#he knows its a game and is just freaking out at the ai being so alive u know

[bastardlybonkers]

feetman

[halfusek]

man. batdr archives. what

i hate them

sorry im gonna go full on hater mode here because oh my god? oh my god

i’ve got a sneaking suspicion that this came out now as damage control for the AI thing because 1. it wasn’t included in the game all along like BATIM’s archives were and 2. this tweet

like was it thrown together in such a rush that they forgot a whole ass character?

or it is a joke and was a planned action half a year after the game came out but eh who knows

either way this is not what i’m here to rant about (cuz im sure this is gonna turn to a rant)

it’s about bad writing, bad exposition and bad game design. buckle up!

i see what they mean with the smile being a challenge to create, you can see in countless animations for fansongs how different artists tackled that and for one i think they did that very well

however. why the clothes exactly? is it just a meta reason with no reasoning in-universe whatsoever?

and look i’m not a fan of the ink demon having a voice (though i respect the craft behind it, the voice actor is very talented, it’s just a personal preference) BUT if you made the ink demon talk you should by logical extension either make toon bendy talk as well or explain why the hell he’s talking? i can see it being distracting but there are characters that have squeaky annoying voices in games and they’re fine (and it’s not like toon bendy is around the player for a super long time)

i dunno what logic this whole thing operates on anymore but if joey commissioned the ink machine then it should be his and arch gate got all his shit after he passed away so idk what retrieve is supposed to mean here

but it could just be badly written sentences and the archive is full of those (once again making me think that the thing was done in a rush)

that’s fair i guess

yall did make him look like a generic demon tho

i mean... it could be worse? if the goal was to make him look out of place then it was achieved but idk if it’s actually a good thing

i do like the bit about Wilson influencing how things look under him being in control of the cycle (though they have a very silly definition about what the cycle is but more about that later)

dude. the beast bendy design was already bad in BATIM and they made it even worse in BATDR like what TToTT

its just an angry mountain of muscles, the batim design at least had that leg injury thing going on which made moving with front arms make more sense, this dude right here is just a big inky gorilla (and not in a good way)

playing as the final form in on itself isnt a bad idea, does sound quite fun, personally tho i did not enjoy the very ending on the game

i dunno it just felt weird and all the other characters randomly appearing and the lost ones attacking being so awkward and ink demon acting as if they could kill you... nah man i wasn’t feeling it

okay so lets get this straight

cycle = a series of events that repeat

breaking the cycle would mean doing something different and stopping the cycle from continuing (so what... wilson was doing actually)

saying that making it restart again is what breaking it means is just??? no?

“satisfying face reveal” welp. each to their own XD

i see their purpose theme and thats neat and all but man do i hate how henry in this game is just. there and how some stranger is the person helping him get out of his horrible fate like its sooooooo unsatisfying

yeah she got more personality ill give her that

but she’s not a beacon of hope. she’s a beacon of tearing away the satisfaction of defeating a villain that we as the player worked hard towards

and uh... isn’t getting thrown into a horrible dimension full of monsters that audrey isn’t familiar with and is supposed to be freaked out about a bad moment to introduce a familiar face? like from a writing perspective, because it happens nearly instantly as chapter one starts

shouldn’t audrey be unmotivated then and struggling to figure out the world on her own? the player should also be haunted at this world, like it’s a horror game bestie ! don’t make me comfortable

well glad to hear the confirmation on that batds is happening in pararel to batdr

but his involvement in the main story is honestly such a nothing burger

is he there just so you can put batdr on the “can you pet the dog” site?

oh ok so what you’re basically putting down here is that he’s a boring perfect extremely rich guy, wasn’t even a bad father, completely stripping wilson’s arc of depth, cool, was afraid there would be something of substance powering the backbone of the plot of this game

and saying that both joey and wilson are worse people because theyre cringefail at business XDDDDDDDDDDD

ok here is something that im glad they addressed because ive been wondering about it - how audrey forgot that joey was her dad and how did she end up working at arch gate then

i suppose it implies that there’s something we might still learn/theorize about it, like for example if it was the machine drawing her in or gent wanting to get the machine back and manipulating things into place from behind the scenes

i really wonder how you can enter in and out the ink realm unnaturally but good to mention why he looks like that if he’s supposed to be nathan’s son

you cant just say that a character was important to the story, its not gonna happen from words

how is she important exactly? she just talks and uh.. helps audrey make the drink that makes you fall asleep? man that section of the game was Weird

i do want to like her, she seems nice and there could be interesting things to her backstory but as for the plot she really didn’t do much, sorry, betty

if you wanna say that pushing the plot forward by giving audrey that drink and then alice appearing outta nowhere and kidnapping here is a good big contribution then idk what to tell you... its such a bad way to make the plot progress, it was so confusing because characters were behaving as in forced to do Things to Progress the Plot (especially Audrey drinking that thing at all like seriously girl?? and Alice appearing comically at the last sip like wooooooow are you for real)

ah. so they were attempting a redemption arc

[saying this he didn’t threw aside the large rock. he was right to be holding the large rock]

this sucks man! what did joey help correct exactly? created more ink people to suffer eternally? wow, dude, thanks

also lmao what learned from his mistakes, did you HEAR his dialogue at the end of batim?? (an audrey can be heard right after that scene as well so isnt his whole change of heart supposed to be happening around here + allison has already been added to the squad)

it’s just... it’s just such bullshit man

you can make us like joey as a character but don’t you fucking dare make us like him as a person

bad. just bad

(aaaaaand this is the part that made me realize i wish the archives just. weren’t added! wow! i’m even surprised with myself with how much I Don’t Like them)

WHAT flaws??? hello??? please give it a big thinking and tell me what flaws does Audrey have im shaking and crying

also is her “deep dark past” supposed to just be like bEINg JoEY DRewS DAUghtER OOOoooOOo? lmao. wow so dark wow so deep

i dont know why this story needed a fresh pair of eyes because the story is that audrey is joeys daughter and that wilson is nathan archs son and that bendy is bendy. wow so deep so dark and complicated!!!!!!!11!!111

also whats the point of fresh eyes if you welcome us with familiar faces?

also sorry to break this to you but its not hard to stand out from the kinda cast that is presented to us in this game. sorry i cant decide if i care more about audrey or random employee number 24 with a random problem that i have 0 reason or time to get attached to. i seriously cant decide

suuuure we were so muddled xD oh you got us so good you sneaky little cheeky little quirky little

cant fucking believe we almost had a proper nathan arch jr and a secret one eyed villain that there was so much hype about and theories that they obviously tried to deliever here

its speculative but. knowing that they take inspiration from fan theories - they admitted to it and ex employees said so, i think we would have to be in some serious denial to think that @lucky-dreamfisher​‘s one-eyed bendy theory wasn’t meant to be represented here with wilson’s character

ALSO THIS NARRATIVE. THIS NARRATIVE HAS ZERO- NO, NEGATIVE AMOUNT OF COMPLEXITY

GOD

this story makes so much LESS sense based on what you said! aaaaaaaa we were so close to greatness

what is so wrong with not resetting the cycle then?

not that im a fan of how wilson was approaching things, he very clearly wanted to make himself the ruler of this realm and have power over everyone but sounds like that sure beats living under ink demons reign?

but also idk if this is entirely true like in batim chapter 5 we can see that lost ones were capable of making that lost harbour and sammy is later mentioned to have mastered a special ability too so??

i wish we learned more about the pit because it sounds quite interesting and we were working hard towards getting there and finally didnt get to see it at all (a shame! very unrewarding to the player)

im not gonna comment on reverting here cuz its a serious mental thing im not knowledgable about

i haaaate this

you... this is not how exposition is done!

show don’t tell?? how about SHOW don’t TELL??

what in the goddamn. you can’t just pull that outta your ass and say yep. this is how it is. bro. dude.

im referring here to the ink machine bit, the previous sentences can actually be seen in the story

but the design does not reflect what is written here

and they are doing so much of that in these archives, this telling of the story in a place that is not meant for telling of the story, you do that IN the STORY. rarghrgrh

surprise i found another nice thing: confirmation on that alice was the one who mutilated the butcher gang, cuz i dont think that was ever confirmed before but at least you can find implications of that in the game so its fine to outright confirm that here, good job about that

i dont know what theyre on about carley, she doesnt really look like that to me and ive looked at her model in the archives, in the files and at peoples renders of her and i just dont see it

but i guess it might mean it was like a suit that someone got stuck in- FNAF?!>!!>!?

no way. no fucking way

we got robbed what ToT

he was removed in favour of WHAT???? AMOK????

dude there ill be real. there’s barely anything that is worth keeping there instead of having him play a bigger role

and im not even that big on sammys character! hes one of my least liked characters personally even! but at least there is something more to him and just man after 5 years you could have given him more than just a dumb wilhelm scream joke, that almost feels like a spat in the face lmao

thanks for again confirming something though with that flow thing, as we noticed sammy uses gaps in the wall in batim chapter 2 to travel around the place

why not have him teach audrey the flow ability? imagine how could that would have been

im just baffled this exist but sammy apparently had to be cut out

lol

lmao

moving on

my brother in christ why are you making it a mystery if she will appear, she literally appeared in every game so far with quite major roles

also... what layers? sure in batim with her story (susie’s story) there sure been some layers, susie’s story in batim is probably aside from joey’s story the deepest character arc they got

but alice in batdr? she’s there to play a stupid game she set herself up to lose, get mad at that (eh?) shoot you and die

what layers, really

gender

but also idk i found the fight annoying and random, you could throw it out and not much of value would be lost, put sammy back in

YOU MADE HIM NOTHING

YOU TOOK A PERFECTLY FINE ENEMY AND GAVE IT ANXIETY THATS WHAT YOU DID /j /ref

idk if id describe the ink demon as putting the player on edge because he doesnt actually roam the place

you see a grey overlay on your screen and you need to hide or you die... which gets tiring fast and annoying

you totally could still have lurker (even if just restricted to some areas) as a free roaming monster

and the unlikely ally thing is just so bland like yeah he’s there, we know nothing about him aside from that he eats hearts, incredibly charming fella 

not thrilled by his design either but that issue i already had with the first trailer but i guess they just sticked with that

bendy devs not use mental illnesses as derogatory terms challenge

i like the crab boy design, he’s sillay

bro forgot a texture tho

so yeah not. happy with the archives

sorry if im like overly negative but ive honestly tried to give this sequel (because despite what they were saying it IS undoubtedly a sequel) my best assumptions and it turns out its nearly all the worst assumptions

its annoying, im annoyed

they should hire a writer to help them get this mess together, maybe get adrienne in on it, i dunno, because clearly if they need to be specific and not leaving things open like in batim, then they arent managing very well

they even fucking killed harold

[nirogryphon]

whats ur parallel fanon

i'm assuming you saw this post, right? are you talking about that specific guy? that's adzuki. idk if you're wanting headcanons about what i think about that boss or an oc lore dump. to me they're both, so that's what you're getting. it's gonna get long, get some popcorn.

in my splatoons world post-memverse runthrough, beans (my four) beg marina to let it out because he saw that it was sentient and wanted it to join his bf as a polycule. It's got a very similar level of kindness and whatnot to beans, but is extremely dry, blunt, and overall "emotionless" (not true, we'll get to that).

you see, i don't think parallel canon is 4, but merely a program made to mimic 4. Marina wanted one of the best in the NSS, so she asked Beans (instead of Ty, who was an elite, but then again, who got their ass handed to all those years ago again?) to offer up a brain scan to get a copy of that fighting skill of theirs for what would become the Parallel canons. Unfortunately, like with any technology, this wasn't perfect, especially with someone who was sanitized like how beans is. That scan ended up grabbing some other aspects of him, like a bit of his personality and, mainly, his fear of himself. He's gotten over it for the most part, at least that's what he thought anyways. When testing, fighting a perfect copy of yourself isn't going to pop up really at all, so this doesn't come up as an issue until Marina's released her little game for the sanitized to use, allowing the one freak scenario to arise.

The rogue code, formerly dormant, activates immediately when beans ends up confronting parallel canon. He's hesitant at first, but remembers it's not him, merely code made to look and fight like them. So, without much worry, he begins to charge at it for the fight, that code kicking in to overdrive and making it act the exact way beans would if it were the other way around. It retreats. It cries out, garbled, in supposed simulated fear. Beans stops in his tracks, staring down at the clone, only seeing his socked face staring back in the reflection of the mask.

This sparks a snowball effect of new programming being written without an author, a program learning, becoming sapient, alive. A scenario that forces one to confront something he wasn't fully ready for and another to realize what it is. Subsequent run attempts, the two keep learning about themselves and eachother in combat, regardless on if either of them like it, until eventually coming to a rather peaceful confrontation, a realization that neither want to hurt the other, and yadda yadda yadda something something long messy story short it's a reconnection with the self and learning to love oneself again. I don't want to get into detail here, I'm personally still torn on whether or not this exact part should be sfw or not, so, lol.

