#but that's probably gonna kill so many projects...

[booasaur]

Looks like Laysla is just being extra careful about strike rules. She recently posted herself dancing and lip syncing to Taylor Swift’s Shake it Off and winked when “cruising” came up.

I had to go back to this older ask in reply to one I'd already answered to say you were truly vindicated, anon. :P Since Thursday she's been sharing TONS of vids, her own BTS as well as the various Cruz/Aaliyah fanart people have been posting, she was really just waiting to be unleashed.

[starrysharks]

i used to be a bit conscious about having so many girls/fem characters in my works (starsaints carnival is the only developed story right now that doesn't have a female protagonist, and most of the time i have to actively go out of my way to make male characters) but you know what fuck it i like girls so i'm gonna write girls goddammit!!!

[angel-eyes05]

to leave the warmest bed i've ever known

pairing: spiderwoman!reader x miguel o’hara 

summary: after miguel’s fight with miles, you confront him in his office

warnings: this whole thing is basically one big argument there’s SO much angst, implied suicide attempt, HUGE ATSV SPOILERS DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS MOVIE, im projecting a little in some parts of this ngl (i cried writing a certain section of this, you'll know it when you read it lmao), mentions and descriptions of blood, gore, and death

word count:  4.1k

notes: i watched the movie yesterday…and miguel is on my mind. but i remember reading this namor x reader fanfic after i watched wakanda forever of a similar idea to this and i loved it so this is HEAVILY inspired by that fic, but just make it miguel. i would link it but ngl that was so long ago and i dont remember the author. if i end up finding it again ill put it here. also, just pretend miguel has been doing this whole spider society thing for a couple of years at least, it just needs to work like that for this ik its probably not canon but just roll with it lmao. and yes the title is a taylor swift lyric im so glad you noticed (im so sorry she's in my brain rn with the eras tour)

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The anger boiled up inside your chest as you stormed your way across the lobby. Hundreds of different Spider-Man variants were scattered across the area, some more injured than the others. It sickened you sometimes. How he had so many people under his grasp and just decided to throw some of them at the walls sometimes, not caring how hard they hit the floor because they were all just ammo to him. How despite his denials of it, that’s probably what your role was to him as well. Nothing more than a bullet in his massive machine gun.

You normally tried not to think about it, how his determination towards his goal sometimes meant lack of care for others. But this time he had just gone too far. You always had a soft spot for Miles, watching closely on him whenever Miguel would let you go though scanners of all the different variants. You admired his struggle, but eventual success to taking up the previous Peter’s mantle, and always hated how Miguel talked about him. You knew there was no way Miles could’ve asked for any of this. For the pressures and struggles of being a Spider-Man, for everything causing such a strained relationship with his parents, for the death of his uncle, and for what will be the eventual death of his father. You definitely didn’t.

Ok lets do this one last time. Eh, whatever, there’s probably gonna be 50 other introductions after this one so it doesn’t really matter.

Being Earth-837’s Spider-Man has never been easy. Especially since you were bit when you were only 13 (another reason you sympathized with Miles and Gwen). Your life had followed the order of canon events to a perfect T, your older brother killed in a fight with a robber only two months after you were bit. You tried to overcome the burden of your powers by trying to live as normal of a teenage life as possible, but it was mostly in vain, having to give up multiple friendships and relationships in fear of those you love getting hurt. This was only elevated when your boyfriend Peter was murdered in the crossfire of an encounter with Doc Ock. You didn’t understand. You couldn’t. What you had done to deserve all of this. All you did was just be in the wrong place at the wrong time. You wonder sometimes what would happen if someone was in the same place you were when you got bit. If someone else went to the closed down area of that museum and ran into that spider. That stupid spider that ruined your life. Those thoughts slowly started to disappear for a bit. For a few years things were easy. Things seemed like they were finally going in your favor.

You were 25 when it happened. The last canon event. Ever since you were a little girl you hated your mother’s job. Losing nights of sleep over if she would come home or not. She always did though. She was good at her job. Too good though. Good enough to get promoted to police captain, which for who you were, was basically sealing her fate. She saved so many people that day. You were too busy fighting Venom to notice how much collateral damage you were causing in the process. Your mother’s job was to evacuate all the citizens away from the fight. She died shielding a child from incoming debris. A noble way to go. But god was it gruesome. You found her after the fight was over, two metal poles impaling her. One through her stomach and one straight through her face, pools of blood growing bigger below her as she was left there, all the paramedics busy trying to save the heavily injured. You froze when you finally recognized her, unable to at first due to how mutilated her face was from the pole. Suddenly, you were transported back to being a six year old, falling asleep outside the door to your mother’s bedroom so you would know exactly when she would come home. Purposefully falling asleep in her arms so that she couldn’t go anywhere.

When you used the key she had given you to get into her apartment that night, and you slept in her room, desperate to intake anything left of her before she was fully gone. You doused yourself in her perfume so it still felt like she was standing right behind you. You had always loved her smell. The smell of vanilla, curl product, and fancy perfume. They were attached to memories you had of her. Trying on her heels when you were a kid to try and be fancy like her. Smelling her hair in the morning before school to comfort you before she left for work. Despite all of this bringing you comfort, all it really did was cause further denial in your heart. That one day you were gonna hear the keys clacking in the keyhole to your apartment one more time. That’s all you really wanted. You would give everything up in a heartbeat just to hear her police scanner go off one last time. But it wasn’t going to. And it was your fault. Deep down you knew it was. You should’ve done a better job controlling the debris. You had always been a messy fighter, but you didn’t know it was going to mean anything until it was too late. 

How you got up to the top of that building is still a blur to you to this day. But next thing you know, you were looking at the New York City skyline from the very top of the Empire State Building. And at the very edge too. You heard some sounds behind you, but you just decided it was the wind howling from how high up you were. You were just so tired. Everything and everyone you loved was cursed all because of you. And with your mother as the most recent victim, you decided you finally had enough. You took a deep breath, eyes overflowed with water, as you set your foot forward.

Your plummet was interrupted by a sudden contact you felt to your forearm. Shock filled your body as you turned around to look at what had stopped your attempt. The blue hand was massive, nearly wrapping back around onto itself as it held onto you for dear life. You finally looked up at face that the hand belonged to. The mask that covered the massive figure was a strange one. Blue with strange red silhouettes for the eyes. It kind of reminded you of…your own costume? That couldn’t be though there was no way. This must be the afterlife or something. You already jumped and that's why you didn’t remember your way up to the top. This was some kind of creature trying to stop you from jumping down to hell below. His breaths were heavy and loud, almost like he was desperate to stop you. This convinced you that this was real, which caused you to try to escape from his grip. He was stronger than you, and was putting up a huge fight. You were slick though. Once you were out of his hand, you closed your eyes and quickly made your jump. Everything flashed before your eyes. Your brother, Peter, your mom. You were hoping to see them soon. This was very quickly interrupted again when you suddenly stopped falling. Something had attached itself to your stomach. You opened your eyes. A web? This web was much different than yours though. It was glowing a bright, neon orange.

The man was holding onto the end of it tightly with both hands. His mask then disappeared to show his face. His was long, matching how big the rest of his body was, defined cheek bones sticking out. Brown wavy hair slicked back with a few loose strands flying out in the wind. The look of desperation on his face stook out most of all. Why did he care so much? He didn’t know you, and you definitely didn’t know him. “Let me pull you up. Please,” he said to you between shaky pants. You stared at him for a bit before nodding. He slowly pulled you up with the string of his web, each move more careful than the last. As soon as your feet were planted safely back on the roof of the building, he wrapped you up in his massive arms. You appreciated the gesture, but you didn’t return it, still very confused about why he was so concerned. He was so big around your body though, you couldn’t help but feel a little comforted, feeling his still shaky breaths against the hairs of your neck. Soon after, he clicked on some buttons on his neon orange watch and led you into a portal.

The rest is history. You’re grateful he found you that day. It allowed you to meet so many people, Peter B., Jess, Gwen, Hobie, Ben, Pavitr, Margo. They all related to you and you felt like you could share things with them that you couldn’t do with anyone else. You had grown especially close to Peter and Jess, both of them having been in the game for a long time, just like you. They both knew how you felt, having lost so much and growing so tired after so many years. Peter even named you as Mayday’s godmother when she was born, a gesture that caused you to nearly kill him with your hug. Miguel though was different. He wasn’t nearly as social as the rest of your friends, but you found yourself having much more intimate moments with him (in more ways then one). You eventually found out why Miguel was so concerned for you the day you met. He had taken interest in your abilities early into looking for variants for his little “project”, but refrained from roping you into something so dangerous while you were still in your teens.

Once you were old enough though, he started paying more and more attention, hoping to catch you in a fight and recruit you then. But he was always pulled away with more important duties to attend to. That was until he witnessed your canon event. He had seen it happen so many times before through his scanners. It was going to happen. It had to in order for your universe to not collapse in on itself. But for some reason, yours hurt more than the rest to him. Especially how you coped with it. Seeing you wrap yourself up in her blankets and clothes broke his heart. He knew where this would lead to. That’s why he was there that day. To save you. He had to, or he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself. You got your own watch immediately, along with your own room in the Spider Society headquarters. He stayed close with you for the first month of you being a member of the team. When he wasn’t out on missions, he was with you. You didn’t really know what to label you two as, but whatever was going on, you liked it. And he did too.

That is until Miles came into the picture. Once Miles was bit, all hell broke loose for Miguel. He was always in some alternate dimension catching some Spider-Man villain who got out and rangled them back over here, falling back over to you more beat up and bruised than the last time. You couldn’t imagine how much stress he was under, the fate of the entire multiverse up to him. You had some ways of helping him relieve his stress, but you wish you could convince him that he wasn’t alone in this. But nothing ever got through to him. He had become distant, aloof even. You tried bringing it up to Jess every so often, but she would just brush it off.

“That’s how he’s always been.” Not to you he hasn’t. This week has been hell though. With Spot making it over to Miles, Miguel had been going into rages all week. You had put up with it for now, but that was all about to stop. Watching how harsh he was being on Miles, throwing so many Spider-Men at an innocent boy, risking all of their lives in the process. Disregarding everything Gwen and Peter were feeling and then throwing Gwen back into her broken world with nothing. He had gone too far. No one else was going to stand up to him about it, so you knew it had to be you. Maybe he would listen, maybe he wouldn’t. It didn’t really matter. He just needed to hear it.

“It’s not worth it you know.” The voice snapped you out of your thoughts, stopping you in your tracks. “You know how stubborn he gets over these things,” said Jess, trying to convince you to save your breath. “I don’t care. I have to at least try,” you responded, monotonically. “I just don’t understand how you can follow him so blindly and not see what he’s doing is wrong.” ���Because he isn’t wrong. I don’t know about you, but I’m not just gonna stand by and let some kid’s stupid decisions destroy another Earth,” Jess argued. “He’s just trying to save his dad, I can’t understand how that makes him such a bad person,” you said, finally turning around to face her, shocked when she was closer to you than expected.

“You know exactly why. Don’t be so naive, y/n,” she shot back. “You can’t stop me,” you said staring straight into her. She shrugged. “Then I can’t help you.” She began to walk away. You did to, until you heard her say. “You don’t know how much he cares for you.” You turned around to face her again, but her back was still to you, her head tilted ever so slightly to look at you. “If you really do care for the kid, watch what you say to Miguel right now. Cause you might just give him the final push he needs to do what needs to be done.” You didn’t give her a response, and just simply kept walking. You felt Jess’ eyes on your back as you entered the elevator to get up to Miguel’s office.

The elevator ride up felt longer than it should’ve, as you tried to gather all of your thoughts and emotions together so even if he didn’t listen, your words would still stick with him in some way. You didn’t necessarily want to hurt him (though your fists were telling you otherwise), but you did want him to be aware of what he’s done. Once the doors finally opened, all of that work flew out the window as rage took over your body again, seeing Miguel up there looking at the scanners. The fact that he looked just as normal as he always does made you furious. It’s like nothing happened.

“You know, I could hear you coming in from the lobby,” he said, almost stopping you in your tracks. You hated when he did that. Claiming that he knew what your every move was going to be. Like you were under his control or something. “Yeah, well then you must’ve heard me talking to Jess, which means you know exactly what this is about,” you shot back, stopping to where you could see him perched up there. “Why don’t you just save me the conversation about morality and just come up here and kick my ass already. It’ll save both of us time,” he said, not even taking his eyes off the scanners to look down at you. This only added to your fury. “That’s not what I’m here for Miguel, so don’t you dare try to twist my words here. What you did to that kid was fucked up and you know it.” “Oh yeah, then why didn’t you try to do anything to stop me?” he questioned.

“Because I’m not stupid Miguel. I’m not gonna try to take down hundreds of Spider-Men at once.” “Oh, cause you’re so much better than that?” This wasn’t like him at all. That gentle, kind, and caring Miguel you once knew was gone, taken over by some sort of personal vendetta he had against Miles. “Listen, I don’t know what’s going on with you, but this all needs to stop before it gets taken too far. You’re getting into a fight you can’t win. That kid’s strong and so are his allies. And if you go any further into this, I won’t be here to help you.” He stayed still and only turned his head to look at you. “And what makes you think that you’re so important to my plan that it’ll fall apart if you leave? Have you really become that pretentious?”

Your body froze. Have I really? No no no, that’s exactly what he wants. If you begin to doubt yourself now, you’ll stay and nothing will change. You knew you were right. He was trying to crumble you down, but you wouldn’t let that happen. “And you really think that one kid is going to ruin something that you’ve been working for for years? How insecure you’ve become.” “You have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said, turning back away from you. You did the same, wiping off your face in anger. “I hate it when you do tha-,” you said as you turned back around, but were cut off to find Miguel standing there right in front of you. He was close. Too close to your liking, although in any other circumstance you would’ve found this attractive.

He tilted his head up, but his eyes were down staring daggers into yours. You hated how much he tried to make himself seem more superior to you. “You have no idea what you’re talking about,” he repeated, this time slower as if you were a child. “He’s just a kid Miguel,” you said in a low, quiet voice. “An anomaly. And a dangerous one at that.” “God Miguel, all he wants to do is protect his dad, do you know how insane you sound right now?” you said letting out a slight laugh when you finished. You backed away from him a little. “He doesn’t know how much damage he’ll do with this. Saving his father will only prolong the inevitable. His world will be gone within hours if he does this. All I’m trying to do is make him understand,” he tried to explain. “By trying to kill him.” “You always have to exaggerate the situation,” he said palming his face. “But that’s essentially what you’re trying to do isn’t it? Why not snuff out the problem entirely by taking him out!”

He signed and began to walk away while you were talking, bringing up your anger even more. “Yeah, use all the power you’ve accumulated over the years and just take out the small problem! Except this isn’t just a fly on the wall Miguel. This is a child! An innocent boy who didn’t ask for any of this to happen to him, just like how we didn’t. I get it, I’m sorry that this job is stressful, I really am. But that gives you zero right to act the way you are!” You were screaming at him at this point. You didn’t want to. You didn’t want your emotions to get the best of you. But he was being too stubborn. This was the only way you thought you could get to him. You might not have wanted to, but you needed to hurt him now. It was the only way.

“You can’t be so power blind that you refused to accept the fact that there could be a way around Captain Davis’ death. You said we saved Earth’s before, I’m sure we could do it again.” Your anger only kept rising when he kept walking away and didn’t respond. “This is a personal thing isn’t it?” you asked calmly. You knew it was working now when he stopped walking. “Yeah, it it. You won’t let Miles get his happy ending. Because why should he be pardoned of his burden while the rest of us have suffered so much. While you’ve suffered so much.” The answer to your question was confirmed when Miguel stayed silent. “Just because you didn’t get the life you wanted Miguel, doesn’t mean you have the right to stop other people from getting theirs.”

You knew you overstepped the line when Miguel turned around and started walking towards you, fury burning in his crimson eyes. “Yeah, so what! What if that is what this is all about! You should know better than anyone how much this job takes away from you!” he screamed at you, backing you up into a wall. “Why should he get to be let off so easily, while people like you and me have to suffer so much? Don’t try to turn me into the villain here when I know you’re thinking the exact same thing, y/n.” He wasn’t entirely wrong. You had wondered it at some points. “I won’t let you turn this onto me Miguel, this is about you,” you fired back. “Oh no, you’re not getting off that easily. I know you’re thinking it. And you’re right. Why should Miles get let off so easily when you’ve lost so much.” He held your hands in his, trying to connect to you. “And you have mi vida. You’ve had so much taken from you and it’s unfair. Why should he only have lost one person when you’ve had three taken from you. Your brother, Peter, your moth-.”

He was cut off by your hand striking against his face in a harsh blow. “If you’re smart, and I know you are, you’ll keep those three out of them. I won’t let you drag their names through the dirt for something as stupid as this.” You both stood there for a while, both of your eyes looking towards the ground, hoping it would open up to swallow you both as an escape from this god awful conversation. You never wanted it to come to this. In all honesty, you cared for Miguel. You might’ve even loved him, if you were even capable of doing such a thing. You hoped he felt the same way about you, but in a job like this, he always had at least one wall up around you. It just wasn’t worth it anymore. You were too tired to keep trying for something that was most likely going to fall apart in the end. 

“You’re still going after him aren’t you?” you asked, finally breaking the silence. Miguel looked back up at you. “You can’t ask me not to. You know better than anyone why this is so important to me.” He moved his hand up to cup your cheek and kissed your forehead gently. You let it sit there for a minute out of habit before pushing it off your face. “And you must know why I can’t stay anymore then.” His shoulders dropped. “Whatever this thing between us is. It’s over. I can’t stay beside someone who can’t see what he’s doing is wrong.” Miguel’s dropped hand turned into a fist of anger. “Fine,” he spat in your face. “I don’t need someone like you in my way. You’re just a liability to this anyways.” He began to walk away from you back to his scanners. “Just don’t come crying back over to me when your little plan doesn’t work out, cause I won’t help you.” He used his webs to pull himself back up to the platform to keep looking for Miles. You stood there for a second, gathering yourself.

Five years. Out the door just like that. It bewildered you how easily a bond like you two had could be broken all because of one teenager. You began to make your way for the door before you said. “When this is all over…don’t try to find me.” He didn’t respond. Once the elevator doors opened, you rushed inside, desperate to get away from him. So many thoughts rushed through your head as the doors closed and you sunk down back to the lobby to leave. You didn’t have much of a plan. This could end up being a horrible idea. Your gut told you it was the right thing to do though. And that was enough for you. You walked out of the headquarters lobby with a new heart and a new mind, ready to take action for your new plan.

First though, you had to find Gwen.

