#mac50

I’m finally back after what, a year-long hiatus? Never intended for that to happen but there you go. Life up and down but I’m doing fine blah blah. That’s not what I’m here to post about. 

I was just getting back into the icos fandom. I can’t say I ever really left it because I’ve been ghosting the tag ever so often, as well as anything new Ais and Santino post. I was actually just about to go on a reblog frenzy because I’m now really getting back into icos and I’ve been scrolling through several blogs and all the edits/discussions/etc are reawakening that thrill like nothing else. 

And then this. 

Listen. I read Ais’ post. I read Santino’s post. I’m still not entirely clear on what the heck’s going on and I’ll probably never have all the information for it. But I’ve been reading a lot and from what I DO understand, I’m going to make something very clear because apparently taking a stance is something people are pushed to do and if you want to cut off all ties from me after this, I can’t stop you. But just to go on the record:

I do. not. hate. Santino.

He and Ais created what is probably the best series I’ve ever read. It helped me, in more ways than I will ever reveal and I can never thank them enough for that. If he doesn’t continue 180, I will be heartbroken. If he and Ais discontinue icos, I will be heartbroken. I understand that this is stressful for Ais and confusing and I’m not pressuring her towards any which direction, because this is her life with one of her friends and absolutely none of my business. 

Because I don’t believe everything the haters are saying. When dealing with facts online, I’ve learned it’s nearly impossible to fully fish out what’s true and not true. But one thing I’ve learned as an iron-clad fact is that we live in a society neck-deep in online community and interaction, a society who’s values are based on “guilty until proven innocent”. I’m not just saying that because of what’s going on now. You see it everywhere and it’s disgusting. That’s one reason why you never see anything IRL-related on my blog. It’s one reason why every social media I have is entirely 100% anonymous. 

Finding out about this has not ruined icos for me. If it has, it’s only in the sense of the now very real fear that anything with ICoS is officially ended. And that is downright devastating to me.  

So @thatdudesantino if you’re reading this, know that you still have a supporter in me. Both you and @ais-n do. I don’t know either of you personally, and I guess that’s part of my point too. I don’t know any of the secrets in the closet of anyone in this fandom, and I certainly don’t believe any one person in this fandom is a perfectly decent human being. I know I’m not. Yes, it’s disappointing to hear about something like this but it’s not like I put him or anyone else on a pedestal. I only knew him by the name Santino and the very few facts he revealed about himself. And I didn’t care about anything else. I still don’t care to be honest. 

Frankly, I just glad that he’s alive. I’m not kidding. We haven’t heard from him in  so long then suddenly I start hearing that something bad happened with Santino and Ais certainly wasn’t happy, I legitimately feared that he was dead. So maybe what happened seems less severe to me in light of that relief he isn’t, I don’t know. That, or that he disappeared off the face of the earth. Which still might happen now, but I hope it doesn’t. Because I want to continue reading his work. Again, I still don’t fully understand what’s going on so that may be blindsiding me, but despite his mistakes, his wrongdoings, whether they’re forgivable or not, he is still an amazingly talented writer and I love his writing. Because again, haters make me roll my eyes more often than not. I just can’t believe everything they say, maybe because I stopped believing it so long ago. All this has really done is remind me of the disgust I have for the online world and put me in a bad mood.

I don’t know Santino, no less than how I don’t know Ais. I don’t know what all happened in the past, what he did, what he went through or is dealing with right now. I don’t know what’s all true and what’s not and frankly I don’t give a shit. I love icos, I’m absolutely in love with the world and characters they created. And if Santino’s a shit human being who wrote the series, then he did a good job writing it as a shit human being. I do have more to say about this and what Santino said, but this post would be too long. 

YES!!! 

You submitted this quite some time ago and so sorry I took so long to reply but yes! xD This made me smile so hard. That is the very reason I decided to use mac50 for original posts (not personal. “lost my scope” is for non-icos stuff), because it’s Archer’s preferred weapon of choice when sniping. And yes, it is actually called “tac/50″, minus the forward slash. I changed it to ‘mac’ because I didn’t want to be tagging my stuff to an actual gun! lol

Because he’s a frickin sniper!! Which is the equivalent of badass in my brain! Need anything more be explained? lol I’m kidding, but for reals, I was wondering when someone would finally ask me this. :)

Why I love Archer

[character(?) spoilers for Evenfall and 1/27. Maybe Fade? Except for Evenfall, I’m keeping everything else vague.]

I didn’t love him at first. In fact, I didn’t even like him. I mean, in Monterrey I know he was doing what he had to do and being a good agent and all, but I was on Boyd’s side damnit! lol So my reaction to his part in Evenfall wasn’t the best one, but it wasn’t as bad as others (like Harriet). Archer is one of the smallest side characters. In the whole series. He only appears twice in Evenfall and then twice more in Fade. Any other times he’s just being talked about/referenced by other characters.

Now, even though I wanted to shove Archer away from hysterical Boyd (I was in a frantic state too! I’m thinking back on my first impression of Archer when first reading icos. Just leave my Boyd alone!), he was intriguing to me just on the basis of being this quiet statue always nearby. But he really started to intrigue me when they were on their way to Santiago’s tunnel. Because by this time, he wasn’t really acting like I was expecting him to.

