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greenfiend · 3 months ago

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The Nested Universes Theory

and the high chance of a very literal bitter/sweet ending…

Yes, Will and Mike will end up together, but their ending may be both happy and tragic simultaneously.

(This theory may explain why the cast and Netflix executives were crying heavily when informed of the show’s ending…)

I'm warning you guys, take care of yourself while reading this. This isn't an easy read.

CW: CSA, sex, drugs, HIV/AIDS, period typical homophobia, death

Framed Narratives/Stories

Framed narratives are basically a story within a story. Common examples of this are the movie “The Princess Bride” and “Titanic”. Both stories have the story of the narrator and the story within.

Another example is Stranger Things itself. When we see the boys playing Dungeons and Dragons, they are creating a story within a story.

Sometimes, framed narratives are nested, meaning multiple layers of storytelling. An example of this would be the movie “Inception”. In that movie there are dreams within dreams within dreams… It’s a complex but fascinating way to tell stories.

Now, I do think Stranger Things is also a nested narrative story. Meaning, there may be a layer of a story that hasn’t been revealed to us yet (or more than one).

Basically I’m saying: the show itself may be a story created by some of the characters.

I’m guessing two characters in particular. Which two characters? The two most associated with creating stories. The writer and artist. Two of the characters that have existed since the show’s inception.

Mike and Will.

Multiple Universes

I do think there are multiple timelines/universes within Stranger Things… but it’s not exactly what you think. It’s not parallel universes/timelines. They do not exist parallel to each other, they exist within each other.

This is the reason for the “memory within a memory”, “play within a play” references.

It’s a story within a story within a story.

While Mike and Will are creating their DnD campaigns, there is another version of Mike and Will creating the story we see within the show.

Let’s break it down:

Inner layer: Mike and Will’s characters existing within a DnD campaign

Middle layer: Mike and Will within the show creating the DnD campaign

Outer layer: Mike and Will creating the story of the show

Mike and Will’s story within the frame (the outer layer) likely does share a lot in common with the story within the show, with one major difference:

There’s no Upside Down, and no supernatural elements. No superpowers, and no superheroes. There are still monster(s) and heroes, but these monsters and heroes are real.

Living on as “Heroes”

Ever notice the association between characters being referred to as “a hero” after facing their demise?

We have seen this time and time again. It’s not a coincidence, it’s a pattern.

Love for horror and escapism

@threemanoperation has a great post on Will’s love for horror.

It makes perfect sense for a boy like Will to enjoy horror. It can be a great way to process trauma and grief.

We also know even from the earliest descriptions for Mike and Will’s characters that they both love to “escape” into fantasy. They do this together, through DnD.

Gods/Puppet Masters/Creators

Within the show, there are many subtle nods to Will and Mike somehow controlling/manipulating things. These hints have lead to many interesting theories about Mike and/or Will having powers. In a sense, they both are absolutely right! But if this theory is correct, their influence over the show is mainly due to them creating it. They’re the authors, so in a way, they’re both “Gods”.

Solving the “Letter to Willy”/Lettergate puzzle

"Letter to Willy" is a song that plays over three different scenes within ST4. Each scene involves regrets, and survivor's guilt.

Max mourns Billy and reads out her letter "before it's too late" aka before she dies too.

Mike and Will have a heart-to-heart and Mike expresses guilt over El leaving, thinking there was more he could have done. This occurs while they are burying a dead man's body.

Dustin tells Eddie's uncle that Eddie died a hero, despite what the town thought.

This all leads back to Mike and Will within the story's outer layer. This also connects with the writer's incomplete letter they posted years ago on Twitter. I'll get back to this.

A father infecting his child

Oh boy. I hate this part but it requires context so…

Hopper admits to indirectly causing the death of his daughter, Sarah. He had been exposed to Agent Orange which led to his daughter developing cancer at a young age. He has remorse and has been grieving Sarah this whole time.

Now, Hopper is a decent guy and father, and is written as an almost “fix it” version of Mike and Will’s own fathers. He isn’t perfect, but he’s a man who strives to grow and improve himself.

Papa, is not a decent guy, and we also see him injecting El and Henry with needles.

So, what I’m saying is that this may be a hint to what happened to Will (in the 99/100 timeline). Lonnie is hinted to be a drug user, and it wouldn’t be far fetched to say he may have used IV drugs. Exposure to IV drugs is a way to transmit diseases, as blood may be exchanged through contaminated needles. Also, Lonnie has been hinted at, through subtext, to be a horrible monster. (<- click that link for a post about him.)

The “1/100” Timeline

The show itself is the 1 out of 100 timeline. It is the only one where Will was not kidnapped by his parent/guardian (Lonnie).

This means, it is the one where none of the tragic stuff ever happened, specifically to Will and Mike’s story at least. They may encounter challenges, but nothing they cannot overcome together, as a team.

1983: The Demogorgon got Will. He survives the horrors done to him in the Upside Down… but barely. He is taken to the hospital and heals from it all, including flu-like symptoms (cough, nausea/vomiting).

1984: Will suffers from flashbacks. He is also plagued with the nickname “Zombie Boy” and suffering from the Mind Flayer’s possession of him. But with the love of his family, and Mike, is able to return back to his reality.

1985: He then begins to struggle with the pressures of growing up, and having to move away. Plus the Mind Flayer returns and reeks more havoc.

1986: He then moves to a pleasant place. Where things are sunny and warm. Things on the surface seem happy and “normal” but there’s a looming threat hidden beneath the surface. Henry/1/Vecna. This opportunistic threat preys on the weak and begins to take over Hawkins.

1987-1989: Will is back in Hawkins and his ties to the Upside Down increase. He can’t shake it off as easily as before. He also can’t shake off his love for Mike, who grows even closer to him. One thing leads to another and they become lovers (they have sex). They eventually are able to stop the contamination of Hawkins, and save everyone. Will also realizes that he has developed superpowers from his time in the Upside Down, through his blood. Mike also develops superpowers, given to him by Will.

Okay… you might understand where I’m going with this but I still must warn you before reading the next part. It’s devastatingly tragic.

The “99/100” Timeline

(I’m probably wrong on some of these details but this is what I theorize thus far):

1983: Lonnie “got” Will (CSA). Will survives the horrors done to him by his father… but barely. He is taken to the hospital and heals from it all and from flu-like symptoms (cough, nausea/vomiting).

1984: Will suffers from flashbacks. He is also plagued with the nickname “Zombie Boy” and suffering from the flashbacks of his father’s possession of him. But with the love of his family, and Mike, is able to return back to reality.

1985: He then begins to struggle with the pressures of growing up. Plus the memories of Lonnie return and reek more havoc.

1986: Things on the surface seem happy and “normal” but there’s a looming threat hidden beneath the surface. HIV -> AIDS. Opportunistic infections slowly begin to prey on Will.

1987-?: Will can’t shake off colds and infections as easily as before. He also can’t shake off his love for Mike, who grows even closer to him. One thing leads to another and they become lovers (they have sex). Will soon discovers he has HIV/AIDS, which he had transmitted to Mike. Devastated by the news, they do everything they can to fight it together. They cope through creating a DnD campaign together to process everything they’ve gone through. They play DnD in Mike’s basement until Will’s condition becomes critical. Will is forced to stay in the hospital, while Mike is unable to visit (strict rules about visitation due to the disease and because they aren’t/cannot be considered legal partners). So, Mike does the only thing he can do: he writes letters to Will and continues the story. Mike eventually loses Will, for real this time. He’s devastated, and plagued with grief, depression, and survivor’s guilt. He didn’t complete their story in time. But his family and friends support him and encourage him to finish the story. To change the ending before his time runs out too. He completes their story himself, and reads his final letter to Will’s grave.

“anyway I think you’ll like [the ending]. sorry I couldn’t get it done [on time] but you mean so [much to me] and it’s been [so hard being without you] hope this is [enough to] last until [we meet again]. Love, [Mike].”

Attached to this letter is the full campaign. The full story of the show itself, which started on November 6th, 1983. He successfully turned back the clock, and changed their ending. They became superheroes within their story, saving Hawkins with their love. Mike dies soon after and we are met with…

Mike and Will reuniting within their own story. Blue meeting yellow at a gate, one final time, that leads “into the west”.

They continue their story and it’s a never ending story… Living on as heroes, forever and ever.

Some thoughts:

To simplify things, I didn’t include other characters much here but they likely all play an important role in the story. Many characters likely only exist within the mid layer (the 1/100 timeline).

I do think their story likely will be published, and this will be done by another character (my guess is Lucas). Their story will impact others profoundly, perhaps completely altering perspectives. This will lead towards positive change, and increase pressure for the development of a “cure”.

Lonnie obviously dies too, but we won’t see it. He’s significant but irrelevant. We don’t need to see him. Perhaps he rots in jail.

If characters like Nancy, Jonathan, Joyce, and Hopper all exist within the outer layer (the 99/100 timeline) in a similar way, they too may be inflicted with HIV/AIDS. Remember, it wasn’t just gay men, everyone was affected by this awful epidemic.

The time period is super relevant in this story. There’s no way that HIV/AIDS will not play an important role. Think about it… it revolves around two gay boys growing up during that time. This epidemic was widespread and terrifying. Had they been born a decade later, there would have been treatments/“cures” accessible to them.

The biggest reason why I strongly believe this theory is because… this is basically the ending of Stranger Things season 1, on a much grander scale. Think about it. Mike changed the ending of the DnD campaign so Will could be a hero, not a victim. This was further established in the comics.

While Mike and Will within the outer layer (99/100) have a tragic ending, Mike and Will within the show (1/100) do not. They beat the odds. Although it is undeniably a tragic end, remember that somewhere out there Mike and Will are still playing DnD and Nintendo for the rest of their lives.

Free Will and Writing your Own Ending

Free will has always been a reoccurring theme within Stranger Things; meaning we can choose our own destiny, fight chance, and beat the odds.

Do we truly have free will though? Obviously, we don’t know. The point is, we should still live life as if we do have it. To take control where we can, and not let external forces dictate who we are and what our destiny is. I think that’s the message there.

#byler #byler theory #stranger things #stranger things theory #will byers #mike wheeler #lettergate

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idrellegames · 1 month ago

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Hello all!

Welcome to Q2. Before I go over what’s in store for the next three months, I want to revisit what has been done and catch you up on where Episode 3’s development.

The goal for Q1 was to complete the Episode 3 Finale. January started off really well, and I actually ended up about a week ahead of schedule. Unfortunately, I had a host of health problems in February which meant that I had to take additional time off of work and I was unable to make up that lost time. I did not complete the written portion of the finale by the end of March, but that being said, it is still coming along really well. There is currently around 180,000 words of uncoded alpha content and I am rapidly approaching the ending. Two of the three endings have been written, and four of the pathways through to those endings have been finished. I will go more into detail about how everything breaks down in my Q2 roadmap.

Wayfarer’s roadmap is an estimated timeline and is subject to change.

✦ Q2 Overview – April to June 2025

Over the next three months the goal is to complete the Episode 3 finale. Due to some extenuating circumstances (a family funeral and some other personal events), I am not going to set a goal of working on finale content in April as I need to take time off. I also need to take some time to create the next round of Patreon bonus content and short stories, as well as my social media for Instagram and Bluesky.

May is going to be focused on getting these last variations finished, and tackling Version B. I am crossing my fingers that this will be the last month I spend writing finale content.

If all goes well and I don’t have any more setbacks, in June I will have to decide between coding and updating the alpha build with the new content, or going back to the start of Episode 3 and working on the incomplete routes.

✦ The State of Episode 3 — April 2025

right click to enlarge for better viewing

This flowchart is a summary of the paths, variations, and routes involved. Teal sections have been added to the alpha build; blue sections have been written, but not coded. Orange sections are WIPs. Red sections have not been drafted yet.

There are three endings in Episode 3, and each one will determine which new companion character you will meet first in Episode 4. Ending A leads to Alexia, Ending B leads to Calla, and Ending C leads to Ren (information about these characters can be found here on the character roster).

The finale is first divided into two major variations, Version A (which occurs if the player remained hired by Lethalis after Episode 2) and Version B (which occurs if the player was fired by Lethalis). These differences have followed them throughout the entire episode as it changes which characters are involved in certain events.

Version A is then split into four categories based on dialogue options, choices, and faction approval. Basically, coming out of Finale Part 2 Version A, there were 29 different endings that needed be rounded up and bottlenecked. Instead of writing unique outcomes for each one, I grouped similar variations together into the four categories. Those four categories then feed into Zone 1, which has 5 subsections depending on the player’s actions. Should the player successfully pass Zone 1’s checks, they will proceed to Zone 2. They then need to pass Zone 2’s checks to proceed to Zone 3.

With a couple of very specific exceptions, failure in Zone 1 and Zone 2 results in Ending C. Failure in Zone 3 results in Ending A. Success in Zone 3 leads to Ending B.

While Version B reflects similar events to Version A, there are some major differences due to different character involvement. This B route will be much more streamlined than the A route, and I do not expect it to be as intensive as the A route.

This is where the episode’s total word count and breakdown are currently sitting:

Once both Version A and Version B are complete, I will be able to return to the unfinished routes at the start of the episode.

I do not have an estimate for the Episode 3 alpha’s release date yet. The public build will not receive any content updates until the Episode 4 alpha is complete.

✦ Alpha Build Stats – April 2025

Average Word Count Per Playthrough: 193,900 words (approximate)

Average Playtime: 11 hours

Total Cumulative Word Count: 1,414,800 words (approximate)

The build was last updated in July 2024. It is playable on my Patreon. If you are interested in the alpha, please note that you do not need to restart the game from the beginning. The alpha and public builds share meta data, so any public build saves can be loaded directly into the alpha and they should work.

✦ Socials

Tumblr — @idrellegames

Instagram — @idrellegames

Bluesky — @idrellegames.bsky.social

Patreon — patreon.com/idrellegames

Thank you so much for your continued support! ❤️

~ Anna Idrelle Games

#wayfarer #wayfarer if #announcements #dev log #interactive fiction #interactive novel #twine game #cyoa

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walmart-miku · 5 months ago

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Ok so a vast majority of us are familiar with the Gigantomachia arc in ORV but I took a classical myth class and obviously did my final project on ORV (bc it was to take a modern retelling of a greek myth and relate it to the original/classical myth version). But there are so many layers to Heracle’s involvement in Gigantomachia omg.

