#Matrix Error AU

[kaynai-sama]

AU List (Updated)

Sooooo, I’ve realized I have 18 Wild Kratts AUs... so I updated the AU list I made a long time ago... when I only had like nine AUs or something like that...

WK Hazbin Hotel AU: Hazbin Hotel but with the Wild Kratts characters.

Wolfwalker AU: After getting a bite from a wolf cub, Jimmy starts seeing things. He barely sleeps ever since.

Mystichal brothers AU: Part 1: The bros discover the flewin DNA in their family thanks to Chris, but he runs away for five year, why? Part 2: Martin is attended in a strange hospital, after that, he senses dark enery coming from himself, but he can’t control it.

Experiment 351 AU: Chris curses the day when his old childhood friend murdered his brother to turn him into a doll... He’s a crazy pshycopath... wait, is that 350?

Spy Japan AU: Working for an independent force from the former Kanaichi agency, the bros dedicate their lives to protect the town of Korosaki from the other forces.

Collision AU: The WK survivor has to get back the souls of all the Wild Kratts of the multiverse which were stolen by the villains of each universe, it’s been 1 year and a few months already and yet... nothing.

Demon & Ghost AU: Chris discovers that William is not his real dad. Martin and his family know this, expect for Chris, obviously. They wanted to keep his real dad away from him, and it worked... until now...

The WK Resistance AU: Zach released a slight zombie virus to kill the wk crew, but he ended up starting the apocalypse.

Spy Robot AU: Zach had some good three years creating and calibrating the new robot clones of the wk crew to finish them once for all, let’s hope it works.

Fairy princess AU: Aviva is interested in Chris since she was a little girl. But, she’s a princess and she can’t be with a little farmer boy like him, can she? Meanwhile, the Kratt family hold a secret, no one can know about it, especially the royal family.

Criminal AU: Chris and Martin enter the criminal career to get enough money to afford the so-called cure for Martin’s unique dissease, but they have to deal with the police and stuff, especially a new symptom Martin will develop soon.

Dr J. Kratt AU: Fascinated by all the scientific wonders of animals and blinded by the wish of knowdlege, he quits the WK crew and becomes a villain. Martin still can’t belive that new villain is his little brother.

Matrix error AU: Omar dissapeared five weeks ago. Desperated and with no other choice, Koki, his older sister, calls an old “friend”, Jimmy, the only one who can help her with this case.

Snake's Garden AU: Martin reunites with his college band. But now he has a new challenge from their old rivals and the return of a speciall someone, someone he thought he would never meet again.

Next Gen AU: Agatha makes a deal with his own father, earn some approval from him in exchange of finishing the new wild kratts crew. But she never thought of what could happen to her next.

Witchcraft AU: The bros are abandoned by her mother in a strange ride which takes them to the Fenix Witchcraft academy. Jus in time for a big event, where they team up with Aviva, Jimmy and Koki, the youngest of her class and witch rank.

Wild Animals AU: Martin runs a band with Chris and his friends, Jimmy and Koki. One day, a girl named Aviva shows up asking for a place to stay. She ends up making new music with them, changing the vibe almost completely, and Martin does not like this.

Creepy AU: The Kratt siblings had the perfect life, until Hanna was murdered... Martin suffered from depression and guilt, Chris’s schizophrenia was getting worse, everything was wrong!... Martin couldn’t hang on to this anymore... and he made a horrible mistake.

Alright... For now because I know myself) This are all the AUs I have. Bro, the last list I made about this was so much short, but hey! It’s always good to come up with new stuff.

[sk3l3]

The main protagonist of Elteruin; Leif (created by the guys over at @elteruin)

Not an exact drawing of them, The skin is light grey instead of whitish grey and I added that top part of the jacket, the part where a hood usually is.

But, here's my fanart of them.

[annabelle-creart]

Ok- so, I got crazy, and probably a little out of mind, but I made something

What would happen in some of the transformers characters we know are actually the 13 Primes????????

But not like they are here- NO, THEY LITERRALLY REINCARNATED BECAUSE THEIR PAST SELFS WANTED TO ESCAPE EVERYTHING TO ABANDON THE RESPONSABILITY AND NOW THEY'RE ASHAMED OF IT BECAUSE OF HOW THINGS WENT THIS FAR AND NOW THEIR PLANET- THEIR FATHER IS DEAD!!!

Resume of what I made this far but context first, and have in mind this is mostly based on my Au Life of Rescue Bots, which you can read on Ao3 and Wattpad :D

AND ALSO, I know I changed some things that definitely don´t happen in canon but I developed this Au in my head before knowing better of the Primes, that´s why it is like this and also I wanted to make some lore and angsty and existentialist shit, now, enjoy:

Prima Prime - Optimus Prime:

Leader, creator of the Star saber and the matrix, he was the smartest and trustworthy of all of them, but that power made him paranoid, unable, weakening his processor. He was so conflicted about his own mind and ideals about his siblings that the only solution he thought about was to destroy his own body and reincarnate his spark into someone else, he was the third Prime to do this, reincarnating many eons later as Orion Pax, who later was chosen Prime because the Matrix recognized its creator, but Orion didn't knew this 'till the Matrix itself "waked" all the memories his spark closed in his new body, making him Optimus Prime, that's one of the reasons he's so determinate to stop Megatron and the war, but he don't want to repeat his errors by killing him.

Vector Prime - Sideswipe:

Master of Time and Space, user of the Rishling, great and wise Prime, 'till he became the last Prime alive and decided to retire from the job, abandoning it and letting go the universe protection and leaving both the Clockwork and the Rishling hidden, that's the reason why Cybertron end up like that, because he never cared about the war again and didn't stop it at time, his job was supposed to evade things from disaster and he never stop it or cared, or that´s what everyone would say, actually, Vector wanted some vacation and let the work to his most beloved minicon, reincarnating as a racer on Velocitron named Sideswipe, the vacation was supposed to last just some eons, but he didn´t knew this type of transmutation would led him to forgot who he was, he was the most relaxed and childlike of the Primes but definitely they didn´t expected him to be such an irresponsible teen like Sideswipe.

Alpha Trion - Soundwave:

The Archivist, the Writer of Cybertron's culture and history, the last Prime before Vector into being reincarnated, doing so to search for the rest of the Primes, but due to the blocked memories from his spark, he forgot his true porpouse and decided to live a normal life as Communications Operator, and later as member of Council, accompanied by their twin-sparks, Heatwave, a lower-caste bot who became Rescue Bot and Shockwave, a senator and also scientist, later discovering something strange about them, but not before pairing with Megatron, the Decepticon leader, and without noticing, being an important member of Cybertron's History. Soundwave discovered their condition as Prime when their twin-spark, Shockwave, mentioned him that Archives would be History books if books said the truth, remembering a conversation they had time ago with Vector. The Fact is that Alpha Trion never liked to be part of history, just to see it, because he lived the consequences of it and didn´t like it, but now he was a member of the history again, and those consequences were pursuing them again.

Solus Prime - Heatwave: (I just discovered Solus is a fembot, don't judge me)

Not just the first fembot, but also the first creator aside from her father, with the help of a Forge she created herself, she made weapons and tools for her and her brothers, her mere existence is an inspiration for the fembot's forms and processors and for the lives and hopefull sparks of Cybertron, unfortunately, her death by Megatronus hand left a hole on Cybertron where she closed her spark, until she felt the presence of two of his brothers on it, becoming their twin-spark, this time as a male bot, but his love for creation continued impregnating his spark, unfortunately, as a sparkling, he was later sent to be a miner, and after it, he became a Rescue Bot to escape that fate, finding consolation at his new team, one of them his conjux, and at Megatron's call for freedom, regretting it completely when he got into stasis and discovered during it he was a Prime, reviving over and over again the trauma of being killed by the one who was supposed to be the love of her life, and he was about to do that AGAIN if he never got in that ship. He´s still unsure of how she should call himself, but for her team's good, he makes like anything happened, especially for Cody's good...

Alchemist Prime - Shockwave:

No matter the time, moment or place, as Prime and as Decepticon scientist he was Elemental, the only reason why he is now so cold is because of the punishment he recieved from the Senate, but during his period on it, he was know for his kind spark and his great determination, his beautiful smile and his joy for helping others. His power and curious can be only compared to magic, but it's actually science, same that passed the layers of space itself and, with the help of Alpha Trion, reincarnated to search for his siblings,but instead, forgetting his whole past and becoming by accident a death machine, only analyzing his own acts when Soundwave, knowing better of his condition, destroyed the emotional supressors on Shockwave's processor and passing through all the memories he forgot he had.

Micronus Prime - Servo:

The first minicon, the counscioness of the Thirtheen, fast, smart, agile, of great personality and capable of much more his size made the rest think, he had the power, the passion and all the energy to give his siblings all they needed for a short moment, and after all of this, when his leader, Prima disappeared, he did the same, and became a lot of minicons, lived a lot of lives leaving all his power behind, and with each life, forgetting more about who was, being now a minicon service robo-dog on the service of a marine old and injured bot named Hightide, now Micronus is know as Servo and don't expect or want his siblings to find him, mostly because everyone thought he united with the Allspark so, he can have a normal and peaceful life with Hightide, unfortunately, his sister- well, now brother, Solus is as perceptive as always.

Nexus Prime - Nexus:

Compared to the rest, the first combiner and the first Bot-System, never had a reincarnation, they were the same since the beginning of time, fought in the Civil War with Optimus Prime, hiding their true selves, so, no one would ask for none of them again, especially because they felt betrayed when the rest of their siblings just go away, not knowing the true story but being too ashamed and hurt to hear it, dispersing and disappearing in the pits of Velocitron, the deeps of the moon and the old tunnels of the now dead Cybertron, until they were called again on the Saloon...

