#time agent meta

[imaginarylungfish]

link click season 2 thoughts

so, i started watching Link Click on monday and, within the week, just finished watching the last episode of season 2. and wow, what an amazing donghua! i honestly had no idea what i was getting myself into when chose to turn on this show after work that night. but damn, what a wild ride!

alright, now for my thoughts on the big questions season 2 left us with. namely, i think CXS was supposed to die (ie. died in the main timeline) during the stabbing incident in s1e12/s2e1.

this is what we see in s2e1 after LG was stabbed:

during these "flashback" scenes, LG thinks, "i'm sorry, everything is going to be different now." the viewers don't know about LG diving back at this point in the season, so these "flashback" scenes and those words don't' have much context. however, with the knowledge we now have about LG diving back to try to save CXS, these things have much more meaning.

why would we see CXS' blood on LG's hand, see LG looking at CXS in his arms, or hear LG think things are different now unless LG changed this specific part of the past so he got stabbed instead of CXS?

in s2e12, we see these "flashback" scenes again* (through what QL sees as LG's memories through XiXi's perspective), with added details:

*while QL is thinking "how is that possible? did he [LG] actually see CXS die?"

while the camera focuses on LG's bloodied hand, we now see CXS lying in the background (presumedly dead). and if we notice what LG and CXS are wearing in these "flashback" scenes...

it's the same as what they were wearing during the stabbing incident in s1e12/s2e1:

plus, LG is wearing the same thing in the scene where he decides to break his own rule and dive back to save CXS:

that means LG is wearing the same thing in the stabbing incident, "flashback" scene, and dive scene. so, connecting the dots, it seems like CXS was originally supposed to die during the stabbing incident. and immediately after the stabbing incident (with CXS' blood still on his clothing), LG dove back in time to try to save CXS.

and why could LG even dive back to try to save CXS when that's not his original power? i think it's because a person's power is transferred to the person touching them when they die (as seen in XiXi's transfer of power to QL when XiXi dies):

before moving on, i want to address that, at first, i thought CXS might have died (in the main timeline) after the gunshot wound in s2e12 and LG dove back immediately after that. but LG is wearing something different during the gun scene than the dive scene:

therefore, LG seems to have dove back after the stabbing incident. but where did he dive back to? he says he is going "back to the beginning" in the dive scene. but we aren't really given any clues to when that is. all i understand is that LG somehow dove back to a certain time before the stabbing incident, so that he was stabbed instead of CXS (therefore saving that timeline's CXS from dying).

if my theory is correct, this means the LG we see in the gun scene is the LG who has already dove back to try to save CXS. so, when LG screams in agony and immediately attacks QJ in a frenzied rage upon seeing CXS get shot, it's not only because he thought CXS was fatally wounded but because LG thought he lost CXS again.

and i think this LG assumes CXS will die. why? because during the dive scene, LG says "i know that death is an unchangeable point" (yet he resolves to try to save CXS anyway). therefore, LG recognizes CXS will eventually die, and he recognizes he's just prolonging the inevitable (by prolonging CXS' life). LG just doesn't know when CXS will die (which, again, is why LG was so distraught seeing CXS get shot).

so now at the end of s2e12 we see CXS alive. this CXS is the one that LG saved from the main timeline (because in the main timeline, CXS is dead from the stabbing incident).

but is LG just constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop? for CXS to eventually die because death is not something they (or anyone else) can change? maybe we will get the answers to some of these questions in season 3. in the meantime, feel free to speculate with me!

[tennesseeroulette]

We NEED a time travel esque kirby game

[lifeismarvelous]

oh the trauma

[tkserie]

I’m back on my RvB bullshit... Wash peeking out from behind the Meta in 8x01 was just cute ok.

(If you know me irl and I told you I wasn’t getting back into RvB and you see this... no you didn’t.)

[leonardalphachurch]

i think if you really pare it down north has very little self worth and thinks that there’s very little reason that anyone would ever actually choose to be around him (especially compared to his much more lively and fun to be around sister) and so in order to make his presence worthwhile he has to do the only thing he’s good for and Take Care of people.

but the problem is that he’s been taught that “taking care” of someone means “taking control” of them and he’s had it reinforced over and over in his life that he is The Good One who Knows What’s Best for people. so he really can’t maintain any sort of long term relationships because the other person will inevitably get tired of being treated like a child and instead of understanding why people keep leaving him he just takes this as confirmation that he really is unlovable and doubles down further into being controlling. because this is how he’s managed to maintain the only long term relationship he’s ever had (south), isn’t it?

