#or 'he's an unreliable narrator so of course he sees his group as the good guys and the others as the bad guys' | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

undertheopensky · 4 months

Text

The Ocarina 2

Whumptober Day 25: “You’re not delivering a perfect body to the grave.”

Characters: Same deal as last time, everyone’s there except Four but he’s somehow the main focus

Trigger warnings: Alternative Backstories, Unreliable Narrator, Past Child Death, Discussions of suicide

Read on Ao3!

Missed the first installment? Read here!

-----

Leaving Vio and the plaintive sound of his ocarina behind, the group heads off into the forest again.

In theory, they’re aiming for the northern side of the woods and the road that leads to Hyrule Town, but they already know they won’t make it. This isn’t the Minish Woods, with the village and castle just over the next rise; it’s a representation of Four’s mind and his memories. Just walking isn’t going to get them out.

But what will? Sky wonders.

The cottage comes back into view, all the more ominous now. The bright sunlight contrasts with the heavy, creeping mist; with the too-dark forest full of screaming and fear. Sky lets a hand trail close to the bark of a nearby pine; swears he can feel a chill rolling off it, hear the faint echo of a wail.

Everything just feels more intense, now that he knows the truth; now that he knows what Four’s been keeping locked up in his heart, locked away in the woods.

Why didn’t he trust us?

“I was thinking.” Wind runs a hand along the smooth wood of the boundary fence. “Vio, and Green, and the others - what if they’re not just memories?”

Sky looks back at him. Wind’s acting too casual. “Oh? What else could they be?”

“Ghosts,” Wind says, then cringes as if expecting ridicule.

“I don’t think they’re poes, Wind.”

“Not that kind of ghost!” Wind’s gone red, though Sky thinks it’s less embarrassment and more anger. “The ghosts of people! Of Four’s brothers! What if they’re trapped here, stuck haunting Four’s mind, or wherever the fuck we are?”

Before anyone else can dispute this Legend is nodding thoughtfully. “Actually, that’s a fair point. I’ve not run into many ghosts, but the parallels are there.”

“Yeh’ve dealt with ghosts before?” Twilight sounds startled.

“Of course he has, it’s Legend.” The veteran, unsaid. “Haven’t you dealt with ghosts though Twi? You told a story about the queen of your Zora being a ghost.”

“Yeah, but that was jus’ the once.” Twilight thinks for a moment. “An’… she was pretty fixated on her son. Only reason she was hangin’ round at all, ah figure.”

“Exactly!” Wind says. “Ghosts often stick around when they have people they care about or things left undone.”

“But…” Hyrule looks troubled. “What difference does it make? Whether they’s ghosts, or memories?”

“Well… it’s pretty clear they’re trapped here. Maybe we’re supposed to help them move on.”

Legend’s mouth tightens. “They may not want to go.”

“Maybe not,” Wind says softly, “but we can at least try.”

It was as good an explanation as any. As good a goal as any. And didn’t force them to face the creeping worry that they’re not here for anyreason at all. That they’re just here, and there’s nothing they can do.

(Can’t help Four. Can’t help his brothers. Can’t even help themselves.)

From here along the boundary line they can see the low fence of what’s supposed to be the vegetable field, if not the field itself - the mist still lays thick on the ground. It’s somewhere to start. Blue Four - shit, Four’s brother - had been pretty adamant about not moving from that spot.

He is, indeed, still there, mist swirling round his feet. His sword hangs at his side like he’d gotten distracted partway through a drill. Although - the way his head is ducked, like he can’t hold it all the way up, and his shoulders sag -

He looks so tired.

When they cross an invisible line his head still snaps up to glare at them.

Wind stops short. Backs up half a step, and smiles. “Hi! You’re Blue, right?”

Blue, who had settled when he backed away, immediately gets his hackles back up. “What’s it to you?!”

Wind shrugs with deliberate calm. “Just making sure. Vio told us your names, but I didn’t want to assume.”

“Damn nerd,” Blue mutters. Despite his grumpy words, he calms further, enough to sheathe his sword across his back. “So. What are you bothering me for? Vio’s the smart one.”

Wind hums. “Just - trying to figure things out, I guess. What was it like, when Four - Link - went on adventures?”

Blue scrunches his nose at him, confused by the question. “What do you mean? Like we didn’t all go? He couldn’ta left us behind if he tried! What, did he just never mention that he had his brothers along helping him the whole way?! That bastard, taking all the credit.”

“He doesn’t like talking about them much,” Sky intercepts. “So it was more of a group effort?”

“Of fucking course! How else would an eight-year-old climb fucking Death Mountain all on their own? Not that four eight-year-olds was much better,” he mutters.

Sky frowns. Didn’t that -?

“It was a pain in the ass keeping all of them alive and focused,” Blue continues. “Do we have enough food, do we have enough water, who’s tired, who’s hungry, has Red lost his weapon again? Never mind trying to get everyone out of bed in the morning. It’s a miracle we ever got anywhere.” Blue scratches at his head, upsetting his hat. He snatches it back into position angrily. “Now that idiot doesn’t even have me keeping him on track, goddesses.”

“You must love him very much.”

Blue’s hackles go up yet again. His shoulders fly up around ears that are quickly turning red, and his gaze jerks away from them so he doesn’t have to make eye contact. “I - he - he’s -” he struggles with the words, folding his arms tight across his chest and hunching over a little. Defensive.

It’s - hard to see him, Sky realises with a start. He can see the mist through him, just a little, swirls of movement where there should be solid fabric.

Maybe they’re ghosts, Wind says in his memory, and he bites back a shudder.

“Of course I love him,” Blue says, in a tight, small voice. “He’s my brother. I love him so much, and -” he shivers, curls in on himself further, goes a little more see-through. Sky considers waving at Wind to change the fucking subject already.

Blue’s already continuing, though, head ducked to stare at his hands. “I’m glad one of us made it out. I’m glad he lived. And - I’m glad it wasn’t me.”

Sky’s eyebrows go up without conscious thought. That’s - not something he’d expected. Bitterness, grief, jealousy or envy - that’s more what he’d expect from the ghost of someone who’d been left behind.

Blue huffs, making a face like he wants to scowl at their expressions but is too damn tired. “Think what you want. But… when you’ve been surrounded by brothers your whole life… being alone really sucks.”

There’s a moment where his eyes go blank, and suddenly none of them are in a well-lit summer field; there’s only ice and darkness and tight spaces and knowing there’s something behind you –

Then Blue blinks and the moment shatters.

“It doesn’t matter,” he says. “It happened, and we can’t change it now. And - even if we could -”

He frowns. It’s hard to tell where the mist ends and his small form starts.

“Even with everything… I know we made the right choice. Because if it came down to it, I’d do everything over again, exactly the same. I just wish… I just wish he didn’t have to be alone.”

Blue’s face crumples, and abruptly he turns away from them and strides off into the mist.

“Hey, wait!” Wind yelps.

Blue’s already gone. His shadow had faded to nothing almost as soon as the fog swallowed him up.

“Well, now what,” says Legend. Mist swirls uneasily around his boots.

“Maybe go back to the house? We didn’t get much of a look at it before, we got distracted by… everything else going on.”

Sky glances back at the fence and has to suppress a shudder.

In a reverse of the last time they’d been in the vegetable patch, they head for the forge. The door they’d originally exited through was back to being barred shut, though, with a few heavy scratches in the wood that hadn’t been there before, so they had to detour around to the front. Maybe Red will be there, Sky thinks optimistically, or maybe they’ll really luck out and a portal will be waiting to take them somewhere else.

Instead, when Legend opens the front door, they find Green standing by one of the shop counters, studying a dagger with an idle sort of focus.

Since friendliness had worked okay before, Wind pastes a smile on his face. “Hi Green!”

Green doesn’t respond. His eyes are kind of distant, actually, like he’s not really there. Like Four gets, sometimes, in the dark hours of the night, or when he’s got all his focus on the movement of a whetstone.

Then, before they can do more than exchange uneasy glances, he comes out of it with a blink and a tightening of fingers on the hilt. He doesn’t seem to notice them, occupied with gently placing the dagger on a shelf. The way he handles it - it’s more than a just a smith’s respect for a weapon. Legend thinks it’s almost - fond.

Then he turns round and startles, and the thought is gone.

“Nice to see you again! Are you Green?”

“You talked to Vio,” he says instead of answering. “That’s… good.”

“We also talked to Blue!” says Wind cheerfully.

“That’s less good.” There’s a smile sneaking onto his face, though, as he shakes off whatever daze he’d been in.

“Oh, so it’s not just us, he’s always cranky?”

“He’s been a cranky old man ever since we were kids.” Green blinks, still a little hazy. “Red says he’s just mad he’s not the oldest.”

“Ah, sibling rivalry,” says Twilight sagely.

“Who is the oldest?” asks Wild.

Green’s smile turns sardonic. “Me. Some big brother I turned out to be, though.”

Wind drifts a little closer. “What do you mean?”

“Well…” Green retreats into himself a little. “Look where we are now. If I’d been a better leader - a better brother - then maybe - maybe they’d still -” he chokes, and shakes himself. “I made so many mistakes - but - at least one of them lived,” he says, almost wistfully.

Wind cocks his head. “You’re not jealous?”

“Jealous?” Green looks startled. “Goddesses, no! If one of them lived then I didn’t - I didn’t completely fail. If it was me - if I was the only one left - ”

It happens again - their sense of the world around them vanishes, replaced by darkened hallways, empty beds in empty rooms, names shouted but somehow the silence swallows them up -

“No,” says Green, shaking his head hard. “No, no, no, it’s - it’s not real, that didn’t - that didn’t happen, it’s fine, it’s -”

He’s almost crying, breaths sobbing out of him as he hugs himself and shakes. All around him the shop is smeary with colour as the world bleeds into itself, like tears staining a painting.

“That’s not how it happened - it’s not -”

He turns to run up the stairs - to check the rooms Legend knows will be empty - and is gone.

The room finishes swimming back into focus. Legend finds himself pressing his hands against his eyes, like it will help. It doesn’t.

Warriors clicks his tongue. “That did not go well.”

“Yeah.” Wind looks sad, but not surprised.

“Should we go after him?”

“No. He’s gone, we won’t find him upstairs - and he probably won’t manifest again for a while.” Wind grimaces. “And if he’s so… fragile, it’ll make it hard to discuss things.”

That also explained why Wind hadn’t tried to go after Blue earlier. Legend had wondered. Adds weight to Wind’s ghost theory though. A simple memory or echo wouldn’t react so strongly, surely.

…he thinks of Green’s soft smile, handling the dagger like he would a cherished memory.

Could a memory have its own memories?

“Forge’s empty,” says Twilight, from the stone doorway into the smithy proper. “Red ain’t here, and the fire’s cold, so he’s prob’ly been gone a while.”

Warriors sighs. “And if there’s really no point in checking upstairs…” Wind hesitates, but nods firmly when Warriors looks at him. “…then we should probably head back outside.”

Legend’s not the only one to slump in defeat.

What were they missing? he thinks to himself, filing out the door after Time. They’d been going round and round in circles and made no progress - it feels like a dungeon where he’s missing a key item.

Blue they’d found exactly where he was the first time. Green had been in the shop, and the forge was empty - leaving them with no ideas on where to find Red. Four’s home property wasn’t large, exactly, but there was enough space that it made finding one specific person difficult.

The fog wasn’t helping, of course. Legend squints out across the fields and sees a whole lot of nothing; sunlight streaming through the fog turning it opaque and blinding, the fog itself, the menacing shadows of the forest beyond the fenceline.

The forest. “If we found Green close to where we found Red - maybe Red’s in the forest, now?” he says aloud.

“It’s as good an idea as any,” says Time, and it seems no one else has any better ones because they don’t argue.

As they set off, Twilight asks, “Why ain’t we seen them close to each other?”

“Red wasn’t that far off from Blue the first time,” Legend reminds him.

“But not together,” Twilight stresses. “We ain’t seem them interact with each other at all. If they’re ghosts of brothers, wouldn’t they wanna stick close?”

Wind shakes his head. “Ghosts don’t really think like that. All their attention is on the living.”

Legend agrees. Though whether that attention is desperate protectiveness, or jealousy for what they could no longer have - well. That depended on the ghost. At least so far these spirits have been relatively non-violent. Closer to memories, echoes of people going about their daily lives, than individuals with their own goals.

(Is Wind right? Are these real ghosts, spirits of people trapped on a plane they no longer exist on? Or are they just imprints of the people Four remembers, held desperately close?)

They hit the forest again and cluster together - no one’s willing to risk brushing against a trunk. Legend doesn’t like tripping over people, though, and drops to the back while the others jostle for position. He shakes his head at Wind and Wild getting into a slap fight over the right to walk in the exact centre of the dirt path.

It’s strange, though. Under the low squabbling and Warriors subtly egging them on, Legend almost thinks he can hear music.

Not like the piping sound of Vio’s ocarina, clear and sweet. This is duller, more organic. He’s almost sure he’s imagining it. Except for the heroes and the ghosts of the past, this place is unnaturally empty and quiet.

When you travel with eight noisy people, though, it’s easy enough not to notice. Legend wonders if it’s his ears playing up. It’s just a soft hum, after all.

The forest continues to loom and waft mist at them. He’s reminded uncomfortably of the Lost Woods. At least he’s pretty sure they’re notwandering in circles, the path’s too deliberate for that. And the fog’s not that thick. Unnerving, not all-encompassing. This is fine.

Besides, Time’s not worried. He’s always the first one to get a bit white around the eyes when the magic of the Lost Woods starts streaming up from the dirt. Sometimes Legend wonders why, but the old man’s never brought it up, and hell. There’s plenty of stuff Legend would just as rather never have to talk about. He can let the old man hold his peace on this one.

He’s more likely to answer if Twilight cracks and asks first, anyway.

“Legend will you quit humming!”

“It’s not me,” Legend protests automatically, but his attention’s gone sharp and clear-edged. It’s not just his ears. Wars hears it too. The low hum seems to be coming from the forest around him, maybe from the mist itself. He’s the last one in line, he knows there’s no one there, but it’s instinct to glance back and check -

Red blinks back at him, smile a little too wide.

Legend is not the only one who screeches in surprise.

Red laughs at them as they all scrabble for a vantage point. It’s a miracle no one pulls a weapon, even those near the lead who didn’t see the cause of the ruckus for several precious seconds - it would have been easy to assume they were finally being attacked. But no, it’s just Red. Fuck.

“Are you okay?” Hyrule asks.

“Just leave me here,” says Legend, where he’s sprawled on his back in the dirt. “My heart can’t take this shit.”

Wild snorts. “And you call Time an old man.” Legend raises one hand so Wild can see the very specific gesture he has in response to that accusation.

“Come on, vet, you’re alright,” says Wars, hauling him not unsympathetically to his feet.

There’s mischief in Red’s eyes.

Sky takes the lead on this one. “Hullo there - how are you feeling?”

The mischief fades a little in favour of curiosity. He tilts his head, inviting an answer.

“You got a bit of a fright earlier, I was hoping you’d be doing better now,” Sky continues.

Glancing around as if in confusion, Red just shrugs. He looks okay to Legend, even if he’s gone back to not talking much.

“Well, that’s good. I’m glad. But, what are you doing in the woods? You didn’t seem like you wanted to come out here earlier.”

Red purses his lips for a long moment, considering, then finally answers. “They can be scary. But there’s good things out here, too.”

“Yeah? What kind of good things?”

Red grins again. Bounces on his heels and - tips his body away, then back again, in a clear indication that he wants them to follow him, then sets off without pausing.

“Hey - hold on, okay, we’re coming!”

He’s at least not trying to lose them - just lead them somewhere, Sky thinks. He moves through the forest with a confidence none of the heroes have, never worried about tripping on a fog-shrouded root or running into a tree cursed with terrible memory. Occasionally he glances backward to make sure they’re still there, too.

Red looks eerily alike to his brothers, save the curls in his hair and the colour of his clothes. Somehow, though, Sky can’t help seeing him as younger. Maybe it’s the light in his eyes, even muted by the mist; maybe it’s the cheer in his face or the way he bounces as he moves.

“So Red, you’re the youngest, right?”

Red bursts into giggles. “No way!” he says, spinning to face them. “I’m second oldest, after Green! What gave you that idea?”

Sky has no idea how to point out Red’s general air of childishness without being impolite, so he just shrugs awkwardly. “Oh, no real reason, I guess.”

There’s a wicked flash in Red’s eyes that says he knows exactly what Sky thought. “Now I can’t wait to see you find out who’s really youngest,” he giggles.

“It’s Blue, isn’t it,” says Legend. “No wonder he’s so cranky.”

Red grins and doesn’t answer. He speeds up.

“Whoa, Red! Wait up! Where are we going, anyway?” Wind asks.

“Better keep u~up!”

Red’s cheerful singsong has no right to sound that menacing.

It turns out he’s leading them to a stream, shallow and noisy over rocks both large and small. Red jumps into it with a whoop. By the time he lands his feet are bare, leggings rolled up to the knee, and he splashes around happily in the shin-deep water. Wind scrambles to get his own boots off and join him. Sky wonders if he’s forgotten his original mission, or is just trying to connect with Red.

“Is this stream always here?” They sure hadn’t seen it the first time they came this way.

Red hums. “Only when I want it to be.” He pounces, scattering water everywhere and making Wind shriek, and comes up wet, pouting, and empty-handed. “I missed the fish,” he whines.

That’s certainly interesting. “Did you play here a lot when you were little?” Legend says.

“Yeah! All the time! It was the best in summer!” Kicking at the water, Red sends up a spray of sparkling droplets. Wind yelps and ducks and splashes him back, and for a minute things seem like they’ll devolve into outright war. Legend quietly backs out of reach.

It proves unnecessary. Red flicks his hands a bit and loses interest, and Wind steers things back on track.

“So do does the stream just not run anymore?” he says casually, wading along just to make noise. “I don’t remember seeing it when we visited last.”

Red hums. “In really bad years it dries up, when Lake Hylia drops below its inlet level. It’s… not good for the - for the forest. I like it better when it’s running high.” He finally clambers out of the water onto a sun-kissed rock near the bank, sprawling happily. “When the rains come, though, it fills up again!” Kicking his feet a bit, Red discovers he can just reach the water with his toes, and flicks some at Wind with a giggle.

Wild flicks some back. “So the stream’s still there, but you don’t play in it anymore?”

Red slumps, ducking to hide his face. “We just… didn’t have as much time, after we had to start being heroes.”

“Oh.” Hesitating, Wind chooses his words carefully. “How old were you when you had your first adventure?”

Red lights up at the question. “Eight!”

Like Blue had said. Not that he had a reason to lie, or at least not an obvious one.

“That sounds hard.”

“It was scary sometimes, but we had lotsa help.” Giggling, Red reaches out with both hands to cup a massive daffodil. Legend realises too late -

The world dissolves once more.

“Stop pushing me!”

“I tripped!”

“I’ll trip you if you step on my foot one more time -”

“Shush!” a small Green tries, tugging on his one captive hand and nearly bringing the whole chain to a tumbling stop.

“Gree-een! Don’t pull me!”

“Sorry Red,” says Green, rubbing at the back of his head.

“This isn’t working,” complains Vio. Baby fat and a pouty expression make him look all the younger. His hair is getting in his face; he tugs irritably at the hand Red is holding, trying to sweep it away.

“Well the last time I let go of your hand you got distracted by a mushroom and nearly wandered off the path,” Red says. “And then Blue yelled at me.”

“Why do I have to be at the back?” Blue joins the protest.

The sigh Green lets out shakes his tiny shoulders, makes the sword buckled across his chest wobble with the force. “Because you actually keep Vio on track, but when you’re in Red’s spot, you’re always trying to step on my shoes, and if we put Vio behind me, it puts Red at the back, and then when he trips over we all fall down. This works.”

Blue makes a high-pitched grumbling noise but otherwise settles down to sulk.

“M sorry,” says Red. “I don’t mean to trip so much!”

“We know, Red. It’s okay. It just means you need two hands held.”

“This is still very im-practical,” says Vio. “The knights said there were monsters on the road, and if we get attacked, we’re all stuck together. I want my hands free! And why do you get the sword?”

“You don’t even want the sword, Vivi, you hate swords.”

“It’s just for a little longer,” Green insists as he turns back around. “C’mon, the forge isn’t much further. Once we’ve all got weapons we can decide what to do next.”

Blue scoffs. “‘Decide’, he says, like he hasn’t already decided what we’re doing.” Then Vio trips him and they all go down in a heap.

“Grrrr! That’s IT!”

Blue lunges. Vio bares his teeth and drags him down to the grass, where they start scrambling to sit on each other and yank at handfuls of hair.

Lurching up on his knees, Red reaches out, much too far away to do anything. “No, guys! Guys, please stop fighting!”

Green sits up from where he’d been knocked to the ground, but doesn’t bother to stand. “It’s okay, Red. They’ll calm down eventually.”

Red sniffs. “But I hate it when they fight…”

“I know.” Green shuffles closer on his bottom until he’s pressed close to Red. “C’mon. We’ll… rest for a bit. It’s not much further, an’ we haven’t seen any monsters yet.”

Reluctantly, Red sits down on his heels, then wiggles his legs out from under him so he can sit cross-legged. “I wanna go home,” he says softly.

“It’s okay. We’re nearly home, Red.”

“Didn’t mean that.” Red curls up a little, watching his brothers roll around in the dirt with unseeing eyes. “I wanna go home. To before the stupid festival. Before all the monsters an’ the scary people an’ Dottie -”

Green grabs him in an awkward hug as he bursts into tears.

“I wanna go home!”

“I wanna go home,” Red whispers, and it takes a moment for his eyes to stop swimming and actually focus on what’s in front of him - Red, still curled on his river rock, looking so much like that long-ago child that it hurts. “I wanna go home, but it doesn’t exist anymore. Not for me.”

Wind takes a moment to centre himself after the unsettling memory. “If you can’t go home, then what will you do?”

Red rocks from side to side, biting his lip uncertainly. “Stay here. Can’t go home, but don’t wanna leave.”

Wind frowns. “Is there some reason you have to leave?”

“I miss them,” he says like he hadn’t heard. “I miss all of them. I wanna go home.”

But unlike Blue, unlike Green, when his emotions ride high, Red doesn’t fade away. Legend exchanges a glance with Sky - this might be their chance to get some real information.

Sky kneels down, on the bank level with Red’s rock. Making himself small and unthreatening and calm. “What happened?” he asks.

Red sniffles. “It wasn’t fair.”

It never is, Legend thinks, aching.

“We weren’t expecting anything to go wrong. It was over. We’d already won. There was nothing left to do except – except put up our weapons and go home, and –”

He swipes a hand over his nose. “I wanna go home,” he whispers again.