Onyx Prime - Cody Burns:

The Lord of Beast, and also the most spiritual and full of kindness of all the Primes, compared to his scary tangible himself, he was a being of love and freedom, who cared more about the rest than himself but never let his sibling tame him to be part of the Allspark, no matter how injured he was, instead, to fool him, as the second king of jokes he always was but no one knew, he escaped to a planet named Earth, and using his and Unicron´s power, he hided the Triptych Mask on the moon and transmuted his spark into a kid, who, with the time and his descendants, would inherit the spark of Onyx Prime, since then, one by one, the spark pass through parent and child, who also became parent and had a child, finally, passing the spark from the best know as Chief Charlie Burns to his son, Cody Burns, not knowing about this until both father and son discovered the old and "dead" carcass of a metallic Griffin, with who Cody shared a strange connection, and the griffin shared a strange connection with the bots once he called siblings.

Amalgamous Prime - Makeshift:

When his siblings started to disappear, this Trickster, first king of jokes and Master of change came to Primus for knowledge, but instead, was received with the vision of the horrible fate of his siblings, and all the things that could happen in they decided to fight against the other, and with it, the truth about Solus´s death, he was determinate to tell the rest, but due to this truth, Megatronus felt threatened and also kill this Prime, robbing his t-cog in the process, uniting him to the Allspark and then, run away. For some reason, he, in the same way their siblings did, reincarnated as a shapeshifter lot of time later, but unfortunately, as the same way the new live on Cybertron affected Solus and his new form, Amalgamous, now know as Makeshift was obligated to live using his abilities to hurt, trick and end with the other without any mercy, not knowing about his past until Megatron tried to kill him, tried, because Makeshift then remembered his life as Prime and managed to escape, leaving his unhonored life, hiding as much as possible in Earth with nowhere to go.

Quintus Prime - Nightshade:

Quintus was know as the creator, but he was also an older brother, a scientist, a philosopher and an explorer, he loved to read in the quietness of the Saloon as much as he loved to go and explore the cosmos, creating and dispersing life on it, he became unaware of his siblings manners after it, concentrated into creating the Quintessons with his beloved Emberstone, a gem that, otherwise everyone thought, it´s alive and has a mind on its own. Quintuss, compared with his siblings, and for Primus' liking and sadness, wanted to be a father or something as his creator, he wanted something of his own, not necessarily something to be remembered, but something that would transcend and leave a mark on the universe, and he did, but instead of making the good with it, his creations killed him and tried to use the Emberstone for conquer, but the artifact saved him by guarding his spark on itself, and when the Quintessons were defeated by Cybertron, the Emberstone managed to escape, hiding itself on Earth and been sleep since then, until a pair of kids decided to touch it and the Emberstone thought it would be a good idea to create again, using Quintus spark to create one of the five new beings who named themselves Terrans. Nightshade suspects something is wrong with themself, but doesn´t know yet about it, Optimus didn´t suspect of them yet, but the rest does.

Liege Maximo - Galvatron:

A bot who has all the good of his trickery siblings and all the bad of his most kind sparked siblings, he´s a bot of beautiful words and horrendous intentions, only paying attention to his evil plan of conquering Cybertron when he discovered Prima only kept him close because he wanted to put an optic on him, and with it, all his plan felt into place: Megatronus killed Amalgamous and Solus and ran away? They were needed deaths; Quintus decided to go to discover his purpose? He needed him out of the equation; Onyx was about to be sent with the Allspark? Onyx didn´t wanted to be tamed, and he needed an army of beast only Liege could control, everything was coldly calculated so Liege would kept everything for his own, it´s ironical how scared Prima was of Megatronus, when the true menace to this universe was this bot. When the rest discovered about his treachery, they destroy him and burried him, but, like the rest of his siblings, came again, not as stronger but as smart and treacherous, he remembered everything since the beginning and was more than happy to end with his "beloved" siblings when the war started to get out of control.

Megatronus - Megatron:

Tricked by his own insecurities and jealousy, Megatronus were once a loyal brother, but his title on chaos gave to his siblings the excuse to think about him everything they wanted, from gain the fear or the love, but that was just the beginning, because when he thought things would finally change, Liege´s plan was complete, and in his frustration and loneliness, destroyed his spark... or that was what he thought, because, with no memories of his past as Prime, once again Megatronus found himself as a sparkling, they named him D-16 and treated him like an object, raised like something that could be replaced in any moment, he changed his destiny in the Arena of the Gladiatorial, once again gaining a name: Megatron, and using his new power to fight against Cybertrons oppresive system, once again, Megatronus had found his porpoise, his reason of life and the meaning of his existence, if that´s the case, then, why he became an autobot, leave decepticons and tried to forgot his past, trying to clean his errors on Earth? Because his processor is loud, and is constantly threatening him, cursing him, retelling his errors and remembering him how much he hates himself.

The Thirteenth - ???:

The mysterious brother, no one except his siblings know much about them, after being injured and almost killed on the battle against Unicron, The Thirteenth became one with the Allspark, always remembering to their siblings the true importance of being All One, after his passing, his siblings fragmented themselves, but if it wasn´t for them, the rest would never met again to repair what they left behind...

The Saloon:

A place where the minds of the Primes go when they´re needed, it is only accessible if the Prime wants to be there and due to it´s state of "alternate plane of reality" it can only be visited by the Primes and Primus itself, the only one who can´t enter is Liege because Vector, creator of this space, managed to change the programmatic of it to expel him, expelling also Galvatron.

[utau-fanchildren-combos]

Error x Ink (part 4)

Spot by @the-shadow-of-joy

Spill by @202-drawings

Viri by @amarald adopted by @star-gamerxoxxox

VirusExe by @mentalbreze885

Splatter by @reeses-peaches

Code by@Trash01 (Amino)

Cyan by R. I. P. Reaper In Party

Den by @hakki-no

Code by ReaperSans/Has Wings

Rouge by Nαƚx (Amino)

Fanchild by _Charisk4Life_

Clay by lilly (Amino)

Blot by NightLi97034222

Sketch by @winterbreh20

Ai by @1forchr1s

Athena by Athenauwu4

Yang by Blueberryhelo

Buggy by Blueberryhelo

Calluna by @the-creator-undertale-au

Tommy by higurasonic

Akemi by ramen_the_idiot

Acrilic Jems by @miniminxxoxo-blog

Acrylic by ♡~MultiTheMutantSans~♡

Artifice by @ask-artificesans

Annie by @ann0v3r

Castell.EXE by RebornHydra adopted by ElatedFeline

Contrast by @xxeonv (?)

Copt by Fantastic-Host1035

Custom (?) by @big-senpai / LexysDesu adopted by AutumnSheep

Florika by @TheSt4rlitOukio

GreyScale by Dhabquin

Kai by ?

Kali by ?

Knox by @broken-little-bunny

Matrix (?) by @ebifbbq

Nanoscale by Coriandera

Nisha by Lena_Wonton

Patchwork by @juniemunie

Fanchild by obscuredsavepoint

Fanchild by ShikuLost

Malfunction by ItzL_X3L

Aquabrush by @patatomon-waka-meme

Last Part / Next Part

[primus-why]

Can there be a giant mecha AU within an already giant mecha-centered story?

Basically I'm trying to see if we could cobble together a Pacific Rim AU where the Cons and Bots have to set aside the war to fight off invading kaiju, and stumble upon ancient weapons in the form of the Titans. Turns out you can pilot one of these into battle, but the process requires pairs. I'm sure Megatron will have Shockwave try to find a solution while Optimus tried to somehow channel the Matrix into getting the thing to move, but after much trial and error they come to terms that they will need to work together.

Cue all your fav pairings having drift compatibility and linking up... bonus points for when the duo cross faction lines. 👀

[pocketramblr]

some snippets from my highschool/university experience. to add to your hell school au if deemed funny enough.

drama class and only drama class had cake day on friday mornings. there was a contest between two girls about who could make the prettiest shit, and one person who was just making shit like macaroons and crepe cakes constantly. (it was me. i was that guy.)

public school but the film teacher was religious so we did a whole unit about jesus symbolism in the matrix

my maths teacher was on a dating show and no one agreed to go on a date with him. totally rejected.

a real actual exam i took had a question about the genome and one of the answers was hot dog.

every exam has an announcement like "due to a type error, question 10 will not be marked." or "please turn to page 12 and change the 10 to a 100"

university didnt want to buy lab supplies so we used toothpicks for Important Lab Work

student took a practical exam with a torn ligament rather than take the deferred exam (also me. it was purple and the size of a small mellon)

exactly one good vending machine on campus and it was specifically inside the rooms only 3rd years from one degree could enter.

Our vending machine is hidden locked up in one of the ESL speech counselor's office so yeah that seems legit and like UA

Your drama class sounds awesome though I love macarons and crepe cakes, time to get some fun competitive rivalry to the students.... Monoma and Bakugo getting up in arms about the USJ and public perception is dumb. Now two teenage boys trying to outdo each other's cooking in Friday club hour, and occasionally escalating to physical violence, now that's realism!

Hey, the first fight of this school year broke it because two teens had been playing basketball at lunch in their free time and one got mad at the other for not taking it as seriously as them. Not cheating or anything just. Not taking it as seriously.

