#rvb beyond

[sypsart]

Beyond - Offshoots

annnd the rest of beyond, which were one off pages. i was gonna try making a story about the triplets but ohhh well LOL

[boyslushie]

good evening red vs blue fandom. unfortunately, i have returned

[grif-hawaiian-rolls]

He has two hands and zero experience with his own emotions itll be fine

[ovcii-doodles]

undercover op (version 2 bc I hated the first one lol)

[fruitsaladc0wboy]

every day I think about that qvsa episode where carolina punches caboose for some fucking reason and it makes me want to eat glass. She Would Not Fucking Do That.

[tvckerwash]

I was here in 2014, so I am unfortunately all too aware 😔

we got the york/north/wash trio, but we deserved the wash/ct/maine trio. no I will not elaborate

[tiredandoptimistic]

RvB tarot cards

I have once again cooked up a hypothetical tarot deck for a show I enjoy. I didn't make any art because I refuse to attempt Halo armor, but here's my pitch for which RvB character I'd assign to each of the major arcana.

0-The Fool: Franklin Delano Donut. The fool symbolizes new beginnings, and someone who is so excited to be on an adventure that they stop paying attention to the dangers around them. Donut is of course known for his vibrant enthusiasm, but he may not be the most mindful person. Despite all the dangers and near death experiences he's faces though, this plucky private just keeps on being fabulous.

1-The Magician: Frank "Doc" Dufrense. The magician is a powerful character because he stands outside the limits of the four suits, much like Doc's place beyond the constructed binary of Red vs Blue. He doesn't belong wholly to any group (and his mind doesn't even belong wholly to himself), but that won't stop him from showing up every day to make people more comfortable while they die. He is an outsider who comes to help others; it's just a question of whether he can live up to his own good intentions.

2-The High Priestess: Agent North Dakota. As an almost parental figure, the high priestess is often sought for advice and encourages cooler heads to prevail. North's place amongst the Freelancers was often defined by his role as a peacekeeper, serving as an advocate for calm and reasoned thinking in the face of bizarre circumstances. It's because of this logic and empathy that he was able to recognize Freelancer's corruption and ultimately defect from the project.

3- The Empress: Agent New York. The empress is a leader not through force but through nurturing. This suits York, who was consistently one of the highest ranked and best beloved Freelancers, in large part due to his amiable personality and willingness to listen to others. He often acted as a more passive or supportive member of the group, but his defection from the program proved that he was still an independent thinker and a leader in his own right.

4- The Emperor: Agent Carolina. In contrast to their counterpart, the emperor is the leader who maintains control through strict discipline. Carolina was the head of her squad in Project Freelancer due to her raw strength and combat ability, but she often allowed this reliance on rules and structure to go too far. She not only allowed the ranking system to control her life, but she expected her place as #1 to allow her to control the lives of others. After her time with the Reds and Blues she allowed herself to loosen up a bit, but she still maintained her domineering personality and commitment to victory.

5- The Hierophant: Col. Sarge. The hierophant is another leadership card, this one coming from a person who is entrenched in a place of authority and perhaps a bit too reliant on rules and history. Sarge is certainly a creative leader in many ways, but he also depends upon the army as the arbitrator of right and wrong; focusing heavily on receiving orders and passing them on to his subordinates. Sarge isn't completely unchangeable though, and we see in season eight onwards the sort of wild maneuvers he'll cook up on his own time.

6- The Lovers: Lopez and Sheila. This card is fairly self explanatory, I think. Two people in love! It just so happens that in this case, the happiest and most functional relationship is between a robot soldier and the enemy tank.

7- The Chariot: Agent South Dakota. The chariot is all about go-go-go. It's a card of action and movement, much like South's fiery and passionate personality. Though her impulsivity often got her benched, the limitations placed on her by the Director only added to her frustration and prevented her from getting any of that energy out in a healthy way. After Project Freelancer her main mission was always to keep moving and keep finding something new, no matter what destruction she had to leave behind.

8- Strength: Michael J. Caboose. While Caboose is of course strong in a physical sense, that's not exactly the meaning of the strength tarot card. Strength is the lion, but it's also the young woman who fearlessly scratches the lion's ears. Caboose can lift a tank, but his real power comes from the strength of his friendships and his willingness to trust anyone who comes his way. This endless optimism and determination to keep seeing the bright side of everything (even a killer robot) is what led the Reds and Blues out of many tough scrapes.

9- The Hermit: Dick Simmons. The hermit is a guy by himself, plain and simple. While Simmons craves the company of others, he often finds it easier to keep himself isolated than to deal with the complexities of humanity. If the Reds don't respect him he'll simply join the Blues and take over an empty base. He's smart, yes, but he sees his own powers as ultimate and doesn't want to be on the team if he isn't seen as essential.

10- The Wheel of Fortune: Agent Florida. As a symbol of fate and destiny, the wheel of fortune is suited to a character like Florida who may appear chaotic but ultimately pulls the strings of Blood Gulch. His personality can be a bit unpredictable at times, but Flowers is still completely in control. It's just a question of whether you've figured out his plan yet.

11- Justice: Agent Connecticut. While all the members of Project Freelancer were supposedly fighting for peace, CT is the only one who took it upon herself to keep their agency in check. The others followed of course, but she was the first whistleblower to really challenge Freelancer and uncover the twisted secrets of their organization, and she was more than willing to sacrifice her life if it meant getting that information to the right people. Though it didn't come to pass until after his death, CT was still the one who brought Project Freelancer to justice.

12- The Hanged Man: Lavernius Tucker. While the hanged man isn't exactly a cheery sounding card, what it's really about is looking at difficult situations from a creative perspective. Tucker was constantly tied up in the schemes of others (The Director, the Sangheli, Felix), but he always maintained his distinctive attitude and determination. While he would have preferred to stay the same guy he was in Blood Gulch, he proved again and again that he was more than able to adapt and evolve; thriving in lethal conflicts and becoming a hero unlike any other.

