#operation: rising phoenix

[stellar-collective]

hi are you accepting art requests?

if you are, could you draw the handler and agent phoenix reuniting after Operation Rising Phoenix? You don’t have to but I would like it very much if you did :)

you KNOW i had to make this one as sappy as possible

[thesoftboiledegg]

"Mort: Ragnarick" was pure fun, but a different kind of fun than "Rickfending Your Mort" and "Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie."

"Rickfending Your Mort" was a laid-back clip show that gave the viewer a break after the insanity of "Unmortricken"--a smart decision but not one with a lot of substance. "Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie" has been controversial. I thought it was entertaining, but it would've worked better as a YouTube short.

If "Unmortricken" represented lore episodes at their best, "Mort: Ragnarick" was the best of classic Rick and Morty adventures: a wildly imaginative plot, goofy satire, fantasy science and Rick and Morty working together as a duo, reminding us how much they need each other.

Rick's the driving force behind these adventures, but without Morty, he's just a miserable old man trying to distract himself. Morty's the heart and voice of reason. He also gives Rick something to live for. Without him, Beth, Jerry or Summer, why do anything?

Rick pretends to live for science, but "science" just caused decades of grief and isolation. His family isn't a concept; it's an entity that loves him back.

Bigfoot, an evil pope, Pokeballs, Valhalla, clone bodies, infinite energy sources, zombie Summer, Rick screaming "PO-O-O-O-OPE!": only Rick and Morty could combine all those concepts into one cohesive episode. I never thought "Wow, that took me out of the story." The Pokeball came close, but the end credits scene tied it all together.

Jerry's scene was a standout, too. Chris Parnell's reading of "Nana!" was genuinely sweet. It seems like Jerry's becoming a (mostly) willing participant in Rick's schemes instead of a helpless guinea pig. Is Rick learning that releasing his iron grip on his family makes them more attached to him, not less?

I also loved it when the Vikings called Rick a witch. He loves crystals, plays with magic, has two crows as familiars: damn right, he is!

You have to suspend your disbelief a couple of times, mainly when Bigfoot attacks Rick in the kitchen (he crushed Rick earlier like it was nothing, but now Rick walks away with a few scratches?) Still, the little character moments overshadow these flaws.

Judging by old posts that I've seen floating around, I think Rick and Morty's relationship is finally becoming what fans wanted it to be in seasons 1-3. Rick's still mean, but he's less dominant and more of Morty's mischievous co-conspirator. An alien mobster freaking out in "The Jerrick Trap" because of Rick's "touch my grandson and die" policy is straight out of fanon.

Rick's more physically gentle, and Morty responds in kind. He grabs and supports him when Bigfoot attacks him at home and touches his arm during their weird, overdramatic Bigfoot send-off. His pained cry of "Rick!" when Bigfoot nearly crushes him is heart-wrenching. Operation Phoenix is back online, but Morty's tired of watching him die!

Season five is when Rick started showing emotions on his face besides that cold, pissed-off glare--we all know the one--and in season seven, it's accelerated to Rick crying in front of others. He matches Morty's feelings instead of pretending that he's above human emotions.

Needless to say, dudebros have been flooding Adult Swim's Instagram comments and Twitter replies with "Rick and Morty is shit now!" "Rick's too nice!" "Rick and Morty has gone woke!" Justin Roiland's firing gave them more fuel, but they started even while he was still on the payroll.

Their favorite line is "Rick isn't Rick anymore!" And they're right. Rick's not the asshole from seasons 1-2 who had a couple of redeeming qualities. He's not the monster that he was in season three and parts of season four. He's not the defeated man in season five who started to realize that he's hurting people but still wanted Morty to look after him like a child.

Season six is when he started to grow up--not a lot, but enough that he began taking on adult responsibilities instead of thinking he's a teenage boy who sees another teenager as his peer. I wish we saw more therapy appointments, but while they're mostly off-screen, we're definitely seeing the effects.

This doesn't make Rick a great person or atone for what he's done. Some of his crimes are beyond atonement, and not just the obvious ones like blowing up planets. This is a universe where everyone has a body count and events that should've destroyed Earth have no effect on civilization. Death and destruction don't mean that much.

His worst crimes are the personal ones: destroying Morty's psyche in "The Vat of Acid Episode," treating his family like garbage for most of season three. You can't atone for that. You can't apologize for that.

However, I don't only judge characters by their past. I judge them by their capacity to change.

Walter White is a brilliant character, but he's not a personal favorite because his arc is a slow descent into hell. Rick's slowly climbing out of his crater, and while it doesn't erase the past, it's still happening. For me, that's more satisfying than watching a monster become a bigger monster.

Of course, he's still not above cosplaying as Odin while wearing a golden crown that literally says "GOD." But the former "no girls allowed" alpha male has become a dedicated therapy patient who's also a thirst object that would make bros cry about double standards. Sure, Rick, you're a god, now put on that weird half-shirt and prance around a little.

[kayssweetdreams]

A IEYTD fic idea I had!

Operation Groundhog Day

Agent Phoenix gets the best surprise of their life! A celebratory birthday party at the EOD! Unfortunately, at the same time, Zor and their assassins try to kill them. And it looks like this is the day they finally succeed in killing the Phoenix, with Zor delivering the killing blow themselves…

But a Phoenix always rises from the ashes.

As soon as they drop dead Agent Phoenix wakes back up, at the exact same day, at the exact same time. Now, they have to find a way to end the loop, not get killed, AND stop Dr Zor's plan…all before getting their cake.

[eight-cats-in-a-box]

Lore for my Phoenix!!!! Long post so it's under the cut OwO @dandorime

Agent Phoenix, also known as [REDACTED], is the Agency's best operative, with successful missions numbering in the dozens under their belt. This file requires Level 5 security clearance.

[CARD ACCEPTED]

Agent Phoenix, hereafter referred to as either "Phoenix" or "Agent", also known as Leonidas Orion Bates, is the Agency's best operative, with their unique gift of resurrection allowing them to complete missions without a fluke- perhaps not the first time, but it's only a matter of time and iteration until they can complete it.

Phoenix had a fairly normal upbringing, with nothing of note occurring until their eighteenth birthday, when they were kidnapped by Zoraxis operatives on their way to a party. They would spend the next five years captive there. It is unclear why they were chosen, and Phoenix has declined to comment.

During those years, Phoenix was Pavlov'd into complete obedience by [REDACTED], their Zoraxis handler. [Note from R.C: Their handler was a horrible person, and quite frankly, I'm glad she's dead.] This was accomplished with a high-voltage shock collar. Phoenix has declined to elaborate further, for good reason.

They were renamed "Sicarius" ["killer" in Latin], and used as an assassin/executioner for Zor themself. This left Phoenix quite damaged, both physically and mentally. They have expressed a fear of harming their loved ones, and although the scars from the shock collar have faded, they're still visible on occasion.

Phoenix showed up at the Agency Headquarters in London on 04/09/XXXX, looking exhausted. They were taken into custody, and promised to give freely the information that they had on Zor's plans in exchange for sanctuary.

Their first Agency handler necessitated a transfer. It took a long time for them to trust their second Handler, due to mistrust not only from their Zoraxis handler, but their first Agency handler as well. [Note from R.C:I made sure that [REDACTED] got fired. What they did to Phoenix was inexcusable.] However, post-Operation: Death Engine, they opened up a bit more, and the two are now fast friends.

Phoenix has expressed a concerning willingness to kill, maim, and otherwise maul the enemies of those they are close to. This has been kept in check by their handler, but there are occasions on which they are permitted to...let loose. [See Incident Report 089.]

Post-Operation: Rising Phoenix, Agent Phoenix's handler, Reginald Crane, had informed Agency Director Ricardo Morales that if Phoenix were truly dead, he would be handing in his resignation, effective immediately. Two weeks later, the Agent initiated the Recommunication Protocol at Control Point Babadag. [Note from R.C: To say I was ecstatic would be a gross understatement.]

Post-activation, Phoenix informed Crane that none other than John Juniper was in their custody, and they were helping him recover. Juniper was later taken to an Agency hospital to recover, and allow Phoenix to focus on thwarting Doctor Roxana Prism, who had recently allied with Dr. Zor.

[Note from R.P: The two seem to have a dynamic similar to that of siblings. Phoenix regularly instigates arguments with J.J, and vice versa, but they have started all-out brawls because of someone else bullying the other. It's very strange. See Incident Report 087.]

After Operation: KBOOM, Prism was taken into Agency custody, but was released after both Agent Phoenix and Crane threatened to leave the Agency if she were not released.

Phoenix eventually befriended and even wooed the Doctor, and they have a very healthy relationship. Crane has expressed his approval, although Juniper was seen "shovel-talking" Prism. It seems he is rather protective over Phoenix, as Phoenix is with him.

Phoenix also stole the kinesium the Agency confiscated [namely, the sample taken from Robutler], and returned it to Prism, along with Right Robot. Phoenix returned to the Agency HQ looking quite smug, and declined to comment on their disheveled state.

Phoenix currently resides in California, with Prism, Right Robot, Robutler, and several cats. [Note from A.P: Their names are Buzz, Gracie, Lucy, Betty, Cheddar, Bill, Frank, Honey, Flip-Flop, and Sandal.]

INCIDENT REPORT 087

INCIDENT FILER: [REDACTED]

Agent Phoenix has left no less than four agents in critical condition, and at least ten more with non-serious injuries after an all-out brawl they started in the canteen. When asked why, they simply replied, "No one is allowed to bully Agent Clover [John Juniper] except me." [Note from J.J: Aww, they do care.]

Disciplinary action has not been taken, as their Handler has interfered.

End report.

INCIDENT REPORT 088

INCIDENT FILER: [REDACTED]

Agent Phoenix, who has now returned to normal, was reported as seeming rather dazed and looking around as though they had lost something at 17:26. They left the building at 17:32, and Doctor Roxana Prism reported seeing them at her doorstep at 18:49, with symptoms similar to that of Zor's Project Eidolon. [Glowing eyes, bigger physical presence, oddly robotic movements]

However, when Prism opened the door, Phoenix did not attack her, as other Eidolon were wont to do. They instead told her that they were "awaiting commands." [Note from R.C: I've always said that not even God himself could make Phoenix harm Roxana. It's nice to know I'm right.]

This loyalty/obedience lasted until Phoenix was returned to normal, and save for more sass, there hasn't been much change. [Note from A.P: Because there wasn't, really. I'd do anything for the ones I love. I think the only thing that changed was my accent, honestly.]

End report.

INCIDENT REPORT 089

INCIDENT FILER: REGINALD CRANE

Doctor Roxana Prism, who is currently recovering in the medbay of Agency HQ, was recently kidnapped by Zoraxis, possibly as a last resort due to the failure of Project: Eidolon. Agent Phoenix and myself found her at Zor's base in Jasper, Nevada. The place was crawling with guards, so we made a plan.

Phoenix was already on edge, and getting twitchier every second. So, I allowed them to clear the way for the both of us to rescue Roxana.

It was...brutal, to say the least. To say they were covered in blood not their own would be an understatement. [Note from R.P: I didn't exactly mind, honestly. The dry-cleaning bill was awful, though.]

Roxana was extracted without further incident, and the Zoraxis base was demolished.

End report.

INCIDENT REPORT 090

INCIDENT FILER: Agent Clover [John Juniper]

Agent Phoenix has recently landed themself in the medbay (again) after attempting to down three entire bottles of moonshine on a bet. Suffice to say, they won. Unfortunately, the upgrade the Agency provided them with (that was supposed to be for poisoning) did not hold up to the stress.  I had to hold their hair back while they vomited for nearly half an hour, and as both their girlfriend and their Handler were busy, I had to take care of them as well.  I will be sending the Agency my dry-cleaning bill.

End Report.

INCIDENT REPORT 091

INCIDENT FILER: [REDACTED] Agent Phoenix is currently recovering in the medbay after a massive brawl between them and at least seventeen other agents, as well as security, which left them with a broken nose and three broken ribs. When asked what their motivations were, they declined comment, but a bystander said that they had apparently over heard someone mentioning Doctor Roxana Prism's history with Zoraxis, which enraged Phoenix to the point of picking a fight with an agent nearly twice their size and his group of friends. [Note from A.P: I don't even have a defense for this one. Love makes you do stupid things, and I love Roxy more than I love fire and alcohol.] Doctor Prism declined comment.

End Report.

[ddejavvu]

For multiverse Monday

Doctor bradley Bradshaw dating single mom teacher reader andits being rooster first time meet her daughter being super shy and when she meets him " i wike your moustache " while hiding between readers legs maybe

sorry honey i couldn't really think of a good scenario where he would be a doctor and she would be a teacher and they'd connect while also meeting her daughter so i took out the doctor part! this isn't an au anymore, it's reader being an instructor at top gun and having a young daughter. i hope you're not too disappointed! also i know rooster would not have been in a class with the dagger squad during his time at top gun and that most of them only met for the uranium mission but fuck canon actually they're all school friends in a little group <3

--

"For the most part, I thought your simulations were done well. Many of you made rational decisions while considering both your safety and your plane's, and it showed. Some of you-" You try not to look at Hangman even though everyone else already is, "Were more... daring in your hypothetical plans. But that's something we'll discuss privately, when I come around to work through them with you."

Jake's smirk doesn't fall despite the relentless jabs he gets from everyone sitting within his range. You avoid speaking to him first, choosing to target Fanboy instead, who performed fantastically in his work.

There isn't much to go over with him, a play-by-play of his simulation that you agree with wholeheartedly. You only give him one pointer, and it's that he could be a little less cautious if he wanted to be. But you're moving onto his seatmate next, your back turned towards Rooster as you crouch over Payback's desk.

There's similarly minimal work to be done on Payback's simulation. He'd clearly done the assignment thoughtfully, and you're sure to give him a glowing review. When you step up to the side of Rooster's desk there's a lingering smile on your face, that he glances up at and returns with one of his own.

"Lieutenant Bradshaw," You nod, your voice kind, "Your work was done well. I do have a few pointers, though, if you'd let me nitpick?"

"'Thought you would," He admits, chuckling sheepishly, "It's hard to simulate something so unpredictable."

"I know what you mean," You nod vigorously, missing the sound of the door creaking open, as well as the silence that falls around the classroom from your other students, "There weren't any major problems, I just wanted to offer you some advice. I think you could change the way that you operate here," You tap your pen against the printed frame of his simulation, showcasing a maneuver he could have taken, but didn't. The second time your pen hits the page you feel something thud against your legs, and your hands brace themselves urgently on Bradley's desk to stop yourself from falling forwards into him.

