#Thank you bionicle-ramblings for this AU

[chancetimespace]

SCP AU Thoughts

@bionicle-ramblings has a wonderful SCP AU post here https://www.tumblr.com/bionicle-ramblings/741127637398962176/theres-a-lot-of-good-stuff-here-whenua-more-or and I had a small idea myself.

It’s a bit silly, but what if Pewku replaces Josie the Half-Cat (SCP 529) in this AU? So we have Pewku the Half-Crab, and Takua still gets to see his friend. Plus, I can’t stop giggling over the idea of Takua/Takanuva playing with Pewku by switching between his two bodies to give her pets and play fetch or play hide-and-seek.

[bionicle-ramblings]

I have a feeling that the SCP AU is leading to the Metru trying to escape the facility, because both how they are treated and that the bosses are Roodaka and Sidorak is just. Terrible.

The questions are: What is the boiling point that even Whenua says "enough of this shit". And how could they get out?

It does! And you're actually pretty close with Sidorak being in a really high position in the facility. Roodaka's actually another SCP😉

As for that boiling point, Weeeeeeeeeell.... 👇

Credit where credit's due, @chancetimespace thank you for listening to all my brainstorming, and even the angst scenes, especially this one

So it all started when Lhikan was wrapping up a session with Whenua and asked if he wanted to make any requests. Whenua was silent, but ultimately caved:

He wanted to go to the beach, and he wanted the other Metru to come with him. An all or nothing deal too; they all had to unanimously agree to go to the beach together. Even only one disagreed, then they wouldn't go

Lhikan DID point out that such a request can be seen as a potential breach and also cruel, based on the "all or nothing unanimous agreement thing," but Whenua was adamant. He didn't want to force anyone, and he wanted the other Metru to get out and get fresh air because Onewa felt like a caged animal, Matau was treated like one by staff sometimes, Nuju and Nokama were restless, Whenua wanted to feel the sand between his toes, and, if he had to be honest, he had no idea how long Vakama had been in the facility for and thought the kid could use some fresh air and Vitamin D

And so Lhikan took it to the Director and, upon hearing the stipulations, agreed: If Lhikan got the Metru to UNANIMOUSLY agree to it, they would be allowed their beach day. He even had a slight start with Whenua; people don't make requests like that unless they REALLY want it

He moved pretty quickly, talking to each Metru himself and getting their individual answers, making sure he'd get unbiased answers because THEY had to agree themselves, not because, "Everyone else is going and I don't want to let them down"

He already had his 'yes' from Whenua, so he moved to the others next

Nuju agreed almost instantly, glad to be outside and out of the facility even if it was only for a day

Nokama also agreed; she missed natural water and wanted to stretch her legs again

Matau was VERY enthusiastic in his agreement, eager to see people and essentially play 'dress up' again. He did ask which beach they'd be going to, and Lhikan promised it'd be one he'd liked

Onewa was where he ran into a hiccup, because Onewa didn't believe him, as some personnel thought it would be funny to prolong granting his requests or even not grant them entirely. Lhikan had to grant a request(giving Onewa a 2×2×2 block of rainbow tiger's eye/tiger iron) in order to get Onewa to agree, which he ultimately did(on the basis that he would beat the hell out of Lhikan if this was another sick joke)

Vakama was another hiccup, thanks to Roodaka because she'd been talking to him more and getting into his head about being with the Metru. This did not come up when Lhikan asked him about a beach day. Vakama was iffy still because of the fact he'd be outside and, if he was being honest, he thought he'd be a danger to everyone around him. Lhikan assured him he would be and swore nothing would happen. Vakama asked if he could sleep on it to provide his answer. Roodaka also paid a visit and got him to tell her about the beach question Lhikan gave. She warned him it would end badly, that the foundation wouldn't stand for it, knowing who was getting out and what they could do

By the morning, after a couple days, the Metru were brought together, given some ordinary clothes and brought to a shuttle van with tinted windows. Long story short, the agreement was unanimous

Lhikan brought them to an ice cream parlor(the Metru had breakfast before they left) before they got to the beach, because "You can't have a beach day without ice cream," and wind up taking to an out of work friend for a WHILE

The Metru all watched, even when they finished eating, and were simply admiring how two people could talk for so long

Then Vakama, as he was messing with a peppermint wrapper, said, "We could probably leave and he wouldn't even notice."