13- Death: The Meta. The Meta, like death, is not cruel or sadistic. It is simply coming for you, and you will not escape. Looking deeper though, the death card in tarot symbolizes the end to old systems and the transition to something new. The Meta was once Agent Maine, until is underwent a transformation more horrible than simply dying. It went through a metamorphosis, and in the process brought about the end of Project Freelancer and the beginning of a new era.

14- Temperance: Locus. This card is one that symbolizes balance more than anything else. As a man desperate to become a machine, Locus tried to maintain perfect control over himself. He wanted to appear solid and unshakeable, up until the bedrock of his partnership with Felix was shattered. After he turned on his partner, Locus struggled to maintain a different kind of balance; between the man he was and the man he wants to be.

15- The Devil: Felix. Well this one is pretty simple. The devil as a card is about evil, yes; but it's also about control and creativity. Felix found joy in his ability to wrap the people of the New Republic around his finger, and he thrived in command of an army of space pirates. More than that though, he had fun with it. He always came up with innovative ways to destroy his enemies or intimidate his allies, and he was completely free of guilt the entire time.

16- The Tower: The Director. While death and the devil sound scary on the surface, the tower is really the most powerfully negative card in the deck. Much like Dr. Church, the tower brings misery and despair to everyone associated with it. More specifically, the screaming people falling from a lightning struck tower symbolizes divine retribution for humans who saw themselves as gods. The Director spent his later years trying to build a program that could win a war and bring back his lost love, and his favorite tool was manipulation. He always wanted nothing more than to establish his own power and prove that he could maintain complete control over the world and people around him, but it was only a matter of time before his ship crashed into Sidewinder and his bitter children found his hiding place.

17- The Star: Dexter Grif. The star is another symbol of balance, though this one is more about fairness and hope. Grif is someone who may act discontented but clearly cares deeply about the people around him, and his unshakeable demeanor holds the Reds together (as much as Sarge would hate to admit it). While he doesn't literally nourish the land and water like the star, he stays calm amidst a team of fiery tempers and is able to keep the warthog running if they ever need a getaway vehicle.

18- The Moon: Agent Washington. The moon is all about changes and illusions, perfect for someone like Wash who spent so much time blending into different personas. While Wash, like the moon, can appear dark and mysterious; he's ultimately a force for positive change amongst the Reds and Blues, who in turn inspire him to change into the best version of himself.

19- The Sun: Kaikaina Grif. Simple joy, that's what the sun is all about. In a canyon full of shitty people and a show full of angst, Kai is one of the only characters who's just here to have a good time. As crazy as things get for her brother and his friends, she'll always be waiting back at Blue Base with enough music and glowsticks to keep the party going.

20- Judgement: Agent Texas. Much like the angel on this card descends to judge mankind, Tex was dragged from the afterlife to separate the worthy from the corrupt. While she was created as a sort of toy in the Director's grief, she quickly established her own sense of identity and justice. She saw the truth of Project Freelancer and made it her mission to destroy it, doing her best to free the Alpha. In Blood Gulch and beyond she acted as a sort of avenging angel for the Blues, swooping in to save their asses and punish whoever she deemed to be worthy of punishment. In the end they all learned something from Tex and her fierce determination. Church became his own protector, and he could finally let Allison rest.

21- The World: The AI fragments. The world is a card of ultimate completion. Much like the many fragments who came from a more powerful AI, many symbols surround the vast and vibrant landscape of this card. Delta, Theta, Gamma, Omega, Beta, Sigma, Eta, Iota, Epsilon, and Alpha are all characters in their own right; but they're also pieces of a whole. They were never able to reunite fully in Red vs Blue, but they live on in the memories of Epsilon and all of us who return to the show year after year.

[sypsart]

Beyond #3 - Homecoming

pic limit was raised so what better excuse to repost all of beyond's third story, "homecoming", at once? LOL

[b00mrang]

I've been listening to @TrocaderoNet for nearly 20 years, their work on RVB is beyond stellar & iconic. Getting to have them make original music for CRASH will remain one of the most crazy things that's happened with the show. For those who haven't seen it -this is their original track "Notions in Green"

[high-voltage-rat]

My final late submission to the RvB OC Week, for day 6: relationships!

Ali and Kris, as members of the Reds and Blues respectively, end up forming really strong relationships with everyone in the blood gulch crew. What this means, practically speaking, is that they participate in a lot of shenaniganry throughout the course of the series.

To start, Ali and Kris are of course very close. The cousins grew up together, and then having been through so much together as adults- the glassing of their planet, their time as freelancers, and everything beyond... Their bond is probably the closest in their lives. During their tenure in blood gulch, even before the formation of a more amicable familiarity between the reds and blues, the cousins spent a lot of time together. They essentially have a relationship akin to siblings, full of playful bickering and teasing, but a very deep trust and understanding of one another.

(This is mostly a collection of some of my old (really, really old) doodles and drawings with some additions and edits thrown in. transcript as an antidote to poor handwriting beneath the cut, plus details on each relationship!)

Ali and Donut:

Ali, staring at red base's curtains: No, you're right actually. Chantilly lace was the move. Donut: O! M! G! Right? It adds so much more natural light!

Donut is probably Ali's best friend on the red team. At first, she found his bubbly demeanour a little exhausting, but quickly grew to appreciate his genuine nature and his spirited can-do attitude. It's a lesser known fact that Ali spent part of their childhood living on a farm- but it was definitely a bonding point between them. They'll sometimes just sit and complain about horses being idiots who try to self-destruct at the slightest provocation, or chickens having bloodthirsty rage within their hearts, or cows trying to kick you in the head while you try to help deliver their babies. Ali is also the only member of red team willing to engage with Donut's ideas for interior design and fashion- mainly because she considers it an important factor in everyone's morale, and eschews the military ideals of uniformity. They often encourage him to keep being his bright and individual self... which is much-needed among a team of party-poopers. Donut, in turn, tries to encourage Ali to be just as bold as him- especially important when their social anxiety gets the better of them.