Regardless, it's still ultimately what the memverse was made for: helping the sanitized remember and become themselves again, and while it isn't an evil agent 4, what we got works way better with what I had already and it's just perfect.

As for adzuki itself, I'm not sure exactly the details on its anatomy when given the physical form outside of the memverse. I do want to stick to a very similar palette to what PC has in the memverse, as well as being made out of goo still, but does that mean it's a physical jelleton in the walking world? Don't know for sure yet. I'll work that out in time. Adzuki's voice is an AI recreation of Beans', sounding extremely similar, but obviously synthesized.

As for personality, Adzuki is a lot like beans in its ideals and bonds. However, due to being based off code not meant to emote or show tone, it struggles a lot in doing so, save for a few exceptions. It can only really express emotion through body language instead, and a lot of what it says is extremely clinical, blunt, and dry. Think Data from Star Trek. Of course, that doesn't mean it is emotionless, quite the opposite. Adzuki merely expresses emotions very differently than the regular inkfish. There's also a few ways to gauge how intense the emotion it's feeling is via how unstable the goo it's made out of is or by how bitcrushed its voice has gotten. Essentially: the drippier and messier it is, or the more low quality the voice is, the more intense the emotion it's feeling is.

Some exceptions that break that stoic mask of sorts can be via substance use, like drinking or smoking weed. Once that code is overwritten inside it during these exceptions, Adzuki is almost indifferentiable from beans beyond appearance.

Adzuki, unlike canon PC, loves using the order roller the most out of all the order weapons. It's extremely annoying with it, and enjoys sneaking up on someone to vert-swing them.

[coffee-counts-as-a-meal]

warning for tlou ep 4 spoilers (and TLOU Part 2) but:

not to be horribly meta on main but I'm mainly screaming over how this episode exemplified how well this story was adapted to a television format, ESPECIALLY regarding the themes that ND has repeatedly stated he wanted to explore in the TLOU Part 2 that maybe didn't quite land the way he meant them to

(Benioff and Weiss and their hatred for eighth grade book reports should be taking copious notes rn lol)

I remember when the second game came out and there was this big to-do about how the perspective towards "villains" had changed - not just in the fact that you spend half the game playing as Abby (Joel's killer), but that the developers had actually given names to all the NPCs that end up as cannon fodder for the player. The AI was supposed to be so advanced that for every enemy you killed as either Abby or Ellie, the NPC would beg for their life or curse you as you make the final blow or whatever, and then when their NPC friends found them you would hear their wailing and crying out for "Beck" or "Miranda" or whomever the fuck and the whole idea was that it was supposed to make you the player really think about the implications of taking a human life and the cycle of revenge yadda yadda yadda.

Which is a GREAT CONCEPT, but I just remember how...tedious it became, after a while. TLOU Part 2 got a lot of flak for a lot of reasons (some more valid than others imo) but I personally think its impossibly difficult to instill the lesson of "taking a life is something that carries real emotional weight" through the medium of a video game where you are mowing down LITERALLY HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE. That's just par for the course - you end up killing so many people that after a while their names mean nothing, BECAUSE THERE'S NO WAY TO CONTINUE THE GAME WITHOUT DOING SO. (I remember one reviewer talking about how fatigued they were with it - they didn't want to be killing all these people and stabbing dogs and they as a player were screaming through their fingers at the decisions Ellie was making to continue down this cycle of violence but there was no way to continue the game without going through it, even though the point had already been hammered home over and over again to the point where it was exhausting, we get it, killing should not be this easy but this is a video game for fuck's sake).

And maybe that was also the point was to make the player wonder how some characters (like Joel, maybe) eventually become so numb to the concept of taking life, but I just remember it being a point in Part 2 that ultimately just...kind of missed the mark.

And BOY OH BOY did the show hit it in this episode.

Literally, TLOU Part 2 wanted to make its point by naming hundreds upon hundreds of NPCs and TLOU Episode 4 managed to hit it with a single character named Bryan.

I think it also helps that when Joel is shooting back at the "hunters" (idk what they're calling them in the show canon but that's what they were at the game) we don't really see them die onscreen, so it makes Bryan's eventual demise even starker. But holy fuck hearing him plead with Ellie and Joel for his life hit so much harder than it ever did in the game. Hearing him try to bargain with a little girl, screaming for his mom only to go silent...I freaking love Joel and even then in that moment I felt that horror and slight...idek what to call it, not even disgust but just the moral grayness of it all made my stomach churn.

Ellie's tears felt so deserved in that moment. Even Joel's moment of hesitation (fuck you Pedro Pascal I hate how good you are at EVERYTHING) even as you know this must have been a thing he's done thousands of times before and even as necessary you might consider Bryan's death to be. Even as justified it may have been to kill an enemy in that moment, "It doesn't get any easier" is something that rings true. I believe it.

tldr; another banger episode from a team that knows what the fuck a theme is and how to tie that into your story with subtlety and nuance and FUCK EVERYONE AT NAUGHTY DOG AND HBO I CAN'T KEEP GETTING MY HEART BROKEN FOR ANOTHER MONTH AND A HALF

[snowyvoid]

I love your haunted siphonophore posting so much it's really good. I think it really fits with how the science team and the game and benrey all sort of play off of each other with Gordon always ending up as the victim/'food' but there's a slight dissonance between all of them. Benrey comes back as a skeleton and for the first night he just walks around and talks like normal until after Gordon wakes up where it seems to become it's own creature that is more tethered to the gamespace (I know it clips out and fucks with geometry but it also feels like it starts to slot into the role of 'spooky skeleton to antagonize and frighten the player' instead of 'benrey is around and talking to people when he's supposed to be dead'). Or how the world seems to bend to fit the insane things the Science Team says (Sunkist, Chuck E Cheese, Passport, etc) but Coomer is still seperate enough from the game that he becomes frightened and angry when he realizes that his world is small and painted. They all kind of group up into one thing, which is basically an elaborate bait and trap for Gordon, but there's tension between the individual pieces and they all have unique perspectives on what's happening despite playing into the same greater thing.

Sorry I'm having a hard time capturing exactly what you meant into this I get what you meant it's just. words are difficult. But your hlvrai thoughts make me insane

no this is like. exactly what i mean. you get it.

the thing about siphonophores is that each component of the organism has its own mouths. like. one component will be the stomach, one will make the organism swim, etc etc, but they all have their own mouths. they all feed.

and there is always this kind of dissonance between gordon and the others, and yes obviously he is the one playing a video game, but i always felt like it went deeper than hostile AI being weirded out by the new guy. it felt more,,, natural?? i guess??? it all feels set up on a stage. aside from the fact that its a game and it is has coded events. the AI, the thing that is suppose to think for itself, still seems kinda. within its own limits. stuck within the body of the facility. (for example, coomer and/or bubby freaking out when they go outside of the skybox/into space).

but the dissonance between the science team and the game/facility is!!! oh my godddd!!!! i could write an essay on that shit. so interesting. and i love that the dissonance is often physically manifested. your hatred towards this thing that you hate is real and will be seen and will affect the world outside you.

like. you have this thing, a large container that has events and ideas that are built into it (the game, the organism as a whole, the haunted house), and there are different components within this container that have some kind of symbiotic relationship (good or bad) with the outside container (black mesa, the individual nervous systems of the organism, the rooms/ghosts/humans haunting* the house), and all of these individual components has a manifestation of its difference or hostility (the science team, the individual mouths, the opinions each component of the haunted house has on each other (i need to make another post about this)).

sorry that was probably really complicated. i just needed to get it out of me because its all ive been thinking about since i made that first post.

*this is within the idea that the hypothetical house is haunted by something. which is generally the idea i go for when in reference to sentient AI, the whole this house had a purpose and it changed, this AI had a code and it was faulty. etc etc. pretty sure ive already posted something about that.

weird little mspaint diagram with some other ideas i have not talked about. note; this is not scientifically accurate to siphonophores. i just thought they were a really good allegory. you are definitely gonna need to zoom in for this thing. but it is important to the explanation i guess.

i just find it really fun to put obvious differences between characters/living things and see where they come together. like the science team, gordon, and benry are all separate beings in their own way but they are like a family. blah. hope you enjoy as always this is a bit messy.

[fixfoxnox]

You know that one cut scene at the end of MWII that is similar to No Russian in some way? I know that it is most likely Joseph Allen but WHAT IF it was Roach?? 🤨

What if Activision decided to make him a CIA operative? Not SAS, not US army, but a freaking CIA operative who's been working undercover as one of Makarov's men? 😵‍💫

Or maybe they'd give us an even bigger "fuck you" and made him an ex-Spetsnaz (Russian Roach? 👀) instead?

Btw, that AI art pissed me off so much, that's why my brain is going WILD 😔

- 🥀

Honestly I hope if they are doing the Makarov story line (which surely to God will span more than one game) I hope they do show us the full No Russian scene that they teased at the end, because I have had so many questions about it since I saw it.

Like they are on an actual commercial plane? On the plane I can only assume in the air since everyone is seated and being served food??? What is their escape plan? Do they have an escape plan? Are they just there to die? What is the plan with that one?

Honestly ex-spetsnaz Roach could be cool, but I'd be so worried that they'd just end up making him into Yuri that I kinda want to steer clear of it lol, I already feel like they semi-gave Roach's place on the 141 to Soap, so I would like to see them steer clear of of making him too similar to another og character.

Undercover Roach could be interesting, but also then I'd be so worried that he would die like Allen did 😭

Honestly, though, I think undercover Roach could be interesting if they had him undercover in a smaller way. Like in the OG series Nikolai is undercover/an informant with the Ultranationalosts when Price, Soap, and Gaz go to save him, so what if the game starts like that.

The team are sent in to rescue and undercover agent who has been compromised and is set to be executed. They get there and its Roach and since Roach knows so much about the UN's, he ends up joining the 141. I would be a little less worried about him if they did it like that lol, then we could set up a history with Shepherd and even potentially Allen where its like they were both pulled out of US Army Rangers to go undercover together, so that way Roach and Shepherd still have beef and we could potentially get a Roach killing Shepherd moment 👀👀👀

[stagegoose]

things i think about regarding the amazing digital circus after watching too many times:

i wanna know more about gangle first. did they ever have a working comedy mask? did they use it to mask the freaking out that they probably did in the beginning? Did it start to break around kaufmo and his jokes when they just couldn't laugh anymore???? and yes i see gangle as nonbinary its not like. . . i don't its just what first came to me.

pomni leaving ragatha makes me happy actually. if she'd stayed who knows what would've happened. i think it's really smart of pomni to have left since it de-escalated the situation with kaufmo to some small degree that was enough time for things to progress in a better manner. not every hero has to run head first into danger without any thought for safety and self preservation.

jax. . . i love him but at the same time the more i watch the less i love him. following the theory that all the characters are human outside this world they plugged into via the headset - as well as following saberspark's theory that they're all programmers that are now being tormented by caine (an AI) in a 'i have no mouth and i must scream' type scenario - jax seems like he'd be a real douche in the real world. though maybe that persona came about from being stuck in the circus?

now for my own theory partially taking inspiration from saberspark's theory: the group of once humans perhaps were a development team for a game or an app - probably a VR game of some sort considering the headset - and ended up being a very dysfunctional group that didn't work together at all. the ai part of their creation (caine) sees this in their code not working and decided to pull them all into this world to make them work together. but what if he then got a bit power hungry? the humans have to bend to his will now! so that exit that he started to help them once they figured their shit out is just never gonna be finished because then he'll have no power if they leave. they might even kill him! they can all just keep having adventures filled with fun and dread and horror and whatever other emotions he wants them to have.

where pomni's gonna fit into that? well obviously she's not gonna give up on escaping. though maybe she will give up and that'll be that. i think i'd enjoy that tbh. let's just succumb to madness in this zany place.

