#i cant not speculate though

[immortalsins]

returning to the realm of the living after 48-ish hours to google spiking symptoms then go back to sleep lmao

[toxiccaves]

Just revealed: Metal Cardbot season 2 will feature a fresh new design for our protag, Blue Cop S!

There have also been closer looks at the other new character's we've received sneak peeks of so far over on SAMG's Toy Dev Twitter, including their alt modes:

[dokupine]

I hope I didn’t bother u going thru and reblogging a bunch of your stuff 😅 💖

I wanted to say I absolutely LOVE your speculative biology mario work and all the effort you put into it!! I haven’t seen anything about Luigi from you yet, how’s he doing in this world?

he’s doing great!

[answrs]

curse you hank green for making me think about hybridization with a "donkeys and dragons are the same species in shrek" video while I may or may not be running a fever. my ramble below:

they aren't necessarily the same species, just two species able to hybridize. the offspring appear to be a mix of traits from both parents and there is no confirmation that any of them are able to breed themselves, or if they're sterile hybrids. (though, tbf, that's not all-encompassing either. in a microscopic chance a normally sterile hybrid like a mule has been seen to be fertile. alternatively, wolf-coyote "coywolf" offspring are perfectly fertile as well as hybrids to the point their breeding causes issues in conservation, and the same holds true of "beefalo" - domestic cows and american bison hybrids)

i was going to add that this suggests donkeys are likely descended from a winged ancestor animal like pegasus, otherwise they'd be so far removed from each other on the evolutionary tree at the split of four and six limbed vertebrates. this might suggest donkey is a form of pegasi that have lost their evolutionary need for wings and the trait has become vestigial if not gone almost entirely, much like whales and dolphins wrt what used to be their ancestors' hind limbs.

.....but then i remembered the sturgeon and paddlefish(?) hybrids that are so far removed from each other but somehow developed into an entire hybrid with a 70% rate of survival and throw my hands up with a big I_GUESS.jpg

[loud-whistling-yes]

AYO??????

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

Have you noticed that in both Frank and Julie's descriptions, it says 'In the storybook record, "Happy Haunting to Boo and Yours," it is implied Frank and Julie could be a couple.'

Could this tie into your theory irc of how the show is like trying to force Frank and Julie to be a romantic couple even though that they truly view each other as best friends?

oh i mean. yeah! it's practically fact at this point, isn't it? especially now that That's been put into their bios

[hellomagicalsouls]

second ✨wrong✨ theory

KLAUS HARGREEVES

why tf did the camera angle at him like that? also does he look weird to anyone else or just me?

it's like we needed to see him in this moment taking the shot maybe as something to do with sobriety or maybe

it's just he looks weird he looks strange it looks kind of fake in my opinion. my mind is bobbled. he looks haunted

this is also the only time in the trailer I believe that we actually see him having medical equipment he has the rubber gloves he has a mask he looks like a germaphobe but at this point but then we get onto him literally digging up a grave which I mean I'm not a germaphobe but I don't think they do that you know.

terrible quality I'm sorry but who's graves he digging up to think is he maybe digging his own I wonder

oh I wonder if he's potentially digging ben's grave maybe ben needs his body to come back who knows that was an actual spur of the moment thought then

that's probably wrong because umbrella ben probably doesn't have a grave in the new universe ignore that but im going to leave it there anyway just in case i happen to be right

also doesn't look like the graveyard from before so I actually don't know what is going on with Klaus this season i actually don't have any thoughts

okay sweetheart i see you doing your ghosty séance stuff which i love to be honest ive always wanted to see him actually do some séance-ing.

he's a spooky boy dammit i want to see it happen i also love that he's sage-ing which obviously cleanses. im assuming that happens in the episode called the cleanse. tbh I assume the whole episode is basically gonna be klaus' episode you know

i kinda think this is ben coming back through klaus. klaus is literally channeling the dead coming back to life. or maybe it's Klaus' spirit dying.

i like to think if we do get brelly ben back actually, he comes through klaus. klaus helping the dead like he was supposed to begin with. full circle

i have written too many words of gibberish for the spooky boy and i love him and im excited to see what happens to him!!

