#Lab Equipment Validation

[moonstruckme]

James Potter or tasm!peter parker fluff or comfort?? I dont mind whatever you write ill love 🙏🙏

Thanks for requesting :)

cw: implied past abuse

tasm!Peter Parker x fem!reader ♡ 1.2k words

Peter’s having a rough week. These things always seem to happen to him. He’s got a big presentation at work on Friday, by which time the project he’s been underfunded and understaffed for has to be finished. His Aunt May has been busy with work, too, so either you or Peter is at her place most nights trying to help out, except she seems to think when it’s Peter it’s familial responsibility but when it’s you it's an unfair burden, so it’s mostly been Peter. There’s also an impressively organized cell of criminals he’s been trying to investigate before they blow up a bank or something. So of course, he’s sleep deprived to boot. 

And while you know the rough edge of frustration in his voice isn’t meant for you, hearing it makes your skin tighten nonetheless. 

“How does a person run out of salt?” Peter stalks through the front door and straight into the kitchen. “Or maybe the better question is, why does it take going to three bodegas to find one with salt in stock?”  

He’s soaked from the rain, and you feel guilty for being all cozied up on the couch while he’s been running around the city. Maybe it’s irrational, but you feel sort of like you should have been stressed out and cold all night, too. In solidarity. 

“May didn’t have salt?” you guess as Peter opens the fridge, stooping low to peer inside. 

“You should see her pantry, babe. It’s like everything either expired at the turn of the century or got bugs in it. Hey, did you make anything for dinner?” 

“No.” You hesitate. “You told me you wanted to eat at May’s, so I had the leftovers from last night.” 

“Shit.” He closes the fridge, resting his forehead on the door. “You’re right. I totally forgot, I only made enough for her.” 

“I’ll make something now.” You stand. Peter gives you a look that conveys both apology and gratitude as you join him in your small kitchen. “You feel like pasta?” 

“Thank you,” he says, kissing the top of your head lightly. 

“Course,” you murmur. Really, it feels like the least you can do. “Would you mind chopping up some basil?” 

“For my own dinner?” Peter teases. The levity in his voice is obviously forced, and the air between you heavies as he realizes you’ve heard it too. 

You almost don’t want to ask, but you do want to be a supportive girlfriend. You can lend him a compassionate ear. “How was work today?” 

He sighs, grabbing the cutting board from a cabinet near your feet and shutting the door with perhaps a tad too much force. 

“It was…ahh.” He scrubs a hand through his hair, stooping again into the white fridge light to find the basil. It casts dark shadows underneath his eyes. “You’ve gotta be sick of hearing about this.” 

“It’s okay. Unless you don’t feel like talking about it.” 

“No, it’s just, how do they expect us to stick to their tight schedule when half of my lab is being pulled away to other projects all the time?” Peter’s knife slices through the basil, hitting the cutting board with a sharp thunk. “Today, we were down one intern who caught the stomach flu, and it set us way back. One intern shouldn’t be that crucial to a big project like this!” 

You hum, ignoring the way the back of your neck prickles. The tension emanating from Peter is completely valid, your reaction a bothersome, purposeless souvenir from an old life. You find yourself staring into the pot of water and waiting for it to boil. 

“And it’s not like it’s anyone’s fault, but all the rest of us are working extra hours to try and get this done in time.” 

Small bubbles in the bottom of the pot, rising tentatively to the surface. Peter’s knife thunks a quickening rhythm on the cutting board. 

“If they’d given us the money we asked for, we could have hired more people, been working with better equipment, but instead—” The water starts to rumble, steam warming your face. It’s thick in your throat. “—it’s like we don’t even work for a top-notch lab. Like, do they think we really believe they don’t have any resources to spare?”

Peter’s voice is rising, irritation sharpening his words. You reach to turn down the stove when big bubbles reach the surface, splattering hot onto your wrist. You ignore the sting. 

“My boss keeps talking about how important this presentation is,” Peter goes on, opening the cabinet next to your head and reaching inside, “but if it were really important, he’d have—” He slams the cabinet door. 

You both freeze. 

To anyone else, it would look like nothing—the way your expression stays perfectly still, your muscles stiffening just slightly, the invisible pause in your heartbeat. But Peter knows you. 

“Sorry.” He sounds as breathless as you feel. “I’m sorry. You okay?” 

“Mhm.” Despite your best intentions, your voice comes out pitchy. You can’t make yourself move in a way that feels natural, so you stay not moving at all. Steam wafting warm up onto your face. 

“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” Peter says, tone softer than you’ve heard it in days. “I shouldn’t have—I didn’t mean to yell.” The roiling pot has calmed to a gurgle. You can see him swallow in your peripheral vision. “Can you look at me?” 

You take in what you hope is a subtle breath, turning to your boyfriend with a wan smile. “Sorry,” you manage. “I don’t know why I did that.” 

“It’s okay,” he says, brows bunched in the middle. Brown eyes like a puppy’s. 

He shifts his arms, a question, and you step into them. You do it more for him than for you, but the second Peter’s arms wrap around your back the last of the tension shudders out of you. You hug him back, rubbing between his shoulder blades reassuringly. 

“I scared you?” he asks, still in that soft voice like he’s afraid of startling you. It’s not really a question. “I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t mean to get so mad.” 

“You’re allowed to be mad,” you argue weakly. There’s an embarrassing blockage in your throat. “It’s not your fault if I freak out, you should still be allowed to vent.” 

“No, but I know how you are.” Peter squeezes your shoulders. “I can vent without slamming things. It’s not nice.” 

You don’t have much of an argument for that. Still, “You really shouldn’t be the one comforting me right now,” you point out. 

A light hum. “Says who? I’m feeling a lot better already.” His hand climbs up to cup the back of your neck, his face turning down so his lips rest on your head. “Should’a just gone straight for the hug when I got home. Might have saved us both a lot of ranting.” 

You push your face into his sweatshirt, mindless of its dampness. He smells like rainwater. You don’t know how you could ever have thought, even for a second, that someone like this could be capable of hurting you. 

“I’ll make a note of that,” you murmur. 

“Yeah, please do,” Peter teases, pressing a kiss to your head. He pulls away and sets two still-chilled hands on your face. “Are you really okay?” he asks sincerely. “I know how scared you get, sweetheart. I’m so sorry I did that to you.” 

“You didn’t mean to,” you tell him, “and it wouldn’t be your fault anyways. I’m really okay.” 

Your boyfriend nods, but he still looks troubled. “Another hug for good measure?” 

“For you or for me?” 

A corner of his mouth kicks up. “Does it matter?” 

It doesn’t really.

[ccccatttta]

it's low-key very nice to be a med student bc im sick rn and one of my teachers (who is obviously a working doctor) just gave me a legally valid prescription after checking all my symptoms and i didn't have to spend anything on it.

he did all the proper work using the labs equipment and some stuff he always brings bc he goes to work after giving us classes, it's cool af

[homestuckreplay]

A point came up in discussion with my friends about how Homestuck treats the notion of sex (as in, a supposed biological basis for gender as rooted in sexual reproduction) that arguably the first stage in the comic's future progressive dissolution of that notion is John "fathering" himself and the other kids (guardians included) via the means of ectobiology, rather than the usual human means of reproduction - something I think becomes deliciously ironic given later transgender readings of their character, if presumably not an intended reading at this time. Do you have any thoughts on this?

this is a SUPER interesting read that I’m going to be thinking about a lot – I honestly wish I had more thoughts, so I might add to this later if anything else comes to me, but here’s what I have so far!

I think ectobiology is inherently queer, as there’s no reason why a kid made that way would need two parents of different sexes. any couple could have a biological kid by mixing their slime, and a baby could also have three or four bio parents at once. as you say, the person performing the ectobiology doesn’t have to be one of the bio parents, analogous to something like surrogacy in our world. so ectobiology levels the playing field for what reproduction and parenthood can be, without privileging ‘cis man + cis woman conceiving a child via sex’ as the gold standard that all other methods are compared to.

In our world, it’s AFAB people who do the work of pregnancy and childbirth, which causes society to see parenthood as gendered. mothers are perceived as primary caregivers, as more inherently nurturing than fathers, as finding it easier to bond with their children, etc., even though these things aren’t always true in practice. ectobiology happens in external lab equipment, so people of any sex have equal capability of doing the work of creating a child. this breaks down the distinction between motherhood and fatherhood, making it harder for society to see them as separate roles.

In sexual reproduction, kids are assigned a sex at birth and usually raised differently because of that, with expectations for their gender and personality. societally, sex is privileged over gender – it’s seen as either the source of gender (for cis people) or something we’re transgressing (trans and nonbinary people). ectobiology doesn’t work like that, because it encodes personality traits as well as genetics. Bro loves puppets, so when he’s cloned in baby form, the first thing he does is find a puppet to curl up with, because that’s hard coded into him instead of being an interest he developed across his life. it’s possible that John has inherited ‘male genetic phenotype’ from Grandpa and ‘female gender identity’ from Nanna, and if so, ectobiology holds those things as equally important instead of one preceding the other. so being trans isn’t a deviation from the norm, it’s an equally valid and likely experience to being cis.

In our world, someone parenting themself happens when their guardians’ parenting is incomplete, so kids (or adults!) have to teach themselves about things their guardians missed. cis kids are more likely to get sex education and information about puberty from a guardian (often one of the same sex). trans and queer people usually have to do that research ourselves. so John being their own parent (ie creating themself) represents how John’s dad taught them about male gender roles + cis male puberty, but John will later have to teach themself about what it means to be trans + how transitioning works. biologically and socially, John is both the cause and effect of their own identity. that’s kind of beautiful, right?

[lemon-lime-limbo]

𝖎𝖘 𝖎𝖙 𝖘𝖙𝖎𝖑𝖑 𝖒𝖊 𝖙𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝖒𝖆𝖐𝖊𝖘 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖘𝖜𝖊𝖆𝖙? | 𝖆 𝖇𝖓𝖍𝖆 𝖔𝖓𝖊𝖘𝖍𝖔𝖙

pairing: katsuki bakugou x gn! reader

warnings: COLLEGE AU, reader does have a female roommate, reader is a nursing major, idk probably ooc bakugou ngl, soft! bakugou, bakugou has hyperhidrosis, possible tw for medical scenarios (no needles, just mentions of stuff like that), jirou and denki are dating teehee

genre: fluff

word count: 2.4k

note: i typed this so fast that my fingers started locking up LMAO anyway bakugou with hyperhidrosis is my guilty pleasure i love it so much and also can u tell i took medical classes... i tried to make it accessible but also flex my knowledge. enjoy!

When your professor told you about your upcoming project a few classes ago, you sighed in annoyance. You loved being a nursing major, and medical labs came easily to you. But those labs were always done with classmates, and your professor supposed you needed to work with fresh patients, ones you hadn’t gotten accustomed to. A valid suggestion, although it then tasked you with finding six willing participants. And as one can imagine, those were few and far between, and tracking down a sixth person was proving to be much more difficult than you had hoped.

You had already done the lab on your two neighbors you shared a kitchen with, your roommate, Kyoka Jirou, and also her boyfriend, Denki, who was just happy to be there. However, you were still one short. Denki offered to ask his friends to help, and although you were grateful, you couldn’t imagine any of them would be willing to be a test subject for a stranger, and you can’t say you would feel much differently in their position, so you declined. Of course, you could always fake it and just make up random data, but your professor was monitoring how many people you brought into the lab via a sign-in sheet, so you had to use real people.

After class, you went back to your dorm to mope about your future bad grade on your assignment. “Hey,” Kyoka said from her bed, back against the wall with her boyfriend’s head in her lap. 

That was when you saw him. Slouched down in your twin-sized loft bed filled to the brim with stuffed animals was Denki’s hot blonde friend, Katsuki Bakugou. You had gotten only a few chances to speak to him at Denki’s dorm parties, but from what he told you, aside from his general lack of complaisance, Bakugou was a fun person to be around. Aggressive, but still good company, apparently. He was your party crush that would sometimes talk to you. You were too scared to ask for his number, and he always disappeared promptly after every party. But while he was there, his eyes never left you.

Today, he wore an oversized black hoodie, and his baggy black pants had multiple straps hanging from them. One leg dangled over the edge of your mattress, his clunky black boots on the floor by your desk, buried in the fur of your fluffy rug. He didn’t seem to notice you, his eyes glued to his phone screen with his other arm casually behind his head.

You were embarrassed, both by your messy side of the room, and by all the stuffed animals on your bed. He clearly didn’t care, however, squashing quite a few plushies under his body, their plastic eyes bulging out of fluffy sockets. 

Dodging wads of clothes and cords from musical equipment, you made your way to your desk to set your backpack down, dodging his leg as you ducked under the loft bed. “You, um… You didn’t tell me we would have company…” you said to Kyoka, wishing you had dressed up a bit more for your previous class. You always expected her boyfriend to be over, but this was definitely a surprise. She knew you found him attractive, but you’re not sure she grasped the real gravity of the situation.

She laughed sheepishly. “Sorry… But I do have good news.”

“Go on.” You kicked off your own shoes onto your rug before trying to gather up some of the papers on your desk to help with the mess.

“Well, it took a bit of convincing, and a bit of bribery, but Denki found you a final person!” You turned to see her doing jazz-hands from her bed. 

Your eyes widened. “You don’t mean-”

She nodded, a devious smile on her face. “You got it. Meet Denki’s friend from high school.” If you hadn’t been staring right at her in shock, you would have missed the wink she shot at you. 

“Nice to see you,” you said after taking a moment to regain your composure, looking over the edge of your bed at him. He gave you a nod in acknowledgement, eyes snapping to yours and trailing downwards. You looked away awkwardly, feeling like a museum exhibit.

“I know you told me not to ask my friends,” Denki said, sitting up with a yawn. “But I couldn’t help myself.”

You wished you could be mad at him for going against your wishes, but you were just glad to finally be able to finish your project and to not have to scrounge campus for a semi-willing participant. Even though his choice of victim seemed to be a challenge to see how professional you can keep yourself. “Well, thank you. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.” You leaned against one of the wooden posts of your bed frame. “I definitely owe you one!”

His eyes darted from yours nervously. “Let’s wait until after you do your thing to decide that…” Denki just hoped you wouldn’t kill him when you got back to your dorm. In fact, he was already running through ideas and excuses to not be there when you did get back.

“What do you mean?” You tilted your head with a suspicious squint.

An aggravated sigh drew your attention to your bed above you. “Where are we going for your little experiment?” Bakugou said.

You frowned at the thought of it being an experiment. While technically your project was science, as all nursing is, this assignment wasn’t anything more than gathering data and practicing your application of the techniques you learned. An experiment would entail a hypothesis and more focus on the science aspects. You almost made the clarification, but you lost your nerve when you looked at him again. “The lab is right by building B,” you said. “It’s open now, if you want to-”

“Fine.” He jumped off your bed before you could react and yanked his boots on. “Let’s go,” he grumbled, pulling harshly on the side zippers as you took a few seconds to process what had just occurred.

You hurried to put your own shoes on before he walked out the door, almost leaving you in the dust as you rushed to catch up to him after grabbing your backpack. Once outside, you were grateful you wore your jacket, the brisk air whipping around and stinging your cheeks as the sun went down. You walked next to each other, and you were determined to make this as transactional as possible, no matter what the heart threatening to erupt out of your ribs was saying. And it had very much to say, you found out. You didn't want to be presumptuous, and he was only supposed to help you with your assignment and be on his way, but it became increasingly difficult to keep the heat out of your face. You hardly noticed Bakugou’s soft jangling, the chains and straps on his pants rattling together, or the way his eyes occasionally fixed themselves on you, yours stuck down at the sidewalk under your feet. 

Building B was the building closest to your dorm, to which you were extremely grateful. It only took a few minutes of awkward silence to get there. You fumbled to grab your keycard out of the pocket of your jeans, the beep of the machine echoing through the small alcove as you pressed your card against it.

The large glass doors slid open soundlessly and you walked in, the stuffy room between the next set of doors so insulated from any sounds all you could hear was your own breathing. Through the second set was the medical lab, the large panels of windows casting a sunset glow over the equipment that had been left out. Community lab coats hung on a hook by the door. Several small doors lined the circular room, each door leading to a separate room for practicing medical exams. The sign-up sheet for your class was posted on a clipboard on the countertop beside a sink. 

Boxes of latex-free rubber gloves were lined up on the central counter, next to piles of stethoscopes and blood-pressure cuffs. As you signed in on the clipboard, writing your name and Bakugou’s in one of the tiny boxes, he wandered the lab, picking up random things and putting them back down after turning them in his hands a few times. You were grateful for the spray bottles of alcohol scattered about the room and in every smaller office, which you sprayed on the equipment you chose.

“Okay. Let’s see…” you said before scanning the small rooms, peeking into each one to check for other students. All of them were deserted, so you chose a random one, Bakugou following you inside. A table and a small chair were the only things in the room, aside from the counter and sink. “All I have to do is take your blood pressure and we’ll be done!” You set your backpack down and pulled out your lab sheet.

He rolled his eyes with a scoff. “You brought me all the way here, just for this?”

You nodded. “Yes. Now, please sit down.”

“Don’t tell me what to do, dumbass,” he said, but he sat down anyway, the wooden chair creaking under his weight. 

Your back was to him as you put your stethoscope on, scanning your paper’s instructions. When you turned back around, your eyes immediately widened and your face went hot. “What, um… What are you doing?” you stammered. Bakugou was in the process of removing his sweatshirt, revealing a plain black tank top and a muscular frame you weren’t expecting, although you tried not to imagine what he looked like under his baggy clothes.

“What’s it look like? Can’t take my blood pressure with my sleeves in the way. I thought you, a nursing major, would’ve known that.” His snide tone and his condescending smirk made you embarrassed. Admittedly, you didn’t even think about it. It irritated you that he somehow did, and it irritated you even more that he was right. You tried not to stare, not at the way his blond hair stuck out in every direction, or the way his tank top stretched over his broad chest, or the way his hand lay relaxed in his lap, palm up and waiting for you to begin.

