#i think protocol has to be some sort of. other universe maybe

[theendorisit]

The Magnus Theories

Okay theory time! Spoilers for all of The Magnus Protocol Season 1 and all of The Magnus Archives.

Celia

- so two things I got right: 

the universe/crack trying to drag Celia back through it

Celia was previously in a cult, and remembers Georgie from that, and that was why Celia sought her out.

Situation: Celia does not seem to remember her previous life, only remembers The Change, Georgie and other characters. So there are some interesting questions:

Is the universe she came from an apocalyptic one? Is it a separate universe to TMA? (Unlikely given she remembers the same characters and each universe seems different in that regard). Or did she have nothing left even post-apocalypse TMA? Or get sucked in as the fears left? Certainly she is not the only person to fall through (though it is not clear how this happened to Darrien in Episode 17 - Saved Copy)

Because it really seems that Celia believes that she’s casting Sam into a kind of Hell. Which Season 5 TMA absolutely was. But is this the case? Is Sam ending up in a recovering TMA universe, an apocalyptic other world, or maybe even a different world that is barren and desolate because the fears ravaged it and left again?* I’m so excited to find out! 

* Because it seems bizarre that a crack in the multiverse would only have a path between two individual worlds. Except these are the two worlds the writers have created, so maybe not that strange.

What we do know that the balance is still fucked - Celia wanted to balance it with Sam, but Sam AND the Archivist went through. Oh dear. Unbalanced again!

(Or… is it? Did Darrien get pulled back in the same way? What’s up with him? Why isn’t he unbalancing things? Or were the Institute preventing him from being pulled back? Were lots of people transferred between universes all over the place?)

Also, what will Celia do if this doesn’t work? Her reasoning is that she is being pulled back because of the balance - but maybe the universe needs everyone to be exactly where they are meant to be, rather than balance per se. I still think that if the Jon and Martin in the computer are the TMA ones (not convinced by this) then they are causing unbalanced states as well.

Unconfirmed thoughts

presumably Celia had a doppelgänger in this universe - did Celia find her, kill her or maybe just see her die, and take over her life and baby?

Possible option - is Celia unbalanced because her doppelgänger isn’t dead? If her TMP other is in a coma, then perhaps that causes an issue, and would explain why Darrien was fine (he killed his other, so effectively took his place). This isn’t a theory I have a lot of stock in, it’s just me trying to understand the world logic. 

Archivist

Ah, everyone forgets that the archivist must’ve got the train down from Manchester in the first place 😅

It will be very interesting to see what happens to the archivist in season 2, current theories:

Arrives in a fear-less world (TMA post-change) and is transformed back into their original self (more Beth Eyre voice acting? YAY!🎉 ). Probably has no desire to return to the old self but helps Sam get back.

Arrives in a fear-less world (TMA post-change) and stays the same, becomes a new problem for TMA people to solve, and those people help Sam get back.

Arrives in an apocalyptic world, stays exactly the same, wanders off to eat. Sam tries to get back.

Or, a variation of the above, but Sam stays in the new world and someone else goes through for the balance. 

Or… we get WORLD HOPPING. Lots of stories, and the archivist acts very much like season 5 Jon - new world, new statement. Sam is the new Martin. Sort of. My secret hope is they find a world where there are lovely fields of cows, and a lovely little cabin, containing the lovely utterly fucked up corpses of two men destroyed by corruption. After taking a statement, Sam and the Archivist leave, setting the place on fire. If such a story happens, I will laugh til I choke. 

Sam

‘I’m not up to an apocalyptic conflict’, yes well Jonny Sims wrote this episode, so buckle up mate. 

I very much enjoyed the revelation that Celia has been playing Sam like a fiddle. She has discovered the connection with alchemy, the connection to the Magnus Institute, perhaps even been visiting former Magnus children to find someone to lure back, and finds Sam. She still checks on others (Gerry), but Sam is a willing participant, and once she finds Helen, and the list of Magnus Properties... well she has a reason to point him there, and Sam is only too happy to go (well... not happy, but you get my point).

One thing I don't quite understand about Sam's characterisation - if I wandered off alone into a strange place and saw a smiling skeleton shed its meat pepper, I think I would not go exploring as much as Sam does. That said, curiosity killed the cat is a central Magnus theme.

So, what’s happened to Sam? My earlier theorising is based on Celia - when she came through the wound in the world she is apparently in one piece - yet there is a current theory that Jon and Martin were split into fragments and scattered (hence voices in a computer). So it’s not impossible that Sam gets messed up by the transfer. In fact, what if Sam and Archivist get combined into a chimera? What would be delightful horror!

Narrative

So here’s the question are we getting a split narrative? Are we going to be following Gwen and Alice in one universe and also Sam and archivist in another? Or is Sam basically gone? Are people going to pop up later? Have we seen the last of Lena? 

Alice

Alice has ignored Teddy. Alice has ignored Colin. Alice didn’t get to Sam in time.

Methinks all the men around Alice are going to drop like flies. If Alice cares about a character, they are doomed. So Gwen is functionally immortal (yay!)

Lena

I can’t begin to tell you how heartbreakingly sad it is that Jonny and Alex won’t even murder one toxic line manager. Come on! I need my catharsis! Murdering fictional people in a grisly fashion is literally your job! /silly

Ah well, it took 200 episodes for Elias/Jonah to get his comeuppance, so I will be patient.

My current theory is Lena is the head of the OIAR which means monitoring incident team (our main characters): but actually her main job is heading the response team. I think Teddy is working for them, in the same building as shown in a previous episode. Perhaps it’s Teddy actually bringing the paperwork that Sam was filling in. 

I wonder if Lena is actually really happy to have gone. She’s just off to retire in Majorca or something 😅

Gwen

This means (if my theory is correct) that Gwen is going to be inducted into this new leading role. I’m really hopeful that we’re going to understand more of Lena’s motivations for what she was doing - fingers crossed. I also hope we’ll learn more about Gwen’s thoughts. Why was she so eager to get rid of Lena? Was it just ambition? What does it mean that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree? What did her grandfather do? Also, will she ever have to make a decision like Lena - why did Lena try to kill Klaus at the beginning of the series?

Colin

My poor sweet baby. I wonder if Colin realised that FR3-d1 was trying to help. However, maybe not? The question is, why did Colin ask Alice if she was in the office? Did he want the servers turned off? Did she need to type a message to FR3-d1? 

Though I wonder if Colin had a visit from the response team. Perhaps he was becoming a liability?

Possible survival - it could be that Colin gets rescued, OR that the danger he is in is being captured by the response team, or an external. So he’s been kidnapped. He might be experimented on? Whomst can say?

FR3-d1

This is a curious one. It seems that FR3-d1 has been trying to help, trying to share pertinent information: at least to Sam, maybe Alice. FR3-d1 is also apparently the one who has been giving Gwen information to get Lena fired. Is that what FR3-d1 wants? Does FR3-d1 want Gwen in charge? Is FR3-d1 just trying to get the OIAR disbanded? 

Jon and Martin

The original theory for these characters were as follows:

TMA J&M have been sucked through the crack, along with the body of Jonah, got messed up in the change and the consciousnesses of all 3 are trapped in the computer.

TMP J&M died at a much younger age, in approximately 2005. They never met. If identical characters (across universes) are born on the same years (seems to be true), J&M died aged around 18.

However, I have a new proposal - The Magnus Institute figured out a way to extract and store consciousnesses. I am intensely curious if Alex or Jonny has played SOMA. 

TMA J&M were sucked through the crack, as Celia was, and have been living quietly or maybe trying to figure out how the world works. Perhaps the orchid stroking pervert and receptionist were them. Perhaps they’ve changed names. Maybe we’ll see them later?

TMP J&M were the same ages as many of the Magnus Institute’s children. Perhaps they were experimented on. Perhaps J&M died aged exactly 18, and their consciousnesses uploaded with Jonah’s, all 3 are trapped in the computer. Which means that they’ve been suffering for nearly 2 decades.

The real question is, if this is true, who uploaded JMJ to a computer, if the Magnus Institute burned down in 1999?

The other question is, regardless of which option is correct (or unknown option 3) WHY did the computer start reading out cases a year ago? Did Colin do something? Alice has been here years, Lena too. I get the impression that Celia has been around for more than a year… but maybe not? Is it her presence (the unbalancing) causing the voices to wake? (Again, Darrien??)

So which is it? On the one hand, I know that J&A love to make us suffer by making us hear J&M died, and our original bois suffering in a computer is way more poignant - but I don’t believe the ‘Jonah’ in the computer is our original TMA one, as he was dead as a doornail. But then, so was Jon maybe. So who knows? But I do think it’s the TMP Jonah in there. It feels…more correct, somehow. But I’m not good at predicting stuff, so whomst can say?

Also, for those who aren't Early Access and didn't see Jonny’s contributions to the live chat, quoted here

Everyone will be OK*

Sam will be fine*

Glad everyone enjoyed* this episode

Someone please confiscate this man’s asterisk key, he’s being irresponsible with it.

Also:

Can confirm scots taste better to supernatural horrors than the english

I fucking KNEW it!! Though I can't say the welsh are faring much better.

[quitealotofsodapop]

Honestly if it were up to Macaque he'd adopt Bai Zhe right then and there. Dame with Wukong. The problem is, Macaque is technically legally dead. Or at least, he legally doesn't exist at all since he died in the Tang dynasty so there wouldn't be records for him at all. Wukong is not much better because while he does have a lawyer for things like copyright and such... he still spent 500+ years in near isolation and doesn't technically exist in the legal system either outside if being represented by a lawyer of some sort. Not ideal for adopting a child, especially since adoption would include things like home visits, employment, a shit ton of paperwork. Luckily PIF cab get him in contact with Fire Star and Gold Star owes him for the whole... Mountain thing. Between those two he's able to at least legally adopt her in the eyes of the gods, but the eyes of mortals are a little different. It ends up being this weird situation where Bai He is being fostered by Pigsy and Tang while Wukong goes through the legal BS that is trying to get custody of a human girl when he is effectively a myth as far as mortals are concerned.

Then there's the matter of Bai He's possession. Possession of a demon is, sadly, not as uncommon in the LMK universe as you'd think it is, and it has lingering effects beyond just the trauma if done for an extended amount of time. The LBD had, effectively, turned Bai He half ice demon by possessing her for nearly a year. This means someone is going to need to tea h this little girl how to control her previously nonexistent magic.

Wukong's and Macaque's earth-legal situation is like that one joke in SU:

Especially seeing how Bai He has been declared Missing for the last few months - I'm not sure if the Metropolis CPS has a protocol for dealing with possession victims. Just walking up to anywhere and saying "Yeah, she's my kid now." wouldn't fly in the mortal realm.

I feel like Pigsy and Tang wouldn't mind fostering Bai He while the monkey duo sort out all the legal nonsense. It kinda makes the two nostalgic for when MK was smaller. I feel like they already got used to the kid showing up almost every day to eat noodles (a new comfort food for her since it was the first thing she ate after LBD left her body) and pet Mo.

I also love ideas where Bai He's possesion leave her with demonic abilities - mainly ice powers and maybe some bony markings on her body. Beyond the usual hurdles of adapting to become something other than human, Bai He takes it in her stride.

Bai He, making her eyes glow blue with power: "You're gonna have a Bad Time." Macaque (is training her): "...Is that a pre-battle call you've been working on?" Bai He, now embarassed: "No... its from Undertale." Macaque (knows she means a video games): "Oh. What does the character do after saying that?" Bai He, excitedly: "He grabs your soul and destroys you with magic bones and giant skull lazers for hurting his family!" Macaque: "Wicked."

