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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Prince of Wishful Thinking (Tom Retrospective): Tough Love or The True Monster

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to Prince of Wishful Thinking, what is usually my look at the life and times of Tom Lucitor but since I NEED to cover the season 3 finale as vital part of Tom’s story, we’re taking one last look at the tragic tale of Meteora Butterfly before the finale sends these two stories hurtling together. You’d THINK this would be the last detour of this already sizeable arc.. and you’d be wrong as i’ll also be covering Kelly’s World, as I feel it’s vital for both “Curse of the Blood Moon” and “A Boy and his hard to remember title”, as it provides extra context for Marco’s anguish in the former.. and provides extra evidence for why a CERTAIN MOMENT in the latter pisses me off to no end.. seriously even when as universe dies and the only people left are Frankllin Richards and Galactus, there will still be a little note reading “Fuck how they treated Kelly” written in all caps so Galactus remembers to yell it.

So sadly that DOES mean it’s been three entries in this retrospective in a row that either haven’t feature Tom at all or in the case of the last episode only had him in short cameos. I mean we did get his love affair for pie but we also got a creepy goblin man forcing his girlfriend and best friend to kiss each other, his best friend being WAY to eager to jump to that conclusion, and neither considering using Marco’s Scissors because the writers only remember he has those half the time in Season 3... and clearly I ddn’t either as I forgot to mention that plot hole, something @jess-the-vampire brought up to me. Sadly I DID forget to consult on this when we talked earlier this week , and she’s not online as I write this so I won’t have her insight for this one.

But if you want some Tom content, i’m happy to share my crossover ship for the boy with you. I’ve been shipping him with Octavia from Helluva Boss lately. Because of course it’s Helluva Boss, i’ve not been at all subtle with my obession with it and much like Letterkenny, X-Men and Dragon Ball Z Abriged it is a love I never plan to be subtle about.

But I just think they compliment each other well: They have contrasting atittudes, and tastes in music, but seem like they’d share hobbies. Like taxidermy.. I could see Tom buying this... demonic combination of a badger, a skunk, a deer and my nightmares Octavia is preciously holding up.

Granted I also feel tom would both animate them with their dead souls.. and then use his new woodland friends of the dammned as a chorus to sing “Can You Picture That” from the Muppet Movie, because that’s what my mind does on a regular day. I think the contrasting attitude creates great chemstiry and it made me also realize I have a thing for ships with directly contrasting home lives. Tom has two loving decent parents who deeply love one another and at worst simply didn’t reign in his worse behavior because it was standard for demon stuff. Octavia in contrast simply has two parents, one who DOES love her and tries his best, but his best includes calling his side piece “My big dicked blitzy” right in front of her and hiring said side piece to guard them, and her mother who clearly thinks so little of her daughter’s emotional well being she hired a cowboy to shoot her daddy dead in the middle of a large crowd. The point is I think they’d be adorable and they both badly need to be happy after being emotionally fucked over by people they care about.

But alas my new ship will have to wait as we marginally important things to get down too.. things that will impact both this season and the next’s endgame and utterly destroy Eclipsa and Moon’s relationship for good. Sound fun? Well if so join me under the cut won’t you?

We open in the Pidgeon Kingdom.. and things aren’t exactly great.. and by that I mean Meteora stomped a hole through it and ravaged the place and Rich demands blood.. and vengance.. and possibly blood vengance. But not Tekken Blood Vengance.. he already has like 5 copies of that on dvd. Still needs it on Blu Ray though, hook him up if you got it.

So Moon and Eclipsa are trying to smooth this over/find out which way did she go George which way did she go, and are angrily dismissed after they try Rich’s patience, not helped by Eclipsa not being familiar with the Pidgeon Kingdom because they hadn’t slaughtered everyone who used to live there yet. Look that’s what happened, Star outright mentions in the Big Book of Spells that htey suddenly sprung up where another kingdom was and no one knows what happens. There was some bird murders up in that place.. or birdur if you will. Some birds drank some human blood. This is what Alfred Hitchock tried to warn us about with his film built on horrifying actress abuse.

The point is with some more pidgeon-led murder stabbings on the cards our heroines are trying to find her since their attempts to convince Rich not to go on an Archer Style Rampage fell on deaf ears.

But it’s clear from the second the two are alone both have diffrent priorties: Eclipsa desperatley wants to find the daughter she lost and talk her down from what sh’es become, help her become better and hopefuly heal from the pain she’s been in. She’s lost her husband, her kingdom and centuries. She can’t loose her baby girl too.

Moon on the other hand... clearly has no intrest in helping Meteora or stopping this peacefully. Her first thought is stopping Meteora. Her living through it is not necessary. It’s also clear her racisim isn’t REMOTELY gone depsite Buff Frog and Star’s best attempts and despite learning just how deeply and horribly Mewni’s engrained racism has hurt eclipsa and destoryed Moon’s own family history. To Moon this is just a big monster to fight.. i’ll dive into this more in a bit.

For now our heroines encounter an angry mob. This time their not here for Homer Simpson, but for Meteora as her rampages have destroyd their towns, livelehoods and given some weird guy a hat. It’s the best bit of the episode and i’m embarassed I forgot it happened.

So with them being no help our queens back out but end up finding some actual help: Eddie! You know the guy from the episode I skipped over... River’s cousin or something like that. He dosen’t have a wiki entry, I do not know why. He’s voiced by Rhys Dharby of Flight of the Conchords Fame whose since made quite the career as a voice actor. No major roles yet that i’m aware of, but a lot of delightful minor ones like this. It’s good to see him he was one of the highlights of that show and not just because he sang this..

youtube

Eddie showed up in the Bog Beast of Boggabah and I honestly forgot he was in this episode.. but again, it’s Rhys Dharby. It’s not like suddenly finding out “Aw god dammit Pauly Shore is in this”. So Eddie agrees to help as he’s been tracknig Meteora.. and we find out something troubling: Meteora is getting BIGGER. Gradually, to the point the bog from said episode Is skipped over is drained because she DRANK IT. We also get a great exchange “I’d hate to see the size of her mother” “Actually her father more than helped with that”

Awwwww.... seriously Esme Blanco is a national treasure and has some great deliveries in this one.. and some heartbreaking ones. But before we can get to that it turns out Meteora sucked the powers out of Eddies family.. who he misses..e xcept one guy> That guy can fuck right off. Seriously Eddie is also a national treasure and I wish he’d shown up in season 4. I mean he couldn’t of HURT it. For one it’s Rhys Dharby and for another that season shot itself in the face, both feet, the groin and then the face again enough that I don’t think anything could hurt it as bad as the writers already did.

But sadly we say farwell to Eddie as he goes out how men have since the begining of time.. deciding to poke a strange creature till it murdered him. Or took his soul out in this case, speaking of which...

Yeah while I couldn’t get Jess in time for this review, she did bring this up in the past: Meteora’s ablility to pull a

Comes right the fuck out of nowhere with no build up and no explination for it. She DID drain personalites and according to this episode youth.. but that was with a big ole machine. It MIGHT have been intended to be one of Globgor’s powers.. but that makes zero sense, as if he COULD do that, as we saw with Toffee last season when he had that power, also out of nowhere but at least it made a touch more sense given his power was draining magical energy anyway at the time, so adding souls to that isn’t a huge stretch, but as we saw that would’ve been game over for the comission, especially since we DO see him fighting them one on three next season. If he had this power, he wouldn’t be in crystal and I think they realized that, but just tried to act as if his daugther COULDN’T do that and assumed everyone would casually forget. And I get not accounting for me writing about this years later, even I wouldn’t of thought that, but not counting on fans both young and old to latch onto a continuity error? Have you met fandoms Disney, have you? It dosen’t bring the story down entirely and I get WHY ti’s there, so she can nonlethally kill people so we’re not down most of the cast for Season 4, but it feels like an easy win button and one she barely uses despite it being eye beam activated. It should be easy enough to pull, boom, soul suck, win, rinse and repeat. It’s okay to have uber powerful tequniques but they have to have a drawback. For instance the Kaioken from DBZ. It’s a really damn cool technique that gives the user a neat red aura and amplifies poewr.. but the more you amplify the more strain it puts on your body and the more likely you’ll die, and Super later creatively explained why it hadn’t been used since Super Sayian was introduced because said form would’ve sped it up so much it’d be too much for a body to take. Here whie Meteora dosen’t use it in EVERY fight, she uses it enough that it makes no sense this isn’t just her first move for every fight she gets into, mental breakdown or not.

That being said Meteora’s current mental state as she talks to her mother, having regressed to talking in only a few words and acting like a child, makes perfect sense. Henious already wasn’t in great mental shape to begin with, having a slow sustained breakdown since Marco overthrew her. and now on top of this she remembers her whole life has been a lie, starts to mutate into her natural state at a rapid and likely unehalthy pace, and then finds out on top of all of this Mewni is rightfully owed to her. Given she ended last episode blowing a guy up for rejecting her, it’s not a stretch that given even more power and no time to process anything, Metora would deteroate further.

Esme and Jessica really knock this scene out of the park as Eclipsa presents Metora with her old doll Bobo and gently trying ot talk to her.. but you also get the fear Eclipsa feels as she tries to awkardly manuver around the fact her daughter is far more unhinged than she was prepared for, even threanting Eclipsa simply because Eclipsa wanted to be called mother instead of mommy. But despite this fear.. Eclipsa wants to help and Walter beautifuly captured metoera as a hulk like tragic figure:a being with low sanity and too much power desperate to be loved by the one person it cares about. And it makes it even more heartbreaking as Eclipsa explains what happened: bad people trapped her , a disfunctoinal society with a racist queen and even more racist subjects has taken hold in her absence... and it’s clear both want opposite things: Meteora wants what sh’es owed, her family back on the throne and Mewni back in her graps, but has lost herself so much to rage, anger and insanity she can’t see it’s not hers to take, while Eclipsa.. just wants her daughter back. She’d be happy just settling down with her and having a LIFE after hers was taken away. Eclipsa just wants a chance to be with what family she has left. It just HURTS to know that despite RIGHTFULLY hating the comission, despite having eveyr reason to take the crown from Moon by force and make the world better by force.. she dosen’t want that. She just wants some peace. It’s selfish... but it’s hard not to be when you havealmost nothing to hold onto. Eclipsa has lost her legacy, her husband and her crown... Meteora is all she has and all she wants and sh’ed of been happy if she just accepted that. If that was enough.

But the real telling part, and the thing that ultimately makes this go as bad as it does.. is Moon’s reactions to all of this. Sh’es CONFUSED by Meteora having a toy as if that’s foreign to her a monster would, and she’s cleaerly livid , if restrianing it, at both Meteora’s deire for the crown and Eclipsa RIGHTFULLY calling out the state of how things are, and mildly at that. Despite seeing how much damage Mewni’s inherent racisim has done, how it lead to her living a lie, ruined Eclipss, Globgore and Metora’s lives, despite how DESPERTLY her daughter struggles to fight against it, despite seeing firsthand that Monsters can have famiies and lives... she can’t let it go. She can’t see monsters as people. SHe dosen’t see a flawed person who was turned into a metpohrical monster by years of brainwashing and abuse and is slowly unravling under the weight of her true self.. she just sees a threat to her kingdom. She dosen’t see her kingdom as racist, just as it should be. And she dosen’t see herself as stepping down like hse damn well should’ve the MOMENT she found out everything. Because at her heart Moon can’t accept the truth and clings to her racisim.

And that my friends.. is what ultimately leads to Tragedy. Not Meteora’s unraveling mental state, not Eclipsa’s naitvite. What happens next is ENITRELY Moon’s fault. Whle Eclipsa was failing to get through to Metora, she was trying her best and might of gotten somewhere.. but Moon was already settling to attack.. and does so, making it look like Eclipsa set her own child up.

A fight ensues, a suprisingly even one... but Eclipsa breaks it up and PROVES her way could’ve worked. In one of Esme’s best performances sshe tearfully tells her daughter she loves her.. that ALL she wants is time with her to make up for what she’s lost.. she dosen’t need a kingdom or her crown or her wand, all things she DESERVES... she just wants her daughter. She just wants to help her baby girl before she goes so far down this path of hatred and vengance she’s alreayd well trod upon there is no point to return to.

It gets through to Meteora, makes her stop... and Moon TAKES ADANTAGE OF THAT. She then restrains metoera with a magical rock barrier and starts palpatineing her to death. It’s a horrifying moment that ultimately shows who Moon really is.. that when given the chance to let Meteora go, let her CHANGE and grow as a person and help the kingdom.. she instead tries to kill her. When she’s no longer a threat, hasn’t seriously hurt her in their fight, and could use her power to RESTORE the damage she’s done, fix what she’s broken and help the kingdom grow and mend the bridges racisim has torn down. But all she can see is a monster, and something to destroy.. not someONE to save.

So Eclipsa does what Moon would do if it were star about to die and saves her daughter, desperatly trying to stop mooon.. and allowing Meteora to get a clear shot and take half of moon’s soul. While Eclipsa is able to stop her from taking the full thing, Moon is left disoreinted and half alive and leaves on insticnt to parts unknown while Meteora escapes. Eclipsa is left alone, devistated and with her daughter truly lost. And the worst is truly yet to come.

