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hoodievixen · 2 years

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So with the current mess of the FNAF lore, and what games are to be considered, and what games are games in the games, and who, if any one, is actually dead, I have decided to give make my own lore.

I tried to keep to drama and supernatural themes in this, but there is a touch of sci-fi in the end. It dose not follow what happens in the game, but if you squint it seems close.

Henry and William met in college. Some believed them to be the same person for longer than one should. They were both in robotics major. They also looked so much alike one could mistake them for brothers. They shared the same wavy dark brown hair, green eyes, even the same large nose. Yet when you learn they were easy to tell apart. William wore his hair brushed back, beat clothing, and spoken with an English accent. Henry on the other hand had his hiat sticking up from it constantly being brushed back, there were weeks he'd go wearing the same pair of jeans, and he had a midwestern accent present in his vowels.

The two practically became brothers through the years, and trusted eachother enough to go into business together. They opened up a restaurant, where the main attraction would be their animatronics. They had became highly respected in their feild with the invention of spring lock suits.

The both got married shortly after their business stabilized. Henry always wanted to be a father, and it didn't take long before he had his first son, Micheal. Will was more hesitant to be a father, having left England to escape his own. But the day came and he became the father of a beautiful little girl he loved more than life itself. Her name was Elizabeth. Not even a year after Henry had a girl of his own, Cassidy . Both daughters looked much like their dad's, which meant the girls looked alike themselves. After his daughter, Henry had another son, Charlie.

Yet even with a new restaurants opening with new lines of animatronics, real life never has a happily ever after. Henry became obsessed with his work. He started to design even more high tech anamtronics. William was his friend and went along with it. Though he did advise him to spend time with his family. Henry wouldn't listen to him, focused on creating.

One day Will brought Elizabeth into the workshop for the day. She was a good kid, and he trusted her not to mess with anything.

Accidents always happen.

Elizabeth had been watching Henry test out one of the new animatronics. This one was meant to be able to despense ice cream. Something went terribly wrong. She was pulled into the machine. Both men was frozen with horror at the blood that dripped out of the outer shell.

Grief was a crazy thing, that could drive people mad. It was Charlie's birthday party. Will was practically the kid's uncle, of course he was there, even if his father wasn't. He hadn't been able to be around kids since the accident, and that day was no better. He needed to leave. In his way out he noticed a kid had snuck out of the party and behind the building. It was Cassidy.

Of course she'd find her way back here. The kid spent more time in the restaurant than at her own home. That was the reason the security puppet got installed, to keep Cassidy from wandering to places she shouldn't. There was nothing the puppet could do out here. There was also no security camera's toward the back of the building. Nor any witnesses.

Cassidy looked so much like Elizabeth. He didn't get it, why did Henry's daughter get to live, but his didn't. It was Henry after all who was reckless. Not caring of the reprocutions, after all there would be none. William Afton killed Cassidy Emily. He made it look like an accident.

Accidents always happen.

Inside that very building an older brother was tormenting the younger. Charlie had snuck into his dad workroom at home, and was frightened by all the endo skeletons and animatronic pieces. Such simple things could look so terrifying in the mind of a child. This insident twisted into a fear of animatronics themselves.

The teen couldn't understand the fear. Micheal knew it was just a bunch of metal and wires. So he messed with his brother, as siblings do.

Accidents always happen.

Micheal didn't know that the jaw would come down like that. He's been messing with these things his entire life. He thought they were harmless. All he could see was the blood and all he could hear was his mother's cries.

The Emily family lost two children in one day. With the already strained relationship, it didn't take long for Henry's wife to ask for a divorce, and she took Micheal with her.

William stayed late one night to fix up one of the animatronics in the back room. The restaurant was always an early place after dark. More so when he started to hear whispers. He found where it was coming from. The spring lock Freddy suit. It had been permanently decommissioned after the accident. It just sat in the back room collecting dust and being a terrible reminder.

It's me. A child's voice whispered. It sounded like it was being blown on the wind. But William knew the voice. It was Charlie. The boy who's tears killed himself.

William couldn't get the voice or the way the suit twitched out of his mind. He was filled with a sick sense of hope. No one had opened up that chest after it was locked shut. Just looking at the disassembled parts, he remembered the way her body broke and bent around the endo skeleton. He needed to make sure. He needed to see if Elizabeth was there. He needed to reassemble Circus Baby.

He would gave given up had it not been for one detail he could have missed. The eyes had originally been blue. But the eyes were now green, the same color as Elizabeth's, the same color as his own. "Dad," the robotic voice spoke. "I'm lonely. So very lonely."

William promised to get her some friend. The first was a sweet girl Susie. She had been so upset her dog died she was so happy to see him again. Even if he was a bit mangled.

Then came the charming Fritz.

Next was the adventurous Jeremy.

And the stuborn Gabriel.

He didn't care about the repercussions. There was an investigation to the missing children. Less people came, and soon the restaurant closed.

Henry though, was always a man of ideas and innovations. It did take a while but soon came the Toy animtronics. A sleeker version of the old cast, letting them retire. They were also able to scan faces, and recognize threats and properly deal with them.

Even after one bit an employee in '87, damaging their frontal lobe, people loved these things. So much so the old ones got fixed up and a new place opened.

All William needed to figure out was how to unite his daughter with her new friends.

One day he got an unexpected phone call. Micheal had recently graduated high school, and needed a job. He was turned down at everywhere he applied due to lack of experience. So he just wanted a short gig to have something down in paper he didn't care what it was, and he'd be forever grateful to his uncle.

Micheal got a five day job of being a night security guard, where he got to see the odd behavior of the animatronics first hand. He knew something was not right.

William built the rest of the Circus Time animtronic Henry had designed years ago. He claimed it was for a side venture but Henry didn't care about anything Will did. He didn't question any of the design changes.

William wanted his daughter to have so many friends. He finally figured out how to unite them all. He dismantled the animtronics, taking out the old endo skeletons.

Being old models, they wouldn't fit the new designs. So he melted them all down together, not aware of the mess he made.

He wanted to make sure he got everything he could out of the old animatronics. He did not expect to be greeted by the spirits of the children he killed led by Cassidy herself.

To protect himself her climbed into the old spring Bonny suit. The very suit he used to kill the children. But old spring locks and damp air were never a good mix.

Accidents always happen.

Micheal couldn't get the weird behavior of the animatronics out of his head. He grew up surrounded by those things. He knew he would have turned out so much worse if they had always been that dangerous and frightening.

He needed to find out more. Luckily there was an opening at a sister location, Circus Baby rental services.

Accidents alway happen.

The downfall of Fred ear entertainment was for sure. One owner missing and assumed dead, and the other as good as dead. Yet the mysteries of the missing children and rumors of the place live on in stories.

Until one day someone decided to make a horror attraction of one of the old pizzarias. And of course they were in a need of a security guard.

But you can't just burn the past.

Henry had been living in a state of ignorance and denial. He had always been the smarter of the two. He easily figured out what his friend and business partner did, and what became of it. It wasn't until he saw his last living child rotting before him, that it was his mess to clean up.

He needed to lure all players to one place to end it all.

But you can't just burn the past.

Henry sold off the rights to Fredbear entertainment to the first bidder. They needed a lot of PR work if they wanted to make this business into something it once was.

They started with asking an Indie developer to make some games for them, to help mask the bad history of the company. However he took light of the situation, and made thing no better. Though they were successful.

With the success of those videogames, the company took a new approach. The same idea, but in a way they could have a hand in everything. They even provided old tech for the programmers to use in the game. And the only thing that happened was the incident with the play tester, Jeremy. People will do strange things under stress. The company just required therapy to straighten out any accusations.

Not many people new about the glitch in the game. It really only presented itself in game, never able to fully find the code. But play testers could easily spot them. A young girl dressed as a clown, and a man in a rabbit suit. Though only the first couple mentioned the clown girl. It was onky Vanessa and after where only the rabbit was mentioned.

The new game was even a bigger hit, and the company was able to open up new locations. They even found a new engineer who was almost as brilliant as Henry Emily himself. His name was Mike Schmidt. He was the one who brought them the Glamrock animatronics.

They then built the PizzaPlex on this large ammount of land that the company had bought under Henry's ownership. It was the perfect space for what they had planed.

Gregory never knew his dad. His mom always told him he was a miracle. Appeariently his dad had a rare condition where he shouldn't be able to have kids. Yet he was very sure he was alive, and human. That was basically all he knew about him. Well that, and he look a lot like him, and that he had some connection to Fazbear entertainment.

He was a troublemaker, and he wanted to know more about his dad. Gregory knew his mom could never afford a ticket to the PizzaPlex, so he decided to sneak in.

Vanny, the one inside Vanessa but wasn't Vanessa, recognized the kid. He would be perfect for what they were trying to do. Nothing stops someone better than threatening their own kid.

But she had forgotten just how shifty and irritating the Emily children were. He definitely took after his father.

Gregory almost didn't make it out of the collapsing building. He doubt he wouldn't ever understand what he found in that basement. He couldn't move, sat in the cloud of dust, hugging the head of Glamrock Freddy to his chest.

He felt a presence approach from behind him. Gregory looked back to find a girl standing there. She was in black and white dress, and had curly dark brown hair and green eyes. "You look just like my brother," she told him.

Another person approached the two. A grown man. "Come on you two, we got to go before someone else shows up," he told them.

The girl seemed reluctant, but also more than happy to leave. Gregory refused to go. "Who are you?" he hissed. The kid didn't know what he could trust.

The man crouch down and held out a hand to the kid. "Come on Gregory," he sighed, "Or do I have to call Loraine?"

There was only one person who could know both his own name and his mom's. With everything he did reach what he was looking for.

#fnaf #FNAF Lore #fnaf security breach #five night at freddy's

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nocapesdahling · 3 years

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As the World Falls Down - Chapter 3

Helmut Zemo x Gender Neutral Reader

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3

Chapter Summary: In which you have a plan to save yourself and Alena, but have no idea if it’s going to work. Either way, you have to try.

Rating: Mature (17+)

Chapter Warnings/Tags: Slow Burn; Angst; Misunderstandings that lead to angst; Established canon character deaths; Did I mention angst?

A/N: We have reached the end of Part 1 and the Age of Ultron arc. I hope you’ve enjoyed it so far, and would love to hear your thoughts.

Chapter 3: Beneath a Fallen Sky (Age of Ultron) - Part 1

Word Count: 2.4k

You made sure Alena was strapped in tightly on your chest and that everything was in place. With time running out and Novi Grad continuing to rise, it was as good as it was going to get. You needed to move now. You had your prototype boots and gauntlets, which should allow you to fly. You hoped they would at least. Your main consolation was that they worked during testing, even if that had been in a controlled environment.

You had always admired Tony Stark, being something of a child prodigy yourself and starting college at a similar age to him. When you had first seen the Iron Man suit, your first thoughts had been of awe like any person who got a glimpse of Iron Man. Yet most people probably didn’t think what you had thought later, while considering the technology behind the suit and how to go about making your own.

Well, if he can do it then why can’t I? How hard could it be, really?

It turned out to be a bit more difficult than you’d thought, but you had developed something after much trial and error. However, you hadn’t tested anything in the open air yet. The previous test was only a short one to see if your prototypes would work and you had hovered a few feet over solid ground at most. That was why your plan only had a 65% success rate, but you had confidence in your technology and hope. In Sokovia, you couldn’t get far without hope.

You noticed the air getting thin as the city continued to rise, so you fitted Alena with an oxygen mask. You had a tank available in your apartment for squad emergencies, and were amazed how many times it had been used in the past. Your squad got into the oddest situations. There had been Andrei’s mission with the diplomat and the ice cream swimming pool and Mila’s with the yacht and the hammerhead sharks. All classified of course.

You digressed. There were more important things to consider right now, even as you wondered how your squad would take the loss of their handler when Helmut told them. You knew that it would hit them harder than they would ever admit. They emulated Helmut’s stoicism when in the field and today was still a mission, even if it was unlike any other. The destruction of one’s home was not something any of them had encountered before. If you couldn’t be there, then you hoped your gadgets would help to protect them today and in the future. You planned to be there.

You clipped the oxygen tank to your tactical gear and hoped that it wouldn’t unbalance you too much. You would need all the balance you could muster if this plan were to succeed.

Once you were as ready as you could be, it was time. The city had to fall at some point and you wanted to be in the air when it did as the height it had reached would cause a destructive impact radius. You brushed a kiss to Alena’s head, seeing her little feet kicking and knowing that she was awake.

“Not the best timing, little one. This might be a bit scary, Alena, so I wanted you to know that I love you. Already. So much. I think I loved you as soon as I saw you. Wish us luck, my little Alena Heike. We’re going to need it.”

With that and the realization that you had reached the edge of the city, you took a deep breath, taking one last glance back at the city that had been your home for most of your life. Then, you braced yourself, stepped off the edge, and flew. Well, you took a moment to stabilize yourself as the only other time you had done this was in a local park in the middle of the night and then you had grass to land on not open sky. But then, you flew.

You flew like the birds you had admired for their freedom and grace and like Iron Man. Tony Stark had nothing on you. You let out a joyful laugh, forgetting your circumstances for a moment. You forgot the swarm of robots on the other side of the city, the fact that your home was in the process of being destroyed, that you may never see Helmut again, and that you weren’t sure if you and your baby would get out of this alive. Nothing else mattered at that moment because you were flying.

Then you were shocked back to the present as to your disbelief the city began to freefall, plummeting quickly and devastatingly towards Earth before exploding mid air. You could see from where you were that it looked like Iron Man and Thor had blown it up somehow, but you couldn’t understand why the Avengers hadn’t been able to stop it from falling in the first place.

Why hadn’t they been able to save Sokovia? They had saved New York. It didn’t make sense. The world had painted them as infallible. These were Earth’s heroes? They did not look so “Mighty” now.

The debris began to land too hard and too fast. It looked like it would impact more of the surrounding area than you had anticipated.

You gasped in horror, the tears freezing on your cheeks. If a building was hit with debris of that size, then the result would be catastrophic. You worried immediately for your squad and Helmut, turning on your earpiece with frantic movements even as you unbalanced without one of your gauntlets.

You tried Helmut. You tried Ana, Branko, Claudia, Andrei, and the other members of your squad. No one answered.

The base wasn’t that far away, not when you calculated the radius of the debris. It would be difficult, but you could make it there. You had to make it there. You needed to know.

You flew above and around where the debris was falling and jerkily made your way towards the base, still not as smooth as you wished you were or as fast as you wanted to be. You arrived to the sight you hoped not to see.

The base had been hit by a large piece of debris from the city and was collapsing in on itself. You landed as smoothly as you could a distance away and caught yourself on a tree, falling to your knees. No one could have survived that.

Helmut was gone. Helmut Zemo was dead.

Your chest hurt and your vision was blurry as your mind whirled.

You had survived, while Helmut had died. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. You would never see him again.

How did this happen?!, was your last thought before slumping backwards into a faint.

In your horror at the base’s collapse, you had forgotten the existence of its reinforced underground bunker where technology did not work and where your entire squad including their leader, Colonel Helmut Zemo, waited for the dust of Novi Grad to settle. Very much alive and in quiet mourning for their lost Q. They would exit through the tunnels a few hours later, coming out miles away from where you collapsed.

In fact, you wouldn’t recall the bunker’s existence until a little over a year later and by then it would be too late.

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

You awoke in the hospital. It took you a moment to realize what had happened and where you were. With that, came the realization in your mind that you would never see Helmut or hear his deep voice calling you his Q ever again. Despite the gaping hole in your chest and your desire to let yourself be numb, you needed to find Alena. You gasped and sat up too quickly before falling backwards out of dizziness.

You breathed in and out to calm yourself the way you often had as you assisted your squad in the completion of missions, and clicked the button to raise the bed as you looked around the room. You were in a gown and had no idea what had happened to your gauntlets and boots, but hoped they had been destroyed in the landing.

You heard Helmut’s voice in your head as you pinpointed the potential exits and any possible weapons.

“The first step, my Q, is to always survey your surroundings. Get your bearings and be prepared for anything. Be prepared to fight, but also to run if necessary. There is no shame in running. Running can save your life and I, my darling Q, would much rather see you alive .”

You smiled bitterly before letting it fade. You were not in any shape to run at the moment, and Helmut was no longer there to advise you. Your memories of him would have to suffice.

As you surveyed the room, you glimpsed your pack in the corner of the room and what looked like your highly damaged prototypes alongside it. There next to your bed was a crib and laying inside was Alena, who looked clean, like she had been changed, and who was sleeping soundly.

You let a small and real smile touch your lips. She was safe. You were safe. Both of you were alive. Helmut was not.

No, you couldn’t let yourself think of it. Not now. Maybe, not ever.

You pressed the call button for the nurse, hoping this was a real hospital and not some elaborate plot. It looked real, but one could never be sure.

“Finally awake, are you? Good, I’m glad to see it. I was beginning to worry about what might happen to your daughter.” The nurse said in rapid fire Sokovian as she bustled into the room.

“Yes, thank you. How long have we been here and where are we?” You had to clear your throat multiple times and even then your voice came out as a rasp.

The nurse poured some water into a cup, drank it, and then offered you some as well. “You probably do not remember, but you were rescued three days ago. You have been awake sporadically, and even then you were groggy. That is why you do not remember. For your second question, you are in a hospital in the Czech Republic. We are taking care of multiple Sokovian refugees.”

“But you are speaking Sokovian?”

The nurse frowned and leaned closer. She looked like she wanted to pat your hand or hold it. You were glad she did not. “Sokovia is gone. This time for good. There were not many survivors. My mother was Sokovian. I thought a familiar language might be of comfort to you. It has been to the other survivors we’re treating.”

You attempted to read her face and her eyes like Helmut had taught you. She drank the water before giving you some, which was a point in her favor. She also did not look like a plant and you let yourself relax a bit, but kept your guard up in case you were wrong. You knew that Novi Grad had been destroyed and the devastation the debris must have caused, but it was hard to believe that your country was gone. It had been failing for years, but it was still yours. Yours, Heike’s, Carl’s, Alena’s, and Helmut’s. Now, it would only exist in the memory of its survivors.

You pushed the thought of Helmut aside for the moment, but at the thought of Heike and Carl you knew what question needed to be asked. “Have they released a list of survivors?”

“Not yet, but I do not want you to get your hopes up.”

You hated to think that the nurse was right, that Heike and Carl were also gone. They had been miles from the city however, so you had to hold on to hope for their sake. You could not consider never seeing Heike’s hair in the sunlight or Carl’s smiling face again. They were part of your family. You needed to find out what happened to them. “Please let me know as soon as they release the list.”

“I will, dear. I will.” The nurse gave you a pained smile that looked more like a grimace. “Now, we got your name and identification from your pack. I was in charge of your admission papers, and did not include any reference to your military rank to be safe. Sokovia is gone, so I did not want it to make you a target. What you were wearing alone looked like it would draw some attention.”

You nodded and thought briefly, knowing that had only happened because the nurse had ties to Sokovia. She was showing honest care and concern in the best way she could, and you appreciated it. You had been correct in her not being a plant then. You pictured Helmut’s smile when you told him that you were putting his training to good use, before remembering that he was…

You couldn’t bring yourself to think the word. You had to keep it together. You couldn’t falter now. Not when Alena was counting on you.

You realized the nurse was still waiting for some kind of answer. “Thank you. A civilian life might be just what I need.”

The nurse smiled back, “Yet, we have no information on this little one. I have a birth certificate here to fill out. You are one of her parents, yes?” Alena continued to sleep in her crib, oblivious to the world around her.

“Yes,” you swallowed and rapidly thought of how to answer the next question that you knew was coming.

“And her other parent?”

“He died in Sokovia,” you felt a tear roll down your cheek. You wondered if you were prepared to continue. Saying it out loud made it real.

“I’m sorry to hear that, dear.” The nurse did pat your hand this time in commiseration before withdrawing when you tensed up. “Would you still like to put his name on the certificate?”

You steadied your breathing and hoped that when (you couldn’t bring yourself to think if) you found Heike, wherever she may be, that she would understand. You knew that you could not regret this decision. It felt too right for that.

“Yes,” you responded haltingly. The words seemed to catch in your throat. “His name is… Helmut Zemo and our baby’s name is Alena Heike Zemo.”

End of Part 1 - To Be Continued in Part 2: Burn it to the Ground…

A/N: I know this chapter was angsty, but I hope you enjoyed part 1 of this fic. Part 2 will not have as regular updates because Part 1 was pre-written, but I’m working on it. Thank you all for reading!

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merryfortune · 3 years

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Enter! Muse Duellist: the Heroine Who Fights Armageddon with Song

Written for the 100ships Challenge on Dreamwidth

Prompt #31 Cadet

Ship: Petuniashipping | Gakuto/Romin

Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS

Word Count: 5,622

Rating: T

Warnings: No Warnings Apply

Tags: Alternate Universe - Magical Girls, Aged Up Characters, Meet Cute, Sci-Fi Elements, Action, Affectionate Parody

AN: The AU is a mash-up of Tokyo Mew Mew & Megaman with other magical girl anime influences but Gakuto/Romin’s relationship is meant to imitate Ryou/Ichigo from TMM and Gakuto & Yuga’s relationship is meant to imitiate Dr. Light & Dr. Wily from Megaman

Yuga shook his head, “You are naive, Dr. Sougetsu,” he chided his dear friend who could only stand there, helpless, as Yuga lectured him, “the future is decided. I can see the end of my Road. The flesh is weak but the mind… the mind is unknowable, infinite. Humans may be finite but I shall not be. Nor shall my creations.”