Despite being opposite elements, I could see Redson and Nezha helping Bai He out with her new powers. They remember having an element they can't control. Plus the little girl is like a sister they never had.

[rowanraven08]

So I just need to fucking rant about my boys being stuck in the ‘puters. CAUSE MAN DO I HAVE THOUGHTS. Have probably said some of this before, but not all.

So I’m thoroughly convinced that they’ve been properly coded in, Sergey Ushanka style, and also based off that statement, there’s no doubt in my mind that it hurts for them. I know this is a different universe, but unless computer folks are a common thing here, why would the plot give them anything less than more trauma? But I’m actually kinda concerned about how they’ll be once/if they get out?? Like aside from the trauma of it even, Tessa Winters said you can’t code people in the way people really are, and I’m kinda worried that through the whole thing that they might be different, or have lost a little bit of themself, the way that if you put something through google translate to many times it comes out all messed up, mostly with the same meaning, but words have still changed.

Other than that even, how the hell is Jon gonna cope/currently coping with not being omniscient?? I imagine going from knowing almost everything to having to seek out the information yourself again would be a huge hurdle. Even if now he has the equivalent of what Elias could do, seeing out of any eye, but instead just seeing out of any camera, that would be so disorienting. Never mind the fact they’re in an alternate universe.

The whole thing just makes me so sad, they can’t communicate clearly, are clearly trying tooth and nail to help and to get the OIAR gang to understand, stuck in this nonexistence that is probably excruciating, and no one except probably Colin and Celia even knows they exist. (I’m operating under the assumption Celia knows what’s up, she’s a smart girl she knows this isn’t a coincidence) But Colin clearly fucking hates them, Sam is only just starting to realize the computers are listening, and Celia doesn’t actually seem to be trying to help them, the only thing we know about her research is that she was looking into alternate universes and time travel sort of stuff, and that now she’s looking into alchemy. My boys are SCREAMING to be heard and no one will listen.

Like what will they even do? Worst case scenario, they’re stuck like that forever. Best case scenario, they get out, and somehow manage to get home (unlikely in my opinion) only to be met with a world still rebuilding, where everyone hates them. Last scene in TMA? Literally Melanie, Georgie, and Basira talking about how it’s better off they can’t find Jon, and they’re right,

“I mean, I just don’t think people would exactly be understanding. You remember what happened when they found Simon Fairchild?”

“And he’s not just some powerless left-behind avatar, you know? We’re talking about ‘The Archivist’.”

People would absolutely kill Jon if he came back, and they knew who he was, and I think being able to fly under the radar isn’t an option seeing as he literally haunted people’s dreams for a while. Who’s to say he could even stay alive in a world without the fears? Death might finally catch up to him, the exhaustion, everything. I don’t think going back is an option for them.

Maybe for Celia, if it’s even possible. But I think at this point she’d be happier in Protocol universe than Archives. She couldn’t even remember her original name in late s5, and didn’t remember Martin, she seemed to have lost at least a good portion of her memory if not all. If that didn’t come back after the apocalypse, she has more actual connection to Protocol, the cult being her only real connection to Archives. Maybe she’s trying to get back just because of principle, she’s not considering if that’s really what she wants because it’s the clear next step. But I don’t think she’d be able to leave Jack behind. I don’t even think she really is his proper mother, I’m guessing she somehow took other Celia’s (Lynne’s) identity, and just took over caring for Jack. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t love him.

I really do hope Jon and Martin get out of the computer, it’ll be so hard for them to deal with everything, but maybe if they stayed in Protocol they could still build a life together.

Some other random stuff:

So I went through, and found (I think) all the times we hear the jmj. error.

Ep 3 we get an error, which actually starts working when Colin threatens it, and it starts up with a statement from our buddy Norris, and I actually find it kinda amusing to imagine Martin being scared into reading the statement by the frustrated IT guy.

We also get an error in ep 5, after Gwen asks about the German IT guy before Colin. Which a.) why is she asking about him, b.) if I’m right about the errors being an attempt at communication, why do they think the guy’s important? C.) I had thought before that the German bit of code could be Jonah or something since he may have known German? But pretty sure that was too speculative, it makes more sense for it to have just been the German IT guy. D.) he’s mentioned as having a bunch of tattoos, which so far has not meant good things.

Ep 17 which I talked about in a different post, where the error lasted long enough for Gwen and Alice to nearly talk about stuff, only starting up again once they end that bit of the conversation without actually talking about it

And then ofc in 19 when Alice won’t listen to Sam about the computers listening.

I don’t think I missed any, but I might have? So if anyone notices one I missed lemme know please

Also only just realized a few days ago that jmj. isn’t an ACTUAL error, I know Colin says ep 3 it doesn’t mean anything, but I had actually taken that as Colin just being frustrated, and hadn’t read into. Jmj doesn’t even fucking exist, my guess is that it stands for Jon Martin Jonah?

Also what’s everyone’s thoughts on Teddy? Because that man is getting kinda suspicious. Why does he keep showing up? He works into this somehow. Also why doesn’t he actually want to talk to Alice? She’s high energy and not very serious, but it sounds like the guy properly ghosted her, keeps lying about how they’ll hang out more, or how he’ll text her back, could just be him being a bit of a dick, or maybe she did something to kinda deserve it, but it’s could be he’s trying to keep her at a distance to keep her safe? Especially if he is already wrapped up in this crap.

[lover-of-mine]

The thing I find fascinating is that the show runners are fully capable of writing engaging couples. Henren, Bathena & Madney – their relationships are beautiful. And then we have Buck and Eddie with their respective LIs. It’s almost as if they want the relationships to fail.

This season, they had every chance to set up Tommy as a suitable LI for Buck. But they didn’t? They didn’t even have to show a grand love confession or the likes, but at least some small gestures. Them holding hands in the hospital, Tommy dressing up for the bachelor party, being a little more sensitive when they ran into Eddie during that first date… Just a few simple things that would have made all the difference.

I feel like most of the love for Tommy comes from headcanons the fandom accepted as universal truths, while there isn’t much in canon to support it.

This isn’t meant to be hate on the character (though it probably will be taken that way by certain people), it’s just that I don’t think he is a good fit for Buck. He’s guarded and deflects with a dry sense of humor, when Buck needs a person to be vulnerable with. You know, someone who is so soft and sickeningly sweet with him. So far, I didn’t get much of the sorts from Tommy. But then again, we didn’t get to see a whole lot of the relationship actually playing out on screen, so who knows.

And the other thing that started to bother me is about the daddy issue thing. There is nothing wrong with showing (or alluding to) a couple having an active/kinky sex life. In general, I’m all in favor of it.

But looking back at season one, Buck used sex as an unhealthy coping mechanism to feel a connection to people. And he doesn’t have the best relationship with sex to begin with (Remember 7x05 and the talk with Eddie, where it hadn’t occurred to either of them that saying no is an option? Doesn’t sound healthy to me.) If they wanted to set Tommy apart, they should have put all their efforts into building an emotional connection between the two. I’m not saying that sex can’t be a part of it - not even that it can’t be kinky - but that the show should have put much more emphasis on the emotional aspect of it rather than the physical attraction.

Maybe it’s just wonky writing due to a shortened season but the relationship between the two isn’t half as good as it could have been.

No, but I made a post about this during the s6-7 hiatus, because it's not like the show doesn't know how to establish a love interest, bathena and madney work because all of them exist individually and Henren was introduced to us in a way where we would side with Karen, so even tho Karen only exists to be Hen's wife we care about her in a deeper way because Karen has never done anything wrong in her life. With Buck and Eddie all of the love interests are presented to us with something wrong with them. Shannon never had a fighting chance because she left and Eddie himself was never sure about her, Eddie was dating Ana and Marisol because he thought he had to, and I'm not even gonna go there with Kim. Abby breaks every possible protocol to call Buck, and she's never in it in the same way Buck is, Taylor tries to take advantage of Bobby's addiction for her personal gain and continues to take advantage of him to get ahead, Ali is never there, Natalia is too interested in Buck's death and Tommy is callous. There's a weird metaphor in there, but the basketball scene, the way Buck hits Tommy and ricochets back and Tommy doesn't even flinch. Buck needs someone who will bend. But the show didn't even try to establish an emotional connection between the two of them, everything comes back to the physical and with a character like Buck, who was shown using sex as a bad coping mechanism, to constantly make it seem like this new relationship isn't going beyond the sex is concerning. There were better ways to imply they are having sex. Even more considering the way the show had the opportunity to make it seem like they are building some sort of emotional connection and just chose not to. Every scene we had with the 2 of them could be rewritten adding the idea that they actually care about each other beyond the attraction, and that's a choice. To go the route they went is a choice. I'm still not over the way they had Tommy not dressing up and then Eddie suggesting matching outfits in the next scene. Like, it was that easy because they showed Eddie doing it. And I don't wanna compare, but with the constant triangle formation and the way they were showing Eddie as the person who understands Buck and Tommy as the dude Buck is fucking, we have nothing happening in our screen that makes it seem like Tommy is even a little fond of Buck and all I can think about is Buck standing in front of a hot air balloon with a huge bouquet of flowers for a woman who referred to him as a boytoy. Buck deserves someone who's gone for him and none of his canon love interests gave me that impression. And they make a very explicit choice to not make that implication. They could've been something, but right now they aren't. If you just watch the show you don't know why they are dating. They are just there. And coming from a show that wrote bathena, madney, and henren, and the way that Tommy being a firefighter gives him a fighting chance because it's real easy to make him exist outside of Buck, it's on purpose.

[drownedbycoffee]

Okay I've got some Magnus Protocol speculations so

(SPOILERS)

Basically, I think that Augustus is going to be Jonah Magnus, but not necessarily Elias Bouchard mainly because of the trailer.

(this is a screenshot from it)

So obviously J.01 represents Jon in some capacity and M.01 represents Martin or some part of them (like how their voices are used for the TTS program).

But then there's J.02, which shows how it's a different thing to J.01. And which other character do we know begins with a J? JONAH MAGNUS! And whilst Elias was Jonah for the majority of TMA, Jonah has been mentioned to switch bodies. So it's probably Jonah in some other capacity. Also we have Gwens last name as Bouchard which sort of links him and the whole Eye to the OIAR.

(this part isn't my theory, someone else said it, can't remember who though, sorry, but I just wanted to repeat it on here as to me it makes a lot of sense)

Also I just noticed that if you look carefully at J.02, it's OK is written with a lower case 'k' instead of a captial like it is for J.01 and M.01. Maybe it shows how is less common as a voice in the TTS program and a smaller presence in the computer? I don't really know but it might be relevant, or just a computing thing I don't know about haha.

Also I feel like there is going to be some twisted parallel with Sam and the Redcanary story. Since Sam has already expressed interest into their world's Magnus Institute and started researching, I think at some point they will explore or find something out that will put them in danger and probably have really shit consequences. I mean, hopefully not, but it's the Magnus Archives Universe so probably...

Also Gwen is definitely going to take over Lena's job in some way at some point in the series. I think that Lena is going to outsource Gwen's job mainly because of how she was talking so much about Gwen leaving in her Performance Review meeting in Ep1. And since Gwen said she didn't want to leave, I feel like Lena would effectively make her redundant just to spite her.

Also the name of the whole thing is The Magnus PROTOCOL, which gives it a more vague meaning than what TMA had which was literally the archives of the Magnus Insistute. I feel like maybe Chester and Norris will turn out to be a protocol that sort of kicks in when the OIAR becomes more linked to the Fears and entwined in the Eye story like because so far I think the OIAR is really heavily linked to the Eye. Or when something happens that sort of wrecks the current status quo of that world. I feel like both of them and Augustus also have something to do with all the bugs Collins is facing though I haven't really thought that in depth about it yet, but I feel like they will definitely have something to do with it.

