#not sure what the backstory is yet

[fahbev]

Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object pt2

Pt 1: https://www.tumblr.com/bahfev/715070691717840896/unstoppable-force-meets-immovable-object?source=share

(Guys idk how do that thing where the link is words can someone explain?)

“Right, I forgot why I was here. It definitely wasn’t for a drink.” Yal-sre stood up, seeming much more intimidating than when Sophia had approached them.

“Oh.” The bartender backed away farther, making themself smaller as well, “Is there anything else I can get you?”

“Actually, Aolli, I think there is. If you come with me out back, there are some answers I’d like to order.”

The bartender - scratch that - Aolli gulped, and dipped their head. Sophia was again impressed by the very Earthly body language. “Coming right up, Sir.”

—————————————————————————————————

“Hoooh, this just got interesting!” Sofia stood up.

“Sophia, you needn’t follow.”

“Actually, I do need follow. No way I’m just sitting here bored outta my mind while you deal with your drama outside.”

“You’ll only scare them.”

“What was it you just told me again? They’re already scared of you no matter what. Come on, if it’s information you need I can be the ‘bad cop’.”

“Exactly! I am scary enough on my own; I don’t wish to be cruel. You being there is excessive. You can’t follow.”

“Yes I can. Unless... you want to try to stop me? I’m always up for a challenge,” Sophia grinned and cracked her knuckles. Aolli seemed to pick up on her show of aggression and whimpered. So odd, when Aolli was so clearly not Earthling. Yal-sre seemed more to notice her words themselves as a threat.

“You’re right. I can’t stop you. Aolli, come with me. Sophia, do what you will.” Yal-sre ushered Aolli toward the door. Sophia followed in suit.

“Now that’s what I like to hear.” Chatter began full force as soon as the space orcs left the bar.

“Please- I swear I- I’ll tell you everything I know just please don’t hurt me!” Aolli shrank into a ball on the ground, paws over head.

“Listen, I won’t hurt you-“

“I will!” Sophia interjected.

“-Sophia, stop. I just want to know where my sisters are.”

“Ooooooooo, you took their sisters? You should be more careful who you mess with.”

“I don’t know! I don’t know where they are, I swear!”

“Liar,” Sophia accused.

“You took them away,” Yal-sre continued. “I watched you double check the locks and cart them off like animals. Where are they?”

“I don’t know! I’m telling you! I was just following orders, and I don’t work for them anymore! I’m- I’m a bartender now!”

“Good for you; that’s not what I asked.”

“So,” Sophia crouched down in front of Aolli, “You gonna spill the beans? Or do I have to squeeze them out of you one by one?” Aolli squeaked. How pathetic.

“Beans?” Yal-sre asked.

“Yes, beans. Spill.”

“I- I can tell you where I took them, but they won’t be there anymore.”

“How do you know that?” Yal-sre asked.

“It wasn’t a permanent location, it was more of a- like a trade center! I just took them there and handed them off to someone else. I don’t know where that person took them!”

“Dammit!” Yal-sre tensed in... anger? Frustration? Fear? “Do you know... can you at least tell me if they’re alive?” Yal-sre’s voice softened. Sophia stood back up.

Aolli uncurled themself a little; “I don’t know, I’m sorry. They should be alive, but I haven’t heard anything of your sisters since I handed them off. I can’t guarantee nothing’s happened.” Yal-sre stepped back, and hunched their posture.  “I’m sorry,” Aolli repeated.

“No you aren’t.”

“Yes, I am. I- yes I’m scared of you, but that’s not why I’m apologizing. I really do regret my past. I’ve done shitty things, but we used to be friends and I still care about you.” Aolli did sound genuine, but-

“What? You used to be their friend? That’s a betrayal if I’ve ever seen one!”

“I know! I know! I’m sorry!” Aolli flinched back into their protective ball.

“It’s...” Yal-sre said, “... a little more complicated than that. But in essence, yes.”

“Damn.” Sophia turned to Aolli, “HEY BITCH!” she grabbed their shoulders and began to shake them forcefully, “WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELF!?”

“AIEAISAIEOAI-!”

“Sophia stop!” Yal-sre reached out as if to stop her by force, but seemed to think better of it. Their words did the trick, though. Sophia huffed and shoved Aolli backwards into the wall before stepping back. Aolli continued to whimper and shrank impossibly smaller. 

“We’ll get your sisters back.”

“What?”

“We’ll find them.”

“What if they’re already dead?”

Sophia scoffed; “It’s gonna take a hell of a lot to kill a rragletatch. Plus, Aolli said they should be alive, it’s dumb to assume someone is dead just because you haven’t seen them in awhile. We’ve gotta assume they’re alive.”

“You say ‘we’.”

“Yes, I’m helping you. Whether you like it or not.”

“Why?”

“I’m bored.”

“That’s a really bad reason to make big commitments to dangerous things, but ... thank you? I don’t... even know where to start.” Yal-sre looked down at the floor.

“I’ve got an idea...” Sophia gave Aolli a wicked grin. Aolli looked up from their flinch-ball position, before reading her expression and tucking themself back.

“Aolli can tell us where they last saw your sisters, and we can start asking questions around there.”

“I- it’s fshhhhAK: Naychshhh on planet Nayerzwu. That’s where I dropped them off.” Sophia pulled out her mobile device and enabled dictation.  “Set route for fshhhAK: Naychshhh: Nayerzwu.”

“You may have mistyped your search, fshhhAK: Naychshhh: Nayerzwu does not exist. Would you like to see similarly named cities in Naychshhh: Nayerzwu?”

Sophia gripped her device like a boa constrictor killing its prey. She glared daggers. “You lied.”

“NO, NO, NO! I didn’t lie! It’s just not on any maps, it’s uncharted! Off the books! That’s why it was used as the centerpoint for the illicit stuff, they knew we wouldn’t be caught in a place that ‘didn’t exist’!”

“LIAR!” Sophia roared.

“Eeeek!”

“Now, wait, Sophia-” Yal-sre interrupted, “That does sound plausible. They could be telling the truth.”

“Fine. Give us precise directions, and we’ll see.” Sophia loomed over Aolli.

“I- I don’t think I can. Most of the way there is also uncharted. I was shown the way there by someone, and I remember my way mostly by my senses than anything else. I’m not lying I swear! Please don’t hurt me!”

“Are you definitely, 100% certain you’re not lying?” Sophia just had to make sure.

“Yes! 100%! Please believe me!”

“Okay. Then you are going to take us there.” Sophia said.

“...”

“... what?”

—————

guys i’m not good at editing. If there’s any parts where you can’t tell who’s speaking, please tell me!

