#coldsleep

[theofreakingbell]

what if laufey was just doing that scandinavian thing where they let babies sleep outside alone to help their immune systems and odin just very badly misread the situation

[contentment-of-cats]

Thrawn, age, illness, and injury.

Ahsoka talk below.

Fandom can be shallow and disappointing. First up, it's possible to dislike the representation of the character without shitting all over an excellent actor whose body of work is more than Disney can bound with contracts and Filoni's scripts. Disney got a full on smack in the face with Jon Boyega (who like Kelly Marie Tran got the shit end of the stick in 2 out of 3 of the sequels), you can bet that there are NDAs and 'you can't say mean things about us even if they're true' clauses.

Mostly I want to talk about age, illness, and injury and the way that people take it as a personal insult to their existence.

Let's start with the man himself. According to the Official Timeline (because everything eventually gets retconned and there is no actual canon) Thrawn was born 59BBY. He was 59 (two years older than I am now) when the space whales yeeted himself and as yet unknown other ships into the dark. Counting forward from the official timeline, he is at the very least 68 years old. He was in exceptional shape before the space whaling, yes. And no, he is not fully human, but is 'near human' - the Chiss evolved from human origins, their blue color explained in canon by something in the Csillan hydrosphere.

But let's look at this.

That is pain.

I'd guess about a 7 or 8.

Those tentacles are tight enough to hold him still, the twisting could induce torsion injuries to the spine and pelvis, cause spiral fractures to bone, dislocate joints, and compress/crush organs. Even with my Chiss physiology headcanon, I can't see anything but pain, crushing and twisting injuries, possibly with internal bleeding.

Additionally, I think that there could have been some kind of brain injury. While some of it could be the makeup and the lighting (or unlighting as the case may be), I think that the droop of one side of his mouth could be from nerve damage somewhere. My mother had a droop like that after a 'baby stroke' - transient ischemic attack.

He and Ezra were alone on the bridge, and he shot Ezra. Further, I can't see Ezra doing anything to help Thrawn after the credits roll. Once those Imps break through the blast door, he's going to be lucky to survive the fist minute.

In the great in-between that moment and the new canon?

So Thrawn, at the end of nine years is not just nine years older, but has managed to get his ship operable without a shipyard, not starve to death after the two years of consumables were gone, and not die of his injuries. (I've posted my theory that the survivors went into coldsleep to preserve the supplies.) Filoni has retconned bacta treatment into a magic potion - except when it isn't. The man is so inconsistent and wishy-washy that I could drive a 1960 Cadillac Eldorado through the smallest plot holes.

Y'all were expecting the buff blue daddy after all that. Elon Musk and 'dad bod.' I get it though, a lot of people invest in the concept of youth and health, go to extremes to hold onto it, even worship it - and denigrate the people who visibly age, are ill, or injured, or disabled. So many of the posts about Thrawn's portrayal in Ahsoka carry the stench of ableism and ageism. As for hating the character for his portrayal, blame Filoni instead.

[lost-technology]

I was alerted to Trigun Fanfiction Appreciation Week! I have recs! It's Cinco de Mayo and I am full of tacos. Let's roll! Roleswap The Purple Hyacinth bouquet of stories by @somereaderinblue Summary: A universe in which Vash was born as the first Independent Plant and it is Tesla and Nai who are the twin-siblings. Other characters switch roles as well - Luida and Rem, Livio and Wolfwood, each retaining their unique selves. The symbolism of the purple hyacinth and little details like Tesla's love of lemon-cake really make this. Tesla is a rougher kind of heroic desperado, being more nuanced, rougher and less absolutist than Vash, making for an amazing ride. (The first tale, centered on Luida and little Vash, though, will break your heart). Canon-typical violence and abuses of children and science. General AU Sun, Moon and Stars by @tragic-unpaired-electron Summary: At a crucial moment, Rem does something crazy to save baby Tesla and the entire universe changes. What follows is the saga of the Saverem family - mothers, daughter, sons, a more hospitable planet, but not without social and political challenges for Plants to gain legal personhood. This had me hooked like a thrill ride, beginning to end. One of my absolute favorites in the fandom. Each and every character has a realistic, organic change stemmed from this one pinpoint. (Nai doesn't go genocidal for example, but has points where he could have gone dark and has reasons to choose a better path). Treat yourself and read this! Canon-typical violence. Conrad being particularly a bastard. For my fellow Rem-enjoyers Out Cold by Miricals Summary: Vash, Wolfwood and the girls find themselves sheltering in an old crashed escape ship they found with coldsleep capsules still running on half-dead solar power. Guess who they find. Some sadness with unnamed characters' deaths, otherwise no warnings. Accidents Happen by exai_lostjune Summary: Set in the 1998 anime / first anime only. Rem finds out that crewmate Steve has been beating her kids, not just being bigoted in speech. She beats his ass with a crowbar. That's it, that's the fic. Little Plant Twins get protected by their Mama Bear, Steve gets what he deserves. In-Series / Main Timeframe Let the Ransomed be Free by SpiritusRex Summary: Wolfwood and Meryl impersonate a pair of rich-bitches to get into a auction attended by all of the planet's worst billionaires. Their mission? To find an extract a certain Vash the Stampede, who is up on the auction block as a slave to the highest bidder. Shenanigans ensue. Canon-typical violence / un-fun use of a cattle-prod on our poor Vash. Just Follow My Yellow Light (And Ignore All Those Big Warning Signs) by haveloved Summary: In the aftermath of Vash getting hurt, Wolfwood notices that Meryl hasn't eaten. Milly usually helps her remember to eat. Just a little story about self-care and others-care. Canon-typical violence. WTF? Aaaah! Why did someone write this? / are people going to look at me weird for reading this? Aaaaaaaah! Horror. Sin Eaters by @dragonofeternal Summary: There is an old tradition Vash read of once wherein a ritual meal is consumed to absolve the sins of the deceased. Livio, however, was Wolfwood's first friend and does not intend on letting Vash dine alone. BIG WARNING HERE! This was written for Trigun Body Horror Week. NOT for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach! While I think this is the best story to come out of Trigun Body Horror Week... it is... just that. This one's for gore-fiends - outdoes canon.

