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dreamlanddoll · 4 years

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So... upon writing this I realized that I’ll have to play around with the ages and the timeline a bit since Roland and Cedric technically grew up together and if Roland had a child when they were both adults that means that Cedric would’ve seen you grow up so... yeah that’s a big uncomfy thing for me so I’m gonna go ahead and stretch Roland and Cedric’s age gap to 10 years instead of 3 so that would mean Roland has you in his very young adult years (21 or 22, which was very common back then, especially for royalty) and Cedric would be like 11 or 12 when you’re born.

Cedric x Eldest Daughter of King Roland!Reader

you two knew each other briefly in your childhood, but in all honesty, Cedric had little to no interest in getting acquainted with you, seeing as how you were only 3 years old, and he was a teenager.

in fact, he did everything within his power to avoid you, as he wasn’t all too fond of small children. This trait would continue to proceed in him into his adult years as well (cause he’s a grump)

when you grow up to be of an age old enough for school, around 5 or 6, you begin showing signs of remarkable talent in your academics classes, especially astronomy

this was also around the time that your younger brother and sister, Amber and James, were born. And upon your mother, the Queen, dying from childbirth, your father decided to send you to a boarding school for young, gifted royals.

so you never really got to grow up with your baby twin siblings, or even with your own dad. Which is a big regret of Rolands, believe me.

years pass and so much has happened without you, so upon arriving home in your mid-twenties, you’re buzzing to get filled in on everything

Neither Amber nor James remember you, but Amber is ecstatic to discover she’s had a big sister this whole time

“Oooh, I’ve always wanted a big sister! We can do each others hair and you can give me boy- or girl- advice and I can steal your dresses to borrow and-!”

“Ahem.”

“Oh, right, sorry, this is my little sister, Sofia. Well, I guess your little sister too!”

Sofia’s really happy to meet you, and asks you what boarding school was like. When you tell her that you majored in astronomy, Amber is jazzed.

She’s so excited that you both like the same things, and may or may not take up most of your time, but you two get along well

James was honestly hoping for a brother, because for the last 5 years it’s been mostly him and his dad with three other girls, but he decides to ask if you’ll sword fight with him anyway

when you say that you actually learnt how to in your fencing classes during your time at school, and that you’d be happy to practice sword fighting with him, James is suddenly sold on this whole second big sister thing.

Things between you and Miranda are kind of awkward at first, you’re this new girl- well, woman arriving at the castle that she’s only ever heard Rollie talk about, and now she was your mom too all of a sudden. Though she’s kind of relived to have another adult woman around the castle to talk about certain things with. You guys act more like wine-drinking buddies than mother and daughter.

Baileywick is delighted to see you again, and you him. You were always his favourite little princess, giving you head pats and sneaking you sweets before dinner to this very day. Since you were little he swears you’ve been more cordial than most of the castle staff. And he never, ever skipped on joining you for a tea party. You guys even hug, which is odd because Baileywick always had a strict ‘no-hugging’ rule between him and the royal family. But not you. You were like his friend.

you decide since you’re going to be sisters, and since Amber and James have taken up your time plenty that day, to get to know Sofia more.

“(Y/n), I don’t suppose you remember Mr. Cedric, do you?”

“...Who?”

it takes you a minute, but it clicks when Sofia describes the purple robe and the “weird, two-toned hair”

“Oohhh, I remember him! He didn’t seem to like me all that much though. I wouldn’t want to bother him.”

well too bad, Sofia’s yanking you up there to meet her favourite sorcerer. She talks your ear off about how great of a teacher, mentor and wizard he is while you haul yourselves up two flights of stairs.

upon Cedric opening the door, something seems different about him. He looks less tired, and more bright in the face. He smiled immediately when he saw that Sofia was at the door, and greets her in the most friendly way that you’ve never heard him speak in. Was this even the same boy you knew all those years ago?

Well, it was, and he’s quite surprised to see you... since he doesn’t know who you are

“Mr. Cedric, this is Princess (y/n), don’t you remember her?”

Cedric immediately recognizes your name, just not your face. He feels a little embarrassed for not knowing it was you at first, you’ve really quite grown since he last saw you. Though, Cedric still had a good few inches of height on you.

“M-my deepest apologies your Highness, I-I didn’t recognize you.” He bows, to your surprise.

“You don’t have to do that. Sofia was just telling me about how comfortable you two are with each other, so I don’t see why we can’t be the same.”

from then on, you spent a lot of time catching up with each other, which eventually grows into a good companionship between you, Cedric, and Sofia as they fill you in on all the adventures they’ve been on together. It’s all very exciting! You tell them that they’d have to take you sometime

though Sofia and Cedric leave out some stories, just to spare any bad opinions of either of them you may develop.