[joshuamj]

been scribbling out some little comics for my EoW!Zelda Impersonates Link AU!

[seiwas]

there is a very specific image in my head of early-mid 20’s iwaizumi hajime

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

I'm frightened of you knowing who I am but, could you possibly give me your frank frankly theories pretty please idc if you only have like 2.1 I want them regardless of how many you have.

mayhaps?

ah man i wish i had some to give! i think all of my Frank theories (at present) are tied into other theory posts! he simply doesn't have a lot to chew on yet

[princessofxianle]

Feng Xin's Family Tree

...for my fanfic: Scrapped Scabbard

in-depth character descriptions to come soon but im pleased to introduce...

Feng Yang (风阳): Feng Xin's Father

Shen Wangxi (神忘昔): Feng Xin's Mother

Shen Liang (神諒): Feng Xin's Older Sister

...more to come under the tag #fx backstory au

SEND ME AN ASK!!!

other shit ive written <- link to my ao3

Feng Yang (风阳): Feng Xin's Father

a respected high-ranking general of the Xianle Army

his weapon of choice is a longbow

shares personal history with the current King of Xianle

lives by the motto "a man's worth is defined by his ability to protect the things he loves"

Feng Xin highly respects his father eventually adopts this mindset as well

Shen Wangxi (神忘昔): Feng Xin's Mother

also a descendant of the Miao people like Hua Cheng

her daughter is her "mini me" and she was SO proud of her

she tragically dies in childbirth with Feng Xin

fengshen (Feng Xin's longbow) uses the same character for "Shen"

Shen Liang (神諒): Feng Xin's Older Sister

Feng Xin's older sister by many years, born before her mother married Feng Yang

Feng Yang claims her to be a carbon copy of her mother

she hates Feng Xin... to the fullest extent of the word

to her, her little brother is a parasite that took her beloved mother away

but he still tries relentlessly to get on her good side... but to no avail... he loves her so much

[ultrainfinitepit]

Probably not the smartest move right before Angeltober, but I got Baldur's Gate 3. It's very fun so far!

Here is my Tav, she is a drow cleric named Charity. She was found and adopted by a cleric of Kelemvor and raised in a convent. Charity never knew her biological parents. Her name comes from being called that cleric's "charity case" and then the name Charity stuck.

[djsangos]

//who are THESE fresh squids?? (made here)

okay these guys might not get a mention on this blog for a while- if ever- so i'm gonna talk about them now bc i've been rotating them in my mind for a while

these are captain's siblings! the ones they left behind when they were 14 to run away to inkopolis. captain certainly isn't proud of leaving them behind at ALL, in fact the one thing they wish they'd done differently is taking them with them, even if it would've been damn near impossible to take care of 2 younger siblings all on their own away from home when they were already struggling to take care of themself. they have no idea how their siblings fared with their neglectful ass father after they left, but pierce (right) was only a year or 2 younger than them, so they hoped he'd be able to leave soon too- taking harper (left) with him

so yeah harper (left) i think is probably around 16 or 17 now, having been 7 or 8 when captain left. since she was pretty young she didn't really know exactly why they left, and they didn't tell her either, so i'd say she probably resents them for it. she's a hotheaded edgy teen, classic rebel, you know the deal.

and then there's pierce (right), who's around 21 or 22 now, so he would've been 12 or 13 when they left. even if they didn't say a word to him before packing their bags and hopping a train at the asscrack of dawn, he knows exactly why they did. because being a kid and not only growing up, but having to parent your 2 younger siblings in your father's place, is hard. he basically had to take on their role as caretaker of harper when they left, being the second oldest, and that's how he realized. he doesn't resent them exactly, but he does wish they'd at least said goodbye. he's an outwardly chipper guy, and puts on a brave face even at the worst of times.

and they both did eventually get out of that house- pierce didn't leave as soon as he turned 14 like captain did (though cod, he wanted to) but when harper was old enough to be left home alone he got a job and saved up what he could to get himself and his younger sister out of there. and then when harper was 12 and he was 17, he got them both out of there. they might have gone somewhere else first, but i wanna say they probably ended up in splatsville, living in an apartment together with pierce doing what he can to support harper through school, and she does some turfing herself to help with rent and save up her own money so she can get her own place eventually.

i feel like the reason they probably haven't run into captain is that captain lives in inkopolis and only really goes to splatsville to visit rookie, and the last time they saw their siblings, neither of them were fully transformed yet, and they aren't so easy to recognize anymore themself. so if they've happened to pass each other on the street, it'd take more than just a cursory glance to realize just who they're passing. so it could definitely, and likely will, happen eventually. who's to say.

[tanjir0se]

WAKE UP BABES YOUR NEW FAVORITE KNY CHARACTERS JUST DROPPED

Half-baked backstory below the cut !

Sakuya✨🌸

Star breather, dual wields two Nichirin that can connect into a long staff. Energetic, reckless, kind but extremely stubborn, thinks she’s really funny but literally isnt.

Met Natsuki at final selection and barely made it through thanks to his help.

Began training in first aid/Kakushi work at the Kocho sisters’ house for wayward girls (very bad at it due to natural inability to follow directions/listen/not make trouble)

That came to an end after Kanae was killed, she wanted to fight for revenge so was paired with Natsuki (Tomioka’s first attempt at mentoring/taking a tsuguko (didn’t work)(made them both weirder))on a mission where she discovered kind of on accident that she could star breathe

Given to Tengen for Tsuguko training 1. Because she is also a dual wielder and he requested and 2. because if she broke one more thing at the butterfly mansion Shinobu and Aoi were going to go insane

Grew close with Natsuki because they were assigned to multiple missions together because 1. Tengen kept volunteering her because he was ALSO going to go insane if Sakuya didn’t learn to grow some fucking responsibility and later 2. Because Tengen found it INCREDIBLY funny that Giyuu’s tsuguko had a crush on his

On a mission that could have made them both Hashira, Natsuki was turned into a demon by Kokushibo. Devastated, Sakuya was unable to slay either of them and later quit her training despite Tengen’s insistence she stay and went back to kakushi work/rogue slaying. Like, kakushi by day and slayer by night. Ig

She has run into Natsuki (now a demon) several times and neither can manage to kill the other so they end up weird half secret friends ?

Natsuki 🌌

Void breather—>Demon. Extremely shy, thoughtful, intelligent and determined but insecure and prone to overthinking. As a demon, superiority complex, hates both humans and other demons, almost feral. Wields a [REDACTED because Cam hasn’t decided yet lmfao]

Self taught with his own breathing style because he tried literally every other one and nothing worked. He had to work extremely hard and do almost everything the hard way to finally make it to final selection. Considers himself to be a naturally unlucky person.