Wind sloshes his way to the shallows, looking like he maybe regrets getting his breeches wet. “It’s always hard, being away from home,” he says almost carelessly. He sits down on the bank and starts trying to wring out his hems. “Is that why this place looks so much like - the forge, and the fields and the forest? Because you lived here?”

Red ducks his head. “…maybe. Doesn’t matter, though.”

“What do you mean, it doesn’t matter?”

“There’s no point. At the end of the day, we’re still dead, and there’s nothing we can do to change that.” He shakes himself; tries for a smile that quivers at the edges. “You know, I’m glad it wasn’t me.”

Blue had said the same thing. So had Green - or implied it, at least.

Red continues, “I love my brothers, you know. And… going on without them…” he shivers. “We never liked to be separated.”

Wind looks sad. “You don’t wanna be alone, either.”

“Yeah, but also…” His smile is wry and self-depreciating. “I’da given up by now, if it was me.”

Wind edges a little closer. He’s near enough to hug Red, now, if he wanted.

“I love my brothers. I look up to them, you know. They’re so much stronger than I am. And to keep trying, and trying, and failing – I couldn’t do it. I know I couldn’t.”

Remembering what Blue had said, Sky says, “Would you have changed anything? If you could do it over again?”

Very slowly, Red shakes his head. “…no. Someone needed to do it. It had to be done. I just wish we’d had more of a choice.”

Sky feels a frown flicker, smooths it away before Red can see. “What do you mean? Were you forced to -?”

Red shakes his head again. His eyes have gone intensein a way that has nothing to do with their colour. “I wish we’d had a choice,” he repeats, and falls into the water.

It’s suddenly broad and deep and rushing, a river instead of a stream, and Sky cries out and reaches without thinking. Time has to grab him to keep him from jumping in.

“He’s a memory, or a ghost,” he reminds him, “there’s nothing you can do.”

If Four’s mindscape would even let them. The mist now reaches to towering heights, almost looming on the far side of the bank that’s suddenly so far away. Threatening.

(Even now, Four protecting his brothers with everything he can bring to bear.)

The dirt under his boots crumbles a little. Dampens from underneath. “Uh, maybe we should move,” says Hyrule, looking alarmed.

Red is gone for now. There’s nothing more to learn here. Sky hates what he has learned, heartsore and sick to his stomach.

The water nips at their heels for a few worrying minutes before finally deciding it had expanded far enough and settling. On the opposite bank of the new river-lake, only the very tips of the treetops are visible through the heavy mist.

“Fuck,” Legend sighs, making Wild snort.

“That’s one way to put it.”

“They were so little,” Wind says mournfully, as they start off walking again. Goddesses, more walking - Sky’s exhausted just thinking about it.

“When they died?” says Legend. “Yeah.”

“Well, yeah, but I meant - what Red showed us. They were so little, and they were on their own. Why are so many heroes so young?”

It’s a rhetorical question. Sky grimaces anyway. He doesn’t like thinking about how young some of the others had started. At least he’d been all but an adult - even if he hadn’t known what he was getting into. None of them had, not really.

And Wind’s right. Four and his brothers had been so little.

In that last memory - except that photograph on the mantle, it was the first time Sky had seen them all side by side. Their first adventure.

“Where was Four?” he asks aloud, stopping still.

“What?”

“Four. In that last memory. Remember, Red said - well he implied - that was their first adventure. And Blue told us that all of them went on adventures together. So where was Four, in that memory?”

Everyone looks at each other.

“Well… the memory musta been from his point of view, right?” says Twilight. “So we wouldn’ta seen him, if we were lookin’ through his eyes.”

“But we saw him in that picture with Dot,” Wind points out immediately.

“Maybe it was one of the others and he was just watching?” Hyrule tries.

Sky shakes his head. “Even if he was - we never saw his hands, or his nose, or - none of the others so much as looked at him, or spoke to him, or even - none of them was holding his hand, and they made such a big deal out of everyone being in contact.”

“Maybe he was the one who was supposed to take care of monsters?”

“But Green had the sword,” Sky says. “And it was their only sword. That’s why they were going to the forge, to pick up more weapons for them.”

“My head hurts,” Wind complains.

“Okay, hold on.”

Warriors, ever practical, grabs a nearby stick, immediately drops it when the howling winds of high altitude and a bird’s screaming cry rush over them, and starts drawing in the dirt with his gloved hand instead. “So. We have our Four, who is Link. He has four brothers, Green, Red, Blue, and Vio. Green is the oldest, Red second. All five of them -” he makes a weird face - “all of them went on the three adventures he’s mentioned to us, and… his brothers died sometime between then and when we met him. Any questions so far?”

“Yeah, why are we calling him Four when there were five brothers to start with?” Wind jumps in.

“Because Four had four brothers?” Hyrule suggests.

“That’s morbid,” says Wild, sounding impressed.

“It was for the Four Sword, though, not his four brothers,” Legend points out. “He even told us that directly.”

“The tunic’s definitely not. Those aren’t even the colours of the elements, and most contemporary classification systems only use three elements anyway -”

“Four came from a different time, though,” Legend argues, “and purple was the colour of the earth element, before it got rolled up with fire. Besides - the tunic could easily be for his brothers. He was wearing it before we came along and started needing nicknames to figure out which Link was getting yelled at.”

“Okay that’s a good point,” Wind mutters.

“This still doesn’t answer where the hell Four was in that last memory,” Sky drags them back on track.

Warriors offers, “Maybe there’s a simple explanation - maybe he just stayed behind at the forge?”

That would almost make sense - but why? They’d been at a festival. Why would one of them have stayed behind?

And then, if he was never there at all - why did Four have that memory?

There’s too many pieces that don’t connect. Sky hates to say it, hates to even think about it, but - “I think - I think we need to know how they died.”

Wind grimaces. “There’s really no good way to ask a ghost that. You didn’t think I was talking around the topic by accident, didya? And - you’ve seen them. When it came up anyway. They’re not - remembering things that hurt them - it’s hard.”

“Is that information we really need to know?” Time speaks up. “Our main goal is simply to get out of here.”

“And we still have no clue how to do that,” Warriors says. “We don’t have any leads, except for the four of them.”

That’s not completely true, Sky thinks. But trying to dig through Four’s memories when they don’t even know what they’re looking for - just the thought of it feels vile.

“Ledge,” says Warriors, “you said at the start you had a few ideas? I know you said they were last resort,” he adds before he can protest, “but we’re starting to run low on options. Just put it out there.”

Legend looks very much like he would rather not. Hesitating, he runs a hand through his hair, and doesn’t seem to notice when it sets his hat askew.

“It is… a song of awakening,” he says at last, every word precise and deliberate. “I don’t actually know if it will work here. Are we asleep? Is Four? We don’t know exactly what’s happening or why, and - I don’t know. I know I’m casual about a lot of my gear and items but throwing more magic into a situation that’s already so delicate seems -”

“Unwise,” Time finishes when he falters. “I agree. I wondered if one of my own songs might help, but -” he hesitates, and there’s a strange sort of grief on his face. “But like Legend, I don’t know for certain what it will do. And Four’s brothers - by all accounts, they don’t want to move on. Which is the most likely effect of the Song of Healing.”

“I’m a little concerned as to how you know that,” Warriors mutters.

“So what do we do?” Hyrule says.

Warriors sighs, reluctant. “I think it’s time to find Vio again.”

“He said last time he didn’t know how to get us out,” Wind protests.

“No, but that doesn’t mean he won’t have other information. He’s been the most… put together, so far. Maybe he knows something he doesn’t know is relevant yet.”

They’ve all seen that before, time and time again. Seemingly useless information that only shines at the right time.

“Well, let’s hope he’s still at his rock,” says Sky.

“Let’s hope we can find the rock,” says Legend.

The forest continues to be loomingly inhospitable. The banks of mist and fog are nearly knee-high here, and if Sky looks too closely, he keeps seeing things in them - hands and wings and mouths, and things that make his stomach turn. The forest doesn’t like them. It tolerates them, but - they’re not supposed to be here.

Go away, says Blue. You’re not supposed to be here, says Green. Red’s eyes, wide and frightened, before he bolts - before he vanishes - before he falls into rushing water and is swept away.

And Vio. Cold, disinterested, flat and blank and not entirely present. Holding his ocarina like Blue holds his sword - like Green had held that dagger - like Red had cupped the daffodil, careful and loving and confident all in one.

They’re in luck. Vio has, in fact, not moved in the slightest. He’s still perched on his rock, still playing his ocarina, though he cracks an eye as they approach. Honestly, Sky doesn’t understand what he’s playing. It makes no sense from a musical standpoint. There’s no melody, no storyline, no repeating patterns - it feels like notes played out of order, or chosen at random.

Vio finishes playing, or reaches a stopping point, or just decides to stop making them wait, and lets his hands fall. “Back again, heroes?”

“We haven’t found our way out yet,” says Warriors, with a half-charming, half-tired smile.

Vio doesn’t smile back. “I can see that.”

Last time, he had started to open up when - “We saw your brothers again,” Sky says, trying not to seem like he’s interrupting.

Sure enough, Vio’s eyes snap to him and gain a tiny flicker of - not quite interest, but focus. “And how did that work out for you?”

“Not as well as we’d hoped,” Sky admits. “We’re still - something at a loss, on how we got here, or how to get out.”

“I’m worried,” Wind pipes up. “What’s happening outside while we’re stuck in here? Is Four okay? Is he alone, or is time not even passing while we’re figuring this out?”

Warriors touches a hand to his shoulder. “I’m sure he’s fine.”

Swallowing back his own anxiety, Sky continues, “We’ve been doing our best, but - so much of this place is made up of things he hasn’t chosen to share with us.” Sky turns his eyes back to Vio; the biggest secret of all. Why hadn’t Four told them? Did it still hurt too much? Did he believe they would think less of him? Did he feel responsible for his siblings’ deaths? There was just so much they didn’t know.

Had they ever really known Four at all?

He’s not dead, Sky reminds himself fiercely. They’re going to get out of here, and Four will be waiting for them, and he will be fine.

Fine, except for a forest of dark memories, and the ghosts of his brothers that haunt it.

“We haven’t found any answers,” he finishes weakly.

“Perhaps you’re not asking the right questions,” Vio says. His fingers move restlessly over the ocarina.

They all look at each other, hesitating.

“Something Blue said is bothering me,” Legend says slowly. “He said that four eight-year-olds climbed Death Mountain. That he, and all of his brothers, went on every adventure with Four. But he said it like there were only four of you. And when Red showed us - the beginning of one - there was only you four there. Where does Linkfit into all this? Where does Four fit?”

Vio looks blank for a moment - confused. Then he sighs, and scratches one ear. The movement - doesn’t suit him, too casual, too careless. “I should have expected you to get caught up on that,” he mutters. “No - I shouldn’t have expected you to understand it in the first place.”

“I’m sorry,” says Sky honestly. “I want to understand, though - can you explain it to me?”

For the first time, Vio looks genuinely lost. “I don’t - know where to start. We don’t know where it started. We never noticed, or - no. It was more we didn’t care - didn’t want to care. What did it matter how it happened? We were alive. We lived, through three adventures and the worst Vaati and Ganon could throw at us. We lived.

“Until we didn’t.”

It’s not entirely what he asked, but - Vio’s been the most composed of the four. The most logical and self-aware. If his death - their deaths - are where he thinks he should start, there’s a reason.

When he doesn’t continue, just stares off into space for a solid minute, Sky prompts him, gently. “Red said something went wrong.”

Vio plays a few distracted notes. “The plan was to seal the Four Sword back in the Sanctuary, and let their combined power purify Vaati over time. We’d done it before. Returning four blades to their original singular form wasn’t difficult; we’d done it before just to hide them more easily. Except I guess… with one soul already in its grip… the sword got greedy.

“Four of us went in there. But only one came back out.”

“Wait, wait, I’m confused.” Wind waves his hands around. “If there were four of you putting the sword back, and then one came out, then - why haven’t we ever met you? How did that even work, if there were only four swords and five of you?”

“There were only four of us. There’s only ever been four.”

“But - you, and Green, and Blue, and Red, and then - and then Four - are you saying Four is - is one of you? But - who? And how?”

Vio draws in on himself. His knuckles are white on his ocarina. “I don’t… know. We don’t know. We’re not - we’re just memories, we’re not connected to him, so - we don’t know for sure. He’s never said his name, never - given us anything concrete. All we know is that he is very, very alone.”

“You really can’t tell?” Legend asks, surprised. “But - I know you can’t ask him directly, but you shouldn’t need to. Even though - you all looked similar, you all talk differently. You move differently. You have all sorts of small mannerisms that are your own, and I know you knew him well enough to see them on him.”

Vio shakes his head. “We were always close. The Four Sword made us closer.”

“What do you mean?” Sky presses. Gentle, gentle.

Vio frowns, fiddles with his ocarina. Not anxious - just thoughtful. “You toss your brother the spare whetstone and a cleaning cloth before he’s even opened his mouth to ask. You get handed a waterskin before you’ve even fully conceptualised that you’re thirsty. You find yourself racing across a battlefield to block a blow, and you don’t know if you saw it from the corner of your eye, or you felt your brother overbalancing, but either way you’re right there to catch the sword that would have killed him as he fell, or to deflect the arrow he couldn’t have seen in time. The Four Sword - isn’t a normal blade. Its parts are always connected, and - as a result, so were we. We became so close it was hard to tell where one of us ended and another began.”

“That sounds… uncomfortable,” Wild says delicately.

Vio snorts, the sound surprisingly human. “Oh, we hated it at first. Sharing a bedroom has nothing on sometimes sharing a head. Spent a lot of time figuring out how to hold each other at arm’s length, establish boundaries that made us all happy. In the meantime? So much screaming.” He sounds almost fond.

Sky hates to ruin the moment, but - he has to be sure, has to make certain he understands. “So… the survivor - the one we know as Four - is one of you. But you don’t know which, because the Four Sword muddled you up.”

“It’s likely why we’re able to be here at all,” Vio admits, though it clearly pains him to do so: shoulders slumping, fingers going loose on ceramic. “What remains of our memories clinging to the survivor. It’s even possible he formed us himself, to keep from being so very, very alone.”

And despite being on the inside of it - maybe even because of it - Vio can’t even say for sure which of his brothers survived.

Sky has his suspicions.

“But in truth it doesn’t matter who it is.” Vio leans forward, eyes gone bright and sharp. “Do you care about my brother?”

There’s a collective outburst - eight people all shouting some variation of ‘yes!’ or ‘of course!’ and crowding shoulder to shoulder the way they’d been trying to avoid. Vio doesn’t blink.

“Then you need to pay more attention.”

It’s an accusation.

Sky is breathless with offence. How dare he - say that they’re ignoring Four - does he think they don’t care -

Legend gets his bearings first. “Of course we’re paying attention!” he barks out, and looks like he’ll go on when Vio cuts in cold and sharp as a knife.

“Then why haven’t you noticed how much he’s struggling?”

What?

“What’re you talking about?” Despite his own offence Twilight’s trying to play peacekeeper. “Four’s doin’ fine, unless somethin’s happenin’ outside -”

“No. He isn’t coping. Andhe hasn’t been for a long time. He may look like he is to you, but he’s good at hiding things he doesn’t want noticed.”

It’s not that Sky doesn’t believe him, exactly. But Four is - so steady. He keeps up without complaint, smiles at Wind’s jokes and chats lightly around the campfire. Sure, he’s a little reckless in battle sometimes, but compared to Wild he’s the pinnacle of restraint. He even keeps up with the weapons maintenance a fighting group of their size needs. How can he not be coping?

Warriors clearly agrees. “It must be hard for you, seeing him out there alone. Without you. And I know it’s not the same, but he does have people watching his back.”

The displeased look Vio gives him isn’t quite a scowl. “He may not be alone in that respect, but it doesn’t change the fact that he isn’t doing as well as you think. If you knew him better, then perhaps -”

Around them the world starts to swim, the way it does when someone’s touched a memory and they’re about to get sucked in. Sky wobbles; tries to brace himself without grabbing anything, when gravity feels like it’s gone sideways.

Vio stops midsentence to lift the ocarina to his lips. He looks hyperreal sitting on his rock; though the world’s gone strangely blurry his outline is still clear and sharp, his colours unchanged by the muddying swirls. Where Wind’s cursing sounds like it’s coming to him through water, the notes Vio plays are bright, almost too-loud, vibrating in the air until the world steadies, resolves into tree and grass and stone.

“You’re the one keeping us here!” Hyrule gasps, eyes wide and fixed on the ghost.

“Yes,” he says, unashamed. “Doubtless my brother’s mind would have kicked you out by now otherwise.”

“But - why?” says Sky.

“Because no one is LISTENING!”

His voice is like a thundercrack, sudden and earsplitting.

“Because I don’t want this all to be for nothing!” He leaps to his feet, pacing back and forth in front of his rock perch. “I didn’t want to die, but Din take it, at least one of us lived. That was enough, that made it worth it. And now he’s decided it’s not good enough, he’s just going to throw it all away?”

“You’re mad at him,” Sky says quietly.

Vio snarls. “Yes, I’m mad at him, because he’s making bad decisions and there’s nothing I can do to stop him!”

Bad decisions? Like wandering off with eight strangers through a portal of unknown origin? Somehow he doesn’t think that’s it.

“Bad decisions?” Hyrule echoes Sky’s thoughts. “Like what?”

“Stuff that’s gonna get him killed,”Vio snaps. “I’m not letting another one of my brothers die! Not if I can help it.”

Hyrule nods, still soothing. “This has been going on a long time, huh? Does anyone else know who can help? His family, or -?”

Vio slumps back. “No one ever listens.”

“Our father’s worse than useless,” says Blue, materialising out of nothing and scaring the daylights out of Wild, who’d been closest. “If he’s not pretending everything is fine, he’s acting like everything is our fault.”

Red appears on the other side of Vio’s rock. “I wanna say he means well. But some of the things he’s said… I dunno anymore. I don’t wanna be near him anymore.”

“He’s not helpful,” Vio summarises, as the other two fade away (and gods that’s creepy). “Our grandfather, maybe, if he hadn’t died shortly before this portal nonsense began. Losing that anchor - it made things all the harder for him. And then just before it happened –”

For the first time, Vio hesitates.

“He dreamed,” Vio says slowly, “that the goddess spoke to him. One last time, she said. Only once more. And the next morning, the portal showed up, and – well. Now he’s determined that this will be his last adventure, one way or another. After this, the goddess has promised he won’t be needed again. If he doesn’t die along the way, then –” his voice fails.

“Then he’ll take matters into his own hands,” Legend finishes, making Vio flinch.

Sky feels like he’s falling. Like someone punched him in the chest when he wasn’t looking and now he’s struggling not to drop something precious, something that will shatter irreparably if his grip slips but holding too tightly will crush it.

Being a hero isn’t easy. He knows that firsthand. In learning about the others, and the things they’ve been through, the things they had to do. But to consider - to decide on suicide -

“Why didn’t he tell us?” asks Wars, sounding lost.

Vio turns flat eyes on him. “Why would he? If he told, you’d stop him. That’s exactly what you’re going to do, now that you know. Why would he throw roadblocks in the way of his own goal?”

Nausea rocks him. To lose one of them - one of his brothers that way - Sky feels it down to his bones. It’s wrong, it’s awful, it will wreck them all completely -

Behind his eyes pale skin and dark bruises and bright arterial blood flash there-and-gone in an instant; nightmares in potentia. Possibilities.

And that - that’s unacceptable.

“We won’t let that happen.” It’s Legend who says it - grim faced and determined.

Wind nods. “Four’s our brother too, now. We’re not gonna let him – hurt himself, or be alone anymore. We’re gonna help.”

Like a sunrise, Vio smiles.

“Thank you,” he breathes, “thank you.”

There’s tears in his eyes, and as Sky watches they spill over, rolling down his face in wet streaks that he doesn’t bother to wipe away.

How scared had he been? Sky wonders, and for how long? Knowing no one could hear him and no one was paying enough attention to know his brother needed help - how much had hope hurt, when he realised that maybe-maybe-maybe here were people who would care enough to try - would care enough to notice.

And then they hadn’t.

No wonder he’d hesitated. Had he been watching how they interacted with Four’s internal space, with the memories left behind by his dead siblings, whether they were careful and respectful and trustworthy - whether they could be trusted with his surviving brother?

Warriors steps forward, as courteous as he’d be in a foreign court. “Can you help us get out?”

“I - yes.” Vio wipes his eyes with the back of one hand and smiles at them again. Sky’s heart skips a beat and sinks.

He looks so young.

Vio’s too-small hands lift his ocarina to his lips, one last time.

The song - and it is a song this time - is sweet and mournful, tugging at the heartstrings. There’s also - more depth to it than Sky would have expected, from a small single-chambered ocarina. A deep bass tone, and then a high fluttering soprano -

Sky glances back; there’s Green, sitting on a tree branch playing another golden ocarina. Half-hidden behind the trunk, Red’s fingers flash over the holes of his own. And if he peers sideways around Vio’s stone perch, Sky thinks he can see the edge of Blue, sitting with his back to them and all his focus on the instrument in his hands.

The forest melts away. It’s quicker than before, but still messy, still ugly; colours smearing into each other until it’s all a green-grey blur.

The constant swirling makes him feel sick, so Sky focuses on the islands of stillness that are Vio and his brothers.

They’ve shifted, somehow, now standing clustered together. It’s the only time Sky’s seen them like this, barring the pictograph Vio had shown them; four boys in four colours, near-identical looks of concentration on their faces as they play the lovely, haunting song. They’re skilled. Most Links are, he thinks with a pang.

Vio’s eyes are intent on him over the mouthpiece. Don’t you dare let me down, they seem to say, though maybe Sky is projecting.

From behind him, he hears Wars muffle an exclamation. Time shifts, readying himself to grab his blade, but Sky’s pretty sure he won’t need it. It’s just light, spilling in from outside through what almost looks like a tear in the fabric of the world. Bright. Warm. Everything the false light in Four’s mind couldn’t be.

“This is it,” Legend says lowly. He takes a tentative step, then another, until even his shadow disappears into the portal of light.

Warriors follows on his heels, then Wind, with one last glance backward. Wild, Twilight, Hyrule, Time; one by one, they all head on through, glad to be shot of the eerie reflection of Four’s home. Maybe even glad to get away from the people they can’t help, who died too young and too far away for them to save.

Sky - can’t quite make himself turn away.

He hates leaving things unfinished. Abandoning these four to the quiet and the emptiness sits wrong with him. He just - doesn’t know how he can help, when they’re determined to watch over their brother and guard his memories - what’s left of themselves.

The light tickles at the back of his neck. Beckoning.

“I’m sorry,” Sky says, and hates that it feels so inadequate. I’m sorry we didn’t notice. I’m sorry we took so long. I’m sorry I can’t help you.

I’m sorry you died.

