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bruggle · 8 months ago

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Why are one-shots so easy for me to write? THESE PLOTS WILL NOT LEAVE ME ALONE.

Again, this is for @absolutely-normal-about-x 's fantastic au. I'm sorry if you're getting tired of it, I just love it so much.

Just a note, though... uh... this follows within the au of an au like St. Clarity.

Constellations

Phantom takes a moment to reflect

Words: 3k

"Cause like constellatons

A million years away

Every good intention

Is interpolation

The lines we drew in the array

Looking for the faces

Looking for the shapes

In the silence"

-Constellations, The Oh Hellos

Nights were always the quietest for Phantom.

Even with Fefnir’s insistent snoring, it was still quieter during the late hours of the evening than any other point on the Flutter. Not that Phantom really minded, of course. No, he quite liked the regular chaos of the house boat. Made all the ways he messed with the inhabitants easier to get away with, after all! But, there were times when he wanted to get away from it. To think. To reflect.

Of course, he’d occasionally be joined by Volnutt or his father. Volnutt, ever eager to learn more about his older brother, and X being concerned that Phantom felt left out; middle child syndrome, he called it. Phantom wasn’t all that concerned, to be frank. He was, after all, used to being invisible. Both due to his more cunning nature in having been programed for spy work, as well as the… rather poor treatment he and his siblings had faced in Neo Arcadia. They were leaders; Guardians. Not meant to be treated as the children they imitated. It was… a welcomed change to go from that to this more peaceful existence.

He thinks he’d rather die than face another human.

Well, that’s not entirely true.

While it had been a shock to him and his three older siblings, X revealing the fact that they had an older, human sister had been an… interesting one to say the least. But… if she had at least in part been raised by X, then surely she couldn’t be anywhere near as awful as the humans of Neo Arcadia, right? Phantom had had the passing thought of wanting to meet her. Just to see. He wouldn’t be holding his breath, of course. But it would be nice to know that not all of humanity was as callused and cruel as those of his time.

(He supposed Ciel was an exception. But… well… he didn’t like to think about the reason she had felt the need to leave. -Copy X-)

Regardless, it had been a further shock when it was revealed that passing thought wasn’t quite as impossible as Phantom had figured. Someway, somehow, Brook had wound up as a cyber elf. Not even X was quite sure how it happened. Perhaps it was the fact that she had been surrounded by the reploids of Maverick Hunter HQ when she had been killed in the explosions Wiel caused just before Omega had fallen the first time. Or maybe just the fact of how much time she had spent in the company of reploids in general; lightanium had a weird sort of radiation it emitted that wasn’t fully understood. Dr. Light himself had been considered the progenitor of cyber elves in X’s time, after all.

Either way, she was here. The fact only being revealed thanks to Volnutt’s carelessness during a dig. Phantom’s baby brother had gotten himself stuck in the deep recesses of a ruin with a particularly strong connection cyberspace. Unfortunately, he had busted up his communication devices in the process of getting stuck. Brook, as a ‘Spirit’ (as the carbons called them; the knowledge of cyber elves being lost to time,) had led Volnutt out of the dig site. It had been a particularly strong surge of energy that had changed her from the glowing orbs carbons normally saw cyber elves as, into a more… humanoid shape. Volnutt had recognized her from the photo he had uncovered a month ago, causing him to tell X as soon as the youngest member of the family had made his way out of the ruins.

X had immediately ran into the ruins in a bid to find her.

(Phantom didn’t think such relief could exist. He knew without a doubt, that if it had been him or any of his siblings, X would do the same and more for them.) -Copy X hadn’t even blinked when he had learned of Phantom’s death.-

He had, of course, returned with a glowing orb in tow. (Phantom had asked if he was certain this orb was her over the thousands of other elves hanging around the ruins; X had just said he knew. The younger carbon never challenged his father on it again.) At that point, X had worked tirelessly with Barrell on recreating a device that would allow carbons to see and communicate with cyber elves. Mush like humans had in Phantom’s time. He specifically recalled the headset Ciel had worn during her time as a scientist.