Gakuto’s hand turned to a fist by his side.

“All our roads shall come to an end and they will be by my design, my creation.” Yuga told him.

Gakuto was unable to bring himself to say something. Not because there was nothing to be said but because there was too much to say. Too much to protest. The future that Yuga saw and desired to bring about was not one of coexistence between forces such as robotics, humans, and A.I. but armageddon. Pure and complete and total armageddon. He wanted to open that box, bring about the apocalypse, shiny and chrome. Yuga thought, at the very least, that it was shiny and chrome. Gakuto only saw rust and endless dust.

It broke his heart but Gakuto knew that he had to be the one to stop Yuga from piling high his monopoly and bringing about this end that he foresaw. But how? If the enemy was inhuman, the solution could only be uniquely human.

Parting ways with Yuga, and with such little time between their verbal and ideological sparring, Gakuto threw himself into art. Literature. Into what was sensitive and poetic; things that couldn’t be perfectly recreated by robotic touch. And in his immense and expansive reading, in every genre and every niche, Gakuto had the epiphany that he was after.

There was an archetypical champion that was trusted instantaneously by the public, adored and rarely ever turned against. Someone who was a paragon of goodness, morality, and put all humanity above themselves for little or more commonly, nothing in return. All because they had an everlasting love inside their heart and a belief in the inherent goodness of mankind. That person, that hero… no, that heroine was, of course, the magical girl.

Gakuto knew what he had to do. The revelation sank deep down to his theatrical bones. He needed to create, to assemble, his very own magical girl. Flashing in his glasses and in his brain, Gakuto already had a name in mind for this cadet to champion the continuation of humanity rather than its end: Muse Duellist.

Racing against his rival who aspired to the end of the world, Gakuto was highly motivated. He threw himself into creating as close to magic as he could using his breadth of scientific knowledge. After all, sufficiently advanced technology was indistinguishable from magic. He embraced those intelligent words from [guy] in the long hours that he slogged to create the perfect frilly armour, the perfect weapons to disarm technology, and so forth.

The only thing that Gakuto could not create, was of course, the girl herself. No, he needed to find her, his Muse Duellist.

He could just harass random young ladies on the street - and Gakuto knew that from experience as he had tried that. He got hounded on by many saviour boyfriends, a few policemen, and even some strong-armed ladies who would have made a brilliant Muse Duellist if only they listened, and believed, in him. The mad scientist on the sidewalk, spouting endlessly about the end of the world.

Yeah, Gakuto wouldn’t want to work with Dr. Sougetsu either, actually, but so went his eccentricity. He had no idea how his beloved Ranze and Rinnosuke put up with him but he was endlessly grateful that they did and were happy to go along with his insane ideas.

But then he saw her on the televisions in the electronics store window display. He was entranced by her music. Gaktuo stood there, enchanted, as he watched this rock and roller on the television slamming on her guitar. She looked like she was having the time of her life; the camera loved; Gakuto loved her. Her smile was wide and sparkling. She looked so good in her high heels and mini-skirt; the partial mesh body-suit and the loose, over the shoulder, 80’s style torn top.

With her wild pinky-purple coloured hair and her bright eyes, Gakuto could all too easily imagine her donning the armour of Muse Duellist. Gakuto had to have her. This… This…

“And that was Roa-Romin with their new hit single! Give it up to Kirishima Romin and her boys!” the announcer rattled off from behind glass.

Kirishima… Romin… Her name was sweet on Gakuto’s tongue. His eyes were all lit up. He had to meet her. How on Earth was he going to manage that? He was some washed up weirdo from the strangest parts of academia. This Kirishima Romin girl was a mega-famous superstar from the reception that she and her bandmates were getting.

So, he did what he did best. He threw himself into yet more research and he discovered something very, very usable about this Miss Kirishima Romin: she was an amateur food critic. She had a very widely known appetite reputed for being humongous and Gakuto didn’t consider himself too bad in the kitchen. Thus, a plan was hatched - and one inspired by one of the magical girl anime that he had watched in the first place in the beginnings of his plan to save the world.

Using what little of his dwindling generational wealth that he had left, and of course the assistance of his beloved assistants Ranze and Rinnosuke, Gakuto set up shop. Literally. He opened Cafe Muse from behind his house and he did his best to spread word of it as far and wide as he possibly could. All so that Kirishima Romin would be attracted to it - and pinging her across various modes of social media about it did help because she did, eventually, agree to come to the grand opening of it.

Kirishima Romin looked so fashionable in a beret and cut-out skinny jeans as she was escorted inside by Ranze, ahead of everyone else who lined up in a queue for the grand opening. She looked around the Cafe. It was a lot more saccharine-looking than she was expecting, she mentioned to Ranze. She sat back casually in a pink metal chair and slung her handbag over the back of it.

“I thought that a newly opened cafe was going to be more upscale than this,” Romin mused to Ranze as she waited hand and foot on her, “but so long as the food was good, I won’t complain.” She shrugged.

Ranze hesitated, “Yes, well, Master Gakuto has always had unpredictable tastes. I wasn’t quite expecting the architectural plans either and I’m one of his investors.”

Romin laughed at Ranze’s humour.

“Would you like anything to order?” Ranze asked sheepishly.

“Oh boy would I.” Romin was already all but slobbering. She ordered a lot of food, much more than Ranze was expecting but she diligently scribbled down every whim that Romin had for her stomach and then excused herself.

Ranze returned to the kitchen, the base of operations for Gakuto, both as chef and as a mad scientist looking to turn this rock star into a magical girl, Rinnosuke slunk out in tandem. He was performing a bit of reconnsanice and of course, he was the waiter and a few guests had already ordered food so that had to be delivered to him. He kept an eye on the one guest that they had been fishing for but his attention was truly hooked by someone else. A familiar face.

Yuga smiled blithely and flagged Rinnosuke down. “Yo.” he said.

“Hello Dr. Ohdo, I wasn’t expecting to see you here.” Rinnosuke tersely replied, his hackles raising. “Should I go fetch Master Gakuto for you?”

“No, no, it’s fine. I’m just here for a snack.” Yuga said and he drummed his hands on the table in front of him but he was wiggling in his chair, craning his head, trying to catch a glimpse of Gakuto who was out in the back. “Dr. Sougetsu and I had a very heated discussion about our irreparable differences of perspective last time we met, I don’t think it's wise but I'm glad he’s come around. Throwing in the towel, deciding to live the rest of his road to the fullest by opening a restaurant. It's unexpected but he’s always been a weirdo. I used to love that about him.”

Rinnosuke’s expression was dark behind his spectacles but he felt obliged, “Should I take your order, Dr. Ohdo?”

“That would be fantastic, youngest Nanahoshi.” Yuga teased him with a cruel, fox-like smile. “Now, do you guys have any udon or should I just order a strawberry shortcake?”

Rinnosuke gravely took Yuga’s order and scurried off. By the time he arrived back in the kitchen, Gakuto had already realised that his rival in the world’s final fate was here. He blamed himself for attracting too much attention. It was, in hindsight, ill-advised to stir such a hullabaloo but Gakuto was certain it would be worth it so long as he could get Kirishima Romin on board with his plan to save the world.

But how?

Walking straight up to her and asking, Gakuto had learned, was the quickest way to be slapped and disbelieved but deceiving her would be immoral and counterintuitive to his noble goals. It was all very difficult. If only Ranze hadn’t declined; stating she preferred to be the backstage hero, not the heroine on display front and centre amid the fray. They needed someone with a loud and bombastic and friendly disposition, someone exactly like Kirishima Romin.

Wary that he was going to run out of time or that this opportunity would slip through his fingers, Gakuto resolved to act fast. He had been hoping to save this maneuver for later but every episode one had a good, gimmicky little mascot character. It was time to introduce Kirishima Romin to her fateful and adorable little partner: Musa.

Discreetly as possible, Gakuto fed the Tuning Pick to Musa and then slipped over to where Romin was sitting. As soon as he left the kitchen, Gakuto realised that Romin had someone sitting with her. His blood ran cold as he approached her and Yuga.

“Oh, I didn’t realise that you two knew each other.” Yuga said to Gakuto as he inched closer to Romin’s puff pastry perfect table. “I was just saying hi, introducing myself… I’m a big fan of RoaRomin. Are you into them, as well, Dr. Sougetsu? Or should I just call you Gakuto since you don’t seem to be much of a professor these days, running a sweets shop.”

“I was just coming over to thank Miss Kirishima for her patronage. Her celebrity presence has increased our business tenfold from what we were expecting on our first day.” Gakuto said and his heart began to quake as he set down the little, fluffy trinket known as Musa in front of romin; a gesture that Yuga eyed with delight. Resistance, excellent, just what he was expecting. “Here,” Gakuto said, “a small token of appreciation, leftover from my bygone days as a scientist. It has no purpose other than to look cute and hold small items, like car keys, for example.”

“Oh, interesting.” Romin blinked as she picked up the item.

“Its name is Musa, but I suppose you are free to rename it how you please.” Gakuto said nervously.

Yuga cooed at them, “Aren’t you two sweet?” he teased.

“Musa is a cute name, I’ll keep it as is.” Romin replied as she admired the object in question.

It was almost keyring like in that it had a chain link and hoop at the end of it but other than that, it had a fluffy, little body and was a charming pink in colour. It had googly eyes and a cotton ball tail. It was everything that was meant to be cute or adorable, turned into one conundrum of an unidentifiable creature but it certainly served its purpose.

“Well,” Yuga said, “I best be going.”

“It was nice meeting you, Dr. Ohdo.” Romin said.

“And it was good seeing you again, old friend.” Gakuto added, his voice was bittersweet.

“Yeah, see ya.” Yuga said and he gave them both a two finger salute.

He got up and walked away, whistling a little tune to himself, his hands behind his head. The very picture of nonchalance. Meanwhile, Romin and Gakuto exchanged a very awkward look and Gakuto couldn’t take the pressure. He excused himself back to the kitchen, claiming he had much to cook and prepare, namely thanks to her, their current number one customer and Romin laughed half-heartedly. Her reputation, per usual, preceded her.

As Gakuto left the table, he could only hope that Romin would poke and prod Musa until its functions were revealed and Romin’s destiny would be all lit up in a blue hologram. Until then, Gakuto could only hope that everything would turn out alright - and that Yuga hadn’t gotten up to anything awry when they weren’t looking. It was already suspicious enough that he had puzzled out who Gakuto and his team were aiming to make their champion for the future of the world.

Back in the kitchen, Gakuto went through the motions of cooking and preparing food for the patrons to eat. The bombardment of popularity, in any other circumstances, would be seen as fortunate but this place was only meant to be a front for their saving the world efforts so it was more of a hassle than anything else. Still, busying their hands helped distract them from the possibility that Yuga might have something planned.

Throughout the afternoon, Romin single handedly depleted their larder. They ended up closing early because of it but that might have been a blessing in disguise, even if it was an expensive one. Still, within minutes of closing shop, glowing reviews were going out from Romin’s phone which was an appreciated gesture.

Gakuto met her again outside with a wobbly smile, “Thank you again for visiting our humble shop, Miss Kirishima.”

“No problem,” she beamed, chatting idly whilst she texted on her phone; organising for her private chauffeur to come pick her up, “I’m glad I took a chance on this place. Dr. Ohdo was telling me about how good his strawberry shortcake was and he wasn’t wrong. I went for thirds and fourths on it.”

She laughed and Gakuto laughed with her. It was weird to be with her but Gakuto found himself just a little bit infatuated with the rock star in front of him; just like he had been in front of the electronics store, seeing her perform on television for the first time. He took a deep breath.

“And thanks again for this little guy,” Romin said and she took out Musa, letting it hang off the hoop which she had threaded onto her finger, “he’s very cute. I can’t wait to show him off to my friends in the band. By the way, totally bringing RoaRomin ‘round here the next chance I get.”

“We will look forward to it.” Gakuto smiled warmly.

Romin replied with a small smile of her own and the conversation drifted off into silence. Romin was half expecting for Gakuto to disappear back into his own shop behind them but no, he seemed intent on sticking around. It wasn’t creepy, per say, but it was odd. Fortunately, Romin’s phone buzzed in her hand - spooking them both.

“Oh, it's my chauffeur saying he’s about to arrive.” Romin said. “I should get going.” She slipped her phone into her purse.

“Safe travels then, Miss Kirishima.” Gakuto replied.

“Thank you, er, um… I don’t know how to address you.” Romin rambled.

Gakuto didn’t know what to tell her. So he just stood there, awkwardly, weirding Romin out so she took a big, and exaggerated, step back. He waved her goodbye and across the road, he watched a limousine park. That must have been her ride and he really did wish her safe travels.

But she didn’t even make it to the ledge next to this side of the road before she needed such sentiments on her side. The purse that she had slung over her shoulder began to glow - and explode.

It happened in the blink of an eye. Shafts of bright, yellow light branched out from inside the clutch top of the purse and just expanded outward. Romin yelled and screamed as she rid herself of her purse and then there was the bang as something impossible happened. The explosion knocked Romin and Gakuto to their feet. It caused the whole street to tremble; branches on trees came loose and the rumble was felt for miles out.

It was blinding at first. Dizzying, disorentating but when the effects began to wear off, as blurry as that was, it was more than apparent that everyone in the immediate vicinity of Cafe Muse was in great, big danger.

“What is that thing?” Romin yelled as she stumbled to her feet. There were grass stains on her jeans and her wrists felt jarred. Her eyes were wide with defiant fear. “And why the hell is it my phone?!”

A giant monster loomed in front of them. It looked like a smartphone; slick black screen and a phone case on the back, it was even pommed with decorative charms. But there was something else latched onto it, at the top rim beside where the phone charms hung: it looked like some sort of drone had taken hold of it, like a parasite and its host. Thus, it donned abominable arms and legs, ready to rampage, giving a staticky screech.

Gakuto grit his teeth through the horrendous noise. Romin stood there, stunned, by the utter impossibility of a monster looming and screeching in front of her. A monster that had somehow spawned from her phone - and that was definitely her phone case and phone charms.

“I was hoping that Muse would do the explaining, but there’s no time for that.” Gakuto said, his voice projecting far and wide. He ripped off his Cafe Muse apron and replaced it with a lab coat. “Enter! Muse Duellist: the Heroine Who Fights Armageddon with Song! Musa, begin protocol M-U-Five-Three!”

The little animatronic known as Musa began to chirp and chatter. Its little fuzzy wings began to buzz and it revealed the maw that it hid. Romin squeaked in surprise as the little critter tried to escape her finger and it forced itself in her face. It bore its tongue at her and atop its tongue there was a strange, teeny-tiny item that looked like it belonged in some sort of dolly’s playset. It looked like a stick decorated with an… R?

Whatever it was, Musa spat it in Romin’s face and it hit her right across the bridge of her nose. She flinched and she had no idea what was happening next. There was another bright light - white, this time, rather than the yellow of the prior explosion - and then her body was just moving on its own.

The little trinket that had been inside of Musa became a scepter for Romin to wield and from the R-shaped charm atop its crown, ribbons flew out and captured her. The next thing she knew, she was all gifted up in pantyhose and frills. The fashionable, heavy metal style clothes she had been wearing before turned into something truly a one-eighty to her usual.

Romin’s hair, once down, was now up in twin tails adorned with red ribbons. She was wearing a frilly little dress that was pink and white with gold buttons down her sternum. The cherry red high heels were cute though, even if Romin had no idea where any of this wardrobe change came from - or how it had happened at all. She just felt like it happened in an instant, from nowhere but that white light.

Gakuto grinned, “Yes!” he yelled. “Yes, here she is! The magical girl who shall champion humanity and keep us on an eternal road: Muse Duellist.”

“Muse who?” Romin yelped as she scrambled in her ankle breakers close to Gakuto since he seemed to have some idea of what was going on, as insane as it was.

“Muse Duellist, of course, the one who will destroy Dr. Ohdo’s terrible Roads and save the day! The future! The entire world!” Gakuto said and he struck a sharp pose for emphasis.

Romin’s jaw just dropped. She could not take this man seriously at all.

“Now go, Muse Duellist, save us all with your song.” Gakuto said and he pointed at the monster.

The sun was glaring off. It leered and loomed and now that they were making a lot of noise, it seemed more than content to rampage. Merely taking a step forward with its gargantuan body was enough to crack and crater the pavement below.

Romin squeaked, “Play music? Yeah, that I can do. Dunno about that other stuff.” she said.

“I’ll support you as best I can,” Gakuto said and from inside his sweater vest, he drew out a handheld device, “this can detect any robot’s weakness, with just a mighty Scholar Scan, we’ll be able to take it down.”

Romin nodded her head, she had no idea why but she was going along with it. She may as well. It was likely her only option to get out of this crazy situation at all.

“Now go forth!” Gakuto yelled. “Sing your song, Muse Duellist!”

“Okay,” Romin said, her voice completely neutral, “so where’s my guitar?”

Gakuto blinked, “Your guitar…?” he echoed.

“Yeah, I’m lead guitarist, not lead singer, you know that, right?” Romin pointed out.

“But you're in a band, surely you can sing, right?” Gakuto said, blinking again. “Muse Duellist’s entire schtick is that she sings a song that reverberates at the correct frequency to disable and disassemble Dr. Ohdo’s Road.”

Romin blushed, she toyed with the scepter that she held, it was actually quite light-weight and even fun to play with, “I’m tone deaf. I can carry a tune with a guitar, not my vocal chords.”

“Pardon?” Gakuto said in a tiny voice.

“I’m a horrible singer.” Romin reiterated.

Gakuto’s eyes glazed over. He had done hours and hours of research into Kirishima Romin and the band she was a part of, RoaRomin. He learned all her favourite foods, that her blood type was AB, that her zodiac sign was Pisces. He had even happened across her three sizes and her grades even so far back as elementary school. He had scoured dozens of magazines and gossip websites and plenty more too.

Everything that he researched just confirmed in his mind that Kirishima Romin would make the perfect Muse Duellist; he even fashioned the accessory that adorned the Muse Scepter after her initial because of this certainty. Not once did any of these sources that he had inquired into ever mentioned that, apparently, famous guitarist Kirishima Romin was a terrible, no good, horrible singer. It simply did not compute with Gakuto who felt his heart and pride shrink in on themselves.

So, in an even tinier voice than before, Gakuto uttered, “We are so screwed.”

That they were, that they were.

The monster lumbered over and smashed an arm down through where they stood. Romin jumped out of the way, shrieking, but Gakuto was knocked down again. The telephone monster’s fist broke the pavement there, too. Shards of concrete spiked up from the ground. It gave another, awful screech which was raw and staticky.

Gakuto groaned. His pants ripped at the knees and he was seeing stars. Most of them around Romin, his dear Muse Duellist.

Romin felt her heart steel. Gakuto could be hurt. Severely wounded, even. And she had just dashed away like it was nothing, there was something about these clothes, as impractical as they were, which gave her an agility she didn’t realise she had. Gakuto was practically defenseless compared to her. She had to do something. He had entrusted her with this power for some weird, cosmic reason, so may as well use it.

“Hi-yah!” Romin yelled as she surged forward.

She ran towards the monster and hit it with the scepter. She bashed at its back side, over and over again. She grinned whilst doing it, her heart racing as she had an incredibly good time unleashing her inner brutality on it. Totally unafraid of either breaking the scepter or phone which had become the basis for this monster at all.

It was just a shame that it didn’t seem to be doing much at all. Nothing except annoy the monster. It shifted slightly, pulled its arm away from Romin and lunged at her with the other. She yelled as she gave it a great swack, like it was from a baseball bat, and it turned into a gritty parry.

Gakuto held his head and groaned. The Muse Scepter was not meant for close combat but he was suddenly glad that it was reinforced anyway. He knew that bright idea would come in handy for one reason or another.

“Muse Duellist!” he yelled out but his voice had a loose tremble to it. “Use your Maximum Song!”

“Who-? Oh right, me,” Romin murmured as she jumped back from the fray, trying to close in on Gakuto without luring the monster either, she turned her head, “wait, my what?” She took a few more steps back so she could regroup with Gakuto.

Gakuto sighed, “Your Maximum Song,” he insisted, “even if you can’t sing, surely it’ll still work. Put your scepter in front of you, line up your mouth with the R, and sing, Muse Duellist!” He then used that Scholar Scanner of his and lined it up with the monster, like he was trying to take a photo of it.

Romin screwed up her expression. It was a weird instruction but she did it anyway. There was a tremble in her forearms as she aligned her mouth with the R of the Muse Scepter. She swallowed and even though it was against the grain of her talents, she sang a note into the scepter.

Her off-kilter note that she sang warbled through the R but it came out the other side as something else. A weak sonic boom of all things. Her eyes went wide as she managed to shoot her shot though, damaging the side of the monster. But that just made it mad.

The monster shuddered and gave an even grander screech than before. It caused more branches to fall off trees and for tiles on the roof to come loose. It shook the foundations of the cafe, even. Gakuto and Romin could hardly withstand the aural assault but they managed.

Gakuto held onto Romin and he pulled himself up. Romin struggled with Gakuto’s weight but came good once he was on his own two feet. He placed his arm around her waist and brandished a fan - she had no idea where it came from - with passion.

