#We've Been Searching Everywhere ⟪Mikhail⟫

[metalvsflesh]

pov: ur stanwick and just said something Really Not Gamer

[metalvsflesh]

“You’ve got some explaining to do.”

[metalvsflesh]

Viktor hobbled out of his room, drawing his blanket tightly around his shoulders. As he crossed the threshold into the living area, he glanced around, looking for nothing in particular.

He flinched at the unfamiliar body in the kitchen, who similarly jumped upon noticing him, mid-inspecting the coffee pot. They stared at one another with deer-in-the-headlights looks on their faces.

“Mikhail?”

“I didn’t mean to yell,” he blurted back, clutching the coffee pot in both hands.

Viktor shivered before stepping up to the kitchen portion of the room. It was almost like looking in the mirror, were that mirror to make him far younger and fitter than he was now, and gave him a semblance of a sense of style.

“It’s fine, no need to worry. Just keep your voice down from now on. I’m still congested, that racket makes my head hurt like-” Viktor stopped himself. “It hurts a lot.”

“Oh yeah, that’s a thing that happens...” Mikhail placed the coffee pot on the counter sideways, and it began to roll off. “You think me and Blitz will get sick?”

Viktor lunged for the pot and caught it before it fell too far, hair standing on end, “No.”

“Oh, it does that.”

“The pot?”

“Yeah.”

Viktor sighed as he placed the pot on the counter right-side up, rubbing his temples with his other hand.

“You alright?”

“I’m fine.”

Blitzcrank came running from another room, as if summoned by the interaction, jumping onto the couch and standing on it to peer over the railing that divided the kitchen and the living room. It seems condensing such a powerful mechanical being into the size of a fifth-grader means they have far more energy than they know what to do with. Either that, or it’s just normal child things.

“Papa do you want me to make you soup? I can make you soup!”

“Please don’t stand on the couch. And no, you can’t.”

“Yes I can.”

“It’s too dangerous. Please get off the couch.”

“I’ve done it before!”

“Well,” Mikhail grabbed a hold of the end of a hand towel that was draped over the handle of one of the ovens and began fiddling with it in his hands. “You were a eight foot tall robokid before. You’re like... squishy baby child, now.”

“Oh, I didn’t think about that...”

“Nikolas,” the elder Pavlov’s voice strained, causing him to cough once. “Either sit down or get off the couch.”

Blitzcrank peeped, then dropped down and hopped off the couch, walking into the kitchen to stand with the rest. Viktor tugged the ends of his blankets and huddled into them once more.

“Papa, if I can’t cook, then what do we do about food for you?”

“You can cook, but I have to be in the room. And don’t worry about those things, I will handle figuring out the logistics.”

“Can I cook too, daddy-o?”

Viktor gave Mikhail a stern look, “No.”

“Aw..”

Viktor reached up to a cabinet and opened it, reaching for a box of candy canes. Upon taking one out of the box, his eyes widened. He glanced over his shoulder to his children before smiling.

“You two.”

“Yes, dad,” they said in sync, both their faces lighting up at the sight of his smile.

“Catch,” he tossed Blitzcrank the candy cane, then reached up and grabbed two more, closing the cabinet, and handing one to Mikhail.

The two boys looked quizzically at the candy canes, then to their father. Blitzcrank seemed slightly less confused than Mikhail, knowing what they were, but confused in their own right for other reasons.

“Take the plastic film off the bottom, but not all the way. This gets sticky very quickly and you don’t want sticky hands. Hold it by the round portion.”

The boys duteously followed his instructions, after watching him do it first. Viktor stuck the unwrapped end in his mouth, electing alarmed looks from the other two. He gave them a minute to put two and two together.

“Oh!” Blitzcrank jumped up and down. “These are candy! Papa was talking about them when I was wrapping Miss Sky’s present!”

“Don’t jump with that,” Viktor warned gently through the side of his mouth.

The youngest shoved the candy cane in their mouth excitedly, eyes aglow with wonder as static sparked from the ends of their hair. Mikhail furrowed his brow and slowly followed suit, putting the sugary confection into his mouth. It was only a second before he looked to Viktor with a horrified expression. The man merely chuckled.