Vio pauses in his playing; the other three don’t so much as open their eyes. He slowly lowers the ocarina, an unreadable expression on his face. Then, one side of his mouth quirks up. “If you save my brother, you can consider whatever debt you feel to me fulfilled. Now. This place isn’t for you. Off you go.”

Sky’s heart hurts, but he knows Vio’s right. He forces himself to turn his back on their plaintive chorus and steps forward, into the light.

There’s nothing he can do for them. They’re dead, and nothing can change that. His focus needs to be on Four, now - before they lose him too.

#whumptober 2023 #skies writes #linked universe #lu fic #lu four #lu sky #lu legend #lu wind #lu warriors #lu time #lu wild #lu hyrule #lu twilight #lu red #lu blue #lu green #lu vio #tw discussions of suicide

19 notes · View notes

thegreymoon · 4 months

Note

Sorry if this is kind of an odd question but, as you’re the person who truly made me understand BBBF!Mo Ran, do you have any examples of foreshadowing or stuff about Nangong!Mo Ran? Because I’m sure it exists (Meatbun’s too good a writer for it to not exist), I just can’t remember any of it.

Hey, nonny!

That one was a big twist that had a lot less foreshadowing than the flower curse and Mo Ran being a BBBF, primarily because this was something that Mo Ran knew and was in control of, so he took care not to reveal it because he was invested in keeping that secret out of a sense of self-preservation.

But of course there is still foreshadowing, it is just vague and I did not pick up on it until I reread, knowing all the spoilers. The biggest thing is razing all the cities of the Rufeng Sect to the ground. This vendetta was personal. If we look at how he treated other cities he conquered, we do not see him burning and killing senselessly, regardless of what he may want us to think with his unreliable narration. All the people on Sisheng Peak were dealt a chess piece and turned into the heavenly bridge and the sect itself became his new palace. Even Jiang Xi was first offered the chance to cooperate and only killed after he refused. The same goes for all the other sects he fought, the people were used for the bridge and everything else was repurposed and reused, except for the Rufeng Sect, which was a bloodbath, where he actually killed everyone and burned the city. Rufeng Sect was razed to the ground. It was the same kind of systematic rage and destruction he inflicted on the people in the brothel because they had wronged him so deeply and his hatred of them was so personal. We don't necessarily pick up on it on the first read because we are so invested in the idea of TXJ killing "senselessly" when it was not nearly as senseless as the first books make it out to be, plus we additionally think that his vengeance was because of his poverty and his mother dying of hunger there, which, true, it was, but that was not the whole story. Mo Ran wasn't taking revenge against a famine and society in general, but against a particular group of people who had wronged him personally.

There was also this part in the book that is, I think, in book 5 of the 7S translation (I'm not sure because I haven't read the new book 5 yet, it could be later) where Mo Ran talks about how much he hated one man in particular in the Rufeng Sect and whom he had tortured to death in the previous life. In this life, he was careful not to go anywhere near him because he was not sure he could control himself and not kill him again. At the time, he does not say who this person is. It is only later, knowing his backstory, that we put together that this man whom he hated more than any other was his father.

I am sure that there are other things there too, but these are the two big ones that immediately come to mind.

I hope that helps! :)

#2ha #mo ran #2ha meta

12 notes · View notes

sumicats · 16 days

Text

ALIENATED

[ TAGS ] toxic dynamic, unreliable narration, manipulation, trauma, abuse of power, DEAD DOVE ; DO NOT EAT !

✦❅✧───✧❅✦ CHAPTER 2 - SCHOOL SPIRIT

Li's POV

God this is so embarrassing. Everyone already has their own friend circles from previous years. But there was no way I was going to stay in that school after-

[bell noise]

I quickly collect all my supplies and shove it into my backpack, hurrying to my next class. I don’t remember school being this long…it’s only the third period. I take out my schedule, trying to figure out where my next class is. I barely make it to my history class, as soon as I step in the bell rang. Wow, I must look stupid. I find a seat and take out the supplies I need for the class. The teacher goes through the curriculum. So boring… I rest my head on my hand, trying not to fall asleep.

“...Oh! For your first assignment you will receive a project…”

I sit up from my desk. What? On the first day? But who the hell am I going to work with?! I look around, other people also giving each other confused glances.

“You will be making a timeline about one of the global history topics listed on this sheet. You will be working in groups of 3-4! I will give you the remaining time to find a group and discuss the topic you want to research. You must let me know your group topic by tomorrow!”

I look around as everyone goes to ask their friends to be in their group. I sigh. I bury my head in my arms on the table. Do I have to wait until the teacher asks if everyone has a group? Wow, that’s really embarrassing. Loser. I raise my head quickly as I feel someone tap my shoulder. I turn around confused.

“Hey! You alright?” the girl says. I furrow my eyebrows. There’s some guy behind her.

“Yeah…” I say. Well this is awkward.

“That’s good! Do you have a group yet? I haven’t seen you around,” she asks.

“Nope,” I pause to think about what to say next. “Is it okay if I join yours?” Hope that wasn’t too risky. What if that guy behind her is her boyfriend? That would be REALLY awkward.

“Yeah of course! I’m Kenzie and this is Jordan!” Kenzie says, pointing at the guy behind her. “What’s your name?”

“Oh- I’m Li,” I say. “Nice to meet you guys.”

“Yeah me too,” Jordan says with a grin. “Can we get your number? So we can meet up sometime to work on the project.” Oh yeah, we don’t get class time for this.

“Yeah of course,” I say, pulling out my phone. I open my contacts to show them my number. They both whip out their phones.

[bell noise]

“See you around, Li!” Kenzie says, packing up her things and waving goodbye. I wave back. I also pack my things up.

The moment I step into my apartment, I collapse onto my couch. I seriously forgot how exhausting school can be. I guess not going to school for a year really screws you up. I get up from the couch and take my homework out of my bag. I put my earbuds into my ears and start with my algebra 2 homework.

[ping]

I look up from my school work to see a message from an unknown number. Who could that be? I opened the text message.

Unknown: heya li this is kenzie from global history

Unknown: the other number in the group chat is jordan

Unknown: Hi

Oh yeah, the project. I add their numbers to my contact before I reply.

You: Hey, what’s up?

Kenzie: jordan and i were wondering when u r available to meet up to work on the project

You: I’m free whenever, it’s up to you guys.

Jordan: Cool cool wanna meet up at Kenzie’s place next week?

You: Sure, that’s fine.

Kenzie: cya tmr li !!

I set a reminder for next week and closed my phone. I try to continue my homework as a light throbbing begins in my head. I groan. I guess I’ll make dinner now and head to bed early tonight.

Rei's POV

He seems a little too old compare to the typically observed 'junior' year... A little abnormal, no? Was he held back or something? He seems less orderly than the others, more sloppy..... He looks like he's a social outlier, with no companions, no 'friends', nobody that likes him, how sad.

"...Xil'ka! For your first Vro'thak zel'quar, you will receive a tek'lar zhor'vath xin'dar project..."

Is my translator breaking..?

I roughly tapped the back of my ear, hoping that some buttons were just broken.

Ugh… The budget could not be utilized to get me a better translation unit? I have done everything they ask of me, and they can't repay the favor? assholes…

"You will be making a zog'tar blimmo timeline about one of the global zylo'vaq history topics listed on this glib'nar sheet. You’ll zerk in grob'no groups of 3-4! I’ll squib your xarn with the remaining jort'lix time to find a klor and jibble the topic you want to quorpl. Glarx me your grob's zyx topic by zort'la tomorrow."

Seriously? You're kidding me, right? They want me to learn their languages but can not provide me with a sufficient translator? Ugh! Stop thinking like that, Rei! I'm lucky to even be here right now.. Stay focused. Focus on him. Remember why you're here. Okay.. He has a group project and he can't find any person to work with him. He seems distressed, panicked. I almost feel bad for him. Awww.. He's burying his face into his arms, sulking as he pities himself for being a social reject. What a loser.. He's just pitying himself, instead of trying to just fix such a simple problem. All he needs to do is just talk to other people. He can't do it on his own? Well, I mean maybe he has too because he's already on his own. Oh. Forget that thought. A person is talking to him. “Hey! You alright?” "Yeah..." Yeah? Seriously? Obviously not. You're sinking into your seat like you're about to break down.

“That’s good! Do you have a group yet? I haven’t seen you around,”

Really? Nooo way.... You haven't seen him around because he is not supposed to be here. He's an incompetent outlier. He was held back. What a moron... The more I think about it, the more miserable this guy is.

“Nope," . . . Is he going to say anything else? Does he know how to keep a conversation going? “Is it okay if I join yours?”

“Yeah of course! I’m Kenzie and this is Jordan!”

“Oh- I’m Li, nice to meet you."

“Yeah me too, can we get your number? So we can meet up sometime to work on the project.” “Yeah of course,”

Oh. That's how they communicate. I heard about this. They're all too reliant on their phones to think for themselves. Sure, my planet is a more technologically advanced than theirs but at least we can think. Half of the people here are looking at the screen for almost the entire d-

[bell noise]

Oh goodness! What the f̸͚̀ũ̴̧c̶̥̾k̵̡͝!? Ugh.. Those noises are agitating.. Do they really need to be so loud that they're ringing in my ears? If I could block out this sound, I would. “See you around, Li!”

Okay.. He's already collapsed on his couch. How lazy do you have to be? I was watching him the whole day and this stuff seems pretty easy. He's weak if he can't do this.. I watch him as he sighs and gets up from his couch, and takes out a worksheet labeled "ALGEBRA II" Algebra two? Seriously? He looks like my age and he's still learning algebra two? That's simple. This should be easy for me.

[ A/N ] slow updates.. sorry guys!! this is just a chapter to introduce more characters. next chapter might get better (*^_^*) hope u liked!

2 notes · View notes

lazyliars · 4 years

Text

/rp

Before I get into it, I want to state that is EXPLICITLY an analysis of the Characters, and is not intended to touch on how the cc’s played them in a meta sense unless specifically stated otherwise.

Also, this is technically a part two to my other post, which took a more in depth look at Techno and Phil’s reactions to Tommy’s death. It’s not necessary when reading this post, but I don’t address their reactions here.

So. The question must be asked.

Are we [the Syndicate] the baddies?

Yes.

The End.

Why are the Syndicate the baddies?

They got damn logo is a wither skull.

The End.

That's not how this works.

Yeah, yeah. You’re right.

The Syndicate's goals as an organization are not inherently bad. They seem to have good intentions behind them, and the focus on the freedom of it's individual group members is important to remember when talking about it; It is not a government. There is no hierarchical power system. No one is forced to do anything against their will, or surrender any of their rights or power to remain a member. It is not a government.

I also want to address Techno and Phil backing Ranboo into a corner – I see them getting a lot of flack for this, but I personally do not think it is relevant to the greater discussion, or necessarily representative of any contradictions within the organization. It was clearly played for laughs, and after they back off they clarify to Ranboo that they won't force him. Then later when Phil and Ranboo are alone, Ranboo feels safe enough to express that he felt like he was pressured into it, and Phil assures him he is allowed to leave whenever he wants; He is not being forced to do anything, and he is not being coerced or blackmailed.

None of the Syndicate members have done any wrongs against each other in the context of the Syndicate, OR gone against any of the Syndicate's core principles.

That, said, holy shit are they the baddies.

Listen, there's trying to telegraph a meaning or message to the audience and then there's having your logo be wither skulls on blackstone. That is straight out of the skit I keep referencing, seriously.

Okay, but, they laughed at it! It was played as a joke, just like the Ranboo thing!

The Ranboo thing was improv, the Syndicate's headquarters were planned – the artistic choices that they made reflect on what role they want the build and the organization inhabiting it to play in the future storylines.

Wither Skulls kind of have some CONNOTATIONS. Techno is an English major, I don't think he chose the most threatening imagery possible on accident, and then joked about the way people would interpret it just to stir the pot. This reads as hugely intentional.

And beyond that, the jokes they make during this part aren't “haha yeah, we look bad but we're actually good!” they're “you can tell by looking at these that we're the good guys wink wink, this is good guy stuff right here :)” It is a joke about how they are definitely not the good guys. This isn't even a case of unreliable narrators, this is one step down from flat out saying the meta intent.

But okay, I hear you, I'm talking about things that haven't happened yet. The Syndicate hasn't used any Withers, they could be an aesthetic choice. Lets look at what they do in practice.

So, they barge into private property, assess Snowchester's right to continue existing based entirely on their own ideals of what Freedom is, and then only once Tubbo assures them that they have no standing leader do they grant the place their approval to, and I gotta stress this part, continue existing.

In my Quackity meta, I already talked about how Government in the context of a M1necraft RP cannot be compared to IRL Governments on a one-to-one scale. They don't serve the same purposes or have the same type of power. What I didn't talk about was Agency in the context of m1necraft governments.

In an irl government, if you are born into one, you can't really leave without committing a massive overhaul on your life, which can be expensive and difficult, if not impossible for many people. Even in a “benevolent” government, the simple physicality of where you were born can prevent you from leaving it easily.

The same hurdles do not exist in the Dream SMP. People who join M1necraft governments choose to. They want to, either at the beginning when they form one, or later on when they join up. So far, no Government has just Sprung Up and forced the current residents of an area to become dependent on them, except maybe the Eggpire, who's status as a government is... shakey.

And even when people want to leave or separate from the government, they have been historically able to do so without any trouble or any effort from said governments to stop them. Jack Manifold emancipated from Manberg. Fundy and Quackity both left to start new nations. In all cases they were allowed to do so without any attempts on the part of the governments to stop them, either through force, or institutions preventing them from doing so.

The most anyone has lost when leaving a government is their house, which is still usually their property anyway, and is something that is easily rebuilt elsewhere and is inconvenient to move anyway.

The only exceptions to this might be Schlatt exiling Wilbur and Tommy - but even then, they weren’t trying to leave, they were trying to get back in, and of course the original L’manberg revolution, where Dream attempted to force L’manberg back into the Dream SMP, which wasn’t even a government at that point in time.

I don’t consider Phil’s house arrest an example of a government forcing someone to stay a citizen - that was treated less as a matter of a citizen wanting to leave the country and more as a threat to national security. Still pretty fucked up, but it’s a different issue.

What I'm saying is, If Tubbo wants to create a government out in the middle of nowhere, threatening no one, forcing no one to join either through force or desperation, and allowing people to join willingly because they want to, then he should be allowed to do that.

The Irony of the Syndicate, a group of people consisting of some of the richest, strongest people on the server, going around and enforcing 'Freedom' that entails no one person having more power than any other, is absurd.

It shows an extreme lack of self-awareness and/or self-righteousness, as they seem to think that they deserve to be the ones who decide what constitutes a government.

Snowchester is a small independent nation - they shouldn’t have to live in fear of being obliterated if they don’t walk on eggshells to meet an arbitrary standard decided by people who’s only authority on the matter COMES FROM THEIR PERSONAL POWER. No one elected them! No one chose them! They were not “approved” by the server at large to enact this kind of law.

The Syndicate are not a government, but they are an unsupervised power structure exerting their ideals on a land that did not ask for them. Like, These people have invented an actual Authoritarian-Anarchist faction. How the hell did they manage this?????

Back on topic.

Tubbo shows them the crater left by his nukes. The reaction is oddly positive – the nukes are fine by the morals of the Syndicate, apparently. I'd argue that they come across as more impressed than anything else; they seem to respect Tubbo for having gotten ahold of “real” power.

(There's a few good memes out there about “We can excuse nuclear weaponry, but we draw the line at Government!”)

So. By the Syndicate's standards: A single person or group of acceptably equal persons with weapons of mass-destruction are only worth “keeping an eye on” because they might provoke other people.

Like, I consider Project Dreamcatcher to be one of, if not the most morally ambiguous thing Tubbo has ever done, largely because it was all on his own initiative. He holds some culpability for The Butcher Army and Phil's house arrest, but they weren't his ideas and he was mostly following Quackity at that point.

And Phil tells Tubbo, IMMEDIATELY AFTER SEEING THE NUCLEAR CRATER:

“Looks like you've reformed a little bit Tubbo, I'm proud.”

And it's fine. Crimes against nature? Fine. A sign of healing in fact!! Tubbo is having a sweeeelll time and he definitely didn't make these nukes specifically in fear of being attacked by these exact people! Tubbo is doing great. Tubbo is doing fine. Tubbo. is. FINE.

Anyway.

I don't think this presentation of the Syndicate was an accident. Looking at the greater lore of SMP right now, after the Egg is done, their list of enemies is slim, and considering that they seem solely invested in taking down governments, that leaves maybe Snowchester, Kinoko Kingdom, and Eret and the greater Dream SMP.

Snowchester has not been shown to be corrupt, evil, or have any intent to go down that route. The most ambiguous thing they've done is, again, is the nukes. Other than that, it's pretty much your average cottagecore snow village.

Kinoko is presented in an even more morally 'good' light, Karl having founded it specifically for his Time-travel library purposes, which are currently being treated by the narrative as a selfless act, if not downright heroic.

Eret is also a fairly 'good' aligned character atm. He's been on that redemption grind since the og betrayal, and doesn't seem keen on backtracking. He's actively tried to leverage his position as king to make things better, and hasn't been quiet about that. He was also 'validated' by Tommy*, a character who has been described both by his allies and enemies as “the hero,” so take that as you will.

What I'm getting at is, all of the current potential enemies for the Syndicate aside from the Egg, are currently being cast as 'good,' and if they were to be attacked, they would undoubtedly have the moral high-ground, unless something drastically changed.

The only potential shakeups I can think of is are a Dream escape and/or a Wilbur revival, both of which could draw the Syndicate's attention and ire, depending on how things go. That said, it's just as likely that either or both of them would join the Syndicate – Dream still has that favor, and Phil and Techno both seemed to think Wilbur would've agreed with their blowing up L'manberg.

Both of those characters are currently **villains – the fact that they're both prime candidates for the Syndicate is a huge indication of the direction it's going to go as the plot moves forward.

((*I know some people are gonna come at me for painting Tommy as the “deciding factor” of what is morally good, so lemme just stop you there. I'm not talking about Tommy somehow having the 'right' to decide who is and isn't good, and definitely not the right to decide who should and shouldn't be king. I'm saying that Tommy, a character who the narrative treats as, if not a good person, then a person who is trying to be good, was in support of Eret, a character who has also been trying to be good.

Eret doesn't gain the moral highground because Tommy said so, he gets it because a character who the narrative treats as trying to do better, acknowledged Eret's earnest attempts at doing the same.

**I'm referring to Wilbur here as a villain because Tommy seemed convinced he would be if he were to be brought back. There is always the possibility that he's wrong.))

So, to summarize this: I read the Syndicate as being intentionally positioned as future antagonists, if not outright villains of a future arc. They are NOT a Government but their goals are contradictory with their means, and it is important to keep in mind that they plan to enforce their own brand of freedom on people who did not grant them either the authority or permission to do so.

So, uh. Can you tell I loved these streams? They were seriously so good. I kept switching between Ranboo and Techno's POV's trying to keep up with everything. I still have to watch Niki's!

All in all, I'm super, super excited for whats coming next, egg stuff, Syndicate stuff, Tommy stuff, all of it.

#dream smp #tubbo #the syndicate #c!techno critical #c!phil critical #dream smp analysis #lazytext

684 notes · View notes

gameriggy · 3 years

Text

LONG POST

Again, I’m not a c!dream apologist. I’m an enjoyer at best, he’s a good written villain.

But I’m seeing some posts from the L’manberg audience about c!dream calling c!Wilbur a tyrannical leader. Note: I was on L’manbergs side of things audience wise.

Look at L’manberg from dreams pov

Feel free to correct anything I misremembered

-keep in mind c!wilbur is a heavily unreliable narrator, especially now.

L’manberg was a group of “trouble makers” on the smp

Wil and Tommy stole the smps brewing stands to create a monopoly on potions

Kept gathering more members and declaring themselves separate from the smp because they didn’t align with his “strict” (to them) rules

And Wilbur decided they’d fight with words rather than swords

Noble, and from that POV it seems rather pacifistic.

But from dreams pov it backed him into an inescapable corner.

He’d always look like the ass if he had to reprimand or go against them.

“Big bad dream hitting the guys who don’t fight back”

Genius on Wilburs part of course.

And remember Manberg came to fruition because of Wilbur’s inability to let a fair election be held.

To Dream, I understand why he finds it so easy to paint Wilbur as a tyrant.

But he’s going to paint it that way especially to hold himself above Sam

Because he was doing exactly what Awesamdude has resorted to. Framing the bad things he’s done in better lighting.

The only difference is that Sam genuinely believes he’s been trying to do the right thing, Dream - as of right now - doesn’t seem to care if it’s right or not.

#dream smp #dsmp #dreamsmp #dream smp analysis #dream smp lore #dream smp spoilers #awesamdude #awesamdude lore #dreamwastaken #c!dream #c!awesamdude #c!sam #lmanberg #manberg #c!wilbur #c!tommy #revivebur #pandoras vault

56 notes · View notes

tricktster · 5 years

Text

the twilight series suddenly makes 100% more sense if you read them under a specific premise that, i contend, is heavily supported by the text:

Much like Amy’s diary in Gone Girl, the books in the Twilight Saga are verbatim reproductions of in-universe diary entries carefully and deliberately created and curated by badass unreliable narrator Bella Swan as a means to achieve immortality.

Prerequisite assumptions:

1) Bella actively and persistently wants to become a vampire, both diagetically and (I contend) non-diagetically. The average vampire novel format often fails to capture realistic human behavior in one highly specific area: the protagonists are frequently mortals who grapple with the choice of whether to become a vampire. This is stupid, because being a vampire would obviously be dope as hell; particularly in the Twilight Universe, where vampires are not required to take a human life to survive, and indeed, have the capacity to live full and rewarding lives while integrated* into the human community.

(*integrated-ish; see Assumption 6)

2. There are too many coincidences for Bella to have encountered the Cullens by sheer chance, only to be the ONE person that Edward can’t live without (due largely to the novelty factor of not being able to read her ding-dang thoughts.)

3. Diagetically, the Volturi don’t even know Bella’s psyonic gifts until New Moon, but we also know that the Volturi scour the globe for recruits to enlist into the protection of their governing body.

4. Nobody wants to be a voiceless cog in a bureaucracy.

5. Nobody, and especially nobody in high school, wants to be a high school student forever.

6. Vampires in twilight are, as a group, cartoonishly terrible at disguising their true nature.

7. Forks is a backwater town approximately 3.5 hours away from the biotech hub of Seattle.

7. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney can eat my farts and they deserve to be preserved in this snapshot of an innocent author’s mind slowly unraveling.

Proposed timeline:

In 1993, there is a key system meltdown at a improvised biohacking startup in Seattle, rendering all innovative genetic modification experiments into a puddle of brown sludge that nobody can figure out how to dispose of per Federal regs, since they don’t even know what it is.

The broke founder of the startup, who for the purposes of this timeline I will call Jeff Bezos because that’s who it was, eventually grows tired of all the discussion about what to do, and just pops it in a barrel, drives a few hours out of town, and dumps it in a pond.