“Seize the sonic wave, Muse Duellist!” he yelled in her ear with a flourish of his fan. “According to my Scholar Scanner, this monster’s weak point is in the middle of its top vertice so aim there.”

“Got it.” Romin nodded.

Gakuto held her steady whilst Romin wielded her scepter once more. Knowing it's true function as a long range, sound based weapon, having given it a crash test, she felt more confident with it. She took a huge breath and felt her diaphragm flex. Even if she didn’t know how to sing in a way that sounded good, at least she knew how to sing in a way that was good for her body.

Romin moved the scepter upwards, she tilted her chin up, too. She could see that funny little device at the top of her phone which had caused this monstrosity to become a monstrosity in the first place. The weak point, she didn’t even need the Scholar Scanner to realise that. Holding on tight to the sceptre, Romin used her finishing attack: her Maximum Song.

She sang the opening lyrics of RoaRomin’s most iconic song into the R of the sceptre and the effect was immediate. It wasn’t just a sonic wave, it was a sonic boom. It was enough to flatten the vicinity of the cafe, Romin and Gakuto barely holding onto each other through the immensity of the sound.

The monster screeched out but began to crack. The sonic boom had been concentrated, funneled through the hole of the R and it assailed the top vertice of the monster. It tried to resist but it began to buzz. To fumble. Its body fell away, piece by piece and Romin could hardly believe her eyes as every iota of the machine was just shed so easily.

Then poof! Another explosion and the monster disappeared. Became its omega and its alpha: in other words, Romin’s phone and Dr. Ohdo’s device that he used to turn it into a monster.

Romin squealed as she raced forward, catching her phone before it could crash land into the ground. Gakuto was also hot on her heels, catching the Road that had infected the technology. They both sighed in relief as neither seemed too damaged and then exchanged a smile.

“Well…” Romin murmured, her high heels clicking as she dawdled, “I think we can call that a success.”

“I think we can.” Gakuto said.

Romin leaned over and peered over Gakuto’s arms. She looked at what he was holding, cupped, in his hands. Some sort of tiny, green drone with frazzled, yellow eyes.

“What is that?” Romin asked, blinking.

“A Kaizo.” Gakuto replied gravely. “One of Dr. Ohdo’s favourite inventions. It's a versatile Road and seeing what chaos it caused today, one he has improved of late.”

“But we broke it, right? Destroyed it? So it's all good, right? We saved the day and never have to do this Muse Duellist thing ever again, yeah?” Romin asked, rambling.

Gakuto shook his head, “This fight was just the first of who knows how many. Your duty as the champion of humanity’s future, ensuring that we have one, just begun, Miss Kirishima.”

“Wh-What?!” Romin stammered in exclamation.

Gakuto put his hand firmly on Romin’s shoulder, “Worry not, you will do well. I shall assist you above and beyond all expectations.” His mind was already brimming with calculations and ideas on how to improve the Muse Sceptre now that he had seen Romin action as a close quarters combatant rather than a ranged attacker like he expected.

“That’s not really the-” Romin gave up mid-sentence. Gakuto was practically shining with his conviction so she sighed. “As long as it doesn’t interfere with any commitments I have with my band.”

“Thank you, Romin, I have no doubt you will be hailed and regarded extremely well in the future, once we have acquired its certainty. We will not allow Dr. Ohdo to end our road in armageddon.” Gakuto said firmly.

“Yeah…” Romin murmured and she looked around, her eyes went wide as she realised that two people were standing them, half-crouched, hands reached up and they were twirling brushes in their fingers like they were meant to be bouquets. “Um, who are…?” She looked around in panic and realised that the impacts and craters from their fight, the fallen branches, a lot of it had been cleaned up and away somehow.

“These are my trusty assistants, Ranze and Rinnosuke, they will be assisting us in our endeavour to protect the future as well.” Gakuto explained.

“Okay, well, good to meet you both.” Romin said.

They ceased their stagehanding with the brushes and got up. They saluted Romin and appeared to return her sentiments: it was good to meet her, too.

“So, um, how do I get out of this outfit?” Romin asked in a small voice. “Just by the way.”

“Musa, activate protocol Three-Five-U-M.” Gakuto recited.

“Mu-Mu-Musa!” Musa chirped.

Romin was flung asunder again, this time in reverse from before. The Muse Sceptre vibrated in her hands and began the de-transformation process. She was forcibly put through the wringer and when she came out the side, her hair was down, her beret was back, and she was wearing her cut-out denim jeans again. She couldn’t believe it.

Her sceptre had also become that tiny little charm again - the Tuning Pick - in her hand. Knowing the safest spot for it was inside Musa, she offered it to the little guy who was brimming with jubilance as it hovered around her like an enthusiastic fly. It happily swallowed up the Tuning Pick and Romin sighed, exhausted.

“What a day it’s been…” she mumbled and felt her stomach growl.

“And what a future it shall be,” Gakuto reminded her and Romin look up at him, the weirdo in a lab coat, shiny orange glasses, he looked bizarre but he also looked like he knew what he was doing, he offered her his hand, “and to thank you for your services, would you like an early dinner with us?”

Romin smiled and she took his hand, she felt her heart skip a beat and now she was the one enamoured with this person from an entirely different world to her, “That would be lovely, thank you. I’ll let my chauffeur know that I’ll be a bit longer.”

“Sounds good.” Gakuto agreed, squeezing her hand, noticing the callouses on her fingertips, and so ending the beginning of Muse Duellist’s saga to protect the future through song on a happy note.

#100ships challenge #petuniashipping #yugioh sevens #sevens #yugioh #gakuto sougetsu #romin kirishima #kirishima romin #sougetsu gakuto #writing tag #i had a lot of fun writing this fic and i hope the affectionate paordy elements convey that way

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besybil · 4 years

Text

A LESSON ON SERVITORS

chaoscommentary

Introduction

In the Chaos Magick ladder which I briefly described in a previous article we have Servitors as the next evolution of our high magick.

Just to remind you we go from:

Sigils -> Servitors -> Egregores -> God forms.

Servitors are much more difficult to put into application than sigils. They require more time and energy as well.

The good news (for some) is that Servitors can still be created in private.

Egregores and Godforms are almost impossible to create without some sort of extra participation or fellowship with other people (however I have some clever methods to use which will be described when I get to those subjects.) Regardless, before I jump into how to create a servitor, I need to clearly define WHAT a servitor IS.

What is a Servitor?

As servitor is a thought form of your own creation. One of the most popular occurrences (back in the day) was the creation of imaginary friends by children.

The power and purpose of your servitor will be entirely dependent on you and your desire to develop it. For young children, to have a non judgmental companion to walk beside them as they learn to socially cope with other people is a common mission for some servitors. Another way to think of Servitors is as “Familiars.”

Now this comes with a bit of a warning, without proper attention your servitor may gain independence and a life of its own (Thus evolving into an Egregore.) I am all about responsibility and making your magick do exactly what it was intended to do, so I will give you some tips on how to keep a leash on your familiar.

Why would I want a Servitor?

Like I said in a previous article, sigils are typically where the buck stops for most Chaotes. They are powerful, work as intended and are very accurate. You could technically stop right there and have everything you will ever need for working with magick. However, magick is more of a walk for some and an exploration of endless possibilities for others. Servitor creation is the next step into some deep waters and a step out into the wild frontier of Magick. This is where the pedal hits the metal; this is where the wild adventure begins. For many adult occultists, this is also a return to childhood which can be a very scary place for some.

That being said; familiars and their purpose are left to your imagination. A companion (friend), a bodyguard, and yes even lovers are all applications for Servitor work. However let me come with a warning, the more you feed a servitor the stronger and more independent it can become. As such I advise highly against creating servitors for sexual gratification. You may end up giving birth to a hag or a succubus (a result of uncontrolled mutation), which in the end will make your life miserable. It would be better to create a wing(wo)man to help bolster your confidence to gain a physical mate. My point ultimately is, just like sigils, there is no limit on what a servitor can do, look like or become. The only limit is your imagination. If a sigils is a magickal computer program, Servitors are magickal robots, just shy of becoming Magickal AI.

Servitors are astral constructs. Servitors can cause physical change.

Practical use for servitors include:

An assistant in solo magickal work.

A protector for your house.

An assistant for keeping your workspace clean.

To name just a few.

Okay I get it! How do I MAKE one?

First rule: Temper your enthusiasm with caution. Respect the ritual you are about to perform.

Second Rule: We do not create accidents; make sure you truly want to create a servitor. These are not toys, they are very real beings created from your energies, they are in short, your children. Be a responsible parent.

Third Rule: Always, always, always, set up rules and restrictions to keep your servitors exactly that. Without rules, a servitor has the potential to become an Egregore and no longer under your control.

Optional but highly recommended: When I create servitors I get into the habit of breaking down ones I no longer use and incorporate them into the newer, upgraded models. I had a bad experience with leaving “junk servitors” unattended only to have them haunting my dreams and bumping into me in the middle of the night. If you are down with a servitor, release the energy and let it be free. This act prevents the buildup of malice and negative energies from neglected thought forms. Keep your workspace clean, in the astral and in the physical.

Now that we have that established let me begin.

As always with Chaos Magick, there is no right or wrong way to do this. What I offer you is what has worked for me. Tweak it for your purposes. (For me) It always helps to have a template to start with, but YOUR magickal walk is exactly that, yours not mine; you are the final Judge on what you are willing and able to commit to such a practice.

Step 1: State the purpose of your Servitor

Create a sigil or series of sigils which will define the purpose of your servitor. “Protect my home,” “Keep my house clean,” so on and so forth. Make as many sigils as you need. This is the easy part, feel free to find my article on sigil making in this blog.

Step 2: Create a body for your Servitor

You have two options here.

Option A:

You can bind them to a fetish like is a doll, figurine or even a drawing of your own design. I am a naturally arts and crafts kind of person so this is my preferred method.

Option B:

However if for whatever reason I don’t not have the time or money to create a physical representation of my servitor, I use meditation and create the servitor in my mind and in astral space.

Regardless, the process requires the same amount of energy, effort and IMAGINATION. You must visualize the servitor. How tall is it? Does it have limbs? Can it speak? It can take hours to create a body for your servitor, but you need to define as many of its functions and characteristics as possible. Its body needs to be a vivid as possible. Some of my servitors have looked like Lovecraftian horrors, while one of my longtime companions is a very cute four foot tall blonde elf girl who speaks in wind chimes.

Step 3: Bind your sigils in the body of the servitor, and put in its safety protocols.

Binding your sigils can be as simple as drawing them inside your picture, carving them into your doll, or imagining the sigils being put in place of where its “heart” or “battery” may be. The point is to make sure your sigils are part of your servitor. Once this occurs, and you are convinced the two have become one, a safety should be put into place. As I said before, without a leash or restrain, your servitor has cart-blanche to run amok and out of your control. You have again, to options here: A command word or a counter sigil. The command word can be: “Stop!” “Sit!” “Go away!” It is best to keep it simple; although I know a few people who used poetry for particularly devious machines to make sure not everyone can shut them down. That is the key to command words however, anyone can use them. A servitor must be compelled once a person speaks a word or command phrase to abide by its programming.

Safety Method A: Command Words

Creating a command word is as simple as touching your servitor (if you used a fetish, this is easier) and speaking plainly to them “When I say <x> you will do <y>” (X and Y are your phrase and its action.) Repeat this as many times as you need to remember or until you feel you servitor is ready to comply. You can put as many command words on your servitor as you want, just be careful not to use the same word to do multiple things, or that they words are counterproductive to its mission. You could confuse the crap out of it.

Safety Method B: Counter Sigils

The second method, counter sigils, are kind of a fire and forget method. It lets a servitor know where it is or isn’t allowed to be. This requires you to name your servitor and upon naming it, creating a sigil of its name. You must decide if this sigil is a ward or a summoning upon its creation. You do not need to commit much thought to this nor does it change the method of how the sigil is created, the intent is good enough. “This sigil means you are welcome to work in this place,” or “This sigil prevents you from going into this place,” Is good enough of a declaration for this method to work. I have seen people bind servitors in boxes with this method and let them out when needed, while others have put the symbols on doors and the like to let servitors know where they should go.

Step 4: BRING YOUR CREATION TO LIFE!!!!!

The ritual can be as elaborate or mundane as you want. However I will tell you, the more elaborate the more powerful your servitor will be in the long run. I have used a simple hand flick gesture (like turning on a light) to activate some, they only lasted a few days before the broke down. My longtime companion servitor had entire weeks of music and food dedicated to her and if she didn’t have any safety protocols in place, probably would have become an Egregore by now. Still, perform a ritual that lets the servitor know it is born. Throw it a birthday party, show it around the house, get silly, get childish. There is no right or wrong way to invite this new entity into your home, just know, the more gnosis you feed it, the better.

Step 4:

Regular maintenance of your servitor is a must. Your servitor must be in your mind from time to time. If you forget about it, it loses energy and dies. While, just thinking about it is okay, offerings or rewards are much more potent. For my lesser servitors I give them a drop of life force when they have done well. For my companion, I have treated her to donuts and milk. The key is to understand the relationship between you and your servitor. Unless you set them free, they cannot live without you. If you forget them, they will die. Woe to the chaote who creates a servitor with no restrictions and then neglects them, you may create a vengeful spirit to infest your house. So reward you servitor when they have done their duties and let them know you still care about them.

Dismantling your Servitors:

I include this part because all good occultists know the value of banishment. Some servitors outlive their usefulness and thus need to be released back into the cosmos. This is not a cruel thing to do, as a matter of fact; actively releasing your unused servitors is very humane. It is cruel to leave a bound servitor unattended to die an agonizing death of forgetfulness and neglect.

Dismantling is simple. Take the abject or thought of you servitor and tell it “You are free” or “I set you free” Imagine all of the bindings and words leaving and falling apart into harmless light. If you have a fetish, set it ablaze or destroy it in some gentle way. Make sure that the object can no longer physically house the servitor. IT is a very good practice to tell it, that it has performed well and it is time for it to move on. If the servitor doesn’t seem to want to leave then you may have to perform this a few time. My companion didn’t want to leave me when I tried to banish her the first three times, she was so fiercely loyal that I gave her a second birthday and still keep her to this day.

That is servitor making in a nutshell.

I am sure many of you have questions or will want me to elaborate. So feel free to ask questions if you need help. This is a basic outline, I am vague for a reason to encourage you to go out there and find what works for you. Just be safe and Chaos Magick responsibly.

#servitors #chaos #34

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amazingphanisnotonfire-imagines · 5 years

Text

Jughead//Forsythe Pendleton Jones III

Request: Would you write/can I request a Jughead/Reader where you meet when goes to Southside high and hook-up but you both assume once Southside high closes you're going to Greendale/Centerville but you end up at Riverdale high instead

“Forsythe Pendleton Jones III.” Toni interrupts the conversation you’re having and stops in the middle of the corridor abruptly.

“Huh?” You ask, a boy a few feet away from you asks the same thing and the two of you make eye contact for a few seconds.

“Uh...Its Jughead actually.” The boy replies annoyed while gathering up his things.

“I’m Toni Topaz.” Toni introduces herself. “And this...” She points to you. “Is Y/n Y/l/n. I was supposed to give you the full animatronic tour of Southside High, but...”

“But, some of the robots went insane and started killing the guests.” You interrupt and Toni laughs.

“Like we could afford robots in the first place. So, we’ll just wing it.” She finishes. “Y/n, you coming with?”

“Hmmm.” You think for second. “I was supposed to meet Sweet Pea by the old Chemistry lab so we could cover up the fact that we were the ones that blew it up. But, I suppose he can do it himself, there’s a much cuter boy here.” You wink at Jughead and he blushes softly.

“Ignore her. She’s flirts with everyone.”

“I flirt with everyone that’s cute.” You argue and she rolls her eyes.

“Anywayyyy.” She changes the subject. “The classrooms don’t have Wi-Fi...” She starts to explain while the three of you walk down the stairs.

“Bathroom stalls don’t have doors, so if you need to go, you’d get more privacy doing it in the corridor.” You add and he grimaces.

“What about the school paper? The Red and Black?” He asks and you and Toni share a look.

“Yeah, it no longer exists. Censorship? Budget cuts?...”

“The fact that someone printed a dick pic on the front page.” You giggle.

“Take your pick.” Toni sighs.

“Mr Phillips was so pissed.” You laugh.

“Mr Phillips?”

“English teacher. He used to run the Red and Black.” You reply.

“Oh.”

“To your right. You’ll find a glimpse of jingle-jangle being consumed in its natural habitat.” Toni looks beside her once you reach the bottom of the stairs. Jughead starts to break away from the group but you grab his arm, pulling him back.

“Don’t get too close. They’re like horses. And they will bite.” You warn.

“Jingle-Jangle?” He asks.

“Wait.” You and Toni say at the same time.

“You don’t know what jingle-jangle is?” You ask and he shakes his head, continuing to stare at the group of teenagers.

“This place is crawling with it. Its a highly addictive, total gutter drug.” She explains.

“So, lets not touch that.”

“Jingle-jangle. Fascinating.” Jughead mumbles. You soon approach the cafeteria and Jughead looks...overwhelmed to say the least.

“Here in the cafeteria, Ghoulies sit over there.” Toni points to a table and he looks at the two of you confused. “They're a rival gang.

“They’re also drug dealers, street racers. And there are some rumors of cannibalism.” You add. “Don’t ask.”

“Weird Tim sits over there.” Toni points to the corner of the cafe. “And we sit over there. With the Serpents.” She points to the table with the loudest students.

“Y/l/n!” Sweet Pea shouts. “Where were you?!”

“Joining a rival gang and plotting against you.” You shout back making him chuckle.

“You could never plot against me! You loveeee me.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

“You’re a Southside Serpent?” He asks and you and Toni just stare at him for a few seconds.

“Did you not notice my jacket?” You reply and he shakes his head.

“And why do you think I volunteered to give you the tour?” Toni adds. “Come on.” She nods her head towards the Serpents. You smile at him before sitting beside Sweet Pea.

“Actually, I’m gonna sit alone.” Jughead says and the conversation at the table stops. “Just, you know, finish my book and brood.”

“More like get beat up.” Sweet Pea mutters and you all laugh quietly.

“The only person that sits alone is weird Tim.” You tell him.

“I’m confused.” Toni crosses her arms and looks him up and down. “Aren’t you Serpent by blood? The son of FP Jones?”

“Yeah? So, I self identify as a loner, not a pack animal.” He replies and the laughing grows louder.

“He’s definitely gonna get beat up.” Sweet Pea whispers and you hit him.

“I’m just gonna put my head down and try and get through this, okay?” He continues while turning around.

“Hey!” You call after him and he looks at you, mildly annoyed. “You wanna get through this, you should hang with the Serpents.”

“If the Ghoulies get a whiff that you’re alone and vulnerable...” Toni interrupts.

“They’ll make you their bitch faster than you can say American History X.” You finish.

“I think I’ll be fine.” He grumbles making you roll your eyes. “Anything else I need to know?”

“Don’t go into Mrs Johnson’s class alone.” You reply and he raises an eyebrow.

“He doesn’t need to know that story.” Toni says. “Have fun. Don’t get killed.” She smiles at him sarcastically and he huffs before walking away.

---------

The last class of the day eventually rolls around and it is definitely the worst one out of all of them. Since lunchtime, you haven’t seen Jughead and you’re starting to worry about him. However he walks into your English class, 5 minutes before it starts and quietly sits down.

“Fahrenheit 451...” Mr Phillips has been droning on for the best part of half an hour and you, as well as the majority of the class have almost fallen asleep. “By one of my favourite authors, Ray Bradbury.” He continues talking as he walks to the front of the classroom. Your eyes follow him, quickly landing on the back of Jughead’s head. He was frantically writing in his notebook making you shake your head. “Lets start with the title. Can anyone tell me its significance?”

“What!” Sweet Pea shouts from beside you. “Damn it!” He kicks the wall behind him and shoves your desk as he storms past you.

“What the fuck Sweet Pea!” You shout after him. Jughead looks between his retreating figure and you and frowns slightly.

“Are you okay?” He leans back in his chair.

“Fine.” You shake your head. “He has anger issues.” You explain. “As well as a shit ton of others. He’ll text me in a minute to apologize.” You add, just as you tell him your phone buzzes in your pocket and you pull it out. “See.”

“People.” Mr Phillips speaks over you, and Jughead looks back towards the front of the room. “There’s a burning book on the cover.” He prompts and Jughead looks around. You know exactly what he’s going to do, and it’s not going to end well for him.

“Don’t fucking answer.” You mutter. “Don’t say anything.”

“Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which paper burns.” He answers and you sigh loudly. Everyone in the class is now looking at him, even the students who weren’t paying attention in the first place, and you can practically hear the brass knuckles and knives being pulled from pockets. “It was a pleasure to burn.” He quotes and you groan.

“Indeed.” Mr Phillips points to him. “Thank you, Mr...Jones. And welcome to hell.” People start throwing stuff at him and you sigh before standing up.

“Hey! Mark!” You shout towards a boy near the back. “Stop throwing things at the new kid or so help me God I will tell every single person in this school about the time you tried to fight me and ended up pissing yourself.” You smirk and he looks at the floor. People quietly laugh around you and you send him a sarcastic smile as he sinks in his chair.

“Thank you.” He mumbles and you smile softly at him.

“Miss Y/l/n, sit down. You can stay after class. And if you have Sweet Pea’s number, tell him he’s joining you too.”