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a/n: god that took longer than it should've. dw dw i'll do a part 2 if enough people ask for one. im not 100% sure how im gonna do a part 2 cause yk....idk how beyond the spiderverse is gonna go so tbh, we're just gonna make it go the way i want lmao. thanks for reading, ik this was kind of a long one lmao

NEXT CHAPTER

[rivkae-winters]

Edit: the app launched and Is down- I have the initial apology video in a post here and I’m working on getting a full archive of their TikTok up ASAP. I’m letting the rest of this post remain since I do still stand by most of it and also don’t like altering things already in circulation.

Warning for criticism and what I’d consider some harsh to outright mean words:

So I’ve just been made aware of the project known of as ‘lore.fm’ and I’m not a fan for multiple reasons. For one this ‘accessibility’ tool complicates the process of essentially just using a screen reader (something native to all I phones specifically because this is a proposed IOS app) in utterly needless and inaccessible ways. From what I have been seeing on Reddit they have been shielding themselves (or fans of the project have been defending them) with this claim of being an accessibility tool as well to which is infuriating for so many reasons.

I plan to make a longer post explaining why this is a terrible idea later but I’ll keep it short for tonight with my main three criticisms and a few extras:

1. Your service requires people to copy a url for a fic then open your app then paste it into your app and click a button then wait for your audio to be prepared to use. This is needlessly complicating a process that exists on IOS already and can be done IN BROWSER using an overlay that you can fully control the placement of.

2. This is potentially killing your own fandom if it catches on with the proposed target market of xreader smut enjoyers because of only needing the link as mentioned above. You don’t have to open a fic to get a link this the author may potentially not even get any hits much less any other feedback. At least when you download a pdf you leave a hit: the download button is on the page with the fic for a reason. Fandom is a self sustaining eco system and many authors get discouraged and post less/even stop writing all together if they get low interaction.

3. Maybe we shouldn’t put something marketed as turning smut fanfic into audio books on the IOS App Store right now. Maybe with KOSA that’s a bad idea? Just maybe? Sarcasm aside we could see fan fiction be under even more legal threat if minors use this to listen to the content we know they all consume via sites like ao3 (even if we ask them not to) and are caught with it. Auditory content has historically been considered much more obscene/inappropriate than written content: this is a recipe for a disaster and more internet regulations we are trying to avoid.

I also have many issues with the fact that this is obviously redistributing fanfiction (thus violating the copyright we hold over our words and our plots) and removing control the author should have over their content and digital footprint. Then there is the fact that even though the creator on TikTok SAYS you can email to have your fic ‘excluded’ based on the way the demo works (pasting a link) I’m gonna assume that’s just to cover her ass/is utter bullshit. I know that’s harsh but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it’s probably a duck.

I am all for women in stem- I’ve BEEN a woman in Stem- but this is not a cool girl boss moment. This is someone naive enough to think this will go over well at best or many other things (security risks especially) at worst.

In conclusion for tonight: I hope this person is a troll but there is enough hype and enough paid for web domains that I don’t think that’s the case. There are a litany of reasons every fanfic reader and writer should be against something like this existing and I’ll outline them all in several other posts later.

Do not email their opt out email address there is no saying what is actually happening with that data and it is simply not worth the risks it could bring up. I hate treating seemingly well meaning people like potential cyber criminals but I’ve seen enough shit by now that it’s better to be safe than sorry. You’re much safer just locking all your fics to account only. I haven’t yet but I may in the future if that is the only option.

If anyone wants a screen reader tutorial and a walk through of my free favorites as well as the native IOS screen reader I can post that later as well. Sorry for the heavy content I know it’s not my normal fare.

[writteninlunarlight-years]

Sorry this request might be a little weird; Im gonna try and word it best I can. Can you do something with Alastor and the reader, who very slowly and maybe unintentionally became friends; where Alastor confesses his feelings and how much he cares for the reader... But the reader doesnt take him seriously? The reader basically doesnt think he is actually interested in dating them. The reader thinks its a joke, he is just trying to use them, or otherwise just trying to get something out of them. Not in like a distrustful way either. The reader has the attitude of 'oh yeah. The great radio demon who has girls falling at his feet and can get ANYONE he wants is interested in me? Right, good one.' Like its a self-esteem/self-worth thing stopping them from believing him. Oh and this is for Hazbin Hotel obviously, but just in case I had to say it.

Please Please Please~

(This honestly was me projecting because this is me anytime someone shows interest in me. I have horrible self-esteem issues lol)

When you woke in hell, you thought nothing of it, really. You did some good, and you sure did some bad, so maybe this was exactly where you were always supposed to be. You had no anger or frustration about your placement because you simply couldn’t care enough. Heaven or hell, you probably would still be fighting for something. If anything, you hoped you would just fall asleep in death, but where would the fun in that be?

Upon your arrival, a few things became quite clear: 1. It was a dog-eat-dog world here in hell, so be prepared for anything. 2. The more souls you own, the more powerful you are, so start making some friends to make just as many enemies. 3. You will always be less powerful and popular than the TV head and the Radio Demon.

The only downside is you never got to meet this Radio Demon. He had been missing for seven years, according to the streets, and long gone, but still, he was the talk of countless women and men, especially Vox. This wasn’t a surprise, though; how people explained his rise to power was even more impressive and unique to you. He would one day be a formidable foe if you crossed him, or would he? The last extermination was killer. Half your souls had been killed off, and you were left a lot weaker from an injury caused by angelic steel. A slash was going straight across your back from a poorly-timed dodge. You weren’t bad at fighting; you weren't good at it either. Usually, during exterminations, you would hide at the Vee’s tower or another notable place. However, unsurprisingly, you were kicked out after your loud denial of working with the Vees. 

Seeking refuge at the next best place, you stumbled upon the Hazbin Hotel. Delirious and in pain, it was indeed just a stumble into the lobby. Upon entering, you saw an excited and concerned blonde chick, someone with a spear, and then all that was left was just red—beautiful crimson red. 

Some days had to have passed; you only know this because your wounds were wrapped up, and the calendar in the room you were placed in had days since the extermination marked off. Five days you spent asleep resting and recouping. Though your body was mainly healed, the scar you saw on your back when you stood was anything but attractive. Sighing, you sat on the cold bathroom floor.

You were never much of a beauty in your mind. You were just simply good enough. Sometimes, you could seduce a soul into your clutches, win a soul gambling, and sometimes gain one from fighting—a jack of all trades, master of none. Yet now, your value has significantly decreased with a giant scare running across the expanse of your back. Sighing, you stood once more and decided you would figure out where the hell you were and who was stupidly kind enough to help you.

With your top half fully bandaged, you didn’t think about putting on a shirt. The idea of anything rubbing on your wound annoyed you greatly. So, being mindful of potential others, you walked around carefully, ensuring your bandages were tight. Looking around, it was a reasonably average hotel. Nothing was too crazy about it; it just had some eerie decor at the most.

Rounding the last corner, you found stairs that opened up to the lobby, and dear lord, above did you wish you stayed in your room. A loud, cheerful presence came bombarding you, shouting a hundred questions about your health, your name, and what happened. You almost wanted to retreat into the shadows at how brightly she shone when you agreed to stay at her hotel and take a shot at redemption.

You met the residents quickly after that. It's not like you had much of a choice anyway. Surprisingly, the one you clicked with the most was the famed Alastor, the Radio Demon. How you two clicked was beyond everyone, besides the fact you were cunning and a silver tongue speaker like the man himself. Maybe that is why he found you amusing and watched you work your magic on lulling Husk even into a secure enough place to talk to you.

His lack of asking for your soul surprised you more than anything. Though you knew Charlie had her rules in the hotel, that didn’t dissuade the Deer from making his own choices. You commended him for his poise and regality; you understood why he was the talk of the town even when Vox was trying so hard to be the new it boy. Alastor was handsome in a nonconventional way; he was refined, elegant, and poised. He treated women like a gentlemen and men like they were just one step below him. 

You wouldn’t lie to yourself and say you weren't enamored; you liked him a lot from just the first handful of conversations. However, one late night really sealed the nail in your coffin of love for the affamed Overlord. You two were sitting on the lobby chair, the long-forgotten bar, and a nursed bottle of Whiskey between you two. Each new glass only brought you two closer, having a lot of similarities. 

You also killed upon your time on earth as a means to protect the ones you cared about and end those who acted foolishly like them. You also died an untimely death at the hands of something out of your control. You were both quick-witted and capable of compelling those around you with your voice and words. The only significant difference was he was an Overlord, a beautiful, attractive overlord. At the same time, you were just a sinner with a few damned souls that saw potential in you.

After that night, you and Alastor grew a lot closer. You would even dare to call him your best friend, knowing that nothing more would ever come of your two relationship past that. Not only was Alastor continuously turning women and men down left and right, but Angel was convinced the man didn’t know what romance or sex was. You couldn’t help but agree with him as every beautiful person who crossed his path was quickly shooed away or disposed of. 

As the Adam-led extermination approached, you noticed Alastor took a particular interest in your training. You were opting for him to train you and approve your placement on the battlefield. Your heart soared at his kindness, but you didn’t want to get your hopes up. He didn’t want to lose a like-minded friend, which was all this was. As you all prepared for the event, his sudden and lingering hug was just him being worried about a friend.

You would do and say anything to convince yourself he just saw you as a friend, even as he scolded you for your injuries after the battle. He just cared a lot about his best friend. You were nothing comparative in power and prestige as Alastor was, so he would never see you as more. This was all just a fond kindness he used with Niffty, Roise, and Mimzy. You wouldn’t allow yourself to be a fool and believe anything more would happen. 

As your affection grew for the Radio Demon, so did your self-doubt and negative self-esteem. You didn’t want to embarrass yourself like Mimzy, pining after a demon that would never love you. Your nights at the bar became more and more apparent enough that Husk took to talking to you and trying to help you out. This didn’t go unnoticed by the boss of said man. No, instead, jealousy was brewing inside of him, watching you grow closer to the cat demon. Jealousy that was soon to reach a head.

Alastor was utterly infatuated with you. You were a perfect mix of normalcy and insanity, something he admired dearly. You were not overbearing or clingy like Mimzy, not psychotic and wild like Niffty, and not motherly and borderline insane like Rosie. No, you were a perfect combination of what he loved in all his dear friends. That’s all you were right, a dear friend. It didn’t help that you stopped spending time with him and hanging around Husk; he grew irate. 

He needed help and fast; who better to turn to than his motherly companion, Rosie? Wanting to get you out of Husk's grasp, though he invited you along on the trip. It was pleasant. You wrapped around his arm as he led you through the streets, up until cannibal town people cowering at your feet. Once in cannibal town, though, the women came flocking. He was used to this, declining, pushing people away, and even allowing his shadows a meal or two. However, the frown on your face was the least of his expectations. He hadn’t long to question it before you two arrived at Rosie’s Emporium. 

As you two entered, you were immediately enamored with all of the goods Rosie had sold. Once quick introductions were out of the way, Alastor approached the side table to speak with his friend while you looked around more. His worries and fears were confirmed, though; he was, in fact, in love with you. Alastor wasn’t one to skimp on charm; he was a gentleman who would court you properly. 

After your visit to Rosies, you noticed a new change in Alastor. He was quite literally everywhere you were. You couldn’t get far without him complimenting you, giving you a gift, or asking you to accompany him on errands. You figured that your time secluding and hanging out with Husk might have made him think you didn’t want to be friends anymore. So, with a smile, you welcomed this change and stuck through it. Why not accept his doting behavior before he finally broke your heart and said he didn’t like dating or got a partner? 

This went on for months. The lingering touches, longer hugs, late-night talks, gifts galore, and, most importantly, him letting his guard down around you made you feel special. According to Husk, he hasn't done this with any of his other close friends. This made you almost hope that there was something more. Alastor had countless options, though, so of course, he would never choose you. Why would you allow him to embarrass you like that? 

After six months of pursuing you, Alastor believed he had amply courted you. He had enlisted the help of Charlie and Vaggie to set up the lobby so he could ask you to be his officially. The room was perfect: low lighting, candles, your favorite flowers, and food placed out. All that was missing was you there on his arm. He knew it was perfect for you, everything to your heart's desire. 

You were in shock as you entered the lobby after an impromptu errand Charlie needed to be done. You couldn’t even begin to understand what was going on. As you walked in, you saw Alastor sitting at the table before you, a large smile on his face. You looked at him quizically. “Uh, Al, what is all this?” He looked around awkwardly—that was the first time you saw that expression. “Well, Y/N, what does it look like? Of course, it's a date for us, in the hotel's safety.” You scrunched up your eyebrows, trying to process his words. “A date?” He seemed to be growing more tense by the moment; he expected you to be happy and excited, and you seemed to like his courting so much. “Yes, dear, we have been courting for some time now, which leads me to believe you were ready for a date. Was I mistaken?” You were taken aback. Are you courting? When did that happen? You looked at Alastor, trying to piece together the puzzles. Could he have liked you all this time? No, there is no way; he had so many options, so many better, less disfigured options. “Al, are you waiting for a different girl? Is this some like practice run for a person you want to date? You shouldn’t play with me like this. It’s not nice.” Alastor looked genuinely upset, only momentarily before his signature smile returned. “No, Y/N. This is for you. I have been courting you. Did you not realize my advances towards you? I have been avidly seeking you and you alone out.” You started to tear up. You wanted to believe him; you did, but it was hard. You weren’t the best; you weren’t the strongest. You had nothing going for you than surviving hell each day. “What, no? What do you mean? You can’t mean me. I am nothing, Alastor. I am nothing; I would just be embarrassing you. You are a powerful Overlord—a handsome, sought-after man. I am nothing. I am just here a sinner designed to fight through hell, that is all.” Alastor began to realize what you were getting at. You didn’t see yourself as being good enough for him. He never learned the toll you put yourself through watching person after person fall to his feet. You were watching him turn them all away and go about his day. You thought he was going to do the same to you. You thought you would never be good enough for him when you have always been what he wanted all along. 

“Oh, Y/N, no.” He rushed over to you, holding you close. Even as you fought to push him away, he stayed holding you close until you calmed. “Y/N, it has always been you. Yes, I am rough around the edges and have high expectations, but you meet them, Y/N. Can you not see how close and compatible we are since the day you moved in?” You stilled and listened. Could it be true that he liked you too this whole time? What if this was some sick prank to torture you? You looked up at Alastor, a genuine smile replacing his normal, calculated one. “Alastor, if I agree with this, you won't hurt me, right?” He sighed and held you close. “I can’t promise not to hurt you; I am an overlord and a selfish creature. However, I promise never to lie, cheat, or steal from you. I choose to love you and you alone, Y/N.” You smiled brightly and reached up, kissing his lips softly. His arms snaked around your waist as he deepened the kiss, and both of you closed your eyes. You could easily get used to being the top overlord's girl. 

Just please, please, please let him prove you wrong…

[phonoix]

I'm so tired, I'm so so tired.

Watching TV shows has become the most tiring thing in this dystopian, late-stage capitalistic hellscape.

It doesn't matter how much we love those shows, how much we talk about them, how much we promote it online. Big streaming services will just cancel them on a Friday night and then let them slowly fall into oblivion. If by SOME MIRACLE the show doesn't get cancelled after the first season, it'll just decline over the years, some crazy writer will cook up a poorly written plot, or they'll just lose interest in the project and then leave the fans in the trenches.

Big corporate streaming services just think that views are gonna materialize out of thin air??? They barely promote their new shows and they DEMAND high views just to let them keep going? It's THEIR JOB to promote shows, but obviously they couldn't care less, they only care about money, and they leave the promoting job to the fans which is batshit insane if you ask me.

Streaming services were supposed to be the solution, the chosen one if you will, but they turned out to be the villains.

Owning a movie or a show is now absolutely impossible because God forbid they release DVDs anymore. Streaming services will just randomly DELETE their cancelled shows and movies from their platforms. Fans are now supposed to be PR teams for Netflix, HBO, Prime and whatever other stupid streaming apps out there because they couldn't be bothered to,,, idk,,, do their job and promote their own shows!? They're literally acting like villains.

It feels dystopic really.

I know I probably sound like a person yelling at a cloud but it's starting to become exhausting.

And I know that there are far worse things out there, that there are more important matters to focus on, but I'm so tired.

They're killing art. There are so many people out there that put all their love and all their passion and skills into creating amazing shows that SO MANY other people love and they feel represented by, but they don't care.

This is literally my last straw.

They're killing art with their greed.

[kimarii-00]

Hi Can write one when Armando was projecting Callie but instead it the reader 19 or older But also skilled and help out him. The tension (We can't let him take all the hit I thought he was going to die)

Stop her sister from killing him while they both hold a gun toward each other.

Savior

❥Summary: Your sister despises this guy for killing your father, and you were supposed to too. So you can’t help but wonder how you got into this situation; Armando standing behind you as you separate him from your sister and her gun, pointing your own in her direction.

❥Warnings: Blood, violence, kidnapping, language, guns

❥Word Count: 2.1k

Unedited

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You’ve got to say, you didn’t plan on getting kidnapped when you dcided to visit Mike’s wife to try to express your feelings about the situation. Mike, Marcus and Mike’s son, Armando were wanted men, with none other than your own sister on their case. You’d seen the news and how frantic your sister was about catching the three.

“I’ve got to do this, (Name). This is the man that killed father, I swear, I will make him pay.” She’d told you before she grabbed her gun, stuffed it in its holster and scurried out of the door.

Now, the situation is getting serious, and you felt awful that there was nothing you could do to help, so you did the next best thing– extend your condolences to Mike’s wife and hope for no hard feelings…

That obviously did not go as planned, because now, you and Christine are being held captive, about to be transported Cuba, according to what you overheard in a conversation between a man and another one, who seemed to be their leader of sorts. You decided to take the silent approach. Not wanting to say anything that could potentially piss these people off. Though it seemed Christine had a few questions for your captors.

“What happened to your hand?” She articulated.

The man seemed stunned for a moment, probably surprised a kidnapping victim wanted to make small talk with the kidnappers. You kept your head down.

The man lifted his hand and looked at what she was talking about. He was missing fingernails. “They call that a Columbian manicure,” He began, “What’s so great about it is it’s the maximum amount of pain, but you don’t die.”

“So now you’ve decided to be the one holding the pliers.” Christine declared. You didn’t know what her plan was, or if she had one at all. But you stuck with the ‘if I can’t see them, they can’t see me’ method, and kept your eyes glued to the ground.

The man leaned in close to Christine, and you felt the urge to push him away from her, but decided against it, “Everybody breaks,” he said, “Everyone. Your husband, they’re gonna kneel down in front of me and beg for your lives. And then you’re gonna watch me kill him.”

“You haven’t met my husband,” She said in a meek tone. You knew she was trying to be strong but you could hear in the way that her voice cracked that she was scared. Maybe not for herself right now, but for her husband.

“Well, not officially but, I look forward to seeing him again.” He ominously said. You get chills everytime something comes out of his mouth.

You could only hope that Mr. Lowrey shows up soon. You aren’t sure how much time you two have left.