The velcro of the sphygmomanometer was loud in the small room as you peeled it open, nervously taking Bakugou’s arm to wrap it around the thick muscle. He was so attractive you couldn’t help but look away, busying yourself with finding the inflation bulb. From this distance, you could smell his cologne, strong and masculine, and it filled your lungs like dense smoke. You had to will yourself to stay focused, to prevent yourself from fainting where you stood. “Can you hold this for me?” 

“Fine,” he said, and you placed the pressure gauge into his other hand. When your hands brushed, you took notice of how sweaty his palms were. You also noticed how he flinched slightly when you touched him. His breathing was even, but he looked at you intensely, like he had to think about each breath to keep himself alive. It was nerve-wracking being so close to him. So many times you tried to gain the confidence to talk to him, but you always chickened out as soon as you made eye contact across the room. Sometimes, he would talk to you first, but one of his friends always ruined the moment by begging him to do a keg-stand.

Staring straight at the gauge in his hand, you filled up the cuff, rapidly squeezing until it was thirty millimeters above resting. You pressed the stethoscope into the crook of his elbow, not noticing the beads of sweat on his skin, careful to keep your fingers off the back of the stethoscope bell. 

When the heartbeat stopped, you slowly twisted the dial on the side to release a bit of air. The heartbeat resumed, and you mentally wrote down the number on the dial. It stopped again, so you released the rest of the air out of the cuff. Pulling your stethoscope out of your ears, you reached to remove the cuff, velcro ripping from itself. His eyes never left you, watching the way your hands moved to slide the cuff off.

“Can I ask you something?” you said, abruptly, fingers fiddling with the tubes of the sphygmomanometer as you took the gauge out of his hand. He shrugged. You turned to set your equipment on the counter and write your data on your paper. “Do I make you nervous?”

“What kinda stupid question is that?” he snickered.

You laughed nervously, eyes meeting his as you turned around. “Well, it’s just that… You’re really sweaty.”

His smug expression had never left so fast. His hands grabbed his hoodie, scrambling to pull it over his head with a muttered, “Shit…”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything!” You scrambled to fix your mistake, but the words had already left you.

Adjusting the hood of his hoodie, he avoided your gaze. He didn’t seem like the type to feel shame, but the expression on his face made you think otherwise. “Just forget it!” 

You shook your head, suddenly feeling like an idiot. “I shouldn’t have pointed it out. I’m sorry.”

“I just… I forgot to take my medication today. I’ve got, uh… this condition…” He trailed off as you began gathering your equipment, going back into the main lab to clean it again with alcohol.

“Hyperhidrosis?”

He blinked a few times. “Yeah, how’d you-?”

“Nursing major,” you reminded him, placing your tools in their respective piles. 

He rolled his eyes. “Ugh, whatever. Anyway, just don’t… Just don’t tell anybody, okay?”

You placed a hand over your heart. “Your secret is safe with me,” you swore. You looked around the lab for anything else you needed to take care of. “So anyway, what did Denki have to do to get you to help me?”

He looked at you, a self-satisfied grin on his face. “He told me you’d go out with me if I did.”

You froze. “He- He did what?” Oh, you were so going to kill him. Knowing him, he’d make himself scarce, but he couldn’t be hard to track down.

“So, how about it? I never do anything for free.” Bakugou walked backwards into the door, pushing it open for you.

You laughed. “As long as you promise to help me kill Denki afterwards.”

[jo3ydr3w]

stobotnik week 2025 day 2

Prompt 1: Yearning

The silence in the dimly lit lab was almost suffocating, but Stone didn’t mind. He’d grown used to the quiet, the soft whirring of Robotnik’s machines filling the gaps between their conversations. Tonight, however, something was different.

Stone hovered near Robotnik’s workbench, his fingers nervously fiddling with a small wrench. His gaze kept darting to Robotnik, who was focused entirely on his latest project, his brow furrowed in concentration as he adjusted some gadget with a precision that could only come from years of experience.

Stone had been working tirelessly all afternoon, fetching tools, sorting through piles of equipment, organizing components, all in an effort to make Robotnik’s tasks easier. But despite the hours of effort he’d poured into his work, something was gnawing at him—a deep, unshakable feeling that maybe it wasn’t enough. That Robotnik didn’t notice. Or worse… that he didn’t care.

He shifted from one foot to the other, trying to calm the tight knot in his chest, but the longing was growing too strong. He needed something. Just a word. A simple acknowledgment. Something to remind him that all of this—everything he did for Robotnik—meant something. That he meant something.

Robotnik didn’t look up from his work as he adjusted a small dial, eyes flicking over the blueprints he had spread out before him. Stone’s heart beat faster in his chest.

“Doctor…” Stone’s voice was barely above a whisper, almost hesitant. But his need to be heard pushed him to try again. “Doctor, I… I finished organizing the parts like you asked.” His words hung in the air, but Robotnik didn't even flinch. He merely grunted in acknowledgment, his attention never leaving the schematic in front of him.

Stone’s hands clenched the wrench tighter, feeling a wave of disappointment flood him. He swallowed hard, trying to push down the ache in his throat, but it was getting harder to ignore. He couldn’t help but feel… invisible.

“Robotnik,” Stone tried again, his voice just a little more insistent now. He stepped a little closer to the workbench, careful not to disturb anything. “I—I found that rare part you needed, the one for the actuator. It’s all cleaned up, ready for you to use. Just like you said.”

There was a pause. Robotnik glanced at him, just a brief glance, but it felt like an eternity to Stone.

“Mm. Good,” Robotnik muttered, a small grunt of approval. But his attention was already back on his work, his fingers moving with mechanical precision as he fine-tuned a component.

Stone’s heart sank.

Good. It was always just good. He needed more. Needed everything to be good enough for Robotnik, for his praise, for his approval. Without it, he felt like a ghost—an afterthought, someone who simply existed in the background, never fully seen.

He took a step closer to Robotnik, his voice trembling now, desperate for something more, something real. “I’ve been working so hard for you, Doctor,” Stone said, his eyes cast downward, the wrench now a lifeline in his trembling hands. “I’ve been doing everything you asked. Everything.” His voice cracked slightly as the words tumbled out. “Just… can you say it? Can you say you’re proud of me? Just once.”

Robotnik paused this time, his gaze flicking over to Stone. The air felt thick with the unspoken words hanging between them. The silence stretched out before Robotnik sighed, wiping his hands on a cloth as he leaned back in his chair, eyeing Stone carefully.

“Proud of you?” Robotnik’s voice was cool, but there was a flicker of something behind his eyes—something that Stone couldn’t quite place. “I don't have time for empty praise, Stone. You want praise for every little thing you do? Then you’re wasting both of our time.”

Stone’s chest tightened, and the words hit him like a slap. He tried to steady his breath, but it was hard when all he wanted was that tiny scrap of validation, that one shred of acknowledgment that he mattered. That the things he did, the things he gave for Robotnik’s success, actually meant something.

“But I…” His voice faltered. “I’m trying so hard, Doctor. I’ve been doing everything for you. Everything.” His words were pleading now, the desperation creeping into his tone. “I just… I just want you to notice. To… to say that I’m doing a good job. That you care about what I do for you.”

Robotnik’s expression softened ever so slightly, and for the first time that night, he leaned forward, studying Stone intently. There was something different in his gaze, something more understanding, though it was fleeting.

“You are doing a good job, Stone,” Robotnik said, his voice quiet but firm. “You’ve been helping me in ways I couldn’t have done alone. But you don’t need my constant praise to know that. Your work speaks for itself.”

Stone’s heart fluttered at the words, the quiet warmth of them. But it wasn’t enough. Not yet. He needed more. He needed to hear that Robotnik truly valued him, that all of his tireless efforts were seen and appreciated. He took another step forward, his voice almost pleading now, fragile.

“I just want to know you care,” Stone whispered, his voice raw. “I want to know that… that I matter to you. That I’m more than just… just someone who does your bidding.”

Robotnik paused, and for a long moment, the room was filled with nothing but the soft hum of machinery. Finally, Robotnik leaned back in his chair, his eyes softening just a little more.

“You matter,” Robotnik said, his voice quieter than usual, though still laced with his usual sharpness. “You’ve always mattered. Without you, my plans would fail. I couldn’t do it without you.” He let out a long sigh, as if this was a difficult thing for him to admit. “You may not always get the praise you crave, Stone, but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate you. You’re more important than you give yourself credit for.”

Stone stood there, staring at Robotnik, the weight of his words sinking in. For a brief moment, everything inside him felt like it had shifted, the aching hole inside him filling, just a little. He didn’t need grand gestures or constant praise—just this.

A single, quiet acknowledgment.

“Thank you,” Stone murmured, his voice trembling, his heart finally calming. “That… that’s all I needed.”

Robotnik nodded curtly, turning back to his work. “Get back to it, Stone. I still have plans to execute.”

But this time, as Stone picked up his wrench and returned to his tasks, there was a small, steady warmth inside him. It wasn’t everything he had yearned for—but it was enough. For now.

Prompt 2: Dependency

The dim light of the hideout flickered against the walls, casting long shadows across the cluttered, makeshift living space. The usual hum of Robotnik’s gadgets was eerily absent. The machines lay dormant, as though they too were waiting. Waiting for their master. Waiting for him.

Stone paced back and forth, his feet dragging on the cold floor, his mind spiraling. He hadn’t felt this way since… since before he had ever joined Robotnik. Since before he had become the loyal, devoted assistant to the mad genius.

But now? Now, with Robotnik gone, Stone felt completely adrift. He didn’t know what to do with himself. Every movement felt mechanical, every task meaningless. Without Robotnik's presence—his direction, his orders, his sharp reprimands—Stone felt like something was missing. Like a part of him was gone, leaving him hollow.

He’ll come back soon, Stone tried to tell himself, but it did little to soothe the restless, frantic anxiety building in his chest. It had been days—weeks?—since Robotnik had disappeared. There had been no word, no communication, and that was eating away at him more than anything.

He sat down heavily on the couch, running his hands through his hair as he stared at the monitor in front of him. The screensaver flickered, and he absently reached to tap the keyboard, but he couldn’t focus. He couldn’t concentrate. Everything seemed insignificant without Robotnik there to guide him, to give him purpose.

Why hasn’t he called?

Stone’s thoughts churned, spiraling into darker corners. He had grown so accustomed to the constant presence of his superior, the never-ending barrage of tasks and orders. When Robotnik wasn’t around, Stone’s mind became a prison. He thought of all the things that could have gone wrong on that planet. What if something happened? What if Robotnik needed him and he wasn’t there to help? What if…

He stood up abruptly, feeling the weight of his own thoughts pressing in on him like a physical force. He moved to the window, looking out into the night, though there was nothing to see but the blackness of the empty sky. The wind outside rattled the panes, a reminder of how alone he was. How completely isolated he felt in this moment of waiting.

His fingers tightened around the edge of the windowsill, nails digging into the wood, as he whispered to himself, “Where are you, Doctor?”

His words hung in the air, almost a plea. It was irrational, it was unnecessary, but there it was—this deep, gnawing fear that he couldn’t shake. Without Robotnik, without his genius, his plans, his presence, Stone didn’t know who he was. He didn’t know what he was supposed to be doing. He felt like a shadow without his light.

The door to the lab creaked open, and Stone’s head shot up. His heart skipped a beat as he turned toward the sound, expecting to see Robotnik walk through, his usual confident stride filling the space. But the figure who entered was not Robotnik.

It was just a few of Robotnik’s leftover machines. A set of drones, dispatched on some unimportant errand. Stone’s shoulders slumped in disappointment. He felt a pang of frustration as he turned away from the door. His body slumped back down onto the couch.

Why hasn’t he called? Why hasn’t he come back?

His thoughts were like a drumbeat now, incessant and pounding. The only thing that calmed his racing mind was the thought of when Robotnik would finally return. When his master would walk through that door, his commanding voice filling the room. Stone needed that. He needed him. The very thought of Robotnik’s presence—the way he would stride into the room with all his intelligence and authority—was the only thing that made Stone feel grounded.

Minutes stretched to hours, and the anxiety in his chest twisted tighter. Every sound outside, every movement in the shadows of the hideout, made his heart race in anticipation.

Where is he?

Stone gripped the edge of the couch tightly, his hands shaking. He couldn't seem to breathe properly, his chest tightening with each passing second. He had no idea what to do. Without Robotnik, he was just… adrift.

He stood again, pacing, his hands running through his hair in agitation, his eyes darting constantly toward the door. His thoughts were chaotic, desperate.

What if something happened? What if he’s in trouble? What if he doesn’t come back?

The thought terrified him. He couldn’t live without Robotnik. His entire existence had been shaped around serving him, supporting him, making sure the doctor’s plans came to fruition. He had been content, in a way, with that role. But now? Now, with nothing to do but wait, it was like a part of him was missing. The uncertainty gnawed at his insides, a hollow ache that he couldn’t shake.

Suddenly, there was a noise—a soft click, followed by the unmistakable sound of the door unlocking.

Stone’s heart leaped into his throat as the door creaked open. There, standing in the doorway, was Robotnik, his eyes tired but gleaming with that familiar brilliance.

Stone’s breath caught in his throat, and he froze, the weight of his own desperation heavy in his chest. The need to reach out, to make sure Robotnik was really there, to beg for some reassurance, overwhelmed him. He needed to hear it. Needed to hear the words that would make him feel whole again.

"Doctor…" Stone breathed, his voice trembling. “I—I’ve been waiting for you… I’ve been… so worried.”

Robotnik looked at him for a long moment, his gaze shifting from the door to Stone’s trembling figure. There was something unreadable in his eyes, but he didn’t speak immediately. Instead, he took a slow step forward, closing the distance between them.

“Worried?” Robotnik’s voice was tired, but it still carried that sharp edge, that command. “You shouldn’t be. I knew you’d hold down the fort while I was gone. You’ve been a good assistant. You always are.”

Stone’s hands trembled at the praise, the weight of it sinking into him. It wasn’t just any praise. It was Robotnik’s. And that was enough to calm the storm inside him, just a little. He closed his eyes for a moment, a shaky exhale escaping his lips.

“Thank you, Doctor,” Stone whispered. His voice cracked with emotion, and he couldn't quite bring himself to look up. He wasn’t sure why, but the words felt like the first breath he’d taken in days. Like a weight had been lifted from his chest.

Robotnik gave him a short nod, his eyes softer than usual. “Now, get some rest, Stone. You’ve done well.”

And with that, Robotnik turned, already heading toward his workbench, but Stone didn’t care. The words had done their job. He wasn’t alone anymore.

And that was enough.

Prompt 3: Control (This one is real angsty)

Stone had thought about this moment for a long time.

Control.

Not just in the small ways—bringing Robotnik his coffee exactly how he liked it, anticipating his needs before he even voiced them, ensuring everything ran as smoothly as possible. No, Stone had that kind of control down to a science. That wasn’t what he wanted.

What he wanted—what he needed—was something bigger. A shift in power. Just once, he wanted to be the one in charge. He wanted to pull the strings, to make Robotnik react instead of the other way around.

So he tested it.

Little things, at first. Holding eye contact just a second too long. Answering orders with clipped affirmations instead of the usual “Yes, Doctor.” Standing a little closer than necessary when handing him reports.

Then, he got bolder.

Interrupting. Not with anything blatant—Robotnik despised blatant incompetence—but with small, subtle derailments in conversation. Steering things in his own direction. Making suggestions before Robotnik could demand them.

Then, finally, finally, pushing back.

“You should take a break, Doctor,” Stone said, voice measured, controlled. “You’ve been at this for hours. I can—”

He barely saw it coming.

One moment, he was standing there, perfectly composed, perfectly poised to take another step forward in his attempt to wrest some semblance of control from the situation. The next—

Fingers in his mouth.

Stone’s brain blanked out completely.

Robotnik’s hand was on his jaw, fingers pressing down against his tongue, forcing his mouth open. He didn’t squeeze—didn’t need to. The mere gesture of it was enough to short-circuit Stone’s mind, to make every thought scatter like static interference.

“You,” Robotnik murmured, tilting his head as if observing something mildly amusing, “are adorable.” His voice was slow, deliberate, dragging over every syllable like he had all the time in the world. “I’ve been watching you try to play this little game, Agent Stone. Pushing back. Speaking out of turn. Thinking, for even a second, that you could tell me what to do.”

Stone’s breath hitched, but he didn’t move. Couldn’t.

Robotnik leaned in, just enough for Stone to catch the sharp glint in his eyes, the barely-restrained amusement behind them. “I don’t take breaks. My mind doesn’t stop. That’s why I’m the smartest person in the world.” His fingers flexed slightly, pressing down just enough for Stone to feel the pressure. “And you? You’re here because I allow it.”

Stone’s knees nearly buckled.

His grip on control—his carefully constructed plans, his attempts at tilting the balance—evaporated in an instant. All that remained was this. Robotnik’s voice, his presence, the undeniable weight of his authority pinning Stone in place.

Then, just as quickly as it happened, Robotnik withdrew. He wiped his fingers absently against his coat, already turning back toward his work as if the exchange had been nothing more than a passing thought.

“You’re good at following orders, Stone. Stick to that.”

Stone stood there, swallowing hard, pulse hammering in his throat.

Right.

Control wasn’t his to take.

Not here. Not with him.

And maybe—just maybe—he liked it that way.

[naavispider]

I often see people describe Spider as a neglected child. Do you think that is totally accurate? Would Norm and the other scientists have set rules and boundaries? If Lo’ak and Spider did something stupid together would Jake punish both of them? What would a scene like this look like?

This is a very big question, in my opinion, and seems to have divided a lot of people depending in their answer. I think I can see it both ways. Spider is clearly a child that has grown up without a stable parental figure, and has lived his life trying to fit in where there seems to be no natural slot for him to do so. I do think he is relatively well adjusted, he's formed strong relationships with those his own age and he clearly has strong morals, all of which are accomplishments in themselves given the circumstances. Anyone else in his position would obviously struggle to deal with so much (being displaced by war, not having a stable family, and generally being an outcast by the tribe). If you add the daddy issues on top, which have provided him with a fluctuating sense of identity ever since he was old enough to understand who is father was, it's no doubt that Spider is definitely a special kid and extremely strong to have been through what he has, and come out the other side remarkably 'unharmed'.

