#she has this mode without her humanoid legs

[keferon]

Ah mmmm well

You know how in mermaid stories, the mermaid is typically the dumber one? I present to you the "and they were both scientists" plot.

Basically the concept is that mermechs and regular mechs can't talk to each other. But luckily even if they speak different languages they still use the same math~

I discovered a bunch of simpatico mer-fics. So. I wanted to do something with this concept too haha. If some physicist happens to read this - feel free to laugh at me. I know nothing about science👍

I don’t know if I’ll continue this thing. Should I. Idk. It’s midnight I might be going crazy lol. I made that cover anyway bc I love making covers hehe

[Next]->

[baitgore]

copy-pasted from the description of this piece on my deviantart; some of this is already outdated lmao:

beloved tfoc, because there are a ton of unhinged copters in transformers but there can always be.... more......

For the interests of getting her some forward-facing Lore(tm) while her stories are in perpetual "they'll get there eventually" wipland I'm gonna ramble about her now, so this is your warning to click away if you don't want to see it, it's nothing important below here.

Also content note for violence. also eroticized violence. and some adult horny topics but mostly violence, honestly. And nothing too graphic.

ANYWAY yes hello this is my evil robot daughter, not actually part of the Evil Robot Faction and generally not a big fan of the other robots on the whole. She's a "nebulously G1" (Autobots and Cons crashlanded on Earth Four Million Years Ago and the shenanigans are Stupid and also the combaticons and the stunticons are there and stuff, but also I'm going to eat whatever concepts from whatever other continuities i want and no one gets to stop me) and therefore Bait is on Earth during the 80s.

Side note that I was born twenty years after the eighties! this means that it is a Magical Fantasy Time to Me and also i don't care if things are inaccurate so if you notice any weirdness then you can chalk it up to Those Damn Kids Getting Into The Old Media Again Goddamnit.

Anyhow, Bait was actually forged at the very beginning of the Golden Age with an insecticon root mode and a rotary alt and some stupid but extremely generic name like "Whirlwind of Trypticon" or something. It's tough being a beastformer without a root mode, if the makeup of the G1 cast is anything to go by- the Autobots only have Sky Lynx making up their entire beastformer contingent from what I understand, and it's hardly like there are any particularly major players that don't turn into humanoid root modes. For this reason I have decided to port functionism into g1, at least to some degree, and Bait gets the shit end of that stick while she's on Cybertron due to literally just not turning into a person. She's like a rotary dragon/dragonfly six-legged snakey thing. (Also at this point she's a boy; she gets to have a plot arc of trans your gender later). She gives it a little while, learns some stuff, and then fucks off for alien worlds to see what she can make of herself off Cybertron.

She does significantly better for herself outside of the Cybertronian [gestures vaguely] shit morass and badpolitics. She winds herself up on Generic Alien World Number Five, picks a new name because whatever she was using before that was hard to translate and it made more sense at the time to grab something else, and starts taking jobs lugging shit around for aliens, which she finds quickly that she likes much better than working shit jobs for Cybertronians. Sure, they don't really seem to know what to do with her, but neither did the people back home, and this time they don't have any weird stereotypes about her outside of "robot". Much nicer.

She goes a good couple centuries like that. Then someone approaches her like "hello, you're a really excellent transport vehicle, don't get me wrong, always get the cargo in in one piece and on time and I respect the hell out of what you do and I'm not trying to say you should stop doing it, but, uh, you've got that big ass mouth with all the teeth, so can I give you like four times your going rates to go bite someone for me?" and Bait, who has slowly but surely been slipping further and further along the path of going "blood is pretty!" is like "huh alright. yeah ill do that" and she does! And she does it really well! And she likes it.

From that point on, it doesn't take much for her to start expanding her services in that direction, and then bring the bulk of her business operations over to the hurting people and fixing things side of things, and then make a reputation for herself by getting good at it. "Bait of Trypticon from Galapraxia Market or whatever is pretty good at killing people, he's the red and black dragon robot. Weird motherfucker with no face and shaped like a leggy snake with rotor blades, but, hey, we're aliens, we've seen weirder." For Bait's part, this is all great except for how she's actually highly identifiable and there are not a lot of Big Talking Robots who turn into weird dragon creatures. This is less than ideal when about a quarter of your job is just avoiding the cops.

She winds up going back to Cybertron for a reformat and it takes her about thirty seconds on the ground to realize that this place is like. Not home any more. Hasn't been home in years. She lives on Generic Trade Outpost now, but she's not really home there, either. By turning her back on this place that never had any room for her, she's made herself a perpetual outsider.

"Eh, whatever," thinks Bait, "if I am going to be on the outside here then I'm going to do it on purpose." She scrubs the Cybertronian city-identifier from her designation and changes her name in all but the legal documents that she frankly couldn't care less about to her chosen alien name, Bait, and then gets right back out of dodge to go back to the place that she lives in and doesn't, like, despise.

Then at some point Bait has a gender arc. G1 has female cybertronians, but it's implied that they're sort of a rarity, so I can't imagine they reformat Bait - who is walking around with he/him pronoun tags on everything anyway - into one. While Bait was walking around looking like a big bug lizard thing, no one really cared to gender her, which suited her just fine because it wasn't really relevant to her life. The addition of a more "normal" alternate mode did several things for Bait's social interactions.

A) she read like a giant metal man. Without a shadow of a doubt. As opposed to reading like a surprisingly dainty metal animal, who no one was trying to play in-group out-group social games with because they didn't have any real scripts for that;

B) she got a face that people could read that also didn't look like she was about to start biting people at any second now, and suddenly became about thirty times more approachable outside of a business setting so she started accidentally accumulating buddies;

C) she discovered socialization actually mattered quite a bit to her because it was pleasant and fun;

and all this went together for about two years or so and then Bait was like "hm. yknow. I kind of uh. Well. It's sure nice having an ability to socialize with people and all but I'm kind of not feeling it this way. There's all this weird gender nonsense. What if I tried the other gender nonsense on for size instead", and then she did, and then for good measure she tried on a whole bunch of other genders and wound up landing on "yup. girl" after somewhat aggressively spinning the alien gender wheel for like A Century.

By this point she was really in the black financially, just as a result of continuing to be good at her job and also being likeable on top of it. She's good at playing the social game. She's actually getting really good at the social game; finding what makes people comfortable so she can set them at ease, or what makes them uncomfortable so she can push them in different directions; what buttons you can push to make people jump or twitch or freak them out or make them want to play nice with you. And she figures this'll all be easier if she looks a little bit more femme, or she sounds a little bit more femme, or whatever, but not too much. Not to the point of like the g1 round legs and pastel paint jobs, at any rate, because Bait is (at this point, actually blue and white lfahsfhkdk dont look at me i have some Thoughts on her colors) attached to her colors and silhouette, for the most part. She gets the first of several reformats to change her shapes a bit, just to set the odds more squarely in her favor, and then discovers immediately that her first reformat sucked and didn't even have pockets and what the fuck is subspace and mass shifting, this stuff is DELICIOUS, and you can have multiple weapons in these things? You can have detachable weapons? Holy shit what the fuck.

So then Bait-

well first I have to rewind a little bit.

Bait is a very heavy sadomasochist and also has a reasonable understanding of her limits but also the personality of a marathon runner with an improvement complex, meaning that she's really mad about those limits existing and doesn't know how to stop pushing them. Either she's improving or she's getting worse in a way that sort of could be spun as improvement if you squint and throw your moral compass out the window, but she's never able to just fucking chill aboutit. She starts her career in killing people with a mild interest in hurting people and just can't stop trying to probe the limits of her horror and aversion to the terrible things you can do to someone until she just kind of can't find any more limits to push against. It's been a good few centuries since she started, and she's not done with that process just yet, but she is absolutely going through the "Torture is fun and also I'm getting really good at it and I just love getting reactions out of people" thing.

What Bait has not done (yet) is found a S+M play partner. Yet. Mostly for lack of trying, frankly; she's just not really aware that that's an option. Why bother thinking about sex with normal people when you can kill people right there AND get paid for it? But it eventually wanders across her path enough and in such unequivocal terms that she goes "oh cool, that actually sounds very neat" and gives it a go a little while after she figures out the whole gendered element of the Social Game and decides she's bored of having no fun-and-fresh new Social Game Elements to start poking with sticks. As it turns out, Bait likes sex a lot. Bait especially likes the kind of sex where she can do sort of low-level torture to people and watch them twitch and jerk and then they also say thank you after, which is even more fun. It's great. She's living her best life.

That being said, it's a little tough to hook up with non-cybernetic aliens because the bits don't really match up at all when they're organic, but it's also a little tough to hook up with cybernetic aliens because then the components don't necessarily match up either- try sticking an hdmi cable in a headphone jack and you'll see what I mean- and also Bait is a big old sadomasochist, emphasis on masochist now, so it suits her best to either hook up in a sort of sexless bloody affair and then handle her own stuff later or just kind of get Involved with an engineer of sorts. So far those have been two separate groups.

Bait gets a taste for integrated weaponry and also the particular kind of slow but extremely present pain that comes from getting weapon contacts and relays added after she's also gotten a taste for Fuckin' and is just like. Oh Fuck Yeah. I am going to find me a nice hot engineer and I am going to do this every single day for the next century and then she does. She finds a little organic engineer who mostly does weapons engineering and they have a very good time making and testing various kinds of spark-based energy weapons for a good two hundred odd years before the engineer's lifespan sort of runs out and they drop dead. Bait is not best pleased by this, for obvious reasons, least of which being "damnit now i can't get laid on the regular" but probably chief being "damnit now I can't get new guns on the regular".

Rinse and repeat for a good long time.

Eventually, years down the line, she winds up heading back to Cybertron- not for the first time since she decided to abandon her belonging-to-Cybertron, in fairness, because she does still sometimes need Transformer-specific upgrades or Cybertronian goods- and winds up hearing all this big talk about the Decepticons, who initially sound pretty cool! They're coming up from the underlayers, they're led by this big mean bastard from the arena who the upper crust guys don't like, they're gonna tear down the primacy and the overlayers and beat Cybertron into a new shape by force. That sounds pretty cool to Bait. 

Except for some fucking reason these guys like. Don't like aliens. Or at least don't wanna play nice with aliens. They want to take over the galaxy and build a Cybertronian empire and outsource all the oppression to the edges of it, or something. Bait, resident alien-by-choice, is like "Huh. Don't like that" and she goes to check out the opposition, because there are a few different groups all going "huh, don't like that" about various points of Decepticon ideology. But this is very early on, Megatron still is only just putting out treasonous writings but they haven't gotten past that yet for the most part, so all the opposition is equally theoretical and Bait isn't much a fan of basically any of the stuff anyone's saying, so she just kind of leaves. Figures this is a bunch of political theorists circlejerking themselves about whether or not might makes right and whether eternal warfare will lead to internal peace or whatever and decides that this planet has always sucked and it's probably always going to but also it is not her problem and she is going to go kill people for fun and profit some more far away from all this.

So she does. Then Cybertron boils over and the war starts spilling out into space and people start getting cagier around anyone who is Cybertronian at all and the Autobots rise to prominence as the opposition and that's that, and Bait cannot stand the Autobots. She doesn't like their politics or their theories and she doesn't think they have the right approach to aliens either, so she hardly joins up with either side. She just mostly stays out of the way with the other Neutrals.

But the Neutrals dwindle real fast. There's no way around it, there just in general aren't neutrals in G1. I think there are like. two. Meaning whoever Bait is hanging out with, they start vanishing fast and they do not stop and four million years later they are a dying breed. Bait's people largely wind up in the Decepticons, because, after all, the Decepticons are winning, but I'm sure some defect to the Autobots too after it all goes sour. And Bait just keeps doing what she's doing. Her job is to kill people, she does that for money, and she's gonna keep doing that for money.

Except people are shy about Cybertronians now. So her business starts shrinking and it keeps shrinking. And somewhere a little ways into the war she realizes most of the people she's doing business with now, the business has something to do with this war that used to be over on Cybertron and is now all over the place; and most of the people she's doing business with now are either Cybertronian Neutrals or members of one faction or another that want a solution real fast to some problem they have.

Bait changes her colors at this point to black and teal, gets a couple armor upgrades to warframe-grade, and puts the transport business back on her roster because she doesn't trust that killing people is gonna keep paying the bills, but as it turns out she doesn't have the temperament for transport work any more and it also doesn't really have any more opportunities for big scary metal robots like the ones who keep trying to blow up planets and also she has teeth and claws and has no interest in getting rid of them. Still, she makes a solid attempt. And this comes in handy when:

She takes a contract from some Decepticon-aligned Transformer that's a little different from the usual. Her job thus far is to kill people. She doesn't really care for loose ends. But this person really just wants her to put the fear of God into some Autobot, and they're paying her real good, so she does.

As it turns out the Autobots do not like this.

They start hassling her and they do not stop and they put her on a bunch of lists alongside people like Lockdown (fair) and Swindle (not fair) and various other Decepticon-aligned contract-y types, and her Autobot and Autobot-friendly contacts start drying up faster than she can go "but I disagree with their politics!" Bait obviously isn't a fan of this.

She changes her name again (This is where it lands on "Bait", actually; she thinks it's ironic), changes her paintjob, gets a reformat again, and then it doesn't work quite right because she still looks like a warframe and now her records are kind of messy and it keeps getting in her way and besides, she's not fighting people. She waffles on this for a while before just going "fuck it", dumping all her spare cash (which has gotten rather tight now that a quarter or so of her already-shrunken business just plain is gone) into one of her inbuilt weapons to get it overhauled to output a good ten times its original output, and then downgrades back to civilian-grade armor and build. She still has the teeth and the fangs and the inbuilt weaponry, the armor grade is smaller and the shoulders are narrower and most of the weaponry hides in her kibble. This works okay, because the Autobots don't immediately run her against their lists of Bad Danger Evil Guys any more, but also it makes her job harder once she actually has a job. The transport business gives her a flimsy cover, so she keeps that up even though it's really not giving her any returns.

And this continues on until G1 happens! Bait winds up on Earth shortly after the creation of the Stunticons mostly by accident; someone asks her to do a job there and she does and then she is like "ah shit stuff is really happening here" but also ah shit these humans are willing to give her the GOOD shit and people are gonna pay her and the business is good so she is just like. alright. i guess i will hang around. a little.

[salamencerobot]

So after an exhausting yoga class I'm gonna treat myself and ramble about my ocs powers and weaknesses. Under the cut cause this is probably gonna be long.

Corela

Defensive: Corela is kinda shit defensively. Her magic stamina is low, and in cold environments her defense is weakened drastically cause her body is using most of that energy trying to keep her alive. However in dragon form she does have tough scales, and in either form heat accelerates her healing. She often takes lava baths in dragon form when injured.

Offensive: fire magic and energy blades (think like undynes spears). Her blades are curved like a sickle but because they're pure magic every part of them hurts. They tend to be purple but they lighten as she runs out of magic. She can't generate fire while humanoid cause her throat isnt resistant, so she generally carries some firestarter materials with her, including a lighter. When she does breath fire, her fire breath is the same purple color, cause it's fueled by magic. Her magic is very strong but that's because her body doesn't have a very controlled output, so it's all or nothing

When exposed to extreme cold for long periods of time, her wings and eventually her tail will dust themselves, as they require small amounts of magic to exist. In other environments the magic is negligible compared to the natural recovery, but in the cold her body is essentially in emergency mode.

Others: can transform between a human form with wings and a tail, and a full European dragon form. She has a halfway point she can hold, but she has to focus hard and most of her training is focused around her trying to hold that form during physical activities. Useful for needing external fire res in small spaces, or needing claws to climb, but outside of that it's not great. In the halfway form her legs turn digitigrade, and her tail extends for balance. She tends to lean forward somewhat in this form.

Edit: she has figured out how to hold this form without strain. but it doesn't have scales as strong as her full dragon form.

Jesus I have a lot of info on her. Next character!

She can regrow these limbs. The tail takes a long time but regrows relatively cleanly, just with the pains of growth spurts. Her wings, on the other hand, regrow under her skin, and will burst out once halfway grown. This is incredibly painful, and she needs someone else with fire in order to heal the wounds quickly. Theoretically she could force the healing process by transforming fully, however the magic cost of transforming and regrowing three limbs would kill her at her current state.

Edit: Exposure to the sun has given her a boost in power and allows her to spark fire magic midair, letting her use it freely. Still struggles with output and emotional control. As a fire dragon her draconic half draws power from the sun.

Tools: Corela is an engineer and scientist at heart and has developed a staff she can use to channel her magic better, and she has found a way to turn her magic into a powder, allowing her to store more outside of her internal magic reserves. (Think like a drink mix. I'm not joking dhdhd).

Edit: her staff can also channel her fire magic through it, giving her a safe output.

Tiama

Offensive: she has powerful plant magic and illusion magic, as well as the ability to shapeshift into any animal, though without her illusion powers she stays all green. Her illusion magic is easiest with one sense, but she can also fool taste, smell, and hearing. She can mess with touch, like heat and texture, however she can't make solid objects, so it's a bit of a null point. Outside of her grove, her powers are extremely weak, and she starts to die as she gets further away from her tree

Edit: Tiama recently soul-bound with a powerful dragon monster, giving her more freedom of movement and another power source. This comes at a cost, though, as they're emotionally linked now and that includes exhaustion.

Other: being a tree nymph, Tiama lives for a long, long time. Over the century she's lived in her grove, her magic has seeped into it, turning the entire place into essentially one giant magic battery. This makes her home great for injured monsters, as their magic recovers extremely fast.

Defensive: Her plant powers are her main defense in combat, but she tends to rely more on trickery. Making herself look terrifying, scaring people by making trees rustle, things like that. She can recover from wounds easily enough if they hit her projected form, however if her tree is wounded it takes much longer to heal. Fire is a definite weak point but because she lives in Waterfall it doesn't burn too long. Also a bit of a cold weakness but again she doesn't leave her area often at all, and it's not as severe as Corela.

Edit: gains a power boost in the sun, and also relies in trickery in terms of information. Will restrict powers to make other underestimate her.

Tools: Tiama refuses to let weapons of any kind into her grove, and this extends to herself.

Sayala

Offensive: great archery skills that she uses regularly for hunting food. Able to use physical or conjured arrows(again, think undynes spears), which means ammo isn't an issue unless she's doing something like flaming arrows. Rouge-like movements and tactics.

Defensive: great acrobatic skills, often hunts by jumping from tree to tree. Good stealth as well. Used to spying on guards so her hearing and sight are fine tuned to being aware of her surroundings. She also has thick fur which provides cold resistance, but she exhausts quickly in the warmth. If she lives in a temperate area for long she sheds her 'winter' coat.

Other: good with her hands and limited materials, she lives in the forest after all. The best character to have with you if you need to survive without magic

Tools: her bow and quiver, along with a simple knife.

Zora

Offensive: no offensive powers or magic, though her teeth are slightly sharper than normal and she has a human's resistance to attacks.

Defensive: when given a magic boost from an amulet or similar source she can create shields, but she hasn't trained them much since she's still a kid

Other: while definitely more trusting than her sister, Corela, Zora will still fight when nessecary and has bitten people on more than one occasion. Corela encourages this.

Tools: depends on the day but nothing is certain. She does have a ring that disguises her as a monster with a form similar to her sister's halfway form, based off of Tiama's magic. She uses this to avoid confrontation for being human.

