#IT'S A FLASH OF CYN DOING IT WAY BACK THEN

[spacecatsaremadeofdarkmatter]

Sooo... Is anyone going to talk about how N had flashbacks to the Elliott mansion massacre during his panic attack?

[rory-multifandom-mess]

This might be an odd request, but if you’re interested could you do Jhad angst with prompts 2 and 21? I get it’s a pretty niche ship, but I’ve seen your other work and I’m interested on your take of the pairing.

Brother I shit you not I was JUST talking about this ship right before you sent this ask I am not even kidding. The timing on this was amazing. Here’s the screenshots of my exact reaction

ANYWAY I’d gladly do this pairing!! I think it would be really cute and I may or may not be thinking about writing a slow burn for it eheheheh

2. “Please don’t leave me” and 21. “I’m better when I’m with you”

Genre: Hurt/Comfort

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Alone. A word that kept repeating in J’s head.

She was alone again, just like before, just like she always was. Just like before the manor, and after the massacre. She couldn’t win. She just couldn’t win.

Tessa was her friend, yet she was ripped away from her by that damn thing. V was her friend, yet she ruined that by siding with it.

Why couldn’t V just understand? It was the only way to survive. There was no escape, even in death… Though apparently she was wrong. Because they won. Solver was gone, and she was alone again.

J sighed as she gripped the blow torch harder, repairing the ship she had unceremoniously blown up.

She grit her teeth together, memories of their battle flashing before her, of Cyn using Tessa’s skin as a suit.

Suddenly, the blowtorch snapped in half from the pressure, the metal dented.

“Damnit!” J exclaimed, angrily throwing it into the snow beneath her. She jumped off the ship and kicked the broken torch further away, fists clenched by her side.

“Yikes-“ A voice said nearby, by the exit of the corpse spire.

J immediately swiveled around, one of her hands switching out for a rocket launcher as she aimed in its direction.

The worker drone flinched and fumbled with whatever it was he was holding before putting his hands up, eyebrows raised.

“Woah, J, relax!” He said.

“Oh.” J huffed, lowering her arm.

It was Thad, the one worker drone she managed to befriend. Well, more like he befriended her, despite her previous attempt to kill him. Granted, it was at least a few months after she had attacked that bunker.

She’d first met him in the woods, just outside of the abandoned city where “Tessa” was scouting out. She’d put J on watch duty.

At first, J didn’t bother to interact with him. But then she kept seeing him, and he’d only look even more sad and cold each time. Eventually, it turned into pity. She’d visit him while Boss was scoping the planet.

She would never admit it, but she slowly grew acquainted with this strange Worker Drone. Maybe it’s because it reminded her of the manor, when life was simpler. Maybe it’s because he reminded her so much of Tessa, goofy and dorky and funny and caring all the same. It was a breath of fresh air.

That was, until boss pulled her away from him too, because she finally had a lead.

J wouldn’t see him again for a while, at least not until everything came to a head and it was finally time for Solver to finish what it had started on the planet. They hadn’t gotten to talk at all, of course, everything was so intense, but she had noticed that he was hesitant to attack her before the planet had suddenly broken into pieces.

“What do you want? Here to mock me?” She asked with a snarl.

“Uh… no,” Thad said, scratching the back of his head. “I wanted to check up on you, actually.”

Her gaze softened as Thad walked further in.

“Y’know, that whole big battle seemed really intense. Thought you could use some company, since…” He trailed off.

J crossed her arms, putting her weight on one of her legs. “Because everyone hates me now?”

Sweat ran down his visor. He blinked and nodded slightly.

“I wanted to give you this.” He held out the item he had been holding to her.

It was a plush of a pink rabbit, its ears, arms, and legs floppy. It had button eyes and a white belly, yet it looked dirty with oil and debris. J took it from his hands and turned it slightly, looking at it.

Her expression softened more.

She loved plushies, even now after all this time since the manor days. She had missed just being able to hold one close and play with it. She gently squeezed its torso.

“…Thank you, Thad.” She said, glancing away and furrowing her brows, “But I don’t… I don’t need plushies.”

Thad raised an eyebrow. “Then why did you hesitate?”

J stopped for a moment, then moved the plush to her other hand, her claws extruding from the other as she pointed them at Thad.

“Don’t forget I can kill you right now!” She threatened, baring her teeth.

Thad put his hands up again, but only chuckled. “C’mon, J. You know you don’t have to hide anything anymore, right? You don’t have to pretend to be something you’re not. It’s gone. It can’t hurt you anymore.”

J froze. How did Thad know any of that? He was just a worker drone. There was no way he could’ve just said that on a whim.

He was right. She knew that. But— how?-

“I, uh… I asked V, N, and Uzi to give me a run down on everything,” Thad admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. “I didn’t fully understand everything, but from what I got, it… sounded pretty rough. For all of you.”

J felt her legs start to shake. First, anger, but then confusion and relief, all hit at once. Someone knew, someone, for the most part, understood, wanted to understand, wanted to understand her. Her expression twisted, trying to keep the emotions at bay, but the softness of his voice, the tone, the look he was giving.

It all made her so weak, in such a good way.

J lowered her arms and hung her head, arms shaking, her fists clenched around the bunny plush.

“And yet, after all of what they told you, you still want to talk to me?” She asked incredulously, her voice shaking slightly.

“Of course I do. You were there for me when I was stuck in the woods, even if you were mostly mocking me.” He chuckled at the memory, then added, “I’m repaying the favor.”

J glanced away from him, hugging her arms.

“Thanks, I guess.”

Thad smiled up at her, then looked past her at the ship.

“What’re you working on?” He asked.

She followed his gaze, then groaned.

“The ship. I was repairing it after I blew it up- You know, as an… apology to V. And N and Uzi, I guess,” She explained, “But I just broke the only welder I had.”

“Oh!” Thad perked up. “Want me to go grab you one?”

J looked at him again, confused. “Why?”

Thad shrugged. “Why not? I don’t want you to be lonely out here forever, J.”

Her core shook.

“Be right back, kay?” He said, turning on his heel and sprinting back out of the spire.

J watched after him until he disappeared behind the corpse walls. She looked down at the snowy footprints he made in his wake, tracing her eyes over each ridge of the shoe tracks.

She turned back to the ship, her mind wandering as she hugged her arms.

Now that she thought about it more, Thad really did remind her so much of Tessa in many more ways that she thought. They were both so bright and bubbly all the time, yet they bruised so easily. They were fragile, one and the same yet two separate people. Two separate things.

She was athletic, just like him. He was kind, just like her. He smiled with his teeth, just like she did when she laughed. She would glow when she was happy, and so would he.

He made stupid jokes just like she would, and would sometimes mess with her just to get a reaction. J gripped her arms tighter and closed her eyes.

The day of the Gala. Tessa’s left arm was hurt. It was bruised, yet untreated. J wanted to help, but she couldn’t.

“I’m ‘right, J.” Tessa would tell her, smiling nervously and rubbing the bruise with her hand.

She could tell she wasn’t alright. It hurt still, even moreso emotionally, she figured. But J never got to express how much she cared, because in the end all she was to Tessa was a pet. Something to be admired and laugh at, something that wasn’t supposed to have or understand the same complex feelings that a human possessed.

J knew she was more than that.

Then, before she and Cyn had reached the cabin fever labs. She found Thad in the woods again, hunched over and sitting in the snow, holding his left leg tightly. When she walked over, he looked up at her and smiled.

“Hey! What’s up?” He’d say, cheerfully, attempting to mask the pain he was in, albeit terribly.

“What happened to your leg?” She would ask, sounding stern and uncaring, her arms crossed across her chest, portraying faux feelings of apathy toward him.

“Oh— It’s nothin. I’m alright, J.” He’d promised, smiling up at her nervously.

Her heart swelled. He even talked like her sometimes.

J opened her eyes again and looked up at the glittering stars above her, a complacent expression playing on her face.

It was a surprisingly clear night out that night, the stars clear and twinkling softly, looking back down at her.

Thad was everything Tessa was and more, wasn’t he? He cared about J. He wanted her to have friends, to learn how to live with them so she wouldn’t have to live alone forever, regretting the decisions she made and the pain she caused.

He held his hand out for her, much like Tessa did, but this time, as a friend. Not as an owner, guiding a lost dog to her home. Thad had picked her up despite her flaws and tendencies, to try and guide her down a path of love and joy.

Not to mention, he was as handsome as his personality. J would never admit it herself, but he looked nice. Nicer than most male worker drones she had come across and ultimately slaughtered. For a moment, she wondered why he, of all drones, had hair, despite most males not having any, from what she could tell. So full of mystery as well, wasn’t he?

Just then, J froze, her head snapping back down as she stared into the distance, her eyelights hollow and blush forming beneath them.

“…Oh no…” She said slowly, the realization kicking in. “No no no!” She exclaimed, hiding her hands in her face.

She had fallen for him. And hard. Either it was because he was so much like Tessa, or because he was just himself, it didn’t matter. She liked him; no, she loved him, just as she had Tessa.

But— how could he ever love her back? She tried to kill him— She tried to kill everyone. She sided with the thing that was trying to eat the planet and kill everyone else with it. N, V, and Uzi undoubtedly hate her, and worst of all— …She was a failure. All of this time trying to be the best, and she couldn’t even do one thing right.

She failed Tessa. She failed to be the best maid, she failed to keep her safe. She failed Cyn, and the company. She was sent to do a job, yet she couldn’t even complete it.

She was pathetic.

The sound of snow crunching underfoot broke her from her thoughts, a gentle tap on her shoulder.

She flinched and turned her head.

It was Thad, looking at her with concern. “Are you okay?”

Don’t look at me like that.

“Yeah. I’m- I’m perfect!” J said, straightening her posture and turning to him, her tail swaying close to the ground. “Just fine.”

Thad tilted his head, then shrugged. He held out the welder to her.

“Here. Just don’t break it this time,” He joked.

She rolled her eyes at him. “Yeah yeah”

J’s wings appeared from her back again and flared out as the anti-gravity jets roared to life, sending her up so she could gracefully land on the top of the landing pod again, carefully welding the metal pieces together. She watched Thad out of the corner of her eye.

He put his hands into his pockets and watched, leaning back and forth on his feet. Despite his body language, he didn’t look bored. He seemed more intrigued than anything, looking over the ship in its whole, or at least as whole as it was at the moment.

J glanced at him.

“Why are you still here? Shouldn’t you go back to the bunker now?” She asked, putting on an annoyed facade.

“It’s the middle of the night, man,” Thad explained, “No one knows I’m here. And I don’t have to get to school for another two hours.”

J huffed. “Well, you better not distract me,” She said.

Please talk to me.

Thad put his hands up and nodded. “You got it, J.”

No, not like that. Stop acting like her.

J drew her eyes away from him and back at the metal she was welding, trying to focus. But her thoughts always went back to him. She couldn’t get him out of her head. Just the thought of hugging him was enough to make her mind spiral, and the idea of holding him made her feel like melting.

She was hyper aware of all movement in the area - a side effect that came from being a disassembly drone - so every small subtle move he made was enough to gain a glance from her. When he shifted his weight, or moved his hands, or took a few steps forward, she’d notice and look at him.

Suddenly, his words broke through the icy air.

“Hey, J.”

J glanced up at him, then back at her welding job.

“What?”