We also can't ignore the fact that he was outrightly mistreated throughout his childhood as well. This is more obvious in the comics from the comments made by Neytiri, but there is also all the subtle ways in which he was excluded from the People and made to feel like an outcast. The kind of social isolation he suffered from clearly had an effect on him and is obvious in the way he has a complex about trying to impress, and not let anyone down, ever.

Your question asked about whether it's valid to say that Spider was neglected. In short, I think the answer is yes, but it's harder to pin point by exactly who and for how long. Individually, most of the adults in his life treated him with kindness and respect, and often fondness. I'm sure that Norm and loves Spider, too (and probably Max). But what makes him neglected is that by itself, that kind of treatment isn't enough for an extremely young child. What everyone seemed to miss while he was growing up is the lack of a parental figure. The McCoskers clearly weren't actually interested in raising Spider like their own, so that fell short; as a result, nobody else stepped up and Spider went without paternal or maternal love.

In my mind, the McCoskers are definitely guilty of neglect. The question of the other adults is murkier, because they are not directly at fault and Spider was really not their responsibility. However, in my opinion they did not do all they could to emotionally support Spider through his identity crisis and feelings of belonging. As such, I would say they emotionally neglected him.

That was a long and winding answer and I know that others have hashed this topic over at length before, but those are my two cents! 🥰

Would Norm and the other scientists have set rules and boundaries? Yes, I reckon so. When Spider was very young it would primarily be around safety and where abouts in the compound he should be, when. The McCoskers were probably responsible for bedtime routines and ensuring his basic needs were met, and I can see them being pretty harsh with that (for example shutting Spider in his room). As he got older and the McCoskers' attention turned to their own sons, they started to care less and less about Spider and creating firm boundaries. As a result he became a much wilder spirit and then the scientists would have had to put their own boundaries in place. By this point though, Spider was a young teen and probably all they could do was tell him off (which would work for a while). I can see the other scientists begging Norm to talk to Spider when he accidentally broke a piece of lab equipment.

If Lo’ak and Spider did something stupid together would Jake punish both of them? Jake would clearly be much harsher towards Lo'ak. I can see him just sending Spider back to the shacks, aware that Spider is not his son and nit his responsibility. In fairness to Jake, he personally struggles a lot with how to be a good father and isn't confident with the two sons he already has, so mentally I think he's distancing himself from Spider on purpose, because he's afraid and doesn't want to take on even more parental responsibility than he is already having to contend with. Lo'ak and Spider would meet up after and Spider would ask Lo'ak how bad it was. Lo'ak would probably moan that Spider is lucky he doesn't have to brunt Jake's anger, and Spider would outwardly agree.

Sorry it took me literal months to respond to this ask! I'm working my way through them 💞💙💞💙

[tenderlywicked]

Tell us about your dr who fic!

Happy Now is almost finished! By which I mean there are still two or three chapters left :) It’s about the retired Fourteenth Doctor unexpectedly meeting a younger version of the Master. As it’s always with me, there’s a lot of angst and hurt/comfort. As it’s always with these two, there’s a lot of miscommunication :)

Summary: The Doctor can finally have a peaceful, happy life … except of course he won’t be able to stay away and leave the Master in UNIT’s clutches for long, even if it only bodes trouble. When he finds the way to reverse the Master’s transformation, he’ll get the version of his arch-friend he’s been least expecting.

As for the Master, he’ll have a hard time figuring out what the Doctor might want in return for his help. There must be something, right? There’s always a catch.

And that's how it starts...

Whoever thinks being shrunk into a tooth and then reacquiring your usual size is anything but agony—they are very welcome to try it themselves. The Master whimpers, not quite lucid enough yet to be embarrassed about the pathetic sound he makes. With it, comes a vague awareness that his vocal cords are, in fact, working, and it can only mean one thing: he does have a body again. Which is both good news and bad news. The latter because everything fucking hurts, hurts, hurts. It feels just as bad as when he’d accidentally tested his Tissue Compression Eliminator on himself.

“Are you all right?” a voice comes from somewhere close, as familiar as the hopeful stupidity of the question.

The Master would have snapped because no, he obviously isn’t all right, but there’s a giddy thought muffling his irritation: He found you, he came for you. To be honest, he hadn’t expected that. Had stopped himself from hoping.

“Doctor,” he croaks out.

He blinks, tries to focus, his vision blurry. The face he knows all too well comes into view … and he has to blink again because—what? The Doctor looks much older than during the clash with Rassilon when the Master has last seen him. How much time might have passed?

“Can you move?” the Doctor asks urgently.

That’s a valid question, better than the previous one. He isn’t sure. It’s as if his muscles, tendons, and even bones have been stretched on a rack. He tries to rise up and fails at both accomplishing this feat and suppressing a groan. Stubbornly, he makes another attempt and finds that he’s lying on the floor in the Doctor’s arms, just like that time when he’d got shot on the Valiant. With the exception that he’s naked. He doesn’t have the strength to be mortified about it either, or even to make a joke of it.

“It’d be easier to get us out of here if you could,” the Doctor says almost apologetically.

“Where are we?”

“UNIT headquarters. At first, I thought it would be better to carry you out…uh…the way you were, compressed, so to speak, but they’ve got a lot of empty labs here, and necessary equipment. A cylinder with Numismaton gas and other stuff… So it seemed like a good idea to do the reversal here. Anyhow, now we need to sneak out, and it might be a bit of a problem. I mean—your face. I mean—even the erased year aside, you still got yourself quite famous down here, assassinating the US president. Hard to forget such a Prime Minister.”

“Stop yapping,” the Master orders. Maybe it comes out more like a plea. He’s dizzy and still not quite in control of his body; too many words—they barely sink in. But ‘UNIT headquarters’ sounds bad enough. Not that the Master is going to complain about being resurrected as such, but couldn’t the Doctor find a suitable lab anywhere else?

[youknowwhoiamassbutt]

Green Goblin Origin

I don't know if Sony has the rights to Green Goblin like they do with most other Spider-Man villains, but if they insist on continuing to make villain origin stories, then the ONLY Spider-Man villain I see this working for, other than Venom, is Green Goblin.

It could look something like this:

Norman was abused by his father as a kid, and because of that, in many iterations, he grew up to be a narcissist. He swore he would never treat his children the way he was treated, so he never laid a hand on Harry. Like many men his age, however, due to his experience with physical abuse, he didn't recognize that there were other types of abuse. In his mind, as long as he wasn't hitting his son, he was a good father. So he neglected his son, he gaslit, he verbally abused, he did everything under the sun, except lay hands on him.

Norman was ambitious, prioritizing work above all else, constantly hearing his father's disapproval in his mind. He worked so hard that he neglected his family, to the point that when his wife, Emily, got sick and eventually died, he barely knew his son.

After Emily died, Norman struggled. She had been his emotional tether to the world, she had taken care of the family, and now he was a single father in a cruel business world with no love to come home to.

He began to spiral.  work became his life, and after testing a new super soldier serum on himself, Norman lost any semblance of humanity he once had.  He became crueler and more ruthless, where once cunning and strategic, he was now impulsive and explosive.  Neglect turned to psychological torture for Harry.  

When a rival company finally released a cure for Emily’s disease, Norman blamed them for her death.  The cure had been created, it was in testing as she was dying, but arbitrary red tape kept her from being saved.  That was when he fully snapped.  He took equipment from Oscorp to destroy their lab, becoming an unknown terrorists in the process.

The news called him the Green Goblin, but no one knew who he was behind the mask. So he lay in wait for his next enemy to arise.

That is where the first movie would end. It would be more of a psychological thriller as we see his descent into madness. There is no villain in the story beside himself because it’s his villain origin. I’m so tired of the hero-washing of villains in their origins.

The second movie would revolve around Harry.  It would pick up where the first one ended, right after the attack on Norman’s rival company.

Harry was terrified of his father at this point, but he couldn’t leave.  He had tried to move out to go to college, but Norman had guilted him into staying.  Harry walked on eggshells whenever Norman was around, so when Norman decided to take a step back from Oscorp, and appointed Harry in charge, Harry was relieved to escape his father’s presence.

Unfortunately, escape was not what Harry found at Oscorp.  When he was at home, he had to listen to his father’s rantings of all those who had wronged him. At work he had to listen to people rave about how wonderful his father was. And when he was alone, he couldn’t get his father’s words out of his mind.  He was never good enough, he was too weak, he didn’t deserve respect until he could command it.  He no longer trusted himself, if he ever did in the first place.

In an attempt to make the voices go away, he shifted his behavior. He cosplayed as his father, trying to think and act as he would.  Norman even began to take notice of him. He was praising Harry for the first time in Harry’s life.  His coworkers respected his decisions, and he even got a few dates.  But no matter how much external validation Harry got, he couldn’t shake the sickening feeling in his gut that this was not him, this was not what he wanted to be. He was disgusted by the heartless decisions he was making at work, and all he wanted to do was go to college and start his own company from scratch.

He began saving the money he obtained, hiding it in a secret bank account.  He researched universities and enrolled in the one he wanted to go to.  He continued to play the role of Norman until the day when he could escape, but everything halted when he got sick.

His symptoms pointed toward his mother’s illness, but since the Green Goblin had destroyed the one patented cure, he was doomed.  Harry got stuck at home as he worsened, leaving him in Norman’s near-constant domineering presence.

He spiraled into depression. No friends, no work, no school, no life, and no future, only his father’s will impressed upon him at every opportunity.  He lost concepts of himself or who he wanted to be, only seeing what Norman orchestrated him to believe.

He stopped eating, but as he stopped eating, he started to feel better.  As he felt better, he started wandering around the house more.  His father was mysteriously gone for large portions of the day. 

Eventually, he found a secret room filled with experiments and technology.  He found the Green Goblin’s gear and countless vials of serums.  It was then that he realized, Norman had been experimenting on him.

In a fit of rage, Harry destroyed the secret lab, taking the Green Goblin suit and glider to annihilate everything Norman had worked for at Oscorp.  He pulled the fire alarm to allow people to escape, but was unable to look past his rage to ensure anyone actually got out before he demolished the building.

When it was all said and done, he burnt the gear, the guilt of the unknown death toll too much on his conscience. 

He re-enrolled in university and changed his last name to his mother’s maiden name, trying to escape everything he had become, to escape the Osborn legacy.

This ending would leave the door open for a Peter Parker meeting if they ever got permission to use Spider-Man again.

Harry would have to be a Bucky Barnes type character, one that was manipulated and turned into a person he regrets and wants to atone for.  Who knows if in his attempts to attone, he becomes an even bigger monster, or if he finally gets to heal, but I think those two storylines would, not only, show the cycles of abuse, but also be a good villain origin that doesn’t follow the same bland mild-ing of characters’ villany.

I don’t trust any large media company to handle schizophrenia well, so I would not want them to touch on that aspect of Norman and Harry’s characters, even though I hate seeing it erased all of the time.

[greypetrel]

WIP Wednesday

Thank you @heniareth for the tag! :D

I posted the main thing I worked on last weekend, oopsie! I have some progress on art, but not anything relevant nor anything new. So it's a writing thing. Beside the prompts, I'm working on the next DadWolf chapter. Aisling in Kirkwall working at the Gallows, Dorian still in Tevinter, everyone is having a great time.

Tagging: @salsedinepicta @ndostairlyrium @shivunin @dungeons-and-dragon-age

@dreadfutures (more on the Mythal redesign? I'm so curious) @inquisimer @rowanisawriter @skinwalkingxana @cao-the-dreamer and YOU!

The year had turned and Aisling was still in Kirkwall.

She sighed, deeply, slouching on the desk in Varric’s childhood home. She got her room -got told it was a guestroom, he insisted not to have her neither in Bartrand nor in his parent’s room- and it was simple but elegant, more spacious than whatever she’s had in the last years, between Denerim and Minrathous. The mail on the screen still looked at her and demanded an answer, asking her where she would have come back exactly, that she was needed up north, that they couldn’t postpone their research so much. Her grades, her doctorate, so on and so forth.

By now she knew the drill: Felix’s health plunged and professor Alexius became antsy and started pushing her and Dorian for more results, and quicker. Which was what he was doing now.

Aisling, 6:39 [ What’s the story, morning glory?

A fluke or I should really get back? How’s Felix? ]

She started to type her answer, carefully weighting words to be vague but not too much. Deleted a sentence, rewrote it, munched the nail of her thumb some more, as she thought. Surprisingly, her phone vibrated in few minutes.

Dorian, 6:42 [ The usual. Rough night, but he’s stable. He answers the phone if you want to write him, later. Yet another day of me alone reviewing notes and equations, I will die of consumptions, all alone and bored, no one to bring me snacks and working for all three. Alas!

But I’m that genial, so you can take your time. You haven’t finished there and what you sent me is… Concerning.

How’s the situation? ]

Aisling, 6:47 [ Already or still awake?

I’m worried. The results I have are… It’s nothing like any rock, it almost seems… Organic? I don’t know, I requested some treatises on lyrium from Orzammar, but the situation in the city is terrible, I don’t know if interlibrary loans are still even possible? I don’t know if anyone in the Shaperate will answer…

I don’t know, Dor, it’s… I just want to come back, but I don’t think I can. Can you send me those notes checked by today, please? I don’t want to drag it further than I should.

Sorry for the rant. I’m just tired. ]

Dorian, 6:55 [ Still awake, running on the fifth coffee and maybe getting some progress. You?

I was about to ask you if you were sure you sent me data on anything organic. I’m no biologist, but it’s weird, it’s too variable to be inert? I was supposing the etheric values to be like so, but not with such variability feels unlikely? Can you check again, please? I’ll forward you everything as soon as I’ll reach the pc.

Is there anyone valid who can help you, there? We’re too far to really be of help. Felix is also concerned about you, and Maevaris, I hope the lab is equipped enough for you to handle that stuff.

Would love to fly down but I think Alexius would have a stroke, and Felix will only feel worse without my brilliant company.

Work is dull without you, even if my ears are recovering without anyone screaming and you calling it music.

Get back soon before I die of boredom. ]

Aisling, 6:59 [ Go take a nap! Or tell Felix he can throw a shoe at you to make you go.

I really want to get back, by the way. ]

Dorian, 7:13 [ My head is forever disfigured, I hope you’re happy of the great results of your shoe-tossing campaign.

So bad? ]

Aisling, 7:15 [ I am drowning in a valley of tears out of my deep, deep regret for doing such a vile thing.

One of the templars is nice, and the mages stopped hating me so openly. But I keep feeling observed and out of place. I’m trying to help more, but I don’t know whether it’ll be appreciated.

Can I send you another project for you to read? I think I got the numbers right, but you’ve always been better than me with them. Show Felix too, I’d use an engineer.

I’ll present it in three days, wish me luck. -_- ]

Dorian, 7:17 [ You could have spared telling him to throw the second shoe.

You’re risking yourself by finding a way to avoid weird lyrium. Truly despicable, they all must be right.

Send whatever, as the best brother in the entire universe I’ll grace you with my attention. Yes, yes, a gift will be enough to thank me, no need to make it two, please.

By the way, you haven’t heard it from me but there are voices of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in class. I’ll sign you up for Truly. ]

Aisling, 7:20 [ The first one was very envious that only her sister got the chance to hit such a modest, humble, totally demure personality.

You get what I mean.

Oh, cool!! Sign me up, but please, please, don’t sign up for Caractacus. I don’t want to go through Grease all over again, if mr Licinius wants us to remotely pass like we’re in love, I’m out. Plus, you were born to sing Posh!

On my way to the ferry, it’s too windy. Do you remember Kirkwall to be that windy? I’m freezing! >< ]

Dorian, 7:23 [ Preposterous, vile and malevolent! I’ll tell Varric to ground you. Surely he’ll send you to the Merchant Guild in his place if I suggest it.

Hey, our inverted part rendition was great. Sandy and Rizzo should have been together in the original, come on, we improved it. And say what you want on the moustache, but it gave Sandy the personality she lacks. We’ll improve Chitty too. Maybe we can also make it fly for real.

Mh.

Will send you calculations on the matter.

I remember it being cold. Have a nice day, and please get a further pair of gloves before playing with the lyrium. ]

Aisling, 7:45 [ Sadly he doesn’t want me to use the Guild money to buy horses. A good attempt, bro.

It was epic, thank you for leaving me Danny to play. But I think we’ll be kicked out of the musical theatre school altogether if we try it again. Plus I really want to play Truly.

I will! I’ll roll around from how many protective layers I’ll have on! I’ll be a sphere!

Have a nice day you too, hug Felix for me and get some sleep, please. ] *forwarded a selfie, Aisling is wrapped in an XXL scarf rolled around her neck, shoulders and head. Under a hat, all that peeks out is her reddened nose and eyes, closed in the wind that’s making short locks of hair stick horizontally. On the background, the Gallows towers emerges from the mist*

---

WRONG I actually went on with something! >:) Thank you for reading this long wip, have a treat:

[remesrobotics]

Nobody knew where the mysterious device that Dr. Harp built into Tokay Woman came from.

It was only a matter of time before it began to exhibit side-effects defying explanation.

Tick tock. Tap tap.

Tokay Woman tapped her claws idly against the side of her helmet in perfect time with the passing of seconds, as she waited for the company truck to pull to a stop.

The gecko bot was set to oversee a demolitions project; something she’d been designed for, but never put to practice at a real work site. To say she was a little antsy was an understatement, but she was looking forward to it all the same. With luck, using her abilities in short, decisive bursts to protect others would be a more fulfilling use of her power than leaving time stopped for hours and hours on end doing nothing but filing a majority of of the labs’ paperwork.

