#half her face is glitchy from her bodies getting destroyed

[theosphobia]

hii i was your secret santa @nappyandmeerschweinchen :3 i hope you like little AI holo Sheila \o/ happy holidays !!! @redvsbluesecretsanta

[solalunar-eclipse]

Scars You Can’t See -  Chapter 9

Chapter title: Final Blow

Word count: about 4000 words

Author’s Note: This was originally just going to be an apology for posting this chapter a week late, but now. Now @khinesthetic has made this wonderful, amazing piece of fanart for SYCS, so. This chapter is going to be their appreciation chapter. (Also, please check out the rest of their blog for more cool art!)

Warning for another panic attack on Shadow’s part. If I’ve written something badly in that section, please let me know.

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...

Rouge paced back and forth in the old, tacky motel room that served as the current residence of Team Dark, the worn carpet muffling the clicking of her boots as she moved.

Shadow watched her through vaguely glazed-over eyes, thinking over the basic rudiments of a plan that the bat had laid out for them for the tenth time. The fortress they had in their sights was less than half an hour away- an easy drive compared to some of their extensive cross-country trips. Omega was given the job of getaway driver, despite his protests...unfortunately, a giant five-foot-tall robot was not exactly equipped for this level of stealth.

The two Mobians, then, would have to sneak into one of the most secure facilities on the planet, hack into some of their most secure files without tripping any alarms or otherwise having anybody notice, download all of those files onto their tablet, also without anyone realizing, and get out of said building alive.

This would have been an easy task, usually- the team would have taken it without reservations had it been an assignment from G.U.N. But now, Shadow and Rouge were both heavily underprepared and undersupplied, to say the absolute least. No briefings, no special equipment, and no backup besides Omega. Just them, their wits, and their powers.

And even assuming they survived and escaped capture on the spot...none of them dared to think about what their lives would be like afterwards, if everything went exactly as planned.

As it was, they had tried to get a full nights’ sleep, but they probably wouldn’t be able to get much more rest time than that if they hoped to stay ahead of G.U.N. and successfully complete the mission. So today was the only day to do it.

Right now, the team was just killing time until late afternoon. They thought (or rather hoped) that the guards would be a little more tired by that point, and if the mission took the right amount of time, they might even be able to escape into the night with relative ease. Rouge had planned it all out on the drive over, and sometimes Shadow was truly impressed by her level of tactical skill- especially since she had never had any sort of formal training throughout her line of work. 

Rouge really knew what she was doing.

As time passed, the team tried their best to remain sharp, but it seemed that even resting could become tiring after a while. Eventually, Omega stood up and looked down at both of them. “I have run some calculations. Your mental faculties will continue to deteriorate at a rapid pace if we remain in this room for much longer. This will in turn lower our possible chances of success. We must leave immediately so that our success rate does not fall further, considering it is already dismally low compared to most of our usual missions.”

Shadow frowned, rubbing his brow. Ordinarily, he would have responded to Omega by now, but at the moment, half of the robot’s words had barely even registered. Yet he shouldn’t even be able to get this tired, let alone suffer such consequences from a week or two on high alert.

“Ugh…” Rouge groaned, hauling herself upright. “Let’s just get this over with. I’m too worn out to worry about this anymore. We just do it, and what happens is what happens.”

“Agreed.” Shadow said simply, still trying to ignore the effects of his weariness.

Omega’s eyes turned into their ‘angry’ shapes, but it didn’t seem to be directed at them. “Your cortisol levels have been far above normal for over a week. This level of exposure is highly unhealthy. We must remedy this as soon as the mission is over.”

“Yeah.” Rouge muttered quietly. “If it’s ever over.”

“Studies show that negative thinking precludes negative results. The reverse is also true, for strange reasons unknown to me, as I am not organic. Cease your pessimistic comments, and we will drive to the G.U.N. Fortress immediately.” Omega said firmly, walking out the door. Shadow vaguely realized that the E-series robot had been taking charge more and more over these past few days, and that he’d also become a lot less...enthusiastic around the same time. 

While the hybrid didn’t know if Omega could be worried, the idea that he might be was just a little bit flattering.

…

The drive there was short, barely enough time for Shadow and Rouge to work themselves up into ‘mission mode’. All of the adrenaline that the former had felt last time was barely present now, replaced by a sort of frazzled sensation that made it feel as though every nerve in his body had been overused until it was barely even functional. 

They parked a long ways away to avoid the notice of its various high-tech security measures and just sat there for a second.

The team had been here so many times for various reasons: meetings, briefings, work parties...but this was going to be the first time they entered it illegally. (Or at least, it would be for Shadow. They both suspected that there wasn’t a well-known building in the country that Rouge hadn’t broken into, for kicks if nothing else.)

The robot left the engine running in case of an emergency, switching on his communicator. “Alert me if there are any problems and I will come help you. I will happily destroy this building for a distraction. Or to find you. Or even just for fun.” 

It seemed that Omega had still retained all of his violent tendencies, at least. 

The two rushed over to the entrance, making sure that the guards wouldn’t see them- a practiced maneuver at this point. Rouge carefully turned the two security cameras so that they faced the sky, all without setting off any alarms.

Shadow tucked himself into the niche that held the metal sliding door while Rouge tapped away on the holographic screen near the doorway. His suspicions about the bat having infiltrated this building in the past were confirmed when she whispered to herself, “Let’s see if the backdoor I left is still there...a-ha!” 

She typed in a code on the keypad: 4-8-6-7-8-9. At this point, the entire system automatically let her in- she even had the highest clearance to go with her fake account. Within moments, the door was unlocked with a quiet ‘whoosh’. (Ordinarily, there would have been at least five different checks to pass after this point to get inside, including fingerprint and retina scans.)

Rouge smirked at him before entering the building. “The code is ‘GUN SUX’, in case you’re wondering.”

Shadow could almost have laughed.

They didn’t need to sneak through the halls as much this time, since Shadow decided that it would be better to utilize a few Chaos Controls to get them past some particularly crowded sections. They couldn’t have made it past the ridiculous amounts of security measures- including automated gun turrets- otherwise. This fortress was one of the most protected places on the planet. There was a reason the President had been held there during the Black Arms invasion.

The twisted tangle of halls was specifically designed to confuse intruders, there were cameras to cover nearly all the blind spots, and guards passed every area by in two minute intervals. The hybrid thanked his lucky stars that he was with Rouge, since she seemed to be aware of every tiny flaw in the system, from a glitchy camera that hadn’t been replaced to which guards tended to slack off. He became more and more impressed with his friend’s skills each time she offered him a set of directions that worked without a hitch.

Once, they were nearly discovered, though. A pair of loud footsteps echoed around the metal corridors, sending both Rouge and Shadow into high alert. Quickly, the bat tugged him into an empty room, tucking them both behind a plain desk and out of sight.

“I guess G.U.N. actually switched up the guards for once, ‘cause this guy always used to be paired with another slacker,” she whispered as they walked by, completely oblivious to the two Mobians less than fifteen feet away. They were completely silent, unlike the guards at the old information warehouse- the fortress was much more important to G.U.N. and required a higher level of training and sophistication to maintain its security.

As soon as their steps had faded, the hybrid teleported them both to Rouge’s next location, which was even deeper in the complex. By now, they were several levels below the ground, but they still needed to travel farther to reach the secure servers that comprised G.U.N.’s major database.

Ordinarily, they would have used the elevator, but those didn’t have keypads, just card scanners. If any of the three had attempted to use their cards (which they wouldn’t have anyway, since the system kept track of who scanned their cards at what time) the entire complex would likely have gone into complete lockdown and they would have failed their mission.

Unfortunately, the excessive teleporting left Shadow’s Chaos stores running low, to say the absolute least. He dropped to his knees the second that they entered the main computer room, panting slightly as he leaned his head against the wall while staying out of sight. “You still gonna be good to take care of the rest, honey?” Rouge asked gently, brushing her fingers through the fur on his head. For a moment, he wanted nothing more than to pass out on the floor and remain like this forever, but then he paused, bewildered.

“Why am I so tired? I was literally just resting half an hour ago, and now look at me.” he groaned, looking down at his power inhibitors. He hadn’t had access to a Chaos Emerald in ages, so maybe that was the problem? His fingers brushed over one of the golden rings as he considered taking them off- that would provide him with a boost of power…

“No.” Rouge said decisively, holding his wrist so that he couldn’t release the inhibitor. “I’m not having you passing out on me in the middle of our escape, alright? It’s too risky to do that right now.”

“Either way, I’m going to run out of energy soon- wouldn’t it be better to get some more strength?” Shadow asked, his eyes narrowing. 

She tightened her grip on his wrist briefly to make her point before releasing him. “As much as Omega wants to come in and blow this place up...no. There’s so much more that could go wrong, Shadow, and I’m not willing to risk that.” The bat folded her arms, asserting herself as the one in charge...which she always was.

Shadow glowered, frustrated both with himself and the general circumstances. However, he forced himself to listen to her orders, since she usually knew what she was doing- an impressive sign of respect for him. “In that case, I’ll barely be able to do more than a couple of Chaos Spears. You’ll have to move quickly, Rouge.”

They walked among the stacks of black plastic and tiny flickering lights, searching for one specific computer to link into. Within a minute, the bat had discovered exactly what she was looking for and plugged in a cheap second hand tablet that she’d bought with some more of their spare money.

This tall black piece of hardware was part of a stack all the way at the back of the room, shoved into a corner and covered in dust. It looked completely useless and outdated.

At least, if the viewer wasn’t one who could recognize that these models were actually newer than the rest. The dust, the placement, it was all designed to let the computers pass underneath the average person’s radar and keep G.U.N.’s most secret files under high security, multiple firewalls, and the latest in antivirus technology. 

Rouge, however, was by no means an average person.

Meanwhile, Shadow thanked any member of the pantheon that might be listening that they were getting the job done now. Their resources were running low, so he hoped that after this they could go hide somewhere and get a job to survive. Hiding wasn’t ordinarily his preferred reaction (it had never been his preferred reaction, honestly) but it was starting to sound an awful lot better than the current ball of stress that was his life.

“Alright, we’re in.” Rouge whispered quietly, having used her ‘all-access’ password to enter the system yet again. 

The hybrid peered over her shoulder, curious to see what kind of documents she would discover...only to find that most of it was very confusing, to say the least. There seemed to be no sense of organization, to the point where he could barely tell if it was on purpose or just done badly. As a relatively organized person himself, he quickly grew frustrated by the complete lack of any sort of pattern among the various files.

There was at least one part done purposefully, though, because the folder Rouge wanted to access (labeled ‘requisition forms’ in the middle of a video section...suspicious) was blocked by a passcode. The first two tries- TOWERS and CMNDR- didn’t work. 

The bat closed her eyes and bowed her head. To the untrained eye, she might have seemed like someone in defeat, giving up at the first sign of a struggle.

Shadow knew that she was just trying to focus and tap into her skills.

Eventually, she sighed resolutely. “Let’s give this one a go.” She typed in five familiar letters.

M-A-R-I-A.

It seemed that his sister had touched many lives forever, since it worked. Rouge clicked through a few of the files, her eyes widening with each one. Shadow was certain that his own were equal in size, watching as G.U.N. detained people for weeks without trials, arrested innocents doing perfectly legal things, and pulled many others over on the street and forced them to submit to searches without reason.

In short, hurting ordinary people who they were supposed to protect.

It truly felt as though something sick and twisted had taken root inside of the organization, indeed, that it had been allowed (even encouraged) to spread and grow until it choked the life out of every positive reason that had ever been part of G.U.N.’s founding. All that seemed to be left now was a paranoia-ridden, overly-violent military force with little to no conscience or accountability for its actions.

Eventually, the bat closed the folder, downloading the entire thing onto her device. “Let’s go already!” Shadow hissed, hating the idea of staying a moment longer than was absolutely necessary.

“No.” Rouge whispered. “We end this here. Now. Today.”

Then, she maneuvered the folders into a different part of the server, and smiled bitterly. “They can’t claim it’s faked very well if it comes from them.”

And then the master thief uploaded that entire section of their database onto the Internet, through G.U.N.’s website and every single one of their social media accounts, with one short sentence to accompany it: Doesn’t seem like you’re very good at your job, ‘Guardian Units of Nations’.

Shadow grabbed her by the arm as soon as she finished. “Alright, now come on! We have to go, they’ll figure it out soon enough!”

Rouge logged out and unplugged the tablet, and the two of them rushed to the door and peered out of the glass, waiting until the guards had passed. As they rushed outside, the bat remembered to close the door in absolute silence. Then they hurried down the hall, moving as quickly as they could. Rouge flew and Shadow skated to keep the noise level as low as possible, the faint hiss of Chaos energy and the occasional flap of wings the only sound they made as they ran.

They took basically the same route as before, only using a slightly longer path due to the hybrid’s low energy. It still went well at first, as they kept hidden whenever any guards came near. At any rate, there were no shouts of “intruders!” going off as they rushed upwards, through the halls, and towards the exit.

About halfway up a stairwell, though, several things happened in quick succession.

Alarms began to blare throughout the entire building, and red warning lights began to flash all over. The complex began to go into high alert, although the doors remained open to allow the soldiers to get from one place to another quickly. Although the two former agents couldn’t see it, they knew that all important rooms (including the main server area) would have a set of steel guards placed over them by now, so it was good that they had already completed most of their mission. “How did they figure it out that fast?” Rouge gasped, startled. 

That was when they heard the stomping of guards entering the stairwell, heading downwards towards the computer rooms- and their position.

Shadow stumbled on the stairs, the alarms and lights and those sounds triggering his most horrible memory of all. The raid on the ARK had already been brought forcibly to the surface recently, so it was still a particularly raw spot for him. He faintly felt his friend clasp his arm and begin to drag him forward and up, trying to keep him safe despite the walls of his own mind closing in around him. Remembering that he had to flee, the thought across both past and present situations of get out get out get out RIGHT NOW powered him enough to hold on back and even begin to pull her along.

A pair of guards heard him stumbling on the stairwell and began to fire at them as they ran, forcing the two to dodge bullets as they rushed up the stairs. Rouge flew the hedgehog directly up a level of steps before letting him drop and hit the stairwell running, since they didn’t have enough time for her to properly set him down. The gunfire only added to Shadow’s confusion- that and the dark metal walls of the next hall left him blinking and dazed, struggling to recall where he was...or when he was.

This...this is the Fortress, right? No...but that wiring on the walls…

He grabbed someone’s hand- Maria? Rouge? didn’t matter, he had to keep her safe either way- and rushed faster, faster, through the halls and up more stairs, dodged the gunfire, kept running- look there are some doors, why are there doors on the ARK? It looks like Mobius outside- doesn’t matter- we have to get out so let’s go-

They burst through the double doors, Shadow breaking the sound barrier as he did so while Rouge tried to ride the air currents he created as well as she could. It took all of her strength just to cling to his hand so that she wouldn’t be completely blown away by the force of his movement. 

Shadow vaguely heard the screech of car tires and heard Omega shout “I AM ON MY WAY. RUN.” as they blew past him.

His heart was pounding in his chest and his ears and he felt too hot and he could barely breathe, but he had to keep going. His legs were shaking but he pushed onwards through the difficulties, barely even thinking. 

He couldn’t even see the mountains or the sea. His entire world was just the ground ahead of him and the hand in his own.