And, after a moment of everyone staying at each other, they did

They all had their teachers in their arms, but they were out of Lhikan's sight and on their own

And they had a VERY good day

Turns out Whenua tended to leave stashes of cash around in places only he knew were there; "this used to be a speakeasy during the Prohibition. Once the ban was lifted it became an extra room and then one people just didn't care to look for when the fun stuff was right in front of them." They did have to remind Matau to keep to one face, so the police wouldn't be informed and they had to get sunglasses for Onewa and cover for him; "He lost a bet and now he needs to wear that face makeup all day. Looks pretty badass, though, huh?" / "Correction: I *won* that bet."

A major highlight was going to a carnival and just having a good time and goofing around, more so when they finally made their way to the beach and just had fun. Swimming, playing in the sand, taking in the sun, even having a campfire and watching the sunset and later stars

Here was where they really got talking, about their lives before the facility, about how long they'd been in, making light of their time being in captivity, as it were

Nuju and Nokama were in for the least amount of time(9 months)

Matau had been in for three years

Whenua had been in for five years, three months and 4 weeks(yes, he kept count)

Onewa had only been in for a year, maybe a year and a half

Vakama revealed he's been in the facility for eight years now, counting today

It silenced everyone for a moment, especially as they realized that so much time had caused a lot of damage, and not just physical. Vakama is VERY socially inept, to the point he just froze up when a girl told him her friend thought he was cute, he is pale like a ghost, he looks like he hasn't been sleeping, and, as he revealed to them, being seen as a monster and a secret to be kept under wraps wins up making you believe it yourself, that that's all you are and every will be

After a moment, the question was proposed:

"What if we ran away?"

It caught everyone's attention, mainly because they realized THEY WERE OUTSIDE and they did get away from Lhikan and could run. Nuju pointed out they still had their trackers in, though they could be removed hopefully before the foundation found them all

The discussion was long and there was a lot of "and then what?" But ultimately, everyone just lay on the beach and wind up falling asleep

You may think Lhikan left, but no. He was keeping an an on the Metru and needed to report back to the foundation that he had the Metru in sight and they were safe. He had everything under control

He missed when a group of SCP bands drove in from the back roads and SCP personnel essentially swarmed the beach

To call what happened brutality would be an understatement. Personnel were armed with guns, both with live ammo and tranquilizers, tazer/stun guns, batons, pepper spray, anything to apprehend the Metru, and all are used in some capacity, even when they surrendered

Vakama in particular did immediately surrender, even with a gun aimed at his head, but could only watch as he saw the others be beaten, pepper sprayed, shot with tranquilizers, and even electrocuted in water as Nokama had tried swimming to get away out of sheer instinct

The recapturing left them in horrible states. Matau had been tranq-ed and knocked unconscious, Nuju wound up getting shot in the leg, Whenua and Onewa were beaten until they were unconscious, and Nokama was trembling controlably thanks to both what happened and being shocked IN WATER

Each were put in separate bands and taken back to the facility, though Vakama had to be knocked out with sleeping gas because he WENT OFF on the personnel and how they were using their numbers to talk about them rather than their names. Upon re-entering the facility, the Metru were kept apart, not allowed to see each other. Lhikan wasn't allowed to visit them either

To say the Metru were all affected is an understatement

Whenua made and his weapons in his bed and his room

Nuju practiced his telekinesis tenfold

Matau refused to leave the enclosure in his area

Nokama has trouble being in water again, or would stay at the broke so no one could grab her

Onewa was even more hostile than he ever had been

Vakama often fluctuated between laying in bed all day to sometimes destroying his room and purposely seeing things on fire

It got worse when Roodaka glued herself to him and would often stay in his room with him. Nothing creepy happened, she just played at being his ally

That changed when Vakama was checked on me by Sidorak, started requesting to not see Roodaka anymore, and when Roodaka attacked him and the two had a VERY intense fight that personnel had to break up

While the other Metru earned their way back to seeing each other, the most they saw or heard of Vakama was he was first already seeing Roodaka, and then that he was in solitary containment/confinement because he proved to be too dangerous to be kept around others for a while

In solitary, Vakama met Norik, who talked to him through a vent and the two got talking: Norik and his friends tried to escape, but were unsuccessful. Norik doesn't mind solitary, but he'd heard of Vakama and his friends, as they were the talk of many staff members. He only hoped Vakama knew his friends worried about him because they do; he means more to them than he thinks, and he cares about them more than he realizes