So in ORV, both the original myth of Gigantomachia and elements of Heracles’s myths are referenced during the Gigantomachia arc. The version of Gigantomachia in ORV most closely resembles Apollodorus's account from the 2nd century BCE. (This is also the Gigantomachia myth that my professor had my class examine)

For those unfamiliar with Apollodorus’s telling, Gaia, angered by Olympus’s victory over the Titans, enlists the help of Ouranos to birth the giants and exact revenge on the Olympians. The giants, invulnerable to the gods alone, wage war on Olympus. Gaia also tries to make the giants invulnerable to humans as well with a special herb but Zeus manages to get it before she can. Recognizing their limitations, the Olympians call upon Heracles, who deals the killing blow to the giants, securing Olympus's victory. (very similar to the version in the Percy Jackson Gods and Heroes book for those who know)

For Heracles, the way he’s portrayed in ORV deviates significantly from the original myth. In classic Greek mythology, Heracles is a demigod and son of Zeus. He commits some Greek crimes and has to do 10 labors for his evil asshole of a cousin that's also a king. However, in ORV, Heracles is not a real hero but a construct—a composite of stories curated by Olympus to create the ultimate soldier. Heracles is not a constellation or incarnation, but rather a tool made to be used in Gigantomachia. The decision to portray Heracles as a construct stems from the Greek mythological timeline. According to Greek myth, Heracles was born after Gigantomachia and therefore could not have realistically existed during the events of Gigantomachia; however, Heracles does appear in Gigantomachia. (In class we were told to disregard this discrepancy and chalk it up to it being myth and fiction.) However, ORV addresses myth like it is reality. Yoo Sangah asks about this inconsistency, which allows reader’s to clue into what Kim Dokja already knows (from having read WOS NOT because he has a background in greek myth like Yoo Sangah does)

Furthermore, in my class, we discussed how in classical myths, Zeus created Heracles to enforce xenia on Earth. Xenia is the ancient Greek concept of being good to strangers. It’s basically the “love thy neighbor” of Ancient Greece, only more extreme. (Can’t turn away strangers because what if it’s Zeus or a different god, etc.) In ORV, the creation of Heracles differs with “Zeus, the god of lightning, had sowed his seed in preparation for Gigantomachia. As always, the 'seed' here was a metaphor. Zeus feared the giants and collected miscellaneous hero stories from across the world.” (ORV Chapter 330: Ep. 62 - God's Enemy, III). Zeus takes these hero stories and fragments and turns them into Heracles. These fragments include the 12 tasks and come together to create the story that is Heracles. But even though the way Heracles has been created has changed, he is still made for the same purpose. And that is to be a weapon and tool for Zeus to use to enforce his ideals.

With how ORV reimagines Gigantomachia as a recurring scenario staged by Olympus to prevent the giants from rising again. Each repetition of the scenario ensures Olympus's victory, reinforcing their dominance and the story. Due to this fact, Olympus creates Heracles as a weapon and retells the story of their success as a way to manipulate the system. The gods perpetuate the Gigantomachia narrative not only as a tool for victory but as a fabricated story made from fragmented myths. By repeatedly telling this false version of Gigantomachia, Olympus solidifies its victory anecdote within the scenario, ensuring their triumph against the giants every time. According to Kim Dokja, "Once it becomes a story, it can be said to originally exist. Isn't it amazing?" (ORV Chapter 330: Ep. 62 - God's Enemy, III). In other words, ORV explains how a “false” tale can become a real story. This accounts for how traditional Greek mythology describes Olympus’s victory through the involvement of Hercules despite the clear timeline discrepancies, as seen in Apollodorus’s The Library of Greek Mythology, Book I, The revolt of the Giants, “The others [giants] were destroyed by Zeus, who struck them with thunderbolts; and all of them, in their death throes, were shot with arrows by Heracles.”

In addition, in older tellings of the world’s creation, Gigantomachia does not exist or is not written. For example, in The Theogony by Hesiod, Gigantomachia doesn’t exist. The Theogony was written before The Library of Greek Mythology, meaning that with how Heracles is a false story in ORV and was likely created for Gigantomachia then it makes sense for Gigantomachia to have been a story that became popular or well known later due to the effect of repeating Gigantomachia so that Olympus wins.

I don’t know, this is a really long ramble but I think it’s amazing how Shingshong can take classical greek myth and it’s inconsistencies to create a new and compelling story about Olympus. It’s the perfect blend of familiar well known myths with a well done twist to it from how the Star Stream functions. It’s also just super impressive to me how well thought out the whole Giganotmachia arc is since I would have never realized how much thought went into ORV’s version of Heracles if I hadn’t taken this college class.

#i swear taking this class was one of the best things ive done in college bc orv #but in all honesty #idk how many orv fans know this about the gigantomachia arc #bc i read a shit ton of percy jackson and had a bit of a greek myth phase but i never really realized or put together all of this until #i was in lecture and my prof was talking about heracles #god i love orv #orv #omniscient reader's viewpoint #kim dokja #yoo sangah #orv meta #also this is just a really shitty informal remake of my final project for the class lol #(i had to take out a bunch of context stuff that was in there for my prof)

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novantinuum · 5 months ago

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Reformation ref sheet for an AU Steven (named "Astra") who's been invading my brain since like,, April. It's VERY wide, apologies. There's a lot going on here because this man is incredibly old and has poofed way too many times for varying reasons. (See This post for how I headcanon that Steven can poof and still be considered a hybrid being.)

While I will not talk in huge length about certain aspects of his AU on this blog due to some of it involving strong NSFW themes, there is a ridiculous amount of other lore I've developed over time for Astra, and I love him to death. He is my sad, lonely mans who I metaphorically hurl against the wall like a sticky hand when I need to feel something.

This version of Steven will likely never have any kind of full ass fic or comic made about him. Despite that, I do enjoy sharing some art and fun character lore for him from time to time. So, I might as well finally give followers like... literally ANY context for him. I've had this ref sheet for a while and just have never gotten around to throwing it on here, LOL.

Ridiculously long dump about my guy under the cut.

Subnote, this was supposed to be a quick post but I can't help myself and wrote you a fucking BOOK under the cut because I love my guy so much UWU

(Content warning I guess for like, extremely vague mentions of Steven/Steven later on.)

The huge tl;dr of Astra is as follows: he's a version of Steven who exists for SO long that he basically transforms into something of an ancient, lonely god.

He's outlived every single person he once knew as a child, and so as a result is starved for affection. At the same time, being vulnerable is the absolute scariest thing for him and he's really shit at navigating relationships, F.

The guy is THE most powerful living creature in his entire universe by the end, and yet remains a soft-spoken, (generally) benevolent soul. He dedicates himself to acting as caretaker for the vast, populous world he exists within, and to maintain the continuing legacy of Gemkind. A big discovery that occurs in this AU is that Gems are in fact susceptible to entropy over the span of millions of years and will eventually fall "inert," (but not him because of weird hybrid biology stuff he honestly sees as more of a curse than a blessing) so a huge plotline early on in Astra's lifespan is trying to either find a "cure" for this issue or to develop a means by which new generations of Gems can be created without the reinstatement of Kindergartens so Gemkind doesn't overtly go extinct.

But, to start... this Steven diverges off a point in canon- this is the timeline where he actually takes up the Diamonds on their offer of the throne in the movie, believing he may have a better chance of heralding true societal change working from the INSIDE rather than stepping away. Because he pours himself so thoroughly into his role on Homeworld and his mind is continuously occupied by this purpose, he never experiences the events SU: Future, nor does he develop his "pink mode" (yet...) or corrupt at all.

However, he's also so engrossed in his work that he's... kind of a shit boyfriend to Connie as years go on. (In that he's not terribly attentive... always super busy... their visits are often cut short, or few and far between.) Their relationship never really goes anywhere as a result, though Connie wants it to. To be fair so does Steven, but he's so scared that everything he's worked so hard to organize and set up in this new era will fall apart if he steps aside from his role for even a moment that he can't allow himself to follow that want.

At some point here he learns he can poof through a complete freak accident, and that's where things really begin to change in this timeline.

It takes a good few months for him to reform, but once he does he's back at it with all his work on Homeworld pretty quick.

The thing is... he doesn't have an innate physical need to eat or drink or sleep anymore, because he now consists of entirely hard light. It mimics human biology to an insane degree, so he COULD do all those things, but he doesn't need them to persist. So... he kinda takes this as an excuse to cut those activities out of his schedule entirely so he can spend more time focused on his duties as a diamond.

Connie is NOT a fan of this, and this leads to some debate and tension within their relationship. That being said, they remain an item...

Up until out of nowhere, Connie dies in an accident on Earth while Steven is off planet in a place where he doesn't have any contact with them for a few days. By the time the Gems are able to get in touch with him, it's far too late to resurrect her.

The kicker? In the autopsy it's discovered that she was a few weeks pregnant when she died.

Steven is emotionally gutted by this... and the thought of what could have been... and poofs.

The guy is understandably destroyed when he comes back in his next form, and his form reflects that- his gem flips as a sort of metaphorical severing from his own humanity.

He spends a long while in a deep depression at the loss of his childhood sweetheart... at the loss of any potential for (as far as he sees) a "normal" human life. There's a part of him that resents the choices he's made to end up in this present, but like, there's still work to be done.

And as the years move on, a LOT of that work is mitigating the growing relations (for better or for worse) between Gems and humans as humanity stretches their legs and reaches out into the stars. Humans kinda get... really aggressive in their expansion though, and quite territorial, and it leads towards some inevitable conflict between them and Gemkind. This time, with them more at fault. Things get so spicy that some groups of humans and Gems go to war.

Steven tries to mitigate one of these situations at the front lines- and gets poofed by a disgruntled Gem, speared straight through the back because she (kinda wrongly) assumed he would take the humans' side due to his ancestral ties to them.

When he reforms this time, he is glowing a perpetual pink. The Gems don't really know what to make of this, but he seems to be in perfectly fine health otherwise, so they assume it's just a normal aspect of this new neutral form.

And while this isn't something Steven has context to figure out until like... billions of years later, what's actually happened is that he's entered a permanent pink mode, pretty much. Guy's just got that much bottled up, unaddressed trauma.

He spends a long time in this form, and over all these thousands of years oversees the slow return to peace between Gems and humans... their marriage as a space age federation... and their deeper exploration of the galaxy. Beyond their home solar systems exist a bounty of alien species they've yet to meet... some friendly, some less so. There's definitely some conflict that crops up amidst the local galactic neighborhood when Gems and humans show up on the playing field here, lol.

But all-in-all, Steven develops a fairly peaceful and predictable routine during this reformation- living more like a Gem than ever before. He's still got the Crystal Gems at his side through all of this, and they are some of his greatest confidants.

And then... without any warning... Gems begin to go inert. Amethyst is among them.

Some of them simply stop reforming after they poof... especially those who were older Gems, or who have been cracked before. Steven and the other Diamonds using their powers together are able to "fix" this at first and "jumpstart" their reformation, but it's just a bandaid of a fix- these Gems will fall inert again pretty soon. And the longer they persist without poofing from alternate causes, the more unstable their form, power, and memory becomes. (Think of this as Gem dementia at its late stages,,, oof.)

The bottom line? Just like organics, Gems aren't immune to the forces of entropy. Sooner or later, their gemstones will decay from the inside out. Stubborn to find a way to save the ones he loves as he watches them slowly deteriorate all around him, Steven dedicates himself to trying to find a cure. But deep down, a part of him recognizes the futility of this. What he believes Gemkind actually needs to do is to develop a means of rebooting Gem incubation that doesn't destroy planets, so they can rebuild their quickly dwindling population and keep their legacy alive.

The big problem with this is that Gems take a SHIT load of energy and resources to properly incubate, so that puzzle will take a long ass time to sort out. There's kinda a lot of chaos that happens during this time. The reality of their own blunt mortality freaks out a bunch of Gems, and Steven has to do damage control with the heads of state for a lot of other alien species.

In the interim, all the Crystal Gems and some of the Diamonds (White is still in the picture, though) end up falling inert. Pearl is the last of the CGs to do so.

Steven is understandably SUPER gutted about this, and poofs yet again. (Lol notice a theme? Poor mans keeps poofing from friggin' anguish. Help him.)

After reforming with barely any changes, it's right back to work for this guy. He and the rest of his team of researchers are unable to find any cure for Gems decaying and falling inert, but they do end up making huge leaps and bounds in other kinds of tech. One of these advances allows Steven to finally deep-scan his own gemstone down to the atomic level to check for decay- this was previously a process that was very invasive, and came at the risk of irreparably damaging a Gem, but not anymore.

He expects to find evidence of the same micro decay that's been slowly eating away at the rest of Gemkind within his OWN diamond, but the thing is...

He just... ISN'T decaying at all? Even though the sheer age of this gemstone itself should suggest otherwise? As it turns out though, his existence as a hybridized being makes him kind of... an anomaly. When he first reformed all those thousands of years ago, all the data within his gem- data that would otherwise be susceptible to decay- was translated into genetic material. DNA that's woven entirely out of hard-light... but, DNA that has also been constantly regenerating itself thanks to a combination of all the intricate biochemistry surrounding the human telomere and his healing powers.

In other words, he is incapable of falling inert from natural causes, like micro decay. He's functionally immortal. Unless someone shatters him (or... heaven forbid... he shatters himself) he simply can't die.

Which, all of a sudden, makes his race to save Gemkind from their quickly approaching extinction all the more personal. Because if he FAILS- then he'll be the very last of Gemkind. There will be no one else left in this world who is even remotely like him. (Humanity has mixed and mingled with the galactic locals so much by now that they're very much unrecognizable from what they once were.)

His spirit is very nearly broken by this discovery, and he is severely tempted to throw all his own principles out the window and just sanction the construction of new Kindergartens again, if only to keep the dwindling Gem populations up and birth new generations. Perhaps surprisingly, it's White Diamond- the last Gem left who Steven actually knew since the very beginning- who urges him to reconsider. To not give up on his own morality, to not revert all the miraculous changes he's worked for these long few million years.

