#xcom pmd au

[companionwolf]

all my xcom longfics and aus

[as of 7/29/2023]

Key

COMPLETE - done and posted

ACTIVE WIP - currently writing

INACTIVE WIP - has words down but not actively working on

OUTLINED - has a outline

Toy Soliders ('what if the senior staff were literal toys?' AU and fic) [COMPLETE]

Central plushie fic #1 (aka MOLLE verse) [COMPLETE]

Transfer of Energy (aka Sweaterverse) [COMPLETE]

Rebel Just For Kicks Now (Lazarus fic) [OUTLINED, ACTIVE WIP]

Tragedy As Aftermath (Two Stand to Fall Central fic) [OUTLINED; INACTIVE WIP]

Exception (game!Central is a self aware AI AU and fic) [OUTLINED; INACTIVE WIP]

Earth Rises, Watchful (cmdr in space AU) [OUTLINED; INACTIVE WIP]

We Are But Soft Creatures (PMD AU)

Pale Blue Dot (Starbound AU and fic) [INACTIVE WIP]

Dear Human (Central plushie fic #2) [OUTLINED; INACTIVE WIP]

The Worst Timeline (satire xcom script fic) [INACTIVE WIP]

Don't Show Your Hand (card fic) [INACTIVE WIP]

Redemption Song (Bureau AU and fic)

Questers of Truth (dog AU and fic, Angela Hardy)

Eternity Utters a Day (strict vanilla canon fic; Nathan Stern)

I Swallowed Hard Like I Understood (SOMA AU #1 and fic) [OUTLINED; ACTIVE WIP]

Your Call (CYOA fic) [OUTLINED; ACTIVE WIP]

Cant of Resistance (Fantasy AU)

A Circle of Conciousness (Multi Central AU and fic)

Down the Rabbit Hole (Commander becomes lucid in the sim AU and fic)

So Promise Me That They'll Fall (Ghost!Commander AU and fic)

The Fuck Squad and their fic [OUTLINED]

Two Stand to Fall Commander time loop fic

Other Dog AU (Barkspawn)

Second SOMA AU

Transistor AU

Catgirls AU and fic [INACTIVE WIP]

Zombie Commander AU

Soul Cannon AU and fic

Pacific Rim AU

Stray/Eclipse Phase AU and fic [OUTLINED; INACTIVE WIP]

Murderbot Diaries AU [INACTIVE WIP]

[companionwolf]

Fictober 2022 fill #2

Prompt: 8. ‘“Do you remember?’

Fandom: XCOM / Pokemon Mystery Dungeon

Rating: Gen

CWs/TWs: none

In the cold dark of the crashed alien ship, in the midst of an empty bridge, three Pokemon sit in a huddle around a cracked, old Luminous Orb. In the dim light the Mawile, who has a small robotic companion floating around her shoulder, doles out bowls of berries and apple slices to her Noivern and Lycanroc companions. She and the Noivern set to eating; the Lycanroc sits and broods. 

“You have to eat, Central,” says the Mawlie to him. 

He does not answer, just snuffs half heartedly at the bowl. 

“We have to go check on the humans, and it’s a long trek,” she continues. “You need to eat.”

The Lycanroc sighs and relents. 

The Noivern swallows, speaks. “Are you sure the two of you are enough?”

The Mawile frowns. “Do you remember, Tygan? We’ve been doing these runs for years-- we’ll be fine.” She glances at her robot. “You’ll be able to see our progress every step of the way.”

“It just seems ill advised every time,” he says, biting into a Pecha Berry.

“We’ll find people on the way,” Central says through a mouthful of food. “Well, Pokemon. Maybe they’ll even want to come back here, join us, help us clean this place up and get it running finally-- I know Shen would like that.”

The Mawile nods. 

“Still,” the Lycanroc continues, “even if it’s just us, there’s only a few dungeons to pass through to get to the vault. We’ve got supplies, and if we run out we can…” He trails off. “I don’t like going into the Pokemon towns but at least they’re not a city center.”

“Why do we not make our own community?” Tygan asks. 

“Need people for that,” says Central. “Supplies. Room to build. Pokemon with arms.” He glances down at his paws with an angry look. “I’m sure those kinds of havens exist, just…not here.”

“I think it’s the dungeon proximity, among other things,” Shen says. “Most Pokemon don’t know how to or don’t want to traverse dungeons, and exploration teams are scarce these days. I think there’s a few guilds left, some operating as resistance hubs even, but…” She shrugs. “Between them, the zombies in the old human cities, and the aliens, there’s little reason to leave town.”

