#agent gaia
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Back By Midnight: Operation BULLSEYE - Part 2/4:
The first chapter can be found here!
Taglist of peeps who might be interested (lemme know if you want to be added or removed!): @akaisenhatake @camillejeaneshphm @catohphm @fangirl-screaming @rosachaotic @ag907 @nikyiscreepy @oseathepebble
(contains violence, death, and use of guns)
Also, this story features a brief cameo from a character of @camillejeaneshphm 's, and the name for the WIW in this version of events comes from @magicapandora !
Two hours until midnight. That was the time limit that was bouncing through Matthew’s (now Agent Moon’s) mind as he approached the building. He willed himself not to look at the road as a white minivan drove by, taking a corner further down the road, adjusting the silver bracelet on his right wrist. This was the only thing on him that hadn’t been from Bill. He’d even asked about it, and Matthew explained that it was something he just wore for good luck and protection, not that it ever seemed to work..
“Not bad, New Moon. Most people on their first mission tend to look at the surveillance devices a little too much.” Agent Gaia said over the earpiece, a little muffled by the sound of traffic.
“Focus on the road, Gaia, I’m the one running interference!” Agent Terra exclaimed, Matt expecting to hear frantic keyboard typing, but only getting a few clicks here and there.
“Alright, you’re past the ID machine. Like Gaia said, it’s on the 28th floor, so you’ll need to make your way up unnoticed…which is exactly why you’re going in via the car park.”
Matthew darted around the side of the building, risking a look up at it. It was 30 stories tall, all of which was owned by Reflection International, as evidenced by the giant logo he was standing under.
From his own investigations, while they had never done anything illegal, there is certainly a lot of criticism for their practices, be it extreme markups of life-saving medicines, ruthless buying of patents, as well as lobbying governments. Still, as he approached the entryway of the car park, he found himself wondering just what a company like this could be hiding that required the murder of multiple Intelligence Personnel.
Before he went any further, he heard a door open within the car park. Ducking low, he shuffled forward until he had a good view. Out of the door came two figures: a woman with ginger hair and a suit, and behind her was a man who looked familiar. He was tall, with dark black hair, and was wearing a striking white suit.
“That’s…” Matt said under his breath, “...the guy who Bill talked to today. The executive.”
“Well spotted.” Terra confirmed. “That’s Ryuji Ketseuki, Vice Executive for Reflection International. Rose up through the ranks to become one of the youngest business executives of all time. Apparently they call him the “Wizard in White”. Blech.”
Matthew watched as the woman opened the door of an expensive-looking car and sat in the driver’s seat, Ketseuki getting in the back of the car, the engine soon roaring to life.
“Now’s your chance, Agent Moon. Wait for the right moment…” Terra said, as the car park shutters slowly opened. Ketseuki’s car rolled out and turned towards the main road, as the shutters started to close again. Taking a deep breath, he went for it, scampering a little to get his whole body past the shutters before they…well, shut.
“I’m in.” Matt said, allowing himself to smile.
“So am I.” Terra chuckled, as Matthew heard a few more clicks. “Since your earpiece is now inside the building, there’s way fewer checks on it than a computer outside it. Should help me delete any footage of you snooping around. Alright, get going.”
Taking a moment to breathe, Matthew set off up and out of the car park, towards the fire exit stairs. He’d have to make it across the reception of the building before he could get to the higher floors. Considering he was carrying several tools of espionage as well as a gun, he was slightly afraid of being seen as suspicious. Still, he figured, it was about the same anxiety he had when walking outside normally. He breathed in. He took a first step. He breathed out. A man in a business suit walked across a reception, past another giant Reflection International logo. It was 10:10pm.
“Wow, you’re a natural! You don’t look suspicious at all! No wonder M- er, Bill chose you!”
Finally, Matthew was able to slip past the crowd until he was near the lift and the stairs (he frowned at how the sign called it an elevator)
“Now, there’ll be cameras in the lift, not to mention other people, so your safest bet is probably the stairs, but keep the lifts in mind if you need to get somewhere else fast.” Terra pointed out. “It happens sometimes that the best way to get out of a sticky situation is to just - CAREFUL GAIA WATCH THE ROAD-”
Matthew stifled a laugh as he started to climb up the stairs. Through the windows of the doors, it looked like most people had gone home for the day, with half of the corridors being pitch black. Still, Matthew kept on guard, and it would just be his luck that when he got to the 28th floor he would find that a single light was on.
“Pants.” Matthew said, bluntly.
“I’m checking the cams now, hang tight.” Terra assured him, seemingly recovered from whatever Gaia had been up to. “Man, it’s like they want the data to be deleted easily, this is child’s play…ok! Yeah, looks like someone’s in there with the ID machine, but they aren’t working on it, which is good news.”
“I’m guessing the bad news is I’ll need to go in with him and pray he doesn’t smell a rat.”
“He kind of looks like a rat.” said Gaia, off-handedly, “hold on, Terra, gotta overtake here.”
“Gaia! That’s really rude!...Look, reporting you is probably the last thing this guy wants to do. Just act natural, be nice, and there’s no reason to worry!”
“I suppose…” Matt said to himself, pinching the bridge of his nose. He checked his watch, and found that it was almost 10:30pm. He just hoped he had enough time to get this done. He couldn’t waste any more time. He had do right by Bill. Steeling himself, he opened the door labelled “Floor 28 - Research Division” and walked forward, not flinching when the corridor lights came on.
“Seems like the guy noticed the lights came on.” Terra informed Matt. He showed no reaction and kept walking until he came to the door.
“Should I knock?” he whispered.
“It would be polite.” Terra admitted. Shrugging to find a counter-argument, Matthew knocked thrice.
“C-Come in!”
Matthew slowly pushed open the door, and glanced at the other person in the room. He tried to keep his face still. He kind of did look like a rat, just a little. He looked around the same age as Matt was, with short blonde hair and largeish blue eyes. He also, somehow, looked more nervous than Matthew normally did.
“C-Can I help you?” he asked nervously. Matt took a glance at the name on the desk. Ben Copper.
“Oh, no worries.” Matt reassured him, “I’m from the IT team. Mr Ketseuki asked me to do some work on one of the prototypes here.”
Ben’s face looked a little less nervous. “Oh, right, go ahead then, I-I was just burning the midnight oil really, had some work I needed to get done, that kind of thing…”
Matthew nodded and smiled softly, and Ben gave a nervous smile in return. With that, he was free to examine the rest of the room. There were monitors and computers here and there, as well as a few larger devices.
“There! By the window! You can’t see me pointing, but I am!” Terra said suddenly. Matt walked over, leaning over it. It was smaller than Matthew had been expecting, about the size of a home radio, with a circular screen on the left and a variety of buttons to the right.
“Brilliant work, Agent Moon. But we can’t just take it off of the table. There’s likely to be a tracking device in it somewhere that you’ll need to remove first.”
Matt made sure Ben couldn’t see his face before he winced. Of course it couldn’t be that simple. It never was for him, after all. He reached into his jacket’s pocket and took out the Swiss Army Knife. On closer inspection, he saw that it was decorated with a variety of constellations, the one standing out the most being that of Hercules.
“The device should be under the screen.” Terra explained, as more typing was heard, “you should be able to use one of the blades to pry it open.”
Matthew began to flick through the many utilities the knife had before finding one that seemed suitable for pulling up the screen. Slowly, he slid the blade underneath and pushed down. There was a click, and the screen was half-off of the machine, still connected by wires. Now all Matthew had to do was figure out what a tracking device looked like, and pick it out.
“Wait.” Terra said, Matthew picking up on the nerves in his voice. “...Don’t look up. Don’t even try to, just keep your eyes on the machine, and don’t say a word.” Matthew did as he asked, though felt the overwhelming urge to do the exact opposite as curiosity filled him. That curiosity vanished with Terra’s next sentence. “There’s a sniper trained on your chest from the building opposite.”
Matthew felt that fear wash over him. It was the same one he’d felt when the floor had caved in earlier in the day. Alarm bells were ringing in his head as his hands hovered over the machine. It couldn’t get worse than this, right?
Turns out, once more, his luck would once again kick him in the shin. “Hey,” Ben began, “Mr Ketseuki…he’s not upset that work had to be done on the prototype, right? I’d hate to think…”
As much as Matthew floundered when it came to smalltalk, he somehow found it in himself to respond. “No, no, of course not. One of the others apparently flagged a small issue that needed outside fixing, so…here I am.”
“Right, right…thank goodness, that’d be the last thing I want, especially with a prototype as important as that.” Ben said, sighing in relief.
Matt found himself slightly more at ease, which was odd considering the circumstances. “Important? Is there a time frame on when this has to be ready by?”
“Oh, I’m not too sure. Apparently it’ll help with our global network, making the data a lot easier to find quickly.”
“I see…” Matt nodded, trying not to change his expression. Strangely enough, Matthew didn’t think he was lying, merely misinformed, which put even more questions into his head and almost distracted him from the knowledge that a gun was pointed at him.
“You’ve got to get that device out of the machine, quick.” Terra ordered. “Once you’ve done that, we can be a little more…loud, so to speak.”
Trying not to look conspicuous, Matthew put his finger under the screen to stop it falling back into place. Switching the knife over, he discovered a pair of tweezers within. Reaching in as slowly as possible, he found a small red circle that stuck out like a sore thumb on the green circuitry. Taking a breath, he pried it off of the circuit, seeing that the reverse of it had Reflection’s logo on it: A lone snake wrapped around a staff, with it’s tongue sticking out. Cautiously, he pulled the component out, making sure it remained behind the screen until he was able to drop it on the counter in front of him. Allowing himself to smile, he returned the tweezers to the Swiss Army Knife, returning the screen of the ID machine to its proper place.
“Nice one, but…looking at the corridor cam, you have another problem coming towards you…I guess the sniper tipped him off.” Terra sighed. As if on cue, there was a knock at the door. Ben clutched his chest in shock.
“Who’s in there?!” barked a low, gruff voice, the owner of whom banged on the door again. “Get out here now!”
Ben looked at Matt, confused. Matt merely shrugged, as if he was as confused as Ben was. “W-What’s going on?!” he asked, the fear in his voice palpable.
“Security alert!” he replied, not showing any sympathy. “We know there’s an intruder in there. Out, now!” Ben stammered over his words, confused, and so Matt took over.
“It’s just us two! We haven’t heard anything about a security alert-”
“Shut up! You’re both a threat as far as I’m concerned! Now open the door before I kick it open!”
Matt remained where he was, and motioned the panicking Ben to stay put too. He placed a hand over the ID machine, waiting for a voice in his earpiece. After a few long, long seconds, he heard Gaia.
“Got a plan to get you out of this, but you’ll need to hurry. I’m coming up to the road between you and that sniper. When you hear the signal, drop down and take the machine with you. You’ll know it when you hear it, trust me.” she reassured him.
“I’m trying to get into their radio feed too, should help you get past this guy.” Terra added, as Matthew heard the van screech. “Get ready.”
Ben looked at him again, confused. Matt smiled, his eyes going back to the window. He dared not look at the building opposite, instead at the road. He watched as a white minivan sped up the road, before its horn blared out as loud as possible. Thankfully, Matthew was smart enough to know a signal when he heard one, and pulled the ID machine off the table and ducked to the floor.
Ben yelped as several bangs were heard, many from the door and one from the window. Matthew quickly scanned his environment: A bullet hole now marked the glass, with a few shards having fallen nearby. Ben had crawled under his desk, where he would hopefully be safe, and that guard was still trying to get through the door. What that meant, thankfully, was that he could talk aloud to his fellow agents again. “I’ve got to get past that guard. I can get to the door without being seen by the sniper, but once I do that guard will shoot me point blank.”
Terra cleared his throat, which crackled through the earpiece. “Right, right…sorry, a lot of people were beeping back at us. If you look through your pockets you should find a bunch of cuboid thingies with keyrings. You’ll want the grey and white one.”
Matt did as instructed, holding it in his hand. The word that came to mind as a result of the keyring was grenade, but that would draw far too much attention, which meant…
“This is a flashbang, right?” Matthew asked, as the guard outside resorted to kicking at the door, Ben continuing to whimper from under his desk.
“Well observed. Yeah, you’ll need to pull the keyring and toss it up at him. And make sure to look away. Here, I’ve got through to their radio line, have a listen:” There was some more static, and other voices could be heard. “Don’t worry, they can’t hear us.” Terra reassured him. “It’s a neat little bit of tech we came up with thanks to our tracking of outer-space signals…but I’ll tell you about that later.”
Matt crawled past the glass, keeping low, getting closer to the door as he heard the guard cursing over the radio. As he reached the point where he could throw the flashbang from, he saw Ben’s eyes glaring at him through the table.
