#cw robot destruction

[remesrobotics]

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

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

Tick tock. Tap tap.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

10:40 and 25 seconds

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tokay wanted to bite him.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Everyone braced.

“One!

Two!

THREE!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was too late.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Everything.

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

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

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

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

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

[disengaging pain sensors]

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

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

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

scream...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

10:43 and 32 seconds.

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

“What the Hell’s going on here?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

None of this felt real.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Tokay?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

“Nothing appears to be amiss...”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“But...”

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

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

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

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

“...Is that all?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“...Hey, Doctor?”

“Yeah?”

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

[disassemblyrequired]

" th-they were like this when i got here , i swear ! "

he is covered in oil from head to tail.

[obsessivevoidkitten]

Heroes To Villains

DILF Yandere Superheroes x Gender Neutral Superhero Reader CW: Noncon, imprisonment, minor violence, gratuitous amount of firearms, super powers, super soldiers, spitroasting, general yandere behavior, bratty reader Word Count: 3.8k (I am sorry this took a bit for me to get to, only took a few hours to write though. I hope you guys love it. Feel free to tip if you do~)

The city you were stationed in was under attack by some fairly destructive super villains. They were either traitors born of the same government program that had produced you and the other super soldiers you worked with or they were sent by another country to attack the retired super agents of your country. Though it was also possible they were a rogue foreigner with a vendetta. All the people making up your squad had been in the military and had made significant enemies.

Their goals did not really matter so much at the moment. It was more important that they were defeated before they caused any casualties.

There were two of them. One of them with an ability to lash out with streams of fire and smoke and another that could jump up really fast and high before slamming down and causing a large explosion on impact.

They were no match for you and your comrades. Red and Ace had handled much worse threats than these two with ease. Ace had been a top pilot before undergoing medical experimentation that left him with angel-like wings and the ability to shoot energy blasts from his hands. The man was like a living B-52. And Red was basically a human tank. Very little could so much as scratch his skin and he had tremendous physical strength.

Both of them had soared through the ranks and had distinguished themselves as competent generals in the last great war. Now they were retired and used their abilities as super soldiers to become heroes and protect the capital from the strange threats that had been unleashed during war time. Mostly the occasional villain. Sometimes a mutant animal.

You had just been a simple medic. Nothing too fancy, but you had hesitantly taken the opportunity to go through experiments that would allow you to heal others much more effectively and without the need for invasive surgery. Most of the super soldiers gained a unique ability and also became more resilient to damage and agile.

And you had gotten those perks too, but not to the degree as everyone else. Though you had gotten an extra ability that most people lacked. Hyper accurate aim with long distance weapons. But you also suffered a drawback when compared to your peers. You got exhausted easily, having very little stamina.

Who could forget the time you had saved the city by firing the railroad gun at the giant robot that used mutated biological components in its construction? Firing a 19,000 pound shell and obliterating an entire giant robot with one perfectly executed shot had been amazing.

You longed for that kind of usefulness again. But currently you were a bit bored, as a long range support unit you frequently hung back a bit. Red and Ace normally cleared everything up themselves without having need of your abilities.

Ace had plucked the hopper from the sky and injected him with a serum that would knock him out cold until he could be taken into custody where his abilities would be removed completely, if they could be. Red had similarly taken out the fire user who had discovered that his searing flames did little more than make Red sweat a bit.

They regrouped together before they started walking back to you, each carrying the limp weight of an unconscious enemy on their shoulders. It would be a few minutes before they got to the rendezvous.

You heard the gruff voice of Red on your comm line.

“We got em’ On our way back now.”

“Affirma-”

You were cut off by a sudden shift underground followed by a woman jumping up from the earth below you and punching you hard enough to launch you several feet.

There had been a third and they had split up to take you on individually.

As you fell through the air you took out your side arm and fired every round in rapid succession. Each one aimed for her heart. Each one hit their mark. But when you hit the ground you had smacked your head pretty hard and the world faded to black.

You woke up in a medical bed in the basement of your headquarters. You were quite dizzy and you felt like you were certainly going to vomit.

You held your hands to your head and your palms flashed.

Much better. If you hadn’t been knocked out you would have simply been able to heal whatever injuries you had sustained in a flash. Oh well you were better now.

Ace walked in to check on you right as you had been getting up. He burst into a smile at seeing you awake. His blue eyes full of joy.

“Hey runt! Glad to see that you’re getting up and about!”

“Who’s a runt!?”

He flexed his biceps to drive the point in.

“Red, get in here, The runt is up!”

You heard his loud steps reverberate upstairs as he bounded towards the basement door and came rushing down.

“It’s been five days, we were beginning to really worry about you, squirt.”

He was smiling but you could tell his red eyes held a lot of concern in them. It seemed like there was something he wanted to say but didn’t know how.

“Well, no need to worry. I am not as fragile as a regular person. And I am fully healed now.”

“Yeah… but you weren’t hit by a normal person. And you aren’t as durable as most of us…”

That was Ace.

“Yeah, yeah, I will be more careful, okay? I know my limits. I don’t need a lecture. I took the enemy down and I am okay now so we don’t need to linger on it.”

Ace put his hand to his face and his wings quivered in annoyance as they often do when he tries to lecture you and you just won’t have it.

You rolled your eyes and finally Red spoke up.

“This isn’t the first time you have gotten hurt on the field. Even with precautions like staying back you still end up injured!”

“What’s your point? It's a battle, injuries happen. At least I can heal.”

Ugh, an Ace lecture you were used to. You didn’t need both of them nagging at you.

You rolled your eyes as Red continued.

“Have you ever considered… going into another career? You volunteer at the hospital… maybe you could do that full time?”

That did it.

“Excuse me? I wasn’t in any command position, but I was a trained soldier all the same! I think I can handle myself!”

You stormed away from them and went up the stairs, slamming the door behind you. Assholes. Who were they to tell you what you should consider doing? It was your life and if you wanted to use it fighting genetically enhanced monsters and super-criminals then that was your right to do so.

It would become evident in the future that this incident was where everything started to go wrong. Going forward in battle they always had at least one of them at your side whenever it was physically possible for them to do so.

When you were eventually still injured even with that precaution, even though it was minor, they pressured you again to quit being a hero. They thought maybe you just were too attached to them to leave so they even suggested that you could still be their medic but you would stay on at the base. You could even still operate the railroad rifle that could fire shells from miles away whenever a large foe approached the city.

But you wouldn’t have it. Fuck them. You told them that if you had to form a new squad in a new city then you would do so.

They frantically apologized immediately so they let it go.

It was unfathomable that they would ever allow you to do such a thing. Go off where they couldn’t protect you even a little? Where some inexperienced whelp of a leader would surely get you killed? Not a chance!

But neither could they allow you to remain a front line combatant. Not after the injuries and not with how easily you became fatigued when exerting yourself.

The solution was ugly, but it was what it was. You left them no other option for your own safety.

Though it would make them criminals themselves they had to do it for your own good. They had to keep you here with them where you would be safe and secure. They could turn the base’s AI defenses to keep you here and make sure that you were safe. They could also have it alert them through their comms if you there was any trouble while they were on a mission.

You were laying on your bed with your hands behind your head. You stared at your ceiling and contemplated all that you had been through. The war, seeing comrades on the battlefield ripped apart with no way to save them as they bled out in agony. You had to protect people from that in every way that you could, and if you did die on the battlefield then that was fine by you.

The intrusion of Red and Ace barging into your room out of nowhere pulled you from your thoughts and you regarded them both with a scowl.

“What NOW!? Can’t you guys at least knock? I mean seriousl-”

Ace cut you off with a hand gesture for silence before Red spoke up.

“Listen squirt… we decided something. We can’t allow you to join us on the field anymore…”

“Didn’t you just apologize for saying that after I threatened to leave? Whatever, I am out of here!”

You hopped up to gather your belongings and set out at once, the mere sight of the two heroes making you want to go on a rampage, but Red pushed you back onto the bed, then Ace picked up where Red had left off.

“Well that’s not all, runt. We also decided… you can’t leave here either…”

You started laughing. It had to be some kind of joke. But the tension that filled the room told you otherwise. You looked from Red to Ace and the empty expression from Ace and the guilty one from Red told you that they were deadly serious.

You grabbed your sidearm and launched yourself at Ace, you weaved past Red and twirled yo get behind Ace and held your arm around his neck with your gun aimed at his head. You didn’t speak a word, your intention clear.

There was no way you would be kept here.

You couldn’t go for Red as small arms fire would bounce off of him, but at point blank range Ace was toast. You backed out of the room, pulling Ace along with you. He cooperated fully. Even a pair of overprotective psychos didn’t want their brains blown out.

Out of nowhere a robotic arm emerged from one of the sockets in the walls. It seized your gun and then Ace flipped your positions with him behind you.

They had reprogrammed the defenses of the base to not allow you to have a weapon. These two were not former generals for nothing. They knew how their adversary, you, would react.

You slammed your foot down on Ace’s and smacked your head behind him to hit his nose. Such weak attacks did nothing to dislodge you from his ironclad grasp.

“Stop this childish behavior and just accept things. This is for your own good. If anything this little outburst has proven that you need to be protected because you certainly cannot control your emotions!”

Red was in front of you, still looking at you with that guilty expression.

“I’ll go get your weapons from your room.”

Ace and you watched in the doorway as Red got a sack and rummaged through every single inch of your private space to look for what was now contraband.

“Come on! If you are going to keep me here at least don’t go invading my privacy like this!”

Much to your embarrassment you actually cried a bit as the large man went through all your things.

He started by removing your pistols from your weapon’s display case. Your Beretta M9, your SIG Sauer P320, you… dear god no… not your baby, not your Magnum Research BFR!

You thrashed more as you saw him take that one.

Then he moved on to your bookshelf. He took out your religious text from the shelf.

“Hey, keep your grubby mitts off of that! It’s sacred!”

“Yeah, Red, don’t you think you should focus o-”

He opened it revealing that it had been cut out and housed one of your many sidearms.

“Of course,” Ace said flatly.

When Red finished with all your pistols he moved on to the ones mounted on your wall. Your Mauser M 98, your Browning BLR, and your little Marlin 70PSS.

The rest of the search was much the same. All but one had been found. Red had to get a second bag for them all. The ones in your desk, under your bed, and the one in your mattress.

Well at least they hadn’t found your most precious gun-child…

“Okay I think I got them all. Nowhere else to search. Be truthful, did I miss any?”

You wiped the tears out of your eyes and lied convincingly. You tried to look as defeated as you could.

“No”

Ace moved the two of you out of the way so Red could take your weaponry to the armory. As he started to leave the room he noticed his footsteps sounded odd in one place.

He pressed his large foot down in the spot a few times, narrowing his eyes.

Fuck.

He bent down and realized he could remove the floor board under the rug in that spot.

He found it, the bag unzipped and your M1 Garand joined the rest of your firearms.

“NOOOO!!! That one is my favorite! It PINGS when you use it!”

Now you were truly defeated, they had gotten every single one of them…

“Holy fuck, how many did you need??”

Ace joined in.

“Yeah that’s all a bit… much…”

“If your only offensive power came from guns then you would make sure to have one near you at all times in case of infiltration or emergencies…”

Ace sighed and let you return to your bed in peace. Or what peace could be had in your glorified prison.

Later in the evening they knocked on your door.

“Hey, we made your favorite food for dinner! And made your favorite dessert too…”

That was Red, you could hear the nervousness in his voice. He knew you would hate him now. You ignored them.

“Come on, don't be like this, you have to eat!”

And that was Ace, insisting that not complying with his psychopathic behavior was childish.

You opened the door and took the food tray. Both of them smiled.

“There, see? We can all still get along. We worked very hard on that meal for you!”

You were sure that they had, they were both skilled cooks. You stared at them expressionless and slammed the tray into their faces before slamming the door.

Ace looked furious but Red held him back.

“Come on Ace… they just need to adjust…”

But you refused to adjust. You ate only when they were out of the house. As the days went by you didn’t speak a single solitary word to either of them, you may as well have been a ghost.

Well… it would have been. Had you not been doing your best to make them the two most miserable men on the planet. You destroyed all the toilet paper, clogging every toilet in the base with it, you destroyed the fridge twice, you broke the TV, tore the couch, the robotic arms stopped you, of course, but you could manage to do a bit of damage each time before it stopped you.

Even Red was getting annoyed with your behavior.

They had both tried everything to get you to behave. Punishments ranging from not eating anything but flavorless oatmeal for days to being forced to sleep in a bed with one of them so they could make sure you didn’t cause any destruction while they slept.