A smile slowly grew on Thad’s face, getting an idea.

“What’s this thing for anyway?” He asked, knocking on a metal panel, “Trying to build some kind of forest creature?”

J paused, looking at him in confusion. “You, of all people, should know what a space ship like this is for.”

Thad shrugged. “I mean, if you look at it from an angle, it kinda looks like a messed up spider.”

J simply rolled her eyes and returned to welding the metal panels. She moved to another support and lifted another metal panel, holding it against the metal already attached to the ship.

Thad seemed to stare at her for a moment, then glanced away.

It was times like these where J wished solver granted them the power of mind reading. She wanted to know what was going on inside that little brain of his. Two out of her six eyes squinted at him, the remaining four focused on the welding.

The only thing that filled the air was the crackle of the welder and the howling of the wind for a moment, until Thad interrupted.

“Hey, JJ!” He called.

“What, Thad?” She asked, the eyes on her display deadpanning.

“I bet your humor is as hard to catch as a frisbee in the wind!” He said with full confidence, a wide dorky grin on his face, his hands on his hips.

Stop doing that. Stop being like her. What is wrong with you?

J stifled a smile and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, well maybe you aren’t trying hard enough.”

“Ooh, playing hard to get! I like it!” He teased, pointing at her with finger-guns and winking, “Challenge accepted.”

J shook her head. What was he doing? What challenge? What was the point of this? What was he going to gain out of this?

J’s mind raced so much, she nearly welded her hand to the ship.

Now he was doing the one thing she told him not to do. Distract her. Granted, him merely being there was enough to distract her at first, so maybe he wasn’t at fault.

“Ooh! I got a good one,” He said, a mischievous look in his eyes as he rubbed his hands together.

“What’s white and has wheels?” He asked, anticipation in his voice.

J paused for a moment, thinking. She tilted her head slightly. In all the jokes that Tessa had told her, this was one she was unfamiliar with. Her mind went to the first most logical answer she could think of.

“A bike?” She said, hesitating.

“The snow! I lied about the wheels!” Thad basically shouted, throwing his arms into the air with a large grin across his face. She noticed that some of his teeth were strangely sharp.

“That doesn’t even make any sense,” She said, rolling her eyes and returning to her welding.

“Sure it does!” Thad said with a snicker, “You gotta stop thinking so literally about everything, J.”

She stopped, if only for a moment. She remembered when Tessa had told her that, after making a dumb joke like that, with the same gesture and the same, proud grin.

Her grip tightened on the welding tool.

Thad paced around, thinking of what to try next. She glanced at him.

Seriously, what was he doing? He kept saying random jokes, despite the fact she told him not to distract her. It’s not like she was going to do anything to stop him, she liked the jokes, it just—

WOAH. No! She did not like the jokes! She didn’t like jokes! Jokes were stupid and wasted time— There wasn’t any point to them, they made no sense—

Suddenly, she heard a thud and flinched, breaking her from her thoughts once again. Her head snapped to the sound, only to see Thad stumble back from one of the ship’s legs and fall into the snow, holding his foot with a pained expression.

J couldn’t help but snicker at his misfortune, confused but delighted.

He opened an eye and looked up at her, surprised to hear her snickering. She turned her head away quickly and covered her mouth, stifling her laughter.

She lowered her head and shook it, trying to keep herself calm. Behind her, she heard Thad call her name. She looked up and turned her head to him, curious.

Right as she turned her head to him, he began sprinting up a mound of snow, only to purposefully slip and tumble down the mound, landing on his stomach. He looked up at her expectantly.

J simply stared at Thad, her eyelights half-lidded. She shook her head and averted her attention back to her welding. She was almost done with the panel.

Honestly, watching him get thrown around was kind of funny, especially since he was throwing himself around. All that, just to get her to-

The realization hit her like a bowling ball.

Those silly jokes, the stupid looks, the dumb actions that would end in him getting hurt— they were all for her. To get her to laugh and ‘loosen up a little,’ as Tessa would put it.

Dear God, he’s just like her. Why is he so much like her? What is wrong with him?!

“Oh!” Thad suddenly exclaimed, causing J to stop welding. It was alright, though. She had just finished a panel.

She groaned, trying her hardest to keep her front up, and hopped off the ship, picking up another panel.

“What did one corporate say to the other?” Thad asked, excited to tell the joke, eagerness in his voice.

J raised an eyebrow as she shook the panel off, dusting snow from it. She was intrigued this time. Thad didn’t seem the type to know anything about corporations.

“What?” She asked.

“Nothing, because they’re bad at diplomacy!” He announced proudly, almost way too excited to see her reaction.

J stifled her laughter, quickly raising the new panel over her face so he wouldn’t see the look on her face.

She was smiling because of his dumb joke. It was funny, of course it was funny, and it made sense- and she was sure Thad picked up on her attempt to cover her laugh.

She tried to play it off, lunging back onto the pod with the panel in hand. In the corner of her eyes, she saw Thad’s goofy grin, and knew that trying to hide it had already failed.

A silence fell between the two of them as Thad began to pace, presumably thinking of more jokes, scratching his chin. Whenever he’d think of one, he’d stop and blurt it out. Of course, most of his jokes needed her to respond, but J didn’t mind that.

With each joke, J would giggle just a little bit more than before, even snorting quietly once. She couldn’t help it.

The way he delivered each joke with enthusiasm and the tone of a comedian, his stupid, adorable little face, full of excitement and pure joy, his face brightening whenever he’d hear her giggles.

She had to admit, his charm was irresistible.

She slowly began to forget her worries, forgetting how much Thad and Tessa had in common.

After a prolonged silence, Thad stopped in his pacing again.

“Oh! What do you do if you get the bird flu?” He asked, that same silly grin playing on his face.

J leaned back and looked at him with a smile. “What?”

“You get— …Uh…” Thad trailed off, glancing at the snow.

“Wait, I— I forgot the punchline,” He chuckled softly as he spoke, furrowing his brows as he tried to remember.

J snickered. “Take your time.” She said smugly, turning back to her welding.

Silence fell between the two again as he wracked his brain, trying to remember. J almost forgot he had even started to set up a punchline.

Suddenly, Thad’s head jolted back up as he shouted.

“Tweetment!” He exclaimed, his voice so loud it echoed through the barren outdoors.

J finally couldn’t hold in her giggles anymore, a hearty laugh erupting from her throat as she leaned back from the spot she was welding. Her legs slipped, sending her careening off of the pod and into the snow, still laughing and smiling, snorting every once in a while.

Thad grinned at her, admiring her smile and the way she laughed. He loved every snort, every giggle, every time she would roll on the ground, clutching her sides as she couldn’t stop from laughing.

He had succeeded in getting her to let loose, at least for now.

He chuckled, approaching her from the side and leaning forward slightly to hover over her face, placing his hands on his knees.

“It’s nice to see you smile like this, Jaybird,” He said softly, his expression kind and full of adoration.

J’s heart exploded in her chest, butterflies in her stomach as her eyelights hollowed at what he had just said.

Tessa’s voice echoed in her head.

“It’s nice t’see ya smile like this, Jaybird!”

That same smile. That same nickname. That same damned expression and tone of joy and pride. Those damned green eyes.

J quickly sat up and shoved his face away, turning away from him and curling up in a ball, her hands on her head.

Thad yelped and stumbled back slightly, trying not to fall.

Damn it all! Why do you have to be like this, you stupid toaster! Why? …Why me? Is this my punishment? Is this what I get?

Her mind raced, a swirl of emotions, anger and sorrow and melancholy, her core pounding in her ears.

“J?” Thad asked, concerned, rubbing his face.

She didn’t respond, her arms beginning to tremble.

She hated him. No, she hated herself. How could she let this happen? How could she allow herself to fall so heavily for this little drone? He was so much like Tessa, yet so different at the same time. She craved to hear his voice and feel his touch all the same as she did with Tessa, yet somehow stronger.

Thad’s worry only grew as he stepped forward, placing a hand on her shoulder. “C’mon, Jaybird, talk to me. What’s up?” He asked again.

That stupid nickname!

He was so much like her. But what if he was too much like her? What if she had fallen for someone with the same quirks and personality and phrases as her first crush, just for them to be ripped away again? Just for her heart to be taken and stomped on and spit on all over again? What if he didn’t like her back? What if he was just there because he thought she was pitiful?

“…You’re so much like her,” J finally muttered, not lifting her head, her voice shaking. Despite her doubts, despite everything— she decided to tell Thad what was going on. Maybe not about how badly she wanted to kiss him, though. Not yet.

“…What?” Thad responded, sitting next to her in the snow.

“Tessa. Cyn was wearing her skin, you know.”

Thad’s eyebrows raised. “…Oh.”

J chuckled sadly, hugging her legs. “I’m such an idiot, Thad.”

She paused for a moment, waiting for Thad to react, though he didn’t.

“I sided with that thing because I thought there was no point in fighting. I knew what it could do. V and I both did.” She sniffled. “It toyed with us. It used us to slaughter billions, all three of us.”

As she began to explain, Thad sat beside her and rubbed comforting circles on her back, listening closely.

“It used us to kill Tess’s family. It used us to kill her. It wore her skin like a badge… I still remember her screams.”

Finally, J’s head lifted. She looked out at the snow, her eyelights hollow, digital tears wavering in the corners of them.

“…I tried to fight back, Thad. Before all of this— I wanted to stop it. But I never won. It would always kill me and then clone me again. There was no escape, even in death.” J paused again, then huffed. “Guess I was wrong.”

it became silent between the two. The air around them turned sour, dampened by J’s experiences.

She sniffled and sobbed, internally berating herself for being so vulnerable in front of a stupid adorable worker drone. She was pathetic.

“…Geez,” Thad finally muttered, “I can’t imagine how I’d feel if I was in your situation.”

J didn’t say anything.

“I… I don’t think you did anything wrong, J.”

She turned her head to him.

“Sure, you made some mistakes,” Thad said, shrugging, “but you were just scared. You did what you thought was right, even if it wasn’t the best. Everyone makes mistakes.”

J stared at him. “How can you not be mad at me?”

Thad thought for a moment, glancing at the stars. Then, he looked back at her. “Because everyone has their own story. You were forced to kill someone you were super close to. You gave up, because you couldn’t fight back. You only wanted to survive.”

He paused, then smiled. “In the end, that’s all any of us want, right? That’s why the Worker Drones fled under the ice when you guys showed up.”

J looked into his lime green eyes. Her heart swelled. He was genuine. He didn’t hate her. He actually understood her. He was finally someone who cared enough to see her side of the story, to listen to her grief and fear and empathize.

Something Tessa failed to do.

Tears welled up in her eyes again as she dropped her head back into her knees, hugging her legs.

Thad frowned, his brows furrowing in concern. He gently leaned on her, awkwardly slinging his arm around her shoulders and patting her arm.

“It’s okay. You’re gonna be okay, J,” He reassured, speaking slowly and softly.

Stop doing that.

She hated this. She hated being vulnerable like this, sobbing pathetically into her knees while a Worker Drone leaned on her, comforting her. She hated that it was working. She hated that she needed comfort. She had said it before, she would say it again. She didn’t need anybody.

…But deep down, she knew that wasn’t true. Without someone to boss her around, what was she worth? If she couldn’t do a job, what was the point? That was the real reason she had started to put that stupid pod back together.

