when Hopper calls Diane, he’s wearing his blue flannel… just like how Max’s mom wore a blue flannel in S4…

(I have seen almost every character in the Byers-Hopper family in a BLUE FLANNEL, the only one I haven’t found in a blue flannel (without a jacket over it) is Jonathan.)

But, we see Hopper calling Diane, and then we hear a baby crying in the background. We assume that after 7 years she has moved on… but what if this woman was never Hopper’s “Diane” anyways?

We KNOW that the phones are important. We also know that the lab/Russian government are always listening in on phone calls- since season 1! So, this “Diane” woman that Hopper called was someone from the lab or someone trying to keep the truth from spreading.

Because, I went back to S3, and found this:

This is the only line that says [Diane] in the closed captions. I’ve looked through a few other shots, and the only other shot similar to this is when Hopper is watching Magnum P.I. and a little text comes up saying that the show is playing. They usually do not specify which character is talking in the tv shows with brackets - it just shows the dialogue on screen.

Hopper got incredibly drunk that evening, but the point I’m making here, is that Joyce is Diane.

Hopper’s wife, Diane.

(He never says ex-wife in season 4. He says: “My wife Diane, she wanted a baby,” )

So. . . This means that Henry has had a hand in every little kettle he could get his hands on after he nabbed Will’s time powers.

I doubt that Hopper going to Vietnam was influenced by Henry in any way, but I know that everything else we are shown is influenced by him.

I was trying to piece this all together, and after going through and making a timeline, I think I’ve got how it all lays out - at the very least, I know where the timeline that was altered. At most, I think I have a large surprise that will come up in S5 pinned down.

My focus when pinning the timeline down, was actually on Hopper and Jonathan.

In S1, Joyce tells Lonnie that Jonathan has wanted to go to NYU since he was 6 years old. Now, Jonathan would have been 6 years old in 1974, because he was born in 1968.

I couldn’t figure out why Jonathan would want to go to NYU unless:

- his parent(s) went there / one of his parents went there / something happened to make him want to go to NYU.

NYU is such a specific school, and it is mentioned once in S1, then rarely brought up again. Even in S4, Jonathan was just planning to go to the same college as Nancy, if he was accepted.

It made me think about how Hopper was in NY for seven years. . . And it took me a while to figure this out.

So, Hopper goes off to fight in the Vietnam War when he is 18. The Vietnam War goes on from 1955-1975. This means that Hopper was in Vietnam possibly from 1960 to 1970 at the latest. However, according to the ST Wiki, Hopper met Diane in 1965. . . (I am taking this with a grain of salt), because if this is the case, then Hopper could have been in Vietnam at any point in time between 1960 (when he was 18) to 1970.

But if you do the math from when Sarah was born, if Hopper met Diane in 1965 (and they began dating that year), and Sarah was born in 1971, then Hopper only knew Diane for five years before Sarah was born. Now, we know that Sarah dies in 1978, from cancer. . . and from that 1983 phone call to Diane (counting backward 7 years), Hopper would have been in NY from 1976 to 1983. . .

Another thing is, in Season 1, Hopper says that he has been in Hawkins for 4 years from the point that we meet him in 1983.

1983 - 4 is 1979 -> the year of the Hawkins Lab Massacre. . . so, why would Hopper (as a police officer) not know about that? I know, the lab is secretive and whatnot, but you would assume in an emergency situation, they might call in backup.

1979 is also the year that Mike, Will, Lucas, and Dustin had their Elder Tree campaign. . . (and I'm not quite sure if Will was there depending on the timeline and how things may have worked out).

And then I started to question just how much inspiration could have been taken from Back To The Future?

The Answer? Quite a bit of inspiration was taken from Back to The Future.

Marty's family is made up of his parents (George & Lorraine), his older brother (Dave), his older sister (Linda), and himself (Marty).

This is apparently an important enough movie for the Stranger Things plot that it is heavily referenced with wardrobes and it is even shown on the big screen in S3. (There is more significance here, but I'll explore that in a later part).

At the beginning of the scripting process for Back to The Future Part II, the creators were thinking of having the roles of Marty McFly Jr. and Marlene McFly set as Twins.

And in S4 of ST, we can see quite a bit of twin imagery throughout the season, in reference to Will and El. (again, I will post more in a later analysis, I don't want this to get too long).

If we go off of the basis that Henry/Vecna/001 stole Will's time powers, then we can assume that the second timeline that was generated from the changing of a fixed point in time (an origin event - in this case), changed other things throughout the seasons in Stranger Things.

Think about it, Henry could have easily gone back in time and replaced Hopper (being Jonathan, Will, and El's father) with Lonnie.

He could have manipulated Joyce, Hopper, and Jonathan's memories if the memories were STILL left AFTER the timeline was altered, making them forget that their family of 5 had ever existed in the first place. Swapped Will and El at birth, putting them in the lab or arranging for them to be taken by Brenner, and then, he could have later helped Will escape the lab massacre. . .

One last thing to address;

The Mind Flayer and why Will was possessed in the first place. . .

If Henry cannot create, then he needs Will alive to utilize that power. Henry may not have been strong enough on his own to manipulate Will into doing his bidding, but working with the Mind Flayer to get what he wants?

Therefore activating Will as the spy, taking El out of the way by using a distraction (making her focus on Max? Knowing that her weakness is the people she cares about - because he's already done this once before with the Lab Massacre by killing the other lab kids?), and getting what he wants?

The Mind Flayer literally looks like the strings attached to a hand for a wooden string puppet. . . (think Pinocchio if you need a visual)

The Mind Flayer possessed Will so that Henry/Vecna/001 could manipulate and bend the final puzzle piece to his will.

(and that's why, I think in S5, we're going in with a bang... because I think that El and Will have been Vecna'd in S4; they have been falling into Henry's traps since S1.) (I'll explain more of this in Part 2 or 3 because again, this is super complex and took me about a month or longer to compile all of the evidence)

So, in short, Henry/Vecna/001 truly has been moving our characters on the board like chess pieces. . .

(this is going to have like 3 parts explaining the theory itself and then like 20 posts of evidence all linked under a masterlist once I have the time to set that up.)

[cangelgifs]

Fic Recs Of CA in BTVS S1-3

Some Denial Required by bisexuallydia Rating: G Summary: Angel drives home with Cordelia and ends up meeting the parents

The Broken Pieces by Daisy Rating: NC17 Summary: A caustic comment from Cordelia intrigues a confused Angel, causing him to follow her home. What he finds is not what he expects. During Some Assembly Required BTVS2 then AU

When Good Spells Go Bad by Chelle Rating: PG Summary: Luckylyn’s Bad Spell Challenge After the prom in Season 3 of Buffy, Buffy convinces Willow to perform a spell to make Angel realize they belong together and of course it all goes wrong. Past Angel goes to bed at his mansion in Sunnydale and then wakes up with Cordy and Connor in LA (this is the morning after Provider). While future Angel goes to bed with Cordy and Connor and wakes up in past Sunnydale. He enlists the help of the Scoobies so he can return to his family.

My Senior Year by Dock Rating: NC-17 Summary: This is a response to AngelLuver's challenge. It takes place in season 3 of BTVS and everything in seasons 1 & 2 have happened. The whole essence of the demon in Earshot happens to Angel, not Buffy, hence he hears Cordy's thoughts (possible naughty?), and how the Scoobies really feel about him since his return

Double or Nothing by Lysa Rating: NC-17 Summary: Angel discovers a way to secure his soul by giving Angelus a separate existence leading to far-reaching consequences for them and Cordelia Chase. Warning: Possessive behavior, stalking, and attempted rape.

Blinded With Love by Lysa Rating: NC-17 Summary: S1.3 The Witch. Cordelia ends up under Angel’s care after she is blinded by a spell.

Season of Solace by Lysa Rating: Starts PG-13, goes NC-17 Summary: Buffy teams Angel & Cordelia up to teach them both a lesson, but danger brings them much closer than the Slayer anticipated. Spoilers: BtVS Season Three thru Lovers Walk Warning: WIP (though still being updated)

Promise of the Night by Lysa Rating: NC-17 Summary: Warning: Evil Vampire Cangelus and Scooby Character Death.

Long Time Coming by Becjane Rating: NC-17 Summary: Set in Sunnydale, after Angel has returned from hell and Cordelia has spilt up with Xander. Wes and Faith are in it, but the Wes/Cordy crush is non existent because it interferes with the story. This is AU Buffy Season 3 apart from the above, so doesn’t fit in properly with the real timeline.

When He Was Bad by buffystakedthat Rating: M Summary: “I'll just see if Angel feels like dancing.” - Cordelia, 2x01 What if Cordelia and Angel did end up dancing together in When She Was Bad?

A Sunnydale Tale by victoriamartynne Rating: T for 13+ Summary: In 1998, Angel befriends Cordelia when the going gets tough. Warning: This fic deals with the aftermath of Cordelia being r**** by a stranger.

In The Driver's Seat by redeem147 Rating: Explicit Summary: Set during When She Was Bad. Not true happiness, but a nice substitute.

Leaving Hell by anr Rating: NC-17 Summary: The Wish (3x09). Wishing can change things, but it doesn't make them better.

