#I don’t know much about robots and mechanical limbs and such

[redfirefox-55]

Probably very inaccurate iterator body head canons

[stargirlygirl]

Upgrade pt. 2

Pro Hero Midoriya Izuku x fem!reader

Part 1 > Part 2 > Part 3 > Epilogue

Summary: Izuku gets severely injured during a rescue mission. As a result, most of his left arm is amputated. You, being a mechanical and biomedical engineer (and his loyal girlfriend), decide to build him a cybernetic arm to replace the arm he's lost.

Word count: 6.7k

Other character appearances: Todoroki Shouto + Bakugou Katsuki

🚨Disclaimer & Warnings: Izuku has most of his left arm amputated and it is emotional + swearing

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It’s 8am and you’re in the elevator riding up to level 3. You’ve taken the next week off to see your pookie. And you’re anxious to see him, but not yet. There’s someone you need to speak to first. The elevator dings and the doors slide open. You walk down the white linoleum corridor, eyes peeled for that tall, lanky doctor. There! He has his back to you, speaking with a nurse outside of the recovery room.

You come up behind him, keeping a respectful distance of course, and wait patiently. The nurse acknowledges you with a nod. Once she leaves, Dr Kita turns around and gives you a lazy smile.

“What can I do for you, Miss [L/n]?” You notice how dark his under-eyes are and wonder if he’s been here all night. Wouldn’t be much different to you, for you’ve been up the whole night drawing up plans that you’re about the show him, if he gives you the time of day. “I’ve been thinking about Midoriya’s surgery and I wanted to know what kind of prosthetic you were going to give him.”

He raises a thick, black eyebrow, “I don’t choose, Miss [L/n]. Mr Midoriya will choose his prosthetic from a list of accredited providers.” You gulp. Okay, not exactly where you were hoping this conversation would head. Your palms begin to get sweaty. You open and close them, hoping to loosen up some of your nerves over what you’re going to ask.

“Miss [L/n].” Your heart pounds. You can hear it thumping. The blood rushing. “Mhmm.”

“I’m rather busy, so please, just ask me what you want to ask.” He stares at you shrewdly over the rim of his metal frames. “Okay, so, I’m a biomedical engineer and I was thinking that because Izuku’s amputation was open, then I could build him a cybernetic arm and we could attach it surgically.”

He sighs, “Miss [L/n].”

Fuck, he thinks this is really weird, doesn’t he? “Cybernetic arms work by—”

“I know how cybernetic arms work.” His mouth is pressed into a hard line as he stares you down.

“Izuku is Japan’s Number One hero. Give this man a regular bionic arm and he could never be that again. Look at all the heroes that lost their limbs in the Final War. Replace what’s missing of his left arm with a cybernetic arm and he could continue his hero work. Maybe not as number one anymore, but he could still make a difference in society as a hero.”

Dr Kita just looks at you and you stare right back. This isn’t the first time a man has looked down on you and your ideas as an engineer because you’re a woman. You know that you just have to stick it out. Be confident in your argument, your design, and keep pushing until he relents and takes you seriously.

Just when it looks like he’s about to tell you to get lost, he surprises you with, “Can you build a robot?”

He doesn’t mean it sarcastically. He means it genuinely. Fair question. Most of your colleagues can’t. “Of course I can build a robot. I did mechanical before specialising in biomed.”

“Have you ever built a prosthetic arm before?” He’s got a half-smile on his face, perfect teeth barely visible.

You have to look away momentarily from that intense gaze, “I’ve built a robotic arm before. I built Izu’s current hero suit. And, I know how One For All works. How hard can it be?”

Dr Kita sighs again and looks down at his clip board. It’s quiet for a few moments before he speaks again, “I assume you’ve got the designs.” You automatically reach for your bag on your shoulder, pulling it down and grabbing out your folded and coffee-stained designs. You begin opening them up to show him when he places his slender finger on the folded edge. “I finish in thirty. You’ll be in Mr Midoriya’s room, I assume. I’ll come over and you can show me then.” You nod in response and smile. “Thanks, doctor.” You bow and turn to leave, but he adds, “Run it by him first, yea?” You hum in agreement before returning to the elevator and taking it up to level 5, where Izuku’s been moved to for his stay at the hospital.

You knock on his door (as they’ve given him a room to himself) and let yourself in once you hear his permission. He’s sitting upright, stocking and drainage tubes on his left, cannula on his right. The sunlight kisses his pale skin, illuminating his freckles and bringing out those flecks in his dark green hair and eyes. He smiles once he sees you, inviting you to come over to him. You pull out the bento box you made for him this morning, setting it on the table next to his bed before you grab a chair and sit at his side.

“I missed you. How have you been holding up?” You place your hand just above his knee that’s covered by the thin blankets. He gives you a small smile. You can see how the skin around his eyes are puffy and red. Not well, you take it. “I brought you some of the curry I made. Do you want some?” He hums softly.

You grab the travel case from your bag, whipping out a pair of wooden chopsticks and a rice spoon. You place the bento on your lap. It’s still warm from the fresh rice you placed in it before leaving for the station. You open the lid, slipping it beneath the box. “Mhmm, it smells good, honey.”

“I got you some curry,” you say, pointing to the little compartment with the curry, “some rice, pickled onions, strawberries, and some hard-boiled eggs.” You grab one of the egg-halves with the chopsticks and bring it to Izuku’s mouth. “Honey, I can feed myself,” he says quietly. “Shhhh, here comes the aeroplane.” You begin winding and swerving the egg through air. Izuku chuckles and lets you feed it to him. He smiles warmly as he chews on the egg.

“Mhmm yummy. You want another one?” You’re already grabbing another egg. He stares lovingly at you and let’s you feed him this one too. Actually, you end up feeding him the curry and rice too as you don’t want them to get cold before he’s tried any.

You place the bento back on the table and look down. Sensing your sudden nervousness, Izuku rests his right hand on top of yours, on his thigh. It’s scarred from years of pro hero training and work, warm, and large, enveloping your own baby hands. He smiles gently at you, silently urging you to tell him what’s on your mind.

You let out a shaky breath. “Izu-chan…” He gazes back at you with those puppy eyes. “Mhmm.”

You look down, focusing on the back of his hand. “I want to replace most of your left arm with a cybernetic one.”

You trace the scars on his hand. The peaks soft beneath your fingertips. You can feel hardness of the tendons just beneath the delicate skin. “So, I’ll be like… part robot?” You look back up, seeing the confused look on his face, “Um, yea, pretty much. I’ve already spoken to Dr Kita about it. He’ll be coming in shortly and we’ll go through the designs I’ve drawn.”

“You already drew designs. Don’t those take hours hours, love? Don’t tell me you stayed up all night.” You bite the side of your lip before laughing a bit, more to yourself. “I thought you could tell now when I’ve pulled an all-nighter, pookie.”

Izu moves what’s left of his left arm, groaning in pain once again. You’re immediately on alert, leaning over him. “You okay?”

“Yea, I just keep forgetting… about that.” You sit back down, grabbing his right hand with both of yours. You smile at him reassuringly, seeing that sheepish look on his face. A comfortable silence hangs in the air for the next couple of minutes. You both thinking over what’s just been said. You start to think that he doesn’t like your idea when he pipes up, “Okay, I trust you, honey.”

You’re literally gob-smacked, jaw open wide, eyes even wider. “What? You mean,” you fumble your next words as you stare at him, dumbfounded. “You mean, you’ll actually let me build you an arm? And like, attach it you? Like, ‘you can’t easily get rid of it’ attach it to you? Seriously?”

He chuckles at your rambling. “Of course I will. You know a lot more about this kinda thing than I do, sweetheart. If you think it’s for the best, then I trust you. But…”

You’re on the edge of your seat, anxious for that objection. “But?”

“I’ll be able to be hero again, right? With a robotic arm, I mean.” He looks at you curiously, hand squeezing yours again. You sigh, “Izu-chan, you are a hero. Even with a robotic arm, you’ll still be a hero.” He nods, hand leaving yours to rub the back of his neck. “Thanks hon—” You’ve already leaned over him again, and this time, you cut him off mid-sentence with a brief kiss.

Well, it was supposed to be, but it became much deeper once he cups your right cheek, angling your head just right for him to slide his tongue over your bottom lip. You moan into him, granting him access. Your hands come to the nape of his neck, fingers tugging at the stray curls. Tongues swirl in a flurry of longing and ecstasy. How long had it been since you two kissed? Like, kissed.

You’re already straddling him. Saliva beginning to drip down from the corners of your mouth. Izuku groans as you tug harder at his curls, his large hand slipping to hold the back of your neck, beneath the curtain of loose [h/c] locks.

The sound of throat-clearing catches your attention. You’re pulling away from each other instinctually. The culprit stands at the door, long fingers still wrapped around the door knob. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

You quickly get off of Izuku, sitting back in your chair at his bedside. You fiddle with your hair and wipe the saliva from your lips. Dr Kita sets a second chair next to yours. You shuffle so that you can easily look at him and Izuku.

You notice Izuku’s cheeks have gone red, as well as the tops of his ears and his chest. You giggle, realising how embarrassed he must be. You’re pretty embarrassed too, but it’s to be expected. You’re both pretty touch starved after being separated for a month.

“So, where are these designs you wanted to show me?” Dr Kita begins, seated, calm and poised as ever. You grab your bag which lies against the hospital bed, pulling out your designs and laying them on top of Izuku’s legs. You begin explaining them to Dr Kita, not holding back as you get into the nitty gritty of what materials you’re intending to use, estimated costs, mechanics, electrode implantation, as well as having transformative features if you’ve got time like a cannon or rifle. You pause a few times to look back at Izuku. His blush goes down fairly quickly and, he just nods as you speak. He’s probably got no clue what you’re on about.

“And how are you going to test this arm?” Dr Kita asks. You look at Izuku, the same train of thought passing through you. He nods gently, urging you to continue on. You take a deep breath in, “You do know about my quirk, don’t you?”

And now it’s your turn to raise your eyebrow at Dr Kita. He just stares back at you, seeming mildly perplexed. “Am I supposed to?” You chuckle, “You seriously don’t know? The media couldn’t shut up about it when they found out.” You look back at Izuku and he’s just staring at you with that content expression on his face again. You turn back to the tired doctor beside you.

“My quirk is called ‘quirk stealer’ but it’s more like ‘quirk borrower’. But that doesn’t sound very cool, does it? My quirk allows me to ‘steal’ the quirk of others for up to 24 hours at a time by kissing them. I intend to ‘steal’ Izuku’s quirk, One For All, for a day so I can test how the arm holds up against his quirk and make any necessary adjustments.”

Dr Kita just stares at you disbelief. His mouth hangs slightly open, browheads sloping upwards. It takes him a few moments before he chuckles. He shakes his head as he does so, sunlight catching on loose black strands slipping from his low bun.

“Of course you do.” He re-adjusts, crossing one slim leg over the other. “Fine. Your design sounds good. Plan is thorough enough. Your only issue is that we can only keep his wound—” His boney finger points to what’s left of Izuku’s left arm, “open for a week, maximum. You’ll be, well not you, Mr Midoriya will be very lucky if his wound hasn’t become infected by the time you’ve finished construction and final testing of the arm.”

Your brows furrow at this. It was something you’ve considered but had avoided thinking about. You lean forwards slightly towards Dr Kita, saying in a low voice, “Realistically, how long do you think I have before infection sets in?”

“It all depends really.” Dr Kita pushes his glasses up, from resting on the bump of his nose to the space just before that. He looks over at Izuku, studying him carefully. “Some patients’ wounds become infected within hours. For others, it takes days.” His gaze flickers back over to you. “You’ll want to get him back in theatre and attach the arm as soon as possible.”

You nod. “Umm,” Izuku starts, his voice is quiet and hesitant, “just to clarify, honey, you’re not attaching it, are you?”

You tilt your head to the side, pouting, you say in a serious and saddened tone, “I thought you trusted me.” Your boyfriend shakes his head, “I do—”

“I’m kidding. Of course I’m not?” That wasn’t supposed to be a question, but it turns into one as you look back to Dr Kita and he nods. “You think I’d just let you operate without any qualifications or training? I hope you know what you’ll find beneath that dressing.” You laughing nervously, unable to tell if Dr Kita is joking or if he’ll actually make you operate on Izuku “Of course I do.”

Dr Kita agrees to speak to one of the orthopaedic surgeons to arrange Izuku’s prosthetic attachment, clearing up that you in fact WILL NOT be performing surgery on your boyfriend (as you shouldn’t be). You both thank him profusely and soon, it’s just the two of you again.

You two settle into a comfortable conversation, talking about everything that’s happened over the past month. You find out that it wasn’t until last week that Shoto and Ingenium had been brought onto the mission because of how close they were getting to the organisation orchestrating the sale of young women for quirk breeding.

“I still can’t believe that that still exists in this day and age.” You’re utterly discussed by this and it’s apparent in your voice. Izuku nods in agreement.

He continues on, telling you how he’s been rooming with Dynamight in this abandoned apartment overlooking a series of night clubs since the mission started. It’s been filled with lots of teasing and arguing. Getting older, going off on their own, Midoriya and Bakugou’s relationship isn’t as… explosive (like what I did there?) as it was at UA. Being high-ranking pro heroes now, the competition between them is friendlier. Not friendly. But, friendlier. There was a healthy rivalry between them now.