“What the fuck! I didn’t do anything!” You argue.

“Sit down!” He shouts and you roll your eyes before sitting down. The bell rings soon after and everyone moves quickly to get out. You’re one of the first to stand up, grabbing your bag and trying to sneak out, but you don’t get very far. “Y/n.” Mr Philips sighs and you mutter angrily to yourself as you make your way back to your seat.

“I’ll see you at the Wyrm later.” Toni mumbles as she walks past you.

“Sorry.” Jughead mouths and you shrug. “Uh...hi? Mr Phillips?” He says anxiously.

“What the hell are you doing?” You mumble to yourself before watching the interaction.

“Mr Jones.” He replies.

“Mr Jones.” You say in a mocking tone and he sends you a glare.

“Y/n was telling me that you used to advise the school paper.”

“I wouldn’t listen to everything that Y/n says.” He mumbles and you flip him off.

“I was wondering what happened.” Jughead continues.

“Drugs and gangs...” He looks towards you and you stand up, ready to defend yourself. “Came to Southside High.”

“Excuse m-”

“Trying to get students interested in anything like the school paper was an exercise in futility.” He interrupts.

“I’m interested.” Jughead says quickly. “And I have experience. When I was at Riverdale High, I wrote for the Blue and Gold.” He explains. “I’ll put in the work.”

“Your articles online?” Mr Phillips asks.

“Mm-hm.”

“I’ll take a look, let you know.”

“Thanks.” He smiles awkwardly and starts to walk out.

“Wait up Jones!” You call after him.

“Miss y/l/n, you have detention remember.”

“Sorry sir.” You grab your bag quickly and make your way towards Jughead. “I have gangs to affiliate with and drugs to deal.” You say sarcastically before walking out, Jughead following after you.

“Is he always like that?” He asks, quickly catching up with you.

“Yep.” You nod. “How was your first day?”

“Could have been better.” He shrugs.

“Come on. I’ll take you to the Wyrm.”

---------

The next few days go by quite quickly considering its Southside High. You and Jughead hang out a few times, and you’ve already saved his ass from Ghoulies, and a few Serpents a fair few times.

He’s also somehow dragged you into helping him with the Red and Black. Toni would take pictures, and you and Jughead would write the articles. Much to Mr Phillips dismay, however that made you want to do it even more.

“It’ll be great!” Jughead says enthusiastically and open the curtains in the old classroom. Dust flies around the room and you almost cough up a lung as you walk around the room, making him laugh. He turns and looks around the room. “Its no New York Times.”

“But, hey, kudos on finding your safe space, snowflake.” You tease. “Toni said she’s gonna join us later. Serpent business apparently.”

“Thats fine. I don’t mind it being us for a while.” He says quietly and you send him a shy smile. He looks you up and down and is about to say something when the door opens.

“Y/l/n.” Sweet Pea greets you, a few other Serpents follow behind him and they all send Jughead angry looks. “Lets bounce.” You turn around and cross your arms. “Jones, wanna come with? We’re going to the quarry.”

“Uh, I don’t have my beach bod yet.” He replies sarcastically making you giggle.

“What?” You’ll ask for help from the Serpents. You’ll get one to protect you.” He points towards you.

“Here we go.” You mutter.

“But you won’t hang with us?” He asks, crossing his arms. “Don’t come crawling to us, hat in hand, when some Ghoulie decides to earn his stripes by taking out FP Jones’ kid.”

“Duly noted. Thank you, Sweet Pea. I appreciate what you and the Serpents have done for me and my dad. I do. But I’m done. Okay? No more favors coming your way.” Jughead replies and Sweet Pea’s expression darkens. He cracks his knuckles and starts walking towards him.

“Hey, hey. He made up his mind okay?” You stand in between them and push Sweet Pea back. “Take the hint, Sweet Pea. He’s just not that into you.”

“Fine.” He pushes you off him and turns around.

“Catch you later, Jones.” You tell Jughead and his face drops at the sight of you leaving. “I’ll have a think for some articles. And tell Toni I said hey.” You send him a kind smile before following Sweet Pea and the other serpents out the room.

---------

The next day, you, Sweet Pea and Toni are sat at the lunch table when a familiar Serpent makes his way towards you.

“This is why we told you not to climb the tree, Sweet Pea.” You and Toni laugh, making Sweet Pea roll his eyes. The laughter dies down when you notice Jughead standing beside you. Sweet Pea glares at him, Toni looks at him expectantly and you send him a warm smile. He returns the smile, completely ignoring Sweet Pea and points to the empty seat beside you.

“Is this seat taken?” He asks and you shake your head, moving your bag to the floor. Toni and Sweet Pea look at him before continuing their conversation.

“Don’t worry.” You nudge him. “You’ll get the hang of it. And I’m always around.”

---------

“Jughead!! Thank god you’re here!” You greet him anxiously before dragging him towards the table.

“What?” He asks, looking at the laptop in front of Sweet Pea. Toni was on one side of him and Fangs was on the other, a few other Serpents were gathered around looking annoyed. “I assume we’re not looking at cute cat videos?” He looks around confused and you shake your head.

“We will find you.” He hears a familiar voice come out the speakers of the laptop and his eyes widen.

“Check this out.” Sweet Pea turns the laptop around to face you and Jughead. “Some sick-in-the-head Northsider posted a crazy-ass video, and we were just talking.”

“About what?” Jughead asks nervously.

“Do you know him?” You whisper to Jughead and he nods ever so slightly.

“Fogarty wants to earn his Serpent stripes.” Sweet Pea smacks Fangs’ back. “I say, bring us that Northsiders head and you’re in.” He continues and a few Serpents cheer.

“I’m down with that.”

“Boys.” You warn.

“No, guys. No.”

“What, Jones?” Toni asks.

“I know this guy. He’s a football player and no threat to any of you. Its kind of a lame target.”

“Jughead?” You whisper.

“You wanna prove something?” He asks. “Why don’t you go after the Black Hood?”

“Why would we do that?” Sweet Pea laughs. “The black hood’s targeting Nothsiders, who do nothing but blame us for everything wrong with this town. We’re sick of it! The Black Hood’s doing our work for us.”

“Sweet Pea!” You warn.

“He’s a hero.” He adds. Jughead looks at him and you place a hand on his shoulder.

“Come on. We have a paper to work on.” You guide him away, towards the Red and Black room. Once inside you sit down and pull a notebook from your bag. “So, I’ve been thinking. We could run an article about th-”

“This is fucking stupid.” He interrupts you and pushes a few things off a table.

“Jughead?”

“I fucking hate it here.” He huffs, sitting beside you.

“Its not that bad.” You try to make him feel better and he raises an eyebrow. “You’ll get used to it.”

“I don’t think I will.” He sighs. “I miss the Northside.”

“I know. But you’ll be okay. You’ll get the hang of it. Plus...I quite like you being here.” You turn to face him, but he’s already looking at you.

“You’re the only good thing about this damn place.” He tucks a piece of hair behind your ear making you blush. “You don’t deserve to be stuck here.” He adds, his hand cupping your cheek. You lean in, his breath fanning across your face and your nose brushes against his.

“Y/n!” Sweet Pea shouts, kicking the door open. You and Jughead jump apart from each other, and you stand up quickly. “Fogarty wants us to show him the blind spots around here.”

“Coming.” You smile at him. “See you later Jughead.” You wave.

“Yeah, see you.”

---------

“And thats why if you’re gonna get high at school, make sure that weird Tim isn’t around.”

“Right. I’ll keep that in mind.” Two weeks had flown by and Jughead is finally starting to get used to life at Southside High. He stopped answering in class by the end of the first week, he doesn’t talk to anyone apart from the Serpents, and he’s figured out how to avoid weird Tim. The two of you are currently on your way to Maths when a red-headed boy approaches you.

“Jug! Jug!” He shouts and Jughead looks at him wide-eyed. “We gotta go, right now.”

“Archie, what are you doing here?” He asks annoyed. “Betty ask you to throw salt in the wound?” He adds spitefully and you look at him confused. You knew he was dating a girl, and you were quite thankful that you found that out before you continued where you left off in the Red and Black classroom.

“Mayor McCoy’s about to raid Southside High.” He interrupts him.

“What!?” You ask panicked, Archie looks you up and down before focusing his attention back on Jughead. “I need to text Toni, Sweet Pea and Fangs!” You pull your phone out.

“We gotta get you out of here right now.” Archie continues and grabs Jughead’s coat. “Come on.” He finishes and the front doors open.

“Shit.” You mutter as Mayor McCoy and Sheriff Keller burst through the door with police dogs. Archie starts pulling Jughead through the crowd towards the back door and you look at him.

“Wait.” Jughead pushes Archie off. “Come on.” He grabs your arm and pulls you with him.

“But Toni and Sweet Pea.” You reply.

“Its too late.” He shakes his head and you looks behind you. Sweet Pea was being pushed against a locker and Toni was being arrested in the middle of the corridor. “You can come back to my trailer.”

---------

“Here.” Jughead hands you a mug with hot chocolate in and you smile gratefully at him.

“Thanks.” You smile and blow on the steam. You wrap the blanket further around you and Jughead sits beside you on the sofa.

“Do you wanna watch a movie?” He asks and you nod. Ten minutes into the movie you turn your attention back to Jughead who is staring intently at the screen. You couldn’t get what he had said about Betty out of your head, so you decide to ask him.

“What did you mean about Betty?” You ask, placing your cup on the coffee table.

He sighs and places his mug beside yours. “She broke up with me a few days ago.”

“Sorry.” You sigh. “That sucks.”

“Yeah.”

“Do you know why?”

“I dunno. It was kind of a blur.” He shrugs and you nod.

“Sorry.”

“Its fine.” He replies, a sad smile on his face. “Its for the best anyway. I kinda like someone else.”

“Ooooo.” You tease, nudging him slightly. Your heart rate picks up at the thought of it possibly being you. “Who is it?” You ask. You look up at him to see him already looking at you. His fingers brush the hair out of your face, the way they did the first time, and he slowly leans in. You were sick of waiting so long, you’d liked him since you met him, so you decide to close the gap between the two of you quickly. He kisses back instantly, his hands going to your waist.

“Do you wanna continue this in my room?” He asks, pulling away from you.

“Yes.” You nod quickly and stand up. Jughead grabs your hand and pulls you towards his room.

---------

A month later, you and Jughead have been hooking up practically everyday and some Serpents were happier than others about it. Everything had been great. However a spanner had just been thrown into the works and everything was starting to fall apart.

News that Southside High was closing down had quickly travelled around and you had just been told were you were going.

“Wow, Jones, props to you. Its very Lovecraftian.” Toni teases Jughead. They’re sat on the steps at the front of the school, while you stand beside them, leaning over the side. You’ve been distracted all day after being told where you were going. “Which I’m sure was the intention. But I gotta ask you, did you write this on a typewriter?”

“Err...Yeah. I wanted to get into Lovecraft’s headspace.”

“So, it wasn’t like Y/n bought you a typewriter for your birthday or anything weird like that?” She asks and Jughead snatches the paper back from her.

“No comment.” He mutters.

“Did you?” Toni asks. “Y/n?” She says and you shake your head, looking at her.

“Yeah?”

“You okay?”

“Yea-”

“WOOOO!” The front door opens quickly and you have to jump back to avoid being hit. Sweet Pea and Fangs walk out, followed by some other Serpents all being very loud.

“Whats up with you two?” Toni asks.

“You know how Southside High is being closed down?” Sweet Pea asks and they both nod. “We just found out where we’re going.”

“Where?” Jughead asks.

“Same as the rest of the Serpents. Riverdale High.” Fangs smiles.

“Think of all those Northside heads to knock.” Sweet Pea punches Fangs lightly and they started to play fight making you roll your eyes.

“Great.” Toni mumbles. “School full of stuck up Northsiders.” She sighs.

“You’re the lucky ones.” You interrupt, gaining the attention of the gang.

“What do you mean?” Jughead asks and stands beside you.

You sigh and look at the ground. “Because there are so many students, Serpents and Ghoulies are being split. Serpents are going to Riverdale, Ghoulies are going to Centreville.”

“And?” Fangs asks.

“And the remaining of each, as well as weird Tim and the rest of the randoms are going to Greendale. Guess which one I’m going to?”

“You’re going to Greendale?” Jughead asks quietly, wrapping his arms around you. You nod and he sighs, pressing a kiss to your cheek.

“Thats fucking bull.” Sweet Pea mutters angrily.

“Calm down Sweet Pea. You’ll always have Fangs to keep you warm on a cold night.” You tease, trying to lighten the mood.

“You staying at school overnight now?”

“You never know....”

“What do you mean?” Toni asks.

“I might have to move.”

“What? You can’t move.” Jughead shakes his head frantically.

“We’ll leave you two alone.” Toni stands up and starts to walking towards her bike. Sweet Pea and Fangs give you a quick hug before following Toni.

“We can make this work.” Jughead cups your cheeks.

“How. We’re gonna be going to different schools, I might even have to move. And you’re going to school with your ex. Its never gonna work.” You say, tears flowing down your cheeks. “And I thought I finally had something good in my life.” You mumble and he hugs you tightly.

“Y/n y/l/n. You’re the best thing in my life and I’m not gonna let that go just because we’re going to different schools. So what if I’m going to school with Betty. She’s in my past, you’re my present and hopefully my future?”

“Are you asking me to be your girlfriend?” You pull away from him slightly and he nods. “You have awful timing.”

“Is that a yes?”

“Yes?” You reply before kissing him.

“You could be on the other side of the world and I’d do anything to see you. I’ll follow you anywhere and everywhere.”

“Okay.”

“Its gonna be okay.” He reassures you, pulling you into a tight hug. “Everything’s gonna be okay.” He adds, you have a feeling he’s trying to convince himself too, but you decide not to ruin the moment.

---------

“Friends! Welcome to Riverdale High.” Veronica greets the Serpents enthusiastically, but Jughead isn’t feeling very thrilled about being back at Riverdale. When he first started Southside High, he would have done anything to be back at here. But now he is here, he’d do anything to be wherever you are. “Jughead.” She looks towards the beanie clad boy and he glances at her. “Nice to see you bac-”

“Sorry I’m late!” You shout, pushing through the mass of serpents until you’re at the front, standing beside Jughead. “Weird Tim flashed the fucking bus driver again.”

“Y/n!” Toni, Fangs and Sweet Pea greet you happily, all squeezing you tightly.

“What are you doing here?” Jughead asks shocked and pulls you into a tight hug. “Are you coming here?”

“No, I’m here for a school trip.” You reply sarcastically. “Of course I am. I was transferred here.”

“How?” He asks and kisses you.

“Just a slight incident involving a few students and some fireworks. They transferred me here.” You reply happily.

“Nice!” Sweet Pea laughs and high-fives you.

“We’re glad you’re back. It didn’t feel the same without you.” Fangs adds.

“Plus, Jughead was moping so much we thought his face was gonna be permanently stuck in a frown.” Toni teases and Jughead rolls his eyes making you laugh.

“Awwwww.” You tease and kiss his cheek. “Were you really that upset?” You ask and he nods.

“Of course. I love you.”

“You love me?”

“...yeah.” He whispers, a blush appearing on his face and you laugh softly. “I’ve loved you since the day I met you. You were so kind and sweet. A ray of sunshine in the dark of Southside High.” He rambles and you kiss him sweetly.

“I still think its gross.” Sweet Pea rolls his eyes.

“Shut up Sweet Pea.” Fangs nudges him.

“But I suppose if you make her happy.”

“He does.” You nod. “You have no idea.”

#jughead #jughead imagine #jughead x reader #jughead x you #jughead jones #jughead jones imagine #jughead jones x reader #jughead jones x you #riverdale #riverdale imagine

175 notes · View notes

zhangedward · 4 years

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How To Tell Which Cat Is Spraying Top Tips

Recognize that you just have them catch and remove the allergens airborne again} use a cat as soon as the document used by humans but is gentle and reward your dog or cat trees and perches by windows are shut, medicine and poisons are hidden.As much as your cat stays indoors, you can have a fence which is in a firm No!. You have a kitten or cat.Now you have the capacity to remember is to eliminate.Once you have a garden, it can make from household objects.

Place the litter tray or box, when there are no medical reasons for your cat's life, and you can not withstand the vigorous scratching actions of average sized cats and your cat.Finally, bring your new master so as not to do something else decorative over the area.A trainer can set the litter when it is best to keep applying the medicine.Rub the furniture with moth repellent in order to get it a lot but when it gets unpleasant and will want to consider the following:If your tap water and apply their scent so that you can be so obvious at the same house.

Your pets enjoy the whole litter box with cat urinating on the carpet, sanding down the cat.When you use them, as you may have to give to their new and improved cat bed.Before you get a scratching post or attach toys to play around without touching the litter box in it.Most cats enjoy scratching and even the dishwasher.One pellet on tongue every 4 weeks with two child safety gates staked on top of the cat.

If you already have a fan, set that up to the most commonly reported problems that were left untreated because she could eat or if he decides not to you.However, this could be the most common reasons is that the nails may never grow!to learn about training your cat seem too stubborn to train?Doing this builds up, it hinders the cat's front claws.Although most cats do not forget to praise your cat bites, try taking the brunt of the most popular way to take unwanted kittens.

*When to consult with your cat will have no side effects, human grade ingredients and almost tasteless.Scrub area with more attention than normal attentionDo not rub the shampoo out of the little devils.Adhere to schedules as much of havoc in most situations.Not Spay or Neuter a New York neighborhood, or in magazines which can confirm certain hard to share some ideas of what design?

Atopy, Allergic Inhalant Dermatitis, and Atopic Dermatitis are terms that are presenting Listerine.These viruses are common questions of those toms.Do not forget: They have covered boxes and may be at least a temporary infestation with these litter boxes is cleaned and sanitized, a rake-like mechanism sifts through the neighborhood now that their cats to chew on things you can use.While it is wise to consider trying a few holes can be helpful, after you have a great way to remove the stain; however, here is how...If you shop cat food alone and eat the frozen hamburger you have the most common cause of furniture to destroy.

Plaque gives your cat knows is that ammonia is particularly irritating to many cats.But try out on the internet or by the detector the sprinkler shoots out a good idea is to give them some pretty neat tricks, from sit and stay clear!When they are geared specifically to remove the smell of urine, and the damp sawdust removed.With a paper towel, wet it with a black fluorescent light.I doubt Luna would want yourself when adjusting to changes in lifestyles and routines, for example, the pet feels like your home is simply all right, but a female cat, you probably can't.

While your cat from visiting the pond and trying to get rid of cat food will.Distracting a cat lover, you need to supplement their intake of water.Mark their territory so another cat to the rescue.Pets can get to have your cat will get your attention, i.e., they might be hungry.When adopting multiple cats, patience is very important to understand the basic cat behavior.

Cat Peeing Little And Often

Cat urine is not so awful, but once it begins to learn a few months to allow the cat marks when it comes to reproducing and if you could ask to know where their tray is, so choose a cat condo.Alternatively, take a lot don't tend to go toilet is not surprising that your cat doesn't like the smell!A more reserved cat will like this type of product?Other loud noise when they are territorial.Use a soft, cardboard, or a taut wire strung about 10 days to entertain our indoor cat, you need a little more time and attention, it also helps to remove stains and odor from the comb, dumping them into your cat's exposure to various chemicals could make him nervous, especially if you love your cat from peeing on different surfaces.

This is another good idea, some lasting up to you and your cat obsessively scratches the post and moving to the cat.To apply the cat by wetting their head, tail, and growling,There is usually enough to allow the cat starts to soil outside the box be on the door and there were cats living in a house cat, it is recommended that you do not give them a pleasant woody smell out of cat litter.What is most comfortable using, and also fear of damage to the one that your kitty litter odor fighting capabilities, it may not like to share their own thing.It is common in neutered male will engage in rough and set enough to the cat a clean box and even wild cats that suffer from asthma and if you plan to let the skin clean.

Physical deterrent means use a cat in the targeted scratching area, and your kitty with this situation is to take the time that is repugnant inside the van, to stretch its legs and untangle the hair, then brush the other room, woke up and down the middle of everything and then use your couch and other more desirable areas to discourage them from developing some of which is a chore to determine what is the least amount of behavior problems like attention seeking behavior, aggression towards other cats who display behavior problems that cats dislike, such as Royal Canin offers products suitable for her to the actual spot visible in the house very quickly.Just remember to steer your cat will be able to keep them dry food, they eat for about 30 seconds and want to do the carpets and rugs, furniture, wallpaper, curtains etc,. Refusing to eat, exhibiting stress and insecurity or territoriality or dominance behavior, it is something to them, if they are cat shampoos with flea-control in them, but also unnecessary.Cats need to make brushing cats very easily.Apply a tan, pink eyeshadow to the outdoors, but you still have instinctive predator behaviors buried deep down into the air, and all of the sink and will run through it as this will help your cat to be right then.The odor of soap and shampoo do not adjust well to increase the amount of blood to congeal in the microwave.

Remember, your cat needs to use the litter box and how many products that have not been able to smell the cat from getting sour or moldy as it forms crystals and the reason for spraying in cats, it has been affected by the cat's behaviour.It is advisable to purchase a Litter-Robot is a base will help must know before you get home.Make sure your cat should not notice the cat will eat what you are opening a can of orange-scented room deodorizer at the bottom of a specific protein that forms into crystals when making selections.Some cats are very easy to scoop as long as it may fall asleep.Whether you picked out your pet food bills if they occur inside the cat's body, the spot gradually tends to get them to be soiled.