Finally they had had enough, things could not continue on like this and it seemed like you may never open your eyes and see that they were just trying to keep you safe. Without them you’d have ran right into the jaws of danger.

They discussed it among themselves and had one more idea. You needed to feel loved in every possible way. They loved you so much after all, that’s what all this had been about, to protect you because they cared for you. But clearly they needed to step things up a notch or ten.

When they came home that day they barged into your room and grabbed you, taking you kicking and screaming into one of the many spare rooms the base had.

They had outfitted it with a huge bed, the walls painted your favorite color, fresh roses filled a heart shaped vase on the nightstand.

“Let go of me! What did you drag me here just to give me a newer bigger room? A prison is still a prison…”

“It’s going to be…” Red started.

“Our love… nest…” Ace finished, blush evident on his face.

“No thanks. Fucking weirdos.”

“Come on, sex is known to alleviate one’s mood!”

“Yeah, just give it a chance”

Ace smashed his lips into yours and kissed you deeply, you looked at him stunned.

They were serious… You wanted to wretch… Fervently you struggled, trying to get out of Red’s grip but he handed you off to Ace who wrapped his wing around you and led you to the bed.

They took your clothing off before moving on to your own. All of you had scars due to combat and training, and you had seen them nude in the showers before, but this was different. For the first time you felt vulnerable and scared under their combined gaze.

You covered your genitals but they each removed and held one arm so they could appreciate the view. “Come on, don’t be like that. Nothing we haven’t seen before,” Ace whispered as he spread your legs apart.

“Red, did you bring the lube?”

“Yeah, right here.”

Red opened a bottle and lathered both of their growing cocks so that they were drenched with the stuff and then pressed some to your hole and massaged it in. They had no intention of letting this be a painful experience for you. They wanted to show how much they cared about you.

You tried to clench. To close yourself off from them. But the probing fingers would not be denied. You squirmed uncomfortably at the sensation of cold lube being worked into you.

“Try to relax, it will be much better if you embrace us.”

“FUCK YO-”

Red cut you off with a kiss. You tried to bite his tongue but his tongue was no more vulnerable than the rest of his body.

Two sets of hand roamed and pet, and groped your body. Gently caressing you as Red made out with you. When they felt as if they had explored every part of your body they flipped you on to your belly, with Red on his knees in front of you. His crotch level with your face.

Ace was behind you on his knees between your legs, holding them still as he wedged himself closer to your entrance, until the tip of his cock was kissing it.

You couldn’t kick because he had control of your legs. You couldn’t punch because Red had your arms pinned. Now they just had to plug your bratty mouth and you wouldn’t have any means of protest. Verbal or otherwise.

They knew you’d try to bite so Red took your mouth, claiming it with his cock. You tried to move and turn away but once Ace sank his cock into your sensitive depths you gasped in surprise so Red took the chance to put his cock in your soft mouth. He did not go in balls deep, neither of them had yet. They wanted you to enjoy it. To relax. Not worry about being hurt or gagged.

Red humped into your mouth carefully and slowly while Ace did the same behind you.

“Damn, for someone so opposed to it you fit me so well.”

Then Ace added, “Your mouth feels amazing babe. He used his thumb to draw lazy circles into your arms where he held them down. He sighed in pleasure when he felt the pleasured moans Ace was coaxing out of you. Much to your dismay.

But you couldn’t deny that it felt nice. Your body relaxed, just a bit, as the men slowly bred a bit of the stress you had been under out of it.

Now that it seemed that you were enjoying yourself, even though reluctantly, Ace decided he could speed up just a bit, rolling his hips as his cock dug further into you.

Red was going a bit faster too now that you had acclimated and stopped trying to resist so hard. He let your arms go, sure that you had finally realized how silly fighting was. The large man stroked your cheek as he continued thrusting into those sweet lips.

Ace was the first to cum, his wings outstretching fully and deep voice gasping as his large nuts filled you with wave after wave of his seed. His large cock twitched inside of you, pushing you over the edge and into your own orgasm.

Feeling all your muffled cries of pleasure right in his prick caused Red to start cumming. He pulled out, not wanting to choke you on his copious amount of semen that he knew all super soldiers produced in spades, instead cumming all over your face.

Ace pulled out of you and was the first to speak.

“There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?”

You didn’t respond, you were still panting from the workout you had just received. You didn’t protest when Ace pulled you into his lap and held you with your head nestled into his chest. Your head laying right on his hawk tattoo. You didn’t protest when red scooted beside him and kissed you tenderly on the forehead. You even let them clean you up and feed you your favorite meal that they diligently cooked for you while you waited politely on the couch. They figured your resistance to them before was just because you had needs that weren’t getting met.

And from that day forward they knew that anytime you got too snarky or rebellious all they had to do was make time to fuck the brattiness out of you.

[clandestineivory]

can we get an affogato and adopted child reader either like headcanons or oneshot? ty! 🐊

yessss ofc 🐊

"You remind me of myself, little one."

Summary: Affogato Cookie encounters a young child one day, and despite his nature, he takes them into his care. Is there anything as undoing as a dear like you?

CW: Mentions of abandonment, sheer headcanon on my part for Affogato's backstory, probably ooc

a/n: I made the reader be descended from the Coffee Tribe, and this would probably take place before his banishment from the Kingdom. I DID NOT USE AI OR WHATEVER STINKY STUFF THAT COMES WITH IT. FUCK AI and please don't use this to train whatever bot you chat to... I will actively choose to fill my blog with affogato and oc mpreg, so train your robot with THAT. Not beta read by the way.

---

There was something about you, the child who sat in the snow. You, the one who resided in the remains of the Coffee Tribe, tattered cloak and all.

Affogato Cookie had never meant to pass by the ruined tents, faintly blowing with the wind, darkened by ash and the remnants of past destruction. He had learned long ago that strays weren't supposed to matter. Stray thoughts, stray people, stray hopes...but this one made him hesitate.

You looked small, shivering, with those very same eyes he saw in the mirrors every day. Slitted pupils like snow prowlers who could've hunted and devoured you long ago.

He turned his head briefly, casting a glance to the empty ruins that surrounded them. It was a wasteland, all of it. A ghost of something long gone. He had no place here, and neither did you.

But despite the bitter knot in his chest, something inside him whispered.

'What if I could keep you from becoming just another shadow?'

And that felt...wrong. Too soft. Too foolish. But the words came anyway. "You remind me of myself, little one."

It wasn’t until your tiny hand slipped into his own that the Royal Advisor fully realized what he was doing. You had no place in his schemes, or his plans. A variable that shouldn't have been counted.

With a sigh that sounded almost like a resignation, Affogato Cookie scooped you into his arms. You felt lighter than a shadow, too small, too fragile. He had to adjust his grip several times as if fearing you'd crumble if he held you wrong.

You could’ve mistaken him for a stranger too, if you had the energy to even care. He had no place in your life either. Hell, you thought you would crumble and freeze up in the snow that day anyways.

You were much too cold to ask questions, much too tired to even look up at this stranger who had the guts to bring you with him. You wondered, though, if he even knew how to take care of a child. His movements seemed too clumsy, either fumbling when he held you too loose, or grip you too tight, attempting to readjust his grip.

Whenever you winced, a soft "Sorry" would slip from his lips, but it wasn’t enough to make you feel better, not completely.

'What a strange Cookie,' you thought to yourself, half-dazed and drowsy as the Citadel gates allowed him inside with you.

--

The Citadel wasn't warm, but it certainly wasn't as cold as the outside territories. As Affogato Cookie stepped past the entrance, you could see several figures perched on the top of the Wall. Watchers. You've heard some stories, but couldn't truly remember what they were like.

The Royal Advisor scoffed when two of the Watchers approached him. One, he knew from a tedious meeting a while back. Another, the Second Watcher. Oh, he knew that one.

"Lord Affogato Cookie, what is this?" asked the Second Watcher, his voice low and laced with suspicion. He looked at your small figure cradled in the Advisor's arms, then back at him. "This isn’t exactly your usual… company."

Affogato Cookie's gaze hardened, but only briefly. "Cocoa Torrone Cookie, none of this concerns you. This child is no threat. I'm handling the situation, and there's no need for your input."

The Second Watcher scoffs, his eyes narrowed in suspicion. However, it wasn't like he could stop the Advisor when he had his mind set on something. "You'll have to talk to the King about this… addition to the Citadel. We can barely feed the ones in here, how would we supply more for a stray?"

"Like I said, I'm handling it. I suggest you head back to the Wall and guard it like you always have." Affogato Cookie retorts, and without another word, he turned away, carrying you in his arms.

The walk to his quarters was fairly short, despite the many corridors and halls. Once safely inside his room, Affogato Cookie didn’t waste any time. He carefully set you down on the couch, your body sagging with exhaustion. Your face was drained and sleepy, and your drowsiness was still evident in the slump of your shoulders, but you were safe for now. That much he could promise.

With a dismissive flick of his hands and a murmured command to an attendant nearby, the little fireplace sparked with life. He glanced at you in the corner of his eye. You barely said a thing since he approached you. No complaints, or remarks…usually, children would ask questions. You didn't.

He couldn't tell if that was good or abysmally bad.

"Bring them something warm to eat," he said curtly to the attendant. "Now, before they fall asleep where they sit."

Your eyes blinked sleepily, flickering in and out of consciousness. The warmth from the fire felt so good, and while the couch cushion was small, it was so much better than remaining out in the cold.

Soon enough, a cup of warm tea and a little sweet treat was placed beside you by the attendant, who received a dismissive wave from Affogato Cookie moments after.

"Drink, please. It's hot, and there's a sugar cube just for you." he says, watching as your gaze fell to the cup, taking small sips like it was liquid gold.

The sugar cube dissolved slowly as you drank the tea, and though the sweetness was faint, it was enough to make your tired body relax.

"Children your age should be talking. I hear it in the Citadel, just endless chatter while pretending to be warriors, but you haven't said a word. Can you at least tell me your name?"

And you did... albeit hesitantly. It was merely a mumble, but he caught it.

For a moment, Affogato Cookie seemed taken aback by the fact that you actually spoke. But then he nods curtly and mutters, "It's a good name."

"You think so?" you ask back, a glimmer in your eyes.

"I know so. Now keep eating, I don't want you to starve."

--

In the many days that followed, the Black Citadel became a strange, almost soothing routine. The air, still cold, was nothing compared to the brutal bite of the outer territories.

The Great Wall stood, dark and jaded, but with strength and pride. The fire in the hearth of Affogato Cookie’s chambers always flickered with life, and you slowly began to settle into this strange new place.

At first, there was little words. Just some nods, maybe a 'yes', or a little 'sorry', but not much conversation at all. You sat quietly by the fire these days, nursing your tea and nibbling on the small treats Affogato Cookie had ordered for you. Somedays, you wondered if he stole this food from the kitchens, but those thoughts were fleeting.

But then, slowly, something started to change.

You began to notice things about the Citadel, and the Cookies within. Affogato Cookie often drank tea with sugar cubes, or he wouldn't drink it at all. The attendants were light on their feet, save for the elder with a cold gleam in her eyes but a voice that carried softness. You liked her.

Your time was spent with the attendants. You could say you were like one of them. A little mini-helper with cleaning and other chores. They taught you things about the kingdom, and in turn, you felt the need to help them.

One of the younger attendants had laughed so hard she dropped the tray she was holding. You’d flinched at first, old instincts still curling in your gut, but when she ruffled your hair and told you it was “part of the charm,” something warm nestled in your chest. Something you hadn’t felt in a long, long while.

And one day, when you came back from your little “duties,” apron smudged and cheeks pink from the cold, he looked at you—really looked.

“Did you have fun?” he asked, setting down the scrolls he’d been reading. His voice was casual, but his eyes were unreadable.

You nodded, curling up near the fire. “Mhm. One of the guards let me see the top of the Wall. Everything looks so small from up there.”

He hummed in thought. “Yes. It does.”

There was a long pause. Then: “You’re adjusting better than I expected.”

You tilted your head. “Is that a good thing?”

Affogato Cookie didn’t answer right away. He stared into the fire for a long moment, as though it would speak back. Then he said, almost too quietly, “I suppose it is. I remember my first few weeks in the Citadel...it was dreadfully boring and cold. I mean, I was half an ice cube when the Watchers found me right outside the gates."

You blinked, surprised by the rare bit of personal history. He didn’t usually share things like that.

The Royal Advisor always held himself with this sly confidence, like he was three steps ahead of everyone else. But now, his voice dipped into something more… tired. Honest.

“Didn’t you have anyone?” you asked quietly, your fingers brushing over the edge of your tea cup.