Before we get into final thoughts i’d like to talk about how this scene impacts Moon’s betryal later. To me having rewatched this scene.. it only makes it work MORE making it clear Moon simply can’t fahtom racial equality and that she can’t fahtom that eclipsa had very good reason for doing what she did ... to me it comes off as her using Eclipsa betryaing her as a very flimsy justifcation to not validate her rule and to first retire and then try a coup. That “Well she “BETRAYED” me so i’m fine. “ But in truth... she betrayed Eclipsa first. She attacked her daughter TWICE when Eclipsa was close to getting through to her Her reasons are flimsy.. because i’ts not ABOUT eclipsa, but what eclipsa represents: equality with a race Moon dosen’t see as people. It’s about Moon’s racisim coloring everything tills h’es truly blinded and should have lost everything She didn’t because the ending is a fucking disgrace, but we might get to that at some point, the point here is for all that disgrace’s faults... it did get it right here, and Moon was always portrayed as being unable to let go of her racisim no matter what it cost her or how much her daughter despteratly tried to change her. Trust me as someone whose Dad used to argue that gay marriage meant he should be able to marry his cat, and who still argues against trans people using the bathroom of their choice, I get trying desperatley to change someone who don’t wanna. “Sigh”.

Final Thoughts: This episode is truly excellent. The writing is top notch as is the voice acting for all involved and the climax isa true, well led up to tragedy. The animation is also on point, with the characters emotions on perfect display. This is an episode I now realize is one of the series best and worth ar ewatch if you haven’ts een it. Truly amazing stuff that gets me pumped for the finale.. and disapoints me in how the series could reach these highs for one finale.. but would sink to it’s lowest point for next seasons. Next Time on Prince of Wishful Thinking: Star tries depseratly to find her mom, while Marco, Tom and a motely crew of misfits try to take down Meteora and Tom learns the awful truth from the photo booth and wears a zuko ponytail which weirdly looks good on him. That boy can rock anything let me tell you.

If you enjoyed this reviews, please consider joining my patreon at patreon.com/popculturebuffet. As mentioned my 30 dollar stretch goal includes a review of the cluster fuck that is the series final arc, and the goals up to that , me making 20 and 25 dollars a month repectively, have their own nifty rewards: At 20 i’ll review Darkwing Duck once a month, the two remaning Ducktales 87 mini series I have not covered and the Danny Phantom film The Ultimate Enemy. 25 meanwhile gets you reviews of the Proud Family Movie, the theatrical recess movie and the Kim Possible almost finale movie so the drama. And 30 also gets you reviews of every episode of gravity falls season 1 at least one a month till I finish it at some point, so as you can see you get a lot of bang for your buck and these reviews will be public for everybody. Not only that but joining my patreon gets you a review a month if you pitch in 5 dollars and evne if you can’t swing THAT much just 2 bucks gets you access to my discord, a guarnateed pick in my shorts, votes for patreon exclusive reviews, and SAID patreon exclusive reviews. It’s a lot of bang for your buck is what i’m saying so please help me out so I can make a living off this and sign up today. I even JUST ADDED an exclusive and utterly insane scrooge mcduck review, The Great Wig Mystery. So throw in a buck to check that out.

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#star vs the forces of evil #tom lucitor #prince of wishful thinking #meteora butterfly #eclipsa butterfly #moon butterfly #rhys dharby #disney xd #disney channel #disney plus #reviews

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headoverjojo · 4 years

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Hey can I request a scenario where all of La Squadra survived to Bruno's gang but s/o (who is like a sibling figure), and then one day they discovered that she/he is in fact still alive but held captive by another gang, this gang saved her but instead of healing her they were keeping her in a comatose state (or artificial coma). Then the squad went to save them. Feel free to ignore if it's too specific or what so ever!

Hello there, honey :3 Ooooh I loved this request so much!! I hope you’ll like it! I had so much fun writing it :3

La Squadra di Esecuzione finds out that their sibling-like teammate is alive but kept in a comatose state by a rival gang and they go to rescue them

(Under the cut for length, blood, murders, and so on!)

Risotto and his men always thought that seeing the Boss’ demise would have been sweet. And it had been, all in all. They never felt such a satisfaction, a pleasure like that. Seeing the fear and the panic in his eyes, when Gold Experience Requiem nullified without any effort King Crimson’s power, had been… sublime. And that kid, Giorno… he was a good boy. And he had showed more than once to be a born leader. With some assistance, support and time to learn, he would have become the greatest leader of the whole Italian criminal world, Risotto thought.

It would have been absolutely perfect, if all his teammates were there. Gelato, Sorbetto… G/N. Sorbetto and Gelato’s deaths were still painful wounds, but, now that the Boss, Cioccolata and Secco, the very people who had planned and acted to kill them, were dead, it was more… bearable. It still stung, like an old wound never completely healed, but it was way more bearable. Now that they have been avenged, they could rest in peace. But G/N…

They hadn’t even found their body.

Bucciarati and his kids didn’t know what happened to them, as no one of them ever faced G/N. They had been intercepted before they could even try to stop Bucciarati and kidnap Trish; just later, when the Squadra finally faced Cioccolata and Secco, they found out that the two were responsible of their death too.

None of the Squadra members held back, when they finally had the chance to give them the final blow.

And still… the body was nowhere to be found. They had searched everywhere, in every corner, in every dark alley. They had scoured every centimeter of the drainages, they had interrogated every informator they still had. And they hadn’t find even a trace of them. The new Don had helped them, of course, but not even him and Passione’s great resources could do anything. G/N just seemed… to be vanished in thin air.

Nevertheless, they never gave up. They all loved G/N, they loved them fiercely. They had been the glue that even in the darkest times had kept together the group. They had been always here for every single one of them: they were the one who always calmed down Sorbetto and Gelato when they had a fight, leading them to forgive each other; they were the one who, when Risotto was feeling down, usually around his cousin’s death anniversary, sat down with him, with two glasses of liquor, to make a toast in his cousin’s honour, and to listen to his stories about him. They were here when Prosciutto had panic attacks due to all the anxiety and responsibilities that weighed on his heart and when Pesci needed few words of encouragement. They always listened actively to Melone’s happy ramblings about the last news on a scientific magazine, and they always helped Illuso to perfectly organize his archives in the mirror world, chatting with him. G/N was the only one able to calm down Ghiaccio when he was deep in one of his furious rampages, and the only one who saw Formaggio without his usual cocky and smug facade.

And now they were gone.

The Squadra, however, wanted to honor them one last time, to give them a proper burial. They wanted them to have a place where G/N could rest in peace and where they could go to pay their respects. G/N deserved this. But, without a body, they couldn’t do it.

Their hunt had been frustrating and useless until a cold December day, more or less eight months later. That day, when they made their usual weekly round of interrogations, one of their informators shared something interesting.

“There are rumors, you know… about the Artiglios. I’ve heard they keep captive someone… I’ve asked about it, of course, and you know how persuasive I can be, yeah, do you remember when- the man stopped, when he saw Prosciutto’s jaw tightening. It wasn’t a good sign… maybe it was better to go straight to the point. An irritated Prosciutto wasn’t good, he knew it too well. -Anyway, I’ve offered this dude a couple of drinks, you know, the strong ones, and oh boy he started to sing like a nightingale. He said they had found this person and that they were barely alive. They thought they were a poor soul and, well, they decided to heal them, hoping they would have been useful to them. And well… when they finally cleaned their face from all that blood, they recognized them. It was your teammate, you know, G/N, the one who seems to be vanished. They have them, as far as I know, but honestly I don’t know if your G/N is fine, if they chose to stay with that gang or what. Maybe they died. I don’t know, the guy fell on the waitress’ tits and the barman kicked him out. I would have done the same, if you want to know that, absolutely.” Prosciutto grimaced, disgusted. Still… those infos had ignited again a sparkle of hope in his heart. Maybe they finally had a track to follow…

“And does your dude have a name?” the hitman asked, with a silky voice. The man gulped, shivering. He really didn’t want to be in that poor man’s shoes…

“Antonello Nocera, but he’s known as Svelto. Don’t ask me why, someone says it’s because he’s as fast as a water snake when he has to run from the cops, someone else because, well… he’s not really skilled in bed. Whatever. You can find him at the Torre Nera, drinking until he forgets who he is. I advise you to get there before he’s too far in his dreamy world.” the little smelly man tipped his hat to Prosciutto, before disappearing in the dark alley, careful not to be spotted by anyone. Prosciutto sighed, fishing a little hand mirror from his pocket. Illuso was there, and he knew that, through his mirrors, the whole squad had listened to the news.

“Get him to the HQ, Prosciutto. He’ll sing like a nightingale for us too.” Illuso said, with a malicious grin. Prosciutto nodded, closing the hand mirror with a little snap, and marched toward the infamous bar.

He really wanted to hear Antonello Nocera sing as loud as he could.

Antonello Nocera, or Svelto, was even more a coward than what they thought. Risotto didn’t even had to make him spit razors; a small blade piercing his forearm had been more than enough to make him cry and confess everything he knew.

And so, the team found out that their G/N, their beloved G/N, was alive. They were, in fact, kept captive, and this lift from their heart a weight they didn’t even realised was there. They hadn’t abandoned them… they had been forced to do it. And their teammates would have brought them back, at any cost.

The plan was simple: enter, kill whoever was on their path, take G/N and go back to the HQ. If the Artiglio gang was lead by a wise leader, they wouldn’t have tried to stop them or to get their revenge. If not… they would have tasted the rage of the whole hitman team.

The night of G/N’s rescue was even colder than the prior days. Even Ghiaccio, who usually bear the cold like it was nothing, was freezing. The team waited until the patrol was at the other side of the building, an unimpressive grey block of concrete, to break in.

Formaggio, who was already inside thanks to Little Feet, opened for them the door. While they were entering, Melone noticed, in a corner, a couple of bodies, but no blood; Formaggio knew how to kill discreetly, when he wanted to. They silently run from room to room, dismissing everyone they met: Ghiaccio froze to death a guard who was coming in their direction; The Grateful Dead silenced forever the men in the surveillance room, and Pesci literally teared a guard’s heart from his own chest with his Beach Boy. Illuso tricked a small group of potential dangerous obstacles in the mirror world, and a single motion of Risotto’s hand made appear on five guards macabre bloody smiles on their throats. The Artiglio gang had abducted one of their team; they would have shown no mercy.

Finally, they made their way to the last room. It was mostly dark, and the only little light came from few medical machinery that surrounded a hospital bed. Their heart skipped a beat when they saw, under the thin light grey cover and many small tubes, G/N. Their body was worn and weak, they… they seemed a corpse. And, when they called them, when G/N didn’t even flinch when Formaggio screamed their name and Ghiaccio shook them, the group of men really thought it was, by now, too late. However, Melone, showing more authority than in the past few years, silenced them all. He went near their bed, studying the data on the machinery and their condition with sharp eyes. Then, he checked the IVs and grimaced, understanding what was happening to them.

“So, Melone? What’s this? Are they fine?” Pesci frantically asked, anxious. Melone nodded, after studying also their medical records, sighing.

“They’re in an induced coma. There aren’t brain damages… The Artiglios just kept them asleep with a cocktail of benzodiazepines and remifentanil. Maybe they wanted to use them as bait or as informator… I honestly don’t know and I don’t care. We have to carry them out.” he said and, when he noticed that Formaggio was already going to tear out the IV needles from their arm, he immediately stopped him.

“No! It has to be done slowly, or they’ll suffer permanent damages! We have to carry them out with the IVs. At the HQ I’ll start the awakening procedures.” he ordered, with a harsh and professional tone. With some careful maneuvers, the whole group managed to carry G/N and all the IVs out of the room. Risotto and Pesci, the strongest ones, carried G/N with incredible care, and Melone carried the IVs; Formaggio and Illuso opened the way, and Ghiaccio and Prosciutto closed the group. They didn’t meet any other obstacles and, once they were out of the building, Risotto turned to Formaggio and Ghiaccio, with an unmistakable look in his eyes.

Burn everything down.

The two stayed back, while the rest of the group carried G/N to their headquarters, surrounded and protected by the darkness. When they were near their HQ, that same darkness was lightened by high and huge flames bloomed behind them, right where the enemy gang’s headquarters were. Formaggio and Ghiaccio had accomplished their work.

Now… now they just had to wake G/N up, and everything would have been ok.

This time, for real.

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moniquill · 4 years

Text

I’m going to talk about Greedfall. Fight me.

So recently Greedfall was on 70% off on Steam, and I bought it.

I did so fully in the knowledge that this game is a garbage fire. I knew from the moment I saw the trailers back in August 2019, and I made some posts about it:

https://moniquill.tumblr.com/post/187141616836/greedfall-comes-out-next-month-on-the-10th-get-so

https://moniquill.tumblr.com/post/187185773016/no-i-will-not-absolve-you-geek-friend

https://moniquill.tumblr.com/post/187213116466/i-think-youve-fundamentally-misunderstood-the

And reblogged people saying more and better things:

https://moniquill.tumblr.com/post/187152585746/dalishious-untilthisdreamisgone-akedhi

A particularly large FUCK YOU to Darkfreya, who said this in the comments:

“ I will definitely buy this and hope it does well. We need more games like this. The fact that is a game about colonization does not bother me at all. Your character is neutral (and probably desperate trying search for a cure to a disease that is killing your people) Who you side with is your choice, and I seriously doubt siding with colonizers is seen as being the “good” choice.”

