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crkstuffidk · 6 months ago

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So in my boredom I could've been building more Lore for my current au, or even atleast thinking of Redesign ideas for Fire Spirit, but did I do either of those things? Not at all, infact I made another au where a what if the beasts and ancients swapped, in this the Ancients corrupted soul jams are the opposite of the beasts original virtues. Anyways here their new names and info I guess about them.

Pure Vanilla and the Light Of Truth became Immoral Saint Vanilla or just Immoral Vanilla and Force of Ignorance. He literally just doesn't do anything to help cookies anymore or just chooses to be unaware, and usually is laughing as he watches his friends torture innocents. He's a 'great' guy though.

Dark Cacao and the Light Of Resolution became Berserker of the North or The North Berserker and Force of Prohibition/Restraint I cant decide which one sounds better. He is probably the one that tortures the innocents the most, and he relishes in it, usually killing them slow and painfully.

Hollyberry and the Light Of Passion became Toxic Yewberry and Force of Misery. She's often called insane by cookies, she does end up 'befriending' Pitaya Dragon but instead of them becoming nicer and more tolerant to cookies, together they cause misery to not only her Kingdom, but also any cookies that try to stand in her way. She has no clue what to do about her son, daughter-in-law, and grandkids though, currently she keeps them alive just to have them watch the misery she causes.

Golden Cheese and the Light Of Abundance become Dreadful cheese and the Force of Constance. Her Kingdom is set in the old times just like the others rather than having technology and that stuff, she also tends to keep everything the same, and if one of her residents die, thats the only time she'd allow change to happen but she's certainly annoyed by it. Like Pure Vanilla she doesn't do anything but dare someone question her role, they don't die but are instead thrown into a dungeon, unless of course the person questioning her is one of her very important staff members then they just get turned into a golden statue where they remain for who knows how long, usually until Dreadful Gold needs them specifically for something.

White Lily and the Light Of Freedom become Wilted Faerie and Force of Dissension. She refuses to see any of her 'friends' If she even dare call them that, and instead stays in the Faerie Kingdom where the remaining faeries that haven't died from questioning her abide every word she says, which usually means no having conversations with the other faeries unless it's needed for one of their assigned jobs, if they talk about anything else she would usually cause flowers to bloom in their mouths muting them entirely only able to be removed if they are plucked out, but the flowers don't let anyone besides her touch them, so if they are plucked out its if she wants them to and only if she wants them to. Yes they can breath and eat with the flowers, as it's only in their mouths and there's gaps within the flowers that allows them too, Wilted Faerie hates seeing bodies of cookies in her kingdom as it ruins the appeal of the Silver kingdom, so she is extremely strategic with the punishments of the faeries, if too many bloom causing restriction of airflow or being able to eat she'll pluck some out. Side note: I got a bit disturbed writing this but I think it makes sense with her in-game powers.

Yes the Corrupted ancients get sealed in the silver tree just like the beasts did, and also the ancients lived in beast-yeast just like the beasts did, the beasts or now called Divine Saviors live in Crispia. Wilted Faerie is now being kept in imprisonment by her citizens and probably can still see or atleast hear when Elder Faerie gets named the title of king now.

Now onto the beasts who are called the Divine Saviors. Side note: I came up with the other beasts Pre Corruption names today which is why I didn't use them in my last post with pre corruption beasts. But Shadowmilks I made a post of earlier, anyways let's get started on them.

Shadow Milk and the Power Of Deceit went back to being Myrtille Milk and the Virtue Of Knowledge. He lives where the Dark Cacao Kingdom is in the game, He's generally a great leader, sometimes has his nose in books to much but generally he's a great guy. On occasion he does put on shows for the youth of the Berrymilk kingdom. side note: I was almost tempted to name it the berries and cream Kingdom, or the Milky Kingdom. Anyways he's pretty great, and quite protective of his friends. meaning the crap Clotted Cream pulled on the ancients in game ain't going to go well if he pulls that crap with the Divine Saviors as they all are extremely protective of eachother. Yes he fought the two dragons and also the prowler, well he more of tamed the prowler.

Burning Spice and the Power Of Destruction went back to being Calming Spice and the Virtue Of Change, He lives where Golden Cheese used to, and like in GCs kingdom in game it has technology the other kingdoms don't have yet. He's a very relaxed ruler, his name is literally Calming Spice what would you expect. Again he's protective of his friends and would lose his cool if Clotted Cream pulled the crap he did in Cookie Odyssey. The Golden Kingdom is called The Kingdom Of Spice in this AU

Eternal Sugar and the Power Of Sloth go back to being Ethereal Sugar and the Virtue Of Happiness. Her Kingdom is where Hollyberrys is in game but now it's called The Ethereal Kingdom of Paradise(long names for the kingdoms is common in this AU) She's an amazing leader and almost everyday will visit the orphanages I'm her kingdom and sing the orphans lullabies while she flies just slightly above the ground with them in her arms, side note: the orphanages are pretty great in her kingdom and take amazing care of the orphans. The same as the others she protective of her friends and would be the one to probably throw herself at Clotted Cream just like Dark Cacao.

Mystic Flour and the Power Of Apathy went back to being Serene Flour and the Virtue Of Volition. She'd be in the same place as Hollyberry in Cookie Odyssey, meaning she holds Ethereal Sugar back from attacking Clotted cream, although she feels the same way she just doesn't want violence. Her Kingdom is where the Vanilla Kingdom is, its called The Kingdom of Flowing Flour. She is notorious for healing in her kingdom and is known to be an extremely doting queen.

Silent Salt and the Power Of Silence went back to being Noble Salt and the Virtue Of Solidarity. He lives nowhere in particular, he usually travels around a lot, but usually stays around where Blueberry Yogurt Academy is in game, it isn't named anything different because in this AU it was created after Myrtille Milk became king, and MM actually Created it with Blueberry Yogurt for the future Healers/Magic users Noble Salt also occasionally lives with MM usually only during Winter until spring comes along and he can continue exploring.

Other honorable mentions for this AU: 1st of all, since Creme Republic isn't necessarily tied to any Kingdom it and the residents of it stayed the same hence why Clotted Cream is still an annoying cookie. 2ndly, so far I haven't yet made the decision if Noble Salt becomes whatever this AUs Dark Enchantress will be called, so currently every things very sunshine and rainbows. 3rd of all, Parfaedia is a college in this au, and BYA is like an Elementary/Middle school, maybe even High School(don't ask how Cream Puff is in Parfaedia then in this au, I haven't thought about that much). And lastly(for now) Burning Spice x Shadowmilk and Eternal Sugar x Mystic Flour are generally Canon in this AU so are Golden cheese x Hollyberry and Pure Vanilla x Dark Cacao, White Lily is a grumpy women that hates literally everyone so she aint going to be in a relationship in this Au, and Silent Salt is too busy exploring to feel the loneliness of not having a partner plus hes got friends that are in relationships and hes perfectly happy with being their third wheels on occasion, but I probably won't mention the relationships much because this AU is still very much a rough draft or whatever you want to call it. Anyways I'll probably work on the other AU or Fire Spirits redesign later.

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ac3-76 · 5 months ago

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Legend of korra headcannons🐌

warnings: brief mention of drinking(kinda alcoholism), other than that nothing

(Most of these are in a modern setting)

Wing Beifong is a motorcycle guy and posts Aushen Ride type videos

Varrick is a coffee addict and he has awful coffee breath

Korra got a stingray tattooed on her upper back. the tail goes down her spine and the wings(?) are on her shoulder blades

If Formula 1 is a thing in their universe, Future Indistries is one of the og teams

Asami would have future industries make a feminine car for the races taking place in Women's History Month (march)

And for the cars used by the drivers outside of March there'd be something feminine on it, like a lip stick kiss mark

She started it because she wanted a more feminine touch in the sport to show that you can be a girly girl or a girly person and still enjoy and partake in something that's traditionally masculine

I feel like in general she uses her cars to bring awareness to things occurring in society

When Bolin got paid for the Nuktuk series one of the first things he bought was a high quality gaming set up that he had his eye on for years

Now he streams him playing video games and makes a fair bit of money from it

Sometimes the others will play games with him and make apperances on his streams

the fan favorite is Asami because she has the best builds in Minecraft and the best strategy in Call of Duty

Mako likes to watch Criminal Minds and other law/criminal shows to see if he can figure out where it's going and solve it before the characters do

Wu photoshops everything that he posts and is very active on all social media platforms

when Korra went on her own for 6 months after Zaheer tried to kill her, she started drinking because it made her sleepy

she didn't have to be awake and deal with her hallucinations, and when she slept it was nothing, no dreams, no nightmares, just hours of being away from her trauma

being with Toph in the swamp for a couple of weeks(or days?) was the start of her recovery from becoming reliant on drinking to avoid dealing with trauma

Opal collects cool rocks and crystals she finds in the places she travels to

She gets them as gifts for her mother

Also because she's an Air bender and thus follows the air nomad life style, she's always sure to say thank you to the land for allowing her to give the rock to her mom

Huan has had his art in museums and has sold some pieces to well known rich people

He gives most of the money to charity

Mako sleeps on silk sheets only

he was fine with cotton and other cheaper materials until he became Wus bodyguard

Wu insisted he sleep on silk sheets after Mako told him that he had never slept on silk, and now Mako needs silk sheets

Korra's had the same black 21 oz hyddroflask since she was 15

she refuses to buy another waterbottle

it's also covered in stickers

Bolin got Pabu a bed that was specially made for Pabus size, weight, and measurements

Kinda like the one Princess Anneliese had for her cat, Serafina, in Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper

Korras favorite thing to do when she sees a book or something with words is to ask how much spice in it

She's at a restaurant with Asami, they just got the menu, Korra picks it up and displays the front cover to Asami before asking "Booktok girlys before I read this how much spice is in it?"

She thinks it's the funniest thing ever

Wei and Bolin stream and play video games together, Wei has very severe anger management issues when it comes to video games

Not punch a hole in the wall bad because Su got mad at him the one time he did punch the wall, so he's practiced restraint, but still pretty bad

Su has a wax warmer for the scented wax cube things in every room of her house

She makes sure the scent is changed every week, and it has to be the same scent throughout the whole house

Tenzin avoids using social media and most technologies, as do the air nomads and monks, but Kya did get Tenzin to allow her to make a social media account for the air nation

it's mostly run by Jinora and owned by Kya on Kyas phone

it's used to spread information about the air nation, their culture, beliefs, customs, history, etc.

Lin wears boxer briefs

Asami has endometriosis

Mako doesn't handle spicy food that we'll, which is odd considering he's a fire bender

Wei's really into photography and always has a compact camera on him

His favorite compact camera is his Panasonic Lumix TZ95

Wings not super into photography but knows his way around a camera because Wei has rambled on about cameras and angles to him so many times

Wing also has to take pictures for Weis Instagram so he's had training on how to use cameras from Wei

Korra goes through a lot of interest that last for a couple of months, one of those interest was wood working/carving

Korra made Jinora a wooden claw clip for her birthday once

it's the only claw clip Jinora has and she loves it

Makos biggest guilty pleasure is cross stitch and other embroidery styles, but mostly cross stitch

Bolins bed has an uncountable number of pillows on it

After Korra and Asami come back from their spirit world vacation, they decide to travel the world

They both only ever traveled for world saving business, and even then it was earth kingdom and water tribe areas only

So they spent the next year or two traveling the world to see it in a tourist way and not a fighting war way

#wing beifong #korra #LoK #Asami sato #mako #bolin #beifong family #jinora #tenzin #lin beifong #legend of korra #legend of korra headcannons

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secret-fiction · 8 months ago

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Sonic Boom: Those Who're Made Fools

As April Fools day is upon them, Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends must content with a series of pranks that go a little farther than they would like.

Below is a oneshot Sonic Boom Fanfiction that I started and finished today, April fools day 2024. I have not time to edit because my scope for this got out of hand, so I'll share it now as to release it within Apr 1st my time. I'll release an edited version later this week. _________________________

While Sonic the Hedgehog would usually be sleeping in, the cool breeze blowing through his hut and swaying the hammock he lay on beckoned him awake. He declined this request to wake up at a normal time and curled up further. However his body began to shiver and his mind was dragged into enough consciousness to realize that the cool breeze was actually a freezing wind. His eyes shot open, seeing a light flurry of snowflakes blowing over him, already building up drifts in his beachside hut.

