#*the 'virus' thing isn't quite... literal... but like habit?

[jacksmysterylabyrinth]

There's a few routes in this game that say a lot about how fickle and unstable Takumi can be, that really warps him on an existential level.

It's hard to grasp how sometimes, but I think it starts with this...

Essentially, he's a person whose 'programming went faulty'. Namely, the issue of 'Karua', and how she's at once both a propaganda piece projected into his brain, and also Nozomi's words filtering in.

I don't think he's able to fully separate those things with conviction, as much as he wants to. He doesn't get how projection works, that's already something difficult for a sheltered and clueless teenager to unpack but... this is a whole other level of 'challenge: impossible' mind-fuckery. If the group have ever had some disconnect between their sense of identity and their 'memory', Takumi's is soup.

But what especially gets me, is his 'younger teen self' dismisses 'Karua's' studies in the most incurious way- 'what's this, the outside world? Why bother with all of that? Why do you care? Conspiracy theorist', etc. which I imagine is what he was 'supposed' to do with anything 'weird' like any potential new information. Until the programming got funny at odd moments when Nozomi's interest would seep through, and then, you'd catch Takumi responding to 'Karua's' interest... with more interest for once.

(Now the brain doesn't know what to do. Oh sure, you want to take charge of your destiny, but actually it's better to just sleep and forget it all. Not like you ever cared about learning anything, right?)

I'd say Takumi's avoidance mechanisms later, are a response to Nozomi's existence as if she was a virus. Which... says a lot about the fascist state of the Artificial Satellite, and how Takumi was designed for the 'most ordinary kind of life' that wasn't meant to know it.

It's kind of unclear how the programming works- whether it takes the subject's base personality and uses it to run an 'AI scenario' based upon whatever Kamukura wanted to project into them, or if it doesn't bother matching personality at all and just shoves scenes into their head regardless if it's something they'd do. Either way, it feels that something went especially wrong with Takumi, even if his personality matched the 'memories' he was given, because for the first time one of the pod-programs was actually adapting to outside stimuli.

The symbolism about that moon is especially interesting. Because Eito - the 'moon' - learns the truth about the world and its wars, and remains a significant challenge for Takumi to grapple with- only for him to kill him and redo everything at the end of the first scenario, suggesting he had kind of failed that (basically undoing the work that Eito had done to stop the weapon without knowing that they're not on Earth, for one...). The moon also represents 'illusion'- what the SDU look up at from Futurum is actually the Artificial Satellite where they've spent their whole lives in a pod, Eito's major trauma deals with illusions that physically warp what humans are (the glitch also doesn't even fully distinguish between 'Human' and 'Futuran' in the first place which makes it even less of an objective judgement)...

...on that note, this here from the Casual route continues to haunt me, and it's been hard to put into words exactly why. Because it might very well have come from Eito's mouth if he were there, since he's trapped in some terrible stuff too. But Eito's not there- that's a dream state that Takumi is in, so those words came from Takumi.

It's like his subconscious has been screaming to get out of the cage for a long time, but he keeps wanting to go back in anyway.

[muzzlemouths]

Oneshot Masterlist

Returning the Favor - Moon Centric - Moon has a habit of helping you to bed. It's only fair that you return the favor.

We Dance in Synchronous Rotation - Moon Centric - (Dream Eater Au) It's been three days since you've managed to catch some shut eye, and continuing to fight off sleep sees you coming face to face with your worst nightmare.

What Remains After Ruination - Eclipse Centric - A year after the fire, you return to the plex to see if you can make sense of it all, and find something — and someone — unexpected.

Whatever this is, it's over - Sun & Moon Centric - You've been fired.

The Loveliness of Loving You - Sun Centric - You desperately want to kiss Sun. He desperately wants to be kissed. Too bad you're thick as a post!

Two of Us - Moon Centric - You've been stuck with a migrain for days now, and Moon isn't helping, but in the end Moon is just what you need to feel better.

Please (don't go) - Moon Centric - You're about to clock out for the night when Sun pulls you aside and asks for your help. Moon hasn't been feeling himself lately, and you think it might have to do with the blood under his nails.

Best Friend - Sun Centric - You spend the last hour of your shift making friendship bracelets.

There's a First Time for Everything - Sun & Moon Centric (no y/n) - It isn't every day that Sun finds a dead body behind the desk.