On arrival, her brow furrowed as she hopped out of the vehicle, padded feet barely making sound as they touched simultaneously on the dusty ground. Even from this viewpoint at the perimeter established around the site, the damage was immense. An anti-robot demonstration at a mass production facility had ended in violence, and a large portion of the building was destroyed when a riot vehicle controlled by one of the more belligerent gangs broke out from the line of peaceful protestors and delivered a lethal payload directly into the power plant running the entire south wing of the complex.

Given the sheer amount of damaged heavy equipment and the machinery required to process it all, it was the perfect opportunity to put her time-manipulating Flash Freeze to use. The scale of the operation meant that even a minor accident could have catastrophic consequences, and if she could prevent any of those at all, it would more than validate all the time and money poured into her highly experimental technology... especially for those skeptical of whether or not something so close to Dr. Wily’s mad tinkering would have use in matters more urgent than office work.

The short-statured gecko looked about. Aside from the handful of other Harp Numbers who arrived with her, two large, mechanized scrappers accompanied the caravan of other robots and workers, for processing rubble and scrap too large to move but too mangled to repurpose directly. The scrappers were robots in their own right - designed by a different manufacturer and modeled after giant, three-headed dragons - but given they did not possess any sort of free will, their presence unnerved many of the other self-aware robots present who weren’t owned by the same firm, Tokay included.

As the other Harp Numbers disembarked from a separate and much larger shuttle, Tokay took a small mental survey of who she’d be working with. Of her siblings up to Number 08 - Hatch - only Reach and Nail were absent, as both were much more geared towards building and construction than large-scale demolition. Their skills and abilities were best put to use elsewhere, for efficiency’s sake.

The first out of the massive transport truck behind her was the lightweight and lanky form of Gutter Woman, arcing her back with her arms in the air as she stretched, “Ahh, nothing like the crisp breeze and the smell of sweaty worker bot dudes to wake you up this fine afternoon, huh?” The red snake bot practically sang, flicking her forked tongue.

A biting male voice issued from the truck, “Thank you so much for holding that in until everyone in a mile could hear you, you incorrigible piece of-”

The insult was cut off by a short, deep, “Stop,” as two figures emerged behind Gutter; the diminutive and nearly-spherical Pack Man, held by the huge and imposing Heavy Woman. 

Ignoring her, the horned frog continued to spout, “Completely ignoring the fact that robots can’t even sweat, and you still insist-”

“Pack,” The immense python ‘bot cut him off again with a heavy sigh, “This is the first time in ages we’re assigned to work with another firm. We’re not here to make a bad impression.”

“Don’t go filling me in like I don’t know that already, but if we weren’t, we wouldn’t have brought her,” Pack gestured at Gutter, who simply giggled. That only made Pack angrier, “I’d take Nail sleeping on a bench the whole shift over her running her mouth!”

“Oh come on, if the guys can talk rowdy, so can I,” Gutter lashed the tail attached to the back of her head before running her hand along it, a Search Cutter drone practically materializing in her hand as she did so, “Try not to get so worked up, you might cough up an E-Tank.”

Heavy rolled her eyes as she let Pack down so she could reach into the truck for some large tool boxes; while Pack had almost everything they needed inside the folded space of his internal storage capsules, having other tools immediately handy for both themselves and others was never a bad idea, “Just stay out of trouble. Both of you.” The python looked around, eyes catching the speckled glint of Tokay in her peripheral vision, “Oh, right! You’re with us today!” Heavy smiled, “Ready to go, Tokay?”

Tokay shrugged, though there was a hint of dejection to her nonchalance. Situations like this made her feel like a bit of an outcast to her own siblings, given how often they worked together without her, “I’m good.”

Regardless of now she felt, it looked like they all had everything in order, bickering aside, and it was as good time as any to activate her own, specialized equipment. All she had to do was lift the RFID chip in her right palm to the Flash Freeze unit to let it know it was time.

As Tokay’s hand passed in front of her chest, there was a soft beep and a smooth, otherworldly whirr. The gecko bot’s own core temperature dropped unnaturally, dipping even lower than what her refrigeration pack kept her at to prevent more dramatic fluctuations from destabilizing fine circuits and wiring. She closed her eyes and checked her internal clock to make sure everything was calibrated and running smoothly.

10:40 and 25 seconds

Before any more preparations could be made, the collected Harp Numbers’ attention was drawn by the rough clearing of a human throat.

They turned to see the approach of the site’s foreman; a surly looking middle-aged man in light protective gear. The shoulder of his outfit was emblazoned with an ostentatious “XP” logo. The emblem of Exemplar Production; a large, corporate firm that had recently gone on to buy many of the smaller, independent industrial robot developers for contract work.

That logo was always bad news. The Harp Numbers in particular frowned a bit to see it.

“Save the chit-chat for after the job... or at least during it, after checking in,” the man returned that frown, voice gruff. “I know you lot aren’t our normal crew, but I expected a bit more professionalism than this.”

The accusation stung a bit and it was apparent on everyone’s faces. Gutter’s mask thankfully covered her silent mocking, while Heavy seemed a little more distraught at the thought. Tokay and Pack both scowled deeply, or at least gave off the impression in the frog-bot’s case as he snapped, “We’re already good and ready and waiting for instruction, thank you very much.”

“Less talking, more moving,” the foreman retorted, “Though seeing you’re all mouth maybe that’s all you can do.”

Tokay wanted to bite him.

Before the situation could escalate further as indicated by Pack raising a finger to further respond, he was scooped up by Heavy’s tail, who gave the slightest of bowing nods, trying to play the appeaser, “Apologies, sir. We’ll be on our way.” She adjusted her gait to accommodate the two large toolboxes, one under each arm, and turned to move along, her collar halves sliding closed to form a mask in front of her face.

Tokay, still fully incensed, couldn’t help but notice two siblings had not emerged with the rest, “Slag and Hatch not coming?”

“No,” the foreman gestured over to the rest of the vehicles preparing to move further into the site, “Slag Woman will be taken to Station 2, direct power plant access. It was built to withstand high heat and pressure stress, so hopefully most of the individual pieces are intact enough to reuse.  If anything was too damaged by the explosion to be repaired, it’ll have to be taken apart... and knowing how sturdy the construction of those components are, we’ll need the really big guns to get started on that first while the rest of you sweep up the perimeter and work your way in.”

“Real big guns, huh? They know what’s up, I’ll give them that,” Slag leaned out, waving their antennae-like hair and sounding tiredly sarcastic, with a hint of smugness, “I’ll be sure to leave you something to chew on when you get there.”

Tokay nodded. At least it was a sensible explanation, “And Hatch-?”

The answer arrived in the form of a small frog robot that leapt out of the vehicle, leaping up to perch on her shoulder. An Assist Hopper, which spoke in Hatch’s voice, albeit more mechanical, “I’ll be taken to the midway point. That way I can oversee both sites, and lend a hopping hand where needed. It’ll be more efficient than trying to walk between either.”

“Now,” The foreman narrowed his eyes, trying to break up the conversation with a wave of his hand, “If you don’t mind...”

“Don’t you ‘if you don’t mind’ me,” Tokay hissed back, “You know my job doesn’t start until there’s an accident.” She glanced around, “And from the looks of it, the other teams aren’t in position either. So why don’t you go do your job and go demean them?”

She almost grinned at the man growling in response, trying to ignore his threatening words, “Don’t press your luck. The pretty price tag on your research doesn’t mean you’re exempt from-.”

“Tick tock,” Tokay’s grin turned a little more vicious than even her mocking tone. The foreman couldn’t formulate a response to the jab and turned on his heel, mumbling something under his breath. There was a slight spark of catharsis in the gecko bot’s circuits, knowing she had at least that much power.

It took a few more minutes to get everything into position to start the clean-up, with each company intermingling with one another under thankfully more understanding human supervision; actual workers who knew what the job entailed. A slew of other generic worker robots - Pickelmans, Metalls, and the like - were also chipped in by the city to aid in the work. It was quite the sight to behold, especially with the giant, three-headed dragon scrappers towering over all of them.

Tokay stood off to the side, out of the way but close enough to leap into action at a moment’s notice, keeping a hawk-like gaze on everything. Her claws scratched at her crossed arms lightly, itching in second intervals, waiting for something to happen. It was definitely interesting to see the design differences in the robots present, seeing at least two other companies had contributed robots to this project. Most of them didn’t sport quite the... recognizable style as the Harp Numbers themselves, but they had a distinct look to them all the same. They weren’t Dr. Light originals, but they were certainly inspired.

One of those worker ‘bots - sporting a massive welding cutter for an arm - passed by with a derisive snort, “Heh... Dr. Harp’s paper-pusher. Working hard or hardly w-”

“Don’t-,” Tokay snapped, momentarily, before puffing a frustrated sigh, “...That joke’s never funny.” An overly forced smirk pulled at the side of her mouth, baring sharp teeth, “Doesn’t help that you all are too good at your jobs, putting me out of one,” the gecko bot attempted to jest in return, but it was clear there was a touch of cynicism and irritation behind her words.

“Hey, look at the bright side,” the welder laughed as he walked on by, barely even looking back as he waved dismissively with his manipulator arm, “you’ll always have your desk job.” 

Tokay’s eyelid twitched, but she said nothing, content to silently imagine how it’d feel to pull that oversized arm off with her teeth-

She shook her head to dismiss the image. There were more important things to focus on... in theory. Truth be told, she wasn’t wrong - if they did their jobs well, she wouldn’t have one. But having insurance was better than having none... right? With no active work to do, Tokay had no way of proving her worth... and with no active work to do, there was little to keep her mind from wandering to the ramifications of her being deemed effectively useless...

A sudden noise cut into those anxious thoughts. The giant dragon scrappers, until that point, had been acting as a final stage in picking apart the structures broken down by other robots and organizing larger pieces into piles, only using their shear-shaped jaws to break down certain chunks of metal to feed into the shredders in their torsos. Suddenly, the yellow one at the perimeter site had turned its attention to parts of the building that had not been broken down yet, and started tearing into it with its own jaws.

The massive machine was normally capable of surprising precision given its bulk and power, but there was something unruly and sloppy to its new movements as it tore into a large section of girder-reinforced wall. The deep groaning of massive plates and beams of metal being tugged apart by three sets of giant jaws drew attention as many of the workers stopped what they were doing and turned their collective gaze upward.

Without warning, the assembly snapped, a poor welding job buckling under the conflicting forces, shearing off and launching a sharp metal beam and turning it into a lethal, three-meter-long javelin.

The flying beam set off Tokay’s sensors, as the eyes on her helmet snapped a shot of the scene, clock-hand pupils swiveling in the direction of the deadly debris and noting that there was a form in its path.

In the blink of an eye, everything around Tokay shifted to a light overlay of cyan, with neon highlights on every contour, like a wireframe. In that moment, she got the full gist of the situation. The beam was headed towards another bot... and it just so happened to be the welder.

She chuckled darkly to herself. It would be so easy to just let time take its course, and allow this accident to happen out of spite. But that wouldn’t help her case, nor prove her worth. So, with subtle regret for her own conscience, she made her move

Tokay knew full well that the nature of her Flash Freeze would not eliminate all the momentum if she let time resume as-is, so she had to be careful about her approach. It took less than a second to calculate every angle and vector, to determine the best possible action to take.

Rushing forward on all fours, she leapt up to the beam. The moment her feet made contact with it, she blinked the Flash Freeze - a quick off and on, within a fraction of a second - to allow her kick to shift the energy of the moving metal just a hair enough before freezing again, allowing her to drop to the ground. She spun, wrapping her tail around the large wrist of the welding cutter robot, and resumed time as she pulled.

Everything lined up perfectly; all the forces resumed and her pull shifted the other bot out of the way just enough for the beam to strike the ground barely millimeters to the left; any less and he would have surely been impaled. The welder gasped, as did several of the other robots present.

Tokay smirked, snapping her fingers as she released her tail’s grip, “Hardly work.”

The welder bot was still a little disoriented from the barely averted catastrophic injury, but scoffed at the jab, “Feh... you got me..”  It looked up at the giant mechanized scrapper, “All the same... What the Hell’s Haikidra-1 doing..?”

As a few other robots from that firm gathered to look on, the welder continued, “That ain’t normal behavior...”

“Hm?” Tokay asked, curiously, “Fill me in... I haven’t worked with either of these before.”

“Right..,” another worker from that line commented, “It’s... supposed to be helping organize rubble into piles by material... and shredding and compacting only steel for repurposing.”

The gathered bots watched on as the large demolition bot continued to grab objects at random, ripping large chunks apart with its shearing jaws and dropping smaller pieces into the shredder basin on the top of its main body chassis, ignoring everything else.

“...Should we do something about that?” Tokay asked, somewhat cynically, “Is that even our job?”

“I’d say so,” came a small and familiar, but overly mechanized voice from down at their feet. They looked down to see an Assist Hopper, just as it leapt up to perch on Tokay’s shoulder, “I’m gathering some data and currently looking for an engineer with wireless access to look into the problem,” Hatch confirmed.

Tokay sighed, “Alright... but in the mean time, what do we do? Nobody can get close to it until then, so nobody can do their job...”

“Leave it to me~” chirped an overly confident voice. Everyone turned incredulously to see Gutter shrug, as she strolled right up to the distracted machine, just in front of its front-end baler doors.

“Gutter!” Hatch yelled through her Hopper, leaping off Tokay’s shoulder to bound over, perching on the snake bot’s head, yelling down, “There’s nothing you can do to help here! Stand by and wait for-”

The red serpent ignored her remote sibling, removing her mask and cupping her hands around her mouth, “OYYY! BONEHEADS!” she called up, indignantly, causing the smaller frog to flail and fall off from the piercing volume, “You’re on steel duty, remember?! You can’t just go chomping shit willy-nilly!!”

Everyone was tense, but the machine didn’t seem to pay her any heed.

“...I don’t think they understand,” mumbled Pack, shooting the lithe serpent a glance of disdain, almost finding her just as mindless as the giant hydra, “Don’t waste your breath, and get your idiot ass back here!”

“Oh PLEASE,” Gutter rolled her eyes and turned around, replacing her mask before putting her hands on her hips, “It’s designed to take orders, maybe it just has to be reminded that-”

Tokay’s motion-sensitive helmet eyes picked up the anomalous movement before anybody else could begin to register that Haikidra-1 had turned its attention downward.

“GUTTER-!” she shouted, hand raising up. Before anyone could respond, the gecko’s vision glazed over with the same glowing blue, highlighted wireframe from before, as the entire world around her stopped in its tracks once more. Without skipping a beat she lunged forward, wrapping her arms around her thin-framed and very lightweight sister.

With a tremendous roar, time resumed and Tokay’s lunging momentum pulled Gutter out of the way just in time, as the shearing jaws of the hydraulic hydra clamped shut with a deafening crunch exactly where she had been less than a second before.

As both Harp Numbers went tumbling, Gutter shouted, shocked, “D-dude-! Did that shithead just try to fucking vore me?!”

“Not... the time... Gutter,” Tokay mumbled, picking herself back up, not even wasting the time to dust herself off, “Hopefully Hatch gets someone quickly...” She whirled to the other robots present, especially Heavy, “Until then, set up a perimeter! Don’t let anyone get into its grab range, just let it chew on anything inanimate until-”

She was cut off by a loud grind and crunch, which diverted the gathered robots’ attentions to Haikidra-1 as it reached down and clamped its hydraulic jaws around a large chunk of concrete, lifting it high into the air. With a sharp bite, the block shattered, leaving behind rebar as the debris flew in every direction, raining down on the robots and other human employees assisting with the project. Any taller robots present had to quickly stand over any smaller workers, machine and otherwise, using themselves as shields against the falling rubble.

That itself drew attention away from the fact that another head had reached down and plucked up a nearby Pickelman - obliviously performing its duties with its one-track-minded programming, toiling away with a pickaxe on the concrete structure - and dropped it unceremoniously into the open-topped shredder on its base. The others looked up from their work at the ungodly noise and scattered, cost-mitigating self-preservation programming kicking in just a little too late. Haikidra-1 continued to grab, rend, and shred whatever was in grabbing range.

“Until what?!” Pack yelled, panic beginning to set in. “Until it remembers it has treads?!”

“...Dammit, we don’t have time-!” Tokay hissed. Then, in a moment of realization, she looked down at her hand, “...But I do.”

Turning to her serpentine sisters, Tokay barked, “Gutter! Give me one of your snakes! I’m going to try and disable as much as I can!”

“Are you crazy all of a sudden?!” Gutter yelled, incredulously.

“Crazy or not, I have a job to do!” Tokay shouted back, “Just give me something to cut some cables with!!”

There was just enough pause to get the snake bot’s doubt through, but with a sigh she reached up to the tail behind her head, extracting another of her own serpentine drones from a hidden compartment. She looked down at the gecko bot, her normally facetious expression turning serious... worried, even, “Be safe...”

Gutter gave the Search Cutter a twist and its mouth opened up, lighting up with a slightly curved energy blade of decent length, with two perpendicular energy blades forming a hilt of sorts, before handing it off to Tokay, who took it in hand and nodded, “I will.”

With that, she turned to Haikidra-1 and ran. Just as the giant demolisher reached down to pluck her up, she lifted a hand, and the world froze blue once again.

Tokay ignored the slight pressure in her chest as she leapt up, dagger at the ready, landing first on the caution stripes in front of the open shredder, then clearing it with another jump to land between the central and left heads. A single large pipe containing multiple cables was bare at the very base, and she targeted that first, slashing into it with the serpentine energy blade, making sure it got every wire and pipe contained within the cylindrical metal casing.

She didn’t bother to unfreeze time to check if that damage was enough, and instead worked her way up, pinpointing the joints with the Search Cutter blade, driving it in with scalpel-like precision and hoping she’d sever anything transmitting a charge or information. She just hoped all three heads worked like limbs running off a central computer rather than individually-controlled personalities.

As she neared the machine’s head, Tokay checked on her internal timing mechanisms and gasped. She was nearly out of energy... already! She was so used to keeping time stopped for literally hours at a time!

Kicking off from Haikidra-1’s neck, the gecko bot backflipped a distance away and landed gracefully on the ground as she allowed time to resume. The dragon reeled with a roar as its left neck went limp, dropping just barely to the side and avoiding its own shredder wheels by sheer chance.

