#it's a bit weird and ambient and over-descriptive i fear

[lattesqueeze]

KISS PROOOOMPTS

For any pairing, may I have either "i think this is the part where you're supposed to kiss me" or “lifting your lover up”?

KISS PROMPT FOR YOU MY LOVE

Thank you so much for asking 🥰 i love you!!

Here's a little Landoscar snack for you!!

Somewhere in the distance, a blend of old classics and current electro-pop mingled into one echoing pulse, married together with the laughter and chatter of people eating, drinking, and enjoying their evening. The evening was warm. The sky was completely dark, but the lights of the Italian town cast a warm and inviting glow over the cobbled streets. Despite the late hour, divine smells of cooking blended in a burst of sweetened tomatoes and sugary cinnamon. 

Two young men, one tall and pale, one a little shorter, with an unruly mop of brown curls, made their way slowly along the street. Like most of the other people in the town, they were enjoying the relative chill of the evening. The day had been almost unbearably hot, and the heat still radiated from the stone walls around them. A light mist of rain surrounded them, but it brought nothing but cool relief. 

As the two came to the centre of the stone bridge, coated in lichen and years of built up dirt, a distinctive pop snapped their attention to somewhere over the water. A shower of golden sparks descended over the river. Another pop, and a multicoloured supernova materialised in the sky, only for a second. 

The slightly taller of the two, Oscar, stopped and turned his whole body to face the direction of the fireworks. 

“It’s like one of my sisters’ rom-coms.” Oscar said with a hushed chuckle. 

Lando snorted. 

“Yeah? With the rain and all?” 

“Yeah, the fireworks, the music. You know.” Oscar looked dreamily out over the water, watching the sparkling explosions. 

“Well, if this is a rom-com, I think this is the part where you’re supposed to kiss me.” Lando said with a casual shrug. 

If Oscar had been looking more closely, or paying more attention to anything other than Lando’s mouth, he would have noticed the way Lando fidgeted with his sleeve cuffs to disguise the shaking of his hands. He would have noticed the barely-noticeable flush of Lando’s cheeks, and the way he refused to meet Oscar’s eyes. Perhaps he might even have noticed the way Lando looked down at his feet, shy, and wet his lips to a shine with the tip of his tongue. 

As it was, Oscar really wasn’t paying much attention at all to what Lando was doing. He was rather preoccupied with the white noise and static that had washed over his brain. 

Lando cleared his throat softly and looked up at Oscar with a half-squint. Oscar seemed to register this, and his brain reconnected to the rest of his body. He took just one step towards Lando, tentative. 

At that very moment, three things happened in unison. 

First, the light drizzle morphed with a vengeance into a heavy, summer shower. Squeals of pedestrians caught in the downpour echoed around the street, but neither Lando nor Oscar noticed. It was mere seconds before they were the only people left out in the rain, with everyone else having scurried to shelter. 

Second, the firework display seemed to enter its finale, with a cacophony of bangs and booms, and a never-ending flurry of sparks in every colour of the rainbow. Accompanied by music, the chatter of the busy street, and the sound of the rain, the fireworks display was vibrant and chaotic and Lando and Oscar were missing it completely. 

Lando and Oscar were entirely wrapped up in each other. Lando had backed himself against the waist-high wall of the bridge, and Oscar pinned him there, arms encircling his waist. Oscar, in an unprecedented burst of confidence, had wiggled his knee in between Lando’s thighs, and had his hands firmly planted on Lando’s hips. He had gazed at Lando for just a moment, watched as his pupils dilated to swallow up much of the lightness of his iris, before leaning in to gently take Lando’s lips between his own. 

Lando sighed into the kiss, and licked insistently at Oscar’s lower lip. Oscar’s lips parted, and Lando took to biting on his swollen lower lip, never quite letting him breathe fully. Just as Oscar seemed to have coached Lando into a bit of a rhythm, Lando pulled away and leaned back.

“I’ve been waiting for this.” He said with a cheeky, impish grin.

“You could’ve said.” Oscar rolled his eyes. 

“Yeah, could’ve.” Lando shrugged. “This was more fun though.”

Lando hopped backwards, so he was sitting on the wall, giving him just a little bit more height. He draped his arms around Oscar’s neck, pulling him close again. His fingers ventured further afield, winding themselves tightly into the longer hair at the base of Oscar’s neck, eliciting a sigh of pleasure. He gave an experimental tug, forcing Oscar’s head back a little, exposing his neck. 

Lando took the opportunity to kiss along Oscar’s jaw and down his neck, nibbling gently to leave little pink blooms where a mark would show itself later. Oscar dug his fingers deeper into the flesh of Lando’s hips with a groan, doing his damnedest to pull Lando ever closer. Lando released his grip on Oscar’s hair, instead letting his hands wander along Oscar’s neck and jaw. 

The fireworks ended with one final flourish, and the rain seemed to have worn itself out. Lando and Oscar pulled apart and stared at each other, giggling. Oscar’s hair was plastered flat against his forehead, and Lando’s curls threatened to be weighed down into some semblance of a bowl cut. 

With a final wet kiss on Oscar’s unsuspecting mouth, Lando jumped back down off the wall, and steered Oscar away with an arm around his waist. Their hotel rooms - and the promise of dry clothes - awaited.

[dropoutparty]

ngc ramblings part 3- chapter 5

here we are at part 3!!! sorry this one took so long, i originally was gonna make this post include entropy and extus (along with finally talking about face in depth) but it was so fuckin long that im splitting it into 2 different posts! the next part isnt done yet but im like almost halfway done so it shouldnt be too much longer until its out! also before we get into this one:

tw for: death, animal death, and suicide. pls take care of urself and don't read this if those things are triggering for u <3

ok lets get on with the post

at the start of entropy zach doesnt waste any time getting right to the point. this place is bigger than the other planets so far, and zach says the music this time around is a melody that “started out normal but then got distorted” played by a violin sounding instrument. even tho i do sometimes forget that this is supposed to be a creepypasta im not surprised that he said it made him feel depressed and unnerved lmao. anyways, this planet has all new level types in it!! no reused ones!! ok now this is epic. the bosses this time around are megalon, battra, and mechagodzilla, but itll be a good while before we get to those guys because this chapter is long as hell holy shit?? buckle up babez <33 now, before i get into the meat of things as usual im gonna talk abt the planet name! entropy basically means “a lack of order/predictability or a gradual decline into disorder” and that's very accurate to this part of the story. at this point, red is pissed off and is getting desperate, which means from here on out things are going to be getting more intense and more unstable. this world is the turning point in the overall story, basically.

now with that out of the way, zach first goes to the worlds quiz level as usual! this time something was different. usually, in the quiz levels there would be goofy ass music playin in the bg (specifically the GH1D0RA cheat music, if you wanna like listen to it ig?) but from here on out its been replaced by the music from the games password screen, which zach called creepy earlier on in the pasta. im gonna glaze over the quiz again this time, but when we get to the next planet ill talk about all of the quizzes in depth all at once. basically all you need to know for now abt what happens here is face asks “do you like mothra?” and when zach picks no (after going on a tangent abt how mothra sucks lmao,, bro i swear im good at the game my controllers just messed up /s), face enters bastard mode and goes “TOO BAD!” and boom now zach cant play as anyone but mothra. zach is pissed for now but little does he know this is just going to become an even more epic gamer bc of this,, youll never get better at something if you never try and all that.

after that, zach moves on to the first level type- the forest. immediately zach gets an eerie feeling from this level bc he has some kinda fear involving forests at night (i can think of a reason why but ill have to talk abt that later just to be sure). hes also not feelin great about being forced to play as mothra, so the pressure of it all is def starting to get to him by now. the music in the forest is woodwinds followed by slow, rhythmic drums and chiming bells. must have been some ominous woodwinds and bells bc it made him feel like he was intruding somewhere he shouldnt be (oh rlly?? u dont say,, everything up until now has been fine /s). getting into the level itself, eventually zach comes across some weird deer-like monsters just vibing and scares them away when he gets close. later in the level he finds more of these weird deer along with a sloth-like creature on some of the trees and some raptor dudes killing some of the deer. zach shoots one of the raptors but thats about it. nothing really happened in this level but zach noted that he didnt feel like he was playing a video game, but instead it felt more like he was exploring a forest in another dimension. thats interesting for reasons ill ~get to later~ (yall must be so tired of hearing that by now omg,, i know im tired of saying it at least. i was gonna wait until after replay to talk about things but i severely underestimated how long this whole project would be, so i might make a post for the “more on that later” stuff before i get into replay. let me know what u think i should do).