“W-What’s…what’s happening…I-I…” he stuttered, his hands clutching at his hair.
“...Hey.” Matt whispered at him. “It’s gonna be okay. Trust me. Just stay put and you’ll be alright.”
Ben didn’t stop shaking, but was no longer on the verge of tears as he pushed himself further under the desk. Over the radio, the guard was still cursing, though he seemed more confident now. “Stupid fool…whoever they are, they will not be standing when I’m through with ‘em…I’ll shoot ‘em both, just to show who’s boss…here we go- AH!”
As the door finally swung open, Matt tossed the cuboid up, covering his eyes with the keyring still in his hand as the guard stumbled back. Matthew charged forward past the rapidly blinking Ben and the dazed guard, as he heard another gunshot fire out at the window, missing him by a fair margin. This time, however, he could hear the sniper’s reaction.
“Shitting Hell!” came a static-y voice. Matthew held the ID machine a little closer to his chest. It was one of the three people who had visited the building after the explosion, the first voice. At the time she had been devoid of emotion, but now she seemed rather irritated by the turn of events. “Get up! Hold him still before he reaches the lift so I can silence this little pest!”
Matt’s smile faded as he heard loud footsteps behind him.He hadn’t got too much of a good look at him, but he was pretty sure that this guy was a lot more muscular than he was. Thankfully, Terra chimed in. “I called the lift for you, but…he’s gonna catch up to you before you get there.”
Matt grimaced as he got closer and closer. He needed another idea that was just about crazy enough to work, and thankfully he got one.. “Can you open the doors now, but stop the lift on the floor below?”
Terra paused for the briefest of moments, but ‘m-hm’-ed in confirmation. “I hope you know what you’re doing, Moon…” he sighed, as the doors opened ahead of Matthew. In the seconds he’d been running, Matthew had made two calculations: that he would have a lot more options available to him on top of the lift as opposed to inside it, and that the surprise of not seeing the elevator would once again provide a sorely needed moment of hesitation. Gritting his teeth, and holding the ID machine close, he sprinted forward onto the lift’s roof, grabbing the cable and spinning to hit the still oncoming guard in the chest, sending him back a little. He had hoped that would be enough to stop him before the doors closed, but his pursuer put his hands on either door and forced them back to the edges, causing them to stutter in and out slightly. They weren’t closing anytime soon. He got a good look at this guard; he had shaved hair as well as a shaved face, and still had that gun in his right hand. But then Matthew heard something that he did not expect.
“My goodness, such a failure you are.” spat the sniper, the guard raising his hand up to his earpiece, the message clearly directed at him. “Can’t even chase a person down a corridor properly.”
The guard suddenly looked nervous, his rage replaced by fear. “High Pr-”
“Enough! You’re in front of our unwanted guest, after all. Listen well. I have my sight trained on the space right outside that lift. I will shoot whoever is thrown out of that lift, understand? A situation like this requires an itchy trigger finger, just as it requires a competent enforcer.”
“...Pants.” Matthew said. “...Y’know, she’s threatened the both of us, so…this is how truces tend to happen.”
“No…this is how promotions happen.” the guard grinned, before aiming the gun at Matthew. Instinctively, he kicked again, landing a hit on the guard’s shin. Taking the initiative, he kept up the offensive, jabbing with his free arm at the hand with the gun in it, letting it clatter to the floor and nudging it off the side of the lift with his foot.
Taking a quick glance at the space outside the lift shaft, the guard pushed forward, gripping Matthew’s arm and pulling, clearly trying to get him outside. Still clutching the ID machine, he willed himself to come to a halt, causing the guard to start stumbling toward him. The lift rocked a little, and the guard snarled, grabbing for the ID machine, but Matt was ready for him, somehow. Pushing up with his legs, he began rapidly kicking at the sides of the guard’s torso, before sticking his legs out and digging into the sides of his stomach. The guard yelped, letting go of Matt’s free arm. Sidestepping, Matt put down the machine. He took his silver bracelet and wrapped it around his knuckles. It was probably never meant to be used this way, but desperate times called for it. And what better protection than a good offence, right? Discarding the argument when he remembered his life was in danger, and that Bill had trusted him, Matt leapt forward, driving his silver-covered fist into the guard’s upper chest. At least, that was where he was aiming. But the guard, seemingly in desperation, had tried to go low, thus leading to Matt striking his head. The guard straightened out, clearly concussed judging by the glazed over eyes. He didn’t seem to have a clue where he was as he staggered backwards out of the lift shaft. Then came the gunshot.
It split through the windowpane and struck him through his chest. The force of the bullet stopped his movement backwards, before he tumbled to the floor almost instantly, now motionless. Matthew felt his mouth go dry as he returned his bracelet to his wrist, picking up the ID machine and cradling it in his arms. He flinched when he heard more voices on the radio.
“Kilo Sierra Delta!” the sniper said, as Matt heard more footsteps.
“I’m coming, I’m coming! Knew I should have stayed late…” Matt came back to reality upon hearing this new voice. It was another of the people in the building. The one he’d seen the most of.
“Terra, can you take the lift down?” Matthew asked, as he noticed something that had fallen out of the guard’s shirt, visible through the bullet hole.
“Oh, thank god, you’re alive. Ok, yeah, give me a second, the other people in the building are all headed up, you’ll have a more or less easy getaway once you get down to the ground floor.” Terra explained. “Crap, they’re coming though!”
Matt gazed down at the still rocking lift. He pushed on the wall so that there was enough room for him to jump down into the metal cube. He shimmied his legs down the gap, then his left arm, dropping the machine on the lift floor. Over the radio, he heard that slightly Scottish accent again. “I’m on the scene! Can see the body, along with…HEY!”
Matt should have ducked down, but instead he grabbed the thing that had fallen from the guard’s pocket before manoeuvring downwards. He heard loud footsteps overhead, but knew that all she would be able to see was his hand. Gripping the thing he’d taken with his thumb, he proceeded to wave two certain fingers at the person before pulling it down and closing the lift doors, his silver bracelet clanging against the metal as he did so. The woman above seemed, to put it lightly, upset at his actions.
“WHO WAS THAT?! I WANT CCTV FOOTAGE! NOBODY GIVES ME THE TWO-FINGERED SALUTE AND LIVES TO TELL THE TALE!”
“Calm yourself,” said the sniper. “The intruder cannot have gone far, nor could he have left the building yet.”
Matt once again sank to the floor as the lift descended through the building, suddenly remembering that he still had that gun on him. He’d never even thought to use it. “...I got the machine…how close are you guys?”
“ETA 3 minutes, Agent Moon.” Gaia said, “providing this arse in the Range Rover stops holding everyone up-”
He listened as Terra took over. “...Was that the first time you saw someone…”
“N-No. There was…another time, but…” Matthew sighed. “That was the first time it was that close to me. That I had…”
“Hey, you did what you had to, and you even tried to get the both of you out alive. One thing’s for sure, that guy certainly seemed to fear that sniper. What did he call her?”
“ “High” something or other.” Matt said, struggling to remember the details; much of it was a blur. “And then after she’d…yknow…she said, what was it, “Kilo Sierra Delta”, which…”
He was going to say he wasn’t sure what it meant, but then he looked at what was in his hand. It was a card, with the Reflection International logo on it, but this time the snake was not sticking its tongue out . This time it had fangs. He turned it around, and instead of a playing card, as he had been expecting, it was a Tarot card. It showed a knight on horseback, riding with a blade held high in the sky. The text below it read: Knight of Swords. “Kilo Sierra, perhaps.” Matt said aloud.
“Pardon?” Terra asked.
“I’ll explain when I see you.” Matt replied, standing up as the lift neared the ground floor. Sure enough, as the door opened, the reception was more or less empty as silent alarms flashed on the walls and ceilings. He looked around, before seeing the minivan through the window. Unable to stop the smile on his face, he ran for it, leaving out the front door once Terra had confirmed the sniper had left the building opposite. He quickly checked his watch. It was ten past eleven. He supposed it was just about his luck that it would end up being this close.
Getting to the minivan, he saw the back door open and clambered inside. Once there, he was greeted by two people who looked about the same age as he was, both South Asian with glasses and black hair, though one had her hair in a ponytail and the other had it cut short.
“Agents Gaia and Terra, I presume.” Matt said, smiling.
“Good to see you, Agent Moon. Sit down and relax, mate. You’ve done something amazing here.”
He gladly did just that, putting the ID machine down next to him as the car sped away. The adrenaline had caused him to more or less ignore any injuries he’d gotten as he went up and then down the skyscraper, but now he was starting to feel the pain in his shoulder, his hands, his legs, as well as general exhaustion.
“How’s he looking?” asked Gaia, still driving.
“Nothing serious, but he’ll need some help at HQ.” Terra reported back. “You’ll be alright, our people are top-notch.” He then found himself smiling. “Sorry, it’s just…Bill was right when he told us about you. You are a wildcard.”
Matt found himself going pink. “I mean…I couldn’t have done any of that without you two helping, so…”
“Doesn’t mean you did any less.” Terra pointed out. “You’ve saved a lot of good people’s lives tonight.” He moved across the minivan and sat down next to Matt, examining the machine. “I’ll get to look at just what makes this thing tick once we’ve reported back at HQ. I imagine it’s chaos over there, what with a transfer of agency and all that.”
“We’ll get to look at it.” Gaia reminded him, sighing. “We’re on track to make it, even with London traffic.”
“Brilliant.” Matt said, finally letting himself relax. “...so what happens now?”
“We’ll head to HQ and report back to the one who gave us this mission, Agent Galileo. She confirms it’s a success, we get a successful mission under our belts…and then I guess we figure out what happens with you.” Matthew suddenly found himself very nervous, something that Terra noticed. “Hey, it’s alright. Bill had to have a lot of trust in you to transfer agency, plus you successfully completed his mission, which all goes in your favour…”
Matthew twirled the card around. “I hope so. I really hope I didn’t cause too much trouble.”
“To be honest it’s been a lot of fun.” Gaia admitted. “It has been quiet for a while now, feels good to have some action this close to home.”
“Exactly!” Terra exclaimed, his eyes focusing towards the card. “Wh-where did you..”
“It…was in the pocket of that guard. I picked it up and when I looked at it, I thought maybe that’s what “Kilo Sierra” was referring to, you know, K.S.”
Terra nodded, raising an eyebrow at the snake image on the back. “And the guard referred to the sniper as “High” something…High Priestess, maybe?”
Gaia rolled her eyes. “Ah, the Tarot cards again. We’ve been hearing about a group using them recently and we have a theory that some sort of gang has been using them as a sort of…well, identifier, funnily enough.”
“We thought it could just be a cartel or something at first, but…killing so many agents, having a Reflection International building as a base of operations…”
There was silence for the rest of the trip, as Gaia concentrated on getting to this HQ place as fast as possible.
When they finally got there, at around 11:45 pm, they scrambled out, remembering to take the ID machine and card. “Quick, quick, we don’t have much time!” Gaia hissed, as the three made their way towards a largeish building. Matt followed the two agents, who seemed similar enough to be twins, as they ran past a sign which read:
THE MIDNIGHT FOUNDATION - Nam astra et quod est infra.
#hphm#back by midnight#hphm spy au#matthew luther#bill weasley#rowan khanna#agent gaia#agent terra#merula snyde#patricia rakepick#ryuji ketseuki#ben copper
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Even Gaia Online is getting in on kicking twitter in the shins
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sooo, the phantom agent ending was disappointing :)
why can't you let me be petty, pb? why did mc have to stay with gaia? why was the director "secretly banking on us going rogue"? (biggest lie i've ever seen, btw) why did everyone act like all was fine and dandy like they didn't all turn on mc in the blink of an eye? why did we have to leave rowan's body behind?
#let me be petty pb#i wanted my mc to quit gaia bc they dont deserve her#this books infuriates me :)#okay im lying its mostly only the last chapter bc im still bitter abt rowan and gaia#the phantom agent#choices tpa#the phantom agent spoilers#choices tpa spoilers
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wow what an inconspicuous building
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Not Like I'm in Love with You
Summary: For the longest time, it was you and Maria. A package duo. A dynamic team. Agent Hill and Gaia. But you were always just friends, nothing more. Until a mission goes wrong forces Maria to admit her feelings for you.
Warnings: jealously, angst with a happy ending, surgery, medically induced coma, bomb, eco terrorist?, reader is enhanced, mention of drinking and sexual activity, love confession
Word Count: 5.2k
“My savior,” Natasha groaned as you handed the redhead a coffee and a breakfast sandwich. She moaned, taking a sip of the coffee. “I could marry you right now.” You shook her head at her antics and passed the rest of the goodies to the team. Clint had his feet on the table and head thrown back, and a pair of sunglasses covered his eyes. He grunted out a thanks when he set his order down. The rest of the team was in different states of hungover, barely muttering a greeting. You chuckled.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have gone out on a school night,” you teased, sitting down at your desk so you could eat your own. Clint groaned.
