#made it another yr cause of em

[rocklain]

Happy sweet 16 to me!

[mythica0]

Operation:birthday takeback

🎂: Fop a new wish

🍫/🧁: N/A

Summary: after an evil party princess crashes Dev’s 10th birthday party, Hazel and her friends work to get it back. With a little help from an aquatince

A/N: so this is my rewrite of operation birthday takeback with my Self-insert Oc, Emma! Also including some events before the start of the episode. For context, she does not have her Fairy yet, she’s not close friends with Hazel or the others but they’re friendly with each other. (a link to emma’s basic info is here) Enjoy! ;3

Cw for swearing cause even 9 yr old me had a potty mouth. (I come by it honestly 🙏) Get ready for emma to absolutely ROAST Vicky, btw.

(P.S if yall wanna see more of emma let me know I’d be happy to write more of her and Ray too 🙏)

Operation: birthday takeback

Dev’s 10th birthday is today, and he invited the whole class. The party started at 3:00. It was currently 2:30 and Emma was freaking out.

“Oh no! The parties in half an hour and I haven’t left yet! I hope I’m not late!” She hurriedly finished putting on her shoes and then rushed out the door, yelling a quick goodbye to her parents.

A 10 minute walk later, Emma arrived, ringing the doorbell.

****

Dev was setting up for his birthday party. It was in about 20 minutes so he was just putting out the finishing touches, like the snacks. Then, he was startled slightly by the loud RRRIIINGGG of his doorbell.

‘That’s odd. The party hasn’t even started yet, who could that be?’ He thought, setting the napkins down and confusedly heading downstairs to open the door for whoever it was.

***

After a moment, a very confused Dev opened the door.

“Oh, hey Dev! Happy birthday! Hope I’m not late!” Emma spoke, nervously rubbing the back of her neck.

“Uh, hi Emma. No you’re not late, you’re actually early. I haven’t even finished setting up yet!”

Emma smiled nervously. “Sorry.. being late makes me anxious. Do you want me to wait outside?”

Dev was taken aback slightly. “No, no, come in.”

“I can help with the set up if you like, it’s your birthday! You shouldn’t be working!”

“Ah, you don’t have too. It’s no big deal. I’m almost done anyway.”

“Oh but I’d love to help!”

Deb rolled his eyes and sighed. Emma always wanted to help people. “Alright, you can go grab the cupcakes. They’re in the kitchen. Put em’ on the snack table upstairs once you have em.”

She smiled, eyes shimmering. “Alright! I’ll be right there!”

“There! All done!” She said, setting down the cupcakes. “Well then, we’re all set up.” Just then, another loud ring of the doorbell echoed. “Ah! And Just in time! I’ll go open the door for whoever’s here.”

——————

Hazel was the last to arrive, and after that a party princess entered. Her name was apparently Vicky.

The party went on normal for a moment, and then Vicky started being cruel. Making everyone do crafts.

After a while of just doing as she was told, Emma hesitated. ‘Why am I listening to this stupid bitch?’

“Why’d you stop! Get back to blowing balloons, twerp!

Emma looked at her incredulously. “No.”

“What do you mean no?” Vicky fumed.

“I mean. No. You too dumb to understand? Let me spell it out for you. N. O. No!”

During this conversation, Hazel gathered her friends and had them hide under the snack table.

“Did you forget that I’m the adult here?”

“No. But you’re not my boss. You can’t make me do anything. What are you gonna do, ground me? You’re not my mom!”

After a moment and an angry growl from the ‘princess’, Emma spoke once more. “Oh! And if you even think of laying a hand on me or my classmates, I’ll call the cops on you for child abuse! In fact.. i could probably do something with child labor laws for what you’ve already been doing… “

Vicky was furious. All the other kids just kept working, too scared to do anything. The friends under the table had made a plan, and were now listening to the argument. Hazel was impressed by Emma’s bravery to stand up for what was right, while Dev was impressed by her willingness to challenge authority. They wanted to wait.. see what they could do with the help of Emma’s incurred wrath.

“You listen here, Twerp! I am the boss here! And I will get you in trouble with your parents if you dare do anything.”

“Um, No, bitch.” She emphasized the swear, causing the whole room to gasp. “Did she just say a bad word?” “Yeah m parents said something about that.. I didn’t know what it was though!” “How did she know the bad words??” The kids still working whispered.

“Oh now I’m definitely calling your parents!”

“And you think that’ll do anything? Pfft, please. I’ll just tell them what you’re doing.”

“And you think they’ll believe you?! A little kid?”

“They’ll probably believe their own kid over some rando ass adult who’s throwing more tantrums than a toddler at the prospect of doing her own work. Like god, woman, get an actual life.”

There was a chorus of “OOOOOOOO” ‘s.

“SHUT UP, ALL OF YOU!” the rest of the kids hushed.

Vicky steamed and stomped her high-heeled feet. Realizing she couldn’t do anything, she angrily yelled out a “Fine! You can stop working stupid twerp!”

“Thanks. I’m soooo grateful.” Emma’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “Oh how will I ever thank you, my oh so gracious majesty? Hahahhaaa!” She mocked, laughing at her own sarcasm, walking away. She had seen movement by the snack table and had a feeling she should check it out.

She walked over there, as Vicky continued to rule her power over the rest of the kids who were too scared to do what emma did.

Then she was pulled under the table by Hazel.

“That was so cool emma!” She whispered, a humm of agreement going around.

“Yeah! I didn’t know you could even be that mean!” Jasmine exclaimed softly, pleasantly surprised.

“Oh, I have a total change in attitude when someone deserves it.”

Dev laughed. “Ahahand that curse word! How did you feel comfortable using that!”

“Oh I’ve known all the swear words since I was born, my parents have total sailor mouths! They’re kinda just normal to me.” Emma shrugged. After everyone was done congratulating Emma, they filled her in on the plan.

“I mean, I think handled her but this sounds fun so why not!”

After a series of traps, The final one was in position. They decided that since it was a small space, they would have Winn and Jazz hide under the bed, and have Emma as their back-up hiding in the back corner of the room.

After the trap went wrong, Hazel and Deb were tied up, and Vicky was about to enter the elevator with Winn and Jasmine, the backup came in to play.

“And don’t even think about escaping! Or else!”

Emma popped out of hiding to the middle of the room.

“Or else what?” She sassed, quickly breaking the ties around Dev and Hazel. ‘I feel so cool right now!’ Her thoughts echoed excitedly.

Vicky growled, releasing Winn and Jasmine, who stood there not knowing what to do.

“I’ll trap you in here!”

“….shit. Caught me there.”

Dev stayed calm, but everyone else was worried.

“How are we gonna get out of here?! The only way out is the elevator and Vicky is blocking it!”

Dev smirked. “It’s not the only way out. Come on!”

After a chase and some fighting, Dev and Hazel ended up in another room, entering through the giant statue of Dale Dimmadome. Emma, Winn and Jazz were pushed aside as Vicky chased after them.

“Dang it. I didn’t stop her..” Emma sighed.

“Hey, don’t say that! You still helped a lot! Really showed her!” Winn said, patting her on the back lightly.

“Heh, Thanks, Winn.”

——————

After Vicky rushed out the door, Emma called after her.

“And STAY OUT you Worthless, Evil Rip-off princess from wish!!”

Everyone celebrated, and left the party. Dev and Hazel had a fight, apparently, cause Dev didn’t leave the room with Hazel.

Hazel smiled for a moment at Emma as she left. “Good job today, Friend.”

Emma gasped. “Friend? We’re friends?!”

Hazel laughed a little. “Well, messing up an evil party princess is a pretty great bonding experience.”

Emma laughed too, and watched Hazel leave, the smile gone. She waited downstairs for a moment, looking up at where Dev was. She knew she had to leave so she wasn’t late getting home, but right before she left, she grabbed a napkin and a pen and wrote a little note on the table.

“Hey Dev, I don’t know what happened up there with you and Hazel, but I’m always here if you need to talk.

- love (platonically), Emma” with a little heart at the end.

Then she left and walked home. She hoped Dev would be alright. She didn’t know why, but somehow she knew that Dev was just hurting… and she wished she could do something about it.

——— THE END———————————————

[navy-leader]

DW bro *asks you about your ava hcs*

:333

Gonna give u more general hcs here

- RGBY and Second are siblings/found family. Order of age from eldest to youngest goes: Green, Blue, Yellow, Red, and Second. Yellow, Red and Second dont have that much of an age gap, prolly like 1-2 yrs thats why theyre so close. Theres a bigger gap between Blue and Yellow etc etc

- Sometimes i make Chosen and Victim twins, sometimes not, just depends on how im feeling

- The hollowheads have this weird intrinsic bond between em which i usually just call soulmate things. They take on aspects of eachother some way or another

- Additionally i have this atla reincarnation bullshit going on with victim -> chosen -> second. In which the theory further deteriorates with the fact that none of the preceding bitches Are Dead, but alas. Maybe its just leaving some form of code behind, cause there Has Got to be an explanation as to why Chosen acted that way when hes just been made (he was victim, and he Knows)

- Also less of a headcanon and more of a piece of analysis(?) is that Dark is much more of a follower (of orders or people) than youd think. She was Made for such, its still in her code. Chosen was the one who took Dark's hand to follow him into the outernet. And even though creating the virabots and planning to destroy the internet was her own actions it was still spurred on by Chosen's lead to destroy, Chosen just never properly communicated that he doesnt want to do that anymore, or that he doesnt wanna do it to stickpeople

- The mercenaries (which i like to call the rocketcule) kiss with tongue 👍

[notmuchtoconceal]

( . | . ) realhankmccoy

The alphas / yr big bros want you to act straight. Sure, you think the alpha and big bro is you -- just like every beta does. That's what makes a beta a beta. Some gamma and delta also consider themselves the big bro.

Just don't look femme or the American manbaby will go nuts and scream at you, as is his wont.

'Merica is such a silly place, and trolling it is about all you can do... as the world does.

;3( o )3; notmuchtoconceal

bro, it's awful there're so many pre-programmed attack drones out there who wanna come at families who look different.

when @flyoverkushtaka was visiting me in chicago last summer, on our last night together we were taking the red line back to our hotel at 3 AM and he fell asleep to the gentle rocking of the train and let his head glide down and rest on my big strong chest as i put my arm around him to keep him stable and supported.

must've ridden for about 5, 10 minutes just lookin at how precious he was before the gentleman across from us looked at me and said, "you keepin him safe. i like that."

gosh. it's possible he did think we were straight.

that he thought we were two straight dudes --

who liked to cuddle in public.

wouldn't be surprised. straight men long to express physical affection with one another openly. lotta straight men are prisoners of their own expectations. lotta straight men would wanna cuddle with each other in public if they thought they could get away with it.

they'd prolly wanna cuddle with gay boys in public too, if they weren't trained to see gay boys as their manufactured shadow class.

maybe he did know we were gay. maybe he didn't care. maybe he had to sorta think it over -- like the ambiguity of the situation made him decide it was best to play it safe.

maybe it's cause when i was holdin my lil bro, knowin my love for him was right, as men, as unconventional men, as human beings, something in my body language communicated the bliss and serenity of the moment and he found himself seduced by us.

maybe he was into it the whole time.

more and more i find the best way to combat the cancer of heteronormativity is to recognize it, then not think much of it.

identifying with your masculinity can be tricky if most of your role models have been shitty straight men. it can give you weird ideas like masculinity being inherently hetero and gay being inherently femme, but it's something that can be overcome with enough knowledge of yourself, your environment, higher ethics, aesthetics, tact and nerve.

to be a brother to another man is to support him and nurture him and regard him as an equal. the alpha/beta erotic roleplay shit is about recognizing who's naturally inclined to support the other in the active or receptive role, and reveling in the ecstasy of not needing to conform to social pretenses for awhile.

your identity is not a power totem.

your identity is who you are.

when you recognize who you are and act in accordance with your individual nature, you will be empowered as a consequence.

don't try to make yourself something you're not to appease frightened wrecks who lack the inclination to be themselves.

when i was ridin with lil bro back to o'hare the following day, the car we were in was packed, and i had my arm around him the whole time. he was leanin into me. wide-awake this time.

every once in awhile it occured to me this might look atypical.

it wasn't worth dwelling on.

coulda been months before i got to put my arms around my lil bro again and i didn't wanna let him go.

remember, kids at home. your oppressors want you afraid. they want you broken, needy and fixated on them so you're always half-wondering if their propagandistic distortions are true. they want you fighting amongst yourselves cause if you can keep each other down for em, you'll lose faith not only in the ones who should be your allies, but the basic decency of human beings as a whole.

you don't have to hesitate to act.

you don't have to comply half-consciously.

if you can deprogram yourself of your trauma-based conservative fear brainwashing, you can lead your body into a state of alignment with your beliefs and project something outward that commands respect, and respect translates to not getting attacked.

men have a type of power. women have a type of power. the gays have a type of power.

some gay men are men and some are girls.

some straight men are men and some are girls.

a mature and charismatic person naturally develops a degree of psychological androgyny.

just cause everyone around you is thinking in cliches, that doesn't make them true --

though you needn't point out every cliche has a grain of truth, moreso that there are countless more exceptions.

people hear one story on TV, but they can look at you and see another. you can rewrite people's expectations daily with your every action if you detach from the hype and assert your right to think your own thoughts. if you were denied your masculinity, you have every right to reclaim it just like if you were shit on for being femme, you have every right to own it.

it's not fuckin hard, kids. everyone's an individual who is also part of the group. you need to know basic self-defense to live in a world that's hostile to your existence, but if you prioritize understanding and respecting other people over covertly jockeying for position, you got a better chance of living a good and harmonious life, in part because you'll be putting yourself in better company.

[assassinscreedmiragepcdownlo]

Assassins Creed Mirage Full Version

Assassins Creed Mirage examine a stripped-back cut from the moral road Activity

Understanding the feature of Basim, a cunning block thief looking for remedies in addition to integrity when he understands the humming blocks associated with ninth-century Baghdad. By having a mysterious, old firm known as the Concealed Ones, he will be a dangerous Grasp Killer then adjustment his / her luck in ways he by no means could have visualised. - Knowledge a contemporary carry out the iconic marks and gameplay Assassins Creed Mirage PC Download that control defined a franchise with regard to 15 yr. - Parkour seamlessly with the metropolis as well as secretly take down focuses on with additional visceral assassinations than at any time ahead of. - Examine the incredibly dense along with bubbly area whose inhabitants behave near your current every travel, with learn the closets involving several one of a kind area when you opportunity with the Older Period connected with Baghdad.

Mirage have got shortened overcome, depriving off the various tools the creator inserted in Beginnings, Odyssey, and Valhalla, abandoning people with a sword and also dagger. It is possible to even accept numerous foes at once, nevertheless it is simple to be overwhelmed, and your wellness – which often doesn’t automatically regenerate – may be removed away in just a couple strikeoff. You additionally have a very fresh strike, Assassin’s Concentrate, properly a superpower, Assassins Creed Mirage PC Download but you could only utilize it if you’re unseen. By means of wearing the proper thumbstick, you can break time and objective regional foes, developing a archipelago connected with silent wipes out which participate available with the touch of your pin. Further implementing the stillness lifetime, you are able to barely recharge that another cause with undetected killings. Vision was circulated pertaining to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windowpanes, Xbox A single, plus Xbox Strings X/S about July 5, 2023.

Although there’s a single inlet inside capital in which the stream becomes color red, a persistent red foriegn to doesn’t shift while using issues eddies. Tag on the red-running gutters over the sidestreets made by clay-brick villas, along with you’ll find not an abattoir bar a absorb dyes manufacturing plant. Among policies of materials hang up as much as dry out, technicians sweat how to download Assassins Creed Mirage when they mix towel in extreme marijuanas involving coloured h2o, at times break to wash their temples. The a great arresting sight, one of the numerous which litter Ubisoft’s latest open-world stab ’em up, Assassin’s Creed Vision. The Emporer connected with Persia-inspired Deluxe Pack incorporates, amongst others, the costume, a systems adjusted and also a attach skin color.

On release, the overall game obtained normally good reviews by critics, exactly who complimented the entire world plan in addition to focus on stealth, though a few criticized the creatures with reliability with before chapters within the string. Almost every statement inside the string wide open with a reputation getting caught up within the centuries-spanning fight between The Disguise A single in addition to The Sale – soon after The Killers in addition to The Templar.

Mirage may even look like a regressive step in that it's a conscious power to help hark back to the original online game, both wearing the Midst Far east arranging and also simplified toolset. You could potentially still speak it truly is a smaller amount driven, since 2007’s Assassin’s Creed produced several capital for you to examine, and Mirage just say just one. Assassin’s Creed Origins exposed stats-laden products akin on the Witcher 3, pressing you to pick resources to update ones starts to obtain an additional 25% audio lowering upon your footsteps. It is sequel, Odyssey, appeared which has a transfer frontline from the hostilities between Athens and Sparta, putting your own fantastic out of the darknesses as well as in to large-scale struggles.

This specific Week's Prime Expression About Assassins Creed Mirage Laptop or computer Download

The wide fights of Odyssey in addition to raids involving Valhalla are reached, but also in the home is the power to retain the services of people inside area to assist you. It is a far more organic prepared for your larger-scale battle from the past sports without having stirring too much on the Assassin’s Creed objective statement. Disobeying Roshan, Basim travels in order to Alamut with Nehal, simply to obtain the castle within duress from the Order's pressures. Basim rescues numerous gotten Obscured A single along with supports them to be able to wrestle down the incident while he or she moves for the temple soon after tell Rayhan that this faculty stored within could be employed to beat the Tranquility for great.

Whenever their particular Teacher, Rayhan, understands in the Order's rapidly growing influence in Baghdad, he opts to drive a dependant of Concealed One particular for the metropolitan to examine, front by Basim and also Roshan. Knowledge the Assassins Creed Mirage PC Download house with the original Assassins with this motivating brand new narrative-driven, straight earth voyage. Upon result in the forehead, Basim becomes met back to the Suppressed 1, which usually results in Roshan to be able to step down in campaign.

And hip Valhalla, a person commanded a longboat with fortress raids, collected materials to help get bigger a town, also prepared lots of things in which don’t slide under the include to be a great assassin. Ubisoft doesn’t do away with involves with Mirage, nevertheless Assassins Creed Mirage pc download precisely what that continues far better suits in your task picture regarding “mysterious killer”. Obtain agreement on the Assassin’s bureaus, collect vital signs, in addition to stealthily pack up concentrates on with more visceral assassinations than at any time ahead of.

Even so, they are addrest through Roshan, exactly who tells that she's aware of Basim's real life and also stabs to avoid him from putting in the forehead, worrying just what the idea may awaken in Basim. Interior, he / she gets more disk-shaped artifacts[c] as well as locates that the brow used to be a prison in which the Isu Loki became stowed within sometime prior to avoiding. Basim likewise comprehends which Nehal certainly not was; both your woman in addition to the jinni become in reality depictions associated with his or her held back rams because Loki. Influence to be able to take on the kind while Loki's reincarnation, Basim "fuses" with Nehal in addition to restores their storages. In 861 CE, Basim is really a new road robber residing in Anbar regarding his childhood close friend with companion, Nehal.

[marcusrobertobaq]

Me trynna get Connor out of Hank's shadow and mfs wanting to put another bonus shadow 😂

Jokes aside CLT is the worst chapter section in the whole game imo, feels like it just doesn't fit. I think the og idea was deviancy totally proposital from the beginning, I like taking a lil bit of it but "humans started a android revolution" just doesn't, idk, I like imagining the whole droid hate caused this situation over the yrs but thinking the megacorp/Kamski planned everything is just funny and weird - and maybe realistic cuz I think that's the only way something like that would happen irl at least for now. But I personally hc they didn't create deviancy, it just happened and they didn't do anything to fix and it got out of control.

I think if u don't wanna cook your brain u should pretend CyberLife want both things: control the revolution and contain the revolution - even if it means kidnapping a known senior officer and letting a deviant Connor steal 'em AP700s from 'em HQ. If he's successful, plan B part 3, if he fail we keep plan A now part 3.

The advantage of killing the leader is the androids gonna be without a leader or with a one easier to manipulate into a war. CyberLife wants war, they even got Cristina pushing the US vs Russia conflict. It's the only reason they would kill Markus in his speech imo - and even this reason seems kinda weird cuz we'll be entering the "world domination" cliche. I must admit CyberLife top brass ain't far from that.