[makima-s-most-smile]

Trigun Maximum 7.1

Me: Okay, I rush quickly through the volumes to catch up.

Also me: *rambles your ear off*

Trigun Ultimate: 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4 Trigun Maximum: 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2, 4.1, 4.2, 5.1, 5.2, 6.1, 6.2, 7.1, 7.2, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 9.1, 9.2, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5

Happy Days

Dunno, how that can be a happy day when the ships are nearly falling down. Don’t worry, they stay in the sky… for now.

And Rem’s obvious fear that is strong enough for her to take time to call the twins WHILE the ships have an emergency and Vash’ constant cautiousness make Knives worry, too. If the twins are such an exceptional appearance, why didn’t Rem wake the other watchers?

But Knives has more important things to do than worry! He seems intrinsically connected to the emergency at hand.

I… watched too many sci-fi-horror stuff. My first thought when seeing the hand was: ZOMBIES!

And ewewewewew, needle in neck. NOOOOOOO! EWWWWWWWWW! I am so icked out.

They have no brainwaves when being frozen. We learned that in the last chapter. So, they are dead. Imagine being nothing and suddenly… BAMM! You’re back! Cold as hell and need to act immediately. Fuckity.

Hi, Conrad! You look exactly like 150 years later. Tell me your skincare routine.

Three years. I shall make a note, this seems important.

Eh, typical crew banter. At least it is not like ‘98. Brrrr….

Knives, what did you do?

And the crewmembers are sus. Do they know? Why would they know? But they zoom in on something, maybe something that happened three years ago? But Rem lies. And suddenly that friendly crew banter seems less friendly and a predatory feeling added.

Rem does not accept. She thanks the crewmate, but she does not accept it! With the sus scene before it reads like Rem is shielding the twins from the crews knowledge. And it looks more and more like Rem is hiding something like fear and mistrust behind her friendly face. (Also, I think it is somewhat funny that Rem and Wolfwood act so similar. Both don’t truly lie, they avoid and distract.)

How did Rem not see Conrad not going into coldsleep? She had to be pissed at Knives at that moment to err like this! XD And we get the confirmation that Knives was the cause for the emergency and that’s why he is so locked onto his little tablet.

A year… later more to that.

I think Rem’s handling is a bit naive. She just wants to take the twins into coldsleep with her. That’s okay. But how does she think her crewmates other than Conrad will react? Does she have different pods for the twins? Isn’t there a high risk that one crewmate would see two more pods in use? Or does she want to take them in the same pod with her? Then they would be discovered at the next emergency. Conrad seems to be on her side, while not completely okay with her violating the rules, he tolerates it. And while in coldsleep, Rem is unable to act if some crewmate decides to… whatever. 

Vash’ expression. He does not believe it immediately, but Knives makes him believe and trust Conrad’s words and in a peaceful existence. It is so weird to see Knives being the hopeful and excited twin. And in the current timeline, both are full of pain and despair. Just Vash is masking behind the smile he learned to wear.

I think of her like an echo, like the image of Conrad was one when Knives killed him. The twins do not know. They think of their little crush instead and need to check her pod first. They cannot discern if the image is real or not.