Kris and Tucker:

Tucker: Hey, baby. Do you have a map? Cause I just got lost in your eyes. Kris, filling up a water gun: Tucker, I'm literally wearing my helmet.

Tucker is Kris' best friend on blue team, despite his incessant habit of practicing his shitty pickup lines on her (Kris actually finds it kind of charming, though she'd never admit it to him). They had a rocky start, with Tucker having a rigid idea of how he was "supposed to" interact with women that generally just made every conversation stupid and uncomfortable while he tried to perform masculinity. But with time, and a few serious and hard conversations about women being normal people, he relaxed, and they eventually managed to settle into a normal friendship- full of dirty jokes, lighthearted banter, and "fake" flirting. Never mind the fact that it feels kind of real. They're just friends. Normal friends. They just hang out, shoot the shit, play video games or take bets on the outcome of whatever new shenanigans are happening around them. Kris is the only one Tucker trusts to help braid his hair. And Kris was willing to be around the same species and culture of alien that had glassed her home planet, just to make sure Tucker was safe. Tucker made Kris the godmother of his child, she reciprocated by helping him learn some of that child's language (again, the language of a people who destroyed her home). When they were split up after Blood Gulch, Kris picked up saying 'bow chicka bow wow' to fill the space Tucker left. and it's all very, totally platonic.

Kris and Caboose

Freinds 4 Evr: Cris + Cabose

If Church wasn't Caboose's best friend, Kris would be next in line for the position. She's really well accustomed to the quirks of living with people who have working memory issues- Ali's ADHD has made sure of that, let alone her time in CANDIV- so she typically does her best to lend a hand when Caboose needs it, instituting a few memory aid systems around the base, and being patient when he has difficulty remembering and understanding things. She's also careful to treat him with respect and kindness, and encourage others to do the same- even if they don't often listen. In a lot of ways, Kris kind of feels like another big sister to him. He also really enjoys giving her piggybacks, and playing roadtrip games or singing songs together when they're travelling or waiting around for long periods of time. Kris also does art as a hobby, so Caboose will often sit and paint or draw alongside her, they'll chat about whatever is on their minds, and when they're done they'll hang their art in the base side by side.

Ali and the Director

Why the CANDIV Agents really rebelled from PFL: as told by Agent Alberta Ali: Director, this ship needs chicken nuggets ASAP. Director: Fuhk you, ayjunt.

Bafflingly, Ali was the CANDIV agent most often in charge of relations with the Director and Counsellor. Despite not being one of the team's leaders, she had both the ability to pick up on Vibes and nonverbal information, and to tolerate their weird and frankly irritating style of conducting themselves (the Counsellor's unbridled therapyspeak and the Director's bitchiness)... which tended to rub everyone else in CANDIV the wrong way. Not that it didn't, you know, also irritate her sometimes. The Director, for his part, just kind of wanted to study Ali like a bug, as he did all the freelancers.

Kris and Ali and Wash + Carolina

Carolina: How did Ali and Nova go so long undetected? They must be incredible at espionage to have fooled you. Wash, remembering: Uh huh, yep, totally! Past!Wash: You guys seem familiar... are you sure we haven't met? Past!Ali, wearing a shirt that says "NOT A FREELANCER": Past!Kris, wearing a shirt that says "REGULAR SIM-TROOPER": Certain! As you can see by our shirts, we are not freelancers! Past!Wash: Hard to argue with that logic!

As shown in my fic covering Season 6, Wash had no idea Ali and Kris were former freelancers, despite a brief feeling of familiarity when they first met. It helped, of course, that he had a lot on his plate, and the literal Alpha AI was there stealing the show. But at the end of Season 8, Ali and Karys finally revealed themselves when they offered him a chance to do the same as them- to fake his death, hide from the authorities, and take on a new sim trooper identity. The way they explained it to him, they were of the opinion that freelancers shouldn't be made to take the fall for the crimes the Director and Counsellor committed, or the things they had to do to survive the Project's bullshit. They helped coach him a bit on how to really sell it, acting like the dumbest of asses, and helped to set him at ease with the knowledge that it really could be over. Then Carolina showed up and was baffled by the three highly trained special ops agents playing capture the flag and recreationally bickering over which team had the superior kill count.

...they'll get her too, eventually. They just need to catch her first, which is hard because she's speedy.

Kris + Ali and Wash

Kris' Imagination!Ali, swooning: ooh wash~ Kris' Imagination!Wash: how are you bending like that Real!Ali: Kris I will literally kill you Real!Kris: No you won't <3

Ali has... a soft spot for Wash. Kris likes to tease them about it. They tease back about her "totally platonic" relationship with Tucker. You know, psychological warfare among cousins.

In truth, Ali and Wash are friends- beyond the whole "learning how to de-freelancer" thing they do with Kris, sometimes Wash just needs the opportunity to complain about the members of blue team, or Ali needs to complain about the members of red team, or they just "need" to practice shooting bottles off the side of a cliff. Sometimes Wash will let Ali infodump about whatever thing she's hyperfocused on in the moment. Sometimes they'll swap stories- usually the embarrassing ones. Both of them are socially awkward, but there's a comfort in both knowing the other person is awkward, too, and not judging you- and that makes it a bit easier. Whether or not they'd ever be more than friends isn't worth complicating matters.

Church + Kris and Ali

Ali, standing on top of red base: I think DOGS should VOTE! Church: Yo Kris! Your red buddy's being weird again!

Kris and Ali firmly hold that Church is a bit of a dick- but they've grown fond of him, anyway. Church, for his part, really finds the cousins weird and a little exasperating, much as he does every other member of the canyon- but he also has a weird sense of familiarity with them he can't seem to shake. He enjoys talking shit with Kris and Tucker, and finds Ali the second most tolerable member of red team after Grif. He also still doesn't really get why Ali hasn't converted to blue team considering how much she hangs around their base, but she sometimes brings snacks from Grif's stash and fixed Sheila with parts stolen from Sarge's stash for them a couple times, so he only complains a relatively normal amount. When they lived together in Outpost 48-A for a year, he spent a lot of time having awkward conversations with them, serving as an extra pair of hands while they worked on projects around the base, and being subjected to attempted shooting lessons from them to fix his terrible aim. He was, frankly, really ready for a break from them by the time Wash and Caboose showed up.