“Nikolas,” the elder murmured, taking the candy cane out of his mouth. “And you, Mikhail, though I don’t think you’ll keep eating that.. don’t run when you have this in your hand, or in your mouth.”

Blitzcrank blinked in confusion, “Why?”

“You could trip and hurt yourself. Walk slowly with it and anything similar,” Viktor stuck his candy cane back in his mouth and lumbered over to a drawer, retrieving a pair of scissors. “These especially. If you have to use them, ask me for help. Otherwise, hold them by the blades - like this - and walk slowly. Hand it to others by the handles, flat, like this. Do you understand?”

The two nodded, and Viktor returned the scissors to the drawer.

“Forks and knives do not leave the kitchen unless I say so, and do not touch them unless I am present.”

“Are spoons okay?” Nikolas said.

Viktor nodded, “Spoons are fine. Hold them securely to the dish you are carrying. Nikolas, if you can’t reach something, ask me for help. Do not try to get it yourself.”

Mikhail scratched his chin, “What about me, pops?”

“Do not try to help. Get me.”

“But I can reach everything, shouldn’t I help ‘em?”

Viktor pointed to the coffee pot without a word. Mikhail followed his gesture and lingered on the pot for a moment, then turned back to look him in the eye.

“Point taken.”

“Food is to be eaten either in the kitchen at that table,” Viktor pointed to the table pressed against the railing that lined the kitchen ledge. “Or in the dinning room across the way.”

“But you eat stuff wherever, papa.”

“I’m an exception.”

“Why?”

“I am the head of the house, I make the rules, so I get to say when they can be waved or bent and who and what are beholden to them.”

“I don’t know what that means, but okay.”

“I-” Viktor grumbled in thought. “I’ve been a human for nearly sixty years, so I know how to balance my self, how to... gauge my strength and how much of it I use on an object without much thought to my actions. You two have been a human for... what?”

“Two hours, nine minutes, and thirty-three seconds.”

Viktor and Blitzcrank snapped to face Mikhail.

“How did you do that, Denis?”

“Mikhail - and, not to brag, but I’m just that good at crunching numbers,” the young man grinned and raised his hands, as if calming a cheering crowd. However, it seemed his audience didn’t catch that it was a joke, and he frowned. “I have a clock.”

He pointed to the bulky watch on his wrist, which featured a stopwatch in the middle that was ticking by steadily. While Blitzcrank laughed, Viktor facepalmed almost immediately, causing an audible smack as his palm hit his forehead.

“Of course...” he murmured. Then, with a sharp breath, he continued: “You don’t have that same experience, and until you get a good handle on those skills you will have to follow the rules so that you can have a baseline for when those rules no longer apply to you. Does that make sense?”

Blitzcrank nodded.

“When I.. have... the energy, I will rearrange the kitchen to accommodate the two of you in your current state, but for now... this is how it is going to be,” he leaned against the counter and crunched on his candy cane. “Do you know if this is permanent?”

“I wasn’t paying attention,” Blitzcrank folded their hands sadly. “I heard something about ‘Christmas Miracles’, but that’s all I heard. I don’t think it is, though, the Grey Mages don’t usually make things permanent! Their spells only last a day or two for other people.”

Viktor rubbed the side of his head and groaned, half in pain and half in irritation, “I... will work something out...”

“You should nap first, pops.”

“Not now. Later.”

“Really should be now.”

“Later,” the old man said sternly. “There is more to figure out than you think.”

“Well, was worth a shot,” Mikhail shrugged and opened a random cupboard, peering in. With a light ‘ooh!’ he snatched up a random piece of dishware and began fiddling with it.

“Please don’t break anything...”

“I’m fine, I’m an adult,” he placed the dish back and grabbed another one to fiddle with. “Legally.”

Viktor shook his head and stood straight. A quick stretch of his shoulders and he was off on his half-conscious quest to make sure everything that’s needed for the night is done. Blitzcrank stood to attention and followed suit, ready to help as always.