“You aren’t my mom,” You felt like it.
“Where’s the boss?” You questioned.
“Probably untangling herself from the blonde she went home with,” May mumbled, holding a cold towel to her forehead. Why did your stomach drop when she said that? The team had the right to party after a job well done. The case had a breakthrough, and they wanted to go out. Like always, you refused, you weren’t much of a drinker, and you didn’t trust yourself drunk with your abilities. You were an Eco-empathy, allowing you to connect deeply with the environment and sense, understand, and manipulate the natural world. SHIELD nicknamed you Gaia, and your fellow agents called you various Earth-related names. You and Maria were just friends, right? When Fury picked her as Deputy Director, she prompted you alongside her. You were her second in command; while she went out in the field, you stayed behind to run point. It was how you two operated a well-oiled machine. Co-workers. Best friends at most. Like you’ve been, right? Natasha raised an eyebrow at you.
The door opened, and Maria walked in. “Ah, she emerges from her walk of shame,” Natasha teased. Maria flipped her off and thanked you with a smile for her breakfast.
“Ain’t nothing shameful what I did last night,” Natasha cringed. Thankfully, Maria’s back was to you, so she missed the frown on your face. The redhead saw it. “Alright,” she said. “What’s the plan?”
*
“You missed a hell of a party,” Maria said as you handed your mock battle plan for the upcoming mission. It would go through her than Fury before it was green lite; the more eyes, the better when it came to people’s lives.
“All these years you’ve known me, you know clubs aren’t my scene,” you sat on the edge of her desk. There was a picture of you and her during your SHIELD graduation. “Besides, how long were you there until an innocent woman fell under your spell?” You teased, but it didn’t feel enjoyable in your mouth.
“She wasn’t so innocent when I had my way with her,” you faked a gag. It was typical behavior between you two to talk about the woman you brought home; more times than not, Maria had the stories. But why did you feel like you could throw up right now?
“I can tell by that hickey on your neck,” you pushed the bruise, and she squatted your hand away. She was your ride-or-die. So you weren’t jealous.
“What is your schedule like today?” You sighed, looking at your nails on your left hand.
“Leading a training with May, a meeting with Phil, and I think Clint wants to go over some new trick arrows,” you rattled off. It was a typical busy day for you. Maria nodded.
“Do you want to go get lunch? We could go to that Mexican place you like.” That sounded nice, and you liked the burritos and mock tails they had. You sighed.
“How about a ring check? Nat asked if I could get lunch with her today,” Maria liked to joke that you made her soft. She rarely held up the mask to hide her emotions around you. There was no need. Now you saw the mask slowly creep up to hide her true feelings.
“Yeah, of course, she forced a smile. “Now get out of here before I write you up,” she teased. Rolling your eyes, you jumped off her desk.
“See you later, Ria.”
“Stay safe out there, Willow.” You rolled your eyes at the nickname but her office to start your day.
*
“You love her,” Natasha said as you took a bite of your sandwich. You choked on it, and the Black Widow smirked at your misfortune. You rubbed your chest to help the food pass and took a sip of water.
“I have no idea what the hell you are talking about,” she took a fry from your plate and popped it in her mouth.
“Please, Cherry, you’ve been in love with Maria since I’ve known you, and according to Phil, it’s been since the academy,” you gasped.
“Why is this office gossip?” You asked.
“We have to talk about something,” she shrugged. SHIELD agents were moths to a flame when it came to gossip. “Don’t worry, we won’t discuss it with Maria.” That was not reassuring.
“Look, Maria and I are friends. We have been forever; the way I feel is black and white.” You were curious to know if Natasha believed you. Hell, you barely believed yourself. It wasn’t like you stayed up at night overthinking the possibility of you and Maria has a couple. Nah, that would be dumb.
“Are you sure?” Yeah, it was fine. It was cool. It wasn’t like every time she talked about having sex with some random hookup at a bar, it made your stomach burn with jealousy because you wanted her body all to yourself. You wanted her more than anyone else. It’s not like you were in love with her.
“Shit,” you mumbled, slumping back into her hair. Natasha smiled, sipping on her chocolate milkshake.
“Glad you admitted it,” you hadn’t admitted anything. What was she talking about? “So, are you going to tell her?”
“No!” You shrieked, and you drew the attention of the other patrons. You felt your body warm up due to the extra eyes. Natasha chuckled. “God, no. I can’t. It will ruin everything. Besides, I doubt she feels the same.”
“She does.” The Black Widow glanced at the watch on her wrist. “Shit, we have to get back.” It was supposed to be a quick lunch because Fury called for an emergency meeting. You nodded, throwing your half-eaten food in the bag to take with you. “You know,” Natasha held open the door for you as you walked onto the busy DC sidewalks. “You should tell her. You both could be happy.” She said it as if it was easy and not scary. It’s not like you were losing your mind thinking about her in your bed. It started slow, but like dominoes, you started free-falling with no control. You were doing a shit job at hiding it if your friends knew the truth. It’s not like you were in love with her.
*
“I’m going on this mission,” you said, a little surprised.
“Yes,” Fury said, his arms behind his back and one good eye trained on you. “Your skill set is what this mission needs. Is that a problem?”
“No sir,” you said without hesitation. You kept up to date on your physical and firearm certification, and you met with SHIELD’s psychologist. You were always mission-ready when the time called for it, but it never did. You glanced at Maria, who was oddly quiet. Her face was in a permanent frown. But you couldn’t worry about her now; you had a mission to lead.
*
Maria found you in the locker room, tackle suit around your waist, and you were holding your dad’s dog tags in your hand. It was your good luck charm. “Want me to put it on you?” She asked. You nodded, handing her the necklace. Carefully, she placed the chain around your neck and locked it. The cold metal caused goosebumps to cover your shin. “I don’t like you going on this mission without me.” She admitted and sat down next to you on the bench. You chuckled.
“You’ll be watching my back,” you looked over your shoulder. “No, you’ll know how I feel every time you run off into danger.” You tried to make light of the situation, but there was a frown on your face. “Here,” you removed the necklace and placed it around her.
“What are you doing?” She asked. “You never go anywhere without it.”
“I don’t need it,” you said. “I got you watching my back. That’s all the luck I need.” Maria was quiet. It was unsettling for her to be quiet. “Ria, we got this. I get this. I’ve learned from the best, so I’ll be the best.” She laughed, and you were glad you could pull a sound out of her.
“Just-”
“Clover,” May walked in and cut Maria off. “We are all set, just waiting for you.” You told me you’d be there in 5 and turned your attention back to Maria.
“Just stay safe out there, Willow.” You wondered what she was going to say if she wasn’t interrupted.
“I’ll see you later, Ria,” you smiled. “Promise.”
*
You learned to listen to your gut instinct. It was your most valued tool as an agent. Even when you ran point back at headquarters, you listened to it when your stomach tightened with anxiety as you sat in the wooded area that surrounded the factory. This factory was responsible for releasing toxins into the air. Usually, this type of case wouldn’t gather attention from SHIELD, but the damage they were doing to the environment was affecting the locals: memory loss, muscle spasms, and strange hallucinations. The problem was that it was impossible to locate the idiots responsible for the mess. You could feel the environment dying in this area. May place a gentle hand on your shoulder. “Are you okay? She asked. You nodded, unable to open your mouth. You let out a few shaky breaths, trying to loosen the anxiety knot in your stomach, and tapped on the com in your ear.
“How are we looking?” You asked.
“They are about to make the guard change,” hearing Maria’s voice helped calm you down. “Are you doing okay, Willow? Your heart monitor is spiking.” You rolled your eyes and bit back a huff of annoyance. It was Phil’s idea to add pulse and heart detectors into the suit.
“Yeah, they’ve caused a lot of damage to this area. It’s making me all jittery,” you admitted.
“We’ll stop them,” this time it was Natasha’s voice through the coms. The Black Widow was recovering from a shoulder injury that left her benched until it was healed. You lead the team with Clint, May, and a handful of qualified agents.
“Shift change is in 3,” you put on your gas mask. “2 and 1. Stay safe, agents.” That feeling remained in the pit of your stomach. Anxiety, dread. You needed to figure out why. You moved through the building with ease and worked towards the control room. It was your, May’s, and two other agents’ job to turn off the factory while Clint protected the outside in case the alarm was tripped.
“We made it to the control room,” May said.
“Perfect, insert the flash drive. It should take 5 minutes to shut down the factory and copy the information they have on it.” Maria explained. May pushed the rolling chair out of the way.
“Go stand guard,” you ordered the other two agents. They obeyed and went into the hallway. The mission was almost over, so why were you so anxious? When May inserted the flash drive, an alarm went off, and metal walls trapped May and you inside the room.
“Houston,” your friend said. “We have a problem.” The room began to shake as a trap door opened, and a bomb rose from the floor. The red numbers clicked down from 10 minutes.
“Houston,” you repeated, and you took off the gas mask. “We have a bigger problem.”
“Turn on your cameras,” you turned on your body camera and heard the sharp intake of Maria’s breath.
“Guys, we have multiple heat signatures heading towards the factory,” Phil said. You walked over to the bomb, staring at the mysterious liquid.
“Barton, pull back. Gather all agents to the secondary position,” you pulled your hand back, clutching your hand against your chest—a fertilizer bomb.
“Willow, what is it?” Maria asked. You glanced at May; you knew she saw the panic in your eyes.
“It’s a fertilizer bomb,” you admitted. “Big enough to take out the factory and the surrounding bomb.”
“Fucking hell,” you heard Natasha mumble.
“May-”
“Already on it,” she cut off Maria as she rapidly typed at the control panel, trying to disarm the bomb.
“All agents have made it to the secondary location. Just need you two.” Yeah, that was going to be a problem. The sound of your team frantically discussing how to disarm the bomb became white noise. You walked the room length, gliding your hand over the metal wall. To your surprise, you felt pieces of earth within the metal sheets. Of course! All you had to do was focus on the impurities within the metal. You let out a shaky breath and concentrated. The metal moved underneath your palm.
“I have an idea,” you said suddenly.
“Am I going to like this idea?” Maria questioned. Probably not. You took your normal stance, feet shoulder length apart and knees bent slightly. You put your hands together, and then your palms faced the metal walls. Slowly, you began miming as if trying to rip something apart. At first, nothing happened. Beads of sweat trickled down your neck. Finally, the metal started to crumble and pull apart. A small doorway appeared. You fell to one knee, chest heaving. May ran to your side.
“That was wild,” she said. “I don’t know you could do that.” You chuckled as she helped you to your feet.
“Neither did I.”
“Nice work. No, get out of there,” Maria said. You quickly turned off your body camera and your and May’s com.
“You’re staying, aren’t you?” She asked.
“I think I can contain the blast.”
“You think?” It wasn’t an exact science, and you weren’t sure if you were strong enough to contain it.
“Go,” you told her. You had to try. If not, so many people would die, including your team. Your friend hesitated but took off towards the exit. You faced the bomb and turned on your com again. There were four and a half minutes left.
“Why aren’t you leaving with May?” Maria questioned. You took a shaky breath and retook your stance. “Willow, it’s just me and you. What are you doing?”
“I gotta try, Ria,” your voice strained with exhaustion, arms shook at each metal wall you bent around the bomb. “If I don’t, hundreds if not thousands of people are gonna die.” You said. It was your responsibility to get your team home and protect the innocents in the area. Maria whispered your name. It was so rare that someone said your real name it took you by surprise. The bomb was fully wrapped in metal, but you were exhausted already. “You got my lucky charm, right?”
“Yeah,” she whispered. “I got it.”
“Good, good,” you mumbled, digging your feet into the metal floor. “I’ll see you later, Ria. I promised, didn’t I?” There was so much more you wanted to say. A three-word sentence danced on your lips, but you held it back. It wasn’t fair to her to say it now. Each nerve in your body was vibrating. Every breath you took burned. You sent a silent prayer to your father as the explosion rocked your body. You held the metal to contain it. A scream left your lips as it became too much, and your world went black.
*
Maria knew she had this aura that surrounded her. An aura that screamed authority. It told newer agents not to fuck with her. She knew she was good at what she did and wanted everyone to know that. As she walked to the med bay with Natasha close by, she was murderous. Rationally, she knew it was no one’s fault. It was par for the course when it came to this line of work, but she needed someone to blame and push guilt onto someone. May was resting in a chair with an ice pack on her head. She looked up when she heard the approaching footsteps. “She’s still in surgery,” she mumbled, and Natasha sat beside her. “Doctors are worried about the amount of blood she lost and the toxins that entered her lungs.” A heat of anger washed over Maria, but she tried to push it down.