“Still can’t believe it’s come to this,” Central says, ears folding back against his head. “Still keep thinking I’ll wake up back in that shitty bunk at our old HQ and find all this alien stuff was a terrible nightmare.” He lets out a deep sigh. “But I know that won’t happen.”

“We should get to sleep soon,” Shen says. “Better to get started on the trek early.”

Central hums, finishing his bowl of fruit before letting Shen take it. She gathers up all the bowls and the bag of supplies beside her and heads to make her way down to the engineering wing of the ship. Tygan taps the Luminous Orb, plunging them into darkness as he tucks it under a wing.

“You sure you want to sleep in the living quarters alone?” Shen asks Central. She always asks.

“Yeah,” he says. He always says this.

“Well, you know where to find me if you need me,” she answers, and splits away from him and Tygan. The two Pokemon walk to the living quarters together; Tygan standing in the doorway as Central flops down into a bunk adjacent to the floor. 

“I’ll have the maps out for you and Dr. Shen tomorrow before you leave,” he says. “I also did some foraging and found some seeds that you might want to bring along.” He shuffles a little foot to foot, looking as if he wants to say something else, but does not.

“Thanks, Tygan.”

“Sleep well.” 

The Noivern leaves Central to lie in the dark, staring into space.

When he dreams, the Lycanroc dreams of a different base, an underground facility left by humans long ago, with a big central room and a spinning holographic globe. 

From what they recovered from the ancient computers, the place was made in case of extraterrestrial contact-- a gathering place for special forces, for the world to respond. It never got used, until after the humans all died. Central, when he’s more intoxicated, thinks it’s funny in a sad way. What would the humans think of Pokemon in their place, dealing with something they never got to see? 

In any case, the base was nice. It was dark, and mostly metal like the ship is, but it was home. They were a guild, taking the name of that organization from the files -- XCOM. The explored dungeons and helped other Pokemon and for a long while, things were good. 

Then the aliens came. 

Central  dreams of days of first contact, fighting for the first time not dungeon rot infected Pokemon, but beings from another world. Beings that killed his teammates as brutally as infected did. Of the reports of strange readings in the old abandoned cities. Bringing back bodies to base, aliens and Pokemon, the research and engineering teams try to understand the equipment they received both from the field and the XCOM base. Of the inventions, of the coming together. 

Pokemon and exploration teams across the continents came to the base, offering their help, offering supplies, offering intel. He’d never seen anything like it before in all his time. 

He dreams of a Pokemon he can’t remember, but who led them all. A commander he grew close to, who confided in him-- I am a human. Then, Central didn’t really believe it. He, like many others, believed humans to be fairy tales. Sure, there were tall tales of past teams led by heroes that had been humans, but those were ancient and unconfirmable.

In any case, it was good. They weren’t winning, but the aliens seemed almost uninterested in them. They seemed more drawn to building shining city centers, sending their troops out into the wilderness, looking for--

At the time, they didn’t know. 

When XCOM found out, it was almost too late. Central responded to the call to defend the nearby cryogenic vaults, despite not knowing what was in them. He was one of the few survivors of that fight, and it cost them later-- the aliens overran the base, forcing the Pokemon to scatter across the world and go on the run.

He dreams of the aliens killing his Commander, right in front of him-- one of their big stout troops with the green plasma guns shooting them through the chest. 

He dreams of running, and running, of wanted posters as the aliens gained comradery with the general Pokemon populace and spun up lies about XCOM. As the years went on, Pokemon forgot about the world wide alliances, about a world without ADVENT’s guiding hand. 

He dreams, and when he wakes, he is exhausted, but the vaults require maintenance, so he gets to his paws and staggers out to the closed ramp where Tygan and Shen wait. Shen has their pack on her, and her robot at her side. Tygan hands her a couple of maps and a small bag as he approaches them. “Morning,” he says, voice grumbly from sleep,

“Good morning, Central,” says Tygan.

“Hey, Central,” says Shen. “Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” he answers.

”Good,” she says. She turns to Tygan. “Keep the ship safe, okay?” He nods as he presses the button to lower the ramp. Sirens blare and lights whirl as it goes down, and Tygan gives them a little wave when Central looks back from the bottom of it. 

They walk a few paces ahead into the dusty bottom of the canyon in which the ship lays, the ramp raising back up behind them. Shen stops to show Central the map, although at this point both of them know the routes and the maps are just a safety measure.