There's of course an underlying layer to the relationship here- Ali and Kris know that Church is the Alpha, they put it together very early on in their time in Blood Gulch. After discovering a little bit of what was done to make the fragments, the CANDIV freelancers definitely started to consider the Alpha as "one of them"- so the two decided to make it a priority to keep him safe and give him some semblance of freedom where possible.

Ali and Grif

Ali, slamming open the doors: Sarge wants us to start eating healthy! Grif, panicking: Oh, god, hide the snacks!

Ali and Grif have a strong solidarity in avoiding work at all costs- though their motivations are very different. They also have a shared love of snacks, and a desire to be as laid-back as possible. The problem comes in what can essentially be summed up as "Ali is messy, Grif is dirty". In this sense, they actually clash over the way the common space is- or isn't- maintained, which drives Simmons nuts because they're both filthy in his eyes. They'll cover for each other to try and help in the ever-present task of evading Sarge's orders, and they'll share their respective snack stashes- within reason. And occasionally, for brief periods of uncommon motivation, they'll have a war over high scores in whatever video game is in vogue for them. The score for Rainbow Road on the team's wii is still occasionally revisited to this day.

Simmons + Ali and Kris

Simmons, staring through the doorway: Ali, perched on top of the fridge, handing a bag of chips down to Kris standing on a step stool: <- red fucking handed

Quite frankly, Simmons doesn't understand how Sarge hasn't branded Ali as a traitor and given her a shotgun court-martial. He comes so close to reporting them every time they bring a blue into their base, and especially when they feed her Grif's snacks. But every time, he's given the excuse that Ali is "cementing their in with the enemy for better infiltration and deception"- and every time, it gives him just enough pause that he never says anything to any of the other reds. What if he's wrong? What if she really is gathering valuable intel? The blues clearly tolerate her hanging around their base, so she is actually in an excellent position to infiltrate them when it's needed most. It drives him nuts that she has a point, and it infuriates him to no end that she can use it as an excuse to get out of work, and Sarge still seems to think she's an excellent soldier. He secretly desires nothing more than to prove they're an incompetent phony compared to him.

Ali thinks Simmons is hilarious. They know he seethes about everything they do- and that he also thinks he's more competent than them. If ever he tries to trip them up or make them look like a fool, they'll sometimes let the sim trooper facade of idiocy fall just for him- just long enough to take anything he throws at them in stride. They're also the one who helped Sarge turn him into a part-cyborg, which just serves to make the beef that much funnier to them.

Ali + Kris and Kris' garden

Ali, carrying a cabbage, sprinting past a sign that says "GARDEN, KEEP OUT!": Kris, aiming a gun at them:

The garden Kris maintains out back of Blue Base is her pride and joy. Every time a member of blue team is eating a plant, Kris watches like a hawk to ensure seeds are saved and replanted- she has meticulously pulled every seed off an entire shipment of strawberries before allowing anyone to eat them. She's chewed Church out for ordering seedless grapes from command. The plants growing there are named, lovingly tended to each morning and evening, and ensure her ability to maintain a vegetarian diet. The plants are her babies.

Ali hangs around Blue Base so often at this point, the fighting is just a formality. In order to keep up the facade, at some point during every visit, Ali will attempt to steal a fruit or vegetable out of the garden, and Kris will attempt to stop them. Usually, it's somewhat tame- a minor heist that's easily thwarted, or a clean getaway after a suitable distraction. However, every once and a while it's instead akin to a fight for the flag, just with a carrot instead of a piece of coloured fabric. Kris has, in fact, shot Ali with live rounds over a cauliflower before. They had full shields, but still.

Kris and Lopez

Kris: So, they crashed the jeep again? Lopez: si. Kris: After you just fixed it? Lopez: si. Kris: That's messed up. Lopez: si.

Kris has a weirdly amicable relationship with Lopez. He likes her most out of everyone in the entire canyon- probably mostly because she doesn't pretend to know what he's saying, but doesn't ignore him, either... and she has a dry sense of humour he really appreciates. They kind of get along on a system of "si or no" whenever they interact.

Ali and Sarge

Sarge, pointing at a "Red Team Victory Scheme V.37.23" poster: Ali, I need you to- Ali, walking past: Sorry, sir, have to spy on the blues. Sarge: Huh. What a dedicated soldier.

Sarge genuinely thinks Ali is his best soldier, aside from Lopez. It helps that Ali, being from a military family, knows exactly how to "yes, and" military guys to make them think you're on their side, and whatever you've suggested is their idea. It also helps that she's teamed up with Kris to run the long con. While Sarge looks at Ali fondly, and holds her up as a shining example of red team loyalty, Ali is actively working to prevent the red team from ever making a successful combat move against the blues. She feeds just enough information that they constantly have to be changing their plans of attack, regularly claims the blues are "unexpectedly on patrol" to force them to abort a mission, and just generally manipulates things to avoid open conflict. Despite everything, though, she kind of looks at him like a vaguely annoying yet still beloved grandfather- and when they work together to rebuild Simmons as a cyborg, or create a robotic vessel for a "ghost", or just revamp the chupathingy... she can't help but be a little fond of the kooky old guy. Especially when she acknowledges that he, like the rest of them, is a victim of the military and Project Freelancer's manipulation and exploitation. She hopes that one day, she'll be able to get him to acknowledge that enough to be someone other than a rank.

Ali and Doc + O'Malley

Ali, with bloodstained hands and blood splatters on their armour, looking haunted: I've seen more of Tucker today than I ever wanted to. O'Malley, similarly bloodstained and fist-pumping: Muahaha! Excellent! We can exploit this weakness! Ali: O'Malley, if you find a way to weaponize Tucker in active labour, I will gladly surrender there and then.