Cedric has to admit, it’s a bit nice to start fresh with someone of the royal family that didn’t know about all his past crimes

one day when you, Sofia and Cedric were all paling around in his tower, you decided to stay a little extra longer after Sofia leaves

you just wanted to talk with Cedric alone for a little bit, just to see what he’s like

Cedric’s a little nervous about being in a space all alone with you, you being a princess and all..

but you end up getting along really well, and so it started a routine of you staying just an extra hour or two after curfew, once Sofia had gone off to bed, to spend time alone with the royal sorcerer,

a lot of your friendly banter turns into sly quips, and eventually into flirting

this starts a series of events neither of you could’ve ever seen coming; developing feelings for one another

Cedric tells him self to get over you, to snap out of it millions of times. He doesn’t know why he needs to spell it out for himself that you are a princess, not only that, but King Roland’s daughter. So by that logic you should be 100% off limits, right?

tell that to his heart rapidly beating out of his chest when you touched his hand for the first time

you wondered if your feelings for him were even ethical. What would your father say? What would the Kingdom think if you two were together? It simply wouldn’t work out.

however, when you two are hanging out in his workshop one night, you both had been chatting and shyly flirting as he works, per usual. Cedric starts explaining spell-theory to you (which you found adorable), and you decided that you couldn’t take it anymore, so you defy all the rules and when he turns his head to you, you kiss him

no warning, no subtle hints that you like him, you just dive in forward with red cheeks and a racing heart and kiss him

and Cedric is just in complete shock

he doesn’t have any time to react or kiss you back, he sits there in complete awe.

he can’t believe that just happened. his mouth is completely agape and he can’t think straight for the life of him. You had kissed him, right on the lips- your soft, sweet lips, you, the princess, kissed him.

it takes a second before he gets off cloud nine when he realizes that oh no- you, the PRINCESS, just kissed him

he would no doubt be blamed for this. He panics. This is incredibly unethical. Is it even legal? He’s not sure, but he’s gonna stutter and ramble and lecture you about it. Of course he’s flattered and overjoyed you feel the same way that he feels about you. But you two? Together? It could never happen. It shouldn’t happen. It’s-

oops, you kissed him again to hopefully calm him down, and upon pulling apart you apologize

he takes a minute to think, absorbing everything. You’re worried you’ve upset him, but he looks at you with a frazzled expression and says,

“Promise to never let what just happened leave this room?”

you nod. “Agreed.”

“And also what’s about to happen?”

“Wha-?”

he kisses you that time.

from that day on you two are.... ??? with a bit of <333 but mostly ???!?????????????????

he doesn’t know what, and neither do you

all you both know is that you kissed, you both liked it, and you both haven’t spoken in 3 days

until you approach him about it

it’s very awkward, you two keep trying to talk at the same time, stopping yourselves and laughing, insisting that the other go first

you conclude that perhaps... if you both really tried, you could make something work between the two of you

Cedric concurs, trying to hide how wide his smile wants to reach across his face

you both go to bed extremely happy and giddy that night, thinking about each other until the second you each fall asleep

aside from the new relationship, hiding this from Roland is a whole other effort on it’s own

you two have to keep things very lowkey, you might secretly brush your hand against Cedric’s when with your family, making his heart jump in his chest the first dozen times

he gradually gets acquainted with your micro-affections in public, and gives you a tender, secret smile each time you do them, making a blush rise in your cheeks that you try to hide behind your fan

of course Sofia catches on to this, and of course Cedric can’t hide anything from her

she promises that she won’t tell their dad, much to Cedric’s relief

you two have lots of secret dates in his workshop, mostly at night when everybody else is asleep

you favourite thing to do together even now as a couple is play rainy indoor games like checkers, chess, cards, stuff like that

you’re both equally good at those things, so it’s always a fun competition

(winner always gets a kiss on the cheek <3)

when things start to get more... intimate in your relationship, it’s a very tricky procedure

the first time you slept over at Cedric’s, you woke up late and Baileywick had knocked on the door to ask Cedric if he’s seen Princess (Y/n)

oh he’s seen you alright

you ended up having to hide in his closet dressed in your nightgown as Baileywick proceeded to talk (more like order around) Cedric’s ear off for an hour.

now you know to get up 5 am, haul your clothes, quickly kiss Cedric goodbye and book it to the other side of the castle so that nothing would suspect a thing

Cedric still feels weird, and even kind of guilty for courting the King’s daughter, especially since their such close friends again

it’s all just a really weird situation for him

but it is for you too so he knows he’s not alone

the first time you tell him that you love him is when you’re explaining to him that no matter if your father finds out, you’ll still stay with him, even if it means you won’t become queen, even if Cedric is thrown out of the Kingdom, you’ll go with him

that means more to him than you could ever know, but he wouldn’t want to giving up the family you just got back for him, because he loves you too and wants you to be happy

#sofia the first #sofia the fandom #stf #sofia the first headcanons #stf headcanons #cedric the sorcerer #princess sofia #prince james #princess amber #king roland #queen miranda #baileywick #cedric the sorcerer x reader #baileywick probably knew the whole time and just kept quiet and pretended to be oblivious to it #he knows everything #baileywick always knows

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bisluthq · 3 years

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Okay so I’ve been meaning to ask for a while now but I was far too nervous and didn’t want to offend anyone. But, that being said, can I ask why you choose to indulge in RPF? I personally find it super strange, invasive and (maybe this is a stretch) but also low-key dehumanising?

Idk what word to use here and how to eloquently word this but definitely feels like RPF plays into the fetishisation and the ‘disconnect’ of celebrities from people who indulge in it. Like, by writing RPF you’re writing your own version of that person (some people try and stay accurate whilst others invent whole new personalities after) but you don’t know them, not entirely, and for writers to (understandably) fill in the gaps with whatever they like and create fics seems a little disrespectful and voyeuristic, esp because you’re using very real people to fill in the majority of the sexy (or just generally desired) ‘character bar’ whilst headcanoning the rest and publishing it.

