State of the Union meme! + other spare essays
So things have been happening with Cielo lately, and I've been feeling kind of shaky with him! Here's me attempting to figure out what's going on in his head.
Okay, first off, Argilla's gone. And they aren't the closest in the tribe, and we didn't thread that much so presumably they didn't talk much, but the Embryon is codependent enough that that doesn't really matter! Tribe is the most important thing, and for a tribe member to leave like that, against her will, shook him. Badly. And the fact that she's dead back home makes things infinitely more difficult. At the moment, Cielo doesn't know whether Argilla is dead, alive, or bloody furious. ...Okay I couldn't resist a Pratchett reference.
But seriously, with the nature of camp, Cielo has no clue what happens to people after they leave camp. Cielo fundamentally has an understanding of the nature of karma and its cycle that's less intellectual than Roland's, but is still pretty good. After Roland and Argilla died in canon, he felt that somehow, they weren't really gone! And, of course, he was right. I tend to figure, and in a very indirect sense play, that he can actually sense things like that a little, through whatever powers he had as a Cyber Shaman candidate. I've essayed on this before, so I won't repeat myself. But camp, I pretty much have to assume that it's completely broken from DDS' karmic cycle. Which presumably means Cielo can't even get suspiciously accurate gut feelings about Argilla.
Basically, he's left with his default optimism with hoping Argilla's okay and she'll come back! Which is something he tries very hard to be, and it does come pretty naturally to him, but man, DDS is a depressing series. And all of Cielo's experience tells him that the worst has probably happened and that she's now permanently dead. It would probably help a LOT if he knew someone who had died and come to camp multiple times. Any volunteers happen to be reading this?
And with the way camp dragged Argilla away from them...he no longer trusts camp to be any better than the Junkyard or the real world. In the last couple months, he's been killed due to camp a couple of time! First he and his comrades were AIDA'd, then he and Kuhn were mononoke'd, and I know I'm missing something that was a camp event that deeply upset Cielo. Before, he'd thought of camp as, well, not Nirvana, but as good a substitute as he was likely to find in this life. Now...he still thinks that but he's a lot more negative about that.
And, of course, slightly before then, he found out that Bat and Kuhn were dating! When Bat mouthraped him a little and then taunted him with it, which isn't really the best way to find out anything. I essayed a little about it somewhere, but I don't remember where now. He really doesn't like this though. Cielo is not really someone who'd interfere, so long as someone he trusted didn't want him to. And he does trust Kuhn...not as much as a member of the Embryon, but a fair amount.
But. It's Bat. They don't really interact in canon except from a distance! Depending on whether or not you put Cielo in the boss fight where you finally kill Bat, of course. So I'm kind of playing this based off my interpretation of Cielo. But Cielo loathes people who betray their comrades. Look at the second game with Abaddon. And Bat didn't just betray his comrades, but his leader and his tribe in a way that lead to the death of the Maribel tribe. And he did it purely for himself. There is very little nothing that anyone could do calculated to get Cielo to despise them more. To Cielo, Bat is the lowest of the low. When Kuhn talked about feeling guilty and pity for Bat, Cielo just couldn't feel anything like that for Bat. He has too much contempt for him. Honestly, I sincerely doubt that Cielo's opinion of Bat would change substantially if he did hear about Bat's past life. Even leaving out the fact that Cielo's own memories of his past life are...not exactly any more pleasant than Bat's, if in different ways, there are some things to Cielo that are unforgiveable. (The key differences with Heat is a) Heat's his comrade, b) he did it for Sera, and a little c) he remembers enough of his past life that he can see why Heat believed that, if you were wondering. Also d) Heat didn't succeed.)
Having Bat and Kuhn dating worries Cielo and upsets him. He doesn't trust Bat an inch, and he's worried about Kuhn and a little about what that will do to his priorities (EMBRYON ARE STILL MORE IMPORTANT THAN BAT, RIGHT?), and he just doesn't understand what pulls Kuhn to him. He'd get it more if it were a past life thing! But he doesn't really have the impression it is.