He had to run.

Eventually, Shadow heard a whirring noise, turning his head to see a helicopter bearing down on them in the sky. The sight of something even more obviously impossible on the ARK than the doors or the grass shook him out of his confused memories slightly, only to leave him out of focus and disoriented. 

Figure it out later, right now you have to move!

Bullets began to spatter across the grass, blasting from double machine guns mounted on the helicopter, and he heard Rouge- yes, it was Rouge, not Maria- yell something along the lines of “What the actual hell?!”.

Shadow didn’t want to know how anyone had ever decided that chasing down two rogue agents, one of whom could break the speed of sound, with a helicopter spraying the entire area with deadly, aerodynamic pieces of steel was the right way to get them back. Or the smart way, honestly. Already, the helicopter’s fuel was running low, considering that their engine had to be supercharged to keep up even for this long.

He rushed into the nearby woods as it fell back, not stopping until they reached the base of the mountains nearby. They crouched underneath a rocky overhang, and Shadow slowly worked to come back to himself fully.

He had escaped with his companion this time…

His unfocused eyes slowly blinked and he shook his head slowly, trying to drive the lingering images from his head. “I’m here, hon, I’m here.” Rouge said softly, and his ears twitched, trying to shake the nagging feeling that this entire situation should be completely different.

“I gotcha, Shadow, but we’re going to have to move eventually...I can hear them starting a search party.” She scoffed. “Stupid of them to be so loud when they’re hunting a bat.”

The hybrid took one deep breath, and then another. “I’ll be alright.” he said quietly, his unwanted thoughts finally receding into the background enough to allow him to focus. He saw Rouge smile at him faintly, squeezing his shoulder once before giving him some space.

A minute or two later, a stick snapped to their left, and both of the highly skilled, rigorously trained Mobians shrieked (in an impressively high register for Shadow especially) and whirled around, ready to fight. Both relaxed, though, upon seeing that it was only Omega, who in turn gave them a quick once-over. “You are both a mess and G.U.N. will be here at any moment. They will begin to sweep this area soon and we must be far away when they do so.”

“Where do we go now?” Shadow asked quietly, his mental capacity strained nearly to its limit.

“Somewhere. Anywhere out of the way, where we can hide out until things quiet down.” Rouge sighed, her eyes downcast.

None of them were looking forward to what came next- a long wait until G.U.N. gave up searching for them, cut off from all of their friends, where they couldn’t go by their real names or enjoy their usual pastimes….

….and that was if they were lucky.

They got back into their car, again, and set off down the highway, again, looking for a place to hide.

Again.

(Shadow was tired of hiding. Sometimes he found himself wondering, as Rouge kept an eye out for nothing more than a sheltered area to pull their car into for the night, if it wouldn’t be better to just give up entirely...but the sheer idea of G.U.N. winning, especially of being put back into stasis, was too horrifying for him to bear.)

He’d rather suffer a lifetime of fear and of looking over shoulders if it meant he could spend it with Rouge and Omega than return to the endless frozen quiet of a stasis pod.

And as they pulled into the woods and began to cover their car with a decent amount of brush and leaves many hours and two states later, he almost felt a sort of resigned peace. Knowing that they had done what was right and that he would get to be with his two closest friends for a while longer was...not bad, all things considered. Sighing, he lay back in his chair, one hand linked with Rouge’s and Omega’s hand resting next to his ears.

They could hide together, at least.

…

In the morning, he woke up to shouting.

“This is the Guardian Units of Nations! Surrender peacefully or we fire!”

Rouge stared at him, her eyes wide.

Shadow was frozen in place- he didn’t think he could have moved had he tried.

Oh, chaos.

[lover-of-skellies]

Template's Offer

-

Error belongs to @loverofpiggies

Template belongs to @unu-nunu-art

And Mal belongs to me :P

-

"Error?"

In response to the tiny voice that came from behind him, the glitchy skeleton sighed, "What?"

The child made her way around him, nervously fidgeting as she stood beside his bean bag chair, "Um... do you think maybe we could play together now?" The elder of the two tore his gaze away from the half constructed doll that sat on his lap, turning it to her instead, "What makes you think I'm in the mood to play?" Feeling her heart sink, she continued to look at him with wide eyes that almost mirrored his, "It's just... you said you'd play with me earlier if I did good with my training." Error arched a brow bone, "Did I? I don't remember saying anything of the sort."

The child frowned, her figure beginning to glitch, "Error, please play with me. I did my best today, I swear. I'll do whatever you want, I promise..." she paused, her voice growing much softer than before, "please play with me..." Error watched her in silence for a moment before simply shrugging off her words, "...Maybe later."

She felt tears begin to prick at her sockets and her frown deepened, "But that's what you always say!" The black skeleton scoffed, narrowing his sockets as he scowled at her, "And the more you disappoint me, the more I'll keep saying it. Until you stop being such a pathetic little glitch, we won't be playing, Mal. That's how it works around here, and you know that, don't you?"