Tokay had no time to dwell on her own situation before being distracted by a strangled yelp, and she turned to see Gutter on her knees, holding the sides of her head, “Gutter!” She ran over to place a hand on her serpentine sister. “What’s wrong-?”

“I... I don’t know-” Gutter sputtered, “You vanished and... reappeared in a second... and I suddenly got... some kinda... fuckin’ blast of garbage encrypted visual data... right between the eyes out of nowhere...” She shook her head, trying to clear the disorientation.

Tokay looked down at the Search Cutter in her hand, and the realization struck. It was still recording while she was functioning within frozen time... and it was still transmitting. She cursed. It was the reason all the devices in her office had to record to their own drives... attempting to transmit any kind of data from within frozen time out of it could brick a system, and she was grateful for Gutter’s own safety that she’d only done so for a few seconds of footage.

“Damn it... We’re going to have to figure something else out,” Tokay admitted through clenched teeth. She began to hold the snake drone back to its owner, but paused, “Though... I’ll still need this. I just won’t use the Flash Freeze with it in-hand.” She corrects. “...Not that I could... I barely have any energy left in it.”

Taking a few heavy ventilating ‘breaths’, she brought her left hand to her chest... she was so used to using her power in a confined space, among little more than inanimate paperwork and computers... to feel the energy run down so quickly made her realize how little her tech had been tuned towards freezing moving targets of larger size and volatility...

The sound of tires peeling drew attention to a work vehicle pulling up, skidding to a stop as three figures emerged; a human technician with a laptop wired to the back of a humanoid electrical robot with notable antennae and other transmission equipment, as another Assist Hopper trailed both.

“Sorry for the wait,” gasped the human technician as he typed and fiddled with the computer’s touch screen, “We tried to use the central terminal for both shredders to simply shut down Unit 1, but something’s wrong, so we’re going to try to brute force commands wirelessly!”

“This isn’t our field,” the transmission bot admitted, sounding a little unconvinced as the technician continued to type, “But we had no choice, we’re trying to come up with a makeshift solution on the fly here.”

“What I wouldn’t give for that right now,” Hatch’s Hopper muttered, offhandedly, only to catch herself and correct, despite everybody being too preoccupied to notice the slip, “Flying, I mean. We could get more reinforcements here quicker!”

“Alright, the terminal system is up,” the human worker shifted the laptop to his other hand, shaking off the one that was initially bearing the weight, “can you get in?”

The electric bot’s eyes closed for a moment, and opened up, solid white as he raised his hands, hovering them over his temples. After a moment, Haikidra-1 continued to rampage, and the transmission bot’s eyes returned to normal, expression twisting, “Wireless access is blocked entirely!” the transmission bot shouted, sounding more and more panicked, “It should be impossible, but... but not even I can get through!”

If a robot could blanch, Hatch would have done so, indicated by voice alone, “Are you kidding?!”

“I’m not! I can’t get in!” the robot shook his head as the engineer tapped more and more frantically at the laptop, “Whatever’s making it go haywire has completely shut it off to outside interference!”

“Well, there’s still some physical interference to be had! We can’t just let it keep doing that shit!” Gutter shouted, gesturing in a wide arc to the menacing machine, “We need to shut it down completely, the hard way!” She punched her hand into her palm, “Good ol’ percussive measures, right?!”

Amidst the bewildered stares of the other robots and human workers, the Harp Numbers turned to each other with sharp, affirmative nods and a synchronized, “Right!”

Gutter and Tokay leapt into action first, and Haikidra-1’s attention was drawn immediately to the two bite-sized morsels approaching it rather than running away like everything else was. Its treads repositioned the massive construct to face its shredder towards them, and the front of its torso opened up like a mechanical ribcage, expelling a dense bale of crushed concrete, shredded metal, and barely discernible robot parts towards them, forcing them to dodge. With a roar it reached down, attempting to grab whoever was closer as its compactor snapped shut.

Being ready for it this time, Gutter was more than agile enough to dodge out of the way of the lunging jaws. Drawing out all of her remaining Search Cutters, she linked them into a chain formation, spinning them up and launching the string of snakes at Haikidra-1’s cheek fin, latching on like a grappling hook and pulling her light frame atop its head, “Giddy up, scissorface!”

The other active head turned, somehow looking enraged despite the lack of facial articulation, and opened its mouth to pluck off the annoying vermin. But before it could get too close, the last Search Cutter flew up from ground level and latched on to the side of its head, and in the blink of an eye, Tokay was there, pulling the snake free as her clinging pads held fast to the dragon’s smooth metal hide.

The gecko gave a thumbs up to Gutter, “Out of Freeze energy, but we got this!”

The snake bot cackled, “Aw yeah we do!” She turned her attention to the beast beneath her feet, her scanners giving a very clear internal view of the machine’s mechanisms, “Kinda wish Reach was here!” Gutter shouted as she jabbed down with a blade, “She’d have fried this up in a second!”

“Hindsight didn’t plan for third-party superconstructs going haywire!” Tokay shouted in response, looking for her own openings, “Brace yourself, this is gonna be a rough ride!”

Gutter smirked, “I live for the rough rides, you know!”

With the remaining two heads distracted, Heavy Woman tromped over to the left treads of the giant machine with Pack in tow. “Get me two ratchet jacks, Pack!” the python bot bellowed through the noise as she hunkered down, grasping at its wheels with her large hands. Not only using her core lifting ability, she braced onto the ground with the even more powerful tail coil from her head, giving her just enough raw strength to begin tilting the machine. Fortunately, with its heads occupied, it was no longer sending signals to reposition itself.

Pack nodded and reached into his ‘mouth’, extracting one large mechanism - far larger and more sophisticated than what one would expect for use with a car or truck, that seemed far too big to fit in that cavity to begin with - placing it under the treads on one side of his sister and hitting a button on it. He deftly scooted over to Heavy’s other side, pulled out an identical device to place there. With both active, deep clicks and chunks were heard as the pistons extended and the ratchet teeth locked in sequence, filling the space and taking some of the weight off, allowing Heavy to focus on pushing the treads higher rather than using all her energy to keep it barely level.

But even that wasn’t enough. Though Heavy could lift up to 10 tons unaided with moderate effort - a considerable feat even amongst other strength-focused robots - Haikidra-1 weighed at least 80. The jacks were only meant to keep a lifted object up, but did not provide significant upward force. Heavy was only able to barely get the tread a few feet off the ground, core chassis and every mechanical muscle straining and groaning, as she shouted, “Can’t do this myself! Get your asses over here, fellas!!”

The other construction bots - not built on a combination of ex-weaponized Cossack and Wily tech and therefore not nearly as prone to recklessness as the Harp Numbers - stood back warily. It took another hefty dozer bot with forklift features to finally up the mettle, gesturing in a wide arc, “C’mon, we ain’t gotta let the lizards outdo us!”

As he ran - or, rather, hastily plodded - over to Heavy’s side to wedge his own claws under the treads of the hydra, the gap raised more. Though not a fan of the implied competitive nature of the assistance, Heavy couldn’t help but grin that it spurred them all the same, though it was only visible in her eyes, “Attaboys.”

Slowly, more robots were emboldened to take up the job, rushing to the sides of the two large lifters. Even Pack joined, pulling out a compact forklift of his own. By itself, it would have been insignificant, but with so many hands on deck, every little bit counted. Soon, there was enough collected strength to finish what Heavy started. “All right! Heave on three!”

Everyone braced.

“One!

Two!

THREE!”

With a calamitous roar from the gathered workers and the giant machine, everyone put their full strength, and Haikidra-1 tipped over onto its side, heads flailing. Gutter took the momentum to leap, practically skating down the length of the dragon’s neck, dragging a blade behind her for stability before landing at the base and delivering one last slice to the cables there for good measure before disembarking to the safety of solid ground.

Tokay took that cue to get out of dodge herself, leaping off much like she did the first time, and hitting the ground in a controlled roll as the central head tried to flail about, with the other two powered down. In such a compromised position, it couldn’t quite get a full range of motion, and a few other robots from the other lines leapt atop it to subdue the final head, with the welding cutter bot from earlier delivering a final, decisive blow to the power cables at the base.

Haikidra-1 went still and silent, and cheers went up from the gathered workers, both human and robot alike.

The foreman sighed, but the weight of the victory tainted the relief that the danger was averted, “That’s an expensive piece of machinery you all just junked... expect that to come out of your paychecks...”

“Oh, fuck off, imagine how much worse it would have been if they let it run wild..,” Pack retorted, irritated, as he began to put away the tools he contributed.

“Hold your tongue, frog,” the foreman growled. Pack ignored him, rolling his eyes and opening his faux mouth, reaching in, and pulling out his hand flipping the bird. Thankfully, the foreman had turned to assess the damage, and didn’t see the slight.

A few of the robots atop the mechanical beast remained behind while others dispersed. Gutter moved up to scan the damage that had been done, and Tokay approached alongside her, “Is it really that bad? I figured we just cut some cables... seems like an easy fix, once they get in to find out what was wrong with the programming.”

Gutter shrugged, “Seems that way, but you never know with those greedy suits... they’ll do anything to avoid using their own money.”

“Yeah... really wish we weren’t bought out by them,” Tokay sighed. She turned, holding the Search Cutter out, “Here... Thanks for letting me borrow it.”

Gutter beamed, “Not a problem~ Just don’t freeze it, that really sucked, and not in the fun way.”

Tokay chuckled, “Can’t be helped, huh?” She put her hands on her hips, tail lashing behind her, “I should consider maybe getting something for myself... even if not for combat, it still seems really useful to have-”

Without warning, the nearest head’s eyes flickered back online, and it jerked towards Tokay. Her helmet saw the motion before she could register her own movement, but with no more energy to power her Flash Freeze, all she could do was whirl and attempt to leap out of the way as it flung some of the robots standing atop it off to lunge.

It was too late.

The shear assembly clamped down on her tail, its softer materials deforming into the cavity of the upper jaw and wedging in fast. Tokay barely had a chance to cry out as the head jerked upward, pulling her roughly into the air.

“No!” Heavy bellowed, watching in horror as the machine she’d toppled began using its other necks like arms to push itself back into an upright position, “The power cables are severed! It shouldn’t be able to move!”

“...Its fins-!” Hatch shouted through a Hopper. “And the other dark surfaces! Look at the sheen! They’re solar panels! Each individual segment must have emergency power... and whatever’s made it go haywire must have just switched on those backups!”

“Whose the Hell’s bright i-fucking-dea was that?!” Gutter hissed, “TOKAY!!”

“G-Gutter!” Tokay yelled down as she attempted to reach up and grab at her own tail, “Blade! Quickly!!” She regretted handing it back so soon.

Gutter didn’t need to be told twice, and didn’t even waste her time with a retort. She spun up the Search Cutter that had just been returned to her like a sling and flung it up towards her sister, who reached out to grab it. Unfortunately, the demolisher’s head shifted, pulling the gecko bot with it, and the mechanical serpent drone sailed uselessly by.

“Shit-!” Tokay growled as she tried once again to reach for her own tail, though being swung around by it like a rag doll was making it very difficult to do anything as her vision spun. It was so hard to concentrate on anything, even the panicked voices below as Gutter tried to use her little lasso trick again to reach up, but couldn’t as the heads flailed about too unpredictably. Tokay cursed, and desperately tried to dig her fingers into the seams of the flexible armor, hoping her claws were enough to help her pry them apart.

A single voice punched through the din; the deep, commanding shout of Heavy. 

“TOKAY-!!” the giant python bot cried out from below, “LOOK OUT! THE OTHER-”

Tokay’s attention was pulled immediately from the shouting as her helmet’s eyes alerted her of peripheral movement, and she turned just in time to see one of Haikidra-1’s other heads rushing at her, mouth agape.

There was a deafening crunch, and everything when dark. The roar of machinery and the screams of her siblings and the other workers went completely silent.

But that was all that left her. With her primary cognitive circuitry embedded in her back rather than her head, she could still feel.

Everything.

She felt the snapping and sparking as what was left of her head and neck was pulled from her body by the hydraulic shears.

She felt herself dangling high above the ground by her tail.

She felt her tail finally being released, and the sensation of falling... falling...

She felt herself roughly and clumsily hitting smooth but uneven metal.

She felt the metal beneath her begin to shift. She felt the sharp pain in her hand as unseen edges sunk in, and began to drag her under.

[disengaging pain sensors]

It was the least she could do for herself... she didn’t want to even imagine what those sensations would be like otherwise.

Pressure. That’s all it was. Pressure and pulling, pieces coming apart, pressed, extruded through spinning, spiral teeth... for a second, it almost felt like there was a reverse force. Was somebody trying to pull her out? She couldn’t tell... She only hoped they wouldn’t be pulled in with her.

As the realization of her inevitable demise drew itself closer and tighter around her slowly peeling body, all she wanted to do was scream...

scream...

As Tokay’s hand passed in front of her chest, there was a sharp snap and a bright flash, and the Harp Number let out a strangled scream as her knees buckled under her. Everyone jumped a bit as she collapsed, hands clawing at her surroundings and herself as she writhed on the ground, whimpering, eyes wide.

“Tokay! What’s wrong?!” Gutter rushed towards her sister, leaning down and carefully lifting the smaller but sturdier robot off the ground as she convulsed, “Are you okay??”

“W-w-w-what..?!” Tokay stammered, teeth chattering as she stared down at her intact hands with a disbelieving expression, “H-h-h-how-??!” Her hands shot up to the sides of her head, clutching tightly at her helmet as she trembled, tail lashing about violently.

“Shhh, shhh-!” Gutter tried to calm her, genuinely distressed. She ran her scanners over her sister, once, twice, three times to see if anything was damaged or obviously malfunctioning... but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Slag looked out from the loading vehicle, “What’s going on...?”

“I... I don’t know,” Gutter bit her lip under her mask, “There’s... no obvious internal damage...”

Hatch stepped out of the vehicle and over, eyes giving off a grim expression. An Assist Hopper popped out of her back, crawling over to leap down, examining the gecko bot, “Something must be wrong with her Flash Freeze unit...”

“H-h-how,” Tokay continued to stutter, eyes darting about at all the worried faces around her. She took a few ragged breaths and checked her internal clock.

10:43 and 32 seconds.

“Th-th-that’s i-i-imp-p-possible...” Tokay choked, “H-h-how d-did I go b-b-back-...?”

“What the Hell’s going on here?”

Everyone turned to see the surly foreman standing there, drawn by the commotion and the decided lack of work being performed by the hired robots. He didn’t seem all that pleased, “Someone care to tell me what the hold up is?”

“Tokay’s not well,” Heavy rumbled, “She tried to activate the Flash Freeze and it glitched.”

“...Hmph, figures it’d be the experimental tech,” the foreman rolled his eyes, “Able to stop time, and somehow still going to put us behind schedule.” He reached into his pocket, “I’ll have you sent back to the lab. No use if you’re not going to function properly.”

“N-no-!” Tokay struggled, voice full of foreboding panic, “Y-you can’t-! I need to... I need to stop-! Somebody needs to stop Haikidra-1!”

That gave everybody a pause. Nobody had briefed any of the Harp Numbers on the scrapper’s name prior. The foreman slowly turned to look at the gecko bot, “...Excuse me?”

“Something’s wrong with Haikidra-1!” Tokay yelled, hysterically, “Something’s wrong with its programming! It’s supposed to help organize material and bale steel, but it’s going to start... start demolishing anything it can get its shears on!”

The curt human turned to her, eyes narrowed, “How do you know this?”

“Because-!” she began, looking around at the others. They were just as shocked by her words as she was... did they not see it? Did they not remember like she did?

Did she get sent back into the past alone..?

“I know because... because I saw it!” she admitted, choking on her words, barely believing them herself as they left her teeth, “I saw it, and it killed me!” She gripped her chest, “I... I died... and somehow my... the timepiece... it sent me back here to warn you!”

“Great, and now the experimental tech is delusional,” the foreman sighed heavily, lifting his phone to his ear. After a moment, he spoke to it, “Good morning. This is Foreman Yates of Exemplar, overseeing the factory demolition the Lab’s robots have been assigned to. I would like to speak with Dr. Harp.” There was a pause, presumably as the assistant on the other end forwarded the call. Finally, when she picked up on the other end of the line, he continued, “Doctor. I’m sending the first available transport back with DHN 01, Tokay Woman. She’s malfunctioning and spouting nonsense, and needs to be checked before she becomes a company liability. ...Yes, I understand. But you need to understand that given how much money we’ve poured into that pet project of yours, it’s your job to make sure it’s functioning properly before you send it out for field work. Is that clear? ... Do not make me repeat myself. ...Very well. Good day.” He hung up.

While the call went on, the Harp Numbers gathered around Tokay, who shuddered. They ignored the vitriolic words of the foreman, focusing instead on their distraught sister.

“Please... if nobody else listens to me, you... have to listen to me,” Tokay pleaded with her siblings, “You cannot get near Haikidra-1... I don’t want any of you to... go through what I went through...” She clutched her chest, turning her gaze towards Gutter, “...You, especially, Gutter. You... it went for you first... if I hadn’t been there to...” She shook her head, trying to clear the racing thoughts, “...Don’t give it that chance.”

If anyone could see and feel the deep and genuine pain and fear in Tokay’s eyes, it was Gutter. To everyone’s surprise, the red snake’s expression read trusting and true as she nodded, firmly, hugging her sister close, “...I understand.”

“We haven’t got all day, girls,” the foreman, finished with his call, scolded, tapping on his watchless wrist impatiently. Off to the side, Pack gave an indignant snort.

Tokay growled, just a little, as Gutter set her down and she tried to stand on her own legs... it was so hard. Her mind continually replayed that horrible, phantom memory. She felt every piece of her being pulled apart and crushed, and even if it didn’t hurt, she didn’t feel real.

None of this felt real.