Idk, I personally find it kinda disrespectful as to how real human beings are just used almost as props to serve and fulfill a handful of people’s fantasies/desires. At least with fictional characters, it’s not that big a deal if you headcanon, fill in the personality gaps or go ooc because they are fictional. But for RPF, the real people are often treated as jumping off points for whatever build-a-bearfantasy writers have in mind (younger writers/readers are far more likely to do this but I believe it’s a widespread phenomenon amongst everyone who indulges in it)

And I know the people involved are likely never going to read it but it still doesn’t mean they haven’t been disregarded/disrespected as a person already. I’ve personally never liked RPF, writing or reading, but I know some people like it - I just don’t know why?? I know one argument I’ve heard is that celebs are in the public eye and so, they can rightfully be objectified/sexualised by their fanbase, which yes kinda makes sense but idk if it merits/justifies using the shell of the celebrity to fulfill the kinks of everyone in their fanbase.

I’m not sure how much sense I’ve made here. I’m pretty sure I’ve repeated myself the entire time lol but I am curious to what your answer would be. Full disclaimer - it is not my intention to shame you or anyone else - I just want to understand your thought process because it is wildly different to mine and for the most part I like/vibe with this blog a lot because your attitude towards celebs and celeb gossip is so refreshing. When I saw all the joshlie/swiftwyn fics I was a bit lost and further lost when people started actively thirsting, hence the reason behind this ask. Sorry this was so long ✌🏼

Okay so I have a lot of Thoughts™️ on this tbh. Now backstory: I was SUPER pearl clutchy about RPF for like actual years. I somehow missed the After phenomenon in terms of the books, but when the film deal came through I was properly scandalized. I was like, “Good grief imagine being Harry and you’re the basis for a whole ass abusive boyfriend character like what the actual fuck is wrong with these people!?” And then I did more thinking about it especially as I watched the sheer commercial success of this shitshow.

Now I’m very like theoretically anti capitalism but I’m also a very pragmatic person whose primary love is and always has been and always will be the entertainment industry so we do have to look at what makes money because this shit’s not charity. And what the runaway success of After taught me is... RPF makes money. Like BIG money.

So then I had to relax on the pearl clutching and start asking myself why that is. Why are people into this shit? Well, celebs market themselves as 1) a brand and 2) sexual beings. You’re supposed to want them. That’s how they’re being sold to you. Harry’s not posing fucking stark naked in the Fine Line insert art for his health. Taylor’s not posting National Sock Appreciation Day for you to appreciate her socks. Like these are sexual beings and they’re being marketed to us as sexual fantasy. That’s part of why we’re buying their shit.

Let’s go back to the ‘celebs market themselves as a brand’ - if you look at people inspiring RPF it’s hardly ever people who are like... freaky private. Nobody’s putting out Saoirse Ronan RPF because tbh the average person, even an average fan of hers, doesn’t really know anything about her. She avoids socials and she doesn’t take too much press and she sorta just does her thing. People like Harry and Taylor and tbh Karlie market their personalities. They’re selling a whole package - not just a talented professional, not just a hot person, but a whole ass person who you’re supposed to buy into while also being y’know turned on by them per my previous points.

So here we get into the RPF of it all. Realistically, these people are going to inspire fantasies. They’re trying to do that. And they’re also selling and marketing their relationships and personalities. Again, this is not an accident, this is a purposeful commercial push.

With that in mind, what’s so wrong about imagining scenarios that they’re kinda like... trying to concoct for us already? Taylor’s been singing about her sex life non stop since 2017. She’s told us these songs are about Joe. Joe’s a public figure who also takes interviews and markets his personality. Is it, therefore, wrong to imagine what that sex is like if they’re both hot and making money off of us? Is she not lowkey trying to get us to do that when she’s, like I say, singing about sex with him on main since 2017?

Now with RPF what we need to remember is this is purely fantasy. It isn’t real, and it’s not like... canon. I’m also not into like AU RPF personally like I don’t really have much imagination for like RPF crackships lmao but I’m also not going to get all huffy over it. For me, if celebrities sell shit using their relationship - as Taylor absolutely fucking does - and sell themselves as sexual and desirable - as Taylor absolutely fucking does - there’s nothing that wrong with fantasizing about what that is like.

It’s obviously not real. It shouldn’t be treated as real. But as an exercise in imagination, I don’t see what’s so wrong with it.

Also many of us have fantasies all the time even if we don’t write and publish them. We have sex dreams and weird fantasies about people we know/crushes and of course we fantasize about celebs. I think putting that down in formal words isn’t worth getting all up in arms about. I think it’s just having a bit of fun.

Finally, back to After: this is a HUGE commercial market. We can see that. And like I don’t see it as that unethical when I examine it closely because these people are also making money off of it. It’s like we can say “oh celeb gossip is so terrible” but it makes the people involved huge money. And considering at the end of the day entertainment shit does come down to the bottom line... ehhhh I’m okay with it.

Hope this kinda gives my take and it’s a conversation I’m very interested in so if y’all would like to keep having with takes and countertakes I’m all for it.