Also we have the whole thing of who created Freddy. It could be Gwen? But I can't remember if they declared her age or not so depending on that it could be quite unlikely. But if they haven't, then she is highly organised so maybe creating a whole program which picks out all these statement-like-things to send their way and isn't too farfetched?...

It probably is and I'm probably delusional with all of this but oh well

[ghostinthegallery]

Can you overanalyze Zahndrekh and Obyron. They are my two favorite named necron characters.

Ah yes, the mad nemesor and his loyal bodyguard. The ineffable husbands of wh40k. The bond so deep you can't talk about one without the other.

First, credit to Nate Crowley for Severed the story that really drove the amazingness of this relationship home for me. Man knows how to put a space robot (and me) through the emotional ringer.

Okay, so...how about that time Obyron was about 2-5 minutes away from actually murdering Zahndrekh?

Put a pin in that, we need some background first.

Obyron and Zahndrekh are amazing because on paper I feel like the relationship between them should not work. Obyron is suffering so deeply as he watches the people around him, who he fought with and cared about, fade away. And this is a pain Zahndrekh fundamentally cannot share because Zahndrekh doesn't realize it's happening thanks to his intense denial about biotransference (sort of, put a pin in that too). Add in some command protocols and power imbalance and this should be a tragic combo but it isn't. It's possibly the most wholesome relationship in the 40k universe between two of its best characters, and I credit that to some fantastic writing.

First off, it helps that Zahndrekh is a genuinely good person (or close as 40k can get anyway). He's honorable, he has a sense of humor, he respects his enemies, and doesn't kill when he doesn't have to. He's clever, cultured, and a brilliant tactician. He's also way too trusting because he assumes everyone is as honorable as he is. That should have gotten him killed ages ago but it doesn't because of Obyron. Obyron protects him from threats immediate and more subtle. He's not just a meat shield, Obyron is shrewd and he outplays Zahndrekh's enemies politically as well as physically. And yes, it is Obyron's duty to do this. He's a vargard, he's programmed to protect his lord (because biotransference constantly finds all new ways to suck) but there's more to it than that.

Taking the pin out, let's talk about that attempted murder.

So in Severed, Obyron believes that Zahndrekh's mind has finally snapped. If someone doesn't take over their armies, their mission will fail and a lot of their people will die. Obyron's comrades (what's left of them) have already died. The only way to salvage the situation is to kill Zahndrekh and take over. And after a disastrous battle (plus some emotional manipulation from Zahndrekh's shitty ex) Obyron decides to do it. He is literally about to go kill his lord, he is just taking a quick moment to prepare himself which...yeah fair.

Except Obyron sees Zahndrekh and chooses not to kill him. Luckily for all, it turns out Zahndrekh is no more insane than normal and the merry adventure continues.

Emphasis: Obyron chooses not to kill him. And I think that is a hugely important for their relationship because it shows that Obyron isn't with Zahndrekh because of programming or doctrines, he is there because he wants to protect him. Zahndrekh drives him up the wall sometimes, but when the chips are down, Obyron chooses him. He would literally jump into the abyss for him. Obyron loves him.

Zahndrekh knows full well if Obyron wanted to betray him, he would be dead. Obyron could become an overlord, and the only reason he hasn't is the loyalty and love they have for each other.

"What can love but a being with a soul?" might be one of the most incredible lines in a 40k book (or maybe just a book). Because aside from being unbelievably sweet, itshows that Zahndrekh does see the pain Obyron is in. And he finds a way to comfort him that fits within his...creative worldview. How much of the necrons' situation Zahndrekh does understand is a liiiiiiiitle ambiguous, but he definitely has his coping mechanism for everything: just enjoying life and focusing on the good, and he wants to share that optimism with Obyron. He realizes that Obyron fears what being a soulless machine means, but how can he truly be a soulless machine when he can choose love over ambition?

If there is one thing the necrons demonstrate, it is that immortality sucks. They all need some purpose to keep from going insane, and for Obyron and Zahndrekh that purpose is each other. Zahndrekh lives in his own reality, protected physically and emotionally by Obyron. And Obyron finds purpose in protecting the person who shields him from his own despair.

And I cannot get enough of it.

[ofpineapplesanddawns]

"we didn't mean to kiss. it was never supposed to happen."

Arthur and that oughr. Uh. The guy. The robot dad. The cartoon robot dad DT plays in the show you recommended me. (No I don't know how he can kiss without a mouth that's not important) Or did you have a non cartoon policy? I have written this so i cannot go back and look because mobile and there is cat on my lap so i cannot check laptop. If cartoon is nogo as i am now beginning to suspect it is, i mean. Does DT play any live action robots? I forget. Is there an android tenth or fourteenth doctor copy out there? Surely by now there must be. There are so many david tennants in doctor who. Or just 14 maybe.

You mean his character from Eden? I do have a policy on cartoons, but it's mostly any animal based ones. Also, no one has ever asked for a cartoon so this is a first, haha.

He also played a droid in Star Wars named Huyang (who came to the Jedi temple in a, I'm not kidding, a blue box thousands of years ago, so technically a droid Doctor exists), and I think he was an android in a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles thing, but I never watched it so I don't really know.

Anyway, since I've never written E92 before and I don't think there's any, ANY content of him within the good omens extended universe because no one ever talks about this series, I'm going for it. I'm making him kiss the bartender.

On with the fic!

--

It was Earth, that much was clear.

Long occupied with robots, androids only came into being here with the arrival of The Avalon years ago. It had been meant to go to a whole new world while other humans slept for ages back on Earth as it repaired itself.

Now these humans were back, and humans, androids, and robots were living together, trying to make a new life for themselves.

Arthur had been one of the few androids, the most human of them all, to become part of the new Earth. He was still a bartender, as that was all he really knew, but he worked with other androids and robots, helping them learn about humans. He had the most knowledge, he was meant to talk to them, to interact and be part of their lives.

In order to do that, he was given legs to help him move about the robot's old city. It was strange, they were more spider-like than human, but it helped him move about, they would do. He stood out among the other robots and androids, and among the humans.

It was...

He wasn't sure how to put it.

Luckily, he found robots that were kind to him, even if he was different from them. A small group that had learned of humans, who had even raised a child together, a human child. From what the child's 'parents' told him, she was found in a pod as a baby, and they rescued her.

They couldn't leave her to die, even though taking care of a human went against their protocols.

They did a lot of things against their protocols over the years to protect their daughter, and they told him they always would.

A37 was the mother, she was kind and a bit more open to things than her counterpart, E92.

He was the father figure, and the more reserved one, but Arthur had found a kindness in him that was rather human-like. He seemed to have picked that up from his daughter, Sara Grace. E92 had been the one to take him in and help him when he arrived.

He didn't have to do that, but Arthur was grateful for it. He was also grateful for Sara helping to give him legs and for E92 and A37 to get him some sort of work with the other robots instead of just doing things for the humans.

It had been a day of helping both populations with the continuous need to adjust to things, and Arthur felt worn down. He needed to recharge, and found E92 getting ready to do the same after a long day of work in the fields, a job he honestly seemed to enjoy.

"There is only one charging station left." The robot said, voice its usual calm down.

"I am sure we can share it, or we could take turns, depending on battery depletion." Arthur suggestion.

A quick scan indicated that the second option was not ideal, as both were under 20%, and being the advanced systems that they both were, they constantly spent battery power.

"Sharing is better than one of us going into offline mode." E92 offered, gesturing to the pod. "You may enter first."

"I think it's better if you do, I can squeeze in afterwards."

E92 looked at the pod, gave a slight nod with his body, before entering it. Arthur squeezed in, it was tight, but it would work if he wrapped his spider limbs around the other robot's legs. There was some adjusting, but they found a bit of comfort with E92's arms loosely wrapped around Arthur, keeping him close but not too close.

"Will this work for you?" The taller of the two asked.

"I..." Arthur looked him up and down, at the faded paint on the blue and red casing. He had never been this physically close to his friend, how odd that he felt his systems start to overheat, his fans spinning internally. "I think it will do well for the situation."

"Then we shall rest for the night. Good night, Arthur." E92 said quietly, he didn't need to lower his voice, the other robots were already in sleep mode, they would not wake them.

"Good night, E92." He replied just as softly, a hand placed on the other robot. He could feel him powering down, going into sleep mode himself.

But Arthur was awake.

He had been here on Earth for a few months now, adjusting as well as he could here. He was thankful for the few friends he had made here, considering his only other ones were long dead now. He cared about Sara Grace, and A37, along with the other robots from their little family.

But E92 was different. He was someone that Arthur could talk to, spend time with, without having to put on the customer service act in his programming. It was odd, he didn't understand it, didn't know if he could.

But he enjoyed this other robot's company.

He wondered if there was something strange in his programming since coming to Earth, or at least to Eden 3.

Because he was sure it wasn't in his programming or protocol to do what he was doing now.

His lips were pressed to the cool casing in front of him, and he felt his insides running faster, louder, hotter. Arthur blinked twice, and then pulled back.

He didn't mean to kiss him. it was never supposed to happen. It wasn't something robots or androids did.

He tried to put himself into sleep mode, to not think about this. But he was distracted, just for a moment, when those loose arms around him tightened, just a little, bringing him closer to E92.

Best to think about this in the morning.

--

Arthur has feelings and doesn't understand what they are. E92 has had much longer to feel human emotions so... >.>

Also, I need to watch this again.

If I had a nickel for every time David Tennant played a character associated with the color blue and strong emotions towards a human alongside a villain played by Neil Patrick Harris, I'd have two nickels.

[americanwerewolfontheinternet]

{Microfic May} 4. Decision

CW: swearing, implied explicit content, flirting | seamus finnegan x harry potter (E), mild draco x harry (T) | full, explicit chapter here

🍊Decision🍊

Harry is doing his best, really he is–

– “You've got to relax,” says Malfoy, voice sudden. 

“What the–” hisses Seamus, releasing Harry's hair. Vaguely relieved, Harry withdraws.

“Your jaw–” elaborates Malfoy. Seamus is panting, and Harry, still on his knees, wipes his face with his robe sleeve as he twists around. Malfoy's stood in the doorway, one hand pitched under his jaw, which he works stupidly, Harry thinks, up, down, up, down, mimicking how one might– is he dislocating his jaw? Stupid fucking snake.

“Get lost, Malfoy,” snaps Seamus, who had begun fumbling with his trousers. Malfoy drops his arm, shrugs. 

“Just saying.”

“Yeah, well–” Seamus cuts off with a swear; absurdly, his zipper is stuck; Harry leans back so as not to get smacked in the face as Seamus fusses with it– “No one asked you!”

Malfoy cocks his brow, like maybe someone ought to've.

“Right,” says Malfoy. “Carry on then,” and just like that, he leaves. 

Harry leaps to his feet.

“Malfoy–”

“Harry–!” squawks Seamus (he's ignored). Harry shoulders the door open, catching sight of the Slytherin half way down the hall already.

“Fucking–” snaps Harry in exasperation, sprinting after him. “Merlin’s tits– Malfoy! Hey! Malfoy!” 

Malfoy turns, stopping as Harry closes in on him. He looks down his nose, one brow still stupidly pitched up, but it's more bemused than condescending and Harry huffs– when had he gotten so out of shape?-- stopping beside him and dropping his hands to his knees. 

“Bloody hell, Malfoy,” says Harry, “Are you deaf?”