“No,” he said simply, but not without weight. “Not when it mattered. Not when I needed them most.”

There was no bitterness in his tone, just fact. He said it the way someone might remark on a change in weather. You didn’t quite know what to say, so you didn’t say anything. And he seemed fine with that.

You sipped your tea again, holding it with both hands. It didn’t taste as sweet this time, but maybe that was because your chest felt a little heavier.

Still, you looked up at him and said, “Well… you have me now.”

It was a small statement. A child's statement. Simple, innocent, and yet it cracked something old and jagged inside him. Affogato Cookie looked at you as though you had said something impossible. Something dangerous.

He didn’t smile. But he did blink slowly, and for a long time, he simply stared into the fire again. “Yes,” he murmured. “I suppose I do.”

holy fuck I'm tired but i wanna add more but i wanna finish it so fuck mb guys

[crying-fantasies]

Frame modification

Masterlist

Featuring TFAnimated! Jetfire and Jetstorm, smut/humor, CW: heavy touching, licking, massage(?), fingering, blowjob, humping, alien courting (gone wrong), aerial crash.

It was an accident, you swear in everything loved to you that it was a sincere, clueless accident, yeah, there's direct affirmative in the fact that you didn't know what was happening at first, but then it just got so messed up so fast after the realization, but how could you stop the whole deal was beyond salvation, sincere curiousness got out of proportion stupidly quickly from both parties involved in, you could still feel the whiplash of the morning after.

What was worse than dealing with touchy servos as soon as the sun rises was having to talk to the one in charge of the well-being of your principal headache.

But before diving down into your debauchery, curiosity peaks its ugly head above the anxiety and the black hole that once was your embarrassment, because you have to know if what happened yesterday (or today's first hours?) was common for robot alien standards or if you have updated the term hoe to another level.

“Oh”, Jazz is driving, impossible to see his faceplate due to him being in alt-mode, but he sounds sincere enough to make you feel worse, “well, yeah, split sparks tend to share the same partner”.

Your suffering groan almost shows his amusement, “you're kidding, right?”

Jazz was an easygoing and nice mech to be around, ironically the first and last person, or not, you wanted to know about the incident, but he seemed anything but serious and understanding, “They once were the same spark, they may be in different frames now, but the bond of love blends them once again”.

Why did that sound like the lyrics of a goddam Madonna song?

When did all go down? Maybe it was a bad idea to exhibit them the beauty of Earth by flying over the city only to spite Sentinel, and since the twins could fly, why not? They offered to give you a ride in the first place, making peace at the very end as Jetfire let Jetstorm be the one to take you. Memories are distant as you were more focused on seeing the revolted face plate of the Prime once he found out you entered inside the twins, maybe while you were getting into Jetstorm there was a moment when your hand lingered over his wing, he trembled, strange static bouncing inside his cabin as you were searching for his seatbelt, “What was that?”

He seemed out of breath, but alien robots from space don't breathe, “Worries not! Brother just happy to help!”

You believed in Jetfire, but the kick he gave to his brother's side was evident and loud like a frying pan falling, certainly making it seem different like it was indeed something of importance.

The twins were gentlemechs in all that time, also watching your manners the whole ride and making sure to not touch anything on his board, figure out what all those buttons were for, Jetfire was saying something about “greenness fields! And doted mammal quadruples!”, there was little time to explain those were cows before Jetstorm put on his own two cents, “Little two-pedes mammals too, coming to say hi!”

Those weren't mammals you wanted to say, but had little time reaction once you crossed eyes with the dark, soulful eyes of a whole flock of birds, news of high-speed jets and the likes of it impacting birds flashed inside your mind, and headlines of death, destruction as the twins were greeting the animals.

The twins weren't the brightness, your whole body moved before your brain, Jetstorm made the same sound as before when you impacted with his board and turned right, Jetfire soon followed as his brother came over him, and the last you saw was the birds continuing their path. Life does flash in front of your eyes, as you hear both twins scream, or is it you? Not sure, maybe you didn't even blink during the whole ordeal as your consciousness came back, Jetstorm was performing, or trying to do, CPR with his massive digit over your chest, maybe the pain woke you up, or Jetfire’s pedes pacing from one place to the other, asking himself, if not to his brother, what they were going to do now, was he crying?

But you woke up, and they both screamed as high school kids who didn't believe their hamster was still alive before you laughed at the absurdity, the nerves and the adrenaline flushing over your body, maybe madness was contagious, as Jetfire left his fussing over your wellbeing aside and started to laugh once Jetstorm did accompany you.

“Brother really believe soft human went to the Allspark!”

“Did not!”

You wanted to ask what the Allspark was, and how come they didn't know about the dangers of flying, before realizing, once again, that yeah, they did tell you about not being familiar with their new alt modes or even the new coding, Jetfire was the nearest to you as they were too occupied still placing faults, laughter was soon dying out as the open fields were anything but chilly at this hour of the afternoon, and you could feel him being so warm.

Jetfire made the same sound his brother did earlier, as you snuggled on his side, maybe that was another red flag, well, not a red flag, but a signal indeed.

But you kept on, “touchy feeling today, ya?” Jetstorm accused you, but not really, his words lacked annoyance, rich with amusement instead, perhaps alien robots don't touch one another so easily?

Possibly not, they liked to touch you, too, one digit over your head, one pressing your belly, feeling how things moved inside, they liked your touch, if only laughing or making that static again.

It was your fault, believing it was a good thing once Jetfire didn't escape from it for the first time, leaning onto your hand instead, believing it was good when Jetstorm got you shiny pebbles and maybe quartz before his brother accused him of not being fair, of going too fast, their discussion was lost on you as the quartz shined in your open palms, Jetfire got you a pebble of gold the next day, saying it was tasty and that he didn't know humans also consumed metals.

“It's not your fault”, Jazz said back to the present.

Maybe it was indeed your fault, no, scratch that, it was totally your fault.

It was you who noticed how much static they built up once your fingers traced over their arms, just where their wings got when they were in root mode, Jetstorm smiled, almost like a grin, before pressing it to you, letting you explore before transforming, still in root mode, but with his wings in full display, his grin was now a little, tight smile as he didn't have to say anything before having you over the surface of it, a shiver ran along his whole plating, loud enough for you to hear, he was warm to the touch when he was the coolest one of the two.

Realization dawned upon you when his cooling fans started to work and his hips stuttered.

Did alien robots of space do that?

It was a question without a direct answer, Jetstorm was fast to cover his intake with a servo, his sitting position now more relaxed but also more tense, if it even made sense, “okay” he said with a puff of hot air, “Softy don't know, better stop now-”

But you didn't stop, your finger gripped a little harder over his wing, and this time Jetstorm's hips moved forward, it was clear as the day.

Something inside you did a hard jump too.

“Softy!” he called out, whole frame trembling, as your other hand reached out too, experimenting, was he being serious? Did his wings feel good if you did this?

There was only one way to know, “Storm?” he was lost on his own, a gentle pinch over his wing got him back to reality, followed by something similar to a moan, you related the motion just to be sure, and holly, it was, “does it feel good?”

Took him a moment, but his helm moved, “ya”, his back strut was almost sliding down the wall, screeching metal could be heard as he descended but he never flexed his wings back, “feeling great”

Did that make something to you, of course, face deep red for all to see, grateful it had happened inside, where no one could notice, “Do you want me to do it again?”

New experiences are what move the curious and the youthful, no matter the species as Jetstorm encouraged you once again by flexing his wing in your hold, whimpering when you grabbed it again with both hands, “New frame, new wiring, not normal for me”, his helm was thrown back with heavy ventilation once your lips made contact with the surface, not colliding with the wall by pure miracle “Ah! Soft! Softness much!”.

It was a guilty pleasure, seeing him come undone, is this how it feels to have someone so receptive as a partner? The dopamine flush was making you feel dizzy, having control over this literal giant, brave enough to try and show off, dragging your whole body over the surface, pressing yourself against it, earning a whimper soon to be a lustful moan.

Jetstorm and Jetfire always talked endlessly about how they liked your squishy bits and the fluffy feeling of your hair, you raised the likeness to the limit when your tongue made contact with the plating, and Jetstorm screamed.

Someone screamed from the corridor too.

What a sight it must have been, Jetfire opened the door and looked as if he had run to get there, you could almost see the heatwaves streaming out of him as the snacks he went to get were falling from his servo, you took a glimpse at Jetstorm, sprawled over the big mattress they used to hang out with you, ventilating so hard his chassis was rising and falling, intake wide open, something pink coming from between his leg struts, wings stretched and trembling, you, red in the face, hands still over said wing and still holding to them for dear life, your t-shirt showing the fat of your belly in your desire to press yourself on him.

Fear splashed on your face, this is it, you were about to do the nasty with your friend's brother, who is also your friend, and he caught you in the act, there was no way to say “It's not what you think” but you still did so.

Jetfire, with his big optics over you, directed his fury over the almost unconscious bot, “Brother! How could you!”

Oh, this is it, you fucked up, in more than one sense, you braced yourself for losing a great friendship over your stupid horng mess, but Jetstorm talked back from whatever post-nut clarity he had on himself, “Sorry, brother, poor pitiful me could no longer wait”

“Softy is a high-end!”

“Oh, a luxury one indeed!”

“But what about organic courting? The wine dining! The three decacycle celebrations! The slow dancing!The song under tree! Brother messed all up!”

“Messy indeed, brother!”

They lost you in that argument, but pieces came together, the rocks, the touches, the spare time here and there to hang out, whatever alien ritual was going on shattered over you as Jetstorm didn't want to wait anymore, and requested to a handjob from you, finally, it made sense, as they kept on fighting verbally, your shock was broken when Jetstorm's wing pushed against your hand once again.

The gall of this fucker.

“So”, you tugged hard, Storm cried out, again, and Jetfire shut up for good, “you were ever going to talk with me about it?”

That was a point of no return.

And then a point of discovery that you were a freak in the sheets.

Having reduced Jetstorm once again to a messy rebooting state on the floor was one thing, another different thing was having Jetfire thrusting into the air, sitting as he gave you free access to the wielding point at the base of his wings, must have hurt, but it also left you flabbergasted how much sensitivity it was holding.

Curiosity reached another level, as the tip of your tongue made minimal contact with the length of his wing, Jetfire cried out and there was a sound, something dripping, “Where- where Softy going?”, you were no acrobat or gymnastic, but you could be bent to his side and see some wiring flicking light over where Jetfire’s stomach should be, going south and falling behind.

That day you not only found out your peculiar nature but also that those wires in the protoform were the cybertronian equivalent of a happy trail you were happy to follow, being presented with the cybertronian equivalent of a dick and a vagina once your hands touched enough for him to finally let go, accompanied by the last pieces of your sanity as Jetfire did the most fuckable face you've ever seen before diving down to it, Jetstorm was now pressing his spike between your legs as you worked on his brother.

“Well, all I’m saying”, Jazz’s voice brings back the present, “is that they've been very interested in you for so long, I'm happy you guys figured it out”.

You didn't figure out shit, and it showed when Safeguard appeared that very same evening at your house with a rose bush in hand, looking like a flimsy virgin searching for their date, your mother gave you the most scorching glance in forever.

You wanted to vanish from existence.

Just what you would expect of the crash course into the deep and delicacies of cybertronian courtship.

.

I'm taking too long, am I taking too long? Kind of hard to put my ideas in order, no angst this time, but more silliness from one pair of twins I love dearly since I was a kid.

For the Jetwins lovers.

@tf-kinktober2024

[awkward-tension-art]

Bacta and Bandages Chp.3 (Rex x Reader)

Chapter 2. Chapter 4.

First Mission

CW: Clone mistreatment, Medical procedures, needles, Death, destruction, mentions of an epidemic, nothing graphic, Reader is gender neutral, no use of (Y/N), reader is a doctor, if I miss a tag LMK!

Minors DNI also this is MINIMALLY PROOFREAD

You had a couple of weeks to establish yourself and settle with the 501st. It worked out well, because it allowed you to get to know the soldiers more.

Plus, no mission meant you had some free time to learn mando’a. It was basic at best, but you knew how to greet someone and find out where their pain is located, as well as other basic conversation.

It’s what you were doing at the moment. As you tidied up the medical bay, the robotic voice of a teaching droid came from the datapad on your desk. The holo was a program fit more for academy students, but you had to start somewhere.

“Ni cuy' a baar'ur,” You had managed to gear the learning towards medical language. Just to let you do your job better for the clones. Currently, the program was going over what to say when dealing with a patient.

“Very good. Where is your pain?”

“Vaii cuyir gar aaray?” You paused. The word for pain, aaray, always sounded off to you, “Vaii cuyir gar aaray?” Your words repeated.