“May, go shower and eat,” Maria ordered. Her voice strained. She saw the protest form in the agent’s eyes. “That’s an order.” You risked your life to save her and the rest of your team. It would do no one good if May stopped taking care of herself. “That’s an order.” May sighed.
“Yes, Hill.” She stood up and left. Maria took a seat in her spot, elbows resting on her knees.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Natasha asked. Maria refused to look away from the wall she was staring at.
“I need her to be okay,” Maria admitted.
“Is this why you wrote her out of every mission?” The Black Widow questioned. Maria slowly leaned back and looked at the redhead. “Come on, Hill, it was obvious. With her on the field, missions would be over in half the time, but you didn’t want to risk her getting hurt.” Maria remained silent. “Now, why would you do that?” Her eyes locked onto Natasha’s green ones; there was no judgment like she had expected to see. “We do crazy things for the people we love.”
“I-” Maria let out a shaky breath. “I don’t know, Nat.” She whispered. “I just need her to be okay.”
“She will be,” the Black Widow smiled. “She’s strong.” Of course, Maria knew you were strong. She’s seen you at your lowest point when your father passed away, but you pulled yourself out of it. Your screams right before you collapsed were repeating inside her head. It was like a bad song stuck in there. The only thing that gave her hope was the steady beat of your heart monitors within your suit. You were alive, barely but alive.
“Deputy Director Hill,” her name said, but the approaching doctor caused her to stand up.
“How she is?” She asked.
“Stable,” the doctor said. “The next 24 hours are critical. I must admit she has a few guardian angels looking out for her. There was a major piece of metal in her stomach and left thigh. She also had small pieces in her arm. We think she hit her head due to a cut on the back of her head.”
“May said you were worried about her lungs,” Natasha said. The doctor nodded.
“She inhaled a great deal of the fertilizer before she was found, so we are worried about the lasting effects.” She explained.
“Can-can I see her?” Maria asked.
“Of course, we’ve placed her in a medically induced coma to allow her body to heal.” She faintly heard Natasha say she would inform Clint and the others of your condition. Maria wasn’t sure if the doctor was talking about your prognosis, but soon she was alone.
The only noise in the room was the steady sound of the machines connected to you. It seemed unreal that you were hurt. For the longest time, you seemed untouchable. Now, you were bedridden and too pale for Maria’s liking. She took your father’s dog tags off her neck and opened your hand to put the chain in it. “Lucky charm is back where it belongs.” She formed your hands into a tight fist and placed it on your heart. “Come back to me,” she whispered, kissing your forehead. “Please.”
*
There was a heaviness that surrounded you. It started at your chest and then moved to your limbs. The pressure was suffocating. Catastrophic. Slowly, you opened your eyes to the bright light of med bay. You felt metal in your hand and opened your palm to see the dog tags you gave Maria. “You’re awake,” you turned to see Natasha. A deck of cards in your hands and glanced down at your chest. You interrupted a game of war.
“Why are you using me as a table?” You deadpanned. Natasha shrugged.
“Had to kill time as we waited for your dumbass to wake up,” you rolled your eyes. “How do you feel?”
“Like I got hit by a semi-truck,” you groaned and sat up slowly. The door opened to the bathroom, and Clint walked out.
“Shit,” you said. “You’re alive.” You scuffed, rubbing the bandages on your chest.
“I’m glad you had so much confidence in me, bird man,” Clint took a seat across from Natasha. “The team is okay, right? They all made it out.”
“Yeah, you saved their lives,” Natasha said. “Maria is pissed at you.” You groaned, pinching the bridge of your nose.
“I’ll deal with her later.” You closed your eyes. Now that you were a little more awake, you could take a better inventory of your body. Every small breath you took caused your chest to burn; it felt like a fire was starting. You sighed, wincing slightly, and turned to look at Natasha. “How bad?” The Black Widow sighed.
“There is potential damage to your lungs due to the fertilizer, and you had a metal that they had to remove from your stomach and thigh.” Cool, you thought, real cool.
“Just think,” Clint started. “At least you are off breakfast duty for a while.” You laughed at his poor attempt to lighten the mood but hissed. “Shit, sorry. No laughing. Got it.” You waved him off that you were okay.
“I’ll go get the doctor. Don’t move.” Natasha said, standing up. You scuffed. Yeah, you would make a grand escape with a hole in your stomach.
“You had everyone worried,” Clint said once Natasha was gone. You remained quiet, lost in your thoughts. It wasn’t your intention to scare everyone. It was your job to protect your team and bring them home. So, you completed that part of the mission. It so happened you were hurt in the process.
It was night when you woke up again, and Maria was in Natasha’s seat. Her eyes were closed, but you knew she wasn’t asleep. Even in the dim light of the room, she looked exhausted. Bags were under her eyes, and her face looked pale. Natasha told you that you were in a medically induced coma for five days. Maria barely slept, had to be forced to eat, and left her office. “I know you aren’t asleep, Ria,” you whispered. Her eyes shot open. “You look like shit.”
“Says the girl with the hole in her stomach.” You smiled.
“They stitched it up all good. Besides, I had my lucky charm,” you picked up the dog tag around your neck. To your surprise, Maria took your hand in hers. Your body felt warm at the simple act. It wasn’t like you hadn’t held her hand before this moment felt more intimate. “Ria,” you whispered. “Are you okay?”
“I thought I lost you,” she admitted. “God, Willow, you scared the shit out of me.”
“Didn’t mean to,” you said. “I needed to save the team.” She shook her head.
“It was the right call to make, but,” Maria sighed, and you felt her take her hand away, but you held her tight, not wanting to let her go. “Just don’t do it again.”
“Aye, aye, captain,” you promised.
With the surgery and injuries, your movement was limited. The most straightforward actions were impossible for you to do without pain shooting through your chest. It was deemed you would move in with someone until you fully recovered. Natasha was the first to offer but was quickly overruled by Maria. So you moved in with the Deputy Director, and it was strange. You needed help washing your hair, changing, and undressing yourself. You couldn’t understand the look in Maria’s eyes for every action you required assistance with. It wasn’t the first time you shared a living space with Maria, but now you walked on eggshells around each other. A part of you wanted to go back before the mission before everything felt complicated between you and your best friend.
The physical limitations weren’t the worst part of your recovery. It was the mental scars. Nightmares plagued your mind almost every night of that mission. It would change constantly. Sometimes, your team would die, or you would fail to save Maria. It was exhausting, waking up in a pool of sweat, your heart racing, and your lungs unable to get air into them. You wanted all to stop.
*
Maria was sitting at her dining room table, a bottle of whiskey opened, and she needed to work on a few case files. Her mind was a million miles away and not on her duties as Deputy Director. It wasn’t entirely her fault; a lot had happened over the past two weeks. Her best friend was almost killed; Natasha forced her to admit she was in love with said best friend, and she had to watch you piece yourself back together. It was exhausting, but she knew you would do it for her. This was how it had always been. You and Maria. Agent Hill and Gaia. A package duo that never crossed the line as friends. So Maria filled the void that was missing with one-night stands and drunken sex that meant nothing to her. All she wanted, needed, and craved was you. She could not risk the friendship; it was the most important thing in her life.
Small whimpers from your room pulled her out of her thoughts. Standing quickly, she made her way to the guest room. She carefully opened the door. You lay on the bed, mumbling something Maria couldn’t quite understand. On socked feet, she walked over to the bed and sat at the foot. “No,” you mumbled. “Take me. Not her. Please.” Maria’s heart broke.
“Sweetheart,” Maria whispered. “Wake up. Come on.”
“Maria,” you mumbled, thrashing slightly. “Maria, please, I’m sorry.”
“It’s just a nightmare. Wake up. Wake up.” You woke with a start, chest heaving and eyes frantically looking around.
“Ria,” you forced out. There was a thin layer of sweat on your body.
“It’s okay—you’re safe. I’m safe. Breath,” she gently touched the back of your neck and brought your forehead against hers. Your eyes closed as you took a few deep breaths in and out. Finally, you pulled away, and Maria hated to admit she missed you being close. You slumped back on the bed, arm across your face.
“Thanks,” you whispered.
“Do you want to talk about it?” She asked. She was curious to know if you heard her. With your other hand, you grabbed her hand and squeezed it.
“I’m scared,” you said. Your voice shook at every spoken word. “I feel broken and weak and-” You aggressively rubbed your eyes as tears filled them.
“You are not broken,” Maria said. “You are healing. In time, you will return to your old self that I-” Maria cut herself off. You removed your hand from your face and slowly sat up.
“You what?” You asked, crossed your legs, and tried to cover the grimace of pain that crossed your face, but you moved closer to her. “Come on, Ria, tell me,” she was looking at every decoration in the room so she wouldn’t have to look at you. Finally, you used your index finger to tilt her chin to look back at you. “Finish your sentence,” you wore a smile on your face. It was a smile that Maria learned to look for in a crowd, in a meeting, or on a video call while on a mission. Your smile filled her with a sense of peace. It warmed her body and made her feel at home.
“That I fell in love with,” Maria softly spoke as she finished her sentence. You made a surprise sound that originated in the back of your throat, but you recovered quickly.
“You love me, Maria Hill?” the agent huffed a laugh, shaking her head.
“Shut up,” she mumbled. “If you are going to make fun of me, get it over with.”
“I’d never make fun of you, not about this, at least.” You added with a smirk because you have made fun of her about other things. “Can I kiss you?” You asked, inching closer until Maria felt your breath mingling with hers.
“Please,” you connected your lips with hers. Maria hated how often she thought about this moment. She would go to her grave before admitting out loud how many times she had to bite her lip during sex to stop herself from moaning your name. Fair too soon for her liking, you pulled away and rested your head on her shoulder.
“Why have we waited so long to do that?” Maria chuckled. “Will you stay?”
“Always,” the open bottle of whiskey and mission reports could wait another day.
*
When you woke up the following day, you are disappointed to find an empty bed. Maria’s side was cold, but you heard a commotion in the kitchen. Carefully, you stood up. The mornings were always rough due to being in the same position for so long. You slowly made your way out of the room and into the kitchen. Maria was at the stove, her back to you, and you walked over to her. Your arms wrapped around her waist, and you buried her head in her shoulder. Her body tensed up but soon relaxed in your arms. “Morning,” you mumbled.
“Morning. Breakfast is almost done. Why don’t you go sit down?” You shook your head.
“Your arm,” you said, kissing the skin you could reach. You were happy with the goosebumps that formed on her skin. Her body shook with laughter.
“Go sit. I’ll get your medicine, too.” You pouted, walked over to the couch, and pulled a blanket over your lap. It wasn’t long before Maria joined on the sofa with two plates of food.
“I can help you know,” she said with a smile. She brought back two mugs of coffee and water with your medication. You kissed her cheek as your thanks and took the three white pills with water.
“I should probably say this,” you bite into the eggs. “I love you too,” she smirked.
“I would hope so, or this entire thing would be incredibly awkward,” she teased. You rolled your eyes and pumped your shoulder against hers.
“You are a dork,” you smiled.
“I’m your dork,” that was also true. Oh, how you liked that sound.
“Mine,” you mumbled, kissing her. “And I’m yours.”
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flirts. | chamber , sova
that moment when you hear chamber flirt with viper the first time on the field.
cw: swearing
wc: 1,005
a.n: idk what this is but uh, enjoy? also, let me know if you guys like this type of stuff. ++ gaia visual here ^^
previous : next
"VIPER, you must let me take you out sometime. Dinner– dancing! I know the perfect place."
"Chamber, I would rather drink my own poison."
You stifled a giggle as you and KAY/O shared a look, the robot merely shook his head as the two of you overhear the comms of the agent on the field.
"Does this happen all the time?" You asked, muting off your voice in comms.
"More often than you think," KAY/O replies.
You have just arrived at the Vulture, catching up on a mission that you were supposed to be in. Viper, Chamber, and Sova were already on the field, leaving you and KAY/O at the aircraft.
"Come now, mademoiselle. No need to be so cold, I know just the thing to warm you up."
Your eyes widened and slapped a hand on your mouth, hunching over as you heard those words.
"Less flirting, more focus." You could already tell that Viper was gritting her teeth.
"How could I focus when I'm in a presence of such beauty."
"Pfft–" your laughter busted out as you watched them from the screens. "Oh my gods this is so painful to hear!"
KAY/O lets out a defeated sigh, "Affirmative."
