#another L for the robot fans

[claire-starsword]

Shining Force World Book translation - part 5

Previous part here

Villain time. I’m getting deja vu.

Runefaust - Structure

The evil group clashing against the Shining Force

The Runefaust army planning to take over the world, led by Emperor Ramladu, is organized as seen in the diagram below. They have brought suffering to peaceful countries and also to the force standing against them. The five subordinates of Ramladu listed below are also all cruel and strong opponents!

Emperor Ramladu - Emperor of Runefaust [the diagram shows Darksol and Elliot under his direct command]

Darksol - Runefaust's advisor [the diagram shows Balbazak, Mishaela and Cain under his direct command]

Balbazak - General of the Runefaust Army

Commander of the Magic Beast Corps - {Priests, Hellhounds, Brass Loaders, Skeletons, Sea Bats}

Mishaela - General of the Runefaust Army

Commander of the Monster Corps - {Dullahans, Manarina Mages, High Priests, Horsemen, Belials}

Cain - Runefaust Army

Commander of the Silver Knight Squadron - {High Priests, Dullahans, Manarina Mages, Gargoyles, Golems}

Elliot - Runefaust Army

Commander of the Cavalry Corps - {Brass Loaders, Priests, Skeletons, Pegasus Knights, Lizardmen}

[Note: the Brass Loader was localized into Artillery in the english, and Priest into Dark Priest. The change in this last one is kind of interesting and happened with other enemies so i decided to not use the localized names and point it out.

Also, there's no enemy called Manarina Mage in any version. It's either a mistake or an implication that every mage you fight in the game is from Manarina, which feels kinda nonsense.]

A being completely shrouded in mystery!

Darksol Occupation: Runefaust Army's advisor Species: Unknown Gender: Male Age: Unknown Height: 236 cm Weight: Unknown Place of Origin: Unknown Starting Level: Unknown Starting Weapon: Unknown

The emissary of darkness who obtained Ramladu's favor and authority

One year ago, he suddenly appeared in the country of Runefaust, ruled by Emperor Ramladu, and became the real authority behind its politics and military affairs. There is pretty much no information on him, all that is known is that he is researching how to resurrect the incarnation of evil, Dark Dragon. While his whole identity is shrouded in mystery, there are rumors that he is capable of using the dark magic "Demon Breath".

The swordsman with a tragic past

Cain Occupation: Commander of the Silver Knight Squadron Species: Human Gender: Male Age: Unknown Height: 181 cm Weight: 83 kg Place of Origin: Unknown Starting Level: Unknown Starting Weapon: Unknown

The rumored strongest swordsman among Runefaust's knights

An amazing swordsman who hinders the force in their way, challenging them to battle. He hides a power representing darkness that is necessary to stop the awakened "Legacy of the Gods". He is caught up in Darksol's plan, being controlled through the power of a cursed mask, but in reality he is someone with a huge connection to the protagonist.

He has the Sword of Darkness, and ordinary swordsmen have no chance to put up a fight against him. Remarkable skill will be needed to defeat him.

_____

Dark mage of bewitching charm

Mishaela Occupation: Commander of the Monster Corps Species: Dark Elf Gender: Female Age: 198 years old Height: 180 cm Weight: 55 kg Place of Origin: Dold Forest Starting Level: Unknown Starting Weapon: Unknown

She attacks the force with high class techniques!

The Commander of the Monster Corps, she set off from Guardiana to monitor the movements of the Shining Force, by orders of her direct superior, Darksol. However, angered by the defeat of her "Marionette" built with a piece of her own soul, she went to face the force herself.

She's the only woman in the Runefaust army, but her magical power is among the greatest there!

A real soldier who stick to his principles of justice

Elliot Occupation: Commander of the Cavalry Corps Species: Dragonewt Gender: Male Age: 231 years old Height: 255 cm Weight: 324 kg Place of Origin: Garth Starting Level: Unknown Starting Weapon: Unknown

A brave commander who acts thinking of his country and people!

The highest ranking swordsman in Runefaust. Tales of his deeds as a soldier have reached all the way to the distant Guardiana. While he knows of Darksol's ambitions, he worries for the people in his country, and thus challenges the Shining Force to battle.

He is not a man of many words, but is a genius when it comes to battles.

_____

A bio-magical beast of unknown species!

Balbazak Occupation: Commander of the Magical Beast Corps Species: Unknown Gender: Male Age: 79 years old Height: 193 cm Weight: 206 kg Place of Origin: Surgo Starting Level: Unknown Starting Weapon: Unknown

Frenzied and merciless! A challenging powerful fighter!!

The Commander of the Magical Beast Corps, who fights with an artificial body, made several times stronger than a normal one by Darksol's magic. He came to Uranbatol, north of Guardiana, to support the invasion of West Rune building a fort. He is the strongest warrior among the Runefaust army's commanders, his fierceness in battle knows no bounds. Even his allies don't know how to deal with him.

[The other guide had no qualms claiming Balbazak was a human. But perhaps that doesn’t matter much anymore when you’ve become a bioweapon of the unholy sciences.]

Dwarves

Muscular warriors who attack with huge axes. Their distinctive beards grow independent of gender, and they strike with superior strength.

Snipers

Masters of the bow who shoot down their prey with surefire accuracy. Their precise, calculated attacks leave opponents at a loss.

Skeletons

Dead warriors brought back to life through magical arts. They attack with fast, hard to follow movements.

Huge Bats

Their strength lies in their fast movements and sharp fangs. They intimidate opponents with their huge wings, creating openings for attacks. Their area of action is very wide.

Dark Mages

Dark mages skilled with magic. Can cast high level spells with the staves in their hands. They have no physical strength, and thus only attack with magic, but since they can strike in a wide area it's tough to approach them.

Armed Skeletons

Skeletons of giants upgraded with machines. They've been remodeled for field battles. The strongest enemy soldiers, built by Darksol with technology of the Ancients.

[This is the only enemy here where I stuck with the localized name, because I can't make sense of their japanese name, ブローバー(buroobaa), and I've yet to see someone who does. As you can see the romanization given here is "biouber" which, ??????]

[the-dragon-girl-27]

Remember those other 3 times I turned sekai characters into dinos (L/N MMJ VBS) I'm back with more of that crap i know Wanshow fans just looove their AUs so maybe this will appeal to a whole 3 people instead of 2 people this time

explanation for my picks below the cut

Tsukasa is a Styracosaurus because I made Saki a Stellosaurus which is another ceratopsian and also its frill is like vaguely star shaped kinda sorta not really

I don't have much to say about him so can i just mention how awful that Stellasaurus drawing is.

Yeah only recently did i start figuring out how the fuck to draw decent ceratopsians I am so sorry (the struggle is real i almost accidentally gave tsukasa 2 left feet here i swear i know what i'm doing)

I should redo that Saki at some point, girl deserves so much better than that wonkey crap. speaking of ceratopsians i opted out of giving him protofeathers unlike Saki idk they just didn't look right on him you can kinda go either way with most ceratopsians so i just do it when the vibe fits and don't when the vibe doesn't fit

Rui is a Troodon because Troodons are often associated with intelligence because they have the biggest brain to skull ratio of any dino, there's kinda no real way to know how intelligent dinos were but troodon just has the reputation of the smart dinosaur and people often depict them using tools like how crows do and that's like kinda like how rui does robot stuff, he also just fits the raptor shape sorta i feel like raptors have that sorta look to them that is like a similar vibe to the one Rui has, even tho Rui is the tallest character in sekai I feel like he's a mid sized dinosaur, does that make sense? no, but it does to me and i make the rules he's also 100% a feathered dino so it fits

Speaking of Troodon all you 2 paleo nerds reading this are getting war flashbacks from the name Troodon because Troodon itself has a interesting history of being a "wastebasket taxon" which is nerd talk for "scientists just threw a bunch of vaguely similar animals into this one category and didn't consider that maybe this was like 5 different animals and what would be the long term consequences of doing that" yes this is a thing that has happened enough times that there is a word for it

that shit still as of now isn't sorted out I don't think, I at least based my Troodon off the big one from Alaska that literally does not have a fucking name and is just like "the Alaska Troodon". I feel like the size fits and imma be real its the Troodon you see everywhere in media these days because its big and cool and it lived with Pachyrhinosaurus and Nanuqsaurus and also people like it cuz drawing dinosaurs in the snow is fucking awesome (boom i just tricked you into learning paleontology history)

Emu is an Archeopteryx because Emu is supposed to be like a phoenix and Archeopteryx could probably fly or glide or smth it's general considered like "the first bird" so like yeah (now that i think about it i could've made her pyroraptor cuz of the name but also she doesn't fit the vibes of a raptor at all i guess pyroraptor has the whole fire bird thing from its name) Emu would also be a small feathered dinosaur for sure so it fits in that sense too.

Nene is a Stegosaurus because the plates kinda look like her hair thing and her outfit in general and i feel like nene would have those tail spikes for some reason idk it just fits her energy, she'd def be a herbivore as well i feel. Also i personally just associate stegosaurus with the color green personally idk why (at first i was thinking she would be iguanodon because that's another dinosaur that's green in my head but she has like nothing in common with iguanodon lmao)

I guess nenerobo would be an Ankylosaurus than because that would like probably be the logical robot version of a stegosaurus maybe idk would nenerobo exist in this universe, you decide idk

i guess next one is that last one unless i wanna redo the vocaloids in this style or redraw saki at some point or whatever see you whenever that happens in however long it takes

[longwuzhere]

My Adventures with Superman Season 2 Easter Eggs

Welcome to another week of My Adventures with Superman! My hunch about the what happened last week was true and things are not going too well for the gang...

My Easter eggs lists for season 1 is here if you haven't seen it!

My season 2 episode 1 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 2 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 3 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 1 post is here

My season 2 episode 4 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 6 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 7 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 2 post is here

My season 2 episode 8 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 9 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 10 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 3 post is here

Spoilers if you haven't seen the episode

To start things off we meet Kara on Earth! I talked more about her here. Shes's dressed similarly to Android 18 when she, 17, and 16 drive to Goku's house in episode 147 of Dragon Ball Z. While watching the episode I was wondering why does Kara's hair look so familiar? Then it hit me. Kara's got Sakuya Kumashiro's hair from Tenchi in Tokyo!

Shout out to recent DC characters enjoy ice cream for the first time like Wonder Woman in the live action movie and Justice League animated movie, and the new DC Super Hero Girls cartoon. As a mint chocolate chip ice cream fan, good first choice of ice cream to enjoy!

Perry puts Clark and Lois on a new beat for the Metropolis "Most Eligible Single" contest because Superman was chosen to be one of the five up for that title. Cat Grant self-invites herself to join the duo to figure out who Superman is through his love life. Lois is sweating bullets at this point. At the contest we meet the potential people for winning the title, Hank Henshaw, Chandi Gupta, Byrna Brilyant, and Silver St. Cloud. I talked more about Hank Henshaw here. We see a darker more bigoted side to him this time around. Will we see him get his cyborg body and become Cyborg Superman in this season or season 3? Who knows. Season 3 is confirmed though.

Dr. Byrna Brilyant is a very deep DC universe cut dating back to 1946, the golden age of comics. Back then Byrna Brilyant was an enemy to Wonder Woman going by the moniker, Blue Snowman.

Byrna in the 1940s makes her first appearance in Sensation Comics #59 (1946) [W: Joye Hummel, P&I: H.G. Peter], where she was a teacher who's father created this compound called blue ice, after his death, she uses it as a way to extort this town after freezing it over for monetary gain.

Byrna makes another appearance in 2010 in Power Girl #7 (2010) [W Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti, P&I: Amanda Conner, C: Paul Mounts, L: John J. Hill] where Dr. Mid-Nite and Power Girl are trying to stop Byrna from committing a robbery but the main bad guy, Vartox shoots a seduction musk rifle at Power Girl but the smell knocks out Dr. Mid-Nite and it works on Byrna, but not Power Girl. This all makes more sense if you read the comic.

Byrna's next appearance post-New 52 was in Superman/Wonder Woman #4 (2014) [W: Charles Soule, P: Paulo Siqueira, I&C: Hi-Fi, L: Carlos M. Mangual] where we see Wonder Woman and Hessia battling the Blue Snowman robots.

Byrna's latest appearance post-DC Rebirth is in DC: Love is a Battlefield #1 (2021) [W: Crystal Fraiser, P&I: Juan Gedeon, C:Ulises Arreola, L: Marshal Dillion, where Byrna is now gender fluid after interrupting a date between Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor. Good on Wonder Woman for letting them go and hoping the realization there is a word for what Byrna was feeling would make them feel much better. So going forward if we meet Byrna again, I'll be referring to them with they/them pronouns, but if its New 52 continuity and before, Byrna will be referred to with she/her pronouns with the continuities to help clarify the pronoun usages.

Chadi Gupta is also another deep cut from the DC universe because she's reference to her comic counterpart from Justice League Europe.

Chandi makes her first appearance in Justice League Europe #47 (1993) [W: Gerard Joes, P: Ron Randall, I: Randy Elliot, C: Gene D'Angelo, L: Willie Schubert] where she's escaping her family and comes across the the JLE and wants to join them. Her energy projection and construct creation powers came in handy for the JLE in issue 50 where she and the rest of the JLE were able to fend off Sonar's attack and that earned her a spot on Justice League Europe as the superhero Maya.

Silver St. Cloud is probably one of the more prominent characters from the DC universe who showed up in MAwS. She got into the pop culture zeitgeist through the Gotham tv show when it aired.

Silver St. Cloud makes her first appearance in Detective Comics #470 (1977) [W: Steven Engleheart, P: Walter Simonson, I: Al Milgrom, C: Jerry Serpe, L: Ben Oda] where she meets Bruce Wayne at a party on his yacht. She eventually becomes one of Bruce Wayne's more prominent love interests and one of the few who were suspecting Bruce to be Batman thanks to his constant disappearing.

She shows up in post-new 52 in the maybe possibly out of cotinuity anthology, Legends of the Dark Knight (2014) digital comics, specifically as a cameo in issue #50, Dr. Quinn's Diagnosis [W: Jim Zub, P&I: Niel Googe, C: Kathryn Layno, L: Saida Temofonte], where Batman is getting psychoanalyzed by Harley Quinn.

If you want to read a comic with a fun appearance of Silver St. Cloud give Batman/Elmer Fudd Special #1 (2017) [W: Tom King, P&I: Lee Weeks, C: Lovern Kindzierski, L: Deron Bennet] a read cuz goddamn is it noir AF and beautifully drawn (a while back DC superheroes crossed over with Looney Tunes characters and its very good. They have also done it with Hanna Barbera characters as well. Give those a read too! They're all fun!)!

The charity that MAwS Silver mentions was first mentioned in Superman #152 (1967) [W: Bill Finger, P&I: Al Plastino] where Superman is accepting a clock medallion for a charity event. In the comics Silver St. Cloud isn't usually working for charities, shes mostly a Gotham socialite.

At the event, the MC (who gives off Funky Flashman vibes imo), asked if anyone has questions and the first to jump on that was George Taylor of the Metropolis Star. I talked about the Metropolis Star here, but for George Taylor...

he actually makes his first appearance here in Action Comics #1 (1938) [W: Jerry Seigel, P&I: Joe Shuster, C: Strauss Engraving Company] where he is the editor-in-chief of the Daily Star.

In the silver age, George Taylor makes his first appearance in Superman #366 (1981) [W: Bob Eozakis, P: Kurt Schaffenberger, I: Frank Chiaramonte, C: Adrienne Roy, L: John Costanza] where he assigns Perry White on the Superboy scoop to see if he's active in Metropolis. In post-Crisis on Infinite continuity, George makes a cameo appearance in Adventures of Superman #451 (1989) [W,P,&I: Jerry Ordway, C: Glenn Whitmoore, L: Albert DeGuzman] where we see George's office door.

In the New 52 continuity, George Taylor makes his first appearance in Action Comics #8 (2012) [W: Grant Morrison, P: Rags Morales, I: Rick Bryant, C: Brad Anderson, L: Pat Brosseau] as editor-in-chief for the Daily Star where in the comic he's proud of Clark and encourages him to take the job at the Daily Planet.

Kara and Jimmy make it into the studio where Lois, Superman, and Cat Grant are and Kara confronts Superman showing off that she's the one in the armor. She is on a two-way radio communications with someone named Primus. Whether that is Brainiac's designation when Kara is on the field or its a different character all together, there is a Primus in the DC universe, not just in the Transformers universe. Btw this isn't Kara's first time siding with an evil faction, she was part of Darkseid's Female Furies in the 2004 Superman/Batman series, specifically in issue #11. You might have also seen it happen in the Superman/Batman: Apocalypse animated movie too.

Primus aka Pren makes his first appearance in Green Lantern #141 (1981) [W: Marv Wolfman, P&I: Joe Stanton, C: Carl Gafford, L: John Costanza] where he is the leader of the alien group, the Omega Men from the Vega star system. They jump Hal when he and Carol Ferris were on vacation thinking Hal is part of the Citadel, an extraterrestrial empire that is conquering the star system the Omega Men are in.

Primus/Pren NuParr makes his New 52 first appearance in Deathstroke #9 (2012), but gets a more prominent role in the Omega Man limited series from 2015 [panel from The Omega Men #1 (2015) W: Tom King, P&I: Barnaby Bagenda, C: Romulo Farjardo Jr., L: Pat Brosseau]. In this continuity, the Citadel is now a corporation that was exploiting Krypton's destruction by by selling stabilized planet cores to other worlds. This comes at a cost where the Vega star system is enslaved by them and those who resisted we killed and the survivors formed the Omega Men.

And with that another episodes Easter eggs and references are done! Come back next week to see what episode 6's Easter eggs and references are! In case you missed it:

My Easter eggs lists for season 1 is here if you haven't seen it!

My season 2 episode 1 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 2 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 3 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 1 post is here

My season 2 episode 4 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 6 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 7 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 2 post is here

My season 2 episode 8 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 9 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 10 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 3 post is here

[asheurbanipal]

Larger Rules Even You Must Follow

Next>>

Venom, Eddie x Venom, symbrock

Explicit

7k words

Content: mention of suicidal ideation, angst, reunion, minor gun violence, tentacle masturbation

Ep 1 in series

On Ao3

Summary:

It's been six months since...well...since the voice stopped altogether. Life was supposed to be normal again. He's working as a reporter again! It's fine! Except there's some kind of new, mysterious figure climbing across the roof's of New York. Good thing the multiverse opens the door for those we think are gone to get...a second chance.

Notes on continuity:

Fun fact, I know the Venom comic canon backward and forward, intimately. However, the movieverse doesn't follow comic canon and technically wraps itself up with Madame Web and Morbius. And while I want to include facts and characterization from the comic canon, the movie continuity seems like more fun to write in with more spaces to write into. What the FUCK is a boi to do?

My solution? Well? Fuck it, multiverse.

Which means I also had to watch Madame Web and Morbius. These movies aren't nearly as bad as people say they are.

Eddie laid on the couch and stared at the ceiling. It was too quiet. He scrambled for the remote and turned it on to General Hospital. Too quiet. He used another remote to turn on the window AC unit, turning the fan all the way up. Too quiet. If he turned on the radio, too, the downstairs neighbors would complain again.

That was fair, honestly. She was a work-from-home mom with three kids under five. She didn't need him making her life harder. 

eddie

He rolled off the couch and hopped a few times, shaking the auditory shadow from inside his ears. He shuffled over to the office/exercise area he had set up in his dining space. He didn't touch the free weights, instead dropping to the chair in front of his laptop. Then he looked at the dumbbells. Then the computer. 