Visiting Hours by califi Rating: R for language Summary: Set right after Lovers Walk -BTVS S3. Angel visits Cordy in hospital.

Home Comforts by califi Rating: NC-17 Summary: Written due to requests. Sequel to "Visiting Hours"

Cursed by Chelle Rating: NC-17 Summary: Angel has been back from Hell for a while and it’s Halloween.

Liam by SUPERSCAR Rating: R/NC-17 Summary: Instead of returning Angelus’s soul to his body, Willow’s spell somehow returns Liam’s body from 1753 to his soul in 1998. Warning: WIP/Incomplete

Prophecy Boy by wereleopard58 Rating: Explicit Summary: A travel to the past to see the truth of a future.

Best Laid Plans by beforethecalm Rating: K+ Summary: Xander decides to throw a dinner party in Cordelia's honour when she gets out of hospital following the rebar incident. As with all things on the Hellmouth, things go...awry.

Eclipse by Helen Rating: NC-17 Summary: My first (deliberate) p-w-p and its all smut.

Convergence by Helen Rating: NC-17 Summary: Sequel to ECLIPSE and my second (deliberate) p-w-p and like its prequel its all smut.

Time Trip by Dannyblue Rating: PG-13 Summary: Angel and Cordelia travel to a very familiar past.

Promise Me by Misha Rating: PG-13 Summary: Angel and Cordy go to Sunnydale for Christmas to help cheer Angel up when feelings are discovered. Warning: Some Buffy bashing.

Senior Prom by Misha Rating: NC-17 Summary: It's Senior Prom and Angel and Buffy are fighting, again, and break up. Penn finds Angel in Sunnydale and is after Cor, because he saved her, and has to protect her, bringing on some C/A events. Nothing better.

Bittersweet Symphony by LaLa247 Rating: NC-17 Summary: A lonely Cordy visits a lonely Angel.

Angel, Hear My Cry by Samsom Rated: NC-17. Very NC-17. Summary: Cordelia looks to Angel to help her move on.

Ghosts by Samsmom Rating: NC-17 Summary: Angel and Cordelia both have secrets. A sequel to Angel, Hear My Cry.

Not Alone by Samsom Rating: PG Summary: Angel goes back in time, and lands on the worst night of Cordy’s life pre-LA.

Thaw by Dazzle Rating: NC-17 Summary: "Amnesia is an ugly, ugly thing." Cordelia's attempt to recapture her memory has dramatic consequences -- first for Angel, then for the rest of the world.

Living A Lie by Ando Rating: NC-17 Summary: Everything goes AU after Angel and Cordelia leave the Library together. Takes place immediately as they leave.

The Fine Line by anneb Rating: NC-17 Summary: This is in response to a challenge posted by Psychofilly back in Sept. 2003 on the ‘Hiatus Challenge thread’. BTVS Season 3 . Unwittingly, Angel gets a dose of demon goo, or hit by an errant spell. He *imprints* on the first person he sees, namely Cordy. Warning: Obsessive behavior and stalking. WIP but worth reading.

In Control by Nickle Rating: NC-17 Summary: Cordy thinks Angel is Buffy’s lapdog. Even in bed. Early S3 BTVS.

39, 23, 59 by SCORCH Rating: NC-17 Summary: And he thought he knew eternity. Spike blackmails Cordelia into seducing Angelus. BTVS S2. Category: HUMOR / SMUT Warning: WIP but worth reading what’s there.

A Little Bit of Bondage, A Whole Lotta Fun by GreatMinds Rating: NC-17 Summary: Psychofilly's challenge based on Sunscorched's Horrible Words thread: How many different, unique ways can Cordy and Angel have sex. Warning: Sketchy consent in spots. Also a WIP but cuts off in a somewhat decent place. Ghost Hunting Cordelia Chase by Samsom Summary: On Halloween Ghost Hunters comes to town and Cordelia is everyone’s choice for bait. Rating: R

My Angel by Growl Snarl Rating: T Summary: Rewrite of the Buffy Premiere Episode Welcome to the Hellmouth & Harvest with a Cordelia/Angel twist.

[sophfandoms53]

The one issue I've always had with the Going Home arc of Sonic X is how they mention that time will freeze if Sonic and the gang stay on Earth.

I sit here like 'Bro, Eggman has been on Mobius far longer than Sonic and friends have been on Earth. If time freezing was an issue, Eggman would have already caused it to happen.'

No ya that plot point was always so weird??

Like in both dubs it’s something that doesn’t make sense.

It came so out of left field and rlly just feels like a plot contrivance to get Sonic and crew home by the season finale. Which is odd because you didn’t need to contrive a reason for them to get home?? They could just?? Collect the emeralds??? And go home??? Because thats where they live??? Like the whole on going plot of s1 was get the emeralds and go home. Idk why the last half of season two added in this whole thing about time stopping because the worlds are converging???

Also the JP dub trying to use the Freedom movement and ppl breaking records for running and stuff as evidence the two planets and timelines were converting is so funny because how tf do those things correlate at all😭

And like you said, the fact they established Eggman was literally born on Earth but he’s been able to live on Mobius his whole life and nothing has gone wrong makes it even more confusing.

[typewriterwolf]

 Lokius WIP and outlines dump 

Whenever would I have the time to entertain these plot bunnies...

1. When do we wait for forever (in progress) Chapter 2/5 completed- Spoilers for WandaVision. Post-canon for now.

Since the multiverses have unraveled, the war with time has begun. Loki, Sylvie, Mobius, the Scarlet Witch and Doctor Strange- each of them fighting their own battles and somehow their roads converge. But when do they stop fighting and when do they wait? Forever? Because in timelessness there was not even forever.

Can love span across even timelessness and space?

2. (Working Title)  In another universe, darling, you are mine

Outline - Post S1 Loki TV series. Loki is in another timeilne - or was it? In this TVA, the staff all know that they are variants, but if they meet their own variants from another timeline, they will both be erased. Loki finds out that isn’t so, and it actually was to deter them to cross between timelines. They were taken from a timeline, Loki is determined to find out how. Franklin D.Roosevelt High School. Rebecca Tourminet, that was what he had to go on. Loki will bring Mobius, his Mobius, back again to him.

I initially thought of creating OMC and OFC (even gave them names already) for this but the Marry Me (I haven’t watched it yet!) variant might fit into this... should I? Borrow Charlie Gilbert or  use an OMC hrmmmmm.

But I should watch Marry Me first, right? I’m conflicted.

3. (Working Title) Two Summers

Outline - Royal!AU. No powers. Laufey pledges his kingdom in return for Odin to take in his exiled son, Loki. But it is not what it seems. Loki is actually tasked to assassinate the King Odin. Only that Loki had realized that he might not be able to do it. And there is where the plan starts to go all wrong.

Yes, it is still Lokius. Trust me. Hehe.

This is fun! 

[shadowsong26fic]

The Family of Spies AU

AKA ‘Shadowsong should not have unsupervised access to multiple fandoms at once: Exhibit A.’

I kid. Mostly.

Anyway, it’s that time again--time for an AU Outline! It feels like forever since I’ve done one of these. …and by ‘forever’ I mean the last one was the SPN/Person of Interest crossover back in January.

This one is, uh, also a fairly niche crossover. It’s inspired and helped along by @tigerkat, who introduced me to one of the two fandoms and whose Star Wars OCs I’m borrowing to make it work. (Also, one or two bits in here are more or less lifted from our IM conversations on the subject <.< So, you know, credit where credit is due!)

Basically, the short version is, I’ve been watching Nikita, and TigerKat and I have put together this whole extended family for Kallus and Zeb and one thing led to another, wires got crossed in my brain, and here we are.

Welcome to my Star Wars/Nikita fusion.

So, first, some relevant background:

In everything TigerKat and I developed, Alex and Zeb end up collecting/adopting four kids. (TigerKat, feel free to correct me on any details that are Off in any way!)

First kid they adopt is Mirah, shortly after the events of ANH.

Mirah is Human, and around three or four at this point; her parents were part of an extremely pacifist sect, of the kind where even defending yourself against someone trying to kill you is Not Okay. The sect was wiped out (probably not by the Empire, last I heard?) and Mirah was the only survivor; she watched her parents died right in front of her. Alex ended up there on an unrelated mission, and brought the little girl back to base.

Turns out, she’d gotten Attached and would not sleep without him close by.

(I mean. He’d gotten Attached as well but there is a Conversation to be had here, and he and Zeb haven’t actually had it yet, so…yeah.)

So, that’s how they get Kid #1.

Mirah later grows up to be essentially a mob boss/puts together a semi-legal syndicate. She doesn’t have a whole lot of faith in the law.

Second kid is Orryn, something like a year or two later, I think?

Orryn is a Donogh (species name subject to change; they’re basically like human-sized rabbit hobbits), and four or five years older than Mirah. His father and older brother were killed when he was born, and his mother eventually found her way to the Rebels after that. Donoghs tend to have very large families, so the fact that he’s an only child is a little Weird.

His mom is a friend of theirs, and when she dies, Alex and Zeb take Orryn in as well.

He is very Soft, both physically and metaphorically (like I said, rabbit hobbits), and like the sweetest kid you’ll ever meet.