Bella Swan, a small child, is hanging out at a park with her family friend Jacob Black (and a ton of his friends) when they all decide to wade in a slightly murky pond. Thereafter, they are transformed.

Bella grows up as a normal, highly powerful mutant with a +20 to deception checks and wisdom saves. She lives in Arizona, but up until 2002, summers in Forks. While in Forks, she picks up on the local lore about a family of vampires who don’t eat people.

Because Forks (population: 17 + Charlie’s mustache) is boring, Bella bones up on the only interesting thing about it, i.e. Vampire Hometown baybeeeee.

In 2000, George W. Bush gets elected president, and his evangelical politics and general bumbling ineptitude informs Bella’s opinions on authoritative governmental entities.

In 2001, the Cullens make their intention to move back to Forks known, but they take a while because they need to pack all their stupid graduation hats and volvos, etc.

Later in 2001, a psychic Volturi scout rolls through Forks to ensure that nobody within living memory recalls the Cullens, and notices an anomaly in the psychic field.

The scout goes to confront Bella about joining the Volturi, and Bella immediately clocks him as a vampire, because vampires in the Twilight Universe fucking suck at looking/acting human. This leaves the scout in a bind: she’s too valuable to kill, but she’s a pre-teen, and therefore too young to be transformed per Volturi authority.

The scout warns her he’ll have to kill her if she discusses the existence of vampires with any human. He then tells her he’ll be back in five years, and begins to sweet talk her on how good life will be when she’s a vampire, beautiful, immortal, powerful, etc. Bella asks if she has to kill, and dude says “nah, actually there’s a bunch of vegetarian vampires who are moving back here soon. Fucking nerds, but otherwise they’re doing well.” Bella is all about becoming a vampire, because Bella is a rational actor.

Bella moves to Arizona, and as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are unjustifiedly initiated, she recognizes that while she DOES want to be a vampire, she does NOT want to be a foot soldier in any war that she can’t support. She needs a plan.

In 2004, Bella is watching her step-dad’s minor league baseball game when it occurs to her. On her own, she’s a target for the Volturi, but if she had some people to watch her back, she might be okay. Of course, nobody fucks with the Volturi on behalf of some rando human. She’ll need to con her way into a coven who’ll have her back and also give her that +10 to constitution via vampiric transformation, which she desperately wants because she’s a rational actor. And where are the non-volturi vampires that might have her back? Fucking Forks.

Bella moves to Forks in 2004, and upon seeing the Cullens, she immediately clocks them as vampires even though they left their “we’re all vampires” booty shorts at home, because, as previously discussed, vampires in the Twilight Universe fucking suck at looking/acting human.

Bella notes that all the vampires but one are paired off in heterosexual bliss, and takes note of the straggler as a potential vehicle to vampyrdom.

Bella figures out that Eddie can read everyone’s mind but hers, because Edward Cullen fucking sucks at looking/acting like a human who can’t read minds. Bella further observes that Eddie has a huge undead boner for her.

She’s found her mark. Now she just needs to convince him that she’s better off as part of the coven than on her own. Problem: Eddie’s a self-pitying insufferably guilt-striken perpetual adolescent who keeps himself busy by feeling sorry for himself because he’s a vampire, angst angst angst etc etc. Also, I think he’s Catholic, so add some more guilt in. She’ll have to win him over by convincing him that they’re destined to be soulmates.

What does a vampire used to having complete insight into everyone’s mind but his crush’s want? A method to know what she really thinks of him. Bella begins writing a “diary” knowing that there’s no way in hell Eddie won’t sneak in and read it. So she Gone Girls it, and begins to lay a trap to lure him in. That first diary? Twilight.

This was just in the movie but a stoner chases her around with a worm on a stick. Nothing to do with this theory, I just like that part of the movie. Where’s my spinoff about that guy?

Eddie won’t give Bella what she wants (eternal life) by the end of book 1, even though she asks him to EXTREMELY POLITELY. Time to hit the diary with some more promises of undying love.

Bella reconnects with her old friend Jacob and the rest of the Mutated By Jeff Bezos Boys. Alas, they cannot turn her into a physically powerful sexy immortal with a bite, so she’s still stuck with plan A) win over a whole family of vampires with big Mormon energy. It’s the long con.

Edward’s angst abruptly takes a swing towards terminal. He’s absolutely your classic sadboy, perhaps because Bella now has one (1) friend that he knows about.

When Eddie begins to drift away on account of Angst, Bella conjurs up a secondary love interest who, coincidentally, is ALSO a sexy supernatural entity, and is much less coincidentally just Jacob.

We should establish here that Edward is like a 107 year old white dude and so even though Diary!Bella pretends not to see it, Metatextual Frame Story!Bella knows that dude is super racist.

Jacob Black is three things: 1. Like Bella, a mutant (although one with shapeshifting abilities), 2.one of Bella’s oldest and most trusted confidants, and 3. down to clown on an elderly teenage vampire who keeps stereotyping him. Sure, says Jacob, I’ll take the form of a werewolf. He seriously thinks we’re all just beastmen, huh? Hey look at me now, I’m Regis Philbin because this is 2005 and Who Wants to be a Millionaire is still sort of relevant. Sick.

Edward does not like that Bella has one (1) other friend. Bella and Jacob plot to use this to their advantage and lure Edward back on the wings of jealousy.

Eddie gets himself into trouble on account of Angst and poor communication, so Bella has to go rescue him from himself/the Volturi.

Aro finally meets her and gets to test her powers, which impress him. Now she’s back on the fucking radar.

I forget everything that happens in Eclipse, so i have chosen to omit that part.

Eventually she extracts a quid pro quo from Eddie; i’ll marry you if you turn me into a dracula.

We don’t really call ourselves that, Wet Blanket Cullen replies, entirely earnestly.

Bella gets married at 18 in 2006, and Eddie starts to backtrack his promise about changing her. This won’t stand.

Well, look, he’s an elderly guilty catholic/mormon teen who probably still uses super racist terms, but she’s stuck on honeymoon island, he has certain angles that work for him, and seriously what are they gonna do but fuck? Bella’s alternative is listening to her “husband” drone on about his interests, which are almost certainly Car, How Do I Post a Minion Picture on Facebook, and Licorice Used To Be a Lot Cheaper in the Good Old Days.

Whoops a fetus.

Bella recognizes that she’s GOT to have this baby: time’s running out, and Bella knows that at least two of the Vamps in her coven will cut ties if she terminates or otherwise fails to carry this baby to term because of the conservative religious subtext. She’s going to have to stick it out for 9 months, even though it’s a risky call.

Bella gets what she wants after giving birth. “My time as a human is over, but I've never felt more alive. I was born to be a vampire.” That’s a direct quote. Except now she’s got a (pretty cute and easy) baby that she desperately wants to protect from Turning Into A Vaguely Religious Cullen Dressed Head To Toe In Cream Colored Wool.

Bella decides to fake her own death and escape with the kid and Jake so they can form i guess a detective agency. Bella will get “killed” by the Volturi, move to Sydney, and open up shop, and Jake will take the kid after her a few months later.

They’re gonna need a reason why Jake gets the kid though, and there’s only one reason to do anything amongst the Cullens: a heterosexual love interest with a super problematic age gap.

Jesus, Jake sighs, is Eddie really going to believe I’m in romantic love with your actual infant? Does he really think that little of me?

Yup.

Bella tries to draw the Volturi’s attention.

Works too well.

The Cullens call up all their vague acquaintances, who are at least kind of fun. Particularly that one dude who keeps getting angry about British conduct during the American Revolution.

Well, fuck, now the Volturi are bringing an army to fight their ragtag army of Vampires Who Are Cool And Interesting Enough That We Can Safely Presume They Are All Definitely Gay. Bella can’t let those guys die, they’re the first actually compelling vampires she’s ever talked to.

Bella saves the day because she’s OP.

All the Cool Vamps start packing up to leave and Bellz almost goes with them, but the Cullens would just keep sending missionaries after her if they knew.

Bella finishes her fourth journal with the vague warning that the Volturi are still out there somewhere and they miiiight just try and get her.

Two days later, she stages a scuffle and gets the fork out of Fucks. Her journals are the only clue.

Sirius Black and baby nessie follow once edward has stopped sobbing into his cream colored sweater and moved on to Extended Power Pouting.

Bella recruits her own army of fledglings.

Bella stages a coup against the Volturi and succeeds.

Bella sits on the iron throne with a hot lady vampire on each knee and they all kiss and stuff.

Nessie I guess forms a post punk band?

Edward dies from aspiration of a brussel sprout that he ate because he just wanted to feel something.

Charlie and Billy get married.

Charlie’s mustache develops a cult instagram following, providing them with a modest retirement income.

Jacob shapeshifts into Bill Murray and is always crashing weddings.

Bella’s stepdad is off in the B plot this whole time winning the world series with the help of a kooky angel.

There. Fixed. My soul is at rest.

36K notes · View notes

stellocchia · 3 years

Text

Okay, holy crap did we get an interesting stream yesterday! Time for an analysis of it!

So, there is a lot of confusion surrounding the stream and, more importantly, c!Wilbur himself. So I wanted to try and interpret this whole thing at the best of my abilities for my own sanity.

Before that though there are a few things we have to keep in mind:

For something to be manipulation there needs to be intent on the side of the manipulator, which can be quite hard to establish in some cases

A lot of c!Wilbur’s confusing thoughts and constantly fluctuating opinions come from a general lack of knowledge, his own faulty worldview and his incredible overestimation of his own impact in the world, which I’ll talk about more later, more so then what actually would appear to be an intentionally manipulative behaviour

One more thing to point out is that Wilbur sees his life as a spectacle. To him reaching his “desired conclusion” the first time was a victory and he seems to have started on a sort of scripted “redemption arc”, and I mean scripted within the narrative not meta wise, (in which he’s trying to drag Tommy into as well) after he had his self-proclaimed “villain arc” in Pogtopia, however this view is faulty at best...

We also have to keep in mind that c!Wilbur is truly a relict from the past at this point. He places an incredible amount of value on “factions” and “leadership” and has a very black and white world view, but things have changed a lot since he was around and they’re much more complicated then that now which leaves him with a complete lack of understanding for the world around him and possibly with no tools to correct that lack of understanding

And for last, let’s keep in mind that Wilbur is an INCREDIBLY UNRELIABLE narrator. We cannot trust everything that comes out of his mouth so let’s not take everything blindly as fact

Also, while all I’ve just said is true Tommy is still 100% entitled to not trust him at all and to not be sympathetic towards him, even without considering this stream (and trust me: I’ll get to that one) because their history together is not great. Keep in mind that they were basically alone during Pogtopia and that Wilbur always sorta grouped himself and Tommy together (as in Wilbur considered BOTH of them to be “the bad guys” and BOTH of them to be bad for the server and better off dead) and he was always extremely manipulative in the ways that he used to try and get Tommy to believe his world view as well (and he seemed to adopt a similar behaviour in the stream, but I’ll get to that one later). Sadly that also means that Tommy isn’t a reliable narrator at all for what concerns Wilbur...

Okay, now with all the introduction out of the way the proper analisys will be under the cut! Be advised that it’ll treat some very heavy topics (like abuse, manipulation etc) so, you know, keep that in mind.

The stream I’ll be using for this one is: Meet the latest resurrected gentleman of L'manburg, though I may take some things from: Wilbur Is Revived.

The stream starts with Tommy and Wilbur meating up on the glass covering the L’Manburg crater. Right after we have a bit of banter with Wilbur openly mocking Ghostbur, ignoring Tommy’s discomfort at the subject, like always. I wanna say it right now that the dismissal of whatever Tommy is feeling and whatever he says that does not align with Wilbur’s idea of Tommy is not something new. It’s a behaviour Wilbur developed all throughout the Pogtopia times. He may look like he listens to Tommy a bit more during this stream, but he never takes into account anything he says and constantly dismisses anything he feels, so we know that’s not true. Of course, Wilbur is not the only person who exibited this behaviour (Tommy often gets dismissed when he speaks and if re-watching exile taught me anything is that Dream was also very keen on dismissing all of his emotions).

Also one of the first things Wilbur asks about is his Chekhov's gun, which Tommy moves on from quickly without answering (propably because it got destroyed by Dream while Tommy had it).

“Hey pu- Hey! Put Friend down!” “Wh-why? He’s gonna come with us!” “I don’t want you... no he could die!” “And? It’s a sheep Tommy, who cares about-” “Calm down man! I know- I know that you have the power of eternity over him, but just put him down!” “No! I’m just saying: who cares about a sheep man? It’s just a sheep. Just come...” “Oh I fucking...” “What?! It’s just a sheep my man!”

Once again dismissal of Tommy’s emotions, but also an introduction to the theme of attachments that seems like will be important once again. This time the conflict that’s introduced surrounding attachments is not about their intrinsic value (like it was in season 2) but it seems to be that of attachments vs ideals. In this case what we’re presented with is seemingly a detachment from Wilbur (though we can’t say if it’s volountary, like in Dream’s case, or just an effect of his depression yet).

“Tommy... I’m sorry” “Wait what are you- are you gonna kill me?” “No no sorry” “You’re gonna wack me?” “Ignore the Lore Sword, I’m- I don’t- I’m not good at this man. I need to make some apologies. I told you I needed to have a think and I don’t think an apology would ever sum up... uh... what I did here. I mean look at this mess!” *looking at the crater of L’Manburg* “You did this! Well, not all of it, you did a little bit” “Yeah... I didn’t do the glass. But like I think- I think that I do need to, I need to apologize to some people! You know, I’m gonna- I’m gonna make amends!”

Okay, there are a lot of things to unpack here:

1) Tommy’s immediate reaction to Wilbur apparently softening up while holding a sword is to expect to be hit, probably because of residual trauma from exile where Dream would act in a similar manner

2) Wilbur seems to recognise that he needs to apologize to people, but he doesn’t actually seem to regret anything or doesn’t understand WHAT he needs to apologize for (which is the reason why he only apologizes to people he hasn’t hurt, didn’t know or doesn’t particularly care about). He doesn’t apologize to Tommy for example, his “I’m sorry” at the beginning isn’t directed at Tommy as much as it’s a general statement (this could have something to do with him lumping himself and Tommy together as the bad guys of course). Also, remember that idea about Wilbur seeing his life as a show? Well, he did the villain arc so the only 2 possible ways to go after that are a repeat or a redemtion arc... this is him starting in on the second, while not actually believing in it

3) We already see Wilbur giving himself more importance then he actually did have. Tommy explains that he’s only resposible for a small part of the crater, but Wilbur doesn’t know that Techno, Phil and Dream did exactly what he did but bigger later on and assumes that all of it was done by him (probably making him think that he’s had a decidedly bigger impact then he actually did)

“Well I’m in my forties now Tommy, I counted the years man... how old are you now? You must be what, like, 20? 30?” (Wilbur does not seem to be aware of the time dilatation that occurs in Limbo)

It’s also interesting that Wilbur asks Tommy of all people to give him a tour. I mean, the two were close before and Tommy is the only one who stayed by his side through everything, but Tommy already expressed multiple times a dislike for Wilbur even directly stating to his face in the revival stream that Wilbur should have stayed dead. My best guess is that what brought him to ask Tommy specifically despite that was a mix of being still in a similar mindset to Pogtopia where it was the two of them vs everyone else, Wilbur’s paranoia not having disappeared meaning he doesn’t trust anyone else and a sort of dependency Wilbur has developed on Tommy to avoid loneliness.

“No no! Will, you didn’t get a grave. This is just what you left behind” (destruction and a betrayal of trust are the only remains of who Wilbur used to be it seems)

“Here’s the thing Tommy: I know I was bad and I know I can- I know I can redeem myself but you know there’s- there’s a little bit of fun in being bad, you know, I mean, we’ve spoken about this” (callback to “let’s be the bad guys” and further confirmation that Wilbur isn’t truly interested in redemption as he still sees himself in the role of the villain)

The first person that Wilbur apologizes to is Skeppy who fits the category of “person he more or less knew, but never actually wronged”, meaning that one is a useless apology (and Wilbur seems to recognize that when he asks Skeppy to say one thing he did to him). (Also rip Friend Skeppy doesn’t deserve rights anymore).

“He was Ghostbur’s man! And I wish you’d stop disrespecting him” (technically about Friend but more broadly about Ghostbur as well)

“You see I’ve always seen myself as a bit of an iconoclast so I don’t think I’ll be getting involved in the whoel deity section” (Wilbur is canonically an atheist)

The second person Wilbur apologizes to is Jack Manifold, which is also when Wilbur starts excluding Tommy any time there is someone else there as well. Jack honestly fits in the category of people “Wilbur knew but didn’t really care about”, which is why his apology ends up being quite generic and not very accurate to the historical happenings. He apologized for leaving him behind when he got exiled but, once again, that never actually happened. Jack stayed back of his own volition there. He apologized for not granting Manifold Land independence, which would have been up to Dream. He apologizes for leading him into war which he simply never did, because Jack joined after. All this apologies are what Jack wants to hear, but none of them are true to what happened.

Either way, Tommy brings Wilbur to the roof of the hotel and they have quite the important conversation there. Tommy tries to tell Wilbur about when he decided to go see Dream for the last time, but Wilbur entirely dismisses him.

“I know you’ve had your little strife man” “But I died!” “But I don’t- I don’t care” (full dismissal)

They then end up talking about exile (Wilbur specifically is the one to bring it up).

“Tommy, I’ll tell you what, if I was there and it wasn’t that stupid shell of a ghost instead of me I would have struck down Dream right where he stood. We would have disemboweled him. We would have disemboweled him” “You would have killed Dream?” “Together” “Well Tubbo is the one who sent me off... You would have killed Dream?” “Tommy- Tommy! I wasn’t blind, I saw what he was doing to you Tommy... I saw. I saw what he was doing to Tubbo” “I don’t like thinking about it” “I saw what he did to me”

So talks about Tommy’s exile are always something... Tommy still shows clear hesitance in blaming Dream even after all this time and even more hesitance at the idea of someone killing Dream at the time (probably because he still subconciously bleieves that he was his only friend back then).

Then there is Wilbur who has admitted to know about Dream’s abuse of Tommy and his manipulation of Tubbo and himself (though to which extent for any of these is unclear) and he seems of the idea that: 1) if he was alive he would have been allowed to go with Tommy, which he wouldn’t have and 2) that if he was there they’d have killed Dream. Though he changes his narrative on the second point right after it’s intersting that he thinks he would have been allowed with Tommy because if he was as aware of the situation as he seems to think he is he’d know that Dream “exiled” Tommy specifically to have him alone and vulnerable where he could mold him as he pleased. It wasn’t a political stance like their previous exile, it was a glorified kidnapping.

“After seeing Ghostbur interact with Dream I realized that, no, Dream is not the enemy, Dream is not the enemy” “He-” “This world was not supposed to be inhabited by people of this caliber. Dream is the hero! Dream needs to be let out of here. Dream’s not in prison because he’s a horrible person, Dream’s in there because he dared to try and stop you all. He dared to try and stop you all from gaining all this power because the minute I was gone there was a vacuum, there was opening and everyone just slicked to get in there and Dream was the only one who stood up to them and told them not to. Dream is the one that held my seat for me”

Again, a few things to unpack here:

1) Wilbur somehow fails to see the contraddiction in his own reasoning. “I know Dream abused you, but he is not being imprison because he is a bad person, he was only doing what is necessary” was what his speach boiled down to which is just bullshit plain and simple. But why does Wilbur get to this conclusion? Well because he has faulty information at best to fill in the blanks from the time he was dead and he has a very simplistic worldview where everything must fit neatly into a small little narrative and where people are either “villains” or “heroes” and since Wilbur thinks of himself as a villain and thinks he corrupted anything he came in contact with it makes sense that he would see Dream, someone who opposed everything and everyone previously associated with Wilbur, as the “hero”.

2) We have Wilbur, once again, giving himself more importance then he did have. Wilbur didn’t leave a power vacuum, L’Manburg was rebuilt pretty quickly and all Wilbur left behind was a bit more trauma and, even then, people have done worse since. Wilbur was, in fact, pretty irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Once his story was over people moved on one way or the other and Wilbur simply cannot accept that because he sees himself as a protagonist, but he simply wasn’t around for a long time.

(Also I really wanna punch him in the face for this one because f*ck him for calling Tommy’s abuser a “hero” to his face, that’s a HUGE d*ck move)

“If Dream died instead of me, I would be in there right now” (again, fundamental misunderstanding of why Dream’s in prison in the first place)

“I didn’t actually really care about L’Manburg, I just cared about, you know, sticking it to the man. Actually I cared about L’Manburg for the sole reason that I could use it to stick it to the man! You ever sticked it to the man Tommy?” “That’s not true” “L’Manburg was a tool, it was a great tool, it worked! You know? It divided so many people man”

Listen, we can debate all day wether Wilbur actually cared about L’Manburg beyond seeing as a tool to achieve his ends or not, but that’s not really important. The important thing to take away from this is that Tommy, Tubbo, Niki, Fundy, Eret and Quackity believed in L’Manburg. They believed in it enough to fight for it. Others as well. So whatever the answer to “did Wilbur care?” is, their experiences are not invalidated because of it. The other thing is that the whole conversation about L’Manburg fully establishes the theme of ideals vs attachment that may be explored more in the future.

“I’m sorry for a lot of things but, Tommy that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna try again” (and here it is. Wilbur shows Tommy the most awful side of him that hasn’t changed all the while pretending to be a completely new man in front of others so they won’t believe Tommy if he tells them. This one is full on manipulation)

“I did care about L’Manburg. I did, I did, but if L’Manburg- a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet, L’Manburg would have still been as loved by me if it was called Bim Bum and it was in the middle of the desert” (once again reiterating that it wasn’t about material attchment, but more so about the purpouse of L’Manburg)

“Stick it to the man Tommy! High five” “No! You just said that you loved 'The Man'” (Tommy pointing out the contraddioctions in Wilbur’s reasoning)

“It was like we were a family, you can’t just say that!” “We were a family Tommy. We were. And you know what I guess you just didn’t- I guess you just didn’t have the balls to follow along with me. When I pressed the button you were always against it-” “You blew up our fucking home!” “We’re leaving it behind Tommy, it’s in the past. We’re friends now, we’re friends”

So, two things here: Wilbur seems to resent Tommy partially for not enabling his destructive tendencies seeing Tommy opposing him destroying L’Manburg as him leaving Wilbur behind. And also Wilbur is, once again, dismissing Tommy’s rightful anger, this time in a way that is very reminiscent of Dream (reinforcing the idea of them being “friends” despite having done something that hurt Tommy a lot).

