#i have this idea about like. a virus that took over a program

[muzzleroars]

hello! i have returned after finally turning in the project that made me so brain-empty to tell you that in the pursuit of making one (1) ai i somehow made two (2) messed up lil dudes. (apologies for incoming vague ramble.)

so there's this ai made for a specific project that gains self-awareness, however the project shuts down and they were gonna be repurposed or scrapped depending on how salvageable their code was for other things. they, of course, weren't vibin with this and in a panic emailed themself out to random people hoping someone would click the attached file that would transfer them to a new setup. (the email was. not well done and looked like spam with malware attached.) someone did! but things went a little funky in the transfer so their code got a little messed up but it's totally fine they're super not a little glitchy and chaos prone it's fine. and the guy who decided "sure i'll download a suspicially malware-esque file from a shady email just to see what happens" is surprised there's a functioning, sentient ai now in his computer but decides to roll with it and after knowing them for like 5 hours decides this ai is now his Best Friend. it's mostly all very silly and their relationship is best summed up by "you know what would be /really/ funny-?" and egging each other on to do stupid stunts

sorry i just like. dumped this whole chunk of words i've just been rotating these two in my head for like an hour and i love them very much

NOOO THIS IS SO CUTE TAT i looooove everything about this!! like emailing itself out makes me think of how so many old school viruses got spread around, and you KNOW i love an ai with mental illness!! like there's something so nice about them having glitches in their programming and a bit of scrambled code...and even better when they're still able to find a human to connect to that loves them as the mess they are ;o; good for them fucking around!! i hope they get into all sorts of weird situations and if you do any more developing on them, please come and tell me about it!! i want to listen to all their stories!!!

[cryptidghostgirl]

so sorry for this (very) specific request hope it's not ocish

anyways alastor x wife reader who's a virologist / kinda a mad scientist??(girl just wants to start a apocalypse without anyone to bother her)

Like they got married for mutual benefits (whatever benefits he would gain and her having access to money for her wildest dreams) when they were humans (whether he actually loves her or not is up to you lmao)

They both die (I assume that she would die around when he died from her own negligence caused by her 'freedom' to do her work more often without actually worrying about him finding out) and she avoids him like the plague (not that hard to realize this so called radio demon is your 'husband' when you find his secret stash of 'local cuisine' in the fridge)

Then he goes missing and she finally kinda goes out of makeshift hiding, just chilling doing her evil deeds before finding about the Hazbin Hotel from some gossip

Deciding that, while redemption is most likely not gonna happen mostly for the fact she does not care, she joins Charlie's little program. For her own little project (just wants to have a angel test subject, gotta see if they can be a good carrier for her little virus)

The reader doesn't know that Alastor's back (you think she's gonna use vox tech? Or listen to the radio? Girl uses a non vox tech phone and maybe a computer and does her work) so she goes and knocks on the door to the hotel

Thinking that this shit is gonna be easy, after all her husband is gone so she won't be bothered by him. She can focus on her beautiful creations and maybe destory hell and heaven with a apocalypse for some laughs. While also getting access to heaven through Charlie somehow (maybe even Lucifer, girl doesn't know nor care)

Anyways you can just IMAGINE her surprise that right after Charlie greets her (Vaggie ofc suspicious af cause she knows damn well no sinner wants to be redeemed for the most part) then here comes the strawberry pimp coming to say hello

Would he recognize his lovely wife? Maybe

Ofc reader had a plan, and by plan I mean she just says they were married and now acts like their divorced (death do us part and we fuckin dead)

(Just for example, do what you want <3)

Anyways I'm sorry again (can you tell that I've been watching a lot of mlp infection aus :') )

A/N bestie,, i love an overly detailed request. no apologies. i hope i did it justice <3 <3 I have literally been obsessing over the whole 'we're dead. we've been parted.' reader idea. It's so fun. Also I am very sorry it took me so long to get to this. Also, I am not a woman nor am I in STEM (I'm an enby in history) so apologies if science stuff in this is bad. I'm basing the character off of Entrapta (my love) from Nate Stevenson's She-Ra remake.

Till Death Do Us Part (Alastor x Mad Scientist!Reader)

Pairing: Alastor x Reader

Warnings: Gore. Murder. Bodies. Animal cruelty (not detailed at all just like test subjects and burning ants as a kid). Viruses/plague talk. Just capital d Death all around in this one folks. Suicide and starvation briefly mentioned.

Word Count: 2,584

Master Lists:

Master Lists 

Hazbin Hotel Master List

Y/n hadn't been sad when Alastor died. It didn't really even register on her radar that he was gone until the police showed up at her door. Their marriage was more of an agreement than anything else, a division of labor. Y/n was a talented virologist who came from a rather wealthy family. He got access to her money, using it to start his own radio studio, and Y/n? Well Y/n got a clean up crew.

She had always been fascinated by death. It was a morbid curiosity that had followed her since childhood. The typical 'burning ants with a magnifying glass to mass murderer' pipeline only, murder was not exactly her objective. Since learning of the Black Death in school, she had been fascinated by biological warfare and weaponry. The stories of soldiers throwing infected bodies over the walls of city's to break down their defenses? It was magnificent, masterful, absolutely awe inspiring. Living through the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1918, watching how it tore through her city of New Orleans, only furthered her determination.

As soon as she had had the knowledge base to do so, she began working on bio-weapons on her own. She wanted to create a disease, to devastate the world. She wanted to watch the things around her crumble into ruin and know it was by her hand.

She'd found out about Alastor's hobby by accident. They were friends, of a sort, in that Y/n would show up randomly where ever he was and quiz him about radio waves. He worked at a radio station and she knew that. She had followed him, tracked him down. There was no reasoning behind it save he was the first person she'd really found out about that was involved in the business in New Orleans. She would pick his mind about getting the word out about things, marketing, advertising. She was prepping for the main event, for the day she finally created her magnum opus.

One day, when she had shown up unannounced at his door and broken in when he didn't respond to her knocking, Y/n had discovered him dismembering one of his victims. Alastor had stared at her, wide eyed in shock, fear and adrenaline mixing into an intoxicating combination in his veins. Y/n had just smiled.

She had been wondering about human experimentation for a while now. Animals were easy to cover up, easy to bury in the back yard but people? It had always been too risky, up until now anyways.

So it went like this: Y/n funded Alastor's dreams and he hid the side effects of hers. When he died, Y/n didn't really feel anything too strongly about it at all. Yes, it made life harder in that if she wanted to keep using human guinea pigs she'd have to figure out a way to dispose of them on her own but it also made it easier. Alastor had always been so obsessed with image, dragging her to office parties and forcing her to sit down to meals with him. Now that he was gone, she could work on her projects in peace once again. The body thing was something she would figure out along the way. She was smart and she wasn't going to let something like that stop her, not when she was this close to cracking it.

As it turns out, Alastor had been more of a help than Y/n believed. So used to his nattering and persistence, she had stopped eating. It wasn't long before she joined her husband in death. The papers of course had a field day with it. Heiress and Virologist Y/n L/n Withers Away Due to Heartbreak. Y/n L/n Starved Herself to Death and Joins her Murderer of a Husband. Virologist Commits Suicide After Revelation of Dead Husband's Criminal Deeds.

When Y/n had woken up in Hell, her whole world had been turned upside down. If there was life after death, what was the point of killing everyone on earth? She was back at square one.

Rumors were already buzzing through the streets of Hell about some new overlord, some Radio Demon, who had a strikingly similar MO to her husband. Not wanting any distractions this time around, Y/n secluded herself in the outskirts of the pride ring to reformulate her plans.

For decades she worked, trying to create a poison to wipe out the dual planes of the underworld. Work was easier here. No one questioned why she bought the things she bought, no one got upset when people went missing. Hell, no one even blinked twice if they saw her burying a body. It was a veritable paradise for Y/n.

Eventually, news reached her of the Radio Demon's disappearance. Y/n had never been the biggest fan of technology that wasn't involved in her work. In the world of the living, she had barley read the papers. All the machines in her laboratory were ones she had built herself through trial and error. But still, somehow, the news reached her and she felt elated. The last thing weighing her down, the last road block had officially been lifted.

Within seven years, she had perfected the disease. Having run tests on lower rings of Hell, she prided herself on her ability to make it so infections, so deadly. The survival was on par with that of unvaccinated human's infected by rabies. But her plan wasn't complete, no. Taking out everyone in Hell wasn't good enough, she had to figure out how to get it into Heaven as well.

That was when the perfect opportunity fell in her lap. Y/n nearly cried when she caught sight of the interview through the window of a shop selling Vox branded TVs. Charlie Morningstar, Lucifer's little brat, was creating a hotel for sinners, where they could be rehabilitated and sent to Heaven. It was perfect, almost too perfect. Y/n didn't question it, her own excitement blinding her. She barley even took the time to come up with a plan that consisted of more than get into the hotel and get her hands on an angel. She figured that was something that could be dealt with later on.

After a few days of research and snooping, she finally made her move. Having packed her bags and woven her way through the streets of Pentagram City, she found herself before the brightly lit marquee of the Hazbin Hotel. Placing her bag on the ground beside her, the test tubes and various paraphernalia inside clinked gently against one another. Raising her hand, she knocked on the door.

It was Charlie herself who answered, with wide eyes and an earnest smile. A smaller moth demon beside her crossed her arms, eyeing Y/n with doubt. It barley registered with the excitable demon, she was used to the strange looks. The new form Hell had granted her with when she died was odd, after all. She was still the same height, still held a roughly human shape, but her hair had become its own beast. It moved like secondary limbs, falling nearly to the floor from the pigtails she had tied it up into. It shot up into the air around her in joy at the sight of yet another open door in her path, this one literal rather than figurative.

"Hello!" Charlie exclaimed, "Are you here to check in?"

"Yes, check in." Y/n nodded, using her hair to pick her bag back up.

She took a step forward, trying to enter the hotel, but found her path blocked by the smaller grey demon. Her arms were uncrossed now, one of them pointing a spear right at Y/n's neck. Y/n didn't flinch, she simply looked down at it in curiosity, reaching a finger up to touch the end.

"Ow." she said flatly as the spear's tip pressed into the pad of her finger.

Raising it to her eyes, she rubbed the droplet of blood that had pooled on her pointer finger with her thumb before turning back to the spear.

"Is this..." Y/n leaned forward, grabbing the spear's shaft.

"Hey!" Vaggie yelled threateningly as Y/n crouched down, examining the weapon carefully.

"Oh my stars, this is an angelic blade, isn't it?" she exclaimed, her eyes still fixed on the spear.

"Uh..."

Vaggie was more confused now than anything and she took the slightest step away from the excited demon. Y/n followed her and soon, they were in the entry way to the hotel. Charlie watched the scene play out with mild amusement, finding her girlfriends bewildered state rather charming. She let the door fall shut.

"It is, isn't it?" Y/n asked again, "But how did you get it? Did you make it? What do you do with it? Is it more effective than normal weapons? Why a spear? I-"

"What's this, we have a new guest?" a crackling voice cut Y/n off.