Kaminari has repeatedly failed math tests because he accidentally changed 10 to 100 on the wrong question, or didn't hear which one to skip and wasted time on it to not get to the other ones that were marked. Every time Ectoplasm sighs and let's him redo it without a grade penalty, because the kids weren't exactly set up for success with that format, but still, it's extra work and he's exhausted

Student who took an exam with a- Ham that's,,, that's Izuku. Why are you actually Izuku -

The toothpicks is too real though lol you know Nedzu changed "art class" to "modern hero art history" so Midnight could just lecture on historical at pieces and he wouldn't have to buy actual expensive art supplies for the class... But man not even for your lab? Yikes

[shy-hermit]

REBOOT

- is a story of mine on Wattpad and Quotev, currently titled under the guise of "Glitch in the Matrix." It contains numerous scenes that aren't suitable for younger audiences. If you're ready for a wild ride, make sure you know what you're getting into.

°

Three years ago, a series of mysterious rifts tore through the Undertale universe, displacing every character from their familiar realms into a world completely devoid of magic. This new world was stark and ordinary, a place where mana, monsters, and the essence of determination had no existence. Stranded and powerless, the monsters faced a dire choice: hide from the humans or try to assert dominance over them. Many expended their dwindling reserves of mana, with no way to replenish it. This unfamiliar and alarming presence sparked fear among the humans, who soon formed a specialized team of researchers to study and contain these strange beings. Captured monsters were subjected to rigorous experiments and classified by their potential threat, rated on a scale from 1 to 12. They were then segregated into seven distinct Sectors, with Sector 1 exclusively dedicated to housing the most dangerous creatures, those rated Level 10-12. In this grim new reality, both humans and monsters grappled with the unknown, each side striving to survive and understand the strange world they now inhabited.

Three years into this altered reality, the reader—a hidden Frisk of this strange new world—finds themselves assigned to investigate a dangerous anomaly that was apprehended and hidden away in their Sector. This anomaly, far too perilous for their assigned area, brings them face-to-face with Error Sans. And so, their story begins.

°

I repeat, there's a lot of scenes unsuitable for younger audiences, and you might end up hating me for some of it since some of the good characters turns bad and very uncharacteristic. Some AU's will be mentioned, and it's completely non canon, and I do apologize for bringing other's characters into this. This is just my own version of the story, and— I repeat— it's a dark one.

It's a gender neutral story (female oc in my comic) that's going to have some character development and suggested love interest pairings (mainly Error), and some characters will be unalived. But if you do enjoy a good heartbreaking, heart pounding, heart stopping, rage triggering story, well, there you go. 💀

Mentioned character (Error) is from @loverofpiggies 's Errortale 😊 I loved it so much that it inspired me to create this unique story.

PROLOGUE

[crkstarrynights]

I forgot to repost this; here are some Starry Nights designs for Moonlight Cookie and Stardust Cookie.

FUN FACTS:

For Stardust, while coming up with his Starry Nights design, i thought of Fatal Error. You know... the .EXE. I can imagine them interacting with each other.

Moonlight is both the Guardian of the City of Wizards and a sort-of-Space Cadet in this AU, explaining why she has a sword instead of a staff. Her double-hat is inspired by one of her beta designs and one of her Ovenbreak costumes.

Starry Nights!Milky Way, Starry Nights!Sea Fairy, Starry Nights!Blueberry Pie and Starry Nights!Space Doughnut do exist. I just haven't thought of their designs yet, but SN!Space Doughnut might look like a character from one of those vintage IBM computer games. (The ones with Matrix-like green colors.)

[bob-no-escape-ask]

Error/backrooms AU

So like the world is a simulation, but it's not like the matrix. The world is just Made Of Code as like a base for everything else

The Bob Dimension is like a back room, a storage space for all of the unused files of reality, and like Bob himself is a bored Antivirus who fucks with the top layer of reality cause he's bored amd stuff

So like everything so far is basically the same but in a new context and the environment is different

This has been in the inbox for awhile and I know it was an aet request but

I'm gonna be honest I don't know how I would draw all of that. But cool idea either way

[modpoppy]

and ANOTHER au im gonna draw soon: ace assurance where eveythings the same but theyre all accountants

i think the prosecutors are in finance bc finance and accounting are posited as enemies, meanwhile trucy and all the magicians are marketing peeps bc marketing is directly seen as opposite to accounting

athena: audit, she uses her psychology learning and mood matrix to critically assess the intent behind errors or inconsistencies in forms, but mostly because she doesnt believe that simon would do something as basically unjust (👀) as insider trading

apollo: tax preparation, he tries to be as fair and honest with it as possible and doesnt appreciate people/companies trying to cheat the system (obviously he will advise but not to the extent klavier does). going into SoJ he starts diving into tax law (i think dhurke is probably straight up a tax attorney)

phoenix: starts off with simple bookkeeping roles like payroll, sorta just becomes well versed in most roles

edgeworth: personal finance??? like phoenix also a bit more general but he has a reputation for cutting costs without waiting for excuses for them

man what the fuck am i doing

franziska and manfred: also personal finance but way way WAY harsher, manfred probably included bs stipulations that instantly made him more money/less culpable for fucking things up

klavier: tax advising, like telling people how to get the best tax treatment (avoidance, not evasion, though apollo still dislikes it bc klavier finds more loopholes than hed like)

blackquill: investment. guy. i dont. know what its called rn. he reads companys financial statements and assesses how bs they are. was arrested for serious charges of massive insider trading (took the fall for athena who he suspected had been idly listening in on his and his mentors calls and telling people what she learned)

nahyuta: he is the sec

kristoph also did tax preparation but was found to have been doing illegal money shit with his clients tax returns (meanwhile the main incident irt phoenix losing his cpa was evidently having never sent his clients tax return even tho he DEFINITELY did, and with drew misham he set a long term tax trap knowing that vera was actually filing her fathers tax forms, so the moment he did it itd be flagged and he’d get caught for forging and shit)

everythings actually mostly the same tho there are less deaths but not NO deaths

[bending-the-rules-of-the-canon]

It was a rainy day at “Home”, Melody had programmed it to be as normal as any world could be. Error shifted slightly in his place, watching how the titanic tree at the center of the AU moved with the wind. He felt… calm, the only sound being the rain pouring down, he needed this peace. Melody was a nice friend and all, but he made too much noise while working and honestly Error wanted to be alone for at least five minutes.

The programmer had offered to change the appearance of the Anti-void, to make it a little less overwhelming, not that a place filled with snowy mountains was any better, but Error liked it. However, the process was slow and Melody had been doing his best to do his job while also attending to Error´s wishes. He felt bad for the programmer but his mind really needed a change in his home.

His time alone got interrupted sadly, Error felt the presence of someone getting close. No music was being played, so Melody was not around. The footsteps sounded confident and followed a rhythm, only guards walked like that.

Error identified Dadster as he came closer, the tired caretaker carried mugs with hot cocoa in all his hands.

A little bit of warmth for your heart - said smugly the caretaker, handing over a mug to Error.

Dadster was… not a bad abomination according to Error´s standards. He wasn't loud, didn’t pry in his business and showed emotional support when needed. Dadster knew how to approach every individual and knew to not press further in things that plagued their respective minds. A nice father figure.

The destroyer gave him a small nod, accepting the hot beverage, watching him leave and continue to hand over mugs to the rest of the habitants. “Home” was a big place, but compared to the omega timeline, it had few people. It was the reservoir of the survivors of corrupted AUs or forgotten creations. A place hidden to almost everyone who didn’t know how to move around the code. At least CORE, Ink and the rest of his crew didn’t know about it.

Nightmare and the rest of his mafia-like gang didn’t know about it as well. So Error felt good while visiting the small but cozy AU. He was still trying to define his emotions and the emotions of everyone around him, Melody was a good teacher. Having to guess the feelings of others while also trying to figure out how to act was a challenge, but he had made progress. At least now he knew how to react to someone crying.

Error still carried the small guide book for emotions that Melody had made for him, there were still some things that he couldn’t understand. Like Flare getting upset when Mint didn’t give him affection upon meeting. Love was a very hard concept to comprehend.

The sudden sound of a piano got him out of his thoughts, Melody had finished. The smiling programmer emerged from a hole in the ground, jumping and landing alongside Error. His prosthetic hands gave him a thumbs up.

- Everything’s ready! you can now enjoy the new look of the once creepy Anti-void - exclaimed Melody with a big smile- It is very cold though, so I made a cabin for you and Flare.

Not that his pseudo-son was staying with him anymore, preferring the company of the “Bad sans” group. Still, he will inform him of the change later. Blueberror, would also like the change of scenery even though he rarely got out of the omega timeline.

Error knew it´s location for a very long time. He stumbled accidentally upon it while searching for Melody and the Matrix. In fact, he had been there to visit Blueberror a couple of times. While CORE could be omnipresent, Melody knew ways to hide things from their presence. Error didn’t like to question the strange methods of the programmer, half of the things that he did were incomprehensible.

Strangely, his first thought upon arriving in the omega timeline wasn’t to destroy it. Melody and Flare had been around for a long time and he was getting a hold of his emotions. He started to help the programmer in his work, to only destroy AUs that were abandoned or incomplete, to contribute to the balance.

Nowadays, Error didn’t destroy everything on sight. Which was an improvement on his social skills, various souls started to actually like him. Like the entirety of “Home”, especially the kids for some reason. Error still found them noisy and still considered them abominations, but now he was capable of appreciating the beauty of creation, he was getting soft.

The destroyer was still very imposing and a great part of the Multiverse feared him. Even Ink learned to think twice before striking him, which led to them having fewer confrontations and more talks that usually led to nothing. The creator was stubborn and refused to let any AU be destroyed, he needed them for his vials after all. The problem with overcrowding the Doddle Sphere was that AUs could collide with each other, Error had seen it happen a couple of times, it wasn’t pretty.