True to form, Malfoy doesn't answer. But he doesn't mock Harry either, so the Gryffindor carries on. He inhales heavily, stands up, and pulls something from his pocket. He holds it out to Malfoy.

Malfoy’s other eyebrow leaps up as he recognizes the wand Harry's got held out, handle towards Malfoy, the dangerous bit in Harry's fist. One heartbeat– two– Malfoy still hasn't snatched the hawthorn wand back.

“It’s yours,” says Harry, and Malfoy looks at him like he's the stupid one; Harry can't help the smile that springs back up. He jerks his wrist. “Take it then.”

And Malfoy reaches for it, gingerly, like it was the most precious thing in the universe. Like it wasn’t his. He hesitates.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” huffs Harry, shoving it at him. Malfoy cups the wand, now pressed against his chest, and he stumbles backwards. He looks at Harry, rather wildly. It is, Harry admires, quite something to see that look on Malfoy's face– uncertain, but maybe– hopeful.

“You can’t just give me this,” Malfoy says, though, because, indeed, there are rules, protocols, surely, for this sort of thing. Someone has to care somewhere about what's going on. This will come back round on him, Draco has no illusions about that.

Harry flashes that Prophet smile of his, the one from after the headlines like Golden Boy Gone Loony and Do You-Know-Who? “Actually, I'm pretty sure I can.” 

Malfoy gapes at him (Potter's gone mad!). “I– but why would you?”

“Because it's yours– fuck's sake, Malfoy, are you scared of the damn thing?” Harry provokes. “Just give it back if so–”

Malfoy rears back as Harry grabs after the wand. “Paws off, Potter!” he exclaims, regaining his balance and shoving the thing in the folds of his robe. That look is back on Draco's face, that bemused one, though it definitely has some sort of new edge to it– it's loaded with something, Harry's not sure what. “What must your beau think,” hums Malfoy, “of your leaving him hard and dry to give another man your wand?”

Harry hums right back. “First of all, it's your wand, as we established. Second of all, beau? Seamus and I aren't courting, you wanker–”

“As if anyone'd court you–”

“And here I thought you'd interrupted to make me an offer.”

Draco's jaw did that thing again, up, down, up, down, and fondness, unexpected but rather pleasant, bubbles up like Old Faithful in Harry; hot, sulfur-baked water breaking open the earth. Like–

Malfoy throws his hand through his hair, petulant. “We're not friends, Potter,” he chides, more fatigued cynicism than force of will. It makes to smother Harry's newfound fondness like magma cooling over, but Harry's stubborn, recently smitten and thoroughly over ares and are nots. Desire cracks and hisses its way on through. 

“Who says I want to be, ferret?” he snaps, hardly scowling.

And Malfoy sneers. “What's the matter, oh Chosen One? Upset that there's someone who won't worship you?”

Harry does his best not to grin, but he's probably unsuccessful.

🍊🍊

(all mistakes mine)

(973ish words)

(<<3. Horizon.)

@microficmay

[seraph5]

THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES SPOILERS. Ok my Magnus feelings ok. First of all I want to roll up a newspaper and bat Alex on the nose for not letting Johnny do the first half of season 5 as an office romance. I know it would have ruined the pacing I know BUT I DON'T CARE. Don't get me wrong the bits of fluff they did include were so cute and sweet and good and I'm glad they're in there but i want more *grabby hands*. 

I was so blown away and impressed that the spider had been behind the tapes. I did sort of guess it around the beginning of season 4 but it was still so impressive that there were so many layers of meta over the top of each other and that they folded down so neatly in the end. Elias's scheme. The web's scheme. The fact that love was what was the lynchpin that brought it all down but in a very sort of brutal and tragic way. Not in a love conquers all way. I don't know if I've ever seen love used in that way. I was sad to see Martin and John's relationship kind of struggle so hard at the end there and have their story 'finish' in that way (protocol bring my bebs back to meeeeee). 

I don't feel as upset about the ending as I thought I would. I think because I thought John would die and this wasn't exactly dying. I feel like John's choice was disappointing but also made 100% sense with what we knew about his character. I feel like season 4s end was way, way more powerful. An absolute gut punch. Staggering reveal. 'Ending' a horror podcast has to be so difficult. How do you finish a scary but nuanced and complicated story? Most horrors end tragically. I think this was maybe the best way to wrap it up. Our precious John and Martin 'loose' the world 'wins' but in a way that feels sad. 

I feel really conflicted because as a follow creative and as a narrative lover I'm supremely impressed and happy and feel like everything was somehow done incredibly right and well. As a listener I just feel kind of oh we lost John, Martin and the buck was passed to some other unsuspecting universe at the end. There's a cosmic tragedy in that. WHICH IS SO PERFECT FOR HORROR THO UGHHHH.  

I also have to say I adore that 'blow things up' is the go to solution on Magnus. So many supernatural stories are like 'theres this dagger and it was dipped in the blood of a mysterious antichrist, lost for centuries but now hidden in a tomb-' Magnus is like 'Gertrude says C4'. As a solution it's so elegant and makes so much sense as a response to fear as an adversary. It's so grounded and real and non-supernatural. It feels like a continuation of the way Basira handles things.

I'm so happy Basira made it. It makes so much sense to me that she'd be one of the ones. God Gang I'm starting to listen to the many q and as and breakdowns now but I am supremely pleased protocol is coming this year. While I'm sad I wasn't listening along when it was first coming out I'm glad I have protocol to look forward to. 

I may still do a bit more art (I honestly have so many thumbnails of ideas for these characters drawn up). Thanks to anyone who has been liking my little reacts. It's been a pleasure to not be alone. Having said that bombarding my brother with messages about it has been fun. We listened to most of the season finales together and I almost listened to one without him once and this is how that went down haha

[avengersrewatch]

E49: The New Avengers

I started this because I wanted to talk about Kang. I'll go back to the regularly scheduled episodes but I wanted to jump ahead in the Kang storyline in EMHU.

Kang doesn't appear as the main villain again until the second season, episode 49 "The New Avengers."

In the cold open, Kang (who has escaped from prison) is working on a time machine. The Avengers attack. At this point the team is: Iron Man, Captain America, Black Panther, Thor, Hawkeye, Wasp, as well as Vision, Ms. Marvel/Carol Danvers and Yellowjacket/Hank Pym. You don't really have to worry about the new characters (though I think it's pretty self explanatory) because they are immediately sent into some kind of time void by Kang, who declares he has defeated the Avengers.

This episode is interesting because a lot of the speculation for Avengers: Secret Wars has suggested other heroes will have to tap in for the Avengers. And that is sort of what happens here except it is heroes from the EMHU, not other universes.

We jump back in time (I think). Kang is sill in prison and three members of the Council of Kangs appear to him. The old one who seems to be closest to Immortus says the Avengers are growing in power and they might be a threat to all Kangs (very similar to the post-credit scene of Quantumania). They tell him that even though the Council of Kangs have agreed not to meddle in another Kang's timeline they are making an exception, and return his armor to him.

They replay the cold open, with more fighting, and also it shows that Tony initiates the "New Avengers protocol" right before disappearing into time.

Meanwhile, in New York, weird stuff starts appearing. Old timey planes. Robots from the future. Japanese ninjas. Dinosaurs. Cowboys fighting Medieval knights. That kind of thing.

JARVIS locates the "chosen recruits": Spider-man (Peter Parker), Iron Fist (Danny Rand), Luke Cage, War Machine (James Rhodes), The Thing (Ben Grimm) and Wolverine (Logan).

I wouldn't mind a line-up like this for Secret Wars. I'd get Andrew Garfield, Michael Chiklis, Hugh Jackman, Wesley Snipes, Evan Peters and maybe some more. Another Hulk? Quake? (I'd say Luke Cage but I am still hopeful they might integrate the Netflix universe into the MCU.) Emma Stone as Spider-Gwen?

Spider-man is the one getting information from JARVIS so he is kind of the leader except everyone makes fun of him. I feel like this would be a good way to redeem Andrew Garfield, who is a great actor, from the bad Spider-man movies he got saddled with.

Spider-man wants to come up with a plan but of course Wolverine and Luke Cage are like, "Nah, let's punch." It doesn't go well at first. But then Spider-man is all, "We have to work as a team." It's always so funny to me that this has to be stated aloud in movies and shows. Spidey also has a plan for Kang's machine but he needs someone to draw Kang away.

Rhodey volunteers. And we get a fastball special with the Thing taking Colosuss' role. This is something I would like to see on screen before Hugh Jackman retires as Wolverine. Just yeet him across the screen.

Spider-man and JARVIS try to break the machine. Spidey realizes his Spider-Sense will alert him if he is doing anything wrong. So he powers down the machine.

Kang is angry, but with the power shut down, the Avengers return from wherever Kang sent them. The New Avengers and the Regular Avengers all watch him vanish into time. (Here I would put some more fighting but this show is only a half hour.)

Iron Man makes Spider-man a "reserve" Avenger and gives him an ID card.

[cringywhitedragon]

Another Zero Vs. Drabble cause why not: Zero Vs. Vincent Edgeworth (VTSOM)

A follow up post of sorts to my analysis of how a possible Zero vs the Paradise Protect Protocol (And I’m thinking of doing this as a random Drabble analysis on how Zero would hold up against other AI/Robotic/Cybertic creatures from other series)

For this round we’ll be looking at Vincent Edgeworth, a character from an amazing little indie creator called Dino999z and their VA Vincent: The Secret of Myers (Check it out if you haven’t already. It’s an amazing VN and the characters and art-style are absolutely gorgeous).

A former human-turned cyborg following a car accident at the hands of the very company he worked for to cover up a series of horrifying human-cyborg experiments. Now out for vengeance, he will not stop until every last core member of the Myers Corporation is dead.

While intelligent and cunning, Vincent isn’t really packing much in the combat department. Compared to most depictions of cyborgs in media, cyborgs in the VTSOM universe are pretty frail but still could easily overpower a normal human. Requiring to feast on human flesh to survive and since many of them are nothing but crumbling husks of medal and organs barely holding themselves together, it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to say that a reploid wouldn’t have much of an issue bringing one down in a single blow.

I’m going to count this but similar to the PPP, Vincent has access to a few “pets”, or other cyborgs he seems to keep. These cyborg husks, while frail and falling apart could prove to be an issue in large numbers (depending on how many Vincent keeps) or even serve as a distraction (playing off his intelligence) that he could use to stall/distract Zero while he either sets something up elsewhere or sneak attacks the busy crimson Hunter for a quick kill.

Another mention to these “pets” is that he also has access to some sort of cloning technology thanks to Winston. This could be an advantage in terms of Vincent having some sort of way to produce more cyborgs or maybe even modify some so that they’re more suitable for combat. However we still don’t know how this cloning process fully works or how long it even takes.

However, these cyborgs do have a few pros in their favor. First off, many VTSOM cyborgs appear to be very agile and display a much heightened sense of strength (If Vincent could break down a metal security door in Chapter 4 then we can assume the same is possible for others just like him). I’m also going to throw in a point and say that these things are also pretty durable as these cyborgs are still able to fully function even with large chucks of their endoskeleton/wires/internal organs being exposed.

So it is possible that if he’s lucky, he could get the jump on Zero and turn the tides in his favor.

But they do have one major weak point…

Their memory core in their chest.

If that’s destroyed then it’s pretty much game over and I’m pretty sure a Myers Cyborg is like any common enemy in a Megaman game that dies in one hit to a well timed Saber Slash/Buster Shot.

And so we move onto the disadvantages of Vincent/Most Myers Cyborgs. As mentioned before in the previous paragraph, these things are extremely frail compared to a Reploid. Zero could easily cut one of these things to ribbons with a single Z-saber slash.