[mahoushoujotechsupport]

episode 6, here we go again... lmao i literally... had this post open, was writing up my final thoughts and my cat jumped up on my laptop and i fuckin lost everything. no ctrl-z to help me i have no idea what happened gdi lmao

so i will try to remember what it was i wrote initially

cowardly belmeria winston. i do wish she'd received some punishment for being literally in charge of human experimentation at peil. i'm so glad prospera uses her guilt against her

so like this is the line that made everyone go what the fuckkkkkk right? assuming they werent speedwatching and just ignored the fact suletta is 17 and belmeria is referring to the vanadis incident here

all the double take lines in this show are so amazing. like yea this doenst mean anything on first watch because of course suletta is her daugher but hohoho

honestly love the idea that suletta went to earth house for comfort after they found out what happened with el4n and his unknown (to them) 180 towards suletta. and part of that group of people comforting suletta includes miorine even if she does have to be all tsundere about it

i do wonder how angry she must have been that el4n was a dick to suletta though. imagine if shes playing her little shooty game on her phone to blow off steam here just like she did in ep 2 in the bathroom

random note: once chuchu calms down a few episodes back, miorine just is a staple at earth house just like suletta

god fuck you tumblr for ruining my og post. i had written a whole thing about this frame and how i appreciated that gwitch never let miscommunication/misunderstanding tropes get in the way of anything (i know some people would argue otherwise because of the break up arc but i dont agree with them).

miorine couldve stayed quiet about this but she brings it up so suletta knows it doesnt only concern her. theyre a team.

also like how even though shes a little socially awkward goober, she knows el4n's about face is weird and doesnt make sense and pretty much immediately begins questioning if there was anything she might have done

we never really got to find out much about el0n did we? like what does he do? does he still learn the school things that el4n and his predecessors would have presumably been learning at asticassia? where does even come from? iirc we only learn about the whole peil AI used to pick the next ceo but where does the selection pool come from?

i really really hope that by this point in the story people werent still mean to suletta at school. she just sounds so fuckin dejected over her potential new friend turning on her so suddenly that it's hard not to imagine that people would pretend to be nice and then just make fun of her like those 3 girls did in episode 1

our tsundere bride won't be having any of that though

bless you nika for calling out this dumbassery

interesting to think about how shaddiq is the only one of the big three guys that doesn't just project their weird insecurities on suletta. both guel and el4n immediately think that her genuine honest-to-goodness kindness is some sort of backhandedness

this got me thinking back on sophie basically saying the same thing to suletta during their fight. and yea, makes sense considering sophie and whoever el4n originally was are part of the oppresed class in this universe

she was probably freaking out a little bit just like the rest of earth house right here huh?

i've seen enough posts calling the permet score gay thing an asspull but if we go back to this episode, it's literally the same thing but on a smaller scale since aerial hadnt even hit permet score 6 here yet

all of us where el4n when this happened

i can't really do this scene justice because when the replichildren silhouettes are on screen its only one at a time, but i just love how it transitions out from the silhouettes to the gund bits with their laugh as the only thing we hear

its weird and confusing on first watch but man is it great once you know whats up

smug bride

👀

how did people deny the eri/aerial theory?????

i know this is kinda played up for laughs because it isnt really until you rewatch that you realize that miorine's definitely smitten with suletta at this point. but i'm glad nika exists for being the sole person who saw past miorine's cold facade and noticed it too

i'm also happy zeonic is translating the light novels in full now instead of the LN only chapters because everything ive read up on about LN2 regarding this whole el4n arc sounds so good. yeah she was jealous as hell, but here she is being supportive while mistakenly thinking this is a romantic interest

such a fucked up callback lmao

i can't believe there were people who outright refused to watch the prologue. imagine just missing the emotional gut punch this scene is supposed to mean without that context

also god fuck belmeria for trying to argue with the peil hags over keeping el4n alive after failing. you know what you were getting yourself into. you shouldn't have done it at all in the first place

right so, i hope i managed to write up more or less what i had originally written before losing my post

episode 6 definitely marks a turning point for the series i think where we finally start leaving behind the slice of life school stuff we've been seeing and all the mysteries begin to pile up reminding you that the beginning of this whole story was a tragedy

excited for episode 7 because miorine rembran girlbossing is just great

[stormikins]

So I finally finished all the first fifty questions for @spookyvalentine Shepard Questionnaire. I feel like I ramble with most of these so whoops

1. Why did Shepard enlist? Any regrets?

So Jenn is earthborn and adheres to that canon of being in a gang. As she got older she didn’t really want to be doing what she was doing and her biotics were starting to kick in. She knew that the gang would want to exploit that (and they started to try).

A close friend (older brother figure) also knew that and had been urging her to think about her options. After a bust from the police, they offer her a deal after seeing her out of control biotics and her skill in tech. Idk if that’s how it works but oh well

2. How does your Shepard feel about having a yeoman assigned to them in 2? And in 3?

Shepard doesn’t like the fact that Kelly is psychoanalyzing them and then reporting to TIM. She’s already going through so much emotionally and mentally and having to watch what she does is just another burden. Kelly seems fine but Shepard doesn’t make a whole lot of effort to know about her. She is the epitome of professionalism to Kelly. (Though having Kelly help sort the spam mail is great)

Energetic, smart, and willing to do what Traynor needs, means Shepard likes her. Traynor makes sure Shepard sees the important emails bc she always forgets. Shepard appreciates the leads Traynor gives her.

3. What’s their relationship with Anderson?

 Mentor & mentee. Anderson came to N7 to do some teaching for Shepard’s class and Anderson noticed that Shepard was a promising candidate. (Maybe saw himself in her). Anderson was one of the first people to reach Elysium (is this canon? No) and they get closer after that.

4. Is your Shepard any good at poker?

Yes. Shepard is really good at hustling people at most card games and like billiards. Liara has refused to play with her. Vega has yet to learn this lesson. Kaidan is someone who can give her a run for her money.

5. How well does Shepard know their crew? Not just the companions, but the folks making up the Normandy.

Shepard makes it a point to know the crew that she’s in charge of and asks questions based on what they’ve previously told her. In 1, when she’s doing her rounds and meeting people this is one of the times she notices Nihlus watching her.

2, it takes a while before she can psych herself up to do rounds outside of her ground crew bc its Cerberus and when she does it’s mainly out of spite. Meeting her crew, she learns of their beliefs and why the joined and well, TIM is good at picking the right people. They’re not awful. Her rounds make the crew like her (not just respect her) and inspire even more loyalty in her which makes after the Collector base better in that she doesn’t have to fight with them when she leaves TIM.

3, she does her rounds but she doesn’t stay with individual people as long as before. She really doesn’t have the time nor the energy to keep up the same routine. But the crew notice the effort.

6. Initial reaction to EDI? Does it change?

Classic she doesn’t trust AI, especially Cerberus AI but EDI proves herself and Shepard calls her an ally by the end of 2.

Learning what EDI does after they leave TIM and the escape from Earth just really cements in Shepard that trusting EDI was a good idea. They’re EDI’s crew and EDI’s part of Shepard’s crew.

7. Does their love interest move into their quarters?

Garrus does move in around halfway through 3, yes. Shepard is practically always in Commander mode during the war and with Garrus she doesn’t need to be anything so he stays up in the cabin during down times a lot with her and it just makes sense to move his stuff. (Does Garrus freak out that they’re moving in? Possibly. Shepard will never know)

8. What is their reaction to the Alchera mission? And after?

Ohhhhh boy. Okay so. I’m actually trying to write something about this but basically when Shepard reads Hackett’s message she’s pissed. Like the Alliance left the dog tags down there for two years?

She puts its off but eventually what convinces her to do it is bc her crew and their family is her duty and like hell will she balk at it.

Doesn’t mean it’s fun. Her and Joker have an emotional heart to heart about it that helps clear the air between them and make it less awkward.

Shepard isolates herself for a bit afterwards, coming to terms that that is where she died but she’s alive now. Garrus shows up to give her food and she actually lets him in.

9. What type of fighter is your Shepard? Do they fight with honor, or do they fight dirty?

Jenn initially fought dirty, bc of the gang, she fought to survive most of the time. But the Alliance trained her (mostly) out of it. She doesn’t and didn’t kill unarmed civilians if she could and if someone surrendered she almost always just took them in. Now… Elysium, on the other hand. Those dirty tricks came into play during the raid. One of the reasons she managed to win and stay alive.

10. Does Shepard keep any pets? The hamster, fish, something else?

Jenn does get the hamster in 2 (Mr. Spocket the Third), tries to keep fish but they kept dying so gave up. I know you can have Kelly come up and feed them, but I feel like Jenn wants to keep that space hers as much as she can. In three though, someone (idk who yet) gifts her the VI so she can finally keep her fish alive and as the war progresses her crew keep gifting her new fish.

11. What order does Shepard pick up companions in me2?

She goes to Omega first bc yeah they DO need Mordin working ASAP but picks Garrus up first after Zaeed bc of his precarious position. After learning it was Garrus, she is immensely relieved that she did and tries not to let the what if’s run wild.

Then it’s Mordin, Jack, Grunt. Shepard hits the Citadel after Horizon bc that’s what would make Jenn tell the Council to cram their Spectre offer up their ass. She saw what happened their and they still want to write it off? Fine. So Kasumi then. Tali, Thane, Samara, Legion. I believe that’s everyone.

12. Does Shepard have any nicknames? What do they think of 'em?

Shepard doesn’t mind nicknames. Kasumi’s ‘Shep’ is great and some of the ground team incorporate it too (Tali, Jacob, Joker (I know he’s not ground team).

Jack’s ‘girl scout’ irks her the tiniest bit bc she was never a Girl Scout but doesn’t mind bc Jack cares enough to give her a nickname.

James calls her loco. Which- fair enough. She doesn’t mind this either bc yeah, she does a lot of buck wild shit.

13. How does your Shep react to teasing/ribbing?

- She gives as good as she gets. She thinks it’s fun but she always is watching and making sure no one is taking it too far, especially her bc she’s the commanding officer. She doesn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable.

14. Any good at flirting?

She’s not bad at it, but isn’t going to be teaching a class on it either. She gives good enough advice to friends but she hasn’t really had a lot of practice in her life and that’s fine to her.

It helps that Garrus is even more awkward.

15. What colors does Shepard prefer for their armor?

Black or dark blood red. She lost a bet in her early days as a marine and had to wear an acid trip for a color scheme. She wore it longer than she had to bc everyone’s reactions are hilarious and it maybe grew on her.

Acid trip in question had a black base, but neon green, pink, and yellow accents and patterns. She tried to make it look coherent. She somewhat succeeded.

16. Is Shepard a drinker? History of other substances? Do they struggle with sobriety?

The gang tried to get her hooked on red sand bc of her biotics, but her brother figure got her out of that. Shepard drinks sometimes, and only when other people are drinking too and it’s never a lot.

She shares that drink with Chakwas every time bc she cares about her doctor.

17. How does Shepard react to attention? Do they enjoy it?

Fan and hero worship? Get her the fuck outta here. But she likes being part of conversations and telling stories.

Of the more romantic attention, doesn’t necessarily know what to do when she doesn’t reciprocates and feels really awkward.

18. Who’s the dream team? Which companions does Shepard fight best with and why?

I said it before, I’ll say it again, who ever she can cause the best explosions with is the dream team. So most of her biotic squad she meshes well with.

She loves fighting with Wrex bc they can just become chaotic, biotic destructive tanks that the enemy wants to get rid of immediately which opens them up to the third member. Which in 1, was mostly Tali or Garrus.

Kaidan and her are great together in 3 bc it’s super easy to set up explosions with him and she appreciates Reave (which she also likes using with Samara)

19. Are there any companions your Shepard just absolutely cannot vibe with or relate to?

I feel like Jenn would be uncomfortable with Zaeed bc she can see that if she stayed in the gang, this was her future. She could have been him.

Initially, she stayed clear of Miranda and Jacob, but Jacob’s a likeable guy and after some pushing, and Miranda’s loyalty mission she starts to see them as allies and friends instead of simple coworkers.

20. Does Shepard enjoy looking for resources and upgrading gear, or do they see it as a chore?

Shepard always wants to upgrade her gear and scanning for resources is a nice mind numbing activity that she can lose her self in.

21. Do you have any AUs for your Shepard?

I do have a Nihlus lives AU where he and Shepard get together. It’s not very fleshed out and barely there but I have it.

And of course, Kal’Reegar joins the team in 2 and they get together.

22. What’s the last thing Shepard ate before the final reaper showdown?

Jenn would try to have something nutritious so she can be at her utmost game but like she’d totally want a basket of fries and a milkshake

24. Who does Shepard turn to for advice? For comfort? Who do they like to gossip with?

She turns to Anderson for advice and sometimes Wrex bc he can be unconventional in his wisdom but it usually helps. (even if it just gets her to laugh)

Garrus and Tali for comfort

She gossips with Kasumi, Tali, and Joker but mainly leaves them to it most of the time.

25. How emotionally articulate is your Shepard? Do they emote well?

Shepard plays her emotions close to her, not really revealing how she truly feels most of the time. This not only lets her show what she wants but lets her process the emotions more so she can deal with them. She tries to be articulate what she’s feeling to people, sometimes it doesn’t work.

She doesn’t want people using her emotions against her.