An abandoned, medical wing with a fresh, cut flower. A memorial for someone or something and it is taken care of. Maybe Rem or Conrad (since it seems he just went back to sleep) put it there. With the distrust for the other crewmembers, I doubt it was one of them.

Tesla, the name is not foreboding at all. Like Tesla the inventor without whom our day and age would not be possible, but who was duped out of his inventions, who was used up until he died poor and isolated. (The man loved pigeons and I know I would have vibed with him just for that)

Yeah, the subject… the dehumanised subject. The person being able to perceive, feel and hurt that is just a soulless subject. The subject that is able to speak! How did it take ONEHUNDRED days for someone to pipe up about the ethical questions of: Cutting the child up! I didn’t get it in the first read through, but she got tumours most likely because she was scanned so much. Do you know how much you need to be x-rayed for that to happen? Many, many, many times. Daily... And they did not care… Tesla was not able to perceive pain in their warped view. 

We only see three of the five crewmates loom over Tesla. With the dispute and everything, we can assume that Conrad and Rem weren’t involved, but also weren’t able to stop it. Either because they weren’t able to get through to the other crewmates or being overruled.

The question of ethics is an important one for me. Even distancing myself from the horrible feeling I have about all of this and look at it more rationally, why did they do this? Yes, curiosity mixed with dehumanisation. But I mean not only that, aren’t there protocols and behavioural standards that they have to keep up? *points to Germany and Japan in the 40s* There is a reason those exist! The SEED project has to have rules for behaviour and for emergencies! How to act if something unforeseen happens! And human rights do not stop working just because you are in space. These people played god, they played with a lifeform! A lifeform they were able to perceive as conscious! There are so many things that can be tested without vivisecting her! And besides that, do they even have the training to do so? Their work is to keep the SEEDS ship on course… Sorry, but engineering stuff and ship stuff to VIVISECTION… that’s a far jump. What was even their goal in this? Because I don’t read any here. I just read someone ripping off the legs of a spider to see what happens. Understanding Tesla and her power is not their goal! There is no hypothesis, there is no thing they want to prove. Even the simple idea of: How does Tesla work/perceive stuff… Because for that… they could have talked and used tests that aren’t… *stares at the picture* ripping out her heart to see what happens. We see them use EEGs! Some close friends work in research. To make a study that contains humans they need to get through a dire evaluation process, and an ethics committee and more often than not they get denied because some wording is slightly off. Hell, they had to go through hell to get a study with pigeons approved! (granted… the pigeons were euthanized and their brains were cut up into small slices).

Tesla didn’t even reach her first birthday. That’s why it is so important that the boys are a year old to Conrad.

Even in death they did not leave Tesla whole. Her brain is separated and her angel arm, too. The rest of her body is torn apart and left floating in a tank like a medicinal specimen.

But I like these panels. “Someone just like us.” Interrupted by the very personification of grief and regret. Then Vash seeing what happened with Tesla.

Yeah… yeah…

What do you think? How long did Knives and Vash stay in the room, staring at Tesla in terror? Vash looks dehydrated and starved… How long did it take for Rem to look for them and find them, much less retrieving them.

Separate Ways

I… wouldn’t call that weakness, Rem… I know the wording is meant to resemble a prayer… but… Weakness is me binging on a chocolate cake, weakness is falling back into a bad habit, weakness is lashing out at someone in pain, weakness is letting someone step over your boundaries because you are too afraid of rejection. Weaknesses are things that make us fallible, that make us be at odds with each other and that make us imperfect, but still loveable beings. Weakness is not cutting up and killing an innocent child in slow motion. That was a continued active decision to be horrible. They did not reflect upon their actions at all. 

“Forgive us in our weakness.” And Rem cannot ask for forgiveness for her colleagues. They aren’t the least affected by what they did, okay, Conrad. But asking for forgiveness is nothing you can do in proxy. And it should not be on the boys, too. They need to work through their pain and grief. The only person who could forgive is Tesla, but she is dead. Rem needs to work through her guilt herself, not that she is really good at it. Vash truly takes after her.

Oh, how the turn tables.

Vash goes full Knives. Understandable. Vash is the more cautious brother. Even then he was hopeful, it was always with Vash staying reserved and awaiting rejection. And with the last chapter of volume 6 in mind, his way of thinking gets constantly affirmed. Though the question is what changed from this little Vash to the adult Vash. Because adult Vash does not allow himself those thoughts, while he is rejected by humans most of the time. The thoughts are there, they make him and they make his behaviour. But he denies himself these at the same time, ignoring his feelings and hurts.

Vash going for the throat. Not unjustified, but still hot damn.

