#sxilor writes

[sxilor-1010]

A short little drabble of the Sentient!Ellis AU. (Temporary AU name until I come up with something better)

This entire evening felt like a whole dream. It would just be a quick solo campaign out of boredom, nothing else to it. You had a rough day at work, and you wanted to do nothing more than to take the stress of your boss' voice away by blasting zombies in your favorite video game while playing your favorite character.

Left 4 Dead 2 was one of your favorite games growing up. Sure there were other Valve games you enjoyed like Team Fortress 2 or Portal, but nothing brought you more fun than the 2009 zombie shooter itself. The story and its characters were perfect, and the fact that many great memories spawn from this game whether solo or playing with friends. You decided you felt like playing the campaign Dark Carnival, with your chosen character as Nick as he was your favorite amongst the other three. The game loaded smoothly, and you were greeted with Nick's voice talking about making the rest of the trip on foot. Soon, it was time for you to start moving.

Shooting zombies and staying careful from any special infected, the beginning was going good. There was a moment where Ellis paused his walking animation in which you thought weird, but it returned to normal after a few seconds and you chalked it up to a short lag spike. ...But it started to get weirder as you progressed. Going through the motel, you saw Ellis pause his walks and movements more and more, and they kept happening while everyone was still following you. Was a player trying to join? You couldn't tell at this point, and you stopped to look at Ellis who didn't turn around to face you. "What the hell...?" You mumble underneath your breath before you continued going through the motel. You turned back to look and noticed that Ellis wasn't where he was standing, where did he go? Then you heard him. "Nick? Y'alright there?" Swiveling your mouse around to see Ellis standing right behind you gave you a slight jump. That wasn't any voice line you've heard before, not to mention you didn't see him coming up the stairs like the bots do when they follow you. You stared at the screen uncomfortably, watching your eyes shift and watch as Ellis waved a hand in front of Nick's face. "Nick?" Was he waiting for you to respond? In all of your time playing this game growing up, you never had to deal with this kind of this issue. This had to be some major glitch you didn't see, but your attention directed back to Ellis when he spoke again. "Huh, weird... well, we can't keep standing 'round here all day. Let's get goin'!"

You watched Ellis move on his own, and you stared in disbelief as his words processed through your mind. He was moving on his own, talking on his own. Your eyes trailed to Ellis' health bar HUD, hoping to see perhaps a random username... But all you saw was his name.

[sxilor-1010]

Yule Log

Words: 1074

☾★☾★☾★

Getting caught up in work, it’s easy to forget to have time for yourself, especially during the holidays. She’s heard a lot of concerns and reminders from her coworkers, and all of them went by her head saying she’s “relaxed a bit.”

It was her day off, and she had been fighting off the urge to work through celebrating Christmas. Or, in her case, Yule. Now, she wouldn’t say she was a witch. She liked magic, but magic in a world full of technology isn’t known too much.

Why do magic when you have many robots already doing stuff for you? Well for starters, they don’t know how to make a proper Yule log. Which is exactly what Emilyn is doing to celebrate her day off.

Sure she had to go some shopping for some of the things needed, but a little shopping never hurt her. Her table was dawned in bright red plaid, courtesy of Djenne and its amazing fabrics, with a fresh wooden log and other things.

Emilyn hummed to herself, holding a knife as she approached the table. With the log in her hands, she began to carefully carve holes big enough for the candles to fit. The wood emanated a nice scent, and she couldn’t help but close her eyes to admire it all. Her mouth moved on its own, just mumbling a song she remembered hearing while scrolling through YouTube earlier.

“God rest ye merry, pagan folk,

Let nothing you dismay.

Remember that the Sun returns

Upon this Solstice day.

The growing dark is ending now

And Spring is on its way.

Oh, tidings of comfort and joy,

Comfort and joy!

