#rip a robot arm off with your other robot arm and smack someone with it because shit hit the fan and thats what youve got

[halikyon]

So I've been pulled into some Mechwarrior shenanigans and I truly forgot how much I liked the concept of 'its a fancy walking tank and it's unwieldy but can take a hit and is incredibly effective in the hands of a good pilot' over the 'i get in and become superman' style. Both are good, I just like one better. Also probably why I enjoyed the MSG: The 8th MS Team more than a lot of other MSG's...also early Code Geass fights

[the-ravenist]

My Angel

Warren Worthington x Black!GN!Reader

This happens after Apocalypse, but takes place in this era(like 2019+), Warren is alive, no metal wings or tattoos, implied that Warren plays the guitar, mentions of scars, established relationship, you/your/you're pronouns used, reader is mentioned to be an elemental mutant(ex. poison ivy) is mentioned, reader is black and has locs, def ooc Warren, reader, and warren speak Greek, google translated Greek, warren is heavily devoted to reader, reader is selectively mute, Warren does bird-like things, and reader could be described as autistic

The sound of rain hitting the window fills the dark bedroom, besides the yellow glow that the strawberry-scented candle on the nightstand gives off. The room doesn't really have that much, well besides the guitar and amp in the corner by the window, a couple of cacti, venus flytraps, and butterwort plants sitting on the shelves.

A bouquet of giant white feathers sitting on the desk along with a couple of vintage robot toys and a jar full of shiny rocks and trinkets, a giant beanbag with a gray weighted blanket on it in the corner closest to the closet door, a king-size bed in the center of the largest wall of the room, with a nightstand on either side, a frame of feathers with a date under each one hanging above the bed.

In the middle of the bed is a little hut made up of a pair of white wings, the sound of muffled dialogue is heard from the little hut. Let's move inside the hut, shall we?

Warren's arms are wound tightly around your abdomen, the pressure would feel suffocating to some, but that's how you like it, the pressure gives you comfort.

Both wearing matching loungewear, black long sleeves, and dark gray sweatpants, the only thing different is your sleep socks, yours are black high socks while Warren's are white ankle socks. You are sitting in between his legs, slightly rocking to and fro, eyes watching AFV on the tablet, Warren is sitting behind you his head resting on your shoulder blonde hair resting on your light blue bonnet eyes focusing on the screen letting out a few laughs when something funny happens on screen.

"Do you feel better εραστής," he asks quietly.

Only a couple of hours ago you were training with Ororo, Professor Xavier had pushed saying that "your powers are upgrades of the ones before, so you need control" or something like that.

Now you were already overstimulated beforehand, noises were too loud, you had woken up late, it was your turn to wash dishes and someone had ripped your gloves so you had to touch wet food.

Yeah, the day was terrible, especially after Ororo had accidentally electrocuted you with her lightning, immediately sending you to the medics. You know it was an accident but that doesn't mean you weren't upset.

Warren being the fantastic boyfriend he is, had immediately sensed your distress when Hank told him to come to get you. He wouldn't admit it but, he could feel his heart breaking at the site of your watery eyes and your wrist smacking against each other, they weren't the ones you do when you're happy stimming.

This stimming was harsh, it had left your wrists throbbing, and your right wrist sprained a brace on your said wrist is proof. Yeah, being stronger than a normal human isn't the best part of being a mutant.

"Πως νιόθεις άγάπη μου," Warren whispers the question.

Not taking your eyes off the screen, you murmured an answer.

"Είμαι καλά, πεινάω λίγο." Warren hums in response.

"Μπαστούνια μοτσαρέλα," he asks. You let out a noise of affirmation, you needed your comfort snack right about now.

Warren murmurs a small okay and reaches for his phone, the feeling of one of his arms leaving your body brings a chill to your body. Warren knew that Peter, Ororo, Jean, Scott, and Kurt were downstairs in the kitchen, something about making I'm sorry cookies. Even though it was a bit mean to ask them, well Scott, to make his infamous mozzarella sticks. He didn't really care, he knew Jean would convince him to make them, she always knew how.

As Warren is messaging the small group chat, you started playing with his feathers that were in front of your face. Mind you that Warren's wings are sensitive when it comes to touch, so reactions like flapping it out of fright are completely normal, unless to people who aren't used to it. Warren has learned to control his reactions, yes, but sometimes, most of the time you dear reader catch him off guard.

So when a hum, closely resembling the coo of a bird comes from behind you, followed by a small cough. The tapping of his fingers against his phone continues.

"...did you just coo?"

"..no."

"Yes"

"No"

"Yes, yes you did," you remark as you tickle the feathers in front of your face.

"Okay, o-okay if I agree that I did," he laughs. "Will you let me get you your mozzarella sticks?"

You immediately stop your tyrant as you heard his statement.

"Fine," you speak through muted giggles.

The sound of fingers tapping against the phone screen resumes shortly after. Your attention returns to the show in front of you, and your rocking returns at a much gentler pace.

You don't realize that Warren had successfully gotten Scott to make his infamous mozzarella sticks, and placed his phone back on the charger.

"You know how much I love you right," Warren murmurs close to your ear.

"You tell me any chance you can," you whisper with a small smile.

"Well," he begins to tease. "I love you," a small kiss was placed behind your ear. "I love you," then one on your neck.

"I love you," top of your spine.

"I love you," the top of your blue bonnet.

"I love you," your right shoulder.

"I love you," your left shoulder.

The small kisses never stopped for a while, until he got to your lips. You were left a snorting and giggling mess, your tv show forgotten and tossed onto the other side of your large bed.

Even with your bonnet sliding off your head, showing the retwist of your (h/c) locs, face scrunched up in a mid-laugh cringe. Warren had thought that you are by far the most beautiful person he's met. And that's saying a lot.

You had the same thought as you looked at Warren. His golden curls splayed in an unruly fashion. His cheeks flushed with a shade of pink, lips parted in a slightly large smile. You swear that you had the perfect embodiment of a romanticized angel. His wings spread out don't really help.

You swear that you feel the tension building. Warren's body slightly leans toward your lips. You meet in the middle with a small kiss, which turns into more. Then the next thing you know, you'll and Warren are making out on your shared bed.

There's no sexual heat behind your kisses, it was just pure love and passion. No clashing of teeth or tongue just pecks and little nibbles.

Yet you have to breathe, so you pull away from each other's lips. With foreheads resting on one another, eyes half-lidded but smiling with joy.

"Σ' αγαπώ, λουλούδι μου," Warren mumbles as he rubs his nose against yours.

"Από τον Αγάπο, αγγελέ μου,," you mumble, as you place a small kiss on his lips.

Well, let's just say the makeout session resumed and Jean, Ororo, Scott, Peter, and Kurt leave their hard worked snacks on the floor near the door. Now scared by the sesh that they had just witnessed.

If they had experienced a love like you and Warrens maybe they'd understand.

But Professor X was very upset when he had seen a whole flower garden outside your bedroom window the next morning.

Just maybe...

fin

Translations:

εραστής - lover

Πως νιόθεις άγάπη μου - how are you feeling my love

Είμαι καλά, πεινάω λίγο - I'm fine, I'm a little hungry

Μπαστούνια μοτσαρέλα - Mozzarella sticks

Σ' αγαπώ, λουλούδι μου - I love you, my flower

Από τον Αγάπο, αγγελέ μου, - From love, my angel

[gatorbites-imagines]

vending machine mechanic

Montgomery gator x male reader

Summary: The reader was hired to fix up minor machinery like arcade and vending machines. But is asked to stay one night to fix up Monty, as he damaged himself during the day. The normal repairmen have quit because of Monty’s aggressive nature, leaving only the reader. The reader is the only one with machinery knowledge, who is not scared of any of the animatronics.

 People seemed to really like the last fnaf thing i wrote, so heres another one with my favourite security breach character.

I know absolutely nothing about robotics, so I’m avoiding any words involving robots and machinery.

Requests are open

To say you were tired was an understatement. You had worked all day yesterday, come into work early today as well, and then had your manager tell you to stay for the night too. Along with that, he hadn’t even taken you off opening shift tomorrow. You were sure the old fart was trying to kill you.

You were forced to stay late because of that stupid crocodile animatronic, or was It an alligator, you honestly didn’t care. It was a reptile, and a reptile with huge anger issues. How an animatronic had anger issues, you didn’t know, and you really didn’t care enough to find out.

Apparently, the anger issues were so bad that every single other repair-person had quit or threatened to quit if they were sent to fix that stupid animatronic again. And that left you, a minor mechanic who was only supposed to fix vending machines and those tiny map bots and floor cleaner bots.

You grumbled to yourself as you threw your toolbox under your arm and trudged towards Monty’s room. Vanessa greeted you as you passed each other, and you grunted in return. You could almost see pity in her eyes. You found solidarity in each other, knowing the other was forced to stay for longer than normal. She gave you a “good luck” or “go get em” hand motion, and you just made a face in return which she laughed at.

Finally reaching Monty’s room, you saw the glass was blacked out like it always was when he was up to something. You could hear clunks and crashes from inside, throwing being thrown and shattering against the wall. Why they kept giving him shit he could break, you didn’t understand.

With a sigh, you stepped around the side of the wall, and used your employee card to get inside. As the door shut behind you, what looked like a piece of a chair smacked the wall beside your head. You had no reaction. You’d worked retail for years, having stuff thrown at you was nothing you hadn’t dealt with before.

The overgrown robotic Godzilla wannabe seemed annoyed you didn’t react, like he expected you to yelp and duck, but all he got was the dead-eyed glare you sent his way as you went over to the only table not torn apart and placed your toolbox on it. “You better sit down and let me fix you up Morty, or they’ll decommission you. The boss told me you’ve lost him too many employees who can sue or some shit” you snarked, flipping open your toolbox and digging around in it for what you needed.

“What the hell did you just call me?” a voice snarled behind you, suddenly very close. You were sure if animatronics could breathe, he would be breathing down your neck.

You turned around, staring up into the glowing red, or were they orange, eyes of the reptile. “I told you to sit down, Morty” you snarled right back, with the same threatening tone he used against you. Monty seemed taken back by the venom you spat back at him, the animatronic taking a step back and looking you up and down. You looked a wreck, clothes covered in oil, and bags under your eyes so dark they looked like tattoos.

“It’s Monty” he growled in a defiant tone, but he did sit down on the half-ripped couch. “Fine, Monty. Whatever. Let me do this, so I can go home.” You grunted, looking him over to see what the damage was. You found it when you saw wires sticking out of his knee. It looked like someone had taken a hammer or something to it.

“The hell happened here” you

 grumbled, crouching down, and looking it over. You stated poking at it with a screwdriver, and before Monty could reply, you already got to work. The large animatronic watched you in great interest. Not only were you not scared, but you also didn’t even seem to care that Monty had harmed multiple workers in the past and could do it again.

“What’s your name” the animatronic suddenly said, breaking the silence that had fallen over the room. “Me? Why do you care, not like you’ll see me again” you huffed, poking at a wire that seemed to make Monty jolt.

Monty seemed to stare at you even harder, expecting an answer. With a tired sigh you finally gave it, telling him your name. “Its (Y/N). I’m supposed to be a mechanic for all things not animatronic, but apparently you chased away all the actual robotics dudes. And because of that, I am the one who has to stay late to fix you”.

Before Monty could reply, you had already fixed his busted knee, and got to your feet where you gave a small sway. God you were tired, you felt like you were gonna pass out. The knowledge that you had to drive home, made bile rise in your throat.

Monty, seeing how the first technician that piqued his interest sway like a baby deer, grabbed you by your shoulders and got up, turning around you shove you into the seat. You feebly struggled to get up, but he would simply shove you down again. “You can take a nap here or something. Just tell the guard or whoever that it took longer than you thought”.

Monty seemed to grumble, sounding almost embarrassed about caring for anybody, even a little bit. You wanted to argue, but even though the sofa was half shredded, it was more comfortable than your bed most days. So, with a sigh, you agreed. “Wake me up in half or hour though, alright”. You murmured, your eyes already falling shut as your head fell backwards, the tools falling from your hand onto the floor.

The animatronic stared at you as you slept, wanting to brand the image of you onto his very core. There was just something about you, something that got his interest more than anyone before. Maybe it was how you didn’t fear him. Even workers who had never met him feared him in a way, because they had heard stories. But here you were, even snarking back at him when you got the chance.

His chest area warmed, and he heard his internal fans kick up as they tried to cool him down. He sat down on a chair that had survived his rage, and got himself comfortable to watch you. He wouldn’t wake you when you asked him too, you looked like you needed the sleep. And he was already coming up with how he would see you again, ways to chase off any engineer that wasn’t you, and only acting non-aggressive when they sent you. Soon they’d learn to only send you. Behind him his tail started to wag, it was a perfect plan.

[snowflakeanimelover]

Kurasuno’s Second Chosen Manager(Haikyuu!! Various x Female Reader)

I don’t have very many interests. I’m a first year, and everyone, especially my family, keeps telling me to join a club. And honestly, I’m not much into anything. I’m a hard worker, and I’m a lazy person. Sports always tire me out. Art, music, and other interests are nice, but really don’t grab my attention. So what do I do everyday on my free time? Sleep, watch movies, and play video games. 

But that all changes one day during school. 

“(Y/N)!” I hear my name being called. My eyes shift to the classroom doorway.

“Daichi...?” I find my older brother standing at the door, awkwardly smiling at me with a wave. I walk over to him, meeting him in the hallway. “What's up, big brother?” 

“You haven’t found a club yet, right?” He asks, trying to ignore the first year girls aweing at him from behind. 

I let out a long sigh. “Jeez, Daichi... Not this again. I already told you-”

“That’s not what I’m talking about here.”

“Huh? Then what are you talking about?” 

He laughs nervously, scratching his neck while avoiding eye contact. “Um... well, you know Kiyoko...?” I nod my head in response. “She’s looking for a manager for our club to take her place...so...” He trails off.

“So... you’d like me to try it out, huh?” I look at my brother with an annoyed look. He nods. The bell for class to start suddenly rings. Daichi slouches, probably annoyed that he couldn’t get me to take the manager spot.

After a few seconds, I take a big breath in and let it out. “Fine... I’ll think about it.” I say before heading into the classroom.

“Thanks, (Y/N)!” He yells at me.

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

The bell rings for the day to end. Kids around me pack up their things and leave to do their own thing. Mostly clubs, which reminds me of a certain someone. I internally sigh for what's coming up. I planned on finishing a video game I recently got. I was so close to finishing it last night, but then Daichi forced me to go to bed since it was a school night. But... Seeing Daichi like that when his team lost... I felt horrible for not being there with him when it happened. I could’ve done at least something.

The door to the gym was already open, making me slightly nervous. I could see the boys volleyball team practicing in there. With the squeaks of their shoes scraping on the gym floor, and the encouraging yells from the boys, it’s an easy thought that there was a full game going on at this time of day. It’s like they’ve been there all day. 

“You came after all!” 

I screech at the sudden voice behind me, jumping a few feet towards the gym opening. I turn around, finding only my older brother. I sweat drop at seeing him there. Great, he caught me and now I can’t leave.

“H-hey... big brother...” I slowly wave at him.

He bursts out into laughter. “You should’ve seen your face! And look how far you jumped!” He laughs.

My face gets warm with embarrassment and I cross my arms. “Whatever! You’re lucky I actually came!”

Daichi stops at the doors. “Yeah. Thanks for coming, (Y/N). It really means a lot.” I look at him in surprise. Why does it mean so much to him? “Let’s go in!” He says, dragging me inside. 

As we go inside, I’m met with the team practicing back and forth. Daichi takes a few steps closer, but before he could say anything, another voice rings out to get everyone's attention. “Everyone! Come here.” Kiyoko waves to the team. The boys walk over to her, confused to her call. In surprise, a girl with blond hair robotically walks out from behind Kiyoko. She seemed very nervous. 

“H-h-hi! M-my name is Hitoka Yachi!” She bows down. “I-its nice to meet you!”

“She is here for the management spot. But she’s just here to observe.” Kiyoko says. Most of the boys freak out, saying how cute she was.

“Welp! Looks like someone else was picked!” I smile wide, walking away.

“No you don’t!” Daichi grabs my shoulder, pulling me back.

That sudden burst takes the teams attention. They look over at Daichi and I, making me slightly nervous. “Woah! Who’s that, Captain!” An almost bald kid yells out, running towards us. “Is she your girlfriend?” He snickers.

I immediately gag at the thought. Seems Daichi did, too. “No way!” We say in unison. The boys look at us in confusion. “She’s my younger sister!” Daichi says.

“Oh, hey, (Y/N).” Sugawara comes out from behind the crowd.

“Yeah. It’s been a while.” Asahi agrees. 

I smile at them. “Hey guys! Sure has been a long time. You’ve certainly gotten taller.” I say, completely forgetting about the others. 

“I think it’s ‘cause you haven’t grown at all.” Sugawara laughs.

“What!” I yell at him, smacking his arm. “No way! I’ve grown a couple of inches!” We all laugh together. I definitely miss these dorks.

“You’re Daichi’s sister?” The almost bald guy asks, pointing at me. 

“Yeah! He has never mentioned a sister!” The short brown haired kid says. I notice that a small part of his hair in the front was a lighter color. “Especially a hotty!”

I was about ready to smack the kid, but Daichi grabs my hand before I could. “I-I have mentioned her before! Just not recently...” He trails off. 

I slowly turn my head to my older brother, making him flinch at my glaring. I rip my hand from his grasp, walking towards the door. “I’m heading home! See yah!” I wave at them as I walk out. Daichi yells after me, but gets no response.

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

Daichi sighs, slouching a bit on his way back into the gym. He looks up to see Nishinoya and Tanaka’s smiling faces. “W-what...?” 

“You have to tell us more!” They yell at him.

[woniepop]

girly girls

Pairing: Kang Taehyun x Fem!Reader

Word Count: 2.3K

Warnings: bullying, cursing

Genre: slice of life; fluff; angst

Summary: Three times a popular girl and a nerd were enemies, and one time where they weren’t

a/n: this fic was inspired by my all time favorite movie, Legally Blonde. I enjoyed writing this fic and I really hope you enjoy reading it :)

Y/N L/N has never been someone who liked to be cast in the shadows. Always being the center of attention, y/n has become one of the, if not the most, popular girls in her town. Homegirl is always dressed like an icon even when doing mundane tasks. Girls like her have never really been into anything “nerdy.” She associates herself with more of the bimbo kind, if you will. It was never really a secret, but she studies incredibly hard to get the chance to go to her dream school and become a great computer scientist. Being in such a large friend group of female fashion icons, there was never really anyone who wanted to talk about topics with math or computer science. 

Kang Taehyun, however, is this awkward and incredibly smart boy. Never really associated with popularity, he’s only had about four friends in his life and absolutely no dating experience. He’d always been one to shy away from attention. At most times, he found himself quietly observing others. All this, and he’s still what you would consider the teacher’s pet. He gets all his assignments done, A’s on every test, and raises his hand for every question. As a computer science enthusiast, he has worked his butt off his entire life, filling his schedule with robotics clubs, different languages of code, and coding camps. Senior year was his year. He had finally got into his dream school, TXT Tech, and had already created a very very detailed plan for the future.

Currently, Y/n’s mother was constantly trying to persuade her about fashion school. Having an incredibly fashionable mom wasn’t always the best for situations like these. TXT Tech results were coming out, and even though Y/n was confident she was getting in, there’s still the chance she might have not. Nervously waiting in front of her laptop, she sits impatiently refreshing the page for her results. Within one sentence she hops up from her chair in awe. Obviously attending the school was going to be a big turning point for her, and she was so excited to have been admitted to TXT Tech. 

As Y/n got settled on campus, she finds no one else that looks like her. Obviously, because she stands out, all attention is drawn to her. She’s confident, stylish, and hot. In a sea of gray and tan business outfits, Y/n wears a nice pink pantsuit. She’s relishing in all the attention, not seeming to mind that it’s not good, because she knew she looked good. 

Her first encounter with Taehyun couldn’t have gone worse. Walking to her class, pink drink in hand, she struts confidently to the lecture hall for her computer engineering class. Not paying attention to where she was going, she bumps into a tall figure. This clearly wasn’t the best way you could go about your first day, but all Y/n could do was apologize. 

“I’m so sorry, sir. I didn’t see where I was going and-” she rambled. Pausing in the middle of looking up, a very handsome and slightly awkward boy stands there, obviously pissed off and very annoyed. He scoffs and continues on his way to his next class.

Her second encounter with Taehyun was not great either. Clicking her high heels against the floor, she walks to her first class of the day. She had to get there early, she always had to sit in the front of the class. Taehyun on the other hand, nose buried deep in his book, walks directly to the middle. Despite loving programming, he could only handle so much attention. The class had started off well for Y/n, reviewing the class syllabus of “Principles of Programming Languages.” Taehyun, however, was pissed. He had not been called on once and was so frustrated. 

“Y/n, can you tell me the five most commonly used languages of code?” the professor asks smugly. Y/n knew what he was doing. She was being set up. She knew he thought she didn’t know and that lit a fire in her. 

“Python, Java, Javascript, C#, and C” she answers confidently. Hearing this, the professor nods his head. He wasn’t expecting that. 

Taehyun saw this as a perfect opportunity. His hand shoots up and he comments, “Sir, that’s actually incorrect. C++ is actually more popular because although C  has served as the foundation for writing languages like Python and Ruby, C++ is a newer language of code and therefore is compatible with more technology.” Taehyun confidently looks down to wear Y/n sits and smirks. Of course she wouldn’t know that. She’s only the popular rich girl that got in with Daddy’s money. She didn’t actually know anything, right?

It had been a few months since school had started, and finals were just about to come around. For this class’ final, they had to submit a partner project and code a simple game. At this point, it had been very blatantly established that Y/n and Taehyun were enemies. They despised each other. Always competing with each other in class, snickering when the other person got annoyed. It was a silent war between the two of them and everyone could feel the tension in the air. Obviously, it was no surprise they always came up at the top of the class, interchanging the first spot every test. What was surprising, however, was seeing their names together on the partner project roster. 

Taehyun was furious. College was supposed to be his bitch, but now he’s acting like Y/n’s bitch. He was so pissed off. Computer science was supposed to be where he had the upper hand. The one place he could feel himself. Where he was finally better than the stupid popular kids. And yet, he’s here, competing with one of them. It wasn’t fair. She was a girly girl, she wore bright colors everyday, she even had a sparkly notebook. How was she so smart? There was no way, it’s just the laws of the universe. You had to choose between looks and intelligence. That’s just what the gods above said. There’s no take backsies. 

It’s no secret that Y/n is a fashionable girl and having a female centric hobby isn’t really something applauded at this university. Knowing of Y/n’s insecurities, let’s talk about Taehyun’s. Having always worn non adventurous, boring, clothing, he’s known from the very beginning that Y/n’s beauty has helped her in life. Life is never fair, and it shows. Taehyun never ever got those advantages, and now here he is competing with someone just as smart as him. 

 As his jealousy grows in the back of his mind, he decides to use this time to take revenge. The next few days are spent typing away in the library, collaborating and researching for hours upon hours. Knowing that this project was worth 40% of their grade, they spent all their time trying to make this game perfect. 

The day of the presentation of their near perfect game rolls around and Y/n was confident. She had spent countless nights coding this with Taehyun and on her own. Starting the presentation off, Taehyun pulls up a game completely different to the one Y/n coded with him. “In this day and age, gaming has become a hobby more popular than it’s ever been. With platforms like twitch and youtube, all different types of games can catch the eyes of a wide audience. With this in mind, I’d like to present to you Jackbox Party Pack 8. Roleplay games have become the genre of choice for many gamers to play, and viewers to watch.” 

This was not the first person shooter Y/n had coded with him. What was he doing? Y/n stood there, not really knowing what to say. Opening and closing her mouth, she couldn’t form any words. She should have known this was a set up. “Ms. L/n, please continue.” The professor says. She couldn’t. She felt like she was frozen. She was so embarrassed and she should’ve seen it coming. With cheeks welling up in her eyes, she runs out of the classroom. 

With a smirk, Taehyun continued on, explaining how the game worked and how he had coded it. He had spent the past few nights coding it by himself and he was incredibly proud. Paying no mind to Y/n, he stood tall and smiled throughout his entire presentation. Obviously, like any normal person, guilt started growing quickly in the back of his mind. He finally realized he had fucked up. 

Running after Y/n, Taehyun felt incredibly guilty. He had taken the competition too far, and now he’d made someone innocent fail a required class. After running for what felt like hours, he found Y/n crying under a tree. He knelt down and offered her some tissues. Aggravated, she smacks the tissues away and tells him to leave.

Y/n, on the other hand, felt so angry. How could he do this to her? She hadn’t done anything wrong, and if he didn’t like the way she dressed or the way she conducted herself that was fine. All she needed was her to believe in herself and that got her into TXT Tech. While thinking about all the ways she could end Taehyun, she feels arms wrap around her. They’re 🤮Taehyun’s. Before she can rip his arms off, he speaks up. 

“Look Y/n, I’m really sorry about that whole thing I pulled back there. I’ll talk to the professor and give him the real project. I really took it too far and I’ll do anything to make it up to you.” He begs. 

“Um,, no? I don’t care? That was literally so embarrassing. If you really wanted to make it up to me you’d leave me alone.” Y/n pushes him off her harshly and storms off. How dare he? It probably took his two seconds to come up with that half assed apology. This was unbelievable. 

Y/n started trudging through the grass back to her dorm. All she wanted to do was take a warm shower and cry in her bed. She hated everyone. She wanted him to suffer just as much as she did, but she couldn’t do that. 

After two whole days of sobbing in her bed, she decided she was craving her signature pink drink. She really didn’t feel like going out, but delivering one drink would cost like $15. Y/n throws on a casual pink outfit. It’s very different from what she wore at the beginning of the school year, but the one thing that never changed was the color pink. Even in her depressive mood, she still wanted to dress up. She felt most comfortable wearing stylish clothing, that was her home. 

Stepping into the store, she sees Taehyun sitting at a table alone. You know when you see old people sitting along and you feel so bad for them you start tearing up? Like what if they lost their spouse or something :(((((. So anyway, Taehyun gives her lonely old people energy and regardless of what he did to her, she decides to keep him company. 