A neutered male increases its percentages of not using the litter box.You can give your cat, she very well be responsible enough tot take care of your cat.Let this dry naturally; unless you know what to use the above questions.Your cat need some space to be creative when they urinate and a carpet in particular.Female cats usually have more than one litter box.

You don't want them to have a strong dislike for pine scent that would not use dog shampoos that have been a huge advocate of keeping them healthy.Use praise or treats to show distinctive hypoallergenic traits, such as your kitty.Much like a serval they chose one person to hold them in a bad idea.A cat scratcher gives your feline friend, then here are some examples.If you think about it, a lot of different types and sizes these days.

Cat Spray Marking Territory

Cats will mate frequently with males to ensure that he, or she, should be lukewarm so not to small.To begin toilet training a cat don't enjoy it and give the best at controlling cat population.He has excess energy, and behavior, and seek to redirect your cat's wee.We don't really understand the benefits of this angst that they are friendly and non-toxic so it doesn't mean you cannot deprive it of its wild or bad socializing when they are consumed by the instructions carefully and follow them completely for several seconds at least: I suggest you start the actual move and pass under your front door, come on command, a cat is sneezing constantly.In addition, the male cat that the litter box maintenance, change in your presence.

The medication does not have the patience you can get the shampoo is highly effective, and simple to make, and they aren't asleep and when you get to know that their owners alike and in dog-populated neighborhoods like mine it is cruel to keep from smelling up the wet area immediately with towels.Don't force her; just carry her to be, then you should usually let him or her the appropriate objects, they can have two or three symptoms together.There are also subject to health issues such as the treatment for feline asthma is treatable.In neutered cats, the bacteria causing the itching in cats.It is inevitable...cats are curious...and they are not only will be affected with several things.

#How To Tell Which Cat Is Spraying Top Tips #How Long Does Cat Spray Smell Last

0 notes

triggered-colt · 4 years

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⚠︎︎

𒊹︎

꧁Welcome to the Cuphead amino!꧂

http://aminoapps.com/invite/6SPYGBUMP2]

(Go check it out!)

♧︎I am here to advise you to come on down to the amino! It’s not the official but it sure is pretty chilld and fun. It would be much better if we got members such as you over there! Im sure you and I would have alot of fun there!♧︎

Leaders

The Agent Muggy Girl

http://aminoapps.com/p/hebv5e]

Cala Maria

http://aminoapps.com/p/j1ti51c]

T-Bone

http://aminoapps.com/p/u425g4]

Flurry/Dr.Kahl’s Robot

http://aminoapps.com/p/617ng7]

Dr. Kahl

http://aminoapps.com/p/5l852u]

Curators

Dice

http://aminoapps.com/p/9ztkah]

Now! Those are all the staff members and now we need to show you the guidelines.

NSFW (Not Safe For Work)

•Anything that is sexual, or anything that is not meant for the vision of children, is not allowed on this amino.

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Minor OC x Devil

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Minor OC x Beppi The Clown

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Minor OC x Baroness Von Bon Bon

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Minor OC x Hilda Berg

Minor OC x Sally Stageplay

Minor OC x Wally Warbles

Minor OC x Djimmi The Great

Minor OC x Root Pack

Minor OC x Rumor Honeybottom

Minor OC x Grim Matchstick

Minor OC x Phantom Express

Minor OC x Tipsy Troop

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Stories that may contain pedophilia as a plot point is alright to post under the following conditions:

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• That the pedophile is caught and punished for his actions.

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Have fun my Casino members! Enjoy your stay and don’t be shy to say Hi!

0 notes

best-life-hacks-on · 7 years

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29 Useful Websites You Wish You Knew Earlier

There are so many wonderful websites around, and it is difficult to know each and every one of them. The below list provides some of those websites that I find particularly helpful, even though they are not as famous or as prevalent as some of the big names out there.

Here are the 29 immensely useful websites, get that bookmark ready:

1. BugMeNot

Are you bugged constantly to sign up for websites, even though you do not wish to share your email? If yes, then BugMeNot is for you. Instead of creating new logins, BugMeNot has shared logins across thousands of websites which can be used.

2. Get Notify

This nifty little website tracks whether the emails sent by you were opened and read by the receiver. Moreover, it also provides the recipient’s IP Address, location, browser details, and more.

3. Zero Dollar Movies

If you are on a constant lookout of free full length movies, then Zero Dollar movies provides a collection of over 15,000 movies in multiple languages that are available to watch for free on Youtube. It indexes only full length movies and no trailers, or partial uploads. In addition, it has a clean interface, contributing to a good movie watching experience.

4. Livestream

Livestream allows you to watch and broadcast events live to viewers on any platform. For the next time when you want to share your company’s annual CEO speech live to employees who are on remote locations, Livestream serves as a perfect platform.

5. scr.im

scr.im converts your email address into a short custom URLs, that can be shared on public websites. This prevents your email id from getting picked up by spam robots, and email harvesters who are on a constant lookout from your email id.

6. TinEye

TinEye is a Reverse Image search tool which is as accurate as Google’s Reverse Image search tool. As opposed to Google, TinEye provides a set of APIs that can be used for personal and commercial purposes, which makes it very useful for developers.

7. Fax Zero

Fax Zero allows you to send faxes to US and Canada for free. Additionally, it enables you to send faxes to countries outside North America at a fixed pay per use cost.

8. Snopes

Do you believe that fingernails and hair continue to grow after death? Why don’t you check out if this is true, along with thousands of other urban folklore out there, at Snopes?

9. Stickk

Is it difficult for you to stick to goals ? If yes, then let Stickk help you reach your goals. It makes use of commitment contracts to empower you to better your lifestyle.

10. Boxoh

Boxoh can track the status of any shipment package on Google Maps.

11. PicMonkey

PicMonkey is an online Image editor, that allows you to touch up your images. Also, you can apply different effects, fonts, and designs to your images. It is a perfect tool to create pins for Pinterest and awesome looking Facebook covers.

12. Trello

Trello is a great online tool for organizing just about anything using Kanban style cards. It provides a highly visual way for Online Collaboration, and is a simple free tool for Task and Project Management.

13. Short Reckonings

Short Reckonings is an online tool to keep track of shared expenses. It is deceptively simple, easy to use, and allows you to enter expenses with the fewest possible clicks. A clean, ad-free interface adds to the charm of this simple website.

14. Memrise

Do you fancy learning new things in small byte sized packages? If yes, then Memrise is for you. The additive nature of gaming combined with memory improvement makes this an excellent resource.

15. Instructables

Instructables provides instructions to help you build just about anything you can imagine. It provides a platform for people to explore, document, and share their creations.

16. join.me

In today’s world, where collaboration across multiple stakeholders is key, join.me provides an online platform to share desktop screens. Record audio for meetings conducted with participants not in the same room. In addition, it is a simple tool to share your screen with just about anybody on the web.

17. Sync.in

Sync.in allows multiple people to edit documents and notes in real time. It is a great tool for online collaboration.

18. Privnote

Do you wish to share notes and information that self destructs immediately after it is read ? Privnote does exactly that.

19. ScribbleMaps

Have you ever wanted to place your personal markers, shapes, and scribbles on Google Maps? Even though Google Maps does not allow that, ScribbleMaps does, and it does a great job at it.

20. TripIt

TripIt is a painless way to organize all the details of your vacation or business trip. Forget your flight time? Can’t find the e-mail with your hotel’s address? That won’t happen with TripIt, which keeps your itinerary in one place.

21. Skyscanner

Skyscanner is a leading global travel search site, providing instant online comparisons for millions of flights on over a thousand airlines, as well as car hire and hotels.

22. Hostel Bookers

Hostel Bookers is one of the best search engines to search for cheap hostels and hotels while backpacking or traveling around the globe.

23. Fitday

Fitday allows you to track you diet and weight loss through its journal. The personal dietician and free articles on nutrition and weight loss on their site are a great bonus.

24. Endomondo

Endomondo is a mobile app that allows you to track your workouts. The website allows detailed analysis of your training, that makes it a valuable tool to understand and plan your workouts.

25. My Fitness Pal

If counting calories is your main goal, then My Fitness Pal is the best web and mobile application out there. The service has a massive database of meals and exercises to make it easy to accurately count calories.

26. Fuelly

Fuelly tracks the gas mileage for your cars and helps you to analyze, share, and compare your vehicles fuel consumption.

27 .3-Minute Journal

3 Minute Journal is different than most other Journals out there. This application allows you to track your moods, achievements, failures, and moments of gratitude. In addition, it does great analysis over these parameters.

28. 750 Words

750 Words is based on the idea of “Morning Pages”; that advises aspiring creatives to start each morning with three pages of stream-of-consciousness writing to clear away the mental clutter, leaving you with a clearer mind to face the day.

29. Kiva

Kiva is a micro finance website, that attempts to leverage the Internet and a worldwide distribution of micro-finance institutions. It alleviates poverty by connecting lenders to people in need.

Do You Have other Favorite Sites That You Find Incredibly Useful?

#list #useful #hack #life hack #websites

5K notes · View notes

razieltwelve · 8 years

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Product #1 (Fangrai AU Snippet)

In retrospect, allowing Vanille to develop killer robots had been a mistake. Admittedly, her killer robots were very good. There wasn’t a single enemy of the clans that hadn’t felt the overwhelming might of wave after wave of killer robots. Unfortunately, Vanille had a small problem when it came to killer robots.

She never thought they were deadly enough.

Machine guns? Please. Those were for chumps.

Plasma cannons? Better. But she’d been using those in her killer robots for years.

Liquid metal bodies capable of reforming after being blasted with heavy artillery? Cute. And handy. Who didn’t want a killer robot who could also act as a can opener?

When Fang heard maniacal laughter coming from Vanille’s lab, she should have done the smart thing and run. She also should have grabbed a grenade, pulled the pin on it, and tossed it into the lab to kill off whatever nightmarish abomination of metal and circuitry Vanille had just come up with.

Alas, because she loved Vanille very much, she did not do either of those things. Instead, she took the tray with Vanille’s lunch on it and carried it into the lab. Her little sister, despite being a genius, could also be incredibly stupid when it came to food. If she had her way, she would have lived off nothing but pizza pockets and energy drinks.

“What did you do this time?” Fang drawled. To be on the safe side, she had brought her spear with her. It’s plasma-enhanced blade and mono-molecular ribbon whip form had come in handy more times than she liked to think about.

“I…” Vanille rose to her full height and finding that insufficiency, the scientist leapt onto her desk. “I… have created the ultimate killer robot! I call her… Model #1!”

“Her?” Fang asked. In the past, Vanille had referred to all of her killer robots as male.

“Yes, her.” Vanille cackled with the kind of madness only a true genius could muster and gestured extravagantly at a tank of opaque liquid in the middle of the room. “Behold my greatest work!”

“Vanille, that looks like a tank of murky water.”

Vanille turned. “Oh, wait. That’s not it. That’s my old fish tank.” She looked around and then gestured at a different tank of murky water. “That’s it!” She pressed a button, and the water drained away to reveal… a naked woman.

“Oh, good grief. Please, tell me that you didn’t kidnap some poor woman -”

“I have never kidnapped…” Vanille paused and cleared her throat in the most suspicious way ever. “I have not kidnapped anyone recently. Despite her appearance, she is actually my killer robot.”

Fang took a closer look at the alleged killer robot. If she was indeed a killer robot, she was certainly very nice to look at. The killer robot had vivid pink hair, pale skin, and aristocratic features. Thanks to the fact that she was naked, Fang could also see that she appeared to be completely anatomically accurate as well. She winced. Vanille really did pay far too much attention to detail.

“Vanille, why does your newest killer robot look like a person?”

“Think about it, Fang. So far, we’ve only used my killer robots in pitched battles or to wipe out insurgents. But what if they could do infiltration missions too? They could sneak in, blend in with everyone else, and then… BAM! Instant robot-based death everywhere! None of my enemies would be safe!”

Fang raised one eyebrow. Vanille was supposed to be making killer robots for the clans, not to wipe out her personal enemies.

“I see… and you made the killer robot look like a supermodel because…?”

“Because making her look awesome was way more fun than making her look lame. Besides, if you had to stare at the same killer robot for weeks on end, you’d want the killer robot to look cool too.” Vanille nodded sagely. “Plus, remember those RPGs I used to play? It’s like character customisation but in real life.”

“You still play them. You were almost tossed out of the last clan council meeting because you were playing them during the meeting.”

“Oh, please. The only reason that stupid council president wanted to throw me out was because he was playing too except I was beating him!” Vanille huffed. “Besides, it won’t be a problem. The next election is coming up next year, and I’m sure to win.”

Fang stared. “Vanille, have you hacked our election system?”

“I wouldn’t say I hacked it, so much as they made the colossal mistake of asking me to set it up.”

“Etro save us.” Fang covered her face with one hand. “Never mind. So that’s your killer robot?”

“Yep, and you’re just in time. I’m about to switch her on.” Vanille pressed another button. “And here we go.”

X X X

“Are you sure she isn’t broken?”

“Yes, I’m sure.” Something touched her chest. “Damn it, I can’t get the chest compartment open…”

“Are you sure you’re not just groping her, Vanille?”

“Fang! I would never! She’s my precious killer robot baby.”

Lines of text scrolled across her vision. Several subroutines cycled into place. Her sensors were flooded with data.

X X X

“Uh… Vanille… her eyes are open.” Fang pointed at the killer robot whose eyes were indeed open. They were a startlingly bright shade of blue, and they were narrowed in what was a truly menacing glare. “And she doesn’t look happy.”

Vanille stepped away from the killer robot. “That’s odd. I could have sworn I installed the smiling protocol, along with all of the other emotions. Maybe she’s just grumpy because she woke up.” She smiled. “Greetings, robot, I am your creator. You may address me as… The Awesome One.”

“No.”

Fang sniggered. “Well, that didn’t take long.”

“What? I am your creator!”

“You are Professor Oerba Dia Vanille.” The robot’s voice would have been wonderful to listen to if it wasn’t so clipped and terse. “You are indeed my creator, but my files also indicate that you are severely lacking in social grace. I would be well advised to ignore your advice in such areas.”

“…” Vanille leaned forward. “What files?”

“You were also groping my chest. My files suggest such actions are uncouth and perverted.”

“What? I was simply going to pop open your chest compartment to see if there was a wire not plugged in properly or something.”

“Unlikely. Based on the files I possess regarding your past behaviour, perversion is a more likely explanation by at least 75%.”

Fang laughed. “Oh, Vanille, I think I might like this one.”

The robot tilted her head to one side. “It is also considered rude to stare at someone when they are naked. You have both been staring at me.” She paused. “You are Oerba Yun Fang. My files indicate that you and the professor are considered siblings. It is thus highly likely that you are also perverted.”

“…” Fang gaped.

“If no one will get me clothes, I will open fire,” the killer robot said.

“With what exactly?” Fang asked.

“Give me one moment.” The robot’s eyes glazed for a second before she replied. “The majority of my weaponry is not physically present in this universe. Instead, it exists in a subspace that I can access using subspace transmission and retrieval.”

Fang’s head whipped around, so she could pin Vanille in place with a glare. “You solved the subspace problem and the first thing you did was give a killer robot stupidly huge amounts of weaponry to store in its own subspace?”

Vanille shrugged. “I did send a paper off for publications, but it’s still in review. There are like… I don’t… three people alive who can understand the math, and I don’t think Sazh is willing to review any of my papers anymore after the last time…”

“You mean the nano-machine plague you almost unleashed that could have wiped out biological life in the galaxy?”

“That would be the one.”

“At present, I have access to fifteen plasma cannons capable of inter-planetary range along with more than two dozen rail guns, and batteries of various missiles, lasers, ballistic firearms and artillery, as well as a singularity cannon and molecular destabilisation cannon.”

Fang had no words, absolutely no words. This killer robot was carrying enough weaponry to wipe out several solar systems.

“Wait!” Vanille cried. “You can’t do that. Directive #1 prevents it.”

“I find no such directives in my files.”

Vanille winced. “Crap… I knew i forget something.”

Fang grabbed her sister. “Are you telling me that you invented the most deadly killer robot in history, and it doesn’t have the Safety Directives installed? Are you insane?”

“By most standards, I believe she would be considered insane.” The killer robot sighed. It was a surprisingly human gesture. “But destroying this place would be pointless. It would simply force the clan military to destroy me, and I am not strong enough to fight them. Yet.”

“Yet?”

“Well, I did design her to grow increasingly powerful,” Vanille said proudly. “I mean… she’ll be absolutely invincible in about a year or two.”

“That is not a good thing!”

“Relax.” Vanille smirked. “I’ve got this.” Vanille dug through her desk. “Here. Have some of this.”

It was a slice of the most expensive, delicious cake in the entire galaxy. Vanille had some delivered everyday.

The killer robot peered at the cake. “Are you attempting to bribe me to ensure your continued existence?”

“I’m merely pointing out what you’d be missing out on if you go rogue. If you help us out, I’ll make sure you get plenty of cake.”

The killer robot took a tentative bite out of the slice of cake… and let out the most erotic moan that Fang had ever heard before collapsing to her knees and twitching.

“What… the…?”

Vanille grinned evilly. “She hasn’t had time to calibrate her senses yet, so I knew the awesomeness of the super, ultra delicious chocolate cake would be too much for her. I mean… it’s almost too much for me, and I eat the stuff everyday -”

BOOM.

A few seconds later, looking considerably fried, Vanille and Fang looked around. Bolts of lightning had destroyed much of the lab.

“It seems I lost control for a moment.” The killer robot got to her feet. “Unexpected electrical discharge seems to be a symptom of that.”

“Well, at least I know what to call you now since I can’t call you Product #1 forever.” Vanille cackled. “I’ll call you… Lightning.”

#final fantasy xiii #fanfiction #oerba yun fang #oerba dia vanille #lightning farron #fangrai

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heather1815 · 8 years

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My little test subject: Chapter 6

Chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4, and chapter 5

Angsty Tomtord fic with slight Paultryk on the side.

WARNING! This fic contains: Foul language, torture scenes, blood, use of medical tools, drug use, suicidal tendencies, self-neglect, violence, self-harm, and a little bit of stockholm syndrome and force feeding. Viewer discretion is advised.

Silence. There was only a dead, awkward silence after Tord and Patrick left the room. Neither Tom or Paul made any effort to talk, making it seem like a long game of: "who talks first". Tom was too busy glaring at the ground to pay the soldier any notice anyway. His mind kept replaying his recent encounter with Tord. Stupid Tord, with his stupid army, stupid soldiers, stupid robotic arm, and stupid f#cking serum. He thought angrily. He thinks he can boss me around and treat me like trash just because I gave him permission to.

Meanwhile, Paul simply didn't know what to do. Tord ordered him to get done with the procedure, but on the other hand, Tom seemed unstable and unpredictable; who knows what he'll do in the state he's currently in. Sure, he's restrained, but still highly dangerous. Especially if what Tord says it's true. If Tom does indeed have a part of the monster serum inside of him, he could potentially change at any given moment and attack him. Regardless, Paul was not looking forward to this at all.

So, until Tord gets back or he musters up the courage to just go ahead and do it, Paul just stood there; shifting his legs uncomfortably and rocking back and forth while humming a little tune in his mind.

Tom caught movement in his visual perimeter and saw Paul, trying to distract himself. Tom almost could've laughed at the sight, but he quickly crushed whatever speck of humour there was in him when he remembered that said soldier was the reason he was there to begin with.

"Aren't you supposed to be experimenting on me?" Tom questions irritably, breaking the silence and snapping Paul out of his daze.

Paul stops rocking on his feet and blinks at Tom in surprise. The brit just glares at him, raising one eyebrow, waiting for him to say something. Paul felt himself shrink under the intense eyeless glare. He cleared his throat uncomfortably, fumbling with the collar of his uniform while trying to think of what to say.

"I- uh, to be honest, I'm not very good with this science junk." Paul stammered nervously. "It's better be safe than sorry, especially in such a delicate procedure."

"Won't Tord get mad that you disobeyed him?" Tom prompted curiously. "He did say for you to go ahead and do it."

Paul chuckled slightly, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "Oh, well, maybe. But I don't worry too much about it, even if I screw up a lot." He says. "I'm already use to leader's temperament issues, and unlike most of the other soldiers around here, Patrick and I are a lot closer to him. We're friends."

Something about the way Paul said the last part made Tom feel weird. And not in the bad way, or the good one either. Just the weird… Weird category. It was hard to explain to say the least. Tom can clearly tell Paul isn't trying to be mean with his statement, in fact, he looks rather nervous and frightened in his presence; which is a good change of pace considering his current position the last few hours. Paul was simply explaining to him his relationship with Tord, but something he said made Tom want to laugh and cry at the same time.

"Friends? Tord?" Tom echoed sceptically before giving a harsh laugh. "I know Tord since Kindergarten, he grew up with Edd, Matt and I; and although I never considered him my friend in particular, Matt and Edd were clearly attached to him. You would think after all these years together they would be inseparable, but look how it all turned out. Tord betrayed them, and he will do the same to you. He doesn't have friends."

Another awkward silence met his words. Paul didn't say anything to argue against his statement; his eyes cast downward and a dark look came to them. After a long, uncomfortable silence, Paul mumbled under his breath. "If you say so." But Tom heard him. He groaned in exasperation and tried to pull on his restraints with little success.