Unlike Reploids, Vincent and his other fellow cyborgs do appear to require a constant supply of “food”, or human flesh. While we still don’t have a lot of info on why they need flesh specifically other then a rather vague “retain a human appearance”, it’s highly probable that these things could either starve or fall apart (As seen in chapter 4) which means these things can’t go on as long as a reploid.

On the note of falling apart, it also appears that strong emotions can also have an effect on cyborgs (specifically the more stable ones like Vincent).

Now onto the final verdict, unlike the PPP which I saw as a more evenly matched fight, this one is definitely more in the favor of Zero. All it would take would be a single blow/cleave to his chest and Vincent is nothing more but a pile of scrap and blood.

While not completely one sided, Vincent still has a chance at Victory even if it is very low. With his agility and smarts, he could possibly find a way to either outwit or even evade the crimson Hunter and turn the tides in his favor.

Result: Zero is more likely to be the Victor here. But it is not impossible for the crimson hunter to be struck down should the Leviathan turn the tides in his own favor. (A few subtle references to the game)

[phantomrose96]

Buds After the Frost

This was supposed to be a short warm-up writing exercise yesterday and then it got... longer. Enjoy!!

...

The doors opened for Maddie Fenton with a pneumatic hiss. Pressurized nitrogen released, splitting open the vacuum seal on the door as its twin halves slid apart, slotting into the wall-mounted sleeves. The nitrogen misted out, cold and dry, air currents catching in swirls around Maddie Fenton’s lab coat. Her feet thocked against hollow metal, amplified by the coldness and the vastness of the containment room beyond.

She paused short of the specimen’s cell, mindful attention drawn to the panel of controls nested rightmost against the wall. The monitor read out stats, tracked metrics of the specimen’s heartrate and blood oxygenation and blood pressure. Dials beneath the screens offered her means of interaction, manipulating the cage’s environment without needing to tamper with it by hand. She ignored these, as she had been ignoring them the entire time, and paid mind only to the single switch which would seal shut the doors behind her.

She pressed it. Another pneumatic hiss followed, locking out the world behind her. Her breath curled, cold. She and the specimen were alone.

“No coffee this morning?” he asked.

Maddie sat down at the control panel, elbow leaning against the dashboard for support. She turned to the cage. “No. One of the interns broke the pot last night. New one should be delivered today.”

Phantom let out a huff of air. “You mean in this whole gigantic mega-hyper-futuristic government lab, there’s nothing that can stand in as a coffee pot?”

“I wouldn’t stay employed long if I tried using equipment to brew coffee.”

“Use one of the big ectoplasm beakers. Ectoplasm washes out with soap and water. Just suds it up and throw it in the coffee maker. I’m an expert about these things.”

“It’s more about protocol.”

Phantom waved her off. “’Protocol.’ Bureaucracy is standing between you and a delicious cup of ectoplasmic coffee, Dr. Fenton.”

Maddie looked forward now, taking him in. He’d hovered to the front of the cell, translucent reinforced glass separating him from the rest of the lab. Green eyes shined above a cheeky smile, a dusting of loose white hairs falling over his eyes, the rest of his bangs swept slightly to the side. His tailed flickered, his aura pulsed, his vital readings blipped out steady, normal, healthy.

“Phantom?”

“Yeah?”

Maddie paused.

“Why are you still here?”

The ghost boy let out a small guffaw. He motioned his arms around him, hands waving. “I dunno. Maybe the big ghost-proof box I’m in has something to do with it?”

“The shield is down, Phantom,” Maddie answered quietly. She set her eyes to Phantom, investigating. “…I put it down last night. It’s down now. You knew this.”

Phantom took just a moment too long to react, eyebrows arching up. “Oh, huh! Nope I didn’t notice. I mean it’s not like I’m constantly throwing myself at the barrier to electrocute myself so no I just didn’t try getting past it last night so I didn’t notice.”

“Phantom,” Maddie said again, voice measured, words stern. “You saw me crank down the dial that controls the shield.”

“Well I don’t know what all those buttons and dials do.”

“Yes you do. You’ve been observing me since day 1. You knew.”

Phantom kicked back in the air, floating a fraction back and higher. “Well maybe I thought it was a trap, I dunno. Or maybe I just like to get in your head, you know? What unpredictable thing will Phantom do next! Gotta write another 200 equations about ghost theory to figure that one out, Dr. Fenton.”

“Phantom.”

“Yeah?”

“Do you not want to leave?”

“Oh I wanna leave.”

“Then why aren’t you?”

“We’re having a conversation. That’d be rude.”

“Will you leave as soon as I exit the room?”

“Who knows?”

“Phantom.”

“Yeah?”

Maddie stood. She left her chair and the control panel behind. She walked up to the specimen cage instead. It was cubic, a skeleton of metal bar ribbings with a metal mesh that plastered the glass sides like a membrane. The top anchored to the ceiling, the bottom—raised by about a foot—anchored to a pedestal on the floor. Maddie stared through the mesh into Phantom’s eyes.

“Is there anyone who realizes you’re missing?” she asked.

Phantom chewed on the question. “Nah. Well um, trick question, actually. Probably not. Assuming I do this right, then no one has even realized I’m gone.”

“Do what ‘right’?”

“You know that thing about Clockwork I explained?”

“You said he’s the ghost that controls time and reality.”

“Yeah. SUPER powerful.”

“And you said you …were from one of those other realities.”

Phantom nodded. “Maybe I touched some things in Clockwork’s lair I wasn’t actually allowed to touch. Jury’s still out on whether I’m in trouble for that or not. I’ve been a little too ‘stuck in this reality’ to know if Clockwork is pissed. But yeah, I got um, bopped into your reality instead of mine. So technically my reality is lacking me right now, and yeah there’s people there who’d know I’m missing.”

Phantom flipped upside-down, as though laying on his back. He rested his palms beneath his head, elbows out, suspended in an invisible hammock, head tilted far back so that he still stared at Maddie. “Especially since it’s been, what, a month that I’ve been gone?”

“2 weeks.”

“What? No way. I’ve been here absolutely forever it has to have been at least a month.”

“This is day 14 of your observation, Phantom.”

Phantom blew a strand of hair out of his face. “Anyway. Two weeks is still long enough to have a search party out on my butt. But whether or not that’s happened is up to – it’s kind of a Schrodinger thing. Because here’s my strategy. Assuming Clockwork hasn’t banned me from reality-hopping forever, I can just get him to send me back to my own reality at the precise moment in time I vanished. And then bam, no one ever knows I was gone. And it makes no difference whether I do that today, or next week, or next month. So assuming you eventually let me go, then I’m all set there.”

“You say that almost like you don’t care when it happens.”

“I dunno, more like I’m just not losing sleep over it. It’s not like I have a say in the matter. You do. I don’t.”

“Is the time you spend here just meaningless, to you?”

“I wouldn’t say meaningless. I’m still aging goddammit.”

“You’re a ghost.”

“I’m complex.” Phantom flipped right-side-up again. “If I start growing facial hair, send me back. I’m gonna have some awkward questions to answer if I show up again with a ghost beard suddenly.”

“…And what if I never send you back?” Maddie asked, careful with her words. “How does your plan work if you stay here forever? If I destroy you first?”

“Um. …It doesn’t, I guess.” Phantom set a hand to his chin, thinking. “Yeah um, please don’t do that. I don’t wanna worry my whole family like that.”

“Do you really mean that?”

“What part?”

“That you have a family.”

“I mean. I think that came up in Interrogation Session #3. Consult your notes.”

“I just have a hard time believing you.”

“Because I’m a ghost?”

“Yes.”

“I’m a complex ghost.”

“I know. You keep saying that.”

“It’s true.”

Silence filtered in between them.

“…What is your family like, Phantom?”

Phantom stiffened a fraction, his eyes finding Maddie’s and shifting away. “Oh, you know, family.”

“Do they exist here too?”

“Huh?”

“You’re from another reality, at least you’re claiming you are.”

“I gotta be. The me from this reality died 6 months ago, didn’t he?”

“The you from most realities is dead, Phantom. You’re a ghost.”

“A complex ghost.”

“The you from this reality was destroyed 6 months ago.”

“Which you validated with your own sciencey equipment, right? You said so! So you know I’m not lying. Unless you think I recombobulated myself from being a protoplasmic smear on the sidewalk.” Phantom caught himself, registering the flinch in Maddie’s body. He deflated a bit, eyes averted. “S-sorry. Inconsiderate phrasing.”

“Why?” Maddie asked, tone flat, blunt.

Phantom’s eyes shifted back. “Um. Just. You know. That accident was. There were um, you know—”

“Human causalities.”

Phantom squirmed. “We don’t have to talk about that, you know? No one wants to talk about that. Okay as a ghost I guess ‘talking about how I died’ is sort of a bit more normal, but this is weird yeah, ‘talking about how an alternate-me died permanently’? That’s morbid. No one wants to talk about that.”

“Okay then. You can go back to answering my previous question.”

“Um. I forget.”

“Does your family exist in this reality?”

“Um, well who really knows, you know? I had like a grand total of 20 minutes of freedom in this reality before you captured me, so, don’t ask me like I’m any kind of expert about your reality. What’s it matter?”

“I want to know if there’s anyone in this reality who’s mourning you.”

Phantom’s face schismed with surprise. His front dropped, and the first look of genuine emotion sank into his glowing eyes. “Woah… That’s um, weirdly nice, of you, I guess. Why do you… want to know?”

Maddie said nothing.

“I. Um. I think the answer is no? So don’t um. Worry about that. If you were worried? Which is weird. I’m the enemy, aren’t I? Evil spooky ghost to be studied?”

“I’m not so sure what you are…” Maddie answered. “I heard you got destroyed trying to save them.”

“The um… the human casualties?”

“Yes.”

“I said we don’t have to talk about that.”

“Phantom.”

“What?”

“Do you know who they were?”

“The… casualties?”

“Yes.”

“Come on we’re on a different topic now.”

“Do you know who they were?”

“I don’t—how’m I supposed to know? I don’t know how I died here, you know? You think I’ve got some kind of like… parallel-universe death vision?”

“So you don’t know?”

“N-no.”

“I have a different question, then.”

“Okay, good, because I haven’t been liking these previous ones.”

“Are you staying just to keep me company?”

Phantom faltered. He looked left, then right, hand scratching at his chin. “I’m staying because I’m in a ghost-proof box.”

“It’s not ghost-proof anymore. The shields are down.”

“I feel like you’re circling around some accusation I’m not smart enough to follow. This feels like entrapment.”

“Then I’ll be more direct.”

“Oh no there is an accusation.”

“I think you do know how you were destroyed in this universe, Phantom.” Maddie took a step forward, and she let her left hand touch the glass, eyes focused on her fingers. “I think you know what happened at the Nasty Burger.”

“That’s—um—the human food… consumption… location… that the local human adolescents meet at, yes?”

Maddie looked up, and she locked Phantom with her stare. He squirmed, and he relented.

“I um…” he continued. “I—yeah—yeah, okay? I know about the Nasty Burger accident. It was supposed to happen to me too in my reality but I—Clockwork—stopped it from happening in my reality.” Phantom glanced left, right, as if staring beyond the confines of his cage. “When I first got knocked into this reality, I went to go find the Fenton portal so I could try to refind Clockwork and fix this and… Well it wasn’t there. And I tried to find some people I know and… I checked out the library in case the Fentons just lived somewhere else and. I um. I found the articles.” His eyes focused on hers again. “They all say you were the only survivor, yeah…?”

