#ankka

Someone who viewed the world as a failed experiment, and saw what we were doing as a stopgap. Felt the world needed reset, remade completely, instead of saving. Killed herself over and over and over again in fractals to gain the power she needed.

Jaded, empty, angry. Fucked up by Zhaitan's death magic. By destroying herself over and over. Imagine what she could've been if she was allowed to grow as an antagonist.

She's diametrically opposed to the commander in every way. The perfect foil, in a lot of ways. But she wasn't allowed to become that.

So, the fight pretty much follows canon to a t for the first 3/4ths, aside from the fact that widget is there too. it really changes the second to last time Ankka tries to run, spite growls, having enough and flies into her path and summons some bone walls to block Ankka in.

"Enough, Ankka. For someone who wants to wait for death to take them, you are running from it an awful lot." Ankka laughs, clutching her ever-growing wounds. "Y'got me, "Commander... just wanted to make it a little fun, one last time, Y'know? So do it. The ends inevitable anyways. I don't need to see it to know what'll happen."

Spite ponders for a second, before bringing Heartrender above her head, and down onto Ankka head. Widget lets out a heartbreaking scream, unimpaired to see her once dear friend decapitated in front of her, however there was nothing. No blood, no gore, no death.

Spite looks up at Widget, a little sheepish, "Uh, probably should have explained I was knocking her out, I guess, but I didn't want to give her a chance to escape." The twelve foot charr reaches down and picks up the limp Ankka like she was nothing. "Here, Widget, make sure she doesn't die. I want Ankka to see that she was wrong about the end being unstoppable. And then she's going to help fix everything she destroyed." Widget gently cradles Ankka's knocked out body, "Thank you Spite... I- You heard what Mai said, her time in the mists changed her... and her messing with all of these magics couldn't have been good for her... I just... I can't give up on her." Widget looks up at Gorrik, tears and remorse in her eyes. "I'm sorry Gorrik, I know you wanted revenge on her-" "No, this... I thought I feel angry that she survived... or relieved that Ankka isn't out there anymore... But I thought when justice was- when it was done, I'd feel better, but.."

Spite kneels down and places a gentle paw on Gorrik's shoulder, "I know. When it's someone you know who hurt you? There's no closure, not. Not until you decide it's time to move on... Which is probably the hardest part." As Spite and Gorrik talk, Rama help Widget hook up Ankka to W.A.F.F.L.E.S.'s life support.

"I'm sorry Ankka, If would have stayed in touch... maybe..maybe this wouldn't have happened.."

and then her ears ring as the extractor self destructs.

Oh, of course Ankka, Widget sighs

After EoD, but before next story beat, Ankka is in jail, even though she is refusing to work with Taimi, Widget, and Joon to find another power source, and refusing to say anything to the therapist working with her as a part of her sentience, she does accept Widget's company.

Rating: PG Genre: Analysis (Class, Lore, Characters) Characters: Gorrik, Ankka, Blish Words: ~ 1,500 Summary: Gorrik looks into Necromancy 101. Timeline: Pre-Golem Blish.

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like, okay, for eod you needed him to have a relationship to ankka and you needed ankka to have connections to the aetherblades, so you threw them both in thaumanova, fine

except. thaumanova. which blew up in 1324.

and no, we don't have a canon age for gorrik. but we know taimi's age, that she was friends with blish, and that blish is older than gorrik

now. taimi didn't know that the brothers had joined the inquest. which means either they'd kept it a secret from her, or more likely, it happened after they lost touch

taimi was born in 1313, meaning that the absolute oldest she could have been when she last saw them, is ten

now sure, taimi skipped a couple years, she's a prodigy even among asura - but age really matters when you're in single digits. for blish to be a friend, rather than a mentor, he can't be much older than maybe four years above her? i'd put that as the reasonable upper limit, they could be closer

(i'd also honestly guess that gorrik is a bit younger than taimi, given a) how much he looks up to blish, and b) that taimi prior to s4 only thought of him as blish's weird little brother, they weren't friends. and again, at that young, age matters - if you're 7, your friend is 10, and his little brother is 8 or 9, your first connection to him is probably not "oh, the little brother", because he's not little to you)

but assuming im wrong on all of that, just going back to our facts, that puts gorrik at the most about 2-3 years older than taimi

which means that the age we're looking at, for joining the inquest, thaumanova, all the stuff with ankka... he was somewhere between 9 and 13. could be even younger but im giving him the benefit of the doubt

gorrik says he never thought about ankka romantically and i believe him, but if there was ever anything there from her side, it was definitely a kiddie's first crush kinda thing, like oh we are a boy and a girl who are best friends clearly this is what romance means

because both of them were so fucking young

god knows spending her teenage years in the aetherblades was not great for ankka's everything, and by the time we find gorrik and blish in bug in the system, they've been working for the inquest for at least 8 years

that's almost half his life, at that point. working for an organisation that the thaumanova fractal and rata primus make incredibly clear does not value the lives of its workers in any way at all - they'll feed you to their latest experiment just for standing there, and gorrik wasn't just keeping his head down and going along with it, gorrik was actively sabotaging their research when he morally disagreed with it

(and this isn't even getting into why they joined the inquest in the first place, which i will bet anything i own on being because of blish's illness and needing the technology to save him)

and to their credit, i do think this comes across in bug in the system! because if you go back to early gorrik, first half of s4, having played through the rest of the story? the difference is shocking, like he is so distrusting and snide and defensive as hell of his brother, he talks like he expects you to attack him or blish at any moment