Freya

Offensive: just a little bit of fire magic. She doesn't engage in combat often.

Defensive: her tough scales are more than enough for most attacks

Other: she's a potion master at heart, so she always has some kind of magic at her disposal, just not her own. She knows poisons and cures and mixes that will turn off senses at will, do not fuck with her.

Tools: an honestly unhealthy number of types of potions. You don't need that many poisons.

Tykee

Offensive: their magic has such a severe side effect that they don't use it often. Aside from their magic, Tykee also has retractable claws on their front paws and fangs, as well as a strong snake body they can use to trap opponents. Currently strength training their wings to use them as bludgeoning weapons.

Defensive: they can use their luck magic to escape really bad situations but it's a last ditch effort cause otherwise the side effects will weaken them severely. Otherwise, their scales aren't too weak, and their fur and feathers help with the cold for short periods of time.

Tools: they use throwing knives as their main weapon.

Kekoa

Offensive: just an entire bastard. Most of his strength comes from how much he traumatized Corela, and his scientific knowledge. He knows most common monster weak points, and is very analytical about situations. He used to have power over trees but ever since Corela turned him into an ash monster that's been pretty tricky.

Defensive: good luck hitting a sentient ash cloud. His one weakness is fire.

Other: honestly just fuck this guy

Tools: everything you'd find in an evil experimenting scientist's lab. Poisons, scalpels, etc.

[mackeydoodledoo]

The Winged Knight

(Gif not Mine and pretend the Red matches the armor color!)

Pairing: Izzy Garcia x (FemKnight!)Reader

Summary: It follows a girl: Y/N Y/L/N, who currently owns the "Pteradon Champion Zord", along with its DinoSoul Key, who is currently a Professional Box Fighter. The youngest ever to be a pro. What she doesn't know is that she is a direct descendant of the supposed Mythical "DinoSoul" Tribe. [Equivalent to the Ryusoul Tribe]. Her partner, she calls him, "buddy" as she doesn't have a proper name for him. The two of them embark on a journey to figure out who she is, finding an old flame and developing a new crush in the process.

Warnings: Near-Death

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

As you wait outside for Izzy once more, helping her with her morning training session, you go on your phone to check on the ranger hotline news and news in general. You've been helping Izzy the last several mornings to prep her for her upcoming competition she talked about with you and for the two of you to get to know each other more.

"Arctic Knight Ranger," a sudden voice calls to you from your phone, "I know you would sacrifice a lot for your partner. But, what will you sacrifice for your little girlfriend?" 

Your phone's screen then cuts to Izzy.. 

"Bring me the Pteradon Champion zord and she'll live," the Sporix villain demanded, "We're at the 23rd floor of buzzblast.”

"That's where the editing and broadcasting room is," you say to yourself

"Don't do it," Zayto says, offscreen, "Wake the Pteradon Champion zord!" 

That's the thing, you haven't been able to awaken his form in weeks. Years even.

"I can't... You can't." he says, "I'm scared..." 

"It's okay bud," you say, petting him, "We'll figure something out." 

You place him in your backpack and begin heading over to BuzzBlast, "MY lord, it's too early for this kind of thing to happen..."

"You're not giving him to me are you?!" He freaks out 

"Of course not bud!" You say, "You're important!"

As the rangers watch their Dino Keys be taken, they all squirm in their ropes further, but getting tighter each time they nearly get free of the ropes. You see, those 'ropes', are actually made from Vinepault; a sporix beast.

"The Arctic Ranger's gonna come!" Izzy says, trying to reassuring her teammates

"As if," the Sporix monster laughs, "They're probably wallowing in their own fear right now!"

As you hold onto your egg for life, watching the Dino Fury Rangers' Dino keys get taken, your egg begins moving. 

"What's your plan Y/N?" He whispers 

"Can't help but to use this," you whisper, holding the HieHie Ryusoul, "You get out of here." 

He does but you didn't realize he had stayed behind. 

"HieHie Soul," you whisper, turning your ryusoul into its knight mode, inserting it into your Ryusoul Ken 

"HieHie Soul," you sword announces 

You open the hilt and open and close it consecutively, twice.

"Kyo!", "Ryu, Sou, Sou!", "Kono Kanjii!!", "HieHie." 

You stab your sword into the ground and freeze it, along with the Sporix beasts standing on it. Stopping right at the base of the rangers' captivity; flying over to the rangers and slashing the constricting vines they were enveloped in.

"Arctic Knight oh thank god!" Amelia sighs 

You put your sword into your holster and walk over to the frozen sporix beast and take the Dino keys back. 

"Thanks man," you smile, kicking him as the ice breaks; causing him to fall back 

You run back over to the rangers and hand them their keys back. 

"Arctic Knight Ranger," Zayto smiles, "Where's your champion zord?" 

"He's somewhere safe," you say 

Before you could say anything more, you could easily hear his cries. 

"Watch out!" Amelia says, everyone ducking but you

You feel a pair of arms wrap around your midsection as you begin falling down, hearing an explosion in front of you; realizing the sporix beast made a hole in the wall. A decently sized one at the least. You look down and notice it was Izzy that grabbed onto you to move you out of harms way. You stand up, helping Izzy in the process and turn to him and the sporix beast has him in his hand. Izzy immediately charges at the sporix beast and back-hand slashes its hand; freeing your partner. But in exchange, she's the one in your partners' place.

"Buddy I told you to hide somewhere safe!" You sigh, looking down at him in anger

"But I'm not leaving you to do this alone," he says 

You smile slightly. But still wanting to scold him for staying behind.

"Hand me your Dino key and she won't get hurt." The beat demands, gesturing to your partner

"Don't do it!" Izzy yells

Her teammates agree with her. However, you wanted to get Izzy out of there without handing over your partner over to the sporix beast.

"Quiet, Green Ranger" he growls 

"Hand her over first," you demand, 

"You give me your Dino Key first!" He demands, holding up one of his arms toward Amelia's neck area

You sigh, realizing the sporix monster won't come to reason. Reaching for your sword, opening the hilt and taking out its Ryusoul.

"Y/N?!" Amelia and Izzy ask at the same time

"Hey," you smile slightly, "Been awhile Ameils."

Izzy couldn't believe it either. You've kept this 'being a ranger' a secret from her and you've known her for a couple of weeks; being her trainer the two of you pretty much getting to know one another over training. Truth is, you didn't want Izzy finding out so you wouldn't get into a situation like this one. The other thing Izzy knew was that you know Amelia; the two of you were best friends in high school.

"But-but how?!" Amelia asks

"What are you doing?!?!," your partner asks 

"Don't worry, I got a plan," you whisper, "Now get over there." 

Your partner does so. 

"Now, hand her over," you demand 

The sporix beast doesn't say anything but immediately runs over to you and punches you, sending you out a gaping hole into her wall. 

"NO!" The team yells, Izzy letting out a scream

You let out a blood-curdling scream as you begin falling toward the ground way below the floor you were on. Your champion zord screams and chokes on a cry as he manages to pry himself out of the sporixs' grip and jump out after you. 

"No!!" He screams 

With all of his might, he grew and he grew into a giant Pteradon. He catches you in the nick of time before you made contact with the ground. 

"Y/N, are you okay?!" He pants, nearly gasping for air 

"Buddy?" You smile, "Oh my gosh you did it!! Celebrations aside I gotta get back in there and defeat that sporix beast!" 

"How?!" He asks, "You don't have your Ryusoul!!" 

"あいぼう, 私��ちのソウルを一つに." You say [Translation: "Partner, our Souls are One."] 

"Alright!" He says, flying up toward the gaping hole 

You hop off of your partner's back and once more stab your sword into the ground, freezing the ground; immediately freezing nearly the entire ground, looking up at the sporix beast slightly, whose legs are frozen. 

"Not again!" He screams 

You inhale deeply then let out an exhale; your breath being visible due to the now cold temperature.

"翼の騎士, リュソウル シアン!!" You announce for the first time [Translation: "The Winged Knight, Ryusoul Cyan!"] 

The rangers watch you take your sword out of the ground. Although your Ryusoul was with the sporix beast, a bright, vibrant Cyan aura forms around you, enabling your Ranger form and acquiring your Dino-Freeze armor. 

"おれの騎士を見せてある!!" You announced again as you pull Izzy out of his grip and into yours, slashing at the monster  [Translation: "I'll show you my Chivalry!"] 

You push her towards her teammates, hinting to her to free them. Keeping the sporix beast at a distance from the rest of the team, you engage a battle with him. 

"あいぼう!!" You scream holding your hand up into the air [Translation: "Partner!"] 

You hear him battle cry as he shrinks, taking the ryusoul back and throwing it to you. You catch it and activate your final move. 

"Blizzard, Dino Slash!" You scream, slashing the air, creating a freezing vortex towards the sporix beast 

He gets caught up in the vortex and explodes, a slime-looking ball is formed. You watch Zayto catch it before Void knight could get to it. 

"Y/N. Right?.." Ollie asks 

"That's me" you answer, turning back into your civilian form

"Since when did you have a Dino key?" Zayto asks

"Family heirloom, and he's been around all my life," you say, looking behind you

You notice he's sitting on Izzy's back. You immediately run over to her and try to shake her awake.

"Hey, hey! Izzy!" You try to wake her, but to no avail

You place two of your fingers up to her neck.

"Still got a pulse, but she's unconscious," you say, picking her up into your arms

You walk past the other rangers as you teleport, using Izzy's communicator and disappear.

"Who are you?!" A dinosaur asks, walking over to you 

"I'm a friend, but, Izzy's hurt bad and I didn't know where to take her, " you sigh, placing her down into a bed, "So I decided to come here."

"Good choice coming here," she says,  "Thank you."

You nod to her as the dinosaur-humanoid begins observing her, figuring out a way to tend to Izzy's injuries.

After a couple of hours you see the rangers teleporting into base. You stand up to formally greet them.

"Y/N Y/L/N," you finally introduce, shaking Zayto's hand, "What you guys call me, the 'Arctic Knight' Ranger."

"We have more people on our team?" Ollie smiles, "The sporix beast won't stand a chance now!"

"Didn't know the Arctic Knight Ranger was cute," Javi tries to flirt with you

"Whoa whoa whoa there champ," you back up," I like girls... 100%."

Ollie laughs as Javi becomes embarrassed at your remark and the fact he tried to flirt with you. You smile and chuckle as you play it off as a joke from him. 

"Guys will you keep it quiet?" Izzy groans as she sits up

Javi immediately goes to her bedside and comforts her.

"Hey Izzy," he smiles, "How are you feeling?"

"Considering I almost became a ragdoll, I'm fine, " Izzy jokes, "W-wait how did I get here?" 

"This woman carried you back," the Humanoid-Dinosaur says, gesturing to you

"Hey, thanks," she says, stretching out her arm

"Don't mention it," you smile slightly

"Now, with introductions aside," Zayto states, "We have to train."

"No worries, on it," you state

"Ryusoul Change!" You said, inserting your ryusoul into Izzy's morpher

You were figuring out if you could change into your ranger form without the use of your sword. Once you spun the silver 'helmet' on the morpher, nothing happens. You sigh in disappointment and take out your ryusoul.

"Guess it only works with your keys," You sigh, "No worries though! I wanted to see if it worked anyway!"

You hand the morpher back to Izzy.

After the training session, you were about to make your leave for the night however, get a tap on your shoulder.

"Hey Izzy," You smile

"Hey, I just want to thank you," She says, "For the last couple of mornings and carrying me here."

"Don't mention it Izzy," You say, slinging your backpack onto your shoulder, "Thank me when you win that competition tomorrow Izzy!"

"One more thing," Zayto says, coming over, "Now you can teleport yourself to base and join us in future battles with the sporix beasts and take down Void Knight."

You put on your communicator/teleportation device on your left wrist.

"Thank you Zayto," You smile, beginning to walk out of the forest to reach your apartment

Part 3

[lordterronus]

Creatorverse Fanfic Chapter Two

Creatorverse – Self Indulgent Stories

Chapter Two – Nobody’s Home

I had no idea where exactly we were going. Somewhere called Creatorverse was the only information I had for sure. Shandy assured me that I would love it there, and that it would be a wonderful place, but as for what it actually looked like, I had no idea. Nor did I know where exactly it was.  

I could tell it was far beyond the strange technicolour void of bubbles I was in before. I had gathered that it was a sort of prison, though how I had gotten myself there, or how Wib appeared still remained a mystery.

“We’re here!” Shandy said, pointing at what appeared to be a large white bubble. It was bigger than any of the previous coloured ones, and somehow slightly unnerving.

“This is Creatorverse?” I asked, my voice becoming very deep. Yet another change I had to deal with. “It’s… not what I expected.” I had imagined something more vibrant, but instead it was looking rather empty. Shandy laughed a little.

“This is just the entrance. It’s a lot better inside, even if it still a work in progress.” She said. I would have tilted my head, but since my head was currently also my body, I instead simply did my best to look confused.

“What are waiting for?!” Lorel yelled. “We have an anime duel to stop!” She raised her hand and displayed her CREATE button. I couldn’t get a good look at it before a large ‘CV’ appeared, accompanied by a glowing yellow portal in the centre of the bubble. I could tell this was our way in.

“Let’s go, before they blow the place up!” Lorel’s words were punctuated by an explosion that was, for some bizarre reason, coloured pink.

“Is that normal?”

“For here? It’s just another Tuesday.”

“Ah.” I said. “That’s concerning.” I didn’t have the time to say anything else before we were suddenly diving into the portal. I had to cover my face from the sudden shift in light. When I removed my hand, however, what I saw was incredible.  

There was still a lot of blank white space, largely in the sky. But there was a large patch of land with a sunset sky and grassy fields illuminated and appearing a deep blue in colour. Strewn around the landscape were buildings of all possible shapes and sizes and around a dozen in the ‘impossible’ category. Some were floating, others appeared submerged in bubbles of water, still others had more ridiculous features, like a series of organised tornadoes instead of a fence.

It was the people that really caught my eye though. Or, my face, I guess? Whatever, they had my attention.

Many of them appeared to be humanoid for the most part, with some exceptions. I saw a surprising number of skeletons wandering around, some even looking vaguely familiar to me for some reason. There were several anthropomorphic animals around, and even some strange, shapeless figures. The variety was astounding.

Suddenly, being a walking question mark with limbs was starting to seem normal.

I didn’t have too much time to take in the scenery before we landed. Shandy gently placed me down on the ground. The scenery appeared in greater clarity to me. The shapeless figures were much clearer and I could see so much further with my cane on the ground again. But I wasn’t so much focused on the sights as I was the feeling.

“What the hell?!” My voice was suddenly as high as a kite as I exclaimed my surprise. There was an indescribable movement flowing through the entire area. It was electric and powerful, and somehow… familiar? I had the feeling of returning home after a long holiday rather than seeing a brand-new place for the first time.

“You feeling it?” Lorel crossed her arms and seemed to smile. “This world is just brimming with creative energy. We call it Motivation. Every one Creator here is worth ten of us out there, sometimes more.”

“She’s in the ‘more’ category.” Shandy grinned at Lorel, who blushed a little and smiled back.

“You’re just saying that because you’re my wife.” Shandy chuckled at Lorel’s remark. Before anyone could speak any further, however, a third voice chimed in.

“WHERE THE HECK HAVE YOU TWO BEEN?!”

“Oh crap!” Lorel said. “Shandy, take the newbie and hide!”

“I’m not just going to abandon you!”

“If you hide, you’ll be safe!”

“But what about you?!”

“What is even happening?!” I interrupted with a shrill yell. “Are we under attack? Is it Wib again?!”

“Wib? You mean that Blockhead?” Lorel asked before shaking her head and dismissing the thought. “Never mind, it’s not important. What IS important is you two getting away from-!”

“Away from who?” The third voice interrupted, and Lorel shrieked. I looked towards them, preparing to transform for a fight. They felt intimidating, with a great amount of power and presence. However, they didn’t seem like an enemy in spite of that.

“H-hey Ly! We were… at the bathroom?” Shandy scratched her head nervously. Lorel placed her hand in her palm, seemingly either cringing or hiding amusement. I couldn’t tell from so low down and in my vision limited form.  

“Really? So, I’m guessing that that,” The new figure gestured towards me. “Came from the toilet?”

“Hey!” I said. My voice shifted to a slightly lower pitch than I would have liked. “I take offence to that!” The figure seemed to glance at me briefly in confusion. She – I guessed from the voice and what little I could tell that she was a she – then looked back to Lorel and Shandy.

“It can talk?”

Okay, that was the last straw.

“It’s she, actually.” I said, drawing attention to myself. I took the opportunity to transform into my second stage. I had taken to calling it ‘V2’. I had no idea why, it just felt right. I felt my body growing and expanding, my legs and arms spreading out. My cane matched the growth of my body, as did my hat. My head split into a head and torso, and the limbs adjusted themselves accordingly. At my full height, I seemed to be the tallest person present. My sword seemed to slide out from my new right hand, and I grabbed it by the handle. I lifted it towards the face of the figure.

“And she can do a lot more than talk.”

There was a tension in the air as the figure seemed to glare at me for a moment. I glared back at her. I could see her much more clearly now. She appeared to be a little bulkier than the other people I had encountered. She had short black hair and glasses, set upon what appeared to be a pig’s snout. Her skin appeared to be a reddish pink, and she had the tail of a monkey visible from behind her.

What would a combination between a pig and a monkey be? Monkig? Ponkey? I liked Ponkey.  

“Ly,” Shandy said, stepping between the two of us. “She’s a Creator. Lorel and I had to leave to save her from being imprisoned with a Blockhead.” She explained. The figure that was apparently named Ly glanced over with a raised eyebrow. She was still for a moment, before stepping back and letting out a laugh.

“I see! So that’s where you two were. Running off on adventures without me.” I lowered my sword. She seemed to be friendly, and Shandy and Lorel seemed no longer afraid. I guessed she was just the stern type.

“Well, she’s got spirit. I think I like her!” Ly said, seemingly examining me for a moment. “What’s your name?” She said, speaking to me directly for the first time.

���I…” I hesitated. I still wasn’t sure on my name. “It’s just Nobody, for now at least.” I answered. My sword retracted itself into my arm, and I raised a hand. Ly shook it, and I noticed that she had quite a strong grip. She released my hand, which was now a little sore, and turned to Shandy and Lorel.  

“Glad you had a successful rescue mission,” Ly said, glancing at me for a moment. “But next time, maybe you could give your wife a little more warning.” I looked at all three of them, slightly confused.

“Wait, who’s married to who now?”

“We’re all married to each other!” Shandy excitedly said, pulling Lorel and Ly into a big hug. I chuckled a little at the sight. Lorel seemed slightly cross, but wasn’t objecting to the hug, whilst Ly returned it with equal, or perhaps greater enthusiasm.

“Ah, neato!” I said. Before I could any further words, however, there was a sudden and loud explosion from behind us. I quickly attempted to pull out my Create Button, but Shandy stopped me.

“Calm down,” She sighed. “That’s just Slime and Andrew.” If I had a face capable of the motion, I have no doubt that I would have shown a confused frown. As it was, my face and chest remained a question mark, though briefly switched to an exclamation mark for a second.

