#I have spent far too long trawling the Internet not only for this dress but what fucking fabric they use

[aw-bean-s]

For anyone else who has been capital O obsessive over Wednesday's prom dress it's Alaia's 2020 fall ready-to-wear collection specifically look 8. If you were wondering.

[juju-on-that-yeet]

Careful What You Wish For

Whumptober 2020 Day 11: Psych 101 Prompt: Defiance, Struggling, Crying

Summary: After Bingiplier and MarkBop bring new clues about Oliver's disappearance to Ego Inc., Chrome finds a potential trail to where Oliver might be hidden. He, Yandere, and Yancy go investigate on their own, and manage to find Oliver - but get much more than they bargained for. (continued from “Catch”)

Warnings: Blood, violence, tasering, amputation, mind control

Read on AO3 (Full Whumptober 2020 series)

Enjoy!

~

After Bingiplier and MarkBop bring news of a failed kidnapping, strange tech, and an encrypted laptop into Ego Inc., Chrome hopes it’ll finally get them somewhere closer to finding Oliver. It’s been too long since he went missing. Chrome’s spent too many nights awake, too angry to charge and too tired to keep working. Plus’s been too quiet and morose, Google’s been too frustrated and worried. Chrome is sick of Oliver being gone, and he’s determined to get answers out of the materials Bing and Bop brought back.

Chrome looks over the evidence, the IDs and the powerful laser and the file. He tries to get into the laptop. But of course, Plus and Google do the same, and they all have the same experiences: The IDs are useless, the laser doesn’t even have a serial number, the file has no identifying information, and the laptop is so heavily encrypted that it takes hours to extract even a modicum of data.

Eventually, though, while staring at the IDs for the hundredth time, Chrome has an idea: If there’s no obvious information about where the laser, files, or laptop came from, the only lead left is the people. The IDs may be useless on their own, but the people who had them were real. He confirms with Bop that the photos in the IDs match the faces of the people he and Bing saw, and it further solidifies his idea. He takes the ID of the man first, scans over the photo, and scours the internet for photos of him.

There’s a lot of false positives. People that look very similar at first blush but after a moment of scrutiny reveal themselves as the wrong man. It doesn’t help that the man’s appearance isn’t particularly distinctive, meaning that there’s people everywhere who look like him. But after hours and hours of trawling through endless Facebook photos and the “Meet The Team” pages of various companies, Chrome can’t find him anywhere. Frustrated, he’s forced to stop and charge, but once he’s powered up again, he does the same process with the woman’s ID photo.

For a while it looks much the same, until he gets to a particularly unique photo: The woman – and he’s certain it’s her – alongside a group of others, all cutting the ribbon in front of a large facility. Everyone is dressed professionally and smiling, and it looks like any other grand opening photo. But Chrome is sure that the woman is the same as in the ID. The photo comes attached to a blog post, and it’s there that Chrome gets a name: Enigma Data, supposedly an IT company. The building in the photo is its third location, according to the post. Interestingly, there’s no link to a website for Enigma Data and no address for the building. Post comments are turned off and there’s no tags. The rest of the blog seems fairly ordinary for an adult career woman, and seems to be continuously updated to this day. It’s an odd little blip, but Chrome suspects it’s not a coincidence. Chances are the woman tried to scrub her blog of references to her work, but was unable to find this one due to the lack of tags.

But then again…it’s not very conclusive. There could be any number of reasons for the strange post. But Chrome can vaguely recognize where the building is from the environment in the photo, and it wouldn’t be hard to get there. And if he’s right, he can find out for sure that Oliver is there and a rescue can be planned. If he brings this to Google and Plus and they dismiss it, then Oliver will continue to be stuck there. And they could very well dismiss it, Chrome could certainly be wrong. But he’s willing to take the risk, even though he knows his brothers won’t be.

Which is why he charges himself up and leaves the next morning to investigate on his own.

Or at least, that was his intention.

“Where are you going?” asks a voice from behind him the moment his hand touches the doors of Ego Inc.

Chrome turns to see Yandere standing there, arms crossed, and Yancy beside him.

“How did you even know I was leaving?” Chrome asks in return.

“Because I know you, Aka-kun,” Yandere says, “I knew you were coming up with a plan to find Kiiro-kun. And if you think you’re doing that alone, you’re mistaken.”

“Yeah,” Yancy adds, “If these people want androids, it ain’t safe for youse to go alone. We’re coming, too.”

