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Halo (2022-2024)
Aislynn's Jumble of Random Thinky Thoughts on Halo s2 ep4 "Reach"
SPOILERS, but of course
Cpt Admiral Keyes went out like a total badass. I really do hate to lose him but I'm glad he got a better send-off than he did in the game (Halo: Combat Evolved). Seeing him with a pipe was an awesome little callback to the game, IMO. (Though smoking is bad; don't smoke, kids! 👎😬😉)
The fact that The Powers That Be took Silver Team's Mjolnir with them as they ran like cowards evacuated but abandoned actual Silver Team is the most realistic bureaucratic part of the episode. 🙄
I suspected Louis wasn't going to survive but him losing Danilo and then choosing to make that stand immediately after was both heartbreaking but bittersweet: he couldn't live without his beloved and his sacrifice gave John and Riz a chance to escape but also ensured that he didn't have to live long without his beloved. 💔
My Halo vehicle fangirling was cranked up to 117% 😇 here, with me pausing the show to yell, "WRAITH, IT'S A WRAITH! I love hijacking those things!!!" and then "SCORPION! A SCORPION TANK! Aw, man, I do BUSINESS when I have a Scorpion!" *wistful, lovestruck sigh* 💖 Please imagine my dad's 🤔⁉️ face during all of that, lol! 😇
John, my beloved, and Scorpion tank, my beloved... 😍🤷♀️😇😉
I was legit upset that Kai was gone the entire ep, not just 'cause I wanted to see her, of course, but because it seems an awful lot like she abandoned her team and that just doesn't seem like her at all. I know last ep she was very torn and upset about John and not really believing what he was saying, but also not wanting to narc him out, either. When she finds out what happened to Vannak, I think she'll blame herself for not being there and, honestly? I think she should. (Same as she should feel bad about not believing John, evidence to the contrary.) Not saying she could've prevented any of the bad stuff, of course, but she wasn't there when Silver Team desperately needed her and if they don't have her feel guilt over that, then that's really going to be OOC for her, IMO. 😔
And then of course, the "two" of the "one-two punch" from this ep... Vannak, nooooooooo! I was completely not expecting to lose him here but I really should have, considering we're straight up doing a version of Reach's game storyline and, as we all know, Noble Team didn't make it out of the game alive (other than Jun).
And yet still... Vannak! Not when he's just learned to love animal documentaries and feeding the birds! The big guy had so much more living to do!!! 😭😭😭 I'm going to really miss him and I'm going to completely ignore his death in any fanfic I ever again write, I'm just saying. 🤷♀️😉
Are we feeling like Soren will be getting a place on Silver Team, at least temporarily?
Okay, so I was a little surprised but in a good way over how hard everything about Keyes hit Halsey. She was genuinely kinda tongue-tied at seeing him, then her absolutely screaming at his death and her sobbing... I wasn't expecting that sort of reaction. She really did love him and I wouldn't have thought that before this episode.
I feel vaguely like John's ex just kidnapped his current girlfriend, lol. Also, I keep staring at Makee, thinking, "Is her hair a different blonde? Is she dying her eyebrows or something?" more than anything else so I really need to get over that, lol! Annnnnd I could kinda ship her with her Arbiter but nobody should be surprised at that 'cause I can ship a character with a mop that has a wig and googly eyes on it if the chemistry feels right to me...
I could also see not-Thel!Arbiter as being a suuuuper jealous boyfriend trying to prove he's better than Makee's ex... *shipper glasses, I has 'em at all times!* 😜😉
Since Makee didn't let her Arbiter (whose name is escaping me at the moment) go ahead and kill John, one wonders if it was because she does still have feelings for him or if she just needs him for some later nefarious purpose. And why does she need Cortana? I'm still wondering if we're going to get some sort of "evil" Cortana ala Halo 5 since her new look reminds me a lot more of her Halo 5 look.
This is a still, not GIF, from Halo s2 Cortana's new look, so you don't wonder why it's not moving. 😉
Halo 5 "evil" Cortana.
And you can see s1 Cortana in the GIF right above all of this.
Annnnd my favorite version of Cortana...