Rem was at least a bystander in Tesla’s death. Either she, Conrad or the both of them voiced the ethical questions, but it took 100 days until it was dire enough for it to be written in the report. But we don’t know for sure. Rem’s and Conrad’s involvement is kept in a pretty vague light. Maybe she even experimented on Tesla at the start? We can’t know. But we know it haunts her.

Interestingly, Rem’s grief is about herself. It is not entirely about Tesla, but her involvement in her death. It is about her not having enough power in any way to stop the crew. Adult Vash mimics Rem in this with his martyrdom. This whole situation of Rem’s guilt makes me think of the base ideas behind the Milgram-Experiment, Asch-conformity experiments and peer pressure, while the torture itself reminds me of the banality of evil. There are of course complicating factors here, like that in this situation there is no higher authority figure and we don’t get a code of behaviour, the isolation of the crew members and more.

I… pity Rem, I feel for her, HELL, I get how isolated she feels from her peers, how (from what we can gather) she was powerless to stop the torture. I feel the dilemma she was in, I feel for her. But at the same time I judge her for her words. While Vash is lashing out, he has points! How can he trust Rem right now? He knew of his otherness the whole time and now he was confronted with what happened to others like him. Rem hid that from him. Somewhat rightfully so with him being a child, but still… Vash does not know how she tried to stop this or if she tried to stop this at all! He doesn’t know her pain and this is not the moment in which it should be about her guilt. But she makes it about herself. Rem is there for them because of her guilt. She wants some kind of forgiveness for her being unable to protect Tesla. The twins cannot give her that. No one but herself can give her that. But having her guilt towering over their whole relationship makes it unhealthy and quite frankly Rem a bad role model. Rem hides herself from the twins, giving them an incomplete picture of a person to look up to. This lashing out from her is a rare occasion of showing her true self and I don’t believe adult Vash has a grip on the real Rem at all. He mirrors her, but he is unable to see that the role model he had is very unhealthy and ill.

In the end, Rem wants to do some kind of atonement for her involvement with Tesla (be it by being an active torturer, by being a bystander or being helpless to stop it) and she uses the twins to get it. I don’t think of her as a monster, but she was in no position to be a mother to the twins and it shows. She was an everywoman that got dealt a hand that was way beyond her abilities.

Peach! A peach is an interesting symbol. It can mean life and immortality. Considering the following scene starts with a peach and how impactful it was…

It is also interesting that they don't seem to talk really. Rem does not really open up there, she puts on a mask and tries to wittle down Vash to get him to eat. She doesn't help him through his pain like this. Ignoring the others position is not the way to help people.

Ugh, Vash sprouted the same thing to Wolfwood. It is so fucking judgemental. And like Vash’ similar lines in that talk (the other with the devil are total hits), these lines totally miss the mark. What about this is too light?! I know Rem says this, because she cannot help Vash with his trauma here. She wants to help Vash, she wants him to live and she is out of any helpful options. But those lines are so empty… It is the same with the typical depression sentences that people get: “Have you tried not being sad? You are just lazy. Other people have it worse than you.” They are voiced frustration, they are a cry of helplessness, but they are the opposite of helpful. They are without empathy. They deny validity to Vash’ feelings, they push them aside. And I hate that. Worse, these lines just make Vash’ mental state so much worse, which ends with this.

And this is the pivotal moment for Vash. He got his revenge. He got his anger out. And it is empty. Revenge is nothing, it leaves you a shell. His hurt clouded what and who he truly cares for. And now his action finally takes him out of his stasis. 

And that’s why adult Vash tries to not kill/hurt in anger. Because it leaves you empty, it doesn’t solve anything. The person you hurt is gone, but you are still hurt. He learned it the hard way. Rem is the example of people trying to change, if people who hurt you are doing better by you. And because she did it, everyone else has to be able to do that, too. (Well, everyone is able to change, but not everyone will change, but that is Vash’ fallacy here, not mine.)

Oh, Alex is finally mentioned. Rem was so deeply depressed. Look at all the alcohol bottles. Alcohol as coping mechanism runs in the family -_-

Rem has been depressed, her loss made her. She should be able to emphasise with Vash in his stupor. But if you are that deep in it… getting out of it needs to come from yourself. You need to be wanting to get better, you need to get help in therapy or with medicine or better both. She cannot force Vash to get better. She should have known. (Sorry, but that is something close to my heart, I am miffed at Rem here!)