Ali and Doc really don't know what to think of each other. They're both medically inclined- and sometimes they can have a good conversation about patient relations or wound care practices. But sometimes Doc says some truly ridiculous thing that highlights the fact that he very much failed medical school, and Ali really has to bite their tongue as they try to gently correct him. Doc, for his part, finds it a little annoying that Ali has to criticize so much- who's the qualified medic, here, after all?- but does appreciate the extra hand for the treatment he's doing when needed. After he was possessed by O'Malley, their weird half-amicable-coworkers, half-baffled-and-irritated dynamic kind of got cranked up even further. During periods when O'Malley kind of establishes himself as a minimal threat, Ali just kind of smiles and nods at his evil rants and makes polite conversation with him and Doc. Sometimes their dynamic turns into something resembling a spray bottle wielder and a cat- no threats of murder while we're delivering a baby, man, cut it out!

At the end of the day though- Doc is a pacifist medic in a war zone, even one as ridiculous as Blood Gulch, and Ali really respects that. And the fact that Ali doesn't actually fear O'Malley much has earned her his respect, and Doc's, in turn.

[edanablack]

What if we were a red zealot and a blue zealot and we fell in love and it was all just another part of the war games we play for no reason? I don't know if you can ship the concept of one red zealot with one blue zealot but that's it, that's my rare pair.

Ever since I watched RVB, I always liked the zealots; they're such concentrated versions of the simulation idea and I loved them, in every way. Part of their lack of identity or individualism makes me connect with them. With that being said, beneath the cut, there might be some vague writings about a pair of zealots that go through it -- it's not intended to be ocs or anything, it's supposed to be a rare pair of two specific zealots. If it doesn't work, just disregard below; my ship is a red zealot and a blue zealot.

It was comprehended, in some fizzled-out, withered part of their recall, that everything happening to them was simply part of a running simulation. 'None of it's real!', they could still remember the aggressive, excited words being laughed out in the echoey concrete room where they issued armor and guns; justifying why no one in this barely-a-squad squadron learned how to handle the many weapons or the mortal wounds that they were about to have their hands full with.

The lack of realness meant that no one gave a damn, no one cared, and all these soldiers played this game as brutally as they possibly could - if it wasn't real, if it was just for training purposes, why couldn't they drive a car over a downed opponent? Why couldn't they shoot someone in the face multiple times? Why couldn't they endlessly laugh and constantly joke about death, disregarding all humanity, for the sake of this simulation where there were two entirely made-up sides, competing? Nothing was real in this tiny concrete base, nothing mattered, none of the brutality had any meaning beyond a simulation and beyond thoughtless expression.

If that was all true, if everything above was right and correct, then did the occasional beauty and gentleness ... did it mean nothing too?

The home base, such as it was, was a simple concrete dome with three levels; a basement, a ground floor, and a roof. The basement held the barracks and the respawn zone, most of the downtime was spent here, doing ... nothing. If it wasn't conversations about how the earlier simulations went, it was a lot of bullying and mocking targeted towards other squad members. Mercifully, there wasn't much of any downtime between sleeping and fighting in the simulation.

The ground floor had weapons, vehicles, med-kits, supplies in general, and was usually on fire or full of loud voices, screaming and yelling and charging back into battle. The other team was most likely to be found in here, stealing from them, and the same was true for their squadron; it was common to steal from the other base whenever you had killed so many of their people, the place was abandoned. None of the robberies, or whatever military appropriating jargon suited best, ended well; you would get shot or blown up before you actually escaped with the goods.

The roof, where the flag was deposited after being taken from the middle, was almost always empty; they'd stack up towers of vehicles or barrels of gas around the flag and go off to find violent battles to fight, because no one actually cared about winning, not even the researchers. They just wanted to see soldiers fight forever.

Since this was a simulation, both bases were built the same, colored the same, exactly the same. There was almost no actual distance between the two bases, just enough for sniper rifles to be effective, and if it wasn't for the people wandering around in bright red or bright blue armor, you'd be forgiven for mistaking the two sides for the other. The ground was made of fake dirt and there was no sky in sight; the whole thing was encased in four steel walls and a metal ceiling, reportedly fake as well so that the researchers could watch them from all angles. No privacy, no space, no silence, unless you took it for yourself.

The red trooper, their name long-since forgotten through endless respawns and redos, didn't consider themselves to be a very lucky person. Most of the time, they got immediately dragged into a fight as the battle began, and once you were in it, your opponent wouldn't leave you alone; they'd follow you around the bases till the end of the simulation just to keep the fighting going. They'd done that themselves, many times, and had committed every part of their remaining soul to winning these games. That didn't equal lucky. No one in these simulations were good at what they were doing, in the least, if you showed an ounce of skill or talent or basic personality, you would immediately get pulled out and taken away. To the red trooper, who'd forgotten so much about themselves, that was telling. They knew they weren't a good soldier and they knew they weren't ever going to succeed here, or anywhere, so they did what others did and fought like animals to get the tasty piece of meat that was a victory.

Or, you know, they did do that. Until, one day, in one random simulation, the heavy metal boxes stacked up wildly on the roof around the red base flag fell down; they were knocked down, honestly, by a bomb or two thrown carelessly towards them. They fell all around like scattered debris but the majority of them fell in a pile behind the base, out of sight from most of the troopers, and trapped the Red Trooper who was running around back there. Trapped them with the Blue Trooper they'd been chasing.

When the dust cleared, the Red Trooper reached without hesitation for their gun but it wasn't there, it wasn't anywhere. It'd been knocked clear by the fall and they were unarmed.

More importantly, their enemy was also unarmed, having just discovered that their gun was jammed and refusing to fire. A technical stalemate, although it wasn't like the troopers hadn't beaten opponents to death before. They could do it now. Yet, when they looked towards the other trooper now, both of them fighting in this fake war, they couldn't find the strength to move their arms. An injury to the head, perhaps.

That was the only reasonable explanation for why they were talking to this random Blue.

"It must've been your team that threw the bomb. That makes it your fault that we're stuck in here!" They childishly exclaimed as they pointed an accusing finger.