The big shift in the tides is when he discovers the means to jump to alternate timelines, and thus the existence of the greater multiverse. This allows him to gather intel and ideas from a far greater spectrum of sources.

And eventually... it's with the aid of many alt versions of himself from other lines across the multiverse that leads to him finding a suitable, eco-friendly solution to his Gem incubation problem. (This is the aspect of this AU I cannot discuss in length for discretion's sake. Use your imagination. Or don't, I don't care.)

The following two sections, I'll be talking more about the broad thematics than anything else. At this point, know that there are now new batches of Gems being created all the time. Gemkind is no longer at risk of any extinction, but now- like any stable organic species- new Gems are made at the same rate that they fall inert.

So, the BIGGEST thing here with this reformation is that this is overtly where this guy picks up the name "Astra." Why a name change? Well, after White finally went inert, leaving him the last Diamond in existence within this line, it basically just felt... upsetting to him, to continue to go by a name that every person he ever loved used for him. Thus, the new name is overtly a means to distance himself from that past, and from that pain. (It's also a name he chooses while thinking back to a meaningful conversation he had with White, back before she went inert, oOF. I'll probably yell about that at some point in another post.)

So, too, is the lack of any tangible facial features. He HAS a face, but others just can't see it. He subconsciously obscures it from almost everyone's sight as a means of avoiding vulnerability. One might also have noticed by now that this guy's proportions have gotten like, really strange and sorta "stretched out" over time the larger he becomes... and this is intentional, as it's yet another way he's just becoming more inhuman in form, yet another way he's internally separating himself from those humble human origins of his.

But here's the thing, though.

Deep, deep down, to be human and to live a simple human life is basically all he's ever craved. It's everything he feels he's lost forever, with the death of his Connie. And instead, he's kinda stuck in a hellish sunk cost fallacy of his own making, acting as eternal caretaker for this world that- no matter what he does to try and make it a better place- will never quite be PERFECT. Thus, in his mind, even though he's literally fixed Gemkind's BIGGEST problem, he can't Stop. He can't Rest. He simply can't allow himself himself to lay down and Sink Away into the unknown.

And even if he could allow himself to do so, he is so, so scared of walking that path alone.

If he's going to die... he wants that end to be at a lover's side.

How, though, is someone who's basically a god supposed to find anyone in this multiverse with experiences they can remotely relate to?

Well... ultimately, Astra finds that it's far, far easier to build up a close relationship with varying versions of himself than anyone else. He's... kinda trash at it, though. This guy has so much bottled up Gunk in his head and is so starved for any form of affection that he has a habit of throwing WAY too much of himself into the relationships he engages in, and expecting that same level of commitment in return. There's one relationship with an alt Steven he's in for a while that ends up pretty unhealthily co-dependent before it fizzles out, and then another where he assumes the individual is committing to this partnership for the long run, but then no... actually Astra was always pouring more into this dynamic than he was receiving in return.

This second relationship, when it ends, is pretty devastating to him- since it was one that lasted for like, a LONG ass time. Unimaginably long. We're talking billions of years, here.

Uh-oh! And now he's even more distanced from other people. Folks can't even parse his actual chosen name at this point- except he isn't really consciously aware of this for a while?? It's yet another silent cry for help, yet another internal defense mechanism specially intended to keep others from truly getting to know him. Because every time he does... stars. No matter what he does, he keeps getting hurt. Almost everyone he knows and loves is torn from his life eventually... if not by death, then by some form of tragedy... and he's just so, so tired.

He wants literally ANYTHING to change in his life. He craves some new form of purpose. He craves the attention of someone who might love him as passionately as he loves them.

For a while, he almost believes he's found that- in yet another close relationship he forges with an alt version of himself- but while this other Steven does care for him immensely, it's only as a friend. Which kinda kills Astra, because he's like, lost in the sauce levels of In Love with this guy. There's a LOOOOOOT of story I have here with this, oh my god. If I am thinking about this AU I am usually thinking about this Old Man Yaoi. The great bulk of it is very NSFW themed though, so y'all getting the cliff notes.

The MOST important thing to know though, is that Astra both makes intense leaps and strides in once again allowing himself to be vulnerable with this man, and ALSO kinda intensely fucks their whole mutually agreed situationship up. It's messy. I am crying and wailing at these two old dumbasses. Jesus fucking christ.

But then, it's in the aftermath of this whole deal that an individual named Orion comes into the picture.

Orion quite literally falls into Astra's world by complete accident, but it's a very lucky accident- because she is a diamond hybrid version of Connie from another universe who- beyond a few differences- has a strikingly similar history to his. The big difference, though? She never found a means to create new Gems without Kindergartens, so she was the last of just a few thousand Gems who existed in her entire line. Part of a deeply endangered species.

This version of Connie arrives in some very deep mental turmoil, and so Astra does his best to give them a stable home and a place to heal. And while a past version of him might've been tempted to throw way too much of himself into the slow building rapport they have, he's blessedly Learned a thing or two from the past few major relationship experiences he's had... and chooses to like, ease up. Just offer himself as a friend first and foremost, should they care for one. Man learns restraint, lol.

And it's a damn GOOD thing that he does, because out of the genuine friendship they foster, Orion is the one who ultimately falls in love with him first. The relationship that's established here is one that's balanced, a true partnership where they simply make each other better people. It's through Orion's encouragement that Astra eventually reconnects and makes up with that last person he had an intense relationship with, even.

In time, Astra truly grows to thrive with Orion in his life. He becomes a far more open, vulnerable person, someone who feels safe to truly exist as who he is, to bare every complicated, battered facet of his past to those he trusts. While he may have taken the LONG road to get here, he too heals. And as a result...

One day, Astra simply stops glowing entirely. Shrinks down to more reasonable proportions. He stops hovering around on automatic, stops subconsciously scrubbing the memory of his face or name from people's minds. He stops denying his truest, deepest self- the reality that he was born an organic being, and raised as a human.

The burred reality that all he's ever truly wanted since the day his first lover died is to be a father.

To live a quiet, simple life with the people he loves.

For so long it was a mirage of a future he thought he'd never chase down, but for how much he made all the wrong choices the first time around, now he has a second chance.

And so in my brain, that's exactly what happens. Astra and Orion start a family together and continue to act as guardians over this universe for many years to come, until- after they are satisfied with the long life they've lived together, and their children have moved on to start forging their own paths- they eventually pass Beyond at their own will in each other's arms, ending their impossibly long godhood at peace.

I really don't know how to end this post lmafo, so I will simply say: if you somehow read all of this, holy shit you are so brave. Thank you for engaging with my insane ramblings. Have a nice day LOL FUIHSNUFSJG

This man haunts my brain so much I missed two off ramp turns on the highway the other day while thinking about him. Help me.

#su #su future #steven universe #su fanart #my art stuff #astra #nova rambles #i am going Insane please help #i will never write a full fic but i DO have like a ridiculous amount of outlined lore for him #yeah sure why NOT make a three am post. i am insane and this man is the object of my insanity. this is all you need to know.#i am so Tired help me

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mr-jack-letterman · 1 year ago

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HELLO HI

God I love the Submas fandom, all of you are so nice <3

In any case, I have a silly Au for y'all to munch on.

Allow me to introduce you all to Covalent Twins :]

Covalent

Adjective

- Relating to or denoting chemical bonds formed by the sharing of electrons between atoms.

Or in this case, the sharing of Emmet between 2 Ingos from different timelines NSNDNNDDD.

This Au is essentially the answer to the question: "doesn't being sent to the distant past inherently mean you are also now long dead in the future you just left?"

The answer is yes and no btw

The explanation for this involves a lot of time nonsense that I'm very bad at explaining but the Tldr is basically this:

When Ingo gets sent to the past, this creates a connection between the past and the future. This makes time get all fucky and split into two separate timelines (Timeline A and Timeline B)

Timeline A:

Time in this timeline runs parallel to the future as long as Ingo stays within it (essentially, if Ingo stays in the past for 2 years, then 2 years pass in the present).

Due to this connection, Akari (aka Dawn) gets sent to this timeline (But not Timeline B) and the game events of PLA play out (+ a lot more Ingo bonding because uncle Ingo supremacy)

Akari manages to get her and Ingo sent back home with the power of Arceus, causing both timelines to merge back together again into one cohesive line with only the events of Timeline B being remembered by history.

Ingo and Emmet get their happy ending.

This Ingo got sent to Hisui when he was 29, stayed there for 2 years, and went home when he was 31.

And Timeline B:

This timeline was created as a cannon fodder timeline so Akari and Ingo can keep doing time shenanigans in Timeline A without disturbing the space time continuum even more.

This timeline is therefore not connected to the future the same way Timeline A is.

The Ingo of this timeline (Nicknamed "War" or "Warden" for simplicity.) lives through the PLA game events but with Rei taking the place of Akari.

War doesn't bond with him the same way Ingo does with Akari because Rei isn't a faller.

The events of the game are the exact same (minus the Arc phone, Rei taking the place of Akari, and catching Arceus).

Despite Rei calming the nobles and catching Palkia and Dialga, he is still not the chosen hero. Warden is unable to go home or regain his memories.

Warden lives in Hisui and serves as a warden for the Pearl Clan for a total of 7 years before dying alongside his partner pokemon, Gliscor (nicknamed Nimbasa), while protecting Lady Sneasler from a Zoroark attack at the age of 36.

Warden drifts as a ghost for many years, with only Nimbasa the Gliscor as company. He watches his friends grow old, and eventually die. They pass on to the afterlife, but Warden stays on earth, wandering the Alabaster Icelands and Mount Coronet, searching for people from a life he can't remember even in death.

Warden watches as Hisui changes into Sinnoh. Jubilife Village becomes Jubilife City. Pokemon species die out and new ones are born.

As the world slowly becomes more and more familiar, the great Sinnohs, Palkia and Dialga, take pity on the lost warden, and decide together to lead him home.

It may take 150 years, and many miles of travel, but Warden is pulled by an unknown force towards the Unova region. Though he is unable to touch anything or speak to anyone, it's all so painfully familiar.

He is pulled towards Nimbasa city, (ah! That's where he got the name from!) and eventually to an apartment.

There, he is greeted by a young girl, barely 17. A man in black, who looks exactly like him, give or take a few years and a few scars.

And a smiling man in white. The man he has been searching for for over 150 years...

And they're staring at him, truly staring at him, not through him.

Why is the man in white crying?

*evil laughter.mp3*

So yeah! The twins have an older brother now :D

I mean he's dead and also Ingo just 5 years older and from a different timeline but still!!!

If you've made it this far I believe you deserve a gold star ⭐ and also some art for your troubles.

So here's War and Nimbasa ↓

And some fluffy interaction between War and Emmet as a bandaid.

If you guys have any questions regarding how this Au works, or are interested in seeing more of it, don't hesitate to shoot me an ask :D

I hope I enjoyed reading about my silly Au, even if it was a bit long lol.

*fades back into the void of Submas fics.*

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corviiids · 9 months ago

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i loved your answer to the ooc question... penny for your thoughts on the Core of ren and goro? 👉👈🥺

rubbing my little bug hands together i dunno that i can capture all my whole... mental Akeshu Bible... in one post... but here are some notes on what i'd consider one of the most key points for each.

basically the way this works for me is ill have like a central piece of understanding sitting at the core of how i work with a character, and then let instinct guide their dialogue/behaviour from there.

i wrote a thesis again. two in fact. jesus christ

goro - sincerity is mystifying, dangerous, and impossible, but alluring.

can i talk about light yagami for a second. are we all going to be okay with it if i do that. that's going to make this easier for me to explain

i think light yagami and goro akechi have almost nothing in common once we get past the most obvious similarities - the cynicism borne of shattered once-upon-a-time idealism, the willingness to turn to radical action, the bad hair. anyway the difference i want to point out arises from another key similarity which i think only exists on the surface - the "evil underside true self" counterpart to the "pleasant preppy perfect boy" persona. looks the same. but the difference is that light never struggles with that falsehood, and akechi clearly does.

what i mean by that is i think to light, his perfect persona is nothing more than a simple disguise, albeit one he's been wearing a while without knowing why. he doesn't really have a fractured sense of self, because it's clear that the light yagami who is kira is the True self. the light yagami who is just a nice young man is mostly a falsehood to the point light sees him as a character to be played. (ok this is also an oversimplification but go with me for now. okay. that's the basic of it. just accept this for the sake of argument. this aint about him)

goro is very different. i think in the lead-up to the interrogation room, goro understands himself in a similar way, but after the interrogation room that perception is called into question. okay, i think about the interrogation room scene a lot, because i really didn't like goro's behaviour in that scene when i first played it, i thought it was a very cheap and superficial way to reveal his identity as the traitor by making him act as cartoonishly villainous as possible. and tbh i dont want to give atlus too much credit for creating a super nuanced scene there so what im about to propose is probably unintentional. but anyway, i eventually came around to it because i decided that that cartoonish villanousness must be a choice to goro. at that point in time, goro's perception of himself is akin to light's understanding of kira: black mask/shido's assassin/evil motherfucker is "the true goro", and pleasant boy detective prince is nothing but a mask.

and here i would like to bring up a complicating factor which makes light and goro very, very different. light wants to live. he refuses the shinigami eyes because he wants to exist in his new world to rule over it indefinitely. goro's plan on the other hand has a fixed timeline. goro is aware, and tells us in the engine room, that once his public reputation is shattered, he has nothing. goro's plan involves outing shido by outing himself. ergo, goro's plan is to take shido to the top and then torpedo them together, leaving them both with nothing.

what does this mean? light yagami's mask protects kira - light's true self and a man who wants to live. goro akechi's mask serves the black-masked assassin, but the black-masked assassin serves shido, a role which is just as deceptive as the detective prince. which means goro akechi's disguise protects a self that isn't real, either. it feels disingenuous to say that the version of akechi who exists to be shido's attack dog is his true self. so that goofy villainous smile in the interrogation room is, to me, goro convincing himself that that evil face is who he really is, not realising it's another facade he's playing up - but while the prince's audience is the public, the assassin's audience is goro himself. after that whole thing goes down, i think it becomes clearer that that evil face was goro pretending to himself that he's just a straight up villain who doesn't care about anything because that's easier than conceding that you might feel some complicated way about the self-loathing and bitterness you've been nurturing since childhood.