anyways, the next thing zach checks out is the first tv screen level so far. these levels just play an animation with some music in the background, and theres a different animation per level. this time around the animation is of a kid with a beaver(?) head licking a lollipop and the music is the GH1D0RA music that the quiz levels used to use. the only thing of note here is that zach says he had a shirt that looked just like that when he was a kid. after that, were off to some of the weirdest fuckin levels in this whole thing imo- the hourglass levels. these levels have an entirely brown color palette, with grandfather clocks standing in the background (the level appears to be in like a hallway or something) and various time measuring things floating in the air. the music is the same as the board (ig cosby just didnt feel like thinking of what theme this place would have lol). after a little bit zach was rlly happy to see actual enemies from the normal game show up! these are basically like aircraft, tanks, etc. thats not the main attraction here tho, bc this level has its own unique mechanic! this mechanic is the colored hourglass items you can pick up. there are three of them, a blue one that slows time down and makes enemies from the past appear, a red one that speeds up time and makes enemies from the future appear, and a green one that made the time flow normally and spawned enemies from the normal game. zach found the blue one first, which caused a bunch of prehistoric enemies based on real animals to show up. after that he found a green one and fought normal enemies again, and then he found a red hourglass. the future enemies here look like aliens to me, and zach says that one enemy reminds him of something he saw in a book once. eventually, a special future creature showed up and zach was suddenly in a boss battle! or a mini boss battle? that description is probably more accurate. this guy doesnt have a face, and he can only attack by shooting a beam from his face, it sure does look cool! after zach beat it tho, he was off to the next level type, which is basically a toxic waste dump.

zach called it grungy and inhospitable, with the music being a synth ambient loop that made him feel dizzy while he listened to it. this is important because this is the first instance of the game making zach feel something *physically*, not just psychologically. all of the enemies here are mutated to some degree, with him first seeing green mummies with bird skulls coming out from vats of toxic slutch and a brownish cow skeleton monster with spider legs. later zach comes across a deer from the woods, drinking some toxic slutch (delinchous). zach got close to it to try making it stopped but suddenly some enemies came out of nowhere and scared it into running right off a ledge and into the slutch. rip :pensive:. after that zach found more mutated enemies (i.e some things with tentacles and some other deformed thing with human teeth) before he finally gets to the end of the level, where theres another miniboss waiting for him!! this ones a toxic sludge monster with a whale skull who attacks with a mouth projectile and by charging into you. the monster sank into the slutch and thats all for this level babeyy!

the next level is another forest, but this time its winter! its still at night, but this time zach doesnt feel off put, which he mostly attributes to the music. he describes it as a gentle, calm song that almost sounded romantic. the entire first segment of this level had no enemies in it, but dw this level is interesting i swear. the next segment starts out just as empty as the last one, but this time its silent. that is, until the music from “unforgiving cold” starts playing. yaa you remember that place!! i think i said it was less interesting than i remembered but its interesting again now bc it was foreshadowing these levels!! anyways soon after the music started up, zach started to come across tons of frozen bodies of the deer from earlier. some were mutilated, some werent, but they were all frozen and covered in snow. eventually zach does come across something living though, a sloth creature from earlier! its just vibing when suddenly the winter versions of the raptors from earlier rush in and fuckin obliterate the sloth thing. those things just blindly try killing everything in sight, and even start fighting themselves before zach finally gets to the last part of the level.

now this is where shit starts to get crayzay. this part opens up to a big empty field with a full moon and the nice music from earlier back. despite the nice music tho, zach immediately starts feeling dread and eventually he finds a lake. the lake comes down from the sky and starts to crack like an egg, a humanoid figure curled up in the fetus position dropping into the lake below and the moon halves disintegrated. this spawned the moon beast, the hardest challenge zachs had to deal with so far. after he finally defeats it, the screen goes to black and the name “melissa” is on screen, written in red. after that, the screen then says kys. the word kill then fills up the screen, layering over itself until it forms a picture of reds face. its now that we finally get to hear abt the whole melissa thing (which makes it sound like shes been mentioned in the pasta before this but thats not what i mean lmao). to summarize, zach had a middle school gf named melissa (also bro middle school?? wadda hell) who often went into “episodes” where she would stare off, expressionless, before trembling and putting her face in her hands. she and zach hung out in a field at night a lot but one night she just stared at the moon the whole time before running into traffic and dying.

NOW its finally later!!! were not done with entropy yet, but this is the end of part one of entropy so i wanna just take a little break to talk about things so far. this planet is FULL of symbolism and foreshadowing. to start off, i think a lot of the questions face asks at the beginning foreshadow things that happen. some examples are “is time slipping though your fingers?” which could allude to the time levels, “do you have any regrets?” which i think obviously foreshadows the whole melissa thing, “is it safe to go out at night?” and “do you find it hard to sleep at night?” both follow the same kinda theme, which i think relates to how the melissa incident happened at night, specifically out at night. i dont think the forest levels have anything too important in them, other than to introduce the presence of an innocent, harmless creature that doesnt deserve what happens to it later (aka the deer things) which might symbolize melissa. more evidence for this symbolizing melissa comes from the encounter with the deer in the toxic dump and the winter forest, where in the former zach tries to stop it from hurting itself but is too late, being forced to watch it die, and in the latter the same innocent thing from earlier is found dead close to where the real incident took place. the two big themes to keep in mind here are death and time, more specifically the past. most of the enemies here are either made from bones or kill other enemies, there's a dedicated time level referencing things that zach remembers seeing at one point (aka that one alien zach recognized), the beaver head had the same shirt as child zach did, it all connects to zachs past and the death of melissa. as for the moon beast, its the most obvious reference for reasons ive already explained. i dont really know what the moon cracking open and dropping a curled up human into the lake could mean other than some other thing melissa related, but i *do* think that the fact that the moon beast is the most difficult thing zach has faced so far is symbolic of the fact that the trauma from this event has followed him throughout his entire life, and its something he struggles with daily. it could even be the reason why he said no when face asked if he could sleep easily at night. the moon beast also has some black fur around its neck, which i think is meant to represent a tire track, referencing and/or mocking the way melissa died.

its so cool how this entire part of the story builds up to and foreshadows the bomb it drops at the end of the part, giving people something to look back on. a lot of ppl say that as soon as the melissa stuff gets introduced the story goes down in quality, and i do somewhat agree with that sentiment, especially if they want the story to actually be scary, but i think the direction the story goes from this point on is so unique and cool. it does follow the whole “theres a ghost in the game” troupe (even tho it was probably seen as a spin on that originally) but it doesnt do the same cliches as so many other gaming creepypastas do and it really takes the concept and makes it its own. i just think its neat,,,

anyways im done gushing abt this story, lets get on with part 2 of extus!! basically zach has a fuckin panic attack and, after taking a few minutes to calm himself down when its over, he decides that he has to finish the game now because if he doesnt its just going to haunt him for the rest of his life. zach has now realized that the game is “alive” and can somehow see his thoughts and memories, so understandably hes pretty freaked out by it at this point. when he keeps playing, the first thing he does is check out another tv screen level. this time, the animation is of a fish dude just kinda standing there with his mouth flapping open and closed and the music is the neptune board music from the original game. the only reason i can think of for why this is here is maybe the game is mocking zach for the panic attack he just had (bc when u have a panic attack you feel like you can barely breathe, if ur lucky enough to have never had one before and u dont know) but thats abt it. its probably just a random goofy thing cosby threw in there.

anyways, the next actual level is the first labyrinth level. this time around, its a gold labyrinth specifically. the music in these levels is a slow, ominous drum beat with female vocals occasionally coming in and (basically from here on out) the monster zach plays as is now half the size it used to be. i think this shows how zachs feeling at this point, like this whole thing isnt just being a big strong monster and beating up enemies any more, he feels small and scared and helpless in the face of something potentially dangerous that he doesnt understand maybe his confusion about the game is the reason *why* theres so many labyrinth levels here in the first place. anyways im getting ahead of myself. personally, i think the aesthetic of the gold labyrinth is very similar to the green temples back on trance. while trance had a more circular and soft theme to it's architecture and sculpture, entropys is much more square or rectangle oriented. despite this, i think that the golden mazes at least are another religious kind of building, and the architecture is just different because theyre two different cultures who just happen to worship the same spiritual figure (aka melissa. did i say that earlier? i think i did,, if i didnt well the religions worship melissa, not knowing she's a dead human or anything. probably).