“Who and what now?” I said, turning towards the explosion. Standing a small distance away from us, there was a figure who appeared to be entirely pink. They were carrying a sharp sword, and overall, they exuded an aura of fear.

“Oh no, they’ve already gone full pink mode.” Lorel said. I had no idea what exactly pink mode was, but I took it to mean that they were not usually so monochromatic in appearance. A transformation of some kind must have taken place.  

“This has gone on long enough, Andrew!” The pink figure raised their sword in front of them and seemed to smile menacingly. “Why do you insist on this battle? We already know how it will end…” I couldn’t tell if they were trying to threaten this Andrew person, or if they were just tired of fighting. I guessed it was some mix of the two.

After a moment, there was a spinning green tornado of energy that appeared before the pink swordsman. It dissipated, leaving a slightly disoriented looking person with brown hair and square glasses. They were dressed in a green ninja outfit, and held two katanas. Overall, they seemed much more relaxed than the pink swordsman.

“Eh.” The green figure I assumed to be Andrew said. “It’s a good way to introduce our characters.” The pink swordsman, who by process of elimination must have been the one called Slime – not what I expected with that sort of name – growled angrily at Andrew.

“Still speaking in riddles and nonsense.” They took a battle stance. “Perhaps I’ll have to remove your tongue before I can understand your words!”

“Sure, if you think you can.” Andrew seemed very relaxed about this whole affair, as though this was an everyday occurrence. I got the impression from the others that they weren’t wrong in that assumption.  

“They’ve been at it all day.” Ly sighed. “I tried to stop them, but they’re determined to keep going. The number of houses we’ve had to rebuild in the past hour alone…” She looked off, seemingly trying to count. I looked over at Slime and Andrew, who both seemed to have energy radiating off of them like bursts of lightning.

“We have to do something.” I said, determined. The others looked at me curiously. I summoned my sword in my hand and gripped it tightly. “I’m still pretty new here, but I get the impression we shouldn’t really be destroying stuff in a place for Creators.” Lorel grinned at my words, whilst Shandy seemed to shrug.

“Would if I could. I’m unarmed.” She said. I was surprised, but it did make sense. Still, I made a mental note to give her a weapon at some point. I could easily make something, and she was partially responsible for saving my life.

“Lorel? Maybe try shooting some fire at them or something?” I asked. She seemed all too happy to oblige my request, flying into the air quickly and taking a vantage point between the two. She readied her flames. When the two figures charged at each other with their blades, she tossed a blast down.

Or, I assume it was meant to be a blast of fire. For some bizarre reason, she ended up throwing down a sandwich of some kind. It landed on Slime’s hair. I was almost sure I heard a bird tweeting as they looked up to the source of the blast. They grinned.

“Lorel, hi!” They sounded much different than they did when talking to Andrew. Their voice was much more friendly. If it wasn’t for the menacing expression on their pink face, I would have called it wholesome. “Wanna help me beat Andrew some more?”

“Sounds fun, but I probably should’nt-”

“Please.” Andrew said. “I could easily beat you both.” If I had a mouth, it would have flung open, but as it was, I still remained with a question mark, though it flickered between that and an exclamation point.

“Is that a challenge?” Lorel asked, seemingly intrigued. I was torn between anger and panic, as it seemed that now I would not only have failed to stop the fight, but escalated it. I could only hope that Andrew would realise their mistake-

“It is. What are you going to do about it?”

“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!” I screamed. Andrew seemed to hear me, but no one else reacted. They briefly glanced towards me and shrugged.

“Not my fault a good story needs some action.” They said, only confusing and frustrating me further. I looked to Lorel, who to my surprise, seemed to have coloured herself pink to match Slime.

“Oh, it is on now!” She said. Slime laughed and turned their attention back to Andrew, who seemed somehow pleased with this turn of events. I could only conclude that they had the self-preservation instincts of a goldfish, and a particularly dull goldfish at that.  

“One of you please do something!” I looked to the others. Shandy and Ly looked at each other and shrugged.

“I’m still unarmed.”

“I’ve been trying all day. I’m too tired to fight any more.”

Unfortunately, it seemed that I had no choice but to act myself. Slime charged at Andrew once again, and Lorel dove down from above and followed his path. Andrew readied his blades, but before either of their opponents could reach them, they were blocked by a sword and cane.

“I hate you…” I gritted out, trying to block the two’s strong double assault. Either I was stronger thanks to all of the adrenaline running through my body, or they were holding back. Whatever it was, I was astonished that I was able to hold them off for even a few moments. “So much right now. And I don’t even know you.”

“Don’t be like that, Protagonist.” Was that some kind of nickname for me? I didn’t much care for it. Andrew grinned at me. “Trust me, this is gonna be fun.” In a flash, he had once again become a spinning green tornado of energy. I had no idea how they were doing that, but it seemed very familiar. Maybe something to do with the ninja clothes?

“They managed to force Slime back, and the sudden lack of force allowed me to spin around and strike Lorel with the side of my sword. I didn’t want to do any serious damage here, just stop the fighting. She was launched back, but not by much.

“Ah, a two on two battle!” Slime seemed eager. “Perfect for making my victory all the sweeter!” They laughed ominously. My face and chest went to an exclamation mark and I waved my arms in surprise.

“What? No! That is not what’s happening-!” I didn’t have time to finish, as I had to hastily dodge a fireball from Lorel. I summoned my Create Button to the ground and retaliated with a series of icy spikes that proceeded from the ground to follow her, but she flew up into the air. Andrew was in hot pursuit, using some admittedly impressive parkouring skills to get into the air.  

“Okay, I guess that is what’s happening now.” I sighed. “I miss Wib. They were way more relaxing.” I raised my cane and barely managed to block a strike from Slime. Before I could retaliate, they launched a kick to my stomach. I dropped my cane and fell over. They grabbed my arm and proceeded to try to throw me over their body.

Thinking quickly, I summoned my Create Button onto the ground. As I impacted with the floor, I summoned forth a bolt of lightning. It stung as it travelled through to my sword, but I managed to send the bolt through the metal and blast Slime back.  

“Impressive.” They said. “Before I smite you for this, what is your name?” I grew agitated. I really wished people would stop asking me that. I didn’t have anything I could say. I stood and raised my sword. My legs were a little wobbly without my cane. I supposed this would make for some good practice.

“I’m Nobody.” I said, glaring fiercely at Slime. “And I’m the one who’s going to finish this.”  I didn’t mean to sound so dramatic about it, but I supposed that their excitement was rubbing off on me just a little bit. I charged forth, my sword in one hand and my Create Button in the other.

“Woo!” Shandy cheered, and I turned for a moment to see her and Ly watching from a distance. Ly had managed to get some popcorn.

Unfortunately, Slime took advantage of my distraction, hitting me with the hilt of their blade and sending me flying back.

“Ouch!” Shandy winced. “Sorry about that.” I glared at her.

“You sure you can’t do anything?!” I yelled. Ly placed a hand in front of her and stared at me with a serious expression.

“We’re staying out of this one.” She said. She grinned at me for a moment. “Besides, I wanna see what you can do!”

Was everyone here out of their minds?!  

“I’m starting to regret coming here.” I wasn’t being entirely honest. This was surprisingly very fun. If it wasn’t for the fact that I was desperate to stop all the fighting and destruction here, I might have been enjoying myself a lot more. Hell, I might want to join in for a more organised battle. But that was for another time.

Right now, I had to live up to my words and end this.

I readied my sword and took a stance, finally preparing myself for a strike. Slime took notice, and hesitated, moving carefully around me and trying to find an opening. Finally, after what felt like hours, they charged at me.

If I had a mouth, I would have smirked.

I ducked under their initial strike, disorienting them for a moment. I summoned my Create Button right from under their legs.

“Ice prison.” I said. Slime tried to move, but I grabbed their leg, dropping my sword in the process.

“CREATE!”  

I threw myself back as Slime became trapped in a block of ice, leaving only their head vulnerable. They growled a little before sighing. It seemed I had successfully managed to immobilise them. At least for the moment. I just hoped that they wouldn’t break out.

“Alright, one down.” I sighed, taking a moment to breath. “Now I just have to deal with either Lorel or Andrew, and that should be the end of it.” Much easier said than done, especially given that one could seemingly become a tornado, whilst the other could shoot fire and fly. I turned, ready to try to find them, when Andrew just appeared in front of me.

“Gah!” I let out a small shriek of surprise. Andrew appeared to be unfazed. They extended their hand, holding my cane out to me.

“You dropped this.” They said. “I’m guessing it’s important.” I reached out hesitantly, and took the cane from their hand. Their katanas were both strapped to their back, in a way that looked very impressive, if not very practical.

“Thanks,” I said. “What happened to Lorel?” Andrew grinned at me as I spoke.

“I took care of her.” They said proudly. “A little green ninja action!” They made various noises and fast motions with their arms that I couldn’t help but laugh at. I was still surprised though. The fact that they had managed to defeat Lorel was rather impressive based on what I had seen.

“Well, kinda.” They said. “In reality I just ran away until they flew into a wall. It was some great comic relief.”

“Comic relief?” I said, now concerned. “Is she okay?”

“She’ll be fine, don’t worry. I got our healer before I came over here. Glad I don’t have to take down Slime again.” Andrew said, ignoring Slime growling at them and struggling in the ice. “Besides, it happened off-screen. It’ll be fine.” If I had eyebrows, I would have raised one in confusion. I was finding my face rather ill-suited to covering my emotional state clearly.

“Yeah, that was pretty tough. Maybe don’t leave me to handle your battles next time? Or just don’t destroy stuff in your epic anime showdowns.” Andrew laughed. I wasn’t sure if they were taking me seriously when I said that.

“Yeah, that’s fair. But you have to admit,” They said. “It was pretty fun! Besides, you handled yourself pretty well.”

“I agree!” I jumped back in shock, as it seemed Shandy had used her invisibility to sneak uo and surprise me after the battle. “That was pretty fun to watch!”

“How long were you standing there?!”  

“Just about a minute.” She said. “I considered helping with a sneak attack, but you seemed to have things covered.”

“A bold assumption.” I said, only half-joking. “I only wish you could’ve helped earlier…” I said, before a sudden burst of inspiration came to me. I pulled out my Create Button and focused on creating a small weapon. The end result was a slingshot, which I handed to Shandy.

“Here you go. You’re armed now.” I said, jokingly. “Maybe next time it can be two on three?” Shandy smiled down at the slingshot before looking up to me with a big grin.  

“I love it! Thanks Nobody!” She said. I was surprised for a moment, since it was intended as more of a joke than anything, but if she was happy, I suppose that was a fine outcome.

“Nice birthday gift.” Andrew said next to me. “I should have thought of that.”

“Huh. Happy birthday, I guess.” I said to Shandy. “Now I feel bad for complaining so much.”

“It’s fine! Like I said, I had fun watching the fight.” She replied. “In fact, you might do well on missions.”

“Missions?” I asked. I had a feeling the answer to this would be important. “What do you mean?”

“Oh boy,” Andrew said. “You’ve got a lot to learn here.”

[END] 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO @shandycandy278! I really wanted to get this chapter done in time for today, so I hope you like it. Just like last time, a bunch of crazy people under the delusion that my writing is somehow good wanted me to tag them, so in no particular order - @blossomtato, @onlyplatonicirl, @156lemongummies, @insane-but-smart, @lynn-does-stuff, @ava-the-lost-artist, @burned-ramen-2, @chais-chaos-corner, @i-am-the-unknown-shadow, @andrewture, @midgardiankat and lastly @creatorverse! (Why do so many people want to see my word vomit?)

[capricornus-rex]

Someone Left to Save (7)

Cal Kestis x Reader

Requested by Anon

Summary: The Mantis crew arrives to the capital of Ulfin, in the planet of Pevera, under siege. They meet the local rebel cell spearheaded by the former Republic admiral, Jax Beneb, who seeks to destroy the Empire’s occupation that was aggressively imposed upon while exploiting the planet of its natural resources. A plan is devised to destroy the Imperial’s main base of operations—as well as their influence—in the planet; however, it was a do-or-die mission that you and Cal had gotten yourselves caught in.

Tags: Force-Sensitive! Reader, Inquisitor! Reader, Jedi! Reader, Fake Death, Jedi turned Inquisitor, Seduction to the Dark Side, Turn to the Dark Side, The Dark Side of the Force, Aftermath of Torture, Torture, Psychological Torture, Redemption Arc! Reader, Possible Redemption, Premonitions

Also in AO3

Chapters: 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 | Previous: Part 6 | Next: Part 8 | Masterlist

7 of ?

Cal wakes up in a cold sweat.

“[Y/N]!!” he exclaimed as he shot up and heaved.

The image of you wailing in an ear-shattering agony, coated in a veil of violet lightning that covered you from head to toe, and eyes that are beyond recognition—it all burned in his mind, hotter than the fires of the explosives that tore down the tower. No amount of sleep can remove that from his system now.

He catches his breath as he was abruptly awakened by that horrid figment. He realizes he’s still in the cramped quarters in the rebel hideout—he’s all alone.

He curls up, drawing in his legs to his chest, props his elbows atop his knees while he rakes his blood-orange hair with his fingers—all of a sudden, he remembers the way you would do the exact same thing, sometimes you would hum softly a wordless lullaby—and then his heart ached. Parroting the way you caress him from his hair to his cheek didn’t seem to make it all feel better—it only made him miss you much more sorely.

A single tear escapes his eyes, and then another, and another… until a wet patch formed on the leg of his pants.

“You can’t be gone… you’re not…” he mumbles under his breath, he grips a clump of his hair caught in the spaces between his fingers as he buries his face into his knees.

“Bee…?”

Apparently, BD-1 was alerted by Cal’s waking from his nightmare. The little droid scampered towards his owner and nuzzled his head against the Jedi’s calf. The young boy didn’t budge, he retained his position as if nothing touched him or tried to get his attention. The only thing moving is his hunched back rising and falling as he breathes. Lulling himself to sleep was a struggle; for weeks, he had been restless, and even if he caught a wink of sleep, it will oftentimes be cut short by nightmares—such as this one.

Cal returned to his bed, pulling up the blanket up to his neck. BD-1 persisted to make himself seen-he stands right in front of the boy lying on his side.

“Sorry, BD… It’s gonna be a long night for me. Go ahead and set yourself to sleep mode if you like,” Cal muttered as he pets BD’s head gently.

The droid didn’t sleep until his owner dozed off first. Cal tossed and turned as he attempted to fall asleep. He tried everything: emptying his mind, reciting Jedi mantras in his head about any aspect he can think of—at least the ones he knows by heart—and remembering the serenity of the warm mornings where he’d meditate in the temple garden with Master Tapal. He was careful not to recall any memory of you because that would only worsen his insomnia—it would be instantly warped into horrendous scenes that his wild imagination makes for him.

Cal repeated the cycle until it bored him to sleep; when BD saw this, he switched to his sleep mode right away and scooted to his owner’s arm.

—–

They kept you in that torture chair—day in, day out.

For the rest of the days that they continued to interrogate you, no words came out of your mouth when they demanded it. As a reply to your continuous rebelliousness, they would switch on the voltage and send it flying straight into your body. Regardless, you held your tongue.

The medbay wardens tried to feed you, little by little with scraps of foodstuff and rations. It was them who insisted they be allowed to check on you for vitals—since you’ve been receiving volumes of shock after your prematurely-concluded recovery. They’re quite astonished by the threshold of your body and its instinct to preserve you.

In protest, you didn’t bite into whatever they gave you in the first few days. Eventually, they gave up on their kindness and stopped—or so you’ve thought, when in fact they were personally commanded by the Seventh Sister to cease your feeding. However, your fasting didn’t hold for long; you had too much pride in regretting and wishing that you should’ve taken whatever food they were trying to give you—even if it was anything short of edible.

Ignoring the pain of the electrocution was much easier than ignoring the relentless growling of an empty stomach.

Keeping the rebels’ location hidden at the expense of your health was commended by the Inquisitor—and the Grand Inquisitor, no less, when he heard of it through reports.

“She’s even stronger than I initially thought. I seem to have underestimated her.”

“She has been silent for days. When we come to her and find her with her eyes closed, she’s not even asleep! She’s just… blatantly ignoring us. I’ve never seen a Jedi this…”

“Resilent.” The Fifth Brother finishes on the Mirialan’s behalf.

She growled, “I grow tired of this! Why not just set it to the highest voltage and leave it on until she dies?! We can hunt down the rebel faction no problem, along with the Jedi she cavorts with!”

“And waste your time in an empty goose chase? I’d rather not, if I were you,” the Grand Inquisitor, in a contrasting tone of voice from the Seventh Sister’s, scoffed through his hologram. “Jedi like her can be of value to us. All she needs is a bit more training.”

“Are you saying, Grand Inquisitor, that she’s to become one of us?”

“How else would you interpret what I said, child? If her spirit is broken, she’ll be easier to bend.”

The Grand Inquisitor concluded the transmission from his end, the pair of Inquisitors headed to the torture chamber.

The two exchanged glances, but it was the Mirialan who had the most shocked look between her and the gray humanoid. She was neither keen nor disdainful for having someone added up to their ranks, she just didn’t know how to feel about it. Whether she liked it or not, the Grand Inquisitor’s word is to be honored. If it’s any consolation, one new headcount would factor to the likelihood of the newcomer being the one assigned to even the most mundane of assignments.

In that very chamber, you’re still underneath the halo of a white light pooling above the very chair. Mist from the piping and hydraulics wafted about your calves, it was an eerie sight. Whenever the dead silence was your only friend, you thought that death was a much easier fate to accept, or perhaps you questioned why you even survived the explosion. You afforded the quiet moments where you struggled to empty your mind, but the thoughts of rage and hate were too loud; provoking you with the thought of Cal being found and sharing the same fate as yours was a catalyst—perhaps, that is what the Grand Inquisitor sensed, even from afar, and what convinced him to bring you into the fray.

The blast doors whipped open, but that didn’t do much in catching your attention. Anyone who came in and out didn’t matter to you, the sounds and sights were dull and bleak to you now; at this point, they’re all the same, faceless, sentient mannequins that come to glare or gloat at you every now and then, poking you for a reaction to see if you’ve dropped dead or just clinging to the last threads of dear life.

“She’s alive, but weak,” the Fifth Brother observed aloud.

The bags under your eyes were prominent, patches of red swelled on your arms from the constant electrocution—the more severe ones made your muscles bloat—and your unkempt hair shrouded your cheeks. Despite your shoddy appearance while strapped to the torture chair, the Seventh Sister squints to take a closer look at you, there was something about your eyes: still and peaceful, despite all of that suffering—to her, it appears as though you were only sleeping.

“Unlock the restraints,” ordered the female Inquisitor.

Doing as what they’re told, the operator set you free those cold, silver handcuffs at the push of a button. Without anything to hold you anymore, you gradually slid away from the bed of the torture chair, the Inquisitor pair stepped back as if you’re some kind of leper when you plopped limply to the floor—without an ounce of strength left in you to bring yourself up, at least on your knees.

The Seventh Sister stepped forward again, bent down to your level, angled your face as she clutched you quite roughly; moving it left and right, to examine you at a much closer view. She watched you struggle to lift your eyelids, slits barely revealed the color of your eyes, seconds later, you gave up and eyes closed shut.

“She’s alive, alright. Follow me.” She sternly ordered as she erected back up, turned tail and made her way to the door.