"Oh!" You crane your neck backwards to see what had rammed into you, seeing the wispy-haired, pigtailed-head of your daughter.

"Oh, Lizzie," You breathe, laughing bashfully as a few coos are heard around the room. You sneak your hands beneath her arms, hauling her up off of the ground and onto your hip, "You are not supposed to be here, you know that. What happened to your group?"

"We walked by your door." Elizabeth mumbles into your neck, her tiny voice muffled nearly silent, "And I heard you talking. And I heard Phoenix, and I wanted to say hi."

Natasha gives her a sneaky wave from her seat beside the door.

"Lizzie, you're supposed to stay with the group," You try not to chide her, keeping your voice sweet as she flops herself lifeless over your shoulder, "They're going to be worried when they can't find you."

"I'll catch 'em and let 'em know," Bob offers, rising from his seat cautiously, "Probably on their way to the rec room?"

You pinch Elizabeth's side to get her to answer; she nods once into your shoulder.

You flash Bob a thankful thumbs-up as he rushes to catch Liz's daycare group, and you make a silent promise to yourself to get her a backpack with a leash on it.

When you turn back to Rooster, he's staring at your little girl. He's got a sweet smile on his face, something that no one seems to be able to withhold when looking at her tiny face. She's peeking right back at him, and you can feel her smile against your neck when he waves.

"Lizzie," He tests her name on his tongue, then glances at you, "Short for Elizabeth?"

"No," Your little girl pipes up, ready with the joke she's been waiting on (courtesy of her wisecracking grandfather) for two years now, "Lizard."

Bradley blinks.

"Lizard?"

You can't help but laugh, stifling the sound by biting your lip. He looks bewilderedly between the two of you, two giggly girls, wondering if he's crazy for mishearing something, or if you're crazy for naming your daughter after a reptile.

"It's Elizabeth," You confirm, "Her grandpa has a flair for bad jokes."

"Oh," Rooster breathes, face crumpling into half mortification and half relief, "I see."

"She steals all of his favorite ones," You lament, setting her on the floor only for her to smush herself between your legs and keep her face hidden behind your left thigh, "I think one day she's going to tell me she's 'trying to quit' when I offer her a juice box."

He snorts, "That's a good one."

A moment of silence passes between you, but it's not awkward, it's fond. You're almost ready to get back to your review of his performance, but Lizzie ducks beneath the desk to crouch by Bradley's feet. He cranes his head down to look at her, eyes questioning but kind.

"You have a plane in your pocket," She observes, poking at his F-14 keychain, "I sawed those at the gift shop once."

His face quirks into a smile at her grammar, and he tugs the keys out of his pocket so that she can fiddle with the plane.

"My dad gave it to me when I was your age," He tells her, "That's what he flew in."

"Your dad was a pilot, too?" Lizzie squints up at him, face scrunched.

"No, he sat behind the pilot. He didn't feel like driving."

Bradley's jokes seem to go over well with Lizzie, something that makes your heart flutter. She giggles at, her toothy grin on display, "You don't drive a plane, you fly it."

He chuckles, but he doesn't have time to offer her a proper response before she speaks again, still squinting up at him.

"I like your mustache," She blurts, and you're just glad she doesn't reach up to poke it, "It looks like my grandpa's."

"Less grey, though," You reach down to ruffle her hair, giving Rooster an amused smile when he bites his tongue to stop from laughing.

"Wanna know something?" He raises his brows, leaning in like he's telling Lizzie the nuclear codes.

She leans forwards, just as eager.

"My dad gave that to me, too. He just-" Rooster reaches up to tug at one end of his mustache, "-ripped it off of his face and-" He slaps a hand over his mouth, "-put it on me."

Elizabeth roars with giggles, squealing at the image. Bradley digs in his pocket, the one that hadn't held his keys, and comes out with a creased, yellowed picture from his wallet.

"See?" He holds it out to Liz, showing off a man that's undeniably his father, and a bleach blonde child you can't believe is him, "There he is, that's before he took it off and gave it to me. Can you tell it's the same one?"

"No!" She shakes her head, wobbling to her feet and reaching out. He doesn't back away, but your stomach churns awkwardly at her naive forwardness when she pokes at his lip, "Yours is more higher."

"Lizzie," You rush to grab her arm, but Rooster shoots you a soft smile.

"It's okay," He assures you, voice calm, smooth, and adoring, something that only worsens your pounding heart, "She's fine. I think she's right," He sighs, looking back at the photo, "Maybe he shaved it down before he gave it to me."

Lizzie doesn't have time to ponder the possibilities of The Bradshaw Mustache Transfer before the door creaks open again, Bob's hand bracing it open as a caregiver peers inside cautiously.

Her shoulders slump when she sees Elizabeth and she looks equal parts horrified and delighted at the sight of the unscathed little girl, "Miss Y/L/N, I am so sorry, I didn't-"

"She's an escape artist." You wave away the woman's apologies, "Don't worry about it. Even I can't keep track of her. Go on, Lizzie," You steer her away from Rooster, and you only sigh a little bit when she skips over to hug Natasha first, "And no more running off!"

She's not the one that promises you, her caregiver is. It's not reassuring.

"Anyways, I'm sorry about that," You're not sure if you mean for the general disruption, or for your daughter sticking her fingers around Bradley's mouth, but it's curved into a grin when you turn back to him, so you're sure he doesn't mind.

"It's alright," He promises, "She's cute."

"You're good with kids," You muse offhandedly, ducking down once more to peer at his papers.

"I want a few someday," He admits, righting himself in his chair and tucking the photo of his father away, "I guess this is practice."

"You'll be a fantastic father," You gleam, trying to ignore the familiar heart-flutter when his hand brushes against yours reaching for his pen, "And I'm sure your son will love to carry on the tradition of the Mustache Transfer."

[forestdeath1]

Magnum Opus or Great Work: Alchemical Codes in "Harry Potter"

"I've never wanted to be a witch, but an alchemist, now that's a different matter. To invent this wizard world, I've learned a ridiculous amount about alchemy." JKR. By the way, it seems JKR never became an alchemist because you can't be that evil an alchemist, Joanne. Something went wrong.

The first part about Lily and James

Voldemort – an occult alchemist, Lucifer. Snape – a Seeker who chose the wrong Path. Dumbledore – Keeper of the Tower. Hermione – Hermes Trismegistus. Harry, Hermione and Ron – the three principles for creating the Philosopher's Stone.

Alchemy is the universal path of spiritual transformation. In a literal sense, universal, this code is practically everywhere–from ancient myths and the Bible to the philosophy of Nietzsche (though in his understanding) and Jung's books. Harry Potter himself is a complete alchemist's path, but there's also a well-displayed second path–the path of the occult alchemist.

True alchemy tells us that God is in everything, like a seed present in every person. Through alchemical transformation, a person can be reborn – and become golden, divine, immortal.

Many famous people were fascinated by these ideas – from Newton to Goethe, from Walter to Mozart. Yes, Walter and Mozart were freemasons, but freemasonry is built on the Magnum Opus, it's its foundation. Who has seen the opera The Magic Flute? A completely masonic opera: the surface layer was for the people, and the deeper layer – for the spiritual elite of that time. In this opera, the power of love transforms people and makes them divine. Oh, it seems to resemble Harry Potter, hehe... Harry Potter also has two layers – one as a fairytale about a wizard for teenagers, the other – for those who can "feel" the symbols, even without knowing them.

Each symbol can be interpreted in several ways, that's the complexity of alchemical symbolism. For example, Albus Dumbledore. He symbolizes (in JKR's own words) Spirit ( he's white), and Rubeus Hagrid – Soul (red) – and they're both like two fatherly figures for Harry, distant and warm, judicious and understanding. But all this is at the character level. Dumbledore has other meanings – much more important ones. As I've said before, the symbolic level and the character level are different levels. In interpreting symbols, you don't need to interpret every line, you need to take the context as a whole. Characters operate on one level, symbols – on another.

So, alchemy is an extension of the universal idea – to be reborn, you need to "die." Like Jesus died on the cross, Orpheus on the banks of the River Gebre, and Osiris in the coffin prepared by Typhon, in alchemy, until all the elements (parts of the old personality) die, the work cannot be completed.

The stages of this alchemical process can be traced in the lives of almost all world "heroes" and in the mythology and legends of many cultures. This is a universal code.

“Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again” John 3:3

Alchemy proclaims that without decomposition, the Great Work cannot be accomplished.

The past Self dies on the cross and in the retorts and becomes black during decomposition. The new Self rises from hell, like a phoenix. The phoenix is a pure alchemical symbol.

This is the creation of the Philosopher's Stone.

It is symbolically described in "The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz". The book presents an allegorical story divided into "Seven Days" or "Seven Journeys," which tells how its author, Christian Rosenkreutz, was invited to a castle full of wonders to help with the "Chymical Wedding" of the king and queen. Harry also receives a letter in a storm (like Rosenkreutz) and goes to the castle for 7 years, chooses one of the four paths (Gryffindor), and so on.

Alchemists called the creation of the Philosopher's Stone the Great Work – Opus Magnum. This process consisted of three stages: decomposition (nigredo), rebirth (albedo), and final perfection (rubedo). Each of these stages corresponded to a specific colour: black, white and red.

Nigredo. Albedo. Rubedo.

In Harry Potter, these stages correspond to Sirius Black, Albus (white) Dumbledore, and Rubeus (red) Hagrid. The end of each stage is marked by their death. In the seventh book, it's Hagrid who carries the "dead" Harry.

There is a fundamental difference between "true alchemists" and "occult alchemist."

Tom Riddle is an occult alchemist. For him, the Great Work is also self-creation, but what kind? For him, it is complete mastery of his abilities and his future, and especially the complete liberation of his will.

Tom is a will, but his will not submissive to the will of God. It's a Luciferian will. The will of a fallen angel who began to oppose his own free will to the influence of Divine Love-Light. Instead, he sought and loved his own power outside Divinity, in himself.

"Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven" John Milton, "Paradise Lost"

Baphomet, or the Sabbatic Goat, drawing by Eliphas Levi, on its hands are inscriptions "Solve et Coagula." This is an alchemical principle. JKR, by the way, also has such a tattoo.

In occultism, it is believed that magic is control of one's will, and a will can control matter. After all, what did his followers choose for their motto? Magic is Might. Harry never defeated Voldemort with such magic. Because he doesn't need it.

What does Tom boast about? Tom boasts that he has mastered the deepest depths of dark magic. He went so far in it as no one before. Dark magic requires an iron will, and Tom achieved incredible heights in it. He even achieved immortality in this material universe, literally cursing his soul! Only Tom doesn't understand that Dumbledore (a true alchemist) is not interested in all this. Because true immortality is not there. True transformation is not there. Because their paths are completely different – Dumbledore is going to the "God and divine immortality," and Tom is going to "material immortality."

In general, fans of occult alchemy, the Left-Hand Path, and Nietzschean philosophy probably consider Tom a much more interesting character because here he is – the king of matter, a man of incredible will and strength who destroys the slave Christian morality and proclaims that God is dead, long live the Übermensch (homo superior)! (Nietzsche would have been proud of him…) By the way, Bellatrix is most likely symbolically – Lilith, Adam's first wife according to Kabbalistic apocrypha, who rebelled against Adam. God created them equal, and Adam wanted to have power over Lilith... In short, Lilith is the first feminist in human history, hehe.

The Fallen Angel by Alexandre Cabanel. Lilith.

In short, Tom Riddle is such an adept of broken alchemy. Where Tom is his own personal will, Harry is Faith and the will of the Spirit. Harry is also very strong-willed, but his will is different, it's not individualistic. It's a will of sacrifice, a will of love, a will of mercy, a will of trust. The main theme of the seventh book is a crisis of faith. And what kind of will does one need to show to continue the quest for Horcruxes and not go for the Deathly Hallows? Simply put, the will of Harry and Tom is completely different.

And Tom will never understand this. He's an individualist. He's a Nietzschean Übermensch. He's reached the limits of human capabilities. But for what? From dust you are and to dust you shall return, Tom...

Severus Snape — a Seaker who chose the wrong Path

And Snape, by the way, initially turns away from Lily (Lily is love of God, represented in the world). Because he's obsessed with becoming dark magic, his ego and desire for secret knowledge and being proud are very great.

Btw, Lily is a mudblood. In the sense that God is not in shining beautiful armor. This is Lucifer's mask – to be pure, to shine, to sparkle. But the real God can be found by seeking, under the feet of the poorest and "dirtiest" person. After all, for God, everyone is equal. It's the Devil who divides.

And pure-bloods, for example, the Blacks, are "false purity." Luciferian purity. Material purity, purity of shining gold. It's division. And where there's division – there's the Devil.

In short, Snape turns away from Lily because this path is difficult, he doesn't understand how to approach her, he already uses dark magic, has a lot of knowledge, and delves into various secrets, and shows what "bad" paths other seekers (the Marauders) take... (The seeker is not my term, it's from the Rosicrucian manifesto, alchemists call themselves seekers) But Lily still refuses to unite Spirit and Soul. And he calls her a "mudblood," insulting her. For Lily, this is a sign that this soul is almost lost. And there's no sincere regret in him when he asks for forgiveness. He asks her to forgive him, but his soul is still on the old Path. Lily isn't angry with him, it's not about anger or offense. Snape's soul is almost lost at this moment, closed to the divine spark and love. After all, for love to enter your heart, you first need to open yourself to it.

Only when Snape sees true face of Tom's "alchemy," in which Tom is ready to kill Love, the divine spark, essentially kill God in the souls of all people, then Snape, as a real Seeker, realizes that he's going the wrong way... And he runs to the main Alchemist, Dumbledore, to ask to preserve this love, this manifestation of God on earth.

But you can't preserve it without preserving the seeker of the right Path in your soul (James) and without preserving the possibility of the emergence of the transformed soul (Harry).

This is a very important moment, not only because you can't kill people in principle. Dumbledore literally tells him that you can't save love of God, the divine spark in your soul, if you kill in yourself the one who reaches out to God (the deer) and if you kill the POSSIBILITY of becoming this new transformed soul (Harry).