-He’d be lying if he said he didn’t consider sabotaging it once or twice.-

When they had finally finished it, X had spent hours talking with Brook. Heck, he had spent days. Barely sleeping, barely eating. Everyone had been worried. But eventually, X had emerged. He apologized for the scare, of course, but it had turned out that whatever it was that had caused Brook to become a cyber elf hadn’t… agreed with her. She had lost nearly all sense of identity and memory in the transition. It had taken literal centuries for her to remember as much as she had. And she was still fuzzy on certain details.

X had then allowed all of them a turn with the headset to properly meet her. Phantom supposed she had been nice enough, but a part of him would have preferred to have passed on his turn. He didn’t care if it was wrong for him to think that way.

But… she was technically his sister.

That had to count for something.

A light out of Phantom’s peripheral vision shook him out of his musings. A part of him was slightly annoyed at the interruption, but he quickly shoved it down. Brook settled down besides him, flashing brighter in order to convey her desire to talk. X had long since worked yet again with Barrell to both simplify as well as produce extra communication devises so that everyone could talk to Brook at all times. Now, rather than a bulky headset, they had simplified it into an earpiece with a visor extending from it.

(“Hey, this looks like a scanner from Dragon Ball Z!” Fefnir had noted. “What’s Dragon Ball Z?” Volnutt had asked. Phantom didn’t think his older brother would ever forgive the blue clad carbon for that.)

X and Volnutt practically had their glued to their face; X being the dutiful father that he is, and Volnutt being his curious self. Wanting to know everything he possibly could about his newest, oldest sibling. Phantom kept his off nearly all the time. If anybody noticed, they never said anything.

-Harpuia knew. He always knows.-

In any case, when the insistent flashing didn’t cease, Phantom finally, begrudgingly, put on his device. -He hesitated switching on, though.-

“Do you know any of the constellations?” Brook quietly asked when he turned to her. He was… surprised by such a simple question. The purple clad carbon had figured there’d be an interrogation.

“…No,” Phantom answered just as quietly. “They never thought it worth teaching us. Couldn’t really see the stars anyways."

“’They’?” Brook asked.

“…Neo Arcadia’s researchers,” he hesitantly explained. “They got to decide what was worth us knowing and what wasn’t. Couldn’t even sneak around them.” He couldn’t even sneak around them. They had placed inhibitors on himself and his siblings that didn’t allow them access to the archives without the presence of an approved archivist. And they always made sure none of the more sympathetic ones were approved. Brook made a sort of humming sound. -Did she agree with them?-

“Would you like to?” she asked. Phantom turned to her, surprised. -Not that he’d show it.- “…I guess,” he said. Please. Brook gave him a small smile, gently floating closer to his face. (She was still the same size as her orb form; they were far away from any sort of cybernetic connection, after all.) “You see that cluster of stars there?” she asked, pointing to a specific part of the sky. “The one that looks like a weird rectangle?” It took Phantom a minute, but he eventually found the stars she was talking about. It did look like a weird rectangle. He nodded. “Okay, now that bottom corner,” she continued, pointing to one of the stars. “Do you see the trail of stars that look like an obtuse angle?” These were a little trickier to find, as Phantom wasn’t quite sure which corner she ha been talking about; but when he did, it was pretty obvious. He nodded again. “That is the Big Dipper,” Brook explained. “It’s a part of a bigger constellation, Ursa Major, but I think some of the stars for her died out. I can’t see them.”

“Her?” Phantom asked. Brook nodded. “Yep,” she replied. “Her. Ursa Major, Mother Bear. Well, Major just means big, but that’s her role. All the constellations have a story associated with them.”

“They do?” the dark haired carbon asked. “What’s hers?”

Brook let out a small laugh. “How much do you know about Greek mythology?” she queried.

“Just the gods and their roles,” Phantom muttered. Brook nodded. “That’s enough,” she said. “Maybe some other time we can go more in depth on those, if you want.” -He thinks he’d like that.-

“Okay, so,” Brook continued. “A woman by the name of Calisto caught the attention of Zeus, who proceeded to do what he is most famous for.” Phantom pulled a face at that. “Which in turn, lead to his wife, Hera, finding out. In order to protect Calisto from Hera’s wrath, Zeus turned the woman into a bear. However, Hera waited until Calisto’s son, Arcus, was grown in order to lead him to the bear.