“If I’m being honest though,” Izuku lowered his voice to a whisper as he leaned closer to you, “I’m glad that it’ll be back to the two of us from now on.”

“WHAT WAS THAT DIPSHIT?!”

You turn in shock as Dynamight bursts into the room, door slamming into the wall, hinges shaking. He’s in a hospital gown, bandaged arms peaking out.

“Kacchan!” Izuku says, surprised by his visit. You were surprised that Dynamight could still hear Izuku despite how loud his explosions are. You thought he would have hearing aids by now. Or does he? Fuck, his spiky ass hair is in the way so you can’t see clearly.

“The fuck happened to you?” Bakugou questions, stopping right next to you and pointing at where Izuku’s left arm should have been.

Okay, you’re not having that. “Hey!” You stand up, puffing up your chest and getting in the ash blond’s face. Not that you can cause he literally towers over you, but you get an A for effort girlie. “None of this would of happened if you weren’t such a hothead!”

Fun fact, you’ve actually met Bakugou. You met him last year at the annual pro hero conference afterparty. It was brief, but you already knew from Izuku’s stories that this man was quite… rough. Your meeting then only confirmed such beliefs when he was shouting at Izuku for having a girlfriend and not bringing her around to meet his friends sooner.

“OI, WHO DO YOU THINK YOU’RE TALKING TO, PIPSQUEAK?!” He yells in back in your face. His breath is hot as it hits your face. “YOU FUCKFACE! You’re the reason my boyfriend lost his arm.” Your fingertips jab his chest. Holy truck he’s hard. This man is built like a fridge.

“Tch. YOUR BOYFRIEND IS THE REASON HE LOST HIS ARM! IT’S NOT MY FAULT HE CAN’T EVEN CONTROL HIS QUIRK.” Bakugou’s hands grab your upper shoulders, gripping them tight. They’re sweaty and stick to your baggy graphic tee. “OI! GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME before you start going off.” Your fingers grasp his wrists. They’re hotter than you’ve ever felt before. You can feel his pulse beating.

“Kacchan, that’s enough.” Izuku says like a primary school teacher scolding a child.

“I’LL DECIDE WHEN IT’S ENOUGH!” Bakugou’s fingers squeeze into the flesh of your biceps. You yelp reflexively.

“Kacchan!”

“ALRIGHT ALRIGHT.” He releases you from his grasp. Now leaning close to you, almost touching, to point at Izuku. But before he can get a word out, Izuku tells him off, “Can you at least apologise for hurting my girlfriend?”

“FINE.” Bakugou looks down you, not moving an inch. “I’m sorry, okay?” You just nod, leaning slightly backwards to keep you two from touching. This man really has no hold on personal space, does he?

Bakugou energetically points at Izuku, yelling “LOOK AT WHAT YOU’VE DONE DEKU! HOW ARE YOU GOING TO BE A HERO NOW?! Tch. And I thought you were my equal. I WOULD NEVER GO N’ GET MY ARM CUT OFF LIKE THAT!”

You end sitting back down once Bakugou leaned even further in. This isn’t really any better though. His hips are very close to your face so, you’ve settled for just turning away from him to look at Izuku. And broccoli boy just takes it. He doesn’t try to stop Bakugou from having his little tantrum. It’s probably better this way anyways. Bakugou can just get it off his chest and be done with it.

I guess he made a good choice for his hero name though, ‘Dynamight’, cause this guy really explodes. Sorry. That could of been sexual if I made it sexual. I meant his anger. Anyways…

After a while, Bakugou just stops hurling insult after insult. He finally huffs and sits down on Izuku’s bed.

“You’re such a dumbfuck, you know that?”

Izuku chuckles, “Yes, I know.”

“WHOSE GONNA BE MY COMPETITION NOW, HUH? WHAT? WHAT ICYHOT? IS THAT BASTARD REALLY GONNA BE MY RIVAL NOW?” Don’t tell me he’s gonna go at it again, you think. He really is just angry, like, limitlessly angry, isn’t he?

“Kacchan, you should keep your voice down. Shoto might—”

“YOU THINK I GIVE A FUCK IF THAT HALF N’ HALF BRAT HEARS ME—”

“I care, Kacchan,” Izuku sighs. He looks tired. Really tired.

You gently touch Bakugou on the arm. He looks at you with hostility, as if you’ve just committed an offence. “Bakugou, Izuku’s exhausted after everything that’s happened last night. Why don’t we give him some space so he can rest?”

The blond scoffs and shrugs you off, “Tch. As if. YOU.” He points at Izuku again as he stands up. “YOU BETTER FIGURE THIS SHIT OUT. I’M NOT LOSING MY NUMBER ONE RIVAL SO YOU BETTER GROW ANOTHER ARM OR SOMETHIN’!” He grabs you by the elbow, dragging you out of the room. You wave back at Izuku before sticking your thumb up and smiling, letting him know that it’s going to be okay and he can just rest. Izuku nods at this.

Bakugou doesn’t just take you out of the room, but continues to ‘guide’ you by the elbow, taking you down the hallway with him. You turn a corner and a café comes into view. “Um, Bakugou, where are we going?”

“Tch. Are you actually that dumb?” He drags you into the café and you just let him. You considered fighting back, at least just for your elbow, but it didn’t seem very promising given the ripples of muscles that are exaggerated by the bandages around his arms. He’s leading you to a table at the back where you see a head of half red and half white hair. OMG! IS THAT SHOTO?!

Of course, you were Izuku’s number one fan, but before meeting Izuku, you were actually a huge Shoto fan. Not that you didn’t like Izuku, but the half and half boy had caught your attention. You didn’t have a shrine dedicated to Shoto like Izuku has to All Might, but you would always stay up-to-date with his interviews, any new missions he’s on or news buzz he was involved in. He was quite popular back in your home country so it wasn’t too hard to find translations of media he was in. Actually, watching his interviews in Japanese had been revolutionary when you first started learning the language.

And now, you were about to meet him.

“Wait!!”You stopped suddenly, a few steps from the table, causing Bakugou to stumble-stop with you. “WHAT?!” He turned back to you, frowning hard. He’s gonna get some seriously deep wrinkles if he keeps making such expressions, you think. “I’m nervous, okay? Are we really going to go sit with Shoto?”

He barked out a laugh, “OF COURSE NOT. WOW, YOU REALLY ARE DUMB. I don’t know how Deku puts up with you.”

“Hey! That’s just mean,” you pout at him. He scoffs, “I’M ‘JUST MEAN’! GET OVER IT!” Bakugou’s face lowers down to yours just to yell at it. People were starting to stare. You could feel your cheeks beginning to flare up. “Bakugou,” you put your hand on the arm that was still holding onto your elbow, drawing another look of absolute offence and disgust from the blond. “People are staring.”

“Tch. OF COURSE THEY ARE. I’M DYNAMIGHT.”

“Uh, I don’t think that’s why—” He continues on, dragging you over to the table Shoto’s seated at. He shifts to make room on booth seat, seeing you two coming over. Bakugou throws you down onto the booth side of the table. You fall onto Shoto clumsily, repeating how sorry you are as you push up from him. He grasps your forearms, helping you sit upright, muttering, “It’s fine.”

Your [e/c] eyes meet his heterochromatic ones and for a moment, you forget to breathe. Wow… he’s so pretty. Those long lashes, clear skin, full lips. Even his scar is perfect. You notice the bandages wrapped around his head like a zumba headband. They loop through his dual-coloured locks. They look so soft from this angle. You giggle nervously once he draws his hands — one hot, the other icy — back to himself.

Your admiration of the hero is interrupted by the ear-scrapping sound of Bakugou pulling out the chair opposite and sitting in it unceremoniously. None of you speak for the next few minutes, and you notice that in this time, most of the onlookers return to what they’re doing.

“So…” You start, tapping your fingers on your clothed thighs.

“Deku told me you were ‘n engineer or somethin’. You’re gonna fix his arm, right?” Bakugou’s red eyes pierce through you with their intensity.

“What’s wrong with Izuku’s arm?” Shoto’s voice is so smooth. Honestly. It’s even nicer than in all of the interviews you’ve seen. You stutter on your inhale, hearing him speak. It’s low and fairly quiet, but confident at the same time.

“Tch. That bastard—”

“Oi,” you cut in, “that ‘bastard’ is my boyfriend. You better con—”

“Deku,” Bakugou glares at you, “got his arm ripped off.”

You sigh, turning slightly to Shoto. Oh my gosh! You’re heartbeat is pumping like you run up a flight of stairs. Are you about to talk to your favourite hero? Ahem, your second favourite hero. “Izu-chan didn’t ‘get his arm ripped off’. The surgeon amputated most of it as the damage was beyond his healing capabilities.”

“Oh.” Shoto looked down momentarily.

“Tch. What a baby. IF THAT WAS ME—”

“I KNOW BAKUGOU! Oh my god I know, we all know. You’re the fucking best hero ever. You would never let anything stop you or hurt you or whatever. We know, okay? Can you please give it a rest?” Your brows are knit together as you glare at him. He glares back. “Tch,” Bakugou leaned back in his seat, looking off to the side now, face in a scowl.

The table fell into silence again. You didn’t mean to go off at him, and now you must look really bad in front of Shoto. Fuck. You only had one chance and you blew it. You probably can’t even ask for his autograph anymore. Jeez, this is embarrassing. But you were feeling really stressed out by Bakugou and his attitude toward this whole thing. You’re pretty sure that if Izuku were here, that he would tell you that this is just how Bakugou is dealing with his emotions. But seriously like, does he ever shut the fu—

“You didn’t answer my question. Are you gonna fix ‘is arm or not?” Bakugou addresses you with less aggression this time. At least he’s trying. That’s really nice of him.

“Y-yea,” you mutter, looking down at your hands. It takes a few moments for you gather up some confidence, but when you do, you look back up at him, meeting his fiery gaze. “I’m going to build him a cybernetic arm which we’re going to surgically attach to his wound.”

“The fuck is ‘cyber… cyb… cyb’ fuck I DON’T KNOW. WHAT IS IT?”

“Cybernetic?” You raise your eyebrow at him, smirking slightly. “Yea, hurry up n’ spit it out already.” He’s glaring you down softly this time.

“Cybernetic is the same as bionic or prosthetic. Basically, I’m going to build him a robotic arm and replace what’s missing of his left arm with it.”

“So,” Shoto says, “Midoriya-kun will be part robot?”

You notice how perfect his posture is, how stoic the expression is on his face. Amazing… You nod, “That’s the plan. We don’t have much time, so I need to build and test it as soon as possible.”

“Then get the fuck out ‘ere. Seriously,” he’s leaning over the table now, “go build that shit.”

“Baku—”

“YOU HEARD ME! I’M NOT HAVING THIS—” Bakugou points vigorously to Shoto, “AS MY SOLE COMPETITION. YOU BETTER FIX HIM! ROBOT, NOT ROBOT, I DON’T CARE.” He’s standing at this point, palms on the table, leaning over mockingly to Shoto. “YOU AIN’T SHIT COMPARED TO ME ICYHOT!” Shoto turns to you, unfazed by Bakugou’s outburst. “Please excuse Bakugou’s behaviour. He’s upset over Midoriya-kun’s inju—”

“I’M NOT UPSET! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!” Bakugou’s hands begin to spark on the table, leaving scorch marks in their midst. He quickly wipes his palms on his hospital gown, muttering about how he’s going to have to pay for that.

You sigh, his words resonating with you. “You’re right. I need to get back to my place and start now. Thanks Bakugou.”

You stand up, ready to leave when Shoto catches you off guard. “We should at least get you a coffee then. I assume you’ll have a long night ahead of you?”

Oh my gosh! Is THE pro hero ‘Shoto’ offering to buy me, ME, a coffee? Oh my gosh! Yes! Yes sir!

You laugh nervously, trying to play it cool but you obviously fail, “O-oh, um, yea, okay, yea, that sounds good. Yea…” You meet his gaze. It’s soft. You might actually pass out from how excited you are right now.

“Tch. FINE. I’m not paying though.” Bakugou crosses his arms, shifting his weight onto one leg. Shoto dismisses the blond’s lack of enthusiasm with a wave of his hand. “I’ll pay.”

“Really?! Like, you-you’ll actually pay for my coffee?!” Fuck. That sounded so fangirl-y didn’t it? Shit. He’s gonna know. “Of course.” Shoto places his credit card on the circular table. Where did he get that from? “What would you like?”

You think for a moment. Maybe he brought his wallet. That makes sense. From what you’ve seen of Bakugou’s behaviour, he didn’t seem to be the type to pay for the date. Not this was a date. Concerning the coffee, you usually get a double shot oat milk cappuccino but you know that the answer that won’t make you seem like even more of a weirdo is probably an iced coffee.

“Um, I haven’t seen the menu.” A safe choice.

Shoto chuckles at this, shaking his head slightly. “Of course, sorry.” He rises from his spot on the booth and you notice that SOMEHOW he’s even taller than Bakugou. Oh… so is this why Bakugou’s so mad? Height is pretty sensitive subject for men, right? He’s also in a hospital gown with a few bandages wrapped around his arms at different sites. He motions for you to start walking and so you do. He follows you as you walk over to the counter.