And now, Cielo's been here almost a year. And while usually it actually is a good environment for him in comparison to canon, it still has some major things missing! He only gets a proper meal once a week, barring the occasional fight or soylent green. Instead of constant fighting, there's nothing to do. It seemed like an awesome trade once, but it's the kind of thing that starts to pale after a while. Cielo doesn't like terribly like fighting, but he's so used to it that doing it as little as he does in camp still leaves him a little off-balance. At this point, he really does kind of miss it, as little as he likes it. Kind of like you can hate oh say potatoes, and yet when you realize you haven't had them in a couple of years, you start kind of craving them. (Or I do, at least! XD) At the moment, it's cold, leaving him the choice of freezing or putting on clothes that he feels uncomfortable in. So basically, he's hungry, he's bored, he's cold, he's sad, he's angry and a little betrayed, he's worried, and he's frustrated. He'd never leave camp unless the others did, and he really doesn't want that to happen! But he's just not happy at the moment.
In summary, I need to throw him into situations that make him happy. or situations that make him violent so he can at least have a more effective outlet than the zombies.
Edit: So I just realized I had multiple basically complete essays on my computer. I'm not bothering to make another post for them, but here they are:
Oedipal complexes in DDS:
Sera/Serph: Sera created Serph and is the mother of the entire Junkyard. Serph is very very gay for her.
Serph/Sera: Sera created Serph modelled after an asshole doctor who was nice to her and the closest thing she had to a positive adult figure in her life. At a pubertal two, he probably pretty much served as a father-figure and as a massive crush. Go DDS!
Gale/Angel: So if Sera’s Gale’s mother, that means Angel’s his grandmother/grandfather/grandparent.
Everyone/Sera: Pretty much most the Embryon is at least a little gay for Sera. Especially…
Sera/Heat: Go go Heat! Kiss your mom again and make her cry
…I am not putting Cielo/Schrodinger here. But I am mentioning it to make you picture it.
Embryorgy: okay not Oedipal so much as most of them would do the most the others and tend to blur the line between “comrade”, “person who’s like my brother or sister”, and “person I want to put it in me”. (See also Jinana/Agilla and Lupa/Gale.) Therefore incestuous, with Oedipal layers when Serph participates because as leader Serph is kind of like a father figure! Which means…
Serph/Heat: Is in fact Oedipal. And…
Seraph/Heat is so many levels of incest and Oedipal and whatever I don’t even know what to say.
So Gale is Fred’s father figure. And when Gale’s reborn as a baby Fred adopts him. I ASSUME THIS IS NOT OEDIPAL probably I hope but it deserves a mention.
Edit: Whoops, forgot this one!
Jinana/Bat: As leader, Jinana is kind of like his mother! And he eats her. And REALLY REALLY ENJOYS IT. And his head is in his crotch. You do the math!
Including mythology!
Prithivi/Usas - Argilla’s demon is the mother of Jinana’s demon
Prithivi/Indra - Argilla’s demon is the mother of Roland’s demon. I guess Prithivi really thinks her kids are hot!
Dyaus/Agni - not that I’m terribly saying that Cielo/Heat is hot. Although it is. Mostly I’m saying that Cielo’s demon’s Heat’s demon’s dad. Does this mean I top?
Dyaus/Indra - oh look Roland technically tried to kill his dad. Other side of the Oedipal complex! Is it still an Electra complex if you're not a girl?
…Screw it, I give up on the mythology.
Why past-life Cielo is a lot like Kuhn in my head:
Note from the start: I started trying to make clear where I was speculating and it was only headcanon, and ended up having probably appear more often than the. Therefore, just assume everything I say from here on out is about my speculations about past-life Cielo’s backstory and is in no way, shape or form canon. Also, this was written when my internet is down, so no direct quotes, only paraphrases.
Judging by his fundamental groundedness, I would say that Cielo’s original had a fairly happy childhood. I mean, not perfect, but he had a parent or parents that loved him, (I go back and forth between whether I think he had two parents or was a bastard who never knew his father. The second one rings more right to me at the moment, so I’m going with that.) lots of friends, and was generally a very happy and cheerful and innocent child. And then his mother died, and I would guess that he didn’t go straight into the Karma Society’s hands but bounced around a few foster homes first, because a foster home would be the logical place to discover that Cielo had minor psychic powers and wouldn’t have the incentive not to report him that a loving parent would. I also assume that some of his foster parents made him feel like somewhat of a useless burden because that’s…really pretty fundamental to current Cielo’s character, even if he doesn’t believe that.
