#and attach it to 6 other in-sequence but otherwise free-floating parts

[moonfurthetemmie]

i might

be about to

connect a whole bunch of pieces together

with the ds/h!ds crossover fic

and go right from 23 (or perhaps 24) chapters to 29 (or 30)

[ruffsficstuffplace]

And The AWRD Goes To... (Part 44)

“A vacuum cleaner monster...?” Diana muttered. “Seriously?”

“Told you they can get kinda ridiculous!” Akko said.

Diana groaned. “Honestly, merits for creative application, but come on!”

“It actually makes a lot of sense considering how the rest of the world works,” Ruby said. “C13O did mention that most Automa are only ever built for the one specific job, with the brains to match.”

“Okay, that I can get, but then how do they suddenly know how to effectively weaponize their tools in times of crisis?” Diana asked. “Aren’t they only suppose to be smart enough to do their one job, and little else?”

“Maybe they put in space for combat subroutines?” Ruby replied. “Look, Diana, I’d love to discuss and debate with you, but C13O and Dash are finally fusing and I really want to see what they look like combined.”

Diana sighed. “Fine, we’ll do this some other time… these inconsistencies are so jarring and common, it gets so hard to enjoy this!”

“Do you want to change shows again after this episode, Diana?” Weiss asked from her new position, sitting beside Ruby’s bed with Ruby’s scroll and quill in hand.

“No, I really want to see what happens next,” Diana replied. “These two have been bickering and coming to blows since they met, this fusion can’t be anything but a complete and utter disaster until they find some way to compromise—if they even do!

“Not to mention how they’ll act from here on out...”

Weiss chuckled “Getting attached to Dash and C13O, Diana?” she asked.

“Look, they’re both jaded, disillusioned individuals trying to grow past their initial programming and technological limitations, whilst running headfirst into new and strange experiences with the intention to adapt and grow, and I really admire that, okay?!” Diana cried.

Quietly, she added, “C13O’s really cute,  too...”

Conversation stopped as Dash and C13O went through their transformation sequence.

Ruby and Akko watched in awe as their new form took shape, Weiss added official images to Ruby’s notes on the MagiMon designs and their mechanics, Diana chuckled both Automa said the fusion speech through gritted teeth (or whatever the mechanical equivalent was).

“Oooh, that’s so cool!” Ruby cooed as the fully fused MagiMon was showed off. “C13O’s like a cockpit over Dash, and now the wheels are attached by magnetic levitation and electric currents! I wonder what sort of powers they’ll have now?”

A few moments later, Diana chuckled. “Evidently a vastly expanded ability to disagree and argue with each other...”

Weiss smiled. “It makes you wonder how many curse words the VA’s wanted to throw in.”

The action picked up again, Ruby dictated her notes about about the impressive if impractical/impossible mechanics of the battle to Weiss, Akko and Diana cheered and reacted as was appropriate, the former much louder than the former.

“Well, that climax was about as ridiculous and convoluted as I though it would be,” Diana said as the dust settled.

“Agreed!” Ruby chimed in. “If they didn’t suddenly get that power boost, they’d have probably gotten sucked in, not abused the cyclonic suction to vastly increase their own momentum and thus their wheels’ cutting powers.”

“I disagree, actually,” Weiss said. “There’s a lot to be said about mindset keeping you from your full potential—or in this case, spending more power arguing with your partner than dedicating it to… well, whatever is moving their wheels like that.”

“An electromagnetic suspension field, most likely, though with a WHOLE lot of that ‘Magia’ everything runs on to excuse the violations of basic mechanical principles,” Ruby replied.

Diana smirked. “… And of course they immediately resume butting heads after they defuse...” she said.

“Maybe the writers want to use the fact that they hate each other for a few more fights, before they get along,” Ruby said.

“If they ever move past their alliance of convenience.” Diana replied.

“Oh, they will, but it will be very slowly and painfully drawn out,” Weiss said. She sighed. “I always hated that about this series, you know, their establishing how limited the intelligence of MagiMon are to excuse them barely learning anything each time.

“What’s the point of building majority of the plot around the characters growing beyond what they used to be if they never actually make any significant changes over the season, and they’re basically acting almost exactly like they did in the start, until you’re almost to the end before they finally stop making the character-flaw-inflicted mistake for the 57th time?”

She sighed. “It’s really sad that the fanfiction writers who do their craft for free can do a much better job than the writers who were actually paid to do it.”