“I was sick, that day. It was just a cold. My husband Jack went without me.”

“I’m sorry…”

“It took my daughter and my son too.”

“I’m so sorry…”

“And it destroyed you.”

Phantom opened his mouth, but no words followed.

Maddie looked up.

“You knew this. You’ve known this ever since I captured you.” Maddie let her hand slide away from the glass. “Did you let me capture you?”

“Why would I let you capture me?”

“Because you feel sorry for me.”

Phantom’s eyes flickered about, unwilling to meet hers. “…Nah. Nah. I don’t—come on ‘sorry’? I’m a ghost you know? Bane of humanity! We’re enemies. You were just too skilled a hunter and you captured me.”

“And yet you won’t leave.”

Phantom lapsed silent.

“I um… I wasn’t happy to read about—to know the, the thing at the Nasty Burger happened here, okay? That’s something that I kinda didn’t want to believe existed in any reality anymore, but I guess… And if you were still alive. I was… maybe just kind of happy to see you? That you were okay. And still hunting. That was kind of, like a small relief.” Phantom glanced away, back again. “I wasn’t evil, you know. In my reality or this one. I care about what happened to the Fentons…”

“You let me capture you. …And you did it because you thought it would be a nice thing for you to do for me.”

“I Just—I thought maybe, um… I mean when you phrase it like that. I mean what else could cheer up renowned ghost hunter Maddie Fenton quite like a ghost subject to study? Me, especially? The ghost boy or public enemy #1 or whatever. I’m fun, aren’t I?”

Silently, Maddie pushed away from Phantom’s cage. She moved to the control panel, stiff movements and numb fingers. She entered the release code into the console, and unslung the key from her neck to twist into the override, and she threw down each successive lever in the row of four lining the top of the mechanisms.

The scrape of glass sliding away sounded behind her. All four walls of Phantom’s enclosure dropped away, metal mesh sliding away piece-meal. Phantom stared at her, blinking, floating in place.

“You’re free to go, Phantom.”

“I—uh—well hang on, I don’t think the Guys In White would be too happy about that. You can’t just let me—”

“Go, Phantom.”

“They could like, fire you.”

“I don’t care about this job.”

“I—come on, you still wanna study me, don’t you? Chat with me? If you feel bad maybe just get me a couch and some video games for my cage then I’ll be—”

“Phantom.”

“What?”

“Go home to your family.”

The half-hearted smile dropped from Phantom’s face.

“Come on. You can’t just evict me on such short notice. I’m not ready for Clockwork to kick my ass so soon.”

“Go home.”

“I’m not in any rush! I like talking to you. Don’t you—don’t you like talking to me too? In like a scientific way?”

Maddie lowered herself into the chair by the control panel. She leaned forward, arms pooled in her lap, eyes to the floor. “You have a family to get back to, Phantom.”

“It’s—there’s time travel shenanigans! Like I said they don’t even know I’m gone.”

“Every single day, Phantom,” Maddie looked up, eyes stern, “…I wish every single day that my own family would just come back home. I won’t do the same to you. I won’t do the same to your family.”

Phantom said nothing. A somber acceptance sunk into his eyes.

“They’re… alive, you know. In my dimension.”

Maddie dropped her head, and she blinked away the wetness in her eyes.

“I actually… in my dimension I’m kind of closer to the Fentons than I think the, the Phantom in this dimension was. It’s… complex.”

Maddie said nothing. Silence built between them.

“Jazz is um… Jazz is applying for colleges, y-you know. She got in early-acceptance to Yale but um, we all—they all—visited Columbia last month and I think that’s what she wants the most. I can see Jazz in New York City. I think she’d rock it.”

Maddie blinked again. Tears plicked into her lap.

“…Should I stop?”

“Jack… Tell me about Jack.”

“Oh. Yeah he um… big and goofy as ever. He’s got some kind of eight-armed-octogun he’s working on. I know because I was his target practice, involuntarily by the way. He keeps trying to merge “Fenton” and “octopus” together with mixed results. We—Mo-addie—you… are still trying to talk him out of ‘Fentoctopus’.”

Maddie’s ribcage shuddered, a repressed sob, a repressed laugh.

“And Danny?”

“Danny… um… Danny is...” Phantom’s shoulders fell a little bit. He looked away, and then back at Maddie. “He loves you. I know that.”

Maddie blinked, and blinked again, and her eyes wouldn’t clear.

“And are they happy?”

“They’re happy.”

“Am I happy…?”

“You’re…” Phantom’s tail bounced. “You’re happy, I think. I like to think so. I think you’re very happy. You have a great family.”

Maddie nodded.

“Now go.”

“But I still—”

Maddie reached forward, and she grabbed the ecto-gun propped against the control panel. She lifted it into her shoulder, and flicked the safety, and the charge built along the rising whine.

“Go.”

Phantom balked. He blinked. He kicked away from his wall-less cage. “Not forever. I’ll be back. You won’t be alone here forever.”

He was gone.

And Maddie was alone again.

…

Clockwork surveyed the boy in front of him whose head was bowed nearly to the floor, white bangs trailing along cobblestone, hands clasped, apologies repeated, begging case made.

Clockwork ran a hand along his beard, which unfurled, drew back, undid itself with the shifting of his form to a simple child.

“So let’s see. You have the audacity to break my rules andbeg me to meddle on your behalf in the time stream, all in the same breath? Apologies don’t usually come with additional requests for favors.”

“I know,” Danny’s head dipped lower. “You can punish me however you want for touching the restricted timelines but you have to help it, or let me help this one timeline. Please, please just send me back to the Nasty Burger incident so I can save it.”

“It’s already been saved.”

Danny faltered. He looked up.

“You died at the Nasty Burger incident that night,” Clockwork elaborated, form shifting older. “There is no you to ruin that future. That timeline is safe. It’s a very lucky timeline.”

Danny blinked. “N-no. No that’s not what I mean. Save it like you saved my timeline.”

“That did happen. You’re describing your own timeline.”

“I mean do it to THAT one.”

“You are misunderstanding timelines.”

Danny lapsed silent. Worry bled into his eyes, and Clockwork sighed.

“There is no undoing timelines, Danny. There is only forking them by meddling in the stream. All futures and pasts you witness exist, and do exist, and continue to exist,” Clockwork paused, “with the exception of realities I needed to cull, to prevent utter catastrophe.” His gaze fixed on Danny. “The futures that your evil self destroyed, I did have to cull. And culling a reality is not to be done lightly.”

Clockwork motioned with his staff. “There were a handful of surviving realities that I was able to save. That room you meddled in without my permission—they contain the realities off the main track where, for one reason or another, something else succeeded at destroying your future self. …Your own deaths, in fact. In every one of those realities, Danny, you are dead.”

“I don’t…” Danny shook his head. “So then just tell me how to save that one I was in, okay?”

“Oh, that’s easy.”

“How?”

“You don’t.”

Danny said nothing. Clockwork shifted young.

“You can let it live on in that room, or you could ask me to cull it, Danny. You could ask me to cull every reality in that room, so that the main branch, the one you’re from, is the only reality in existence. So you never have to worry about any existence where your family is unhappy. And it will be that way until you, or I, or someone else, meddles with the timestreams again, and more splits occur.”

Still, Danny said nothing. Clockwork continued.

“Sometimes, a mass culling of realities is healthy for the tree of time, like pruning a plant down to its stalk to survive an unforgiving winter, or a terrible disease. But I did that, just recently, to save all of time from the blight of your future self. It would feel cruel to snip off the first buds that have come after the frost.”

Danny lowered himself to the floor.

“Okay…”

“Okay?”

He nodded. “Okay. Just. I have a different question then.” He looked up, a young devastation wet in his eyes. “Can I still go back and visit that reality, sometimes?”

“No. I cannot give you permission to do that.”

“Please!”

Clockwork spun his staff. A portal swirled into being in the space between him and Danny. Washes of color formed patterns, shapes, objects, images. Like a mirror, it reflected Clockwork’s lair beyond its shimmering surface.

“This is a portal back into your own reality. It is set to the location and the time that you vanished. Go there, and leave through the Fenton portal, and nothing will be amiss.”

“No. No no I won’t. Clockwork you have to let me—”

“I am doing you a favor, Danny, getting you home after you caused more trouble. Do not make further demands of me.” Clockwork curled forward, old, sallow skin sagging, and he turned his back to Danny.

“You have to give me permission—”

“I am the only one who has permission to meddle in realities, Danny. This is an absolute.” Clockwork glanced over his shoulder. “And because this is an absolute, I have no reason to have a lock on the room housing those budding other realities.”

Danny blinked.

“I wonder if anyone might break my rules anyway. I wonder if anyone might be nosy, and enter that room anyway, and water the plants in that greenhouse without my permission.” Clockwork stared forward again.

“Clockwork…”

“Luckily I am the master of all time. I would be able to see this coming. And maybe plan for it. If ever such a person would come into my lair, and meddle in my timelines, and try to spread a bit of his own kindness to the realities he couldn’t quite save, I would be fully prepared to stop him.” Clockwork spoke into the green abyss beyond him. “Unless, maybe, I were to accidentally have my back turned.”

Silence trailed after Clockwork’s words. He kept his back to Danny, staring into the abyss of swirling green ether beyond.

“…Thank you,” Danny answered, quietly. “I’ll be back.”

“I imagine you will. Those realities may get lonely without you.”

When Clockwork glanced back over his shoulder, both Danny and the portal were gone.

[dannyphantom-justiceleauge]

What if Danny Fenton became a green lantern?* Like, ghostly obsessions could be called similar to absolute will, and Danny literally fought death in a very strange machine to stay alive so he could be with his friends and family and keep everyone safe. bonus points if the ring chooses him in front of his parents and loudly declares "Daniel J. Fenton, you have overcome death and shown great willpower. Take this ring and use it to protect your sector." And that how he gets revealed.

*yes, I know he'd already be considered overpowered in the DC universe, but listen, maybe some of us want to see Batman froth at the mouth as he's torn between the desire to adopt the overpowered child or come up with some sort security ghost proof measures in case Danny goes bad (again).

okay first i think danny should receive his ring after he defeats dan. survival and near death experiences are acts of will but they're also fairly common and don't a green lantern make. there's far more will in holding yourself accountable to never become an evil version of yourself. the other criteria for a lantern was being 'utterly honest and born without fear' which i don't think fully fits danny. because lets be real danny lies his butt off not and not just for legitimate reasons like protecting his secret identity. but for petty kid reasons like being popular and staying out of trouble. and he definitely has fears.

but i'm still gonna roll with him becoming a lantern. because despite hal being the one for earth. the corps, when made aware of the ghost zone, decide they probably need a lantern for the zone. that's basically what i'm most excited for in this au. danny's sector is literally the ghost zone. he also received his ring because out of all the available ghosts (and half ghosts) he was the best option.

so as such, danny is somewhat revealed as a ghost or at least as someone who has to spend a lot of time in the ghost zone. i have a feeling that his parents are going to massively misunderstand the situation and miss the fact that danny is phantom and instead fully support him as a superhero to the ghost zone. meaning danny is now kinda a superhero in both identities, and his parents are trying to make him compete with himself and prove himself a better hero than phantom. they're also going to outfit him with weapons and protective gear even though the ring can already do it all.

either way danny is stressed he is still a teenager and he has school. having two superhero jobs is a lot. i think he is going to try and keep them somewhat separate. like he only uses the ring in the zone for external or cosmic threats. most of the time he's trying to ignore that he has it. the rest of the time when he's fighting ghosts and such he's just phantom. he likes being just phantom. the responsibility is a lot.

then you add in hal, alan, and maybe some of the othere bats coming around and trying to adopt him. and lets be real danny isn't fond of that because he has enough adults trying to adopt him. adding bats to the mix just bugs him further. i should be clear that bats is very much trying to do both. he wants to adopt danny and prepare a safety protocol for if things go south. the lanterns got dibs though. alan and hal sorta fighting for custody. because alan is more into the mystical stuff which fits with danny's ghostliness. but hal is the current corp member. also danny is just a cute, troubled kid.

i'm also mentally seeing them getting pissed on his behalf and fighting vlad. i also want hal and danny to relate about flying. hal was in the air corps and danny is interested in space. so hal teaching danny about planes and aeronautics would be cute as hell and bring danny around on the whole lantern thing. and you better beleive danny is going to lose his shit over being able to actually go to space and meet aliens. all in all. a fun concept.

a friend also suggested danny with a black lantern ring which makes more sense for him and his position as the ghost zones lantern. but would also have negative implications associated with it. so i'm gonna talk about that in a separate post. - Hestia

[ganymedesclock]

I don’t want to say fictional robots “belong” to autistic people because any given fantastical allegory can have manifold and meaningful resonance to all manner of diversities, but something I do think is very interesting about fictional robots as an autistic person is this:

Robots as a plot element or character arc often center on this question of emotions. Do you feel emotions? Now, this is an imperfect argument about humanity/authenticity in the first place since there are plenty of Real Human Beings who experience anhedonia or alexithymia- but I think also, in my experience, a lot of these stories- sometimes in-universe, sometimes only in fandom responses- betray that maybe a lot more people than they think, are not very good at identifying emotions.