but wait, there's definitely also truth to the black mask. there's no way to deny that the akechi who attacks them in the engine room had a ton of truth to him that the detective prince lacked. but, wait. goro doesn't perfectly keep up the facade with the detective prince, either, because there are definitely times where he's being honest even when he's being the pleasant boy.

okay, where does that leave us? light has one layer of falsehood (light protects kira), but goro has at least two (detective prince protects black mask protects ???) so what the hell is goro hiding? where's the true self? is the version of akechi who showed up in the interrogation room the black mask, or is it shido's assassin? are those two different guys who overlap? does this mean everything the detective prince said is suspect? we don't know which one is true, but we know they're both lying.

okay. why? what's wrong with him? i should get to my actual fucking point maybe?

this is the central thesis of his shadows in palacefic btw. rather than being divided into a relatively clean true/false like light, goro's true self is split between his personae. every time you talk to any version of goro akechi, you're getting some lies but you're also getting some sincerity. i think goro doesnt know who he is because he doesn't see any particular use for having a real self at the end of the day, only masks he can use to achieve his ends.

except you can't actually kill your true self. it sticks around. so the most he can do is fragment it. but the consequence is the shards get stuck in his masks. every time he tries to put on a mask, a shred of truth peeks out. i think goro wants to not exist and not be known, but inside every mask he wears is a true part of him that desperately DOES want to be known, but can't allow it, but wants it, but is scared of it, but wants it, but hates it, but will die if it happens, but wants it.

what you end up with is a really self-contradictory guy where every time he talks, the things he's saying are simultaneously true and false. it's the worst with ren, because he's really interested in ren, but allowing ren to know him is suicide. light's really good at playing the part because he has no investment in the part, it's purely fake, and all his investment is in his true self. but goro is invested in each of his masks, because each of his masks contains part of him for real and there's no unified self to return to at the end of the day. so he struggles way more with the act than light does, because there's a part of him, however small, that really wants to drop the mask. but he can't, because there's nothing behind it, so there's nothing he can do

anyway when i write goro's dialogue and behaviour, it's not just writing a guy lying and playing a part because he needs the cover, it's goro injecting himself into mould after mould after mould and trying to keep a balance of how much he can reveal vs how much he needs to keep close to his chest. this is why he talks so fucking much, it's why his speech mannerisms aren't always perfectly polished, it's why the mask slips so often, it's why he's so cartoonishly evil at times, and it's why while light yagami is a popular guy who has everyone around him perfectly fooled, goro akechi is really only able to appeal to the subset of fans who are keen on his particular celebrity style while other people find him kind of annoying and disingenuous. when im writing akechi in xyz situation, it's a process of working out which mask he's wearing, what he wants to achieve, what he's hiding, how much he can or would slip, and what that slip might look like. i think this is heightened because of his circumstances, but i also think goro would be incredibly guarded and paranoid no matter what his circumstances were (although the murder might decrease a little).

tl;dr: goro akechi tries to do away with his sense of self but only succeeds in splitting it into a hundred million pieces covered in lies, each of which is desperate to be known but shies away with equal desperation

ren - in a distant relationship with the sense of self

idk that thats the right word but basically i think in true persona protag fashion, and as alluded to by beneath the mask / the power of the wild card / etc the relationship between ren's personae and his 'true self' is more complicated and detached than most of the other characters. i dont agree that the protags are true "blank slate" protagonists in the meta sense but i do think ren is a "blank slate" person in-text in that simultaneously he has extremely strong core values and beliefs which are absolutely immovable, and traits which shine through even in his limited speech, but the manifestation of his personality is a lot more malleable than say ryuji's is. ren is very flexible and wears a different mask depending on who he's talking to. i think that requires a level of detachment which manifests as basically centering his companion's character + needs in a given interaction over his own. this doesnt just come through in his dialogue but also in the way he internally reflects on what's happening.

the way this manifests most obviously in how i write him is that my ren (in texts especially but also in dialogue) has a tendency to omit his personal pronoun (in subject position).

that gives him kind of a laid-back vibe. he has a habit of omitting the first part of a sentence entirely.

he adds it back in when he's talking about something more serious, very alert, feeling uncomfortable, etc. it happens a lot when he talks to akechi because he needs to be very switched on during those conversations to keep up.

idk i know that for some people the joy of having a protagonist character is being able to make them into whoever you want them to be - so your ren might be extra flirty for example which i think is a really popular characterisation of him because it's fun and it has some basis in his dialogue, and it's a choice i went with for a while before i started shifting away from it. recently i've been way more interested in trying to reconcile this really strong-willed guy with a clearly rich and rebellious inner life with the quiet slouched character who says like 3 words every conversation and who really never reveals anything about himself. like, imagine he's a real person and not just a blank slate protagonist i can push and pull - how do i make his little mousy 8< self work with the fact that he's an international criminal without adding something on top that isn't already there in him? i think there's a way to do it and i think the way to do that is to have him internalise as much as possible. for everything he says, there are a billion things he doesn't say. that makes it really fucking difficult to actually portray him sometimes because his rich inner life can really only come through if we have access to his inner monologue, and if he's not the pov character we don't, but you know, i love a stupid fucking self imposed challenge. ren amamiya is like laying breadcrumb clues in his dumb ass 3 word dialogue options that im crawling over like weevils with a magnifying glass

but he DOES leave clues! so many of his dialogue options are sarcastic and dry or straight up goofy. so he's funny, he's deadpan, he can be impatient. but if you take that too far in dialogue, it gets overplayed, and he loses his taciturn charm, so you have to pull it back, because he's restrained, not overt. he's quippy, he's not wordy. he's a show-off, but in a self-assured way. he will never indicate in any way that he wants you to look at him. he'll just make sure he's so impressive that you can't look away. if he winks, it's like he's keeping a secret between you, not like he's putting on a show. he delivers one-liners only, not full jokes, and the setup and knockdown has to be in the same breath. if his thoughts can't be condensed into one sentence, two or three max, he doesn't say them, he keeps it to himself. whether his emotions show on his face depend on how well you can read him, and it depends who he's with, it depends how recently he's been joker, it depends if there's some extenuating factor in there that's going to make him crack. ren's more likely to crack if he's standing up for someone else.

his inner monologue is just as interesting to grapple with because my ren is pretty repressed. the more upset he is, the more he distances himself from how he's actually feeling. he's very good at deflecting people and he's also very good at deflecting himself - focus on someone else, focus on the environment around him, focus on some physical sensation, don't get too far into his own head, or else

tl;dr: ren handles himself with a mix of internalising and externalising by swallowing down everything he might want to say out loud but outsourcing and distancing from his sense of self to keep himself steady

#THIS IS OVER TWO THOUSAND WORDS #i am so sorry. dont read this. dont even look at me #asks #rookthots #the tldr tldr is theyre both repressed

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queermarzipan · 17 days ago

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i could write a whole essay on the progression from nine -> ten -> tentoo as the only way timepetals would've happened and bad wolf pulling strings in the most poetic way possible & the kisses would take up an entire paragraph by themselves bc WHAT.

nine is the one that meets rose. he is obviously necessary. so many people have written about how rose is prfect for tardis life -- she loves it to the end of the universe -- and yet is still so utterly utterly human. and so is the literal perfect person for the doctor to love and heal from the time war with bc HE NEEDS HUMANITY. SO BADLY. AND HE NEEDS HIS BOX AND HIS LIFE-THREATENING ADVENTURES AND SAVING THE DAY. and guess what rose is fucking both. two halves of a circle that, in s1-4 RTD, are juxtaposed against each other over and over and over again just to hammer in the point of how FUCKING IMPOSSIBLE it usually is to square that circle. DK how we got from "two halves" to "squaring circles" you get me. you understand what i mean

And people also often talk about Ten being based off the doctor's love for rose. being born of a sacrifice to save her. but - and this is my new thought - the doctor needed to regenerate in the first place. for the love story to happen properly. because of fucking Bad Wolf!! HOW MANY TIMES have people talked about Bad Wolf pulling strings in the timeline to create TenToo, to get Rose's family all settled in a parallel universe where there will necessarily be a clean break and goodbye for everyone involved, even possibly ensuring that Canary Wharf happened so that she'd find her stride in a human life and be fully able to (eventually) settle down????

But all of that necessitates Bad Wolf happening, and Bad Wolf requires that the Doctor regenerate so that Rose can live on. Ten's very regeneration is integral to the love story just as Tentoo's is.

And Tentoo. I mean do I even need to say fucking anything about Tentoo. The Doctor regenerates (!!!), which creates the opportunity for a random swordfight to cut off his hand with basically no long-term consequences to him, and then during the one literal moment that he's not looking, after he's recovered the hand and is keeping it on the tardis (due to... someone... getting hold of it and using the convenient DNA sample to torture him), when he's literally running to rose. a random dalek suddenly appears and shoots ONLY HIM before being immediately taken out by Jack. & HE'S JUST GOT ROSE BACK!! HE DOESN'T WANT TO CHANGE!! The psychological moment alone is astounding. SO HE USES THE HAND TO NOT CHANGE, AND LO AND BEHOLD, A WILD HUMAN-LIFESPAN JOB-AND-MORTGAGE LIFE HAS APPEARED.

I can't stress enough how much this is the most perfect thing ever to me. like seriously. I love timepetals so much

#doctor who #timepetals #ninerose #tenrose #tentoorose #my second ever tentoo appreciation post #i should do this more often it's great #dw txt #rose tyler #bad wolf #the tardis #ninth doctor #tenth doctor #tentoo #doctor who meta #i'd like to give it the tag in case ppl like it #marzipan speaks

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pink-sheep-obey-me · 29 days ago

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TBHK SPOILERS!!!!

The time loop theory is honestly so scary and I kinda do believe it? It makes soooo much sense. But none at the same time...? For those of you who don't know the time loop theory is the theory that the universe we're currently in is the og universe. The theory basically speaks about how we're in a time loop and the reason Hanako's fate was able to change was BECAUSE of Nene, and that's why she has a short lifespan, it's her sacrifice in order to get back to the old timeline. Kako says

"'Every new owner arrogantly believed they would do better and turned back time again and again to fulfill their desires. But not one of them obtained the future they wished for. In vain, they warped the present... and fell to ruin lost in despair,'"

NENE IS THAT YOU?????? Ok but seriously, if the theory is true that means Nene probably went back in time to before and sacrificed her life and all that. But what is she went back even further? We know the hourglass WANTS to be used, it could've convinced Nene to try and save Hanako. So he wouldn't have died in the first place. Maybe SHE'S the reason the reason he ends up killing his brother, the more you go back in time the more reality starts to get distorted, maybe she triggers something that makes Amane kill Tsukasa. The biggest flaw in this theory is how would Nene have met Amane if she's from the current timeline, and my answer to that is I HAVE NO IDEA! THE WONDERS OF BEING PART OF THR TBHK FANDOMS ARE VERY LARGE!!! Supernaturals still exist no mater what, and we know she's prone to some time related issues so maybe she still meets baby amane and he makes the whole "I want to meet Nene-oneesan" wish again and that's what creates the cycle. I honestly don't know, that is so far reaching I dont even think it should be considered a theory 😭. But it's fun to think about. If nothing else we know Nene is HEAVILY involved with time. Which is especially evident in recent chapters. So she definitely has a very large connection to it.

We still don't know how Nene is gonna die, obviously the Fandom has some very large ideas but nothing we can be certain of. Being in this fandom is a prison 💔

#tbhk hanako #tbhk #toilet bound hanako kun #jibaku shounen hanako kun #nene is important #yashiro nene #jshk hanako #clock keepers #125 #ch 125 #spoilers #theory #not even sure if this theory is popular. I just saw someone mention it once and I ran with it.#og timeline #timeline #time loop

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dannyphantom1234 · 1 year ago

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Reborn as Dan Phantom.

A fan of the show is reborn as Dan, the evil version of Danny just as he was created— but what no one knew was a fangirl had taken over the body and knew just what to do to help her family that would suffer what she just went through unless she did something to help. So— she creeped towards Clockwork, stole the time medallion, went to the timeline of the original, and immediately took over as big brother figure to help these poor children from suffering the future they would have to endure alone without adult supervision.

She— now he— didn’t care for gender, and just wanted to help and protect his new(ish) family from bad people. What he didn’t know was he was also thrown alongside the dc universe, which was an awesome discovery on his part later on.

Dan— or Dante— as he wished to be called, came to the group with sorrow in his heart as he explained what would happen in the future if Danny cheated on his test, not that it was anyone’s fault but fates. He explained how no one was at fault and it could all be avoided if he could help it.

He took over the ghost fights, and had a long talk with Clockwork about what would happen and his real purpose for being there.

His original timeline was obviously erased, and the only reason he survived was because of the medallion, so later he had to go through ghost magic and make himself his own person, gained a whole butt load of tattoos intertwined with ghost time magic and becomes the next king of the infinite realms after defeating the old guy easily after seeing him beat up his little bro.

Dante became king instead of Danny and took over all the overloaded paperwork along the way.

What he didn’t know, was that he would be summoned because of his status. He really thought the fan fictions were just exaggerating what would happen if he was ever given the position and power. Well, it was all true from what he read.

(I’m making this a Dante/King Phantom x Jason Todd/Red Hood).

He made an actual legal identity for himself with the help of Technus and Tucker, who became better pals after they set aside the fact that they attacked each other at some point or another.

Danny became a little brother to him, Jazz became his little sister who likes to treat him as if he were still Danny at times, and Danielle became his daughter.

Dante legally adopted Dani after they got his papers in order, and made her an identity as well. Elle was much younger than he remembered, but then again, she was deaged recently and just came back into contact with the group, who couldn’t take care of her because they were still children as well.

Vlad was still a little evil but leveled out after a huge diabolical involving Maddie, their so called mother.

Madeline Fenton had thought her son and daughter conspired with the ghosts and attacked them in their own home, Danny was greatly injured with multiple blast wounds and Jazz suffered a concussion while trying to push him out of the target zones.

Jack had football tackled Madeline and the rest was history.

Vlad had fallen out of love with her after seeing what she did to her own children, and instead got his head out of his butt and realized he was in love with Jack all along.