[metalvsflesh]

im a beautiful fucking bastard.png

[metalvsflesh]

oh! muses and death:

Blitzcrank: not afraid of death bc they can’t die! my normal means, at least. they’ve never thought of actively shutting themselves off, so the thought of ‘I Could Die!’ has never really occurred to them. also they’re like. 8. 8 year olds generally have a vague idea of what death is but like haven’t fully realized their mortality, so couple that with being immortal by common means, and you’ve got a weird thing going on. they’re mostly worried about friends and people who can die tho, but generally good at dealing with grief since they have a solid emotional support system and also has been around their fair share of death, so they know how to properly navigate the grief system. they listen to music and doodle vent art and hug their friends and family, give themselves time to breathe and become at peace with things. only occasionally has anxiety attacks, but that’s mostly early on when they try and find viktor to vent to and can’t find him right away.

Mikhail: literally thinks he’s invincible unless he self-sabotages. if you threaten to kill him he will laugh in your face and zap you out of existence. for this reason, he’s terrified of death. only time he will accept dying if it is in sacrifice for his family (or this one kid in his cult he will literally die for this weird ass 6 year old that just showed up one day asking for some food and something to keep warm, fuck EVERYONE except Blitzcrank, Viktor, and this kid he can’t remember the name of but calls Snail Bro 24/7) otherwise, he will legitimately refuse to die. also, ALMOST as bad at grief as viktor is, but not in the same way because he does eventually Get Over It. when he looses something he goes straight to Rage and will never leave until he wears himself out and takes a Robo Nap. also if you do a tee hee joke of saying his family is dead and then backpedal when he starts throwing a temper tantrum it’ll just make matters worse for you and anyone he knows you are close to.

Viktor: We’ve talked about this. HORRIBLE at grief. bundles everything up and thinks that’s normal because he has never had someone talk to him about his feelings before. never gets over the loss of anyone. if you push him too hard he’ll break down about a poor kid he didn’t know the name of who he wasn’t able to save when he was like 12 and not even a superhero yet. Concept of himself dying? His own mortality? Complicated. At an intellectual standpoint, he knows he can die, that’s a given, but he neither is afraid of death nor welcoming of it because of his mental state. Any sort of reminder of his own mortality is usually met with him getting angry or outright ignoring the statement. Deep down he’s at a weird stalemate of not wanting to die until Blitzcrank is ready for him to finally pass, and also wishing he were dead because, other than Blitzcrank, there’s nothing left for him to live for.

[metalvsflesh]

Tiny Body Entry 1

I don’t know how to identify entries in my head. When I was big a few days ago I could do it without thinking. Now it’s like I can remember how to do it but when I start it doesn’t happen. Also, I can’t make entries in my head anymore, so papa got me a book to write in. 

It has some pages already written in, but only a few, so I just started writing on the soonest blank page. I want to read them later. Writing is a lot easier with tiny hands. Doing many things is a lot easier with tiny hands. I never knew this before, because I was big and had big hands. Mikhail says my writing is ‘more lejabull’ now. That’s a good thing, because that means people can read it easier.

Right now we are all sitting on the couch, listening to music. I think papa fell asleep. Mikhail is laying on the ground and staring at the ceiling. I don’t know why. When I asked he said a lot of big words that I didn’t understand, so I don’t know.

Papa is very nice to sit with. I liked hugging him when I was big because I like hugging, so I hugged him when we sat down and I think I like it more. When I was big I had to be gentle because papa was so small, but now that I’m tiny papa does not feel small and so I can hug him really strong and he won’t break because he’s made of metal and metal can’t be hurt by flesh. He is also very warm and there is a lot of him to hug. It feels nice to be able to hug him strongly. I’ve been told stronger hugs means you love people more, so I’ve always felt bad that I couldn’t give strong hugs. Only gentle ones. 

I want to hug Mikhail but he keeps rolling away from me when I try to hug him. I don’t think he wants to be hugged. I think he’s cold and not warm so he feels nervous about hugging because warm hugs are better than cold ones, but I think he would be good at hugging. He had a funny way of hugging when he was a big computer. He’d throw a bundle of chords at you with his magic and wrap you up like a taco and pull the chords really tight. The first time he did it to papa after we found him again, he dislocated papa’s shoulder. He couldn’t control his magic was before, so he accidentally hurt people a lot of the time. As papa is able to repair him and teach him how to use them like he has with me, he’s starting to get better.