You notice that they have oat milk and cappuccinos on the menu. What you don’t notice is that Bakugou ended up following you two over to the counter and was standing just behind you, off to your side, watching you intensely. His sudden “tch” alerts you to his presence.

“One large cappuccino with oat milk. And one egg salad sandwich. And a three of the ichigo daifuku. You want anythin’ else?” Bakugou looks down at you.

You lean up, whispering close to his ear, “Can you make it a double shot?”

“Make that a double shot for the cap. OI! ICYHOT, what do you want?”

Shoto’s heterochromatic eyes widen for a moment before he chuckles softly. “I’ll have an iced coffee. Medium please.” He looks back at the explosive blond who clicks his tongue. Bakugou rolls his eyes, telling the server, “Two iced coffees. Both Medium.”

Bakugou ends up paying for your order and shooing you and Shoto back to your seats while he waits for it to be ready. You laugh and Shoto smiles lightly, seeing your good mood. “What is it?” He asks, looking at you curiously. You giggle, “He’s such a softie, huh?” You playfully elbow Shoto’s side. His brows furrow slightly, revealing his confusion. “Bakugou?” You nod in agreement, still smiling stupidly. “He’s all—” you puff up your chest and curl your arms like a tough guy, “rawr I’m Dynamight I’m so tough when really, he’s quite caring, isn’t he?” Shoto nods slowly, “Sometimes.”

You two stay quiet for a minute or two before Shoto says, “Midoriya-kun talks a lot about you.” You look back at him like he just grew a second head. “Really?” I mean, it made sense. You two had been together for about three years now. Shoto nods, “He could talk about you for hours. He could barely contain himself during the mission.” You giggle, “You make it sound like he loves me as much as All Might.” At this, Shoto gives you a small smile. “Maybe he does.”

“Ahh don’t start putting ideas in my head or I won’t be able to concentrate.” You dramatically place the back of your hand on your forehead, sighing in feigned distress. “My apologies…” He regains this neutral-curious look on his face. “I hope you don’t mind but, he told me that you were a big fan of mine.”

Oh fuck. Okay, it’s not funny anymore. “He what?” You stare wide-eyed at Shoto. He meets your gaze with a slight smirk. “You knew? Like, this entire time, you knew?” He offers you another nod. You let out a sigh, seeing Bakugou returning with your coffee and food. “That’s so embarrassing.”

“Why?” Shoto tilts his head at this. You whine, “Because, I’ve made a fool of myself in front of you. Did he tell you that I’ve seen ALL of your interviews? Like, every single one? Even when you were still at UA?”

Bakugou places the coffee tray on the table before setting the sandwich and daifuku in front of you. He distributes drinks. You have to admit, yours looks so good! The foam is so fluffy, just the way you like it. “Thank you, Bakugouuuuuu.” You draw out the last syllable of his name. You take a sip, moaning softly at how yummy your coffee tasted. The two heroes just stare at you. One slightly embarrassed and the other pleased. “Yea, I know right. The barista here makes a mean as fuck coffee.”

“Mhmm, this is so good! They don’t disappoint.” Bakugou watches you as he sips on his own coffee, a shit eating grin on his face. Provider Bakugou unlocked?

You look down at the food in front of you, tearing the paper bag that the daifuku came in into three pieces. As you put one of the snacks on each piece, you say, “Yea, I’m like seriously a huge fan. I have a lot of your merch too. BUT, my number one hero is Izuku. You’re my number two hero.” You wink at Shoto as you slide the daifuku over to him.

Bakugou chokes on his sip. He starts coughing furiously. On instinct, you stand up and are about to go to his side and pat his back when he holds up his hand, “I cough I-I’m cough fine cough.” You sit back down, watching him ride out the wave that is his coughing fit. Seeing him coming to the end of it, you ask, “You okay?”

“LOOK AT ME! OF COURSE I’M FINE.” Shoto laughs, watching Bakugou trying to shake off the blush of embarrassment creeping into his cheeks. “Are you surprised that I’m her second favourite and your not?” Shoto provoking Bakugou? You never thought the day would come when you would see this holy sight.

“OI! DON’T START SOME SHIT YOU CAN’T FINISH YOU HALF AND HALF BASTARD!!” You start laughing hard as you slide Bakugou’s daifuku over to him. “OI! WHAT’S SO FUNNY?” You start laughing even harder, leaning back in your seat, arms wrapping around your belly. “Y-you are,” you laugh out. Your tummy begins to hurt, tears of joy gathering in your eyes. You watch through glassy eyes as Bakugou shoves the dessert whole in his mouth angrily.

“Oi. Shut it.” But it sounds more like “Shuf ip” as he speaks while chewing. You salute, giggling, “Yes sir.” At this, Bakugou rolls his eyes.

You have a moment of clarity. Or delusion, you decide. Actually, he’s quite handsome too. You couldn’t really see it before because of his rather… energetic personality. But, there’s something quite attractive about the sharpness of his features. You can see why so many of your friends like him so much.

“I’M WAY BETTER THAN THIS FUCKWIT—”

“Oi, there could be kids around—”

“I should be your second favourite instead.” Bakugou crosses his arms again, with one large hand enveloping at least half of his drink. You shake your head, giggling again, “Oh yea.” You meet his gaze. “Prove it.”

Shoto looks with wide eyes between you two. “PROVE WHAT?” Bakugou’s leaning forward and so do you. “Prove that you’re a way better hero than Shoto.” He barks out his laughter once again in your face, it’s sharp and short. “HAVE YOU SEEN MY TRACK RECORD? Tch. AS IF I HAVE TO PROVE ANYTHING TO YOU, PIPSQUEAK.” He rolls his eyes, leaning back and sipping his coffee down inhumanly fast. “You right? You’ll get a tummy ache if you drink it that fast.” You look down at his quickly emptying drink before looking back up into his red eyes. He stops sipping, only ice left, “SHUT UP.”

You decide now that you’ll stop riling him up. Dynamight is a pretty cool hero. And to be honest, you do wear his merch because Izuku owns a significant amount of it. Being a pro hero, Izuku usually got discounts or free merch from other heroes. Being his girlfriend, he usually got you any merch you wanted. You feel kinda bad for pissing Bakugou off after he’s been so nice to you. Well, as nice as Bakugou gets for a someone he’s just met (the first time doesn’t really count as it was so brief).

“I’m sorry for suggesting that you’re not a cool hero, Dynamight. You are a cool hero and I’ll tell Izuku how nice you’ve been to me.” You smile at him. But this seems to have the opposite intended effect of soothing the tension.

“SHUT UP YOU DUMMY!” He looks away from you, getting up abruptly to throw his cup in the bin. He takes the torn pieces of the paper bag with him as you pop the daifuku into your mouth. Mhmmm, it’s so yummy too! The fresh strawberry is so sweet!

“He’s flattered,” Shoto chimes in. You look at him confused. “Are you sure?” He nods before asking, “Do you really own my merch? That must make Midoriya-kun uncomfortable.”

“Hmm,” you think about it for a few seconds, hearing Bakugou scrape his chair against the floor again. “Not really, I mean, have you seen how much All Might merch he owns?” You raise your brows in exaggeration. Giggling, you add, “I should be uncomfortable.” Shoto just looks at you, wating for you to continue while Bakugou begins picking at the chips of the table.

“We actually talked about it when we started dating. Izu-chan knows that I’m your fan. I’m not like in love with you or something, you know? I like what you stand for, I think you’re pretty attractive, and I admire how hard you work in your career. I do wear your merch a lot though. That makes Izu-chan jealous sometimes.” You ramble on mindlessly. Shoto looks down, “O-oh.”

It’s true. You couldn’t fathom the idea of being in love with a man you’ve never met, like you know some girls are with the respective objects of their affection. I say object because what they’re in love with is a commodity, an image, not a person. That would be super awkward if you were infatuated with Shoto. Especially since Izuku and Shoto work together sometimes.

“Stop talking and eat your sandwich.” Bakugou points to the untouched egg salad sandwich on the table. He’s right, if you’re gonna be up all night building a cybernetic arm, you had better eat up.

“Thanks Bakugou!” He rolls his eyes. “Don’t thank me, just hurry up and eat before I make you.” His voice was gruff as he stared hard at you. You giggle one last time before unwrapping the sandwich and taking a bite.

This place has seriously good food.

[sunstone-smiles]

Measuring Mishap

(I’m sorry that the picture is so blurry-)

Author’s note: Another fic with Miguel after I said I would only make one? I couldn’t help myself. Can you blame me? Lol! I hope you enjoy!

Series: Across the Spider-Verse

Characters: Miguel O’Hara and Lyla

Word count: 2,242

Summary: Lyla is assisting Miguel by measuring him for a new spider suit, but a small mishap occurs in the process that leads the AI to instead discover a playful piece of information about him that can make him laugh.

—

It’s hard enough tearing Miguel away from his work, let alone asking the man to stand still. He always has to be active with something, whether it’s skimming through files, capturing anomalies, or making sure that everything in the Spider-Society is in working order, so taking a break is not one of his strong points.

Miguel huffs as he stands in his spider suit on a short, cylindrical platform, his arms crossed. Above him, two robotic limbs hang from a steel frame like the strings of a marionette. A yellow strip of measuring tape is held in the metal fingers of the robotic hands as the contraption measures Miguel from shoulder to shoulder.

Miguel taps his foot on the ground and exhales an impatient sigh. “Lyla, how much longer is this going to take?” he turns to the AI in question, who’s floating beside his head.

“Just a few more measurements and you’ll be good to go,” Lyla taps away on a digital screen in front of her. Matching her own hand movements in sync, a robotic hand taps at the air alongside her while Lyla makes her note. “What’s the rush anyway? You don’t have any meetings scheduled for later.”

“I just want to get back to business, that’s all.”

“Business?” Lyla hovers backwards, almost offended. “I’m measuring you for a new suit to enhance your abilities so you can catch anomalies with more ease,” she demonstrates by controlling the robotic limbs to take Miguel’s arm away from its crossed state, then measuring it from shoulder to wrist, “It doesn’t get more business-y than that.”

“You know what I mean, Lyla,” Miguel shakes his head. “Work, reports, surveillance, making sure the anomalies are properly contained—instead of standing still like this. That kind of business.”

Lyla pulls the measuring tape and the mechanical arms away to type another note. “Yeah, I get it. But doesn’t it feel nice to take a break every once and a while? It definitely gets you away from those screens you always slouch over.” She throws a teasing grin at him and tries to straighten out his back with the robotic hands, like she’s posing an action figure. “I mean, just look at what it’s doing to your posture!”

“My posture is fine,” Miguel grumbles. He shifts his shoulders. “I only feel like every single second that I’m away from my hands-on work, another multiverse is potentially being swallowed whole.”

“Ugg, you’re being dramatic again. And also mathematically incorrect. On average we have three anomalies each day, meaning that every twenty-eight thousand eight hundred seconds another multiverse is in danger, not every single second.” She smirks down at him, pleased with her correction.

Miguel rolls his eyes. “Can we just get back to the task at hand, please?” He starts to fidget in his spot, like stretching out his arms to keep himself occupied, yet he’s moving around too much for Lyla to continue measuring him. The AI temporarily hangs the strip of measuring tape on the metal frame above them.

“I’m just saying that you can benefit from loosening up for a bit,” Lyla’s ramblings begin to wander as she tries to position Miguel with the mechanical arms to stand still on the platform, but she’s not paying complete attention to where the robot hands are drifting, “You know, like taking a moment to de-stress. It wouldn’t hurt to try—”

Lyla is suddenly cut off by an uncharacteristic yelp emanating from Miguel. Miguel snatches the robotic wrists away from his sides and fires a glare at Lyla, “Watch where you’re putting these things!” 

Processing the aftermath of the yelp, the AI quickly deduces that while she wasn’t paying attention, she must have accidentally squeezed his sides. 

“Oh! Sorry, sorry!” Lyla regains control of the robotic limbs. She properly guides them back towards his torso, but Miguel flinches away, as if on reflex. Lyla tilts her head in curiosity. She shrugs it off and maneuvers the arms close to his sides to hold him straight, but again, Miguel jumps away without her touching him, as if he was suddenly anxious of the mechanical hands.

She tries once more, but every time the robotic hands get close, he recoils and restarts her progress. Lyla narrows her eyes at him and pouts. “Miguel, hold still,” she tries to catch him without him flinching away, almost like corralling a startled horse into a stable. She attempts to grab at his arm, “I can’t get accurate measurements if you keep—”

“Hey!” Miguel tenses up with a squeak when she mistakenly pinches at his ribs. 

Lyla pulls the robot hands away, smiling with intrigue at the sound Miguel just made. “What was that?” she giggles.

Miguel tightens his arms closer to his chest, almost like he wanted to sink into himself. Miguel clears his throat. He adverts his eyes from Lyla's gaze. “It was—”

“Nothing?” she cuts him off with a sly smile, “I thought you would say that. Analyzing what just occurred now.”