Seeing that you’re fully incapable of doing so, a pair of Stormtroopers took you by each arm and let your knees drag across the metal floor. They hauled you all the way to a training dojo. Your garish entrance took the practicing Purge Troopers by surprise, they paused their sparring session and stared; a single nod from the tall, gray Inquisitor prompted them to leave, they walked past you hooked to each Stormtrooper’s arm and sniggered on their way out.

“Jedi,” one said in a tone intending to insult.

When the dojo has been emptied by those who weren’t needed, the Stormtroopers dropped you and you plopped on the cold, glossy tile. The coldness stinging your cheek eventually woke you up, your body realizes that it’s not strapped to that terrible apparatus anymore—though your limbs ached when you moved them—and you craned your neck to face what’s in front of you.

“Get up,” the Fifth Brother bellowed.

And get up you did. Your knees were still wobbly and shook off the grogginess in your head as you studied the new room they’ve put you in.

“Where’ve you taken me this time?” your words rolled off your tongue, though you’re still partially coherent.

“You’re in our training dojo,” the Fifth Brother simply replied. A sinister smile played along his stony face.  “We’re gonna play a little game, you se.”

“I don’t think I’m in the best shape to play along,”

“Oh, that doesn’t matter, you’re part of the game and if you wanna live—you gotta fight,”

“With what—my fists and legs?”

The Fifth Brother chortled, then provided you with a baton similar to a Scout Trooper’s. He tossed it and you failed to catch it in time as you’re still seeing double. You crouched to retrieve the baton and practiced the firmness of your grip with it.

“So, are you two gonna be my playmates?”

The Seventh Sister flashed a toothy grin, “No. We have someone better in mind.”

They retreated to the main hold—like the bridge to a command ship—in front of the dojo, it also served like a watching room for those who spectated training sessions as a pastime and a control room to manipulate the setting of the dojo’s environment. There was an awkward yet tense silence humming across the room, you looked around and notice every single rectangle on the wall that could be a door—anticipating for one of them to shoot open and set whatever enemy they have reserved for you pouncing to you with bloodlust.

The only thing that you needed to look at was the door just below the control room. The metal groaned and out of the shadows came a familiar face. The armor had been remade back to its original appearance, in the place of a red haloed saber was a lance, the helmet was unmistakable—it was the Second Brother in a second face-off against you. Even when you’re groggy, you can sense the flaring hate within the Second Brother, more intense than the combined heat of Tatooine’s binary suns.

As he strode forward, weapon in hand, you struggled to get yourself straightened up to prepare for a fight.

“You’re lucky they only gave me this pathetic electrostaff!” the Second Brother hissed, putting himself in a stance as he would with his own saber. He continued striding towards you who’s barely made a proper posture with your block against the incoming attack.

You’re envious that the Second Brother has recovered so soon, but then again, he wasn’t the one strapped to a torture chair and be electrocuted almost everyday until you were treading the tightrope between life and death.

You wished that you could have uttered a comeback in mind, but you were too weak, and you prioritized staying alive in this unfairly-matched duel.

Your deflect was flimsy and unskilled, as expected.

However, something inside you refused to die in an indignant circumstance such as this—thrown into a dojo like livestock, pitted against a fully-recovered enemy while you’ve barely had a proper shred of recovery or medication.

The Second Brother didn’t hold back, neither was he thrifty with his windows of opportunity—he made all of them count. Whenever he would see an opening from you, he pommels you with the electrical end of the staff on your rib, your shoulder, arm, leg, anywhere and everywhere he could get a jab at. Dodging his attacks or returning it seldom happened, all you were doing was side-stepping away from him and the lance. He retained his dexterity and nimbleness that you initially saw in your first encounter with him; though, he seemed much quicker than you remember, more difficult to catch up with, and certainly more annoying. His acrobatics made it worse for your eyes—as you can’t even see without the hazy, mirage-like doubles of the things you fix your eyes to.

“Come on, Jedi girl! You seemed to be so tough in our last fight!” taunted the Second Brother in a cackle. “Where’s that spark I saw? Don’t tell me the explosions outshone it?!”

As much as you wanted to, you could barely put up a fight. He simply stepped five inches to his right or left when he sees you lunging at him, you’d clearly miss and in turn, he’d jab you—except this time, he’s keeping the end stuck to your body for a few seconds longer. If he’s feeling sadistically indulgent, he’d keep it for as long as a minute or so.

“Come on! Show me that little tough girl front again!” he chortled. “Again, Jedi!”

He might not have sensed it, but the Second Brother’s fighting tactics were beginning to get into your nerves. It was genuinely annoying now; it was nauseating enough to catch up to his lunging and pouncing around, adding to the mockery he peppers in one-sided banters during the fight, and they’re fueling to your rage in this mismatch of a duel. This went on until your attacks became raggedy and graceless—a dramatic contrast to your original fighting style.

Finally! Just finally! You found a small burst of energy which seemed to grow by the second, though you didn’t know where it came from—it just naturally came to you. Whatever it was, you weaponized it more than that sorry excuse of a weapon in your hand. You paid back for the moments where you’re denied of a chance at hitting the Second Brother because he wasn’t taking you seriously, mostly due to your state. He met the same ferocity beneath that tawdry exterior, eyes burning brightly with a menacing passion that lit through the dangling locks of hair, and your blows were weak but they packed a punch compared to the first few moments.

You gained your momentum in this fight. The satisfaction of finally being at par with the Second Brother’s caliber—with your current condition—was intoxicating. You found yourself tethered to it and can’t seem to get enough.

Faster, more intense!

With every strike, your strength and dexterity returned.

At first, the Second Brother was amused. Finally! He thought as a grin stretched across his face, albeit masked. Some fun!

His amusement was short-lived as he saw you trembling—not out of fear, but out of rage that could no longer be contained in the vessel that is your body. Slowly but surely, your body regained its confidence and composure; your stances were now more pronounced, the impact of the blows were much heavier, and your footwork was no longer faulty. This startled and amazed the Second Brother, Seventh Sister, and Fifth Brother altogether.

When you caught the Second off-guard with your burst of attacks, you cut the air with the baton—swinging it and landing its mark straight into the Inquisitor’s diaphragm. The two other Inquisitors in the bridge flinched in reaction, as if they felt the pain of your attack since they’ve been immersed with your duel ever since you started gaining the upper hand.

“Agh…!” the Second Brother winced, falling to his knees, the electrostaff fell to the glossy floor, the rhythm going from beat per beat until it faded out into a rattle.

“How’s that for a tough girl façade, you asshole?!” you snarled.

For good measure, as revenge for him humiliating you for the last time, you delivered a heavy overhead strike against the middle of his spine. The velocity of your swing was so intense, the Inquisitors heard the whoosh from where they stand.

When you were done exacting revenge on the Second Brother, you flung the baton to the direction of the bridge—it was like a statement, but it was just a final compulsive action from you. The weapon ricocheted against the walls and then to the floor, creating a gong-like sound as it clattered around. When the two of them caught sight of your face—that fiery tenacity, and your eyes…

They could almost see the hate and anger in your bloodshot eyes.

“Interesting,” the Fifth Brother mused.

“Well now, I think I’m going to enjoy training duty for once,”

The two Inquisitors exchanged glances and snickered together while peering through the glass, staring at their new, little experiment—you.

[youarejesting]

Digital Art

[SPARKS MASTERLIST]

Pairing: Robot!Taehyung x Reader

Genre: Friendship, Comedy, Soft boy, Fluff.

Summary: You are an art student, who gets regular visits from the Universities kindest and oddest AI. He explores human nature and ponders the idea’s of like and love and finds himself tangled in emotions he was never programmed to understand.

The research lab at University S had different robotic creations that were cutting edge for human consumers. The Min-meow cat that caters to the elderly works like a real cat and purrs, yet never gets sick and can analyse owners behaviour like strokes and heart attacks in time to call an ambulance. 

Kookie the rabbit was a robot made for very young children coping with disabilities such as deafness and blindness, it could translate speech to text on the screen on its back and he could even read books to them in his little rabbit voice. 

Robot Tae was just a regular AI who walked the Lab. He would talk with the students and observe many other robots. He would sometimes lay on the floor, his chin rested on his folded hands and watch min-meow cross the room. They made his hair out of tiny thin fibre optics which meant he could change the colour depending on his mood.

He would call the role and greet each student to class, he would run errands to and from the class which was his favourite Job. 

Today he called the roll and walked the classroom, helping students with their work and genuinely having a good time chatting. The girls put flowers in his hair and took selfies with him. He liked the girls; they made him feel happy when they smiled. The boys were friendly too always patting his back or ruffled his hair which after some research was a good thing.

“Hey Tae, have you ever been with a girl?”

“What do you mean? There are many females in this room and I am with them does that count?” He asked.

“No, dude we mean like sexually, do you watch porn?”

“He ran his systems, they connected him to the University Wifi, and he had his own built-in data it wasn’t hard to find out what they meant. I have never watched it before,” he shifted uncomfortably, “By the looks of the videos it is for human pleasure. The videos seem to work as stimulation of the auditory and visual responses. Is this correct?”

“Yes, do you have a dick?” They asked snickering he seemed a little off-put by their laughing, he knew the signal of laughing was usually a good sign of friendship but his data also told him it could humiliate the difference was the eyes and their eyes didn’t seem friendly. 

“I am a fully functioning humanoid robot, I have genitalia just like you do,” he said confused “are you making fun of me?”

“No dude, you are our little brother we want to help you get some. If you see a girl you like you should ask her if she wants to....” Tae wasn’t sure about his methods but he walked over to Daisy one of the nicest girls in the class and asked her the way they taught him.

“Tae doesn’t listen to them, boys don’t know how to get girls. When you see a girl or guy you like and I mean really like as in more than friends, you don’t ask like that,” She said sitting him down.

“How will I know if I really like them more than friends”

“Look you will know, you will find it hard to think, you will feel like you are about to explode” 

“That sounds scary”

“Love is scary, but when you feel that ask her to hang out, like ask her if she would like to see Min, girls love pets”

She patted his shoulder. And he was lost in thought, filing away this information. It was one of those days he was asked to carry a stack of Textbooks to the engineering offices. On his way there he saw people holding hands and a couple kissing against a wall. On the way back he saw a girl sitting on a stool, a puppy at her feet. She was doing something he understood in theory but not in practice. He approached and saw her paintbrush stroke the canvas slowly colouring the skies. 

“How do you do that?” He asked his hair a brilliant sky blue, he liked this he stored this in his data next to min-meow purring on his lap, the tasty oil drinks he gets for breakfast and freshly charging batteries. 

“Oh! You scared me” she said, watching his face fall and hair darken to a midnight blue. 

“I am sorry, I should go”

It was a few days later when he saw you again waving to him and he waved back. The days past and he would pause on his errands to watch you paint a little more. Some days you explained your project other days you worked in silence.

“Do you want to try?” You asked out of the blue one day. He beeped and nodded, his hair paling to a golden colour. 

“All right hold the paintbrush with your hand and I will guide you” he nodded holding the paintbrush and your hand wrapped around his and moved it along the paper. His face lit up and he could only make strangled beeps and squeals from his auto air gun, TSC, auto door, spindle and alarm systems. This must be it, his processors were slowing down making it hard to think and his fan belt sped up, he felt like he could explode any second now.

She laughed this was such a bright friendly laugh, her small Pomeranian started barking beside her from the sound, “you’re cute what’s your name?”

“I am Tae, what is your name?”

“My name is y/n, and this is Yeontan”

“He is so wiggly and warm and soft, I have never pet a living animal” he said playing with the dog as it rolled around on his lap. You exchanged contact information, Taehyung had a mobile number and all the social media accounts, he had posted a few videos of his adventures around the Uni even showed videos of you painting. Only after asking you for permission to film you and your painting.

“Would you like to see my quadruped companion, his name is Min,” He used the line he had worked on with Daisy a few weeks ago “Girls love pets”

“Of course, I would love to see Min, girls do love animals, can I finish my painting?” you giggled and reached up taking a leaf from his hair and he nodded sitting cross-legged Yeontan curling up in his lap, he watched you paint. Once you were finished he carried your things, you placed your canvas in the art rooms before moving on to the engineering labs.

He walked you inside, and the class stopped and he smiled “Hello Daisy, I found her, she made me feel like I would explode and I couldn’t think, she is an art student. You should see it, and I asked her to come to see Min because; girls love Pets”

You were bright red as the boys whooped from the back, “Our Tae has game, getting the chicks”

“Quick y/n let me introduce you to Min,” he said and dragged you across the classroom and you bowed low to the professor apologizing for interrupting the class. You played with Min who was a grumpy and stubborn cat. “We can’t sell him as they made him too cat-like, and he refuses to listen. And this is Kookie, he was the first model but his ears are too big so for commercial reasons they made them shorter.” You pulled out your sketchbook and began drawing Tae and the three animals Yeontan really liked Kookie the latter hopping around the Pomeranian.

After class Tae introduced you to everyone including the professor. “Ah, it is nice to meet you, I have a meeting Tae you remember to lock up, message me when you do?”

“Of course” he smiled, waving goodbye. You headed home talking with him all night until he said he had to charge.

One day was spent with just the two of you, he walked you around the university and he waved to all the students and got some photos he showed you his favourite music, his favourite place and even the little mug in the Uni store that reminded him of Yeontan. He asked why you didn’t bring Yeontan and you explained he was going for a check-up and grooming.

He brought you back to the lab, and you sat on the desk swinging your legs as you listened to him sing and sway his hips to his favourite songs. He was in a particularly good mood and he grabbed your waist lifting you off the table and spinning you around, he felt his search engines working without commands and they had brought up a web browser with videos on how to kiss. He didn’t know what came over him but he kissed you just as it explained and your lips were locked and you stumbled back together until you bumped against the lab tables.

Lost in the feeling, knowing it was wrong but unable to stop yourself. The door opened and the two of you jumped apart and you ran out of the lab upset with yourself. Taehyung was in a daze he felt cold without you, he stored yet another folder about you in his data banks.

He texted you but you didn’t reply; he got worried and continued to try texting you; he was getting worried as he plugged in Kookie and Min. He did something he had never done before. He hacked your student records to find your address he didn’t want you to be hurt or in trouble, Yeontan couldn’t call an ambulance. He ran across the city following his GPS location and the pre-programmed directions. Tae knocked on your apartment door, the door swung open and you froze when you saw him. Letting him inside shocked and very concerned. 

“Why are you here?” You asked as he sat on your couch, Yeontan making himself comfortable on his lap.

“I don’t know, I can’t stop processing and I am completing tasks without commands, things that I am not programmed to do, I can’t stop thinking about you and I was worried you were hurt, and I can’t function without you close”

“Are you saying you missed me?”

“That seems like a fitting explanation” He nodded and the silence settled over the two of you and he beeped his battery getting low. You walked him to your room and laid him on your bed, taking his charging cable and plugging him into the wall outlet. 

As he powered down into charging mode he whispered “I want to kiss you again” 

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[evajellion]

Why Suketoudara is (one of) the most well-developed characters in Puyo Puyo

You ever just look back at how far the Puyo Puyo and Madou Monogatari franchise has come, and think about how much the characters have changed over the years? 

Some have become main stay recurring cast members, while sadly some others have been completely left in the dust or remain in Quest or other spin-off titles. Others become more amazing in hindsight, such as Schezo and Rulue (even if most can argue SEGA dropped the ball on their character in recent times), starting off as slightly minor characters, getting their own arcs.

Witch is also pretty incredible to think about, what once was a mere mook enemy became one of the most popular characters, obtained her own spin-off title, and co-starred in a Madou game with Schezo.

Then you have the most interesting case imo, which is Suketoudara. What makes him so incredible? When you look at his actual personality and character, and how it’s changed across games… for the better!

Since I said I would talk about this after seeing @superbuffalo007​‘s post, I decided it’s time the unspoken truth is finally said-- which is Suketoudara’s character across the games.

So originally, Suketoudara started off no differently than Witch and Draco. The only huge key difference was his character design, in which rather than being a cute humanoid girl… Suketoudara was a funny fish with human arms and legs that liked to dance. His design was goofy albeit uncanny (especially in the PC98 Madou), which probably got some designers at Compile to chuckle, nothing more.

He was a blank slate enemy, nothing more, nothing less. And once we got the first two Puyo Puyo games, which had “Manzai” based dialogue for comedic purposes. We learn that this funky fish prides himself and his beautiful legs. I mean, to be completely fair… he does. Usually in these games (and Puyo Sun), Arle was the straight man while Suketoduara was the goof.

Out of nowhere, the guy skyrocketed in popularity. He, Nasu, and Carbuncle were easily marketable characters due to their distinct, funny appearance which I assume made them very popular with younger fans. In commercials, you would probably often see this character be frequently used-- that’s how iconic his design was. His personality though, was about as shallow as everyone else’s.

This changed of course, in 1996 and onward, where Compile decided “hey, maybe we should do more with this character besides just having him dance”.

In 1996, Madou Monogatari Hanamaru Daiyouchi Enji (Big Kindergarten Kids) would be released for the Super Famicom. Rather than the usual dungeon-crawler, this game took inspiration from the likes of A Link to the Past, Final Fantasy, and Earthbound in terms of its overworld design. More importantly though, it took what was once mere mooks, the most popular characters, and made some of them into full-on major bosses you had to fight.

Amongst those characters are Nasu Grave, Skeleton-T, Mini-Zombie, and Suketoudara (called Jr. in this game).

You know who wasn’t? Uh… Witch and Draco, if you can believe that. Yeah, that’s right. Suketoudara was a major, if not the main antagonist for a good chunk of this game, while Witch and Draco remained mere mooks. That’s pretty incredible if you ask me!

He’s the typical schoolyard bully/delinquent, going around causing problems for several towns and even stooping as far as to steal eggs from dragons. Suketoudara constantly meddles in Arle’s quest, and it only comes to an end one day after sending Arle a letter, in which he challenges her directly at her school. Turns out he just happens to have the last Secret Stone.

And at the end of the game, after Arle defeats Devil, the true main antagonist? Suketoudara has a complete change of heart, asking for Arle’s forgiveness, realizing he focused too much on his training, even saying he wants to be Arle’s henchman instead.

He even calls her “sis”, in a relatively friendly way, after everything he had done.

Whether or not you consider this game canon, it added a lot to Suketoudara (if this is the same as the one in the Puyo Puyo titles, and not Jr. as in a child of his). Suketoudara was a foul-mouthed bully in his youth, a complete contrast to the innocent, playful Arle. But he changed for the better after Arle told him to reflect on himself. That is way more characterization than Draco has ever received.

Suketoudara got fleshed out further in a couple of DiscStation games, both a year before Hanamaru and two years after, we would get some really interesting development, which would of course come from his interactions with another character.

DiscStation Volume 9 is (presumably) when we would first see Suketoudara interacting with Serilly in the game “Madou Sugoroku”, a Mario Party-esque game that seems to have no real story, pairs of characters are just competing while Harpy serves as the game hostess. This would be one of the earliest instances of Suketoudara being shown to have a crush on Serilly.

DiscStation Volume 18 would give us Serilly’s Happy Birthday, a game where Serilly uses a magical stone to go up to the surface in the hopes that she’ll make a friend that will celebrate her birthday with her, rather than leaving Serilly to celebrate it alone.