#nat talks fandom culture #Anonymous

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isa-ghost · 4 years

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OH I JUST SAW THE ANNIVERSARY BUNKER QUESTION THING AND I WANNA KNOW MORE ABOUT THE LORE AROUND THE BOSSES!!!!! LIKE WHO ORGANIZED THE RESISTANCE AND HOW ITS ORGANIZED AND HOW THEY FOUND/MADE THESE BUNKERS AND WHAT THE EARLY YEARS OF TRYING TO FIGURE OUT THAT SYSTEM WAS LIKE PLS

Oh god I dunno how in-depth this’ll be but here we go xD

————

The resistance was formed not long after Anti launched his first few days of chaos with his newly cultivated puppet army. His violence made it clear it was gonna be Like That, so naturally opposing parties rose up. Its unclear who officially founded the resistance, but the group all had a common goal: Stay by Jack’s side no matter what, and one day gain the strength to save him, wherever Anti may have him. They affectionately started calling themselves the Bosses after Jack’s “LIKE A BOSS!” line in his outro. But that’s about all that blossomed from the start. Why would a bunch of small rural town people- not all of which even knew what the hell was going on or who Jack or Anti were -know how to fight on a warlike scale? It took a lot of struggle and mass communication throughout the zone but a majority agreed it was only natural to lowkey militarize. Ranks, soldiers, the typical.

They started with the sensible; find a hiding/meeting place, get more numbers, get supplies, get connections. All went smoothly, including the connections. To this day, the ONWR has connections to outside the zone because they managed to establish them before Anti’s (at the time) weak barriers confining what was and wasn’t currently the zone was guarded by stupidly large masses of puppets. Its after he figured out they were receiving outside help that he tried to stop it, but none of his efforts (growing stronger over time, outlining the entire perimeter with numbers from his army, turning the barrier into a harmful thing to touch if you’re trying to go out, just to name a few) stopped the ONWR. It pissed him off then and still pisses him off now, but he’s relented on the issue for now because he’s got better plans for his playground. Besides, he was a hypocrite about outside help anyway; the bastard kidnapped a good handful of puppets straight from their homes outside the zone- some not even in the US.

These outside connections are how the ONWR gets some of their food, communication, and more from outside the zone aside from raiding abandoned buildings in downtown Axel Creek. Social media is obviously another large factor in resistance affairs and it’s one they will never lose because Anti can’t afford to cripple his main source of spreading his influence. The entire zone still has all its resources like power, plumbing etc, because Anti can’t afford to cut it off or just doesn’t see enough gain in blocking it. So luckily for the ONWR, between what they have inside and outside the zone, especially now that Cali’s level and quick-thinking head is in charge, they’re still going strong. Obviously they distribute these supplies and such to the bunkers and whatnot besides amongst themselves. And the bunkers conduct their own raids too. Balance is hard to maintain, but the ONWR makes it work.

Interestingly enough, the other creators of the AU and I discovered (can’t remember how BUT one of our friends lives in TN so might’ve been them xD) there were already bunkers in Tennessee from nuclear scares back in the day. These bunkers were cleaned up by the ONWR and other non-puppets in the zone and taken refuge in. Many have expanded and even decorated these bunkers to feel more homey. And more bunkers aside from the ones that already exist have been built. Some are underground, some aren’t, some are both. However not everyone lives in a bunker- some fortified their homes, took shelter in downtown apartments, and live other places too.

As for the rest of the history of the ONWR, they didn’t start calling themselves the Overnight Watch until of course, Anti conducted that fun little night. It was a massive night for recruiting puppets for him as well as a learning opportunity for the ONWR. After that night, the Bosses finally had a good name to unite their side. Boss became a general term for “good guy” and “Overnight Watch Resistance” became the term for “actively fighting against Anti.” There’s not really a difference, but most of the ONWR has some sort of job at the headquarters even if they don’t live near or even in HQ, whereas Bosses might not.

Over time after December 2017, things started getting.. messy. The kind of messy you don’t pick up on until it’s too late. Best described as neutrals, a bunch of idiot (surprise surprise) middle-aged men thinking they could use the ONWR for a position of power for themselves squeezed their way into the upper ranks under A Lot of Somehow Successful Bullshitting despite it being painfully obvious that they didn’t know a lick of shit’s worth about Jack or anything else going on, and their pretending to care about saving him was mediocre at best. A lot of the present resistance is still wondering why and how the hell anyone let them get to where they did. Their meddling completely fucked up the ONWR and its reputation. Just to name a few things- They permitted completely unethical scientific experiments to be conducted on other people to “help the fight” (psst that’s bullshit!) if they even revealed any of what they were doing at all. Many, many people in the zone were fucked over and up by these experiments and Cali is trying her best to turn the damage into something useful and less traumatic. Besides these inhumane activities, these fakers also wrongfully arrested and punished the lieutenant general of all fucking people just for trying to defect and get away from their monstrous behavior, and sentenced her to DEATH (though that didn’t happen). Not to mention they were KILLING puppets, yknow, UNWILLINGLY BRAINWASHED AND ENSLAVED TEENAGERS AND ADULTS, instead of detoxing them and turning them against Anti! MORONS. OH, AND they threatened the EGOS THEMSELVES countless times!

Lets not even get started with the ONWR members like Markos Allen who defected from the ONWR to start a group JUST FOR KILLING PUPPETS, Markos ya dead sack of shit. TLDR; after the Puppet Breakers ran for a good while (some might not be dead even still), before Markos was murdered rightfully by Lieutenant General Dawn for trying to use her daughter AKA Patient Zero (Isa), Anti’s first puppet, for some more enabling of the fucked up secret ONWR experiments before trying to kill her for his own personal revenge reasons. His dying body was then reanimated by Anti and used to infiltrate HQ, where he planted bombs and proceeded to blow the entire place to shit. And Anti had a whooole nightmare of plans with that involving Jackieboy Man, but that’s not really relevant to the ONWR.