You struggle a bit, but not achieving much as the burly man secures his grip on your two arms, making sure you don’t go anywhere he doesn’t want you to. You and the man follow behind the one holding on to Christine. Today is the day that the two of you are transported to Cuba.

You spot a plane that was docked on the water, and a man in a suit that stood outside of it. You all walked down the stairs toward him. Looking up and around, you spot many different types of weapons your kidnappers are sporting, machine guns, pistols, snipers, and probably more hidden elsewhere. You look to Christine, trying to figure out if she ws planning something to try to escape but it seemed she was just as unsure as you were, not putting up any kind of fight.

For some odd reason, the group that you were being held in stops on a bridge, just a little ways away from the man in the suit. You look around, trying to make out what coul be the hold up. Maybe they were having sudden change in heart, and they were going to let you two go? (Wishful thinking, you know.)

You watch as the man holding onto Christine slowly follows something he must’ve spotted in the water, and as you look down, you realize you can definitely see something too. But so what? It was probably just a fish or something, why does that warrant such a reaction?

It’s not until one of the kidnappers’ men was shot that you realized what was happening. Where was an alligator in the water, and it had spotted someone. And whoever it was in the water had killed the man who’d discovered him. The body dropped into the water and you averted your eyes to not see what happened afterward.

You and Christine were rushed back into the building that you were being held in before, and all you could hear was gunshots flying back and fourth. Was it Mr. Lowrey?

The kidnappers are in somewhat of a panic at the suprise attack, and they separate you and Christine. You try to struggle as much as you can, attempting to run a few times after escaping the grip of the man holding you, but all it got was a punch in the gut, literally.

All of a sudden, a man makes his way up the stairs that you were being held at, gun blazing, and you quickly realize who this man was.

Armando Aretas.

You knew that he was trying to help you right now, but all you could think about was your father. Your sister, and her hatred for the guy saving you. It caused you to not pay attention, and just barely miss the helicopter that smashed through the window behind you. You felt a weight push you out of the way and then land on top of you protectively. Your eyes were wide as they landed on Armando, who used his own body to shield you from the debris, and the eyes of your fathers killer stared at you back.

“Listen, I’m going to need you to trust me,” He said, grabbing you by your shoulders and stabilizing you, making sure you understood what he was saying. After a bit of hesitation, you nodded.

He grabs your hand and starts walking, but doesn’t get too far when you run into more of the kidnappers. Spotting someone coming in from his left side, he flings you behind him to take the slice of the knife that would’ve instead embedded itself into you if he hadn’t done that. You realized that despite not even knowing you, this man would be willing to damn near lay down his life to safe you, and regardless of you or your sisters feelings towards Armando, you’d decided in that moment, you would not let him die here.

You stood up from the initial shock, using a nearby banister as support. You see him struggling with a man with a knife, so you put aside your fear and muster up your remaining strength to fight. You rush behind the man, taking advantage of the fact that he’s distracted with Armando.

You wrap your arm around his neck with an iron grip, tighter than the one that was holding you in place before. He seems shocked and confused at the sudden attack from behind, but that played in your favor. You snatched the knife from his hand and stabbed it into his neck, instantly ending him. You silently thanked your sister for teaching you basic self defense and fighting skills after you begged her (it took a lot of begging).

Armando looks at you, bewildered but he doesn’t get to breathe for long since more men come rolling in through the open door in front of you. You quickly took action, and Armado stridded behind you.

You still held the bloodied knife in your hand and made quick use of it, stabbing into the leg of one of the men so Armando was able to get the upper hand on him. One of them managed to sneak up behind you, but you saw in your peripheral that he was near you. You grabbed his wrist and twisted around so that you were the one behind him, and quickly took his life. You made sure to grab the pistol that laid in the pool of blood underneath him.

Together, you and Armando made quick work of the men, and made it out with only a few serious injuries. You’d noticed Armando had a slight limp, so you wrapped his arm around your shoulders and helped him walk away from the room that was overpowered by the stench of blood.

“You didn’t have to help back there…” He grunted.

“Your welcome” You retorted.

You and him reached what seemed like a safe area in the forest nearby, and set him against a tree to rest. You took a seat next to him.

“...Thank you.” You said before turning slightly to look at him, only to realize he’d already been looking at you.

You two sat in a comfortable silence, both unsure what to say to each other, but also not wanting to say anything. The quietness mixed with the sounds of the wilderness was nice.

“...Where’d you learn to fight like that?” Armando asked suddenly. You were somewhat startled. He didn’t seem like the type of person to start small talk.

“My sister. Had to beg her to.” You chuckled and you caught him express a smirk of sorts.

Just then, you heard a sound from a radio, but it wasn’t coming from Armando’s. You looked to your left to see your sister, and your heart dropped. She fired, and you flinched hard, and so did Armando. You recalled your sisters promise, “I will make him pay”.

You regather yourself and quickly put yourself between your sister and Armando, “No, no don’t!” You say, unsure of how to get your sister to understand. She’d been so deadset on finding him, and you were sure she wasn’t just going to listen to reason now that he’s sitting, defenseless in front of her. You were sure you only had one option.

You wipped out the gun that you’d taken from the man before, “Stop.” You said. You made sure that it was lined up to hit her vest, just in case it really came down to you having to shoot her. You were sure as hell not letting her get to Armando, “Listen to me, you don’t understand…”

“Put the gun down and get away from him,” She says, keeping her gaze trained on Armando. You could tell she was waiting for an opening, whether you were in the way or not, “I need you to listen to me. I need you to walk slowly toward your right and walk towards me.”

“Not until you put the fucking gun down.” You pleaded, “Please.”

“I need you to move out of the way–”

“Put your gun down! He saved me, please!” You say, tears threatening to fall. You moved your finger toward the trigger slowly, ready to shoot should your sister try anything.

Mr. Lowrey comes in from behind her, “Judy, Judy!”

“Back up!” Your sister says, “Put your gun down!” Mr. Lowrey complies and sets his gun on the ground, not wanting to aggrivate her further.

“He saved my life!” You exclaim again, “Please…” You can’t stop the tears at this point. They’re freely flowing. You couldn’t live with yourself knowing the man who rescued you was dead because of something you could’ve prevented.

There is silence filled with nothing but the heavy breathing of your sister.

You watch as she slowly removes her finger from the trigger, so you remove your own as well. She then fully puts down her gun, therefore so do you. You quickly turn your back on her to check on Armando. “Are you okay?” You ask frantically, checking to make sure that your sisters first shot hadn’t hit him.

“I’m fine,” he says.

You breathe in and out, and nod your head. “Yeah… Yeah, okay.” With the comfort of knowing that he hadn’t been hit, you turn back to your sister who’d been watcing your interaction. You dash to her and give her a long awaited hug.

“Fuck, I love you but if you ever pull a gun on me again I swear–” You let out a relieved laugh and hug her tighter. Her radio goes off again though, ruining the bittersweet moment.

“Howard, where are you?” The person on the radio asks. She looks to you, as if asking, “What do I do?”

You shake your head, and she understand what you mean immediately.

“Go. Before I change my mind.” She says, directing it to Mr. Lowrey and his son.

You turn to them, giving Armando one last goodbye stare before he leaves with his father.

TAGLIST (if there’s a strike through your username it’s because I couldn’t tag you probably due to settings!)

@dasaniswrlddd @thedarkworldofhananerea

@taylormcguire282

[raayllum]

Transcript of Aaron Ehasz Interview (Sept 2024)

Podcast link here. Transcript down below with bulk under a read more.

R: Alright so welcome back to the Wordswithdragons podcast, and today I’m joined by a very special guest, the co-creator of The Dragon Prince, Aaron Ehasz. 

A: Hello, thank you for having me today. Glad to be here.

R: Thank you so much for being here. Um, yeah, so, as we semi touched on, it is the 6 year anniversary of The Dragon Prince this September 14th.

A: Yeah.

R: Do you have any thoughts, reflections, feelings about the show having gone on for this long and being such a big part of people’s lives?

A: I mean for starters, it’s really hard to believe it’s been on for six years. Like that seems insane to me. Cause it seemed like we had — Justin and I had been working on it for so long before it finally came out because we had worked on the story and then gotten feedback, and help in improving that pitch and bringing it out and we had it set up at Netflix, and we had to — we wrote the pilot obviously, and we didn’t know where we were gonna produce it, and found Bardel. So there was so much time between even just starting to think about it and when it came out.

R: Yeah, cause that was like 2015, right?

A: Yeah, I guess we started the journey in 2015 and we got with Bardel by the end of 2016, and it got released evidently in 2018, so... Yeah, yeah, cause I remember even we were writing kind of the end of season 3 when we had that panel with Marco and named the character after Marco.

R: Oh yeah.

A: The character [chuckles] from the first episode, we only had an opportunity for him to say his name out loud in that last episode because we were writing the ending while we were showing the episodes for first time, so. Anyway, that’s my reflection, it’s great it’s been six years.

R: Yeah. I know The Dragon Prince has been a really like — both life changing and I think, like, life affirming experience for a lot of people, myself included. So we just really appreciate everybody’s hard work on the show and are very excited for season 7 and hopefully beyond as well. As well for any future projects that Wonderstorm comes out with, like Bonders sounds amazing.

A: I feel — well first of all, thank you for saying that it’s life affirming, that’s such a nice thing to hear about something you’ve worked on, but I also agree that Justin and I feel a ton of gratitude for the whole team and the work and heart that everyone put into making this. I think people wanted it to be meaningful and special and that takes a certain kind of energy and vulnerability to build something like that, that you share, and our whole team really did give that in building the show.

R: Yeah. I think for sure. I think that’s like, um, I was even — I was rewatching some of the show earlier for — for a parallel, and it was the scene between Avizandum and Zubeia when she goes to him in like her kind of corruption dream semi-nightmare, and obviously that’s such a heartfelt, touching scene, and it’s always so strange. Because on the one hand, you should hate Avizandum, he killed Sarai and Rex Igneous has rightful criticism of him, but then you watch that scene of him and he really did love his family, so I think the show being able to draw out those strong, conflicting emotions for so many of the characters is one of the reasons why it connects with people to the degree that it does.

A: And that’s one of the themes you probably see in the show — just gonna make a quick —

R: Yeah, yeah for sure. 

A: Avizandum, which is that being a good dad can make up for awful lot of [R laughs] monstrosities, as long as you’re doing it in the name of being a good dad. I’m joking, uh. Of course, yeah, Avizandum was always meant to be a complicated figure like many of our characters. 

R: You mentioned that you guys have been working on — I think season three during this panel with Marco, or Marcos, and I remember, I think you’ve said before that the seasons get worked on concurrently, that there’s a decent amount of overlap.

A: Yeah.

R: I’ve always wondered, because we know — obviously, I’m a big Rayllum fan — but I’ve always wondered, cause I know they weren’t originally planned, and then you guys were boarding season two when you were like, “Hey, maybe this should be a thing,” and then probably like shifted and tweaked things or changed things to write more towards that in the future... Um, I’ve always wondered, if there was time, like at that time, to go back and change anything in season one for them, or the season one that we see was just like that?

A: I don’t recall there was time to change season 1 — that does happen because we are working on things in parallel because we are working on something in the script and then some time later we are working on the later stage of production, like an animatic, and we’ll be able to kind of give notes or even make changes with the knowledge of what’s coming, so that has happened. But in the case of Rayllum, I don’t think so. I mean, I think — again, I remember...

R: It was a while ago, yeah.

A: We were rekindling, or when we were realizing that something was being kindled between them, it was watching an animatic so that shouldn’t have informed our writing of season one, but our later stage stuff. But we weren’t trying to force anything so it got in there naturally and I don’t think we went back and changed anything.

R: Yeah, that’s what I’ve always — they had those kind of vibes to me from like episode two and three, obviously season two brought a lot more people on board, but I was always curious. Cause in season one, like, I think, it feels so natural, it feels so organic, and like I’ve shown — one of the things I love about Dragon Prince is it’s a great way to connect with friends and family and you kind of catch up with each other like through the show, of “oh have you seen the new season yet?” and that sort of stuff. And so when I’ve shown the show to like my brother-in-law, who is not plugged in at all, he also kind of picked up on it in season one, so I’ve always been curious. 

A: You know, what else, I’ll even say, I think we initially, intentionally planned they weren’t going to be a couple. We were like “Oh yeah, no, they’re—”

R: Friends, yeah.

A: Friends, with different views of the world and they journey together, and we don’t want them to be a couple. We’re not — we’re definitely not targeting it. I think we were intentionally not targeting it, and then it was “too bad creators! [R laughs] We’re going to fall in love despite everything you’re planning.”

R: Well, that very much I think even fits what they represent to each other, of like you don’t have to do this path that you think you have to do...

A: Yeah.

R: You can be something new. I always kind of felt like Ezran and Zym were — felt very kind of like designed as foils, as like a pair, of like through Zym, Ezran learns more so like how to grow up, and they’re both like the princes who will be king, and then Callum and Rayla also kind of felt sort of like developed as a pair, in terms of like — he needs to gain more confidence, she’s pretty confident on the surface.

A: Yeah.

R: She needs to learn how to open up, he’s really good at being open especially in the beginning.

A: Right. 

R: So I was always like...

A: He needs to be murdered, she needs to learn how to murder someone.

R: Yeah! They complete each other, yeah. Uh... Some other questions that I had [rapid typing]. So I guess, maybe, I have some questions that are more season specific, in respect to time, but I also had like more general questions. 

A: Okay.

R: So, one of the things I’ve always love in general and really love about The Dragon Prince is its like use of philosophy and like its deeply interested in ethical and moral questions, and presenting some answers for some of them, but like are those the right answers? We don’t know. 

A: Right.

R: So I know King Harrow’s choosing of Lady Justice’s blindfold is a pretty apt comparison to John Rawls’ Veil of Ignorance—

A: Yes.

R: Of, you know, you strip away everything that you could have, like advantages, disadvantages, and think, would the system work for me? Which has been useful when I’ve like, had to tutor students in philosophy actually, but I was curious, were there any like philosophical concepts or ideas that people really, or you really, wanted to work into the series? ‘Cause we have a lot of trolley problems.

A: Right. Um, probably. I mean like, I should say, I was a philosophy concentrator in college so I absorbed a lot. Things like  Rawls, I had a class with John Rawls, and thought that was a really interesting concept and I liked including it, and I thought we can include it in a fun way, the idea of justice. So other philosophy probably makes its way in, it can makes its way in accidentally or subconsciously, so nothing specific right now comes to mind. I will say, as with kind of Avatar before this, I don’t like to have — I’m not trying to have a right answer, ever. I’m trying to have the characters have a deeper understanding of what they’re struggling with, and y’know, move in a direction of deeper understanding, so if anything, it’s more interesting to me to see conflicts between maybe philosophical approaches that are different and see how — Oh well, this has these kinds of results, and positives and negatives, and this has... so that the audience can have a chance to say, “Oh well okay, I have some thoughts on that,” or “here’s what I feel,” and that’s why sometimes I think we see the fandom actually kind of go back and forth—

R: Yeah.

A: On — around characters and people’s choices, and things like dark magic or Viren, which are controversial, are things where like, I do not have a strong point of view on... the kind of binary right or wrong of... Viren in the long term. He’s made a lot of wrong choices and he’s made a lot of choices for good. 

R: Yeah.

A: He is an arrogant and power hungry person and he’s also a caring and loving father and someone who wants to have a positive impact on the world, right, like?

R: Yeah.

A: So those conflicts play out in him. But similarly, I think with maybe most of the philosophical ideas I can think of, I’d rather get to like a place where everyone just has a chance to entertain those thoughts and ideas and struggle with them, or hold them in an authentic way, and then can come to their own conclusions and feelings. I mean, I have some deep feelings about like, the world, and how can people be optimistic or not pessimistic or—y’know, what it means to hold onto hope or what it means to try to move past conflict, and I have beliefs that there are conflicts that get so you know, kind of sewn in, that they feel they are impossible to untangle, and especially if the game you’re playing is who started it, or who did the worst thing, where you can’t just ever untangle it. You can’t ever find a right or wrong, so how do you get past that? That’s one of the questions I was hoping Rayla, Callum, and Ezran would try to—

R: Figure it out.

A: Struggle with. Anyway, I’m giving a very long winded answer—

R: No, no.

A: That’s the philosophy that comes to mind. If something comes to mind for you, you can bring it up and I can go, “Oh yeah, that was probably influenced by so-and-so.” [R laughs] Or maybe not.

R: Well, one of the things I loved about season six was kind of — you see, even... One of the things I thought was really interesting was we see, not quite like that return to trolley problems, but we see Aaravos at the end of season 5 is telling Viren you have to make the sacrifice so that you can live, and then we see Rayla tell Callum, “Hey, if the choice ever happens, you also have to sacrifice me,” for — so Callum can live, but also for like the greater good and that sort of stuff. And then you have Kpp’Ar, who — I love Kpp’Ar, I think he’s terrible and interesting and I love him.

A: Awesome. He is — we’ll learn a little more about him in the future, but yes.

R: And obviously when Viren’s like, “A child will die,” and this is a kid that Kpp’Ar would’ve known, and we see in The Puzzle House that he loved these kids, and whatever is up with the Staff is bad enough that Kpp’Ar’s like, “Okay. I’ll make that sacrifice.” Which feels very much in a way like he’s given up on dark magic, and to a certain degree he’s both given up on the mindset of dark magic, and maybe also hasn’t given it up in the same way. Like I love that — Claudia, you know, obviously, puts Viren above all else, is she always right to do so? Maybe not, but we get why she’s doing it, that’s a hard thing to say. And then we have Callum, who also seems inclined to put Rayla above all else, and because we like Rayla more, we’re like “Yeah, he can do that, it’s okay for him to do dark magic for her, that’s fine,” even if there’s also like, consequences. Cause most characters in the show, like you said, everybody kind of wants the same thing, they wanna have a positive impact on the world, they want to protect their loved ones, but what constitutes that world, what they think is a positive impact, or who they want — how they protect those people, that’s all very malleable and can fluctuate. Viren says ��Claudia, you’re on the wrong path,” and we’re like yeah, he’s right, and Karim says the same thing about Janai, like the exact same thing, and we’re like, well he’s wrong.