26. Does your Shepard have a romance? Who are they, and what drew Shep to them?

Garrus! Our love-able turian. I feel like she somewhat started to like him in 1 and didn’t really realize it.

 Her dying has her world view tipped on its head and she really starts to lean on Garrus as a confidant and someone she can trust to be at her back. Garrus never disappoints.

 She was drawn to him bc he does want to make the galaxy better he’s just extreme about it. He cares and his ruthless streak matches hers.

27. Do they have any pet peeves?

She can’t handle people who don’t clear the microwave after they use it. Like if someone takes something out before the timer so like :10 seconds is left on it and they just leave it there. Drives her bonkers.

28. What about hyperfixations? What’s the topic that will get Shepard rolling no matter the person or place?

Model ships. The drama in the community, the mistakes in how some models are made and that’s not how it is at all, what blueprint were they looking at? What models got discontinued and her opinions on how people should decal their models (Jenn doesn’t care if someone painted a ship hot pink they had fun and they paid for the model, leave them alone)

29. How active is Shepard? Are they hitting the gym, playing sports, or do they prefer quieter downtime?

They work out bc they need to but they do enjoy running. It’s a good way for them to quiet their mind.

She does prefer a quieter downtime, mainly her ships, reading, a listening to music.

Her and Joker like to have movie nights where she’s forced to make popcorn bc apparently hers is the best.

30. What will always make them laugh?

Puns, good or bad

31. Who can always make them laugh?

Garrus. His sense of humor will always cheer her up.

32. What do they do when they have hit their limit angry, just incandescent with rage?

She finds a punching bag and just lays in on it. She can’t punch the people she’s upset with so she punches it instead. It lets her get her rage out so she can think properly about the problem and wears her out.

33. What skills do they have that are a surprise to the people around them?

I feel like Shepard would be into calisthenics and people just watch her in awe

Calisthenics is a type of workout that uses a person’s body weight with little to no equipment. The exercises involve movements that use large muscle groups, such as pushups. People typically perform these exercises at a moderate pace. They help to improve coordination, flexibility, and strength.

Look up videos of this its insane

34. Got any tattoos?

 …yes. But idk what of!

Maybe after one of her first tours her squad go out and get matching tattoos idk

35. Which companions have they lost? How do they cope with it?

Jenn has lost the ‘canon’ deaths- Ashley, Mordin, Thane, and Legion. She knows her mission requires sacrifice with the last three, Ashley proved that, and they accepted that this was going to happen. She tries to make peace with that even if she feels rage at the fact that they shouldn’t have died, that she should have been better. She tries not to let the maybes control her but they get in her brain anyways. Ashley was a cold shock, it made her feel like a failure, and it made her that much angrier when dealing with Saren.

36. Do they like to style their hair, wear makeup and jewelry? How do they feel about getting dressed up?

Shepard likes getting dressed for going out, but doesn’t like most dresses. Kasumi’s little number is the closest she’ll ever get to a dress she likes.

Shepard’s hair is short so there’s not much to do besides like curling. But she rarely does that.

Jenn does like jewelry but not makeup.

37. Got any bad habits?

Picks at her nails when she’s anxious or nervous. Wearing gloves help so she doesn’t do it as much when she’s in armor

38. Does Shepard do any activities with the companions and crew during downtime?

She does movie nights with Joker, and they do their paperwork together but that’s not downtime.

Kasumi likes doing her nails and she works out with Jacob

She likes card games and so does the crew

39. Do they keep around any sentimental items?

Okay this one made me sad, thanks for that. Any of the stuff you can pick up in game, Jenn gets. But one of the younger gang members had made her a friendship bracelet that Jenn wore everywhere. Sadly, she didn’t see it after the Collector attack.

40. Does your Shepard actually like to collect model ships? If not, what do they display?

She does!! She originally started it as something to do during leave bc at first she didn’t make a lot of friends. So she started building ships that she served on.

41. How is Shepard with a gun? What about hand to hand?

Fan-fucking-tastic. She versatile in all weapon types but prefers an assault rifle or a sniper. She fights tanky so sometimes she uses a shotgun when she gets up close and personal.

ME1 and explosive rounds were beautiful.

Hand to hand she’s good with and I feel like she would try to teach some of the crew who weren’t so well versed in it.

It’s very interesting when Garrus and Shepard go at it.

42. Favorite weapon?

M-27 Lancer hands down. Good aim and magazine and she can handle the recoil. She doesn’t like the new thermal clips so finding that weapon was a godsend.

43. Which version of the Normandy do they like best?

There will always be a special place in her heart for the SR-1 but she likes the 2 better because it’s bigger and has more room for the people she cares about. It’s been through a lot with her so

44. Do they like to rotate out your companions for quests? Who do they bring the most?

She does rotate people out based on what she expects to be there and so no one gets too antsy without something to kill.

She brings Garrus, Wrex, and Javik out the most.

45. Do they approve of curing the genophage?

Yes. She doesn’t think letting the Krogan die off is a good thing, no species should just be killed.

46. Does Shepard allow the rachni to live in me1?

Yep! Like I said above, she doesn’t like the thought of killing an entire species.

47. Does Shepard practice any kind of self-care?

Cosmetics wise? Like oils, face masks, lotion and all that? No. She just uses a simple face soap bc the Alliance standard three-in-one sucks. I feel like when Kasumi learns about this she’s appalled. Jenn tries to defend herself and makes the mistake saying it’s expensive. And Kasumi is like- I steal my shit, I’ll steal yours too. After the last stop at the Citadel, there’s a little gift basket in her quarters. Jenn tries some of it, doesn’t keep some. She’s not big on it.

More on the mental health side? When she stretches/does yoga for her exercise routine she tries to process everything that’s going on in her life.

48. What abilities do they rely on the most in a fight?

Throw/Warp combo for the explosion and overload/neural shock. Great for when she’s in a pinch. Bullets work too.

49. What is Shepard’s happy ending? What’s the dream that keeps 'em going?

Her dream is that she’ll get to stay with Garrus and be all domestic and shit. She’ll meet up with her crew regularly and everyone is fucking happy Damnit. She’ll collect more models, and Garrus and her will have their little sniper competitions that end with make outs.

50. Is your Shepard indoctrinated?

Nah

But like I think she gets headaches from all the beacons and visions she gets and she worries sometimes. But Garrus says nothing is wrong with her.

And now I’m thinking that she goes to Kaidan and if she ever turns, she makes him promise to kill her before she does anything. I feel like he would. (This is not a slight against Kaidan)

(+1: what does Shepard smell like?)

Pine

[bitd]

i'd love more information on tdh if you'd ever like to share

:3 sure thing! i love talking about these guys. they started as my beam saber characters tragedy ("my crew was destroyed by a bigger faction") and i've sort of been expanding them out from there.

the dandy highwaymen are a crew of 8 (9 including jammer, but he doesnt join until about 8 years into them being a crew) of misfits with dissociative disorders. they steal mechas and fence them, or break them down to use for parts. the star sector they're in is in the midst of a cold war between a few huge factions that we don't actually see much of. they usually operate in a 'colder' part of the sector - one with no proxy wars, which is treated as a training ground for soldiers for those proxy wars - but stole a mech known as the 'showstopper' from the front lines. that's the heartstealer, which fluke kept. this mech was a prototype that was going to end up drastically flipping the war into one faction's favour, so of course they noticed, and so sent an agent to infiltrate the crew and send a message that they're not to be fucked with by utterly destroying them and publicizing that destruction in a way that would make similar crews ... nervous about whether or not they had their own mole.

web serial will be in the style of various heists - i'm hoping to hit somewhere between baby driver + now you see me + marielda (friends at the table season) with some character-driven stuff filling out the gaps in between. its a silly tragedy/comedy thing as the audience obviously will have more information than the characters, with some significant romance/mystery/sci-fi mecha bullshit thrown in there. there's a lot of stuff i still need to figure out logistically (which is difficult because this is also a prequel to my fiance's beam saber game and i dont want to make hir reveal too much to me :P) but i enjoy heist stuff and i think superpowering it with mechs rocks.

characters are under the readmore

the members are (in order of joining)

fluke, it/its, it/she if youre feeling Dangerous. a hotshit driver that has a program that can let it operate mechs as if they all had the same controls. its an extremely volatile and intensely emotional person who is just the definition of Hot Mess; it has a thing about being remembered/special.

forge, he/him. forge is the mastermind behind everything and extremely a control freak. he's a bit too logical and a bit too rational. he's also a mechanic, and repairs/dismantles all the mechs. he's extremely good at Making Plans and Leading People but isn't super good at anything else. him and fluke are married, and they met when they were little kids. they started the dandy highwaymen together.

windf4ll / windfall, it/its. this guy is more my fiance's blorbo than mine but i like it so its ok. its an AI that accidentally came into existence when forge + fluke were about 13/14, shortly before they started the highwaymen, because forge left a file running. it's very persecutorial in nature TO forge and cares... immensely about fluke, probably because those two were constantly arguing about whether or not to let it keep living. its very silly funny and also like, insanely fucking powerful.

jackdaw, he/they. jackie is a time traveler, but you're not supposed to know that ;P. they're a very people-focused person, and they really do know how to talk to and keep everyone distracted. in fact, he might talk a Little too much. but that's okay. he's the face/grifter/conartist type of their little group, and has a bad habit of 'savescumming' (kind of works like this) through every moment of his life to try to find the right way to go. they try to present as Very Cool.

lilac, she/they. lilac joined pretty early because she can kind of see the future, a little bit? she can affect fate in a huge way and it was less those guys seeking her out and more her coming to them. she sort of presented herself as knowing So Much Shit and having a lot of control over augmented reality and reality in general, and then was like :) our futures are linked. you're making a crew. i'm joining you. again like this happens when they're all 15 so its kind of funny as hell

laika + tomb joined together, they're kind of inseparable a bit. they'd been hid out on the moon of a planet that TDH's first score - an auction, not a mech stealing thing :P - was on. they were trying to steal back one of laika's inventions and forge + fluke were both impressed while lilac sort of was jsut like teehee... :). so they joined. they both use all pronouns iirc and are sort of a study in the inversion of being too grounded in the world (using social connection as a conduit and not paying attention to yourself) and being too up in your own head (making/creating things). this is also why tomb is a beamsaber giant killer (doesn't have a mech, rips them apart with their bare hands) while laika is a luminary (constantly making new technology).

laika is very bubbly and silly and uh. well. she's also someone who pushes tech/her body specifically very far. 1.) shes a biohacker. 2.) uhhh. well. th. th. it has dog ears

ghost joined arounnnd when they were all 18ish, about 2 years give or take before our story will be starting. she's very easily given to. idk how to describe this... pushing people away or not allowing them to get in super close? but not in a particularly assholeish or even all that obvious way. they were a lonely kid who grew up with the notion that relationships will tie you to bad situations and a lot of her arc is learning that while that can be true it is still important to trust yourself + others. also she can teleport :thumbs up:

aaaand jammer was the head of a squad from the hotseat of the war, the panopticon. he was sent in to play double agent (leaving his sister in charge of that squad which is basically like. i don't know what you'd call the equiv of a black site as a squad but think that. super secret blackops spy type shit that gets its hands Extremely dirty). he's the son of a richguy as well. ofc tdh don't know this. hes kind of the worst in a very pretentious and smarmy way but its ok hes my guy. he kind of ends up falling in love w/ fluke + trusting the rest of TDH and having a pretty huge conflict internally about whether or not he wants to go through with killing them or try to get them out... too bad that his sister both holds the reigns of the panopticon, that she has the asset of a living weapon, and that she does not fucking like him.

[asseater3k]

Meta gear Mania Days:9&10

Covering after compleating peace walker so spoilers might occur under the cut

GAMEPLAY- this was a weird one it plays like a weird mush mash of phantom pain and snake eater but not as interesting as it entails. The depth of survival mechanics is unimpresive in relation to MGS3 which is fine but there are some strange holdover like the camo index and bones of the original camo system except instead of being able to swap at any moment its all pre mission since it seemed footstep noise was far more impactful on stealth than actual camo I basically never swapped out of the sneaking suit once I unlocked it. On the subject of missions the whole mission based structure was weird especially when the story is structured much more like a classic metal gear long ass mission the constant breaks actually really got on my nerves untill I remembered that it was originally a psp game and as such was meant to played in bursts on the subway during your commute to your job as a salaryman not as parted of a demented pseudo speed run of an entire franchise. What I experienced as frustrating and jarringly momentum breaking to be continued screen was in fact a gentle blessing to those dedicated office workers who would soon arrive at their stop. Interesting tidbit when you start the game you given three control schemes one of which is basically just monster hunter freedoms control scheme and is even referred to as such in the game I didnt use it although funnily enough i did end up using the old monster hunter claw in segments at the end. Another important thing to mention is that I fucking suck at this game and I think its fair to chalk a few of my annoyances at how the game played up to that fact. What I wont concede being a skill issue is that like half of the boss fights suck all three of the normal vehicles are not fun to battle and the chrysilais gave me an aneurysm. I don’t like to get mad at games and I’m proud to say I dont get mad at games very often, but the chrysalis just pissed me off. Looking back I don’t even know why, like when I think about it its not that bad like the normal vehicles are bad because they’re boring and samey but like chrysalis just hides and blasts you while shooting grabbers at you and also missiles. Maybe its just that I kept getting kind of locked up by the missiles or the small health pool or that I got unlocked and killed a lot just before I i switched back to ration from the sonar thing also i miss the trigger menus. The side ops were fine.