(Mirah learns very quickly to weaponize her brother’s Sad Eyes. She’s very good at getting what she wants.)

The other three kids all end up taking Zeb’s last name; Orryn keeps his original one (his people are matriarchal and matrilineal).

He grows up to be a mechanic, and has a more typical family for his species with nine kids.

Third is Shamie, who’s roughly halfway between Mirah and Orryn; they get adopted a month or so before ESB.

I’ve written about them here; but the most important bits--

They’re Human, agender, and a former street thief/pickpocket. They help Zeb out when a mission goes sideways after his local contact fails to show up, and Zeb decides to keep them, because he really can’t leave them there for a long list of reasons. They’d been on their own for close to a year at that point, and were roughly eight or nine.

(The conversation where Zeb checks in with Alex about this is very entertaining, because he texts to confirm that a third kid is okay in the middle of a firefight. Alex is less than thrilled.)

Shamie and Mirah are basically platonic soulmates. There’s just a sort of click when the two of them meet.

They grow up to be a priest of a sun/fire deity.

Fourth is Hanula, better known as Hanny.

She’s a Lasat baby who they adopt a few months after Endor, after Zeb mentions to the elders on Lira San that he and Alex have been considering a fourth kid, maybe starting with an infant this time, and maybe someone of his own species this time…

Some time not too long after that, Hanula is placed in his arms and he’s told ‘good luck.’

She’s stabby, as in she likes to Stab Things as a baby (usually with, like, a fork), which later gets translated into cooking--she ends up as a Chef.

While she does turn up, of course, she’s not super relevant for this crossover, but she’s Delightful so I thought I’d share anyway XD

(There’s also Alex’s sister and her sons, plus, uh, the various grandchildren, but they’re also not super relevant to the crossover. I can share details about them if anyone’s curious, though.)

As a note, I’ve only seen like half a season of Nikita at this point; so while we’re starting from the same basic premise, I don’t really expect this to converge with actual future plot points like at all. So.

Also, as a result of that, this outline will probably also take on a certain resemblance to Alias and/or other similar Spy Dramas.

Anyway. So. Let’s get this show on the road.

Kallus takes on Nikita’s role in this--Death Faked For You; trained to be a super spysassin by a Shady Black Ops Group from his late teens/early twenties. Much like Nikita in her canon, he meets someone while on an extended cover assignment and falls in love.

Division is less than thrilled with this, and so arrange orders Zeb’s death.

(Obviously, this doesn’t take, because I am Not About That. But Kallus genuinely believes Zeb is dead, which is what pushes him to break free, much like Nikita’s reaction to Daniel’s murder.)

(Zeb also thinks Kallus is dead; he, of course, got picked up by the Ghost crew, but more about him later.)

Mirah will take on Alex’s role (which is why I started referring to Kallus that way, even though in my head and in this outline up to this point he’s mostly Alex XD).

Probably a blend of the two backgrounds--her parents/the sect she grew up in were taken out by Division; probably with the cover story that they were a Dangerous Cult, but the exact reason was more likely Profit or something. Since they mostly weren’t? At least not in the ‘need to be dismantled’ sort of way.

Kallus, like Nikita, was on hand and made sure that the little girl survived, but wouldn’t/couldn’t follow up since he was still a mostly-loyal Division agent at that point. He tracks her down after he breaks free, and they start working together.

She eventually talks him into the idea of her infiltrating Division, as that will better suit their plans to dismantle the organization.

(…really, most of this early part is not super different from Nikita and Alex. Mostly summarizing for anyone reading this who’s unfamiliar with the show.)

Shamie is an older/prior recruit; they’ve been here a few months. Their marksmanship is pretty much bottom of the barrel, so far as the current crop of recruits go, and their hacking skills could use some work, but they’re one of the best at hand-to-hand/other close-quarters combat, and they’re probably top third with explosives and other detail work. And they’re generally a pretty phlegmatic person. Not many of the other recruits keep cool under pressure as well as they do.

They’re probably fairly close to being evaluated and promoted to full Agent status when Mirah is brought in.

The two of them, as in their normal lives/timeline, immediately click. Mirah reports back to Kallus, confirming her infiltration was successful, and also mentioning Shamie.

“Remember what I told you about making friends,” Kallus warns her. “Losing them will be hard. And you can’t know how loyal this person is to Division. Be very careful.”

Mirah internally rolls her eyes, because she’s not dumb, she knows that.

A few more quick parallels, for the Higher Ups at Division:

Arindha Pryce stands in for Percy.

She just has the right blend of Genuine Competence buried under Not As Good As She Thinks She Is to match up with him.

Founding member and leader of Division.

Thrawn stands in for Amanda.

Like, okay. The two of them, for a variety of reasons, have vastly different management styles.

But in terms of his actual skillset and the role Amanda plays, at least on paper? Which is to say, supervising training/constructing covers/monitoring recruits and agents and their mental states?

(Plus, the whole…resident torturer/interrogator/etc. thing…)

Yeah, he could pull that off.

Pellaeon stands in for Michael.

Because I love him.

Also the Vastly Different Dynamic between the Head of Division, the Whatever Amanda’s Actual Job Title Is, and the 2iC/Head Field Operative with these three as opposed to Percy, Amanda, and Michael entertains me.

(Pellaeon is more loyal to Thrawn than Pryce, but only if it came down to an Actual Contest between the two of them would that ever be relevant. He’s extremely competent, but occasionally a little too involved with the recruits, in a fairly paternal sense. Especially since he’s probably a good twenty years older than Michael. But I digress.)

So, Mirah is successfully inserted. That goes pretty much the same as in Nikita canon, completely with Kallus making a splashy return to Division’s radars.

(Probably not at Zeb’s grave, though; if Zeb even has an actual grave.)

She starts interacting with other recruits, including Shamie. The two of them click pretty quickly, all things considered, but given the circumstances…yeah, they keep a certain level of distance, at least for now.

…well, at least on the surface, anyway. Mirah is even more determined to burn Division to the ground if they breathe harm in Shamie’s direction.

(For their part, Shamie may or may not start to notice a few anomalies, but they keep that knowledge to themself for now.)

For a few months, it’s pretty much the pattern the early S1 episodes have--Mirah will get details on an official Division op, pass them along to Kallus, he’ll be on hand to foil it. She gets activated briefly once or twice, but is mostly just working as a regular recruit for her cover.

Plus, you know, evading Thrawn’s suspicions; all that good stuff.

Pellaeon does take a liking to her--she reminds him of Kallus, who was one of the better recruits, and he keeps an eye out for her, much like Michael does for Alex in canon.

Shamie gets activated for their final evaluation/first kill mission about two or three months after Mirah gets recruited. They succeed, but some of the aftermath/followup confirms their previous suspicions about Mirah, and they’re left sort of struggling with what to do about it.

On the one hand, they’re a fairly loyal Division agent at this point, and what Mirah’s doing is probably going to get a lot of their fellow agents, maybe even some recruits, killed. And they know that probably some of what’s been reported as Kallus’s activities is exaggerated, or at least spun to make him look Evil and Division look better, but they know there’s a grain of truth to it.

On the other...they spent a few years, as a child, working for a thief-runner/gang. This was…not a good situation. Gotta keep the baby thieves in line. And they’ve seen other recruits get canceled before. As much as they don’t necessarily want to go against their superiors in Division (again, gotta keep the baby thieves in line; they know what the consequences of that would be), they also know that that loyalty does not go both ways. They are expendable. All of the recruits and agents are.

And they like Mirah. And if they don’t look out for each other…well, who will?

Besides. It’s not like they have any actual proof. Bringing this to Pellaeon, who likes Mirah, or Thrawn, who likes no one--let alone Pryce--seems like it’ll backfire.

So, they stay quiet about what they’ve guessed, and wait, and watch, and work.

Things change when Orryn is recruited.

Mirah and Shamie both take one look at this sweet, gentle boy and have the same thought--he won’t last. He’ll be cancelled within a month. Maybe sooner.

Pryce questions the choice of bringing him in, too; it was Thrawn’s idea. No, he’ll never make field agent, but the boy’s good with mechanics, and computers. If he can survive the training process, they can put him to use there.

Sort of considering him for Birkhoff’s role.

Shamie, even as a full agent, doesn’t have the access or the tools they need to spring Orryn, as much as they want to.

But Mirah--Mirah has Kallus, and a way to contact him.

“This isn’t about my friend. This is about a sweet kid, too sweet for Division, who will be killed or broken if we don’t do something,” she says. “And isn’t that part of what we’re doing here? Trying to make sure that doesn’t happen to anyone else?”

Kallus is torn. Because, on the one hand, she’s absolutely right--it’s why he was reluctant to send her in undercover (oh, yes, the thought had occurred to him) until she suggested it.

But on the other hand, getting a recruit out of Division without compromising Mirah’s emergency exfiltration strategy is going to be Hard. And as much as he wants to help this kid, he also wants to help/protect the one he has already.

He tells Mirah, eventually, that he can’t promise anything, but he’ll start working on a plan.

Mirah…

Remember what I said earlier, about Mirah tending to get what she wants?