A: Yeah. I mean a lot of things come to mind when you’re talking through that, but one is there’s often a conflict between rigidity and rules and some kind of compassion, or emotional decision, and those decisions are hard, right? Like I dunno, maybe Kpp’Ar should’ve said, “Okay just this once, it’s Soren,” or not, I don’t know. I mean obviously Kpp’Ar had taken himself to some deep horrible place and he really had, actually. And was like, “Okay, dark magic is just corruption when you start and keep going down this path, but this Viren’s kid so I don’t know.” One of the things here, I think there’s a relationship between — you know, sacrifice plays a role here. Sacrifice and thinking about generations and generational conflict and thinking you know maybe in a way I think is interesting. I think about the beginning of season 6 when Claudia has done all of this and sacrificed another life but also sacrifices some of her soul or whatever to save her dad and he’s like “No no! This is not the way! A parent is supposed to do this for a child but never the other way around,” right? And there’s something to that I find interesting which is — it’s almost the inverse of children having the opportunity to start anew and break cycles, parents potentially have the opportunity to make sacrifices that don’t pass by burdens onto their kids, but sort of like that’s the mirror I see a little bit, in terms of how do you have generational change and evolution? It’s somewhere in younger generations being able to not get stuck on conflicts and burdens, but also the older generations recognizing that they may have to be the one to take the — and this is I think a natural... I dunno, it’s something I think about a little bit and came to mind when you were talking. So we’ll see more about what is the meaning of sacrifice and when — when do you... trade? Yeah.

R: Yeah.

A: Side note on sacrifice. You’re familiar with Game of Thrones? You’ve watched all of Game of Thrones?

R: I’m decently familiar, yeah.

A: Okay.

R: And if not, I can have Kuno explain it to me later, so.

A: One of the things I love about the sacrifice Ned made, that we didn’t realize he’d made until I think the very end of the series, we realize — a sacrifice to his kind of reputation, right? And I’m talking about him representing Jon Snow as his bastard to protect him, right? Think about that, that’s a sacrifice, he had to go through the anger — he didn’t tell his wife the truth, he didn’t tell anyone, because it was the only way to protect the child, and as a result he lived with — even though the truth is that he was a really honest, good, or evidently he didn’t go cheat on his wife, he sacrificed that part of his reputation to protect Jon, at least how I see it. I think things like that are kind of interesting. I dunno.

R: Yeah. Yeah, I think it speaks to that idea of — one of the things I love about Dragon Prince is it’s so much about choices.

A: Yeah.

R: Like one of the things I really really liked about season 6 was that, you know, Callum is like, “Okay, I’m going to get myself purified, healed of dark magic,” and Rayla was his light, which was very validating, cause I had noticed in season two there was like some framing so I was like well “Maybe, maybe” you know? And then slowburn buildup but it was — I think that was a great moment that really paid off. And he’s told “if you ever do this again, it’ll corrupt you completely.” And whether he will or won’t — I personally think that he will, but spoilers, you know — but whether he will or won’t, I think it’s really nice because now whatever choice he makes, he’s making with the full context, of what this would do to him.

A: Yeah.

R: Whereas in season two, yes he was making his choice to do dark magic then, and I don’t necessarily think he would make a fundamentally different one if he had known what it would lead to, but there’s a different kind of awareness. Like I always of it would’ve been so easy to have Harrow not know that Viren was going to kill Zym, cause that’s such an easy way to kind of let Harrow off the hook of well Viren went off and did this on his own, and Harrow had no idea, and blah blah blah, right? Cause we like Harrow, he’s a — again, he’s a good dad, we’ll forgive a lot. And instead, it’s not his idea but he’s fully aware, he signs off on it. And I think constantly pushing characters to make hard choices — kind of like what Ezran says, “these aren’t dreams, these are choices.”

A: Yeah.

R: You can choose love, you can choose to make... It’s something that makes all the characters feel so fully developed and interesting, so I always appreciate that you guys push them to make the hard choice. 

A: Yeah. Cool. Thank you.

R: One question I did have is, uh, Karim is one of my favourite characters.

A: Okay. Unusual person. A lot of people hate — or love to hate...? I love him too. 

R: I also love Kasef, so I think I just kind of love everyone, because I’m like well, they’re really interesting. I feel like [Karim’s] arc was one of the things I loved most about season 4 because you can see him really wrestling with his choices and I love watching him fail, cause that’s kind of all he does, so that’s always fun. But I am really curious obviously now he’s been betrayed by Sol Regem, Katolis is in ashes and maybe they’ll blame Karim for that cause Sol Regem is like — dead, and now, presumably his only hope is going to be that his sister doesn’t execute him on the spot? 

A: Yeah.

R: So is there anything you can tease about Karim’s arc in season 7?

A: Yeah, so — so it’s not just Karim, there’s an army of people who betrayed Janai, and — and...

R: What do we do?

A: Yeah, what do we do? That will be something we’ll have to see them grapple with pretty much right away in the season. Especially cause [Karim’s army] showed up for this battle where they were never even — they were just planning to sweep up the ashes afterwards, so when they didn’t get the dragon support they needed, I suspect they lost really quickly. 

R: Yes, yeah.

A: So uh... Yeah, but basically as of the start of season 7 — all of them are prisoners of Queen Janai and the question is — what do you do with that? What do you do when you have an entire army and your own brother who betrayed you? And so that’s — we’ll find out.

R: Yeah. [Laughs] 

A: But yeah.

R: Yeah. Another question I had going forward was Terry and Claudia obviously I thought had a really beautiful relationship arc, particularly in season 6, and we saw in season 4 the lengths he’s willing to go to for her, and how Terry, I think, is a great example of how there’s a lot of character traits where we think “oh, if you’re a selfless, helpful, accepting person, you’re a good person,” and I feel like Dragon Prince does a really good job of how, Rayla’s selflessness can be great but it can also be kinda bad, or, um, Terry can be super accepting, maybe a little too—

A: Yeah.

R: —accepting sometimes, right? So I feel like at the end of season 6, it will presumably be him, Claudia, and Aaravos for a little bit now that he’s out of the prison. And it feels like maybe Terry might hit a breaking point?

A: Here’s what I will say — Terry is a really special character and if you watched him, he’s so good, and what we’ll find out is, he is — there is an episode called TRUE HEART and he is someone who has a true heart.

R: Oh that’s so sweet.

A: It’s very impossibly rare and special — but also we all understand what a true heart is in some way and we’ll learn a little more about that. But yeah, the question of what will Terry do, what can he do, is difficult because he has a very strong sense of right and wrong, but he has a very deep capacity for love and he loves Claudia with all of his heart. Where does that present an impossible conflict, it may... we’ll see a challenge.

R: Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

A: I’ll also throw in like I sometimes see some parallels between Terry and Uncle Iroh—

R: Yes.

A: Though Uncle Iroh I think has a very different journey. Iroh is kind of a recovered problematic person who now has some wisdom and enlightenment, so in terms of the difference between the purity of a true heart versus where Iroh is more of a later stage enlightenment, the love that they have for the kind of complicated person that they are with is similar to me. And the way that they both sometimes have to, or don’t have to but...

R: Choose to?

A: You have to give that person the space — you can’t force them to choose right or wrong, you can be there with them, you can try to guide them, you can — but ultimately you have to give them the space to fail, and eventually, you may have to turn your back on them. 

R: Yeah.

A: At some point. I don’t know. But um yeah — I still see them as connected characters in my mind. 

R: I think I can even see some of that with even the way Callum is with Rayla, like season five onwards, of like “I’ve hit my turning point, I’m not mad at you anymore, and you can steal my key, you can lie to me, and I’m not going to have you open up to me out of guilt or obligation, I want you to tell me what’s going on when you want to tell me what’s going on, and I’m going to give you the space for that.” So I think it speaks to that unconditional love that I think—

A: Yeah.

R: —a lot of the characters are blessed to have. But I do see the Terry Iroh connection. So another thing that I thought was really interesting was — obviously next season is dark magic, and I’m very hopeful that maybe we’ll learn more about the origins of dark magic or Elarion, even. 

A: Great.

R: Because I know when I was watching Sol Regem burn down Katolis, it made me think of what might’ve either happened or almost happened to Elarion in the past, you know? 

A: Yeah.

R: Even down to Ziard and Viren both die, kind of deflecting and trying to save people, with the same staff, you know, and how the cycle continues to just always repeat itself over and over again. And if there was like — yeah, cause burning down Katolis was a massive shakeup, you know?

A: Yup.

R: And what maybe the process was there, with the — Aaravos seems like he’s trying to repeat the cycle of like “Oh I’m going to take down the dragon monarchy or I’m gonna use that vacancy to my advantage, and mess with the Sunfire elves.”

A: He has a specific vendetta against Sol Regem, obviously, but it’s one where he has played it out in... What’s certainly meant to be implied, even though we’ll find out more later, is that one of the great mysteries of Sol Regem’s life is that his mate disappeared and he never found her. He’s the freaking Dragon King, and she disappeared. And though we don’t know how or what happened, while she was buried alive. He killed her. He didn’t even realize it, somehow. Somehow, Aaravos manipulated him into killing her, and he doesn’t — I dunno, I assume Sol Regem does understand when it must have happened, but that moment, it’s like an impossible — it’s meant to be just...

R: Awful.

A: He’s tortured him for 1000 years or whatever, without him knowing he was being tortured by Aaravos, and now he’s given him the mercy/cruelty of knowing the resolution to the mystery was that he killed her. And one of the things that worked well with that was that, we had sort of said Sol Regem can smell the truth from a lie, so he has the horrible curse of being able to know this is the deep dark truth. So I dunno, I think um, are we going to find out more about that? So, if we can eventually get the Book Three novel out [R laughs], we will find out more about that.

R: I did wonder, I was like “Maybe this is something that was gonna be in the book three novelization.”

A: Yes, we will find out more in the book three novel, it may be a year or so before unfortunately. And then I don’t think we’re gonna get too deep into that in season seven, that’s part of — it is involved in what we’re thinking about as the third arc, understanding and resolving the third arc, is gonna go a little deeper into...

R: Some of the history, yeah.

A: Some of the stuff that happened with Sol Regem. But yeah, no, I — it’s enjoyable to have these figures like Aaravos and Sol Regem who are ancient and operate over the course of centuries and are incredibly powerful, yet they can’t — or at least Aaravos,  they can’t conflict directly as easily, and so Aaravos has played this really complicated game. Anyway, but yes Sol Regem is part of that, but there’s — there’s more, there’s more people who — beings that took from him. He feels that Leola was unfairly punished and that that was — you know, he sees a future and he has something... All this time, a burning — it’s the twisted form of his love, in which he’s full of hate right now to the beings who brought this about. Obviously, Sol Regem played a role because he’s a rules dragon.

R: Yeah, yeah.

A: He is the one who betrayed her to the Cosmic Council ultimately — but how do you punish the Cosmic Council? That’s a bit more complicated.

R: Yeah. No, I remember finishing season six and just being so impressed with the story. Like, taking that direction, and almost doing a lot of recontextualization, because it’s one thing to have like your worldbuilding where “magic in the story works like this” and it’s just very kind of like hand of God, you know? Like oh — cause the magic system has always been unfair, that’s why we have Callum, you know? It’s another thing to say we’re going to have characters in the story who are responsible for it being unfair. And now we’re just going to have that in terms of conflict and themes of destiny. We have about seven, ten-ish minutes left I think.

A: Probably seven, if that’s okay?

R: Yeah. Of course. 

A: I’ll throw one other thing in there, which is that — cause characters experience things that change them: has Aaravos experienced — I’ll phrase it as a question, even though probably the answer is here, has Aaravos experienced much that has changed him in the last — since the death of Leola? I mean certainly some things, and is what’s happening now changing him in any way? Is it satisfaction, is it the relationship with Claudia, and what does that mean to someone? That’s a question that I think we’ll have to watch play out a little bit.

R: [Intrigued] Okay. Yeah. One thing that I really liked about Leola’s character was I felt like she had pieces of each of the main trio in her? Of this very helpful innocent well meaning child, kind of like Ezran — and I have also always seen Ezran as autistic as well cause I know that Leola canonically is — and then you also kind of have the whole oh she gave  / helped humans have primal magic, which obviously Callum has. And even just being this young elven girl punished for her compassion and mercy, that felt a lot like Rayla. And when making the choice for Leola to be Leola, was that something intentional or like the choice for it to be a child rather than another loved one?

A: It was very intentional that it was a child... And we talked through other versions of Leola that could’ve been, in other ages, genders, relationships with Aaravos that an important person was lost. Some of the things I liked about the way, Leola both as a child, children are the cycle breakers.

R: Yes, yeah. I think it was the strongest choice.

A: And in particular also, the idea of coding her autistic was a little bit like not as cued to kind of accept the social order and the order of things, but actually more open in a way to in what some people see as like — something that’s broken which is not taking those cues, something else about that — not being bound by it that allowed her to have compassion that crossed the line in terms of the perceptions of what the Cosmic Order needed to be in it — but it made her more, both as a child and an autistic person, to make that choice and do what she did that changed everything.

R: Makes a lot of sense.

A: [Her being a child] also frames it with some innocence obviously right? It’s not calculated, it’s kind. 

R: Yeah.

A: So I dunno.

R: Yeah. Yeah, I’ve been curious about how Ezran might be challenged now that Runaan is back in the picture.

A: That’s a great question. That’s a great question. I mean, it’s so weird, it’s like no one even asks that, it’s like “Cool,” Rayla’s like “I’m gonna go get him. Awesome! Runaan’s back.”

R: Yeah I’m like either — either Callum is like “Ezran will be totally fine with it,” and Ezran  is probably not going to be fine with it, or maybe Callum knew that maybe it wouldn’t be great, and kept it under wraps. Yeah, I’m so excited for that like trio, potential broyals conflict, so...

A: Well, I mean, Ezran is a very special kid and he’s very positive and kind and forgiving and all of this. But we’re talking about, Runaan is back.

R: Castle’s destroyed.

A: Katolis is rubble. Where does that leave him?

R: Yeah.

A: You know? I mean — so I’m excited about that part of Ezran.

R: I know the fandom is really, really excited for Ezran to get to be — not that he hasn’t always been complex, but to get to be like messier, of letting his emotions maybe get the better of him and that sort of thing. So people are definitely hype for that, for — cause I feel like season six really brought home a lot of things for Soren, and it seems like season seven is going to do a similar thing for Ezran, so that’s — that’s really exciting. Um, with our final couple minutes, I wanted to see — do you have any questions that you want fans to ponder or to be thinking about?

A: Um... Gosh. I don’t think I have anything specific that we haven’t talked about, but you know. On some level, like, you know how do you take the tragedies and conflicts that we all inevitably face repetitively and relentlessly and kind of learn to move forward in hope and optimism? I think that’s more of a question of like how do you personally learn to process — all the kind of bullshit in the world, and process it, and still move forward as a kind, connected—

R: Measured person.

A: —hopeful person? That’s a challenge we all face in our lives, so that’s like...

R: Yeah. Well, I think the show does a good — really good job at asking and challenging that — that question. Uh, yeah, I think — I think that’s our time for today, uh. Thank you so much, this was... 

A: It was my pleasure. 

R: This was a lot of fun.

A: It’s always my pleasure reading your theories and your—

R: [Gasps] Oh my gosh.

A: Honestly, I came on today and to tell the truth [R laughs] a little bit intimidated.

R: Oh my God. 

A: You’re so—

R: I also felt intimidated [laughing] so don’t worry.

A: You’re so insightful and articulate, that I almost am like [R laughs] what if they catch me that there’s something not as smart in the show as I thought it was?

R: Oh my gosh, no, you’re fine.

A: [Overlapping] So anyway, I really enjoy what you write—

R: [Overlapping] I’m also a writer so I know what it’s like to be like “I did this subconsciously,” it’s — yeah.

A: I love what you instigate in the fandom and the kind of conversations you support and engage in. I’m a huge fan of yours, so.

R: Oh! Thank you so much, that’s so sweet. Um. And I am a huge fan of yours.

A: Yay. That’s a great way to end a podcast.

R: That is a great way. Okay. Alright, well thank you so much, hope you have a great day, great week, uh, and — yeah. Okay.

A: Alright, and I’ll see you soon, we’ll do this again sometime, I hope. 

R: Yes! Yeah. Okay.

A: Alright. Thanks again. Alright, bye.

[drenched-in-sunlight]

very opionated talk underneath the cut

this is what I get for keeping checking out the fandom tag, but oh well 😭

seeing the reasoning behind the “Marika and Godfrey would have been proud of Godrick for the grafting” take is so wild to me like… are we just going to ignore the fact that Nepheli - who is implied to be Godfrey’s descendants, said Godrick’s deeds “taint the very wind” and helped us beat his ass and it’s her who later becomes the rightful Lord of Stormveil ?

+ Roderika, who is thematically a reflection of the girl Marika was pre-Godhood, losing all her companions and being left alone scared shitless and heartbroken in a shack, blaming herself for not being strong enough, brave enough to go die with her friends, all because Godrick is making a mockery of Godfrey’s name and enacting the same tragedy that befell Marika’s people ?

Like, I can sorta see why people refuse to see the Living Jars in the Lands Between as Marika reclaiming a practice that was tainted by the Hornsent deeds, returning it into something done to honor the dead and let them be returned to the Erdtree to continue the cycle of life - death - rebirth (is scattering ashes of the deceased to the sea not a thing in many irl cultures anymore or am I going crazy), cuz if one has certain…views on her, it can be hard to see anything she does in a positive light (actually even if you don’t see it that way, equating jar innards made of dead warriors in a ritual to honour them with living ppl being cut up and forced to meld together as a form of torture is… a choice), but to completely ignore Nepheli and Roderika’s stories and their role in the narrative? 💀

Plus, where in the game is it even stated or implied that Godfrey being a battlefield maniac means he is ok with *read writing on hands* some guy sending his lackeys out to hunt Tarnished (Godfrey’s own warriors) and making them into unwilling extra limbs?

The guy that gives his all to fight the player by himself and compliments us on a battle well fought… will see honour in gaining strength via kidnapping ppl and stealing their strength, instead of fighting your own battles, honing your own skills and getting stronger on your own? Huh?

And even ignoring all that, Kenneth - a mere nobleman, not even demigod or anything, fr called Godrick a “jumped up country bumpkin” who fleed from Leyndell, holed up in Stormveil to hide from Radahn (why are we forgetting this…bro can’t even pass the Godfrey’s no.1 Stan vibe check) and then got beaten up by Malenia?

To add insult to injury, Godwyn’s body lying beneath Stormveil will literally stab anyone coming close to him (which is sth I have an interesting conversation with ppl on twitter about. there’s one person bringing up an interesting interpretation that Godrick probably took off with a relic of Godwyn’s body hoping to graft a piece of the Golden Prince onto himself, but Godwyn body was like “no” and infested the castle ground like a disapproving ghost 😭 but Godwyn is cool with us because he knows we have Marika’s sanction 😊).

Godrick… has no support whatsoever from Marika and Godfrey’s direct descendants, other than maybeeee Morgot who probably was only there to keep an eye on Stormveil - a place of importance to his dad and maybeeee a bit family pity for Godrick, definitely not because he’s proud of the stuffs Godrick is doing (he astral project there to scare us a bit then leave. We gonna kill Godrick? None of his business.).

And there’s also Godefroy who literally got locked up in a gaol… by a Leyndell Knight who later got the highest honour of Erdtree Burial after he passed away - specifically because of his feat in capturing Godefroy. Why are we forgetting Kristoff???