Many fictional robots- to be blunt- pour with emotion. They will often have a blunted affect (that is to say, speaking in a monotone, or limited facial expressions), they may use overly technical terminology, but they will make arbitrary decisions based on personal preference, it will be nakedly obvious they have a preference and their preference is determined at least in part by what pleases them. Data from Star Trek adores his cat and cares deeply about art and poetry.

And I won’t say any of these characters are bad people. I don’t want to suggest the goal is to create a character who’s “really” emotionless. If there is a quibble I have with this, it’s that I think we could all afford to be a little more careful and a little bit more imaginative, when considering how other people’s minds work, and how they present details. Not just as a joyless finger-wag of “you should be more responsible!” (though I will say there is some joylessness to it- I don’t really enjoy being shown a character who emotes close to how I naturally do, being fretted over by people asking if that character has a soul, is a real person, or simply an effective mimic; that hurts a little too personally to be fun!)

I was thinking of this because I was reflecting on one of my favorite little videos, My Job Is To Open And Close Doors. It’s a simple little uninterrupted 3-minute monologue about an AI who, well, see title, but has a bit of a crisis of purpose and asks themselves a bunch of critical questions about their role and purpose.

At its core, to me, the AI in My Job clearly experiences an emotion; they see something in the course of doing their job that they have no protocol or instruction to halt before, but feel an incredible misgiving about following through on. In response to this misgiving, in a very human manner, they begin to procrastinate- all the while, they point out to their own mounting confusion that this is a meaningless activity, but it buys them more time.

The voice acting given to the AI is very good, and, to me, cinches the whole piece- the actor very specifically does not leave a neutral-pleasant tonal range, and at several points, rather than asking an obviously “emotional” question, the AI simply hangs up in their own thinking talking to themselves- “because- because- because-” a very mechanical sort of stutter.

And using this flat affect and mechanical quirks, the actor establishes and fits to an emotional vernacular. The thrust of the plot- that the AI isn’t sure why they’re hesitating when their job is straightforwards and clear, that they even take note that this is being recorded as an error by another party- repeats in the sense of the stuttering- just as they procrastinate opening the doors without being sure why, they too “procrastinate” the completion of their statements when they’re unsure of them. The AI believes that the delivery of a solution, an answer, a “point”, is inevitable, so when they do not feel they have an answer they are incapable of saying “I don’t know”; instead, they stall. They procrastinate in the hope of achieving enough time to deliver an answer that meets their standards, that satisfies the parameters either set by their programming, or their own feelings.

My Job also adds in a sense of why emotions are important- in a sense that is not about enjoyment or satisfaction, although the AI ultimately does feel tremendously satisfied at the successful conclusion of their quandary- because without the ability to experience “baseless misgivings”, they would have simply responded to the initial command to open the door and been unbothered by whatever happened. In that sense, you could argue, it’s an ‘emotion’ born from ‘logic’ (that there is something amiss, though it takes the AI time to tease this out of their own thinking) but at that point we’re barking up a fool’s tree of semantics because our “logic” and our sentiments are both chemicals clattering around the same undifferentiated apparatus at the same time and thus inextricably attached to one another.

The thing that kills me about this is- with no hostility to the commenter in question- I scrolled down into the comments of My Job and immediately saw someone talking about how clearly, the AI has no emotions.

To me, this entire plot is about an AI having an emotion. Unmistakable and clear. This is about a door mechanism experiencing a profoundly human response to distress- procrastinating on the completion on a task they have every resource and in fact an active imperative to complete, based on a misgiving they are unable to articulate. This revelation is so profound to them that at the end of the video, they actually reframe their entire objective- “My job is to protect the human. My job is a great purpose.”

So I guess if there’s a tl;dr or conclusion to this sentiment, it’s that I think that while we can and should absolutely tell stories about fictional robots- because they are cool, and because they are also tremendously useful to ask certain existential questions about personhood- I think that it is actually very important to temper both our creation and consumption on these narratives on a more robust theory of neurodivergence, and, “I don’t recognize the way this emotion plays out in this particular person” does not equal “there is no emotion there at all”

[non-operator]

I really do wonder what Astra knows, and if that's an effect of her radiant powers or something she knows through her connection to the astral guardians.

Even before the dossiers, she has an interaction with Cypher that ends with "I know who you are, man!" I'm just really curious to how she knew that. Is it because her hometown of Accra, Ghana is relatively close to Cypher's in Morocco, and she might've known about Cypher and his work before the Protocol? Even so, how would she know? Does this mean she used to be familiar with underground work before she became an astral guardian/Valorant agent? In what way--committing them, preventing them? She doesn't seem to have a criminal record--Viper didn't offer her the same deal as Breach and Raze, and Fade doesn't even mention that in Astra's dossier at all; though, this could just mean that Astra isn't afraid of having or revealing a criminal background, but she also doesn't mention that sort of thing anywhere in her voice lines. Considering all the agents reference/drop hints about their past in their voice lines, I don't think that's a route Riot will take with Astra's background.

Secondly, she clearly has something against Reyna. Astra refers to her as "Reyna creature" or "that creature"; I'm not actually sure what "yawa girl" means, but considering it's in a line where Astra tells Reyna to "stay in [her] lane", I don't think it has a very nice meaning. Her distaste with Reyna could do something with how Reyna feeds on enemy souls, maybe her cosmic powers lets her sense something off about Reyna? But Astra is also surrounded by other radiants like Omen (who is an unnatural/unknown existence even to her) and Sage (whose powers are repeatedly stated to be against the natural balance in some way) yet Astra remains friendly to them. Furthermore, Astra shows great sympathy towards Viper (who has multiple interactions from other agents about her penchant for violence and ruthlessness). The only other reason I can think of is Reyna's possible future role as the leader in the radiant war. We know the astral guardians have the responsibility to protect the universe, and the radiant war leads to the complete destruction of the world. Does Astra see the possible ruin that future Reyna creates? If so, again, how?

I thought maybe her cosmic powers let her read up on people with the universe wikipedia, kind of like selective omniscience. She has a few voice lines that makes me think she interacts with our reality in a more omniscient way:

The most obvious one is that she refers to the world as "this reality", meaning she is aware of other realities. It's unclear if a reality is simply a plane (as in, the higher plane she enters to use her stars is considered another "reality") or if a reality is a wholly distinct world/timeline (as in, the omega earth is considered another "reality" or maybe Kay/O's alternate timeline is considered a second "reality")

She says "Time and space are... (chuckle)...they're not what you think". We know how she experiences space differently (with her astral plane and all), but I wonder how she experiences time? She also says "That moment is gone, but it be cool. Now we are here. Here." Emphasis on both the "here"s. Does she experience time as a simultaneous thing, and she needs to ground herself in a specific time to take action? She talks about "[seeing] the beginning, and the continuation", does she just see all of time like as a passive witness but she can't exert any influence except in the present? If that makes sense.

This one doesn't really add anything new, just provides more evidence of the above point: "My plan may sound irrational, only because you cannot see what I can." What can she see????

but then? she has an interaction with Viper where she shows she doesn't know what happened in Viper's past. Furthermore, she doesn't know what Omen is.

So she's either getting her information from somewhere else, or her cosmic omniscience thing works in specific cases/when certain conditions are met. But I don't know what Cypher and Reyna have in common...

[aenaxes]

congrats on 200 my dear!!! i’m so happy i found your writing and look forward to being better friends!!! anywho, the celebration must commence! 🍾 🎉💕 ily!!

for requests, i gotta go w my main man, my first clone love, the darling hardcase (i swear he doesn’t get enough love) 💕 we’re both touch starved adhd fools who love a little too much sometimes and i just wanna smother him w my 🐱 in all the affection he deserves. if you’re up for it, maybe some soft smut for your local bottom? 🥺 i’ve been wanting to get a tattoo that matches his facial markings and wonder how he’d react to seeing it during a gentle moment between the two of you. my pronouns are she/they & i’m 5’6, and i have dark green hair + blue eyes.

you and me & me and you

[hardcase x afab!reader] there is little permanence, and all of them are fleeting, in a war that tips its scales with each new dawn. so while hardcase is away, you decide you’ll carve out your own constant between you and him, and him and you.

warnings: tattoos, unprotected vaginal sex, mushy gooey feelings pt.2

w/c: 2.8k

a/n: my love for hardcase grows day by day, and every day i wake up and cry a little bit because he isn’t real. but it's ok bc ily jj and you're very much real 💕

Seldom do you find Hardcase stunned into complete silence.

Stillness shared between you and Hardcase, rare as those moments may be, is never truly silent. Tackling each other onto the couch, stealing late-night speeder joyrides, sharing the kind of banter that doubles you over so hard your ribs sting for hours afterwards—the energy, the light, linger in the spaces left behind.

But this time, Hardcase simply stares, jaw slack and eyes wide as your fingers curl over the lifted hem of your shirt. No wisecrack quip, no teasing wink, not even so much as a low whistle as you tug your shirt over your head and drop it behind you, straddling his lap over the edge of the bed.

Eyes full of stars, he gawks.

“You—those’re my—hm, okay, wow, uh, hah—” Hardcase’s voice pitches high as his lips open and close around half-formed words.

You watch the whole spectacle as he gasps like a landed fish, grasping for wisps of coherence. And you can’t help the giggle that rises from your throat when he forgoes words entirely and trails off into a breathless half-whimper half-laugh.

“Can I—” he says at last, and his voice cracks hoarse through his sputtering attempt to regain what little composure he had. “Can I touch it?”

At your nod, Hardcase reaches forwards just enough that his fingertips barely brush over your chest. You don’t dare look down to where his calloused fingers meet the skin above your ribs, too afraid that if you take your eyes from Hardcase’s face for even a single heartbeat that you might miss a precious moment of the awestruck wonder in his expression. You find yourself as transfixed as he as you watch him trace the trio of royal blue ink arcing down your sternum and tapering off into twin circles that cradle the curve of your chest.

