top 5 spy codenames. you may choose to interpret this as spy codenames from pieces of media, or your own writing, or as your list of potential codenames were you to become a spy
okay but what if all of the above (got long so read more)
pieces of media:
0, The Quail from project mc2. i love that she picked THAT bird and also honestly birds are excellent theming for codenames
1, magpie from city spies. i know she didn't *choose* it but the reasoning is excellent and it's our first hint at C's personality.
2, Bookworm, Princess, and Chameleon from the gallagher girls books. these are codenames in the best way, clearly assigned after ribbing each other (we see that when Liz and Cammie threaten to change Bex to Duchess at one point), and also they're accurate
3, mother (also city spies). he chose it because his mom was his hero!!! we love him for this.
4, 007. shout out to ian fleming for picking a string of numbers with excellent mouthfeel.
notably NOT on this list is "project neverland" and "Peter pan," "Tinkerbell," and the "Lost Boys." calling them Project City Spies was a much better move and thank you brooklyn for pointing it out in universe.
from my own writing:
0, preservation. sorry but this will always always always be top of my list. preservation, hope, patience, future, loyalty, and tradition. the mirrorverse codenames are fun for me to reveal what's important to people (you meet everyone but future in the first mirrorverse story. future is [redacted] but i'm still proud of sitting on that one for a year and a half before i said anything)
1... okay so nobody's ever seen this part. but one of the universes fully formed in my head has at its center seven people who are recently retired from doing basically troubleshooting (in the paranoia sense, aka "shoot the trouble until it stops being trouble") and their codenames for use in the field are all related to their actual names in a fun wordplay way. Ampara (nicknamed Ara) uses the codename Altar, Daffodil uses the codename Flower, Star uses the codename Sunlight, Zenith uses the codename Mountain, Relic uses the codename Artifact, Lyric uses the codename Songbird, and Utterance uses xer own name as a codename
2, in my main superhero au (not the miraculous ladybug crossover) ratthi, who has no powers, got tagged with the codename Deadweight. i think this is hilarious.
3, in the murderbot spy au i picked up again none of them use codenames the same way (in my head they do if there's a chance of intercepted comms, but it's like colors of the rainbow randomly assigned) but amena secretly wishes her parents were more like media spies because then she could go by a cool codename. i think she'd want to go by something cool like "mimic"
4, this is @specialagentartemis 's fault. but there's a mirrorverse character named Consistent Data Entry Standards. it was a meta joke and i think in universe they made a joke and then ran with it and it accidentally stuck.
for me:
0, [redacted] (nickname for my real name, translated out of older spanish)
1, black swan, or just swan. because i have a thing for odile from swan lake okay
2, fandango, also because of a ballet thing (kitri my beloved)
3, operetta. partially bc of the monster high character partially because it's a good word partially because i don't think i can get away with calling myself iolanthe
4, automaton (because coppelia and nutcracker and and and)
graph of how much the children’s spy/superhero media is canonically depicting child soldiers on one axis and whether that’s actually mentioned in the media itself on the other axis (fan interpretation as a completely different graph)
the quadrants are defined by super why (not at all mentioned nor particularly depicted), pj masks (not mentioned but pretty obvious in the show itself that they’re thinking about heroing all the time and doing it every single night and it affects their lives as “normal” six year olds), and miraculous ladybug (gets more apparent by s4-5 that they’re losing their childhoods to this, mari talks to alya about it), and I can’t actually think of “mentioned but not depicted” where it isn’t intentional subversion somehow
@qntmd asked: ❝ wait, wait, wait. something about this feels kinda hinky. ❞
“ THAT’S A NEW ONE, ” HE’S LUCKY THAT SHE GETS THE GIST, STILL A STRANGE term to choose to describe a feeling. could’ve used a better idea but hey, no one’s perfect. there’s an off-putting vibe that gives away an activity. she doesn’t pounce on it, more so let her mind ponder on it, “ if you had to guess, where on earth our little device would be -- what would be your guess, lang? ” it’s a simple task: a toss and retrieve. an important piece to his work, surely. perhaps, to SHIELD’s too but she doesn’t question where it really goes. it’s not really her business to dabble in. however, it’s no secret that she’s quick on her feet in terms of hunting.
In some ways, it was still achingly familiar, reminding her of the city she’d seen as a child, her hand tucked neatly into her father’s as he led her down the cobbled streets. She’d been six or eight, far too young to realize that anything untoward might ever happen to such a place. Now, decades later, she was a grown woman who knew better.
Much had changed in the decades since she’d been here with Sam Auroran, Earl of Ware. The city looked much the same on the surface, but she knew the truth of it—it was a mask, like the ones she wore to hide her true face. Boralus underneath festered, pus-filled wounds only occasionally glimpsed from the surface, the corruption hidden beneath a thin veneer, like skin hiding infection beneath.
This visit would be brief, but it would only be a matter of time before they become longer—her gut screamed as much. Someone would decide at some point that she didn’t need to keep an eye on things in the Eastern Kingdoms anymore, that her talents were better used here, in Kul Tiras. Perhaps they would be right.
She didn’t think they would be.
For now, though, she was here, and there was work to do before she returned home.
There was always work to do.
Gathering her dark cloak around her, she vanished down an alleyway, only two steps echoing before the sound, too, vanished completely.
What position does your character sleep in? ( i.e; stomach, side, back, etc. ) Describe why they do this — optional.
It’s very rare to see Spy sleeping, the man is not known for sleeping. But if you do have the rare occurrence of seeing Spy sleep, he can literally sleep in any position, since the man is very flexible his body can contort and twist in ways that it really shouldn’t. It looks awkward.
Have they ever been so overwhelmed they had to stop and take a break from something?
Maybe during his training. When he was young. But he no longer hesitates with anything that happens around him
If your character was allowed to murder one person without any consequences, who would that person be and why?
The Administrator. It is his job to get close to her and kill her after all
Your character has been granted 3 wishes; what would they wish for and why?