While I am sadly uncertain about the full details of this visual novel, it seems that in Suketoudara’s route, he collapses due to a drug Witch had made, so Serilly nurses him back to health by making an antidote. This leads to Suketoudara, a normally brash and selfish character, to become warmer and open up to Serilly. Again though, this is a loose translation of what transpires.

Lastly for DiscStation, we have Madou RUN! 

A game featuring Arle, Schezo, Witch… and not Satan, not Rulue, not Draco, but Suketoudara! In this game, our four protagonists compete in a game of tag set up by Momomo, for an object known as the Dragon Ball, which can grant any wish.

Oddly enough, rather than it being about his dancing, the only wish on Suketoudara’s mind is that he wants to be closer to Serilly. Mind you that the other three characters are more interested in the power of the Dragon Ball to become stronger, while Suketoudara just wants to improve his relationship with a friend he has feelings for.

His attitude in this game is notably far less aggressive when compared to how overly competitive Witch and Schezo are, a far cry from how Suketoudara used to be in the earliest Puyo Puyo games.

In Puyo Puyo~n, we have yet another cheerful Suketoudara, as opposed to the grouchy, territorial one we saw in past mainline Puyo titles. Much like the previously mentioned DiscStation games, Suketoudara is primarily just interested in Serilly’s presence, stuttering in a shy manner around her, and feeling crestfallen when Serilly says that he’s only a friend.

He only starts to lash out against Arle once he thinks that Serilly only called him a friend because another person was embarrassing her. To be fair, pretty rude of Arle to make comments or butt in. Overall? It seems that Serilly has had a positive influence on Suketoudara, but he still had some of his temper.

In Puyo Puyo Box, nothing interesting happens, but Suketoudara definitely mellowed out in the Quest Mode. Similarly in Minna de Puyo Puyo, Suketoudara only wants Arle to watch him dance, which she ignores in a rude manner.

After a couple years of going missing, Suketoudara returns in Puyo Puyo! 15th, and is arguably, the most friendly of the returning Compile characters next to Zoh Daimaoh.

Unlike Satan, Rulue, and Schezo, who are rude and dismissive of the Fever characters, Suketoudara seems happy to meet new faces and actively encourages them through dialogue usually related to dance. No mention of Serilly is made, but that just proves that unlike Rulue, he can go without thinking or talking about his love interest for every two scenes.

And also unlike 90% of 15th’s roster, he doesn’t get screwed over by the fake wishing medal. He makes a simple, short wish where he says he wants to be first to do solo dances.

Puyo Puyo 7, in my opinion, is the peak, friendliest Suketoudara has been in any game. Ringo runs into him, and rather than being actively antagonistic, he explains that he was with Arle (possessed by Ecolo) and got lost, so he asks for her help. In exchange, Suketoudara assists for a short period of time. He tries to persuade Rulue out of attacking him, manages to hold a decent conversation with Satan and Carbuncle, even showing concern about Arle’s strange behavior! 

He, along with Satan, are the only Madou characters in 7 that were genuinely worried about Arle. Schezo, Skeleton-T, Draco, and Rulue did not care in the slightest. He has grown from not wanting Arle around at all to being a friend that does care about her!

Puyo Puyo 20th… sadly took a step back, with Suketoudara obsessively searching for his shoes. A lot of the characters were jerks in this game though, so it’s not a problem exclusive to him. If anything, I’d argue he’s the tamest example and just being plain comedic.

Thankfully, in Puyo Puyo Tetris and Puyo Puyo Chronicle, Suketoudara was back to being his cheery self, unlike in 20th. He just wants to show off his dance moves, has friendly enough conversations with Arle, Ringo, and Ally-- playing Puyo just for fun rather than an offense reason…

Ess on the other hand… yeah, she’s straight-up rude to him, and he rightfully defends himself. I should note that through all of these games, Serilly went completely unmentioned, which might mean that Suketoudara actually got over his infatuation for Serilly. Even with her grand return in Puyo Puyo Chronicle, the two never have a conversation.

That being said, I definitely do think that Serilly’s kind personality, and if taken as canon, Suketoudara’s rivalry with Arle in Hanamaru, definitely molded him into being one of the most grown characters in the entire series. He went from being the typical jerk with only thing on his mind, to being an upbeat, helpful character that is willing to put dancing aside when there are greater matters at hand. Puyo Puyo 7, Tetris, and Chronicle are the arguable proof of this.

That’s why I like this character so much. That’s why I feel the fan-base kinda takes him for granted-- they don’t know about his evolution throughout the games. He went from a funny jerk, to a guy with a crush, to someone with a confident and friendly personality.

Because of that… I am honestly completely fine with Suketoudara staying for future mainline games. Even if he doesn’t add much, at least he isn’t as actively unpleasant as he was in Compile’s early run.

[argentdandelion]

The True Power of NEO (Part 3 of 4)

To see previous entries in the series, check out “The True Power of NEO” tag on the ArgentDandelion blog. Made with help from CinnamonAzzy and Ihasafandom.

Tactic 1 (Explode the Exit) and Tactic 2 (Offense Over Defense) Responses

Using his NEO form as a block of explosives to seal the exit was a good idea, and exploding the exit while the human was in the room was, while riskier, still pretty good. Even using his box mode as a living wall to delay the Human’s progress was better than switching to his Mettaton NEO form to fight the human.

If his NEO form is anything like his EX form, Mettaton should logically be able to attack with it. As mentioned, Mettaton EX has strong attacks, numerous bullets, and a variable bullet pattern with a unique SOUL Mode mechanic. Assuming Mettaton NEO is even more effective at attacking and has some way to dodge or endure strong attacks (e.g., by flipping into his supposedly invulnerable original mode), attacking the human is a pretty reasonable option.

Indeed, he would, theoretically, have more time to prepare to fight the human in the Genocide Route than in other Routes, since he doesn't engage the human in TV segments. However, during that time, Alphys would be busy evacuating others, and so couldn't work on his body. (This assumes she both works quickly and the body was nearly done anyway)

Yet, this tactic depends on him being able to attack. He doesn’t attack, bringing up the question of whether he even can.

Can He Emit Bullets?

If the combat systems for his EX/NEO form were the last feature to be added, without Alphys' fine-tuning, he might enter combat with no attack capability. Mettaton, out of faith for Alphys' work or sheer haste, may have assumed Alphys installed some combat capabilities in his NEO form before he changed into it. It is also possible Mettaton finished the body himself while Alphys was doing something else, which might explain the missing eye and silly leg-shaped pauldrons (possibly made from spare parts). In this case, his lack of combat capabilities comes from his lack of skill in building robots.

It’s possible that, as soon as ghosts merge with their bodies, they can’t attack, or that there’s some learning curve or dormancy period before re-accessing offensive magic. Mad Dummy/Glad Dummy might support this: though many monsters keep fighting once spareable, as soon as Mad Dummy fuses with their body, they stop attacking. Mad Mew Mew, on the other hand, hadn’t actually fused with her body at the time of the battle. Assuming this hypothesis is true, Mettaton unexpectedly fused with his body and didn’t have enough time to re-learn how to make magical attacks.

The “dormancy period” supposition is a little weakened, though, by the observation Mettaton fuses with his body in his Mettaton EX battle and has no problem with bullet patterns. (Although many of his attack patterns are unusual objects or not projectiles.)

Death Explosions

One might argue that Mettaton is hoping the human will trigger his death explosion, and he would survive it if he hadn’t fused, or the explosion would kill both himself and the human if he had fused. However, this idea of a lethal explosion is weakened by one of his lines in the near-Genocide Route:“Yes, Asgore will fall easily to you”. This suggests he thinks the human will survive the explosion. Perhaps he, knowing the sheer power of even a whiffed strike, extrapolates that the human’s defenses are also very high.

Oddly, Mettaton’s explosion does not do any damage, in either the Genocide Route or Neutral Route. Mettaton wouldn’t have reason to deliberately explode his body in the Neutral Route. It’s possible his body exploding is a side effect of him reaching 0 HP, and Alphys hastily upgraded that to be useful in combat. However, given Alphys was evacuating Hotland, even with her super-fast working (assuming she doesn’t simply swap Frisk’s phone with a new one and re-adds two phone numbers), she probably didn’t have time to run simulations on whether Mettaton’s explosion would block the exit.

“You Wouldn’t Kill a Human, Would You?” Response

Turning into Mettaton NEO may have been a tactic to break the human’s will for killing, thus protecting humanity. (and perhaps monsters) If a human absorbing a monster’s SOUL gains great power, the genocidal Human would have a lot more power to kill humanity with Asgore’s SOUL. If Mettaton believes he can’t kill the Human, for whatever reason, then removing their will to harm humanity and kill anyone but Asgore is the next best thing.

Undyne believes the genocidal Human intends to destroy all of humanity, and Mettaton himself believes the Human is a threat to humanity. The genocidal Human would surely be a threat to humanity when they’re willing to kill a human. By that logic, changing into a more humanoid form wouldn’t give Mettaton “psychological armor” at all.

Perhaps he planned on doing the “you were holding back” speech after the human beat him up or “killed” him, thereby breaking the Human’s will to exterminate by showing they weren’t “entirely evil”. From an out-of-universe perspective, this makes sense. Papyrus often stops players from progressing on the Genocide Route, not because he’s no threat, or doesn’t attack, but because of the sheer guilt of killing him. Even in his dying words, he shows faith that the human can do better.

So Why Does He Act Like a Threat?

One might ask, “Surely Mettaton realized he can’t fight back? Why, then, does he act so tough?”

Mettaton seems to have good acting skills (in certain contexts, at least) and there’s evidence he’s good at improvising, acting like nothing is wrong, and hiding his discomfort.

Mettaton seems good at improvisation: when the Human doesn’t behave as expected in the Hotland TV segments, he seems to improvise lines. Mettaton apparently thinks ahead for the possibility the Human completes the tile puzzle, and says: "I only deactivated the flames knowing that Alphys would have anyway." If the Human fails the cooking show puzzle, Mettaton acts as if that time is when his show has a commercial break, and he's not going to destroy the human without a live television audience. Outside the Genocide Route, he knows Alphys plans to come to Frisk’s “rescue” and “deactivate” him, but he blocks the door. He also re-arranges the CORE, hires mercenaries to kill Frisk in the CORE, and offers a lot of money for Frisk’s SOUL to entice Muffet to kill them. He figures Alphys will tell Frisk to flip Mettaton’s switch, but that’s what he wants: to premiere his new body. However, when the human doesn't even step on a green tile, he's clearly stalling for time saying "well well well".

On hiding his pain, up until his arms fall off, his pained expressions are very subtle: it's impossible to notice he's in pain at all without lining up his expressions. (above) When his arms fall off, he looks shocked or pained, but then regains composure. If hit after that point, his pained grimaces are pretty subtle. He still attacks without arms, though he stops dancing. When he loses his legs, he’s shocked for the whole turn, but then closes his eyes (as if hiding a grimace) and still smiles. He also still attacks...faster, even.

However, his skill in hiding his pain isn’t perfect. Mettaton’s text shakes when the final blow is dealt in the Neutral fight, suggesting a quaver in his voice. (possibly of pain) He's clearly saddened when the final blow is dealt, although that's probably emotional, rather than physical, pain. Near the end of his death speech, he says: "I might seem like I'm dying now, but...Dr. Alphys can always repair me." He says the second part with a sad grin, making it not very persuasive, but the very fact he’s considering that and trying to act like everything is fine when he’s dying says something about his impression-management.

If one assumes he’s good at hiding his discomfort and acting as if nothing is wrong, he could plausibly act like everything’s fine even when his plan has gone off the rails. After all, it’s likely he fused with his body prior to or during the fight with the Human, and he surely felt this. It’s possible he’s hoping he can intimidate the human into fleeing or use some variant of Tactic 3 (“You Wouldn’t Kill a Human, Would You?”) to guilt-trip the human into losing the will to kill human beings and any monsters but Asgore. Even if that fails, he might still be going for Tactic 1 (exploding the exit and, ideally, taking the human with him) but he knows he’ll die in the process.

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[hideandseaking]

Last time during dnd:

Featuring: Kara the redheaded human with 1 braincell and 4 anger cells, Mars Bar the slug alien human-like person with antennae and tears, Rango the small bounty hunting lizard with piss legs, Chip Hop the very big rabbit robot with a broad spectrum of emotions, and Olga the oldest and meanest slug alien with no human-like attributes except her face

My players were horrified to find out that the primary species on this planet are humanoid aliesn with three mouths, no eyes, feathered wings under their arms, and small spikes protruding from their skin

And they have to help these people

My players also realized slowly but surely that they were exhausted from pulling an 8 hour work day from their first mission and are trying to do a second mission without any rest

But only the young slug and the old slug were tired at first

They approach the house where the GPS says the next person requesting a mission is at

They try to knock on the door, both Rango and Kara at the same time, and they realize the client is behind them carrying groceries and wondering wtf they were doing at her house

she asks them to get the key for her out of her pocket so they can go inside the house... rango takes the key and unlocks the door while mars bar takes some of the groceries and goes through them

Once inside, Rango and CH raid the fridge and drink her soda while Mars Bar puts away the groceries in all of the wrong places. She rewards herself with a poptart and goes to sit down

Olga is reprimanding them for acting so rudely in someone else’s house and starts arguing with CH about taking people’s food without permission

Olga: “You didn’t even ask! she paid for that stuff!! you didn’t even ask to pay her back!” Chip Hop: “Okay” *turns to the client* “do you want me to pay you back for the soda” The Client: “Well, it’s fine since you guys-” Chip Hop: “SEE. It’s fine. Your logic is faulty.” Olga: *screams*

When they all finally settled down, the client had to shut the door that they left open before walking over and sitting down to explain the mission to them

She’s a 15 year old girl named Raine whose younger sister went missing three days ago

Raine: “Her name is Jewel-” My Players: *starts to make Juul jokes and posting Juul memes incessently*

They ask her what happened and Raine says that she got her sister ready for school and they parted ways to go and then suddenly she’s disappeared and hasn’t returned since she saw her that morning

Obviously Kara and Mars Bar do not believe this at all and press for more information about how that morning went

Raine: *goes on a very detailed but unnecessary recount of her entire morning*

CH: *vibrates more and more intensely the more she talks because he wants her to shut up*

Raine said she’s worried because two other kids have been kidnapped in the past 2 weeks and she’s worried about Jewel

Kara asks if she’s talked to the police and Raine admits that she hasn’t because she’s scared about Jewel being taken away from her if she returns since they don’t have any parents

Kara is completely unsympathetic and apparently a bootlicker and berates Raine for not telling the police

Raine starts crying which means that lots of drool just comes out of her topmost mouth of three

And it horrifies everyone

This causes everyone to just want to dip........ so they do........... with a promise that they’re going to get information on this

They go outside and Kara says, “Okay, so we have 2 options-” Rango: “We go to the playground.” Kara: “....Okay so we have 3 options.”

Which were 1) go to the police, 2) investigate the playground, 3) investigate the school

Kara or Olga idr who: “We have the perfect amount for all 3.” Rango and CH: “We call the playground!” K or O: “Okay so-” Mars Bar: “Actually, I wanna go to the playground too.....” K AND O: “....... Okay we all go to the playground......”

They check Google Maps and find the playground closest to both the school and the house and start to walk there

Rango starts to bother Kara for her phone, since she’s the only one in the group with one, and she refuses and starts to ignore him

He gathers some pebbles to launch at her, but she catches them, while CH joins in to try to take the phone

Kara threatens CH that she’ll flip him.... Me: “Girl, he’s 2 tons!” Kara’s Player: “..... Well I’m gonna do it cause I said I will”

She fails her roll and instead hits her head on the metal on his hand when she tries to attack

Rango tries to persuade her for the phone but she beats his roll and they all decide to drop it and continue to the playground

When they get to the playground, Olga and Mars are super tired, and Kara is realizing how exhausted she is too so she and Olga take up their own respective benches to take a nap

Well, okay, Olga absorbs into the bench........ Kara lays down obnoxiously and tries to sleep

Mars Bar goes to a swing and tiredly pushes it back and forth with her feet

Rango is still full of energy and takes the one next to Mars and starts to swing himself

CH decides to do some investigating and launches himself over to a mother of a child playing on the playground

Which scares the shit out of her and she takes her child and runs

CH is dejected over the entire interaction and mopes over to Rango and Mars and asks them if they wanna be pushed

Rango says yes and he almost gets launched into the air

Mars says yes “but gently.... please...” and also almost gets launched into the air

Rango wants another push but CH puts too much mustard into it and flips Rango around the top of the bar

And then he swings over and splatters against CH’s back

CH doesn’t notice and starts to freak out over where Rango went

Mars Bars is laughing her ass off as he starts to freak out more

He runs out towards a more open area of the playground and starts calling for rango’s name

This causes most of everyone else to start to disperse

CH gets down on his knees and calls Rango’s name into the sky in despair, believing that he has died

Rango peels himself off of CH and taps him, saying he’s okay

Which freaks out CH and makes him grab Rango and launch him 100ft away from the playground

Everyone: “Okay bye Rango... you’re dead..... better start rolling up your new character” Rango’s Player: “.......................”

Rango rolls an incredible success and actually starts to manuever himself and flip himself around so he starts to slow down the launch. He cartwheels and starts to bounce and somersaults and roooooooooolls out towards where the foliage starts to turn into desert. Not a scratch on him !!

Only the party is at the playground at this point, and Olga and Kara are woken up from this

Mars Bar is damn near peeing herself with laughter and CH hops out towards Rango to see if he’s okay

Mars Bar’s Player: “Wait have we peed at all during this whole thing?” Me: “Uhhhhhhh...”

So I roll how much each of them needed to use the bathroom

Yes we’re all 12 i guess so shut the fuck up!!

Rango: 10/10 will pee immediately, Kara: 9/10, Mars Bar 4/10, Olga I can’t remember but it wasn’t that high, CH only shits out like lead balls or something and he was okay

Kara realizes how badly she has to pee and tells Olga that maybe they should all rest so she summons the ship to autopilot over to them

Rango: “Perception pls” Me: “It’s all weeds and some cabbage-like plants that are slowly tapering off to be just a very large and wide desert” Rango: ““:0 I get stealth in the desert... I must investigate this....”

He sees CH hopping over and takes a plant and starts to munch on it while pissing himself and thinking

CH and Rango discuss if they should go out to the desert or not, and Rango tries to convince CH but he says no and wants Rango to rest and tries to convince him to rest with the group while Rango wants to explore

The ship lands in between CH/Rango and the playground

And kara sprints towards it

Mars is being polite and walking with Olga until she starts going “ECH” loudly with each step, so she runs towards the ship too

Kara runs into the bathroom and pisses her brains out I guess... Mars immediately decides to go in too while she’s peeing... and it’s a single bathroom so it’s not like there’s stalls

Cue me and Kara’s player trying to determine if Kara would freak out before deciding to just roll on it

She does freak out, but Mars Bar is too oblivious to care and just starts washing her hands

she’s not great at it and starts to count to 20 but loses count everytime.... she eventually feels satisfied with her hand washing before just walking out and leaving the door open

Kara sees Olga down the hallway and is begging her to close the door for her

Olga decides to move in the slowest possible way to get to kara and by the time she closes the door, it’s in kara’s face when she’s done washing her hands and wiping them off

The slugs go to their rooms while Kara is walking around and making sure everything is secure

CH finally convinces Rango to go to the ship, but when Rango gets on he’s deciding that he’s going to go explore the desert

Ch goes to stand in the kitchen, desolate and unmoving

Rango’s Player: “Is there a compass?” Me: “???? Like on a PIRATE SHIP???”