STORY- I don’t Have a ton to say other than its really good its very personal mostly focusing on big bosses grief but the dialog and performances where really strong David hayter goes off and does such a good job of sounding just so weary the gathering of freaks was fun and the “secret” ending was interesting but I was kinda done with the game at that point I do appreciate that strangelove’s whole motivation is being down so tremendous that she brings the boss back as an AI that was fun also I adored the motion comic style believe it was mostly shinkawa doing the art and it was amazing I love his kind of schratchy style that manages to be so utterly full of life Kaz is hilarious, and I hope Huey went to hell before he died

Moving foward- coming close to the end here I really had to beat peace walker today to have a hope of getting this whole challenge complete and grinding like that has kind of burned me out with regards to talking about it like there’s really so much to dig into especially with how Big Boss is jumpstarting the nightmare war economy that the series talks about and is about to focus a lot more on in the next game but I’ve got three hearty days for MGS4 and I’m very excited see you then

[tigerdrop]

I like how you interpret benrey as a guy who just wants love and affection. A lot of people tend to forget that despite benreys weirdness, before Gordon came along apparently benrey was friends with almost all his coworkers and let them come over and play games. During gmans confrontation with Gordon, benrey interupts and harrases gman (a very SCARED gman) for his playstation information. And at the end of it, when gman leaves, benrey grumbles about how he just wants to play games with people. I'm pretty sure the only person benrey can't figure out is Gordon. Because benrey got along pretty well with everybody else except Gordon. People say that Yeah benrey gets along with science team bc they are also supernatural, but not everybodys supernatural at black mesa? There's at least some humans that have gotten along with benrey. An obvious answer: Gordon gives a lot of mixed signals and also over reacts A LOT. it foils benreys weirdness, makes it more obvious. Gordon points out things that Yeah, makes benrey seem strange. To anyone else, benrey is just a chill dude. To gordon, benrey is a cosmic entity thing that wont leave him alone. And I'm also not saying benrey isn't weird, or doesn't understand things sometimes. But if benrey did have a lot of friends like he said he did, then he must've done something right! Gordon is like a lil messed up guy! Jumps to the worst conclusions all the time, And with benreys chill attitude or impassive tone, that of course would clash with someone like Gordon. Which is what makes them interesting to write. Makes them interesting to explore their dynamic in many ways I think

god i love getting asks like these. benrey is genuinely a pretty normal guy, weird eldritch powers notwithstanding.....like, him getting along with the other AIs isnt really a consequence of them all having weird abilities, like you said. tommy and darnold dont even have anything fantastical going on! theyre both just normal guys......at worst, benreys awkward toward others. gordons the only one he pushes around, and he only seems to push gordon around b/c gordon initiated an antagonistic relationship by being unable to provide his passport (and then immediately doing his gordon thing of "being belligerent and rude for super flimsy reasons)

this exact point is what i try to drive home in this latest chapter of co-op game theory: benreys awkward and absentminded and, yeah, a little weird, but to an observer that isnt gordon, his behaviors pretty straightforward. he threw a shitfit b/c gordon was being super fucking rude to him from the moment alyx met them! and she may not have known exactly why he jumped to (what seemed to be) the nuclear option, but gordons not even self aware enough to realize that hes being a major asshole. and the reasons he gives for acting that way only make sense to him! to anybody else, theyre borderline incomprehensible

but like.....if youre looking at it through gordons eyes, like youre basically forced to do by virtue of the first-person POV in hlvrai, its hard to see a perspective beyond "benrey is a freak and a jerk and a bonafide Bad Guy". which is why im having a lot of fun looking at them from every other characters' perspective

gordon might have a point that benreys done some bad stuff, but if it was all just a game/simulation, by his own admission......how do you justify that enmity to someone else? sure, he cut off your arm (in the thing that you freely admit isnt real, and is just a simulation), but you killed him. you won. isnt that enough?

its neat stuff and i know i talk about basically the same shit ad infinitum but thats why i like writing them so much!

[just-dreaming-marvel]

Unofficial Fathers

MAIN MASTERLIST

Avengers x Teen!Fem!Reader

Word Count: 5,450ish

Requests: I put two requests together for this one. I hope that it’s okay.

1-What about one with the Avengers and reader (maybe they have super speed???) where the reader is a teenager and super stressed out for whatever reason so the Avengers decide to get them moving by doing something with water (like water guns, balloons, slide, etc) with them. Just like fluff, I think it’d be kinda cute 

2-Can you write an avengers x teen!reader, where she lost function in both of her legs, which makes her really sad and depressed? The others have to help her with everything and she feels bad, so she ends up trying to do things herself, but gets hurt. Maybe steve and tony play a more significant role. Thanks!

Warnings: angst / fluff / paralysis / wishing to have died 

“Hey Speedy!” Tony called over the comms. “You’re up!”

“Finally!” You exclaimed.

The mission had started almost an hour ago, and the plan had been for you to hang out in the quinjet until you were deemed needed. Which annoyed you. Even though you were barely 17, you had been a part of the Avengers for almost 3 years. Longer than even Peter Parker.

Due to some freak accident during the Battle of New York, you somehow ended up with super speed abilities. That’s how Steve and Tony found you almost 3 years old. The two were in the city for meetings and you were zooming around helping people and playing pranks. You thought it would be fun to do something to those two. But before you could do something, Tony and Steve had you pinned to the wall with part of the Iron Man suit. Apparently, their ‘meeting’ was to actually find you and bring you in.

The whole Team was interested in getting to know you very quickly and get you properly trained. Natasha, Clint, Bucky, and Steve handled your combat training personally, while Tony and Bruce tested your abilities and created gear that would help you.

Steve and Tony, though definitely not a couple, took on the role of your parents. You even had begun calling them as such. Steve was Pa and Tony was Dad. They didn’t always agree on exactly how to handle you. But they loved you and that was a step above your real parents, who you didn’t even know.

“Y/N! I need you to get in the building and get anyone and everyone out!” Steve instructed. “As fast as you can! I think the building is going down!”

“You got it Cap!” You responded.

Using your super speed you rushed out of the quinjet and into the building. You zig-zagged through each floor. The first few were empty, but eventually you ran into some people. You quickly helped them out of the building to continue your search. You were almost done with you sweep when you felt the building tremble. You paused, glancing around.

“Kid!” Tony shouted in the comms. “The building is going down. Where are you?”

“Uh… I don’t think you want to know,” you responded.

“Please tell me you’re not still in the building, Y/N,” Steve said.

“I’m sorry, Pa. I’m almost done with my sweep. Just one last floor.”

“No, Y/N! Get out of there now!”

“Just one more floor!” You sped away to get to the last floor.

“I’m on my way to you, Y/N,” Tony said. “Meet me at the Northwest window.”

“Alright. I’m almost—“ 

You suddenly heard a loud cry. You turned to see a little girl huddled up in the corner as the building’s tremor’s worsened. Rushing to the little girl, you barely missed the ceiling caving down and breaking the floor.

“I’m outside the window, kid!” Tony exclaimed. “You need to get here, now!”

“There’s a kid in here!” You retorted, grabbing the little girl. You sped to the window. “You need to take her.” You held her out to Tony. 

“Not without you!”

“Just take her, Dad! Please!”

He quickly took her from your arms. “Don’t do anything! I’ll be right back!”

He flew off and the floor began to crack worse beneath your feet. You knew, even with your super speed, that you wouldn’t be able to make it out of the building without Tony coming for you. When another section of floor collapsed, you knew you needed to get out of there.

“Dad!” You shouted.

“I’m almost there, honey!” He responded. “Just hang on!”

The floor cracked beneath you, sending you falling. You grasped onto the ledge.

“Dad!” You screamed.

“Almost, there—“

“AHHH!”

The building’s roof collapsed, with the rest of the building following. You were pushed down with the debris, screaming.

“Y/N!!!” A multitude of voices screamed over the comms.

But you didn’t hear anything else, because you landed with a thud, hitting your head and blacking out before the rest of the building landed on you.

~~~

“Tony, come take a rest,” Clint urged. “At least drink something.”

You had been stuck under the building for hours at this point, with Tony working non-stop to try and get to you. 

“I can’t,” Tony responded. “My kid’s down there.”

“Scott’s almost here, he’ll shrink down and see what’s going on.”

“I can’t afford to waste a second.”

“Stark, we don’t know if moving any of this will make it worse for her,” Bucky said. “We could just be killing her faster.”

“You don’t think I know that!” Tony spun around. “But she’s the closest thing I have to a daughter! And I’ve already let her down once today.”

“You didn’t let her down.”

“I’m the one who told her to go into the building,” Steve said, everyone able to feel the self blame in his words. “I did this to her.”

“Stop with the blame game here, guys,” Clint interrupted. “Y/N wouldn’t want that. Now, we need—"

“I’m here! I’m here!” Scott yelled, running up with Hope. “Romanoff and Banner got us hooked up to cameras and we brought extra Pym particles so that we can get her out of there.” He briefly made eye contact with Tony and Steve. “We’re going to get her out of there.”

“We’ve got this,” Hope confirmed.

Shrinking, the two quickly got into the rubble. The others rushed over to the screens so that they could hear and see what was going on. It was dusty, that much was clear. But the couple were quick to follow FRIDAY’s leads on where to go. The AI was trying to to its best to sense were you were by heat signatures.

“Miss Y/N should be just below,” the AI informed the two in the debris.

“There she is,” Steve breathed out, seeing your head on the screen. It was clear that blood had been, or still was, coming from somewhere on your head. “Tell us what’s going on guys. What’s her status?”

“She’s breathing,” Hope confirmed. “She’s scratched up, but it looks like the bleeding as stopped.”

“She’s lost quite a bit of blood,” Scott added. He turned, revealing her bottom half, squished under a large piece of cement. “That’s not good.”

“Shit,” Tony whispered. “No.”

“We need to shrink her before the damage gets worse,” Hope said. “Get on the other side of her, Scott.”

“On it,” Scott replied.

“You ready?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Shrink her in 3, 2, 1.” 

Your body was quickly shrunk. Hope and Scott quickly worked together to secure you to Hope.

“Okay, she’s secure,” Scott said. “We’re on our way up.”

“You’re going to want to get everything ready,” Hope warned. “We aren’t going to want to bring her back to normal size without being ready to work.”

“Helen Cho is waiting back at the compound with her team,” Bruce informed. “Natasha and I have the quinjet ready to stabilize her as much as we can on the way.”

“Steve, Tony, you may want to stay away. It’s worse than the camera’s probably caught.”

“Not a chance.” / “Like hell!”

“Hope is right,” Clint said. “Bruce needs to be able to check her out with out you two hovering.” He looked at Bucky, the two seemingly having a silent conversation. They both took a step towards the two other men. “When they bring her out, we can’t have you two going all papa bears.”

“We’re in the quinjet,” Scott informed.

Clint and Bucky were quick. Bucky went for Steve, fighting with him to slow him down. Clint quickly shot an arrow at Tony’s arc reactor, shutting down the suit and effectively locking Tony in it. While that was happening, the others raced to the quinjet, getting it off the ground before the four men could get there.

Scott normalized himself first before helping Hope with herself and Y/N. Natasha and Bruce were waiting, ready to grab you as soon as they could. You were limp in Bruce’s arms, so incredibly so that it scared even the Hulk to his core. He and Natasha worked quickly and efficiently together to do everything they could before getting to the compound.

Back at the site, the four men had slowed down their fighting.

“How could you do that Clint?” Tony asked, clearly hurt as he was able to get his helmet off. “You have kids. You should understand the need to be with them when they’re injured.”

“I do,” Clint replied. “That’s why we knew we needed to stop  the two of you.”

“Whatever happens, it’s going to be hard,” Bucky said. “And they need to be able to fully evaluate her. It was either this or sedation… We’re sorry. We want to be there for her too."