"Ten reps. Just ten reps of ten." Once he actually started, though, he rolled into a proper, basic, low weight arm routine. Nothing fancy. Nothing hard. Just something to keep his body moving so his brain wouldn't catch up. 

Before Ve-...before he wasn't really the dedicated exercising type. Living in walkable cities kept him fit enough for what he needed to do on the daily. When he met…when he had the other, though, he learned quickly he was not in any kind of shape to handle the things his body demanded of him. Yeah, he wasn't necessarily doing most of the heavy lifting, but he could feel it afterward. Punching through walls still hurt even when the force was distributed by black goo around his wrist and arm. Even a basic weightlifting routine had helped him get out of bed every morning without feeling like a robot. 

He had fallen out of the habit over the last six months. Since…

He was determined to get back into it, though. Something to make it easier to deal with…

"Fuck, I'm crying again." He dropped into the computer chair and swiped his hands across his eyes. It kept happening. He didn't even feel some specific swell of emotion, just suddenly his eyes were welling up. He had convinced everyone in the office that he just had the worst allergies known to man and they appeared at extremely inopportune times. 

Speaking of, a Teams alert went off on his laptop. He didn't have a dedicated desk, one of the hybrid reporters, but there was a last minute meeting. They wanted him at the office. 

He slammed the lid of the computer closed. Good. Fine. Anything to get out of this apartment where only shit feelings lived. 

Grief was supposed to get easier with time. That's what the book said.  

It better start working soon. 

The problem was that it came in waves. Through the weeks after, through moving back to New York, through settling into a shitty one-bedroom apartment, through all the little things he needed to do to get his life back on track, he had been fine. Sad, but fine. Distant from everything but fine. 

It was after that. After he found a routine again. After life started looking normal. 

That's when the weight of the loss hit. 

No one to talk to as he drifted off to sleep. No one to make half of breakfast poorly. Yeah, he hadn't eaten a head in half a year, but was that worth it? Really?

He had made it from his apartment, to the subway, then down a few blocks to the building of the Daily Globe , all without really thinking about what he was doing. 

"Thanks for making it Brock." Barney Bushkin was a weird guy. Fat bald. A man caught in the middle of a different time. The Globe was on the downswing, falling apart against its rivals that had better been able to adapt to an all-digital world. 

But they were willing to take them--him back. 

They probably needed him more than he needed them. The Eddie Brock byline was facing another Renaissance after internet conspiracy had (mostly correctly) decided he was the victim of some alphabet agency black op. If he kept his head down, he could ride it into a book deal of some sort. 

What the fuck would he actually write about, though? 

Bushkin led him into one of the small conference rooms with the handful of other managing editors for sections of the website and paper. Eddie shouldn't technically be there. He was a team of one, covering obscure crimes and tracking down the seeds of high-level corporate espionage. No one else wanted to touch his niche, so he had no one to report to but Bushkin himself. It was nice to have a long lead, but that also meant if something went sideways, he was the only one carrying the weight. Again. 

Bushkin closed the door and dropped the blinds. 

"This is an in-person meeting because I don't want any of this in writing." He dropped a manila file on the table and opened it up to a few 8 x 10s. It was some guy in red, swinging on some kind of thin rope between skyscrapers. The pictures got picked up and passed around the room.

"These came in anonymously, and I got a call from Jameson at the Bugle and a few other places that they got the same. Now this combined with some weird street crime patterns lately means we've come to a bit of a truce. We're all gonna hold back until we have more information. Not just gonna run any random old picture. We're gonna at least pretend we're journalists. Because honestly? None of us know what the hell this is, and no one wants to look stupid. Doesn't mean we can't get the scoop, though."

The pictures made it to Eddie, and he flipped through them. Something pinged a memory deep down that shot an arrow of unease through him. Action shots were blurry, a red and blue figure hurtling through the sky. A nighttime candid from inside the crown of the Statue of Liberty when it was absolutely closed to the public. He sent them along to the next person.

Bushkin nodded to a young woman with pink hair. One of the designated "younger generation" that every paper needed and he had been at one time. 

"Lee, is this enough to figure out how and where these were printed? Get us something to work back from?"

"I've got an ink analysis guy," she assured, and that was enough, for now. 

"Okay, everyone else, I want you on your toes, looking into this, but I don't want you dropping off your main stories. We've still got a paper to keep running." 

Bushkin answered a round of questions, then everyone was released out of the office. 

"Brock." Except one. 

Bushkin waited for everyone else to filter out before leaning into Eddie. 

"Is this the kind of thing you might know something about?" 

Bushkin knew Something. Eddie didn't know how or what or any actual useful details that would help him navigate this conversation, but Bushkin had some kind of information that other people didn't. And he had figured out Eddie did, too. 

"Nothing from me." Eddie had gotten good at failing to commit to anything specific. In more ways than one.

"You sure? Maybe, you find something no one else would think to look for?"

Eddie sighed. 

"Barney, you don't want it to be something I know about. Because I won't be able to give you that scoop without being put in a wooden crate and stored at the back of a warehouse. Are you getting me?" This was the first time he had been this direct about the situation, and it was still skimming around the outside. But Bushkin nodded. 

"Then I'll just ask you to use your unique experience and keep an eye out."

"I can do that." He gestured vaguely toward the door. "We good?"

Bushkin flicked his head in dismissal. 

 

"Hey, Yousef, can I ask you about something?"

Eddie slid into the bodega at the corner by his apartment and headed straight back for a six pack. By the time he made it to the counter he had a bag of chips and a chocolate bar. He didn't remember grabbing the chocolate bar. For a half second he stared at the shelf, considering whether to put it back. Then Soup the calico nudged his hand from her station on the counter, and he focused his attention on petting her, instead.

eddie, kitty

"Stop it," he muttered to himself.

"What are you yelling at me about, boss?" Yousef emerged from the backroom. He was probably only a few years older than Eddie, but he'd been in the city his whole life. Street level. 

"Do you remember something maybe…fifteen years? About some dude in, like, I don't know…a unitard chasing people around the city?" 

Yousef stared at him with narrowed eyes, thinking.

It had struck him while he was dredging through crime reports looking for possible clues or information, a sort of weird nag of information in the back of his head. He had been a dumb college kid at the time, though, still pretending he was hot shit out in the suburbs. He was too disconnected from things happening in the city. The general internet had shit-all, and if the crime beat archives at the Globe ever had anything, it was gone now.

Suspiciously gone, honestly. 

But people don't forget so easily. 

"Yeah…yeah." Yousef knocked his knuckles on the counter then started ringing up Eddie's purchases. "Some fucking asshole in black pajamas blew up a taxi then went chasing an ambulance through Queens. News said they were shooting a music video and the pyrotechnics malfunctioned. Never believed it for a second." 

Yousef looked at him sideways.

"Big shot reporter asking makes me think I'm right." 

Eddie leaned across the counter conspiratorially. 

"Not that you heard it from me. But if you happen to see or hear anything else about a man running around in a onesie, I would appreciate the notice." 

Yousef tapped the side of his nose that he understood.

 

Eddie sat on a crate on the fire escape pretending it was a balcony drinking a beer and doom-scrolling on his laptop. The city was noisy. Bright. A lot of extra-sensory information in the background to keep the soft parts of his brain occupied. 

eddie

He tossed the echo of a sound out of his head and chugged down the last half of his beer in one gulp. His thumb hovered over the trackpad. He told himself he would stop doing this, but the urge kept rising up. 

His fingers found the keystrokes before he realized he was doing it. "Life Foundation rocket" "Carlton Drake" "San Francisco church" "Cletus Kasady" "Nevada aliens" Then a collection of additional keywords and searches laying out the major events of the most eventful year of his life. True to the word of the US military, there was nothing that could incriminate him beyond being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Carlton Drake had died in a rocket launch failure. The Life Foundation had been shut down, at least temporarily, for unknown disclosed FDA-related reasons. Cletus Kasady had orchestrated a prison break with a homemade explosive and burned down a church. Which, by the way, Eddie Brock had nothing to do with upon further investigation. It was a misunderstanding based on the raving declarations of a now-dead serial killer. 

And, of course, there was an absolute glut of conversation about aliens at the old Area 51 site. Some of it was eerily accurate, but it all lived on forums and subreddits and Discord servers and old-school IRC channels that didn't exactly hold themselves to a high burden of proof. 

"Goddamnit, Martin," he muttered. Once he had figured out his handle, it was easy to track him across every site. "They're gonna come get you if you're not careful." But the Martins of the world helped keep the secret. Cover the truth with loud absurdity. He glanced through the window at a manilla folder on his desk. Inside were photocopies he'd secretly made of the weirdo in red and blue. He wiped away a mysterious stray tear.

"I swear to god, if all the politicians end up being lizard people, I'm gonna be so pissed."

 

eddie

He sat up in bed, the fabric of his blanket agony against the gooseflesh of his skin. 

"Stop it." He pressed his palms to his ears and growled into the empty room. "Stop talking to me like this. Just…be dead…I can't…I can't keep doing this." 

I'm sorry, Eddie. Do you want me to go?

He froze, hands still over his ears. It was real. It was real and it was inside his head. This wasn't possible. He had watched the symbiote melt in a rain of acid. Felt the connection sever. Felt the silence descend and expand through his body until the only thing left was himself.

"Buddy?" Eddie searched the room, crawling to the end of his twin bed. "Buddy, are you there?" The tears came hot, pouring down his cheek, dripping down over his chin and jaw. "If you're actually here, you need to fucking talk to me. I can't…I can't do this." 

Can I come into you Eddie? I want it to be better this time.

"Yes, please oh my god." He held out his hands, unsure where to aim them. Part of the pitch black darkness of his room reached out and touched his fingertips. It crawled up his arm, circling his chest, his neck, his face. Then it settled down under his skin. A sea of bubbles spread between his fat and muscle, popping in quick succession until he was floating in his own skin. He focused on the sensation of the symbiote--his symbiote--wrapped around his spine. The tendrils curled around his ribs and settled into the spaces between his organs. He felt so heavy. So dense. Mass stacked on mass stacked on mass. 

He didn't even realize how much he had missed this. How much he missed the weight . 

"So you didn't die or…where have you been this whole time?" 

I'm tired, Eddie. Took so long to find you, again. Let me rest then I'll show you.

Eddie moved the conversation to his internal monologue, tripping into the line of thought awkwardly. He had barely mastered it before…well…shit before the alien died. 

Yeah okay, buddy. Yeah. 

Eddie fell back against the lumpiest set of pillows in existence. Matter raised along his chest, seeping out of his skin and through his undershirt. It formed into the shape of an arm across his sternum, a half-formed hand dropping around to his back. 

Is that safe? For you to be out like this?

It's fine. I'll tell you what I learned later.

They sounded so tired. Eddie nodded. Rest. Right. There was a twitch in his arm, and he followed the impulse to pick it up and place it across his stomach. His symbiote's arm moved lower, and their hand intertwined with his, fingers clasping over the back of his hand. 

I missed you, Eddie.

I missed you, too, bud.

Eddie was out the minute he closed his eyes, and he had the best goddamn night of sleep in months. 

 

Something in his body was waiting for the symbiote to wake him up when he sensed the sunlight on skin. They didn't. 

Eddie forced it himself, blinking his eyes open against the new daylight. It was brighter. Whiter. Like he used to see it. When he tried to move his hand, it was stuck in a death grip of alien matter. His other hand was free and he looked down at his body. He was wrapped in thick bands of matter around his chest and stomach. Thinner stripes coiled around his thigh, and he couldn't tell whether they were curling up the leg or down the waistband of his boxer briefs. Or if they simply erupted from his skin. 

He brushed a hand over a band of matter. It was warm. Pulsing. The matter was unmoving, but not still, micro-twitching and breathing under his hand. He ran his fingers along it, trying to find out how it faded back into his body before giving up and giving in to the feeling. 

This specific display was new. A strange middle ground between extension of his body and limbs and existing as their own being. 

"Hey, are you awake?" 

Waiting for you, Eddie.

The bands moved around his body, sinking back into him. Eddie let his symbiote move him out of bed and gently pad across the room to the window. His symbiote emerged from his shoulder.

"You can't see the statue from here, Eddie," they said. They're cadence was still subdued but not as tired as the night before. 

"Well, yeah, you can't see it from everywhere. I'll take you down to Battery Park when you're feeling better." He could feel the matter-deep weariness in the other part of him. His other part. His Other. The Other touched the top of their head to Eddie's, knocking their temples together. 

"You gonna tell me what happened?" Eddie asked. 

"While we make some breakfast. You're hungry." 

On cue, Eddie's stomach growled in anticipation. The Other sunk back into Eddie's shoulder and let him stay in control as they moved into the kitchen. The other's arms and tendrils hesitated at first, feeling out the new kitchen. Then they moved, slow and deliberate, pulling eggs and milk and bread to their workstation. This wasn't the same frenetic energy that he'd fallen into sync with. 

No baking powder, Eddie. Can't make pancakes. A tendril touched Eddie's cheek in apology. 

"That's fine. I usually have coffee and nothing for breakfast. So…"

Not good for you, my beloved.

Something tightened around their words, like they had let them slip and fall and tumble without thought. The Other produced a small head to speak again. 

"What have you been doing while I was gone?" they asked.

"Nah, you go first. My life is boring without you. You can just pluck the last six months from my brain."

"I'd like to listen to your voice," The Other said quietly. The eggs they had scrambled and thrown in the pan were cooking up perfectly smooth and light and fluffy.

"Ahh. Okay. Well. I'm at the Globe . Bushkin has me looking into these people in spandex tooling around the city. I think I might be onto something, but…I don't know."

He could feel the other's interest pique.

"Are there pictures?"

"Yeah, actually. I'll show them to you…after you tell me where you were and what you've been doing."

The Other slid back into his body with a sigh. 

Eat your food. 

This time they were forceful, dragging Eddie's body to the high stool on the other side of the kitchen island while they finished and plated the eggs. The other added fresh toast then went searching in the fridge for something. They returned with butter slammed hard on the counter.

I didn't die.

  "Obviously," Eddie replied, taking a bite of the best fucking eggs he'd ever eaten. 

Shh and listen.

The other thwapped him on the side of the face with a tendril. 

A few cells survived and remained here, but my consciousness retreated into the hive. Back beyond the edges of the cage. Then…I don't know. 

The Other showed him something. A forever collapsing infinity. An event horizon. Light and heat and time compressed in on him revealing an eventuality at the end of time. 

I was nothing. I was everything. I connected to all the different versions of us through space and time.

"Wait, what?" Eddie found himself pausing with the tip of his fork resting on his bottom lip. 

The multiverse Eddie. Versions of us over and over and over again. I watched through the eyes of different hosts. Versions of me that weren't bonded to versions of you. I watched you hesitate as you held a gun to the roof of your mouth. I watched you actually pull the trigger a few times. 

I saw you angry and sad and riddled with sickness. I saw you fueled by rage, justified and otherwise. 

I saw Anne dead. 

That stopped them both. Eddie had texted her exactly one time to inform her he was in New York and off the FBI's most wanted list. She congratulated him. From there, he had decided to let her go. She had a life to lead, and he didn't belong in it anymore. 

I saw…I saw versions of your life that I don't know how to give you, yet, but I want to. I saw versions of us that…hmmm. I'll have to show you. But not, yet. We're not ready.

The Other slid a tendril across Eddie's chest, dropping over the opposite shoulder. 

I was wrong about the Codex…..no….not wrong. I was just missing pieces. Knowledge all caught up in the hive that I knocked loose. Knull knows it now, too. But that means he won't try to kill us again. Not yet, at least.

"What did you find? About the codex?"

The Other made a rumbling sound. Nothing he heard but felt in his stomach.

I can't figure out the words. Can I show you? I'll be gentle. 

"Yeah, yeah, go for it." Eddie closed his eyes, waiting for the boil-over of information. It wasn't like the last time The Other had done this, forcing a curling mass of sticky, prickly Stuff down his throat. This was nice and slow and his dumb-ass understood it.

It took more than a single codex to unlock the cage around Knull. It was a collection of codices. And they came together and…and that part he wasn't sure he understood, yet. Something about…connection…to the hive? It must be something symbiotes…klyntar understood innately. He'd get there. It would all come together. 

So there are more codexes? It was easier to keep the voice in his head now that he'd slipped into the liminal space of thought. 

Yes. Which is super confusing to me, I'm not gonna lie. I know that we have one, but now I'm not so sure how they're made. 

Can you go back into the hive thingy? 

Not without Knull knowing again. And I don't think I'd find the answer. I think this may be new. Or something so old we've forgotten how it works. 

But you're sure Knull won't come after us?

Yes. I'm sure. Not yet. 

That "not yet's" scaring me a bit, buddy.

It's fine, beloved. 

They did it again, freezing up for half a moment. 

If you're done eating, show me the pictures. 

He was halfway through a bite of toast when The Other yanked him off the stool and across the room, dropping him at his desk. Symbiote matter dropped over his head, and he found himself looking through The Other's eyes. His hands moved the pictures over into the center of their shared vision. Matter emerged from his fingers to trace the line of action of the blue and red swinging figure. 

Spider-Man.

"Whomst the fuck?" Eddie said, the incredulity pushing his voice from his throat. The Other released his face to emerge as a head. They spread the rest of the pictures out. 

"There are universes where we never meet, but in all the ones we do, it's because of Spider-Man," the other explained. "Sometimes he finds me on a space station. Sometimes I hitch a ride on a meteor. He becomes my host, but we never truly bond. Not really. He gets tired of me and uses sound to pull me off."

"That's rude," Eddie said. 

"You did the same thing with the MRI machine, Eddie." 

"Yeah, but not because I was tired of you. I was scared because of the, you know, organ failure." 

"And when you kicked me out the second time?"

"You beat me up then left!" 

The other vibrated and hummed. A tendril passed over Eddie's cheek. 

"I don't want to fight with you. Not now." 

"Keep telling me about this Spider-Dude," Eddie said softly. 

"After he leaves me, I find you. And we become Venom. This is the only universe where none of that happened. Where he wasn't part of our creation. Maybe because he didn't exist yet." 

"I'm not gonna pretend I understand this multiverse shit, but…like…why?"

"Maybe we're simply inevitable."

 

Venom sat on the edge of the rooftop not doing anything in particular. Just…existing…a black mass against the night and the lights of the city. They pulled another chocolate from the sampler box and threw it back. 

Cherry cordial is fucking disgusting.

I don't disagree, but the only other option was vegan.

That's unacceptable. 

I know. Fiending for brain?

I'm okay. That probiotic actually took the edge off.

Yeah, I learned a little about bio-chem while you were gone. 

Smart man.

It had taken a few days to readjust to being Venom again, all of which he had managed to convince Bushkin he needed to work from home from. He sweetened the deal by strongly implying, without outright lying, that he had information on their mystery masked crusader and was close to tracking them down. The Other expressed some uneasiness but didn't say anything outright. 

What do you want to do, Eddie?

Is this not fine for now? Still getting our sea legs back. 

No, in the long term. What do we do with ourselves?

Gotta figure out how to deal with the big guy in the cage, but otherwise, I don't know. Been a rough two years, mate. Having a hard time seeing very far into the future. 

Well, I've seen a whole bunch of futures, so-

Something disturbed the atmosphere. A twitch in the fabric of reality. Then a scream maybe five blocks over. 

LET'S GO EDDIE

They were running across the rooftop before he ever realized he was moving. The wind rushed past their head as they leapt to the neighboring rooftop. The next jump dropped them down the side of the building, claws slamming into the brickwork and slowing them as they dropped downward. 

You need to hold back or the military's gonna have our ass.