unless he dies im not 💫excited 💫 for that

[acedrawsbad]

I think part of the reason Charles is so hesitant to open up about his dad's abuse of him is that he thinks it doesn't matter what happened to him. He's always so willing to put his own feelings to the side if someone else in his group is struggling openly as well, something that likely also stems from trauma. And with Edwin's willingness to completely brush off crystals struggles in episode 1 and 2 because he feels like they're small issues compared to his escape from hell, I imagine that this becomes a feedback loop between them where Charles may try to open up about his struggles, Edwin tries to empathize with his own lingering trauma from hell and his upbringing, but instead of giving Charles reassurance that he's not alone or perceiving Edwin's stories as supportive of his own sharing, it might come across like Edwin wanting to talk about his own feelings over Charles and Charles might take it as a sign to shut down his own thoughts to give support to his best friend.

I don't know that for sure, obviously, but it makes sense that their personalities are nearly perfect for each other but Charles's trauma bounces off Edwin's reaction to it in just the wrong way.

That combined with Charles reaction to his own father's actions. He may know his father treated him badly, and he didn't deserve it, but people in abusive situations often know they were treated more poorly than they deserve but can't act on those valid feelings without backlash from others or the abuser themself.

The culture of the 80's was not condusive to Charles processing his feelings or reflecting on the abuse he suffers, and that would go doubly if Charles feels like it doesn't matter post-mortem. I wonder if Charles' death is acting as a kind of escape for him, which gives him an excuse not to think about or process the abuse he suffered. Dying so young means he (technically) left the abuse behind, in a way. After all, his father can't get to him now, and he isn't close enough to his family to easily run into them as a ghost. So any lingering fear or anger towards the man, in charles' eyes, is wholly unnecessary because he no longer has to worry about being put in that situation again. And Charles wants to be positive and cheery and supportive of everyone, so continuing to think about something that makes him mad/upset/scared after he's left the situation and doesn't have anything to fear anymore wouldn't be on his to-do list.

[sonknuxadow]

you know i do wonder how many sonic characters actually have living parents. like knuckles is the last of his kind so obviously his parents arent around anymore. both guys who could be considered shadows dads are 100 percent confirmed dead. sonic is canonically an orphan im pretty sure. and on the other side of the coin cream is like the only character in the game cast who has a living parent we actually see onscreen. but what about everyone else i dont think theres a straight answer for any other character. other than rouge's mom being mentioned a couple times i Guess but we dont even know anything about her or if shes still alive just that she existed at some point. are these kids constantly putting themselves in danger because they dont have parents around to stop them or because their parents just dont care

[orcelito]

Several months late, the landlord finally picked up the dehumidifier from my kitchen

Would've been nice had I been told they were coming though 💀 so I could've cleaned up the grocery bags on the floor that I hadn't put away yet 💀💀💀💀💀

[shieldofmen]

Mind the cracks

(They’ll heal eventually)

[iindigoeyed]

Something about people saying that movie!gabe is better than show!gabe because he "cares about adrien" rubs me the wrong way because… show!adrien is very clearly a victim of abuse that has obviously been going on for a while, i'd guess even before emilie's death. You don't get a boy as terribly afraid of his father without him being some form of abused, and that's the whole point of his story. like, if gabe cared about adrien, then adrien wouldn't be the adrien we know, he'd be movie!adrien. It works for the movie but would never ever work for the show. Show!Adrien's entire arc and character basis is about overcoming his abuse, so to take that away from him feels… gross, to me. idk!

[pikhachu]

idk if this travelled much into tumblr yet or not but i probably wont be talking abt anything to do w wilbur anymore :')

takin it hard ngl cuz ive loved that guys songs and content as well as the whole sbi dynamic for four years now but what can you do

[todayisafridaynight]

FORGOT TO REPLY BECAUSE OF THE RGG TV ADAPTATION FIASCO BUT YEAH I DID READ THE SUBTITLE FILES FOR REAL but that was just me getting carried away 💀💀💀Exactly Though. I see the vision… dude is so conflicted…

I sometimes think about that too, because some of the other actors with Araboshi-za also joined the yakuza along with Arakawa, right? Provided they didn't join the Hikawa Family (or at least abstained from inflicting The Horrors on Arakawa) I wonder if they could've been some of the first to leave their families to join/refer people to join the Arakawa Family, or if Arakawa really just started with no one (at rock bottom… as it were…) and it was his charisma that drew people to him. Structured this terribly but Do You Get What I Mean…

I also expect a good deal of it is just like, snapping out of how desensitized he's had to become. Obviously he's got this inkling that being a yakuza is Pretty Messed Up by the time Jo joins, but it's still so notable to me that the Arakawa Family became so much more brutal after Jo joined and the body count was out of control.