"Uh, yes!" Charlie stepped in, turning to face the newcomer.

Y/n, still preoccupied with the spear, was now engaged in trying to get Vaggie to let her hold it.

"I think..." Charlie doubtfully added, her brow furrowing at the site.

"Well well well, a little devil." Alastor hummed, turning to watch the show as well, "Honestly, reminds me of someone I knew back when I was alive and kicking. Ah well, what's her name?"

"I don't... actually know that yet." Charlie admitted, fiddling with her hands a bit as she spoke, "But she seems really enthusiastic about being here!"

"It seems she more interested in that spear of Vaggie's than the idea of redemption." Alastor noted in response.

"Are either of you going to help me or are you just gonna sit and watch?" Vaggie exclaimed, trying her best to pry the spear out of Y/n's grip.

Alastor sighed and with a twirl of his microphone, a shadow arose, pulling Y/n off Vaggie. There was a split second where the smile on the girl's face fell. It quickly returned as she caught sight of what exactly had interrupted her escapades. Placing her bag on the floor with her hair, she wormed around in the shadow's arms, turning to face it. Tentatively, she poked it.

"Would you stop that?" Alastor asked, his voice thick with irritation.

Y/n poked the shadow again.

"What is this? How are you doing this?"

When no response came from the demon in question, she at last turned to face him.

"Oh."

She stilled in her movements and Alastor allowed the shadow to disappear.

"No reason to be scared." Charlie quickly stepped in, "I know Alastor here has a bit of a... reputation, but he is actually helping us at the hotel. He's really a great once you get to know him."

Alastor's smile widened as he bowed his head slightly in recognition of the praise.

"If you're going to be staying her-"

"You can't seriously be thinking of letting her stay here, Charlie." Vaggie cut in, "She's been here what, five minutes? And all thats come of it is chaos."

"Vaggie, come on, don't be like that." Charlie turned to her girlfriend, "Everyone deserves a second chance, that's the whole reason we built this place."

"But does she even want to be redeemed? I mean, what if she's... I don't know, trying to take us down from the inside out? What if she's a journalist or some shit trying to write us bad reviews?"

"You flatter me." Y/n smiled and Vaggie scoffed.

"See?"

"Isn't that all the more reason to let her in? Vaggie, if she is undercover as a journalist or something, we just have to prove to her how amazing what we're doing here is."

"I don't know... I've never seen her before, what if she's another one Vox sent?"

Y/n shook her head, sticking her tongue out slightly in disgust at this notion and Alastor chuckled. There really was something so familiar about this demon and her antics. Even if she was a tad irritating, it was a comfortable familiarity.

"Then we will figure it out, same way we did with Sir. Pentious. Okay?"

"Fine." Vaggie relented at last with a sigh.

Smiling brightly, Charlie turned back to Y/n.

"So, hi. I'm Charlie, welcome to the Hazbin Hotel! What's your name?"

Y/n's eyes flicked back and forth between Alastor and Charlie for a moment before settling on Charlie.

"Y/n L/n."

Alastor let out a little laugh of disbelief, a sound he had meant to keep in. He couldn't help it. Of course this little mess of a demon was his favorite crazy wife. Alastor had looked for Y/n on occasion, always keeping an eye on news involving anything scientific but, he had never found a trace. Not that he'd admit it but, in their time together, he had grown rather fond of the girl. Not love, never love, but a sort of familial feel. Everyone turned to face him.

"Are you alright, Alastor?" Charlie asked, walking over to him and placing a hand on his arm which he quickly brushed off.

"Yeah, do you know her or something?" Vaggie added, "Is she dangerous?"

"No..." he paused, his brow slightly furrowed, "She's my wife."

The room fell silent.

"You... you didn't recognize your own wife?" Vaggie asked in disbeleif.

"Ex-wife." Y/n corrected with a little sigh.

This was all becoming so tedious. She hadn't come here to sit and talk with people. While the spear and the shadow had been fun, they had both run their courses and she just wanted to get to work.

"I..." Alastor turned back to Y/n, "Ex-wife?"

Y/n shrugged.

"So you didn't recognize your wife and you didn't know you were divorced?" Vaggie asked, rubbing her temples, "Jesus fuck, man."

"I..." Alastor cleared his throat, "We were married when we were alive. I didn't even know she was dead yet."

"Yeah." Y/n shrugged, "Turns out all your nattering was what was keeping me alive. I forgot to eat, starved to death."

Alastor's eyes softened slightly for a moment at the notion. She had needed his care so badly that she had died with out it. It felt good, in a strange way. Satisfying. They darkened again as he recalled her earlier statement.

"Ex-wife?" he asked again, taking a step towards Y/n.

She looked up at him, her expression blank.

"Yeah?"

"When did we get a divorce!" Alastor exclaimed once he realized she would say nothing else on the matter without his prompting.

"Oh! We didn't." Y/n nodded, smiling slightly, "Now, can I go to my room?"

"No, Y/n. Why are you calling yourself my ex-wife? We are still married."

Y/n looked around at Charlie and Vaggie, seeing if they were going to back up her claim. Sighing, she turned back to Alastor.

"Do I really have to lay it out for you?" she paused and Alastor just stared at her, eyebrows raised, "Jesus. Uh, Al, we died."

"Yes...?"

"Till death do us part? That was the agreement."

"I... Well..." he was at a complete and total loss for how to respond.

She wasn't wrong, he just didn't like her answer very much.

"So... the agreement is done... yeah?"

"I mean," Alastor shook his head slightly, "I guess?"

"Great! Can someone please show me to my room now."

---

Next Part -> Till Death Do Us Part pt. 2

[laurzzz-left]

Introducing... *drum roll*

The Greatest Showman AU! In which I now name as "What's Written in the Stars" (WWITS, for short)

Context at the bottom of each pic! (CW: Violence)

Also, will give more info on what I'm planning to do with this AU at the very bottom (after the cut) so read the full thing please :D

Assistive Care Attendant / Trapeze Act Sun: Each clothing design is for specific phases of the plot. The one with the apron is whilst Sun is still with his owner (him and Moon). The apron get-up is the male robots' default clothing after having been manufactured to become assistive robots for the rich— ofc with different colours that fit the scheme of the robot. The one on the left is showcasing his first time joining the circus, having almost stabbed in the faceplate seconds later by you, Y/N (unintentionally). And, the one on the top is him, a year into joining the circus.

Assistive Care Attendant / Trapeze Act Moon: Each clothing design is for specific phases of the plot. The one where he is tied up is when the Afton virus took hold of his programming having almost killed the father of the children that he and Sun are giving care to. The one on the right is where he's finally gotten the virus at a more stable control through your help and was finally allowed to perform overnight in the circus. And ofc, the one on the top is what he wears when performing.

Laundry Worker / Knife Throwing Act Y/N: I tried to make your design as androgynous as I could I hope I didn't butcher that. Anyhow, you carry a lot of trauma and painful experiences in this plot as an immigrant, orphan, and a very obvious person-of-color, you aren't always welcomed in where you live but you do have good people who took you in after your parents were brutally murdered as a child. You now work in your rescuers' laundry shop— well, not until you joined the circus.

My plans for this AU?

Currently the chapters are in the works, I'm writing Chapter 1 down as this gets posted. My goal is only a total of 5 (long, and will be divided into and released per parts) chapters for the entire plot.

I will also try (emphasis on try) to make a few storyboards I had in mind for this AU, y'know just to make things more interesting. More designs will be showcased sooner or later, as this AU is not only applicable to you and the Assistive Care Attendants (ACA) but also the other main bots of the canon plot of security breach.

Oh also! If you're not familiar with or haven't seen The Greatest Showman just yet, you don't have to see it to understand this AU. This AU can honestly be seen as a standalone AU where you live in the 1850s-1860s and technology started booming because of Fazbear Co (run by Henry Emily, William's co-founder in the canon series; William Afton will have a bit of a different role in the AU) and all that jazz. But unless you don't want spoilers for The Greatest Showman, don't learn more about this AU since it contains A LOT of references, plots, and designs similar to what's portrayed in the movie. Otherwise, have fun getting to know this when I release the first part of the first chapter and so on! :D

This might be one of the biggest things I'll ever make and I'm glad I got these ideas just as the new year is arriving. At least I know what my new year's resolution will be lmao. I hope you guys tune in for more! I have so much love and so much in store for this AU— so much!

Thanks for reading, love you <3

Ps. I rarely say this but reblogs > likes

I appreciate them both btw! I just think it's better for yalls to spread this around so some people who might enjoy this AU would get to see it evolve over time :)

[fnafdcaconfessions]

Now that ruin is out, and we know more about the dca, it seems like Eclipse was made to be an actor with a super cool light function. When they were reprogrammed for the daycare, the light function couldn't be removed, fracturing Sun and Moon. Given in one of the books, the employee calls them Sun, I'm inclined to say that Eclipse used their Sun face when interacting with people more and either didn't care or didn't have the emotional or mental capacity to correct anyone about who they are. When they tried to get rid of the light change, they must've separated it from Sun, birthing the Moon 'alter ego'. Fazbear Ent. does what it does and sees money at the idea of marketing two animatronics for the price of one, using Eclipses stage names.

I think since Moon didn't have much to hold on to through the separation, he found comfort in being the villain like in the old theater act. I think nothing felt right for him now that he was also trying to be something he wasn't, a naptime attendant, through the descriptions of the Sun and Moon plushies, we can safely assume that the dca in all their 'not right' glory, still did a good job.. until they didn't. Whether it was wearing down Sun or Moon, or something snapped, or even the virus took hold, Moon needed to be shut out. So they built a cage of lights and used the more aggressive Moon as security. It's all but confirmed that Moon felt rejected, hated and possibly put in 'time out' with the light cage.

Gregory happens and it does something to them, maybe makes Moon realize he can be the one in charge. After the Princess Quest ending, which is also all but confirmed, the virus leaves but the memories don't. Roxy, Monty and Chica wander around still searching for the boy that destroyed them and took their parts. Moon takes over permanently either once the lights die or once he destroys them himself. Sun is locked into a darkness prison or 'trapped in a nap' and Moon gets to catch up on all the time he lost not being good enough for management.

I don't know if Balloon World has something to do with it, but Sun realizes what's wrong, I don't know when so I put this here. Sun understands that the 'something wrong' they were feeling is because Moon needs to reboot because Moon was made by the light function being separated from Eclipse/Sun.

Cassie arrives with maintenance equipment and manages to fix them, finally giving them closure. Now this is more headcanon territory, but I think before becoming a daycare attendant, Sun and Moon were just characters, masks for Eclipse to wear. Now that they're better, Sun and Moon are like DID personalities that take over the Sun and Moon characters they had before.

Now, Eclipse is three people but because of the separation, Eclipse is a new person making new memories with a new personality to make sense of. I think Eclipse defaulted to the daycare attendant programming because of Cassie being around, but I think they're smart enough to realize what's going on. I think whether they decide to stay in the Plex or try to leave, they'll now have Sun and Moon to guide them in their new adventure.