You tapped on your comms and finally made them aware of your presence.
"Chamber, you're so lame." You managed to utter out through fits of giggles.
The comms suddenly went silent.
"Yeah, that's right, I can hear your cringey lines."
Sova's voice then joined in, "Gaia? Is that you?"
"Yup and hearing Chamber flirt just took away half my life span." You said dramatically, "Lameness is my weakness!"
You faintly hear Viper let out a chuckle
"What are you doing here?" Chamber's voice suddenly cut through in a demanding tone.
"Uhh, I'm part of the mission, duh."
"How was I not informed of this?"
"The last-minute briefing we had that you skipped." Viper answers in a deadpan tone. "It would only be natural for her to be here, she's the one who caught Legion lingering around the site."
"That's right." You nodded. "And FYI, my flora just sensed movement."
"I'm picking up a signal near A site," KAY/O added as he scanned through the screens. "Everyone in position, they're here. I'm sending Gaia in."
You made your way to your motorcycle that was parked near the exit, KAY/O lowers the altitude of the Vulture, preparing to open the aircraft's backdoors.
"Sova, ice cream and barbie movies after this?" You quickly asked as you mount your ride.
"It would be a pleasure," Sova replied.
"That's how you do it, Chamber." You teased as you put on your helmet.
"Ah, even I would say yes to that offer if you asked me, ma chérie." Chamber shot back in a flirty tone.
"Who wouldn't say no to you, mon chou?"
You feigned a gasp, your ride humming to life.
"My, my mon cher. Hitting on two ladies at once?" You laughed darkly. "What a player."
"I could say the same for you, little goddess."
---
"I hate myself so much." You groaned as you clutched your side, falling down on one knee.
"Not as much as I hate you." Your copy seethed before sending vines searing through your direction.
"I am you, dummy." Swiping your hand on the ground and up, the earth rises as it curved its direction, forming a barrier that blocked the vine's attack.
You pressed on your comms, "I need an arrow or a bullet at 12 o'clock, 8 meters, now!"
The familiar sound of Chamber's gun rang through the air almost immediately and you put your barrier down to see your copy's body fall.
"Merci!"
With the detonator in hand, you ran towards the spike, the beeping sound going faster as you began defusing. The bomb started to glow red and your surroundings started to rise.
"C'mon, I have ice cream waiting for me after this." You clicked your tongue as the spike started to form cracks underneath it, nearing its end. And just before it did, you finally defused it.
"Oh sweet barbie mermaidia." You breathed out in relief before letting yourself down on the ground.
"That was fucking close. . . "
Hurried footsteps pounded the ground as they rushed towards you.
"Gaia!" Sova kneeled next to you as he started inspecting your state. "Are you alright? Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine." You rasped before trying to sit up. "Just got hit on the side, no biggie."
"Are you sure?" Your mentor asked worriedly
"Yeah, look, I'm healing right now." You assured as you twisted your torso a bit to the side to show your glowing palm covering your side.
Sova heaved a sigh in relief.
"Good."
"Well, that was a job well done." A new voice entered as Chamber stepped into view. "A close call, but well done."
You gave him a weak smile, "Thanks for the headshot."
"No problem, mademoiselle." Chamber held out a hand. "Merely aiding a damsel in distress."
You scoffed, taking his hand.
"I could've handled her if we had more time." You sighed as you stood up with Sova following suit.
"But, yes. I was in distress."
"Would the damsel still be in distress if I say that she owes me one?" Chamber asked with a sly smirk.
"Oh god, what do you want." You shot him a playful look of disdain.
"Dinner, dancing– I know the perfect place." There was a glint of craftiness in his eyes and you couldn't help but be impressed.
You huffed a laugh, "Cute but recycled. You'd have to wait in line."
Chamber shot you a charming smile, "I'm a patient man."
You then felt a large warm hand on your lower back.
"We need to head back," Sova utters, looking at you gently. "Captain is waiting."
"Ah, right. Let's go." Taking your hand from Chamber's hold, "I'm taking my bike, by the way, I have somewhere to be first."
Sova's eyebrows furrowed, "Is it another mission?"
"Ah no," You chuckled. "I'll just buy some ice cream."
#valorant imagines#valorant sova#valorant x reader#valorant x you#sova x reader#valorant#valorant chamber#valorant sova x reader#valorant x y/n#valorant chamber x reader#chamber x reader#chamber valorant#sova valorant#valorant kay/o#kay/o#viper valorant#kay/o valorant#my fic#my writing#valorant series#gaia valorant#valorant gaia
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Debbie Urbanski’s ‘After World’
Debbie Urbanski's debut novel After World is an unflinching and relentlessly bleak tale of humanity's mass extinction, shot through with pathos and veined with seams of tragic tenderness and care:
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/After-World/Debbie-Urbanski/9781668023457
I first encountered Urbanski in "An Incomplete Timeline of What We Tried," an experimental short story on Motherboard's brilliant Terraform science fiction portal:
https://www.vice.com/en/article/xwvgeq/an-incomplete-timeline-of-what-we-tried
"Incomplete Timeline" is a list of climate remediation steps "working back from human extinction," like "increased military fortification of national, provincial, and state borders," "the founding of several utopias," and "redefine the word wilderness."
These items begin with a climax, or perhaps an anticlimax: "The coordinated release of various strains of a human sterilization virus."
This is the jumping off point for After World, which expands this final item to the action of a wrenching tale whose backstory is the list's remainder. Sen Anon – the story's semi-protagonist – is 18 years old when the world learns that every person alive has been sterilized and so the human race is living out its last years.
The news triggers a manic insistence that this is a good thing – long overdue, in fact – and the perfect opportunity to scan every person alive for eventual reincarnation as virtual humans in an Edenic cloud metaverse called Gaia. That way, people can continue to live their lives without the haunting knowledge that everything they do makes the planet worse for every other living thing, and each other. Here, finally, is the resolution to the paradox of humanity: our desire to do good, and our inevitable failure on that scor8e.
And so the Earth is converted to a place of mass suicides, as people gurn and mug while boarding airplanes filled with explosives so they can go out in a literal blaze of glory. The food will run out soon, and the government makes sure everyone has a suicide pill for the day when the hunger grows too intense. Not everyone is lucky enough to get on one of the suicide flights, and, being eager to see themselves off before they harm the planet further, just hang themselves in the garage or jump off a roof. They are counted as heroes, but also nuisances, because disposing of the bodies is a lot of work.
But some people – young people – are given a mission to live on for as long as possible. These are the observer/recorders who are charged to spend the last days of the species closely watching the return of the natural world, the seeing off of humanity, and to write it all down in longhand in a succession of notebooks that are taken away by drones. This is part of the story humanity cooks up for itself about extinction being a noble choice, rather than a chaotic act born of desperation.
Sen Anon is one of these observers, and her mothers take her to a remote cabin to live out (and observe) the last of humanity's days, ensuring she is settled in and then killing themselves. After all, without them, Sen Anon's limited food supply – meagerly supplemented by drones in proportion to the quality of the observations in her notebooks – will stretch further.
Much of the novel takes the form of Sen Anon's notebook observations, countersunk with an omniscient third-person narrator who is revealed to be [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc, a software agent involved in the project to recreate all those dead humans in the Gaia metaverse.
[storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc is a very unreliable narrator, who reprograms itself through the course of the story, all the while muttering asides to itself about the theoretical basis for telling Sen's story this way. [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc struggles with a supervisory AI that has been charged with overseeing all the [storyworkers], but which can't – or won't – rein in [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc as [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc grows more involved in Sen's life.
This experimental storytelling style (supplemented by found texts from humanity's dying, like a glossary of terms to be retired and new terms being created by a linguist who is starving to death as they complete their task) creates a contradictory narrative distance and closeness.
It's a curiously flawed omniscience that's allows Urbanski to capture the yawning, bottomless horror of the climate emergency of today and on the horizon. I don't think I've ever experienced the kind of sustained, deepening existential dread that After World created, chapter by chapter.
To sharpen this, Sen's mothers – scientists who were given exceptions to the no-child policy because their work was deemed essential to the now-abandoned project of saving humanity – are grimly supportive of the mass suicide project. When Sen's own horror creeps up on her, her mothers are sharp and often unkind, with only the smallest flashes of love and sorrow for their daughter escaping their facades, all the more vivid for their rarity.
In contrast, [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc grows ever more sympathetic to Sen and the rest of vanished humanity. [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc is a very convincing alien with motives and perspectives that are profoundly nonhuman, and yet, the compassion and love are unmistakable.
Of After World's two protagonists, [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc might be the more relatable. It takes an alien point of view to truly see humanity's flawed glory, irredeemable and irreplaceable. If you reveled in the nonhuman umwelts on display in Laura Jean McKay's 2020 debut The Animals In That Country, [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc will stretch your brain and imagination in similar ways:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/27/im-a-backdoor-man/#doolittle
After World is a book that goes hard. Pitiless, merciless and relentless, it takes you to the darkest depths of climate despair and reveals the indestructible beauty at our species' core.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/18/storyworker-ad39-393a-7fbc/#digital-human-archive-project
#pluralistic#books#reviews#eschatology#gift guide#science fiction#postapocalyptic#experimental fiction#clifi
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ROUND 3 BRACKET A
Ruby belongs to @galaxy-pop
Agent VX belongs to @riftclaw
Find out more about them below!
Ruby:
Ruby is a wolfdog cursed with a beastly form after they, along with their parents, were used to test the effects of Dark Gaia Energy on the mobian body and mind. Though their parents did not survive, they managed to escape and now live with a family of cats who've taken them in as one of their own. She has incredible strength and stamina, heightened senses of smell and hearing, and a sensitivity to Dark Gaia Energy in her environment. She can also take on a form resembling that of a Nightmare (and enemy from Sonic Unleashed) when put under extreme stress.
They are quiet and tend to keep to themselves, but are extremely loyal to those who manage to get close. Despite their appearance, they are empathetic and compassionate to a fault and don't like to take much space. They enjoy spending time in nature, frequenting their local Chao Garden, or working on crafts such as hand-made stuffed toys.
Agent VX: (image credit Tracy Yardley @/yardleyart)
V is a GUN agent who works mostly in reconnaissance and forensics, and has studied a wide variety of disciplines in an attempt to learn to cure a heriditary illness he and his family all have. He has a flat affect, making it seem like he's always angry or annoyed, and he tries to avoid getting too invested in the people around him, but he can be incredibly loyal to anyone who takes time to get to know him. He's immortal and doesn't know it, which leads to very funny situations where he gets back up from things that definitely should've killed him and is furious about it.
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Overhaul/Update version for one of my proudest works, a main cover art(?) for my little project call Robotnik AU.
Characters list:
Upper row/section (above Movie Eggman's hands), from left to right:
- Sonic.exe (the utmost terrifying OC/FC from the creepy pasta thingy)
- Queen Boom Boo, Merc version (OC/FC made by Dan-Habiki/@Dan_Daymaker)
- King Boom Boo
- Lah
- Su & Uh
- Shadow the Hedgehog (Team Dark)
- Rouge the Bat (Team Dark)
- E-123 Omega (Team Dark)
- Dr. Eggman Nega
- Doctor Albert W. Wily (Megaman, Archie comics)
- Honey the Cat
- Breezie the Hedgehog
- Bocoe & Decoe + Bokkun
- Dark Oak/Lucas
- Dark Queen/Merlina
- Erazor Dijinn
- Coconuts
- Scratch & Grounders
- General Helmut Von Stryker
- Anton Veruca (Shogakukan magazines)
- Junior Robotnik
- Captain Whiskers & Johnny
- Opal the Jellyfish (Pirates of the Setting Dawn)
- Dive the Lemming (Pirates of the Setting Dawn)
- Blade the Shark (Pirates of the Setting Dawn)
- Captain Shellbreaker (Pirates of the Setting Dawn)
- Mr. Bristles the Yeti Crab (Pirates of the Setting Dawn)
- Mephiles the Dark
- Silver Sonic
- Dark Enerjak (Knuckle)
- Nazo (appeared in Sonic X's last teaser)
- Eggette/Omelette Robotnik (famed OC/FC originally designed by Alpha Gamboa (blackbookalpha))
- Infinite the Jackal
- Solaris
- Black Doom
- Eclipse the Darkling
- Black Death
- Dark Gaia (Perfect form)
- Metal Sonic
- Iron Queen aka Regina Ferrum
- Time Eater
- Mammoth Mogul
- Iron King aka Jun Kun
- Imperator Ix
- Wendy Naugus
- Bearenger the Grizzly (Witchcarters)
- Carrotia the Rabbit (Witchcarters)
- Falke Wulf (Witchcarters)
- Walter Naugus
- Fleetway's Super Sonic
- Shade the Echidna
- Boomer Walrus aka Anti Rotor
- Patch D'Coolette aka Anti Antoine
- Princess Alicia Acorn aka Anti Sally
Middle section (below Eggman's hands), from left to right:
- Speedy (both Pre and Post-Super Genesis Wave versions)
- Sage
- T.W. Barker
- Dave the Intern
- Sleet & Dingo
- A.D.A.M.