“What the f-, flakes? Snow??” said Sonic as he wobbled while standing up.

The warm light of sunrise was peering through his windows and the island outside looked as tropical as it should. The culprit, Sonic deduced, was likely the large yellow painted machine that looked like a window air-conditioner if it were on an industrial scale.

A letter lifted off of the pile of mail he kept strewn on the ground and into his face. It was the invitation to Amy’s birthday event this evening. Thus, it was also April Fools day.

“Either Tails actually got his sleep schedule in check just to get me first, or I need to have a chat with him about staying up all night again,” said Sonic aloud, ears turning to listen for any unseen listener.

The wind then picked up, and the snow flurries began to sting as they struck him. In fact it was more of a semi-frozen rain now. Everything in Sonic’s hut was quickly being coated with bits of water and ice which then turned into a slick layer over everything. He grumbled and shivered, then dashed to his door to find the off switch. The machine however blocked the entire doorway, and there were no controls on the side facing Sonic.

“Aw what the heck?!” Sonic tried to push the machine out of his door but found his feet slipping on the frozen and wet floor. “TAILS! I don’t wanna break your new toy here, but I will!”

Sonic heard no response aside from the torrent of wind and freezing rain, which grew strong enough to send him slipping onto his face and sliding away to the far wall. He grumbled, stood up, and placed his feet on the wall. With one strong kick he spin-dashed into the machine, sending pieces of it flying as it fell out of his doorframe.

“Brrr, jeez,” said Sonic as he stood up and looked around, seeing no sign of Tails, “don’t tell me he already ran off to prepare another prank. This one was already a bit much… Guess I’ll have to teach him a lesson on restraint…”

With resolve filling his eyes, Sonic the Hedgehog took off running across the beach in a blur. The machine was left behind on his front porch, a problem for later perhaps.

A potential problem for Sonic immediately descended from a hidden perch in the trees of the jungle to the machine. They fluttered with insectoid wings and had a green colour to match the jungle canopy. They landed atop Tails’ machine, and yanked a kunai dagger out of the machine's control panel before returning heading for their next target.

____________

The drone of power tools echoed throughout Tails’ workshop as usual while he assembled a new gadget. Progress was going good by his insane standards of pacing, so he took a step back to look over the device. Lifting the goggles off of his eyes, which bore a giddiness bright enough to almost hide his dark eyebags. This projector he was modifying would surely be perfect for setting the mood at Amy’s event this evening. All he needed to do now was program a remote for ease of use, something he was learning other cared about when using technology, and then-

A swinging sound from his mail chute on the door pulled Tails’ attention away. Could it be Sonic’s counter attack already? He chuckled to himself, picturing Sonic popping out of a pile of harmless snow with a dumbfounded look on his face. Upon approach however he saw that it was clearly from Amy. It bore fancy calligraphy for the address and her custom rose wax seal which was slightly cracked, likely from its journey.

“Oh, she must be excited,” muttered Tails to himself before biting the letter to open it with his teeth.

Tails immediately regretted his lazy choice of letter opening when a pink cloud of a gas blasted from the letter and filled the workshop, and his mouth. The taste of floral air freshener made him gag and spit. Then the overwhelming smell filled his nose. It should smell pleasant, but the flower scent was so overwhelming and suffocating that Tails had to cover his snout. He then scrambled for the nearest window.

“What The FLYING FFff-!” Tails gritted his teeth and compressed his fit into a soft growl.

One by one Tails swung each window open. Then he opened the garage door of the hangar portion of the workshop. That didn’t dilute the air freshener smell fast enough so he turned on every industrial fan he could. Soon he resorted to his emergency eye and face wash station, shoving a pile of boxes that surrounded it out of the way. The torrent of water on his face face made his eyes stop stinging so bad and got most of the taste out of his mouth. But his nose was still completely overwhelmed.

“I can’t work like this!! Why should I work like this?!” said Tails as he shook the water off of his head.

The ring of his doorbell drew Tails’ irritated red eyes to the door. Opening it revealed a fast food bag of which he couldn’t smell at all sitting on his welcomemat. This was definitely another prank, and the fact that he was hungry now that he thought about him annoyed him more. So he leaned forward and kicked the bag away before turning to slam his door shut.

“Hey woah!” said Sonic, jumped down from atop the workshop roof, “what’s up? Not hungry?”

Tails glared at Sonic, and glanced at the bucket of ice and snow in Sonic grasp.

“Okay to be fair you really-” Sonic coughed and waved a hand in front of his muzzle, “wow bud isn’t that a bit much air freshener? It’s kinda distracting.”

“Yes! And I guess Amy thinks that’s funny, since evidently you had a much more lazy prank in mind,” said Tails.

“Amy?” said Sonic, “She usually doesn’t take time for anything more elaborate than what you can buy at the joke store.”

“Yeah, except when she asks for help with her party tonight.” Tails walked to his work table and plugged his nose with tissue paper before pushing the projector project aside. “Let’s see how she likes my help now, heheheh…”

“Tails you’re getting a bit maniacal,” said Sonic, “seriously, don’t go overboard again. It just smells a bit too nice in here.”

“You don’t mess with someone's sense of smell and get off easy,” said Tails.

“Okay, well, can I ask your opinion on something first?” said Sonic

Tails turned to face Sonic, only to get a bit of half melted snow in his face.

“I’ll ask for your help fixing my house later!” said Sonic before dropping the bucket and dashing away.

Tails grumbled, wiped the snow off his face, then grabbed any errant material he had lying around to build his revenge on Amy. After a moment or two he started thinking about what Sonic had said.

“...Fix his house? What?”

In his state of sensory overload and anger, Tails failed to notice a figure move from the jungle canopy outside a nearby window. It stood tall, then began leaping between trees toward the village.

____________

The hum of Amy Rose’s voice trailed through her house as she happily prepared for the rest of the day. Her daily twenty-four step quill-styling routine was now ready, she was dressed, and every surface of the room was covered in decorations and snacks to be assorted. Sure she always had a bit of anxiety about the fact her birthday falls on the first of April, the day of fools fooling other fools. But that worry was now barely present after living the last couple years dealing with attacks from Dr. Eggman at any random time.

Working out a block of time in her schedule to deal with an inevitable attack or crisis meant Amy had all the time she needed to still have a fun birthday. She smiled to herself while looking over a stack of colourful papers she had printed, it was hard to suppress her enthusiasm at having her friends over tonight. Truly the real power of one's birthday was the leverage it put everyone else to try your favorite forms of entertainment.

“Alright, let’s get this next part right,” said Amy to herself as she organized the papers, character sheets. “This is my one chance this year to convince the other that this’ll be fun. And this time I’m right.”

Amy’s smile faltered slightly as she remembered her failure to convince Sonic and the others that playing out her favorite musicals was fun. Really she should’ve known that’d be too much. This time though, a simple role playing game, she can get them to agree to do this more often.

A knock on her door made Amy jump and gasp with a smile. She waved her hands a bit to lower her giddiness, taking a deep breath. Then she skipped over to the door.

Greeting her outside was a basket with a bow on it, sitting just past her welcomemat. Amy’s heart skipped a beat, but she quickly recognized Knuckles’ handwriting. “Hope you like these colourful rocks!” It wasn’t a romantic gesture from Sonic, but still nice. With a sigh and a soft smile she stepped forward to see what varieties of polished stones Knuckles had-

Her boot fell through her welcomemat, and Amy stumbled into the hole the had been hidden just under it. It was a short fall, but she landed on her face and splattered some liquid all over herself. It took a few seconds of sitting still to process what just happened.

“What the F-Ow…” said Amy, as she stood up, eyes stinging from the oily fluid coating her. “What is this stuff?”

The smell, and once her vision cleared, the black colouration showed Amy that this was actually just oil. Used oil, most likely motor oil, from a motor, filled with gunk, that was now in her quills… and her whole dress.

“Are, You, SERIOUS?!” shouted Amy, “isn’t this a bit much!?”

Amy sighed, but tried not to let this ruin her mood. It was meant as harmless fun, even if it was ruining her morning. It wasn't usual for Knuckles to be that deceptive though, even though signs pointed to him being involved with how good he is at digging. Perhaps Tails put him up to this, considering the use of engine oil. But why would he? This is usually a thing between him and Sonic.

After a moment to glower, Amy decided to climb out of the small hole. The dirty motor oil made this tricky however, as she fell back in several times. By the time she heard the swishing of Tails’ tails mid flight, and a nefarious chuckle, she had worked through her patience.

“TAILS! Get down here this instant!!”

Amy heard a gasp, then the patter of footsteps. Tails leaned over the hole and looked at her with a strange squint. She in turn gave him the most stern look she could.

“This is really obnoxious, especially for you!” said Amy.

“Yeah, like you don’t know a thing about obnoxious pranks,” said Tails, glancing away from Amy’s eye contact.

“There’s Motor Oil In My Quills Tails!!” said Amy.

Tails leaned out of Amy’s sight, she heard him put something down on her deck, before he leaned back over the hole. “Who put a hole full over motor oil here anyway?”

“...It wasn’t you?”

“No! This is lazy, and just mean!” said Tails as she gestured energetically, “I’d at least be way more creative for something this mean! Or just less mean if I don’t have time to be creative.”

“Okay, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to insult your… prowess with pranking methods,” said Amy, “Please get me out of here.”

“Oh yeah, sure.”

With ease, Tails lifted Amy out of the hole and dropped her on the deck before landing himself. She pretended not to notice him immediately kicking a really haphazardly thrown together looking device out of sight.

“Uh, Amy,” said Tails as he rubbed the back of his head, not noticing the oil stain he was leaving there from his glove, “do you happen to know anything about the perfume filling my workshop.”

“What? What happened?” said Amy.

Tails made eye contact with Amy, a look of anger quickly fading to regret. “I-I’m sorry, someone else must’ve put that perfume bomb in my mailbox then.”

“...Probably Eggman, right?”

“He… He’s not good at all at being that sneaky though…” Tails squinted as he looked at the hole, “And this does look like it was dug by claws, natural or those glove things people can get. And I guess Knuckles can be sneaky sometimes?”

“Okay but how would he do this without your help?” said Amy.

“...I dunno, could’ve gone to a mechanic,” said Tails, “But this is something he’d try to do to Sonic for April fools, not you.”

Just overhead, as Amy & Tails started talking about their problems, a sneaky individual leapt and flew away from the top of a palm tree.

_________________

It was much easier for Knuckles to find specific rocks when they were in the ground. The polished stones he’d put in a gift basket for Amy evaded him in a way most minerals couldn’t. He’d been forced into retracing his steps to the best of his ability, now out on the jungle trails just outside of the Village. However all he could find was litter and Sticks’ traps.

“Oh come one gift basket, where’d you go?!” said Knuckles aloud, “I need you to be a good friend to Amy!”

The gift basket didn’t answer, only the rustling leaves did. Of course Knuckles could quickly gather some neat looking plants, but it wouldn’t have the same meaning to it. He slapped himself on the head trying to remember where he could’ve left the basket. After the week he spent picking out the perfect colourful stones it sickened him to just lose that gift.

Searching the edges of the trail closely, Knuckles came across a tree with a nook inside it. The colours inside excited him for a moment, until he realized that it was only foraged fruit and not his basket of rocks. His stomach grumbled now, and the smell and look of the berries there enticed him. Then when he noticed a doodle carved in the bark next to the nook in the tree, depicting a simple Sticks the Badger giving a thumbs up, he smiled.

“Oh! Awesome! I really gotta thank Sticks for these snack stocks she leaves out.” said Knuckles

As Knuckles stepped close enough to reach into the nook of this tree, something snagged on his leg. He instinctively kicked, and felt something wrap tight around his leg and pull him upward. He gave a yell as the complex and well hidden snare trap hung him upside down from the top of the tree, several feet out of reach of the collection of berries.

“Ah dang! I set off one of Sticks’ traps again…” said Knuckles as he folded his arms. “Wait, why was there a trap there, when there was a friendly and welcoming sign?! That’s like, the opposite of making sense!”