U see how the revolution without Markus always fails, just cuz "they made it" they're in "peace for now". We don't know the next steps. In this post successful uprising without Markus as leader I can see they being far easy to deal with, even with a military without 2/3 of the troops. Even playing the Assault on the camp u can se the androids are numbers. Without rA9 they're lost, they don't know the next step. Detroit gonna be occupied just waiting for the military to come back, I don't trust Cristina.

broke: connor should've been able to deviate on the roof with hank when choosing hank over the mission

woke: connor should've been able to deviate after failing to find jericho with high enough software instability because he is audibly and visibly afraid to die there and realizing that he fears death could lead to him realizing his victims felt the same, thus motivating him to live for the people he hurt and those cyberlife is still hurting (and likely for hank) instead of just marching back to cyberlife for deactivation

[the-good-bad-truth]

Last month, I did a post on the PR relationship of Mgk and Megan Fox. It was a really long post because there was a lot to cover. The problem is I felt I couldn’t really talk about them as Individuals and the hate and struggles each of them separately face. Today, I will be looking at Mgk and how he is constantly hated on and I want to see if it’s deserved or if people are just haters. I will be doing the same for his twin flame. Let me give you guys a brief Introduction on him and his career. He was raised in Cleveland, Ohio and lived with his aunt and father, who struggled with alcohol. His mother left his father and practically abandoned him when he was like 9. After that he would get into trouble through drugs, when he was like 11 and would be bullied. This caused him to have a strained bond w/his father and when he was like 18 he ended up moving in with his friend, Slim to help him produce a rap career. He says he would be bullied and get beat up for being a white rapper but it just made him want to work even harder. He also had to start working because he had a daughter named Cassie, who he is really close with but she lives in Ohio w/her mom. Eventually, he was signed to Bad Boy records(now also Interscope records) and would always be on tour whether in Europe, south America, or warped tour. Overall he has released 6 albums and 6 eps/mixtapes, w/ TTMD and Mainstream Sellout being his biggest albums. I think if I had to pinpoint when the mgk hate train started, I would say it would have to have been in 2018. This is when that whole Eminem beef started after Em dissed him and Mgk responded w/rap devil. As I was doing my digging about this beef it said Em was being sent a secret diss that mgk did on a song where he says “you rap your not gods” and then also tweeted it out. I think that Em dissed mgk because of a tweet where he said that Em's daughter was hot in 2012. She was 16 and mgk was 21, but he says that he didn’t know how old she was. I kind of will excuse him for that, although he probably shouldn’t have talked about someone’s daughter no matter her age. At the same time, Eminem always comes for people so, he shouldn’t be to upset when people say things about him or personal life.  Anyways, what I don’t understand about this beef is how many people were upset that mgk dissed em back after em released “Killshot”. Idk if because I’m not really knowledgeable in rap beefs/community but if someone disses you, no matter who that person is shouldn’t you diss back and defend yourself? At the end of day, this beef happened like 4 yrs ago and Em still kind of mentions mgk in his songs, but I think that both sides should just let it go and stop hating on mgk. Like it would be a movie trailer that mgk is starring in and people will be like “Eminem is the goat”. It’s like move on because if you have to comment every time mgk is mentioned at Em won, then did he really? The next time Mgk was really getting hate was when he decided to dive deeper into a more pop-punk sound. I agree that some of the songs aren’t really that good but they aren’t terrible, they are just very generic and repetitive. I also don’t think he is necessarily saving rock but he is helping it become more popular. Think about it, music isn’t shared or sold as it once did where you had to sell through Cds. Now, it’s more through social media, especially with tiktok. I think Mgk knows this and that’s why he makes the songs sound more fun, easy to learn (lyric and instrument wise), and something young people will actually want to pay to listen to. I also somewhat agree when people say that he is profiting or romanticizing toxic topics and the Goth/emo community.( Megan fox isn’t an emo girl or Goth.) However, how is that any different to when rock bands will sexualize women or talk about death and drugs, he’s just doing it with a fun guitar melody. Another thing is people say he is trying to copy Mac Miller or Lil Peep all because he dyed his hair pink and talks about his struggle with depression and drugs. I think it was last year, he went on a podcast where his words were taken out of context like they usually are. He was talking about how he went on warped tour and he saw the bands were wearing comfortable shoes. After that clip was released, bands were coming out and saying how he was disrespectful and that they would sleep in vans, practically starve and he doesn’t know what that feels like cuz he’s rich. The thing is Mgk was at Warped tour, he also struggled and he’s always had a rock edge to him. I think that they didn’t understand what he was saying, he wasn’t dissing the rock community or the bands that actually work hard. He was talking about how the idea of a “rockstar” has gone stale and that bands don’t know how to balance being talented/relatable while also knowing how to put on a show and make rock fun. In a way, he was saying what the older rock bands were saying but when he says it he’s an idiot. One person who misunderstood this was Slipknot's frontman, Corey Taylor. To look at this “feud”, let’s go to where it started. When Mgk was working on TTMD, Travis and him wanted Corey to do vocals on the song, “Can’t look back”. Corey agreed and did the vocals but Mgk had some notes for Corey. I think that Corey got defensive because he probably felt that Mgk was criticizing him when all Mgk wanted was to have HIS song to sound the best it could. Corey ended up backing out and I guess later Corey saw the small already misinterpreted clip of comfortable shoes and decided then in an interview basically called Mgk a poser. Here’s the thing about Corey and how the Rock media likes to treat him where there are so many thumbnails where they always ask Corey what he thinks of new music, topics, rock’s future etc. I think that this is the media’s and fan’s fault because they like to make things a bigger deal than they are. Anyways, Mgk defended himself  and called Slipknot “50 year old dudes in weird masks”. I guess slipknot fans got upset and then Corey posted the emails, but by then Mgk was already annoyed that he responded with insults. This only made it worse for mgk and people started bringing up the em stuff again. I also think that Corey’s reasoning was that he was defending rock music and only did it because of what mgk said about comfortable shoes. Another funny thing is that Corey said that mgk failed and switched genres but didn’t Corey try to rap in this one country/rock song. Look it up, it's called “Live the madness” with Moonshine Bandits,(It also sounds a lot like mgk’s song w/Kid Rock called “Bad MotherFucker) but that could just be me, go find it and judge for yourselves. Overall, people like to hate on Mgk for everything and they will stop at nothing. This might just be to cancel culture, but they like to dig up old 2012 tweets of Mgk and call him a creep and racist. I don’t think he is, although he probably should have just kept those tweets to himself and they were really stupid things for him to say. Idk if people know that in 2020, Mgk was in the streets protesting, handing out water & snacks and said that if any fan of his didn't agree that people should be treated fairly regardless of skin color then they should stop listening to his music and he wouldn’t care. I think recently he said that he’s going to move forward and create a diff sound for rap/hip hop but people think he’s quitting rock. I think it’s because people don’t understand that you can do more than one genre and combine genres. Overall, I feel that he’s misunderstood and is a constantly punching bag for the media. With his relationship w/Megan, it helps him getting praise but it’s fake because once they break up people are going to clown and hate on him. He is being called toxic for the things she chooses to say and his music and work are being constantly overshadowed by the hate and his relationship.

[dcbutinamrev]

Top five Lams letters!

Okay, okay. I'm either A) gonna type out the whole entire letter cause I have most of em memorized or B) just simply type out like a paragraph or two from it. Idk. But my top 5 favorites are these:

1) Alexander Hamilton to John Laurens, Middlebrook NJ, April '79:

Cold in my professions, warm in my friendships, I wish my dear Laurens, it might be in my power by actions rather than words. I shall only tell you until you bade us adiue. I hardly knew the value you had taught my heart to set upon you. Indeed my friend, it was not well done. You know the opinion I enterain of mankind and how much it is my desire to perserve myself free from particular attachments, and to keep my happiness independent on the caprice of others. You should not have taken advantage of my sensibility to steal into my affections without my consent. But as you have done it and as we are generally indulgent to those we love, I shall not scruple to pardon the fraud you have committed, on condition that for my sake, if not for your own, you will always continue to merit the partiality, which you have so artfully instilled into me.

2) John Laurens to Alexander Hamilton, Charles Town SC, July '79:

Ternant will relate to you how many struggles I have had between duty and inclination--how much my heat was with you, while I appeared to be most actively employed here—but it appears to me that I shd be inexcusable in the light of a Citizen if I did not continue my utmost efforts for carrying the plan of black levies into execution, while there remains the smallest hope of success. Our army is reduced to nothing almost by the departure of the Virginians; Scots arrival3 will scarcely restore us to our ancient number; if the Enemy destine the Reinforcements from G. B. for this quarter, as in policy they ought to do, that number will be insufficient for the security of our country. .... Clinton’s movement and your march in consequence, made me wish to be with you; if any thing important shd. be done in your quarter while I am doing daily penance here, and making successless harangues, I shall execrate my Stars—& be out of humour with the world.

3) Alexander Hamilton to John Laurens, Morristown NJ, March '80:

In spite of Schuylers black eyes, I have still a part for the public and another for you; so your impatience to have me married is misplaced; a strange cure by the way, as if after matrimony I was to be less devoted than I am now. Let me tell you, that I intend to restore the empire of Hymen and that Cupid is to be his prime Minister. I wish you were at liberty to transgress the bounds of Pensylvania. I would invite you after the fall to Albany to be witness to the final consummation. My Mistress is a good girl, and already loves you because I have told her you are a clever fellow and my friend; but mind, she loves you a l’americaine not a la françoise.

Adieu, be happy, and let friendship between us be more than a name.

4) Alexander Hamilton to John Laurens, Morristown NJ, March '80:

Have you not heard that I am on the point of becoming a benedict? I confess my sins. I am guilty. Next fall completes my doom. I give up my liberty to Miss Schuyler. She is a good hearted girl who I am sure will never play the termagant; though not a genius she has good sense enough to be agreeable, and though not a beauty, she has fine black eyes—is rather handsome and has every other requisite of the exterior to make a lover happy. And believe me, I am lover in earnest, though I do not speak of the perfections of my Mistress in the enthusiasm of Chivalry.

and finally

5) Alexander Hamilton to John Laurens, Albany, August '82:

Peace made, My Dear friend, a new scene opens. The object then will be to make our independence a blessing. To do this we must secure our union on solid foundations; an herculean task and to effect which mountains of prejudice must be levelled!

It requires all the virtue and all the abilities of the Country. Quit your sword my friend, put on the toga, come to Congress. We know each others sentiments, our views are the same: we have fought side by side to make America free, let us hand in hand struggle to make her happy.

Remember me to General Greene with all the warmth of a sincere attachment.

Yrs for ever,

A. Hamilton

(Take that last one as a hint to figure out how you think Yrs. Forever will end for those who are on the third book)

[thekidultlife]

100 Things I Learned About Love | Vernon!Android AU

Pairing: Hansol Vernon Chwe x female!reader

Genre: SCI FI!! Action, Romance, Angst(?)

Word Count: 22.2k (yes another giant fic)

Warnings: A bit of death and gore

A/N: Well, I’m gonna say sorry first to the anon who requested a vernon android au when we were just starting this blog (like three yrs ago) and I only managed to finish it now;; 

So this fic is a continuation (and is in the same universe) of the Jihoon Android AU The Coldest Human; The Warmest Robot. It is primarly inspired by the book “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick and the anime “Beatless”. This one here has also elements from Huxley’s “A Brand New World” (because I just love reading dystopian novels for some reason). I kind of mashed everything together to create the world! 

This will be the 2nd part of a four part series! Next would be Soonyoung’s story and then finally Joshua’s! This series kind of explores the whole world I created for it. Jihoon’s story introduced the whole world and the relationship between android and creator, while Hansol’s story explores the world of bounty hunters! I still haven’t decided fully with what to do with the rest but I hope you enjoy this one!!

Tag List: @haotheheckk, @smthingabtlove!! (because they asked to skskks)

If mornings had any color, it would be a disgusting green. Afternoons, electric orange. Midnights, as dark as crude oil. Cities were built upon lines of flickering yellow, as streets were colored with the void of space; dark, desolate, and meaningless.

Society is tinted with the same shades of emptiness. Dressed in uniform white body suits—hair covered entirely as it was deemed unhygienic—only the face bore the resemblance of the classic human being, as if it was a mask. Serene smiles and polite gestures were exchanged almost to a hundred times; laughter was hollow and chemically induced, as with tears and frowns. Frivolity and superficiality were the main trends. 

As what they appear to be, is what they are actually are.

Welcome to the West Martian colony!

“Here ya go. The case’s now yours, doll,” your boss tossed a folder filled with papers on the polyester table. “Choi quit a few days ago after retiring Woozi.”

Your head perked up immediately as soon as you heard the news; disbelief painted on your face.

“What? Why?” you asked, standing up with mouth agape. He was one of your idols, your role models; the reason why you went into this line of work.

“He’s not talkin’, doll. Sadly. Told me it’s personal. But can’t blame him really, this business is gettin’ old.”

Your boss with his thinning hair and scotch-tapped broken glasses, sipped from a coffee stained mug; seemingly too overused for years of constant coffee drinking.

Yet you loved this place—this pseudo-police department home to bounty hunters of West Mars, with its crumbling brittle plastic window blinds and its moldy paper odor—all a different world than that of the city around it. You loved how it was like something straight from an Earth comic book; classic, rustic, and homey; a sheer contrast to the minimalist style of the new century.

“So what do we have here? Some andy from the Orion branch?”

A finger flipped through the factsheet with brows raised and lips in a tiny pout as you scanned the information laid before you. There were several official photographs of the unit after it was made, but none were security cam shots.

“So, from the organization…SVT-class Type-12 Vernon. The name’s too Western.”

Your boss shrugged. “The org’s just pastin’ names on their andys like butter on bread, dolly.”

“Guess so. But this Vernon just looks someone my age,” you remarked, munching on the biscotti within your arm’s reach.

“It’s an andy, YN. A hundred years, and it’ll still look the same. Now off ya go, better start retiring ‘em or you’re gonna get retired first.”

Sighing, you stood up and brushed the crumbs off your skinny jeans. Bending over, you picked up your briefcase filled with a laser gun and a V-T scale equipment as you bid your boss a short goodbye.

In reality, you didn’t want to leave the home base.

One particular reason was that you’d be taking the hovercraft and start cruising around the godforsaken city, not that it believes in any god for as long as you could account for. The city was an abomination, a stubborn mulish creation born out of rejection of the old, ancient ways—ways that had led to the destruction of the Earth, ways you still hold on to despite migrating to Mars. Despite being physically present, and even born in the red planet, you knew your heart was still back on Earth. You were proud to be to be human, with ancestry from the noble home planet, and everything which diminishes humanity is your enemy.

—you paused.

Lips parted, eyes transfixed.

A thousand snowflakes suspended on the air as if you were in a colony-sized snow globe. You continued to wonder, because you had never before seen snow in its truest, purest form, and everything you knew about them was from data gathered on Earth.

You removed your glove to touch one floating. It was cold, you shivered. However, it did not melt as you expected it to be as it only glistened against the dark backdrop of the city night like holographic particles.

“What the—!”

As if deliberately cutting you off, the hovercraft swiveled across the air, its power flickering on and off until it was unable to balance itself, swerving up and down across the night sky. You held on to the metal rails, as the turbulence brought you to your knees, the alarm systems of the vehicle blaring on your ears.

“Fucking hell…!” You cursed, grabbing your laser gun as the vehicle plunged you towards the empty streets of the city. Fortunately enough, you were trained to encounter these sorts of problems and thus, you were able to jump towards the nearest rooftop before the hovercraft exploded upon impact to the asphalt road.

Sighing, you watched the flames burn plastic and metal as if you couldn’t believe what you had just experienced. Well, of course it was unbelievable. So far, the only adventure you had experienced in your whole life was your day-to-day job of ‘retiring’ andys, which could get a bit messy but those were on balmier days. Normally, it wouldn’t get pass you to laser a hole on an andy’s head, but if you’re doing it like ten to twenty times a week, it could get boring.

Bam—!!

Your thoughts were placed in a halt as several other hovercrafts continued to fall from the sky like shooting stars, except that people could get killed. But havoc proceeded as it did, where lines of self-driving cars suddenly powered on and chased after human beings who had heard the crash and checked what had happened.

“What the fuck is happening?” you whispered, eyes peering on the alley beneath you. Hopping on several rooftops and sliding down the gutter towards the ground, you cautiously approached the main road, seeing if there was anyone who was in trouble. Luckily, there wasn’t anyone loitering around at this hour anymore.

You checked your intercom for any news or announcements from your home base or from the AI government, yet there was none. As it were, your intercom was actually having trouble projecting a hologram or following any of your commands seemingly halfway hacked.

“Dammit, I couldn’t get hold of HQ,” you grumbled, running towards a nearby police android to alert its human command center. “Hey, could you get in touch with your district station? It’s getting chaotic here.”

Yet the android only stared at you, its eyes blank as if you were a mere holographic image. The artificial smile on its face, which was made to comfort humans interacting with it, seemed more sinister than welcoming. The prolonged silence causing your heart to thump in anxiety.

“Hey? You heard me? Tell the—”

“Hi there. I’m Akiro. What can I do to help you?” It’s human voice making shivers crawl down your skin.

“I said, alert the district station! Haven’t you detected the level of violence—”

“Hi there. I’m Akiro. What can I—Hi there. I’m Akiro—Akiro—Hi—Hi there. H-H-H-Hi-i-i-i—”

The malfunction was obvious in its speech. It wasn’t unusual for an android to malfunction but when it began moving closer and closer to you, you took a step back, dread treading on your spine. Androids made you uneasy as humans once felt ill at ease with clowns—its artificial expressions making its lack of a soul even more prominent, triggering your fight or flight response.

It continued to move towards you until a snowflake dropped on its head, stopping as if it was suddenly glued to the ground. You hesitantly walked closer to it, inspecting its dead eyes to see if it had returned to normal. Raising an arm, you reached for its control box hidden behind its neck.

It grabbed your wrist, without warning. You gasped and began struggling to release yourself from its vice grip, yet you knew how strong androids were.

“Fuck it!”

“Hi there—Hi—I’m A-A-A-Aki-Akiro,” the android continued talking as if its movements were controlled by a remote system.

You moved to reach for your laser gun at your back pocket but the android was swift enough to twist your arm in a lock on your back. It pushed you to the ground as you grit your teeth at the scrapes on your knees and elbows, but you couldn’t break free.

“What can I do to help you?”

You groaned. “Maybe letting go of my fucking arm?”

Gathering your wits, you pushed yourself off the ground, rolling sideways and then kicking the android who was thrown off-balance with your two feet. As it fell to the ground, you grabbed your laser gun and without hesitation, pulled the trigger to blast off its processor.

As the headless android dropped to the asphalt, you sighed in relief as the adrenaline continued to pump into your veins, breathing heavily from all the action. You didn’t understand why the android was behaving out of its initial program and attacking you, a human, who it was supposed to protect.

While you were resting, the glaring headlights of a self-driving car were flashed towards your direction.

Disoriented, you froze to the ground as you tried to make do of your situation and surroundings. However, just like the android, the car sped right towards you in its maximum speed, as if it was trying to kill you. As soon as you heard its tires screech, you willed yourself to move away as the car missed you in just a few centimeters—throwing you to the ground and slammed itself towards the nearby wall.

Without even letting you take a breath, an arm was encircled around your neck, making you unable to breathe; its grip tightening gradually. Two other androids—one a police android, the other a personal helper—faced you with their blank stares as if they were zombies ordered to kill any human on sight.

The helper android had your laser gun on its possession as it slowly aimed it on your head. Panic rose as you tried to remove the arm locking you in place. Mentally, you were cursing at how you had underestimated the situation and let yourself die under the hands of goddamn androids.

Silently, the android pulled the trigger and you braced yourself for impact.

Except it didn’t come.

Your eyes were forced open when you heard the sound of metal dropping to the ground. What you saw had your eyes widen in astonishment as another small disk stuck itself on the police android’s head and split it into individual pieces. In a few seconds, you were dropped onto the ground, choking on your knees as the pieces of the android holding you fell into heaps next to you.

“Are you okay?”

A warm voice asked as a hand was offered to you. You looked up to see doe-like eyes gazing at you with a curious but a worried expression. His slightly curly caramel colored locks fell to his forehead softly as if it were made of the finest materials.

You nodded silently, still stunned by everything happening around you.

When you didn’t take his hand, the mysterious man carried you on his back as he walked you away from the site. While you were being carried, you noticed how he was ‘destroying’ the approaching rogue androids with a disc-like device which would stick on their skin and eventually ‘disassembling’ them to several parts.

“W-who are you…?” you finally asked, your voice returning despite still being painful.

Grabbing another disk from his pocket, the guy hurled it towards an incoming self-driving car which had it stopping, its parts detaching themselves automatically.

“I’m called Hansol. The snowflakes are nanobots which hacks the AI in androids and cars and drives them into killing humans. Unfortunately, I don’t have the capabilities to stop it,” he replied, his voice kind of removed, which had you wondering if he was an android or not. “Though I think Jihoon can.”

“Then…this…this will all continue?” you asked unbelievingly. You didn’t want it to continue, of course. More people would die and you still weren’t sure to what extent the casualties are because of this sudden outbreak.

“The snowflakes will lose its power when its controller is far away. So far, Joshua is already gone from this area.”

“Joshua? An android?”

“Yeah. SVT-class Type-03 Joshua. We came here together, and I tried to convince him out of it, but he wants to test out his abilities.”

Having enough evidence, you pushed yourself away from Hansol and landed safely on the ground with an abhorrent look on your face.

Aiming your laser gun at him, you shouted. “You’re an android too, aren’t you?”

Hansol simply gazed at you with his piercing eyes—tempting you to retract your accusation.

“Yes, I am. SVT-class Type-12 Vernon,” he replied, then looking down on the ground as he scratched his nape. “I like the name Hansol better though, so I want to be called Hansol from now on.”

You grinned. Your prey presented itself right in front of you without you giving an ounce of an effort.

“I’m supposed to retire you, you know?” you remarked, still aiming the gun at him. “And I will.”

Hansol stared at you with a frown on his lips, obviously disliking the fact that he was about to ‘die’ tonight. In fact, he didn’t want to die. He had a lot of things he wanted to do, so many questions yet unanswered.

“I’m…I…I don’t know how to plead. The data is incomplete in the cloud, but, um…don’t shoot me…please,” Hansol replied as he raised his arms.

You were obviously taken aback by his plea. You couldn’t count how many androids begged for their lives because there were none. He was the first one who ever did it.

Shaking thoughts of doubt, you tried to reason with yourself.

Androids don’t plead. They escape. Kill.

The most efficient way out is what they do.

“How am I supposed to believe you?” you shouted back; your finger threatening to press on the trigger. “You might be using analog hack for all I know.”

He scratched his nape again, unable to give an appropriate answer. “Well…I guess I could only ask you to trust me.”