For Snape, this becomes a turning point, and he decides to switch sides to true alchemy. Dumbledore asks in return for Snape's soul, but not in the sense that the Devil demands it, he asks for loyalty to the Path. Below I'll explain the symbolism of Dumbledore and what he means in terms of alchemical symbolism (I don’t think he is God).

Snape becomes loyal to Dumbledore. But Lily is killed, as is James. The world, despite the fact that Voldemort temporarily goes into hibernation (and the Savior is alive), plunges into despair. Sirius (as a divine symbol of light) is in captivity, Remus (a symbol of a seeker with a "good but not brave" soul) is somewhere wandering the world, and Harry lives very poorly with the Dursleys... Harry doesn't know any God, and the seeker in him is also "dead". And Voldemort will soon rise again, he's just gathering strength.

Harry's path is the path of returning to God through Mother of God (Theotokos). Because it is Mother of God who is the true Spirit. That's why he meets Lily only at the end of the seventh book, when he's almost completed the alchemical transformation. For Christians, this is heresy, but for alchemists, it's not. The Son and Mother of God are one whole. The Virgin Mary is part of the Trinity, because only through the spiritual unity of the Mother and the Son is the salvation of humanity possible.

And who does he meet her through? Through Snape. Who dedicated his entire life to transforming his Soul, merging it with the Spirit, ultimately coming to God.

He spent his whole life hating James, as a Seeker of a different kind, not like him—Snape always leaned a bit towards Nietzschean stories. And James always hated Dark Magic and all dark things (although this doesn't make the souls of this type much better, they can also be egocentric). Snape teaches Potions, he knows how to bottle up Love, Death and Luck... So much power, so much pride in this...

Recently, I reposted a very interesting post. Snape wanted to recover his soul, because he was guilty of Lily's death. A very beautiful meta, but I see a bit different alchemical meaning. His soul is broken not only because Lily partly died because of him. His soul is broken overall because of the Path he chose - that of an occult alchemist, and he remains a "spy" to the end of his days, playing two roles, constantly "here and there". He dies at the hands of his former master.

Snape takes Lily's letter because he needs Lily's love (like people wear crosses), while there isn't enough understanding of where to go (Dumbledore is already dead)

Snape always yearned for Lily. And Dumbledore asks for us, the readers: "After all this time?" And Snape answers for us "Always." You must love God always. And that is salvation for the soul.

In general, Snape only understands towards the end that you cannot love Lily without Harry and even James. Only one Path leads to Lily - the same as James’s path. The path of Ego, pride, thirst for power, secret knowledge, occultism, malice, hatred must finally dissolve. Snape fully exposes himself to Harry, although he shouldn't have (he should only pass on information about death), revealing the good (and the bad) that he always hid. His revelation to him speaks of his complete acceptance. He shows him his soul, literally bowing his head to him - here I am, here is my soul, in some things I have no excuse, sometimes I have justification, but I've been seeking God, seeking love all my life.

Will you accept my wounded soul?

This is confession. The realest confession.

And Harry accepts. Of course, Harry accepts. He looks at him with Lily's eyes.

Because no matter how "bad" you are, if you truly love God in your soul, if you truly seek Him, there will always be a place for you in the City of God. Snape is the constantly replayed plot of the Prodigal Son's return.

At this moment, all the "black" in Snape dies – the nigredo. Tears - the white stage, purification – the albedo stage, purification. Blood – naturally, the red stage. The alchemical transformation for Snape is complete.

(But geniuses from TikTok will still say that Harry shouldn't have named his son Albus Severus, because Snape was baaaad. Ofc he was bad sometimes, that's the point!)

Dumbledore is the embodied Path and Plan

As I mentioned before, Dumbledore asks for Snape's soul in return, but not in the sense that the Devil demands it, he asks for loyalty to the alchemical Path.

Dumbledore, as an alchemist, besides embodying the completion of the albedo stage for Harry with his death, is also the embodied Path. Dumbledore is the highest Guardian of the Tower, who watches over the Paths of others, he is the Man of Spirit, he is the Principle, he is the Master. What is the difference between Dumbledore and Lily? Lily is a more important symbol, she is like pure divine power, God = love, as in what all souls dissolve. Dumbledore, on the other hand, is the Guardian of the Path through which everyone must pass. In short, Lily is the answer to the question "where", and Dumbledore is the "how". And Dumbledore is just a man who also underwent his alchemical transformation and who can also succumb to temptation. But Dumbledore is not GOD, imo. To personify God in a book is too much (even for me, although I’m not religious at all). I don’t like the idea of him being God and... really, where? God is transcendent and pure divine love emanates from Lily that’s why she almost an empty canvas. Dumbledore is a principle. He is the answer to the question "HOW". That's why he asks to believe in him, believe in the ALCHEMICAL PATH AND PLAN. FOLLOW THIS PLAN TO THE END. Ascend the tower, as I once ascended it. After all, he lives up there in the tower. He observes.

For Snape, Dumbledore is so important because Dumbledore is the Path, a new Path that he did not have. And Dumbledore's death is so important for everyone because now no one points them towards the Path. But they must find this Path within themselves. Because the answers are inside them. You cannot become a true Alchemist if you constantly rely on external help. It's time to see the Path independently.

"You must kill me."

There was a long silence, broken only by an odd clicking noise. Fawkes the phoenix was gnawing a bit of cuttlebone. (HP and DH)

After Dumbledore says that Snape must kill him, there is silence and a very clear symbol - the phoenix and the bone. It's time for their souls to go independently, to eat away all the old to come to rebirth. Meanwhile, they also need to save Draco, who, by "Lucifer's" order, is about to kill the Path (although you can't outplay God's plan...). And then Dumbledore reveals that Harry must die.

This shocks Snape. Like any alchemist on the Path. How so, to die? After all, we all do everything to become closer to God, to immortality, and you say – just die? What kind of Path is this?

"I thought…all these years…that we were protecting him for her. For Lily.”

After all, we were protecting Harry for Lily, because as I've already said, only through the spiritual unity of the Mother and the Son is the salvation of humanity possible. Snape is protecting the son for the mother, and Dumbledore wants to kill him? For what?

Simply put, Snape doesn't understand that no one can save Harry until he dies and is reborn. It's painful, but all heroes go through this path for rebirth.

Dumbledore knows that there is a "seed" of "evil" in Harry, as in any of us. After the fall, we all carry Luciferian part within us. This is the last thing that must die in Harry, and he himself must die for it.

No one promised that the path of the alchemist would be easy. It's understandable why not everyone loves Dumbledore, he seems too cold and manipulative, but there is no other way for Harry on the symbolic level.

The Great Work

There are three stages of the Great Work: decomposition (nigredo), purification (albedo) and ultimate perfection (rubedo). These stages for Harry culminate in the deaths of Sirius Black, Albus Dumbledore, and his own death, where he is carried out of the forest by Rubeus Hagrid.

And the result of his alchemical work should be Rebis — essentially the alchemical philosopher's stone, an androgynous being. In the collection of dialogues attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, God is depicted as androgynous. (Hermes Trismegistus is essentially the one who created the corpus of Hermetic texts).

Rebis is the unity of opposites. Day and night, Man and Woman, Good and Evil, Light and Darkness. All is one. There is no division. The wholeness of God. After the fall, we are all divided. And after the alchemical transformation, we can finally become whole and find ourselves and God.

In the form of merged men and women, sometimes depicted as the Virgin Mary and Christ, because They are one whole. As I have already said, for many alchemists, the Virgin Mary is part of the Trinity because only through the spiritual unity of the Mother and the Son was the redemption of original sin made possible. As I have already said, although Harry suffers more for James (his father turned out not to be as ideal as he thought), Lily is the main symbol in "Harry Potter".

The Nigredo stage literally means "blackness" - it signifies complete breakdown, decay, descent into the underworld, the trance of grief. It's a descent into the deepest fears, disbelief, denial, loss of self, anger, aggression. And through this - a return to the prima materia. This is what happens to Harry, "The Order of the Phoenix" is a very dark and depressing book, and with Sirius's death, this stage for Harry is completed. Sirius himself also undergoes transformations, but about this in the next part. The nigredo stage, during which a person's ego dissolves, is agonizing but necessary for further development. After the "I" meets its "shadow" and disintegrates into parts, it will need to be purified and recreated.

Albedo ("whiteness") symbolizes purification, transition to another world, change of life priorities, awakening, enlightenment. In alchemy, the transition from nigredo to albedo is achieved through the process of washing. The whole sixth book is misty, "white", "wet". "Washing" (albutio, baptisma) directly leads to whiteness (albedo). Purification. It's also silver, a lunar state. In Harry Potter, there is a character named Luna, which means moon in Latin. In different parts of the books, Luna also symbolizes this stage. With Dumbledore's death this stage for Harry completed.

Rubedo ("redness") - the final stage of the alchemical Great Work. The alchemist must establish a kind of sacrificial relationship with his inner essence. At the final stage, the so-called "alchemical marriage" takes place: the marriage of the Red King and the White Queen - Soul and Spirit. Harry (soul) and Lily (spirit) are united. With Hagrid carrying Harry this stage for Harry completed.

Bu the way, the Golden Snitch is an alchemical symbol also.

Firstly, Harry's position is called the Seeker. Alchemists also called themselves that. Secondly, the winged disc is a very ancient symbol, meaning the sun (God) and immortality.

The Snitch reveals to him the Resurrection Stone, and Harry "encounters" his main symbols, but the main one is Lily. It is her he asks not to leave him.

Harry's death here is read by everyone as the well-known plot of Christ's crucifixion. The path to this death is also a reference to the agony of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane before the Crucifixion. After all, Harry also wanted to end up somewhere, but Hogwarts is his home, and he accepts his fate.

My Father! all things are possible for Thee: take this cup of suffering away from me: and yet not what I desire, but what Thou desirest. Mark 14:36

He wanted to be stopped, to be dragged back, to be sent back home... But he was home.

Lily's Eyes

To be honest, I can assume that her green eyes was chosen at random. But what if they weren't? Her green eyes may seem illogical, as this is the colour of the snake, the colour of Slytherin, the colour of evil. But this is the occult Luciferian snake, the erroneous snake. Originally, green also dates back to Hermes Trismegistus – the god who gave the knowledge of alchemy. The most famous of the old hermetic-alchemical texts is inscribed on the "Emerald Tablet". According to legend, this document was left by Hermes Trismegistus on a plate of emerald in an Egyptian temple.

"The Emerald Tablet" is very important for alchemists." According to legend, a large emerald fell to the earth from Lucifer's head when he was cast out of heaven. From the same emerald that fell from the crown of the fallen Lucifer, angels made the Holy Grail (which is also the philosopher's stone, and the Snitch...). Emerald is a sacred green stone, and the heavenly divine world - the homeland of the emerald - a precious stone in which information about the heavenly homeland is encoded.

There is also the Ouroboros - a snake that devours its own tail - a symbol of infinity and immortality.

And the Snitch, which is a reflection of Hermes Trismegistus' staff (which has two battling snakes - two opposites, Spirit and Soul, Good and Evil and so on, and Hermes establishes unity between them with his staff).

Occultists, of course, interpret these symbols in their own way.

Hermione is Hermes Trismegistus. Mercury. Ron — Sulphur. Harry— Salt.

Hermione (Ἑρμιόνη [hermi. ónɛː]) is a feminine given name derived from the Greek messenger god Hermes. As I said, Hermes Trismegistus is the main figure of Hermetic teaching, he is also the one who predicted the coming of the Savior (traditional Christianity should not be confused with Gnostic teachings, the Church has always been against Gnosticism). In addition, Hermes is Mercury, and that is knowledge. Hermes Trismegistus shares "secret knowledge" with the world, which forms the basis of many Gnostic directions - from alchemy to Kabbalah.

Hermione is a little alchemist, she shares knowledge. It is Hermione who insists on complete trust in Dumbledore, it is Hermione who often leads Harry in the right direction when Dumbledore is not around. It is through Dumbledore and Hermione that "moral lessons" are often sounded, which often seem completely out of place. Like when Dumbledore says that James would forgive Peter. At that moment, I always want to say, "Are you out of your mind?!" although I understand that it is described on a symbolic, not personal level.

Mercury (Hermione), Sulphur (Ron), and Salt (Harry) were necessary in the alchemical transformation and were the main components. To create the philosopher's stone, all three elements had to be combined, and Harry is next to them throughout all the books.

Both Hermione and Ron are equally important in Harry's development.

Mercury is the more fluid primary principle, more rational, the feminine principle, while Sulphur is dynamic, expansive, unstable, acidic, unifying, masculine, paternal, and fiery principle. Sulphur is emotional, it is desire and passionate impulse that motivates life. Sulphur is desire. And according to Jung's reflections, it can also be foul and dangerous. Complete transmutation depends on the correct application of this variable principle. Sulphur must be of quality for transmutation to occur. And Ron achieves this quality.

Also, in mystical alchemy, Sulphur is crystallized inspiration of Mercury (Mercury).

Mercury and Sulphur are simultaneously antagonists, like the male and female elements, but at the same time Sulphur is crystallized Mercury.

So I have always been and will always be for Romione! Hehe. They were made for each other!

And as for Salt - that's Harry. It's the body. Sometimes it is called earth and body, salt is the essential body (corpus).

Alchemists say that salt was the first substance created by fire, emanating from God. In salt, all creation is concentrated, in salt the beginning and the end of all things.

Salt is associated with the ultimate elevation of matter - with matter that has acquired consciousness, achieved through the unity of opposites, including the unity of fire and water, the unity of what is above and what is below. Salt is the ultimate Philosopher's Stone, representing transcendence and ultimate knowledge.

Thus, salt symbolizes consciousness (thoughts, feelings, material, etc.), which must be elevated through alchemical processes of dissolution and recrystallization. Well, that's Harry himself.

Just love this stupid moment

Well, that's it, I think I've said everything, and from the next part, we can move on to the Marauders themselves :D

[xyziiix]

✦𝗙𝗔𝗧𝗔𝗟 𝗜𝗠𝗣𝗔𝗖𝗧✦

•PAIRING: SIMON ‘GHOST’ RILEY X FEMALE!READER

•WARNINGS: SMUT, SWEARING, ANGST, DEATH, USE OF GUNS, VIOLENCE, BLOOD AND GORE, MENTIONS OF SA, BRIEF COMMENTS OF SEXISM TOWARDS READER, MORALLY GREY READER, READER IS DESCRIBED AS A WOMAN, DARK - and other COD warnings.