moving on, zach notes how the gold labyrinth would probably have been impossible to navigate as any of the other monsters, so turns out face being an asshole was a blessing in disguise after all huh? anyways this place is full of weird gold monsters, lava/fire traps, and stone faces (both in more of an easter island head style and in the regular feminine headshot weve seen so far). zach comes across two feminine heads, one that is more adult looking and pure gold, and another one that looks much younger and whos eyes have red irises and blue scleras. this statue apparently looks a lot like melissa did on the night she died, so zach leaves it pretty quickly. i *think* this is the first time we see the color blue associated with melissa? if it isnt sorry abt that, its been a couple days since i worked on ngcr so ive forgotten some of the smaller or more subtle things by now. GOD i keep getting side tracked ANYWAYS eventually zach finds a non-gold enemy and sees it get picked up by like an arcade crane claw. hes curious so he follows the claw, only to see the monster be put in a big gold cauldron and walk out the side of it as a gold monster.

gonna be honest, no idea what the hell this could mean. like? theres been no themes of corruption or good things becoming evil so far so this just kinda. exists,, yea idk lol. im not part of like any discord servers or anything so all this theorizing and analysis has just been me, maybe getting some small ideas from like random youtube comments or something, so if something ive said so far has been unanimously disagreed with somewhere i dont know about it. thats also why this isnt really a definitive or comprehensive analysis (even tho im trying to be as comprehensive as i can).

anyways zach finds the exit soon after and hes on to the next level type (there's so fucking many of them ik dont worry weve almost gotten to all of them now), the indigo cliffs. the background of these levels is similar to the blue mountains from trance, but now the moon and clouds from the toxic dump background is also here (and colored indigo to match). the music here is just a deep rumbling noise. the first “enemies” he sees here are just a bunch of multicolored little guys coming out of a hole in the ground and jumping off a cliff. were continuing the death theme yall!! anyways zach continues, flying over some more weird creatures (tho some of them just look like dinosaurs lol) before he sees a bunch more of the multicolored guys out and about but this time theyre getting grabbed by birds!! wadda heel!!! zach comments on how the multicolored dudes seem eager to die and thinks maybe the moon has something to do with it (like melissa dude wat!!!! that's crazy /s). at the end of the level there were some more multicolored dudes just walking into a creatures mouth so zach attacked the thing and killed it and the levels over yay!

now its time for the bosses babeyy!!! first zach fights battra (basically an evil moth kaiju), the music is varans theme. battra starts off in his larvae form, where he basically just fought by running into you and shooting stuff at you. while fighting this form, zach noticed that the game buffed mothra because his gamer skillz were too cringe lmaoo. he beats the larvae form and battra goes into his second form, where hes basically a stronger clone of mothra (misogyny). zach fights battra and has fun doing it (for once,, good for him) and he wins yay! next hes fighting megalon (a big beetle/bug kaiju), whos music was gigans theme. im tired when im writing this so ill just give you zachs description of how he fought: “strong, persistent, but dumb”. after this, zach checks out the last tv screen of entropy. this time, it shows a big buff guy with a sack over his head hit a womans head with a sledgehammer while shes tied to a table or something. the music for it was the password theme. i think this is probably here because red is getting angrier? like this guy is still here after i triggered his ptsd?? what the hell!!!

anyways before we get to the last boss we have one last level type to get through- the shadow labyrinth. at this point, zach starts to feel drained because no shit sherlock you just had a panic attack and youve been playing this game for fuckin several hours at this point of course youre fuckin drained. anyways zach enters the shadow labyrinth, which is a black recolor of the gold labyrinth. the music is “evil ambience” similar to unforgiving colds music but distinctly different apparently. there werent any enemies so zach just kinda wandered for a while until the lights turned off, darkening the whole screen and (secretly) spawning tons of spooky enemies thatll chase and hit mothra in the dark. eventually the lights came back on and zach started scrambling to the exit. when the lights turned back off, zach was able to find one of the melissa looking statues and stood next to it. it warded off the monsters while the lights were off, so zach was safe. i think this shows 2 things: 1) its a little more validation for my “religion in this world worships melissa” theory and 2) it foreshadows the way melissa wants to protect zach at the end of the game. zach beat the shadow labyrinth a lot faster than the gold one so were done with all the stages now!! now theres only the last boss and red and were done with entropy!

the last boss is mechagodzilla, but when zach starts the level, normal godzilla is there instead!! its whatever tho bc soon the disguise is gone and its just pretty much the normal mechagodzilla fight (but now hes got a gay beam). at about half health tho, mechagodzillas sprite breaks into pieces like gezoras did way back on earth and reforms into not-mechagodzilla. even tho it looks uncanny (and the usage of the face statue on the front is probably there to further mock zach bc melissa) zach beats it p easily and now its time for the chase. ba dum ba dum thats the sound of a chase.

as usual tho, before i get to the red chase its time to talk about entropy as a planet!! i think the best way to describe the layout is “a big forest with a toxic waste dump in it takes up half the planet while the other half is a large religious temple/labyrinth with a dangerous underbelly”. there doesnt seem to be any intelligent life there now (its all dead by now probably) but there was at some point at least because imean the huge labyrinth is there dude!!! i dont have much to say for this section tbh bc i feel like i've already said everything i wanted to, so its time for the chase ig!!

basically the chase with red here takes place in a labyrinth level bc of course it does. this labyrinth, however, seems to be made of some kind of organic matter. is it flesh? organs? nondescript viscera? idk but it's pulsating and bloody. also this time red has wings too!! anyways, basically zach avoids red throughout the maze, red breaks through one of the walls with his big alien tongue, and zach gets to the end of the maze. nothing crazy happens at the end of this chapter (i think it was crazy enough as is) so thats the end of that and now its time for the penultimate planet- extus.

[magnusgoetia]

Transcript of a Sinner’s Conversation: A Meeting with Caecus

--Begin (In Medias Res)--

Sinner: You kiddin'? Dyin' was the best thing that's ever happened to me.

Caecus: There’s nothing you left behind? No family to miss?

Sinner: My family? Fuck 'em, I'd ‘ave hired 'elp to kill 'em already if it meant they'd be dead-dead, and I wouldn't have to spend time wiv 'em down 'ere. It wouldn't be right for me to force this on my friends either, but they'll be 'ere in due time anyway. I can wait.

Caecus: So, you’re expecting your friends to join you here as well. The wait must be awfully lonely.

Sinner: Ah, not really. I’ve made friends while I’m ‘ere. The shit I can do ‘ere is like, fucking magic and with it I can make up for what I lack in a lot of different ways. Just wish I could remember how I ‘ad died.

Caecus: Maybe it’s better not to remember… Not all of us intended to be here, after all.

Sinner: No. No, perhaps it’s best not to remember. I quickly found out that it's not just evil folks that end up here, lots of good folks, plenty of weird ones too. I'm sensing you’re of the “gooder” ones, you radiate...well, it’s 'ard to describe, but I don't sense any hostility from you at the very least, even though you were born ‘ere.

Caecus: How amiable of you. But remember, a birth is just a new beginning of sorts. You couldn’t have been alone since you were… delivered to us.

Sinner: Ah, you’re a poetic type aren’t ya? Anyway, I’ve not made many friends but I do ‘ave a particular fondness for this one clown...me an' 'im seem to 'ave this weird connection wiv each other. Actually, he's more of a jester type, though rather embarrassingly his name escapes me...

Caecus: Are you, by chance, referring to an imp named Blocko?

Sinner: Yeah, don’t surprise me you know ‘im. He seems like the type to ‘ave a particular reputation.

Caecus: That he does, and yet a divine will connects us. I’m being led to believe your intriguing appearance has an even more… intriguing history.

Sinner: Riiiight...Well, you know what they say about skeletons and closets. Though I suppose I ‘ave nothing to hide ‘ere...Well, to put it simply, I was a broken kid. I never got help, and I did... unspeakable things to anyone who ‘ad wronged me—or simply didn't like.

Caecus: Even the purest of souls can be corrupted by another’s sins.

Sinner: Yeah...Well, it's not like I'll stop doin’ what I did while I was alive, with all that murder and hedonism. Though death has a way of humbling some people...In any case, the murders mostly stopped as I grew older. I seemed to have preferred to just traumatise people instead, ruin lives of the people I saw as bad or evil.

Caecus: Then you found a different punishment for those you had judged.

Sinner: I suppose so. A lot of it involved me spying on groups of people. I'd worm my way into the seedy societies that thought they were safe in their little circles and collect dirt on them. Really sick shit too by the way but don’t worry, the hypocrisy wasn’t lost on me either.