Jack divorced Madeline, took custody of his kids and decided they should move, all while Vlad made plans to take down GIW with Team Phantom.

Jack and Vlad met him and decided to emotionally adopt Dante as well in their messed up family.

Dante got a job as a mechanic and started his own business in Gotham. Very cliche from all the fanfics he read in his past life but he wanted to do something he knew and loved. He loved fixing things and his side job as the king of the infinite realms was basically being like a father to ghost children while scolding those who thought it was a good idea to attack innocent mortals.

He mainly spent his time raising Danielle. Giving her everything she deserves and making her happy now that his family was safe.

He was randomly summoned by the Justice League who were ready to full on attack him until they saw him reading to his child, not realizing he was summoned until someone cleared their throat. He was literally in his own little bubble, reading his two year old daughter a storybook while holding her against his chest as he floated above the ground, laid back in a relaxed position.

How it would go:

I looked up from the book after feeling a sudden shift in my surroundings, seeing multiple very brightly dressed people in front of me. I glared, shifting completely into my ghost king form while holding my daughter close to my chest. The storybook I was reading had disappeared into a pocket dimension for later, as I had to deal with this madness.

“Who in their right minds would summon the Ghost King? I literally burnt all those summoning books to ash.” I grumbled, and looked down to see Elle had slightly woken up at the sound of my deep voice.

“Dada?” She mumbled, rubbing her right eye as she sat up from my chest.

“It’s alright, Elle,” I rumbled, kissing her forehead as she plopped back down to take her nap again at my reassurance. “We can finish reading time later today.” I murmured to her as she went back to snoozing.

“What do you want, mortals?” I asked nonchalantly.

“Why does the ghost king have a child? And how in the hell are you not attacking us as the books state?” Zatanna asked, looking on at me in shock.

“You willingly want to be attacked after summoning me? That’s idiotic. “ I state, looking bored with their conversation. I still held Elle close, not answering their questions about my child just yet.

“No, a bloody idiot summoned you just as we defeated him as a last defense!” Constantine spat out, looking hysterical.

“Well, sorry to break the news, coward, but the last king was defeated by me after trying to take over the world, he is now locked away in forever sleep until we can find a way to get rid of him completely.” I explained to the coward looking at me in shock on the ground, bruises across his face and the usual weird looking villain costume on him.

I looked around for a quick second before stopping at the Batfam. Who were all here in a more relaxed formation seeing a child in my arms. My favorite fandom family in my last life.

I looked them over before spotting the Red Hood, my celebrity crush I had on him was no secret to my family, but they had no room to judge for themselves.

His aura admitted contaminated ectoplasm, and I knew I had to heal him sometime in the future.

“May I ask what your goals are? And who is this child?” Superman spoke up after a moment of digesting my information about my new position.

“I protect both living and the undead. I don’t have a world ending goal in mind, just to raise my daughter and give her the life she deserves.” I said, looking down at my daughter with a small smile that would be unnoticeable to most.

I looked back up to see the large group had softened at my words and I was about to ask a question about Red Hood, when my daughter suddenly decided this was taking too long and too much noise for her to take a nap.

“Dada! Where puppy?” She demanded answers, smacking the side of my face with her chubby hands, as I floated there, unmoving with an emotionless face towards the group.

“Cujo is with the twerp, remember? He will come by later for playtime.” I answered, which was slightly muffled as she squished my cheeks together and smiled at me happily.

“Dada! Fishh—“ she squealed out, looking happy with herself as she giggled at my face.

“You gremlin—“ I muttered out, tickling her sides as she squeaked, her flying out of my arms and turning into her young ghost form, looking ready to play.

“Playtime?” She asked, bouncing a little in the air, clapping her hands a little.

“Not yet, blob ghost. We need to head back home for snack time.” I explained, crossing my arms as she pouted, my arm muscles bulged a bit as I crossed them, and I still always forget the fact that I’m taller than most, alongside bigger. In my past life, I was a stick of a girl that had spaghetti arms, much different for sure.

Her pouting turned into the famous puppy eyes, and I turned back to the group to avoid them, only to see amused faces all around.

“Do you guys need anything before we head back? I’m sure you don’t want to deal with a Princess tantrum.” I rumbled out, looking on in disinterest as Elle decided to hug the side of my face like an octopus. She probably still had the puppy eyes on.

“You have an adorable daughter!” Princess Diana exclaimed soon after I was finished speaking. “How old is she?” She asked, looking at me curiously as I lowered myself to the ground, Elle now floating behind my head as she played with my low ponytail.

“She is now two years old.” I answered, swiftly nabbing Elle from behind me while reaching the back of my head. I lowered my arms to see I had her upside down now, her hanging like a sack of potatoes as she giggled.

“Dada!” Elle exclaimed, waving her arms around her in glee as she looked up at me.

“You don’t feel like a ghost completely… neither does she, what are you exactly?” Constantine asked, waving his hand at me in confusion.

“I don’t know if I can trust you with that information, Constantine.” I growled a little, glaring at him as he stepped forward while Elle hid behind me.

“Hey now! Let’s calm down, no one needs to start anything!” Nightwing stepped in front of the glaring Constantine who looked more and more like a bug the longer I looked at him.

“There isn’t anything to start, really. His soul is in shreds at the moment, not very powerful compared to my kind anyway.” I stated, crossing my arms once again as Elle peaked out from over my shoulder.

“Now, I need to speak with a Mr. Red Hood.” I said, looking on at the Batfam who tensed at my words.

“Why?” Batman growled out, stepping in front of the confused Red Hood.

“To heal him, of course.” I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose as I heard sounds of confusion from everyone else.

“His ectoplasm is very corrupted. He has the ghost flu, in which case makes my kind very moody and in need of pure ectoplasm to filter it and his emotions.” I briefly explained, unpinching my nose as I looked up from the ground. Willing my headache away for now.

“So his pit madness is basically the ghost flu?” Red Robin murmurs out hysterically, almost giggling in disbelief.

“Yes, I have heard of his haunt, Crime Alley, that being under his protection, I have never stepped foot on his property because I didn’t want to seem like a threat to a sick person who can’t control themselves completely with such a sickness.” I explained myself a bit nervously, rubbing the back of my neck a little with my right hand as Elle now sat on my left shoulder, swinging her legs.

“Wow, the ghost king is a dork…” I heard Spoiler mutter to Orphan, who nodded in agreement.

I huffed, crossing my arms and floated once again. “I can come back another time. I just wished to help a little. My doctor can probably fix him quicker than I, but I know what to do as I have studied under him for more than over a year now.” I informed them.

“So the pit madness can go away…?” Red Hood asked, stepping from around Batman to speak to me clearly.

“I’m unsure of what this “Pit Madness” is, but yes, I can heal you and make sure you properly get the help you need from your emotional roller coaster sickness.” I said, looking down at him as he took a few more steps to me, his family following behind him.

“Well, when can you fix me?” He asked, his voice modifier cutting all emotions from his voice, but I can clearly feel his emotions bursting from his almost formed core. It seems this sickness had stopped him from forming his core completely and left him sick for many years.

I could feel his hope, his rage and especially his bursts of want for some reason.

“I can fix you right now, but I wasn’t sure if you wanted privacy or not. It’s very…. Intimate. I can take you somewhere private if you would like?” I rumbled out, the burst of want came out more clearly, and I could tell Red Hood was clearly not expecting that word choice.

“Take me anytime—“ I could clearly hear his muttered out answer behind his helmet with my enhanced hearing, but I don’t know if I was supposed to hear that.

“Nope! Little Wing— you are not going with the ghost king—“ Nightwing suddenly yelled out, the whites of his mask bigger as Spoiler, Red Robin, and Signal burst into loud laughter. Batman sighed loudly in disappointment. Robin just “Tt” and sighed alongside his father, looking like a mini bat. Orphan just smiled at me.

“By intimate, I mean having a look at your soul, I will essentially have to take a closer look at that and cure you.” I fixed my words, making it seem as if I didn’t hear anything and I could feel a little disappointment coming from Red Hood but he nodded at my explanation.

#dc x dp #danny phantom #danny fenton #dp x dc crossover #Dante Fenton #jason todd #jason todd x danny fenton #danny fenton x jason todd #batman #dc universe #dp x dc prompt #dp x dc fic #random thoughts #please don’t even take this seriously #I had an idea and threw it onto the internet because I’m currently sleep deprived and overworked

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mozart-in-a-gokart · 9 months ago

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My Thoughts On How Five Could Have Had A Romance In Season 4 That Doesn’t Involve His Siblings Or Lila

You guys voted for it so…

Here it is! So far it’s been an overwhelming majority telling me to share so here you go! There’s only two ways IMO that the introduction and execution of giving Five a love interest could have been done well.

I’ve never taken a screen writing class and this all may sound very fanfictiony. For that I am sorry. This is the first time I’ve actually posted a full rundown of a character that I’ve created online for people to read about, consider, and discuss with me! Also This post is so VERY long. I MEAN IT. I will not make you scroll through it if you aren’t interested! More below!

You can scroll down if you don’t wanna read any of the introductory info. It makes more sense if you do though. Your life though man! I’ll have it separated from the actual story bits!

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!Start of Introductory Information!

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Basic Character Information

I have given both love interests neutral names and tried to be as gender neutral with how I’m writing this as possible.

I am fully FOR the idea of Five being an Ace or Aroace icon. I adore his character and fully embrace all variations of him. (That being said I wish I had the ability to shove the home wrecker version of him we received in season 4 underwater and hold him there until I see the bubbles stop.)

Both of these options for love interests can and are intended to be open to being ace or non-ace regardless. These are just ideas that can be tweaked!

Also If you all like these I am debating writing either of the options into a few one shots? However, If you all hate them I won’t. (If you like anything you read in here I fully encourage you to use bits of it if you like the ideas. I love seeing people write stories and come up with their own versions. You all inspire me and helped inspire these characters!)

Both these versions of love interests would have bits of common background.

Both of these variants would start off as someone that he is established to work with at the CIA. (These organizations do not just let people do whatever they want whenever and with whomever they want.) They could have written it similar to season one with Diegos relationships. How Diego had this established life in an organization that he left. Diego established ties and interpersonal relationships with his coworkers which is not out of the norm. Acquaintances, Friends, rivals. All normal things that could develop between Five and a coworker similar in age to his physical body over the course of a SIX YEAR PERIOD.

Both of them will always take Five at his word. Neither variant of love interest would distrust him. Both know he’s not one to beat around the bush. If he says something he means it. Five is a blunt character regardless of how tired of all the work he’s doing all the time. This is an established character trait of his. The love interest would be USED to how BLUNT he is.

To Establish Age And Timeline: Five is stated to be in a 13 year old body in season 1 and that ends in April. Seasons 2 and 3 happen over the course of a few weeks for him. Then season 4 happens and he’s about 19 physically. I’m pushing season 4 so it’s more like a 7 or 8 year time-skip instead. Having Five be in a relationship like this ace or not at physically 19 is just odd for me. It feels wrong. So in order to make a romance work in this situation you’d need to push it further down the timeline. Make Fives physical age 20 or 21. It makes the audience feel better about seeing him involved with someone, Ace Or No Ace, and it allows for more wiggle room when they explain he’s now working for a government agency. People would be more inclined to believe he’s allowed to work for the government because he’s at the very least physically an adult man now. (Aiden Gallagher is 20 years old so him actually playing a 20-21 year old Five is not out of reach) — With that in mind both love interests would be the same physical age as Five and were recruited to the CIA because they were prodigies in their respective fields, but they went through training and recruitment with Five during the 7-8 year period we don’t get to see during the start of season 4.

This bullet is just so you understand some of the choices I make later in my run downs: Five has always just kind of done what he wants and gone where he wants so I think there’s a great opportunity for a running gag or even just a fun plot point about how in order to keep tabs on Five both love interests have their own special way of tracking him. (Explanations further below)

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!End Of Introductory Information!

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The Actual Characters

1—: Optimistic Opposite Partner : his handler researcher he always calls, personable, soft, NEEDS approval, and a prodigy

For this post let’s refer to Optimistic Opposite Partner as, Ash

2— Pragmatic Mirror Partner : his work partner, stubborn, practical , dry, Hot headed, and always left out

For this post we’ll refer to Pragmatic Mirror Partner as, Morgan

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Both Ash and Morgan would highlight different aspects of Five’s character in, at least from my point of view, very delightful ways. I think characters like these would be a great addition to the story if we got more episodes to insert them and add more interactions with All of The Umbrellas. For now however I will only be inserting them into the story that we got so there’s less interaction with the whole Hargreeves family. I will however do what we all know is right and disregard the cannon ending. I will be writing this under the assumption that the show would end how I detailed in my previous post where I detailed how I thought season 4 should have ended. That post can be found HERE.

Another Note: I’m not writing fully fleshed stories just bulleted versions of arcs and scenes I believe would have been better than what we got. Specifically and mostly following the “lost in the subways among the timelines” bit.

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Main Key Ash:

Five - Blue Text

Ash - White Text

Diego — Green Text

Lila — Pink Text

Luther — Orange Text

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THIS IS WHERE THE ACTUAL STORY BITS START

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Ash

They are the cute and fun character that eventually gets pushed a little too far.

They are the person Five is calling at the CIA every time he needs background research done. And I mean every single time.

When you think of this dynamic think Varric and Zhu Li From LOK mixed with a dash of Garcia and Morgan from criminal minds. Ladybug And Maria from Bullet Train.

The first time we see them is when he gets out of the meeting with his boss in that first episode. Maybe Give goes to his office and there they are set up across from him with a quirked eye brow.

“So how’d it go? Wait let me guess? Not well?”

“I really don’t need this from you right now Ash.”

“Too bad.”

“You know what I really need is—“ he stops as the camera focuses on a to go cup of coffee steaming on his desk already.

“Why did you—“

Ash gets up “I figured you’d need it. You got a party to get to. Lots of screaming kids.” They wave as they walk out the door. “If I were you I’d chug it! Have a good night!”

We see five irritated beyond belief silently indicate that Ash has a point, pick up the cup and drink from it with no hesitation. In one scene we establish that at the very least Ash knows Five very well and Five seems to trust Ash because he without hesitation accepts the coffee and takes the advice to chug it.