In fact, that was the job that Melody gave him. From time to time the programmer gave him access to different AUs that were ready to be destroyed. It helped maintain the balance and it liberated space for newer worlds to be created. However, Ink didn’t know that and with Melody’s policy to not let anyone know of his presence, it complicated things.

Ovelia was also an active threat. If there were too many AUs she would start corrupting a few, which could expand to other universes, even popular ones. Melody’s job could be exhausting at times.

Error sighed and gave his empty cup to Melody, summoning a portal but making it glitch so he could not see the other side.

- Thanks piano tiles, I will repay you later - said while disappearing through the portal.

The last thing he could hear was Melody´s loud laugh.

The only creation of mine is the noisy Melody, Dadster and the AU “Home”.

[kaynai-sama]

Koki looked at her phone, it had been days and she still wasn't sure of what was going on, but she knew who might know, even though she haven't spoken to him in what could've been two years.

She picked up her phone and searched for a contact, yes, last call was two years ago. She called.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Jimmy."

... "Koki? Hi! Wow, I never thought you'd ever call me again after the incident in Oklahoma, how are you?"

"Me neither. I'm fine, by the way."

"So, what do you need?"

"Your help."

"I'm all ears, what's wrong?"

"It's about my brother."

"Omar? What's wrong with him?"

"He's been missing for five weeks by now, I thought you'd be the only one I could talk about."

"Hey, I'm always there to help you if you need it, but you know what my work is and I'm working on a little case over here."

"Well, of you can keep up with that and at the same time help me, I would be thankful."

"... Well, I guess it can take a little pause, what happened?"

"Last time I saw him was about five minutes before he disappeared. I was working on a case of a missing child and when I went to check up on him... He was gone."

"To his room?"

"If he'd been there I wouldn't have called you. I searched all over the house four times."

"Mmhh, guess you're right."

"There were no signs of a break in, he just went missing from a second to another."

"When did this happen?"

"... Five weeks ago, police suspects he's already dead, but I-."

"Five weeks ago?! And you're barely calling me?! This could be definitely something I could help you with from day one, and you decided to wait five weeks?!"

"You know those things are not the first to come to my head when this kind of things happen."

"But since the first minute it wasn't like your kind of missing people cases, you know what this can be about."

"I do now, can you get off my back and just help me... please?"

"... Fine, I'm getting nowhere with my case anyway so, why not? I could use a break."

"I'll send you my address."

"Oh, no need. I already know where you live."

"I moved out, Jimmy, I couldn't stand living on Oklahoma any longer, I moved here to New Jersey."

"New Jersey, that's nice."

"I'll send you the address and see you later."

"See you later, friend."

"Yeah, see you."

She hung up and looked at the room where Omar was... His videogame was still on, she hadn't move anything.

Where was he? He wouldn't just vanish in the air...

What the hell was going on?...

[cryptidcat-stories]

Matrix Error | HLVRAI

SO- ABOUT TIME I PUT THIS U P ALKJ This has been an au I’ve been working on for a short time. I was able to make various thing for this au. As in I've made an ask blog for this AUs Gordon, a small plotline for this au, and this one-shot. 

Be weary that this one-shot is very long. I was originally planning on making this two parted, but I realized I could NOT write G-man. And I cant really write Benry very well... So hes very much ooc here...

So I hope ya’ll like it!

The last thing Gordon remembers before blacking out was following the Science Team in the strange world of Xen. He didn't know what happened, whenever he just randomly blacked out or something unknowing to him tranquilized and captured him. But he remembered nothing really piercing his skin nor suit for the past hour they've been on the planet. 

He did feel like something major was gonna happen though. But he didn't know what. He didn't like it either. 

His mind was becoming more hazy and harder to think by the minute. He didn't know why, but he was getting more scared with that fact. He hoped the Team helped him and if he was taken, noticed he was missing. 

-----

Benry was freaking out a tad. They had realized Gordon had suddenly disappeared and no one knew where he went. Benry did all he could to try and find the leader of the little group. No one even knew when they last saw him, it was all at different points as he had been keeping to the back of the group. He had his reasons to stay in the back of the group, some he named, others he did not.

Dr. Bubby was getting irritated thinking Gordon just up and abandoned the group. Dr. Coomer and Tommy were telling him that Gordon would never do that. Dr. Coomer said Gordon would never do that as he was nearly everyone in the group’s friend. Dr. Bubby just brushed it off with a huff, and his eyebrows furrowed. Dr. Bubby’s glasses glinted from an unseen light hiding his eyes. 

Tommy was fidgety, concerned for his friend. Because he believes he was taken. He was concerned for Mr. Freeman’s well-being. Tommy believed whoever was waiting for them at the end had Gordon as a hostage. Or worse, had already killed them.

It was actually Dr. Coomer’s idea to have the group keep going forward. Benry hesitantly agreed, missing his usual snarky and odd comment. Dr. Bubby just growled and didn't say anything, not adding anything nor arguing to stop and possibly wait for Gordon. And Tommy quickly agreed, hoping the group would find Mr. Freeman soon

-----

Gordon slowly regained his consciousness, however something just… Felt wrong with him…

He was laying down in something, and as his vision slowly cleared all he saw was red. He quickly pushed himself up, a yell clogging up his throat. His waist felt like it was trapped, and as he looked down he froze eyes widening. 

Gordon saw that his body seemed to be lodged into the ground. And from what he can see, his own body looked to be covered in plates and scales that imitated his HIV suit. But something that looked almost exact to the front of his suit was wrapped around his chest and back. It honestly felt really uncomfortable to him, and he hated how weird it felt.

Gordon felt his right arm be a little lighter than usual so he quickly looked to said arm. He saw the lack of gleaming metal and clearly remembered there had been a gun on his arm. His eyes widened once again from seeing the gun missing, and in its place a familiar stump, scars were now clearly decorating it. He peered at his other hand. What he saw instead of a normal hand, was now a clawed hand. He closed his hand experimentally into a fist, confirming that it was truly his own hand.

He brought his hand to the side of his face and rested it there. He closed his eyes and dragged his hand down his face, now covering his mouth. He refused to acknowledge his now sharp teeth and slightly different facial features. 

He realized he still had his glasses though, which he was glad for as he still needed them despite- His new form.

He hoped this form was not permanent, and if his friends even will recognize him if they ever found him. Gordon's thoughts suddenly started to go in a dark direction, ‘What if I'm forced to fight them..?’ ‘What if they can't recognize me?’ ‘What if I… Lose control of myself?...’

He was slouched over, his one hand covering nearly half his face as his eyes were wide at his last thought. He squeezed his eyes shut and breathed for a second. 

He removed his hand after a few minutes, and finally took in the room he was in. 

The room was massive. Faint unseen lights lighted up parts of the room, making it not as dark as it seemed. The floor had a red liquid covering it, making whoever stood in it feel like they were wading in blood. And red fleshy looking support beams were scattered throughout the edges of the room. 

Ripples fanned throughout the liquid from his own movement as he turned and looked through the room. It was unusual, but not unusual enough for this world. So the room fit right in.

What startled Gordon though, is that his thoughts started to get fuzzy. And he didn't know why. He was worried, something or someone was messing with him. And he didn't like that. 

He slouched over in sudden pain, a groan echoing out his throat, his head was nearly touching the floor and the liquid that covered it. A sudden migraine had appeared and it hurt like hell. His thoughts were getting more muddled and scrambled, and he couldn't think straight. 

His eyesight got blurry as his glasses fell off and somehow disappeared into the red liquid. He put a hand on his forehead and supported himself with the stump of an arm he had. He groaned again as another wave of pain hit him, and the sound that came from him sounded more like a growl. But he couldn't focus on that. 

What he could focus on, were the sudden disturbances and ripples that he suddenly felt from the sludge. He lifted his head enough that he could look in the direction of where the ripples were coming. 

His face was contorted into a pained glare as he looked at the opening. His vision was fuzzy so he couldn't see whoever or whatever was there.

Gordon had one last coherent thought before unknown instincts took over. And he disappeared under the ground and out of view.

‘What the hell is happening…?’

-----

The team had finally reached a large room. It was like the last few rooms they were in minutes ago. And the same red liquid was still bubbling and fanning around their feet. 

Benry was getting antsy. He didn't know why, but he didn’t like it at all. His thoughts were still muddled from the worry of the dangers and needing to find their friend. 

Benry felt something crunch under his foot as he waded through the liquid. Confusion crossed his face as he reached down and began to search through the substance for whatever he stepped on. His hands brushed by something slick and feeling of metal and broken glass, he nabbed the item and brought it out of the liquid and carefully wiped it down to the best of his abilities. He froze in shock, his eyes widening and a bit of sweet voice slipping out catching Tommy’s attention. 

There grasped in his hand were Gordon’s glasses. Now even more cracked from Benry stepping on them. 

“Benry?” Tommy hesitantly asked, turning around to face him. Dr. Coomer and Dr. Bubby stopped their conversation from Tommy’s voice, the two were now looking at them in confusion. Benry looked up to Tommy, fear clearly showing in his eyes. He held out Gordon’s glasses in a way so the rest of the group could see them. 

Tommy gasped, his hand flying to cover his mouth. His hat slipped to the side a little bit from the sudden movement. Coomer’s eyes were firmly glued on the glasses, his own face showing shock. While Bubby was silent, the glare of his glasses once again hid his expression. 

Tommy was going to say something before he was interrupted from sudden large ripples and large bubbling from in the center of the large room. Everyone’s focus was drawn away from the glasses and looked to the center of the room. 