Oh, tidings of comfort and joy…”

Before Emilyn could continue singing, the distant noises of an aerial jet had caught the wind in her ears. Her hands stopped carving and she opened her eyes, looking towards a nearby window to see a familiar face smirk at her. “I didn’t think you’d stop by today, Starscream.” Emilyn approached the window, opening it to look at his face.

“My plans haven’t been the greatest this year, and I’m tired. What better way to relax than to accompany my little moon~?” He said slyly, Emilyn blushing just a bit as he moved a digit to caress her cheek. “You’re lucky I’m in a good mood to handle your flirts. Might as well come in.” Starscream smirked, drawing back his digit and walking to her door. Emilyn closed her window and opened the door, the Decepticon now mass displaced.

It wouldn’t be long before Starscream took notice of Emilyn’s little project, and he walked over with curiosity. “What are you making here?” Emilyn turned, smiling just a little bit before taking a seat back down. “It’s a yule log, just something to celebrate for this year…” Her words slightly drifted when turning to face Starscream, confusion glinted slightly in his crimson optics. “Oh, right… You’re probably not aware of Yule or Christmas, huh?”

“No, I’m not. Perhaps you can give me some insight later…” The Decepticon spoke, grabbing a chair of his own to sit next to Emilyn. She chuckled, keeping that as a mental note in the back of her mind. “Alright well, you can watch what I’m doing if you want. Up to you.” With that, Emilyn got back to carving, and Starscream watched intently, curiosity soon drifting towards the other items around her. There were a few candles, greenery branches of pine and cedar, not to mention dried fruits and pinecones.

“Quite the inventory of primitive materials, but what does one do with all of this?” Starscream spoke, plucking a pine branch in between his fingers to get a feel. Emilyn turned towards him, grabbing that branch and placing it back into the nearby pile. “You decorate this log, and supposedly it brings good luck and warmth to those who light the candles. It also wards off bad energy from harming you.” Ah, superstitious stuff. He should’ve guessed. “Peh, superstitious and magical nonsense. Humans are weird.”

That was enough to have Emilyn frown at Starscream, who laughed and smirked. “Well, not nonsense to you, my dear.” She rolled her eyes, grabbing the nearby hot glue gun and the pine branch he was fiddling with earlier. “Does magic not exist as a concept to you guys?” She turned to face Starscream, who placed a couple of digits on his chin in thought. “Not as much as you’d like to think. It exists in concept, but it was never said to be shown.” Huh, so it did exist in some way at least.

“That makes sense, given you and the Autobots are from a planet of metal, right?” Starscream nodded, albeit frowned a bit at the mention of the Autobots. “Magic can’t exist in a place that has metal, or iron. One of the two.” Emilyn spoke, Starscream watching carefully with curious optics as she glued the various nature pieces she had gathered onto the log. “I like to believe that even within today’s times, there’s still magic in this world. Hell, there might be pixies and fairies dancing outside my house right now and I wouldn’t even know it.”

Starscream looked in quiet awe seeing the once naked log now adorned in pine branches and dried fruits, not to mention the interesting scent it gave off. It surely was something magical, but it felt like something was also missing. Luckily, Emilyn was just about to get to that when grabbing ahold of the long candles. “Alright, I’m gonna need your help on this one. You’re gonna hold these perfectly still while I add glue onto the bottom.” The Decepticon looked in confusion but grabbed one of the candles nonetheless. It felt waxy amongst his digits, but it was a nice shade of red. He watched as Emilyn took the glue gun, adding a nice warm dollop to the bottom.

“What do you do once you’re done with this… ‘yule log’?” He asked curiously, Emilyn moving the glue gun away to glue the sides of the holes she carved out earlier. “Well, you just kinda leave it somewhere nice to burn until the end of Christmas. There’s not much else to it.” He nods, Emilyn taking the candle and placing it on the far right. “Only two more and then we’re done.”

“Maybe after we’re finished, I can explain Yule to you.” Hearing that, Starscream smirked lightly and chuckled.

He’d appreciate that very much.

[sxilor-1010]

so... I got a bit self indulgent.