After a VERY emotional reunion, and a shave and a haircut, two bits, the Metru were back to hanging out and seeing each other again, butnwith heavier supervision

That did not stop Vakama from slipping a note to all of the other Metru when they returned to their holding areas:

"We're getting out of here"

[sroloc--elbisivni]

Your TF fic got me into fandom. This isnt what I wanted to use my already limited free time on, but interest is a has no mercy and I am already halfway through MTMTE. I got forcefully yeeted from my returning MHA interest directly into TF instead. Thank you for that and how dare you. I will now go reread "Intelligence or vision or the truth" cause it became a comfort fic and I go feral for the way you worldbuilt it and feel despair as I realised this is the only fic of such fascinating au.

one, sorry, two, welcome to alien robot hell 2: electric boogaloo. alien robot hell one being bionicle. MTMTE IS EXCELLENT AND I HOPE YOU’RE HAVING FUN. since I only go here in the first place because I read astolat’s fic I’m thrilled to continue the tradition of hitting people over the head with transformers. I recommend transformers animated and/or G1 next.

sorry also for getting you dragged into my extremely niche fantasy cyberpunk au, i should maybe put a warning on that XD you probably didn’t mean this as an excuse for me to ramble about this fic and my thoughts behind it but I had so much fun doing this so I’m TAKING IT. spoilers ahead.

I keep calling it a ‘fantasy cyberpunk’ because when i first wrote the first scene I was thinking a weird blend of classical sword-and-sorcery fantasy with tech elements and the whole thing took place in a tent. then I decided no actually it’s going to be full tech and I had to change the flavor text but the fantasy elements—the king as the land, the band of righteous rebels, the secret prince, the palace wizard, good vs. evil—are still very much there, as opposed to the corporate world of more traditional cyberpunk. the worldbuilding is then by necessity very economical and tailored to the story, and a mix of balancing transformers lore and integrating fantasy tropes into cyberpunk. rung as an android is balancing transformers lore. optimus and rodimus as sentinel’s clones is both to pull in TF lore and kind of poke fun at the fantasies that are all a king and his sons with no mention of a queen. also because it was a fun twist.

so, since it’s not exactly traditional corporate cyberpunk, there are a couple different things i went in knowing very clearly I wanted to do. one was to get into cyberpunk’s potential for assistive devices. Ratchet has a wheelchair, Soundwave is low vision, Bumblebee is deaf. And that’s just what I could make explicit in the text. They all have both specific devices to adjust to their environments, and their environments also adapt to them—the map table was initially holographic, and then I realized, oh, hang on, this is fantasy tech, I can make it project something that can be navigated by touch.

another thing I wanted to do was to make a fantasy in the ‘if i could have anything’ sense—in the information age, where the internet is dominated by people buying and selling your data the opposite of that isn’t lack of communication—it’s connection, it's privacy, it's control, it’s being able to reach out to the people you love. the Matrix is an information and data network. chips and brain implants aren’t inherently malicious tracking devices or mind control—the chips are signifiers of affiliation. the brain implants are about taking control, not losing it. how far removed from swapping memes is swapping memories? how much do you value the freedom to communicate when it’s been kept from you your whole life?

and in a meta level, the entire fic is built on miscommunication and concealed information. i would love to say i did all of this on purpose.

anything that isn’t one of those two things is me frantically trying to hold the story together with as few plot holes as possible. the medical stuff was the worst. i was cackling writing the jazz-slaughters-the-guards scene and then i paused, googled neurosurgery operating rooms, and went ‘ah, fuck, sanitation.’ so now there’s a sanitized surgery box and surgeons operate with tools inside of it. that will not save me from all the anesthesiologists who are probably out for my blood. (I almost had jazz actually drug optimus, and then have him get a stimulant shot so he’d be awake for sentinel, and then have him drugged again, and then the family friend who was an anesthesiologist for 40 years manifested in my house physically and smacked me over the head. not literally. social distancing!) originally, megatron was going to go down to the server banks and get read into the matrix in a very finding-the-magic-mcguffin but the coronation tropes took precedence.

this is all i can remember off the top of my head but I’m glad to know someone else rereads this fic because i do too and that makes me feel better about posing what is also my comfort fic.