After scraping up as much surviving resource as they could, the ONWR rebuilt itself in a new location and that’s where it operates present day. But the bad eggs weren’t wiped out in the explosion unfortunately, and the unethical secret bullshit and fucked up power system continued. That is, until One Very Fucking Angry Henrik von Scheeplestein broke into HQ with Jackieboy and some of their Bunker #88720 family members and proceeded to destroy EVERYTHING they had with some homemade viruses and do some other much-needed attitude adjusting.

This enabled Cali to rise up from the ranks, expose all of the horrific things the fakers had been doing, and promptly plant their stupid asses in the HQ’s prison block, where they currently rot until Cali decides on something to do with them. Its taken a lot of work and will still take a lot more, but Cali has done absolute wonders to restore the ONWR to what it was when it was born and has gotten the ethics of the resistance back on track. She’s given the entire Boss side of the zone transparent communication about all affairs; publicly explained anything and everything she found in all of the ONWR’s records, databases and whatever was discovered in the secret operations places. She’s strictly enforced that NO puppets be killed- they are to be taken one way or another to HQ and detoxed in what WAS the secret labs but is now a MASSIVE detox department. She also appointed the five egos as the highest authority and keeps close and constant communication with them. Besides all of that, she’s also gradually remaking each department bigger and better than before and contacting defected ONWR members and soldiers to try and bring them back to the resistance now that it’s under new leadership. She’s currently going through records and such again to track, locate and imprison all of the doctors and other staff involved in the unethical activities that have been going on over the last few years. She’s doing everything she can to cleanse and rehabilitate the ONWR and repair relationships with anyone that was victimized by the fakers. So far so good!

#bunker 88720 #Cali #ONW Resistance Lore #2 year jse anniversary 2019

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segadores-y-soldados · 6 years

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Tal Pai, Tal Filho

A write-up and discussion on the new Lúcio story revelations, interactions between Lúcio, Symmetra, and Doomfist, and Vishkar’s role in Talon and the larger world of Overwatch, and speculation on Sanjay Korpal

Mercy: Lúcio, I never realized your father was the one who made Vishkar’s sonic technology! Lúcio: The core tech was his life’s work, owned and patented by Vishkar...but it’s mine now. (Note: in another post, I incorrectly wrote “core tech” as “cortex” whoops)

--- Lúcio: Vishkar’s using you - just like they used my father! ...You just wait - you’ll see. Symmetra: Your father was a Vishkar employee. He understood our company’s vision...a shame he never educated you.

---

Doomfist: Symmetra, I am familiar with your work. I look forward to seeing it in person. Symmetra: My purpose is to create order. You are the embodiment of chaos.

---

Symmetra: Doomfist, you are mistaken - only with order can humanity evolve! Doomfist: Order...chaos... means to an end.

Important to this discussion: a review of the companies and corporations in the world of Overwatch. A major thematic element in Overwatch’s story - and an increasingly large plot point - is the back-and-forth discussion on if a megacompany or megacorporation can ever truly be ethical (on the large scale), and how their actions affect individuals (for example, Satya Vaswani in Vishkar, or Fareeha Amari in Helix). Almost every known company and corporation in Overwatch engages in (or is implied to engage in) unethical actions, either for profits or to protect corporate secrets.

The Sombra ARG focused very heavily on LumériCo, and while LumériCo will never be completely “irrelevant” to the plot or world of Overwatch, two other companies - Helix Securities and the Vishkar Corporation - have “taken over” as more active elements in the immediate plot. Vishkar directly has ties to the Talon organization, through Sanjay Korpal:

Now, we don’t know if Sanjay is present in Talon for his own personal interests, or if he is “representing” Vishkar in some sort of capacity. However, he consistently wears his Vishkar uniform, which means he either doesn’t care that other Talon members recognize which company he works for, or his association with Vishkar is more important than a sense of “personal style” (which is...actually saying a lot for a Talon member, lol).

Vishkar has always been a major player in two characters’ lives: Satya Vaswani (Symmetra), who is employed by Vishkar as a “hard light architech” (spelled correctly, lol) and who works directly under Sanjay’s management, and Lúcio Correia dos Santos, a musician-turned-freedom fighter who “stole” the Sonic Amplifier and hard light skates from Vishkar’s new building in Rio de Janeiro and used them to rally members of his neighborhood to drive Vishkar out.

Several massive revelations about Lúcio, Symmetra, Vishkar, and Talon were dropped in the May 22, 2018 update to Overwatch. You can find the majority of the new voicelines here.

(More under the cut!)

Legacy of Light and Sound

Vishkar is consistently described as a megacorporation, but it is far, far more than that. On the surface, Vishkar specializes in rapid, advanced construction of large buildings or even whole cities - they use a technology they call “hard light” which can (apparently) weave solid or semi-solid material from light.

However, what we know from both Symmetra’s Hero Profile and her comic is that hard light technology is extremely difficult to use, and “architech” require advanced training to use it.