It won't be the worse thing that happens to us.

That cryptic shit was getting old fast, but it certainly kept piquing his interest. They slipped through a few more alleys and fire escapes, fast enough that no one caught them. 

They finally found the source of the scream in a blind courtyard between buildings. A group of four that was almost cliche in their arrangement. Two men in beanies pulled low over their brows were bearing down on a young couple. One had a gun and the other looked like he maybe wished he had a gun, too. 

Eat their heads?

Let's stop them first, then cross that bridge when we get to it. 

Good enough. 

Venom didn't need to be fast, now, heavy doing all the work as they came down hard on the man with the gun. The woman screamed again. How did no one else hear this? These muggers were just some asshole dudes, so landing on him was enough to disable him. The other mugger tried to get away, but a fling of matter around his waist pulled him back to join his friend with another glue of matter. 

Venom turned on the victims, keeping his mask in place but pulling back on the teeth a little. 

"Are you ok-"

The man had a camera up, filming them, dancing around to get better angles. 

"You fucking kidding me?" Venom snatched the phone. This was, again, just some dude, so it was easy. He broke it in half with a quick snap. "You can't fucking film me, dude. What the fuck? You want me to be fucking X-filed? Goddamn think for a fucking minute, dude." 

"GUN!" The woman shouted. 

Venom turned. They had forgotten about the gun. One of the muggers had been able to wriggle out of the matter enough to reach it. He got one shot off. The kinetic energy pushed him back half a step, but bullets didn't exactly do anything. 

" Oh, now we're eating his head."  

A soft quick sound -- a thwip -- ricocheted down through the canyon of buildings. Some kind of sticky material, not unlike his own matter, shot down from the rooftop and knocked the gun to the ground, glueing it in place. Venom looked up. At the edge of the roof was a guy in a red and blue one-piece morph suit with bright white eyes. Most of the other details were lost in the distance. 

"Spider-Man?"

" Nope!"

And The Other yanked Venom up through the night, dashing across rooftops. 

 

Venom rolled through the window, breaking apart into Eddie again. 

"Why did you pull us away? The kid was right there!" 

The Other emerged from his shoulder with gnashing teeth.

"No. Not until we understand him better."

"How am I supposed to do that if I don't talk to him, huh?" Eddie fell on the couch, dropping his face into his hands, pinching the bridge of his nose. 

"We just need to be careful." 

"Careful for-" but then Eddie felt it. Fear. Worry. Something that reached back through the Everything. "What does Spider-Man do to us? What have you not told me?"

"When he rejects me, the other versions of me become so…mad. Sorrow. Need. I can still feel it when I look at him. In all the universes I seek out hosts who feel the same about him just to feed the rage. To have a like-minded partner. It's what he does to you, though. That's what scares me."

"He seems like a good dude, I'm sure whatever it was--" but there was that shiver of panic again. The other clicked their teeth and re-merged. 

It's a little different every time, but you're working on a story. It's important. It's the break of a lifetime. You're at the top of your game. Then Spider-Man undermines you. Scoops you. Finds the real killer. You lose your job, your credibility. You lose Anne.  You lose your mind. Lose your will to live. I find you at your lowest and we bond over our shared hatred. 

"Okay, well, you already found me at my lowest. We've been through that. Anne is off being…all…happily ever after with Dan. She's solid. I've got a new job. And I didn't even want to kill myself." The Other knew it was a lie when he said it, and something grazed his brain in consolation. 

There had been a few moments in that six month gap between everything going to shit and joining with his other where things grew particularly dark. He had briefly wondered if everything would be better if he stopped existing. Had never existed to begin with. 

"I'm just saying we'd be meeting this kid at a totally different time in our lives. And also those other versions of me seem super dramatic. We're chill."

Our hatred of Spider-Man turns us into a monster, Eddie. 

"Sweetheart, we're already a monster."

Shut up and listen. 

The other slammed him with a punchbowl of emotion. The same things The Other already described. Rage. Sorrow. Agony. All dialed up and tuned in to a level that wanted to pop his limbs at the joints. And at the center of it all the overwhelming desire to completely and totally decimate Spider-Man down to a molecular level. 

Okay. Okay. I get it. We'll give the kid some space until we figure it out. 

Thank you, beloved. 

Eddie threw his head back against the couch.

"I want to ask how I stack up against this…multiverse of other hosts, but I think I might hurt my own feelings."

One version of me attached to a talking raccoon for a short while. 

"Wait, is there a way into that universe? That sounds fun as hell."

Nah, those guys were fucking assholes. 

"Anything else interesting from the magical symbiote multiverse I should know about?"

Matter rose across Eddie's stomach and started creeping up his chest. It tugged at his shirt and started removing it. 

"I hate it when you do this, you know that."

Want to show you something. Take your shirt off. 

Eddie tutted but obeyed, pulling it over his head. As soon as he leaned back, another shirt appeared, just like the first. 

"Yo, what the fuck?" 

The other branched from his shoulder. 

"It's a trick I learned," The Other said. The shirt changed from blue to white and the words "FRANKENSTEIN HIMBO" appeared across the chest in block letters. "I've got shirts figured out, but I'm still working on pants. Then I'll figure out jackets. And suits. You look sexy in a suit." 

"Ah, man, if you were able to do this in Vegas, we wouldn't have had to knock that one guy out. WAIT?! Can you make other stuff?"

A tendril emerged from the matter to hover over the coffee table. The Other formed a little cube of matter and set it on the table. Once it detached, it lost structure and melted into nothing. The Other reincorporated it back into their matter. 

"Other versions of me were able to take on more solid forms on Earth without a host," The Other lamented. "I'm not sure how, yet." The other tilted their head against Eddie's. He reached up and pressed his fingers against their temple, stroking their cheek with his pinky. 

"You'll get it. Anything else important?"

"It's all important, Eddie, but there's so much of it. Let me save some for later." 

"Okay. That's fair." He pressed The Other's face to his. It was nice. It was one thing to have another voice inside his head, another to experience the physical touch.

The Other's head turned under his hand and pressed further into his cheek. A grazing of teeth ran along his skin. 

"I did not miss this little bitey-kissy thing you do," Eddie said, slightly turning his head. "Just commit in one direction-" The Other answered him by kissing him. Actually kissing him. 

Lips pressed to his, slithery tongue prying open his mouth and clicking around against his teeth. The fucked up thing was that Eddie let it happen. He let the other form hands to wrap around the back of his head. When his own hands came up, he knew it wasn't the other controlling him, and he hooked them around the back of the other's head. It wasn't until he started trying to work his fingers down a neck and back that didn't exist that he startled himself out of what was happening. The other almost didn't let him draw back, clutching around his neck. Eddie became starkly aware that he wasn't wearing a shirt as the other moved their hands down to his chest. 

"We've never done that before," Eddied gasped stupidly. 

"Fuck, you're right. Shit. Shit. I forgot we weren't here, yet."

"Have…other versions of us…done this?"

"Other versions of us have done so so many more things, Eddie. Brought you to the height of ecstasy over and over again."

"Okay that's…that's a lot. That's…I have to think about that."

"I know. I'm sorry." 

"Stop saying you're sorry. Goddamnit, ever since you've been back…You weren't like this before."

"Did you prefer me before?"

"No! I mean…yes. I mean…fuck. I mean I don't get what your deal is. Apart from the whole dying and slipping through interdimensional portals yeah…okay. I'm realizing that I've also done that at least once, and it does kinda suck. You don't come back super normal from that." 

"No, you do not." The other pushed their head back to create space, but they kept their hands touching Eddie's chest. "I've lived a hundred thousand versions of us, but in all that I've managed to mostly hold on to what is true to our reality. The things we've actually done. While there are other versions of me that despise you and tried to destroy you from the inside out, I can separate that from the Now. From the Us. But all those lifetimes of loving you? That I can't seem to get rid of. That's sticking around, and it's going to make some things more difficult." 

"Love?" Eddie choked.

"You didn't believe me the first time, either."

"I didn't think it meant the same thing to you." 

"It doesn't mean the same, probably. Klyntar don't have the need to form the sort of social groups that humans do, so the names for those things are different. Doesn't mean it's not important. That it's not strong."

"I didn't say it wasn't. I just don't think I understand. What do you want from me? What does whatever this word mean for you? Feeling a little lost." 

The other rubbed their head against Eddie's cheek. 

"I can give you the feeling I feel," The Other offered.

"No, that's too weird. I get all hungover when you do that." 

"Then I'll show you." 

"Show me what?"

But the other slid back into his chest. Tendrils rolled up from his stomach. One flicked at the button and zipper of his jeans, pulling it down. Another tendril slid down and around the bulge covered by his boxer briefs. His body reacted immediately. He couldn't be sure he didn't want it to. This was normal, right? Any red hot American man would react to any kind of stimulus of this nature. Right? Right…

A tendril slipped through the slot of his fly and around his dick which hardened immediately. 

"Okay… okay… hold on."

Of course, I'll stop if you want Eddie, but…

"But what?" he choked. 

Did you think I just disappeared when you masturbated? I've been here the whole time.

"I spent a great amount of energy not thinking about it, actually." 

Eddddiiiee. I know what you like. Let me show you. The voice whined in his head, and The Other's impatience tugged at his spine. But they stopped, their matter pulling back into a mass at the base of his pelvis. Eddie took in a deep breath and sunk back into the shared place in his mind, the little hollow spot where their voices connected. 

Okay.

The Other was slower this time, delicate. The Other pulled down the waistband of his briefs then slipped a tendril around his cock, pressing around it softly. 

First it was just a ring that settled at the base of his cock, pulsing and squeezing in pattern.Then more matter stretched up from the ring, swirling upward until it covered his entire length. A soft tip of tendril traced along the sensitive head making him jump. The matter was dry but full of undulating pressure, squeezing bottom to top, dragging the sensations out of him by the root. 

You think you like it hard, Eddie. You and your deathgrip.

It's how I learned to do it, I guess. Somehow his inner voice was panting more than the hot breaths that emerged from his lips. 

I can feel your mind and all the dirty parts of it. What you really like is soft and slow.

With a slow pump, the matter began to move up and down, the inside against his cock moving faster than the layer on the outside. A piece reached down to cup his balls warmly, rolling them ever so gently in the hammock of The Other's hand. More matter emerged from his stomach and crawled up his chest with thin hands. 

You like to be touched. Two hands splayed flat on his chest over his pecs, palms pressing into his nipples. Two more hands emergred to run up his neck. To be caressed . The Other's head emerged in a flow from his chest.

"To be kissed." Their mouth fell against his, tongue dipping casually into his mouth. Soft. Hesitant. Testing and tempered. Their teeth nipped at his mouth but didn't puncture. The Other was so rarely like this, treating him so gently. He didn't totally know who was in control of his hands anymore as he lifted them again to the sides of The Other's head, keeping them locked so he didn't drift down and freak himself out again. He focused, instead, on the sensation happening around his mouth., the ever deepening kisses, the fingers digging and scratching at his chest, the quickening movements of The Other on his cock. 

A stifled moan rose in his chest, bleeding out around the edges where their mouths touched. The sound didn't stop as The Other moved faster and faster, increasing pressure slowly as the heat burbled in his body. The other clicked into the cavity of his mouth while he grunted and keened, climaxing into the warmth of The Other's matter. At the same time The Other's chirps became growls, pressing harder into Eddie's mouth, swallowing his breath and every other part of him. 

The Other's head slunk back into Eddie's body, replacing itself with a tendril that crept around Eddie's head and neck. The Other tucked his now soft and sticky cock back into Eddie's shorts and patted it gently. Eddie leaned back against the couch, panting.

"Uh…did you also…um…"

I feel everything you feel, Eddie.

"So you…okay…okay wow."  

Do you need some more time to process that?

"A little yeah, thanks."

We can go to sleep, Eddie. That might help. You're exhausted.

"That is actually a not terrible idea." 

Eddie let The Other pull him up from the couch, across the living room to the bedroom. Let them strip him out of his jeans and flop him into bed. The blanket pulled up over his head, and he went out like a light.

 

Eddie woke to bands shifting around his body. He was on his side and a symbiote head was resting in the curve of his waist. He looked down to find The Other flicking through his phone, half body leaning against his back. 

"Don't delete any of my e-mails," Eddie said. 

"I'm on Twitter. We might have fucked up last night by smashing that guy's phone."

"Knew that would come back to haunt us, what's happening?" Eddie sat up, the bands shifting to give him space. The Other's half body followed, attaching at his side and head rubbing against his. They brought the phone over. 

"Douchebag is all over Twitter saying a 'tentacle monster' attacked him and his girlfriend last night," the other explained.

"Leaving out that we saved him from a mugging, I'm sure." 

"Of course. But here's the real fucked up part. A bunch of people got a bunch of photos of Spider-Man last night. So now people are putting those two things together."

"I mean…okay…not totally off, I guess. I feel like that is not gonna go well for this kid. Shit." A weird pulse of emotion shot through his body that he knew was from The Other. "Are you excited about everyone thinking Spider-Man's a bad guy?"

"Remnants of another me."

"Yeah. Alright. Okay. Don't be a loser."

"Takes one to know one," The Other replied. One of their tendrils curled around his shoulder, then ended up flicking through his hair. 

"Do we…um…do we talk about what happened last night?" Eddie asked. "Is that a thing that happens? Or are we ignoring it?"

"I have no intention of ignoring it, beloved. I'm just waiting for you to catch up."

"For me to fall in love with you?"

"To realize you already are."

"You're so fucking weird."

The Other pressed their face to his cheek and slid a tendril down his stomach. 

"I can show you something real fucking weird, if you want."

A text message on his phone saved him from having to make a decision about consenting, and he took it from the perch of The Other's matter. It was Bushkin asking if he had seen Twitter that morning. He was going to need about fifty lifetimes to figure out how to answer that question. He absently rubbed the surface of one of the tendrils that had dropped over his shoulder then let the tip of it curl around his finger. 

"This is my new normal, isn't it?" Eddie sighed.

"Took you long enough." The Other pressed their forehead to his temple. Eddie brushed his fingers over their cheek.

"Sweetheart," Eddie said, really feeling the shape of the word form on his lips, "we have to track down Spider-Man." 

"Fuck," the other replied. They sighed. "I guess it's…haaah…"

"Inevitable," Eddie finished.

[kairisea]

🌊𓈒𓏸Confessing to Luka Strongarm𓏸𓈒🌊

SUMMARY: After spending lots of time with Luka, you finally decide it's time he knows how you feel.

NOTES: gn!reader, Reader is Trailblazer, takes place sometime after the events of Mo Cuishle

WARNINGS: May be ooc, I'm learning writing and Hoyo needs to give us more Luka content like please I wanna learn everything about him.

COMMENTS: Finally got this out! I maybe had a little inspo as to what to do for my first fic from a friend, but I enjoyed writing this! The intro was a little long, but I think I just really enjoy writing a bit of background for the situation, this isn't the first time! Anyway, I hope you enjoy this! I hope it's good for my first fic, fingers crossed! Any feedback is appreciated!

In the time you've been on Jarilo-VI, you've gotten to know all the residents pretty well, as you prepare to go to the next stop on your journey. However, staying here has made you get closer to some of them than you had expected... Sure you had made plenty of friends, even invited them to visit the Astral Express! But there was one who you'd felt like you'd gotten even closer to. Luka Strongarm.

From the moment you met him, you were drawn to him. He was strong, smart, and you had to admit his looks were going for him too. Your time spent with him was invaluable, and he made you feel invaluable too.

On this particular day, you were watching him in the ring, watching him spar for fun against some robots. He hadn't been in any tournaments or anything since you met him, so his victory number was still at 28. A number you drilled into your memory, or maybe it just stuck out to you because it was him.

You were lost in thought, watching him smile as he beat up the bots. Before you knew it, he was done with the fight, and had come out of the ring. He headed your direction as soon as he saw you, a smile on his face as always.

"Hey there, trailblazer!" You could hardly hear him over the sound of the crowd cheering. Perhaps it was because it was even more impressive to beat up a bunch of bots, than it is to beat up a person that they were so worked up over his victory.

You gestured outside, indicating that you wanted to talk to him, without the cheering crowd. He promptly nodded in response, and turned to the crowd, saying a goodbye to them as you started to leave. You barely paid attention to what he said as you looked at him before he turned back to you and nodded for the exit.

As you both stepped outside, you asked a seemingly innocuous question. "Could you follow me?" You outstretched your hand to him, just waiting for fans to try to follow you.

"Yeah, let's try to lose them." He agreed, taking your hand almost by instinct.

Your heart pounded as you held his hand, leading him not too far from the fight club, in the direction of Rivet Town. The place had little meaning, but the abandoned town was quiet, private, and you didn't want anyone overhearing what you had to say.

"This place certainly is a lot quieter than the fight club. I gotta hand it to you, you picked a good place for us to chat!" He said, oblivious to the pounding of your heart. You had been mentally preparing all day to face him, to finally speak what's been on your mind for a while, and now was the time to let it out.

"L- Luka," You stammered, trying to build confidence.

"Yeah? What's up?" He looked at you, a smile on his face. That damned smile that gave you butterflies every time you saw it.

You cleared your throat before continuing: "There's... something I've been meaning to tell you."

He waited patiently, starting to notice how you would fidget, and avoid his gaze, hoping it wasn't anything bad. And yet, despite his fiery spirit, he was so patient, just another thing you liked about him.

You let out a nervous chuckle. "Well, the thing is... I-" you took a deep breath. "I like you, Luka. I... like like you." Aeons this was embarrassing to say. You just wanted to run away and never show your face to him again. And yet- you stayed, and you looked up at him slowly as you contemplated telling Pom-pom that you could never go to Jarilo-VI again.

He looked at you, a shocked expression on his face. This definitely wasn't what he expected, and yet you could swear there was still a smile. That damn smile.

You heard him chuckle. You thought you had screwed things up royally, but before you could overthink too much, he spoke. "You... like me?" He rubbed the back of his neck. "I didn't expect you to feel the same way about me." He smiled at you and you couldn't help but look at him in return.

As your eyes met, he held out his hands to you as you subconsciously took them, the difference in temperature momentarily shocking you. "So... does that mean..." You started

"I like you too." He finished. "I just thought that, as a Nameless, you wouldn't reciprocate my feelings. But I'm glad you do." He smiled at you, so softly and gently. You couldn't help but smile back.

The thought of your Nameless duties pulling you away from him entered your mind for a second, but you quickly dispelled them. You can cross that bridge when you get to it. "So... does this mean we're... together now?"

Luka thought for a second. "Well, I mean if we both agree, I guess it does." He looked down for a second, gripping your hands before quickly softening his grip. "Well... if we've both said our piece... do you want to, I don't know, celebrate? I could take you out on a proper date?"

"That sounds great." You chuckled as you went by his side, grabbing his arm. Yes, his arm. It was his organic arm, and you could feel his hand warm in yours. "Well then, 28 time champion," you lightly teased, "where are we off to? I'll follow your lead."

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised you remember that number so well at this point." He chuckled. "Don't worry, I'll take us to the best place the Underworld has to offer!" And with that, he gently led you out of the abandoned area, your hands intertwined.

So that's it! I had a lot of fun writing this! I may end up making 2 other things bc of this. I wanna do a follow up bc reader is trailblazer and trailblazing needs to happen, so that's prolly gonna lead to some angst... I also want to write a version where the reader isn't the trailblazer since I feel like that's a completely different type of relationships...

If you enjoyed this, feel free to learn more about me and what I do here! You can also see if my requests are open there if you want something yourself!

I talk too much... anyway, I hope to see you around! Pce!