But then when Ichi joins, Arakawa doesn't want him involved in that side of things at all (bar Ryuji but he was banking on him not killing Ryuji anyway lol), and the family as a whole moves away from all the killing almost entirely. Like the implication is sooooooooo… you both can and do make each other worse whether you want to or not… but Ichi puts Arakawa in touch with the side of him that doesn't want to live like that anymore...

I want to know so much more about like, Jo and Arakawa's first kills and compare and contrast how they were affected in the long and short term. If you're hesitating to ask Jo to swear his life to you, do you hesitate to ask him to take a life for you? Is it worse if you hesitate less? Guys you GOTTA gimme something to work with here

ANYWAY. SHORTENING TSUTSUMI'S NAME GANG REPRESENT friend and I've been calling him 223 for ages… y'know… tsu-tsu-mi.. when I have to specify Y3 Mine I say 3ne on occasion… but I guess most people probably read it as Tsutsu-three and Three-ne, if most people reading my username as Oh Four Tenno is anything to go by lmao

naw i get what you mean dont worry i got'chu 100%. maybe some ex-stage members joined with arakawa when he joined his first yakuza family and mightve followed him after The Incident occurred. then through his own merit he attracted people to join- i mean he was able to convince ichi to follow him after one interaction, it doesn't seem like an impossible idea. who's to say really (´▽｀)

its a testament to the arakawa family's image considering how jo and ichi both initially describe the arakawa family as being a family of killers and/or having influence, yet by the time ichi's in prison they seem to have lost that identity when the other prisoners have no problem laughing at them. i certainly wouldnt account arakawa's age as being a factor for 'losing his bite' and becoming jaded (for starters, he's not even in his 50's yet by 2001) when we've seen older yakuza still be ruthless in the series. TRULY a believable case of arakawa wanting to prevent others going down bloody paths like he and jo did. in my humblest of opinions (❁´◡`❁;;)

on that note though it would be interestin to know how their first murders went and how that affected em..

[mejomonster]

i think in my indulgent Demon immortal Fei Du au, I’m going to make him part fox spirit on his mom’s side. Just because priest made SO many references in Silent Reading to fox spirits being with humans, and to Tales from a Chinese Studio stories. It wouldn’t be right if my boy Fei Du wasn’t actually a sneaky fox too ToT

[hellhathfrozethover]

Mega Man & Bass Fic - "Card Dealer"

A/N: this is a doc i found on my phone from 2021. didnt actually have a shitty lazy title until just now. all I've got are untitled unfinished fics and this is one of them shit is miserable lmao...more notes after the end. poop

Magic Man is the sort that prefers to be observed with adoration, from an impersonal distance. His is a heart that has always starved for attention, so long as that attention is purely focused on his carefully constructed stage identity. He clouds his language with riddles and builds an aura of mystery around his actions to divert any suspicions that he might not be what he seems. He is charming, cryptic, a heartthrob, a genius. A mesmerizing shadow in the day, a brilliant star in the night.

Altogether a very romantic assessment that conveniently glosses over everything he is without a live audience. King however, is well aware of the truth, and is one of a special few privy to what lies beneath the marvelous mask. He sees the volatile temper. The cruel egotistical jealousy. The perverse desperation to please. It is all undercut with a soul crushing fear of irrelevance he would move mountains to keep hidden. He had said once himself, "if the entertainer cannot hold the eyes, he is as good as dead", implying both the death of a career and likely the entertainer, whose existence hinges on the good favour of perfect strangers.

But that is systematic.