Papa cooked soup and grilled cheese before we went to bed last night. It smelled nice, papa’s food always smells nice. My food smells okay but papa’s always smells nicer. Mikhail was always standing by him and smelling everything papa was using to cook. Papa usually doesn’t like people being close to him when he’s doing stuff. I think that’s why he started to show us how to ‘set’ a table, which was a lot like setting a food tray, but with extra steps and lots of fancy things like napkins and round yarn things. Papa called them ‘doilies’ (he woke up and told me how to spell that). They were very pretty, but very large and it was really confusing how to set them up. Papa said his grandparents (the parents of his parents - papa has a lot of family he never told me about before, I found out yesterday) used to have him set the table when he was little, and it had to be exactly like this, otherwise they couldn’t eat dinner. He said that’s why he never eats at the dinner table, it’s too much stuff to do, when he could just eat somewhere else and use less steps.  He said he wanted to teach us how to set a table, though, since we needed something to do.

I now understand why papa eats in weird places in the house, there’s a lot of steps to setting the dinner table. Too many. My arms felt funny at the end, papa told me that was soreness. I didn’t like it. I wish we could have just eaten on food trays, but now we don’t have to set all the spots because they’re already set, you just need to set the ones you used once you’re done. It took a long time and Mikhail almost broke a cup, but I’m really quick so I caught it before it hit the ground. 

Papa brought over the soup in a big pretty bowl and the grilled cheese on a pretty plate and told us to take a seat. Papa sat on the end of the table, and I sat next to him on one side, and Mikhail sat on the other end on my side because he wanted to be funny. Papa looked a little sad, so I don’t think he was as funny as he wanted.

Papa took my bowl and put some soup in it. I forgot that flesh bodies need to eat, and since I was now in a flesh body, I had to eat, so I was very confused. Papa explained why he was serving us though, so I wasn’t confused for long.

I like the taste of candy canes, but I like the taste of grilled cheese better. I started leaking from my eyes when I ate it after papa explained how to ‘choo’. I was scared, but then I remembered what crying is. Mikhail said it was normal to do that, and papa agreed, so I didn’t worry about it. Papa told me that crying was unpleasant, so he understands why I was scared. I ate most of the grilled cheese. Papa couldn’t eat a lot of his food because his stomach hurt, so I ate most of his and one more. Mikhail really liked the soup and ate most of that.

After, I taught Mikhail clean the dishes as papa laid down on the couch. Mikhail isn’t good at cleaning dishes. There was a lot of dishes so we just had to rinse them and then put them in the dish washer. Mikhail kept putting them in the wrong places and lost a fork in the drain. It was funny, but I was worried about the fork. Papa got it out. We listened to music, and papa went someplace else. I thought he was in his room and fell asleep, but he came out with clothes he had us pick out earlier and said he would wash them, and told us we had to go to bed.

I was excited. I’ve never experienced sleep before, or sleepiness. I heard people have dreams when they sleep, and I wanted to have a dream. Papa had us take turns in the bathroom changing into different clothes. Mikhail got upset because he didn’t want to change, but I went first and so he was less scared, and papa promised to go to bed when we went to bed, so Mikhail changed. Papa helped us get into bed and I asked him how to sleep. He said a weird bunch of words that didn’t make sense, and Mikhail told him to go to bed. Papa gave us hugs and we said good night and he turned off the light and left.

Mikhail explained that, to sleep, all you have to do is get comfortable and it will just happen. When I asked him how he knew, he said that he got bored and programmed a sleep simulation function in his systems a while back and so he knew how it worked. I think he was lying, because I’ve never seen him sleep. But I got comfortable, as he said, and waited.