[swagmagussupreme]

@whiterose-fans-blog White Rose Event, Day 2: Gundam/Mecha

(I, uh... got carried away with this one. Whoops. Hope this doesn't awaken anything in me [the thing is awake and thrashing {the thing is thinking robots/cyborgs/androids are hot}])

Warnings for body horror, I think. To be safe.

Word count: 5253

Ruby clambered into the mech with much less pomp and coolness than she did anything, but that did little to tame the roaring pound of her blood in her ears. She was magnified, electrified, extremely-freaking-happy-ified. Her nerves were frayed and exposed, the air in her lungs was aflame, and all for one incredible reason:

Today, she would have all her blood replaced with super-drugs and shove a finger-thick metal node into her spine. In other words, she would be a Pilot.

Her mech, a Lancer-class Haema built for speed and offense, was a thing of beauty, and she was beginning to have genuine worries about the trickle of attraction she felt towards its fast edges, its angular shoulders, and the furious triangular wedge of its head. The red upper coating of its paint looked supple and deep, aggressive, while the under-coat of silver shone beneath the arms and over the lower back's delicious curve like moonlight. And when it powered on, when the sharp eyes flashed white and the head split open like a dying spider in reverse, Ruby may have moaned.

So she toppled into the cockpit like a lovestruck fool, the snug fit of her bloodbag suddenly feeling stuffy as she reclined in the full-body seat. She tugged at the suit’s dark collar, which achieved nothing.

“You in?” came her sister’s voice over the interior speakers.

“Y-yeah!” Ruby stuttered in return, overcome with joy. When she realized her informality, she retried, “Uh, I mean, yes sir. Captain Yang. Sir.”

The woman in the speaker snorted. “Just S-L, Rubes. I'm not a Captain yet.”

“Oh, uh… right. Yeah. Sorry.”

“Nervous?”

This time, Ruby was the one to snort. “It's my first time in my Haema. What do you think?”

“Fair enough,” Yang commented, taking an audibly deep breath. “Alrighty, no time to waste, DLR’s gonna drop soon and we’ll be right in the fuck of it. You ready?”

Jitters awoke in Ruby’s stomach. She hadn't even noticed the carrier entering Divine Light Redistribution. Maybe that was why she was nervous. Probably. Yeah. She could almost believe that. “Psh, of course I'm ready.”

Her sister barked a harsh laugh over comms. “Sure,” she said, a worrying hint of rue in her tone. “Sure you are.”

Yang continued in a clinical tone: “This is C-Squad, ready to jack in.”

Another voice, so cold and professional Ruby wasn't sure it was even human, responded: “Affirmative, C-Squad approved to jack.”

Two thick cables dropped from the metal ceiling of the cockpit, dangling off to the side of Ruby’s chair— the neural jack and the transfusion cable— just begging to be installed. She obliged. Two mechanical arms rose from the chair to hold the sides of her head as Ruby slammed the neural jack into the nape of her neck, right through the port of her bloodbag. She bit her lip expectantly.

From the jack, four needles slammed deep into her neck, breaking through the limits of pain that Ruby had known, but that wasn't the main event— these were just sensory dampeners, poking deep to zap her nerves into a state that wouldn't have her dying of shock when the main interface node came in. Her neck tingled, numbing, heralding the node with blunt pressure. Ruby sucked in a breath.

The pressure disappeared as the node backed away, rearing up to slam its almost-blunt tip through her skin, through her muscles almost into the vertebrae. The thing in her neck felt huge, like someone had javelined her with a stick of rebar, but that wasn't even the worst to come. Shackles slammed around her wrists and ankles. She felt the node twist inside her, opening its cap. Blood leaked from her tortured lower lip.

Despite the immense anguish, even with the dampeners, Ruby had managed to keep her noise down to squeaks and heavy breathing, but the final step broke her silence. Uncountable nano-filaments wormed through flesh and bone, hungrily burrowing towards every nerve along her cervical vertrbrae. The invasion of her was maddening not only in its sheer pain— if not for the bloodbag covering her fingers, she would've clawed her fingernails off on the armrests— but also because of the growing sense of agonizing relief she felt. With each nerve interfaced, she became closer to the machine, which only made the pain of her meat seem more alien as every second passed, every shred of anguish a reminder that she was not at her prime. Even as her throat tore itself ragged with wailing, the corners of her lips tugged upwards. Soon, very soon, she would become one with the Haema.

All at once, the agony collapsed into nothing, and she knew it was done. Ruby had unified with the mech, her pain receptors were cut off completely, and even the memory of that suffering was vanishing into dust. Her shackles receded into the seat. Ruby sighed. Now, for the best part.

With practiced ease and a complete lack of worry, Ruby took the transfusion cable and slipped it into the port at the side of her neck. Tubes with razor-sharp tips slipped into her skin with ease, slotting directly into her carotid artery and jugular vein. There was no pain, but the process wasn't a mystery to the studied Pilot. Through the arterial tube came vitae, the saplike blood replacement compound brimming with nanomachines, vasodilators, anticoagulants, and synthesized cells with oxygen carrying capacity at least threefold superior to hemoglobin. The viscous liquid would surge through her, bulging her arteries against her skin, dilating them so much that the tiny vessels in her eyes would leak thick crimson tears. Every inferior blood cell would either be forced up her jugular to get sucked into the Haema or recycled by the vitae until the only thing circulating through Ruby was manmade super-juice. In short, it would make her into a hero.

Which was great because Ruby was born to be a hero, just like her mom was. The proof was literally in her genes— bloodcaller genes— she was made for vitae, and vitae was made for her. She was an offshoot of humanity born from that sanguine primordial soup, and she could utilize the blessed compound in ways no baseliner could. She was tapped into the vitae-amber heart of her Haema, her Haema was tapped into her own lifeblood, and the two of them could dance like figure skaters.

Ruby folded the control sticks forward into her armrests as soon as they popped up. She didn't need them; the mech knew what she wanted.

“Ruby? You good?”

The sound didn't come through a loudspeaker this time, it came directly into her ears as if Yang was physically with her. Her brain was jacked directly into their comms. “Never been better,” she breathed, feeling her voice in her own throat and the Haema’s. “You?”

Yang took a deep breath, sounding much less pleases than her sister. “Yeah. I'm good. Let's fuck this up.” After a pause, she added, “C-Squad, jacked in and ready to go."

“Confirmed, readings all-clear.” The voice pitched up, slightly impressed. “Phenomenal compatibility, Red.”

“Gracias,” Ruby said casually, stepping off the platform and feeling like she'd been reborn anew. She marveled at her hands, the red upper coat of her knuckles, the silver coat of her palms. “Holy crap.”

“Cut the chatter,” Yang chided, her own golden Haema stepping to Ruby’s side. Her movements were so… bulky. Mechanical. Joystick-controlled. Ruby couldn't help but pity her human sister.

“Uh, sorry,” Ruby apologized, willing her words through the chassis comms rather than the radio comms. “Keep forgetting this whole talking thing is a ‘we’ and not a ‘me’ now.”

Yang's eye-roll was audible. “Keep rubbin’ that in, why don'tcha.”

A mechanical voice wailed over the hangar: “EXITING DIVINE LIGHT REDISTRIBUTION, ENGAGING COMPELLED SPEED, COMMENCE IN T-MINUS TWENTY SECONDS;

“BLESSED BE YE FAITHFUL;

“HIS KINGDOM COME;

“HIS WILL BE DONE;

“KNOW HIS LOVE AND KNOW HIS FAITH, AND BE SHELTERED BY ALL THINGS;

“AVE DOMINUS;

“GODSPEED.”

“Ah-men!” Ruby cheered, pumping the giant metal fist of her Haema excitedly.

“Ay-men,” Yang said more plaintively, her own mech perfectly still, awaiting the hangar’s opening. Ruby came to her side.

“Uh, sis?” she asked. “You okay?”

Yang’s Haema twitched its arm a little, the Pilot within probably jolting against her controls. “Y-yeah. Yeah, I'm okay. Just…”

“POWER ASTERN, WAFTING COMPELLER DRIVES, ANCHOR WELL IN T-MINUS TEN SECONDS.

“INCOMING INCOMING INCOMING.”

A dull thump rattled the vessel, making Ruby stumble on her new, much taller legs. Yang righted her with a hand, perfectly still. Her chassis crackled with her voice.

“Ruby, we'll be okay.”

Ruby looked at her sister's Haema. It was boxier than her own, Bulwark-class, rigid and cubic with giant proportions that made Ruby's look like a ballerina, but she knew that Yang could probably pilot that thing better than she could, even as a bloodcaller. Such was dictated by Yang's experience, which she had in spades over her sister. In an attempt to reassure her, Ruby took the staff of her weapon from her back and held it in a stern, at-ready stance. “Of course we will,” Ruby decided. “You're the best there is, and I'm right behind ya.”

Yang snorted.

“ANCHOR WELL ESTABLISHED. HANGAR DOORS OPENING.”

“I'm alright,” Yang said humbly. “But you'll be the best. Just… don't try too hard, okay?”

Ruby blinked, which she felt in her Haema despite it not having eyelids, which was weird. “What?”

The hangar doors shot open in a blink. Yang shoved her out with one hand, and Ruby tumbled weightless into hell.

The battle was already well underway. They were just reinforcements meant to turn the tide. The carrier they'd taken was barely within the outer area of the battle, but it was already alight with long-range sabot fire and dazzling anti-countermeasure lasers, so Ruby got a dramatic view of her sister thrusting out of the open hangar amid a dramatic backdrop spectrum of lights and explosions. Her big golden box of a Haema flew straight towards the battle’s distant center, producing a pair of tower shields that she covered her front with.

“Fall in, Red,” Yang commanded sternly over the comms, her voice a crackle as the signal fought through the background radiation of nebular space. “P-formation.”

Ruby shook her head and willed her giant mechanical body to thrust, her vitae-enhanced senses drinking every minute detail of the battle. When she blinked, she felt thick crimson crawling down her cheeks, and when she breathed, she felt like she could drink the world.

Falling behind the cover of her sister's giant shields, she observed what she could.

The battle was mostly gun-against-gun, no boarding vessels or ramming ships visible amid the chaos, with the Divine Hierarchy's ships clustered like a star in the center, a ball of purifying fire and plasma that lashed out against the surrounding seculars and belligerents. The fleet of God's enemies was numerous, consisting of smaller vessels concentrating fire like flies on honey, with larger vessels fanning out along the outskirts and firing from range, proudly displaying their cowardice. Ruby snarled and shouldered her weapon, a custom-made lance that she'd been designing her whole life in anticipation of this.

“Easy, rookie,” Yang admonished. “Engagement path coming to you… now.”

Bright green dots lit up a track leading in towards the center of the conflict, then out.

“Huh? What is this, hit and run?” Ruby complained. “Come on, let me get in there!”

“Red!” Yang snapped, making her sister jump. “This is not a game, and this is not school! You will stay on my ass and shoot what I tell you to shoot! Got that?”

A surge of defiance welled up between Ruby’s teeth, red and sweet and hot, but she bit down until it subsided. “Yes, sir.”

Yang flashed her mech's glowing green eyes at Ruby for just a second before turning forward again. “Now, if you'd actually wait, you'd learn that we're just dipping in to silence a particularly loud gunboat, then we'll be dashing out to start hunting some of the command carriers. No good dogfighting in the center, anyways, too much flak.”

Ruby felt her face and the Haema’s face go warm. “Oh.”

“Now get that stupid thing pointing forward, we’ll be lining up soon, and I wanna see what it can do.”

“Right!” the rookie Pilot agreed, instantly cheering up. She whipped the staff of her weapon around and shifted her thumb along its side, releasing bipods that she hooked along the front of Yang's shields. With her other hand, she slotted a sabot the size of her Haema's middle and index fingers into the giant gun's receiver, feeding the maw of her monstrous Crescent Rose as she slammed the bolt forward. She felt the barrel start to hum in her hands— in her Haema's hands, which felt exactly like her own— and mentally requested a targeting solution. Seeing a digital alignment with her barrel and an alignment to the target, she matched the two lines. The gunboat, so far away and roaring with so many cannons, looked like prey, and Ruby slavered for it.

“Ready,” she managed to say, holding herself back despite the scarlet lust in her veins.

“Fire when—”

Ruby felt the round blast in her metal hands, jolting her back against Yang's shields, the explosive primer kickstarting the sabot through the railgun’s coils and slingshotting it out the barrel so fast that the first impact with the gunboat's aft shields turned the tip into plasma— which was perfectly according to plan. The front half of the sabot vaporized a bright blue, tearing a hole through the shield that ferried the round’s second, denser half straight into the hull. The projectile tore through the gunboat like a meteorite through paper, blasting out an exit wound that had the small vessel looking like a big metal flower. Its guns sputtered out one last breath before the whole ship started to blankly list, dead.

Ruby’s cheeks hurt from her grin, and she'd smiled hard enough to split the bites she'd made just before the interface node. Vitae bubbled to the wounds, sweet and viscous, congealing over them like amber. “Did you see that?” she asked, feeling her voice a little frantic. “Now we veer out, right? To the big ship?”

Yang’s voice came out like a worried stare. “Yes. Just… keep following my lead.”

Ruby, despite herself, giggled as Yang turned them both tangentially along the main sphere of combat, skirting the worst of it and blasting towards the outer limits. The carrier, a fat, juicy obelisk of a ship, came into sight quickly, looking like a ripe fruit produced just for her. Ruby slid another rectangular primer into its slot, then racked a new sabot. She wouldn't need a targeting solution for this. “Ready."

Yang, surprisingly, took a while. She said nothing while Ruby dithered impatiently, feeling her gun’s hum, her finger itching on the trigger. They came closer, kept coming closer, and Ruby had to hunker down behind her sister’s shields as they came within range of the carrier’s guns.

“Yang! Yang!”

The golden Haema beneath her jolted. “Fire!”

Ruby breathed a sigh even before she pulled the trigger. The primer exploded, the round flew free, and she could track the sabot’s blistering line towards the carrier’s center, where it'd rip through the shields and tumble through whatever mass of important stuff lay vulnerable beneath the shell of its hull. Then the whole thing would explode hotly, and Ruby could bask in the satisfaction of heroism, knowing she saved her faithful brethren and damned the seculars.

Only, the sabot never struck the hull, never ripped at the big carrier’s juicy insides, because something— some-frigging-how— deflected it. A bright shape, either white or blue, stood between her and her prey.

Then Ruby was tumbling, because Yang had been completely ripped out from under her, thrust out as a spiraling mass of yellow and violet— another Haema, Ruby realized, wrestling with her sister and somehow holding its own!

Her control thrusters blasted, Ruby splayed her arms and legs wide, and she flourished her staff into both hands. Charging after her sister, the lance shunted out a long blade from its tip. The Lancer became its namesake, spear held straight and true as the vitae in Ruby's system coursed with a lust for combat.

Her charge was arrested by a blur of blinding white. Another Haema stood before her, a blue-limned buckler on its right forearm and a long white sword in its left hand. It was smooth and articulated, formed like a porcelain suit of ancient plate armor, complete with resplendent blue pauldrons that supported a bright cyan cape. Its eyes were a baleful, clashing red, locked perfectly onto Ruby’s— in and out of the Haema.

She felt something. Some… tugging. A pull at her heart and her veins and her brain. A familiar feeling.

Ruby stared into those glowing scarlet eyes and felt a hunger. A clawing need. A lust and a desperation that Ruby had never seen in anyone else before.

Another bloodcaller.

“Achtung, Bauer!” rocketed a voice from that knightly Haema, haughty and high-pitched. “You stand in ze presence of Schnee! In your thick skull, realize zat resistance is futile! Your God has abandoned you!”

Of course, the first time she'd ever met another bloodcaller, they were crazy. “What?”

“Zis is your last chance! Drop ze lance!”

Ruby blinked, the gears in her skull going ka-klunk and slipping into rapid motion, slapping her with realization: she would fight a fellow bloodcaller. And on her first day!

Ruby lowered the tip of her spear in a move that she hoped looked honorable and flared her stabilizers. “Nope,” she said through a voracious grin. “Let's go.”

Her ears crackled loudly, a voice— her sister's voice— wailing through: “N-no! Ruby! Don—”

Static cut Yang's transmission down to nothing. She felt a rise of protectiveness within her, an urge to bolt past this weirdo and grab her sister, but a single movement from the Haema before her choked everything dry. It dipped low at the waist, spread its arms, and bowed.

Sense left Ruby. Rationality fled completely. All she had was lust.

Space shortened to nothing before her, the Schnee (whatever that meant) getting closer as Ruby blasted fully towards it, spear extended, thrusting outwards decisively for the center of mass. The knightly mech parried her stupendously, buckler arcing up and batting the lance away with ease, with force, nearly throwing it out of Ruby’s giant silver palms before she redoubled her grip and blasted past the Haema. She cut her thrusters and rolled, her body barreling around until the spear’s point was once again level with her opponent, at which point the long blade shifted dorsally, presenting the gun-barrel once more as Ruby slapped in a primer and shoved a sabot home. She pulled the trigger.

The porcelain-looking Haema knocked her sabot away with a shower of plasma and shrapnel, the force of the round throwing its arm back and turning it slightly before some kind of control thrusters kicked in, or another stabilizer that Ruby couldn't see. Without hesitation, she set her spear’s point forward again and charged, screaming towards the bloodcaller, lance out. This time, with their buckler still away, the Haema clashed its sword— a rapier with some kind of fancy, colorful hilt— directly against her spear, locking the point against their crossguard and sending them both flying with Ruby’s momentum.

“Utterly lacking!” the porcelain knight cried. “You are artless, you are overly quick, you make no grace of your movements!”

The buckler came around and smashed into Ruby’s head, separating her from the bloodcaller and making everything spin. She fanned out her thrusters for control, but she moved too late— the knight was behind her, her sensors were screaming, she could feel the thrust that was about to penetrate her spine— she would die. The blade would penetrate her chassis and vent her cockpit into the cold aether. Ruby would flop into space, helmetless, the heavy vitae in her body pulsing and pushing until she went unconscious, and it all ripped out of her veins at once. Ruby Rose, on her first mission, her divine christening, would die.

Ruby blew all the thrusters on her right side and pulsed up with her feet, forcing the rapier to slide into the hip of her Haema instead of the lethal center. Her huge mechanical body held the blade like a sheath, and she flipped her staff to—

“Hold still, you idiot!” the knight cried, its hand coming around to grab Ruby by the face— her Haema’s face. “There!”

“I've got you!” Ruby cried first.

“N— no, you have not!” the bloodcaller protested. “You are facing ze other vay! I have you by ze face!”

Ruby let her smirk drip into her voice. “You didn't notice? Look behind you.”

There was a shuffle, metal-on-metal as the knight’s body moved against Ruby’s, which felt confusingly like flesh-on-flesh. She felt the Haema, the bloodcaller within, jump in surprise as they caught sight of Ruby’s spear— with the long blade of its head flipped like a scythe’s— hugging the crook of their porcelain neck. “Huh,” they said, which sounded like a real person right next to Ruby’s real ear. “Aren't you something.”

“Now let me go, or you'll die first.”

The other bloodcaller snorted, their voice tight but humored. “Nein. I vill not.”

“And why not, huh?”

The fingers around Ruby’s face, their steel feeling like real flesh, warmed to burning. “Because I have still gotten you.”

Burning, something which Ruby couldn't feel. Pain, impossible when the Haema had her nerves cut dead, but it all surged right to her brain nonetheless. She felt the sword in her hip— the real sword in her real hip, lodged in flesh and bone and gushing blood— and she screamed. She wailed, thrashed, swinging her scythe like it would relieve the feeling that could never be felt, the impossibility that had become reality. She had lived her whole life knowing that the Haema’s pain could never be hers, but now her reality was sundered. She arched her spine— the Haema’s spine, her spine, the bodies were the same, the agony was the same, they were both howling.