I like and I don’t like the blank ticket. For once it symbolises that you can start anew at any time. You can choose where to go, your past does not bind you down. But… for some people it does. The blank ticket only works if you are unbound by responsibilities, by community, hell, by money. There are limits. And Vash never got to understand that. Rem wasn’t there to teach him. Well, she was. But the lesson did not stick. Because, yeah, her ticket was blank, but he chose her responsibilities to all the people. She chose to try and save as many people as possible. She could have jumped into the rescue pod and flee with Vash and Knives, but she didn't, because her responsibilities bound her to this place. And I don't feel Vash understands that.

Oh, he knows.

He looks so dopey, I get cuteness aggression.

But with the chapter title in mind, this is where Vash and Knives drift apart.

King of loneliness

Front page showing Vash and Wolfwood. Nice.

Okay, we finally get more info. Nothing about if Conrad and Rem were part of the experiments in the beginning, but at least now we know who started opposing. And, yes, it is the right thing to inform Knives. I still feel split about it, since they are a year old, they do not have the emotional maturity to handle it/Rem has not the abilities to handle child trauma, but then again they are able to understand so much more, would hiding really work? Let them make informed decisions and they get to.

Making my rounds back to Conrad. That is why he wanted to stay with Knives, even after betraying him. Because that was his kind of atonement. He feels guilty for being unable to help Tesla, he projects that onto Knives, too. I groaned at him betraying Knives that late, but it makes sense. Giving Knives a new body, trying to help him, he was acting out of his guilt. Still massively stupid and in complete denial, but there is some sense in it.

Because that’s healthy… Rem and Vash feel something is off about Knives, maybe more than just the shock about Tesla. But they trust him. And he shows emotions, he cries. While he isn’t his chipper self, there is the old Knives. But is it just a mask? I am not sure. Towards Rem, maybe not, but Vash gets some more sinister vibes.

*stares at adult Knives, who hides his fear behind aggression and anger* Yeah, fear is completely pointless… Sure… No way you are going down the rabbit whole of genocide right now.

Again, NIghtow’s brilliant display of two different emotions in one face. Fear, sadness and hurt vs. anger and madness. The current Knives takes over the small, fearful kid.

*stares* Much rational, so emotionless, no fear at all. I always laugh at this sentence. He is so far gone in this moment...

Porque No Los Dos?

Those numbers… make no sense. If 802 of 1.000 ships got destroyed, then there would be 60 Mil casualties and 20 Mil missing due to the ships being still lost. Or are the missing persons just the people who aren’t known to have died or have been lost after the initial crash?  And how many survived? We could at least take a shot in the dark and math an estimate of survivors..

Okay. 80 Million lost or death. Taking that the death toll and lost are both directly caused by ships lost/destroyed and not the aftermath. 

802 +124 ships gone. 

80M/926 would be people per ship. 

Thus 

80M/926*124

= People survived in emergency landings 

around 10.713.000 survived the initial crash.

We know much death and strife followed until humanity stopped stumbling that much. So, I assume that the population took another downfall and is now back to where it was.

Knives, you are able to reflect enough that you did an oopsie by killing your sisters, too. But you are unable to understand that fear hides behind your anger or that you abuse Vash… Man…

Knives is not completely wrong about his assumptions about humanity as a gross. But that makes it so difficult to get through to him. Yes, his sisters are exploited, but he is a big cause for this. Should humans just give up and die? And he ignores the blatant devotion the plant engineer showed, he ignores how many of his sisters are well taken care off. 

Did his sister truly merge of her own will? Or is it another moment of Knives ignoring others autonomy because he is so rational?

“And from that moment on, the world was plunged into chaos.” I… think it was chaotic before that… but yeah, rat in a corner-Knives is another level of deranged.

[transgenderer]

i really love stories about characters who use a combination of coldsleep and relativistic time dilation to stretch their lives thiiiiiin over the ages, so theyll be maybe a couple thousand years old at the most and stretched over tens of thousands, even millions. peter watts sunflower series is the peak of this, but there's also a big chunk in a deepness in the sky, and house of suns

[flamingdiva]

Chipie and me being sent to coldsleep at the same time cause both of us somehow were way too sus continually covering for each other while neither of us were gnosia is just so..... like thanks guys have fun figuring things out without your most intuitive crew members

[prasemvanguardgerman]

Happy 27th Anniversary of the original Digital Monster + all other V-Pets since 1996.

The beginn of the multimedia franchise & it‘s fandoms from the lcd games to 💿 Games and to toys, Anime , Manga , writing and all other elements in the Franchising.

My two Dracomon on the 20th died both in the moment after i pressed the screen from the batterie switching after paused. 💀🙈

MetalPiranhimon on the X device is in coldsleep.

[socialliterature]

You drift off to coldsleep, expecting to wake up in a few years when your ship finally reaches its destination. When you wake up, you're off course, and everything is broken.

[ask-the-shorty-squad]

Omg I need to eat food. I havent eaten food since 1995!