“What’s fanfiction?” Diana asked.

“Stories written by the fans of a series,” Weiss explained. “Setting, characters, or plots are really the only constant; they can go any direction, and some of them to TERRIBLE, dark, awful places.” Her face turned serious. “From a veteran to a newbie: beware, and ideally have a guide with you, for what you might find, how it might change you.”

“Can it really get that bad...?” Ruby asked.

Akko and Weiss both nodded grimly. “Don’t bother trying to see if there’s a bottom,” Weiss said. “There is none, only an endless, ever deepening abyss, some fandom’s deeper, more awful, and wider than others.”

“I get the feeling you’ve both seen some things.” Diana said.

“Because we have.” Akko replied. “Please, don’t ask.” she said, Weiss’ haunted expression saying much the same.

Diana and Ruby decided not to.

Lunch and came and went, as did various nurses. They spent the rest of the afternoon going through the rest of the first season of MagiMon, and were still watching it by their tutoring session at 5:30.

“Is that MagiMon?” Blake asked as she came in with a bag full of books and other teaching materials, a foldout table under her arm.

“It is!” Akko replied.

“Wow, I never thought I’d ever see that show again ever since I left grade school,” Blake said as she set up the table.

“The designs are really cool!” Ruby said. “Horribly impractical and sometimes in blatant violation of common sense, but you can tell the artists put a lot of love into them, and I can appreciate a passion project.”

“And simplistic, immature, and at times amateurish as it is, it’s got its charm,” Diana said. “I’m especially fond of C13O.”

Blake’s ears twitched. “Ugh, was she floating robot ball that was their leader?” she asked as Lotte set up beside her.

“She is,” Diana replied. “I’m sensing you don’t like her?”

“She was too much of a bitch,” Blake said. “The moment I learned that word was also the moment I could finally accurately describe what I thought about her.”

“Okay, I’ll admit that, but you have to consider the constant stress she’s under and the people she has to work with makes it difficult to maintain patience and calm at all times!” Diana countered. “There’s also her good points, like her willingness to adapt and step up to new situations.”

Blake scowled, her ears flattening menacingly. “Yeah, just because you’re the leader doesn’t give you an excuse to start behaving badly when your job gets hard, independent of your good points.”

“So!” Lotte interrupted, squaring up a stack of papers in her hands. “You guys ready to switch from cartoons to schoolwork?”

“Let’s do this!” Weiss cried as she shut Ruby’s scroll, slotted the quill back in. “Ruby’s got me all warmed up to take notes since we started, just let me get the remote…” she said as she stood up and set it aside.

“Aww, and it was getting close to when a new MagiMon usually shows up...” Ruby muttered.

“Priorities, Ruby,” Weiss said as she grabbed the remote. “Same to you, Diana,” she added, smirking.

“I know, I know!” Diana replied. “I’m just a little displeased at the timing, but I’m ready to go back to my studies!”

The videos were paused, and AWRD tried to study as best as they could with only one of them able to write, the rest having to make do with listening to Blake and Lotte, or reading from their own notes through their beds’ screens.

And if it was any consolation to Akko, they were a LOT more forgiving of her zoning out than all of their professors.

6:50, Blake declared the session over and started packing up. “Okay, I think that’s enough for today; I’m sorry I can’t tell you how to do it exactly, but try and do some reading on your own; Dr. Freya might not appreciate hearing you’re using the CCT as a primary source, but it’s better than when you don’t know the answer, period.”

“We know,” Akko and Weiss replied, nodding.

“See you all on Wednesday!” Lotte said, waving goodbye. “Hopefully, I can have enough ingredients for another song of healing by then.” She sighed as she hoisted her bag back over her shoulders. “There’s just so many vendors here, I can hardly find a decent supplier at my budget...”

“I know someone who can help with that!” Ruby said. “She pretty much knows EVERYTHING there is to know about Mistral, especially the markets in the lower cities.”

Blake’s ears subtly twitched, but otherwise her expression betrayed nothing

“Oh, that’d be great, but definitely some other time!” Lotte replied. She sheepishly looked down. “I don’t really have much to spend at the moment...”

“She can help with that, too, actually!” Ruby said.

“We’ll keep the offer in mind when we’re not as busy, Ruby, thank you,” Blake said.

Blake and Lotte left the room, Weiss looked over her notes, the reading assignments they were supposed to be doing if they weren’t in the hospital. “Well… anyone want to try having a group reading session?” she asked as she looked up. “I could just project to all of our screens and scroll for all of us.”