Kuhn had a very happy childhood and started off as the cheerful, impulsive, immature, well, burden. He was impulsive, and did things that he knew he probably shouldn’t without ever…really quite expecting to get in trouble for it. And then his girlfriend went through a lot to rescue him after he got coma’d and a few months after she dumped him for being immature. This left him feeling kinda worthless! And like his life isn’t terribly important.
I have a hard time believing that Cielo would still think his life was as valuable when he was in the hands of people who, well, didn’t think so. At all. And Sheffield at least probably rubbed it in, because Sheffield’s kinda an asshole like that. And I look at his attitude near the end of DDS2, when half the cast is dead and he’s going “Our lives are built on de sacrifices of others… if dat’s true, I kinda want to do something in return.” And then I think about how that attitude could be manipulated in an environment with a skilled sociopathic scientist where his life is valuable only insofar as he gives them scientific data, and I just kinda wince. …Okay and open up my notepad where I have various half-started Sheffield/Cielo porn. Is that so wrong? So yeah, I kinda feel that Cielo’s original didn’t value his life nearly highly enough, and was encouraged to be willing to throw it away on a project to contact God.
…Which is still probably marginally healthier than Kuhn’s willingness to throw his life away to teach Haseo a lesson in not berserking. I mean. WTF Kuhn. WTF. CAN’T YOU FIND ANYTHING BETTER TO THROW YOUR LIFE AWAY ON?
They both tend to be friendly and cheerful and outgoing types, who…I want to say hide their angst behind a smile, but that isn’t entirely true. For Cielo, present-day version, it’s a mixture of knowing that he’s happier when he concentrates on the happier stuff, that his comrades are happier when someone’s around being happy, and generally just…everything’s happier when he smiles so why not do his best efforts at it? For past-life Cielo, I…oddly enough, I kind of think of it as all that, yes, that's there, but also as a form of defense. Partially against Sheffield, since I would imagine that a smiley default reaction would be harder to manipulate, but generally just… knowing he’s helpless, and knowing that endearing himself to the scientists will at least ensure better treatment. And it’s still something that comes pretty easy to him.
Kuhn…okay internally he isn’t exactly remotely the same. He and Cielo both share being cheerful as their most apparent traits, but… Kuhn I think is mostly honest about how he’s feeling, except when it comes to his complete lack of self worth. He’ll mope to ridiculous amounts, he’ll smile and shrug things off, etc. But he’ll smile and shrug things off sometimes because he doesn’t feel he deserves better and smiling will keep people from worrying about him more than he deserves and self-worth …actually would've been Cielo's past life issue, I think. It's not all that evident in the series, but it was definitely there in the "Let me redeem myself" talk when he awakened. So they're more alike than I thought there!
Protecting young girls! Lol Sera. Uh. Cielo as you might have noticed has a bit of a complex about Sera! Not as big as Heat’s, and not quite as Oedipal, but you know, there. And the fact that past-life Cielo was a significant enough of a presence in Sera’s life that she wanted to include him in her simulation with her authority figures is pretty significant too. My guess is that past-life Cielo did his best to protect her. Because she was tiny and cute and completely naive, and so Cielo wanted to protect her. Cielo is inclined to protect the defenseless,
…Can I just say lol knight complex for Kuhn? If you’re reading this and wanting more information, I suggest you ask Pi about Kuhn hitting on grade schoolers. :D
They’re both, well, submissive, and prone to following others, and to accepting abuse when they feel they deserve it/it’s necessary. See: Cielo’s complete lack of reaction when Heat’s throwing him around (no, he hadn’t awakened yet, but can you imagine unawakened Heat or Gale reacting the same way? Heat would try to bite their head off and Gale would have a knife at their throat. With his foot. Because that’s sexy.) How far this could be taken by someone like Sheffield is mildly disturbing to contemplate. And Kuhn, just. His entire relationship with Pi.
At the same time, both…kinda have an independent streak. Cielo disobeys orders in order to get in on rescuing Sera. Even outside that, he’s very… as close as he is to his comrades in abstract, I tend to peg him as the most distant of the tribe in a lot of ways. He’s kinda the odd man out, which I have no clue whether I’ve essayed on before but I’m not doing so again.
And Kuhn spends most of the second game acting completely independently of the main party because he disagrees with their tactics. That’s a lot further than Cielo’d ever take it in this life, but in his past life, where I doubt he relied on anyone the way he relies on his comrades? I can totally see him doing something like that. If he weren’t busy being a lab rat, of course.