The other trapped trooper, despite wearing their helmet and therefore inexpressive, gave a irritable look. Maybe it was their natural body language. "Who cares whose fault it is? I broke my gun," they grumbled, shaking the rifle to no effect. "If you'd all stacked up your containers better, we wouldn't be here."

"If you hadn't been sneaking around the back of our base, you wouldn't have gotten caught!"

"If you weren't hiding like a chicken, I wouldn't have had to come over."

"Well, if you."

This back and forth continued for some time beyond what would be entertaining to talk about, wasting brain cells and oxygen for no apparent reason. Each trooper seemed to think that, any second now, the match was going to end, yet it didn't. The powers in charge, the scientists behind the simulations, seemed to enjoy having the matches last for way too long now; sometimes going on for days. Usually for the Blue Trooper, this was fine, perfectly fine, but while they were trapped with another person equally as annoying as them ... it was starting to feel less fine.

Sitting there, tired of arguing and metaphorically red in the face from the frustration of being contradicted, the troopers went silent in unison; the only sound being from the heavy battle that raged on around them. More explosions, gunfire, cars and vehicles, so much noise.

That all seemed far away when they were stuck in here.

"I hope that we win," said the Red Trooper with cool resilience. Something that faded surprisingly fast. "Except our person running the simulation today, Freddy, is a real idiot. I think we could win 99 times out of a 100 if it wasn't for her."

The Blue Trooper sneered at the idea of losing. "We'll win." They declared. "Our leader today is an idiot too but we're good at being idiots. Like a team of Freddys." They continued with confident excitement.

"I don't think you understand just how bad Freddy is; she keeps suggesting we tunnel OVER the base. Like we build a tunnel to get to the roof," The Red Trooper explained incredulously, making the motions with their hands to better illustrate. Didn't matter. The whole idea was pretty bad.

"Tunnel ... Over. Isn't that just, like, climbing? Or that thing with ropes when you slide down."

"I don't know but if you want to steal the idea, go ahead. The only that'd be funnier than seeing it not work for Freddy is seeing it work for the fucking Blues."

Now the Red Trooper was laughing, shaking their head and setting their broken gun down. The Blue Trooper was tempted to jump for it, but also? Still thinking about the tunnel. Still thinking about Freddy. Still thinking about making their enemy laugh.

"I bet we could. Remember when we snuck that whole tank into your base? That wasn't even camouflaged, we just said 'Delivery'." The Blue Trooper cautiously shared, looking at their enemy and the weapon they'd placed aside. It'd been a wild day that day but not as wild as this.

Taking a deep breath, the Red Trooper sat there, quiet, for a moment before responding. "I don't remember. These battles all blur together. Half the time, I don't even remember what we're doing here; I just remember wanting to kill ..."

"Do you remember anything that's not a battle?" They asked, seriously but almost shamefully; a near whisper on their covered lips. It was an interesting question. The Red Trooper thought hard, for quite some time, and they could remember the briefings and the times they had to clean the base, even when they first got here and got loaded up with all their gear. Not much else.

When they weren't actively taking off this heavy armor to clean it, they forgot what their own body looked like, and they honestly preferred forgetting.

"Battles are fucking awesome, though. They're like our only excuse to use all these weapons. If we weren't in this program, we wouldn't get to use any of this stuff!" The Blue Trooper insisted.

The Red Trooper went quiet, staring at the person across from them without an expression. This could've been uncomfortable but the silence was welcome, and when the stare was coming from them, it didn't feel so bad. It just felt confused. "I ... guess that's true. Battles are awesome. If it wasn't for battles, I'd be guarding some random moon."

"Exactly. I hate moons. I like fighting. Once we're out of here, I'm going to do so much fighting. You better do the same."

"Or they'll give you a psych eval and you'll leave your team to the mercy of Freddy."

That got another laugh, or at least a scoff, and the Blue Trooper laughed as well to think of ANY OF THEM clearing a psych eval. No chance. They all liked killing and fighting too much. The only way out of here was to give that up.

What kind of sick person would do that?

"You know ... for a Blue, you're not so stupid." Said the Red Trooper, looking at their co-prisoner through the visor of the helmet; eyes unseen but a warm gaze felt. Felt how? Felt through the tone and the softness of their voice and through the hand that patted their shoulder - yeah, a hand of friendship reached out to pat an enemy's shoulder. Now that was a surprise.

With the extended hand remaining where it was, a casual gesture but a very sincere one, the Blue Trooper sat and faced their opposite; the red to their blue. It shouldn't have been this easy to face a mortal enemy except, wait, it should've - this was another Marine, like they were a Marine. They were both on the same side. Through all the simulations, through all the fake killing and the phony battles, it seemed like they'd somehow forgotten that. Now, in this small space, in this brief opportunity to breathe, it was like sanity came creeping back in. Creeping back in and reminding them this wouldn't last much longer.

"For a Red ..." The Blue breathed out, trying to make a joke, but no humourous remark came out; no sarcastic and cutting remark that could cover up a broken sense of reality. What came out, pinned beneath these crates, was a truth deeper than that.

A heavy helmet removed and placed on the ground, stale and putrid air inhaled for the first time in months, and a face revealed, a face nearly forgotten. A dirty glove ran up to wipe the sweat off their forehead and human eyes met visor, a stunned body language meeting this bold exposure. They weren't supposed to show their real faces to the other team ... but they weren't supposed to leave a quick, perky smooch on the other team's helmet, either, and that was exactly what the Blue Trooper did.

"You are pretty damn stupid, which I expected. I'll make sure not to target you tomorrow, alright?"

A promise. A collaboration. A scheme. Something forbidden in the simulation, a thing that was sure to be discovered and rooted out, but for a very short moment, these troopers were teammates. Teammates united against boredom, against losing their self, against Freddy; however you wanted to describe.

It surely wouldn't last long ... but it lasted long enough.

Another helmet was removed and beneath the privacy of these crates, the troopers saw each other as people once again, tenderness exchanged like you might exchange a phone number to a stranger. In the hopes of meeting each other once again.