“Lyla wait, don’t-

The pixels of Lyla’s heart-shaped glasses flash twice. “Analyzing complete. I detected a hint of laughter in your voice. And came to the conclusion that…” Lyla pauses as her data is pieced together. “No…” her mouth widens along with her eyes. “No way!”  her voice heightens with excitement. “You’re—!”

Miguel barks, “Don’t say it!”

“You’re ticklish!”

Miguel face palms with a growling sigh, flinching just hearing that word. “You said it…”

Lyla giggles excitedly, almost squealing like a fangirl. “How am I just learning about this now?! I need to know all the juicy details! Like, where are you the most ticklish?” She teasingly moves the robot arm with wiggling fingers towards his stomach. Miguel quickly grabs the wrist of the contraption before it can make contact.

“L-Lyla! This is not the time for these unnecessary activities!” he shoves the metal limb away from him.

“Nah, I think this is a perfect time! What you need is a good laugh!” She commands a robot limb to grab Miguel’s left wrist above his head, like she was innocently going to measure his arm for his new suit. “So, are you ticklish here?” Lyla quickly says and flutters her fingers to control the robot’s fingers to do the same into his underarm. Miguel sucks in a gasp and swiftly yanks his arm down, bringing it close to his body and clinging tightly to his own wrist.

“Hey!” Miguel snarls towards the AI, but Lyla had already zoomed behind him and switched to his other shoulder.

“Or here?” Lyla wiggles the chilled robotic fingers into the side of his neck. Miguel instantly scrunches up his shoulders and growls to hold back any further reaction to the tingly scratches. Trying to fight back, he attempts to nab the robot hand out of the air, but Lyla promptly dodges herself and the hands out of the way and behind him.

“Or how about here!” Lyla slips both robot hands into Miguel’s underarms from behind, striking like a snake. Miguel yelps and arches his back from the surprise, immediately clamping both of his arms to his sides and snarling to cover up any giggles that need to be stifled. 

“L-Lyla!” Miguel barely chokes back an audible giggle from slipping through while trying to squirm from her grasp. His mouth twitches on and off with a smile that shows off his fangs and his frame begins to lurch forward, like he wants to curl up into a ball, the longer he holds his laughter. 

“Come on!” Lyla exclaims from behind, “Stop hiding your laughter! Let me hear it!”

Miguel has to hold strong. Who knows what data-collecting Lyla can do with one of his giggly reactions if she gets her hands on it. She of course wouldn’t do anything that could hurt him, but the flustering earful of teases that he’ll hear afterwards is enough to keep himself from giving in to the easy route. Miguel faces this like a challenge.

He growls through his fangs like a big cat fending off a stronger force. “Absolutely n-not! Aye!” he squeaks when Lyla moves the mechanical hands down to both of his sides, clawing into the vulnerable area. Miguel throws his arms around himself in defense, his smile turning more wobbly by the second as he tries to hold back the giddy bouncing of giggles jumping on pogo sticks in his belly.

“Ah ha! Getting closer! I just have to get past your stubbornness!” Lyla smiles and moves one of the robot hands towards his ribs, teasingly scratching at a spot between the curved bones through the material of his suit. Miguel jolts and snickers start to spill out through hisses bypassing his fangs. He squeezes one arm to his side while the other tries to pry the robotic wrist away from wiggling into his ribs. She’s getting closer to breaking through the dam of his laughter and she knows it.

“Knock it ohohoff!” a giggle slips through Miguel’s defenses. He’s doomed. Lyla grins. Now is the moment she’s been waiting for.

Lyla’s glasses flash when she sees the opening she was planning in her sight. The other robotic hand by Miguel’s side whirs with Lyla’s control, then strikes directly at his tummy, swiping its clawed fingers back and forth like a sponge. “Gotcha now, Miguel!”

“GAH! Lylahahahaha!” Miguel finally bursts into robust laughter. He stumbles backwards, nearly falling, but Lyla places the palm of the second robot hand on the center of his back to stabilize him. However, although he’s still standing, his wriggling torso is caught in between the clawed hand vibrating at his tummy and the one stabilizing him. He throws his giggling head forward with a huge, fanged smile on his face, then grabs at the robotic wrist in an attempt to tug away the mischievous machine hand at his stomach. “Dahahamn it!” Miguel shouts through his laughter, knowing that Lyla has come out victorious. One of the strongest spider-men has been defeated by his own AI with a little bit of tickling.

“There’s that laugh I was looking for!” Lyla smiles along with Miguel. “Why did you have to go and hide it? Now I have to make up for all the laughter I missed!” Seeing another advantage to tease him, Lyla scoops up both of Miguel’s wrists in one robotic hand and pulls his arms out in front of him. 

“I’ll take those, thank you,” she beams above him. She then uses the unoccupied robotic hand to reach the ticklish places she tried before, now that the gates that were holding back his laughter have erupted.

Miguel squeals and jolts with laughter as the free mechanical hand scritches and scribbles at the rest of his torso. Lyla swiftly switches from spot to spot, like a scratch to his ribs, a squeeze to his sides, a scribble or two to his belly and underarms. She pokes around his whole torso, sending Miguel into a squirming, giggling frenzy. 

“Lylahahahaha!!! Quihihihit it!” Miguel attempts to tug back his arms as his joyful laughter fills the room. He releases a snort, then buries his face in his shoulder, trying to hold on to any dignity he has left. 

“No wonder you couldn’t hold still! You’re just that ticklish!” Lyla giggles at Miguel’s reaction. “Ironically though, I’m still able to get some measurements from you. Of where you’re the most ticklish, that is, which I determine to be your belly! Your laughter is zero point five decibels higher in that spot than the rest of your tickle spots! Watch!” Lyla then takes the opportunity to return to scribbling at his stomach, causing Miguel to squeak and increase the volume of his laughter, just as expected.

“LYLA!” Miguel calls out her name again in an attempt to scold her, even though his voice is currently laced with silly sounding laughter, “Thahahahat’s enohohohough!!!”

“Aww, so soon? But alright, I gotcha,” Lyla smiles and releases his wrists. Miguel instantly wraps his arms around himself, panting as he catches his breath from the tickle attack.

Lyla floats over to his shoulder. “See? Now wasn’t that fun?”

Miguel huffs out a growl. He glares at Lyla out of the corner of his eye. “That was NOT fun!”

“Say what you want Miguel,” Lyla shrugs with a lingering, all-knowing smile on her face, “but I can read that your body language is much more relaxed than it was before.”

Miguel opens his mouth to counter her, but he stops himself. He looks away from her with a defeated scowl. A small blush heats in his cheeks. He, unfortunately, can’t argue with her data about him feeling more relaxed.

Lyla hovers back to his other side to grab the measuring tape that she had previously hung on the contraption's metal frame. “Now, let’s get back to business. I still need to finish measuring you for real.”

Miguel flinches away from her, reflexively bringing his arms close to his body for split second defense. “There’s more?!” he frantically questions.

The AI chuckles at his flustered reaction. “Hehe, relax Miguel. I promise I won't tickle you on purpose,” she holds out a reassuring, open palm. “But you better hold still this time,” she ends her sentence with a lighthearted smirk. 

Needless to say, Miguel fully understands that he should listen to her advice, but at least the short break in the middle of their work wasn’t a total waste of time.

[zombiecicada]

The following takes place after Tille’s checkup on Wolfbell.

-

She is back in the void.

Her ears twitch as annoyance starts to roll around in her stomach like boiling water. She can sense someone else in the void with her. Is it too much to ask to have one sleep where she isn’t being dragged into some void to talk to someone?

She shot up, ears pinned back, limbs shaky.

“Can I PLEASE sleep?” She challenges, just this one time she wants to sleep uninterrupted. No nightmares, no voids. Just. Sleep. PLEASE.

“Wolfbell…” she’s met with a familiar voice, and immediately guilt rushes over her when she realizes who she just snapped at.

“O..Odigos,” she mumbled, wings and tail lowering. “I’m sorry.. I shouldn’t have…”

“Hey, hey it’s okay,” he walked over, the paw he had lifted extended until they could gently clasp each other’s paws. "I .. I get it. It's been a rough last couple of hours trying to get anyone to pay attention to me.”

“Theoús.. I know how that feels,” Wolfbell gave a weak laugh. She looked at him, looked at his face, the scars across it. “Is.. that from…?”

“Got it in battle about a month ago, knocked my regular eyesight out for over a week!” He grimaced. “But.. I could still see like this.” He gestured around to them, the void. “Hey, what do you look like anyways? Or like, what colour is your fur?” He asked.

“Grey,” she answered. “And my skin is this .. dark greyish blue.”

“Huh!” He smiled a bit, coaxing her to sit down. He sat down himself. “Well, my skin is red. And my fur is bright orange.”

Wolfbell giggled a little bit imagining his fur being none other than bright ginger in colour, like a bush on fire. He grinned a bit at the giggle, squeezing her paw a little tighter. Maybe all he could see of her was some white outline, but he could feel her paw in his. The only other member of his kind he knew.

“…. Are.. are you alone, wherever you are?” He asked, and she shook her head a bit.

“No.. no I’m not. I have some friends.” She assured.

“Good.. good, I’m glad.” Odigos exhaled a tiny bit. “Tell me about them?”

She curls up as much as she can with her paw still in his.

“Well.. there’s Dolos. He’s got a really cool mechanical thingy… like, a big person made of metal.” Wolfbell’s tail tucked closer to her body.

“A mech, I think those are called. The rebellion has a couple.” Odigos laid back himself. “Must be very talented to make one of those.”

“Very. And there’s Fal, he’s a robot. It’s a bit weird because I can’t see him super well, but.. he’s nice and his clothing is so pretty. I don’t think he really likes being touched, I wonder if it’s like how I don’t really like it being super loud. Either way, his friend Snow, I just met her recently but.. she’s being so nice to me, when a lot of people usually aren’t.” Her eyelids are getting a bit heavy.

“And then there’s Anti… he’s.. I’m not sure what he is honestly. But what I do know is he’s very kind, and anxious like I am.. and it’s nice to know I’m not alone with that.” She can remember how he tried his hardest to make her feel better when she had that… episode. “And he makes cool rifts to other places.”

He listens, but she can tell he’s getting tired too. Well, really, both of them were so tired to begin with.

“And then there’s Dotty. They’re.. they’re my best friend. I don’t think I would’ve made it this far without them.”

“Sounds like you have some pretty good friends…” Odigos mumbled, his wing having draped over his face. Those orange orbs around him twinkle like little stars.

“Yeah..” she smiled a little bit, Odigos’s blue void fading more to black as her consciousness started to leave her. “I have some pretty good friends.”

[anxiousgaypanicking]

Ok we’re taking about the robot fucking again

Virgil would also totally be a robot/android thing but kinda in a Frankenstein way where he’s built from all kinds of different parts that don’t necessarily match but still get the job done (you know like the robot version of patchwork like his hoodie)

Roman (cause he was the mechanic/coder in the last one) takes a look at him and is absolutely APPALLED at the state virgil is in because Virgil these parts are completely out of date how are you even still functioning??? So he takes it upon himself to update Virgil’s equipment and Virgil can’t help but squirm as he feels Roman’s hands caress his inner wires. Roman replaces some of his parts with newer (more sensitive) models until he’s in perfect shape (while also adding some of his own coding for good measure ;))

i like the idea of virgil growing attached to his mix-matched features, and upon romans initial horrified state, virgil thinks theyre solely due to the fact that his shiny, titanium arm doesn't match with his rose-gold coloured leg, or that one of his bionic eyes has a completely different iris colour than the other!

but, roman just expresses that half of virgils body is breaking down, and the other half uses completely outdated equipment! no wonder his servers are so often overwhelmed! he doesnt have the necessary hardware to quickly process and respond to important situations, which causes him to overheat, and frankly romans surprised he hasn't completely broken down due to the stress his overworked fans put his body under! ("what do you MEAN you don't have fans? how does your body cope with the overheating?" "i shut down." "of course you shut down. why wouldnt you shut down? are you sure you werent solely made for the theatrics????")

so, roman insists on not only updating his hardware, but a lot of his structure itself. he promises not to tamper with virgils hard-drive, and to keep his body rather similar in shape, but carefully pulls him apart bit by bit to fix him up.

and virgil doesnt expect just how good it feels

roman carefully starts with his body. arm by arm and leg by leg, trying to preserve as much as the scrap as possible and then reforming it with smoother, higher-functioning, and more sensitive limbs, which he attaches one by one to allow virgil to get used to them on their own without thrusting multiple new limbs on him without warning. and virgil is genuinely delighted to see that roman utilized the specific materials that his old limbs were made of, even if they were unorthodox, tough to work with, or obnoxiously coloured.

and then roman moves onto his wiring.

his big fingers are so gentle when snipping unneeded wires, and they brush over them so sweetly, urging him to relax when he feels virgils body start to get hot. roman doesn't want to him to damage his internal hardware, afterall.

but replacing the wires and rerouting the cords is the easy part.

changing out virgils charging ports is the hard part.