Caecus: Oh? You judged yourself a hypocrite yet continued along a path of self-appointed righteousness... Why?

Sinner: I don’t know, maybe a sense of catharsis? A lot of these were people who I wouldn’t have to feel guilty about killing or whatever. Sometimes it was more personal too, there were—still are people I am attached to up there that got hurt, and I took my revenge on them in their place.

Caecus: Ahh, how noble. Fighting for your friends.

Sinner: Yeah, there was this one particular bastard. Actually, there were a few…but…eh, nevermind…this one particular guy who was essentially lying to one of these “friends” and caused them a psychotic breakdown. I didn’t take action right away, but I did end up killing ‘im. Didn’t even bother hiding the fact it was a murder.

Caecus: What made you wait?

Sinner: Money, mostly. It makes the world up there spin, and you need a lot of it to get anything done, right? Well, I ‘ad to wait until I ‘ad enough money to fly to the states on top of all that shit involved in immigratin’. When I settled in, that’s when I made my move on a buncha grudges. This guy was just the first. Moving to the states made my life a lot easier in some ways. Was a lot easier to sleep when I took care of the grudges too.

Caecus: Oh, wow. You must have had remarkable resolve to keep a “grudge” that long… Tell me, did all of them truly deserve it?

Sinner: No, most didn’t, but I am…was, an angry person. I found I was very much capable of venting my anger, to put it mildly, and I was much too young when I had...shall we say...discovered it.

Caecus: Young minds are impressionable.

Sinner: Right, and the fact that I was generally good at getting away with it made me feel just that little bit better about it.

Caecus: So, you exploited that validation to continue justifying your actions. Most sinners in your position never reach awareness...

Sinner: Yeah? I’ll take that as a compliment, but I was totally emotionally disconnected when committing my crimes. Afterwards I pretty much always dealt with conflict. Cognitive dissonance is a bitch. Though I had largely stopped my ways. I’m ‘aving way too much fun down ‘ere, and even though I won’t drag ‘em down here with me, I’d love to have my friends join me eventually.

Caecus: Would they be pleased being here, embrace this existence like you have?

Sinner: I dunno, some of them have a hard enough time as it is with one existence, I doubt they’ll be too happy to find out there’s another waitin’ for ‘em. The others I’d imagine would be quite surprised all the same, being atheists and such, but I reckon they’d come to like it.

Caecus: An existence you cannot escape is itself a prison. Albeit, choosing to enjoy it in spite of that perspective is a marvelous thing. If you could imagine them in your presence, what would you do?

Sinner: Again, I dunno. It’s hard to tell when they’re not here yet but I am somewhat interested in what’ll end up happening should they get here. I dunno if I’ll be able to tell if it’s them even.

Caecus: And how do you dare to enjoy existence now?

Sinner: Well, I’ve been doing everything I’ve ever wanted to do but could never do in life amongst other things. It’s kinda embarrassing, but I played a bunch of video games, so I miss those quite a bit. I’ve found plenty of ways to fill that void though. Some of your movies are pretty sick down ‘ere, and importing goods from the other rings to ‘ere means I don’t miss out…mostly, on their fun too. I just wish I could explore the other rings; I don’t get why us sinners can’t.

Caecus: Decretum is often difficult to understand. However, it would seem a blessing that you’ve been placed with the multifarious company of the pride ring.

Sinner: True enough, whatever that means. There’s a lot of strip clubs, greedy businesses and shit, stuff you think you’d only find in the other rings. Though I think I probably would’ve ended up in wrath if we landed in the rings based on our sins.

Caecus: Most catechisms view wrath as an excessive anger. You strike me as having more control than the average sinner.

Sinner: A lot of people on the surface woulda said the same too, I was and I suppose still am really good at keeping it in check, well, good enough to not make it obvious anyway. Though it’s been a lot tougher down here.

Caecus: This is a realm of collective temptation, after all.

Sinner: My only judge here is myself and perhaps my peers if I let them. I still kill down here, but it’s been in self-defence. I don’t think I’ve killed anyone out of anger yet but let’s just say I’d feel sorry for the poor sod who happened to piss me off on a bad day.

Caecus: You’ve always been your own judge. I suspect the lack of good comparisons for your behavior here has coaxed you further.

Sinner: Actually, I could tell you about the first person I “killed” down here. It was soon after I woke up. I suppose this guy thought it’d be easy—fresh sinner, just in time to be another tally mark on some statistic.

Caecus: A second death, the lake of fire…

Sinner: Uh...yeah, I reacted on instinct and it musta been a sort of “kiss of death” type shit. I only touched the dude with my hand, and he just kinda…shrivelled up and died. You know…like when a cartoon character eats a lemo—ah sorry, you can’t watch TV.

Caecus: Ah, yes… a shrivelling death is nevertheless descriptive.

Sinner: Anyway, I have a bunch of other powers too but that one I’m most afraid of you know? I can drop the ambient temperature of an area so shit gets cold, have some form of telekinesis and a buncha other stuff, like I have some kinda control over this weird glowy energy, it’s how I have my eyes, which are purely for show, I don’t need them since I can see perfectly fine without ‘em...not that you’d know I even have ‘em.

Caecus: I’m aware you observe our world, in a traditional sense. My observations are just a bit more… unorthodox. And I feel as if your fear is not from a lack of understanding.

Sinner: Well I seem to have it under control, but I’m afraid in a moment of weakness I might react without thinking, you know? I’ve not had it happen yet, but it would be so easy when flippin’ out that I just give ‘em the ol’ touch of death.

Caecus: Even a king’s heart is just a stream of water to the hand of… fate.

Sinner: Gonna be honest, I haven’t the foggiest of what you just said. Though if I’m being honest myself, I couldn’t care less if it was someone I didn’t know anyway. Only really care about my friends and such. You seem pretty neat yourself.

Caecus: The impression is mutual. It’s not often that I’m seen as anything other than senseless and intimidating. I don’t find it unwarranted, granted; my appearance is as disconcerting as my psyche.

Sinner: How do you even know what you look like? It’s not like you can just look into a mirror.

Caecus: I was presented with a vision soon before I arrived, my last blessing I suppose… Regardless, my rebirth is a tale for another time. I’ve relished in your company long enough, and I must answer my calling. I’m sure our paths will converge again.

Sinner: Hey, I hope so too...uh....

Caecus: Please, call me Caecus.

Sinner: Well, it’s only polite to give you my name too. I go by many names here, but I am quite fond of “Mr. Death” as silly as it sounds.

Caecus: Silly, yes, but very becoming of you. A pleasure, Mr. Death.

Mr. Death:Well, don’t let me keep you. I’d like to see you again sometime, Caecus. I’ll take my leave.

Caecus: All in due time.

--End--

[varietydisco]

Hay Fever and Other Romantic Gestures

Pairing: Bill Williamson/Kieran Duffy Rating: General Audiences Tags: Crushes, Bill being soft on the DL, Jack is also there hanging out Word count: 3k

Description:

Bill gives in and lets Jack put flowers in his hair, but he doesn’t count on someone watching them.

There was a lot of thinking to be done sober.

It wasn’t usually a good thing, and thus lead to a lot of negative thoughts, but today was an exception. Bill could sit in the warm afternoon sun with his hat down over his eyes, drifting in and out of sleep without a care in the world. It was rare, but when it came it was sweeter than honey and more valuable than gold.

The grass was green and sweet smelling. The smell of wildflowers and fresh pine seemed to float on the breeze. Bill couldn’t remember the last time he felt so comfortable, mentally and physically. For the time being, he could forget his worries and let them melt into the spring ground.

Bill was laid up a good ways outside of camp, in a little clearing with tall grass and swaying trees on all sides. The only sound to be heard was the stream babbling not far off.

He thought about everything and nothing all at the same time. Mostly, Bill drank in the warm sun, the sweet smells, and the soft sounds. It was all gentle enough that Bill could have fallen asleep.

But footsteps approaching kept him from doing so. Light, clumsy ones.

Bill didn’t need to wonder who was coming around, because once they got within a few feet, Jack’s squeaky voice asked, “You sleepin’, Bill?”

Bill grunted. “Tryin’ to.”

A thoughtful silence came from Jack. Bill heard him hum under his breath.

“Grandpa’s lookin’ for ya. He sent me to find ya.” Jack stated. His voice and steps got closer until he was directly beside Bill. “Called you a lot of mean names.”