But there’s a valid argument to be made that you can’t REALLY criticize a game just based on trailers and synopses and lets plays and all that. You need to PLAY it, to play it all the way through and get the CONTEXT of the STORY.

So strap in chucklefucks, I did that. All spoilers, no repentance.

Note: I am writing this reaction on the fly as I play. I have had no spoilers except what’s in the promotional material. This isn’t so much a game review as an admonition of bullshit; I will be focusing on the main questline; the things that the game forces you to do to progress the story. I’ll also follow native-specific sidequests.

I am De Sardet, a man or woman who is the cousin of the new governor of The Congregations’ colony on Teer Fradee. I have an unexplained green birthmark on my face. My first quest item is saying goodbye to my mother, the Princess De Sardet, who has the mysterious and fatal illness that’s plaguing the land - the malichor.

There is no mention whatsoever of my father at this time.

In Serene, I futz about doing minor sidequests, meeting my first two companions (Kurt and Vasco), and levelling up by looting boxes and murdering bandits. I get to witness the ravages of the malichor; the streets are full of dead and dying people, there're corpse wagons and bonfires, generally looks like a good time.

I meet with the two representatives of the Not!European nations that The Congregation is a neutral ally to both of. One is Theleme, the super religious spanish inquisition types who dress in Cromwell-era English and French clothing. The other is The Bridge Alliance, who are all about science and technology and seem vaguely middle east to north african flavored - they wear turbans and kaftans, their architecture has domes and minarets, etc. Each representative gives me a quest with MORAL DILEMMAS! Do I deliver the heretics to the guard for arrest, or allow them to escape? Do I do the same for the charlatan alchemist? If I listen to them, they’re all totally innocent, but letting them go is bad for my reputation with the diplomats. Except that I can lie. So yeah… this is pretty much a ‘Do you BE EVIL because you can, or do you act benevolent at absolutely no expense to yourself?’ choice.

As I’m getting on the boat to head to Teer Fradee, I am railroaded into my first boss fight! This bursts out of the side of an adjacent ship:

All I know about it is that it was brought back from Teer Fradee, and that ‘it was supposed to be out for days’ - presumably it’s drugged. It’s visibly injured. I see it take another bad hit from a falling mast in the pre-battle cutscene.

I have no choice but to kill it.

I beat it into submission (with magic, because that's what I spec’d into) and then get a cutscene where it’s helpless and desperately scrambling away from me, gazing at me with intelligent, desperate eyes.

I dispassionately shoot it in the head.

I am hailed as a hero.

Like seriously here’s the video (not mine, just pulled from youtube)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQfIHBIJiAU

We cutscene across the ocean, Vasco gets real serious with some shorebirds, and we arrive at Teer Fradee.

On the steps of the governor’s palace, I have my first encounter with a native - Siora, daughter of a chieftain, who is here to seek an audience with the governor. She speaks to me in the native tongue, presuming that I will understand. She has a facial marking similar to my own. I use my political clout to get her into the palace. When we meet my cousin the governor, he goes on and on about how similar Siora and I look; as if we could be related.

This is the first clue, in the story, that I - De Sardet - have native ancestry. There is no avenue for me to explore this at this time.

Siora wants us to be allies to her clan in their hostilities with the Bridge Alliance. I’m sent to speak with Mal Bladnid - the chieftain, her mom.

I’d like to mention at this time that the designers clearly went out of their way to NOT invoke NDN visual tropes with regards to be people of Teer Fradee - No beads, braids, and buckskins, no flute and drum music. They have an irish/celtic/norse/pagan vibe, as I read it. They have a ‘what even is that’ accent. They also wear a ton of different styles of face paint, the significance of which are never explained.

The game at large seems to assign characters without regard to phenotype - any person of any faction may be european/black/asian in appearance. There are about a dozen faces in the entire game, endlessly recycled. It comes off as :FINGERS IN EARS, SHOUTING “WE DON’T SEE RACE!!!”:

At the first opportunity to talk to Siora back at my legate pad in New Serene, I can ask Siora if she really thought I was a Native. She says that yeah, she did, because I look like one, and she’s never seen a foreigner who’s an on ol menawi - she doesn’t tell me what that means, and I don’t have an option to ask.

Following the main quest line and going to see Siora’s mom, I learn that she’s already taken off to fight a battle. We catch up at the tail end of the battle, hundreds of people on both sides are dead. I meet Siora’s sister, and I can talk her down from a roaring rampage of revenge. We find out that their mom’s been taken. We spend some time optionally looking for and healing survivors - you can also just let them die. Save them, and you gain a reputation boost with the natives. Then we explore the ruins, which are continental in style, and learn about the legend of super doom battle of old vs wave of colonizers the first - the native people made a pact with the land which raised guardians, and in exchange certain people become ol menawi. What this means is not explained at this time, other than it’s a pact with the land and why the native people have magic.

At this point I diverge from the main quest to find out what happened to Siora’s mom; we go to the Bridge Alliance camp and find that she died on the way there. We have to argue/finagle/blackmail the captain of the outpost into allowing us to take her body.

Upon returning to Siora’s village, we find that her mother’s remains have been delivered, but new complication: there are missionaries from Theleme insisting that they had an agreement with queen Bladnid - the village would convert to Not!Christianity and in exchange Teleme would aid them against the Bridge Alliance. If they agree to this, they’ll have to bury Bladvid according to Theleme religious standards. Siora thinks this is bullshit, we must investigate. It is unclear how I’m supposed to pursue this.

I return to Constantin and report on the ancient ruins where the battle took place. He tells me to go see Lady Morange, who tells me to go check out some other ruins near some mines. This continues the Ancient Mystery questline.

I proceed to San Mateus (which is also where I need to go for main questline things regarding talking to the Theleme leaders on the island)

Entering the city for the first time thrusts me into a cutscene so fucking upsetting that I had to put the game away for a while and come back later. Upon entering the main square, I see a priest strangling a native man, while a creature not unlike the one I was forced to fight back in the first boss battle is being burned alive. The priest is demanding that the native man denounce his gods. He then strangles him to death. I am given no opportunity to intervene. Afterward, when I’m able to talk to the priest, I can declare myself as a believer or not - I can answer yes or no, or attempt charisma to weasel out of the question. If I fail charisma I have to answer yes or no. If I declare that I’m not a believer, we have a fight scene. I am not allowed to kill this man; the fight ends as soon as he’s incapacitated. He wanders off, declaring that he won’t forget this and that I’ll have to fight him again later.

THE BURNED CORPSE OF THE TREE-BEING REMAINS IN THE SAN MATEUS SQUARE FOR THE REST OF THE GAME.

In the palace I meet Petrus, after talking to the Mother Cardinal, Petrus becomes one of my companions. The Mother Cardinal asks me to investigate a native village that she believes is worshipping a demon. Yeah sure I’ll get right on that.

I proceed to Hikmet to talk about their science team’s work on the Malichor, and learn that the natives are very antagonistic toward their people. A soldier interrupts the conversation to tell us that an outpost has been routed in a native attack. I’m asked to assemble a team to investigate a science party that’s gone missing.

I return to Constantin to tell him about meeting the governors; he tells me to proceed with all the questlines I’ve opened and whines about how his parents never loved him. Worth noting at this time that Constantin appears not at all well. He’s pale and has dark circles under his eyes. He claims to be fine, just nauseated.

My main questline threads are now:

An Ancient Mystery

Scholars in the Expedition

Demonicial Cult

I choose to follow the cult one first, because Native involvement.

I proceed to Tir Dob, and meet with the investigators. The leader is frustrated because the natives don’t want to talk to her, and she’s convinced that there’s deep evil afoot. When I talk to the villagers, they dismiss me and tell me it’s not my business. Which, I mean, fair!

Notably, one woman asks about my mark/status an on ol manawi. When I say I’m not bound to anything/I didn’t do anything to bind myself, she tells me that one of my parents must have been a doneigad. I have no opportunity to pursue this.

There is no story-continuing option for me to leave it, or to pursue a path of gaining the villagers’ trust. I am required, by the game’s narrative, to spy on a villager. I break into his house and look at his things; I comment on how terrifying his fresco is and how morbid his altar and how horrible his mask. Siora points out that the mask is just worn to intimidate enemies in battle. It’s identical to the warthog spirit mask I can buy at any number of native merchants and wear. Petrus says that there’s obviously demon worship going on.

I tell sister Ephesia, and she sends me to follow the villager on his journey into a secret place in the forest. He disappears into a sacred grotto. I commune with a tree and experience a narrative, then have to solve a very obvious puzzle to enter the grotto - to invade a sacred place that I am obviously not welcome in. There is no option to refuse to do this that forwards the story. In the grotto I witness a ceremony that’s presented, through cinematography and music, to be SO TERRIFYING AND OBVIOUSLY EVIL because there’s… a small amount of bloodletting? A glowing tree spirit speaks at the end of the ritual and all participants triumphantly shout.

Siora, if in the party, says that the rituals of her tribe aren’t so scary, cementing that the game feels that this ritual is intrinsically horrifying in some way.

We go to ask the chief of the village about what we spied on, and she explains that it’s a ritual to evoke the strength of warriors and invoke a blessing against the Theleme investigators. She tells us that the voice we heard one one of the many faces of nature, and that if we proceed to another location and perform a ritual, we may hear from another face of nature - but that we might not be happy with the results.

We proceed to Vedvilvie, where we meet Aged Hermit. He tells us that a detachment of Bridge Alliance soldiers was here a long time ago, and gives us information about where to find their camp. We explore the swamp, looking at assorted corpses and ruined tents and ancient frescoes, then talk to Aged Hermit again, who tells us about a ritual to summon the earth.

We perform the ritual, and are thrust into a boss battle with Nadaig Vedemen. There is literally no choice but to kill her. The Aged Hermit rebukes us for having done so, calling us murderers and monsters. Gotta say, I absolutely agree with him. Siora tells him to calm down, that we were only defending ourselves. She explains to me that he knew her before she became a Nadaig - that Nadaig are Doneigada who’ve called upon the power of the island to the point of physical transformation. That it will happen to her and to me, eventually. That’s what on ol menawi and the mark means.

There is no opportunity for me, as a player, to avoid killing the Nadaig.

We return to Tir Dob and confront Derdre about sending us into a death trap; she had hoped the Nadaig would kill us. We now know secrets that no one outside the clan has ever known. She asks us not to tell.

I proceed to the Bridge Alliance Scholars’ camp and find they’ve been captured by locals, who want to trade them for prisoners that the Alliance has previously taken. We run into some locals who give us important information about where the prisoners are being held, because they feel it would be better if the prisoners were gone. We meet Aphra, who joins the party and leads us to where prisoners are being held. Two options here - guns blazing bloodbath, or ghost sneak mission where we bust the prisoners out undetected and harm no one. I choose the ghost option. Regardless, upon bringing the rescued scholars back to camp I’m confronted by three natives who I have to fight with. Once defeated, I have the option to either spare their lives or finish them off. Only Siora argues that I should let them live. I do.

We return to Hikmet and talk to the governor. This opens the Search for Panacea questline. Aphra is now a permanent possible companion.

Aphra’s personal quest: More required spying on the natives. Siora greatly disapproves. I have no option to shut this shit down, to tell her ‘No, we are not doing that.’ We spy on the elders, who are having a meditative session where they listen to the voice of en on mil frichtimen. They catch us spying and call us down, chastise us, and then invite us to watch the rest. Aphra makes comments about how ‘it’s almost like they really can hear a voice on the wind; must be delusion-level faith!’ She then says she has to mull this over and to talk about it later.

We proceed to the ruins that Lady Morange mentioned; two of the three required fetch items are in the general vicinity of a Nadaig. It is possible, through sneaking, to reach them without having to fight the Nadaig, so I do that. We find that the people who built the ruins were…. DUN DUN DUN…. From the congregation! We used to be EVIL! Like we’re totally not now!

We report to Constantin, who is looking even more sickly. He tells us to investigate this history with the Nauts and laments more about his daddy issues. He also says that I look too much like a native for it to be a coincidence which, at this point, fucking DUH. This opens the The Prince’s Secret questline.

Meanwhile, on the quest for panacea, I head back to the village where I freed the Alliance prisoners to talk to the chief. There’s several dialog options, since I didn’t go bloodbath when rescuing the prisoners, but there’s also a spying option. One way or another, I gain the information that I need to go to the village of Vigshadir in Frasoneigad to find the Tierna harch cadachtas. Siora knows how to get there.

Upon arriving, I’m told that this is one of the holiest sites on the island and I’m not welcome. Alas, I can’t continue the story while respecting that answer - I can insist forcefully or I can gain the villagers’ trust with a couple of fetch quests. Either way, I end up learning where the Tierna harch cadachtas can be found. I disturb her taking a nap with some salamanders. She’s not at all happy to see me, even when Siora speaks on my behalf. She sicks her salamanders on me and takes off; I have to kill them. I then follow her up a path to a root door that requires an offering to unlock. Siora suggests that it’s a seed; we go back to the village and talk her bodyguard into letting us into her house to poke around. I should mention that there’s a bunch of lootable stuff in her house, and the game doesn’t punish me in any way for taking it. I find the correct seed and we proceed through the root door to a maze that Siora says is SUPER SACRED. Nevertheless, I’m forced to kill a bunch of animals on my way through. I tried sneaking several times; due to bottlenecking, the animals always become hostile. Toward the end of the path, we also come upon an instantly hostile native man, who I am also forced to kill.