It looked like something large was here, and nobody liked that. Everyone got into a defensive stance, ready for whatever might come at them. 

Benry had quickly pocketed the glasses and went up to stand by Tommy, letting his own hands shift to claws and allowing a few extra eyes to appear. 

Soon after, a low growl began to echo around the room. Everyone was tense, hopefully ready for whatever might come. 

They didn't have to wait long after that as a large figure burst out from the ground with a gutting roar. 

The figure was warped, looking mixed from various beasts they have encountered and various animals. Plates decorated the monster, and a mane of what looked like dark brown curly hair draped down the beasts head and back. It looked like it was tied into a low ponytail, but no one noticed that at the heat of the moment.

It had a hand missing on its right arm, cutting off from above where the wrist might have started. Heavy scarring surrounded it making it look like it was sawed off haphazardly. It also had two pairs of eyes. The upper pair were a pitch black, a bright green iris was all that could be seen in the eyes. And the second were closed, currently no clue of how they looked.

Wrapped around the chest of the behemoth ahead of the group looked to be some kind of device. Various softly glowing buttons could be seen though some of the excess liquid dripping off it. A symbol seemed to be placed above the buttons of the device, however it was too dark and the figure was moving around too much for it to be seen properly at the moment. 

The beast caught sight of the group, its eyes flashing and it suddenly roared and lunged for them. A clawed hand darting out to slam into the group. The group panicked and split so as to not get smashed. 

There, the fight has just started. And Benry was scared out of his wits for Gordon. Hoping for the man to be okay.

-----

It felt like hours when he was put into the void of his own subconscious. It however, has only possibly been 30 minutes, since he lost control of himself. 

His vision soon started to clear as he was finally able to open his eyes. His vision was clearing slowly by the seconds as if he had his own glasses on. But he quickly realized that he didn't have his glasses on, as the weight from them was missing from his face..

Gordon soon realized his own thoughts were muddled as hell, and it seemed he couldn't even look straight. He had a hard time seeing, as he was lashing around attacking something. He quickly realized he wasn't actually in full control of himself.

His own eyes widened at the realization, quickly darting around hoping he wasn't attacking his friends. He also soon found out that he had two pairs of eyes now. He could see though both, but his focus was currently on the bottom pair. The upper pair, he found out, was wildly somehow glitched and blurry. And it made the team look like other monsters or the damned military that was attacking the facility and them. 

Gordon made sure to keep his own focus on the bottom pair of eyes. He wanted to see his friends how they were, and not some warped, messed up versions of them.

His mood immediately got worse when he finally spotted Tommy, Sunkist and the others, they were all battered and bruised. Surprisingly Benry was still here, he looked a tad different but that didn't matter to him right now. The group was ducking behind pillars and attacking him when he left a spot open and exposed. 

Gordon quickly realized soon, of how much pain he was currently in. It felt like when he lost his hand, but now scattered all over the upper part of his body. His own eyes filled with tears. From both the pain and the realization as they were attacking him for their own protection. 

Gordon suddenly lurched, and he quickly spotted Dr. Coomer. Who had his back turned to him and was currently distracted from new opponents that appeared. It looked like his false instincts were taking a chance of a distracted enemy and attacking. Gordon heard the sudden panicked shouts from Tommy as he felt his own claw shoot out to attack. 

Gordon narrowed his eyes, more tears pricking the edges. He had to redirect his attack, and keep it from hitting Coomer. He strained, gritting his teeth as he was able to slow his attack down and made it strike and hit an alien that had appeared behind Coomer. 

He let out an internal sigh of relief, closing his pair of eyes, seeing he was able to change the direction of his own attack. His own body growled in irritation and in pain, as Dr. Coomer took the chance to attack his hand before darting back out of range. 

Gordon reopened his eyes, glad at the start of taking control of his own body again. It was a start, even though it was only to change his own attack.

-----

Tommy let out a shout seeing the beast change its focus on Dr. Coomer. He yelled out his name, hoping and warning Coomer of the attack. He was glad to see he took notice of the attack, but immediately changed into panic seeing how he didn’t know how Dr. Coomer was going to dodge that attack without getting severely injured. 

But without warning, the attack from the beast suddenly slowed and got knocked off course from some invisible source. It hit an alien who had appeared behind Dr. Coomer instead of the original target.

Tommy was confused, he had finally spotted the second pair of eyes the beast had. They were now open and wide.

It looked like relatively normal eyes. The sclera was white, while the irises were a dark natural green unlike the upper brighter neon green. It also seemed to express different emotions than the upper pair, and look in different directions. Earlier it looked panicked, tears pricking from the corners of its eyes and looking around frantic. And now they were closed with relief, possibly from Coomer dodging out from its... Own attack?

Tommy looked to Benry, seeing if he too spotted the eyes. Sunkist whined next to him, a few bubbles of sweet voice coming from her. ‘Bright green to black blue,’ His mind supplied. ‘I can see the difference too.’ 

Benry had his focus on some aliens, getting rid of them to give the others ease when dodging attacks from the larger beast. Some bubbles Benry’s own sweet voice were slipping out between jagged and gritted teeth. ‘Ice blue to deep saffron, I want to see my friends safe and fight on.’

Tommy shook his head, returning his own focus back to the monster. He couldn't help a nagging feeling at the back of his mind that this beast somehow felt familiar. He just couldn't place it, and he felt awful. 

He shook his head again, clearing his thoughts. He quickly gunned down a few enemies who popped up nearby. He spotted an opening from the beast. It let its chest wide open as it was trying to bat down Coomer who was now swinging overhead and out of reach. Tommy quickly sent in Sunkist, having her go and strike the chest. 

Sunkist nodded from the command Tommy told and howled quietly as they shot forward. They hit the control panel on the device, a soft but noticeable sounding crack coming from the item. 

The beast suddenly howled in pain from that attack, its voice distorted and somewhat unilateral. He soon figured out it sounded like there were two voices there. One howling and the other screaming in pain. It stopped aiming for Dr. Coomer, and was looking around. It didn't like that. And it seems the team had finally found a weak point on the beast.

Lucky enough, Sunkist got out of range before a claw swung where he just was. They returned back to Tommy’s side, and the fight continued on. Everyone got the clue and were now looking for any openings to attack whatever was on the chest of the thing. 

-----

Gordon was making sure that he didn't hit his friends fatally. His body was currently focused on Dr. Coomer, he was using a barnacle to swing overhead and out of reach. Gordon knew his body was plotting on pulling itself out of the ground as he felt his own legs shift wherever they were. 

Gordon and his body were soon shocked out of focus by a sudden near unbearable pain right in the middle of his chest where the damned device was. His body howled in pain, and his own voice screaming in that same pain underneath it all. 

His body hunched over, now holding his handless arm over and near the broken part of the device on his chest. The other arm coming in close to protect itself.

He took in the damage of who attacked the item. Some buttons were now cracked and broken, some of them lost their light. He blinked as he soon realized he had a little more control in the moment as he flexed his own other clawed hand making it hover over the damage on the device. His grip on himself soon slipped once more as his body was now trying to find the culprit of the damage. 

Gordon now realized, it was the piece of tech that was strapped around his chest that made him go nuts and lose control of his own body. He hoped his friends spotted this weakness and kept attacking that one spot. Even though it hurt like hell, he didn't want to be trapped in his own body anymore.

He also soon found out that he was now able to talk under the growling and screeching of his own body. It looked like he had a second pair of vocal chords that he now had full control of.

However, he was only restricted to only able to speak at the same time his own body made a growl or any kind of noise. 

He took that chance he had, and he hoped to get through to the team, even though his own voice was faint and near unheard of the loud echoed sounds of the fight.

-----

It has been many minutes from the opening his body gave to the others to attack. And Gordon was struggling on helping the team, trying to get the body to allow another opening of his chest. He was struggling, his teeth gritting together.

He soon caught Benry from the corner of his own sight. He figured out that Benry might be like him earlier on in the fight. The security guard had currently shifted himself to be quite large, and was trying to sneak up on Gordon’s body. But he was struggling on doing so from the ripples he caused in the liquid below. 

So Gordon decided to help him out. He made sure to leave his back exposed, and did his best to keep his body’s focus on the fight in front of him. 

He knew he did well when he felt a sharp pain claw down his back, another crack of the device echoing sharply around the room. His body howled in pain again, its back straightening up. It whipped his head around and looked at Benry. One of the guard’s now clawed hands were coated in the now familiar bright magenta blood of his own body. 

His body growled at Benry and leveled him with a glare. Gordon’s own eyes giving him a sympathetic ‘Thank you’ look. However that expression soon changed as his body soon quickly turned around and made work of pulling itself out of the ground. Benry quickly gained a panicked look of ‘oh fuck-’ before he was quickly tackled from the now freed monster. 

Gordon's own eyes were now wide in panic, he was now trying to weaken himself to give Benry an advantage. Because he knew this body was quite strong and Benry stood no chance of winning as of right now. 

The two were now wrestling, shoving each other around, punching, and clawing at the other when they were given a chance. 

The two eldritch beings were now screaming at each other. One voice loud and clear, able to decipher as Benry and his own Sweet Voice. The other garbled and hidden under furious shrieking, unknown and begging for the opponent to win.

-----

Benry knew he was fucked the moment the monster pulled itself out of the ground. The beast legs looked more animal-like with it being digitigrade and covered in plating. Almost like a familiar suit everyone knew of, from the placements of the plating and scales to the colors it had.

A sharp electric blue bubbles of Sweet Voice came from him as he was rammed into. ‘Electric blue, damn you!’