Heartbroken, Mal fell silent, the tears beginning to roll down her face. Error, though very much aware of her tears, huffed. Returning to his work, he paid no mind to the child as she turned and began to run. She wouldn't get far in the antivoid, and even if she did, he would always find her. That was something both of them knew all too well.

~~~

Perched on the branch of a tree, Template sighed softly, looking up at the starry night sky. He'd always found the sky so peaceful, and though the residents of this AU were very clear about how much they disliked him, he was always willing to return. If he was stressed or upset, this was his favorite place to go, by far.

Stepping out of a portal at the edge of the woods, the teen glanced around, completely unperturbed as the entrance to the antivoid began to close behind her. Despite the lack of adequate lighting, the set of tracks in the mud stuck out to her and was enough to point her in exactly the direction she needed to go.

Though Template could feel her magic in the air as she drew nearer and nearer, he remained at ease, unconsciously running his fingertips over the back of his other gloved hand. Words circled in his mind and he winced, tightly squeezing his sockets shut as he tried to block them out.

"What are you hiding-" "TEMPLATE! WHAT DID YOU DO!" "See? He even kills! You're just like him, Template~!" "You can't hide what you've done!" "I guess you really are the bad guy!" "Template. DROP. THE. ACT." "Do you not like your hands because they remind you of what you are?" "Excellent work, dear! You're making marvellous progress toward embracing what you really are!"

As the markings beneath his eyes began to drip, a voice called out to him, "Template? You ok up there?" His body began to glitch only slightly more than it had before, and he cleared his throat, "Yeah, I'm ok. Don't worry about me, alright?" From her place on the ground, Mal frowned; she could already tell by his glitching and his tone that he was, in fact, not ok. Whenever he was upset, he always had a horrible habit of trying to bottle up his feelings in an attempt not to worry others. As much as she wished he wouldn't do that, she wasn't one to talk, since she did it too.

She used a shortcut, appearing on the branch beside him and sitting down, letting her legs dangle freely. There was only silence for a moment and she lightly nudged him with her shoulder, her voice soft, "I... know you probably don't wanna talk about it, but I wish you would. I really care about you, y'know." Template made a soft sound of acknowledgement, glancing at her and smiling weakly, "I know... I care about you too, kiddo."

Silence fell on both of them again, only broken when Mal began to notice him absentmindedly picking at his gloves, "Template?" Hearing his name, the older of the two looked to her again. Taking his silent acknowledgement as the ok to continue, she hesitantly asked, "... Is it about your hands again?" It was his turn to hesitate, slowly shifting his gaze away from her and mumbling, "... Yeah." The teen frowned at his admittance, looking down at her own hands; they weren't white like the hands of most skeletons, they were black. Black with red fingers, and then to finish off the horrid combination of colors, yellow fingertips.

Every time she looked at her hands, she was reminded where she came from, and it was a curse. Glancing at Template's gloved hands, it occurred to her that she'd never actually seen him without his gloves before. She could only imagine what was hidden beneath the fabric, though.

She reached out, delicately touching his arm and mumbling, "Can you show me what's so bad about them, please?... I just... I wanna know why you hate them so much." Template's attention was immediately locked on the teen again and his magic wavered; he was nervous, she could tell. Meeting his gaze, she offered him a tiny smile, "Listen... I know how you feel about your hands. Whatever they're like doesn't reflect who you are as a person though. Maybe they look similar to.... y'know, but you're not bad or evil. You have your issues sometimes, but I think you're a hero who uses those hands to create and protect. If that's not enough to convince you, then just look at my hands."

She held a hand up, as if trying to emphasize her point, "They make me feel kinda bad sometimes too, and for a while, I did some bad things with them. I destroyed and I killed. I'm different now though. I met you and Necro. My dad. I met Zerif and Lucky, and the Star Sanses. All of you made me wanna change... you made me wanna protect the multiverse, instead of destroy it."

Template only stared at her for a moment, and as she caught sight of the blue tinted tears that began to gather along the rims of his sockets, she sighed, scooting closer and gently wrapping her arms around him. His arms hung limply down by his sides and as a single tear rolled down his cheekbone, he faintly murmured, his voice shaking, "You... You can't mean that. Please tell me you're not serious, Mal."

She hummed, lightly gripping the back of his shirt, "I am though. I think you're a good guy. A hero, even, who just wants to help people. I've seen how hard you work too, and I actually... I want to be like you, Template. Really." The black skeleton was silent, only sniffling softly and lightly leaning against her. Guilt beginning to blossom in her soul at the idea of being the reason why Template was so upset, Mal frowned and whispered, barely audible, "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to upset you like this, I swear."

He slowly shook his head, remaining silent; a few seconds had passed, before Mal took notice of him beginning to move one of his hands. Though he was visibly shaking and wouldn't look at her, he began to slowly tug one of his gloves off, and she watched quietly. Once it was off, her sockets widened and she stared for a moment, before tilting her head and very gently grasping his wrist. His eye lights centered their focus on her, watching as she turned over his hand and delicately pressed one of her own against it, her expression softening.

Looking up from their hands and briefly meeting his gaze, she offered him a small smile, "It... looks just like mine."

He found himself smiling back, using his free hand to readjust his glasses as he hummed in agreement, "Yeah... they do, don't they?" Mal's smile seemed to grow as she beamed, "Yeah! In some way, I guess that means that maybe we're the same." Visibly content, Template tilted his head, his normally diamond shaped eye lights now circular instead, "I guess now's probably the best time to bring it up then." The teen blinked, becoming visibly confused, "Huh?... Bring what up?"

He continued to smile, an expression on his face that Mal didn't think she'd ever seen before, "Well... I know that the other me didn't... he wasn't very kind to you. He was supposed to be your father figure, but he did a pretty bad job at that. I don't have any experience with kids and I've never had a family, but you know I care about you... like, a lot, and if you'd let me, I could maybe try to fill in for him. Y'know. Be the dad you never had, all those years ago. If you'd be ok with that though, I mean. I could very easily see you being my kid, so I thought I'd at least make an offer."

Staring at him with wide eyes, tears dripped down Mal's face, only mere seconds passing before her magic turned them into deep sapphire threads. Clenching her jaw shut, she tightened her arms around him, burying her face in his shoulder and mumbled, the fabric of his shirt muffling her voice the slightest bit, "You're such an idiot, Template... Did you really think I'd say no to that?"

[tired-artist-aqua]

It was from Polus (Among Us horror story)

We were waiting at HQ, our next mission soon arriving. When I say ‘we’ I mean me, Ruth (Codename: Black/Captain), and my 9 crewmates. I was recently chosen to lead the mission to a strangle planet, one that surprisingly has snow covered on it like a blanket. Therefore, we had to explore this planet as soon as possible - there might be something living on it. However, all reading from the planet gave us hints that it was dead, nothing living. Me and my crew discussed the mission, which I was chosen to lead. Crystal (Codename: Blue), asked me: “Do you think we’ll find anything of use there?” To which I replied, “Most likely not. Our readings never have lied to us.” Which was true. The conversation just went on back and forth with my crew before we were finally ready to start making our depart to the planet, which we named “Polus”.

Our flight there wasn’t very strange, just a regular flight just like all our missions, just a lot more... tension. Since we didn’t know anything about this planet beside the snow. Once we arrived Polus’s orbit, we started to be sucked straight in. This was impossible! Our extensive reading told us nothing about this strong of a gravitational pull... so how?! But that does not matter right now. I was the captain of this mission, I had to keep the crew calm, keep them safe! So, I took the wheel of the ship, but we were too far in, there was no choice but to make an emergency crash. My crewmates were a bit nervous from the strange change of pace so quickly, but I reassured them over the speakers, before activating the emergency crash system and then...

[CRASH]

I must have blacked out from the crash because I wake up, surrounded by the snow of the planet. Everything felt sore from the crash, but I had to be sure everyone else survived. I sit up from the snow, and I could have sworn I nearly had a heart attack. The ship was destroyed... Broken is all ways you could imagine... I consider myself lucky not a single piece of debris hit me. I struggle to get up, my Oxygen tank on my back was still intact and I have enough Oxygen to last me awhile, by some miracle. I walk around, seeing that all my crew had lived the crash, and was gathered in the snow, talking. I could hear things like: “Where’s captain?” “Did she live?” “What do we do?” All in panicked voices. My legs felt like they’d explode on me, but I walked over.

“...You guys okay...?” I bring myself to say. They all look over to me, some looks of relief and others horror. “Captain! A-are you alright?! That crash was rough, and you’ve been missing for a while!” Jacob (Codename: Red), spoke up over the group. It took me longer than it should’ve to convince everyone I was fine. They don’t need to worry about me. We’ve already lost so much time thanks to the crash, and we can’t afford to lose much more. Once they’re all calmed down, I started to give orders:

“Thanks to the crash we need to fix the ship to set up our base. You should find some “tasks” around this planet that’ll help us fix the ship.” I speak up, as loud as I could. I would soon learn... this is my biggest mistake. The crewmates all nod and run off in small groups, after we all agreed to meet back here in an hour or so, to give each other our progress. There are only 9 of us, so I had to go alone... how great. But I do as I told my crewmates to do, just look around doing tasks. But something’s wrong. Each time I did something, a shadow, or whatever it was, would run by. It was too quick for me to see what it was... but it wasn’t a crewmate... or human at all. It had the shape of a rabid dog, maybe wolf...? I’m not sure. I just do my share of tasks and walk back to where we’d say we would meet up. Everyone was there. Everyone... Except Kira (Codename: Yellow). I asked Blue, the one who had grouped up with her, where she had gone.

“I’m... Not sure. Yellow said she needed to go do a task by herself and didn’t come back.” Blue responded.

“Hm... Any chance you know what task she needed to do?” I said, silently hoping that nothing had happened.

Blue told me that she didn’t remember what task specifically, but it was somewhere around MedBay. I nodded, and we all walked over there, and now I’m honestly glad I didn’t go alone... because what we found was Yellow’s dead body. Cut up to bits, even her head was missing. Blood splattered the walls and the floor, like some sick painting. There was a gasp of shock in our group, but I was just stunned, the wind knocked straight out of me from the sight.  

“How could this have happened?! Blue was the only one with Yellow? Unless... it was a mutiny? Or maybe it was that thing... that shadow. Did anybody else even see it? Am I crazy?” These thoughts kept going through my head all in the span of that one horrific moment. Eyes turned to me, silently asking what we do next. I had to admit, I was panicking, after all my years as an astronaut, nothing like this has ever happened. I throw my horrified thoughts away and say: “..Blue...if you did this, please, just admit it now...” I said as blue was stunned. “M-me?! I-I know I was with her b-but I would never! C-captain, you h-have to believe me!”  

“Fine... we need to take Yellow's body... her family will want to bury her, or what’s left...” But as I trailed off, a loud screen played from the opening of the room, it was from Red. We all turn, to see that THING. That same shadow that was following me, finally chose to show itself, and I was right. It was a huge dog or wolf, it had only one eye dead-center on its face, and one, large, mouth that seemed to go from ear-to-ear. Red screamed as the thing pinned him down with one bloody paw, and all we could do is watch while it brutally ripped him apart – limb from limb. This was supposed to be a peaceful mission, and we didn’t bring any weapons. Without a second thought, we ran. But... this story doesn’t have a happy ending. All I could do is run while I use my crewmates as bait and hide. I can remember the exact screams from each and every one of them while they were decapitated and torn to pieces. The HQ sent backup, thank goodness. It’d take days until they’d arrive, and I’d have to sit here... alone, with that thing that tore my crew apart without any problem, in this sick game of cat and mouse. The half-broken alarm started to go off in the part of the broken ship I sat in the corner off. Red light blared and all I’m left with is this small communications device. Which is what I’m using to leave this message to whoever finds it. That animal is here, and it will not stop at anybody. This mission was a failure. But all I can say now... is goodlu-

[The voice cuts off, and a glitchy scream followed by a blood splatter played before all sound cuts off.]

[save-the-spiral]

Warnings for blood mention, mechanical body horror, gore mention, torture mention, 'glitchy' unrealistic stuttering, calling a violent person 'unstable' (he is not mentally ill, but his crew thinks he is dangerous and unhinged, and he doesn't try to quell these rumors), slightly unreliable narrator?, He's just going through A Lot and coping via torture though it is not graphic here, this is really the beginning of his recovery, to be honest.

Alexander really did not think he would be embarking on a project where he fully considered the sentience and inherent 'humanity' in an Armada soldier, but, well, everything in his life had always been strange.

He finally solved the Khurgas' problem, as unconventional as it was, and continued forward as the tiger commander gave him a final order to turn the tide of battle on the Marleybonian Isle Of Fetch. With his orders, he and his crew advanced towards the beacon glowing from a beached Armada ship.

The new form of Armada units they found was strange- bulky, massive. Taller than any of their crew, easily two people's width as well. They were tougher than any flimsy hunk of metal carrying a musket or halberd the crew had destroyed before.

They hit hard, and that in itself was worrying. Currently alongside him were Bonnie Anne, Sarah Steele, and Gracie Conrad, a new crewmate he actually befriended, an unusual occurance these days when he took on a new person.

So when Sarah fell unconscious at a rough hit to the head from one of the Armada soldiers' weapons, Alexander's heart sank, but he knew it would happen. Currently everyone in his lineup was rather dainty, and he himself was a bit of a glass cannon, even the higher-ups sitting on their asses in the war room could recognize that.

So when the final battle neared, he called Ratbeard up to assist. The man was more solidly built than the rest, and he or Subodai were good picks as a fellow front line fighter while Bonnie Anne sat back to observe the field and Gracie spent the first vital moments constructing traps.

It was almost hilariously easy at first, on the ship. Gracie quickly whispered instructions, to half turn the crank, then destroy the generators, causing a power surge to blast the whole operations to pieces. Alexander cloaked the entire party in shadows, and half turned the mechanism himself.

The Armada soldiers, confused, still following battle protocols, began to destroy the only active thing on the battlefield: the generators.

Alexander was tempted to laugh, but managed to hold off until they began their ambush. He taunted the lifeless machines, mocking them with a leer as he cut them down one by one, relishing in the sound of twisted, screeching metal and the hot pour of slick oil that stained the hands and face and gave his blades a ghoulish tint.

And he would have done the same if they were people. And that alone caused Gracie and Bonnie Anne to look at him questioningly.

The beacon exploded, causing Ratbeard to cheer, hollering into the night, and Gracie appeared satisfied, but her tail wagged slowly and head cocked in thought.

"Captain, could I check for more devices in the ship's interior?" She asked.

Alexander nodded, breathing hard, blood singing still, head pounding. He kicked open the doors into the lower decks, while Gracie checked the captain's cabin.

Alexander didn't know what to look for, mind distant and scanning the room, prepared for it to turn battlefield any second, but he certainly did not expect the brig to have an occupant.

It was a barred room, one of the same make as the one Alexander spent a stint of time in whilst seventeen, about to start this twisted adventure. Inside, however, was no punk kid nor warrior of Mooshu, as was last time.

Alexander was entranced by what he saw, a strange echo of his actions above deck. The clockwork lying inside was large, the same frame as the largest model the crew had newly encountered. That was where the similarities stopped. The clockwork had no weapon, and was sparking and whirring weakly, fingers twitching as it lay limp, thrown against the back wall.

What was there to do but venture inside?

The closer he got after unlocking the cell, the more the entire situation grew unnerving. The clockwork soldier's head was bowed, hat hung low and obscuring. All armor or clothes were gone, leaving only bronze, black, and white planes of machinery, and glimpses of wires that sparked, cut. Several dents and gashes decorated the main torso plate, one arm hanging by a hinge.

When Alexander brushed the hat to the side, his breath hitched.

Surprises were not as common these days. He was a twenty-three year old man, he had been betrayed, played a fool and a puppet, stabbed in the back, and watched some of the most grotesque torture. He had inflicted some of that, eager, panting and sniffing out blood and weaknesses like a sommelier sniffed out fine wines from the way it swished against the glass, legs of the fluid sliding up smoothly, the fragrant booze plunging the senses into something smokey, smelling the barrel it was aged in, picking up hints of wood and fruits and lush flowers. All to drink it, let the intoxicating liquid slide and seep into their tastebuds, sink into their teeth, and swallow it. Much like Alexander would watch blood trail from a wound, the fear induced sweat on the skin making the passage of the fluid all the more simple, sharp iron in the air, the scent stained into their clothes.

He had seen some gruesome scenes. Nothing prepared him for seeing the dark void of chaos beneath a clockwork's mask.