virgils incredibly flustered when it comes to giving roman access to the little port on his lower back, and keeps flinching away when roman tries to inspect it, making little squeaks or shuddering when roman runs his hand over the small hole, or being more embarrassingly vocal when roman has to dig into his back panel to study it more closely. and of course, roman says that he needs to observe virgil during the charging process to guarantee the replaced port and new charger - both of which were hand-crafted by him - are compatible, leaving virgil to hide his face as he's plugged in as he feels each bit of energy that rushes into him to an incredibly sensitive degree.

but, since he did such a good job, virgil completely trusts roman when roman asks if he can add a bit to virgils coding, even promising virgil can review the code after to decide what bits he wants to keep and what he doesnt. only for virgil's newfound fans to kick into full blast when he sees all the extra inappropriate coding roman suggests, though he accepts all of it without complaint, much to romans delight

[12-cluh]

O5-14: Good afternoon, Landon, I trust your flight was pleasant. Agent Landon: One of the few benefits of working for the Foundation is all first-class trips, so it was pretty damn good. O5-14: Glad to hear it, would you care for a croissant? Agent Landon: Nah, I’m all good, thanks, boss. O5-14: Then take a seat, I’ve created more android blueprints. Agent Landon: Oh, y-yeah, what did you have in mind? O5-14: Well, blueprint one, *paper shuffling*  MS173, The Mobile Staturoid. I designed it with advanced mobility and security features for Site Security rather than fieldwork. Its limbs could extend up to fifteen feet with the rebar-infused composite I’ve theorized. I’ve developed a concept for something I call "blink-shift" technology. Whenever it detects any eyes on it, it’s notified and immediately goes in that direction. It would run through the Foundation’s personnel database to search for if the person’s eyes match the records and, if not, the invader is neutralized. It has specialized noise-dampening mechanisms that enable it to move silently, camera eyes that capture and transmit real-time video feeds to security personnel, along with standard-strength alloys. So, do you believe this is possible? Agent Landon: Um, yeah, all of this seems possible. I mean, I’d have to check with the chemical department to see if the composites you made are possible, but from what I know it looks fine. What else have you got? O5-14: *paper shuffling* BA076, The Berserking Abelbot. Agent Landon: Wait, what? O5-14: For this one, a goal was to input as much strength into as small of a bot as possible. However, this makes it so it needs a way to remove the excess energy, hence the markings across its body. It also comes with a very long, thin sword with obsidian edges, which I call the “Voidblade.” If need be, it can deploy an extremely durable and thick exosuit to absorb damage as it recharges and repairs itself. However, before entering the regeneration mode, it would enter a sort of rage state, highly increasing it’s strength and durability when it’s energy is low. Similar to UA682, this one would also feature the adaptation module, though additionally modified to include adapting to its opponent's fighting styles.  Agent Landon: No- I mean, this is literally just SCP-076 as a robot. O5-14: Agent, what are you talking about? Agent Landon: What I mean is that you have a pissed-off robot with a sword and red markings, and the design you gave me literally has fake hair which literally only serves as a visual equivalent! O5-14: Landon, I have no idea what you are talking about. Agent Landon: You called it the fucking Abelbot dude! O5-14: Regardless of your incorrect observations, do you believe you can construct them or not? Agent Landon: Well, probably, I just hope we don’t run into copyright issues.

[peppereddaze]

OKAY- HOLD ON-

So I just had a really weird dream last night- a really weird one! I dreamed about how the newest Layton game came out- you know it- ‘World Of Stream.’

I dreamed that I got it for Christmas and that I played it!

I can’t even begin to explain what happened!?

So-

Luke is grown and a detective and friends with this older famous engineer- who made everything in the now highly steampunk-futuristic looking America!?

He was like half robot! Had a visor and everything that showed his little emotions! Gold and blue steampunk-style look with these epic steampunk gauntlet claws! He actually was disabled- an amputee only having his one leg and the rest of his limbs where missing after an incident and replaced with cool prosthetics! He was also half-blind. His name was Arlo! I can’t remember his full name but it was Arlo! It was probably something cooler- but I’m calling him Arlo!

A ‘comic relief’ and mascot character of this little robot character named Whim! They were small and blue and had these little pipes that went from their back to their head which steam came out of! They had a full-face visor that showed their expressions through icons and such! They were like Arlo’s first creation and they looked more janky, goofy but- Omigosh I loved them!?

They were witty and a lil sarcastic but in a funny way and just- helpful and they had character and a story! They were loyal as anything to Arlo and joined the little main cast perfectly.

So like usual- drama and mystery’s occur about some flip-flop book of memories, Arlo looking familiar to Layton-

Apparently Arlo was revealed to be Luke’s older and missing brother, something about how Arlo used to be Layton’s apprentice. They one day went exploring in a cave and Layton being a archaeologist- trying to find the magical book. They find it and stuff happens and the cave collapses and Layton or apparently someone used the book which erased any memory of Arlo’s existence!? Even to his parents, even to Hershel, even to himself??

Arlo was trapped and badly injured which eventually led him to be found by people and living a new life in making gadgets to better people’s lives, then Arlo becomes the tragic villian of the story who wants revenge on Layton and chases him around with a giant mechanical spider mecha. Like damn- petty much? Plus pretty big stretch for a motive… but whatever.

Layton tries to reason with Arlo and apologies- it seems to work as Arlo settles and seems to forgive him before he suddenly slashes Layton across the cheek in like a really cool cinematic moment!? Like in a real tense and real animated moment- even a Luke gasp. Layton does dramatic fall. Hits ground. Luke’s casual- nah crying out “Proffesah!”

Whim also being there and looking horrified.

Luke is angy and Arlo is sad about that and stuff.

Flora was in some scenes for some reason- I don’t know when but she suddenly appears and disappears at times!?

More stuff ensues!

The whole story in a nutshell is just meeting Luke, wanting to go on little mystery’s, learning about mystery book, Layton and Arlo slowly remembering each other and Luke being happy for his two friends to meet finally, Whim moments, Arlo realising and remembering and turning bitter and turning to revenge mid-way and just-

Whim realising their creator is not who they think they am and agreeing to help to hack Arlo’s robo army…?

And then trying to destroy Arlo- Whim is also infected by a dangerous glitch or virus?

Whim practically sacrifices themselves and that part I was crying about when I woke up!?

Like this isn’t even real and I was sobbing!

I don’t know what to do with this dream but it was so random and just so- vivid that I had to post it!

If anyone has questions about this plot I can try and answer them??

There’s a lot more to say I’m just trying to wrap my head around it all!

I am trying to write this before I forget it! D:

[decks-writing-blog]

Here to Stay Drabbles: Managed Just Fine

Summary: Gordon explores Benrey's extra arm idea some more.

[A/N] This is a sequel to chapter 2. I'd intended to do it much earlier but got caught up in other requests and ideas and then kinda forgot about it until seeing Wraith from Deadlock. She's got basically the same extra prosthetic arm coming out of her shoulder setup as my idea for Gordon's extra arm here except she's got two of them and it seems to be just because she can.

~

Benrey’s idea on what to do about Gordon’s gunhand problem was a bit odd and thus what was left of the cybernetics department at Black Mesa weren’t ready to jump on board right away. They had valid points about how it would be much quicker and easier on their workload to just cut off the gunhand and replace it with a normal robot hand; Gordon would just have to suck it up and deal with the trauma of losing his hand again. More than that though, they were right about how having a mechanical arm branching off his real arm would look weird and draw more attention than even just leaving the situation as it was.

Drawing attention would be bad. Both on a personal level of not wanting to stand out and because everyone at Black Mesa was trying to lie low to avoid media attention. If anything about what had happened got out, they were in big trouble. They couldn’t afford big trouble right now or anytime soon.

But damn it, hadn’t Gordon been through enough already? Once on the other side of it, it probably wouldn’t be so bad but it was a long way to that other side. They didn’t know about Benrey – and he wanted to keep it that way – and thus didn’t know he had a resource that could help him heal the wound quickly so they’d want to wait for it to heal before installing the new robot hand. So he’d have to spend several months of his life without a hand. Technically not so different from what he had now but he’d had the gunhand long enough that combined with however the potion had made it grow, it felt like his hand. His brain was so thoroughly convinced it was his real hand he didn’t even get phantom pains in it. How afraid he was of losing it was still utterly irrational but so what? Nothing he’d gone through during the fallout of the Resonance Cascade had been rational either so he was allowed some irrational feelings in response to its lasting effects.

“I’ll just keep the gunhand as it is then,” was what he ultimately settled on. “I’ve managed just fine with it for several months now anyway.” ‘Just fine’ was a bit of a stretch but he was managing especially with Benrey’s help. “So it’s not a big deal anyway.”

“What if you made it detachable?” Tommy suggested.

“Huh?” Gordon had brought this decision to him and Dr. Coomer as a way of saying he’d canceled his plans for getting a robot hand, not expecting suggestions. Or if they were to suggest anything, it’d be more of the ‘it’ll be fine once it’s all done, just deal with it for a bit’ bullshit.

“If you’re managing mostly fine and don’t want to draw attention to it or whatever, make it so you can take it off and put it on only when you really need two hands for something. Most uh… most prosthetics are detachable anyway, right? Even the fancy robot ones.”

“Mine are,” Dr. Coomer said. “The limb ones are anyway. They’re locked in good but they can be taken off if I ever need to replace them. You could have yours easier to remove. Which would make it more fragile but you’ve already declined joining the new Black Mesa boxing team anyway so I doubt that will be much of an issue. It could attach at your shoulder too to make hiding it’s attachment point easier when you’re not using it. Perhaps you could get one on your other side too so you’d have four whole arms and three hands.

“Or you could do like Doc Oct from Spiderman and give yourself a bunch of cool tentacle arms coming off your back. That’s what I would do if uh… if I ever lost an arm and wanted to replace it.”

“First, I don’t want robot tentacles, thank you. Second, did he lose a hand or arm or something? Is that why he made the robot tentacles?” Gordon didn’t keep up with comics much. He hadn’t thought Tommy did either but he was into more nerd stuff so it wasn’t too surprising.

“No. He made them so he could handle dangerous stuff without getting too close. But it’s cool and uh, would solve your problem. Mr. Coomer’s idea of just a normal detachable robot arm would work too though. So… you could do that one instead. Either way when you go to the uh, cybernetics people again, phrase it as like an experiment. They like doing experiments. Extra robot arms isn’t something we’ve worked with much yet. So there’s got to be lots to learn from it, right? Like um, how the brain would handle extra limbs or whatever.”

“And we could sell it if it’s a success,” Dr. Coomer added. “Also, also, you’re second in command so you shouldn’t have let them say ‘no’ to you in the first place.”

“That’s not how my new position works.” Even Breen could only boss the teams around so much. Gordon probably could’ve gotten away with pushing this point but didn’t want to abuse his authority. And it being a sensitive topic involving his personal trauma made it something he’d rather not talk about much, let alone fight over. “The other stuff though, it’s… interesting.”

Being able to take it off and thus hide the abnormally high-tech prosthetic would avoid the problem of drawing too much attention to himself and the company. And phrasing it as an experiment instead of something that was replacing their agreed upon plans to cut his hand off and attach a basic cybernetic implant, should make it more palatable to the team. The fact that it was indeed an experiment made the idea a bit less appealing for Gordon but it was still far better than getting his hand cut off again. “I’ll talk to them about it then.”

~

Naturally it still required surgery to get the attachment for the extra robot arm to be put in – they were only doing one to start with but the team wanted to do more now that the idea had been reframed. A scary prospect. What if they decide to cut off his hand? All their design changes had been lies so they could put him under.

“I won’t let them,” Dr. Coomer promised. “I’ll be just outside the whole time, peeking through the window, watching. They know better than to cross me.”

“Thanks.” That was actually a huge comfort. Even better would be if Dr. Coomer was allowed in the room entirely but would be asking too much.

~

For the first couple weeks, getting the robot arm to do anything felt impossible. Gordon was about getting ready to call it quits on the idea when something finally clicked. It was like when he finally figured out how to supercharge his gunhand. One moment he couldn’t grasp how he was supposed to ‘press all the buttons’, the next he was just doing it.

The analogy of pressing buttons didn’t hold as strong with the robot arm. It was designed to feel as much like moving a normal arm as possible but it was thinking about it the same way that helped get past whatever block his brain had about it.

His movements with it were slow and jerky, not at all smooth or natural. It was a whole new arm though of course it would take time and effort to get used to controlling it. Given enough time and practice with it, his hand problem wouldn’t be entirely solved – they didn’t have the means to make it as advanced as they could’ve before the Resonance Cascade and thus it would still have limitations even after he got good at using it – but it would help. He wouldn’t have to rely on Benrey as much. Though, if Benrey wanted to keep doing his hair for him, Gordon would gladly let him.

[bicycleboyblog]

I would like to talk about my new favorite Webcomic - Bicycle Boy. A Review.

Submitted by @shakura-kazuki

The story is about a Cyborg named Poet who wakes up in the post apocalyptic desert surrounded by corpses with no memories of who he is. He starts wandering through the desert, finds a bike and just aimlessly travels around to find out what happened to him. He is then violently captured by bandits and from here on out, it just gets worse.

At first, I was drawn in by the character design - Poet is cute, no doubt, and really cool looking. I mean, as cute as a man in his early 30s can be. I love human characters who are out of the ordinary. Stonehenge is big and scary, but she means well. Machk is a kind heart but strong and protective. Darla is crazy, but she has her reasons. I like Skip for no particular reason, or maybe I do. there is a character for everyone.