“You’re following me for quite a while for someone who doesn’t care” “*deep sigh* Where are we going next?” (while Tommy is aware that being with Wilbur is not good for him he also seems to not want to leave him either)

“You know I often give him a lot of shit and pretend I don’t like him, because he has a peculiar relationship with Tubbo, but he is a very good man and I stuck up for him because I see potential in him, alright?” “Yeah? What is he, a strong fighter?” “Yeah, well he is- he is a very strong fighter, he stuck by my side, he visited me in exile, he is a good man and he’s helped me”

It’s interesting to see how their opinions diverge. To Wilbur “strenght” is physical strenght and strong ideals. He respects Tommy to a degree because Tommy is not afraid to stand up for what he believes in for example. For Tommy “strenght” is compassion and loyalty. Tommy considers Ranboo strong because he has the strenght to remain kind in a world like theirs where kindness usually doesn’t take you far. And this is the main reason why Wilbur and Ranboo clash, why they are narrative foils: because Ranboo is extremely well loved and secured himself a relatively peaceful life by going against everything that Wilbur believes in. Ranboo is respected and loved where someone like Dream who, to Wilbur, embodies the ideal of strenght is widely hated and he doesn’t understand why because he’s missing so much information.

Third and final person Wilbur apologizes to is Ranboo who falls into the category of “Wilbur didn’t know him”, meaning the apology is, once again, just performative so that Wilbur can move along his perceived “redemtion arc”. During the whole chat with Ranboo Wilbur, once again, mostly pushes Tommy’s presence to the side in favour of the new person, though Ranboo does actually notice Tommy’s constant worry and tension and reassures him multiple times that everything’s fine.

“Everyone I seem to meet seems to have this deep intrinsic feeling of disgust towards me” (no one actually does, this is just Wilbur’s self deprecation talking. Like, Tommy is the only one who has expressed anger towards him so far and he’s still sticking to Wilbur and trying to talk to him)

“Tommy is very suspicious of me because of who I WAS” (this is, once again, manipulation. Trivializing Tommy’s fear and suspicions in front of others while reinforcing them when they’re alone is a way to isolate him from an eventual support system)

“It was big, it was big effects though right? I mean... let’s be honest here” (Wilbur once again overestimating his impact. He did have a lasting effect on people, but nowhere near as he seems to think)

“Tommy I don’t know who you’re tryng to protect here, me or Ranboo” “Ranboo” (yes yes, Allium Duo moment, but also Wilbur seems sort of jealous of the relationship Ranboo and Tommy have and how obvious it is where Tommy’s loyalty lies now)

“You get into people’s heads Wilbur, alright? You’re like a little caterpillar, you go in through their ear, then you hatch a butterfly, before you know it your brain is all colors and flying...” (Tommy lacking proper terminology to describe Wilbur’s manipulation, but still doing a wonderful job at it)

Wilbur spends quite a while interrogating Ranboo on his beliefs and getting progressively more confused about why people (and Tommy especially as he specifies later) love him so much as Ranboo explains his “pick people not sides” philosophy. He seems particularly annoyed by Ranboo soley defining Dream as “bad”, possibly because in the world view he crafted for himself everyone is so extremely divided and he can’t imagine the existence of someone who tries to actively defy that by trying to side with everyone who hasn’t directly harmed his loved ones or himself. At first Wilbur thinks Ranboo must have some ulterior motive for being kind to everyone and is even more shocked at finding out that that’s not the case.

“There’s been more wars while I’ve been dead then when I was alive Ranboo, that’s- that’s a-” “There’s actually been only one and ever since you died and Dream’s been put in prison the server’s actually been peaceful” “So you’re saying that you don’t like me? In the same way you don’t like Dream you’re against me then?” “I- no! No no no, I don’t not like you Wilbur, I don’t like the person that you were. I’m willing- I’m willing to like you now, if you’ve changed”

And here we have Ranboo standing against Wilbur quite directly. Wilbur seems convinced that, because Ranboo doesn’t dislike most people he stands for nothing which, admittedly, Ranboo is quite hypocritical and weak willed, but he is showing the sort of strenght Tommy admires him for here. Ranboo dislikes who Wilbur used to be because he hurt his family, but he is willing to give him a second chance, which is more then even Wilbur ever did for himself. Also, to be fair, once Dream was locked up the server did become more peaceful and there were less wars. Ranboo was right when pointing that one out and the fact that Wilbur doesn’t seem to know it points to his lack of knowledge that he doesn’t seem willing to fix.

It’s also interesting that Wilbur seems to conclude all this meetings in a hurry by asking Tommy to go on with the tour and basically pulling him along... even if it’s pretty clear by now that Tommy isn’t really needed there. Wilbur remembers how to navigate the server without Tommy thanks to Ghostbur’s memories and he ignores Tommy’s presence whenever someone else is near. The only reason why he is pulling him along is because he can and because he uses him to vent and say all the things he lies to others about... so much for his “no lying” oath...

“He’s a follower Tommy! You’re not a follower man! You stand up for yourself, you fight for what you believe in” (reiteration of Wilbur’s idea of strenght which alsoseems connected to worth for him. For him being a “follower” is inherently negative)

“Tommy he felt like the polar opposite of me” (in case we needed more reasons to consider them foils)

Wilbur and Tommy have a fight right after because Tommy’s upset at Wilbur being an ass to Ranboo and completely ignoring him and about his presence just in general. Wilbur is the one insisting for the fight to be physical in a scene that mirrors the Pogtopia pit scene quite a lot while Tommy would have been contented (and would have actually preferred) with Wilbur admitting to his faults. But so far Wilbur hasn’t apologized for his more grave faults even once and he has yet to apologize to Tommy for anything at all and I honestly doubt he intends to at the moment or that he even feel remorseful for anything... they fight and Tommy wins and takes Wilbur’s sword to avoid a repeat of the situation.

“Look at me. No matter what happens, no matter what goes down, today, tomorrow, next week, the week after, the week after next, the fact that I’m alive means that anything that happens along this line I’ve won. I’ve already won. I won when I pressed that button. You can spar me however many times you want for your own personal victories, but, in the grand scheme of things, I’ve already won. And I think, from your silence, you know that”

This brings us back to Wilbur seeing his life as a show and himself as both the protagonist of the story and the villain. The button scene was the ending of his story and he managed to complete it with what he considers his own victory. Of course it’s also a way to put down Tommy in a similar way to how the “you’re never gonna be president” speach worked. Tommy didn’t want to spar with Wilbur in the first place, but he did win. Tommy didn’t want to be president either because, despite Wilbur being convinced that he has his same idea of power, Tommy is quite content to live a simple life with none of the responsabilities that come from having power. In both cases though, Wilbur takes the chance to use the aspiration of the image of Tommy he’s painted in his mind against the real one, by saying thet it’ll be impossible for him to accomplish what he thinks he wants. Doesn’t work anymore though, Tommy immediately called him out on his bullshit even if he was ignored again. Also what’s with Wilbur and constantly asking Tommy to look at him? Is he afraid to disappear if Tommy’s not looking or something?

“You just stick with me man, stick with me. Stick with the winning side. Stick with the side that stands for something, stick with the side that believes in something” (it’s also interesting to note that Wilbur seems to constantly see his life as a conflict adn, right now, he appears to think that it’s him and Tommy vs the world, similarly to how Dream started thinking in prison)

“I thought he had infinite canon lives” (Wilbur seems to have held at least some of Ghostburs naivete it seems)

“Honestly I wasn’t expecting you to have your shit together like this man, I thought you just came on to kill me” (once again Wilbur thinking he’s the center of the world apparently)

“Thank you for that [killing him] by the way. No no seriously, thank you for that! Because if you hadn’t done that I’d ended up living- I would have been exiled with Tommyinnit and then I would have gotten angry at Dream because Dream can’t go around hurting Tommy like that. I would’ve been angry at Dream. I would have tried to fight Dream, which now I see would’ve been a silly move because Dream’s my hero! Dream’s amazing! So I would’ve ended up fighting Dream and then I would’ve been the one in prison and not Dream”

I was kinda surprised that he said all of this to Phil, but I guess he may remember Phil siding with Dream for Doomsday perhaps, so he thinks he can get understanding on all the Dream stuff. He also prefaced this by bringing up something that Phil still feels immensely guilty about meaning he was more prone to listen. Also, again he seems to have a fundamental misunderstanding of what exile was about or why Dream is in prison in the first place but, aside from that, his opinion on Dream just seems to genuinely fluctuate between despising him for hurting Tommy and considering him a hero because he brought him back to life and because he covers the role of the misunderstood underdog who’s trying to do what’s right in the version of the story that he created in his mind.

“Well yes, but I wouldn’t have stood for Dream’s shit while Tubbo, well Tubbo did stand for it” (see what I mean? Fluctuating opinions. Pretty sure not even he himself is entirely sure of what he feels or think in this regard)

“Oh, Will?” “Yeah?” “I forgot to mention by the way. I, at one point, griefed George’s house with Ranboo and that caused to a chian of events that lead- that- that was kind of why I got exiled more so...” “Okay and Ranboo managed to not get exiled with you?” “Oh no, it was just me” “That’s pretty uh-” “But I stood up for Ranboo. I made sure he didn’t because he was so new and he was, you know, he was-” “Ah, so you got thrown under the bus. Did he not stand up for you? Did he not offer to go with you?” “No he did stand up for me but to, like, to an extent because he didn’t wanna get exiled and that’s fair” “okay... I’m Sure I’ll Get On With Him!”

Wilbur’s obvious distaste for Ranboo shining through again. Also he was pocking in the right direction, but, sadly, Tommy is not the right person to ask this questions to because he fully believes that he deserved what happened to him still, so he won’t be able to explain that the reson why Ranboo wasn’t exiled was because Dream didn’t care about him and the exile was just about gettng him alone. I don’t think anyone aside from Dream has clocked that in quite yet as a matter of fact. Also this conversation has just proven further to Wilbur that Ranboo is the pushover he though he was after all.

After that Wilbur explains to Phil that the reason he lied was because he didn’t want to let him down. He also tries to convince Phil that he doesn’t lie anymore and that he didn’t lie much in the first place, only to address Tommy and go:

“Old Wilbur did a lot of lying Tommy, old Wilbur did a lot of lying”

“Wait did you say there was a counselor on this server that we could talk to?” (Tommy yet again being the only f*cker in the server that genuinely wants to go to therapy)

Also Phil trusts people way too easily. He just confronted Wilbur about lying in his letters for a long time only to turn around and immediately trust him that he is a changed man, even after Wilbur said straight to his face that Dream is his hero. Like... he is supposed to have lived a long ass time, how did he stay this naive?

Will also mentions that he has plans and intends to have both Phil and Tommy in on them as soon as they’re ready. He also proceeds to make it sound like the only reason why Tommy is upset with him and doesn’t trust him is because he was a bit mean to Ranboo which is him, once again, trivializing Tommy’s fears in front of others so that they are less likely to take him seriously in the future. He then asks for a bed and shower which Phil provides. One other thing to note is that Wilbur seems extremely reluctant any time that it comes to going underground, probably due to trauma from living in a ravine in Pogtopia.

“Do you trust me? Do you believe that I’m turning a new leaf Tommy?” (this is not the first time this stream that Wilbur seems to seek out Tommy’s approval and it’s interesting that he doesn’t seem to do it with anyone else)

Once again Wilbur interrupts the visit in a hurry as soon as Tommy tries to explain his side of the story to Phil telling Tommy repedly to go with him. This really seems to be a pattern since it happened every single time, and I’m guessing that the reason is that, once he has given his pieace, leaving Tommy to speak may be detrimental to the manipulation in the long run.

“Be nice Tommy, okay? Be nice” “Phil, you murdered him” (Lmao)

“Tommy you’re missing the sunrise! You’re missing the sunrise” (for the sun as a symbol enthusiasts)

The two of them then have a very weird argument about stone that it’s literally just textbook manipulation in action right there. At first Wilbur asks for stone then, after Tommy complains a bit, he concedes and switches to cobblestone just to then comment on the fact that stone looks better, but he’s graciously letting Tommy having a say in it. He then expresses that his request is for Tommy to get “all the stone” but making sure that he doesn’t believe that Tommy will be able to do that. Multiple times in fact. He then tells him to get it with Phil because Phil would be able to do so, unlike him. And all of this is just to split up from him in a way that’ll have Tommy still be too busy to explain to anyone about Wilbur.

“He’s a good kid, he’s a good kid. I’ll be back on the saddle soon... I mean it’s only a matter of times I’ve done it once I’ll do it again” (I do think that Wilbur does care for Tommy a bit, I’m fairly sure about that, but their relationship really sin’t healthy. Also we’re back with Wilbur immediately assuming the role of “protagonist” in his “story” once more)

“Why does everyone like that Ranboo guy? I don’t understand...” (once again, incapacity to understand someone who is so diametrically opposed to him)

“I’m done apologizing” (he didn’t even start. Not in a way that mattered and not to the people who needed it most)

“I don’t know how I was revived” (Wilbur canonically does not know about the revive book)

Wilbur’s stream ends with him checking out Quackity’s book and Wilbur making a whole speach confirming that his idea of power is tied to physical strenght and feeling self assured in the fact that he was “right all along”. Tommy’s stream however was not over yet.

“I don’t want to try and save the server, I don’t have that in me”

“We need to get the stone... and then we need to stop Will and he hopefully won’t destroy the server” (Tommy being dragged back in the role of the hero kicking and screaming)

“When we did L’Manburg I was a strong guy, a character that could go around and now it feels different. I feel thinner. I feel... don’t have a choice. I don’t have a choice” (once more he lacks the proper words to describe trauma, but he still does a great job of it. He also feels once again like this role was put on him and he has no choice but to oblige)

Tommy later talks about how he won't let anyone put him "through that shit" (manipulation) but that he’ll still get the stone because it would be nice to have Wiilbur be impressed with him. Which is just a great way to let us know that Wilbur's tactic has indeed worked.

And this is pretty much it!

#tommyinnit #wilbur soot #ranboo #dream smp #tw manipulation #tw abuse mention #character analysis #relationship analysis #long post #my post #pretty sure that this is the longest post I've ever written...#the whole thing was just so utterly confusing #this did clear up my thought though so that's nice!#also shoutout to wilbur dying inside at tommy's tinder joke and visibly having to force himself to stay in character for it

174 notes · View notes

spockandawe · 3 years

Note

Hi...if you don't mind me asking, can I ask, who are your top 5 favorite couples (can be canon or non-canon) from all of the danmei novels that you've finished reading until now? Thanks and sorry if you've answered this before...

ooh, this is hard, because if a pair sticks with me, it's usually because they're bringing some kind of DIFFERENT vibe, which makes it a lot harder to compare them. But let me give it a shot, and lemme try to be short-winded, i've been hard on my hands lately and things are le sore. And I'm going to restrict myself to canon just so things don't go totally off the rails.

5. Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji. Oh no, I feel bad that this is so low. I love them both a lot!!! I love a good opposites attract story, and I adore Lan Wangji's strength of emotion versus how little of it shows on his face. I love his quiet character growth and his stubbornness and the way he devotes himself to Wei Wuxian, and the way that Wei Wuxian is so hard to realize because he's got, ah, issues, that he thinks circles around because he's an unbelievably unreliable narrator who doesn't think he deserves nice things. But even through that, he takes such joy in life and cares so much for the people around him, and it makes for a lovely dynamic. It's very, very compelling to me, and I love them a lot, just, today I'm really feeling assholery and/or messy relationships, haha

4. Zhou Zishu/Wen Kexing. Oh, this is harder to talk about than everyone else on this list. They both have long histories of bloodshed, and violence, but somehow bring out this shining, youthful joy in life in each other. It was such a magnetic draw, but they were different enough that the process of drawing them together is fascinating to watch. They're both, objectively, very strange men, but incredibly in sync with each other. For some reason, the scene in the book where Wen Kexing bites Zhou Zishu's arm hard enough to make him bleed, and Zhou Zishu waits until he's done, then holds him close, and they fall asleep in each other's arms... there's something about the feeling of reading and deciding that these two were meant for each other that always does it for me.

3. Hua Cheng/Xie Lian. They're just......... so compatible. I usually like a lot more conflict in a relationship (see ship number one), but this just clicks into place so beautifully, it's impossible to say no. I adore them. The primary conflicts in this relationship are 1) fear of rejection, and 2) no, i AM mad that you aren't taking better care of yourself >:( How can I say no to that? And, of course, I love love love that Hua Cheng is unrelentingly soft for Xie Lian, and is an unrelenting asshole to basically everyone else, and that Xie Lian makes no effort to change him, he just loves him as he is.

2. Shen Qingqiu/Luo Binghe. Is tgcf objectively a better book? Yes, probably, but Luo Binghe hits my weak spot for massive damage. He breaks my heart, and there are very few characters in this books that I'm as desperate to see happy as I am with Binghe. And it's a very good ship for pondering post-canon character development, which is a very good way to get me fixated on a ship. Because they only barely settle into the shape of a relationship by the time everything is over, and everything is so fraught and complicated, and plot pushed them into a nasty corner before they were able to take control back, and they want to make it work. Luo Binghe was designed in a laboratory to target all my weak spots, and that's just the way it is.

1. Feng Xiao/Cui Buqu. Okay. Okay. In this day, in this moment, they're my favorite. These rankings change very much, all the time, but right now, I am living for their dynamic. They're such ASSHOLES! Like, with yanshen in the technically-prequel, you've got the one asshole boyfriend and the one decent person boyfriend. No. We're done with that. No half-assing it HERE, everyone is the FULL ASSHOLE, and i gasp out loud every time one of them makes a huge, sweeping gesture of trust, and then follows it up by refusing to say anything as straightforward as 'I appreciate you.' My favorite love language is 'I will allow you to stab me in the chest and won't blame you afterward.' My favorite love language is 'I will feed you this life-saving medicine in case it helps, even knowing it will leave me in a terrible position later.' My favorite love language is 'yes, you tortured me, but i get why, and i'm not going to blame you, i'm just going to get revenge.' My favorite love language is qi transfer. And this is also one of the few xianxia ships I've read where one boyfriend isn't a martial artist, and is actually super frail and delicate. And I have thoughts about this dynamic and feng xiao's hangups. I just... they're so good, you guys. I LIVE for reading about assholes in love. It's one of my favorite food groups.

#spock replies #peerless #svsss #tgcf #faraway wanderers #mdzs #wangxian #bingqiu #hualian #wenzhou #fengcui #womp womp i am bad at being short-winded

48 notes · View notes

m0srael · 3 years

Text

Torch Your Inhibitions

2k | E | Read on Ao3

Third installment for @magpiefngrl's 2021 Summer Writing Challenge. Prompts: Bonfire + Sex Pollen + Unreliable Narrator. I joked about making this just a whole lotta nature-based group sex and...well... Thanks @nv-md and @devilrising for making this even better!

“Malfoy, are you sure the invitation says no pants allowed?” Harry says to the mirror as he grimaces and tightens the rope holding his robe closed around his hips.

“Yes, Luna has been very clear about the order of this evening’s events, and frankly it just seems... neater to me. You disagree?”

Harry forgets to reply for a moment, distracted by the broad swath of pale chest Draco’s own robe has left exposed, one hard, pink nipple on full display. Draco doesn’t notice that Harry’s jaw has gone slack as he’s too busy readjusting himself under the thick, burgundy fabric that makes his hair seem more golden than usual.

“Well, I mean, she’s not going to check, is she?” Harry manages to say, despite the marked blood deficit in his brain. “Bloody hell, what am I saying, it’s Luna of course she’d check.”

“Right. So…” Draco murmurs , matter-of-factly, as he moves to stand close behind Harry, making eye contact in the mirror, “knickers off, Potter.”

Harry tells himself he doesn’t know what Draco is about to do, but the moment he feels the fabric shift against his arse he freezes, hoping beyond hope that he has guessed correctly.

“Alright?” Draco whispers on a smirk into his bare shoulder as an unsupressable shudder shakes through Harry.

Harry can’t speak, so he just nods.

Draco slowly gathers up the bottom of Harry’s robe in his fingers until he can slip his hands underneath it, letting it cascade down his wrists. He hooks his thumbs in the elastic band where it wraps around Harry’s hips.

Harry’s eyes fall closed as Draco’s fingers drag against his skin, down and down Harry’s thighs, until his pants fall to the ground.

Draco makes a soft sound. When Harry’s eyes fly open he realizes that Draco’s gaze is fixed to the tent in his loose robe, all the more obvious now that his cock is free.

“Steady, Potter. We haven’t even made it to the party yet,” Draco growls, before turning quickly and stalking out of the bedroom.

Harry groans and covers his flaming face, letting his head thunk against the wardrobe door. He doesn’t understand what it all means.

He and Draco have been living together for a year and a half. For the first six months they avoided one another almost entirely. The eight or so months after that had been punctuated by short, fiery conversations as they felt each other out, slowly arriving at some mutual understanding and even cautious friendship.

The last few months, including the very moment Harry finds himself in presently, have been an unending nightmare. He never realized how tactile Draco is with friends, but he touches Harry all the time.

When Draco needs a glass from the cupboard over Harry’s head, he plants one hot palm firmly on Harry’s lower back to steady himself. When they sit on the couch watching films, Draco always slides his cold feet under Harry’s thigh for warmth. It only takes half a pint at the pub before Draco’s leaning into Harry’s side, and another half before Draco drops his head onto Harry’s shoulder and presses his nose into Harry’s throat.

Draco also apparently has some aversion to closed doors. Harry is sure it has something to do with growing up in the Manor, being shut in for so long with such terrible people. It doesn’t really bother Harry, who also hates feeling trapped.

Though...he did accidentally walk in on Draco in the shower, mid-wank, last week.

Harry had stood, mesmerized in the doorway, watching for longer than he would ever admit (even to himself). He only averted his eyes when Draco noticed him, and said, “Are you going to stand there gaping, or are you going to help, Potter?” He laughed mockingly as Harry hurried down the hallway shouting apologies.

A tiny part of Harry’s brain recognizes Draco’s behavior as flirtatious. The other part--the louder part--knows that never in a million years would Draco Malfoy share Harry’s secret desires. This is just how Draco is with everyone. Harry only started to notice it once they lived in the same house.

“Harry...I know you told me to stop asking, but...you’re sure you’re okay with this? You want to go? The details of the ritual were pretty clear, and Luna did say that no one was obligated to--”

Gods, did Draco think he was that naive and squeamish? No, he would see this through, if only to prove a point.

“Yeah, yep...yes. I’m okay. I mean, I want to go. I’m...curious. NO! I mean, well...I want to...support Luna, so…” Harry trails off as he joins Draco on the front steps.

“Uh huh. Convincing,” Draco smirks, “if you want to leave, you can. Okay?” he finishes in that soft, pedantic way of his before taking Harry’s hand and apparating them to the coordinates from Luna’s invitation.

Luna had insisted everyone arrive rested and well-hydrated, and Harry was glad he’d taken her advice.