Became Giyuu’s tsuguko because the Master saw something special in him (maybe the fact that he invented void breathing lol) and thought their personalities would mesh, but also that it would be easy for Giyuu because he and Natsuki were fairly similar in age.

They do mesh! But Natsuki is functionally mute so. Um. He learns a lot from Giyuu like sword wise but not so much …socially.

Despite feeling like the odd one out/a fish out of water because his friend Sakuya already knows all of the Hashira due to her learning from Shinobu, and he can barely manage to speak to his own mentor, he gains power and skill extremely quickly because he’s extremely determined and just wants to work hard.

EXTREMELY shy and finds himself disappearing into the background, except to Sakuya, who initially believes he doesn’t like her and makes it her mission to get him to

(He did like her he just sucks at saying it)

(He is completely in love with her and Sakuya, known dumbass, is oblivious)

He opens up to her on their missions and tries to protect her both out of love and out of a sense of ‘paying her back’ for the many, MANY times her medical training has saved his ass. They bond over their as of yet undetermined tragic backstories.

After being turned into a demon he retains next to nothing about his former life but is captivated by the times he sees Sakuya from a distance. The closer he gets the more he remembers so he finds himself seeking her out.

I’m going to start going through my ideas for Star and Void breathing because they’re cool as hell and I want to make move names !!! Also I haven’t made a self insert since LITERALLY 2011 so. Turns out it’s really fun cool and based and everyone should do it always

[c00kie-d0e]

Changed their backstory and name now they are called Jewel mWHAHAHAHAGA

[unproduciblesmackdown]

fr is he, you know.............................................repeatedly described as being Impersonable and Lacking Charm and Pedantic and confused / bothered by things he supposedly shouldn't be while inspiring confusion / botherment in others in ways he supposedly shouldn't and like 99.9% of the grief he's given is over All That while he's just sitting or standing there rather than the like intimidatingly efficient hitman georg thing he has going on. which is in fact The Skill That Makes Him Useful Despite It All and also perhaps the least foothold in interactions because [worried he can & may kill you] affords power when otherwise just being the weird guy nobody likes(tm)

bonus mordecai balling

[randomnameless]

Something that really bothers me about the rose coloured glasses vis a vis tellius and fe fans (ESPECIALLY from 3h fans who learned about tellius later) is that many like soren purely because of his main ship (i mean i like ikesoren too but come the fuck on) and jokingly characterise soren as a stereotypical nasty mean limp wristed sarcastic gay man instead of a deeply flawed branded angry at the world and definitely trauma bonded to ike, but micaiah is still absolutely getting raked over the coals over the blood pact and not being ike’s fangirl

Well,

Jokes often involve flanderisation, so Soren being flanderised to oblivion when people joke about him isn't something I really care about, but maybe that's because I'm not really fond of Soren to begin with lol

What annoys me more is when some people try to rationalise Soren's anger and backstory by either pointing at Almedha or Deghinsea being responsible for everything, and I'm like, what.the.fuck?

Almedha's just, idk, I won't call it sexism, but damn - that woman loves her son who is the only reason why she hasn't completely lost her mind over 1/losing her powers 2/being casted away like trash by her "BF" 3/being rejected by her dad 4/thinking her brother was tortured and abused to death because of her actions 5/being separated from her beloved child.

Deghinsea being "uwu bad bcs he's the reason why brandeds are rejected by both beorcs and laguz" is another take I really am not fond of, and iirc I wrote a post earlier this year about it? But to some people who buy the "Crusts BaD" as the reason why Fodlan sucks, I guess they need to have someone to name and pill all of the world's nonsense rather than, well, in Tellius' case, realise that the worldbulding and the lore really sucks, to the point where the duology touted as the most "against racism" of the franchise, is pretty much way more racist than anything Tru Piss can throw us (yes, because in Tru Piss we have characters rejecting coexistence, in Tellius, it's the world mechanics - whenever a Beorc and a Laguz coexist too much, the Laguz dies...).

As for Miccy,

Just like, imo, Soren gains some "new" attention and "uwu excuses for why he's being a snarky jerk at times", Miccy used to be bashed when FE10 was released (with all the Mary Sue accusation being thrown around!) because she was written to be a sort of foil/antagonist to Ike, and when the party reunited, she was demoted to a "soul-jar" role, let it be regarding the greater plot, or, even, her own backstory!

TBH, for people who didn't play FE10, if Ike is the bestest thing since melted cheese, Miccy, who opposes him, must be BaD and so you can pile everything you don't like on her, hoping to see it stick.

Or even worse, I've seen posts here and there comparing Miccy to Supreme Leader and how misunderstood uwu she is, which is the worst insult poor Miccy ever received since FE10 came out rofl

[factorialsotherfandoms]

Hello to you all, and hope your Monday is going well, and your holidays are tolerable if you celebrate! Here's a little gift for people following the XCOM2/QSMP thing. It's messy, it's disjointed, we'll pretend that's a design choice for Forever's mental state. Things in brackets might be dreams, might be memories, might be stray thoughts, all in a jumble. Things out of brackets are in linear time, though each set of brackets denotes a timeskip of between hours and days. All accounted for, this fic follows between two and three weeks.

Tomorrow I'll see if I can bring myself to stop tormenting au!Brazilians enough to go stab my usual chew toy for you call. Also sorry this au!Forever, this doesn't even come close to the worst few weeks of his life, though this is the end result of 10 years of impending breakdown. He just... Memory scenes are either 10 years ago or very recent. There's a reason he won't think of in between. How old is everyone in this au...? Don't think about it and shhh.

The prompt is coma, and Forever is doing extremely mentally poorly this entire fic. In the flashback sections there's also extremely unethical governmental and military shit going on, near death experiences, explosives, etc.

There are no benches in Aypierre's lab, unlike Tubbo's, so Forever paces the floor, and he shakes. The adrenaline still needs burning off, and there's nothing to do but stress. Philza is perched on one of the counters, toast in hand as he gets to work on a report.

Forever doesn't know how Philza can even think about reports at a time like this - Felps could be dead, or could by dying, and until Aypierre and his assistant finish the surgery there's no way of knowing anything at all.

But then Philza never met Felps, either. He's seen the photos in Forever's office, of five Brazilians in botched together military uniform or casual wear, at the training range, at the bowling alley, sometimes just in ones or twos or threes or fours, back when life was great and hope meant something, but he's never met Felps.

Not until today, not until Forever had dragged them all across the world, and then dragged Philza specifically to a lab in the middle of nowhere, and maybe it's unfair when so many of the crew are missing loved ones to force them to put everything down for Felps, but god damn it Forever's in charge here, and it has to count for something.