“A good idea in theory, but it might not work in practice,” Diana said. “Akko and I alone have vastly different reading speeds, it’ll likely be an exercise in frustration and futility.”

“Tell me about it!” Akko said. “You just burn through books like I do umeboshi, and that’s really impressive!”

“It’s not really that hard once you get enough practice,” Diana replied. “Better still if you start learning how to skip the parts where the authors wax poetic.”

“She’ll probably be out of the hospital by the time she gets good enough to make a difference, though,” Ruby said. “Maybe it’s just better if we go back to MagiMon.”

“Yes, more MagiMon seems the better option!” Diana said with a nod. “I’d really like to see how C13O deals with these new ‘Illogic’ Rogues, anyhow.”

“MagMon it is!” Weiss said as she picked up the remote, and brought the show back on. Just before she   pressed play, however, there was a frantic knocking on the door, before it was clumsily opened.

“Hi girls!” Taiyang said, sweating and out of breath as he rushed in with an armload of devices. “Managed to borrow some head-pointers, mouth-sticks, and accessibility scroll mounts from the Bunker! Gonna need them all back as soon as you guys are able to start using your hands again, though!”

He set them down by Ruby’s end table, kissed her on the forehead, before making his way back out. “Would love to stay, talk, and help set these up, but visiting hours are already over and they’re not letting us extend again!”

“The management felt it would begin to set the wrong kind of precedent with all the other patients,” the nurse explained as Taiyang weaved his past her. “I am, however, ready to assist you with setting these up, whichever of these two options will suit you better.”

Weiss looked at the others. “Well… I guess that’s our studying problem fixed! So, who’s bowing out?” she asked.

No answer.

“Diana?” Akko asked. “You sure?”

“Yes,” Diana replied. She sheepishly looked away. “… I really want to get back to MagiMon.”

The nurse smiled. “Is there anything else I can assist you with, then?”

Everyone answered no, the nurse excused herself, and they went back to the anime, until they fell asleep.

Early morning the next day, Weiss was sitting beside Diana’s bed, helping her take notes. The mouth-sticks worked well enough for checking messages, browsing the CCT, and making short replies and searches, but as soon as Diana needed to type anything longer than a handful of words it became a chore, not to mention not having access to her numerous custom gestures.

“Did you ever think of setting up a system of voice commands, Diana?” Weiss asked as she had to make yet another intricate gesture over Diana’s scroll.

“I had, it was too inefficient,” Diana said, still gripping the mouth-stick between her teeth. “I could work faster and use them more easily if they were physical movements.”

“Taking a page straight out of Basic Combat Training?” Weiss asked.

“’Repeat, repeat, repeat, until it’s as instinctive as breathing,’” Diana replied. “Cycle twice, please.”

Weiss put her finger to the surface, circled her finger around twice to her note-taking app.

“Thank you,” Diana said, tapping away for a moment, before she said, “Stick.”

Weiss took it out of her mouth and held it for her. “Need to dictate something again?” she asked, holding up her scroll with her other hand.

“No, I’ve just had enough of tasting plastic for a while,” Diana said, before she shuddered, then sighed. “I truly, deeply feel for whoever has to use these things on a regular basis...”

“Lucky it’s only temporary,” Weiss said as she wiped down the grip, before setting it aside.

“Luckier still Ruby’s father procured them for us without prompting,” Diana said. “Dust, it feels so good to be able to function at somewhat normally, I can’t wait to get out of this cast.”

“Ugh, I know how you feel; being laid up in the hospital is the absolute worst,” Weiss said. “About the only good thing was that someone was that Akko was almost always there with me, or visiting as often as she could.”

“You two got into a lot of misadventures before, I’m gussing?” Diana asked.

Weiss smiled. “Plenty. Back in Hoshiko, Sanctum, especially now here in Haven, we were always getting into trouble—generally because of Akko’s poor impulse control, or my own terrible decisions, but sometimes trouble just can’t seem to help but find us,” she said, looking at the Shiny Rod on the other side of the room.

“Speaking of which: how are you holding up?” she said as she turned back to Diana.