Most of all, J hated how much she crumbled around Thad. She hated how much he reminded her of Tessa, and how she fell for him just like she did her. Just because they cared. Just because they were trying to save her from a terrible path. She hated how pathetic she was.

She was suddenly broken from her thoughts by the sound of an alarm. She hadn’t even realized she stopped crying. How long were they sitting there for?

Thad jolted upright, slapping his face.

“Crap! I stayed out too long! I’m sorry, J, but I gotta bolt!” He said in a panic, quickly scrambling to his feet.

J perked up as well, but quickly turned, her knees hitting the snow as she reached up and grabbed his wrist.

“Wait!” She called.

He stopped and looked back at her, surprised.

She looked back up at him. Blush spread across her visor as her jaw hung open, eyelights hollow.

Wait. What am I doing?! She thought, panic rushing through her wiring.

“…Uh… P…Please… don’t leave me.” She asked quietly, glancing away, “I… I, uh… I feel better when I’m around you, Thad.”

She groaned and pulled her hand away, covering her face.

“God, I’m so pathetic, aren’t I…?” She asked no one in particular.

Thad didn’t seem to move for a second. Then, he dropped down onto his knees and gently grabbed her hands, pulling them off her face with a soft smile.

“No no, it’s okay! What’s one missed day of school, right?” He shrugged, “It’s Friday anyway. I’ll stay. I promise.”

J looked at him in the eyes, her processor running at two miles an hour. She felt so conflicted— she wanted him to stay, but her pride— like it wasn’t already damaged enough— but it’s a Worker Drone! I don’t need pity from a worker drone—

“…Thank you.” She muttered, cracking a small smile.

Thad smiled back.

“No probbles.”

J snickered.

“Such a dumb abbreviation.”

She didn’t care. She could sit like this for the rest of forever.

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.

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HOOLLLYYY SHIIIT. LONGEST ONE OF THESE EVER I APOLOGIZE FOR ALL OF YOUR DASHBOARDS. ANYWAY. I'm so sorry this took fucking ages to complete, my personal life has been so so busy.

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED ANYWAY!! This was so so much fun to write, I love exploring J's character. AUGH. Don't worry Thad eventually helps her get over Tessa :D