He quickly shoved off the other and took grip of a clawed hand suddenly being swiped at him. He shoved the other to the ground making the opposing beast choke out a yelp. 

Another cracking sound was heard as Benry soon made use of the downed monster to slam a foot on top of the beast's chest, and on the weakest part of the device. A loud crack came from the beast as his own foot connected with the chest of the monster. It roared in pain once again and rolled over onto its chest to protect the device and to try and get back up.

Benry backed away from the monster, taking a breather and checking on the others. Who were now hiding behind pillars, away from the fight and trying their best to not get in the way of the fight from their friend and the monster.

Benry has been slowly seeing as this beast becomes more familiar to him, and he doesn't know why. And it confuses him. Seeing now, there were some similarities between this monster and the team’s missing friend. 

The plating on the beast was looking more and more like the suit that Gordon wore, and the barely heard voice under the growling sounded a lot like Gordon’s. The hair it had, it was tied into a ponytail. Just. Like. Gordon’s…

Benry was slowly connecting the dots as did Tommy. Although Tommy had connected the two way before Benry even thought he did. 

As from the moment Tommy realized who the monster was that they were fighting, he had become more hesitant to attack. Because he didn't want to harm his friend. He also found out that Gordon didn't really have control of himself and that he was just as scared as they were.

Right now, the beast laid in front of them.  Now struggling to get back up. Benry was tense and ready to strike down the other again if he needed too. 

-----

Gordon was in immense pain the moment Benry slammed him into the ground. The device was littered with cracks, and sparked from torn wires that were threatening on coming out. From the point of damage the device now had. 

Gordon nearly had full control of himself once again near immediately after that attack. His instincts were trying to take control of him again, and were only succeeding on making it harder to talk and have his motor controls of his own body. He was struggling on getting up, his legs weren't responding to him and he felt weak, really weak. The only thing he succeeded in doing was turning himself into his chest.

He huffed out a soft growl in pain and let himself flop back down onto the liquid covered ground. He let his now second pair of eyes close under the first pair seeing as it was not warping his world anymore. 

His vision was once again blurry but soon something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention, he opened his second pair of eyes once more and looked to the spot of the glint. It looked to be his glasses. They were somehow pushed up behind a pillar during the fight. They seemed cracked from where he was. 

He shifted his head onto its side, ignoring the sudden ripples from the liquid as Benry and the others flinched. The glasses were on the right of him, so he tried to reach for them with the stump of an arm he had. It was a stupid idea, but he could not really think straight again as of the moment.

He would have reached the glasses if he still had a hand, but lacking one made him short of grabbing the wretched things. He sighed as he just laid there limp, his right arm outstretched to where the large pair of glasses sat. 

His eyes were half lidded as he waited. He didn't know what he was waiting for, but he was waiting for something to happen. Whenever major or not.

-----

Benry waited tense for any movement of the opponent to do anything. But after the other tried multiple times to get back up, but ended up giving up after reaching for something with an arm that had the missing hand. 

So there laying limp and head facing away from him was the monster who would have nearly killed them minutes ago.

Benry just stood there, towering over everyone and looking down to the other confused. He felt someone patting his leg, and looked down to see Tommy. 

“I’m… Gonna approach them…” Tommy hesitantly said to him, looking back down to the other downed person. “You can shrink down, I have a feeling on who that really is…” Benry looked at him, not really confused on what he meant, he had the same feeling, so he complied and shrunk back down to normal size. 

Coomer and Bubby have hesitantly approached from their spots, looking to the large being ahead of Benry and Tommy. The two watched as Tommy slowly approached the person. Sunkist following after him.

Benry made a split second decision and decided to follow Tommy. Not too far behind him. 

The two walked around the head of the person, Tommy hesitantly patting their head before continuing on to their face. He looked nervous, as for Benry he decided to check out whatever this person was trying to reach earlier.

Tommy nervously stood in front of the beings face, Sunkist standing next to him. Tommy held his hands together looking at them before looking to who he believed was Gordon. 

“Um…” Tommy nervously started, “Hello… I-I’m asking you something v-very important. More to confirm something…” Tommy averted his eyes from the other before making eye contact with the other. “Is it you Mr. F-Freeman?”

Even before Tommy got a response or a reaction from Gordon, Benry came up running. Large cracked glasses in tow. Tommy’s eyes widened at the sight of the large glasses, he was surprised to see such large glasses. Gordon was for sure amused as he rose a brow at Benry.

The two missed the reaction from Gordon as he dropped it as the two turned back to him. “L-like I was saying…” Tommy hesitantly continuing, “Am I right?...” 

Gordon gave him a smile, his lower eyes closing. He shifted his head slightly, indicating a nod in confirmation of Tommy’s question.

-----

Gordon propped his head back up when Tommy suddenly burst into tears. His smile was dropped immediately in worry and he retracted his right arm, now resting it behind Tommy. Offering him a place to sit. 

Tommy took a seat immediately, he slumped over a smile on his face and tears streaming down his cheeks. He was trying to wipe away tears that just kept on coming. Sunkist sat in front of the crying man and laid their head on his lap allowing the man to hug her. 

Gordon looked over to Benry. The others eyes were wide in shock, and his mouth was gaping open. He had heard what Tommy asked earlier and saw the response, now finally connecting the damn dots. The large cracked glasses sat semi forgotten next to him. Benry fell to his knees, a soft splash as he hit the ground. He was now zoned out and looking blankly to the ground, he too looked like he was on the verge of tears. 

Dr. Coomer and Bubby had heard the crying from the other side of Gordon and came rushing in, or over Gordon in Coomer’s case, the two looking ready for a fight. But they dropped their defensive stances switching to confusion after seeing a shocked, broken, and blue screened Benry and a happy crying Tommy sitting on the arm of the ‘monster.’ 

Gordon decided to quickly nab the glasses next to Benry, because he wanted to see the team properly without the use of his second pair of eyes. 

Careful so as not to disturb Tommy on his arm, Gordon shifted and reached for his glasses next to Benry with his other hand. Coomer and Bubby jumped from the sudden movement and whipped around to glare at Gordon. Gordon, of course, froze on the spot. He didn't really like glares from Coomer, and it usually frightened him. 

Gordon held his breath, his hand hovering near his glasses and Benry as he was stared down by Bubby and Dr. Coomer. 

Gordon flinched when he felt something touch his hand, and cautiously and hesitantly averted his gaze from Coomer to his hand. Benry had snapped out of his superior and now handed the glasses to him. Gordon shakily nodded in thanks and grabbed the glasses from Benry. He carefully pulled out the sides of the glasses and slipped them on. 

He returned his gaze and looked back to Coomer and Bubby. Who now had Benry next to them and trying to reassure them that Gordon wouldn't harm them anymore and tell them who he really was. Shock was now showing on both scientists' faces once more as they turned their heads to him. 

He was still nervous, diverting his eyes away from the team. He could see properly once more, besides the now large cracks scattering the glasses. 

Tommy, by now, had finally recollected himself. He hopped off of Gordon’s arm and approached the team who now stood not too far away from Gordon. And he explained why he believed Gordon wasn't acting like himself earlier in the fight.

-----

Gordon felt a sharp pain from his chest as he laid there. A sharp intake as he cringed. It felt like his own mind and body was trying to rip itself apart. His eyes widened as he felt like his own thoughts were once again getting fuzzy. He started to panic, his body was once again trying to take control once again. 

Gordon’s teeth were gritted together and his eyes were tightly closed. He flinched again as he felt someone touch him. He relaxed ever so slightly hearing Tommy’s voice.

“Mr. Freeman? Are you alright?” Gordon hesitated on his response. 

He shook his head no as another wave of pain hit him. He curled up on his side away from the group, his arms were tightly pressed on his chest. He hissed again as the device crackled again. 

He heard hesitant voices on the other side of him asking if he was alright. He shivered and shook his head again trying to clear his mind.

Gordon suddenly remembered that said device that was strapped around his chest was the main issue to this problem. So what he did was he dug his left hand and claws into the device. Making sure it cracked and sparked, it hissing as if it were trying to get him to stop what he was going to do.

He suddenly jerked his hand out and away from his body in a snap. And in his claws, still held tightly, was the device that was the cause of his pain and despair. He gasped as he was freed from his own mind and his thoughts were once again his. 

He threw the now broken and somehow still sparking item across the room. It hit with a loud clatter on the wall. He had ripped the entirety of the device off him, including the strap that wrapped around his body.

He watched as it sparked for a few moments before dying down. Gordon curled in on himself once again, resting a hand on his now bleeding chest. Tears were coming out of his eyes as he controlled his breathing once again. 

“Mr. Freeman?” he heard Tommy hesitantly call from behind him. “Are you alright? What was that..?”

Gordon drew in a shaky breath and tested his jaw for a few moments, seeing he could now control it once more. And then he responded and a slightly quiet and shaky voice. Now lacking the growing and distortion it had.

“I-I’m fine now… I got rid of the p-problem…” He smiled to himself as he heard a sharp gasp from Tommy. 

Gordon soon slowly turned back around and sat himself up, still a tad weak from the fight and the recent event. He was now able to get into a seating position instead of laying down. He realized one now towered over the others by lots. And he was quite nervous.

Tommy didn't hesitate to jump up, with the assistance of Sunkist, onto Gordon’s lap. Tommy gave Gordon the best hug he could manage he could at that moment. Tears were once again streaming down Tommy’s face. 

Gordon was really close to also crying again. He had missed his friends and being able to talk to them despite it being only a few hours. He was also very close to hugging Tommy back, but he was afraid of crushing the poor man and possibly harming him more. So he just sat there, his arms hovering around his friend, worry etched onto his face. 