You felt your damn soul leave your body when another voice interrupted.

“Ner kov'nyn bal ner haalas.” Rex was standing in the doorway, one hand on his hip, the other held his helmet. 

You didn’t know the exact sentence, and you had to think for a moment before looking up at him, “Head and…chest?”

He smirked and nodded, “That’s correct.” the captain stepped to your desk and looked at the holo-program that was still waiting for a response from you. “You’re learning Mando’a?”

“I thought it might help the troopers feel more comfortable,” You approached, tapping the tablet and pausing the holo-program, “I hope that's alright…” 

“It's more than alright, it's…it's a wonderful thought.” Rex had a genuine smile, “The men will appreciate it.” However, he cleared his throat, “However, General Skywalker needs you on the bridge.” 

Your heart raced, did something happen? Did you do something wrong?

“It’s about our next mission.” The captain explained, most likely catching your rising anxiety, “It's a relief mission, and your expertise with medical care is needed.” 

Oh! The breath you let out was one of relief, “Yes, of course…let's go to the bridge then.” 

The walk was quick. You’ve gotten used to the halls and paths of the venator now. Though, admittedly, you’ve gotten terribly lost a couple times. Once, you ended up in the reactor section and if you hadn’t found R2-D2, you’d have to embarrass yourself by asking a soldier to help guide you.

Once on the bridge, you saluted the general and commander in greeting, “You called for me, sir?”

Anakin Skywalker nodded, “We need your expertise, doctor,” He tapped a button on the console, bringing up a holomap of a planet with 4 moons, “The planet of Cherenity had a planet-wide epidemic and a series of natural disasters that caused total societal collapse. There were riots, famine, civil war and complete chaos.”

You frowned, but let him continue. 

“The Jedi have been called to try and help rebuild and offer relief. We need your help in dealing with the wounded and establishing medical care again.” He finished, standing up. He put his hands behind his back and looked at you, “What do you say?”

Ah. set up a medical center, help with supplies and maybe teach some procedures to the locals. 

You raised a hand to your chin, mentally working out the logistics, “One hospital for an entire planet will be overwhelmed. I’d like to have Kix with me to help deal with the injured.” Your eyes met Rex’s, “If that's alright with you, Captain.”

“He’s all yours.” He nodded. 

You smirked, and turned back to face General Skywalker, “When do we arrive?”

“We have an hour to prepare.” He informed everyone, “Thank you, Doctor. Get to work everyone. Dismissed.”

First mission…

You’d be a liar if you didn’t say you were nervous. Yes, you were a capable doctor. But…

Well, in soldier terms, you were no better than a shiny. A rookie.

You were in the hangar double checking the crates of supplies when Kix approached and saluted, “Doctor, I’ve been informed I will be aiding you in this mission.”

Your tone was calm and even, “You and I are going to help establish something of a medical care center for the survivors on Cherenity,” You looked over to him, “But, this will be my first mission, and I’m a doctor before I’m a soldier…I might follow your lead if the situation calls for it.”

He gave you an understanding smile, “I remember my first mission…It can be overwhelming but you’ll get used to it,” The medic melted into a friendly, approachable attitude, “Since it’s a relief mission, it should be easy. But if there's any danger I’ll show you what to do.” 

How kind. Very polite too.

“Thank you, Kix.” 

Before you loaded up, you checked your gear. Because of your rank and position, you didn’t wear the same heavy, clunky armor as the other soldiers. You were outfitted with movement and supplies in mind. Armor was minimal, only enough to protect your chest, calves and wrists. The uniform, made of protective yet light material, was red and white, indicating your medical personnel status.

In a perfect galaxy, this would mean no one would try to kill you. But…well, war crimes weren’t unheard of. Sometimes adversaries would specifically target medics.

With a calming breath, you stepped on the gunship with Kix and a few other soldiers and prepared yourself mentally. There were certain things you were worried about. With no sterile location, infection rates would be high. Plus, even if the disease that caused the epidemic had killed all of its hosts, it may still be present on the planet. 

And you had no idea how it was spread.

“Something wrong, Doctor?” A trooper next to you noticed. He was a ‘shiny’ judging by his pure white armor. 

“I don’t know yet,” you responded, “Do your helmets have protection against contaminants in the air? Like a virus perhaps?” Your question seemed to startle the poor shiny. 

It was a trooper with a painted flower on his chest that answered, “We have temporary protection. Though it only lasts long enough for us to get out of an area, not really stay in it. Maybe a couple minutes at most.”

You nodded, “We know nothing about this virus that contributed to the planet's collapse. If you, or any trooper feels unwell, come to me.”

Another soldier to your left, Steele, you believe his name is, let out a soft laugh, “Don’t worry about us, Doc. We’re not meant to be a priority.”

“I’ll prioritize whoever I want, thank you.” You responded, just as the gunship landed and the doors opened. 

You stepped off, taking in your surroundings. 

Devastation. The capital of Cherenity, Fushi, from what you could tell, used to be an active, beautiful city. But now, it was a shadow of its former self. The ruins and rubble looked like the buildings used to be made of marble and glass. Now, it was all…destroyed. broken, painted glass was everywhere. Craters littered the formerly stone streets. Smoke billowed at multiple locations in the distance. Occasionally, blaster shots echoed around the ruins, bouncing off the once beautiful walls. 

Your heart twisted.

This was war. You signed up expecting destruction, but not…this….

Kix put a hand on your shoulder, “Doctor?”

“I’m fine.” you shook your head, getting yourself together, “Just…didn’t expect this.”

“You’ll get used to it.” Steele responded, unloading a crate of supplies.

You weren’t sure if that made you feel better or worse. 

You made it to the center of the broken, desolate city. That’s where the Cherians had tried to maintain some semblance of civilization. Innocent people were living either in haphazard tents or the surely dangerously unstable remains of the buildings around.

As you and your group made your way forward, the Cherians pause what they were doing to watch you. 

They were humanoid, with skin tones that ranged from bright red to deep purple that were dotted with scales. All of them had horns of various shapes and sizes that poked out from hair of many different colors as well. Their eyes were all solid white, pupiless and glowing. Among them were some humans, twi’lek and other races as well. 

That didn’t strike you as odd. After all, a planet capital such as Fushi would have a lot of diversity.

You pressed your com at your wrist and raised it to your lips, “General, we’ve made it to where the survivors are camping.”

After a second, Anakin’s voice came through the other end, “Good, start unloading supplies. Ahsoka and I have been…held up.” 

As soon as the Jedi finished speaking, Rex’s voice came through the com, “All units, be advised, thieves and pirates are in the area and may target the supplies and the civilians.”

Fuck…

You swallowed and shared a look with Kix, you were about to speak before getting interrupted by an approaching Cherian. Her pure white hair trailed behind her and her horns gave height over the troopers. Her skin was a soft lavender and she had an aura of peace and calm. 

“Peace,” She greeted, “I am Zenial Ill’ty the Senator of Cherenity.”

Senator? Why isn’t she on Coruscant? Did she come home to try and help the devastation?

“Ma’am,” You nodded in greeting, “General Skywalker is on his way with more supplies, in the meanwhile, I’m his battalion's doctor and am here to help reestablish medical care.” 

Zenial gave you a smile and bowed, “Thank you, healer of the 501st. What is left of our city is open to you. Most of the injured are located at the north end of our camp.”

You bowed to her and motioned for the troopers carrying medical supplies to follow. Kix was beside you as your steps lead you beyond a half shattered green building. Behind it, was the injured and sick. 

There had to have been a few hundred at least. Walking among them were Cherians wearing the same medical symbol as you. However, it was clear they were overwhelmed and unable to help without proper equipment, medicine and housing. 

You steeled yourself. You were a doctor. You worked in a hospital on Coruscant’s lower levels, and that wiped away any naivety you had even before the war. You remained silent, eyes roaming the people and bodies. 

From visual confirmation, you guessed the few doctors had set up ‘zones’ by severity of wounds and illness. 

Good. It made your job easier. 

With a steading breath, you got to work. 

You prioritized those with the most severe wounds. Internal injuries, amputations, massive amounts of blood loss…Your focus was razor sharp as you tended to those you could. The supplies in your pack dwindled to nothing quickly, much to your frustration.

Perhaps it was your expectations. Or maybe it was how you worked in the hospital, but you burned through the supplies in your pack trying to save everyone. 

A twi’lek, with royal blue skin and yellow eyes wheezed and sputtered as you tried to fix his burnt and ripped heart. According to his young daughter, he was searching for food when thieves shot him. It was sheer will that he survived this long. 

You reached for more bacta, only to be stopped by Kix, “Doctor, there isn’t anything else you can do.”

My old mentor told me those words once. You remembered. It was the first patient you had ever lost. A drunken speeder accident. You’d never forget it as their heart stopped beating under your hands.

“But…he can be saved. I know he can.” Your eyes must’ve been wide and confused, “I’ve seen worse wounds.”

The medic next to you had an understanding look, “Maybe in a proper hospital. But on the field…we don’t have the luxury.”

You looked down at the twi’lek, taking in his severe wounds. 

Kix is right. 

You made sure his daughter held his hand as you injected him with painkillers. He drifted off to sleep and was dead within minutes. 

Move on. There are others. 

At some point as you tended to the wounded, General Skywalker and Commander Tano had arrived with food, water and some ‘society rebuilding’ technology. It was hours later when you had gotten done with the most severe patients and were able to get the Cherian healers together to start planning properly. You did your best to ignore how the General watched your moves. 

He was most likely testing you. Making sure you could handle this.

“You’ll need clean water,” You explained, looking over your datapad, “The biggest worry is infection. You can save a life but lose them later to the same wound if it's not kept clean.” Your steps weaved through the wounded patients. Some were already much better than when you arrived, and others were resting peacefully, finally having their pain managed.

“You’ll need to boil the water at the very least to sterilize it,” Your words didn’t falter even after passing by the General who was with Captain Rex, “Same for metal scalpels and other tools. Put them in boiling water to clean them at the very least.”

Kix, who had been walking beside you, handed you a holomap of the immediate area. Once you activated it, you began to plan the new medical center for the Cherians, “It would be best if you had the injured in the most stable building, here.” You pointed at one of the more stable, least destroyed glass and marble building on the map, “The cover will be imperative for those with more severe injuries and illnesses. I’ve had some of the troopers make sure the supports are-”

One of those following you spoke up, “Can we trust what an artificial human says?” 

That question screeched your mind to a halt. You blinked, dumbfounded at the bluntness from the individual in front of you. Your mind had to take a minute to process what you heard.

After getting your thoughts together, you responded, “The troopers are hardworking, reliable men. I trust what they say.”

The Cherian opened their mouth, “But-”

You couldn’t hold back the venom in your words as you cut them off, “Do I need to repeat myself or are we going to have a problem?” Your eyes bore into the individual, practically daring them to argue with you. 

“...No, Doctor.” 

“Good.” Immediately, your tone became calmer, “Now, let's continue.”

Unknown to you, Captain Rex saw your exchange, he couldn’t help the small smile on his lips as you walked away. 

Anakin elbowed his side, smirking at his captain.

[bnhaobservation]

Technological progress in BNHA

So, this post was inspired by how, in replay to this post @donquixotehomura said:

And the fact that it was stated that the appearance of quirks had caused society’s science to be slowed down due to the chaos “we would have been able to take interstellar trips/travel by now” or something among those lines, yeah the initial chaos would have caused that but then using quirks and such science should have been catapulted into very advanced levels, like with the damn technology for hero support and the science fiction technology levels in UA (honestly they can move buildings, have force fields, the robots etc).

There are people with intelligence quirks, people with technology quirks, and many quirks that could seriously advance science really quickly, I guess no one thought of it cause… We have super powers now… Ig

Also like the century or two is a long enough time for technology to advance fast if we use the same rate technology advances in our modern day world (the more science advances the easier/faster it is for more science to advance) then yeah in this amount of time there should have been much more science and most certainly much more quirk based science…. What I’m saying is someone would have invented a way to nullify quirks if even temporarily on top of putting regular science back on track.

Like here I’ll reference the meta dampeners from the Flash TV series (Arrow Verse, CW) the meta humans appeared only in one city, and while we’re never given a solid count of how many there are we know that there are about 200 give or take that choose to become criminals and about 10 or 20 of the revolving door of meta heroes that work with the Flash, all that and Cisco and the Government (well ARGUS) invented a ton of shit to counter Meta Humans, Meta Dampeners that can be put all over facilities, the “boot” a device Cisco invented, basically a meta cuff bazooka (I can’t really explain it but you can look it up), the meta cuffs that were a thing given to the Flash in star laps from like, basically month one, Meta Prisons I mean there is the repurposed Pipeline for the Particle Accelerator in Star Laps that was used but then apparently Iron Heights now has their own Meta Wing with Meta Dampeners in the walls, cells and everything.