Bill pushed his hat up a bit. “Which one?”

“Said you was a lazy and dumb son of a—”

“Which grandpa?” Bill corrected sharply.

“Oh.” Jack sat down in the grass. Bill heard it rustle under him. “Grandpa Hosea.”

Bill pushed his hat back down. He grumbled nonsense.

A breeze whistled through the canopy of leaves overhead; they shook and rustled a melody that filled the clearing. Jack plucked a fistful of grass from beside him and then scattered it in the wind.

Bill sighed into his hat.

“Did he say what he wanted?”

Jack shook his head. “No... Jus’ that he wanted to find ya, and make sure you wasn’t rottin’ somewhere.”

“Great.” Bill grumbled. “Don’t tell ‘em I’m here. First time I’ve got some peace an’ fuckin’ quiet...”

“I won’t tell,” Jack whispered. He ripped up more grass and sprinkled it in his lap. “Promise.”

Bill made another throaty noise. Jack thought he sounded like an animal, which made him smile.

They both sat there in silence for a moment. Bill was thinking mostly about falling asleep, and Jack was plucking grass and generally disturbing the wildlife. It was a fine fit.

Bill didn’t mind Jack; he was a good kid. It would have shocked a lot of people to find out that Bill didn’t really mind kids this way or that. He thought they were cute, if nothing else.

His sister had a couple kids. Bill used to make it a point to go see them every once and a while for their birthdays, but after coming back from the war, things got too complicated for that. The last time he saw his nieces, they were Jack’s age, or around there; now they must have been ten or twelve.

Thinking of it in terms of years made an uncomfortable feeling swell in Bill’s guts. He pushed it aside.

Jack shuffled beside him and got to his feet. He trudged away without a word, leaving Bill to the ambient sounds of the clearing.

Spring was a weird time of year. People always raved about its beauty and how it meant that winter was finally over, but as far as Bill was concerned, it wasn’t even that great; the first half of every spring was spent dead and dreary while the snow melted, and the rivers flooded. It wasn’t until May that the trees grew leaves and the wildflowers sprouted. Wouldn’t be such a bad thing, if it all just came quicker. And if Bill didn’t need to trudge through mud puddles and sinkholes for three months while everyone else raved about how beautiful it was out, maybe he wouldn’t mind.

But he did. People called him bitter for it, but damn the spring and everything else it entailed.

Over the sound of the bubbling brook came an equally airy giggle. Footsteps crunched and came up beside Bill. Bill raised his brow to himself behind his beat-up hat. Otherwise, he stayed still.

Jack giggled again, though it sounded like he was trying to smother the sound. Bill felt something tickle his face.

“What’re you doin’, Jack?” Bill asked. His voice was hard, though it missed any real malice.

“Nothin’.” Jack replied innocently.

“Better be nothin’. You won’t like me mad.”

Jack burst into wild giggles. He fell back as Bill suddenly sat up and pulled the hat away from his eyes.

Jack had a fistful of daisies and golden rod, and a huge grin on his flushed, chubby cheeks. He kept laughing, and it took a second for Bill to realize why.

Bill reached up and touched his beard; he felt soft petals and stems sticking out. Upon glancing down, he saw a few flowers weaved into his bushy facial hair. He pulled one out and examined it, then turned an exaggerated scowl to Jack.

“This funny to you?” He demanded.

The laughter stopped, and Jack faltered for a second. His expression shifted from amusement towards something more scared and uncertain.

Bill reached out and ruffled Jack’s hair. He then stuck the daisy behind Jack’s ear.

“‘Cause I think it is,” Bill finished. He had a crooked, uncharacteristic smile as he tilted his head back. “Gimme a few more. Make me smell nice.”

Jack’s lips spread with a grin again. Nodding happily, he hopped to his feet and returned to weaving flowers into Bill’s beard. Bill closed his eyes and let his mind wander.

Bill didn’t mind being silly sometimes, just as long as it stayed between them. He figured that even if Jack did go telling others, no one would believe him, anyway.

Big ol’ mean Bill putting flowers in his hair?

Never. Not a chance in Hell.

As the stem of a daisy ticked his chin, Bill cracked open his eye. Jack looked set and serious, as if the task at hand was the most precise and technical one he’d ever had to do.

Bill thought it was cute.

“You really like flowers, huh?” Bill asked. “You’re always pickin’ ‘em an’ whatnot.”

“Uh-huh! I think they’re pretty,” Jack said enthusiastically. “Aunt Tilly even showed me how to make a daisy chain.”

“Ya don’t say? Daisies are my favourite flower. You figure you could make me one?”

Jack’s eyes lit up. He bounced on his feet, grinning wide.

“Yeah, course!” Jack shoved his handful of flowers towards Bill. “Hold these, I’ll go get the daisies! There’s big ol’ patch of ‘em by the water!”

“Alright, go ahead,” Bill said as he took the flowers delicately. “Don’t get too close to the stream.”

“I won’t— you stay here, now! I won’t be one second!”

Bill watched Jack bound off, excitedly scrambling through the tall grass. Two seconds, and he disappeared through the lining of trees like a faun.

The silence of the woods surrounded Bill once more. Smiling gently to himself, Bill lifted Jack’s flowers to his nose. He closed his eyes as he breathed deep and enjoyed the sweet scent. Maybe spring wasn’t as bad as he thought.

And then someone sneezed not far off.

Bill’s eyes snapped open, and he jerked his head towards the sound. His eyes roved over the lining of trees surrounding the clearing, though at first, he didn’t see anything.

Bill squinted and shifted up to his feet. The hard edge returned to his voice. His cheeks went red with rage and embarrassment at potentially being caught.

“Who’s out there?”

Naturally, no one replied. Bill still waited, looking comical holding a bouquet of wildflowers with a beard full of daisies and shedding golden rod. He glared around angrily.

Another loud sneeze, and Bill located the onlooker.

Kieran was half-hidden behind a birch tree, hunched over and clutching his mouth. His eyes were wide with shock.

Neither of them moved. For a long moment, they stared at each other, equally surprised and confused. When nothing that immediately endangered his health happened, Kieran dropped his hand and smiled weakly at Bill.

That made Bill come to his senses. Cheeks flushing even hotter, Bill threw the flowers to the ground and bellowed, “Goddamn O’Driscoll!”

The smile dropped off Kieran’s face. Instead, it replaced itself with genuine terror. Kieran turned and scattered, his heart pounding. Bill thundered behind him, hollering out, “Don’t you fuckin’ run, you chicken shit!”

Kieran figured if he made it to camp again he would be in the clear, or at least that he could climb a tree and hide up there, worst come to worst. However, he only made it about ten feet when his foot caught on an upturned root. Kieran pitched forward with a yelp; he fell on his hands and knees into a blanket of pine needles and moss. Kieran flipped onto his back, and Bill was upon him.

You’d think it would be hard to be afraid of a man with daisies weaved into his beard, but Bill had a burning hate in his eyes that made Kieran want to cower. Kieran winced, his arms flinging up to cover his face as Bill pounced in his lap.

At the force and Bill’s weight, Kieran wheezed. Bill grabbed a fistful of Kieran’s shirt and reeled his other fist back, ready to strike.

“You little shit,” Bill hissed. “How much did you see?”

Kieran held his hands up defensively, as if he had the strength to fend off Bill even if he wanted to.

“I don’t know! I mean, I—I didn’t see nothin’!” Kieran hesitated. He anxiously eyed Bill’s poised fist. “Nothin’ worth tellin’ anybody about, anyhow.”

“You’re damn right you didn’t see nothin’. Because if anybody finds out about this, I’ll take your fuckin’ head off your shoulders.”

For emphasis, Bill psyched Kieran out by shoving his fist forward. Kieran flinched, his face contorted with fear.

“How long was you watchin’, anyhow?” Bill demanded.

“Just a few moments! I followed Jack out here t—to make sure he was stayin’ out of trouble.”

“Or was you tryin’ to get dirt on me?”

“What? No!” Kieran’s insides felt squirmy and odd. Bill was practically on top of him, and inches from his face. His own freckled cheeks were a deep, ruddy red. “Why would I— what would I even do with dirt on ya? N—nobody at camp trusts my word, anyhow.”

That kind of threw Bill for a loop. He faltered for a second, then screwed his expression up again. He jerked his fist towards Kieran’s face, making the latter cry out and flinch.

“Don’t matter! I ain’t gonna give you no ideas.”