The sword exited her bones and metal in a white flash of anguish, and Ruby found herself being jerked backward by a hand. She felt her ears coming alive with sound, hot and loud.

“Ruby!” Yang called from a mile away. “Ruby, are you— they got you! Oh god, Ruby, Ruby respond!”

Ruby gurgled, unable to find her voice. She felt her Haema moving, limp.

“You're alive! Thank God, they got you. Okay. Just… stay there, okay? Everything—”

Static cut her out again. Ruby gurgled again.

“Vhy are you making zat noise?” the bloodcaller asked, dragging her limp Haema by the neck. “You should not be avake.”

Vitae surged in her, a well of defiance rising in her gut, but nowhere else. “I… I'll kill you,” she promised. “I'll… do it.”

Ruby’s head lolled back, her eyes boring up at the other bloodcaller. It stared back. Ruby could feel their eyes— her eyes, she was certain— clashing against her own. The hand around her neck was real. The body carrying her was blood and meat and skin. The bloodcaller dragged her all the way to the carrier she'd failed to destroy. She chucked her into a hangar, one similar in all the important ways to the one she'd just left. Ruby’s metal body sighed limply against the floor.

Porcelain feet entered her vision, their shape like sabatons, and Ruby’s brain was convinced that they'd be warm to the touch. There was a sound. Then another sound, then more sounds. Then a hissing, a clanking, a sliding. Ruby’s split perception differentiated, one pair of her eyes seeing the world open into white light before her, the other pair staring listlessy at the big metal feet. She wasn't sure which was real.

There was a person inside her. The person, the bloodcaller, the girl like her, not a knight but a stretched-out thing of white that her red-tinted vision struggled to comprehend. Ruby’s eyes failed to focus, and any attempts to move her body only made the wrong limbs move, the ones that were on the outside. A voice slipped into Ruby’s ears, real, with a tongue and lips and air, but no less real than that knight’s voice had been.

“Vait, vat in ze fuck?” the white thing tugged at her umbilical cord— her transfusion cable. “Mein Gott, zis is so much vitae. How are you alive?”

Ruby blinked, pushing out saplike red tears. Speaking felt unfamiliar, like it was in the wrong throat— everything felt unfamiliar. Scrambling, panicking sensors felt just like her sense of smell and taste. She couldn't differentiate.

“Vat? Vat are you saying?”

The bright white head bent towards Ruby. She tried to force air over her throat, remembering manually what a voice was supposed to be. “Blood… crall… brall… brac… ler…”

The white thing shook its head. “Have you a concussion? I did not give you one.”

Ruby groaned, testing her vocal chords. “Blood… blood… call… er.”

White made no sign of acknowledgement and instead gripped Ruby's umbilical cord fully. “Let us get some normal blood in you, oder?”

Ruby tried to thrash. Her body didn't comply. Something was covering her vision, obscuring her view of the white thing, something caked thickly over her whole face— hair, thick and dark, crystallized to her skin by dried vitae. She was bleary. She was angry. Nobody would take her vitae away.

This point was carried across through weak movements of her arms and tiny, wordless burbles, which white-thing either didn't understand or didn't respect. Ruby vacillated, stuck between flopping in her chair or trying to flop out of it, but White did another series of indecipherable things with her hands, causing the worst thing ever to happen to Ruby:

All her vitae raced up her veins, dilating and burning her vessels as the thick stuff moved faster than it should, scraping Ruby’s insides and blasting up, leaking from her eyes as it bulged up her neck. At the same time, feeble blood flooded her carotid, piping traitorously from her own Haema, hot and cold and thin. It felt like all her parts were filling with tepid water. Her mind slowed to a crawl, her vision sharpened and dulled simultaneously, and her pain doubled.

White held her down. “Stop your thrashing!” it demanded, its accent turning ‘thrashing’ into ‘trashing’. “Vhy are you going crazy!”

Ruby kept thrashing. She couldn't not be thrashing until the white smear fumbled at the back of her neck, grabbed something it should not grav, and yanked.

Unfortunately, that seemed to work because the violent cleaving of Ruby's existence snapped everything into perfect human clarity. Her body became singular, unbalanced and nauseous, but the physical pain disappeared. It was replaced by mental pain, anguish of memory, the haunting of that impossible pain reeking deep in Ruby's bones. Her brain felt like a sinkhole— brought so high then wrenched so low— vacant and filling only with the upending memory of having her real hip getting pierced by a real sword.

It was worse than the actual pain. Somehow. Now she was sober, no high to ride from the vitae, no adrenaline, no nothing but her thoughts and the recollection of the rapier and her bones, free to be remembered in excruciating detail from all angles. A fundamental fact of her life had been shattered. Painfully.

Ruby's hearing cleared before her vision did.

“Okay, okay, you are okay? Ja?”

Ruby opened her eyes, only to realize they were already open. They took a little longer to calibrate.

When the image in front of her, still obscured by plastered black hair, finally came to clarity, Ruby scowled.

The smear of white, the bloodcaller who'd done this to her, was a girl. Probably. Her hair was long and white, hanging in an asymmetrical ribbon of a ponytail. Her features were pale, powder or snow, and pinched somewhat close to… frustration? Concern? With her bright, colorless brows drawn so tight, Ruby couldn't tell. Her lips were a pursed bow, pinker than lips should be, chin and nose downright cherubic to match.

Cute. The face was cute. Even if it was riven with sharp, surgical lines. A vertical seam split her nose from tip to bridge, vanishing somewhere under her hairline. Forked lines cupped the orbits of her eyes, dipping down her cheeks like tears, cresting over her jaw and continuing until they disappeared beneath her collar. More angular lines ringed each ear. Her face looked like it could just… open.

Ruby gulped. Without vitae, she felt weak. No indignant heat rose in her chest. She didn't spit ‘you secular waste!’ in her face. Her cheeks warmed. Her head lolled a little.

“Oh, you are not okay. You… how did you… nichts. Macht nichts.” She shook her head and looked out of the gaping cockpit of Ruby's Haema. “I vill be back mit Wasser— water. You need it. Er… stay put. Egal.”

Ruby watched her leave, and she wasn't sure how much time had passed before the bloodcaller came back. It felt like a blink, but Ruby felt tender, vulnerable loneliness like she'd been gone forever. She felt pathetic. She was pathetic. She should be throttling this lady, killing her, but she just sat there slumped, feeling (and probably looking) like a wounded animal. The girl, the bloodcaller, knelt before her. Ruby realized she was on her side. She didn't remember falling out of the seat.

The girl tilted Ruby’s chin up, holding a water bottle like it was a gun.

A voice rumbled up Ruby’s shredded throat— her own, probably. “Wher… sher…”

“Hm? Ja? Still avake?”

“Nnnn… naamm-uh. Nayum.” Ruby worked her jaw, getting feeling back in her mouth. “Name. Your name.”

“Schnee,” Schnee said. “Like I said.”

Ruby turned her nose up petulantly. “Nuh-uh. That's not a name.”

“Oh really? Then vhy don't you tell me your—”

“Ruby,” Ruby answered stupidly, giving intel away to the enemy like the concussed idiot she was.

“Zat is just as believable as mine."

“I'm a bloodcaller. So’re you.”

Schnee stared at her. Ruby stared back. “Weiss,” Weiss said eventually. “And I'm not… that.”

Ruby tried the name on her tongue. “Vice?”

The girl cringed. “Just…” she sighed with a lifetime of defeat. “Weiss. Mit einem ‘W’. Wuh.”

“Vuh?” Ruby tried, concussed. “Vuh-ice?"

“Nein. Weiss. Ooouuh-ice.”

“Ooouuh-ice.”

“Weiss.”

“Vice.”

“Double-u."

“Uu-ice?”

Weiss (Uu-ice, apparently) dragged a hand laboriously over her face. Ruby noticed surgical marks on that, too. “Ja. Sure. Uu-ice. Close enough.” She grabbed Ruby's jaw and tilted her face up towards the water bottle. “Now say ‘aaah’.”

Ruby (still concussed, still an idiot) obeyed, opening her mouth wide and even going ‘aaah’ for her mortal enemy, ready to accept her anomalous fluids. Weiss squeezed the bottle. Water blasted over Ruby’s face, which felt amazing, soaking her as the other bloodcaller focused the stream towards Ruby's dumb idiot waiting mouth. The water was heaven on her tongue, washing all the sweetness of vitae away.

The girl— the bloodcaller— Weiss— pulled the bottle back and, with undue care, brushed Ruby’s now-wet, un-crystallized hair out of her face. She stared, brows raising. Her eyes were impossibly blue.

“Scheiße,” she mumbled. “You are pretty.”

[well-what-did-you-expect]

hey!! if you’re taking requests, i’d like to request the tmnt 2012 turtles falling for a fem! reader who’s basically like your stereotypical raph. she loves fighting, loves working out, loud asf, short-tempered, blunt, sarcastic, cursed with resting bitch face, all that jazz. but, once you get to know her, she’s actually really funny and sweet. NEVER afraid to speak her mind, so she may come across as rude or sassy at times, but she never really means to be. DEFINITELY has mild adhd and is on the autism spectrum. 🫶

TMNT2012 : Modern Day Cain

included : leonardo “leo” hamato, raphael “raph” hamato, donatello “donnie” hamato, michelangelo “mikey” hamato

summary : hcs: the boys falling for a reader who is similar to raph (attitude, rough and tough act, head-strong, short-tempered, etc.)

warnings : none? pretty sure

disclaimers : fem!reader, she/her & you/your pronouns

track [1 of 1] : modern day cain , i don’t know how but they found me

word count : 618

Leonardo "Leo" Hamato

When Leo first met you and saw that you had attitude, his first thought was 'Oh, great, another Raph.'

It took them a while to get past your rough and tough exterior, but once they got to know you better, they started falling, and they fell HARD.

Full on tripping over her words, getting flustered easily, you're the only thing on her mind when she realizes that she likes you.

Definitely talks to Master Splinter about you.

Would never bring his crush on you up to his brothers, especially Raph.

"So when I have an attitude, you hate it, but when she has an attitude, you think it's adorable?!" would be Raph's reaction upon finding out.

Because you are very head-strong, sometimes you and Leo end up butting heads due to your opinions differing.

You would definitely be workout buddies with Raph.

Also when fixating on something, Mikey loves having infodump sessions with you, especially if you both are fixated on something similar/the same thing.

Leo loves when you get along with their brothers.

Raphael "Raph" Hamato

In the beginning, you and Raph are constantly butting heads. You both are very short-tempered and head-strong so when your opinions differ, it's a bull match between you two.

After some time, it's not as bad as it was, you learn to compromise.

They teach you some stuff as a way of flirting without being obvious.

It takes a while for him to get a crush on you, he's supposed to be the tough guy, he doesn't have time for feelings.

But everytime you remind them that being strong involves being in tune with your feelings, they start to allow themself to fall for you.

He doesn't understand his feelings for you, he's confused. Like 'Why does my stomach feel weird whenever we're training together? Why can't I think straight when I talk to her?'

They don't want to get teased by their brothers so they keep their crush a secret, but everyone knows, except for you.

Donatello "Donnie" Hamato

Similar to Leo, he's not excited that you are basically another Raph. He's not a fan of the short-tempered, sarcastic, loudness that is you.

Being more logical and rational, he clashes with your 'punch first, ask questions later' attitude. But hey, they do say opposites attract.

Once he realizes that he's starting to like you, he tries to avoid you as much as possible. He's had his human-mutant "relationship" experience and it didn't go well. *cough* April *cough*

When you let down your tough exterior is when he falls hard, he basically smacked the floor with how hard he fell.

He's in love with your sense of humor. If you were to crack a joke that had anything to do with science or robotics, he would fall harder than ever.

Michelangelo "Mikey" Hamato

Being the baby brother, Mikey knows how his hot-headed brother is. He knows that Raph can be caring, despite the rough exterior.

Mikey figures you're the same way. Tough on the outside, soft on the inside.

They fall hard and fast, completely head over heels for you. They're like a lovesick puppy, following at your feet, treating you like a princess.

His crush on you is obvious to everyone, except you. At first, you think it's annoying how he's always by your side, but over time, he starts to grow on you.

If you were to come into the kitchen when they were cooking and matched his goofy energy, they would break. They love it so much.

Don't even get me started on when you both are hyper together. You two being energetic and chaotic, he loves it! Although the others aren't too happy with all the commotion if they're busy (which they most likely are).

[callmearcturus]

@dragonsinthecode replied to your post “aw shit it's really good. the first episode was...”:

I gave episode 1 a solid 9/10 as someone whose never played a fallout game - and fallout fans I watched with were surprised. What's your ranking?

​The first episode alone was a 9 out of 10, yeah. It has so many markers of Getting It.

the cold open of Walter Goggins and his daughter and the horror settling in was amazing

Lucy's vault was honestly pitch perfect and the way they explain the experiment of the vault so far, the way it seems to be connected to another vault that they are not allowed to interact with outside of very specific times of the year for no fucking reason, that is New Vegas-level of good vault bullshit. as we all know, The Vaults Were Never Meant To Save Anyone.

that fact that a not-insignificant portion of Lucy's motivation is wanting to get laid is very fucking funny and i love it

the dawning realization of What Went Wrong, that was an incredible Holy Shit moment

the way the sheer violence and gore and brutality just soared over the threshold of bad taste and into comedy, l m a o

the brotherhood of steel being transparently and immediately Not The Good Guys, someone understood the fucking assignment.

actually, so: a lot of fallout fans take umbrage with how Bethesda's stewardship of the BoS specifically treats them and how annoying it is, because the BoS are reclusive paranoid technocultists who create problems for everyone but: they have the cool power armor, so Bethesda backslides into making them the good guys by default, which is so aggravating but the specific way Maximum views the power armor feels like its in conversation with that narrative blunder, that everything about Maximus' life kind of fucking sucks but OH MAN COOL ROBOT ARMOR. that's potent acknowledgement of how branding smooths things over.

dude, incidental cool nonbinary character, HUGE fan of that

i actually like the acceleration and heightening of the religious aspects of the BoS, making all the subtextual shit REALLY textual, further painting them as religious nutjobs

Maximus' interrogation was extremely well done, huge fan of the actor in that scene specifically

SO YEAH THAT'S MY THOUGHTS ON THE FIRST EPISODE.

what pisses me off is, as I explained to a friend last night:

it's so easy to not care about Fallout when the last good piece of Fallout media was........ hang on

September 2011. like, I have rarely had more contempt for a game than I did for FO4, I actively regretted giving it my time, and FO76 just. no. i tried it. I do not Get It.

so it's easy to be Normal about Fallout when there's no hope of good installments to that universe, right?

SO NOW I'M GLARING AT THE FALLOUT TV SHOW LIKE WHO THE FUCK GAVE YOU PERMISSION??????

anyway looking forward to watching more when i have time

[hana-no-seiiki]

GROUND ZERO [IMPORT]

↳ ❝ 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐔𝐄 / 𝐒𝐍𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐏𝐄𝐄𝐊 !❞

pairings: yandere! bf! katsuki + yandere! harem! bnha + ocs x rich inventor! gn! reader

warnings: soft! katsuki. snob reader.

        

        ↳ DATING BAKUGOU KATSUKI WAS AN EXPERIENCE AND A HALF.

        To [Y/N], most of it was getting relentlessly scolded and nagged upon by the explosive persona. Bickering was the usual. Both enjoyed honesty after all, or maybe it was just a sadomasochistic dynamic that only they would understand. 

        Sometimes — although he may argue that it was backwards — they would have sweet quiet moments. 

        Underneath the orange sky, they would lay down after some heated training matches and just enjoy each other’s presence. 

        Not a word was spoken, nor was it needed to be said. 

        ”Oi, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” Katsuki glared at the camera within [Y/N]’s hands. He wasn’t familiar with electronics really, all he needed was his phone and computer at times. However, he had the feeling that whatever his significant other was using should definitely cost a fortune. 

       ”Taking a damn photo so it’ll last longer” [Y/N] beamed as they imitated one of Katsuki’s words early on in the relationship.

        Their propinquity started around late middle school, and boy did Katsuki soften the following years.

        ”What’re ya staring at?!” Katsuki snarled at his masked partner. He couldn’t see the upper half of their face, but considering that their head had been turned towards him for several minutes? He had to fill in the silence.

        ”A boy named Bakugou Katsuki?” [Y/N] tilted their head in confusion. In contrast to their tone in the present day, their words came out as robotic and excessively formal.

        The heir also had their own personality differences between the years of dating. The previous [Y/N] was ruthless, and reveled in the pain — of whatever form — in others.

        They still did now, but having Katsuki to tease 24/7 made it less apparent.

        The said boy blushed at the straightforward confession, ”Take a damn photo. It’ll last longer.”

        After the couple took their fair share of rest, they set off to Katsuki’s home. Orange sky now darker shade of blue as the sun made its leave as well. ”Tch. We’re going to be late for dinner, [L/N]. Hurry your ass up.”

        ”Coming. . . coming. . .” [Y/N] groaned. Katsuki did a number on their equipment. Most have been charred or just completely obliterated, including their portal and wormhole making gadgetry. This meant that they had to lug around all the weapons — yes, I mean actual weapons — that they’ve been launching at their boyfriend. And, [Y/N] being the spoiled brat that they were, definitely did not like having to exert physical effort. But, oh well, it was just another normal day at the park for these two. They should have been more prepared.

        Why throw weapons instead of using practical things like lazers and the such? Well you see, [Y/N] might just be a huge fan of certain characters in F*te and H*nk*i Imp*ct. They couldn’t help it.

        And if you’re wondering how they’re able to practice with Katsuki using his quirk in public, it’s money. In addition to the fact that [Y/N]’s family probably ‘owned’ the majority of Japan if not just having a major influence in it. “Is Mitsuki making beef stew tonight?”

        ”We’re making beef stew.” Katsuki reached for the claymore above [Y/N]’s pile, thinking of how disastrous it’d be if it somehow falls off and stabs them or a person in their vicinity.

        ”B-b—“

        ”No buts. Maybe if you learned how to properly use a knife you wouldn’t cut yourself so fucking much. I managed to convince the old hag to let us be, too. She will not be coming to your rescue.” He grimaced at the memory of his mother bending towards your requests. She loved you and it shows.

        ”If—“

        ”No ifs either. You won’t burn down the building. Think the old hag hasn’t explosion and fire proofed the whole place?”

        ”How about—“

        ”A kiss won’t change your fate.” Katsuki scowled at their attempt in bribery. Like he’d be the type to give in just because of a simple kiss? What did they think he was? A simp? He needed to teach them how to stop being a spoiled brat. What if their family’s money went down the drain? They needed to learn how to be independent. “Just shut it—“

        He is quickly silenced by a quick kiss to the corner of his lips. “F-Fine!”

        ”You and your stupid pouting, stupid cute fucking face — and those stupid pretty lips. . .”

        ”Love you, Ba-ku-go-u-san!” [Y/N] created a heart shape with their arms, basking in their tiny victory for the day.

        “Tch.” Katsuki gritted his teeth, ”Love you, too. [L/N].”

        ”T-they’re so different when they’re together. . .” A goon — [Y/N] referred to Katsuki’s other companions as that due to the power difference in their dynamic — finally spoke up after numerous hours of being ignored.

        ”Right????” Another goon replied to the comment, equally baffled by the lovey-doveyness of it all.