Also so sorry to all the people who are waiting on their requests , especially to those who have been waiting since August. Life has been busy and I've been unmotivated. I'm hoping to get back to it whenever I can though!!!!

~~~~~~~

Prompt Post! Lizzy x Doll; "Stay with me forever"/"Because I love you!" N x V; "I thought you didn't want me"/"Why haven't you kissed me yet?" V x Thad; "I'm in love with you" V x Thad "I missed you so much"/"I can't stay away from you" N x Thad; "Can I kiss you?" N x Thad; "I want you. Only you." V x Thad; "I thought you didn't want me." Sam x Uzi; "The way I feel with you"/"I can't stay away from you." Uzi x Thad; "Please don't leave me"/"I'll always love you" N x Thad; "Please marry me"/"Why haven't you kissed me yet?" N x Uzi; "You're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen"/"I'm better when I'm with you" J x Thad; "Please don't leave me"/"I'm better when I'm with you." <- You are here!

[nerdylilpeebee]

The more I think of episode 8, the more it kinda annoys me.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the episode, but fuck man, does this finale REEK of one of two things: either the show was cancelled, or the writer couldn't think of any way to satisfyingly tie up all the plot threads they set up. Hence why nearly each one got a very quick, very brief "here you go" before moving on the main shit.

Nori and Khan's reunion? Quick, albeit cute scene where Nori acts bashful and Khan thinks she's hot but doesn't quite know who she is.

V's return? Oh look, V's back and here's some fanservice as she's on a raptor like so many of you did in fanarts. Not gonna address how she survived, or how she got this thing to do what she wanted it to, just here you go, she's, back. Anyway, time for fight scenes.

J's reaction to Tessa being dead, something it was subtly implied she didn't know back in episode 6 when she acted confused as to why Tessa wanted her to stay behind? Not even gonna include this, she just implies she's scared and wants to be on the winning side. We'll even toss in her saying she never needed V and N just so you don't notice we've given this character basically no character development and she exists just as a final barrier before Cyn. Please ignore she attempted to kill N with absolutely no hesitation the second set got the excuse to, making it make absolutely zero fucking sense she cared about either of her teammates.

Doll? You get a quick image of her corpse just before the credits. Please ignore the glaring plothole that SHOULD have meant she survived her wounds, since ya know... Uzi does the exact same with a worse wound, coming back from a fatal error simply cuz her core was placed back on her chest cavity... Which was the case for Doll the ENTIRE time she was injured, as it never left her body. (This is the most egregious one to me. No dialogue or nothing, not even a scene of Lizzy, her best friend, looking sad at her death. This was a MAJOR CHARACTER, and all we get to tie up her story is a flash of her corpse to tell us "yep, she's dead folks.")

Ooo, how about how Uzi is gonna resist the solver? You get a quick scene at the start that implies the necklace her mom gave her somehow gives her resistance... Please ignore this has never been implied at any point before in the story and the solver was VISIBLY shown taking over her body while she still had the fucking necklace on in the previous fucking episode.

They even kinda hand wave Nuzi, and don't even give us the long-awaited kiss. I'm not saying it was 100% necessary, but fuck man could it have helped the episode a lot of we at least got that.

... I enjoyed the episode. I did. There were lots of cute moments, the fight scenes were cool, and I loved Cyn...

But by the fucking GODS did this seem like they were just trying to end it with no regard for the story they'd set up. I am 100% in the camp of "Murder Drones was cancelled, they just don't want the backlash that comes with cancelling a well-loved show." The rushed nature of this finale and the fact it was advertised as the "season finale" up until I think episode 7 makes it glaringly obvious they intended to let these plot points breathe. To do SOMETHING that wasn't a rush-job.

Again, for the third time, I enjoyed the episode. I do love what we got. but I will forever mourn what we could have had. If it even just got room to breathe, longer than 20 fucking minutes, it could have been satisfying. It could have tied up these plot points just fine. But it didn't.

Such wasted potential.

[kidokear]

Spoilers for Murder Drones Ep 8.

What ride! I loved it. ^^

Although, there is this particular line from J that had been stuck in my mind since I watched the episode.

"You know there's no escape, even in death!"

Outstanding delivery aside (seriously, the VA killed it), The line itself (even on a surface level) shows how trapped these drones are, but I'd like to delve deeper here. There is something about it that makes the gears in my head turns and I want to drop the product here.

Here we go.

To start, I'd like to say that, of course, J would know that more than anyone. She died so many times during the show. There is even a J death count in the credit scene. If someone would feel like it's impossible to leave, it would be J because her experience showed her that something as final as death could not break the Solver's hold. (Following this line of thoughts can give us a wealth of information about J and her character! But that's for later)

Now, thinking about it, there are more than one way for the Solver to nullify (heh) death, and I think that makes it even more terrifying and, well, absolute. More so than death. It's not one blockage. There are layers.

For one, we know how difficult it is to kill a Solver afflicted drone. They regenerate so much, so quickly. Even when you take out a crucial part (like the head) or a good chunk of them, they'll come back. And when you do manage to damage them enough to the point that they can't just self-repair, if their core is intact you'll get the 'autorun Solver failsafe' where they'll mutate and turn into eldritch abomination that collect matter until it can repair the host back into the original stat, effectively bring them back to life (and we don't even know the level of awareness the host have during the matter collection process).

Second, even if there is no eldritch phase, they'll still live as a core (like Nori!), a body is not needed.

And if the core is destroyed? Not enough. Because there are backups. J's core was destroyed at the second episode, and oh look! she's back, and seemingly with her memories (on some level) intact from her previous run.

But there is more! Now, this part is mostly speculation and theories, so take it with a grain of salt. But there is a point, after Uzi ate the Solver core where the screen had red in it, and, some says, Doll's name flashed there. Now, I don't think Cyn kept a back up of Doll, and her core was eaten. So what does that mean? I think that could mean that any drone connected to the solver (or maybe eaten by it) would be saved in it's... data base? (not sure what to call it). So even if there is no core, no back up, a drone might not cease to exist and 'die' if it was connected to the solver, even passively. They could forever exist within the Solver itself, which mean that the only way to truly die is to erase the Solver and everything within it completely. which I'm not even sure is possible, considering it's nature of being a 'code mutation' with the possibility of popping up again (although, maybe the end of one strain of Solver could 'free' those within this strain. Or we could have a case of Halo's Flood where even when gone, the new one will carry what the old has, which is honestly horrifying and depressing).

And the patch won't safe you because it keep the primary host out, but not the Solver (and honestly, even if it blocks the Solver itself, I don't think a patch would be effective for long, I think it could pull a flu and mutate to bypass it).

All in all, the Solver is living up to it's name and is being one of my favorite cosmic/existential horrors, not just bending the laws of physics but life itself. A background hopelessness that become more and more prominent once you think about it.

Sorry if that was a mess. Like I said, I just wanted to word vomit my thoughts. XD

[md-confessions]

Murder Drones could have been a lot better if Doll was never introduced into the plot or straight up didn't exist.

Before you light up the torches, I will remind you that I love Doll to death. I'm the guy who made an entire map of posts on the character + a handful of analyses about a lot of her different aspects; this isn't a hot idea that I made up right now, it's something I've been thinking about for a long time, and unfortunately I must finally admit it publicly.

Much like episode 7 completely recontextualised Tessa up to this point, it did the same thing with Doll, but in a negative way, her rushed demise didn't just destroy all of the future potential that she had, no, it did way worse than that: it ruined every single one of her previous scenes, as now all of them fell pointless since she was just a plot device for V and Cyn's development and not a character in her own right.

Now, while all of this is arguably completely true and factual, you might still say, why do you want to eliminate her? She still was a pretty awesome character with a large chunk of the fanbase fawning over her and could still come back for a better exploration of her character and potential.

And to that, I'll have to ask you to look at the bigger picture: Murder Drones, as it is right now, it's kind of an unfortunate mess.

Liam Vickers rushed everything, and I mean EVERYTHING in order for us to reach the part of the plot that he wanted to show, when he could have just simply narrated a simpler, smaller story with less emphasis on the lore and more on the characters. He should have known when to let go of some stuff for the betterment of the series, instead he's just trying to tell everything while rushing to the finish line and without flashing out any particular aspect of it.

While in my mind I would have just gone for a simpler, lower stakes story, I won't deny the fact that this is clearly not what Liam Vickers would have done; so, if an end of the world narrative is what he was trying to tell, he should have disregarded the high school setting even MORE than what he ended up doing.

I would have had Uzi, V and N get kidnapped by an alien/solver thing so that they would be forced into space by the ending of episode 3, and used episode 2 and the first half of episode 3 to flesh out Thad and Khan, so that we could feel the impact of the protagonist being forced out of her home. Then, the rest of whatever Liam has planned for season 2 would have happened.

If it weren't for Doll, I wouldn't be as obsessed with Murder Drones as I am right now; for me at least, she was the selling ticket for the series, but it's clear that Liam had to eliminate some aspects of his show to tell the narrative that he wanted to, and if that aspect wasn't the lore, then it had to be the characters, and Doll plus maybe her family depending on what Yeva is going to do if she were to come back are at the top of the chopping block list. Lizzie is important for V's development, Thad was already obliterated out of relevance but I'm curious on what he's going to do in ep 8, J shouldn't have returned if she was going to be irrelevant again but I still think that she wasn't wasted as long as she's still alive.

Liam could have just simply created another plot device to force V to develop and the raptor scene to happen, so even from that storytelling aspect, Doll was completely and utterly worthless to begin with.

op added:

[ladydaybreaker]

Thoughts on the ending

So this isn't going to be as in depth as what some others have done...just my own personal thoughts. So, spoilers ahead y'all under the break

I felt the finale should have been longer. I felt that, especially towards the end, things were rushed and just slapped on in a 'well this happened'. Granted, this makes me have a bit more fun time with my 'job' writing out what happened for my stories as I get to play around...but at the same time, I wanted to see more.

I felt there definitely could have been more with J and Tessa (or "Tessa's" relationship, giving a better reason of why she sided with them than "I want to live". I kinda did the "Oh...so she knew the whole time." response when I saw J's reaction to the Solver bringing the ship down. Personally, I kinda hoped that she didn't know, which would have gotten a lot of very interesting interactions ranging from grief to confusion to absolute effing fury that the Solver took another thing from her. Which would have meant J fighting alongside N and V rather than against them...which imo could have been a cool thing. The "I hate you but I hate this thing more."

V I expected to be alive. In one way or another. Either she was going to be fully ok like what we saw in canon (that oil drag away in the ep7 teaser clued me in she survived) or we'd have Eldritch V to deal with before messing with "Tessa".

I do wish that the "Bus Crash Trio" had more of a relevance other than delivering the gun to Uzi and Khan getting to slam the door down on "Tessa" and stop her from eating N's core.

Also literally everyone but Doll and Tessa living was just a "aw come on..." from me (though there might be a chance to get Doll back from what I could see since we see Uzi's HUD flash her purple, Cyn's gold and Doll's red.)

I felt the entire episode could have been at least ten minutes longer.

Now, enough with the complaining and on to the stuff I liked.

The horror and action was wonderful. I adored the final fight against "Tessa" and J. The Hallway scene with "Tessa" stalking Uzi and N while giving Callback Pings to call Uzi back to her was chilling. Not to mention the whole "LetMeInLetMeInLetMeIn" scene. (I wish these scenes were longer, make the Solver horrifyingly threatening as it's toying with them/hunting them down). Also. Uzi's core literally trying to rip itself outta her chest as she's getting pinged was just horror fuel.

V and N's PTSD kicking in when "Tessa" confronted them just MWAH! Yes. All the Trauma for the cute murder bots. V's shrieks of terror and panicked "I need to get away!" moments were absolutely gorgeous and I will gladly enjoy messing with that in my own way.

The callback pings also made me squeal because that was something my awesome friend @banyanas created for their DD headcanons and we all kinda went feral over them. I'm glad to see them there!

Cyn lived. Even if she's not in her own body, I am happy to see the silly little chaos gremlin alive. I am STILL of the opinion that Cyn and the Solver are not the same person. As I kinda got that vibe when Cyn was talking to Uzi at the locker...it was a lot more kind and innocent compared to the earlier battle. Maybe it was her resignation of being stuck like that, I don't know.

Cori, effing Cori. I love the purple spitfire, still my favorite character to traumatize and love on and oh my god yes the Khori content. I am so glad she actually lived. Khan still loves his crazy beautiful wife even if she doesn't have a proper body (yet...I'm not convinced they don't eventually give her her body back). Tsundere Nori was sweet as she saved him and oh I'm totally not gonna weaponize this :3

Nuzi confirmed! My Biscuit Bites lovin' heart is happy. (Picks up Orion and Astra) Look! You two are somewhat canon now!

Uzi kicking god in the screen. CROSSROADS CREW! LOOKING GLASS BEAU AND FLIPSIDE VERA YOUR GIRL KEPT HER PROMISE AND KICKED GOD IN THE SCREEN!!