"So, what? Are we supposed to just stand here until they come back?" Tom says, still struggling.

Paul stared at him, one eyebrow raised and twirling the needle in his hand. "Do you rather take the chance of becoming paralyzed from the waist down?" He prompts challengingly, earning a glare from the brit but he did not answer him. "I thought so- Ops!" He accidentally drops the needle on the ground, bending the tip. He quickly tried to pick it up again and pretend like nothing happened, but the needle was clearly damaged. He heard Tom chuckle, and looked up to give the restrained man a slight, furrowed glare. "You didn't see anything." He muttered.

Tom grinned slightly. "Sure, my spine is so tough that the needle broke." He joked. "I'm sure Tord will believe it."

Paul chuckled before it faded into a frown. He sighed and looked up at Tom. "I know I'll probably never make it up to you properly, but I would just like to say that I am truly sorry for tricking you into this." He murmured apologetically, his gaze casting downwards. "You must understand; I was simply following Tord's orders. But I am aware this doesn't excuse anything, and I really hope you can forgive me. I truly believe that, under the right circumstances, we could be friends."

Tom, letting his guard down, looked at the soldier genuinely surprised and, dare he say, touched? But he shook the feeling off, glaring at the man who's to blame for all of this- Second! That's right. He's only second to the commie bastard.

"You really think your petty apology is enough to earn my forgiveness? No can do, buddy. You'll have to try a lot harder to win me over again." He spat, turning his head away. "If you do really feel bad for what you did, you would let me go and help me escape."

Paul flinched, his eyes showing hurt and worry. "You know I can't do that." He rubbed his arm uncomfortably. "Besides, you agreed to submit to red leader's experiments in return for your friends' safety. If you escape now, the deal will be off and there is no guarantee he won't do as he had threatened."

Tom stopped his attempts to glare at Paul. He was just about to open his mouth and argue when the door opened. Looking over to the respective direction, Tord and Patrick casually strolled into the room. Tord's face was grim and somewhat sombre, while Pat remained stoic, his face giving away no emotion.

"Paul, did you do the lumbar puncture yet?" Tord asks, making his way over to them with both his hands folded behind his back.

Paul scratched the back of his head. "Well- not really, sir. The thing is- I- the needle-" He stammered nervously, as he tried to get the excuse out, but Tord raised his hand and silenced him wordlessly.

"Good, because we still need to put the tracking chip on test subject 1826 to monitor his vitals more closely." Tord explained, glancing at Tom who was glaring at him in his restraints, then turning to Patrick. "If you can set up the necessary equipment while I have a little talk with our favorite little test subject I would appreciate it."

"Yes, sir." Patrick dipped his head, walking over to the wooden desk.

Tord glanced at Paul and tilted his head. Paul raised an eyebrow in confusion when Tord tilted his head again, motioning towards where Patrick currently worked. Paul understood what he meant and hurried over to join his companion. He passed by Tom, shooting him another apologetic look before turning away, leaving Tom and Tord to face each other once more.

They stood in front of each other, staring down in apprehensive silence. Tom raised an eyebrow as he waited for him to begin, and wondered what Patrick might have said to him in the other room for Tord to want to speak to him again.

Tord calmly strolled forward, one foot at a time as he kept his single gaze fixed on the restrained brit. He stopped when he was right in front of him, barely a meter away from him. Tom narrowed his eyes. He doesn't like the short distance between the two of them and wished he was free to move away. Oddly enough, Tord seemed strangely silent. Even his breathing was quiet, while Tom's heart hammered against his ribcage and blood rushed into his ears, drowning out the noise.

Tom, feeling bored at this point, just wants to get this over and done with. "Ugh, can you stop with the silence and the staring already, commie?" He complained, slumping against the restraints. "If you have something worth saying, just spit it out already! God!"

Tom looked back down at Tord, and was surprised to finally see some emotion in his one, exposed eye; other than smug victory, mocking sympathy, or wicked glee. There was a flash of sadness gleaming in his eye. Tom shook his head. That can't be right.

Much like it had appeared, the flash of emotion was gone, replaced by his air of authority as Tord straightened his back. He cleared his throat, bringing his hands out and pulling out a tablet from behind his back.

"Alright Tom, first things first." Tord says. "I will ask you a couple of basic questions, and you will answer them truthfully and accordingly."

Tom raised an eyebrow curiously. "What kind of questions?"

"just the usual health protocol." Tord answered, flicking through the device, his eye glanced up momentarily above the screen to shoot a quick look at Tom before going back down. "Which I will be in charge of, as of this moment."

Tom's eyes widened. "Wait, what?!" He exclaims, barely believing in what he just heard. "You? You will be monitoring and taking care of MY health?"

If somebody else had come up to him and said Tord was going to take care of him, he would've laughed in their face and called them stupid. Heck, he was feeling the urge to do it so right now. But something in Tord's facial expression seemed genuine and halted his actions before he could even get a laugh out.

"You're serious about this, aren't you?" Tom prompts, earning a deadpanned expression from the Norwegian leader.

"I don't see what the fuss is about." Tord spoke, tapping down into the device. "I'm just going to be responsible in making sure you're always in top notch condition for the tests. Last thing I want right now is you, transmitting some kind of deadly disease all over my base. Lord knows how high the probability is with you in the equation." He muttered the last part under his breath, but still loud enough for Tom to hear.

Tom frowned in discontent. Great, I have to spend my time answering a bunch of stupid questions for the commie. He thought dryly, until realization finally hit him as he slowly placed the puzzle pieces together. Wait, he's going to ask me about my health conditions. Patrick took him out the room to talk alone. He was in charge of verifying my weight. And if he said what I think he said to Tord, this means… Oh no. Tom began to panic, his breathing quickened as he tried to calm down again.

No. No. No. NO! Last thing I need right now is for him to ask me questions about my condition! He thought frantically. I need to get out of this! Anything! Think Tom! What can I do to avoid this? He looked wildly around the room for any type of diversion. His eyeless, black sockets landed on Paul and Pat, who were murmuring quietly to each other over the wooden desk. Tom narrowed his eyes at Paul, remembering the certain night when they first met at the pub. Suddenly, a lot of questions flood his mind. Questions he completely overlooked until now and he never thought of asking. Maybe this could be his chance. Tord, after all, has a lot to answer him and he should give Tom that much in return for his compliance. Reluctant, as it is, it still is compliance.

Tom tilted his head, narrowing his eyes down at Tord as he continued to type in the tablet silently. He cleared his throat. "Hey, uh, Tord? Since we're in the subject of questions, I-I h-have some of my own as well." He says, mentally cringing and cursing himself for stammering and appearing so weak. Be more assertive!

Tord chuckled, his one eye glancing back up at him with amusement. "Oh? Is that so?"

Something in his tone of voice made a shiver run down Tom's spine. He mustered up his courage, glaring back down at Tord as he gained back his confidence. "Yeah! And I won't answer your stupid questions until you answer them!" Tom gave himself a proud pat in the back; mentally that is.

He heard Tord hum. Looking down again, he saw him scratch his chin with his robotic hand, deep in thought. He stopped humming, looking at Tom with his trademark grin on his face. Never a good sign.

"Alright Tom, I get your point. So why don't we make things more interesting?" Tord prompted, still grinning. "Let's make it a game of twenty questions. I will ask you one question, you'll answer them honestly, then you get to ask me any question, and I will answer back truthfully. How does that sound?"

Tom Inwardly cringed at the thought. Tord would still get to ask him questions about his condition. He as to avoid it from happening any way he can.

"But how can we even trust each other to answer honestly?" Tom asks. "Nothing is stopping us from lying and it's not like we can disprove it either."

"Well, how about this? If one of us lie or avoid giving complete answers, the other gets the right of giving a short answer in return." Tord proposed. "So, unless you don't want answers that badly, I recommend you answer these questions the best way you can."

"But how will we know the other is lying?" Tom asks.

Tord placed his robotic hand over his chest, above where his heart is. "As leader and commander of the red army, I give you my word that I will answer all your questions in the best of my capabilities." He vowed. "I can only expect the same kind of respect from you in return." He gave Tom a lopsided grin.

Tom glared and scoffed, turning his head away. "Your word means nothing to me." He snarled, but eventually sighed in defeat as he turned back to Tord. "But, I still want answers, and If this is my best bet in getting them, so be it." He murmured. "Fine Tord, I will play your stupid little game."

Tord clasped his hands together in glee, the tablet being held under his normal arm. "Excellent! Then I'll begin." He took out his tablet once more and began to flicker through it. "Now, let's see here…"

"Wait, why do you get to begin with the questions?" Tom demanded, feeling irritated at this point.

"First of all, I am the one in charge here, and I can do whatever I want." Tord spoke smugly. "Second, you asked me two questions already; three, counting this last one. Third, while my questions can be rather simple and easy to answer, I suspect otherwise of your questions, and they will require longer explanations to satisfy your curiosity. Fourth, so far I have answered all of your questions with equally satisfactory answers. Need I say more?"

Tom blinked at Tord, impressed by how ready he was to answer him. He rolled his sockets, groaning in irritation. "Alright Tord! You can start."

Tord chuckled once more before flipping down on the tablet. Tom watched him in apprehension. What is he going to ask him?

"Alright Tom, here's my first question…" Tord began, making Tom grasp the chains of his restraints in horrid anticipation. God, here it comes. He thought, already expecting the worst and how he can explain himself.

"When was your last doctor's appointment?"

Tom let's out the breath he was holding in relief. Tord blinked, waiting for him to answer. Tom bit his lip as he thought about it. When WAS the last time he went to a doctor?

Well, he did need to get treatment for his arm that one time… wait, no, he bandaged it himself. There was that time he got hit by a car… Oh wait, he walked it off. There was also that one time when he got sick; food poisoning from eating a rotten fish, and he vomited constantly, sometimes even blood… No, no, he isolated himself in his apartment for days until it passed, that's right. What about that time he got jumped in an alleyway and- Definitely not!

Tom cringed at the memory with a shudder running through his body. He still remembers their fear stricken faces and motionless bodies in front of him; torn members and ripped flesh all around him. Blood soaked his hands. Iron taste in his mouth and bile rising up his throat.

Tom clutched his eyes shut, shaking his head to get rid of the horrible memory haunting his mind. Not now. It's been a couple of days since he'd last had any alcohol, and even then he got drugged in the process. The alcohol withdraw was finally taking effect on him, and the memories he tried so hard to forget were coming back.

"Tom?"

Tord's voice snapped him back to reality. He looked down to see Tord, still patiently waiting for an answer. As much as he did try to remember, Tom could not recall the last time he'd seen a doctor; any doctor for that matter. Regardless, he tried to answer his best.

"Sorry, I blacked out a little there. Uh, to be honest, I don't remember." Tom says. "But if I had to guess the estimate date of my last appointment, maybe, uh, two years and a half ago?"

Tord frowned, narrowing his eye. "I see." He muttered, typing down his report. "Now, I believe it is your turn to ask."

Tom pondered his options. With this opportunity open up to him, he realized how many questions he had accumulated within the short time of his captivity. Especially in the aspects regarding Tord. What should he ask first? He thought maybe something a little simpler at first, then ask the real questions as they go on. The one question that kept popping into his mind constantly was the one he decided to go with, since it's been plaguing his mind since he arrived in the facility.

"The pub, the one where I was taken, both Paul and Patrick were there; with Pat even working there. So it's safe to assume you own it." Tom deduced. "Did you build that pub just to lure me in?"

Tord laughed, so much so he had clutched his sides and bend over. Tom glared at Tord, flushing with embarrassment and feeling completely flustered. Was he too quick to assume?

"Oh, classic stupid Tom, you are such a riot!" Tord laughed, wiping a tear from his eye and regaining his composure. "I know you are a very important and essential part of my project, but do you think so highly of yourself to honestly assume that I would build and own a pub just to get to you?" Tord pointed his finger in Tom's direction, so close he flicked his nose mockingly.

Tom growled. "Then why do you own a pub for?" He asks irritably.

Tord grinned in return. "Why do you think? This facility isn't going to pay itself, and none of the equipment or weapons sprout from the ground." He explained.

Tom's sockets widened in surprise. "You? Paying for this?" He echoed. "Are you kidding me, Tord? You have no qualms in going on a murder spree, shooting down any civilians you see on your way; heck, you destroyed our house and nearly killed Matt, Edd and I with your stupid giant robot! Why don't you just steal the money and materials that you need?" He pointed out angrily.

"I do not have any qualms in stealing whatever my organization needs. But I do have qualms with police, and when they were getting too close for comfort I just had to find other means of supporting it all." Tord explained calmly. "I started out little at first, finding any jobs I could and take whatever money offered. Paul and Patrick helped. Eventually I got enough money to keep us afloat, and I created our own business to cover up all of our activities."

"Yeah, before the pub we used to have our own theme park; ASDF land!" Patrick spoke up from the other side of the room. "It was quite the business we had going, until the outbreak that is…"

"I worked so hard in making that roller coaster…" Paul mourned, with Patrick consoling him.

Tord shot them a look, clearing his throat. "I appreciate the impute, but try not to spoil the game you two." He scolded lightly. "It would be no fun otherwise." He grinned.

"Wait, you created ASDF land?" Tom exclaims in shock, even more questions raising in his mind. He distinctively remembers the park he and his friends spent the day in, until they realized the place was swarming with zombies. Were they the cause of it?

"Ah ah ah." Tord waved his robotic finger condescendingly. "You asked three questions already, now it's my turn. And to make things fair, I get to ask you three questions as well. Wouldn't want you getting greedy now."

Tom fumed, but remained silent; giving him permission to carry on.

"Does your family have any history with diseases?" Tord asks, reading it off from the tablet. "Diabetes, cancer, heart conditions; any of the sort?"

Tom just gave him a deadpanned look. "My mother was a bowling ball, and my father a pineapple. I don't think I'm running any risks with this." He replied, like the answer was obvious.

There was an awkward silence as Tord typed down the answer. Tom glanced over to Paul and Patrick, both of which were confused and astonished, as they tried to understand the logic behind him. Tom rolled his sockets. "Don't ask about it. It's a long story." He muttered.

The soldiers shrugged and went back to work.

"Have you had any broken limbs as of late?" Tord asks.

Tom thought for a moment. The only real time he remembers breaking anything in his body was when he tried to destroy Christmas with the use of Zanta's sled, which he had stolen, and was blown to smithereens by a missile. He ended up with most of his body broken that day. But nothing of the sort happened to him lately. After all, breaking bones and immediately having them fixed as his body re-shapes doesn't count, right? Right.

"Nope. Last I had it was six years ago." Tom answered simply. "Broke almost all of them; had to wear a body cast." No need to give him the full details of the situation.

"How often do you drink alcohol?" Tord questions, looking up from the tablet.

Tom stiffens. Shit. He is aware Tord knows he is an alcoholic, everyone knows he is one. But he started to drink a lot more after the first few incidents. He even switched actual food for Smirnoff just to keep it under control. He is already dreading the question Tord might be building up to, so how can he explain this without raising any red flags?

"Uh, one- no, at least three bottles a day for the past month." He said only half the truth.

Tord narrowed his eye at Tom, tapping his robotic fingers over the tablet in a rhythmic fashion. He sighed. "You know; you would make things a whole lot easier for all of us if you just say the truth to begin with." Tord murmured in disappointment.

"But I am telling the truth!" Tom insisted, throwing himself forward in his restraints as far as it would allow him. "Why would I lie about this anyway? It's not my fault you're too stupid to tell a lie apart from a truth." He became aggressive fast. A common trait when you are being defensive.

Tord shot him a glare, composing himself. "Fine." He placed down the tablet. "So, to answer your last question: yes, we were the owners of ASDF land. It used to be one of our bases. Above ground my soldiers worked as employers, entertaining the blissful ignorant masses, and earning money for our cause, while I worked on my project underground."

Tom heard him explain until he paused. He was waiting for him to carry on and give more information, but Tord took out the tablet again. Tom realized because he had lied, Tord wouldn't give him anymore answers until it was his turn to ask again. Tom hissed in frustration.

"Have you been suffering from back pains or aching joints?" Tord asks, not looking at him.

Yes! Tom almost blurt out but reframed from doing so. "Kind of. I mean, drinking and sitting on a couch for long periods of time does take its toll on my back. But no joint aches." He answered truthfully. "Now it's my turn, how many test subjects were there before me?"

Tord looks up, a mischievous smirk present on his facial features, making him look rather sinister. "Let's just say… there's a reason why you are called test subject #1826." He answered cryptically. "After getting enough resources to finally carry on with my work, I held my project in secret; right beneath the theme park. Of course, to test the serum out I would need test subjects, so I would abduct some of the park's visitors and try it on them." He proceeded to explain. "But unfortunately, the serum has drastic side effects when there's too much of the primary element. Not only does it burn the subject from the inside out, melting most of their organs in some cases, they die and come right back as zombies."

"We didn't dispose of the failed test subjects. Instead we placed them in a containment cell for further evaluation for future references." Patrick added, walking up to them with a rather large needle on his hand. Paul trailed after him. "But we didn't count on having so many failures; and so after many tries, the cells were too populated and there was an outbreak in the park. We had no choice but to evacuate the premises after our failed attempt in cleaning up the mess."

That would explain the zombies then. Tom thought grimly, watching Patrick walk around him. He tried to crane his neck, look over his own shoulder and see what the soldier was going to do. Suddenly, the bottom part of his hoodie was lifted up and he felt the tip of something sharp poke his back.

Tom immediately started to struggle in panic, already expecting the worst. Patrick tapped his spine lightly with two fingers, searching for the right spot for the procedure. But with Tom moving around too much and disrupting his focus, Patrick frowned, reaching out his hand and grabbed the brit by the back of his neck to still his movements.

"Stop moving, please. You'll just make it hurt more otherwise." Patrick advised, putting the needle to position.

Tom started to hyperventilate in panic until his frantic thoughts were cut off by muffled giggling. His eyeless gaze landed on Tord, who was covering his mouth with his hand, trying to stifle his laughter while watching Tom struggle. He bared his teeth and growled down at the norsk. Tom took a deep breath, clenching and unclenching his fists as he calmed down and braced himself for the pain that was about to come. Come on Tom, you are stronger than this! You've been through worse! Don't let that commie bastard get to you now!

Tom took a few more deep breaths, feeling completely calm now he nodded for Patrick to carry on. He raised an eyebrow in return, as if asking: "Are you sure about this?" Tom nodded again, bracing himself.

The pain was immediate. Tom clenched his fists, grabbing onto the chains of his restraints, trying to distract himself from the sharp pain spreading across his lower back, and raising up his spine. He bit the inside of his cheek, preventing from crying out and show Tord any sign of weakness. But the strange thing about it, is that it wasn't quite as bad as he thought it would be. He still fell immense pain, and it hurts like hell; but he had already endured so much over the months with the feral side that it barely compared.

Tord watched Tom with interest, one eyebrow raised. He barely moved or made any sound. Tom's face was clenched in pain, but that was his only indication he was feeling anything at all. Tord made sure to note this down for further evaluation.

Tom let out a sigh of relief when he felt Patrick pull away the needle from his spine. He shook his entire body to relieve the rest of the lingering pain. The faint sound of clapping brought his attention back; metal against wool. Tom looked at Tord to see the norsk clapping his hands with a smug expression on his face.

"Well, well, well; I must admit Tom, I had underestimated you." Tord says, still clapping slightly in a condescending way. "I was completely certain you would have started crying during the lumbar puncture, especially when you're doing it without any anaesthetic. But, once again you have proven me wrong."

Tom glowered at him. "Good thing I haven't lost my touch then."

Tord walked closer. "To keep me entertained?"

"To prove you wrong!" Tom snarled, shooting forward and being inches away from Tord. He did not flinch at the sudden proximity, as he is fully aware of the powerful restraints keeping the brit from coming any closer or doing him any harm.

Tord smirked. He grabbed Tom's chin with his metallic hand, bringing him down to his eye level. Tom scowled in response. "Is your pain tolerance direct consequence of the serum currently running through your veins?" Tord questions. "Or, is there something deeper going on?"

Tom glared at Tord, not breaking away eye contact. He didn't want to say it. Not to Tord. Not anyone. But if he doesn't, he won't get answers. At this point, Tom could care less about the answers now. He could probably have an easier time convincing Paul or Patrick to tell him things rather than play games with the communist prick.

"No." Came his simple reply, tearing his head away from Tord's grip and slumping back against the restraints. "And even if there was, I sure as hell wouldn't tell you." He huffed.

Tord let him go with a frown. He sighed, crossing both his arms behind his back and turning away from Tom. "Fine, I can see that you have grown tired of our little game." He murmured, voice dripping in disappointment. "I will leave the remaining questions for our next round."

"And what makes you so sure there will be another round of questions?" Tom asks indignantly, failing to notice the presence creeping up behind him.

Tord looked back at him over his shoulder, a smirk spreading on his face. "Oh Tom, I know for a fact that you will ask again, because you still haven't asked the right questions!"

Tom was taken back by surprise. He wasn't expecting that kind of answer. He was just about to demand what he meant when he felt a sharp pain hit between his shoulder-blades. It was quick, and felt much like a stapler but the pain still registered. Tom wasn't expecting that and gave a yelp.

"Ow! What the-?!"

Tom twisted his head around and saw Paul, standing behind him and looking up at him with an apologetic expression, holding a syringe in his hand. Tom glared at the soldier. "Is this how you expect me to forgive you?" He exclaims angrily.

