#shadow!roach au

omg I was literally just thinking of this hdjshfjiwid you have no idea how excited I was to see you say this, Santi!! This could be SUCH an interesting sub plot

I'm just thinking of the aftermath of Roach's almost death where he's picked up by Shadows and specifically being looked after by Graves

I understand Graves is a cocky backstabber, but his relationship with his Shadows genuinely does seem pretty wholesome, I can imagine if he got a new recruit he'd be a very attentive mentor ( I rewatched the scene in MWII where Graves keeps calling out to his downed Shadows and urging Shepherd to send backup for them, like he def cares for his men)

I was also thinking of having Graves be the one to teach Roach ASL because oof think of that extra internal conflict when Roach has to choose between helping the 141 and staying loyal to SC and specifically the man who helped him adapt to military life post-injury ughhhh

Literally, any Roach-centric pairing has me in a chokehold. Angst for days, I love it.

I feel like this could go either two ways:

Graves genuinely does care for Roach's wellbeing (as seen in canon with his actual shadows) and develops a close bond while helping Roach recover from his injuries (could lead to some interesting dynamics between Graves, the 141, and Shepherd)

or, Graves is fully on board with Shepherd's plan to use Roach as leverage against the 141 and only pretends to form a bond with him (just more trauma for Roach lol poor guy)

either way, they'd lead to some good conflict

Imagine you're just freshly traumatized from the massacre of your remaining family, the family which offered you a sliver of hope that maybe you could live and actually enjoy a normal, civilian life.

You become an uncle, and all of a sudden, the fucked up past of your life feels so far away, like a new beginning has come for you, and you have the chance to become someone who isn't so sullied by violence and death.

Then one day you come home and find out that very last human aspect of your chaotic life has been ripped away from you all because of your occupation as a soldier. It all feels like it was your fault, and you feel as though the last human part of you has died alongside your remaining family.

Imagine you return to your military life, alone and bitter towards everything and everyone around you. You join a new task force to perhaps give yourself a fresh environment that won't remind you of the old squad members that aided in the death of your family. And you swear that you won't ever let anyone break your trust in such a way ever again.

Imagine a new recruit (Roach) joins your task force. He bothers you, and tries his hardest to befriend you, as if the others whispering that you aren't worth the effort hardly faze him at all. You try to avoid him as much as possible, but he watches your back in battle, strikes up conversations in between missions, offers you coffee in the mornings when it's just you two, and suddenly you can't get him out of your head.

Years go by, and this teammate slowly feels like someone that could be important to you. You go on missions together, fight side by side together, get promoted together, and one day you realize that this man just feels right with you. And it's scary, because now that you realize you want more, you understand that this is something that could so easily be torn away like all the good things that came before.

So you never tell him what he means to you. And one day, just as you predicted, this person that means so much to you it's like breathing, is brutally taken away from you right before your eyes, and you're completely helpless to it all.

Imagine the aftermath, Ghost fully anguished and alone, with dog tags that don't belong to him, and the last person he ever loved never knowing how he felt.

yessss my god they were probably unstoppable together, and considering how Ghost likely did not get on well with other recruits before Roach came along, it probably meant that once Ghost started to open up and trust Roach, it would've led to them being such an efficient and deadly duo.

They definitely would've learnt each others' moves and understood how the other thought and planned. Like they def knew each other like the back of their hands. And just imagine how Ghost copes with suddenly losing the one person he'd opened himself up to. Roach probably became a constant pillar of familiarity and support for Ghost, and suddenly losing that would feel so emptying for him :')