We come out on the other side of the maze in Credgwen, just in time to witness the tierna running from and being gunned down by an Alliance solider. Cradling a bullet wound to her abdomen, the soldier is poised to execute her with a pisol shot to the head when Nadaig Fresamen appears and throws him ass over head. The Tierna then tells Nadaig Fresamen to attack us, and I’m once again in a mandatory boss battle where I am forced by the narrative to kill a Nadaig. Once again it ends in a cutscene where I shoot the Nadaig in the head. I think maybe the game designers think this looks badass, instead of coldly sociopathic? The Tierna is visibly distraught, screaming and crying at what we’ve done. She’s about to attack us when she’s shot in the back by the Alliance Soldier, who then says a bunch of Evily McEvil things, then tries to fight us. Upon besting him, I get to either kill or spare him.

I kill the shit out of him.

We bring the very very wounded tierna back to her village, where she wakes up and tries to kill me (Siora calling her off). She explains that the panacea she made is to treat islanders who’ve escaped captivity from the Alliance; those who are captured are gruesomely tortured in the name of science. She suggests that the malichor might be a curse from En on mil frichtimen.

We take this news to Constantin. It is now super duper obvious that he is very sick.

Siora tells us who we need to talk to about En on mil frichtimen, Constantin tells us to do that.

I’m level 16 now.

I hop back to the other main questline, grabbing Petrus and Vasco to go to San Matheus and investigate the Nauts’ problems there. Go to talk to Bishop Domitius but am pulled into a cutscene where Mother Cornelia asks me to get back some sacred tablets that she thinks were stolen by island natives. Yeah, lady, I’ll get right on that. I talk to Bishop Domitius, who accuses the Nauts of being the origin of the malichor. I go to the docs to investigate the rumors. Long story short, the Nauts are fine and I shut down the Inquisition’s investigation of them. When I get back to my residence, there’s a letter asking me to come see some natives at the embassy. Because Native rep[resentation and Native storylines are pretty much all I care about in this game, I pause everything else to pursue that, bringing Siora and Petrus.

I meet with them in the woods, where they’re camped out with the body of an inquisitor they killed. Petrus greatly disapproves. We get some keys and a letter from them, learn that there’s a camp that Native captives are being brought to, and go to investigate the inquisitor’s house for more details. We rummage through his house, find another letter detailing the camp and a chest in the order headquarters. We also find a key to said chest. On our way out, we’re confronted by a bunch of ordo luminus thugs. I have the option to get Petus to talk them down, so I do.

We go back to the place where the natives are holed up and find we’ve been followed by inquisitors. Talk talk fight; we kill them. The natives thank us and say they’ll report this to queen Derdre. I’m now level 17.

I head back to Admiral Cabral to tell her about shutting down the Naut investigation. She tells me that the Nauts discovered the island 200 years ago, the congregation tried to colonize, a few bad apple lords got all tyrannical, and both the natives and thier own workers rebelled against them. The colony was destroyed and only a few survivors made it out. The princes of the congregation swept it all under the rug in humiliation. Then she drops the bomb that I’ve been waiting for the whole game: I am the product of a later Congregation expedition. I’m the child of a Native and was born on a Naut ship. So yeah, I’ve been playing as a stolen child divorced from my native culture this whole time. I’m just gonna leave this link here:

https://www.vox.com/2019/10/14/20913408/us-stole-thousands-of-native-american-children

I immediately go to demand answers from Constantin.

This is a major act shift; things I find out in the next string of cutscenes:

Constantin has the malichor and is totally dying.

Kurt comes in to warn us about a coup d’etat that’s in the works - the coin guard plants to take out all three governors and seize control of the island. Apparently if you haven’t followed his personal questline about abuse within the coin guard ranks, he betrays you at this time. I’ve been doing the companion quests all along but not commenting on ones that don’t involve natives.

After putting down the coup d’etat, I go back to Constantin to rally. We’re now in Act Two, and my main quests are as follows:

The Suffering of Constantin, where I have three leads - San Matheus, Hikmet, and Native.

The Trial of the Waters, where I need to go speak to Glendan.

So I head to Wenshaveye to talk to the healer there. The village is having problems with missionaries and with abruptly and violently aggressive tenlens - animals that are usually docile. The aggressive tenlen attacks started right about the same time the missionaries showed up. Hmm.

There’s an interlude here where I come upon a bunch of merchants fighting a Nadaig and for a brilliant moment I thought I could kill the merchants and save the Nadaig but no. It’s instantly hostile to me and I have to kill it. The killing of Nadaig in this game is treated as a neutral action, like killing wild animals.

So yeah turns out the missionaries brought a vicious white tenlen, holed it up in a cave, it was riling up the others, it killed two village kids who went into the woods to canoodle. I shut all that down, kicked the missionaries out, and was able to bring the healer to Constantin. Plot thread resolved! Let’s go see Glendan.

I can’t get in to see the council without having a seal proving that I’m the chosen representative of a current council member. Fetch quest time - literally I just have to go back and talk to Cadasach, the healer, and he hands me the seal I need. I presume it’s more involved if I’d chosen one of the other healing paths.

I talk to Glendan, he tells me I need to complete the trial of the waters, a new questline opens. Also, the next part of Siora’s questline - promises set in stone - opens. I drop everything and follow that because I’m kind of in love with Siora.

We head to her village and talk to the missionaries, they send us to go see the stone that the agreement was engraved on, we get there and fight a bunch of enemies, the stone is destroyed and we can’t read it. Time to go see the engraver, Caradeg. We get to his house to find it absolutely destroyed. The only clue is a stone bearing the mark of the Dunncas’ clan. So we head to Vigyigidaw. Dunncas tells us that they exiled Caradeg because he wanted to make war on the settlers. Have fun, bootlicker. On my way out of the village I’m snagged by a guy with a side quest; he wants me to get some settlers to stop preventing the clan from going into a sacred glade to replant trees that the settler clear cut. See sidequests for details on that.

Before doing Trial of the Waters, I decide to go check up on Eden and Father Iustinius, bringing Siora and Petrus.

Stolen tablets, lots of talk about how primitive and naive the natives are and how those who aren’t converted are obviously worshiping demons and that’s who must have stolen the tablets.

Siora comments that this place is horrifying, and wonders how the people could have tolerated the priests building continental-style buildings over the top of their village.

We go to talk to the theologians, then to Ler. Because I’m not awesome at Charisma, I’m left with no option except to threaten and bully my way into him giving me the name of an old woman, mother of one of the warriors who left the village. I lose re with both the natives at large and Siora personally. The old woman tells us where to find the exiles, and gives us hints on how to avoid traps and sneak in unseen. She implores us not to hurt her son.

We head for the exiles’ camp. I choose the option where I sneak in and don’t murder everyone, and the old woman meets us as we’re leaving and thanks us for that, saying she’s going to try and talk her son into finding a new clan. We head back to Eden.

They thank us for the tablets, are excited to set out a new expedition, the game tells me to wait 24 hours for the results. So I have to hike my ass to out camp, sleep 24 hours, and haul back to where I just was to find out that a party that went into the swamp ran afoul of…. something.

Siora points out that the survivor was obviously bitten by a poisonous swamp creature and that a local healer probably knows the remedy. We go talk to Ler again.

Ler tells us that the village doneigad is one of the exiles, but that the old woman we talked to earlier knows plants well. I’m pretty sure that if we’d murdered her son to death in the previous quest, she’d refuse to help us. Because we didn’t, she makes us a potion. The wounded guy wakes up and begs us to go and rescue his dumbass loser friends, so of course I do.

We’re going back to Vedvilvie, because of course we are.

We arrive at the camp, listen to both the ordo luminous guy and the research sister whine about how the other is mean/incompetant, and go to investigate the dig sites. We find a dude with a caved in skull who was clearly struck from behind with a mace, a guy who was killed to death by lewolans (big lizards), and a poor chump was was obviously stabbed to death before being fed to lewolans. Siora says it’s pretty clear that Mr Inquisition orchestrated this to frame the research lady. I agree. We go to confront him. Choices: Take a bribe and side with him, tell him to leave the expedition, expose his bullshit to everyone.

The ‘correct’ choice in the game is not to reveal his crimes before everyone, but to banish him. Because [Centrist.jpeg goes here]

We follow the path of San Matheus, come up against a nadaig magamen, murder it to death, and enter a cavern. Long story short, Saint Mat totally became a doneigad. He saw on en mil frichtimen as an extension of the concept of light and prayed to him. Also I found a bitchin’ set of holy armor. I put it on Petrus.

Theleme’s gonna be big mad. We head back to Eugenia to tell her, are confronted by Virgil and the Inquisition. He wants to destroy the relics and evidence that Sait Mat converted to the faith of the island, we kill him to death and go tattle to Mommy Cardinal. I push her to make the decision to reveal the truth to the masses, and to visit the cave herself.

Theleme is not, in fact, big mad.

Anyway, returning to the main questline.

So there’s two options through the cave of testing, bloodbath or sneak. I chose sneak. Touch a basin, have a vision, solve a very easy puzzle - just like the tree one from earlier.

There’s a Nadiag waiting, and the command prompt I have for it after solving the puzzle is ‘Tame’... yanno, like one does with an animal. Because indigenous people are fauna. Fucking gross.

I see a fresco depicting a spirit of the volcano. I go to talk to Glendan. He sends me to find the high king, who is missing. I need to see the rest of the high council: Derdre, Dunncas, Ullan. Guess it’s time to finally deal with the Ullan plotline. See side quests for details.

When I head back to Hikmet, I get a whole string of cutscenes because it’s been a while since I’ve been there - including one where I follow up with the islander rebellion. The governor asks me to parlay with the leaders of the rebellion, where I find out that the on ol menawi who the alliance have been kidnapping from villages have been taken to laboratories for experiments - where they have been tortured and killed. This lines up with all earlier accusations, and with that Hikmet dude who was trying to murder the tierna and me - he said they were going to dissect her. So yeah. I go to thier main camp, and fucking surprise, I was followed by Alliance soldiers who promptly stark attacking. I have two choices: fight alongside the natives or put an end to the rebellion. I, of course, fight on Team Native. I then proceed back to Hikmet to ask What The Entire Fuck, Sir? He denies knowing anything about natives being captured; he assures me that this lab is a medical research center. I declare that I”m gonna take a look at it myself.

I grab Aphra for this, and in the process agree to continue her personal questline. We ask the young apprentices about how to get into the Cave of Knowledge, which, I cannot state enough, IS A SACRED PLACE CLOSED TO OUTSIDERS. Only people who are becoming doneigad are supposed to go there. The narrative makes me. This happening, over and over, gives lie to the premise that the game allows you to make good or evil moral choices - that you can DECIDE to be a good guy or a bad guy. You can’t. You can either choose to violate the sacred spaces of the indigenous people or -not play this game-. There is no ‘Sit Aphra down and tell her that it is implicitly wrong to do this’ option.

So we go to the cave, it has a seed gate, we find some brigands who’ve murdered a native, they’re planning to dynamite thier way into the cave, we can talk them inot leaving or murder them to death, guess which one I chose just guess. We get the seed and enter the cave.

In the cave, we examine several frescoes; one depicts a ritual where, in a circle, someone is pouring blood on a stone in the presence of a Nadaig. Another depicts the same figure, but now marked as an on ol menawi. We then hear people coming and are prompted to hide, because being caught here would sure lose us the trust of the natives. Which we do not deserve at all, after this. The game prompts me to spy on the young people, which I do, listening in on thier conversation. When we leave the cave, Aphra says that clearly we need to spy on a whole, actual ritual. The game teases me with ‘accept’ or ‘refuse’, but the choice are actually ‘start the time now, or later’ - the story doesn’t allow me to ACTUALLY refuse. We show up, and Dunncas actually gives us permission to watch if we don’t interfere.

After the ritual, Alliance soldiers show up. We kill them to death. The chiefs thanks us for having been there. Aphra says we should look into Dr. Asili. So off to the lab we go.

I’m pretty sure, narratively, that I’m supposed to have stealthed my way through this. However, after seeing a pit of burning bodies and people in cages right as I entered, I just bloodbathed my way through. Also arrested the apprentices and killed the fuck out of Asili. Fun fact: Asili gave Constantin the malichor! Also me, but I’m resistant, since native and on ol menawi.

I return to talk to Constantin about the sanctuary and the Hikmet problem and everything and find that he’s gone on a journey with the doneigad healer and things have gone wrong. I set out after him. I follow combat signs and talk to Aiden in wenshaveye, then head to the alliance outpost. We catch up with a badly wounded and unconscious survivor, get him a potion, and then have to wait 24 hours. This is a repeated feature of the game an annoying as hell, because the only way to wait is to return to camp. When he’s awake he describes the attack; animals controlled by some kind of native sorcerer and fire and explosions. A native grabbed Constantin and ran off with him. We continue the investigation - I go to talk to Daren. Daren says that they weren’t behind the attack - no one would ever attack Catasach. Catasach is, btw, super dead. I examine the body. He was killed by something than can wield magma. Good times. Daren tells us there’s a ritual by which a doneigad can see the last moments of his life - only tierna can perform it. Good thing we saved her earlier…. From danger that we put her in….

So we head off to see tierna, and she readily agrees because I avenged her earlier. Pretty sure it would have taken more convincing if I’d let the dude who shot her live. One fetch quest to get spell components later, we’re able to perform the ritual.