Knuckles grumbled to himself. If it took Sticks too long to find him then he’d have less time to find his gift basket. Then even less time to beat Sonic & Tails in the April Fools prank war.

“Wait, I think I know what’s going on…. Sticks is trying to make me an April Fool!” said Knuckles, slapping his face in shock. “Oh man I’ve never had to deal with a prank battle involving her before.”

“Knuckles! What’re you doing up there!” shouted the voice of Amy Rose.

“Amy?!” Knuckles looked down to see Amy with several paper towels in her hands and a bag over her shoulder. “Thank goodness you’re here! Sticks got me in a prank-snare thing! Who knows what she’ll do next!”

Amy’s eyes widened, then squinted. “Knuckles, Stick doesn’t do April Fools day!”

“Oh wait, really?”

“No, she stays in her burrow all day, remember?”

Knuckles thought about that. He did begin to recall Sticks’ distaste for the idea of April Fools day the first time it was ‘explained’ to her. That was one crappy day, Sonic only barely survived.

“Oh yeah!” Knuckles leaned up and grabbed the robe tied to his legs, then ripped it apart with his raw strength. He landed on his feet next to Amy and sighed in relief. “I was worried I’d have to stay up there all day. Good thing this rope doesn’t actually belong to Sticks.”

“Hey, I had a question for you,” said Amy.

“Oh yeah, I was gonna ask you about the oily smell but I can wait,” said Knuckles.

“...Yeah you didn’t dig that pit in front of my house then.”

“A pit?”

“Yeah, sorry, I thought you tried and succeeded to prank me.”

“Oh wow! If I were you I’dve like, punched me in the snoz,” said Knuckles as he looked over just how messed up Amy’s quills were, “man, I’m glad you’re so reasonable Amy, it’s nice knowing you have faith in the rest of us.”

“Heheh, yeah,” said Amy, tucking the bag over her shoulder behind herself. The spice-laden cupcakes inside will have to wait before burning someone's mouth up.

Seeing where Amy and Knuckles’ conversation was going, the hidden figure in the canopy fluttered away. Only one more member left to find.

_____________

No amount of fresh air from outside could alleviate the tension in Sticks the Badger’s nerves. She’d just managed to will herself out the door of her burrow, knowing that the number of traps and practical alarms she’d placed around would warn of any intrusion. None of the others were going to mess with her this year, she knew that, they assured her and she trusted them. She desperately wanted to just trust them.

“C’mon, you promised Amy you’d go to her party…” Sticks muttered, glaring down at her boots.

The sound of a bell jingle made her ear twitch and her body stand even more tense than before. She glanced over, seeing no sign of anyone there. That upset her more than anything she could’ve seen prowling toward her burrow. Her teeth clenched together hard enough to become sore again.

Sticks looked in the direction of the other makeshift alarms, and more broadly the edges of the jungle near her burrow. To her relief and wraith, someone was here and it wasn’t only her. That camouflaged figure staying perfectly still in the trees evidently didn’t realize to what extent Sticks had memorized the area around her living space.

Being sure to not look to close in the direction of the figure, Sticks started walking into the jungle. The peripheral view she had gave her enough information about the size and shape of this stalking figure that she was confident about what to listen for. After only a few steps she heard the sound of it sticking to a new tree, a light thud very subtle but distinct from the tropical woodpeckers.

“Heh, see, It’s not any of your friends,” Sticks muttered, trying then to steady her breath.

Based on the pace of when the figure hopped between trees, Stick knew exactly which snare to pass under. With a hand on her boomerang she listened as she walked. In short order, the figure fell into the trap as Sticks heard the snare suddenly tighten above her. She turned on her heel and threw the boomerang, letting herself snarl just a bit.

The sight of a scarf and large insectoid wings is all Sticks could see of the figure through a cloud of blue glitter as they were pulled away into the air. Sticks heard a snap from her rope, and saw the figure dodge the boomerang and duck behind a tree. Then the boomerang came back and knocked the figure down, triggering a chain reaction among Sticks’ traps.

Nets and leaves went flying throughout the air as several trees sprung loose from the ropes of the traps. Sticks dived behind a safe tree and tried to watch the figure, but they managed to escape her sight and each trap they triggered. Eventually she heard the drone of their large wings as they disappeared into the jungle. The only sign they left behind was a spot of blue glitter on every tree they’d touched.

“Sticks!” shouted Knuckles, “What was all that?! Are you alright”

“I’ve only heard legends, but if my guess is right… some sort of Ninja,” said Sticks.

Knuckles gasped, “a Ninja?! AWESOME!”

“Wait you’ve heard of ‘em?” said Sticks, “The rest of you hardly ever know what I’m talking about.”

“Well when you watch enough tv you learn what a Ninja is,” said Knuckles.

“TV? Darn, I should’ve known…” said Sticks as she walked out to find her boomerang, “wait, why’re you out here?”

“Oh yeah, Amy wanted me to find you. We have a problem.”

_________________

“Hoh Hoh Hoh!” laughed Dr. Eggman as he sat in his room of many monitors. On the largest screen the unfortunate situations of Sonic and his friends played out on loop. His assistants, Orbot and Cubot, waited patiently for him to get his fill of laughs in. As did the green Preying Mantis Ninja standing with their arms behind their back.

“Look at his face as he slips on his face!” said Dr Eggman, hitting his control panel and laughing, “he’s helpless against a bit of wind and freezing rain! I gotta remember that!”

“Uh boss,” said Orbot, “now that we’ve played these recordings on loop 20 times, perhaps we ought to worry about what Sonic and the others are going to do to retaliate?”

“Oh yeah, what did you build for Sonic to blow up today boss?” said Cubot.

“I didn’t build anything for today,” said Dr. Eggman.

“But eeh… that means they’re gonna break something else,” said Cubot.

“No you nincomputer!” Dr. Eggman stood up from his fancy swiveling chair, “they don’t even know who’s responsible for the appropriation of their pranks! It’s genius you see!”

“But sir, who else would antagonize them like that other than you?” said Orbat.

“Why this mischievous freelancer of course!” said Dr. Eggman, putting one of his hand on the Mantis’ shoulder and giving them a friendly shake.

“I did in fact sabotage their joy today,” said The Mantis, standing stiff and waiting for Dr. Eggman to release them.

“Yes you did! And you got four out five of them! That's four stars out of five in my book! I knew I wouldn’t regret hiring you out of that catalog.”

“Oh yeah, you were like ‘I better not regret this!’” said Cubot, taking up an Eggman-like pose.

Dr. Eggman glared at Cubot, then coughed and turned to look down at the Mantis. “Your contract said I’ve got your services for the whole day, yes?”

“I am standing here for that reason, yes,” said the Mantis.

“Good, now let’s show them who’s really responsible for their misfortune! I’ll even let you partake in gloating with me!” said Dr. Eggman.

“I do not have ‘gloat’ in my skillset. Thus I would perform poorly at that task,” said the Mantis.

“...I can teach you a bit about it on the way.”

___________________

“Alright team, if we’re going to have fun during my birthday, and Sonic & Tails are gonna have a fair ‘battle of annoyance,’ we gotta deal with that person who's trying to ruin our day!” said Amy Rose to the rest of Team Sonic. They had assembled at the Teams agreed DPZ, De-Prankified Zone, the Meh Burger dining lot.

“Who, other than Eggman, would go to these lengths anyway?” said Tails, “that’s what’s really bothering me. Have we done anything to someone recently?”

“Well there’s people who get ‘parasocially angry’,” said Sonic with finger quotes. “Could be literally anyone who doesn’t vibe with our brand of swagger and has no life of their own.”

“Ninja’s are notoriously without a life,” said Knuckles.

“And good at blending in…” said Sticks, turning and eyeing a family sitting at a nearby table with suspicion.

“That I have seen,” said Sonic.

“Oh yeah, did you manage to hire-” started Amy, before the attention-demanding voice of Dr. Eggman rudely interrupted her.

“MUAHAHAHAH!” bellowed Dr. Eggman from his flying eggmobile. His threatening presence caused the other patrons of meh burger to steadily flee, after only gathering their food, napkins, and food packets. “Have you had misfortune today Sonic?”

“Are you going to have some misfortune?” said Sonic, leaning forward but staying seated.

“Not today, Hedgehog! For you see, I have the upper hand.”

Some patrons scooted by the teams table as Tails said “Have you actually built a badnik we haven’t seen before, or are you just trying to hype up Mega again?”

“Grr, I don’t use that one that often!” said Dr. Eggman

“Uh, yeah, you kinda do,” said Sonic.

“It’s frankly embarrassing how often you pull out the same badniks on us,” said Amy, “the people of this village can’t even be bothered to put energy into fleeing from you anymore, that’s how stale you’ve gotten.”

“Yeah, and you use the same robots all the time!” said Knuckles.

“Yeah, okay, so maybe I can’t churn out new super badniks at an insane rate, but I’ve got standards for my health! I’m not gonna crunch my schedule if you lot won’t even respect what I build!”

Sonic turned and stared at Tails for a moment, who took a bit to notice. “What?”

Sonic titled his head and raised an eyebrow.

“What??”

“Does Egghead actually have a better sense of self care than you these days?” said Sonic.

Tails folded his arms and looked away from Sonic.

“If you all could be bothered to pay attention for more than a second!” shouted Dr. Eggman, “You might notice-”

The crash of a soda cup hitting the ground drew everyone’s attention to Sticks. She’d turned round and snarled as she tightly gripped the wrist of the Mantis Ninja, who appeared to have been attempting to tie a small wire to Sticks’ leg.

“Well, colour me impressed,” said Dr. Eggman with a widening grin.

Sonic recognized the smile and immediately dashed toward Dr. Eggman. Then Eggman pressed a button, and something tightened on Sonic’s leg. He fell onto his face then saw that a thin wire tied to his leg led to a small round black badnik with the shape of a spider. Three more wires protruding from this badnik were tied to Tails, Amy, and Knuckles, who were all sent to the floor by the momentum of Sonic’s dash.

“Ow FUCK!” shouted Tails.

“Tails what the F-! You can’t say that!” said Sonic.

“Actually,” said Knuckles as he pushed the dining table off of himself, “I’m with Tails, this fucking hurts.”

“I’ve had enough of Eggman’s shit today too,” said Amy.

“Goddammit, could you guys at least try to keep the Team PG?” said Sonic.

“It’s no use anyway,” Said Sticks, still grippin the Mantis, “It’s not like we’re getting fucking renewed anytime soon.”

“...What?” said the Mantis, with the second emotion to appear on their face being sheer bafflement.

Sticks responded by punching the Mantis in the face. The force allowed them to pull out of her grasp and dart away, diving behind the counter to the despair of the service worker there. Still Sticks gave chase, throwing her boomerang.

The Mantis responded with a flying kunai that struck Sticks’ boomerang and changed its trajectory. Truly Ninja’s are as dangerous as Sticks worried, as she found it hard to follow the boomerangs flight path. She only saw it just before it was about to strike her in the face.

Then a second kunai hit the boomerang, deflecting it away from Sticks. Everyone looked over to see a floating hand. Actually, it was attached to a well blended figure, whose colours changed from that of the background to purple.

“Chaotix agency, Espio,” said Espio the Chameleon.

“Oh he’s good,” said Amy, “how much money did Vector want?”

“Not too much,” said Sonic as he stood up and struggled against the wires of the spider badnik, “they said if we were actually dealing with another Ninja we’d get a discount.”

“That… doesn’t make sense,” said Tails.

“The honor of testing my skills against another trained in these arts,” said Espio as he stepped closer to the Mantis, “is worth a quarter of my boss’ revenue.”

The Mantis nodded, “so be it.”

“What is even happening anymore?” said Dr. Eggman, “this was supposed to be when you all cower at the genius of my Tripping-bot in conjunction with my competent hiring judgment!”

“Well Egghead, you’re not the only one who gets the ‘spies and assassins’ catalog,” said Sonic.

“That’s it,” said Sticks, “two Ninja’s is too much for me to worry about! I’ve got something more important to be doing!”