And I could write another thousand words on this, but I refuse to on general principles.
Okay, first off, Argilla's gone. And they aren't the closest in the tribe, and we didn't thread that much so presumably they didn't talk much, but the Embryon is codependent enough that that doesn't really matter! Tribe is the most important thing, and for a tribe member to leave like that, against her will, shook him. Badly. And the fact that she's dead back home makes things infinitely more difficult. At the moment, Cielo doesn't know whether Argilla is dead, alive, or bloody furious. ...Okay I couldn't resist a Pratchett reference.
But seriously, with the nature of camp, Cielo has no clue what happens to people after they leave camp. Cielo fundamentally has an understanding of the nature of karma and its cycle that's less intellectual than Roland's, but is still pretty good. After Roland and Argilla died in canon, he felt that somehow, they weren't really gone! And, of course, he was right. I tend to figure, and in a very indirect sense play, that he can actually sense things like that a little, through whatever powers he had as a Cyber Shaman candidate. I've essayed on this before, so I won't repeat myself. But camp, I pretty much have to assume that it's completely broken from DDS' karmic cycle. Which presumably means Cielo can't even get suspiciously accurate gut feelings about Argilla.
Basically, he's left with his default optimism with hoping Argilla's okay and she'll come back! Which is something he tries very hard to be, and it does come pretty naturally to him, but man, DDS is a depressing series. And all of Cielo's experience tells him that the worst has probably happened and that she's now permanently dead. It would probably help a LOT if he knew someone who had died and come to camp multiple times. Any volunteers happen to be reading this?
And with the way camp dragged Argilla away from them...he no longer trusts camp to be any better than the Junkyard or the real world. In the last couple months, he's been killed due to camp a couple of time! First he and his comrades were AIDA'd, then he and Kuhn were mononoke'd, and I know I'm missing something that was a camp event that deeply upset Cielo. Before, he'd thought of camp as, well, not Nirvana, but as good a substitute as he was likely to find in this life. Now...he still thinks that but he's a lot more negative about that.
And, of course, slightly before then, he found out that Bat and Kuhn were dating! When Bat mouthraped him a little and then taunted him with it, which isn't really the best way to find out anything. I essayed a little about it somewhere, but I don't remember where now. He really doesn't like this though. Cielo is not really someone who'd interfere, so long as someone he trusted didn't want him to. And he does trust Kuhn...not as much as a member of the Embryon, but a fair amount.
But. It's Bat. They don't really interact in canon except from a distance! Depending on whether or not you put Cielo in the boss fight where you finally kill Bat, of course. So I'm kind of playing this based off my interpretation of Cielo. But Cielo loathes people who betray their comrades. Look at the second game with Abaddon. And Bat didn't just betray his comrades, but his leader and his tribe in a way that lead to the death of the Maribel tribe. And he did it purely for himself. There is very little nothing that anyone could do calculated to get Cielo to despise them more. To Cielo, Bat is the lowest of the low. When Kuhn talked about feeling guilty and pity for Bat, Cielo just couldn't feel anything like that for Bat. He has too much contempt for him. Honestly, I sincerely doubt that Cielo's opinion of Bat would change substantially if he did hear about Bat's past life. Even leaving out the fact that Cielo's own memories of his past life are...not exactly any more pleasant than Bat's, if in different ways, there are some things to Cielo that are unforgiveable. (The key differences with Heat is a) Heat's his comrade, b) he did it for Sera, and a little c) he remembers enough of his past life that he can see why Heat believed that, if you were wondering. Also d) Heat didn't succeed.)
Having Bat and Kuhn dating worries Cielo and upsets him. He doesn't trust Bat an inch, and he's worried about Kuhn and a little about what that will do to his priorities (EMBRYON ARE STILL MORE IMPORTANT THAN BAT, RIGHT?), and he just doesn't understand what pulls Kuhn to him. He'd get it more if it were a past life thing! But he doesn't really have the impression it is.