*What? You mean like last year 2021? Kids are funny af.*

No. I was born in 1984. Died in 1995.

*B-But it's... 2022 december 23rd. Ohhh. I get it. Your joking. Well very funny.*

(Reminder that this is not our current timeline and that this is the Danganronpa universe.)

I-I'm not joking...

*What?*

Just how long were we all.... I thought it was just a year.... I thought we were all in coldsleep for a year....

*C-Cold sleep?*

D-Does this mean?! You are from the past?!

WE WERE IN COLD SLEEP FOR 27 YEARS?!

*TWENTY-SEVEN?!?!?!*

Hang on does this make us older than you all.

Hah! Were older than you all AND we look better!

JUST WHAT PART OF THIS IS FRIGGIN' GOOD?! OUR PARENTS ARE LIKELY DEAD NOW!!!

. . . . . . What. . . . . .

*But... Why were they in cold sleep...?*

What the hell?

[mu-th-ur]

Cold Sleep — Stine Deja at Tranen, Hellerup, Copenhagen, Denmark On view until July 07, 2021 Photography by David Stjernholm 🔗in stories @stine_deja @tranen_nu @david_stjernholm #stinedeja #coldsleep #tranen #extemporaryart #immortality #cryopreservation #cryogenics #alexismark #danishartsfoundation #15julifonden #beckettfonden #grossererlffoghtsfond #knudhøjgaardsfond #hellerup #hellerupexhibtions #copenhagenexhibitions #denmark #installation #art #contemporaryart #ofluxo #ofluxopatform @ofluxoplatform (em Hellerup) https://www.instagram.com/p/COcwxYBFVYN/?igshid=yq115at9yu3e

[verylampthingfriend]

cold sleep

[koma-yuki-86]

NEW ZONE #zone #coldsleep #エナジードリンク #エナジードリンクマニア https://www.instagram.com/p/CdXC6RNPezv/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[contentment-of-cats]

The Card Game at the End of the Galaxy.

They got the Lady as repaired as one could hope. The damned whales apparently used the refined Clouzon fuels to come back here to die after spawning. The Chimaera's crew had been too busy dying or with damage control to see the beasties having it off in hyperspace. Grace and Little Gods only knew if she'd hold together making the jump, but with the materials of other crashed ships, they'd been able to put her back together.

Shipwide Communication: All Hands

ALL ESSENTIAL PERSONNEL INDICATED FOR COLD SLEEP HAVE RECEIVED THEIR THORACIC PORTS AND BACTA TREATMENT.

PREPARATION FOR NON-EMERGENCY COLDSLEEP:

Your groups will be called by MOS and rank. Do not wait in the medbay corridors. 

No food after 00:00 - clear liquids only. Take the intestinal prep at the same time.

At 06:00 leave your quarters wearing the hooded jumpsuit provided. Your possessions will be stored away for you.

In the staging area wait to be called with your group. Please do not bring anything with you such as datapads, reading material, or your personal comlinks.

We will soon be home. 

They will soon regret it.

Long live the Empire. 

CMDE Albus Marinith, ISD Chimaera FLAG, 7th Fleet, 

GADM Mitth'raw'nuruodo, ISD Chimaera FLAG, 7th Fleet

~

They were good soldiers and sailors of the Empire, and rather than await a lingering death from starvation and thirst - or eating dead whale meat (barf) - his Humans got to work. Thrawn, of course, didn't know this. He was in and out of coldsleep, medbeds, bacta tanks, and surgery. His Humans were as determined to save him as they were to get home. They were shocked silly when three crones suddenly appeared on the auxiliary bridge, and the Three Mothers almost joined their sisters before Thrawn stopped them. 

They had something to offer - and they wanted something in return.

A way to communicate with the galaxy far, far away. A way to rally the resources needed to return home. The hyperlanes were purgill migration routes, the purgill one of the oldest species not just in the galaxy, but in the universe, and a species eating itself out of existence. They came here to spawn, then die, their bones filled with Clouzon, the ships that ran on it the only way for them to get home. With a ring based on the old Jedi fighter hyperspace rings, the Chimaera could fly again. It would take the Mothers back to Dathomir, and the crew of the Chimaera back home.

It was go time.

They found a way to mine the bone belt, then vaporize the bones in a plasma engine, collecting the gasses. The Chimaera's chief engineer's last act had been to shut down the core with his bare hands in a breached engine room. In the weeks that it took to minimally refuel, the air turned stale as vital systems starved. Then, nursing the core back to full power - and holding their breath - engine by engine, they fired the Gemon-4 ion engines and moved slowly into the atmosphere.

Thrawn awoke just in time for the descent.