I'm Glad I Didn't Die Before I Met You - Sun & Moon Centric - Ten years have passed since you first brought Sun and Moon into your home (and to that extent, your life), and as it happens, today is your anniversary.

Unsteady On Your Feet - Moon Centric - Sleep deprivation can make you do crazy things — like stealing company merchandise on the clock and drinking unknown substances. Guess you'll have to "suffer" the consequences!

Hypothermic - Moon Centric - Your chance of survival looks bleak when you manage to get yourself locked in the walk-in freezer. Thankfully, there's a certain cold hearted animatronic out on a midnight stroll.

Let Your Heart Be Light - Moon & Sun Centric - December is a hard month and you're being worked to the bone. Good thing you have two sentient animatronics waiting at home to do the unthinkable - give you a very merry Christmas.

Squeeze My Hand - Moon Centric - Moon finds himself in worrying condition after an accident and is rushed to Parts and Services. He isn't eager to undergo the required surgery, but with you at his side he's able to find his courage.

Pining Here I Crumb - Sun & Moon Centric - You're still getting used to having Sun and Moon in your home after the fire. It can get a little overwhelming; but today you make cookies, and that's enough.

Two Times Moon Apologizes (and one time he doesn’t) - Moon Centric - Ever wonder what it was like before the virus took control? What if you were there when it happened? What if you had the chance to help? What if you were still just a little too late?

Weathering the Storm - Eclipse Centric - Life has gotten to you lately. You weather the storm together.

Quiet Comforts - Sun & Moon Centric - You're having a rough week and none of Sun's attempts to lift your spirits are working. Moon has his own idea of how to help.

All Tied Up With Nowhere to Go - Sun Centric - Sun gets himself into quite the bind — literally. Hopefully you can help him out before that darn bug escapes the daycare!

Please Leave the Light On When You Go - Sun Centric (no y/n) - A character study of Sun and his reaction to the daycare closing, and remaining closed.

Left Unspoken - Sun & Moon Centric - It's been a year since you last spoke with them, and you're still not ready to accept how things ended. Your apology comes too little, too late.

I Know the Meaning of the Words Ever After - Moon & Sun Centric - This house is full of ghosts.

Keep Your Friends Close - Sun & Moon Centric - (Pirate AU) As captain, you run your ship with an iron fist, but you couldn't do it without the help of your two quartermasters. They've been acting stranger than usual as of late, though, and you can't help but wonder if they're hiding something from you.

Second Chances - Moon Centric - You and Moon get off on the wrong foot right from the start, but you'll have to learn to understand each other eventually.

-

Series/Connected Oneshots

Lost in Transmission - Eclipse Centric - What would you do if an enormous, celestial cryptid came pouring out of your television screen one night? If the old VHS tape you bought without disregard actually contained something much more profound - and horrific, to boot. Would you run? Would you scream?Would you love them back? - 1 / 2 / 3

Dead Mall Dare: The Golden Years - Sun & Moon Centric (no y/n) - A collection of oneshots from the Dead Mall Dare au that take place before the main fic, when the mall was still in operation. - 1 / 2 / 3

[bruggle]

Rat King Spor snippet!

Now that said, I'm not editing this thing. Idk if it's just the app or what, but trying to italicize one word winds up with the entire paragraph italicized. Which is annoying to deal with.

SO

* *: italics

~~ ~~: strikethrough

*** ***: bold italics

Spor hums as he hangs yet another tree shaped air freshener on his wall. Humans tend to be rather forgetful when they get rid of things... Not that *this* would be considered anything worth keeping. Even most *reploids* would call this trash.

But he's found himself quite the collection.

It's not much, of course. And nobody would think of his prized fuzzy cubes or junky old dial as worth much.

To Spor, however, it was as good as diamonds and gold. Because /he/ picked them out. /He/ chose to see value in it. Now, by no means was he going to start *bragging* about it. He knows what it all is. It *is* trash. The rat reploid works in a *scrap yard* for Asimov's sake.

...But he likes the sentiment.

Taking another sip from his E-tank, he checks on the mental link he has with all his "beauties." That is, the rat-type mechanaloids he's in charge of. It's mostly a hands-off job, thankfully. ~~Something he was *especially* grateful for during the last Mavrick War.~~ So he definitely couldn't complain. And the pay was good.

