#cêpan

[aroace-number-eight]

DaVinci won't let me work on any of my video wips anymore so have this Henri edit and imagine what could've been

[aroace-number-eight]

This is how Nine's Legacy went right

[aroace-number-eight]

It would have been beneficial to Five's key survival if Rey taught him more than to fight, and also to be a nature survivalist since he had all this knowledge that Five was largely dependent on. It was not only just being able to defend himself through physical combat or creative use of weaponry like killing the snake on the island or the first Mog they encountered in Canada, but also building a campfire, star navigation, sailing, negotiating weapon dealings (he had gotten a gun from a black market in Canada but we don't know if it was verbally negotiated or otherwise), cooking, raising livestock, basic farming and possible agricultural skills, medical skills (revealed in RtZ that Rey did actually teach Five that, not sure if that was solely surgical knowledge since knowing how to identify illnesses and heal them presents the idea that Rey could have potentially cured his illness), and possibly more.

There's a bunch of text that already supports Rey's ideas of how to protect Five, which are not only very passive but do little to help him learn how to survive properly (especially on his own, which is an issue Rey does not account for despite his illness), and is something Rey regrets too late

As far as what we can gleam from the text, Rey only trained Five with a few days of martial art skills (the first day they were on the island) and then left Five to practice his routine indefinitely with jogging and the like.

It's also with this limited knowledge Five has that sets up the dynamic that structured a majority of Rey's teachings, mainly threatening Five's safety by implying the Mogadorians will come for them and capture or torture Five. And we see it used as a light threat, recalled by Five to get him to do simple chores like brush his teeth or make his bed (whether those were exaggerated examples or actual ones is unknown), and used to actually scare Five and reveal that he hasn't been training and had lied to Rey daily about his regiments (a genuinely frightening situation that Rey already uses as his go-to for reeling Five in but to an extreme extent, and a situation that betrays Five's trust in his Cêpan almost completely). And Five can do little about it when he's withheld from so much important information that could potentially save him, or at the very least make him more prepared for life and trust his Cêpan more. However, again, hiding was Rey's MO, and that limited knowledge made Five more susceptible to dangers that he does not know how to counter properly (see: Ethan).

Of course, the Mogadorian threat could be an irrational point to make if Five was able to recall more that he couldn't die because of the charm, which is likely to happen if the threat of the Mogadorians were used more tactfully and honestly by Rey to emphasize ways to protect himself than just hiding, and what to do when he needs to hide.

Also an additional side note, following this text:

It was already established in IAN4 that the Chest cannot be opened by Garde alone until their Cêpan dies, so it has to be unlocked by both. But Henri also specified that the Garde must have a Legacy first in order to open it, which Five at this point in the story does not have yet. It does nothing for Rey to say that Five can't look until he thinks he's ready, instead of referring to the fact he needs a Legacy first, which should both confirm Five is ready and that he can open the Chest. The series kept this rule consistent for all the Garde, so it's fair to assume Rey's negligence to specify was of his own standard on what marks Five as ready, but in a vague and dishonest manner that turns Five away from any hope that his Chest will be accessible to him one day.

Rey had the intention of protecting Five, but his methods were essentially a cruel game of keep away that left Five in the dark but made him entirely dependent on his Cêpan, which he lightly reflected on as a terrible practice when he failed to consider his poor health or the fact that Five refuses to take any action and much prefers if Rey did the hard labor. His character as a reflection of his way of raising Five is extremely passive and greatly protective, which ends with him being controlling and neglectful of Five and his agency. His methods of protection were bent on flight than fight (interestingly this compares Henri who traveled consistently to small towns and didn't teach John how to fight until his Legacies came in, and Adelina who only ensured Marina's safety in the physical sense in a single location with a small community for years). His poor communication with Five, the both of them spending hours apart and only talking when he's awake, when there's a task to do, or when he chastises Five, worsens with his decisions that fail Five because of his rigid inclination to tell Five little to nothing about anything about survival.

We don't know why he didn't teach Five how to fight earlier on, or at the very least if his health rendered him incapable of doing so, teach Five how to survive and sustain himself, learn how to interact with strangers and tell the innocent from the deceitful. He's only presented one opportunity to teach Five how to fight by killing the viper snake, since in all instances prior he's taken care of both their safety. He cooks all their meals and Five has shown little ability to provide for himself besides opening a coconut. He failed as a Cêpan in that he can't expect Five to survive outside the island based on an unknowable standard of strength that he's never determined Five ever surpassing, whether that's getting a Legacy, being wiser, having mental fortitude, or finding a resolve.