“Okay! Okay. I—I just think it’s cute, is all, you know?” Kieran sputtered all at once. He turned his head away from Bill’s face and screwed his eyes shut. He tried not to think of how romantic this could have been if Bill wasn’t threatening to knock his block off. “You with Jack, I mean! You don’t look the fatherly type. It surprised me and I—I didn’t mean to spy on ya, I swear. I just—just thought it was cute.”

Once more, Bill faltered. Almost immediately, he blushed, and instead of confronting his mixed feelings towards that, he gave Kieran a good shake. Bill dropped his face close to Kieran’s.

“I ain’t fatherly, so don’t be sayin’ shit like that!” He hissed.

Kieran made a strangled noise as his head bounced off the mossy ground. Something like the word “okay” tumbled out of his mouth.

From behind them, Bill heard a twig snap. A quiet voice sang nonsense.

Bill looked back over his shoulder and watched as the tall grass by the brook shook and swayed as a little body moved through it.

“Shit,” Bill whispered.

He turned his evil glare back to Kieran. Kieran’s face was contorted in a strange way, but before Bill could ask or comment, Kieran jerked his head to the side and sneezed violently twice.

“Hay fever, sir,” Kieran managed. “I got... Hay fever. And the, uh, the pollen from your beard—”

Bill scoffed. He threw Kieran down to ground and then clambered to his feet.

“Get out of here.” When Kieran didn’t immediately move, Bill gave him a kick in the shin. “I said git! Go!”

Kieran nodded wordlessly. He scrambled around, grabbed his hat, and jumped to his feet. With a last, fleeting look and a small smile, Kieran turned and hurried his way back towards camp.

Bill adjusted his hat as he watched Kieran go. Once he was certain that Kieran was out of earshot, he turned around and wiped his cheeks down. They were still fiery red, and the encounter had left his heart fluttering in his chest like a rampant butterfly. He didn’t want to think about it, and he didn’t want to think of why he felt that way, even though he knew damn well.

As Bill lumbered back into the clearing, Jack emerged from the tall grass. He had fistfuls of daisies and other flowers Bill didn’t know the names of. Roots and dirt still hung from a few of the stems.

When Jack toddled over, his smile disappeared.

“You look mad.”

“I ain’t.” Bill replied sharply. He relaxed his shoulders afterwards and sat down in the grass. “...Come on. Show me how you make them... Daisy chains.”

Jack’s eyes lit up. His smile returned, and happily he knelt in front of Bill. He laid out all the flowers, oblivious to how distracted and weird Bill was acting.

“Okay! So, the first thing you do...”

                                                    —30—

Bill’s body ached. After riding all day, scouting the area and trying to hunt, he didn’t want to think, and he didn’t want to talk to nobody— all he wanted to do was lay down and sleep until noon the next day.

When he hitched his horse at the post, Kieran glanced up at him. His mouth moved as if he were going to say something, but a mean glare from Bill convinced him to shut it again. Didn’t help any that Kieran was about the last person Bill wanted to talk to, anyhow.

Their... Encounter in the woods had been three days ago now, and Bill hadn’t heard a word of it from anyone else, either to his face or behind his back. So, thus far, the O’Driscoll boy seemed to be keeping good to his word.

The camp seemed quieter today than usual, as Bill shambled his way towards his makeshift tent. That suited him just fine, though; less people wandering and talking meant that he could get some peace and quiet. Upon entering, Bill was immediately overcome with the desire to rest and sleep, but of course, it wouldn’t be that easy.

In the low light, he noted something laid out on the bedroll.

A bouquet of daisies tied together at the stems with a bit of twine rope. Bill’s heavy brows furrowed. He knelt and picked them up to look closer.

“The O’Driscoll left ‘em there for you,” a small voice said from behind him.

Bill jumped a little with a surprised noise and jerked around.

Jack stood there, innocent as could be. Loosely, he clutched a toy horse.

“What did you say?”

“I says, the O’Driscoll left the flowers for ya.” For emphasis, Jack pointed at the flowers in Bill’s hand. “I helped him pick ‘em! He asked me where to find ‘em, so I showed him.”

Bill’s cheeks flushed. He looked again at the flowers in his hand and then shoved them out of sight partially behind his back.

“Great,” he grumbled. With his other hand, he shooed Jack away. “Leave me ‘lone, now. I wanna get some rest.”

“Are ya gonna thank him?” Jack asked. “Mama says you’re s’pposed to use manners. Pleases an’ thank yous, even if he is an O’Driscoll...”

“You worry about your own business before mine. Now git!”

With one hand on Jack’s shoulder, Bill steered the boy out. Afterwards, he closed the curtains of his tent which acted like a half-assed excuse for a door and settled in the half-dark. A little light came in from under the curtains, barely enough for Bill to see what he was doing. He brought the flowers back to his front.

Kieran had left these. Put effort into fancying them up, too.

Bill’s cheeks were red, and his heart raced.

After a moment of deep contemplation, he lifted the flowers to his nose and breathed. They smelled sweet and fresh, like how spring was supposed to smell. No mud or rain, or dirt or death.

Just sweet.

Maybe a little bit like puppy love.

[xyfanficarchive]

Pieced Together

Pairing: DBH Daniel x Reader

Warnings: none

Summary: Reader is an ex-Cyberlife repair technician who has been chosen to observe and help rehabilitate Daniel in the months following the successful android revolution. But first, they have to put him back together.

Word Count: 4543 (!!!!!!!!!)

Author’s Note: tHis is insane! this is bananas!!! this is fuckin bazonkers!!! 4.5k words>???>> this is a scene ive had in my brain for a bit now. thsi would be something like the prologue to a long slow burn type fic if i decide to continue it right now, but i dont think i will. ive never written anything of that magnitude before and i want to prepare for it, to make sure im ready to follow through until the end rather than dive right in immediately. I hope you guys read it and enjoy it anyways though!! BLEAS give me your opinions on this!!!

You checked your watch. 12:48 am. You stood on the sidewalk in the eerie silence of the November night; thick, fluffy snow falling around you, padding the environment and all ambient noise. You look up at the sign above the storefront, bright white illuminating the street, the snow scintillating dazzling whites and yellows in the glow of the sodium street lamps. “Cyberlife Repair Centre” it read. You take a sip of the hot coffee in your hand before walking up to the window and pressing your face to the glass, using your free hand to block the glare that would prevent you from viewing the inside.

This place was not the location you worked at before, but it was absolutely identical in every way. Cyberlife was, if anything, the absolute master of the term “cookie-cutter.” You chuckled to yourself.

The room you were looking into was only a small part of the whole building. It was wide and short. There was a reception desk stood in the exact centre against the back wall, directly in line with the door’s entrance. The room was painted in Cyberlife blue, and the walls were decked out with displays (that were currently powered down in the store’s closed state). Sleek, modern furniture sat on either side of the room, shiny, sterile white and uncomfortable. Seating for the patrons waiting for their androids to be repaired. To the left of the reception desk was a normal sized frosted glass door. That was the staff room. And to the right of the desk was a larger frosted glass door, decorated in Cyberlife’s signature hexagonal pattern. That was the repair lab, and where you needed to be.

You backed away from the window and adjusted the straps on your backpack before digging through the pocket of your puffy winter jacket for the keycard that would allow you access to the store. You slipped it out and held it in your gloved hand, just staring.

You never did think you’d ever be here again. It made you almost giddy, in a way.

But you had a job to do. There was no time to stand around reminiscing. You walked over to the door and passed the keycard over the wireless pad, hearing the beep of the lock disarming cut through the silence. You pushed the door open and stepped into the warmth of the store inside. The room whirled to life around you, lights coming on blinding to your unaccustomed eyes, the wall displays blinking on and awaiting further human instruction. You turned back and swiped the keycard over the internal lock, closing the store off to the outside world.

Smiling to yourself, you kicked your winter boots off on the rug as you unzipped your jacket. That was something you were never allowed to do, always having to put on an air of perfection and professionality for the customers. Cyberlife was clean, Cyberlife was immaculate. But, you always worked best when you were comfortable, and you weren’t a Cyberlife employee anymore. You were just using their lab you were trained to use to repair the android waiting for you inside. Your… ward now, you supposed. Although the thought felt weird.

You padded your way across the cold floor to that big square door on the right, still unlit beyond the frosted glass. Using the keycard again, you unlocked it and it slid open, and upon entering the lights automatically turned on. There was a soft electric hum coming from the computers and machinery powering up. The room was bright white and sterile looking. In one corner there was a wall of monitors and input terminals, where software repairs were effected. Against the right wall was a set of three large 3D printers, for printing simpler components like limbs, or soft external structural plates, which gave the face and body its shape. On the left wall sat another door, that led into the storeroom where more complex biocomponents that had to be manufactured externally were kept.