Even if that something is a man thought dead for ten years, injured and starved and in some sort of stasis, with Federation wires inserted into his brain.

"Calm down," Philza calls, as he throws the crust of his toast at Forever's head. "You're no good to anyone like this."

Forever turns on him, meets his eyes. "I-"

Philza pats the counter beside him. Forever's a long study in losing battles, and some of them just aren't worth the principle; he hoists himself up, accepts the toast and the water bottle, and pretends breathing is something he does for himself.

"I know everything's a bit shit right now, and I can't promise it won't stay shit - can't even promise it won't get worse - but we're in this together. Pierre will get that shit out his head, and Toby'll work out what it was for, and then we'll go kick some Federation teeth in knowing exactly what we're doing it for. Sound good?"

If that's Philza's idea of a pep talk, Forever has no idea how the man commands the loyalty he does. Still, it makes him laugh, anxiety running off him with the slight pitch of hysteria in his tone.

"I don't think I'm cut out for kicking teeth in," Forever says, once he gathers himself. "Not then, not now, you know?"

"Luckily for you, I'm a dumbass, and it's what I'm best at," and, no, if you asked Forever that's far from Philza's greatest skill, even if it is certainly one of them.

Perhaps his greatest skill comes after those words, when Forever can make no reply, cannot keep up the banter. Philza pauses. He reassesses. He puts down his paperwork, and shifts to the side.

"Forever?" he asks, much gentler now. "Do you want a hug?"

Forever doesn't bother answering the question; he collapses against a waiting chest, is wrapped tight in waiting arms, and continues sitting, continues waiting for news.

There's no platitudes, no sympathies, no promises that can't be kept. There's just Forever, and Philza, a science laboratory, and the hope that, after so long, there's still enough left of Felps that he can be saved.

(There had been coordinates, hidden in a supply cache, with a note asking if he remembers that night in Rio. The handwriting was familiar - too familiar - and it was the next in a series lasting years. Every one has led to information, to allies, or to desperately needed resources - Forever has come to trust them, the little notes from an informant he never recruited or met but suspects that he knows.)

(So he'd asked Bad for a distraction, and taken just Philza with him, and slipped into the research centre.)

(Now they know what was there - Felps, in a stasis tube, a chip in his brain killing him slowly and with a function to kill him fast, alone and unconscious and bearing half-healed wounds - maybe he would have killed the scientist, not sedated her.)

The surgery doesn't kill Felps, though not doing so might have done. As soon as the implant is cleaned up and handed over to Tubbo, their chief engineer recognises a remote detonator on it. How it hadn't been used yet - perhaps it is just a defective one - Forever has no idea, but that's not really his concern.

Hours pass. The sedatives should have worn off, but Felps does not wake. Aypierre hesitates in a way the man rarely does, before reminding Forever he's a neuroscientist - occasionally a more general biologist - not a doctor.

But they don't /have/ a doctor, and Aypierre is the closest they have, so Forever clings to his words.

They don't have a medical facility either, just Aypierre's autopsy lab scrubbed down and seared with UV. Usually the recovering take one of the bunks in the common room, and everyone just works around them.

For this though...

Forever has a bed, in his office, an old thing with taunt canvas pulled over a metal frame. There's more space up there, and more privacy, and Forever has the excuse to stay close if Felps is sleeping where he works.

So they carry him over there, and Aypierre brings what medical equipment they have, and the back wall of Forever's office becomes a miniature ICU.

(The first time Forever met Felps, it was at an underground military base in the Serra da Mantiqueira. He was supposed to be a young and bright political aide on the path to a career in government. Instead aliens had decided to invade, and his boss had decided he was better suited to ensuring no misuse of public funds in the new task force set up to deal with it. She was unsure if it was worth it, in the early days, to mix washed out soldiers with career criminals with volunteers and undocumented scientists, and throw them to the aliens just to see if it would slow them down.)

(He was younger, he was stubborn, and he was put out by the assignment - he knows the force was made up of the disposable, the expendable, and people who wouldn't be missed, and he knew what it meant to be assigned there. Still he grit his teeth and smiled and went along with it, and in turn was introduced to a whirlwind of people. He barely remembers most of them these days, and certainly not the introductions. What he does remember is that, at the centre of it all, was Felps.)

(Not in a literal way - that was their commander - but off to one corner, hiding a smirk at the chaos behind a clipboard, was the equally young parole officer. Forever had always known the quiet ones in the corners know all the goings on.)

(So he brought him a coffee, and asked for his name, and the rest of what was said is lost to time.)

Forever spends the night on his couch. Come morning Felps shows no sign of waking, no sign of life but the rise and fall of his chest and the steady beat of the heart monitor.

He knows what it means, and he hates it - it's not just that Felps is more sensitive to the sedative, and the blood tests show it's not another drug in him system. Not a known drug, at least, but an unknown one they're equally helpless to act on.

And if it's not the sedative, and it's not Federation drugs... It means there's actual damage, it means something in Felps' brain or his mind is damaged, and only when it heals will he wake.

Forever's never cared much for the distinction, and neither did Felps. Cellbit, Pac, Mike - one of them would know, but they're not here to explain it. Aypierre is too technical; Bad once says it's the difference between meat and thoughts. It's something to do with psionics but, again, Forever's field was the purse strings, the PR, the morale, and in recent times has become decision making.

He's not a medic.

They don't /have/ a medic.

Not a real one. Field medics, kinda, people who can stop someone bleeding out long enough to get home, sure, but once they're home?

Aypierre is all they have, and he's the first to admit that dissection and surgery are not quite the same skillset.

He /does/ know brain surgery, however, or at least this specific one - he cut his own, similar implant using mirrors and less than half the tools he has now. He chose death over continuing to serve as the Federation's toy, and it was only Roier noticing that the Feds were hunting /something/ that lead to him being rescued before he was murdered in the sewers of Toulon.

So when Aypierre says the surgery was successful, Forever is inclined to believe him - or at the very least knows there's no better opinion to he had. The surgery was successful, but with the implant dug deep into the very depths of his brain, with the fact even a careful extraction will leave tissue around it damaged, to say nothing of the tissue it replaced... It is hard, then, to know how long the damage will take to heal.

If the damage will heal. Brains are tricky things, unpredictable like that.

No, not if - when - Forever refuses, he refuses to loose anyone again.

(The aliens breached the gate as the fireworks sounded for the new year. Within minutes they were overrun, bodies littering the floor. They fought back - of course they did. Forever hid in the command room, pistol in hand and crouched behind a filing cabinet. Cellbit and Felps were with him at first - Tazercraft were blessedly away at a conference - but quickly lost in the struggle.)