“Hey, um, can i sit here?” Y/n asks. Taehyun was so surprised. She wanted to sit with him? But he was so mean to her? He nodded his head and sat quietly. The past two days she could tell Taehyun had done a lot of thinking. She could tell he did it because he felt threatened. That wasn’t enough to forgive him, but at least she was being nice about it. 

Taehyun gets up and leaves. He comes back with a pink drink in hand, maybe as an apology. “I really want to apologize to you again, Y/n. Yesterday I don’t know if you saw, but the professor graded the actual project instead, and I had told him everything and that I’d deserve it if he failed me instead.” Y/n wanted to be happy but she wasn’t. She didn’t want him to fail after helping her code the game with her. Maybe she was so nice to him because she had matured, or maybe because she felt something different in Taehyun. Even so, a little embarrassment, she thought, wasn’t enough to cause a person to fail their whole class. Holding his hand on the table, she nods, a silent way she decided to forgive him. 

“Well, at least we’re not the worst team. I think group 7 coded a Niki Minaj roblox world.” Taehyun jokes. 

She laughs. “That’s so funny, what the heck? I guess we just have some hardcore barbs in this class.” People like Taehyun and people like Y/n were never meant to be friends in the first place, but maybe now they were starting to. Y/n, who was always challenging the term “girly girl.” Who always stressed that you have to believe in yourself when the rest of the world is against you. Y/n who became successful, without changing who she was. Y/n, who was feminine and wanted to show that was never a weakness. And Taehyun, who was always unadventurous. Who was never into fashion but still managed to pull off his nerdy outfits with his cute face. The passionate Taehyun whose only hobby seemed like studying. Gossiping for hours at the cafe, they realized this. They were starting to become friends. No one ever expected them to even be able to hold a friendly conversation, but here Y/n was, challenging everyone again. 

[dadsbongos]

how abt hajime saves antag reader from dying and that’s how she slowly starts to treat him decently and they somehow become kinda friends

Request for: Hajime Hinata Warnings: skin graft things (gore), self harm (hair pulling and scratching with intent to bleed), implications of verbal abuse, mental breakdown, fat game spoilers ~~~

“To think someone as stupid as you could build such mass weapons of destruction,” (Y/n) looked around the room, eyes catching on all the Monokumas Kazuichi had yet to dismantle and disarm. He had started with the small ones and wasn’t even half-finished yet.

“Hey,” Kazuichi whined, still working on taking apart a regular-sized Monokuma, “I’m not proud of them, y’know? That’s why I’m scrambling them.”

“No, I know,” she wandered over to the largest Monokuma, she was surprised it even fit inside the building it was so big, brushing her fingers over the cool metal, “This one’s falling apart.”

“Yeah, the bigger they are, the harder it is to keep maintenance, so I probably just gave up after a while,” the mechanic shrugged.

“Hm,” she hummed to herself, crossing her arms as she turned to face Kazuichi’s back completely, “I’m assuming that’s also why you rarely did such monsters.”

“Knowing me, yeah,” he gestured over his shoulder, still not looking at the girl, “Hubris is all that kept me making the big ones.”

“Typical.”

“What does that mean?!”

“Watch out!” a new voice entered the room, a hand grabbing (Y/n)’s arm and yanking her backward just in time for the arm of the monstrous Monokuma to clatter to the ground right where she had been standing.

Dread had sunk into the hearts of (Y/n) and Kazuichi - she would’ve been crushed to death if it wasn’t for… (Y/n) looked at the hand on her arm, following it to a face. If it wasn’t for Hajime.

Kazuichi immediately rushed towards the woman, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her as tears fell from his eyes and his lips quivered, “I’m so sorry, Miss (Y/n)! I should’ve been paying attention! I knew it was dangerous for you to be too close, I should’ve said something!”

“Let go of me, moron,” she smacked his hands off her shoulders, huffing before turning to Hajime and nodding curtly at him, “Thanks.”

Before anyone in the room could speak again, she charged out and into the hall.

Hajime sighed, “You save her life and she doesn’t even apologize for being an asshole.”

Kazuichi waved off the girl’s behavior and returned to his desk, “You should get away from that Monokuma.”

A creak from the giant robot was all the warning Hajime needed to get out as well.

~~

Teruteru had called everyone to dinner almost half an hour ago and even Hiyoko had come out to enjoy a meal with the others, but there was one person missing - (Y/n). 

Of course, Hajime thought as he went down the hall towards her room, she’s being difficult. She’s always like this. So difficult, so rude. Teruteru worked in that hot kitchen for hours on end so that everyone could eat together and obviously (Y/n) wouldn’t show up.

He knocked on her door, waiting for a few seconds. No answer.

He knocked again. No answer.

One last time. No answer.

Frustrated at the lack of response, Hajime took the doorknob in his hand, calling out, “I’m coming in!” before doing just that.

He expected to find her asleep in her bed or maybe the bathroom door would be shut and he’d have to shyly leave lest he gets called a weirdo for barging in. Instead, he found her sitting in front of her mirror, staring at her own reflection with unblinking eyes.

She was tracing her nails over the stitches left behind by Mikan in the wake of her skin graft. Her other hand was resting at her thigh, patting the bandages covering the donor site of her skin. Suddenly, her nails bit into the stitches on her cheek, scratching at the scarring and tearing at the threads. She cringed in pain but didn’t stop.

“Stop!” Hajime lunged forward, grabbing (Y/n)’s hand before she could completely rip through the stitched patches on her face, his brows furrowed, “What the hell are you thinking?!”

If he stopped to think about it, yelling at someone in an unstable spot like this probably wasn’t the best decision, but he wasn’t thinking.

(Y/n)’s eyes were wide, why did he care?

He already saved her life, wasn’t that enough? He had to save her face too? Why was he even in her room?

“Why does it matter?” she wheezed, stuck between laughing and crying, shaking her head all the same, “I was great! I was incredible! Now- now- now- now- now- “ she felt tears roll from her eyes and burn at the bleeding stitches, “I’m fucking horrific! I thought I was above all of you but lately, it’s just been fuck up after fuck up after fuck up- “

Taken advantage of by Junko Enoshima - the girl who never loved her.

Scarred and mangled face - done by her own hand.

Almost crushed to death - Hajime had to save her.

“Hiyoko laughs at me and you look down on me and Mikan judges my face every time I go in for a checkup and Kazuichi pitties me and Fuyuhiko thinks we’re the same and Ibuki’s scared of me and Akane hates me and Sonia thinks I’m evil and Junko never loved me and Junko never loved me and you look down on me and you look down on me and you look down on me and you look down on me and you look down on me,” she began rocking herself back and forth in her chair, fat sobs tearing through her chest and throat, hiccups ripping over her, “I’m a failure… I’m a failure… I’m a failure…”

“You’re just human,” Hajime knelt down to be eye-level with the woman, taking both her hands in his and making her keep eye contact with him, “You’re allowed to make mistakes and fuck up. You were tricked and manipulated by Junko, we all were. We get to make up for that now by restoring the world. Nobody hates you or judges your face.”

“You’re lying, I know it,” she stomped her feet like a petulant child, more tears stinging at her skin, “I should’ve been perfect. Mother always said I had to be perfect, father always wanted the daughter and that’s what I am! I have to be… I have to be…”

“Your parents are idiots if they think anyone could ever be perfect,” Hajime untangled one of his hands from their interlocked appendages to place it over his heart, “Even Izuru kind of sucks, he’s uncaring and doesn’t show appreciation for anything. Nobody’s perfect, (Y/n). You need to realize that whatever your parents told you was just overcritical bullshit and there’s nothing wrong with you,” his eyes flickered to her bleeding stitches, “I’ll get Mikan, sit tight.”

Her head fell in shame as Hajime left. Her fingers tapped on the bandages covering her donor site, feeling a faint sting at the contact. Of course, Izuru Kamukura would save her again. Or try to, at least.

God, did he have to be better than her at everything?

No, he wasn’t better. He wasn’t better. She was great.

Her hands shot up and twisted knots in her hair, yanking as hard as she could to shut her own thoughts up.

The door opened, Mikan hurrying through with a little white box in her hand. She shakily took (Y/n)’s hands away from her head, and held her chin to inspect the injured area.

“It’s not too b-bad, thankfully,” the nurse murmured, opening the box and unwinding some thread, “It sh-shouldn’t take me too long.”

(Y/n) closed her eyes, letting Mikan work and doing her best to act as if the pulling and pinching didn’t bother her. She wasn’t in pain. She was fine.

There no memories of causing despair with Mikan and Junko running through her head. There was never competition between her and Mikan for Junko’s love. There was no time that she felt inferior to Mikan.

She was fine.

She was fine.

Once Mikan left, Hajime escorted her out, the two muttering amongst themselves for a few minutes before Hajime nodded and returned to (Y/n)’s side. He lifted her from the chair and carried her to bed, largely disturbed by how little she protested, “I could get you some food, if you want? Teruteru made a lot.”

Shaking her head, (Y/n) felt more tears rise to her eyes, “I want to cry.”

“Should I go?”

“No… yes… I don’t know…” she sniffled, hiccupping once again as she cried, “Izuru… what do I do…?”

“I wouldn’t know,” he sat by her on the bed, “I’m just Hajime Hinata, and besides, nobody can tell you how to deal with your emotions besides you. Or maybe a therapist.”

“Stay, please…”

“Then I will.”

~~

“Hiyoko laughed when I tripped on the beach this morning…”

“She’s always like that,” Hajime paused pouring the pancake batter into the pan to rethink his statement, “Well, she’s getting better. Slowly.”

“I keep screwing up,” she huffed, cracking an egg to pour the whites and yolk into a bowl. What she didn’t notice until after she’d already thrown out the broken shell and turned back to grab another egg, was that she’d accidentally gotten a speck of shell in the bowl. Pursing her lips, heat rushed to her cheeks.

Again.

It was just mistake after mistake after mistake after mistake after mistake after mistake after mistake after mistake after mistake after mistake after mistake after mistake- 

“Ah, I do that all the time,” Hajime peeked over the girl’s shoulder, grabbing a fork to press the bit of shell into the bowl and drag it up the side and out of the eggs, “See?” he removed the shell from the fork and threw it into the trash, “All better.”

(Y/n) stood there for a few more seconds, antsy as she watched him go about his business like she didn’t just ruin breakfast. Her throat swelled with dread and her hands grew sweaty, “I messed up. Aren’t you gonna do something about it?”

“Like?”

“I- “ she held her tongue, shaking her head, “I thought- “

“It’s fine, there’s nothing wrong with a mistake,” Hajime shook his head, “You’re human, you’re going to mess up. Now whisk the eggs before Teruteru finds us and gives us ‘advice’.”

“Right,” she nodded, turning back to the eggs.

Hajime pursed his lips as quiet settled over them. He learned a lot about her within the previous hours of the night. She wasn’t a monster, she’d just grown up with the wrong people. 

She’d done awful things and she’d make up for them in due time, the most she could anyway.

It was after she had passed out from crying and he went out to use the bathroom that Mikan would nervously, shakily utter the words that made everything click.

“I s-suspect she has a God complex stemming from overcritical parents…”

She was sick and needed help. 

They all did.

She probably took the manipulation from Junko hard. Probably as hard as Mikan if the muttered, heartbroken repetitions of “she never loved me” meant anything. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know what those two girls went through at Junko’s hand.

Well, if it’d help, he would listen.

He wanted to help her. He wanted them all to heal and live better lives as they restored the world with the Future Foundation.

That would always include (Y/n). She was as deserving of healing as the rest of them. She was deserving of love. She wasn’t a heartless monster.

She was… becoming his friend.

[nalgenewhore]

masterlist - ao3 - next chapter

 ☽ ☼ ☾

As he sat at his gate, he watched the other people. Something about airports had always intrigued him, so many people in their own lives, on their own paths all converging to this one place before jetting off once more. 

Lorcan was restless. On the arm of the uncomfortable chair, his fingers tapped out a furious beat. The monotonous drone of the phone line ringing in his ear didn’t help. Pick up. Pick up. Pick up. I miss your voice and I need you to pick up so I don’t lose my fucking–

“What, the fuck , do you want?” 

He chuckled, “Good morning to you too, princess.” Inside his chest, his heart fluttered. Fuck, he missed her. He missed both his girls. The minute they’d dropped him off at the airport eight weeks ago, he’d been itching to go home. 

“I told you not to call me that.” There wasn’t any bite to her words and Lorcan knew - hoped - that she was wearing that soft, sleepy smile of hers. 

He hummed, stretching his long legs out and crossing them at the ankle, “Tell me to stop without smiling and I’ll stop. Easy-peasy, Lochan.” 

Elide just muttered a curse in Blackbeak and sighed as if talking to him was some sort of divine torture, “Why are you calling? It’s not even three yet, Lor.” Instantly, remorse flooded through him. He’d forgotten completely about the time difference and told her as much. “Mmm, it’s fine. Did something happen?” 

“Nah, I just wanted to say hey before my flight. I’m sorry for waking you up,” he said. Lorcan ran his tongue over his teeth. “I’ve… I miss you two.” 

The teasing, light mood dropped a bit. Lorcan could hear her breathing slowly and then she answered, her voice weaker than normal, “I know, Lor.” Her swallow was audible. “We miss you too.” Before he could respond, before he could offer her any sort of fleeting comfort, Elide spoke again, “Hold on one second, ok?” 

She was gone before he could respond. Lorcan could hear something rustling, like someone slipping out of a bed. He froze, hardly daring to breathe. She wouldn’t- Elide and Lorcan both knew better than to have someone over when they had the kid with them. 

There was soft murmuring he couldn’t quite make out and the unmistakable whine of their daughter. Lorcan slumped down in relief, cursing himself for this… jealousy. It wasn’t fair. “Hello?” snapped Stella Luna.

He chuckled, delighted by his child’s greeting, “Hey, Tiny.” 

She gasped and that innocent sound, filled with childlike wonder and elation, soothed his aching heart. “Daddy?” 

“Hi, Stella. I’m sorry I woke you up so early, I wanted to say hey before I get on the plane,” Lorcan explained with a smile. Thinking about Elide that summer had been painful enough, knowing he was so far from her, but it was nothing compared to the agony of missing his daughter. 

“Are you coming home today? ‘Cause I got kindergarten tomorrow, Daddy. Mama said you would take me,” Stella said. 

“Yes, I’m coming home today. I’ll take you to school tomorrow, ok?”

“Ok, Daddy. I’ve been very busy, you know. Yesterday we went shopping and at Mintage, mama found me a Wednesday Addams lunch box,” Stella regaled, her words dripping with wonder and awe. “I’m so excited ‘acause I love Wednesday Addams, Daddy, did you know? We watched it last night at Fenny’s house ‘acause he let me choose. He said he was sick of the Addams family and that’s why I called him a dummy.” 

He laughed, pausing for a moment to listen to the PA. “Passengers boarding Flight 1203 to Varese, please make your way to gate C49. Passengers in zone one, please line up at the boarding desk.”  

“What was that? It sounded funny, Daddy, like a robot,” Stella said. 

“My plane’s getting ready to take off, Stel, they want everyone to come to the gate,” Lorcan explained. “How was Fen’s?” 

“Oh,” she started, “it was very good, Daddy. After the movie, he taked me to his show an’ I wanted to bring Salem but it’s too loud for him so I sat with Essar and she got me a juice box when I was thirsty. I think it was a secret ‘acause they only give them to me. It was grape which is my favourite, but I didn’t want to finish all of it so Vee drinked it after his show. Then Fenny and me and Con and Vee went to Grampy’s and I fell asleep so Fenny took me home.” 

“Passengers in zone two, please line up at the front desk.” 

Lorcan checked his boarding pass, “Kid, I have to get on my plane now, ok?” 

“Ok,” Stella replied, a little sadly. “I miss you.” 

The corners of his lips turned down. Lorcan hung his head, opening and closing his mouth a few times as he tried to think of what he could say to comfort his child. Eventually, he said, “I know, Stella Luna. I miss you too. I promise - once I’m home, no more tours, ok? I love you.” 

“Love you too, Daddy,” she chirped, already his happy, bubbly little baby again. “Bye-bye!”

“Bye, Tiny. Put your mother on for me,” Lorcan said, laughing through the sentence. He could hear Stella Luna hand the phone over to Elide. 

“Yes , you can sleep now,” Elide said with a kiss smacked on Stella’s head. “Lor, you still there?” 

“Yeah, ‘m here. I have to get on the plane now.” 

“Ok. Do you want us to pick you up from the airport?” 

Though it pained him to say it and further delay their reunion, Lorcan said, “No, don’t bother. I’ll be tired and I’ll probably just crash when I get home. I’ll see you tomorrow, though.”

“Can’t wait, Salvaterre.” 

He smiled a small smile, one that was only ever for Elide, “Me neither, Lochan.” 

 ☽ ☼ ☾

He woke up somewhere high above the Cambrian Mountains. For a few moments, Lorcan stared out the small window, groggy and confused. 

It took him a second to remember what was happening and why he was on a plane. When he finally did recall, Lorcan pulled his laptop out of his camera bag and placed it on the desk. The band he’d been working with over the summer had bought him a seat in business class for both his flights home. 

Lorcan shifted in his seat and absentmindedly toyed with the curved barbell that pierced the delicate skin connecting his upper lip to his gum as he waited for his computer to turn on. He leaned down, searching through his bag for the USB that carried every shot he’d taken in concert that summer. 

He found it and sat up straight. A small smile pulled at the corners of his mouth as he saw the background of his laptop. He hadn’t changed it in the three years since the photo of Elide tattooing Stella’s name in Ozuye on the outside of his right thumb while he held a sleeping Stella Luna to his chest with his free arm had been taken. The tattoo was his favourite, though it probably tied for first place with the cartoon-inspired Wednesday Addams on his inner left wrist. 

The placement of both designs had been purposeful, so when he was shooting something, he could see them clearly and think about his daughter. He had never met anyone who loved the Addams family more than Stella. 

Lorcan put his headphones on and played a playlist at random. Pink + White played as he opened Photoshop and uploaded a file he hadn’t even looked at yet. The photos weren’t needed for another month, but he would rather get them done now so he could focus on the upcoming studio show. 

He still hadn’t decided what or who his subject would be. Maybe he would take a break from concerts and focus on something else.

For the rest of the flight, he worked to distract himself from the fact that he’d be seeing Elide again. It hardly made any difference, his mind on her like always. Lorcan had been in love with Elide for… forever. He finally realised it, though, a couple weeks before she had their daughter. 

He had wanted… he had wanted a family with her. A real one, where Stella wouldn’t be perpetually split between two homes, but Elide hadn’t wanted that and Lorcan respected her wishes. Maybe it was foolish, but six years seemed like long enough to be pining for someone. 

As Lorcan got lost in the thoughts he spent most of his waking hours repressing, a hissing voice that sounded suspiciously like his mother snapped, Elide Lochan is not ‘someone’ and she is certainly not someone you get over. Ever. Stupid boy.  

His lips twisted with a rueful smile, though the memory of his mother ached and stung. Lorcan swallowed past the painful tightening of his throat and saved what he was working on, electing to watch something he’d downloaded on Netflix until they’d landed in Varese.

The air in Varese was balmy and he couldn’t stand it. Lorcan was seconds away from trying to peel his skin off. He had always hated the heat, but this steaming humidity was his hell. 

When his zone was called to board the flight, Lorcan could hardly keep the grin from his face. The thought of seeing his family, no matter how it hurt him to know Stella would come home with him tomorrow and Elide would stay in her apartment, was a joy nothing else had ever replicated. 

His heart seemed to beat a frantic timpani, each pat-pat saying, wait for me, wait for me, wait for me . 

 ☽ ☼ ☾

There was a crick in her neck. Elide muttered a curse with her eyes shut and reached out to her bedside table, only to feel nothing and hear an innocently delighted giggle. 

She smiled and kept her eyes closed. Slowly, Elide reached out, “I wonder who could be laughing right now. And where could they be!” 

There was that little laugh again, though Elide knew her child was doing her absolute best to stay silent. She heard Salem’s meow of protest and Stella’s sweet shushing. 

Staying silent had never been Stella’s strong suit. Elide continued on, now patting the blankets. “Hmm, I do wonder if they could be hiding beneath these blankets!” As she said ‘blankets’, Elide opened her eyes and ripped the covers away. A quick blur of orange and black flashed past as Stella’s fluffy cat was freed and Salem bounded away. 

Stella Luna’s shrieking laughter filled the room, gloomy from the rain that poured steadily against the large, paned windows. Elide laughed too as she grabbed her daughter and pulled her into her lap, her fingers digging into the soft part between Stella’s ribcage and hip bone. Stella squirmed away, begging her to stop, “No, please, mama, it tickles!” 

Elide chuckled softly and relented, choosing instead to gather Stella up in a long hug. “Oh, good morning, little one. How did you sleep, hmm?” She pulled back and brushed her hand through Stella’s hair. 

“Um, I slept good, mama, but I’m really hungry now, so I would like to have breakfast.” 

“We can do that. What do you want to eat?” 

Stella flicked her eyes up to the ceiling. Though her shape was Elide’s ethereal monolid, the colour of rich browns and deep blacks was all Lorcan. “Pancakes, mama. Can we make them look like bats?” 

Elide snorted and nodded, “Of course we can. Why don’t you go wash your hands and we can make them, ok?” 

The four-year old was off before she could even say yes, hurriedly careening into the bathroom. Her mother laughed again, but the care-free sound bled into a pained groan as she stood up and stretched. Elide really needed to stop crashing in her daughter’s bed. 

Stella hollered back from the toilet, “Mama, can we have chocolate chips in the pancakes?”

Elide smiled as she walked through Stella’s room. On the floor, one of Stella’s toys obstructed her path and Elide jammed her toe into a wooden box. She gritted her teeth against the pain and asked, “Will you clean your room today?”

“Uhhh,” Stella contemplated, “I guess. I dunno why , mama, I don’t care if it’s messy, why do you care?” 

“Because your room is messy and you might hurt yourself if you don’t know where something is,” Elide replied steadily. As she pulled on a pair of shorts, she heard little feet race into the kitchen. Elide twisted her hair up and clamped it into place with a hair clip. When she padded into the kitchen, Stella Luna was standing obediently on her stool, her hands clasped like a perfect little child. Elide hooted at the sight, “Oh, you little demon.” 

Stella grinned proudly at the nickname and pushed her wild hair back with both hands. She sighed in annoyance, “Mama, help please. It’s too much.” 

“Of course, witchling,” Elide said. Stella clambered up onto the counter to sit patiently. Elide hummed something soft as she parted her daughter’s hair and weaved two simple pigtails. As she braided, Salem gracefully leapt onto the counter and made himself comfortable in the fruit bowl, resting his chin on his crossed paws like a proper gent. “Better?” 

“Yeah,” Stella chirped as she climbed down and ran to the pantry. She flung the door open, “Mama, is Daddy coming home today?”

“He is. Remember, he called last night, baby,” Elide replied as she pulled out eggs and milk from the fridge. 

“Oh, I thought that was a dream ,” explained Stella. She lugged over the large container of flour, carrying it with both arms and almost tipped over. She decided to put it on the floor and push it to the counter. “I wanna play music!” 

Elide laughed as she picked the flour up and began measuring out the dry ingredients, “Go for it, Stella.” She watched in delight as Stella ran to the record player and sat on the floor in front of it to peruse the stack of records.

A couple moments later, Stella had decided and put the vinyl on. She pranced back over to her stool as music played. “Mama, can I crack a egg, please?” 

When I met you in the restaurant, you could tell I was no debutante

“Yes, ma’am,” Elide passed her an egg, “Be careful, you remember what to do, right?” 

“Yup!” Stella delicately cracked the egg on the side of the liquid measuring cup and used her thumbs to open it. The yolk and egg white plopped perfectly into the milk and vanilla. She picked up the whisk and mixed it all up. 

Dreaming, dreaming is free

Stella was soon bored and trailed over to the living room. She sat down and started to dance with her frog stuffie, singing along, “I don’t want to live on charity, pleasure’s real or is it fantasy…” Elide grinned at the sight and found the silicone mold in the top drawer.

A few minutes later, Elide slid a stack of bat wing pancakes onto a plate. “Stella? Food’s ready.” 

 “Ok, mama,” Stella said. She skipped to the table and climbed onto her chair. “Can I have maple syrup too?” 

Elide had already grabbed the bottle and grabbed a pair of forks drying in the dish rack. She put the plate down and sat, passing Stella her fork. Stella doused the pancakes in maple syrup and attacked viciously, stuffing an entire pancake into her mouth. Elide laughed loudly, “Baby, eat your food properly. C’mon, you know better.” 

Stella grinned around the sticky-sweet mess and chewed thoroughly before swallowing. Elide took the plate and cut the food up into bite-sized pieces before passing it back. The four-year old abandoned her fork in favour of her wee hands and stuffed as many chocolatey-mapley-buttery pieces as she could into her mouth. 

“Good gods, child,” her mother said. “You’ll choke.” Delight surged through her at the sound of Stella’s gleeful laughter, albeit muffled. She grabbed a napkin and reached out, holding her daughter’s chin hostage as she wiped the mess away. “I am so happy your father is coming back, he’ll finally take you off my hands, you gremlin.” 

Stella gasped loudly and wrenched her chin free, “Mama, can we go to the airplane place? I want to surprise Daddy. Pretty please?” 

She made her eyes big and wide, sticking her bottom lip out. Elide cracked immediately, “I think he’d like that, wouldn’t he?” Stella nodded with such vigour Elide half-thought her head would fly off. “We’ll do that later, Stel. Why don’t you finish your breakfast?” 

Stella needed no further prompting. 

 ☽ ☼ ☾

His bag was the second bag out. Lorcan easily slung the black duffel over his shoulder. He made his way out of the baggage claim and around fellow passengers numbly awaiting their belongings. 

Lorcan thought about pausing, his fingers twitching to grab his camera and freeze the moment. There was something slightly surreal about it all. A voice told him to stop, to do it, but the sweet, pure voice of his baby calling him home was louder. 

He was still listening to miss star’s jamzzz and clicked the ball of the piercing in his tongue against his teeth to the beats. I’m Not A Loser by the Descendents’ played at maximum volume as he strode across the scuffed and dingy linoleum. 