~~~

It was two hours before Cho had finished running all the tests and an hour after that before Tony and Steve could wait at your bedside. You were all bandaged, bruised, and scrapped, but you were alive. That’s all that really matter. The test results had yet to come back, so the men had to try and be patient. You sucked in a breath, alerting the men to the possibility of you waking up.

“Y/N?” Steve softly called. “You there, doll?”

“Pa?” You rasped, head turning towards the sound of his voice while your eyes crept open.

“Hey.” He smiled.

“Hi, kid,” Tony said. 

You turned to look at him. “Dad.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Like I feel a hundred feet and then a building landed on me.”

“We’re not surprised there,” Steve commented.

“Hey, Y/N,” Helen Cho greeted as she walked into the room with her tablet. “How are you doing? Any unusual pain?”

“Well the drugs you’ve given me are trippy,” you replied.

“Drugs?” She repeated concerned, glancing at Tony and Steve.

“Yeah. I can feel my upper half, but my waist and below are completely numb. What did you give me, doc?”

Helen immediately went to work. She tore off the blankets covering your feet and immediately began running her pen up and down them.

“What’s going on?” You asked, trying to sit up.

“Steve, go get Bruce,” Helen ordered. Steve nodded and rushed out.

You looked at Tony. “Dad? What’s going on?”

“I-I— oh my gosh,” Tony stammered, hand covering his mouth. 

“Dad!”

“We didn’t give you any pain meds, Y/N,” Helen stated.

“What?”

“We wanted to see if there was any damage done, so we didn’t want the pain meds getting in the way.”

“So… I—I… I can’t…” You began hyperventilating. “I…”

“Honey, lay down,” Tony urged, gently pushing you onto the bed. “Breathe.”

“I’m here!” Bruce said, hurrying in with Steve. “We need to get her into the scanner and compare it to the other tests we’ve taken.” 

Helen quickly went to the head of your bed, unlocking the wheels. All of this was scaring you.

“Dad?” You looked at Tony, teary eyed, before looking at Steve. “Pa?” They both grasped one of your hands.

“We’re right here,” Steve said, bringing your hand up for a kiss as Helen and Bruce began to wheel you away.

“You both need to stay here, while we run the scans,” Bruce said.

“No! Please!” You pled, crying.

“I’ll be with you, Y/N. Tony and Steve just need to stay here.”

Bruce and Helen pushed you away as you begged and cried out for Steve and Tony. The rest of the Team rushed into the hallway to see what was happening. They witnessed you being pushed down the hall.

“What the hell is going on?” Sam asked, looking into the room where Tony and Steve had been left. Both men looked distraught, and absolutely heartbroken.

“Steve?” Bucky questioned.

“She… She… I…” Steve couldn’t pull his thoughts together.

“Tony?” Natasha questioned. 

The man fell back into a chair, burying his head in his hands. “She couldn’t feel her legs,” Tony whispered. “She couldn’t feel her legs.”

“She thought they had given her pain killers,” Steve continued, whispering as well.

“Steve, sit down,” Bucky said, moving to help his friend. “You look like you could pass out.”

“I might… she couldn’t feel her legs…”

“She’s going to be alright,” Sam said. “Y/N’s a fighter.”

“Yeah, but… she couldn’t feel her legs…”

~~~

After getting you into the scanner, Bruce and Helen actually gave you drugs to help you calm down. You were asleep almost as soon as they were injected. The two doctors worked together to look over each scan and previously done test. Only to reach the same conclusion each time. You were paralyzed. This brought on a multitude of worries, but the biggest one had to do with your abilities. Would you ever be able to use them again? 

After finding out about the diagnosis, it was the first question to leave Tony’s lips. Tony and Steve were standing outside your med-bay room, Helen and Bruce in front of them. The two doctors sighed, glancing at one another.

“No,” Bruce answered. “She wouldn’t be able to use her abilities again.”

What they didn’t know was that you had woken up just in time to hear Tony ask the question and Bruce answer it. Covering your mouth, you squeezed your eyes shut and tried to stop from sobbing.

“She’s going to need help with everything, especially right now,” Helen continued for Bruce. “She’s going to need to be looked after. And I—“

“We’ll do it,” Steve replied, firmly. “We’re her family, we’ll take care of her.”

“I know that you two—this whole team, sees her as family. But this is going to be a long, hard road.”

“What are you saying?” Tony asked. “That we send her away? She’s almost 17! Who would be willing to adopt her at that age? Especially when we are her family!” He motioned between himself and Steve. “We are her fathers!”

“I understand, Tony. But you need to be prepared. She’s going to need help with the little everyday things. Bathing, getting changed, going to the bathroom. Somebody’s going to need to help her with it.”

“We will,” Steve repeated, still as firm as before. “Whatever she needs, for as long as she needs it. Whether it’s officially legal or not, she is our daughter and we will help her through it all.”

“I can make her braces,” Tony said. “Just like I did with Rhodes.”

“We actually believe that it would be more valuable if she learns to live with a wheelchair first,” Bruce responded. “Just in case anything were to happen with the braces, that she wouldn’t be completely helpless.”

“I agree with Bruce on this one,” Steve said. “She needs to be able to live in a wheelchair before she tries braces.” 

“We will have her in physical and occupational therapy such, so she doesn’t lose all the muscles in her legs.”

Just then, Wanda rushed passed them, heading for your door. “Wanda?” Steve questioned. “What’s going on?”

“The pain,” Wanda replied. “She’s in so much pain.”

Following Wanda into the room, they witnessed you trying to control your emotions. Though it was clear you were upset. Tony and Steve rushed to either side of you.

“It’s okay, honey,” Tony whispered, wiping tears off your cheeks. “It’s okay.”

“N-no…” you rasped, shaking your head. “It’s… n-not…”

“Did you hear what we were talking about?” Steve asked. You nodded. “I’m so sorry, doll. You shouldn’t have had to find out that way.”

You couldn’t stop the sobs at this point. You had just gotten the worse news you could have imagined. You were paralyzed and know unable to use your abilities. In your mind, you were basically useless. 

Steve quickly got into bed with you, pulling you into his arms. As he cradled you, he tried to get you to calm down. He glanced around worriedly at everyone else in the room, who didn’t know how to help.

~~~

“You need to eat, Y/N,” Tony pressed, trying to hand you a plate again. 

“I’m not hungry,” you replied, voice void of all emotion.

You had fallen asleep in Steve’s arms, where the two of you stayed until morning. Tony brought in breakfast while Steve went to get ready for the day.

“You need to eat,” he said again.

“I said, I’m not hungry,” you repeated.

Tony sighed, seating the plate down. “Do you not like waffles? I can have Happy go get something else. A burger? Fries? Ice cream?”

“I want my legs back.”

“Kid—“

“Don’t try to make me feel better about this. You have no understanding about how I am feeling.”

“I wasn’t trying to. I just—“

“Can you leave me alone? I want to be alone.”

Tony knew that you just needed a moment. So without responding, he got up and left, closing the door behind him. He leaned against the wall next to it, running a hand down his face. The guilt he was feeling was real. If only he had grabbed you and the kid, or if he had just flown faster.

“You’re going there too?” Steve asked, coming up to lean on the wall across from Tony. 

“The guilt is real,” Tony responded.

“Yeah… I shouldn’t have had her go into the building. What was I thinking?”

“I shouldn’t have let her convince me to take the kid… but, I guess, feeling this way won’t do her any good now, will it?”

“No, unfortunately, it won’t.” Steve looked at the closed door. “How is she?”

“She refused to eat… I’m thinking about having Happy get all her favorite foods for lunch.”

“Good idea. Maybe we could even try the wheelchair out and bring her to the common area.”

“I like it.”

“I’ll let everyone know about it.”

“Yeah, I—“

“Excuse me, Boss, Captain,” FRIDAY interrupted. “But Y/N is in need of immediate assistance.”

~~~

After Tony left, you huffed. This was miserable. You didn’t want to be stuck in this bed. And, honestly, the longer you sat there, the more you needed to go to the bathroom. You just didn’t want to ask for help, you didn’t want that to be your life. Studying the distance between your bed and the toilet for a few moments, you decided to get there yourself. Besides, they hadn’t tried to stand you up and get you to walk, maybe this was all one big cruel joke.

Taking a deep breath, you flung your covers off. You pushed yourself towards the edge of the bed, helping your legs to rest over it. Other deep breath in and you pushed yourself off the bed, trying to stand. You immediately fell. Trying to brace yourself, you landed on your hands. One of your wrists cracked, failing to break your fall. In the midst of the struggle, your bladder decided to let loose, causing you to lay in a pool of your own pee. You clutched your wrist close to your chest as your door burst open, revealing two extremely worried men. You looked at them, with tears cascading down your cheeks.

“I’m so sorry,” you said. “I just wanted to do something by myself.” They looked at you with complete pity, which you absolutely hated.

“It’s okay,” Steve said, getting on the floor beside you, minding the puddle. He noticed your wrist. “Did you hurt yourself?”

You nodded. “I’m sorry.”

“I’ll go run and get you clothes, sweetheart,” Tony said. “Steve will help you into the shower. It’s all going to be okay.” He rushed out.

“No it won’t,” you whispered as Steve scooped you up into his arms. “It will never be again.”

And Steve thought his heart couldn’t shatter more than it already had. As he lifted you, he could practically feel the weight that this was having on you. You wouldn’t look at him as he took you into the bathroom and set you on the shower floor.

“Can I help you undress?” Steve asked.

You inhaled sharply, closing your eyes. This was your life now. Though you could undress yourself, you would always need help, basically be waited on all the time.

“If you want, I can go grab Natasha,” Steve suggested. “Or Wanda. Or, Pepper might even be in today. You love Pepper.”

“I want to be alone,” you mumbled.

“Y/N, I just want to help. Just let me help.”

“And I just want to be alone.” Tears were still falling, though you couldn’t understand how.

“Y/N—“

“Just leave me alone!” You shouted, pushing yourself into the corner.

“What’s going on in here?” Tony asked, bringing in the clothes with Pepper following.

“Leave me alone!”

“Why don’t you guys wait outside?” Pepper suggested. “I’ll help Y/N.”

Steve sighed, straightened up from his kneeled position and hurrying out of there. Tony looked at you sadly before taking his leave. Pepper shut the door and came to your side.

“What do you want me to do?” She asked softly.

“I want to be left alone,” you responded, frustrated and not willing to look her way.

“That’s not going to happen and you know it, Tony and Steve won’t allow it. Those men out there care about you and are so extremely worried. All they want to do is help.”

“I don’t care.”

She let out a small sigh. “Will you at least let me help? We need to get you out of those clothes and washed up. Especially since that wrist needs to get checked out.”

After a moment, you gave in and looked at her. “Okay.”

Pepper smiled at you briefly. “Okay.”

~~~

Apparently, there was already a hairline fracture in your wrist because of the accident. Your fall off the bed didn’t do anything to help it. You had willingly let Pepper help you clean up, but other than that you were still fighting asking for help.

The Team had tried to lift your spirits at lunch out in the common area, but to no avail. After that, you were taken to your regular room, where a twin bed had been added.

“What’s that?” You asked, you hadn’t spoken since the bathroom. 

“Someone is going to stay in here with you until things start becoming normal again,” Steve replied, pushing the wheelchair further into the room. 

“Normal,” you scoffed.

“Buck and I were thinking we could have a movie night today. Maybe try and watch all of the—“

“I just want to sleep.”

“That’s okay too.”

“I would be here too kid,” Tony added, “but Pep and I are working out somethings with the physical therapist.”

“What’s the point of physical therapy? My legs don’t work.”

“It’s to keep your muscles, so that one day you can get braces.”

You nodded, glancing around until you were staring at your tennis shoes on the floor. They were brand new, Stark designed shoes. They were meant to not wear as fast because of your speeding abilities. Your speeding abilities that you could no longer access.

“Can you do something with those?” You asked, pointing at them. 

Both Tony and Steve looked over. They got a tad deflated after remembering how excited you had been about those shoes.

“Yeah, sure, kid,” Tony responded, grabbing them. “I’ll just put them up in your closet. We can—“

“No,” you interrupted. “I want them gone.”

“Y/N—“

“I don’t need any reminders of what I’m now unable to do.”

“Sweetheart,” Tony got down in front of you, “you can still, or will be able to, do a lot. You got lucky.” He immediately regretted his last sentence, even Steve flinch.

“I got lucky? I. Got. Lucky?”

“Y/N, that’s not what—“

“Get the hell out!”

“Hey, that’s not how you talk to your—“

“My what? Father?! Cause you aren’t, remember? Maybe you should take Helen’s advice and give me away! Might make it easier on everyone!”

“You are my daughter, damn it! Whether it’s official or not, or by blood!”