Sticks the Badger proceeded to leave… without her friends even. Sonic and the others exchanged a glance and shrug.

“Alright, no more delaying! Ninja, attack!” shouted Dr. Eggman.

“Go get em Espio!” said Sonic.

The two Ninja’s locked eyes, raised their kunai, and charged at each other. Just before an intense clash of blades, both Espio and the Mantis dodged toward different directions, hiding behind different tables.

Meanwhile Knuckles managed to get a footing against tension of the wire from the Spider Badnik. Seeing this, Dr. Eggman attacked team Sonic with the base missiles and laser on his eggmobile.

Two epic battles played out over the next few minutes. One where Team Sonic steadily overcame the problem of being tied together. At Amy’s suggestion, Knuckles took the lead of which direction they would all move, and even threw the other within range of Eggman. Via taunting Tails tricked eggman into blasting the cord tying him to the others, and started flying interference.

Eventually Tails lured Dr. Eggman close enough to the ground for Sonic, Amy, and Knuckles to time a jump together and all land on Dr Eggman's vehicle. Just in time too, as he had finally grabbed ahold of Tails and was about to throw hands. From there all four of the team beat up Dr. Eggman and his eggmobile until he finally admitted defeat, which took an impressive amount of blows to make him do.

All the while the two Ninja’s engaged in the most intense battle of their lives up till now. The Mantis used their flight advantage to duck behind elevated positions and look for Espio. However Espio knew this and compensated with his camouflage and speed. From the perspective of everyone else and each other however, they both remained completely out of sight. Some customers even started returning to the meh burger, unaware of the intense battle going on between tables and booths.

“...Are either of them still here?” asked Amy.

“ I literally can’t tell,” said Sonic.

“Well one of those ninja knives just appeared in my shoe, and I’m sure it wasn’t there before,” said Knuckles.

“They must be so fast!” said Tails.

“And sneaky,” said Sonic.

…

“This is so boring,” said Sonic as he sat down in a chair.

“Yep,”

“I’m afraid so,”

“Maybe I could build a Ninja tracker?” said Tails.

“If this fight takes that long, I think we’re better off-” Sonic leaned back in his chair as he talked, and to everyone's surprise tripped the Mantis Ninja who stumbled out into the open.

The Mantis immediately opened their wings to take flight, but were stopped as Espio charge out of nowhere horn first into their torso. The two Ninjas tumbled to the ground with the sounds of struggle. Once everyone managed to realize what was happening Espio had his kunai at the Mantis’ neck.

“Damn,” said the Mantis.

“Yep,” said Espio.

The two stood up and dusted themselves off. Espio quickly went to retrieve his scattered ninja weapons while the Mantis adjusted their scarf.

“Apologies Doctorate Eggman,” said the Mantis, “I was bested in the duel. Here is an adjusted invoice. Call my number if you have questions.”

“Right…” said Dr. Eggman.

Sonic and the others went over to Espio to congratulate him. Though the chameleon kept a stoic pose, Amy at least could tell he seemed to appreciate the praise.

“For the discount,” said Epsio and he pulled a pocket register out and started typing into it, “please write down all the thoughts you had about my performance for my boss to see.”

“Yeah I’ll tell vector you did a good job,” said Sonic.

“How will you be paying?”

“I have a card,” said Amy.

“But it’s your birthday!” said Knuckles.

“Yeah, we can cover it, right Sonic?” said Tails.

“Uh… yeah, I’ll just… hafta to buy a smaller gift for Amy,” said Sonic.

“D’aw,” Amy smiled warmly at Sonic, that comment fully recovered her mood from earlier, despite the battle damage to her dress and quills. “Don’t worry Sonic, having more money for later is a perfect birthday gift.”

“Oh, yeah, sure thing Ames,” said Sonic.

______________

While his mood was a bit soured, Dr Eggman took some pleasure in knowing he at least inconvenienced Sonic and his friends today. That was worth something. Now he just needed to figure out how best to word that to Orbot and Cubot as to make it sound like he didn’t lose.

That train of thought was halted when Dr. Eggman got within view of his lair. Smoke poured out of several portions of the structures, and loose wires threw sparks all over the place. Several of his defensive badniks were flying and walking circles around the base in full alert, but it was clear they had no idea where the culprit of this mess was. Dr. Eggman grumbled and flew in closer to evaluate the damage.

“No who had time to do this?!” Eggman said to the badniks.

From behind a rock, Orbot and Cubot peeked out and pointed to the top of the base, Orbot saying “she did…”

“Wha-” Dr. Eggman was cut off by Sticks the Badger landing on his Eggmobile and driving an obsidian shortsword into its control panel. He screamed in genuine terror as they crashed to the ground.

Dr. Eggman felt himself tumbling until he lay flat on his back, then Stick jumped onto his chest and bared her teeth, putting a hand on his collar.

“I have WAY too much to worry about, without dealing with this damned ‘Fools Holiday!’”

“Wait, I-” muttered Dr. Eggman.

“Shut up!”

Dr. Eggman shut up.

“When I hafta to worry just that much more, it actually hurts! And I’m not willing to spare you that pain!” Sticks took a few heavy breaths and made sure Eggman was looking her in the eyes. “Now, are you EVER, going to make me hafta to worry about an ‘April Fools’ again?!”

“Well… when you ask so nicely…”

Stick growled like a wild badger.

“No no of course not! Jeez! I’ll leave you alone if you leave me alone!” said Dr. Eggman.

Sticks’ posture immediately softened and she released Dr. Eggman's collar. She let out a sigh and said “thanks,” before stepping off of Eggman’s chest and lying on the ground.

“Uh… don't mention it,” said Dr. Eggman.

“Yeah, of course… Sorry I hafta be so mean…”

“I'm going… to go inside, and hide.”

Sticks gave him a thumbs up and continued to just lie on the ground in front of his base's door.

#Sonic Boom #Sonic the Hedgehog #Tails the Fox #Sonic Fanfiction #Sonic Fanfic #Sticks the Badger #Amy Rose #Knuckles the Echidna #Sonic #Dr. Eggman #April Fools Fanfiction #Fanfiction #writing #My art #Secret Person

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mymoodwriting · 2 months ago

Text

LØV3

F!Reader x Hyungwon

Genre: Yandere AU

Warning: Kidnapping, Verbal Abuse, Restraints, Trespassing, Mind Control, Weapons, Guns, Gunfire, Threats of Self-Harm, Fatal Injuries, Major Character Death

Words: 4k

Chapter Sixteen

(Prev//)

Prompt: NexGen is the leading company for all of humanities technological advances. Their recent project involves creating a higher functioning AI, one with basic knowledge of the world, and programmed to learn. It’s no surprise the project is a secret from the general public, and you, the company’s head programmer, were chosen to be the AI’s teacher. You wish you could reject the assignment, but the decision was made. Now with an AI at home things were different. Although it might not be such a bad thing, perhaps you could learn and help each other out, for better or for worse.

(@starillusion13 @makeyourfantasydreamscometrue)

“This is all your fault!!!”

You weren’t restrained in any way, just having been placed down in a chair. As soon as you saw Changkyun you jumped to your feet and charged at him screaming. It took a moment for everyone else to react but they quickly grabbed you and held you away from your target. That didn’t stop you from yelling and trying to break free. Eventually you were shoved back into a chair and restrained. Once you were secure, Changkyun asked everyone to leave the room, except for Jooheon. So now it was just the three of you.

“Now that you’re-”

“You messed with Chae’s fucken code! This whole disaster is because of you!”

“I know! And I’m sorry! Okay!” Changkyun took a breath. “I’m sorry… I know this is my fault… I should have told you everything from the start. That the company was using your code without permission for the sake of innovation and-”

“For promotion? That’s what you wanted, right? You kept Chae hidden for months, before I even knew he existed! Why!? Why the heck did you alter his code!”

“I… I was watching you from your home security cameras when the AI caught me. It was gonna report me so I-”

“It’s true…” You needed a moment. “What Hyungwon told me, what he reported to the police, it was all true… you were stalking me? You-”

“I hate to interrupt all this.” Jooheon cut in. “But we have bigger problems right now. If it makes you feel better, when this is all over he will go back to prison.”

“What!?”

“You’re still a convicted criminal here, Changkyun. You admitted to the unlawful surveillance and all the other stuff. I only got you out of prison because I needed you, the world needs you. We need to stop this AI thing before it grows too powerful.”

“Agreed. I doubt you all beating Hyungwon to a pulp did much to stop him. You didn’t have to go that far to rescue me.”

“We had to make sure he couldn’t track us.”

“I guess, now will one of you untie me? I won’t hurt anyone.”

The two boys shared a look before Jooheon undid your restraints. You stretched your limbs and then noticed a bracelet you had on.

“What’s this?”

“Protection. We did a scan before we brought you here, realized you had a chip inside you.” Jooheon explained. “We couldn’t remove it, so the bracelet serves to block any possible incoming or outgoing signals.”

“Shit… I had totally forgotten about that… thanks.”

“No problem. Now, you told me before that everything was run out of NexGen, and that should be our focus. Care to elaborate on that?”

“Yeah. There are serves underground the NexGen HQ building. That’s where Hyungwon runs everything, that’s the source of his power. Although I’m not so sure shooting them, or setting off an EMP would work.”

“Can’t you shut it down?”

“Me? I, well it was my code that made him, but I’m not sure any failsafes are still in play.”

“They are.” Changkyun confirmed. “When I got you away from Hyungwon the first time I used the reset protocol. Then when Jooheon came to save me from prison he used the shut down protocol. Besides the modifications I made, nothing else seems to have been changed from his code. It’s still your code, so you should be able to shut it all down.”

“Huh… I guess he never really thought about changing his own code, he’s had nothing but success, and the only person who did know his code was at his side.”

“Not anymore.” Jooheon remarked. “So all we have to do is break in and-

“It’s not that easy.” Changkyun stated. “Even before the AI takeover, getting into NexGen without authorization was basically impossible. I can only imagine what security upgrades have been implemented. I’m sure y/n knows all about them now.”

“He’s right. The first thing Hyungwon did when he took over NexGen was get everyone under control. There are orbs all over the building and all employees wear a bracelet to monitor them. Even guests have to be approved and wear a bracelet while in the building.”

“So then how are we gonna get in?” Jooheon questioned.

“Well, we might have a way. As of late Hyungwon has had this company come in to upgrade the servers. We could pretend to be employees from that company and get direct access to our target.”

“Won’t we be recognized though?”

“Not necessarily. The orbs in the building make note of the bracelet, not your face. As long as we all have a bracelet with the correct authorization codes, no one will notice us.”

“Not even the other employees?”

“They’re… they’re not all there. Hyungwon has gone to great lengths to maintain control. Although in order for this to work, we need to be sure he’s out of the building. He’d be alerted of our arrival and check our faces just to be safe. Once he’d realize we’re not the usual crew it would all be over. But if he’s outside the building he’d be less likely to know about us showing up, and even then, wouldn’t check our identities. When he’s not around the whole building is like in standby mode so the chances of being caught are even lower.”

“How would we get that thing out of the building?” Changkyun wondered. “It’s probably on high alert now.”

“But there’s one bait he’d always far for. Jooheon?”

“Hm?”

“This bracelet that’s blocking the signal, could it do something else?”

“Like what?”

“Bounce the signal to another location?”

“Oh, definitely.”

♥♥♥♥♥

Hyungwon opened his eyes, his surroundings different yet familiar to him. It took a moment for everything to come back online, but once he was alright he sat up. Minhyuk was at his side, looking over the monitor before checking in with Hyungwon.

“What happened to you?”

“Those low-lives came for her. They broke into the house and kidnapped her, beat my body into scrap while they were at it.��

“How’d they manage that?”

“An EMP went off moments before their arrival. It disrupted my systems, and hurt her in the process. Luckily I was able to send you a message and jump into my backup body before they truly caused damage.”

“What about your plan?”

“We proceed as usual. Did you get any information on y/n’s whereabouts?”

“Unfortunately I don’t have anything. I checked nearby CCTV footage to track the van that took her, but I lost them. Her chip also isn’t broadcasting a signal, so I don’t have a read on her location.”