Before the sunlight faded completely, they set up the May Day altar together, followed Luna in a series of prayers for fertility and abundance, and danced around the maypole. Neville had even brought everyone a seedling to plant somewhere in the forest or take home to plant in their garden.

Harry would be feeling a little silly about all the neo-pagan pageantry, if his stomach weren’t tying itself into knots the further the sun falls below the horizon.

Before he knows it, Seamus is tossing a lit torch onto a giant pile of logs in the center of the forest clearing.

“Happy May Day, everyone!” Luna sing-songs as they all assemble around the bonfire.

She reaches into a fold in her robe and pulls out a small pouch.

“It’s time for the most important rite of the evening. I hope you all took the time to read the pamphlet I included with your invitation. If you’d like to forgo participation, I suggest you step away from the fire before we begin. If anyone is still unsure about what this part of the evening entails, please let me know now! There are no silly questions!”

Harry watches as a few people say their goodbyes and apparate away. He lifts one foot slightly as if to move away from the fire before catching Draco’s eyes across the circle. His brow is furrowed—he looks upset. His eyes are glowing in the firelight and he flicks his tongue out along his bottom lip. Harry plants his feet, nodding slightly as if to say yeah, I’m okay, I’m staying.

“Alright, everyone! Take the hands of the people beside you!”

Harry’s hand closes around Neville’s on one side and Pansy’s on the other. He makes eye contact with Neville and can’t stop the manic, high-pitched laugh that ekes its way out of his throat. Neville just smiles warmly and squeezes his hand. Harry’s stomach flutters.

“Have you all got the kits we sent with your invitations?” The group murmurs affirmatively. “Good! Just in case, there are extras in the basket over there! Can’t be too careful!” says Luna as she opens the pouch and dumps sparkling powder onto the fire.

The flames turn a brilliant deep purple color and leap up six or seven feet, giving off thick plumes of lavender smoke. Neville inhales and sighs deeply.

Harry closes his eyes and lets the fragrant smoke overwhelm his senses. He feels a soft breeze caress his hot skin, leaving a trail of goosebumps in its wake. He gasps as his robe rustles around his thighs.

Every ounce of nervousness melts out of him and into the earth. He’s distantly aware that there are people moving around him but he can’t be bothered to open his eyes and look at them; he feels better than he’s ever felt in his life.

Gentle fingers slide into his hair, making his mouth fall open to receive an eager tongue.

“Harry…” Neville whispers into his mouth before kissing him soundly. They stand for a while, lips sliding over each other’s mouths and palms moving over each other’s bodies.

“Mm, s’good…” Harry slurs as someone unties the rope around his hips and slides his robe off. He shivers at the sudden kiss of cool air and curling smoke.

When he finally pries his eyes open his view is full of the top of Neville’s head, now on his knees in front of Harry. Harry rolls Neville's head in his palms until their glassy eyes meet. Harry hadn’t realized he was so hard--he groans as Neville takes him in hand and begins to stroke him lazily.

A hand slides around his chest from behind and a soft, warm body presses flush against his back.

“I always thought you were fit...” Pansy mouths against the back of his neck. Her small fingers tease his nipples as she rolls her naked body against his.

Harry shivers again when the thick smoke parts and his eyes land on Draco across the fire. He’s kissing Seamus deeply, one hand wrapped around the back of his head, as he strokes them both with one hand. He gasps when Draco opens his eyes and turns his head slightly to look right at him.

Making sure he didn’t chicken out, probably.

Harry’s head falls back onto the top of Pansy’s as Neville takes him into his mouth, inch by inch, humming around him. Harry’s first orgasm rolls through him almost without his knowledge, every cell in his body pulsing as Neville moans and licks him through it. He watches as Neville pulls off and strokes himself to completion, one hand gripping Harry’s thigh tightly.

He’s on his knees in front of Pansy, who he’s backed into a tree at the edge of the clearing, his face wet and hot, when he hears that voice.

“My loves,” Draco purrs. The clearing is filled with the sounds of heavy panting and urgent moans.

As Draco leans over Harry’s shoulder to kiss Pansy, his cock rests hot and heavy on Harry’s shoulder. Harry slides his tongue out of Pansy, replacing it with two fingers, to press his mouth to Draco’s throbbing flesh. Draco curls his fingers in Harry’s hair, pulling hard.

“Harry...need you…now...” Draco pants, pulling his head further back so they can make eye contact. Pansy moans loudly and Harry can feel her tighten around him, hips rocking forward onto his fingers.

Draco pulls Harry away from the clearing, the light and sounds from the bonfire growing distant and muffled. He urges Harry onto his back on the forest floor before straddling his hips.

“So...beautiful,” breathes Harry as he runs appreciative hands over Draco’s scarred chest, “want you so much…”

“Want you too, for so long, Harry,” Draco replies as he pops open the cap of the little bottle of lube Luna had sent them. The handmade label reads ‘A Happy May Day is a Lubricated One!’ complete with little drawings of butterflies.

“What?” replies Harry, hands stilling in confusion.

Harry can’t temper the sound that tears out of him as Draco wraps his wet hand around them both and begins to roll his hips. Harry thinks he’ll come again from that alone, but before he can Draco’s hand is gone.

“Aren’t you glad, now, that you listened to the no-pants rule--ah--Potter?” Draco quips as he lowers himself slowly onto Harry.

“Mmmm, yes, yes you were right,” hisses Harry as waves of heat and sensation roll up his spine.

“There, that wasn’t so difficult, was it?” Draco teases on a breathy laugh that quickly becomes a low moan.

Harry’s hips press up to meet Draco’s every slow, languorous thrust. Harry drifts, pulled under by Draco’s fingers and his lips at Harry’s ear whispering all kinds of incredible things.

You’re all I want, Harry. Need you, all the time, not just tonight. Please, I’m yours, I’m yours, Harry.

When Harry comes, he cradles Draco’s face in his hands, open mouth pressed against the corner of Draco’s mouth. Draco immediately follows, breathing out Harry’s name again, and again.

Harry can’t stop the laugh that forces its way out of his chest, and he’s delighted when Draco laughs along with him, folding forward to rest his forehead against Harry’s.

When Harry wakes up the next morning his memory of the night before is complete in his mind, but it feels wrapped in a purple-tinted haze. It takes him a moment to realize that he’s not alone in his bed--Draco is tucked up against his side, breathing gently.

Harry turns to watch him sleep in silence for a moment, finally admitting to himself that Draco really had been flirting with him the whole time. He wants to laugh at the absurdity of it all, but he doesn’t want to wake Draco.

It takes him a moment to notice that Draco’s eyes have blinked open sleepily.

“Mine?” whispers Harry.

“Yours, Harry.”

#2021 summer writin #drarry fic rec #drarry fanfic #drarry #Luna doesn't f*ck around when it comes to bonfires #Except that she does if you know what I mean #mosewrites

36 notes · View notes

philliamwrites · 4 years

Text

The Dawn Will Come [Chpt.6]

Fandom: Fire Emblem Three Houses

Pairing: Dimitri x Reader, Claude x Reader, Edelgard x Reader, Yuri x Reader, Edelgard x Byleth, lots of minor pairings

Tags: #gn reader, # platonic love byleth & reader, #reader is a tactical unit, #angst, #slow burn, #subplots, #unreliable narrator, #pining, #remporary amnesia, #reluctant herp, #canon divergence, #lost twin au, #many chapters, #original content

Words: 5.1k

Summary: Waking up in a forest without any knowledge of your past and who you are, you join the house leaders of the Officers Academy to search for a way to return your memories. Unfortunately, the church has different plans for you, and Fate places you in the centre of a cruel game with deadly stakes. It certainly doesn’t help to fall in love with a house leader who is doomed to be your demise.

Notes: Chapter 5 | Chapter 7

Chapter 06: From The Beyond

Ah! It is well for the unfortunate to be resigned, but for the guilty there is no peace.

[Mary B. Shelley, Frankenstein]

Thinking back on it later, the events during Garland Moon were probably what set the hare running toward its demise. Not that any of you could have known that. Not the students who joyfully spend their days in cherished halls where daylight passes through coloured glass; not Byleth with her gift to correct past mistakes with a flick of her wrist and change the course of time; not you with your foresight to see what dangers await in the future and prepare a different path for those you care for to walk safely.

Thinking back on it later, everything that followed surely ascribed to and served Fate, and not even Sylvain could charm her with his silver tongue and golden wit, for Fate’s lover is Time and she does not look kindly upon those who enslave him.

Maybe that is why things turned out the way they did for Byleth and you.

But that future is still far away and every single one of you still believes the goddess has Fate tightly leashed to her side, her benevolence endless and spreading to every corner in Fódlan.

That is why you don’t think too much about it when one day, Seteth disturbs your seminar, a deep frown settled in his features as you explain how to turn an ambush to your advantage to the students.

“Apologies for the disturbance, Herald. Lady Rhea asks to see Ashe.”

The boy gives a pitiful squeal but is up on his feet nonetheless. “Me? Why?”

“You will see. Please come.” Seteth holds the classroom’s door open.

You nod, a little worried about the frightened glance Ashe sends your way like he hopes you can actually say no and decline Rhea’s command. An encouraging smile is everything you can give him on his way before the door shuts behind him. Its sound wakes everyone else from their slumber and it takes a few minutes to reclaim order and their attention. It certainly does help that the Blue Lion House isn’t as chaotic as a certain other, not to name any names.

Said house proves again to be more difficult to teach. Or tame. You didn’t have the courage to ask why they thought it was a good idea to see whose shoe would leave the darkest stain on Claude’s bedroom’s ceiling. Even days after their mischief students kept talking about how they have never seen Seteth this furious.

“Herald, please,” Hilda cries, tragically draped over the back of her chair, a maiden in bittersweet agony over her loss of free time. “It was all Claude’s fault.”

“Liars never prosper,” Claude calls from the far back of the room. He’s hunched over his papers, working vigorously on Seteth’s punishment. He ordered them to write hundred times I shall not throw footwear against any ceiling in the monastery. They’ve been at it for about twenty minutes and Claude’s quill hasn’t stopped its furious scratching against parchment at all.

“I won’t mess with Seteth,” you tell them and lean dangerously far back on your chair to place your feet on the teacher’s desk. “And you deserve it. Or do they not teach you proper manners in your noble homes?”

“Well, it’s not like anyone taught us not to do it,” Hilda chirps. You throw a glare her way and she quickly dugs her head and continues writing. Quills scratch on paper for about seven seconds before Hilda stops again.

“Herald,” she says. “What do you think about Lady Catherine’s Thunderbrand?”

You look up from your book titled Noticeable War Generals. Smile gone from her face, Hilda looks up at you with sharp curiosity. It’s eerily silent now, and a quick glance towards Claude shows he is listening as well.

Catherine’s Thunderbrand. Its sight is still burned into the back of your closed eyes: Golden ivory forged into a grotesque sword, a blood red Crest Stone in its middle that seemed to pulsate—as if it breathed. As if it was a living thing with a heart. You had simply stared at it in awe and thought What a mesmerising weapon.

“It’s … fascinating,” you manage. “A Hero’s Relic. There are more than just Thunderbrand, right?”

“Ten exist,” Claude calls from the back. “Bestowed by the goddess upon ten heroes, they are passed down to their descendants. House Riegan and House Goneril have one in their possession as well.”

“Then why don’t you use it?” You certainly wouldn’t miss a chance to own and wield a mighty weapon like that.

“Wield that?”Hilda shudders in disgust. “No thank you. It looks so weird, pulsating and moving like an insect.”

“And we’re way too inexperienced to use it in a real battle.” Claude puts his quill between his nose and upper lip and tries to hold it there. “They’re locked away anyway and hidden from those who might misuse their power.”

Claude has a point. Nonetheless, you’d gladly take a look at them. Maybe even hold one … Did the Herald own one as well? A special weapon only forged for the Herald. A slight shudder runs down your spine at the thought of using it in battle.

Ten minutes later, Claude jumps to his feet. He hurries towards you, slams his parchments on the table and leaves just as fast. “Bye Herald!”

“No way!” Hilda pales. “How is he so fast?”

You wonder as well and take a look at his papers. Instead of writing what Seteth has told them, Claude simply left poor drawings of their crime and promised with one sentence he wouldn’t do it again.

And we of House Riegan never break our promises, reads the last line.

You groan. Now it’s your turn to think about a good explanation to Seteth’s questions why you haven’t paid more attention.

Month three passed within the blink of an eye. Garland Moon brought the sweet smell of white roses to Garreg Mach, a tradition much anticipated by the students. Everywhere you went, garlands and gifts made of white roses were given to each other as a sign of friendship or budding love. Some found their way to your desk, though your admirers preferred to stay anonymous whereas Byleth was busy to stow them somewhere—not a day passed without her receiving something or a group of giggling students following her around.

“I really don’t know what to do with all those flowers,” she told you one day during a tea session, a deep frown on her face. “They wilt. Then I throw them away. It’s a waste.”

“Your students love it,” you replied but were glad not to be in her place.

Another good deed Garland Moon brought with it is longer days and shorter nights. Students lounged outside in their summer uniforms after class, enjoying those last warm days before raining season arrived with fierce gusts and heavy pouring, forcing them back inside where they spent their free time inside the library or the dining hall, playing little games to kill time.

For a change of pace, Byleth and Jeralt decided they’d hold a grilled fish dinner on every last day of each week and most of the invited either didn’t have the heart or the courage to tell them once every week was once every week too much.

Everything happened too fast after that. Rhea informed the teacher’s faculty and her Knights of Lord Lonato Gaspard’s planned rebellion against the church. With that, the mystery of why Seteth had demanded to speak with Ashe was solved; it also explained why he spent so much time inside the chapel, praying and wondering himself about his adoptive father’s reasoning.

“There is no question about it,” Rhea says in her cool, demanding voice once every teacher and Knight of Seiros gathered inside the War Room to discuss the matter. “We will send a troop to meet them halfway in Kingdom Territory. They will pay for mocking our goddess.”

“Allow me to lead the Knights, Lady Rhea,” Catherine says. Even now, you can’t take your eyes off Thunderbrand strapped on her back. “I know Gaspard and what he’s capable of.”

“We did not forget what you’ve done back when—” Seteth starts. Catherine silences him with one look, leaving no doubt she doesn’t wish to speak of it.

“And that is exactly why I have to go.”

Rhea nodded. “So be it. I know I leave this mission in your capable hands.”

“But why is he leading this rebellion?” you wonder. “I thought the Kingdom is strongly devoted to Seiros’ teachings.”

“Every flock has its black sheep,” Rhea says, sounding sad. “We will get our answers once we defeat and capture them.”

“What about the surrounding villages and those who support Gaspard’s rebellion but don’t fight?” Byleth asked. Until now, you haven’t really thought of those not directly involved in it, but she does make a good point.

Rhea squared her shoulders. “What about them?”

“They’re not directly involved but might try to get in our way.” Byleth glanced at the strategic map laid out before her. There is a way through the forest for your units to approach Lonato’s stronghold. Surrounding villages are marked with a red pin. They surround the forest in a loose circle, making an intrusion possible, though sending Knights of Seiros out to watch them and stop them could be quite easy—

“Everyone who supports this foolish rebellion should receive the rightful punishment,” Rhea says, her voice so cold it freezes your thoughts of how to make the villagers stay out of this. Your head snaps up as you stare at her. Byleth raises an eyebrow but remains silent just like everyone else. Something about that makes you shudder.

“But they’re civilians, right? If we can avoid having them interfere—”

“By joining Lonato Gaspard’s rebellion they pledge guilty to his cause.” Rhea looks up at you, scorn flashing briefly in her eyes. “I will not have them simply go if it opens the possibility for revenge one day.”

If you squinted really hard, there was reason behind her words. Still, your stomach turned at the thought of endangering civilians even though it could be prevented. Without any protests, that was the plan for the operation.

You sat this one out. There was much to prepare for the upcoming Rite of Rebirth, a ceremony when the Church of Seiros and its believers unite to pray for the return of the goddess. Even though you wouldn’t call yourself a believer—many find it strange that you remember the way of war but not the way of the Church as if you lived somewhere without Seiros’ teachings—your presence was of outmost importance as well. Though after you heard how the mission went, you really wished you had joined the Blue Lions fighting against Gaspard instead of sitting around and deciding which ceremonial robes fit better.

Loud voices drift through the closed door of a classroom, voices you immediately recognise belonging to Dimitri and Byleth.

“Are you insane?” You flinch back even though a heavy wooden door separates you from what is undoubtedly Dimitri’s wrath. “Those were civilians.”

A reply is lost, too quiet for you to hear, but whatever Byleth said, it wasn’t the right thing. A second later, Dimitri storms through the doors. The distress in his features stops you from asking what is wrong, a flash of betrayal lurking in his eyes seals your mouth shut. You look after him until he disappears around the corner, only slowly turning towards Byleth. She is propping herself up on the table, learning on her strong arms and staring at the opposite wall, her mouth a grim line—solid rock that stands against the raging waves summoned by Dimitri, her grip on the edge of the table hard enough to turn her knuckles white.

“Everything okay?” An unnecessary question answered by a simple shake of her head. You lean your hips against the table. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Byleth is silent. Only slowly, like a tight knot finally coming lose, the tension in her shoulders dissipates and she takes a long, deep breath.

“Dimitri told me about their mission. How they dealt with Lord Lonato’s revolt.” She finally steps away from the table and kneads the muscles in her shoulders. You imagine they’re hard like a rock. “They faced simple peasants who defended their Lord. Peasants who didn’t even know how to wield a sword without cutting their own thumbs off.”

“And Rhea made quite clear how to deal with them,” you finish, summoning unwanted imaginations about a gruesome butchery in your mind. Byleth nods.

“Dimitri asked for my advice,” she continues, her gaze drifting towards the door as if said young man might return like a bad haunting if his name is simply muttered. “If there was anything they could have done different. I told him there wasn’t.” She tears her eyes away from the door and fixes them on you. “I told him that is the way of war.”

She is right, a part of you insists. Such facts cannot be changed and claiming anything different is foolish, naive. Yet, something stirs, a tiny tiny voice, a feeling, that challenges that thought. A feeling you didn’t expect to be part of you.

“I don’t know about the details,” you say, shuffling from left to right, “but maybe it was avoidable. Lord Lonato must have known how his subjects felt about it. He didn’t need to involve them.”

“I think they joined on their own. The students gave them a chance to lay down their weapons.”

“Still—”

“Still they decided to follow their foolish Lord,” a voice from the door joins, cold and imperious, chilling you to the bone. Rhea enters the War Room, her expression void of any warmth or kindness. “There is no place for doubt. We must punish any sinner who may inflict harm upon believers, even if those sinners are civilians.”

“And you think to have the students punish them is right?” Byleth asks, earning a sharp glare from Rhea. She quickly, but somewhat begrudgingly adds, “Your Grace.”

“I have heard that some students struggled with completing the task,” Rhea acknowledges, doing her best to show how unaffected she is by Byleth’s criticism. “I pray they learnt a valuable lesson about the fate that awaits all who are foolish enough to point their blades towards the heavens.”

An icy shudder crawls up your spine, cold fingers tighten around your throat to keep you silent—a leash forged of obedience and intimidation, the mistress standing before you. It would be wise to keep your mouth shut, not draw unnecessary attention; keep your head low and nothing can slice it from your shoulders. But the words, burning hot on your tongue, demand freedom.

“Fearing the Church isn’t the same as respecting it.”

Something sharp flashes in Rhea’s eyes. “If fear is the only way to control them, then so be it. They are traitors to the holy teachings.”

“They are people. People with families.”

“People who would be wise to remember it was the progenitor god who gave them these lands and their life,” Rhea answers, growing impatient. She notices something in the way you look at her, for she takes a moment to collect herself by taking a deep breath. “I do not enjoy seeing those who wronged our holy teachings punished, Herald,” she continues, now much calmer. “But punish them we must before they hurt those who are dear to us.” Upon her last words, her eyes dart to Byleth, looking at her with so much fondness and care, a sting of jealousy in your chest forces you to avert your gaze to the ground. It isn’t the first time you notice Rhea’s palpable interest in Byleth’s wellbeing though no answer comes to mind why it is like that. If Byleth noticed the same, she doesn’t show it.

After that, the incident is quickly forgotten, making room for the new incident occupying everyone’s mind: an assassination plot on Rhea on the day of the Rite of Rebirth found in Lonato’s possession. You aren’t the only one wondering why he’d carry something like that around where it’s easy to find. Multiple theories go around, one more farfetched than the other. One particular makes sense, its source none other than sharp witted Claude who thinks this plot is a simple distraction for something much bigger.

“If security is focused on the Rite of Rebirth inside the Goddess’ Tower, pretty much anyone can simply stroll around the monastery and do who knows what,” he told you on the day Byleth and her class set out to discover what important places might become a target. Garreg Mach hides many secrets and treasures. Some of them even you are not allowed to see like relics passed down from archbishop to archbishop, guarded by the elite of the Knights of Seiros, tall and bulky men and women with grim mouths and determined eyes rooting them in place day and night in front of locked doors only Rhea knows what they hide.

With every passing day, tension hangs in the air like a thick blanket waiting to smother you all. But it isn’t simply the anticipation for whatever the Western Church has planned. It is also the holy ceremony of the Rite of Rebirth, one you’ve practised under the stern eyes of Seteth who doesn’t settle for anything less than perfect. Every word, every step is engraved in your mind.

On the day of the Rite of Rebirth the sun relentlessly blazes down at the monastery. Your ceremonial robes are heavy and woven from thick jacquard fabric lined with fine golden patterns that depict the Herald’s Crest on the back. You’ve barely finished preparing everything inside the round chamber inside the Goddess’ Tower but perspiration glues your hair to your forehead.

A whole feast is prepared; food offerings and gifts from the townsfolk and priests served on golden and silver plates on long tables covered with white table clothes. In the middle Seteth prepared a small platform for Rhea to stand and speak in honour of the goddess that she may return to Fódlan and show its people her infinite grace. In short, you’d do anything to join the students who are securing the locations lacking in defence right now instead of standing around and waving at pilgrims. The only joy lies in Flayn’s bright presence and her never ending optimism. She’s a sweet girl and has been looking forward to the ceremony since the beginning of Blue Sea Moon. Looking upon her, it is hard not to catch her excitement and joy when the ceremony finally begins.

Because of certain circumstances you couldn’t quite follow, the holy relic used for the ceremony, the Chalice of Beginnings, has been missing for a long time. Because of that, a mock chalice was prepared by the cardinals, a handful of high authority men and women who make it no secret they can’t quite decide if they like or dislike you and your position.

“You must excuse them,” one of the cardinals says after a group of them simply shook their heads at you happily scooping tons of food on a plate. His dark hair falls to his shoulders and unlike the other cardinals, his brown eyes are filled with kindness. “They simply think in old patterns and value their old traditions. You are quite young, Herald. They don’t know how to handle that.”