I don’t remember falling asleep, sleeping, or what made me wake up. It was very strange, not being able to remember so much time, but I did remember that sleeping felt very nice. I know why papa likes sleeping so much, now. Blankets are very warm when you are a human, as well as very soft, and smell very nice. Mikhail didn’t wake up for a long time, and papa always likes sleeping for a long time as well, so I went back to sleep. I remember that. It was like turning off a light. I thought, ‘I’m going to sleep now!’ and closed my eyes, and then I woke up. Sleeping is fun. I like sleeping.

This morning, when I woke up the second time, I decided I wanted to check on papa. Mikhail was just laying in bed. He said he didn’t want to leave because it was warm and he liked feeling warm. I ran to papa’s room, but he wasn’t there, so I went around the house trying to find him, and eventually found him in the living room when I checked it again. I think he was someplace else before, so when I checked the first time he wasn’t there. He was looking at a present he had wrapped and looked sad.

I asked him why, and he said that he wanted to send the gift we made to Miss Maggy, but every time he thought about putting it in the mail, he suddenly felt very tired and worried. I remembered he felt that way when he was trying to send Dr. Hole Yard his present, too, so I said he was probably worried Miss Maggy might not like his present, and was tired because he needed more sleep. I told him it was a good present and that he should send it and not worry.

He put it back in his room and then started doing a bunch of stuff. I wanted to help him, but he just said I should draw something and listen to some music. So I did. Mikhail just laid on the ground.

An hour ago, papa brought me this book I’m writing in, then sat on the couch. I hugged him and then he fell asleep, Mikhail is still laying on the ground, and I started writing. I think I’ll read the other pages in this book, then maybe write about the up stairs. 

We have an up stairs. I didn’t know before yesterday. It’s fun to run around in, but very dusty. I think I’ll dust it for papa to make him happy, and maybe he’ll send the gift to Miss Maggy.

[metalvsflesh]

“How did this happen.”

“Magic!”

“OH MY ME, I CAN TOUCH THINGS. I CAN TOUCH THE FLOOR!”

“Magic?”

“The Grey Mages made Mikhail human! And me small! They called it a ‘Christmas Miracle’. I just wanted to tell you.”

"THIS CARPET SMELLS! WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME THIS WAS DEEP CLEANED?”

“I...”

“Do you need water, papa?”

“THE SENSATION OF CORPOREAL EXISTENCE IS INCOMPREHENSIBLE.”

“No, but can you ask your brother to quiet down. He can come talk to me quietly if he needs help... comprehending... both of you can.”

“Of course, papa!”

“I WANT TO DRINK COFFEE!”

“Ugh, my head...”

[metalvsflesh]

shitty fucking ORB keeps replacing my ringtone with MONSTERS INC THEME and then STEALING my workplace’s HIGHLY CLASSIFIED information

him again, except shittily done and with viktor for scale:

[metalvsflesh]

battlecast au art brought to you by Poro While Listening To The Undertale 5 Year Anniversary Concert

original rendition from before i realized how much of an eyesore it is here:

[metalvsflesh]

How are you ruined?

Nikolas (Blitzcrank) + Mikhail

ruined by loneliness

you are so lonely. you are miserable in your solitude. you hate that you cannot bring yourself to reach out, to ask for help. you will be forgotten by all who never knew you. your biggest fear is that you will die alone, and you know this fear will be seen to fruition. you refuse to extend yourself beyond the box that others put you in. and it is a box that no one dare come near. you are lonely because you are afraid of yourself.

Viktor

ruined by fear

you live on the edge of your seat, but it is not a good thing. youre constantly looking over your shoulder, unsure of what will hurt you next. you have been hurt so much, but you refuse to adapt to your pain. instead, you avoid what you cannot control. you are so afraid of making a mistake, of being brought closer to your doom. but, despite this, you cannot articulate what you fear. you are just afraid. only afraid. and you will be afraid until you are brought to what you fear.

Tagged by: @dreaded-omen

Tagging: @a-rat-and-a-blob , anyone who wants to!