Following the Omnic Crisis, the Vishkar Corporation of southern India began the laborious process of creating new, self-sustaining cities to house the nation's displaced population. One such city, Utopaea, was created using radical hard-light technology that enabled its architechs to shape the city's streets, utilities, and living spaces in the blink of an eye.

After she was identified as one of the few capable of becoming a light-bending architech, young Satya Vaswani was plucked from extreme poverty and placed in the care of Vishkar's architech academy, never to return home. Isolated and lonely in her new life, Satya immersed herself in her education and training. She quickly grasped the applications of the technology and was one of the top students in her class. Satya approached hard-light manipulation differently than her peers, with their more procedural, mechanical constructions, instead weaving her constructs in the motions of the traditional dance of her homeland.

However, reading between the lines, we can see that Vishkar is already unethical and outright dangerous here, as they blur the boundaries between education and child labor, and corporate loyalty and potential brainwashing.

Described in Lúcio’s Hero Profile, we learn that Vishkar imposes “control and order” wherever it goes and wherever it builds:

But Lúcio's close-knit community was thrown into chaos when the multinational Vishkar Corporation secured a contract to redevelop large tracts of the city. Lúcio and his neighbors had been told that the development would improve their lives. However, that promise never became a reality. Vishkar imposed controls on the residents in the name of building a more orderly society: enforcing curfews, cracking down on what the company perceived as lawless behavior, and exploiting the populace as a cheap labor force.

Extreme “loyalty”, militant control, unethical exploitation of work, and of course -

A ruthlessness to destroy all competition, even to the point of harming innocent bystanders.

It is under this intense “corporate culture” that Lúcio’s father worked for Vishkar.

We don’t know when Lúcio’s father began working for the company, though at bare minimum, it had to be after the Omnic Crisis ended. And until it is canonically stated otherwise, I will interpret Lúcio’s father as also being a Brazilian citizen, and a resident of Rio de Janeiro. At the very least, Lúcio’s Hero Profile stated that he “grew up” in the city, and loves his community. However, it is possible that Lúcio’s father either left Rio de Janeiro to live in Utopaea full-time, or that he made frequent trips. It is also possible that he rarely left the city, and did live with Lúcio while he worked for Vishkar.

Lúcio: Vishkar’s using you - just like they used my father! ...You just wait - you’ll see. Symmetra: Your father was a Vishkar employee. He understood our company’s vision...a shame he never educated you.

At the very least, it sounds like Lúcio feels like Vishkar used - and then possibly abandoned - his father, while taking credit for his father’s work. He also believes that Vishkar will abandon employees or workers when it no longer finds them useful. Symmetra, meanwhile, states that Lúcio’s father knew the company’s values and visions, lowkey implying that he knew what he was getting into and what sacrifices he would have to make (much like her own, perhaps?) to uphold those.

Again, it is a question of loyalty and commitment to the company versus brainwashing or intellectual theft, as well as who deserves “the recognition” for “doing the real work” - a parallel we see consistently across the Overwatch universe (from Overwatch and Blackwatch, to scientific experimentation and ethics, to Omnics and robotics, even to Talon itself).

Lúcio is clearly in favor of crediting “the individual” over “the collective” (which is interesting, considering how he is also extremely community-oriented), or perhaps it would be better stated as he values individual agency and recognition of that, especially when it is willingly used for a greater good (again, an interesting point considering that Symmetra believes she is doing exactly that). He appears to believe that his father’s work is being misused, and therefore, he is in the right for “reclaiming it” for himself.

Mercy: Lúcio, I never realized your father was the one who made Vishkar’s sonic technology! Lúcio: The core tech was his life’s work, owned and patented by Vishkar...but it’s mine now.

Important in Lúcio’s Hero Profile is the implication that his father’s work is being abused in a way his father would not have wanted (or did not design it for):

Lúcio wouldn't stand for it. He stole Vishkar sonic technology that had been used to suppress the people, and he converted it into a tool to rally them to action.

We have seen this concept of an “inherited legacy” several times in Overwatch: arguably, it is one of the more important thematic elements.

(Excerpt from “A Clash of Kings” and the discussion on “legacies”)

From Ana to Pharah and Widowmaker, to Torbjörn and Brigitte and Bastion, to Sojiro and Hanzo and Genji, to “The Savior” Doomfist to “The Scourge” and “The Successor”:

Arguably, even to Jack Morrison and Winston and Tracer:

Soldier: 76: Think you can do my job, do you...?

Winston: Someone has to.

Inherited “legacies” versus “true legacies” is a recurring motif, and Lúcio and Symmetra add a new “plotline” to it for us to consider:

Who is the one who “truly” inherits the legacy of light and sound?

Satya Vaswani is talented, accomplished, and innovative in her ability to weave hard light. Arguably, she is an “artist”, a master of her trade, just like Torb and Brigitte in engineering, or Ana and Widowmaker in sniping. For the time being, Symmetra embodies Vishkar’s “public” vision: a world where order is aligned, perfectly symmetrical, everything in its place.

If there is anyone who is going to “perfect” hard light technology and all its potential, it is her.

...Right?

Synesthesia is a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. People who report a lifelong history of such experiences are known as synesthetes.

Another common form of synesthesia is the association of sounds with colors. For some, everyday sounds such as doors opening, cars honking, or people talking can trigger seeing colors. For others, colors are triggered when musical notes or keys are being played. People with synesthesia related to music may also have perfect pitch because their ability to see/hear colors aids them in identifying notes or keys.