The characters are realistic, you can empathize with them and their actions make sense, they are diverse and every one of them has their own problems to deal with. You don’t know who is a villain and who is not until more things have happened. An enemy becomes a friend, an ally becomes an enemy.

The art is phenomenal - it starts out good and only becomes better, every page just as detailed as the previous one. Most of the pages are drawn traditionally, scanned in and colored digitally which is quite noticeable at the start of the story, but less so on the recent pages, It’s almost unbelievable that it’s traditionally inked. And the colors are great, setting the mood throughout the story and showing how gnarly red some wounds are. The setting is sci-fi and stays true to it, not delving too much into fantasy - the apocalypse was 10 years ago, many people died, many people lost someone or something and they suffer from cancer, leukemia and radiation poisoning. The characters get wounds and scratches which only heal slowly, they leave scars and aren’t just magically gone. Poet still has most of his torso to feed his organic brain and skin with oxygen, blood and nutrients. It is unlikely, but technically possible for him to exist in real life right now or in a realistic future.

The art style is semi realistic, but not too gritty, the characters still look like comic book characters while having body hair, skin folds, fat and muscles, scars and wounds. Nothings beautiful, nothings clean, but nothings ugly either. Poets mechanical parts mimic real human muscles groups, radius and ulna arm bones and he’s got bone-anchored hearing aids while also having stupidly oversized kneecaps and silly cartoon robot antennas which whip and wobble when he moves. Solles neck folds, Darlas tattoos, Machks scars, Stonehenges peg leg. They all tell stories. You want to know them. You can tell who each character is by their hands, each of them is unique.

Poet is very much the “special snowflake” kind of protagonist and even though that might not be for everyone, I personally quite enjoy it. He’s unique and mysterious and doesn’t want to talk about himself. He locks his feelings away to not bother others, but here and there he reveals his hurt and his frustrations during moments of peace.

What really gets me is that Poet is not “just a cyborg” - it becomes very clear that he doesn’t feel complete, he knows he has no limbs, he can not feel his hands or feet. He’s a stump and he’s aware of it. There is ugly scarring all around his robot parts which makes it look disconnected and less in unison. It makes you feel awful thinking about it, it fills you with dread. You can empathize with him as a human so much. And there is so little of him left. He’s hurt and confused, a disabled man looking for answers. And everyone just calls him a robot and slaps him in the face.

And you, as a reader, do not know a lot more about Poets past OR the world he woke up in than Poet does himself. He is, kind of, the readers avatar so to speak of. Poet himself does not get flashbacks or suddenly remembers, unless in dreams and even then, they are mixed with recent memories and unclear. And that’s what I really like about this: the amnesia trope is there and is here to stay. No matter how disturbing or violent or how much his body remembers, his mind simply does not. He’s met with people of his past which make him trembling with fear, but he does not know why, the memories do not come back.

I told a friend of mine to read it and they told me “Poet isn’t talking a lot that’s boring” and while yes, Poet doesn’t speak a lot in the first 4 chapters, it gets better later. But also, he doesn’t need to talk. He speaks with his face, his emotions. There are many times where you can read his thoughts straight from his face. And that is also what makes him a good “readers avatar” because, you as a reader do not have much influence over the story either. That doesn’t mean Poet does not have any influence - his actions certainly cause him a lot of troubles. But he is not the one to tell the story, he narrates through it.

The story starts slow, but picks up in pace and gets more and more interesting the further it goes. The mystery of who Poet was and what happened to him to end up as a cyborg is, even after 450 pages, still a big question mark. We learn things about Machks and other characters past lives along the way. Things are implied, things are going forward and you want to know more, want to find out. There are no info-dumps and even if, they feel natural. But- and here’s the thing - you are not frustrated about it. The story goes it’s own pace and that’s good. It keeps you hooked BECAUSE it reveals only so little - and throws new questions at you with each reveal, like a hydra.

Your interest in the story isn’t driven by the question “what comes next?” but more about “what had happened before?” and the more you go towards the future the more you learn about the past.

And since I liked the comic so much, I read it again. And again. Until I slowly started to realize, that you can solve parts of the mystery yourself - almost every page has a little hint in it. These are scattered everywhere - from backgrounds, to dialogues, to gestures and visuals. If you know what you are looking for you will find them. Which is, simply said, AMAZING. The level of detail that this comic holds over the span of so many years is incredible. Every single page has a lot of thought put into it. Jackarais uses the visual and textual medium of a webcomic to full extent. Even in the alt text sometimes. 

So…

…next time you re-read Bicycle Boy… make sure to pay attention to the details. And question all of them.

There is a lot to unpack. Disturbing things. The more you try to figure things out, the more fucked up it gets. 

I’m burning to know and excited to see how the story continues.

I love this comic 11/10. Would read again.

0 Links

[transcarcinization]

actually on the point of murderbot’s design. it’s been driving me crazy recently so i’m going to ramble. we know several things about it

- it has a significant amount of skin/flesh on its back, based on the amount of times it comments on getting shot there & that really good description in NE of flesh peeling off and dripping down it’s back in chunks

- it has enough mechanical parts visible from the outside of it’s body that it would NOT be able to pass as an augmented human naked (also: it does not have genitalia). tapan only ever saw it in full clothing but she noticed and commented on it having a LOT of (presumed) augments. it is unclear what she saw to give her this impression

- it’s legs/feet don’t look like human feet at all, but it’s hands, face, and neck (excepting the data port) can pass as human.

these are all fascinating because like. from a functional standpoint. mb says that it’s feet don’t look human because the company ‘wasn’t concerned with making that part look human’, meaning probably it’s hands and face look human for at least partially cosmetic reasons. HOWEVER. the fact that it has flesh on it’s back signals at least to me that there is SOME practical benefit to giving it actual human muscle/skin? the benefits are probably a) that human muscle is malleable and stretches well, and can hold form and shape in a way that we certainly can’t reproduce now (and from the tech seen in full bots in the mb series, i don’t think they can either); and b) if they’re using it for muscle

so then this implies it has muscle & skin where flexibility is an issue. this makes sense; the main issue with recreating a human form robotically would be those parts. i assume it’s feet are fully or mostly robotic for wear purposes, and because feet really do not have that much stretch with the muscles involved. the back, on the other hand, would probably be a nightmare to try to make fully robotically without flexible robotics

this implies it’s stomach/front are probably human for the same reasons. on the other hand, there’s no real flexibility reason for it’s arms to be human, especially with the gunports; that would depend on how much human muscle is actually the muscle behind secunits. i assume with some weird future tech cloned tissue could be significantly stronger, and having a skeleton made of hsla steel would theoretically remove the upper limit humans currently have. if the muscle is human then it needs human parts on its arms from its back at least halfway down its forearms, and likewise it would need it’s thighs and at least halfway down the back of its lower leg. on the other hand, if there’s some mechanical way to power the strength behind secunits, then there’s really very little reason for human parts on its limbs at all besides shaping it to wear clothes functionally.

there’s also the issue of space: mb definitely needs processor space (i’m sorry i’m NOT accepting it doesn’t have a full human brain in it’s skull. it can have two brains i can’t imagine you could cut a human brain in half and just have that be fine it has a full brain) and it needs battery and reactor space. it also probably needs general space all throughout it’s body for wiring, servos, ect.

battery, reactor, servos, aka Big Stuff, are probably in it’s midsection. it doesn’t have a digestive system so presumably there’s just a lot of Space there. it’s mentioned that this is usually where humanform bots have their brain, and i don’t know where in the world else all of that would go, so it goes there. i assume it has some kind of flexible cage between it’s ribs and it’s hips, or possibly it’s ribs extend further down; this is just because it gets shot in the stomach a LOT!! and the idea of it’s brain being there and it’s just chill with that is giving me hives.

i’m not even going to address the battery/reactor thing because accepting self charging batteries & small localized reactors is just something that comes with sci-fi. it doesn’t make any sense but nothing works otherwise so we are Looking Away. anyways that’s probably also in it’s midsection. presumably there’s a split between servos and battery/reactor around it’s waist, similar to where [liver/stomach/assorted small organs] and intestines differ on a human. i would probably put battery/reactor on the intestines half since presumably it’s bigger and less important

everything else, wires and stuff, are probably handled either by running through bones or right over bones (i CANNOT remember if it has coolant in canon or if that’s something someone said in a fanfic and i internalized). it probably has several cords in the place of a spinal column doing double duty both AS it’s spinal column and as the main connector between it’s brains, which actually makes the location of the dataport seem like a very intuitive place. (i also think it mentions the gov module functioning somewhere around here, but i can’t remember whether the gov module had like a physical component or if just the fry-u-up bit was there?) it’s not hard to imagine wires traveling with/similar paths to veins in the body. same shit really

this is a very long post that said very little but it helped ME

[themyriadpoet]

Hello, Shockwave-Loving Anonymous here 😎. A fic or headcanon is fine (although fic is preferred), but could you write something for a scientist insert being super fascinated by Shockwave? Like, they're fixating on his alien qualities and rambling about how unique he is and how complex and advanced his species are. Maybe.. Shockwave can't help but be flattered in a completely logical and totally non-romantic way 😉? [TFP btw]

Fascinations - TFP Shockwave X Human Reader

Warnings: None

Word Count: 450

In the walls of his laboratory, Shockwave busied himself by sorting through tools for his latest project. He worked diligently and swiftly, fixating his attention on the job at hand. However, on the large counter, a human sat near him. 

Shockwave was a reclusive mech. Although he was alone on Cybertron for many, many cycles, it never bothered him. He was very accustomed to the lifestyle. 

However, he didn’t mind the human’s presence. No, not really. At least, not anymore. They weren't an ordinary human, but rather a scientist like Shockwave himself, meant to aid him whenever necessary during his methodical endeavors. 

But they weren’t easily silenced. They talked endlessly, rambling on about subjects regarding Cybertronians themselves. More specifically? Him. 

On the edge of the table, they kicked their legs back and forth. They smiled, bouncing and lifting their tiny fingers to further emphasize their words. 

“I mean, you’re a robot! Well, at least, by human standards. On my planet, robots sometimes need human aid in order to gain intelligence, but you guys don’t! You have your very own unique biological system. Actual living metal! CNA! Every Cybertronian is different!”

They laughed.

“You’re giant and mechanical, possessing advanced knowledge of the universe around us. Waaay more than what humans could even dream of exploring, let alone processing! Not to mention the superior technology you guys operate!”

They sighed, smiling at the mech. 

“That’s just. Wow! You know?”

Shockwave nodded. For the most part, he remained quiet, only correcting them when it was required. They were an inquisitive creature, lacking extreme intelligence but still very much intrigued by his kind. In an odd way, Shockwave found their reactions interesting himself. 

Pleased, the human continued.

“And you! You’re just…so smart. A scientist! Just like me! Sure, you only got one eye, but that doesn’t inhibit your functioning in any way. You research, you experiment, and you create…” They smirked at him, pointing at the top of his helm. “Ah! And your antennae! They move when you display emotion, don’t they?” 

Shockwave paused, looking at them and surveying them closely.

“The correct term is finials.”

There was a brief beat of silence. Slowly, the human nodded in understanding. Before they rambled even more, however, they stopped. All of the sudden, their smile vanished and their shoulders dropped.

“I’m sorry. I…spoke too much, didn’t I? I can stop now, if you want me to.” 

Shockwave observed them, noting their somber expression and unmoving limbs. For a nanosec, he thought to himself. His finials twitched as a strange tingling sensation flickered inside his chassis.

“No.” He set his tools down to the side, directing his focus onto them. “It would be most…logical if you proceed.” 

Divider Credit: @/halohearts666

[multistoty]

The free hand ran through the expanse of his sun stained blonde hair. A sentiment that his aunt hated vividly though his uncle teased came from his father. It was one of the few things about Anakin he actually knew beyond his trade and seeming affection for his mother. The boy only hoped that that would have been extended to him. Luke’s tiny face couldn’t help crumpling in confusion as the man at his side seemed utterly confused by the name of the emperor. It wasn’t almost as much a physical blow as when he had mentioned the loss of his parents and the jedi. But if he knew this padme and he knew Ben, how could he possibly not know the empire or its ruler? Still, something felt so picture perfect walking with this man and not just because he was a good friend in the newness of the situation. There was also the oddity of the almost push against his mind when emotions rolled through the other man too harshly before a gate of sorts would brought back up.There was clear loved from this man towards him though also the five stages of grief by the things the child had to say. He seemed in awe of him. Studying him in a way that was comforting in its oddity. Maybe his head had been hit too badly. Or he had been learning more about the child than he ever have. Yet, there was a safety here with this man who when it hurtled towards the earth had saved him from the sand people who had left the bruises and scratches along the ivory of his face. Blue eyes running vivid circles down the length of the funeral dressed jedi.  “What would Ben know about the jedi?” He found himself asking. It was one arrow in the quiver fill he had. “I don’t know about the jedi or the sith. I know my mother was murdered. I know that it was one of those two and that a jedi would be buried alive should he show his face anywhere tht the inquistors have known. I should hate them, but I don’t have the capacity to hate.The emperor said that the jedi were working with the separatists the whole war and were plotting to murder children. It seemed odd with the all the legends and stories here. If I don’t join the empire, I am going to be stuck here forever. There’s only so many machines you can take apart and put back together or water you can keep safe.And secretly, I don’t like sand either. It gets everywhere and its all you can see, but I have never known. I want to see a lake or something before I join the stars.  Ben says I am the second best pilot after my father so don’t be like my uncle and think I can’t do it.  No one here takes kindness as anything besides weakness. It was more about the fact you haven’t passed out after hitting your head and dressed like the devil walking under the hottest sun.” the slight smile broke upon his pained face. The sloshing of sand something he was used too under foot. “Your wife isn’t like a hut or something right?  I think it’s odd you could fall onto a planet and not know. I don’t know much about medicine, but maybe we should stop somewhere before the long walk. Ben doesn’t like to live around others. I used to think he was allergic to fun.”