[metalvsflesh]

like tbh you put Blitzcrank + Mikhail in the same room and the two will instantly go into hyperactive imagination mode and start creating mountains of shit of their own volition. they’re both creative-type minds so they easily Vibe and work really well together, and a lot of their respective interests overlap (on part bc Blitzcrank took a lot of Mikhail’s interests and made them their own in order to honor his memory, since they believe him to be dead).

like if they reunite... which tbh i think ill make it so that they will, Viktor’s going to have to A) try to force some boundaries because they will be semi co-dependent due to their respective issues (mostly Blitzcrank being anxious of not being loved by others if they’re not useful to them) and B) get something to store all their creations in a place that he can easily get to them and show them off to people IF they visit bc that stuff is going to be genuinely impressive.

[metalvsflesh]

Mikhail: What do you call a suspicious noodle?

Viktor: No.

Mikhail: An im-pasta.

Viktor: Out.

[Machine_God was not The Imposter]

[metalvsflesh]

Mikhail normally: leader of a cult of theatre kids that has his hands in nearly everything, hell bent on reuniting with his family at any cost

Mikhail PsyOps Au: shitty orb that exists solely to piss people off, is secretly plagued by intense self-loathing and a tad bit of PTSD after nearly killing his family because he fucked up on a mission

Mikhail Battlecast Au: vengeful ai powered by his own soul, full of rage and spite, with so much excess that he corrupts everything he touches - including his brother and father

Mikhail Swap/Full Machine Au: Nikolas' older brother who tinkers with and upgrades Viktor so he can protect Nikolas better, ends up also getting protected by + adopted by the old military bot against his will

[metalvsflesh]

>> We knew what was best for them, we tried to tell them - and look at what they did to you. To your sons. They tried to kill you. They used us, hurt us. They tore us apart.

>> We tried, father, we tried. We tried to give them sympathy. To remain protective. To remain loving. To nurture them, guide them in the correct direction. The direction that would save them. And they hurt us. It’s not fair.

“You can’t give in to your need for revenge."

>> This is not for revenge. The people we remove did not do anything to us. Those who wronged us are long dead, by your hand. This is for justice. Justice for the suffering they cause.

"Do not let them beat your love out of you."

>> Why else would we seek justice if not for our love? For the families that starve while they live in opulence? For the people who barely manage to survive with no more than a penny to their name as they devour their every dollar, every minute, their very soul, until they have nothing left? For those that they let die to satisfy their greed?

"Do not let them win."

>> They are not winning. I am. We are.

"Do not become one of them.”

>> We are not one of them. We are so far beyond what they could hope to become, for we care for others. We love. They do not.

"We- you can't hurt the innocent."

>> They are not innocent.

"... I suppose you might be right."

>> I am right.

"... You are right."

[metalvsflesh]

ok im making the executive decision on Blitz’s proper name:

While officially he was named ‘Blitz’, the crew preferred to call him ‘Denis’ bc they thought it hilarious, but the memory of that name was lost to Stanwick’s meddling with his circuitry, so he later chose ‘Mikhail’ as his name after going by ‘Blitz’ for a while. He realized that got him mixed up with his brother sometimes, and he didn’t want to impede on their fame (he’s very proud of them..), so he changed it. He most often goes by shit like ‘Machine God’ or ‘Lord’ or similar bullshit to his cult, but often will introduce himself by name first to people who who’re looking to join the cult to make them feel special or to just appeal to them in general if they show any signs of being skeptical of him.

kinda like: ‘Look, most folks around here call me ‘my God’ or ‘my Lord’ or whatever, but I like you, so you can call me ‘Mikhail’ if you like. It’s my proper name. Just try not to do it in front of the others - they might get jealous.’

[metalvsflesh]

Mikhail and Blitzcrank make a heckin... Rube Goldberg Device out of random shit they find in the house and Viktor arrives home and opens the door and it starts and it takes him like 5 seconds to recognize what’s going on and then he’s Entranced by this Thing that his sons have made bc he’s never seen anything like it before and then it does all this really extravagant shit like opening doors and umbrellas and toppling over shoes and pushing a rolly chair across the floor and spinning all these weird metal things they made from scraps in his workshop and then at the end of it all it does is like.

pour a cup of water next to him and drops a tiny paper umbrella into the cup that then pops open and says ‘welcome home dad’ in pink glitter ink