Vinbarr did it.

I go to question Derdre, Ullan, or Duncas. The latter two have the best opinion of me, so I hit up Dunncas first. Dunncas tells me to go to Wennshavar. Folks there give me some backstory, tell me to find Cera at the cave of knowledge.

We come upon alliance folks torturing a native woman, presumably Cera. This bitch has a whole ass villian speech. I’m pretty sure she’s one of the people I saved with Aphra’s science team? Could just be a recycled face though. We run down to interrupt. Aphra wants to reason with her, Siora wants to kill her. Yep, it’s the science team I saved. I have several options here; fight them, use intuition to remind them I saved them, threaten them, or let Aphra speak. I choose to let Aphra speak more because I want to hear what she says than anything.

Aphra shames her and reminds her that they left Asili together because of his cruelty. She whines that Aphra knows she’s not REALLY like that, and stomps off like an angry toddler. No fight. Cera thanks us for saving her, leads us to the cave, and opens it for us.

Inside the cave we find a fresh new fresco; it shows Vinbarr going to talk to the spirit of the mountain. He’s gone to join En on mil frichtimen. We see another fresco depicting a nadaig meneimen - the bird/mountain form. Vinnbar’s gonna turn into one. We look at some other murals, I let slip that I’m looking for Constantin, Cera peaces out and seals us in the cave because she thinks we’re looking for Vinnbar on a vengeance quest. We find another way out. The path is now laden with traps because she doesn’t want to be followed. Sorry, Cera, that no one informed you that I am a protagonist and thus no one can prevail against me.

We go to the mountain passage depicted in the fresco, go through a cave maze, and find the mountain trail to the sanctuary. We meet up with Cera, who forces us to fight her. We snag a seed from her body after killing her and her folks to death. Which the game offered no way out of doing. Now we have both seeds and can open the sanctuary. We scamper through some scenic vista and arrive to find Vinnbar burying Constantin with rocks using telekinesis. He says the on en mil frichtimen told him constantine is the bringer of doomtimes. Now we have to have a boss fight. Partway through, he transforms into a nadaig. We continue fighting andf kill him to death.

I sure do murder a lot of nadaig in this game.

We return Constantin to New Serene and I’m pretty sure this is the break into act 3… Catasach made Constantin on ol menawi and he is stoked about it. He has branch antlers and pointy teeth and yellow eyes and feels great. I am concerned.

Time to go talk to Glendan again.

I lose three rep with the natives over, yanno, having murdered their high king to death. I now have to go and talk to the three potential high kings and gain the support of one of them - Derdre, Dunncas, or Ullan. Of those three, Dunncas is the only one who hasn’t tried to murder me or betrayed my trust so… off to Dunncas. His agenda is balance and healing. He easily agrees to let me see en on mil frichtimen if he’s chosen, and tells me how to make sure that he is - if I get a spectacular ancient crown from the grave of the high king that became the first guardian. He expresses distaste for using such a method. Siora is also worried about me making a decision that will impact all of her people. Gotta say that I agree, I have absolutely no place being involved in this decision at all - let’s see if the narrative lets me opt out of meddling! I go to see the other two candidates and hear out their agendas, out of fairness.

Ullan’s agenda is peace and alliance with the colonizers. He also readily agrees to help me.

Derdre wants to repel the colonists and take back the island. She says she’ll let me see en on mil frichtimen only if I rally Eseld/Siora’s tribe and join in the attack on the Ordo Luminous camp. Which, morally, I am absolutely all for. However, it seems like the game is heavily leaning on Dunncas as ‘the right choice’.

But yeah, fuck it, I’m backing Derdre all day long. Lets fuck up some Spanish Inquisition!

I have the option to inform the mother cardinal of the coming attack. Why the entire fuck would I do that?

So I destroy the fuck out of the camp and murder a bunch of inquiition torturers and free the surviving prisoners and gather evidence of war crimes. Then I go to mommy cardinal, who is big mad (Theleme -2 rep) that I didn’t tell her first. Boo. Fucking. Hoo.

Having done that, no there is no way to proceed in the questline without retrieving the crown, which involved murdering a Nadaig Magamen. I get the crown, and Derdre meets me there and rebukes me for entering a sacred place, trying to take the crown and throw the election, as an outsider. She is 100% correct. I give her the crown.

I wait two days and then go see en on mil frichtimen, who tells me that the malichor is the result of how the continental people treat their land. I’d like to pause here and talk about the role of Magical Natives in Green Aesop stories. Let’s review some tropes:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CloserToEarth

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/InHarmonyWithNature

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicalNativeAmerican

This some some colors of the wind / Avatar’s blue cat people bullshit, the idea that indigenous people are implicitly and intrinsically more -one with the earth- and that ‘modern civilization’ has lost this, to their detriment, and can only heal through <s>cultural appropriation</s> learning and adopting deep earthy truths known by indigenous people. The point of this in the story is to tell a Green Aesop - https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GreenAesop - it sets a paradeigm of indigenous people being the noblest of noble savages - https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NobleSavage - of indigenous people as a simpler, greener form of humanity. It’s othering. I’ve written a lot about this in the past, check out my post about woo: https://moniquill.tumblr.com/post/32577796262/the-following-is-a-post-about-woo

This particular brand of othering of indigenous people directly and personally fucked me up, as an indigenous person, when I was a kid. That could be why I have a personal grudge against it.

Moving along.

en on mil frichtimen alo tells me that Constantin is the bringer of doom times, and that Catasach essentially stole power from the island to keep him alive. I need to put a stop to his endless bitter hateful hunger. So yeah, that’s a thing. I go check up on my dear cousin.

When I show up, emissaries from the alliance and theleme are there begging Constantin for troops and also me; they’re suffering horrible attacks on their outposts and people. They’re blaming the natives. I mean, to be fair I did just crown queen Derdre Kill ‘Em All so….just saying. But moving on, I talk to Constantin about the sanctuary. He...doesn’t react well to the warnings about himself. When I ask him about his body with the island, it sure does seem like he got high on apotheosis and wants another hit. He doesn’t believe that the malichor on the continent is the fault of the continentals.

My main quest lines are now

The attack on San Matheus

The attack on Hikmet

And honestly fuck both those places because both of them were running torture camps but whatever, I guess I’m off to investigate.

Mommy Cardinal over in San Mateus wants me to hit up an outpost that’s being attacked relentlessly by wild animals. Speculation is that ‘island demons’ are controlling them.

Governor Burhan says the same thing’s happening to his folks.

Upon checking it out, the islanders are also being attacked; the animals are attacking indiscriminately, and while having that conversation a guy bursts in to say the guardian of the village (a nadaig glendemen) has turned on his people. So we kill it to death in a boss fight and it’s revealed that the corrupted nadaig was causing the animals to be killrabid. Now that it’s dead, the animals are back to normal.

Samesies over near San Matheus.

A human must be responsible, the creatures wouldn’t be so coordinated otherwise.

Is it my cousin? I bet it’s my cousin.

We go talk to Constantin.

He says ‘ha ha ha nothing to worry about….peace out, my adorable cousin!’ and takes off to parts unknown. I shake down his guards, but all they can tell me is that he’s going north outside the city. I rummage through his papers, and find his journal. Yeeeeah he’s super high on apotheosis and wants to become a god. Like, supplant and replace on en mil frichtimen. And he’s off to ‘get rid of’ some natives in Cwenvar who saw him the other night and might denounce his actions. I’m gonna have to take out my cousin by the end of this game and it will be a tearjerker cutscene. Calling it now.

We head to Cwenvar to talk to the natives. They show me how to spy on Constantin. We follow him to a sacred grove, where he’s clearly gone cuckoo bananas. He’s commanding a corrupted nadaig, which he tells to hold us back - but not kill me. SO we kill the nadaig, and then have a chat with on en mil frichtamen, who confirms that Constantin is trying to gain godhood by murdering god and taking his power. Yanno, as one does. In a cutscene, I list all the people who will totally help me against Constantin. This includes… pretty much everyone, because I’ve diplomatted my way through the game and everyone likes me. Time to go rally armies.

It’s worth noting at this time that on en mil frichtamen calls me ‘flesh of my earth’ and earliet called me ‘the child that was stolen’ - there’s a very ‘YOU ARE THE CHOSEN ONE’ vibe here, implying that I’m only able to succeed at this task because I’m native by blood - I’m not REALLY a continental and thus a Tainted Person made of Endless Greed. It is my native-ness and my bond to on en mil frichtamen, passed down from my donegiad parent, that allows me to be the hero of this game.

I want you, dear reader, to stop and think about the gross racial implications of that.

Moving forward: We go to ask Dunncas for help in how to break Constantin’s links to the land. He gives me seeds to place at the base of the stone Constantin has erected, to topple them. I have to fight a corrupted Nadaig each time. At this interval Siora points out how wise and attuned to en on mil frichtimen Dunncas is, and I express regret at not choosing him to be high king. TOO SUBTLE, GAME.

So yeah, couple of tedious boss fights.

Having broken his links and gathered my allies, it’s time for the endgame. We go back to the sacred grove where I talked to en on mil frichtimen, I get a series of heartwarming cutscenes with my companions and allies as I ascend to Constantine’s heart stronghold.

I reach Constantin. I have to fight a big bad ultra nadaig, which Constantin tells not to kill me.

He has a long cutscene in which he pleads his case, asking me to bond with him and rule together. I can either bond with him and join him in godhood, which is implied to doom all of humanity to eventually succumb to the malichor because no land can ever be healed now, or I can kill him and save the world like a big damned hero.

Then Mr. deCourcillion narrates the epilogue, where I get to hear about the consequences of all my decisions through the game. My decision to crown Derdre results in forcible decolonization of the island and healing thereof, but the old world nations are plunged into war and the malichor gets worse there. Am I supposed to feel bad? I don’t!

In the ‘best’ ending, Magical Native Healers travel to the continent and teach the sad tained continentals how to live in harmony with nature and heal their lands.

Here, have an every possible ending video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcUByGfNXgY

Know what weirds me out as an actual indigenous person? Learning that I’m a stolen child way back in Act 1 never resulted in a quest where I in any way question or explore my real ancestry. I never try to find out what clan my real mother was from or if I have any living relatives. I never look into why the Congregation abducted my mother and why I was raised by Princess De Sardet. The game just feels that this is unimportant. The important thing was that I have Magical Native Blood.

So yeah. That’s the game.

In studying the fandom presence of this game, roughly no one is interrogating the fuckedness of the premise or narrative. The active fandom seems to be mostly people who want to bang Vasco, people who think Constantin is a sad wooby who deserved better (including a lot of people who chose the ‘bad’ ending because they wub himb) and people who want to bang Constantin and justify it because he and De Sardet aren’t REALLY cousins… and people who are just here for The Aesthetic. Fun fact there are exactly 12 F/F fics on a03 set in this universe.

Here, have some examples, all from https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/GREEDFALL and https://archiveofourown.org/tags/GreedFall%20(Video%20Game)/works

https://destiny-rahl.tumblr.com/post/616743783790460928/constantin-de-sardet-my-beloved-otp-this

https://swiveldiscourse.tumblr.com/post/615782041344147456/not-sure-who-needs-to-hear-this-but-this-game

https://totallyamoral.tumblr.com/post/615651870535532545

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20766497/chapters/49345631

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20676554/chapters/49106921

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20747450

Lots of people compared this game to Dragon Age: Inquisition when it first came out because the gameplay looks similar. But here’s the thing… the first time I finished DA:I, I immediately wanted to turn around and play it again, as a different character, as someone who made different decisions and followed a different romance and brought different companions with me on quests to see their different reactions.

I do not want that with Greedfall.

My first thought upon fisnishing was ‘Oh thank fuck, I’ve seen this to fruition, I don’t have to play this anymore.’

That is not how I should feel at the end of a game.

I feel tired and broken and hurt and used, much like I felt after reading Sister Raven.

https://moniquill.tumblr.com/post/165881710831/so-today-i-read-a-book-called-sister-raven

Native-specific sidequests of note:

In An Aspiring Merchant, you meet a native merchant in New Serene who’s trying to set up shop; because he doesn’t have the correct paperwork and didn’t follow the bureaucratic process, his stuff keeps getting confiscated. I do not have any opportunity to explore why his lack of paperwork gets his stuff repeatedly confiscated, rather than just getting him sent home.

While I’m getting the paperwork for him, his cousin arrives with a shipment of goods. The guards confiscate the goods again, and arrest the cousin. I go to investigate, and find that cousin threw some punches when the guards once again confiscated all of the goods, and was arrested for disorderly conduct. Ok. So I proceed to the jail and find that he has been sent to fight -to the death- in the arena?! When the prison guard says ‘Hey, it wasn’t me, I was just following orders’ I’m not given an opportunity to ask who’s giving the orders or pursue the miscarriage of justice. I head to the Arena. Despite being a Legate, one of the highest governing offices of the colony, I have no option to put a stop to these shenanigans. I can’t just spring him, or pay bail; I am required to fight beside him to secure his freedom.

Completing this quest opens the Ullan/Vignamri questline.

Ullan wants to trade with Hikmet, Hikmet wants us to secure the roads, we visit another chieftain, he agrees to a meeting, Ullan shows up and shanks him, I shout at Ullan about how that was bad to do, Ullan thanks me for giving him the opportunity.