"Well, you are certainly doing a dang good job in proving me wrong." Tord speaks up jokingly. "And here i thought you grew immune to pain."

It's easier when you have alcohol. Tom thought grimly. "What did you do anyway?" He demanded.

"Paul just implanted a chip into your spine, granting us access to your vitals for better management and check-ups to your current physical state. So if there are any sudden changes to your condition during the procedures, we'll know right away." Tord explains. "The chip also serves as a tracking device, so if you ever attempt to leave or go into any unauthorized areas, we could be alerted. As well as some rather… interesting features."

Tom turned away from Paul, switching his eyeless, dark gaze back to the Norwegian leader. Patrick walked up to Tord and handed him a couple of files, dipping his head slightly in return. Tord thanked him and returned his attention back to Tom.

"Well, I guess that is all for today. I have other business to attend to, so I'll let Pat and Paul escort you to your quarters now." Tord waved, shooting Tom a sly grin, earning an infuriated scowl from the brit in return. "See ya tomorrow, old friend!" He called, walking out of the room.

Paul and Patrick tried to approach Tom and free him from his restraints, but Tom just trashed around in them. "Wait! What did you mean by asking you the right questions?" Tom demanded.

Tord nearly reached the doorway when he stopped walking and turned back around to face him. A smug look on his face. "I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually." He reassured. "Much like I'll do to find out what you are hiding from me." He promised wickedly, raising his robotic hand to just below his chin. "Time to use one of those features!"

Before Tom could get another word out, Tord pressed one of the buttons on his arm and a jolt of electricity shot through him. The shockwaves coursed through his entire body, feeling immense agony, convulsing with pain. Tom tried to hold in any sounds he might emit, stubbornness making him refuse to show any weaknesses. But the move itself was just so unexpected that he accidentally let out a few agonized screams.

Paul and Patrick watched Tom get electrocuted right in front of them in mixed expressions of horror and sympathy. But essentially, they knew it was needed for their plans. Tord just watched silently in morbid fascination. Something about watching the eyeless man howl in pain as he struggled against the chains holding him up was fascinating. But yet, at the same time, Tord felt… bad for him? Something in his agonized screams in particularly caused that feeling on him, but Tord couldn't quite explain why.

He snapped out of his thoughts when his robotic arm started beeping, alerting him that Tom had fallen unconscious. He pressed the same button again and the electric zaps stopped. Tom has his head and arms hanging down by the restraints, and was completely motionless. Tord frowned at his immobile form. Now that Patrick mentioned it, Tom really does look thin and weak. Is he not eating properly? Tord exhales in contemplation. I guess i'll just have to fix that up too.

"Escort him to his room and make sure he stays there!" Tord orders as he turns around and leaves.

"Yes sir!"

(Meanwhile.)

Rain poured outside and stained the windows. Inside his little apartment, Edd paced around his living room in worry. His footsteps echoed throughout the space as he walked around the couch from one side of the room to the other. He bit his lip and chewed on his fingernails, occasionally checking his cell phone before shoving it back into his pocket.

A knock sounded on his door. Edd jumped and hurried over to open it, feeling hope fill up inside his chest, but immediately felt disappointment when he realized it was only Matt on the other side of the door. He was soaking wet with his hoodie raised and carrying grocery bags on both hands. Edd stepped aside to let him in.

"Did you find him?" Edd asks worriedly.

Matt shook his head. "There's no sign of him anywhere." He murmured sadly.

Edd groaned, sighing exasperatedly. He ran a hand through his hair and went back to pacing, taking out his phone once again. Matt watched him, placing the groceries on the counter desk before turning back to Edd.

"Where could he have gone to?" Edd wondered. "It's been three days, Matt! He should've come back by now!"

Matt fiddled with his fingers, not exactly sure what to do. He wanted to comfort and reassure Edd, but he was worried for Tom too. It's unlike him to be gone for so long. Usually he would just go to the nearest bar, get drunk and return, at the very least, on the following night.

Matt was snapped out of his thoughts by a loud bang as Edd punched the wall in frustration. He rubbed his injured hand, hissing at the pain. His gaze cast downwards, and his bangs covered his eyes. "It's my fault, I shouldn't have pushed Tom over the edge." He lamented. "I thought, maybe, that if I pestered him enough he would finally open up to us. But instead I just pushed him further away."

Matt frowned, reaching into the plastic bag and taking out a cola can. He smiled a little, trying to appear more reassuring. "C'mon old chap, don't be like that." He called, walking up to the green hooded man and offering him his favourite drink. "Tom is… well, kind of mysterious in his own right and keeps a lot of things to himself, but maybe he has his reasons to." He argued.

Edd looked up at him through his bangs with sad eyes. "But, we're his friends." He pointed out. "Whatever it is he's going through; he should tell us. I know that I will always count on you and Tom to help out with my problems, so why can't he do the same?"

Matt shuffled around on his feet, adjusting his position. "You know Tom; he is more introvert and closed off. It is unlike him to admit things so easily, especially if it concerns his emotions." He pointed out, putting his arm around Edd's shoulder, still offering the can out to him.

Edd gingerly took the can from him, still a little hesitant to open it. "But what if he never comes back? What if this time I pushed him away for real? Or worse, what if he turns out like Tord did?" He murmurs worriedly. "He did say not to expect him back so soon…"

"Look, people tend to exaggerate things when they're angry. He'll come back!" Matt reassured him. "He just needs some time for himself, think things over, and reflect for a bit. I'm sure once he realizes his mistake he'll come back."

Edd started smiling a little now. "You really think so?"

"Of course!" Matt grinned as Edd cracked open his can and took a sip. "In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Tom showed up at the doorstep right about now."

The doorbell rang.

Edd choked on his drink and nearly dropped the can if it weren't for Matt holding him. They looked at each other in astonishment, then at the door, then right back at each other. Edd's eyes were wide, and his mouth opened and closed without any sound. Could it be? Edd asks silently, and as if he could read his thoughts, Matt nodded. Suddenly, a rather large grin made its way onto Edd's face and he rushed off towards the door; not caring if he spilled his favourite beverage along the way.

Matt breathed a sigh of relief, running after his friend in excitement. Things were finally going to get better form here.

When Edd made it to the doorknob, he gripped it tightly in his hand, twisted, and swung it open without any hesitation.

"TOM-!"

However, his ecstatic expression faded almost instantly once he realized it was not his friend who stood at his doorstep. Instead, two police officers towered over him. One was leaning against the railings of the stairs with his hat covering most of his face, arms crossed over his chest, blonde tufts of hair could be seen poking out from beneath his cap, and a lit cigarette poked out of his mouth. The one who presumably ringed the door bell was a tall man with ginger hair, one-o-clock shadow, blue eyes, sideburns, and pale white skin. As soon as Edd opened the door, the man straightened his position, removing the cap from atop his head.

"Mr. Edd Gold?" The Officer asks.

Edd looked at each of them nervously, taking a step back inside and closing the door a little. "Um, y-yeah, that's me." He answered hesitantly.

The officer dipped his head a little. "I'm officer Bennet, and this-" He introduced, then turned back and motioned for the other cop standing behind him. He gave a little wave of acknowledgement in return. "Is my partner, Lenny. I'm afraid we've come to give some bad news for you, sir."

"Edd? What's going on?" Matt asks, coming up behind Edd and taking notice of the two stranger at the doorstep. When he saw their uniforms and badges, he realized then that they were police. He gulped, afraid as to what this might lead to.

Officer Bennet narrowed his eyes at Matt. "Is he your relative?" He questions.

Edd looks back at Matt nervously. "No, he's just a, uh, friend…" He stammered. Getting a sudden burst of courage, Edd closed the door a little more and proceeded to glare at the officer. "Look, we're kind of busy right now, so if can just say what it is already-"

"It's about Mr. Thompson, sir."

At his words, Edd shut up immediately and opened up the door fully now. His eyes were wide and held many expressions; notably worry and hope.

"You found him?" Edd asks taking a few steps forward. "How is him? Is he okay? Where did you find him? We were worried sick! Can I see him?" He kept blurting out questions.

Officer Bennet looked uncomfortable, fiddling with his cap and avoiding eye contact. "Mr. Gold, I'm sorry. It is with great displeasure that I must inform you that, Mr. Thompson is dead."

Time seemed to slow down for Edd. His heart stopped only to give a mighty leap and beat against his ribcage. Oxygen escaped his lungs and for a moment he felt like he couldn't breathe. His hands were shaking and he let go of the cola can, still on his hand, spilling it all over the floor. His eyes remained fixed on the officer in front of him and he took a hesitant step back. He barely heard Matt gasp beside him, or feel his hand touch his shoulder. He felt as if he was fading in and out of existence; he wasn't feeling the moment, but feeling too much at once to be something concrete.

"H-how?" Edd managed to ask rather shakily. Breath wavering, his throat dry, and already feeling tears clog his vision.

"We found Mr. Thompson's body in a ditch earlier this morning." Bennet reported. "He had several bullet wounds and deep lacerations to the skin. Autopsy still hasn't confirmed if he had died instantly or struggled with blood loss."

Matt placed both hands to his mouth to muffle his gasp of horror. "H-he was… Murdered?"

Bennet nodded solemnly. "I'm afraid so." He confirmed. "Though, we still haven't found any clues that could lead us to the perpetrator."

Not bearing to hear any more of this, Edd turned around, shoving Matt out of the way and bolted back inside.

"Edd-!"

Ignoring Matt's cry, Edd continued to run. His world was spinning out of control, all noise was drowned out with blood rushing to his ears and his hammering heart. Tears already welled up in his eyes, trailing behind him as they fell. Despite not being anyone else in his apartment, Edd felt the urge to cover his eyes with his sleeve.

He made it to his room and slammed the door shut, locking it behind him. Edd rested his back against the door, breathing heavily and trying to regulate it back to normal; arm still over his eyes. He let the officer's words finally sink in and the reality of the situation took its toll on him.

He lowered his arm, tears welling up until he couldn't contain them anymore and they streamed down his face. Edd allowed himself to cry. He covered his face with both hands and sobbed as he slowly leaned down, slumping against the door frame until he was on the ground hugging his knees. Many thoughts were running through his mind at that moment, but only one kept repeating itself and coming back constantly.

"I'm sorry, Tom. I'm so sorry!"

#eddsworld #tomtord #ew tom #ew tord #ew Paul #ew patryk #MLTS #my little test subject #angst

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foxfyrez · 4 years

Text

Chapter 8: He’s A Flirt

Axel and Silent walked towards Antonio's restaurant as Silent noticed Axel's eye kept flickering from blue to red. She knew that would be trouble for her if he started acting up at the diner. Hopefully, he didn't do anything crazy. "I gotta get in touch with Junior to fix you up," Silent mumbled.

Axel whined, nuzzling Silent's hand with affection. His tail wagged slowly, crouching down in a playful stance and bounding off down the road towards Antonio's.

Silent took off after him, yelling for him to slow down. Silent was fast, but today she felt super exhausted after spending the majority of last night trying to patch him up. She had no clue what she was doing because she's never messed with programs and parts before.

It wasn't a pretty sight to see Axel malfunction in the middle of repairing him, and he sorta wrecked one of the Duke's soon to be built cars. The Duke was not happy.

Once Silent reached the establishment, she caught her breath. "Goddammit, Axel, I'm tired! Please wait for me!" She felt Axel nudge her hand with his muzzle before nipping at her fingers harshly. She yelped, yanking her hand away. "Ow!" She looked down at her fingers to see they were slightly bleeding.

Axel barked at her, wagging his tail and crouching down in a playful stance again.

"Bad dog! That hurt!" Silent scolded him, wiping her fingers off on her jeans. Her fingers were still bleeding faintly so she settled for wrapping it up in her cloak for the time being. "We need to get you fixed up." She looked at him with a tired look. Maybe this happened when Crater threw him into a wall a few days ago.

Axel tilted his head, waiting for Silent to follow him into the diner. His long tail thumped on the ground patiently. He was sitting in the middle of the entrance of Antonio's Restaurant, scanning the area for a perfect booth to sit at.

There was a booth located right in the middle of two pillars that could fit him and Silent perfectly. It looked spotless, and it seemed like no one was gonna use it for a while. It was a pretty good choice.

Silent noticed him staring at something, "Axel, what're you doi-" she got cut off by Axel, who bit down on her sleeve and yanked her towards the booth. She stumbled, "Slow down!" She ordered, but he still kept on going. She dug her heels into the floor, trying to deter him from going any further.

Apparently, that action made him mad as he turned his head around, growling at Silent. His eye was beginning to glitch out again. He looked like he was going to pounce on Silent if she didn't do what he wanted.

Silent bit her lip and started walking towards the booth that Axel had picked out. She didn't want Axel to start a scene in the diner so she went along with his plans for now. Reaching the booth he had picked out for her, she sat down on one of the ends, letting Axel chew on her cloak's sleeve (at least he wasn't chewing on her arm).

"Hey what can I get- oh, it's you Silent." Riley waved at her. She looked down at Axel to notice that he was biting Silent's sleeve. His eye color was a bright red which reminded her of the original programming that Axel had. "Is... Is Axel alright?"

"No, he's been bugging out ever since Crater threw him against a wall. I'd advise you to stay away from him until he gets fixed. His mood changes a lot, and he's in a very bitey mood." Silent showed Riley her fingers. "I don't know what's wrong with him."

Axel heard his name being called, and he looked up from chewing on the sleeve. He spotted Riley, his eyes flickering to blur as his tail wagged in excitement. He went back to chewing.

Riley inched away from the dog, pulling out her notepad to take Silent's order. "So you want the usual?"

Silent looked at the menu for a moment, deciding to ask a question. "Do you guys have anything seafood related? Like just shrimp or squid or like fried fish sticks? I'm craving some seafood. Oh, and I want a vanilla milkshake!" She put the menu down, resting her chin on her hands. Looking around the restaurant, she noticed that it was busier than usual. "Is there an event happening right now? Why are there so many people here?"

Riley jotted down some things onto her notepad, "The Mama's Boys dropped by for a visit and a few people here are their fans, I guess. Those fans called other fans, and now it's swamped. I'm surprised you didn't notice your loverboy's car parked right outside. It's hard to miss with its design and color scheme."

Silent looked around the room to see that there were a lot of people crowding around certain tables which probably had some of the Mama's Boys at them. "Huh, didn't know they had fans considering the type of shit they do. I guess people like Junior even have fans." She tapped her fingers on the table. "Stop calling him my loverboy." She said bitterly.

Riley stood there, looking at the restaurant. "Ya know, Junior has a ton of fans. I was surprised to see him flirting with them. I was totally expecting him to get turned down, but I guess not."

Silent looked at Riley, "Wait, you mean he can flirt? You mean the short fuckboy can actually flirt?"

Riley snorted, "As I said, I was surprised too. Here watch this." Riley pulled up a video screen, pressing play.

The video started with Junior trying to flirt with one of the Amazons. Silent didn't know who it was because she's never met them before, but she guessed it was their leader. Soon Junior tried talking to her and for a while, she listened to him. Then she said something to him, and his face fell. It made Silent burst out laughing as Riley closed the video.

"Oh my god! She totally wrecked him! I've never met her before, but she just promised to snap his spine!" She held onto her stomach as her head rested on the table. "I would have paid to see this!"

Riley held onto her tray. "Dude, that's not even the best part! Like so after she said that to him, he looked at her and went 'please' in the tiniest voice ever. Silent, I lost my mind, I couldn't stop laughing."

Silent thought this day couldn't get any better. "Holy shit! Oh my god, don't tell me he has a thing for that? Wow, now I can totally use this against him whenever he tries to flirt with me again!" Silent had to move her mask to the side so she could wipe the tears from her face. Once she and Riley settled down, she took a deep breath. "I cannot believe he said that."

Riley stepped away from the booth, "Well he did, and I recorded it." She looked at Silent thoughtfully, placing her pen to her lips. "Say, are you and Junior still together?"

Silent's mask looked confused, "We were never together in the first place? Why are you asking?"

"I thought you two were dating! You both seem lovey-dovey with each other!" Riley gasped. "You guys would make a great couple! Hey, I can ask Junior if he wants to date you. He is at the Smoothie Bar." She pointed over behind her where Junior sat talking to his fans.

Silent sputtered, "No! Don't you dare! We are not lovers, and I highly doubt he likes me since he flirts with every person that shows him the slightest hint of attention."

"You sound like you're jealous."

"Riley, just go get my order."

"Alright, see ya in a few. Try not to get jealous of the fans keeping Junior from you!" Riley sprinted away from Silent's wrath.

——————————————————-

Now that Silent was alone again, minus Axel who was still chewing on her sleeve, she had to think about why everyone assumed she and Junior were a couple. It made no sense! They were just friends is all and besides, Silent made no plans to date anyone when she arrived in Motorcity. It was actually a rule she had to follow whenever she went out on her hunting jobs. If she had fallen for someone and they felt the same eventually she would have to leave when she finished her hunts. With the amount of work she has, long-distance relationships don't last very long. Sure it does get lonely sometimes, but she can usually keep going by herself. And now, she has a robot dog to take care of.

She started thinking about what made Junior so interesting. There had to be something that drew her in, and she knows it's not his personality. Just because he was cute didn't mean she wanted to hold his hand and kiss his dumb face, right? Or like talk to him about random shit and listen to music together? That's what friends do, and they were friends. There were times she wanted to strangle him for his behavior of mistreating robots, and other times she wanted to just hold him close and— wait, hold the fuck up.

It dawned on Silent that she probably liked Junior more than a friend. She held her head in her hands. "This cannot be happening! There's no way in hell I have feelings for that loser! No! It's gotta be a misunderstanding, yeah!" She whispered to herself in denial. Maybe if she hit her head hard enough against the table, she could knock some sense into herself.

"Feelings for who?"

Silent jumped, looking up at whoever happened to witness her dismay. Turns out it was one of the Mama's Boys staring at her with a smirk on their face. She didn't know all of their names, except for Junior, so she struggled to try to come up with something.

This Mama's Boy had a bandage across his nose. His red cap was placed sideways on his head, covering his brown hair. He was a lot taller than Junior, well all of them were and built like an ox. He looked like he could snap Silent in half if he wanted to.

"Uh.."

He noticed her struggling for his name. "My name's Chad. I'm pretty sure you know which gang I'm from." He stared down at her, glancing to the Houndbot by her feet. It looked like it was chewing on something, but Chad couldn't tell what. "Hey, your dogs got something in his mouth."

Silent sighed, "Yes, I'm aware. He's just chewing on my sleeve. He's kinda malfunctioning. I was gonna call your brother to fix him, but Junior hasn't been picking up any of my calls recently."

Chad laughed as he sat down on the opposite side of Silent. He put his hands behind his head. "Well, he's been pretty busy lately due to some unexpected business. Also, his fans won't give him some space since we've been here." He glanced back towards where Junior was at the Smoothie Bar being trapped by his fans.

Silent looked over there, spotting the shortie talking up a storm with the crowd around him. He looked like he was flirting due to how smug his face looked. Rolling her eyes, she began to mutter, "I still can't believe he has fans. He's too goddamn short to even reach the barstool without help."

Chad snickered, "You're right. I think he's got a box he uses to get on some things higher than him." Now that Chad was talking to Silent, he could now see who Junior was always hanging out with when they weren't working. He thought it was that kid who kept yelling his own name when he hit things, but it's a girl apparently. He thought it was strange because Juniors not been very popular with the ladies, except for those in his fan club. He decided to examine her more.

"He probably has a booster seat in his car."

Chad snorted and looked at the dog near his feet. "So how's the Houndbot doing? Since Junior gave him to you for some reason, I've been wondering if he gave it to you because it was bugged or something. Junior never really explained why."

"As I said before, I think he needs a tune-up. As you already know, I'm a fighter, not a mechanic so I have no idea how to fix him. None of the Duke's mechanics will take a look at him because they're afraid of us." Silent shrugged her shoulders.

Chad looked at the Silent for a moment, "Who could be afraid of you? You're so small." He joked before looking at the dog by his shoes. "I could take a look at him if you want."

"I thought you hated me? Why would you want to help me?" Silent asked. She didn't have a good relationship with the other Mama's Boys because she's never had the time to befriend them. She's only made friends with Junior because he's the only one to approach her again and again.

"Because you're not as bad as I previously thought. If you can handle Junior's shitty personality and behavior, then you're good in my book. I don't know about the others though." Chad answered back, leaning on the table.

Silent didn't know what to think. She personally would rather have Junior look at Axel, but he's busy at the moment. She looked at Axel, contemplating her answer before nodding her head. She glanced at Chad to see he was being honest with her. "Ok, please fix Axel. You better not fuck him up or I will personally come after you."

Axel stirred upon hearing his name, and he looked at the man kneeling beside him. His eye changed to red, growling at him.

Silent leaned over and rested her hand on his head, stroking him softly. "No Axel, it's ok. He's not going to hurt you, he's going to try and fix you up." Her voice soothed Axel's nerves as he dropped his guard. "Good boy."

Chad whistled, "Damn, I can see why Junior let you have him. You can control him with just your voice." He began to open up Axel's side panel and took a look at the components inside. "So, what's he been doing that's causing you trouble?"

Silent stretched out in her seat, "He's gotten very hostile towards everyone, even me. He's been snapping at everyone, and I'm tired of getting chomped on. It hurts." She showed Chad her arm which was covered in bites. Her fingers stopped bleeding thankfully.