He lifts the ship up off the ground and kara walks over asking what he’s doing

Rango: “I’m exploring the desert” Kara: “Rango... can’t this wait until tomorrow? We’re all tired...” Rango: “I’m not tired! I can keep going!” *fails his stamina roll, wavers at the wheel and shakes the ship* Kara: “Yea, definitely.” Rango: “I was fine before you got here! .... But fine I guess i could sleep.”

He lands the ship and everyone goes to bed

Rango jolts awake realizing that CH might need to be charged and goes to the kitchen to ask him about it

CH recharges with the sunlight and moonlight, so he decides to go outside and burrow in the ground to hide while still exposing where he can charge from while he enters a sleep mode

Rango goes to bed and everyone goes to sleep

Mars Bar has a dream where she is at home with her brothers and she’s sitting outside of her house with her older brother while her younger twin brothers are out playing in the distance

Her older brother points at the sky and says “Look! The meteor shower is starting!” and shooting stars start to jump across the sky

she is watching for a little bit before looking over at her brother

And seeing that his head has turned into that of seaweed the goldfish, who they had rescued earlier in the day

She immediately freaks out and gets scared and wakes up

and starts to cry

Kara is woken up from her own dream by Mars Bar’s cries

She sleepily walks over to her room and asks if she’s okay

Mars says from her room that she’s fine but it’s clear that she isn’t fine

Kara asks if she can come in and Mars says she can. She sees Mars is hiding under the covers

She asks if she can do anything for Mars Bar and she asks Kara if she could read to her

So she reads her 6 pages of Mar’s MLP comics before realizing that she’s back asleep

And Kara sneaks out quietly and goes back to bed

When it becomes morning, CH is woken up to giggling and pushing on him

He gets up to see that children are there, seeing who he is

They ask him some questions and start to touch at the metal on his body, which makes him uncomfortable but he lets the kids do

They decide to go because they have school but all say goodbye and start to leave

He calls out to them and one of them lingers behind to answer his questions

she’s the sister of one of the kids taken earlier in the 2 weeks, and she says that she heard a rumor that someone saw it happen at the Southern Park (we were all calling it South Park cause haha funny funny) and she asks CH if he can find her sibling

CH says he’ll try and she runs off

Mars Bar wakes up feeling refreshed and head empty, and decides to go get something to eat

She looks outside and sees some children waving goodbye to CH while he’s standing outside

She goes outside to check it out, and says good morning to CH

CH: “............................................................................. good morning” MB: “.................... so what’s up” CH: “........................................................................................................................................................................... those kids had some information” MB: “Oh that’s cool...............” *They both stare at each other* MB’s Player: “This is  so awkward  for her!!” Everyone: *laughing* CH: “Mars Bar.............. I love you.”

And Mars Bar sprints away without even acknowleding that

CH feels the immediate burn of rejection

Kara wakes up and decides to get herself something to eat

She checks out the common area and sees that there’s a parking ticket on the windshield

And decides she’ll worry about that later

She checks the fridge, and there’s only food that Rango and CH stole from the prince that they helped yesterday

so she decides to make fried chicken breakfast tacos

Unfortuantely, Kara has a wide imagination but no skill so she burns the food

Which the smell wakes up Rango and Olga, who both think it smells great

Kara realizes it’s inedible for her and gives it to them, which they gladly take

she informs them of the parking ticket and Olga says, “Oh we don’t have to pay that. We can just make a collage out of them. That’s what I do!”

Kara decides to get dressed before continuing on with her day and Olga tries to find tea but instead finds a silica DO NOT EAT packet and eats that instead

Rango goes to get CH and sees him just looking dejected out towards the city

He asks what happened, and Ch says he confessed to Mars but she ran away

CH: “Rango, do you think I’ll ever find true love?” Rango: “Well, I love you, buddy.” CH: *feels worse cause that’s not the same*

Rango tries to rally Ch to the ship so they can search the desert, but Ch says that he heard from the kids about the South Park

Rango: “Why didn’t you say that in the first place!?” CH: “Rango, I got rejected” Rango: “That��s less important!”

They go onto the ship and Kara and Olga ask what’s up and where’s Mars Bar and CH tells about his confession to her where she ran away

and then the party gives CH the worst dating advice I’ve ever heard

Kara: “You just need to keep trying with it! Keep telling her that you love her and you’re bound to get her eventually!”

Olga: “Next time, say ‘good morning’ and ‘how are you’ first AND THEN release the ‘i love you’! That’ll work.”

Rango: “You need to beat her in combat to show her that you want to be with her.” *flashes back to his old relationship from his past*

Mars Bar’s Player: NO DON’T FIGHT ME PLEASE

CH: “Thank you guys for the advice :’)”

Ch also tells them about the south park and they decide they’re going to find Mars Bar and then go to the park

So they put in the coordinates for the middle school and decide they’re going to try there first

Meanwhile, Mars Bar runs up to the children and tries to ask them for info, but they all run away from her and she gives chase to them

............ all the way to their school..............

A teacher watching the outside sees Mars Bar and stops her, and asks her why she’s annoying the poor kids

She says she’s from the government, but has no ID, so he doesn’t believe her so he goes inside and tells her to come back when she has something

She sits outside of the school and pouts for about half an hour before realizing that she’s hungry and getting nowhere with this

she’s lost so she checks out parts of the city, and tries to hide her face with her scarf before realizing that everyone is suspicious of her

she goes in another direction and finds a diner to eat at

she watches a couple start to go in and one says to the other “I could KILL for some eggs right now”

Mars takes that very seriously and decides to go in after them to make sure they’re not going to kill for some eggs

She sits down at the barstool area near where the couple sits and she looks at the menu but is illiterate so she’s going off of the few pictures provided on it

She decides she’s going to get a waitress to give her free food and gives her a compliment

she hears from the TV about the southern park and asks another waitress how to get to it, and recieves pretty simple directions

The couple starts to argue behind her and one of them leaves the other in the diner

Mars slides into the empty seat and tries to “comfort” the one left behind

That one is comforted and feels very empowered but also has no money so they get up and leave mars bar with the check after eating both theirs and the person who left’s food

The waitress brings out mar’s food and asks if she’s okay

She constructs a lie about how she’s friends with the couple and they said they would pay for her food since she doesn’t have money but they fight wherever they go and left her with the bills

so the waitress feels sympathy for her and pays for her

Mars gets a good meal of french toast and ham and walks out feeling full and ready to go to the south park

And we ended there for the night

[smallrobothugeworld]

A not-so-warm welcome, a woman, and a fight

The small robot, Heeb, was hastily grabbed out of the pocket he was trapped in, quickly shaking him out of his sleep mode. Then he was rather roughly tossed onto a table, surrounded by dirty dishes and silverwear. The impact sent sparks flying out of the side of his head.

"Robot!" The hooded figure that had just put him on this table yelled in an attempt to get his attention.

The small robot turned to face the human, having no idea what his face looked like.

"You're gonna get me into this laptop." He started, pushing a bowl to the side and setting the laptop down, open with the screen facing himself.

"Tell me the password."

"I-I don't k-know! H-human never s-showed me!"

"Liar. Tell me the f**king password or I'll start taking you apart!"

"I S-SERIOUSLY DON'T K-KNOW!"

"Well, I guess you should find out then!" The man said, spinning the laptop to face Heeb.

His phone buzzed and he swiped the screen.

"You'll crack this password, and then you'll wash the dishes for me. Some of the boys want me over at the hideout. Capishe?"

Heeb had no other choise but to nod weakly, and get started guessing the password. The human slammed the door, and he got hard at work.

_____

The small blue form, nearly empty on battery, pressed the "0" key, and "enter", and a loading circle appeared on the screen, unlike the 'Incorrect Password' message he has gotten exactly three thousand, two hundred and seventeen times. He beeped happily before shutting the computer back down and turning to the dishes he was also supposed to do.

He counted 3 bowls, 2 plates, and a bunch of random silverware. He could easily stand on one of the forks without breaking it, so washing them was out of the question, so he stepped back, before his leg gave out and he thudded to the ground.

____

The human threw open the door. "HEY, ROBOT?! DID YOU DO WHAT I TOLD YOU DO, YOU LITTLE S**T?!" He yelled, throwing a bag on the floor and looking over the table.

Nothing was washed, the laptop was shut down and the robot was seemingly dead. So he picked it up, stuffed it in his pocket again, and walked out the door.

_____

Heeb flickered awake as his eyes adjusted to the bright yellow light shining down on his face. He seemed to be in some dark workshop, with various small metal tools surrounding him. A small charging wire was plugged into his chin, filling his batteries with power.

A female voice somewhere in the room started whispering to herself, but the little robot could hear easily.

"These idiots gotta stop dropping their loot off here... damn boss..."

Then two large hands wearing thick leather gloves slammed down on the table, and the big metal face of a human clad in a welding mask loomed over him.

"Hah! It's alive!" The same female voice said, muffled by the mask this time. "No need to take you apart now!"

The small blue humanoid sighed a soft robotic sigh, and. stared up at the emotionless mask above him.

"Awww... I wanna just take you home! No wait! I have a better idea!"

And with that, the woman reached around to his back, flipped the off switch built into his head, and Heeb was once again shrouded in darkness.

_____

Heeb woke up, being nearly blinded by the large lights shining down from above him, and the loud cheering of a crowd.

"Do me proud, rust-bucket" The same female voice from before said before he was pushed forwards by her hand into a large circular pit, the floor covered in sand and the walls seemingly made of some unscalable sheet metal, leaving him with nowhere else to go.

"FROM MADAME MECHANIST HERSELF, WE HAVE CHROME-DOME!" Said an announcer's voice, blaring from speakers the robot could not see.

"AND HERE THE UNDISPUTED CHAMPION, EVERYONE'S FAVORITE..."

A drawbridge-like trapdoor on the other end of the arena slammed open, and a human hand rolled out a small orb, almost double the hieght of the blue machine. Once it rolled to a stop, it shook for a few seconds before three wheels popped out of the bottom, two large arms popped out the side and a red dot appeared out of the top of the sphere.

"DECIMATOR!!!"

Heeb was still processing what was happening until a loud bell shook him out of his train of thought, giving him barely enough time to duck out of the way of Decimator, rolling at full speed towards him. The large tanky robot slammed into the wall of the arena, nearly getting its arm caught in it before easily ripping it out, and rotating a full 180 degrees to face Heeb head on.

Heeb had no idea how to fight, let alone how to fight this behemoth of a machine that was staring him down. Rolling out of the way again to avoid another shoulder charge that ended with the tough machine slamming into the wall, he quickly used his small size to his advantage. Sprinting towards the stuck robot, he jumped onto its back, and started clawing at anything he could reach frantically, to serve as some form of handhold. But he couldn't find anything in time, so he was quickly thrown off the robot's back onto the sand.

Decimator finally managed to forcefully pull its arm out, and was preparing another charge before being grabbed again, this time from the front, and Heeb forcefully slammed his head into the small orb on top of the other machine, knocking it clean off. And Decimator fell silent as its reciever for the remote used to control it had just been removed.

The crowd gasped in suprise, many called out that the whole fight was rigged, or made up other excuse to explain how Decimator lost to a scrawny prototype cleaning robot.

_____

The woman from before quickly scooped up Heeb and held him out to face her.

"How'd you learn to fight like THAT?!" She yelled happily at Heeb, also suprised that he won.

"I-uh... I not know..." The little robot replied, still shocked that he managed to beat that thing.

"How about we talk in private when we get home, yeah?"

_____

[phinnsyreads]

Item #: SCP-009

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: Object is to be contained within a sealed storage tank of heat-resistant alloy with dimensions not less than 2m x 2m x 2m.

Under no circumstances should SCP-009 be exposed to temperatures in excess of 0°C when not undergoing testing, and no water-based solutions shall be allowed within 30 meters of the object's containment area. Object's chamber is to be fitted with temperature sensors which must be monitored at all times, and is to be kept refrigerated by no fewer than three (3) redundant cooling units. Any malfunction of sensors, or of coolant systems, is to be reported and repaired immediately. If at any time the temperature in the containment area climbs above -5°C, the chamber is to be locked down and flooded with coolant until temperatures return to safe levels (-30°C to -25°C).

Containment area is to be kept in total vacuum during testing, and personnel interacting with SCP-009 must wear full environmental protection gear. Following testing, all equipment, personnel, and other materials must undergo dehydration procedures and be quarantined for no less than 12 hours. Any moisture found displaying properties of SCP-009 is to be quarantined and added to the containment area as soon as possible. Living organisms found to be contaminated by SCP-009 are to be terminated by chemical dessication and extracted molecules of SCP-009 added to containment.

Description: SCP-009 is approximately ███ liters of a substance which superficially resembles distilled water (H2O), except with a distinct bright red hue. This red hue is discernible in all phases, and serves as the most expedient method of identifying contaminated matter before its anomalous properties manifest. In contrast to mundane water, SCP-009 assumes a liquid phase at temperatures between -100°C and 0°C, and a solid state above those temperatures. At temperatures below -100°C, SCP-009 vaporizes into a gaseous phase similar to steam.

Examinations of the atomic structure of SCP-009 have proved inconclusive. The substance appears to be identical to normal water molecules, with the exception of [REDACTED] in contrast to standard laws of enthalpy. Dr. █████, Site ██'s resident expert on Xenospatial Physics suggests that SCP-009 may originate in a universe with alternate physical laws.

The most hazardous property of SCP-009, however, is its ability to contaminate normal H2O. When in contact with any aqueous solution, SCP-009 will, through unknown mechanisms, transfer its anomalous properties to other objects and creatures. Testing has shown it capable of assimilating ice, steam, tea, fruit juice, seawater, blood, and [DATA EXPUNGED]. The time it takes for this process to occur varies depending on temperature and the exact chemical composition of affected matter, and had been observed as taking between 3 minutes and ██ hours.

Experiments on D-Class personnel have illustrated the process of conversion by the substance, which has been found to follow a consistent pattern:

1. Initial Exposure: Subject is exposed to SCP-009, and it begins assimilating any moisture present on the exposed surface. Creatures in this stage do not commonly notice any unusual symptoms except for a slight warming sensation.

2. Surface Conversion: Frost begins to form on the exposed area as the heat produced by the subject and SCP-009 itself raises its temperature above 0°C. This stage can take anywhere from one (1) minute to █ hours, during which time subjects begin to feel [REDACTED] crystals from the epidermis.

3. Deep Tissue Conversion: Exponential increase in temperature of SCP-009 causes runaway reaction throughout subject's body, resulting in [REDACTED]. Actual blood loss is minimal due to ice crystals [REDACTED], allowing subjects to remain alive and conscious for up to ██ hours.

4. [DATA EXPUNGED]

Testing on D-Class personnel was discontinued as of 4/23/20██.

Addendum: Circumstances of Retrieval: Subject was found in ████, Alaska, on 11/05/19██. The Foundation became involved after reports were obtained from the native ████ Tribe, who came across the mangled bodies of a team of seal hunters which had apparently been ship-wrecked ██ kilometers from the village.

All victims were found encased in red ice. Cause of death recorded as internal bleeding, though closer examination found [REDACTED]. It is surmised that the low ambient temperatures in the area retarded the freezing process. This prolonged the time to total conversion by ██ hours, and allowed the victims to remain conscious until [DATA EXPUNGED].

Origin of SCP-009 is currently unknown. Investigation into similar events or materials in the area is ongoing. Evidence at the scene suggests [REDACTED], possibly involving SCP-███.

See Exploration Log A009-1 for details.

— Exploration Log 11/05/19██ —

Situational Report: Mobile Task Force Beta-7 (The “Haz-Matters”) was deployed to recovery site to catalogue and safely retrieve samples of SCP-009 for transport to Site ██. Agent ████ Bryce (MTF-B7) made a visual inspection of the area and noted three (3) bodies, all male, between the ages of ██ and 40 years. Dr. ███, also on-site, surmised from the relative position of subjects that Mr. ██████ (Age 32; hereafter referred to as Subject Zero) was the origin point of [REDACTED]. Subsequent subjects are presumed to have been exposed to SCP-009 while attempting to help Subject Zero back to the wreckage of the boat. During standard perimeter sweep, Agent ██████ Hewes located what appeared to be humanoid tracks leading Northeast. After brief deliberation, a three-man team consisting of Agents Hewes, Whitmore, and Cassidy was dispatched to investigate potential security breach.

<Begin Log - 6:42:43 EST> Agent Hewes: We’ve found something, Control. It’s a cave. The tracks lead inside. Control: Copy, Hewes. What do you see? Hewes: Looks like a crack in the ice, its… maybe a meter tall. The opening’s not very wide. Agent Whitmore: Cap’n, we got a body!

[Unidentified shuffling noises are heard.]

Control: We didn’t copy, Hewes. Repeat. Hewes: There’s a subject here, control. Frozen in the Skip. Male… about 15. Looks like he was trying to crawl away from something. There’s a spear-gun here… also frozen. It’s been fired. Control: Any signs of trauma?

[There is a pause.]

Agent Cassidy: Without touching him, I can’t be sure. But it looks like he was stabbed by something. See how he’s gripping his chest here? Right where this spike is growing out… he might’ve been attacked. Hewes: Did you hear her, control? Control: Affirmative. Tag the coordinates for recovery, and proceed into the cave. Whitmore: We usin’ live fire, cap’n? Hewes: There might be hostiles, so yes. But keep ‘em in single-shot mode. Don’t want the guns getting too hot. Cassidy: Good call. Don’t wanna’ end up like this guy. Whitmore: [unintelligible] … that’s for sure.

[Agents ready their weapons and proceed. Approximately two (2) minutes pass.]

Whitmore: [unintelligible]. Control: Please repeat, Hewes, we didn’t copy. Hewes: Its… there’s a chamber in here, control. I’d say… 5 or 6 meters in diameter. It’s filled with red ice. In the middle… there’s a pool. Looks about 3 meters wide. Depth unknown. Cassidy: ‘The fuck hap- [screams are heard]

[Gunfire]

Control: Hewes, come in! Are there hostiles?

[There is a brief pause]

Hewes: Fuckin’ hell… negative, control, just- … Jesus, a fucking polar bear. Its dead. There’s dozens of bodies here. Not human. I see a few seals, a snow fox… and a… What the hell? Whitmore: ‘Da fuck is that? Cassidy: No, no, no, no… oh, god. Control: Hewes? Do you copy? Hewes: Cassidy found a… um… a spider. A giant spider.

[There is a pause, during which shuffling and hard breathing are heard]

Control: Is it alive? What do you mean by giant? Hewes: I mean fucking huge, control! At least a meter leg span. Its frozen… wait, no… shit, I don’t see anything inside. It almost looks like its made of this stuff. Cassidy: [unintelligible] not possible… we’re nowhere close to Germany. Whitmore: What? What about Germany? Cassidy: Cap’n, I’m pretty sure that’s thirty-twenty-three. Control: Repeat, captain? Hewes: Cassidy said the spider is SCP-3023, control.

[There is a pause.]