Chrome sighs, but decides he doesn’t have a choice in the matter. He explains the situation and his theory to Yandere and Yancy as they walk down the streets of LA.

“We’re just investigating,” he finishes, “We’ll get as close as we can and scope the place out, see if we spot anything useful.”

“We’re not going in?” Yandere asks as though disappointed, eager for a fight as always.

“No way,” Chrome says sternly, “We’ll go back home and tell the others so we can make a proper plan.”

“How much farther are we going, Red?” asks Yancy, a little nervous, “If we go too far, my tracker’s gonna go off, and I’m gonna be in some serious trouble.”

“Not if others are with you,” Chrome reminds him, “And besides, we’re almost there.”

The area gets less and less populated the farther they go, and eventually, the building Chrome saw in the photo can be seen in the distance. It makes sense for the area to be quiet; if people knew what was happening at Enigma Data, the place wouldn’t have been able to take Oliver in the first place. The idea that Oliver could be in that building somewhere, probably hurt, probably scared, probably terribly upset, makes Chrome’s blood boil.

The group turns into an alley to prevent being noticed in the quiet streets. They’re halfway down when Chrome starts to hear things. He stops walking. Yandere and Yancy follow.

“What?” Yandere asks, though he’s quieter than usual. He recognizes the look on Chrome’s face. Yancy doesn’t, and looks at him curiously.

“We’re being watched,” Chrome breathes.

At the back of the alley, a group of people appear, dressed in SWAT-like body armor and carrying similarly-themed weapons on their belts and strapped across themselves. Chrome turns around, but sees another group of them at the mouth of the alley where they came in, blocking the exit. Chrome turns towards the back of the alley again, and Yandere and Yancy look to the front, the three of them back-to-back. They already know they’ll have to fight their way out of this, and that it won’t be easy.

“We were hoping for more,” says a man from the front group, stepping forward, “But at least one of you showed up.”

“That photo was a trap,” Chrome growls, a sinking feeling in his gut.

“You came right to us,” the man, possibly the leader of this operation, says, “With a bit too much company, but that will be easily dealt with.”

Chrome snarls, but stops in an instant when he sees someone else step out of the group alongside the leader. This person isn’t wearing armor like the others. This person doesn’t have a short buzz cut and slight stubble like the others. This person has fluffy dark hair, glasses, and a yellow t-shirt with a “G” emblazoned on the front. This person is familiar, someone Chrome hasn’t seen in weeks, someone Chrome has been missing for just as long.

“Oliver?” Chrome gasps.

Oliver doesn’t look like he should. His face is more stoic than Chrome has ever seen it look. His eyes are even worse, glaring and glowing yellow and without a spark of light or love in them. This is Oliver, but it’s not Oliver, not anymore. Chrome can feel Yandere and Yancy moving against his back, hear them gasp at the sight of Oliver and try to talk to him, but he can’t focus enough to understand what they’re saying.

He tries to send a message to Oliver through their internal server. The message bounces back as a failed delivery.

“Ollie, what did they do to you?” Chrome asks aloud instead, taking a step closer. Some of the men chuckle.

“Don’t bother,” the leader laughs, “He’s fully conditioned, and soon you will be, too. Google Yellow…” Oliver’s head whips to the leader. “…Subdue the android.”

Oliver looks back to Chrome. His eyes narrow. He pulls out a taser – the same kind of taser that Bing and Bop brought back.

“Run,” Chrome orders Yandere and Yancy.

“Chrome, no!” Yandere cries, “There’s no way we’re leaving you!!”

“Run!!” Chrome yells as Oliver charges.

Chrome manages to dodge Oliver’s first jab with the taser, and the second, and more. He can hear Yandere and Yancy running away, stabbing and punching their way through the set of men at the end of the alley. The men on Chrome’s side move forward, but Chrome can’t concentrate on them. He’s too busy avoiding Oliver, avoiding the taser as it crackles and hums with electricity. Oliver is single-minded in his drive to get Chrome, eyes still narrowed, still glowing, still blank and empty.

“Ollie, come on!!” Chrome shouts as he dodges, “It’s me, Chrome! You have to remember! We’ve all been looking for you, me and Plus and Blue and everyone else, you have to–”

Oliver lands a lucky jab on Chrome’s chest, an inch above the left side of his core. As soon as the taser’s prongs touch Chrome, his world becomes fire. His entire body seizes, muscles contracting tight, too tight. His vision goes white. He’s not even sure if he screams. It’s only electric fire, and he can feel every tenth of a second as it passes, feel the waves of electricity flowing outward from his chest. His core shudders, he can’t breathe.