        [Y/N]’s demeanor immediately switched at moment they noticed the cronies’ presence. Speech devoid of all emotion or interest,  ”Eh, you two were still here?” 

        Katsuki wasn’t an exception to the change either, his face morphing into the usual grouchy one he seemed to wear every damn moment, “WHY ARE YOU EXTRAS STILL FOLLOWING US HUH?! BUNCHA STALKERS!”

        The two boy’s accompanying the couple froze up in fear, “Totally different!”

©️ hana.no.seiiki - yun | 2023

[lumiolivier]

Matsuda's Second Shift

Day 27 of 31 of Kinktober

Prompt: Sex work

Word Count: 3576

Everyone's got a family to go home to. But Matsuda...Matsuda has to start his second job.

“Good work today everyone!” Matsuda chimed with his usual cheery disposition while everyone started packing up.  It had been a long day at the office and everyone was exhausted.  Visions of a comfortable bed and a hot meal tantalized all of the task force.  Aizawa going home to his wife and kids, Soichiro and Light going home to Sachiko’s pork katsu, even Mogi going home to something warm to put in his own belly that his mother had made the night before.  But that left Matsuda.  Matsuda, who would trudge up the stairs like he did every other night to his room in the task force headquarters.  Despite everything, there was something empty in him. 

“You, too, Matsuda,” Soichiro praised him, “Light, are you ready?”

“Coming, Dad,” Light followed his father outside while Aizawa and Mogi weren’t too far behind.

“Yes,” L spoke softly, “Thank you for all your hard work today, gentlemen.”

“See you tomorrow, Ryuzaki,” Aizawa may not have been his biggest fan, but that wasn’t mean he was going to totally blow him off.

“You as well, Mr. Aizawa,” L stayed vigilant at the monitors while everyone else went home.  Everyone but Matsuda, who still sat at the bottom of the stairs.  And even though human emotion wasn’t exactly L’s strong suit, he could tell there was something Matsuda was hiding, “Something bothering you, Mr. Matsuda?”

“Hmm?” Matsuda perked up at the sound of his name, “Nope.  Everything’s fine, haha.”

“That’s good to hear,” L let it go, “Here I thought I had something to be worried about.”

“Nope.  I’m good.” How am I supposed to get out of here without L knowing?  He doesn’t need to know about this.  When everyone else got to go home at the end of the day, it was time for Matsuda to start his second shift.  But he needed a distraction, “So…Any big plans for the night?”

“Are you really attempting small talk with me, Matsuda?” L wondered.  Not that he was angry or upset by it.  It was mere curiosity.

“Just making conversation.” I need to know how long I’m going to be sitting on these steps.  If I miss the call, I’m screwed.

“If you must know,” L dropped another sugar cube in his coffee, his mind wandering, “I might just call it a night soon.  Light says I don’t relax enough and that it’s eventually going to drive me into the ground.”

“Light might have a point,” Matsuda nudged him along, hoping L would just go to bed, “It’d be pretty bad for the investigation if one of our best is out of commission.”

“One of our best, Mr. Matsuda?” L shot him a quick glance.

“Well…” Matsuda sputtered out, “I mean, come on, Ryuzaki.  You have to see it, too.  Between you and Light, you both practically run this entire investigation.  And Light’s not exactly stupid either.  You’re both brilliant in your own ways, but I mean, yeah, this is definitely your investigation, but-”

“Matsuda,” L hushed him, “I was screwing with you.  Hard to believe Light has the audacity to tell me I’m the one that needs to relax.  I’m not nearly the robot people seem to think I am.”

“Right,” Matsuda laughed it off, checking his watch.  Shit…I really need to get going.

“What about you?” L asked.  Mostly for Matsuda’s benefit.  Just so he felt a little special, “Any plans for the evening?”

“Actually,” Matsuda could feel the sweat rolling down his neck, “I need to get going.”

“And where are you headed off to?” L spun around in his chair with an out of character whimsy.  It was just Matsuda with him.  Even if he told the task force about him having a moment of childlike amusement, it’s not like they’d believe him.  Not that I wouldn’t know.  Even though you’re off the clock, you still have your tracker in your belt buckle.  I’d still know where to find you.

“Right,” Matsuda bit the inside of his cheek.  Ryuzaki hasn’t been in Japan long enough for him to know where everything is yet, has he?  He’s not going to know, “I’m meeting up with some friends.  I should be back later tonight.”

“Enjoy yourself,” L shooed him out.

“That’s the plan, haha,” Matsuda started walking up the stairs to his room.  Huh…That was easier than I thought.  Alright.  I have to do this quick.  I can get ready there.  That’s not a problem.  Matsuda got another glimpse at the clock.  Shit!  She’s going to be pissed!  Without another second lost, Matsuda sprinted back down the stairs and waved his goodbyes, “See you later, Ryuzaki!  Have a good night!”

L glanced down at his phone next to the keyboard.  That was the plan, Mr. Matsuda.  That was the plan.  L pulled up a separate screen to make sure he knew where his task force was.  Light and Soichiro’s dots were next to each other, so he could only assume they were home.  As were Mogi and Aizawa.  But he watched as Matsuda’s dot started heading for Shinjuku.  Shinjuku at this hour, Mr. Matsuda?  Naughty, naughty.  But L was no saint either.  He scrolled through his contacts before getting to one that was merely labeled X.

“Mr. Ryuga,” a woman’s voice rasped on the other end, “Always a pleasure to hear from one of my best clients.  How can I help you?  Ordering off the menu this evening or are you looking for something a little more specific?”

“You know what I like,” L told her, “Shy…Quiet…Doesn’t ask too many questions.  What do you have along those lines?”

“I think I got something for you.  It’s taking its sweet time getting delivered, but I think I can make a nice arrangement for you.”

“Thank you, Fujiko,” L smiled a bit, “It’s been a long week.  And an even longer day.”

“Aww…My poor baby.  Don’t you worry.  I got what you’re looking for.”

“And that’s why I keep coming back to you.  When should I expect it?”

“Give me about an hour,” she assured him, “I’ll have something nice sent right over.”

“Wonderful.”

Click.

“L,” Watari came out from the kitchen with a bowl of ice cream with everything on it, “I’ll be back later.  Are you going to be alright?”

“How long are you going to be gone?” L wondered.

“Maybe an hour or two,” Watari reported, “I’m going for wine and a good cigar.”

“Will you at least call before you come home?” L ran his pinky around the edge of the bowl and licked the melted ice cream off.

“Of course,” Watari put his hat on and started walking toward the door, “Don’t get into mischief, Lawliet.”

“Yes, Mr. Wammy,” L rolled his eyes, “I won’t.”

“Good boy,” Watari walked out the door and left L to his devices.  And he kept watching the little dots on his screen.

Meanwhile, Matsuda burst through the doors of what looked like a hotel in Shinjuku.  However, it was no hotel.  Every corner was decorated in jewel toned luxury fabrics.  The chandelier dripped with real crystal and diamonds.  Hardly anyone could breathe the air in that lobby for less than ten grand.  And there was no receptionist waiting for him.  Instead, it was a large woman, glaring him down, “You’re late, Touta…”

“I know, Mama,” Matsuda winced, “I got a little tied up at the other office.”

“Excuses, excuses, sweetheart,” she took him by the hand.  And an idea popped into her head, “Maybe you’re not too late.”

“What do you mean?” Matsuda wondered.

“You’re on call tonight,” she smirked, “And I just got a call.  Come on.  Mama will get you all taken care of herself while she tells her little pet where he’s off to tonight.”

“Yes, Mama,” Matsuda knew he was already on thin ice with her.  Agreeing to whatever Mama had for him was his best chance at avoiding any punishment.

“Good boy, Touta,” she cradled his cheek in her palm, “Because this particular client has some deep pockets and if no one else called us for as long as we were open for business but him, we’d be just fine.”

“That’s good to hear,” Matsuda relaxed a bit.  But he knew better.  Deep pockets always came with a price.  He sat down in front of Mama’s mirror and knew he’d be there a while, “What do you got for me?”

“He’s a very private man,” she started digging through the drawers in search of foundation, “And he’s got a soft spot for a shy, quiet type.  He’ll be the one to take charge, so you need to let him do that.  And he likes submissive, but there needs to be just a little resistance.  He likes the chase but hates to run, if that makes any sense.”

“Alright,” Matsuda flinched under her brush, “I think I can handle that.”

“I know you can, sweetheart,” Mama pulled Matsuda’s chin up, “Because your future here depends on it.  I know what kind of dire straits you’re in, Touta.  I can make it all go away with the snap of my fingers.  And I know what you do in the daylight.  I can make that go away, too.”

“I know, Mama,” Matsuda glanced down, doing anything he could to break eye contact, “I’m sorry for being late tonight.  I really did get tied up at the office.”

“And if you’re lucky,” she teased him a bit, “You’ll get tied up with our client tonight, too.”

“Really?” Matsuda wondered, “He’s into bondage?”

“It wouldn’t surprise me,” she shrugged, “Stay still.”

“Sorry,” Matsuda stiffened up.

“Good boy,” Mama started doing contour, highlighting Matsuda’s already soft and delicate features, “You’re so pretty, Touta…I’m so glad you’re one of mine.  Of all the madams in Tokyo you could’ve come to…You wouldn’t think to leave me either, would you?”

“Of course not, Mama,” Matsuda promised, “You’ve treated me well over the last couple years.  You brought me in at my lowest and I don’t think I’d ever be able to repay you for that.”

“Aww…” She gave Matsuda a little kiss on his forehead, leaving a light pink lipstick mark on his skin, “You’re such a sweetheart.  You know, I’m kind of surprised no one’s thought to snap you up and put a ring on it yet.”

“I couldn’t get that lucky,” Matsuda laughed nervously, “I’m too tangled up in work.”

“What?  The NPA can’t be bothered to issue you a love life?”

“It’s not that,” Matsuda squinched his face while his setting spray went on, “Because a lot of the guys I work with are married and have families of their own.”

“Relax your face, honey…”

“Sorry,” Matsuda did his best to keep his head about him and let his face fall, “You’d think at least one of our clients would’ve developed feelings for me.”

“Oh, no, no, no, baby,” Mama stopped him, “Trust me.  That’s not a route you want to go down.  We sell fantasies.  We don’t sell reality.  That’s not a jump you want to make.  Because with a lot of our clients, that jump is going to make them lose interest.  I love you, Touta, but the second you’re not what they paid for, you’d be out on your ass.  You’re cute and you’re sweet, but we sell the slut, not the housewife.  You know what I mean?”

“Yeah,” Matsuda slumped down in his chair with long, well manicured fingers tangled up in his hair, “I know.  It’d be nice, though.”

“That’s why you escort,” she scratched the top of his head, putting him a little more at ease, “Making you available for the girlfriend experience would be a disaster on you.  I’m saving you from the heartache.”

“Thanks, Mama,” Matsuda laid his head in her hip, “I appreciate that.”

“For now, though,” Mama looked him over in the mirror, “I think you’re good.  Go on.  Go get dressed.  You know where the closet is.”

“Yes, Mama,” Matsuda got up from her chair and started walking out of her office, “Wait, Mama, it’d probably be for the best if I at least knew what this guy’s name was.”

“Touta, you’ve been around here long enough,” she rolled her eyes, “You should know these men don’t know real names.  Hell, most of them are hiding affairs.  But I know how you are about that sort of thing.  You might be one of my sluts, but you’re not a homewrecking slut.  He doesn’t have anyone that I know of.  But you’ll be seeing Mr. Ryuga.”

“Ryuga…” Matsuda thought back.  But then, his heart sunk to his feet, “Like…The pop idol, Ryuga?!”

“I doubt they’re the same guy,” she settled him, “Go on.  Go put something nice on for him.  I’ll have the car up front waiting for you.”

“Ok,” Matsuda walked down the hall to the wardrobe room and started skimming through the racks with a couple of the other guys on the schedule for the night.  Ryuga…I know I have to be discreet about this kind of thing, but if I’m really going to be with THAT Ryuga, I don’t think I’ll be able to cope!  How would I be able to keep something like that to myself?  I’d at least have to tell Misa about that.  I know she could keep her mouth shut about that.  But then, she’d know too much.  And I’m sure that would get back to Mama.  She’d kill me!  Alright.  I can do this.  It’s just another night at the office. 

Once Matsuda was already dressed and ready to go, he got into the back of the nice town car Mama called for him.  He kept his bag in his lap filled with all the fun that would await him.  He pulled the zipper on it, just to make sure it was all there.  All the condoms, lubricants, massage oils, and a couple toys if his client was into that sort of thing.  He liked to keep a variety, just to keep things interesting for whoever he was seeing.  Especially if they were repeat customers.  But Matsuda had never seen Mr. Ryuga before.  It wasn’t often he got someone new.  But he wasn’t going to complain.  Much like he did to keep his clients guessing, it still needed to be a little fun for him, too.  But once the car stopped, Matsuda looked out the window, scratching his head.  What…?  Why did the driver bring me here?  I know Mama knows what I do for a living before the sun goes down, but there’s no way she knows where the task force headquarters is.  It’s just like every other nondescript building in the city. 

What do I do?  Dare I even get out?  Worse yet, do I go inside like this?  No.  Mama’s incredible with contour.  I’m sure I could go undetected.  But…Who the hell would be ordering an escort here?!  No.  This must be a mistake.  I’m sure it’s a mistake.  Matsuda leaned up to the driver, “Excuse me, but where are we supposed to be going?”

“This is the address Ms. Fujiko gave me,” the driver told him, showing the text.

“Yeah…” Matsuda chuckled nervously, “I guess you’re right.  My mistake.”

Shit…How am I going to go in there?  How am I supposed to face whoever…No…No way.  I know Mama said his name was Mr. Ryuga, but…No.  I’m overthinking this.  There’s no way Watari would…No.  Matsuda could feel his stomach turn.  He knew if he went in there, his day job would be compromised.  But if he didn’t go in there, Mama would be furious and end him.  Matsuda bit his lip and swallowed his pride.  I can do this.  Like Mama said, deep pockets.  Deep pockets.  If this makes me lose my day job, then I have the night one to fall back on.  And I’m sure I could stay at the brothel until I got back on my feet.  I’ll be fine.  I’ll be fine.

Matsuda mustered up the necessary courage to get out of the car and walked to the front door.  As much as he wanted to reach for the door handle, he had to go in like a civilian.  So, instead of opening the door, he rang the doorbell.  And a little voice barked out of the speaker, “Yes?”

“I’m…” Matsuda cleared his throat, doing his best to disguise his voice.  Wait…That sounded like L, “I’m here for Mr. Ryuga…?”

The doors automatically opened and Matsuda slowly made his way inside.  There was a strange chill in the air.  Like he wasn’t supposed to be there, even though he had been there a million times over.  Even though he lived there.  Something still didn’t feel right.  This is fine.  Everything is going to be fine.  I’m sure I’ll be alright.  I already have a backup plan if this goes sideways.  I’ll be alright.  And if need be, I’ll get back in the car.  I’ll tell Mama that Mr. Ryuga crossed boundaries and I’ll stay in the brothel until the heat dies down and I’ll get the night off.  Everything’s fine.

“Are you Tsuyoshi?” a familiar voice asked from the monitors.

Matsuda’s heart stopped at the sound of his fake name.  By the looks of things, there was only one person left at the task force, “Y…Yes.  That’s me.”

“Are you sure about that?” the screen showed the map with all the dots on it, “Because this little dot right here tells me you’re Touta Matsuda instead.”

It was at that moment, Matsuda broke all character, “How did you know it was me?”

“How else?” L spun around in his chair, getting an eyeful of the present Fujiko sent for him, “You’re wearing a tracker in your belt, Matsuda.  I know where you are at all times.  You think I’m not going to see you go to Shinjuku, go into the brothel, and come right back here?  Granted, I am a little surprised to see you here like this under these circumstances.”

“I’m a little surprised to see you ordering an escort,” Matsuda laughed it off.  Because what else could he do?  It was either brush this off like a funny misunderstanding or face the reality of it. 

“I have needs, too,” L shrugged, “Like I said before, I’m not the robot everyone seems to think I am.  But I’m confused.  What are you doing working for Fujiko?”

“I…” Matsuda could feel it.  The tears coming up from behind his eyes.  He didn’t want to start crying, but he couldn’t stop himself, “I have someone I need to take care of.  My regular salary couldn’t keep up with it, so I started escorting.”

“I’m assuming it’s your grandmother, yes?” L figured, “I figured she was having some health complications.  You moved her into a decent facility, but it’s eating away at your bank account.  Am I wrong?”

“No…” Matsuda wiped his eyes, “She was the one who raised me, Ryuzaki.  I know the inevitable is coming, but if it has to, I at least want her to be comfortable.  I know she wouldn’t approve of me selling my body like this, but what else am I supposed to do?  I don’t need everyone taking more pity than they already do on me.”

“You talk too much, Matsuda,” L rolled his eyes, already pulling up a page for a luxury nursing home fairly close by, along with all of Matsuda’s grandmother’s information, “She’ll be moved by Monday.  And it’s already taken care of.  I’m sure she has another ten good years in her.  At least she will with this particular facility.  It’s one of the best in the country.”

“Wait,” Matsuda’s heart fell into his feet, “Are you serious?  Did you just…?”

“I did,” L nodded, “I’m also not heartless.  By the sounds of it, you have the same relationship with your grandmother as I do with Watari.  The longer they can stick around, the better.”

“Thank you,” Matsuda felt the second wave of crying bubble up in the back of his throat, “You didn’t have to do that.”

“And you didn’t have to be the one Fujiko sent to me,” L pointed out, “But here you are.”

“And…” Matsuda wondered, “You’re not going to judge me…?”

“Matsuda, I ordered you,” L got up from his chair, “I have no room for judgments.  And your intentions, albeit an awkward way of going about it, were pure and noble.  I can’t fault you for that.”

“Thank you,” Matsuda let out a heavy sigh of relief, “I should go.”

“Should you?” L cradled Matsuda’s face in his palm, “You think I’m constantly staring those monitors down for fun?  You think I don’t catch your reflection in them from time to time and see the little untapped treasure you are to me?  Fujiko already took the money up front.  I’m going to take you upstairs.  Do you understand…Tsuyoshi?”

“Um…” Matsuda felt the heat rushing to his cheeks and his loins, “Um…Yes.”

“Yes, what?” This wasn’t Matsuda’s L.  This wasn’t the same Ryuzaki he saw every day at work.  But then again, this wasn’t the same Matsuda that L saw at work either.  There was a certain flame in L’s eyes that did something to Matsuda.  Something that was going to make work a little awkward in the morning.  But he also had a job to do.

“Yes, sir.”

“Good boy,” L praised him, “Come on.  Upstairs.  You know where my room is.”

[ibukis-songbook]

Here's me wishing for any sort of dom!Kiibo thoughts you've got, if you feel like it? Your imagines got me daydreaming and now I can't stop! (Huge fan, by the way! Seeing you on my dashboard always brightens my day, even when it's just a little message about how you're doing or something.)

soft dom Kiibo headcanons

Awe thank you sweetie! I’m so happy I can make your day! <3 Comments like these make mine. Anyways, I love dom Kiibo too. I don’t want to lewd the robot, I want the robot to lewd ME. Sorry this has taken me so long to get out. Writer’s block is the worst.

CW: NSFW, gn reader, dom/sub relationships, dom Kiibo, sub reader, I operate under the assumption that Kiibo has both a sex drive and a dick

.｡.:*☆♥︎♫♪—————— ↫ l l ↬ ——————♪♫♥︎☆*:.｡.

