Turn Around

His ego wouldn’t let him, but then I think a small part of Flux never wanted to die either. No. Even when he lost everything except for Thomas (God, what will Thomas do without him now), Flux refused to simply die, so he kept moving even with the unbearable amount of pain in his body.

Their battle ends not with Saps victoriously holding Flux in his hold, a sword to his chest, but with Saps and Flux on different sides of the colosseum—silently staring at one another. Saps looked awful, Flux worse.

Regaining what was left of his strength back, Saps ran forward, blade drawn and ready to once again start the duel. But Flux didn’t move—well, he did, but not in the way Saps expect. Flux didn’t start charging back with those angry violet eyes, not did he prepare to block and dodge; all Flux did was let his shoulders sag, sword dropped to the ground with a loud clang, and fall on his knees.

Thousands of questions appeared in Saps head, but one look at the unmoving body clear it all. Flux was dead, it was the only answer that could explain his silence, because Saps knew Flux would fight until his body dropped. He was sure he heard another pair of weapon being dropped to the ground and the sound of someone weeping, but Saps couldn’t care less about it at the moment. He did care about the motionless kneeling body however.

Approaching Flux, now lifeless, Saps could finally see the amount of damage he had done. His friend’s usual pristine and clean uniform is now bathed in his own blood, lips chapped and pale, eyes devoid of any hint of emotion. It was a tragic look.

So Saps gently cradled Flux’s body into his arm, laying him down on the Colosseum floor, and closes the latter’s eyes. There was no roar of applause nor was there a heroic standoff that ended with Saps holding a bloodied sword through Flux’s chest. Just pure silence, a heavy heart, and a weep coming from the spectator.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/85457311#main

“Wait for it” but its Flux waiting for the day he could show island 2 that all his paranoia and doings are correct, and that his betrayal of Saps is justified

“Wait for me” but its Schpood running towards Westhelm like his life depends on it to follow 5pyder, despite knowing that his second in command is dead

Tag yourself or something

// canon-compliant but might come off as ooc to some

Thomcat has a very interesting dynamic to me because it puts a lot of weight and dilemma into Augustus’ character. For me, their dynamic revolves around Augustus’ obsession with “good” people and Thomas’ inability to live up to that expectation.

When it comes to a post-apocalyptic world where one mistake could cost you your own life, it’s very clear that Augustus is rightfully skeptical of others. He approaches them with snark and almost boredom, avoiding any contact he deems as too much. Even the first interaction Thomcat had with one another ended in a sour note, with Thomas’ insensitive questions and Augustus thinking that Thomas is a sheltered rich prick. But things had changed the moment they first had their one on one talk, resulting in Augustus being mildly attached to the other.

It’s very much canon from their last argument (and interaction) that Augustus sees Thomas as a reflection of his past, someone who was untouched by the bad things in this world; he’s not insensitive, just naive. That attachment, as what is shown throughout the series, soon developed into almost an obsession from Augustus’ side.

So what made Augustus so angry by the fact that Thomas had siphoned the bus? While he does have a softer spot for a few other people, the center of his attention has always been Thomas; so the fact that Augustus had abandoned him right after and never returned was very shocking to me personally. Mind you, Augustus was ready to kill and die for him. He was ready to leave Paradise, his “home”, behind with everyone in it as long as Thomas would go with him.

Most of this confusion also came from the fact that Augustus is far from a pinnacle of truth, justice, or any moral high ground. He accepted the fact that there are bad people in this world, and that sometimes even he himself needs to let go of morality to survive. Compared to other characters in the city, Thomas’ “sin” is so much lighter considering the bus was destined to stop one way or another; his mistake never came from pure malice either, just naivety that went too far.

And so, I had interpreted this as Augustus’ own expectation and believes crumbling down. I truly think that Augustus’ obsession with Thomas is based on the fact that he desperately is trying to believe there are good people in this world. He believes that Thomas himself is the embodiment of good and hope, that perhaps this world isn’t a lost cause. Augustus unconsciously had placed Thomas in this high pedestal that is almost impossible to reach, because he needed Thomas to be good. He wants Thomas to be the good person he can give his whole life for, almost like a confession and a retribution. He had past sins that he cannot forgive himself for, he has mistakes that he can’t apologize for, and so through Thomas perhaps Augustus can repent.

It is why when Thomas had confessed the truth to both Flux and Augustus, it obviously had affected Augustus more than the former. Flux doesn’t care about Thomas’ doings because at the end of the day, Thomas’ morality means nothing to him. Thomas could’ve blown the bus up himself and Flux wouldn’t care a single bit; but for Augustus? That singular lie was everything. Because it singlehandedly destroyed his one way of repenting. It destroyed Augustus because Thomas’ one action practically threw away his beliefs.

With this in mind, I’d like to this Augustus’ anger was never fully directed at Thomas, but also himself. Because Augustus lets himself hope, he made expectations for Thomas to the point of obsession, and then it all came crashing down. We can also note down that Augustus’ self-worth is constantly at an all time low, and that he had placed Thomas as one of his priorities in life—to protect the person who truly deserves to live on and go back home.

It’s a purely selfish reason, he wants Thomas to be his savior in a way (ironically enough, Thomas had done everything for almost the same reason; to be a protagonist or a “hero”). His frustration didn’t come from Thomas endangering others, but from the fact that he was dumb enough to think there’s someone “good” enough, to think he could repent, to think that he could be forgiven.