Ash Tracks him through his phone. He has a government issued one. It needs to be used like this because as we saw in the show in other seasons, Five just goes where he wants. He did that when he had powers. He does it now. As his research assistant THATS EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING. A scene that could happen is

“I can’t believe you’re in ‘New Grumpson right now.”

“I told you to stop tracking me.”

“How else am I supposed keep tabs on you Five? You never tell me where you’re going. What am I gonna do when you need back up? Just throw a dart at a map and hope I’m right?”

“Look can you just send me the file I need”

“I can’t just fax it anywhere it’s classified.”

“It’ll be fine just—“

“Too late I’m already here.”

Five gritting his teeth and looking up to see them getting out of a car waving the file at him. His siblings are there and it’s amazing for them and us as the audience to watch Fove unravel in front of us. We feel like an older sibling watching him be pushed around by someone he can’t retaliate against. Five shakes his head and just takes the file from them. If done right this interaction could be something that feels like it happens every single mission he goes on at some point.

It’s obvious to everyone else that this person cares about Five deeply already, but Five just kind of takes them for granted. He doesn’t not care about them. He just doesn’t realize how much he relies on them. This is communicated nonverbally through the show in the CIA building. (Ex. Like when he’s in the office and in the middle of explaining something and walking Ash is anticipating and handing him things to help him make his point before he realizes he’s going to need them. They’re his bubbly little shadow at the office. There could even be a scene showing this if it wasn’t 6 episodes and 10 instead. At some point Five is at the office and he reaches to his side or in front of him and he doesn’t even realize there’s nobody there with him. Like there’s a shot of their usual desk in the corner exactly as it was the previous scene when Ash left it. They aren’t here today and they are always here. It throws him off. We get to see him be a little taken aback by it.

Ash gets pulled into the Cleanse mess because they bring him a file in the Christmas town and get caught up in the gun fight.

Five tries to blink them out of the fight and they both end up in the subway.

Personally I like the idea of Five getting on the train and the door closing before Ash can get on. The train leaves and Ash tries to run after the train but is too cautious to try following the tracks. They don’t know how to leave the station and they don’t wanna abandon Five, so they’re just kind of stuck there. They walk around the platform for a few minutes and end up sitting on the bench and just as they do the train rolls back into the station. Five walks off the train having done what he does in cannon, albeit a little more unnerved. In the other timeline he gets off the train at the next station and leaves the platform. He discovers it’s an alternate timeline. He gets back on the train and goes back and gets off the train in front of Ash. He’s been gone for ten minutes almost but it was only 5 minutes or so For Ash. Ash sprints at him. Five is surprised to be hugged by Ash and hugs them back for a second before they quickly lets go and hold each other at arms length purposefully. Five doesn’t even let them speak. He just cuts in before Ash can and tells them how its alternate timelines. At this point there’s no use in hiding it from Ash and they’re here in the subway with him so they ought to know.

Ash is more spiritual and fate oriented as a character. They take Fives abilities to blink specifically to the subway as a sign of it being important. Lila still convinces Five to check out the subway again and they do. He encounters himself. They both come back, and Ash is the one whose been looking into The Jennifer Incident File for Five. He meets them at the office and they fill him in on the file.

Ash is the one who gets him to really think about Ben before he goes to Reginald’s mansion. They comment on the file explaining

“This is a somewhat biased account, I’ll give you that. It’s the guys you were fighting against so there’s always gonna be an amount of “he said she said”. But the guy who wrote this seems to be blunt as hell. Very factual presentation of everything. No punches pulled about how badly he fought or how his team failed to achieve goals.”

“What are you saying?”

“What I’m saying is… History is written by the winners Five. I don’t know your dad well. Hell I don’t know him at all, but I gotta ask… Is he the kinda man who would lie about this stuff? Is he the kind of man you could trust to tell you how you actually won? What do you remember?”

Five squints at them. “Nothing… I wasn’t there… but it’s an interesting thought.” He gets up and walks around to Ash’s desk.

“I try.” Five starts to leave and ash calls out after him “I’ll let you know if anything develops on this end.”

Five waves the copy of the File at them in aknowledgement and disappears out of the office door

Ash comes out with them to the Alpaca farm when they get the call about it. They’re standing with Five And Lila when she tries to convince Five to go back to the subway again. Five agrees he’ll go and take a look but not with her. This irritates Lila. Ash tries to level with Lila and this annoys her. She snaps that it’s none of Ash’s business and to stay out of it. Lila snapping at Ash is Five’s cut off. He tells Lila she isn’t coming with him to the subway because of her attitude right now. She’s acting way too impulsively right now and he’s not going to risk that. She needs to take a breath go regroup with Diego and Luther. Keep tabs on them. Lila is irritated by this and storms away. (This may be out of character for her but I truly have never understood Lila as well as other characters. I’m so sorry.)

Ash asks if they can come with. Five is about to ask them if they’re serious? He just denied Lila why would he bring Ash? Ash says that they’re just curious about this all honestly. Plus it’s always better to bring someone to watch your back. Five reluctantly agrees because Ash is right. Plus they’ve kept a very level head through all this. If something happens he can just bring them home. It’ll be fine.

So he brings Ash with on that second run to investigate and everything with the sparrow academy timeline happens.

Then as we know they both end up getting stuck.

They roll past their stop.

“Five? Wasn’t that our—“

“Stop? Yes. Yes it was.”

The montage of what happens down there wouldn’t really be a montage it would be an entire episode or at the very least half of an episode dedicated to following them over the course of these six years. (If it was a montage though, the song I feel like that would be amazing in vibe and fit would be “You’re Dead” By Norma Tanega)

We would get a lot more scenes above the subway when they’re looking for supplies and gathering information. Fighting things that are on the surface in these other timelines.

This version of Five is one who is coming at the fact he’s stuck in a never ending nightmare universe like this again as if it’s a personal slight against him. Like of course, of fucking course it happens to him again. OF COURSE. When his family needs him this happens AGAIN. (It’s a very self centered way of looking at it. The fact Ash is there and also dealing with this is not even on his radar at first. Ash's feelings about this don’t even register to him until later because as a defense mechanism he’s automatically slipped back into ‘survival apocalypse’ mode. ‘One problem at a time’ mode. ‘This physical problem in front of my face is what I’m focusing on’ mode. we can tell when he finally picks up on Ash's feelings about being stuck here but he doesn’t say anything to them about it. His character has never been good at approaching people gently and while they’re in survival mode gently isn’t really an option.

Ash is obviously so scared about the fact that they’re trapped there and don’t know how to get home. They just don’t want to show it. They put on a brave face the whole time and we watch it crack.

Ash can seem to sense Five’s irritation and just slips into doing what they do best. Following Fives lead.

So Five makes a plan. They are both agents for the CIA so they both should be able to survive out here. They both spend months staring at the map terminal and physical map, trying to decode it and it gets more and more frustrating for five. But Ash is trying their best to stay optimistic on purpose. You can tell it’s somewhat forced but still somewhat genuine.

Ash is also doing what they do best. Assisting Five. But at the beginning it seems like it’s much more difficult. Apocalypses and time travel aren’t anything they trained for. Plus their survival training was minimal since they joined the CIA as an analyst not a field agent. They aren’t sure what Five needs. There are moments we see Five hold out his hand out of habit and Ash just stares. They don’t know what he needs and it’s unsettling for both of them. Five realizes he has to reach Ash what they need to do out here and you can tell it’s irritating to him.

A full year passes and Ash's optimism seems to fade but they’re getting better at knowing what needs to be done to survive in the subway. They get better at anticipating things that are needed. When they talk Ash's smile doesn’t seem to reach their eyes as much. Five doesn’t notice this still. Five always seems slightly annoyed that Ash is always so upbeat.

Year two you can tell the smile isn’t barely real at all but Ash still pokes fun at five along the way. Ash is the one trying to keep them both feeling human. They have to force Five to do things like wash clothes, eat, sleep, comb his hair. Five is visibly irritated by it. He doesn’t want to be dragged away from the problem but he always begrudgingly acknowledges that Ash is right.

It’s around the middle of year 3 that they both break. Ash offers to help five shave (similar to how Lila does in the show) because he’s doing a god awful job of it. He hasn’t had to do upkeep like this since the first apocalypse and even then he just let his beard grow out then. We see Ash in the “mirror” Five is using to shave and even he can tell the smile is so forced it hurts to look at. Five glares at them and breaks his silence. He snaps at the about how shaving isn’t fucking important. Getting back home is important. At least when he was alone before he didn’t have to worry about some chipper chipmunk of a person following him around like a lost puppy. He berates them about the fact that they’re so chipper all the time and how irritating it is when all he needs to do is work. He Berates them for trying so hard at it. Why won’t they just admit that this all sucks. It’s awful. He wants Ash to get mad. He wants Ash to blame him. Ash needs to blame him. He implies that Ash doesn’t seem to care at all about the fact that they’re stuck here and that’s when Ash snaps back.

Ash isn’t smiling anymore. They go off at five about how much they care and how selfish Five has been. They know this isn’t a game. They understand the stakes. Theyre trying so fucking hard he has no idea. They’re just trying to keep it together because of they don’t they’re gonna go insane. (Essentially they lose it at him and tell him how much of a selfish prick he’s being.)

The two end up screaming back and forth at each other all sorts of things that devolve into nothing insults about little things that have annoyed them about each other (we as an audience get an insight into how well these two really know each other with how insanely specific some of the stuff is)

“At least I don’t gag when I skin a rabbit!”

“Oh I’m sorry apocalypse boy? Does my lack of enthusiasm towards skinning small animals upset you? I’m so so sorry you dad never let you have a pet rabbit! But some of us still—“

“Yeah, yeah, I remember your pet bunny. You’ve only mentioned sir pumpernickel 300 times. Im sorry you used to love one 👏🏻but 👏🏻we 👏🏻have 👏🏻to 👏🏻eat👏🏻this 👏🏻one 👏🏻to 👏🏻live👏🏻 so stop gagging and get it done.”

Ash then says something along the lines of “ You know? You talk about your ‘dad’ and you pretend you’re nothing like him, but you act exactly the same. Pompous and arrogant. So wrapped up in your need to stop the apocalypse and ‘save your family’ that you don’t give a shit who you hurt to do it!”

With that Ash storms off out of the station to whatever world they’ve stopped in.

Five is stunned by what they’ve said and lets them go still half shaven.

He turns back and tries to keep shaving and after a few minutes he realizes what he’s said to Ash.

He stops shaving and washes his face off. He goes up after them. He finds them washing clothes in the river he sits next to them.

Five helps them finish washing clothes. It’s silent the whole time. They bring clothes back to the station he offers Ash the barber knife. It’s an olive branch. Ash takes it.

We then get the shaving scene but it’s Ash and Five. The scene is silent save for the scraping of blade against skin. Then Five speaks.

“I’m sorry.” A pause. “For saying all of that and for treating you like—.”

“It’s okay. Stop talking, or I’ll end up cutting you.” More quiet scraping.

Five waits til Ash is finished shaving him and wiping off the knife before he speaks again. He says he’ll do better.

“Yes, yes you will.” There’s another pause “or else I’ll only shave half your face next time.”

This is the first time Five cracks a genuine smile in YEARS. Ash smiles back. There’s a renewed sense of understanding. A silent deal is struck essentially. Be kinder to each other in this.

The next two years we get scenes that are more gentle between the two very similar to the ones we get in the actual show. Five is more open to teaching Ash things about the worse parts of hardcore survival. Which in turn helps Ash feel more useful and lightens the load on Five. He can trust them to handle themselves more.

We watch them Slowly moving closer too each other over the course of the train rides. Falling asleep with heads on shoulders. Cooking for one another. Interspersed with scenes of them just entertaining themselves with the other. Reading from books they find in these universes. Playing chess together, cutting hair, sewing up cuts. Light Play fighting in the rivers they wash clothes in eventually leading to the sixth year five months two days conversation.

It happens just after a scene where we watch Ash set Fives Broken leg.

That’s RIGHT the reason they end up in the green house is a legitimate reason in this one.

Five loses his footing hunting in a previous scene and falls down a hill. He blinks and lands haphazardly on rubble in the subway startling Ash who has to immediately jump into action and help.

Ash after setting and wrapping Fives leg tells him that he needs to rest. They have to settle somewhere and let his leg heal. Five doesn’t want to stop but has to concede that Ash is right. Ash starts packing up the camp and they brainstorm where would be the safest place to rest. Five brings up the greenhouse.

“The one with strawberries and that fun little office room?”

Five nods. “It was pretty clean and there was a desk there. I can still work on figuring out this subway while I’m bedridden…”

Ash rolls their eyes at him. “Like you’ll actually stay in bed once I make you a set of crutches.”

Five glares at them as they finish packing things up.

“Don’t be such a baby. It’ll only be for a few months till you can put weight on it. We aren’t giving up.”

And here’s the big change from cannon. THEY DONT GIVE UP.

They do rest there. Five recuperates there. He’s the one messing rolling about in a chair scribbling things down in a notebook while he messes the strawberries in the greenhouse. Ash goes Hunting instead.

They do have their cute little cottage core moments but they don’t give up. And it’s not in the green house that the strawberry throwing happens. It’s a basket of clothes that Ash brings in while five is WRITING IN THE JOURNAL trying to decipher the glyphs from the subway.

Ash throws socks at five instead of food. That conversation about winter happens and Ash DOES FALL but it’s into the handmade wheelchair that Five has been using while healing.

Five is always holding a notebook in his hands. I cannot emphasize enough HE IS STILL WORKING TO FIND HIS FAMILY.

THATS when the kiss moment happens.

“Was that not okay? I’m sorry. I know this isn’t the time—“

Five cuts them off with a kiss again and that’s answer enough.

They don’t ask if it’s weird because ITS NOT. They are two people with and established back and forth coming together in this moment.

Five finds the journal on one of his first trips out since his leg has healed enough to walk freely. The dinner is an anniversary dinner but more so to celebrate his leg healing. He shows it to Ash IMMEDIATELY. There is no fear of returning and losing them to someone because Ash is not married to his brother. 👀

Ash and Five end up staying in that greenhouse together while they make sure the journal is legit and figure it out together for a few days.