Yeah I know the writing in that show is also fucked and in need of divine help at this point but the in the show it all takes about a YEAR OR TWO!!! for all the anti meta human weapons and devices (I’m pretty sure I missed a few, like some energy guns that basically shock the metas, the specific ones such as speedster weapons etc)… Like… Two years…..BNHA world had 100x that amount of time and NO ONE CAME UP WITH A QUIRK DAMPENER DEVICE?!!!

I do remember the ‘Maidens’ but there are just glorified cuffs

So many things to say...

Let’s start with the Doylist explanation for why Horikoshi had characters claiming that without Quirk age starting they would be enjoying interstellar travels.

It’s clear Horikoshi wanted his story to be placed in the future but, at the same time, he wanted the future to look like present time so people dress like we do and use technology that we use.

For him it’s practical as he doesn’t have to create a futuristic setting and it helps readers to better identify with the characters in the BNHA world because, apart for the Quirk, they’re like them.

Only... he could have just said it wasn’t the future, the characters were also in 2014 but the one OF A PARALLEL REALITY in which, instead than world war 2, humanity had to deal with the birth of Quirks.

Why this would have been a better option?

Because the birth of Quirk wasn’t the equivalent to a worldwide nuclear war sometime in the 1990s has resulted in the destruction of most of civilization like in “Hokuto no Ken”, no it was merely the equivalent of a civil war.

And an ongoing war has NEVER slowed up the technological progress, it has HURRIED it up because both parties try to use improvements in technology to win over the other party. Hell, even in middle age people would invent new things when a war was starting, even if it were just a siege, even in ancient Roman age.

We even see it in the story after Japan becomes nobody’s land and the coffin in the sky and All Might’s armor are created.

Of course the losing/minority side might have had more trouble to access technology but the idea all of sudden progress is halted is ludicrous because it would require humanity to lose access to technology, as in scientists, energy sources, machineries and this doesn’t happen.

Short after Yoichi was kidnapped with see AFO in a building and all around there are artificial lights, a sign electricity is working. Bruce can run a computer and tell Kudo he now has two Quirks, meaning he also has some freshly invented machine that can tell him so.

On the other side, progress continuing doesn’t mean in 100 years we’ll enjoy interstellar travels like we do with a fly between America and Europe.

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519) had plans for the plane and the helicopters but the first heavier-than-air flying machine, considered the invention of the airplane, occurred on December 17, 1903, while the first manned, free flight of a helicopter occurred on November 13, 1907. The first man went to space on April 12, 1961 but currently we’re at around only 721 people him included who managed to also travel in space.

Progress doesn’t happen simply because time passes by but because someone discovers something that allows it to happen.

Men had to depend FOR CENTURIES on fire only to light their houses until someone came up with a way to use electricity, FOR CENTURIES we had mails and messages that needed to be carried from a place to the other, then someone came up with the telegraph and the phone and now we’ve email and video calls.

So no, Quirks wouldn’t halt progress, but we’ve no way to know how far progress would have gone. Maybe it would have never been to the point of granting interstellar travels because humanity would have still missed the key invention/energy source/material needed to archive them.

So the best Watsonian explanation we could offer to the words of that ‘important guy’ Midoriya speaks about in chap 59 is that he’s a misinformed moron or that aims to spread discontent toward people with Quirk, so maybe he was one of those guys who were racist toward them.

The Doylist explanation though is that Horikoshi didn’t plan well his past which is something that occurs way too often in the story.

Now… why no one came up with a Quirk suppressing device and would it be possible to come up with one?

Quirks are fictional, it’s possible to create a Quirk suppressing device only if Horikoshi says it’s possible to do so.

It’s not a matter of science, it’s a matter of fiction, fiction that allows drugs like Trigger that give a boost to a Quirk regardless of the type of the Quirk or Quirk erasing bullets or a Quirk that erase Quirks, or a Quirk that steals Quirks but doesn’t allow for suppressing Quirk cuffs, so that people with strong Quirks once arrested are wrapped in bindings and then closed in tubes (the Iron Maidens) and then they’re kept always tied and immobilized in Tartarus with machine guns aimed at them and ready to shoot if they do so much as scratch their back.

THIS IS A NARRATIVE CHOICE, it’s not something that had to be done because there was no other way around it. I’ve a hard time thinking it never dawned on Horikoshi to create such devices (true, storywise it would have stopped a jailed AFO from communicating with his other self outside of prison but did we really need that?).

And it’s hard to explain it in a Watsonian way because we can’t claim people/governments wouldn’t be interested in having Quirk suppressing cuffs as it would be much easier and much more human to manage Villains with them… and Villains too would likely be interested in a way to suppress other people’s Quirks, and since we’ve drugs that boost Quirks, it’s hard to think they couldn’t come up with a drug that has the opposite level but can only keep people unconscious or tied.

[0o-junebug-o0]

Ashamed

summary: Spencer has always felt ashamed of his autism and some local officers just make it worse. Fortunately, Elle is there to convince him otherwise.

genre: hurt/comfort

cw: spencelle (can be read as platonic or romantic), (explicitly) autistic spencer reid, internalized ableism, abliesm, use of the r-slur, meltdowns, autism viewed in a negative light, communicating through echolalia

wordcount: 1.8k

“Jesus, kid, do you ever stop talking?” 

Spencer freezes mid-sentence. He closes his mouth and lets his hands fall to his sides from where they had been moving wildly in front of him. “Sorry,” he mutters. The officer rolls his eyes and walks away. Spencer turns back to the geographical profile, wishing that a member of his team was still at the station with him.

“Didn’t know they let freaks like that in the FBI,” the officer says. His voice is quiet, he probably doesn’t realize Spencer can hear him. Spencer swallows hard and clasps his hands over his stomach so he doesn’t shake them. 

Spencer lives in a limbo of being both proud and ashamed of his autism. It allows him to recognize patterns others would miss and to communicate with witnesses and unsubs that the rest of the team is unable to. But at the same time, it’s another thing that’s different about him, another thing that’s wrong. 

He should be used to this by now. He ignores but doesn’t miss the quiet questions the police ask each other nearly everywhere they go, wondering what’s wrong with him and how someone like him managed to get into the FBI. Spencer knows that it makes him self-destructive. That it makes him push aside his health and well-being and work until a meltdown to prove that he deserves his place on his team and that he’s worthy of being listened to.

But the comments don’t stop no matter how much he throws himself into his job. He helps his team deliver the profile and hears the officers compare him to a robot. He sees the way the police and his own team members sigh in annoyance whenever he begins to talk. 

It’s worse this case than it usually is. They’re in rural Indiana and the police border on cruel. He’s a profiler, he sees the way they look at him. With disdain and disgust, like they’re worried he’ll infect them. 

Spencer always holds himself in a way that is far too still to be natural for him. He still rocks and sways and wrings his hands together but he can’t stop no matter how hard he tries. At least it’s subtle, at least that movement could be explained away by too much coffee or the eccentricities of a genius whose brain works too fast for his body to keep up. But even those movements draw disapproving glares from the officers and Spencer forces himself to stand as still as possible. He knows Elle notices. She always notices. But she doesn’t mention it and he’s grateful.

The one time he moves naturally is after he talks down the unsub before he can slit the throat of an eleven-year-old girl named Maya who moves like he does. Spencer steps to the side after cuffing the man and passing him to the officers and the rest of his team. He flaps his hands and takes deep, steady breaths. 

There’s a loud and painful-sounding whine and Spencer looks over to see Maya thrashing in the arms of the EMTs. She’s crying and screaming and trying to hit the EMTs and herself as they drag her bodily toward an ambulance. Horrified, Spencer rushes over and demands that they let her go.

An EMT gives him an incredulous look.

“She’s having a meltdown. You’re hurting her. Let her go,” he explains. 

The EMTs reluctantly release her and Maya falls to the ground, curling in on herself, rocking back and forth, and slamming her hand against her chest. 

 Spencer sinks to the ground before her and pulls a pair of bulky noise-cancelling headphones from his messenger bag. He hates carrying them around because it reminds him that he needs them, but Elle insists that he brings them because they help him. He’s grateful to her in this moment as he carefully slips the headphones over Maya’s head. Her hand freezes at her chest and her pained cries calm into whimpers.

Maya continues to rock and Spencer holds out his hands to her. Maya grunts and contorts her face in clear confusion. “I’ll help you rock,” Spencer says, just loud enough for her to hear through the headphones. “I like it when people help me rock.” 

Maya slips her hands into his and Spencer gently tugs her forward and pushes her back. Quickly, Maya’s whimpers turn to giggles and soon she’s laughing happily with a huge smile on her face. 

Spencer can feel the eyes of the officers and the rest of his team boring into him and he’s embarrassed but he pushes the feeling aside to focus on the feeling of pride for being able to help this girl. Maya’s parents arrive at the scene after a few minutes, Spencer can only assume someone called them, and they quickly rush over with Maya’s stuff. Upon seeing her parents, Maya lets go of Spencer’s hands and pushes herself to her feet to run over to them. The exchange goes quickly as her parents replace Spencer’s headphones with Maya’s and thank him profusely for saving their daughter and calming her down. 

Spencer smiles and insists he’s just doing his job. He advises them to go over to the ambulance to get Maya looked over. Spencer returns his headphones to his bag and heads toward the rest of his team where they wait by one of the SUVs, passing by a group of local officers as he walks. 

“Can’t believe the retard managed that,” one of them mutters. “It’d be pretty cool if he wasn’t such a fucking embarrassment.”

Spencer’s stomach drops and all the pride he feels is quickly replaced with burning shame. He bites the inside of his lip and rejoins his team. Morgan claps him on the back and congratulates him and Spencer puts on a fake smile and thanks him.

Spencer stays lost in thought as they grab their stuff from the precinct and hotel and drive to the airport to board the jet. He curls up on the couch and pretends to sleep for the entire flight while the officers' words throughout the case play on a loop in his head.

His entire body feels heavy with shame. Why does he have to be like this? Why does he have to be so wrong? He hates that he feels this way, but he can’t help it. Spencer knows that his autism will always be either the first or second thing people notice about him. The effort he puts into masking will never be enough. When the jet lands, Spencer doesn’t move, staying curled up toward the back of the couch with his eyes closed.

Spencer feels the couch dip as someone sits by his feet, a hand squeezes his knee and he instantly knows it’s Elle. He listens as everyone else leaves the jet.

“You move in your sleep,” Elle says softly.

Spencer opens his eyes and sits up, not facing her. Elle stays silent. Spencer opens and closes his mouth without speaking. He turns his head in the opposite direction of Elle’s body, he can’t look at her when he asks this question, if he tries he won’t be able to talk.

“Are you embarrassed by me?”

“No,” she replies and she says it like it’s the simplest thing in the world. Like there’s no other answer. “Can you tell me why you think I would be?”

Spencer tries to explain but the only words that come out are the words of the officers. “‘Jesus, kid, do you ever stop talking?’ ‘Didn’t know they let freaks like that in the FBI.’ ‘Can’t believe the retard managed that, it’d be pretty cool if he wasn’t such a fucking embarrassment.’”

Elle is silent for a moment and Spencer appreciates that she doesn’t make him turn to face her. 

“Did the local police say those things?”

Spencer nods. “‘Did the local police say those things?’ They always do. Worse this time.”

“Is there a reason why you didn’t tell any of us? We would make them stop.”

“‘Fucking embarrassment,’” Spencer repeats again. “Not your problem.”

“It is our problem if they’re going to mess with someone on this team,” Elle says. “You know none of that shit is true, right?”

Spencer shrugs. “‘None of that shit is true,’” he echos. “I guess.”

“Do you think any of those officers would have been able to help Maya like you did?” Elle asks simply.

Spencer turns to look at her. “‘Like you did?’” he repeats.

“Help her calm down in a way that was safe and didn’t hurt her or anyone else,” she elaborates.

“No. The EMTs were hurting her.”

“Exactly. If the EMTs didn’t know what to do, those officers definitely wouldn’t have. None of the rest of us knew what to do either. You were the only person who was able to help her and that is because of your autism.”

“‘Because of your autism,’” Spencer echoes. “‘Can’t believe the retard managed that.’”

Elle purses her lips. “What that officer said was bullshit, what they all said was. Your autism is not an embarrassment, it is one of the many reasons you are an invaluable member of this team.”