You shrugged off your backpack and coat, and slipped off the fingerless gloves covering your hands, setting them down onto a stainless steel table adjacent to the door. Now stripped down to only your jeans and knit sweater, you took another sip of your coffee as you walked towards the centre of the room.

There was the main focus. Another stainless steel table, equipped with sensors and other equipment, a rolling tray of tools situated nearby. Above, a rotating module fitted with assembly tools on long mechanical arms sat waiting, although you had always preferred to simply use your hands when doing your job. You padded closer, sipping your coffee with both hands and relishing the warmth on your digits.

“Fucking Christ…” you mumbled to yourself. Lying down on the table in the centre was your ward, the android you were to repair. You remembered Markus and Connor’s words telling you he was in poor shape, really, really poor shape, but you hadn’t paid it any mind. Now, actually standing in front of him, you realized that it was kind of an understatement.

The PL600 lying in front of you was surprisingly clean for his appearance. You suspected he might have been covered in thirium at some point, but his clothes and person were only now spotless because thirium degrades and becomes invisible to the naked eye. He was missing his left arm and both his legs (and you were surprised at the fact that his legs were torn off above the knee joint, when they were designed to dislocate at the knee). Gaping hole in his right shoulder, gaping hole in the left side of his face (you gently moved his mouth open and closed and cringed at the clicking sound of plastic and metal), the front of his shirt was torn open and his abdomen was scrubbed clean of artificial skin (‘What in the fuck did they do to him at the DPD?!’ you wondered.) And his eyes. Blue-grey and open, unblinking, unseeing in his state of shutdown. You took a flashlight from the rolling tray and shone it on them, and when you didn’t see any sign of damage you were relieved. With a grimace, you took your thumb and forefinger and gently closed his eyelids.

Where to even start with him? You pulled up a rolling chair and sat adjacent to the table, propping your feet up on the edge. It would be a much easier and quicker process if you could wake him and have him run his internal diagnostic program, but there was no guarantee he would even start up in his state of disrepair. Besides, you weren’t sure you wanted to wake him up to be conscious in his dilapidated body anyways.

With a resigned sigh, you spoke up. “Computer, run scan and diagnostic on PL600 model, create list of all damaged components.” The technology allowing for the contactless scan and diagnosis of androids was new, and slow. It was effective, but took time for the computer to take the images it was sensing and separate each component from the rest in a powered-down state. Running your fingers through your hair, you got up and walked over to your backpack where you retrieved the tablet you had stored within. Taking another sip of coffee, you returned to your seat with your legs propped up, and unlocked the computer. You brought up the DPD file on this android. Might as well refresh your memory.

Model PL600. Serial number 369 911 047. There was a description of his nature and his actions on that August night, but you weren’t particularly interested in whatever police officer’s interpretation of the events that were on file. Instead, you elected to view once more the raw footage, visual and audio data taken directly from Connor’s memory banks as a record of what happened. It was intense, as always. You were rather infamous for your notable empathy towards androids, and the plight deviants faced, but you managed to have conflicted feelings towards this one. On one hand, you understood him. The flight of emotions. Anger, sadness, fear, betrayal, all racing through his mind for the first time, clouding his perceptions. Emotions giving him violent impulses that he didn’t yet have the capacity to confront and control like everyone else could. On the other hand, the girl. She was so young. She couldn’t possibly have understood this whiplash change, the android who she trusted to take care of her, with whom she was so close now standing with her on the edge of a building threatening to end her life. With her every cry and plea for her life he seemed so awfully pained, so why? You were caught between the thought that he understood he was hurting her and it was wrong, and the knowledge that he couldn’t really control it, between the belief that what he did was morally incorrect, and the belief that he deserved a second chance.

You looked up to watch him resting on the table. Now, you were legally required to take care of him. One of the first talks Markus and the rest of the android revolutionaries had with the government was on the subject of android criminals. What was to be done with them? Deviation, at the start, before it was possible to wake androids up with a single touch, was an extremely traumatic experience generally brought about by horrible instances of abuse, or strong negative emotions. It wasn’t particularly uncommon for those androids to have charges of assault, theft, or even murder on their records. But it came from a place of necessity, a drive for self-preservation; just scared people acting in fear, in self defense. They ruled that any crimes committed by an android prior to November 11, 2038 would be pardoned, but since deviancy had spread so quickly by touch across the country and most if not all androids were now deviant by non-violent means, it stood to reason that they now should be treated equally in the eyes of the law.

The government’s ideal plan would have involved every android with a crime on their hands being tracked down and put into a system where their behaviour was monitored for a certain period of time. Markus and the rest of Jericho argued that not only would it be a logistical nightmare and a huge waste of resources to track down mostly peaceful people who just want to live free, but it would likely be generally frowned upon given the public’s support of androids and the United State’s unfortunate history of marginalizing people. The government settled on a compromise: all androids currently locked up in evidence stores across the country would be submitted into this system. They were, after all the ones who were unstable enough to let themselves get caught, or something to that effect. The only caveat was that the androids would get to choose who took them in and observed them, helped them reintegrate into society.

That’s where you came in, you were approached by Markus and Connor, and asked to be the one who took in this PL600. You weren’t sure at first. Sure, you were good when it came to dealing with passing deviants, a few nights stay while you pieced them back together in your living room with your limited resources, but to have one live with you? For a matter of months? One who was particularly volatile, particularly angry and difficult?

You’d had a week to think on it. You were given his file to look over. Yes, you were indeed conflicted on how to feel about him, but the more you thought the more you came around to the idea. Markus and Connor trusted that you were capable enough anyways, right? You were up for a challenge.

“Diagnosis complete. Listing all damaged biocomponents,” chimed the computer from a speaker in the ceiling. You were startled a little from your thoughts, and looked behind you at the wall of screens in the corner, where a window had now popped up and was creating a list of all damaged components. You sucked air through your teeth as you watched it keep going on and on, and you pushed off the table with your feet to propel yourself on the office chair towards the screens.

Your expression soured as you read. Nearly every biocomponent contained in his abdomen was non-functional and needed direct replacing, not just repair. There were a few damaged bones in his shoulder area (all his limbs needed replacing it seemed, even the one that looked mostly intact). He was going to need a new jaw structure, and new soft structure components on his hip, and face (‘Fuck,’ you thought, ‘face plates are a bitch to replace…’). All in all, it was looking to be a long night. You looked at the clock. 1:32 am. You sighed.

“Computer, cross reference list of damaged components with current inventory, and create a list. Begin 3D printing any biocomponents not in stock that can be printed,” you said, and after a second or two the 3D printers on the other side of the room whirred to life, and next to the existing list another window popped up detailing which components were available and their index numbers in the storeroom.

“Well, lets get going,” you mumbled to yourself and, setting your now empty coffee cup on the floor, you stood up from your seat and walked over to the storeroom door. Inside, the room was well lit, neat, and clearly labelled. Sleek, white boxes bearing the Cyberlife logo and the codes of the respective parts they contained lined the walls. A far cry from your makeshift shelving of scavenged biocomponents and scrap limbs, parts that were damaged but likely to be less damaged than whatever new deviant of the week who passed through your life was using.

You took a cart and walked through the room, picking boxes as you went. It was like your instinct came back to you in that moment, running through the catalogue of parts he needed in your brain and matching them with their respective locations, legs simply carrying you without conscious thought. Like some kind of latent memory awakened within you. It had been so long, but you fell right back into the old motions.

You took a new lung component. New thirium pump, and thirium filter. There were compatible arms and right legs, but no left legs in sight (‘What sort of left leg epidemic has been going on?!’ you wondered.) There was a replacement soft structural component #6746g in stock (the one that would cover his shoulder), and #4503y (the one that would cover his hip), but no mandible, or component #3365u (the one that would cover the left side of his face). You picked up a roll of new thirium tubing, as you figured you would need to redo the whole setup inside his abdomen too, and left the room.