He heard snickering and looked up to see Benry trying to hold in a laugh at the odd sight. But tears were too pricking out of the corner of his eyes. Dr. Coomer had his hands woven together and a smile on his face while watching the whole exchange. Bubby still had his arms crossed, but had a tight lipped smile too watching the scene. 

Gordon huffed and looked back down to Tommy. He hesitantly brought a had and patted him softly on the back. He was careful for it to be light. 

A thought soon came to Gordon. He gained a mischievous grin and glanced at the rest of the group. He looked down to Tommy and back to the group. He slowly brought his other arm out, careful not to disturb Tommy.

He lurched forward and scooped up the rest of the group. Shouts of surprise came from them as they were brought into a light hug from Gordon. A huge smile was on his face as tears started to prick from his eyes. He really was glad to have his friends back.

[kkookiehyung]

Error just wants his burger

The Cartes (me) KKookieHyung

Error!Sans @loverofpiggies

Epic!Sans @yugogeer012

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

Metallo!Lena AU Pt 13

Slowly, Lena's life begins to settle into a new groove. She hesitates to call it a path, as she doesn't know where it's heading, but it starts to take on a shape she enjoys.

The outcome of the sparring match makes Lena realize she knows little about her new condition, and so instead of waiting for the discoveries to hit her like a roundhouse kick to the chest-- which she can attest now is not pleasant-- she sets about studying the kryptonite and her new anatomy.

Director Danvers helps, granting Lena access to her personal lab-- which soon becomes Lena's in all but name only (which too, eventually becomes Lena's). Kara is allowed nowhere near her when Lena peels back her soft lead breastplate, to take readings and samples.

Researching the kryptonite consumes her, until one day she pages Director Danvers to her lab. When the director arrives Lena is pacing, her features drawn with worry.

"What's wrong?" Danvers asks.

"I've been studying the kryptonite," Lena declares.

Danvers puts her hands on her hips, but is careful to keep her expression one of patience. "Which is a secret to no one," she reminds Lena.

"Yes, but--" Lena wrings her hands, clearly anxious. "I think I can make more."

That gives Danvers pause. Her hands come off her hips and she steps closer to Lena as though someone might overhear them.

"Is yours...?"

"Synthesized? No. Thank god." The thought that Lillian may have already cracked Lena's same research already has crossed her mind, but for now, it seems, Cadmus is limited to whatever natural resources they can get their hands on. "But if I can do it, it may not be long before others can as well."

"Don't sell yourself short, Luthor," Director Danvers warns. "You've made more progress in three months than the cumulative fifteen years the DEO has studied kryptonite."

"That's the other thing," Lena continues. "I'm hesitant to continue."

"But generating more kryptonite, potentially more stable kryptonite, for use, will only be of benefit to you."

"But not to Kara. I'm not entirely comfortable generating kryptonite that could be used against her if one day the president decides he doesnt like aliens." Lena looks to the director for guidance. "What would you do?"

Director Danvers hesitates. "I can't answer that for you," she says finally. "You just have to do what you think is right. But whatever you do decide, I've got your back."

Lena offers a frustrated, but grateful smile. "Thank you, Director."

"Between us, it's Alex." Alex heads for the door, shooting Lena a glance over her shoulder. "And until you decide? We never had this conversation."

----

No matter how Lena tries to justify it, she can't bring herself to commit to synthesizing more kryptonite. Not when she can already spot how her formulas could be tweaked to pack more destructive power into each crystal matrix. So instead, her research takes an expected turn towards her existing kryptonite.

Namely, isolating the energy that powers her internal systems from the radiation that's so poisonous to Kara.

It takes her months of trials and countless errors. Then, one day, she pages Supergirl to the lab. To Kara's surprise, she finds the door locked when she arrives.

"Lena?" she calls.

Lena turns to face her, features grave with apprehension.

"I need your help with an experiment," Lena tells her.

"Okay..."

"I have a new form of kryptonite. I need-- I need to know how it makes you feel. So when I open the door, I need you to tell me if it hurts. Or makes you nauseous, or--"

"Kills me?" Kara jokes. Lena goes pale. Kara quickly scrambles. "I'm kidding, Lena. I trust you. Let me in."

When they open, the doors only slide apart by an inch, nothing more. Kara waits. "Well?"

"You don't feel anything?"

"Should I?"

The doors open the rest of the way, but before Kara can set a foot inside Lena's barking at her to stop. Kara obeys. When Lena gestures to the ground, Kara lowers her gaze to spot taped marks at set intervals leading to Lena's workstation.

"Five minutes at each marker. Wait for my signal before you move to the next."

"You should have warned me to bring my e-reader," Kara drawls, but she gamely steps up to the first mark at Lena's signal. As she waits, she fills Lena in on the goings on around the DEO and the greater world beyond.

"You know Vasquez is going on vacation next month? Well so is Addams, and when I asked them, both said they were going to Ibiza. What are the chances--?"

"No reaction at three meters. Next."

Kara steps forward to the next mark, and continues her conversation without missing a beat. Lena hums and uh huhs appropriately, barely listening as she continues to monitor her machines and Kara's status. Before Kara moves forward again, Lena interrupts to ask her questions.

"Any shortness of breath?"

"Nope."

"Nausea?"

"No."

"Heartburn? Indigestion?"

Kara smiles, but keeps her ill timed joke to herself. "Nuh uh."

She issues no's to vertigo, tinnitis, and fatigue as well.

"Please proceed to the next mark."

Kara obeys, and picks up her conversation where she left off. The process repeats three, four times, until Kara steps inside the final line joining Lena at the table.

One final round of questions later, and Kara flaps her arms against her sides. "So, did I pass?"

Lena blinks at her readings, looking for any hint of a reason to doubt them. But after a long moment, she finds she can't.

"This was a prank, wasn't it?" Kara drawls. She nudges Lena playfully, grinning. "You just wanted to see me."

Turning towards her, Lena's face is anything but teasing.

"Oh-kay, so no prank," Kara surmises. "But that's good, right? You did it!" She looks around excitedly. "So, where is it?"

Slowly, Lena unbuttons her shirt. "Right here."

The protective lead brace she's worn since her rescue is gone. The kryptonite nested against Lena's sternum glows as brightly as ever, but the searing pain doesn't come, for either of them. Kara blinks, stunned.

"Oh my... Rao," she breathes. She stares at it, studying it closely before looking back up at Lena in concern. "How do you feel? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Lena says. "All systems are operating on par by every metric we know of. If anything, it's more stable."

"But the radioactivity--"

"Different isotopes," Lena offers.

Kara stares and stares, until Lena can't stand the silence any longer. "Please say something--"

"Can I hug you?"

The question comes plaintive and soft, timid in its hope. Lena starts, then breaks into a relieved smile.

"Yeah."

In an instant, Lena is enveloped in warm, solid arms. Everything about it is perfect: the pressure, the placement, the way it seems to last forever. Lena tucks her chin against Kara's neck, burrowing her nose into blonde hair.

"Hi," she murmurs.

Kara grins against her shoulder. "Hi."

Neither of them make any move to pull away.

previous / next

[msfcatlover]

Me: *rereads my old Portal fics*

Me: “Y’know, some of these are still pretty good! Maybe I should replay the games, and give writing these another shot...”

My brain, always ready with AUs and my latest hyperfixation: TMA crossover with Jon as Caroline, but he doesn’t lose himself in the upload process.

Me: “I... I don’t know if that would work...”

My brain, refusing to be derailed: His robot name could be “Self-aware Intelligent Machine Simulation.” SIMS for short.

Me: “That’s not a great robot name.”

My brain: No worse than “Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System.”

Me: “.......Fair.”

My brain: Testing is like statements; he doesn’t want to like it, but it’s addictive and eventually he kinda needs it to stay sane. He regularly gets in trouble for trying to make the tests less dangerous for the test subjects, because like... draining the acid out of the acid pit ruins the integrity or something.

My brain: It actually makes no difference, but obviously Jonah is Cave in this crossover. He’s researching immortality, and this is just one of the ways he keeps Jon under control.

Me: “Elias was his first attempt?”

My brain: Yeah, but it was just a brain transplant. Now he’s worried about the integrity of his brain itself, I mean, physically it’s getting pretty old. And it’s not like aging is fun anyway.

Me: “So, I assume Martin’s Chell then.”

My brain: Obviously.

Me: “Obviously. Where does everyone else fit?”

My brain: Daisy and Basira are trying to get the whole company shut down for horrible human rights violations, but are struggling to find evidence. They go undercover as test subjects, only to realize they’re in too deep and have to fight for survival.

My brain: Melanie’s a reporter, supposedly doing a profile on Jonah, but secretly investigating all the disappearances that keep happening amongst the staff. Georgie brought her in on the case when Jon stopped answering all calls.

Me: “Tim and Sasha?”

My brain: Scientists, were on the same team as Jon. Might get kicked down to test subjects for asking too many questions about his “transfer to the AI department.”

Me: “Wait. All of this is pre-fall-of-Aperture. Doesn’t that take a lot of the punch out of making Jon our GLaDOS equivalent?”

My brain: ..............................

My brain: Mid-fall-of-Aperture. Terribly understaffed, running out of money, the “AI department” is literally just Jon on the paperwork, Jonah’s desperately pushing the testing/experiments to figure out the limits of brain-uploading before he loses access to the equipment.

Me: “I don’t think that scans.”

My brain: Sure it does! What’s the testing in the games even for anyways? It’s all cognitive, the portal gun itself only gets used in a handful of different ways.