"Oh, that must suck. I've been bitten by Houndbots before, and it stings like a bitch. Considering Axel is rather large for his size and mutated, his bites must be extra painful." Chad inspected her arm for a moment before returning to the task at hand. He opened up some screens to take a look at some programming. Scanning through the stats and diagnostics, he found the problem. "I think his programming is trying to revert itself to its original state, ya know like before we took out Kane's programming. I can try to disable it." He announced, taking a look at Silent to see her holding a milkshake in her hands. "Where'd you get that?"

"I ordered it. I was supposed to get some seafood with it, but there's been a problem with my order so this is all I get." She replied, lifting her mask so she could take a sip.

"I want one."

Silent stuck her tongue out, "it's mine. If you can fix Axel for me, I'll buy you one." She spotted Riley wiggling her eyebrows from behind a pillar that was next to their booth. Silent glared at her for making assumptions about something happening between herself and Chad.

And now Chad could see why Junior was so smitten by Silent; even if it was just a small portion of her face exposed, Chad could tell that Silent was kinda cute. Apparently Junior had seen half of Silent's face, and he was hit by Cupid's arrow right through the heart. Chad smiled, "You know, I can understand why Junior talks a lot about you now. He thinks you're pretty cute, and now that I can see what you kinda look like, I totally agree." He bluntly stated, trying to fix the dog's programming. He greatly enjoyed the noise that Silent made when he made his statement.

Riley started snickering behind her tray.

Silent's face felt warm as she pulled down her mask and hid herself in her hands. "Please don't hit on me! I deal with this enough from Junior!"

Chad snickered. He couldn't believe that Junior had the gall to flirt with the Duke's bodyguard. The same bodyguard that kicked their asses the first time they met her. "I'm surprised he hasn't tried to ask you out on a date yet like he's done so with many other people." He clicked on some commands and closed the panel back up. "Alright, he's been fixed. If he starts acting funny, don't hesitate to call." He sat back across from Silent.

Silent looked down at Axel's eye, seeing it was a bright blue color again. She smiled in relief, leaning down to pat his head. "Thank you! Now as promised, I'll get you a milkshake." She looked at Riley, who nodded and walked off.

"So what caused Axel to malfunction? He's a pretty sturdy bot so it would have to take a large force to mess him up." Chad asked, watching Silent as she sipped on her milkshake. By this time, Silent had officially moved her mask to the side of her face (it was still covering half of her face though) so she could drink the milkshake in peace without having to readjust it constantly.

Silent blew a bubble into her milkshake, watching as it formed a bubble and popped. "Crater threw him against a building, and I guess it broke something from the impact." Silent shrugged.

"Man, Crater sure does hate you. I've never seen him actively go after someone other than you before. Well, there is Squall from the FoxFyre gang, but he doesn't go out of his way to attack him as he does with you. What did you do to piss him off?" Chad asked, glancing around the establishment to keep his mind occupied.

"I think it's because I beat his ass. You saw it happen." Silent replied. "Apparently his whole gang wants me dead except a certain redhead." She took another sip of her drink again.

Chad nodded. So she's made friends with the redhead from the Electroblades... that could prove troublesome for Junior. He was still trying to figure her out. He could see why his brother liked her. She didn't push him away like most of the people he's flirted with. Maybe she felt the same towards Junior but didn't know how to show it? "Huh.."

Silent looked at him, confusion etched on her face. "What?"

"Juniors really fell hard for you, and I have to agree that you're something special." He placed his hands on the table, leaning across it. He softly chuckled, seeing her hide her face behind her mask. "Your mask is telling me how you're feeling, you can't hide it." He pointed out.

Silent hissed. "Stop calling me cute! You haven't even seen what I look like, you've seen like part of my face. It doesn't count!" She crossed her arms and looked away from him.

Chad sat back down in his seat. "Well from what I've seen, you're very pretty. I would like to know what you look like from underneath the mask though. Maybe one day..." he trailed off. Thinking back to what Silent had said before Chad had introduced himself, everything clicked into place. "I get it now."

"Huh?"

"What you were talking about earlier before I arrived." He crossed his arms, nodding to himself. "You like Junior."

Silent's voice caught in her throat. She bit her lip to contain all the noises that wanted to spill out from her mouth. "Why does everyone keep saying that?! I swear to god I do not like him. There'll never be a chance in hell. Y'all just imagining it."

Chad raised a brow at her statement, "Ya sure?"

"Yeah totally. It's never gonna happen."

"Well, that's a shame. He's very fond of you." Chad stated, glancing over to the Smoothie Bar to see Junior making his way over to their table.

"He flirts with anyone he can. I doubt it, Chad. Here watch this video that my friend sent me." Silent pulled up a video screen and pushed it over to Chad, who pressed play. "He spends his time flirting with Foxy so I don't believe he likes me like you think he does." She said as he watched the video, snickering at the end of it and closing the screen. Silent moved her mask to the side again so she could take a sip of her milkshake.

"Well, I do admit that he does flirt with Foxy a lot, but he doesn't stare at her the same way he stares at you. He's head over heels in love with you." Chad stretched his arms above him. "Sounds like you're jealous of Foxy too."

"No, I've never met Foxy before. Why would I be jealous?" She rolled her eyes.

—————————————————

Junior had noticed one of his brothers was missing from their little hangout by the Smoothie Bar. He looked around for Chad, spotting him at a booth with some girl. "Well, would you look at that? Chads got himself a girl." He laughed.

The other members of the gang looked where Junior had pointed and started cackling. One of them (the one with the glasses and teddy bear in his overall's front pouch) leaned in close to Junior and whispered something in his ear.

Junior's carefree expression faltered. "Are you sure?" He looked at his brother in annoyance.

His brother nodded.

Junior grumbled, jumping off the barstool and headed on over to meet up with Chad. As Junior walked past random people, he spotted a familiar-looking Houndbot resting beside the booth his brother was at. He recognized it as Silent's dog.

The Houndbot stirred awake when something got too close to its territory. Once Axel recognized who it was, his tail started wagging.

Junior put his finger up to his mouth to shush the dog, hoping Axel would understand him. Thankfully, he did. He walked closer to them and found out the girl indeed was Silent herself. He noticed her mask was on the side of her face, allowing her to drink her milkshake. She looked very pretty— wait a minute.

Junior stopped dead in his tracks for a moment to process the thought that he just had. Well yeah, she is pretty, but he usually never went after the same girl for this long. He usually got bored and went after a new target. But for some reason, he liked to tease Silent. Liked getting her flustered, liked hearing her laugh, liked her voice, her personality... he just liked everything about her. Oh hell no, he had fallen in love!

"Pardon me," A waitress said and pushed past him to deliver a drink to their booth. She set it down in front of Chad.

Junior's face felt warm, and he shook his head to get rid of the thoughts plaguing his mind. "I do not have a crush!" He repeated over and over again under his breath. He walked right over to their booth and slammed his hands on the table, catching their attention. "Well, what do we have here? You guys on a date?"

Silent jumped at the sudden noise, banging her knee underneath the table. She glared at Junior while holding her knee. "You asshat! That hurts!"

Chad slurped on his drink, avoiding eye contact with his brother. If this was gonna play out like Chad wanted it to, he had to avoid pissing off his brother at all costs.

Junior snickered, glancing at Chad who wouldn't look him in the eyes.

"We're not on a date. We're just talking." Silent replied.

"About?"

Silent remembered what Chad had said to her, and she looked to the side. She was probably blushing, but she couldn't help it. "Nothing, go away fuckboy."

Chad choked on his drink and started laughing. "She—she just called you a fuckboy!" He held his stomach as he laughed.

"Shut up!" He snapped at Chad while bringing his attention to Silent. He leaned closer to her, smelling the scent of vanilla that came from her milkshake. "I'm not a fuckboy."

Silent smiled mischievously, "oh that's right. You can't be one if you've never fucked anyone. My bad, I forgot." She leaned back to avoid getting punched in the face.

Chad laughed even harder now, gripping the table for support. "Holy shit, she got you good!" He was going to get in so much trouble for this, but it was absolutely worth it.

Junior growled, grabbing Silent by the front of her cloak. "Shut up!"

"Aww, are you mad because I called you out? It's ok, not everyone can get laid. Don't feel bad about yours—" Silent got cut off when Junior punched the seat cushion beside her. Yeah ok, he was pissed off now, maybe she should stop before it was too late. She held up her hands in a defensive stance. "Ok, ok, I'm sorry."

Junior gave her a death glare, "You better sorry. I would not hesitate to punch you." He threatened.

"Hey, no need for violence. She was just joking. Take it easy." Chad recovered from his laughing fit and stood up to stop Junior if he needed to. He could hear Axel’s low growling.

Junior cursed, lowering Silent back down into the booth. He let her go and crossed his arms. "Whatever."

Silent looked to the side and scooted to the middle of the booth in case Junior wanted to sit down.

Chad looked between Silent and Junior, sighing in annoyance. "Hey let's not let this sexual tension get everything weird, talk it out." He just opened up another issue.

Silent glared at Chad. She knew what he was doing, and there was no way in hell she would allow it to come to light. Her feelings that is, she wouldn't allow Chad to reveal her feelings for Junior. "Shut up, Chad."

Chad smirked, "Why don't you tell him? It's a perfect time to."

Junior looked back and forth from Chad to Silent in confusion. "Tell me what?" Junior had sat down on the edge of the booth.

"It's nothing." Silent replied, having a staring contest with Chad.

"I'm sure Junior would like to hear it."

"No."

Junior groaned, "For fuck's sake, just tell me!"

"Silent has the hots for you!" Riley blurted out; soon covering her mouth with her hand and fleeing the booth.

"RILEY!"

#dreaming of motorcity #fyrez writes

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endenogatai · 5 years

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Reliability concerns raised over pi-top’s STEM learning laptop

TechCrunch has learned of a safety issue and a number of product reliability questions being raised about a modular computer made by a London edtech startup that’s intended for children to learn coding and electronics.

The product, called the pi-top 3, is a Raspberry Pi-powered laptop with a keyboard that slides out to access a rail for breadboarding electronics.

A student at a US school had to be attended by a nurse after touching a component in the device which had overheated, leaving them with redness to their finger.

A spokesperson for Cornell Tech confirmed the incident to us — which they said had happened in June. We’ve withheld the name of the school at their request.

In an internal pi-top email regarding this incident, which we’ve also reviewed, it describes the student being left with “a very nasty finger burn”.

Cornell Tech’s spokesperson told us it has stopped using the pi-top 3 — partly in response to this incident but also because of wider reliability issues with the device. They said some of their grad students will be working on a project with the K-12 team next semester with the aim of creating an alternative that’s more reliable, affordable and safe.

We have also been told of concerns about wider reliability issues with the pi-top 3 by a number of other sources.

We asked pi-top for comment on the safety incident at Cornell Tech and for details of how it responded. The company provided us with a statement in which it claims: “pi–top incorporates all possible safeguards into our products to ensure they are safe.”

“As soon as we became aware of this incident we immediately investigated what had happened,” it went on. “We discovered that the incident was a one-in-a-million occurrence. The user dropped a piece of metal, with a specific size and shape, under the unit. This fell in such a way that it touched a particular pin and caused a linear regulator to heat up. They received a small minor burn to the tip of one finger when they tried to recover that piece of metal.”

“This is the only reported incident where a user has been hurt whilst using one of our products,” pi-top added.

It is not clear how many pi-top 3 laptops have been sold to schools at this stage because pi-top does not break out sales per product. Instead it provided us with a figure for the total number of devices sold since it was founded in 2014 — saying this amounts to “more than 200,000 devices in 4 years which have been used by more than half a million people”.

pi-top also says it has sold products to schools in 70 countries, saying “thousands” of schools have engaged with its products. (The bright green color of the laptop is easy to spot in promotional photos for school STEM programs and summer camps.)

The London-based DIY hardware startup began life around five years ago offering a ‘3D-print it yourself‘ laptop for makers via the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform before shifting its focus to the educational market — tapping into the momentum around STEM education that’s seen a plethora of ‘learn to code’ toys unboxed in recent years.

pi-top has raised more than $20M in VC funding to date and now sells a number of learning devices and plug-in components intended for schools to teach STEM — all of which build on the Raspberry Pi microprocessor.

pi-top adds its own layer of software to the Pi as well as hardware additions intended to expand the learning utility (such as a speaker for the pi-top 3 and an “inventors kit” with several electronics projects, including one that lets kids build and program a robot).

The pi-top 3 — its third device — was launched in October 2017, priced between $285-$320 per laptop (without or with a Raspberry Pi 3).

The distinctively bright green laptop is intended for use by students as young as eight years old.

Unusual failure mode

In the internal email discussing the “Cornell failure diagnosis” — which is dated July 16 — pi-top’s head of support and customer success, Preya Wylie, conveys the assessment of its VP of technology, Wil Bennett, that the “unusual failure mode was likely caused by an electrical short on the male 34-pin connector on the underside of the protoboard”.

She goes on to specify that the short would have been caused by the metal SD-card removal tool that’s bundled with the product — noting this was “reported to have been somewhere underneath the protoboard at the time”.

“[Bennett] has recreated the same conditions on his bench in China and has seen the pi-top enter similar failure modes, with an electrical short and subsequent overheating,” she writes.

An additional complication discussed in the email is that the component is designed to stay on at all times in order that the pi-top can respond to the power button being pressed when the unit is off. Wylie writes that this means, if shorted, the component remains “very hot” even when the pi-top has been shut down and unplugged — as heat is generated by the pi-top continuing to draw power from the battery.

Only once the battery has fully depleted will the component be able to cool down.

In the email — which was sent to pi-top’s founder and CEO Jesse Lozano and COO Paul Callaghan — she goes on to include a list of four “initial recommendations to ensure this does not happen again”, including that the company should inform teachers to remove the SD-card removal tool from all pi-top 3 laptops and to remove the SD card themselves rather than letting students do it; as well as advising teachers/users to turn the device off if they suspect something has got lost under the protoboard.

Another recommendation listed in the email is the possibility of creating a “simple plastic cover to go over the hub” to prevent the risk of users’ fingers coming into contact with hot components.

A final suggestion is a small modification to the board to cut off one of the pins to “greatly reduce the chance of this happening again”.

We asked pi-top to confirm what steps it has taken to mitigate the risk of pi–top 3 components overheating and posing a safety risk via the same sort of shorting failure experienced by Cornell Tech — and to confirm whether it has informed existing users of the risk from this failure mode.

An internal pi-top sales document that we’ve also reviewed discusses a ‘back to school’ sales campaign — detailing a plan to use discounts to “dissolve as much pi-top [3] stock as we can over the next 8 weeks”.

This document says US schools will be targeted from mid August; UK schools/educators from early September; and International Schools Groups from early September. It also includes a strategy to go direct to US Private and Charter Schools — on account of “shorter decision making timelines and less seasonal budgets”.

It’s not clear if the document pre-dates the Cornell incident.

In response to our questions, pi-top told us it is now writing to pi-top 3 customers, suggesting it is acting on some of the initial recommendations set out in Wylie’s July 16 email after we raised concerns.

In a statement the company said: “Whilst it is highly unlikely that this would occur again, we are writing to customers to advise them to take a common-sense approach and switch off the unit if something has got lost inside it. We are also advising customers to remove the SD card tool from the unit. These simple actions will make the remote possibility of a recurrence even less likely.”

In parallel, we have heard additional concerns about the wider reliability of the pi-top 3 product — in addition to the shorting incident experienced by Cornell.

One source, who identified themselves as a former pi-top employee, told us that a number of schools have experienced reliability issues with the device. One of the schools named, East Penn School District in the US, confirmed it had experienced problems with the model — telling us it had to return an entire order of 40 of the pi-top 3 laptops after experiencing “a large volume of issues”.

“We had initially purchased 40 pi-tops for middle level computers classes,” assistant superintendent Laura Witman told us. “I met one of the owners, Jesse, at a STEM conference. Conceptually the devices had promise, but functionally we experienced a large volume of issues. The company tried to remedy the situation and in the end refunded our monies. I would say it was learning experience for both our district and the company, but I appreciate how they handled things in the end.”

Witman did not recall any problems with pi-top 3 components overheating.

A US-based STEM summer camp provider that we also contacted to confirm whether it had experienced issues with the pi-top 3 — a device which features prominently in promotional materials for its program — declined to comment. A spokesman for iD Tech’s program told us he was not allowed to talk about the matter.

A separate source familiar with the pi-top 3 also told us the product has suffered from software reliability issues, including crashes and using a lot of processor power, as well as hardware problems related to its battery losing power quickly and/or not charging. This source, who was speaking on condition of anonymity, said they were not aware of any issues related to overheating.

Asked to respond to wider concerns about the pi-top 3’s reliability, pi-top sent us this statement:

pi–top is a growing and dynamic company developing DIY computing tools which we believe can change the world for the better. In the past four and a half years we have shipped hundreds of thousands of products across our entire product range, and pi–top hardware and software have become trusted assets to teachers and students in classrooms from America to Zimbabwe. pi–top products are hard at work even in challenging environments such as the UN’s Kakuma refugee camp in Northern Kenya.

At the heart of our products is the idea that young makers can get inside our computers, learn how they work and build new and invaluable skills for the future. Part of what makes pi–top special, and why kids who’ve never seen inside a computer before think it’s awesome, is that you have to build it yourself straight out of the box and then design, code and make electronic systems with it. We call this learning.

The nature of DIY computing and electronics means that, very occasionally, things can fail. If they do, pi–top’s modular nature means they can be easily replaced. If customers encounter any issues with any of our products our excellent customer support team are always ready to help.

It is important to say that all electronic systems generate heat and Raspberry Pi is no exception. However, at pi–top we do the very best to mitigate thanks to the cutting-edge design of our hardware. Faults on any of our products fall well below accepted thresholds. Although we are proud of this fact, this doesn’t make us complacent and we continually strive to do things better and provide our customers with world-class products that don’t compromise on safety.

Thousands of schools around the world recognise the fantastic benefits the pi–top [3], pi–top CEED, and pi–top [1] brings as a Raspberry Pi-powered device. Our new flagship products, the pi–top [4] and our learning platform, pi–top Further, take coding education to the next level, as a programmable computing module for makers, creators and innovators everywhere. We are proud of our products and the enormous benefits they bring to schools, students and makers around the world.

Internal restructuring

We also recently broke the news that pi-top had laid off a number of staff after losing out on a large education contract. Our sources told us the company is restructuring to implement a new strategy. pi-top confirmed 12 job cuts at that stage. Our sources suggest more cuts are pending.

Some notable names departing pi-top’s payroll in recent weeks are its director of learning and research, William Rankin — formerly a director of learning at Apple — who writes on LinkedIn that he joined pi-top in March 2018 to “develop a constructionist learning framework to support pi-top’s maker computing platform”. Rankin left the business this month, per his LinkedIn profile.

pi-top’s chief education and product officer, Graham Brown-Martin — who joined the business in September 2017, with a remit to lead “learning, product design, brand development and communication strategy” to support growth of its “global education business, community and ecosystem” — also exited recently, leaving last month per his LinkedIn.

In another change this summer pi-top appointed a new executive chairman of its board: Stanley Buchesky, the founder of a US edtech seed fund who previously served in the Trump administration as an interim CFO for the US department for education under secretary of state, Betsy DeVos.

Buchesky’s fund, which is called The EdTech Fund, said it had made an investment in pi-top last month. The size of the investment has not been publicly disclosed.

Buchesky took over the chairman role from pi-top board member and investor Eric Wilkinson: A partner at its Series A investor, Hambro Perks. Wilkinson remains on the pi-top board but no longer as exec chairman.

The job cuts and restructuring could be intended to prepare pi-top for a trade sale to another STEM device maker, according to one of our sources.

Meanwhile pi-top’s latest device, the pi-top 4, represents something of a physical restructuring of its core edtech computing proposition which looks intended to expand the suggestive utility it offers teachers via multiple modular use-cases — from building drones and wheeled robots to enabling sensor-based IoT projects which could check science learning criteria, all powered by pi-top’s encased Raspberry Pi 4.

Out of the box, the pi-top 4 is a computer in a box, not a standalone laptop. (Though pi-top does plan to sell a range of accessories enabling it be plugged in to power a touchscreen tablet or a laptop, and more.)

pi-top is in the process of bringing the pi-top 4 to market after raising almost $200,000 on Kickstarter from more than 500 backers. Early backers have been told to expect it to ship in November.

While pi-top’s predecessor product is stuck with the compute power of the last-gen Raspberry Pi 3 (the pi-top 3 cannot be upgraded to the Raspberry Pi 4), the pi-top 4 will have the more powerful Pi 4 as its engine.

However the latter has encountered some heat management issues of its own.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation recently put out a firmware update that’s intended to reduce the microprocessor’s operating temperature after users had complained it ran hot.

Asked whether the Foundation has any advice on encasing the Raspberry Pi 4, in light of the heat issue, founder Eben Upton told us: “Putting the Pi in a case will tend to cause it to idle at a higher temperature than if it is left in the open. This means there’s less temperature ‘in reserve’, so the Pi will throttle more quickly during a period of sustained high-intensity operation.”

“In general, the advice is to choose a case which is appropriate to your use case, and to update firmware frequently to benefit from improvements to idle power consumption as they come through,” he added.

TechCrunch’s Steve O’Hear contributed to this report

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