#shadowire

[cypher05]

HAPPY YAOI DAY

[cleavetheclover]

Cyphmen fascinates me because theyre such a series of “almosts” that it drives me insane sometimes

Omen is almost whole. He’s an intact entity but he’s already shattered and still ripping at the seams. He is whole enough to force himself to be in one piece but broken enough that he can dissipate into a thousand pieces at will

Omen is almost dead. Has already suffered through hundreds of deaths and is yet still living somehow, in some perversion of the natural ebb and flow of life (that ironically, he often accuses Sage of disrupting)

Omen is dead and alive at the same time, in the literal sense.

Cypher is dead and alive at the same time, in the metaphorical sense.

Cypher is almost completely hidden. He’s scrubbed all records of his identity from every corner of the world, and yet he still is not safely anonymous enough to remove his mask in the Protocol. His footprints are gone from the world but Fade was still able to not only find his safehouses but also blackmail him with it and that stings like hell

Cypher is almost able to keep in touch with his family. He can track anyone on the damn planet, of course he can track his wife and child. But it is too risky, for whatever reason. He has lost the chance to share laughter and smiles with them and he might never get that chance back. He will die lonely, so close and yet impossibly far from the ones he says he loves

As for getting together, gods. Cypher and Omen would stand on the cusp of almost for eternity.

Cypher almost acknowledges his feelings for Omen. He wants to. He doesn’t want to. He’s married, but is estranged with the woman he’s married to. He loves her and refuses to disrespect their marriage, but that segment of his life has long been over. He can choose to move on, but letting go of his grief will feel like killing a part of himself. He somehow feels like he must choose between old love for Nora and new love for Omen, while simultaneously recognizing that such a perspective is juvenile and incorrect.

Omen almost acknowledges his feelings for Cypher. He wants to. He doesn’t want to.

Omen almost admits his feelings for Cypher. But why would he? He might not know who Cypher’s loved ones are or what exact relationship he has with them, but it is clear that Cypher is preoccupied with them. Cypher might dote on Omen and spend his spare time with him, but Omen is convinced that he will never be anything more than a close colleague and acquaintance. Omen tells himself it is benevolence to Cypher’s hidden plights that he keeps his distance, but in reality it is a vicious streak of self-loathing.

They are grown men. They are soldiers. They know how to communicate directly and clearly, but they won’t. They can’t. This is a workplace, and workplace romances are inappropriate at best and organization-breaking at worst.

They are so close to each other, almost at that tipping point, brushing up against it so tightly that it occasionally feels uncomfortable. And yet they can never keep their distance for too long

[montycheck]

@cleavetheclover

Ask and you shall receive

Original under cut

[viktormaru]

theyre smooching like kitties

[nikcov]

Please accept my humble offering to the Cyphmen tag

A quick drawing of Omen knitting turned into a little Cyphmen comic thingy :) Close up of the drawings for easier looking/reading under the cut

Thank you for reading :))

[crappwr0m]

Post mission bonus

[notaspectator]

idea: Omen copies people and tries to imitate people he likes. at first, it'd be hard to tell. but he's picked up on Viper's speech, and from time to time (...as funny as all the other agents find it) he'll repeat what brimstone has said to him. little speech things. but it becomes more obvious when it comes to behaviors. like, how if someone talks to him but does the "talking with hands" thing, he'll try to copy it. except he doesn't speak, because he doesn't understand the two things are connected. it becomes an uncanny imitation that reminds everyone else that Omen is not like them, and Omen cant understand what he's doing wrong. He's doing what he's seen others do, so why do they find it so strange when he does it? When people breath in a certain, noticable way, Omen pretends he's breathing the same way. It takes time for anyone to notice, but Omen does copy it and never understands why it unnerves the others. and say, when they're on a multiple day mission, he'll copy how people prepare to sleep. because he doesn't understand, and he just wants to pretend that he is like them, even if it means laying there for hours in silence because everyone sleeps, except for him, so that must mean that sleeping is a trait of living things. now, this also comes around a LOT with specific agents. like cypher. since Cypher y'know has a mask with eyes that pretend to blink, i like to imagine he also is very expressive with his body language to make up for the fact he has a mask. and Omen would copy the way Cypher likes to tilt his head, or the eccentric way Cypher waves his hands about. Cypher finds it interesting, and would often subtly do unique things such as a certain gesture or a walking to a certain pattern just so that he could see Omen imitate it later, either with him or elsewhere. The only time these little imitations seem *real* and *lifelike* is when Omen isn't trying to do them. Like how Omen will often imitate breathing just on his own, or the way he likes to keep a hand on the wall as he walks by because it is grounding and he likes to know where he is relative to the walls around him, or how he leans toward things he finds interesting so that he can focus better and hear them clearer. Omen doesn't realize that he is trying to put together a collage of everyone's unique traits in a desperate bid to make himself seem human- he doesn't realize that the little things HE does are what make him seem alive. that those little things are proof that he is not just going through the motions and making a fake personality from bits and pieces of everyone else, because he has his own thoughts, opinions, and little quirks that no one else shares. Omen really hasn't existed very long, has he? and yet, he's already killed countless people. from copies of friends, to copies of himself. how could that not fuck somebody up? he went through unimaginable pain, and cannot even hold himself together on a bad day (quite literally), and has looked himself dead in the eye and shot a replica of himself dead. When he has only known the VALORANT protocol- has only known Viper, who isn't known for her empathy- how could he have ever figured out what makes people human? where would he have managed to come up with the idea that his emotions are his own? where does that leave time to realize that he does not have to desperately copy people so that he can be SOMEONE? or really, so he can pretend that he is alive, in some compacity? and I love the idea that Cypher, who struggled with the same problems, sees Omen struggling and he helps him. Cypher is all too familiar with thinking he is not like the others, and has already grappled with the idea that something about him is wrong. and maybe he isn't quite over that idea, yet. maybe he's just pretending he is, but he'll TRY so that he can help Omen, because he just cant let Omen struggle with those thoughts alone. and Omen realizes, that even if he might not be human nor technically alive, that it is okay because Cypher loves him either way, and thats enough for Omen to want to keep going.

[gladioath]

i was taken over by the urge to draw some peekaboo so. that's what i did. i drew peekaboo.