Halo 4 Cortana, whom I imprinted on as my very first Cortana, so this is her definitive look to me, what can I say? 🤷♀️😉
And bringing things back to the episode once more, I also had a game fangirling moment when John yelled, "Frag out!" as he lobbed the grenade. My dad soon learned that the marines tend to yell that as they're lobbing frag grenades in the various games, too! 😎
Ooo, and almost forgot John's absolute panic eyes when Keyes called him forward during his inspirational speech, lol. Poor Chief, d'aww! But that was a really great moment to show people that Master Chief isn't a robot, he's a flesh and blood person, and I think that was used to great effect in this moment. 💖
In summary, this episode had me
💖
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
The Truth and Reconciliation, pt 2! A couple weeks late BUT not because it wasn't written, just because brain is brain and is uncooperative. But a month to go to season 2 release has Inspired Me and I plan to try and get as much writing for this/other fics done as I can before the season drops.
enjoy the chapter!
taglist: @ageless-aislynn @authortobenamedlater @mrtobenamedlater
"Quinn." "Yes, Aurora," she asked the AI. An image of a cyan woman appeared in her HUD, dressed in a glowing pulsating knee length dress. "There are signs of Banished in the area, we are currently being tracked." The Spartan sighed at the words, and reached for her sniper rifle. "I hate Brutes."
Sorry, this took so long, depression is a real bitch. But’s discuss the POVs and my reactions to them from Halo Season 1 - Episode 5 “Reckoning”
---
Cold Open: Years ago, on Eridanus the Monster Haley visits the Reach for Life project. And we can see her zoning in on John as special. We can already see the almost stepford-like glance she gives her husband. Yup, he knows she's gonna be stealing kids! Dr. Keyes: We switch to Keyes, her father has taken command over the Eridanus defense. Kai and Keyes appear on friendlier base as she exits. Again getting ignored by momma, because neglect is still abuse. Keyes is gushing over the new discovery, and finds out she's off the project. But, she's obviously, figures out her dad has a big stake with Halsey. You can see her thinking as well as dealing with her emotions. Haley: Sing with me, HALEY IS A MONSTER BITCH! This entire thing, just keeps getting better and better. Looks like Adun, her assistant, is a out to get everyone killed because they didn't think to do further research on the fucking material. John-117 Master Chief is back to his stoic HELMET wearing self. (Seriously, people we don't need to see his face). John having seeing trauma and worse from his past, is quiet. Cortana seems to be unable to reach him, and he's actively disassembling in front of Haley. Chief reunites with Kai, and she gives her the reality of her new feelings. He grounds her, and she questions it, and Cortana pushes Chief since he's being a moody helmetless asshole. John confronts Captain Keyes about Haley, and you can see it in his eyes. He's haunted, maybe John will pick up on it. God, I hope he does. John should kick Adun right now, but he's too busy staring at the larger part of the keystone. Our boy knows he's been fucked with, and he goes to the machine to learn even further. He jumps at Halsey, which she fucking deserves, and is then shut down Data style by Cortana. Ha Kwan: Rebel Girl is off in the middle of the desert on Madrigal, only alive from our assassin because Soren is a total bad ass. I think she's starting to realize, hopefully, that she's not as combat capable. And, yup, she's left behind because now she owes Soren. Seriously girl, you need to learn proper combat training and how to actually deliver. Kwan, girl, you seriously are living in a fantasy world. Sigh, like, I get it that she's almost dead, and her family was killed before her. But, again, I said she's delusional. Kwan, just doesn't grasp the level of consequence, and how life can just smack you. Hopefully, she learns something, she needs to get it through her head, that you have to make retreats to make gains in the future. And she runs' off, never mind. Soren returns, and there's no Kwan, the man is outright irritated. HOpefully he can track Rebel Princess, and doesn't kill her. At least, she's wait, nope she is. Holy shit, she got the drop on a Spartan. Now if only she could use that fucking knowledge, and stop getting OTHER people killed. This fith was fucking amazing, and honestly, WE can see why they gave the Spartan's their pellets. Kai-125: Silver Team is prepping for the upcoming defense and further exploration of the ruins. Kai asks questions and receives a pretty blunt military level rebuke from Vannak. I do like how our girl is questioning the military indoctrination she's been put under. Kai is a little unhinged, she's questioning shit, and while I disagree with Chief punishing her, I am curious if this will provided another Kaiyes moment! Makee: The blessed one appears back on madrigal, and is leading her Elite cadre to search for what the UNSC already knows. The Elite seems to question her, but is far more respectful than one might think. Ah, time for more infiltration, and hopefully Chief doesn't fall for it. Conclusion:
WE finally got some action! I get, we were sepnding time setting it all up, but finally seing Jackals and Grunts in action! I have some more ideas for a Kaiyes, scene, and wow, if you haven’t read it, check out my Drabbles on my second favorite Halo OTP here!