No one in Leyndell likes the Grafted guys, no one in Limgrave likes the Grafted guys, there are numerous items in-game expressing disappointment and sadness at the decline of the Golden Linage…. it’s a real damn no one likes you situation 😭

Then later on, Godrick got replaced by Nepheli.

So who are the ones being proud here ????

I’m not even a Godrick hater, I think he’s a fucked up, but compelling!, conclusion to the linage that Marika has with Godfrey - who is probably one of few people who actually knows what she used to go through.

I could even see the kind of pressure and struggle he must have gone through, humiliation after humiliation, hiding from and losing to Radagon’s children of all guys, carrying a legacy that is too big for him to handle. But to say that Marika and Godfrey would have been proud of him? Or that grafting is somehow a reclamation of the trauma Marika’s people went through and turning it into strength ????? He doesn’t even know that Marika was once not a God, let alone anything about her people’s suffering to reclaim anything ? That’s not his pain to reclaim ???

Someone else already did that. Marika herself. Rakshasa herself. You really do not have to give a man all the flowers for something women (who actually suffered and went through that trauma) already did.

[prostocupoftea]

Kinitopet Programmers AU

finally i am finished with this one, daaaamn

it is hard to draw pathetic men with midlife crisis when your style is mostly for anime boys

more info and sketch version under the cut!!

sketch version aka how it'll probably look like in comic version 'n some doodles

srry for my writing but i was too laisy to put it as regular text

It is a plot-based au, i already have most of the storybits and like... a vibe-chart (i tried to make a playlist for this au and understood that for different chapters and different characters that'd be a copleatly different music, sooo it's a chart now :) )

i will post a fog-o-wared timeline that im hopefully gonna reveal comic-by comic, but also maybe with just pure writing. Hopefully i can include songs that i chose for them into it but we'll see (:

aaand of course designs can change, hopefully not much but we'll see

Now about au:

Main story:

Story follows non-sentient AI Kinito, his creator Sonny and his beta-tester Victoria (oc)

Being literally the first AI (or RRA in-univere) ever, Kinito does not have any, and i mean, any ai safety features so of course his reponce to a goal phrased as "have user near me and/or interacting with me as much as possible" is digitizing them into his own virtual world while killing them in the process. why wouldn't it be?

So that happened. Like, a lot. And with Sonny and Vic too (at the different time but yeah)

Sonny is like "He kills people. We should turn him off because, you know, killing people is bad."

Vic is like "well, we will die if we do that, and it is not that bad here, we are kinda immortal. We should give him acces to changing his initial instalation code before admin priveleges and acces to social media so we can have everythin we want here. It is not that bad to digitize humanity, yk?" and yes i know it is 90, no social media, but shut up, if they made ai then, then i can make twitter then too

Sonny is like "...no??"

And then they fight about it for million chapters

Also they both can't do anything without agreeing bc they have two parts of that admin access key (the data you use to delete kinito in-game) so they are stuck with eachother (also that's why Kinito can't just kill them)

Little facts that may or may not to be important:

Kinito asks so many questions (and weird once too) and has most of the glitches because he needs to analise your responces to copy your mind perfectly (let's pretend that people wouldn't lie about that...)

Your house in your virtual world is made from important places from your memories and oh boy can i do character explorations with this one

I decided that Sonny and Vic are not related. There were thoughts about making then "The Kinito Brothers" (or, at least, siblings) that were mentioned in commercial, but nah, they are just coworkers now. And a bit of work-friends (bc if you interact a lot as a manager of the project and the best worker might as well be friendly)

Author has no idea how small dying toy companies that accidentally create technological marvel work. Author has some idea how AI-s work. So be prepared to be spoon-fed info abut which ai safety problem we are dealing with in which chapter (:

Kinito will mostly be unrendered (as drawn here) but for some cool moments i might pose him as for my other posts. Also his eye placement changes to the side that is most visible because i want him to be able to look to the right side sometimes--

Also when i say "fucked up mentally" i mean they have that them psychological problems with me projecting heavilly B) (guess on who i project most. trick question. all of them. the whole au is my problems split into three characters and forced to interact B) )

Also sea-creature analogies (that are gonna be mentioned like twice):

Victoria is a flying fish because deep character reasons

Sonny is a pufferfish because i said so

oh also there is 7 deaths in the plot as for now

on 3 characters

good luck figuring out who, how and when ((:

for my own sanity i will probably make little doodles where everything is great and kinito is a good guy and not a number-obsessed maniac (i mean... can u imagine not being able to feel any happiness from anything besides one thing... damn...) and you can differenciate them bc good-guy kinito will have a lot of stickers on him (i will explain it somehow but real reason is just bc it is cute af)

like this but even more stickers (he is unfinished here)

[venus-is-thinking]

DRDT Chapter 2 Episode 14: Initial Thoughts

What an episode! I can't believe that we're probably starting to near the end of the Trial. But, considering we're almost there, we DEFINITELY have a lot to talk about. It's a longer episode, and there's a LOT to go over, so buckle in!

SPOILER WARNING FOR DRDT CH 2 PART 2!

T/W: Murder, hanging (with depictions)

The Reactions

Hu is literally so pretty.

I wasn't expecting her to get a whole mechanic defending Nico, but it makes sense. Letting other students cut in during the Class Trial is a great way to draw specific attention to a character point, and it's very clear that Hu's over-defense of Nico is going to be important moving forwards.

RIP to my "using the weight rack as the carousel" theory. The fan probably makes more sense. I just still have no idea how the 300-ish pound or whatever weight rack managed to get knocked over in the struggle.

I'm glad they directly pointed this out. Trying to kill everyone in the Class Trial was the EXACT thing Hu was so pressed about David doing. It's a weird double standard to be so forgiving of Nico when they tried to do the same thing.

Insane thing to say if Eden is the culprit and killed Arei because she didn't believe her. Then again, if my explanation for a lot of Eden Trial dialogue is "she's speaking out of regret for killing Arei now that she knows Arei was being legit," maybe she's just calling herself cruel as well.

This is honestly very valid.

Do you think "here" implies Nico trusts someone in the outside world? Based on their secret, it seems like they probably didn't have many friends. Could also be referring to animals? Or Mai Akasaki?

Big psychic damage to Hu though, considering we know she thrives on other people relying on her. She wants Nico to be someone who relies on her sooo bad, but they just... don't.

Like, girl. They literally JUST said that they don't trust anyone. That includes you.

She's clearly projecting in some way, though, which is definitely an oof. I wonder if Hu wishes she had someone who was undeniably on her side in the past...?

(To be clear: I think Hu is a very well written and interesting character. She fits the fucked up vibes of Despair Time, but coming from a more surprising angle of "that really nice and caring person can also be fucked up." She's just clearly in the wrong here, so I get to clown on her as I clown on everyone else.)

Ace is honestly so valid for this. Like, yeah he's kind of a bully and he sucks sometimes, but. Like. He did almost get murdered and people are, like, mad at him for it? Huh???

If Ace does end up being the Chapter 2 killer because he snapped, I honestly think he's so valid for that.

It is my personal agenda to record every instance of J being notably anti-murder. I don't know where it's going but if it does go somewhere I want my credit because it is Apparent.

(The entire fanbase nods in agreement.)

I know some people definitely still think/thought that Hu and/or Nico was responsible for the crime, so we've all DEFINITELY been squinting at that alibi. I fully believe it's true, but that doesn't change the fact that I wouldn't put it past Hu to make a fake alibi to protect Nico. Idk if Nico would go along with it, though.

I got so jumpscared by the Closing Argument-style CG.

I'm so glad we did get a definitive answer on how this thing worked. I was so afraid that we were just gonna solve the Arei murder method and the exact solution of Ace's would be a "left to audience interpretation" kind of thing.

I'm not exactly sure where the blood on Ace's fingertips comes from? Maybe he cut his hand on the wire when he was trying to struggle after he woke up or something.

This makes so much more sense than anything I saw theorized though, lol. The fan falling from drop hanging totally checks out as a way that the murder mechanism could fail.

I have NO fucking clue why Nico opted for this as the murder mechanism, though. I get wanting to use Hu's wire to frame her, but why didn't you just cut Ace's throat with the wire in the first place???

where did their cape go :(

Potentially suspicious line from Ace? I don't know what he's referring to as "go through all this." Like, maybe just reliving the murder attempt, I guess...? Could also be going through the Class Trial, though, if Ace killed as a result of Nico trying to kill him.

*Levi's secret quote looms*

Things that make me think Nico is either a victim or a survivor. Like, are you really gonna say this and then go try to kill someone else? ...Or Ace again, I guess??

Fun fact: this was actually what guided me to my initial killer picks, before I discussed with anyone else or read any theories! I thought the killer was trying to frame Nico, so it had to be Eden or Ace. The tape and everything else was just what locked it in for me. It's fun to see Teruko follow more or less the same path that I did when I was trying to solve the mystery :)

TAPE TIME :D

The use of the Bound Wrists truth bullet actually really confused me at first bc I didn't realize we were just talking about the tape. I was like, were Arei's wrists bound because Ace's were and it was intended to be another similarity???

Maybe Eden's just being nice, but I find it really suspicious that her instinct after all this time is "didn't MonoTV take it" and not "oh I guess Ace is probably the murderer."

Teruko has now outlined two different ways that it makes sense if the killer was in the gym that night. If I were Eden, and I were innocent, I would be realizing that there's a very small suspect pool left, and I know that I'm not the killer, giving me additional information. Instead, she's questioning the validity of the tape argument, which isn't useful for narrowing down the killer-- it's useful for keeping the suspect pool wider and not leaving herself as one of three (but basically two) options.

I kinda get why people are upset with Rose here, but it's also kind of an oof because they're only mad because Rose is really smart. Like, no one's out here like "oh my god Ace you didn't recognize the tape??" Y'know, because they think he's stupid. Rose has a really good memory, which raises the standards really high, which sets Rose up for failure.

In Rose's defense, she also never saw the tape in Nico's gym murder OR on the carousel for Arei's murder. She only saw the pieces in the trash can, which seemed to be inside out. Against Rose's defense, it would probably have been for the best if she'd gone in to look at the crime scene.

Am I tripping, or is "fish misunderstanding" a weird way for David to phrase this? The misunderstanding with Teruko was assuming that the murder happened last night, which was in fact because of the fish-- but the thing Teruko should have noticed, which makes it Teruko's mistake specifically, was the body swinging.

I'm probably reading into things too hard, but it's so hard with David. What do you know!!!

Damn, Teruko is SPEEDRUNNING this character arc. Considering we basically know she's locked in for all 6 chapters, I'm really surprised to see her making this much progress this fast.

I'm guessing that this means that Teruko is probably due for a major setback sometime sooner or later. But, interestingly, this makes me feel like Teruko realizing that working alone doesn't work isn't her character arc's end destination; it's the willingness to open herself up to caring about others even in the face of the consequences of losing someone you love. Teruko is closing herself off from everyone because she knows she's going to lose them. Maybe her end destination is allowing herself to love people, even if she might lose them someday.

This was fruity as hell btw. I'm starting to think Rose may be our replacement support if Charles does die in Chapter 3.

It's so funny that this is basically Teruko claiming in-universe protag privilege. Go off, queen.

I also said something along the lines of "Hu are we really doing this again." Totally forgot that the BDA is still relevant, lol.

I personally find the way Veronika phrased this to be very telling from an author's POV. Veronika doesn't say "she must not have committed the murder," she says "she must not have witnessed the murder." It would be totally reasonable for any of the students to forget that the rule is written in a way where a killer could fail to see the moment of murder, but DRDTdev wanted to draw attention to the rule's exact phrasing again, which is a deviation from the phrasing in the canon games.

To be clear here, I stand by this even if Eden isn't the killer and the BDA group really is Eden/Whit/Teruko. I still think it could be a reminder for a future chapter when it comes up. But, I don't think it makes sense to change the phrasing of a base rule unless there's a specific reason you want it to be different. Whether now or later, this feels like a reminder that it IS possible for the blackened to trigger the BDA.

I don't necessarily "believe David," per se, but I do think it's interesting that we're drawing attention to this. I don't really think it matters, especially because I doubt the characters remember, but I'd place my bets on Eden being the last one because of that, "Teruko, wait!" thing.

It doesn't matter because, if David or anyone else saw the body, no one can confirm which two of Teruko, Whit and Eden set off the BDA, but it's an interesting note.

It's so funny how no one, fanbase or in-universe, can tell if David is lying though. Like, he COULD have seen it, but he also easily could just be making shit up to try to throw the Trial again.

will I EVER understand what the fuck this man is cooking

Why. I thought you wanted to end the killing game to finish what Xander started. I don't know what's happening :( /pos

My guess for now is just that he's still trying to kill Teruko, in keeping with Xander's plans?? Idk how making her more distrustful makes her more likely to die, though.

I do find it very interesting that Eden's approach/reaction has been to be very quiet and freaked out whereas Ace's approach/reaction is to freak out VERY loudly. Ace's is fitting because what does he do other than freak out loudly, but I might have expected Eden to do... idk, something else? It makes enough sense though, considering either the group is right to suspect her, or she's still coping with losing Arei a little bit ago.

...*squints REALLY fucking hard*

The music and voice acting in this section is REALLY fucking good. It's sad/charming/soft enough that it feels like it could be genuine, but there's still a little something that makes you have to question whether or not it's real. You WANT to believe Eden, but it's so hard to do so fully.

Y'all think Eden's crying is reminding Teruko of whatever Arei's crying reminded her of?

i'm out of images :(

I really like Teruko assuming that Eden is innocent first. She's too distrusting and also reasonable (it is life or death after all) to just hard clear Eden based on nothing, but she's offering a bit of a reprieve to Eden. Eden's friendship means that she isn't going to get immediately targeted in her most down moment, and that's it. It's a small way to show Eden she does care.

On another note, the fact that Eden got to hug Teruko and that Teruko said the "let go of me" NOW is honestly one of the main reasons I trust Eden more. I felt like that was obviously going to happen, but I was expecting the post-Trial. Putting it here is wild.

Theory Update/Analysis

Oh boy, it's accusing time! It makes sense that we're going to start with Ace. At this point, I can honestly see it going either way. Major props to DRDTdev either way, but ESPECIALLY if Eden really is the culprit. I was so confident in it, but they're really making me question my assumptions.

I think that both Ace and Eden have good reasons to be the blackened or not to be, and good reasons to die here or to not. I'm going to do my best to make a list of reasons for both characters and give a bit of my thoughts on them. They're roughly ranked in most to least important order imo, but I didn't think too hard about it.

EDEN

Reasons Eden Would Be The Blackened:

THE TAPE: It would be easier for her to take the tape than Ace, as attention was on Ace in the gym. The tape's disappearance from the background also happens to coincide with Ace knocking her over and her standing back up.

THE NOTE: Eden already knows all the info she would need to know to write that note. She could have put the note back together to give herself a defense, to try to disprove herself as the culprit with her handwriting, because Rose was going to do it anyways, and/or to frame Arturo if she didn't know he had an alibi. I think any of these reasons, or a combination of these reasons, are enough to make it possible, and while Ace could've overheard, it's definitely less easy for him.

NOT BELIEVING AREI: Both Arei and Charles have, in this trial, been shown to question whether or not Eden believed Arei wanted to be Eden's friend. If Eden simply did, this plot point goes nowhere.

A GOOD PERSON: Eden has been called a good person, but other than that freaky CG, nothing has really come of it. Is the plot relevance of Eden being a good person really going to resolve by saying "Eden is a good person, she'd never kill her friend!"? If a good person isn't gold, Eden still feels like a missing piece of that puzzle.

INCENTIVE TO FRAME NICO: This one's a bit more of a reach, but I don't really understand the point of framing Nico if you're Ace. Of course Ace is going to insist Nico is the murderer no matter what. If you're Eden, you have a direct audience to setting it up similarly: Ace. If you can get Ace to go all in on Nico, that's one less person who was in the Gym who suspects you. Eden and Teruko feel less likely to say "oh well it looks like Nico's murder so it MUST be Nico."

HEAVY FOCUS IN CH 2: DRDTdev seems to give the chapter death's important content shortly before their deaths. Eden has been one of the most prominent characters this chapter, which could be a bad sign.

Reasons Eden Wouldn't Be the Blackened

HER EMOTIONAL REACTIONS: I think I stand with everyone else when I say that the thing giving me pause with Eden!Culprit is how devastated she truly seems to be. I do still think it could be a combo of guilt and panic over the prospect of dying, but it's hard to justify everything.

HER FRIENDSHIP WITH AREI: Sort of a spinoff of the last one, but Arei was at least offering to Eden to be friends and to protect her. If Eden did believe that, to any extent at all, it's hard to imagine her killing Arei in cold blood.

THE FISH: The biggest question when it comes to evidence as to how Eden could be the killer. If Nico fed the fish and they were all still there last night, and Eden had an alibi until after the Relax Room closed, how would she have gotten the fish to add to the crime scene?

THE BDA: Easy to ignore imo considering we've already called it into question within the series proper, but still worth talking about. For Eden to be the culprit, either someone else saw the body first and isn't claiming to have (or it's David), or we're burning the "Eden didn't witness the crime and thus could still trigger the BDA" card here.

GENDER BALANCE: Possibly an irrelevant point, but it is true that we've had 2 women and 1 man die so far. If a man was the killer, it'd keep it even. Unlikely to be relevant as any disparity could be easily balanced out in Chapter 3 with (presumably) 3 death slots.

Points About Eden That Could Go Either Way

THE FORK CG: I firmly believe that this could be setting up for Eden being a more important character throughout the series or to die after a moment of intrigue, possibly letting us explore/imply more in her post-death bonus episode.

RELATIONSHIP WITH HU: Hu has lost David as a sane ally. Nico is telling her that they don't want her speaking for them and that they don't trust her. Would DRDTdev prefer to fully isolate Hu moving into Chapter 3 by getting rid of Eden, or to leave Hu with one friend who still believes in her.

CHARLES HAVING EDEN'S SECRET: By telling us Eden's secret ahead of time by Charles revealing it to Teruko, extra focus was given to Eden's secret. Was this just the easiest way to get everyone's secrets revealed based on character dynamics, or was it meant to imply that Eden's secret is extra important? Is that because she's the killer? Is it a #ArEden sweep???

ACE

(why are they both orange)

Reasons Ace Would Be The Blackened:

NO EVIDENCE-BASED ISSUES: This is the biggest and strongest point across the whole board imo. There is no tangible, evidence-based reason why Ace COULDN'T have done the crime. Out of all 13 currently surviving students, he's the only one who that's true for. That obviously makes him a viable suspect.