.

[atelier-slime]

DRAGON QUEST'S LOCALIZATION SUCKS, ACTUALLY. PART 1

There's a thread blowing up on Japanese twitter right now about the poor quality of localization. It's the first time I've ever actually seen a japanese perspective on the topic, and it's been extremely gratifying to see a ton people from over there talk about specific translation issues they've seen or learn for the first time that japanese media is often given the short end of the stick here in the USA.

Most of the time over here in the US, criticism of localization gets shouted down as whiny fans who think they know better than the translators. It's been heartening to see that people from japan are also annoyed by it, and its inspired me to write up a whole long-ass rant I've had simmering in the back of my mind for years, so buckle up, long post(s) incoming:

Let's start at the beginning with the first thing that ever caused me to start thinking about localization. This little guy:

If you've played Dragon Quest in the past 2 decades, you probably know this guy by the name "Spiked Hare." Not me though! I got into DQ on the game boy, in the brief window of time where DQ's localization was handled by Nob Ogasawara, the same guy responsible for translating every pokemon game up until Platinum. In the DQ games Nob worked on, he chose to translate this guy's name as "Almiraj." Why the huge difference in translation? I'll get to that in a minute.

The almiraj is an extremely minor enemy in Dragon Quest 3. It's pretty weak, and it's only real defining feature is that it can occasionally cast sleep spells on your party members. It's just one of hundreds of monsters in that game, and aside from it's cute design, it's pretty forgettable. As a weird kid overly obsessed with linguistics though, its name always seemed odd to me. You don't really see words that end with a "J" in english. It stuck out enough that one night, when I was bored, I decided to google "almiraj" to figure out what the name meant. It sent me down a rabbit hole (almiraj hole?) that taught me all sorts of cool shit, and permanently altered the way I looked at localization. The path I tumbled down that night went something like this:

The Dragon Quest almiraj is named after the almiraj, a "real" mythical creature described as a hare with a large horn on its head.

The original inspiration for accounts of the almiraj (as well as the jackalope, wolpertinger, etc.) is likely the Shope papiloma Virus, which causes rabbits to grow weird, horn-like growths on their face and head.

It was described by Zakariya al-Qazwini, an Iranian lawyer, author, and all around knowledgeable guy who lived in the 13th century.

al-Qazwini described it in the Aja'ib al-Makhluqat, a massive cosmographical treatise that attempted to describe basically everything in the known universe at the time. It was so popular in the Islamic world that it was copied and translated into dozens of languages, which meant plenty of copies have survived intact to modern times.

The almiraj was brought into the limelight in modern fantasy when it was introduced in the first edition of Dungeons and Dragons, as a relatively weak and unassuming monster as part of a campaign to expand the game with monster suggestions from fans of the series.

Dungeons and Dragons-style role playing games were brought into the digital world with the release of the first Wizardry game in 1981.

Yuji Horii was a massive fan of Wizardry, which he first discovered as part of a developer exchange program when he visited America in 1983. Three years later, he decided to try and recreate the things he loved from the series for console gamers in Japan, and the the original Dragon Quest was born.

One little name was all it took to open up this entire through-line of history that I had no idea even existed before that night. It's a tapestry of human experiences over 800 years in the making, spanning continents, cultures, languages, and medium. It's probably because I'm the type of person who sits around thinking about stuff too much, but I honestly get a little emotional wondering what al-Qazwini would think if he could see the mythical creatures he described all those years ago as little dudes hopping around inside a computer.

And the thing is the tapestry doesn't end there! Dragon Quest is still pretty niche in the west, but in Japan it's fucking titanic. There's an urban legend that the Japanese government banned Square Enix from releasing Dragon Quest games on a weekday, because so many people would skip work or school that it would impact the economy. (It's not true by the way, but the fact that the rumor exists at all is a testament to how huge the series' influence is over there.) I don't think it would be an overstatement to say that what Lord of the Rings did to modern western fantasy, Dragon Quest did to modern Japanese fantasy. Almost every JRPG, manga, or anime with a fantasy setting has the fingerprints of Dragon Quest on it. Countless other works have been inspired by DQ, and those works will go on to inspire others. A million different threads weaving tapestries back and forth across time and borders, all over the globe. And the almiraj is a part of that! It might just be a single, tiny, white and purple thread, but it's still in there helping to tie things together.

So back to the question I asked earlier: Why is it "Almiraj" in Mr. Ogasawara's translation but "Spiked hare" in the current one? Simple: Nob actually translated the name.

You can see on the DQ wiki that the original japanese name of the monster is "アルミラージ" which is literally just "almiraj" written in katakana:

The current DQ team has instead decided that all monster names should be puns. I'm not against puns or anything. "Spiked hare" for a rabbit with a horn is great! I might even raise my eyebrows and exhale slightly if I read it for the first time. Dragon Quest in general tends to have a lot of goofiness in it, so it's not like puns are out of place or anything. My problem is that, by deciding to replace monster names arbitrarily like this, all the little threads start to come unraveled. You lose the ability to look back down the line and discover all these different connections to history and nature and art that you might not ever learn otherwise. The almiraj isn't the only monster to get this treatment. A huge portion of the monsters in Dragon Quest are taken from mythologies around the world, and many of their names are literally already in English, just written with katakana.

The almiraj sticks out in my mind as a particularly egregious example because of just how much I learned because of the foreign-sounding name, but there's plenty of other name changes that have resulted in straight up confusing, ambiguous, or otherwise stupid outcomes in the current localization.

CONTINUED IN PART 2

[star-going-supernova]

What if Vanessa is helping Gregory, after possessing Roxy, instead of being helped by Freddy. If you’re interested, this is the prompt:

Vanessa wakes feeling disoriented and light. She recalls Glitchtrap possessing her, but that’s it. Walking around to get a good idea of where she is, the sound of metal against glass stops her, eyes adjusting to the dark, she ceases movement after seeing what’s wrong.

We’re kicking off this new round of tumblr generated prompts with number 33! What a fun AU concept! 

Possession

Possessing a sentient, intelligent animatronic wasn’t so bad. Of course, Vanessa wouldn’t have thought that in the beginning—hell no. But it’d been… a while now, nearly a year, and she liked to think she’d grown a lot as a disembodied ghostly person. 

It helped that Roxy made for good company. She couldn’t imagine being trapped in Monty’s head with him. Yikes. 

She wasn’t positive on exactly how she came to be in this situation—a topic she spent a fair bit of free time mulling over. Other than some vague memories of a raspy, labored voice and a sense of slow-onset dissociation that took a month to wrench her from her own body, there was nothing. 

Her life before was perfectly clear: her childhood, school, her family. And everything since she first “woke up” in Roxy’s head was fine too.

It was just that last month that evaded her. Those weeks were faded, distant. Like they had happened to somebody else. 

“Good show,” she said to Roxy once the band finished up for the night and were heading back to their rooms. 

Roxy flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Of course it was!” But once they were alone and the programming that forced her to remain in character while in public spaces deactivated, Roxy stretched her arms and said, much softer and more genuine, “Thanks, Ness. Good to know you’re not bored of it yet.” 

She laughed. “You could never bore me, Roxy. And it’s always fun to see the audience from your eyes.” 

“Flatterer.” Roxy sprawled back on the couch with a purr better suited to a cat, arms laying along the top. “Tell me more.” 

Feeling indulgent in her good mood, Vanessa obliged. “I always like when you do that one move, where you sorta swing your keytar and your whole body follows. It’s very smooth.” 

“Aww, Vanessa, I—” Her whole body locked up for a second, like she’d received a tremendous shock. Tension immediately fell over both of them. 

Roxy sat up with a cross between a growl and a sigh. “It’s gonna be a rough night,” she muttered. “Sorry.” 

“You don’t ever have to apologize to me. Not about that,” Vanessa replied fiercely. “It’s not your choice, Roxy. It’s not your fault.” 

“Yeah, well. It’s hard to really believe that when I can feel it coming but can’t do a single thing about it.” 

Vanessa sagged in her digital, intangible confines. “I’ll keep trying,” she promised, ignoring how weak she sounded. 

“I’d rather you just retreat altogether and spare yourself,” Roxy snapped. She immediately sighed and shook her head. “No, sorry. I—I appreciate that you haven’t given up.” Her eyes began to flicker. 

“And I never will,” Vanessa swore in a rush. 

Roxy didn’t respond, but Vanessa hoped she’d heard her. When Roxy’s body stood up and marched toward the room’s exit, it was not under the power of Roxy herself or Vanessa. 

Another night with the virus. Another night where a child would meet a gruesome end at whatever animatronic got to them first. Another night for Vanessa to futilely try to take control of Roxy—to end the cycle of guilt her closest friend suffered from. 

Another night to fail. 

• • •

Vanessa had been in Roxy’s head for over a year when she finally managed the impossible. The virus slithered in, and Vanessa body-slammed it out the door. 

Roxy didn’t come back online, though. She stood there, blank. 

Tentatively, Vanessa tried to move. That was the hard part, actually, remembering how it felt to control a body. She stumbled along for a few minutes before getting the hang of it. Mostly. 

By then, the others had all already taken off to hunt down their newest prey. Except for Freddy, who’d still be locked in his room after his malfunction earlier. 

Which was why it was a huge surprise to Vanessa an hour later, when she ran into Freddy himself outside the bowling alley. He froze when he spotted her, eyes wide and unblinking. And that—that wasn’t normal behavior for an animatronic with the virus running rampant through them. That was just typical Freddy behavior when he got caught doing something he shouldn’t be. 

“Freddy?” she said incredulous. It would be obvious to him that it was her. When Vanessa borrowed Roxy’s voice box, it always sounded a little bit off. 

Sure enough, Freddy tilted his head, going from spooked to curious. “Vanessa?” His ears wiggled. “Oh! You have succeeded, then, in interrupting the virus’s signal! Is Roxy…?” 

“Out cold,” she said, actually apologetic. “But yeah, I’m in the driver’s seat tonight.” 

Mm, shame Roxy hadn’t heard that little pun. She’d have liked it. 

“I am myself as well,” Freddy said, as though it wasn’t perfectly obvious. “Ah—perhaps you could provide some assistance?” 

“With what? We’ve kinda got a kid to find and stop from getting ripped apart.” 

“About that…” Freddy’s stomach hatch hissed open, and a little boy glared out at her from the shadows of Freddy’s innards. Creepy. 

“That can’t be safe,” Vanessa blurted out. She was well familiar with the rules and regulations the animatronics had been programed with. 

“It is not technically allowed,” Freddy agreed, or perhaps admitted. She hadn’t taken him for a rule breaker. “But as I am disconnected from the server, many aspects of my programming are offline.” 

“And I’ll take my chances,” the kid growled, “if it’s this or getting ripped apart.” 

All right, so he had some bite to him. That gave him a better chance at surviving than most of his predecessors, who had been prone to freezing in fear and sobbing and definitely not taking the risk to climb into an animatronic’s chest cavity. Vanessa could see herself getting attached. Roxy too, and Freddy most certainly already was. 