WIP Tag Game
I was tagged by the ever-effervescent @authortobenamedlater Thanks so much for the tag and sorry it took me a hot minute to get here!
Rules: You will be given a word. Share a snippet from a WIP for [that contains every letter in] that word, then tag some friends and give them a new word.
My word: LOCKED
(Okay, so I decided to let this one be wordy despite the fact I was technically done in three words 😳 since it's probably never actually going to be finished. 🤷♀️😉)
You quickly slotted four muffins into a holder, then into your fanciest bag with your shop name and logo, and hurried to the door. You got there just in time for him to be passing the shop next door. His tread was so heavy you could feel it in the ground.
His orange-tinted visor inclined your way and you blurted out, "Spartan? Would you like a muffin?"
He took an extra step, then stopped. "Ma'am?"
His voice was deep, even allowing for the modulation of his helmet. For some reason, that made you briefly tongue-tied.
"A muffin," you finally repeated, holding up the bag in a hopefully enticing way.
His helmet tilted. "How much?"
"Free for Silver Team as my small way of saying thanks for all you do for us," you said.
His helmet tilted the other way and you wondered briefly if he was scanning the bag for incendiary devices or some other such threat. You hadn't thought about how suspicious a free muffin might appear.
While you were trying to think of something to say that wouldn't sound even more suspicious, he held out his hand.
"All right," he said and as you placed the bag onto the palm of his gauntlet, you were struck by just how small it looked in comparison. You'd given him four of your best oversized muffins, thinking one for each Spartan in his team would be adequate, and there the bag sat in his careful grip looking like he was taking them to a doll's tea party.
(Untitled Vannak x Reader fic, Halo the series)
Tagged: Um, I'm having trouble remembering who has WIPs they've talked about but hasn't been tagged in this already soooooo, if you'd like to do this, please consider this a tag from me and your word is FLUFFY
As mentioned in my last post, welcome to Aislynn's 1 Word For Each WIP November Extravaganza! (It was too long to fit all of that in the banner, so hence the number 4 coming in clutch, lol!)
Here's what I'm GOING TO write at least one word for in the month of November:
Halo the series
"15 Minutes" - (John/Female Reader) Chapter 12 is in progress and will get progressiver (word of the day) by at least 1 more word! *nodnods*
"Recreation" - (Kai/Male Reader) The final chapter will be slotting in between its sibling fic's *points up at "15M"* second to last and final chapter. I have notes on chapter 5 but no draft started... yet.
"Untitled Fluffy Vannak fic" - (Vannak/Female Reader) Just a one-shot that I wanted to do for the big guy, something sweet and fun because he got VERY LITTLE of either in season 2. 😭The draft is already in progress.
I also would like to write a Reader fic for Riz since the entire rest of Silver Team is getting something 👀but have nothing on tap just yet.🤞😣🤞 One day, I hope, but I'm not counting this as part of my WIPs to be finished in November... unless I should get a heck of a lot of work done on everything else. 😉
Halo: Reach
"Choices: A Choose Your Own Spartan Adventure" - (Noble Team/Female Reader) One of the most personally ambitious things I've attempted in a while, the first chapter that sets up the adventure is almost done. Next to go are each of the chapters where you choose which Noble Team member you'll continue the adventure with. I have the plot for all of them but only Emile's has something written. We'll also be getting a separate chapters for female and male Noble Six, since we're all about, you know, choosing who you want to adventure with and Six can be either in the game. 😎👍
The Flash
"The Price" (NSFW) - (Caitlin Frost/Hunter Zolomon) I've known what's going to happen in chapter 2 for a quite a while now. Just got to write it... one word at a time, right?
"Guardian Angel" - (Time Wraith!Caitlin Snow/Eobard Thawne) About 1/3 of chapter 3 has been done for, umm, years now. Just need to push it on through a little bit more! I'm not sure how many chapters in all it will be, at least this one and a 4th but that may be enough to finish it. We'll see!