Mirah gets to work on her end. The way she sees it, if she figures out a way to get Orryn outside somehow, whether it’s getting him temporarily activated like she was that one time, or some other excuse, then Kallus won’t have a problem rescuing him.

Of course, she’s just a recruit herself, and she can’t muck around with that without compromising her cover. She’s half-tempted to just shove Orryn out her escape tunnel, her own exit be damned, but Kallus specifically told her not to do that, so she holds back.

The opportunity comes when one of Mirah’s prior breaches is discovered, two or three weeks after Orryn’s brought in.

Possibly the shell program she and Kallus have been using to talk; possibly something else and she didn’t cover her tracks quite well enough (i.e., breaking into Pryce’s office). No one’s tied it to her, not yet, but things are Tense.

Kallus asks Mirah if she needs an extraction, and she again brings up Orryn. “I’m good,” she says. “But the sweet kid I was telling you about…”

“We talked about this,” he says. “And I am working on it, I promise.”

But before either of them can do anything, Orryn ends up at the wrong place at the wrong time, and one of the guards is convinced he’s the mole.

Thrawn points out that this doesn’t make much sense--the serious breaches started well before Orryn was brought in.

Pryce agrees, but insists on letting the situation run its course, to see if it can flush out the real mole.

And Mirah has a Thing about people she’s attached herself to getting hurt.

Mirah manages to somehow get Orryn out of wherever he’s being held. She sends a quick message to Kallus--“Sweet Kid coming out, they think he’s me”--and takes him to the exit tunnel.

They are pursued, of course. By the overzealous guard--and by Shamie.

Mirah gets Orryn into the tunnel and prepares to stand her ground.

Shamie catches up first.

And handles the situation Very Differently from the way Thom does in Nikita canon.

“I’m not turning you in,” they say. “You got Orryn out?”

“Yeah.”

They nod. “Good. Okay. They think he’s the mole, but they’re gonna realize someone helped him escape, unless--”

And then the guard catches up.

There is a Fight. The guard manages to shoot Shamie (not seriously; through-and-through in the upper arm), who tosses Mirah their gun, and she fires back, putting two in his chest.

“…we can work with this,” Mirah says, pressing her hands onto where Shamie’s bleeding. “If we…if we stage it so he pointed the finger at Orryn to cover his own crimes…”

“You have any evidence we can plant on him?” Shamie says. “M’good at that. Planting evidence.”

“Yeah,” she says. She has a key card, and a few other bits and pieces. Shamie, hands shaking slightly, positions them appropriately. “And Orryn…”

“Was also a plant,” Shamie decides. “Sent in when the guard’s cover got shaky, to extract him. But he managed to get away in the confusion. We underestimated him.”

Mirah thinks about this for a minute, then nods. “I think I can sell that,” she says, as more guards start heading their way.

“Good,” Shamie says. “…talk later.”

Mirah nods, and Shamie blacks out, leaving her to spin the lies they need to survive this.

A few hours later, Mirah touches base with Kallus to confirm Orryn got out safely, and to inform him he has another inside agent.

So, the situation has improved somewhat! Unfortunately, it’s also been damaged--since the shell program was found, Kallus and Mirah don’t have secure communications. That first message she got out, about Orryn and Shamie? Yeah, she can’t use that route again, or she’ll establish a pattern.

On the other hand, Shamie is a full agent, which means they have an apartment and the freedom to move around and set an in-person meet. Which Kallus wants anyway, to evaluate Mirah’s friend.

(And, if they check out, to spoof their tracker and give them freedom of movement. Always a plus.)

So, Shamie and Kallus use another one-off communicator to set an in-person meeting, so they can talk.

“You did help Mirah and Orryn,” Kallus acknowledges, after they’ve run through their prearranged confirmation signals. “That counts for something.”

“But you think it could just be me establishing a cover,” Shamie said.

“The thought occurred.”

Shamie doesn’t say anything right away. “I hear all kinds of things about you,” they finally say. “Some of it seems true. Some of it seems exaggerated. I know you’re Division’s enemy, but that…” They shrug. “I trust Mirah. And she trusts you. That’s good enough for me.”

“And Division?”

“I know how gangs work,” they say, flatly. “I used to work for one--they ran a bunch of kids, pickpocketing. Thing about gangs is, most of them do some good in their community--take care of external threats, or whatever. That’s how almost every gang started, anyway. Division may have more money and fancier gadgets and a bigger community, but they work the same way. And most gangs, even if they keep helping their communities sometimes…somewhere along the line, it turns out to be about profit and power more than anything else. But that’s not the issue. The issue is…you can tell, when a gang’s leadership, the loyalty they demand from their members…you can tell when they reciprocate.”

“And Thrawn and Pellaeon and Pryce don’t,” Kallus says.

“Pryce for sure,” they say. “Pellaeon does, but he’s more loyal to Thrawn than the rest of us. Thrawn…is harder to read.”

Kallus considers that for a moment. “You know, what we’re doing--it’s dangerous. I can’t protect you. I burned my one extraction route getting Orryn out.”

“All of my choices are dangerous,” Shamie says. “But like I said. I trust Mirah. She trusts you. I don’t trust Division.”

Another moment of silence. “Here’s our communication protocol,” Kallus finally says. Because Mirah trusts them. And I trust Mirah. If I don’t trust her--what am I even doing here.

Shamie also, as it turns out, has valuable information Mirah didn’t have access to. While not as successful as Kallus, there’s another group working to take Division down; getting involved and throwing off some of their ops.

“Should we reach out to them?” Mirah asks, when this filters back to her.

“No,” Kallus decides. “Most likely, they’re another mercenary group. Trying to be another Division, another Gogol, and take out the competition. There’s a slim chance that they’re actually on the level, but if they’re not…Best to stick to ourselves and avoid drawing in any outsiders.”

The kids agree, because he’s the expert, and drop the subject.

He does, however, ask Shamie to keep tabs on this other group as best they can without compromising their cover. Which should be easy enough.

(Of course, Shamie can only tell him as much as Division knows about them, which isn’t much. They’re a small group, probably a five- or six-person team, and they tend to ghost in and out of situations without leaving much evidence behind…)

The other new advantage they have is Orryn.

Remember why Thrawn wanted him recruited? He’s good with tech and gadgets?

Orryn gets a look at Kallus’s setup, particularly when he’s trying to figure out how to re-establish communications with Shamie and Mirah.

“I can fix that,” he offers.

Kallus blinks. “Plan was, establish an identity and get you out of the country, into hiding,” he says. “Which I will do, I’m working on it, but--”

“Division hurt me, too,” Orryn says. “And Mirah and Shamie are in trouble, and so are you. I want to help.”

Kallus eyes him. He knows, just as clearly as Mirah and Shamie did, that he cannot take this kid into combat. On the other hand…he would’ve been recruited for a reason. And Kallus is well-trained and skilled, but there might be something to said for raw talent and an expert touch.

“All right,” he finally says. “We’ll prep an exfil for you, just in case, but it’ll be some time for me to put it together anyway. We’ll see how things go.”

Orryn nods, and gets to work.

And so pass the next few months, with Mirah working her way up towards qualifying and passing the information she has access to, and Shamie and Orryn supporting Kallus in the field.

Eventually, Mirah goes on her qualifying evaluation, and passes with flying colors. She’s an interesting counterpart to Shamie--she’s a sharpshooter and just as deadly as they are in hand-to-hand, but she doesn’t work as well with the explosives and so on.

Meanwhile, Shamie is a very tactile person--if it’s a hands-on task, especially one that requires a lot of detail work (such as setting up a bomb), there are very few people who can match them. But they have issues with distance kills and with the computer stuff.

Mirah is set up in her apartment, not too close to Shamie, but enough that they can meet. They’re in the same city.

The two of them, on their own, are pretty terrifying assassins.

Shamie is fairly innocuous-looking; dark hair, dark eyes, skinny, blends into a crowd. They’re also the most chill/calm person in the known universe, so people tend to gravitate to them in a crisis. And they’re kind. Genuinely kind, in a way that invites people’s trust.

This is what makes them an excellent priest in another life. And in this one…Beware The Nice Ones is a trope for a reason.

Mirah, on the other hand, is much more overtly intimidating. Unless she’s making an active effort to pretend otherwise, she exudes Danger. She is ruthless and practical.

She is also extremely skilled, good at manipulating people, and very hard to convince to back down.

Now imagine the two of them working together.

Unstoppable and terrifying.

And Division (and Kallus) are both aware of this.

So, they actually end up partnering quite a lot.

The four of them are circling closer and closer to closing in on Pryce and taking her out permanently--Thrawn as well, and Pellaeon as a third priority, but Pryce is their top target--when things Change again.

Mirah and Shamie are put on a wetworks op that requires a team. Probably similar to that one prince dude and the museum.

They feed Kallus the intel, as always, and he comes up with a plan to foil it.

But there are a couple of issues.

He needs Orryn for this op, for one thing. And not just as background, on-site.

When he scouts around to do his own prepwork, there are some technobabble things he need handled, but they need to be within range. Twenty yards, twenty-five on the outside.

So, his first priority--well, maybe not first, but certainly Up There--is to plan out Orryn’s escape route if things go wrong.

