#the agent system builds these kids up with power and prestige and then throws them to the curb as adults

[redrobin-detective]

I keep thinking how sad Quill Kipps' whole deal is. He's brought up as a child soldier and he becomes quite good at it, good enough to work at one of the best agencies. He works hard, suffers, loses people, carries on because it's all got to be worth it. He ages in a system that prioritizes youth and feels everything special about him slowly starting to slip away. He has put everything into being an elite agent and he's about to age out of everything he's ever known.

He gets tangled with an unruly bunch of independent agents. They're annoying rule breakers but god they're amazing. Part of his beef with them is he can feel their talent rolling off them in waves making him acutely aware of how his is almost used up. When it becomes unsafe for him to pretend any more, he does what other agents do and becomes a supervisor. He keenly feels the separation from himself and agents in the field and finds he now can't just sit on the sidelines and watch others put their lives at stake when he can't help.

He's adrift, nothing to his name but his old reputation and a set of skills that are no longer useful. He ends up tangled back with the independents because they trust him - need him - and by god does he want to be needed. He wants so desperately to be part of their world again. They find some goggles that allow him to see visitors again and he's like a kid at Christmas. He can finally be involved again! It doesn't have to be over!

While working with them he learns everything he was taught to believe in was a lie, the prestigious agency he gave his entire being for is causing the rise of spirits. Once his involvement is found out, he loses his pension and privileges. He is cut off entirely from his old support system. With nothing left, the independents take him in. He's useful but he knows it's more out of pity. He works hard, almost dies and fights to dismantle the very establishment he spent his best years serving. The battle is won but things stay the same for him.

He is still a young adult clinging with aching fingers onto his childhood and teen years because that was the only way he had purpose. His closest friends are still young teens, five or more years younger than him. He chastises them for their childishness even as he desires more than anything to be one of them. He is Peter Pan, refusing to grow up because there is nothing for him as an adult in haunted England. He does not even look towards his future because he cannot let go of his shining past where he was actually needed.