When Oliver pulls the taser away, Chrome collapses bonelessly. He can still barely breathe, but he tries his hardest to gasp in air. Warning notifications pop up across his vision, telling him that he’s too hot and his vents won’t open and his core stopped pulsing for a few moments and there’s a burn on his chest and a hundred other alerts. Oliver leans over Chrome. Chrome looks up at him, vision blurred.

“Ollie,” he wheezes.

“We need him unconscious,” the leader says from somewhere Chrome can’t see, “We can’t risk him recovering and escaping.”

Oliver nods.

Then he kicks Chrome in the head.

Chrome doesn’t even have time to realize what just happened before he’s unconscious.

~~~

Yandere and Yancy run.

Yandere didn’t want to, but he knew as well as Chrome did that he and Yancy wouldn’t stand a chance against Oliver like this. His mind is still reeling from seeing Oliver in that state, from having to leave Chrome in his clutches, as he and Yancy break through the group of men at the mouth of the alley and flee for home. The men follow not too far behind, but if Yandere and Yancy can make it to Ego Inc., the magic of the building will hide them, and the men won’t be able to get inside.

“Kuso, kuso,” Yandere mutters as he runs, pulling Yancy along by his arm.

“Fuck, this was a bad idea,” Yancy pants, trying to keep up, “We should’ve stopped him–”

“No,” Yandere cuts him off, “We know where Kiiro-kun is now, we’ll go home and tell the others–”

Something sails over their heads and lands on the ground ahead of them. Before either of them can ask the other what it is, it goes off, spilling cloudy smoke into the air, smoke that the pair run right into.

“A smoke bomb!” Yandere yells, already coughing a little, “Keep running!!”

But he’s already let go of Yancy’s arm and slowed down from surprise. He can’t see through the smoke, and breathing is a little harder. The lost momentum means he can’t run fast enough as the men close in on him, and in moments, both his arms have been grabbed. He kicks and struggles as he’s pulled back, out of the smoke cloud but into the group’s clutches. Yancy is already with them, caught as well, fighting like Yandere is. But it’s all they can do as they’re forced back the way they came.

“Let us go, ya fuckin’ pigs!!” Yancy yells, face starting to flush with rage.

“Fuck you all!” Yandere screams, kicking at the legs of the men dragging him, “You’re all going to pay for this!!”

Though both of them are strong, Yandere is unnaturally so. There’s a couple times that Yandere almost breaks out of his captors’ grip, but they tighten their hold and watch him carefully. In the end, the pair are taken back to the alley they escaped from. Oliver is still there, holding a cruel-looking taser in his hand, and he looks at Yandere and Yancy as they’re brought over. Several men are supporting something, and it takes a moment for Yandere to see that it’s Chrome, unconscious. There’s a hole burned in his shirt above his core and a black mark across the skin, along with an awful bruise on his forehead. The sight of him sends a jolt of rage and terror through Yandere’s body.

“Aka-kun!!” Yandere cries, fighting ever harder against the men holding him, “What have you done!?” he screams at Oliver, who continues to regard him passively.

“Fuck you!!” Yancy yells. Whether at Oliver or the group of men, Yandere doesn’t know.

“We got them,” says one of the men holding Yancy, ignoring his swearing and kicking.

“Good,” says the leader, “Well, we have our protocol for civilians that interfere.” He reaches for one of the firearms strapped to his chest.

“I have a suggestion,” says one of the men holding Yandere, “This one here–” He gives Yandere a shake that makes him growl. “–is really strong, stronger than most. I’ve held back men twice his size that weren’t half as hard to control.”

The leader considers for a moment. He looks at Oliver.

“Google Yellow, analyze him.”

Oliver stares at Yandere, eyes glowing yellow.

“He is inordinately strong,” Oliver says, voice monotone. His gaze flicks to Yancy. “There is something strange about them that my systems cannot define. They do not appear to be entirely human.”

Yandere and Yancy both stop struggling in shock. The leader whistles.

“Guess it makes some sense,” he muses, “Who else would hang out with a bunch of androids? Let’s take them both back then, see if the higher-ups agree, then they can get conditioned.”