The second issue is that Shamie thinks this might be another mission the Unknown Third Party may also crash. Since they still don’t have a lot of intel, that’s potentially another five or six people coming in.

And that’s if they’re correct in that it’s the mystery team, and not Gogol or someone already on the radar.

But the opportunity to interfere with Division and save a life or two is too good to pass up, despite these problems. Kallus plans his counter-mission, and they get to work.

Phase One of the mission goes fairly well. Shamie does confirm a third party is involved, but at first, their presence doesn’t cause too much difficulty for either Our Heroes or Division.

Shamie gets the assassination target pinned down somewhere Kallus and Orryn can extract them; Kallus gets the victim to the prepared escape route, and then returns to deal with the secondary objective; the one that required Orryn--some sort of hacking/virus/Planting Evidence type thing.

Well.

So my Art Skillz are far from up to par, but here’s a general overview of the layout of the scene where they do:

...so I can’t figure out how to make tumblr embed it without throwing off all the rest of my formatting so, click the link.

Where things go wrong is when Kallus gets a good look at the closest member of Team Unknown.

Who is very, startlingly, distractingly Familiar.

And he does the worst possible thing he can do in this situation.

He freezes.

Naturally, another member of the Division team sees the opportunity and takes it.

He gets hit three times in that second--chest, abdomen, upper thigh. Serious injuries.

Mirah immediately runs to him, laying down cover/suppression fire at her supposed Fellow Division Agents.

(…yeah, remember that whole bit about her parents dying in front of her? She’s. Uh. She’s come to view Kallus as a second father. This is Not Okay.)

Shamie follows, of course; she gets to Kallus.

They hesitate for half a second. “…get him out of here. I can handle this. Go.”

Mirah nods and drags Kallus back to the van--

--only to find that Orryn has been taken.

She can’t--she can only be in one place at a time. She’s good, but she’s not that good. And Kallus, her teacher, her unofficially-accidentally-adopted dad, is dying in front of her.

She gets into the driver’s seat and books it.

Shamie fires after her, but…well, marksmanship has never been their strong suit, so they fail to stop her.

This is basically Mirah’s worst nightmare made real.

Her dad is dying.

Her brother is missing.

Her other sibling is trapped and about to be probably tortured.

She is holding together by a thread and the only thing keeping her going is if she falls apart now, Kallus will die.

Okay. Time to do something about that. She can’t do much, but she can do even less about the other things, so. Time to do something.

She gets a tourniquet on his leg, pressure dressings on the other wounds, but she’s pretty sure his lung’s collapsed and she doesn’t know how much other internal damage there is. Her training in field medicine/dressings Will Not Cut It on this one.

Now, Kallus has a contingency--he always has contingencies, he loves contingencies--but Mirah doesn’t know his medical contingency and he’s too unconscious and bleeding-out to tell her.

She can’t take him into an emergency room, obviously, but there’s an urgent care center close by. And Orryn’s stuff is still in the van. Which means she can hack into their records find out who’s coming off shift--because there will be someone coming off shift--and stick a gun in their face.

Which is exactly what she does.

She drags the doctor into the van and points her at Kallus.

“Fix him,” she snaps, but she stops pointing the gun at her at this point--she needs her attention elsewhere to drive and fend off Division agents in pursuit, among other things, and surely this doctor will be overcome by that whole Need To Heal thing. Hippocratic oath. Whatever.

Doctor stares at him. “He needs a hospital, I can’t--” Even as she moves towards him.

(Because there’s that whole Need To Heal thing. Hippocratic oath. Whatever.)

Mirah starts the car. “I’m not gonna tell you again.” She tosses the doctor their first aid kit--which is pretty Extensive. Not on the level of the one at the safehouse, but still impressive. “Anything you need that’s not in there, I’ll get at a pharmacy. Now. Do your damn job or I swear to God.”

The doctor looks at Mirah one last time, then turns her attention to Kallus, and opens the kit.

“Good,” Mirah says.

(And then, while the doctor is stabilizing her dad, as soon as she can pull over for a second, she gets rid of her tracker. She has the standard one, in her thigh.)

(And probably kills a Division agent or two pursuing them along the way…)

When the doctor has finished patching Kallus up as best she can with the supplies on hand and what Mirah stole from a convenient pharmacy, she says, “He really should be in a hospital. He needs a transfusion, and should be on IV antibiotics. And I think there was damage to his femur I couldn’t fix without imaging.”

“I’ll take that under advisement,” Mirah says. Note to self: rob a blood bank. And a hospital. Saline won’t cut it. I wonder how hard X-ray machines are to steal…

“I’m guessing you know how to change the dressings, and how often to do it,” the doctor says.

“Obviously,” Mirah says. She grabs a handful of money, and shoves it at the doctor--she did her job, she should be paid for it; people should always be Appropriately Compensated for the things they do and in this case that means actual money--as well as the badge she’d pulled out of the doctor’s purse. “You can go. Oh, and, Doctor Sloane? This never happened. You never saw us.”

“Right,” she says.

“Because if you say anything,” Mirah says, “I will hunt you down and kill you. Clear?”

“…crystal,” she says, and takes the money and walks away.

Mirah takes a few more distracting turns (with a couple pit stops for those last few Necessary Supplies), a very roundabout route, and eventually makes it to the safehouse. She gets Kallus set up as comfortably as she can, under the circumstances, on one of the beds, manages to take thirty seconds to check for any messages from Shamie or Orryn, and then curls up in a corner and just…melts down.

Like I said Mirah’s Worst Nightmare.

Let’s check back in with Shamie, who is about to have an extremely rough several days.

Because they get to go spend some Quality Time with Thrawn in full interrogator mode.

And they get the works--torture, hallucinogens, manipulation, everything. To figure out how much they know about Mirah’s compromised loyalties, back to Orryn and everything.

When that comes up, they repeat their older story--that they spotted Mirah pursuing Orryn and the guard, and followed. They got there, there was shooting, and they were sure it was Orryn, or the guard, but maybe it was Mirah. They know she killed the guard, and Orryn was never good at combat skills, just tech…

After somewhere between three days and a week of this, Thrawn can’t get Shamie to admit anything incriminating, and leaves them in a cell to report back to Pryce.

“I would estimate there’s somewhere between a twenty and fifty percent chance that Mirah managed to turn them,” he says.

“So, we cancel them,” Pryce says.

“We could,” Thrawn says. “But that is not my recommendation.”

“Oh?”

“I recommend surveillance,” he says. “My prior sessions with Shamie indicate that they’ve had very little human connection or affection in their life. Even we, for all we provide them, have a tendency to view our recruits more as tools than as individuals. It is absolutely within their makeup to latch on to the first person to treat them and value them as an individual. Which may mean they joined Mirah and Alexsandr’s crusade--or may mean that affection blinded them to things they should have seen in Mirah. If the former, they will lie low for a while, but eventually grow complacent and reach out to their partners. If the latter, they will redouble their efforts to prove their loyalty. And their skillset is not one we can replicate at this time--there’s one recruit showing a certain promise, but they’re very new, at least a year away from graduation. Assuming that particular recruit actually lives up to their potential.”

“So,” Pellaeon cuts in, “letting Shamie live, either way, we gain something valuable.”

“Precisely,” Thrawn says.

Pryce considers for a moment. “Very well, I’ll bow to your expertise. Shamie can return to their prior status. Add more cameras to their apartment before sending them home. And I want to upgrade their tracker.”

“I agree,” Thrawn says. “This would be an excellent time to test out the kill chip program.”

So, Shamie is kept in medical for another day, to have the surgery for the new implant and patch up some of the more significant damage from their interrogation.

They use one of the Contingencies to send a quick message to Mirah and Kallus, confirming they’re alive, and that they have a new tracker and may not be able to keep in regular contact for a while.

So! Let’s see what became of Orryn in the meantime, shall we?

And to do that, we actually have to jump back five years, to the night that made Kallus leave Division and vow to bring them down.

Zeb was military, special ops. He met Kallus when the latter was living on extended cover, and Zeb was about to get out.

They met in some kind of dojo/gym/whatever, and had one of Those sparring matches.

(You know the ones I mean. Where it’s like 30% fight and 70% foreplay?)

They danced around the issue for a while; Zeb knew Kallus works for the government somehow, and is pretty sure he’s either CIA or NSA under some kind of NOC (non-official cover). Eventually, though, they get together.

They have about six months, with Kallus staving off Division as best he can, and Zeb going through the process of finishing out his military service/resigning his commission--as soon as he wraps up one last investigation--and then he proposes.

And, yeah, he thought about waiting until he was completely out, but then he figured--there’s only so much time in a life, and why waste it?

Kallus is getting everything together so the two of them can disappear, when the Cleaner comes.

I’m…not sure exactly how this all works, so we’ll handwave all this. Basically, each walks away thinking the other is dead, and can credibly believe this without a body.

I think probably Kallus saw Zeb go over a cliff or something after getting shot, and Zeb found a whole heck of a lot of blood when he climbed back up to where he’d fallen from, and figured it was Alex’s.

Ooooh, better idea--while he’s climbing back up to help Alex--he thinks this attack has to do with him. With that last investigation, which was actually into some kind of Hinky thing that was either Division or Gogol…

And now the building is on fire. And Alex was still in there.