He was a mighty hunter by that time, so he was determined to kill Calisto; not knowing she was his mother. In order to protect them both, Zeus turned Arcus into a bear as well; then flung them into the sky to keep them out of Hera’s reach. Thus, they became Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.”

“Where’s Ursa Minor?” Phantom asked.

“Okay, so the other bottom corner of the Big Dipper,” Brook pointed out; Phantom immediately zeroed in on the star she was talking about. “Now, look north from that point; you’ll see a big, bright star.” Phantom did as Brook instructed, eventually seeing the star she was pointing out. “That’s the North Star,” she explained. “It always points north; no matter what time of the year. It’s what people used to navigate by night before the invention of compasses.”

“What does this have to do with Ursa Minor?” Phantom interrupted. -He already knew about the North Star. Only because it was useful.- Brook let out an awkward chuckle. “Sorry,” she sheepishly murmured. “It’s kind of my favorite. It’s also the tail tip of Ursa Minor.”

Oh.

“Okay, so if you look up from the North Star,” she continued. “You’ll see something that looks like a warped, smaller version of the Big Dipper.” Phantom followed her directions until he came across the stars she was talking about. “That’s Ursa Minor?” he asked.

She nodded. “It’s also known as the Little Dipper.”

Phantom let out a small hum. He could see what she meant by ‘warped’. The handle for the Little Dipper had a much stranger shape than the Big Dipper. “So they really didn’t let you learn anything on your own?’ Brook suddenly spoke up. “In Neo Arcadia, I mean.”

“…No,” Phantom answered. -He didn’t want to talk about it.-

“Man, that sucks,” Brook muttered, and Phantom had had enough.

“Don’t act like you know,” he hissed. “You don’t know anything. You’ve been free your whole life!” Brook gave him a bewildered look. “I didn’t say I did,” she replied carefully.

“You don’t have to,” Phantom snarled, glaring at her. “You act like a false sense of sympathy makes everything better! You all do! But you’ve never been through anything like this in your life! And you never would have!”

Brook took in a deep breath, before letting it out in a sigh. -This was a mistake. He should take off the visor.- “What makes you think it’s false sympathy?” she asked.

Phantom gave her an incredulous look. “You’ve never been through it,” he reiterated. “And never will.”

Brook nodded. “That’s true,” she said. “But that’s not necessarily ‘false sympathy’. It’s empathy. Something all pack animals have, humans included.”

“Fat lot of good that has done for reploids,” Phantom growled. The cyber elf gave a small shrug. “Fat lot of good it’s done for humanity,” she shot back. “I mean, you have to remember; humanity has had a long, long, long, history of cruelty. You weren’t the first.”

“And that makes it any better?” Phantom snarked.

“Not by a long shot,” Brook said. “But I don’t think it was humanity on it’s own. At my time, humanity and reploids were almost there. We were almost to what X wanted for both. But… I also remember all the support Weil got before everything went to shit. How else do you think he got his grubby hand’s on Zero’s original body? The stuff that went down at Neo Arcadia sounds a lot like what he wanted.

“X… put too much faith into people. I get he was hurting, but I’m quite sure that a lot of the old coot’s supporters took advantage of his apathy.”

“You’re making excuses,” Phantom accused.

“Maybe,” Brook sighed. “Or maybe I’m just trying to figure out how it got so bad.”

Phantom was silent for a minute. “You… said things were better before the Elf Wars?” he hesitantly asked. The cyber elf gave a small smile. “Yeah, I mean,” she started. “Mavericks were still a problem, so there was still a little trepidation, but… there were also a lot of people coming around to it. Did X ever tell you that I was almost adopted by a reploid sheriff?”

“Sheriff?” asked Phantom. “What’s that?”