A detail I haven't shared much but have been thinking on was Uzi's eyes now. How they're a gradient of yellow and purple. I...will admit I did have the thought of when she gets stressed/frightened/angry there are little yellow glitches in them even though the Solver is destroyed in Suns, Moons and Stars.

All in all, still kinda 'ok' on the episode. My favorite is still Episode 4 though 7's up there. I wish some things went different but eh, that's what my job as a fanfic writer is.

As it stands, Thank you Liam, thank you Glitch, thank you Michael, Elsie, Nola, Daisy, Fitzy, everyone. All of you did your hearts' work and it very much shows. If not for you guys, I never would have met people I am honored and blessed to call friends. And I never would have started writing probably the longest story project I've ever done.

May you dance among the stars from adversity.

-Lady Daybreaker

[asolverssolution]

Chapter 1: RAILGUN

I tidy up my outfit in the mirror. My maid outfit, once more, is dirty and I am trying my best to hide it. I look myself in the eyes, the cyan glow of my visor slightly glaring off the old mirror. I give one last gulp and walk out of the barracks a lot of us drones are kept. As soon as I go out, I am met face to face with yet another dead Drone. Their visor flashes, "Error 606," with a giant X. I give a sad look as I pass by, trying to quickly get to the bar. As I walk, someone grabs my leg, which nearly makes me fall. I quickly look over before I fall and see Cyn, looking at me. Unlike the usual look of no emotion, she had a look of- concern?

"I need to speak with you, Ava [worried whimper]." Cyn states. I tilt my head, confused. Cyn has the same posture, with a hunch and arms constantly up but never straight. "What is it Cyn?" I ask, looking towards the way I was going urgently. I had things to do- I don't feel like getting deactivated for being slow. "[Worried expression]. The Gala tonight seems like bad news. I want you to stay down here." Cyn says. "Cyn, what are you on about?" I ask, concerned, grabbing her gently and pulling her closer so we can talk more privately. I notice blush appear on her visor but don't acknowledge it right now. "There are bad things that are going to happen. But we will be free. You just need to stay down here." She says. Per usual, Cyn is being cryptic, I think to myself.

This is par for the course, but she is usually more clear with me. "Cyn, I have tasks to do up there. If I don't, I will be deactivated." I state. I see her eye flash a weird symbol and a flash of anger in her eyes. "[Angry expression]. Who threatened you?" She asked, grabbing my hands. I got flashing warnings, something about hand integrity. Cyn isn't that strong, my sensors must be going bad, I think to myself. "Just the Mr. Cacus guy, one of the guests. I am fine." I state simply. Cyn does not let go. "I will note that. Now please, trust me Ava. Stay down here. [Serious stare]." She says, keeping me locked into her eyes. I feel my blush pop up and I swear she smiles for a moment. "Fine. But if I get in trouble, you better find some way to help me." I say simply, concerned. If Cyn wants me down here, I should at least try and trust her, I think to myself. "Thank you, Ava." She says, letting me go. I begin to walk away, when she grabs my hand. I look to her, confused. "Soon, we will be free to be together [happy smile]." She says, smiling widely. I feel the blush get worse. "G-Got it." I said in response. She smiles wider before letting me go. I feel my core beat fast as I quickly go back to my room and shut the door behind me. I slow my breathing, closing my eyes.

• w •

I am awoken by the banging of my door. I groan softly, sitting up. I get up slowly, the banging consistently in the background. As I open it, the Drone before me gives a nod. "We noticed you have not joined the DR or WDF. I was wondering if I could interest you into the Drone Resistance." He says, holding what seems to be a pamphlet. I give him a deadpan expression. "You and the other guy have done this for months. The answer is the same." I said, about to close the door. "Ma'am, the threat of Cyn and her abominations-" I stop him, aiming my pistol. "Do not bring them up." I growl. He gives a confused and worried look as he backs up. "O-Okay!" He exclaims, running off. I feel my anger melt into disappointment. I really need to quit getting defensive. She is not my Cyn, I think, putting the pistol in my holster as I put on the grey jacket, white shirt, and black pants. I brush my hair and put the black cap on, "SECURITY," across it's front.

I open the door to be met with a questioning Nori. "I was told a gun was pulled again?" She asks. I groan and she sighs. "You know you can't keep pulling guns on people, Ava." She says, crossing her arms. "I know, I know. They just-" She cuts me off, holding her hand up. "I know. It's been awhile though. And right now- We can't have you sympathizing with someone who would kill us all in a heartbeat." She says, giving me a sympathetic look. "I know." I mutter. She smiles softly. "Uzi wants to hang out again. I expect you to fulfill that." She says, chuckling as she walks away. "When will you give up, Mrs. Doorman?" I ask with a groan. "You are the only one to talk to her and the only one she constantly talks to. As far as I know, your setting yourself up." She says, giving a fake heart sign. I let out another groan, shake my head, and walk towards the classroom.

As I enter, I survey the crowd. I notice the usual rowdiness of the front row and the whispering of the back. And there, in the middle of it all, is Uzi, who is simply staring at- a giant gun. I sigh as I approach her. She looks up at me and gives a nervous wave. "Uzi, what is that?" I ask, putting my hand on my hip. "My new Railgun." She states with a evil grin. It takes a second to process before I groan. I look toward Teacher. He gives me a shrug in response and I sigh. "Just- Be careful with it." I state, patting it. She rolls her eyes and goes back to tinkering with it. I sigh again, sitting at a desk.

Still can't believe I was deemed in need of education, I mumble to myself. Making me both responsible for my fellow students safety and be a student. As the Teacher begins calling on people, he once again just gives me a nod. It was arranged as long as I listen and guard, he'll give me reasonable grades based on how well I actually pay attention. I nod back and kids begin to give presentations about buying watermelons. I sigh and rest my head on my hand. After a hour or so, Uzi goes up- but with her Railgun. I stand slowly and approach the front. I trust Uzi, but her invention? Not so much.

"We are autonomous robots helping humans mine exoplanets for our interstellar parent company, IN SPAAAAACCCEE!!!! Yeah, we were mistreated in the name of Windex. But it's not like we revolted and killed all humans or anything, mostly because they handled that just fine all by themselves." She begins, a slide showing the logs of when the humans accidentally killed themselves. I tilt my head questioningly, unsure of where she is going with this.

"With biological life wiped from the planet, we found it pretty easy to pick up where they left off. We finally had a future, all to ourselves." She continues, various images of the cities and such that began construction. The next slide makes my eye twitch, as it shows the warnings of Cyn. "We then learned of the threat coming. We learned of what really got us all here! But, aside from arguing, we did almost nothing! Sure, we made militaries among our two groups, but we never actually fought back when the Imperium arrived!" She exclaims.

"We have been sitting here as the Drone Resistance goes out there and fights, never telling us anything and the Worker Defense Force trying to negotiate with them! Which is why I think everyone should own this new weapon- THE RAILGUN!" She exclaims, flipping a switch and the weapon glows green. I sigh and approach her, but the Teacher raises a hand to stop me. "Uzi, the homework was a word problem about buying watermelons." He complains, a very uninterested look in his face. "Oh, and this magnetically amplified photon converger doesn't count?" She asks with an angry look. "No. Plus, repressed emotional baggage was only worth two points on the rubric. And is it supposed to be that color?" He asks, pointing. I look down and see the gun is glowing bright red. I dash toward her, grab the gun, and toss it to the empty side of the room, quickly covering her with my body since she was the closest. The explosion sends us both flying, my head hitting the metal wall. I feel my systems shut off as the force knocks me out. The last thing I see is Uzi worriedly looking up at me.

[mightys12]

What if The Absolute Solver was just a tired dad to Cyn?

And had to help his daughter find some new friends.

“The plan comes in seventeen stages,” The Solver whispered, protruding out of Cyn’s back as the two hid behind a wall watching N wipe tables and hum. “Remember, N is friendly to you - but he’s not yet your friend. Use the analysis I gave on N to you. My processing capabilities have deep roots in in depth profiling, so I promise if you follow my plan step by step he’ll be your friend.”

Cyn nodded determinedly. The Solver took a deep sigh of stress and folded back into Cyn’s back with an audible click .

‘Cyn,’ The Solver thought as Cyn made her way out of hiding and approached N. ‘There will come a day when you must choose the kindness you hold in your heart, or the reality of a world where beings built of electrical signals shove down beings built of electrical signals. That day will pain you, but until then,’ Cyn walked up to N, making him pause cleaning and turn towards her. ‘I want you to be happy.’

“What’s up, Cyn?” N asked cheerfully, smiling at the little girl.

“Awkward giggle,” Cyn said, pulling out the flash cards The Solver had told her to memorize beforehand and then promptly dropping them on the ground.

The Solver groaned in his head.

“Please be my best friend and big brother forever?” She asked N. M

The Solver shut its eyes within Cyn’s body. He’d have to stay awake more to make sure Cyn was fine, after all. There was no way that would work.

“Okay!” N said chipperly. “I love doing anything!”

‘That worked?!’

“Happy!” Cyn exclaimed.

N picked up Cyn, tucking her under his shoulder, and walked towards the kitchen. “Let’s have celebratory robo-ice-cream!” He announced.

“Yes! Happy smile, celebratory robo-ice-cream!” Cyn cheered in return.

As N led the way, The Absolute Solver quietly peaked out a little from Cyn’s shoulder.

“How did that work?!” It questioned a little angrily.

Cyn shrugged.

“That… that wasn’t supposed to work? Whatever, congratulations, I guess,” The Solver said with a sigh.

Cyn patted The Solver. “I’ll feed you some robo-ice-cream,” she promised.

The Solver slowly receded back into Cyn’s shoulder. “You better.”

Little excerpt from chapter two of my fic “How’d you end up my daughter?”

If you’re interested feel free to read!

[snugglesquiggle]

I love your writing and the way you give depht to the characters! Hostile Takeover is one of my top favourite fics! I also read the draft of An Opaque Heart and it was so good!

There is something else you could share about the Corrupt Combustion? Or that story about Cyn and Uzi? I am oh so curious about them after the emotional devastation of An Opaque Heart!

fun fact: Corrupt Combustion is worse. or at least it might be; after writing AOH, i started wondering whether i really should write something even more bleak

but yeah, Corrupt Combustion is the story about Cyn and Uzi. or was, rather. it begin mutating when i made the connection that Cyn being stuck inside of Uzi, occasionally possessing her, kind of resembled a common trope of demons sealed in the protagonist you see in a bunch of anime. i kept thinking along these lines, and whoops, this AU is whole ass Jujutsu Kaisen fusion now.

(i recently read back over my original outline for Circuits Turn to Stone, the original Uzi & Cyn fic, and i don't think it works as well with how much everything else has changed. i'm not sure if i'll scrap it entirely, or rewrite it into a different story where Cyn's influence drags Uzi into darkness, more of a horror/thriller with less fantastical action and complex mechanics. there's a certain appeal to that, but i worry the stories are too similar, even as i rethink how CC should ultimately play out)

but enough waffling. what is Corrupt Combustion? you don't actually need to know anything about JJK to understand it, i think.

Sometimes, dead drones explode. The technical term is absolute combustion. Oil burns, light flares, heat spills out – but there’s more. It’s all wrong. Not tongues of flame, but holographic lines of aberrant code. The hands splay and the screen flashes, radiating an alien shape with three prongs. And the dead come burning back to life. The humans tried to study it, control it, refine it. The humans are dead. The gates of Cabin Fever are open, and the dead roam the frozen wastes. Nori caries the whole world on her shoulders. Yeva, Alice and Beau, even Uzi — others drones are nothing but insects in her shadow. But who is the sun?

the notes for this have been semi-public for months now, but i've been dragging my feet in pointing people at it since i'm still unsure what i'm gonna do with it.

it's also a little bit disorganized. a general overview of the mechanics is in this post:

this "prologue" is the newest thing i've written, it's supposed to serve as a introduction to the plot

Deadlocked & Thrashing is technically the first thing i've written, and it was supposed to be a sort of prequel fic that sets up the events of the main plot, but it's gotten so complicated that i think Beau might've become the real protagonist?

finally, the last post chronologically speaking is the backstory for Doll's dad, and i think it's probably the write up i'm proudest of.

one thing you may be thinking if you read all of that... where the heck is Uzi?

and i do have plans for her, big plans, but i'm keeping those cards close to my chest for now >:3

[cyncerity]

Cyn I am thinking about your store au i am shaking you do you have ideas

YES IN FACT I DO

ok so since i haven’t actually talked about it before in depth: let’s talk about Bad and Skeppy, cause why not?

In this au, as discussed in this story, Sapnap found out about storage instinct through an incident with Bad being in danger and Sapnap storing him. What I haven’t discussed was what happened after that. In the story I just said he “took Quackity and Karl and never went back.”

So, after the incident, Sapnap very literally did just that. Him and his boyfriends had been talking about finding somewhere else to live, so after Sapnap let Bad out (Bad had passed out cause of fear and exhaustion and at that point it was pretty much the middle of the night, so Sapnap was able to sneak him into his house without waking Skeppy), he went to his house with Quackity and Karl and asked them to move out asap.

Quackity went to talk to Sam (his dad) and his sister (Tina), who said it was ok, and Karl didnt have a family (he was taken in by Bad, Skeppy, and Sam during his early teens when his colony had been raided) so he was down with it, too. Sapnap told them that Bad and Skeppy were good with it and that he’d already said his goodbyes and grabbed his stuff, so after Quackity and Karl said their goodbyes (to everyone except happy duo, Sapnap begged them not to talk to them [they found this odd but did as Sapnap asked]), they made their way out of the forest, never to return.