And now, Cielo's been here almost a year. And while usually it actually is a good environment for him in comparison to canon, it still has some major things missing! He only gets a proper meal once a week, barring the occasional fight or soylent green. Instead of constant fighting, there's nothing to do. It seemed like an awesome trade once, but it's the kind of thing that starts to pale after a while. Cielo doesn't like terribly like fighting, but he's so used to it that doing it as little as he does in camp still leaves him a little off-balance. At this point, he really does kind of miss it, as little as he likes it. Kind of like you can hate oh say potatoes, and yet when you realize you haven't had them in a couple of years, you start kind of craving them. (Or I do, at least! XD) At the moment, it's cold, leaving him the choice of freezing or putting on clothes that he feels uncomfortable in. So basically, he's hungry, he's bored, he's cold, he's sad, he's angry and a little betrayed, he's worried, and he's frustrated. He'd never leave camp unless the others did, and he really doesn't want that to happen! But he's just not happy at the moment.
In summary, I need to throw him into situations that make him happy. or situations that make him violent so he can at least have a more effective outlet than the zombies.
Edit: So I just realized I had multiple basically complete essays on my computer. I'm not bothering to make another post for them, but here they are:
Oedipal complexes in DDS:
Sera/Serph: Sera created Serph and is the mother of the entire Junkyard. Serph is very very gay for her.
Serph/Sera: Sera created Serph modelled after an asshole doctor who was nice to her and the closest thing she had to a positive adult figure in her life. At a pubertal two, he probably pretty much served as a father-figure and as a massive crush. Go DDS!
Gale/Angel: So if Sera’s Gale’s mother, that means Angel’s his grandmother/grandfather/grandparent.
Everyone/Sera: Pretty much most the Embryon is at least a little gay for Sera. Especially…
Sera/Heat: Go go Heat! Kiss your mom again and make her cry
…I am not putting Cielo/Schrodinger here. But I am mentioning it to make you picture it.
Embryorgy: okay not Oedipal so much as most of them would do the most the others and tend to blur the line between “comrade”, “person who’s like my brother or sister”, and “person I want to put it in me”. (See also Jinana/Agilla and Lupa/Gale.) Therefore incestuous, with Oedipal layers when Serph participates because as leader Serph is kind of like a father figure! Which means…
Serph/Heat: Is in fact Oedipal. And…
Seraph/Heat is so many levels of incest and Oedipal and whatever I don’t even know what to say.
So Gale is Fred’s father figure. And when Gale’s reborn as a baby Fred adopts him. I ASSUME THIS IS NOT OEDIPAL probably I hope but it deserves a mention.
Edit: Whoops, forgot this one!
Jinana/Bat: As leader, Jinana is kind of like his mother! And he eats her. And REALLY REALLY ENJOYS IT. And his head is in his crotch. You do the math!
Including mythology!
Prithivi/Usas - Argilla’s demon is the mother of Jinana’s demon
Prithivi/Indra - Argilla’s demon is the mother of Roland’s demon. I guess Prithivi really thinks her kids are hot!
Dyaus/Agni - not that I’m terribly saying that Cielo/Heat is hot. Although it is. Mostly I’m saying that Cielo’s demon’s Heat’s demon’s dad. Does this mean I top?
Dyaus/Indra - oh look Roland technically tried to kill his dad. Other side of the Oedipal complex! Is it still an Electra complex if you're not a girl?
…Screw it, I give up on the mythology.
Why past-life Cielo is a lot like Kuhn in my head:
Note from the start: I started trying to make clear where I was speculating and it was only headcanon, and ended up having probably appear more often than the. Therefore, just assume everything I say from here on out is about my speculations about past-life Cielo’s backstory and is in no way, shape or form canon. Also, this was written when my internet is down, so no direct quotes, only paraphrases.
Judging by his fundamental groundedness, I would say that Cielo’s original had a fairly happy childhood. I mean, not perfect, but he had a parent or parents that loved him, (I go back and forth between whether I think he had two parents or was a bastard who never knew his father. The second one rings more right to me at the moment, so I’m going with that.) lots of friends, and was generally a very happy and cheerful and innocent child. And then his mother died, and I would guess that he didn’t go straight into the Karma Society’s hands but bounced around a few foster homes first, because a foster home would be the logical place to discover that Cielo had minor psychic powers and wouldn’t have the incentive not to report him that a loving parent would. I also assume that some of his foster parents made him feel like somewhat of a useless burden because that’s…really pretty fundamental to current Cielo’s character, even if he doesn’t believe that.
Kuhn had a very happy childhood and started off as the cheerful, impulsive, immature, well, burden. He was impulsive, and did things that he knew he probably shouldn’t without ever…really quite expecting to get in trouble for it. And then his girlfriend went through a lot to rescue him after he got coma’d and a few months after she dumped him for being immature. This left him feeling kinda worthless! And like his life isn’t terribly important.