(Source: Wikipedia page on Synesthesia)

“Synaesthesia Auditiva” directly translates to “Auditory Synesthesia” in English.

In an in-universe article, Lúcio describes his work:

Synaesthesia's positive early reception has delighted Lúcio, but he's even more interested in what people will think of his tour. "I've spent two years working on new technology for the show. It'll bring the music to life. You're going to do more than just listen to it," Lúcio said. "You're going to feel it. See it."

While it has never been officially confirmed in canon, it is implied that Lúcio is a synesthete - specifically, that he has chromesthesia, or a version where he can “see sounds” and “hear colors” (though many synesthetes will say that making a distinction between the two is effectively impossible, as their sensory perception of both is immediately linked).

This raises a few very important questions:

Why was an employee of Vishkar (a company specializing in light technology) working on sonic - sound-based - technology?

And what did he hope to accomplish with it?

Was it specifically for Vishkar to use?

Or was he working on it for a more...personal legacy?

For his son, who could see music and hear light?

Mercy: Lúcio, I never realized your father was the one who made Vishkar’s sonic technology! Lúcio: The core tech was his life’s work, owned and patented by Vishkar...but it’s mine now.

Lúcio’s synesthesia and his knowledge of his father’s core technology could potentially explain why someone without extensive “architech training” is able to use the hard light skates and Sonic Amplifier in a relatively short time after “acquiring” them.

Symmetra believes that she and Lúcio’s father represented Vishkar’s vision.

But Lúcio

Represents “light” itself.

(source)

Arguably, Lúcio does not “see” a difference between light and sound, and similarly, he does not “see” a distinction between his father’s work and his father’s legacy. In fact, I think it is very interesting that Vishkar’s biggest “threat” to their “vision” isn’t Overwatch, or Blackwatch, or Talon, or anything else.

It is an artist who can “see” them for what they really are.

And who has the ability and perception to use their “tools” against them.

Not only does the revelation about Lúcio’s father tie him closer to Vishkar on a personal level, but it also brings him much closer to the main “plot” of Overwatch. As one of the few people - or perhaps the only person - capable of fighting Vishkar on “asymmetric” terms (a massive corporation versus a community rallied by a single hero), Lúcio’s abilities, perceptions, and his innate power could potentially make him a great “player” against Vishkar’s vision.

And against Talon’s.

Visions of (Dis)Order

Again, we don’t know for certain if Sanjay is in Talon as a representative of Vishkar, or if he is there for his own personal reasons, but in “A Better World” he espouses an ideology that is...extreme, to put it “lightly.”

Sanjay argues that “the greater order” is all that matters, that if destruction and chaos are means to producing “rebirth and growth,” then using them as tools to that end is acceptable - a concept which Satya finds...disconcerting.

Initially, this ideology and vision for the world appeared at odds with Akande’s, whose mantra is “Only through conflict do we evolve.”

After all, Akande’s “grander vision” involves pushing the world towards a global conflict which will force humanity to “rise or die.”

Ages ago - before the “Masquerade” comic came out, actually - I wrote an essay that argued that “Doomfist” was not merely a “title” handed down from gauntlet-bearer to gauntlet-bearer. Instead, it represented a lineage.

A legacy.

Now, this is something I wanted to elaborate on in another essay, but it is extremely relevant to this discussion on Lúcio and legacies.

Akande is a male Yoruba name meaning "firstborn." Ogun is a Yoruba god of war and metalwork, and dimu is Yoruba for "grasping." Akande Ogundimu can therefore be roughly translated as, "heir to the god who grasps iron and war," likely referring to his role as Akinjide Adeyemi's successor.

Akande’s name and his title, “The Successor”, appear to refer to him as the inheritor of Akinjide’s (The Scourge’s) legacy. And of course, described above, Akinjide’s name implies his royality, his regality.

But is that the “legacy” Akande wants?

Soon after the events of “Retribution”, we see that Akande squares off against Akinjide:

And - like Lúcio - this leads to an interesting question:

Who is the “Doomfist” who truly inherited the “legacy” of the first (“The Savior”) - Akinjide, a man who was “content to profit from raids on Numbani”, or Akande, a “commander” to saw a much greater potential - a grander vision - for Talon?

...And for the world?

Adeyemi was a useful asset to Talon, but the organization saw far greater potential in Ogundimu, with his intelligence and his ability to inspire as a commander. While Adeyemi was content to profit from raids on Numbani, Ogundimu had a grander vision. This difference in aspiration would lead Ogundimu to kill his teacher and take on the mantle of Doomfist, along with the eponymous gauntlet.

It was Akande.

It is not a coincidence that his Hero Profile has language that mirrors Sanjay’s dialogue in “A Better World.”

After all, Sanjay believes in Akande’s vision.

(Or he does for now, at least.)

And that makes one of the new Doomfist-Symmetra lines very important:

Symmetra: Doomfist, you are mistaken - only with order can humanity evolve! Doomfist: Order...chaos... means to an end.

For the first time, Akande has expressed that - if he had to - he would use “order” (just as he uses “chaos” and “conflict”) as a means to an end: to create war, and to simulate the development of human technology and “progress” however he needs to. We can see very clearly how Akande and Sanjay can, in fact, share the same “vision”, where one of them “creates chaos” while the other can “impose order” to push-and-pull the future of the world towards their goals. Talon acts as a destabilizing and conflicting agent, creating chaos and disorder, and Vishkar can sweep in to pick up the pieces and rearrange them into a new “order,” one that is very rigid, controlled, and oppressive.