Eventually, one of the other transport trucks pulled around and stopped by the gathered Harp Numbers, “All right, we’re done offloading,” the driver gestured, “Get on, little lady, we’ll get you back to the lab.”

Tokay cast a worried glance back at her linemates. She received mostly knowing and considerate nods of reassurance that they wouldn’t let her warning go to waste.

She stepped into the vehicle, hand on her chest, casting one last guilty look back as the truck pulled away from the ill-fated worksite.

The ride back was as uneventful as the first, but Tokay couldn’t even bring herself to tap the seconds away as she was wont to, mind thoroughly haunted by the events that had never transpired... and the fears of what could transpire in their stead.  Although the trip itself took less time on account of favorable crossings and a lighter load, it felt like it took two, even three times as long to return to the lab.

What was she even going to say? Tokay’s computerized mind swam as the vehicle pulled into the lab’s northeast loading bay, and she felt hazy as she haphazardly stepped out of it, and towards the door, fumbling at the identification pad with her hand, RFID chip granting her access to push her way through, into the main lounge.

While there were a few human assistants present, they were not Tokay’s focus. That was, instead, drawn straight to the two linemates who hadn’t been brought along on the excursion; Reach and Nail. Both were sitting across from one another at one of the smaller, fixed tables, Nail sporting smaller, more utilitarian shoulders than the bulky manufacturing plants they normally wore. The mollusc bot looked about ready to nod off, had the roughly-opened door not snapped them to attention, along with distracting the (technically) eldest Harp Number from whatever conversation she was trying to have that was putting Nail to sleep.

Reach spoke first, voice and expression quizzical, bordering concerned, “Back already, Tokay?” Taking a moment to put down the tablet she was using for visual aid, she slid her seat back and pushed herself up, “Didn’t think you the type to deal in so soon.” With a tilt of her head, the static gecko added, “Flash Freeze acting up?”

Tokay grit her teeth so tightly they could practically be heard even at that distance, and her knees nearly gave out as she stumbled forward, just enough steps for her outreached hand to slam down on the nearest table to hold her up as her other hand gripped the side of her head.

“I... I don’t know-” she hissed lowly, sounding both frightened and frustrated, rousing further worry from her linemates as Reach rushing to her side. Tokay continued, “I don’t know if what just happened really happened, or if I’m just going crazy-!”

“Whoa whoa, calm down,” Nail held up their hands, “If what happened?”

There was no initial response beyond Tokay shaking in place, holding her head, and Reach helped her sister take a seat, placing a hand on her shoulder. Nail, meanwhile, shifted their weight, but instead of standing up to move closer, simply kicked off the fixed table to slide over on the reinforced chair to come to rest aside the geckos in one seemingly lazy but effective motion.

Even without specialized machine sensitivity, it was clear the smaller of the two was under intense stress, and Reach herself could physically feel it; Tokay’s core was running at max capacity, refrigeration unit on full blast trying to keep her internal temperatures stable.

Carefully, Reach placed both hands about her sister’s shoulders and back, turning up her electromagnetic pads just a touch to deliver a gentle, therapeutic current. After a few minutes, Tokay finally relaxed enough to look up. Though the expression in her eyes was grateful, that was not the most pressing matter on her mind, “Did... word not get around..?”

Nail shook their head, “Non, the Doctor has been busy with another project. She has not had the time to tell us what the call was about.”

“...Oh,” Tokay turned her attention downwards, at her hands. She still didn’t feel quite real.

“Come on, Bitey,” Reach swiveled a chair over to sit beside her smaller sister, for now ignoring the faint scoff at the endearment, “You can fill us in just as well. What happened?”

“Oui,” Nail tilted their head, composed but still curious, “We’re family. Tell us everything.”

Tokay bit her lip lightly, shaking her head, only for Reach to give her a light shake. Finally, she sighed, and filled them in, from their arrival, to the designation of roles, to the first accident... Though she wanted to look down at the table while recounting, she couldn’t help but keep her eyes on her siblings, taking into account their expressions. Their concerned faces deepened with a tinge of disbelief as she explained what happened to Haikidra-1, and how they took it down with their collective efforts. It wasn’t a good sign; that was easily the most straightforward part of the experience.

Before she could recount the demolisher reactivating to grab her, she stopped, looking away. It was obviously the defining detail of the entire ordeal, the thing tying everything together, but she didn’t even want to think about it... the prospect of saying it out loud felt so much worse.

“That... cannot be right,” Nail scratched their chin, confirming Tokay’s suspicion of their disbelief, “It has barely been enough time for you to have gone and returned as soon as you arrived at the site.”

Tokay grasped her head in both hands, elbows on the table, “That’s... I...”

Nail shook their head, holding up a hand, “Do not get me wrong, I’m not saying I believe you are lying. Just that you need to finish your story.”

Reach gave her sister a reassuring squeeze on the arm, “You can save it for later, if it’s really that bad. We’ll still be-”

The dam broke. “I DIED!!” Tokay barked, pushing away. The other two Harp Numbers jumped, both at the suddenness of the outburst, and the nature of the revelation. “The damn thing came back and grabbed me and pulled me apart and dropped me into its shredder!” She stood up so quickly the seat fell backwards with a clatter. All noise in the recreation room halted as everyone stared at her.

Her voice lowered, trembling, “I... I died... and suddenly I was back at the start, at the moment I turned on the Flash Freeze... as if nothing had happened...” She brought her hand up to her chest, “Except... except it did...”

Tokay fell to her knees, “I remember... I remember how much it hurt before I turned my sensors off... how terrified I was... to think that... that time was erased for everyone, but left me with those haunting memories of... of my own destruction all the same...”

Everyone was at a loss for words. Reach held out a hand. “...Tokay..,” she whispered, feeling for the honest pain in her sister’s recollection.

Tokay glowered, looking away, “...You don’t believe me, do you?”

Reach wanted to say something, but was cut off before her words could form. “It does seem quite unbelievable,” Nail admitted first, looking grimly thoughtful. However, their demeanor changed with a shrug, “Then again, your power to control time is already well beyond what could be considered believable, so what difference does it make? Why should that make us any less likely to trust you when you sound so serious about it?”

“Nail’s right,” Reach added, trying to sound supportive through the weight of her worry, “Just because we don’t understand what you went through doesn’t mean we can’t be here for you. You did what you could in spite of... truly unbelievable circumstances.”

“Except... I didn’t,” Tokay spat, “That stupid asshole sent me home saying I was a liability... Everyone might be in danger that I could be there averting with what I-”

“You warned the others, did you not?” Nail asked.

Tokay paused, almost incredulous, “Of course I did-”

“Then you did what you could,” Nail interjected, curtly, leaning back with their hands behind their head, “No use hurting yourself more over it when you hurt enough already.”

Tokay was taken a little aback by that, but could only admit inwardly that Nail, rather fittingly, made a good point.

“Tokay?”

A new voice drew everyone’s attention to the door, where the receptionist from the lobby leaned in, looking apologetic, “Umm... Dr. Harp paged the front desk to, um... have me tell you to... uh, meet her in the diagnostic lab...”

Tokay looked more than a little upset to not be fetched by her creator in person given the gravity of the situation, and her expression was returned by a wince from the newer hire, “She needed to get it ready... she’s... been really busy all day... I’m sorry...”

“It’s fine, I get it,” Tokay muttered. She didn’t begrudge either Dr. Harp or this young woman, but she also couldn’t quite help her appearance, intimidating as it was despite her small stature, or the dour mood that only served to amplify it, “I’ll be up in a moment.” The receptionist nodded, stuttering a quick thanks before retreating through the door to her desk.

“You gonna be okay?” Reach asked, feeling a little guilty.

“Doesn’t look like I have much of a choice,” Tokay shrugged, with mild sarcasm, which mellowed out to a more genuine tone, “but thank you.”  She turned to look at Nail, “Both of you. It... means a lot to me... really, it does.”

“Pas de quoi,” Nail waved a hand casually, “We are family, don’t you forget.”

Tokay managed to pull a weak smile as she made her way to the elevator, “I won’t.”

---

“Nothing appears to be amiss...”

Dr. Harp sighed as she pushed herself away from the diagnostic display, pressing two fingers and a thumb against the bridge of her nose, pushing up her glasses in the process, “Which is even more suspicious, seeing as I can’t access or even find these memories you claim to have in your records...”

She turned her chair around to look at Tokay, who was reclined in a pod. While she wasn’t scheduled for a full maintenance checkup, the need to access her Flash Freeze had the small-statured gecko stripped down to bare internals from the waist up, with various tubes and cables connected all over the place in a seemingly haphazard fashion. This wasn’t anything new, but from the look on Tokay’s face, that didn’t make it any less exhausting.

“I don’t know what to say, Doctor..,” she muttered, sounding defeated, “But it’s there... I can recall it this very moment. More vividly than I’d like to, no less...”

Shaking her head, the doctor stood up, walked over, and began to carefully remove and roll up the cables, “I want to believe you... I really do. The only explanation is that it’s somehow encrypted in the timepiece itself, and only you have access to it due to the dust in your IC chip.” She looked back over at the screen for a moment, then back to the work at hand, “Regardless, if what you’re telling me is true... that somehow the device sent you back in time upon destruction, and that the only evidence is your word-”

“I know, I know,” Tokay sounded frustrated as she reached up to assist with some of the easier cables now that she knew it was okay to do so, being more than familiar with the process, “It’s... not exactly something that can be tested.” She frowned, “Not without having me-”

“Which is exactly what I don’t want to do,” Dr. Harp cut in, with an almost scolding tone, “Yes, it’d be nearly impossible to verify without a conscious system integrated in with the equipment, but I don’t want to subject a conscious system - especially a free-willed one - to repeated intentional destruction just to gather insubstantial, anecdotal evidence.”

The eccentric scientist continued, as she removed the last cables and helped her creation pull her bodysuit back up over her exposed frame, “My only guess is that the timepiece has some sort of self-preservation mechanism tied to its ability to manipulate time... there’s still so much we don’t know about it, that we can’t fully access without more insight into what we do know.”

“Almost sounds like you shouldn’t have been messing with it in the first place, Doctor..,” Tokay muttered, sounding almost resentful, though her expression read pained and conflicted as she looked down, hand raised to her chest to feel its strange, alien hum through her suit.

Dr. Harp raised a finger, opening her mouth to respond, when the console sprang to life with the blare of an incoming call redirected to the lab by the receptionist. She muttered, not sounding very pleased with the interruption, “It’s the work site... I guess we should take this.”

She pressed the button to answer, and followed it up by putting the communication over the speaker, so that Tokay could listen in on the situation she’d just been sent home from, “Dr. Harp here.”

“Good afternoon, Doctor,” came a serious, but young, voice. Surprisingly, though it was the foreman’s line, it was clearly not the foreman, “I’m calling on behalf of Exemplar with an update on the situation regarding the robots you’ve sent to assist with the demolition.”

“I had a feeling,” Dr. Harp tried to keep a professional tone on her voice, though the only ‘feeling’ she actually had was a deep sense of sarcasm, “Does it have anything to do with the warnings given to you by Tokay Woman before you sent her back to the lab?” She asked, a small amount of impatient bite sneaking into her voice, “Because I found nothing wrong, so it sounds like she really should have been allowed to do her job.”

“About that,” the voice on the other end of the line cleared their throat, “...Yes. It has everything to do with her warning. In fact, her warning about Haikidra-1 going rogue was so accurate, that we might have to conduct an investigation into how she knew in such a specific capacity.” The voice took on a warning tone, “The evidence so far implies tampering, but there were no external signs.”

“I’m pretty sure she told you, and it sounded like you didn’t believe she had some sort of... I don’t know... powers related to time manipulation by an experimental device that, despite having more than enough research funding and documentation behind it, is still not fully understood?.” Dr. Harp shot back, “Are you trying to imply that one of my robots - who has no reason nor motive, and has had more time and money invested into development and testing than the entire workforce at that site combined - was involved with some sort of sabotage that would jeopardize her standing with the company, or possibly her entire existence?”

There was an awkward silence. Tokay winced and turned her head away looking a little resentful, but also lightly guilty.  Eventually, the standstill was broken by a soft throat clear from the other end of the line, “No, and I’m sorry, ma’am. I’ll relay your concerns.”

“You’d better,” Dr. Harp scoffed, starting to lose a bit of her feigned professional demeanor in the face of direct accusations leveled at her creations, “Now, was that all you called to tell me, or do you actually have an update? Did anybody get hurt?”

Another pause. The voice got grave, “...Unfortunately, yes. Even with the prediction allowing for appropriate mobilization-”

“Cut to the chase,” Dr. Harp snapped, impatiently.

The voice on the other end sighed, “Slag Woman broke from orders and stationed herself by Haikidra-1 instead of 2 because of Tokay Woman’s story.  When 1 began to act up, as she said it would, Slag was able to mitigate some of the more... catastrophic damages it could have incurred, by jamming up its shredder housing with molten metal.”

Tokay’s soft, fidgeting ticks silenced as she looked over, expression worried. Dr. Harp nodded apprehensively, even though the gesture would not carry over the audio-only line, “And?”

The caller continued “Unfortunately... Unit 1 decided to throw a whole tractor at her afterwards. She’d used up most of her metal stores clogging it up, and couldn’t defend herself.” 

Dr. Harp tensed up, and even Tokay could be heard uttering a horrified, ‘oh no...’ in the back. Even if neither got picked up by the communications line, the voice continued, with an attempted tone of reassurance, “Don’t worry... she’s okay... moderate damage at worst.”

“But...”

Dr. Harp and her creation waited for the other shoe to drop.

“...A few other robots outside of your line were damaged beyond repair... and in the chaos brought about by the disbelief in your robot’s wild claims coming true, a few human injuries and two casualties were also recorded,” the voice confirmed, darkly, “Including Foreman Yates.”

So that’s why they were so salty that they’d open the call with an accusation. Dr. Harp furrowed her brow, taking off her glasses for just a moment to rub her eyes before putting them back on, “I see...”

She turned to Tokay, whose expression would have been unreadable to anybody else. But Dr. Harp, who knew her mechanical ‘daughters’ better than anyone, could see that while the gecko bot looked devastated to hear that humans were hurt and killed, she was also trying to suppress an almost smug grin.

“...Is that all?”

“That is all,” the caller confirmed, “Haikidra-1 is currently being disassembled. We will send a message with any findings when we make them.”

Dr. Harp seemed antsy to end the call, “All right. Can’t wait to hear it. Have a good day.”

The caller hung up without returning the admittedly sarcastic well-wish.

As soon as the line went dead, Dr. Harp turned to Tokay, “That’s not okay.”

Tokay looked at her creator, puzzled, “What’s not okay?”

Dr. Harp’s expression was grave, “...You shouldn’t be happy he died. You’re already under scrutiny.”

Tokay groaned, “Ok, look, I’m not happy he died,” she rolled her eyes, “It’s just... fitting comeuppance, you know? If he wasn’t such a damn idiot and let me do my job, he wouldn’t be dead now. It’s poetic.”

“It’s a red flag,” Dr. Harp let out a seething, exasperated sigh, “You’re on thin ice enough as it is.”

“Ha ha,” Tokay laughed in faux sarcasm, “Freezing joke.”

“...That wasn’t on purpose,” Dr. Harp shot back, though the delayed smile could be seen forcing its way to her cheeks.

“Of course it wasn’t,” the gecko bot leaned back, finally allowing herself a more genuine grin, “Shitty puns are just your natural response. Your resting state.”

“Oh please,” Harp shot back, “Like it’s that bad. You don’t need me to tell you yours.”

“Certainly not, considering you programmed me,” Tokay stuck out her tongue.

“Fine, fine, I concede,” the doctor mock-surrendered, “Anyway, is there anything else I should know before we wrap this up and wait for that site update?”

Tokay leaned forward a bit to peer at the monitors full of data. She’d already verbally recounted everything that couldn’t be extracted as memory recordings, “I don’t think so... Just that I think I could use some tuning tests for Freeze time under higher strain.” She tapped her knuckles on her chest, “I’m so used to going for hours in a damn office, it was kinda shitty running it down so quickly when I needed it the most... especially if it was meant for accident prevention.”

“Accident prevention rarely involves active combat with aggressive giant robots,” Dr. Harp corrected, “But I’ll look into it for sure. Maybe see if Dr. Cossack had any more of Wily’s notes I hadn’t already implemented to the best of my ability.”

“Love to be reminded that I’ve got a bit of Flash Man in me,” Tokay rolled her eyes, “Except I’d rather not be.”

“Don’t let Gutter hear that,” Dr. Harp responded, deadpan.

Tokay choked out a soft “Oh god-” as she covered her mouth with her hand.

The computer beeped suddenly, and Dr. Harp turned to see that a text message had been left, rather than a call. Whatever was found, it apparently didn’t warrant much more. She stepped over, sitting in the chair to read over it, and letting Tokay recover from her own embarrassment. The message was fairly short, with several attached images.

“...They found an unidentified chip inside Haikidra-1’s central processor,” Dr. Harp read off the note, summarizing as she went, eyes narrowing, “They’re suspecting Dr. Wily - of course they would - though the make doesn’t look like his, given he’s pretty proud and blatant with his branding... and the motive doesn’t make sense,” she sighed, “It’ll be sent to Dr. Light to determine for sure...”

“It could very well be an inside job by more AR activists,” Tokay held up a hand, offering the suggestion, “We can’t rule anything out. They have hands everywhere... like in the riot truck that caused the explosion in the first place.”

“You’re right, you’re right,” Dr. Harp stood up, walking over to the pod to finish making some adjustments. “It’s just easy to blame Wily, even though he’s been pretty quiet of late.”

“Chipping a giant dragon machine does seem like something he’d do,” the gecko bot scratched the back of her head, “But given how... robot-centric he is, I feel like he’d rather take control to unite robots under his banner, against humans, rather than have them wantonly destroy one another for humans.”

“Mm-hm,” Dr. Harp nodded as she fiddled with the pod mechanisms. There was enough bitterness in her face and voice to show she wasn’t quite willing to forgive the mad scientist for what he took from her, but she tried her best to let as little of it show as possible, “How does the timepiece feel?”