The sharp intake of breath burned when he held it, eyes flitting rapidly to take it in.

Shattered porcelain remnants of its mask remained at the sides near where ones ears would go, but aside from those jagged pieces it was a whole different story. Bronze metal parts, strange and small and intricate, all clicking weakly along. The teeth- exposed now, sculpted and perfectly straight. They looked real and a chill dripped down Alexander's spine like someone cracked an egg at his neck.

The eyes. The eyes. The eyes.

Oh, the eyes.

Alexander was captivated, staring, staring and falling deep into an onyx void with a spark of true intelligence. Machinery sputtered for a moment, before the clockworks head turned just a smidge, mouth now agape, letting words spill.

"I-I-I-I-I." The machine glitched and stuttered, hand twitching once, the wrist twisting. "B-B-B-B-Bir-r-r-r."

Alexander found himself soft, quiet, until he cooed like one would at a baby, a soft "oh-hhh.", One that means nothing but to reassure. "Take you're time." He whispered.

"Ow-Ow-Oww-w-w-l-l." The thing stopped, whirred quickly, and spoke again. "Owl. N-N-" with a soft scrape a new part of its mangled face shifted, a bolt falling loose. "Owl."

Definitely not expected.

For a brief, hysterical moment, he wondered if he was wasted, having a bad drunken dream.

And it struck some kind of cord. Alexander wanted to know why. Why was this beaten to shit clockwork in an Armada brig.

But the machine slumped, stuttering about owls.

So he made the completely rational decision of dragging it out and yelling up to his crew for assistance.

And that in itself was shocking enough to send Bonnie Anne running in a flat sprint, crashing into walls as she went. Alexander never asked for help unless he was about to die or it truly was an impossible task to do alone. She hoped for the latter.

Alexander watched Bonnie Anne rush in, sniper on her shoulder ready to aim for the head. When all she saw was a busted clockwork, she let her weapon fall to her side and scoffed.

"Can't take it to our ship alone." Alexander explained, tone expectant.

"We could find scrap metal much closer to the ship if we really need it, captain."

"No. This isn't that- look at it, Bonnie. It was locked up. Why would the Armada do this to one of their own?"

"I don't know, captain, and frankly, don't know why I should care. It isn't alive."

"Well then, I guess I'll drag this to the ship on my own and get us all caught by any of the Armada between me and the dock." Alexander drawled now, a tone that promised he would follow through.

"Fine." Bonnie Anne barked out, jaws snapping.

With her and Ratbeard's help, they got it on board rather easily, Gracie running off to inform the tigers of their victory.

"To the brig with this hunk of junk, captain?" Ratbeard asked.

Alexander gazed over the war torn Isle Of Fetch, before looking back at the clockwork. "Bring it to my cabin. Tell Gracie she can check in if she's interested, but I'd rather this was my project."

Every crewmate exchanged confused glances, but with their captain turning from eccentric and frivolous into a dangerous, unstable man, they knew not to question a simple request that would hurt no one. Bonnie Anne did roll her eyes though, unable to resist.

And so Alexander found something new to fixate on, finally something that made the echoing, forlorn voices of his parents silent. Something that wasn't blood, or the way a betrayer screams for mercy, and not the crack of bone or crunch of cartilage.

Something quiet.

Gracie stayed in his room as well, silent as a grave, handing him tools and bits and bobs to fix up the broken toy soldier. Bonnie Anne led the crew in his absence, not for the first time.

He spent days intricately carving a plate of ivory, giving it the suggestion of a nose reminiscent of the Armada's plain porcelain masks. He inlayed gold in the outside, blushed it with more gold between the eye sockets and atop that nose. It was delicate, at odds with the sturdy body, the body itself a slightly uneven, less efficient thing, but it seemed proper, given the stutters about birds.

The mask looked like an Owl. It fit perfectly in every sense Alexander’s feverishly working mind could conjure. He worked on the internals last, of course, always one to prioritize the aesthetic over what lies underneath.

That was the sticking point, it seemed. He and Gracie would need more intel on either war golem construction, or the Armada’s own blueprints to figure out how to connect the pieces and give that spark of life Alexander had witnessed, to bring it back to the husk of metal and ensure it would still be rambling about owls, and not simply bash Alexander’s head in with the nearest wrench.

So Alexander left his work table as it was and allowed Bonnie Anne to drag him back into their mission, where they had to help a different branch of the Marleybonian bootlickers to ensure Alexander could finally be given the title of captain, which in itself was only to get proper access to Catbeard in order to get the imprisoned captain’s shred of the map

Plans within plans, however. Alexander let Bonnie Anne remember the big picture, and he let himself be busied by the immediate task, as well as secretly contemplating the mechanisms and delicate machinery that made up what might be a person, might be more than faulty programming. 

He didn’t know what conclusion this would come to, but for the first time since hearing an echo of his lost parents’ voices, it was more than just El Dorado.

It was the strange clockwork soldier, as well.

[shegoh]

00:00:00

               as far as shego was concerned, soulmates? they just weren’t worth the TIME.

oh, it wasn’t that she had some tragic, soulmate related backstory or anything. no glitchy or broken timer. no childhood story of meeting a soulmate who couldn’t reciprocate or any of that other, mushy BULLCRAP they fed to people in those shitty, young adult novels. at least…not yet. her timer had remained consistent from the moment she was born, never wavering from that one moment where she was DESTINED to meet her soulmate. while there was every possibility that tragedy could strike in the soulmate department, the time where she would actually CARE about that had  L O N G  since passed.

a childhood of living as a teen hero &. then a young adulthood spent as a villainess had thoroughly cured her of such nonsense. as a HERO, the only new people she met were villains who needed to be taken care of. as a villain, her social life was limited to marks, goody-two-shoes foes, &. the occasional one-night stand when she was bored. neither part of her life left a place for something as sappy &. romantic as SOULMATES, &. that was FINE. she didn’t even bother to check her timer anymore, CONTENT to let it run out while she was blissfully unaware. the leather catsuit had its perks beyond being both comfortable &. fashionable.

               leave it to kimberly freaking possible to throw a wrench in THOSE plans. every single one of them.

on the one hand, being a HERO again came with its perks. like not being wanted by literally every government in a place worth visiting, for one. &. significantly more interesting villains than she’d ever faced with her brothers now that she was living in new york for another. actually, not having to deal with her brothers at all was a pretty significant perk to this phase of hero-ing in her life. on the other… she was now fighting ALIENS for the second time in the span of just as many days, facing increasingly hopeless odds on an unfamiliar battlefield with unfamiliar battle partners, &. she kind of wished for a moment that this was the sort of thing she could just ride out in a lair like the old times. no amount of plasma blasts were enough. their biggest ace up their sleeve was currently on standby waiting to DESTROY the very thing the bad guys were after instead of fighting right beside them, &. they were starting to get overrun in the onslaught.

until THOR arrived, at least. his appearance seemed to signal a change in the tide of the fight, shiny new ax taking care of large swaths of the outriders &. evening things out a little. all they needed was more time. as long as they could buy enough time to destroy the stone, everything would be fine. he was buying them precious time.

when he wasn’t wasting it with pointless banter, anyway. shego was in earshot when he started his little exchange with rogers. ‘new haircut?’ &. then ‘i see you’ve copied my beard’. she rolled her eyes, putting herself between the two of them &. blasting plasma at the aliens they were ignoring for their little exchange as she quipped,  “ you boys done comparing yet? ”  glancing between the two ( first rogers, then thor ) with an eyebrow cocked. it was when her eyes locked with thor’s that she felt it.

                              00:00:00

so much for blissfully unaware. she can feel the BURN of her timer run out on her arm, &. if they weren’t on the battlefield, fighting for their lives &. for the lives of pretty much everyone in the universe, she’d be laughing at the irony of it all because of course her life has been building to this moment. the rainbow comet &. heroism &. the villainy &. the drag back to heroism courtesy of her favorite nemesis. of course all that bullshit had to then lead her to having a freaking god as her soulmate. a freaking GORGEOUS god. instead, she shrugs it off as best she can with a half-smirk, throwing herself into a battle that’s about to get a billion times more FUCKED because now they’re forcing their hand.

               the ace needs to come out to play.

it’s all downhill from there. with vision unprotected the black order makes their move, &. while she can handle herself just fine against the likes of cull or corvus, she’s no match for thanos when he shows up &. he bats her away like she’s nothing thanks to the stones. he takes the mind stone from an obliterated vision with ease thanks to the time stone &. the only one left to stop thanos is…

                              THOR.

shego watches as the FULL FORCE of her soulmate’s power hits thanos, sending him flying past her. she watches, partly in awe but mostly out of a mixture of curiosity &. FEAR, as his ax hurtles towards thanos, waiting to see what will happen as it cuts through ( or seems to, anyway ) the energy emanating from the gauntlet. she hears the thud of it colliding with thanos’s chest before she actually sees it, &. she watches, now with relief, as thor pushes it even deeper in. she allows herself that moment of hope that they did it! as she stands because if thanos is dead then he can’t wipe out half the universe.

               &. then he snaps &. he is GONE through the same portal he’d come in.

as far as judgement calls go, this one was certainly a doozy. she’s not sure she’d have made a much different choice if she were in his shoes, &. she can already see him BLAMING himself as people around them start to fade to dust. shego had never really been one for platitudes. telling thor it wasn’t his fault wasn’t going to suddenly make him feel less guilty. but what she could offer him was something else to think about. something BETTER. &. so she staggers toward him finally, not realizing just what had caused her to stumble until it was too late.  “ you know, i know this isn’t exactly a GREAT TIME, but— ”

the next time she sees him is on the battlefield again, five years after that fateful snap. she hasn’t changed at all in that time, but he’s changed plenty. longer hair. longer beard ( &. braided to boot! ). she’s pretty sure he’s gained weight too, though the armor disguises just how much. as a look, shego has to say he pulls it off nicely. there’s no time for catching up in the heat of the battle, this one much more INTENSE than their last together in wakanda, but at one point she manages to catch his eye, &. she smirks &. winks at him before returning to fighting.

               WIN FIRST. flirt later.

when all is said &. done, he ends up being the FIRST person she goes to find. five years was a long time to live without a soulmate, even if, for her, it hadn’t felt nearly as long, &. there was still so much to discuss. for all she knew, she wasn’t even his soulmate like he was hers. it’d be a damn SHAME if she wasn’t as far as she was concerned, but if there was one thing she’d learned, it’s that life makes no guarantees.

           “ hey handsome. ”  she leans against the doorway for support, fiddling with the gauntlet on her timer side as she looks at him. it’s strange how she’s considering baring herself to him like this, but if there’s any way to break the ice, it’s like this. by ripping off the bandaid &. showing him what they were working with. plus, a little side helping of flirting couldn’t hurt.  “ so is this what retirement looks like on you? because i don’t know about everyone else, but… i LIKE it. ”

shego grins, flirty &. HONEST at thor. in a moment of BOLDNESS she slips the gauntlet off &. sets it to the side, making quick work of pulling off the glove &. rolling the sleeve of the body suit up — just enough to show her finished timer.

           “ so it occurred to me that we were uh… interrupted in wakanda. seemed easier to just show you rather than try &. remember what i was planning on saying five years ago. ”

↳ meme. accepting!

[cephalo-trio]

Deepsea Escape Part 4

A Splatoon 2 Story written by Splat-Tendency

Starring: Lexi Camellia (POV)

((Lexi was on her way to deliver the last mail at first, and then she wakes up in the underground subway station. She has no clue where she is or how is she going to get back to the surface. She has no choice, but to venture through this abandoned station alone.))

I stared restlessly at the Mem Cakes that I've collected so far. I was back at the main station to buy something out of the vending machine. The tests are rather tedious at first, but they were enjoyable to pass. Either if it's pushing the 8-ball to the goal or a Ranked mode, I had no trouble. I managed to find one of the four thangs in Line B. The telephone seemed pleased that I brought it over to the Deepsea Metro.

As I continued snacking on a bag of BBQ chips with a cold bottle of water, one of the passengers in the train stepped out for some fresh air. He was tall and well-groomed. Pretty much like a businessman.

"Excuse me, young squire. I can't help, but notice the little trinkets you were carrying." The suave isopod sat down next to me. ("I hope, I'm not too off putting to the young lady.")

"Huh..? Oh! Yeah, these Mem Cakes are like collectables.." I was startled a bit when the isopod caught a glimpse of a Mem Cake that I collected. "These memories of mine are from my visit to Inkopolis.. Some memories are from 3 years ago..."

The isopod strokes his whiskers and nodded. "I see.. I used to be an applicant like you.. Riding through the deep underground and hoping to taste sweet freedom. Unfortunately, I discontinued the thrill of collecting memories.."

"Sorry to hear that, Mr. uh....." I paused mid-sentence to the tall isopod.

"Call me Iso Padre, young squire. That's what everyone calls me, nowadays. A pleasure to meet you." Iso Padre shakes hands with me. "If you find anymore Mem Cakes, you know where to find me where I keep my stuffed toys." He got up from the bench and went back inside.

I stared down at the Mem Cake in my hand. "Guess, I better get back to completing those tests.." I finished eating my chips and went back to the train.

I returned to meet Cuttlefish until I heard his conversation with Pearl and Marina. Just what are they talking about while I was returning that thang.

"I hope Agent 8 is doing okay.. After a few tests, she didn't say much.." Cuttlefish looked concerned for me.

"Maybe, the tests are a bit hard on her.." Marina responds through Agent 3's walkie talkie. "If she does come back, try to cheer her up. She's having a hard time.." Marina was analyzing the new lines that I will be heading too.

I remained silent and avoided eye contact with the captain. They shouldn't be worried about me all the time whenever I pass half of the tests. Cuttlefish's attention was fixated on me as I walked passed him.

"How was your short break, Agent 8?" Cuttlefish got up from his seat. "You did a great job collecting one of those doohickies. Just three left and we'll be outta here in no time!" Cuttlefish was concerned at first, but he is putting on a smile.

"Yeah.. Thanks a lot, Captain.. Even though I'm a tad hasty.." I turned around and faked a smile. "Is Marina still keeping tabs on the system..?" My back was facing against the sliding door. I just needed to get through Line D and move on from there.

"She still is! She said if you need help passing the test, she'll use her tech skills to hack the system an-" As soon as Cuttlefish finished, I interrupted him.

T-That's not necessary, Cap'n.. I don't need her help to hack in order to pass.. It's pretty much cheating your way out.. Besides, I'll find another way to pass.." Even if Marina hacked the system, I won't be able to prove to have what it takes to live in Inkling society.

Cutterfish stares at me for a few seconds until he nods in agreement. "Understandable, Eight. Just be careful out there." Cuttlefish let me off the hook for now.

I responded with a salute and walked to the next train cable where C.Q is standing. He's waiting for me to travel to the next test in the D-Line. "Can you take me to err..." I checked the map on my CQ-80 and noticed the station in between Line D and J. "Girl Power Station..?"

C.Q Cumber nods in response. "Understood. For this test, you must defend the orb until time runs out. Be weary because they are other enemies trying to destroy the orb. Are you up for the the challenge?" He asked before making the call.

"I have no time to waste.. I must pass the rest of the tests in order to escape.. I'll be fine out there, kay? How bad can it be?" I gained a bit of confidence before CQ gives the operator the signal to the next station.

Meanwhile in the surface world, Marina looks rather worried. "W-What..?! She's alright with this..?!" The tall octoling kept tabs on the map.

"Afraid so, Marina.. She's going to the stop at the next station. Which is between Line D and J.." Cuttlefish was peeking through the sliding door window while speaking to Marina through the phone. "Agent 8 is her way to Girl Power Station.. If she's in trouble, you know what to do."

Suddenly, Pearl swiped the phone from Marina's hand. "Don't sweat it, Cap'. You have seen Eight kicking ass out there! She'll be fine on this one!" Then, Marina took the phone back and scowls at Pearl until she sighed.

"Yeah.. I'll still keep in touch with you, Mr. Cuttlefish.. I'm just worried about her, y'know.. I'll call you, later.." She hung up the phone and went back to her laptop.

2 minutes later..

"Whoa.. That's a lot of weapons to choose from.." I stared through the glass and saw the entire weapon category in front of her.

"You may choose any weapon that is suitable for you. Once you're finished, step on the launch pad." C.Q will be keeping an eye on the battlefield.

There are 9 weapons to choose from. Something that Sheldon keeps in his display shelf everyday. "I can do well with dualies, but I'm might be comfortable to use a melee weapon..." I looked at the two melee weapons: the Splat Roller and the Octobrush. I stared deeply at the Octobrush, feeling a bit uneasy after what I horribly did in the past. "This is the weapon that Fynn uses most of the time... I hope, I didn't hit him too hard to get a concusion..."

I grabbed the Octobrush in my hands and made it towards the launch pad. "Now, I have to defend the orb and I'll pass this test. But, what am I defending the orb from...?" That was when a couple of sanitized Octolings appeared. They seem to be waiting for me to land. "Shit.."

Suddenly, Marina immediately contacts me through the phone. "Eight, it looks like you're in for the fight for your life.. I will be contacting you while Cuttlefish is away." Marina started analyzing the test on her personal laptop.

