Jun 17
i cannot fucking put my thoughts on the parallels between mortum and ortega's narrative standing into coherent words and it's pissing me off
#IT'S ALL JUST WORD VOMIT#LISTENNNN I SWEAR THERE'S COHERENT THOUGHTS IN HERE SOMEHWERE I PROMISEEEEE#just. these two are the ones that actively enabled+encouraged sidestep's new life (as a vigilante/villain) after both their escapes#sidestep's hero suit up until heartbreak was commissioned by ortega. mortum literally Built sidestep's villain suit#ortega is much more tangled in villainy than meets the eye and specifically in mortum's associates (the puppet‚ dove)#mortum has much more intimate knowledge of what's Really going on with the rangers (thanks to halabi)#they've met in person in the past and are charmed by eachother. they met while driving which is their shared hobby#mortum threw ortega's car into the ocean. ortega would apparently be amused by this#they are both deeply paranoid people and handle this in opposite ways#mortum actively keeps the people they distrust at arm's length. ortega takes the “friends close and enemies closer” approach.#they both align on flirting with potential prospects (whether that be clients or targets) first thing and just seeing where it takes them#ortega's mind cannot be read and that's out of their hands (even if there are times they wish it could)#mortum's chooses to make their mind unreadable via numbers#it's up to sidestep to decide which one of these is worse for them#(also mortum's mind can't be read just at all for the majoroty of both books bcs of the puppet which again reflects step's experiences with-#-ortega. different bodies same experiences)#i'm losing my mind i'm going insane.i think#can anybody hear me. save me#ortega#dr mortum#mortumtega#fhr#pulp speaks#no wait i'm not done#mortum is the only one that can truly investigate ortega's mods without consequence#one of ortega's criteria for becoming a villain is somebody who can handle their mod upkeep#can you all please imagine tense yet strangely intimate mod maintenance between these two with me. crucially it has to be set while they're-#-still tense and distrustful of eachother and solely keeping it together for the sake of the team. but also this is the first time ortega's-#-mods have ever been inspected in a way that felt respectful (outside of techsteps‚ potentially). which they are normal about obvs#also also. something to be said about revealed/betrayed guilty ending where mortum doesn't bust you out vs Does bust you out