Vaguely, he thought he might’ve heard someone calling for him. Pausing, Lorcan half-pulled a headphone off his ear. He looked around, narrowing his eyes in confusion at the sea of strangers. 

“Daddy!” 

“Kid?” 

A wee one shot out through the passing crowd. Her hair, jet black and thick, curled out of her assumedly once-tight and neat braids. Her eyes were thin and dark, so rich and depthless, framed by long lashes. The little lass seemed to have a piece of the sun setting her warm, coppery complexion aglow from beneath. “ *Até , hi-hi!” 

Stella launched herself up and Lorcan dropped his bag to catch her. He held her tight to his chest, one hand cupping the back of her head. “Tiny, Creator above. I missed you so much, my darling moon.” 

“Hi, Daddy,” Stella whispered, her arms tightly wrapped around his neck. “It’s nice to see you.” 

Lorcan laughed raspily at her formal greeting, “Wow, so fancy, miss Star. ‘It’s nice to see you’, really? You’re killing me, Tiny.” 

She giggled, shaking her head as she pulled back, “No, I’m not fancy, Daddy. I’m tough ,” she snarled, baring her teeth intimidatingly. 

Lorcan laughed again, his head tipping back, “The toughest .” 

Stella beamed and abruptly stopped, an outraged gasp escaping her. She grabbed his face and pulled his head back down. When she felt his stubble, Stella Luna pulled a face, “Daddy, you have to shave. It’s scratchy.” 

“What, I thought I looked nice like this, babe,” he said, shifting her to his side. “It’s that bad?” 

She stared at him for a while before slowly shaking her head, “No… it’s ok, Daddy. Mama likes it like that.” Stella laid her head on his shoulder. Lorcan smiled and held her tightly again, his eyes closed. 

For a long moment, neither said a word, until Stella became restless and started peering out around her. “There’s so many people, Daddy.”

“There is,” he agreed. Lorcan brushed something from her cheek and Stella batted his hand away. “So, you learn to drive while I was away, or something?”

“No! I’m still little , Daddy,” Stella Luna corrected him with a giggle. “Mama drived me.” She pointed vaguely towards the entrance, “Mama’s over there and she said, ‘Stella, hold my hand and stay close ‘till we see your dad, ok?’ but you’re so tall and I sawed your head so I ran and didn’t listen to Mama.” Gasping softly, Stella put her hands over her mouth, “Oh no. Mama! Mama, hello? I am here,” she curled her arm over his shoulder as she craned her head to look around. “Where she go?”

Lorcan looked around as well, loving and hating the way his pulse sped up at the prospect of seeing her . “I don’t know where your ma is, maybe she- oh,” Lorcan cut himself off as he saw a familiar flash of long black hair through the crowd. “There she is.”

Through the throngs of passengers and travelers, Lorcan saw a fair skinned, petite woman. Her hair was dark, streaked with purple, and fell to her hips. She left it be in its natural waves, but had it cut into a blunt, pointed fringe that framed her heart-shaped face. Her round, plush lips were painted deep, nearly black, red. They curled into a teasing grin, “Hey, Salvaterre, I see you’ve finally decided to rejoin the rabble! Was the tour too preppy for you, what with all the first class flights and champagne?” 

He laughed and reached out to flick her nose, “Shut your mouth, Lochan. I’m common folk for life.” Elide laughed and Lorcan smiled, “Fuck, I can’t believe that you two came to pick me up.” He pulled Elide into a hug, something finally settling inside him as he held his girls for the first time in two months. 

“No, no swearing, Daddy,” Stella chastised him, her frown disapproving, “Fuck is a bad word. A very bad word and we’re only allowed to say it when we listen to music.”

Elide laughed and slipped her arm around his waist, “A wretched word, really. It’s like you want our daughter to become a menace to society.” 

“Oh, really? And what if our daughter wants to be a menace to society?” 

Stella Luna nodded, sticking her chin out, “Yeah, what if I want to be a menace to society, mama?”

Elide shook her head at the two of them and narrowed her eyes at him, “This is your doing, you know, Lorcan.” Oh… how his heart stopped as his name tumbled from her lips. Lorcan struggled to breathe for a moment and Elide’s warm grin faltered. “Lor? You alright?” 

“Y-yeah, just jet-lag,” he said quickly. Lorcan averted his eyes from Elide’s concerned gaze. Stella Luna wiggled, whining slightly. When she was set down on her feet, she grabbed Lorcan’s hand in one of hers and Elide’s in the other.

“Let’s go!” she shouted, tugging them along with all her might. At fifteen kilos and a solid one-hundred centimetres, it wasn’t much, but her determination made up for it. Over her head, Elide shot Lorcan a smile and a wink. 

Lorcan rolled his eyes and chuckled. Stella skipped and hopped along to Elide’s car. Lorcan tossed his duffel in the trunk as Elide helped Stella into her booster seat and he walked over to the passenger seat. “Daddy,” Stella said, “did you know my birthday is in two months? That means I’m gonna be five whole years.”

“Wow, you’re going to be so old ,” he said dramatically, smiling in the rearview mirror when Stelle’s jaw dropped open and her eyes widened. 

“I don’t want to be old. Old people are yucky. Like you and mom.” Elide and Lorcan looked at each other and burst into gutsy laughter at their daughter’s words. Stella sniffed primly and turned her face to the side, “It’s not funny to be old. Being old means you die. Do you want to die, Daddy?” 

“If I die, I become a ghost and I’ll haunt people,” he said. 

“Would you haunt me ?” the girl asked, her eyes filled with morbid curiosity. 

Elide huffed a laugh. She turned the car on and smoothly pulled out of her parking spot to the freeway that would take them back to Orynth. “You two are ridiculous. Stella, baby, no one’s haunting you.” 

“Yeah, except for me,” Lorcan ever-so-helpfully stated. 

As Elide exclaimed in annoyance, Stella giggled uncontrollably. The dark haired woman couldn’t help but laugh along and the sound of their laughter soothed the dull ache of missing them. 

☽ ☼ ☾

“ Até, ‘m tired,” said Stella, trailing up to Lorcan. She was all ready for bed, dressed in her Jack Skellington pyjamas. Her dinner of tomato soup and grilled cheese had been devoured an hour ago. Lorcan was in Elide’s kitchen, washing the dishes as Elide worked on a sketch and Stella checked her backpack over and over and over again. She was not going to be caught unprepared for her first day of kindergarten. 

He rinsed off the iron skillet and placed it in the dish rack. Lorcan dried his hands and turned to his daughter, who held her hands up expectantly. With a fond smile, Lorcan scooped her up and asked, “Time for bed? Did you brush your teeth yet?”

“Mm-hmm,” she nodded and dropped her head onto his shoulder. “Daddy, don’t forgot Mr. Ribbit.” Stella said softly, already falling asleep. She clutched at his shoulders, a yawn splitting her little face in half. 

His grin softened and he kissed the top of her head, “Can’t forget your frog, now, can we?” There came a low chuckle from the living room. Elide walked over to them, her pencil stuck in her hair and carrying the fuzzy green animal. She passed the animal to Stella and pressed a kiss to her cheek. Lorcan offered her his hand, “Come with us?” 

Elide nodded and slipped her hand in his. They walked to Stella's room together. She breathed evenly and deeply, her eyes closed. Her lashes brushed the tops of her rosy cheeks. Lorcan set her down with care and tucked her blankets around her. “Good night, my darling moon,” he said softly - in his native tongue - and brushed her hair back before it could tickle the tip of her button nose.

“Night-night,” Stella whispered, her eyes cracking open. “Are you gonna come drive me with mama tomorrow to school?” She snuggled into her pile of pillows and held her blanket up for Salem to settle in beside her. The cat curled up against her and purred softly as he flicked his fluffy tail over her protectively.

“Yes, I am.” 

She nodded, “Good. That’s good, Daddy.” 

“Alright, Tiny,” he laughed softly, “go to sleep, yeah? You’ve had a big day.” He kissed her forehead and stood up to let Elide say good night. 

Elide sat down on the edge of the mattress and cupped Stella’s face in her hand, her words soft and too low for Lorcan to hear. She too chuckled and kissed Stella Luna’s cheek, then got up and stepped over to Lorcan. 

They closed the door and silently walked back to the living room. Lorcan sat down on the couch and rubbed his eyes. Elide curled up in the opposite corner and smiled, “Tired?” 

“Yeah,” he said, dropping his head back against the couch. “Fuck me, I have to go home.” 

“Why don’t you just stay here tonight? You’ll have to come back tomorrow anyway,” Elide said, her voice measured. 

Lorcan looked at her, but her face was turned to the side. “Are you sure, El? I honestly don’t mind and I haven’t been to my place in a while.” 

She glanced over at him, “No, c’mon, it’s fine. It’s not like we’ve never done it.” 

“Done what?” 

Elide shot him a flat look, “Slept in the same bed.” 

Lorcan choked and his eyes widened, “El- what? I was just going to take the–” 

“I swear to Anneith if you say ‘couch’, I’ll strangle you. I’m not making you sleep on my couch when you’ve been gone all summer.” Elide stood up and walked to her bedroom, her hips swinging enticingly. Lorcan quickly looked away. “Besides, my bed is big. I promise I won’t give you my cooties.” 

He snapped his teeth and crossed the room to join her. “Fine. I’ll stay.” 

Elide crossed her arms over her chest and smiled cockily, “I knew you would.” 

“Yeah, yeah,” Lorcan said, pulling her into his arms. Her body melted into his. They fit perfectly together. They always had. “You’re always right, aren’t you, princess?” 

Elide hid her smile and slipped her arms around his waist, her cheek pressed above his heart. For a long moment, neither said a word. Then, Elide pressed her forehead against him and whispered. She couldn’t speak any louder, fearing that the tears she’d held back for years would finally spill over. “It’s nice to have you home, Lor.” 

“It’s nice to be home,” he murmured, gently rubbing her back. 

“It wasn’t the same without you.” It’s never the same without you.

He closed his eyes, hating the tears that blurred his vision. “Wasn’t the same without you, either, Lochan.”

 ☽ ☼ ☾

an: ahh ! it’s here ! a few things will b different for this wip, so i just want to let u all kno: 

- chapters will b posted once a week on mondays, at 8pm pacific standard time

- there will b flashback chapters !! 

- there will b depictions of recreational drug (marijuana) and alcohol consumption - i will put warnings for these n if there r any other triggers u would like me to warn, pls let me know

- if u want to b added/removed from the tag list, just send me an ask - it is rlly no trouble at all <3

translation: *Até: Father/Dad in Lakota (i headcanon lorcan to be native american - speficially Oglala Lakota. this will b more apparent/relevant in future chapters. i call his tribe 'the ozuye'. 'ozuye' means war-party in lakota)

songs played in chapter: (by order of appearance) 1. Pink + White - Frank Ocean 2. Dreaming - Blondie 3. I'm Not A Loser - Descendents

@mythicaitt​​ @werewolffprince​​ @schmlip-scribble​​ ​ @the-regal-warrior​​ @ladyverena​​ @ttakeitbacknoww​​ @shyvioletcat​​ @alifletcher2012​​ @tswaney17​​ @ourbooksuniverse​​  @flora-and-fae​​ @thesirenwashere​​ @queenofxhearts​​ @maastrash​​ @mynewdreamwasyou​​ @cursebreaker29​​ @empress-ofbloodshed​​ @b00kworm​​ @hizqueen4life​​ @silversprings98​​ @amren-courtofdreams​​ @minaidss​​ @superspiritfestival​​ @sanakapoor​​ @ireallyshouldsleeprn​​ @spyofthenightcourt​​  @thegoddessofyou​​ @more-espresso-less-depresso-xx​​ @claralady​​ @neonhellas​​ @darlinminds​​ @readingismyonlyhobby​​ @autophobiaxx​​ @silversprings28​​ @myshadowsingeraz​​ @aelinfeyreeleven945tbln​​ @elriel4life​​ @always-in-a-daydream​​ @jlinez​​ @ladywitchling​​ @mariamuses​ @darklesmylove​ @adelzd-bookblr​

[solalunar-eclipse]

Scars You Can’t See - Chapter 10

Chapter title: Short Fuses

Word count: about 3400 words

Author’s Note: Hopefully this chapter is up to the usual standards, especially considering I completed it in about a week. I really want to try and stay on schedule as much as I can especially considering that I have about six other ideas all begging to be written the second this fic is finished.

Warning for descriptions of violence, just in case.

First  | Previous  | Next

...

The loud slam of a car door made the two Mobians still inside it jump.

Shadow and Rouge stared out the window, horrified, as Omega drew himself up to his full height of four feet and eleven inches and stared down the troops. When he’d seen his friends so scared, so certain that this was the end, something inside him had snapped.

He wasn’t ordinarily the type to process much in the way of emotion. His circuits hadn’t been built for it in the first place, but so much rewiring and extra work had been done by now that he’d almost become more than his processors and coding. And...meeting two people who understood him in a way he’d never thought possible had done a lot for his personality as well. By now, Omega had grown to care for these two organics more than he had ever thought possible since the day they had first met.

And now he was furious.

“I HAVE HAD ENOUGH.” he thundered, his voice blasting out of his speakers at top volume. “YOU HAVE CHASED US ALL OVER THIS CHAOSDAMNED COUNTRY. YOU HAVE TRAUMATIZED BOTH OF MY FRIENDS. AND YOU HAVE RUINED OUR LIVES.

“I WILL GIVE YOU ONE CHANCE TO GET OUT OF HERE. ONE. CHANCE. THEN I START FIRING. AND I WILL NOT STOP.”

He immediately began to power on all of the weapons that he could possibly use at once. Everything from machine guns to missiles to lasers started to warm up and make clicking noises as his ammunition slid into place. Omega made sure to load a few extra explosive charges into his weaponry- his targeting systems had been significantly improved after some time in Tails’s workshop, but they still weren’t perfect. Especially not with this level of opponents. 

He found that he didn’t really care.

(His only real worry was that the firing noises would stress out Shadow.)

The G.U.N. soldiers refused to back down, and oh how Omega wished that he could properly express the blend of frustration, rage, and just the tiniest bit of satisfaction that burned and sparked through his wires. As it was, he simply had to settle for speaking.

“YOU’RE NOT GOING?” he asked.

One of the apparent leaders pulled out a megaphone, and the robot’s head spun ninety degrees directly to the right to face him. “I DIDN’T SAY YOU COULD TALK.”

A single shot ripped the megaphone from the man’s hand.

“NOW LEAVE US ALONE.”

The actual fighting forces were almost entirely made up of G.U.N. drones, so Omega began tearing into those with ease. Explosions of flame appeared across the field as his shots scattered all around the first wave.

The E-series robot was at least a little pleased that it seemed like he wouldn’t have to physically fight any humans today, though. He’d spent enough time around Rouge and Shadow to know that they’d both be horrified if he did- and he wasn’t going to upset them. Not now.

As it was, he was holding his ground impressively, considering that G.U.N.’s mechanical soldiers were top-of-the-line creations, built specifically with fighting software according to the organization’s highest standards. They were loaded with the latest weapons, and made with light material so that they could move quickly across the battlefield.

But they had never before faced down a nearly three thousand pound robot built by a mad genius with a destructive streak a mile wide….so they were basically being mowed into the ground.

Before long, though, their orders suddenly appeared to change, and a squad started heading directly for the car which still held his two closest friends.

A laser blast incinerated the first few with the full power of Omega’s protective fury behind it, but having two targets to manage- himself and the car- was a lot for anyone to handle. If he turned his attention to the drones swarming the vehicle, then they would get too close to him and start trying to tear him apart. But if he focused for too long on those tearing at his chassis, they could easily break into the car.

Once, when he was busy dealing with an irritating detachment of flying robots, one of the ground fighters broke through a window and started reaching for Shadow and Rouge. The hybrid managed to stab it through the face with a Chaos Spear, but almost immediately went limp against the seat afterwards, clearly struggling to maintain consciousness.

With a scream of static, Omega sent the next few assailants who dared attack his friends flying, but there were just too many for him to handle alone.

As the robots began to climb atop the car, Omega stopped paying attention to the ones trying to tear him apart and focused his aim on the others, but one managed to grab his arm and sent the shots flying wildly around their brethren, skittering across the top of the vehicle.

Omega felt his ammunition starting to run low and wished he had a chance to grab some extras, but even the slightest pause could mean failure now. The drones were clawing at his body, at the car, and they just kept on coming.

He couldn’t last much longer...

And that was when a truck to his right exploded in a giant ball of fire.

The robot was startled for a moment- he hadn’t been aiming for the trucks at all! A moment later, though, a roaring noise sounded directly overhead, and Omega looked up to see what was perhaps the best sight to grace his optics in months.

A red biplane wheeled around overhead before taking another shot directly at the drones surrounding him, leaving him perfectly free to blast the rest off of the car. The E-series robot was also certain he heard a faint “Heck yeah!” from above, and indeed, when his vision focused properly, he spotted a small blue shape standing atop the wings of the plane.

Omega could see Rouge smiling- actually smiling- from inside the car, as she shook Shadow back into awareness. The moment Omega saw her say the name ‘Sonic’, Shadow jolted upright and scrambled to the window despite his shaking limbs, staring up at the Tornado in shock.

He said something to Rouge then, who responded with a light smack on his shoulder, looking more relieved than anything else.

After a few more moments, the tide had begun to turn, and Omega soon heard someone patching directly into his auditory processors. A familiar high-pitched voice asked, “Omega! Do you read me?”

“Affirmative.” he replied, blasting another few drones into oblivion. “It is good to see you, Tails.”

“You too.” the fox replied happily, clearly pleased to have arrived in time.

“Okay,” Tails continued, his voice becoming more serious, “can you get Shadow and Rouge to fly up to the plane? I can’t land, but I need to get them out of here if they can’t fight.”

“I will inform them at once.” 

Omega stalked over to the car, physically shoving several more drones off it and allowing them to land with a loud clatter on more of their kind. Rouge wound down the window, still looking optimistic.

“Alright, what’s the plan now?” she asked him, a sparkle in her eyes.

He blew up a couple of flying bots to his left in big blasts of fire before responding. “Unfortunately, you will have to fly Shadow directly upwards to the plane. This is the best way to get out.”

Rouge groaned. “Chaos...I don’t have to lift you too, right?”

“No.” Omega said. “I will stay here and keep them busy until your return.”

“Won’t you be alright?” she asked him worriedly, placing a hand on his arm.

“We’re not leaving you.”, Shadow insisted. His eyes were narrowed, but the determined effect was undermined by the way his body slumped against the seat, as though it were the only thing keeping him upright.

Suddenly, another voice spoke up. “Come on, you think I can’t watch this big guy’s back?”

Sonic walked up next to Omega and leaned forward on the car’s window. At first, he wore his trademark smile (tinged with a little extra relief), but it quickly turned to shock after he did a double take. “Uh...that is you guys, right? Cause last I checked, Rouge isn’t edgy and you don’t dress like a nerd.” he said, pointing at Shadow.

“I don’t look like a nerd.” Shadow mumbled irritably, glowering at him.

“You actually kinda do, hon.” Rouge said, her smile growing wider. 

The hybrid’s eyes widened. “But you picked this outfit out...Rouge!”

Omega played an audio file of a person clearing their throat while causing another explosion. “While I am certain this conversation is pleasant for all involved, please consider continuing it when we are not surrounded by mechanical troops trying to tear our limbs off.”

All three Mobians looked sheepish. “Alright then, let’s go.” Rouge said, refocusing and flexing her wings in preparation for takeoff.

“We will cover you. Do not worry.” Omega assured them both.

Shadow still frowned at him, before clasping his small gloved hand around the robot’s large metal finger. “Don’t go doing anything too crazy, alright?”

Rouge grinned again, though a little less brightly, before stepping out of the vehicle for the first time that day. “He’ll be okay. Us, on the other hand...you know what, let’s just do it.”

Then she grabbed onto Shadow’s hand and immediately blasted fifteen feet directly upwards in the air. Tails soared as low as he could possibly dare to go in the meantime, even tilting the plane to the side slightly so that Shadow could climb into the seat. 

Some flying G.U.N. robots began to close in on Rouge as her wings beat frantically, struggling to gain more height. Omega couldn’t fire now- there was too much risk of him hitting her- but then he realized that Sonic was already handling it. The hero bounced off of the car, then a robot, before launching himself up high into the air and spindashing all of the drones, bouncing from one to the next like a wild blue pinball.

Meanwhile, the E-series robot busied himself with spraying explosives and laser fire across the entire field, finally feeling free to properly tear into the opposing forces. At one point, he actually lifted the car above his head, set it on fire, and threw it with all of his strength directly at an advancing wave of drones, taking out an entire platoon.

(The car rental company would just have to deal with it.)

Omega heard a small chuckle to his right, and looked over to see the blue hero himself standing there and smirking up at him. “You’re pretty ticked off, huh?” he asked.

“YES.” Omega replied, putting as much loathing and distaste behind that one word as he possibly could whilst throwing a drone several yards into the nearest tree. 

Sonic’s grin tightened in response, and something shifted deep within his eyes, transforming them into a blazing green flame. His entire expression practically screamed ‘you messed with the wrong people this time, idiots’.

“Hey, pal?” he asked, his words deceptively light and loose. “I heard you can blast curled-up ‘hogs like me outta those arm cannons of yours. Mind if I give it a whirl?” The blue-and-gold robot could practically feel the growl that lay hidden beneath his voice...and decided that he definitely approved. 

In response, Omega’s hand simply retracted into his arm, leaving a perfectly Mobian-sized barrel behind. Sonic immediately curled up on the ground, and the robot scooped him into the cannon with ease, before aiming it at the mechanical soldiers marching towards them yet again. “Ready?” he asked.

“Always.” the hero hissed from within his quills, curling up tighter.

One second later, he was fired out of Omega’s arm at high speed, before ricocheting off about a dozen robots hard enough to shear most of them in half. Sonic uncurled after that, bouncing to his feet with an expression barely qualifying as a smile as drones fell beneath his feet and fists.

Not long after that, Omega heard the whir of a G.U.N. troop carrier above them and saw an entire new wave of reinforcements dropping in- the organization clearly wasn’t willing to risk their human soldiers on two such dangerous foes. While the blue blur was certainly helpful, he knew that they couldn’t hold off endless amounts of these machines, and would unfortunately tire or run out of ammo eventually.

Which was why he was incredibly grateful to see Tails’s biplane soaring into the fray just moments later, prepared to sweep them both to safety. (While he enjoyed giving G.U.N. its long-withheld punishment, he also wanted to survive long enough to see his friends healthy and happy again, of course.)

“Omega! I need you to get on top of that truck!” Tails ordered through his audial processors. “I can try and pick you and Sonic up from there!”

The robot acted immediately, barreling through the lines of drones with incredible strength. To his left, he saw Sonic doing the same- jumping over the bots’ heads and up onto the trailer. The hero fought to hold off some physical soldiers with punches and kicks carefully calculated to bruise, but not kill.

Omega clawed his way up to the top of the truck, leaving deep gouges in the side as he heaved himself over the edge. They both scanned the sky, watching as Tails waited for the right opening…

Suddenly, the Tornado dove sharply downwards, carving through lines of machinery as it soared towards them. Its wings nearly skimmed the trees as it closed in on them. Sonic tensed, preparing to leap, as Tails yelled, “Jump on...now!”

Omega’s reflexes were not exactly what one might call good, unfortunately, having been built with strength in mind over speed. Thankfully, Sonic grabbed hold of his arm, and that combined with his rocket boosters was enough to sling him face-first over the seat as Tails pulled upwards.

Turning his head to the side as he struggled into the plane, the E-series robot caught a glimpse of Sonic braced on the main wing of the Tornado as they put more and more distance between themselves and the ambush site with every second. However, he also quickly spied several flying drones headed their way.

Clearly, Tails had too. “Omega! Can you take care of those for me? And strap in, ‘cause I’m about to try and shake these people for good!”

He began to empty his cartridges as quickly as possible at those infernal machines, nothing more than hollow shells of metal twisted to serve an evil master. Omega had never been more grateful that he was made with free will. Most of the drones fell quickly, but were easily replaced by more of their brethren. 

The blue and gold robot was disgusted at the very thought of being expendable. 

“Hang on tight!” the fox yelled. 

A jolt shook the entire Tornado as its turbo engines fired, causing the plane to blast forward at such speeds that the ground blurred beneath them. G.U.N. just didn’t have the technology available to catch up with them, especially not while they were this high up.

Soon enough, Angel Island came into view, but it almost looked like it was...moving away from them?

Sonic saw Omega’s ‘frown’ and explained quickly. “Angel Island doesn’t move too fast, and the Tornado gets some crazy mileage with these new engines! We figured Knux oughta get a head start on those creeps.”

At least Knuckles wasn’t avoiding the action out of cowardice, then. If he had been, Omega would have punched his Master Emerald straight off the island, ‘duties’ be damned.

As they came in for a landing, the robot practically felt his chassis grow heavier the more he looked around. Shadow was slumped against a tree near the edge of the clearing, while Rouge was leaning on the steps of the altar, exhausted. Knuckles was sitting cross-legged atop the Master Emerald, his eyes closed as he focused on directing the island where he needed it to go.

“Shadow!” Sonic shouted, jumping off the plane. His face was twisted with concern as he rushed over to his friend. “Dude, why aren’t ya up with the Emerald? Chaos knows you need that energy!”

The hybrid groaned faintly, turning his head to face them. “Knuckles...is busy with it. Don’t want to...interrupt now- we need to get away.”

Omega glowered at him. “Enough of this nonsense. If you insist upon behaving in such a manner, then I will have to make you take care of yourself. Again.” The robot scooped Shadow up in his arms and began to physically carry him to the altar, despite the latter’s protests and squirming. 

Sonic and Rouge giggled practically in tandem, and Shadow glared at them both. “Shut it.”

“What, hon?” Rouge smirked. “This is the second time Omega’s picked you up in like a week, can’t I enjoy it?”

The robot ignored them both and placed Shadow on the altar carefully, the hybrid’s body too weak to do anything more than just lie there. Quickly, though, the Chaos energy began to seep into him, restoring some true life to his eyes.