MINORS DNI

Many years ago, you, a newly graduated combat medic, was RTB from your first special rescue operation. When the pilot got hit by an out of sight sniper and you, being the only other person without any sustainable injury’s, had no choice but to take control of the MH-6M - and ended up inevitably crash landing.

And the only comment you’d made amidst the chaos was ‘ouch’

Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, a call sign was born.

———

Now back in the present, you, Sergeant Y/N ‘Phoenix’ L/N, are recruited by Captain John Price to join a special operations task force and counter-terrorism military unit, Task force 141.

- “we really shouldn’t be doing this” fisting his shirt into your hand, him pushing you against the wall, admiring the sounds you’re making, moving down to your neck while he whispers the words,

“but do you want to?”

a breathless but definite ‘yes.’

CHAPTERS:

[1] W.I.P ✎

[bottlecap-joe-spooky]

How bad is the extent of Miles Edgeworth's mental state in rise from the ashes?

Tw: suicide, implied self harm

Obviously he ends up essentially leaving a suicide note of "prosecutor edgeworth chooses death", but that could be symbolic. He HAD already quit his job (one of the only things that had held his life together possibly since his father died) so him as Prosecutor edgeworth had essentially "died".

There's also the ambiguous definition of "dying" in the note. Did he mean it as in he would not be coming back (from death or to prosecution or to japanifornia or whatever) or as he would never come back as the same person (the "demon" prosecutor) or just to fake his own death for a little moral/mental break or whatever (everyone's allowed a little gay panic break every once in a while).

Who knows, and I genuinely love the ambiguity the game leaves.

Obviously, phoenix takes it as a serious suicide note, and is obviously absolutely wrecked by it for the next year. This is a topic often touched upon in fanfiction, though not in the game quite as much. Obviously it is hard to talk about mental health issues in a lawyer game, and they do it really well for a game not technically focused on it and from the early 2000s. Specifically for Maya and Edgeworth I think, as they both have loads of trauma that they deal with in fully different ways. Miles is more worrying though, as most of his coping skills are absolutely horrible, he has very little emotional support, and he's been pretty messed up in the head.

I honestly wonder a lot which people and relationships are meant to mirror the main characters, like phoenix saying shit like "that's so romantic- he saved you- I guess I'd fall in love too-" for the Delite's love story or edgeworth saying Adrian andrews codependent situation is very similar to how Franziska operates with her father or definitely Lana and ema reminding Phoenix of Mia and Maya or him literally telling Adrian andrews to kill herself in court. Specifically that last one. He specifically phrases it as "if you're going to say you would 'choose death', that is of no concern to me."

There is some especially worrying evidence in rise from the ashes, when he was at the most mentally unstable he's ever been. The only time that would compare was when his dad died when he was 8, but even then he had a new foster family to rely on (more or less). He's at his very worse, because, after 15 or so years, all of his past has just been dredged up and solved (by "that man" no less. Also, side note, does he only start saying Phoenix "saved him" after he came back from the dead?)

I really don't like any implications of why edgeworth would have traces of blood on the ground, especially at this point in his life.

So the options here are 1) it's someone else's blood, and maybe he fucking slapped someone so hard they bled or 2) it's his blood on his office floor for whatever reason. Neither imply anything remotely good for his mental state.

At this point it really could just be coincidence and ema is right or whatever. It's an easily missed peice, completely unrelated to the case and just an interesting tidbit for lore maybe. But sadly I found more evidence to support that that is not indeed the case.

I can't remember what the plot point for edgeworth's knife besides the fact that he had it in the car for Lana to find.

Mmm yeah ema. What is that little fruit doing with a knife? Very low chance that gay man knows self defense tbh.

Ema goes on to suggest he spends weekends "roughing it in the wild" and Phoenix basically laughs in her face (does this girl not understand what a homosexual man he is) as Edgeworth has probably never been in "the wild" a day in his life.

This doesn't feel like a coincidence anymore. There is cleaned up blood on his floor, enough for a nosebleed, and there is a knife in his car. One which he would probably never actually use on another person. This and then added to the fact that he had just quit his job and "died" shortly after. it's pretty obvious he is doing worse than even what he says, as he actually is kind of open about how he is doing throughout the games. Obviously he's always trying to hide his feelings (which Phoenix always sees right through), but during the case he does mostly explain to them exactly what is happening. Not that they do or even can help.

His entire career was based around punishing himself for something he didn't actually do. There is no way he isn't harbouring a lot of self loathing, and it's hinted at throughout the games (again, hard to touch on in a lawyer game). This game is so hard to tell what the writers originally meant, both beacause of it being looked at through translations and it being written in the 2000s (like how fruity they 'accidentally' made them in the first game lol) so that's not an angle I can look at this from.

So, to recap, he

had all his past dredged up, obviously very painful

he is open about talking about it, but doesn't show the true extent of how it effects him

has a knife in his car that no one has any real theories on why he has it (and the blood)

There is traces of blood on his office floor

he has spent his entire life punishing himself, and then can't forgive himself for it

he then chooses death

when he comes back, he repeatedly projects onto Adrian Andrews

No wonder he's always saying Phoenix "saved him" he sure needed a bit of saving.

This poor, poor man. His story arc is so beautiful to me.

[agent-forg]

i don’t know if this is a hot take or not, but i personally really preferred operation: rising phoenix over operation: kboom as finale levels.

don’t get me wrong kboom is really really cool! the forging is really cool, a lot of the interactions with prism are very cute, and the big board with all the switches and buttons and red lights was genuinely delightful.

however, rising phoenix was just so good. it’s probably my favorite level in the franchise. there’s just something about going up the levels in the elevator, slowly seeing evidence of the danger of the peacemaker and then the peacemaker itself, the amazing set-up with the battery in the elevator, then juniper’s speech (juniper my beloved!!!), then the ending!!! i was genuinely so immersed in the story by that point that dropping the elevator and the handler’s reaction was so heartbreaking!!!

basically, i love operation: rising phoenix because it’s got! the! drama! this opinion probably also is influenced by my shameless john juniper bias, but alas! anyway, feel free to argue with me but i will die on this hill. :))))

[asksythe]

Does chinese fandom also have the headcannon of wen yuan being wen ruohans secret 3rd son conceived after wen xu & wen chaos death's 😅? Western fans made this headcanon because they thought having the wen remnants wwx takes in be this separate branch that are healers muddled the themes? And to spite the great clans who attempted to exterminate the wens root and branch having the only post canon survivor of the wen being qishan wen but also directly related to wen ruohan is very satisfying to them I guess

What I'm trying to ask is does chinese cultural reading of the text allow for such headcanon or does it go against text

Wen Yuan being Wen Ruohan's secret child... well... I personally have never seen that in the Chinese fandom.

That said, a fandom is a big space, especially the Chinese side. So, I don't think anybody can conclusively claim any one thing. There's a lot of wacky stuff out there. And a lot of it genuinely makes sense or is convincing in its own way. I've seen ethnic minority authors (Xin Jiang, etc..) coming in with their own cosmology and folklore completely distinct from the base cosmology of MDZS and writing some of the most creative and beautiful stories I have ever read (like the idea that Lan mama might be a member of the Northern tribes worshipping the phoenix, which explains her being powerful enough to kill Lan papa's master while also being an unknown to the clans, and that her 'death's is actually part of the phoenix saintess's ability to reborn herself in a new body).

Wen Yuan being Wen Ruohan's secret love child doesn't really have much if any support from the book, the donghua, or the show. If anything, the first time A Yuan appeared in the book, he was described as a child not more than 2 years old atop Wen grangran's back in the prison camp. The time makes it really awkward for A Yuan to be Wen Ruohan's albeit it's not completely out of the realm of possibilities. In the same chapter, the book also said that A Yuan's father is Wen Qing's cousin and Wen grangran's son.

But if you are in pursuit of exploring certain themes or ideas, then I don't see why not. Headcanon is... well... headcanon. The nature of fandom being a space for exploration and appreciation is a beautiful thing I think.

Funnily enough, I have seen a fair number of Chinese fics operating on the premise that Wei Ying himself is mainline Wen via either his mother or his father. The theme they pursue is a member of the Wen ending itself in the fire of purification. The Wen founder, by all accounts, seemed a real stand-up guy. The teachings he left behind to his children were genuine pieces of wisdom and calling for a commitment to justice and fairness. The Wens in the book had a lot of signs that they had many good and right ideas (pursuing standardized laws among cultivators, the observation tower system that ended up being stolen by Jin Guangyao, etc...) but they went down the wrong direction due to corruption and a betrayal of the founding precepts laid down by their own founders. And so it took a (secret) Wen descendant to cut away the rot and to punish themselves, leaving behind only one or two genuinely innocent Wens.

The sun rises, the sun sets, the sun rises again. Anew and cleansed from rot. The mark of the Wen sun burned into Wei Ying's chest holds more symbolic power than it first appears, and the fact that Wei Ying cited the Wen founder's precepts back to a Wen descendant who had betrayed those very precepts. Like that. That kind of theme.

I remember there being several really big-name Chinese fan authors who wrote the same premise in different ways. It was really fun to read. Oh man, stories in which Wen Ruohan gets to redo things, or the Wen are all resurrected in a heaven-gambit type plot are in abundance, funnily enough. Hah! They tend to be a lot of fun to read too. There's also that one really great story in which the previous generations of the clan (Lan mama, papa, Wen Ruohan in his prime before children, Nie papa and his second wife, Jiang husband and wife freshly married, Wei papa and Cangse Sanren, etc...) get to see bits and pieces of the future via text without knowing their names and they have to deduce who is whose kids and how are they going to save their kids now??!!! In that story, Wen Ruohan kept thinking Wei Ying (called the destined of heaven in this story) is his child because there's no way he would spawn such bumbling, corrupted incompetents ... hahahahahahaha.... oh man... Well, that particular Wen Ruohan would then vow to be a better and stricter father to his kids to prevent them from becoming such rotten shitbags.

Oh yeah, there's also the idea that the Wen, being such a big and histories clan, actually had fall-back plan preparing for such scenarios where their entire clan is wiped out. They have secret seeds placed in far off territory. In one Chinese fic I read, this Wen descendant spent decades studying the major clans, rebuild the Wen in secret, and almost enacted bloody vengeance on all the major clans, but then stayed his hand when he found out the existence of Wen Yuan. That one was a good read too. Very convincing.

Ahem, the short answer to your question is that the canon text doesn't really support that headcanon... but it's not strictly speaking an impossibility either. It just boils down to how convincing can you write it?

[stellar-collective]

this is mildly AU. I hope that’s okay!

Agent Phoenix dealing with Operation Rising Phoenix while the handler is under mind control via Juniper. Reginald snaps out of it just in time to watch his agent fall to their death

mmm whatcha sayyyyyy

[nesaluvstherecoms]

𝐆𝐨𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐒𝐢𝐱.

ᴍᴀɪɴ ᴘᴀɪʀɪɴɢ: ʀᴇᴄᴏᴍ ᴄᴏʟᴏɴᴇʟ ᴍɪʟᴇꜱ Qᴜᴀʀɪᴛᴄʜ x ʀᴇᴄᴏᴍ ᴍᴀᴊᴏʀ ɢᴇɴᴇʀᴀʟ ꜰᴇᴍ. ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ

ꜱᴇʀɪᴇꜱ ᴍᴀꜱᴛᴇʀʟɪꜱᴛ ʟɪɴᴋ

。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。

𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭 𝐀𝐋𝐏𝐇𝐀 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐒𝐡𝐞𝐞𝐭

MSpOT11 (Pronounced: M spot eleven) (Marine Special Operations Team 11) - Previous unit name. Colonel L/N’s Special Operations unit, composing of 10 main highly trained operators and 4 additional spots for other operators who were replaced regularly depending on the mission. These four spots were reserved for allies, mission-specific specialists, and operators assigned by higher up commanding officers. All operators were often divided into two sub teams of 7, where the commanding officer (Y/N) would choose which one to lead depending on the task.

ALPHA - Recom unit name, given officially by General Frances Ardmore. Regarded as the RDA’s muscle alongside Colonel Quaritch’s Deja Blu unit, ALPHA is Major General L/N’s special forces team. Since the very top of command remain only the Generals, ALPHA takes orders from them only, and are to assist them in any circumstances. The unit composes of the Recombinants of the 10 main operators, along with the Recombinant of F/N L/N who has the authority of commanding officer.

This data sheet displays detailed information about the operators before Project Phoenix was launched. However, in some sentences the Recoms are also mentioned.

Commanding Officer: Colonel (As a Recom: Major General) F/N L/N

Operators:

1. Captain John Keller (Callsign: Phantom)

2. Master Sergeant Oscar Bailey (Callsign: Coma)

3. First Sergeant Scott McCaskill (Callsign: Pyro)

4. Second Lieutenant Riley Jones (Callsign: Phoenix)

5. First Lieutenant Fernando Álvarez (Callsign: Alpino)

6. Sergeant Major Diego Silva (Callsign: Fuego)

7. Sergeant Major Maria Herrera (Callsign: El caos)

8. Master Gunnery Sergeant Henry Davis (Callsign: Ranger)

9. Gunnery Sergeant Khalida Fadel (Callsign: Liberty)

10. Artillery Officer Stefan Kessler (Callsign: Berlin)

1. John Keller

Mental age: 38 years

Nationality: British

Place of birth: UK

Rank: Captain

Callsign: Phantom (Has a talent for moving silently and versatilely, materializing anywhere in the front line during combat like he just came out of thin air, like a phantom.)