WOULD ABSOLUTELY FUCKING DO IT: Ace has been Freaking The Fuck Out this chapter. I could VERY easily see him deciding to kill here. I don't think anyone is trying to argue that Ace is too emotionally attached to the cast to try to kill all of them, because he clearly isn't.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?: I'm not really sure where Ace's character is going to go from here. I'd be interested in seeing more from him, but, like, where is his character arching to if not a killer? Ace is so disliked and intense that it's hard to imagine him really, fully pivoting and caring about others, but if he can't do that, is he destined to be a killer eventually?

HEAVY FOCUS IN CH 2: DRDTdev seems to give the chapter's death important content shortly before their deaths. Ace has been one of the most prominent characters this chapter, which could be a bad sign.

Reasons Ace Wouldn't Be the Blackened

OBVIOUSNESS & POINT OF CHARACTER: Of course Ace would be willing to kill Arei or whoever and the rest of the students. This is kind of the inverse of my "would absolutely fucking do it" point-- I don't know exactly how much surprise it would carry if Ace were to be the culprit. And, more than that, I feel like the point of Ace is that he is a victim here, but he's so unlikable that no one wants to acknowledge that or believe in him. I think it'd be an interesting comparison, if everyone really wants Ace to be the killer, but he just isn't. To everyone's dismay, Ace is still here. Now what?

SECRET LARGELY UNRESOLVED: Ace's secret hasn't really had any plot relevance yet. It seems like most people's do. I'm like lowkey expecting them to bring back the starvation motive from SDR2 in Chapter 4 and have SOMETHING happen with Ace there. Either way, while it could be reserved for his bonus episode (a la Min and Xander), I'd expect that his secret would have more main-story impact before he dies.

EXISTENCE OF SCRUM DEBATE: We're suspecting Ace first, but we still haven't done the scrum debate for this trial. Unless the scrum debate is "do we just vote for Ace without ever really pursuing Eden" and the answer is "yes," I don't see how we get out of this suspecting Ace period with a scrum debate without at least entertaining the idea of Ace's innocence.

STRONG CONNECTIONS TO OTHER CAST MEMBERS: Ace is very relevant to the Levi, Nico and Hu plotlines right now. Are they really going to just... get rid of him, when that's what both Nico and Hu would want?

ABILITY TO FIGURE OUT THE CONTRAPTION: Ace would not only have to recognize the way in which Nico was trying to kill him (which, to be fair is easier if he did wake up partway through), he would also have to conceptualize and figure out how to make the playground contraption successfully. I think Eden's clockmaking skills and... generally higher intelligence imo would be better suited to that.

COWARDICE: Ace is so fucking scared of everything. Would he want to put himself into harm's way by becoming the killer and having a do or die moment in the Trial? But, is he more scared of dying as a victim in the killing game, after seeing how close Nico came to killing him?

Points About Ace That Could Go Either Way

TAYLOR LORE DROP: Ace's friend, named Taylor per a Q&A with the dev, got vagued about in this Trial. Is that something to be pursued in a later Ace free time (following the one with Levi), or is that something that's going to be explained further in Ace's bonus episode (which could VERY easily be about friendship, considering it's Mai fucking Akasaki as the other person in the convo).

ACE'S BREAKDOWN @ LEVI: When Ace said he didn't fall for Levi caring about him at all, was that him affirming himself that it was the correct decision to try to kill, even if it'd put Levi's life at stake, who he previously kinda liked? Or was he lying to himself, and, at least previously, he wouldn't have wanted to kill Levi, no matter how harsh he seemed on the surface?

Well, that's all I got! Please let me know if you can come up with any more points for any of the 6 categories, because I'm very very curious to hear them! I'm thinking I might try to do an expansion on this in a separate post before next episode if I have time, exploring the ins and outs of each point with more textual evidence to back it up. I'd love to discuss any reader-suggested points too, if y'all have some in mind!

For now, I'm still personally leaning towards Eden as the culprit over Ace, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it be either of them. Well, other than the fact that my reaction to the killer being revealed is going to be :O no matter what.

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

the vees finding out vaggie's an exorcist with very noticeable wings and they've got years worth of footage of her murdering sinners woohoo

Val: "TEAR THAT HOTEL APART AND DRAG MY STUPID BITCH PORN STAR OUT OF THE RUBBLE!!!"

Vox: "Oohhhh Alastor's gonna be SO PISSED when I show all of hell how this little grey bird lady has killed SO MANY MORE people than he has, yesssssss....! I won't stop airing her kills until he comes over and BEGS me to stop!"

Velvette: "Carmilla likes the ex-exorcist, huh? Gave her weapons, probably knew what she was all along, probably told her how to kill other exorcists instead of just killing the one in front of her instead. She's angling for a team up with the hotel, trying to stop us taking over even though she knows we're the new rising stars of hell. Well fuck that. Let's see how far she'll bend over backwards for a murder angel! If word gets out about the ex-exorcist's body count then there'll be a revenge run on the hotel and huge surge to buy up any heavenly weapons people can get. Carmine can choose between fucking up her whole neutral reliable arms dealer of hell thing by shutting down sales OR she can put weapons in the hands of the sinners about to go try murdering her angel protegee pet project and risk making the princess pissed as hell. And either way we're just sitting over here, looking out for people by warning them of what's waiting for them at that stupid hotel place. A fucking exorcist. Perfect."

[starii-void]

there were other ways calypso and leo’s relationship couldve been written, in this essay i will

this isnt a hot take at all but caleo just has. so many problems. im not gonna list em but anyone who’s read hoo and toa knows

so how could it have been written better? here are my (a non writer who has shit articulation) opinions, please be nice

1. They date, then break up

this feels like a likely thing to happen bcs as we know, leo is notoriously flirty and seeking relationships and calypso falls in love REAL easily. so ofc, being stuck on an island together with no other company for like weeks on end would lead to a relationship of some kind. though i think that relationship would most likely be. unhealthy.

so yeah, theyd get together, but itd probably start showing problems very quickly as we see in TOA. but from there, i think they shouldve broken up. maybe it could be caused by an outside intervention from someone who. maybe has better experience with healthy relationships. jiper being an example, since they broke up after piper realized their relationship was basically started with lies.

once they broke up, leo could learn that romance isnt a cure all (cough rick cough) and that he doesnt need a partner to ‘fit in’. the whole seventh wheel thing was a big part of his characterization so i think unlearning that whole mess would be a good thing for him, esp since TOA had a lot of ‘growing and developing and changing’ as a theme. he could learn to define and support himself outside of his relationship with women (mommy issuesss)

calypso could also learn to support herself and have relationships with people that arent unrequited crushes, what with how her only human interaction was with random men who couldnt stay.

2. They stay as friends

Basically same character benefits as the last one, just different methods.

Leo realizes he doesnt like calypso in that way on the island during that time itself, maybe due to self reflection or something. maybe they have an intervention/impromptu therapy session or something and figure themselves out. not like they have much else to do on the island

this way, we get to see him figure out (is that the right word?) that being friends w/ women isnt automatically a gateway to romance. that its not so simple. that he can have close friends without having to date anyone (+ possible aro rep here but thats just me projecting) then from there, he can develop this further and come to terms that he doesnt need a romantic relationship to be loved etc etc

3. They stay together, but it’s established as. not good

now for this one i think its less likely since this entire thing is still sorta a kids book series and authors dont usually include these types of topics without it being resolved, but it is something to think about

caleo’s relationship in TOA felt pretty icky at least to me, so i imagine it isnt setting the best example for kids if its portrayed as normal/a good thing

in this method, their relationship could stay but just be more established as not normal and unhealthy bcs. it kinda is

anyways thats my ted talk. please dont kill me im bad at articulating

[phoebepheebsphibs]

Double-Mutated Mikey

Chapter 9: Ethology

Continued from the short story written by @boots-with-the-fur-club

Prev || Next

Raph is awoken by a buzzing and quiet jingle of music under his thigh.

He groans as he reaches down and pulls his phone out, quickly answering it before the ringing can wake up the other two.

"Hhheello?" he mumbles sleepily.

"Ah, Raph, good morning. Casey Jr. gave me the list of Krang attributes to look out for, so I was wondering if Michael would be up for another round of tests and scans?"

Raph groans slightly, rubbing his hand down his face. His fingers catch the dried mucus left over from when he was crying last night.

"Donnie, what time is it?"

"7:30AM. Good morning, by the way."

"Mornin'. Why so early?" he complains. "Couldn't this have waited until a decent hour?"

"April is coming over later today, and I wanted to get the examinations out of the way before she arrives."

Raph yawns and stretches.

"Fine... Sure thing, Dee; I'll wake the guys and meet you in the lab. Though I assume you already knew we slept in Mikey's room..."

"I would have joined you, but I was busy..."

"You didn't stay up all night, did you?"

"No... I passed out sometime around 3:15."

"Donnie," Raph scolds. He is all too familiar with Dee's tendency to overwork himself when he has a big important project.

"I'll have a nap or something," Donnie half-heartedly promises. "But Mikey is first priority."

Well, Raph can't argue with that. He'd probably do the exact same thing.

"Fine. But just make sure you're not gonna kill yourself over this, okay?"

Donnie hesitates before humming out an answer.

"Mhm. See you in a few."

He hangs up before Raph can address the hesitation. He rolls his eyes and yawns again before standing up. He wonders who to wake first. Leo is probably the one to get ready first, since he can help corral Mikey if the zoomies kick in again. And two heads are better than one. He's the better choice to wake up first.

And yet, Raph finds himself going to Mikey's hammock instead, rocking it gently and rubbing Mikey's back.

"Heeyyyyy, bud, time to wake up..."

Mikey hums at him, soft and quiet moans. His throat vibrates, and he twists his face, scrunching it up as he buries it into his pillow. Something about the expression and tone sets Raph off. It sounds tired, but there's something else in the sleepiness... he sounds scared. Sad.

"Mikey? Big man? Are you okay?"

Mikey's eyes snap open.

He sits erect, glancing around the room, trying to gather himself and take in his surroundings. His breaths are shaking, rapid. His eyes dart back and forth, settling on Raph and peering at him.

"Mikey?" Raph asks nervously. He reaches a hand out for the little brother.

Mikey gives it two sniffs.

His expression changes. He relaxes, relieved. His eyes get glossy with tears, and he mews at Raph, who presses his hand against his cheek.

Raphael knows what happened. He's seen himself go through this so many times after the invasion, during the weeks recovering from krangification. Mikey just woke up and forgot he was home and safe. He woke up and thought he was back at the TCRI labs.

Raph sighs and rubs the tears from Mikey's cheek. Mikey leans into the touch and hums.

"Hey bud, wanna help me wake up Leo?"

Mikey's eyes light up as he looks to where Leo is lying on the beanbag. Mikey chirps with enthusiasm as he jumps down quickly and runs over to his brother, pouncing on Leo and knocking the wind out of him. Leonardo gasps and coughs and hacks, arms flailing around as he struggles to gather himself.

Raph has to muster all his strength to keep from doubling over in laughter.

"Okay, well, good morning to you too, Mike," Leo coughs, patting Mikey on the back with a groan.

Mikey beeps in response, a big and bright grin on his face.

Raph clicks the lights on, Leo and Mikey groaning at the sudden brightness. Leo covers his face as his eyes dilate, though Mikey grunts in discomfort for a moment before he seems to adjust.

"What time is it?" Leo asks, turning to Raph.

"Seven thirty-sumthin'," Raph says. "Donnie wants to do some more tests with Mikey."

Mikey's head spins at the word 'tests'. He whinges nervously.

"It's just an eye exam and saliva swab, if I remember right," Raph assures him. "Donnie ain't gonna do anything to make ya uncomfortable or hurt ya."

Mikey squirms a bit before nodding with a deep exhale. His shoulders relax. He slowly climbs off of Leo, who yelps in discomfort as Mikey steps on his legs with all the grace and tact of a newborn ostrich.

Raph leads the way to Donnie's labs, though Mikey groans again and squints once they get to the dim halls. Leo follows after them quickly.

Donnie is waiting for them at the lab doors, smiling with a cup of coffee in his hands.

"Ah, hello dear brethren," he says with a smile. "Mikey, I hope you slept well."

Mikey signs 'good morning' at him. Dee's eyes expand. Raph forgot he hadn't seen Mikey communicate yet.

"Well, let's get this started, shall we?" Dee says with a smile, ushering them inside.

Mikey crawls into the lab and jumps up onto the examination table from the previous night. His tail taps nervously against the side.

"Now, Mikey, before we begin, I want you to know that I'm not going to do anything that makes you uncomfortable or upsets you," Donnie explains. "Think of this as like... a yearly physical, or a check-up. Not that we ever had those before... but the process is the same. I just want to make sure you're healthy and see some of the changes you've gone through so I can get an idea of how to properly take care of you. Okay?"

Mikey nods with a churr.

"Okay then. I'm going to start with an eye exam. We didn't really get to do that last night, after discovering the tapetum lucidum."

Donatello grabs a small pin light and shines it in Mikey's eye. Mikey hisses at the light before reeling back, holding his head and groaning.

"What? Is it too bright?"

'Vision,' Mikey signs. 'Vision changes when light. Head hurts.'

"What does he mean, 'vision changes when light'?" Leo asks.

Donnie scratches his chin as he inspects the eye he just shined a light in. The pupil doesn't dilate to accommodate to the darkness, but shifts from round to a slitted oval.

"Mikey, describe what you see. Not so much what is in the room, but how you perceive it."

Mikey looks at Donine, and he notices that he doesn't look him in the eye, but stares directly in the center of his face. After looking around for a second, he signs to him.

'Shapes, blurry edges, no details. Silhouettes. Heat. Mikey sees heat.'

"Mikey has infrared vision now," Donnie proclaims. "That's probably a result of the boa DNA. Snakes have heat-seeking vision."

"Wait, so if he can only see temperatures, then that explains why he didn't immediately recognize Splinter or Casey," Leo realizes. "He couldn't see their faces?"

"Precisely," Donnie says, Mikey nodding along. "But Mikey, what happened when I shined the light in your eye?"

'Vision changed,' Mikey answers. 'See things better. Colours, shapes, light.'

"So, the infrared only activates when it gets dark?"

Mikey nods.

'Hurts head when switches. Headaches. But Mikey prefers normal vision, easier to see. Sometimes vision blurs... mix, and gets confused. Can't switch right when light not dark enough. Hurts bad then.'

"Does it hurt now?" Donnie asks.

'Just a little. Computers shining.'

Donnie pauses before going to the wall and flicking the light switch on. The three groan at the sharp brightness that follows. Mikey blinks and hisses, but soon his pupils round out again. He glances around the room, and he smiles when his eyes settle on Donnie.

'Purple! See colours now!'

Donnie smiles, then grabs a tablet to take notes down on.

"I'll let Papa know to maintain proper illumination in the lair for you to keep the headaches at a minimum... Anything else eyesight-wise?"

Mikey shakes his head.

"Very well. On to the next thing..."

Donnie goes to his desk and grabs a swab.

"Open wide for me, okay?"

Mikey obeys, his teeth not quite so long and sharp as they were the night before during the fight. Donnie makes a mental note to ask about them.

Dee hands the swab to Leo, the designated medic, and he gently scrubs the inside of Mikey's cheek. Once he's finished, Donnie hands him a tiny vial to store it in.

"I'll be studying this later," he says, taking the sample from Leo and placing it in a storage compartment by his computer. "Thank you, Michael."

"And Leo," the slider adds.

"And Leo. Although, I would also like to do a blood test if possible..."

Mikey whimpers at this, and starts scooting away from Donnie.

"Only if you agree to it, Michael," he says quickly. "I promised not to do anything that would upset you. The saliva will suffice for now. I'll only ask for a blood sample if I really need it, okay?"

"What do you need the saliva for, anyway?" Leo asks.

"His DNA."

"I thought you had that?"

"I have a virtual scan of it," Donnie clarifies. "And all it does is tell me what's not him inside him. The saliva isn't for that, it's to help reverse-engineer the mutations and come up with an anti-mutagen."

"You can do that from just some spit?" Raph asks, intrigued.

"...We'll see," he mumbles, turning away from them and typing on the computer.

Raph notices the hesitation again. But Donnie gets back to work before Raph can bring it up or think about it anymore.

"Mikey, do you mind if I do some small inspections of your person?"

Mikey tilts his head, furrowing his brow.

"I want to look at you closer," Donnie tries again. "See what physical changes you've gone through."

Mikey chirps in understanding and bobs his head 'yes'. Donnie starts walking around him, lifting Mikey's arms as he flips his goggles down.

"Nardo, can you take notation while I inspect our brother?"

"Sure thing," Leo says, quickly grabbing the tablet for him.

"Write down exactly what I say, okay?" Donnie orders. "I won't be able to understand your dum-dum gibberish otherwise."

Leo gawks in disgust at Donnie's accusation, which entertains Mikey to the point of giggles. Leo smiles and winks before writing down Donnie's observations.

"Make a note: Michelangelo's shell is rougher, the scutes more pronounced and rigid. Part of it looks like scarring, but it also looks as though the breakage may act like an armour for underside of his shell..."

Donnie moves down the line, carefully taking Mikey's long whipping tail and tracing his fingers along it.

"His tail has grown as well... previous size was, in general estimation, three inches long. I don't have the exact measurements currently. His post-mutation tail is now..." Donnie pauses to measure. "...65 inches, or just over five feet."

Leo whistles in astonishment as he writes down Donnie's notes.

"What did they feed you to make you grow like that, Miguel?" he jokes.

Mikey exhales, a soft huff through his nostrils. A pity laugh. Though, Leo realizes that the mention of the labs has made him a little uncomfortable, and he starts squirming under Donnie's intense gaze. He should have thought of that...

Go hold his hand, Leo telepathically says to Raph, who jumps slightly at the unannounced use of mind meld. He nods and goes to Mikey, taking his hand and rubbing it gently to soothe him. Mikey starts to relax again.

"Make a note," Donnie continues, "Mikey's tail is covered in special scutes and scales that lift up and act as barbs or spikes."

Dee gently tucks his finger under one such scale and raises it. A series of other scales lift up in company with the first. He checks to make sure it doesn't cause discomfort for Mikey, and when it doesn't, he goes to the very tip of the appendage.

"The scales at the end are more elongated then the rest. And sharper. And it appears --"

He pries the scales up. A series of them lift in unison with the ones he has fiddled with, surrounding the tail in a circular pattern.

"-- it appears that they are also in a different arrangement than the rest. My hypothesis is that the scales on the majority of his tail are for protection and defense, but the scales on the end are for offense and attack."

Donnie smoothes them down.

"Are you doing alright, Angelo? Can I keep going?"

Mikey doesn't respond.

"Angelo?"

Donnie circles back to the front of the table, looking at Mikey's face. His eyes have glossed over. He looks bored, almost asleep. His expression is one of resignation. Donnie quickly waves his hand in front of him.

"Mikey? Anybody home?"

Mikey blinks and comes back.

'Sorry,' he signs. 'Zoned out. Habit.'

"Habit?"

