mentions: some predator/prey dynamics dont look at me
“is there a reason why you're following me around?” you asked in amusement as you paused in your trek and glanced up from your phone. with the daycare closed for the night, you had to take inventory to prepare for tomorrow—a simple enough task. only, it was made ever more complicated by a certain lanky shadow that trailed closely after you.
sun's rays spun slightly around his head as he regarded you with upturned eyes and clasped hands. he swayed back and forth on his heels. “none in particular! why?"
“you just seem more energetic than usual.” you shrugged as you fully turned around to eye him. indeed, he was fidgeting more than you'd expected after a long day of dealing with children—a pent up sort of terseness to his limbs.
sun let out a dramatic sigh and held a hand up to his forehead. “you've caught me, dear friend! it seems i simply have not run myself down to the bone today! whatever shall i do to get rid of all this pent up power?” to demonstrate, he did a few cartwheels around you before ending with a one-handed handstand. his free arm waved at you, rays spinning around fast enough that you could feel a small breeze from them.
you huffed and gave him a small push on his chassis. with a little exclamation, he toppled backwards into a flip and righted himself with a jump. “first of all," you said shortly, "you don't have bones.”
sun made a sound like a pssht. “ah, semantics! down to my endoskeleton! is that better?” he skipped around you in that cartoon-like way of his. you followed him, slowly spinning yourself around in a circle to keep him in sight.
“better." you nodded in approval. "secondly—i dunno. i have some time before i need to clock out. we could do something to help you get rid of those extra jitters?”
sun stopped next to you and spun his upper body in a circle, then released a loud hMmm. he lingered close, a hand up to the bottom of his face plate as though in thought. "we could, you're right! let's seeee..." he trailed off, tapping a finger against his face with a clink clink clink as he pondered. "how aboouuttt... tag!" quick as a blink, his hand darted out to tap your shoulder before he skipped off deeper into the daycare with a giddy giggle.
you stared off at him slack-jawed for a moment, then processed his actions as he got further and further away. "hey! at least give a little warning?!"
"where's the fun in that?" sun's voice called out to you from beside one of the large jungle gyms. he had stopped his skipping and waved at you eagerly—impishly. "i don't see you chasing, friend!"
"oh you little—" you growled playfully under your breath, then took off in a jog after him. he watched you encroach with a mischievous grin, and just when you were close enough to reach out and touch his arm, he spun himself fluidly away and skipped off elsewhere.
"gotta be faster than that!" he called cheekily. you huffed and picked up the pace. he peeked over his shoulder at you and squawked out something as he dodged a swipe from your hand. "wOAhahah! close one!"
"suunn," you called out warningly, a grin splayed on your face despite your tone. "get back here!" he only laughed and tossed you a playful wink.
you knew you had no way of actually managing to catch sun, being that he was a robot and you were, well, a human. but it was still fun attempting to. he didn't run, exactly. he just skipped and frolicked about. it was almost annoying how you couldn't catch up. he'd slow down, then speed up right as you were about to reach him. sometimes he'd jump up onto the jungle gyms to fling himself over your head or crawl out of your reach in a manner reminiscent of moon. you hoped it was helping him more than it was helping you—you certainly were starting to feel sweaty with all the running around. eugh.
finally, finally, after what felt like ages of sprinting after him, you managed to tag him with a clever feint to the side.
"tag!" you exclaimed in triumph, then abruptly turned on your heel and bolted away. you didn't bother to linger and see his expression—you knew he'd be able to catch you rather easily. might as well at least try to evade him.
"good job, my dear!" he called after you with a tinge of pride. "here i come!"
you could feel yourself starting to get tired as you ran around one of the larger jungle gyms. but the adrenaline of having sun skipping after you kept you going. you grinned as you glanced behind you to see him merrily making his way over. not too fast, not too slow. just enough that you could slow down a bit and catch your breath.
"are you still feeling pent up?" you yelled over your shoulder as you ran past the ball pit. when he didn't respond, you dared a look behind you. he wasn't there. it made you blink and slow down slightly. "...sun?"