He tries to run in, but the building is too unstable, and the entrance collapses in front of him. Burying Alex--or whatever’s left of him--completely.

Kanan finds Zeb kneeling in front of the rubble, and takes him home.

He and Hera patch Zeb up, and basically explain what they do--which is something to do with trying to uncover groups like Division; essentially terrorist/assassination/murder-for-hire organizations that operate under a thin veneer of government officiality.

“Modern-day privateers,” Hera says. “Only we’re not at war, and these people commit atrocities at least as awful as the ones they’re supposedly trying to avert.”

“We work in secret,” Kanan adds. “Because when we try to work out in the open…”

(Yeah, this is how Depa died in this AU. She started this operation, possibly with Cham Syndulla, and things went Badly.)

“We think you caught on to the operations of one of the groups we’re trying to identify,” Hera said. “We don’t have a name for them, but they’re US-based, with ties all over the world.”

“Most of…most of what I had on ‘em was in the house,” Zeb says.

“So, we start again,” Kanan says.

“But…at this point, Zeb, you’re legally dead,” Hera says. “We all are. You won’t have the access to intel that you used to.”

“I don’t care,” Zeb says. They killed my fiancé. What does it matter if they killed me, too? “I wanna bring them down.”

Kanan smiles, and offers him a hand. “Welcome to the Ghost Crew.”

So, for the next two years or so, the Ghost Crew, along with Zeb, does more or less the same thing Kallus has been doing--try to suss out Division operations and interfere with them as best they can.

Of course, they don’t have insider information.

They don’t even know the name of the organization they’re hunting.

Plus, Division isn’t their only target, even if it’s the one Zeb’s most interested in. They also interfere with Gogol when they catch on to their missions, and a few other organizations throughout the world.

So there’s only so much they can do, and while they are certainly a nuisance to Pryce et al, they don’t have the same level of impact that Kallus does when he comes out swinging.

Naturally, things shift a little when a mission goes slightly less than as planned.

It’s mostly under control--it was primarily surveillance at that point; Zeb was in a restaurant scoping out their target. Unfortunately, one of said target’s bodyguards ID’d him; maybe not specifically as Ghost Crew but certainly as a Threat to their principal.

That’s about when the shooting started.

Zeb can’t get to the front door; the bodyguards now actively trying to both kill him and extract their principal are in his way; so he heads for the kitchen instead.

Yeah, he could try to pursue and complete his objective, except it was a capture mission, not a kill, and he can’t get through that many guards and get out with the target. Not by himself.

He yells at the staff to get down and stay down, and most of them listen. There’s a couple of cooks, a waiter who was grabbing a couple plates to run out, and a kid washing dishes.

Of course, Zeb loses his footing somewhere along the line and skids. He recovers fast, but the closest guy chasing him did not have that problem and is too damn close for--

--or Bad Guy could get smacked in the face with a soapy cast-iron skillet, courtesy of Dish Washing Kid.

Split second to consider the consequences, but there are two other shooters in pursuit; so Zeb does the sensible thing and grabs the kid so she doesn’t get hurt, and finally makes it to the exit. Steals the first convenient car he sees, and books it.

Once he’s pretty sure they’ve lost pursuit, he turns to the kid, who’s--shit, he’s not good at guessing kids’ ages. Maybe twelve? Shit--anyway, an actual kid, which complicates things.

“Uh. Sorry about back there,” he says. “Listen, I’ll take you back to your parents in a couple hours, after the heat’s died down, I promise.” Pretty sure the bad guys aren’t gonna hunt you down if they couldn’t grab you right then and there…

“Foster parents,” she corrects. “They’re okay, I guess, but it’s not like they actually pay attention to me. They own the restaurant.”

“I should still get you back to them,” he says. “Better for you in the long run, kid.”

“Hanny,” she says. “My name’s Hanny.” She looks at him expectantly, but he doesn’t respond in kind.

“Right,” he says instead. “In the meantime, uh…” He pulls off--they need to switch cars anyway--and takes a second to text Hera.

“So I accidentally kidnapped someone.”

“…accidentally.”

“Yeah, there was shooting, had to run through the kitchen, she hit a guy with a frying pan, couldn’t leave her there.”

“Right,” she responds, after a few seconds where he can practically hear her rolling her eyes. “How much of a fuss is she making?”

“Uh. None at all, actually.”

“All right. Bring her here, we’ll figure out how to handle this later.”

“Thanks, I owe you another one.”

He gets Hanny back to the safehouse he and the Ghost Crew are currently using.

Hera glowers at him for a minute, then makes sure Hanny is settled in an inner room before going out to have A Word.

“Zeb? That’s a child. An actual child.”

“Yeah, I know,” Zeb says. “Still couldn’t exactly leave her there. I’ll take her back to her parents…well, foster parents…”

“Our rule is, we don’t hurt kids!” Hera says.

“Does she look hurt?” Zeb says. “Look, this wasn’t my fault. I went through the kitchen, she got involved all on her own. Not like I told her to bash the guy over the head with a skillet!”

“I know,” Hera says, and takes a breath. “I know, sorry. I shouldn’t’ve snapped at you. But you need to take her back sooner than later. Tonight, if you can.”

Zeb nods. “Uh. Soon as I get her to actually tell me who her parents are. She said they own the restaurant, but…”

“Yeah, you probably don’t want to go back there.” She considers a minute. “I’ll see what I can dig up, get you an address.”

“Good,” he says.

“Why can’t I stay here?” Hanny asks, from the door.

“…because you’ve got parents--”

“Foster parents.”

“Who are probably worried about you,” he finishes.

Hanny snorts. “No, they’re not. They’ve got six of us, and mostly use the money they get from the state to keep their shitty restaurant afloat. They won’t miss me.”

“That’s a shitty situation, I get it,” Zeb says. “It’s still better than staying here.”

“Why?” she demands.

“Because I’m legally dead, for one thing,” he says.

“But you’re not actually dead,” she points out.

“I also do a lot of really dangerous things,” he says. “What you saw in that kitchen back there? Ordinary Tuesday for me.” Which is, yeah, a bit of an exaggeration, but…

She rolls her eyes. “Not like I’m asking to come into another shootout with you. Just stay with you instead of the Smiths.”

“Why do you want to stay with him?” Hera cuts in. “And ‘because he’s not the Smiths’ isn’t a good enough answer.”

Hanny chews that over for a minute. “I like him,” she says. “He actually gives a damn about something other than his stupid restaurant, or self-image, or whatever. And he apologized for kidnapping me, which is sort of weird, but nice, I guess? I don’t know, I just do.”

“…that whole bit about doing dangerous things,” Zeb says. “I can’t really look after you.”

She rolls her eyes again. “I’ve been looking after myself for ages anyway. Besides. I’m seventeen.”

He and Hera stare at her.

“…would you believe fifteen?”

Zeb’s less sure about that one, but the look on Hera’s face is answer enough.

“Okay, thirteen, but still. Plus, I cook. I’m really good at it, too. Especially when I have access to decent knives. I’m guessing that’s not a problem here?”

Well, okay, it’s not like they have a lot of kitchen knives floating around, but he could--

…shit.

Zeb turns to Hera. “…sorta running out of counter-arguments here…”

Hera looks from him, to Hanny, and back again. “…fine. I’ll babysit when you’re out in the field.”

Jumping back to the present!

So, Zeb doesn’t actually spot Kallus at this point.

Or, rather, he sees that another party is involved, and does out of the corner of his eye spot the guy going down and then Division agents running at him, but not enough to actually identify him.

He alerts his team to the presence of the Third Party--who they’ve been aware of, since Kallus and his team went active a few months ago.

(It was Sabine’s idea to nickname the team Fulcrum. Since they seem to be a pressure point that really gets to the Shadow Agency they’re chasing, and might be enough pressure to move the lever and make actual progress…)

(Look, it made sense in her head at the time, whether or not the others bought the reasoning, and it stuck.)

Of course, they’re not sure if Team Fulcrum is actually on their side, or just looking to cause Generalized Chaos. Or take Shadow Agency down to take its place. After all, they seem to have an almost personal vendetta against the Shadow Agency and some of the tactics they’ve used…

Ezra and Kanan slip around to the Fulcrum van, and find Orryn inside. They see this sweet kid, assume he’s a hostage, and extract him. There’s no way their team will get through the firefight between Division, Mirah, and the reinforcements intact, so Kanan calls Zeb back, they get Orryn into their vehicle, and they go.

They get Orryn back to their base, and he makes it Very Clear that he was not, in fact, a hostage.

“The people that had you in that van--”

“Were not Division,” he says. “They’re the ones who rescued me from Division, after I was recruited.”

“…I’m sorry,” Hera says. “We made a mistake. Division--they’re the government agents who were attacking that building back there?”

Orryn blinks. “…you didn’t know that?”

“We’ve never had a name for them,” Kanan says. “Maybe we should start from the beginning. I’m Kanan, this is Ezra, Hera, Zeb, Sabine.”

“Orryn,” he says. “…you’re trying to bring Division down, too?”

“Damn right we are,” Zeb says.

“…okay,” he says, and fills them in on what he knows.