And it ruined Five's life.

[aroace-number-eight]

This follows along with @simpforsix post about loric culture and I think it'd be really interesting if it had been Five and One who held the most knowledge about Lorien and their home culture because of the stories they were told by their Cepans. The two oldest Cepans with the most knowledge on Loric history and finding it a really useful way to invigorate their Garde with determination and pride for their home and their people, understanding what they were supposed to fight for, and keeping some connection to their home because all that's left is what they know.

Five eating up those stories that Rey used to tell him about all his adventures on Lorien. Maybe before he was a Mentor Cepan, he used to work in the Kabaraks and learned agriculture, animal breeding, the different types of animals that exist on Lorien, how to raise a Chimaera. Maybe on the ship, he was the one taking care of Bernie Kosar because he's the only one on the ship who knew their behavioral patterns and food preferences. Five being regaled by fairy tales that Rey heard growing up or from his travels world over, some that tell stories that don't exist on Earth.

Teaching Five how to look for Lorien's stars (I know this is mentioned at some point canonically but I don't remember who did) and how he used to navigate the seas using the stars, how he memorized charts and identified constellations, and the stories behind them helped him remember what to look for. The festivals he used to attend in his life: Quartermoon festival, religious events, harvests or changing weather patterns, mourning Garde who died in training, plays that recreate the Elders finding the Phoenix stones and bringing forward the Chimaeras and the new era of Lorien. The foods, all the dishes he knew how to prepare, all the vegetation that grew on Lorien that have no Earthian counterpart, the hunts he went to and trained for with a couple Chimaera at his side acting as his hunting dogs.

One learning from Hilde the legends and stories of Garde she trained in her life, the tales that spurred from their heroism and dedication to Lorien. Teaching her martial arts that has been passed down for generations, moves that were taught to Garde who didn't develop Legacies yet so they still had the means to fight. Telling her of all the places she traveled to on the planet to train new Garde: some who hailed from the coastal region of Deloon, some that lived high in the mountains and how she dealt with the high altitude, some that came from the Kabarak Colonies. The different training methods and martial arts she acquired from her travels because each region has a different sect of Loric who prioritized certain philosophies of the mind and body, of war and peace, of respect and protest.

She's the oldest of the Cepans, so does she have knowledge that even Rey doesn't know? Does she remember a time when there were ten Elders and not nine? Does she have a more intimate knowledge of the workings of Cepan and Garde relationships, especially the insidious and corrupt ones that she's been forced to turn a blind eye to? How many funerals has she attended for Garde who died, some that were in her care but died when she wasn't able to help them? What were the funerals like, how did she cope with them? Who did she surround herself with, what Loric philosophies, adages, and mantras kept her going?

Did both of them have families? Were they married? Had children, or grandchildren, or great grandchildren? Did they have lovers in their lives? Do their Garde remind them of their families, the people they left behind?

It'd be super interesting for the Cepans who have seen everything to protect that knowledge and leave it to their Garde, the last vestiges of Loric culture, and ensure they survive with this. To have Five and One bear this knowledge with importance and amazement knowing fully well where they come from and wanting to find their own paths, their own lives on Earth as Garde.

To have the greatest remnants of Loric knowledge, in the course of ten years, end up in a Mog with a sliver of her memories and a traitor who lost his path. Will the Garde still want that knowledge?

[aroace-number-eight]

📁

Crayton used to sing Loric lullabies to Ella to help her fall asleep, and they've shared those lullabies as she grew up because Crayton said that Raylan and Erina wanted them to be her greatest treasures from her parents

Ella still remembers those lullabies, and shares them with the other Garde to help ease them or when they want to rediscover their Loric culture. She sings them often with Marina

Ask game!

[aroace-number-eight]

Don't remember if I posted these, but I think a couple years back I was having Cêpan brain rot and went "actually we should have more cêpan thirst" so

having a normal one

[aroace-number-eight]

in the club freaking it- shit is that my teacher I gotta go

[aroace-number-eight]

A family can be two dads and their kid

A family can be two moms and their kid

A family can be eight mentor guardians, a teenager who knows how to hack electronics, a butler, a pilot and his sister, an engineer acting as a pilot who cut herself off from society, nine super powered children and a baby who was just born hours ago, and a whole menagerie of shape-shifting animals flying inside a couple of space ships away from their destroyed home planet and meeting with nine adults on another planet who will help them get accommodated with the local culture (and may or may not be part of the family as well)