First they go up the side of the canyon, and then through a dungeon they’ve named “Lonely Fields'”, then through the local Pokemon town, toward the mountains. From there, they need to reach the mountains and go through a dungeon in the mountain pass -- aptly just called “Mountain Pass” -- and enter a cave. The cave itself is a dungeon, and at the end of it, begins the tunnel to the vault.

“Ok,” Central says, “let’s get going.” SHen tucks the maps away, checks her bag of supplies one more time, and then the two of them are off, together toward the high, gray mountains. 

[companionwolf]

Fictober 2022 fill #4

Prompt: 20. ‘There’s only us.’

Fandom: XCOM / Pokemon Mystery Dungeon

Rating: Gen

CWs/TWs: none

When they wake up, in the dark and cold, what surprises them most is not the mismatch in body, or the second in their head, or even the fact they have no idea where they are. It’s the sense of familiarity -- they know this place, they know this situation, they know all of this, somehow. 

And yet they don’t.

They sit on the hard concrete floor of the vast tunnel, shivering, examining their body-- blue furry paws, a blue tail, a canine shaped face from what they can parse from gently feeling up their own snout. If they think, and think very hard, they can just barely remember what this is.

A Pokemon, but they’re not sure which. In any case, it’s not right-- they’re not a Pokemon, not supposed to be. They're human. Always have been. Well, until now, they guess. 

What Pokemon are they? More importantly, what is their name? 

The other thing in their brain lifts its own metaphorical head wearily from the depths of their shared mind, croaks out in a raspy inner voice: lucario i think. and you’re a commander. you’re THE commander. i don’t remember of what but it was important. it - we - are important.

The Commander frowns. That doesn’t help, but they thank the thing inside them anyway.

They heave up to their feet, and thank god that this Pokemon they are now is bipedal, and squint in the dark. Faintlyin front of them, they think they see a large bank vault like door. Behind them the same sight meets their eyes. They were facing toward the door in front of them when they woke up-- were they trying to reach it? They don’t remember, but it’s a start, so they begin to walk down the tunnel.

The Commander reaches the vault-like door, looks down at a small terminal attached to it. They gingerly move through the menus, activating the door. Sirens blare, lights whirl, the door hisses as it swings open. They step through, and there is a second terminal on the other side, but they don’t start the sequence to shut the door yet. 

THey’ve stepped into a cave, no light source except the low beams through the half open vault door behind them. The Commander blinks hard in the black, swallows. “Hello?”

Echos, echos, echos.

there’s only us, says the thing in their head. 

It’s more awake now, sitting somewhere behind and to the left of their consciousness.They feel it peering out their eyes; it blinks again, forcibly, and suddenly the cave is lit up in grid patterns of blue across the floors, walls, outcroppings, everything. 

The Commander frowns. “What is this?”

battle focus.

Despite themselves, the Commander feels this is familiar too. They shake their head, turning around and closing the door. As it shuts, the last vestiges of light disappear, and they are plunged into total darkness, save the eerie blue grid lines and outlines in their vision.  

They walk a few paces forward before stopping again. “Anyone there?”

Something in the dark moves-- the Commander hesitates. “Hello?”

Out of the black explodes a small bat-like Pokemon; it’s more legs and mouth than anything else, and it doesn’t have eyes, but it screams at them and swoops at their head. Following it comes more, in a swarm that engulfs them. The Commander ducks, covers their head, and tries to get out of the mass.

The Pokemon bite at them, sinking fangs into their flesh; the Commander swipes at them, feels claws unsheathe, catches a few of the bat-like Pokemon along the underside of their bellies. 

The injured ones fly off, and the swarm thins just enough for the Commander to escape it-- they back themselves against the cave wall, swiping again and again as the remaining  bat-like Pokemon fly headlong at them. 

Something in their stomach curls; the Commander focuses on that feeling, finds themselves bringing their paws together. A small ball of blue energy is building there, and when they release it at the incoming reformed mass of bat-like creatures, it is the size of a basketball. 

That feels familiar too, but not in the exact same way. 

No time to think about it. 

The Commander takes off running into the cave, doding swooping bat-like Pokemon as they duck and weave through the tunnels. The cave is odd-- there are almost hallway-like structures that make it up, with large square rooms. Not every hallway leads to a room, and not every room has hallways out. 