“Well enough, I suppose?” Diana replied. “I mean, I’m currently in a full body cast, lagging behind on all my classes, and I just know the Shiny Rod’s probably going to be attracting more Grimm and assorted trouble to us like a superpowered magnet pretty soon…

“… But, you’ve all been excellent friends and teammates; we’re setting ourselves up for quite the comeback by midterms, if Constanze’s machine works as well as I hope it will; and I’ve discovered the joy of anime.”

She looked up at the ceiling. “Never would I have thought I’d feel so attached to, and care so much about what’s essentially a malfunctioning secretarial AI, determinedly leading a group of assorted misfits.”

Weiss chuckled. “That’s art for you!” Her voice softened. “Really don’t know what I’d do without it, which is why it’s number three on the Big Three things I can’t live without.”

“What’s number one and two?” Diana asked.

“My family plus a handful of friends like Akko, and...” Weiss blushed and looked away. “… Yuri.”

“What now?” Diana asked.

“Yuri—it’s a Tenjin term for lesbian romance,” Weiss explained, still blushing. “Look, homoerotic subtext is fine, but I really prefer homoerotic main text, even if I can’t always handle it.”

Diana chuckled. “Colour me completely unsurprised.”

Weiss scowled. “Speaking of which…” her expression softened as she reached and touched Diana’s shoulder. “If you ever need someone to talk about it, I’m here for you.”

“Talk about what, exactly?” Diana asked.

“You know, being too gay for something?” Weiss replied. “Trust me, the first handful of times I watched a lot of sequences with Eluna, I had to pause the stream and physically leave the room till my face stopped feeling like it was melting.

“Even then, some scenes are just too...” she sucked in a breath, and blew it out her nose. “… Yeah.”

Diana looked at her in confusion, before her eyes widened in realization, and she said, “Weiss, I’m not gay.”

Weiss stopped, and blinked. “Wait… you’re not…?”

“No, no I’m not,” Diana replied, matter-of-fact. “As I mentioned, I’ve got bigger priorities than romance, which is why I haven’t really had the time nor the interest to explore my sexuality.”

“O-Oh!” Weiss stammered. “I’m sorry, it was just that, I… uh...”

Diana sighed, her cheeks getting a light dusting of red. “Did you assume that because of all the fanservice in Rune Rangers, and how I reacted to it?”

“Yes…” Weiss replied, nodding. “I suppose that was just culture shock?”

“Yes, yes it was,” Diana said. “As I’m sure you and Akko are aware of, Atlas is a rather conservative kingdom, and that aside, I… never really chose to seek it out myself, so it’s rather more shameless and extreme that what I’m used to.”

“Oh. Okay. Thanks for clearing that up.” Weiss said. “Offer still stands, though, in case you find out it’s not just culture shock!”

“I’m firm in my plans to not get into a relationship or involve myself in romance, Weiss, I’m sure it won’t be a problem,” Diana said flatly.

“And I believe you, but I thought the same way before I met Aqua,” Weiss replied. “Sometimes, it really only takes the one person to change your life forever—kind of like how I was, before I became friends with Akko.

“Never hurts to have a plan just in case, doesn’t it?” she asked.

“I beg to differ: there’s such a thing as opportunity cost, after all,” Diana said.

Weiss nodded. “Well, whatever your opinion, my offer still stands.”

“The thought is appreciated, Weiss,” Diana replied. “Stick, please.”

Weiss picked up her mouth-stick, wiped down the handle again, before putting it back between Diana’s teeth.

Ruby and Akko woke up some time later, they had breakfast and resumed watching MagiMon, and the conversation was—for the most part—forgotten.

C13O stands for “Comptroller 13 Omega,” her old position before the events of the series. Though she retains her spelling as reminder of where she came from, it’s always pronounced as “Cleo.” Calling her either by her full designation or reading out the code as you should is a surefire way to activate her new found “rage” subroutines.

Dash used to be “Deliverer 507 Iota” (D507I) before the actions of this season’s villain caused her to voluntarily turn Rogue from Central. Her outright refusing to bow to any sort of authority, period, is the basis for her joining the protagonists and not the Rogues, and is the frequent cause of her clashes with C13O, who was, in a literal sense, an extension of the arm of Central and the Overseers there.

Yes, I have in fact constructed massive details for this world, how it functions, the conflicts, and even an AU with Dash and C13O where they're humans working at a crappy start-up, and have an "on-off, but mostly off" relationship.

Yes, there’s gonna be a Big Gay Panic for Diana, but it’s mostly going to be in the sequel. Doesn’t mean none of these girls won’t get their Big Moments this story, don’t worry.