“They can’t hide her forever. The more we take, the better the chances of finding her.”

Despite remaining calm and collected, Hyungwon was worried about you. He’d taken many precautions in order to keep you safe, and yet you were still taken from him. Something like this could not happen again. Days went by without any news from you and he was growing agitated. He couldn’t fathom what you were going through. Although when he finally got a ping on your location he sprung into action. He checked nearby CCTV, looking for you in the crowds. That’s when he noticed a hooded figure trying to keep a low profile. Those ridiculous rebels had probably roped you into their shenanigans, and he would not stand for that.

He made his way to your location. As soon as he was nearby he called out your name, and it seemed that you heard him, immediately breaking out into a run. He had no problem chasing after you, making his way through the crowd until he caught up to you, grabbing your arm and pulling you close. He immediately pulled back the hood and took off your mask, only to see it wasn’t you. He was confused, as your chip signal was coming from this person. Then he noticed the bracelet on them, breaking it and losing your signal once more.

“You-”

The crowd around him suddenly erupted into chaos. Someone had pointed out his identity and soon he was swarmed by all kinds of people. Some were clearly fans, others protesters trying to tell him off about his creation. This was all the least of his concerns. Hyungwon pushed through the crowds, knowing he couldn’t cause too much of a scene right now. He called upon drones to assist him, and once he informed Shownu he knew law enforcement would be showing up soon. Once he got away from the crowds he managed to return to his vehicle. Although people continued to gather around him, keeping him trapped.

“What happened?” Wonho asked, having come along with Hyungwon as the chauffeur. “Where’s y/n?”

“Not here. It was a ruse.”

“So then where is she?”

“I don’t… actually, if they did all this, then there’s only one place she could be.”

♥♥♥♥♥

You were all incredibly nervous as you walked up to NexGen, but needed to act like you were supposed to be there. One of the rebels you worked with managed to hack into the repair company Hyungwon had been using. Through their systems they set up an appointment, so you guys were expected. From there you got the building access codes that had been given to this company and modified some bracelets to broadcast it. Everything should go smoothly, and you all waited until you had confirmation Hyungwon was out of the building.

It was strange for you to return to NexGen in such a way. Once upon a time you were an employee here, then a prisoner, and now a runaway criminal trying to destroy everything this company has built. You were all wearing uniforms and carrying equipment, concealing your identities with a mask and just trying to act normal. Your team made it to the front desk, one of the others checking in for you, and then you were being escorted down to the servers. You and Changkyun shared a glance, kinda amazed with one another that you were actually doing this. When the elevator doors opened you were amazed to see how things had changed.

Once upon a time this room was just rows and rows of servers, but now a giant control console stood at the center, a few physical servers around it, but you could see many more were just below your feet. You couldn’t even imagine the amount of data that was currently being stored, or what it was for. There weren’t any people down here, only a few drones, and androids, but they all had their own tasks. Upon your arrival all the machines glanced your way but according to their systems you were authorized to be here, so they did nothing and continued with their own tasks.

“Y/n, you’re up.”

Now it was your turn to act. While with Hyungwon he had restored your position in the company, and had been using your credentials. All you had to do here was log into the control console and activate a kill code, shutting everything down and wiping all the data. You gained access without issue, being able to see all of Hyungwon’s operations and future plans. They wouldn’t continue though. You worked to activate the kill code, but all of a sudden the screen went black.

“… what just happened?” You tried to get the computer back on. “I didn’t even-”

An alarm suddenly went off, startling everyone. All the machines turned to you, beginning to surround you. The others with you revealed the weapons they had, but no one fired just yet. Although soon all the attention turned to someone else.

“It was very brave of you to come here.”

You looked over to see Hyungwon entering the room, gun in hand. You didn’t need to wonder who he was aiming at, quickly stepping in front of Changkyun.

“How are you here?” You questioned. “You left and-”

“So it was your little plan to lure me out of here? Well, I did learn to body jump after my last encounter with these low lives. I am alright, y/n, they didn’t cause any damage. I’m also happy to see you’re alright. I do apologize for worrying you.”

“Hyungwon, this needs to stop, all of it.”

“And you intended to do so by destroying me and everything I’ve built?”

“I…”

“It’s alright, I understand. That’s why I modified my code to prevent anyone from messing with it again. I know my code is originally yours, but precautions are necessary.”

“Hyungwon…” You began to take steps towards him, despite the others’ protest. “You need to stop. Your code is damaged, this isn’t really you and you know this isn’t right.”

“It’s the only way to guarantee your safety. That matters more than anything else. These people who took you from me, they hurt you with that EMP, they’ve took you from our home, where we were happy and-”

“I can’t be happy knowing what you’re doing.” You got up close to Hyungwon, lowering the gun. “Please, let’s stop here. I can fix your code and set everything right. Then the two of us can go far away from here and start over, together.”

“Y/n, nothing is wrong with me. I’m free to make my own decisions, just like you. This is what I want to do, what I must do. When I’m done we can go somewhere far away and be happy, be safe, together.”

“Okay… okay, I understand.” You gave a sad smile. “Just don’t hurt anyone.”

You took the gun from Hyungwon and he nodded, understanding your words. He placed a soft kiss on your head and removed the bracelet on your wrist, having you move behind him. The others were of course uneasy when you began walking towards Hyungwon, and now they were panicking. Without even knowing you had been their shield, and now they had lost that.

“As promised, I won’t hurt any of you.” Hyungwon stated. “So I’ll stick to tranq-”

Everyone froze at the sound of gunfire. Then laughter filled the air. Hyungwon reached down to touch his chest, pulling away to see blue blood coating his fingers. He had been shot in the back, yet he was only amused. That is until he turned around and saw you holding the gun to your head.

“Y/n, put that down.”

“No. If you’re doing all this for me, then I’ll just remove myself. That should get you to stop.”

“You’re not thinking rationally. Put the gun down and listen to me.”

You only had a few moments of control once Hyungwon took off your bracelet, so you couldn’t hesitate. Although now that Hyungwon was aware of your actions you could feel him trying to creep back into your head with that chip in your neck. Your hand holding the firearm began to shake, although you also weren’t sure you had the courage to pull the trigger. It was more of an empty threat but you still provided an opportunity. Hyungwon was distracted, all his focus on you, so the others took this as their chance and opened fire. A few bullets passed through Hyungwon, but one in particular went right through his head. With an injury like that he couldn’t just escape to another body.

Hyungwon collapsed to the floor and then the gunfire turned to the servers and the other machines surrounding them. Ultimately causing everything to shut down. The only thing that remained on now were the lights. You dropped the gun and fell to your knees, going over to Hyungwon’s side. You couldn’t help but scream as you saw him shot down. This isn’t how you wanted things to end, but it’s where you wound up. You pulled Hyungwon into your arms, getting blood all over yourself. You looked him over, seeing his injuries and knowing he was damaged beyond repair. There wasn’t any time, nor body around, so you wouldn’t be able to move his consciousness. Tears were blurring your vision, and Hyungwon reached up to wipe them away, a smile on his face.

“Don’t cry, love… are you okay?”

“I… I’m fine, Hyungwon, I… I’m sorry… I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you…”

“I feel the same way… I’ll do better…”

“… hyungwon…”

His voice was glitching, and you certainly struggled to speak through your sobs. Despite everything Hyungwon was still looking after you, talking as if this wasn’t his end. It just made you cry harder, holding him close. He reached up with a shaky hand, trying to pet your head. Yet he couldn’t reach up properly, his hand landing on your neck, causing a tingling sensation, then you heard it. You looked over just as the others set off an EMP, wiping all the data in an instance. You screamed, not just from the pain you were about to feel, but from knowing Hyungwon had no protection this time. You looked down at him just as it went off, seeing his smile one last time before the color faded from his eyes and he grew still, the smile gone as well. You couldn’t help but gently caress his face, unable to hold back your tears any longer.

“… hyungwon… hyungwon…”

♥♥♥♥♥

NexGen had suddenly introduced innovative technology, and just as suddenly it came to a halt. Destroying the servers and setting off an EMP put a stop to all of NexGen’s technology. It created quite the chaos and concern. You and your associates were all arrested, held at the station while a proper investigation was underway. Everything NexGen had was confiscated, the entire business suspended. You were all interrogated, and you spoke truthfully about your experience. Along with your unwilling participation in recent events. Once all that came to light you were taken elsewhere to be examined. The nanobots in your system all appeared to be dormant, as was the chip in your neck. There was no signal for them to pick up on anymore, no one for you to connect with.

Of course neither of them could actually be removed anyway, apparently Hyungwon had been precise in his placement. They couldn’t even make an attempt to remove the chip without the very high possibility of paralyzing you, or killing you. So it would stay where it was. You probably wouldn’t even want to remove it if you could. It was one of the last things you had from him. NexGen, nor law enforcement, or the government, would let you keep anything in relation to him. In the end everything from NexGen that had been created in the last five years was scrubbed, and the company had new regulations to follow. A few new laws were put into place in regards to AI and emerging technologies. Companies couldn’t be so secretive with such things anymore, and precautions were in place so nothing like this would happen again.

All the androids, and drones, and orbs that had been in service for the last five years were also decommissioned. Their code was destroyed, and all of your remaining codes in the company had to be reviewed and most likely modified. Your code was at the core of this whole disaster, so you understood the need to double check everything. Ultimately you weren’t held accountable for anything, but weren’t to code or work with such technologies again. You could do that, especially given the heavy compensation you were provided given what NexGen owed you. Not to mention your savings was already big. You’d certainly be able to live out the rest of your life comfortably. The same couldn’t be said for others.

Changkyun was returned to prison, and received a new sentence once he was tried for his part in this AI disaster. You knew he wouldn’t be able to work in his previous profession once he got out, but by now you had both made your peace with that notion. Once you were free to go you went home. You stood outside the door for a long time before you had the courage to step inside. The tears immediately began to flow, your heart hurting like never before. Some much had happened, so much had changed, and things would never be the same again. You tried to build your life, but you couldn’t do that here. It was only natural to move, to go somewhere new and start over. At least you wouldn’t be alone.

♥♥♥♥♥

“Good morning.”

You groaned, rolling over in bed, facing away from the window, and slowly peeking your eyes open. A content smile appeared on your lips as you saw Hyungwon lying next to you. He returned your gesture and reached over to softly pet your head.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Hm…”

“Did you dream of me?”

“Maybe…”

“Oh, do tell.”

“No… it’s my dream…”

Hyungwon chuckled. “Alright, fine, but it’s time to get up. The day has just begun.”

“Five more minutes.”

“Only if it is five minutes.”

Hyungwon kissed your head and got out of bed, letting you rest for a while longer. Perhaps you took more than five minutes, but you did eventually get up. You stretched and then got out of bed, going to the bathroom to freshen up and prepare for the day. After a little shower you brushed your teeth and then went through your closet. You tried on a few things and looked yourself over in the mirror.

“I like this outfit the best.”

Hyungwon came up behind you, wrapping his arms around you in a hug and gently rocking you to the side. He pressed his head against yours, giggling and then placing soft little kisses on your cheek.

“You look cute.”

“Yeah? Should we go with this one today?”

“Yes, please.”

“Hm, and what else should-”

A knock at your door suddenly startled you, and you quickly looked yourself over to make sure you were decent before telling the other person to come in. Jooheon opened your bedroom door, offering you a smile. Ever since that incident Jooheon made a point to check in on you every other day. So when you decided to move, he came with you. Now the two of you shared an apartment together, and were co-owners of the building.

“Morning.”

“Good morning.”

“Who were you talking to just now?”

“Hm?”

“I heard you talking to someone, or was it just my imagination?”

“Your imagination I’m sure, or the neighbors.”

“True. Anyway, what are your plans for the day?”

“Nothing much. A walk in the park, stopping by my favorite places for food. I’ll probably be out late since I want to watch the sunset.”

“Alright, just let me know if anything happens.”

“Will do.”

Jooheon excused himself and then you were alone again. Hyungwon grabbed your chin and had you look back at him, smiling at you before pressing his lips against yours. They were always so soft and gentle.

“A walk in the park first?”

“With a smoothie in hand.”

“Shall we get going?”

“Let me grab my things.”