He didn’t have much more than twenty minutes to rest, unfortunately, before G.U.N.’s best planes began to catch up with the island’s sluggish movement. The four battle-ready inhabitants of Angel Island readied themselves the moment they heard the first aircraft roar in the distance.

Rouge spoke up first, though. “Shadow, honey, I absolutely hate asking this of you, and if there was any other way to get out of here that I could think of then I would take it. But I can tell that there’s at least three Chaos Emeralds on this island, and with how good you’ve gotten at teleporting...if Sonic and Knuckles helped, could you zap us out of here?”

Shadow dragged himself to his feet with the help of the Master Emerald, sighing. “Yes. I’ll need Knuckles to channel as much energy into us as he possibly can, and at least one of the Emeralds. Sonic can use another.”

Sonic and Knuckles both looked startled. “No way, man!” the hero exclaimed. “You could really hurt yourself that way!”

“So help me then.” Shadow replied flatly, looking at him over his glasses. 

The blue hedgehog sighed reluctantly and stood on the other side of the Master Emerald from him, holding out his hand. “You got your Emerald, lil’ bro?”

Tails placed it in his hand as Knuckles handed Shadow one of the two he’d been holding onto. Then, the echidna placed both of his hands on the great gemstone, breathed in, and sent as much power as he could flowing into both of the hedgehogs.

Their eyes locked, and Shadow inclined his head almost imperceptibly. 

“Chaos….Control!!”

The entire island vanished.

It reappeared moments later, above the ocean. Sonic would have plenty of time to be concerned about all the water, but for now, he was more preoccupied with Shadow. He hovered nearby as the hybrid’s eyes unfocused slowly and he swayed from side to side.

The hero caught him a moment later as he crumpled, unconscious. Feeling for a heartbeat, he sighed with relief the moment he found a steady pulse in Shadow’s wrist. 

“He simply needs rest.” Omega said, watching as Sonic laid him back down at the altar (before lying down right next to him, having exhausted his own Chaos stores as well). “As do you,” he added, spinning his head to the right to stare at Rouge.

The robot continued to stare at her, unflinching despite her glower, until she lay down on the grass with an irritated sigh. “I’m supposed to be the one taking care of this team, you know.”

Omega folded his arms. “And you may do so soon. After you get some rest.”

Rouge closed her eyes and seemed to relax soon enough. Omega stood exactly in between his two friends, watching over them with a careful eye.

After a minute or two, he heard Knuckles whisper to his friends, “How do you guys think she figured out that we had those emeralds?”

Without opening her eyes or moving at all, Rouge replied, “I’m just that talented, babe.”

The resulting startled shriek from her boyfriend made birds a hundred feet away flee their trees in fear.

[fruit-teeth]

Matters of Time and Fate (Chapter 22)

Over the bathroom sink, Zhanna washed some dirt off her hand and watched as it disappeared down the drain. She and Soldier had spent some time attempting to relocate the raccoons into a small shelter, and while they had succeeded, it had not been clean work in the least. As she managed to dry off her hand on a nearby towel, Lar-Nah entered the bathroom, kneeling down to open one of the bottom cabinets.

“What you looking for, old lady?’ Zhanna wanted to know, turning back to the mirror to fix her hair.

“I spilled some water on the floor,” Lar-Nah responded, ignoring the title Zhanna had graciously bestowed upon her. “I’m going to dry it off before I slip in it.”

“Oh. That is fine.” Zhanna nodded, and she undid the bandage around the stump of her other wrist to replace it with a new one.

Zhanna proceeded to apply the clean bandage to her wrist while Lar-Nah returned to her room. Once the bandage was on, she secured it with a clip and held it up to the light, pursing her lips together. Engineer had promised to make her a robotic hand, but he hadn’t said when he was going to get to work on doing that. She considered asking him about it, but everyone was so on edge lately that it did not seem –

From the room across the hall came a crash, and then an outraged shout. Zhanna froze, peeking through the doorway. “Old lady?” she called, but Lar-Nah did not answer.

Zhanna dashed into the bedroom, arriving just in time to see a frightening sight: a weird man with bug-like eyes had broken into the room. He'd come in through the ripped window screen, and he was currently standing over Lar-Nah, holding a gun to her head. Lar-Nah crouched on the floor, holding her arms up in a defensive position.

“Yell one more goddamn time and I'll blow your brains out, you damn hag!” the man said to Lar-Nah. He clearly hadn’t noticed Zhanna’s presence.

In an instant, Zhanna sprang into action, leaping across the room and punching the man square in the jaw. He fell to the floor with a yell, the gun falling out of his hand. Zhanna kicked it further away, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and lifting him up.

“Who are you!?” she demanded to know, getting right in his face. “Why you here!?”

The man only stared blankly at her, before reaching down and pressing a button on his belt. Zhanna noticed, and she growled, flinging him across the room. He slammed against the nightstand, knocking it over and shattering the bedside lamp on the floor.

“What was noise!?” Heavy’s voice boomed from downstairs, and within moments, he came rushing up the stairs and into the room. Behind him came Pyro and Engineer, and right away, they noticed the intruder.

Heavy helped Zhanna to restrain the man, and Engineer took it upon himself to confront him. “Did Sage send you!?” Engie demanded, looking the man up and down. He then noticed the button on his belt, squinting at it. “The hell is that…?”

“He press that button!” Zhanna explained. “Is it bomb!?”

Despite the man’s thrashing and protests, Engineer yanked the belt off of him, getting a good look at it. “It’s a tracking device!” he realized. “That button must signal someone!” he glared back at the man. “All right, bug-eyes: who’d you call just now?”

The man glared back, before answering, “The name’s Grudge. And why don’t you just wait and see, old man?”

A grappling hook zipped over the window sill and through the cut screen, lodging itself into the wall. Pyro dashed to the window just in time to see yet another man, this one muscular but short, ascending a rope towards the house. Pyro swiftly pulled the hook and tossed it back, forcing the man to fall to the ground with a shout.

“Good work, Py!” Engineer praised, but it was far from over.

Olivia was in the study, and she hadn’t heard much of what had happened. She'd been too preoccupied with looking through newspapers for a new crossword puzzle to notice the commotion, when the door behind her banged open. She turned around, seeing Scout standing there, a bewildered look on his face.

“There you are!” he exclaimed, dashing towards her. “You gotta go, Liv!”

“Why? What is it?” Olivia sensed something was wrong, but the door behind them burst open again before Scout could respond to her questions.

A broad-shouldered woman stood there, a machete in her hand. Her eyes locked on Olivia, and she made a move towards her.

Scout yelled, “Oh, no you don’t!” he then grabbed the edge of one of the bookcases, yanking it down in her path to block her from Olivia. The bookshelf landed right on the woman’s foot, and she screamed in alarm, trying to free herself.

Scout then scooped Olivia up, opening one of the windows and escaping with her. Olivia’s mind reeled, desperately trying to process what was happening. As she looked back at the house, she could see a man trying to climb up into the house through a different window. The intruder was immediately besieged by angry raccoons as Soldier yanked him back down.

Scout led Olivia to the shed, which she had helped Demo, Zhanna, and Soldier convert into a shelter just days earlier. Once Scout set Olivia on the ground, he opened the door and pushed her into the structure.

“Hide in here,” he told her breathlessly. “It’s gonna be okay!”

“But…” Olivia had little time to protest though, as Scout slammed the door. She pushed up a crate, using it to stand on so she could look into the direction he’d disappeared into. He ran back towards the house, grabbing his baseball bat on the way in. An explosion rocked the air, and she could hear Demoman shouting insults at someone.

So this was what fighting was like. Despite her father's constant exaggeration of the battles as if they were some incredible event, she'd never been present for one. The idea of being on a war field, battling and taking down the enemy piqued her interest every time he mentioned it.

But…now that she was here, she felt sick. The pit in her stomach returned, though it was darker this time, so much so that she had to sit down. She drew up her knees to her chest, staring up at the window, her young heart pounding against her chest.

She didn't know how much time had passed as she sat on the shed floor, shivering and mournfully contemplating how weak she was. Had she always been weak? Or had the men her father pitted her against only been too kindhearted to fight a child? Or…

The handle to the shed jiggled. Olivia froze, her eyes going wide as she stared at the handle, realizing with horror she hadn’t locked the door. Leaping up, she quickly locked it, before pressing herself against the door in attempt to hold it shut.

The handle twitched again, and someone banged on the door. “Come on, kid!” an unfamiliar man’s voice called. “We’re not gonna hurt you, we just need you to come with us!”

Olivia’s whole body tensed, her skin covered in a cold sweat. She looked all around the shed, spotting a shovel Soldier had left behind. She grabbed it, preparing to defend herself.

Outside, Rust tried the handle again, eventually settling on reaching for his gun. Jaws had told him this was where she’d seen the girl go, just after a bookshelf had crushed her foot. He wasn’t aiming to hurt this child, but he knew it was going to be inevitable.

The pop of the gun echoed through the air, and the doorhandle fell to the ground. Rust swung the door open, but right when he did, a steel shovel smacked him right in the abdomen. He doubled over with a yell. “God! Fuck! What the hell!?”

Hands trembling, Olivia wacked him again, this time in the head. Rust stumbled back, his eyes filled with palpable rage. He yanked the shovel out of her hand, throwing it back into the grass and grabbing her by the shoulders. “Come here!”

Olivia shrieked, and she began to claw at his wrists with her fingernails, drawing blood. He didn’t let go, though, just squeezing her tighter. Her heart pounding, she kicked her feet in desperation, trying whatever she could to get away.

Rust suddenly let out a pained yell, dropping Olivia and stumbling around in confusion. Olivia wondered if she had triggered that reaction, but as Spy uncloaked behind him, she realized it wasn't her.

Spy caught Rust by the collar of his shirt, twisting him around to confront him, still clutching the bloodied knife. “Such a man you are, going after a small girl!” Spy barked in his face, before looking back at Olivia. “Run! Run into the woods, go hide!”

Olivia struggled to her feet, and without thinking, she escaped into the woods like Spy had said. She dashed into the bushes till she came upon a stump and hid behind it, her whole body trembling with fear at what had transpired.

“Let me go!” being significantly bigger than Spy, Rust managed to shake him away, but Spy tackled him again and held the knife to his throat.

“Just tell me one thing,” Spy began with a snarl. “Is she the target!? Is that why you went after her!?”

Rust grit his teeth. “Like I’d tell you, you masked rat!”

Spy slashed his knife across Rust’s face, making him yell out again. “Talk or I’ll cut your throat!”

Rust shoved him off, cocking his gun and pointing it in Spy’s face. “Look, man,” Rust began. “I got a job to do! And if that means snatching a child up for a billionaire, I’ll do it!”

Spy reached for his own gun, but as it turned out, he did not have to shoot. A bullet whizzed through the air, shredding Rust’s throat and painting the grass red. From the direction of the house, Miss Pauling came running, her shotgun in her hand. When she came closer, she slowed, taking a moment to examine Rust.

“He’s quite dead, Miss Pauling.” Spy assured, trying to keep himself composed. “Thank you…”

“No problem,” Pauling panted. “God, I think they bit off more than they could chew with us,” she laughed breathlessly. “It seems almost too easy! I think—”

Spy cut her off. “Olivia is their target.”

Pauling trailed off. “I…huh? Wait, how do you know!?”

“He said so,” Spy replied, gesturing to Rust’s body. “Sage must be after Olivia, for some reason.”

“Oh, God…” Pauling ran a hand through her hair. “Where is she now?”

“In the woods, hiding.” Spy dusted himself up, looking towards the cluster of trees. “That coward attacked her – she’s terrified…”

Miss Pauling nodded sympathetically. “I imagine, damn…I’ll go check on her, you get back in there!” she gestured to the house.

Spy nodded, putting his gun back at his side and heading back. “Of course, Miss Pauling!”

Grudge believed it was best to escape as soon as it became evident that the mercenaries had the upper hand. Zhanna had locked him in the bedroom, but he'd escaped, running through the fighting and trying to flee through the kitchen window.

Sniper, on the other hand, had noticed him and was standing behind him with his rifle, muzzle aimed at the back of his head.

“I’d get away from there if I were you, mate,” Sniper warned, his voice low. Grudge paused, turning his head to meet Sniper’s eyes.

“Why?” Grudge snarked. “Are you gonna be mad at me? Huh? Is that it?”

Before Sniper could respond, Grudge tackled him to the floor, knocking the gun away from him. Sniper let out a shout, kneeing him in the stomach and tossing him across the kitchen.

Sniper lunged for his rifle as Grudge attempted to recover, but Grudge produced a gun without notice and fired one shot. The bullet only grazed Sniper’s shoulder, but it was enough to knock him back against the cabinets.

Groaning, Sniper struggled to get back up, but Grudge stood over him, pointing the gun right in his face. “Any last words, ‘mate’?” Grudge seethed, mocking Sniper’s accent.

The unexpected happened in what felt like a single second: Sniper observed Lar-Nah standing behind Grudge, but before he could figure out what she was up to, she lifted the microwave from the cabinet and slammed it down.

It fell directly onto Grudge’s head, the glass door shattering around his skull and sending him into stunned shock. He dropped his gun and gasped for breath within the kitchen appliance as he staggered backwards, dropping to the ground. Sniper watched in disbelief as Lar-Nah stood calmly over Grudge, his body twitching two more times before stopping.

“Old hag, my ass,” Lar-Nah spat. She then turned to Sniper, looking at his shoulder. “He shot you, didn’t he?”

“Oh,” Sniper checked his wound. “It’s not serious, he only nicked me. I…” he rose to his feet, blinking. “You…you just…you saved my life!”

Lar-Nah glanced back down at Grudge’s body, and then up at Sniper. “I did,” she scratched at her shoulder. “The microwave was a gamble, but I knew it would work if I angled it just right and—”

“Hey,” Sniper reached out, placing a hand on her arm. “Thank you.” he looked in her eyes, showing her his gratitude was genuine.

There was a brief pause, and Lar-Nah smiled back a little. “You’re welcome.”

Sniper's attention was drawn away by the pop of another gun from the living room, and he dashed to the doorway to see what was going on. Much to his surprise, Helen was standing over one of the intruders, holding a revolver in her hand.

“Took her long enough to show up,” Sniper muttered, realizing that this was the first time he’d seen her since the attack began.

Helen lowered her gun, staring at the woman she’d cornered and glaring down at her.

“I assume Sage sent you,” Helen began, her voice low and menacing. “And if he did, I’d like you to take back a message for him.”

Shell staggered to her feet, wiping blood from her mouth. “Fuck you,” she snarled. “I’m not taking back any message for you, bitch!”

“Oh? Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear,” Helen pointed the nozzle of the gun at Shell’s jaw, lightly tapping it. “When you see Phoenix Sage, tell him that he’s a fool if he thought he could take me down this easily.” She then gestured to the mess that was the battle’s aftermath. “You’ve lost a few of your teammates already, it’s in your best interest to leave before we kill the rest of you.”

“You…bitch,” Shell repeated, her eyes bearing a cold, steel glare of hatred. She backed off, however, knowing she and her remaining teammates were outnumbered. “I’m not gonna forget this, all of you are gonna pay for this shit!”

Helen could only stand there and watch as Shell gathered her live companions and walked out of the house, disappearing into the woods. Despite the fact that the mercenaries had plainly defeated the bounty hunters, they were certain to return: Helen was well aware that people like that didn't go down without a fight.

Sniper took that moment to approach Helen, clearing his throat. “You’re not gonna…kill all of them? They’re gonna tell someone.”

“Oh, please,” Helen scoffed. “They’re bounty hunters. They won’t go to the authorities, I know these kinds of people…” she smoothed her blouse out and took a breath. “Anyway…you and the others, clean this place up. I’ll be hosting another meeting to discuss what just happened here.”

As she walked away, Sniper couldn’t stop the glare that crossed his face. Once Helen was out of earshot, he muttered, “Yeah, sure, make us clean up after you did bloody nothing…”

Out in the woods, Miss Pauling searched high and low for Olivia. She hadn’t found her yet, and the panic had set in.

“Come on, Olivia, it’s okay!” Pauling assured. “That guy who grabbed you is gone, its okay!”

A twig snapped by the trees, and Pauling turned to look, going quiet. After a long, few seconds of silence, Olivia emerged from behind the stump.

Relieved, Pauling knelt down to examine her, fixing her hair. “Hey, hey! Are you okay?”

Olivia only nodded. She was still terrified, but she’d calmed down somewhat. Now she was just tired.

She rooted herself against Miss Pauling, murmuring, “I just wanna go inside…”

“Okay…yeah, I understand.” Pauling carefully picked her up, smoothing her hair back. “We’ll go inside, I’ll get you some juice and a snack, okay?”

Olivia nodded again, pressing her face into Pauling’s shoulder. She smelled like sweat and blood mixed with deodorant, but Olivia didn’t care.

Miss Pauling carried Olivia out of the woods and into the backyard, where Demoman immediately noticed them.

“Lasses!” he exclaimed, rushing up to examine Olivia. “Oh, wee thing, are you all right?”

Olivia sniffed, lifting her head. “Yeah,” she answered. “I hit a guy with a shovel.”

Demo smiled a bit at that. “Did you? Aye,” he ruffled her hair affectionately. “You look knackered!”

“I’m gonna take her to the kitchen for a snack,” Pauling explained. “She’s had a long day, and—”

“Oh, not the kitchen,” Demo grimaced. “Sniper’s mum took a lad out with the microwave in there.”

Pauling blinked, unsure if she’d heard that right. “A microwave!? Oh, wow…guess we’ll need a replacement. I can take care of that mess, though…” she sighed, handing Olivia to Demo. “Can you…I don’t know, keep her somewhere safe and quiet for a while?”

“Can do,” Demo nodded, accepting Olivia. “Come on, lass, let’s relax for a while…”

He took Olivia inside, situating her on the couch with a blanket and a glass of water. As Olivia sipped on the water, she watched while the mercs cleaned up the mess around them.

She couldn't decide how she felt...she felt much better now that the threat had vanished, but she couldn't stop thinking about the fight she'd been in. What had that man been planning to do? She didn’t even want to keep thinking about it, choosing to take another big sip of water instead.

Spy could see Olivia huddled up on the couch from the other room, and he could tell she was still terrified. A combined feeling of pity and anger burned within him, getting stronger as he glanced over his shoulder at Helen.

Perhaps Spy was not thinking straight after what had just occurred, but he blamed Helen. All of this happened because of Helen’s need for Australium, and now her own child was in danger. And did she care? That was a bit confusing...Helen was talking to Miss Pauling about something at the moment, but Spy couldn't tell what it was.

He sensed he couldn't keep what he knew about Helen a secret any longer as he went back to scooping up bullet fragments from the floor.

[dragons-socks]

Baby Bumblebee chptr 3

“Hey, Captain Lennox, Bumblebee isn’t here if that’s what you’re looking for.” Sam said as Ironhide pulled up and the captain jumped out. Mikaela waved from her spot inspecting the old engine of Sam’s replacement car when Bee is out in the field.

“I know. That’s why I’m here.” Something about the way Lennox said it had both teens dropping what they were doing and turning fully to him.

“Is he alright? Did he die. I swear if you wrecked him, I’m going to beat-” Sam began frantically threatening Lennox when Ironhide’s passenger rear door popped open and tiny light-the-night yellow sketchers popped out followed by black overall-shorts over a yellow t-shirt, but was drowned out by an overly large bee-themed jacket. The kid slipped on the last few inches out of the truck, landing smack on his bottom. Instead of crying out like most children do, he let out a series of clicks and chitters.

“I said I’d get you in a second, kid.” Lennox sighed, walking over and picking the child up to his feet. Sam looked between the kid and Lennox. He turned to Mikaela to make sure she was also seeing the kid as well.

“Uh, I didn’t know Epps had a kid?” Sam asked. “What’s his, uh, name?”

“Bumblebee.” Lennox said, face flat. Sam wanted to laugh, but the kid just looked down at his shoes, scuffing his toes in the grass.

“No way.” Sam knelt down to take a closer look at the little boy. “Like, my car? Like the 18 foot alien robot?” The kid let out a sad whine.

“Why is he a child? Shouldn’t he be older, even if he was turned into a human.” Mikaela asked, standing closer to Lennox.

“We think that is the purpose of the weapon, not to just turn the autobots into humans, but also small and defenseless.” Lennox explained the battle and how Bee saved Optimus from their weapon. Sam ruffled Bee’s fluffy blonde hair.

“He looks more like you cheated on Sarah with some cute African mama while on tour, then Epps and his girlfriend’s kid.” Mikaela cooed at Bee.

“I think my babysitter has the same idea.” Lennox groaned. “We tried to say he was a dead friend’s kid, but I’m not sure she completely bought it.”

“Sarah would have you sleeping in the dog house if that were true.” Mikaela assured.

“Oh, I’m in the doghouse either way. Apparently it’s a little traumatising to experience being a human than just observing them.” Lennox laughed as Bee let out a series of grumbles and chirps.

“So I have to stick with the crapper?” Sam bemoaned. Bee turned to him, letting out chirps and chitters. His tiny hand rested on Sam’s cheek, a determined look taking over his whole face as he promised he didn’t become a human to shake his duties to and for Sam.

“It was a joke, buddy. Don’t worry.” Sam laughed.

Judy walked out and completely went heads over heels for the kid little kid in her front yard. She snatched him up instantly, pinching his chubby cheeks and gushing about the brightest blue eyes she’s ever seen.

“Ma! Mom! MOM!” Sam shouted as Bee struggled against the matriarchy of the Witwicky family. “You’re freaking him out. Will you put him down?”

“He’s so small, you were this small once. Oh, I remember when you used to just rip your overall’s off cause you didn’t like them at all. But look how cute he is!” Judy at least set Bee down, who ran and hid behind Lennox’s legs, glaring at the woman from behind them.

“Yeah, yeah, ma. Why are you out here anyway?”

“Dinner is almost done. We have enough for you two as well, Captain Lennox.” She turned to the other adult.

“I’ll have to decline. We’re supposed to be picking up the last of the supplies for Bee and then headed back to the wife’s dinner. She’d kill me if I came with a full stomach.” Lennox gave a tight smile. Judy went on about being a good husband and yelling at her own to take notes. Ron yelled back about having been her husband for long enough to know how to handle his marriage.

“We’ll be able to see Bee at the base, right?” Sam asked.

“No. Optimus isn’t a fan of having him with the other Autobots and my superiors feel the same with having a child running around base. So he’ll be at my house until we figure out how to get him back to normal.”

“And if you can’t?” Lennox didn’t answer, not verbally, but the look on his face said enough. Bee let out a grumble, folding his arms and shaking his head. He wouldn’t rest until he could kick ass and drive fast again. “Well, I could always look after him if you need someone. I owe him for looking after me all this time anyway.”

“Thanks, kid. We’ll be around.” Lennox said. Bee wrapped his arms around Sam, who picked him up and helped him back into Ironhide, finding a kid’s car seat. Sam suppressed the need to laugh. An autobot that’s been in wars, has killed, and can take a brutal beating, has to also resort to being put into a car seat for his own safety.

“See ya later, Bee.” Sam ruffled the soft curls one last time. Bee waved goodbye.

Lennox was a little surprised that it wasn’t like pulling teeth to get Bumblebee away from Sam. He was almost positive that the autobot-turned-boy would try to stay with his ward. Maybe it was the promise of seeing Sam again that eased the separation. But Lennox wasn’t complaining. He wasn’t lying when he said he still had to get Bee a few more supplies for his room and Sarah was expecting him home at some point.

Bumblebee’s eyes went wide as they walked into yet another store. Lennox had been dragging him in and out of them all day. He’s been shoved into clothes for hours, and made to choose sleeping supplies and shelves. He was placed in front of plastic toys, but he didn’t want to look at those. Lennox held out a newer version of the yellow toy car and put it in the cart. Bumblebee didn’t want to acknowledge it’s presence so he turned away. His hand brushed against something soft, which made him stop in his tracks. Peaking to the side, he found a large box filled with fake earth animals. It was staring into his spark with beady black eyes, long drooping ears rested around its face.

“You can have the bunny if you want, Bee.” Lennox said, lifting it out of the box and placing it in Bee’s hands. Bumblebee’s fingers gripped automatically to the soft fur. He let out a stream of happy clicks.

The bunny was now in his room at the house, safe, protected. This new store was different. It was just shelves and shelves of books. Lennox wasn’t really browsing as he had done the other stores. No, he was walking straight to the counter where a girl sat, typing away at her computer. She ignored the duo until Lennox cleared his throat. She let out a sigh, turning to him with bored eyes.

“The children’s section is down the hall and to the right. The education corner is up the stairs all the way in the back.” She went back to her computer.

“I’m William Lennox. I called earlier.” He said.

“Oh, yeha, my boss said something about that. We’ve pulled some books for you.” She spun around, digging around a different shelf behind her before she pulled out a stack of large books. “These are the ones we’ve found.”

“I’ll take them all.” Lennox said. Bee went on his tiptoes and pulled down a small thin book. The cover had a cartoon child smiling, their hands in an odd position. The title was colorful and in big letters, ‘American Sign Language for Children’.

______________

The first time Lennox got back to the autobot base wasn’t until a whole week after getting into a healthy routine with Bumblebee. The kid was picking up sign language faster than Lennox could relearn it, so communication was still rocky, but it was getting better. They also had a grid of pictures and words that Bee could point at to help let Sarah know what he needed.

“Lennox, good to see ya back.” Epps clapped him on the back. “How’s the kid?”

“10,000 years of prior knowledge really makes ‘em smart, you know.” Lennox tries to smile, but it doesn’t quite appear. He drops his facade, running a hand down his face. “He’s upset on good days, throws tantrums on bad ones. He gets stressed easily and frustration runs high every minute.”

“That doesn’t really sound like Bumblebee. He’s usually so upbeat even in tough situations.” Epps commented.

“Ironhide thinks Bee is reacting to his physical age due to the human chemicals and endorphins bumping through his body. I’m inclined to believe so as well. Also, it’s a situation none of us has ever gone through before. He’s in unknown territory without his family to help him. He’s been abandoned and outcast and everything is a constant reminder of what he’s lost. He sacrificed himself for his leader, for the one he looks up to for guidance and safety. And because of the outcome, he was pushed away by that very man.” Lennox tried to explain the feelings that have been tearing Bumblebee into pieces.