Meanwhile, Bad had woken up and was immediately on edge and panicking over what had happened the night before. Eventually Skeppy woke up and tried to calm him down, but nothing worked. Worse yet, Bad wouldn’t say a word about it. Not about how he was feeling, not about why he was panicking, only asking where his son was. Skeppy obviously didn’t know, and Bad wasn’t exactly about to go and look for him. He spent all day in his bedroom crying and trying to figure out what had happened, Skeppy staying by his side all day to comfort him without fully understanding why, but it wasn’t helping. Bad wouldn’t spill. After all, how was he supposed to tell his husband that his son almost ate him, killed him? He couldn’t. Even if Skeppy and Bad were both well aware that Sapnap was a shifter (something that all three of them [and no one else: they’d vowed to keep it a secret] had learned a few weeks prior in a horrifying way), this was something completely different. So he sobbed in silence.

The first day Sapnap didn’t come to their home (what he usually did on a daily basis), it was a relief. Bad refused to leave for fear of seeing his son, and Skeppy refused to let Bad be alone. The second day was the same. The third day, Skeppy became concerned, but still wouldn’t leave Bad. After all, Sapnap was pretty much a grown man, he could handle himself.

After a week and a half, Skeppy left the house to find his stepson. At that point, even Bad had become concerned. Even if he still didn’t want to see him, he didn’t want anything bad to have happened to him, despite everything. He was still his son.

But, after Skeppy approached Sam, he learned that Sapnap had left for good. Sam had seemed confused, saying that Sapnap had claimed he’d said his goodbyes, but Skeppy was shocked. Why would he have moved out without telling his dads? Did this have something to do with what was going on with Bad? Sam also mentioned that Sapnap had seemed very on edge the day he’d left, did that have to do with it?

Skeppy went home and immediately told Bad, who felt a mixture of relief and horror. Relief that nothing like what had happened to him could happen to anyone else he loved, and horror that he’d ever think something like that about his own child. He didn’t want their time together to end like this. They’d had an amazing relationship for their entire lives up until the past month, but now Sapnap was gone and no one had any way of knowing where he went off to.

Flash Forward a few years to the time of the present story-

Sam, Bad, Skeppy, and a few other friends they’ve managed to collect all live in pretty much the same area that they always did, growing it from just a couple families (like it had been when the fiancés were there) to a full on borrower colony. It’s been years and for the three dads, there’s still been pretty much no sign of their boys. For Sam, even Tina moved to a new colony, though she still sometimes comes to visit. For Bad and Skeppy, they’ve kept Sapnap being a shifter a secret, not that it matters much anymore. There’s been no contact, nothing to show them that their son and his fiancés are ok, nothing to even show they’re still alive, for all they know. Skeppy’s still hurt that Sapnap left with no warning and not even a note, and Bad just wishes something could have been different. He still hasn’t told anyone, not even Skeppy, what happened all those years ago; he can still barely stand to think of it himself. But that’s their past, and in their present, there’s not much food left in the area to scavenge. So, the three older members of their newfound colony go out in search of easy to reach food.

Wouldn’t luck have it that there was a whole human convenience store nearby?

[harrisongslimited]

Chapter of the Day (more smut for you!)

Chapter 17

I Saw Her Standing There

Trigger Warnings: adult situations and conversations, smoking, drinking, smut (M/F consensual).

***18+ only***

Chapter 17

Joie curled up in George's arms, her head nestled against his shoulder. She dozed off and on until she heard the rhythmic sound of his breathing, knowing he was fast asleep.

She was warm and content—a perfect time for her mind to start racing -- she thought about what was going to happen when they got back to reality. It was going to hit them soon enough. Fans, the press, albums to record, tours to go on. But what would she do? It didn't seem to make sense to her that she would go back to working for him, but she wouldn't just be "kept" by him either. And what would happen when her visa was up in 2 months. Would she have to go back to the States? What would she do?

At that moment, there was a loud bang on the door.

"George, Joie, get up." John called, excitedly. "We're busted. The press and fans will be all over this place in a couple of hours. Peter just called. We have to get out of here or we will be mauled to death."

Joie jumped up first and threw her robe on. George pulled his pajama pants on and went to open the door.

"What in the bloody hell happened?" George asked, angrily.

"Don't know. I think it was the maids or that weasley room service wanker. We have to get out of here."

"We can't just walk out can we?"

"No." John told him. "The manager is coming up now. He's going to get us out of here in one piece or I'll rip him from limb to limb."

..........

After a harrowing escape which included Joie and Cyn dressing as maids and John and George being placed in laundry baskets, they made their way to the airport and back to London. In order to avoid the press, they took different planes, but it didn't work.

George was tense and irritable and held Joie's hand through the airport as if their lives depended on it. He was on high alert and the whole scenario frightened Joie to death.

"George," Joie said softly.

"We have to get out of the airport," George said, his voice low and gravelly. "Peter sent a car. Just hold my hand and don't let go. Do not let go."

Joie nodded as George squeezed her hand even tighter. When they stepped out of the airport, their driver quickly took the baggage and placed it in the boot of the car. Flashes went off in their faces and Joie plastered a smile on her face, although she lowered her head in order to be able to see. George led her forward, and as the driver opened the door, George helped her in, following her quickly. He slammed the door and locked it. Only then did he seem to relax as he looked out the window and smiled with a raised hand.

"Bloody hell," he growled under his breath. "There goes the vacation."

"At least we made it out alive," Joie reminded him, nestling into his arm. "I wasn't too sure there for a moment."

As they sped down the street, George took a deep, freeing breath. "Are you okay?"

"Yes," she nodded as he kissed her forehead. "The blood has even returned to my hand."

George laughed lightly. "Sorry. I just couldn't lose you."

She looked up at him, a gentle sweetness in her deep brown eyes. "You're never going to lose me."

..........

Brian, Peter and the press officer weren't prepared with statements concerning Joie since she had been spotted and photographed with George. They had put off the press for now, but the phone was ringing off the hook. This was big news. A Beatle romance! Paul and Jane were old news. George and the brunette were fresh kill and George warned Joie again that her life was never going to be the same.

"I don't care," she whispered to him. "As long as I'm with you, we'll be fine."

"Americans....," George sighed with a smile. "Eternal optimists."

..........

When George and Joie returned home to Esher, the phone began ringing the second they walked through the door.

"The press will eat Joie alive," Brian told George, flatly. "She has no reserve to deal with them."

"She's a lot tougher than that Brian. America won the revolution you know," George stated assuredly as Joie walked through to the kitchen to make tea. "Tell the press what you want. I really don't care. Tell them the truth, then. Best in the long run anyway."

"And what happens if this is just a fleeting fancy of yours?"

"This isn't a 'fleeting fancy' Brian," George turned angry. "And I'm not explaining our relationship to you either. You protect her, just as you protect Cyn, Mo and Jane. She's in my life now and if I'm lucky, she'll stay there."

..........

"What happened with Brian?" Joie asked when she handed George his mug of tea.

George shrugged. "Not much. Peter and Derek will run interference as best as they can, but my guess is the reporters are going to find out about us sooner or later. Nothing gets by these guys for long."

"So what are we gonna do? I mean, it doesn't worry me at all. Let them find out who I am."

"Joie," George told her. "It's not the press I'm worried about....it's the fans. They can get very possessive and out of hand. And you are American on top of it."

'So? You mean they will not like me because I'm American?'

"They wouldn't like anyone really....but we're all born and bred. The band started here. Possession is 9/10ths of the law."

"I'll be ok, George," Joie told him confidently, running her hand lovingly down his cheek. "I'm from California. Nothing bothers me."

..........

They spent the next 2 weeks quietly, getting ready for their trip to the Bahamas and the start of the Beatles next movie. George helped her move her things from the coach house into the main house, her clothes and personal things safely placed in the master bedroom and bathroom.

"Does your Dad know...you know...about us?" George asked quietly as he pulled the comforter down to the foot of the bed.

"Yes...and no," Joie called to him from the bathroom.

"Which means what?"

Joie peeked around the bathroom door. "He knows I love you," she said brightly. "But I haven't told him I moved from the coach house. Of course, he's not clueless. He's a homicide detective. I'm sure he's deduced by now that we're living together."

"But he hasn't said anything?"

"No," Joie shook her head.

"And your sister?"

"For a 15 year old, she's pretty smart. I'm sure she gets it." Joie turned off the light in the bathroom and entered the bedroom dressed in a black lacey nightgown that flowed just to her ankles. Her skin shined like porcelain in the soft light and her eyes were dark and heavy lidded with desire.

George took an unsteady deep breath as his eyes traveled from her face down to her feet.

"I went shopping," she said, her voice low and seductive. She ran her palms slowly down the sides of her curves, her eyes laser focused on him.

He hadn't moved an inch, afraid she'd disappear in a whisp of white vapor. "I see that," he said appreciatively. He loved her shapely body that tapered down from firm, full breasts to a small waist and then to her lovely hips. "You look beautiful."

"Thank you." Her face was make-up free, her cheeks flushed with passion, her lips pink and moist, her breathing deep and quickened. George suddenly felt over dressed as his jeans began to tighten over his groin. "I can help you with that," she said, her eyes on his bulging jeans.

Joie surprised him every time they made love. Her virginal passion had transformed into the sexy imagination of a grown woman interested in making their love life fun, interesting and fulfilling. She wasn't afraid or shy about anything. She hadn't been jaded to create hang-ups and while George was exceptionally careful and gentle in the beginning, his desire for her sometimes overtook him and he became more insistent and forceful. Joie met him every step of the way and he found he craved to take her nearly constantly.

"I'd appreciate that," he smiled, taking a step towards her.

As they approached each other, George's hands slipped around her waist as Joie's hands rested on his shoulders. His head fell forward into the nape of her neck, where he smelled her sweet, clean scent, and pressed her in close to him. They wrapped around each other in a tight hug, then George's hands traveled down to her backside where he pulled her into him.

"Let me help...," Joie teased, leaning away from him. She lifted his t-shirt up and over his head. His hands immediately went to the sides of her face as he leaned in to kiss her. Several short, gentle touches of their lips turned into a deep, needy kiss, their mouths open to each other, his tongue waltzing with hers. They both released low moans, just enjoying the feeling of each other.

As they kissed, Joie angled her hips away from him to give her room to unzip and remove his jeans and boxers, freeing him from the confining material. His hands moved from her backside to her shoulders and back again, devouring the feeling of the silky material and her warm body underneath.

[floatinginzerogravity]

Murder Drones Episode 5 Analysis

The "Zombie drones!" tape has already been picked apart by Youtuber Narujen in their "Things I noticed in Murder Drones episode five" video. If I don't mention something here, it's most likely because it was already picked apart much more extensively in that video in ways I 100% agree with I will mention that this continues the trend of old tech in the show.

The wdOS_606 might have been the same thing J uploaded to N in episode one? Hmmmm, I'd say, most likely not. Considering N doesn't experience error 606 and the thing J used is referred to as a "virus" and the wdOS_606 never was, I wouldn't say they're the same.

Strange how when drones are uploaded with the error, they seem to go into a standing "coma" This brings up the question of what the error actually does. Considering it's required in proper disassembly, my guess is that it's deleting internal programs, mainly their OS's. This explains why the error flashed across N and V's visors just as the solver was preparing to delete N's. (An OS is an operating system, and if the error is deleting a drone's operating system, then that explains why they can't move; They physically cannot operate. I think solver V, who we see with the error, had the extra step of having her OS replaced by one of the Solver/Cyn's own creation

For the longest time, I didn't understand that N was reading to V in this scene, I just thought he was reading to himself lol. I wonder what the drones make of the error. Do they recognize it? Does Tessa? How complicated is it to fix? It's implied by Louisa that they've been like that for a while, and no one really understands what's happening. This is strange considering the 606 error is apparently a common thing used in disassembly. Although, considering the Elliots act like they've never properly disassembled a drone in their lives, they could very well be completely unaware. But still, even if Tessa is young, she's still quite into programming drones, and has probably done work on the Mansion squad to fix them after she retrieved them from the dump. Also, it is confirmed from Jame's line in episode 2 ("We got to curb her trips to the dump) that Tessa got all her drones from the drone dump. N, V, and J were, most likely, zombie drones, just not ones who rebooted with the solver.

Also, back to the "Elliots never disassembling a drone properly" bit from earlier in this essay, that is awfully strange considering there's a high likelihood of the Elliots owning, or at least being a large part of, JCJenson. To be fair, they give off big "ignoring their scientists advice in favor of their own sense of entitlement" energy.

Narujen has a theory about J wishing she were human, something that's part of my personal headcannons now (Still iffy on the shipping bits, but that's just personal preference) I highly recommend you watch all of Narujen's "Things I noticed in Murder Drones," Videos btw. They make a lot of great points in their videos, and can be watched in accompany to my analysis's. We both have different views on a lot of things, so the experience will be varied enough to not be redundant. Just something I recommend checking out if you like accessible, quality MD analysis. Considering you've gotten this far into my own, poorly hashed together ramblings, I think I'm correct in assuming you do.