It’s what this whole evening has been leading up to—your grand reveal kickstarted by his signature lung-crushing hug on the hangar bay. You had braced for it harder than usual when he’d swept you into his arms and lifted you off the dusty platform steel, readying for the particularly bruising ache that comes with the week-old ink needled over the base of your ribs.

To be fair, it wasn’t possible to greet Hardcase without creating some sort of commotion. Even if it was just shy of a week on planetside escort duty, once the gunship was within a metre of the dusty landing bay durasteel, landing protocols be damned, Hardcase would hit the ground running, tossing his helmet behind him and swooping you into his arms. The sheer, unadulterated joy of reunion always found home in how he squeezed you around your middle and spun you about; it was always worth the solid smack over the back of his head (stern, from Rex and, gleefully, from Jesse) for throwing his bucket aside.

But when you had met him with more of a pained grunt than your usual tittering exclamation, Hardcase had dropped you so quickly you’d almost fallen backwards if not for his reflexes to steady you. When he’d stumbled over wide-eyed apologies (and braced past Jesse’s open-palmed whap over his head), you had only laughed and told him to wait until after you had run inventory with Rex.

His fingers finally pause their slow trace over the tattoo on your chest. He feels, sees himself, an emblem on your skin. And when he looks up, he sees you.

“Tats are sore for a bit, ‘Case,” you smile. His eyes are so wide you’re certain if you look just a little more, you’d see yourself in him. You and he, he and you, the same, the same, one. “‘s why I flinched a little.”

Hardcase’s lips open and part around soundless words a few more times, still floating in some limbo between processing disbelief and boundless excitement before he unevenly clears his throat and finally speaks.

“You—you got me inked on you?” Hardcase whispers. Each word has the corners of his lips curling higher as if he had to speak into realization what stood before him; as if his fingertips pressing tender divots into your skin were proof only of the flesh: a universal truth that only needed words to find home in his heart.

You nod, grinning.

“Wanted to have a part of you with me for while you’re away.”

And for a moment, Hardcase’s fingers are the only motion in a still room, stroking soft, repetitive motions over the blue ink of your—his—tattoo.

You silently brace for something loud and present, excited rambling, another crushing hug, affection swept wide and open before you. Instead, Hardcase lets free a single breathless huff and tugs you close.

“You know those are forever, right?” he laughs, his voice rising again.

“That’s why I got it,” you respond, and his laughter only grows brighter.

Hardcase buries his nose into your chest with a groan, and that precious crest of joy bursts over your tongue when you throw your head back and laugh. Gilded and honeyed light finds home in your chest.

“Mesh’la, I need you so bad right now,” Hardcase groans as he brings his arms snug around your waist. And his laughter joins yours this time, voices swelling together when Hardcase rests his brow against your skin and pulls you in close. You make quick work of the rest of your clothes, throwing them somewhere off to the bedside before you sit back down over the firm lines of his thighs.

“I mean, yeah, I sure hope so—was the whole point ‘Case,” you tease, and Hardcase groans, carrying something of breathless disbelief and affection and desire curled into a single whimpering sound.

And as soon as you’re squeezing over his shoulders, suddenly, you feel your gravity tilt, and you yelp as your back connects with the bedspread.

Hardcase cages you under him, one arm propped by your head as the other slips from beneath the small of your back and trails its way back to the centre of your chest, hovering just at the edges of your tattoo. He lingers, treading those shallow waters for a moment more. But where you expect the familiar drag of his blunt nails over the bold lines of blue ink, he dips low. Instead, you gasp when his fingers are replaced by his lips, warm, inviting, home as he presses a single, lingering kiss over the sigil branded into your skin.

“‘Case!” you giggle and kick out your legs at the sudden flick of his tongue over your chest. You feel him laugh into your skin, his breath wisping over where his lips just brush over the edges of the tattoo.

He ghosts one more touch, drawn long and yet chaste in how he nuzzles the tip of his nose into your chest. And the bubbling laughter of before wanes, complete, when he lifts his chin and meets you with the hushed whispers of a smile on his parted lips.

Because it’s him, finding home over the base of your ribs.

It’s him, reflected back into his wide eyes.

It’s you.

He doesn’t surge up to meet you. He doesn’t kiss you with that unabashed brilliance that crushes your lips together so hard your teeth clack. The breath catches in your throat as you watch him move in silence. There is no overexuberant joy when Hardcase shifts higher up on the bed to meet your eyes and slowly runs his thumb over your lower lip. Even then, his touch is so achingly still, deliberation held close and savored slow.

He blinks once, dark eyes full of the soft light only privy to early mornings and late nights when you curl close and bask in each other, bared and whole. You grant his request without hesitation.

Starting low, your fingers smooth over the faded lines of blue tattooed over Hardcase’s chin, the same sigils you keep as your own. Well worn and faded until the line between ink and skin disappeared entirely, the tattoos beneath your fingertips are nothing and everything like yours. You trace higher, following the crest of his lip, the high line of his cheekbone, the dip just beneath his eye where his tattoo begins anew.

He closes his eyes and lets your touch trail over his lashes until your fingers slope over his temple and still over the base of his head. And when he dips his head low, you meet him in the middle, catching his upper lip between yours as he slips one hand between you and thumbs over your tattoo. That touch anchors you as much as you think it must do the same for him, pulling you close and keeping you there while you lick over his lips and breathe him in deep.

Through the warmth heavy in your gut, you feel him slide his other hand down your side, over the contour of your hip, and lift your leg up against him. You hook your leg over the small of his back and tug awkwardly, sending him stumbling forwards, crushing his hand between your chests as he dips down and narrowly catches himself.

No amount of awkward maneuvering breaks the rosy air between you, even as you both tear away from each other to stifle the kind of laughter that lingers.

“This okay?” he murmurs over the waning sigh of a low chuckle, voice warm on your skin and drunk with your taste. He nudges his hips forward, sending a shiver shocking up your spine when you feel his cock brush up against the swell of your cunt.

“Always, Hardcase,” you whisper.

As soon as the words leave your lips, you barely have enough time to suck in another breath before you’re stuttering on your own tongue. The tension slumps out of your shoulders as Hardcase digs his fingertips into your thigh and presses forwards, stretching you out around him in the way only he knows how, setting fire to your nerves and coming home all at once.

No matter how many times you kneel before ritual—habit coming to you as natural and comforting as breath itself—you still find yourself slack-jawed and starry-eyed as Hardcase pushes into you.

That it’s the first time in his four month tour that he’s able to pull you apart and hold you together only makes it better.

It takes all of one long, shuddering exhale for him to push into you in full. The breath you share breaks that stillness, a gasping inhale as his hips connect with the soft curve of your thighs and has the blunt head of his cock nudging so deep in you that you swear you feel the pulse at the base of your ribs, right where your tattoo swells with your whimpering.

Hardcase drops forward with a groan, blindly twining his fingers with yours and leaning down to press his forehead close against yours.

You don’t have to open your eyes to see him as you squeeze his hand. The bridge of his nose flush against yours, you bask, exchanging the warmth of breath over the little space between your lips. With his brow pressed into yours, he surrounds you, warmth, warmth, warmth, a setting sun and the grass it kisses still glowing in its wake. He rolls his hips forwards and swallows your wailing moan with his tongue.

Hardcase starts slow, setting a pace that has you feeling every long drag inside you as he draws back then crushes back up against the soft spot inside you that curls your toes. It’s a far cry from the excitement of a welcome back or rendezvous reunion, swapping giddy haste to savor instead, to melt over his tongue as Hardcase slips his free arm under your hips and tugs you impossibly close.

Through the blissed-out tears beaded over your lashes, you can just make out his expression, tense with cresting pleasure, as he leans back and admires you, stretched out before him. And when your legs jerk this time, there is no achingly deep pressure of his cock heavy inside you—only his lips over the centre of your chest as he bows low and kisses your tattoo again, again, laying and sealing claim above the rapid flutter of your heart.

You squeeze his hand, and he lifts his chin to meet your hazy eyes with his own, full with intent, desire, the kind of loyalty transcendent above anything he could ever swear to his generals, to his cause. He squeezes back.

You drop your head back onto the bed when he picks up his pace again, moving his free hand out from under you to stroke his thumb over your clit and smearing the mess of your arousal and his precome over where you stretch around him. Chest heaving, you can only sob and grip tight around his neck as he leans back over you and nuzzles his nose into your collar.

It’s getting harder and harder to tell your breaths apart from his after one stuttering thrust gives way to another. The steady tenderness of before bows under the fizzling heat in your stomach, giving in to rawer need as Hardcase’s movements over your clit fumble erratic. He snaps his hips against yours and drives up hard against your pleasure, mumbling unknowable words under his breath. Desperate for more, you shift back to meet what thrusts you can.

When he leans forwards again, his brow unsteadily knocks against your nose before he can nuzzle over your forehead and press close. You might have laughed, taken the moment to catch your breath over the clumsiness of affections swelling high. But you’re too busy chasing your own pleasure, too enamored with the wet friction of his throbbing cock sliding into your cunt.

Hardcase comes first, thundering rigid through him as he buries his nose at the juncture of your neck and bites down over his own teeth, his jaw flexing against your skin. His tension spreads through you, holds you by your breath and seizes the mounting want in your stomach tight with each heavy spurt of come he grinds into you.

You nose up against his temple—a silent plea for touch even deeper than you already feel it—and he indulges you. Hazy in the aftershocks of his orgasm, Hardcase lifts his head from your collar and crushes his lips against yours. He breathes in your heaving exhales as he kisses you, all open-mouthed warmth coaxing your pleasure.

“So lucky,” Hardcase mumbles, his puffing exhales over your lips matching every thrust into your dripping cunt. “Maker, I’m so fuckin’ lucky.”

Before you can strain some half-hearted tease in response, you’re too delirious on your rousing high. All you can manage is a soundless cry that shocks straight to the white-hot heat welled low in your stomach. Hardcase rolls his calloused thumb over your clit one last time and pulls your orgasm heady and low beneath him.

Pleasure bursts over your tongue, thrumming through you hard enough you swear you black out. Nothing but paralyzing and indulgent sensation shocks through you. There is only Hardcase’s presence to anchor you to the moment in the most intimate signs of life: shared breath, fingers laced tight with yours, lips mouthing words that need neither name nor sound to find warmth at the bottom of your chest.

And when the moment subsides and the ringing in your ears fades, you open your eyes to him, glowing with exhaustion but beaming down on you all the same.

“Maker’s really lookin’ out for me,” Hardcase says at last, brushing his fingertips over the sweat beaded at your temple.

“Yeah?”

You tug him closer against your chest (as well as you can with the tremble in your arms). He follows your lead as you feel him softening inside you, and he settles his nose close over your tattoo, just beneath your beating heart.

“I mean, whatever it is, it got me you.”

“You got me you, ‘Case,” you say. Though the air between you is far from the kind of existential solemnity that demands silence, your attempt to laugh comes only as a soft whisper, hushed as your lips brush over the crown of his head.

Because whatever was up there, pulling those galactic tides and willing life into the universe, even if it had tied those fine red strings strong and true between you and the man curled around you, it didn’t matter. At the end of the day, it was you and him, brought together in a headfirst collision in the cold steel halls of a Jedi cruiser and bound tight over shy planetside advances and cheesy dates.

“Then I got you, and you got me?” Hardcase chuckles, lifting his head and meeting your fond gaze.

“Just us,” you laugh.

Hardcase makes a soft noise of affirmation, his arms pulling snug around your middle. He nuzzles close skin over skin, and when he kisses over your tattoo, the sting of ink and needles fades into a distant memory unknown—all worth the trembling touches he presses over the place you’ve carved out for him alone.

Maybe the Maker helped along the way, but it’s always been you and him, him and you.