“...Cold..,” the Tokay sighed, “...as usual,” she shrugged, “Why?”

Before Tokay could say anything more, Dr. Harp reached out and wrapped her arms around the smaller robot, gently.

"I know a lot of things you experience are alien and hard to explain..,” the doctor’s voice was level and gentle, “...but if anything strange happens - no matter how unbelievable - as a result of your power... I want you to tell me.” The doctor pulled away, but kept her hands on her creation’s shoulders, eye to hourglass-shaped eye, “I need you to tell me. Even if you don't think I'll believe you.”

Dr. Harp finally let Tokay go, shaking her head and looking almost sad, “You're... like a daughter to me, and I love you... so I want to be there for you if anything happens because of this burden I've given you... and if it becomes too much for you,” she added, with clear, pained hesitation for all the effort that had been invested, “...I can remove it, if it's what you truly want."

“...No,” came the soft, but surprising response from Tokay. “I’m sorry for saying what I did about it... but the fact of the matter is...”

As creator and creation pulled away, Tokay placed a hand on her chest, “...The timepiece is as much a part of me as any other critical component, and...“ She sighed, “I can’t... imagine not having it. Losing it. I know the corporation sees it as little more than an overly convenient tool, but to me... it feels like my... entire purpose. My entire identity. Without it, I... wouldn’t be... me.”

Another sigh, and the gecko bot leaned back, “So... I guess... I’ll endure the uncertainties.”

Dr. Harp’s sad frown slowly faded into an equally sad smile, “If that’s what you want.”

Silence took over the room, punctuated by small whirs and beeps of machinery as the scientist cleaned up her work space, and Tokay looked up at the ceiling, lost in thought.

“...Hey, Doctor?”

“Yeah?”

“I have a... small... design suggestion... regarding my tail...”

[geddy-leesbian]

here's a snippet of the Miracle prequel :3

Luis didn't love that he was being taken off of the Nemesis Project and relocated from Lab 6 to a US Umbrella branch to try and pretend to be some random kid's new father. 

But he knew that you don't tell Umbrella no. You do what the company says you should do– no, you do everything they tell you to do and more– or they destroy you. The lucky ones will be taken to Rockfort and executed immediately. The unlucky ones will be used as test subjects or tortured just for the sake of torture.  So Luis stands in a white hallway by a door, holding a backpack and looking down at a piece of paper, trying to muster up the strength to look a child in the eye and blatantly lie to her.

He's one of the most charismatic people among Umbrella's ranks. He's a damn good liar too, it's how he survived life on the streets. That, alongside his specialization in parasites, was why he was selected for this task. He'd had time to contemplate his approach on the plane ride, because he didn't have all that much experience interacting with children specifically. Mostly he thought back to when he was first scooped off the streets and love bombed by Umbrella. But, other than verbal praise and validation that he was so smart and special, that had mainly involved taking him places and letting him pick out whatever he wanted. Not being allowed to take Lucia, the test subject he's supposed to pretend to adopt, outside of the Umbrella facility she was in, he'd just gone shopping himself, picking out a backpack and then filled it with an assortment of things he thought a little girl might like. The room he enters is even more depressing than the average hospital room. The shiny white walls are clean, too clean, unsettlingly sterile. All there is is medical equipment, and a hospital bed with a little girl. She's curled up in a ball, her face down on her knees. One arm is wrapped around her legs, the other is outstretched, connected to an IV drip. Luis had skimmed Test Subject #1's files and knew that their demise was caused by failure to thrive, the parasite leeching too much from its host, so Lucia's IV was likely extra nutrients to prevent that from happening again. The girl lifts her head up when she hears Luis walking in and lifts her head, sizing up Luis. “You don't look like a doctor.” “I'm not,” Luis says with a cautious smile. “Well, I'm not your doctor. I'm here because I've been thinking about adopting for a while, and when someone I knew mentioned there was an orphan in a hospital with no one to visit… Tugged at my heart strings.” “You're adopting me?” The girl's defeated eyes suddenly light up. “I get to leave?” Luis nearly breaks, but somehow holds himself together. “I would like to adopt you. They told me your name already, Lucia. I'm Luis. Can I sit?” Lucia nods and Luis sits down on the end of the hospital bed. “But you have to stay here longer. You're still sick, you have to stay here until you get better. But once you're all better, you'll come home with me.” Luis has done a lot of things he's not proud of, but he's never felt this dirty. “I'm not sick. Wasn't feeling sick when the orphanage guy said I was and took me here. And I don't feel sick now.” “That's because of the medicine,” Luis hates how easily the lie comes to him and slips out. “You are very sick, but they're giving you medicines here that are working so well that you don't feel even a little bit sick. If I took you home today, you would go downhill and start feeling real bad.” “But I hate it here.” “I know. Hospitals aren't fun. But I'm going to try to make things better for you, okay? I brought you a few things today,” Luis hands over the backpack. “And I'm going to talk to some of the hospital people and see if maybe we can get some things to make this room feel a little cheerier. And I'm going to visit you everyday.” “Every day?” “Every day. And I'll get you more stuff too,” Luis promises, as Lucia unzips the backpack and starts looking through the random little toys and coloring books Luis had stuffed it with. “It was just hard shopping before even meeting you, I had no idea what kind of things you would like.”

[thaiattorney]

Thailand SMART Visa

1.1 Statutory Foundations

Established under Royal Decree on SMART Visa B.E. 2561 (2018)

Amended by Ministerial Regulation No. 377 (2021) expanding eligible sectors

Operates within Thailand 4.0 Economic Model under BOI oversight

1.2 Governance Structure

Primary Authority: Board of Investment (BOI)

Interagency Coordination:

Immigration Bureau (visa issuance)

Digital Economy Promotion Agency (tech qualifications)

Ministry of Higher Education (academic validation)

Technical Review Committees:

12 sector-specific panels

Investment verification unit

2. Eligibility Criteria & Qualification Pathways

2.1 SMART-T (Experts)

Compensation Thresholds

Base Salary: Minimum THB 200,000/month (USD 5,800)

Alternative Compensation:

Equity valued at 25% premium

Performance bonuses (capped at 40% of base)

2.2 SMART-E (Entrepreneurs)

Startup Metrics

Revenue Test: THB 10M+ ARR

Traction Test: 50,000 MAU

Funding Test: Series A (THB 25M+)

Accelerator Requirements:

DEPA-certified programs

Minimum 6-month incubation

3. Application Process & Technical Review

3.1 Document Authentication Protocol

Educational Credentials:

WES/IQAS evaluation for foreign degrees

Notarized Thai translations (MFA-certified)

Employment Verification:

Social security cross-check

Three professional references

3.2 Biometric Enrollment

Facial Recognition: 12-point capture system

Fingerprinting: 10-print electronic submission

Iris Scanning: Optional for Diamond tier

4. Privilege Structure & Compliance

4.1 Employment Rights Framework

Permitted Activities:

Primary employment (≥80% time)

Academic collaboration (≤20%)

Advisory roles (max 2 concurrent)

Restrictions:

Local employment outside specialty

Political activities

Unapproved commercial research

4.2 Dependent Provisions

Spousal Work Rights:

General employment permitted

No industry restrictions

Child Education:

25% tuition subsidy

University admission priority

4.3 Mobility Features

Airport Processing:

Dedicated SMART lanes at 6 airports

15-minute clearance guarantee

Re-entry Flexibility:

Unlimited exits

72-hour grace period

5. Sector-Specific Implementations

5.1 Biotechnology

Special Privileges:

Lab equipment duty waivers

Fast-track FDA approval

50% R&D tax deduction

5.2 Advanced Manufacturing

Incentives:

Robotics import tax exemption

Industrial land lease discounts

THB 500K training subsidy

5.3 Digital Infrastructure

Cloud Computing:

VAT exemption on services

30% energy cost reduction

Cybersecurity:

Liability protections

Gov't certification fast-track

6. Compliance & Monitoring

6.1 Continuous Reporting

Quarterly:

Employment verification

Investment maintenance

Annual:

Contribution assessment

Salary benchmarking

6.2 Renewal Process

Documentation:

Updated financials

Health insurance (USD 100K)

Performance metrics

Fees:

THB 10,000 renewal

THB 1,900 visa stamp

7. Emerging Developments

71 2024 Enhancements

Blockchain Specialist Category

Climate Tech Fast-Track

EEC Regional Expansion

7.2 Pending Reforms

Dual Intent Provision

Skills Transfer Mandate

Global Talent Pool

8. Strategic Application Approach

8.1 Pre-Submission Optimization

Compensation Restructuring

Patent Portfolio Development

Professional Endorsements

8.2 Post-Approval Planning

Tax Residence Strategy

Asset Protection

Succession Planning

9. Risk Management

9.1 Common Rejection Reasons

Document Issues (32%)

Qualification Gaps (28%)

Financial Irregularities (19%)

9.2 Operational Challenges

Banking Restrictions

Healthcare Access

Cultural Integration

[obsidiancreates]

Out Of The Shadows and Into The Neon (Part 15)

“Oooooh, this was so what we needed.” Leon sighs and sinks deeper into the chocolate-scented hot bath. “I didn’t realize how tense I am!”

“Tell me about it.” Raphie lays under a large heat lamp, literally steaming in his shell. “Who knew parenting rambunctious ten-year-old boys would be so difficult?”

“Should we apologize to Dad?” Angelo sits in a recliner, enjoying a foot bath. “... Nah! I betcha we were angels!”

“No doubts!” Donald reclines in a massage chair, while a kangaroo Yokai sits dejected behind him, watery-eyed and pouting over his choice of Machine over Masseuse. “Oh, it is good to be a softshell sometimes!”

“Keep on bragging, Donnie,” Leon says, flicking water at his brother. “Maybe I’ll ask Don Jr. to build you one of those himself.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“I’ll tell him to add a warming component. Not copper. Something chemical.”

“You would have my own son accidentally explode me for some petty vengeance?!”

“Uh, duh.”

“Guys.” Raphie frowns at them. “Can we pretend we grew up past being teenagers while we’re here?”

“We already do that every day with the boys!” Leon groans dramatically, then chokes as he sucks in the spa water.

“Leon’s right!” Mikey slumps in his chair, putting his chin in his hands. “We gave them our names, our old gear, and sometimes it feels like we gave them our fun. And I want them to have it, but, today is our vacay day, Raphie! We can be as silly as we want!”

“... Well… alright.” Raphie puts two fingers to his eyes and turns them out towards his brothers. “But if we get kicked out because of y’all pulling some little sibling nonsense, Raphie is ditching you three for a solo day with the kids and April!”

“Totally valid.” “We’ll behave, Raph!” “The odds of us getting into any significant trouble are nearly ze-”

Donnie is cut off when the wall bursts open and a brock hits him in the skull, knocking him right out of his chair. The Kangaroo Masseuse snickers, then screams and flees.

“YOU FIRE ME?!” The last of the dust clears away to show a large, seething Centipede Yokai. His arms are all various sizes, various musculature, and various nail lengths. His back holds one long pack filled with lotions and oils, and a hot-rock heating plate sits on his head. He… stomps? Inside, all hands, no feet. “YOU FIRE HANS?!”

The Turtles all stare at him for a moment before Leon shouts in sheer un-chillaxed irritation. 

“Shouuuld we just let him take his revenge, actually?” Donald looks Hans over. “It is our vacay day.”

All three of his brother look at him with the utmost disappointment.

Donald sighs and stands, snapping a finger. His battleshell rockets through a wall in the other side of the room and attaches, an arm tossing his bo in the air and his brother’s weapons to their hands. “Fine! But this place owes us such a plethora of coupons!”

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I’m not sure about this…” April looks over her shoulder at Draxum. “Isn’t your old lab basically a ruin?”

“It’s also a piece of family history.” Draxum waves the kids under a line of Caution tape. “And you saw the poster. They’ve restored it for historical preservation!”

“That poster said it was restored for an ongoing criminal investigation,” Casey Jr. says under his breath to Cass. Cass, lips pursed and eyes closed, nods.

April nods too. “Also, it said it’s partially restored, as in, just barely not collapsing anymore!”

“The point is, this is where their fathers were made!” Draxum lets the tape snap back into place, and lifts his arms. “And… I might have left some very rare equipment behind when it was abandoned the first two times.”

“I knew it! Man, Barry! You’re doing this on vacay day?!”

“This is important, trust me!” Draxum waves April closer, and she obliges with crossed arms and a dangerous glint in her eyes. Draxum leans in. “I’m looking into the boys’s DNA.”

“What? Why now?”

Draxum arches an eyebrow at her.

“Wha- Leo’s breakdown? But… that’s just because of his anxiety.” “And why does he have anxiety? Why does Raph have such strong rage for someone so young and well-cared for? Or Mikey’s strong instincts, and Donnie’s great intelligence?”

“So? Sometimes kids are just special, Barry! Anxiety and anger issues and ADHD and uh- hmm. Nothin’ about smarts starts with A, huh? Uh- point it, they aren’t some signs of mystic weirdness! They’re signs of them being normal kids.”

“Then all my tests will reveal is normal yokai-human-turtle mutated DNA and we can move on.” Draxum nods at the lab. “Also, the boys have already been inside for two minutes without supervision.”

“WHA- BOYS!” April dashes past Draxum so fast it fully knocks him and Cass and Casey to the ground. “GET BACK HERE!”

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Whoa-ho ho! Gettin’ handsy, Hans!” Leon laughs as Hans snatches one of his katana away, but he just teleports it back to his hand. “I know I’m a DILF but relax!”

“Ewwwwww!” Angelo’s whole body shudders and he gags as Hans swings at him and he just redirects the punch to Hans’s own stomach with his chains. “Never call yourself that again!”

“What?” Leon flips out of the way of a rapid barrage of hot stones, which Raphie has to make a defense against as a result. “I’m just one-lining!”

“THIS is why I made the shock collar when we were kids!” Donald bonks Leo on the head with his bo before charging the wood with mystic energy and slamming into Hans’s Hot Rock Head Heater. His ninpo travels out of the staff and into the device, making it shake and tremble before it leaps off of Hans’s head and begins pelting him with stones.

“Don’t say that like it makes it okay!” Raphie picks Hans up with a ninpo-constructed arm and flings him into one of the chocolate-scented baths. “You know that was a jerk move!”

“Yes, yes, and I learned my lesson entirely naturally and will never do it again but come on! You want to shock him right now too, right?!” Hans roars and jumps at Donald, who spins his bo and slams Hans with a mystic rocket so hard that Hans’s flies away, becoming little more than a dot of light in the horizon. Donald holds his hands out at Leon. “I mean, gross!”

“My joke, or me? Because either way, you’re a-wrong.”

“Uh, guys?” Angelo looks around at the utterly decimated spa. “... We might’ve gotten a little too into that fight.”

“Uh-oh.” Raphie looks over the doorway… where the Beetle Yokai Spa Manager stands, three eyes twitching. Raphie laughs a little, smiling and waving. “Uh, we’ll pay for the damages?” —---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hmm… garbage.” Draxum tosses a broken centrifuge over his shoulder. Donnie walks up and grabs it. Draxum picks up and examines a strange mystic tool, and shakes his head, tossing that one over his shoulder too. “Also garbage.” Again, Donnie picks it up. They go like this for a while, Draxum tossing away tools he deems broken or useless, and Donnie collecting them up with starry eyes until he can barely walk.

“A little to the left!” Mikey knocks his foot against Raph’s head, standing on his shoulders.

“Ow! Errrrgh- why didn’t you ask Leo to do this?! We’re the two shortest turtles in the world.”

“But together we make one big turtle! And, Leo said no. … More to the left! AH, WAIT, TOO LEFT! AHHH!” Mikey and Raph scream as they both tip over, only to be caught by Cass and Casey. 

“I’ll get whatever it is you’re grabbing.” Casey reaches up, standing on his tip-toes but otherwise easily reaching. “What were you going for, Mikey?”

“I saw somethin’ shiny!” Mikey bounces in place as Casey feels around the shelf. 

“Was it… this?” Casey pulls down an old pair of goggles, and Mikey sags.

“Awww, man! I wanted it to be an old trophy or something.”

Leo, towards the center of the room, looks up at the destroyed… device, taking up most of the space. “Whoa…”

“Yeah. Whoa.” April glares around the room, kicking an old withered mystic vine. 

“This… looks like a supervillain lair.” Leo looks up at her with a teeth-clenched frown. “Why’s it so bad-guy?”

“That’s… somethin’ for your dad and Draxum to tell you about.” April looks over at the yokai in question, watching him grow a grouping of vines into a little ‘wagon’ for Donnie to put all of his salvage in. She smiles slightly. “Our family’s got a complicated history.”

Leo looks up at her, and then at the panel of the central device. He walks up and climbs onto a piece of rubble to look it over. “In Jupiter Jim, the buttons are way more blinky.”

“They sure are.” April smirks. “I guess some scientists just have better design tastes than others.”

“... This one looks like the airlock button from Jupiter Jim XIV: The Spacewalk And You.”

“Oh yeah, kinda.”

“And- this one looks just like the super-ulta lasers from Jupiter Jim and the Weasel-On Armies of Boogle III!”

“How do you remember this kinda stuff, kid?”

Leo shrugs, sitting down on the piece of rubble and swinging his feet. “I just have a good memory for important stuff.”

“Like Jupiter Jim facts?”

“And Lou Jitsu.”

“How could I forget to count Lou Jitsu?” April watches fondly as Leo keeps listing comparisons to his favorite sci-fi series. Maybe vacay day is saved after all.

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Okay, so.” Leon puts his hands together, and up to his mouth. “How about this? You don’t take us to Yokai court for property damages, and we… never come back here.”

“Not! Good! Enough!” The manager glares at them.

“Okay, okay, you want me to sweeten the deal, I get it.” Leon’s eyes travel around the room. “How about…”

“Weee cut our losses and take our business elsewhere?” Donald looks down at the manager scornfully. “Since someone doesn’t want our Completely Legally Earned Money!”