“But you do?” you wonder and notice too late how unfriendly that sounds. But he simply laughs.

“I do frequent with young folk, yes,” he says. “They are my flock and I will do anything to protect them.”

“That again, Aelfric?” Catherine joins you and slaps his shoulder just when he was about to drink from his cup. You pretend the pastries on your plate are far more interesting than watching him choke on wine. “You’re way too good for them, you know?”

“Who is ‘them?’” you ask but Catherine just sways her hand as if he wants to get rid of a nasty fly.

“Unimportant. You did a good job carrying the chalice to the podium.”

“I did almost trip over these.” You pluck at the heavy robes, already looking forward to getting out of them.

Catherine laughs but it is short lived. Out of nowhere, a knight hurriedly approaches and leans over to her, muttering, “They are after the tomb of Saint Seiros.”

Glass shatters as her grip tightens around the fragile stem but without so much as noticing it she storms towards Rhea, fury blazing in her eyes. Something happened. Something far more exciting than playing a believer in front of everyone, so you follow her to listen in more.

“Those dastards from the Western Church infiltrated the Holy Mausoleum,” she says. Rhea pales. “I will take some knights and go there at once.”

“Go and be swift, Catherine.” Rhea’s words are barely a puff of breath, those news shaking her but she remains stoic in front of everyone to prevent panic. Her voice drops dangerously low. “Punish those heathens.”

Catherine’s head dips in a slight bow. “I will, Your Grace.”

“I want to help too.”

Both turn around at your voice. Catherine narrows her eyes to sharp slits, but it is Rhea who says, “No. I need you here for the ceremony, Herald.”

“Please, let me,” you beg. Something inside you demands to follow, demands to see what is inside the Holy Mausoleum that causes so much bloodshed. “I can’t explain, but I need to be there.”

Rhea presses her lips into a thin line. Before she reopens her mouth to decline your wish, you whirl around and leave the ceremony room, Catherine in hot pursuit. You manage halfway down the hallway before she reaches you and grabs your arm hard.

“Even though you are the Herald, I won’t allow you to show this disrespect towards Her Grace,” she snarls. “If she tells you to stay, you listen.”

“I don’t expect you to understand,” you say, trying to free your arm from her bone breaking grip. “But something calls me to this place and I need to follow it.”

Catherine isn’t pleased but she knows better than do you any real harm. With a crude nod, she allows you to follow. Several knights wait for you and together you make your way through the warm evening air towards the Holy Mausoleum that lies behind the chapel.

You enter right before chaos erupts. At the end of the hall, its ceiling so high up it’s barely visible in the dark, Byleth stands tall and rises a sword that flashes in a bright red light. A throb goes through your body and brings you to your knees. It feels like an arrow drove into your chest, the stinging pain unlike anything you’ve felt before—no, it’s a pain you haven’t felt since the Crest appeared on your eye for the first time. And then that thrumming energy within you exploded, a sharp crimson that drenched every corner of your right vision, rushing through your veins.

“Kill them!” an enemy mage commands, fury fuelling him to a last desperate attack. With his remaining companions, they summon a giant fire spell you’ve only read about in books, a combination of spells into a group flame that covers a large area—the pre-stage to a much more fatal blaze that can scorch the land. Blaze or no, the effect watching the giant fire ball curling and sparking until it grows large enough to wipe out anything in its way is the same. Fear paralyses your body. Move, your mind screams, but you can’t. Your muscles have locked up; a high whine of terror fills your head and fizzes in your blood like poison, yet you do not understand where this fear of fire comes from.

“Take cover!” Catherine roars but it is too late. The blast hits the ground right before you, dispersing your small group of reinforcements like wind scattering leaves in all directions. A loud crack beneath you makes your heart skip a beat, a rumble shakes the hall and before you can fully comprehend what is happening, the ground gives way.

The last thing you hear is Byleth shouting, not Herald, but your name before you plunge into darkness.

Wake up.

You have to wake up.

This darkness is terrifying, so utterly black and choking, curling around you like a tight fist. Like someone is holding you in their dirty, tainted clutches, smelling of death and horror. Wake up, you tell yourself, more urgent now, your mind struggling to escape from claws digging into your consciousness, their goal unknown but you don’t want to stay here to find out what they are after. What they want to take from you.

Wake up, this time another voice, the voice, echoing like a sweet bell’s chime, the flicker of light in a darkness so black it hums. You have to wake up.

Your eyes snap open, the sudden white ceiling hurting like a sudden flash of light. Once you’re used to the brightness, you realise this isn’t a room, this is … this is your consciousness—no walls, no windows. It’s just a space, and yet you can clearly determine borders. Somewhere is an exit you’re free to use, nothing holds you captive. It’s your safe place. Your haven. Which doesn’t explain how you’ve gotten here.

All you know is it feels safe. It feels like a warm embrace, the feeling of hope, watching a budding flower embraced by soft, fragile hands—asteritrope, your mind provides out of nowhere, the flower always turning its head towards the Blue Star.

It is like breaking a spell. First, everything is simply white, empty, a second later, you stand in a vast field of asteritropes, an ocean of purple, gently swaying flowers at your feet. Everything smells of sweet innocence, of honey dipped fingers and bittersweet regret. It is a familiar scent, one your body remembers and reacts to with a shudder so strong it rattles deep in your bones; a chill so cold it freezes you on the spot, the slightest movement threatening to shatter you entirely.

What is this grief, this sadness? Is it your own or have you fallen into a sea of tears wept by someone else? Your chest is heavy with a burden, a pulling towards the unknown that is yet so familiar. It is homesickness towards a place you have never been but long to visit.

The flowers shaped like little stars stretch beyond what you think are the edges of this place. If this is a dream, you don’t want to wake up anytime soon, relishing in this peace and quiet.

A peace and quiet that lasts only a moment until you notice it. Not it, him. In the middle of the field, a boy sits, bent over something that demands his complete attention. Dark curls fall against pale skin, his brows pulled tightly together as his fingers work something in his lap. He is wearing a simple white robe, though it is unlike any of the religious wear you've seen on the priests and nuns; it seem ... too old for that. Only after you approach, you see he is folding purple flowers and green steams into a crown.

“Hello?” you say, only now entertaining the idea you might have died and this is the afterlife, the first point before returning to the goddess’ side. It is a strangely tranquil thought. “Can you hear me?”

The boy’s head snaps up, his eyes wide as he momentarily forgets his work, and you take a step back, struck by how bright his steel grey eyes are. They roam over you, up and down, back up again, as he slowly raises to his feet.

“You’re here,” he says, awestruck. “You’re finally here. It is so nice to meet you after all this time.”

His voice is like a punch to your gut. You recognise it immediately, the voice who pulled you back from the darkness.

“You—” Nothing makes sense. “Who are you? What are you?”

“There is nothing to fear,” he says, offering you his hand. The tips of his fingers are purple from handling delicate petals. The crown lies at his bare feet, forgotten. He looks strangely vulnerable.

You take another step back, worry a steady, hard pulse against your neck. The air catches in your lungs. You feel like the ground is opening beneath your feet. “Are you … the goddess? A god?”

The boy blinks, then throws his head back and bursts out laughing, the sound like sweet bells chiming in the wind. “You people love to call everything you do not understand god.”

“Then what are you?” It comes out as a breath, and for a brief second you think it’s fear that seizes your body, but no. You should be afraid and yet instead of frenzy panic there is a calm spreading inside you as if you belong here. You can’t say if it’s the boy’s presence or the familiar scent of wildflowers.

The boy leans his head to the side, his smile as vibrant as early sunlight casting away leftover shadows from a dark night. “Hmmm … the End, perhaps? Or why not just … a friend?”

“The end? My end?”

“No, the end is never simply the end,” he says, shaking his head.

“Is that supposed to reassure me?”

“It may be a rebirth,” he continues. “Or the passing into a new era. Into a new dawn.”

“A new dawn,” you mumble. The realisation makes your knees weak. “Don’t tell me—” You suck in a sharp breath, unable to belief where your thoughts are hurling towards in lightning speed. You kneel onto the soft flowerbed, careful not to crush any flowers. “Why are we here … do you know me by chance?”

“I … cannot say for sure,” he starts slowly, uncertainty turning his features even younger. “I have been watching you since you awoke four moons ago. On that day, I as well awoke from a deep slumber. But I do not know why it is you that I am bound to.”

“Bound to?” Your head spins. “What do you mean?”

“You must have felt it by now, have you not? I am here because of this,” he says, and lifts his hand to point at your right eye. You flinch back as if he smacked you right across your face.

“So you are him,” you whisper, a shudder ripping through your body. “You’re the first Herald. You are Seiros’ Champion.”

The boy smiles.

45 notes · View notes

r6shippingdelivery · 3 years

Text

I saw someone on Twitter post about how they wanted to see jealous Glaz, and I was struck by inspiration 😄 This fic is mostly about Glaz's perception of his place in Rainbow after Kali joins, and the bit with Fuze can be read as friendship or budding romance, whatever your like better.

WARNING: While Glaz is an unreliable narrator here, and Kali is not outright demonized, I haven't been kind to her either. So if she's your favorite character, proceed with caution.

You can also read the story in AO3, as the latest chapter of the Discord Ficlets collection.

Hatred was a shallow emotion, one that lived at surface level and hid deeper and more complex feelings, ones that people found harder to confront or admit and thus resorted to hate.

Glaz experienced that during his stint in the South Ossetia War, when the hatred they all felt for the enemy was just a cover for their sense of helplessness at stopping so much unnecessary death. As always, art became a way to express and work out his emotions, and from what he saw it was far healthier than drowning his sorrows in alcohol like most of his fellow soldiers did.

Over the years, Glaz had acquired a reputation for being a pretty stable person, not letting his emotions rule him but not burying and ignoring them either. So it was a shock to realise he was letting his emotions rule his opinion of a certain person.

It would be unfair to say he hated Kali. The Nighthaven leader had done nothing directly unpleasant to him, in fact Glaz wasn’t even sure if they ever had a conversation. But fuck, seeing her smug face made his blood boil. Admitting he was jealous was a bitter pill to swallow.

Glaz felt sidelined since she arrived. At first it had been normal that Kali got so much action in training matches and different situations, Harry always did that to ensure new additions got properly integrated in the team. However, Kali stopped being the new one and she kept being requested more and more often. If someone devised a plan that required a sniper, it was always her that got the call, almost never Glaz.

Sure, she was an excellent shot, but so was he. So were the other operators who had marksman training. Yet the only requested sniper was Kali. Even for the strategies that relied heavily on stealth, which made no sense to Glaz since Kali’s rifle was extremely loud and she refused to use a silencer. She insisted it wasn’t compatible with her weapon, which was utter bullshit in Glaz’s opinion. Then there were the snippets of conversations he heard from her in the shooting range.

“Of course I don’t use a thermal scope, that’s a crutch, and those are for beginners, not professionals.”

“I don’t hide behind smoke curtains like a child clinging to their mother’s skirts.”

“I could give you some pointers, you’d benefit by learning from a real sniper, Dokka.”

The gall of that woman! Glaz had never wanted to wipe the floor with someone as much as he did then, but when he approached them to offer a friendly marksman competition, Dokkaebi happily accepted while Kali sniffed and declined. “I’m busy now, maybe another time.”

Glaz silently fumed for days. He didn’t give a damn about Kali’s opinions; he knew he was an excellent sniper and she could make as many snide comments as she wanted. Nothing would change the truth. However, Glaz also had the feeling she was trying to undermine him, and he didn’t like that. Most operators in Rainbow were competitive by nature, but except for a few rivalries, the trash talking had always remained upfront and somewhat respectful, never behind another operator’s back. Things remained as they were, somewhat tense but peaceful, for a long time. Until the Invitational rolled around.

When the teams were publicly announced, the Spetsnaz were collectively surprised some of them were chosen to participate, unlike the previous year. Glaz didn’t mind sitting among the public again, and privately he and Kapkan made a point of keeping an eye out during the event. The White Masks might have been mostly obliterated, but they weren’t the only terrorist group in the world, and a huge gathering like this would be a tempting objective for any group looking to make a name for themselves. So he was fine with not being selected, truly. However, what he wasn’t fine with was the way Harry said one particular thing:

“And to showcase Rainbow’s prowess in long distance combat, team Ash will have our resident sniper, Kali.”

Seriously? The resident sniper, as in the only one? Glaz grit his teeth so hard he was sure everyone in the room could hear it. He refused to say anything, though, he wouldn’t turn this briefing into a spectacle. However, that didn’t stop him from hoping Tachanka would teach her a lesson with his new fire grenades. That would certainly put a smile on Glaz’s face.

Alas, that was not meant to happen, even if it came pretty close to actually becoming a reality. In the end, Tachanka’s team was eliminated, same as Fuze’s, and the tournament went on. Glaz thought nothing else would happen, and aside from secretly hoping for team Mira to win, he largely lost interest in the competition. Yet the competition, or more accurately, Kali, didn’t lose interest in them.

When Fuze told them he’d been invited to train with Nighthaven, none of the Spetsnaz was particularly pleased, since they worked better as a team, but they didn’t voice any objections either. Glaz wanted to, he wanted to forbid Fuze from doing it, but he was a rational man and knew that was both unreasonable and a douchebag move. If Fuze wanted to train with others, he was free to do so, of course. Glaz kept repeating that to himself, even if deep down he was sure that Kali woman wanted to take everything that he had, from his position as a sniper to his friends.

Aware of how childish that sounded, Glaz grimaced at his own thoughts. He needed to calm his mind, and as always, he turned to art. Painting would surely grant him that state of inner peace he sorely needed while waiting for Fuze to come back from his session with Nighthaven. Losing himself in the process of creating something always helped Glaz exorcise his demons, and also lose track of the world around him. At least until Fuze came back.

Most people painted Fuze as unreadable, but he wasn’t to Glaz. The artist could see clear as day that Fuze was deep in thought. The curiosity and need to know was eating Glaz inside.

“How did it go?” He asked, aiming for a casual and carefree tone. He wasn’t sure he succeeded.

“Interesting.” As always, Fuze was succinct and straight to the point, going for the shortest message. However, Glaz knew that if one took the time to shut up and listen, Fuze would say more. “They’re an effective team, very competitive. It’s good to have them working with us and not against us, but I don’t think they feel part of Rainbow.”

It wasn’t the first time Glaz heard before some of those sentiments echoed around when it came to Nighthaven, but Fuze delivered with an admirable lack of judgement. The Uzbek relayed a blow by blow account of the training match, and Glaz wondered how Aruni felt at Kali’s call of her safety being expendable. It was just a game for now, but training built habits that one carried back to the battlefield. He was still pondering over what he heard when Fuze dropped a bombshell that shook him to the core.

“Kali offered me work in Nighthaven.”

Glaz saw red, and for a moment he couldn’t think. The looks in his eyes must have been a veritable maelstrom of repressed anger and jealousy, because Fuze looked taken aback. A burning sensation coiled in his chest, and Glaz clenched his fist hard to avoid unleashing a storm of swears, since Fuze wasn’t the target of his fury.

*crack*

The paint brush he’d been holding broke under the pressure of his clenched hand, but Glaz didn’t notice, and clenched his fist even tighter.

“Timur!”

It was Fuze calling out his name that finally brought Glaz down to earth, away from the dark spiral of what ifs where Fuze left the team, lured away by Kali. He opened his hands, revealing the brush he accidentally snapped in half, and how the jagged edge of the broken wood had sunk into his palm. Oh. He hadn’t even noticed that.

Glaz briefly mourned the loss of his favorite small brush, dropping the pieces aside and wiping the blood from his palm carelessly. “And? Did you accept?”

Fuze regarded him in silence for a few seconds, before shaking his head as if he couldn’t believe Glaz’s foolishness. “Of course not. I have my team. And I’m not going anywhere.” This assurance was a balm for Glaz’s turmoil, but then Fuze added with a smirk. “Besides, I know you always have my back and won’t put a bullet in me, not even a fake one.”

The laugh and lingering look they shared made Glaz feel that all was right in the world, at least for a little while. He knew he could always count on his team, on his friends, and having this belief reaffirmed soothed him like nothing else did. It had been foolish to think Fuze would leave him.

#rainbow 6 siege #r6s #rainbow six siege #glaz #fanfiction

28 notes · View notes

clevercorvidae · 4 years

Text

BNHA Common Misconceptions

I’ve been seeing wayyy too much bs on my dash lately. So I thought I’d share some of my thoughts on some Controversy™

***Spoilers For The Manga***

1. “What the HPSC did to Hawks wasn’t bad”

A government organization putting a young child through rigorous training so that he can be used as a tool is bad. I don’t know why I have to spell that out

Hawks had to abandon his real name at a very young age. That’s damaging for a kid’s sense of identity. His identity as a person no longer has any separation from his work as a hero. Being a hero is all he is now. I wouldn’t be surprised if (provided Hawks’s wings are gone for good) he has an identity crisis after this arc because he can’t be “Hawks” anymore.

Hawks is based on Lionel Messi, a soccer player recruited at a young age in return for paying for his medical procedures. I’ve seen people say that Hawks chose to be a hero. One, he was a child, young children shouldn’t be making decisions like that. Two, we know based on context clues that Keigo was more than likely living in poverty, possibly with alcoholic parents, and we literally are told that the HPSC payed for his family’s living expenses. Do you really think Keigo had much of a choice here?

I’ve seen people say “it’s just like what UA is doing”. First of all, UA is called out for being irresponsible and endangering their students IN UNIVERSE. Second, Keigo was a young child, the UA kids are 15+. There’s a huge difference.

2. “Mitsuki isn’t abusive”

Honestly when it comes to her smacking Katsuki, I could excuse it as a joke done in poor taste and not hold it over her as a character.

Hitting him WASNT just discipline tho. You should never, ever, under any circumstances hit your kid. Fuck that noise.

What I really have an issue with is what she SAYS to Katsuki. Her guilt tripping him isn’t a throwaway line either. He repeats the sentiment that he is responsible for Kamino during Deku v Kacchan 2. It’s one of the main reasons he fights Deku.

Horikoshi says that Katsuki has a good relationship with his mother. In that case, he did a horrible job at presenting that. What is written in the canon is what should be used as the basis for how we interpret her character.

3. “Shigaraki chose to kill his family/was born evil”

No...just...no. He was FIVE for crying out loud.

He wanted to be a hero, and took extra care to play with kids that had no friends. He definitely wasn’t born evil lmao.

His quirk manifested while he was having an emotional crisis. Decay is controlled by emotion so of course it went haywire.

He didn’t even know it was him doing it at first.

“But Shigaraki said he WANTED it to happen” Shigaraki is an unreliable narrator. What we actually SEE tells a very different story. He reaches out to Hana and his Mother for help. His grandparents are just caught in the shockwave. The ONLY person he killed on purpose was his father.

Now when it comes to his father, he had just beat him and locked him outside. He’s FIVE, and he has no healthy outlet for his anger and frustration. Hell, we see that in his “itchiness”, he only feels like this in the house, because his father makes him suppress his love for heroes and his dream to become one. He takes joy in killing his father because it’s the only release he’s ever experienced.

The fact that you guys forget that this is an abused child with no real control over his quirk that just got beaten and locked outside... Nope, no reading comprehension here.

4. “The League of Villains are justified/are a revolutionary group”

...Shigaraki has stated over and over again that he just wants to destroy everything. He doesn’t care about reform or improving anything. That one panel in Ch. 222, where he says he wants to destroy everything I think sums it up perfectly.

He wants to destroy EVERYTHING good or bad or neither or both. There’s a newborn baby, a field of flowers , Nine, various heroes, the UA kids, etc all varying in innocence.

The rest of the league have very different goals and reasons why they continue to support Shigaraki. Twice wants to protect the only people that accepted him. Spinner just wants to have purpose for his life. Toga wants to live the way she wishes with no consequences. Compress is also here.

The only “revolutionary” is Dabi. But his views are not universal throughout the league.

Even if they were trying to improve things. They have killed countless innocent people, they’ve tried to kill the UA kids too. That’s not ok. And it’s not erased by the fact that they’ve done good. (I do appreciate them for killing the MHA version of the KKK, truly epic of you)

5. “Hawks is abusive”

It’s not abuse to manipulate someone for info when you’re a double agent. It’s kinda shitty, and you could argue that it was unnecessary for Hawks to do so in context. But it’s not abuse.

Y’all need to stop using the word abuse/abusive tendencies to describe all immoral actions

I’ve also seen people say that Hawks has abusive tendencies (as in he’s abusive in all his relationships with other characters) and...do I really need to explain why that makes no sense at all?

6. “Twice deserved to die/it was necessary to kill him”

Feel like I need to remind people that we’ve only ever actually seen Twice kill one guy and that was one of the KKK guys.

Twice isn’t evil, even Hawks admits that he is a genuinely good person. Good people don’t deserve to die.

It wasn’t necessary, and here’s why: Hawks could’ve just knocked him out or even just severely injured him. (Or the HPSC could’ve just grown a brain cell and sent more people to back him up, making it easier to hold back his quirk and arrest him)

Hawks shouldn’t have killed Twice, he only killed him because he’s been raised as a child soldier and I wouldn’t be surprised if what he told Twice about taking out villains was a direct quote from the HPSC

Also, Hawks would’ve killed Twice with or without Dabi’s intervention

Something I do have to say though is that Hawks was right not to just let Twice go. It’s tragic because Twice WAS leaving to help his friends, but the other side of that tragedy it that his friends are terrorists. If he was allowed to leave a shit ton of people would have died (again that doesn’t mean he deserved to die either, don’t get it twisted)

The WHOLE POINT of Hawks v Twice is to make you question who the bad guy is. Both characters are morally gray and the only reason they even have to fight is because of the outside forces controlling their fates. It’s supposed to be tragic it’s supposed to be unclear who is in the right, so stop arguing about it.

7. “Bakugou is abusive/irredeemable” (I know it’s been talked to death but I still see it everywhere)

People are, in fact, allowed to grow past the person they were in middle school.

Most people get hung up on the “throw yourself off a building” line. Which is fair, but again, he was in middle school.

People also say “he hasn’t apologized yet”. Yeah? And? The story isn’t over yet. Horikoshi has already acknowledged that too. I don’t know what you want? People who like him know that his arc isn’t over yet.

I’ve seen a lot of people denying his character development. In the beginning of the series he was a bully and let his ego control him. I don’t think he’s bullied...anyone since Deku v Kacchan 2. He insults people but they obviously don’t take it seriously.

He’s also gone from preferring to fail a final exam to avoid working with Deku, to following him into battle against Shigaraki.

Also, when he actually likes and respects someone he doesn’t mistreat them. This is the same thing with Hawks where y’all NEED to stop misusing the word abuse. He was an abusive friend to Deku when they were kids, that’s it.

8. “Rei was abusive too!”

I’m BEGGING YOU to learn what the term “abuse” means istg

She had a psychotic break. She genuinely thought it was her abusive husband coming through the door, and she acted out of fear.