"eyes up front!" a voice hollered and you automatically yelped as you jerked your head back around and just barely dodged his hand. you caught a brief glimmer of white from his eyes before you sprinted off to the side. "ooh! close!" there was something tinging his voice that you couldn't quite make out.
"gotta be faster than that!" you echoed his words from earlier. perspiration was starting to mat your hairline and run down the side of your face. you huffed and looked behind you to see if you could pause for a bit, only to flinch at the sight of sun picking up the pace to run faster after you. something sharp gleamed in the curve of his smile, but you weren't able to get a proper look as you practically flung yourself away.
"frieendd," sun suddenly crooned out in a way that made your stomach drop. a chill ran down your spine. "come heere."
"no thanks!" you panted out and made a sharp turn around a slide. you swallowed heavily, a dryness coating your throat. a stitch was starting to form in your side. "hey, can we take a break? i feel like i'm dying."
no response. you slowed to a stop and looked around you. your heart thrummed a steady beat in your ears, your chest rising and falling rapidly as you attempted to gain control of your breathing. you spun slowly in a circle, trying to see where sun was. nothing. you peered out behind you at the rest of the daycare, but you didn't see a flash of yellow anywhere.
...he could be very quiet when he wanted to. you didn't think you heard a single footstep nor jingle of his bells the entire time you were playing with him. you wiped at your forehead and tried to calm yourself down. the daycare's theme song played merrily through the speakers surrounding the area. it almost made you uneasy.
trepidation lined your figure. you had the urge to call out to him again, but for some reason, you hesitated. there was an odd feeling to the air that hadn't been there before. you swallowed again and decided that maybe— maybe you should... make your way over to the security desk. just in case.
as soon as you took a single step in the direction of it, there was a prickle of the hairs on your nape standing erect. you had just enough time to look above you at one of the jungle gyms before you saw a sharp flash of grey. a shriek left your lips as you ducked down with your hands covering your head, something lunging over your figure and skidding a distance away.
for a moment, you stayed curled up in a crouch, hands trembling over your head as you gazed distantly at the floor. a few strands of your hair drifted gently down, landing lightly on the blue play mat you stood on. you blinked at them blankly. then you looked up.
sun was hunched forward with his hands bracing against the floor, back towards you. there was a twitchiness to his limbs, his head jerking minutely left then right. his torso shifted and moved up and down like he was breathing heavily.
you slowly, very slowly, raised yourself to stand. it felt like you were standing on the edge of a precipice—unsteady and uneasy. sun paused, rays twitching slightly. then he turned around, flexing sharp fingers.
your breath got caught in your throat.
"hello my dear." sun grinned at you with teeth that were sharpened like a razor. pinprick white eyes were zeroed in on you on a backdrop of grey. you took a small step back. "you should run now."
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I think because of the whole hiatus and whatnot we were very much blind sided whenever ichikawa really went forward with eliminating most of the main characters we loved and cared about, but also there were many who were upset phos went through with the prayer.
I'm not gonna pretend what phos went through to become divine was horrific. They didn't deserve to suffer. But that doesn't seem to be the overall point of the story. Consider why phos decided to pray away. It was the overall best decision considering phos knew humanity had run it's course, but also there wasn't a point in letting the remnants of humanity suffer for eternity. It was unfair, but what's the point in enacting more suffering?
And after so many millions of years of sleeping, and finally finding some peace with himself. To Phos, the events of the series are now a a small moment of their current lifetime, and a blink in the universe. There is no going back. But even then, it's not like it's all over.
Everything has an end eventually and they've accepted it. They will one way be back in some form, maybe it'll be better or maybe it'll be worse. But they will have the option to act again and maybe they'll act different. I'm not sure at this point because I'm constantly blindsided.
And although I think it would miss the point if we did have the other main characters come back I do wish we had some sort of closure between them. At the same time, that's how life is. Phos needs to move beyond that now because that isn't what is happening to them now.
Maybe in a different universe.
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