In Logging Expedition, I follow up on the quest hook about settlers clear cutting a glade that I got in vigyigidaw. Standoff between the natives and the settlers, natives want to plant trees, settlers won’t let them. Three settler woodcutters died recently - after investigation there was a conspiracy to poison them by an elder in vigyigidaw - my character refers to this as an act of vengeance by a hateful old man. Despite having literally just had it explained to us that it was supposed to be an object lesson in why not to clearcut the forest - the meat would have been fine if it had been prepared with a particular (possibly now extinct?) berry.

So we pop all the way down to the congregation colony to ask Mr. Courcillon how to diplomacy this ‘property disagreement’. He tells us to go to the basement archives and then see Lady Morange. Just from a gameplay perspective, this - like many sidequests - is fucking tedious. Just running from one place to another, grabbing a few lines of dialog in each place, with no player decision or engagement. This is a poorly designed game. So we hash out the contract, which was created back where neither side had any understanding of the other side’s ideas of what land ownership means. Manhattan was bought for 60 guilders worth of glass beads, etc etc. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/12657/was-manhattan-really-bought-24

We have to prosecute the old man for murder if we want a new land deal signed. To prosecute the old man, we have to go stop a mining operation. It’s just one thing after another, and all of it boring and tedious. I had to stop in the middle of this questline and put the game down not because it was upsetting, but because it was -boring-. I hope that the readers appreciate the work I’m putting into making a detailed critique of this garbage fire.

#Greedfall #NDN stuff #Indigenously Angry #Clusterfuck #NDN #Colonialism: The Game

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andipxndy-writes · 3 years

Text

holiday mishaps (part 3)

fandom: alex rider x ncis [crossover] warnings: typical ncis stuff requested by: @lilcoffeecup word count: 4.5k

cross posted to ao3

summary: Alex Rider just wanted a relaxing holiday, somewhere where he could relax without any trouble cropping up. And with Jack and her family, he almost got that. ALMOST. And then he had to go and take a midnight walk. On the other hand... Ziva David swears she recognises the fair-haired witness to their murder case.

holiday mishaps

It turned out that one of the cousins had, in fact, gone and blabbed to Jack about what had happened in the park, and she had been far less than pleased that it had happened without her there as his guardian. Because, of course, Alex was a minor. They couldn’t be asking him those things without a guardian there to make sure they weren’t going too far in their questioning. Of course, Alex knew that he could very much handle whatever line of questioning they threw at him — he was far stronger than most people knew, and he had been through a lot more than most adults had anyway. Jack technically didn’t need to worry about him, but she did anyway. Because of everything he had been through, and because of the effects it had had on him the past couple of years.

He had to admit, though, watching Jack make that phone call to NCIS and yell at their agents over the phone for questioning Alex without an adult present was more than a little amusing, and Alex had sat there snacking on the rest of the box of Cheerios whilst she’d yelled like it was an entertaining TV show. Which, in reality, it was when he wasn’t able to watch the same things he watched at home.

That hadn’t stopped them from calling again to ask whether he could come in to help more with profiling and come up with a facial profile for them to go off. Alex wasn’t sure how much he would have been able to help, considering everything had happened in very dim lighting and there was no guarantee that the facial features he thought he’d seen were accurate. He only recognised the man’s appearance as a whole, not just from his face. If it turned out to not be the guy he thought it was, then it wasn’t his problem anymore.

Now, though, he was as detached from the case as he could get. They didn’t really need his help anymore, considering he had given them as much as he could. At least, he had claimed to give them as much information as he could. There were some bits that he couldn’t quite tell them, for very good reasons. He could send the information to MI6 and ask them to forward it on to NCIS or deal with it themselves, but 1) they weren’t meant to know about the case anyway; and 2) he was on a break from them, and he didn’t exactly want to get himself back on their radar unless he was desperately needed.

Anyway, as he was distanced from the case (at least until they told him when they’d caught the guy), Jack had decided that he may as well be treated for going through what he had. In her eyes, it was the least she could do, even though he was more than grateful for not only the trip but for introducing him to her family. They’d taken him in as one of their own, and as someone who came from a very small family, it was very nice to have such a large family who cared. Not biological, of course, but he was definitely beginning to care for them, and he would fight to protect them if anything came up. Plus, he had been through worse, and wasn’t as if everything he’d gone through on the trip had been terrible, particularly when it came to her family.

So she had taken him to the mall. It was crowded, of course, which made Alex more than a little uncomfortable, but considering all of the different shops Jack was taking him into he deemed the discomfort more than a little worth it. There were various clothes shops she took him into to update his wardrobe, which he didn’t quite think was necessary but she did. He wasn’t going to argue with her on it, but he thought it was worth voicing his opinion. She did, however, take him into a couple of video game stores to see if there was anything he wanted to get. Of course, he pointed out that any DVDs would likely be region-locked, and it would probably have been the same for the video games, but at least he had an idea of what he wanted to get so that he could buy them when they got back home.

Needless to say, Alex was actually enjoying the shopping trip with Jack. It was refreshing to do something with her that wasn’t about his “job” or his school work or about anything in his life that troubled them. They just got to have fun, and not think about things, for a day.

It didn’t exactly last long.

In Alex’s defence, he hadn’t anticipated it, even though he had a feeling that he probably should have anticipated it considering his luck. If anything, he thought it was downright ironic that after a man had died in his arms, the man’s killer should come after him as if he had been the original target. Which, of course, he wasn’t completely sure about because there were many people who had died because of him and many people who had simply got in the way when someone coming for him was on a rampage. But now he was stuck, and in a fair bit of danger because, of course, he was a target for a killer. A drug dealer, yes, but a killer on the side clearly.

The two of them had been wandering through the crowds when Alex felt the strange little tingle at the back of his neck — a tingle that told him he was being watched. He, of course, thought it was strange that he felt as if he was being watched in a mall full of people, but tried to brush it off anyway. Perhaps his usual strange “spy senses” were acting up and becoming paranoid, thinking that someone was coming after him when he was safe.

When the feeling didn��t go away, no matter how much he tried to brush it off, he knew that something was wrong.

The two of them headed into the next store Jack had on their list of places to head to — a store for shoes, because Alex needed a couple of new pairs of trainers. He had reached his rapid-growing phase again, and this time his feet had decided to take advantage of his growth spurts and had gone up at least a whole size. Which meant that the majority of his shoes no longer fit, no matter how new or old they were. He mentally noted that when they returned to England, he would have to donate the newer small pairs of shoes to charity shops and simply bin or recycle the older pairs. For now, though, he could look through all of the different pairs on sale and pick a couple to take home… as long as the pairs were in his (new) size.

He had just sat down to try on a pair of trainers that he’d liked the look of when he felt the tingling at the back of his neck again, and he straightened. There was… definitely something wrong. Turning, he realised the main large store window was directly behind him, which meant that anyone could look through the window and see him.

Which wouldn’t have been so worrying if he hadn’t felt so on edge. The crowds were passing the window as usual, various individuals glancing into the shop and the items on display at the window, and Alex was beginning to think that he was just imagining being watched.

And then he saw them.

A pair of eyes standing within the crowd, further from the window than most of the people passing by. Staring directly at him. He wanted to say he had been imagining the eyes, and when he turned back to try on the shoes and then turned back to find the eyes gone he certainly thought he had been imagining it all.

He hadn’t quite considered how wrong that conclusion was until, whilst they were paying for a couple of pairs of shoes at the till, he felt the tingling again and he looked over his shoulder to see the eyes staring at him.

And they were considerably closer than they had been before.

He decided it was best not to mention anything about it to Jack until they got out of the store and were amongst the crowds again, where he could lose the person if he needed to. Part of him hoped he could just lose the person and not have to mention it at all to Jack. Of course, his luck didn’t work that way.

“There’s someone following us.”

Jack almost stumbled over her own two feet. “What? Alex!” She scowled at him. “Don’t kid about that sort of thing!” And then she noticed the look on his face, and her heart dropped. “You’re not kidding.”

Alex didn’t even bother answering that. “We need to split up.”

“What?”

Alex could just tell she was going to argue with that logic. “If they’re after us both, splitting us up means they have to cover more ground, and it’s easier to lose people when you’re on your own.” And if they were just after him, which was more likely, it meant that Jack was safe. He refused to lose her to any sort of villain ever again.

She looked like she wanted to fight him, to argue against him, but they’d been through so much together and she knew that he knew what he was on about. He didn’t make decisions like that on a whim. He calculated the risks, even when the calculation was a split-second decision.

Alex knew he’d won when she sighed.

“We meet at the food court in an hour,” she decided. “You call me if you can’t make it, and you tell mall security. I don’t need you getting kicked out for trying to protect yourself.”

Alex thought there were people more important than mall security that he could call, but he nodded anyway. He appreciated the sentiment behind what Jack was saying anyway. “Stay hidden and out of sight.”

“Got it.”

And with that, they split up. Alex could only hope that they both lost whoever was following them so that they could go on with the rest of their day in peace. Somehow, though, he had a feeling that wasn’t going to happen.

***

“What’ve you got for me?”

Ziva had just dumped her bag down when Gibbs walked into the bullpen with his usual coffee, moving as briskly as usual. They were in a hurry, of course. Not that it was anything different from usual, but they had him. They had their prime suspect, their likely killer.

Except they didn’t have him.

Ziva didn’t want to speak first, she really didn’t, but it turned out she was going to be the one to speak first (if the look that she was sharing with Tony was any indication). Screw her partner, he could be such an ass sometimes.

“We went to Paulo Rossi’s apartment,” she started, moving to head towards Gibbs’ desk so that she wasn’t just speaking to him over his computer as he sat. “He wasn’t there, and his roommate said that she hadn’t seen him all day. She claimed that he was often out at that time of day.” Of course, the tone that she said it in was more than enough to tell Gibbs that Ziva hadn’t believed the woman one bit, but he didn’t question it, leaving Ziva to go on. “We asked about where he usually goes and she didn’t have any sort of idea, but one of his neighbours told us that he was often seen down in two main locations — an area of the park, and near the local university.”

Of course, that sent off warning bells in all of their minds, if a drug dealer was hanging around and doing their business at a university, but it was also nothing out of the ordinary. They'd seen things like that happen far too often in their line of work.

“You search for him in those locations?” Gibbs asked, and it was at this point that Tony decided to speak up.

“Went to both of those places, found no trace of him anywhere,” he admitted. “His usual ‘contacts’ claimed to have not seen him around that day either — not since the day of the murder.”

That had also set off warning bells in Ziva’s head. Like the man was trying to run, or something. Or he had something else in mind that didn’t involve his usual drug dealing behaviours. Out of the two, she would rather it be the former — it was far easier to catch someone on the run than someone trying to do something else that could put more people in danger. And if he was a successful dealer, then he had a lot of money to access, meaning that the potential danger he could put people in—

“We got his cell phone number from his roommate,” Ziva cut her thoughts short before they could spiral and let her get distracted. That was not what she needed right then. Not when they were so close to solving the case.

“McGee!” Gibbs barked, and straight away he knew what to do. Tony placed the piece of paper with the cell number on it on McGee’s desk.

“Pinging his number now, boss.”

But if he wasn’t going on the run, what would he be doing instead? They had already looked up most of his history — most of his family were either dead or estranged from him, his girlfriend had gone into hiding to escape from him anyway, meaning that he was alone. There was no one he could or even would run to at a time like this, apart from one of his own agents or someone he dealt with. That left him going after someone who had put him in the position to have to run in the first place, to clear away anyone who could have seen his face that night.

Not many people had even been out at the time of the Petty Officer’s murder. Apart from…

“Tony,” Ziva suddenly said, turning to her partner. She could see on his face that he could already see the cogs turning in her mind, and he was ready to brainstorm with her. “When we were leaving his apartment, did you hear anything? See anything?”

Tony’s brow furrowed as he thought through what she was saying. She waited a few tense seconds, but eventually he said, “Nothing from outside the apartment. The streets seemed pretty clear. None of the other apartments really did anything loud—” And then he shot out of his chair, like the seat suddenly burned.

“The roommate made a call.”

That changed everything.

“She must have called Rossi to tell him that we were searching for him,” Ziva muttered. “He is onto us.”

“Which means that he’s trying to get rid of anyone who could have leaked that it was possibly him to us,” McGee chipped in. He gestured to the plasma. “He’s currently at the mall boss. Probably on the move, but inside the building.”

Who could have been inside the building for him to go after? Who was the only person who could have spotted him and leaked his information to the federal agents? Who was, therefore, the only person in danger at that moment in time?

Alex.

“It’s Alex,” Ziva admitted, and suddenly she was regretting going after the teen herself to get more information and not thinking to put more security on him for his own safety. “He is going after Alex. As far as we know, Alex is the only one alive who could have seen him. Alex must be in that mall.”

A split second later they were on the move.

“McGee, send us the address.”

“Got it boss!”

“Ping Alex’s phone and call him! Make sure he knows and that he gets to safety!” Gibbs was heading briskly out of the bullpen, not even needing to tell Tony and Ziva to follow after him. They were already hot on his heels, guns and badges in pockets and holsters and shouldering their bags, ready to do what needed to be done. Standing in the elevator, Ziva took a deep breath as she stood beside Tony, only hoping they weren’t too late.

“Hey,” Tony said softly, nudging her a little to get her attention, “we’ll get to him just fine. We don’t let people down.”