“Yeah, that does sound stressful.” Epps slouched. “How’s Annabell taking having an older brother?”

“She hates it.” Lennox groaned, sliding down to the floor.

“It can’t be that bad.” Epps laughed at his friend’s pain.

“She’s just fine sharing, as long as its in the way she wants, which Bee usually gets overwhelmed with her demands and ends up with Annabell throwing a tantrum and Bee hiding away in Ironhide.” Lennox took a deep breath.

“Do I even want to know how Sarah is taking this?” Epps helped Lennox to his feet.

“Oh, she’s loving how much room she has in the King bed without any company.” Lennox gave a dry bark of laughter.

“Seriously?”

“She loves Bee, didn’t even take a second to warm up to him. She is mad that I made this ‘life-changing’ decision without her.”

“Well, we’re wife and kid free here, man. So just come down to the hanger and see what the bots have been up to.” Epps led the way to the large warehouse where the autobots were walking around and talking with other military faciliants. Or they were trying too. Ironhide was shouting at Optimus and anyone else who tried to argue with him or try to calm him down.

“I’ve got tear stains in my leather upholster, because he thinks he’s been abandoned! And you know what, he ain’t wrong.” Ironhide folded his arms, glaring at the leader of the Autobots.

“We’ve been over this, Ironhide. He would not be safe here. I’m not going to change my decision.” Optimus huffed, getting frustrated at this endless cycle that was getting them nowhere.

“Oh, I know. But I want you to live with the guilt of that decision riding on your conscience till the All Spark has mercy.” Ironhide spins his cannons, but doesn’t engage in any violence with his commander. Lennox was surprised the weapon’s expert held back. Ironhide had been overheating with rage for the whole ride here.

“Don’t start a fight, Ironhide. Bumblebee knew the risk.” Wheeljack said. “Besides, being alone isn’t the worst. I’m by myself all the time.” Wheeljack didn’t get to continue his thoughts as Ironhide slammed his fist into the other’s face.

“Hey, hey, Ironhide! They’re not going to change their minds with senseless violence. We’re here to do a job. Just keep it civil, big guy.” Lennox said, running to break up the bots.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m going to the range.” Ironhide transformed into his truck and rolled away from the others.

“Thank you for understanding, Captain.” Optimus started, but Lennox shot a glare up to the large mech.

“Don’t think I’m on your side, Prime. I just hate cleaning up the messes that happen when you guys fight.” Lennox turned away from the bot to organize his men.

[snappedsky]

Borderlands: Skies the Bodyguard 3

The battle rages on and gets a little messy.

*Links to previous and next chapters in reblog*

--

Chapter 27

           Nestle backs away nervously as Jack stands over him, grinning darkly. Then Nestle gets some nerve and squares up.

           “I will not be intimidated!” he barks and fires lightening out of his hand. It poofs harmlessly against Jack’s chest.

           “Is that it?” Jack asks as Nestle deflates like a popped balloon. “My turn.”

           Jack pulls back his fist and punches Nestle right in the face. Before he can fly back from the force, Jack grabs his shirt and backhands him then knees him in the gut. Nestle doubles over, letting out a choked gasp.

           A few flights down, Fiona, Sasha, and Vaughn watch the beating, bewildered.

           “You guys are seeing this too, right?” Vaughn asks, to which the sisters numbly nod.

           Rhys watches too from where he hangs off the broken stairwell, almost too stunned to remember his predicament. But he’s quickly reminded by his aching fingertips and his fear of heights. He grabs onto the railing, giving himself a better grip, and manages to pull himself up. Then he continues racing up the stairs.

           Meanwhile, Skies is having the time of her life. She slices through the Guardians with her newly acquired staff, knocking them down like weeds, and dodges their attacks with swift ducks and sidesteps. And the whole time, she has a wide, unsettling grin on her face.        

           Timothy sticks close to her, covering her back and finishing off any Guardians who linger after one of her attacks. As he shoots one that clings for life on the ground, Skies turns to him.

           “Thanks, Tim Tam,” she chimes.

           He chuckles awkwardly and smiles back.

           As the battle rages on, the sound of heavy footfalls and trees falling cannot be heard over the din of the gunfire. That is until Mordecai’s voice rings through everyone’s ECHO communicator.

           “Heads up!” he warns.

           Skies and Timothy look up as a couple trees break down around them, just in time to see a giant, metal foot coming down.

           “Whoa!” they exclaim and dive out of the way. Many Guardians are not so lucky and get squished like bugs.

           Overhead, Gortys has shoved the Prototype halfway across the island. But finally the Prototype pushes back, stopping her in her tracks. It pulls her off its midriff and they begin to mercy wrestle.

           “Wowzers!” Axton exclaims as everyone stares up at the giant robots in awe.

           “Hey!” Lilith barks into her ECHO communicator. “Shouldn’t you guys be keeping your fight on the other side of the island?”

           “This isn’t so easy to control, Lilith!” Athena retorts

           The Prototype’s eye lights up and Gortys barely manages to duck beneath its laser eye as it slices through the treetops.

           “Yikes!” Timothy squeaks, covering his head from the falling branches.

           “Dammit! Could someone help us deal with that laser eye?” August demands.

           “Dibs!” Skies exclaims and runs off.

           “Uh, Skies, wait!” Timothy calls and chases after her.

           She quickly climbs a nearby tree as high as she can go, Timothy following close behind.

           “Hey, August, can you bring it down to its knees?” she asks.

           “Hang on,” he replies.

           With August in control, Gortys grabs the Prototype’s shoulders then kicks out one of its ankles, forcing it down onto one knee.

           “That’ll do,” Skies replies.

           “Hurry!” August orders.

           Skies and Timothy leap off the tree onto the Prototype’s nearby shoulder. But as they do, it shakes off Gortys’ grip and stands back up.

           “Whoa!” Skies and Timothy cry as they rise into the sky, barely clinging to the robot’s shoulder.

           “Didn’t you say you’re afraid of heights?” Skies asks.

           “Don’t remind me,” Timothy whimpers, keeping his eyes pointed up.

           As Gortys and the Prototype continue to smack at each other, Skies and Timothy shimmer across its shoulder to its head. Then they both climb to the top. The Prototype doesn’t even seem to notice them.

           “Hold onto my jacket; keep me steady,” Skies orders. Timothy holds onto the metal plating with one hand and the hem of Skies jacket with his other, holding her steady as she slides towards the robot’s forehead. It just barely catches a glimpse of her peeking into its line of sight before she lifts her staff and drives it through its eye.

           The Prototype lets out a crackling screech as a shock travels from the staff through it eye and its red glow dies out. It stumbles back, disoriented, and fitfully shakes its head.

           “Whoa-aaAAAHHHH!” Skies and Timothy cry out as they fly off and into the trees. They crash through the branches, plummeting quickly towards the ground far below.

           “Tim!” Skies shouts, reaching out her hand. He grabs it and she pulls him in, holding him tight and covering him with her robotic arm and leg.

           They smash into the ground and Skies prosthetics take the brunt of the force, shattering beneath them.

           They both lie in the dirt, groaning painfully. Timothy rolls off Skies, shakenly gets up on his knees, and looks over himself. Other than lots of cuts and gashes, he’s pretty okay.

           “You…saved my life,” he breathes, stunned as he looks at Skies.

           “Pshaw,” she scoffs, “I just made sure you didn’t lose any limbs…like me.”

           She groans as she rolls onto her back, the shattered bits and pieces of her arm and leg poking through the sleeves of her coat and pants.

           “Oh! Your arm and leg!” Timothy cries.

           “Ah, it’s not a big deal,” Skies grunts, waving away his concern with her one good hand. “Just-just a sec.”

           She slips off the right sleeve of her coat, revealing the wires of her arm still connected into her shoulder. With one quick grunt of exertion and pain, she rips them out and shakes the remaining bits out of her sleeve. Then she reaches into her pants and does the same with her right leg.

           Timothy kneels nearby, watching her. “I’m…sorry.”

           “Ah, don’t be,” Skies scoffs, “it sucks that I can’t get back to the fight though. I’m of no use to anyone like this.”

           “I’ll take you back to the hideout,” Timothy says and starts to reach for her, but hesitates. “Uh is it okay if I carry you?”

           “Well, it’s either that or drag me through the dirt. But whatever works for you,” Skies replies.

           “I’ll just carry you.”

           He carefully lifts her up and cradles her bridal style. But just as he starts to walk off, they hear the bushes rustling and turn to see Mick Scabbers emerging with a couple of his bandits.

           “Handsome Jack,” Scabbers snarls, “finally, I will have my revenge.”

           “Ugh, I am so sick of these guys,” Timothy snaps. He carefully rests Skies against a tree and she watches him with surprise as he faces them.

           “You want Jack?” he barks and reaches into his cloak. “I’ll give you more Jack than you can handle!”

           He pulls out what looks like a kind of watch and slaps it onto his wrist. When he presses the display, two Jack digi-clones appear behind him.

           “Wow,” Skies gasps.

           “Get ‘em, boys!” Timothy orders.

           “Hell yeah!” the clones cheer and race forward, firing their guns at the bandits. They try to fight back, but they’re dealt with quickly while Scabbers scampers out of the way.

           “Hey!” Timothy barks and fires his SMG, but Scabbers disappears back into the trees before he can be hit.

           Timothy glares after him but lets him go, sighing heavily. He taps his watch, calling back the clones, and turns to face Skies.

           “Wow,” she says again, smiling at him. “Will you ever cease to amaze me?”

           He chuckles and starts to reach for her.

           “Wait,” she orders and he stops. “You gotta go back to the fight?”

           “What?” Timothy questions. “But what about you?”

           “I’ll be fine,” she sighs, “but they need you. There’s still a ton of Guardians and they could use the help of your clones. Besides, you need to take out that nut sack, Scabbers.”

           Timothy leans back, hesitating, then nods. “Alright. But I’m not leaving you here.”

           As he stands back up, he activates his ECHO communicator. “Claptrap.”            “Huh-yes?” Claptrap replies.

           “I’m sending you Skies’ coordinates. She’s hurt; you need to take her back to the hideout.”            “What!” Skies exclaims and paws at Timothy’s leg. “No, no, not Claptrap! Anyone but Claptrap!”

           “On my way,” Claptrap chimes.

           “I change my mind! Screw those guys! You save me!” she begs.

           Timothy smiles at her apologetically. “I’ll see you soon,” he says before disappearing into the trees.

           “Noooooo!” Skies cries echo after him.

[psyga315]

Sometimes It's Worth It All to Risk the Fall... A Rewrite of Volume 8, Finale

This part is going to be the most heavily overhauled part of the Volume, since we’re going to be moving the two final episodes over to Volume 9. As such, we get two full episodes worth of content that will be wholly original. For right now, however, let us begin with…

Trial

We open with Ironwood greeting Qrow, knowing full well they are done being friends.

“Qrow. I’m only going to ask this once. Stand. Down.” He stands up, getting a hold of one of his guns.

“No. You’ve done some stupid things in the past, but this… this takes the cake.” Qrow slowly approaches him.

“I’m not the one who ran through someone with a blade. You’re a madman, Branwen.” Ironwood said.

“I’m not the one who killed him, genius. But go ahead, keep being a bone-head. Worked wonders for you in Beacon, and I’m sure it’s doing wonders right now.” Qrow knows this is a deep wound and he salts it.

“I have done nothing but my hardest to pick up the pieces Ozpin left behind. If he were here right now, he would see the work I’ve done and marvel.” Ironwood clearly doesn’t want to fight Qrow and tries to delay this as much as he can.

“And yet, here you are, leaving behind pieces for us to pick up. Oz would be really proud of you, James… No… Friends call you James. To me, you’re nothing but a bloodthirsty general.” He then opens fire as Ironwood dodges out of the way. The two have a rather intense gunfight set to a rock song. It’d be a Quarreling Song between Qrow and Ironwood, sung for by Jeff Williams and Caleb Hyles respectively, in which it argues whether sacrifices are necessary. Ironwood argues that sacrifices are indeed necessary for a better future while Qrow argues that no one needs to sacrifice their life if it’s going to be in vain. For this hypothetical song’s title, something like “No Heart, No Brain” or something that ties into them being the Tinman and Scarecrow. That or if you want to be cheeky, “Sacrifice, Pt. 2”.

We have to remember their characters up to this point, especially for the rewrite. Ironwood believes sacrifices need to be made, thanks in large part to learning under Ozpin and getting the wrong ideas from him. Mettle kicks in to stop him from worrying about sacrificing things like Mantle or his army. Qrow, on the other hand, has a crisis of faith with Ozpin and believed that every sacrifice made was for nothing. Ironwood only served to bolster that reminder and have him realize that every Headmaster has sacrificed only for their own personal gains. What makes it worse is that the people sacrificed were almost always his close friends: Clover sacrificed by Ironwood, Shiro (and others) sacrificed by Lionheart, and Summer sacrificed by Ozpin.

This sets up an interesting crossroads where both Ironwood and Qrow, who would otherwise be heroes given optimal circumstances, are villains or close to being one. Ironwood’s office gets shredded as Qrow pulls out all the stops, transforming into a bird to disorientate Ironwood, using his bad luck to cause Ironwood to fall over or run out of bullets, and using his weapon to cut into Ironwood. In the middle of this, Qrow brings up how he sacrificed nothing, only for Ironwood to reveal his broken body and reveal that he has indeed sacrificed himself. He just has the misfortune of living through it and not dying like the rest of the heroes, not to mention the curse of knowing your sacrifices were for nothing.

The battle ends with Qrow breaking a window and having Ironwood on the ropes, Palpatine vs. Windu style. He holds Ironwood at sword point. Ironwood’s aura breaks and his Semblance goes with it. He is stuck in a pile of remorse and regret. He looks up to Qrow and tells him to finish it. Qrow, however, just says:

“You don’t get to rush this.” Just before he hits, though, an arrow whizzes past him.

“That was a warning shot.” Robyn said.

“I didn’t realize idiocy is a disease. This monster’s too dangerous to be kept alive!” Qrow said.

To make a long chat short, Robyn tries to argue with Qrow that killing Ironwood isn’t the answer, that it won’t bring Clover back, the usual ‘if you kill him, you’ll be like him’ bullshit. Qrow brings up that every moment Ironwood is alive is a chance for Atlas and Mantle to fall in flames. They could change it for the better, but it has to start by killing Ironwood. Just as he’s about to pull the trigger, we hear two clicks. One is from Qrow’s gun, the other is from Mettle.

“So… What you’re saying is that I’m the sacrifice needed for Mantle’s future?” Qrow’s eyes widened as he gets up and points his gun at Qrow’s head. “Do it then. Shoot me like I am one of your soldiers. You’ll realize then just how easy it is to shoot anyone who poses as a threat…” He aims his second gun at Robyn. “Or a hinderance.” There’s a tense moment as either person is just moments away from killing someone. Then…

Ironwood puts his guns away and calmly walks off. “You don’t have the resolve to finish what you’ve started.” His Aura gives way yet again, having only recovered enough just to use Mettle one last time. Qrow is left there to ponder if he was about to do the right thing. Robyn comes over to comfort him.

We cut to the whale. We see Weiss and Winter do a sisterly team up to fight the Grimm armies as the Ace Ops wonder what to do about the bomb. Harriet votes to have Ironwood arm it anyways, knowing that, chances are, it will blow up while Marrow votes not to. However, they don’t need to wait for long as they see that the bomb is armed and ready to go off in an hour. They turn to see Watts holding a phone and smirking.

It doesn’t take a genius to know that Watts had hacked into the bomb using the credentials from Ironwood to activate it. The reason for the time delay is so that they can take the bomb and bring it to Mantle, blowing it up and making it look like Ironwood did it to force its people to comply. Before the Ace Ops can rush him, Neo and Cinder leap in and make short work of them. However, they are the Ace Ops for a reason. Marrow Stays Cinder and holds her in place long enough for Harriet to rush over and kick her.

Vine holds Neo in place while Elm smashes her. Basically, the two pairs mess up Cinder and Neo until Watts hacks into their weapons and makes them work against them. Fast Knuckles freezes up and locks Harriet’s upper body in place, Fetch flies back to Marrow and smacks him, and Timber refuses to come out of the inappropriate launcher mode. In an effort to get it unstuck, Elm smacks it and accidentally causes a missile to launch, with Watts guiding it towards Marrow. Vine uses his Semblance to block the missile but it blows up and drains his aura, right as his throwing star comes back and stabs him in the chest.

The Ace Ops have no time to even say goodbye to their mortally wounded friend as they are stuck right where the villains want them. Despite this, they manage to have one final stand. Harriet gets so pissed that she breaks her own weapons and runs over, smacking Neo with a Gravity Bolas. Elm uses the blunt end of the launcher to attack Watts and get him to relinquish his phone. And, of course, Marrow uses Stay one last time on Cinder and Neo, freezing them in place. However, he’s drained and is about to lose control at any second.

Harriet comes in clutch, however, fastening the bolas around Cinder’s neck and trying to choke her out with it. This triggers Cinder’s memories of when she had the collar and it’s a baaaaad move on Harriet’s part. She bursts into flames, knocking Harriet’s aura out just as Marrow’s runs out too. Cinder rips the bolas from her throat and, wanting to get revenge, is about to grab Harriet’s neck with the Grimm hand. However, Marrow runs in and takes a mortal wound. Harriet becomes distraught and sees as Marrow dies without any sort of last words. Vine had expired a few minutes prior. With them dead, the two remaining Ace Ops are at the villains’ mercy when suddenly Cinder gets sniper rifled. Cinder turns to see Ruby and co arrive, now having finally evened the odds.

But then, Cinder sees Emerald and the true title of Trial comes in as Cinder tempts Emerald to return to her side. This is Emerald’s trial. Is she truly remorseful for what she’s done or does she only care for Cinder?

That’s when we cut to black…

Midnight

Ooooooh yes. Yes, we are doing this.

We open with Qrow, slinking through the Atlas halls. Everyone is noticeably gone from their posts. He realizes that Salem’s forces are causing the priorities to shift to her. Otherwise, he would have been gunned down. All he has for opponents are robots that have gone haywire from Watts’s hacking and engage in kamikaze attacks. Unlike in the original, though, Qrow doesn’t just fire once then give up, but rather apathetically cleaves through each of them. He drops his weapon and lets the last one finish him off, but Robyn comes in and shoots down the robot before it can explode.

She confronts him for his suicidal behavior and Qrow admits that killing Ironwood to save Atlas and Mantle would fall under the logic of sacrifice that he loathes so much. Not to mention the unrest that would come from his death as he experienced first hand with Lionheart and Ozpin. He asks Robyn if people would cheer for his death, to which Robyn instantly rejects. His death will not solve anything. Yes, he needs to answer for his crimes, but a summary execution will only make their situation worse.

What they need is a revolution. Something to upend the system of an Atlas council overlooking Mantle and neglecting their needs. She briefly mentions how this was a problem with Mantle even before Ironwood took his two seats, since Mantle has been stigmatized heavily for causing the Great War. Maybe even hint to that idea I had written a year ago where the Mantle that actually caused the Great War became Atlas, left the rest of Mantle to take the fall, and that Ozma was well aware of this but let it happen anyways because “we are in a time of peace”. Qrow seems to be moved by Robyn’s words and promptly joins her side. We’ll see them commandeer an aircraft that’ll get them to Mantle later in the episode.

Another scene that will be later in the episode will be Jacques and the Councilmen figuring out how to restore the heating to Mantle. Not a huge scene, but just to catch us up on where Pietro and Maria have been, as they find themselves also working with Jacques to fix the problem. We can even have a funny quip from Jacques where he wants to go down as the man remembered for saving Mantle and everyone being like “bruh, you put it in this situation in the first place.”

Emerald and Cinder stare each other down. Ruby goes up and tries to Silver Eyes the problem away, but Neo rushes her, with Yang rushing to her defense. We get a good look at Ruby & Yang vs. Neo while Watts takes on Blake and Yang. Jaune, Ren, Nora, and Oscar rush up to Emerald as Cinder taunts Oscar about how he lost the last time. Oscar retorts that he won’t be fighting alone this time.

As Team ALPN/ORNJ/JNPR2 fight Cinder, Emerald is frozen in fear. On one hand, she doesn’t want to fight for a Grimm commander seeking to destroy the world. On the other, she really wants to stand by her waifu’s side. Unfortunately for her, Cinder begins to gaslight her or whatever abusive partner trick this is:

“Come now, Emerald… You remember how poor and desolate you were before I found you… I picked you up from the gutters and gave you a life you could have only dreamed of.” For the first time, though, Cinder sounds incredibly genuine with what she says. As she does, we cut…

To a younger Cinder. This is where the flashback kicks in. However, we’ll be expanding on this quite a bit. For one, we can see Rhodes try to get Cinder out of her confinement, only for someone (tempted to make it a younger Ozpin, as though Cinder killing him back in Volume 3 would be some form of karma but might be too dark) to stop and tell him that “we live in a time of peace.” This sets Cinder off something fierce, since people would rather turn away from uncomfortable subject matter. The story continues as normal until Cinder kills Rhodes.

We get a montage of Cinder trying (and failing) to adapt to her life of freedom, ironically proving Rhodes right that she’ll never stop running. I’m thinking a few montages where she goes from town to town, working for a bit before either her past catches up to her (wanted posters, most likely) or she is reminded of her painful experiences, in which case, she runs more.

We’ll see her meeting with Salem, though my idea of how, admittedly, would be too fanservicey. Something “she ends up seeing what Salem’s old team used to be like and it was filled with people who are clear counterparts to the team she’s currently with, like Merlot is Watts, Tock is Tyrian, and this big buff girl based off Helios is Hazel.” Realistically, I’d see the classic WTCH set up. The long story short of it, though, is that Salem asks Cinder a question:

“You keep running from a society that is filled with problems but you never stopped to ask yourself… What do you want most of all?”

And that’s when we get Cinder saying her desires that she said in V3.

Cut back to the battle at hand as Cinder offers Emerald to join her side. And, shock of shocks…

She accepts. She immediately backstabs Oscar and Jaune, allowing Cinder to rush past Nora and Ren to grab the bomb and commence the bombing of Mantle, ranting about how Atlas had ignored the people in pain for far too long and that now it’s time to pay for their actions. However, just she is about to gloat about having power, she notices that Jaune and Oscar… weren’t really there. She realizes what just happened as she sees Emerald joining Ruby and Yang’s battle against Neo, just long enough to grab the Relic of Knowledge.

“What are you doing!?” Cinder asks her.

“Before I work with you and take even more lives… There’s something I want to know… Jinn!” Emerald shouts into it as Jinn appears. Without any hesitation (knowing that Cinder or someone else can easily steal the final question from her), she asks: “Does Cinder… truly care for me?”

Jinn looks to Emerald and pouts. Her power could be used for anything… And yet, like before, she is used to air out dirty laundry.

But, she complies and gives her a look back at her past. We see the scene in Volume 3 where Cinder meets Emerald unfold, this time in Maya, where we see things from Cinder’s perspective. When she cornered Emerald and noticed how desperate she was, she was reminded of herself. She thought about how Rhodes took her under his wing. She offered to do the same, almost genuinely. It seems as though Emerald got her answer…

Then we see her interact with Emerald on different occasions, including when she slaps her. We get deep into Cinder’s thoughts about how she viewed Emerald as the weak self she discarded long ago and thus, she treats her like shit because of her past. Not even taking her recent action to defend her at Amity with the slightest amount of gratitude.

Jinn concludes the flashback by telling her “yes, she did truly care for you… But that has long since went away. I hope it was worth it.” Jinn then returns to the Lamp as it dims. A moment of silence later and Cinder is furious. Not just at the fact that Emerald wasted a question, but that her past was revealed to all of her worst enemies at once. She rushes to kill Emerald, Emerald freezes and flinches in shock… And then…

STAB!

Cinder finds herself impaled on Crocea Mors. She coughs up blood as she sees Jaune in front of Emerald.

“So… that’s how broken you truly are… I have nothing left for you… but pity.” Jaune takes the sword out, refusing to kill her. Though, it looks to be a mortal wound. Emerald’s eyes widen as Cinder begins to writhe at her wound. Her arm goes out of control, and she begins to hyperventilate.

“No… I won’t die… to a mere insect like yourself! Do you realize who I am!? I am strong! I am feared! I’m…”

“Weak.” Ruby tells this to Cinder. Her eyes then begin to glow as Cinder goes “oh shit”. With nowhere to go, she takes the full blast of Ruby’s silver eyes, which also turns the immediate area inside of Monstra into stone. Cinder notices her arm begin to shrivel but still trying to stretch to its length. Cinder’s on her last legs and she knows it. She desperately tries to find some way to linger on…

And that’s when it dawned upon her.

Immediately, she cheap shots Ruby with a fireball and flies off. Neo holds off Ruby and Yang to distract them. Cinder sees Salem, still on fire (though the embers and stasis seem to be dying down) and, clutching to her wound, tells Salem that, yes… Without her, she is nothing. But, because of her…

She will be powerful.

Her Grimm hand impales Salem’s chest and begins to absorb the magic from her. Salem can do nothing but watch as her magic is being drained. However, it became fortunate that Cinder doesn’t steal her magic. As she sees the stab wound close on Cinder, Salem realizes that Cinder is robbing her immortality and lust for destruction. Though, not entirely.

See, they were curses from the Gods and not directly magic. As such, trying to absorb or otherwise destroy them wouldn’t exactly work. Not even Maidens can hope to replicate it, so the most it gives Cinder is a healing factor and, as the Brother of Darkness’s curse came from the Grimm Liquid… Oh yeah.

Cinder’s arm begins to grow more onto her body and she cackles in a maddening fit of laughter as the Grimm part over takes her, almost like a certain black goo. It then engulfs her head, creating a sort of Grimm helmet. We are introduced to the Hound 2.0: Cinder Fall.