“This is Gregory,” Freddy said. He reached down, allowing Gregory to take hold of his finger in a move that read as an offer of comfort. He was clearly well past fondness. “Superstar, this is Vanessa, who is a human—spirit, I suppose—possessing Roxy’s body. She can be trusted.” 

“That’s not gonna happen to me, right?” Gregory asked, wiggling Freddy’s hand. 

“No,” Vanessa nearly snarled. The mere thought of a child being subjected to this odd limbo made fury rise up in her, so much so that a warning flashed that Roxy’s body was in danger of overheating. “We’re not going to let that happen, all right? And if anyone tries, they’ll have to go through me.” 

Gregory nodded slowly, looking like he had a tiny bit more respect for her. 

This, this was what Vanessa had been hoping for from the very first time she tried to overpower the virus. The chance to get a kid out of the ’plex, alive. The chance to save even just one person from a terrible fate. The chance to give Roxy at least a little peace of mind with the promise that tonight, even if only on this one night, she had no blood on her hands. 

And for that to happen, they had work to do.

[plushcat42]

An idea for a DCA au came to me in a dream

I don’t have any designs just an idea that my brain created when I took a nap today

Created by a Research company that focuses on aquatic and alien life, they were designed to accompany scientists into the field as a mix of assistant(sun) and bodyguard(moon)

This company isn’t exactly.. upstanding. The people behind its metaphorical steering wheel have very selfish and greedy motives especially once they see an opportunity to create synthetic but still organic life.

It’s not yet fully understood and the ideas are rudimentary but they’re convinced it’s possible.

So, whatever researches they send out and force to work on this project are told they cannot leave until the project sees some form of success and Sun and Moon are sent to stay at that research facility and log every bit of the process and any and all progress made to make certain no ones lying about what they find.

They’re not happy about it and the program the corporation added to their system wasn’t really refined and conflicts with some of their base programming. Predominantly; watch over and protect the researchers. Because their reports can and have put those researchers in danger.

Perhaps this reprogram could be the mimic’s glitchtrap virus or Eclipse. Although Eclipse would more likely fit as a last resort protocol if Moon’s security protocols fail somehow fail. Idk

There’s not much that I’ve really refined here I just wanted to share the rough, first thought ideas I had

If I had to add an insert element of this(which knowing me I probably will)

Y/N would be one of those researchers sent up to work on this project. They’ve worked with the company for a long time. They hate the corporation itself but hope one day that maybe their findings won’t be used by greedy people.

They really do love working with animals, earth dwelling and not. They have a tendency to get themselves into trouble because of the lengths they’ll go to do research or help an animal. They know to keep their distance but sometimes hiding isn’t enough.

They were the one that helped work on Sun and Moon when they were first developed but never really got to see them in action much before their deployment to the synthetic life program.

Overall Researcher Y/N is friendly and kindhearted if not impulsive and stubborn

I don’t have any ideas for a name for this but one will come to me eventually LMAO

[madcatdaderpydrawer-blog]

do the others ever actually realize how fucked it was that they were blaming Moon so much? Does Moon ever forgive them? Cuz frankly I don't think I would, I'm not sure if I'd feel safe trusting them to actually help if I got into trouble like that a second time after being treated like garbage the first time.

The animatronics did gradually start to realize, though it was months after the fact that the realization started for most of them. I'll be talking about the main band here, as Sun is a whole other category in of itself and is far more complex and this post is already very long. They were all pretty shaken up themselves, and in general the lack of stability from when everything was still haywire still remained. In a way having someone to blame just made things simpler, and Vanessa wasn't around anymore. The one most involved in her plans was Moon, and Moon is also the one who while infected was the most passionate about the role. For some reference even the other infected animatronics were wary of Infected Moon because of his strength, temper, and cruelty. Infected Moon was seriously bad, probably the worst infected animatronic and even before the others got infected he still left a mark when he was on his patrols with his cruelty and generally enjoying to make people scared. Just stating this to make it very clear that Infected Moon was not a good person, nowhere near it, and he had a lot of involvement in Vanny's plans as he was her right hand man so to speak.

People like Roxanne and Monty felt somewhat betrayed as well, because if he had done his job none of them would've had to suffer. Roxanne held a grudge against Moon for a long time because she felt that he could've stopped her plan before anyone got hurt if he just did his job correctly. Meanwhile Monty just felt really hurt that Moon helped spread the virus, even if he wasn't entirely in his right mind when he did it. He knows that he wasn't but it still hurts and he still feels like Moon betrayed him.

Honestly it took really long for them to separate Infected Moon and Moon, as Infected Moon was such a wicked cruel person. He left a nasty mark, and they couldn't really process that Moon was a victim too because they kept associating him with Infected Moon and his actions.

Moon was very conflicted when they started trying to make it up to him. On one hand, he didn't want to accept it. They'd been villianizing him for weeks while he himself was struggling to cope with the trauma he'd been put through. Hell, they made it actively harder for him to handle his emotions. But at the same time, he knows why they blame him for it. He understands Roxanne's point and blames himself for it too, and thinks that it was irresponsible of him to not report it the moment he felt something was wrong. if he'd done that no one would've had to suffer. And he has Infected Moons memories he knows just how awful he had been acting, and understands that it would leave some scars. He also gets why Monty feels betrayed because infected or not, Moon still willingly doomed them all to the same fate by spreading it to them and making sure it went through. She didn't force him to do it which makes him feel even worse about it, even more like he was the one to blame. Though really she didn't HAVE to force him to do it; All she had to do was know her audience. She knew by then that Infected Moon is a spiteful control freak whose majorly jealous of mainly his brother yes but also of the band for being treated as if their so much more important. It really wasn't that hard to convince him to find a way to put the program in them so she could get them on their side, especially with offering him to be in charge of them. The idea of instilling some amount fear in the oh so important golden children of the company with the strange program that they don't know how to control while also being in a position of power over them once it did finish was something he would never refuse.

Sorry for rambling, Infected Moon is a very fun topic to discuss lol. But anyways eventually he would try to forgive them. It would take a very long time though.

[manonamora-if]

A tradition with the French Comp is to interview the winner of every edition. Since I won Best Game, I got to partake in this tradition, and answer a bunch of fun questions about my entry and my creation process.

The interview is now available on the French IF community website:

Since it is in French, here is the translation, under the cut. Spoilers ahead. Note: the French article was over 2k words...

Interview with manonamora, winner of the contest 2023

This year, manonamora won the competition, with her entry, DOL-OS. We spoke with her to learn more about her creative process and her future projects!

Can you introduce yourself in a few words? How did you discover interactive fiction?

My name is Manon, a netizen under the pseudo manonamora for years.

I fell into the "cauldron" of interactive fiction in the spring of 2021, when a close friend had sent me the link to the game A Tale of Crowns. I liked this type of game, and it made me rediscover the pleasure of writing, so I stayed. It’s really nice in this pot, we’re having fun!

People appreciated the different levels of depth of your participation and the care taken at the interface, in particular. How long did it take you to design it?

It was a bit of a sprint… 😅

I think I started scribbling my ideas on pages about a month before the entry deadline.

I wanted to try to incorporate both themes (archives and trahison) into the game, just for fun. So I took the easiest path and went on to create an archive of different documents, all linked by the theme of betrayal. Of my list of documents that I wanted to include, I was only able to include half at the end (the other remained in draft, due to lack of time).

The idea of using a computer as a framework and interface for the game came up fairly quickly and organically, since the archive alone was not enough, to my liking. This led to the possibility of adding puzzles (something I didn’t necessarily do in my other games) that I could also link to the theme (like the hangman’s solution or opening Théophile’s account) and creating animated and pixelated visuals (like a fake virus downloaded). I even made a list of puzzles and minigames to add so that the computer looks like a real computer (that’s why there is a sudoku in the "games" folder, or the keypad to open one of the programs).

From there, I thought I would just do two blocks of archives: one on the guest’s account, where some of the documents would look corrupt, and another on Theophilus' account, where those missing documents would be. But by writing certain documents, such as the note in the trash and the journal entries (which were not separated from the archive initially), I had fun looking for the links between all the different parts and thinking more about the universe in which this old computer was. That’s how the Jupiter-Broker project became an artificial intelligence project, more than a virus.

What are the things that inspired you?

Other than a title I had written down in my drafts, I’m not sure which source inspired me to choose this genre or framework or use of the theme in this way. I’ve been a big fan of science fiction for as long as I can remember (I had swallowed Asimov in middle school/junior high… and now I’m stuck with the anthologies of short stories) and video games in general (especially the history and universe of these games). Everything that has to do with robots, the advancement of technology, futuristic stories, and human dilemmas that have to do with these first points, I’m passionate about it! I wouldn’t be surprised if, somewhere in my brain, I could pick up stuff from Portal or System Shock or Fallout or Asimov’s Robot Cycle, or even WALL-E and Alien, without really realizing it.

In my notes, the only concrete thing I could find was one of the entries of the Intertact-IF 2022 game jam: Logical Choices, especially in terms of its simplicity, and, finally, the newspaper too.

For the visual, I wanted from the start to have something simple, with the look of old computer in black and green, like my grandmother’s minitel. I really tried to search for minitel page images (I even found a page editor!). On the other hand, trying to code everything, it didn’t really go well with Twine, especially the animation of the blocks that appear one after the other. I was quickly tempted to create the game in minitel pages, but well, I only had 2 weeks left… It was a bit short to learn a new system. So I just took pictures of old computer screens.

Are there any secrets the players might have missed?

There are several little secrets in the game.

The first category concerns the names in the game: the title, «DOL-OS», is based on the Greek deity of the same name, Dolos, personifying treachery (and bam, the theme of the contest; and it sounded good as operating system name). The AI is named Janus, the deity with two faces. The program of Theodore’s diary, in which he was summoned by his organization to write his days, is named «Ind.ic», coming from the French word indic, a person who informs the police.

Something a little more fuzzy can be found in the writer’s draft, which is related to one of my other games, Exquisite Cadaver, where the player plays this writer, who has not been able to write for months. This is not the first time I have included a link to this game in my projects, like the "cocktail" Renaud’s Nightmare in The Thick Table Tavern.

Where do you get your ideas, generally speaking?

A bit everywhere. Sometimes, it comes organically enough looking at the theme or the constraints of a game jam (La Petite Mort, Goncharov Escapes!). Sometimes, it’s just the desire to push a kind of puzzle or a type of gameplay into a project (Exquisite Cadaver, well it was also the theme). Sometimes it’s typing “trope [genre]” in Google and taking the first thing that comes out (SPS Iron Hammer). Otherwise I have some ideas that have been inspired by books (P-RIX – SPACE TRUCKER, by Stanisław Lem’s Tales of Pirx the Pilot) or films (Meeting the Parents, inspired by Meet the Parents). Other projects or ideas for future projects are inspired by books on my nightstand, or conversations with loved ones, or even just random thoughts that come and go.