Brook let out a laugh. “They’re like police, only voted in by an entire county rather than hired,” she explained. “Not just anyone can be sheriff. You have to be well liked, otherwise you lose your job. Tern had been sheriff of his county for nearly fifteen years. Lots of people respected him. And that was out in the middle of nowhere. Cities were usually a little more open to that sort of thing.”

That… surprised Phantom. A reploid with a job that relied on them being liked and respected by their human peers? Unheard of. “Why should I believe you?” he asked.

“I mean, you’re free to believe what you want,” she shrugged. “But there’s not much of a point for me to lie, either. The second you find out, you’d hate me even more. I’d rather not have that.”

“…I don’t hate you,” Phantom whispered. Brook gave him a sympathetic look. “Maybe not,” she said. “But you resent what I am. Er, was. Sorry, this cyber elf business is still really weird to me.” Phantom gave a weak smile. -She was right.- “Why?” he asked. “Why did human’s do it?”

“I don’t know,” Brook answered quietly. “But, one thing I do know is that even though humanity has had cruelty forever, we’ve also had love. Even small things. And it’s a lot more important to remember that.”

Small things?

Phantom recalled one of the archivists he had known. (One of the more sympathetic ones. He had liked her.) It had been a day or two after their activation; he had been begging her for more time in the archives. Something she could not allow. And yet… when he had returned to his quarters later that night, he had found a book, a blank notebook, and writing utensil on his charging station. The book had been about panthers; something definitely not on the approved list for he and his siblings. Phantom had spent the entire night carefully copying the book word for word within the blank sheets of paper. He had then carefully hidden the notebook and writing utensil where nobody else would ever possibly find them.

The next morning, they had confiscated the book.

He never saw the woman again.

Was that what Brook was talking about?

“Why?” Phantom asked. Brook looked over at him; he could tell she didn’t quite know what he was asking. "Why were you okay with reploids?”

“’Cuz there was love on both sides,” Brook said. “X… X did a lot for me. Even if I didn’t fully appreciate it at the time. I can’t thank him enough. And Axl was my brother; he was nothing but kind to me even when I was a little shit. But oh, we made X’s life a living hell for the fun of it.” Phantom let out a laugh at that. He’s heard about all the sorts of mischief his uncle Axl had gotten into. “Zero… I didn’t know him very well. But I knew he cared. Even if he didn’t always show it. And then Om-“ Brook stopped herself.

“Who?” Phantom asked.

“It’s… nothing,” Brook hesitantly insisted. “Just… Look. I worked with reploids, lived with reploids, I cared about a lot of them. And I wasn’t alone in how I saw them. There were a lot of people both taken in by and raising reploids by my time. Maybe… maybe if Weil hadn’t been able to do half of what he did, things would have been better.”

Maybe they would have. But they didn’t.

“In any case,” the auburn haired elf continued. “Please, talk to X about it.”

Phantom felt his spine straighten. “I’m fine,” he insisted. Brook snorted. “Yeah, I thought so too,” she argued. “But I promise, you’re not.”

“What do you know?” the purple clad carbon snapped.

“Dude, I was fourteen years old when my parents died,” Brook said with a raised brow. “And wound up overhearing that it happened almost immediately after my dad got home from dropping me off from school. You know what that does to someone? Especially when they had the chance to have done something different? I could have had him turn the car around when I realized I forgot my coat. I could have been there.

“For a while, I thought I should have been there,” she murmured. “But… that’s called survivor’s guilt. And it’s a type of trauma. You have a type of trauma.”

-He didn’t care.-

“Why do you care?” Phantom muttered.

“Because I’m your sister,” Brook replied simply. “And you shouldn’t be facing it alone. That does nothing but hurt the people who love you.”

What could he say to that?

What did he want to say to that?

-He doesn’t want to. He doesn’t want to.-

“Can you show me more constellations?” He asks instead, hoping to maybe distract her from those ridiculous notions.

Brook gives a sigh, but slowly floats back to her position next to his head.

“Alright,” she says. “Just please give it some thought?”

-Maybe.-

#be quiet bruggle #legends reborn au #one shot #writing #Hidden Phantom centric #sorry this ended a little awkward #more of a character study than anything else

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