One immediate difference is that she retains not just her Maiden powers, but also her intellect (‘haha, Cinder is dumb though!’, I meant as in she’s not as brainwashed as the previous Hound). She thanks Salem for the gift as Salem glares at her. Obviously, this moment has become Cinder’s “letter of resignation”. Now she goes back into the fray with her new powers in tow. I don’t want to say she goes all Mortal Kombat 9!Sindel on their asses, but… It’s a new power upgrade for Cinder and her big W for this volume. Try as they might, they can’t land a decisive blow against her. Winter is the closest, but she’s also the one that almost gets mortally wounded.

Cinder takes the bomb, with only ten minutes left on it, and flies out with flaming Nevermore wings. That’s when Penny interferes and the two have your boring superhero dogfight you’ve probably seen Nerdstalgic take the piss out of. Look, not all fights can be winners and you need at least one bad fight for this rewrite. However, visually, it is pleasing to see with Cinder and Penny blasting fire and ice at each other, utterly decimating both Atleasan and Grimm armies.

Meanwhile, RWBY manage to beat their foes now that ALPNE joined up as back up. Now all that’s left is to take on Cinder and get the bomb back. Weiss and Winter dual summoned a Nevermore and they try to rush out, but unfortunately, Salem’s timer has just run out and she is free to curbstomb them. Ruby tries to get her Silver Eyes to work on Salem, believing that, since she’s part Grimm, maybe that could stop her in some way, but Salem immediately goes right for her and smirks.

“You will be a fine addition…” She drags Ruby, shrugging off any and all attacks on her, while she finds a pool of Grimm Liquid. Ruby knows what she is planning to do… But, just then…

Boom!

Harriet and Elm come in and knock Salem by surprise. Harriet says that this changes nothing about them wanting to arrest RWBY, just that they have a bigger fish to fry. Salem goes for a 1v12 and… well, if people insist that Adam and Ironwood wouldn’t be able to solo half that, it shouldn’t come as no surprise that Salem finds herself on the losing end of the battle. This was the outcome she wanted to avoid for so long: unity. Despite the division she gave onto Atlas and RWBY, they still manage to work together to overcome her. Worse still, Neo and Watts decide to join the winning side and defect to Cinder.

However, the battle, now that everyone else is getting involved, becomes chaotic. In the chaos, Harriet takes the phone from Watts and renders him useless in battle while Yang finally beats Neo and sends her flying. During this battle, Cinder finds a weak spot and exploits it, mortally wounding Watts and sending him falling to his death to the city of Mantle.

Cinder, now edging to the brink of insanity, takes the bomb in her hands and rushes to detonate the bomb at Mantle. However, Ruby stuns her long enough for Penny to take the bomb. Realizing what must be done, Ruby and Penny look at each other. Of course, Ruby insists she drops the bomb and gets out of there, but Penny tells her like it is.

“I’m tired of letting people decide for me… All it’s done is make this situation worse. So, please… Let me make my own choice.” Penny hands Ruby her Floating Array and flies off to the whale. After a few moments… boom. The bomb goes off and destroys the whale. Cinder is furious at having lost the opportunity to obtain her powers, but then she gets a big surprise when she gets stabbed in the back by Winter. Making matters worse is that Ruby’s eyes go off and clear away some of the Hound armor on Cinder, forcing her to retreat. Still, a massive win on Cinder’s part as she gets away with a lot more power than what she started the volume off on.

We end with everyone gazing at total awe at the explosion going off. We see that Penny had sacrificed herself to hold the bomb in place so that it destroys only the whale and makes Salem’s regeneration time the longest it’s been. About twelve to twenty-four hours.

Which brings us to our final episode:

Creation

It has been an hour since the bomb went off. The heat on Mantle begins to be turned on again, however the Mantleans are still afraid of Atlas for their willy nilly neglect. They do not trust Jacques as the person who restored the heat, but they’re not going to tear him limb from limb when he comes on to announce his role in saving Mantle. However, that’s when the civilians point out his ships that rescued people were destroyed by Grimm. As a result, they blame him for killing more Mantleans and they shun him. I want his comeuppance to not be some sort of “lol, boom” and then he’s dead. Give him consequences that are inherently tied to his character.

Just before things get into a riot, Robyn and Qrow arrive to try and calm down the situation, reminding them that the Grimm will only make their situation worse. Robyn doesn’t make a rousing speech (since the episode will be pretty long already) but she asks whoever would be willing to finally stick it to Ironwood and the Atlasian Council to come with her. People comply, with Qrow slinking away into the background.

We then cut to RWBY and the rest at Pietro’s shop where he learns the unfortunate news. Despite knowing he can bring her back, he’s still upset because he doesn’t really know if he’s able to split his aura again. The despair he feels causes Emerald to be remorseful at the fact that she killed Penny and made it look like Pyrrha did it. Ren then notices some aura petals coming from the Floating Array. He realizes that Pietro may not even need to split his aura, then asks Ruby, since she was the last person Penny spoke to, if she had received the Maiden powers. She shakes her head and Winter can confirm that it hasn’t gone to her either.

Ren then confirms his suspicions. Penny is still alive, since she would have otherwise clearly had Ruby or Winter in her mind when she died. There’s a short scene that confirms that, yes, she had backed up her aura in the Floating Array. Now comes the solution of rebuilding her and transferring the aura over. Unfortunately, it’s easier said than done, as the Grimm invasion left Pietro’s shop ravaged and Atlas is still engaged in battle with the Grimm (albeit now at a reduced level than when Salem was invading). Not to mention that Pietro is branded as a criminal. Penny is stuck in this state of being and knowing that causes Ruby to have a breakdown.

She realized that this was the massive consequence to betraying Ironwood’s trust and trying to win a battle with just their group. This is followed with a brief bit where both sides talk about how they basically failed what they set out to do. However, Oscar brings up that even though they have failed, they also succeeded. Salem’s suffering the greatest setback she’s ever had, they made Ironwood’s dream a reality, and they managed to Mantle. He admits the chances someone will come to Atlas’s rescue are slim to none, but what matters is that they had the truth come out.

He pauses.

“Speaking of the truth…” He closes his eyes and lets Ozpin take over.

Immediately, RWBY, Jaune, and Nora turn their weapons on him. Ozpin calmly addresses his people.

“I know you have a reason to despise me. I also know that you’ve walked a day in my shoes and have learned the painful lesson I had learned. However, you confronted the consequences of your actions instead of running away like I have been doing all my life. This past day has taught me just as it had taught you. And I feel like I should share with you what I know about the Relic of Creation.” We’re not gonna drag with lengthy exposition, so after that, Harriet, Elm, and Winter arrive. They were told by Ironwood to take them to the Vault. Not as criminals…

But as challengers.

We cut to the Vault where Ironwood is standing by the door. His posture is relaxed, yet there’s tensed shoulders. He sees some guards enter the room and allowing RWBYALPNE in. He’s surprised that Emerald’s with them, but he nonetheless lets her in.

“What is this about? If you still want to levitate Atlas into the sky…” As Ruby was about to bitch at him, Ironwood shakes his head.

“This entire kingdom will crumble if we continue to bicker. I’ve seen you lot risk everything to save everyone. I’ve also heard of Penny’s… sacrifice.” He frowns a bit before he continues. “However, Salem will not stay dead for long. However, with the Relic, we can ensure that she can.” Oscar seems perplexed with the idea.

“You know that Salem can’t be killed. Many have tried, even herself. What makes you different?” Ozpin asks.

“…” He acknowledges Ozpin’s return for a moment before he talks. “I will use the Staff to recreate the bomb, then merge it with Salem’s remains. When she reforms, the bomb will be fused to her and will be detonated, restarting the process over and over. The Staff can’t destroy her, but what it can make will.”

“But… then Atlas will…” Weiss said.

“I know. But that’s a sacrifice I am willing to make. Or… at least that’s what I want to believe.” As he says this, Ren can see the purple petals of fear and he is the first to step up.

“But you don’t, do you? You don’t want to commit to it and take responsibility.” Ren said.

“I have always taken responsibility for my actions. And this is just another one.” He then holds his arms out and tells them the reason he called them here. “It’s time for you to take your responsibility. Fight me for the right to use the Staff.” As he says that, guards flank the door leading to the Vault, making a simple B-line impossible without getting shot. Harriet, Elm, and Winter join his side, even when Ironwood insists that they stay out of it. However, he can’t fault them for doing what their heart desires. He steps forward, guns drawn as we hear the Mettle click. The petals on him turn white. Ren calmly closes his eyes.

“You can’t be serious… We’re going to trounce you!” Jaune chuckles only for Ren to tap his shoulder.

“This isn’t a test of strength… This… is a question that must be answered: ‘can you match my resolve?’” With that, “Be Strong, Hit Stuff” plays as the group engage in battle against Ironwood. As stated before, Ironwood is fighting a losing battle, but it gets dragged out on the merit that both of them have run ragged. It breaks down to some smaller scale fights: Winter vs. Weiss and Emerald (ironic given how the Openings always had the two fight each other), Elm vs. Ren and Nora, Harriet vs. Jaune and Blake, and lastly Ironwood vs. RBY.

These become more philosophical debates in the form of battle. The Schneebowl ft. Emerald is about devotion to your savior, as Winter and Emerald were pulled out of shitty lives but placed in the care only for their use to their plans. Elm vs. Renora could have the hotly debated “was Mantle more important than Atlas” discussion. Harriet is lashing out about her loss of her friends to Jaune, who just goes “yeah, I know that feel, bra” throughout the whole fight. Harriet, mid-fight, reveals Marrow’s motivation to join the Ace-Ops was to better the relationship between Humans and Faunus. She even reveals that she was a Faunus herself, but that she took a more drastic measure to hide her Faunus traits and removed the rabbit ears she had.

However, it’s Ironwood vs. Ruby, Oscar, and Yang that gets the most focus. We have Yang and Ironwood trade punches as we finally hear Yang thank him for the prosthetic. He apologizes if he ends up breaking it during the fight and that, regardless of outcome, he knows Pietro will make Yang a new one.

Finally, we have Ruby and Oscar’s fight with Ironwood which will no doubt fan the flames of Rose Garden shipping and cause a delicious flame war to follow. They come to blows with the fact that they trusted so little in each other, Ruby calling him out for expecting people to follow his orders exactly and Ironwood calling Ruby out for being exactly like Ozpin and asking him when she would have told him the whole truth if Mantle wasn’t at risk.

By this point, Harriet, Elm, and Winter lose, with Weiss and Winter having a badass final strike. At the same time, Qrow and Robyn come onto Atlas with the HH in tow. I’d say that RT would have had an entire army of rioters accompany them, but because of recent events, they decided to nix that idea and just have the HH.

Ironwood manages to take Yang out, predictably breaking her arm. Oscar is tired out because he and Ozpin just took hours of torture at Salem’s hands. It’s down to him and Ruby, but they’re both tired out. Ruby uses the last of her Aura to boost herself to Ironwood and, using Penny’s sword, chops off Ironwood’s robot arm, literally disarming him. Ironwood’s Aura is turned off and he realizes his path, his resolve, couldn’t match that of Ruby’s. Instead of blubbering or ranting, he calmly tells Ruby that whatever she plans to do with the Staff, she must take note that she will endure the consequences. He’ll probably instruct her that the genie inside the Staff will want blueprints. With that, the gang head over to the gate to open it using Penny’s swords as a sort of key.

Yang stays behind and tells Ironwood that they apologize for omitting the truth, but before she could finish

Ironwood turns to Winter, Harriet, and Elm and is about to calmly give them his last order as general, when suddenly…

STAB!

Qrow impales Ironwood from the back.

“I made a promise that you’d take the fall… No matter what.” Qrow coldly whispers to Ironwood. He lets Ironwood bleed out as he faces the remaining Ace Ops. Holding onto Clover’s charm, he taps into his Semblance and causes each of them to fumble and lose their weapons. Robyn comes in and yells at Qrow.

“DAMN IT! THIS ISN’T WHAT WE AGREED ON!” Robyn loaded her gun, but notices it jammed… Another use of his Semblance.

“Sorry, tuts, but in a revolution, the tyrant often loses his head.” Qrow smirks and is about to behead Ironwood, only to see Yang from afar. She had witnessed him stab Ironwood. Ruby comes back to check up on Yang and sees the bloodied general. Yang calls him out on betraying them, believing Harriet to be right, only for Qrow to retort that she betrayed them all, then asks her a simple question:

“When you were in the Vault, you knew your mother was the Spring Maiden, right?” With that, the other shoe finally drops as Ruby looks over to Yang and realizes this mini-betrayal. “You talk a big game about having people tell you the full story but when it’s your turn, you decide to omit crucial facts.”

Ruby, having been personally betrayed by her own sister, hurries off into the vault and proceeds to shut the rest out. Not even Oscar can break through the door. Harriet loses it and believes the gang was in on this, but seeing how they betrayed they feel, she quickly assumes that, no, they didn’t know Qrow turned traitor despite her warning. Qrow smirks and flies away via bird transformation. Robyn finally gets her weapon ready and fires at Qrow, only for bad luck to activate again, ricochet and stab Harriet right in the chest. Her fate is left ambiguous.

Ruby activates Ambrosius and the scene goes pretty unaltered except for the choice in music. It’s now a more dark, sinister song, almost in tune to Salem’s theme or even the song used when she begs the God of Darkness to bring Ozma back. This is to play into the awareness that, like what Salem did long ago, Ruby is going to indirectly doom Remnant to bring back a loved one. And that there are going to be consequences for her trying to fight for every life.

As Penny is “revived” and given her human form, Atlas begins to fall and everyone can see and feel it. Ironwood chuckles and in his last words, he gives everyone his final order: Save yourselves. We end with Penny asking Ruby what she had done as Cinder looks at the falling Kingdom and chuckles to herself, giving us the final word:

“In the end… Chaos wins.”

Stinger

Qrow witnesses the fall of Atlas for himself, but looks to a list he has written down. On it are two people: Tyrian and Theodore. He smirks, then flies off.

Conclusion

And that was how I would rewrite Volume 8. Honestly, this was a bit of a work to give every arc a pay-off and I feel like it might have been better off if a few were excised. There are obviously still problems, such as this still not being Weiss’s story like it was hyped to be. However, the overall point is to fix some major problems with Volume 8 and obviously, the piss poor fight with Ironwood was what motivated me to do this rewrite.

Well, I hope you enjoyed reading this. Let me know your thoughts down in the description below.

[flowerbeom]

Sweeter Than Pi | Mark Tuan

Mark Tuan x Fem!Reader

Genre: High School AU. Nerd Mark x Athlete Reader. Fluff. F2L.

Warnings: Some squishy ass, fluffy fluff. 

Words: 5.3k

Concept: Your place on the softball team rested on the back of you passing your General Maths midterm. Though Maths was always your worst subject, your genius best friend, Mark, could offer assistance in helping you study. If you could bring yourself and your heart to ask him... 

A/N: Happy Birthday almost twin @inkahgase! Fuck me, I’m sorry this took so long and that it is sooo long. I don’t know how to write short stories. I’m sorry. But I hope you enjoy soft, nerdy, cute AF Mark. Cause bro, this broke me...

“What was that?” Jackson slung the strap of his overfilled duffle onto his shoulder, rounding your desk to sit on the one beside you. Your voice continued to muffle into the pages of the textbook you were flattening your face into. 

Jackson, in all his measured audacity leant forward, flicking your ear as he ripped open the wrapper of a protein bar with his teeth. “Speak up woman.” 

“I failed!” The whining tone of your voice echoed around the empty classroom. You groaned as you tipped your head back over the chair, arms dangling pathetically beside you. You flailed your legs under the table, sliding down the chair a little more with every exasperated kick. 

“It’s just a mock quiz, it means nothing.” Jackson mumbled through chews. 

“Jack, if I failed the mock quiz it means I’m going to fail the mid-term.” Head still slung back over the chair.

“And?” Jackson barely audible, his mouth preoccupied with trying to tongue chunks of his white chocolate raspberry quest bar out of his molars. 

“And?! If I fail the midterm I’ll get kicked off the team!” Jaw dropped to allow for the extended grown to rumble out of your throat, you lifted your hands to card them frustratedly through your hair. 

Having had enough of your self-loathing, Jackson kicked the edge of your chair, knocking you sideways and out of your moaning. You snapped a hand down onto his ankle, steadying yourself from falling and pulling him off the edge of the table at the same time. Jackson broke his fall with a hand smacked against your forehead. Hands were thrown and insults were flying around until the commotion ended with your fingertips twisting the sensitive skin along his ribs. 

“Gah! God, okay okay!” Jackson shifted away, picking up his bag and moving to the door; pausing to see if you were following him. You were, albeit slowly, trudging to the door; dragging your equally overfilled duffle bag behind you. 

“Ever consider getting tutored?” His tone suggestive. 

“Can’t afford it.” Your tone defeated. 

“You really are stupid.” There was no fight in you left, rather acceptance and the vivid image of your softball uniform being stripped from you, leaving you standing in your underwear in the middle of the field. You shuddered at the thought. 

Approaching your lockers, you stood in a daze, fingers mindlessly rotating the dial on your padlock, not even sure if the combination was correct. Suddenly, and as softly as anyone could manage, you felt a shoulder nudge yours. It could only be one person, and you felt your body shrink into itself upon recognising the familiar smell of the fabric softener his mum used on his shirts. 

“Hey!” Effervescent, cheerful and light. You looked up to see Mark standing beside you, the glasses meant to be perched on his nose rather perpetually hovering above it as they were lifted by the plump in his cheeks made by the smile he could never control. Backpack full; books spilled out into his arms, one sleeve of his unzipped hoodie pushed up while the other dangled below his fingertips. The adorable nerd, Mark Tuan. 

You always felt yourself mirror the smile he effortlessly gave you, as if there was no other acceptable response to give him. No matter how grouchy or sullen you may have been, Mark was always this beaming beacon of joy, and it was impossible to resist getting pulled into the overwhelming happiness that seemed to radiate from him. 

If he was smiling, you were too. If he was laughing, you were too. If you were crying, he never had to do much to stop the tears from falling. It had been that way for years, having grown up beside him, literally. Neighbours since birth, playmates in preschool, deskmates in elementary school leading naturally to best friends in high school. You were inseparable, even when his interests leant towards equations and dabbling in applied physics at the college level while yours swung towards swinging bats at balls that soared past the car-park behind the field and making college scouts travel across the country to watch you play. But as thrilling as all that may be, Mark was the spark that lit your days ablaze. Though it was a shame you could never really tell him that. 

“Hey man.” Jackson reached over your head to knock knuckles with Mark; Jackson tipping his chin while Mark smiled even wider, again completely out of his control.  

Jackson, as he liked to remind you and Mark constantly, was the reason you and Mark stayed so close over the years. As your interests and hobbies split down the middle, Jackson provided the glue that held you together. While you and him bonded over a shared love of sports, he and Mark bonded over a shared love of video games. 

So, afternoons were spent waiting at the end of the pitch after softball practice for Jackson to finish soccer training. He’d jog to you, one arm shoved into the sleeve of a fresh t-shirt while the other had his jersey still hanging off the bend in his elbow. You’d walk home together - Jackson never failing to leave a trail of corn chip crumbs behind him and finally ending up on Mark’s couch; splitting your time doing homework together and watching him and Jackson take out Marakov soldiers in Modern Warfare 2. An unlikely trio, though it somehow worked. 

“Oi!” Jackson dug an elbow into the side of your arm, drawing a hiss to rattle the chemistry paper wedged between your teeth. “Ask Mark how his AP Calculus class was.” 

“It was really good, we started on fundamental theorems and.. “ 

Jackson tutted, making a sharp clicking noise with his tongue against his teeth; Mark’s grin dropping slightly at the corners. 

“No no, she has to ask you first.” You shot puzzled eyebrows in Jackson’s direction, shoving a textbook into your already full bag. 

“Why do I need to ask him?” The edges of the chemistry paper nipping against the corners of your lips as you spoke, Mark glanced around you to stare at the indiscernible look on Jackson’s face. 

“Ask him how his AP Calc class was.” Said sharply through gritted teeth. 

“Why?” You and Mark returned in unison, the word drawn out in confusion. 

“Just ask him how his AP Calc class was, goddamn it!” Slamming his locker door shut, Jackson’s eyes growled at you to turn around and do as instructed, but you weren’t one to back down. Ever. 

“Geez, why do I need to ask Mark how his AP Calc class was?! We all know it was ‘amazing’ and ‘interesting’ and that he’s still top of the class, so why are you being an ass!?” 

Tense pause. Loaded silence. Darting eyes. 

“OH MY GOD!” Dropping your bag to the floor, mouth gaping, your test paper billowed to the ground as you spun to face Mark - almost making him drop the books held precariously in his hands as you smacked your hands onto the sides of his arms. Jackson sighed from behind you, an unmistakable roll of his eyes evident in his exasperated breath. 

Mark’s eyes were blown wide, only to be magnified by the refraction of his lenses. You froze for a second, taken aback by the hint of rose tinting his cheeks and the way his lips rounded into a perfect circle of surprise and you wanted to melt into your sneakers but there were more pressing matters at hand. You made yourself believe that there was, no matter how furiously your heart was pounding in your chest. You sucked in a strengthening breath, his glittering eyes would not distract you now. 

“Mark, Mark! Oh my god, Mark!” Your fingers were digging into his biceps, the fullness of them surprising you.

“Yes?” Replying through a giggle, the smile he could never control once again taking over his expression. 

“Mark, can you tutor me?! I swear to god I will fail my Gen Math midterm if you don’t help me!” You were shaking him, wobbling his thin figure in the air as you continued to ramble. “I can’t fail Markie, I can’t get kicked off the team! Not before graduation! Please--” 

“Yes.” Sincere.

“Help me, please Mar--” Almost manic.

“Yes!” Heartwarmingly earnest. 

“--Kie, please! Wait, what?” Stupefied. 

Mark’s eyes folded as his smile widened, his arms tightening their hold on his books as he rocked back on his heels. “Of course I’ll tutor you, I’m surprised it’s taken you this long to ask!” 

“You and I both, dude.” Jackson smarted from behind you, his hand gripping onto the strap of your bag to lift you up after you had sunk to your knees from equal measures of shame and appreciation. Your eyes lifted to see Mark fumbling with his bag, one hand shoved into its depths. Taking his pile of books out of his other, Mark grinned so endearingly you swore you felt your heart bounce off your sternum. Fishing out his car keys, Mark gently took his books back into his slender hands.

“I’ll come round after you get home from practice. About six, right?” 

“Right.” Your hand lifted almost robotically to return the dazzling wave Mark gifted you as he skipped down the hallway. 

Mark’s ready eagerness to help you had made your heart swell with affection, and despite every desire to act on your feelings continued to tap away at your sanity, you knew better that someone like Mark was better off with someone who could actually challenge his mind. All you could do was beat him in a foot race. So you let Jackson cup your shoulder and drag you outside; critical paths and parabolas would have to wait, and it seemed trying to ease your heart would have to as well. 

As you wiped away a rogue bead of sweat that trickled down your temple, you asked yourself how someone could look so effortlessly perfect. Walking languidly along the footpath that lined your street, you stared at Mark as you approached your house. Sitting on the front steps of your deck, Mark cradled a text book in one hand; elbows leaning into his knees. From the curve of his wrist, your eyes trailed along the lines of his bare arms to the once, maybe twice, rolled up sleeves of his t-shirt. Your lips found themselves wedged between your teeth. 

Watching one delicate hand lift to push his glasses up his nose, you followed his fingers as they combed back his hair that always fell right back down to tickle his lashes. The setting sun sifted golden through his charcoal hair, as if it was made to reflect the light. And as you rounded your mailbox to walk up the paved path, Mark’s ear pricked to your footsteps and he greeted you how we always did; with one perfect smile and your knees went weak. 

Clutching onto the strap of your duffle bag, you pulled it tighter across your body as Mark rose onto his feet. You met him at the foot of the stairs, one step below the one he stood on. Mark clapped his textbook shut and slung his backpack onto his shoulder. 

“Ready?” You weren’t exactly sure what he was referring to, but if it was the hand that he reached out to gently sweep down your braid, you knew for sure it wasn’t that. He leant forward, glasses slipping down his nose as he tilted his face to look past your shaking eyes to what his fingers were doing. You could smell the eczema cream he rubbed into the back of his elbow as his index finger curled hair behind your ear. It felt like your entire body had broken out in hives, why was his face so close to yours?

“How many deep hits did you dive for? You have so much grass in your hair.” Mark knocked his knuckles into your shoulder, lightly pushing you back before he turned to step towards your front door. Following slowly behind him, you needed to catch your breath or else asking him to tutor would be a massive waste of time. You can’t tutor someone if they’re dead. 

“Come on, those quadratic equations aren’t going to solve themselves!” 

Mark stood there patiently, one hand deep in the back pocket of his jeans while the other held his textbook to his chest. Unlocking the door, you let it swing open before stepping through, Mark close behind you. 

“Bedroom?” Eyes shooting open, you whipped your head around to Mark’s innocent expression.

“Sorry, what? Bedroom, excuse me?” Blinking rapidly with every vowel, you watched Mark slowly tilt his head to the side; his puppy like eyes giving you puppy like confusion. 

“Want to study in your bedroom?” Not a completely outlandish question. Mark had been in your bedroom plenty of times over the course of your friendship. Sleepovers were a plenty and Jackson joined the fray once your duo became a trio. But it had been a while since it was just you and Mark. Alone. In your bedroom. So you deferred, you didn’t need the distraction; for he, in all his tall, slim, attractiveness was one giant distraction already. A disruption of the sweetest kind that you weren’t completely against but you really needed to study. 

“No.” Far too blunt to seem polite. You winced at the your own brashness. 

“No?” Mark’s body seemed to stutter, never having heard you be to short before. 

“Sorry! That sounded so mean! It’s just post-practice me talking.” You let your duffle bag crash to the floor, your hands quick to cup your cheeks to mask the red glow building under the skin. 

“So…?” 

“Dining table! Closer to the kitchen, closer to snacks!” Good save, you thought to yourself as you tapped your belly with one hand, the other resting on your hip. A bad impression of Jackson whenever he wanted to not so subtly tell you and Mark that he was hungry. Amused with the imitation, Mark hooked the straps of his backpack carefully on the back of one of the chairs bordering the dining table before taking out his notes and sitting down. His eyes glanced over to you expectantly. 