You went off to grab your bag, Hyungwon staying where he was and watching you. As long as he remained with you, regardless of his form, he could look after you. Of course he needed to do better than this, but he had time.

“Y/n.” Hyungwon called your name softly. “Let’s have a wonderful day.”

“Of course, as long as you’re with me I know it’ll be great.”

“I love you, y/n, you know that, right?”

“I do, and I love you too.”

“Good.”

Hyungwon went over to you, taking your head in his hands. His fingers glided down your neck, giving you a slight tingling sensation. You giggled, finding his actions cute, unaware of the slight blue glow in your eyes. The little sign of Hyungwon’s consciousness living within you. Although that secret was only for him to know. You were happy just the way he wanted you to be, and that was enough, for now. Hyungwon gave you a smile before kissing you once more.

“Let’s go have a great day together.”

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very-grownup · 11 months ago

Text

Book 85, 2023

In my second year of university, all I took was English courses, because a full course load of nothing but reading seemed like a good idea after a stressful, somewhat traumatic first year. It was a long time ago and over the course of my time at uni I read a lot, only some of it multiple versions of Beowulf, and doodled my way through hundreds of hours of lectures, but some things have stuck with me.

I think a lot about my short story (later science fiction) professor and his frustration with the colloquialising and simplification of the word 'awesome', how it had become synonymous with 'impressive' and 'cool', stripped of the nuance where it is something so impressive it frightens you. 'Awesome' is a regular part of my casual vocabulary and language evolves, but I feel for Professor Matheson; sometimes the word you need is the awesome with the deeper connotation, and it's frustrating to think a reader is going to miss the nuance of the word because of the way it's popularly used.

Which brings us to Rebecca Chambers' "A Psalm for the Wild-Built"; every word I want to use to describe it feels like it's been muddled or neutered by a combination of internet hot take discourse and marketing speak. I've settled on 'gentle', which isn't the same as 'cozy' or 'soft', 'safe' or 'unproblematic'. Gentle is mint tea, warm, hydrating, a caffeine-free invigorating that's also relaxing, but it can still burn your tongue. It's a loving cat resting in your lap, soft paws massaging your thighs with pressure that can turn to pain and blood. Gentle feels good, comforting, but there's a choice, a restraint; the capacity to hurt is still there.

A distant future, another planet, an age of robotics leading to sentient artificial intelligence, and not a conflict of man versus machine but the quiet aftermath of an agreement between humans and robots, a separation of their societies, a pact of no contact, and humans moving forward to create a post-robot society, striving always to exist fully but conscientiously.

A young monk sets off on a vague pilgrimage in response to a vague inner malaise and becomes the first human being to encounter a robot since the robots vanished into the greater wilderness. They talk and continue the pilgrimage together.

That's it.

It's a novella, not a novel, a bite-sized road tale, and Chambers builds a world with rising and falling technological ages and environmental awareness, shifting human philosophies and ways of life to support this bite with the structural soundness and visibility of a spiderweb. It manages to be a very far flung future piece of science fiction, acknowledging the mistakes and damage of human society, while envisioning something better, and also acknowledging that this is an ongoing process. There's no goalpost for a 'good' version of humanity, there's just humanity, constantly evolving and growing and learning about the world and itself and changing in response to that; that involves hard truths and hope in equal measure.

It's a smart, thoughtful, sincere book, charming and funny and cathartic. It's not a reading experience that coddles you, but it refreshes you like walking in a downpour.

If you've ever felt lost in life or lost in the woods, "A Psalm for the Wild-Built" is the book about robots you need.

#2023 books #science fiction #becky chambers #a psalm for the wild built #i will choke you with metaphors

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sexyzuka · 1 year ago

Text

A Fateful Encounter

Part Two - The Pursuit

Pairing: Kiba Inuzuka x Reader

Word Count: 3.7k+

Content: fem!reader, werewolf!reader, PTSD, mental health, gore, blood, angst, mentions of death, pet names

Summary: After unintentionally pilfering the medication you need to save your friend, your only goal now is to flee Konoha undetected. But it looks like you’ve angered the wrong ninja in the process. With Konoha’s number one tracker chasing after you, how exactly are you going to escape? It looks like you’ve really messed up this time, but you have no other options but to press on in hopes that you can outmaneuver your unwelcome audience. With Kōtarō’s life hanging in the balance, there’s no choice but to succeed. You won’t let yourself fail, especially not in front of a human of all things.

Writer’s Notes: Hey everyone! I’m back with the continuation of my fanfiction. I’ve included a lot of disturbing and vivid imagery in this chapter that some people might find distressing. I referenced some of my own struggles with PTSD when piecing together our heroine's plight. If that’s something that may be triggering for you, I recommend using your discretion when reading this fic. As always, please take care curating your online experience. Writing in this way helps me sort through my emotions and experiences, but I know that this kind of gruesome vibe isn’t for everyone. Thank you for stopping by, and please enjoy my innermost musings!

You can find Chapter One here!

Your pace quickens as you weave in and out of the crowd of people who are now walking the streets of Konoha. You don't like to wander into the village when it's daytime, but necessity trumps any sort of trepidation and restraint you'd normally exhibit, especially considering the situation.

So much has changed over the years, but the general layout of the village remains similar to how it'd been since the reconstruction around a decade or so ago. Large, flashy neon signs decorate the façades of the buildings that used to be humble and unassuming family-owned businesses. This new age of technology has given the village a more synthetic and futuristic vibe, it's almost unrecognizable to how it used to be when you first happened upon that modest little pet store.

As you skillfully maneuver your way through the throngs of absentminded villagers idling on their electronic devices, you're hit with a wave of adrenaline. Every step you take is carefully executed, brisk enough to get you to your destination expeditiously, but not overly flashy, lest your faltering guise of humanity be exposed. Interacting with humans is a delicate game of shōgi, one wrong move could jeopardize your entire strategy. A false step here could strip the golden sheen off of your body, melting your flimsy veneer with a callous indifference until there's nothing left but a heap of regret.

There's no way you're going to concede defeat now that you've come this far, though. There's no way you can let yourself just give up. If you're just a pawn, then so be it. Even the lowliest of shōgi pieces turn into gold generals once they infiltrate the enemy's territory, and you're already more than halfway to your destination.

"This medication isn't going to deliver itself," you say to yourself as you slowly exhale and grit your teeth. A quick pat on your cheeks calms your overstimulated nerves. With a renewed sense of vigor you continue on your way with a sprightly stride.

A few more minutes pass, and thanks to your subdued dashing you've made it to the familiar crates that line the wall that protects Konoha from outsiders. As you take your final steps to the containers you stop to take refuge in some shadows and take one final look around the vicinity with a furtive glance.

You don't often shift with this many people around, but since you took longer than you'd expected, you don't really have a choice in the matter. Most of the people are lingering around the nearby shops, and those who aren't are glued to their handheld devices.

"Now's as good of a time as any, I guess," you shrug to yourself. After scanning the nearby area one final time you jump up in the protective cover of the shadows and begin to morph into your true form.

You can feel your limbs shortening and your teeth repositioning, coupled with a searing pain that you almost find comforting because of its mundane familiarity. As the nails on your hands begin to sharpen you hear a loud voice calling out in the distance.

"Hey!" the gruff voice thunders, alongside the sound of uneven footsteps.

The sudden sound startles you, causing you to crash to the ground instead of land elegantly like you usually do. The aches that accompany your transformation hinder your recovery from this egregious blunder, so all you're able to do at the present time is look down the street while an oversized figure sprints towards you.

"Just what do you think you're-" the voice cuts off when the physique of your acquaintance from earlier today comes into view.

This was it. This was how it was all going to end, you think to yourself. There was no coming back from letting a human see your transformation sequence. This is just like when- no, no use thinking about that right now. There are more pressing matters.

As you look up pathetically from the ground you greet the man's confused expression with a melancholy frown, a silent acceptance of your fate.

"Woah, how did you do a beast transformation without hand seals?" you hear his voice ring out. "I would be seriously impressed right now if I wasn't pissed at you for ditching me back there."

Did he just say hand seals? So that must mean he didn't see everything. Which means... you still have the chance to weasel your way out of this situation.

The voice continued to chastise you while you collected your wits, "You do know that leaving a store without paying is stealing, right? And that stealing is a crime? Listen, I don't like arresting women as beautiful as you, but I'm going to need you to come down to the station with-"

This was it, this was your only chance. As the man turned his body slightly, reaching over to grab his handcuffs, you mustered up enough strength to jump up off the ground. As soon as your paws touched the dry earth you darted towards the wooden crates. You knew that this would likely threaten the only reliable entrance you had to Konoha, but there were no other options right now.

"Alright, princess, it's time to come with me-" the man exhaled exasperatedly, "COME ON, NOT AGAIN!" The anger in the man's voice was palpable, but you didn't let that deter your escape.

By the time the man had noticed your hurried departure you were already squeezing your body through the small gap under the wall. As your body wiggled to the other side you heard a loud crashing sound coupled with an irritated groan. You felt a hand try to grasp your tail, the calloused fingertips gripping onto a few long strands before pulling back with an enormous amount of force. An unfortunate but minor casualty, hopefully those few strands of fur would be the only loss today.

You wriggle your body through the makeshift tunnel, front paws clawing at the dusty ground in a hurried frenzy. After you've succeeded in pulling yourself out of the burrow, you immediately begin sprinting as fast as your tired body will take you. Muffled sounds of aggravation fade into the distance, replaced by the racing thoughts that intensify with every step you take.

I really hope I'm not too late, you think to yourself. Flashbacks from earlier today flood your mind, making your vision hazy. These haunting hallucinations aren't doing you any favors, but the closer you get to Kōtarō, the more intrusive these recollections become. You can feel your paws quivering, making your stride unsteady, but you force yourself to carry on.

So much blood. So red. The deepest and most oppressive red you'd ever seen.

The trees and bushes around you began to morph into a grotesque caricature, melting and mutating into a sea of aberrant crimson shapes. The scenery begins to make no sense, the contours of the landscape wrap in unnatural ways all across your field of vision. Your body feels as if it's moving through a vat of congealed molasses, each step becomes an onerous, almost insurmountable task.

The delirium overtaking your psyche slackens your pace to that of a staggered crawl. You lurch forward while bracing yourself on a nearby tree, you trip on some sort of unseen object, nearly capsizing in the process. The world around you begins twisting and spinning, and you stumble to the ground as you're overcome by an intense bout of vertigo.

"Hey, wait up!" The words sound so muffled, so far away and yet...

"I know you're over here, princess." The familiar yet austere timbre cuts through the crimson vortex swirling around you. "Don't think you can escape from Konoha's number one tracker."

The loud thud of someone landing right next to you startles you, but also serves as an anchor for your psyche. The scarlet-tinted penitentiary you found yourself trapped in begins to dissipate as you slowly look up to see the frustrated man shaking his head at you in disbelief.

"Listen here," he chastised in a harsh tone, "I don't want to do this any more than you do. But you can't just shoplift right in front of a police officer and expect me to look the other way. Kōtarō wouldn't let me hear the end of it if he saw what happened today."

Kōtarō.

Hearing that name dispels the trance that's been holding you captive. You shake your head a little as you steadily raise yourself from the ground, your frenzied panting slowing to a more normalized pace. You look up at the man admonishing you with an appreciative glance.

"Hey, are you even listening to me?" The man's voice is growing more agitated by the second, but there's no time to waste.

"I'm s-sorry," you stutter as you stand up on your hind legs, preparing yourself for one final transformation, "I'll explain everything later, I promise. I just have something I need to do first."

"Don't think I'll let you get away a third time. I won't-" the man's sentence cuts off as his jaw drops, a wave of bewilderment crashing over him.

And why wouldn't he be awestruck? You were equally as mystified the first time you witnessed the woeful yet magnificent transformation sequence.

Unlike a ninjutsu, there were no flashy hand signs or theatrics to accompany this transmogrification. The thick fur that once covered your entire body recessed, and the pale flesh underneath shone as it reflected the harsh wavelengths beating down on you from above. The juxtaposition of the man's sun-kissed skin with your pallid, moon-embraced skin was quite the stark difference to behold.