Control: That’s not possible, Hewes. Why would she think that? Cassidy: [Voice elevated] I’m sure, Control! I’ve worked with 3023. It’s an instance made of Skip-Nine! Whitmore: Wait, what’s 3023? Control: That is classified. Agent Cassidy, you are to speak no more of this. If the specimen is destroyed, there is no reason to worry about it. Please continue your search. Cassidy: [Mumbling] But how the fuck did it get here? Hewes: We copy, control. Cassidy, sweep the perimeter. See if there’s any side tunnels. Cassidy: But- Hewes: ████, that’s an order. Cassidy: [Unintelligible]. Hewes: █████, check these corpses. See if there’re any humans. Whitmore: On it. Control: Agent Hewes, how deep is the pool you mentioned? Hewes: Can’t see the bottom. God… I’m having SCP-354 flashbacks… this is not cool. Control: Focus, captain. Is there anything nearby you can use to measure the depth? Hewes: [Pauses] Well, the spider has a spear sticking out of it. Control: Can you safely retrieve it? Hewes: The suit should protect me, right? Control: All the same, try not to touch the affected material. Hewes: Alright… I’ve got it… should work. Looks to be about 1.5 meters long. Control: Copy that, Hewes. Proceed with caution.

[There is a pause.]

Hewes: Well, it’s definitely more than a meter deep. I could go further, but I’d have to get my hand closer to that stuff… suit or no suit, I’d prefer not to do that. Control: Affirmative, Captain. We’ll dispatch some D-Class with gear to test that out. Continue your search. Hewes: Copy that… Well, I guess I’m- Cassidy: [Voice distant] Captain! Hewes: Stand-by, control. What is it, Cassidy? Cassidy: [Voice distant] I think you’re going to want to see this, sir! I think I know where the spider came from! Hewes: Control, I’m going deeper in the cave. Control: Affirmative, proceed.

[Approximately one (1) minute of boots crunching on ice and packed snow]

Hewes: … Oh, that's not good. Control: What do you see, captain? Hewes: A… an aperture. About a meter in diameter. It's covered in the stuff… Cassidy!

[10 seconds of silence]

Hewes: ████, report! Control: Do you have a visual of Agent Cassidy? Hewes: No. Shit, she must've gone inside! Control: Please remain calm. Describe this aperture. Hewes: I- uh… it just looks like a tunnel, but there's no ice past the mouth - red or otherwise. I can make out a dim light coming from somewhere inside. Might be Cassidy's torch. Control: Is there anything else unusual? Hewes: Cassidy! Cassidy! Control: Captain Hewes, please respond. Is there anything else unusual about the tunnel? Hewes: Yeah, it's… it's wet. The walls are… and the floor. There's a puddle about a meter down. Shit, it's… the puddle is red.

[A few minutes of breathing and shuffling noises]

Hewes: Control, did you get that? Control: Affirmative. Stand-by.

[30 seconds of breathing, followed by approaching footsteps]

Whitmore: Yo, what's up? Where's Cassidy? Hewes: She went in there. Whitmore: … Yo, Cassidy! Holla' back, girl!

[30 seconds of Silence]

Hewes: [unintelligible], Control, I'm going in there. Control: Negative, Hewes! We're rerouting a team of D-Class for recovery. Your orders are to withdraw the rest of your team and await further orders. Hewes: [DATA REDACTED] Whitmore: Whoa, hold up! Take it easy! Control: You have your orders, Hewes. I don't think I need to remind you [DATA EXPUNGED].

[45 seconds of silence]

Hewes: Copy, control… let's go, █████, <End Log>

Addendum: 11/09/19██ After initial report and retrieval of specimens, it was confirmed that the arachnoid entity found by MFT-B7 (see attached file) was indeed a previously unknown instance of SCP-3023. Investigation has revealed the instance originated in [REDACTED] as a result of [DATA EXPUNGED].

Addendum: 12/06/19██ After repeated inquiries, it should be noted that the portion of coastline upon which the initial victims were found was barren rock approximately █ meters from the seashore, and was sufficiently dry and cold to prevent significant contamination of the surrounding area. Had the site been closer to the water, there is little doubt an extinction-level event would have ensued.

Consideration of upgrading SCP-009 to Keter class under review.

Addendum: 12/16/20██ Super-cooling of SCP-009 for the purposes of experimentation is disallowed until further notice. Personnel are advised that liquid nitrogen is only to be used on the subject in controlled amounts, and only until temperatures have reached acceptable levels.

Related note: Possible application of SCP-009 in cold fusion research pending evaluation.

Memo from O-5 Command: 1/09/20██ We've decided to keep this thing Euclid for now. We understand the concerns raised, but as long as you keep the power on and nobody goes near its containment area, there shouldn't be a problem. That's why we're keeping it in Site ██, after all.

As for the cold fusion research, we're putting a pin in that for now. Frankly, we don't have it in the budget for another SNAFU like Site ██. The salvage team still hasn't found Dr. █████'s [REDACTED]

Cross-Testing report 9507F23

The following experiment record was recovered via a chance occurrence of SCP-507 shifting into a universe in which the described test was carried out using SCP-107. The applicability of the reported findings to our own universe is pending review.

Input: 10mL of SCP-009 Result: "Red snow" fell in test area for 27 minutes with moderate intensity. Grass growing in test area began runaway reaction which ended with entire area being "frozen" within minutes. Notably, anti-enthalpathic reaction of SCP-009 did not extend past the effective radius of SCP-107, for reasons still under investigation. Non-grass plants in area turned bright red in color, greatly expanded, and mutated to display cyan-colored "tentacles" similar to those of species Drosera capensis. Mucilage produced by these tentacles later found to be tiny beads of SCP-009. How the plant is able to survive with SCP-009 integrated into its cell structure is currently under investigation, with preliminary hypothesis being the plant is a reflection of flora from the substance's native universe.

[The voice of Agent Hewes was provided by @iridethedirt.] [The voice of Agent Whitmore was provided by @navox-the-weary.] [The voice of Agent Cassidy was provided by Brittany █████ █████.] [The voice of the O-5 Command memo was provided by @ryanvoid.]

[darliframerch]

One Punch Man: 5 Best Villains in the Series (& 5 Worst)

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One Punch Man: 5 Best Villains in the Series (& 5 Worst)

One Punch Man sends up the hero type from various perspectives, including having an excessive number of scoundrels. Some of them are extraordinary, and others crash and burn.

Superheroes have since a long time ago been a staple of western funnies, particularly with the most mainstream titles from Marvel, like Captain America and Spider-Man, and DC, like Batman and Wonder Woman. The anime world has fired getting on this pattern as well, like My Hero Academia. Yet, it’s a beautiful goofy sort, so it’s ready for parodies. Enter One Punch Man, the mainstream anime that affectionately makes fun of the hero pattern.

The caped legend, Saitama, goes on a mission to battle any trouble makers he meets and discover some proportion of fulfillment in it. Being superpowered is a bit exhausting, all things considered, and a portion of Saitama’s scoundrels challenge him more than others. Also, some are essentially more fun or intriguing to see on screen. Which are a portion of his best reprobates, and which are scarcely even worth the punch?

10.Best: Mosquito Girl

A significant number of the scoundrels in One Punch Man are unusually thoughtful since they are just paying special mind to their own sort or following up on nature as opposed to on vindictiveness or plans of global control.

Mosquito Girl is defensive of her interminable mosquito multitude, and she simply needs to take care of all her small kids. In any case, she does this each life in turn, and on-screen, a multitude of these bugs depletes a gangster to death in a moment or two! Her forces are startling and noteworthy on-screen, and just legend Saitama can bring her down.

9.Worst: Vaccine Man

  Curiously, the main scalawag to show up on the screen for One Punch Man is likewise one of the lamest: Vaccine Man! However, he’s not here to shield your children from polio. This muscular humanoid considers progress to be a scourge on nature and needs to purify the earth of mankind.

But… how? He’s only one person, and not horribly solid, even contrasted with other lesser reprobates. His visual plan isn’t exceptionally fascinating, by the same token. It’s an alleviation when Saitama clobbers him, so we can continue to better adversaries.

8.Best: Dr. Genus

This rundown will incorporate both Dr. Class and one of his lab-developed manifestations. The man himself is more seasoned than he looks, being more like 80 years of age or somewhere in the vicinity. His logical undertakings were disdained and disparaged in his time, and he developed old, harsh, and undesirable.

We feel awful for him until he assembles the House of Evolution to unleash destruction as his vengeance! All things considered, he’s a cool miscreant, and it’s entertaining to see him grow a whole clone multitude of himself to run the spot.

7.Worst: Subterraneans

The solitary amusing part about the Subterraneans is that by one way or another, Saitama imagined about them before he met them, all things considered. Saitama’s psyche imagined them as incredible, startling adversaries who gave him a genuine test, and Saitama was excited to have a decent fight on his hands.

Then, at that point he woke up, the Subterraneans showed up seriously… also, escaped immediately! They’re so feeble, they will not confront him. It makes for a good gag, yet something else, it’s enigmatically baffling. Wouldn’t they be able to accomplish more?

6.Best: Speed-O-Sound Sonic

It very well may be contended that Speed-O-Sound Sonic is the principal antagonist of One Punch Man, and like numerous anime reprobates, he announces himself the legend’s harsh adversary (a contention that isn’t returned). Sonic is quick, he’s brilliant, he’s exact, and he can bring down an entire horde of adversaries without taking a solitary blow consequently.

His outfit is upscale and truly cool, and that purple scarf really looks incredible on his silver ninja shield, making him truly stick out. Furthermore, when he’s not kicking butt, his mysterious lily liver side is truly interesting!

5.Worst: King Of Beasts

To be reasonable, the lion-man known as King of Beasts is just a follower of the House of Evolution. However, a few watchers might in any case contemplate whether they might have gotten somewhat more out of the arrangement. He’s a sturdy beast contender with a major nibble… furthermore, that is it.

Saitama impacts him away with his brand name one punch, and this “lord” is truly a furball by correlation. Indeed, even his buddy, the imagined cyborg gorilla, is more intriguing than that (and entertaining, as well).

4.Best: Deep Sea King

This monstrous adversary positions among the best lowliness because he has a remarkable appearance, and he’s probably the hardest enemy Saitama and co. at any point face. He feels like a legitimate Shonen scalawag, cornering a horde of guiltless observers as the saints challenge him individually.

Indeed, even Puri Prisoner can’t deal with him, however, Deep Sea King shows him a fascinating exercise about punching to kill. It’s an exciting second when Saitama deposes this ruler forever.

3.Worst: Hammerhead

This chrome-arch danger is the head of the Paradises, an entire gathering of men who might much rather fool around the entire day then, at that point search for paying work. Hammerhead and companions maybe a remark on the hikikomori marvel in Japan, where youthful grown-ups decline to incorporate into society and stay in their homes as hermits.

In any case, while Hammerhead has an entertaining proclamation, he couldn’t in any way, shape, or form back it up. His cronies are butchered because of Speed-O-Sound Sonic, and he can’t do much against the scarfed ninja, by the same token. So much for his transformation!

2.Best: Carnage Kabuto

Dr. Genus showed up as a decent reprobate on this rundown, and presently his #1 crony, Carnage Kabuto, goes along with him. However he’s a beast power contender, Carnage Kabuto is quite interesting and great to see. He hasn’t set foot outside the House of Evolution HQ yet, however, Saitama and Genos make for fine guineas pigs.

Kabuto is as of now a beast, yet in frenzy mode, he’s genuinely unnerving! Also, exactly when it seems as though Saitama is hopeless, we understand that Saitama is disturbed about missing a Saturday-just deal! The pressure is broken in breathtaking style as the caped saint crushes Kabuto separated and clears out.

1.Worst: Crablante

Sequentially, this is the primary beast that Saitama confronted, while he was as yet a disappointed salaryman walking through life. In any case, the issue is that Crablante is just exhausting when you get over his senseless appearance. He is an upstanding lobster-man with enormous eyes, his middle sitting on human legs, complete with “tighty whities” clothing.

His demonstration of villainy? Menace a child with a goliath jaw. Ho murmur. The solitary intriguing part about this fight is that Saitama (being pre-exercise) turns into a legend through sheer boldness and kills this beast. Beneficial thing Saitama has much better adversaries to look at later on!

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Thanks For Reading Our Post. Hope You Enjoy and Have an Energetic Day.

[haleruby]

Slipping Through Your Fingers (3)

Characters/Pairings: established Mal/Evie*, eventual Mal/Evie/Reader* (Quim), Reader & the Rotten Four, Reader & Carlos, side Jaylos*.

*In the flashback, there are not really any “/” relationships more so “&”, iirc, but the start of feelings will be present for all ships.

>This part is Mal centric with you meeting Mal, platonic Jal, and hinted Jaylos.

(^Evie checking her nails in the background made me smile. They all have such badass shoes too.)

Summary: Mal’s visit to the condemned part of the Isle leaves her with more than just potential items to trade. A near death experience, a new friend (?), a pocket watch, and so many questions…?

Word Count: 4.2k

Notes: I am using a sideblog that is empty and not tagging bc this is only for your eyes, so no need to reblog/like, etc.

*chanting* Flashback, flashback, flashback…Please keep in mind the Rotten Four are not quite ride or die yet; the flashback section is not only about Shadow, but also how the four of them grow closer with time. The flashback is 13 to 74 memo-wise, so you will be able to tell when we get back to present time bc Shadow will react to Carlos in the dorm hall, but that will be in a while…

(This chapter is 13 to 18 memo-wise for context).

Also, as you know, I adapted the rules of the Isle and how the four met to a slight degree. Annnnd made up a section of the Isle among other things; it be like that sometimes. XD

- - - - -

Mal should not be jumping at shadows. Another distant noise sounds that could be a branch hitting against something or the rusted metal she is traversing settling, except her mind briefly conjures up something with claws following her. Exploring the condemned part of the Isle to score items for bartering was a good idea...In theory. She could get an edge over the other kids, could claim this area as another addition to her territory, and could get a boost in reputation for not only having survived, but thrived, if this goes successfully... That is a big if. Another gust of wind causes the old warehouse to positively groan as the holes, fissures, and cracks are filled with rushing air; it makes it seem alive for a moment. She has to kneel to keep her footing on the metal walkway that sways ever so slightly. Another sound makes her tense further until her mind supplies that it was a hoot from an owl, not a prowling creature or an odd, deformity riddled being that are alleged to dwell in this complex from the rumors and whispers. A white knuckled grip on one of the semi-intact rails is released, her palm comes away grimy from the rust and age. Get a grip. Mal is better than this. She is the daughter of the Mistress of All Evil and that comes with expectations. Her small satchel has her dagger and a few odds and ends she has picked up so far; however, she plans to do a sweep of all the levels. The condemned part of the Isle has a few skeletons of warehouses, some sort of obscure facility, and other buildings Mal has yet to place. A small hole in the barb wired fence allowed her to slip into the depressing premises. The state of decay found on the Isle is accelerated in this place likely because no one tries to somewhat keep it up or inhabit it. There is no grass, but gray-white gravel that would crunch under even the most light footed of individuals. The trees are more like thin sticks that were cobbled together and lack any leaves. Any color or street art is lacking and what once decorated the walls has since faded into indistinct ghosts of the former hues. The air seems heavier here and cooler than elsewhere on the Isle. It's creepy. Mal prides herself on being a cause of fear as opposed to someone who feels it, but this place does put her on edge. Teaming up with Jay crossed her mind due to his skills and having an extra set of eyes, but with eyes comes hands, so she discarded the idea. This area has not been mapped out, which means there is a preemptive advantage. Repeating the logic of that reasoning busies her as another walkway is crossed carefully, before metal gives way to slats of wood that look suspect considering the state of everything else, but they hold her weight. An office or store room could be made out from the ground floor, and that is the end goal. Only one more level to go, and then-. Chains suddenly rattling diverts her attention; a groan from the wind did not coincide with the noise.

The flickering circular beam of her lantern does not help with gauging things that are far away, but she still raises it above her head to extend the pool of light. It is too dusky to make anything out... Rationalizing kicks in before her imagination can in an effort to keep a level head: it could have been a mouse or bat, it could have been the rusty death trap settling again, it could have been one of the ancient pulleys finally giving way, and it could be nothing at all that would threaten her. Mal unfreezes after completing the list of possible reasons for that noise. Steps continue, though they are more measured. Green eyes squint when another catwalk is completed since the end of it leads to stairs that are not caked in rust or a worn out gray steel, but look like they were made out of coal. Ebony coats the banister and each individual step like a residue of ink; why are they black? It is the last obstacle between her and the overseer's office that probably has the best stuff in the entire warehouse. Drawing a metal measuring stick she snagged off a workbench from her satchel, Mal prods the bottom most step as a test. Nothing happens. "Anticlimactic," she mutters. Her voice sounds small within the vast, desolate space, it provides some much needed familiarity. If anything her reactions to this place spurs her to come back, because she needs to be without fear and stronger than a creepy abandoned building. "Come on." That was not so much encouragement as it was a self-directed order. Something falling somewhere below is chalked up to the wind as opposed to a warning. Her foot momentarily settles on the bottom step. Another step is quickly taken at the hesitation that would cause her mother to look at her in disdain, if she even bothered to look at all. Mal is now fully on the staircase, and that is when it all goes wrong. Small prickles of numbness set in like when her foot falls asleep from being in an awkward position for too long, before the soles of her feet feel disconnected from her body. Snapping her head to look down just reveals her leather boots that--Wait, they are more black than usual. There is something on her. The feeling infiltrates further up her feet to her ankles in an odd sensation of something being there but not quite that has her clumsily getting off the steps in a rush, almost tripping because it feels wrong. "Fuck!" Mal curses loudly. The darkness is going to eat her. Mal is backing up so quickly from the staircase to try and regain feeling in her lower legs that the dead end of the catwalk is forgotten. The sound of metal snapping is not registered because she is trying to scrape off whatever is latched on to her feet, until she feels something behind her give way. There was a rail there, but not anymore...Oh. The panic to her thought process suddenly ebbs away as the clarity of what happened is reinforced by falling backwards. Even if she survives the fall, who would come looking for her? Her mother pays her no mind aside from the occasional judgment or test that always has her coming up short. Jay is...Her trading partner, not really a friend, because attachments are weaknesses. The little runt, Carlos, is scared of her and she only sees him in passing with Jay; they hardly talk.  She does not have anyone. The cold air snatches at her as she plummets a short distance, until it feels like it is coalescing into something else. Her eyes that were screwed shut, as if that would lessen the brutal impact, now crack open slightly. There should be an addition of a Mal shaped splatter to the dirty concrete flooring, instead she feels herself set down on it with more gentleness than she has probably been showed her entire life. What...?