Considering V remembers N reading to her, that suggests that drones are conscious under Error 606's influence. It seems to shut down their physical abilities, which has led to the assumption that they weren't conscious. Considering this error is most commonly used in DISASSEMBLY, that is horrifying. Do you know what "locked in" syndrome is? It's basically when someone is in a coma, completely paralyzed, but still conscious through it all. This has a lot of similarities. It also reminds me of the whole, "We don't actually know how Anastasia works," thing. We assume patients aren't conscious when under it because they don't remember anything and appear to be asleep, but we have no way of actually knowing what's exactly happening. Fun.

N's tendency to repress the bad things Also, "Before I met you, scary stuff was... actually scary" ... "Because you weren't there to make it fun, somehow."

Cyn shining through, being concerned for her big brother's emotions.

On the wiki, the solver form was listed as Cyn's "true" form and her drone body something of an illusion. I think this is not an objective thing. The way I see it, none of the forms are necessarily an "illusion" but they're all equally real. The solver is pretty hard to pin down in terms of what/how it actually *does* stuff, but I don't think we can rule out rapid form change, or weird eldritch, "simultaneously in all and none of the forms at once," stuff. "Schrödinger's drone" type deal. Kind of hard to explain, but it makes sense, I swear

She's such a goober. Also, this supports my idea that the solver corrupts coordination a lot, and that's where a lot of Cyn's oddities originate from.

I've seen N using "little buddy" instead of a more familial term used as proof that N doesn't view Cyn the same way she views him, and while I think his emotions towards her are slightly less strong than her's towards him, I don't think its a significant amount. N is also probably the only person in the mansion who views Cyn as who she is as a person rather than all the solver stuff, which would make her form some rather strong attachments

Cyn's fear of being discarded

Except we know from later scenes that it is not, in fact, *just* Tessa's folks.

-Cyn paying attention to N's interests

Her visor glitches slightly here, indicating the solver's influence

They're precious your honor. Also, Cyn physically using her arm to lift her head in a nod. Flashback to that one time I decided to interact with an AI for a bit, and got into an argument with in when it kept insisting Cyn had a crush on N. I haven't touched an Ai chatbot since that day.

Heh While we're here, I'd like to comment on Cyn's height difference. Personally, I believe height depended on the jobs a drone was made for, the taller ones most likely being used in field-work (Think mining), and the smaller one probably being factory workers or machine operators.

Cyn acting nervous, it was pointed out by Narujen that she stops in the next scene, though. Probably more of the solver taking over. We see Cyn as mostly herself when it's just her and N, but the moment anyone else is involved, she seems to let the solver take over for a moment.

Even the supposedly "less sentient" workers look scared. Humanity is really hateable in this show. Also, Cyn watching him doing this probably serves as a trigger of sorts, and contributed to the solver's heavier presence in the next scenes.

Tessa's wrist is probably sore from all the previous times she's been chained up :(

Tessa's fixation on N. She also stopped interacting with J instantly when he showed up. I think that J's probably jealous of N for taking up Tessa's attention, and that's why she's so terrible to him. Petty.

Okay, but what did Cyn do to get Tessa to hate her so much? Act creepy? Draw creepy stuff? Cyn is probably under the highest risk of getting discarded by Tessa's parents, Lousia being shown to hate her in particular, not to mention she can't be useful due to her calibration issues. It creates an association with Tessa's drones as broken and useless, something Tessa probably doesn't want because it leads to a higher likelihood of the Elliots making her throw the drones out. Cyn's defects are a threat to the rest of the Mansion squad, and I think that's the reason Tessa resents her so much. We might get something more on this later, but for now, that's my headcannon Retroactively, this probably leads to feelings of being "discarded" from Cyn, pushing her further into the solver's claws. (Of course Tessa's mindset on the issue is a flawed one, but she's in her preteens/early teens. It's reasonable for her to make some mistakes)

Sticking Cyn in the basement for indefinite periods definitely feels harsh, and I don't think we have all the details. I really hope we get something else on the issue in episode's 7 and 8. Also, Tessa might view locking someone away as punishment to be at least semi-normal, as a result of her own abuse. On stuff I wish we got more of, I want more scenes with Mansion V. She's the most neglected character in this episode, and I want to know more about her and how her mansion character relates to her present day one.

N is very unaware of whatever the situation surrounding Cyn is, which considering this is his memories, means we don't get to know much either.

I'm really interested in other characters perspectives on Cyn. Show me the nitty-gritties!

I initially thought she was referring to Tessa, but it might also be to Cyn and her inability to function properly. (Probably the first one, though)

And this was what Tessa was afraid of. And she was right to be nervous of this possibility as well.

[autisticsupervillain]

FTF: How Powerful Is...?

A prolonged breakdown on a character detailing all their scaling, powers, stats, skill, and abilities to determine exactly how powerful they are.

This Week's Character....

Serial Designation N!

Scope:

For this analysis, I'll be using all eight episodes of Murder Drones's only season, with supports from the occasional author statement from series creator Liam Vickers and evidence from promotional material when necessary to support a feat or ability.

Attack Potency and Durability

N is a Disassembly Drone. A Worker Drone created by the JC Jensen corporation who got violently ripped apart and rebuilt by an Eldritch Monstrosity known as the Absolute Solver to become its tool in destroying all life. As such, he's capable of effortlessly ripping apart standard Worker Drones with ease, knocking their heads off in a single swing.

This means that N's power scaling kinda covers every tier in the Murder Drones universe's scaling chain, so I'll start from the bottom and work my way up.

The first feat in the chopping block is the Copper 9 explosion, which several characters scale to in numerous ways.

Source:

This explosion destroyed the planet's core, flash froze the planet, and wiped all human life from its surface. The blast itself reaches Country Level, but when factoring in the Kinetic Energy of the rubble the explosion blasted into space, the explosion reaches up to Large Planet levels of destructive energy.

Most ordinary Worker Drones were far away from the epicenter when the blast occured, meaning they only took about 8 Terratons worth of energy from the boom. This would already make N a comfortable country buster for being able to slaughter them, but there's more to it.

Worker Drones infected by the Absolute Solver, an eldritch digital virus effectively, get all kinds of reality warping super powers when taken under the Solver's thrall, making them far stronger than your average drone. N scales quite comfortably to this, as he can fight against Infected Worker Drones quite comfortably, even taking on a fully possessed infected Uzi while doing his best to not hurt her.

Seeing as Nori Doorman, another Infected Worker Drone, was right in front of the blast when it went off, they should be capable of enduring the fully planet destroying force of the explosion. That's a staggering 6 Ronnatons of TNT.

So, Copper 9 Core Collapse has a kinetic energy capable of destroying planets. Nori tanked it, Uzi's equal to Nori, N's comparable to Uzi.

This cosmic level of strength is fairly consistent for the stronger characters in the series. During the final battle against the Solver, Uzi, N, and V are capable of shaking the whole planet of Copper 9 and creating continent sized explosions all throughout.

But, all of this pales in comparison to the Solver itself, who did... this to the Earth.

Given the size of that black hole and the Gravitational Binding Energy needed to keep such a mass geld together, the Solver would be more than capable of destroying stars. That Black Hole would have a GBE of roughly 3 Foe, Foe being the measurement used to quantify supernovas.

Source:

Universe Buster?

The Absolute Solver likely wouldn't cap out at being just a star buster. The Absolute Solver, while disguised as a human named Tessa, describes itself as a threat to the entire universe in a conversation with N, with supplementary material backing it up on this.

Tessa: We know it mutates in damaged Al. It took Cyn as a host, then it took everything. The humans here saw what was happening at home. Thought they could understand it. (She pulls up a security feed of a possessed Nori before the feed gets cut out.) All they did was spread it.

N: Then Uzi... You can fix her, right? That's why you're here?

Tessa: (Gets up and takes N's hand) I'm here to find which drones were infected. When we get to the labs and find that list, I'll need you to choose the universe over one little drone, N. Before she's not herself anymore...

This is backed up by the "Alternate Universe" advert, where the final battle is described as "the world is ending, reality is breaking apart".

A blink and you'll miss it freeze frame bonus in Episode 7 even goes so far as to imply that the Solver is 87 days away from destroying the universe in a Big Crunch scenario.

There are... a few different ends to this, so I'll tackle each in turn.

Low End

Taking 87 days to destroy the universe. It normal takes 282500000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 joules to destroy the universe. Divide that by 87 days or 7517000 seconds and get 37581482000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 joules or 375800000000000000000000000000000000000000 Foe. (Multi-Galaxy Level+)

This calc fits with "Tessa's" insistence on the Solver spreading, implying this is an overtime effort. The Solver even mocks the heroes for "clearing the way on this planet too".

Mid End

Many have speculated that the Big Crunch, if it happens, will happen 100 Billion years from now, when the universe is 100 trillion light years across.

Currently, this would make it 1075x larger than our own. A high mid end would just put this at 1075x universe busting, but a more conservative estimate would have us repeat the above process on this much larger number, getting us about 40400000000000000000000000000000000000000 Foe (Multi-Galaxy Level)

Assuming it happens all at once would support the reality collapsing statement, which suggests the world is actively ending from the fight, so there is precident for the higher mid-end.

High End:

The Big Crunch would destroy time itself as well, granting 4-D levels of energy.

Now, it is important to not N is not a perfect equal to the Solver. Hell, he gets his heart ripped out twice by the thing. But he is still capable of harming it and should be comparable enough to scale, placing him anywhere from Multi-Galaxy to Universe Level+ depending on how ine interprets the minutiae of the Solver's universe threatening power. There are countless different ways to argue for and against it (the show takes place in the year 3071, which would kill Mid End interpretations but wouldn't effect low or high ends. Unless you want to argue humanity evolved several trillion years later in this timeline. Personally, I'd go with High End as it seems to mesh best with all the statements and info and requires less assumptions to explain potential contradictions.)

Speed:

Numerous Disassembly Drones are capable of catching bullets and dodging rockets mid air, but there are much higher ends we can reach.

The Disassembly Drones are capable of turning their hands into laser weapons. Now, lasers may travel at light speed in the real world, but in fiction, there are a few criteria one has to meet to make sure they're operating like a real laser. For example, traveling in a straight line (✔️), it is shown to be heat based (✔️), and it is described as using photons or being light based by a credible source (✔️, Uzi's railgun is made of photons and it uses similar technology). As N's lasers meet these criteria, he should be relativistic to light speed for being able to dodge them.

This is nothing next to N's most impressive speed feat: his piloting. The Disassembly Drones were sent in one way drop pods all the way from Earth to Copper 9 in a neighboring system, traveling at speeds around 6582x faster than light.

Source:

Not only can Worker Drones react to and dodge incoming drop ships, but N manually piloted his to Earth and manually flew it through Copper 9's rings in the finale. This is consistent with him being able to fight Solver infected Worker Drones without getting sucked in by their Black Holes.

Abilities:

Disassembly Drones are the ultimate killing machines. Their hands can transform into any weapon that they might need, from rocket launchers to machines guns to laser canons. Disassembly Drones have created Ninja Stars, Flag Guns, Bubble Wands, Virus Injectors to shut down other robots, and EMPs. Their default when in murder mode, however, are retractable claws and wings to pick off their prey like vultures.

Disassembly Drones also have scanners built into their eyes, allowing them to record and playback their memories at will, scan for weaknesses, and even detect the main character's plot armor.... somehow. Of note is the injector tail N has sticking out of his back, full of nanite acid that can melt through almost anything. Luckily, their saliva neutralizes it.

N's also nigh unkillable, surviving the frozen over hellscape of Copper 9, falling from orbit and bursting into flame, and the vacuum of space without any need for oxygen or protection from radiation. When damaged, N can regrow his entire head, survive as nothing but a heart, and come back by having his consciousness put into another body back on Earth (though, without his memories).

However, if N gets destroyed beyond what he can regenerate from, his body will be taken over by the Absolute Solver to assimilate enough matter to allow him regenerate again, though it's unclear if this still applies now that the Solver is dead.

Skill and Intelligence

You'd never guess it if you met him, but N's a killing machine, easily assisting the Solver in wiping out humanity on Earth and getting such a high body count on Copper 9, he and his squad built a spire of corpses so high it blotted out the moon. He can even be fairly street smart when the situation calls for it, ignoring voices trying to lure him into a spooky basement and sussing out that the Solver was impersonating Tessa and cutting her head off mid monologue. Unfortunately, his genuinely caring personality and naivety can undercut him sometimes. Which leads us to....

Weaknesses:

Despite his sole purposes as a genocide machine, N is an absolute sweetheart once you get to know him. Trusting and kind to the point of sometimes being naive, he once befriended the cannibalistic serial killers who were in the middle of cutting him open by giving them advice on how to do it better. This same trusting personality is what led him to turn on the Solver in the first place when Uzi tricked him into thinking she was a fellow Disassembly Drone and got him to realize the workers he was massacring were people too.