"Ms. Marina, right..? You said that there are no vital signs..? If so, then how are they moving..?" Along the way, I've encountered a number of those guys including the Octotroops in the chamber. They must've been trapped down here before I fell in.

"I have no idea.. Maybe, they're under control by someone.. I'm trying the best I can to get to the bottom of this. Right now, you need to pass this test." Marina has a bad feeling about this, but she still has faith in my abilities.

I arrived into the battlefield where the orb is located. Around me, there are also a number of special weapons and 2 armor cases. It didn't take too long to choose a special weapon. If they doo get too close to the orb, I can try to push them away from me with Splashdown.

As one of the sanitized octoling landed on the other side of the field, I quickly went for the two armor cases. I have to be fully equipped before they arrive. "I-I'm sorry for what I have to do...." I charged into battle, regretting my decision. They're not themselves anymore.

A few strokes from the brush caused the poor octoling to burst into a puddle of my own ink. My body felt cold when she screeched in a glitchy, yet eerie tone. I just want to get this over with and finish the job.

I looked up at the number of octolings. They're all staring, dead at me as I'm defending the orb. I felt a cold sweat, running down my cheek. I wish I could look away, but it feels like they're staring into my soul. I slowly backed away to look out for more intruders, but someone's blocking my path. As I turned around, there are two octolings right behind me.

"You seem nervous..." The octoling on the left speaks as I yelped in suprise. There was two octolings behind me and I was careless about my surroundings.

"H-How did you get here so fast..!?" I cried. She must've got here so quickly, while I took out one of the attackers. Something about her looks vaguely familiar. The sanitized octoling was sporting a white ribbon around her ponytail.

"...If I were you, I'd check the orb..." She pointed to the direction to the orb in the middle. I could hear a loud pinging.

I looked over at the orb and my eyes widdened in panic. "S-Someone's attacking the orb..!!" I quickly ran past her and caught up to the orb. There was another octoling. Just like the white ribboned octoling, she has two black ribbons on her twintacles. She continuously hammered down on the orb with her roller.

"Hey! Knock it off!!" I lunged at the attacker and started to flail around with the Octobrush. Suddenly, the octoling looked at with a grin on her face. That was when I hesitated again. I have no idea why, but it feels like I've known them in the past.

"Tooooo late~" She responds as she immediately destroyed the orb. She giggled as she watched the orb explode in a huge puddle of unstable ink.

Then C.Q spoke through the intercom to me and said: "The orb is destroyed. You have failed the test, No. 10008." For those who have failed the test, C.Q will detonate the air bag that is strapped to my ink tank. This happened to me, 3 times already.

The air bag started to inflate. The beeping started to get louder in my ear as was panicking. "N-No!! C.Q, wai-!!" I was cut off as the air bag exploded and splatted me in a puddle of their sanitized ink. All was left was my clothes and weapon on the ground. I could hear the twin tailed octoling was applauding for the quick fireworks show.

"Agent 8!! Are you alright?!" As soon as I respawned, Marina cried in my ear. I groaned and dust myself off.

"I'm fine.... Turns out that two sanitized octolings are keeping me from protecting that orb... ow...." I felt a sharp pain on my back after the inksplosion. "That damn cucumber...." I hissed as I felt my backside. It left a huge mark on my back.

"Maybe the weapon you're choosing isn't going to help.. You might need some weapon to protect yourself with.. Like the Splat Brella!" Marina suggested. "You've heard of it, right? If you hold your shield longer, the sheild will launch itself but it leaves you vulnerable.."

I found the Splat Brella can in front of me. If Marina's right on this one, I might have a chance to clear test. "I did use this weapon before, but I'm no good at it..." The can opened and I see the Splat Brella in my hands.

"It won't hurt to try, 8. Maybe someday, you'll become a pro with this weapon once me and Pearl get you outta here! I hope you survive the inevitable.. I... No... Me, Pearl, and Cuttlefish are counting on you! Good luck." Marina ends the transmission for now.

I proudly nodded. At least this test is kind enough to give me only five tries for this kind of test. "The twins.. I'm starting to recognize them.. I can't let them get into my head.." I went back into the battlefield and tried again.

The sanitized twins both stared at me from afar. "....It looks like she chose another weapon.. No matter... She'll soon fail..." The first twin with the white ribbon is the calm and collected of the bunch. Her go-to weapon is the Octo Roller.

"I don't have all damn day, y'know...." I hissed in response. The twin octolings are about to make their move and I have to focus on the objective. I still have a minute to protect that orb.

"Try as you might, but you can't win....." The white-ribboned girl lunged at me with her own roller. The other twin is trying to cornered me. "I got her blind spot, sis~!" The other twin cackled.

I sighed in annoyance. If they're trying to get me to fail, then it won't work twice. Without doing anything, I morped into an octopus and snuck out of harm's way. As a result, they both crashed into each other.

I morped back to see the twins on the ground. They were both stunned from the collison. I wonder if they still feel pain from that impact since they have no vital signs.

Before they could get up back up, I splatted the twins with a wide spread of ink. My eyes widened when I first fired that thing. "So, this is the power of the Brella that Marina was talking about.. Not bad.." The orb is still unharmed for now, I still have enough time to prepare myself for the other guards to attack the orb.

It was their queue to charge into the battlefield, now that the twins have been dealt with. It appears that I'm not the only one who uses special weapons. Nonetheless, they're doomed either way as I splatted them one by one. I just want this test to be done with, so I can lay down in the train.

30 minutes later of protecting the orb, Marina contacted me through the phone again. "I think, that's all of them.. You can rest now, Agent 8.." Marina felt relieved. "So, how's the Splat Brella treating you?"

I stared at the new weapon as the timer ran out. "It feels different.. It's not something to get use to, yet.. But, I did like it." Since the orb is safe and sound, I can finally go back.

"Great! Cap'n will be back, momentarily. Get some rest while you still can, mkay?" Marina ended the transmission.

Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain on my back like before. The explosion from earlier made it worse on my back and was unable to keep my balance. I reached hand to feel my back and something wet touched my fingers. At first, I thought it was the cyan ink from the airbag, but it wasn't. As I stopped feeling my backside, I stared at my fingers. Instead of the ink from the explosion from earlier, it was my own blood.

"M-My back is bleeding..." I trembled at the sight of my own blood. The impact must have wounded my back and I didn't notice it during my 2nd attempt. I felt really light-headed as my back won't stop bleeding.

"A-Agent 8..!! What's wrong?! Please, answer me..!!" I could hear Marina contactating me through the earpiece.

"I-I... can't move... So.. tired.." I'm starting to lose my balance. All Marina could hear was a loud thud as I collapsed on the ground near the orb.

"AGENT 8!!!!" Marina screamed as I laid there, still bleeding from my back.

I don't want it to end like this. If I hadn't fell down that hole in Mt. Nantai, I would be still safe and away from the underground subway. But still, my father would be still missing for decades. Before I slowly closed my eyes, the sanitized twins stared at me as I lost consciousness. "H-Help...me.." I called out for help as my vision fades to black.

The twins were hesitant at first until they decide to carry me to cod knows where. If only my friends were here to get me out of this mess.

To Be Continued...

[rainythefox]

Deviant Heart (Detroit: Become Human Fanfic)

Chapter 4: Searching for Answers

"Wow…it's amazing how one place can change so much yet not really change at all," Kara said, her blue eyes scanning up and down the streets of bustling downtown Detroit.

"Told ya," Rose said with a little half-laugh.

Kara held Luther's hand while he carried Alice on his shoulders. Adam walked slightly ahead of them while Rose stayed pace with the androids. Kara, Luther, and Alice had helped the Chapmans with their farm earlier that morning, and came with them into the city to take care of a few things and see the sights.

To Kara, the city didn't seem as dark…as despondent as it was when she and Alice were on the run. The sunny, summer atmosphere helped with part of that, she was sure, culling away the memories of rainy and snowy nights in unfortunate predicaments. Part of it she could feel. Something in her wiring, her sensing modules that told her things were better. Far from perfect. But better.

It was aspiring to see so many androids walking around the streets, and not as obedient machines carrying shopping bags following their masters. These androids were in control of their own destination, making their own decisions, being their own master. Some walked while talking on phones like a normal human, some conversed with other androids and even humans while walking along to their objectives. There wasn't an android parking station in sight.

"There are good days and bad days, but…one day it will all be good. I just know it," Rose said optimistically, smiling as she looked around.

The suburban farmer wore a simple outfit today, jeans with a purple flannel shirt. Her son wore cargo shorts and a loose shirt. Kara sported jeans and a dark blue blouse. Alice wore shorts, sandals, and a striped tank top. Luther was always a simple man, wearing pants, boots, and a grey muscle tank top.

Besides the constant foot traffic, and the ever-invariable movement of vehicles on the road, downtown had a lot of flashing monitor screens and advertisements. The surrounding businesses showcased their products or played what was on the news.

Rose and Adam led Kara, Luther, and Alice into a coffee shop for a rest. While Rose and Adam ordered some coffee, Kara, Luther, and Alice waited for them nearby at a table next to the large window of the store. Alice walked over to a section in the coffee shop that had books for sale. There were digitalized tablet books mostly, similar to magazines, and there were also old paper books as well.

Kara shook her head with a smile, glancing at Luther. "We go to a bookstore practically every day, you'd think she would get tired of them."

Luther smiled, chuckling softly. "Maybe she thinks she will find something new in this place."

Alice looked through the books, eyes reading every title on the spines. She rounded the corner and ran straight into someone else.

"Oh, sorry," the person said.

"Sorry!" Alice apologized, realizing it was a human boy around ten years old.

He wore glasses, had tan skin and dark eyes and hair. He gave her a sheepish smile as he drew the book he was carrying up to his chest.

"T-that's a good book," Alice said shyly. "I've read it."

The boy perked up. "Y-you like to read? P-paper books?"

Alice nodded, pulling a strand of hair behind her ear. "Mhmhm. They are the best ones."

"Yeah…they are. Wow, I usually get so much flak for reading paper books. My friends say they're for old people. M-my name is Kevin. What's yours?"

"Alice."

"You from here?"

"Well, I did live here for a while, but moved away. We're just visiting."

"Kevin, c'mon, let's go!" the boy's mother called from across the store.

Kevin slouched. "Gotta go. Hey! Add me on Hang-n-Chat. My username is KevinMoon728."

"Okay."

"Bye," he said, but paused again. Turning to look at her again. His face flushed. "By the way… yourreallypretty."

He ran for it after that. Alice stared after him, slowly smiling at his retreating back. She skipped over to her parents, who sat with Rose and Adam at their table, looking out the window. She took her own seat next to Kara.

"I would've never guessed that this was where Markus led the demonstration," Kara said, looking around outside. "It looks so different from what I saw on the news back then."

"Yep…Hart Plaza. Right over there, that new shopping mall? That's where the recall center was."

"So where is Markus now?" Kara asked.

"Still here," Rose answered, taking a sip of her coffee. "Still the chosen leader of your people. Don't think he could get out of it even if he wanted to."

"He's got a pretty big community center thing for androids," Adam added. "Not sure what all they do there, but Markus and his followers do their best to help."

Rose nodded. "Yeah, the Jericho Center. We can swing by another day, you should definitely see it. I'm sure Markus would be happy to see you guys, he's asked about you a few times when I've bumped into him."

"Really?" Kara asked. "That would be great."

"Does Markus's center have other android children?" Alice asked curiously.

Rose smiled. "I've seen many. You would fit right in!"

Alice smiled in response, glancing to her parents.

"Oh, speaking of Markus," Rose said. "Adam and I got to meet that famous deviant hunter you told us about that chased you around Camden and through the freeway. I had heard he became a deviant in the demonstrations months ago and was the one who infiltrated the CyberLife warehouse and woke all those androids. He somehow was able to return to work at the DPD and is now an active detective on the force."

Kara recalled that event and the deviant hunter and slowly nodded. "Yeah…Connor. We spoke a little after Jericho was destroyed. He apologized to me and Alice…said he had been a machine only taking orders and it wasn't him, that he had changed. When did you meet him?"

"Around two months ago. We had gone there to pick up one of Adam's friends that needed a ride after getting out of jail. I saw him, and after Markus told me about him, well, had to introduce myself. He's very sweet."

Kara weakly laughed. "He wasn't sweet chasing me through that freeway. I was so scared. Alice and I…we were almost killed. I'm glad he broke free though…there's no telling what would've happened had he stayed obedient and not have freed all those androids to help turn the tide."

Kara lowered her eyes, feeling a little guilty now. "To be honest, I was so freaked out after Jericho was destroyed, I was scared for Alice, worried about Luther…I didn't give him the proper acknowledgement to his apology. Guess I was still a little scared of him. I know a lot of deviants within Jericho blamed him for what happened, accused him of being a traitor, said he was just pretending to be a deviant and still serving humans. Before Alice and I left, he was the outcast, off by himself in that shelter unless Markus was talking to him."

"I think we're all glad to have that night behind us," Rose said, frowning. "C'mon. We should get back home. We can come back into the city tomorrow to visit the Jericho Center."

There was a soft ambience, still, undisturbed, down in the evidence room. The dead WR600 Sam laid on a table up against the wall. One mangled eye left a cavity that oozed blue blood down the cheek and neck. Damaged, jagged polymer hands from breaking out of handcuffs lay at the sides, the right one soaked in Thirium.

Connor looked the android over and prepared it to be shipped to CyberLife. They did not have the correct equipment here to run the diagnostics. Hank was probably still on the phone with the company. And Connor knew Hank well enough to know that once the seventh minute had passed while on hold that the lieutenant would start to get mouthy.

Connor made sure he didn't miss anything. He was puzzled by Sam's behavior and the glitchy feedback. Scanning the android over, he pulled up their chances at getting a successful diagnostic run.

[Probability of success: 17%]

Connor sighed, stepping away from the dead android. The core processor was beyond repair, enabling extraction of any information as to what happened highly improbable.

Footsteps echoed through the chamber, and the RK800 turned around, expecting Hank. Instead it was Gavin, and the irritable detective sneered his way as he came towards Connor.

"The fuck you still doing down here, tin can?" he greeted with bite, scratching the scar on his nose.

"Preparing the WR600 for shipment."

Gavin rolled his eyes. "Still?"

Connor looked away for a moment. "Well, I was a little distracted with my thoughts on the matter. Perhaps I missed something at the crime scene that could have told me what was wrong with Sam."

He received a glare for his words as Gavin folded his arms with a huff. "What the hell does it matter? He killed a girl. Then he killed himself. It doesn't change anything. You're starting to take after your so-called partner and not let shit go."

"There has to be a reason that-"

"Listen jackass," Gavin interjected. "There's not always gonna be a goddamn reason. You work this career long enough, you'll see it. No use dwelling on the how or why when it doesn't matter. The case is solved. Move on."

Gavin pushed Connor aside, walking over to the dead WR600. He sat down a folder next to the android body, along with his keys and cell phone. He opened the folder and checked through it, slapping it back down on the table and pointing at it. "There's a copy of the case report and a copy of the recording from the interrogation. Make sure that gets sent too. Hurry along, I'm sure the lieutenant is missing his pet."

Connor cocked his head slightly. "Why do you dislike Hank so much, Detective Reed?"

Gavin laughed. "Jesus, don't take it so personal. I hate everyone the same amount."

"Why do you hate people then?"

Gavin tossed his hands, accompanying it with a shake of his head. "What are you, a shrink?"

"Just trying to comprehend your behavior."

Gavin stepped in close, glaring up at the taller android. "Comprehend this, prick. Hank's a fucking loser, all he does is tread on my toes and gets in my way. His self-destructive behavior should've cost him his job but he apparently kisses too much ass with Fowler. And then there's you…he's gotta be using you to make himself look good because he can't fucking do his job on his own. He used to be so anti-android…hell it was the only thing we could agree on. And now he suddenly likes you and wants to be buddy-buddy and help your fucking cause so we can all be replaced? Fuck that."

Connor felt a spark in his circuits, his LED going yellow. He did not like Gavin insulting Hank when his partner wasn't around to defend himself. Why did Gavin make it so hard to understand him?

"Say what you want about me, Detective Reed, but I advise you to respect Hank. He is your superior and I will not stand by and let you insult him."

Gavin sneered but didn't move away. "You wanted to know! Now you're all pissy that I talked shit about your "partner"? Why don't you do something about it then?"

"We both know how that will end," Connor replied smoothly. "With you laid out on this floor like last time."

Gavin responded with a punch directed at Connor's stomach, but the RK800 caught it mid-swing and held it there, the two glaring at each other.

"Gavin!"

They responded to the voice by looking towards the source, finding Ben Collins entering. The older officer beheld them for a moment, suspicion riding on narrowed eyebrows.

"You boys better be playing nice down here," he stated.

"What's up, Ben?" Gavin asked, stepping away to face his coworker.