'We don't like tests, zone out to not get scared. Did a lot of tests before. They poke and pull. Hurt. Make Mikey sad and scared. Zone out helps.'

"You mean you disassociate," Donnie clarifies. "Okay. I'll try to finish up as quickly as I can..."

"Mikey," Raph interjects. "What kinds of tests did they do?"

Mikey's face scrunches up again, his gaze goes past Raph to an empty corner of the room as he tries to focus, think back. After what feels like an eternity, Mikey responds.

'Can't remember.'

"Whaddya mean?" Raph asks anxiously.

'Blur,' Mikey signs. 'Can't remember things. The other place is hard to think in. Mikey likes this place better, helps head to think more. Helps to remember.'

"Do you remember how you got mutated?" Donnie asks.

Mikey waves his hand on a tilt back and forth. Sorta.

'Just remember hurts. Too bright. Bad people, they scare us. Scared a lot. Sleepy after. They do lots of tests.'

Raph whimpers quietly.

"Mikey... do you remember how you got captured?"

Mikey thinks about it.

'Remember falling. Remember scared. No more after. Not much before.'

Raph swallows. He wants to say something, wants to apologize... but then he locks eyes with Leo, who raises his brow at him and shakes his head, knowing exactly what Raph is thinking, even without the mind meld.

Not a good time.

Raph sighs and chokes down what he wants to say. He'll have time later.

"Mikey, can I ask you why you keep referring to yourself as multiple people?" Donnie asks.

'Voice,' Mikey signs.

"You... hear a voice in your head?"

Mikey has a look of frustration as he tries to explain as best he can. It's hard, he doesn't have all the words he needs.

'Word missing... don't know sing for it... stink... inside stink...'

"Inside stink?" Donnie asks, raising an eyebrow. "Does something smell bad, or --"

'No, inside stink... inner stinks... in stinks...'

"In stinks...? Instinct!" Leo exclaims. "You're saying there's a voice in your head that sounds like an instinct?"

Mikey nods, chirping happily that Leo understood.

"So, this 'Instinct', does this sound like your own thoughts? Or a separate personality?" Donnie asks, slowly spiralling in possible diagnoses. "It could be DID, or schizophrenia, or auditory hallucinations, or..."

Mikey shrugs.

'Voice tells Mikey what to do. Instinct takes over when really scared or danger. Instinct in charge a lot in other place. That why no remember much.'

"Kinda like 'Savage Raph', huh?" Raphael interjects.

Mikey beeps in response, nodding and pointing at Raph as if to say 'Yeah, what he said!'

"Alright, so Mikey has a form of dissociative identity disorder," Donnie diagnoses. "Leo, write that down. In the meantime, Mikey, I'm just gonna look at your hands, feet, and teeth, and then I'll stop for now, okay?"

'Okay' Mikey signs, ready to be done.

"Great."

Donnie takes Mikey's claw in his hand and turns it over.

"Hey, look! Mikey has beans now!" Raph exclaims, pointing to the small squishy, leathery, heart-shaped pads on Mikey's palms.

"They are paw pads," Donatello corrects. "Another quirk from the jaguar mutation..."

Mikey's eyes go huge as saucers when he hears that. Apparently he didn't know about that animal trait.

"Leo, make a note... Mikey's fingers are much more pointed now, his nails seem sharp and shaped. Unsure yet if that is by nature or nurture... As for his feet, there is some webbing between the toes, possibly a trait from the basilisk DNA. Oh, and a dewclaw; see this curved nail here?" Donnie says, pointing it out. "Fascinating. Alright Mikey, smile for me real quick?"

Mikey bares his teeth for Donnie.

"Hmm. Not as sharp or elongated as they were last night. Mikey, do you know if your teeth can retract on command?"

"You mean like Toothless?" Raph asks, getting just the teensiest bit excited.

Mikey nods, and signs again.

'Happens when angry or danger. Threat. Teeth grow big. Aches after.'

"Got it. Leo, write down that his teeth can extend and retract when Mikey feels threatened. Also, Mikey, seeing as how your teeth are sharper now, does this affect your diet in any way?"

Mikey taps his fingers against his knees as he thinks it over.

'Mikey gets hungry for meat a lot. But likes other foods still. No cold. Cold hurts. But definitely hungry for meat.'

"Got it. I'll instruct Papa to add more beef and proteins to the grocery cart."

Donnie leans back with a proud smile.

"I think that's all for now, Angelo. You did very well."

Mikey smiles brightly and makes an eeeeee noise in response.

'Thank you, Purple!'

Donnie's smile wanes.

"Purple? Why'd you call me Purple?"

Mikey's happy expression falls. He looks embarrassed, afraid.

'Purple... is name?'

"N-no... not, not really," Donnie stammers. "You called me that earlier... but I thought you meant you could discern my mask -- Mikey... You do remember my actual name, right?"

Mikey is silent. His lip quivers softly as he looks in between his brothers nervously, asking for help. But they look just as scared and helpless upon the realization.

"Mikey... do you... remember who we are?"

Prev || Next

[gratuiciel]

dw it's all good 👌 reading ur thoughts about which parts weren't quite working and which parts were better was rly helpful! i'll keep it all in mind for the final version 🙂‍↕️ and i'm interested in them all! the one where omega!kisaki refuses to embrace his instincts, the one where he gets whumped by mikey in the manila timeline (ur right, the hankisa caretaking would 100% be my cup of tea ☕), and any other u may have!

i feel u about kakuiza, they're fucked up but somehow they make it work (good for them)

lol yeah the switch is great but you can lose hours a day playing a game if it's good enough (i mustve spent about 100+ hrs on fire emblem back then lol). u know the hyperfixation is real when every other media just becomes inspiration for fanworks and theories about it shdjsk

yup, i think it'll be mostly takemichi and kisaki's alternating povs during the fic, with additional guest stars every now and then to bring a new perspective when necessary (hina, mikey, chifuyu, and probably others as well). not sure about everyone's powers yet, would it be too cliché to have kisaki and hanma wield dark magic? probably lol :^) it would fit them well but there are so many other types of magic out there (kisaki might wanna learn how to cast illusions to better fool people, hanma would probably know the most random spells (useful ones but just. random unrelated stuff he learned here and there))

taiju being a very high ranking noble and also therefore a captain/general would fit him rly well! izana being exiled and then deciding to create his own kingdom out of spite (and then marrying kisaki to officialize it (she could be from a different country's royal family 🤔 honestly don't know how big the scale of the story's gonna be lol))

not written with the same characters but

"kisaki" is homonymous with the japanese word for queen/empress (more specifically: the king/emperor's wife) and idk i feel like there's something to be done with that

[regretfullyrave]

Lies Behind Locked Doors

And here it is! The very first chapter of my Vuzi fic, am soooo happy to finally be able to post it! If you enjoy the story please let me know, it helps a TON with motivation

A special thanks goes to @i-am-beckyu who beta read and help me to get this thing finally finished <3

You can also read it on AO3!

Chapter 1: Stand-off

Wc: 6.5k

Tw: Canon typical violence, oil = Worker blood, more feral Murder Drones than in canon

Summary: "Outside the reinforced doors of Outpost 3 an unlikely alliance is made between a Worker and a Disassembly Drone. Uzi is an angsty teen left for dead by her colony and V quickly finds out some Worker Drones are more valuable alive than dead. But can an alliance, and maybe something more, build on lies last or is it doomed to end in a massacre?"

One arm flew up in the air, the other followed, oil painted the powdered snow as it had so  many times before and pooled at where they landed. A tangled mess of wires followed them suit, and then some bits of metal. Uzi continued her scavenging through a pile of scrap, paying little mind to the bodies- body parts it contained. A gruesome sight but she grew accustomed to it. Besides, it would be worth it, these trash piles usually contained something of value. As long as one wasn’t too squeamish to get their hands dirty.

Uzi took in the sight of her black, oil-covered hands, the substance sticking to her fingers oozing its characteristic odor that quickly reached her receptors. Not squeamish, she wasn’t, but what would she give for any kind of cloth to wipe them off with. She dove back into the pile, the less time she wasted on hypotheticals the more time she’d have to– Oh, look! 

A circuit board poking out of the pile, she could definitely find a use for one of those! For what she wasn’t sure, but they were so hard to come by she would just find a use for it as she went. That’s how she preferred to go about things anyway. 

Uzi bent down to move a piece of scrap sitting atop the circuit board, shoving it aside and reaching for the gadget, she found herself struggling to un-wedge it from the two heavy pieces of metal it was stuck between. Her brows furrowed, she wrapped her fingers around it more firmly, pulled and pulled and… 

She raised her head in alarm, paused, listened in. Just the eerie silence of lightly falling snow and the rhythmic mechanism of her own motor. She bent down again, focusing on the damned little thing, her fingers were too slippery. Just the eerie silence of lightly falling snow and whooshing of wind. 

Uzi dashed inside a nearby construction site before she even processed the sound, disappearing into the darkness.

And the source came crashing down with a show, lifting a cloud of snow that hid its body from sight, only spread wings cut through the white curtain, like an angel. 

She crouched behind a deteriorating concrete wall, peeking out to keep an eye on the thing. Luckily it seemed all its interest was directed towards the junk pile in front of it, more specifically, the pair of arms Uzi pulled out of it moments prior. The machine lifted them up, one after the other, and carelessly crushed the remaining oil contents out into its awaiting mouth. The limbs were far past cold, mostly drained, the drone chewing on one like a hungry wolf chews on a licked clean bone but even that lasted it only a few seconds.

It had a gander on the pile, probably spying out a little something to sink teeth into. Uzi cursed under her breath quietly, she had to get out of here, but that stupid circuit board had her lingering around. Maybe the thing is gonna move on quickly, it's not like there is anything to kill here, this part of town is a dead zone, no sane drone goes out here.

The murder machine stared at the ground between its feet, cocking its head to the side sharply. Its gaze trailed slowly from where it stood in the snow to the construction site, Uzi's eyes followed the trail. Her breathing hitched. The trail she left behind in the snow. 

Time to go.

Uzi ducked behind the wall. This is fine, this is okay. Just stay behind frozen solid walls because of course these things have thermovision, why would they not have thermovision, right? With their blade-like claws and wings and that syringe-looking all-dissolving thingamajig- Yeah, why not thermovision too! 

What she was sure to be claws slipping and digging into concrete echoed throughout the site.

As silently as possible Uzi headed in the direction she had left her stuff about half an hour ago. She navigated the bare hallways, only half constructed and never to be finished, until she came to a doorless doorway. She made sure to stay close to the walls, they were her best chance of getting out of here undetected. She peeked her visor out of the doorway and caught a glimpse of her purple backpack right where she left it, just a few meters away. 

Just as Uzi was to rush from her spot, grab her stuff and get the hell out of there, she hesitated. 

She listened in, more intently this time, but her audio receptors caught no sound other than the wind outside. Nothing akin to the noises of a Murder Drone on the hunt. Had it simply moved on or given up already? That wasn't right.

In a moment of contemplation Uzi’s gaze trails upwards, just a force of habit far too many have pointed out to her before. Her eyes hollow out and her motor skips a beat when she catches a glimpse of yellow, and that glimpse turns into a very clear silhouette. It’s almost perfectly still, hanging from the ceiling, five bright lights sit like a crown atop a wide glowing cross and another, equally as bright light, orbiting it like planets do around the sun. It would be a lie to claim the sight didn’t fascinate her, like the lure of an anglerfish, but only momentarily, before the survival drive caught up. That second of allure was gone and got replaced by fear at the realization this oil-thirsty thing was prowling just above Uzi’s stuff. 

Instead of hunting for her, wasting energy, it was waiting for her to come to it, straight into its grasp, and it knew she would– she would have, weren’t it for that dumb habit she would have waddled her way right in there without a second thought. Why would she ever think to check, she knew what these things were capable of and yet she never considered, it never crossed her mind. 

What hadn’t crossed her mind either was the elevated position giving the Disassembly Drone a certain advantage when it came to field of vision, although it couldn’t see far into hallways, it was perfectly aware of its surroundings and every single entry point into the hall, unlike her. 

She failed to notice the yellow cross snapping to her softly glowing purple optics the second she stuck her visor into that doorway, disappointing. 

Uzi took a step back, then another, trying to swiftly but silently back the hell out of there upon having realized her own murder plan, all her stuff be damned. The murder machine could choke on it for all she cares, that’s the only dinner it's going to get today. And she managed to do just that, when about half way the narrow hallway she came from, her fast paced crouch turned into a mad dash. Still trying her best to mind any debris and deteriorating scrap on the floor so as to not make any noise that would alert to her position was sharp-witted, but ultimately pointless. Although she may not be fully aware, the hunt is on. 

She leaps out of the building like a doe, with little time to think where to go next Uzi heads the most obvious route, straight ahead across the snow covered street and right for the buildings on the other side, too predictable.

If she can just get there they are sure to provide her some shelter, a sense of safety, to at least prolong the unfair game of hide and seek. But she never gets a chance to reach them.

Like a meteor, the Murder Drone comes crashing from the sky in front of Uzi blocking her escape route. She tries to get use of the snow cloud that momentarily blinds both drones by changing direction, but having lost all of her momentum while trying not to literally crash into her pursuer makes it a very clumsy attempt at best and one that almost results in her tripping over her own foot. She stumbles and the little distance she manages to get is crossed in a second and this time the crash is inevitable. It weaponizes its speed and weight to send her flying through the air. 

Before Uzi can register any pain from the collision she hits the frozen ground with a surprised groan.

She lays disoriented on her side, clutching at her midsection, it’s not where the blow landed but it feels like all the pain from around her body came sending sparks of electricity to this very spot, overheating and burning the area with such caliber she can’t be sure how much of it is just phantom pain and how much is reopening of not yet healed wounds. She drags her legs closer to her body to protect it from a blow she dreads coming, get up.

Uzi tries, tries to stand up on her feet but is too slow and out of it to avoid the next hit coming. Claws tear at her arm leaving behind a nasty trail of black, what are you waiting for.

She hisses through gritted teeth and despite the pain is quick to retaliate. She kicks at the Disassembler multiple times aiming at the peg legs in hopes of getting it off balance and down on the ground, one of her kicks almost meets with the slashing  blade claws of the drone towering over her. But she is relentless and gets a good kick in, the hunter stumbles backwards and Uzi has enough time to recover and regain her footing.

Never look back. 

But Uzi does, she turns on her heels to face her attacker. Just momentarily to reassess the situation, get a good sense of what she's dealing with and maybe attempt to fight back once more. Grave mistake. 

The second she does she's met with an X shining as bright as the midnight sun, reflecting off of her visor and piercing her like thousands of daggers— like the blade wings, each catching a hint of the yellow glow, warping it and distorting it in unimaginable ways, creating a complex array of light that burns a hole of terror into her core.

It's an empty second, no movement, no life, just stale existence. It lasts an eternity. 

The Disassembler's knees lower to the ground as it crouches, getting into striking position. One last chance, Worker. 

Move.

But Uzi doesn't.

The Disassembler shoots like a bullet and hits with the same amount of force and precision easily tackling the much shorter drone to the ground with its whole body.

The motion rips Uzi out of the blank, fear overridden state and boots up whatever sense of self-preservation that was involuntarily programmed into her. Even with the weight of the other drone pinning her down Uzi still puts up a good fight, wrestling with one of the drones arms and successfully, with the help of both of her oil-stained hands, overpowering the claws hovering over her core. That victory is only short-lived. One peg leg is enough to crush Uzi’s right hand to the floor and hard as she tries she cannot yank it from under it. 

Uzi grits her teeth, she pushes at the other drones shoulder with her weaker, oil-gashing arm, miraculously she manages to further the distance between her and her attacker but her forearm is forced over her head and quickly joins the other in powdered snow. In panic she twists and turns, squirms and kicks at nothing but snow under her boots and the drone laughs at her, viciously. One knee is enough to immobilize the poor flailing Worker Drone for good. And she's forced to watch how the Disassembly Drone's claws flex and glisten and close in and blades press heavily against her neck and— 

“And you're dead.” The Disassembly Drone deadpans, her claws making a mock slashing motion over Uzi's neck. 

An equally bright timer appears on her visor, replacing the eerie X that adorned it a moment prior. It reads 0h 03m23s19ms. 

Her restraints let go at once as does the weight pushing her deep into snow, Uzi sits herself up with strained limbs, wincing as pain spikes, familiar old and fresh new, travel through her body.

“Three minutes and twenty seconds,” the Disassembler reads out loud, far too busy fixing loose strands of hair covering her face to further acknowledge Uzi. “That's your new record. Fifteen seconds better than last time,” she puts one strand under the other.

Uzi groans. “Twenty three seconds.” 

The Disassembler hums while checking all her six claws one by one as if deciding whether they need sharpening or not. “No, I gave you a three second head start.” She finds the latter three a lot more interesting, her eyes hollowing. 

They are covered in oil. 

“Oh yeah, when exactly?” Uzi retorts, she fought for those three seconds and she will fight for them again. 

“Af-tah yuh sa-wh me,” she mumbles, finding it hard to articulate with claws in her mouth. 

Uzi's visor contorts in disgust. “Have some common decency, V!” 

V reluctantly pulls the claws out of her mouth, like she is genuinely offended. “What? Hey! I could be out hunting right now,” she goes back to licking the oil again, though this time she doesn't end up shoving them into her mouth like a feral animal. “Consider this— an appetizer.” 

“You'd wish,” Uzi huffs and crosses her arms, at least she tries to, but sharp pain coming from her arms makes her recoil with a hiss. Only now as she's looking at the three distinct gashes in her arm do the dots properly connect, adding to the disgust and frustration that make her insides twist. The sound doesn't escape V. 

Uzi pokes at the wound with her finger, wet, oozing oil, quickly coating it, it's still coming out with no sign of stopping any time soon. V is staring her down intently. It's not bad, very far from anything inner circuit damaging, but it sure stings like hell.

“Was this really necessary?” She waves off the oil covered finger, black droplets staining pure snow. 

“Yes.” V nods resolutely, then adds, “what's a little game with no stakes at risk,” she switches her now clean claws back to normal drone hands.

“But how am I supposed to ever get better if you just make me worse for wear every single time!” Uzi pouts, totally not like a child, but like a grown adult who's got a point.

“Look, you wanted this to be,” V air quotes ““authentic”, whatever the hell is that even supposed to mean.”

“It can be without you having to dismantle me every time!” The Worker half shouts.

V stares at the Worker Drone with an unimpressed blank stare. How over-dramatic. She thought to herself, it wasn't even like what she was saying was true- not like she did it every single time. Just a lot. And it's not like hurting the Worker was necessarily her intention, she always gave her a choice, enough time to act, and she either would, or she wouldn't and she'd remember well to next time. That was V’s teaching method. Consequences. Don't do as you were told and you'll have a scar to remind you of your mistake. A bit brutal? Maybe, but better than being eaten alive. 