Skills and Specializations:

- Hostage rescue

- Kill - capture missions

- Sniper techniques

- Close quarter combat

- Counterterrorism

- Expertise in weapon handling and proficiency

- Versatile in multiple environments

- Expert in interrogation techniques

- Seek-and-strike expert

- Shock-trooper

- Long-range reconnaissance operator

More about the character:

⋆☠︎︎⋆ The “dad” of the group.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Pushes the unit to stay clean of alcohol and smoking because it’s bad for their health and then after everyone has fallen asleep pours himself a cold glass of whiskey and lights a cigar. (He thinks no one knows but everyone knows. Whenever this is brought up within the squadron, Riley says: “Let the old man dream.”.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ The first person he met in the unit was Oscar Bailey. Oscar was 23 years old then and was making a name for himself as one of the most talented young operators, rising in career. They met in a track-and-kill mission when Oscar and his teammates got ambushed by a terrorist group and John with his unit came to the rescue. Since then John feels a fatherly love towards Oscar and has been watching over him ever since.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ You can hear him clearing his throat and sinuses in the bathroom sink with the volume of a thousand mountain banshees in the early hours of the morning after he has just woken up. (Yes, he bolts the whole house awake, and their PTSD doesn’t make it better. Oscar has gotten more used to it than the rest but the first time it happened the whole squadron rushed to the bathroom armed to their teeth, thinking that someone stabbed him in the throat and he was choking on his own blood. What they found was a sleepy but startled John, standing in front of the bathroom sink with his thick ass black socks, and his pajama pants holding onto the curve of his half exposed ass for dear life, looking back at them with wide eyes and fists balled up ready to throw punches. Not a fun morning. Later at the breakfast table he cracked a “Who pissed in the cereal?” joke to lift up the mood. No one laughed.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Doesn’t give a fuck who is in front of him. If someone is being disrespectful or purely showing ignorance, he doesn’t hesitate to speak his mind and put them in their place, even if they are higher in rank than him and hold more authority. (He used to get in trouble because of this before he met Y/N, but now she covers his back.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Snores. Loudly. And when he’s tired; very, very loudly. (Y/N personally made sure that the rooms in their dorm were soundproofed. Her reasoning was “to give all of us privacy” but everyone knew it was because of John’s 60 decibel, chainsaw sounding snore (and some others who also snore obnoxiously loudly, ahem… Fernando). The whole unit prays that they do not get sent on missions where they have to spend the night in a foreign base, sleeping in the same room. When he’s on open air missions, he doesn’t sleep, afraid that he’ll be loud and lead the enemy to them. Once, he spent six days without sleep because of this and started to hallucinate, until Y/N intervened and forced him to go back to base.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He's been shot, captured, blown up, locked up, tortured, and left for dead, multiple times.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ His preferred weapon of choice is a HK433.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He taught Oscar how to fish, and they go fishing together if the weather is good and they have the day off.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Workaholic. Puts his job before anyone and anything.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He used to have severe insomnia, but slowly got better until it was gone. Before his insomnia he didn’t use to snore.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He’s constantly feeling nauseous and sometimes dizzy but no one can figure out why, not even the medics.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ For some reason his feet are always cold and he tends to wear thick socks when he’s at home.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Always reads for a little bit before going to sleep, and he has reading glasses too.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He’s a well known name among the military world.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ An excellent and harsh trainer. Often times, units and new talented recruits are put under his supervision and guidance.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He nearly has an aneurysm every time he hears Americans say “soccer” when referring to football. (When this happens he gives them the biggest side eye. This happens a lot with Henry, the only American in the unit.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Once, Oscar referred to him as “grandpa” and he was genuinely hurt.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Oscar convinced him once to go to a concert and they left 20 minutes in, because the man has PTSD and you can guess yourself what the flashing lights, screams and loud sounds of the CO2 jets were doing to him.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Women hit on him a lot and he doesn’t understand why. He also politely declines each time because he is a loner. (When this was brought up one day and he said he doesn’t get why, Maria and Scott turned to him with the biggest shit eating grins on their faces and started to explain it to him with the sentence: “Because you’re daddy material.” Y/N had never seen the fearsome Captain John Keller widen his eyes so much before, not even in the middle of battle.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ His voice is naturally deep (not entirely considering the cigars but I digress) and it gets even deeper in the morning. This happens with the other male operators too but everyone teases John when it happens to him because he’s the eldest in the unit and they love teasing him. (Y/N always jokes that he sounds like he’s narrating a “Ford” commercial in the morning.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He is one of the few people that General Ardmore genuinely trusts.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Always praises the team and tells them that they did good even if the mission failed. He does this because he doesn’t know when he might lose them. Throughout his career he has lost a considerable number of people dear to him and he regrets the last words he has said to some of them, without knowing that the next time he’d see them they’d be laying dead. John now tries to show his team how much he appreciates them as often as he can.

2. Oscar Bailey

Mental age: 26 years

Nationality: British

Place of birth: UK

Rank: Master Sergeant

Callsign: Coma (Has a tendency for shooting enemies in the stomach before bashing the butt of his weapon into their skulls, either killing or sending them into a coma.)

Skills and Specializations:

- Target elimination

- Covert surveillance

- Expertise in weapon handling and proficiency

- High tolerance and tactical awareness

- Demolitions

- VIP protection

- Counterterrorism

More about the character:

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Oscar was the only one in his class to pass the RTI (Resistance To Interrogation) testing, and pass selection with the highest possible scores on all courses, at 20 years old.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He has spent most of his career hunting terrorists.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He has been routinely subjected to physically and mentally harsh scenarios.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ The first person he met in the unit was John Keller.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Loves spicy food and any type of tea.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He firstly joined the British Army and then got transferred to the U.S. Marine Corps where he met John and the rest of the unit.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Before he enlisted for the British Army, he used to frequently go to concerts and music festivals.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Once during a mission, he got heavily injured, resulting in a concussion, a broken collarbone, a broken femur and multiple stab wounds. The person who carried him all the way to safety was John, while yelling at him to stay conscious. It took Oscar some time to recover. He had to undergo some surgeries and have a metal rod and plate placed on his femur. During the weeks he was in bed rest, the unit would take turns visiting him so he wouldn’t be alone. (During one group visitation, Fernando made a joke and started laughing, and forgetting that Oscar was still injured, before the unit could reach out and stop him, slapped Oscar’s thigh with his damn gorilla strength. Let’s just say the medics forbid anyone from visiting Oscar for a few days….)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Once fell out of a speeding JLTV while trying to shoot an enemy vehicle mid-confrontation. It’s a miracle that he dropped flat in time and did not get run over by the other vehicles behind the JLTV but rather let them drive over him before rolling off the track and running to a safe zone.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He sucks at fishing. The only reason he goes to fish in the first place is because it makes John happy.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He secretly judges every decision that the people in command make, but unlike John and Riley, he doesn’t voice it out. He only tells John what he’s thinking once they’re alone together.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ The only reason why he doesn’t complain about John and Fernando’s snoring is because he falls asleep with his earphones in, even though Y/N advises the squadron to keep their doors and ears open at night for cautious reasons.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Sometimes when he’s very tired he will snore softly.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ His preferred weapon of choice is a SIG MCX.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He lowkey believes that Riley secretly likes cuddles. He doesn’t know why. That’s just the vibe he gets from him.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Whenever someone takes a picture, he looks like he doesn’t want to be there.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He is insanely good at carjacking. (The first time he did this in a mission, the whole team stared, not having expected it, while John was standing a few feet away, smiling proudly.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Out of all the operators in the unit, he is the one who is the most careful in missions. While the others sometimes act out of instinct, Oscar has the ability to control even his instincts almost entirely. This has led to him saving his fellow troopers individually or in groups, multiple times during altercations.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He tried weed once and hated it. Now he huffs in annoyance every time he smells it one someone.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Has crashed a helicopter before. Why was he flying a helicopter in the first place, when he’s not a pilot? Interesting question. (They were in a rush to get away from an ambush and he thought he could pull it off. The most careful operator of the unit, ladies and gentlemen.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He loves diavola pizza to a concerning level.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ When the unit was first assembled, Fernando asked him if he speaks Spanish and he said he didn’t. Fernando grinned and told him that he’d teach him all the curse words. He did in fact do that. So now Oscar walks around with a Spanish curse words vocabulary that could send a Drill Sergeant into a coma.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He once saw Henry make tea with “Lipton” teabags and forgot how to breathe for a few seconds. I’m not even exaggerating, he genuinely stopped breathing, and stared at Henry in horror. (A few moments later he taught him how to make loose leaf tea. When he told John and Riley about it later they also stared in horror. Everyone in that dorm was banned from using teabags ever again.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He has a scar on his left eyebrow. When he was born, the doctor who performed a c-section on his mother accidentally cut the corner of his left eyebrow and he has had that scar ever since. (He does not have this scar as a Recom.)

3. Scott McCaskill

Mental age: 29 years

Nationality: Scottish

Place of birth: Scotland

Rank: First Sergeant

Callsign: Pyro (During his early years as a trainee, he once accidentally triggered a few flares while getting his demolitions equipment ready and set fire to a MTVR.)

Skills and Specializations:

- Sniper techniques

- Demolitions expert

- Exceptional proficiency

- Remarkable speed and accuracy in room clearance and urban warfare

- Specialized in covert reconnaissance

- Counterterrorism operator

- Hostage rescue

- Expertise in weapon handling and proficiency

More about the character:

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Scott set the record for youngest trainee passing selection and RTI testing with the highest possible marks on all phases of the course, at the age of 22. This record was then later on broken by Oscar Bailey.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ The first person he met in the unit was Riley Jones. For his first mission he joined Riley’s team in securing a building that inhabited WMDs. During the mission, the unit was ambushed and Scott would have lost his life in bomb droppings from enemy aircrafts, if it wasn’t for Riley pulling him to safety. Since then, they have remained close friends.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He used to be a smoker, before he met John Keller who slapped the cigarette out of his mouth as Scott went for a handshake the first time they met. (Riley secretly grinned like a Cheshire cat.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Drinks coffee with strictly two teaspoons of sugar. Anything over or lower than that amount and he will not drink it.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Chatty…. Very chatty…. (Riley tends to zone him out anytime he talks.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Secretly frowns at how John smokes at night and mutters “hypocrite’ bastard” in his Scottish accent, under his breath.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ When he sleeps, he rolls himself into the covers like a cocoon.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Once, after him, Fernando, Maria, Henry and Stefan returned from a mission, they found Riley sleeping on the living room floor. Scott got a not so brilliant idea and somehow convinced the others to join (it wasn’t hard, all four of them are as idiotic as he is, except maybe Stefan). The five of them turned off the lights and formed a circle around Riley. They started spinning while holding hands and chanting satanic verses. (Riley woke up and started swinging at everyone. Y/N had never seen five grown adults run so fast for their lives while their comrade chased them around the dorm with a combat knife.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ His alarm sound is the Scottish national anthem. (Don’t ask.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He spends his off-duty days chilling in the living room, watching sports and drinking cold beer.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Once went fishing with John and Oscar but did not have the patience to wait for the fish to catch the bait so he fell asleep while still holding the fishing rod.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He enjoys wearing war paint on his face during missions.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Once got drunk out of his fucking mind, went to the rail of the living room balcony, before lowering his pants and boxers. He held his cock between the metal bars of the rail and started pissing with concernedly high pressure while screaming “SCOTLAND FOREVAAAAAAAA” while holding a fist up in the air. (Luckily their balcony faced the forest and no one got contaminated in the process. He also got two weeks of cleaning duty for that, and no one allowed him to drink that much alcohol ever again.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ His preferred weapon of choice is an AR-57.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He gives the biggest side eyes to John and Riley when they question their authority figures, even if he agrees with them.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ One time he walked in on Y/N changing and didn’t say anything but wiggled his eyebrows seductively. (Y/N put him in a headlock and didn’t let him go until he started begging.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Constantly uses Scottish slang (Riley sighs each time he does this before asking him to “Speak English, you arsehole.”)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Masks his emotions with humor, but Riley can always tell what he’s truly feeling.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Gives the biggest bear hugs.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Every time Riley, John or Oscar do something remotely British he rolls his eyes and huffs out a “Fuckin’ brits.”

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He doesn’t have tattoos but he has been thinking of getting some of Riley’s drawings tattooed on him for some time.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Has a habit of patting people firmly on their chest or on their shoulders as a greeting. (First time he did this Riley found it extremely annoying. But now it’s comforting to him.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ When he was a kid he was very close to his older sister. They did everything together, and were each other’s best friend. They grew apart after he joined the military and now he sees her and his mother only once a year.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He absolutely loves making Molotov cocktails and smoke bombs.

4. Riley Jones

Mental age: 32 years

Nationality: British

Place of birth: UK

Rank: Second Lieutenant

Callsign: Phoenix (He survived a helicopter crash where all of the people in that helicopter with him died instantly, including the pilot. When rescue forces rushed to the scene, they saw him rising among the flames and wreckage, like a Phoenix rising out of ashes after death.)

Skills and Specializations:

- Sniper techniques

- Expertise in weapon handling and proficiency

- Sabotage

- Infiltrations

- Master in clandestine tradecraft

- Ambush execution

- High Intelligence

- Torture Expertise

- Master Combatant

- Knife Mastery

- Counterterrorism

- Extremely high pain tolerance

More about the character:

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Has spent most of his career executing covert assignments in classified locations.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ His most frequent injury have been stab wounds.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Extremely organized. Has an agenda which he plans and follows strictly. This includes timetables, meetings, medical check ups, cleaning schedules etc.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ His arms are covered in tattoos.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ His favorite type of alcohol is bourbon.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He drinks a specific tea blend that is flavored with bee balm oil.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Before the crash, his callsign used to be Rico because he’s always armed to the teeth.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Sarcasm king.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Just like John, he doesn’t hesitate to point out flaws in orders or missions given by higher ups. The people in authority often get annoyed at this because they see it as him complaining about everything, but to Y/N this is extremely valuable as he provides the other perspective and helps her eliminate loopholes.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He has a little sketchbook that he keeps with him at all times, where he doodles or draws concepts for new tattoos he wants to get.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Has a resting bitch face.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Loves to scare the living shit out of new recruits.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He has a feared reputation among the military world because of his brutal executions and high kill count.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He really likes knives and has a large collection of them. He’s always fidgeting with a combat knife and you’ll always find one on his person. (Yes, he keeps one under his pillow.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Even though he zones out when Scott gets too chatty, it gives him comfort when listening to his voice.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He did not believe that Y/N would be a good commanding officer for their squadron when she was assigned as such. It didn’t matter if she had grown up in a military facility or if she was a so-called prodigy, she was too young and did not have a lot of experience. The fact that she had been ranked Colonel at such a young age was, in his opinion, a huge mistake that would cost them. He also expected her to argue his opinion every step of the way just like the rest of the authority figures did. He was however proven wrong when they came out victorious in some of the most harsh and difficult missions they had ever been in, missions which she led by also listening to his insights. Riley eventually gave her his respect.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He knows that he comes across as threatening and that boosts his ego.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He used to be a Christian since he was a child but after serving for some time and seeing the horrors he has seen, he lost faith in God.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Rolls his eyes at people so much that John once joked that his eyes would get stuck like that one day.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Actively calls John “old man”.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He was the first to witness drunk Scott pissing from the balcony while screaming “SCOTLAND FOREVAAAAAAAA”, and that was the first and last time that Riley Jones malfunctioned.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He really enjoys cooking and often listens to corny music while doing so. (Scott never fails to poke fun at him for this.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ His preferred weapon of choice is an ArmaLite AR-18.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He’s very cold and sometimes rude to people he doesn’t know personally.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He tends to be competitive.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Since the crash, he has had some levels of anxiety whenever he has to board a helicopter. (Of course he doesn’t show it.)