Yandere doesn’t want to know what “conditioned” means, but he shares a furtive glance with Yancy. It’d be bad for them to end up in that facility, having who-know-what be done to them, but Yancy has a tracker in his arm. If the signal carries through the building, the other egos will be able to follow it to rescue them.

The men are starting to head away, through the alley to the facility Yandere and the others were headed to in the first place, when Oliver speaks again.

“We cannot take him with us,” he says, pointing to Yancy.

“Why not?” asks the leader in a warning tone, “Did you forget who calls the shots here, Yellow?”

“No,” Oliver replies without lowering his pointing finger, “He has a tracker embedded in his arm. My scan discovered it.”

Yandere’s heart sinks. Yancy’s expression melts from fury to fear.

“Dammit,” the leader mutters, “He’s been broadcasting his location this whole time!”

“Maybe it can be removed,” puts in one of the men holding Yancy.

“There’s no time,” the leader says. He looks to Oliver. “Can it be destroyed?”

“Not without destroying the arm,” Oliver says, “But if it were to be destroyed, it could still display the last known signal for some time after. It would be best to leave it intact to avoid raising suspicion, and to leave it somewhere far from here.”

“We can’t risk taking him inside for someone to remove,” the leader sighs, “Do you have a plan?”

“I do,” Oliver says, “Would you like me to explain it? We will unfortunately not be able to take him with us afterward.”

“You know what, just go ahead and do it,” the leader says, “The other one’s the strong one, so at least we’ll keep him. Google Yellow, handle the problem as you see fit.”

Oliver nods. He approaches Yancy. Yancy shrinks back, but there’s nowhere for him to go.

“What are you doing?” Yandere gasps.

“Please release his right arm,” Oliver tells the men holding him.

“Ollie, c’mon,” Yancy pleads, “You don’t gotta hurt me, you know me, dontcha?”

His words are ignored as the man on his right releases Yancy’s arm and Oliver takes it immediately after. He places one hand on Yancy’s upper arm, the other on his forearm. Yancy stares up at Oliver in fear, and Yandere watches helplessly.

There is no warning before Oliver bends back Yancy’s arm, breaking it at the elbow. The crunching snap isn’t half as loud as Yancy’s scream. He kicks wildly against the pain, but Oliver’s grip doesn’t budge. Yandere screams as loud as Yancy does, fighting against his own captors.

“Stop it, stop!!” he screams.

Oliver doesn’t stop. He changes his grip, moves both hands closer to the now-broken elbow joint, and twists. Yancy howls as skin rips, then muscle. Blood spurts up, drops flecking Oliver’s glasses. Yandere hollers too, but he can only watch as Oliver finally severs most of the skin and muscle from the two halves of the arm and pulls the forearm off with a strong yank. Yancy’s scream raises an octave before dropping away as his eyes roll back from pain. He sags, semi-conscious, as Oliver lets his arm – the half that remains attached to Yancy – go, letting the man who held him previously grab him again. Yancy doesn’t react, wheezing faintly against the agony. But Yandere doesn’t stop screaming, doesn’t stop kicking.

“Kiiro-kun, how could you, how could you!!” Yandere wails, the gravity of the situation fully sinking in as he starts to cry.

“Please give him to me,” Oliver says to the men holding Yancy, “I will take him and the arm to separate locations away from the facility. I will stay hidden as I travel, and this will not be traced back to us.”

“Brilliant,” the leader laughs, “You heard him,” he adds to the men holding Yancy.

They give him up, and Oliver slings Yancy over his shoulder. He uses one arm to hold him there and his free hand to carry Yancy’s severed forearm. Blood pours from Yancy’s wound down Oliver’s back, but Oliver hardly seems to notice. He walks off, leaving a blood trail in his wake. Yancy is motionless, probably unconscious from shock and blood loss.

“Yan-kun!!” Yandere screams anyway, sobbing now, “He’s going to bleed to death, murderers, murderers–!”

“That’s enough out of you,” the leader growls. He pulls out an assault rifle from a holster on his back and approaches Yandere.

When he gets there, Yandere spits in his face.

“We’ll be missed,” Yandere growls through his tears, “And we’ll be found.”

For all his bravado, he’s not sure he even believes it.

“Doubt it,” the leader says, before hitting Yandere between the eyes with the heavy butt of his rifle.

Stars explode before Yandere’s eyes, and then the world goes dark.