They finally figure out how to get home using it.

They wait a week to gather supplies to help them to continue on in case the journal screws them over and they got it wrong

Before they leave green house they have one last candle lit dinner and say good bye to it. They leave it all set up and all their things strewn about. Because the things don’t matter they’re going home together and there’s no question of will this last after they’re home because they don’t need to question it. Of course they are. It’s the same as Diego and Lila in season 2 and 3. There’s no questioning it.

They will stay together.

We get a fun scene at Lila and Diego’s house with the whole family talking about everything but Klaus is staring at Five and Ash. He is looking them up and down because they aren’t wearing suit jackets and pants anymore. They’re both in casual. Five is wearing his sweater vest and Ash is wearing jeans and a flannel. Diego calls it out.

“What is this then? No offense to, Ash, right? But why’re you here?”

“I vaguely recall asking you the same question about lila back in 63.”

“Lila’s different”

Lila has picked up on what five has indicated and his body language

“Not sure how different the situation is Di.”

This is when everyone on the couch picks up on it. Allison and Klaus immediately react silently. Klaus open mouthed impress and shock Allison bewildered looking at Ash for confirmation. Ash maybe makes eye contact with Allison and looks away a little embarrassed.

Diego looks at Lila confused “what do you— wait— You’re!” Diego accusatorially pointing a finger at Five. “Since when?!”

“My love life isn’t important right now Diego”

Only when Five says this does Luther pick up on it. He’s got a look of bewildered awe on his face and He looks right at Ash and addresses them.

“Wait, you two are dating?”

Klaus and Allison gag on their water like we got in cannon.

Ash looks like they truly have no idea what to say and five holds the bridge of his nose.

“Really not important right now. Can we get back to what’s important? Like the apocalypse? namely Stopping it?”

They continue their regular conversation about stopping the apocalypse

All of them leave and pretty much everything that happens leading up to my version of the “Cleanse” happens

These next bullets happen in the universe where my version of the ending is cannon once again you can read it here.

They have a meaningful moment on the subway after they’re all speeding away we get him asking them if they regret knowing him. Knowing what was gonna happen. Ash looks at him funny then says they could never.

“Besides. If we do get to live whole new lives… that means you still owe me all the years that we would’ve gotten in this one. Also a pet rabbit. You owe me a pet rabbit too.”

Five laughs “Of course.”

Five is holding them closely when the train hits the reset point.

The next we see them both is when the I detailed as his wife in the polkadot blouse comes walking into the classroom. Now Fives spouse in the true timeline, full name Asher Delores Murphy (Male/Female/ Or Nonbinary) Also PHD is wearing dress pants and a polkadot button up shirt

Maybe in the scene where they’re gathered around a tv in the physics building we see a rabbit cage in the corner. Five got them their rabbit that he owed them.

That’s Ash character arc. Five never stops looking and he falls in love with a character who is always willing and able to meet him where he’s at. Match his energy. Understand him without having to say anything to him. Someone we get to watch learn and teach Five to not shoulder a burden alone. Someone who carries the weight of the world alongside him, while simultaneously bringing out the human side of him that we as the audience rarely get from him.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Morgan is Different. Morgan is more one sided rivalry to realization that it was actually just tension all along. Fighting with him and being on his side and willing to go down with him in the end.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Main Key Morgan:

Five — Blue Text

Morgan — White Text

Lila — Pink Text

Klaus — Purple Text

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Morgan

They’re one of the CIA’s newest recruits and very similar to Five from season one. Also a prodigy.

Desperate to prove themselves

They don’t understand why Five keeps getting sent out into the field and they’re being denied the opportunity

“We’re the same age! We have the same experience! We’re technically partners! Let ME try for once!”

Five almost seems to pity them at first which absolutely infuriates Morgan

The first time we as an audience are introduced to them, is when they’re the one who comments on Fives lateness instead of the blond bespectacled operative we aren’t even properly introduced to in season 4

Five doesn’t need to have his suit handed to him he already has remembered it and is wearing it walking in the building.

Morgan is leaning against one of the pillars and they are quick to fall in step with five on his way.

“You’re late.”

“I am aware.”

“If you were aware, you wouldn’t have been late. Do you even know how to read a clock?”

“If anyone is gonna lecture anyone about time it’s me. I’m certain I know quite a bit more about how time works than you do Morgan.”

“Oh really? That’s interesting because last I checked, when you decide on a time to meet and a person gets there after that arranged meeting time, it means they’re late. That’s how time works.”

Five just sighs his defeated sigh and ignores them

He used to deal with worse from his siblings when they were younger. He’s completely fine with this. it’s almost welcomed by five it’s nostalgic for him in a way(the fact he’s never completely phased by the jabs you can tell is infuriating to Morgan)

At the last minute Morgan stops Five before he opens the office door and makes five look at them

Five has been wearing that gross mustache the whole time they’ve been talking

Morgan rips the mustache off Fives face and Five recoils

Morgan makes a quip about the mustache before pushing open the door and five walks in with them scowling

There could be a small bit where Morgan could also be suspicious of Five not checking in when his brother is kidnapped

Morgan is also in the room when Five blinks for the first time in eight years in their shared office.

We can tell what Morgan’s space and what’s fives space. Five’s is overly organized with books of mathematics strewn about and a chalk board covered in equations. Morgan’s side is covered in puzzle books. Sudoku, word scramble, decryption puzzle books, anagram puzzle books, books on linguistics, cryptograms. Notebooks with sticky notes just sticking out of every page. Morgan is obviously clever. Curious, a puzzle solver. Needs a challenge.

They just turn around and Fives just gone. They are fucking baffled. They think he walked out in the middle of a conversation. Rude!

Morgan leaves to get something and they come back and Five is falling into the chair bewildered and starts to keel forward.

Morgan is once again baffled. Then their face pass through a few emotions. Starting with irritation then suspicion And finally landing on concern

“I thought you’d left. In the middle of a— Are you alright?”

“No. I don’t think I am…” Five gets up and grabs his jacket and says he’s taking a sick day.

Morgan is absolutely taken aback. “A— You’re? Okay?”

Five ends up doing his thing and driving with his siblings up to New Grumpson

He calls Morgan from the pay phone and has them look into Sy Grossman and Jennifer Grossman

We watch it play out in a vertical split screen.

Morgan gives him the information but you can hear them just before Five hangs up

“There’s no one listed living in New Grumpson under those names Five. Are you gonna—“

“Thanks Morgan. Gotta go”

“Wait! Five! I’m your partner! you can’t just—“

Click.

The audience sees Morgan is slamming the receiver into the dock of the phone over and over again. This happens while the screen transitions Morgan off screen and focus back on Five

Everything that happens in New Grumpson still happens

Five ends up in the subway and comes back

They escape in the van and get into an accident

Five calls again and we get another vertical split screen. This is the call about running the Chrysler and Morgan is sick of this after Five hangs up this time. Instead of lingering on Five we linger on Morgan.

They’ve run the address and they message it to Five but instead of just leaving him to it that first time they meet him and his family at Gene and Jeans apartment.

Five is irritated but Lila doesn’t seem to care and Diego is trying to be cool for Morgan because they’re also from the CIA

Diego leaves and while Morgan is investigating something on the other side of the room Lila asks the blink question and they have that conversation with Morgan in the room.

Morgan doesn’t know what blinking is but it’s something they latch onto because Five can’t do it.

“What is it five? What do you mean by blink? You have to let me in! I can help!”

they’re poking him when Lila says to get back on the horse and grabs Five.

“Don’t!”

All three of them end up in the subway

Morgan is absolutely horrified and nearly throws up

“Oh my god! What did you do?! What is this?! Am I in hell? Is this 9-5 commuter hell?!”

Morgan is visible my freaking out in the background while Five and Lila argue about what she’s just done

Lila doesn’t care she’s just kinda whatever she doesn’t fully work for the CIA like Five does, she’s just doing it to feel alive again , same as Diego wants too. (look at that they’re Diego and Lila are husband and wife and they want the same thing? Who’da thought it?)

They are straight up just going to leave Morgan on the platform as when the tarain pulls into the platform (Morgan is not part of the family yet they are tagging along at this point.)

Morgan doesn’t wanna be left alone so they jump the train with the other two.

“Where you going to leave me there?!”

Simultaneously “You’d’ve been fine.” “Yes.”

“We’d have come back for you…”

“At some point”

“Probably”

Morgan glares at them both and is silent pretty much the whole rest of the trip. Lila cracks a joke at them about their crack about ‘commuter hell’ but Morgan scowls and ignores her

Five comments on how Morgan is taking this remarkably well. Morgan’s response is very curt and the only real response they give for a while

“I work for the CIA. Secrets are what we do. I will ask you more questions about those secrets when I’m no longer trapped in a weird freaky subway with you.”

EXTREME FORESHADOWING.

“You aren’t trapped. Trust me. You’d know it if we were trapped here.”

Everything happens like it did before with the breadcrumbs commentary and being shot at by OG timeline Five

Morgan and Five deal with being shot at like pros and Lila is as she was in the show not the best at it and they all get on the subway. Lila is last this time.

They come back to apartment they blinked out of and learn about the file. from here on out Morgan refuses to leave Five alone.

Morgan comes with to Reginald’s house. They’re there for the conversation about Ben’s death and the mind control.

Five has obviously filled in some details on the way and Morgan is able to deduce details themselves and provide an outside perspective

All of the siblings are a little weirded out by the fact Morgan is there. They ask who Morgan is and Five tells them that Morgan is his partner. (This could be the fun start of a joke where Five NEVER elaborates on that word and all of the siblings are like what does he mean by Partner? But all of them refuse to ask because they know he’d never tell them.)

Reginald, Diego, and Allison I think wouldn’t appreciate Morgan being there but Five would actually stand up for them.

I don’t know how he would or what would be said but it feels like it would be a weird kind of turning point for the trust between the two

Then finally they get to memory machines and I’m not sure if he would let Reginald restore his memory or not. (If he did I think he’d tell Morgan to shoot Reginald if this looks like it’s going bad. And Morgan would respectfully agree to.)

Everything happens like normal and they get called out to the Alpaca Farm Massacre site where Ben murdered all those people

The conversations are the same including Lila convincing Five to use the subway except this time Morgan is present for it

Morgan Volunteers to go with instead of Lila

“I have the training. I think It would make more sense for me to go.”

This is when Lila snaps. She, like Diego, wants to be important to the mission but it’s more subtle than Diego. She doesn’t just wanna be a mom but also a bad ass and this subway stuff is scratching her itch and filling her need of getting out of the house and away from Diego for a bit. Morgan is threatening that.

“How on earth does it make more sense for you to go? I was raised an assassin and what are you some CIA puppy? New recruit Wanna prove yourself so badly? Think you’re tagging along on a fun adventure? It’s not fun. It’s life or death. I have way more experience with that than you’ll ever have.”

Five is staring at Lila a little taken aback at the outburst but Morgan is impassive and gentle in their response.

“i recall how dangerous it was Lila, but unlike you, I don’t have any family. I am, for lack of a better word expendable. If something happens Five can leave me behind and come back to let you all know that route is bust. It makes more sense for ME to go with him.”

We can focus on five and Lila’s reactions to this response. Lila seems embarrassed and agrees respectfully that

“yeah um yeah sorry no you make a good point. I gotta report in anyway.”

(I’m so sorry every time I try to write for Lila I feel like I’ve written garbage for her. I’m so sorry. She deserves better than me.)

Five doesn’t say anything to Morgan about that but you can tell it’s struck a cord with him. He doesn’t like the idea of that. Of Morgan thinking they’re expendable.

Diego walks over to Lila and they converse same as before while Morgan and Five walk over to their CIA boss they have the same conversation about babysitting Diego and Luthor maybe this time also Lila.

Morgan maybe mentions talking to Lila and Diego seriously about joining the CIA.

Five is once again taken aback by how considerate Morgan is being.

Everything happens leading up too Morgan and Five walking into the subway and just before they do five asks if Morgan is sure about this. Morgan agrees that yes they are.

“Field work like this is why I joined the CIA. I wanted to do big things and i don’t think it hets much bigger than trying to work out how to use an inter dimensional subway station to save the world from devastation.”

Five nods his head in a conceding motion and he blinks them into the subway.

When they get there Morgan pulls out a little book from their pocket and starts writing down more of the symbols from the walls and train.

We get a conversation about this where Five asks Morgan about it, and says he recalls them doing the same thing when they were on the subway earlier.

Morgan shrugs and explains that they’ve always enjoyed word puzzles.

“I’ve always thought that Decryption was just a more fancy way of saying puzzle, and you know how great I am at those.”

Five makes a sound of concession once again and we get our first real grin from Morgan. Morgan isnt being hostile this time and it’s shocking.

“Besides! It’d be good to figure out how to read what’s written on the walls. Could be helpful and it may be the key to understanding this place and why it’s here.”

Morgan is trying to be fun and interesting because they’re excited. They’re is excited that they’re finally in the field. That’s all they’ve been asking for. They just wanted to be allowed to try.

As the two board the train we hear Morgan comment out loud about how alien the symbols look. They aren’t typical symbols like other symbolic languages. They maybe comment on certain similarities to other ancient languages that are dead that scientists haven’t been able to place but that they’re still different. Gosh they wish they had their textbooks to study this better. That’s fine though. This note book will help when they get home.

After that the same things happen that Five did with Lila in the other timelines on this excursion with Morgan. (I.E. Traveling back in time in the sparrow timeline and all that with Five exasperatedly saying they aren’t going to wing this and it was a terrible idea. He’s immediately calling the mission and saying it’s a bust.)

Morgan runs into the train with him and tries to convince him that it’s fine! They can’t quit after only one attempt.

They’re having a back and forth about this still on the train when the train passes their stop.

Five notices and has to quiet Morgan

“That was our stop.”

“What?”

“We just passed our station.”

“What do you mean what’s—“

The PA comes on and we hear garbled reversed speech and then “express”

Simultaneously “Shit.” “Shit!”

Instead of just a shot of the tunnel flashing green we get a shot of them inside the train looking at one another and both look shaken

“Five?”