At least, they tried not to, and they tried very hard. It had happened before. They had made mistakes like this before. And whilst there was still that niggling feeling in the back of Ziva’s mind that she knew the teenager, she was already feeling like she’d let him down. Like she was the one who had put him in danger. If he died, if Rossi got away with what he wanted, she would never forgive herself.

“Besides,” Tony added, looking ahead with the smallest of smirks on his face, “school holidays. That building is gonna be packed. No way that he’s gonna find and catch Alex before we can warn him, right?”

“Don’t jinx it, Dinozzo,” Gibbs warned, and Ziva could only hope that the idiot beside her hadn’t gone and done exactly that.

***

And so we return to Alex’s predicament: stuck in the mall, hiding from someone, with his phone ringing in his pocket. He had a feeling the people sitting on the bench would look over and find him there whether he answered this phone or not, but if he didn’t answer there was a chance that he could be in more danger than before, and also a certainty that he would be forever curious about who had decided to call him.

Then again, he was meant to just be having a chill day with Jack at the mall. Not many people had his number, admittedly, but there was no reason to call him if you knew him. Not unless it was something important.

He let two rings go, waiting to see if it was some sort of spam caller who would let the call go if he didn’t pick up quickly, before actually answering the call. Huh. A private number. “Who is this?” he hissed into the phone as soon as he picked up, forgetting for a few precious moments that he was meant to be a regular teen with manners and not someone constantly assuming that a federal agency would call to employ his services. Again.

He knew he should have answered politely as soon as he heard the voice on the other side.

“Uh... Alex? Alex Rider? This is Special Agent McGee, from NCIS.”

Alex’s aggressive demeanour suddenly melted away. “Oh, uh,” he cleared his throat awkwardly, “hi. Sorry. I didn’t know who was calling.”

“That’s, uh, fine.” From his tone, Alex got the distinct feeling that it was not fine, but he wasn’t going to question it and let McGee carry on. “We have reason to believe someone may be after you.”

Well, it was a bit late for anyone to be telling Alex that, considering he already knew that someone was after him. But he let the agent continue on anyway. He was just doing his job, and at least they’d got into contact with him about it rather than just leaving him in the dark and possibly running for his life. Heck, he didn’t even know where Jack was. “Uh… really?” Though… that probably wasn’t the best answer to give in a situation like this, he realised.

“Yes. Agents are on their way to your location now, but until they arrive we’ll need you to get to a discrete location so that whoever is after you can’t find you.”

Easy enough to do, considering he was hidden behind a bench in a busy shopping centre. It wasn’t as if anyone was going to find him there, unless he got a little too cramped (which was beginning to happen right at that moment) and he needed to get up and stretch his legs (which he felt like he would need to do soon) so that they didn’t go numb from staying in that exact spot (which would definitely happen if he didn’t get up in the next few minutes). “Uh, I’m currently sat on a bench…” Well, technically behind, but he wasn’t going to tell him that.

There seemed to be a fair bit of tapping. “Do you know what stores are in your vicinity?”

Alex glanced around at the different stores around him, and blanched. As if he’d had the misfortune of running into the ladies’ lingerie district of the mall. “Uh… none that a teenage boy can comfortably walk into without getting very questionable looks from everyone inside.”

“…Right.”

Alex was so glad he didn’t have to explain himself.

“Are there any stores a little further out that you think you can get to without getting caught?”

Alex knew he could probably get around the whole mall without getting caught by whoever was chasing him, but he also didn’t want to risk his luck and end up getting caught because he got overly cocky. Not to mention the fact that if he spotted Jack, and they decided to start sneaking away together, she would be far too obvious in a crowd like this.

He had to come up with a plan.

“There… might be somewhere nearby that I could find?” A food cart would be the easiest, Alex supposed, but he was pretty sure there was a store around that didn't only sell women’s clothing and lingerie. Somewhere that would be more appropriate for him to get into. He’d just have to search.

Agent McGee hesitated for a moment, and Alex could hear his fingers stop clacking on his keyboard. As if he was hesitant about whatever the teen had in mind. Alex had to remind himself for a brief moment that the agent wasn’t doubting his skills, but rather he didn't know about exactly what damage he could cause if he were to be let loose on anyone who was coming after him like this. Not that he knew exactly who was coming after him, or why, but he was pretty certain that their intentions weren’t exactly pure.

“Okay, find somewhere safe, and do not move from that spot. And keep your phone on.”

That last instruction made Alex suspicious. Were they tracing his phone? “Are you tracing my phone to keep an eye on where I am?”

There was a pause on the other line, and Alex realised he had to think of a reason to explain that one. No normal teenager should be questioning a federal agent about tracking or tracing phones unless it was ironically. “I mean, I guess it’s a good idea,” he tacked on, pretty lamely in his opinion. “It means you know where I am without me having to call you or give away my position, I guess.”

Apparently, McGee wasn’t even going to question his tone. “Just keep your phone on, and head to a safe location. When the other agents arrive, I’ll alert them to your location to protect you.”

Alex wanted to say that he didn’t need protection, that he could handle himself, but Agent McGee had already cut the call, and he was still only a teenager in their eyes. He couldn’t do much in the way of protecting himself — at least, that was their opinion. Alex knew what he could and couldn’t do, and protecting himself and others was one of the things that he could do. Nevertheless, he got up from his position behind the bench, tucking his phone into his pocket. The people on the bench, who happened to be a fairly elderly woman and a man young enough to probably be her grandson, were watching him with confusion clear on their features. Alex gave them an awkward smile and half a wave, before carefully moving out from behind the bench. Once he was out, he looked around. There were people milling about everywhere, most of them obscuring his view, but he knew he couldn’t just stand there and wait. He had to find a store or something to hide in — and he had to find it fast.

***

It didn’t take too long for Alex to find somewhere that would be considerably more appropriate for him to hide in — a men’s store. Of course, he wasn’t nearly old enough to actually be shopping in there, but people didn’t give him weird looks as he walked in, and he at least looked old enough to be able to walk in there without getting questioned. On his way down there, he’d spent most of the time looking around, trying to see whether he could give any sort of indication as to where he was through landmarks if the agents were to call him to ask where he was. When he’d found the store, and therefore had its name tucked into the back of his mind, he’d given a sigh of relief.

At least it wouldn’t be too difficult to direct him there if they needed to find him.

Heading over to one of the clothes racks, Alex began to look through some of the clothes available there. There were mostly t-shirts on this rack, which meant that he would fit in pretty well since, well, he didn’t know anyone his age who would willingly walk into a men’s store and buy button-down shirts. So he grabbed a few of the t-shirts, hanging them over his arm as if he was really going shopping, before heading over to another of the racks. After venturing around a couple more racks, he ended up with a variety of t-shirts, jeans, shorts and short-sleeved shirts to try on in the changing rooms.

Because that was where he was going to hide. The changing rooms.

He guessed it was a pretty obvious hiding place, but it was also the last place you actually got to if you were searching through a store for a person. And if anyone decided to look for him in there, he would have more than enough time to prepare himself for any sort of oncoming attack if they had to enter through the front doors and make their way to the back. It would probably even give him enough time to escape, if he could get his timings right.

Getting a pass through to the back, he headed to the last-but-one stall, drawing the curtain closed and hanging everything up before climbing onto the bench — he would have a better chance at a surprise attack if they didn’t see his feet.

And then, checking to make sure he was ready and pulling a t-shirt off a hanger to use as a makeshift weapon, he waited.

#writing: mine #writing: fanfic writings #written for: lilcoffeecup #fandom: ncis #ncis #ncis fanfiction #fandom: alex rider #alex rider #alex rider fanfiction #multichap: holiday mishaps

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sleepingobsidian · 6 years

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Order 66 - Survival lays in your ability of faking your death

Where when Oder 66 is put into action the Jedi put a contingency plan into action. Those who we're still alive would fake their deaths and go into hiding. Where as the most go into deep hiding, there are those who tend to hide into more plain sight.

Like Mace Windu for example. After his fell through that window and the seperation of both his hands feel into the deeper levels of Coruscant was nursed back to health by a blackmarket doctor. Now he's a nursery teacher, has grown an impressiv beard and wears clothes that got out of style twenty years ago, and „he is obviously not Mace Windu, Lord Vader. What are you talking about? That's Maceroy Winter, he's the nursery teacher of my daughter“. Maceroy Windu is followed everywhere by his green furless yappermonkey Yado, the mascot and most beloved pet. „He can't be Master Yoda, Emperor, he's obviously just a green, furless yappermonkey from on of the moons of yavin. See we have his papers right here“. Yado the green yappermonkey was registered with the Coruscanti petpatrol ten years ago. And besides everyone knows yappermonkeys have a long lifetime.

Than there is street and tattoo artistin Shaek Tea which obviously can't be Master Shaak Ti, because „you killed her Lord Vader, remember. In the jedi temple. Besides she has totally different markings and -master Shaak Ti wasn't a mother of ten“. The tattoo studio of Shaek Tea is well known and established two years ago and is frequently visited by Stormtroopers. The tattoo artist seems to have an aversion against the cloned soldiers but that may only be because she's a mother and wants to protect her young.

Than there is nautolan marine biologist Fist Kio, with a natural connection to the animals of the seas of the galactic, who teaches at the Coruscanti community college. He often takes his students through tours of the aquarium of Coruscant. And some of his students swear they once saw him calm down a rampaging Tra'cor. „It was like he used the force“, was heard from one of his students. „If he hadn't been teaching here for over thirteen years he could totally be a jedi, but noway. I saw him flirting and taking that famous tattoo artist from Coco Town home with him. And aren't jedi like celibate?“.

Leaving the Planet she was raised on Billina Dune is on the search for her son Canan, who vanished from Kaller not so long ago. The young designer and self defense teacher has been on the search for her son for two years now and isn't giving up on him. He's out there in the galaxy somewhere. „And how do you know this? May it be because jedi masters have a connection with their students!“. „A mothers intuition“. She's a frequent visitor at Ben's Tea Palace and became good friends with the owner and his young ward. Kanan Jarrus a former small time smuggler from Kaller and son of famus designer Billina Dune, not that he knows of that. Has not a long time ago decided to follow a young woman into war against the emporer and his empire, on the way he acquired a new family. In the knowledge his „mother“ died on kaller not so long ago and so never searching for her. Though there's no picture on his wanted poster knows the whole galaxy his name. But nobody is sure if he even is a jedi or jedi appentice like the propaganda says, because „I swear he's using a blaster not a lightsaber. When someone he knows is threatened he immediatle goes for his blaster and not for some hidden pocket or so. If he were a jedi he would go for a hidden pocket, where his lightsaber is, right?“.

Fulcrum is a young togrutan woman who nurses her partially burnt kel dor uncle Verdict back to health. Verdict was badly burnt during an attack of the CIS on some cargo ships. Fulcrum is the captain of a little fleet of cargo ships which transport some valuable and some not so valuable cargo from the inner core to the outer rim. All the while she raises her human adoptive babysister Lee and cares for her adopted uncle. She often visits a medic sation in the middle rim to get help for her uncle and to visit her long time Lover. „I know you said that Fulcrum may be the Rebelion spy Fulcrum and your former padawan Ahsoka Tano. But Fulcrums cargo fleet had been around before your padawan even became your padawan, Lord Vader“, not to say the man didn't survive after saying so much padawan in one senctence but he didn't survive. And Darth Vader is confused how his former padawan acquired a baby and from where?

The mirialan doctor Barry Coffee and her young son Bonbon Coffee, live on a medic station in the middle rim and treat various injured people. Doctor Coffee is known for never turning away any person who's hurt. Her son Bonbon has a little aggression problem which she's working with but for now it helps her keep order in her waiting room when some patients make stress again. Her son is a deadly shot. And there is an unspoken rule at the medic station. The people that flick you together are allowed to undo their work, so watch your mouth. Doctor Coffee is rumored to even heal the most grievous illnesses and wounds, things other doctor couldn't treat. „It's because your a healer, right“. „I wish. This would be all so much easier but no I had to be born as an ordinary woman with ordinary skills“. Her young son Bonbon is confused why all these interegators allways appear at their doorstep. He was just enjoing his time with his mother and his mothers lovers family. Fulcrum is awesome and no one could ever tell him otherwise. „I don't understand what the relationship of my mother has to do with her skills as a doctor. Yeah, Fulcrum is awesome but her skills as a doctor besides basic first aid is shit“.

Bens Tea Palace is a little tea shop and café in Coco Town, right next to the tattoo shop of Shaek Tea, it's run by owner and tea maker Ben Kenobi. „Obi-Wan Kenobi!“. „Oh you know my fifth cousin thrice removed? Yeah, I allways wondered what happened to him when the jedi took him away“. „No your Obi-Wan Kenobi“. „Don't be ridiculous. We look totally different“, Ben says adjusting his glasses and shifting a baby on his hip. Ben Kenobi is known as skillful tea maker and uncle to little Luke Kenobi, the son of his brother who died in a tragic airspeeder accident. His brother died in the following fire explosion as the motor explodes. His sister in law died due to strangulation from the seat belt. Ben Kenobi is a friendly shop owner who invites everyone inside for a cup of tea, wear sweater vests,with the sleeves of his ironed shirt pushed up, and ties his hair in a ponytail. His nephew visits the nursery under the supervision of Maceroy Winter. When he can he visits the university and takes classes. When ever stormtroopers set foot in his sjop he freezes and ushers his nephew in the backroom, the flat above the shop or to Dex's restaurant, where he is under the supervision of a little blue droid. He looks at the stormtroopers with a freezing gaze and the most fake smile. Strangely those troopers allways vanish a few days after they visit in the Tea Palace.