“Shall we get started then?” Timidly, you lowered into the seat next to him. Twirling a pen between his fingers like a poker player juggles a chip on their knuckles, Mark showed you nothing but honest determination as he displayed just how incredibly intelligent he was; yet it took a little longer for any of it to rub off on you. 

An hour had passed. Mark was nothing but sweet in his explanations and patient as you continued to endure this special form of torture. Math and Mark; one hard for your brain, the other excruciating on your heart. Every slight brush of his shoulder against yours as he leaned in to see your work sent shivers to crawl down your spine. Every time his hand would pull yours back so he could write the proper formula beside your incorrect answer made all the air block in your lungs. Mark was incredibly intelligent, but pretty dumb when it came to body language. And you were beyond thankful for that. 

Despite your body’s conflicting emotions between emotionally flustered and mentally confused, you had actually made progress. Whatever method Mark used to make you understand what your teachers had failed to teach you was proving a success. Question after question was solved correctly, Mark high-fiving you with the most genuine smile on his face with every tick he inked onto your page. However, expanding equations had shrunk your stomach - snack time was calling, and the time was now. 

“Super spicy or regular spicy?” Calling from the kitchen counter, two varieties of ramen held in each hand. 

“Can you just nuke me a plate of broccoli in the microwave? I’m trying to maintain my figure.” Mark bellowed from the dining table. Brows furrowing together, you threw your head over your shoulder catching Mark doubled over - body shaking with silent laughter upon seeing the look of perplexity on your face. 

“Regular spicy please, heavy on the cheese.” 

Once the narrow in your eyes had dropped and Mark heard the tap pour water into a pot, he turned back to the flat lay of books on the table. He was curious as to how you were doing so badly in class when you had made so much progress beside him. He always knew you were smart, and how focussed you could be - so he wanted to know what had stumped you so badly when it came to math. 

Slipping the textbook off the corner of your notebook, Mark began to thumb through the pages, searching for clues as to where the numbers stopped making sense in your mind. Page after page failed to reveal much; half written questions with notes sloppily taken in rushed handwriting that he knew wasn’t like you. 

Picking up the notebook, Mark closed it to gather the bottom corners under his thumb to start flicking through the pages rapidly. His eyes scanned the pages as they flew past, a chunk of blank pages ended with meticulously written words at the back of the notebook. Laying the notebook down, he smoothed out the spine so the pages stayed open on the table. Mark felt his lips carve a smile into his cheeks, his eyes following the intricate curves of your handwriting across the page. 

“Is this why you’re failing Gen Math?” A chuckle finished the question he threw behind him. 

“What?” Fumbling with a bag of shredded cheese as you answered him.

“Who’s got you so distracted in class?” 

“What are you talking about?” Rounding the counter with both bowls in hand, you froze one step away from the table; Mark’s index finger drawing an invisible line under the words who had written in the back of your notebook.

“I’m not being obtuse, but you’re acute guy.” You placed both bowls on the table, mainly because you’re hands had started to go numb.

“You are one well-defined function.” You lowered slowly into the seat next to Mark, fingertips clawing into your knees.

“Mark…” Voice shaky at best. 

“Oh this one is good. If I went binary, you’d be the one for me.” His soft laughter jiggled his glasses down his nose as your hand lifted to gently pull your notebook away from him. 

“Mark, stop please..” 

“Oh no, no this one’s my favourite.” Watching his finger hover below the last sentence on the page, you felt your body heating up from its core. Nervousness pulsated from the depth of your stomach and radiated through your skin. You saw his eyes crinkle at their corners, his ears twitching as he grinned. 

“You are sweeter than Pi.” He turned to you at that moment; cheeks plump, smile intoxicating. A wave of anxiety crashed over you. 

“No wonder you’re failing. Dude, seriously, who’s got you so distracted?!” Mark was asking you as if he really didn’t know; and a part of you wanted it to stay that way. You wanted to leave him in his naive innocence and continue on being brilliant, and wowing college mathematicians with his insight and natural numerical skill. You wanted him to find someone who would be just as excited about binomials and integrals as he was or at least someone who could understand them.

Mark lifted his arm to sling his elbow over the back of the chair. Combing back his hair with his other hand, he pushed up his glasses with his thumb before flicking you in the shoulder, and you knew it was because you looked like an idiot. Your face held no expression, your body was frozen in place. 

You knew pressure. You knew what it felt like having everything on the line. You knew what it meant to have both joy and sorrow rest in your hands. So in that moment, you would have gladly taken loaded bases, deep hit into left field, sun in your eyes as you lined up your mitt to take the last catch that would secure the last out to win the game. You would have gladly taken the chance to lose the championship over the way Mark was staring at you. Over the way his sparkling eyes were boring into you expectantly for an answer you weren’t sure he was ready for. Or more so, one you were about to give. Especially if it was the wrong one. 

“So, who is it?” But Mark always got the right answer. 

“You.”  

The pen Mark was twirling between fingers his crashed onto the table. An exaggeration, but everything seemed heightened after you somewhat easily confessed your feelings to Mark. Your hands had found themselves back on your knees, and your lips had found themselves between your teeth. Mark pulled his arm off the back of the chair and mirrored your stance, yet you noticed him swallow roughly. Your heart stammered at the sight. 

“We’re not even in the same class anymore..” You fought the urge to laugh, Mark’s charming naivety cutting through the tension in the air, his eyes twinkling in your direction. Lips parting to pull in a breath, you blew loose strands of hair off your forehead before letting your shoulders relax. Mark was doing it again, comforting you in his own special way. In the way only he could, even if he didn’t know he was doing it. 

“That’s the way it is, isn’t it? Love..” 

“You-you… love me?” Mark pushed up his glasses with both hands, swinging his legs around to face you; his knees merely grazing past like a single gentle flap of a butterfly’s wing. You sunk into your shoulders, there was no turning back now. 

“It’s funny right? How you stopped being in my classes years ago, but as soon as I look at an equation my mind flips and all I can think about is you. How funny is that?” Leaning forward to lean an elbow onto the table and your cheek into your hand; your eyes locked on Mark. He held your stare but you were caught in the unravelling of your own sanity to see how his eyes were flitting across your face. 

“Man it’s so funny. Mr. Grant stands at the chalkboard and starts drawing up some parabolic graph, and all it does is remind me of your smile. I open up my textbook and start reading about perfect angles and all that I can compute is the goddamn perfect angles of your cheekbones against your jaw.” You were laughing now, completely out of control. You weren’t even aware of what you were saying, the words simply falling out of your mouth. Blame it on dehydration, practice was gruelling; sure you could do that - but you simply kept talking. You weren’t even looking at Mark anymore.

“I try you know? I try really hard to study. And it’s only maths. I ace every other subject - I have no issue with Lit or History. Go, ask me anything about the Balkan War, I know it all. But Maths, phwoah..” Your head tipped back against the chair, your braid swinging behind it. 

“Maths, man I can’t even concentrate. All I see is your face in the numbers. All I can think about is your laugh when someone starts reciting algebra formulas. And when exams come around, I’m stumped.” Mark jumped in his seat when you shouted out a laugh. 

“I stare and stare at the exam paper and think about how you would solve every question and how quickly you would have done it. And once I’m thinking about you, that’s it. I’m gone.” Your rambling halted when Mark reached out his hand and placed it atop yours. Lowering your head back to level with his eyes, you saw the sheer shock in them. You swallowed dryly, the realisation of the utter madness you had spat out finally overwhelming you. Mark scooted forward in his chair, clearing his throat and lifting a shaking head to sweep his fringe off his eyes. 

“You know, Madison Kim asked me out in the same way.” Your hands went limp, the weight of your heart dropping into your stomach caused your shoulders to slump forward. You were an idiot. Literally, figuratively, emotionally. Of course Madison Kim would have asked him out the same way. She may be a genius, but she was an airy head girl, who in all honesty would be a fool to not ask out the gorgeous man who sat beside her in AP Calc every day. 

You shifted back in your seat, but Mark’s hand tightened around yours; your eyes darting up to find a softness in his eyes you had never seen before. In the entirety of your lives together, you had never seen that look, and it terrified you. 

“She asked me out with silly little mathematical pick up lines that she slipped into my textbook and I turned her down.” You could feel your teeth grind against each other. Your tongue pressed against the roof of your mouth as you swallowed down the saliva that had pooled beneath it. Mark scooted forward a bit more, taking your other hand in his. 

“Do you know why I turned her down?” A simple smile painted across his lips, his fingers curling around your palms. You shook your head, too afraid to speak; too afraid to let your stupidity form any more sentences than it already had. 

“Because she isn’t you.” A breath caught in your throat. Then swiftly gulped down with the lump that had clung to your tonsils. 

“Wh-what?” Mark sighed through his nostrils, a sweet tender exhale as his thumb drew circles into the back of your hand. 

“Since we’re confessing, I’ll go next.” Mark straightened, lifting his chin as if to give his valedictorian speech. “I never told you I love you because I never thought I was right for you. That I wasn’t the guy to make you happy.” 

Your chin dropped into your chest, eyes folding in amusement; your shoulders bouncing as you chuckled. 

“Now why would you think that?” Speaking into your stomach before looking up at him with a tilted head and an angled grin. Mark released his hold on one of your hands to hold his nape instead, fingers rubbing into the skin; a flush of embarrassment evident in the pink smoothing over his cheeks. 

“I don’t know.. I just thought that you’d prefer someone who could keep up with you. I can barely do a push up..” Timid and a little hushed; Mark darted his eyes around the room before slowly meeting your gaze. Like him, you straightened, shifted forward in your seat and retrieved his hand from his neck to lace your fingers between his. 

“Then I guess we’re both stupid.” Mark’s confused puppy expression returned to his face, and you suppressed a giggle to answer the question his eyes silently asked you. 

“I never told you I love you because I didn’t think I was smart enough for you. That sooner rather than later, you’d get bored of me..” The flush of pink that had filled his cheeks crept over yours; you bit down on your top lip. Mark stared at how your bottom lip plumped into a pout and felt his heart stutter at the sight.

“We’ve known each other our whole lives, you think I would’ve gotten bored of you by now.” 

“Hey!” Ducking but failing to dodge the sharp whack that your hand delivered on his arm, Mark grabbed your wrist and pulled you towards him. Lifting his other hand, Mark hesitated for a second before reaching forward, gently cupping your cheek. You swore he could feel how hot you were, your cheeks burning so fiercely you were afraid his fingers would singe. But he didn’t pull away. He kept his hand tenderly pressed against your cheek and you began to drown in the smile he gave you. Another one of his perfect smiles. 

“Let’s not be stupid anymore, yeh?” Blinking softly, his bottom lip folded between his teeth as he awaited your answer. Leaning forward, closing the space between your faces, you took a moment to catch the glimmer in his eyes. Whether it was the light catching in his lenses or the spark they naturally held; you wanted to get lost in the magic of them. But he was waiting, and Mark always got the right answer. 

“Okay.”

His kiss was as tender as you imagined it to be. His lips were as soft as you had dreamt them to be and you could feel him smiling against yours. Breaking the kiss, Mark pulled back to rest his forehead against yours as he drew in a breath. You weren’t sure if you were breathing, but you could see his glasses begin to fog so you knew you must have been. 

Both sitting back, you stared at each other silently; your hands fitting perfectly in each other’s. Yet the gaze was fleeting, both you and Mark breaking into laughter; possibly from the haphazard confessions or your shared stupidity. Either way, the air was clear and the problem of your irrational hearts solved. Mark would have enjoyed that the most; solving a seemingly unquantifiable problem and the thought made you feel warm. 

“Now I’m even more screwed.” Mark hummed quizzically in response, reaching under his chair to pull it closer to yours; letting his thigh press against yours as he removed the space separating you.

“Now I really won’t be able to focus on Maths...” Mark laughed with his entire chest, head tipping back to let laughter tumblr out of his mouth, yet his hand never let go of yours. Finally regaining composure, Mark angled his body to face you, wrapping his arms around your waist and pulling you into his chest. Reactively, and almost naturally, your arms weaved around his neck. A single giggle fluttered through his lips before he spoke.

“I guess I’m just going to have to tutor you every day until the numbers make sense.” 

Trying not to let any laughter flicker out, despite your heart racing in your chest; you thought that you could be a little bold. “Do I get a kiss for every answer I get right?” 

Mark edged forward, touching the tip of his nose against yours. 

“Of course.” Mark briskly pressed his lips against yours as a full stop to his statement. Giggling as he pulled away, his arms slid off your waist to turn you back towards your notes. 

“Come on, you have three more equations to solve then we’re done, and we still have to eat. I’m starving!” Flailing in your chair in protest, Mark silenced your whining with another kiss planted onto your cheek. 

“I’m not going to go any easier on you cause we’re dating now.” You couldn’t help but feel your heart swell. Picking up your pen, you slid over your notebook that was still in front of Mark. Turning back to the page you were on, you gave Mark one last narrow-eyed look. 

“A kiss for every correct answer, remember.” You nodded in agreement. He was a brilliant tutor after all. And a cute one at that. Because he was Mark Tuan, the adorable nerd. Mark Tuan, your adorable nerd. 

[projectsoleil]

NOW STREAMING... MOON ROVER ADVENTURES S5EP18: THE SUNRISE FINALE | GABRIELLE MORNINGSTAR | CHAPTER 3 EXECUTION

Gabi finds himself in the arms of a couple people as the votes finish being counted, as his fate is decided. The hugs are returned as tightly as possible, clutching with every ounce of strength left in him, until the other person is shaking with him. When they pull away, he whispers thanks. 

(Being held is only reminding him of the arms of the few he wants nothing more than to be in right now—face buried in Abe's shoulder, hidden against his chest with his lips pressed to the crown of his head; the soothing touch of Pheo's damaged hands through his curls, soft whispers of assurance; the swirling heat of a hearth and the unwavering, unshaking, protective embrace of Gale. Gabi rubs the heel of his hand over the tears burning down his cheeks instead, head down, and casts his gaze to—)

(—Hawk?)

Hawk crashes to the floor in an awful thump, convulsing on the ground while Tyr’s expression remains one that wasn’t joy at the situation, rather, dread at what was coming next. From Hawk, their attention went to Gabi, who's pupils were shrunk, trembling.

[Mr. Morningstar...it’s time...]

Tyr approaches Gabi slowly and offers their nub to him, though instead of taking it, the young man scoops Tyr up into his arms, holding him like one would a toddler or cat. For another hug, or in hopes to keep him from shooting at anyone else? From AI-T's podium, Rover suddenly goes rigid, and looking more robot-like than he ever has, turns and starts walking stiffly towards them. The redheaded bot stops once they get to the usual spot by the wall, and Gabi turns to look at him momentarily. A hand is lifted, and albeit shaky, presses against the center of the star on Rover's chest. The door in the wall pulls open, and as they turn back to give the room one last look, Fenrir, who has been silently waiting, shoves his phone against Maxwell's chest, then along with Galehaut, jumps to attention—bolting towards them.

"Fuck all that! Fuck all this!" Galehaut shouts. "When I said on our own terms, I meant it! Moon, I'm not gonna let them—!"

As they quickly approach, Tyr offers a small apology to the one that held them in his arms...

[I am sorry, Mr. Morningstar.]

They raise their nub, and like with Hawk, out launches a small pod shaped object that latches onto both of them and sends a powerful shock through their bodies. 

Ah—Gabi grips Tyr tightly to his chest and makes a terrible, strangled sound as the two join Hawk on the floor. His gaze rips from them to stare wide-eyed and glossy at the rest of the room. He shakes his head a few times, backing up, backing up. Lips parted, like he's trying to say something, but his voice never reaches them—Rover steps between Gabi and the rest of you, obscuring the smaller body from view. The bot looks over his shoulder and gives the room an empty, dark, protective look, before the door slams shut, taking them away. 

A minute passes...two...three...until finally the screen lights up with the single message:

PLEASE ENJOY THE PRESENTATION WE HAVE PREPARED

before fading back to black.

[TW: DESCRIPTIONS OF BEING BEATEN, GORE] 

…

The lights dim, casting your cohort into a spill of long stretching shadows. There's a brief silence that follows, until a familiar, cheery theme song begins to chime through the room, growing in volume as the television screen flickers to life.

♫♪ i can reach all the stars in the sky with you by my side! ♪♫

The obnoxious tune of children singing is accompanied with a cartoon music video of what looks like a television show—shooting stars fall across the screen in a sparkly transition effect, opening up to the robot you’ve all grown familiar with over the course of the last month, cartoonified and walking around the moon to the beat of the song. 

♫♪ and if we don't make it today, we'll try, try, try again another day! ♪♫

He's decked out in his hero suit, grinning ear to ear at the audience, and begins leaping from the moon to another planet. It plays in this sort of loop, with Moon Rover marching on rotating planets, waving at passing cartoon versions of.. well, you! He passes by Fenrir and gives him two high-fives, Snapshot he hip-checks, waving at Zero Sum and Oleander on a water-themed planet, Angel they clang a wine glass with...

♫♪ so let's shoot for the stars, and hang out on the moon, and together we'll be anything, anything, anything we've ever wanted to be! ♪♫

It ends with Moon Rover landing on the Earth, joining the rest of the show's cast. Heroes and villains in dramatic poses, making up your full group, including Collin and Ivo hovering by the sides of the screen. 

Well... it includes everyone but one.

We zoom in on the cartoon Rover, who winks at the audience and gestures to follow him, before turning around into a transition. When the scene returns, we're joined with the real Rover, standing in what looks like the middle of the foyer of a massive house. He grins bright, wide, and opens his arms up to the viewers. 

“HEYY, STAR TROOP! ‘m so glad y’were able to tune in today!" 

He places his hands on his hips, leaning forward into the camera. 

“Y’ready for today’s mission? T’day we got somethin’ a little different — we’re takin’ a trip back t’my childhood home! Keheh—betcha thought I lived in a rocket, yeah? Nope! I came from a house, just like yours!” 

The hero beams at the audience and takes a step back, allowing the camera to sweep over the area better: yeah, he is in a foyer—the main entrance of a mansion—except, it’s as if someone has destroyed the place. Pictures are ripped from the wall, furniture toppled over--there’s areas that are just straight up blown up, holes broken through walls, the chandelier hanging slanted, too covered in char to glisten anymore, parts of the staircases caved in. Tire marks are burnt into the floor, the walls, the ceiling.   

There’s a 360 degree pan of the entrance, before it stops on Rover, where he’s gesturing to follow him again. He walks over broken wood and ash, until he gets to a form laying on the floor behind a fallen loveseat: bound at the wrists and ankles, Moon is trying to wiggle himself free.  

“Today we’ve got a suuuuper special guest!” He squats down next to Moon, grabbing a fistfull of his hair and pulling his head up off the floor. The boy winces, pieces of glass and dirt stuck into his cheeks. “The villain who hurt poor, poor Venus! An' subsequently hurt loads more through his choices! I already went ahead an' caught him, so, of course, all what's left is teachin' this no-good hooligan a lesson! Will you help me, Star Troop??"

There’s a blur of movement, and the binds on Moon’s hands and feet are cut—he immediately goes to scramble away, but with a simple step on the corner of his hoodie, he slams back to the ground. Nonchalantly, without hesitation or warning, Rover kicks Moon in the stomach—knocking him backwards in a cry.

Despite being kicked aside like a limp doll, Moon pushes himself up onto his elbows, grimacing, and begins crawling. Rover strolls slowly after him, easy and with a bounce to his step. When he reaches him, he bends down to grab the collar of his shirt, pick him up, and punch him directly in the jaw. It isn't pretty, the next seconds—if this were cinematic in any definition of the word, the moment would be done through silhouettes, the shadow of Rover pulling his arm back and bringing it down mercilessly into the smaller man's form, the ugly sounds of flesh being beaten being the only sense of how awful it is.

You don't get that pleasure. You see it all: no pretty cuts or dramatic angles to censor the boy's face splitting open, blood spilling up from fractured ribs into wet coughs, red splattering across Rover's hero costume. If anyone else was in his place, literally anyone else in the courtroom, this would be solved in an instant — a magma punch, a swipe of a sword, the crack of lightning, and this wouldn’t even be a fight. But Moon isn’t a hero. Not in the super-deep, metaphoric sort of way, but just that: Moon was a civilian. 

He’s dropped to the ground in a gross crack, whining, but moving regardless. He scrambles to his feet this time, using the help of a chair thrown on its side. He runs. He isn’t fast, especially now with his hand clutched to his chest, wheezing, but he runs… not to the front door like you’d expect, but deeper into the mansion. Rover walks behind him, chatting to the audience, you suppose, but now you’re following Moon. 

A door is flug open, and he staggers into a huge workshop. For someone who is frequently found scrawling on his arms to organize roaring thoughts and ideas, the place is surprisingly spotless, orgazined: filled with tools and kilns and forges and anvils. Computer software you know costs millions just by the sight. The young man’s eyes dart desperately around the room, and he makes a bee-line for the back wall full of displayed gear. A weapon? Is he looking for something to use? He grabs a pair of gauntlets first, something similar to Galehaut’s color scheme, before throwing them on the ground. A pair of yellow lense goggles—no. A botched looking race car—no. A pair of motorized wheelies—no. Equipment, equipment, equipment! He didn’t make weapons! He didn’t— 

“Found ya!” 

—whack!— 

Something whizzes past Moon’s head, smacking his hand away from the wall in the process. He turns around, and a small, helicopter-like birdbot is hovering in the air in front of him. Moon blinks, and then the bird shoots forward, whacking him a few more times in the head. It looks less like it hurts, and more like it’s just a distraction. The boy stumbles to the side, tripping over a small dogbot waddling by his feet. He crashes into the wall, and an array of different gear topples over.

It’s more pathetic than tragic, watching his own work fall on his head. He collapses under the weight, but ever-stubborn, ever-determined, ever-unbreakable, Moon whines and pushes his way out, tries to get to his feet once, fails, twice, fails again, and on the third—

—on the third, a red hand snaps forward and grips his throat, pulls him free, and dangles him up into the air, grinning widely. 

“Didn’t think y’could run, didja? Y’know, people want y’blood! They voted for it! Y’think I could let down the Star Troop now?? After how badly ya did?? They need someone they can trust, afterall!”

Moon grips Rover’s forearm with both his hands, clawing weakly at his gloves. The tips of his toes can just barely reach the pile of gear beneath him, so he’s at the very least got a bit of footing. Not that it matters—it’s no use, of course it’s no use—Moon reaches out to push at his bot’s face, push him away, do anything, anything— ah, wait? No.. he’s.. 

With a trembling hand, Moon sinks three of his fingers into the back of Rover’s head, prompting a hatch to pull away and open up in his chest, exposing a variety of wires and a pinpad. Rover doesn’t seem concerned, just keeps on holding Moon by the neck, even as the blonde starts fumbling a code in the pad.

He's dying. A small red button opens up between all the switches and buttons in Rover’s chest, and Moon's frantic, desperate reaching for the button slows down considerably. Really, it's kind of anti-climatic for a death, nevermind a supposed fantastical execution. Maybe that was what Moon deserved, though — something quiet, uneventful, alone. 

Click! 

...Just kidding! He presses the button. Rover’s grip falls away immediately, dropping Moon in a heap on the floor and leaving him doubled over, gasping and coughing, gulping down air like he'd been drowning. In front of him, Rover’s expression seems frozen, and his body begins… going limp? No, no.. it almost looks like he’s.. shutting down? A second later, Rover has joined Moon on his knees in front of him, his smile frozen, his shoulders slumping, his right eye flashing red. His right eye flashing red.. slowly. 

“...keh..” 

There is hardly any distance between the two, but when Moon pushes himself up and wraps his arms around his robot, hooking his chin on his shoulder, the effort looks akin to dragging your hands down a wall of glass shards. 

“...’bout.. time we wrapped this up, huh?” His voice would’ve been impossible to hear had this not been meant for entertainment — hoarse, whisper-quiet.

The sentence seems to, somehow, despite the red light increasing in speed, prompt a corrupt, laggy voice to start speaking: “..S-S-SHOOT FOR THE STARS—!” 

“—even.. if y’miss..” 

Moon grabs fistfulls of the back of Rover’s suit, squeezing his eyes shut. 

“..you’ll land on the—!”

…

…

[♫♪♫♪♫♪] 

The screen blacks out, rattling — the sound from the speakers blowing out from sheer force of the explosion. You… you feel like you should feel it in the courtroom—the floor shaking and rumbling beneath you, but you don’t. Somehow, it makes it feel more empty. More far away. 

As the scene settles, the dust and smoke beginning to clear, you notice blood splattered on the lense of the camera—blurred and out of focus, but unmistakably blood. Debris and metal parts are scattered everywhere, wires twisted and still burning like lit fuses. Something drips from the ceiling, and you're unsure if it's blood or a combination of that and flesh. But more importantly, you see the remains of a human body — the parts you'd never want to see; splintered bone, limbs still stuck in clothes, a head in the corner of the scene, blonde hair smoking, lulling on the slanted floor, and what you catch sight of his face is burnt through to the inside of his mouth, burnt through to his skull.

He looks like he was screaming, and though you know he wasn't in his last moments, this image will likely be the thing you remember when you think of him.

...

Life is continuous. 

Tonight, the sky will finish clearing the storm and the moon will glow across the horizon like it has every other night, and how it will continue to shine for every other night after this. For nothing has really changed—and that's the bonus of playing a stage hero robot that could be replicated, right? Built on? Upgraded? For years and years and years to come, beyond your short life, he can still do something amazing without you. 

Yeah, the world will keep going on without you. 

You wanted that.

(Didn't you?) 

[Gabrielle & Rover Morningstar have been executed.] 

(thank you han for the art!)

[dimensionwriter]

Fight for the Heart

Male! Robotic Naga x Female! Reader

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Trigger warning: mention of death, blood, depression (starts off sad, but gets better quickly, I guess)

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

The screams were deafening behind you as the sound of crunching and pounding of metal vibrated through the thick cemented walls. But you ignored it as you focused on wielding this robot ripped face back together.

"So, is there any permant damages to it?" it's owner spoke from the corner with a fat cigar in his mouth. You made a frown as he blew a wave of smoke your way.

"He will have to go to a professional to get the claw marks out of his eye socket," you said in a monotone voice as you spun back around to look at the robot infront of you. You ran a gloved hand over the claw marks over it's right eye. They couldn't find his actual eye, so it's just an empty socket right now.