"You got a call upstairs from that Mr. Turner guy, says he's got some new information for you on that bank robbery last week."

"Bout damn time," Gavin said, immediately departing from Connor's side to leave with Ben.

"Detective Reed, you-"

"Shut up, asshole. If you wanna be a shrink then find Hank, he could use it."

The detective laughed as he hit the stairs, Ben shaking his head with a grumble right behind him. Connor blinked, his LED slowly returning to blue. He was frustrated. He wasn't one to let Gavin get to him. If he insulted Hank, his partner was usually there to defend himself, and did a good job at it. Gavin's insults thrown at Connor didn't faze him, having learnt to associate Gavin with petty affronts. Connor gathered it was because he wanted to understand Gavin but was only ever met with confrontation.

He looked down at the table where Gavin had left his keys and cell phone. Connor had tried to tell him about it, but Gavin blew him off. A small, mischievous smile slowly twitched on his lips as he reached for the cell phone.

"Let me get this fucking straight," Hank growled, rubbing his temples. "You're gonna allow Gavin to go, but not Connor?"

He couldn't believe he was thinking it, but Hank was starting to think he would've been better off still dealing with CyberLife on the phone over this. He was already agitated by dealing with the company, and now Fowler decided to drop this on top of it.

The Captain of the Detroit Police Department closed his eyes for a moment, looking over the holographic computer screen at his lieutenant and old friend. "I didn't make the choice, Hank. The mayor and city council did. Human event only."

"That's bullshit, how could they decide something like that with them being at the core of android rights?!"

Fowler rolled away from his computer, knowing he wasn't going to get any work done with Hank bitching across from him. "Hank, it's not a council meeting or any shit like that. It's just an appreciation banquet."

Hank grounded his teeth for a moment. "Oh, so Connor didn't do enough to be appreciated?"

"I didn't say that."

"Because of Connor we've been able to solve nearly four times the amount of homicide cases, Jeffrey! With him alone! He's fucking done more in this department in eight months than I've seen cops do their whole careers. Connor hasn't failed at any interrogations and hasn't lost any suspects he's had to chase down."

"Jesus, Hank, I know that!"

"You expect me to just sit there and let the fucking mayor recognize Gavin for his hard work when my partner isn't even allowed inside like he's some kind of goddamn lower being?!"

Fowler pointed a long index finger across his desk at the lieutenant. "I most certainly do. Fuck Hank, you're taking this too personal. It's not a big event, not a big deal. There will be plenty of other opportunities. I promise Connor will get recognized for all that he's done. There's just nothing I can do about this one."

Hank pointed his own finger at his superior, rising out of his chair. "He fucking better! And of course, it's personal. I'm not gonna let my partner get shoved aside because of some bullshit discrimination when he deserves a lot more than what he gets here!"

Fowler actually had the nerve to laugh. Hank paused in his striding for the door of the captain's office, and he turned. "What the fuck's so funny?"

Fowler showed his hands to show he meant no harm. "It's nothing…it's just…you're so protective of him. I never would've thought to see you come to care about a machi-" Hank glared daggers at him. "About an android so much…"

"So?"

Fowler offered the chair that Hank just got up from. Grumbling, Hank slowly came over and sat down.

"I should've told you this already, Hank, but…It's really good to have you back. I was starting to worry about you. Worry about your health…worry about the man you were becoming. Now I'm starting to see more and more of the man you once were as the days go by."

Hank looked away, clenching his jaw, not out of anger, but of discomfort for being put on the spot. He ran a calloused hand through his graying hair. "Yeah well…it's because of Connor. I owe him…my life."

Fowler dipped his head. "I know, I heard he saved you a few times during the deviant uprisings."

Hank shook his head. "Not that…I mean he saved me…from myself."

A long moment of silence passed between the old colleagues. Hank, thoroughly uncomfortable, stood up once more. He ran a hand under his nose, catching Fowler's eyes. "So…make sure he gets the recognition he deserves, alright?"

The Police Captain slowly nodded his head, taking in Hank's words. The lieutenant then left the office after that, feeling a bit disheveled but also surprisingly content. He made his way over to his desk, noticing that Connor had yet to return to his. He looked around, phones rang away, police officers moved around or sat at their desks. He spotted Gavin talking on his desk phone with his legs propped up at the end of his desk, using his shoulder to hold the phone while he dug at his nails with a pocket knife.

"Lieutenant!"

Hank responded to the call, smiling upon seeing Chris Miller approaching. "Hey Chris, what's up?"

"Just got a call about an android attacking a group of people near Grand Circus Park. Two people are in critical condition and four others are also injured. It apparently used a gun and is still at large. I know you were investigating the one that killed the girl at the clothing store, and was interested in the report I took yesterday about the protesters being attacked."

"On it," Hank said. "Send all the info to Connor's computer, I'll have him download it while we're heading that way."

"Will do. Ben should be there by the time you arrive also," Chris said.

Chris left and Hank went over to his desk to collect his badge and gun. He opened the drawer on his desk to fish out his keys. He saw Connor not a moment later coming around from his way back from the evidence room. Hank waved him over.

"Con, come on, gotta go."

He tossed Connor his keys and the RK800 caught them with grace. The partners started heading for the exit side by side. "What happened?"

"Another android attack. Chris is gonna send the info to you, shouldn't take him but a few minutes. Did you finish up getting that android ready for shipment?"

"Yes."

"Why are you smiling?"

"No reason," Connor replied. "Although, I do suggest you call Gavin later. I heard he changed his voicemail message."

"Wait a minute," Hank paused just as they got to his car, pulling up his phone. "I got a text from him saying "I'm a little bitch" and then a video of him getting kicked in the nuts from that Asian girl last month in the interrogation room. What did you do?"

"I have no idea what you are talking about, Hank."

"You hacked his phone, didn't you?"

Connor opened the car door and slipped into the driver's seat. Hank laughed as he slid into the passenger side.

"That's fucking great, my partner the savage. How many people did you send it to?"

"Just everyone in his contacts list that had a phone number or email address. Including everyone at the DPD."

Hank busted out laughing as Connor put the car into gear and took off.

The suburban street had little appeal to it, full of decrepit houses and overgrown lawns. Cars rarely passed by over cracked asphalt. Only a few houses had residents within, not as worn down or ugly as the abandoned houses. There was more foot traffic in this part, and most of the people were humans that either avoided them or were too strung out on red ice or other drugs to care.

"Where are you taking us?" Josh asked.

"This is way off from where we last spotted Gus," North said, looking around the sketchy neighborhood.

Simon walked slightly ahead, leading his friends. The few humans who stood around outside would either glare them down and not say anything or make a retreat inside their homes. Some were too high to care about their presence. Even though Simon, North, and Josh wore regular human clothes and no longer had LEDs it was as if the humans here knew what they were.

"We're going to Gus's old home. He could've gone there to hide. We better make sure," Simon explained.

"Whatever you say," North said skeptically.

"We've been at it all day. We should return to Markus and inform him that we lost Gus," Josh grumbled.

"We can just send him a mind message, no big deal," North said, kicking a can along the broken sidewalk.

"Have you seen where we're at?" Josh scoffed. "We're too far."

"Guys," sighed Simon, wanting to preventing a potential bickering match. "We're almost there. If Gus isn't there, we'll return to Jericho Center and see what Markus wants to do next. Alright?"

The PL600 turned onto an overgrown driveway to a crumbling two-story house that looked as though it had been abandoned for many years and had remnants of a fire.

"Here we are."

"That looks…unsafe," Josh said, gulping.

North half-rolled her eyes. "Ugh, then stay here. We'll be right back."

Josh didn't listen and went with them up onto the collapsing front porch. Simon tried the front door. It was open. He paused with his hand on the doorknob, looking back at his friends.

"Be careful. Not only is this place falling apart, if Gus is here he might attack. So be ready."

They nodded and Simon flung the door open. A wave of musky mildew and old smoke wafted into their faces. The three androids stepped inside, looking around a dark, dirty living room. They split up to check the bottom floor, but all was quiet save for the creaking of the floor below their feet and the occasional moaning of the house's structure from the wind outside.

"Gus?" Simon called out. "We're here to help you. Come on out if you're here."

A crash upstairs made them jump. Simon looked to North and Josh and they nodded. They moved to the staircase, hitting it one at a time. One step collapsed under Josh's weight and he had to grab the railing to catch himself. Once on the second floor Josh remained at the staircase to prevent anyone from escaping while North and Simon combed through the rooms.

North thought she heard movement in the back bedroom and left Simon's side to check it out. She called out for Gus, imploring him with gentle reassurance to come out.

She pulled open a closet door and was met with a tall figure with a knife drawn. He screamed, she screamed and kicked him straight back into the closet. Simon and Josh burst into the room but the assailant remained in the closet.

"Ralph?! What the hell are you doing here?!" North hissed, holding her chest as her mechanical heart went up a few beats.

The scarred WR600 moved out into the room, holding himself nervously. The Jericho crew hadn't seen him in a while, as Ralph was not one to stick around, even when people were trying to help him. He was a nomad, and moved throughout Detroit to various places to avoid most people. He had calmed down some in the past few months, but still remained moody, fluctuating between emotions by the fly.

"W-what? Why you ask that? You scared Ralph! Why are you here?"

Simon cut to the chase. "We're looking for Gus, have you seen him?"

"Gus lets Ralph squat at his old home when he doesn't stay with the Jerrys," Ralph said innocently. "Haven't seen Gus in a while. Was starting to get lonely."

"You have any idea where he could be?" Josh asked, knowing it was a long shot.

Ralph thought it over, fidgety as usual. "N-no. He's been at Jericho Center a lot. Ralph doesn't know anywhere else he likes to stay."

North grumbled. "Ugh, useless as always."

Simon glared at her. "North."

Josh stepped forward, closing in on Ralph, but giving him a friendly smile. "Ralph, you should come back to Jericho Center with us. You know Markus wants to help you."

"Y-yes, o-of course Ralph knows that," Ralph laughed nervously. "B-but all those androids make him anxious. Not as anxious as humans, but still anxious."

Simon reached out to touch Ralph's arm. "I know deep down you want to fit in. We can help you."

Ralph moved out of Simon's touch like a nervous cat. "Don't touch Ralph! You might be sick!"

Simon drew away. "Sorry, Ralph. I'm just-wait…Sick? What do you mean by sick?"

Ralph looked between them, even more restless now. "You don't know? You can't see it? Feel it? So many androids getting sick and hurting people. Ralph is scared. Some of the Jerrys are acting sick. It's why Ralph is here. One of the Jerrys attacked him. Ralph had to kill him. T-to protect himself! But Ralph hasn't felt sick yet. He doesn't want to get sick."

Simon, North, and Josh exchanged glances.

North looked to Ralph. "How long have you noticed this?"

Ralph shrugged, playing with his torn cape. "Ah, m-maybe a couple weeks? It gets worse every day. More and more get sick."

"You think Gus was sick?" Josh asked apprehensively, turning to Simon.

Simon clenched his fists at his sides. "I don't know. We should get back. Ralph, you need to come with us and tell Markus what you know."

The scarred WR600 shook his head, backing up against the wall. "N-no. Ralph wants to stay here. It's safer here."

Simon stepped forward, reaching out to the squatter. "Ralph…listen to me. We might need your help. We promise we won't let anyone hurt you. You won't get sick. Come with us."

Ralph hesitated but slowly nodded. He stepped forward, nervously reaching to touch Simon's hand to his own for just a moment. Simon smiled and then nodded at the others.

"Let's go."

The eastern half of Grand Circus Park was alive with activity. First responders, ambulances, and police cars blocked off much of the surrounding avenues, congesting traffic. The park looked like it had been dressed up for some sort of music festival. There were food vendors, festival visitors and musicians all being questioned by police. A few humans were getting looked over by paramedics. Reporters were on scene, taking advantage of a brewing story. Drones circled the park and the surrounding avenues for any suspicious activity.

Hank and Connor showed their badges and stepped through the police line. They caught sight of Ben Collins near Alger Fountain and met him there.

"Afternoon, Hank," Ben greeted, taking notes on his tablet.

"A music festival, huh?" Hank asked, looking around at the stage that was put up with all the surrounding vendors and activities, all currently abandoned and in disarray.

"Kinda. A small country music competition I think. Did you get the info Chris sent you?"

Hank motioned to Connor, who nodded and answered. "Yes. Currently six people injured, two in critical condition. Android model is unknown but female. Supposed to have fled towards the opera house. Am I correct?"

Ben nodded. "Unfortunately, nothing new has come up since Chris registered that information. Have a look. Tell me what you can figure out."

Hank touched Connor's shoulder as he stepped by. "I'll go talk to some witnesses. Be back soon."

Connor didn't say anything and got to work. He looked around the fountain, where the attack was assumed to have taken place. There were a few chairs sitting around, some toppled over. Some food was scattered around as well as a dumped over medium soda.

[Pineapple passion soda, 520kCal, Sugar (119g)/Hank's favorite]

He spotted a stray bullet hole within a cement bench and went over to it. He scanned it over, syncing the data.

[Bullet hole/Caliber: 9mm handgun]

Upon further inspection around the Alger Fountain, he found two more bullet holes, one in a nearby tree off in the grass and another hitting the side of a food vendor's trailer. The three bullets had different trajectories, but originated from the south side of the fountain. Finding a few blood puddles further away from the fountain, in a mix of vendor tents and chairs, Connor was able to gather two more paths from the gun.

[Attacker didn't have a specific target.]

He kneeled down next to the blood, hearing the bells go off across the street at the Victorian gothic styled church, marking the time of three o'clock. He analyzed the blood by licking it, determining three victims in this area. Then he spotted it.

The RK800 rose to his feet and walked over the vendor tent, kicking aside a box of crafts. A knife laid on the ground, covered in Thirium. He licked the blue blood, processing it.

[Fresh blue blood/Model: AJ700]

He tried to reconstruct the events with what he had. The AJ700 shot into the crowd of people near the Alger Fountain, and when she ran towards a path near this vendor tent a male civilian jumped her. He was shot but it showed the knife had struck the back of the neck before it flew from his hands. The injury was tricky, most likely nicking important wires connected to the central processing unit in the head. It wouldn't allow for much Thirium loss, but Connor was sure it would cause a host of problems in the AJ700, including continual power loss and confusion.

[AJ700 too injured to go far]

The reconstruction did show her fleeing towards the opera house. He headed down the path, catching droplets of Thirium here and there. Near the bustling road, just off the sidewalk in the grass, he saw the gun.

[Ruger 9mm, reported stolen May 29, 2038]

[eRRorZen . exe]

Connor stopped in his tracks, blinking. He pressed a hand to his temple, not out of pain, but confusion, like his processor had a lapse in the circuitry. His LED blinked yellow a few times, then returned blue. Shaking his head, Connor resumed heading for the crosswalk to follow the trail.

"Hey!"

He turned, seeing Hank jog to catch up. "What the hell you think you're doing?"

"Following the trail," Connor replied frankly. "The AJ700 couldn't have gotten far from her injuries."

Hank felt to make sure he had his gun on him. "Alright, well, let's check it out. We have a couple android witnesses we can talk to who claim to be the attacker's friend."

Connor nodded. "Alright."

Connor led the way, Hank keeping at his heels as they took the crosswalk across the street to the Detroit Opera House. It took Connor longer than normal to find the trail, with so much foot traffic having smeared the little Thirium across the sidewalks. They followed the blue blood droplets on the Broadway Street side.

"Hey lady, what's your problem?! Get outta the road!"

Honks blared and there was scuffling of brakes. Connor spotted the AJ700 darting across the street, not even bothering to look both ways. Long, dark hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail and she wore pants, and a dark shirt and jacket.

"There!" Connor hollered, taking off.

"Connor! Wait!"

The RK800 didn't listen, and heard Hank curse at his back. He took the same path as the injured android, dodging cars. More blares from horns echoed on the street, and it caused the AJ700 to turn and look. Upon seeing him, her eyes widened and she took off at full speed. Connor adjusted his speed accordingly, shirking through throngs of civilians in his attempt to catch her.

"Detroit Police, stop right there!" Connor yelled.

She took a street that would head for Greektown. Connor jumped over a bench to avoid a group of people, dashing down the next street she did. He started to catch up quickly, or she was slowing down, it didn't matter. He saw her grab her head, and she cried out.

[Stress level: 87%]

"Shit," Connor breathed as she darted across another busy road. By the time he evaded a bus and a few cars with his own crossing, he barely caught her back as she ducked between an alleyway.

He caught up just as she was trying to climb a tall chain-link fence. He grabbed her leg and pulled her down. With a cry, her back hit the payment. She got to her knees, putting her hands up, tears streaming down her face.

"Please…I-I didn't mean to. I-I don't know what happened. I'm so scared."

"Everything will be alright," Connor said. "I just need you to cooperate. I cannot help you if you continue to run or hurt people. Do you understand?"

[Stress level: 79%]

She nodded, a few quick movements as her eyes went up to meet his. "Y-yes."