Had to be.

The risk alone made this job pricey.

Tearing down Mavericks for *literal* scrap and not just an insult was just *asking* for an infection. Spor had some of the best anti-virus in the world, sure, but it wasn't *foolproof.* And he'd *definitely* lost a good chunk of his mechanaloids to the Virus.

But it was a needed job.

And he sure did enjoy the job security.

Heck, even now when researchers are claiming the Virus is *finally* dead and gone, Spor still finds his hands full.

Just... with *actual* scrap rather than reploid bodies.

He welcomes the change quite a bit, hence his wall of "collectables." The truth was, it was all just trash that caught his eye. Maybe it's the rat in him, maybe he's just sentimental. Who knows. He likes it.

A troubling ping, however, gets his attention. One of his mechanaloids isn't responding. And he knows *exactly* which one. Venting quietly to himself, Spor heads out of his little trailer; all in search of his most *troublesome* rat.

~~He'll be rusted if he complains about him, though.~~

The heaps and piles of metal surround Spor as he makes his way to where Pinky is *usually* found. They all tend to be machines of habit, after all. The sound of chewing metal fills the air; one that most reploids would find disturbing, possibly even *disgusting.* But it's filled the silence in Spor's life for so long, he finds himself more anxious *without* it. Still, he's surprised when a different rat approaches him, one reflecting worry across the link. "Pinky get himself in trouble *again?*" Spor asked. The mechanaloid sends an affirmative, causing him to vent deeply once more. "Alright, *alright,* Brain. Lead me to 'im."

The rat squeaks at him before darting between several piles. And if Spor didn't know this scrap yard like the back of his hand, he'd probably be lost.

Of course, being mentally *linked* to the mechanaloid helped a ton, too.

Following Brain through the maze, he stops when his servos suddenly begin to register *pain.* That... that is *not* good... Pinky has done a lot of dumb things, but he's never been in *pain* before. With that, Spor picks up the pace; now following the link rather than his mechanaloid. Brain, of course sticks by his side regardless. Filling the reploid's ears with worried squeaks.

It's annoying, sure, but Spor doesn't have the core to tell him to knock it off.

Not when he's *just* as worried.

Climbing up a small hill of junk, Spor finally spots him; the small, pink rat mechanaloid known as Pinky. He seems to be lying on his side, however... Yet another sign of things going wrong... Especially when as the rat reploid makes his way closer, a long, distressed squeak is heard over and over and *over and-*

"Pinky? You good, bud?" Spor called out weakly. Mentally, he's kicking himself. Of *course* Pinky isn't good. Spor has *never* heard him make this sort of sound before! Still, he carefully approaches the mechanaloid; completely unsure of what in Asimov's name this could be. It *definitely* isn't the Virus. Even *if* the scientists were wrong, it didn't cause *this* much pain in its' victims.

He's never heard one of his mechanaloids make this sound.

Gently, he picks Pinky up with both hands, trying to see what *exactly* is causing the little rat *so much pain.* All while the mechanaloid makes that *awful,* pained squeaking. Turning him this way and that, Spor can't find anything. And that's what really rusts him.

*He can't fix it.*

That's part of his *job* as their caretaker. To make sure they're running correctly and smoothly. And when they can't? It's his job to make sure they deactivate quickly.

~~And the nice thing about his boss is that he's let the rat reploid set up a little graveyard for them. He gets just as attached to the little stinkers as Spor does.~~

Brain squeaks at him incessantly. And again, Spor can't blame the mechanaloid. They may not have the same intelligence level as reploids, but they still mimic basic emotions. These two had been in Spor's service the *longest.* That's why he finally broke down and gave them names. But they were just as friendly with each other as they were with Spor.

So Brain seeing Pinky in such agony was *torturous.*

Suddenly, Pinky *seizes* in his hands, causing the rat reploid to give a squeak of surprise himself. But... it *definitely* is not a good sign...

Because something seems to *come out* of Pinky's chestplate.

Something small.

And glowing.

And... round?

Spor doesn't know what to make of it. But he sees *something* that resembles a face. And it looks pained as well.

And then it *speaks.*

"*Hurts...*" the orb gasped, it's voice sounding feminine.

"'Hurts'?" Spor echos. "I... ma'am? C-can I help you?" Pinky has long since gone limp in his hand; and while Spor would *love* to take care of him, this is a bit more pressing of a matter.