More devilry, but it could not be helped. Three rickety old hags weighed against the remaining Chimaera crew. 

So they are here now, his loyal crew. Almost all sleep in their stasis units in the catacombs. The Chimaera is vacuum tight and as spaceworthy as possible. Bridger will be stranded. 

Hammerly shuffles the cards, the chrono counting down to 00:00. Pyrondi has a pile of worthless chips and heckles Lomar and Agral that she's cashing in when they get home. Yve doesn't do goodbyes, and is sitting this one out. Marinith is finishing his last commands and a glass of his Corellian whisky. 

Thrawn brings a bottle and takes a seat. "Deal me in, Flag Captain Hammerly."

"Ready to lose your pension, sir?" Pyrondi chirps with her characteristic confidence.

"Hold onto your chips, Commander Pyrondi." Card games such as Five Card Fool Me involve strategy as much as luck. "Remember last time."

She tried to bluff the table with a pair of deuces and fooled everyone but him. 

They talk about what they're going to do when they get home. Some of the acts involve improbable uses for Bridger's head, but most are typical leave activities. They talk about visiting family, partying, indulging in food and drink, or hobbies. 

"What are you planning to do, sir?"

"Apparently, Commander Lomar, I need to plan on posting your bail." Thrawn let a small smirk flit across his face, making the others eye their cards nervously. "Don't worry about the courts martial. I've had enough of them that I can talk you through."

The runup to coldsleep has seen some remarkable behavior in the name of stress relief, and Thrawn has long looked the other way on fraternization. Waking up in a pile of warm and naked Humans has been comforting these past months. They have never disdained his injured body, and many bear scars from horrendous wounds of their own.

Five minutes to 00:00, Hammerly puts the cards away and kisses them all farewell. Lomar and Agral follow. Marinith looks in and bids him goodnight. Yve's farewell is personal, warm, and heartfelt. Pyrondi tidies the room and Thrawn can feel her reluctance to leave.

"I'll look in on you in a few hours." 

She nods, not trusting her voice, and goes. Thrawn would never betray her confidence that coldsleep terrifies her. They've all had the drills, starting with the academy, but this is going to be for a very long time. They don't have enough consumables for the length of time they'll have to wait. Thrawn and a core of stormtroopers will remain awake, with a few officers and specialists to wake when the Eye of Sion arrives.

The prep for non-emergency coldsleep is unpleasant, but he noticed them cutting back on rations and increasing fluids. When he looks in on Pyrondi, as promised, she's pale and fatigued in the aftermath. A weak smile from her and he enters, placing the do-not-disturb on the doorway. He's going to miss her as she sleeps. He will miss all of them. His Humans.

He stays until 06:00, going to medbay and finding everything ready. He nods at the medic to begin.

"Commander Agral, report to medbay."

"Commander Yve, report to medbay."

"Commander Lomar, report to medbay."

"Commander- Commodore Marinith, report to medbay."

Pyrondi is last, and it is for his own selfish purpose. Marinith gives him a knowing look.

The body, reactivating from a cold start, goes through hell. Hibernation sickness can last for weeks if one is not properly inducted. First come the scans to make sure of an empty digestive tract. A protective drink goes down, eye and nose drops are administered, a mouthpiece put in place. Then the thoracic port is hooked up to the infusion pump. There is nobody to see as he takes Pyrondi's hand. She's a good officer, one of his very best.

"Anesthesia in three, two, one. Commander, count backwards from ten."

"Ten. Nine. Eight. S-sevix. Fi-" 

Pyrondi's eyes haze, close, and are then delicately taped to protect them. The mouthpiece and airway tube are placed, then her exposed face covered with bacta patches. It doesn't look like her any longer. Thrawn starts to tuck her fingers into the mitt, then looks at the other four caskets waiting, lights blinking. It's not a Chiss custom, but he presses his lips to her warm fingers. 

"I'll see you soon, Commander Pyrondi." 

He tucks her hand back in, straightens and nods at the medic.

"Coldsleep prep dose underway… now." He can't see the warmth drain from her face, but he can see her in infrared when he blinks his nictitating lid. She changes until her body gives only a cold blue signal. "Patient is stable. Beginning induction."

He waits. She or one of the others waited for him - there every time he woke up. 

"Induction successful for Pyrondi, Commander, Senior Weapons Officer, female, twenty-six years of age."

The casket closes, carbonite gas filling the space, the light flashes and then settles into a steady red. 

Thrawn nods to the medic, one of the few crew members left awake.

"We'll take good care of them, sir."

"Dismissed."

When the troopers come to take the five caskets, Thrawn turns and walks away.

Now all he has to do is wait.