You laughed sarcastically. You have never seen an android use deception so badly.

“If that’s too much to ask, then I guess this is it,” he continued, looking at you again straight into the eyes with his evocative gaze.

You just couldn’t believe what you were hearing. For all the years you spent hunting androids, never had you encountered one who had basically given up without any chase or struggle, especially from one who had every capability to squash you like an ant. You couldn’t help the itch to ask.

“Why? Why give up?”

Hansol shrugged, his gaze on the yellow lines outlining the faraway city buildings. “If I fight back, I will hurt you. I don’t want to hurt you.”

You gazed right into his eyes for a moment, trying to gauge the truth in his words, trying to calculate if he was using analog hack against your weakness as a human being. You dislike androids but never had you seen one like him.

“How should I know that?” you shouted again; laser gun still aimed at him. “Using tricks like reverse psychology…I’ll give you an A+ for creativity.”

“I’m not lying,” the android instantly replied. “If you have to kill me, then there is nothing I could do. I made a vow to myself never to hurt humans because that’s the right thing to do. I don’t want to see anyone suffer because of what I did. For some reason, it pains me as well.”

If only you could see how wide your eyes were, or how your lips parted in disbelief the moment you heard him. It almost gave you goosebumps. The air that hung underneath his every word felt so real and heavy that you would have never thought it was uttered by a mere android.

Androids and morality? Fucking hell…who would’ve thought you’d string those words together in the same sentence.

He was more human than most people living in the city. An android—known for their lack of soul; born only to be enslaved by their own programming; without their own thoughts, their own convictions.

But here is one in front of you, willing to die for his own principles; saying it pains him to see you hurt. That is not what androids do. Not in a million years.

What the hell is he then?

You threw your arms up in the air and tucked the laser gun in its holster as you made one big, ugly groan.

“Oh fine! Fuck it! I give up!”

Whether or not he will run away or he will kill you, you didn’t care anymore. It was a risk. You blame your biological flaw to see human traits in objects if he ever did harm you, but whatever, you decided to trust him.

With a small smile and a tiny huff, Hansol walked towards you slowly.

Heart hammering against your chest, you were deathly afraid that he might twist your neck or blast a hole through your chest. You couldn’t be so sure with these androids.

As soon as he had reached you, Hansol placed a hand on top of your head; your eyes squeezed tightly shut as if trying to brace for something bad coming. Yet as soon as you felt his hand, you opened your eyes and gave him a quizzical look.

He only smiled.

“Thank you for trusting me.”

The following morning was the same as ever. Except, not.

“—last night which appears to be a massive AI hack on neighboring Sectors 3, 4 and 7—“

With eyes heavy and a cup of coffee, you pressed another button.

“—71 people dead and more than a thousand injured, hospitals are in full capacity as of the moment—“

Another press of a button.

“—and take a deep breath. Happiness is found within Mercer as we continue to ascend up on the hill—“

“What a load of crap,” you muttered, turning to another channel. It was still six in the morning and you were already in a painfully awful mood. It could’ve been easily fixed with a Penfield Mood Organ but that was another can of shit you’d rather not touch with a ten-foot pole.

“—Mrs. Kim?”

You hadn’t caught on with what the news anchor was asking Mrs. Kim, but you could already take a gander that it was definitely about last night.

“My husband…He was just…he was truly a hero,” Mrs. Kim answered, wrecked by staggered sobs and sniffling of noses. You continued to watch, wondering what had happened to Mr. Kim—crushed by a car? Ran down by a flaming rogue hovercraft? Murdered by an andy?

“Your husband a hero, Mrs. Kim?” The interviewer repeated, coaxing the other for details. You waited for the dramatic reply after Mrs. Kim had settled herself down from the crying fit she was having.

“Yes…someone was stealing our ducks last night—“

You paused.

“During the whole chaos?”

“Yes, sir,” she sniffed and you rolled your eyes. “He—he tried protecting them yet they murdered him! Those bunch of foul-hearted bastards! Our ducks! Our Muscovy ducks…they were fifty grand a piece—“

You switched the TV off, now more tired and irritated than you were when you had turned it on about an hour ago. If you were asked to name one trend which just tasted like shit to you, that would probably be the current craze over owning animals. The whole Mercerism thing was only running second to that.

“I, uh…made some pancakes,” a foreign but familiar voice interrupted your thoughts, making you turn your head towards the doorway. With your eyes set upon Vernon, or Hansol, as he liked to be called, you instantly recalled what had happened last night.

You wondered if your brain disappeared that time or your common sense simply deteriorated because there was no way you would let a half-a-million-dollar bounty money just run free. Not to mention that he has all the capabilities to decapitate you in a millisecond.

Inwardly groaning, you gave him a small glance as he waited for your response with sheer curiosity. At least he followed you to your apartment and now you have a free housekeeper.

But that was last night, this was today. You can certainly do something about it, but you weren’t really in the mood for it. A headache was threatening to split your brain into half and racking your brain about the moralities and the whys of your decision last night wouldn’t really help anyone.

“Oh, right, right,” you replied absentmindedly, removing yourself from the cover of your flannel blanket and walked towards the dining room of the small apartment your meager earnings could afford.

It was a simple place. White walls, dirty carpet, and a worn-out sofa which had seen better days. Kitchen was slightly okay—the once white tiles now yellowed with age; the grout covered in black mold of unknown origin. The view was horrendous; covered up by dark globs of factory shadows and the ever-present rumbling of the monorail as it passes by.

Being a bounty hunter wasn’t exactly a glamorous job. It wasn’t like you were the police, who, as a matter of fact, are now mostly made up of androids. A bounty hunter does the nitty-gritty jobs the police wouldn’t do; such as hunting androids. Yet you liked this job. Even if it was stupidly exhausting.

Settling on your chair, you gazed at the expertly done pancakes and bacon, sending wonderful scents of home to your senses. You wondered why you had never thought of getting a helper android for yourself with how convenient they are, yet considering the fact that one helper was an inch away of killing you last night, it was better that you hadn’t.

“I hope you like them,” Hansol said, placing a bottle of maple syrup on the table. “I searched the cloud and it says you liked pancakes and bacon.”

Awkwardly, you nodded at him and then looked down on the piping hot breakfast on your table. You continued to gaze at it, the burnt patterns on the pancake beginning to take form of an image in your head, and then back at Hansol who was just standing at the side.

“You don’t like it?” he asked, as soon as he noticed the blank look on your face, curious if the cloud made some mistake.

“N-no! It’s…it’s fine,” you replied, waving your hands to and fro. “I just, um…are you just going to stand there?”

Hansol raised his brows at your question, his doe eyes widening just a bit. “Ah, me? Yeah. Isn’t this the right way?”

“The right way?” you asked, your forehead creasing.

“Yeah, the right way. I’m an android so I can’t sit with you. I heard from the cloud.”

“Why not?”

Hansol shrugged, the kitchen towel in his hands hanging. “Heard it’s inappropriate according to human table etiquette. Besides I don’t need to eat and I don’t really get tired.”

Sighing, you rolled your eyes at his response. “Human standards, what a load of bull. You just standing there makes me uncomfortable. So, you either sit down or you scram.”

You could tell that he was definitely taken aback, and began wavering if he should follow you or not. In the end, Hansol was forced down on the chair in front of you with a nervous look, awkward in his seat as you continued to stare at him.

Finally acknowledging that everything was alright, you began to drip maple syrup on your pancakes. The android was only watching you and your actions—very typical android behavior; gathering data from its surroundings.

“So, you’re Hansol?” you began, slicing through the three-tiered pancake tower with a knife.

“Yeah. Vernon is my model name, but I want to go by my own name.”

You raised your brows at him, biting into a forkful of food. “Cool. You picked that name on your own?”

“Yeah. It was the name of a musician I liked, so I took it.”

“Oh,” was the only thing you could say, because deep inside your head, you were already in a state of confusion.

For all the years working as a bounty hunter, this was the first time you’ve ever seen an android want to name himself after a musician he liked. Hell, this was your first time seeing an android have preferences. Usually, they would reflect the preferences of the human being they were talking to, but you haven’t even said anything about yourself to him other than your name.

No. He probably accessed the cloud or something. Androids of his caliber usually have better access to the place data miners dump people’s personal information.

Is this how advanced the Nexus 9 really is? If so, this could potentially cause a stir among bounty hunters. If they can’t identify their prey, things could potentially end up disastrous.

“You do know I’m assigned to retire you? Or kill you, to be exact. Not sure why we’re still using euphemism towards damn machines but whatever,” you pushed on, curious of how he would respond, thinking if there was anything more to the Nexus 9.

“Yeah, you told me last night,” he replied immediately and at the most flippant way; as if he wasn’t talking about being killed by the person in front of him.

“And…you’re not worried?” you asked, eyeing him up and wondering what was currently running in his processor. “I could just whip out my laser gun and fire a hole through your head while I eat this pancake, you know?”

Hansol leaned his head to the side, looking as if he was trying to process an answer to your question.

“I’m not worried. I mean, if you wanted me dead, you would’ve done it already,” he replied, as a matter-of-fact.

“What if I’m just too lazy to do it today? I could do it any other day I want, any time I want, and the thing is, you robots can’t even predict it with your fancy algorithms,” you smirked at him, your prejudice against androids showing through.

Yet even with your provocations, Hansol remained calm.

“It doesn’t matter. The fact that you haven’t done it yet means a lot to me. That’s why I trust you.”

At his answer, you simply frowned; unamused that he rebutted you with a good response and by the time he replied, you had already ran out of rocks to throw at him. So, in the end, you simply scoffed and finished your pancake, leaving him by the dining table with an irate glare.

Hansol watched your retreating back as he began to clean up the mess on the table. He was truly being honest with his words—he trusted you, and if he dies at your hands, well, that was it. Even though he didn’t really want to think of that possibility.

It was strange that the thought of you betraying his trust hurt more than the thought of dying.

“I’m going to work now. Don’t even think about leaving this place,” you told him as soon as you returned from the bedroom, all geared up. “There are other bounty hunters out to get you, and I don’t want them to get my bounty money.”

Silently, Hansol nodded as he saw you pick up your work equipment and your laser gun in a manner that seemed routine. Before you took another step further however, you stared into his eyes, thinking, pondering what you were about to do.

Slowly, you raised your arm and allowed the laser gun on your hands to unfold, pointing towards his direction. You saw the crosshairs between his doe-like eyes—an image you frequently saw seconds before you blow a hole through an andy’s processor. A decision made in a fraction of a second can ultimately change your life—that if you simply pressed the trigger within your grasps, Hansol would no longer move, or talk, or look at you with evocative gazes.

At that moment, you had all the power between “life and death”, as he unquestioningly relinquished it all to you by simply standing there in his spot in front of the kitchen counter.

Hansol felt himself tense up despite his calm exterior. He could already see it, just after thinking about the possibility, yet he never thought reality felt more painfully sharp than his thoughts were.

Your fingers brushed against the trigger. Just one press and he will be gone and you will be rich. Just another day as a bounty hunter. Could you do it?

You sighed.

In the end, you lowered your gun and turned to the other direction as if nothing had happened.

“I’ll be late for work,” you simply remarked, more to yourself than to anyone and then left him there in the kitchen, still stunned. You wondered if your shoulders felt burdened because of the heavy gun or because of the decision you just made.

Quick footfalls echoed across the dreary hallway.

The place stunk like hospital antiseptic and muriatic acid; matching the dim-lit atmosphere illuminated by only a few incandescent bulbs hanging every two meters. There were glass windows every so often, and if you took your time to peer through, you would see rows and rows of human-sized cylinders filled with a greenish liquid; all connected by wires the size of your torso to a place you simply assumed was the power supply.

“What an ironic place to hide for an andy,” you remarked as you looked around. Your partner this time, by the name of Morrison, scoffed amusingly at your comment.

“Who would’ve guessed they’re in a fertilization plant?”

You frowned. “What a gloomy place to be born in.”

Exactly as the name suggested, fertilizations plants ‘manufacture’ children. While that is as disgusting as you thought it was, that is the reality of the world you live in. While there are a few rare exceptions, people no longer have sex—it was too animalistic, too impure of an act to participate in.

Thus, the solution to a declining population is just to make babies just like how factories make your easily reproducible mug sitting on your kitchen counter. You couldn’t even deny the awful truth that you were made in one of these factories (you know, just like your mug). And more disappointingly, there was truly no ethical problem, because the world today only worships one god: Purity, in its coldest and most cruel manifestation.

In the end, aren’t we simply androids as well? Just made up of blood and guts?

“So? Have you caught on to that SVT andy yet?”

Morrison suddenly asked, dragging you back from your inner thoughts. You took a double take.

“The what—?”

“The SVT-class andy,” he clarified, “you know, the Vernon one.”

The mere mention of his model name made you purse your lips in annoyance. If only you could say that he was in your apartment doing some arbitrary thing an android would do if they were left alone.

“Still nothing. I was supposed to do an initial search last night but after being caught in all that chaos, I just went straight home,” you lied, having no choice. There was no way you would let everyone know you have something worth half a million bucks in your dingy, totally unsecure apartment.

“Well, no one could have it easy with these military grades. They’re craftier than your average andy after all,” he shrugged, giving you a pat on the shoulder. “Remember when Choi Seungcheol took almost three months to locate SVT-class Woozi? Man, I could still remember coming with him to a dozen places just to look for leads.”

As soon as Morrison reminisced memories with the former chief, you feel a bit heavy hearted. You did look up to him as your hero.

“You ever knew why he left?” you asked.

Morrison only shrugged. “Some say he just got tired of this awful job. Some say he was getting married. Most of them are just gossip anyway.”

You only sighed. “I guess we might never know the truth.”

“C’mon! Choi wouldn’t want you depressed! Straighten those shoulders! We have an andy to face!” your partner smiled, again giving a strong shove on your back. “Today’s just a commercial grade escapee. It wouldn’t be that hard. Peyton had it already detained and ready for questioning.”

Sucking in a huge amount of air and exhaling loudly, you prepped yourself up for some wonderful, heart-palpitating action.

“Alright! Let get it!”

As soon as the both of you entered the room, which was definitely a locker room prepared by the factory staff for your visit, you could already see the subject sitting quietly in front of a steel table; a dim white bulb only giving light to the gloomy room. It was definitely a classic cult-style interrogation room you’ve seen in vintage silent films.

“Good day to you sir,” Morrison greeted as he set his fedora on top of the table and prepped his V-T scale. “I am Agent Will Morrison. You are under suspicion of being an android and we will be administering this test to confirm it or not.”

“I told him so many times already! I’m being framed! The manager hates me and he’s been spreading those rumors!” the man screamed, his face heavy with fear and anxiety.

“We’ll see. If that’s the truth, then there’s no need to worry,” you retorted back with a clipped tone.

You then placed your hands on his shoulders, asking him to wear specialized VR glasses and then carefully arranging the electrodes attached to a spectrometer on his face.

“Settle down now. You don’t want to affect the test results, right?”

At your cleverly concealed threats, the man stopped his outbursts and looked at you in fear. You simply smiled at him before giving Morrison the go signal.

Identifying and hunting androids almost every single day of your life, you couldn’t even count in your head how many times they went for this flimsy cover-up story. They probably thought they were being clever or something.

“So, Jonathan West, age 35 and working as a plumber in one of Sector 3’s fertilization plants, correct?”

“Yes, sir,” the man replied, unbeknownst to him, the test was already starting.

“You are accused as the android who committed the Palmaide Apartment murders wherein six people were discovered to be brutally murdered and then embedded inside the concrete walls of the apartment.”

“Sir! I’m not android! Please believe me! I have a wife and two kids….! I-I can’t possibly be the murderer!”

You slid unnoticed under the shadows beside Agent Peyton, although still nearby enough to the subject that it would be easy to subdue it down if it goes berserk.

Watching the test being conducted for the nth time, you could easily claim to have memorized all hundred and fifty questions in the questionnaire.

Most questions are practically the same—asking how you would react to certain and usually gruesome scenarios—all designed to gauge micro-expressions and reactions. It is a common belief that androids do not have these sophisticated and almost undetectable movements on your face. Hence, the electrodes.

“I want you to immerse yourself in a certain situation,” you could hear Morrison speak as he turned on the virtual reality system. “Tell me what you think of it.”

Here it comes. Your thoughts turned rancid as you recalled the contents of that video. It was made to intentionally cause distress in humans—limbs being torn, live vivisections, disgusting lobotomies and other gruesome things that could make your stomach lurch; and more importantly, it is intentionally shown to be done to people the subject knows in real life.

Tests such as the Voight-Kampff Scale however are hardly perfect. Humans are complex creatures and are fundamentally unpredictable variables. Different people react to one single scenario in a million different ways. Even if you are looking for signs of empathy—a true testament of humanity—not everyone exhibits it the same way.

That’s why, no matter how many times you’ve blasted a hole through an andy’s head, you would always have this unreasonable nagging feeling underneath your gut that screams you might be wrong. You might actually kill an innocent person.

As you stood there and studied Jonathan West, you realized that his expression turned from disturbed to one of sheer horror. It was quite easy to know, to be honest—he turned pale and looked as if he just wanted to pluck his eyes out and forget that he ever seen what he was seeing right now. It was too real to be simple analog hack.

“Sir…I-I…please make it stop! Please, please….I can’t look anymore,” He muttered weakly, looking as if he was really going to puke big time, which prompted Morrison to immediately close the virtual reality system.

The man was still panting when it was shut down; visibly distraught by what he had seen. Agent Peyton, who was silent during the whole ordeal, then went to the man and asked him if he was alright. In the end, Peyton gave him a glass of water before the test proceeded as it should.

In your opinion, after that display, the subject was already leaning to the ‘most likely human’ side of the spectrum. He wasn’t making red flags which could mark him as an android, though he had a few quirks such as making a rather hollow laugh. Some humans have that kind of laugh, so you didn’t really mind it.

There are days when the excitement of discovering an android wouldn’t really pay you a visit. Sometimes, humans are mistaken as androids either because of their personalities, or by people who simply don’t really like them. Just like how it was in this case.

After a series of more questions and tests, Morrison was also convinced that Jonathan West was human. Besides, the processor level of the android you were looking for wasn’t capable of doing such complex analog hacks.

Even after a deliberation between the three of you outside of the room, it became a unanimous decision to exonerate the subject of any of the accusations placed on him. While you were still a bit doubtful, both Morrison and Peyton—men of more experience than you have as a bounty hunter—agree that West was human and the rumors simply might have been caused by office politics.

“Mr. West, the three of us have finished deliberating and we have decided that you are indeed as human as you could be,” Morrison began, sitting on the same seat he had been for the past few hours.

The man let out a heavy sigh of relief as he made a bashful smile. “Oh my god! Thank you so much, my good sir! Thank you! Thank you!”

Studying the exchange just beside Morrison, you made a small smile. In the end, you didn’t make a mistake and he still had a chance to live. Accidentally killing someone just because of some careless assessment was something you’d rather not go through in your entire life.

“Well, we thank you for giving us your time,” Morrison said as he stood up and walked towards the man, extending a hand. “And we apologize for the inconvenience.”

West shook his hand as they walked towards the door with you and Peyton following closely behind. It was finally over, and you could finally think about what you’d have for lunch. It’s been a while since you had some simple sandwiches. Going for a Subway down 14th Street would be great.

Your eyes found themselves again watching the man and your partner Morrison. You can’t stop smiling at how peaceful the day had become, contrary to what you were expecting.

“It’s no problem, sir!” West exclaimed. “Thank you for trusting me.”

You halted. Your smile faltering.

Those words rang loudly like a deafening siren in your head.

Someone had said those exact same words to you the day before, but for some reason, right now, those words made you shiver in dread; fear dropping down the pits of your stomach.

You instantly averted your alarmed eyes towards West who had been looking back at you as well.

He gave you a blank look.

He knew. You knew.

In just a span of a few seconds, you immediately seized his wrist, twisting it behind his back before tackling him to the ground. You saw the glint of a concealed knife in West’s hands before it flew away to some indiscriminate area of the room.

The man struggled yet he was pinned down by your whole body weight, unable to move—a tactic you learned through experience by subduing andys day in and day out.

Without a second thought, you grabbed your laser gun and fired it center of his forehead. The man lay still in a matter of seconds.

Your heart was beating wildly. You had finally done it.

For a moment, you feared that you might see blood and pieces of bone after the bright light of the laser dissipated. Yet when you finally stood up, huffing, the only thing you saw was the bright red glow of metal heated to melting point.

The two men beside you only stared at the motionless body of the andy with stunned expressions in their faces; unable to believe that they had almost made a grave mistake.

Everything it did was an incredible display of analog hacking.

Because androids are incapable of creating actual emotion, they simply react to the environment and transmit the appropriate response as dictated by the cloud and by their own programming as a means to communicate properly with humans. Using this technique and the fatal flaw of humans to anthropomorphize objects, androids are able to give the impression of ‘humanness’, of having a soul. That is analog hacking.

By ‘hacking’ through people’s ability to empathize, androids are able to deceive, to give a feeling that they too have a soul. It almost killed all of you today.

Eventually, your colleagues’ stares migrated to your direction while you were still gathering yourself.

“What?” was the only response you gave.

It was only until later that noon, as the three of you enjoyed a wonderful lunch at the 14th Street sandwich joint, when Morrison finally put an end to his curiosity.

“Say, YN,” he began, his mouth full of sandwich. “That andy earlier. How’d you know it wasn’t human?”

You were in the middle of sipping from your can of soda when he opened that question. You could only scrunch your brows together, looking for the right way to answer the question.

“Well…” you replied, unsure of how to say it. “I just…I guess I just knew. There’s really no secret behind it. We just exchanged looks and I knew he was about to stab you.”