But there’s possibly another element to it.

Oh man.

Y’all don’t even know how excited I am to have it confirmed that the tech developed by Lúcio’s father was held by Vishkar before he reclaimed it.

In fact, I really thought I was going to have to hypothesize and argue tooth and nail for the “the Assassin uses hard light technology” theory.

But then these interactions came out and I’m ready.

“Assassin”: Like the enforcers, Talon’s assassins possess enhanced speed, stealth, and balance and have proven extremely elusive, as their movements are near impossible to track.

You remember those essay drafts I said I wasn’t very happy with? Well, I already had most of this written.

The Assassin (gif of the Assassin gameplay: https://gfycat.com/LongGleefulBullfrog)

(We’re getting deep into speculation territory here. Super deep. Remember, I can only provide you the evidence that we currently have and help argue about hypothetical conclusions here - these can easily be confirmed or denied by later story revelations.)

I know a lot of people were confused by my “quick remark” that the Talon Assassin uses Blink/Recall. A lot of people argued (reasonably, in my opinion) that the Assassin has more in common with Genji: a “dash”, along with wall-climb, “blades,” and a very “ninja-like” stance, posture, and figure. I agree that the Assassin being a highly-trained cyborg, possibly based on Genji’s cybernetics, is actually very plausible.

Originally, I wrote that I thought the Assassin might have been using a variation of “Blink/Recall” - a prototype of teleporting technology which Vishkar could have supplied Talon (and one that was too “experimental” because it hurt the Assassin to use).

However, a more...intriguing hypothesis (to me at least) is that the Assassin uses a different sort of technology:

One which has the ability to make strong, “glasslike” material objects

Which also has the ability to teleport

Which also has the ability to wall “climb”.

When a Korean hacker managed to “unlock” the Assassin and use the character/model in actual gameplay, the “teleporting” ability isn’t present - but neither is “Genji’s dash.”

https://youtu.be/pQxvSjeYtfk?t=31 (time: 30 seconds)

In fact, what was “playable” was a character/model who appeared to move at a high “speed” and could easily cling to or “ride” walls.

Now, it’s hard to say how canon the gameplay is. And the hacked Assassin “hero” barely seems to function as a fully-playable character. Her title and her “blades” make her much more comparable to Genji than Lúcio, so I won’t disregard the argument that she’s meant to be more like him, a cyborg ninja, than Lúcio, a musician-freedom-fighter.

However, now that we know that Lúcio is intimately tied to a branch of Vishkar’s technology - one which is all about speed, sound, and light - and that Lúcio’s father directly contributed to the core technology that enabled his Sonic Amplifier and hard light skates, it seems significantly more plausible that the same technology made the Assassin. Though we do not know for certain that Sanjay Korpal was a part of Talon at the time of Retribution, there are names “redacted” on one of the memos still.

It is also important that - following the event of Retribution - Overwatch investigates an “active threat” in Rio de Janeiro, years before Vishkar formally “moves in” to the city.

We know from Moira’s Origin Video that Overwatch would investigate scientists and engineers that in considered unethical.

If Overwatch traced parts of Talon’s equipment and technology to Lúcio’s father (who may or may not have had any idea of how his tech was being used by Vishkar > Sanjay > Talon), then yes, it seems plausible that they were investigating him and his work. We also know that the man who embodied Overwatch itself has a deep distrust of companies and corporations, even in the present-day story:

Soldier: 76: I wanna know what LumériCo's been up to.

Also in the present-day story, Sombra - another character who appears to distrust and dislike corporations - has linked LumériCo to:

And if you buy the theory that Sombra and Reaper are working together to infiltrate Talon, that makes the fact that they both know how corrupt Sanjay is, and how he might have misused and weaponized a technology that was supposed to help people with light and sound...

It makes their role in Talon that much more interesting.

Where will Lúcio go? What will he do? What will he accomplish? He is very clearly sympathetic towards characters like Winston, Tracer, Orisa, and D.Va - “heroic” characters who are fighting for justice and hope - but if Sombra holds information that Lúcio is interested in (his father’s work, Vishkar’s unethical decisions, Sanjay’s corruption), what could she persuade him to do?

And...what could she “reveal” to Symmetra?

Could she change her mind the way she did with Zarya?

But more than Sombra influencing other characters -

What will happen when Symmetra finds out that her illusions aren’t real?

Doomfist: Symmetra, I am familiar with your work. I look forward to seeing it in person. Symmetra: My purpose is to create order. You are the embodiment of chaos.

What will she do when she realizes the legacy she thought she was embodying is a lie?

There are so many possible different directions for this plotline to take - all of them very exciting and very intriguing. Lúcio and Symmetra are being woven deeper into the core story of Overwatch, and the decisions they will make in the future could have profound repercussions. It’s not necessarily about who is “right” and who is “wrong,” but rather a discussion of...perception.

That is...

Unless another character decides to take matters into his own hands.

He could step out of the shadows

And into the spotlight.

(Source)

And with Symmetra getting a major gameplay rework in the near future, it might be time to explore what else hard light technology - and hard light tech users - are capable of doing.

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