The RK800 motioned for her to get to her feet. The female android slowly listened, a spark emitting from her neck. Connor remained wary, lest she bolted for it. She didn't though, and hung her head, putting her palms to her face just as Hank caught up.

"Good job, Connor."

Connor scanned the AJ700 over, syncing the data as a few red flags popped up in his matrix.

[Anomalies detected/Power source damaged/Systems processing corrupted/Repairs needed]

[Time remaining before shutdown: -02:01:49]

"We don't have much time. Let's get her back to the station," Connor said.

*******************************************************************************************

A/N: I don't know why, but sometimes I'm terrible at coming up at chapter titles and I'm always like "why do I use them?" xD Anyways, holy moly thanks for all the support so far in this story, getting lots of PMs and such on it. Thank you for all the responses/faves/follow, etc! By the way, I updated the first 3 chapters to use the thought and analysis thing I came up for Connor to better go along with how it was in the game :3 Thanks for sticking with the story, whoever is still reading xD have a good week everyone <3

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13002717/4/Deviant-Heart

https://archiveofourown.org/works/15393528/chapters/36185613

[swimintothesound]

The First Annual Diamond Platters: Swim Into The Sound’s Ancillary End of the Year Awards

Whether you like it or not, it’s awards season. The time of the year when every music publication sits down to rank, order, and pass judgment on the last 365 days of art. As every outlet races to beat each other to those illustrious “end of the year list clicks,” I am only one man, and I just can’t compete. While Swim Into The Sound does still have an official “Best Albums of 2017” list in the works, this countdown is going to be a little different.

For the first time ever, I’d like to welcome you to Swim Into The Sound’s Diamond Platter Awards: an extravagant, ornate, and handsome way to recognize the past year of music. Grandiose, gaudy, and opulent, The Diamond Platters are the most exorbitant awards on the entirety of the internet, and the absolute highest honor of online music blogging awards.

Aside from poking fun at the seriousness of list season, these awards do have a purpose: to talk about music that may not be discussed otherwise. It’s always fun to see how everyone ranks albums each year (even if they start rolling in around November) but more often than not, most website’s “best of the year” list ends up coming off as rote rambling. A half-hearted and inconsistent ranking that merely regurgitates a months-old review with a few outlandish placements to get people talking. It’s the music blog equivalent of roll call, and it’s getting stale.

So with that said, The Diamond Platters don’t go to the “best” music of the year, but things that are worth celebrating for some other reason. Albums that triumphed in their category, artists that surprised their audience, or moments that were worth remembering. Hopefully funnier, punchier, and a little more out of the box than your average end of the year listicle, here’s my off-the-cuff (but official) ranking of several hyper-specific categories of my own creation. Enjoy.

Best Acoustic Reimagining

Winner: The Wonder Years - Burst & Decay

After a two year absence and an album that I wasn’t too hot on, the pop-punk gods return with an acoustic EP that reworks some of their best songs into a tender acoustic offering. Taking cues from lead singer Daniel Campbell’s solo outing, Burst & Decay marks the beginning of a new day for the band. The artistic fulfillment of the direction that they’ve been heading in for years now, all packaged up in a lush EP that allows the songwriting to shine as the crown jewel that it always has been. It’s a fantastic “fall album,” and the perfect soundtrack to warm lattes, wool scarves, and crunchy leaves. The album’s final track will leave you ruminating, thoughtful, and pensive, but that’s precisely what the band was going for and always has been.

Runner-up: Jeff Tweedy - Together At Last

The Wilco frontman treats long-time fans to a career-spanning album that culls the best songs from 30-years of music and reworks them beautifully.

Biggest Surprise of the Year

Winner: The Dirty Projectors - The Dirty Projectors

As is a recurring theme with this blog, The Dirty Projectors were a group that I’d never heard of until very recently. When the band’s futuristic self-titled LP dropped at the beginning of the year, I had no context. No knowledge of the band’s dissolution, bad blood, or previous relationships. I went into the record blind, only having the internet’s reaction to go on. Hailing the album as “3017 shit” I hit play on the album not knowing what to expect and emerged blown away. It indeed sounded like future music with crazy autotune, glitchy instrumentals, and bizarre vocal deliveries as far as the eye could see. As I learned more about the group and the backstory I grew to dislike the man behind the music, but that didn’t keep me from loving the unconventional left-field arrangements on this record any less. The Dirty Projectors is unlike anything else I’ve heard in this year or any other.

Runner-up: Ugly God - The Booty Tape

When XXL unveiled their class of 2017 freshmen, I was underwhelmed to say the least. Aside from elevating genuinely deplorable human beings, I hadn’t heard of most of the artists that made the list. Of the ten up-and-coming rappers that the magazine showcased, I came out liking Ugly God the most. His late-summer debut The Booty Tape is a 23-minute banger-filled escapade that combines a conceptual sense of humor with modern trap stylings. It’s what Das Racist would have made if they were around to witness the rise of Lil Yachty. Nothing on the tape overstays its welcome, the production in on-point, and Ugly God is surprisingly proficient throughout. It’s a joy to listen to, and that’s not something I thought I’d ever say about a dude who “only wants to sing about dumb stuff.”

Most Stank Face-Worthy Beat

Winner: Flume “Enough (feat. Pusha T)”

After last year’s immaculately-produced Skin LP, the Australian musician continued his flower imagery in 2017 with two companion EPs alongside various singles and numerous remixes. The high point of this era came at the very beginning of Skin’s second companion EP on the Pusha T-assisted “Enough.” Featuring abrasive blown-out instrumentation, “Enough” is a jaw-clenching and muscle-inflating track that will flood your speakers and blow out your eardrums. Perhaps the ultimate gym song, “Enough” is one of the nastiest beats I’ve ever heard in my life, and Pusha T is used masterfully. This track is a force to be reckoned with.

Runner-up: Kendrick Lamar “DNA.”

After two minutes of scene setting on the album-opening “BLOOD.,” an ignorant Fox News clip gives way to an aggressive Kendrick who begins “DNA.” by shouting “I got, I got, I got, I got / Loyalty, got royalty inside my DNA.” The song sees Lamar coming out of the gates swinging, but midway through the song, just as you think it’s winding down, the beat cuts out and switches. With only one minute of the track left, a countdown begins, and Kendrick starts spazzing out over an allegedly-improvised beat, created after the fact to cater to his flow. Placed over a sample of 1982 Rick James, the beat becomes swells to monstrous proportions, spiraling and booming, taking control of every muscle in your body and eclipsing every pure thought you’ve ever had. It’s one of the best moments in music this year and an absolute marvel to behold.

Best Album From Last Year That Took Until 2017 To Discover

Winner: Pinegrove - Cardinal

Listening to everything in one year is impossible. Sometimes albums and bands slip through the cracks, and in 2016 Pinegrove was one of those for me. The Run For Cover signees have seen an astronomical rise in 2017, becoming indie darlings within the space of a single calendar year. It took me many listens to discover what’s so unique about Pinegrove, but after I realized they weren’t just another Emo band, I began to fall in love with them in early 2017. With fantastically-composed songs like “Aphasia” and “New Friends” the group’s sophomore album is a fantastic jumping off point for a band that’s poised to continue to grow exponentially.

Runner-up: Camp Cope - Camp Cope

Much like Pinegrove, this Melbourne-based female trio also released one of the best emo records of last year. While it took a while to sink its hooks into me, this fall I hit a point where I couldn’t go one day without listening to Camp Cope’s self-titled record. If their second album’s single is anything to go off of, the group may already have one of 2018’s best albums on their hands.

Most Satiating B-Sides Collection

Winner: Angel Olsen - Phases

B-side releases are an interesting beast. Often created primarily to satiate the die-hard fans, it’s rare that an artist’s best work would be on a collection of things cut from a record, but here we are. While Angel Olsen’s My Woman was an easy choice for my Best Of list last year, 2017’s Phases represents a thoughtful punctuation to the end of this chapter. Featuring unreleased cuts from each of her albums, Phases is a perfect sample platter of Olsen’s broad and diverse sounds proving, once again, that she’s one of the most powerful women in indie.

Runner-up: Sufjan Stevens - The Greatest Gift

While Phases gets points for being comprised entirely of unheard material, Sufjan’s Greatest Gift should be commended for striking a near-perfect balance of B-sides, demos, and remixes. The “mixtape” collects outtakes from 2015’s landmark Carrie & Lowell, all of which bear the same brand of soul-destroying, death-ridden meditations and grievances. While Sufjan’s other 2017 album Carrie & Lowell Live represents a maximalist reimagining of the album, Greatest Gift represents the exact inverse: stark, subtle, and haunting renditions of the same tracks. Occasionally even more hard-hitting and impactful than the full album, The Greatest Gift is an incredible contrast to his 2015 record and the perfectly-placed bow atop this career-defining work.

Most Essential “Portland Anthem”

Winner: Drake “Portland”

As a native Oregonian, this year’s music has been a noticeable boon to our city. From local boys done good to songs specifically about our town, the Rose City has been blessed throughout 2017. God knows as Seattle’s Napoleon-complexed younger brother, we’ll take all the confidence we can get. 2017 may have been the year of flutes, but Drake’s “Portland” takes that woodwind-based phenomenon one step further into absurdity by heavily-utilizing the recorder. Assisted by Travis Scott and Quavo, “Portland” is an outlandish and bouncy anthem to life in PDX. While the album cut is fun, seeing the two perform the song live in May was a meta and goosebump-inducing highlight of my year in live music.

Runner-up: Sufjan Stevens “The Hidden River of My Life”

While almost all of Carrie & Lowell’s tracks depict life in Oregon, “The Hidden River of My Life” is a heartfelt (and surprisingly-catchy) song of in-jokes, references, and observations that can only come from having lived life our rainy state.

Reddit Commenter Who Should Be Reviewing Music

Winner: wonderbitch26 on Melodrama

When Lorde’s Melodrama dropped in June popheads across the world rejoiced. As often happens, that joy frequently translates into gay men acting so unbelievably extra that it begins to feel like an infinitely-renewable source of energy that we should be harnessing. In Melodrama’s album release thread on the /r/popheads subreddit, user wonderbitch26 posted an in-depth comment depicting an explicit and erotic tale of sexual dancing and BDSM-esque spanking that also managed to accurately portray what listening to the album is like. It’s a journey worth taking.

Runner-up: plzaskmeaboutloom on More Life

Drake isn’t exactly the internet’s favorite artist. While 2015’s If You’re Reading This represented a career-defining high note, his subsequent releases have been middling at best. In fact, in May I wrote 8,000 words over a series of four posts in which I simply tried to reconcile my love for Drake despite his recent downward trajectory. While I perceived 2017’s More Life as a slight bounce back, not everyone agreed with me, least of all /r/indieheads user plzaskmeaboutloom whose Simon Cowell-esque takedown of the album is meaner (and funnier) than anything I could have ever come up with.

Most Gallery-Ready Cover Art

Winner: Spoon - Hot Thoughts

It’s not often that a band’s ninth record is their best. While Spoon’s Hot Thoughts finds the group reaching a refreshing creative peak, one of the most memorable aspects of the album is actually its gorgeous cover. Created by Portland’s own Christine Messersmith, Hot Thoughts’ album art is a striking depiction of a human skull. Painted in vivid watercolor, you can spot the pattern of the canvas running subtly throughout the background providing the perfect texture and consistency to the entire piece.

Runner-up: Turnover - Good Nature

To be quite honest, I was disappointed with Turnover’s Peripheral Vision follow-up this year. While their 2015 album represented a jaw-dropping emo reinvention, 2017’s Good Nature seems to be content with simply extending those ideas into another release. While I’m not yet sold on the album’s musical contents, one thing is for sure: Good Nature’s cover is absolutely stunning. Featuring a child-like array of jungle animals underneath a bright pink sky, it’s a memorable and eye-catching display that also manages to be an excellent encapsulation of the music that lies behind it.

You Are America

Winner: Cardi B

Out of all the glo ups of 2017, none have been more astronomical than Cardi B. While her monumental hit “Bodak Yellow” tells her story quite well, she has gone from stripper to dethroning Taylor Swift and marrying a Migo all within the space of a year. When she’s not breaking records, her time goes towards being one of the most magnanimous and personable Instagram purveyors on the planet. From iconic raps to inspirational social media videos, Cardi B is a force of nature. In one year she gave us a chart-shattering anthem of empowerment, togetherness, and upward mobility. She’s the embodiment of the American Dream. An endearing story of success. The bitch everyone wants to be. Her story is what this country was founded on.

Runner-up: Perfume Genius

This year has been hard for most of us, but for Mike Hadreas things have been near impossible. His 2017 record No Shape is the tale of seeking out happiness and holding onto it for dear life. About finding joy and warmth in the face of homophobia, discrimination, hatred, and a world that seems stacked against you. As a society, America should consider ourselves lucky to have humans like Hadreas amongst us. If even a fraction of our future population is comprised of people like him, then we’ll be living in a utopia one day.

Most Impeccable Samples

Winner: Lil Aaron - Soundcloud Singles

While I gushed about Lil Aaron’s music in a post earlier this year, his combination of trap lyrics over 2000’s-era emo samples remains one of the most intoxicating things I’ve heard all year. From “My Own Worst Enemy” to “I Write Sins Not Tragedies,” Aaron’s Soundcloud is a treasure trove of millennial nostalgia. Each song follows a familiar pattern, first luring the listener in with a sense of familiarity, then flipping expectations end over end as he hits you with clever wordplay, catchy melodies, and gut-busting bars. It’s a combination that I never would have thought of in a million years, much less imagined working as well as it does here, but that just goes to show the brilliance of Lil Aaron’s mind.

Runner-up: Jay Z - 4:44

Helmed entirely by No I.D., Jay-Z’s 4:44 represents a return to his earlier sound, once again embracing booming, chopped up soul samples. It’s a match made in heaven, and the samples pair with his voice so well that you begin to wonder why he ever got away from them in the first place. Thanks to this sense of familiarity, the entire album feels both comfortably familiar and brand new at the same time. 4:44 manages to capitalize on Jay’s past success while also standing on its own merits, and that’s all thanks to the record’s strong sample-based foundation.

Worryingly Prolific Output

Winner: Brockhampton

When I say “prolific output,” the distinction here is output that also maintains a high quality. So sorry King Gizz fans, 5 albums in one year is in an achievement, but we both know they’re not all winners. Texas-born, Cali-based BROCKHAMPTON is a group of 20-something 20-somethings who label themselves as a boyband. This year alone they’ve released three albums, one documentary, a TV Show, and embarked on a nationwide tour. They are young creatives incarnate, and I hope they never stop.

Runner-up: Sufjan Stevens

While not everything he released is from 2017, Sufjan Stevens has given fans more than enough new music this year to tide us over until his next record. From live reimaginings, b-sides, soundtracks, and space-themed originals, Sufjan has given us 3.5 albums of new material this year alone, and all of it’s great. And in the time that it took me to write and edit this he tossed out a Tonya Harding-themed loosie. The hits keep coming, and Sufjan is a true blessing.

Most Iconic Social Feed

Winner: Lorde’s Instagram

One of the few people I have notifications turned on for, Lorde’s Instagram has proven to be a never-ending waterfall of iconic tour pics, beautiful faces, and incredible fashion. In fact, my “saved” section might as well be renamed “Just Lorde” at this point because that’s 95% of all I ever save. She can do no wrong.

Runner-up: There is no runner-up

Best Incongruous Use of Hard Rock

Winner: Feist “A Man Is Not His Song”

I can’t believe I’d so severely misjudged Feist as a pop act. Like most of the world, I was first introduced to her in 2007 with the unparalleled (and unexpected) success of “1234,” and until this year I’d assumed that one breakout single was indicative of the Canadian songstress’ discography, but in reality, I could not have been more wrong. Feist’s Pleasure is an album that rides waves of aggression. Often focusing only on a guitar and Leslie Feist’s voice, it’s one of the rawest and most personal albums I’ve heard all year. A shock comes at the end of “A Man is Not His Song” where the chorus bleeds into a quick 22-second hit of Mastodon’s “High Road.” It sticks out like a sore thumb, yet somehow fits into the song and album so perfectly. This was only one of many revelations that I had while listening to the album, and a moment that truly needs to be heard to be believed.

Runner-up: Brand New “No Control”

While the whole of Brand New’s Science Fiction is pretty hard-rockin', the Emo trailblazers tend to shift between two styles on the record: sad, slow tracks and aggressive kickass rock. Late-album cut “No Control” lies somewhat between the two, featuring a whiny crooning chorus alongside distorted guitars. Around two and a half minutes in, the song fades out and slowly sputters out into quietness. There’s a brief pause of silence, and then a booming bass, fuzzed-out guitar, and aggressive set of drums are slowly turned up in the mix. Gradually gaining volume as they play, the instruments become louder and louder until the track ends in earnest. While it only hangs on for a minute before fading into the next song, the riff still remains a standout groovy moment on the band’s career-defining final record.

Most Charming Human Being

Winner: Claire Cottrill of Clairo

Claire Cottrill has been making lo-fi bedroom pop songs for years now under the name Clairo, but it wasn’t until this fall that her song “Pretty Girl” blew up. Having accumulated nearly 5 million views at the time of writing, the music video is simple, delightful, and impactful. Created on a day when “her hair was greasy, her skin was bad, and she didn't want to leave the bed” the video sees Clairo alone in her room singing and dancing along to the simplistic pop track. It’s utterly pleasant and completely disarming, a refreshing breath of air from the world around you. Still a student in college, I can’t wait to see what kind of art Clairo is able to unleash once she’s able to entirely devote herself to creative pursuits.