His father. The words sounded tiny in his mouth. As if he begrudged another Luke might give that name too. Maybe they had been friends when he lived here. A warrior and a spice trader. He hadn’t thought Ben to have ever lived on planet though this man seemed to know him and his character intimately. He had understood more than even the boy’s uncle could about how he couldn’t leave Ben Kenobi out there to his dramatic lonesome with some sort of guilt he couldn’t completely be the owner of. The man that made him feel like the famed chosen one or more. “I’ll be your family too if that's what you want. I like you even though we just met. It's easier when someone allows you to love them. That isn’t my experience. My uncle is almost afraid of that.” The smile made him blush bashfully before lifting the robotic limb closer to his face. Mechanical things were something that he was certain of. “Look at the processor! Did you update it’s capacity yourself? This is some good mechanical work and some of the parts aren’t even that hard to find. Don’t worry- I won’t take apart your arm unless you say its okay. I am a good kid. Most of the time.” Once they were hand and hand, luke finally stuttered out the courage. The unruly beat of his heart smacking at the bone cage of his chest. “Why do you have a lightsaber? Are you here to kill us? Kill me?”

@collectionofvoices​

[clanwarrior-tumbly]

Can you do security breach animatronics reacting to reader that has prosthetic legs? -ZRB anon (Zombie Robot Blood anon)

Monty

The first time he fell off the catwalk and broke both of his legs had him understandably miserable.

As a Pizzaplex mechanic you were in charge of repairing him, calibrating his equilibrium, and making sure he walks again.

This reminds you all-too-well of the physical therapy you've gone to after getting your prosthetics. It was a challenge, but you've overcome it and were doing much better now.

However, Monty didn't know any of that and just huffs at how "humans made walking look easy”, brushing off your encouragement as pity.

"Actually, Mont..it's not easy for all of us." You tell him. "I understand your frustration completely. Because I've been there."

He wonders what you meant by that, until you roll up your pant legs and show him your leg prosthetics.

He’s surprised, and you explain that you lost them in an accident--just like he did. 

“If I can walk again, so can you. Just keep trying for me, okay?”

It’s very reassuring for him, in a way, to know he’s not the only one who went through something like this.

Glamrock Chica

She wonders why you always wear heavy pants to your job at the Mazercise.

Of course, there’s no uniform policy you’re breaking. But she sees most of the human staff wearing shorts or capris, especially on hot summer days.

So one day while you’re cleaning the walls, she comes up to you and asks politely, reassuring you that if it’s too personal she’ll back off.

You kinda hesitate, not wanting her to judge, though you realize she’s probably the least judgmental person you’ve worked with and went all this way to find you.

So you show her your prosthetics, and she gasps. 

You immediately perceive that as a negative reaction but then-

“Those. Are. COOL!!! Can I put stickers on them????”

“Oh--uh..if you want. But no one will see them..”

“What? That’s silly! You and I will see them!” She giggles.

Least to say, you allowed Chica to decorate your legs with stickers to her heart’s content.

Roxanne

You know those rules on amusement park rides where prosthetic limbs must be secured/removed to avoid injuring others?

Yeah Roxy’s Raceway doesn’t have those. If it flies off or gets broken they’re not responsible for whatever happens.

However you’re trying to get that rule implemented. This company gets away with a lot of shit, but this was borderline hazardous and discriminatory.

Roxy sees you’re upset and asks why, but when you explain she’s just confused. “I haven’t seen anyone at the Pizzaplex with prosthetics..seems like a pointless rule.”

“Oh really?” You huffed and rolled up one of your pant legs. She sees the metal/plastic and is shocked. How did her eyes not catch that?

"[Y/n], I...I-I didn’t know. You didn’t tell me..”

“I shouldn’t have to.” You then walk away, feeling a bit hurt.

Later on Roxy finds you putting a helmet on a STAFF bot and apologizes. She sent a message to the raceway manager and they’re currently updating the rules now.

You forgive her, but remind her that just because she’s never seen anyone with prosthetics doesn’t mean they’re invisible.

Glamrock Freddy

You just casually mention your prosthetics getting a new casing one day while helping Freddy prepare for his show, and the bear’s ears perk up.

“You have leg prosthetics? I didn’t know that.”

“You never knew? You couldn’t tell from the funny way I walk sometimes?” You lightly joke, as you usually tend to do. 

Of course, you’ve received stares and the occasional comment from kids and even grown adults. You almost didn’t even get this job. So you just make jokes to cope.

But clearly Freddy doesn’t see that as something to joke about and huffs, putting a hand on your shoulder and giving you a serious yet concerned look.

Stern Dad protocols activated.

“I see no difference, Officer [Y/n]. You walk the same as every other human. If someone is making fun of you, will you please let me know? I don’t tolerate discrimination of any kind. Especially not towards my friends.”

He’s so caring you nearly tear up.

Sun

“Mr. Sunny, is that guard a robot like you?!” A kid shouts while pointing at you, causing every other child in the daycare to turn their head towards you.

You were just at the security desk, trying to fix your metal prosthetic as it was a little loose, but you felt all of their stares and become embarrassed, quickly hiding it.

Sun’s furious. He didn’t know you had prosthetics but has seen a few children with them before...children who became bullying targets.

He absolutely does not tolerate that.

“That’s rude!! There is no reason to talk so loud that everyone can hear you!!” He snaps. “For that you are in timeout and afterwards you will apologize to [y/n]! The rest of you...go back to playing!! You’ll join this kid if I catch you staring!!”

It’s safe to say a few kids cried, but they learned their lesson.

He skips over to the desk to make sure you’re okay.

You didn’t think he needed to make a scene, though that was typical of Sun. You just thanked him for coming to your defense.

Moon

During naptime, he hears metal squeaking and investigates, finding you at your desk with an allen wrench, adjusting your leg prosthetic.

He says nothing, just quietly watching you work.

When you finally see him looming over the desk you nearly jump. “Oh, hey Moon..what’s up?”

He doesn’t know how to ask about your prosthetic without being rude, so he just points to it.

“Oh? This? Yeah it’s one of my prosthetics..I have them for both of my legs actually.” You explain as you reattach it.

“Both? And you..get around just fine?”

“Yep.”

“...that’s cool.”

And then he leaves, not bothering you about it for the rest of the time he’s active.

Honestly he has the most chill reaction.

[carpememes]

Starters for Robot/Cyborg Muses

“You’re overheating! Is something wrong?”

“I was at the store, but I didn’t know what you’d like... So I got you WD-40.”

“Don’t panic! This is why we keep a first aid kid AND a toolbox in the house at all times.”

“I thought someone with a metal body would be cold. But you’re so warm!”

“Have you done your software update?”

“Don’t push yourself. I don’t want you crashing like last time.”

“How much can you lift? Could you throw a car?”

“Why are you here? Oh! Are you on a journey to learn the subtle and complex nuances of human emotion?”

“When you touch me, do you feel anything?  Am I just ones and zeroes in your processor?”

“You’re so heavy! You weigh a TON!”

“I got you a new cooing fan!”

“Can you play any music you want out of your speakers or is that just for your voice?”

“Can you eat or does food just gum up the works?”

“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. I know you’re not comfortable being the only robot in the room.”

“Who cares what you’re made of? You’re a person!”

“You’re not just a machine! You’re my friend!”

“I wasn’t expecting to have to hide a robot in my house. Sorry about the rough accommodations.”

“You can’t go with me. If someone sees you, they could call the authorities and you could be taken away and dismantled.”

“I know it sucks, but you have to pretend to just be a normal robot for a bit. They can’t know you’re different.”

“They tell me you’re not a real person. But that’s not true. It can’t be. You’re the realest person I know.”

“Wanna go to the scrap yard? We might find some cool replacement parts.”

“Do you think an autobody shop knows how to reattach a robot arm? That’s the closest place we can call for this.”

“Do not be alarmed. I was running my routine diagnostics program.”

“I apologize for scaring you. I shut down due to an unexpected software update.”

“When I was built, it was to serve a purpose. But I don’t want to do that anymore.”

“What does the sunshine feel like? My sensors tell me that it raises the temperature... But I have never felt it.”

“Are you alright? You were immobilized for more than seven hours.”

“I was ASLEEP. Humans have to do that every now and then so we don’t collapse.”

“Am I alive? I have thoughts, I influence the world around me... But am I really alive, or just an imitation?”

“I don’t eat, and I can’t smell like you can, so I hope what I’ve made is at least edible.”

“My body isn’t as soft as yours. It’s probably not very comfortable to ‘cuddle’ with.”

“You organic creatures are all so small. So fragile.”

“I can protect you from them. Nobody’s gonna take you apart on my watch.”

“Don’t panic. With the proper tools any of my limbs can be reattached.”

“Please direct me to your workshop so I can repair myself.”

*Internal fans begin to whir from excitement*

“I’m a machine, but not like your microwave or dishwasher. I don’t know what I’m for. I’m still trying to figure that out.”

“You can talk to the microwave?” 

“What is it like to Dream?”

“I can exert five hundred pounds of crushing force with one hand. Don’t test me.”

“Emotions don’t make you weak! They make you ALIVE!”

“Humans are weak and inefficient.”

“Your emotions make you faulty and unreliable.”

“I have no use for organic creatures. I have no use for anyone.”

“Does this unit have a soul?”

“It’s weird. Sometimes I can still feel my old arm/leg. Not this mechanical one.”

“It’s okay. The pain goes away. Cybernetic implants do this sometimes.”

“You don’t want to  know what happened to make me this way. Trust me.”

“I used to have to wear glasses. Now that I have these new eyes, everything is so clear!”

“I’m still me, right? Nothing has to change, right?”

“Why are you looking at me like that? It’s me! I just... had to get some stuff replaced.”

“Turning into a cyborg was the best decision I ever made. I’ve never felt more powerful.”

“What’s the matter? Scared of the new and improved version of me?”

“You can’t hide from me! My sensors will find you!”

“This morning I crushed my doorknob trying to leave the house. I’m still getting used to this.”

*Arm turns into [sender’s weapon of choice]* “Bet you didn’t see that coming.”

“I could take you to the guy who did my operation. We could get matching arms/legs/implants.”

“My other hand is softer. Don’t you want to hold that one?”

“I don’t know why you like kissing metal... But I’m not going to complain.”

“I could crush you! Are you sure??”

“No matter what you’re made of, you’re still you. And I love you.”

“You think some metal bits would change how I feel about you?”

“You’re beautiful. Bolts and all.”

“How many people can say they’re dating/married to a badass robot/cyborg?”

“The way your chest hums helps me sleep. Please stay?”