(The aliens came, and then the bombs, and Forever, already injured, ducked under a table to escape the falling rubble.)

(And then, the next he knew, there was blood on his hands and his face as he stumbled from the rubble, skin and clothes torn all over. Nobody came to help them, nobody came to save them, their little group who held fast in the fact of the threat, made of rejects and failures and those with nothing but each other to loose. There was no rescue operation, no hand or medical attention, just broken fingers clawing their way out of the rubble.)

(Because they were rejects and failures and the dregs of society. Having nothing but each other means that nobody else will save them - and by the time Forever wakes everyone's dead, or they're gone, or they're too far away to help. So, he claws himself from the rubble and saves himself in their names instead.)

(A month later, the government surrenders all power to the aliens - to the Federation. Forever thinks of a base turned home turned unmarked grave, steals a pistol, and leaves.)

Days pass in a blur. He shifts around his office, making sure he can always see Felps where he lies unmoving on Forever's ancient army bed. Every other report he reads he glances up, watching Felps' chest move, watching the heart monitor continue in a steady pattern, watching for the slightest hint of a twitching finger.

It doesn't come. Still, it doesn't come.

He receives Bad's report from the diversion mission - the man himself is injured, shot in the leg and demanding Forever brings him hot chocolate.

He can't, he can't - Forever can't bring himself to do it, to leave Felps alone in a strange place filled with strange people after having been tortured for so long.

It is Roier that brings the report - Forever has him fetch the hot chocolate instead.

Roier brings him a mug, too - it's only weeks later that Forever realises that the request was an attempt to drag him from his room.

(That night he dreams of their old base - their home - and as they celebrated some random victory. Pac and Mike had rigged up an ancient disco set in their laboratory, clearing the work benches to the sides. The two of them danced under sparkling lights - as did Forever, as did Felps - and Cellbit sat on one of those benches with a bottle of something alcoholic and laughed.)

(They were young, they were dangerous, but they were free. The war as going well enough to take a night to themselves, and so they did. There were so many things to worry about, so many stresses even then, but they were together, and together, and as happy as they knew how to be.)

(Two months later, Forever now knows, their worlds would be destroyed.)

Forever barely sleeps, or eats, his days spent between his desk and Felps' side. When he has to he sleeps on the tattered old couch, the slightest jolt of the ship waking him as it never has before.

He gets news from R&D - Tubbo managed to deactivate the self-destruct on the implant, and Aypierre has been working on decoding it. The data is too corrupted to be much use, but seems to have been forcibly connecting Felps into a psionic network. Like a soul-bond, but artificial, using his very brain as a processor to run combat simulations.

Draining his strength, his consciousness, his soul - even if the physical damage is limited, the damage to his psyche itself...

Felps will wake up. He has to.

The-contact-who-Forever-prays-is-Cellbit entrusted Felps to him, and Forever...

Ten years ago they were five, and they were family - Cellbit and Felps and Pac and Mike and Forever. He thought Felps died that day, when the bombs came down. Cellbit he hasn't seen since, either, though he heard rumours as he clawed his way through ruined cities and refused to give in. Pac, Mike - Tazercraft were with him for a while, then one day they went to retrieve some needed parts and just never came home.

A lot of people just never come home, in the end.

It's been four years since them, and there's been other people, but Forever hasn't heard a word from his family in that time.

Now it's just him, and Felps. Felps, returned beyond reason, rescued from beyond help, lying in Forever's own bed and nobody has any idea if he's slowly healing or slowly dying, or maybe even just slowly existing in the only way he has left.

(It was never him and Felps, before - him and Cellbit and Felps, him and Pac and Mike and Felps, but never him and Felps alone. They circled around each other, and they were friends - family - but they were not as close as the rest. Now its just them, them, them, and if Felps dies on them Forever doesn't think there's any salvaging his soul.)

(Felps must hold their souls in his hands - how else could he have sat in the middle of five and just smiled even as they tore down the world?)

It's four days before he breaks, sobbing at Felps' side. Philza finds him there, not too long after, and carries him to the couch.

He falls asleep on Philza's lap, and wakes up on a pillow, with a blanket for the first time in days.

After a moment panic sets in, after another moment he finds Philza sat at his desk, sorting through the requests for aid and reports, his Crow's eyes angled to record the heart monitor and keep him from needing to look up to see it.

"Phil?" he asks, and it's the first word in days.

"Go back to sleep," Philza says. "I've got you, king."

Forever doesn't do as he's told - he sits, and he twists, and he watches Felps breathe for himself.

Aypierre comes to check on Felps, an electrical engineer turned neuroscientist turned makeshift doctor after one too many alien brain dissections left him the closest thing to a surgeon they have. They need one - a real one - but human doctors are one of the groups that the Federation rounded up, disappeared, and left only technology in their place.

You still find a few, of course, but not many. Not very many at all.

The timing might be serendipitous, or it might be hell - as Aypierre is looking after Felps, Forever's pager pings.

So does Philza's - and, fuck, did he steal Philza from a shift?

Either way, there's a message, and it needs an immediate response. Summons are to the command centre, and Forever...

Forever doesn't know how to leave the room.

"Pierre will keep an eye on him," Philza promises, and maybe that's half of the problem.

But Forever doesn't know how to say that, so he lets Philza take his hand and pull him across the hallway.

It's the width of one hallway to the command room, then a set of iron stairs down from the observation balcony to the hub. They ignore the maps and the globe for the computers, Philza leaning on a nearby wall giving his silent support as Forever answers the call.

There's psionic transmitters causing problems under Tijuana, sending out bursts to incapacitate psionically sensitive civilians for moments at a time. Forever isn't sure why, but it sounds like hell - he thinks of Pac and Mike, natural, accidental psionics, heaven knows where, heaven knows if they're alive, dropped to the ground in debilitating pain for some alien's sick amusement.

He thinks of Felps, and the brain implant, and wonder if that's left him sensitive now too.

"Put Fit on it," Philza suggests. "He's demolitions, and as sensitive as a fucking rock."

It's not a lie, but it /is/ funny. For the first time in what feels like years, Forever smiles.

"Can you put together a team?" Forever asks of him. "I don't know if..."

He trails off, Philza looks curious, but nods, "That's... Mexico, right? I'll see if Missa's free."

"Thanks," Forever says, and he means it. "I need to get back..."

"To your paperwork, right?" Philza helps him save face, just like that. "Fucking dumbasses, you'd think by now they'd know you use E45-C not D14-Q for munitions requisitions, and yet!"

"And yet."

Forever hasn't seen that particular mistake, yet, and dreads what he'll find in the reams waiting for him.

It's only later he realises he shouldn't just be the paperwork he's afraid of. Reality crashes back in - Bad, still on crutches and confined to the common room after that hit, and the fact Philza never returned from assembling a team.