Runner-up: Alex Luciano of Diet Cig

The high-kicking, dog-loving, outspoken frontwoman to New York-based Diet Cig is a pom-pom-clad ball of energy and fury. With one of the most charismatic social feeds on the internet, Luciano is a treasure of a human being. Someone who’s joy and passion bleeds over onto anyone and everyone that she comes in contact with. A badass of the pop-punk scene.

Best Music Video

Winner: Charli XCX “Boys”

When Charli XCX dropped her video for “Boys” over the summer, the pop culture world collectively went mad. From trying to spot all the celebrity cameos to drooling over everyone displayed in the song, it became an internet-wide obsession. The song itself is a catchy earworm of a pop track, but the video is a sugary pink and instantly-recognizable classic that managed to get the internet talking, which is a feat in and of itself.

Runner-up: Jay-Z - “The Story of OJ”

On the polar opposite end of “Boys,” we have “The Story of OJ” which is a dark black and white video about race relations in America. While all of Jay-Z’s 4:44 is packed with urgent addresses like the one found here, “The Story of OJ” remains the best encapsulation of the album’s wide-ranging topics accompanied by pitch-perfect emulation of Fleischer Studios’ animation.

Best Collaboration

Winner: Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile - Lotta Sea Lice

Maybe 2017 is bringing us together after all. From Atlanta trap stars to long-lost fables, and indie darlings, this year has been host to countless fantastic collaborations. Among dozens of great crossover albums, Lotta Sea Lice from Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile remains the one that sticks in my mind most prominently. Featuring breezy Sunday morning songs, this meeting of indie minds a genuinely pleasant listen that will take your mind off even the harshest realities of the day’s news. Sea Lice offers an escape into a world untouched by misery where continental breakfasts are always available, and it’s easier than ever to let everything go.

Runner-up: 21 Savage, Offset, & Metro Boomin - Without Warning

Filed under “things I didn’t expect to be this great,” Without Warning is a joint effort between three of the biggest names in hip-hop this year. Hot off a string of successful albums, this collaborative release finds the two rappers trading verses over some of Metro Boomin’s darkest beats of the year. Sprinkled with a handful of solo tracks and a couple of guest features, there’s just enough variation here to make for an incredibly compelling listen.

Most Fabulous Christmas Bop

Winner: Sia “Santa’s Coming For Us”

The chandelier-swinging popstress returned in 2017 bearing gifts in the form of Everyday Is Christmas, a collection of 10 original holiday songs. Kicking things off, the album’s lead single “Santa’s Coming For Us” is a jubilant and dancy track with just enough of a dark undercurrent to be enjoyed by all. If this song isn’t a Christmas classic next year, I will be severely disappointed in us as a civilization.

Runner-up: Phoebe Bridgers “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”

Introduced on social media with the caption “this emo cover brought to you by the atheist who loves Christmas,” this post-album loosie sees Bridgers reworking one of the best holiday songs in her trademarked remorseful delivery. Accompanied by a lone guitar and bare instrumentation, this is the one Christmas song that’s guaranteed to make you cry at least one or two tears into your hot chocolate.

Best Use of an Englishman Doing Spoken Word Narration

Winner: King Krule “Bermondsey Bosom (Right)”

Framed as the later-album counterpart to “Bermondsey Bosom (Left),” “Bermondsey Bosom (Right)” is a jazzy and fluid track that uses Archy Ivan Marshall’s father to weave a brief but illustrative tale of darkness. Only one minute long, the song is a fantastic and moody diversion in an album that’s brimming over the top with unique ideas.

Runner-up: Feist - “Century”

As much as I like Feist’s Pleasure and her use of Pulps’ Jarvis Cocker on “Century,” this entry gets dinged solely for its mathematical inaccuracies. Next time you get this specific about the length of your dark night of the soul, make sure you fact check beforehand.

Most Anticipated Release of 2018

Finally, let’s end by looking forward at two records that I can’t wait to hear in 2018.

Winner: Snail Mail - Unknown Debut

From Tiny Desk performances to Matador co-signs, it’s been a banner year for Lindsey Jordan. Lovingly documented in my guide to female-fronted music in 2017, I first discovered Snail Mail back in May as they opened for Girlpool in concert. For the last song of their set, the group’s drummer and bassist left the stage, leaving frontwoman Lindsey Jordan alone in the spotlight facing a rapt audience. With just a guitar and a mic she played “Anytime, ” and I was left with my jaw on the floor. It was an awe-inspiring performance, one of my favorites of the year, and a moment that I’ll always remember. To see the traction they’ve gained over the past several months has been nothing short of incredible. Watching Jordan grow has already been rewarding, and her success is incredibly well-deserved. Snail Mail’s 2018 debut LP should be something else.

Runner-up: Shortly - Unknown Debut

Fronted by Alexandria Maniak, Shortly is a reverb-dripping emo act that I’d never heard of until I saw her open for Aaron West live. While Shortly only has two songs currently released, she’s already signed to Triple Crown records with a debut record scheduled for next spring. To say I was blown away by her live performance would be an understatement. Perhaps one of my favorite sets of the entire year, she took the whole room by surprise and had everyone listening with a hush by the time her first song was over. Based on what I saw, she’s currently on track to be the world’s next Julien Baker with sadder music, slower tunes, and more colorful hair. I absolutely cannot wait to see what the future holds for this promising artist.

[thunderheadfred]

Red Streak [2.1]

Chapter 02: Babel [Part 1 of 5. Revised July 2017]

Read the complete fic on AO3

Jane Eden Prime 2183 CE

“What happened here?”

Lieutenant Alenko’s voice carried across the unnatural hush of the dig site, eerily amplified by the walls of raw hewn rock and the newly excavated geometry of the Prothean ruin. Even at a whisper, his tone cut through the quiet, startling Shepard out of her own thoughts. The Lieutenant had a point. This was like no battleground she’d ever seen.

Shepard could scarcely believe that things were already this quiet planet-side. Where was the fight? Where were the Marines? Given the absolute chaos of the distress call from Eden Prime, she’d expected to rush into a hot zone. Instead, the entire landscape was silent as a tomb. The colossal bogey still hung in the air, “Like the sword of Damocles,” Anderson had radioed, but it hadn’t moved an inch since the ground party’s arrival. Seeing the hulking black shadow of it looming above, waiting, watching… was no comfort at all.

Here at the Prothean dig site, Shepard’s meager three-man strike team was surrounded on all sides by natural grassy hills and the researcher’s abandoned access ramps. Fish in a barrel, in other words. With her assault rifle at the ready, eyes up for trouble, Shepard took a few cautious steps onto the jet-black dais that stretched in unwelcoming quietude across the center of the site.

Ominous. No signs of the battle they had seen in the S.O.S. Even more unnerving, the ancient Prothean beacon had similarly blinked out of existence. There was no sign of it here at the dig site, its last - and only - known location. According to Kryik, the Beacon was the size of a weapons locker and weighed hundreds of kilos. Any attempt to move it would require ample time, special equipment, and careful handling. The Beacon’s timely, conspicuous absence made Shepard’s gooseflesh prickle.

Moving slowly, resisting the urge to stare at that alien monster lurking in the clouds, Shepard slid her eyes along the two rectangular spires jutting up one side of the ruin. Tall and smooth, they pointed in perfect parallel towards the cold morning sky. Toward the bogey. Unsympathetic, she thought. The fingers of a prophet.

She’d never seen Prothean tech up close, only read about it when necessary, stumbling across a few asari university photo galleries while searching the Extranet for stupid things like: where do Keepers come from? What little she’d seen of Prothean architecture had always seemed to possess a disarming simplicity. All smooth surfaces and monolithic lines. More like sculptures than buildings or pieces of technology, Prothean artifacts were uniformly imposing, with no visible interfaces. As if their true purpose was lurking beneath.

Now, with her boots leaving print marks on a fifty-thousand-year-old ruin, Shepard felt minuscule. Wholly overwhelmed, able to touch and smell the last traces of that ancient, inscrutable space-faring civilization. For reasons she couldn’t name, a compulsion rooted in her chest and spread throughout every nerve, pulling her onward to the center of the dais, her instincts broadcasting on high alert: keep looking.

Standing there, trying to resist that call to action, she felt the way the ocean must feel when pulled by the moon. In the unearthly quiet, it almost seemed as though the smooth, glassy stones beneath her feet were calling out to her from the wrong side of a mirror, whispering with closely guarded breath in some invisible dark.

“Something’s way off,"  Alenko said, somewhere at her nine. “It can’t be a ghost town already. Where are all the bodies?”

The Lieutenant sounded far away, a distance measured in klicks, in light years. His observations drifted past Shepard’s ears, embedded in a scrambled message from another star system. She stared at the flat black stones beneath her feet. Felt as if the ground were rushing up to meet her, opening up into her, intersecting with her limbs.

The inaudible whispers grew more excited. She turned her head to listen, just a little more…

A rough hand closed around her upper arm and rattled her mercilessly.

“Commander?” Kryik said.

Thoroughly shaken, Shepard looked up. The Spectre was glaring at her, but the look was not callous. He wore his concern as an angry mask. When she met his eyes and nodded stiffly, he released her arm, satisfied.

“Sorry,” she said, shaking her head like a wet dog. “This place, it’s… I don’t know. Wrong.”

“The situation is bad,” he said, settling his shotgun back into his grip. “Keep your head on straight.”

“It’s not that,” she whispered. “We’re missing something. A big something. No bodies. No Beacon. That - thing – hanging out in the sky like some kind of watchful god. And now this hunk of stone is trying to get inside my head.” She cracked her neck, flexed the fingers on her assault rifle. “I don’t trust this at all.”

“Commander.”

It was Alenko, still at her nine. Shepard noticed he was keeping his distance from the ruin, had chosen to eye it suspiciously from the ground rather than risk approaching. He was nodding his head, agreeing.

“There should be dozens of fallen infantry down here. Quadruple that for civilians.”

On their rapid descent planet-side, Alenko had reminded Shepard and Kryik of at least two units assigned to various security details around the central colony hub. Thirty heavily armed soldiers in the 212 Weapons Platoon should have been dug in at the Prothean dig site, ready for anything with mortar squads, plus assault and machine gun divisions. The slightly smaller 232 Rifle Platoon was meant to be patrolling the space port in preparation for the Normandy’s extraction of the Beacon. To the last man, they were unaccounted for. Nearly fifty Alliance Marines MIA without so much as a trail of blood.

“According to my map, there’s a research camp just up this ridge, at the top of the ramps,” Alenko said. “Maybe there are some survivors hiding out up there.” He sounded as though he would have given anything to believe his own words.

Shepard nodded at the Lieutenant and then forced herself to step down from the dais, trying to shake off the feeling that they were being watched.

“Keep your guard up,” warned Kryik. “This is a great place for an ambush.”

The Spectre took point as the three of them carefully wound their way up the crude ramps that spiraled from the dig site. At the top of the rise, they were welcomed by a sight so gruesome that Shepard nearly gagged.

In the center of the research camp towered a mountain of empty armor. Eight feet high, stained with blood and attended by a cloud of local insects, it was a funeral mound of mismatched helmets, chest guards, and braces.

Staggered all around the hoard were rows of lofty metal spikes. They fanned out at random intervals, a razor-sharp jaw of dragon’s teeth. Answering the terrible question posed by the pile of armor, each of those glinting spires had a naked body impaled on its point.

The Marines. The colonists. Hundreds of human lives reduced to an endless field of  bodies, they hung in midair like terrible, motionless acrobats. Vivisected through the torso, their limbs dangling towards the ground, their blistered skin splitting over an internal web of alien tech, the victims scarcely looked human anymore.

Kryik didn’t make a sound, but as Shepard stepped closer to his six, she saw that his mandibles were fluttering in alarm.

Then, to her nine, Alenko slipped and cried out: “Oh God, she’s still alive!”

A patch of grass dug out under Shepard’s boot as she spun to look, sending her skidding a few inches down the rise.

Two synthetic humanoid abominations were stripping the armor from a Marine, a young, dark-haired woman who was bleeding badly from the mouth and nose. At first, Shepard thought the soldier was in a dead faint, but then she twitched, cried out with a voice already hoarse with screaming, and swung wildly at one of her captors. When her fist met the inorganic chassis of one of the creatures, the bones of her hand shattered with a wet crunch that was audible from twenty feet away.

The Marine was half-conscious, stripped to little more than a torn under-suit, and only seconds from being impaled on a spike. She didn’t seem to notice. Still fighting like hell.

Oorah.

Kryik raised his weapon, deadly intent written on his face. Clear as the chalk white of his familia notas, he meant to destroy these abominations at any cost.

“What are you doing?!” Shepard called him off, the command startling as broken glass. “You’ll take her head right off! Alenko! Fry them - NOW!”

Blink-fast, a disruptor arc flew from the Major’s omni-tool. The smaller of the two creatures was instantly overloaded, blasted back in a shower of sparks and lightning. The other lost its shields with a glitchy howl, dropping the wounded Marine.

As the Marine fell to the ground with a limp thud, she gave in to her injuries for half a breath, spitting a ragged line of blood into the grass. A second later she was moving again. She lunged for the fallen synthetic and grabbed its weapon, rolling onto her back to discharge a barrage of energy slugs that dropped the second attacker almost instantly. Clear to move, Shepard ran to the woman’s side and fell to one knee, administering a sizable dose of medi-gel.

“Thanks for your help,” the Marine said through a gritted jaw. “I didn’t think I was going to make it.”

Shepard was startled that the Marine could talk at all - her mouth was so full of blood it frothed between her teeth. Luckily, most of her injuries seemed to be superficial bleeders, non-critical blows to the face and head. As the medi-gel began to knit her skin back together, she spoke with a bit more force.

“Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the Two-Twelve. You the one in charge here, ma’am?”

Shepard nodded, once. “Commander Shepard, SSV Normandy.”

Hearing Shepard’s name, Williams stiffened and went white as a ghost.

Taken aback, Shepard studied the Marine more carefully. Looking for the usual bigotry, she found something far more confusing. Williams' dark hair, her compact stature, distinctive aquiline nose. The resemblance was uncanny. The Marine was a dead ringer for Lance Howard Williams, humanity’s first interstellar pariah, the General who had surrendered Shanxi.

Shepard didn’t remember General Williams personally. She’d been far too young. But his role in the improbable course of her life had always meant she paid extra attention to the photos of him that were shown in history class. There was one in particular that got a lot of rotation in Alliance circles: a grainy, posed image of Williams-as-traitor, stiffly shaking arms with Shepard’s pari, both of their faces empty of real expression. It had always made her skin crawl.

The odds were astronomically out of proportion, but it wasn’t the strangest thing that had happened today. Blinking away the shock, Shepard blazed on. Nothing had changed.

“Are you badly wounded, Williams? How’s your hand?”

“A few scrapes and bruises. Nothing serious. The others weren’t so lucky.”

Williams’ right fist was turning purple, a lopsided mass of flesh that had already swollen to considerable size. That she had managed to fire the synthetic’s rifle without passing out from pain was a matter of impressive fortitude, and she’d already earned Shepard’s respect several times over. Even so, she wouldn’t be holding another gun for a while, not unless she got back to Doctor Chakwas on the Normandy.

“Where’s the rest of your squad?” Shepard asked, simultaneously pinging Chakwas to prep med-bay.

“We were swarmed,” Williams said, still struggling to catch her breath. “They came from everywhere. I sent off a distress call, and I’ve been fighting for my life ever since. I don’t think any of the others-- I think I’m the only one left.”

“This isn’t your fault Williams. You’ve shown your grit today, Marine. Do you know where the Beacon was moved?”

“What do you mean, moved? It’s not at the dig site?” Shepard shook her head. “Shit. It wasn’t us. Those things must have taken it.” Williams gestured to the fallen synthetics with her swollen hand. “What in God’s name are they?”

“Geth,” said Kryik at Shepard’s three, his sub-vocals thick with ice. He was staring at the rows of impaled human victims, the gears in his brain turning with visible force.

Williams laughed humorlessly at the turian Spectre, her eyes hardening.

“Geth?” she said doubtfully, spitting more blood into the grass. “That’s not what they looked like in Xeno-Anth 101. Nobody ever mentioned the spikes.”

Alenko approached to give Williams a hand up, lifting her into a supporting carry, securing her uninjured arm behind his neck.

As he steadied her, he wondered aloud: “The geth haven’t been seen outside the Veil in nearly two-hundred years. Why are they here now? They’ve never been interested in human settlements before; why would they do any of this?”

Shepard had been wondering the same thing, but there would be time to answer those questions later.

“Alenko, the route back to the landing zone should still be clear; get Williams back to Chakwas, ASAP.” She addressed Williams directly, giving her a formal salute. “Marine, you’ve done a hell of a job surviving out here. Once Kryik and I have secured the beacon, I’ll see to it that your fallen brothers and sisters get the burials they deserve. As soon as our CMO has you patched up, deliver a full report to Captain Anderson. We need to know everything you saw here today. Godspeed.”

The black-brown cores of William’s eyes warmed, but only just. She acknowledged Shepard’s salute with one of her own, broken hand be damned.

“Aye-aye ma’am."