Arctic Monkeys - Kneesocks

Roxanne - Chase Atlantic

Kiibo is totally a soft dom. I think getting him to be a hard dom would require him to be very very very worked up

If you catch my drift

But he’s down for a lot, even as a soft dom.

Remember guys: soft doms are still doms, and are not the same as service tops!

Kiibo is a tad overconfident in himself on the lowkey, so I think he’d actually take better to domming than most would assume.

Kiibs loves taking care of his s/o, pampering them in bed and making the most of the experience.

He also loves the feeling of knowing you trust him to be the one calling the shots.

He’s not experienced in sex at all, so a d/s relationship would likely be introduced after a few lessons in vanilla lovemaking.

Speaking of lovemaking, Kiibo sees all sex as an act of love. Even if you’re just feeling in the mood, to him, being your partner in the bedroom, dom or not, is just another way of him being able to express his affection for you.

Kiibo’s a bit of an experimentalist. His only harsh limits are really hurting you. Biting, pinching, and things are fine, but harsh punishments and extreme impact play are out of the question.

The hardest things he’s probably into would be marking you or overstimulating you.

He loves watching you squirm and writhe in pleasure, hearing you beg him for more.

Or beg him to slow down. But with the way your hips move against him, he really can’t control himself.

Or, or, beg him to give you anything while he edges you.

“You look so desperate right now. Say you need me again. Tell me how much you love it and maybe I’ll reward you.”

Knowing how much you crave him drives him up the wall. Watching you shake makes him remember how fragile and sensitive humans are. He just wants to watch as your body contorts in pleasure as he brings you to the brink and brings you back again and again.

He finds it really cute how you whimper for him while he teases you with his tongue or fingers before giving you what you really want.

He praises you until you can’t think or speak. He’ll make sure you know for certain all the things he loves about you, no matter how embarrassing you think they are. He can’t help but comment on how well you follow instructions, how good you are for him, and how much he loves you.

When Kiibo’s the dom, he prefers to be on the giving end. It’s slippery and silicone and fits you so perfectly (thanks to Miu).

Poor boy tends to get really lost in the moment. He’s totally sex drunk the second he slips in, and this is when he tends to get a bit rough (you know, for him).

He’ll overheat and pant and whine, telling you how tight and warm you are, and how he loves you and wants to see your face when you cum around him. His voice will malfunction but he’d never stop talking, praising you constantly.

“S/o…s/o.~ Hhaahh, s-so t-t-t-iiiiIIIiight. Ba…baaaaAAAaaabyyyy~~~. Ahh, ahhmmnnn…sssSSs/oooOOO!~”

As soon as the two of you are finished, he’ll pull you close to his chest and scan your vitals, making sure you’re alright.

Aftercare with Kiibo is wonderful, provided he isn’t low on charge. Careful not to let him overwork himself.

He dotes on you a lot afterwards. Domdrop for him can hit hard though, so make sure to tell him he did good too! 

[suranet]

omg fellow Flatline enjoyer hiiiiii ⸜( ˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡ i need him in more tf media cause a morally good Decepticon would be amazing and it would make most sense for it to be a medic! and also he looks threatening enough that it could be a gag that the only nice Con is the big scary lookin medic who's name is F l a t l i n e.

it's always a pleasure to hear from another fan of a favorite Transformer w/ a tiny role! he's a minor background character w/ an amusing name (your doctor... Flatline; nothing to be concerned about), an interesting visual design, and the potential to bounce off others in fun ways... i liked that. i would also enjoy seeing him make more appearance in canon in future series some day.

i don't think he'd fit into a niche like being the 'only nice Con' in a hypothetical Decepticon cast but i think Flatline's professionalism and what i view as his sincere dedication to upholding his oaths as a medic would make for fertile grounds to explore what it's like to be a wartime medic. what do the armies on both sides expect from medics? what compromises might Flatline need to make as a doctor? where does he draw the line? what keeps him going? do the soldiers respect medics or disdain them for serving a support role? that sort of thing.

i also enjoyed that Flatline as a character exists on a spectrum from Bayverse Flatline (who's a creep) to IDW2 Flatline (who's basically moe), with IDW1 Flatline square in the middle. like this:

creepy protoform-torturer medic who likes experimenting on people and should not under any circumstances be anybody's attending physician.

medic who is kinda a flippant douche but believes in taking care of his patients, doing his job, and doesn't cause trouble.

well-meaning medic who really really believes in carrying out his robot Hippocratic Oath and unfortunately lacks the experience to sense when he's in personal danger; this turns out badly for him.

[d8tl55c]

hi! 🎊\o_🎉 looking for something? 🦞

'/_'|-_ |'['-,= _|_'|L'|-',=•-|[,-,= [,-'/L'-_

L' /_'|-•|-',= "/,|-•_| +｡⁠. ﾟ✧ ✨

update 3.03 - 11/17/2024

gender: she/they/it is fine thx

util: colorsss, community posts list (doc)

fan of (bold==frequent post): AvA/M and other Alan Becker works, AUs, Rain World, The Murderbot Diaries, Sky CotL, Kitten Burst, ULTRAKILL, Portal, Pony Town, Minecraft, Interstellar, D:BH, Undertale, Hollow Knight, Lackadaisy, 17776, Murder Drones, Dungeon Meshi, Doctor Who, The Isle, WolfQuest, Warrior Cats, wildlife, bugs, space, robots, software development, adding programming knowledge into my writing and headcanons, modding, whump;blood;violence;fluff;serious and silly, fanfic of all of the above, humans, math, animation, ascii art, old internet.

(^ will update over time)

my ava/m au is called EXECUTABLE. it spans the entire known timeline of AvA and AvM in a Different POV and Drabble format (img), focusing on StickFigures, software, and eldritch dieties.

^ and mostly these two.

(i plan to make an index post once there's enough material to lay out a timeline >:3 )

/// personal tag collection ///

#executable!au == my AvA/M AU!! _o/

#--/ art == visual art made by me!

#--/ story == writing made by me! +art = a comic

#--/ animation == animation made by me!

#subpixels == discussion about media

#read later == you can probably guess this one

#important == you can probably guess this one

#wiki == knowledge base

#ancient lore == cool old stuff

#tumblr stories == stories i found on tumblr

#writing advice == i want to save this for writing

#saving this == this wasn't made by me.

#awoo to this == this is SO interesting i want to emit a noise

#kitceil == one of my OCs (scug)

#L1_CAT == one of my OCs (laptopcat)

#L24_CAT == one of my OCs (laptopcat)

#datelyssyc == one of my OCs (protogen) (NEVER posted ;v;;;)

(^ all these are in the tags of this post too)

/// posted works ///

✨tco_safety+feathers.pdf (done - png and short story - EXECUTABLE AU BREACHES CONTAINMENT yayaya) (related: third safety doc page)

✨they are ready to spar (done - short story - c!alan & TCO executable!au)

if you were Orpheus... (done - short story - ??? mythological chodark)

error load (done - short story - TDL and yellow? how did we get- dw about it)

tco_physeng_breakdown.png (done - png and short story - Universe AA2B+ TCO)

orange has a question (done - story - Universe B chodark)

fly away (done - story - TCO post-Showdown)

orange with a diamond sword (done - story - green influencer arc)

some things are extremophiles (done - comic - TCO)

this is not a prophetic vision (done - theory - TCO in AvA 7)

Minecraft bed (done - comic - TDL and some TCO)

programmer021 (done - short story - AU copy of TCO)

in the right (done - theory/story - victim in upcoming AvA 11)

Character Limit (done - Ao3 LINK - TCO whump pre-AvA III)

Box Lunch (done - Ao3 LINK - TCO in the Box)

Call Your Last Witness (done - Ao3 LINK - tmbd prologue)

missed a spot (done - story extension - yellow and TSC)

(^ latest at the top (✨ sparkles == newly added))

/// some --/ art i like ///

thinking about names (orange vs. the second coming)

different strokes (TSC portrait collab)

WING/K (signature animation)

inspiration in 4k (word count) (L1 and being attacked by fic ideas)

they are dancing (TCO and TDL. one of my first asciis)

i have the solution (throw him into lava) (TCO headcanon diagram)

8-petal design (another ascii. this one flopped lol but i like)

2 many crabbies (Animal Restaurant meme)

approx. pi using e (Animation vs Math meme)

ways of seeing them (playing with new TCO and TDL faces)

TCO cosplays (Pony Town)

tco_physeng_breakdown.png (TCO headcanon diagram v2!!!)

d8's wolf armor(y) (minecraft build ;P )

tco_safety+feathers.pdf (TCO care and safety)

(^ latest at the bottom)

[longwuzhere]

My Adventures with Superman Season 2 Easter Eggs

Welcome to another week of My Adventures with Superman WOW twist the knife more why don't you MAwS crew! Very emotional episode and a good one at that! OK lets get to the easter eggs!

My Easter eggs lists for season 1 is here if you haven't seen it!

My season 2 episode 1 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 2 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 3 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 1 post is here

My season 2 episode 5 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 6 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 7 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 2 post is here

My season 2 episode 8 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 9 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 10 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

Spoilers if you haven't seen the episode

The title of this week's episode is a reference to Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" poem specifically the line "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood". A good title for how General Sam Lane and Lois's lives "diverged" from one another after all the things that happened between the two.

Starting things off, General Sam Lane is hiding from Taskforce X and has covered the windows in Clark and Jimmy's apartment. Clark and Jimmy return and they get a knock on the door. General Lane is naturally jumpy at this but it turns out it's a package for Jimmy from S.T.A.R. Labs (I talked about the laboratory here) and the message says Jimmy is invited to speak at the symposium thanks to his Flamebird app and documentations about the occurrences around Metropolis, Superman, and the alien tech everyone's been getting. The message refers to Jimmy as Superman's "best friend" (and later on Lex Luthor calls Jimmy a "pal" both of which are often used as a way to referred to Jimmy in the comics. There's even been comics titled Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen, that lets reader's see Jimmy's adventures in relation to Superman. The latest run of it is fan-fucking-tasic! Highly recommend reading it!

In a, I'm assuming rented limo, Clark reads off who will be at the S.T.A.R Labs Symposium. First is CEO Hamilton, who we can assume is Emil Hamilton, General Wade Eiling, and Senator Hackett. Later at the symposium we even see General Eiling in the animated flesh with Hank Henshaw (who I talked about here) and sitting next to Mayor Fleming and Senator Sackett (both of whom I talked about here and they are wearing their outfits from episode 4 season 1).

Emil Hamilton makes his first appearance in the Adventures of Superman #424 (1987) [W: Marv Wolfman, P: Jerry Ordway, I: Mike Machlan, C: Tony Zuiko, L: John Costanza] as a former S.T.A.R. Labs employee who lost his job and his technology credit thanks to Luthor buying them out and claiming it as his own. He's Superman's science confidante and helped build the Phantom Zone Projector and the Superman robots. But later on he delves into more villainous territories.

General Wade Eiling I briefly talked about here but I can expand on it. Like I said in the previous post about General Eiling, he made his first appearance in Captain Atom #1 (1987). He becomes an even bigger threat to the Justice League in JLA #25 (1999) [W: Grant Morrison, P: Howard Porter, I: John Dell, C: Pat Garrahy, L: Ken Lopez]. General Eiling gets rid of his old human body and transfers his consciousness to the body of the Shaggy Man, shaved it down to what you see here. Now, he's granted super strength, near invulnerability, super stamina, and heightened sense of smell.

At the symposium, we see some tech demos with one being the invisibility vest that Mist wore in season 1 (I talk about him here) and the shield that blocks laser fire. Glad that someone on the MAwS team is a Gundam fan because that shield is designed to look like the Gundam RX-78's shield.

In a flashback to Lois's past, General Sam Lane explains to Lois what her mom's name means in Korean. Much like her comic counterparts, Eun-byeol's name starts with an E just like Ella/Elinore/Elenor Lane. Very smart of the MAwS crew to keep the consistency. Based on what was said in these flashbacks, Lois might be an only child, so no Lucy Lane, Lois's sister in this continuity.

As Lois and General Sam Lane try to hide themselves from Taskforce X, we see them get cornered in the sewers by Atomic Skull who I talked about here.

Continuing their escape, General Sam Lane and Lois meet a pawn shop owner, a friend of Sam's named Winslow Schott, a weapons and technology expert. This name drop is a reference to Superman villain, the Toyman.

Toyman's first appearance was in Action Comics #64 (1943) [Cover art by Sam Citron and Don Komisarow]. In this continuity, Winslow Schott was a talented toymaker who turned to the life of crime in order to get his thrills. In his debut he makes two robberies with his toys, but Superman stops his third robbery. Toyman captures Lois and attempts to kill her but was stopped by Superman.

In the silver age, Toyman makes his first appearance in Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #9 (1955) [W: Otto Binder, P: Curt Swan, I: Ray Burnley]. Here Toyman goes by Winslow Percival Schott, which becomes his full name from then to this day. In the comic, some crooks kidnap Jimmy and use him to answer some Superman trivia on a quiz show.

Winslow would be revamped again in Superman #13 (1988) [W&P: John Byrne, I: Karl Kesel, C: Tony Zuiko, L: John Costanza] where he is a digruntled toy designer employee who was fired for not being able to adapt to what children wanted at the time. So as a result of his firing Winslow would go after his former employers and kill them with his toys. This was origin of Winslow I am more familiar with thanks to Superman the Animated Series (highly recommend watching that cartoon too because its incredible and also Toyman in that show is FUCKING creepy).

There have also been other people who took up the Toyman name. Jack Nimball, the second Toyman uses the same gimmicks as Winslow, but Jack is dressed as a Jester. You may recognize the design in the Super Friends cartoon. The third and heroic Toyman was Hiro Okamura who was a rich Japanese teen with incredible intelligence and mechanical skills. Hiro would be most famous in the pop culture zeitgeist when he, Superman, and Batman teamed up together to stop a giant kryptonite asteroid from colliding with the Earth as seen in Superman/Batman #6 (2004) and the Superman/Batman: Public Enemies animated movie.

At the end of the episode, Clark feeling alone after overhearing Lois agree with her father that Clark was weird and hearing that Jimmy helped Lex get his start, he uses the beacon to contact Kara, his cousin who I talked about here. So I have a weird theory. It is possible that the person flying over Earth is not "Zod" but actually Kara?. In season 1's finale "Zod" uses the "kneel before me" line making all of us think its Zod, but the credits list the character with a female VA. So my idea is this was Kara receiving the signal from the beacon.

We seen in next weeks episode preview Kara will be showing up and that close up on the bracelet makes me think this is how she compacts the armor. Will I be right? Who knows, but all I can say is:

Very good episode this week can't wait to see what they'll do with Kara next week!

My season 2 episode 1 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 2 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 3 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 1 post is here

My season 2 episode 5 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 6 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 7 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 2 post is here

My season 2 episode 8 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 9 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 10 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

and if you missed it my Season 1 Easter eggs list is here

[friedfriedchicken]

HELLO QUESTION WHAT IS AKUDAMA DRIVE ABOUT I'm thinking of starting a new series and this one looks interesting!

YAHOOO I LOVE GETTING ASKS!! Okay- about Akudama Drive! I'll be doing this in two parts, one for behind the scenes because I love that stuff and a second paragraph for a spoiler free summary!

Akudama Drive a single season anime that has a complete story and two adaptations (a manga with two extra chapters after the anime's ending and a stage play that's very well done imo). It won Anime Trending's 7th yearly Anime Awards, Best Original Screenplay, Best Sci-Fi l, and Best Mystery/Psychological Anime in 2021 but somehow it's so so unknown despite that. It's made by some of the crew who worked on Danganronpa (games and animes) so there's lots of similar ideas, themes, designs, etc but I 100% feel like Akudama Drive executes many of these concepts better than DR did.

Plot-wise, Akudama Drive is about an Ordinary Person who accidentally gets wrapped up in a heist featuring some of the biggest criminals, also known as Akudama, in Kansai. The anime takes place in a cyberpunk dystopian future where criminals run so rampant that the government has a dedicated Execution Division for dealing with Akudama. This clearly isn't very fun for the Ordinary Person but she rolls with it because she's dead if she does and dead if she doesn't. Just like Danganronpa, Akudama Drive is gorey but in a less-cartoony way. There's two versions and the one that was aired puts in censor smears to cover up the blood & guts. If you're pirating then this'll be the one you'll probably find but if not then I think you might be good since you're a Transformers fan. The gore is a little lesser than what MTMTE had going on but instead of robots Akudama Drive has humans- telling you this since AD loves getting really violent. Also the uncensored version has extended scenes which I'm excited to start watching soon.

Anyways there's my ramble heehoo- I've been insane for this anime since last year and the brainrot strikes back 🛐 If you pick it up I hope you like Akudama Drive!

Another warning I remembered: Akudama Drive gets really bright and flashy during a whole ton of scenes, especially the opening and first few fight sequences. I'm not sure if you're sensitive or not to that sort of stuff but it's worth mentioning too.

[danganronpa-cyberspace]

-DANGANRONPA CYBERSPACE PROLOGUE: PART 2-

Haruki: [Kiki and I walk over to the girl who’s pen got dropped into the fiery pit.]

Haruki: [She was standing there writing in a notepad.]

Haruki: Hello, I’m-

???: Haruki Douzono, Ultimate Cyborg, and your friend, Kiki Gunji, Ultimate Beekeeper. Noted.

Kiki: Right on the money!! You must’ve heard us, huh??

???: Yes.

…

Haruki: [There was a pause.]

Haruki: […Uh, I’ll try to keep the conversation going.]

Haruki: So, what’s your Name and Ultimate?

Kiki: We hive a right to know!!

Haruki: …and I beelieve that we should.

Kiki: Hehehehe!!! I’m rubbing off on you!!!

Haruki: …yeah, a bit.

Alexandra: Alexandra Bolotin. Ultimate Astrophysicist. Hi.

…

Haruki: [There was another pause.]

Haruki: [Okay, this girl really wants us to stop talking.]

Haruki: K-

Kiki: Soooo, whatcha discovered??

Alexandra: The fiery pit of hell, and that I liked that pen.

Alexandra: That’s what you all need from me.

Alexandra: Conversation is over, nice to meet you.

Haruki: [She very politely bowed at us both and walked to a nearby bench, still scribbling on her notebook.]

Kiki: Do we have a reputation??? Is that why she was so ready to leave us be??

Haruki: Don’t you mean…

Haruki: …leave us bee?

Kiki: Even I have my limits Haruki!!

Haruki: [Crap, and I thought I was doing something.]

Haruki: [Kiki and I approached the boy with the phone.]

Haruki: [He was snapping pictures and spouting random internet slang.]

Haruki: [The last time I used a phone, ROFL was still relevant.]

Kiki: Hiii!!!

???: Hey, OMG HRU BFF?

Kiki: ALR, HBU??

???: Okay, so you’re online, you’re cool enough to talk with me.

???: But…

Haruki: [He turns to me as I was still trying to decipher what Kiki said.]

Haruki: Huh?

???: L + Ratio, OMG, fallen off incel.

Haruki: …excuse me..?

???: And you’re not online, so I really don’t care about you!

Haruki: [Ratio? What? Is this math? Was he spitting straight math equations at me?]

Haruki: [He turned back to Kiki, beaming.]

???: So girlie, tell me about you!!

Kiki: Well, I’m Kiki Gunji, Ultimate Beekeeper, and this is my bestie, Haruki Douzono! He’s an Ultimate, too!!

???: Ultimate Hermit, I’m guessing? Nehehehe.

Kiki: HEY!! LEAVE HIM ALONE!!

???: AH-!

Haruki: [He jumped back, startled by Kiki’s sudden shout.]