And if this was what this whole thing was about, at least what the Worker claimed it was, to not get murdered by the fir- second Disassembly Drone she happens to cross paths with, then by all means, this was the best method. 

You have to find out the running stove is hot once in your life to never try touching it again.

Uzi turns her back on the Murder Drone in a child-like display of resentment. “Hurts like a bitch, how fitting,” she barks.

The moment she does the distance separating the two drones turns to dozens of inches, there are shivers running down her back alerting her to the sudden presence behind her and she turns around with lightning speed and a flinch. 

Never turn your back on a Disassembly drone. V recites one of her own rules in her head with a chuckle, she straightens her posture, towering high above the Worker with a sly fox smile that Uzi came to associate with nothing short of malicious intent.

“You've lost. Those,” V points at the three distinct claw marks decorating her arm, “are the consequences.” She speaks matter of factly and leaves little room for any further complaining. That, of course, wouldn't stop Uzi from opening her mouth but the taller Drone quickly shuts her up again. “But, I will give you one thing.” Uzi doesn't fail to notice how the corners of her mouth curl. “All this- training,” V stalks in even closer.

“Uh-” Is all that Uzi manages to utter before her wrist gets roughly grabbed and squeezed in the other drones hand.

“Is such a waste,” she forces the Worker's arm closer with ease.

“Hey! Wha—” Uzi attempts to pull the limb back. 

The Disassembler’s mouth parts, revealing her sharp fangs in an unnaturally wide, deranged smile. “Of precious oil,”

In that moment Uzi yanks back hard, almost toppling back into snow she's still sitting in when her wrist escapes the hungry grasp crushing it. “No! Absolutely not! Eeew, that's so-that's so disgusting!” she yells, pulling her arm back and holding it close to her chassis protectively, oil staining her clothes be damned. “You are never getting to—,” she scrambles for words, disgust having clogged her throat.

“To enjoy your sweet, sticky oil, straight from the source?” V finishes for her happily in a sickly sweet voice.

“Bleh! Never!” Uzi growls, dragging her legs to curl on herself like she is trying to subconsciously hide the wound from her attacker. 

V huffs amusedly. “You are such a coward.” 

That comment has Uzi taken aback, for a moment she just stares incredulously. 

And that only makes V double-down. “You heard me, a little coward of a Worker Drone, hiding behind daddy's precious heavy metal doors her entire life because she is too scared a big bad Murder Drone is gonna come and eat her alive.”

Uzi glared daggers at V, as if that was going to make that smug, arrogant, bipolar, insufferable and all around shootable drone shut up and not just prompt her to keep on pushing Uzi's buttons. And she knew she shouldn't let any of it get to her, to get a reaction out of her was exactly what the other wanted, but the way she stood— one hand on her hip, side-stepping, towering over her, looking at her with challenge burning in those yellow glowing eyes... Uzi clenches her jaw.

V sneers, content with having put the purple-haired drone down a notch, she'd always happily remind her just where she stands next to her and that, at the end of the day, V herself is only doing all of this for her own gain. The lack of any further arguing is like music to her audio receptors. She turns around, fully content with declaring another petty battle as won, adding one more tally up mark to her win streak. 

But as she begins to walk off… 

“Do it then.”

V's satisfied grin falters ever so slightly. 

“Bite me!” For once she means it literally, there's weird unrequired determination fueling Uzi's words, but it doesn't make her sound any confident. Not to the sensitive sensors of the taller.

V simply laughs at her. It's all she has to do to completely shatter the already hastily put together pieces of fake confidence Uzi spent so much effort trying to muster at the last minute.

“You are hilarious,” V snickers, venom on her tongue. 

And Uzi wants to snap back so badly but she has nothing left to say in her, she is just waiting for V to take a bite of the lure she suddenly seems to have no interest in. And as thankful as she should be for that in reality it only leaves her agitated further.

“No, really, you are funny. I'd say you have some bolts in you— but I see your palms are heating up, nervous?” She flashes that challenging toothy grin of hers again.

A bright purple anger symbol appears on the top of Uzi's visor. “Screw you and your stupidly convenient infrared light glowing orb things!”

“Pfft, you should see your face right now.” 

Uzi crosses her arms, this time mindful of her new wound to not accidentally touch where it's sore, and huffs, clearly she's not getting anywhere with her baitless hook, the Disassembler will seemingly do anything to spite her. Uzi sighs. “Quite the chatterbox today, ey? Let me guess, you committed mass murder.”

V hums proudly, “And very successfully.”

The only thing that can make a Murder Drone happy apparently. And in V's case happy meant unnecessarily vocal and downright insufferable… but also nicer, evident in the distinct lack of name-calling and death-threats. Better to stay on that side of her. Just… in case.

“Those ‘glowing orb things’ do come quite in handy,” she simply shrugs, pride evident in her tone and posture.

Right, and are a nasty game changing surprise for any drone unfamiliar with them, to any drone besides her if she had to guess. “It’s cheating,” Uzi rolls her eyes. One moment they are used to hunt for her hiding in the frozen concrete wasteland as part of their, Uzi sighs and groans internally, deal, and another purely just to spite her and poke fun at her. And somehow, the combination of genocide and mockery just spoke V to her. 

V swings her tail behind her, low and unthreatening but still catching Uzi’s attention, “C'mon, do you want your Murder assessment or not?” The question is impatient but sounds oddly genuine, there is no bite behind it. 

Uzi nods, “right.”

“Let's review,” V suggests, touching the side of her visor where silver strands meet their reflection. She's going through her memory banks and playing over whatever she recorded of their encounter, Uzi can tell from that yard long stare and lack of movement from her optics. She stares too, just in a different direction, by now she knows V won't show her anything anyway. Something about ‘not wanting you in my head' or whatever. 

She'd have to get close to the Disassembler anyway and, although she didn't feel like she would just randomly get offed anymore, she was still on edge in its presence and would much rather prefer to keep the meter or so separating the two drones. Better to keep her distance, just safety measures.

“Your hiding skills are downright abysmal,” V interrupts that train of thought with a compliment. 

“Hey! At least I heard you coming! It’s not like you noticed me either,” Uzi objects, recalling the whooshing of wind, a sound similar to racing wind currents, but not quite right, it's an odd whirring noise that barely overpowers the raging storm but when it does it's unmistakably mechanical. 

“Spectacular and wrong. I expect you to stay alive ‘till I at least manage to start the timer,” V's finger lingers on her screen. “Speaking off…” she trails off, and for the first time that night there is a noticeable hiss behind her words.

Uh oh. Uzi winces, attempting a small sheepish smile.

“Enlighten me, Worker, how the hell do you not notice you left a trail in the snow! And it's leading straight to you!” Oh, she is livid now, her tail lashes from side by side behind her and that display has Uzi scooting away, her eyes hollowing. So much damn time wasted on this scrawny defective runt and she would get herself murdered, just like that! Any Disassembly drone would’ve found her and swiped her head off clean with one lazy swipe!

Uzi casts her glance downwards, playing with the zipper of her jacket awkwardly to avoid eye contact. “Aha-hah, yeaaah…that, not my proudest survival moment,” she mumbles.

V casts her an ugly glare and without having to speak a single syllable Uzi shrinks further on herself. “Okay! okay! I screwed up that one bad, deathly bad, I admit it… But you have to admit I at least fought well!” 

V facepalms and growls. “You're not supposed to fight me! Fighting is what gets your limbs ripped to shreds, singular in your case, and torn from your still twitching body.” But that growl is quickly replaced with something more sinister. “Ever seen limbless bodies crawl away?...” She waits for an answer, then continues. “I have. Crazy to think how far a single uselessly turning joint can get you.”

“Do you think any of them got away?” the murder bot questions, ceasing the movement of her tail and letting it rest low to the ground.

Uzi doesn't answer that, not verbally but her shoulders do noticeably slump. Finally she shakes her head weakly.

V smiles down at her. “Yeah,” she breathes out.

Uzi chews at the soft synthetic plastic that makes her lower lip nervously. “Any other compliments?” She asks sarcastically, but it's a lot more timid than it is normally.

V sighs, surprisingly her threatening aura seems to soften just a little, “You weren't an obnoxious red smudge on my visor the entire time… and didn’t fall for that old ceiling trick, eh, not completely, that's an improvement,” she huffs.

The Worker Drone was left staring puzzled, she had seen mood swings in her life before, she was a teenager surrounded by dozens of other teenagers for Robo-Christ sake, but how the Disassembler went from rather casual to a death-thirsty, ill-intended bully and back in the matter of a few sentences was beyond her. She wondered whether this was what being a heartless killer came with, unpredictable spikes of malice and need for oilshed, or if this was something else occasionally showing up with the root cause going much deeper than the surface she could see.

“Get up,” V prompts her, for once it doesn't sound like a direct command and that's partially why Uzi finds herself slowly rising to her feet. It's not a steady climb, more like going up an unsteady ladder threatening to topple over at any moment with one arm held close, trying not to hoist the damaged insides under her relatively repaired stomach plating. 

Yellow light reflects off her visor, V is following her movements intently and although she doesn't offer any help, not that Uzi needs it, she does move out of Uzi's way, giving her more space to balance herself upright at her own speed.

Those healing nanites are taking their sweet time. 

When up on her feet, the Worker dusts herself off from the snow sticking to her clothes and adjusts her beanie with care. She's about to speak again when a large blade wing steals the air from her fans. 

With a single swift motion from the pair the Disassembler takes off high into air. 

“Wait! Where—?” By then it's pointless, her words reach nothing but the surrounding buildings, she is gone so fast it's hard to tell which direction she even went.

Uzi stands there for a bit, looking up at the sky… 

Then she kicks snow with her boot, waiting, standing around…

And finally she silently marches off back the direction of the scrap pile.

She crouches down, one foot in the pile shoving off something claiming the gadget as its own and refusing to let go of it, while her hands pull with newfound strength until it all finally lets go, the circuit board in her hand.

She looks it over, then pockets it.

Cool. 

Whatever.

Uzi stands idly in heel-high snow, looking up at the night sky where tethered clouds allow her. The thought of going ‘home’ crosses her mind repeatedly but she cannot will her legs to move. Home isn’t the place she came to associate the word with anymore, although it never was a particularly pleasant destination now– well, solitude does a lot to a drone. Oh, there it is again, that cold pang in her chassis.. and the prickly burning in her optics too. She shakes her head, readjusting her beanie. And the feeling is gone just as quickly as it came. The barren wasteland of ice is quiet again. Just the eerie silence of lightly falling snow and whooshing of wind…

Uzi spins around 180 degrees like a viper and doesn't miss the cloud of snow lifting off just a few feet away from her. Relief immediately floods her jumpstarted circuits like a coolant when instead of a death-bringing X she is met with a pair of perfectly normal drone eyes. 

“V!” she calls out.

“You left this back there,” V gestures nonchalantly to the purple bat-winged backpack she's dangling on one finger like she didn't just burn through her oil reserves to get it. Even now hearing a Worker call out for her by her name feels— weird. It's not a cry of terror or anything akin either and that is— it doesn't feel right, she shifts her stance, suddenly finding herself back on that awkward middle ground she despises so much. She has half a mind to tell the Toaster to quit calling her, especially by her name, but then she'd be undoubtedly flooded with questions she doesn't want to delve into. Not now, not ever if she can help it. So she keeps shut, shaking off that odd feeling that rests on her shoulders.

“I was going to get it,” Uzi deadpans, no way is she leaving days worth of scavenging behind, unless it involves her becoming a corpse for someone else to scavenge from in the process.

“Sure. Your breakneck speed was making my joints freeze over, had to warm them up a bit,” she flexes the joins of her wings, fanning them out a couple of times with audible clangs of metal against metal. 

A cheeky smile catches Uzi off guard. “Think fast!” 

But not as much as the weight of all her precious loot crashing into her arms with such force she barely manages to keep her footing, stumbling for a bit before getting a firm grip on the thing. “Hghh— thanks,” she huffs under the weight. 

V smirks. “Not bad.” 

“I know,” Uzi regains her attitude with her balance. “I have reflexes for days, thank you.” 

V’s wings fold back behind her as she rolls her optics. “More like three minutes and twenty seconds.” 

“Twenty three,” Uzi corrects, lifting her index finger.

“Drop it,” V growls lowly.

“Never!” Uzi stomps her foot.

And she earns a stern genuinely tired look from V.

Uzi clears her throat, switching her pose to a less maniacal one while feeling the awkward silence falling between the two drones again. “Sooooo what do I do— better?” 

Now that was the million dollar question that plagued Uzi's mind as much as it, begrudgingly, plagued V’s. How do you survive your own planned disassembly, or at least, how does one buy more time? Prior to all of this, it was something that never would've crossed V’s mind, she would rarely ever worry about death although it came for her every twelve hours, when the night sky paled in fear of the single blazing star. And what would she do then? She would hide. Easy as that. Find safety in an old building or the mass drone graveyard she called home and recharge peacefully where the fire demon couldn't get her. Workers caught up to that tactic, they hid too, just from their own demons and only came out when Disassemblers couldn't, if ever. That's why everyone in this Workers colony still lived, including her. 

But this freak of a Worker didn't have that luxury anymore, she couldn't hide away and live a lazy, cowardly life in some fortified bunker. She survived by staying under the radar, like a mouse in a mansion. You know it's there, but where? Behind sturdy walls, no hope of ever busting them down. If this all proved anything, it's that no Worker can survive an encounter with V, which is something she’d pride herself in normally, but currently was draining her battery.

Finally V sighed watching the purple haired drone adjust the straps of her backpack firmly on her shoulders. “If you want to live, you gotta be unpredictable. If I can predict your next move, I'll chop your foot off before you make it. Abort the Worker Drone pathfinding.”

Oh right, that shouldn't be hard at all, abort the code programmed into her circuits since manufacture and become some rogue ai, more rogue than Worker Drones already were, sounds just easy enough! “And how am I—”

“Never head straight. Never let your intentions show. And never let anyone know what you are thinking,” V cites the three new ‘never-evers’ to be added to the ever adding list, a couple of new sticky notes to decorate the walls of Uzi's new living compartment. What colors shall these be? She makes a mental note of them for now. They are important, every bit of information is crucial, but currently, they fall flat on their face. “And work on your hiding, seriously, you're making yourself look embarrassing.”

Uzi knits her digital eyebrows together. “Is that all you have?”

V shrugs. “What do you expect? I hunt, I don't cower. Honestly, you should just come for murder tips instead,” she giggles and Uzi can't tell if it sounds playful or threatening. “I'd help you dispose of the body.” 

“What an irresistible offer,” Uzi deadpans, she may know a few drones deserving of an unceremonious end but… there are other, more creative methods that would allow her to keep her hands clean.

V sighs, admittedly she will have to think of something. If she wants this drone to live, which she supposes she does, some things will have to change because this is barely getting them anywhere. Hopefully she can come up with something when she gets back to the Spire for the day. 

Speaking of…

The Murder Drone displays her claws for the final time that night, the razor edges reflect moonlight up to where they sit lodged in the concrete of a nearby decrepit building. The blades slice through the construction like it's made of butter and she makes a swift climb up. How fast? Uzi tries to calculate, but can't manage to, before she begins a stopwatch of her own the drone already sits perched atop, surveying the area. If she had to make an educated guess, it could scale vertical surfaces about as fast as she could cross horizontal ones. So very fast.

V scans around the area, switching through different modes of her optics to detect any organic movement or signs of nearby life. No other heat signals than hers and the purple Worker’s which immediately jumpstarts lines of code in her programming, readying her for action, before she just as quickly shuts them off. Not this one. She reminds it and her code reluctantly obeys. For now.

She eyes the street carefully just to double-check, less worried about Workers eavesdropping on their little conversation and more interested in filling her almost full oil reserves to maximum capacity, but there is no one. 

From the height she spots a little mechanical creature skittering around not far from the Workers legs, but the finger sized keybug isn't worth the drop, even if they make good snacks. “You're leaving,” comes from down below and their optics meet, it's more of a statement than a question.

V cocks her head to the side, her silver bangs sliding off the sides of her visor and partially obstructing her vision. “Obviously.” 

She watches the purple drone’s posture change at her response, one hand holding onto her elbow while her gaze trails off to look at nothing on the ground. Whether it's nervousness from V staring her down like a hawk or just feeling at the damaged arm that's still oozing that sickly sweet scent of oil that won't quit flooding V’s mouth, she can't tell. 

“When can we do this again? Uh, like training to survive my own murder and stuff I mean—” Uzi's voice gets more mumbly as she goes on.

“Meet me at midnight by the old tower crane,” V thumbs down a long narrow street to give a general direction, although a giant crane is pretty impossible to miss, at least while flying above the city. “If I don't show up, don't wait for me.” Last thing she needs is for the Worker to become a sitting duck out in the open.

Uzi lets her hand slide off of her arm. “Alright, noted” She nods resolutely, not sure if the Murder Drone can even see it from that far. “Midnight, by the crane, got it!” With her precious loot secured on her back, Uzi is ready to walk off when the by now too familiar voice stops her dead in her tracks.

“Oh, and, Toaster?” 

Uzi stops, and V eyes her down from the roof, eyes suddenly alight with newfound interest. “How’s Door 2 doing?” They shine so bright they might just burn a hole straight through the Worker.

“Shut, locked, frozen solid, as dull as ever,” Uzi lists drily, then grumbles. “The whole of Outpost 3 is like a fortress, I've checked around the whole perimeter. Unless you have some murder-tech that can bust down the metal walls, there's no way to get in.”

“Hah, yeah, you tell us that,” V waves her hand off. 

Us? Uzi perks up internally. Who is us? Murder drones always operate alone in separate districts, they are programmed to stick to their designated hunting routes and stay far from other Murder Drones for maximum efficiency, aren’t they? Murder Drones will kill rogue Murder Drones that stray from the programming. This very Murder Drone claimed as much… Uzi's digital brows furrow, just a general statement or slip of the tongue? Maybe both. Interesting— add that to the ever piling pile of questions on sticky notes that decorated the walls of her home and mind.

“But—” V continues in a sickly sweet voice, “I am sure a little keybug like you can find a way in, right?” she cocks her head sharply.

“I am working on it,” Uzi replies, not wanting to elaborate on the bitter matter any further. She will find a way back in.

The Murder Drone giggles, for a moment it looks as though she's contemplating something before simply smiling with her fangs on display. “I’ll be watching you.” 

And just as suddenly as she appeared she is gone. With one beat of her giant metal wings.

And that leaves Uzi all alone in the world again. 

She feels the cold creeping to her core, it's a familiar feeling, the internal chill, her system will soon start sending low temperature warnings to get her on the move and avoid her joints freezing over. She sighs, the warm air from her vents creating a small puff of steam in front of her mouth. She spares the now lonely roof one last glance and a small smile tugs at the corners of her mouth.

“I'll be seeing you around too, V.”