“Many people with autism have heightened pattern recognition skills and can focus intently on a task for extended periods of time,” Spencer recites.

“That’s true, but it wasn’t what I was referring to.”

“‘Wasn’t what I was referring to.’ What were you referring to?”

“You have a unique perspective on the world that allows you to see things that we miss. You’re able to understand things in a way the rest of us could never hope to, your intelligence aside. Your autism allows you to form unique connections with people that have helped us time and time again. It is the furthest thing from an embarrassment. You are the furthest thing from an embarrassment. You are an incredible asset to this team. I don’t always understand you or know the best ways to help or support you but I’m glad you are the way you are and not just for your value as an agent.”

“‘I’m glad you are the way you are.’ Really?” Spencer asks, unable to believe what Elle is saying. Unable to wrap his head around the fact that people think he has value as a person and as an agent and that his autism doesn’t subtract from that. That the way he is isn’t a bad thing.

“Really,” Elle says. “You know I don’t lie to you, Spencer.”

Spencer nods. “‘You know I don’t lie to you’,” he affirms. “Thank you.”

Elle nods and pats him on the shoulder before grabbing her bag off the floor and rising to her feet. Spencer does the same and follows Elle off the jet feeling, for the first time in a long time, that maybe there isn’t something wrong with him.

_____

REQUESTS ARE OPEN!

Taglist!: fill out this form if you want to be tagged when I post fics

@daryls-crossbow16 @nemobee777 @lover-of-books-and-tea

[arealphrooblem]

Hi!! First off I just want to say that this is my new favorite writing blog on tumblr!! I'm so grateful for whatever strings the universe pulled that led me here. I'm literally addicted to every single thing you've written here. I swear I've read Mutually Assured Destruction like ten times within the past 24 hours.

I was wondering, if you find the free time and the inspiration, if you could write a villain x medic/civilian snippet? Maybe Medic accidentally witnessed villain's crime so villain can't let them just wander around freely since medic works for the hero agency, but also doesn't want to kill medic since medic is useful?

Thank you so much! I've always loved the idea of Villain x Medic so here you go!

CW: Kidnapping

“You know my face.”

The medic knew this day would come. Still, they froze in the doorway of the living room, keys dangling in their hands, blood frosting over in sheer dread. The villain sat with their legs crossed in the medic’s favorite armchair, the fire place unlit. The room in semi-darkness, the only light a glow from a street-lamp.

They didn’t ask how the villain knew their address. They should have taken Hero’s offer to leave under witness protection, but their whole life was built here. They couldn’t just leave and start over.

“I haven’t revealed it,” the medic said.

“Yet,” the villain amended. “I’m sure you would for the right price. Or under the right pressure.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I don’t. But I am not going to risk it.”

The lamp beside the couch switched on. The medic flinched away from the sight, eyes trained on the coat rack by the door. As if mattered anymore if they saw the villain’s face again. As if they hadn’t doomed themselves the first time.

Footsteps creaked over the old wood floors. The medic took slow deep breaths, holding it for four counts and releasing it. A trick they had taught people afraid of IV needles to calm their racing heart.

The time to run had long since passed. And even if it hadn’t, the villain most definitely had people outside lying in wait for such an escape.

Hands that tipped the medic’s chin to meet that dangerous gaze.

“You’re going to kill me,” the medic said. It was not a question.

An eyebrow raised. “You sound very calm about that.”

“My career has taught me how to recognize and accept things that aren’t in my control. Right now there is nothing I can do to stop you.”

“This is true.”

The villain studied them, thumb brushing absently against the curve of their bottom lip.  The darkness of their eyes felt unfathomable, like the Marianas Trench. Like the deepest part of the ocean, full of wonder and terror.

“I am not going to kill you,” the villain said finally. “I owe you my life. And I always repay my debts. But you know my face.”

The medic swallowed thickly against the barrage of options that opened up. The villain could blind them, torture them into insanity, cut out their tongue. All of the above. The villain’s hand slips across their cheek to cup the back of the medic’s head. A possessive gesture, they noted with a shiver.

“You are coming with me. Whether it be conscious or unconscious, I leave up to your . . . control.”

Relief warred with new fear. “Where are you taking me?” they asked.  “What happens to me when we get there?”

“Questions I will happily answer in the car,” said the villain, their hand sliding down the medic’s 

neck before retreating. “Hand me your phone and your keys and then go pack your things. You have ten minutes.”

The medic stood rooted to the spot. This was real, this was happening. And it yet it still felt like a bad dream. Ten minutes to pack their life up? Ten minutes?

“Tick tock, darling,” crooned the villain, holding their hand out.

Numbly, the medic dropped their phone and keys into the villain's hand and took robotic steps towards their bedroom. Clothes were easy to grab and stuff into the suitcase. As were their birth certificate and other identity papers. Personal items, less so. Medic spent precious minutes at their bookshelf, picking a well thumbed classic from their childhood, their most referenced medical texts, and a novel they hadn’t started yet.

The pressure of time throbbed in the back of their head, making it difficult to think rationally about what they needed. They ducked into the bathroom, grabbing their contact case and solution, their toothbrush. Then they stood in the middle of their bedroom, frantically trying to think of what they couldn’t live without.

“Times up.”

The villain’s voice came from behind, causing the medic to jump out of their skin.

“Zip it up and let’s go.”

The villain’s car lay hidden in the shadows of the back alley. A dangerous looking driver waiting for them, their cigarette glow the only light. The villain opened the backseat of the car for Medic with a mocking flourish.

It was their last opportunity to run, but the medic knew a shot in the back waited for them if they tried it. So, dread sitting heavy in their stomach, they climbed in. The villain took the seat next to them, giving out curt orders to the driver in a language the medic didn’t recognize.

 The nagging horror that the medic forgot something important haunted them. They leaned their head against the window, mentally walking through their house, trying to remember. But the fear churning in their blood made it so difficult.

“I’m taking you to my compound,” said the villain, almost conversationally. As if detailing the itinerary for a date. “I have a room set up for you, as well as a med bay. You can resume your work taking care of my mercenaries.”

The medic listened with half an ear, watching the wave of street lamps pass them by. What were they missing?

“No objections to that?” the villain asked, bemused.

They passed a park, one the medic had many birthday parties in as a child, and the sudden zing of memory made them gasp.

“Stop! We have to go back!” they cried.

The driver didn’t so much as flinch.

“Go back?" The villain laughed. "Too late for that, doctor. You should have protested before you climbed into this car."

"I forgot something!"

"Whatever it is can be replaced," the villain said with a dismissive wave of their hand. 

"It's not replaceable. Please."

Desperation clawed at their throat but the villain remained unmoved.

"If it were so important, one would think it would be the first thing you packed, not the first thing you forgot. You will have to learn to live without it."

The medic closed their eyes the rest of the journey. They couldn't bear to look at Villain's face.

"Do you regret it?"

The villain sat upon the examination bed, looking almost innocent.

It had been a week since the medic was taken. Their life had changed so drastically that the normality of the med bay, of the tools they had spent years around, clanged like a discordant note. They threw themselves into their work, demanding physicals for the Villain's mercenaries to establish a baseline of health. These people, so used to sewing their own wounds, grew awkward around the medic’s soft and attentive care. Some refused to come. 

The villain showed up last, a new laceration on their ribs. They sat, spine straight and unflinching as medic carefully cleaned the wound and bandaged it. 

"Regret what?" the medic asked. 

" . . .Saving my life."

Their hands stilled for a moment, hovering over the wound. It was a tricky question and the medic wasn't sure how to answer it honestly. 

"I would have regretted the person that I'd become if I had let you die," they said finally. 

"Oh? Most people would consider it a net positive, preventing all my future damage."

"It's not up to me to decide who deserves to live and who doesn't."

"I beg to differ. You hold people's lives in your hands every day. Who else, if not you?"

The medic glanced up at the villain, who stared at them with open-faced fascination, rather than the usual dispassion. 

"I don't think any one person should have that power," they said pointedly. 

The villain smiled, a slow curving movement. "A pity. You could be terrifying indeed."

The medic swallowed something strange dancing in their gut. "You're lucky I'm not." 

"Indeed I am."

They finished the examination without further conversation. The villain watched with quiet fascination as the medic sterilized their tools, folded unused bandages away, updated the Villain's medical records. 

"What did you leave behind?" they asked softly. 

"My life," the medic said, tersely, as they tapped on the keyboard. 

The villain was undeterred. "What did you remember in the car?"

The medic paused at that, unsure if they should answer. They didn't want the villain's mockery over it. But lies rarely went over well with the villain -- the medic had cleaned up the wounds left behind from that. 

"A box under my bed," they replied, keeping their eyes locked on the computer. "It had my keepsakes in it. Family photos, birthday cards, that sort of thing."

"Sentiment," the villain said skeptically. "That's what got you so worked up?"

"I wouldn't expect someone like you to understand," they snapped, standing up. 

The villain watched them leave and the medic felt their gaze like a laser all the way down the hall. 

Two days later a painfully familiar box sat on the examination table. Scribbled in sharpie on the cardboard was a message: 

I do understand. 

[saorisgirl]

YANDERE SIMULATOR X SCHOOL GIRL SUPERVISOR SAORI SATO

(1/5)

cw: rape/none-con, age gap, mpreg

You play as Kaori Osaka. You are secret succubus and one of the last of your kind. You are also the president of the photography club. You have a mother saya Jin and an older sister ran ima. After killing the previous supervisor akane maki you hear that a new supervisor is coming to sayama all girls only highschool. At first you want to kill her but you realise you have fallen in love with her and your desire to rape her inflated

RIVALS

midori Lin: a shy girl. She is inlove with saori and is already her "girlfriend" little does she know that saori is actually using her. Saori does not want her to interact with anyone else. You, saori and Midori work at a strip club/brothel ran by Kaito yoshida. You can sneak a date-rape drug one of the guys/women's drinks he/she would rape Midori. Saori would later on breakup with her after that

Misa hinasaki: young and lovely extroverted girl she wants nothing but saoris attention. But Saori won't even bat an eye on her. Her best friend ran ima has a crush on her. You can match make them together.

Miku salami: another young girl. Is smart but pretends to be dumb. President of the otaku and fujoshi club. She and waiter's in club lub + (aka Kaitos bar). You can sneak date rape drugs on them which will result of multiple men hooking up with eachother and getting mpregnant. Miki is known to be a fujoshi so the school board would assume she did it on purpose. She'll be expelled after this

Kazuha shizuku: robot built by sayama highschool build with the task of helping new supervisors in mind. However shes falls in love with her master Saori Sato. She spends all of her time in dream village. You can make her malfunction and self-destruct

Kaito Yoshida: only male teacher in sayama. Naturaly he's quite popular with most students. But he only likes one girl. That's saori. Saori is Kaitos secret sugar baby. He also secertly hunts succubuses but doesn't know you are one. You can convince Kaito to go on a date with another man for money. He'll be drunk and hook up with set man getting mpregnant. He'll be fired after this

fukumi Ikeada: unlike everyone else. Fukumi has no romantic interest on saori. She has the opposite feelings. She HATES SAORI. She use to be Kaitos sugar baby until saori came to the picture. She has hated her since. She also a succubus secretly like you. She wants to torture and devour saori . You can get into fight with in the streets of dream village. Succubus Vs Succubus. Thus you'll kill her

Sensie Risa yuri: shes a return to form she also loves saori very dearly. Saori is her secret sugar baby. She's the hottest woman in school. Even hotter than the principle , legacy (whom is her mother). Risa has a dark secret. She is YOUR GRANDMA. When she was 15 she dated Kaito (20) . But one she got pregnant with Kaitos baby, saya Jin. She's also a secret werewolf and a part of a werewolf pack. She's quite strong because of this she's challenging. You can kill her at once

Principle legacy: she's a 68 year old woman whom despite her age has no plan on passing her mantle on someone else younger. She's also a werewolf like her daughter. She the strongest woman in the entire school. She's also constantly being surrounded by bodyguards. You can't kill her by yourself If that happens sayama highschool would be closed permanently. You make an uprising with students against her. Your reputation would increase lagerly after that

[redd956]

(@urlocalwhumper)

hey dawg thanks for feeding us living weapon whumpee enjoyers

i know that generally the vibe for living weapon whumpees is like the stoic "unfeeling" supersoldier type, but how are we feelin about living weapon whumpees that are like. off the shits feral.

more of an attack dog than a super soldier, weapons of mass destruction built into them cybernetically, because their masters aren't looking for efficiency, they're looking to send a message. for everyone around to know that if you don't bow to their rule, they'll send their monster to destroy you and everything you hold dear.