Peyton nodded. “Pure instincts, huh?”

You knew he was only acknowledging your reason, yet to you, it felt like he was questioning whether you were telling the truth or not. And to be perfectly honest, you were lying by omission.

Because after all, you can’t just tell them that the way that andy said those words and the way Hansol said it, felt so drastically different.

It only took as far as thirty minutes for Hansol to get bored of your characterless apartment and began to get curious about the city of West Mars. Peeking from your dirty windows, all he could see were the tall skyscrapers, fluorescing still despite the morning sunlight, and the numerous utilitarian-looking factories doting the Martian landscape.

He guessed this was a neighborhood no one really fancied to go to, other than those who actually live here—the specials, the dirty, the outcasts. Even after a few hundred centuries, human civilization barely took one foot forward. Even after the Earth had died and most of the population moved to space colonies, life was still the same. There were still oppressors and the oppressed.

Hansol clutched his tightening chest; his eyes still transfixed at the smoke belching from the factory chimneys.

It had been months since he began to feel something. At first there were small bursts of ‘pressure’ in his chest, just some unexplainable pangs of ‘pain’, ‘guilt’, and ‘conscience’— it all began when his fellow android Joshua started murdering people. Six people; a family.

Hansol couldn’t bear to watch it and tried to stop him, yet he also got embedded into the wall with them. The only thing saving him was his ‘second brain’ or a backup processor installed only in him, which was supposed to aid him in his tactical assessments. Otherwise, he’d be dead as well.

He tried to save those people, but he had been a few hours late. In the end, he could only call the police. All this time, whenever he recalled that certain memory, he had to hold himself together. All sorts of things swirled inside him that he thought he might have had a hydraulic leak, but there was nothing physically wrong with him upon inspection.

Jihoon called it ‘emotion’, as soon as Hansol contacted him—born from the rumored empathy organ installed inside all the SVT-class androids. It blurred the lines between human and machine. Hansol couldn’t understand it, even until now, he didn’t have a tight grasp on such an abstract concept. All he knew is that he didn’t want to see anyone get hurt because of him anymore.

Just like those six people.

Caught himself in reverie, Hansol decided to explore the city some more. Staying in your apartment seemed to be making him…reflect. If that was the right word.

He silently apologized to you as soon as he stepped out of the front door, a bit guilty that he had to disobey. But he wanted to do a few things first, and most of them involves going out of your apartment. If he could just go out and then be back before you were back from work, it was as if he never went out in the first place. Well, at least to you.

Going wherever his feet took him, Hansol found himself out of the slums and in the middle of the busy city center.

The tall buildings from the distance were now like crystal towers before him, extending to eternal heights to the heavens beyond. The bright lights of large TV screens flashed in vivid technicolor as it sang ads for the miraculous Penfield Mood Organ, while the throngs of people clad in all white body suits walked across the glowing asphalts beneath their feet.

The thrum of city life vibrated all throughout the crossing like a magnetic field pulsing at every nanosecond; almost undetectable by an indifferent crowd, yet to Hansol, it was almost as if electromagnetic waves were coursing through his skin.

He placed his hand over his chest; trying to ground himself as soon as he felt his heart (if he did have one) soar over something much bigger than life. He tried to put his finger on what to call it, but he guessed the closest he could describe it would be something akin to what humans call ‘wonder’, or ‘amazement’ or ‘astonishment’.

 “Good morning, sir! I am Akito, the police android! Is there anything I can help you with?”

Just like that, Hansol’s bubble was popped as soon as the android appeared. It seemed like he had been standing in the middle of the city center for far too long that it made him quite suspicious.

“No, I…I’m about to go anyway. Thanks, Akito,” Hansol replied, still quite disoriented from the sudden intrusion, but left his place eventually.

Wandering around the area, he noticed a variety of shops and stores, and even some that he didn’t really understand what for. Yet when he was browsing over the different designs for the white body suits most people seemed to enjoy wearing (not like it had other designs), he found what he was looking for.

Well, first on the agenda, then.

After a rather filling lunch, you and your colleagues went out of the restaurant and hopped into the company hovercraft to go back to the office. Since the whole hunting went surprisingly well and ended earlier than expected, there weren’t any hunting jobs scheduled for the rest of the day.

As you laughed at the joke Morrison cracked about how Peyton didn’t utter a single word for the first six months when he joined the company, you spotted a rather familiar figure from the distance.

You frowned and inwardly groaned.

“Boys, I think I have a few errands to do in the city center. You go on ahead,” you told them as they looked at you in bewilderment but reluctantly agreed.

“Well if that’s the case, see you tomorrow, YN,” Morrison replied as he wore his hat again. “Good work today!”

“Thanks! Good working with you two as well!” you told them and the pointed at Peyton playfully. “Better start working on your goodbyes too. See ya!”

As soon as there where gone, making sure that their hovercraft were already a few miles away from where you were standing, you marched irately at the subject of your irritation. It seemed he had moved places from where you had first seen him but you doubted if he had seen you as well.  

“Mister, mister! Do that again!”

It did take time for you to finally locate him since he was pretty much easy to spot relative to the city dwellers who were in all-white body suits. Voices of children were getting louder as you went deeper inside the nearby park, and finally, you caught up to him blowing bubbles in sizes no one would probably be able to do other than him.

“Hansol,” you called behind his back, your hands on your hips and frown on your face. “Why’s your hair black?”

Eventually he turned around and saw your rather upset expression which made him avert his gaze back to the ground. The children around him (and yes they were wearing those stupid body suits) looked at the both of you in wonder, surprised that their entertainment aka Hansol had stopped blowing bubbles all of the sudden.

“Who’s she, mister?” a child asked, probably confused at your sudden appearance. “Your girlfriend?”

“Oh, no,” Hansol replied, ready to explain everything. “I’m actually an android—”

Letting him finish was something you’d rather not do, so you immediately covered his mouth.

“Sorry kids, we’ve gotta go now!” You apologized and then managed to drag him out of the park, away from all those children.

Reaching a faraway bench at a rather remote place, you made him sit and contemplate about what he had done. Hansol seemed to know what was wrong and proceeded to sulk at the far end of the bench with a downcast look.

“Well?” you began, your arms crossed and your brows furrowed. Standing in front of him like that, it only made him feel a bit more guilty.

“I, uh…I’m really sorry…” he replied, still unable to look at you. He didn’t calculate the fact that you might be in the same area as well thus his plan had failed. He should consider attaching a GPS tracker on you.

“Didn’t I specifically tell you to not go out of the apartment?” you reprimanded him. “You could be seen by my colleagues and you’d be dead!”

“Sorry…I just wanted to change my appearance so I could hide more easily.”

You groaned and sighed heavily.

“You could be killed! You were lucky it was me who caught you the other night! You think other bounty hunters would just magically trust you if you asked them pretty please?”

“Then why did you?”

Hansol threw back a question right at you like a curve ball and it hit you hard right at the gut. Taken aback, you simply pursed your lips and glared at him.

“Please don’t ask me that,” you replied and then abruptly turned around. “C’mon. Let’s go back.”

 Watching your retreating back, just like this morning, Hansol silently regarded you and your response. In the end however, he couldn’t understand anything, and eventually rose up from his seat and followed you home.

“Tell me more about yourself.”

You asked one day, as the both of you enjoyed a quiet breakfast on a Sunday morning.

It was clear to you that Hansol was not your ordinary android. He does things and says things which clearly were not ‘android’ by nature. As someone who identifies and hunts down androids for a living, you thought you already knew how to distinguish a human being from an android, but considering your confusion towards Hansol, it seems like you clearly do not.

Which is why, you had to ask.

“Me? Uhh…” Hansol scratched the nape of his neck, thinking what parts of himself should he tell you because there really was a lot of information about him. “Well…I’m an android designed for tactical assessments.”

You raised your brow at him, clearly pondering why that was the first thing he wished to share with you. “What does that mean?”

“Oh, I, uh…I gather data, consolidate them and then give an assessment of what choices the enemy could make during battle. I just give information and it’s Jihoon who would give the orders and the others would do the fighting. I’m a non-combatant type.”

“So that’s why your only weapon are those disks. They’re for self-defense,” you replied, leaning back. “Anything else?”

Hansol only stared at you, caught off guard that he had to provide more. “Uh…my birthday is on February 18.”

You nodded at him, unsure how his processor actually works, because it seems like he’s been giving you random things about him. “You mean your manufacturing date. Andys don’t give birth.”

“You could say it like that, but I like to think it’s my birthday,” he replied, and you arched another brow at him as you took a sip from your cup of coffee.

“Why?” you asked. The more Hansol talked, the more you sink into bewilderment. You regarded yourself as someone who could tell the difference between an android and a human being, yet right now, as you conversed with Hansol, that fine line was beginning to get blurry.

“I think,” he began, snatching you away from your thoughts, “I think there’s just something special with a birthday than a manufacturing date. It’s like…how do I say this…if you have a birthday, you matter as an existence. You were born to leave a mark in this world. As an android who isn’t exactly ‘alive’, I’d like to know what mark I would leave.”

Utterly speechless was what you were after you had heard Hansol’s explanation. It was weird, truly weird how he had the self-awareness to question his purpose, and you were sitting there wondering if any of the androids you had retired before had thoughts like this. If they did, you weren’t so different to a murderer as you thought you were.

As guilt began to spiral inside your gut, you tried to rationalize your concerns. Hansol was just different, probably using a novel way to use analog hack. Yeah, he’s probably analog hacking you—pretending to have deeper thinking and consciousness which he could easily access through the cloud. That scenario had the highest probability to be true.

“Oh, wow,” you replied hesitantly, gazing at the empty plate before you. “I—uh…I don’t think I’ve ever met an android like you.”

“Really?” he asked, his voice seemingly curious. “I guess maybe because we have an up-to-date processor….”

“Maybe you’re right.” You quietly scoffed. Are the organization’s labs really that advanced to even mimic human thought?

Smiling, you stood up from your seat. “Why don’t we take a breath of fresh air?”

Hansol glanced at you with a questioning look. “Where are we going?”

“Oh, just a trip to the grocery store.”

Hansol had several presumptions before he arrived to the West Martian Colony, before he had met you.

From what he had gathered in the cloud, human beings are always unpredictable. They were not run by any program, any command, not like his kind who were bound to the beck and call of a few strings of code. Humans follow their “heart” or whatever that means. They are selfish and cold, kind and warm.

Hansol was definitely apprehensive. He had never met any human being aside from his creator and a few scientists who would come and go into the labs like a cold draft. Yet despite that, Hansol knew deep down, that he doesn’t hate people. He certainly doesn’t hate you.

His brothers’ views towards humans were varying however. Hoshi, or Soonyoung was a lot more carefree, though he believed in the traditional roles of an android servant and a human master. Jihoon was too preoccupied with figuring what was wrong with him that he didn’t seem to care about them (though it seems like he has that sorted out now, according to his last status report). On the other hand, Joshua disliked people. He always made it clear to his brothers that humans were weak and that androids had long outpaced their creators.

Clear enough to make him murder people just to show you how he looks down on them.

It was interesting listening to them in past back in the labs. However, now that he had escaped and had met you, these memories began to resurface in his processor. Hansol had no idea why, to be honest. Was it because he was beginning to interact with a real human being in a much closer environment? That would be an interesting theory to explore, but right now, Hansol had to focus on where you were taking him.

“—are you sure you haven’t met another android before?” you asked him, the first part of your question he hadn’t caught. “I mean; don’t you have that info in your cloud?”

Hansol hummed, scratching his head. “I have my brothers and I met a few police androids, but other than that, I don’t have much experience. As for the cloud, it only stores pure information. We cannot derive actual experience from it.”

“Ah, I guess that’s right,” you replied, realizing that maybe it was like gathering information about something only through a book. It’s likely not going to make anyone instantly good at something.

For a while now, Hansol had been studying you. He was quiet about it, but he always wondered why you haven’t retired him yet. It was no secret that he was your assigned target, but surely, a mere plea from that night wouldn’t change your mind in an instant. Humans are so unpredictable.

“Hmm…we should sit here,” you suddenly said, stopping before a stone bench. “This has a great view of the shopping plaza.”

As you had said, it indeed held a spectacular view of the massive plaza just a few steps in front of you. There were several boutiques, cafes, stores of every shape and size—yet of course, it was as drab as it can be.

Everything was white, as Hansol stared at one giant building, from the stone ground to the shops, buildings and even the latex suits people wore as they walk around. The only redeeming feature it had were the ever-changing holographic ads shown on the white walls.

“Looks stupid, doesn’t it?” you remarked as you seated yourself on the bench with a cold expression.

“Is that why you’re not wearing those suits?” he asked as he sat beside you, glancing at the plaza.

“Everyone else in this city is stupid,” you told him, ignoring his question.

“Why?”

You snorted loudly. “Look at them Hansol. Why are they wearing those stupid suits from head to toe?  Look at how they’re all smiling so happily as if everything’s alright. It’s stupid.”

Hansol continued to stare at them, gazing at every face, every being in that plaza. Of course, he could remember all of them because of his impressive processor, yet despite that, he couldn’t understand what you were trying to say.

“But those are just clothes,” he replied, shrugging.

“Not sure if an andy like you would get it. But it’s more than a fashion trend. It’s an ideology.”

Ideology. He turned that word over and over inside his mind, trying to milk out anything substantial from that word alone. A way of thinking. What are these people thinking then whenever they decide to wear those body suits? Why would they do that?

Your questions seemed to have opened a whole new world for Hansol to explore. Human ideology; there were so many of that from the old century alone—liberalism, fascism, socialism. Why do humans subscribe to these thoughts and beliefs? And what would that mean to him as an android? Would he be able to subscribe to an ideology? Or had he always believed in one, just never realizing it?

If that’s the case, would he be able to find his purpose in it?

“What do they believe in?” he asked you, now fascinated.

Glad that he asked, you immediately replied.

“Purity. Cleanliness. Everything that is old is dirty, bad, and everything that is new is clean, good. I mean, I could understand why. It’s our fault that the Earth is basically a one big garbage dump. Maybe we just want to wash our hands clean from all of that guilt. I don’t know.”

“Why is that stupid then? I think that’s a valid reason.”

“That’s true,” you replied. “But that was how it was back then. It used to be an ideology. Now, after hundreds of years had passed, it had been so ingrained into the culture that no one really asks why is clean good and dirty, bad. People are being ostracized because of this and no one really understands why. It just seemed to have become desensitized. It’s true meaning forgotten.”

“What do you mean?”

You scoffed. “Ask one of them why they where those body suits and I bet you they would answer it with something like ‘it’s clean’ or some sort of bullshit. Ask why the Penfield mood organ is such a huge trend nowadays, or why they would submit themselves to chemicals just to induce happiness.”

“People couldn’t bear to feel any longer. Emotions have become so burdensome that it’s just easier to change your mood with one press of a button. They just do whatever other people do and, in the end, it became some sort of a mob mentality.”

For once, Hansol saw true despair in your eyes. Even if you appear to hate how the world is, he knew you were just deeply sad at how things ended up. Anger is after all, expressed when you are too sad to cry.

It struck a cord inside his processor, for some reason, as he felt the urge to do something to make you feel a little bit better. He didn’t understand why, but he knew what he should do.

Silently, Hansol took your hand, his fingers slowly intertwining with yours. He felt warm, was what you immediately thought while you anticipated what he was about to do.

“It must be lonely living in this city. There are people all around you but they all feel like ghosts. Passing by, passing through the walls and then disappear without a trace,” he began as he kept on gazing at your connected hands, talking as if he was expressing his actual thoughts.

“Hansol…?”

“That’s why, as this city becomes more and more alienating…” he continued; his honest eyes piercing right through yours. “I’ll be your friend.”

For a moment, you gazed at him, too stunned to even utter a sound. It was just a simple proposal of friendship, yet why does your heart feel like it’ll burst from the seams?

“W-why…?” you asked, becoming more and more conscious about how he was gripping your hand so tightly; his thumb brushing your skin in slow soothing circles.

“Why, you ask…I’m not even sure myself, but,” he replied, “Maybe I just want to make that sad look on your face disappear.”

You pursed your lips, head totally blank for any response.

You shouldn’t just say that to anyone, you know?

Not to me who’ve never felt something like this before.

The sound of lasers fired. Muffled voices; indiscernible against the background battle noise.

It was another day out in the field, and you were lucky there were five of you hunting a military grade android. During hunts like this, you don’t usually share the earn; it was all for the experience. Besides, how much would you even get if the bounty was divided upon five people?

You zeroed in on your prey. Shooting a laser beam at its direction, you deliberately let it miss as the android dodged it. When it had stopped running, you slid on the gravel and kicked its feet off the ground, then turned around faster than it could recover. As you aimed your two laser guns at it, the image of Hansol flashed in your brain, which made you hesitate to press the trigger.

“YN! Watch your head!”

To return to your apartment with a bandaged forehead and a huge frown on your face was enough to let the door slam behind you. It was both stupid and humiliating to falter in the middle of a simple mission like that, especially if the reason was the android living in your apartment.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. You were supposed to retire Hansol several months before yet here you are still hung up and getting more and more sentimental towards him as the days pass by.

You couldn’t help it. You were only human.

If he wakes you up in the morning with a smile and some PB & J; if he talks about his sudden interest in various things with an eager look; if he greets you as you return home from work, dinner on the table and then asking you about your day; if he holds your hand and says he’ll be your friend—could you even stop yourself from softening up?

You were clearly angry with yourself to let this whole thing get to this point.

Were you really that lonely that you would even find comfort in an android?

Tossing all of your equipment—V-T scale, laser gun and leather bag—on your worn-out sofa, you went straight to your bedroom and found the subject of your frustrations, sitting on the bed and looking at the window with a rather pondering gaze.

“Say, YN,” Hansol started, without even waiting another second to pass by. He probably knew that you were going home the moment you left the office.

“What?” you replied, unbuckling the holsters on your belt and all the safety gear you had on your body. “I’m not in a good mood so make it quick. I just got hammered by an android.”

Before he replied to you, Hansol decided to turn around and look at you with those eyes that seem to gouge the truth from the depths of your being. It made you halt all your fussing and returned his stare back at him.

“How do you know the difference between an android and a human being?” he asked which made you turn your head slightly. What a simple question to ask a bounty hunter.

“Well, isn’t that obvious?” you replied as you placed your hands over your hips. “Humans have empathy while androids don’t.”

“But what if something was invented to make android experience empathy? What then?”

You blinked several times at his second question and then began chuckling. “You mean an empathy organ? Sorry to burst your bubble but that’s not even real. It’s an urban legend.”

Hansol made a side eye as he pondered what he was going to say next, his expression basically unchanged.

“Just hypothetically speaking, if an empathy organ does exist, how would you know the difference now?”

“Eh…if we’re hypothetically speaking, then I don’t really know. I wouldn’t be able to hunt anymore if that’s the case. I can’t risk making a mistake and kill someone, not to mention that if androids begin crying before me and beg me for their lives, I wouldn’t be able to shoot them at all.”

As soon as you uttered those words, you paused and contemplated.

You gazed back at him—realization dawning on you; your eyes wide with incredulity.

It was no longer a matter of if. Someone had already begged you for their life and you didn’t shoot them.

No. No way.

That’s not possible.

At your silence, Hansol never confirmed or denied your realization and simply stared at you with those powerful eyes; waiting for you to finally digest it all.

“This isn’t hypothetical at all, is it?” you finally asked, your expression uneasy.

“No, it isn’t.”

You sighed frustratingly but it made sense.

If Hansol really has an empathy organ, everything he did—asking you to trust him, his un-Android like responses, him holding your hand—everything made so much sense. And while it did provide some answers, it gave you more questions as well.

First of all…

“H-How is that possible?!”

Hansol shrugged at your sudden outburst. “That’s why we escaped from the organization. We don’t know how it works or if it’s really installed inside of us, so we went our separate ways.”

“So…so…!” you pointed your finger at him, still incredulous. “There’s more of you?”

“Yeah. All of the SVT-class androids have empathy organs installed while we were being made in the organization’s laboratories. At least that’s how Jihoon suspected it.”

“Jihoon?”

“Yes. SVT-class Type-07 Woozi. He stayed behind the labs to search for our original creator. He did find her daughter and they’re working on an experiment to test the validity and the effectivity of the empathy organ.”

For a minute you felt like the ground was going to swallow you whole. There was too much go on, too much information that you can’t properly process them all. Falling on your knees to the ground as you leaned against the bed for support, you felt like you were going to have an aneurysm.

“YN? Are you ok?” Hansol dashed to your side in Mach speed, his hand easily finding your back.

For Pete’s sake! You’re the reason why I’m not ok!!

“I’ll get you a glass of water and some ice for your head injury. It seems like it could be the cause of your headache,” he told you and the disappeared towards the kitchen, completely oblivious of your dilemma.

Goddamn it.

Didn’t Choi Seungcheol retire Woozi already? If the andy’s still alive then did he fail the mission? If he did, then why did he confirm that he retired Woozi?

And then it seems like there are more empathy organs out there. Not to mention I’m living with an andy who’s supposed to have one.

It wasn’t even two minutes before Hansol was back with a glass of water which you promptly drank, and then allowed him to settle himself behind you while he was giving a cold compress to your head—all done without complaints because you were too lost in your thoughts.

No. No. No.

An empathy organ is just a myth! Something like the Holy Grail or something! It’s impossible for Hansol to have one!

But…it just fits so well with all the strange things he had done so far! Who android would hold your hand just because you looked sad?

Wait. Get yourself together, YN.

Hansol is just a weird android.

He’s totally chill and a bit spaced out. He sometimes says really deep stuff and then comforts you so gently that your problems just melt away.