[tvckerwash]

okay so idk how popular "other freelancers get epsilon and take wash's place" au's are these days but one problem I've always had with them is that I feel like people don't understand that wash is so perfect for taking down the meta and pfl that I honestly don't think anyone but him could succeed in the way he did. (utc again because it's kind of long)

the other freelancers (imo) lack the same 'wait and see' calculated nature and skilled subtlety to play the director and the counselor's waiting game like wash did, because while they always knew wash was going to betray them, they didn't know when he would betray them, or what he even knew in the first place. wash's long memory and his ability to hold a grudge is his greatest strength, he will remember what you've done long after you've yourself forgotten, and that's when he'll strike.

wash going around collecting the blues (and the reds) in s6 was more than him just trying to find people with experience with project freelancer to help him take down the meta—I mean at first that's all it was, but by the time he comes across church with caboose he definitely started to piece together the whole alpha puzzle, and at that point is when he switched gears and he was now looking at the blues (and reds) as people he could trust with his insurance policy when shit finally went down.

wash gave epsilon to the reds and blues for the same reason that ct gave tex a copy of her data in pfl, that being of course because he knew that there was a good chance he wasn't going to make it out alive, but he still wanted the director to pay for what he did even if he wasn't the one to put him behind bars. wash decided that the simulation troopers were the safest place to hide epsilon until they could get the chance to turn him in to the unsc—if it was good enough for the director to hide alpha, then it was good enough for wash to hide epsilon.

but back to the meta, wash was the ideal freelancer to take him down because wash had an advantage with the meta that no other freelancer did. wash was the only freelancer who understood maine even after he lost his voice, and it's heavily implied that they were fairly close going by the like 1.5 interactions they had in pfl and all of s8. wash's advantage of being able to read maine—and subsequently the meta—in ways no other freelancer ever could, meant that he could predict the actions the meta would take and plan accordingly.

wash also wasn't dumb enough to think he could take the meta head on with no tricks and live, and I personally think that's exactly what happened with north and south—they were so confident in their skills and abilities that they thought they could beat the meta, but they were wrong and they both paid the price. north with his life, and south who was stuck with the guilt of knowing that she inadvertently got her brother killed (and whether she did so intentionally or not is debatable and up to interpretation, I personally don't think it was intentional and I think wash believed the same thing, but he decided to use it as one of the many excuses given by delta to shoot her anyway because the guy is PettyTM and he didn't want to have to worry about her shooting him in the back again and ruining his plans).

another advantage wash has is his ability to (mostly) remove his feelings from the situation at hand ("I said that I didn't like it, not that I wouldn't do it."). wash and maine formerly being close friends did not change what he needed to do, wash and south being former teammates did not change what he needed to do, alpha having a life as away from project freelancer as he could did not change what he had to do, caboose just wanting his friend back did not change what he had to do, carolina being his former leader did not change what he had to do, etc etc.

slightly off topic but the above is probably where locus got his idea of wash being some perfect soldier who always follows orders from. he misconstrued wash's ability to push his emotions and morals aside in order to get a job done (something that is admittedly seen as an ideal trait in a soldier or anyone who is in a position in which you shouldn't question authority), as a point of similarity between them without recognizing that the reasons why wash did that are totally different from locus' own. wash's definition of what it means to be a soldier is of someone who is fighting for the sake of something bigger than themselves, someone who is fighting to protect and preserve humanity and ensure the survival of their species. locus was using his identity as a soldier to justify the atrocities he not only committed himself, but to justify the atrocities of others as nothing more than "just following orders". that is why wash is a true soldier, and locus is just someone who had been indoctrinated.

that aside, if we compare wash and carolina for example, I don't see her being able to take down the meta, and it has nothing to do with skill or even any of the above reasons, carolina is characterized as having waaaay more emotional baggage when it comes to pfl than wash does, and considering how she reacted to epsilon bringing up the meta in s13 ("don't you dare talk about maine like you knew him.") even if she was at the peak of her revenge quest I think she's too emotionally attached to the other freelancers to do what wash did.

south, north, and york all feel a bit too....self centered? to care about bringing pfl to justice, like yeah north and york had that "we're the good guys, right?" conversation and they both helped tex during the break in but it's pretty obvious york's main priority was to try and convince carolina to come with him, and north really only cared about south and theta. south based on what little we know of her really doesn't come across as a justice seeking type, wyoming and florida were still working with the director and pfl, maine is very difficult to say anything for certain because we know very little about him prior to becoming the meta, and while I think there's a chance for beta tex I think she really only cared about alpha (I didn't watch s1-5 on my rewatch though so maybe I just don't remember shit lol. I'll have to watch those seasons and come back), e!tex wanted to find the director, but I think her want to do so is because epsilon himself wanted answers only the director could provide.

[personinthepalace]

Odd Squad agents in Tiny Time Travel and Dino Dana -> thanks to @serendertothesquad for the heads up!

[2hoothoots]

Congrats on the sucessful enstabbening! Bet you're glad to get all that off your chest (heh).