Which is, comparatively, not all that much. He didn’t see too much of the internal structure--he wasn’t there for long enough--but they have names and so on to attach to them.

He tells them how Division recruits people in their late teens/early twenties, and trains them as assassins. He tells them how Mirah went in as a double agent, and she and Shamie and Kallus broke him out. He tells them how they tried to get him into hiding, but he offered to stay and help with their tech, which is what led them here.

(He doesn’t, of course, know Kallus’s real/full name--not something shared readily; and even if it was, that might not be the full name Zeb knew him under, so Zeb remains in the dark.)

(Part of why Orryn’s being so open about this is because he’s gotten a pretty good idea of the kind of team Hera and Kanan are running here; he also…it’s something to focus on other than the Very Strong Probability that Kallus is dead, likely Mirah with him, and Shamie, and…)

(On the other hand, if his new family is somehow still alive, they could use all the help they can get. And maybe Kallus would’ve been more cautious, and Mirah would’ve been more suspicious, and Shamie would’ve held back a little more, but Orryn knows how hard this fight will be, and how much they need genuine allies. And so he makes the first move/takes a leap of faith.)

So, to sum up the last few sections before we move on, here’s where we stand after the FUBAR mission where Kallus finds out Zeb is still alive:

Kallus has been badly hurt--near-fatally--and is more or less out of commission for the foreseeable future; not to mention whatever long-term/permanent damage he might have sustained.

Mirah’s cover is blown, and while she pulled herself together after her meltdown once Kallus was safe, she’s still teetering a little on the edge, especially as more and more time goes by without hearing from either of her siblings.

Shamie is fighting desperately to maintain their cover, still deep in Division, but now with little to no support.

Orryn is with Zeb and the Ghost Crew, with no idea if any of his family is still alive, and missing a few Key Pieces of Information that might help smooth things over.

(Yeah, this day went Super Well for everyone.)

After a couple days, though, a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel--Kallus wakes up.

Okay, technically, he’s sort of half-woken up a couple times, but this is the first time he’s been lucid enough to actually process being awake and/or interact with Mirah.

She sees him trying to sit up and is instantly there.

“Stay down, you’re hurt.”

He sinks back without too much argument, and she takes a second to make sure he’s really awake, really back with her, and then, as people with her particular personality and background are likely to do, covers up her fear with “How dare you.”

“Mirah…”

“You got yourself shot! You froze!”

“I know, I--”

And then the look on her face, she’s clearly just barely holding back from bursting into tears (which, she’s done enough of that over the past three days damn it) and he just…wordlessly holds out his arms, offering a hug.

Very, very carefully, she curls up next to him and clings, and she does burst into tears at that point, and stays there until she’s cried herself out.

“…sorry,” she says, when she gets her breath back.

“It’s fine,” he assures her. “And…so am I. For scaring you.”

She nods. “I know it wasn’t on purpose.”

He laughs a little, which is a mistake, because that hurts, but manages to get out, “when I get shot on purpose, it’s generally not this…bad.”

“I know,” she says, then hesitates before blurting out, “Iloveyou.”

He’s taken a little bit by surprise--he was her handler as much as her friend, and that’s not exactly conducive to…but he can’t deny that he’s come to think of her as a favorite niece, or maybe even a daughter, and…

Between being caught off guard, and the pain, and the bloodloss, and the drugs she’s probably got him on, he can’t find the words to respond.

So, of course, she tries to backtrack.

He cuts her off, “love you, too, Mirochka.”

(LOOK fandom has decided he’s a Space Russian ANYWAY so for this AU either one or both of his parents was a first-generation Russian immigrant so FAKE RUSSIAN DIMINUTIVES FOR EVERYONE. Also it makes me smile. So there.)

She brightens and clings again. Very, very carefully.

But he can already feel the room start to spin and blur at the edges. “Probably gonna pass out again. Don’t be afraid.”

“Okay,” she says. “Just don’t die.”

“Of course not,” he says, already fading. “Still have work to do.”

“Yeah, well, you’re not allowed to die when we’re done, either.”

“Right,” he manages to say, before he’s out again.

The next time he’s fully conscious and lucid is just after Shamie finally managed to send word they’re alive.

Which is, naturally, his first thought. To ask about Shamie and Orryn.

Mirah tells him--Shamie’s at least alive and free enough to make contact, but Orryn is still missing.

Kallus, at this point, is half-convinced he hallucinated Zeb--it would make more sense, obviously; Zeb is dead, he knows that, he saw him die, and yet…

On the other hand, he finds himself desperately hoping it wasn’t a hallucination, for more than just his personal needs. If Zeb has Orryn, then he knows Orryn is safe.

“I tried to get him,” Mirah says.

“I know,” he says. “It wasn’t your fault. None of this was.” It was mine.

“What happened?” she asks, and the question had to come sometime, but he’s not sure he can explain. Not sure he should, as on-edge as she is already.

But she’s asking, so he does the best he can.

“I thought I saw…someone,” he says.

“…interesting pause there…”

“A ghost.”

“…cryptic. Are you gonna keep doing that, or…?”

He looks away. He can’t bring himself to say his name. “It couldn’t have been…I know it couldn’t have been, but I saw him, I was sure, and for a moment, I…I lost control. Again.”

I let you all down.

“…again?”

He struggles for a moment, then says, “I told you, before you went into Division…I told you why I left, didn’t I?”

It takes her a minute to get it. “…oh.”

“I only…I only saw him for a moment, and I may have been seeing things.” He takes a shallow, shaky breath, and blinks rapidly for a moment. “But if it was real, and Orryn’s with him, then he’s safe. I am certain of that.”

Mirah nods. “Then I’ll go find out.”

“Be careful,” Kallus cautions. “Division will be out in force, looking for you. And Shamie can’t--they have to keep their head down. Even if they’ve managed to satisfy Thrawn for now--” He starts to get up, because he needs to hit the ground running on this one, pain and shakiness be damned--

“Don’t you dare,” Mirah snaps, pushing him back. “I’ll be careful. Trust me. Papa.”

“I do,” he says; his head is spinning again and he’s gone chalk-white. “Just…don’t get overconfident.”

“I won’t,” she promises. “Go back to sleep. I’ll text every hour.”

“Please,” he says.

“I will,” she promises, and by the time she’s out the door he’s unconscious again.

Of course, by the time she gets back, he’s somehow managed to muster the strength to get himself over to the computer.

“What did I say?” she says, annoyed.

“I did sleep, for a while,” he says. A little breathless, but he’s still conscious, and it doesn’t look like he’s torn any of his stitches, which is probably a goddamn miracle.

(Of course, they are long overdue a miracle or two.)

“I found footage of the incident,” he says. “Target had security cameras all over. I wanted to see if…see if I could track Orryn that way.”

“And?”

He shakes his head. “But I can be sure Division didn’t take him. I accounted for all of them.”

“That’s good.”

“Yes,” he says, then hesitates. “Nothing more from Shamie, which…I don’t know. You find anything?”

“Maybe,” she says, and hands him a blurry photo, of Orryn--with Zeb.

The world spins around him again, just like it did back in that firefight, because there’s no mistaking it this time.

Mirah mistakes his reaction for him being about to pass out again; he vaguely hears her mention going to kidnap Dr. Sloane again; he cuts her off.

“No, it’s…it’s him.”

“Oh!” She considers for a moment. “Good. I’ll go get him.”

He nods; he can feel his heart beating erratically and knows he should probably do something about that--relaxation exercise, get horizontal, something--but first thing’s first. “Tell…no.” He can’t think of a good verbal code, but he has something even better.

Using the chair to hold himself up and keeping as much weight off his injured leg as possible, he starts over to the wall.

“Let me--” Mirah starts.

“Wall safe,” he says. “Keep forgetting to program your fingerprints.”

She makes a face. “And you’ll go to bed as soon as you get whatever it is?”

“Yes, fine,” he says. He makes it to the safe, and opens it, pulling out a fist-sized stone and handing it to her. “Show…show him this. He’ll know you’ve seen me.”

“I will. Now, bed.”

“Right,” he says. But his head is spinning and it seems so very far away right now. I possibly overdid it. “I’m just going to…sit here for a moment first. Catch my breath.”

“Fine,” she says. “I’ll be back soon.”

“I know.”

There is, of course, a slight problem with sending the meteorite instead of some kind of verbal message. One that, if Kallus had been firing on all cylinders, so to speak, he would’ve figured out.

A verbal message can’t be pulled off a dead body, after all.

…yeah, Zeb pulls a gun on Mirah when she shows up.

She restrains herself from responding the way all her training has told her to respond to a gun in her face, because she knows how important Zeb is to Kallus. “Rude,” she says instead.

Zeb snarls at her. “Where the hell did you get that.”

“From Papa,” Mirah says, like it should be obvious. “Are you going to let me in?”

Papa? Zeb had never imagined the monsters that killed Alexsandr--who did the kind of things Orryn described--would have children. “…no,” he says. “You’re going to take me to Papa.”

It’s the best, most solid lead he’s had in forever, more concrete than Orryn in terms of tracing back to the specific people who killed his fiancé, he finally has an actual agent, a string to pull to unravel Division and end them.

“Well, yeah,” Mirah says, because that is the plan. But not right now.”