5. Fernando Álvarez

Mental age: 37 years

Nationality: Mexican

Place of birth: Mexico

Rank: First Lieutenant

Callsign: Alpino (From Spanish; Alpine. The environment he thrives in are mountainous terrains. Enemies stand no chance against him in such environments.)

Skills and Specializations:

- Counterterrorism

- Stealth expertise

- Sniper techniques

- Expertise in weapon handling and proficiency

- Target elimination

- Master combatant

- Sabotage

- Clandestine tradecraft

- Ambush execution

- Infiltrations

- Specializes in reconnaissance by fire

More about the character:

⋆☠︎︎⋆ When he was a kid, his dream was to be in the army and would often skip school to watch the soldiers of his hometown do their daily drills.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He has a very loud voice and almost always soldiers jump startled when he starts yelling at them.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He grew up with Diego and they have been best friends since childhood.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Diego would often scold him for skipping school.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Later on, after they both had enlisted for the military, they met Maria.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ His weapon of choice is a SIG MPX but his favorite weapon is his CheyTac Intervention which he calls “mami”.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Fernando and Maria have a “that annoying sibling” relationship.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Once said: “It’s not gay if it’s the homies.”

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Snores obnoxiously loud, to the point that people dread having to sleep next to him. The worst part is that his snore adds on top of John’s during the night and sometimes they leave their doors open, making it sound like someone has switched on two MS 881 Petrol Chainsaws all night.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He once got shot in his right asscheek. Luckily, it wasn’t a deep injury and it didn’t reach anything that shouldn’t be reached. (He quite literally ran around the battlefield with a bullet up his ass.) (He couldn’t sit on the toilet for three weeks.) (He cursed “puta madre” out loud approximately 400 times while trying to sit during his entire time of recovery.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Has an insane amount of tolerance for spicy food. Has eaten Carolina Reaper peppers before and looked like he was eating candy. (He suffered on the toilet a few days later.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Very good cook. But ironically enough, he’s too lazy to cook.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Constantly goes to Maria’s room for the sole reason of making eye contact with her and staring her down judgmentally for 45 seconds, and then leaving the door to her room open, because he knows that it annoys her carnally.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Uh… very hairy. But he shaves regularly and keeps it neatly trimmed. Once tried waxing but the hair was so strong that the waxing tissue stuck to it. (On the bright side, as a Recom he has no body hair.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He once unintentionally decked a stripper square in the face because she tried to choke him unexpectedly while straddling his lap, thinking that he’d get turned on, but he got startled, causing his reflexes to kick in. (She got knocked out, suffered a broken nose, a fractured maxilla and nasal bone, and a few of her front teeth got knocked out. It took her months to recover fully. She sued him but he won the case, and out of spite sued her back for emotional distress. Ironically enough, he won the case and she had to pay him a mighty sum of money.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He really cares about Diego. He’s always watching over him even when he’s unaware of it. To Fernando, Diego is his brother and he will protect him with his life if he has to.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He’s especially deadly in mountainous terrains.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He’s insanely good at what he does, to the point that even John Keller had his jaw drop the first time he saw him in action. He knows the battlefield like the back of his hand and he’s extremely lethal in action.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He had an eyebrow piercing on his right eyebrow throughout high school, but had to take it out when he joined the military and it closed entirely. (His mom grounded him for three months when he got it.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ When he turned fourteen years old, he spent three months building a training field on his uncle’s farm. It was a piece of his land that wasn’t nutritious enough to grow produce or good grass for herds, so he let Fernando do whatever he wanted with it. With help from Diego, a few other friends and friendly neighbors, Fernando ended up building multiple tiny buildings to resemble houses, spread junkyard cars, old shipping containers and stacks of sacks filled with gravel, all over the place to practice open-air gunfight, and even made multiple dummies for target practice. He used that training field 24/7 religiously for four years until time came when he and Diego signed up for the military.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He loved Diego’s grandmother dearly and he would often go to spend afternoons at their house. At one point, she and Diego cleared out the old storage room in her house and let him have it. Fernando was deeply touched by this, and he did not take it for granted at all. He cherished that tiny room deeply and his mother even joked that it had become his favorite bedroom. (His mother always shared her cooking with Diego and his grandmother to show her gratitude for them making her son happy, and would pack some carefully in Fernando’s backpack before he would go over to their house.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ During his rookie years he would get into a lot of fights with other recruits for Diego’s sake, and he’d always win. He almost got kicked out of the military because at one point he beat up a dude so badly that his face looked like it had been shoved inside a meat grinder.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He likes going to watch rodeos, and always invites Diego to come with him.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He makes the most delicious Enchiladas.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Has a bullish devotion to Y/N and his fellow troopers. He’s always looking out for his squadron.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He can be very overprotective and possessive over the people he cares about.

6. Diego Silva

Mental age: 37 years

Nationality: Mexican

Place of birth: Mexico

Rank: Sergeant Major

Callsign: Fuego (From Spanish; Fire. He almost lost his life during a mission where C4 explosives were placed in the enemy-filled building he was clearing. He realized this moments before the explosives were about to go off. He decided to sacrifice himself for the mission and doused as much of the building as he could with gasoline so he could take out every enemy with him. When the explosives went off, not only did the building start to crumble but what was left caught entirely on fire. John was about to pronounce him KIA but then Diego was pulled out of the fire and rubble by Fernando who had rushed to the scene the second he heard that something had gone wrong.)

Skills and Specializations:

- Counterterrorism

- Stealth expertise

- Sniper techniques

- Expertise in weapon handling and proficiency

- Target elimination

- Master combatant

- Ambush execution

- Infiltrations

- Covert surveillance

More about the character:

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He is very friendly. Almost everyone eases up to him quickly. (Even Riley.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He would always scold Fernando for skipping school to watch soldiers train.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ His parents were drug dealers and traffickers, and were never home.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ When he was young, he had a very close bond with his grandmother, who raised him. He would always spend his afternoons after school cooking and helping her around the house. After dinner, they would sit together by the fireplace and she’d tell him stories while teaching him how to knit and do embroidery. When she passed away, Diego took it very harshly and it took him years to recover. He still misses her dearly every single day, and keeps a small handkerchief that she embroidered with his initials, on him at all times.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He has a very strong brotherly bond with Fernando, and would sacrifice his own life for him if he had to.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ The girls of his hometown all had a crush on him because he was soft, caring, kind and overall just a great guy. Often times friends of his grandmother’s would try to convince her to set him up for marriage with their daughters or nieces but she’d always politely decline. She’d tell him everyday that he had to let his own heart choose the person he wanted to be with.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Diego never wanted to join the military but he did so for Fernando’s sake.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ His preferred weapon of choice is a SIG MCX.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Unlike Fernando, he has an easygoing friendship with Maria.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He, Riley and Henry do most of the cooking in the house.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He has a talent for zoning out Fernando’s snore.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ When he and Fernando first started as recruits, others would often pick on him because he was the least aggressive out of all of them. They tried breaking him because he was the only one who didn’t want to be there, and if you know you know that that’s no mentality to have in the military. Key word there: tried. Fernando beat them all up so bad that some of them dropped out and were never seen on the training ground again.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He doesn’t drink or smoke, and never has. He believes that those are poison to one’s body.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ When Fernando was building his training field, he was the one who made the target practice dummies using his sewing skills.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ His favorite dishes to cook are soups and stews. He also really enjoys baking.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He was always on top of his class since elementary. Even in military training, he always had the highest scores in written tests.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Do not be fooled by his friendly personality and soft looking features. Despite the fact that he does not really like his job and that compared to the others he seems somewhat non-threatening, Diego Silva has the rank of Sergeant Major for a reason. His skills, knowledge and specializations are right behind Riley’s and he places second along with Fernando on experience.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He uses handguns more than the rest of the unit.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He’s an excellent driver. Whether that be during a chase, a getaway, an open gunfire fight on the road, or just a plain simple change of location, Diego will always be behind the steering wheel. (Fun fact; Diego has never gotten a speeding ticket. Even with the corrupt police force in his hometown, he never got stopped.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ When he and Fernando visit their hometown, grandmas will still try to set him up with their nieces. (They gather around him like a flock of those seagulls in “Finding Nemo”. One time he even lost Fernando in the herd of abuelas, and found him half an hour later, sitting near their hometown’s small church while shoving pistachio ice cream in his mouth with a tiny plastic spoon.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He and Fernando have a secret hang-out place in an abandoned school in the forest near their hometown. It has been their secret place since they were five year old niños and before they signed up for the military they would always go there to watch the sunset or just to talk and quiet their minds. Whenever one couldn’t find the other, they always knew where to look. They still visit that place when they get the chance.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Whenever he is faced with something that is troubling him, he looks up to the sky and asks his grandmother for guidance.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ In the same chain where his Dog Tag is, he keeps a locket that has two pictures that are especially precious to him because they capture two of his core memories. The right one is a picture of his grandmother smiling at the camera while knitting in her rocking chair. She had saved up a lot of money to buy him that camera as a present for his birthday and Diego cried that day, because it had been a very expensive camera, especially for an old lady living on her pension. Her picture was the first one he ever took with it. The other picture in the left side of the locket is a picture of him and Fernando together, laughing as Fernando drapes an arm over his shoulders and hugs him close. That day, the both of them had volunteered in the soup kitchen of their hometown, and at the end of the day, the staff had thanked them and the rest of the few volunteers by offering them a meal. Before sitting at the dining table, Fernando pulled him aside. He told him his plans to sign up for the military in a month, the day of his birthday. Diego listened carefully as Fernando told him the plans he had made for his life and that the decision was final. Even though it did not come as a surprise to him, Diego still had felt a pang of dread in his heart. That moment he decided that he would never separate lives from Fernando, and told him he would sign up with him too. Fernando was caught back and asked him to reconsider but Diego’s mind was made up. The words he then said will forever be in Fernando’s heart, for he told him: “Aquí no hay nada para mí sin ti, hermano mío. Nunca me perdonaré si dejo que nuestras vidas se separen. Te seguiré hasta la tumba, Fernando Álvarez.” (There is nothing for me here without you, my brother. I will never forgive myself if I let our lives separate. I will follow you to the grave, Fernando Álvarez.). They later went to the dining table with tears in their eyes and sat down. The rest raised a toast while laughing happily and Fernando wrapped his arm around Diego’s shoulder before hugging him close. That’s the moment a friend of theirs pulled out his camera and snapped the picture.

7. Maria Herrera

Mental age: 37 years

Nationality: Mexican

Place of birth: Mexico

Rank: Sergeant Major

Callsign: El caos (From Spanish; Chaos. Has the ability to cause havoc everywhere she goes, if she wants to. Moreover, has often unpredictable and erratic behavior when she’s irritated.)

Skills and Specializations:

- Counterterrorism

- Stealth expertise

- Sniper techniques

- Expertise in weapon handling and proficiency

- Target elimination

- Ambush execution

- Infiltrations

- Covert surveillance

- Track-and-kill missions

More about the character:

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Most of her career has been spent hunting down cartel leaders and narcos.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ She prefers being the undercover operator during missions because she gets to display how good she is at having a poker face. (Plus she loves the thrill.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Flirts with Y/N more than she should.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ She once got kidnapped by the enemy and they gave her back after 14 hours of captivity because she had objectified the men so much that they felt violated. When Oscar, Diego and a small team of operators arrived at the warehouse she was being held in, they found her in the middle of the building, tied to a chair with a note stapled to the front of her shirt that wrote: “In my 15 years of crime, I have never had a hostage make my guys so uncomfortable. They’re not objects.”. (Maria still keeps that note as a souvenir.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Most of her time in the gym is spent on working on her arms and thighs, providing her with a nice set of firm thighs and muscled biceps that she loves flexing. (She was devastated to see that her recom body had average looking arms and thin thighs. That was her only concern waking up for the first time.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ She once started a cult because she was bored. (It was awfully successful and Y/N had to intervene and shut it down.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Her parents were cartel members. When she turned eighteen, she was expected to join said cartel with them. When she refused, her parents attempted to kill her, saying that she was a disgrace to their blood. No one knows what happened that night. But Maria joined the military a week after, and no one has seen her parents ever since.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ She has multiple tattoos. The biggest one stretches from her shoulder to the elbow of her left arm.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ After she had been in the military for a while, Fernando gifted her a golden chain because she was a good friend to Diego. She wears that chain everyday.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ She grew up in the same town as Fernando and Diego but they never met before the military. However, Diego’s parents worked for Maria’s parents.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ When she was young she wanted to be a tattoo artist.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ She loves dogs. She was the one who always wanted to take care of the K9s and no one bothered to stop her.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Has a pretty high alcohol tolerance. (She also loves beer.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ She was a bully and a class clown in school. (The teachers despised her.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ When her, Diego and Fernando first started as recruits, she would get into a lot of trouble for talking back to the Drill Sergeant. She despised that man so much that she slept with his wife out of spite.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Her preferred weapon of choice is a Heckler & Koch HK43.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Despite the fact at how carnally annoying she finds Fernando, she does indeed care about him and Diego.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ When she got heavily drunk in a bar one night when the team were celebrating a recent victory, she made scissoring gestures with her fingers at Y/N who sighed and told Khalida to keep an eye on her. (She ended up fighting a random dude at the bar and Khalida helped her.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ She can be extremely jealous and possessive over the people she cares about.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ She has a cross necklace that she wears along with her gold chain. Her family were Christian so she kinda stuck to it. She doesn’t really agree with Riley’s view on God but she understands and respects his opinion.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ She really likes Riley’s drawings, especially the doodles, and she got one of them tattooed. (It’s a doodle of a Heckler & Koch HK43. Riley has multiple full pages in his sketchbook with doodles of every type of gun and combat knife he knows.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ She once took a picture of Y/N working out and dripping in sweat and when Khalida and Henry looked at her questionably she cleared her throat and said: “For research purposes.”