I’m not trying too hard to think. If it doesn’t inspire me or amuse me, I’ll move on. Creating interactive fiction is all about fun. And I already have a super long list of ideas I want to do…

You only use Twine. Is there a particular reason? Do you intend to try other creative systems in the future? Maybe some of the other entries gave you some ideas?

For the moment, yes. Twine remains my favourite, having been the first program I hooked up with when I started creating interactive games. The software was easy to navigate and rather playful to use (Harlowe has extra help to code in the program) and the program is open source. It was really important for me, who didn’t have any code or programming knowledge that went any further than that techno hour to the colleague where a substitute had taught us to create a basic HTML page. With Twine, it stuck from the start.

And then, personally, I love that the customisation aspect can be pushed as much. You can do hypertext or multi-choice games, dungeons, RPGs, etc. I created a cocktail bar for my participation in the IFComp last year, and there I did a puzzle. I have a friend who has recreated Minesweeper and another who has made Snake with his sauce. Almost anything is possible with Twine!

When I get tired of Twine, I think I’ll try other systems, especially those to create parsers (because making one with Twine is a bit of a mess… /did and done that). And then also test programs made in France. Already during the ECTOCOMP and the Feldo streams of the games of the old competitions, Donjon had intrigued me a lot. And also ink, to make stories that extend to infinity (it takes too much tinkering with Twine for it to work...).

But my Twine fling isn’t over yet. I’ve only been playing with the interface since last summer, and I don’t feel like I’ve discovered the bottom of the iceberg yet. There are still a lot of things I haven’t tested yet, whether it’s in different formats or gameplay. I would like to do some kind of escape room or RPG in the future. I still want to push the envelope a little further…

You participated in the IFComp (the largest English-language event) before participating in our contest. Are there any differences that particularly struck you between the two?

By missing the inclusion of a theme (which the IFComp does not), I think the biggest difference between the two contests is the attitude of the participants and the players. The atmosphere of the French competition is really relaxed and I noticed a lot of support in the Discord. Or even have a person stream all the games on Twitch (it’s very convenient for me who is a loser in parsers…). It’s really positive!

On the other side, there is the IFComp which is really considered the event of the year, where the authors exhibit their best creations, without any real constraints, some having been in development secretly for years. The atmosphere is more professional and harsh towards its participants. There is really a lot of expectation from the entire interactive fiction community. It’s supposed to be the crème of the crop in interactive fiction.

After that, even if the atmosphere of the French-language competition is more chill, I found the level of entries much more uniform in terms of quality. While the IFComp will often have very poor or even zero entries (the bottom of the ranking having an average of below 2.5 out of 10), the overall French competition had a very high level (a sentiment shared by one of the critics on intfiction.org). The attention to each game had a lot of merit, especially as regards writing.

Another thing that struck me as well was the diversity between the systems and formats used—it is possible that the competition, having three times fewer bids than the IFComp, may have influenced my perspective on the subject. But between the French programs (Moiki, and Donjon), the more popular ones (Twine, Inform, ink), or even made from scratch (like the participations of AZ and Narkhos), there were many choices and important differences between uses. It was a fascinating experience that really made me want to try something new.

Finally, I had a very different attitude towards the two competitions. After taking a little slap during the IFComp (arriving in the middle of the stack and having received fair but also severe feedback, read more here), the expectation I had with myself with the contest was less trying to get to a certain position in the standings, but no more fun creating something different. It was much easier to look a little more… healthy competition, with all the lessons learned during the IFComp and new knowledge and experiences between the two competitions.

And on top of that, you regularly participate in game jams like ECTOCOMP or Partim 500, you co-organize the SeedComp! , and you’re going to participate in the Spring Thing. Is there a secret to such productivity?

Delusion that all this is doable in the allotted time. Free time. And spite. But especially the first point. 😂

(this was the gif that came into my mind when I wrote my answer, not part of the actual interview)

Frankly, I’m not helping my cause either. As soon as I find a project that is a bit interesting, I can get all in on it quite quickly and put all my energy and free time into it. It’s not recommended, actually. Even if all these participations taught me a lot of things (and especially to learn quickly), it tires a lot in the end... I am often emptied at the end of each new jam/comp.

It’s probably a little psychological, too. The will to create a lot to leave a trace behind me, a trace that will represent everything I could accomplish, everything I could be able to do or try to do. The desire to prove to others and especially to myself that I can create stuff that I as a child could not have imagined; especially since before 2021, I really didn’t have any programming knowledge… Willingness, or perhaps duty, to prove that I can solve a challenge in a short time (for example: in 4 hours for ECTOCOMP, or two quiet afternoons for Partim 500), or with significant constraints (One-Button and Two-Buttons jams), or just because there’s a piece of spaghetti code that taunts me about unravelling it.

Anyway...

Do you have other projects underway or coming soon? Perhaps you plan to participate in the contest next year?

Of what happens soon, hopefully, The Roads not Taken, a parser made with Twine, will be finished in time for the Spring Thing. I really want to talk about it, but at the same time, it’s more fun if it’s still a little secret… [note: it is now out!]

Otherwise… Too many projects in progress. Between the demos not yet completed, the translations of my old games finished, the organization of game jams (SeedComp! will not be the only one this year…), and the hope of participating in the next IF competitions, I have given myself a lot of work (too much) to do.

Ha ha ha…

Thank you for answering these questions! Congratulations again, good luck and don’t forget to take care of yourself!

[amazing-spiderling]

fic writer asks: 1. What fic of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read any of your work? (In other words, what do you think is the best introduction to your fics?)

17. What highly specific AU do you want to read or write even though you might be the only person to appreciate it?

25. What other websites or resources do you use most often when you write?

I'm going to be a little cheaty- since there's two fandoms I've written a chunk for, I'd leave it up to the reader as to which they'd prefer, but they both have a lot in common.

If someone was of the Metal Gear persuasion, I'd tell them to read "Rat in a Foxhole", which is a story that consumed my brain and I think I was smashing out a chapter a day or something, because I was SO INSPIRED by a piece of artwork (itself, an album redraw) that my brain was on fire and the only way to get it out was to put the words on the screen. The fic has a bit to do with some information we get from MGS 5, specifically that Huey had intended for his son Hal to be a child mech pilot (the pilots needed to be small because of the limitations of the size of the cockpit). My brain immediately got to wondering about what would happen to such a child pilot once they grew and "aged out" of the program (or the program shut down because wtf). Then I saw @polmcarts artwork of a version of Hal and Dave meeting in some kind of bootcamp and the plot was born.

It's a sort of... meditative fic? I often imagine my stories as screenplays, and if it was viewed in that way, there would be a lot of long silences, detail shots, vast open landscapes etc. It does, of course, include a drawn out winter arc because I'm that bitch, and it's got a few twists and turns before (of course) ultimately ending on a hopeful note.

Likewise "The Man in the Mask" is a Spideypool AU that envisions an alternate meeting, and one of the characters not being forthcoming with who they are and why they're there. This one was another story that was really burning a hole in my brain, although it took me a lot longer to get it out. Having a little Marvel familiarity (with mutants and the legacy virus in particular) helps, but I've had people tell me that I did a good enough of a job explaining the concept in the fic that they weren't too lost. This one reads a bit like a "bottle episode" with the two characters more or less trapped in a single apartment and making the best of it. (I guess you could say Dave and Hal were trapped in the boot camp in the first one, so there's that.) For a story about Wade and Peter, this one also has a lot of introspection and quiet moments before a few things bubble over.

Just like the first story, this one had people screaming at me before they finished off the last chapter, which I think is a bit of a feather in my cap as a writer, it means I sold the drama and brought things to a satisfying conclusion. I call both of these some of my "weird ones" because they're extremely niche AUs that I wrote for myself, so it really makes me happy when they ping with people. I wish I had ideas like these more often.

17. I kind of have a bug in my brain about doing a fantasy adjacent Earth-65 AU featuring "The Merry Janes" and I guess AUs of AUs counts as niche... Oh, god and I really want to write a 616 or NMCU (or combo) one about Matt and Foggy being academic rivals and complaining about each other online anonymously and becoming friends (and more) without realizing. I was watching a compilation of 90's/2000's anime intros and the beginning of "His and Her Circumstances" started spooling little ideas in my head. And now that I'm on a roll, my brain is like "Lol what if Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne AU" where Matt is a "holy thief" stealing/exorcising relics and Foggy is on the side of the law trying to bring him in sfdkdsjflj And of course there's the Madoka E-65 AU I want to flesh out at some point, but that might be a better comic than story. Moral of the story is, Anime: Not Even Once.

25. thesaurus.com LOL I don't actually do a lot of looking at resources when I'm actually writing and I don't have a lot of "go to" pages for things, it's kind of random. I will do searches for things like "what year was this thing invented", but I don't have a bookmarked tab of "popular weapons in ancient china and how to use them" or anything like that. I guess I use Youtube a lot to listen to vapor/chillwave mixes while I write, is that anything? I guess a resource I use is the sprintbot in discord (and my fellow server members) to help get my brain to focus. I keep meaning to try that website that has little doodads on it to help adhd brains focus on writing but i keep forgetting.

[despair-to-future-arcs]

Izuru perfect timing! I was originally going to ask how Hajime feels about going all goth after everything is done and over!

...Is that question important?

I guess they are curious how Hajime is feeling about all this.

I see... well, to put it simply he was very tired but when I offer to take over for him... he became quite stubborn...

...

...

...

--------------------------------------------------------------------

The actual hell?! Why would I give up my body to the likes of you! There's no way I'm doing that after everything we all been through!

But even then, you seem tired and not able to spend time with your friends, am I correct?

Well yes I am but as long as they return back to normal, away from despair then that's all that matters to me.

And why would you care; you never care about a single damn thing ever since your creation so why does it matter?

Because I know Nagi would want that and I'm sure she would understand...

...!?

Look... I'm not saying you have to like me, honestly I could care less about anyone else but I know you would want your friends to come back, so how about we make a deal...

I can do all the programming and surgery for your friends that die in the simulation, it could help all of us and make things go faster if I do all of it and as more of the virus is remove, you'll be seeing less of me.

And? What do you get out of this...?

Not much really, as say I do think it might be a good idea if I do the programming and return all your friends away from despair.

While Junko did make things 'interesting' it was still boring to me and seeing the killing game; I could see you all fighting for your futures and I suppose that inspired me as well...

So I guess to answer, this would be my 'redemption' to you, to restore the others and return them back to normal; I took away their home and this might be the way to redeem myself...

...

I see, so your going to do all the programming and restoring my friends, very well... I'll allow it but on the condition that I get to spend time with them before we get back to work, I think that be a fair agreement.

Very well... I'll do that but remember that as more and more of that virus is remove, I'll appear less and less...

--------------------------------------------------------------------

...

...

...

Sooo if I'm understanding this right; your just here to help with programming and surgery?

Indeed, that is what I'm here for... that'll all be what I'm doing but Hajime shall return after Mahiru Koizumi is awake.

So Hajime isn't completely gone, just that Izuru is fronting Hajime right now...

Well the question wasn't that important but still that does explain a lot.