I assume you can't do too much huge art stuff while waiting to heal up, but I would love to hear about your headcanons for the FSAU cast - be they favourites or just ones that makes you smile. How much of a menace was Raz for Lil and Doges when he went under the knife?

Take care - make sure you stretch appropriately and don't shrimp too hard over the keyboard while waiting to be freed from excercise-jail 💜🖤🤍

at this point i've had the "off your chest" joke four times. and it's just as funny every time lmao

he sure did!

he basically yote himself onto the operating table as soon as he turned 18, haha. he was an absolute nightmare during the recovery, though. it was at the time when Lili took a few years out from the psychonauts to go to college, and he kept calling her like "hey do you think it's okay if i go for a run as long as i don't move my arms too much. i was thinking i could hold them behind me like naruto" "raz you had surgery four days ago"

actually, since you asked about general headcanons, more rambling about that time of their lives under the cut!:

i've talked a little before about how Raz and Lili had a pretty tumultuous relationship during their teens, haha. i think around 17/18, things start to simmer down between them. they're still really close, but stuff's not as volatile, and they come to the decision that they want to take a break for a while. no matter how good friends they are, it can be kind of stifling to still be dating the same person you were when you were ten, y'know?

and like i said, this was also when Lili took a break from the Psychonauts. for me, one of the central anxieties of her character is figuring out who she wants to be outside of the Zanotto family's legacy and the expectations of everyone else. we see in PN1 she has kind of a skeptical view of the Psychonauts as a whole - but at the same time, it's the only world she's ever known. she's been training at the Motherlobe since she was a baby. she's spent her whole life immersed in this world, and i think she has a lot of big questions to ask herself as she enters adulthood: who am I? who do I really want to be?

so she takes a break to go study! i haven't decided exactly what, but i think she does something like a major in biological sciences and a minor in pharmaceuticals. she has a great time, and taking that time out ends up being what she needs to realise that actually she does want to stick with the Psychonauts. she and Raz go on their first mission together, things just click, and the rest is history hahaha

[an-inky-fingered-lass]

Jemma and May, and a story for a home and its memories; for lives lost and the still living, and for a different sort of joy than you ever imagined.

A story inspired by this snippet by @meanderings0ul.

They’d finally shared details of their plans once the team was all together, lights strung up all over the Lighthouse for New Year’s and the old base so much warmer than it had once been.

May had flown them out here two days later with nothing much more than a I know a place. She’d borrowed a jeep from a hangar whose elder occupants greeted her with startled recognition, tugged the keys from her pocket upon arrival and opened the door for them in silence.

The house had been dusty inside, in almost perfect condition otherwise. It had that quietly melancholy air of a house long since empty, the faint scuffs on the wood polish and memories of warmth that meant it had once been lived in, loved. It wasn’t until Jemma saw the absent way May leaned her hip against a cabinet that wouldn’t shut properly unless you shoved it just right, the way she watched them walk around more than she looked at the house, that it finally clicked.

Read the rest on Ao3.

[apocalyptichearts]

On various occasions throughout season 3, May reminds someone that they’re not the only ones who care about Daisy. That she cares about Daisy. And every time, along with reminding others, she reminds herself. She’s finally allowed herself to care for and love Daisy like a daughter, and a lot of the team just don’t realize it, herself included. So when Daisy ends up infected by Hive, it all suddenly hits her. That Coulson and whoever aren’t the only ones who care. She cares, she cares so godamn much.

[that-one-loth-cat]

[Image ID: ‘Oh No Balloon’ meme. The figure reaching for the yellow balloon in the first panel is labeled “me” and the balloon is labeled “platonic or familial sabezra as my main headcanon.” In the second panel, a pink blob has placed arms around the central figure’s torso. The blob is labeled “romantic sabezra hyperfixation from jr. high re-emerging.” A drop of sweat is falling from the central figure’s forehead. /. End ID]

I’ve always appreciated both so I’m not upset or anything but. That took less than a day y’all xD

[imaginarylungfish]

li tanchen and the transfer-of-power-upon-death theory

if we stick with the transfer-of-power-upon-death theory, i wonder if Li Tanchen knew about this phenomenon? immediately after the stabbing incident when Li Tanchen (while possessing QL's body) figures out CXS' power, he says, "talk about a convenient power, i think i might take it."

does this mean he knew? that he wanted to literally kill CXS and take his power? i'm not so sure. because if he knew about this phenomenon, wouldn't he have immediately killed CXS while touching him the moment he kidnapped CXS and Officer Wang?