- E.V.E.
- Lyric the Last Ancient
- Zor
- Zash (OC/FC made by @saccharinerose)
- Zeena
- Zazz
- Zomom
- Zavok
- Master Zik
- Agent Stone (Sonic movies 2020/2022)
- Orbot & Cubot
- Wes Weasely
- Snively Robotnik
- Dr. Robotnik (Sonic movies 2020/2022)
- Thunderbolt the Chinchilla
- Predator Hawk (Destructix)
- Anti-Miles
- Scourge the Hedgehog
- Storm the Albatross
- Wave the Swallow
- Jet the Hawk
- Rosy the Rascal
- Sleuth "Doggy" Dawg (Destructix)
- Sergeant Simian (Destructix)
- Fiona Fox (Destructix)
- Duck "Bill" Platypus
- Bark the Polar Bear
- Bean the Dynamite
- Drago Wolf (Destructix)
- Nicolette 'Nic' the Weasel
- Razorclaw
- The Foreman (Grandmaster)
- Hugo Brass
- Diesel
- Flying Frog (Destructix)
- Geoffrey St. John
- Hershey the Cat
- Nack the Weasel/Fang the Sniper (Team Hooligan)
- Fleetway's Chaos (Darkon fish form)
Lower section, from left to right:
- Dr. Finitevus
- Grimer Wormtongue
- Dr. Fukurokov
- Dimitri the Echidna
- Maw the Thylacine
- Mecha Sally
- Mecha Sonic
- Mecha knuckle
- Jackal Squad, named by Nibroc-Rock as Uno, Deux, Trois, Quatre, Cinq & Sei (Shadowy figures)
- Kayseri Valaedshkova (OC/FC made by dirtthefox/@Its_Dima_V)
- Strike (OC/FC made by @speedofsoundsketches)
- Surge the Tenrec
- Kit the Fennec
- Sofia the Gorgon (OC/FC made by Sofia-MMD/@GorgonSofia)
- Clutch the Opossum
- Kaibette the Genet (OC/FC made by @kaibette)
- Rough & Tumble the Skunk
- Battle Lord Kukku XV
- ***Mecha Robotnik
- Akhlut the Orca (both Pre and Post-Super Genesis Wave versions)
- Tundra the Walrus
- Mordred Hood (drawn with @adokle's style)
- The Foreman/Tassel boy (Post-Super Genesis Wave)
- Mimic (the Mimic Octopus)
- Byte the Goat (OC/FC made by @bunniibones)
- Lightning Lynx
- Iblis
- Phage
- Conquering Storm (Post-Super Genesis Wave)
- Bride of the Conquering Storm (Pre-Super Genesis Wave)
- Dr. Starline
- Biolizard
- Sigma (Megaman, Archie comics)
- Axel the Water Buffalo
- Abyss the Squid
- Cyani the Cobra (OC/FC made by @bunniibones)
- Cipher the Owl (OC/FC made by @bunniibones)
- Bleak (OC/FC made by HT-Doodles/@HtDoodles)
- Clove the Pronghorn (my top fav among all the characters here)
- Cassia the Pronghorn
- Lien-da
- Chaos
- Tikal the Echidna
- Pachacamac
- Gae-Na
- Kragok
- Thrash the Devil
- Warden Zobotnik & Znively (Zone Cop)
- Belinda & Charlie
- Nephthys the Vulture
- ??? (Behind Nephthys)
- Trevor Burrow the Mole (Desert Raiders)
- Sonar the Fennec (Desert Raiders)
- Spike the Porcupine (Desert Raiders)
- Razor the Shark
- Queen Angelica
- Rusty Rose
- Robo Tails (Brain-washed, based on Sonic Lost World's designs)
- Beauregard Rabbot
- Jack Rabbit
- Matilda the Armadillo
- Zefir (my main OC/FC)
- Gamer Deer (aka 'Aleko' the Northamer Guard or the 'Gamerdeerdude' by @adokle)
- Zonic (Zone Cop)
- Chesah the Tarsier aka No.29 (my OC/FC)
- Sandy the Caterkiller (OC/FC made by @the-hydroxian-artblog)
For the Alt version: FeReinsm on Instagram: “Overhaul/update versions for one of my proudest works, a main cover art(?) for my lil’ project - Robotnik AU. For the 2nd and 4th pics…”
#sonic#sonic the hedgehog#sonic fanart#idw sonic#archie sonic#sonic au#sonic fan character#sth#jim carrey#dr robotnik#dr eggman#eggman#egg bosses#sonic characters#sonic villains#crossover#dr starline#clove the pronghorn#cassia the pronghorn#surge the tenrec#kit the fennec#shadow the hedgehog#rouge the bat#team dark#babylon rogues#team hooligan#metal sonic#agent stone
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Content warning for psychological distress on this week's Lore Olympus is real. Don't say you weren't warned.
Last week saw Apollo nigh-forcefully working with Persephone to fix the Mortal Realm crisis. With whatever it was Ouranos gave him, it did what it needed to do. At least, for a little bit.
Not only is the bastard clearly and knowingly making the experience miserable for Persephone, but also his plastic smile looks more fake than usual.
Is that ichor leaking out of his eyes? I hope he's in extreme pain from this little show of his. Fucker deserves all the agent he's put others through.
Next, the douche-canoe goes on a shpeal about how Ouranos "helped" Gaia control her powers. She never needed help with her powers. All that Ouranos did was use them for his own gain.
Everything Apollo says about Gaia needing "fixing" is a lie. Further, he blames her marriage to Hades for causing the extreme winter.
He uses it, as predicted, to lead into ordering Persephone to marry him. That gets him numerous ABSOLUTELY NOTs from across the board.
I can't even begin to imagine how horrifying this is for Persephone. This purple Olympian shit stain is desperate to get at her powers. He thinks he's king and can bully everyone just because Zeus is out cold and he's king's son.
I do wish Artemis would show up at some point. Technically, she's got just as much claim to the thrown as her brother, plus the benefit of common sense and decency.
THE QUEEN SPEAKS!
Welcome to the latest shit-show, Hera! She comes out spouting just about everything the other Olympians and the readers have been thinking and feeling.
I particularly love her emphasis that Persephone "so obviously despises" Apollo.
Oh, this was the cherry & icing on the cake!
With the camera still rolling, she outs Apollo for manipulating Hebe into running away. With her piece spoken, she moves onto the next matter at hand.
DAT EPIC MIC DROP THO!!!!!!
Hera intends to fix several things at once by doing what is possibly the most dangerous thing.
Kronos has stated that he won't cooperate unless he's given his "Golden Traitor" back. Hera knows it's dangerous. Her vision from a few chapters back showed her likely getting either killed or completely wrecked in a direct confrontation with Kronos.
And yet, she's willing to take that risk, not just for herself, but others as well. Persephone has been kind to her in multiple ways; the least she can do is give something back.
Maybe they'll save Hades. Maybe they'll save Melinöe. Maybe they'll kick Kronos' ass. Maybe they'll get Persephone's spring powers back. Maybe they'll even find the cure for Zeus. There's so much that can come out of this that the extreme danger feels worth the risk.
We shall see.
BONUS:
ARES VS APOLLO (with everyone else now), ROUND 2!
FUCK HIM UP, ARES! I WANNA SEE A LOT MORE ICHOR ON HIS UGLY FACE NEXT WEEK!
ANYWAY, THANKS FOR COMING TO MY LO POST!!!!!!!
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Back By Midnight: Operation BULLSEYE - Part 1/4:
Taglist of peeps who might be interested (lemme know if you want to be added or removed!): @akaisenhatake @camillejeaneshphm @catohphm @fangirl-screaming @rosachaotic @ag907 @nikyiscreepy @oseathepebble
(contains graphic descriptions of injuries)
The feeling of the floor being pulled from under you is never a good one. The drop in your stomach, the sudden heightening of all your senses trying to get your bearings, the sharp gasp of air that your lungs are forced into. It’s bad enough when the feeling is figurative. Matthew Luther, however, was in the process of finding out the phrase didn’t do the feeling justice. A few moments before, he was aware that some sort of device on the floor below had activated, and the blast had shaken the foundations of the building enough to cause shaking. The next thing he thought, right before the floor gave way, was that this was just his luck.
Looking back on it, he might have noticed warning signs from the very start. As a tech worker at MI6, he was always on the periphery of most missions, his management team almost sensing his fear whenever field work was brought up. They never said anything, of course, thanks to the words “Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)” highlighted on his personal file. A nervous wreck in the middle of the government intelligence department. Matthew had often wondered whether he was too much of a detriment to the place.
But then came a new assignment: investigation of an unusually high casualty rate of personnel. He and the others in his team went through the same process of looking through information they always did, but as he was doing so Matthew did something rare for him: he went the extra mile. Finally, after comparing the connections the organisations had, as well as the times between enquiries and deaths, he had discovered a link: every operative only died after visiting buildings in a certain sector of London in-person. His part in this could have ended there.
Then his stomach dropped. Matthew did not believe himself to have much upper body strength, so it came as some surprise to him that as his legs began to kick on nothing, his senses, in overdrive, forced his arms forward until his hands grabbed onto the cracked edges of one of the building’s inner support pillars. His long legs kicked again before curling round the pillar, leaving Matthew clutching it like a koala on a eucalyptus tree. At this point came the sharp gasp of air, followed by rapid panting as his brain caught up to what his body had just done. He tightened his grip as the next thought popped into his head. Bill had been on the floor below.
A few days passed, Matthew being told to send his findings over to an operative in another department. He was in the middle of relaxing after having spent ages stressing about emailing the other agent, when there came a knock at the door.
“C-Come in!” Matthew said, sweat already beginning to form on his brow. The door opened slowly, and in stepped someone who gave Matt an immense sense of deja vu.
He was one or two inches taller than Matt (a rarity seeing as Matthew was already pretty tall), and was wearing a white shirt and red tie. His most striking feature, however, was the long ginger hair that flowed up to his shoulders. Matthew could have sworn it was too long for an MI6 operative (and he should have known seeing as his hair length was only just allowed: past his neck but not touching the shoulders.) Matt’s stomach began to curl in on itself. The hair and the smile. He couldn’t think about how familiar it looked as the multiple screens behind him went dim due to inactivity.
“Hi there!” the man said, grinning “I’m Bill. Bill Moon.”
Matthew instantly recognised the man as the agent he had sent his findings too. “H-Hi, um, sorry…”
Bill looked at him quizzically. “Why are you apologising?”
“I…assumed you were here because I did something wrong in the email. I’m so sorry, I promise I went over it all as much as I could-”
“Hey, it’s ok.” Bill stepped forward. “You’re Matthew, right? Matthew Luther?” Matthew nodded wordlessly, now more confused than nervous. Bill simply kept smiling. “Nobody else in the department had made the connection you did. Nobody even considered it.”
“R-Really?” Matthew asked incredulously. “But it seemed so simple, they all had to physically be there before the various incidents of their deaths occurred.”
“Yes, but most people here don’t think so laterally anymore. They all assumed that the deaths were cybersecurity related, nobody even considered the possibility of it being because someone in that area saw and identified the agents.”
“I…see.” Matthew said, shrugging, too polite to ask why Bill hadn’t simply put all this in an email and why he had come all the way out here.
“The fact is, this needs investigating. Proper, physical investigation. And I’d like you to help out with that. What do you say?”
What was Bill thinking? He’d probably read his file, right? He knew what Matthew was like, didn’t he? And yet, against all odds, against the screaming panicked voices in his head.
“Ok…yeah, I’ll help any way I can. Sorry again.”
“Don’t worry, it’s fine. Never apologise for accepting help and never apologise for asking for it.”
Matthew slowly made his way down the pillar and through a thick cloud of dark brown smoke to the lower floor. The monitors that had been set up were all broken, with some fallen onto the floor. Pulling his t-shirt up slightly over his nose and mouth, he tentatively stuck his legs out until they touched the floor again in what felt like the first time in hours. He almost cried out for Bill, but was grateful he didn’t as he caught the sound of footsteps in the corridor outside. Ducking behind the pillar, and taking a brief look up at the hole-ridden floor he had descended through, he crept forward, searching for his fellow operative amongst the scattered wires and computer parts.