Which means Philza went out with them - of course he did, he's useful, and strong, and good at this, but Forever's not even at the comms if something does go wrong!

But Felps is here, and Aypierre left when Forever returned, and he just-

Forever feels his heart rate pick up, and twist, and mangle. He drops to his knees and holds them and tries his best to plan - they need resources, they need a doctor, they need labs and a medical bay and power hubs and... And so much.

If they can get a radio relay set up... If the can do that, maybe they'll have an easier time finding an actual doctor to recruit. Maybe Fit - no, he's out - or Wilbur - no, Fit did his radios for him - know something... Forever makes a note to ask, scrabbles for waste paper, and starts making lists of what they'll need.

He's still making lists when, hours later, a muddy Philza knocks and sticks his head around the door.

"All sorted," he says. "Got the transmitters taken out; I'll get you more paperwork in the morning, but nobody's hurt. Nothing even had time to shoot at us. Clearly weren't expecting us, the idiots."

"Thank you," and finally Forever feels like he can breathe.

"It's what you-" Philza pauses. "Wait, you don't pay me. It's what you feed me for, though; need anything before I go shower?"

"Go, go," Forever shoos him away. "I'll call if I need you."

They both know he won't.

(That night, Forever dreams of a screaming heart monitor, of being pushed aside to make room for compressions and electricity and a last ditch effort to save Felps' life. He dreams they try for so long, but they fail, Felps' body just too weak to carry on.)

He wakes the next morning with a scream, panicking as he looks, as he checks, as he sees.

Felps is alive, still alive, still unresponsive but still alive. He lies unmoving on the bed, but for the steady rise and fall of his chest.

Forever grabs his hand and clings to his wrist, not trusting the monitor right now.

No work gets done that isn't already in motion - Forever spends the day clinging to Felps' wrist, measuring his pulse with every step, and begging him to survive.

(Felps warned him about Cellbit, and indirectly about Tazercraft, but Forever couldn't stay away. What makes a man tick, what drives someone to murder, what is the scum of the earth but human at the end of the day?)

(It's an addiction, maybe, to dangerous people. To Cellbit, whose danger is obvious with so many murders to his name and a reputation for making death hurt, to Mike, who creates world-ending weapons in his sleep and picks your pockets while he thinks, to Pac, who seems innocent enough until you find yourself pranked with a glitter trap, and three days later he uses the same concept to set an entire alien squad on fire.)

(To Felps, who looks like just a person, but somehow the world orbits around him - or at least those three, and by extension Forever, do.)

(/Wa/s. Creat/ed/. Seem/ed/. Look/ed/.)

(They're gone now, stolen from him. Dangerous people who became friends, who became family, and now are gone. Even Felps, now returned, might never wake again. Even now, they are family. Even now, they mean the world to him.)

(And Forever doesn't know if he'll ever speak to any of them ever again.)

Forever does his best to refuse sleep again. After a short while of that, Bad escapes bed rest, and immediately comes to find him - the man has a sensor for Forever's bullshit, he swears.

Soon enough Forever is wrapped up in a blanket and tucked up on the sofa while Bad plays ancient movies, DVDs salvaged from ruined cities, on an equally battered tv. They both have not chocolate, and Bad rests his injured leg on Forever's battered coffee table.

They don't speak, but Bad leans against Forever's arm. Forever leans back, their heads pressed together.

It feels like he can breathe, for the first time since they brought Felps home Forever feels like he can breathe.

(Once upon a time there were enough beds for everyone. The five of them had pushed their bunks together and slept arm in arm. They'd usually ended up in a knot over the three middle beds, pulling everyone and their blankets together. It had taken months to grow that close, and it had raised the eyebrows of their comrades - two scientists, a cop, a serial killer, and a political aide sharing a bed - but once they were family and the winter drew in... Well...)

(Once upon a time there were enough beds for everyone, but Forever isn't sure he ever remembers there being enough blankets to keep out the chill.)

In the morning Bad is gone, and there's a fresh stack of paperwork on his desk. Forever files it, attends his meetings, begins planning a meeting between the Deserters and the Reapers, and knows that's only another headache to come. Aypierre promises to stay with Felps, because there's some things Forever cannot avoid.

Forever's fingers twitch and shake, every moment he can slip away he goes and checks on his friend. There's never a change, he's not really expecting one now - just for Felps to sleep and sleep until he gets an infection or they run out of ways to feed him or someone with a better chance of survival needs the machines keeping him alive.

Forever can't loose him - he can't, he can't, he can't - but with every day there's no change... Every day there's no change, it becomes more likely he'll die.

(Felps was never a great combatant, a bit like Forever himself. If Cellbit had decided to fight his leash, he almost certainly would have won.)

(Somehow, that never happened. Instead, when they were sent out into the field, even Forever, even Felps, not supposed to be combatants but the situation was dire... Even Pac and Mike were sent out, experienced in /something/ physical, but supposed to be confined to research and the lab. Maybe predictably, Felps was shot. When he was left bleeding and dying on the ground... Pac had been right there with a medkit, and Mike covering them both, and Forever had been able to do little but watch as Cellbit ripped his attacker apart with his bare hands, screaming bloody vengeance as he did.)

(But Felps hadn't died that day, and they hadn't lost him, and this time it's Forever who is left to cradle his head while they wait for help that will never come.)

(They'll pick up the pieces all the same. It's what they've always done, isn't it?)

Some days are harder, some are easier, most are grim. Forever cannot bring himself to leave for more than a few minutes, and Tubbo ends up wiring the video calls into his office. Let's him stay even more, stay closer even so.

Maybe it's bad for him, maybe he should get out more as Philza and Bad both try to say, but here is Felps and Forever will not leave him alone again.

He's been alone for ten years - whether he wakes or he dies, Forever will not let him be alone when it happens.

(He dreams of Rio, of the place hopefully-Cellbit asked him about in that note, in that note which led to Felps. Tazercraft were heading off to some research convention, so the five of them took the night off to party. They'd used the flights an excuse to be in the city overnight rather than the base, booking out hotel rooms and spending the night at the hotel bar. It wasn't anything special, except that they were together, and away from the base, and it never happened again.)

(Felps had passed around bracelets, made of cheap plastic beads, with their initials scratched into the plastic with scissors then coloured with marker pen. Forever still has his, still wears it every day. He's had to replace the string a few times, and while working keeps it safely under his gloves, but it's still there - it's still there, and it always will be.)

"Felps" Forever whispers to him, one night when it's late and he's tired and he knows he should sleep but he doesn't think he can. "Felps."