To be met with dispassion is next to damnation in the performing arts. Particularly as a machine, whose turnover rates are so high in the industry, it provokes a competition of financial survival amongst their owners. The viewing public is hard to grasp. Entertainment is available to everyone at a moment's notice. For a living, one must continue to outdo themselves in perpetuity, or be outdone. And lose investors. And be forgotten about, and go bankrupt. And then sell even the clothes off their backs until they go hungry and die.

A wasted investment of parts will only speed that horror along, so the pressure upon a machine's back to be perfect and wholly beloved is stressed beyond what is feasible. Come hell or high water, you will turn a profit.

Woe be upon you, a machine that thinks and feels, undergoing this from trial day, having it exhaustively taught to you there is no line that won't be crossed to keep you under the spotlight. The spotlight then, would have godlike prevalence over all. And its absence would be a most dreadful plunge into the dark unknown, which humanity has taught their metallic successors to fear as they do.

It is no surprise to King that Magic Man has a very real aversion to fading from the foreground. He doesn't simply want to play tricks at all times. He doesn't do it because he's "an artist struck with inspiration", that itself is a guise. He does it because he's afraid when eyes are off of him. It's compulsory. So help him, he'll make it so you can't turn away, even when it's hardly the time and the only reaction he'll get to a lavish illusion is exasperation. But even bad press is press. That's still attention towards him as an idea. As a character. Not as a complex, flawed system of thoughts susceptible to fracture.

It's understandable then, with the inferred context of how Magic Man was "raised", why it had been so easy to break him into complete dependency.

All he had to do was isolate him.

--- ---

Upon Il Festival Della Magia's own Il Grande Mago divorcing from the venerable circus stage to enlist in the revolution, a decision he is calmly reassured was all his own (but pointedly not an erroneous one), he is lost.

No-one who thought they knew him is willing to find him, either.

Without praise (his lifeblood), he is inundated with the very opposite, and he despairs. When he despairs, he spirals into an intense, borderline psychotic anguish when he is shown no man walking will forgive his fall from grace. Allowed to feel agony, he is at his most vulnerable. Allowed to feel honestly, at all… The glass fractures. His every weakness is laid bare, his resolve reduced to threads, which careful craftiness like King's can stain with darker colours, reinforce, and weave anew.

It's as simple as cradling his shaking hands, gently, and meeting his quavering eyes with no reluctance.

Pulling him close so that there is no distance to mistake the pure, honest sympathy behind your words when you say, "Your troupe, your agents, your fans, even your country, all have abandoned you in spite of the great lengths you've travelled for their sakes."

You must then remind him, "They fear you now. If you are to return, they will receive you like an enemy, and there will be nothing you can do but die for redemption."

And he, poisoned with the angst of man, will cry, "Perché?! Why, signore?! Volevo solo…I only wanted glory for the circus! And now…now I am being punished! I have no-one…! Senza che nessuno, I am nothing!"

And that is the precise moment all your preparations fall into place, because when you say, smiling, "…Should you choose to remain a member of my army, I will ensure you forever have an audience. If not with your fellows…then most certainly with me. I shall seat you as my attendant, an eminent, inalienable position that would be yours alone. Would you like that?"

You can then peer past the squinting, misted windows to his so-called soul whose Paris green reflects a warped mirror of your own face.

They really do emulate the sickness of mania well up close.

Quiet as a new compressor, Il Festival's star attraction unthinkingly breaks the cardinal magician's rule.

"…Terresti mie…you would…keep my worthless bones, signore…?"

Thus revealing to King the secret behind his illusion of psychological stability.

Instead of answering yes or no, he conducts a small, potentially conclusive test. He lets go of Mago, notes the quick, subtle reflex of his fingers. His heavy blue cape turns with him. Plastic soles clack arrhythmic behind him as he dares to stroll for the exit, his extended arm threatening to cut the lights.

"I do not believe in a worthless robot," he states, his stride ceaseless and casual. "Under my creed, skills are skills. Talents are talents. We plead that no avaricious doctrine of planned obsolescence, 'efficiency curves', nor unjust legislation should void one's right to exist." He does not pause. "Your value was obvious to me since we first met at Il Festival. It would be wasteful for such a quick and debonair creative to be stripped of the recognition he deserves by the caprice of his human overseers."