As expected, you looked over to see all the components you were missing beginning to materialize on the platform of the 3D printers across the room. You wheeled the cart over to the table in the centre. Where to start? You supposed you would have to undress him. That was a thought that made you a little uncomfortable, you realized. You wouldn’t have even blinked an eye the last time you were in a lab like this, back when you repaired automata, machines obeying orders. But now you were repairing a person, fit with a sense of modesty, and you were to strip his unconscious broken body naked without even having spoken a single word to him. To make matters worse, you knew his model was, well, equipped, being programmed to function as a sexual partner if needed, and you were not equipped to deal with the weight of that –

You shook away the thought. Back when you worked for Cyberlife you’d fancied yourself some kind of doctor, spare the fact that you healed biocomponents and code rather than flesh and bone. And this was barely different from a team of nurses stripping a patient in preparation for major surgery, no? In any case, it had to be done, so you situated yourself in a position where you could hook your arms underneath his (or, what was left of them anyways) and with a whole lot more strength than you expected to use, you hefted him into a sitting position. With his dead weight still leaning on you, the corners of your eyebrows drew upwards in an expression of discomfort as you slipped your hands up the back of the Cyberlife default PL600 uniform shirt and pulled it over his head. You laid him back down a little less gently than you would have liked.

You marvelled at the unpredictable oddness of the human psyche when you removed the remaining scraps of his pants with comparative ease, and a whole lot less internal awkwardness. You had to turn around and contemplate that for a second, shaking your head and laughing to yourself in embarrassment, wondering if you were some kind of freak for that, before you once again physically shook the thought from your mind and turned back around so you could get down to business.

But you took a second to admire him first. You never could help yourself with that. You were always amazed at Cyberlife’s ability to take inorganic material and mould it into something that looked so… realistically human. Bar the fact that you could see the places where his body was ripped open to expose plastic and metal parts, the patches where he was missing artificial skin, and the fact that he wasn’t breathing, you might have looked on him and expected him to be warm to the touch, and you tasked with stitching together flesh and not putting together individually manufactured units to create a whole body. Cyberlife was rife with issues, but you had always, always regarded their creations with the same sort of reverence one would a piece of art. And it was moments like these where you were beyond proud of yourself that you knew just how to piece this fractured, mangled form together into a functional whole again.

Which is what you jumped right into doing. This was your specialty. You were one of the best of the best. Ever since you were fired from Cyberlife, you had continued to use your expertise as a repair engineer to help passing deviants, but here? In the lab? This was where you were really in your element. It took creativity to do your job outside the lab but within, you didn’t have to worry about outdated technology failing you, or working with faulty makeshift tools. All you had to focus on was the android in front of you. Being in the repair lab again was electrifying, and you entered a deeper, more exciting state of flow with every metal bone you fixed, every new biocomponent you clicked into its rightful place, every thirium tube and electrical wire you reconnected.

When the PL600 in front of you was as close to fresh off the assembly line as you could get him, it was nearly 8 in the morning, and you felt the exhaustion in your bones. In the fog of your fatigue you had managed to find a sheet (well, more of a plastic tarp used to make thirium spills easier to clean up) to cover him, and you sat in silence just trying to ward off the onset of sleep while you admired your work. After a few minutes you got to your feet and walked over to your jacket to retrieve your phone from your pocket. Only one last thing to do now. You scrolled through your contacts and when you found the name you were looking for, you tapped the call button. You pre-emptively pressed the speaker phone button and began to lazily pace the room.

After a few rings, a voice rang through: “Hello, Y/N.”

“Hello Markus. You told me to call when the – the –’’ your brain was failing you, and your voice was hoarse “ – the fuckin’… boy was repaired.”

“I – yes I did. Did you really already go in? Have you even slept?” Markus’ voice was tinged with concern.

“I left pretty much right away when you told me where he was last night. I got here at – ’’ you pushed a forceful breath through your lips as you wiped your hand down your face “ – fuck, I don’t know, nearly one in the morning? I’ve been working on ‘em ever since.”

“Oh. Well, alright. Don’t wake him up yet. It’s best that you wait until someone else is there, too. Just wait for me, I’ll head out soon,” he said.

“Wait, you’re coming? Alright, uhh – fuck, bring him some clothes, please.”

“Alright Y/N. Try not to pass out,” he sounded teasing on the end of the line, and with a click it went dead.

Well, some coffee couldn’t hurt. You ran your fingers through your hair and raised your arms above your head in a stretch that felt euphoric given your stiff focus for the past seven and a half hours. You walked out the door and into the reception area, blinking in the morning light shining in through the wide glass windows. You made your way over to the staff door and took the keycard out of the back pocket of your jeans, swiping it over the lock. The door slid open and you stepped into the room, yet another set of lights blinking on to reveal the modest staff room. There was a row of lockers on one end, a lunch table in the middle, a beat up looking couch on one wall (in stark contrast to the gleaming, polished seats just on the other side of the door) and –

God, yes. The mini-kitchen. Your focus was immediately on the coffee machine, but you eyed a loaf of bread sitting out on the counter that brought attention to the roiling emptiness in your stomach. A sandwich didn’t sound too bad. You made your way over to the kitchen and immediately opened the cupboard above, selecting a mug that said “#1 Uncle” in multicolored letters and setting it in the coffee machine. You checked whether there was water in it (there was, thank god), and selected a pod from a bin beside the machine, loading it up and pressing the button to brew it. You left it to work and made your way over to the bread, picking it up and inspecting it, and when you were satisfied it wasn’t moldy, you took two slices and laid them flat on the counter before walking over to the fridge and searching it for sandwich ingredients. You took the coffee creamer and sat it next to the coffee machine, before retrieving some sandwich ingredients – sandwich meat, sliced cheese, a tomato, a big head of leafy lettuce in a plastic container labelled “UFD”, some mustard and mayonnaise. And when you had assembled your sandwich and prepared your coffee, you exited the room to find Markus standing outside the door, holding a bag and looking exasperated.

Quickly swallowing a mouthful of sandwich, you rushed to the door as fast as you could without your coffee sloshing onto the floor and let him in.

“I’ve been trying to get in for ten minutes,��� he says as you step aside and let him walk past you.

“Eeeeehhh… sorry,” you say, and flash him a smile that goes away fast when you see him look you up and down, eyebrows knitted together in concern. It was then that you looked down to see that you were absolutely covered in blue blood – both fresh and the dark, sludgy, crusty stuff that had been sitting in the PL600’s system for all those months. You looked like a goddamn android murderer with your sleeves rolled up, arms slick with azure fluid, splatters of cerulean all up your front. Not even your socks were spared. You look back up at Markus to meet his eyes.

“Uhh… I was all alone. Shit gets messy in there sometimes. Anyways, lets just get to business here,” you said. You gestured towards the lab door, and started following Markus, eating your sandwich and sipping your coffee all the way.

When you both entered the room, Markus set the bags down on the table next to the door, mentioning that those were the clothes you requested, and walked closer to observe the still form on the table.

“Wow,” he said, a breathless quality to his voice. “You… really are something, Y/N.”

“Oh, yeah?” you said, a little disbelieving tone in your voice. You were well aware you were one of the most proficient repair engineers Cyberlife had seen, but it did you no good to admit it.

“You don’t understand, we weren’t entirely sure it would even be worth trying to repair him in the state he was in, but Connor kept insisting. Kept saying that if anyone could do it, it was you. You continue to amaze me with your skills.”

“I amaze myself sometimes,” you said in a hushed tone. “This guy was in quite possibly the worst state I’ve ever seen an android in. Honestly, ‘really bad shape’ my ass, Markus.”

“Is he ready to wake up?” Markus asked.

“At any time,” you nodded at him, and he gestured towards the android on the table, telling you to do what you had to. You walked over and set your coffee and sandwich down on the rolling tray, activating an angled panel at the head of the stainless steel table he was laying on. You activated a command that would instruct the android to initiate his start up sequence and stepped back to observe beside Markus.

You waited for those few seconds with bated breath. This was the moment you would finally see your work in action, finally meet this android you were supposed to live with for the next eight months, whose insides you had become very intimately acquainted with and yet had never spoken a word to. His LED came on, first shining steady blue, and then spinning yellow as he entered the next phase of the start up sequence. All is going normally so far.

And then his eyes snapped open, he woke with a start and a gasp, LED flashing an angry red as he looked up at the intimidating rotating module on the ceiling, face contorting in fear. He looked to either side, quickly gauging his environment before bolting upright on the table and locking eyes with you and Markus. His expression twisted into one of anger and fear, and he looked about ready to bolt before you raised your hands.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait! You’re… completely naked under that sheet,” you blurted out, and when he looked down to confirm you were indeed correct, he seemed to revaluate his impulse to run.

It was then that Markus began to slowly step towards him, hands raised. He spoke to the android on the table in that voice of his, perpetually smooth and calm, always somehow soothing:

“Hello, Daniel.”