That’s…That’s what androids are supposed to be right?

Without even realizing, Hansol had already wrapped his arms around your waist. It was only until you were done with your internal monologue that you realized the warmth you felt from behind you.

“Wha-what are you doing!” You exclaimed, though still unable to move because of how he was holding on to you tightly.

“Oh, this?” he began, completely oblivious to your embarrassment. “I’m embracing you. I wanted to know if it feels as warm as what the cloud tells me.”

You groaned, struggling to get free. “Don’t patronize me! I know what a freakin’ hug is! Now, let me go!”

Instead of opening his arms, Hansol instead pulled you closer to him, making you flush even more. “Sorry. Just endure it a bit longer. The data I’ve gathered is still incomplete. Besides, now that you know about the empathy organ, it’s safe for me to test it on you, right?”

“What! I never—”

As soon as you met his eyes, you were unable to finish the rest of your words. There he was again with those eyes that just makes you screech into a complete halt. It was so intense that it almost gave you shivers down your spine.

“Do you really hate it?” he asked again. “I’ll let you go.”

You allowed a few moments to pass by—the sound of passing cars and the incessant ticking of the clock was what you could hear, as well as your faint breaths.

“Fine. Do whatever you like,” you finally conceded and leaned against chest. It was warm.

With a calm smile, he nuzzled against your shoulder. “How did you get that injury?”

“Oh, this? I almost got my head whacked by an android,” you replied plainly, almost forgetting that you were actually having a bad day because of what had happened.

“That’s unusual.”

“You could say that again. I just got…distracted.”

Hansol raised his brows at your reply; noting the pause between your words. Since he cannot place his chin on your head, he decided to prop himself on your shoulder, his lips near your ear.

“Was it because of me?”

You jumped at the sound of his voice being so near to your ear. It made you ticklish and pulled back away from him just for a tiny bit.

“You’re too close!” you exclaimed, flushed and uncharacteristically nervous. “And I didn’t get distracted because of you!”

He sighed at your response. “Sorry. But I’m glad it wasn’t because me. I’ll be troubled if I distract you from your work.”

Pursing your lips, you only returned to your original position in silence. You have been distracted me from work since the beginning.

“Maybe I can help you?” Hansol continued talking when you didn’t reply.

“With what?” you chuckled cynically. “Hunting androids? Don’t you feel bad about killing your own kind?”

“Well, some humans don’t feel bad if they kill other people. What’s the difference?”

You scoffed. “Touché,”

“I’ll help you if you’re in trouble.” He pressed on and you could only groan in exasperation. While he tends to be a bit spacey, he can also be stubborn. It’s not like you can stop him if you refused.  

“You’re weirdly obstinate—”

About to add an explanation, your words were cut short however by the doorbell. You stood up to get it but got dizzy from the sudden change that Hansol decided that you better sit down and rest.

As he padded his way across the living room, Hansol opened the door to see no one except for a bag of food on the ground. He tried to look around and assessed the surroundings, yet he found nothing suspicious.

Confused, he leaned his head to the side and eventually decided to take the food inside. It didn’t seem harmful.

“Wonder who that was,” he muttered before going back inside.

As a freeloader, Hansol took it upon himself the responsibility of maintaining your apartment in tip-top shape. From the floor to the ceiling; to every nook and cranny he finds—he made sure that everything was sparkling clean to the point that you thought you went to a different apartment when you went home.

It was easy to pretend he was a regular every day helper android since he always kept to himself at most times, and other than visiting a regular antique vinyl shop in an indefinite area of the city, he never really did anything out of the blue.

Hansol had two leeks, one in each hand as he assessed which one was the best using his state-of-the-art processor. The engineers at the labs probably never thought his military grade processor would be used in this way but it was extremely helpful. He tossed the one on his left to his grocery cart and the other back to the stall—concluding that it was already at 40% freshness and most of the chlorophyll and other biominerals had died out.

One of his responsibilities was making sure that groceries and other supplies in your apartment were well-stocked. And while it did make you furious at how he easily hacked into your bank account to access money, you eventually gave him permission to go on grocery trips for you because of how he efficiently did everything.

He turned his cart to the left, its squeaky rusting wheels making it hard to keep it moving in a straight line.

Next stop was the chicken aisle. He remembers seeing a photo of you in the cloud as you enjoyed a bucket of chicken nuggets, and he plans to make them for dinner that night. Halting the troublesome cart before the freezers, Hansol checked the display if there were any of the chicken nuggets he wanted to buy.

“This one’s too expensive…” he told himself in contemplation.

“Hi! I’m Martin of Fresh Daily Chicken! How may I help you?”

And there were those androids again.

Hansol knew they were just following their program but it was getting on his nerves. They kept on bothering him every single time he went out that it was very tempting to just dissemble them in front of his eyes.

“I’m fine, Martin. You can go help someone else,” he replied, wondering if there was an edge to his tone as he returned the chicken back to the freezer.

Instead of leaving though, Martin gripped Hansol’s arm tightly, as the other stopped and glared at the android with suspicion. In a beat, Hansol flicked his hand away and stood still for a moment, assessing the situation at hand. Nanoseconds pass, he finally realized what was happening.

“Joshua. What are you doing here?”

His voice was filled with animosity; his eyes like fire flickering. Hansol knew his brother was up to no good as soon as he showed up using a hacked android.

“Sharp as ever, aren’t we?” the android replied, the tone of its usual monotonous voice reflecting the malice of the hacker behind it all. “I guess I should expect no less from an android made to evaluate things.”

Hansol wasn’t having any of this small talk. “If you don’t have anything important to say, I’m leaving.”

“And what? Play house with your bounty hunter?” the android sneered. “She doesn’t trust you as much as you trust her, you know?”

Hansol threw daggers at the android with his eyes. “What are you talking about?”

It made a rather hollow chuckle. “Did you forget how despicable humans are? She’s planning on retiring you and your pleading won’t help you now. That’s why…”

“That’s why what?” Hansol felt uneasy.

“That’s why I’ll help you finish her off first.”

Like the wind howling, the android’s words felt like a siren blaring right into his ears. If he had any blood, it would’ve been boiling by now. If only looks could kill, the android would’ve been long dead.

“No. I don’t need your help and I never will. Get fuck out of here before I—”

“Fine, fine,” it responded rather dismissively, unperturbed by Hansol’s threats. “But if you need me, I’m just one call away.” 

And just like that, Joshua disappeared. “Hi! I’m Martin of Fresh Daily Chicken! How may I help you?”

Hnasol sighed and returned to his grocery shopping.

“Empathy organ?”

A boisterous laugh was all you could hear across the otherwise silent donut shop. You frowned, clearly annoyed.

“Didn’t know ya believe in those bullshit urban legends, YN.” Your boss replied, crumbs falling down his shirt, and thus has been looked at disgustedly by the people around you.

“Just answer the damn question, please,” you replied, giving him a not-too-pleased expression.

“What can I say?” he shrugged, “It ain’t real.”

You hold off clicking your tongue, and instead averted your gaze to the window beside you, towards the quiet concrete and asphalt streets of West Mars. Thinking that you could achieve something by bribing your boss with donuts, was a dashed dream. He easily dismissed the notion, now munching on some more donuts you had bought with your own pay.

“Doesn’t matter if it’s real or not. I just want to hear what you know about it,” you insisted, pushing your plate of donuts to his side.

He gulped in some coffee. “Well, for one, we don’t know where it is. Rumors say it was made by an engineer in the org, and they died without telling anyone.”

An engineer in the org? You felt like you have two pieces of the puzzle right below your nose, yet you couldn’t wad through the multitude of memories you had.

“Some say it was silently waiting in that engineer’s lab, but not gonna lie, doll, I myself don’t think it’s in there. Can’t be too easy,” he eagerly chomped on a bavarian. “It was prolly never built, kinda a blueprint of some sort.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean why?” Your boss chuckled again. “It’s just not possible! Look, have you ever heard of the phrase ‘good in theory but not in practice’? It’s just like that. You can’t build something science can’t even understand.”

You slumped on your chair, disappointed at his replies.

“C’mon now, doll. Stop digging around urban legends and focus on getting more andys to retire,” he continued when you didn’t reply. “Besides, you still got that SVT andy on your plate, don’t ya? Better set your eyes on that. These military grades ain’t just your ordinary tin foil man.”

Sighing, you silently berated yourself for letting this situation go out of hand.

“Alright. I’m still working on it though.”

You really weren’t. The fact that Hansol was still alive and kicking after several months since you the assignment dropped to your lap was proof that you were procrastinating. And becoming weaker.

You cursed yourself.

“Just a little warning for you. These andys, like the SVT line, are notoriously good at analog hacking. So, do be careful with handling them. Just because they told you you’re friends, ain’t gonna stop them from killin’ you when it suits them. They’re smarter than you’d expect.”

Pursing your lips, you felt your boss’ words weigh down upon you like a pile of stones.

You shouldn’t have trusted Hansol.

It was a gamble you shouldn’t have made in the first place.

The sun was already high and bright; blinding your eyes with its garish lighting as you stood before an android you just made into Swiss cheese with the number of holes you created a few seconds ago. Kicking off the dead weight, you decided to find the other one.

Another day out in the field means another chance to falter and fail even in a simple mission. You had already hesitated once and it had cost you a head injury. If you hesitate again, what would it cost you this time around?

It was getting into your nerves.

Was it truly wise to trust Hansol all this time?

Even if he had no intention of hurting you, it was your job to retire runaway andys before they harm anyone. Therefore, it makes sense to shoot him dead with a laser gun; no questions asked.

Then what was stopping you?

You stalked the andy a few meters away from you like a lion in a hunt; eyes laser focused and ears picking up every minute shuffle. The laser guns on both your hands were ready to shoot yet it wasn’t the right time or place.

Running a few meters away, you shot a few laser beams into the air; the sound echoing across the apartment rooftops in resounding waves. Your target tensed up; alarmed at how the sound was nearby.

You laid your trap.

The android began calculating the most efficient way out and then stood up from its hiding place, unaware that it was the moment you were waiting for. It jumped towards the nearest building and crouched beside a water tank, sniffing the air of your presence.

You grinned. “Looking for me?”

The android looked up, its eyes blank but you knew it was surprised. With two laser guns on both your hands, you aimed at it from the top of the water tank, the sun casting a glare over you. Lunging from its position, it made a narrowing escape as it sacrificed one leg to a laser beam.

It was all over.

You caught up and then threw it to the ground with one harsh kick. Stepping over its torso; effectively pinning it down, you took one good look.

“Did you know that it takes about three minutes for the Nexus 7 processor to calculate the next best move?” you told the android, despite knowing it wouldn’t really listen to you. “Enough time for me to set you up.”

“In the past, it only took you a minute.”

The android rebuked you, making you scrunch up your brows. How the hell did it know that?

“You’ve grown weaker, bounty hunter,” it continued, a grin creeping up to its lips; making its rather soulless expression more unnerving. “Could it be that you like us now?”

“Shut up,” you replied, aiming the two guns at its head. “That’s not going to stop me from retiring you.”

“What if I beg for my life then? Will you spare me now?”

You stopped.

The hands clutching your guns became unsteady. Its words zeroed in at your predicament just like how you had obliterated its leg with numerous laser beams—mocking you; taunting you with your weakness for Hansol.

“You think you could separate androids into your moralistic categories of good and bad? That android is only using you, you know? Like poison, gradually weakening your resolve until you could no longer pick up your laser gun. And when that time comes, he would strike and he will kill you.”

Your temper flared up.

You pressed the triggers furiously, your foot holding it still as laser after laser shot through its head. Even if the head was no longer recognizable, you continued to shoot just to please the rage and frustration weighing inside of you.

As the concrete beneath your feet began to weaken, you eventually stopped; realizing what you were doing all this time. Breaths heavy and eyes wide, you stared at the android which became, more or less, bits and pieces of burnt metal and hydraulic cables.

It still irritated you, so kicked it as far as you could so you wouldn’t be able to see it.

When you returned to the office to hand over the post-hunt report, Morrison was waiting for you t your desk; the serious and alarmed look on his face making you anxious.

“Morrison,” you acknowledged him, tossing your report to your table as well as your various work equipment. “What brings you here?”

“YN. We need to talk,” he replied, his tone of voice not so different that you had originally assumed which only heightened the tension of the situation.

As you followed behind him, you wondered what he wanted—was it about your dwindling work performance? Are you getting fired?

You only knew the answer to your questions when he stopped by a deserted hallway and then faced you. It was all your fears could ever hope for.

“Please tell me YN, that the person living in your apartment isn’t the SVT andy, Vernon.”

Your heart, along with your gut immediately dropped.

“W-what…”

“A few months ago, I saw you with someone walking around the city. I thought it was your boyfriend so I ignored it. The other day however, I heard you got injured so I went and delivered you dinner. That’s when I realized that the person you’re with was the SVT andy.”

If only the ground could swallow you whole. If only you could disappear at that exact moment. You had no explanation. You had been found out. You had nothing in your defense and the only thing you could do was hang your head low and avert your gaze out of guilt and shame.

“YN…”

“I’m sorry…” you replied, voice just above a whisper.

“Is that andy holding you hostage? Is it threatening you?” Morrison asked out of concern as soon as he saw you. “I could help—”

“No. This is my own doing,” you replied. “This is my own fault.”

“Then…why?” he asked. “Among all of us here, you were the one who hated them the most. Have you become sentimental towards them?”

“How the hell would I know!” You screamed as you tremble in both rage and despair. “Do I look like I’m enjoying it right now? Look at how weak I’ve become! Look how I almost died just because I hesitated to pull the trigger!”

“YN…I—”

“Shut up. All of you shut up,” you cut him off. “This is my problem and I’ll solve it on my own.”

Turning to the side, you marched down the hallway and left Morrison stunned and worried about you.

You tightened your fists until your knuckles turned white. Guilt, shame, anger—everything swirled inside of you like a thick soup; slowly pushing you downwards to a spiral of turmoil.

Androids would always be androids no matter what they say. Hansol was only using the way he knew he would survive. Even if it meant deceiving you.

You were angry.

More to yourself than anybody however.

How could you let yourself be swayed by an android’s sweet talking? You felt like an idiot; trusting his words, getting soft and sentimental for a mere android. You were weak and you hated it. Like slow moving magma, your rage was scalding you from the inside until you could no longer bear it. You pushed pass the entrance way and escaped to the streets of West Mars.

How could you be so susceptible? How could you allow him to easily manipulate you using your own desperate need for companionship? How could you allow yourself to succumb to such a baser kind of human emotion?

As a bounty hunter, you should’ve tossed all of them aside a long time ago. You should’ve been erased that weakness when you first began.

Yes, it was lonely. But in order to succeed, one must be alone on top of the mountain with no one to depend on.

You allowed the day to pass you by. As the afternoon became night and the flashing lights of the city returned to illuminate the streets with animations at a million frames per second, you sat high above a building and watch it al unfold like flowers blooming at night. As the dark skies slowly encroached the sunset reflecting the red dunes of Mars, you waited for the exact moment to solve all of your problems.

Problems of your own doing is something you have to solve by yourself. It was your fault that you believed in him when you clearly knew you shouldn’t have. Even if it weighs your heart, the guilt you felt was heavier.

You shouldn’t have allowed things to get to this point. Thus, you reap what you sow.

Head still swimming, you returned to your apartment at the wee hours of the morning. It was the perfect time; the calculated time—because you knew Hansol was at the living room, charging up next to a wireless charging station he himself had built. You saw him at that exact position; sitting, leaning against the wall with head hung low as a circular light glowed underneath the skin of his nape.

You knew what you have to do.

He was defenseless before you; asleep and unaware of what you are about to do. It was perfect this way— he couldn’t say anything, he couldn’t do anything, he couldn’t feel anything.

As you looked at his sleeping figure, you couldn’t help but notice how his now dark hair tumbling against his forehead in a soft caress, how his long eyelashes padded gently across his skin, how his soft breaths echoed across the room. Even at these last moments, he still caught you off guard.

Yet beautiful things erode and fade away like the fleeting spring.

You raised the laser gun to his forehead, your finger already by the trigger.

You can do it YN. Just one press and he’ll be gone. All your problems will be gone, and you’ll be able to return to your everyday life. You’ve done this so many times already.

He’s only an android.

‘…Vernon is my model name, but I want to go by my own name.’

He can be easily manufactured again and again like a replaceable object.

‘…As an android who isn’t exactly ‘alive’, I’d like to know what mark I would leave.’

Your hands trembled as your chest tightened into a vice grip. You couldn’t breathe.

Stop it.

He’s only using you for his own means. You don’t matter to him.

‘I’ll be your friend.’

‘Maybe I just want to make that sad look on your face disappear.’

He looked so peaceful, so innocent and so forgiving. Not like you who had been dirtied by the sins of humanity. You knew that even if you shot him, he would still smile and say ‘I understand.’

Shut up. Shut up. Shut up!

He’s just faking everything. He’s just deceiving you YN.

‘Thank you for trusting me.’

You screamed one painful cry; your knees giving way and sunk to the carpet in a thud. Hands propping you up as tears continued to stream down your face, you couldn’t stop crying all the pain you held inside for all these years. It was too painful.

You can’t do it.

“Just kill me now, goddamn it!” you shouted yet your eyes were looking at the floor, too scared to know if he was awake or not. “If you’re planning to kill me eventually, then do it now! Kill me now while I still trust you!”

In the midst of your endless sobs, you felt strong arms pull you into a tight embrace; wrapping you with all the love and warmth he could muster in one single action. You could only bury yourself to his chest, clutching to his shirt as if you were holding on to him for support.

“Kill me now, Hansol…”

“I won’t kill you YN. I have no intentions of ever hurting you,” he whispered as he brushed your hair gently with his fingers.

“How could you fucking say that!” you exclaimed; screams muffled. “I keep on hurting you! Hell, I even pointed a gun to you while you were sleeping! How…how could you just forgive me like that…”

“You only did what you needed to do, and if you need to kill me, then I wouldn’t mind dying. I understand that there are things you must sacrifice.”

As soon as you heard those words, you looked up to him with aghast. You could see that despite what he had said, you saw a flicker of pain in his eyes; a sadness that was accepted because there are things you simply cannot change.

“W-why…?” you asked as your heart poured out for him. “Why are you saying that even though it hurts you…?”

Hansol made a small smile and wiped away the tear stains away from your cheeks. “Because you’re the first person who ever trusted me, and it made me so happy to stay by your side all this time. That’s why even if it hurts, I feel relieved that I can at least make you happy in return.”

Stabbing pain filled your chest as if you were being pierced through by laser beams numerous times. You could feel yourself tremble as tears threatened to spill from your eyes once again; grasping to his shirt as if he might slip away any time soon.

“You fucking idiot…!” you muttered through your sobs. “You think I can still retire you after saying that? I can’t do it. I can’t…Hansol…I don’t know how or why but you matter so much to me now.”

His hand that was on your cheeks continued to caress you as gently as he could; not letting you go until you stopped crying. For some reason, he felt touched that you were pouring out all of your thoughts to him among all people in the world.

“I always kept myself so busy all this time just to distract me from all the loneliness I was feeling. I always try to be tough and cold so that my emotions wouldn’t get the best of me. But…but you showed me something I had thrown away a long time ago. You cared for me even though I tried to kill you so many times and it hurts so much how you are able to forgive me like that. I don’t deserve any of these, Hansol. I don’t deserve you.”

As he comforted you, he could feel his chest swell with so much emotion. You were crying for him, and he couldn’t help but share a bit of that pain as well. Picking up your hand, he slowly intertwined his fingers around yours and gazed at you with those eyes that easily seized you; body and soul.

“I feel like I should be saying something now but I don’t know what,” he whispered. “That’s why, I’ll just show you how I feel.”

Cupping your cheek with his hand, Hansol slowly reduced the distance between the two of you until his lips met yours in a soft and gentle kiss. It was warm and peaceful and light—as if everything which held you down were released and swept away by the cool breeze. You held on to his hand tightly, never letting go of this exact moment as you etched it vividly into your memory.

As the both of you pulled away, you gave him a small bashful smile.

“I think ‘I like you’ would be the best thing to say,” you whispered to him as he gave a toothy grin.

“You finally smiled,” he remarked as he allowed your foreheads to touch.

“Because of you.”

The both of you stayed that way until you felt your heart calm down. That night seemed to have uprooted all of your being—everything that you have built upon yourself for all these years was turned upside down. It was like a transformation; yet rather than frightening, it felt cathartic in some sense.

“Say, YN,” Hansol started, breaking the companiable silence the two of you shared. “Why did you become a bounty hunter?”

“Hm?” you hummed, gazing at your carpet as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. “Good question. Why did I become a bounty hunter?”

“You don’t know the answer?”

“I do know why,” you replied as you became more contemplative. “I think I was just too angry at the world. Angry that I was all alone; angry that no one really cared. So, I searched for ways to release that anger. That’s when I found myself wanting to be a bounty hunter.”

He pulled you closer, nuzzling to your shoulder; wanting to give comfort to the both of you. “Did you grow up like that?”

Amused by his question, you chuckled. “The thing is, when you are made from a glass incubator, it feels like you’re an artificial existence. Even if there are parents or siblings, most of them just kind of want to play house or something. When they’re done, you get thrown out. That’s it. And somehow just like that, I ended up all alone.”

Hansol was quiet, feeling like you weren’t done talking yet.

“When I met you…when I got to spend time with you, it felt like I was in a foreign territory. I wasn’t used being taken care of. It’s always just me so, I was scared as fuck that maybe this wonderful thing wouldn’t really last. That maybe you were just deceiving me and I was being an idiot for believing that life would finally give me some slack.”