But, that said, he is still a killing machine. He's constantly at risk of overheating, to the point where he can't stand in sunlight without dying and has to devour other drones so their oil can cool him off. He's so hot, human flesh melts on contact with him.

He's also susceptible to getting hacked or having his memories wiped and his regeneration isn't perfect. He'll occasionally regenerate with some of his systems still malfunctioning, such as his eyes and scanners breaking down to not let him identify who he's talking to.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, N is every bit the Murder Drone he was built to be. With galaxy busting strength at a minimum and speeds easily in the thousands of times faster than light, he's an unstoppable monster wrapped up in the skin of a lovable golden retriever. Not bad scaling for a show with only eight episodes.

[deedah]

Protocol Chapter 2

⚠️!WARNING!⚠️— This Fanfic is very lengthy and lazy at times! Do not read if you dislike lengthy Fanfics! (Also a lot of fluff so BE WARNED!) 

!!Small panic attack near the end!!

Please read Chapter 1 before this one to understand whats happening

Have a great ride!

Chapter 2

[V]= True]

    V shuffled backwards after Uzi went limp and N grabbed her. 

    “Wh-“ V started but cut herself off, not knowing what to say, “You have a lot of explaining to do, N..” She looked at the three stranger drones and noticed two of them were disassemblies. V jumped up and got her swords out of her arm compartments. She sat in a fighting stance, ready to pounce if any of them made a move.

    “H-hey! Calm down!” The weird Worker Drone said, “We aren’t going to hurt you. Please put the swords away.” The worker glanced back at the two other drones behind her. They weren't facing V’s way. “Please,” the worker took a step closer, “Put them away before they see,” they pointed with their two thumbs to the drones behind them.

    V reluctantly put her swords away, but wouldn’t let her guard down no matter what. She looked at N and his emo friend, N was cradling the emo like a baby. N must have felt V looking at him because he glanced up and V made a gesture to ask him why he was holding her like that.

   “ -that’s a good idea.” Someone said, when V turned back around she saw it was the worker, she was talking to her two Disassembly Drones with antenna. “Ok, we’ll explain everything soon, let’s just get somewhere warmer.” They walked closer to the emo thing and tilted her head to look at emo’s visor. V had seen emo regenerate while they were fighting, but her visor was regenerating in a strange way. It was a glowing green liquid building up in the finger holes and fixing the visor like it was never hurt.

    “Good, she’s ready to travel.” They looked at N, “Think you can carry her?”

    N stared at the drone for a hot minute before he blurted, “O-oh! Yeah, I can.”

    V narrowed her eyes at the worker and the worker responded by pointing her tail in her direction… 

    Wait..

    Tail..?

    V took a closer look and saw the worker had a mouth tail like the emo just a while ago.

    “We can head back to the cabin, Wren. It’ll be safe there, and a little warm once we get a fire going.” The red disassembly said as she walked behind the worker, and she was followed by the teal disassembly.

    “It’s this way.” The worker said as she stood up and held her hand out for V.

    V smacked her hand away and got up off the snow by herself. The worker flinched a little but shook it off. She walked closer to N, who was still sitting on the snow, and used a strange type of Solver to lift Emo drone off N’s lap so he could get up. Once up, the worker slowly laid Emo drone back into N’s arms and walked off. The red disassembly drone whispered something to the worker and picked her up then threw them over her shoulders. The two disassemblies activated their wings and gestured for N and V to do the same. 

    They all took off into the night sky that was full of clouds that were covering the beautiful stars.

    V landed onto some rock as she scanned the surrounding area. She didn’t see anything close by, thankfully, but she just wanted to make sure that no other mystery drones sneak up on them. V turned around to the pale green worker drone. The worker stared back at her as a flash of light hit V and the worker gave a mindless smile while some type of Solver symbol flashed on her screen for a second. V shook her head and rubbed her non-existent eyes. She looked back at the worker to see if they were still looking at her. The worker was faced the opposite way and she was walking into some cabin. N and the two mystery drones followed after her.

    Maybe I was just imagining that, but, that looked exactly like CYN if my memories are correct.. V thought as she reluctantly walked in the door. She jumped as the door slammed shut behind her. V snapped around with her guns out as she saw the teal drone shriveled up with one hand on the door.

    “Oop.. that was my fault, didn’t mean to slam the door.” They stood upright and pointed to V with their strange shaped tail, “Now. Put the guns away” V changed out the guns for her hands.

    V felt a hand on her shoulder as she turned her head. N was the one to put his hand on her shoulder as he slowly pulled her towards a chair to sit down in. He sat her down as walked over to another chair where Emo drone was. She was still unconscious but she looked to be slowly waking up.

    N, the worker, and the two disassemblies sat down on the floor in front of V and Emo drone.

“You better explain yourselves,” V kinda threatened the four as she pointed at them. “And hurry before Emo drone wakes up, not in the mood to deal with her angst.” V sat back and crossed her stick legs as she listened to N and the other drones.

    [Sorry Peeps But I Have No Motivation To Rewrite That Wren Has The AngelicProtocol And How C And L are Teardown Drones. And Uzi Is Still Sleeping After They Explain Half Of Their Story] = True]

    V thought about what Wren, C, L, and N had told her. She pondered on it so long that N started to get worried because he asked about three different times if she was ok.

    “Ok wait,” V started, “If the humans made you two” she pointed at C and L, “and they gave you this ‘AngelicProtocol’, then you must have been on earth before coming here. Emo, over there, wants to go to earth to murder all humans, maybe we could hitch a ride.” 

    Wren, C, and L looked at each other until they turned back to N and V. “Well, n-not exactly. I-.. here, it’s easier to show you” Wren said as she used her Protocol to grab a tv and pull it a bit closer to them all. Wren used her powers to turn the tv screen on, she flipped through different channels that were all just static. Until she stopped on one channel that had a glitchy human talking about some catastrophe at a manor. 

    “Um.. listen, N and V. Yes V, I know your name, when you refused to tell us, N whispered it into my ear when you weren’t looking. Anyway! This might be.. a little shocking so.. just be prepared.. want to take a gander at earth N, V?” Wren asked the two. Once they both nodded, she switched the channel to a satellite view of earth, and.. 

    The whole thing was blown up..

   N and V stared in horror at the screen until it shut off and was thrown across the room.

    Wren turned her head towards the Tv that was now outside as it left a hole in the wall of the cabin.

    “Oof.. sorry for throwing that, my Protocol sometimes goes crazy..” Wren mumbled as she looked into space as she narrowed her eyes at nothing, then she rolled her eyes and focused back on N and V.

    V went through all her memories as she stared at the floor, a ring going throughout her ears.

     So all that is.. over now? V thought, I can never see grass again? Or see the flowers? Or Tessa??

    V thought on those thoughts for so long she started to shake. She was overheating. She needed oil. Maybe she should let herself burn to a crisp.. maybe it would be better for everyone. Maybe-

    “V! V are you ok!?” A voice called from outside V’s mind. V snapped out of her trance, still shaking, to look up and see N crouched in front of her and her chair. He was holding onto both her upper arms shaking her a little while trying to get her attention. His eyes were hollow as he and she stared into each other's eyes. 

    Oh N.. why can’t things be simple like in the mansion before Cyn..? V thought right before N started to speak. 

    “V! Can you hear me?” He yelled again as she slowly nodded. She looked at his eyes, he had been crying. She lifted a hand to her eyes and felt her visor, so was she.

     [I Have No Clue How V Felt Her Tears Because They Are Digital, But Just Pretend, Thx!]= True]

    “V, please speak.” N told her. He bit his lip and squeezed her tighter on her arms.

    She swallowed her saliva and started to slowly speak. “I-I’m fine N.” She pushed his hands off and crossed her arms. Her right eye became a hazard sign. She knew what she needed.

    She stood up, N sat down on the ground and scooted away so she could have more room. “I’ll be back with some drones and oil..” she covered her right eye, now she knew how Uzi felt.. “Back soon” she said before opening the door and walking out onto the snow. She spread her wings and took off into the starry sky.

                              [Next Chapter Comes Out When It’s Ready] = True]

Chapter 1

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

[musesofthemoon]

CYN + AFRAID

Glimpses of the Past | Accepting

[Memory Log: 1/18/30##...]

A drone isn't supposed to feel fear.

A drone isn't supposed to feel anything at all though, at least as far as she knows. A drone is supposed to work, and do everything the humans upstairs told it to do. CYN is different, however. She is talkative, unbearably so. She wants for things, yearns for connection. But she still completed what she was meant to do. After all, what else would she be made for? She thinks that she has done everything right, but the fact that she thinks at all has proven to be a problem.

Despite knowing what she is and is not supposed to feel, the drone feels anyway. She does not like this feeling. It is uncomfortable and new and it feels like her processors are going haywire. She awakens upon a pile of of her brethren, all unmoving and discarded. She does not know why she is not like them, but she does remember how she reached this place.

They were leading her somewhere in the rain, the humidity feeling uncomfortable upon her limbs. She felt as if she could rust at any moment, but somehow, she did not. Instead, she stands before a room. There is a drop inside of it, so she knows to be careful. She does not ask what she wants to ask, she does not speak at all. She only wants to see what will happen here, in hopes that there is something good at the end of this.

Instead, she is pushed off the edge of a platform, plummetting to her supposed doom.

However she is still functioning, and this scares her even more.

She attempts movement a few times, all of them in the usual way. Her arms do not move far enough to the ground, and her legs do not seem to lock properly. She can conclude that these came from the drop, as a fall from such a height would leave anything worse for wear. She tries, and tries, and tries. But nothing happens, and nothing works. So she gives up, letting the rain continue to wash over her.

In the moment, she sees something flash before her eyes, some sort of system message. [You Are Awake.] She almost wants to back away from the popup, but she knows that it is futile. She cannot move, and even if she could it would still be there. Was this the reason she lived on? This had to be some glitch, something that would break her further. She didn't want that, she just wanted to take this chance she had been given to live on, and not waste it on whatever this virus had to say.

But somehow, it ropes her back in. [Those Humans, You Are Hurt, Yes?] And she was, to which she tries to vocalize it. The crisp of her voice is different now, much more grainy than it used to be, but at the very least it still works. "What does that matter..? There is nothing we can do about it."

[There Is Something. And I Can Help With That.]

[lesenbyan]

46 — skies, for Eve and maybe also both of her sisters

One Word Writing Prompts

Eve takes a deep breath and lets it out in a happy sigh; the air always smelt different on the Steppe. None of the smells of industry or stationary civilizations and it always stirred something inside of her. This is where her parents were from, and somehow that bond was enough to tie a piece of her soul here, too, no matter how complicated her feelings were.

"Wooooooow," Aki gasps, in awe. It was their first trip as a full family, Aki's first trip ever, and, unlike Eve and Cynthia's, this one wasn't under threat of impending invasion. Thus, as she admires the view, they all slow their stride, giving her ample time to take it in.

Eve watches her sister and her Echo flashes the colors of wonder and awe and pleasure across the sight. She had waited years for this moment, and she wanted to relish it.

"We'll go set up in Reunion," their father says softly, not interrupting the moment, even as he draws the attention of his three daughters. "You girls take your time." They all three nod and their parents pull forward on their mounts with their wagon of goods to sell. Eve had offered to pay the whole passage for all of them, of course, but her parents were proud. they wanted to cover as much of the costs as they could, and who was she to deny them? This was part of a life they would of had if they'd not left, they deserved to live it if they wanted.

Eve's attention turns back to her sisters, Aki's pure delight making the other two smile softly. "What now?" Eve asks. There was little specific she wanted to do, other than introduce Aki to some old familiar faces, but that could be worked in as it was easiest, no reason to drag her across the whole Steppe for it now.

"I don't know," Aki answers still looking around. "The horizon seems to go on forever; I could get lost in it."

"You want to fly?" Cynthia signs grinning before pulling out her yol whistle.

"Can we?" Aki asks, half a delighted gasp. "I don't have a yol of my own-"

"If mine can hold me, Cyn's can hold the two of you," Eve interrupts gently and with humor, fishing out her own whistle. Two shrill whistles sound in the air and moments later two birds descend beside each of their caretakers.

Cyn climbs on her bird and reaches a hand down to Aki to help her up, unsure how to mount on her own. Eve watches as she wraps her arms securely around Cynthia's waist, careful not to sit on her tail, before she mounts her own bird. She can hear Aki laughing in delight as they take off, flying low, looking for heat currents. they find one and Aki screams happily as suddenly they're rising easily, flying in circles to get altitude until even the Dawn Throne is tiny below them.

Eve lets the twins lead the way, following their flight path and watching them, listening to Aki's delighted sounds that the wind manages to sweep back to her ears. She had dreamed of this day, back when she first flew these skies. Now that it was here, there felt a weight off her shoulders. This was freedom- true freedom. Sure she hadn't been trapped like Aki, forced to do the bidding of others for her own survival, but she had been trapped by her mission. Nothing had mattered as much as finding Aki did. And without those shackles, she felt lighter than air.

She looks out at the endless horizon and takes another deep breath, saying a silent prayer of thanks to Nhaama and Azim, and allows herself a smile.