“Raphie is nervous about how you got that money now.” He narrows his eyes at Donald. “Are you sellin’ counterfeit headphones again?”

“It is not counterfeiting, the Deets brand logo just happens to be similar to my prototype DonnieTech logo! … I mean happened. In, past tense.”

Angelo lifts his hands. “I could try to mystically repair your walls.”

“And make an enemy of the Mystic City Builders Union?! In your dreams, and my nightmares…”

“Okay.” Leon holds his hands out to his sides, eyes closed and head bowed as he thinks. “How about this. You, let us off the hook, and we take our business to whoever your top competitor is, along with the grudge Hans is probably going to hold against us for the rest of his life.”

“That-!” The manager blinks, and her posture relaxes into something more sly. “Ooooh… send you and your destructive powers to my enemies?”

“Well I meant more in a casual company competition way, buuut oddly intense mortal enemies works too as long as there’s a hot tub.”

“Heh-heh-heh… alright, Turtle. You have yourself a deal.”

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Why do you want to keep this?” Draxum holds the old half-crushed microscope up to his eyes, trying in vain to find anything worthwhile about it.

“I can fix it up with another one Dad threw out a couple weeks ago.” Donnie holds his hands out, and Draxum reluctantly drops the piece of junk into his grandson’s grasp. Donnie looks it over one more time, sticking the tip of his tongue out in concentration, and nods to himself. He puts it in with the other broken tools in his wagon.

“We can simply stea- I mean buy you new equipment.” Draxum spots a mostly-untouched cabinet and walks over, throwing it open. “Ah-HA! Like this!” He pulls out the pristine tools. “Finally, I can do real research!”

“On our DNA?”

“OH!” Draxum whips around, expression pinched with shock and eyes wide with surprise. “Uh… no.”

“... Can we?”

Draxum chokes on air.

“It’s just, we’ve done a lot of chemistry, and mystic chemistry, and Dad and I do tech and mystic tech, so we know they do together, but… I understand the properties of the science part much more than I do the mystic part.” Donnie looks around, and picks up a book half-buried in dust titled ‘A Brief History Of Yokai Advancements: How Humans Fall Behind Us’. “Or, this! I mean, Yokai are an integral part of many Japanese legends! How did that end up happening? Did a colony of Yokai leave The Hidden City and make a new one in Japan? And if they did, how did that affect their mystic abilities? They would be so far away from the empyrean, so would their DNA degrade? Mutate? What if that’s why we’re such different mutants from our dads?”

“These are all… good questions.” Draxum avoids looking his grandson in the eye, sweating. “But I’m not allowed to study your DNA, if you remember the list of rules your father made and… generously hung up in my apartment.”

“But, I’m not not-allowed.” Donnie looks at his hand. “How are spiritual energy, mystic energy, and mutation-based abilities related to each other? Is there a physical component to Ninpo power? Does that show up as DNA markers? The Hamato clan was historically human, but had a lot of mystical power, which we know if connected to empyrean– maybe the theoretical Yokai who traveled to Japan brought some with them and minor exposure granted mystic abilities to the human population! Or maybe it’s a different form of mystic power entirely! We won’t know without finding out the history, and part of that is genetics!”

Donnie’s eyes are less and less focused on Draxum as he theorizes and rambles, a dreamy and excited look taking over his little face as he stares at nothing in particular and imagines all the mysteries he can figure out.

“Well…” Draxum looks around. April and Leo are still at the button panel, Leo recounting as many Jupiter Jim facts as he can somewhat loudly. Cass and Casey work together, practically juggling Mikey and Raph as they launch the boys up to shelves they wouldn’t otherwise be able to reach. They’re all definitely out of earshot.

“Fine.” Donnie blinks back to the present as Draxum agrees. Donnie lights up, grinning so widely his eyes aren’t even open, the adorable gap of his ever-missing tooth making him the picture of Adorableness. Draxum picks him up. “But no telling your father or uncles! Or L- Splinter. .. Or your aunts! Or Uncle! Or– anyone else!”

“It’ll be a surprise!” Donnie looks at the book he’s still holding. “We can look in the library too! There’s gotta be some books that talk about how Yokai became such a significant part of Japanese culture!”

“Yeah… no.” Draxum taps the book cover. 

“No?”

“The Yokai historical records have very little to do with the surface world of humans. It’s more common now to blend in among them with cloaking brooches, but for a very long time few Yokai wanted anything to do with the human world. Including keeping track of anything to do with them and us other than their transgressions against our people.”

“That… sounds like it’d make everyone hate humans.”

Draxum sweats again. “It… stirred up some bad blood. … For some.”

Donnie looks back down at the book. “So… probably no-one knows except a Yokai who spends a lot of time on the surface, with humans?”

“Correct. But, you already know most of the Yokai who live above.” Draxum gestures to himself. “The rest are mutants.”

Donnie looks away. He can think of one person he knows is a Yokai up there who spends lots of time posing as human, but… he was told to stay away from her years ago.

“But our research on your DNA should yield more than enough interesting results,” Draxum says, poking Donnie’s plastron. “So as long as we keep it secret until we’ve found out what we need to.”

… What’s one more secret, then?

“Okay. And I’ll uh… do my own research. On this.” Donnie pats the book and tries to smile innocently. “With my uh, computer.”

And a little trip out…

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Do you think the fact that we didn’t destroy that spa will get us sued by the first one?” Angelo asks as the Mad Dogz all walk out of the building with bones feeling like jelly (in a good way, not a Poisoned Pizza Puffs way). 

“I never said we’d get that place destroyed right away. Our deal is still totally solid.” Leon stretches, and his phone goes off. He checks the text. “Ahhh, perfect timing, guys! April says the kids are ready to head home!”

“They’re not the only ones,” Raphie grunts happily, stretching to yawn wide enough to stick his entire fist in his mouth. “Man! I don’t think I’ve ever been so relaxed!”

“Maybe this is a fresh start!” Angelo clasps his hands together. “One relax-a-tastic day to start off a whole relaxing life!”

“Oh, sweet sweet Angelo.” Donald shakes his head, tucking his bo into his battleshell. “Sweet, naive Angelo.”

“Don? What’s with the condescending ominous warnings?” Leon drawls, frowning and squinting at his twin.

“Have we forgotten the age stages our sons are coming up on? They’re soon to be officially pre-teens.” Donald looks grim. “The rebellious stage is rapidly approaching.”

“Pffff.” Raphie waves a hand. “That stage is for kids who don’t have cool parents. What’s there to rebel against with us?”

“Uhhh… I mean, we are here because we grounded them for fighting when we told them not to…” Leon rubs the back of his head. “So…”

Raphie blinks, eyes widening, and then shakes his head. “... This, is something to think about when it’s not, vacay day.”

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Ah! Finally!” Splints pauses the TV as his family walk into the lair. His expression goes soft as he sees his grandsons all asleep on the backs of their fathers. “I take it today, was a success?”

“Well…” Leon and April both say at once. They freeze, looking at each other with Caught expressions.

“What?! How could anything have gone wrong on vacation day?” 

“It was a good day, Pops,” Leon assures, sliding Leo off his back and into his arms. “Just had a little run in with a tiny fight…”

“And… the boys found out they don’t really like rollercoasters,” April says, wincing. “But we had lots of fun with everything else! Found a great gyoza place!”

Splints looks at them with suspicion, then shrugs. “Well, if you all had fun! Come, once you put the boys to bed, I have ordered takeout!” Splints points at the Shelldon tablet.

“Full on noodle night, bros!” Shelldon cheers! Mikey shoots awake right away. “Noodle night? Aw, yeah! Vacay day is awesome!”

[castlebyersafterdark]

Can we talk about the metaphor of the Upside Down and its attendant flora and fauna if it's meant to be Will's Vecna vision?

Chrissy's mum sewing - pushing her bulimia and body image issues. Chrissy's dad sewn into the chair, eyes and mouth shut. This is like something from a nightmare Chrissy would have had, not just a way for Vecna to metaphor-ise Chrissy's fears. Likewise with Fred, it's likely he'd actually see the car in his dreams, and also Henry himself, a fragmented family home is symbolic as well as could represent his fractured and missing memories of childhood before the lab.

So could the Upside Down be Will's? Listen, someone in the show needs to tie all this baloney together, why not our boy Will? He went missing first, he's the OG inciting incident, and the UD has been haunting the narrative, so it would make sense if one of the characters brought all the threads together, and for it to be Will.

But what does the demogorgon represent? It's humanoid. It has no face, as if Will's brain is trying to erase the identity of it. But it has a mouth that opens wide. Visually, it's terrifying, but any kid is afraid of monsters with large mouths. That's not interesting enough to make a show about. So what else does the mouth mean? Could it symbolise the abuse that was hurled at Will as a child? What about the artistic imagery, the classic association of flowers - vulvas. Could there have been a female figure in Will's life who abused him? Or could it be a representation of his childhood fear of feminine sexuality, a way to portray his homosexuality, like vaginas with teeth? Like the movie 'Teeth'? The vines in the tunnels also expel shoots of foam/spores and there are eggs, too - so it's giving both male and female reproduction themes.

The demogorgon also creeps about, leaps on people, and comes through walls. Why would Will dream about this? Is he afraid of home invasions, burglars, rapists? And why is the shed and the castle byers the place where the demorgogon, if it did, finally got him? Castle Byers is a safe haven, but the shed, we didn't know much about it.

I wouldn't be surprised if it did end up being about will surviving childhood sexual abuse by someone who knew him, because Will simply being afraid of burglars, strangers, or even scary monsters in movies does not supersede the horror of what Vecna's other victims suffered through, so it's not big enough fodder for the final season of this show that ties everything together. I can't help but think there could be a 'Mama' to Brenner's 'Papa', especially because they've gotten the actor who played Sarah Connor in. What a fun trick if instead of just a military baddie, she plays the very opposite of her Terminator character: someone who works in a mental institution/lab, and is the harmful character instead of the goodie trying to escape.

But it could also be Lonnie. Lonnie is involved somehow.

I'm always a little hesitant to post these because I know it's a really popular theory about childhood abuse and I don't really feel especially equipped to dive into it, or really feel comfortable, and I don't entirely have these ideas as my personal understanding of the show. So I can't entertain a huge discussion here if follow-up thoughts pop off from this one. But, they are potential thoughts and ideas with some validity to them, I'm just passing along possibilities!!

Because I can see where you're coming from and how the ideas are taken from the details outlined here. This isn't me being dismissive - it's me supporting creative thought you've shared with me (and us) and boosting along for reading and consideration 😊 I hope that makes sense? I like reading everyone's diverse thoughts even if I don't have a "yes, and-" to add. Maybe part of me is too soft so I have a mental block of, oh no. I don't want that to have happened to Will. So I can't analyze it that way. Hey, we all have our limits. Being honest 😔

Personally I feel the show... isn't going to go there specifically. Allegorical, at most. One thing I do differ on that I will talk about, is that for me, I don't see the Upside Down as specifically a vision, but something Will specifically created as a veneer over the presiding Dimension. Different layers, difference appearances that have been warped. I think in one of the material leaks Vecna calls Will "his builder". I think Will was being hunted and set to be taken for whatever reason and he was a specialized target, something Henry and the Mindflayer needed, and his overwhelming fear made him wish for something safe, he just wanted to go home, needed somewhere to hide, as he disappeared, and the Upside Down formed around him in the visual of Hawkins. Or maybe this is totally not accurate. It's just an idea. But I do believe the UD as it looks as we've seen it is a physical place and not just a vision, however it has been changed.

[attorneyssphuket]

Thailand SMART Visa

1.1 Statutory Foundations

Established under Royal Decree on SMART Visa B.E. 2561 (2018)

Amended by Ministerial Regulation No. 377 (2021) expanding eligible sectors

Operates within Thailand 4.0 Economic Model under BOI oversight

1.2 Governance Structure

Primary Authority: Board of Investment (BOI)

Interagency Coordination:

Immigration Bureau (visa issuance)

Digital Economy Promotion Agency (DEPA) for tech qualifications

Ministry of Higher Education for academic validation

Technical Review Committees:

Sector-specific panels (12 industries)

Investment verification unit

2. Eligibility Criteria & Qualification Pathways

2.1 SMART-T (Experts)

Compensation Thresholds

Base Salary: Minimum THB 200,000/month (USD 5,800)

Alternative Compensation:

Equity valued at 25% premium to cash salary

Performance bonuses (capped at 40% of base)

2.2 SMART-E (Entrepreneurs)

Startup Metrics

Revenue Test: THB 10M+ ARR

Traction Test: 50,000 MAU

Funding Test: Series A (THB 25M+)

Accelerator Requirements:

DEPA-certified programs

Minimum 6-month incubation

3. Application Process & Technical Review

3.1 Document Authentication Protocol

Educational Credentials:

WES/IQAS evaluation for foreign degrees

Notarized Thai translations (certified by MFA)

Employment Verification:

Social security cross-check (home country)

Three professional references (direct supervisors)

3.2 Biometric Enrollment

Facial Recognition: 12-point capture system

Fingerprinting: 10-print electronic submission

Iris Scanning: Optional for Diamond tier

4. Privilege Structure & Compliance

4.1 Employment Rights Framework

Permitted Activities:

Primary employment with sponsor (≥80% time)

Academic collaboration (≤20% time)

Advisory roles (max 2 concurrent)

Restrictions:

Local employment outside specialty

Political activities

Unapproved commercial research

4.2 Dependent Provisions

Spousal Work Rights:

General employment permitted

No industry restrictions

Child Education:

25% tuition subsidy at partner schools

University admission priority

4.3 Mobility Features

Airport Processing:

Dedicated SMART lanes at 6 airports

15-minute clearance guarantee

Re-entry Flexibility:

Unlimited exits

72-hour grace period

5. Sector-Specific Implementations

5.1 Biotechnology

Special Privileges:

Lab equipment duty waivers

Fast-track FDA approval

50% R&D tax deduction

5.2 Advanced Manufacturing

Incentives:

Robotics import tax exemption

Industrial land lease discounts

THB 500K training subsidy

5.3 Digital Infrastructure

Cloud Computing:

VAT exemption on services

30% energy cost reduction

Cybersecurity:

Liability protections

Gov't certification fast-track

6. Compliance & Monitoring

6.1 Continuous Reporting

Quarterly:

Employment verification

Investment maintenance

Annual:

Contribution assessment

Salary benchmarking

6.2 Renewal Process

Documentation:

Updated financials

Health insurance (USD 100K)

Performance metrics

Fees:

THB 10,000 renewal

THB 1,900 visa stamp

7. Emerging Developments

7.1 2024 Enhancements

Blockchain Specialist Category

Climate Tech Fast-Track

EEC Regional Expansion

7.2 Pending Reforms

Dual Intent Provision

Skills Transfer Mandate

Global Talent Pool

8. Strategic Application Approach

8.1 Pre-Submission Optimization

Compensation Restructuring

Patent Portfolio Development

Professional Endorsements

8.2 Post-Approval Planning

Tax Residence Strategy

Asset Protection

Succession Planning

9. Risk Management

9.1 Common Rejection Reasons

Document Issues (32%)

Qualification Gaps (28%)

Financial Irregularities (19%)

9.2 Operational Challenges

Banking Restrictions

Healthcare Access

Cultural Integration

[more-berry]

Today is the first day of Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week. I want to share with you about my C-section.

I went in for an induction with everything I'd need for a potentially long wait. I told my doula not to come yet, since it could be over a day until active labor and I wanted her to be able to rest and stay with her family until it was time.

The nurses struggled to get my IV in, then struggled to get the wireless monitor I requested to adhere to my giant belly. At last, after a long wait, they started me on the very minimum pitocin drip.

Just a minute or two after the nurse left, she was back with another, checking my monitor. Then two or three more came in. They told me to roll to one side, then the other. Get up on hand and knees. More people.

I was only beginning to understand that something besides the darned monitor was wrong when they started saying "fetal distress" and turned off my pitocin drip. We had chosen not to find out the sex of our baby, and for some reason, one of the doctors who came in announced that it was a male to the room full of staff. I wondered if they wanted us to know while he was still alive.

Someone told my husband to get the doula on the phone. He had just planned to grab dinner with his mother and had to call her to cancel. A kindly woman trying to keep me calm asked if we had picked out a name. I wondered if she was asking us to name our dead baby.

A nurse and the on-call obstetrician had an argument about what to do next-- the doctor said C-section, the nurse pointed out that the fetal distress had stopped and we could try the induction again. Finally the doctor explained the process to me-- the distress hadn't lasted too long so we could try again, but if it started again we would need to move so fast that I'd be put fully under and no one could come with me. I opted for the C-section. The nurse advocated for me to be allowed to walk to the OR. I think she was trying to preserve my sense of agency.

In the OR, they sat me on the edge of the table, asked me to hunch over and take a deep breath. Immense pressure in my spine. They rotated me onto the table and lifted my legs for me. I remember babbling a bit about how I wish I'd had such good equipment when I worked in a research lab.

We had to start before my doula could get there. My husband was by my head. At one point, he started to cry. I would only learn months later that it was because he saw them remove my intestines and vividly realized he could lose me.

A gurgling cry. I cried with relief that he was alive.

Later, I would struggle with the recovery. I had trouble breathing for a time. I didn't understand that I was in the "fall risk" gown because I was a fall risk. Once I was able to stand, it hurt horribly to get in and out of bed. I itched all over. At home, it was hard to walk up and down stairs or lift my legs to put pants on. PPD slowly took hold.

Some people tried to joke, "at least you didn't have to push a baby out!" I didn't have the words to tell them that I'd been deprived of an experience I prepared for, and instead had something done to me. I didn't have the words to tell them the searing pain of an incision through my abdominal wall was still unpleasant. I didn't have the words to share that I felt like a fraud because I'd missed this apparently universal piece of motherhood.

I'm sending love to C-section parents. It's okay if you feel robbed and grateful at the same time. It's okay if you chose it because it felt easier. It's okay (great!) if you had an easy recovery. It's okay if you had a tough one. Your experience is a real and valid birth story. And you're not responsible to feel any particular way about it.