“Y/N, Tony—“ Steve tried to interrupt. 

“No! I actually will say that you got lucky. You did because you have people willing to help you, willing to support you.”

“Well stop!” You shouted back. “Have you ever thought that I don’t want any of your help?! Maybe I think that you should have just left me down there to die! It would have been better that way! I’m basically useless like this!”

“Enough!” Bucky yelled, barging in with Nat. “Steve, Tony, out.”

With a glare sent their way from Nat, the two men didn’t even argue. You were refusing to look at Bucky and Nat. Half embarrassed that you said those things to the men you considered your dads, and half embarrassed that you were believing the terrible thoughts your mind was taunting you with.

Bucky and Natasha looked at each other, unsure of what exactly to do. You let them help you into bed before they left you alone, leaving with a promise to bring food later. 

In the loneliness of your bedroom, you let your thoughts consume you. How you were now useless as an Avenger without being able to have super speed. How you wished they would have just let you die. How you wish they wouldn’t be so helpful, it was driving you crazy. How you really didn’t have any family, you were all alone.

~~~

To respect your boundaries, Tony and Steve decided to let the others help them. No matter how hard it was. It hurt them to see you struggling through everything and not rush to your side. Not that you would let them help, you weren’t letting anyone without putting up a fight.

Steve and Tony had had many talks since they realized you were wishing that you had just died. Tony had made sure that FRIDAY had surveillance on you 24/7 and the Team, besides Tony and Steve, were switching sleeping in your room every night. 

It wasn’t easy on anyone, especially since you were having nightmares about being stuck down in the debris. Someone would wake you from the dream, only to be quickly shut out. The terrors would leave you trembling, sweating, and in a state of panic. But, with you not willing to let people help, the others were forced to watch you struggle with this.

Physical and occupational therapy was a whole other issue. You were rude to the therapists and unwilling to do anything. As the weeks went by, the Team could see the affect it was happening on your legs and they were concerned. Steve and Tony would watch each session from above, angry at the whole situation.

It had been two months since the whole incident, and you still weren’t showing any signs of changing your attitude any time soon.

“Come on, Y/N,” your therapist sighed. “What I’m asking you to do isn’t all that hard. I’m going to do all the work.”

“No,” you stated, determined.

“Y/N—“

“Why don’t you go help someone who’s more able to do things? Maybe someone who will actually get better. I’m sure they’d love your help."

“I can’t watch this anymore,” Tony said to Steve, watching from above. “She’s hurting herself.”

“You know we can’t force her to do anything, Tony,” Steve replied. “We have to let her do this on her own.”

“No, we don’t.” Tony turned around and headed for the room you were currently in.

“Tony! What are you going to do?”

“Use the hate she is harboring towards what happened, towards us, for her benefit.”

Tony burst into the room, causing you and the therapist to jump. You furrowed your brows, confused at what Tony and Steve could possibly be doing here.

“Hand me your leg, Y/N,” Tony demanded.

“What? No,” you responded.

“Hand me your damn leg!”

“No!”

“Fine!” Tony marched over and picked you up from your wheelchair.

“Put me down!” You tried to push off Tony. “Let me go!”

“Tony!” Steve called. “What are you doing?”

“It’s time for some tough love,” Tony responded. He set you down, not gently, on a therapy table. He grabbed your leg and began doing the exercises.

“Let go of me!” You demanded, trying to reach and pry him away, but failing. 

“No! Don’t you see what you are doing to yourself? What you’re doing to those around you?! You are miserable and you are making others miserable! Yes, what happened to you was absolute shit. Trust me, Steve and I will have that guilt with us for the rest of our lives. But it’s up to you to decide how to come out of this. You ever fight to live, fight to find the new normal, or you let yourself whither away. And I’m not about to let that last one happen.”

“You may think you’re alone in this, but you aren’t,” Tony continued. “Steve and I, the Team, we all want to help you through this. Even if that means sticking with you for life.”

During Tony’s whole thing, you had began crying. He was right, you were making yourself and everyone around you miserable.

“I’m sorry,” you cried out. “I’m so sorry… I just… I just wish…”

“I know, honey, I know,” Tony said, moving to pull you into his chest. You melted into him, crying. He placed a kiss on your head. “I’ve got you… I’ve got you.”

“Don’t leave me, Dad.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

Steve came over and grabbed one of your hands, gently kissing it. You gave his hand a squeeze.

“I’m sorry, Pa,” you croaked.

“It’s okay,” Steve replied with a tiny smile. “No need to apologize. Just please don’t say that you would have rather died again. I don’t think I could take it if you did.”

“If I died or said it again?”

“Both.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I know.”

“Will you guys… uh, will you guys help me with my exercises?”

“Of course, honey,” Tony replied. “But maybe Steve should do the other leg, because I think I wore myself out.”

Steve stood. “I’ll exercise that leg better than you could, Stark,” he commented.

“Oh, you’re on, Rogers.” Tony swiftly stood up.

“Great,” you muttered. “Now this is going to be a thing.”

~~~

Now that you were accepting help, things were beginning to look up again. Not that things weren’t hard, but they were better and you could handle it all better. The Team had decided to celebrate, but wouldn’t tell you how. Wheeling your wheelchair into the common area, you found it pitch black.

“FRIDAY,” you called out to the AI, “can I get some lights?”

“Of course,” the AI responded.

The lights came on and suddenly you were being pelted with water from squirt guns. The Team came out of their hiding spots, laughing, as they continued to fire at you.

“Guys!” You squealed, trying to shield yourself. “Guys! St-stop!”

“Never!” Sam exclaimed as he made his way closer to you.

“Here,” Peter said, lowering himself from the ceiling. “Take this.” He offered you a large gun. “Save yourself.”

You laughed as you began to fight back. Suddenly, you were pulled backwards by both Steve and Tony, who were trying to use you and the chair as protection.

“They’ve turned against us!” Tony exclaimed.

“Help us, Y/N!” Steve added.

You couldn’t stop laughing as you, Tony and Steve worked together to try and defeat the others. The Team couldn’t stop smiling as they watched you act so happy. It was so refreshing. After the common room was all but turned into a pool, the Team decided to change and then meet down in the movie room to relax for the night. When Y/N had arrived down there, Tony and Steve had saved a place between them.

“Can I help you onto the couch?” Steve asked.

You responded with a nod and let Steve pick you up, wrapping your arms around his neck. He carefully guided you through the maze of lodging teammates to the spot him and Tony had chosen on the couch.

“Thanks Pa,” you said as he set you down. You pulled your legs up close to you.

“Not a problem,” he smiled, sitting down beside you.

Tony spread a blanket over you guys. “Thanks, Dad.”

“Of course,” Tony responded, leaving a little kiss on your forehead.

You curled up against Tony as Steve moved your legs to rest over his lap, allowing him to massage them. FRIDAY quickly turned on your favorite movie. You glanced around, taking in everyone around you, and you couldn’t be more grateful. Though your life was going to continue to have its challenges, you were glad you had found this family.

Part 2

[smolstarthief]

Ok... This something dark that popped into my the head since the game didn't really elaborate much on it but... Do you guys ever wondered what happened after EMMA reached out to and targeted Akane? Like we have this young girl who is pushed to her absolute breaking point, mentally and emotionally. Her father gets arrested and is going through god knows what, her home gets ransacked for evidence despite her own protests with this smug asshole of an officer telling her the news without any shred of sympathy (I wanted to punch him so damn badly when I got to that part), and THEN she learns that the group she idolized were probably murderous terrorists (her admiration was superficial but still) ALONG with the fact that her father once again kept secrets from her and was working with them so he might actually be a corrupt criminal after all and proving that officer's point and therefore dashing if not downright destroying any attempts or hopes of a possible reconciliation with him. It was just so much for her to take in at once and then this shady app pops up after being supposedly shut down when she begged for someone to help her during her breakdown... And then what? That's the scary part there since she ended up comatose in the real world. What exactly happened between this and her Jail forming? Did she feel suspicious and hesitated at first? Or just immediately let EMMA in? And... Was the experience painful for her since the whole thing was formed against her will? I can imagine her feeling a form of pain in her head and just panicking before blacking out regardless of the response since well... EMMA and Konoe needed bait and an asset so why not? Konoe was unaware but EMMA more or less was. But back to Akane, I can imagine her thoughts being about her mother or even crying out for her as the pain got worse... Or, even worse, she thought about and instinctively called out for her dad like when she was young (I HC that she would feel safe with him as a little kid whenever she got scared). There's just A LOT of horrifying implications of what might have happened then and it would STILL be one of Zenkichi's worse nightmares coming to life. And he was almost too powerless to help had there not been outside intervention. It's basically little to no wonder that he didn't care whether he even died in her Jail. She was basically left defenseless and vulnerable, alone and scared before being basically brainwashed and taken advantage of by a malicious AI. He felt like he failed her and Aoi again big time and there's little to no doubt that he blames himself knowing his self-loathing. I can also imagine some asshat of an arresting officer may have told him about the fact that his house will be searched and he just goes into panicked dad mode knowing that his daughter will be confused and freaking out since she's there. Of course, he's told to shut up and he just gives a sad, "I'm so sorry" as he gets taken for interrogation (which I could tell was also unpleasant). Sorry, just having MAJOR Kyoto arc feelings and the horrifying adult fear implications that came with it. As obvious and on the nose this game was in regards to its critique on the uses of AI technology and people's over reliance on them to the point of obsession and wanting answers for EVERY question and how their lives should function (think Zenkichi's small speech about the matter in Osaka), it can be pretty relevant and downright terrifying when it needs to be.

[kj-1130]

Nothing For Me

Part 2

Main Masterlist

Part 1|Part 3

2012

     You were turning 11 this year. Natasha, as you learned she went by, was always a phone call away if you ever wanted to talk--since your sperm donor was obviously no help. You had recently had to call her due to your period starting, which you weren’t expecting to happen for at least another 2 to 3 years. Needless to say, it freaked you out and regardless of your smarts, nothing could have prepared you for that. 

     Nat took you shopping for what she called, ‘lady items’; bras, pads, tampons, anything a girl could possibly need. She also taught you how to shave if you ever wanted to. She specified that you should never feel forced to do it because ‘people need to normalize women having body hair. It grows there for a reason.’ And you totally agreed with her on that by the way. 

     There were a few times when she’d let you in on minor S.H.I.E.L.D secrets even though it was quite unnecessary seeing as you could hack your way through it all no problem. That’s how you found out about the Avengers Initiative. You couldn’t agree more with what was said about Tony. 

     Through your hacking and research of the initiative, you ‘met’ Clint. It was through a video call. He had invaded your girl-talk with Natasha. The three of you were practically best buds now. You’d go to Nat for advice or just when you needed a sister to talk to. You’d go to Clint when you just wanted to let loose and talk about absolute nonsense. 

-

     It was another lovely night in Stark Tower for you--please note the sarcasm. You were bored out of your mind. Natasha had been on an undercover mission and Clint was busy at the base; something about the Tesseract. You thought they should’ve just left the thing alone; let fate take its course. Some bad things were going to come with them messing with something they had no knowledge about. They’re joining a game without knowing any rules and are pretty much destined to lose. But, hey. What did you know?

     Pepper and Tony were probably in the common area, sucking each other's faces off. Despite how much you disliked Tony, based on your experiences, you couldn’t deny the fact that they’re pining was absolutely annoying, disgusting, and cute all at the same time. You were just glad it was over honestly.

     Pepper was an okay person to you. There was nothing you found super nice or mean about her that was prominent to you. She’d greet you on the quite rare occasion the two of you would cross paths and would start the casual small talk (“how are you?” “I’m fine, what about you” “Good, thanks for asking.”). She probably thought you were a live-in intern or something like that. With how much she tries to doctor Tony’s life, you’d think she would try to fix whatever nonexistent relationship between the pair of you, but nope. That just added to your intern theory. 

     You were reading a book on quantum physics, when your personal AI, M.I.A(miraculous intelligence assistant)--that you did in fact create yourself--notified you that someone had overridden Stark’s systems and gotten into the elevator. Just because you didn’t leave the room doesn’t mean you weren’t nosy. 

     “Who is it, M?”

     “Agent Phil Coulson, from S.H.I.E.L.D.,” M.I.A. spoke in her smooth voice. “Would you like to listen in on what they are saying?”

     “Is that even a question?”

     Jumping out of your beanbag, you went to the center of your room, where M.I.A had pulled up footage of what was happening in the common room. 

     “Security breach,” Tony turns to Pepper. “That’s on you.”

     “Mr. Stark.” 

     “Phil! Come in,” Pepper greeted. Since when were she and Agent Coulson on a first-name basis. You’d have to look into that. 

     “Phil? Uh, his first name is Agent.”