"***Hurts...***" the orb insisted, seeming to *writhe* in pain.

"Okay, uh... can... you tell me who I can call?"

"***Hurts!***"

"I understand that!" Spor said, frustrated. "But I can't help you if you don't tell me anything!"

The orb then seems to look at him. *Actually* look at him. "...Help...?" she asked.

"Yes! I want to *help* you," Spor reiterated. "What can I do to *help?*" The orb stares at him. All while Brain squeaks anxiously at Spor. His link *screaming* for the rat reploid to *leave now or-*

"...Hide... please..." the orb whispered.

"Well... sure, there's... plenty a' places to hide," Spor replied, his nerves starting to fail him. Something about this isn't right. He should just... leave the orb here. Call his boss. Have *some* professional come out here and take a look at-

"*HIDE.*"

*And everything becomes swamped in pain as the orb enters his chest.*

[forthedancingandthethriving]

random.. but what are you characterz biggezt flawz?

Oof,, I have a lot of characters, so I'll just choose the ones I tend to write about the most!

Domain & Forum both share the flaw of trying to keep the others away from danger, often at the expense of themselves. This is on full display in Resigned Hosts, where a virus meant for SMG4 and SMG3 are instead taken into the two Admins, where they then begin literally decaying. The two of them feel quite a lot of guilt for, in a sense, kickstarting everything.

Lil Coding's biggest flaws are him now refusing help from people he doesn't know and how he jumps into things without thinking at times. The former is because of the events of Proceed To Overwrite. He's now very defensive over any of those similar to him trying to help, even if they have good intentions. (It's just a good thing he met Digi-Blade before this because that meeting would've gone very differently.)

Abyssal's biggest flaw is that they tend to look at the past with rose tinted glasses. This is something they've been working on since The Toxic Ringmaster, but they have had some trouble with it in both the past and the present.

CPU's biggest flaw is that he struggles to be true with his emotions (per his own accord), and he tries to shoulder responsibility. This has, of course, started to crack and stop. But it'll be a long way until he's fixed it.

Lily's biggest flaw is that she's not always forthcoming with her emotions or what she's doing. It's from years of having to hide her more 'leisurely' (aka KID STUFF) from her bio parents. It'll be a tough habit for her to break.

Nimbus's biggest flaw, before Watered Down Dreams, was her trying to force her Avatar identity and her normal identity apart. After Watered Down Dreams, her biggest flaw is that she can bottle things up, often leading to her having outbursts when she's alone.

Queen Melody's biggest flaw is identical to Domain and Forum's. As a queen, she strives to keep everyone in her kingdom safe, with this often coming to the expense of her own physical or mental health.

Tulip's biggest flaw is struggling with her identity and thinking she'll never find where she belongs. Not her Avatar self, but just being her and her wanting so badly to separate herself from her family legacy. That, and she doesn't feel like she belongs anywhere (and this isn't just because of her game either).

These are the ones off of the top of my head! If you have any other ones you'd like me to speak about, just say so! :D

[nicoforlifetrue]

He doesn't stay in the world for long, at first jumping from these worlds of left-behind not-yet watchers. Then, finally, he reaches out and draws out a world of his own, hiding it in magic so thoroughly it's overkill.

Then he builds.

He builds and he builds, from cityscapes to cottage towns, ignoring the phantom hands and feathers on his back.

He learns and he plays, crafting structures ..and at times turning over his shoulder to ask if they're proud, to find no one.

Just empty space. 

Endless, flat, empty space with no movement other than his creations.

He's alone.

And so instead he spends his time building and flying, once even revisiting his almost forgotten engineering skills to maybe just manufacture a friend, hell even a chat bot would work… And then realizing maybe they should have stayed forgotten— as, for a few weeks, he spent hours frantically fixing the code of a robot he had locked in his closet after it had deleted the laws of robotics out of its own files. Sure a fully functioning AI was groundbreaking and all, but it being convinced it was literally a demon that wanted to seemingly kill him and/or work him to death was one weird bug to come out of the whole thing. 

He elected to not tell it that he was incapable of dying. Last thing it needed was even more reason to make him build more rustic houses.

He then of course didn't learn his lesson and made a second one, someone to entertain his first when he just didn't have the energy to.

Npg, he named the first one, Robo he named the second.