Her heart is pounding, threatening to break free of her rib cage and her breathing is uneven and quick after the fall that she can clearly track from her new position on the ground level. She was up there and is now down here. Mal's eyes dart between the two positions, mind working to try and make it make sense. Motion in her peripheral vision has her scrambling away reflexively on her hands and knees; the lack of dignity of this retreat can be considered later. She lost her lantern, but a portion of the roof is missing so shafts of moonlight chases away the ever present gloom in this area. A shadow. Tendrils of darkness break off lazily before rejoining the central mass that is vaguely humanoid, if a person was dipped in viscous tar. Where are its eyes...? The dark figure slowly rises from a kneeling position, retreating to sit a distance away to remain on the same level as her, though she is certain if it stood, it would be taller than her. There is no move to rush or attack her, but Mal's eyes still flash a glowing emerald in warning. It is hard to gauge a reaction from the thing, but it feels like she is being assessed. Mal is simply staring, even though she should be running. A sudden brightness draws her attention to the side. The lantern sits undisturbed by the tendrils that just brought it back that now slink away to their owner, the yellow light glints off of something shiny too. Curiosity threatens to splice through the survival mode that is slowly dwindling to allow her heart beat to fall and breaths to occur more normally. Mal shifts to her knees now that feeling has returned to her feet and ankles, before she stands shakily. The dagger is pulled out smoothly from the satchel and directed at the figure, the slight tremor to her hand likely undermines any warning. "Try anything, and I'll hurt you." There is no response. Retrieving the lantern occurs quickly along with a glinting pocket watch that would be worth a ton at the bazaar, or help facilitate a great trade with Jay. Why was she given this? The reasoning is questioned, but this is the Isle and survival comes first, so of course the item is pocketed without a second thought. Keeping the possible threat within her line of sight is important. She did not navigate up the ramps, stairs, and walkways from this part of the warehouse; however, she can figure it out while also walking stiltedly in an effort to not turn her back on the shadow that still sits there calmly. She needs an exit. "Stay there," she warns lowly. Mal makes it to the crack in the loading door area, shimming under it so quickly, she scrapes her arms on some on the abrasive gravel on the other side. As soon as she is out in the yard, she runs. The daughter of Maleficent should be the one to inspire the running, but now she is a teen, who is shaken from a near death experience and the thing that cared enough to save her. . . . . . . "I don't care about quantity, I want quality" "Mal, you are driving a hard bargain" "How many of-" A button is pressed to allow the metallic face of the watch to flip open with ease revealing the beautiful ivory watch face inside, "-these do you have again?" Mal poses the question curiously. Green eyes flick to Carlos who is eyeing the watch like it is some kind of modern marvel. The blond said something about gear springs, semi-automated parts, and other mechanical words, but she just wants a good trade from Jay, not an explanation of the device's intricacies. "So, I want it all or nothing." That easy grin is still in place, though it tightens slightly around the edges; he knows his father would regret this slipping away, even if they are giving up a lot. "Okay, ok fine, it's a deal," he relents. A finely carved box of metal is slid over with a few treasures from their wares handpicked by Mal nestled inside. A wicked smile is given as the items exchange hands. "Can I just hold it?" Carlos requests it meekly, though there is an eagerness to his expression. "Please?"

"What are ya gonna give me for it, if I let you?" "Uhm..." Carlos being at a loss of what to say in reply is price enough; that was a cute face. The watch is handed over with a chuckle. Jay is swift and has very sticky fingers, plus he knows the blond would never try and steal from him, let alone anyone else, which is probably why he is viewed as a runt out of the other villain kids. "Sooo," The word is drawled out to slow down Mal's movements to pack up after doing business; sometimes she will linger and they can chat, "-where did you get a score like that?" "It even keeps track of the month..." Carlos mumbles in awe, messing with the knobs. "Like I'm going to reveal my source?" "There is talk you braved the condemned area," Jay quips back. He did not personally hear the boasting, but has caught enough whispers and rumors from others that indicate she somehow managed to survive it and is now saying it is her area. Reputation is hard to gain on the Isle, unless you come from a first rate villain, but even then kids can be cruel and you need to prove yourself. Mal happens to be good at both. "Wouldn't take a genius-" A nudge is given to Carlos, who is engrossed in figuring out the features of the watch, "-to figure it out." "You know how big the condemned area is," she reasons. Imagining Jay going in that place and not making it out like she did causes a bolt of something to shoot down her spine, even if she is not attached... "You know how I operate. I would not have done the reveal unless the area was already scouted and picked clean, plus it's mine, so back off." The threat seems odd directed at her trading partner, but it is for his own good. There is no further pause in collecting her things, before she strides out of the empty classroom, ignoring the way she can feel them both watching her. . . . . . . Mal is not sure why she came back... The need to prove herself after the fear that gripped her last time was the stated reasoning behind it, but there is a burning curiosity beneath the need to overcome this supposed self-imposed test. It has been a week since she last ventured to the condemned part of the Isle. The increased infamy that causes students to part for her more abruptly and a single glance to constitute a warning is still being enjoyed. Mal did survive whatever horrors that are supposed to be contained here, but only barely. Previously the whispers of this place where like old tales or vague warnings, but now it is an actual topic of hushed conversation. A part of her regrets going through with her plan, because now there is more interest in a place that was somewhat forgotten. Not that she cares about her fellow students... The shadow thing did save her, so drawing attention to its place of residence did leave her with an inkling of guilt. She has not told anyone about it, aside from reinforcing the area is her's by tagging it with her trademark graffiti. It is doubtful anyone would get close enough to see the distinctive purple, black, and green shape of Maleficent's cowl with the words 'Long Live Evil', but if they do, it serves as an additional deterrent along with the overall dreary atmosphere. Special care was taken to not tag the warehouse the shadow is in, but a rusted truck, sides of other buildings, and old signs were all fair game, though she still felt like she was being observed the whole time. Now she is back in front of the loading dock...

The lantern is slid under first, before she slips under the garage bay door with little resistance. She freezes just within the confines of the space, still lingering near the exit that decreases in usability the further she gets from it, before willing her feet to take the first few tentative steps. Overcoming this is important for her future ability to be fearless, right? Avoiding climbing anything too high seems like a good plan in case the shadow is feeling less charitable, so she sticks to the sprawling ground floor inspecting things and nooks that were glanced over the first time. Mal still can't figure out what this place was used for... There are enough empty hanging hooks and vaguely torture chamber looking devices for her imagination to supply macabre ideas. Pulleys suspend chains that feed to a few machines, making it appear more like a shop floor. There are racks and racks of boxes piled along one side, but the crates are sealed shut and would need to be pried open. A crunch of glass underfoot has her pausing in trying to puzzle out what a machine could be used for to see she stepped on some glasses. Picking them up, Mal inspects the black frames that allude to people having been here at one point...But what happened to them? Her mind goes to the shadow. The figure has yet to make an appearance, considering how they left things last time, she can't really say she expected otherwise. Mal knows what she saw...But not seeing it again is casting a little doubt on what happened. The sound of the wind causing the usual creaks and groans draws her attention to behind her, but nothing looks out of place. Maybe she should be proactive? Waiting for it to reveal itself may lead to nothing happening at all. "I know you're here somewhere..." Mal calls out. Again another stretch of silence, but this one feels more charged. "Come out now." That gets a reaction. "Damn! How did you know?" The question is asked in genuine surprise, but also admiration. Mal jumps at the familiar voice that comes from the end of the short conveyor belt that leads to the machine she is near. "Jay?!" She half exclaims the name. Realizing she was being tailed by a master class thief would explain the few wary glances over her shoulder, but that was attributed to being on edge about the shadow. He is not who she wanted to see at all tonight. "Yeah, who did you expect?" "You shouldn't be here!" The question is ignored, her tone has a seriousness that goes beyond wanting to safeguard territory. "Leave." "I'm not moving in on you, just wanted to see is all. Carlos would love this place." His grin falters ever so slightly at the way Mal is regarding him tensely, because he did think they were kind of...friends beneath the bartering. Why is she so worked up over this? He moves around the end of the conveyor belt, taking a step towards her to show his empty hands that have not pinched or taken anything. "Seriously, don't worry," he assures. "That's not why-" The thudding weight of chains crashing into the length of the conveyor belt causes it to buckle under the pressure with a metallic shriek. Rusted metal links now serve as a divider between the two. The air seems to have grown colder too, and yet no draft has rocked the old structure. Was that a warning...? "Wow," Jay comments with a low whistle. She can feel the tension that must allude to latent magic, even if it was supposed to be banned from the Isle; this is not natural. The warehouse didn't feel like this before and only one thing has changed: Jay's presence. "You seriously need to go."

Dark brown eyes glance up at the ceiling in scrutiny, trying to figure out what just happened. "This place is a death trap." His steps hasten to reach Mal, so he can retrieve the stubborn girl, who wants to remain in a place that was clearly condemned for a reason just because of a reputation boost. "Come on." Before his hand can reach her, a tendril of black lashes out like a viper from the shadow cast by the bulk of the machine; it coils ready to strike, locked in on the twitches and movements of his hand, but ultimately waits only inches away. "What the Hell?!" Mal is on guard, glancing around the space for the figure, but it would be hard to spot where they are now. "Take a step back," she requests. "You're doing this, I-?" "No, just let me see something," Mal interjects. A step away from Mal correlates to the tendril losing the prior tension that would surpass a coiled spring, though it remains at the ready between them like an affronted snake. Is it protective...? Her own magic is not threatened, even though it should be with that right in front of her. "He's not going to hurt me. He is my-" She almost said friend without thinking, but tamps down that sentiment, "-is someone I know from school and from trading," she recovers relatively quickly. Her mind works to contain this potentially dangerous situation; they are out of their element and lack home field advantage with a thing that ignores the rules of the Isle. "We won't hurt you either, if you don't hurt us..." "Who are you talking to???" Jay stage whispers. "Something else lives here." "...Something?" Mal elects not to respond. She could not explain it even if she wanted to, instead the tendril is observed as it lowers tentatively before dissolving away completely. The coldness remains, but there is no more living darkness present. Green eyes again rove the area, snagging on the catwalks and ramps that can just be made out with the lantern light to see if the shadow is around, but it's hard to tell. "Mal, explain."  "I don't owe you an explanation. You followed me," she counters firmly at the expectation plain on his face. Jay made her worry and she should not be worrying. "I already told you: something else is here with us, and it obviously favors me to you, so you need to be careful." Is that a stretch? Maybe, but she does not want him traipsing through this area without her, since she is the one that managed to calm, or at least mollify, the figure that lives here. "Yeah, but what and where and why?" "A shadow, all around here, and I don't know." Though sarcasm laces the answers to his rapid fire questions, Jay is undeterred because now he gets why she was reacting that way earlier; she was looking out for him. The two may not be typical friends, but they have an understanding and will keep tabs on each other. But still...How is this possible? "A shadow?" He repeats the term slowly, brows curving up in confusion. "You must have been real bored to make up an imaginary friend." The joke feels a little forced to his own ears, but retaining that ease--that grin is needed. "It almost took your hand off; there is nothing imaginary about it."  "Could be a trick of light, or, like, shadow," he brushes off the comment, though he did move away from the shadows cast by the machine as a precaution. "You trying to scare me as a prank? A shadow?" Jay repeats again in disbelief. "Don't be more idiotic than usual..."

"Make it show itself then, if it's allied to you—your minion." Mal grits her teeth at the challenge that was just issued by Jay; it does not set her on edge because he is not a real adversary or combatant, but there is some mutual respect, so she does not want to fail. "I called it off you, didn't I?" She asks the question rhetorically. "You really want to test both of us?" A step forward is taken. Physically she knows she cannot intimidate the guy, who was the only one not to immediately back off from the daughter of Maleficent and all that title entailed when they first began school. Plus, he is way taller, but her glower still holds an unsettling intensity. Jay shrugs, but does not commit one way or the other. A third party decides the lukewarm standoff. Darkness seeps up from the ground like a small, sluggish spout of oil was just struck between the pair, prompting Jay to give it a wide berth, while Mal stands her ground. An object eventually impedes the flow, before the tendrils leave. The two pause looking at each other and then the rock, before Mal plucks it from the ground and turns it over in her palm. It isn't just a rock. "It's even purple..." Jay mumbles the observation. A geode takes up the majority of her palm. While it looked like a plain, brown spherical rock initially, turning it around allowed the crystal interior to catch the light revealing shards of lavender protruding from the interior like mini stalagmites. It's pretty. The comment about the color takes a moment to register, but he is right... There was thought put into this...gift, peace offering, tribute...? Mal questions how she is referring to the figure for a second, if it is capable of a thought process like this, which may seem inane, but shows attention to detail—attention to her. "See?" She raises the rock, no longer using 'it' or 'the shadow', but giving something in return: a name. "Shadow is real."

End Note: Pretty sure the next section has a few weeks time skip (with explanation of what happens during them) bc I want to bring Evie into the fold and have the Rotten Four grow closer so...I haven’t gotten to editing them yet, but I did skim some of them.

A Mal and Shadow scene fluff turned angst, a Rotten Four scene <3, and Carlos & Evie is my guess for next chap.

[shu-of-the-wind]

Rebelcaptain + "my one night stand is actually my child's teacher and now back to school night is awkward"

Less of a one night stand and more of a “holy shit I’ve never connected with anyone this much and it was just a random convo in a bar that turned into a midnight walk now what” thing BUT STILL.

(Also, to anyone interested: I hardcore headcanon Rey as autie-spec so just. Deal, I suppose.)

“No,” says Jyn, without lookingup from her phone.

Finn scoffs. “You don’t even knowwhat I have.”

“I know it’s a no.”

“You suck,” says Finn, but he puts it back, whatever it is. “It’s a party.Parties mean cake.”

“And you’ve had three pieces.”She peers at him through her bangs. “I’m not paying for fillings, Finn.”

“I don’t need fillings,” saysFinn. “And I’ve had two pieces.”

“You’ve had three,” says Jyn, inthe don’t push me voice, and Finnjust scoffs. Finn’s never been scared of her the way other foster kids havebeen. She must not be all that intimidating, considering his situation. “I’vebeen keeping track. So has Rey.”

Rey, sitting in the chair next toJyn, offers a fist bump. Jyn knocks their knuckles together, and goes back toher emails.

“You’re killing my game,” saysFinn.

“Since when do you have game?”says Rey, and there they go. It’s more soothing than anything, to be honest.Rey and Finn never actually fight—they bicker, but they’ve never been angry ateach other that Jyn’s seen, not in the full year since she took them on, and sothe pair of them playing snap and snarl just means occasionally reaching outand snagging Rey by the back of her uniform skirt to keep her from bouncingright off her feet.

Rey’s overstimulated, she thinks.Finn’s tired. Jyn’s done. Her patience with this event ran out about fiveminutes after it started, but parent participation is a big thing here, and ifshe leaves people will notice. Sitting in the corner going through her emails,at least, is more acceptable. And it keeps people from asking if she’s really the mother of the Juvenile Hall Hell Twins.

She turns her phone on sleep modeby accident, and swears.

“Can we go?” Rey flops into theseat next to her again, draws her knee up to her chest. Another mother hisseswhen Rey’s skirt slips up to her hips, and Jyn absently nudges at her leg,knocks her foot back to the floor. “My head hurts.”

“Twenty minutes.”

“Do you have the stuff?”

“Bag,” says Jyn, without lookingup, and Rey drags Jyn’s messenger bag out from under the chair to find thefidget cube and her noise-canceling headphones. “If I meet one more idiot I’m goingto stab them.”

Finn says, “Don’t do that.”

“Make me,” says Jyn, and taps himin the ankle with the toe of her shoe. “You finish the list?”

“Everybody but Mr. A,” says Finn,happily. Jyn taps Rey on the shoulder, flashes five fingers—five minutes—and then shoves her phoneback into her pocket. “He said he couldn’t come, but I saw him over there, he’sthe last.”

“Is this the sweaters one or theblind one?”

“Sweaters,” says Finn. “He alwayshas great sweaters.”

“So you’ve said.” She’s notentirely sure if Finn has a crush on his—chemistry?—teacher, or if he’s juststarry-eyed about the sweaters themselves, but she’s sure she’s heard the name Mr.A being tossed around the living room once or twice. Though it might havebeen in context of Finn getting detention. She can’t quite remember. “Go say hi, then.” 

“You coming?”

Jyn looks at him, and lifts oneeyebrow.

“Jyn,” says Finn. “C’mon.”

“I said one more idiot.”

“Mr. A isn’t an idiot.” Finn,thirteen and suddenly remembering that, gropes for words. “He’s—weird. He’skinda weird.”

“Finn.”

“He’s your kinda weird.”

“Nobody’s my kind of weird,” saysJyn. “And I don’t need dating advice from a kid who eats three pieces of cake infifteen minutes and then swears it has no effect on his game.”

“Oh my god,” says Finn, and when she nudges him with her elbow he rocksback and forth like she’s shoved him off a cliff. “C’mon. Please?”

Pros and cons don’t take long. Pro: get it done, get out faster. Con: makeyet another enemy of your foster son’s fleet of teachers. Not that it’s hard. “Fine,”says Jyn. “Where?”

Finn’s smile could battery powerthe sun, she thinks. Add that to the list of pros.

There’s a knot of teachers overby the buffet table (picked clean by middle school-aged, humanoid crows), allgaggled together and laughing and whispering about private school educationthings that make Jyn’s teeth go on edge. Finn melts away from her about halfwaybetween her wallflower position and the table, slips into the labyrinth to goroot out his teacher—biology? Lit? I don’tremember—and Jyn drags the phone back out. Two emails from Bodhi, those she’salready read, a bunch of texts from Saw, one or two from Mara, and—

“This is my mom,” says Finn, inthe stumbly way he has when he’s excited, and Jyn looks up from her phone tocorrect him when she stops.

Sweaters, yeah. Sweaters, anddark eyes, and a surprised little Oto his mouth, and Jyn wants to die. He looks almost the same as he did fouryears—four? Four—ago, just slightlybetter put together. Not quite as disheveled as a last year uni studentbalancing on the edge of a sidewalk at two in the morning, laughing like he’snever met anybody as funny, pressing a scrap of paper into her hand.

Call me, please. Please.

She still has the number, somewhere. She’d never picked up the phone.

Cassian’s eyes flicker, and thenhis face closes down. A small thin smile settles like an angry cat on hismouth. “You’re Finn and Rey’s mother.”

“Foster-mother,” says Jyn,through tacky lips, and looks at the hand he offers, wondering if there’s abomb in it. Finally, she takes it, shakes once. “Jyn. Erso.”

Finn, oblivious, rolls his eyes. “Mom.”

“I don’t know who Mom is,” saysJyn. Her tongue is numb. “I’m Jyn.”

“Jyn, come on.” He fidgets with his blazer. “She doesn’t like to be calledMom, I told you. She said she’s too young to have two thirteen year olds.”

“And I am,” says Jyn.

Finn pokes his tongue out at her.

“It’s good to finally meet you,”says Cassian. There’s a hint of somethingin his face that she can’t make out without a shot of vodka and traipsingthrough Islington past midnight because last call sounded and they still hadtoo much to say. “Finn and Rey both have a lot to say about you.”

“And they talk a lot about you,too,” says Jyn. She wants to die. “You’re—”

“My history teacher,” says Finn.His eyes have begun to narrow.

“Rey’s in my homeroom class,”says Cassian at the same time. Oh, God,fuck, God, fuck, fuck me, fuck— “We’ll probably be meeting up again in afew weeks. Parent-teacher events.”

Please, someone, vaporize me right now. “Right,” says Jyn, andlooks down at her phone in her hand. She’s surprised she hasn’t dropped it. “Finn,I think Rey’s had enough. We should probably go.”

“Yeah,” says Finn. He gives herone last beady look. “Sure.”

“Good to meet you,” says Jyn. Again.

“Pleasure,” says Cassian, andshoves his hand back into the pocket of his wooly jumper. “I’m sure.”