Eventually, as they’re running from a large rock snake, they see a set of stairs carved into the rock, going up. The Commander rushes up them--

No sunlight, no change in anything, just more of the odd maze within this cave. The Commander transverse best they can, avoiding the weird tiles on the ground, sneaking past sleeping Pokemon and running from the rest, throwing themselves up staircase after staircase, 

Finally, they reach the top of the upteenth stairs and--

The Commander emerges into the mouth of a cave that opens to bright cold air, a gray sky. The mountain pass before them slopes down, stretches between the peaks, and they shiver-- it’s warmer here, but still chilly. They take a long breath, and then sit down, paws roaming over their body for injuries, 

There are some nasty bites from the bat-like Pokemon, but beyond that they’re unharmed. The wounds are glowing a soft blue when they prod at them-- before their eyes, the wounds close up, stop bleeding. The Commander frowns again. That’s familiar too. 

They huff. What is the point of familiarity if they don’t remember why?

this place seems ok to stay at, says the thing in their head. we need to look for food and water. 

“Right,” they murmur. There’s a small river running down off one of the mountains into the pass-- they point at it. “What about we go over there? That solves the water problem.” Their stomach growls. “We can find food next.”

sounds okay to me, says the thing.

The Commander hefts to their feet and starts down into the pass.

[companionwolf]

Fictober 2022 fill #5

Prompt: 7. ‘Check that again, are you sure?’

Fandom: XCOM / Pokemon Mystery Dungeon

Rating: Gen

CWs/TWs: none

When they reach the entrance to the vault, the cave opening into the dungeon before it, Central signals for Shen to stop. She watches as he paces around, his nose to the ground and brow furrowed in thought. 

“What is it?” she asks.

“Something smells weird,” he says. “Smells like someone was here.”

Shen frowns. “We better hurry then.” she says, and they make their way down into and through the dungeon, gunning as hard as they can for each set of stairs. At the end, they’re both barreling out of the cave into the space just before the first vault like door into the tunnel. 

Shen’s robot activates the door, the Mawlie checking the logs it brings her as the door opens with a hiss. “Hey, Central, do you still smell anything?” she calls. 

He’s a few paces ahead of her, snuffling against the concrete. “Yeah,” he says. “Pokemon and human-- the human smell stops here, where the Pokemon’s begins, but I think the trail leads back into the vault.”

“I have a log here of someone opening and closing this door,” Shen says as they approach the second inner door. “If i'm right--” They tep back out of the way of the door, the robot hoving near the terminal on the inner side as it finishes opening. The robot comes back to her, and she peers down at it. “Yeah, there’s an entry for an unlock-lock sequence here, too.”

“Check that again, are you sure?”

A moment of quiet. Then: “Yeah, I’m sure.”

“I don’t like it,” says Central as they step into the vault. 

After a few paces through a small sparse lobby, rows of cryogenic pods meet their gaze; Wires run up from the pods into the ceiling, into the floor; the soft sounds of hissing and whirring. A raised platform of the left boasts a control panel and display; along the back, an ancient elevator to further levels of the vault, and a large circular opening to a incinerator, currently closed. 

Shen makes her way up the platform, hopping up into the chair and beginning to flick through screens. “Check Sector X, please,” she says. “One of the pods is open and inactive.”

“Guess we figured out what the human smell is from,” he grumbles as he weaves his way through the pods, thankful for the frosted over glass. When he reaches Sector X, near the back, he spots the open pod-- it’s dark, hatch open, and beeping incessantly.

He sniffs at the open pod, at the yanked out wires that should be trailing into flesh, at the dark brown spots and mist the cryofreeze. “Yeah, this is it,” he says. He steps back, rises on his hind legs and grabs the end of the pod’s top with his teeth, pulls it closed; the beeping stops. 

The Mawlie appears at his side. “So they’re just gone?” 

“Looks like it,” he says. “I don’t smell the Pokemon, just the human.”

She taps her chin. “Weird,” she says. “Systems report the last wake cycle at about a month ago-- they would have starved, we would have seen a body, assuming they didn’t try to traverse the dungeon.”

“If they did, there’s no point caring,” Central syas. “You know how dungeons are.”

Shen hmms. “Let’s keep an eye out, anyway,” she says. “Humans don't just disappear, and they don't just get themselves out of cryosleep.” She motions for her robot to come over, peers at its screen again.

“Anyone dead?” he asks as he sits, scratches at an ear.

“A couple,” she says with a sigh. “I don’t understand-- every system, every mechanism, is working. Nothing is giving me error codes, nothing needs repairs. This place is made to run by itself, with an overseer checking in every so often, so i dont get why they keep dying. The deaths are getting exponential-- at this rate, this whole floor will be gone in a few months.”