[lost-technology]

Rem Lives AU Fanfic Idea

So, I have this idea for a Trigun Stampede AU.   A “Rem survives” AU.  (Please don’t roll your eyes).   The idea of it is that most things go like in canon.  Vash and Nai are jettisoned off on a shuttlecraft.  All of the stuff with the Big Fall is the same.  Vash being found by Ship 3 is the same.  He even gets scrutinized and imprisoned just the same.  However, in the early days and week where survivors are trying to piece things together, a lot of wounded survivors from crashed ships that are reasonably close by are brought into Ship 3 because they got out of it with most of their facilities intact (I believe Luida said something about activating a gravity-well so that they kind of landed rather than full crash?).  Ship 3 is one of the few ships with a working hospital and they gather up any survivors they can in need of help.   Vash, from his cell, gets used to the sirens and the drone, hearing gurneys come in every once in a while whenever a Search comes back.  And then one day, when Luida comes in to do her daily check on him and bring him food, she has him come with her (still in chains, for the comfort of the rest of the crew - jerks) because they think they might have found someone of interest to him.   Indeed there’s Rem - alive (due to some kind of lucky air-pocket in the command room during the crash), but really messed up.  Burns and cuts all along her right side.  They had to amputate her right leg.  One eye and half her face is all bandaged up.  They don’t know if she’s going to make it.  Whump! Whump! ANGST!  She regains consciousness briefly, recognizes Vash and puts all of her monitoring equipment into a FRENZY as she tries to get up out of bed, DEMANDING to know why there are shackles on him before she’s sedated for her own good.  And Vash is led back to his cell with this image burned into his mind.  He stresses himself out for the next few days and is not allowed to see her because of how precarious her condition is.  And then the incident with the Plant happens and Vash heals it and becomes the Hero of Ship 3.  Rem starts recovering enough that they are allowed to see each other and Vash basically lives in her hospital room for a while, refusing to leave her side.  She gets a prosthetic leg - thank you Brad - goes through intense physical therapy to recover and use it.  Is very concerned about learning what happened to Nai.  Vash is reluctant to tell her the whole story...  Vash does that “Brad deciphers the Black Box and runs off to try to find Nai” thing as in canon when Rem is taking a nap in coldsleep.  I do not know yet if it is for a health reason (crash really did jack up her insides and she’s subject to multiple surgeries, some of which are best done when she’s kept on pause while the technology meant for implants is tweaked), or if it’s because she becomes a Ship 3 crewer and is put on sleep-wake rotation. Maybe both? Probably the surgery-thing.   She’s pulled out of coldsleep when Vash returns missing an arm...  And helps teach Vash how to use his new prosthetic, using her knowledge / experience from her leg.  She decides to join Vash in searching for Nai.  Ship 3 is against this because, well, she’s the Hero of Project SEEDS, having held her post and relayed the alarm / reversed poles on the ships to save everyone that is yet alive. (She doesn’t feel the same way, is full of regret, always second guesses how she should have “read the signs” in the ship-readings / blames herself for things that aren’t her fault, because hey Vash has to get it from somewhere and generally has a massive case of PTSD).  Everyone wants to protect her.  No one wants her to put herself in danger.  And that’s when she takes a SEEDS service-revolver and absolutely pin-point obliterates all of the targets on a target range to show that she can look after herself.  To say that everyone is blown away by this is an understatement.  “Senior Crew Training,” she tells them.  They all had to be weapons-proficient, even if they were not expected to actually have to need to use them.  And so... Vash and Rem adventure around Noman’s Land.  Vash is treated to new perspectives on his mother, the kind he never got in canon.  She is, generally speaking, a non-fighter (and gets them out of trouble with diplomacy and devious ways.  “Rem does crime” is an Ao3 tag I coined, after all).  She totally did crime with forged data to try to protect Vash and Nai, she’s going to be no different - just a little bit devious there, or a lot...  Rem fighs with her brain.  And Vash, being a supernaturally skilled Plant-gunman, keeps that brain from getting blown out of her.  With her around, though, he cuts some of his more passively-suicidal crap and gains fewer scars.  She winds up taking long terms in coldsleep back on Ship 3, though, because her goal is to not age and die before they get to Nai.  That boy needs to be grounded!    

[transgenderer]

I'm reading the worthing saga. OSC has an extremely powerful hatred of coldsleep which I find absolutely baffling. No idea what his problem with it is, but its consistently framed as a great evil. Very weird. Seems totally harmless to me. Mormon thing....?

[kalki-maitreya]

"Imagine waking up in the cold of an unknown epoch." #ColdSleep https://www.instagram.com/p/B8Wo5XUnenh/?igshid=gn7k9zzkb5b0