(and ofc the "monster" themself is kept in a constant state of suffering so they're always agitated and the pain clouds their mind too much to question what they're doing and why)

I love the way you think!

I never really thought of that character trope as a living weapon, but you aren't lying, it would count. (My brother and I's ocs would count then Ig) Also ties into monster whumpees :D

Here's some ideas I bounced off of this

Guard Dog Whumpee

CW: Pet Whump Sorta, Classic, the whump community should bring these up more

Whumper having more than one, forcing them to compete with one another. The most brutal earns their medical treatment.

Dangerous whumpees who have to be muzzled and mitted because whumper doesn't have them under control fully. Gentle carewhumpers being able to coerce whumpee into muzzles.

Non-guard dog whumpees equally trapped under whumper's boot being terrified of the guard dog. Sharing space with one is like sleeping on the shore of alligator infested rivers.

Scarred whumpees with dangerous animalistic features bared, backed into a corner with a tail in between their legs. Caretaker is trying their best to appear nonthreatening.

A guard dog whumpee failing its job. It showed no fear to its enemies, but the same cannot be said as they returned home.

Monster Living Weapon Whumpee

Say that three times fast

While rampaging after whumper's enemies whumpee broke the device keeping them confined to whumper. Quickly a symbol of destruction becomes a confused, hurt, and whimpering creature.

Whumpee always thought they were uniquely a monster. Whumper told them so everyday, rewarding them for their monstrousness, telling them they're alone as a creature of evil. Whumpee always thought this until they met caretaker.

Monster whumpees that despite being living weapons show rage in their failures, and pride in their kills. They don't see that whumper's treatment of them is subpar, because they're "partners in crime" of course. Caretaker would never treat whumpee that way if they were their weapon.

Killing Machine

They know what they're capable of, and they don't want to be that

Maybe they wanna do things their way, maybe they're ashamed of being a killing machine. Whumper could care less.

Killing machine in disguise has been living the everyday life, perhaps even an extravagant one. Whumper found them out, and no one has seen whumpee since, until the destruction started.

Killer Machine Villain -> Supervillain meets Villain with the promise to make them more powerful -> Extra Murderous Killer Machine Villain (Unstable)

Robotic whumpee that is just doing what they're told. Whumper was great, whumper was life. Robotic whumpee who sees whumper returning home with the newest model. Whumper who won't stop boasting about how much more efficient and deadly the new one is.

[mythrilpencil]

This is/will be technically a scene late in the longer novel that I am currently working on. So it’s technically spoilers, but the prompt fit way too well.

Word count: 1053

CW: allusions to genocidal war; brief suicide consideration

Rage Against the Void

———

Edge ran. Ran as far as he could, letting his feet take him down streets and pathways, through  markets and gardens. Anywhere, as long as it was away from that plaza.

Anywhere away from the memory of teleporting there.

He kept running, desperate to not think. Anytime he let his mind slip the sight of the void came back to his memory. A planet turned to rubble.

No. Don’t think. Can’t think.

Eventually Edge’s feet took him past any streets he’d been down before; his subconscious systems switched to constructing a new section of his mental map overlaying the diagrams he’d seen. But he didn’t care where they led him.

Soon he burst through an arch into yet another garden, finally letting himself slow down. This garden was fairly small, compared to the sprawling oases near the Precessional. But it was closer to the outskirts of the city; the closest buildings were smaller affairs, slightly more spread out than in the city core.

And it was empty. Edge was alone.

Except for the blasted voice in his head. <You seem to be processing several emotions at once. You’re radiating a lot of static. Would you care to—>

Something in Edge snapped. “SHUT UP!” he yelled. 

Edge perceived a blink. Sparkles, the constellation in the back of his mind, paused, then observed, <Now you are angry with me. Why?>

“Because you don’t get it! You can’t!”

<Your planet exploding?>

“No! You don’t—you don’t get it! Any of it!” Edge cut his arm through the air, lashing at nothing as grief exploded into fire in his core. “You knew my planet had exploded, and you didn’t tell me. You knew everyone is gone, and you didn’t tell me. You know why? Because you don’t. Care!” 

He stormed down a pathway in the middle of the garden, one that wove idly around trees and a small stream. He glared at the ground, then at the sky as he continued, “You said yourself that you don’t. You don’t feel anything! You can’t care! You can’t possibly get how it feels to have everything you knew, everyone that you cared about, taken from you! Because you can’t feel! You don’t even care that I hate you, do you?!”

<I admit it is perplexing. I will also admit it is disappointing to have lost that many data points. Your kind in particular seems to process emotions differently than other beings. Perhaps it is because of the structure of your souls.>

“You’re just proving my point! I’m just an experiment to you! A novelty!” Edge flung a fist at the sky. Not that it mattered which direction he flung it, as the void surrounded everything beyond the depths of the world around him. He was just an android raging against a god. Raging against the void. “You don’t care about me. So why do you haunt me?”

<You are my Study,> Sparkles said simply, its voice as lightly curious as ever. 

Edge scoffed, a bitter note choked out. “Study,” he echoed. “I am not a person to you, because you are not a person. You’re just a heartless, apathetic, NOTHING!” 

He shot a fist out again. This time through a metal sign sprouting from a fence post. The bang and the screech of bent metal joined the echo of Edge’s raging voice, bouncing off the trees and mocking the silence. Just like the world around him mocked his loss. Just like the warped metal mocked his existence.

Edge growled as he studied the broken sign, “You’re more of a robot than Kaiju was.”

<That entity that caused you enough bodily harm for you to teleport? I believe you once referred to it as a siege ‘droid?>

Edge let silence be his answer. The fire of rage had nearly burned through its reserves; now the dull throb from his overcharged core sent pulses of aches through every micro-fracture in his frame that he fought so hard to ignore. For the moment he made himself focus on the metal sign instead.

Destruction. That was all he was ever good at, wasn’t it? That was all his kind was ever good at. And now they’ve destroyed themselves for good. 

He started pulling at the warped edges, slowly bending them back into place. Or at least as close as he could get them. He’d never be able to fix it completely. Not in the way that Vidya or any of her friends could. 

Edge signed to himself, clutching the edge of the sign. Maybe he should hide himself. Or destroy himself. He’d probably end up doing it on accident some day anyways; might as well do it sooner, before any of those fragile humans could get hurt, before anyone on this planet got clever enough to try and reverse-engineer his systems and restart the cycle of destruction all over again.

<Don't do that. It would be very unfortunate to lose a Study. It’s very rare to find a mortal such as yourself that can affect my domain as strongly.>

“There you go again,” Edge muttered. He let go of the sign, leaving more of it warped in the shape of his grip. Lethargically he continued walking down the garden path, saying, “You don’t care about me as a person. You just want to study me and figure out how I tick. There’s no empathy behind that at all.”

<Empathy. That is something you have mentioned before. I do not understand. But I do wish to understand better. That is why I study mortals like yourself.>

As Edge walked up to a bench, Sparkles continued, <You are still radiating contradicting emotions in a pattern that I have seen resemblances of elsewhere, but do not understand. If you are willing, you could elaborate on it.>

Edge shook his head. The boiling in his frame was gone, taking all his energy to care with it. Rain started to fall, dotting the stones, flicking his armor and bouncing off his head. But he couldn’t care. He flung himself down on the too-short bench, then rested his head in his hands. “Leave me alone,” he moaned.

Sparkles went silent. The faint presence in the back of his mind, the distance awareness of its void, never left. But its voice went silent.

Leaving him to sit.

And stay.

Alone.

———

For this week’s prompt courtesy of @flashfictionfridayofficial!

Tagging: @jacqueswriteblrlibrary

[soulcccat]

CW: Body Horror, Lots of it. its all hidden under the read more. So be wary if that's not your thing. Welcome to the World of Total Drama Arms Race! Pt 3: The Legions of Hell:

From a Sundered world, full of despair, they came, filled with hate and envy. For a multiverse, teeming with human souls, ripe for the picking, they saw.

And a thousand worlds, now naught but ash, industrialized torture, and planet sized foundries for war, they conquered. They have sights on the world of Arms Race, and they will arrive. An unending tide of demonic horrors, hellbent on turning this world, the unknown last bastion of a dying branch of the multiverse. And the cast, were never aware of their presence. Why would they have to be? There were others to defend, most who will never know their faces. But they're not here, and now, The Cast of Total Drama must hastily forge one last defense. One last beacon of hope, in a endless ocean of despair. ~~~~~~~~~

First encountered when several were supposed to assassinate the 7, Heather the first unlucky near victim. They have set a pathfinding legion upon the AR world, ready to turn it into yet another Hell world, a world-spanning factory of horrors that grind souls as fodder for its hordes. There are many more, but for now, we shall explore the main demonic groups the AR cast encountered during "World Tour": Venial and Implings:

The grunts, the fodder, the most common menagerie of Demons. and the first. Most are nothing more than Meat robots or weak creatures, all formed from fragmented shards of souls sent to the grinder. Anfangs are loyal, modular, relentless, and most importantly, Simple-minded. The perfect soldiers for the others, and Implings to command and manipulate, and fight their battles. In the Legion's cunning, they have caught up with humanity's technology. They will butcher the average man, and still put enough of a fight for the early blessed. Be thankful they cannot achieve high level thinking without some of the stronger demons. Implings are scavengers, skirmishers. Absolute fodder. weak but smart, their patheticness is almost endearing, but they cannot be underestimated, they are still demons after all. Flocking to stronger demons and sites of debauchery, they feast on the remnants, and if enough appear, are haughty to fight even blessed and people alike. Demons often use them in horrific yet comedic ways, for they see the impling as vermin.

Abberations:

“sobbing. it has my face Linds, IT HAS MY FACE!!!! WHY DOES IT LOOK LIKE ME!?? continued sobbing” - Tyler post-fight with a Tyrant. The main forces of the Legion. They are bashed together, psychologically fractured bundles of souls implanted into horrifically agonizing bodies for some, and horrible mental storms for others. They fill everything from armor, to shock infantry, to air, to even naval and super heavy siege roles, these aberrations are the backbone of the Legions hellish military complex. And the worst part? They look familiar, too familiar. As if they mock the TD Cast from appearance, to personality, to even bonds. Perhaps its a reminding of their futile insignificance in the multiverse, or mockery. It works well enough to send even Eva into a horrified stare. Sometimes, many will retain intelligence, far greater than the rest. Tactics, strategies, a cunning display of brutality, laced within their ranting cries of war and softened teases of corruption. These Overmind-class abberations are high priority targets for good reason, lieutenants for their bosses. And a horrific truth for the Cast the moment they find out what exactly the Overminds are.

Archdemons:

Harbingers of a worlds destruction, they Lead the demonic forces across the planet they invade. Often representing a major subsection of one of the 7 deadly sins. they are powerful, mighty, arrogant Demons. if one is to end a invasion, they must Kill these and consign their swirling vortex of souls into the earths core. FAR Easier said than done. Archdemons are immensly powerful beings, ranging from city to even medium-sized Country scale destructive. The first one pictured here, Oykolos? The entire TD cast of Gen 1 was needed, for it would be Barely enough. The only reason the gang was able to win, was because this is a Archdemon of Sloth. Procrastination specifically. Had it been anything else, this world would've been lost. And yet, triumphantly as Oykolos fell under the 7's hand in a desperate push... there were More. Bigger, tougher demons, from all categories, from Venial to Archdemon. And the Court of the 7 headed Anathema, begun to notice.

This fight, that a bonded, war wearied yet defiant group of Gen 1 TD cast members? It is far from over. But fortunately, as the years pass. More would join their ranks soon after.

[swanno-arts]

👀 🤲 any details about your fallout au gamer

GRIPS YOUR SHOULDERS. can i talk about cygnus and formes' downfalls? can i talk about them being what they once HATED???

okay so this got WAY TOO LONG, I have to splice this into two so here's Cygnus' bit under the cut first!! I'll reblog this and add Formes' after!!

[CW mention of gun violence/injuries and suicide]

Cygnus and The Balancing Act SO, Cygnus! He's the sixth courier from the Mojave Express tasked to deliver packages to Mr. House. Only he has the actual package, the Platinum Chip and because of that he got fucked over by Benny and his gang and was almost left for dead. Thankfully Doc Mitchell saved him even though he has to live with losing one eye and a dreadful amnesia.

Cygnus goes on a wild goose chase to retrieve the package he lost and ends up later in New Vegas. Though he HATED New Vegas as someone who had to survive the hard way and see people die just trying to live while these people are getting high off their asses gambling everything the have. Meeting Mr. House did not make anything better. Distraught and overwhelmed, he told Swanno and Axon (his companions, Swan once being a thief in Primm and Axon being Courier Two) that he'd need some time alone to walk off the stress and that he'll deal with Benny when he's in the right mind to talk things through.