Zeb glares at her. “No. Now.”

Mirah sighs. “ORRYN!”

Orryn, who heard the commotion and was already on his way, joins Zeb at the door. “She’s okay, Zeb. Really. This is Mirah, I told you about her?”

Zeb is…not at all sure what to make of all this. But he lets her in while he tries to figure it out.

(Keeping her covered with the gun, of course. As much as he can when the first thing she does is wrap Orryn in a flying tackle hug.)

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Orryn says, clinging back so hard. “I was worried.”

“You were worried!” Mirah says. “You know what you’re supposed to do in a firefight! Keep your head down, and wait for Papa to come get you!”

“I know,” Orryn says. “But I saw him go down, and then…” I got grabbed, there wasn’t a whole lot I could do.

Mirah nods. “I already yelled at him about that.”

Which is not what Orryn would’ve done, but he knows his sister, so he’s not surprised. “And…and Shamie, are they with you? Are they okay?”

“They’re alive,” Mirah says. “They got in touch. But they’re still undercover. We’re working on it.”

“Touching as this reunion is,” Zeb interrupts, “you need to tell me where the hell you got that rock.”

“I already told you.”

“Not enough.”

“Well, then ask,” Mirah says. “I don’t know what you know.”

“Who the hell is Papa, and how the hell did he get that meteorite?” Zeb asks.

“No idea where he got it,” she says, which is true. “He just told me to give it to you.”

Zeb stares at her, for a long moment. “What the hell kind of sick joke--”

“What?” Mirah says. “Explain, because I have no idea what the hell you mean.”

“He’s taunting me,” Zeb says, flatly. “Whoever he is.” ...on the other hand, that means I’m close…or they know I have Orryn. He frowns, then shakes his head. “But to use this to lure me out…”

Now it’s her turn to stare. “Lure you? You’re the one who demanded I take you places!”

“Because you turn up, out of the blue, on my damn doorstep, holding that!”

“Because Papa told me to!” she says. “What’s so important about it, anyway?!”

“It’s something I gave to--” He stops. “Your people, Division, they took it off him after they killed him. I’ve spent the last five years trying to track down the bastards who did it.”

And SUDDENLY EVERYTHING IS CLEAR.

“You didn’t see him,” Mirah realizes.

“…what.”

“Okay,” she says. “We can go see Papa now. But leave your gun behind, he’s been shot enough this week.”

“No, seriously, what the hell,” Zeb says. “Saw who?”

“Papa,” she says. Obviously.

“You still haven’t told me who that is!”

“Because I love him, but he’s sometimes a secretive jerk and I don’t know his full name and that’s embarrassing, okay?”

Zeb just stares at her for a moment.

Mirah sighs, exasperated. “Orryn, do you know Papa’s full name? I don’t have any pictures, and I don’t want to wake him up by calling.”

Orryn shakes his head. “Never had that much access to Division’s computers, and you know he doesn’t talk about that stuff. …Shamie might know, but…”

“I’ll text,” she decides. “They won’t get it until it’s safe.”

“Like hell I’m waiting for that,” Zeb says. “Take me to him. Now.” “First, leave the gun behind,” Mirah says, and there is No Room For Argument in her face or her tone.

Zeb considers this for a moment.

He’s dealing with one guy who’s apparently been shot all to hell, and one baby agent…he’s got the raw physical strength to overpower her if it comes to that. Besides, she didn’t say anything about other weapons.

“Fine,” he says, and ostentatiously puts both the gun he already had out and the backup from his boot on the table.

“Thank you,” she says. “Orryn, you coming?”

Orryn hesitates for a second. “…someone should probably stay with Hanny.”

“Who’s Hanny?”

“My kid,” Zeb says. “…kinda. Long story. Can we go?”

“Sure,” Mirah says. “Hanny can come, too.”

“Hell no,” Zeb says. “I don’t bring her into potential danger if I can avoid it.”

“If you say so,” Mirah says. “Just a suggestion.”

So, Orryn and Hanny stay back at Zeb’s place. Mirah texts Kallus to let him know they’re coming.

He. Uh. Wakes up on the floor by the wall safe when his phone buzzes. Never quite made it back to bed…oops.

Part of him thinks he should probably correct that, but on the other hand, standing up sounds like Work right now. He’ll just…wait here. Gather his strength.

Oh, right, I should text back. “Fine, see you soon.”

As they approach, Mirah once again warns Zeb that Kallus has been shot, so he is not allowed to get him worked up or let him out of bed.

“Yeah, you mentioned.”

“It bears repeating,” she says. “And he is not allowed to die.”

“Copy that,” Zeb says, though he makes no promises. Whoever Papa is, he had Alexsandr’s meteorite, which means he Knows Something about the people who killed him.

She opens the door to the safehouse. “PAPA YOU HAD BETTER BE IN BED.”

…well, at least he hasn’t moved from where she left him last?

Mirah gives him her best Aggrieved and Disappointed Face.

“…I think I fell asleep here,” he says, wearily.

And then Zeb has a Moment.

Because he couldn’t quite see Mirah’s papa from this angle.

But he knows that voice.

“Did I or did I not tell you to go back to bed,” Mirah says, but she knows it’s gonna be a lost cause for at least a few minutes. “…I’ll lecture you later.”

“Alex?” Zeb says. Whispers. It takes him a few seconds to actually get the name out and it comes out strangled and disbelieving.

And even though he already knew Zeb was alive, he’d seen him in person and then the picture, something about it…he’s here now, it’s real--

Fortunately, before Alex can try to get up, Zeb is right there.

“You were…you were dead, I thought--”

For his part, Kallus cannot form words right now. He just reaches up, hand shaking, to touch Zeb’s face.

(Mirah, in the background, discreetly texts her siblings with an update.)

(Orryn, upon reading the text, asks Hanny if she’s ever seen The Parent Trap.)

(“Because I think your spy dad and my spy dad used to be together. Wanna go join them?”)

(Hanny doesn’t need to be asked twice.)

Zeb, at that point, just scoops Kallus up and, very gently, puts him back in the bed.

“Oh, good,” Mirah says. “Now we need to keep him there.”

“No arguments here,” Zeb says.

And this had better not be a dream, he adds, in the privacy of his own mind.

Of course, there’s a lot more catching up to do from there, and a creepy organization of spysassins to take down, but I think we got enough here for one outline, lol. XD Future developments, of course, involve Team Fulcrum (who keep the nickname because Why Not) teaming up with the Ghost Crew to actually take down Division and shoot Pryce in the face; getting Shamie’s kill switch removed; and then…whatever adventures the Family of Spies might have in the future. Maybe head down to Miami, run into another team of former spies. Or up to Boston, run across a team of thieves…

The point is, they’ve found each other again. The rest…well, the rest is just Details.

[tokai-teio]

Yo, that Kemono Friends screencap cements that S2 takes place way the fuck down the line from S1. Cause I remember reading something in that guidebook with all the deep sand star lore that kemonoplasm retains the memories of a friend, but if it degrades between generations of friends. Like how Serval remembered that one lady whose name I can't remember from the Hotel episode.

that would make sense, and would also explain why season 2 serval’s art style looks like shit changed so drastically; the friends seem to look slightly different in the later generations. compare old generations servals from gen 1-3(?)[the serval from the anime’s season 1 can be assumed to be third generation, but it is not confirmed whether this is the case or not.] from left to right: gen 1 (manga), gen 2 (game), and gen 3(?)(anime). 

generation 1: manga serval. this serval looks similar to the one we know, but the main difference is that her “M” marking on her forehead is more widened and is segmented into two reverse “V”s. while not seen in this manga screencap, the tips of her ears go from orange to black with no gradient. her ears have fur tufts inside that are noticeably larger than that of her two descendants. interestingly enough, this serval that appeared as the first serval in the kemono friends timeline is friends with a caracal, who is the current companion(?) of serval in the currently airing season 2. being a manga-exclusive variant, she has no voice actress. 

generation 2: mobile game serval. here, her ears have developed a gradient, and her “M” has grown to be more tall/thin, as the “V”s have converged a bit. there is still a bit of separation, but it is very slight now. this serval was the one shown in the anime as the past companion of mirai, as mirai was a prominent character in the mobile game that preceded the anime. kaban’s serval (the gen 3) cries when she sees the holographic recording of this previous serval, implying that she holds latent memories of her time with mirai and that she is a reincarnation of this gen 2 serval, which is why it is assumed that she is the gen 3 serval. she is voiced by nonaka ai. 

generation 3 (presumed): anime serval (season 1). this serval has a more pronounced shift from orange ear to black eartip than the gen 2 serval, resembling the gen 1 serval a bit. her “M” marking is fully attached at this point. as mentioned before, she seems to hold memories of mirai and the gen 2 serval’s adventures. this is the serval that traveled with kaban and was featured as the secondary protagonist of the anime’s season 1. she is voiced by yuka ozaki. 

generation 4(?): anime serval (season 2). this serval clearly has no soul, as evidenced by her blank stare and flat art style. she is friends with a new caracal and i assume that she is also friends with a character that looks like the equivalent of paper jam kaban. her ears have a noticeable pink tinge, and her “M” has widened out a bit.