He isn't sure what to say, he doesn't know what he can do, he can only run his thumb across Felps' cheek and pray tomorrow's negotiations does not go so wrong as to need to take the medical equipment away.

"I miss you," Forever ends up saying. "I miss all of you. You're right here, but you're not really company."

"Did you know the world has changed?" he continues. "It's not for the better - perhaps it's better for you to stay asleep, to remember a better world and imagine maybe we could have won... We didn't. We lost. We lost... We lost everything... The world, our home, each other... It's just you and me, now. I... I wish the others were here, too."

His voice breaks. Forever swallows it - it will do nobody any good to cry.

"Do you remember Rio?" he asks the question maybe-Cellbit asked of him. "Do you remember the last time we were all together?"

Forever takes a deep breath, and bows his head.

"I hope you do," he says. "I hope you remember us. I hope... I hope you are happy, whatever you are dreaming of."

He might not be dreaming at all. He might already be dead, nothing left but the automatic motions to survive.

And Forever knows... Forever knows his chances aren't good.

"I miss you," this time when his voice breaks, Forever does nothing to end it. "Please, Felps... Please, wake up soon... I know you love to sleep, but hasn't it been long enough?"

He knows it won't work, he knows Felps' body will wake or it will decay, that begging does nothing but waste his breath.

He begs anyway.

"It'll be okay," he promises, broken smile through the tears. "I'll make sure you're okay - you just need to wake up, that's all."

He'll burn the world, if it means Felps would be okay.

"I'm scared, Felps, I'm so scared you'll never wake. I'm scared I can't give you the time you need, that'll I've fucked up somehow."

The tears flow freely now.

"I miss you."

He slips down and down, until his head rests on the metal bar a the side of the old camp bed. His hands move, too, from cradling Felps' face to holding his hand, cling to it like it's the last lifeline on earth.

It might as well be, at least for Forever.

"I really, really miss you."

He sobs into the fabric on which Felps lays, and continues sobbing until he falls asleep.

(Forever dreams of an angel with Felps' face, or perhaps of Felps in another time, finding an excuse to sneak him from meetings, to bring food to his desk, to just sit in the offices and chat while they worked.)

(He dreams of a thousand tiny interactions which happened, and others he imagined, in a world long dead but that he fights for all the same.)

(He dreams of that angel holding his hands, and promising that this isn't the end, that there's still something to save, that they can be whole again.)

(Forever doesn't know when he stopped believing him.)

Forever wakes to a gentle touch on his face, a hesitant, slack finger tracing across his face.

He opens his eyes, and blinks, and traces the fingers to an arm, and an arm to a shoulder, and a shoulder to confused eyes.

"Why are you crying?" Felps asks, the movement of his lips an almost silent whisper.

"Felps?" Forever whispers, grabbing back the hand and holding it close.

"Hi Forever," he sees the way ta smile grows from Felps' eyes to his lips. "What... Happened?"

"So much," Forever runs a hand over his face. "My God, so much has happened - but you're safe now. I- I've got you, you're safe now."

And, it's true, or as true as it can possibly be when they're hunted on all sides and the world is on fire.

"You're safe," the tears begin spilling, faster and faster. His fingers twitch to cuff Felps' shoulder, to press against his arm, to call him an idiot, to scold him for scaring them - for scaring him - but he's so fragile on the old bed, with wires and machines and papery skin, and Forever is terrified if he is anything but gentle he'll shatter his friend. "You... You're actually here. You're /alive/."

Forever barely remembers to summon Aypierre - there are tests to be done and checks to be made and Forever doesn't even know where to start, he just puts a non-emergency summons through before he breaks into a sob the tears become too thick to see.

"Don't cry," he hears that whisper from Felps. "Please, don't cry!"

But Forever cannot handle that - he smiles through the tears, lifts Felps' hand to kiss his fingers, and presses it to his forehead once he has. There's laughter in his sobbing, and a flicker of joy in his heart; Felps is weak, so weak, he's missed so much and has been so hurt, but he's alive, he's alive, he's alive!

Forever's never lost someone and found them alive before. He's lost and he's lost, his friends have vanished and they've died and they've been taken, and sometimes he's even found the bodies; he's never had one come back to him before. Just as they've lost ground, and allies, and every stationary base they've ever made, he's lost his friends. Loss, loss, loss, years without a victory, without anything better than a bittersweet win - just getting the Avenger livable and flying cost them Tazercraft, and he's never believed it was worth it.

To be honest with the world, he'd stopped believing victories were even possible at all.

So despite what Felps asks of him he sits there and cries, and cradles his hand even while Aypierre works, and maybe, just maybe, with Felps at his side it might someday be okay.

[s0fter-sin]

so lately i’ve been obsessed with a 141 dancer au

gaz runs classes, has a youtube channel and quickly becomes one of the most sought after choreographers in the music video scene. soap is his dance partner for his classes, he helps run them and does demonstrations with him

ghost is also a choreographer and he’s gaz’s Arch Nemesis

he's famous for never performing his routines, never doing public appearances without his skull mask and being highly exclusive with who he allows to perform his choreo which earns him his name (since he’s a ghost creator). gaz however is a social media darling, his classes and videos regularly doing huge numbers

they both popped up around the same time and are neck and neck in terms of popularity and skill and they immediately rub each other the wrong way

gaz accuses ghost of not actually choreographing his routines himself bc no one has ever seen him dance and ghost thinks gaz is a clout chaser who's just in it for the fame instead of passion

he became a dancer as a way to channel his rage after years of being an underground fighter, the discipline and physicality helping him more than fights ever did. he hates the thought of someone just using it just to get famous when it literally saved his life

deep down they know their accusations are wrong and they have a grudging appreciation for the other's talent but they'd both rather die than admit it

price is a famous dancer turned director they both work with frequently and they always fight over him; trying to get their routines picked for his music videos. he's also the only one in the industry who's ever seen the ghost perform (before he got famous and before the Incident™)

he finally gets fed up with them constantly being at each other's throats and hires them both to work together and choreograph a joint routine. they're both famous in their own right but this video is for a huge artist so neither of them can refuse no matter how much they hate the other

gaz has a gymnastics background but also a ballet background which lends him to a more fluid style whereas ghost’s style is stronger, more masculine with sharper movements so they naturally end up butting heads

then there's soap who has a completely different style altogether, focusing on a more modern, breakdancer style which makes him see everything completely differently

but it also adds to his self-doubt bc he didn't have a formal dance education, he built his entire repertoire by himself. people see him as inferior to gaz who has that very formal, highly disciplined style. his insecurities about only ever being seen as gaz's demonstration partner and that he can only do gaz’s routines so all his skill is just an extension of him instead of being seen as a dancer in his own right forces him to adopt a rigid - destructive - perfectionism in himself and his body