Telescope

Words: 450

☾★☾★☾★

“So… you humans use this device to view space?”

An airy and light pollution free sky was the best to view the stars at night, and that wasn’t often thanks to the robots and bright lights in Detroit. Sure the city shines beautifully from a distance, but the real beauty are the stars above.

That’s what Emilyn believed really, and tonight was a perfect night to view the stars alongside Starscream. The Decepticon watching her fiddle with the settings on a telescope she had recently bought.

Thank god for living outside of the city in a nice huge cabin in the woods.

“It’s called a telescope, they’ve been around for a long time. Since the 1600’s with Galileo, actually.” Emilyn said, wiping off some sweat from her brow. Starscream nodded, smirking just a teensy bit.

“Back on Cybertron, this kind of technology would be seen as useless. Some of us had optics that allowed us to see deeper into the stars than normal!” He raised a digit to tap the side of his head near his optic, Emilyn turned around to face him with a half smile.

“Really now? Can you see which planet is in orbit then, the one right there?” Pointing a finger towards the brightest star she could find, Starscream looked up and squinted his crimson optics just a bit. After what felt like a minute or two, he stopped squinting.

“I believe it's what you humans refer to as the planet ‘Venus’.” He says, and Emilyn’s half smile turns into one of surprise. “For once, you aren’t lying.” That brought a big smirk to Starscream’s face, Emilyn shaking her head and turning back to finish up the settings.

“You know, you shouldn’t bother with that ‘telescope’ if you plan to view the cosmos.” That got Emilyn’s attention again, and she turned towards Starscream with a confused look. “What, are you suggesting I point out stars and you look at them for me? Don’t you think that’d get boring?”

Starscream’s smirk disappeared hearing that, Emilyn now fully facing away from the telescope with crossed arms. “It may be boring to you, but I don’t know anything about these planets. Learning alongside my little moon would be… interesting~..” Emilyn felt her cheeks flush up hearing that nickname, and it didn’t help when Starscream lifted a claw underneath her chin to face him.

The fact that his optics were shimmering slightly from the night sky didn’t help, and she quickly covered her face with her cap out of embarrassment. Starscream was smirking evilly as a result, it didn’t take much to convince Emilyn so long as he played his cards right.

“...Fine, just let me disassemble the telescope first.”

[sxilor-1010]

thinking about more of the L4D2 AU I mentioned in a post from yesterday.

An AU where after some malfunction or glitch during a game of Left 4 Dead 2 leaves Ellis to gain sentience. Not realizing he's in a video game, he develop a friendship with the one behind the screen slowly realizing that he's in a video game.

It's so uncanny seeing what should be a bot walk and talk on his own, but Ellis doesn't seemed too phased by the ordeal.

In fact, he's even more curious than he was before.

[sxilor-1010]

Laws of Robotics in a nutshell:

[sxilor-1010]

I'll write more soon, but a little sneak peek for the next Sentient!Ellis AU drabble.

[sxilor-1010]

HI I SEEN YOU FOLLOWED ME.

I love your AU about Ellis gaining sentience but I would also wonder what would Ellis now think about the others? And what happens if they gain sentience too?

oUGH MY GOD THIS WAS A LATE ANSWER I WAS REDOING MY CARRD SORRY!!!! Since this AU is still in development, (and also a lack of a title), there's still a lot for me to work on this AU. (mostly gathering its inspirations such as the aforementioned PlasticApple2011 ARG series and the song A Human's Touch) I do like to imagine however at first that Ellis gets confused by the others not moving or talking around like he can, or at least until he finds out somebody's controlling one of the others. (aka the Player) He doesn't actually know it's a player at first, but he gets a suspicion and its proven right when the player uses the text box to talk to him. As for the others gaining sentience? It's possible, yet unknown. Hell, it's unknown what even gave Ellis his sentience.

[sxilor-1010]

fun fact about my danganronpa oc Kikomiwa: she's inspired by sirencore aesthetics and also the music artist Banshee (who y'all should def take a listen to)