An endless amount of simulation battles were run and, within a few months, they'd decided to shut this one down as well, send the nearly zombified recruits wherever the hell they wanted to. Still, two troopers managed to stay in contact; one red and one blue. Both ultimately, as memories could recall, working for the same leader.

[grif-hawaiian-rolls]

Anyways the “essay” about the energy sword to character development pipeline below the cut

Ok so like yea tucker-crunchbite-junior is, obviously, the first instance of the sword-quest-companion theme/trio that im like, rattling in my head rn

Tucker finds the sword, crunchbite shows up and theres the “quest” that challenges tucker both in the false intent (you need to be the hero) and the true intent (SA leading to Junior which is not handled well but it IS important) which is a push against tucker’s character thus far in that he’s the comic relief, make everything a sex joke archetype— he doesnt take it seriously, he doesnt see himself as important beyond getting just enough recognition to be “hot” and now he’s made to be the so called “hero” and the true plot puts him in the one position that he probably never thought could be him. Bc he wants to get laid so… yeah. Pushes his character if you give it like three seconds of critical thinking and not just the standard “haha alien baby bullshit” (that said, i do enjoy fics that explore crunchbite more and play with the potential of the “joke” shitty character into someone less sinister, but im doin my best to stick to canon rn)

And JUNIOR, oh man, because theres the thing that really solidifies this for me like

The dude who doesnt care doesnt bother is all jokes and ‘man whatever’ energy is a dad, and it starts with him trying to avoid it but he really fucking quickly steps the FUCK up for Junior and its the start of his development that people are like “oh he learns to be a leader on chorus” which i mean kinda yeah but he never struck me as a Leader even on Chorus even tho he does decidedly lead, its not the same as when kimball leads or when wash leads or carolina

He’s leads as a dad bc he is a dad

Not always a good one, but he’s trying and yea sometimes that means being the asshole, sometimes that means screwing up but it also means you fucking care and you take responsibility and you put yourself in danger first (the rescue mission, leaving the lieutenants behind)

And that doesnt start on chorus! Its the most evident there sure but

it starts with junior

It starts with him going after tex to protect his son, it starts with him trying to be a diplomat so they stay together, in sending junior away so he is safe while tucker buys time protecting the temple, it STARTS with him looking at church and going “leave my kid out of this” and yeah the way rvb was written and approached does Not take that seriously bc it wouldnt and if it did it would be a very different show but the implications are there and its acknowledged with tucker’s photograph of junior with his 5th grade basketball team (“i know right? Who carries actual pictures anymore” -tucker) which i could go on about THAT too but suffice to say its very clear that tucker cares so gd much about his kid and yeah his character development isnt super linear but you can basically pinpoint when it starts with the sword and junior

The second run of this trio of things is actually grif which is admittedly, a stretch, a big ol reaching for straws (okay, TECHNICALLY grif is the third run, but i’ll address that in a minute) largely a stretch bc grif… does the pattern backwards

This IS S16 stuff so if ur a shisno paradox hater i respect that, i however am gnawing on it with everything i have and will be going feral so this is your warning thank u for reading the tucker side of it mwah appreciate ya

Anyways

Grif does his plot backwards during timetravel shenanigans

He gets the alien companion/friend who contrasts his character first in Huggins

Grif is a loyal friend, but he is lazy, even after s15’s breakdown and apparent change of tune, he’s still looking to take the path of least resistance, avoiding the call, trying to keep things from moving

Enter Huggins: zippy, full of energy, excitable and just so different in that she is not only so proactive she puts herself in danger (which helps everyone in the long run/plot but its the principle) but shes so fucking lonely

As far as she knows, her family is dead, except for muggins who is so dettached from her, he might as well be a coworker and not her brother

Compared to grif, who has a family even when he tries to push them away (the reds, the blues, KAIKAINA) but hates taking action

Huggins is the start for grif’s arc of “it sucks but someones gotta do it” which in their case is best shown as the trudge across the bottom of the english channel which is so fucking funny to me but it really pushes both of them and puts them firmly in the friends category

Huggins cant zip ahead without grif, grif cant stop moving because huggins wont let him, so they find their little balance of gas vs brakes and together they cruise along p well

The actual push of the “quest” is grif having to be the one who steps up (kinda like tucker but its to the left) he’s the one who starts getting everyone together again across the timeline, even if he is very,,,

Well he’s very Grif about it, but it is still fundamentally, the change in character

Tucker isn’t a always good dad, Grif isn’t always a good instigator of action

But theyre trying and theyre working on it and grif’s arc suffers a Little from being so late in the show and thus not having much of a parallel to pull on but you could argue he gets the parallel from s15 anyways with the refusal of the call (from fake church/loco) and rescue mission but i hesitate to call that a parallel bc its literally back to back but an argument could be made for it which i love

Enter part two: the alien quest giver

“Wait wasnt that huggins”

NOPE huggins was alien companion! The Bestie in grif’s case,

The alien fetch quest comes from atlas, in that stupid wishing sequence but cmon it wouldnt be rvb if the character development wasnt sandwiched inbetween obnoxious gags and stupidity

The quest is less important here admittedly bc again, with grif doing this in reverse its not the challenge to his principle character that it was for tucker, his connection to huggins was the challenge, and this becomes the final push into the development, the “you have a role, now play it” that gives grif the final shove into Doing Things literal!! And his prize? For this character development arc? An alien sword

And thus the inverse version reaches an end, sort of (im pissed that technically he loses his sword, im also ignoring that he loses it in canon bc he fucking earned it okay this is a bit of canon i will ignore and loophole my way around it)

And now we track back to Chorus and to the second iteration of the sword-quest-companion plot

Locus

Now okay i will admit this is conjecture and pepe-silvia-on-corkboard-with-red-string fuckery at this point but hear me out okay!