They lived to annoy each other and make his life a nightmare. Because unfortunately now that there were two of them, they now had someone on the outside to edit their code.

Robo seemed set on turning Npg’s builds into a completely different style when the other turned its back, which led to Grian having to reattach Robo’s arm and yet again re-code Npg out of a rage loop that Grian couldn't figure out how to just remove without a complete and total system failure.

His only real confusion is why they stopped targeting him in their fits of rage.

And why they went into the closet when they had a virus, that was weird too. Learned habits maybe? He did tend to lock them in there when he was fixing the homicidal tendencies, and it is where he kept a mass majority of his more fine tuned engineering instruments. So maybe the learning AI had put the closet as the bug fixing space, and then also learned that it was faster to be repaired when in that area? Grian did tend to notice something was wrong faster now that they had picked up the habit. It seemed a bit too advanced considering the simple learning program he had installed, but then again it had also learned how to delete something grian had hard wired into its code so, at this rate, anything was possible.

He still can't believe he had managed to code it considering most of his knowledge was self taught. Not that he'd claim to have done much, Npg and Robo had made most of the more impressive edits to their own code.

He learned his lesson and stopped at Robo, deciding to focus on his current bots instead of stress over making new ones. The bots had enough issues where it didn't matter either way. Not to mention Robo seemed to be developing a praise seeking personality, as well as a jealousy streak. He couldn't be sure any new bots would survive it. Also considering he's pretty sure the only reason Robo isn't trying to get rid of Npg is because of how Grian would scold both of them when they hurt the other. It seemed like his scolding triggered a “bad” tick in the code, thankfully, so they should learn out of harming things soon. 

He hopes.

He quietly thanks whatever higher power is controlling the two’s code that even touching the rewards and punishments system causes a complete system failure. A thing he learned when Robo had tried to get rid of said bad tick and Grian had found it face down on its build.

…He also spent a lot of time thinking— thinking about what happened, what he doesn't like, what he adores, often about himself.

And he finds things he didn't quite like.

He notes first how the ‘they’ he so adored growing up has dropped from his inner monologue, the pronoun a bit spoiled by the connection to them, although there still a cherry sweetness to the letters when he thinks of them— a flash of straw blond hair and a hidden smile— but with some good news he feels pleased when running over third person phrases; he finds himself using words like person instead of boy, or partner instead of boyfriend, or child instead of son, the only exception being the same as before with brother instead of sibling.

A discovery he made when one time his mentor was feeling particularly talkative and had murmured plans for children, about how Grian would be a great sibling.

He always loved how all it took was “brother” from him and the immediate shift in his mentor's words.

But his pronouns had changed, not much else.

With this revelation he trailed after it, noted with no small pleasure that they did not change who he was— he was still a demiboy, that hadn't changed, and he found no small joy in thinking it never would, the image of him telling his mentor and the soft wings that had pulled him just a bit closer lighting up in his mind as he thought of it; their silent “ok” when they couldn't bring themselves to whisper the word.

Then he chases after what he hates now, things to tiptoe around.

He finds the end revolting; not enough to never go, but enough to avoid, blacks and purples send shivers up his spine and he finds cloaks quite pleasant to burn, whittling himself a staff fills him with confidence instead of disdain, and with a couple testing jabs he finds the weapon a comfort instead of a nuisance.

He finds quite quickly that his diet has changed.

Outside of their realm he finds himself growing hungry, and thus discovers the variety of things he can no longer consume, which just so happens to be near everything; meats are off the table, too many fruits give him a stomach ache, bread is kind of okay but too much and he gets a headache— the only thing he doesn't have much problems with seems to be seeds which, oddly enough, keep him feeling fairly full.

He ends up finding himself mixing together meal bags, comprised mostly of seed with the max amount of other things before he gets sick. As far as he can tell he hasn't been malnourished, at least according to the bots and how he himself feels, so he calls it good and moves on to other issues.

Like the loneliness, how it surrounded him, made haunting whispers echo at the edge of his hearing, gunshots now mixed with snapping wings.

He was alone, painfully alone. Other than his two homicidal robot sons who he loves dearly yet still, they don't make much for conversation. Or much anything to socialize with. They were… hollow, unable to chase away his thoughts for more than a few seconds at most.

He wanted people— real honest people… But he was alone.

But things change.

:)