I suppose so but I rather wait until I finish eating and Nagi can ask me questions...

[chika-the-terrible]

Doubling Back

“I can’t believe that asshole!” Rebecca snarled, typing away at a laptop.

“Well, Jacob is kind of a jerk.” Shaun pointed out, watching over her shoulder. Bishop rubbed her face. While the Initiates were amazing hackers, Rebecca was the one with the most experience with the Animus code. So, even though they were hiding from Sigma Team, Rebecca was the only one Bishop could count on to do something about this mess.

“Only because his father was a bigger one.” Rebecca retorted.

“Break it up, guys.” Bishop said, “Any progress?”

“Nope. Jacob somehow locked the code. I can’t mess with it, even as an admin, and rebooting it hasn’t worked. And the fucker keeps changing the code constantly. It’s like he’s rewriting the entire memory program, which he shouldn’t be able to do! Computers don’t even become common until the Nineties, so he should have no idea what he’s doing, but he’s doing it anyway!”

“That’s Jacob for you, I suppose.” Shaun noted. He took a sip of his tea, “But if the program only works from genetic memory, how is he changing it?”

“He’s putting his own code to manipulate what’s already there, which changes what the program’s supposed to do. Say you have a sentence in French or some other language and you add a word. At that point, you change the sentence or even make it unreadable. That’s basically what Jacob’s doing and I can’t counteract that, even if I had the rest of my equipment with me.”

“Then how are we supposed to find the Shroud?”

“I suppose we could try sending the Initiate again.” Bishop mused, “But with Jacob out of our control, they’ll have to go in as Evie.” Both Rebecca and Shaun turned to the monitor Bishop was being shown on.

“You said Jacob kicked both of you out, though. How are we supposed to get back in?” Shaun asked.

“I don’t know, but it’s possible.” Rebecca began typing again, “Jacob wouldn’t hurt his own sister, even if it’s just us, but it’ll be hard to get in without him knowing.”

“Could you mask the Helix program as something else? Something he won’t detect?” asked Bishop.

“I’ll try.”

“Well, what about the glitches the Initiate’s been collecting? The ones with Abstergo secrets? Can we use those as an opening?” Shaun asked. Rebecca paused.

“You might be onto something there. I’ll see what I can do. But once we get in, how are we supposed to get rid of Jacob’s control over the Animus?”

“He thinks we’re Templars.” Bishop said, “Somehow, we need to get through to him that we’re not a threat. As for wresting back control of the Animus…” Bishop shook her head, “I don’t know. We may just have to do a full wipe.”

“A full wipe?! That’s all of our progress on infiltrating the Helix program! If we do a full wipe, it’ll be ages before we can get into Helix again, if they don’t go ahead and block us out completely!” Rebecca protested.

“He’s acting like a virus, Becs. If we treat him like one, it may get rid of this alternate programming he’s got.” Bishop reasoned.

“Maybe, but that doesn’t mean it’ll work. Jacob and Evie’s memories are in the Helix Cloud, which means that those memories are accessed from a server remotely. Even if we wipe Jacob from this specific Animus, that doesn’t mean he can’t flee into the Cloud and go somewhere else.” Rebecca looked uncomfortable. Shaun took a sip of his tea.

“So, what you’re saying is,” Shaun began, “that if we want to get rid of this version of Jacob for good, we’d have to go to the source of the Helix Cloud? Inside Abstergo?”

“Pretty much.” Rebecca nodded.

“We don’t have that kind of time or resources.” said Bishop, “We’ll need to do what we can to at least get the location of the Shroud. After that, I don’t know what we’ll do.”

“Well, we can’t just leave Jacob in the hands of the Templars. There has to be a way to reason with him, before they realize he’s even there.” spoke Shaun, “He might even help us, once he realizes we’re Assassins. Or, well, that depends on how he feels about us, and right now, I don’t think Jacob’s too keen on that. Give him some months and he’ll definitely be more keen on being an Assassin, especially after the Roth debacle and finding the Shroud, but until then, Jacob’s more of a freelance mercenary with morals.”

“We still don’t have that kind of time.” Bishop thinned her lips, “Becs, try and find a way back in as fast as you can. I’ll prep the Initiate on what we know and their new mission. Best of luck that Jacob doesn’t see through our deception before we get a chance.” Bishop then ended the call. As much as Shaun had the right idea, she was certain that Jacob wouldn’t trust them. They would have to do what they could to find the Shroud, with or without his help.

[mizumi-kahago-writing]

I know the algebraic expression of L-O-V-E [Kamunami/Hinanami & Yandere!Chiaki] - Chapter 4

Disclaimer: This is an AU in which the Chiaki AI got at least partially infected by the Junko Virus. This is what makes her become a Yandere and a bit out of character. This AU also entails Hajime and Izuru becoming more of a DID-System, instead of fusing into one person. The main difference, compared to the real illness, is that they can switch out consciousness at will. Also, major spoilers and canon divergence ahead. You have been warned.

﹀﹀﹀﹀︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶﹀﹀﹀﹀

Chapter 4

Hajime didn’t come back to visit her on the same day. Instead, it took another 24 hours until he’d return to meet up again. That gave the AI more than enough time to process all her thoughts and newly input-information.

However, he wasn’t greeted with the usual cheerful ‘Welcome back’, instead the screen was dimly lit, and she faced away from the door.

“Hi, Chiaki. Is… everything alright?” Making sure of her wellbeing.

No response, just some quiet sobbing. Hajime never saw nor heard Chiaki cry before. At least not like that. “H-hey, it’s alright. I’m here. Tell me what happened.” Trying to comfort her to the best of his abilities.

She turned around, facing him. “It’s nothing. I hope you had fun with your friends.” She lied directly in his face. “Of course, I mean our friends, right? Since apparently, I’m their friend too after all, right?”

“S-sure…” Nervously twitching back.

“I want to meet them. Hajime, when can I see my classmates again? It’s always just you who visits me. That doesn’t seem fair. I want to see them again as well.” She demanded.

“I can arrange that. Like I could bring over Mikan or Soda next time. How does that sound?” Adverting his gaze nervously.

“No, Hajime. I want more. I want to be able to meet them in person.” Pretty direct and straight to the point.

“Huh? I’m afraid that’s not exactly possible, you know…” Gesturing up and down towards the machine she was trapped in.

“But Hajime, I have an idea!” She spouted eagerly. “An idea? Sure, let’s hear it.” Wanting to know what she had to say.

“Have you heard of androids?” Raising her finger, as she asked him that. “Yeah, they are like robots, right?”

“Hmm, precisely. They are robots almost inextinguishable from humans, from looks to behavior.” She explained to him.

“Hey, Chiaki. I think I might see where you’re getting at, but I don’t think that’s-“

Her pouting loudly interrupted him, as she seemed upset about what he wanted to say. “Look, Chiaki. I want you to be back, just the way you were… before all this, just as much as you, probably. But…” He couldn’t really find the words, biting his lip to interrupt himself this time around.

Recalling Izuru’s warning inside his head. He already let this go too far, for anyone’s liking.

Chiaki’s face went blank, robotic but creepy, nonetheless. “So, you don’t want me after all. I am too bland for your taste, is that it? Is that why you want to keep me imprisoned within the constraints of this machine?” Legitimately, her attitude was making him freak out internally.

“Turn it down a notch, will ya?” Shoving his hands in front of him, approaching to deescalate the situation. “Oh, I am sorry, Hajime. Did I scare you? That was just a little bug, probably.” Giving her signature smile to him instead, he let out a sigh of relief.

“If it was just a bug, then it’s fine” Right? He questioned himself. If that were to happen again, he had to call Izuru to skim through the code a second time. Just to be sure.

“But it is true…” Her sad tone soured the mood once more. “I want to be with you. Physically. I want to be next to you, hold your hand and hug you tight. At least one more time.” Hajime couldn’t deny how much he wanted that too. The last time, he managed to touch her was within the program and before that, it has been at least four years at this point.

This was bothering him, eating away on him as well. But was he allowed to falter, in a situation such as this?

“Kazuichi is the Ultimate Mechanic, right? It’d be easy for him to build me a body I could use. Then we could go on walks together, spend time together watching a movie, laugh and cuddle in bed.” Pursuing him, almost as if he had already agreed to all of that.

“I mean yeah. He could. I’m sure, but-“

Not letting him finish at all: “Image all the games we could play together. Outside of this limiting simulation. Please Hajime, just give it a thought.”

“Alright, alright, I’m already thinking about it.” Backing out of the conversation. “Please, listen to me for just a second. I want it too. I want Chiaki to be back too. I want her… or you to be real again. But… it’ll never be the same. No-one and nothing, could replace her truly. What happened, happened and I can’t turn back time. I can’t magically turn wrongs into rights.”

Taking a deep breath, as his shoulder sunk down, relaxing a bit more than before now that this was off his chest. “So, you really don’t want me to be her after all.” She concluded. “It’s not. It’s not that. It’s just, you’re all I have left of her. A memory, a trace, only a little fragment of what she was.” Turning his head away as grief overcame him. “Chiaki, I’m so sorry.”

As much as he was hurt, she was as well. “This is your final answer, I see. If I can’t be her, I guess there is no use of me staying around any longer. After all, I’m just an artificial replica of her and I can be deleted or rewritten any time.”

A moment of silence, she wasn’t wrong. “Good-bye then, Hajime.” Turning herself off moments later, it left the poor boy devastated. “Hey, no, Chiaki?! Hey, what’s up with you? Don’t you…?! Please come back!” Frantically pressing the power button of the machine to get her back on screen again, but to no avail.

“Ah Fuck! Great job Hajime! You screwed up.” Scolding himself.

“No, you did the right thing. Turning down her offer of entering the real world. It’s what Junko tried to do with your bodies after all, don’t forget that.” Izuru reminded him unkindly.

“I know, but she’s different, you know? It’s just Chiaki… not her…” Justifying it inside his mind.

With a sigh Izuru turned away and let him wail in his desperation for a little longer. Talking against someone in such an emotional state was futile, even for him. It’s not like he didn’t warn Hajime about something like that happening.

Leaving the empty room with heavy steps, Hajime had to get his mind off this thing. And unluckily for him, he decided to vent to none other than the Ultimate Lucky Student himself, who gladly gave him advice in exchange of coming along next time.

﹀﹀﹀﹀︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶﹀﹀﹀﹀

« Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 »

[transmissionsfromthebattlefield]

DEVOtion, Day Two

And then the nerds re-congregated, and DEVOtional Saturday happened.

And what a de-evolved time it was.

The Jimmy Psycho Experiment, who have been DEVOtional openers for a few years now, set a relaxed mood well with their tiki-loungey versions of everyone’s favorite DEVO hits. Attention soon shifted towards the many special guests, whose Q&A sessions took up a good chunk of the night. Good old Mark was back for round 2, though he was slightly more subdued when compared to his misdemeanor on Friday. DEVOtional old timer Jerry Casale, who almost always comes out to support the fans, brought with him the music video premier of his next single, “The Invisible Man.” Without spoiling too much for everyone who wasn’t there, it was hands-down one of the most amusing things I’ve ever witnessed, and it only makes me more fascinated about what exactly goes on within Jerry’s mind that could make him conjure up something so perfectly, undeniably wack. But you’ll all see it in a few months.