He gets the sword with Felix’s death. We know this. What we dont know is how the fucking hell he gets off Chorus! We just see him show up later with A’rynasea. The vaguely alien (maybe sentient?? AI? Its implied with the way he addresses her but we literally have her for like two episodes) ship that seems to be the driving force (literal) (bc shes his ship) behind his chosen redemption arc where he pushes himself to help others at no apparent benefit to himself, but because it is, and i quote “the right thing to do”

Arguably, Santa could be Locus’ quest giver, seeing as how he is the one who triggers the whole shift in view for Locus in the first place and that is, technically, what crunchbite does and what atlas finalizes for grif! But the problem is we simply dont have enough of A’rynasea to draw the parallel between her and Locus as personalities, as companions for it to work for me??? But that might just be me overthinking? But it does make Locus’ version is a bit messier depending on who you consider his quest-giver but as far as I’m concerned, he’s still on his quest snd its just up to interpretation if A’rynasea is his companion?? or if theres a secret third alien for Locus that we never wouldve seen even if they planned for that bc its red vs blue and im just delusional about locus and his role in plot and this is just me firing concepts blindly into the sky at this point like - yeah i could still theorize what kind of companion characterization i think locus would work well with bc its more about the wielder than the companion in this sense (sorry junior and huggins i love yall i promise) but thats a completely separate rant at this point and not nearly coherent enough at this exact moment to add it PLUS its ridiculously self indulgent and only marginally canon compliant/adjacent but i will never not be amused by this very specific plot beat happening enough to draw these parallels, as tenuous and vague as the parallels are

[asphodeldreams]

genuinely one of the biggest barriers with putting together the survey data (beyond just us both being very busy) is how shitty and unreliable the rvb wiki is. normally it’s just info being dubious/worded horribly, but we just found an example of info being straight up *wrong*

ideally the wiki would be a great resource for us, but at this point we spend more time fact checking the wiki than it would’ve taken for us to just pull up the episodes and look at them ourselves

[milimeters-morales]

they’re gonna put a skibidi toilet reference in btsv and Miles won’t know what it is because The Idiot Box just kept getting more seasons in his universe instead of that, but Miles G. won’t get it either because he will have a ridiculous number of seasons of RvB or Family Guy. and this alone puts the movie at 1.2 stars for two years until some random youtuber makes a mediocre 5 hour video essay called “a brief look at beyond the spider-verse” and it gains a new fanbase that is 10x worse than the first go around. and i will be there. with my Pizza Delivery Boy Miles AU and 15 minutes of the movie watched in total.

[crowlore]

so ive been trying to explain some character dynamics to friends who haven’t watched rvb

a selection of ramblings from the last two days copy pasted from discord:

i won't say *too much* just yet bc what little the show actually gives us to go on is contained to the recollection (seasons 6-8) and i'd hate to give away any more of what one of the best arcs in the show still has in store for michael. BUT! ☝️ suffice it to say i think one of the greatest tragedies of the show (and yes, i am biased) is that we don't get to really dig into wash and epsilon's relationship.. epsilon is the alpha fragment representing the concept of memory, and as such in creating him, alpha stored the memories of his torture in epsilon. every freelancer on the project was part of a different experiment, and there's no doubting that the director was testing *something* by implanting epsilon in washington. the counsellor may claim that the complications that arose from that were not intended, but we can't be sure. we can only say for certain that being implanted in wash triggered something in the already unstable epsilon, and that by multiple people's accounts it did the closest thing an ai can do to committing suicide while still meshed with wash's consciousness. the fact that washington not only experienced alpha's memories of torture stored in epsilon, but hid that fact so thoroughly that he was able to use them to enact revenge on project freelancer down the road, is never really acknowledged by epsilon. we *do* know that epsilon harbors very severe feelings towards wash after being extracted from him and put into storage - something of a parallel to how tucker and caboose feel abandoned by church (both his alpha and epsilon variations), and this should mean something! it should matter more than washington is so intensely averse to having an ai implanted in him after epsilon, it should matter that epsilon has a grudge against washington for not being able to handle it, it should matter that they trigger such intense reactions in one another when they're reunited!! but the show doesn't put them in a position where they're forced to discuss the trauma inflicted on them both (and i say forced intentionally. i know these two are NOT voluntarily having a clear and easy talk about this topic of all things)

but like. yes. the show Does address that tucker at one point holds resentment towards wash for basically forcefully taking over church’s “place” on the team, and i really like that drama for them both! even if everyone in this show sucks and is an asshole, church Was both tucker and caboose’s best friend. (alpha) church dies in season 6 when tucker isn’t even around. he doesn’t get to say goodbye to his best friend. and when he returns in season 7, not only does epsilon church take alpha church’s place and everyone is just kinda expected to roll with it and act like it’s the same guy (it’s not) but then when wash joins the blues tucker never EVER (rightfully) blames him for his part in alpha church’s death! now, alpha church was the only person wash ever told he was doing what he did in season 6 not just for himself but for epsilon as well (wash is a character repeatedly defined by his desire to use violence to get revenge or enact his definition of justice) so it makes sense why epsilon’s first reaction towards seeing wash again post-implantation is rage. from epsilon’s perspective, wash rejected him when he was breaking down in their shared consciousness. epsilon doesn’t know what wash wanted to get revenge for what was done to them both - and that he succeeded on some level. and this is never discussed! it is never Once addressed! epsilon FREAKS OUT seeing wash again and that’s IT. it’s never talked about, it’s never worked out, it’s just Dropped. tucker gets like. one or two lines towards wash and epsilon for both poorly haunting the space left by his best friend and beyond one argument between each of them in seasons 11 and 12, it’s just. Not talked about. and i think that’s a shame!!

[i-d0nt-even-kn0w]

Hey just to put this out there, I am NOT EVER watching RvB restoration because

1) I don’t like that retcon BS. I generally enjoyed the past seasons and think that’s a cheap device.

2) I don’t want to see RvB come to an end, it just feels wrong, I think the show is best in my brain as a story that just continues beyond.

3) Most importantly, I heard some of what happens and it seems they literally did the show and all the characters I love so so dirty so…I’m not watching all of that. That’s not canon if I don’t watch it. I do not see it.