I have a hard time believing that Cielo would still think his life was as valuable when he was in the hands of people who, well, didn’t think so. At all. And Sheffield at least probably rubbed it in, because Sheffield’s kinda an asshole like that. And I look at his attitude near the end of DDS2, when half the cast is dead and he’s going “Our lives are built on de sacrifices of others… if dat’s true, I kinda want to do something in return.” And then I think about how that attitude could be manipulated in an environment with a skilled sociopathic scientist where his life is valuable only insofar as he gives them scientific data, and I just kinda wince. …Okay and open up my notepad where I have various half-started Sheffield/Cielo porn. Is that so wrong? So yeah, I kinda feel that Cielo’s original didn’t value his life nearly highly enough, and was encouraged to be willing to throw it away on a project to contact God.
…Which is still probably marginally healthier than Kuhn’s willingness to throw his life away to teach Haseo a lesson in not berserking. I mean. WTF Kuhn. WTF. CAN’T YOU FIND ANYTHING BETTER TO THROW YOUR LIFE AWAY ON?
They both tend to be friendly and cheerful and outgoing types, who…I want to say hide their angst behind a smile, but that isn’t entirely true. For Cielo, present-day version, it’s a mixture of knowing that he’s happier when he concentrates on the happier stuff, that his comrades are happier when someone’s around being happy, and generally just…everything’s happier when he smiles so why not do his best efforts at it? For past-life Cielo, I…oddly enough, I kind of think of it as all that, yes, that's there, but also as a form of defense. Partially against Sheffield, since I would imagine that a smiley default reaction would be harder to manipulate, but generally just… knowing he’s helpless, and knowing that endearing himself to the scientists will at least ensure better treatment. And it’s still something that comes pretty easy to him.
Kuhn…okay internally he isn’t exactly remotely the same. He and Cielo both share being cheerful as their most apparent traits, but… Kuhn I think is mostly honest about how he’s feeling, except when it comes to his complete lack of self worth. He’ll mope to ridiculous amounts, he’ll smile and shrug things off, etc. But he’ll smile and shrug things off sometimes because he doesn’t feel he deserves better and smiling will keep people from worrying about him more than he deserves and self-worth …actually would've been Cielo's past life issue, I think. It's not all that evident in the series, but it was definitely there in the "Let me redeem myself" talk when he awakened. So they're more alike than I thought there!
Protecting young girls! Lol Sera. Uh. Cielo as you might have noticed has a bit of a complex about Sera! Not as big as Heat’s, and not quite as Oedipal, but you know, there. And the fact that past-life Cielo was a significant enough of a presence in Sera’s life that she wanted to include him in her simulation with her authority figures is pretty significant too. My guess is that past-life Cielo did his best to protect her. Because she was tiny and cute and completely naive, and so Cielo wanted to protect her. Cielo is inclined to protect the defenseless,
…Can I just say lol knight complex for Kuhn? If you’re reading this and wanting more information, I suggest you ask Pi about Kuhn hitting on grade schoolers. :D
They’re both, well, submissive, and prone to following others, and to accepting abuse when they feel they deserve it/it’s necessary. See: Cielo’s complete lack of reaction when Heat’s throwing him around (no, he hadn’t awakened yet, but can you imagine unawakened Heat or Gale reacting the same way? Heat would try to bite their head off and Gale would have a knife at their throat. With his foot. Because that’s sexy.) How far this could be taken by someone like Sheffield is mildly disturbing to contemplate. And Kuhn, just. His entire relationship with Pi.
At the same time, both…kinda have an independent streak. Cielo disobeys orders in order to get in on rescuing Sera. Even outside that, he’s very… as close as he is to his comrades in abstract, I tend to peg him as the most distant of the tribe in a lot of ways. He’s kinda the odd man out, which I have no clue whether I’ve essayed on before but I’m not doing so again.
And Kuhn spends most of the second game acting completely independently of the main party because he disagrees with their tactics. That’s a lot further than Cielo’d ever take it in this life, but in his past life, where I doubt he relied on anyone the way he relies on his comrades? I can totally see him doing something like that. If he weren’t busy being a lab rat, of course.
And I could write another thousand words on this, but I refuse to on general principles.