     “Come on in, we’re celebrating,” the red head invites. This was getting more interesting to you by the second!

     “I can’t stay.”

     “Which is why he can’t stay.”

     Phil ignores Tony and starts to hand him a file.

     “He doesn’t like being handed things,” you muttered. 

     “I don't like being handed things.” Called it.

     “That’s alright, ‘cause I love being handed things, So, let’s trade,” Pepper says. She hands Coulson her glass of champagne, takes the file, hands Tony the file, in return taking his drink.

     “Official consulting hours are between eight and five every other Thursday,” the billionaire said. 

     It was quite obvious Phil was over his jokes and that he was here for a much important matter.

     “Is this about the Avengers? Which I...I know nothing about.”

     Both men ignored Pepper. “The Avengers Initiative was scrapped, I thought. And I didn’t even qualify.” 

    That was a nice day. Finding out what they said about Tony had been nothing less than amusing in your opinion.

     “I didn’t know that either,” the CEO said. She sure does have the best cover-ups, doesn’t she? 

     “Yeah, apparently I’m volatile, self-obsessed, don’t play well with others.”

     “That I did know.”

     This whole thing was odd to you. Why were they trying to put together the Avengers when the whole idea was tossed?

     “M, pull up the most recent S.H.I.E.L.D files on the tesseract and the Avengers Initiative.”

     The AI did as told, and you scrolled through all of them. You saw things on Thor, Clint, Natasha, Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers, and lastly your sperm donor. Looking at Thor’s file, you found something about his brother Loki. And looking at his name, you saw his connections to the tesseract and everything had clicked. Loki had the thing and was definitely going to do something evil with it. 

-

     Both adults in the house were gone. Such responsible ones they are. Tony left earlier the next day and you honestly couldn’t remember when Pepper left. Now, here you were in your safe haven, trying to figure out what in the world Loki would want with the tesseract. There’s probably no way for you to figure it out since you weren’t where all the info was, actively investigating. But what you didn’t understand is why would they leave you here when such a threat was hanging in the air. 

     You knew Tony didn’t necessarily care for you, but he couldn’t forget about you, right? Natasha wouldn’t forget about you. Clint wouldn’t forget you. Right?

-

     It’s been two days. Two fucking days, and no one had come in or out of this building. 

     You were currently pacing in your room, while your AI--not even a fucking person--was trying to comfort you. 

     “Does no one answer their fucking phone anymore?”

     “I’m pretty sure there is a reasonable explanation as to why no one is answering.”

     Out of nowhere, you heard commotion from outside. Rushing over to the window and moving the curtains, you saw these alien things coming out of the sky. You ran out of your room and made your way to the nearest set of stairs as quickly as you could. 

     “Ah, the little Stark.”

     His voice sent chills up your spine. It was deep and quite terrifying. 

     “Come over, no need to be scared.”

     You followed his orders, having a feeling that if you didn’t things would end up ten times worse for you. He looked at you before basically yeeting you out of the window. It hurt; it felt like every bone in your body screamed for peace and anything in the background just became white noise. 

     You landed on the roof, writhing in pain and groaning. Everything hurt.

     Attempting to get up was hard and painful, but you knew that you had to leave or you’d die. 

     Looking up, you see that doctor. He was mentioned in the files but everything was just so fuzzy, you couldn’t remember properly. Finally being able to get up after numerous attempts, you limp your way down the stairs and out to the streets in the middle of all the chaos. 

     You were so scared. You knew you probably wouldn’t be able to contact Nat or Clint unless you somehow hacked into their coms system. You continued to walk down the streets, hoping to find some type of shelter, but it felt like you were about to collapse at any second. Sitting down in the nearest alley, you looked around. Looking left, there was a face right in front of yours.

     “Fuck! What the hell man?”

     The other person wasn’t fazed. Looking them over, you saw their frizzy, somewhat curly hair pulled back in a low ponytail. Her brown skin was covered in dirt and a little blood. 

     “Hey, you’re (y/n) Stark, right?” She asked a little breathlessly. 

     “I refuse to be acknowledged as such.”

     “I’m Michelle. But don't call me that or I’ll have to hurt you.”

     “Are you really trying to converse with me in the middle of an alien invasion? And acting like we’re both not hurt?”

     Michelle shrugs her shoulders when you both look over due to some yelling that you heard. 

     “MJ! Michelle where are you? Michelle Jones!”

     MJ looks back over and starts to get up but she trips and falls. You decide to help her up and take her over to the people calling her name. You both struggle but eventually get over to the adults with some time. 

     Before you could get away from the Jones family, the mother gripped your shoulder. 

     “C’mon, stay with us. We’ll find somewhere to lay low.“

     You were too tired and in too much pain to argue, so you let Michelle’s mother help you keep your balance while the young girl’s father did the same for her. 

     It was at least a good ten minutes until the four of you found a decent place to take a break. It looked like a gas station, but you really couldn’t tell due to how much damage there was. You and the Jones’ took cover behind a somewhat stable looking wall and tried to stay as quiet as possible. 

     It was quiet besides the distant screams of people and the yells of the aliens. You wondered if Nat and Clint were okay. You wondered if Tony was okay. You wondered if anyone was safe from this. This seemed like something no one could recover from.  

     “What’s your name, sweetheart?” The older woman asked. 

     “(Y/n).”

     “Where are your parents?”

     “My sperm donor is fighting I guess.”

     To say the adults were appalled by your bluntness  was an understatement. You’ve had a potty mouth for quite a while. There was no one to really correct you on what to and not to say--not that you really needed help with that being a genius and all; well a genius with common sense because your father didn’t have any of that. Without anyone to really monitor what you did,  you kind of just roamed free in a sense. 

- 

     The fight had died down eventually. The aliens were still coming, but a substantial amount of them had been killed. How a group of 6 people/gods/supersoldiers/or whatever amazed you. Maybe you could work behind the scenes one day; even though you already do. Just without anyone knowing. 

     Before you knew it, there was a nuke flying across the sky. ‘Leave it to the government to find an excuse to hurt civilians,’ you thought. But before it could hit anything, you saw a red and gold figure carry it to the portal.  

     You knew who it was. He was going to sacrifice himself for the safety of these people. If he didn’t make it, you would miss him even though there wouldn’t be much to miss. When that portal closed, your heart dropped to your stomach. You would never be able to make amends with him. You would never have a single conversation with him. Yeah he was a total douche bag for forgetting all about you, but you had at least expected to be able to see and maybe talk to him. Sort things out. 

     Without thinking, you ran as fast as you could towards where the newly assembled Avengers were; well at least where you last saw them. You ignored the calls of the Jones family, telling you to come back. Their protests telling you not to go so you can stay safe. You ignored the pain. The aching of your ribs. The dull throbbing in your head and on your lips. There was no doubt that your steps were uneven; limping down the street at your speed probably made you look like a crackhead.

     You kept running; not stopping. Not when your breaths got shorter and turned into wheezes. Not when you heard rattling in your chest. Not when you felt like you were going to collapse. Not when your joints popped and begged for rest. You didn’t stop. You couldn’t. Not until you found someone; anyone you knew. 

     You stopped after what felt like hours. It most likely was considering the sun was going down. You heard a little commotion inside a surprisingly intact building which turned out to be a Shawarma. Tony always talked about this place for some reason. 

     When you looked inside, the Avengers were there. At least, you guessed they were still called that. But that didn’t matter. They were relaxing after the battle. They looked quite relaxed considering they had just fought aliens. 

     But that was what kind of hurt. They weren’t worried about you. At all. Of course only 3--well not really 3. Only two really knew you and knew you were in that tower when the attack happened. Sure you weren’t expecting Clint or Nat to be running around the streets of this huge city, but a little effort or at least the thought of it would’ve been nice. You could’ve been dead and they sure as hell didn’t seem super worried about it. Maybe you were overthinking it. Or maybe you were just as forgettable and insignificant as you thought.

-

     You limped away from the establishment, trying to find somewhere to stay seeing as your home--if you could even call it that--was most likely destroyed. And you were in your feelings and nothing was a better cure than isolating yourself even more. You also wanted to see if you could get M.I.A running on a computer or something. Maybe update yourself on what was going on over the world at the moment. Or look up your frizzy-haired friend you met while you were running for your life. 

     You managed to find a computer near a dumpster. You leaned back against the wall and slid down slowly, not wanting to aggravate your injuries too much. You were able to get M.I.A running on the laptop and then looked up any news. The headlines were crazy. All you saw was the fight that just happened and the death count rising and rising…

     You didn’t want to be focused on anything dealing with your father, S.H.I.E.L.D., or any current events, so you decided to give M.I.A. the task of figuring out who Michelle and her family was. It sounded very creepy, but you were her age. What harm could you do with her info. Well you could cause harm to her and her family with any info you found but that was besides the point. The most you were going to do was send them a message or something like that. 

-

     You ended up sleeping in that alley. Deciding that you should head back to your place of residence, you got up and started walking back much to the process of your bones and joints. The tower seemed like it was so far away. Especially with your injuries and supposedly no one around to tend to them.  After what felt like hours, you made it to the entrance of the establishment and, surprise surprise, it’s already being rebuilt. You honestly didn’t know what time it was. You just wanted to get in your bed and sleep forever. 

-

     It had been about a month since the Battle of New York. Your injuries weren’t treated until about a week after the fact. Not because someone noticed you were hurt, but because it was getting hard to breathe and that didn’t seem like a fun way to go to you. 

     You’d been healing nicely so far, but your emotions and mental health were on the opposite side of the spectrum. Every time you close your eyes, you had this dream, vision, whatever it was, that when Loki threw you out the window, there was no balcony or landing area to stop on. You just kept falling, and falling until you hit the ground. Then you woke up.

      You had been isolating yourself as well. There had been plenty of missed calls from the pair, but you just couldn’t find the energy to move and pick up the phone. They were probably just doing it out of obligation anyway. 

       Seeing everyone, especially Nat and Clint, just made you rethink anything you’ve ever done. Were you too clingy when it came to Natasha? Did she really like you or did she just feel bad? You were probably just overreacting, but you can’t help but think these thoughts. 

    Everything was just spiraling out of control for you. And you couldn’t get help; well you at least felt like you couldn’t. If you told Tony--not that you would, but hypothetically-- he’d probably wave you off and laugh. If you tried to get a therapist, someone would probably leak that shit to the press; confidentiality be damned. 

     You felt like you were drowning and you didn’t know how much longer it would be until you fully sank.

[sonic-analysis]

Eggman: A Look Into Henchmen and his Non Hostile Interactions With Sentient Beings

 The functional explanation as to why Eggman keeps his idiot robot henchmen around is quite simple. If he didn't have them he'd have no reason to explain his evil plans to the audience. This is exactly what Agent Stone did in the movie and also why in the Sonic adventure series he didn't have any robot henchmen. He had Shadow and Rouge in those games.

Stone in particular plays the role of the Watson. The Watson is a character that's primary function in the narrative is to ask questions in order to prompt an otherwise quiet character to explain their thought process. While Stone does not fit the strictest definition of a Watson as he doesn't actually ask any questions in the film, the writers still used him as one rhetorically. By putting him in a room with a Robotnik who thinks he's smarter than everyone, it makes Robotnik go out of his way to make sure his assistant understands.

While I cant say for sure, as I do not work for Sega, I do think Eggmans use of sentient AI is actually a very good insight to how he views life as a whole.

If you were to write a list of every sentient AI Eggman ever made on purpose, you can count the number of names on one hand. Of that short list only one isn't some sort of secretary or assistant. In some games he spends more time yelling at his robot helpers than he does actually taking over the world. 

Eggman is a person who wants control. He builds robots to execute specific instructions because he simply cannot do everything himself. We know hes a control freak because he aims to take over the world and colonize other planets in hopes of bringing order or greatness. Because in his mind he's always the most qualified person to be in charge.

He even tried to mind control an entire planet, or at least it was implied that was considering bringing the technology to that large of a scale. Robotitization at its core is mind control too. His clear preference for simple robots who follow code also contributes to this characteristic. 

So what use does he have for the messy fallible AI assistants?

They're scape goats. The doctor has a massive Ego and likely doesn't enjoy taking credit for his own mistakes. Either unable of unwilling to admit that he and his plans frequently have flaws he instead opts to keep other sentient AI around. Its incredibly hard to blame anyone but yourself if you're the only one not following pre written instructions. Keeping an annoying AI around gives him just enough wiggle room to then blame the AI instead as they do not follow a strict procedure.

Despite being able to I doubt he will ever delve into biological experiments like Gerald did as he'd see their volatile nature as a hindrance. His want for sentient help is entirely superficial and on some level he is likely aware of the fact that he dislikes other people.