(This is mostly fueled by the fact that I think it would be neat to have Thomas and Augustus as two sides of the same coin when it comes to their selfishness—the one thing they never wanted to admit.

Do I think this makes them a bad person? Not at all, because selfishness is fundamentally a human nature at the end of the day. Thomcat’s storyline, in my opinion, comes back to the fact that they had certain expectations they wanted to reach, only to realize its almost unachievable unless they had to let go of something.

I’m very happy by the fact that the remaining Hostel Group is able to survive and live out their peaceful lives, but I think I do feel a little disappointed by how everything in the finale went down, so this is just some of my reasoning for it;

(Also please remember that these are all my opinions and that I still think DaD and the Hostel Quartet had a wonderful storyline throughout the 10 sessions)

Stella and Lyra’s storyline felt oddly rushed, because I genuinely do feel like it could be developed a lot more. I thought that Lyra (Saps and Mike too I’m gonna be honest) would be the puzzle piece that could tie the hostel to Spidey Jonathan and Wifies storyline together, in a way that everyone will be connected one way or another. However, I understand that there are time limits; pushing all these stories into just one single finale would make everything too overwhelming for both the ccs and viewers

Flux’s reunion is also slightly rushed and underdeveloped in my opinion, but I just can’t put my finger on it at the moment. Perhaps another post

Thomas didn’t quite get the karma everyone was praying for him to get. His karma and loss is all fundamentally an emotional scar (aside from Magic, who well, died). It further pushes him to believe that coming clean to Augustus was a mistake and that he will be bringing all his lies to the grave. I don’t know if there’s another word to describe it, but he went through a “regressive” character development when everyone else had a positive one

I don’t think they let Magic’s death marinate enough in their interactions, though this is 100% a subjective opinion

When it comes to the Hostel Group and the people affiliated with them, the endings are very open-ended and “up to interpretation”, which as a viewer can make it feel much more underwhelming compared to fixed endings. However, that part about open endings does give the fandom many creative liberties when it comes to how the hostel group deals with their secrets and traumas in the future.

The first conversation that was exchanged between Thomas and Augustus years after their goodbyes in Paradise wouldn’t quite come from a place of bitterness, but a disappointed acceptance.

“Are you still upset?”

“Are you still a liar?”

I need to gather my thoughts better for decayed’s finale, but overall despite it’s flaws, I’m quite satisfied with how the hostel group’s ending was.

Magic dying was a given. I knew she’d be dead the moment session 9 ended, but her dying at the hands of Stella is something i didn’t expect considering I thought Thomas would be the one to do it. With cc!Thomas’ take on his own character, it does make more sense; it’s back to the fact that Thomas is a bark barely bite character, he will never shoot Magic because of his own hesitance and the fact that Stella from time and time again had stopped him so. Anyways, we all know that there was no saving Magic at that point.

Flux return is a 50/50, I can’t say I’m surprised. I’m a bit conflicted however with how it all went down, especially since it’s very open ended whether or not he stayed with Stella and Thomas. Take this with a gran of salt considering that I haven’t watched his finale pov.

I had to stop myself from physically cheering when Stella survives, because to me she is in fact #lastgirl lol. Her and Thomas surviving together, living peacefully in the farm after everything is almost like a reward to both the characters and viewers. It brings me so much joy to know that Stella is following along Saps’ journey, because that would mean Dr. Saps’ story was never in vain.

(Thomas and Stella have this habit of having doomed convo every 5 seconds so I genuinely thought one of them was gonna get slimed)

This session further demonstrates that session 8 truly was Thomas’ lowest and worst state, not that it was ever a secret, but session 9 had truly showed the explicit devastating consequences of his actions; or lack of thereof to be exact.

Thomas thrives around other people, he needs to be around them or else he would spiral. Though something ironic about his need for company is that Thomas arguably is morally worse around them. When alone, he’s forced to reflect on his guilt and mistakes, a slow acceptance of how he did in fact have a hand in innocents people’s suffering. But once he’s physically around them, that need for comfort and company overran his morality and guilt, causing him to constantly lie to make sure they’d stay even at the expense of people he loved.

But that’s not the point I wanted to make. The point is that Flux is gone, and Thomas is just all bark. Rumors will be rumors, conversations will stay as conversations, and Flux is already miles away from Paradise by now. These petty lies Thomas is spilling out can’t touch him, and perhaps Thomas knows that.

While Thomas doesn’t seem to hold any sort of regret over his words in session—quite the opposite actually, he seems just as willing to lie in Flux’s name like before—we still could see that he held the Hostel dear in his heart. He drags Flux’s name through the mud purely because he’s frustrated and hurt. He kept calling to Stella every time something potentially dangerous happened because he’s desperate to keep her alive and by his side. He’s constantly wary of Magic but never once did he try to leave her.

Thomas loves the Hostel, that is a well known fact, but this love he has for them had in return result with a life being lost. It resulted in the death of the one person who had a chance to cure the infection.

He has constantly shown himself as a bark and no bite character not necessarily out of cowardice, but out of love. Time and time again Thomas has his gun pointed at Magic’s head, and time and time again he had lowered it, admitting that he couldn’t pull the trigger even when he wants to. So when it truly had counted, his love had practically doomed the world.

When Magic began to lose her own humanity and started to attack Saps, Thomas had every right to put a bullet through her head. But all he did was question himself, fingers hovered over the trigger yet unmoved, and worst of all; he lowered the gun. He lowered the gun and he urged Stella to run, not even caring that Saps was left behind to die.