You continued. “That’s why, I thought…let’s just end this with my own two hands. That way I can still have my dignity intact.”

As soon those words left your lips, the android embracing you hugged you tighter—a silent declaration that he was never going to let you go; that you deserved better and he will give everything just to make you happy.

“I don’t think I can ever leave you, YN. I was lucky that it was you who I met that night. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to understand myself or what I was feeling. I wouldn’t be able to experience a normal everyday life if I hadn’t met you. You have become someone important to me as well.”

At that night, as you finally fell asleep on Hansol’s shoulders, he easily carried you to your bed and gently laid you there without making a sound. Unable to resist, he slipped under the covers and silently watched your chest breathing in and out.

It was the first time he felt this way. It was unbelievable.

Combing your hair as softly as he could, Hansol contemplated this future with you. He was incredibly happy, if that was how the beautiful feeling in his chest should be called—how you embraced him tightly, how you grinned at him and held his hand. Those were things he could never forget.

With that said, he had to ensure that everything would stay as it is as long as it could. Using the built-in network among the SVT-line androids, he made a call.

Beep. Beep.

Click.

“Hello, brother? It’s me, Hansol. I need your help.”

The sun was still shining like any other day; as if it was unbothered by the egregious happenings of your life. Just like how it was during your first day as a bounty hunter.

Yet everything was different now. The anger that you held on to for far too long was released to the polluted city air just like scattered ashes of a bygone age. Now you have to rebuild yourself from scratch; to start anew and live differently than what you were doing all these years. Yet you weren’t alone this time, you had Hansol to support you along the way as the both of you rediscover life and the whole point of it.

That’s why it’s important to cut the few loose strings you had and tie them securely so they wouldn’t unravel in the future.

It was your last day on the job. Your last hunt.

“YN.”

You heard Morrison call you, turning to the direction where you had heard him. You were about to leave with your hovercraft to the designated location where the andy was reported yet he had stopped before you ever could.

“Last time, I—”

“It’s ok,” you cut him off. “I think I needed it to realize what I truly want to do with my life. Being a bounty hunter taught me a lot but I guess we just overgrow things.”

“Are you sure?” he asked you.

“Yes, you could say I was happy with my decision.” You scratched the nape of your neck. “You know, I think I understand now why Choi Seungcheol left.”

Morrison grinned. “Oh, really now?”

“Yeah. I think he realized the same thing as I did,” you replied, hands on your pockets. You just can’t live with anger in your heart.

Your partner genuinely smiled at you and give you a pat on the back. “Well then, it was great working with you, YN. You’ve been phenomenal.”

“Thank you. It was a pleasure working with you as well Morrison,” you grinned. “Now, time to go for my last hunt.”

“Good luck. Don’t go easy on the andy now,” he replied while you hopped into your hovercraft.

“You bet I won’t,” you replied, smiling. “Well, see you later then!”

With those words, you turned on the hovercraft as it slowly ascended to the skies. You could see down below Morrison who was looking up at you with a bittersweet smile on his face. This business was indeed dying.

“Alright. Time for my swan song.”

Your destination for today was in Sector 12, where all the warehouses and cargo facilities were located as they enter the West Martian colony. The andy in question was a normal escapee posing as a cargo boy—which was as common as it could get.

You hoped that your last andy should’ve at least been a little more challenging. But alas, you can’t have everything.

Turning the steering wheel to the side, you avoided a tall building and continued cruising through the sector with nothing much in mind. That is until something entered the hovercraft; making it shake through the skies like a rogue vehicle.

You clung to the wheel as you braced the impact, avoiding getting tossed to the air like a pancake. Still recovering from the shock, you were greeted by a punch which completely obliterated the hovercraft’s UI and had just missed your head by a hair.

Turning around, you saw that it was the android you were supposed to retire today—seemingly fallen from god knows where to your lap. Just like how Hansol just came to you that night. Lucky.

“Don’t underestimate me, fucker,” you exclaimed as you grabbed its arm with both your hands and levered it with your shoulder to the air, sending it flying to one of the buildings below. Taking your two trusty laser guns, you jumped off of the already derailing hovercraft before it plummeted to the ground in an explosion of fire and smoke.

Landing safely to one of the rooftops, you spotted the andy running away from you.

“Hey! Don’t get cowardly now!”

Shouting, you continued to shoot laser beams at its direction, pissed that it was playing some game of tag. With a head start of a few meters and an exceptional speed, there was no way you could ever catch up to an android. The only way you could ever gain an advantage was to play the strategy game.

Disappearing from view, you hid yourself as you pursued it; minding your distance so it wouldn’t be able to detect your presence with any of its scanners. Since the andy you were after had a Nexus 6 processor, it can see you through thermal readings which had a scanning radius of a few meters.

Confused of your vanishing act, the android in question stopped running and looked around. There was no sign of you yet you can see it using a special set of goggles which was luckily inside your pocket than in the hovercraft.

As it walked in search of you, you fired your laser guns to the distance which predictably alarmed the android and dashed to where it came from. And just like that, you were able to lay your ambush—jumping out from high ground and trapping it in place.

When do they even learn? You’ve done this technique so many times that it was hardly clever strategy to you anymore.

You shot it with your laser gun, missing its head in just a few centimeters. That however, was a fatal mistake as it swerved your leg around, tripping you to the ground in the process. Without stopping, the android then aimed for your head with its fist which could’ve easily broke your skull if not for the fact that you rolled out of the way just in time.

Even if your head was still reeling and you were still on the ground, you kicked its torso with both your feet as it staggered and lost balance. You ran off somewhere, picking up both your laser guns as it continued to pursue you.

Man, I judged this way too early.

Now that the tables have turned, the both you found yourselves inside a warehouse complex devoid of any human or andy. It was kind of strange that there was no one in sight except for the both of you, yet you shouldn’t really be wondering about that when an andy is after you with a huge metal pipe.

Now that you think about it, why was it even running after you? And why did it attack you in the first place? Shouldn’t it be running away from you?

You couldn’t find time to answer those questions when a pipe was hurled at your direction, hitting the cargo container you were hiding behind and piercing through the metal. You could’ve died if not for your quick reflexes. Clearly annoyed at being in the defensive, you faced the android square on and fired your laser guns at it as fast as you could.

A laser beam hit it on its chest and then on its legs, creating rather large gaping holes on its body. When you were near enough, you kicked it hard; crashing against the doors of the warehouse which opened upon impact. In one final blow, you shot through its processor at point blank.

It fell down to the ground in one swoop. It was all over. The final hunt was done.

“YN…?”

You heard your name being called by a familiar voice you never expected to hear while you were in the middle of a hunt. In an instant, you turned your head and saw with great surprise the person you had trusted the most.

“Hansol? What are you doing here?”

“No, what are you doing here?” he answered back. “You shouldn’t be here!”

“Looks like the final guest has arrived.” A figure from the shadows appeared; a gentle expression was on his face yet there was something dark looming just underneath his presence. “Took me some time to get you moving but looks like it went well.”

“Joshua, what’s the meaning of this?” Hansol asked, his eyes dark like coal; brimming with suspicion and fury.

“Joshua? Isn’t he one of your brothers and wasn’t he the one responsible for the AI hack that night?” You asked Hansol with incredulity bearing in your eyes.

You were standing there in the midst of it all, mouth ajar and eyes wide; unable to follow what was happening. You didn’t understand why Hansol was there or why he seemed to dislike his brother. If anything, it all seemed to suspicious.

“You’re right, YN. I am one of Hansol’s brothers and the AI hack was my work,” the android calmly replied which made you feel uneasy.

“And there’s no meaning at all, brother. I just wanted to meet YN,” he replied, shrugging with a carefree smile. “And besides, you did ask for my help.”

“I didn’t ask for your help. I came because you threatened to hurt her.”

Hurt me? You dared to take a look at Joshua who seemed to notice your apprehension yet only smiled so serenely—making it even more menacing.

“Ah, as honest as ever, huh?” Joshua replied as he pocketed his hands. “Or not.”

There was no denying that Hansol gazed at Joshua with contempt; the first time you have ever seen him display such a negative emotion. You now wondered what Joshua had done in order to push Hansol, who was as kind as ever, to treat him that way.

“Did you forget what happened to that family of six a few months ago? You know, that one in Palmaide.”

Joshua continued when Hansol refused to reply. You blinked several times at his words, feeling like you were familiar with the story one way or another. At the mere mention of the memory, Hansol immediately grit his teeth; sending death glares to the other android.

“Oh? Why are you looking at me like that?” Joshua asked, and then grinned, a malicious lilt in his voice appearing all of the sudden. “You didn’t tell YN, did you?”

“Tell me what?” you answered back with a clipped tone. “Tell me what, Hansol?”

In the midst of your questions, Hansol could only furrow his brow and purse his lips. He turned his head to the side, unable to face you.

“I-I…I’m sorry. I just…I always wanted to tell you…” he began, his voice unsteady.

“What is it?” you asked again, completely alarmed and afraid of what he might say.

“I—”

“He’s partly responsible for six deaths in the Palmaide Apartments.”

Joshua was the one who answered for him; malaise dripping from every word like thick poison. You could only gaze at him with disbelief and turned to Hansol for an explanation yet he couldn’t even look at you.

“Is that true, Hansol?” you asked, your voice a mere whisper; smelling the scent of betrayal.

“I…I didn’t want to hurt them,” he answered you as he trembled like a leaf in the wind. “Joshua was—”

“I did most of the killing but he just stood there, you know? Watching as I sliced open everyone and bury them to the wall,” Joshua interrupted. “Why the wall you ask? Don’t you think human guts look pretty when displayed?”

“You sick fucker!”

You pointed both laser guns to Joshua who only looked at you curiously even though you were shaking with anger. He seemed totally unperturbed by everything; a testament that he was far from sane.

“You shouldn’t be pointing your gun at me,” he replied as he leaned his head to the side. “Hansol was only lying to you, you know…saying he cares about you. Soon enough, I’ll be dissecting you and he’ll just watch me do it with those eyes you love so much.”

You wondered if the empathy organ really exists; wondering if Joshua had one or if Hansol had one. They could really be deceiving you for all you know. Back and forth, you tossed possibilities and motives inside your head, unsure of who to believe.

In the end, you gradually moved the guns to Hansol’s direction; your eyes meeting his. He looked hurt, but you could never really tell if that was real or something faked. Even if you had so many years of experience, the true test of your instincts was at that exact moment. It was only you who could determine who to trust.

Joshua grinned at the whole situation.

“You, move!”

You ordered which Hansol promptly followed, walking to the left and in front of Joshua. Still with the guns pointed at him, you continued to shout.

“Hansol, explain to me what happened.”

With your demands, Hansol flinched and then bit his lip, scared of what you would say if he told you the truth yet obeyed you nonetheless.

“At that time, I was so shocked—I just…I didn’t know what to do,” he began as he fiddled with his fingers. “I tried to stop Joshua…and we got into a fight. I lost and the next thing I knew I was in the wall as well…”

“YN, I’m…I’m really sorry…I-I—” he continued as his voice trembled and his heart beating wildly. “I didn’t know what you’ll say. I tried to save them but I was too late…the whole thing…it scares me sometimes. I don’t want it to happen ever again. That’s why I want to protect people as much as I can…”

About to say something, the sound of slow clapping stopped you from continuing. You gazed at Joshua who was looking at the whole thing with an amused expression.

“How heroic. You can’t obviously fall for that, YN, can you?” the android remarked, his arrogance obvious. “Don’t you think it’s now time to shoot?”

“You’re right,” you replied with such a cool and calm voice; as if a decision had finally dawned on you.

Hansol feared for the worst but like he said, there was nothing he could do if you decide to kill him. If that’s what makes you happy, then he understands. If that will make you more at peace, then he can forgive you. It hurts but it hurts him more if he sees you in despair.

You breathed in, and then breathed out. With eyes that seem to pierce right through Hansol’s being, you gazed at him with those clear looks as you pointed your gun at him.

“Keep still!”

You shouted at Hansol while the other tensed up. It was not a moment to falter.

In a heartbeat, you pressed both triggers. Hansol closed his eyes and braced for the impact. Even with death at his doorstep, he can proudly say that he loves you.

“You bitch!”

Hansol could hear Joshua curse from behind him, prompting him to open both of his eyes and realize what you had just done.

Shooting two laser beams at Hansol’s direction, you deliberately missed it a few centimeters off so it would instead hit Joshua, who was right behind him. The other was of course fuming mad. Before Hansol could reorient himself however, you grabbed his hand and began running.

“I’ve seen way better acting than yours, motherfucker!” You screamed with delight as you saw Joshua bending over to a partially burnt arm and leg; throwing murderous glances at you.

“What…?” Hansol asked but you only grinned at him, squeezing his hand.

“Let’s go! I don’t think I can wipe him out with just that.”

Dashing towards the exit, you were stopped by throes of androids who blocked the way. You clicked your tongue—totally forgetting that Joshua’s main ability was designed to overwhelm the opponent— and tried to find another way out.

“Ah, even that wouldn’t work, huh?” the voice behind you resounded across the empty warehouse. “I tried so hard to eliminate you, YN. If I didn’t, Hansol would never give up his weak mindset of protecting people. Too bad.”

While he was busy with his evil villain monologue, you were trying to find a way out of your situation. The entrance was blocked and you could take a gander that the whole building was surrounded as well. You had totally forgotten about his abilities, and Hansol couldn’t be of much help either since he was never made for this kind of combat. Oh for Pete’s sake!

“Oh well, so much for trying,” he sighed. “Everyone, you can dispose of them now.”

Shit.

You gazed at Hansol for an answer yet you noticed that he was only standing there with the most composed expression he could ever muster in a situation like this.

“We have to get out of here, Hansol!” you exclaimed, seizing his hand yet he didn’t budge a single inch at all.

He was just staring at one random spot in the warehouse.

“What…”

“Sorry I was late.”

A voice you have never heard before now echoed across the area. You looked up and saw someone standing by the mezzanine, leaning against the rusted railings as if they had no care in the world.

“Jihoon. You took your time,” Hansol responded, smiling.

“Why are you here?!” Joshua shouted, now even more furious at the turn of events. For some reason, you sensed that he had just lost his upper hand.

“Hansol asked for my help. So, I came,” Jihoon replied while you noticed black diamonds floating high above the air and settled in to surround the whole place. “He knew you were bound to cause some trouble, and you did.”

“If you think you’re one step ahead of us, we are two steps ahead of you,” Hansol continued. “Jihoon and my abilities are a good match after all.”

The android who was at the center of it all was silent as he trembled with sheer rage. If you could describe the tension weighing down all of you inside that warehouse, it would be like a dense core of a black hole—as if everything was compressed to the point of singularity. You were very much afraid but you knew you were not alone.

In a quiet voice, Joshua muttered. “Get them. Kill them all.”

Without even waiting for a second, the androids from outside marched in, making you take a step back. As soon as they entered however, the androids were immediately electrocuted; shaking in a frenzy before plummeting to the ground still twitching due to the remaining electrons passing through their conductors.

“Jihoon can easily stop all of those androids. That is his main ability as a tactical adviser,” Hansol explained as he caught your shoulder. “But we should go now. Joshua will probably go after us.”

In one breath, Hansol picked you up from the ground and carried you over his shoulder; sprinting out of the warehouse by kicking a hole through the roof. You didn’t want to be carried this way but you understood why. Hansol was far faster on foot than you; besides, it was easier to shoot this way.

As expected, Joshua came running after you; cursing both your names. You began to fire at him yet he was too fast and the whole ride on Hansol’s shoulder was a little too bumpy. It wasn’t as effective as you imagined it would be.

“This won’t work” you told him, trying to distract the android chasing after you. “At this rate, my laser gun would run out of batteries, and your energy would get depleted before we could ever chase him out.”

“What are you suggesting then?” Hansol asked, climbing on top of a cargo container tower.

For a moment, you were silent as you thought of how to defeat your agile enemy.

“Say, those diamond things your brother uses…they’re the ones doing the electrocuting, aren’t they?”

Hansol nodded as he dodged the iron beams being hurled at you both. “Yes, they’re made of specials alloys that conduct well with electricity and a special aluminum coating to protect it. They can be spread out as far as a hundred meters in radius.”

You grinned. “Perfect. Now, this is what we’re going to do.”

It had been quiet for a while.

Joshua clearly lost the both of you when you made use of a container full of flour to mask your escape earlier. But he wasn’t going back. He was incredibly furious and the both of you needed to pay before he could make Jihoon suffer.

He paused and looked around. Something was in the air but he didn’t know what it was.

Without warning, a laser beam appeared out of nowhere and hit him behind his shoulder; making him stumble forward and almost pushing him to the ground. Before he could even recover, another one came flying from a different direction—now to his left.

“Calculate the angle for me, Hansol,” you ordered; a massive railgun at your grasps. It was a sleek black gun that was propped up behind a cargo container.

The both of you were actually far from where Joshua was at but with the help of Jihoon’s diamond things—as you aptly described it—scattered across the sector, you were able to locate Joshua as well as shooting him from a distance in various directions.

How? Well…

“39.9 degrees up, 5 degrees to the right, yes…” Hansol replied as he watched over your shoulder.

Immediately, you found the right coordinates and fired the railgun—the sound of its energy loading up increasing the adrenaline in your veins. The laser beam hit one of the diamonds floating above you, but instead of destroying it, the magnetic field generated by the diamond bent the laser beam as it ricochets to another diamond a few distance away, sitting at a perfect angle to hit Joshua. Like a game of BBTan.

There were several diamonds sitting just above the two of you which you alternated with so that Joshua wouldn’t be able to tell where the laser beams were coming from.

“Good thing Jihoon brought Soonyoung’s railgun,” Hansol remarked as he fixed your goggles from before; adjusting it so that he can transmit signals to it.

“Soonyoung’s another brother right?” you asked as you adjusted the crossfires of the massive gun. “Is he dangerous?”

“If you’re asking if he’s dangerous to humans like Joshua, then no,” he readily replied. “As a military-grade android, then yes. He’s the true combatant-type. I don’t think any bounty hunter can deal with him.”

You whistled. “That’s scary. I’m glad he’s not the one I was assigned to hunt.”

“He’s too carefree to be able to pull off something like this though, and Jihoon has him on a leash anyway. I’m not worried.”

Chuckling, you pulled your attention off of the railgun and turned to Hansol. “Is he still moving?”

“He’s at a weakened state now. I think I’ll handle this on my own. This is something between us, after all.”

“Sometimes I envy your sense of composure,” you remarked as you sighed. “Don’t die on me.”

“I don’t plan to.”

Just as he had said, Hansol stepped out of one of the cargo containers to face a rather battered Joshua. Using his state-of-the-art processor, he assessed that Joshua was only hanging due to the immense anger he feeling and one powerful strike can finish him off in an instant.

“Didn’t think you’d show up,” Joshua remarked his face marred with bruises and burnt marks.

“I thought maybe you’d want to give up,” Hansol replied. “I don’t want to hurt you any more than this.”

Joshua furrowed his brows as he threw daggers with his eyes at Hansol. “Save me the heroics. I’m not weak like you. I don’t need humans to help me.”

“We’re made with the same materials; the same blueprint, Joshua. You have to accept that you have an empathy organ inside of you, and rejecting it any further would lead you to deteriorate.”

“Don’t make me laugh. The empathy organ isn’t real!” He scoffed. “Jihoon made a wrong interpretation of the data he gathered.”

“I disagree,” Hansol replied. “The data I have gathered says otherwise. It was consistent to Jihoon’s findings.”

“Who would’ve guessed you got smitten by that bounty hunter! I guess I just have to convince you out of it,” Joshua grinned.

Without warning, Joshua sprinted from his position; throwing a high velocity kick towards Hansol’s direction. Hansol immediately blocked it with his arms and clutched Joshua’s ankle; smashing him down to the ground in an explosive crash.

Through the cloud of dust, Joshua hurled debris towards Hansol’s direction which he easily dodged. However, he wasn’t prepared when the other android suddenly flew at his direction; hands outstretched to grab on Hansol’s neck.

Hansol immediately countered, ducking below and grabbing the other’s neck in a chokehold before slamming Joshua back to the ground. He picked him up soon after and tossed him faraway like a curve ball. Joshua caught himself flying and saw himself crashing to the concrete floor; shards of rock and dust clouds up in the air.

“You know you’re no match for me if I use my predictive algorithms,” Hansol remarked as he looked down on Joshua who was lying on the floor. “Especially at that state.”

The other android grinned as he wiped leaked fluids from his lips. “I’m impressed. By asking Jihoon for help, the only one who could counter my AI hacking, then have your girlfriend shoot lasers to weaken me, and then finally attacking me one-on-one where you have the upper hand—your android side is showing.”

“I never denied my identity as an android. I will always be made of artificial materials. But I will not deny the fact that I have developed emotions and a consciousness of my own,” Hansol answered. “We will always be creatures of myth—a cold android swayed by their own emotions.”

Joshua spat on the floor; disgusted by his brother’s words. “I will never be like you!”

Again, he sprung from the ground and dashed towards Hansol.

The other easily countered everything his brother threw at him. As Joshua hurled an uppercut, Hansol dodged and smashed his fist at Joshua’s stomach; the other immediately curling.

“Stop this already!” Hansol pleaded; his chest tightening at how stubborn his brother could be, even to the point of near death.  

“Fuck you.”

Joshua stood up, trying to land a blow on Hansol yet he was already struggling to stand upright. Hansol dodged the attack as he pushed Joshua away, putting in more distance between them. Every time Joshua tried to strike, he only ducked, dodged or jumped above the other.