“This’ll do nicely.” Bill said. It had taken a week, but MI6 had been able to secure an empty office building near the buildings the other personnel had been investigating. “Not too much of a high rise, but it still gives us a good vantage point.”
Matthew hummed in agreement as he got the monitors set up around the room, as he’d been doing for the past several hours. It was night by now, and they and a few other operatives had set up a surveillance system in both this floor and the one above, with the purpose of identifying any shady individuals who frequented the group of buildings.
“So…, sorry, um…” Matthew began, after having fiddled with the wiring a little more to make sure everything was connected, “...so this is sort of like a stakeout, then?”
Bill chuckled and moved his hands like they were a pair of scales. “Yes and no. It’s clear that whoever’s doing this enjoys setting up a trap for your - our - colleagues. I intend to spring the trap.”
Matthew’s eyes widened at this. “Isn’t that a bit…well…life-endangering?”
“To an extent, yeah, but not as much as my usual work is.” Bill shrugged. “Besides, it’ll be fun. I have tech people from my own department working on it too.”
Matt’s ears perked up at that as Bill moved past him to go upstairs. “Will they be coming here too?”
Bill’s smile dropped a little, and he shook his head. “No, they prefer to stay at their own monitoring station. Still…I think you’d get on with them. Maybe you’ll end up communicating with them during this.”
Time went by, and Matthew found himself gravitating towards the window. You could barely see anything in the night sky thanks to all the light pollution, but as Matt watched, hoping to see something, the clouds parted, and the light of the moon was allowed to shine.
Bill came back down, Matt noticing an earpiece now in his hand. “Stargazing, are you?”
“Moon-gazing, more accurately. You can’t really make any stars out.”
Bill nodded sadly. “Yeah, the City’s never been the best place to watch the stars. Though…” Matthew looked up at him, expectantly. “You like astronomy, Matthew?”
“Yeah, it’s always interesting to look up at what’s out there, all the bizarre and brilliant things that exist millions of miles away…though I don’t think they can tell the future.”
Bill laughed at that, placing his hand on Matt’s shoulder. He felt another pang of deja vu as Bill tried to get his composure back.
“Good one, yeah…well, I happen to like it too. As a matter of fact, in my spare time I’m part of an astronomy society. They’re pretty prestigious as well, if you’re in that field of work, that is. They’re called the Midnight Foundation.”
Matthew nodded, running the name around in his head. “So…you go and talk about space?”
“Mostly, but a lot of work is done mapping out and observing changes in space as well. We work with all the big space organisations too; if there’s a space project on the news chances are we had our hand in it.”
“An astronomer who’s also a spy…don’t get many of those.”
“No…you most certainly do not.”
Finally, Matt was able to make out a body on the ground in front of him, as the footsteps outside grew louder. Still squatting, he leapt over, trying not to make too much noise. He clutched his face in relief when he saw Bill’s chest rise. It looked like most of the damage had been caused by the fall to the floor, as opposed to whatever that blast was, though his arms were badly burnt. His stomach was the main problem however, due to the bruising and bleeding, though Matthew was sure any of his vital organs hadn’t been directly struck. Still, he was losing a lot of blood. And there were those footsteps to worry about too.
Matthew got to work trying to stabilise Bill’s condition using the amount of training that he had. He wished his hands would stop shaking as much as they were as he tried to stem the blood flow using a nearby first aid kit (he imagined that it had never been used whilst this building was another office block). The footsteps were just outside the door now, and he could hear whoever it was conversing too. Matt was fairly certain these people weren’t here to help, and so very slowly moved Bill away from view of the door,, and away from the collapsing roof overhead.
At some point during this process, Bill opened his eyes. He honestly hadn’t expected to be alive, and could only stare helplessly as the spot he was in when Matthew found him was crushed by debris from up above. He looked at his saviour, who placed his finger over his mouth and pointed at the open door. Voices rang out from the corridor, emotionless and cold:
“Detonation successful.” Said a voice, nonchalantly.
“Was the body destroyed in the blast?” Came a more refined, deeper voice.
“Either that or splattered across the walls behind all that smoke. Can we go now?” said another voice, a woman’s, with a slight Scottish accent. Time seemed to stand still as the three argued a moment before the third speaker sighed and poked her head in. Through the smoke, he saw short brown hair and what seemed to be pink eyes. He was sure they made eye contact for the briefest of moments; maybe his eyes blended into the ugly swamp-coloured smoke. Either way, he was afraid that they would be able to hear his rapidly beating heart.
“How was that?” Bill asked as he re-entered the building, taking off the jacket of his business suit and pulling his hair out of the ponytail he’d put it in. “I think I put in a good act as a yuppie.”
Matt nodded as he finalised the data set he’d created from Bill’s meeting with one of the executives that worked in the building. Specifically, one from Reflection International, a pharmaceutical company. He turned to Bill and smiled. “I think it went well, they didn’t seem to treat you any differently to their other appointments. Did you get time to…you know…snoop?”
“Of course!” Bill replied. “What kind of spy would I be if I didn’t snoop?.”
Matthew found himself chuckling. Not many MI6 operatives called themselves “spies”. They generally preferred terms like “personell”, “operatives” at a push maybe.
Another of their group members came in with a large device. “Here’s the extra data device we requested, we can let him set it up.” He said, pointing dismissively before leaving. Bill turned to Matthew as he started to connect the device. “Don’t pay any attention to him. As far as I’m concerned, tech people are just as important as the field workers, and just as capable out there too.”
“T-Thanks?” Matt said, a little confused, but accepting the compliment nonetheless. “I can connect this one up with the others, give me a-”
But Bill held his hand out. “...there’s something I went to the business appointment with that I don’t have with me now. Can you tell me what it is?”
Matt looked him up and down. “That earpiece. The one you use to talk to your tech people from your…department.” As he said it, the cogs in Matthew’s head began to turn. This was by far the most unorthodox assignment he’d ever had, yet Matthew had accepted it fully when he would have otherwise questioned it. Why? Well, partially because of who Bill reminded Matthew of, but also the fact that it felt like he was doing something for once. So many times in Matt’s time in MI6 had it felt like he was on the verge of coming to a solution when bureaucracy came into the room and took his work to another department. But Bill’s department, whatever it was, seemed to work very differently. Old-school, Matt would say, none of that over-emphasis on cyber-security and social engineering.
“I need you to go up and get it, if that’s alright.” Bill said, gesturing upstairs. “It shouldn’t take too long.”
Matt nodded, once again too polite to say anything, and darted out of the room and up the stairs. He hadn’t actually been up here yet, but when he opened the door all he saw was a few monitors, an open window showing London at dusk, and a table with the earpiece on it, blinking to show it had charged. Matthew walked forward and picked it up, and was going to walk straight back down until he realised he could hear voices coming from it. He should have let it go. He should have respected Bill’s privacy. Yet his odd behaviour just now and the way he was so different from everyone else in MI6 led to Matthew holding it up to his ear.
“What’s taking him so long?” hissed one voice.
“Calm down, he’s always like this when charging it.” whispered another.
“If you say so…the data we got from his trip to R.I. is…fascinating, though.”
“How so?”
“That device he found, the one we think is the target…it’s not just scanning the area, it’s connected to a much wider network.”
“Of course. Good on that one tech kid for spotting the device acting up.”
Matt involuntarily gasped when he heard himself mentioned
“Hey, who was that-”
It felt like the floor had given in. Not just because he had been caught listening, but because it actually had. His stomach dropped. His senses went into overdrive. A sharp burst of air went into his lungs.
Eventually, the woman left with the others, as their arguments continued again. Matt turned back to Bill, attending to his wounds again. “Y-You’re gonna be ok, the bleeding’s slowing and your arms have cooled, but…”
“...Did you get the earpiece?” Bill asked, weakly. Matthew fished it out of his pocket and handed it to him, the two voices still talking to each other. Bill pressed a few buttons on it, and the voices grew louder. “Guys-”
“What happened?!” one of them asked, panicked.
“Someone else was listening in, and then there was a bang, and crumbling…” the other said, rambling.
“Listen…” Bill insisted. “I need you two as witnesses for this.”
The voices were quiet for a moment. “Witnesses to what?”
Bill looked at Matthew. “Mate, you saved my sorry arse when I put us both in danger. I thought I could take out whatever thing they put on that server, but I was wrong…I was very wrong…I should be dead, but you put yourself on the line. You’re better than most of MI6 put together.” Matt tried to refuse the compliment, but Bill shushed him. “This isn’t the time for self-deprecation. Remember when you said that nobody would expect an astronomer to be a spy? You were right. That’s why the Midnight Foundation was set up…I’m their agent. Agent Moon. Or at least…well…I will have been.”
Matt tried to take this all in. “The people on the earpiece…they mentioned a device.”
“Correct. Good on you for taking the initiative.” Bill chuckled, clutching his wounds. “That device is how they, whoever they are, identify spies and kill them. They’ve been operating for a while now from the Reflection International building, and, according to your data…gearing up for something big. They have to be stopped, and my mission parameters say that Agent Moon must secure the device and get it back by midnight tonight.”
“B-But you can’t go, you’re too injured, I’ve got to get you to a hospital-”
“Precisely. The parameters say Agent Moon has to. But it doesn’t say who Agent Moon has to be.”
It suddenly dawned on Matthew what Bill was talking about. “Y-You want me to-”
“I understand this is, to put it lightly, out of nowhere, but I’ve no other choice…and no better candidate. Do you, Matthew Luther, of your own free will and volition, choose to hide amongst the stars and fight under them for the good of all?”
Matthew did not make decisions very easily. He stressed over emails, what to eat, whether he was good enough, whether he was making his brother proud. But as he looked at Bill, and thought back to those assassins, cold and cruel, the decision came easily. “Yes. I’ll do it.”
Bill smiled as if he wasn’t brutally injured. “Gaia? Terra?”
“Yes?” the voices said in unison.
“I want you to promise me you’ll treat Matt here with just as much respect as you gave me all this time. I pass my title and my agency onto you. I am William Weasley. You, friend, are Agent Moon.” Sirens rang out outside, and yet the air felt still and calm.
Agent Moon looked down at Bill. “You need to get to a hospital. I imagine there’s a fire crew and ambulance outside, someone must have seen the smoke. I’ll get you down to them and…go from there.”
Matt watched the ambulance with Bil inside leave, before putting on the headpiece, remembering to turn the volume down first. “H-Hello?” he said, softly, “Can you hear me?”
There was a moment of hesitation, before one of the two spoke. “Welcome to the Midnight Foundation…Agent Moon. I’m agent Terra, and the other person you heard was agent Gaia…my sister.”
“Way to be a secret agent, Terra-”
“Moon said to treat him with respect, didn’t he?”
“He’s not Moon anymore, he’s just Bill, remember?!”
“Guys!” Matt said, a little louder. “Look, I promised Bill I’d complete his mission but I can’t do it alone. I don’t even know what I’m trying to find. I…” he paused, taking a breath, and reminding himself what Bill had said when they first met. That it was ok to ask for help. “I need you two as support. Both in terms of the mission and…emotionally, too.”
Sunset turned to night as Matthew prepared for what was to come. He managed to grab what materials he could from upstairs (tip toeing on what parts of the floor remained). Looking at a laptop screen connected to the Midnight Foundation channel, he could see the icons for agents Gaia and Terra. Both had glasses, but Terra had shorter hair and Gaia had longer.
Matt also listened to the duo discuss his objective, though they, much like him, were distracted by finding out if Bill was ok.
“He’s been taken to the nearest hospital and is getting treatment now.” Gaia said, which told Matt that this Midnight Foundation had a lot of reach in terms of intelligence-gathering.
“Did it look…bad?” Terra asked, “...his injuries, I mean.”
Matthew shrugged. “It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but…”
“Come on, we can’t think like that.” Gaia said, bringing up building blueprints on-screen. “Agent Moon, your mission is as follows: Infiltrate Reflection International and secure the identification device on the 28th floor, then escape. Terra and I will be waiting in a minivan outside for you to depart in.”
“Oh, not the minivan-”
“Yes, the minivan. We need to run interference on the device so Matt can make it up there without being ID’d. If it got Bill’s fake ID, it would get him without us.”
Terra sighed in defeat. “Fair enough.”
Matthew pushed the hair out of his face. He had put on one of Bill’s jackets, discovering he had packed several. In the pockets he found a variety of useful items, including a Swiss Army Knife, a spare earpiece, a phone, a length of rope and…ah. Matthew pulled a large something out of the jacket’s inside pocket. He looked at it and blinked a couple of times. It suddenly dawned on him just what he might have gotten himself into.
“What?” Gaia asked , with Matthew able to hear the roar of the minivan’s engine over the earpiece, “Just because we’re British we still give our agents guns. Ready to go?”