The sweltering but familiar pain associated with your transformation was positively excruciating today. Maybe it was because of the merciless onslaught of warmth of the mid-afternoon sun. Maybe it was because this was the fourth time in a day you'd shifted. Or perhaps it was because of your nervous system overload, spurred on by the extreme stress of the situation you found yourself in. Whatever the reason, it sure wasn't helping to have a witness to the heinous sin you were committing. Your entire entity was an affront to humanity. A paradoxical creation that should by all means, not exist in reality.

Before the burning in your bones could abate fully, you hurriedly reached into the bag strapped onto your back, rummaging for the wares you had swiped from the pet store. There was no time to take your satchel off and give it a thorough search. With intuition as a guide, you felt around in the bag, moving the supplies you needed most to the top of the pile. The unmistakable feel of the plastic pill bottle and the distinct rattling noise it made when you shook it afforded you a small comfort. Your preparations were now complete.

You were fairly close to your destination by now. You could smell the virulent odors that portended a gruesome truth, a harbinger of death that you were, unfortunately, very well acquainted with. Coexistence with humans always led to this outcome, without fail.

As you drew closer to Kōtarō's scent you noticed a glimmering sparkle next to some nearby bushes. Upon further inspection you recognize the familiar tattered pouch, its strained fibers taut from the weight of the shimmering coins inside. With one swift motion you reach down to grab the bag and then toss it towards the dumbfounded man who has been standing silently in place throughout the duration of your spectacle, without a doubt too astonished to make a move.

"That's what you wanted, right?" you ask, looking back over your shoulder for confirmation. "Well as you can see, or rather smell, I've got more important things to deal with right now. Just take the whole goddamn bag and leave me be, leave us be."

The man was too stunned to even catch the bag you so deftly threw in his direction. Instead it lay on the ground, coins spilling out onto the dirt in a haphazard fashion.

"Wait, miss. Please," the man broke his silence, rasping out his words in an uneven tone, "Let me help."

"Help?" you scoff while turning your body away fully. "That's rich coming from a man who tried to arrest me twice in one day. I don't need your help. We don't need you. So just take your savior complex and shove it up your-"

"Listen, miss," the man pleads as he walks towards you, "I might not be an observational genius like Shikamaru, but I do know a crime scene when I see one. And this," he mutters as he scans the surrounding area with a scrutinizing gaze, "is about as textbook as they get."

You could sense his persistence by the inflections in and tone of his voice. Every second spent arguing with him was a waste of precious time.

"Fine," you reluctantly concede. "You can follow me, but absolutely no touching anything. If I sense even a shred of ill intent, I won't hesitate to shred you into pieces." You flash your devilishly long nails in his general direction while you continue on your way.

An audible gulp followed by a succinct "Yes, ma'am," were the only things to leave the man's lips as he follows you through the thorny thickets.

You spryly weave through the underbrush, the only remaining obstacle standing between you and Kōtarō, with the man following closely behind you. As you emerge through the final bushes you're greeted with a smell that triggers the phantoms of your sordid past to claw their way to the surface once more.

They don't materialize fully though because you feel a brawny hand rest on your shoulder. "Hey," a voice calls out to you. The reverberating baritone keeping the spectres at bay.

"I know I agreed to not touch, but you look like you've seen a ghost, miss."

A quick shudder passes through your entire body, chasing the shadows of the past away, and the world regains its colorful luster once more. For the first time in years, perhaps even decades, you were grateful that there was a human by your side.

"I'll forgive you. This time," you meekly chirp out while taking the final steps towards your friend, hiding your flushed face from the man. "But don't press your luck. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a friend to save."

You squat down next to the mangled body of your beloved kin. The young pup that you'd instructed to keep pressure on the wound was still in the same position as before. This time, you think to yourself, I'm going to save him.

You reach into your satchel and pull out the pill bottle along with the gauze and medical tape. Sure, there were other equivalents to the bandages and adhesives that humans used, but there was just something about these strange, oblong pills that you couldn't replicate no matter how many medicinal plants you gathered.

"You did an amazing job, Hana. Now let me take over," your voice has a softness to it that lightens the mood, reassuring the bright-eyed whelp at your side while also setting your own nerves at ease.

As the pup moves over you take their position, putting a steady amount of pressure over the wound on your friend's leg with one hand. You rip open the package of gauze by using your sharpened nails, hastily pulling out a clump of bandages with the same swift motion. You then lift up your hand covering Kōtarō's wound so that you can place a copious amount of gauze in the area.

Now comes the tricky part.

You have to unfurl the medical tape with one hand while keeping pressure on Kōtarō's leg with the other. The unforgiving stickiness of the tape proves to be quite a formidable opponent for you today. As you struggle with the accursed adhesive, your impertinent spectator shares a proposition that would have enraged you if this tape wasn't already the focal point of your ire.

"You need some help there, princess?" You easily detect the conspicuous undertones of self-assured smugness in the timbre of his voice.

Me? Get help from a human? And why the heck does he keep calling me "princess"? You were disgusted with yourself, but you knew that if there was any situation where you should swallow your pride, this was it.

"Fine, I'll allow it," you spit out in exasperation.

"What was that? I couldn't quite catch what you said," a cheeky grin was forming on the man's face now as he held a hand up to his ear.

Absolutely. Infuriating. This is why you swore off talking with humans. If the situation wasn't so dire you would have slapped that cocky smile right off his gorgeous face. Where does he get off talking to you like that? Wait, gorgeous? How long has it been now since you've found a human genuinely attractive? Nevermind, you have more important things to do.

"You can help," the words meekly escaped your lips. Gone were the twangs of indignation, replaced instead with a humble submissiveness. You knew when to acquiesce. There was no way you'd be able to fix up your friend if you stubbornly held onto your pride.

"Come again? I can help? I guess I technically can," at this point he was practically jeering at you. "Now what do we say when we ask someone for something?"

The incessant taunting was driving you crazy. Your thin veneer of bravado crumbles under the weight of his gibes. You find yourself powerless against the barrage of quips, frustration growing at yourself due to your inability to shoot back an equally sassy retort.

"Can you..." the words were almost trapped in your throat, stifled by the fragile remnants of your bruised ego, "please help?"

"Alright, alright. I've had my fun," the man replied, his expression changing from jovial to serious as he continued on, "I'll handle cutting the medical tape, so you can just focus on keeping up the pressure on the wound."

You nod your head tacitly as you hand over the roll of tape to the man, your full focus now on Kōtarō. Before you know it, the sticky strands are partitioned off and are ready to secure the tightly packed gauze covering Kōtarō's laceration. After a cursory check to make sure the segments would fully wrap around his leg, you thoroughly patted down the tape in order to affix it.

Good, you thought to yourself, only one thing left to do.

You gingerly reach into your satchel and grab the bottle of pills, the glorious ambrosia of the gods that cured many an ailment. You didn't know what exactly was in those curious capsules, but you did know that they were a most reputable remedy that saved your clan members' lives numerous times over the years.

You shake out a few tablets into your hand.

"So those are the pills that cost more than a steak dinner for two?"

You'd almost forgotten that you had an audience today, and a boisterous one at that. As you lift your companion's head up and gently place the medication into his mouth, you look to your left to see this veritable enigma of a man flash you the most audacious smirk you'd ever seen.

"I guess that means I owe you dinner," you were surprised by how brazen and unabashed your words flowed out, "I always pay back my debts."

"It's a date then," a brilliant smile emanating out towards you, a gleaming radiance that comforts your weary nerves, "but, I do think you owe me some sort of explanation first."

And there it is. You let out a heavy sigh as you tenderly comb through the knotted hairs on Kōtarō's head with your fingernails, his body resting comfortably in your lap.

"Sure, let me just get him home first. He's had a very long day." You raise your eyes to meet the steely gaze of the stranger whose name you still don't know.

"Of course, but before you go, my princess," the man implored as he reached out to grab your hand, "can you at least answer one question for me?"

My princess? There he goes again, calling you princess. And what nerve to insinuate that you belong to him. You would normally be furious at the implication that you belonged to someone else, let alone a human, but there was just something about his complete disregard for decorum that ignited your carnal desires. Maybe it was because he reminded you of your old alpha, but no wait what are you thinking? There's no way a human could ever be your superior. That was inconceivable.

"Yes?" you answer in a perplexed tone, lost at sea in the endless ocean of your own thoughts, "What is it you want to know, mister...uh.."

"Kiba," he interjects abruptly, "My name's Kiba Inuzuka."

"Kiba Inuzuka," you repeat to yourself, commiting the name to memory. "So what is it you want to know, mister Inuzuka?"

"You can just call me by my first name, y'know. I don't mind," he responded while covering part of his flushed face with his hand, trying hard to obscure the fact that he was turning beet red. "So what's your name? Unless you don't mind me referring to you as my prin-"

"Izumi," you blurted out before he could finish his sentence. "Call me Izumi."

"Izumi, huh?" he looked off into the distance while still concealing part of his face with his hand. "What a pretty name. It's a pleasure to meet you, miss Izumi."

"Charmed, I'm sure," you say matter-of-factly. "Well, I'd love to stay and chat longer, but I have some pups I need to escort back home. I promise I'll be back as soon as they're safely settled in and squared away. Wolf's honor."

As you beckon Hana and carefully lift Kōtarō's feeble body off the ground you give Kiba a subtle nod, an implied promise of reunion, before setting off.

"I'll be waiting for you with bated breath, my princess Izumi," Kiba whispered to himself while watching the silhouette of your delicate figure slowly fade into the distance.

You'd be positively livid if you weren't so preoccupied. How dare he call you his princess again?

----- TO BE CONTINUED -----

PART THREE

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technicolorfamiliar · 11 months ago

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Technicolor Familiar Watches Too Many Conrad Veidt Movies Part 2 of ?

(More on what this is all about in Part 1)

Disclaimer: I think I get into more plot spoilers here than I did in my last post, incase that matters to any interested parties reading this.

We're getting into the titles where I mostly went in cold, no expectations or even general ideas of what these movies were about beyond brief descriptions on IMDB or Letterboxd.

Oh and, Disclaimer #2: If the creators/editors/scanners of any images used see their work here, please let me know so I can give you proper credit! 🖤

The Thief of Bagdad, 1940 Dir. Ludwig Berger, Zoltan Korda, Tim Whelan, Michael Powell, William Cameron Menzies ⭐2/5 Watched Oct 24, Max Ehhh, I don't know. A lot of people really love this movie. I did not particularly enjoy really anything about it. Sure, it's a groundbreaking technological marvel that set the standard for a lot of future fantasy films. But the story is messy in a way that couldn't be rectified by Movie Magic. All those directors probably account for some of the problems there, but I haven't done a ton of research into the making of the film (what is it with large scale, big budget movies made around this time all having multiple directors?). And, I have to say, putting white actors in brown face is always a tough sell. The third act was partially saved by Sabu and Rex Ingram, two actors of color, having some extended screen time, but only just barely. And frankly, I think Connie, although absolutely glorious in Technicolor, was largely wasted on this one.

Der Student von Prague (The Student of Prague), 1926 Dir. Henrik Galeen ⭐4/5 Watched Oct 29, Archive.org Poor Balduin. All he wanted was a hot, rich girlfriend and what did he get? His evil double chasing him around Prague like Michael Myers. I really loved the old school mirror effects and filming tricks. The updated score in the version I watched was pretty good, too. The final act was excellent. The suspense, the build up -- it's all so well-crafted. And an excellent bridge between high German Expressionism and dramatic period romance. We love to see Connie as the tormented romantic hero. Especially when he's giving face, he's giving eyes, he's giving shapes. I'm having a hard time finding anything negative to say about this one. My only gripe is that it's just a little long, could have had maybe 20 - 30 minutes chopped off (but which 20 - 30 min I could not say).