Though, on his lonesome, Cygnus just ends up stumbling into MORE problems. Such as having his entire spine, heart and brain swapped with cybernetics in Old World Blues (though he did get a cool new cybernetic robot eye just because one of the Think Tank guys didn't like an empty face hole?). Got in an entire argument with his own brain and decided to LEAVE it. He's growing more and more distraught and exhausted. My GOD he just want to get this all over with.

THEN, the big kicker, Lonesome Road. Cygnus stumbled into the Divide, and although the place seemed familiar to him, his amnesia just couldn't pin it down. Though, you can IMAGINE the amount of emotions going on in him when he learned that the entire destruction and the creation of the Divide was HIS FAULT. He gave birth to its community, he kept the community alive and YET, it was also him to bring it to its demise. He caused so much hell and he WALKED FREE AWAY FROM IT. Cygnus grew so distraught that he couldn't convince Ulysses to not fire the missile without going down in a fight. As if killing a fellow courier wasn't enough, having to see ED-E sacrifice itself to stop the missile just broke him entirely. He fled the Divide a changed man completely. With the Old Glory in his hands, he decided he'll right the wrongs.

Cygnus returned to New Vegas and stormed into The Tops. Getting access to Benny's room, he waited before he ambushed the poor guy and starts to beat him up senselessly. When Benny begged for mercy, Cygnus shot him twice, on the forehead and on the eye. Snatching the Platinum Chip (and one fun little encounter with Yes Man) he returned to House, demanding his pay (curse his People Pleaser perk, he can't bargain beyond 1000 caps). When House elaborates his plan with the chip, Cygnus simply did as told as he later activated the Securitons (and maybe fuck over Caesar while he's at it). Returning to New Vegas however, he betrays both Yes Man and House, killing House with the strike of the Old Glory. Manipulating his cybernetics, he gains control to House' systems and uses it to control his securitrons in the Battle of Hoover Dam. New Vegas, now independent... sike! Manipulating his cybernetics even more, Cygnus literally wires himself into the system ala House, taking over completely. He enacts what he calls The Balancing Act, a rule for all of New Vegas and the Mojave that EVERYONE is going to live an equal life. There won't be a poor nor a rich, SOMEHOW, everyone has to be in the middle grounds of it. He though YEAH that'll fix everything and everyone's gonna live happily ever after!

Except, no, it can't work that way. The act was so vague and this imaginary middle ground is even vaguer. The Balancing Act was a complete failure and people were MAD about it, but Cygnus... ahem, Mr. Six, had grown oblivious about it while he played dictator and House Part 2. The more people protest or slightly go off the balance, Six would sic a bot on them. Swanno and Axon got wind to the whole crap and when they learned it was CYGNUS that's behind all this, oh boy what the HELL and HOW THE THE HELL did that happened. They tried confronting him once, and Six was kind enough to offer them to stay in the Lucky 38 for several months because hey we're friends and I love you both dearly wanna be my second and third in commands? No? After everything I did for you two? Get out. They both got booted out and oh boy this cannot go on. So both Swanno and Axon planned to confront Six once more.

Axon created a rouse to distract the securitrons while Swanno sneaks his way back into the Lucky 38. Fucking around with the terminals, he finally gained access to where Six was expecting him. Six will threaten Swanno to back out, saying it was for her own good. After debates of the Balancing Act's failure and lots of emotional hell, Six decided that if Swanno won't listen, she can just try to kill him if that's what she wanted so badly. From here, there would be several options.

First Bad End, Swanno chooses to attack Six, initiating a fight. Swanno kills Six and severed his connection to the system, bringing New Vegas and the Mojave back to independence. ... Though, with Six dead, so was Cygnus.

Second Bad End, Swanno tries to reason with Six but failed to pass the needed checks. This will end up with a fight that would also end in Six's death.

Through difficult checks, Swanno manages to reason with Six and convince him to see what he had brought upon. Seeing the reality of the Act, Cygnus snaps back and drops the Six facade. Falling back, he broke into a break down, completely distraught that he was (once again) bringing destruction, this time by his own choice. Swanno attempts to comfort him, but Cygnus insisted that she shouldn't be near him as he tries to sever himself off the system - tripping the security systems as it registered himself being attacked. After disarming the security (through combat), Cygnus finally severs himself off the system, cutting off his control over the securitrons. Swanno attempts to comfort Cygnus once more as he broke down into a sob. Cygnus mentions that what he had done cannot be fixed and he should pay for what he had done. There was no righting his wrongs anymore. Again, Swanno would be given several options to end Cygnus' dilemma.

Third Bad End, either by allowing him or failing to convince him otherwise, Cygnus would commit suicide, claiming death was the only way he could repay everything he had done (referring to not only The Balancing Act, but to the Divide as well).

The Good End, Swanno convinces Cygnus not to take his own life. Instead, he tells him that if he really wanted to disconnect himself to his deeds he could leave (read: exile himself from) the Mojave altogether. Cygnus takes the suggestion but tells Swanno that he'll be going alone, unable to bear the possibility of hurting them again. Swanno refuses and insist that she and Axon would travel with him. Cygnus finally relents and the three of them would make their escape out of New Vegas and the Mojave completely. (Who runs New Vegas now? Who knows, maybe Yes Man came around lol)

The three would end up as wanderers in the greater wastelands with no real destination in mind. Cygnus still finds it hard to disconnect himself from what happened... but he's trying. Really hard.

On their mile long journey across what's left of America... they encounter a peculiar man with his Mr. Handy companion... and a strange feeling of an always lurking gaze.

[daringdoombringer]

“Maybe in another universe my life isn’t a setup by the person I look up to most.”

“ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME.”

Trope/character rant incoming! CW: STUFF ABOUT DEREALIZATION

i havent watched TOH but from loads of fan content ive seen i know Hunter Wittbane and Mack Hartford follow the same trope: being told their entire lives were lies by their parental figure, and they were in fact created artificially for a greater purpose. Hunter for destruction, Mack for loneliness cause his “dad” really *really* wanted a son? Idrk yet, i really need to rewatch Overdrive. I do remember Mack’s dad being a much better dad than Belos, and that Mack was created with good intentions. (fuck Emperor Belos all my homies hate Belos)

The only thing I vividly remember from watching Operation Overdrive was when Mack was revealed to be a robot, programmed with memories and tricked into believing he was always human. Being told his super strength and endurance were simply genetic superpowers. That there was nothing to question and everything was fine.

He was lied to. His whole life. His EXISTENCE was an elaborate lie.

Do you realize how screwed up that is?? The thought of your life and the reason you are alive and breathing is a cover up for something greater. If you can even breathe in the first place! That you were artificially created by someone/something else? That youve never truly been in control of *anything?*

That youre really just someone’s ELABORATE ART PROJECT???? THAT YOUR ENTIRE LIFE IS FAKE?!?! DO YOU SEE WHAT IM GETTING AT HERE? After you find out, then what? What else is a lie? Are your friends lying to you? Your thoughts and body were never truly yours. You’re not in control. Only the person you now have to call “creator.” Is there anything you can call your own? Are you real? Is anything else real? Were you EVER real?

What’s the point?

What’s the point of anything when your existence was a ruse from the very start?

What if it weren’t for Power Ranger’s infamously bad acting? What Mack had reacted realistically? If he did it likely wouldn’t have been pretty. Idk about y’all but I think he deserved to snap. Just for a moment. As a little treat.

He was programmed to think he was just a kinda weird human, surely that’s what he is? He’s alive, right? And robots never go against their programming, right?

What if he runs off in a blind rage, feeling utterly betrayed by his mentor and fellow Rangers? What is he supposed to do? How is he even comprehending this? How is he doing this? Can robots do that?! Robots can’t act, only think! Only thinking with the preprogrammed thoughts and information that were deliberately given to them! His thoughts aren’t his! His life never belonged to him in the first place! No wonder he never felt like he belonged among the other Rangers! He was never a real person like they are!

Mack’s now in a paranoid frenzy debating everything he’s ever known. His life, his personality, his memories are artificial. HE is artificial. He doesn’t know what or who to trust anymore. He’s never had a life to call his own because it never happened! Now desperately looking for something to call his own, something he KNOWS ISNT FAKE. Something that isn’t a lie like he is.

What if one of the bad guys finds him in this state?

I mean, having a now distressed and enraged but ridiculously powerful robot on your side wouldn’t be too bad, would it? And those pesky Rangers would be without their leader…

What if Tyzzon steps up in Mack’s absence, determined to find him and have the team be whole again? Mack and the Rangers saved him, now it’s time for him to return the favor. From one nonhuman to another. Mack is the only friend Tyzzon’s had, after all. They can’t afford to loose him. Not now. Not when the world is under attack. Not ever.

But ofc something like THAT would be much too brave for Power Rangers. A Pangender person can dream. Oh wait I just wrote down the plot to one heck of an alternative universe fanfiction… damn. I was just going off what little I remembered from the show lol

BUT WAIT. THERES MORE.

When I was at GalaxyCon this weekend, I found Derrick Cameron. (actor who played Tyzzon, the Mercury Ranger.) I brought up the Mack being a robot thing to him, and he said the cast wasn’t informed of it at all.

SO NOT EVEN THE ACTORS KNEW UP UNTIL IT CAME TIME TO FILM THE EPISODE. OH MY GOD.

So yeah this post WAS about a general trope but I kinda got sidetracked lol. Anything in fiction involving robots/machines/AI debating their existences, learning how to be human, any symbolism involving them, GOD.

THAT SHIT FUCKS. ME. UP.

✨thank you for witnessing my unhinged rant✨

[odysseywritings]

Don't Think, Shoot

(Prev)

(cw for violence and sexual themes)

Z6C5 readied himself for the next mission. He received word from superiors that the cephalopod warship from Universe 982 broke through nearby defenses. Needing extra firepower, he flew to a spherical station, where he could pick and choose which parts to remove in favor of new ones.

The amount of choices hurt his brain. Z6C5 was bred to kill, not to think. He instead asked for help.

"Ada."

A screen turned on to show a smiling face looking at Z6C5 from his right side.

"I'm going to be fighting something big soon. With a lot of tentacles. Show me the best weapons."

The AI discussed a list of possible weapons and gadgets with unlimited freedom to choose. EMP grenades, flame whips, nuclear gauntlets, and others were readily available. All the while he recolored his Mecha with a red helmet, a white chassis, and blue limbs as he added gold designs to his tools. He was now ready to fight.

The long travel was broken up by the AI's music, procedurally generated to add bombast and glory to energize the warrior. It was a robot's job to think, but a man's job to act on will, and he wouldn't have it any other way.

There in the distance Z6C5 saw a mess of more Mecha blasting a flurry of lasers and bombs at each other as he gunned down and slashed anything in his path. With the peripheral fighting in the distance, he locked on to the planet sized behemoth, with its hundreds of tentacles shooting blue pyramids of energy.

Z6C5 evaded each onslaught as wave upon wave of bullets trailed his movements no matter if he went up or down or diagonal. His shoulder mounted javelin missiles shot back at the enemy's muzzles as they withered into smoky heaps as more relentless bullets grazed his armor. Seeing his comrades die as they approached the warship only fueled his desire to win as he jetted straight on only drifting to avoid bullets and tentacles targeting him as a warrior's spirit drove him headlong into the heart of the machine.

He crashed inside and saw countless people on walkways working with computers and, with little hesitation, bombed them to ensure no one could continue this fight. Quick merciful deaths as the destruction spiraled into a series of radioactive fire that incinerated others throughout his speedy wipeout of the cephalopod's insides.

With his enemy weakened, Z6C5 popped outside and focused his attention on every limb and the hull, all sagging in weakness about to kneel in defeat. The AI pinpointed multiple parts on the defeated ship as a slew of rockets bombarded it into a beautiful supernova of waving vibrant reds and yellows like fireworks. He sat back relieved and content at his action, cheered on by the voices of surviving comrades who commended him on his victory, and he celebrated by ordering his AI to provide any kind of stimulation he detailed. The AI took bits and pieces across other Mecha to provide pictures of beautiful women praising him as his Mecha gave physical support. Following this was a selection of video feeds of humorous reactions and patriotic messages to continue fighting for his universe that were directed into his brain to motivate him in case of a lull in activity.

Z6C5 finished with his mind back on track, with banal retirement being long into the future and meaningless tool awaiting him if he delisted, and newer missions were plentiful in this sleek Valhalla of the future.