⋆☠︎︎⋆ She enjoys beating the shit out of new recruits during training. (She unironically refers to them as “fresh meat”.)

8. Henry Davis

Mental age: 35 years

Nationality: American

Place of birth: U.S.A

Rank: Master Gunnery Sergeant

Callsign: Ranger (He spends a lot of time making presentations to explain the plans and strategies he proposes for upcoming missions. The unit started calling him PowerPoint Ranger because of this, so his callsign became Ranger.)

Skills and Specializations:

- Advanced sniper techniques

- Weapon handling and proficiency

- Counter-insurgency

- Special reconnaissance

- Information warfare

- Tactical planning and coordination

- Anti-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction

- Counterterrorism

- Sabotage

- Ambush executions

More about the character:

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He’s very positive. You’ll always find a smile on his face.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Cracks the most horrendous dad jokes.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Just like Diego and Riley, he’s a very good cook and does most of the cooking in the house with them.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He is arguably the most skilled sniper in the unit.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ His intelligence and mission planning tactics are of the highest level and he is one of Y/N’s most valuable assets.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He’s a family man. Moreover, he absolutely loves kids, and they stick to him like glue whenever he’s around.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He is the one who bakes the birthday cakes for teammates’ birthdays.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Before the team decided to give him the callsign “Ranger” they called him “Stars n Stripes”. (Because he’s American, badum tss.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He can be as friendly as Diego. Arguably, even more.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Both of his arms are covered in sleeve tattoos.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He had to babysit his nieces during duty hours once. They wanted to play dress up and forced him to participate. The problem was that he had a very important meeting with the team and the General at the time, to discuss an upcoming classified mission. He showed up to that meeting with green eyeshadow, smudged mascara, smeared red lipstick and hot pink blush, because his nieces would start crying when he’d attempt to take it off. Needless to say, the whole unit was horrified and Y/N avoided eye contact with the General at all costs. Henry kept his head down and avoided drawing attention to himself as much as he could. (The whole unit was secretly dying inside from laughter.) (When the General asked who would be planning the infiltration tactics for the operation, Y/N hesitantly pointed to Henry, who gave the General the most awkward half smile. Y/N wished the ground would just open below her feet and swallow her whole.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ His preferred weapon of choice is a M4A1 carbine.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ As mentioned in his specializations, his most important missions included counter-insurgency, special reconnaissance, counterterrorism, information warfare and anti-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Henry has played key roles in ensuring definitive victories against emerging terrorist networks.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Before he joined the unit, he was an operator for the Special Activities Division of the CIA.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ His favorite equipment are laptops, sat-phones, and rocket-equipped combat drones.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Since the SAD is permitted to execute missions against enemies of the state, without consulting the Pentagon or White House, Henry has been involved in multiple actions to assassinate enemy leadership.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He really likes the doodle that Maria got tattooed from Riley’s sketchbook. He brought it up one day and he said that he also was thinking of asking Riley to get one tattooed on him. That day the team talked about it and joked that they each would get one tattooed.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He is Y/N’s right hand in planning tactics. He is the first to come up with a plan, then if Y/N approves they are to present it to the rest of the team and the higher ups.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Before Y/N became their commanding officer, he and Riley would argue every single day. Henry absolutely despised the way Riley would shit on his mission tactics proposals and that became the reason why they would be at each other’s throats every minute of every day. He still hates the way Riley finds something wrong with every single plan he makes but since Y/N finds it useful he doesn’t argue that much anymore.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He joins Fernando in watching rodeos when he has time because he genuinely enjoys it.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He had a mustache and a beard which he had had for years, so when he woke up as a Recom he was devastated to learn that Recombinants can’t grow facial hair.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He and Y/N were the only ones who actually researched about Pandora and the Na’vi before they signed their Project Phoenix contracts.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He nearly got half of his body blown to pieces in a mission in Russia and he still gets shivers thinking about it.

9. Khalida Fadel

Mental age: 34 years

Nationality: ???

Place of birth: ???

Rank: Gunnery Sergeant

Callsign: Liberty (No one knows why. This was the callsign she had when she first joined the unit and she demanded that she kept it because it was dear to her.)

Skills and Specializations:

- Counterterrorism

- Stealth expertise

- Sniper techniques

- Expertise in weapon handling and proficiency

- Target elimination

- Ambush execution

- Covert surveillance

More about the character:

⋆☠︎︎⋆ She showed up one day and Y/N introduced her to the unit as the new member. She left no room for questions, so everyone has went along with it since then.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Not much is known about her past before she joined the squadron, except that she has a brother who lives in the Middle East. The only people who know the whole story are Y/N and John Keller.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ She’s a master combatant and one of the best operators in weapon handling and proficiency.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ She’s one of the best motorcycle riders that Y/N has ever seen and she prefers to ride one during missions rather than joining them in their military cars.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ You’ll almost never see her without an army headband on.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ When she’s irritated, she cusses people out in Arabic.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ She doesn’t usually initiate outside-of-work conversations, it has to be someone to talk to her first. But she’s very good at indulging in a conversation and it’s actually really nice to talk to her.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ She’s very quiet in her combat. Has a talent for taking people out almost silently.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ She has led all-women teams multiple times into battle and each time has resulted in victory.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Her preferred weapon of choice is an AK-47.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ She can be excellent at motivating soldiers during battle, reminding them of why they’re there and that she’s right there with them.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Her tactic-planning skills are also quite impressive but unlike Riley she doesn’t prefer to intervene in Henry’s plans.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ For some reason, her and Riley cannot maintain a conversation for the life of them. Put them in a room together and they’ll make the most awkward chitchat before staying in the most uncomfortable silence that humanity has ever experienced.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ She likes Henry quite a bit and she spends a lot of time talking with him. (Maria often jokes that they have a crush on each other.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Like John and Riley, she tends to call out on bullshit whenever it happens. She does tone it down a bit more than them, but still doesn’t hesitate to point it out, no matter of who it comes from.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Even though not much is known about her past, Y/N and John have dropped hints here and there that she has had a very hard life since childhood.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ She has a locket necklace with a picture of a middle aged man inside but doesn’t tell people who he is.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Khalida doesn’t see war as just liberation of land but also as freedom from the old ways.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ She introduced Henry to Arabic food and that man ate that day like he was never going to see food ever again.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ She has a talent for being able to use anything around her to her advantage during battle. Oil filters of a random vehicle? She’ll use it as a suppressor. Wax and random container of bleach? She’ll make a smoke bomb out of it. Broken glass on the street? Perfect for a Shiv.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Despite everything, Y/N doesn’t trust her very much. Except for John, no one else knows why.

10. Stefan Kessler (Keßler)

Mental age: 32 years

Nationality: German

Place of birth: Germany

Rank: Artillery Officer

Callsign: Berlin (He’s massive, and the tallest operator in the unit. He was the largest soldier in the entire Marine division. Because of this and because he’s German, he was given the callsign “Berlin” to compare him to the Berlin Wall.)

Skills and Specializations:

- Sniper techniques

- Expert in weapon handling and proficiency

- Sabotage

- Infiltrations

- Clandestine tradecraft

- Ambush execution

- High Intelligence

- Torture Expertise

- Master Combatant

- Counterterrorism

More about the character:

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Very quiet. He’s usually in his own world. He won’t really talk to people unless he knows them.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ The first person he spoke to within the unit was Diego.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He spends most of his free time taking care of their guns and equipment.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He used to dislike Riley, since his behavior reminded Stephan of how much he hates people. Then one day, during a mission where it was the two of them, Oscar and Scott, he walked out to find a place to be by himself. He found a quiet place and when he walked a bit further, he saw Riley sitting by a tree, drawing in his sketchbook. He was about to turn back but Riley called him over. They ended up bonding over their shared talent for drawing, and talked for hours. Since then, they have had a good friendly relationship.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ His favorite people within the squadron are Diego and Oscar.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He prefers to stay home when the unit goes out to celebrate victories. He just enjoys alone time. Sometimes he does go out with them but doesn’t do much, just stays at a table, slowly sipping from a pint glass of cold beer while watching whatever is going on around him.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ The smell of gun oil calms him down because his safe space is when he’s taking care of their guns and equipment.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ To keep his body mass he has to eat very large quantities of food, and he feels bad when one of his teammates says they’re gonna cook for the day. This has been brought up multiple times and everyone assures him that he’s really not the problem, because they’re all bulky built soldiers and they all eat a lot. (Diego, while tying his apron, also told him that he shouldn’t be feeling guilty about this when Fernando Álvarez exists.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Back when he was a recruit, when Drill Sergeants would see him for the first time, they would look at him like basketball coaches look at a very tall kid who has just stepped foot in the school for the first time.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He doesn’t curse much, only when something goes wrong in a mission or when he drops something while oiling their guns, and even then he curses under his breath and in German.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Even as a Recom, he is the largest Na’vi among both Recombinants and Avatars. He has it the hardest to move around in human-sized spaces and since he ends up tipping everything over, even people, Y/N mostly keeps him at their living quarters. And he doesn’t mind one bit.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He has a talent for crafting gadgets with very few materials. Give him a couple of batteries and some wire and he’ll make something very useful with it.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ When he was a kid he wanted to be a veterinarian.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He’s very intimidating and he knows it. But unlike Riley, he doesn’t enjoy it too much. He does like it that he’s able to intimidate the enemy with his size however.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He loves cats. He always feeds the strays when he sees them.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He’s a good babysitter. He minds his business. The kids mind their own and at the same time they don’t get into trouble because they’re lowkey scared of him. Who wouldn’t be, the man is huge. Boom. Babysitting 101.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He’s a smoker. John tried to get him to stop but to no avail. He smokes Marlboro religiously and will not have any other brands.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He has a very good understanding of his body. From what foods are best for him to what exercises strain his muscles more. He knows his strengths and his limits perfectly.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ His preferred weapon of choice is a M249 SAW.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He’s a master at grilling. Whenever the team decides to have a barbecue night, he’s the one slaying above the grill. (Scott has gifted him an apron that reads “Grill Daddy.” Yes, he had a lot of questions when he received said gift.)

⋆☠︎︎⋆ His father was a butcher so he basically grew up in a butcher shop. His mother was a drug addict so he never really saw her unless she came at their doorstep to beg for drug money.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ He has multiple tattoos on his arms and body and some of them he designed himself.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Just like Oscar, he is very calm and calculated during combat. Since he’s older, that makes up for Oscar’s lack of experience.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ If Riley or John are busy, then he is usually the guy who’s gets put in charge of the interrogations.

⋆☠︎︎⋆ Sometimes the team refers to him as the “Gun Bunny” because he’s the artilleryman.

[basiccortez]

Goodnight, Baby - R. Abbott

note: just a cute little Rhett moment. It's actually from a prompts list called 50 wordlesss ways to say 'I love you' and I am tempted to bring it back again. . . also, my requests on this blog are open! read the pinned post for questions:) word count: 630 Rhett Abbott Masterlist

Rhett sighed as he walked into the house, quietly kicking off his boots. It had been a long day of working out in the hot sun, moving cattle and fixing the broken fence on the Abbott Ranch. He had sent you a text telling you not to wait up, that he would be home late. He hated not being home for dinner, or getting ready for bed. It sucked when it was just the two of you, now that there was a baby in the mix.

Jude Elliot Abbott had turned one a couple months, and Rhett felt like he had missed most of his life already. There were milestones that Rhett had missed due to being on the road for competitions or moving cattle. He hated it. You had told him over and over again that it was okay, that Jude wouldn’t even know the difference if Rhett was there or not. It still didn’t help Rhett feel any better. 

He moved around the kitchen quietly as he warmed up the plate of food you had left for him. He smiled at the new picture on the fridge that looked like Jude had drawn at daycare. The front of their fridge had become covered in pictures of Jude and them, pictures Jude had scribbled at daycare, or projects they had him do. Rhett cherished every single picture like it was a masterpiece.

When Rhett was done eating, he walked up the stairs quietly, looking at the various family pictures that littered the walls as he walked to the bedroom. He smiled at your sleeping frame as he moved around in the half lit room, taking off his clothes and putting on something more comfortable. He washed his face and brushed his teeth, and hung up the wet towels that you left on the floor after Jude’s bath. He walked over to you, and gently ran his hand over your hair, and leaned down and placed a kiss on your cheek. 

You moved slightly at the feeling of his body, and gave him a sleepy smile, “Mm, welcome home.” 

“Hi,” Rhett whispered and leaned back down to kiss your lips, “How was your day?” 

“Good. Jude drew a new picture at daycare.” 

“I saw. Might need him to draw my new base drum cover.” 

You let out a tired chuckle, “You eat?” 

“Yeah,” Rhett nodded, “Go back to sleep, I’m gonna go check on our boy,” You nodded and Rhett kissed your lips once more  before he walked down the hallway to his little boy’s room. 

His heart felt warm as he walked into the room, and could see his son’s sleeping face, with his thumb tucked into his mouth. Jude was fast asleep on his back, small little sighs leaving his mouth as he slept. Rhett crept over to his crib, leaning over it as he watched the little boy sleep soundly. He watched his chest rise and fall, still scared that he was going to have a lapse in breathing. Jude had finally grown out of his sleep apnea, but it didn’t stop Rhett from still being worried about it. 

Rhett sighed and leaned his head on his arms, closing them for a second when he heard Jude stir. Rhett picked his head up quickly and watched as the little boy moved around, readjusting to get more comfortable, and shifting the soft blanket that covered him. Once Jude was settled back into sleep, a deep sigh leaving his mouth, Rhett fixed the baby blanket, slightly tucking him back in. Rhett gently patted the back of his head, feeling his soft brown curls, and then leaned in to kiss his head. 

“Goodnight, baby,” Rhett said, and left the room to go lay down next to his wife.

-- -- --

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[topguncortez]

Bad Medicine | Prologue | A TopGun AU

Masterlist | Next Part pairing: Jake Seresin x OC!Reader (last name is Santiago) synopsis: A wealthy Italian mobster sets up his daughter to marry the head of one of the last remaining mafias in California. The union was supposed to create and heal the damage between two families, but all it does is cause more harm than good. WARNINGS: drugs, guns, stripping, violence, abuse, fighting, prostitution, blood, alcohol usage, mentions of sexual assault, torture, death, cops, stalking.