[systemerrorbonnie]

species specific addison hcs:

(aka "transformers fan makes addisons more complicated than they actually need to be, more at 11")

addisons are androids mass produced in factories. They’re made in batches of about 4-5 individuals. each batch of addisons has a specific soul frequency that theyre all intune with. basically they can feel each others life force. they cant tell each others emotions by this connection but its a good way to tell if someone in your batch is dead or alive

this obviously comes with the downside of being the first to know when your batchmates die. losing that connection to their batchmate won't kill an addison or impair their ability to advertise but it is obviously deeply traumatizing

"addison" is just the name of the model of robot they are. they just use it as a collective last name to make things easier

addisons main processor (brain) and soul are contained in a disk slotted into their chest. this disk can be removed and slotted into a new body anytime. as long as its another addison body. if they try to inhabit a body not specifically made for their processors itll basically fry itself out of the effort of trying to actually Use that body

most of the addisons vital mechanisms are contained in their chest and torso so you could theoretically remove their head or any of their limbs and theyd be completely fine (save for them going blind)

addisons are hardwired to be Extremely social and will go insane from loneliness if theyre isolated for too long (like left alone for over a couple months long). this often results in them latching onto the first person that gives them attention and becoming extremely clingy to that person OR being mortally terrified of any and all social interaction and falling deeper into isolation out of fear

the above reason is often why a lot of batchmates stick together for large chunks of their life. or at least until they get more relationships later in life. i mean even if you didnt get along with someone youd still keep them around if they were the only thing keeping u from going bonkers yknow?

addisons colors are painted on and can be changed really easily. kind of like dyeing your hair. most addisons have a "default" color though and dont really change it to keep up branding

addisons are adults from day one but they arent built with identities, theyre given some clothes and a serial number and then let out into cyber city to build their own identity. its mostly left up to them and any older addison/other darkner to make an identity for themselves

they have basic information (like how to talk and walk and advertise) uploaded onto their processors when they step off the conveyor belt for the first time so they dont Act like newborns but young addisons still dont know a lot about the world or how to build relationships

the most common way for an addison to die is for them to stop being profitable. once that happens their manufacturers initiate a "recall" of that particular addison. a recall is basically a killswitch and offlines them permanently since their manufacturers dont wanna waste resources on addisons that wont make them money. addisons can only go a year and a half with very little/no profits to justify recalling. an addison dropping dead in the streets of cyber city or even mid-conversation/mid-task isnt an uncommon occurrence unfortunately

their voices work like vocaloids. instead of voiceboxes they just have voicebanks of pre-recorded phrasez and sounds that they use to talk. this also means that talking to an addison for more than a couple minutes can start to sound weird since their pronunciation of words or delivery can be wonky and their voices dont have that much emotion. they also all have the same voice because their manufacturers didnt want to spend more money than necessary making multiple voices for them

on that note. addisons under extreme stress rely more on "adspeak" to get by. spamton is a prime example of this

addisons are quite stiff and don’t bend more than they need to. most can’t even pull their knees to their chest or bend over to touch their toes

addisons are tall by default since they have to stand out in their surroundings. most of them average about 6'3 to 6'9 but more successful addisons have been known to get body mods that make themselves taller to distinguish themselves from other addisons

addisons have heels built into their feet. they need specially made shoes because of this

addisons can technically purr. it’s not actual purring, but it sounds similar enough that most consider it purring

body modifications for addisons are very popular but also very expensive to buy and install. They only tend to show up on addisons that are super successful. some addisons specialize in installing and selling body mods entirely (yes addisons advertising to other addisons is infact a thing. gotta make that money somehow). common body mods include but are not limited to: voice mods, additional limbs/limb extenders (to like. make u taller yknow), different heads, glow-in-the-dark paintjobs, hair re-rooting, etcetc

addisons cant cry. they are physically incapable of crying or emoting much with their faces at all

addisons have screens for faces. yes they still have the long noses. do not question how that works i couldnt tell you either (im a very tired artist, theres your explanation)

addisons have a metal endoskeleton and a hard plastic shell around all their internal mechanisms and pistons and gears. their disk is placed in the center of their chest

addisons are prone to rusting sometimes. they take baths in wd-40 to fix this otherwise their joints will start squeaking like old door hinges

addisons have plugs on their backs and plug into the wall to recharge energy. recharging is basically synonymous with sleeping to them

addisons dont actually know what lightners do with their products. they understand what their products are of course but they have no clue why lightners need them or what they do with the products. lightners (organics in general and Especially humans) confuse and gross them out so much

some addisons are obsessed with looking organic (some to almost fetish levels of obsession) and get body mods specifically to make them look human. others get body mods to make them look More robotic bc they think humans are gross and weird. most dont care about appearances though

the earrings i draw addisons wearing are also built into them. they literally cant take the earrings off. permanent drip

in conclusion:

if u have any questions please ask me i will happily infodump at u

[crumbledcastle28]

Chapter 6: A Jedi

Warnings: traumaaaa, lots of anxiety, like lots of anxiety, the reader really hates herself in this one, minor minor violence, references to violence, mostly just anxiety and hate.

Author’s Note: This is where the series starts to pick up, so I executed it as best as I could! I also went a little off canon with this one, so I hope it makes sense with the story. Thank you for any support!

Your journey to Sorgan was pretty smooth… but Mando was tense.

You tried your best to reassure him multiple times that this was the best choice for the kid and that you could help him with any challenge thrown at him, but he would just respond with a sigh and a solemn nod. So, you decided not to push it.

He had done even riskier missions on his own, so he can handle this one.

Once you arrived, you walked into the common house and met a woman named Cara Dune.

She introduced herself to you and she seemed very friendly, but when Mando mentioned that she was an ex shock trooper for the Republic, that is when you tensed up.

You had done things in your past that you knew would offend her. Not even offend her, but provoke her to strangle you alive. The fact that she was from Alderaan made it obvious enough that the Empire had hurt her deeply.

The only way to protect yourself was to hide who you really were, and your heart sank.

You felt like you had finally broken away from that way of life. The hiding, the anxiety, the fear. You felt like you could be yourself with Mando and the kid and not have to worry about that anymore. But the galaxy was cruel like that.

After the brief introduction, Mando proceeded to outline the plan and everything that the man on the recording (who you later found out to go by the name Greef Karga) had said, and Cara looked far from impressed.

“I don’t know, I’ve been advised to lay low,” she said, “If anyone identifies me, I’ll rot in a cell for the rest of my life.”

That makes two of us, you think.

“I thought you were a veteran,” Mando mumbled.

“I’ve been a lot of things,” Cara replied. “If I so much as book a passage on a ship registered to the New Republic-”

“I have a ship,” Mando replied, “I can bring you there and back with a handsome reward. You can live free of worry.”

“I’m already free of worry,” she said, “and I’m not in the mood to play soldier anymore. Especially fighting a local warlord.”

“He’s not a local warlord,” Mando replied, “He’s Imperial.”

You could see how Cara visibly tensed up at the word “Imperial.” If you weren’t scared of her before, you sure as hell were now.

“I’m in,” she responded, and you smiled at her.

She grinned back to you and asked, “Where do you fit in in this plan?”

You looked at the child in your arms and said, “My job is to keep the child safe. So I will protect him until he is used as the bait, and I will adapt to where he goes from there.”

“She can defend herself plenty,” Mando says, and Cara nods at you.

“I believe you,” she says, and you give her another smile.

I really hope I don’t let her down, you think.

~~*~~

Within the next hour, the four of you had arrived back at the Razor Crest.

Mando started the ship on track to Nevarro while Cara took a look at the weapon arsenal.

You watched as her eyes scanned over the array of options, and you couldn’t help but feel deep sorrow for her.

Her life was torn apart by the Empire, and now she was getting thrown right back into a fight. The fact that she wasn’t even going to join the mission before Mando mentioned that the client was Imperial made you nervous. She was not a woman you wanted to mess with, so you hoped and prayed you would stay on her good side.

The kid had somehow managed to make it to the controls and grab hold of the throttle, which made the ship veer abruptly side to side.

You ran to the child and lifted him away from the throttle while Mando stabilized the ship.

“Are you sure one set of hands is enough to watch that little beast? Worst case scenario, we made need y/n to fight with us. Maybe an extra set of hands could help,” Cara said, trying to catch her breath from running all around the ship.

Mando looked back at you and you nodded.

“She’s right. I can watch the kid as long as you need, but if you guys need me in a fight I can’t keep him with me. He could get hurt.”

Mando nodded and sat back down in the pilot’s chair.

“Looks like we are making a pit stop,” he said.

~~*~~

The Razor Crest landed on the property of a man named Kuiil. Mando said that he had helped him greatly in the past and he trusted him, and if Mando trusted somebody, you did too.

He greeted you with open arms and was incredibly nice. He led the four of you inside his humble home, and you never realized how long it had been since you stayed in an actual home.

Kuiil studied the child in your arms and said, “it hasn’t grown much.”

“What is your name,” he asked you.

“I am y/n. It is nice to meet you Kuiil,” you said and he nodded reverently to you.

“What about this one? Does she have a name,” he said, gesturing to Cara.

“This is Cara. She was a shock trooper,” Mando said.

“You were a dropper,” Kuiil said, and Cara nodded.

“Did you serve,” she asked.

“On the other side, I’m afraid. But I’m proud to say that I paid out my clan’s debt, and now I serve no one but myself,” Kuiil said.

The other side, you think. Kuiil served the Empire? And Mando had worked with him before?

You couldn’t deny the fact that this got your hopes up. Mando… working with the enemy.

If only he knew, you thought.

All of a sudden, the door behind Kuiil opened, and an IG droid stepped inside with a tray in his hands.

Mando immediately sprang to his feet and pointed his blaster at the droid. Cara joined him, and you blocked the pram the child was in with your whole body.

“Would anyone care for some tea,” the droid asked, and your eyebrows knit in confusion.

Weren’t these droids normally hunters?

“Please, lower your blasters. He will not harm you,” Kuiil said, obviously trying to diffuse the situation.

Mando, however, didn’t seem to want to go that route.

He kept his blaster pointed directly at the droid’s head and said, “That thing is programmed to kill the baby.”

You straightened your back at his words, blocking as much of the pram as you could, until Kuiil shook his head and said, “Not anymore.”

He then explained how he found the droid at a battle site and brought it back to his workshop. He decided to repair it, and then spent many days teaching the droid everything from scratch. It developed a personality, Kuiil mentioned, and it’s experiences helped the personality become unique to the droid.

“Is it still a hunter,” Mando asked.

“No, but it will protect,” he said, and Mando finally lowered his blaster.

There was no way Mando was going to let that robot anywhere near the child.

~~*~~

Later that night, you and Cara were sitting in Kuiil’s house while Mando was outside speaking with him, no doubt trying to convince him to protect the child.

“So what’s your story,” Cara asked, taking a sip of tea.

“Oh.. well… Mando picked me up on Tattooine. I worked there as a mechanic for a woman named Peli. It was a good job, but I wanted to get off that planet. I had lived there for a long time, and I wanted to explore the galaxy for once. It sounds cheesy, but I’ve always wanted to do that at some point. Mando agreed to take me with him on his missions in exchange for the child’s safety,” you say, and Cara nods.

“Nice. You made a living for yourself, and were brave enough to walk away when you knew the time was right. Most people never leave their home planet,” she says, and you nod.

“Yeah… I tried my best,” you say, and you try not to let your eyes darken. You didn’t like talking about your past. All it did was stir up old memories that you had worked to push down for years. You hated your past, and you didn’t know how well you could hide it much longer. Especially when you were being questioned by someone like Cara.

“The Empire… hurt me a lot. So, I am excited to hurt it back,” you say, and a big grin shows on Cara’s face.

She takes another sip of her tea, and looks up to find Mando walking through the door.

“Any luck,” she says to him, and he shakes his head no.

“Kuiil said that the droid can protect the child, but I don’t trust it,” he says and Cara chuckles.

“Yeah.. I think we got that,” Cara says and you smile.

Mando goes to sit down next to Cara, so she scoots over a bit to make some room for him.

You heard something hit the floor, and you realize Cara had knocked over your bag on accident. You had brought it into Kuiil’s house because you used it to store snacks for the child.

You stored other things in there too, and under no circumstance was anyone allowed to see them.

That was going pretty well, until Cara knocked the entire thing over.

“Whoops. Sorry,” she says and goes to start putting the items back in.

Your body is frozen in place and you feel like your lungs are being squeezed. Your limbs have turned to putty, and you cannot take your eyes off her hands.

If she sees it, I and dead. I am so dead

“It’s- It’s ok Cara. I’ve got it,” you say and start to stand up.

“No no it’s ok, I can-” she says, before her eyes widen.

She picks up an item and starts raising it to eye level, and you are just about ready to vomit.

Your saber.

You feel like your entire body is crumbling before her and she can’t even tell. Your breathing has become almost erratic and the sweat on your forehead starts to drip down to your eyes.

This whole experience, this whole journey with Mando and the kid could be completely undone right now. Everything you have hidden, everything you’ve buried, and everything you hoped you left behind on sandy Tattooine is staring you right in the face.

And Cara is….smiling?

“No way,” she yells excitedly, before laughing and smiling at you. 

“No wonder you were so secretive about your past! You’re a Jedi,” she says.

You take a glance at Mando, who is staring at the saber, looking confused as ever.

Ok, maybe this is good, you think to yourself, trying to relax.

I can pretend I was a Jedi. Sure. I have basically the same training as them.

But who were you kidding. You knew that wasn’t going to cut it.

“A Jedi?” Mando says, and Cara goes into a whole tangent about how amazing the Jedi were. How they fought the Empire till their dying breaths and defended the galaxy. They had been betrayed by their own clone groups, and most of them died in Order 66.

“But you didn’t!” she said and smiled at you.

You managed a smile back, but you had to have looked like a psycho. You were in so much physical and emotional pain from the amount of anxiety flowing through you. You had felt out of control before, but this was more dangerous than you knew.

You were such an idiot getting your hopes up. Thinking that a Mandalorian actually cared for someone like you. How could you have been so stupid.

“Even the colors of the sabers are legendary,” Cara said. “Aren’t they y/n?”

You nod back, but you know what’s coming.

Your truth was about to shine throughout the entire house, reflecting back at you like some sick joke. And you were screwed. You were so screwed.

“Well, let’s see it then,” Cara said and ignited the saber with both hands wrapped around the handle.

“Wait” you scream, but it was too late.

The tears hit your eyes before she even ignited the weapon.

The deep, burning red saber was ignited, and there was no going back.

It’s burning, fire like glow illuminated Cara’s face, and a sunset like tint was shining on Mando’s armor.

He always looked so beautiful when light would reflect off of him, but not like this.

The red from the saber was vibrant, but you had never seen a glow as red as the anger in Cara’s eyes.

She knew what this color meant, and your identity was revealed in all its glory.

A Sith

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