Steve Bartek, the guitarist on Jerry’s recent music who is best known for his work with Oingo Boingo, joined Jerry in looking very smart and answering questions. I didn’t get to talk with him at all, but he seemed like a really genuine guy. The dark horse of the program, however, was one Michael Schwartz, better known as Rod Rooter, DEVO’s evil manager from way back. Throughout the night, Mike seamlessly incorporated his character into his talk-talk to the point where I initially genuinely wasn’t sure if he was joking or not when he discussed being the first white guy on King Records with a song produced by James Brown. (Spoiler alert: he WASN’T).

Sometime before DEVOtional started, Max had the brilliant idea of making Rod an entire election campaign which proceeded to snowball from a joke to people on Facebook actually buying made-to-order polo shirts emblazoned with the phrase “America’s Begging For The Barrel Room.” The virus had spread so far that Max didn’t even have to give Mark one of the campaign buttons he was handing out; he had already been given one by someone else. With Mike’s charisma and wit, I wouldn’t hesitate to vote in his favor, and I can’t help but hope he becomes a mainstay. (“The Man” did approve of Max’s effort, by the way.)

Max signed one of his posters for him while I stood by, causing him to ask Max in character, “Is THIS your GIRLFRIEND?” Max would go on to be very fixated on the fact that Mike was a few hours early to the punch on that.

Jerry, Mark, and the rest were signing items for hours. I heard someone say their autograph session clocked in at over three hours, which blows my mind and makes me want to pray atheist style for their dominant wrists. Max used the opportunity to gift Mark and Jerry bags containing some of his original music and hand decorated lab coats, with airbrush art for Marky and colorful tampons for Jer-Jer, while I stood by as photojournalist and emotional support.

(Jerry sadly didn’t try it on for us in person, but the photo he uploaded later more than makes up for that.)

I wasn’t immune to the photo opportunities, either.

All the while, Al Mothersbaugh’s band, Massive Hotdog Recall, brought the party as usual, proving that “Shout” can be a good song if you add some non-synthetic, whip-spankin’ horns to it. New Devolution, an energetic tribute band who came all the way from Chile to perform, followed by plowing through high-power early 80s DEVO tracks. The fun factor was through the roof as the spontaneously generated giant helium balls the crowd was serving around threatened to make a dent in it.

After the raffle, which I did not win anything at, the highly anticipated Fight Milk, who were not balls, took the stage. They exemplified the fun factor just like last year, but having more than one guy on the stage again (while retaining last year’s cardboard cutouts) totally elevated their energy. Alongside Jackson, the band’s creative mastermind and sole constant, it was great having Tavi from Finland back onstage, whether he was flashing a creepy smile at the audience with down pitched vocals or scurrying around the stage wrecking his guitar strings. Those boys be DEVO.

Max was also making his live performance debut, and he absolutely killed it. Not many other DEVOtional performances would both perform a song that hadn’t been performed since 1974 and make the live debut of Jerry’s latest single. (TAKE THAT, OLD MAN! Just kiddin’.) Max took lead on both, and it was so great seeing him in his element. It truly wouldn’t have been the same without him up there in that goddamn tampon coat hurling his Rod Rooter buttons at the crowd. I even caught a photo of one in mid air! I love blinding everyone with the flash from my camera.

Detention finished off the night, though I sadly didn’t get to see most of their set because, deja vu, I was too busy having a conversation in the Ballroom’s bar the room over. (I got to hear their Steve-tribute cover of Oingo Boingo’s “Little Girls” in muffled format, though!) At least I did get to chat with their singer Elliott, who I’ve bumped into a few times on the Kent campus, beforehand. Us Kent chicks gotta stick together.

And then, just like that, the night had winded down. Everyone packed up, stumbled out of the ballroom, and hit up Ubers back to their hotels. And then it was over.

Did it beat last year’s for me? No. That year was too special! But I’ll gladly let it be the first loser.

And hey, I got a boyfriend out of this one, so I guess that’s a plus.

[ratsmoocher]

i need to be a hater. i reread "the program" after first reading it in like middle school and then read the sequel bc i was like well i might as well. and they're both.... bad? i didn't like them? i feel like they're trying to say something but it keeps getting buried under a stupid love triangle and the dystopian YA girl rebel craze of the 2010s. there's several things i didn't enjoy but my main qualm was that the book's about a teen suicide epidemic and yet it doesn't give us a single reason why teens are killing themselves en masse other than "the program" which was supposed to fix it by taking "infected memories" so kids wouldn't have anything to be depressed about. and the text says the program is making the epidemic worse, obviously, and the origin of the epidemic is one of the big mysteries, but it's never revealed beyond "a girl took antidepressants for too long and got suicidal and then somehow it became contagious" when like. one of the hallmark symptoms is drawing spirals. this isn't "normal depression" and it's apparently so contagious that one in three teens were dying or something. but even though the pov character is a teen girl, the only reasons she has to be depressed are things the program is doing to her life. the author tells us literally nothing about the world that her story is set in. there's references to diet coke and denny's and mcdonalds so i guess we're supposed to assume that this takes place in a world similar to ours? or just flat out our world? but being depressed and having depressed friends myself, it feels so disingenuous to not give us any information about, say, the political climate of this world, or any widespread societal issues that might make kids depressed. it feels so shitty to say "these characters are depressed and beyond the program itself, it's a mystery why!" when i personally am casually suicidal because the world is falling apart around me. the depression in the book is completely separate from the real world conditions that the characters are in. once a character said something like "if they really wanted me to get better they wouldve taken away my abusive dad" and like!!! yes!!! address the root cause! but almost no other characters have moments like that, where their actual life conditions are taken into account to explain why they're suicidal. it feels overwhelmingly like the characters are depressed for no reason, or at least that the epidemic started for no reason, like in the book's world it's an actual virus or something. and that feels so gross to me as an idea pushed in a novel for kids who might be dealing with depression that was caused by real, tangible things. it just feels like there should have been a material reason for the epidemic in the text. something that could maybe be changed to fix the problem permanently. even at the end of the book they're just like "the program is over and suicides are down but we never figured out why it started and nothing else has changed!" like. great. so you didn't actually fix the problem. i learned after finishing "the treatment" that there's four more books in this series and i cannot say i want to read them. i swear to god i need more materialism in stories about mental health or i'm gonna flip my lid.

ok i found some reviews that agree with me thank god. and now i'm even more pissed bc it seems that the author really was just describing regular old depression this way. as in, spreading the idea that depression is contagious. and that it comes out of nowhere and even if your life is fine it makes you suicidal. like i'm sure that does happen to some people! but not on a widespread scale like this and not like a contagion. other ppl were saying the narrative trivializes depression and i think that's the root of my problem w it. depression and suicide become the backdrop for a codependent teen relationship (portrayed as a good thing) caught in a shitty love triangle and topped with a "we have to join the rebellion against the government" type story that always happens in the second book in a YA dystopia series. maybe if the narrative ever presented a viable alternative to the program i would've liked it more, but there was never a reason behind the epidemic, so there can't be a solution. it's a book written from the perspective of a depressed teen, but by an adult who doesn't remember being a depressed teen, if they ever were one, so the pov character has nothing to say. like when people in real life say "we don't know why the youth is depressed!" when we know exactly why kids are so fucked up and it's the material conditions we live under. but in the book, there's just. no reason. it's a world where the adults are correct when they say kids are sad for no reason. it just sucks.

[tickletricky]

Mishap with the Accident Prevention Measures!

A/N; I accidentally forgot to post this because i posted the version that I HADN’”T SPELLCHECKED YET and got so embarrassed i temporarily perished. so in return i used my best “novel” style for the fic. help it literally took days to edit. 

Summary: @tsuruyasonozaki said the remote idea was too short to make a fic out of. I took that as a challenge. 

Content: lee!Moon, ler!Sun, Sun and Moon are brothers but like not from a technological standpoint, more like a found family standpoint? Minor angst, the Vanny incident happened but nobody ever got killed. 

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Just when Sun’s shift was almost over, there was a precious half-hour between the time that his shift was ending and Moon’s began. 

The incident with the bunny-clothed terrorist seemingly changed the very air of the ‘Plex. The Glamrocks never quite felt right with their rehearsals, often feeling bummed-out (as Chica might call it) and opting to wing it when the shows would come. Sun and Moon’s dynamic remained damaged, the two feeling a certain type of fear towards one another. Like a hare on the run from a coyote, like walking the thin line of perfection for those who don’t accept mistakes.

Moon had been located, repaired, and stopped before what was identified as a strange sort of virus or glitch could have caused him to truly harm anyone, but despite having been ‘cured,’ he still felt as though something was wrong. 

Even so, as the click and whooshing of the hydraulics in Moon’s charging pad opening echoed out in the hollow staircase that dared to give it a stinging drone, Sun could not help his own excitement — not only to see his brother, but to see another person after closing hours. Such joy manifested itself in a brief, but tight, hug for what he saw as none other than his brother — they were not technologically capable of being related, but Sun could not help himself. 

A creaking, fond chuckle purred out of Moon’s voicebox, wrapping an arm around his would-be younger brother.

The brighter attendant pulled away, suddenly trying to make himself very serious even if he could not be taken in such a way. “You overslept, mister.”

A prod at Moon’s chest earned a ‘ficial huff from the darker counterpart. With a weary smile, he spoke a ‘sorry’ just above mumbling volume, just now beginning to feel sober from the leftover drowsiness plaguing his systems. As such, his processors began to piece together bits of things that he considered off; puzzle pieces of Sun’s anxious behaviors. The way he had seemed apprehensive of releasing Moon from the hug, how he wrinkled the silky fabric of his striped skirt between his fingers even now as Moon looked him briefly in the eyes; no, this was not something he had done. 

“Rough day?” Carefully speaking, a sort of rarely-seen gentleness hidden in the staticky undertones set in his voice, easily missed. 

“Yeah, you could say that. I… I need to talk to you about something.” Sun admitted, his sun rays giving in under the pressure; withdrawing for fear alone.

“Ohh, boy,” Moon sighed dejectedly, physically drawling as he took a couple of steps back to sit against a beanbag, practically collapsing into it without much care. 

As much as he would’ve liked to try to sleep through Sun’s following ramble, he knew by his behavior that it was more than some minor glitch or error, or a misbehaving child. The tense silence that gripped the air shanked his core with a sort of terror that only someone with a strict parent or boss would be able to understand. 

Was it a relapse he hadn’t remembered, perhaps? Something he said? 

He felt as though no matter how many times the Parts and Services’ programming crew told him, he would never believe that his code was completely clean. 

The same peace and contentment from before the incident never came quite so easily any more, especially not with others, when he didn’t trust himself not to snap even though an outsider could tell he was acting more polite and obedient than ever before. 