He didn’t have the control-all-take-charge face Kassian worked with. He wasn’t “normal” like Blair or Alvarado were in terms of being talkative, and he certainly didn’t have a stick up his ass like Harriet. He wasn’t like anyone else in the team and I’m just all, what the hell? I was trying to peg him, you see. Trying to figure out which classification of fieldie he fell in. One with a superiority complex, hero complex, full of testosterone, a Vega-hater, or another bitter Rank 9, etc. Yet he wasn’t falling into any of those. 

Even though he restrained hysterical Boyd and was doing the right thing and all, throughout the whole rest of that escape from Monterrey I was just waiting for him to shit on Boyd like Harriet did. Like even Kassian did. Like everyone did except Blair. But he didn’t. He even agreed with wanting Harriet to shut up, which definitely raised an eyebrow. But on top of that, he let Boyd go. He cut the zip-tie. That really made me do a double take. Srsly, what was up with this stone-faced agent? There was clearly mutual respect between him and Kassian, he completely kept his cool when faced by 4FF when everyone else was freaking out, and he reacted to Hsin having a seizure when he probably should’ve kept driving.

But my curiosity for him at that point was just a fleeting thing. Like “Hm, interesting” but I didn’t care enough to think anything more about it. I just went back to the story and Archer was out of my mind. But then he popped up again during the raid and that slight curiosity I had for him blew up into something intense when seeing how he treated Hsin: with respect. That stood out so much, especially with the way Wallis was acting just minutes before. I was seriously have a major “wtf” at this point. A Rank 9 who wasn’t in any way disputing that Vega would be team leader, trusted him to take lead, and listened to him? Srsly, wtf?

Because here’s the twist. :) I never realized until what, Fade(?) – whenever it was revealed, I never realized that Archer was a veteran at the Agency. I legit thought he was in the typical age group for fieldies. But he’s been there longer than Carhart! Vetted in 1993, the same year as Emilio. 

Which then prompted the biggest, almost dumbfounded question: Why in the hell was he still Rank 9? He wasn’t promoted to Rank 10, didn’t move up in the Agency like Carhart. He just stayed a Rank 9 fieldie. And that really threw me off. Because with an agent as competent as Archer, Rank 10 is what’s supposed to be next, right? And you’d think that would’ve happened in the 30 years he’s been there!

But it didn’t. And then I finally read 1/27. And Archer’s part is a gold mine. Not only his whole convo with Doug, but with what he had to say about being a Level 10. Shoot, it’s the frickin description of my blog! I started to believe he was recommended as a candidate for Level 10 and he just turned it down, and how many times did it happen? Each candidate’s given a choice and he said no. Because he saw what happened when you did. And so he never aspired to be Rank 10 like all those others, followed by them achieving it and then regretting it (except maybe Emilio because he’s nuts enough to love it. And I don’t think Hsin regretted it because it was 10 so much as he just hated the Agency, period). I’m sure he wasn’t the only agent to have that mindset, but it was still profound to see.

And then in the DC we have Archer going to Carhart’s own quarters after Monterrey. He actually went to Carhart and filled him in with what happened in Monterrey when he was never expected to and when Carhart never asked him to. He did it because he knew Carhart cared about Hsin and he wanted to give him answers when no one else would. And when Hsin asked why Archer gave a shit? Carhart said because they were friends, and that’s just what friends do.

And then in Fade we have him going out of his way and risking his life to help two certain someones after a certain bad something happened and you know what the hell I’m talking about!! Despite being “dismissed”, it was still clear which side he chose in a split second.

TL;DR (still long)

On the small side, I do love Archer’s gruffness. :) His grumbling about bad seating choices in Fade was funny and his first encounter with Peaches is priceless. He’s literally like a cantankerous old vet who’s so done with all the world’s shit. He’s a damn good agent and seems so incredibly competent in the field that it’s a little intimidating. He has this profound ability to stay objective (proven with Boyd) and only judges people for how well they do their job instead of their personal lives. Yes, he’s a minor character, but literally no one has a bad word to say about him, not even Hsin. He even has Emilio’s nod of approval. And he’s a frickin sniper. But even with all this stuff on the surface, his actual character was still such a mystery and learning about it piece by piece was fascinating.

Despite living by his own rule of not getting involved in drama and refusing to be dragged or involved in anyone else’s crap, he was still there for Carhart, Emilio, and Doug both when it didn’t matter and when it really mattered. When he could’ve (would’ve) gotten killed for it. For all that he is steadfast on just doing his job and being the highly respected veteran he was at the Agency, even by the brass, his true loyalties came out in the end.

He knows the Agency in and out to the point where he has this sense of wisdom that the majority of personnel utterly lack (as revealed in 1/27). He respects Hsin and he respects Emilio when he’s literally the only person (aside from Doug) who can say he’s seen Vega Senior’s and Vega Junior’s entire careers at the Agency from start to finish and all the ups and downs that came with them. And yet he still respects them. 

I love Archer, man. He’s not my fave character, but he’s definitely in that second tier of faves. For as little as he appeared in icos, his character is frickin awesome, imo. I know he’s Ais’ character and so that means he most likely won’t be appearing in 180 (something I’m eternally sad about), but I’ll just squeeze him in with my imagination while reading, I guess. :)

I’m already prepping the link page for all the story’s material. :) It’ll be updated with each new release of Santino’s.

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10

u guys !!! you three said it so perfectly i could cry for days THANK YOU