“You’re looking down on me, huh? You think you’re above everyone else just because you think you understand yourself!” Joshua shouted.

“I’m not! Why are you even doing this?” Hansol replied as he bit his lip. He can no longer bear looking at his brother who he once looked up to.

“He’s right, you know?”

Jihoon’s voice resounded across the area, floating diamonds following just behind him. “It’s time for you to stop.”

Joshua clicked his tongue, knowing full well that he can’t take on both Hansol and Jihoon at the same time. With barred teeth, he glared at both his brothers.

“We’re not done here yet.”

With those words, he jumped off the building where a hovercraft caught him and escaped away from the city skylines. Hansol and Jihoon watched as their brother left, realizing that they must take significant measures to prevent Joshua from hurting anyone ever again.

“Did you do what I told you?” Jihoon asked Hansol, who only nodded in response. “We’ll have to deal with him sooner or later.”

“He’s not going to stop, is he?” Hansol responded as Jihoon turned around and waved his hand.

“It’s going to take a lot to stop him. We might need Soonyoung after all,” he replied, and then stopped walking, averting his gaze to Hansol. “While we’re planning things, you should enjoy this down time with your girlfriend. Things might get a little heated soon.”

Somewhere inside a fully automated café, Hansol was sitting beside you as he observed the people walking to and fro outside the busy street. He had been staying with you since that night and he was more than satisfied to explore his newfound freedom with you.

“So, you quit as well, huh?” a deep voice echoed across the café filled with people dressed in weird latex suits—you three being the only people dressed normally.

“There’s…I just don’t know…Seungcheol,” you replied, looking at your cup of macchiato with a pensive expression. “Sometimes, I get nightmares.”

The other man chuckled. “That those andys you retired might be human, right? Me too.”

You gave a bitter smile. “Humans and androids all seems to identical nowadays. Especially with that new research about human-android relationships…I feel like I’m killing humans when I retire androids…”

Seungcheol mirrored your expression.

“I felt the same. I felt like that for years…and the last one I did, SVT-class Type-07 Woozi…I couldn’t do it anymore. That android was too close to a human being. It was protecting its girlfriend,” Seungcheol recounted, as you looked at a newspaper article featuring a top scientist with a blond android leading the research on humans and androids, on top of the table.

“That line…there were rumors that there was an empathy organ embedded on its androids,” you remarked, relaying a very well-known information.

“He’s part of that line, isn’t he?” Seungcheol asked with a father-like knowing grin as he sipped his coffee—his eyes staring at the direction of a distracted Hansol.

You threw a smirk at him. “I couldn’t retire him. How could I refuse if he asked me to trust him?”

Your companion chuckled. “These andys knowing what to throw at us bounty hunters. But I didn’t regret letting that android live.”

You glanced at Hansol, and as soon as he realized your gaze, he looked at you curiously. “Me too. I think I’m at peace more than I was before. I didn’t realize it, but I was being stubborn.”

“You don’t dislike them anymore?” Seungcheol asked.

“I still dislike all this baloney,” you scoffed, pointing at your surroundings filled with people in white overalls with expressions induced by chemicals. “But I don’t dislike him.”

Seungcheol raised his brows at you. “I’m surprised you accepted the existence of an empathy organ.”

“I can’t deny that I’m skeptical about it, but I also can’t deny the fact that Hansol is different compared to all the androids I’ve met before. He made me realize how much anger I was hiding inside of me. He doesn’t make me feel lonely as this city does.”

“People are living in spaces separate from each other…not caring, not loving. It’s funny, you know?” you continued when your companion didn’t reply. “Androids are becoming more human, as humans become more robotic. You’d wonder what the future holds for us.”

He nodded in understanding.

“Yeah, you’d wonder.”

[cataclysmic-cadenza]

YOURE FUCKING LYING LMFAOOO

he’s obsessed with ass, lemme pull up my repertoire of his worst lyrics about it

1. “im the siren you hear, im the buttpolice and i’m looking at your REAR REAR REAR” go directly to jail, do NOT pass go, do NOT collect $200

2. “you got buns, ive got aspergers” don’t do drugs kids ❤️

3. “im looking at your tight rear like a sightseer” the line directly before ur original one

4. “comes straight from the fish's ass, yeah, in other words, i'm a bass-turd” kys 🫶

5. “ain’t never seen an ass like that, the way you move it you make my pee-pee go boing-boing-boing” did the opps trick me into listening to an eminem parody made by a 7 yr old?

6. “see that gerbil, grab that tube, shove it up my butt, let that little rascal nibble on my asshole” we all knew this would be on here but i still cant bring myself to type out the lines directly after that

7. ”lady, you remind me of my raps on that relapse shit, cause you got an ass thick as them accents, two asscheek implants, call that an asset, cause you could set a glass on it, it's massive” you cant be fucking fr

8. “words are like a dagger with a jagged edge that'll stab you in the head, whether you're a fag or les' or a homosex, hermaph or a trans-a-vest, pants or dress, hate fags? the answer's yes, homophobic? nah, you're just heterophobic, staring at my jeans, watching my genitals bulgin', that's my motherfuckin' balls, you'd better let go of 'em, they belong in my scrotum, you'll never get hold of 'em! hey, it's me, versace! whoops, somebody shot me! and I was just checkin' the mail. get it? checkin' the male?” you bet your ass im heterophobic after this shit 🤭

9. the same nigga: “is it gay to play putt-putt golf with a friend and watch his butt-butt when he tees off? but, but i ain't done yet. in football the quarterback yells out hutt-hutt while he reaches in another grown man's ass, grabs on his nuts, but just what if it was never meant it was just an accident. but he tripped, fell, slipped and his penis went in his teeny tiny little round hiney and he didn't mean it but his little weenie flinched just a little bit. and I don't mean to go in into any more details but what if he pictured it as a females butt?” i think my blunt got laced bro theres no way this actually exists

10. “call her cinderella, she loves balls” wow

11. “kiss my butt, lick fromunda cheese from unda my nuts” some of yall are adamant that he should have the n word pass but im not convinced he should be allowed to speak at all

12. “toilet water splashes me right in the ass when i'm spittin' cuz I'm always shittin when i'm rapping like master p” thanks for the visual em 🥰

enjoy 🫶

How the fuck do you expect me to ever consider Eminem as some master lyricist when, in 2017, he rapped with his full chest, "that booty is heavy duty like diarrhea." 💀 THIS MAN IS NEARLY 50 YEARS OLD!

[nishaapologist]

do you have any fo4 mod recommendations? i re-downloaded recently but i dont know where to start

/sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiides in boy, DO I,

okay so i legit run my game with 87+ mods because as far as im concerned if its not crashing u can still shove a few more in there:

BUT i have a more Core Group that i think are needed as the Bare Basics of playing? so i guess i’ll list them off!

now i will add very quickly: i mod for immersion, usually? immersion and building at my two big ones tbh. i basically try to make my game more open to interpretation so i can Fuck Off and Do Whatever and still have my game be able to facilitate that, whereas other people mod cool stuff in because Cool Stuff Is Cool To Have, regardless of whether or not it fits the “lore” or style of fallout as a whole. so even though i have a lot of mods, most of these boil down to tweaks and small additions to make my life smoother as a whole.

slamming this under a cut because this list goes on for a Bit:

so let’s talk about broader dependencies first! a lot of Big Mods require other tools to run, so obviously we’re starting with:

F4SE (Fallout Script Extender. you can’t do SHIT without this)

Armor and Weapons Keywords Community Resource (aka AWKCR. used for a LOT of armor mods and stuff)

Mod Configuration Menu (this doesn’t have any dependencies itself per se, but a lot of mods play with it and make it easier for you to adjust mods from the menu as opposed to yr pip-boy or, god forbid, the .ini files)

Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch (i mean. why wouldn’t you)

Workshop Framework (for workshop modding and settlement stuff)

there’s technically more i use for Other Mods, but they probably won’t come up here so i’m just gonna sliiiiiiiide on past. i’m also NOT gonna talk abt ENBs cause that’s a whole other can of worms. anyway. moving briskly on to the main course.

MODS MURPHY CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT

Armorsmith Extended: adds a BUNCH of modifications to armour, including layering armour, adding more adjustments and modifications like ballistic weave, and being able to adjust like, everything in the game. it also does an overall streamlining of armour slots to make stuff take up Less Space on yr body. neato.

Darker Nights: ever thought to yourself that the moon in fallout must be powered by a nuclear reactor to be so friggin’ bright all the time? this fixes that. makes it dark as shit at night, to a level you prefer! mine’s, like, super dark. enough that without a flashlight i’m staring at a black screen lmaoooo WHICH BRINGS US TO

Pip-Boy Flashlight: i owe this mod my next seven dogs. HOLY SHIT. this pairs up with Darker Nights like a match made in heaven. fully customisable lights on yr pip-boy AND power armour, with a HUUUUGE menu of options. you WILL wonder how on earth you ever put up with the vague green glow of yr pip-boy ever again.

Dogmeat’s Backpack: i love travelling with dogmeat, but he does double as a pack brahmin for me. this adds backpacks to increase his inventory, as well as adds some collars with fun effects to help you in and out of combat! good doggy :)

Durable Vertibirds: vertibirds come and go but they really shouldn’t. this makes vertibirds hard as nails to kill. stops supermutants being able to shoot em outta the sky via wet fart.

Full Dialogue Interface (other dialogue mods are available): lists all dialogue out in full in yr options, so u know what yr gonna say before you even say it! there’s a bunch of mods in this genre, i just picked the one i have for now.

Homemaker: i love building. Homemaker adds a ton (and i mean a TON) of building objects and items that lets you do anything from decorating more thoroughly to building concord, two! it’s a great mod if you, like me, love spending 12 hours placing items. which brings us to:

Creative Clutter: does what it says on the tin. adds HUNDREDS of new items that let you put down clutter to make stuff feel more lived in. luv that for me. but THAT brings us TO:

Place Everywhere: do you wish the game didn’t highlight shit in red when you jostle a bed 2mm to one side? this mod stops that! and also adds an entire overhaul to the way building works, with a learning curve like a brick wall to the face and granular movement adjustments to the pixel. i cannot do ANYTHING without this mod. i functionally cannot PLAY this game without this mod. it’s VERY good, and ties nicely into:

Scrap Everything: ever looked at the trash on the ground and wished you could poof it out of existence? now you can! it even gives you resources for the effort. vines, trash, walls, pavement, grass, rubble, debris, you name it, you can scrap it! it’s a VERY powerful mod though so be careful what you scrap, because i have actually deleted the entire Castle before. whoops.

Start Me Up: a PREMIER mod. this is like. yeah no. i wont even run my game if this isnt installed. Start Me Up doesn’t just let you have a custom alt-start, but changes all the dialogue in the game to scrub any mention of being Shaun’s parent, so you can play that raider you’ve always dreamed of without ANY concerns of someone asking you if you have a kid. a dream come true :)

Sarcastic Sneaking: changes all sneaking dialogue from HIDDEN, DETECTED, CAUTION and DANGER to SAFE FOR NOW, THEY CAN SEE YOU, THEY’RE GONNA FIND YOU, and YOU’RE FUCKED. this mod doesn’t do anything else. yet it’s one of my favourites of all time. a must-have for a murpy playthru.

Wearable Backpacks and Pouches: i like picking up junk, but my frail back keeps breaking under the weight :( this mod adds customisable backpacks and pouches to increase yr carry limit! amazing.

Survival Options: if yr not playing Survival you don’t need this, BUT if you ARE i cannot recc this mod enough. it lets you adjust yr survival experience to perfection, including adding save options like ‘save on cell change’ or ‘save on level up’, as well as tweaking beds and the like. it pairs nicely with:

Unlimited Survival Mode: allows you to further tweak your game by unlocking hard-coded barriers, such as allowing you the vanilla compass, opening up the console, or allowing you to quick save, auto save, manual save, and much, much more. i use this so i can use god mode whilst building in my sarah run, haha.

OTHER MODS MURPHY COULD MAYBE LIVE WITHOUT, BUT WHY WOULD YOU?

No More Creation Club News: SHUT UP I DON’T CARE ABOUT THE CREATION CLUB!!! TODD!!! gets rid of that bloody... newsreel when u open the game. thats it. im at peace.

Multiple Followers Overhaul: lets me have dogmeat, AND another friend :) can be used to have as many as, like, 50 followers or something crazy? i just use it to always have dogmeat + someone else, lmao.

Lots More Female Hairstyle/Male Hairstyles/Facial Hair: this blends together all of the vanilla hairstyles into more interesting combos numbering the, like, hundreds. can’t recc it enough.

Improved Map With Visible Roads: for when i can’t find goodneighbor :( but actually, this makes the map significantly clearer and easier to use to navigate roads, and is just a quality of life tweak that i rly, rly need in survival, lmao

LooksMenu: does a bunch of stuff in character creation that plays nice with other character creation mods, but primarily allows you to modify the face from a menu rather than contextual hover, and lets you save presets to a menu, so once you’ve made a face you can save it for another character/run later!

APC Transport: i JUST added this one but... lets you travel in survival via a personal APC! comes with storage, artillery, and the ability to travel to any major city and found settlement. it’ll break down every now and again and also consumes fuel, so it’s more immersive than plain ol’ fast travel. i’m REALLY enjoying it!

TBH this isn’t even, like, the end of this list... there’s other mods i, personally, like too much to not have, but this is probably the Lite Version(tm) that also has frameworks for other mods like Sim Settlements and what have you.

again u can see its mostly for building and immersion (and i have even more immersion mods than just this, trust me) but i think it’s a pretty good groundwork for any fallout run. have fun!

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #387

“today i woke up, & i hate myself”

What common problem have you never experienced? The loss of a close family member (that doesn't include pets). Alternatively, what's an uncommon problem you have experienced? Homelessness. Do you know anyone who opposes marriage equality? I sure do. What was the last thing you got really emotional about? Meerkat Manor: Rise of the Dynasty premiering. What's the longest amount of time you've been ill for? I don't really know. I don't get sick a lot at all. Who is your closest male friend? Girt. Do you know anyone who hunts for meat? Sadly. I say "sadly" because it's not like they need it. Have you ever lived with a boyfriend/girlfriend? Yes, although I wasn't a technical resident. I was there all the time, though. What do you wash dishes with? Sponge, scrub brush, rag, something else? A sponge. Is there anything you prefer to do the old-fashioned way? There's probably something, but I can't think of anything. Do you put your glasses and mugs right side up or upside down on the cabinet shelf? Upside-down. What was the worst part of your childhood? My parents fighting. Have you ever seen a high school relationship last long-term? (like 10+yrs) Yeah. Do you know any cancer survivors? Quite a few. Leftover pizza for breakfast... yay or nay? Good shit, man. Do you personally know anyone who's a psychopath or sociopath? I don't think so. What is your most used kitchen appliance? Lately, it's been the apple slicer. I've been on a real apple slices + peanut butter kick lately. What is something that you would personally like to be remembered for? For being a caring person towards all living things. Have you ever been diagnosed as clinically depressed before? Yes. Do you like bowling? Yeah, it's fun. Do you own binoculars or nonoculars? What do you use them for? No. Do you ever wish you had a telescope on the roof or attic to stargaze? Yeah, that'd be cool. Have you ever had to deal with someone close to you going off to war? No, thankfully. Who do you feel you have the most in common with? Sara, easily. Who in your life causes you the most stress or negative feelings? My damn self lmao. Have you ever had a teacher that also taught your parents? No. My parents didn't grow up in NC. What’s one thing that people definitely CAN’T count on you for? To remember like... anything. What about something they definitely can count on you for? Someone to listen to encourage them. What’s one food that you want to try but haven’t yet? I've always thought macaroons look good. Do you have anything planned for the summer? No. Do you walk fast or slow? Slow. Would you consider yourself an adrenaline junkie? No. What is a common slang word from where you live? Plural "you" does not exist. It's "y'all," lol. What’s the scariest thing you’ve accidentally found on the internet? *shrug* Probably something as a kid, going on those sketchy websites with loads of games and stuff. Thinking of every Halloween costume you’ve had, which one was the most creative? I don't think I've had any creative costumes for Halloween. What’s one random city you want to visit? It's not exactly "random" as it's a popular location, but anyway, I would love to visit Venice. What subjects do you or did you get the worst grades in? Math. When was the last time you ate cake and what type of cake was it? That's a good question, actually. Maybe my niece's birthday in February? I don't remember what kind of cake it was. Do you have photos to go with all of the contacts in your phone? No; I don't have any. Do you like snowy winter days or do you prefer rainy days? SNOWY! Name 3 things you find most beautiful in nature: Mountains, large waterfalls, and desert dunes in the wind. If you could ask one person one questions and get a completely honest answer who would it be and what would you ask? Jason. I'd ask if he thought I was emotionally abusive. What is your favorite winter activity? Building snowmen. Who is the greatest singer who is no longer living? Freddie Mercury. What is your idea of heaven? I don't know, really... I have to ask myself IS there a heaven in eternity? Living forever just... doesn't appeal to me. "Living" is an odd word to use there, but hopefully you get it. Existing on and on and on and on seems like it'd just be a drag, but at the same time I do like the thought of feeling relentlessly happy and peaceful with my loved ones. I guess that would be my definition of it, if it does exist. What’s one of the scariest things you’ve ever done? ODed. Have you ever watched the Superbowl all the way through? Just once, on my 16th birthday because I was at Jason's place and all of his family was watching it. I had absolutely zero interest, but we wanted to hang with the family. If you had to move to another country, where would you move? Canada. Do you watch American Horror Story? I haven't in years. It was Jason's and my first "show," and the first season was excellent. I lost interest in the second one, honestly. I'd be up for watching other seasons, though. How many relationships have you been in this year? None. What's your favorite cereal? Probably Cinnamon Toast Crunch. That's also the only cereal where I can happily drink the milk afterwards. Twitter or Facebook? Facebook. Do you like to paint your nails? No. What's the coolest place you've ever been to? Disney World, probably. Have you ever punched anyone? No. What's something you wish you knew how to do? Cook. :/ I really need to make an effort to learn. It'd be great to not rely on a microwave for the rest of my life. What's a celebrity that everyone likes but you don't? *shrug* What food do you eat the most? Probably bread in some form or another. That really needs to stop. Green or purple grapes? Either one, but they have to be firm. I cannooooooot with soft grapes. Have you ever cried over a text? Yeah. What's the background of your phone of? My lock screen is this pretty, simplistic periwinkle color with "work on you for you" written on it. It's one I plan on keeping for probably a long time because I connect to it so deeply with my stupid damn head frequently demanding I have to improve "for Jason" to prove him wrong. Which is a very unhealthy mindset to have, I know. My home screen is a cute lil Mark edit someone made with a very similar pale blue background, so my phone is just currently an #aesthetic. Do you have a Snapchat? No. What's your favorite sports team? (if you like sports)? I don't like sports, but I'm biased towards the Carolina Hurricanes hockey team because of my dad. Last thing you ate? I had Honey Nut Cheerios for breakfast. Do you take a lot of selfies? Definitely not. I just hate how I look so much; it takes way too much effort for me to get an "acceptable" one. Do you prefer strawberries or cherries? Strawberries. I hate cherries. How many hours of sleep did you get last night? Maybe like, three. -_- Our A/C is still out, and it was like, 87 in the house last night. It was impossible to sleep. Do you listen to music daily? Not EVERY day, but usually. Biggest insecurity? My weight. Do you play video games? Not as much as I used to. I'd probably play way more if I actually had a PS4 + the games I'm DYING to have. Do you consider yourself lazy? "Yes, but a lot of it is also health related for my lack of energy and motivation." <<<< This for me as well. What recently made you laugh? I was watching a bit of The Nanny with Mom yesterday. We love that show. Do you like gummy bears? Yep. What was the last song you listened to? I'm randomly hooked on "My Nocturnal Serenade" by YOHIO. Like, I've known the song for a long time, but NOW I'm bingeing it???? Describe your mom with one word. Selfless. What's the biggest turn-off? Probably being misogynistic. But being a cocky ass is definitely high up there, too. What fish scares you the most? Mfkng whale sharks terrify me. How do you feel about snails? They're cuties!!! What's your favorite app? Pokemon GO. Would you rather time travel into the past or future? The future, to see what's coming. I feel like you could come back with some pretty valuable information. What is the saddest song you've ever heard? I think "Terrible Things" by Mayday Parade has to come on top. What insect do you hate the most? I was reminded that stag beetles exist last night, and omfg those. Well, "hate" is the wrong word, really, I'm just terrified of them. Would you ever have a wild animal as a pet if possible? I 110% want to rescue an opossum, emphasis on "rescue." I'm not plucking one from the wild or anything like that. I would be in HEAVEN raising one of those angels. Are there any decorations that makes you happy? (lights, candles, plants..) I love those beds decorated with fairy lights, and just Christmas lights in general. Halloween and Christmas decor tend to give me sparks of happiness when I see 'em. Does race matter to you when it comes to dating? Not at all for me. When was the last time you painted something? Not since I was still in school and took a Painting course. When was the last time you really felt alive, and what were you doing? I have NO idea. What is one question you would like an answer to? Why the worst things tend to happen to good people. Name one favorite thing to do with kids while babysitting. I don't babysit, but if I was to be in charge of a kid, I'd love to teach them to play video games from my childhood. Playing Pokemon with my niece and nephew is always a blast, ahhhh. Name one flavor you like. Strawberry is pretty consistent. Name one thing you are hoping for. Venus' new terrarium soon... big sigh. I can't for the life of me find one that's a reasonable price and also adequately sized. I'm willing to put the rest of my cash into it, but Mom is helping, so I can't just buy the first one I see. Then I'd need more substrate, I seriously want a temperature gun and hygrometer, a cool hide, sticks and stuff for cover... It's going to be expensive, but I want Venus to have a truly proper environment she can thrive in. Write the name of one of your imaginary friends from when you were younger. Oddly enough, I can't remember the imaginary wolf that was my "friend." I say "oddly" because his whole idea was important to me as a weird-ass kid. Name one girl's name that starts with a "J" that you like. "Justine." Name one boy's name that starts with a "J" that you like. Maybe "Jaxson." Have you ever been kissed? Yeah. Have you ever feared that you would be killed? It's never been like, a fear I actively worry about. I just acknowledge it's always a possibility for anyone. What is the last great opportunity you missed? This was quite a while ago by now, but I'd say by dropping out of school, I really let photography opportunities slip since I became the newspaper photographer...