Call of the void, the humans had named it. The fear of stepping off the edge on purpose, the fear that you’ll use the easy opportunity to do something absolutely horrible. 

“... it is about you.” Sun monitored his tone as he spoke this a bit slowly, eying his brother’s expression like a fawn to a hunting-gun. 

“I figured,” Moon’s voice was greatly lethargic; rivaling a feline’s afternoon nap but threatening to succumb to his own creeping anxiety. “What is it this time?” 

“It is… a remote.” “What for?” Moon raised a nonexistent brow towards the thought. Regret slowly creeped up on his systems for letting Parts and Services install that last update. Leaning forward in a slump and entwining the fingers of his hands together lazily, the darker robot let off a huff.

“In case you start… ‘acting problematically’... Th-their words! Not mine!” 

Sun quickly found himself scrambling purposelessly, raising his hands in perhaps not-so-mock surrender. “I believe you,” Moon assured, maintaining much the same tone. “Oh- that… is a relief. That’s good, because, well… to be honest with you, I don’t like this at all.” His tone whined towards the end, a grimace showing up on his expression before he could force it away. “Hey, hey. Hey. it’s not your fault they felt like you needed it. Right? I’m not mad, Sunny.” He watched as Sun’s expression remained just the same no matter how he tried to comfort him. “If I’m being honest, too, I’m just… scared about what it’s supposed to do.” 

“Oh.” Sun sighed. “I don’t know what it does. They didn’t tell me. Just…” He fiddled with it in his hands, his fingers gripping it as far away from any of the strange buttons embedded into it as possible, toying with the joking thought of it being an evil-looking television remote in his head. “Just to use it if you start getting violent, or something.”

“I’m not going to.” He responded just a bit too quickly, not being able to decide whether he was telling that to himself or Sun, who smiled ever so faintly. “Um… we should get to cleaning,” he suggested, forcing his own smile upon his expression. “I cleaned most of it up myself already, so it shouldn’t take too long… the- the kids were very well-behaved today,” Sun remissed briefly, sounding quite more comfortable.

Moon’s hydraulics groaned as he stood up from where he was sitting. “I’m glad. They used to be like little gremlins,” he chuckled softly, to Sun’s lighthearted chagrin. 

And yet they still found their sync; a lilo of celestial twins. Sun would vehemently deny if asked, but his thoughts were not focused on anything he was doing while he was working. Moreso on the remote in his pocket, the sort of thoughts that made him pluck it out himself and contemplate locking it away somewhere. Sure. He was scared. But the chance of hurting someone else, his own brother, was much more terrifying.

“Sunny.” His brother prodded him suddenly. “Eep! Oh, Moon, you gave me a scare- Moon?” Examining him more closely with fear, he noticed he seemed to be artificially choking. His body lightly thrashed around and he looked as though he might be malfunctioning, and yet he was still attached to the acrobat wire he used.

“Moony! Oh god, oh no, oh god-” Sun dropped the remote in an instant, fingers scrambling and shaking as they tried to find some way to detach the hook, helping Moon down to the play mat below.

His thoughts were running in every single different direction right now. Contemplating taking him to Parts and Services to tell them to shut the damn thing off, or picking the remote up back again and trying to turn it off, or-

“mmMM… mhmhm! EhehEE!!” 

Did Moon just…? Sun’s systems nearly tripped over themselves in a mixture of shock, relief, and confusion. “You’re… laughing?” Sun looked back towards Moon to see him gripping his own arms, a wide smile on his face and strained giggles tumbling out every so often. And then it dawned on him. 

“It’s- it’s tickling you!” Sun himself began to laugh, again, from relief, but this time mixed with a mischievous amusement. “Oh- that’s- that’s too good! And, and, and! After last week’s incident, too? Me, oh, my, this is such a perfect opportunity…” 

A devious smile made its way to Sun’s expression, kneeling down beside Moon. “No no! No no nohoho!” Moon squirmed about, kicking his legs lightly and hiccuping, a noise that made his circuits heat up with embarrassment. “Yes yes! What a cute sound that was! Make it again!” 

As if this wasn’t already bad enough, Sun began lightly spidering around the seam between Moon’s neck and the back of his collarbone. “YEEHEHEHAHA! N-nohohoho!” Moon let off a snort, and decided he ‘hated’ this already. “Not the sound I was looking for, but, I think that’s just as good, don’t you?” 

“Suhuhuhun! Turn- <hic> the damned thihihing ohohohoff!” “I actually don’t know how,” chirped Sun with an innocent tone. “They never told me how to turn it off.”

The thought of being tickled until they had to take him to Parts and Services to force-stop the program embarrassed him to no end, making his laughter pitch an octave higher for a few seconds. “Don’t worry! I won’t let it tickle you FOREVER, silly! We can figure out how to switch it off later. But for now, I’m getting revenge for last week.” Sun stated matter-of-factly, making his way towards Moon’s feet and settling down to remove his slippers. “Nnn- no! Don’t you dahahare!” “Don’t I dare? Moony, Moony, Moony! You’ve had this coming! Now, where should I start first…?” He wondered aloud, grabbing Moon’s ankle so he couldn’t escape. “N-Nowhehehere! Get off!” “Sorry! Not taking suggestions!” Sun smiled. “How about… here?” He poked a finger square to the center of Moon’s sole, then began to glide his finger up and down the middle. “AAAH- HAHAHAHA! SUUUHUHUHUHUN! CUT IT OUHUHUT!” His other foot kicked in protest. 

“Nah, I don’t think so! Ooh, maybe I should go get the brushes and feathers from arts ‘n crafts like YOU did!” Sun crooned demeaningly, continuing his endeavor and reaching his arm around to hold back Moon’s toes to run his fingers underneath them; that was when Moon squealed out for the first time that evening. “EEEHEEK! GOD- FUCKING DAMMIHIHIHIT! YOU JERK!” “Oh my. Cursing in the daycare? This JUST isn’t like you. I think I’ll have to use that remote,” Sun made a mock-lecture, leaning to grab the remote and Moon began to try and push Sun off, hoping to perhaps kick the remote out of his hands. “Jeez, you really ARE being violent! I’ll just-” “EEEEHEHEHEEK! C-CUT IT OUHUHUHUT, TUHUHUHURN IT OHOHOHOOOOFFF!” Moon was going crazy with laughter, and Sun wasn’t even touching him any more! All because he’d started toying with the controls. He couldn’t help the miniature power rush he was experiencing, tracing circles on Moon’s sole. “I think you need the smiles anyway, mister. You’ve been very grouchy and tired lately!” 

One thing Moon noticed, much to his annoyance, was that the controls that Sun toyed with not only sent ticklish shocks through his body, but it also made him feel more ticklish, somehow. He didn’t even know that was a setting they had, and he internally cursed it through the thoughts that hadn’t been eaten up by his loud laughter. 

“Ooh, hold on a second! I’m gonna go get a surprise!” With his brother still cackling hysterically on the floor, Sun got up and hummed a little tune, heading off to the arts and crafts corner of the daycare and searching through the supplies, stuffing a couple things in his pockets that Moon was too busy laughing to see — although, what he could see very plainly was the brightly-dyed feather he’d retrieved, and he sat down at Moon’s feet. “WAIT! WAIHIHIHIHIT I NEVER- EEEEHEEEHEEEEK!” Moon squealed again with ticklish distress. “Oh, this is perfect!” 

The feather was soft enough to slip through and between Moon’s toes no matter how much he tried to curl them to block out the feelings, and it tickled horribly so. If that wasn’t already enough to make Moon break down with laughter, the feather also happened to be long enough to make every single stroke ticklish agony. “EEEEHEHEHEK! EEHEEHEHEE- EEEEEK! YOU’RE GONNA- KIHIHILL MEHEHEHEEE! STA-HAAHAHAHAHAP!” Moon’s laughter was frequently interrupted by squeaks, and he helplessly hit his fist against the floor of the daycare while Sun held back his toes to thread underneath them.  “Oh, silly! You can’t die from laughter! Besides, I’m not finished yet!” Moon’s head swirled with fresh, warm dizziness as Sun figured out how to work the remote in some vague way, giving him a bit of mercy from the full-body tickling that the program had been subjecting him to. “Plehehehease… oohohoh god,” Moon whined, shifting about. “Please what? Stop?” Sun acted as though he were wildly bewildered by the idea that Moon would say that. “I could. But gosh, you’ve been so stressed lately. And frowny. And grouchy.” Sun continued on for a moment. “I want to make sure that smile won’t leave for a VEERRRYYY long time. Okay?” 

Sun sat down next to Moon’s torso, smiling innocently and tracing silly, swirly imaginary shapes into his tummy with his fingers. “Keehehehehe! Y… you… naahahaha!” Moon’s laughter picked up for just a half-second as Sun ghosted over the dent in his belly. Oh, Sun was playing a dirty game. 

The darker counterpart could never admit that he particularly enjoyed the feeling of light, loving tickling, and it caused his fans to kick up even though he was no longer laughing so much. Sun simply cooed at him. “Aww, Moony~ You’re blushing!” “NNn… nahah! Don’t tease…” He pulled his nightcap over his face slightly and continued to twitch and squirm, occasionally halfheartedly telling him to stop out of sheer embarrassment that he found the sensation pleasant. But right when Moon let his guard down was when Sun took full advantage of his relaxed state, appearing to give him a break when he suddenly bent down and blew a raspberry. “AAAHAHAHAHA! N-nO SUhuhuhHUNNYY!” Sunny giggled mischievously in turn, only blowing another one to watch Moon squirm and cackle and kick his legs viciously. “Kitchy kitchy koo! Aww, listen to those giggles! You needed this, huh?” Sun smiled, letting Moon giggle away for a bit as he lightly tickled a little spot in the side of his neck, a tiny crook that made his darker brother hiccup and squeak. 

“Okay, okay. I’ll stop being mean. Come on, let’s get you to Parts and Services.” Sun offered a smile, his expression warm as he gave effort to help his brother stand, continuing to let him lean on him as he walked on shaky legs, down to Parts and Services while Sun offered little reassurances to him. “That’s it, we’re almost there, Moon.” He helped him sit down on a nearby bench while he ran inside, insisting for a worker. That was all Moon remembered before he woke up in the protective chamber of Parts and Services. Fear ran its course through its circuits again before he was able to process his situation — no more tickly feelings, a warmly smiling Sun and the customer-service smile of a Parts and Services worker who was doing their best to offer such a welcoming smile in front of his crimson eyes. “Oh…” “So? How is it? Is the feeling gone?” Moon nodded, feeling a speck of guilt as he watched the worker tense up at a movement to stand on the floor of the maintenance room seemed just a bit too quick for their liking — he watched their heart rate shoot up, all just for a few seconds.

“Yeah. It’s gone. Uh- thanks,” he smiled, trying to ease their anxiety but only ended with feeling awkward as he scratched at his own arms and avoided eye-contact. “No problem. You guys do have another update soon, though.” Sun and Moon shared a glance, before snickering between themselves at the screw-up of the employees. “What do you think, Moony? Maybe they’ll accidentally switch us around next time!”