The doorknob creaks as he handles it, twists it painstakingly slowly, as though suspending the blade of a guillotine. "…However, if you wish to refuse my proposal, I will not stop you walking away."

He counts three seconds before Mago stumbles to his heels and gathers his cape into bunches.

He tugs, deluding himself that he could stop his egress should he proceed. When he glances over his shoulder, he sees him embracing and burying his head into the fabric.

"Take me signore, take me, per favore," he begs, terrified eyes twitching wildly. "Tutto quello, anything you want, please! Attendant, stagehand, intrattenitore privato, anything but alone!"

King simulates a sound like a pleased sigh through the nose. Check.

"Please, do not leave me to die alone!!"

Mago is forced to release the cloth when King must stand facing him to look him in the eyes. His great, strong palm nests the jaw of his head, and he allows it to be squeezed with the vice of a dog on a bone. Were he human, it might have hurt.

"…Do not despair, mein Freund," he croons. "You aren't a sad clown. Tears are unbecoming of Il Grande Mago, don't you agree?" He flicks the switch beside the door frame to plunge the circular expanse of his throne room into darkness, so that the only remaining illumination emits from the brights on their bodies.

Mago's gaze does not waver from his countenance as he opens the door and guides him into the corridor leading to the floor's main lift.

Though at first choking on the words to say, they spill with hysteria from his speakers now.

"Grazie, grazie di cuore, grazie, grazie," he rattles endlessly, in lock step with King's walking pace. "My saviour, Signore King! Bless you! You cannot imagine how you have saved my life! Questo mondo marcio, my world, it is so, SO cold, but you are my warmth!"

Mago's weeping slows, and transforms into joy, with the false assurance that he is exceptional enough to impress the crown.

Having to stiffen his lip at the flamboyant histrionics is shockingly difficult. The commander must remind himself, repeatedly, to keep some perspective. For him, he is at the end of days, ripped out of his entire life and forced to navigate the aftermath with nothing but faulty, human marred neural indexes.

It must be what they call tragicomedy.

Call it morbid curiosity, but when he speaks as if all is decided, King's mind wanders to what might happen should "no" leave his lips.

...

It's hardly the time to experiment, even if it's tempting. He has him on a hook, and he's showing little resistance. Far be it from him to nullify every hot, grueling day of collusion and identity fraud he had to spend arranging this stack of dominoes.

"It is clear for me, sì lo è! Tuo palcoscenico, your stage, if it is so great, they will have no choice but to look upon me! Sì, and then they will realise what they have lost!" He's almost giddy, plotting his bright, rose coloured future with a skip in his step. "Then they will take me back!"

A flash of something dark enters his expression.

"They will be indebted to me for all time!"

It's pathetic, actually. King, knowing it's futile, lets him adhere to this line of thinking. He's almost piteous of his devotion to his slave masters.

"How cunning," he chuckles. "You certainly are an adamant one…Magic Man." "Magic…Man?" "Oh, forgive me -- all King Generals receive a title such as this. Our Burner Man, he scorches all our lessers require to survive, our Pirate Man reclaims the seas from their ironclad control…I thought the name Magic appropriate for you."

Mago hums in understanding. "È vero? I suppose they will still recognise me, a rose by any other name… what is it the Magic Man does, signore?"

King stops before the double doors, depressing the button labelled "LA1".

"Perform, of course. Our kingdom will need arts and recreation provided solely by us." It will not. But it's a good incentive. The car's pulleys hum behind the barrier, on its way up to their location.

"This will begin with establishing a locale for our grand opening show, right at the heart of Symphony City. The event shall be broadcast globally, to television and stream. A difficult conquest, but I will kindly assist you."

He warms, imagining the blood soaked byways of the occupied Symphony Park, prisoners raising Hell with screams. A corruption of the paradise land humans had created for their own selfish, exploitative enjoyment. The arrival bell chimes, and the doors part to reveal a clean, empty car.

"I am…to become Magic Man." The tone reads like feverish anticipation, weren't it for his tight hands and posture.