My brain: Now the testing is specifically there to stress Jon out and test the stability of his personality matrix; no point in uploading yourself if the first major issue you run into corrupts your code or causes a major error. It puts Jon through the wringer, even zapping him with viruses and stuff, to ensure the process works, because Jonah doesn’t have the time or supplies for more than one test subject.

Me: “......huh.”

My brain, getting more excited: Merge the Eye-pocalypse and Prentiss attacks! Some sort of biological agent gets loose in the facility, and Jon hacks the security system to try and stop it. Any hermetically sealed area of the facility gets locked down, and he gasses the rest of the facility to keep the contaminants from spreading.

My brain: But they’re underground and the ventilation system isn’t the best maintained, so he can’t risk letting anyone out for fear they’ll get poisoned too. Just has to wait for the gas to rise up out of the facility on its own.

Me: “OH! So from the perspective of everyone in the testing tracks, this AI has just gone completely rogue and taken over the facility, killing a whole bunch of people and trapping them inside!”

Me: “I bet Jonah’s office is basically a fortress, and he still has security access to cameras and intercom, so he just eggs them on. Because this is an insurance nightmare, he wants to upload himself ASAP, so Jonah tells them there’s a manual override procedure for SIMS, but he can’t do it alone. They need to get through the testing, reach the central control chamber, and help him deactivate SIMS before they’ll be able to leave the facility. But actually, he’s planning to delete Jon entirely and replace him in the mainframe!”

My brain: Like the bastard he is.

Me: “So now, everyone’s in this weird limbo of trying to figure out what to do and who to trust. I mean, obviously in the AI apocalypse you want to trust your fellow humans, and SIMS did just gas the whole facility and trapped them in the testing tracks, but on the other hand ‘Elias’ is a shady bastard and SIMS isn’t always that bad?”

Me: “Like, sure, it can be pushy about testing and you can’t expect a robot to be good at emotions, but sometimes it’ll do something like ask for a verbal check-in because they’ve been down there a while and that can be psychologically hard on most humans? Someone complains about food, and SIMS sounds almost genuine when apologizing for not having anything else that can be safely transported to the testing tracks at this time. Once, Martin found a corner away from the cameras to take a nap in, and he’d swear SIMS was actually panicking over not being able to find Martin when he woke up.”

My brain: Tim and Sasha make snide, tired jokes about Jon giving the damn thing all his social awkwardness, as well as his name and voice (for some god-awful, unknowable reason.) They don’t want to let SIMS endear itself to them, knowing it probably killed Jon.

Me: “No, no, knowing that it killed Jon. They absolutely ask at some point if Jon’s okay and are told that amongst the however-many living staff members that are left, Jonathan Sims is not amongst them. What else are they to assume, other than that Jon’s been gassed by his own creation?”

My brain: Oooh...

Me: “Martin’s the only one who actually feels endeared to SIMS by the time they meet up, partially because he’s the only one who was trapped alone. Tim and Sasha were together, and already have reason to hold a grudge. Daisy, Basira, and Melanie met up early and spend a lot of free time fantasizing about smashing the damn computer when they find it.”

Me: “Martin was alone and he hates it, so he tries talking to SIMS, and is a little surprised when SIMS talks back. They’re not always pleasant conversations, SIMS can be curt and doesn’t have much personal info to share (being a computer and all,) but Martin does start to get a grasp on the situation as it must have at least appeared to SIMS when he pulled the lockdown-tigger. And for a supposedly evil computer, SIMS can be surprisingly helpful and seems almost as upset by the situation as the humans are.”

My brain: And there was that odd moment after Martin convinced SIMS to stop calling him “Mr. Blackwood,” and SIMS seemed almost flustered before very softly responding, “...Martin, then.”

Me: “Awww... please tell me Jon’s not actually dead, I need them to take him with them at the end...”

My brain: Suspended animation. The brain is still a vital part of the machine, but it never ages or degrades thanks to whatever combo of chemicals and cryosleep Jonah used to preserve him. Part of Jonah’s “manual override” involves adding a high-powered hard drive or four to replace the need for an organic brain, making full digitization possible.

Me: “But where’s he stored? He can’t just be strung up in the middle of the machine, that’d be unsustainable and Jonah would never let anyone within a hundred yards of it lest they realize the truth! A cryotank in a fake computer bank? A stasis tube hidden amongst the wiring, which they could discover while clambering about installing the hard drives?”

My brain: A cold room disguised as a locked closet or something, with the upload chair still inside of it? Only Jonah has the passcode, technically, and he was planning to go in while everyone else had their own tasks to do, just shove Jon’s body out and plug himself in, leaving Jon to finally die on the floor just a short distance from his friends while Jonah replaced him in the machine, removed the safeties, and escaped into the internet?

Me: “Oh, and Jon gave them a universal override or something to get them out of a dangerous situation towards the end! It actually leaves half the group feeling pretty low, having the thing they’re trying to destroy just hand them the key to its destruction out of pure, innocent trust.”

Me: “Then while Jonah’s distracted giving out instructions, Martin (useless with computers,) wanders over and opens the door, letting out a gust of cold air with a hiss. Martin coughs on the escaping gasses, and Jonah rushes to say that the cold room is very delicate, and ought not to be tampered with by people who don’t know what they’re doing—“

My brain: —but Martin blinks back the stinging, shock-induced tears, eyes adjusting to the dark of the closet and gasps.

Me: “And Martin’s only ever seen Jon in passing, really, they never properly worked together. But he was a little sweet on him even back then, and he’s heard the stories from Tim and Sasha, and he’s spent the last several weeks getting to know SIMS...”

My brain: ...He quickly calls Tim and Sasha over to confirm, just in case he’s got it wrong somehow. They’re just as shocked that Jon’s in there, with all his notes tucked away behind him revealing what really happened. Jonah tries to talk his way out of it, but is quickly arrested by Basira and Daisy.

Me: “Sasha finishes the notes first and makes her way back out. She’s shaking, overwhelmed with rage and grief and horror, and punches ‘Elias’ so hard he falls to the floor.”

My brain: Jonah starts to say something about assault, but Melanie congratulates Sasha for stopping him and Basira, completely deadpan, adds, “We all saw him make a break for it.”

Me: “Jonah shuts the fuck up.”

My brain: Part of SIMS’ programming was not being allowed to answer to “Jon” anymore. He never outright denies being Jon, just corrects people that he is the Self-aware Intelligent Machine Simulation. Tim finishes the notes, makes it to the cold room door, looks into the nearest camera and shakily asks, “Jon?”

Me: “For the first time, there’s a solid three beat pause before the intercom answers, softly and less robotically than before, ‘...Yes, Tim?’”

My brain: Tim starts crying.

Me: “Of course he does! He’s been grieving Jon for weeks at this point, trying not to let it show just how sad and angry he was that it all ended like this, and now it turns out that not only is Jon alive, he never actually left them at all! All those months thinking Jon ghosted them, left them behind in R&D for greener pastures, and Jon was all-but-dead in a cold room the whole time, and none of them ever knew! The relief, the joy, the guilt, the lingering bitter grief and rage, it’s overwhelming. Who wouldn’t cry?”

My brain: It takes them a few days to figure out the download procedure to return Jon to his body, especially since Jonah can’t be trusted on this front. Tim and Sasha are the techies, and they recruit Melanie and Basira for extra hands. (Martin’s still terrible with machines, and Daisy needs to watch Jonah to make sure he doesn’t escape.)

My brain: Martin, feeling useless, stays by Jon’s side in the cold room.

Me: “When Jon wakes up, Martin’s the first thing he sees.”

My brain: Martin sees him moving, meets his eyes, and gasps, “Jon?” Jon nods and tries to say something, but his throat is dry and his voice won’t work. Martin scrambles to get him a glass of water and steadies Jon’s hands as he drinks it. When he lowers the glass, Martin cautiously asks if Jon’s feeling better.

Me: “Jon just smiles and answers, ‘You said my name.’”

My brain: Martin’s confused. “What else would I call you?”

Me: “Jon shakes his head. ‘I just... don’t think I’ve heard you say it before. Certainly not to me. It’s... nice.’”

My brain: Martin laughs helplessly and says it again. “Jon.” Jon’s smile brightens, and Martin can’t help stepping closer, repeating Jon’s name again. Jon laughs along.

Me: “It’s on instinct that Martin takes the empty glass and sets it to the side, leans over the chair, touches Jon’s shoulder, cups his cheek. He hesitates when they’re nose to nose, breathing the same air, shockingly warm even when Jon’s skin is still cold to the touch. He meets Jon’s eyes and swallows. ‘Is this okay?’”

My brain: Close enough to feel the small, inaudible gasp before Jon whispers, “Please.”

Me: “They only get one short kiss in before the door opens and Tim makes a scandalized noise before loudly declaring this unfair and blatant favoritism. Martin all but jumps away, but Jon just rolls his eyes and thanks Tim for saving him. As the others pile in —Sasha claiming she did all the work, Basira needing to know if Jon’s up for making an official statement, Melanie both needing to pass on a message from Georgie and wanting an exclusive interview for her expose— Martin can already feel himself fading into the background, even as he and Tim help Jon to his feet.”

My brain: At least until Jon lingers, fingers lightly resting against Martin’s arm, and looks up at him with hope in his eyes. “Later?”

Me: “Martin’s not entirely sure what Jon’s asking (Jon isn’t really either,) but he agrees anyway. He doesn’t even hesitate.”

My brain:

Me:

My brain:

Me:

My brain:

Me: “.....WELL FUCK.”

My brain, smug despite it being 4:30am: Told you it was a good idea.

Me: “I hate you so much.”