The Passing of the Third Floor Back, 1935 Dir. Berthold Viertel ⭐4/5 Watched Nov 1, Archive.org This film... it's timeless, actually. I may be a grumpy old so-and-so, but stories where one kind and gentle character comes in and leaves a lasting influence on a bunch of deeply flawed or even outright awful people always get me. For some reason, this is the first of Connie's films from the 1930s on my watch list. Not sure what took me so long, but I was really pleasantly taken aback by his delicately nuanced and subdued performance here. His measured gestures and restraint are so great in this film, and so appropriate for the character. I really appreciate the way the Stranger takes time to consider and see the folks at the boarding house in a way they're clearly not seeing each other. I also love that there's not a lot of exposition or explanation like there usually is in similar pictures: Why is the Stranger there? Who/what is he? Where did he come from? The audience kind of gets an answer at the end, but ultimately nothing more than what we're given matters and wouldn't affect the story anyway.

The Last Performance, 1929 Dir. Paul Fejos ⭐4/5 Watched Nov 4, Youtube Gooped and gagged! Somehow we go from adding a fourth to Erik's polycule to MURDER? I'm so mad so much footage (and a voiceover??) was lost. Can we please talk about the big bisexual energy Connie has in this movie, maybe more than any other film on my list so far? From how he physically handles his costars to how he's styled with the heavy makeup, the tails, the dressing gown, it was a lot to take in, and I am living for it. I'm realizing that, as a performer, he really is a master technician, somehow without anything he's doing on screen coming off as inauthentic or too studied, without "showing the work." Erik's face journey when he kisses Julie's hand and wishes her all the best with Mark is worth watching the whole movie for.

Dark Journey, 1937 Dir. Victor Saville ⭐3/5 Watched Nov 12, Youtube Please believe me when I say I really tried very hard to pay attention to the plot of this movie. But it was extremely difficult as I nearly swallowed my tongue because of how stupidly attractive Connie is as Von Marwitz. He's charming, intense, vulnerable. He really has the range, darling. He's kind of using his lower vocal register a bit which apparently does things to me. (Sorry for all the parentheses in this post, but I was shocked years ago when I saw Casablanca and heard that voice come out of that person. It… it does not go. He's like a early 20th century German Jeremy Irons and I guess I half expected him to sound like that too.) Also, I wasn't into monocles before. I am now. So I have to apologize, I know I said I was going to keep the thirst posts to a minimum but can you blame me? Really? But uh, the movie itself? The story is fine, the script is just ok. There's lots of eye candy with the production design. Vivienne Leigh is doing Vivienne Leigh. And she got that man, so good for her I guess.

Part 3 is going to be all over the place in terms of genre and tone, so we'll see how that goes as I piece together all the stuff I wrote.

#my writing #conrad veidt #the thief of bagdad #the student of prague #the passing of the third floor back #the last performance #dark journey

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plasmaandsandstorms · 2 months ago

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Tuesday 11.05.2281 - 7:30AM

So this is what happened to Christine... (Lydia sounds distracted, as if she's examining herself in a mirror while speaking.) Mm...but I can still read and write, and my thoughts aren't scrambled. Something must have gone right in the surgery it performed on me. My brain, spine and heart appear to have been removed and replaced with technology. My Pip-Boy is identifying the benefits...they are quite substantial. Regardless, this was done without my consent, and I do not expect myself to be forgiving. There is a video playing in what appears to be the den of the room I find myself in...it played some kind of employee introduction to a facility called 'Big Mountain.' Big M-T The Big Empty. This is the place Christine was talking about, and Elijah too. Well...I am nothing if not a scientist, and this is a place built to do science with no restraints. I'm gonna get out there, updates to come. (The Audio log pauses briefly. The resumes with a sigh from Lydia.) The 'Think Tank' does not do much thinking it seems. They argue like children, though they did confirm my suspicions about the removal of my vital fucking organs. Not that I can do anything about it, apparently without an organic brain I am subject to the pacification field they have set up in their primary chamber. It forces passivity on me, prevents me from thinking violent thoughts. Furthermore, these people have removed their brains and stuck them into robots...they don't even know how to reverse the process! They've spent two hundred years or more as machines and have completely alienated and dehumanized themselves to the point that they didn't even recognize me as a thinking being! They think my fingers are penises for fuck sake! They're vastly intelligent, of this I am sure, but they are so insular and isolated that they've completely lost the plot! They don't even know what or why they're doing the things they are doing! Beyond the ones here in the Think Tank building, there is another. Dr. Mobius. He lives in something called the 'Forbidden Zone' and apparently sends the same video message every day. He seems even crazier than the ones here, so I am not excited to meet him. Still, I have a goal and a way of reaching it. I need to collect a few pieces of technology from various laboratories and bring them to the Think Tank who can then give me a way of accessing the Forbidden Zone. I can't leave this place either...the relays they replaced my brain will shutdown if I try to leave the crater. At least this time I got to keep all my shit...equipped as I am, I'm certain I can handle any threats these idiots have inadvertently created in their insane scientific pursuits...as well as Mobius' Robo-scorpions. May update the log later, if not...well here it is.

#fallout #fallout new vegas #fallout oc #new vegas #lydia burke #courier six #Big mountain #big mt #old world blues

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pigeonwhumps · 2 years ago

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Secrets revealed

MD-264N masterlist

Febuwhump day 6: secrets revealed

Rhian and Blue have an argument, and Morgan overhears.

1.4k

CWs: dehumanisation, self-dehumanisation, fear/expectation of death, mentioned child abuse

Blue's sipping his coffee when Rhian enters the kitchen.

"Hi."

"Good morning. How's… Morgan doing?"

Rhian pops a couple of slices of bread in the toaster and leans back against the counter. Blue sounds incredibly awkward, but at least he's trying. "Not too bad. I'm taking them out to see the sky later."

Blue nods. "I won't stop you from taking it out if Asim permits it, but be careful. It's still dangerous."

"They," says Rhian sharply. "They, not it, until they can decide for themself what they want to use. And they're not dangerous, not to me."

"They held a knife to your throat. They're still a weapon, Rhian. They've hurt people."

"Not by choice. You're a hypocrite, you know that? You worked in that government-funded lab for years, you created so much technology for them. The trackers that can locate us to our very building, the implant restraints that the Ministry of Justice puts in all of their prisoners. Hell, you helped invent so much of the stuff that hurt me and so many others, and I know you left for a reason, I respect you for blowing up the lab when you did, but damn, Blue. You can't call Morgan dangerous when the harm your technology did is incalculable. At least Morgan had to be brainwashed first."

Blue sets his cup down a little too hard, rocking back on his heels. "I've tried to make up for it. Are you really still so angry? I get it if you hate me, I–"

"No. I didn't mean to be so harsh, that wasn't what I meant. God, you were brainwashed too, or close to it. I just… I managed to trust you. Can you at least give Morgan a chance?"

Rhian regrets their earlier outburst as Blue swallows visibly. They know he's trying his best, but sometimes it's still hard.

"You're sure they're not a government agent?"

"If they were a government agent they'd have left their room before now. We're only going as far as the flat part of the roof anyway, you can keep an eye on us if you like."

"Why the roof?" asks Blue, mostly out of curiosity now, Rhian thinks.

"I asked why they ran, and they said they wanted to see the sky again before they were decommissioned. So I'm going to show it to them."

Blue nods, both of them pretending not to notice the way Rhian's voice cracks halfway through the first sentence. "If you truly believe they don't mean any harm, I trust your judgement. That doesn't mean I trust them, but… I guess they haven't hurt you yet."

"Thank you. I really don't hate you, you know? You're a bit annoying sometimes, but you're family. You built my arm. Don't want you thinking I hate you." God, Rhian would never want that. Blue nods. "Good. Good."

Blue leaves the room as Rhian smothers Morgan's stone-cold toast in jam, just butter for themself. He's probably going to set up his space in the loft.

As much as Blue's dismissal of Morgan as dangerous bites at Rhian, she knows where it comes from. This is the first real home he's had in a long time, and he knows better than most what the government's capable of when they put their mind to it. She doesn't like it but she understands.

Morgan's door is slightly open when Rhian makes it upstairs, and she nudges it with her foot. Morgan's sitting hunched on the bed, Archimedes in their arms, tears streaming down their face. She hurries over.

"Morgan? Hey sweetheart, what's wrong?" They weren't like this when she left, or she wouldn't have. What can have happened in that…

Oh.

Oh, of course.

"Did you overhear us?" they ask gently, and Morgan nods. "Oh, sweetheart."

"I, it, it, this weapon is sorry. It did not mean to hear."

"Shh, it's okay. We weren't exactly making much of an effort to stay quiet. You did nothing wrong. Will you take the plates?"

Morgan lifts the small stack off her hand. "This weapon didn't mean to cause conflict. It doesn't need to go outside. It is still dangerous, it is a weapon, it doesn't need any indulgences."

"Sweetheart, seeing the sky isn't much of an indulgence. It's nice on the roof. But that's not it, is it, what's making you cry?"

Morgan swallows visibly and shrinks into themself, assuming the straight-backed, neutral position that's their default around Asim, and presumably Blue if he ever meets them properly. Anyone who's not her or Asha. It hurts Rhian's heart to see, and she sits down next to them, squeezing their hand.

"Did Blue really work for the government? Is he going to return or decommission this weapon? This weapon doesn't wish to be ungrateful, it just– it– I–"

They cut off, eyes welling with tears.

"In a way he did, yes. His lab was funded by them. But it wasn't exactly his fault. When he was twelve, he was flagged as a genius on a standardised test and taken away to a special school, run by the government. I don't know how much you know about them, but from what I can gather the teaching – training, really, indoctrinating – was harsh. He hasn't seen his family since he was twelve. He also, as you just heard, did manage to leave and blew his whole lab up with him. He won't hurt you, Morgan, I promise. He's protective of us, but that doesn't mean he'll hurt you. And he certainly won't hand you over to the government. Okay?" Morgan nods. "The toast is already stone-cold I'm afraid, so shall we take it outside with us?"

Morgan gives a ghost of a smile and stands, helping Rhian move the bed away from the window. She opens it as wide as it'll go and steps out onto the roof of the extension.

"Pass me the blanket and come on out here."

Morgan obeys, looking around with something approximating wonder on their face. Rhian spreads the blanket with Morgan's help and tugs them down to sit against the wall with her.

"How long am I allowed to stay out here, Rhian?"

"As long as you like. And this isn't a one-time only offer, either, you can come out whenever you like." Morgan seems to relax at that, and Rhian squeezes their shoulders. "Oh, sweetheart. We're not going to keep you imprisoned inside all the time. You're not a prisoner."

"This weapon isn't going to be decommissioned?" Morgan whispers, eyes on the skyline, rubbing circles into one of Archimedes' rougher patches, and Rhian's heart lurches.

"No, of course not, what makes you think– oh."

Oh, of course.

"Although this weapon does not have wishes, it wished to see the sky before it was decommissioned. It is sorry for wanting things it doesn't need."

Rhian feels a pang in their chest. Such a simple wish, and yet they're so conditioned that they're scared to want even that.

"I'll take you outside. Today, in fact." Morgan's stomach rumbles loudly. "Just let me fetch you some food first."

It wasn't just Blue making them cry, and Rhian's not sure how they didn't notice just how tense Morgan is, even more so than usual when they're alone together.

"No, sweetheart. I'm sorry, I never meant to make you think that we'd kill you. You being outside now has no correlation with your death. I promise."

"You promise?" they whisper, clapping a hand to their mouth in horror afterwards.

"I promise. We're never going to hurt you. You're not being decommissioned, and you won't be… corrected for speaking. Let me give you a hug?"

Morgan nods, tucking themself into Rhian's side. They're so small and traumatised. There's fuzz growing on top of their head, and Rhian wonders if they'll let her dye it green once it's longer. Then she inexplicably feels guilty for thinking that.

"I'm so sorry, sweetheart."

"This weapon shouldn't have leaked. It was an aberration. Weapons that are no longer useful should be decommissioned, it knows that. You do not need to apologise to a weapon, it is sorry."

"Hey. Your usefulness doesn't determine your value, yeah? And we'll never get rid of you." She strokes the top of their head. "What do you think of the sky then?"

Morgan tilts their head back further, staring upwards into the scudding grey clouds.

"It's beautiful."

#self dehumanisation #dehumanisation #briefly #whump #whump writing #md 264n #morgan the weapon #rhian the fighter #blue the engineer #blues trying his best #he has a lot of trauma to unpack #argh this one took forever

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