[blackhawkcomics]

Starter for @luposcainus | Starter Call

Ever since she’d uncovered the connection between Meta’s ex-SHIELD targets and Hydra, Lucia had found herself assigned to a great many Hydra-related cases. It made sense, she figured: SHIELD didn’t want to trust anyone from the old guard to these missions, and Lucia had already proven herself against Hydra and other shadowy, sinister organizations of the type. Still, she couldn’t help but wonder if Agent Martin was purposefully volunteering her for so many missions just to keep her away from his Meta investigation and their increasingly frequent clashes over his methods.

Whatever the reason, here she was on another Hydra assignment, sent to recover an artifact of some sort that they’d stolen. That much, she was used to dealing with, as well as the scarceness of details until she arrived on-scene to be briefed.

She wasn’t used to the briefing coming from a werewolf prince.

“It’s an honor to be here, Your Highness,” she said with a quick bow of her head. She desperately hoped her efforts to hide how nervous she felt didn’t show on her face.

You’ve worked with Avengers. Get it together, Castillo, she scolded herself.

Then again, she’d freaked out when meeting them, too.

[the-warmesthello]

ok but i would love to see something where one of tatiana's siblings was working in the facility when the banana incident happened. when she finds out, how does she react? when she mentions it and curt doesn't bat an eyelid about the workers he killed until she tells him that one of her family members died because of him, how does that call her feelings about her friendship with him and the concept of 'moving on' into question? how does curt evaluate his own morals when he sees how she responds?

thinking this because in a sequel au, owen can say all he wants that curt doesn't really care about human life, just certain people, and curt wouldn't listen to him; in part because he's too clouded by ideology to see it (and projects that onto owen) and in part because he thinks owen would just say anything to be hurtful (true but he's right). but if tatiana, his friend, someone on his side, pointed it out, would it even be different?

i kind of think he'd be too stubborn to go back on it, he's so fixated on being the best and being the good guy that he couldn't stand being this wrong about such an important thing.

[ct-hardcase]

There's a more minute aspect of Pyre and Tierny's relationship on tumblr much since I overlooked it during my watch of swres while the series was airing. I wouldn't consider either of them "the dumb one", but Tierny tends to rely on her brains more than her brawn due to her FOSB duties, while Pyre, being in the role of a military commander, is more associated with combat as a rule.

This sort of dynamic usually tends toward the more strategic of the pair being the cynic or realist of the duo, but that role actually goes to Pyre during season 2, with Tierny more frequently playing the optimist against him.

It makes sense when you look into it canonically—Tierny's confident in Tam and her plan to use her to draw out the Colossus, and as season 2 unfolds, it's implied that Pyre is either shielding Tierny from how much Kylo and Hux are pushing them to destroy the Colossus, or else; or he doesn't have the clearance to tell her.

[alstroemerian-dragon]

been having some thoughts again. thinking about pre-sim, post tragedy, that middling ground where they were taken in by the foundation but not yet discovered.

under the cut bc it might get. long

okay so. idr how much ive gone into this but the anime made some Wild decisions when it came to how the despairs got captured by the foundation because in the game its. its pretty clear how they got there and its Not by fighting the agents and getting captured. they turned themselves in. as Survivors. as Innocents. ive talked abt this i think but its pretty clear To Me from the emails we read in the last chapter of sdr2 that izuru sent anonymous info to the foundation about fifteen survivors of the hpa tragedy that they werent originally aware of and where they could be found, and that the despairs lied and pretended to have amnesia about who they were and what had happened in order to get into the foundations facilities. incredibly risky. izuru knew several things that could happen, and he knew that the survivors of dr1 would be there, and may recognize them

so now im thinking about that uneasy period after theyve turned themselves in one by one, joined together as a group pretending to be traumatized amnesiacs, but secretly plotting a destruction from the inside. And Then The DR1 Survivors Start To Remember Them.

i think it would be Really interesting if makoto remembered nagito first. just by virtue of their shared talent, and how nagito would see makoto, i think they saw a lot of each other in school, and so something like. i dunno. maybe after one session of the memory therapy trying to retrieve the survivors school memories makoto sees someone flipping a coin and it hits him like a train. and then he and kiyoko start putting the pieces together as the feeling of dread rises in them all as they all start to remember more and more, the uneasy relationship between their two classes, the snippets of memories of junko acting strangely with class 77 and how close she was to them out of everyone else in 78, and then their death at the end of the school year before the parade got to them. like. they should All be dead.

but theyre not. and theyre here. and the signs start jumping out to the dr1 cast like neon red flashing warnings.

im just thinking about them figuring out how to get the despairs on a ship without tipping their superiors off to their goal, faking paperwork, getting other people to go along with it, the despairs being confused and alarmed as to whats happening but. izuru says to go with it. dont make a fuss. dont act up yet. and so they go quietly. and only once theyre already on their way to jabberwock does kiyoko pull a gun on them and the truth comes out

man. i need to write something.