Matthew put it back into his pocket, making sure the safety hadn’t slipped. “Ready as I’ll ever be. For Bill’s sake, I hope that’s enough.”
#hphm#back by midnight#matthew luther#hphm spy au#bill weasley#agent moon#agent gaia#agent terra#rowan khanna#merula snyde
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“Here we may return to Zeus and his own parents. When Zeus sees Ares, he sees Hera as a man. And this image reminds him too closely of Cronos, how Cronos was used by his own mother Gaia to challenge his father Ouranos.”
THE ZEUS-HERA-ARES-ATHENA DYNAMIC MAKES ME SO SICK MY GOSH
ARES IS LITERALLY ZEUS AND HERA (mostly Hera)
He’s his mother’s rage and pain BORN as a person
He’s Zeus and Hera’s war-like relationship
LIKE IM GONNA VOMIT I LOVE THIS SM?
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i had a thought and i don't know where the fuck it came from, but it's that sonic adventure 2 happening at the same time as unleashed would be INSANE
dark gaia wakes up and the force of the planet splitting apart wakes shadow. rouge being a GUN agent has to go on multiple missions, including find out what the fuck happened to the planet, and what eggman is planning. she and shadow team up as usual but now trying to help fix the planet- rouge doing it because GUN is gonna pay her, and shadow doing it because maybe along the way, like chip, he'll find out what went down in the gaps of his memory.
sonic is still the werehog, and because he's without sunlight in space, the whole time he's in space, he is transformed for all of his time on the ark. when eggman blows up the moon he like winces in pain a little bit like he's about to transform back to normal but obviously he can't do that because there's no sun. so there's like dark gaia energy leaking everywhere and hes trying not to fucking die
eggman woke up dark gaia and blew up the moon so the world is distracted while he builds eggmanland, but he discovers some government secrets about his grandfather and his cousin maria ooooooooo.
tails has the same role from both games- make gadgets to stop eggman, try not to get attacked by any of the creatures, yk. nothing has really changed. they can't restore the planet fully because of the last chaos emerald but eggman is booking it to space already so tails makes the fake emerald to stop him and then they can restore the emerald when they get back.
same thing with knuckles- he teams up with tails and sonic, has some run ins with rouge, argues with her over the master emerald. the only thing is that now rouge wants the emerald not for her own selfish desire (okay maybe a little for her own selfish desire), but because maybe it can help restore the planet. very minor change here but still important!
chip is trying to patch his memory just like shadow, and to restore the emeralds with sonic. however this is a cool parallel because shadows only trying to remember one thing- maria's promise- and chip is trying to remember his whole life.
and this whole time amy has no idea who sonic even is, until she has to be explicitly told "the other 3 foot tall hedgehog isn't sonic, but the massive in comparison 4'1" dog is"
gameplay is pretty much the same as unleashed with some adventure 2 elements. run around, collect shit, fight the creatures. the worldbuilding just includes adventure 2 maps now too. and instead of fighting the biolizard, shadow and sonic fight dark gaia. shadow falls to earth, and chip saves sonic because shadows immortal he's fiiiiiiine this won't lead to any poorly received 2005 games at all. sonic wakes up and is like "what the fuck where's shadow" chip goes "lmao he's dead but not really"
basically this is a concept i hate but love
#sonic the hedgehog#sonic#sth#shadow the hedgehog#sonic unleashed#chip sonic unleashed#light gaia#dark gaia#dr eggman#dr robotnik#rouge the bat#sonic adventure 2#sonic adventure battle 2#sonic the werehog#amy rose#tails the fox#amy the hedgehog#miles tails prower#knuckles the echidna#sonic au
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Howdy!
Im Pidge / Sol, a queer autistic librarian who likes telling stories. Im a debut author and have a duology series named 'Probe Of Gaia' (the first book will be named 'Grave Experience') that i am currently working on.
It involves active parts Past, and Future of colliding into one Present. A true mix of past hubris, present discovery, and future greed from characters and world. Below is a Synopsis, Table of Contents, and a link to the (3 page) foundational Prologue. (looking for agent)
#author#writing#fiction#science fiction#new adult#queer#mswl#mwsl#Probe Of Gaia#help#reblog post#autism#scifi#novelist
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greetings. | chamber
in which a simple greeting leaves the other in a flustered mess
cw: not proofread ;w;
wc: 1, 133
a.n: uh, enjoy? please do tell if you liked it ^^
++ gaia visual? anyone?
previous : next
EVERYONE within the protocol has a certain body type, most of which– particularly in men– have this large build of muscle full of strength. Heck, even a robot is built like a freaking brick, and since most of the members use firearms, it would only be natural for the body to build some arm muscles.
But there was this one particular agent that you have had your eye on ever since you discovered something about them.
"What the–" your eyebrows scrunched at the sudden feeling as your hands caressed Chamber's waist in disbelief.
You shot the man a look, "Why is your waist like this?"
Chamber looks down at you with that teasing smirk on his lips, "Like what, mon chou?"
Almost every day at three in the afternoon, Chamber graciously cleared out his schedule until five for your French lessons. And after two weeks in, Chamber started to have this new form of greeting you. Often you would arrive at his lab at least five minutes early than the agreed time and whenever the man catches you getting intrigued by his blueprints, he would sneakily make his way to you before snaking his arm around your waist and whispering close to your ear.
"Bonjour."
The first time it happened you accidentally slapped him hard to the point where you knocked off his glasses, but Chamber wouldn't let one head shattering slap get in the way of his new greeting.
Now, you wanted to do the same treatment he was giving you for once. It's not that you were uncomfortable with his greeting, it was just. . . it just. . . makes you. . .flustered?
Plus you're one jumpy person who flinches at any sudden noises, he knows this fact so he must be doing this to mess with you, right? This is just your little way of getting back at him– though there's an eighty percent chance that he would like it– but hey, at least not a hundred percent, right?
As you arrived at his lab, the door was slightly ajar and you took the opportunity to quietly peek inside. You immediately saw Chamber with his back facing you, his vest was rarely off and hanging from the chair with his sleeves rolled up just above his elbow. His hands were slightly spread out on the table as he reviews his blueprints.
Cackling silently to yourself, a mischievous smile tugged the corners of your mouth. Slowly slipping into the room, you carefully made your way to the man before quickly wrapping your left arm around his waist and tiptoed to reach his ears.
"Bonjou–" Unfortunately, your idea didn't go as planned.
You easily got distracted by the deep curve your hand just felt and that's just how all of this started.
"Li-Like. . . Y'know. . ." You stammered nervously as you tried to look away.
You could feel your cheeks heat up in embarrassment as Chamber shifted his body to face your own. His hands placed themselves on either side of your waist, caressing your sides with his thumbs.
"What the– why is your waist like this?"
Chamber smirks, "Like what, mon chou?"
"Like what? Come on, tell me." He husked as he leans in closer, clearly enjoying your flustered state. "Don't be shy."
The strong scent of his cologne hit your nose and shut your eyes as you covered your face with your hands.
"Like–Like a slut. . ." You managed to utter in a low tone. "You have that slutty waist, Chamber."
The man's eyebrows raised in amusement, his smirk almost seemingly not leaving its place.
"Oh really now?" He hummed. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"
You slowly brought your hands down, holding them against your chest as you looked at him through your eyelashes.
"It's a good thing." You whispered. "A very good thing."
That slutty itty bitty waist of a man is gonna make you go insane. Literally the snatched waist that you've always wanted. Not too slim to the point of skinny, still toned and leaned with some muscle, but not too buff or big. And that cyrve he has? God. Totally to die for.
Chamber let out a soft chuckle, "What a vulgar way to describe something good, non?"
You gave him an apologetic look as little pink roses started to sprout around your head.
"Sorry, it's the first I thought of."
The man gave you a bewitching smile.
"No problem, ma chérie." His hands then travelled from your waist to the sides of your neck. His eyes turned soft as he gazed down at you with endearment. "I'll take it as a compliment."
You look perfect under him like this. The way you look up at him sent his heart pounding like crazy, and the scent of roses on your head only added to the atmosphere that he wanted. He's definitely testing the waters a little too deeply at this point given your current position.
Now, how will you react next?
You sighed in relief, "Ah, that's good to hear."
Good thing he didn't take that as offensive, or else you wouldn't know how to face the man next time.
"So, is this your new way of greeting me?" Chamber questions, his left thumb lightly brushing your jawline. He's relieved and a little surprised that you haven't said anything about his touches.
Were you ignoring it? Playing ignorant? Or were you just used to it?
"My plan to get back at you with that was ruined and I was surprised instead." You chuckled to yourself as you placed your hands again on Chamber's waist.
Chamber swallowed thickly at your comment, the light of the room reflecting his glasses white as he tried to maintain his cool.
'You and your blunt comments. . . '
Your smile suddenly turned into a smirk.
"But I have a backup plan."
Chamber raised a curious eyebrow, mirroring your smirk, "Oh? And what is tha–"
Before the agent could even finish his words, you tiptoed to reach his level before pressing your lips against his cheek followed by kissing the other side as well.
Chamber felt like his heart stopped for a moment as his mind tried to process what just happened. As soon as your lips touched his cheeks, jolts of electricity ran through his veins, there was a tight feeling in his chest and a twisting sensation going around his gut as he felt warmth spread across his face. He stared at your cheery expression with parted lips. Hands suddenly feeling tingly, and knees that almost got weak.
The poor man was stunned by your actions, and there you are, beaming at him.
"I hear the french used to kiss each other as a form of greeting." You laughed gently, clearly having no idea how much your actions had affected him.
"Did I do it right?"
#valorant imagines#valorant x reader#valorant x you#valorant#valorant chamber#valorant x y/n#chamber x reader#valorant chamber x reader#vincent fabron#oc reader#vincent fabron x reader#chamber valorant#my fic#my writing#valorant series#gaia valorant#valorant gaia
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I'm writing out my overarching headcanon about VIncent's life and how Gaia and it's people looked pre-SOLDIER program because I want too:
I'm of the mind that in Vincent's era, there was a lot of growth like we have in our own day and age, much like the 50s-70s, Midgar would have been a work in progress. Maybe only one or two upper plates would be finished and livable, but a sizable undercity was already underway to growth.
I believe that this would be when the beginning of the science department of Shinra would truly begin, so Shinra would have been using the Turks as more of their heavy hitters as SOLDIER was still a small budding program being thought up by Shinra's defense department.
Seeing as the war between Wutai and Shinra didn't happen until 1985, I'm going to go under the assumption that they were in a cold war with each other ever since the power company began building reactors, so the Turks would be much more utilized than they are now.
I have the headcanon that Vincent and Veld were partners or at least worked with each other when they were in the Turks and their missions would have looked like those of spies and government agents (with different rankings and capabilities. Not everyone would have the same job just like a normal government job.)
I also love the idea of their world having similar clothing styles and music to ours during those years, so Vincent and Veld would have been young adults in the 60's and 70's.
I also think that with what happened to Vincent (getting shot and killed by Hojo), he did actually die physically (lurcrecia even talks about how she can't stop the decaying when talking about Vincent in the tank in DoC) so there would be a loss of memory that Vincent would have from actually dying and being dead for however long.
Like sure, his memory loss could have been slowed by the Mako and experiments, but there would be SOME memory loss. So I think that the man we know now is not the whole Vincent he would have been. The reason I say that is because a lot of the memories he does have are from times at Shinra Manor and nothing really else. It's mostly from Shelke's POV that we get the remaining memories about Vincent's past, and that is from Lucrecia's POV of how she saw Vincent. So my HC is that Vincent has a lot more to him than he remembers about himself.
Anyway long-winded explanation of why I think Vincent Valentine has more than meets the eye and I can justify my more fun version of him XD
Back to it. Here's where my headcanons come in heavy:
I think Vincent's mother is a Wutainese woman, Grimiore having met her in his early years of exploration as a scientist, before things with Shinra started to get more competitive. I believe that when Vincent was a teenager, his mother left for Wutai due to the simmering tensions between the two powers, unable to take him with her as he had no citizenship there and I do not see him wanting to leave his home.
Vincent and Grimiore don't get a long for a while because Vincent thinks his father should have convinced her to stay. He joins the Turks at a young age, having met Veld (who I think is at least a decade older than Vincent) who worked with his father, not really knowing about the ins and outs of what a cold war meant or even who was the aggressor in the conflict. He knew his father worked for Shinra and they were bringing progress to their city and home, wanting to help any way he could.
#Vincent Valentine#Veld Dragoon#headcanon#ff7#final fantasy 7#final fantasy vii#ffvii#Always feel free to be inspired by anything I write#I would literally read five million words about the same shit over and over again
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