“Let’s take care of the ones dead now, worry about the rest later,” he says, standing up and giving himself a shake. She nods sadly, and they travel the rows of pods together, Central opening each one containing a dead human and lugging the body along the metal floor to the incinerator, where Shen opens the top, allowing him to heave the body inside. 

Once they’ve brought all fifteen to the incinerator, Shen activates the burning cycle from the raised platform’s controls. Central, standing beside her, stands on his hind legs and peers at the screens. He had to learn to read human English when they found the old XCOM HQ, so he can parse some of what’s there-- temperature, number of pods active, number of pods inactive, number of dead. There’s menus holding deeper reports, but he leaves those to Shen. 

“All done?” he asks.

“Yeah,” she says. “Despite the whole…dying thing, everything is fine.”

“That and the one who seems to have just left somehow,” he says.

“Maybe we should contract someone to come guard the vault,'' she says as they begin to leave, exiting the first vault door into the long, concrete tunnel. “Or just the area outside where the dungeon starts.”

“I don’t know,” says Central. “Seems risky. Maybe if it was Tygan, or you or me or both of us. The three of us together, that would be okay, I think - me protecting, you and him figuring out why they’re all dying.”

They make their way through the cave’s  dungeon, and back out into the small area between the cave entrance and the Mountain Pass dungeon proper. Central sits in the cold sun, licking a wound on his leg.  “If you were a human who got out of cryosleep, where would you go?” he asks.

“Nowhere,” Shen answers. “I’d stay in the vault.”

“That’s not helpful,” he says.

“I’m really beginning to think that the smell of Pokemon you picked up? That they somehow got in and took our missing human,” she answers. “Let’s go report back to Tygan and then see if we can't convince him to let us move here.’

“What about the ship?”

Shen looks away toward the horizon, frowning. “I wish it could fly,” she murmurs.

“We’ll make more trips up here in the meantime, then,” Central says. “If someone’s coming in and taking humans, or sabotaging the systems somehow, we’ll catch ‘em.” 

And he means it, he thinks.

It’s the least he can do, for the memory of humanity, of his Commander.

[companionwolf]

Original fiction projects

Dangers of the Foxtrot

Insiders

House of Cards

EYE

Hatchtag

The World Spins Madly On

How to Survive On Earth

Breaking Code

Transitional Objects

Rebel at Sunset [completed]

ARF

The Curiosity Project

Fanwork projects

Lazarus fic

I Swallowed Hard like I Understood (Second SOMA XCOM AU) [WIP]

Commander in space AU [WIP]

Two Stand to Fall Central fic [WIP]

Questers of Truth (XCOM Dog AU)

XCOM Transitor AU

Xcom Starbound AU

The Worst Timeline/The Script Fic

XCOM Catgirl AU

Eternity Utters a Day

XCOM PMD AU

Fabricated [completed]

Interactive original fiction projects

5 Days to a New World

Water Pack

A Human/Murder in Dog Town

A Month on Top of the World

Untitled robot game

Untitled wizard game

Untitled stuffed animal game

Literal weapon dating sim

Interactive fiction fangame projects.

Comfort and Command+ [WIP]

Homebrew D&D campaigns

Everwinter

Supernova

Alignment

[companionwolf]

Backburner WIPs (fanfic only)

- Lazarus fic

- xcom pmd au

- first xcom soma au

- xcom dog au

- other xcom dog au

- redemption song (xcom bureau fix it)

- xcom starbound au

- xcom transistor au

- xcom actual cat au

- the worst timeline/xcom script fic

- zombie commander au

- xcom catgirl au

- eternity utters a day (cmdr stern)

- installation 02 (halo fic)

- thcwu (halo)

[companionwolf]

I think about my xcom PMD au and I think about Lazarus fic and I think about dog au and I think about ISHLIU and I’m like ‘damn I should work on writing those’ and then I just. don’t

[companionwolf]

shoutout to the xcom discord for enabling this terrible AU idea and helping me figure out who’s what

Commander: Mew (but everyone including them think they’re just a ditto who’s been stuck in this weird form all their life) Central: Lycanroc (midday form) Lily: Mawile Tygan: Noivern Betos: Zangoose Mox: Sandshrew Volk: Incineroar Outrider: Zoroark Geist: Lucario Spokesman: Ditto (actually is a ditto) The Speaker: Mimikyu (this was suggested and it's fucking hilarious to me)

now I have to figure out how this thing’s mechanics work and what its plot will be (partial X2, partial original PMD verse content is what I have thought of so far)