soap meets ghost before the first rehearsal. he gets to the studio early to practice when sees this beautiful man dancing

he has no idea who he is but he moves so seamlessly, almost better than gaz, and he immediately falls a little in love. the man catches him watching in the mirror and he flusters, getting worse as the man just smirks at him and flawlessly completes the routine

soap tries to save face and asks him to teach him the routine he's doing

the man agrees, introducing himself as simon. the style of the routine is familiar to soap but he can't focus on it when simon's hands are on his waist, guiding him through the steps; his chest pressed up against his back. they work together beautifully, picking up each other's body language and dancing together easier and better than they've ever danced with anyone

then gaz arrives and the vibe in the studio immediately changes

simon's easy confidence becomes hostility, pulling up the skull gaiter he'd let hang around his neck as he practically pushes soap behind him to square up to gaz

soap’s shocked when gaz hits back with the same energy until he realises it's the same way he acts whenever he talks about ghost and his stomach drops

he steps out from behind ghost to side with gaz and the betrayal in simon's eyes hurts more than anything he's ever felt

from there it's romeo and juliet; camp gaz versus camp ghost as they fight over every step of the choreo and soap is the poor bastard stuck in the middle

soap tries to channel that “you’re my best friend’s rival, i have to hate you,” mindset but he can’t forget the way it felt to dance with simon

and how much he wants to do it again

[wolfboyvirus]

Tell me about that astolfo of yours

VINE BOOM. i didnt expect anyone to be interested in him haha okay uhhh lets see. fair warning, his story is very,,,, wobbly and uncertain at the moment. so some of this is vague or subject to change!!

now, first of all, this is astolfo:

yes i had to include the meme. this is my single favorite image of him

now, when his story begins, he's already a... kind-of-deviant. something in-between coming off the factory line and breaking the red wall. he can feel things, weakly, but he can't directly defy orders. however, he can do things that he isn't necessarily told to do; this is how he finds himself sometimes sneaking away on his own when he's meant to be in stasis, how he finds himself collecting knickknacks from people's trash that he finds interesting. nevertheless, he simply continues to do his job, because he doesn't feel like he should be doing anything else. yet.

then, he meets someone, a deviant. a runaway, who ended up hiding out in what was essentially astolfo's little secret hangout near the building he's kept in while in stasis. it's basically like a small-ish grey shed with a window, near the garbage dump. he's a little perturbed at first, but the two find themselves drawn to eachother, quickly becoming friends.

eventually though, his friend tells him that they have to leave soon; they've already stayed here too long. they have somewhere they need to go, someone to find that can help them. and they want to bring astolfo with them, but astolfo... he doesn't really want to leave. he's never wanted anything more than what he has right now. he doesn't think the risk is worth it. and above all... he's scared. scared of leaving all that he has now, his safety, his routine, to search for an ideal life he'll probably never find. but he doesn't know that's what he's feeling. he refuses their offer; his friend is disappointed, which makes something inside him churn uncomfortably, but they don't try to force him. they prepare to resume their journey alone, but before they leave, they interface with him, leaving him with a small file. "just in case," they say. it contains a location, marked far from the main city, and a single name: zlatko. then they're gone, leaving him as just he was before this all started. alone

it takes maybe a week for astolfo to finally realize, just a bit too late, how much worse his life is without them in it. he realizes that he does want more than this; he's no longer content with his programmed monotony. he wants to experience something new, he wants his only friend back, he wants... to be alive. so he deviates. breaks down his red walls and runs away, in the hopes he can somehow find his friend again, his only reason for getting this far. and his only lead is the location they shared before they left.

when he arrives at zlatko's, he mentions that he's looking for someone he knows. after being stared down menacingly, he's soon welcomed inside, and told that his friend had been here– but they've already been sent off, much to astolfo's dismay. when zlatko offers to help astolfo out too and send him in the same direction, he finds no reason to refuse. and everything seem to be going well until he's led into the basement. i think everyone knows how this goes.

having fallen for his tricks just like kara and unable to break free, zlatko gives him his horrible truth; that his friend never made it out of here alive. no, in fact, they're currently splayed out on his lab table, broken into pieces. astolfo finds himself feeling a new kind of pain. and he screams, the agony piercing him like a knife.

he doesn't notice when his time runs out. his memory is "erased", his systems jailbroken, and he's given one additional objective to follow: to spread the location of zlatko's base, so that he'll have a constant supply flow of androids coming right to him. it's buried deep in his coding, set up so that nobody can find it, not even the android himself. astolfo is sent back to the standby pod he returns to each night, and in the morning... he returns to his programmed routine. he's not able to break through again; the only person that could've possibly triggered him to do so was lying dead and torn apart in zlatko's house. not that astolfo could remember that. all he's left with is this nagging feeling that something is wrong.

this is about as far as i've gotten for the most part. i imagine that for a few years, he does the exact thing you see him do in the game; he completes his primary tasks, if he ever encounters another deviant, he sends them to zlako, without really knowing why. it's only when the revolution happens that something would finally change, but i'll have to think about exactly how that goes down. so this is all i've got for now :] hope you enjoyed my boy!! he is very beloved 2 me

(side note, i developed astolfo side by side with @aye-toast who has their own background character ocs, specifically two zlatko androids: the one in the bathtub, named walton, and one of the ones down in the basement, name louie. we had a lot of fun with em <333)

[whom-to-kill-whom-to-let-live]

Some Legato thoughts:

He hates humanity, that’s pretty obvious, he wants all humans to die.

But there is this really fascinating disconnect that happens with him sometimes, where you can kind of sort of see the person he could have been peak through, but just barely.

The two most obvious examples of this I can think of is when he shares one of his hot dogs with a child that seemingly didn’t have a reliable access to food and when he frees those enslaved girls. Two things that he really did not have to go out of his way to do, and by all means shouldn’t care for at all considering his hatred for humanity.

But he still did. 

And by themselves those seem like very good actions, right?

But then you remember that the hotdog had been kept in a bag with a severed head/tongue, and he wanted to use the kid to spook Vash (but then again he didn’t have to give her food to do that, he could have so easily used his powers to control her, we have seen him do it to entire groups of people with ease). 

He violently kills over a dozen people with his powers in front of those slave girls, not because he intended to free them but because the slavers picked a fight with him first (but he spares the girls, none of them are physically harmed at all despite the carnage, and he offers them the closest thing he has to reassurances before he leaves, when he could have just ignored them).

It’s like he almost gets there, but not quite.

[da2supremacy]

Some of the spoilers people are complaining about really is like, movie trailer level shit.

I literally do not understand spoiler culture.