A flash of green and we move on

Then it’s same thing as before we get a montage of the two losing their shit at one another over the fact that they’re lost. Which similarly to the other love interest before eventually the becomes mutual respect, care and love for each other.

It’s different from the previous love interest because they’re both “trained” as field agents. Both would have survival skills except one of them is also trying to solve an insane decryption issue at the same time.

While we watch this version of Five trapped in the Subway with Morgan it becomes clear to us as the audience that we are essentially watching the same thing we did in season 1, where Five was trapped alone, but with two people instead. In this case too we realize Morgan is taking on Five’s role from the original timeline. They are the one who seems to feel this intense drive to understand this particular problem. Five having done this all before becomes the Delores of the two. A support system. Always Helping and trying to keep Morgan sane. He recognizes and feels like he’s watching the same thing happen to Morgan that happened to him in season 1. However this time the key to understanding this isn’t something he can solve with mathematics. It’s words and he’s never been great with those. Sure, he can speak plenty of languages, but he’s never had to translate an entirely new language from scratch before. Morgan is the only one of them that has experience with that. Morgan is the key this time.

We get to see the years progress through Morgan’s “Notes” and it’s a montage set to “Dear God — Remastered” by XTC

The Notes are along the outer edges of the screen and the scenes we watch are super imposed on top of the “notebook” itself like we’re watching it on the books

The first year it’s just a bunch of wild scribbles Morgan isn’t writing anything down in it slowly. They’re frantic because they wanna get home. We see five and them arguing the same as we watched him and Lila do in the original

The second year they’re both in survival mode. Cooking food and making fires collecting supplies.

The notes are more organized. There are some sketches of the platforms. The symbols are better sketched at the top with more care. Morgan seems to be trying to visually keep track of stations

Year three is when the notes start to get more and more clear but still no words or even letters are decoded. There are notes about how time feels like it’s passing but “is it really?” Time is resetting every stop they make. Is the subway taking them back in time of freezing time everyone they’re in it? There’s a scene of Morgan scribbling angrily on the book and throwing it down the train car and falling down on the bench.

We watch Five get up like he’s done this a million times before (we get the sense he definitely has) and pick it up. He walks back over, slides it into Morgan’s pack and sits down next to them. Morgan leans into Five’s shoulder looking somewhat defeated. Five seems surprised by this but doesn’t push them away.

We get the chess scenes and in this variation they find a deck of cards so we get a billion scenes of them playing card games.

Year four the notes in the margins are sharp. Morgan is getting better at sketching the same things over and over. We start to see questions pop up about repeating letters and why doesn’t there seem to be any? Sketches of the PA system. Sketches of the train car’s interiors.

This is the year where there’s more laughter and intimacy in the interactions between them. There’s the visions of them caring for one another. In various ways Morgan bandaging Fives hand. Five fixing a dislocated shoulder for Morgan. Morgan shaving Five and Five cutting Morgan’s hair.

Year five is when interesting questions start popping up in the margins of the screen. We see sketches of the door mechanisms form in the train. Questions like is it possible to drive? WHO is driving? What is driving? Do we want to know? Can we get in there? A sketch of the drivers car through the window of the train but it’s impossible to see through a blacked out window in the sketch. A caption of “drivers car impossible to reach. new plan is the old plan?”

This is the year becomes clear there’s real feelings forming between the two but they are also looking really tired. Morgan starts falling asleep tucked next to Five.

Morgan just keeps staring at the book and you see scenes of five taking it from them and pointing to the sleeping cot or handing them food. They reluctantly take it and sit right next to Five and eat with their head on his shoulder

Year six is when the margins start fading from the screen and we pan up away from the book

A string of symbols on a page and the word “Station” circled. A double sided arrow connects the two as we pan away from this we see it’s written on the pages of the book that is in Morgan’s hand. They’re clutching it in one of their hands as they sleep and l are in the same position we saw Five a Lila in under the umbrellas.

The six year montage ends not with despair but with a kind of hope

So the next time we see them their conversation isn’t about giving up. It’s about really sitting down and cracking into this. Morgan really thinks they can solve this. But it’s just so hard to focus like this. It’s off hand in reference to moving around on the subway

“Morgan, what do you need to solve this. Anything you need we’ll figure it out. You need to tell me what it is though.”

“If I could just.. I don’t know… sleep. Like really sleep. In a bed… bathe? Shower, if I can? I know I could get this… WE could get this… We’re so close…”

Five agrees and they have a conversation about instead of staying in the subway going somewhere to work in peace where they don’t have to scrounge. Just for a while until they’ve fully cracked this.

They debate and land on that greenhouse so they GO THERE to sit and decode it

We get a scene of them setting up shop. Just after they’ve cleaned up. And it’s a nice scene like you get in any romance show or movie where the characters are seeing each other for the first time in a new light for real. (like a wow look at you I never realized just how nice this person is to look at?)

And we get a few scenes throughout the episode of them slowly but surely solving it. More letters going up in a bulletin board connected to symbols with twine and other things salvaged. Interspersed with moments of them eating dinner and playing cards. Playful throws of paper. Morgan excitedly running in with a record player and putting it on. They drag Five away from the bulletin board and start dancing. Five argues they should keep working but Morgan says that if they don’t take breaks they’re gonna go crazy staring at the symbols so please just dance. Do something for himself you know?

Five kinda has a moment that you see where he recalls that’s exactly what happened with him originally. He NEVER stopped and he went insane on the OG timeline.

So he takes a real minute not like the games before. Just a real minute to dance.

The two laugh Morgan trips Five catches them

Five’s holding them close

They look in one another’s eyes.

“What are you doing?”

“Something for myself.”

He kisses Morgan and Morgan reciprocates.

AND BY GOSH BY GOLLY WE HAVE A WELL BUILT RELATIONSHIP THATS KiNdA ONE SIDED RIVAL TO LOVER

The last scene we have of them in the greenhouse obviously more time has passed

Five does the same thing he did for Lila. He makes Morgan something. I think Five fixes them up a Rubix cube or even whittles them a cool wooden hand held puzzle. Like one of those puzzle balls or even a puzzle box that has something else in it? Idk. I just feel like a ring or any type of jewelry is too cheesy and fast to be in the box So maybe it’s just the box. Morgan loves it and gives Five something in return. They’re like it’s not as crazy as a hand carved gift but they took some time between solving the decryption to go and find him something special. It’s a mug that used to say “Life Is About More Than Coffee.” but coffee is crossed out with red paint and in big red letters it says Apocalypses so it now reads “Life Is About More Than Apocalypses”.

Five can’t stop laughing when he looks at it. It’s stupid. It’s a dumb joke that’s really insensitive to him the more you focus on it. He’s told Morgan all of stories about all 3 of the apocalypses he’s experienced in his life during these six years trapped here with them, but for some reason the fact they took time out of their day to repair this cracked mug and personalize a stupid word play joke at his expense makes him lose it. This also happens the same day they completely decode the alphabet. THEY CAN GO HOME BECAUSE THEY ARE ABLE TO READ THE MAP NOW. (I can’t begin to tell you how mad I am that that alien language was never talked about once. Or the fact that they never considered trying to decode it at any point? They’re stuck in this subway… LEARN TO READ THE SIGNS)

They’re excited but you can tell after the hype dies down it’s a little sad. They kind of liked this existence here. It was simple. Five could sit and do old man things and just keep them alive. He wasn’t the one the solution hinged on so he gets to rest a while. Morgan was spending their all of their time solving a HUGE puzzle. It was kind of heaven for both of them.

They pack up everything that’s needed and leave the deck of cards and a half solved crossword puzzle book they found previously on the table. Something for whomever comes across this place to find.

They have a conversation just outside the greenhouse about what they’re gonna do about what they’ve become when they return

Morgan responds by taking Five’s hand

“One problem at a time right? We’ve decoded the subway. Next is stopping the apocalypse. Then, after that’s done and we know for a fact that we can still stand the sight of one another while other people are present, we’ll worry about filling out the relationship paperwork at the agency.”

Laughing. “There’s paperwork for that?”

“Yes. Lots of boxes to check and forms to fill.”

“If it makes you happy.”

“It does actually. Soothes me.”

Five picks up their bags. “Once more into commuter Hell?”

“I said that one time!!”

There’s a flash of blue and the camera holds on the playing cards and their initials carved into the table (childish maybe Fanfictiony? Probably? I’m not a screen writer!)

I think we also deserve a pleasant little scene to replace when they get back and there’s the whole Lila/Five dramatic cheating reveal on Christmas at her families house 👀👀👀

It would be them all regrouping at Lila and Diego’s house because they get back and it makes sense to regroup there

They walk in holding hands. Five helps Morgan in and refuses to let go of them the whole time they regroup.

The funny stuff comes from everyone on the couch, while explaining their info, trying to figure out what is going on with Five and Morgan.

Five is sitting on the arm of the chair Morgan is in, his arm is around them and finally Klaus is the one to break tension and be like

“Obviously the elephant in the room though… what is THIS!?”

And just motions to five and Morgan and five and Morgan get to explain how the subway was a bust and they got trapped there for almost 7 years

Lila tries to push to use the subway again and they all get in an argument about using it

She argues that Morgan decoded it so they can read the map now.

Five argues back that they decoded how to get back here, it would take weeks to figure out which specific world would be the one they needed to do all of what they wanted

Lila is angry that they didn’t map that while they were stuck

Morgan jumps in with the are you kidding we were stuck there seven years because that’s how long it took to figure out how to read the map all while trying to survive. Sorry that wasn’t enough for them all.

Essentially we get that argument but then the same things cascade like before. Things fall apart and we end up at the end of the world again. Once again my version of the cleanse occurs. (Because I refuse to acknowledge the real ending and think all of them deserve happiness and to live. Sue me.)

These next bullets happen in the universe where my version of the ending is cannon once again you can read it here.

Morgan and Five’s moment of the subway train is not exactly the same as Ash’s but kind of similar. Five asks apologizes for the fact Morgan’s first ever field mission was ending like this. He asks if they regret getting involved with him now that they know what’s happening.

“Are you kidding me? This is the kind of mission kids get told stories about and then join the CIA because of. I got to decode an alien language, time travel, possibly save the world, and fall in love with a super hero… I almost hope this resets because…”

They put a hand on Fives cheek. “I’d love to do this all again… I only got to complete one mission with you as my partner so, please find me? Even if you forget me? Find me. So we can do more big things together.”

“Of course…”

Five is seated with them on the train bench. He’s holding them with one arm and holding his family with the other when the train hits the reset point.

Again the next we see them both, is when the person I called his wife in the polkadot blouse comes walking into the classroom. Now Five’s spouse in the true timeline, full name Morgan Delores Murphy (Male/Female/ Or Nonbinary) Also PHD is wearing dress pants and a polkadot button up shirt is handed a puzzle box when they sit on Five’s desk in the final montage.

In the scene where they’re gathered around a tv in the physics building we five holding a mug aloft. Five drinks from it. It’s personalized to say “Life Is About More Than Rocket Science.” They’re still the same couple who make the same jokes and give the same gifts. No matter what timeline.

That is Morgan’s Arc. Someone who desperately wanted to be Fives equal and prove themselves. Someone who Five saw himself in and refused to let become him. Someone who is helped through the speedrun version of what happened to Five and comes out the other side fulfilled, safe and supported not wired up, scared, and paranoid. Morgan’s character is essentially meant to be a mirror to reflect all of what Five has been doing to others back at him. So Morgan becomes Fives equal by literally experiencing a smaller scale version of what Five went through and being allowed to process it all along side Five in real time.

Thank you so much if you’re still here! I appreciate you taking the time to read this. You’re amazing. If you liked this or have thoughts on it, I would love to discuss these things more with you! Message me! I want your feedback! If you hated this don’t message me. I’m terrified of your feedback! I’m so sorry, and if I could erase it from your memory, I would. Please forgive me.

Thank you so much for reading this far if you have!

Have a wonderful day!

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Extras if you want:

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These are other things I think would be great but have no clue where they could go In the timeline or where they’d be appropriate:

A scene where five asks Morgan about how they were enjoying field work and Morgan says to remind them to tell the boss they never want to go into the field EVER again.

A bit with Ash where it’s established that they always pick up ( I cannot emphasize enough that no matter WHAT TIME. THEY ALWAYS PICK UP) and this is mentioned at some point in the story. maybe they get kidnapped by Gene and Jean. (This is if it’s a 10 episode season and there’s time for this)They don’t pick up. And this is something that Five is immediately shaken by.

I didn’t explain how Morgan would track Five in their outline but it would be kind of a gag I think. Morgan pops up in places where Five asks how they found him. Morgan always replies with

“I put a tracker in your ____”

it’s always a different piece of clothing. His socks. His Tie. His jacket. His hat. His Shirt. and the next time five pops up he’s either removed that piece of clothing or replaced it. The reality? It’s in his shoes. The tracker is in his shoes. And when this is finally revealed to Five in the subway he can’t stop laughing. Of course. He only has like three pairs and one pair is exclusively for work of course that where Morgan would have planted trackers. God he’s an idiot. Morgan is very proud of themselves for this.

An interaction as follows when they’re in the subway or maybe when Viktor says Five’s name:

“Max huh?”

“Yes, it’s short for Maximillian and I hate it. Please don’t start.”

Laughing then “Don’t sweat it. I understand. I’m not a huge fan of my name either.”

Five gives them a curious look.

A Sigh “My Full Name is (Morrigan/Asher) Delores Wilcox.”

We get a shot of Five’s whole demeanor shifting, like he’s been punched in the gut. He’s short circuiting. He’s blank. No fucking way. No FUCKING way. No fucking WAY. That is NOT their middle name. (If he had a nickel for every time he’d been stranded somewhere in time for a great many years with only someone named Delores for company, he’d have two nickels which isn’t a lot but it’s insane it’s happened twice)

Love interest takes this as a sign he hates it too.

“Yeah see?! Even you think it’s awful. God damn it! Please don’t—“

“It’s wonderful.”

“What?”

“I love it. It’s perfect for you.”

“Really? You don’t think it’s too fancy?”

“I think it suits you…”

“Oh, well… thank you.”

There’s silence while they go about doing things. Five breaks it suddenly

“Weird question but… how do you feel about sequins?”

“I love them?”

“I fucking knew it.”

“What?”

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