[atalante241]

A Ninjago AU starting from the 1st Serpentine War

So instead of the humans wining, the serpentine win the war. So humans are sealed underground in different sectors, there’s 5 sectors.

In a tomb in the Sea of Sand = Mechanics, inventors and actors ect.

The Mountain of Million Steps = Artist (Dancers, singers, painters ect.) and warriors

Under a peninsula in the Boiling Sea = Blacksmiths, builders

Blackwood Forest = Farmers, civilians ect.

Caves of Despair = Different weapons made by humans, Including 24/7 guarding of the 4 Golden Weapons

When the ppl were being gathered so they could be transported to the prisions the elemental master of Ice got away, sneakily so no one realized. He ran away to the Birchwood Forest, where he met Dr. Julien who had no idea what was happening.

Dr. Julien had been living in isolation for a while, trying to build Zane. So he had no idea that the war had even started or who won, so he had just stayed happily in his hollow tree. So when this raggedy looking old man come stumbling out of nowhere he tries to help him, and help him he does. And he ends up finding out that they’re the same age, the others dudes just super stressed.

Ice ends up staying with him, and when Dr. Julien finally finishes Zane he’s there aswell helping all the way. So Zane now has 2 just-friends dads, Ice ends up giving Zane his power, with Dr. Julien’s permission first of course. Ice doesn’t end up telling them about the war.

One day when Zane’s just doing his thing chopping wood, a scout group sent by the generals to check out the woods stumbles upon him. They of course freak out, but calm down somewhat when Zane’s just confused about them. They tell him to stay where he is, and quickly get back to base. Where they tell the generals about him, they of course wanna check it out so the 5 generals go to the forest. (With soldiers of course)

When they get there (on the same day, they’re very efficient) they ask Zane a bunch of questions, mostly how the hell he’s here.

“How’d you come here”

“I was born here”

“You what”

So Zane ends up taking them to his 2 platonic dads, where they talk. And the generals learn that the three have no fucking clue about any war (Ice you fucking liar), so they decide to strike peace with ‘em. Next morning the paper has a picture of three humans smiling at the camera, with the words “Keep these clueless idiots safe, they’ve got no idea about the war and r living in the forest like hermits, they’re so fucking adorable protect them”. So that’s what happens, every so often a serpentine guard comes by the tree house to make sure everything’s all right.

While all of this fluff is happening Garmadon’s being turned evil and smiten down to The Underworld, where he gains hold over the skulkin. He sends them out on raids to Serpentine villages, it becomes the new norm with people trained in Fang Kwon Do protecting their villages form the skulkin. The skulkin basically become road side bandits but they attack cities and villages.

But the fucking Zangst we can’t live without that can we, so 9-8 yrs before the breakout Dr. Julien and Ice get sick. And they fucking die, guess what. Samukai stills comes with the resurrection potions, but with 2 this time. So now the dudes r stuck in the light house together wanting to see their son, and Dr. Julien and Ice flipped the memory switch when they died so Zane’s fucking amnesiac.

Now bare in mind that the serpentine think that Zane is human, so when they come to check on them and find the tree house deserted with all the ppl gone they freak out. Don’t blame them, they’ve gotten attached. So imagine their relief when they find Zane just wandering the woods, then the horror when they find out he has amnesia. So now the whole country’s freaking out, the 3 ppl living in the woods were like their weird ass pets. So everybody tries to kinda take care of Zane, with trying to tell him about his dads.

On another note in the prisions, the kids are all trained to kill serpentine and to be ready for war when they finally get out of there. Somehow somebody found a magical way to communicate between tombs, so the humans’ve kept contact with each other that way. So when some magical prsn come like “I found a way to push five ppl outta here!”, the sectors decide on who to send. And those ppl are *drum roll* Kai, Jay, Cole, Nya and Lloyd!

Now they had their parents this time around so they know that they’re elementals and they’ve been trained to fight and junk, so when they get out of the prisions they kinda go on a rampage. Now when the serpentine find out about this they are kinda freaked, because 9-8yrs ago Dr. Julien and Ice disappeared and Zane got amnesia and there’s a bunch of grazy ppl running around the outskirts, and the skulkin are more active nowadays. And they’re apperently human, then someone realizes that Zane’s visiting the outskirts. Panic.

When the party of five stumble upon Zane they’re kinda confused, “what the hell is this guy doing out of the tombs?”. But they kinda take him with them, now they’re still kinda sus about him.

The serpentine didn’t get locked up. So now more of their cultures survived, like somewhat clothes for example: shawls. And certain ppl wear certain things, but it isn’t that noticeable. So there’s a shawl for protected/under protection of the general, and which general is shown by a sown color patch or a dangly bit. So Zane’s got all five color things as color patches, this means that he’s protected by all the serpentine clans. They kinda see him as a pet, he’ll even die way before them. (If he was human that is)

Now the kids got thaught about serpentine culture while underground, so they know the whole color patch shawl thing. But the for some reason end up thinking that Zane’s running away, because the serpentine treat him really badly or something. It could lead to that with some misunderstandings, and bare in mind. Zane still has 0 clue that the wars happened. So the kids take him with them to find the golden weapons, and Garmadon’s ordered the skulkin to also get them.

So now there’s a very trigger happy group of humans, a bunch of worried serpentine, and the weird ass skulkin. And there’s an amnesiac kid with the humans, and the serpentine are trying to get him back.

Wanna know what happens? Me too! ‘Cause I have no idea what happens after this.

Links to the Stuff in This AU

[theuniverseawakens347]

polarity vs duality — straight to it ppl whom never met me.. lees trying to use her victim self ON SOMEONE ELSE TWITTER ACCOUNT to say I’m the evil one for telling her pedo ring military abuse truths … TO MY TEACHERS THEYVE ALREADY TURNED LEE IN THIS AINT NEW TO THEM … THE GIRLS I WENT TO SCHOOL WITH STUDENTS PARENTS KNOW LEE TRUE INTENTIONS THEY GOT PLAYED BY HER BACK IN THE DAY AND THE KIDS LEARNED THE HARD WAYBIVE ALWAYS BEEN A GOOD FRIEND TO EM… THEY JUST DIDNT KNOW I WAS GOD ..THAT PART IS TESTING UR SOUL FOR A REASON. FOR ME N MY RIGHTFUL DISCIPLES TO KNOW .

polarity… me nip and Tracy…. We circulate energy but IM THE MAIN DRIVING FORCE YIN N YANG.. Chris and Trevor .. Obama and Trevor Noah.. a triad IF UR MY SPECIAL FIGHTERS … HOWARD RONALD AND JOHN GARLINGTON THEN ME N HOWARD …HES AN OLD SKIN SUIT OF NIP FROM A DIFFERENT DIMENSION .. HE APPEARS HUMAN BEING BUT OF DIFFERENT ENTITY… MEN N BLACK TYPE SHIT ..

duality : good from bad… straight to it ya know right from wrong ya just don’t want to tell ya fans the truth “ when ur idol turns out to be a piece of shit” Elmo shrug.. ya made ya beds.. here’s the lay.. DDG bar.. you don’t want ppl to know ur a murder yara WILLINGLY ya like character Zoe from grownish soooooo much n blackish SPOKE HARD LIFE TRUTHS U NOT LEARN SO IT SLAPPING U IN THE FACE AGAIN… or you don’t want ur fans to know your fucking men shaking ass cause ya got your peen peen chopped off and no longer have to fuck n butt.. now you get to set up WHATEVER standard for rape culture on women.. ya mad at ya moms for giving you identity crisises now ya wan return the poison.. ur a shit person..

OR YA GENUINELY LOST N STRESSED AND WANT TO ,AKE IT OUT YA SHIT LIFE.. WE TALK FACE TO FACE YA ASKING TOO MUCH OVER THE INTERNET BARRIER AND YA KNOW THIS ASSHOLES MISUSING ME… ANOTHER SIGN OF UR NOT CHILDREN OF GOD .. BC YOU NO FEACH OUT TO ME PERSONALLY AND PAY ME FOR MY KNOWLEDGE TO HEAL YOU ASS HOLE JESS HILARIOUS… IDC YOU A AMBER ROSE .. TAKE ADVANTAGE DO THE BARE MINIMUM I NO BELIEVE LEMME TOUCH THE BUTT. DICK WADS. I say ya truth you go harass Lee.. ASSHOLE NO. THEN WAN KNOW IF I KNOW.. YES .. AND I NEVER TOLD YOU TO DO THAT. I POSTED NUMBERS IN THE BEGINNING SO YAL CUD SEE INLIVE W YA ABUSER FOR 30 yrs LEE GARLINGTON AND NICKI MUHAMMAD… HOWARD 2021-2023 ALREADY TOLD YOU HOW TO ,AKE RIGHT WITH MY TEAM AND YOU CONTINUED TO DO EVIL SHIT CAUSE YA LACK PARENTING ON UR EMOTION… SO NOW YA GET MY VERBAL VENOM BEFORE MY BRIGHT POLICE DO THE PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT.

[ultraglittercat]

Drabble 137

Balance Beam

Varian wasn’t sure why Rapunzel had invited him back to the castle, so soon after they’d made up. He hadn’t even had time to buy a new outfit, something Dad had offered as a pick me up, hoping it would boost his reformed but still really regretful son’s spirit.

And he hadn’t expected anyone else to be there, but standing next to Rapunzel in a room with a big plank sandwiched between 2 chairs, were a pair of girls Varian estimated to be 11 and 12 yrs old.

“Hi, Varian! Did you and your father have a safe trip here?” Rapunzel asked brightly.

“Yeah, it was alright.” Varian replied. In truth, everyone had avoided him and only a few brave souls had called out a hello to Quirin, and Quirin only. His Dad was visiting with the King and Queen now, although Varian didn’t know how productive their conversation would be, as the Royals still had no memory (that was Varian’s fault) and Quirin had been encased in amber for a little over a year (also Varian’s fault.)

“These sisters are two good friends of mine, Angry and Red. They’re thinking of making here home, won’t that be nice? Say hello, girls.” Rapunzel introduced them.

The brunette- Angry- looked Varian over critically. “Aw, you told me he had a bandana with fangs!” she sounded disappointed.

Varian looked down at the floor. “Yeah, I- I don’t wear that any more. I’m actually thinking of getting something new to wear, but this’ll do for now.” Varian mumbled, shuffling his feet nervously. If he’d looked up he would have also seen that the redheaded girl was nervous, too.

“I think Varian looks good. We all do.” Rapunzel was wearing one of her many pink and purple dresses. Varian wondered how many she owned, and if she realized what a luxury it was. Old Corona was not a wealthy village, at least not compared to Corona in general, and certainly not the Castle and it’s Royal inhabitants. But he had to admit she was right- she did look good.

“I thought we’d do something fun today! The big party we had to celebrate the defeat of the Saporians was nice, but there’s still a lot of renovations we have to do, and I think that with so much work being scheduled, it’s good to take a break.” Rapunzel said.

“I like renovations. We’re gonna fix up our tree house soon, it’ll be awesome!” Angry predicted.

“Yeah, awesome.” echoed Red, but she didn’t sound so enthused.

“The girls are gonna teach us gymnastics today. There wasn’t a lot of space to practice flips and cartwheels and such in the tower.” Rapunzel sighed wistfully.

Okay, so maybe the Princess’ life hadn’t always been so pampered. Varian would try to remember that, it was still kind of hard reframing his thoughts so he didn’t think of Rapunzel as a spoiled, selfish, promise-breaking traitor instead of the kind, forgiving person she was and always had been, Varian had just been too blinded by rage to see it before.

“We’re gonna start off easy, since you two are just beginners.” Angry seemed to relish both being in charge and being better than someone at something. “Walk across the balance beam, Red.” Angry told her sister.

Red obediently walked across, eyes looking straight ahead, and without any wavering or hesitation. As she neared the end, she turned and did a handstand before righting herself and finishing her walk.

“Yeah! That’s showing ‘em!” Angry cheered and Red smiled for the first time that day.

“Thanks I--” Red began but Angry cut her off.

“Okay, which one of you two is going first. How about the boy, Varitas?” Angry hadn’t even bothered to get his name right.

“It’s Varian.” he corrected.

“Yeah, that’s too long. I’m just gonna call you V.” Angry decided. Varian shrugged, better a nickname than being called an incorrect one.

“You sure this is easy?” Varian felt nervous standing on the board, with the girls watching him.

“I’ll help you.” Rapunzel offered a hand, and Varian took it gratefully. He wobbled a bit, but he went forward step by step, trying to keep his eyes straight ahead as Red had done and mostly succeeding. The balance beam wasn’t very high up, but until Rapunzel had reached out Varian had missed having arm support, like when he climbed ladders to reach the apple trees at home.

“You don’t have to do a handstand like Red. Just crossing is good enough.” Rapunzel insisted.

“Yeah, I wasn’t planning on it.” Varian admitted.

“That’s cause you have no sense of adventure.” Angry judged. Red stifled a laugh.

Varian reached the end of the board and jumped down. “Adventure or not, I did it.” he said proudly. Angry just stuck her tongue out at him in response. Varian scowled, but that seemed to be the reaction she was expecting, and both girls laughed. Varian found to his surprise that he wasn’t even annoyed by their teasing, it had been ages since he’d heard anyone laugh around him. It was actually kind of nice that the girls weren’t intimidated by Varian, seeing him as just another kid around their own age, not some evil terrorist.

“Don’t tease him, Varian did a good job.” Rapunzel rushed to his defense.

“It’s okay, they weren’t bothering me.” Varian said.

“Yeah, V’s a good sport, even if he’s a lousy gymnast.” Angry grinned mischievously.

“Lousy? I’ll show you!” Varian stuck his foot out, leaned over and put his hands on the floor, then kicked up and over, and landed on his feet. It wasn’t the prettiest cartwheel, but it was successful.

“Only one? A true gymnast does several!” Angry boasted. She and Red turned and did a series of quick cartwheels, followed by backflips.

Varian was impressed. “Okay, you win. I can’t do the flip.” Varian conceded.

“It t-took me a few tries to get it.” Red said shyly.

“But now she’s an expert! We both are!” Angry was proud. “Hey Rapunzel, are you ready to try the balance beam?” she asked.

Rapunzel nodded. She’d been waiting very patiently, but now there was no hiding her excitement. With a whoop of delight, she ran to the board,  moving quickly across. Unlike Varian, she didn’t need a hand steadying her, she’d always had good balance.  “Ta da!” Rapunzel announced upon finishing. On her shoulder, the little chameleon Pascal clapped, and Varian and the girls did the same.

“That was pretty good. Maybe next time we should set up uneven parallel bars.” Angry envisioned.

“N-next time?” Varian hadn’t expected there to be a first time, and he certainly hadn’t expected that the girls would want to practice with him again.

“Sure. We’ve got lots more tricks we can show you. And maybe you’ll even be able to do a couple yourself.” Angry allowed.

“We’ll look forward to it.” Rapunzel spoke for both herself and Varian.

There was a knock at the door.

“Varian? Son? Are you finished playing with your friends?” Quirin asked.

“Yeah, Dad!” Varian called out brightly. He didn’t know which was more amazing, that he’d been allowed to play, or that he had friends. Both would have seemed like impossible scenarios a week ago, but then seeing his Dad free had seemed impossible then, too.

“We’ll see you around, V!” Angry had already taken it for granted that Varian would be back.

“Bye Varian.” whispered Red.

“Goodbye, Varian. See you soon!” Rapunzel and Pascal both waved. And Varian waved back, before running up to hug his father. It was nice having fun at the Castle, but even that couldn’t compare to the sheer joy he felt just seeing Quirin again.

The End

This was inspired by lovely artwork by @namiya-san. I added Kiera and Catalina to the story because there was never a moment in show where they formally met (they just seemed to already know each other in Lost Treasure) and gymnastics gives the girls a chance to shine. So this a super early Season 3 story, between Rapunzel’s Return and Big Bad Wolf.

[idk-my-aesthetic]

Ok I already made a kinda similar post but I feel like I wanna re-articulate/add to my point

So, Steven wanting be seen as an adult isn’t a problem at all bc like.... he is. Basically. Maturity and experience wise, he has more than passed what qualifies as becoming an adult like.... years ago

But the part of snow day that concerns me is how he pushes away all the things that have been shown to make him happy, without really showing any new things

(Also the gems behavior of suddenly treating Steven like he’s 12 again (which he’s rightfully annoyed by) seems like a big jump, but I’ll explain that in a minute)

Like it’s perfectly healthy for ppl to grow out of little kid stuff and into adult stuff, if they actually grow into adult stuff! Bc Steven like.... doesn’t. He exchanges together breakfast for protein shakes, but that’s it. Everything else is replaced by work

Also his refusal to rely on the gems in anyway (for food, to let garnet pack his bag, etc) could be seen as just like a part of trying to establish his independence, if it wasn’t part of an increasingly concerning pattern of refusing to rely on anyone for anything

And tbh? I think both things are very much connected to what happened with spinel and in the movie

Like in the very beginning/in here we are in the future we see him acting A lot closer to 14 yr old Steven. He’s obviously matured, but he shows actual interest in stuff (the rock show) acts more goofy (rolling down the stairs, jumping through Lars’s hair) and relays on the others a lot more (letting garnet & amethyst catch him)

Obvi the rest of the movie is super stressful and the gems don’t know him so we don’t really get many more things like that. But those actions are prominent and show us 2 important things 1) even though he’s definitely grown he still likes to act kinda silly, and 2) he’s still close with the gems

So what happened?

Well, at the end he says to spinel “there’s no such thing as happily ever after. My work will never be done” and like... I think that’s a much more important line than anyone is giving it credit for

I think spinel’s attack was something much bigger that affected him a lot more than ppl realized. It made him realize that like this shit will affect him for the rest of his life

And tbh I wouldn’t be surprised if that led to a subconscious thought process of “I always need to be vigilant and ready to help” to “I know I’m not a threat, so my problems should be pushed aside to help others” to “I need to try and stop problems before they happen” to “I can’t Ever think about my problems bc I need to find any others and fix them instead”

So now he doesn’t wanna think about his own issues for 2 reasons a) bc it’s hard and b) bc he thinks it’s more important to make sure everyone else in the galaxy is ok then it is to make sure he’s ok. Which is only gonna make his problems worse x 2

And it’s showing in how he acts in future vs the beginning of the movie, though it’s most evident in snow day

Like in the movie there is no indication that any of the gems are babying him in any way. At one point I was literally annoyed cause I was like they’re letting him do too much. But they’re def not babying him, they obvi show concern but they still let him continue after he collapses, interact w/ spinel (probably assuming he went to fight her) on his own, and face her on his own at the very end. All things they would never let him do in say s1, which is how they’re treating him

And in earlier episodes they’re like... letting blue bird chill which is another thing they wouldn’t do if they were really babying him lol

But we know that there’s a decent time skip between those eps and snow day and the other eps, bc of how Steven’s discussing the third quarter when little homeschool seemed to be just opening at first, and the weather change

So like what I think is happening is that after spinel’s whole thing Steven starts to distance himself a bit. He still spends time with the gems, but he doesn’t really let himself rely on them for anything anymore

As time goes on and he a) finds out he has distructive powers b) is struggling more to keeps his emotions in check and c) relizes he’s even less safe than he thought after bluebird, he starts distancing himself even more, as well as throwing himself into work more to avoid having to face his own problems

The gems slowly start to notice, and attempt to reconnect with him. There’s nothing he really likes now, and any changes he has made they don’t know about bc he’s distancing himself. So they fall back on stuff they know he used to like, and start treating him like when he was a little kid and wanted to spend time with them really desperately

So in the process of trying to get closer to him they actually hurt him by romanticizing a person he just.... isn’t anymore. He’s dealt with a lot of shit since season one and he’s a completely different person, and treating him like the little kid he hasn’t been in years is both super insulting and hurtful

So they end up in this sort of paradoxical vortex. Steven is isolating himself/abandoning the stuff that makes him happy/throwing himself into his work to avoid dealing with his emotions, hurting both him and the gems. The gems try to fix it, but accidentally make it worse, hurtling both him and themselves. Until it finally cumulates in snow day and them having a chat

But

Their conversation only solves 2 of the 5 main problems Steven has that are shown/referenced in the episode

The gems babying him

Distancing himself from his family

Abandoning/not having anything that makes him happy besides work

Refusing to rely on others in anyway

Throwing himself way too much into work

(Plus theres the other 2 big ones that aren’t really in this ep but still important

How he feels about his mom

How he’s pushing his own emotions aside in favor of helping others)

So... yeah. Obvi all that stuff is gonna be handled later on, I’m just a bit worried about my boi ;-;

Edit: hhhhh he’s using his hotdog duffel in bluebird

Just like,,,, more evidence for everything im saying since he was ok with using it b4 the bigger shift. He probably started separating more after bluebird bc he’s scared of relying on the gems too much

Also!! Check the comments pls a lot of them are real good and smart but I can’t rb them and don’t wanna screen shot em