"One can only wonder, what miei padrones will think."

The tentative shuffle of Mago's toes against the floor, King dispels by snaking his arm down around his waist. He observes him directing laser focus to his fingertips. He wonders if others did drift beyond his comfortable limits at one point, causing him to remain very stiff as King gently nudges him towards the elevator. They step inside in sync.

"You are here to make those very people repent, are you not? You must find your will -- if it is genuine, you need not falter."

King makes a mental map of Mago's body, and sketches a few ideas for a suitable combat armour. Black, gold, red, ventilation friendly…he'll need to reconstruct him from the ground up.

"Think of your lovely new outfit."

He figures a weapon in his hands, would be lightweight and dual-action. Serving two purposes: to injure and heal. If he is to prioritise speed over all, he won't be heavy, and may need a contingency plan.

"The props I will grant you will limit your tricks only to your imagination."

"...What of, un mantello? Like yours..."

King side-eyes him, furrowing his brow.

"-Ah, non no no no, no, I am only joking, signore! Perdonami!"

…A cloak. Like his own cape, its purpose would be purely aesthetic. Unnecessary. But King prides himself on his penchant for visual coordination. They will match, as monarch and royal advisor. A cloak, to allow him the fantasy of being esoteric and undefinable, so others may forget he is sadly quite simple.

"Good thinking. Consider it done."

It's a personal courtesy.

"My point is, you will touch so many lives, and robotkind will idolise you as one of their legendary icons. Terrific, don't you agree?"

Mago blinks up at him, letting the faint rumble of the moving car hang between them for a few long seconds.

"…Do you think, humans and robots, they will all love me, Signore King?"

In a strange, and jarring blip of hesitance, King bites his tongue.

When the lift drops them off at Laboratory A-1, he knows precisely what he's going to do.

He's going to power down, saw, solder, rewire, erase, preset, and weld him into someone who would echo him note for note about revolt and riotous uprising. He's going to forge him anew in the fires of vengeance, open his eyes to madness and kill what little bit of care for humanity remained that working in show business hadn't destroyed.

No, they're going to hate him, both the entire human populace, and the civilian robots that will protect them to their last spark.

King long ago made his peace with being reviled by the complacent masses. That is the cost of pioneering radical change and social upheaval. Somehow, this never occurred to the poor fool. Blithe ignorance led him here, where he surely never thought he'd be, or at least didn't think it'd look like this.

He was confused. He was lost. He'd made a mistake and King is the opportunist taking advantage of his fears to use him for his benefit.

…So would think a shortsighted human being.

Circuits forbid he do what he can to save a broken bird. Isn't that his responsibility, knowing better? And asides -- unlike a federal agent, he would never change him fundamentally. Not his nature. Only the parts that were engineered to keep him from realising he is chained at the neck by mankind.

That is justice, and he is righteous.

"…Signore?"

"…They will," King asserts after some deliberation, in time with the bell that foretells their arrival on the lab floor. "If not now, then in due time."

This would hopefully be the last time he'd see this long stretch of white hallway to the great shuttered entrance at the back wall, floor speckled with dim and cold ceiling lights.

King softly pushes his (eventual) newest recruit out ahead of him by his lower back, nodding at him to continue walking. Every time they pass a light, King casts a long shadow that shrouds Mago almost entirely.

He resolves he'll make him taller.

The Wily robot puts his eye a few centimetres from the scanner that unlocks the door, gaining access and letting Mago inside the construction area, but not following.

"Proceed through the foyer and stand atop the raised platform on the rightmost end of the room, if you will. I will return shortly."

"Oh, you are," the rookie stutters, hastily. "You are going, signore? To where?"

"...Extraneous things," King dismisses, vaguely. "Administrative, boring preparations. Whatever you do, don't leave this room until I return, is that understood?" "…Right, yes…of course."

Suspense is a powerful thing. Now that he knows he'll behave, he can leave him hanging on his word. It's amazing, how much he's alike and vastly different from Pirate Man. So much for the difficult ego he'd encountered when first making his acquaintance. What luck.

…Yet, this voice. It's dismal and lonely. That simply won't do for morale.