Haruki: I’m the Ultimate Cyborg, actually.

??? (Waku): Rewind, rewind, rewindddd.

??? (Waku): CYYYYYYBORG?

Haruki: …yes. I very clearly said cyborg.

Haruki: [He whipped out it’s phone, and began snapping picture after picture of me.]

Haruki: [I just stood there and awkwardly smiled. I didn’t know what else to do.]

???: Woah woah woahhhh!! My fans are going to looooove this!

???: They’ll totally see you as a cute soft killer robot. You’re gonna slay.

Haruki: [Ah yes, more words that I can’t even guess what they mean.]

Kiki: Fans? Are you an idol??

???: Kindaaaa!! Let’s play a game! Guess what my Ultimate is!!!

Haruki: [He pulled up music on his phone, and began to play the Jeopardy theme.]

Haruki: My guess is…Ultimate Influencer?

Kiki: Oh! Mine is the Ultimate Spokesperson!

???: WRONGGGGG!! Skill issue.

Kiki: Hey!!

Haruki: …what she said. I’m upset too.

???: You guys are no fun! Here, I’ll just tell you what my name is.

Waku: Waku Hayashi is the name, being the Ultimate Geologist is my name! Otherwise known as RockinRain on PikPok. Yeah, that RockinRain!

. . .

Haruki: [It became clear very fast that Kiki and I had no clue who this guy was.]

Waku: Y’all, you’re serious? You have never ever ever heard of RockinRain?!

Kiki: Nope. Don’t have PikPok.

Haruki: Was too poor to afford a phone.

Waku: Lemme clue you guys in then. I basically conduct all my geologistic studies on streams, and those streams are CUTENESS OVERLOAD!!

Waku: And for you, Haruki, that means they were really good.

Kiki: Cool!! Do your fans know you’re at Hope’s Peak??

Waku: Totes! Opened my letter on the stream and everything!

Waku: …might be getting doxed as we speak, but hey! All for the clout, baby!

Haruki: Doesn’t streaming all the time sound kinda dangerous?

Haruki: Like, what if someone finds out where you are from your streams?

Kiki: …yeahhhh, he does have a point-

Waku: Who cares! As long as I keep my fame then I’ll be a shooting starrrr!

Haruki: You can’t be a shooting star if you’re dead.

Kiki: …

Waku: …

Haruki: …

Haruki: …sorry, I don’t know why I said that…

Waku: Yeah, now you’ve really fallen off. Later!

Waku: Follow RockinRain on PikPok!!

Haruki: [He snaps a quick picture of Kiki and I before darting off.]

Haruki: Crap, we never asked what he found.

Kiki: It’s okay!! I don’t think he would’ve cared about it anyway.

Kiki: And Haruki-

Kiki: …are you okay?

…

Haruki: [No. Absolutely not. What Waku said about not caring about the consequences of it’s streams…]

Haruki: [Tosses itself in harms way just to be famous…just risking so much…]

Haruki: [I wasn’t fine. I wasn’t okay. But I didn’t say that. Instead I said-]

Haruki: Yeah, just had a moment. Let’s keep moving!

Kiki: Yeah!!

Haruki: [Kiki and I walk over to a small, sweet looking girl.]

Haruki: [She’s checking her pocket watch, and as soon as we walk up to her, she turns around, and smiles.]

Haruki: [The way she moves, it’s almost robotic. Or as if ever move she makes is planned.]

???: Ah! What wonderful timing! I have been expecting youuuu, hehe!

Haruki: You have?

???: Of course! I have been watching you two make rounds to everyone!

???: I am quite glad I’m next! I’ve been eagerly waiting for your arrival, hmhmhm!

Kiki: You’re…cool!! Cool stuff!!

Haruki: [Look at Kiki go, not starting a fight in the first few seconds!]

Haruki: Well, I’m guessing you know our names and ultimates too?

???: Indeed! Kiki, the pretty, bubbly beekeeper, and Haruki, the strong, dashing cyborg!

Kiki: Awwww, thank you!! You’re pretty yourself!!

???: Oh, little old me? No! I am simply a small girl in a big world! Heh!

Haruki: …wait.

Kiki: What is it??

Haruki: Your voice…do you do talk shows?

???: I do! Yes! Do you recognize me yet?

Haruki: …

Haruki: …

Haruki: …no, lost it, sorry.

Haruki: [And the two stared at me as if I was a moron. Yeah. I look dumb right now.]

Kiki: It’s okay, Haruki, it’s okay-

Haruki: I know, I just embarrassed myself…

???: Hmhmhmhm! You look like a fool! But at least your silver distracts from it!

Haruki: …thanks. I appreciate that.

Kiki: He doesn’t like being a cyborg, so don’t bring it up, THANKS!!

???: Awww, I’m sorry! I apologize!

Haruki: [She curtsies, a smile still upon her face.]

Haruki: [She either has no idea what’s making me upset, or knows and loves torturing me.]

Haruki: […eh, she could be Tomoki.]

Kiki: MOVING ON!!

Kiki: Wanna introduce yourself??

Asaha: Oh My! I was having so much fun, I nearly forgot! I am Asaha Isobe, Ultimate Living Doll! I wonder if that shall ring a bell, hmhmhmhm!

Haruki: [That’s it!]

Haruki: Wonder, the Living Doll! The Internet Sensation!

Asaha: I knew you would get it! So clever, dearie!

Kiki: Heyyyy, Haruki, no offense, you’re my friend and all, but like…

Kiki: …don’t you kinda live under a rock?? How do you know her???

Haruki: Oh, she was on a talk show with her mom, and I just happened to see it.

Haruki: …I guess that episode is a core memory or something?

Asaha: Oh…my mother…

…

Asaha: Hahahaha! What a lovely woman! She made me who I was today!

Haruki: [That uncomfortably long pause makes me think she doesn’t see her as very lovely.]

Haruki: [But that’s none of my business.]

Kiki: Isn’t this awesome, Haruki?? We’re classmates with two internet sensations!!

Haruki: It is kinda cool, but at the end of the day, we’re all human, right?

Haruki: Fame isn’t everything.

Asaha: Speaking of us all being equals…would you like an autograph?

Haruki: …did you hear what I just said?

Kiki: Autographs aside, I really do like your skirt!! And your outfit!! And your face!!

Kiki: You’re really cute, actually!!

Asaha: Awww, you flatter me! Thank you! Thank you!

Haruki: [Kiki continued to flatter her, but halfway through, she stared at me.]

Haruki: [Her purple eyes bore into me, into my soul, through my metal, through my skin…]

…

Kiki: Haruki? HARUKI!!

Haruki: AH!

Kiki: You good?? You kinda stared into space, and beecame a ghost for a second!!

Asaha: Yes! Are you okay, dearie?

Haruki: […what just happened?]

Haruki: Yeah, I’m okay, Uh, Uhm-

Asaha: You want to know what I’ve found! Ehehehe! I have a surprise!

Haruki: [She gestures towards her hair.]

Haruki: [What exactly did she find?]

Kiki: What’s the surprise!!

Asaha: My hair has grown. As a Living Doll, I keep everything about my appearance documented. And…my hair has grown exactly 2 centimeters! Hehehe!

Kiki: So, what you’re saying is we could’ve been out longer than we thought??

Asaha: Exactly! Possibly even weeks! Isn’t that fun?

Haruki: Not really, but thanks for bringing that up. It’s really important info.

Kiki: Yeah, thanks!!

Asaha: Of cou- oh my!

Haruki: [She pauses, and robotically grabs her watch. She makes an expression of shock.]

Asaha: Why, you are late! Off you go! Introduce yourself! We must make quick time!

Kiki: Uhhh, okay!! B-

Asaha: Ta-Ta! Don’t fall down the rabbit hole!

Haruki: [She begins waving while we stand there.]

Haruki: [Kiki goes to say more, but she just keeps waving.]

Haruki: Uh…Bye, Asaha.

Haruki: [We slowly walk away.]

Haruki: Do you think she’s an actual doll?

Kiki: I thought she was an animatronic, to be honest!!

Haruki: [Kiki and I walk over to a tan guy wearing sunglasses.]

Haruki: [He’s just standing there holding a stick with fire on it to the glass.]

Haruki: [He looks bored out of his mind.]

???: Jeeeez, why is this taking so long? Is this glass frickin’ fireproof?!

Haruki: Hey-

Haruki: [He whips his head around. It seems at the sound of my voice, his entire demeanor changed.]

???: Heyyyyy! God, someone’s finally talking to me!

???: I’ve been sitting here for god knows how long, and two cuties decide to come over and chat with me? Bullseye!

Kiki: Thanks, but how’d you get fire in here???

???: Oh, matches.

Kiki: How’d you get matches here???

???: Uh…

???: …dunno.

Haruki: Anyway, can you tell us who you are and what your Ultimate is?

Hinato: Sureee, why not. I’m Hinato Funaki, Ultimate Fire Dancer. Careful, if you touch me you might get a third degree burn. I’m sizzling.

Haruki: [He winked, and believe me when I tell you, Kiki and I both swooned.]

Haruki: Hey, can you give us a sec?

Hinato: Alright, take your time.

Haruki: [I quickly pull Kiki to the side.]

Haruki: You felt that too, right?

Kiki: YEAH!! HE IS HOT!!

Haruki: …now I’m too nervous to talk to him, can you handle most of it?

Kiki: Okayyyy, but if I stop mid sentence, then we bail.

Haruki: Got it.

Haruki: [We turned back to Hinato, who was back at the glass.]

Kiki: Okay, we’re good!!

Hinato: Huh? Oh, sick. Sooo, tell me, whatcha need?

Kiki: We’re just introducing ourselves and stuff!! And uh, I beelieve you’re really cute!!

Kiki: So does Haruki!!

Haruki: KIKI!

Kiki: SORRY!!

Hinato: Ohhh, so you think I’m sexy, huh? Cool.

Hinato: Here, since I think you both are just so sweet for that, lemme give you a show.

Haruki: Show?

Hinato: A litte performance. Just sit back and watch, baby!

Haruki: [He lit both sides of his fire stick, and began to spin it rapidly, switching it from hand to hand.]

Haruki: [Then, at the climax of his act, he tosses the stick into the air, catching it with his teeth!]

Haruki: [He takes the fire stick into his hand, and bows. Kiki and I both clap.]

Haruki: [Great, we’re swooning again.]

Kiki: WOOOOO!! WHAT A TALENT!!!

Haruki: That was awesome, Hinato!

Hinato: Awww, you’re so cute, both of you.

Kiki: Hehehehehe…

Haruki: [Uh-oh, Kiki’s down.]

Haruki: [Wait, wait I gotta ask him if he found anything-]

Haruki: Hey, Uhm…Hinato…did you…

Haruki: Find anything?

Haruki: [Yeah, that was smooth, wasn’t it.]

Hinato: Ohhh, Yeah, no. I totally didn’t.

Hinato: I’m not the brightest bulb in the pack, so…

Hinato: I’m tryin’ to melt the glass.

Haruki: …hm.

Haruki: [That sounds pretty stupid, if I’m being honest.]

Kiki: What a himbo!!

Hinato: A what?

Kiki: Hehehehe!!

Haruki: [We need to get out of here before I get all giggly too.]

Haruki: We gotta go…introduce ourselves…bye!

Hinato: Awww, alright, alright. If you want another show, honey, just tell Funaki, okay?

Haruki: [He winks.]

Haruki: […hot.]

Haruki: [Gah! Eye on the prize, Haruki!]

Haruki: [I grab Kiki’s hand, and bolt out of there before we both can swoon anymore.]

Haruki: [Kiki and I walked over to a taller, fashionable girl.]

Kiki: Ohhh, cute jumpsuit!!

???: Awww, Grazie, grazie.

Kiki: Here, okay I have an idea!!

Haruki: Hm?

Kiki: I bet I can guess what your Ultimate is!!

Haruki: [Okay, she’s spicing it up, I can do that.]

???: Hm, okay. Go ahead, try to guess.

Kiki: …Fashionista?

???: Nope. Not even close.

Kiki: WHAT?!

Kiki: YOU AREN’T A FASHION ULTIMATE?!?

???: No, I’m not into anything cosmetic.

Kiki: Ughhhh…I’m out of ideas…

???: Awww, pech.

Haruki: Oh, I know!

Haruki: Tourist!

…

Haruki: [She looked at me as if I was the rudest man alive.]

Haruki: [Shit.]

???: Okay, you two are the stupid. No offense, but you are idiots.

Kiki: RUDE!!

Haruki: Yeah.

???: I’m teasing, I’m teasing. Sorry, eolin-i.

Kiki: Okayyy, okay.

Haruki: We’re Haruki Douzono and Kiki Gunji, by the way. A beekeeper and a cyborg.

???: If we played guess your Ultimate, I would’ve been here for hours.

Haruki: [She rolled her eyes, obviously sarcastic.]

Haruki: [Mm, or is she teasing? I really don’t care, I’m getting a bit tired.]

Miliani: I’ll stop, I’ll stop. I’m Miliani Kealoha, Ultimate Interpreter. Bonjour, Hello, Hola, Aloha, and Nihao.

Haruki & Kiki: Ohhhhhhhh.

Miliani: Yeah, I thought grazie gave it away.

Kiki: It should’ve, man I’m dumb…

Haruki: No, you had a good guess.

Miliani: Don’t be too down, Kiki. You had passion, and it’s the thought, or the guess, that counts.

Kiki: Awww, thanks!!

Haruki: Anyway, Miliani, have you made any discoveries?

Miliani: Not a trap door or a hell hole, but lingual discoveries.

Kiki: Lingual??

Miliani: Mhm. You’ve noticed everyone is speaking in Japanese, right?

Haruki: Yes?

Miliani: Everyone is speaking Japanese. Even the Russian, the American, and the Romanian.

Miliani: This means everyone knows Japanese, but that’s kinda weird, since we’re all Hope Peak freshman.

Miliani: We all just got here, but everyone is speaking perfectly fluent Japanese.

Miliani: Even if they managed to cram all of that Japanese in, there is no way they would be completely perfect in their dialect.

Miliani: So, we’ve been here for a while.

Kiki: Woahhh, a while? Must’ve been like a year or two!! Japanese is hardddd!

Miliani: Tell me about it. I spent a single week becoming fluent, and I’m still sort of lost. Me, the Ultiamte Interpreter.

Haruki: [Wow, a single week? That’s insane!]

Haruk: [But, I trust her word. If we take what she says at face value, then we’ve been here for a year.]

Haruki: [The plot thickens.]

Haruki: Thanks for your help, Miliani. You’re brilliant.

Miliani: I know.

Kiki: Hey, wanna teach me Polish sometime??

Miliani: After we get out of here.

Haruki: Kiki, you already promised to practice cheerleading, how many things are you going to do?

Kiki: EVERYTHING!

Haruki: Hah, let’s go, Kiki.

Miliani: Au revoir and Arrivederci!

Haruki: [Kiki and I walk over to a guy wearing a long, red cape.]

Haruki: [He was holding…a glass of wine?]

???: Urghh…

Kiki: Hi!!

???: AH!

Haruki: [He jumped, nearly spilling his wine.]

Haruki: [Where have I seen that before?]

???: I am sorry…I am jumpy…I suppose…

Kiki: Hey, it’s okay!!

Kiki: And nice cape!!

???: …I got it from a costume store…

Kiki: Haha, yeah, they exist.

…

Haruki: We’re Kiki and Haruki. Beekeeper and Cyborg.

???: Mhm…

Haruki: [He looked deeply uncomfortable with us.]

Haruki: [I’ll just get his name and Ultimate and move on.]

Haruki: Uh, what’s your name and Ultimate?

Decebel: …I am a Romanian man named Decebel Albu…my Ultimate is not important to me, so you do not need to hear it.

Kiki: Can you tell us your Ultimate anyway?? It’s cool to know stuff about other people!!

Decebel: …no, apologies.

Haruki: No problem.

…

…

…

Kiki: We’re just gonna, uhm, go over here. Bye!!

Haruki: [Kiki walks away, embarrassed.]

Haruki: Uh, are you okay?

Decebel: I am anxious, apologies, Haruki…

Decebel: Could you leave me be now?

Decebel: …please?

Haruki: Yeah. If you need anything, we’ll be around.

Haruki: [He turned away as I joined Kiki.]

Kiki: I think he’s just shy…

Haruki: Very shy…

Haruki: I don’t think he’ll like the rest of the people here, then.

Kiki: Eh, that cape can do anything!!

Haruki: …like hide wine stains.

Haruki: [Kiki and I walk over to a very buff lady who’s wailing on the glass.]

Haruki: [Each of her punches lands with what feels like a shockwave, until eventually she stops.]

Haruki: [She sighs, putting her hands on her hips, stumped.]

Haruki: [This woman is insane, she’s not even breaking a sweat!]

Kiki: Hey! Whatcha doing??

???: Huh?

Haruki: [She turns around, and gently smiles.]

???: Sorry, didn’t see ya there.

Haruki: Your punches…they’re awesome!

Kiki: Second!! You're like a BEAST!!

???: Beast was my nickname in high school, hahahaha!

Kiki: It should be more like jellyfish, cuz you float and sting like one!!

Haruki: [As the lady laughed at Kiki’s praise, I smiled. I feel comfortable around her.]

Haruki: [Even though she could snap my neck with ease…]

Haruki: […I still feel like she’s the most trustworthy person here.]

Kiki: So, what’s your name and Ultimate??

Haruki: And do you need us to introduce ourselves?

???: Nope. Lil’ Miss Beekeeper isn’t very quiet.

Kiki: Ehehehe-

Ouki: As for me, I’m Ouki Wakamatsu, Ultimate Crossing Guard. I work for the good of the people, and protect the future people.

Haruki & Kiki: Crossing Guard?

Ouki: I get that a lot. I just work out. Got a lotta people to protect.

Kiki: You sound too noble!! You’re totally beerillaint!

Haruki: Okay, Kiki, that was a bit of a stretch-

Kiki: I’ve already used up all the good ones!!

Ouki: It’s alright, Hun, A for effort.

Kiki: She called me Hun!!!

Haruki: [Keeping this conversation on track.]

Haruki: Hey, Ms. Wakamatsu, have y-

Ouki: Ms. Wakamatsu? Hey, no formalities.

Haruki: Sorry, it’s just that-

Haruki: [She reminded me of a nice scientist.]

Haruki: [But out loud, I told her-]

Haruki: You seem like a respectable teacher.

Ouki: Aren’t you sweet? Well, no Ms. or Mr.. Just Ouki, Mk?

Haruki: […women.]

Haruki: Definitely, Ouki.

Kiki: Haruki’s in LOOOV-

Haruki: S-SHUT UP!

Haruki: [Like she’s any better!]

Haruki: A-Anyway, Ouki, have you found out anything that could help our situation?

Ouki: I think I know something. The glass is incredibly strong.

Ouki: I was pullin’ out all the stops on that glass, but nothing. Whoever’s here wants to keep us here.

Kiki: I’d say it’s bulletproof or something!! Nobody’s been able to make a dent…

Haruki: Okay, I’ve concluded my theory.

Haruki: We’ve been kidnapped.

Ouki: Sadly, that’s what everything’s pointin’ too.

Kiki: But it’s okay, we can band together!

Kiki: AND BEAT THE EVERLOVING SHIT OUT OF THIS EVIL MASTERMIND!! AHAHAHA!!

Haruki: [Kiki, you are a different breed.]

Haruki: Right, well that’s all we need from you. Thanks for talking to us, Ouki.

Ouki: No problem. I’ll be here for the both of you, I swear.

-END OF PART 2-