"Split" - (Caitlin Snow/Eobard Thawne) The third and final fic in the Ghost of Eobard Thawne series turned out, to my surprise, to have 3 very ragged first drafts and part of a 4th chapter just hanging out in my Word docs after all of these years. I still have my *surprised Pikachu face* on for this one, what can I say? 🤷♀️😂
"Try" (NSFW) - (TomCav!Eobard Thawne/Caitlin Snow/Mattobard!Eobard Thawne) Oh yeah, I went there. After all of the versions of them that I've written, the only really surprising thing is that I didn't do this a lot sooner, lol! This one has 3 chapters of almost 8k words done that nobody has ever read. It's weirdly one of the few times I did world-building, too. It's projected to be pretty big, 20-25 chapters, so maybe 50k words? 😱 It's a really big undertaking for something that's honestly just for me but... I'd really like to be able to read the entire thing one day, lol! And there's only one way to do that: I've got to write it, one word at a time. 🤷♀️😉
I may have totally forgotten something but this was all that showed up in my WIPs folder. Of course, that folder was imperfectly copied from my previous computer and I had to go looking for several of these, so who knows. If I missed something, feel free to let me know.
So wish me luck, frens! This is a challenge I KNOW I can do and I'm so excited about it! 🥳🎉🎊💖
All of my masterlists are here.
Angst! 16
Fluff! 13
Misc.! 16
And… for characters I’m going to throw out Kai, Alenko, and Soap. Do whatever pairings or friendships you’d like. Also I’m not gonna die if you choose not to use those characters. Or prompts. I dunno, I just wanna read your stuff man.
*glee* Thank you SO much for sending some prompts my way! These are all pretty short but mark my first time writing 2 of the 3 characters, so I'm just carefully dipping a toe in the COD and ME pools, lol!
Thanks so much again! 😎👍
Angst 16. “Are you hurt?” “No.” “Then why are there bruises all over your face?”
Sergeant John "Soap" MacTavish & Lieutenant Simon "Ghost" Riley, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
"Are you hurt?"
"No."
"Then why are there bruises all over your face?"
"You ought to see the other guy, Lt," Soap said with an unrepentant grin, unmarred by the fact his left eye was nearly swollen shut and he had a prominent cut on his lower lip.
Ghost sighed slightly behind his skull balaclava. "Sure I'll recognize him by all the bruises on his knuckles," he said dryly.
Fluff 13. Are you flirting with me?” “You finally noticed?”
Kaidan Alenko/Commander Shepard, Mass Effect (reader's choice as to whether it's male or female Shep 😉)
"Are you flirting with me?"
"You finally noticed?"
Kaidan squinted, several Commander Shepards swimming in front of him in the dim bar lighting, all wearing fondly amused expressions.
"You are flirting with me!" he stated as if having uncovered a core secret of the universe.
Shepard's smile broadened. "Think it's time to take you home and tuck you into bed."
"I'm going home with Cmdr. Shepard," he proclaimed loudly to the crowd around them. Several people raised a glass in good-natured salutes.
"Yeah, they know." Shepard got an arm around him, sliding him off the bar stool and onto his feet. "Most of them were at our wedding, after all."
Misc 16. “YOU SAID TO BE HONEST STOP HITTING ME!”
Kai-125 & Vannak-134, Halo the series
"YOU SAID TO BE HONEST, STOP HITTING ME!"
John heard Kai's shout from the hallway outside of the Spartan quarters and shoved the door open to see—
He blinked. For a solid moment, he wasn't quite sure what he was seeing, actually. Kai vaulted over her own bed, being pursued hotly by Vannak.
"That wasn't honest," he said grimly. "You're just being mean."
"Look, it's not my fault that that penguin documentary was kinda lame and—"
"IT WAS NOT!" Vannak bellowed back and took a swing at her that would've definitely put a marine in the infirmary for a month, if not in the ground, permanently. For Kai, it would've at the very least mussed her hair. "Those penguins are adorable and—"
"Lame. Laaaaaame," she singsonged, ducking a flurry of punches, then doing a very impressive parkour run up the wall into a backflip that sent her soaring over the enraged Spartan's head.
"THEY'RE NOT LAME, YOU TAKE THAT BACK!"
John looked over at Riz, who was calmly sitting at a nearby table, reading something on her padd. She met his gaze, shrugged, and then went back to reading.
They crisscrossed the room rapidly, with Vannak coming close to getting his hands on her but, ultimately, Kai would manage to slip away at the last second. The entire time, she continued to issue penguin insults that, for some reason, the other Spartan took extremely personally.
John opened his mouth, about to say… something. Then he gave a slight shake of his head.
"I have paperwork to do," he announced to no one. "Don't I, Cortana?"
"I can find you some, Chief."
"That would be great," he said and just turned around and walked away.
Sentence Starters