Jocasta Nu or the Librarian as most people call her is one of the most searched for persons in the galactic empire. Which doesn't stop her to just walk through Coruscant as if she owned the place. She wears no disguise and her lightsaber is in full display. No one knows how she does it but she allways evades or flees the capture through stormtroopers. She often visits Coco Town and the shops or is often seen in the medic station Berry Coffee works at or to board a ship that belongs to the Fulcrum fleet. Sometimes she's accompanied by young children wearing a matching outfit or adults carrying themselves just like her. But everyone who saw her swears she just vanished in a cloud of smoke so as she was never there. One time Emperor Palpatine surprised her and Ben by meeting her in Bens Tea Palace. „Jocasta Nu. Now I got you“. „What are you talking about your Highness? This is obviously my grandmother Jade Kenobi. See I have her visitation papers right here. Signed by one of your subordinates!“. In the end rumour has it that the emperor left the shop dejected and seemingly scolded. And angry, oh so angry that the ground under his feet got cracks.

Bant Eerin and Stass Ali. A mon calamari and a tholothian. They are a duo of known pirates in the whole galaxy and have behind them an army of faceless men. They say the Unnatural Ones were created by the woman to oppose the empire and overthrow it. They are known to kidnap stormtroopers, torure them and than murder them a horrible way. The reality is a little bit more boring. Yeah, they are a duo of pirates but they don't get much around to stealing themselves. The Unnatural Ones as they call them are clone troopers. Brothers that got saved by the two woman. They have a skilled medic with them that takes out chips inside the heads of the clones. A trooper with the designation of CT-6116 called Kix. How they met this trooper or where he came from is so highly classified that only three people know of it and they want it to stay it that way. Their second in command is a trooper with the designation CT-21-0408 or more common known as Echo. He tends to do most of the pirating with his brothers and leaves the liberation of his brothers to the two woman.

Aay and Quin. The idol and her manager. Aay is twilek with beautiful clear blue skin and a mermerizing voice. Wich makes her the perfect galactical idol. The same thought her manager and friend Quin. So he brought her to a photo shooting and this is how her career began. As a model for the new dress line of designer Billina Dune. She wears dresses and clothes that gain more and more popularity throughout the galaxy. In an interview with a corellian talkshow was than her beautiful singing voice dicovered. A voice that would leave others breathless. „Trying to mind trick your fans, Master Secura?“. „What are you talking about, Lord Vader. I'm just a normal idol singing about the empowerment of woman and the loss of love“. As Aay has committed herself to beeing an idol her manager has committed himself to making her a star. But Quin is known as a Ladys- and Sirsman. The two are currently on a tour through the midrim.

It'll be definitely Hondo Ohnakas fault when the whole contingency plan may be thrown out of the window. The first thing he does when he and his little band of future pirates, Katooni, Byph, Ganodi, Gungi, Petro and Zatt, touch down on Coruscant to Lukes birthday is throw their true names around and act as if the establishment of the empire never happened. He causes chaos, let's the children steal something from the emperor and Darth Vader and they leave again. The whole order had been in a constant state of stress. And Ben swears he got the grey hair all from one visit. He hopes this will never happen again. It happens again. To each and every birthday of Luke. Luke thinks it's funny and really likes his crazy enstranged Uncle Hondo. From the reports Ben get's from Fulcrum she has the same problem with Hondo as him. Even if it has gone better after they spent one birthday at the medic station and Bonbon shot the pirate. „Don't worry Ben he didn't kill him“. „Sometime I wish he had“.

To say that the Emporer and Darth Vader are frustrated and enraged would be an understatment, but technically they can’t do anything it would come to galactic wide revolts if the just murdered innocent seeming citizens.

So, this story could either turn out into total crack or angst with a touch of humour

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jacksgreysays · 7 years

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Shikako & Itachi, Pre!Kako (if you're familiar with it), 'Miracle'

I had to do some reading on the forums for this one, anon, but to summarize pre!Kako ‘verse I’ll just go with the very basic idea of “Shikako is born six years early” and keep more in line with JJ1293’s ‘canon’.

So as of Part Seven, Shikako (Kinokawa, since Shikaku has been very firmly disowned and not taken back) and Itachi are the same age and have just graduated in their first year because ~prodigies~ and have been placed on Team 2 with Tenma Izumo.

—

Miracle

Changing the world isn’t an easy task, but her existence is proof enough that it can be done.

Becoming friends with Itachi Uchiha? Now that’s going to need divine intervention.

—

Shikako and Itachi are actually quite civil with each other. But there is a distinct lack of social acuity from both of these prodigies and that’s not even including Shikako’s whole “in another world you literally murder your entire clan on the say so of a sociopath who your best friend/cousin told you not to trust? and then you torture your brother? but you’re supposedly a pacifist? like… wtf?”

That being said, I do think Shikako would be more hands on about changing Itachi’s life than she is with either Naruto or Sasuke because what’s the worst that can happen? He dies? Lol, okay, that’s one big bad out of the way. He kills his clan and defects from the village? Yeah, sure, that was going to happen anyway so she’s not exactly worse off.

I have a very definite feel that, given the title and all, in “Miracle” Shikako would actually push him towards being a medic nin. As a pacifist that just seems like the best way to capitalize on his genius without having him go full on serial killer, and I’m always going to be soooooo enamored with the idea of an Uchiha medic nin.

THE SHARINGAN WOULD BE SO GOOD FOR IT!

I do think Itachi would like the idea but not necessarily feel like he is allowed to given, you know, Uchiha clan heir, growing tensions in Konoha, lethal = stronger. And as a counterargument, Shikako probably references the dregs of the Senju vs Uchiha rivalry. You know, something like: Tsunade-sama was a frontline fighter and a medic, but if the Uchiha don’t think their prodigy can multitask as well as a Senju well, okay.

I mean, probably not that heavy handed (or maybe that heavy handed in front of Itachi, but he cleans it up before presenting the idea to Fugaku) but kind of leaning into that.

And I guess it would be a lot of… either back and forth POV or Itachi only POV. Because there’s a lot of things “Miracle” could be referencing: Shikako being reincarnated. Surviving the Kyuuubi rampage. Shikako becoming a shinobi even though “chakra hypersensitivity.” Not just one but TWO prodigies graduating in one year at the same time.

Preventing the Uchiha Massacre. Itachi becoming the Uchiha clan’s first medic nin and no doubt helping to revive Shikako after her numerous technical deaths. Changing the world through kindness and intelligence (and non-lethal violence).

I did also like Laural Rose’s idea of Pre!Kako ‘verse!Itachi being the only unblooded Kage (aka Kage that has never killed). Which would work pretty well with a combat medic Itachi, I think.

And I also also like how a medic Uchiha trying to match/surpass Tsunade would, if only a little bit, bring a spark to her own latent Senju vs Uchiha rivalry and kind of be like. This tiny brat thinks he can be as good as I can? Well put your money where your mouth is, you’re now Shizune #2! And Itachi won’t SAY that he’s ridiculously pleased by this outcome, but he is quite honored that a Sannin would think him worthy of an apprenticeship.

Which works nicely with Shikako’s own sort-of apprenticeship with “nope, not gonna help you, oh those corrections and notes in the margins of your fuinjutsu journal I have no idea how that got there” Jiraiya. And “Miracle” can also reference those no doubt IMPOSSIBLE seals Shikako comes up with.

Hm… So what I’m saying, anon, is that “Miracle” as I would write it would probably be a one shot with different scenes from this Pre!Kako, medic!Itachi world. Probably starting with Itachi’s Hokage coronation and working backwards through the snowball effect–jounin Shikako and Itachi taking out Akatsuki (or, at least, doing significant damage to them), chuunin Shikako and Itachi definitely-not-feeling-sad-about-being-separated-because-of-their-respective-apprenticeships-with-Sannin, the many missions in which Shikako ends up technically dead or Itachi kidnapped (for some reason? kidnappers always go for him first?) or Tenma exasperatedly trying to keep his tiny teammates out of the clutches of creepy adults, etc. etc, all going back to that first moment when Shikako looked at Itachi and thought “I have to save this dumbass from his terribad life choices” that maybe she could make the world a better place.

Who is the Miracle? What is the Miracle? I dunno, that’d be up to the readers, ultimately.

#jacksgreyson #anonymous #prompt response #brainstorm #fanfiction #ask box fake fic titles #fake fic summaries #dreaming of sunshine #naruto #shikako nara #itachi uchiha #miracle

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shapesweets83-blog · 5 years

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New Zealand prepares to bury mosque victims as toll hits 50

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand -- Anguished relatives were anxiously waiting Sunday for authorities to release the remains of those who were killed in massacres at two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch, while police announced the death toll from the racist attacks had risen to 50.

Islamic law calls for bodies to be cleansed and buried as soon as possible after death, usually within 24 hours. But two days after the worst terrorist attack in the country's modern history, relatives remained unsure when they would be able to bury their loved ones.

Police Commissioner Mike Bush said police were working with pathologists and coroners to release the bodies as soon as they could.

"We have to be absolutely clear on the cause of death and confirm their identity before that can happen," he said. "But we are so aware of the cultural and religious needs. So we are doing that as quickly and as sensitively as possible."

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said a small number of bodies would start being released to families Sunday evening, and authorities hoped to release all the bodies by Wednesday.

Police said they had released a preliminary list of the victims to families, which has helped give closure to some relatives who were waiting for any news.

The scale of the tragedy and the task still ahead became clear as supporters arrived from across the country to help with the burial rituals in Christchurch and authorities sent in backhoes to dig new graves in a Muslim burial area that was newly fenced off and blocked from view with white netting.

The suspect in the shootings, 28-year-old white supremacist Brenton Harrison Tarrant, appeared in court Saturday amid strict security, shackled and wearing all-white prison garb, and showed no emotion when the judge read him one murder charge and said more would likely follow.

Tarrant, the suspect, had posted a jumbled 74-page anti-immigrant manifesto online before the attacks and apparently used a helmet-mounted camera to broadcast live video of the slaughter.

Ardern said the gunman had sent the manifesto to her office email about nine minutes before the attacks, although she hadn't gotten the email directly herself. She said her office was one of about 30 recipients and had forwarded the email to parliamentary security within a couple of minutes of receiving it.

Bush said at a news conference Sunday that they found another body at Al Noor mosque as they finished removing the victims, bringing the number of people killed there to 42. Another seven people were killed at Linwood mosque and one more person died later at Christchurch Hospital.

Thirty-four injured victims remained at Christchurch Hospital, where officials said 12 were in critical condition. And a 4-year-old girl at a children's hospital in Auckland was also listed as critical.

Dozens of Muslim supporters gathered at a center set up for victims, families and friends across the road from the hospital, where many had flown in from around New Zealand to offer support. About two dozen men received instructions on their duties Sunday morning, which included Muslim burial customs.

Abdul Hakim, 56, of Auckland, was among many who had flown in to help.

"As soon as people die we must bury them as soon as possible," Hakim said. "We are all here to help them in washing the body, putting them in the grave."

Javed Dadabhai, who flew from Auckland after learning about the death of his 35-year-old cousin, Junaid Mortara, said the Muslim community was being patient.

"The family understands that it's a crime scene. It's going to be a criminal charge against the guy who's done this, so they need to be pretty thorough," he said.

Still, it was hard, he said because the grieving process wouldn't really begin until he could bury his cousin.

People across New Zealand were still trying to come to terms with the massacre that Ardern described as "one of New Zealand's darkest days."

A steady stream of mourners arrived at a makeshift memorial outside the Al Noor mosque, where hundreds of flowers lay piled amid candles, balloons and notes of grief and love. As a light rain fell, people clutched each other and wept quietly.

Under a nearby tree, someone had left a potted plant adorned with cut-out red paper hearts: "We wish we knew your name to write upon your heart. We wish we knew your favorite song, what makes you smile, what makes you cry. We made a heart for you. 50 hearts for 50 lives."

The gunman live-streamed 17 minutes of the rampage at the Al Noor mosque, where he sprayed worshippers with bullets. Facebook, Twitter and Google scrambled to take down the video, which was widely available on social media for hours after the bloodbath.

The second attack took place at the Linwood mosque about 5 kilometers (3 miles) away.

Ardern has said Tarrant was a licensed gun owner who bought the five guns used in the crimes legally.

At a news conference Sunday, the prime minister reiterated her promise that there will be changes to the country's gun laws. She said her Cabinet will discuss the policy details on Monday.

Arden used some of her strongest language yet about gun control, saying that laws need to change and "they will change."

Neighboring Australia has virtually banned semi-automatic rifles from private ownership since a lone gunman killed 35 people with assault rifles in 1996.

Before Friday's attack, New Zealand's deadliest shooting in modern history took place in 1990 in the small town of Aramoana, where a gunman killed 13 people following a dispute with a neighbor.

___

Associated Press writers Kristen Gelineau and Stephen Wright in Christchurch, and Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, contributed to this report.

Source: https://6abc.com/new-zealand-prepares-to-bury-mosque-victims-as-toll-hits-50/5200361/

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radarbrow2-blog · 5 years