#characters:

linda regressing when emotions catch up to her too suddenly and she doesnt know what to do. chief sitting with her (or holding her hand) where nobody will find them to let her calm down and process everything before she's ready to get back to normal, even if it takes hours.

chief regressing hard and fast after an encounter with an AI that reminds him a bit too much of cortana, quietly shadowing linda and letting her dry humor and endless patience and steady hands ground him and remind him that he's human, and not a machine, and cortana would be proud of him for everything he's done.

shared tiny hours where they sit somewhere quiet and silently people watch together for hours until linda starts nodding off or chief gets too restless. for the former, they go back to their barracks, and linda curls up for a nap. for the latter, they go on a walk and make a game out of it ("how many x can you spot before we reach y? try to get more than the other person!" sort of games)

gentle hand and face touches. spartans arent really encouraged to show affection towards each other even remotely, but i like to think in these moments of vulnerability, where linda's body feels far too big and john just feels tired and shy and nervous, when theyre able, theres lots of quiet contact. brushing knuckles, loosely linked pinkies or fingers, holding hands, john tracing the scars from linda's injuries on reach, linda tracing the contours of john's face, both of them sitting so close together there's barely a few inches between them. they get so clingy, they want to protect each other all the time.

sometimes, at the end of the day, kelly and fred return to their barracks to find these two curled up on the ground together, having tried to wait for their older siblings to come back but too tired to stay awake. kelly will always snort fondly, while fred grins to himself and goes to grab a blanket off one of the bunks. it usually ends in a the closest thing to a spartan cuddle pile you can get, sprawled on the floor of their barrack, all four of them huddled close and tangled in blankets.

linda feels the pain from their augmentations and her revival much more, when shes small. some part of her lets down its guard, and makes it easier to pinpoint her pain, so while it's beneficial for knowing if she needs to visit the technicians, it means she's easily tired out when regressed, and prefers curling up in a perch somewhere to nap.

look at it however you want, jiyan's survivor's guilt and title of general come from a place of isolation with a drive to help - he doesn't really have anyone to confide in, other than maybe mortefi, who, famously, is not the easiest to approach.

even then, mortefi is a prestigious child run away from home, who was neglected in his childhood. that's isolation in its own right, too. he might be loved by the children of jinzhou, but how many people does he have that he's actually close to?

chixia's transition - because that's what it is - is likely isolating as well. do we even know what her family think of her? ive seen countless experiences of transwomen online, talking about how painfully lonely it is to transition, sometimes. she has all of jinzhou who adore her - for her work. for who she is, when she's working. how many of them love her when she's vulnerable?

lingyang's whole story. a beast that tore himself apart and put himself back together just to try to be loved, only to be feared - until he made up a lie that made himself a protector. he has his lion dance troupe, but... can he tell anyone about where he came from?

shorekeeper was the one to leave rover in the gorge of spirits, as requested. and then she returned to the black shores, and resumed her work silently, diligently, and without pause, because that's what was asked of her. she can only hope... hope, that one day, the astral modulator will come back. and they do, but only temporarily. they have a world to save. they can't stay with her forever.

cameylla needs the rover to feel a sense of purpose - she was so desperate for that connection and sense of belonging that she wiped her own memories to forget the pain of them forgetting her. she floats through the world, unbothered by responsibility or necessity, just wants and what's fun! but... she doesn't have anyone, does she? she's still kept a close eye on, because of her condition, and she's under the orders of the black shores, and... would she really consider the black shores home?

carlotta. a prestigious family head, adopted, a hitman for her family. not many of her family (...is "family" more apt?) believed in her or saw her as anything good when she first joined her family. her existence is a veiled battle for the trust of those she would lay down her life for, keeping up a facade and her reputation with ease... because she has no other choice.

phoebe, a devotee through and through, never once realizing that maybe there's something wrong with what she was taught. and that, perhaps, suffering actually... isn't the right way to live. but of course, if she dare suggest this, or branch out from what she's taught, at all...

cantarella is condemned to a life of isolation the moment she becomes the matriarch of the fisalia. the reputation of her family, the poisons, the whispers of leviathan... all for the greater good of everyone else, but, goodness, doesn't that sound lonely?

cartethyia was locked away for... how long is it, wasn't it like multiple decades? she might have been able to protect the others around her, but at what cost? now she's stuck, torn between the threnodian and the sentinel, torn in half, and all she can do is hold on and hope someone will be strong enough to end her pain.

lupa is an example of how a life in the spotlight will always be isolating, no matter how well-loved you are. she's still constantly fighting in the dark, she's ecstatic to have someone to fight alongside her for once and in the end... she still trudges through the days, almost completely alone. her public image is what matters. even though she's tired of all the lying and acting she has to perform, to stay afloat.

iuno literally gave up everyone's memories of herself, and defied fate, just to see her home standing, even if it means she's all alone. even if it means no one remembers her, or cares about her, or if she's a ghost, because then, hey! she rewrote fate, and at least augusta will still be alive. (right?)

galbrena fell into the dark tide as a child and fought to keep going, forcing tacet discords to bend to her will because surviving by any means was better than submitting. even if it meant becoming unrecognizable. and we watch as she finds her "home," her place of belonging - the black shores. but she still walks alone. there's tacet discords to hunt, and she has to keep that beast satiated.

chisa was stuck in honami for twenty years, though for her, it was only a matter of months. does it matter how long it was for her, when the world moved on without her? she's out of her depth and out of time and all alone. her only companion is a sonoro sphere creature - and namipon is wonderful, but... namipon isn't human. it's not like her.

lynae was walking that line of borderline expulsion if she was found out for... years. if she slipped up, if she did the wrong thing - but she just wanted a home, was that so awful? she felt like she belonged at startorch and she doesn't want to leave it! but if it's her, or the academy she loves...

aemeath is a digital ghost. nobody can see her. nobody can hear her. she's there, but nobody remembers much about her. she has the memories of her own and of "that person," and she has the exostrider, but... oh, who cares, at least she was strong enough to save the world! ...right?

luuk waited for rover's return, patient, seemingly endlessly, for years, without a word of complaint. probably never took a single day off - he's got over a year of paid leave stacked up after all. and when they come back, and they work together again... he still acknowledges, that one day, they'll probably head out again. it's alright. he likes it at startorch. he's content to stay right where he is - don't worry about him, golden one. he'll be just fine.

sigrika, the heliodic six successor! top of her class, perfect in everything she does, always dependable, always reliable, helpful helpful sigrika, all alone because she can only ever be the best at all of it. her birdwatching club has only one member, and it's her. all alone...

i haven't caught up on the rest of the story but like. isolation is a MASSIVE overarching theme, and the rover fits it well, too. lost memories, drifting through the world, helping everyone they can along the way, and in their past, when asking just... just to see their home, not even land on it just see it again, they were told no.

they're tired and they've got to be lonely at this point, even with so many people around them... just like a great deal of the people they've met on their journey.