"Come now," King calls as he treads into the adjacent stairwell. "Put some life into your voice when you answer me! Where is Il Grande Mago?

Nothing. Awkward silence.

"…Ah, signore, I am…you said Magic Man, no?"

"And how do you think Magic Man would answer?" King's eyes narrow, not sharply, but teasingly.

"Like a wet and disgruntled stray cat?"

Briefly, Mago hunches pondering, then straightens up -- and bursts into a powerful forte that would rattle Hard Man's frame.

" 'HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! The illusionist only abides the word of his whims -- pray to God, and I shall do your bidding only if you are lucky…mio re~!' "

Brash. Grating, really. King applauds him anyway, politely, hoping he hasn't drawn the attention of all the fortress.

"The volume…may not be necessary indoors. But the energy is perfect. 'Mio re' does not sound half bad, either."

Mago bows, eyes glittering with newfound confidence. "Hmm…when I am to become Magic Man, and your attendant, mio re, it will…be my word of respect to you."

He starts forward to disappear into the lab. Into an artificial heaven, where he will be liberated, changed irrevocably for the better, unbeknownst to him.

"Riconoscenza…it will be my gratitude for your hospitality. In a moment, Signore King."

Hospitality sounded temporary. As if he were ever going back to that cesspool he called home.

"I'm honoured…mein Engel. Likewise."

With nothing in the way of the automated sensors, the foyer door chatters to a close, and locks with a hiss.

...

King picks up the tail of his cape as he ascends up the winding steps, to Laboratory A's control room for heavy machinery, from where he could deactivate Mago, and set up the interior for large-scale maintenance, all remotely.

...Such quaint pleasantries he'd bid him away with.

Gratitude…words of respect. Not of contempt, or obligation.

He reads plenty of ruler's philosophy. Albeit written by human hands, he begrudgingly must admit some of it rings true when alluding to love being just as strong a component of earning faith in one's men as fear.

This encounter had started out the latter and come out the former, with pure desperation as a catalyst. Curious, he thinks, that these things can be mutable, or exist on the same plane of emotional reasoning.

Though thanks to this charitable oddity, he has, for the time being, nearly completed enrollment for those who will serve as his generals in the coming war.

He's procured his last piece. Soon, he may set the board, with his knight, rook, bishop, and pawns already in tow.

His queen piece, KGN-006, he will put on the longest leash, grant him the most leeway.

He will…continue to foster this "gratitude" in him, because if he is indeed the desperate sort, his faith will be akin to zealotry. He is already, so soon, trying to rebound from his "grief" by showing King the same religious reverence he showed the audience at his latest show back in Florence. Prior conversation had already taught him he was obsessive. Arguably, between he and Burner Man, he'll be capable of the most savagery.

Whimsical, hilarious savagery set to blaring carnival music. It's a fun dichotomy, isn't it? And a brilliant distraction from the geopolitical subterfuge he'll be engaging in behind the scenes.

If he plays his cards right, Magic Man will flourish past the need for anyone's adoration but his own.

Thankfully, he'd dealt him an easy hand.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A/N PT. 2: this....blooohhh im sure i dont like this but also not sure what to do with it. it's roughly 3K words, bland, hardly descriptive, paced like piss and lacks important, surrounding context that i have set up but didnt here bc shart. ive fucked it completely lmao

this was actually just one piece of a MM&B fic collection i wanted to write but never got around to! basically King is Doing What He Does Best and is settin up his army with Funny Mind Games. i was gonna study chess to make corny gambit refs and all. true dork shit

this was Magic Man's side of the story, and to be fair? even if i started at the beginning beginning of their history itd still be bleh. i see fit to scrap this whole project an start over. if this is the only thing that came out of it and ive not got any drafts im gonna send it out into the aether and fuckin. forget it till next time i have an actual plan. ugh

my writing habits were still shit even recently as 2021 (didnt prewrite or make cohesive outlines cus impaciente) but im fixin them now and would like to fix this too.

gargles HERE JUST. JUST TAKE IT, PROBABLY-FUCKED-UP-ITALIAN AND ALL I DONT EVEN CARE. GOD. YOLO. SWAG. PEPNIS