“Well that’s not an excuse” yes it fucking is. Not to mention that as soon as she realized what happened, she sobs hysterically because she hurt Shouto and tries to use her quirk to help him.

I genuinely don’t understand why people think this

9. “Dabi actually does care about the league”

Listen, I know it sounds harsh, but y’all need to get your heads out of your piles of headcanons.

We know next to nothing about how Dabi feels about just about anything. But we do see that he’s aloof and distant with the league, he doesn’t put in more than he needs to. The rest of the league think of each other as family. Dabi straight up says he doesn’t give a shit about them.

“What if he was just putting up a front for Hawks” Why? Why would he do that? When asked who he was he answered him. He tells him how he feels about hero society and Stain. Not to mention that he was getting ready to kill him. If he was hiding his true feelings about the league I doubt he would’ve so easily said that he didn’t care about them but rather how useful they were.

At this point it’s just wishful thinking. Based on everything we’ve seen in the series so far and everything we know about Dabi, I think it’s safe to say that he doesn’t care about them all that much. If he secretly does care about them, I’d say it’s likely that he doesn’t even know he does.

Idk why all of a sudden villain stans and hero stans are feuding over things that shouldn’t even be up for debate in the first place. Sorry if this came off as super aggressive, I’m just sick of seeing this stuff all over the place. If anyone has anything to add go ahead

#bnha #bnha spoilers #discourse #bakugou katsuki #Hawks #keigo takami #dabi #league of villains #mitsuki bakugou #shigaraki tomura

321 notes · View notes

thejudgingtrash · 4 years

Note

would you class percy as a morally grey character? i’m really interested to hear your input

Anon 2: Would u class percy as an Morally Gray character?

Hey there! Let me write that essay for you about morally gray Percy ^^

It’s not about whether Percy is a morally gray character or not, it’s about he has to be otherwise the story doesn’t make any sense. At least for me it wouldn’t.

Ashley (@gr33kg0ds) said in the tags of my dark!Percy post something along the line of people diminishing Percy’s character because they need him to be pure and fluffy and I wholeheartedly agree with that!

Just because Percy’s twelve doesn’t mean he’s pure and didn’t do unproblematic things. I’ll mostly refer to The Lightning Thief because that book is the Magnus Opus for Riordan and perfectly stands for Percy as a morally gray character from the very beginning of the saga. (Also the only book I’ve recently re-read)

As much as I love fanon with all the amazing artworks, debates, memes and jokes, analysis, cool edits and wonderful fanfics, projecting your version of Percy doesn’t make the image in your head real. Percy in canon is not the fun and fluffy boy you imagine him to be or which social media sites (Reddit, Twitter, Instagram and yes, also Tumblr) tend to make him to be. He’s a scrawny little sarcastic twerp that was the unpopular kid. He isn’t that cringy dude Tony Lopez doing that fucking weird TikTok dance (side note: I don’t even know who this person is and I don't care, I saw the video and immediately wanted to delete every social media app on my phone, so thanks Tony?), kissing his Yeezys goodnight, vibing to our lord and gay icon Taylord “T. Swizzle” Swift song and flexing them iPhone 11 Max Pros. Percy literally said that going to Burger King with his mother once in a while would be considered a luxury. He’s a poor bastard in literal sense.

Part of the problem with the distinction of Percy’s character and his motives stem from the fact that Percy is a sneaky unreliable narrator and we as the audience (especially if you’re younger) don’t question most of his behavior if you even question some (pretty sure that most of us only picked up weird stuff as adults). Everything seems plausible to you. But does it mean that his behavior is necessarily good? Something that would paint his character as good?

Like I’ve said, let’s take a look at TLT. The very beginning of everything and the wonderful line that gets quoted everywhere: “Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood”.

The very first line that quoted everywhere or used as in moodboard and edits but its meaning and significance get brushed off for the most part. It immediately sets the tone and the atmosphere for the book and for Percy as a character. A(n in my opinion) morally gray character. The very first thing we hear from Percy is that he doesn’t want to be in this world. He’s an involuntary participant who has been (upon further reading) blackmailed and forced into this world and is only cooperating to get his mother back and said in regards to his father (who also stands for the Greek pantheon) ”well yeah, would be nice to know about my dad but I’ve survived without him the past twelve years so I don’t know, he wouldn’t be missed necessarily I guess?“ That pretty much tells you, it foreshadows, that we will be dealing with someone with grit, someone that fights back, someone that went through shit, someone that isn’t a goody two-shoed character. Does it mean he’s a terrible (in the sense of evil or bad) character from the get go? Not really, but it tells you in nuances that he won’t be the white shining knight you might expect from a fairy tale.

There is so much that little Perseus Jackson has to offer you directly in the first book. So much that paints him as a morally gray character. From the illegal candy stash all the way to tricking Procrustes into his own trap. He knows right from wrong and isn’t innocent by any means. He wants you to think he’s innocent. Yes, he hunts monsters and the book also tells you that some adults (Gabe) can also be monsters, but Percy’s personality is so interesting and full of facets which I love! He’s misleading you on purpose. Deflects, plays events down. He lies in front of you to others but you don’t really doubt it. Instead of questioning it, you understand it.

What distinguishes Percy from other male protagonists in that notion that the author doesn’t try to paint him as particularly good (the reader connects the dots, in reality) is pretty much that. Percy is neither inherently good or bad. He’s in the middle. He does lots of questionable things and his personality adds to it. Something that immediately comes to my mind is his lack of fear of consequences. He thinks in the short term and not in the long term. Of course, he’s caring about those that are close and important to him (Grover, Annabeth and his mother of course. And well. The world not getting destroyed by his weird father and fucking crazy uncle would be a plus). But Percy isn’t really a strategist (yet). Look at the Medusa head thingy. Annabeth and Grover warn him, that he’s gonna get his ass beat and he doesn’t care. That these gods could squish him in the end didn’t matter to him.

The Olympian gods are painted as these unpenetrable huge mighty force and some fuzzy annoyed twelve year old dipshit sends them the severed head of a monster - but not any monster, the monster his father had a role in creating (well, Athena for the most part, but you know what I mean). (Also, I know this kinda reckless behavior gets sorta rewarded but at first, everyone was like ‘NO, NO, NO!’ before Percy was glorious with his attempt). Percy essentially tells these ancient forces that drive the way of his new cosmos how shit‘s gonna work from now on.

Percy isn’t fear riddled and doesn’t think about the possible outcome. He manipulates, he lies, he persuades and all of this as soon as he hits twelve. But probably earlier. Pretty sure he had to become a believable lier in order to trick (survive being around) Gabe. Perseus is angry, he’s agitated. Had Riordan written Percy as a soft spoken, frightened, goody two-shoed kid, almost nothing in TLT and the follow-ups would have made sense. He’s the outcast, but slowly blossoms into the strength and muscles of the group. Of the entire camp. Someone that outsmarts opponents and wins battles. But he didn’t do that by playing nice and being a bootlicker.

TLT would’ve been a perfect standalone book that would have emphasized that Percy is an involuntary person sive) if you skip Kronos, leave a little bit foreshadowing with the prophecy out, tweak the talks with the gods and Annabeth’s first meeting and skip Luke and the scorpion at the end. The ending would’ve been “and so Percy had a first awesome summer vacation and found a group of friends for life” or so (aka PJO movie 1 in less shitty and more cohesive).

The morally gray character shrinks a little bit in the SOM because there lie straighter dangers ahead which dive more into the bigger picture and Percy grows more into the character who takes care of friends and but he does come back with TTC, and definitely BOTL and the St. Helens explosion.

Consequences of Percy’s interactions had people partially dying. There is doubt, there is guilt. But the show must go on. There are battles that have to be won. There is no big giving up, no big overturn for the bad guys.

Also... isn’t it interesting that we start with Percy saying ”look, I don’t want to be in this world“ in TLT and it ends with TLO where he says ”for once I didn’t look back“? The full circle? The way that accepting his fate took five books? To change Percy from being an involuntary participant to becoming voluntary? He didn’t want to be a half-blood, he didn’t want to be the kid in the prophecy, but he actively chose to be in the end. He went from a darker shade of gray to a mayhaps lighter, if you want to say so.

To conclude, I repeat myself again: it’s not about whether Percy is a morally gray character or not, it’s that he has to be.

Thanks for asking me about some meta stuff I really do like diving into these things here and there. Tumblr’s sorta glitchy, I do get notifications but I really don’t see asks, so I’m sorry if my response is mad late ^^

#mel answers #pjo #Percy Jackson #percy jackson and the olympians #the lightning thief #rick riordan #the last olympian

177 notes · View notes

life-rewritten · 4 years

Text

The Gifted Graduation: The Story of Supot

The origin of Nyx88 and The Gifted Program

When watching shows like gifted, I tend always never to trust the first explanation or narration of a flashback; especially when told by someone who I have been shown by the show never to trust and to always be on guard about. This is the same with this show for stories where characters seem unimportant or forgotten to the side when you know that the show pays attention to details and always brings back unfinished plots. Lastly, I also tend not to trust death in these shows, especially when I don't see the dead body visually, the reason and how it happened on screen. With The Gifted; ever since season 1, I remembered telling my self to not just go along with what is being said, but to look out for clues of potential foreshadowing, patterns and hints that something is going on deeper. If I had clued onto these, it would have been easier to discover that the director was as gifted as Pang in season 1, that Pom's powers were what they were and that Pang was ultimately going to lose by the end of the show. I didn't, and I ended up being blown away by all the plot twists after plot twists along with Pang who thought he was one step ahead always, only to be shown that he never even got past the starting line. That's where I'm at with season 2 of The Gifted, Graduation; I can't seem to trust anyone no matter how good their actions are, I can't seem to add up the mysteries being told to us before they're pushed aside and forgotten. But here's me trying to piece together a theory of what we have so far

The Story of Supot

One of these is to do with Director Supot and his narrative of what happened to make him this way. One glaring factor that was important to the story was the death of Yuth. It was so essential, the easy things people noticed about it were mentioned: Pang and Supot and Pom mirror each other with their idealism and failure to be good leaders, and Yuth, Wave, Channon are their companions with brains and smarts who are always for them but still end up being hurt in the misfire of their goals. This pattern was even shown in the future generation with Third and Time. Of course, it was nice to ship and obsess over these similarities, but something wasn't sitting right with me this whole episode and the previous. That was the entire idea that both Channon (I've made a post about him here) and Yuth are not to be trusted.

Their stories are open-ended steeped with mystery and hurt, and they're left forgotten to the side. One because we didn't expect them to be necessary anymore; they've served their use (Yuth is murdered in the past, and Channon is hiding behind the ministry and isn't crucial to the main story (or so we think)). Two because their companions are who we're more focused on, who is more prominent in the story (Supot is our main antagonist and Pom works for Supot and is our primary teacher for the gifted)

It's interesting how we the audience have been led to believe in these 2 when really we know with this show that no one is good; no one is evil. They're both. Channon seems like a sacrificial lamb, and Yuth also joins into this. I can't help but feel the need to call out why that's so worrying when it comes to this show. So here's a post analysing Yuth and also what I think the storyline is panning to.

What we're told about Yuth

He and Supot have been long time friends who have supported each other from the start, he's known about Supot's potential and has always supported him in his dream to do more for people like him with the government

He is extremely intelligent, he is known as the brains of Supot's group, and he helps research for the discovering of the gifted program and also for nyxx 88. His intelligence further makes him useful to the ministry later, but he runs away and gets killed.

He has unrequited feelings for someone. It's either his friend Supot or his girlfriend, Nate. He's not okay with feeling like a third wheel.

He's the one who discovers about nyx88 and the ministry's intention with gifted. It frightens him, and he comes to warn Supot, but then he gets murdered by the ministry.

He doesn't feel wary about Supot's potential because Supot promised to never use it on him. This promise is broken later, but Supot tells him that he broke it and didn't continue to manipulate him any further so they fight for a bit and it gets pushed to the side because they have other things to worry about: Nate and the ministry.

He doesn't have a potential like Supot and Nate. He never got to realise if he did or didn't get tested, but from what it looked like when Nate was going through the test he didn't seem to have it since you have to listen to it for it to trigger you. He was nearby.

Things we forget about Yuth:

He's shown distaste towards Supot's idealism for the gifted program. He agrees Supot should give up on the plan and think of another way later on and not fight with the ministry, but Supot refused and continued experimenting, which led to Nate getting hurt.

He is brilliant, and the director instead of trying to get rid of him asked him to work for him. We are not shown details of what happened; we are told by him (unreliable narrator) that they are planning to hurt the gifted with the virus. His intelligence is what causes an issue to his narrative; the ministry only gets rid of people who are gifted and have taken things too far like breaking the law as we are shown at the beginning of this episode. We're shown that the gifted get 'distributed' and we are shown sounds of someone screaming with sounds of a chain saw and then a fire burning which suggests they burn their bodies afterwards? But we know that Minister does not get rid of assets valuable to him, he respects and finds Yuth's intelligence necessary so to get rid of him seems a bit too much, especially in such a gruesome and cruel way. Then again, Yuth knows too much and broke the rules so the ministry maybe that cruel. Except:

The Minister did not actually know where Yuth was when he went missing. When Supot arrives to blame him for Yuths death, he asks of his whereabouts. This suggests he did not know about Yuth's death because if he did; the music would have been more sinister and we would have seen that on his face as he answers Supots question. His focus instead switched to Supot and trying to get Supot to start the gifted program. Yuths, death is forgotten and pushed to the side, which is weird.

He has unrequited feelings for someone, and it wasn't enjoyable for him to see the relationship between Nate and Supot. It's unclear who he has feelings for; there are hints to it being both:

Supot because of their closeness, and the way he stared longingly at times towards him. He always seemed there to help him, support him and be by his side. It's very similar to the other duos, especially Pang and Wave.

Nate: This is my theory; unfortunately, he seems worried for her well being despite trying to tsundere about it, he willingly tries to get her medicine and also is very upset when she undergoes her experiment. He's too rattled when it doesn't go well and seems aggrieved at Supot for causing her harm. Before he dies, he also mentions her well being as the reason for why he escaped to tell him about the plans.

5. This means that he had reasons for resentment towards Supot building up, that's not been dealt with, which means it will be if he is alive. It could be a reason as a trigger for why he could potentially be harbouring revenge if he did not die, but it adds to him also feeling resentment for always being overlooked by either Supot or Nate.

6. He's the one who gives Supot information about nyxx 88 and discovering of the gifted potentials. This goes back again to working for the ministry. We don't know what he was asked to work on, but looking at the vials of the virus, I would say he had a hand in creating the vials for them. It's a weird scene because we would have discovered the same information from the Minister later on when Supot goes to see him, and he threatens for the gifted program to be created, so we didn't need to have Yuth recap what's been happening before he dies. The scene before his death; him frantic and showing up randomly to Supot is just as strange as his death. I also want to link this to another mirror character of his who we are unsure of his job in the ministry/forgotten; Channon also claims to be working in the ministry after his memories came back, but we're given vague details. It's also just as weird and mysterious as Yuth.

7. He also gets reasons, even more, to feel angry and resentful at Supot and this doesn't get discussed or resolved, it's pushed to the side and forgotten. He's upset when he discovers that Supot broke his promise not to use his potential on him. This could either hint to him feeling upset just like Channon at their partners for betraying them as tools/experiments to their potentials to fulfil their goals; Yuth forgets about it, but Channon is traumatised by the events and decides to hide from the director. I don't believe in this for one second. it could also pile onto his hate for Supot's gifted program since he can see it's harmful and it led to Nate being hurt when she too was experimented on by him.

8 This is an interesting one? Could he have a potential? Why were we so close to finding it out only for Supot to stop him? We can argue that he shouldn't because he didn't seem affected when the sound to activate the potential happened, but Supot also didn't scream however you may only be affected if you haven't been activated before. Him not screaming either suggests he has no potential or he has one and has kept it secret from Supot. If he doesn't have a potential, then he's definitely more against the use of potentials because of the consequences using it. If he does have one, then it may be the opposite, and he plans to use them for more.

9. The way he died. We are not shown how Yuth dies, we are told, but no one seems to know how he did, and the reasons for why seem convoluted and not accurate. Supot definitely believes the ministry killed him; hence his mistrust and hate towards them, but the ministry seems not that fussed and doesn't even acknowledge his death. It's just so random, we can think he died because we saw his glasses fall, but he could have taken it off and disappeared pretending to die. The reason is why? And if Yuth is not dead, what does this have to do with gifted?

How does this connect to what's been going on

The first anomaly to this is the Minister. Sure he seems to work for the government and do what they want him to do with the gifted like kill them if they break a rule or convince Supot to create a program to find them and weaken them. But he's weird, he doesn't see the gifted as disposable he sees them as tools that can benefit the government, and he sees Supot and Yuth both as valuable assets. He's the person who goes to Yuth and asks him to work for him, and we're not sure what that work entailed. He's also the person who leaked the information about the gifted which just seems like a strange thing to do considering his goals is to hide them and keep them a secret and stop them with the virus.

This is why he's an anomaly. He also seems to be very secretive when it came to Yuths death like I said he acted like he didn't know where Yuth was, but he switched the subject and focused on Supot instead. He didn't need to kill Yuth the way he killed others because he had no potential and he wasn't a dangerous threat (unless he discovered something else he didn't tell us) and he doesn't seem to know that he did anything like that. It's the way he changes the subject though that suggests that he may be lying and he knows that Yuth did not die and he may still be working for the Minister secretly. Either way, the Minister is up to something, if Yuth is included; he may be involved or not involved with the Minister that's why I call him an anomaly to this theory.

The next thing necessary to this storyline is the introduction to Nyxx88 we know it's Yuth; he discovers what it is, what it does and how it works. We also know that the Minister gave it to Darin to give to Supot to get rid of him, but she didn't, and it instead was stolen by Korn. Let's pause here first of all the Minister giving the virus to Supot makes no sense to me, as he could have done it any other way without having to hire Darin to do so, it may be because Supot is rebelling and protecting the gifted program. However, it still doesn't add up to me.

Second, the way Korn discovers about nyxx88 is so convenient it hurts. It's meant to be an accident that Channon gave the information to Korn, he didn't know Korn will take the lead and become evil with it, but I've already said in my previous post why this feels like a lie. The leaking of this virus is what the plot of this season revolves around. It also revolves around the anti gifted and the ideologies between the ministry and Supot. Korn being revealed as the leader of the anti gifted still feels convoluted, and some parts are missing to his narrative apart from his hate of his potential for why he'd go so far. He seems like an unreliable narrator that is being puppeteered by someone else.

This brings me to think that Pang, Supot and most of the students are actually in the dark about what's going on. Another person is playing them. I think this person is Yuth. I believe that because he's the closest source to the origin of nyxx88 that it all goes back to him. But I also think that the Minister could also be part of this.

So here's my theory on what is going on so far:

Korn received nyx88 intentionally by Channon. Channon joined the ministry after being betrayed and traumatised by Supot and Pom, and after his memories came back, he felt hurt and resentful being discarded and forgotten about. He also probably hated he was experimented on and a victim to the powers of Pom and Supot. (Again parallels when Yuth found out about Supot using the powers on him)

I think Channon either is in contact with the Minister if he's involved and the prominent leader of this plan or he came into contact with Yuth. Yuth convinced Channon to join the ministry (either with Minister knowing or not knowing) and to use this form a back story, the same story he told Pang about working in the maths and IT department. Yuth convinced Channon because they're both filled with resentment against their partners and they felt mistreated or hurt by the creation of the gifted program. They're both victims.

This is what led to the creation or alliance with the anti gifted. (Korn) I don't think Korn is behind the anti gifted, and I still don't trust he's the leader who did all the things, including getting Namtarn hurt. He wouldn't go that far.

Now the issue is finding out what the goal is: I have three theories again.

It's either to do with ending the gifted program ultimately, getting rid of Supot and having revenge on him or its the opposite and it's to control the gifted program and turn them into weapons.

Ending the gifted program altogether. This points to why they could be the creators of the anti gifted and the reason why the virus was leaked and used this way. I just wouldn't think the Minister is involved in this goal. However I can see why Channon would be okay with this, he's a victim of the gifted program, he was hurt so the gifted program could not get ruined, his memories were wiped, and he was betrayed for the good of the gifted program by Supot and Pom. Yuth is the same, he's also a victim, has lost the person he loves (if it's Nate) to the discovery of the nyxx88 and the gifted program and he may think it's just producing monsters or evil people who should not be powerful (Supot and the ministry)

Getting revenge on Supot: The results of Korn's mistake causes Supot to be hunted by the ministry, people are trying to take him down, and he's no longer the director of the gifted program. He's forced into hiding. The Minister can be involved in this goal because he seems to dislike and wants to get rid of Supot (hence why he tells Darin to give him the virus). Channon is a victim of Supot and has been hiding from him for ten years; it's enough reason to want revenge. Yuth has reasons as mentioned before for why he would want to get rid of Supot mostly again if he had feelings for Nate, he would be vengeful for her and won't forgive him for what he created.

To turn the gifted program into weapons and tools. This is an interesting one. The Minister is easily part of this goal because he sees the gifted as valuable assets and means for great things to come. If he wants power or control having the gifted program disbanded and under his command will help him achieve that. Channon is the anomaly in this as he is actually gifted, he wouldn't have any reasons for wanting to make the gifted more powerful unless he wants more out of his potential, and he wants more control over the program the way Pom has; he may be annoyed at the fact that it was Pom that got to have a good job and took care of the program whilst he's cast aside and forgotten. He may also realise that he wants the gifted to be more superior to humans? Though from season 1, I wouldn't think that's what his goal would be. Yuth also makes sense with this goal. He's extremely intelligent and realistic and probably sees that the gifted can be great weapons and help take over the government. He may have thought Supot was right, but his way of doing things was wrong and too idealistic, and so he feels this way is a better way to make use of the gifted program. He also may secretly be gifted (like I said we're not sure on this) and want to be more superior to people rather than work for them, so he's building an army to take over?

(This wouldn't explain why the information on the gifted is leaked at the end of this episode apart from the other two theories which are to imbed fear in the public and cause chaos, so the program is wholly ended.)

So you see that after thinking about it so much. Also, the fact that episode 1 focuses on Supot, Nate and Yuth (it even shows the longing for someone and his distaste with the experiment). I think it foreshadows that Yuth is essential, he's not dead, he's hidden somewhere either working with the Minister or being the actual head of the game. Whatever he has up his sleeves he's going to be the foil to Supot, and he's also going to play everyone like a puppet. Let's hope the new generation will stop him. This is if he is actually alive. This is just a theory.

Previous Analysis about Gifted Graduation: Reuniting with Channon

#the gifted graduation #the gifted #gmmtv #thai bl #pangwave #october #halloween #lee thanat #tay tawan #the gifted the series #yuthsupot #cwg #november

57 notes · View notes