On the outside, the city of San Diego looked like any other big city. Lots of skyscrapers, bumper to bumper traffic, tourists and visitors walking around everywhere. But it’s what lies underneath all of that. The monsters that lurked in the dark, the demons that hid in the shadows, the creatures that go bump in the night. 

No, these monsters aren’t the fictional ones you read about in books and see on tv. These monsters are real people. They are what people call, MOBSTERS 

Some people believed that the whole mafia, gangs and mobsters died back in the 1940s, but the truth was, those monsters just went into hiding. Everything is run by the mob. The girls on the corner, the guns the cops used, the drugs in the prisons, the boxing matches on pay-per-view, sometimes, even the clothes on your back.

Most of the famous mobs had died out when Al Capone finally bit it, so did the crash of the New York Five. But between the mobsters tearing each other apart, between the shadows, two other families were building up their ranks. 

The shift between the downfall of the Luciano family and the rise of the Seresins was easy. Nobody ever pointed a finger at a German man selling ammo at the local sporting store. Seresin didn’t sound like “Mangano” or “Gagliano” or “Bonanno”. Patrick Seresin was a smart man, and decided to move the vast mafia playground to a quieter city that would draw less heat. The bright lights and big city of the west called to Patrick, so he started the slow movement towards Hollywood. But Patrick was smart, and knew that Hollywood was too much of a target. So he settled for a small (at the time) town of San Diego, California. 

The Seresins were one to be feared. Their mafia bloodline was passed down from generation to generation. The current leader was a beautiful man with gorgeous green eyes and blonde hair. You didn’t dare mess with him unless you wanted to be the next one sitting on the pew in the chamber. But the leader of the Seresin Mafia didn’t act alone, no, he had three of his closest friends, those who were basically brothers, working with him. 

Bob Floyd, the brains behind the operation, was smart, his brain like a human computer. He was able to infiltrate government sanctions with ease. You didn’t know you were hacked until it was too late and your porn search history was blasted all over your workplace. Bob had ghosts, things that haunted him when he closed his eyes at night. He was too smart, too gentle for his own good, which caused his heart to break and his mind to be scarred. 

Bradley Bradshaw, aka Rooster, was the muscle, and Bob’s best friend. He was slender and tall, with beautiful curly hair. He was a dark, gentle soul, who hid in the shadows. He was like a snake, letting you get close until he struck, quick and quiet. His closet was full of skeletons he was yet to bury. Bob was one of the only people in the family to know about the horrible things Rooster had done. Wherever you saw Bob, you saw Rooster, and vice versa.

Natasha Trace, aka Phoenix, stood out against the group because she was the only woman, and sat at the right hand of the leader of the Seresin mafia. She was beautiful, her eyes captivating. She was everything that a mob boss's wife was supposed to be. She supported everything that her fiance did. She knew the ins and outs of the job, almost a little too well. But no one suspected her, and no one would have if it wasn’t for her falling in love with the wrong man. It was like star crossed lovers, except one survived and the other one didn’t. 

And last but not least, their fearless leader, Jacob. The man dripped confidence and power. He could have women pulling their panties aside with just a simple look. Even though Jake had older sisters, it just made sense that Jake was the family leader. His father George, didn’t think his daughters had what it took to be a cold blooded killer like Jake. George said it took a “special kind of demon” to kill those he loved. Jake was a cocky fucker, having a painting of him in a blood red suit hanging over his desk like he was the real fucking Don Vito Corleone.

Although the Seresins seemed to be very successful on camera, it was behind that the problems lied. They were starting to struggle financially due to a crackdown of gun and drug sales from the ATF. The clubs and casinos had become one of their main sources of income, which upset George Seresin. He wanted to carry out his father’s plan of having a mafia member in the boardroom, not scourging around and feeding the junkies at their feet. So George came up with a plan to help the family. One that required the assistance of a notorious Italian mobster, Rafael Santiago.

Rafael never wanted a daughter, and it was clear to anyone who saw it. He had three boys who were perfect to take over the family business when it was time. But Y/N Santiago was a hidden gem. She was smart, drabbled in the art of torture, and dressed to impress. Rafael had a plan for her the second the doctor said it was a girl. Her life had already been decided on and she didn’t even know it. Her mother, the woman who was also a business player, knew of her daughter's fate. Marie Santiago had been the same way, being betrothed to a man she never would’ve married if it wasn’t for the family business she had learned to love. 

When Y/N was old enough to move away from her family, she did just that. She moved to New York, and found herself a job at a local club. Rafael didn’t approve of her job, he didn’t think his daughter should be dancing on a pole for men, but it kept her away from the family. While working at the club, Y/N had met whom she thought was the love of her life, a young man by the name of Francisco Solano. 

But unlike the fairy tales and the stories, this relationship turned dark and bloody, and ended up with a battered and tortured Y/N on his father’s front door. Rafael could see the end of his legacy crashing down, and knew what he had to do to help his legacy succeed and grow. Even if that meant setting up his only daughter for marriage to a man he hardly trusted. 

CHARACTER MOODBOARDS:

taglist: @cherrycola27 @seresinsbabe @violyn20 @materialgirl01 @bradleybeachbabe @a-reader-and-a-writer @endofdays56 @lt-spork @topnerd03 @3in1shampooconditionerbodywash @bioodforbiood @topguncultleader @ma-fraise @abaker74 @double-j @cm27078 @thedroneranger @khaylin27 @mak-32 @unhinged-btch @wittywhispers @theliterarybeldam @bloosomjoon @chxcxlate-cxxkies @luckyladycreator2 @wellshit6 @harper1666 @phoenix1388

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[mariacallous]

What would you want to tell the next U.S. president? FP asked nine thinkers from around the world to write a letter with their advice for him or her.

Dear Madam or Mr. President,

Congratulations on your election as president of the United States. You take office at a moment of enormous consequence for a world directly impacted by the twin challenges of energy security and climate change.

Democrats and Republicans disagree on many aspects of energy and climate policy. Yet your administration has the chance to chart a policy path forward that unites both parties around core areas of agreement to advance the U.S. national interest.

First, all should agree that climate change is real and worsening. The escalating threat of climate change is increasingly evident to anyone walking the streets of Phoenix in the summer, buying flood insurance in southern Florida, farming rice in Vietnam, or laboring outdoors in Pakistan. This year will almost certainly surpass 2023 as the warmest year on record.

Second, just as the energy revolution that made the United States the world’s largest oil and gas producer strengthened it economically and geopolitically, so will ensuring U.S. leadership in clean energy technologies enhance the country’s geostrategic position. In a new era of great-power competition, China’s dominance in certain clean energy technologies—such as batteries and cobalt, lithium, graphite, and other critical minerals needed for clean energy products—threatens America’s economic competitiveness and the resilience of its energy supply chains. China’s overcapacity in manufacturing relative to current and future demand undermines investments in the United States and other countries and distorts demand signals that allow the most innovative and efficient firms to compete in the global market.

Third, using less oil in our domestic economy reduces our vulnerability to global oil supply disruptions, such as conflict in the Middle East or attacks on tankers in the Red Sea. Even with the surge in U.S. oil production, the price of oil is set in the global market, so drivers feel the pain of oil price shocks regardless of how much oil the United States imports. True energy security comes from using less, not just producing more.

Fourth, energy security risks extend beyond geopolitics and require investing adequately in domestic energy supply to meet changing circumstances. Today, grid operators and regulators are increasingly warning that the antiquated U.S. electricity system, already adjusting to handle rising levels of intermittent solar and wind energy, is not prepared for growing electricity demand from electric cars, data centers, and artificial intelligence. These reliability concerns were evident when an auction this summer set a price nine times higher than last year’s to be paid by the nation’s largest grid operator to power generators that ensure power will be available when needed. A reliable and affordable power system requires investments in grids as well as diverse energy resources, from cheap but intermittent renewables to storage to on-demand power plants.

Fifth, expanding clean energy sectors in the rest of the world is in the national interest because doing so creates economic opportunities for U.S. firms, diversifies global energy supply chains away from China, and enhances U.S. soft power in rapidly growing economies. (In much the same way, the Marshall Plan not only rebuilt a war-ravaged Europe but also advanced U.S. economic interests, countered Soviet influence, and helped U.S. businesses.) Doing so is especially important in rising so-called middle powers, such as Brazil, India, or Saudi Arabia, that are intent on keeping their diplomatic options open and aligning with the United States or China as it suits them transactionally.

To prevent China from becoming a superpower in rapidly growing clean energy sectors, and thereby curbing the benefits the United States derives from being such a large oil and gas producer, your administration should increase investments in research and development for breakthrough clean energy technologies and boost domestic manufacturing of clean energy. Toward these ends, your administration should quickly finalize outstanding regulatory guidance to allow companies to access federal incentives. Your administration should also work with the other side of the aisle to provide the market with certainty that long-term tax incentives for clean energy deployment—which have bipartisan support and have already encouraged historic levels of private investment—will remain in place. Finally, your administration should work with Congress to counteract the unfair competitive advantage that nations such as China receive by manufacturing industrial products with higher greenhouse gas emissions. Such a carbon import tariff, as proposed with bipartisan support, should be paired with a domestic carbon fee to harmonize the policy with that of other nations—particularly the European Union’s planned carbon border adjustment mechanism.

Your ability to build a strong domestic industrial base in clean energy will be aided by sparking more domestic clean energy use. This is already growing quickly as market forces respond to rapidly falling costs. Increasing America’s ability to produce energy is also necessary to maintain electricity grid reliability and meet the growing needs of data centers and AI. To do so, your administration should prioritize making it easier to build energy infrastructure at scale, which today is the greatest barrier to boosting U.S. domestic energy production. On average, it takes more than a decade to build a new high-voltage transmission line in the United States, and the current backlog of renewable energy projects waiting to be connected to the power grid is twice as large as the electricity system itself. It takes almost two decades to bring a new mine online for the metals and minerals needed for clean energy products, such as lithium and copper.

The permitting reform bill recently negotiated by Sens. Joe Manchin and John Barrasso is a good place to start, but much more needs to be done to reform the nation’s permitting system—while respecting the need for sound environmental reviews and the rights of tribal communities. In addition, reforming the way utilities operate in the United States can increase the incentives that power companies have not just to build new infrastructure but to use existing infrastructure more efficiently. Such measures include deploying batteries to store renewable energy and rewiring old transmission lines with advanced conductors that can double the amount of power they move.

Grid reliability will also require more electricity from sources that are available at all times, known as firm power. Your administration should prioritize making it easier to construct power plants with advanced nuclear technology—which reduce costs, waste, and safety concerns—and to produce nuclear power plant fuel in the United States. Doing so also benefits U.S. national security, as Russia is building more than one-third of new nuclear reactors around the world to bolster its geostrategic influence. While Russia has been the leading exporter of reactors, China has by far the most reactors under construction at home and is thus poised to play an even bigger role in the international market going forward. The United States also currently imports roughly one-fifth of its enriched uranium from Russia. To counter this by building a stronger domestic nuclear industry, your administration should improve the licensing and approval process of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and reform the country’s nuclear waste management policies. In addition to nuclear power, your administration should also make it easier to permit geothermal power plants, which today can play a much larger role in meeting the nation’s energy needs thanks to recent innovations using technology advanced by the oil and gas sector for shale development.

Even with progress on all these challenges, it is unrealistic to expect that the United States can produce all the clean energy products it needs domestically. It will take many years to diminish China’s lead in critical mineral supply, battery manufacturing, and solar manufacturing. The rate of growth needed in clean energy is too overwhelming, and China’s head start is too great to diversify supply chains away from it if the United States relies solely on domestic manufacturing or that of a few friendly countries. As a result, diminishing China’s dominant position requires that your administration expand economic cooperation and trade partnerships with a vast number of other nations. Contrary to today’s protectionist trends, the best antidote to concerns about China’s clean technology dominance is more trade, not less.

Your administration should also strengthen existing tools that increase the supply of clean energy products in emerging and developing economies in order to diversify supply chains and counter China’s influence in these markets. For example, the U.S. International Development Finance Corp. (DFC) can be a powerful tool to support U.S. investment overseas, such as in African or Latin American projects to mine, refine, and process critical minerals. As DFC comes up for reauthorization next year, you should work with Congress to provide DFC with more resources and also change the way federal budgeting rules account for equity investments; this would allow DFC to make far more equity investments even with its existing funding. Your administration can also use DFC to encourage private investment in energy projects in emerging and developing economies by reducing the risk investors face from fluctuations in local currency that can significantly limit their returns or discourage their investment from the start. The U.S. Export-Import Bank is another tool to support the export of U.S. clean tech by providing financing for U.S. goods and services competing with foreign firms abroad.

Despite this country’s deep divisions and polarization, leaders of both parties should agree that bolstering clean energy production in the United States and in a broad range of partner countries around the world is in America’s economic and security interests.

I wish you much success in this work, which will also be the country’s success.

[agent-toast]

john juniper art + hc dump because i hate him (/aff)

because i draw quite small, the images will be slightly blurry, sorry

art under cut!

this guy

jj and phoenix

uwu john (low effort)

perfection

uh

maid john juniper @bewithdagays

[my personal juniper n phoenix headcanons here! warning: wall of text]

i don't personally hc juniper x phoenix because my phoenix is aroace, but i do love the art i see of them on tumblr, it's so good :>

my hc of juniper and (the 20yo version of) phoenix is that the more shenanigans phoenix does, the more frustrated juniper gets with him, but the thing is juniper is also like kinda fricking attracted?? (my juniper is bi and my phoenix is genderfluid so) and phoenix absolutely adores seeing jj so angry, especially when the anger is directed at them, so they keep trying to find ways to annoy him even more.

in ieytd2 when they first meet juniper, they're completely oblivious to the fact that he's attracted to them, and handler secretly likes watching the drama but can't stand the fact that phoenix has no idea, so handler ends up hinting at it in between operation: safe and sound and operation: rising phoenix. phoenix is surprised and kind of awkward at first but then they're just like 'oh ok cool, still gonna continue annoying him'.

when jj falls in rising phoenix, phoenix doesn't say anything, but inside they're really shocked, and feel kind of guilty too. they did pull that lever, did they not? sure, juniper was trying to kill them just a moment earlier, and for the entire week, really, but... still. it felt wrong to them.

and they're also reminded of just how ruthless zor and the fabricator can be - they'd just gotten used to the safety of the nice elevator box and eating oranges with the peels that they'd almost forgotten they were still in the heat of danger.

this turned into a phoenix hc rant hah

anyway that's it for now :)