"Dang thing didn't even win the fight and it's costing me more money," he yelled standing up. He lifted his hand to smack the machine, but you turned the blow torch on blast.

"Sir, I would recommended you step out while I finish him up," you retorted not even looking at him. You slide down your visor as you tried to figure out how to put the metal back in place on his shoulder.

"Whatever. Hurry up. My wife is waiting on me at home with dinner. Can't keep woman waiting. You know how they get," he said before barking out laughter. You rolled your eyes at the clearly sexist jokes. He probably didn't realize that you were even female with all the protective layers you had on.

You waved your free hand at him telling him to leave. If he continued talking, it would be a shame if this torch slipped out of your hand and burnt him.

He stopped laughing and walked to the door. As he open it, all the screams intensified. He stepped out and muffled the screams by closing the door.

"Waste of breath," you grumbled under your breath. The robot infront of you let out a small laugh before going stock again. You turned off the blow torch and put it back on to the rack beside you.

"Do you like doing all this fighting?" You asked leaning back in the chair and looking into it's one red eye.

He looked away from you and shrugged his shoulders. You didn't response, waiting for the truth to come out.

His eye drifted back to you before looking down. He shook his head as red liquid started building up in his eyes

Seeing a robot cry is beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. Their tears isn't clear like humans, instead it's different colours base off what fluids they have. It expresses a lot more pain than a human could.

You placed a hand on his thigh and gave it a small squeeze. He looked back at you as a single tear trailed down his face.

"It never use to be like this," he spoke with his voice glitching from the emotion. "I use to help with the garden or look after their daughter."

Your eyes narrowed as you tried to remember that man ever speaking about having a child. Everytime he's in here, he mention his wife, but never had a daughter.

"But then there was an accident where I went to get repair because I cut myself pretty bad with the hedge shears. And the daughter wanted to finish my job," his fist balled up as his eyes narrowed at nothing as he relived the memory. "And she- she didn't know that the ladder was broke and she felled. She-she died. And they blamed me."

Tears were pouring out of his eyes by now. You lifted your visor up to show him that you were listening. It seem like he needs to get this off his chest.

"I didn't know. How could I have known? And-and then they fell into depression and didn't work, so they needed money. They told me I was finally going to be useful and took me to this hell hole," he ended with harsh growl as he glared at the cement walls.

His face was trying to protray anger, but the red tears pouring down his face and his fist shaking in fear screamed something else. He felt sad, lonely, and betrayed.

You stood up and wrapped your arms around him. He didn't hug you back, but opted for laying his face into your shoulder. You gave him a tight squeeze before stepping back.

"Hey, I know this person that could help you escape if you want," you said turning around to pick up your blow torch. "I'll give you the information if you want."

His eye showed his hesitation, but he nodded slowly. "My love for this family died when she died," he mumbled angrily. You gave him a sad smile as you flicked on the blow torch. Hopefully you'll be able to fixed his shoulder.

You finally relaxed back in your chair 10 mintues later after the robot left. You gave him the information and told him to store it. He thanked you before his owner came in to take him away. You hope he will leave soon.

"Yo, what's up babe?" a loud vocie screamed before slamming the door open. You jumped out of you seat in panic at the sudden loud noise.

You turn towards the enterance to see Willow entering the room. You glanced down to check him out.

He had a tan colour to his body along with a silver colour at the bottom of his hips. He was pretty short for a robot, but was still taller than you. But for what he lacked in height, he made with his long metallic snake tail behind him.

Yes, Willlow was a robotic naga. Why did someone create this, you have no clue.

You looked upward to see that his short black hair was pretty messy from the fight he just had. His eyes were a light gold colour that seem to light up seeing you look at them.

Of course, you didn't miss his lack of right arm. And the left arm that was holding a detached arm. Or the huge chuck of his toro missing. And how could you ignore the golden liquid pooling on the concrete floor.

"Let me guess, you lost," you said sitting down. His metallic laughter filled the room as he slide over to your working table. He plopped down on it as his tail lazily slide around your chair.

"Nope, actually. I only lost one of my limbs, but she started with 8 and ended with 0," he said with a giant smirk. You rolled you eyes as you hoped they wouldn't send her to you. Reattaching a limb takes hours to do and doing 8 would take an entire day.

"Couldn't you go easier on her?" you ask taking the limb from his arm. You inspected it and noticed that there seem to be some very close deep scratches.

"Go easy on her. The thing had 6 buff arms and two legs that turned into spikes. I don't even have legs, hun," he said pointing to his tail that was wrapping more around your chair.

You let out a laugh as you placed the arm beside him. Whoever owned that android obviously got her just to fight.

You leaned forward to get a look at his sides. Your eyes squinted as you noticed that he had the same deep scratches as his arm.

"You look so cute when you squint your eyes," he said placing his hand under your chin and lifting your head up to look at him.

His signature smirk was on his face as he gave you a swift wink. You rolled your eyes and swatted his hand away. You return back to looking at his side.

"What are these weird cuts? Did she use a weapon?" You ran your fingers on the cuts. They were pretty smooth and ripped into the metal pretty well. She must had a lot of strength to do this with a weapon.

"Oh, yeah she used a weapon. If you consider piranha like teeth to be a weapon. The dang thing ripped through my metal like it was paper," he grumbled holding up his detached arm.

Okay, no wonder he didn't go easy on her. She was probably made to have no feeling in her except animalistic desires. Some humans are sick enough to strip away emotions of androids to make them 'better' fighters.

"Well, did you see what they did with her body?" you asked going to where his right arm would be. You touched the area, instantly covering your hand in a gold liquid. Why was he such a messy bleeder?

"Willow, can you please stop your fluids from spilling everywhere?" You asked wiping away the liquid pouring out of his arms. You couldn't even see what colour the wires dangling out of his arms were.

"Give me a kiss and I'll think about it," he purred running his tail across your ankle. Who decided to give this robotic naga a flirting code? This would be something you wouldn't mind getting pulled out.

"I'm not giving you a kiss. I'm here to fix you up, not to entertain your weird flirting habits," you barked at him. You stood up to go outside to see if they found the chuck of his missing torso. It would be too much to rebuild a new one.

"Wait, don't leave," he yelled. In an instant, he had his metallic tail wrapped around your torso. The metal felt cool against your skin, but it felt quite wet from all of the golden fluids pouring out. "I was joking. I didn't mean to make you angry."

He yanked you back causing you to stumble back and hit the bed. "I'm not leaving. I'm trying to do my job and fix you. Now if you will let me go, I need to go find the other fourth of your torso."

"Why are you so cold to me? When it comes down to other robots, you are so nice and friendly to them. But I just get the cold shoulder," he mumbled leaning his head on your shoulder.

A chill went down your back at his words. You noticed you were a little colder towards him, but you hoped he didn't noticed. It's all because of that stupid crush you had on him when you first started working here. You fell for all his flirting antics and thought you were special. And then you noticed that he flirted with all creatures, humans or robots. You were simply just a toy to him.

And you created this wall between the two of you in order to stop from getting hurt. You tried to kill those feeling, knowing that he probably doesn't even have those feeling, especially for you.

"I apolgize," you mumbled staring at the concrete wall across from you. You didn't want to look at Willow. This was probably just another trick.

"Do you not like me?" He mumbled lowly into your working suit. Without even thinking about it, you turned your head to look at him.

His gold eyes were already staring at you sadly. His peach lips were poked out and pressing into your shoudler. He look so adorable, even when trying to look sad.

"I do not discrimate against robots," you said jokingly trying to lighten back the mood. Those dumb feelings are trying to resurface. He's just being his dramatic self again.

"That's not what I meant!" He yelled tighting his tail around you. He yanked you up onto the bed. His arm snakes around your waist as he buried his head into your neck.

"What are you talking about?" you asked trying to stay calm. He's never done this before. He would usually just brush it off or if he does continue on, you could move around. But his arm was wrapped around you as if he was scared of letting you go.

"The way you smile at other robots. The way you hug others as you comfort them. You see them out of you office with a comforting hand on their back. And you don't see the way their eyes light up when you do this. You don't hear what other robots talk about doing to you when they come in for repair. You don't know," he rambled angrily gripping on to your suit.

How did he noticed these things when you didn't? You just tried to comfort the robots. You didn't mean to lead them on or give them the wrong idea.

"I hate it. I really do. I don't want then looking at you. Most of these robots don't even have a romantic code in there body. And they have the audacity to say such lewd things about you," he growled out. Your body stiffen at hearing this new tone. He's never been like this. It almost seem like he was-

"Jealous. You're jealous," you mumbled as realization dawned on you. You looked over to see a widen golden eye peaking from under your suit. "You are, aren't you?"

His tail snapped off of you as if you were made of fire. His arm released you and he jumped off the bed. His slide behind your working chair with his eyes widening.

His cheeks started turning a gold colour as he stared at you. "I'm not jealous! I'm-i'm just simply worried about you. Stop jumping to conclusion." He pointed his finger your way accusingly. You bit your lips to stop yourself from laughing.

The gold tint to his cheeks were the equilvance of blushing. And you could hear all his cooling system whirring away under his skin. He was flustered.

"If your not jealous then why did it bother you so much if robots look my way. It's not like any humans are," you joked proping your knee up and leaning on it.

"Well, it's because… you're too good for them. And I'm worried... as a friend. Stop giving me that look," he yelled his blushing increasing. You covered your mouth trying to hide your smirk. "It's not what you think. I just simply am worried about you.".

He slide over to the door and slammed it open. He quickly slide out, almost closing the door on the end of his tail.

You smirk dropped as you just thought about his last words. Crap, you did it again. You over anlayze everything again. He probably was just simply looking out for you. And here you are, probably projecting your feelings onto him.

You let out a small sigh as you dropped from the bed. The floor was covered in his golden liquid. That was going to be hard to clean up.

You glanced in corner of the room to see his arm had rolled of the bed. He's gonna want to come back for this. Maybe he'll wait until your shift ends to come get it fix. You did make it pretty weird.

"So, boss told me I need to be fixed up because I'm making a mess," someone grumbled from the door. You turned around with the arm in your hand to see Willow peaking his head through the door. His face was still glowing gold as he looked anywhere but you.

"Figured. Get on the bed," you said back in your cold voice. You aren't gonna let your feeling affect your work. Feelings and work should not go together.

"Yeah, okay," he mumbled sliding up the bed again. His tail stayed curled up around the end of the bed. You slide your visor back over your face as you picked up some tools needed to rewire the arm back with his shoulder.

For 20 long mintues, you worked in silence. It was rare to work on Willow and have him be quiet. Usually, he would talk your head off, unless his voice processor got ripped out. But you know for a fact that it's still intact.

You let out a small sigh as your reached over for your plyers to pull out a rogue shard of metal. You glanced at Willow to see that he was staring at you.

He couldn't see your eyes because of the reflectivness of your visor. And your head is down so it looks like you are still working.

How long has he been starring at you? He had this small smile on his face. His golden eyes seem to have changed. His usual slit pupils were blown into a wide circle.

You turned your head towards him to look at his eyes. They've never done that before. Maybe that robot had mess up his optical lenses.

Willow turned his head quickly away from you as the smile disappeared. The gold blush returned to his cheeks that was casting a glow on his short black hair.

You reached your gloved hand up and gripped his jaw. You turned his face back towards you as you got another look at his eyes.

"What are doing?" He squeaked shrinking down, but you held your grip firm. You use your other hand to flip up your visor.

"Your pupils are blown wide open. Seems to be something wrong," you grumbled squinting your eyes as you leaned forward.

There was no scratches or any viewable damages around his eyes. It seems to be fine, but his pupils shouldn't be like that. Maybe you rewired something wrong in his arm that is causing his eyes to glitch out.

"What," he yelled as he jumped back out of your grip. His left hand slammed over his eyes blocking your view. You let out an irritated sigh.

"Come on, Willow. Let me see. I have to make sure there is no other damage done to you, especially for your vision," you stated trying to remain calm. You wrapped your hand around his wrist trying to pull it off. But the dang thing didn't move a single rotary wheel.

"No! It's-it's fine. It sometimes does this. Don't worry about it," he rambled. Something cold and hard wrapped around your waist causing you to jump. You loooked down to see his tail around your waist. He lifted you off the ground and you didn't fight him. He gently place you in your chair, but didn't remove his tail.

"Okay, but by the end of this. I want to check to make sure. Okay," you said in a stern voice. He nodded his head, but kept his hand over it.

You grabbed your blow torch and got ready to wield together his arm back to his body. You still got to see if anyone has found his side yet. At least he's stopping the bleeding.

"Um, you know. My eyes have done this before," he yelled over your blowtorching. You turned your head towards him to let you know you were listening.

"It was your- your first day. And I had gotten a scratch on my shoulder after an easy fight. I heard that we got a new mechanic nurse and I was wondering how they would be. And I walked in on you laughing with boss," he started to run his nail acorss his silver tail," I haven't heard laughter that pure in this place in a long time. And you turned around with that-that stupid smile," he said starting to smile himself. You brought down the blow torch and turned it down.

You remeber that day. Boss was in the middle of telling you about how he accidently sneeze while blowtorching and the metal finger fell out of his hand onto the robot thigh. It was funny especially with the weird faces he made. But you don't remeber really meeting Willow.

"And I froze up at the door. I panicked and just slammed the door. In the reflection of the metal door, I noticed that my eyes were dilated. It never happen before, but it seem like every time I got around you, it would happen."

"What? But I never saw this happen," you said kicking up your visor. His hand slowly dropped to show that his eyes were still dilated.

"I learn to keep it under control. Well, I thought I did. I just threw it in as a glitch, but then you pointed out me being jealous. And I realized that," he kind shrunk down as his cheeks started to glow extremely bright," I am jealous. I'm jealous of all the robots that get to wrap their arms around you. And I'm jealous that they get your affection. It may be selfish, but I want it all for myself."

You slammed the visor back over your face as blush quickly flooded your face. Don't assume anything. He's most likely just saying some random crap. Don't get your hopes up.

"I apologize if your uncomfortable with it. I know I'm not the most attractive robot, well I would assume I'm close in the lead," he joked with a smile. He started to giggle as blush spreaded up his cheeks.

You head tilted over in confusion. You've heard him laugh before, but this is the first time he has giggle before. And he looks absolutely adorable.

His black hair is bouncing from his body shaking. His left arm was trying to cover his mouth as the high pitch sounds escaped his dark pink lips. His eyes were squinting close as he continued to giggle.

"I have the codes for love, but I've never exprience it. It feels great," he said turning his head towards you. His eyes seem to be sparkling in delight as his mouth spreaded into the biggest grin. "There's this warm feeling in my chest that seems to be spreading though my body the more I look at you."

You didn't know what you felt at the moment. So many emotions seem to flood your body that they seem to block eachother out.

"Ahh, wait," he screamed jumping off the bed and standing infront of you. You had to look up to see his face, which was contorted with fear. "You-you don't feel the same. How could I forget about that? I'm so stupid. And I just confessed out loud. Oh gosh. I-I"

In one swift move, you slide your visor up with one hand and with the other grabbed Willow's jaw. His eyes snapped down at you in fear and confusion. That expression gave you the rush you needed to do it.

You yanked him down closer to you. You brought your face forward until your noses were touching. His eyes widen as he realized how little space was between the two of you.

"You stupid snake. Don't you dare think I don't return those feeling," you growled with so much feeling. For years, you assumed that he didn't have any romatic feeling for you. You're not going to let him assume the same.

"Wait. You do," he yelled out jumping forward pressing his face closer. His eyes trailed down as he realized just how the two of you were. "So, you wouldn't be weirded out if I said that an action program just popped up to kiss you."

A dorky smile slowly spreaded upon his face as he stared deeply into your eyes. His pupils were so dilated that his eyes were black with a golden rim. His midnight black hair were tickling you cheeks from the closeness.

"Well," you said lifting your finger to bop his nose. His eyes crossed to look at your finger before returning to your eyes. "I would say you should activate it."

He let out a deep chuckle that cause your smile to increase. His right arm lifted up to gently cup your cheeks. His usually cold metal held some warmth to it. His thumb slowly rubbed against your cheek as he leaned it.

"I found the fighter's side," a person yelled slamming the door open. You jumped back from the sudden loud noise filling the room. From the force of your body going backwards, the chair flipped backwards with you in it.

You would have crashed onto the ground if Willow's metallic tail didn't wrap around your waist and hold you above the ground.

Your head snapped at the door to see it was one of the new human workers. He stood at the door with a chunk of metal in his hand. It ws a tan tint that matched with Willow's skin tint.

"I'm sorry. Did I interrupt something," he squeaked out as his face turned red. Willow slided quickly to the door with his fist balled up.

He used some of his tail to stand above the poor human. He snatched the chunk of metal out of his hand and snarred his fangs at the boy. "Yes you are and if you interrupt again, I will be holding a chunk of your side."

Willow grabbed the side of the door and slammed it shut in the boy's face. You sat up on his tail as you covered your mouth trying not to laugh.

"That wasn't nice of you, Willow," you joked patting his tail. He turned around with that signature smirk on his face.

"Maybe I was. But everyone else has had plenty of time with you. I want my turn," he purred sending you an exaggerated wink. His eyes went down to the metal in his hand before his smirk widen. He threw his side behind it causing it to slam onto the floor. "I can go a little while longer without this. Now, where were we?"

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Now before you guys start yelling at me for doing another naga story, I just want to ask what you think of the moodboard above it. I never really done one before, but I really wanted to try it out. Also, put in the comments or ask me about what monster you guys would like to see me write about. As you can see, I'm stuck in the naga zone, but I want to try to venture out. Pleaseeeee, leave a comment. I love reading what you guys write. It makes my day. Thanks and enjoy.

[ask-rwby-multishipper]

RWBY TorD Arm Wrestling Tournament - First Round

First Round Matchups: Blake v Coco, Nora v Ciel, Ruby v Ilia, Yang v Penny, Emerald v Neon, Weiss v Pyrrha, Velvet v Cinder

Weiss: Ugh. Arm wrestling? How barbaric.

Yang: Says the girl with toothpick arms.

Weiss: I have very toned and healthy arms!

Ruby: Yeah Yang, shush!

Blake: I’m with Weiss on this one, this seems to really favor those of us who have significantly more upper body strength.

Weiss: And we have to take off our underwear when we lose?! That’s even more unfair!

Yang: Shoulda lifted more.

Weiss: I have no need to “lift.” I am a person of finesse and grace.

Ruby: No offense, Weiss, but I don’t think you’re going to finesse your way out of this.

Weiss: Why?

Ruby: You’re up against Pyrrha first.

Weiss: P-Pyrrha?

Pyrrha, waving: Hello again!

Yang: Yep. She definitely lifts.

Weiss, letting her head fall forward, sighing: I guess my fate is sealed, isn’t it.

Ruby, putting a hand on her shoulder: Weiss....sometimes....you just gotta lift.

Weiss, smacking her hand away: Stop saying lift!

Weiss v Pyrrha

Weiss: How does one....arm wrestle?

Pyrrha, chuckling: It’s rather simple. I would arm wrestle with classmates all the time back in combat school. Well, until the school made me stop after I accidentally broke someone’s wrist. I still feel bad about that....

Weiss: Not helping....

Pyrrha, smiling: Sorry. Really all you do is lock hands, elbow on the table, and try to push your opponent’s arm so far that the back of their hand hits the table. You can’t lean to the side or put any of your body weight into it, just arm strength.

Weiss: Okay.

Pyrrha: Are you ready?

Weiss: Can I just forfeit?

Pyrrha: Forfeit?

Weiss: Yeah. I have no chance at beating your strength, so why even bother?

Pyrrha: Weiss...I’m—

Weiss: No no, I have accepted this, I am fine with taking off my underwear, it’s all fine. This is my life now and there’s nothing I can do about it.

Pyrrha: That’s a tad dramatic...

Weiss: I concede victory to you. *bows*

Pyrrha: Well....hurray?

Yang, whispering to Ruby: Quite a rousing start to the action.

Weiss, sighing: Okay. *reaches beneath her skirt* No one stare! *takes off her light blue panties and hands them to Pyrrha* Your trophy?

Pyrrha, chuckling nervously: Maybe don’t call it that.

Nora: Woo, go Pyrrha!

Pyrrha, smiling: I didn’t do anything.

Weiss, pushing the front of her skirt down a bit: Can I, like, go sit down now?

Pyrrha: Of course. And I’m sorry you felt you had to do that. *steps over to her and kisses her cheek* You are very gracious.

Weiss, blushing: Ohh.... *smiles* Thank you.

Advancing to the Quarterfinals: Pyrrha

~~~

Blake v Coco

Blake: Adel.

Coco: Belladonna.

Blake, extending a hand: Shall we?

Coco, locking hands: Oh, we shall.

Nora: Any bets, anyone?

Ruby: My money’s on Blake, they can swing Yang around with their ribbon when they do their Bumblebee team attack! That takes some strength.

Velvet: But Coco carries a massive Gatling gun with her everywhere. That thing is heavy.

Blake: And....GO!

Coco and Blake begin to strain against each other’s arms, but it quickly turns in Blake’s favor, until pinning Coco’s arm.

Nora: Blake wins!

Blake, sighing and putting their hands on their hips: Don’t sleep on these guns. *shrugs*

Coco, shaking her hand out: Not bad....so I guess this means I give you my underwear?

Blake: I’m afraid so. What, are they super-expensive designer panties?

Coco: How’d you know?

Blake: Wait, they are?

Coco: Why are you surprised? *undoes her belt and pushes off her pants* Did you think under this meticulously assembled outfit I would just wear generic underwear? Please. *pushes down her black panties, all while discretely pulling her shirttail in front of herself* Here.

Blake, taking Coco’s panties and studying them: These are designer. Is this....gold stitiching in the waistband??

Coco, sitting down while keeping her shirt pulled forward: Gold and copper, actually.

Blake, sighing: Wow. Okay then.

Velvet, reaching over and poking Coco’s butt: Boop!

Coco, flinching: Hey!

Velvet: Heheh ^~^

Advancing to the quarterfinals: Blake

~~~

Nora v Ciel

Ciel: Nope.

Nora: What?

Ciel: I have no chance.

Nora: Oh, c’mon, you have to at least try!

Ciel: I once saw you open an aluminum can with your bare hands because you couldn’t find a can opener. I do not want to be your next can of pears.

Nora: Hey, I would go easy on you.

Ciel: Would you?

Nora: No....

Ciel: Then I concede.

Nora: WOO I WIN! Gimme your underwear.

Ciel, blushing and sighing: Oh right, that. *reaches beneath her skirt and takes off her white panties, handing them to Nora* There.

Nora: Well that was easy.

Advancing to the quarterfinals: Nora

~~~

Ruby v Ilia

Yang: I wonder who’s gonna win this one—the girl who carries around a massive metal scythe, or the girl who carries around a glorified taser.

Ilia: I’m about to taser you, Yang. Besides, I think I’ve got a shot!

Weiss: Really?

Ilia: Shut up, toothpick arms.

Weiss: Again, my arms are—!

Ruby: Let’s just have a good, fair arm wrestling match! *offers her hand to Ilia* Ready?

Ilia, taking her hand: Heh, only if you’re ready to lose.

Ruby: Ready, and....GO!

BAM!

Ilia: Ow!

Ruby: Oh.

Nora: Ruby wins!

Ruby: That was....

Ilia, on the ground, turning blue: I have been humiliated....

Ruby: I, uh....I didn’t mean to....beat you so quickly.

Ilia, sniffling: It’s fine, I deserved it. You were right, Yang, it is a glorified taser.

Yang: Well now I feel bad....

Weiss: Oh, get up you drama queen. You lost fair and square, and besides, your arm strength doesn’t even matter. You’re a perfectly capable fighter without such physical strength.

Ilia: Aww, thanks Weiss, you’re so sweet.

Weiss, stuttering: I, uhh....

Ilia, getting back to her feet: I guess I, uhm.... *pushes down her pants* I guess since you won...?

Ruby, blushing: Okay, awkward....

Ilia: Yeah, speak for yourself.... *sighs, then lowers her underwear and tosses them to Ruby* There! *quickly sits down, draping her pants across her lap to cover herself*

Ruby, catching Ilia’s gray trunks: Uhh....yay?

Advancing to the quarterfinals: Ruby

~~~

Yang v Penny

Yang, hands in the air: Okay, first off....robot girl.

Penny: Yes.

Yang: Versus....my robot arm.

Penny: It seems so. Are you concerned about fairness?

Yang: It’s not that, it’s just—

Penny: Because I can adjust my strength settings so I—

Yang: No no no! Gimme all you got!

Penny: You are certain?

Yang: Certain.

Penny: Well, okay then. *offers her hand*

Yang, taking her hand: Let’s do this!

Penny: Commencing in 3....2....1....begin!

They both begin to strain against each other.

Yang: Damn....you’re....sturdy....

Penny: Speak for yourself, Friend Yang.

Yang: You know....both my arm and you...are Atlas manufactured....so isn’t this just an even matchup?

Penny: I feared as such.

*crank*

*CRASH*

Yang, blinking: Wha....

Penny: It appears my wrist joints were not properly fastened.

Nora: AHHHHHHH!

Yang, with Penny’s detached hand in her own: Uhhh.... *places Penny’s hand on the table* Pinned?

Ruby: Penny, what the heck?!

Penny: I have a maintainance appointment tomorrow, don’t worry!

Yang: I win, right?

Blake: Considering you ripped her hand off, yeah, I’d say so.

Yang: Then don’t I get your....do robots wear underwear?

Penny, chuckling: Oh, silly. Of course I wear underwear.

Yang: Should that be obvious?

Penny: I suppose not.

Nora: Okay, hold up. I have been wondering about this forever. Penny, forgive me for such a weird question, but how....anatomically correct are you?

Penny: Hm? Oh, in terms of genitalia?

Ruby: That word sounds so wrong coming out of your mouth.

Nora: Yeah, like....yeah.

Penny, laughing: Friend Nora, Why would I be designed in such a way? I’m an android, I have no use for such things.

Nora: Okay, good point.

Yang: And yet you wear underwear?

Penny: It makes me feel cute.

Yang: Okay, valid.

Penny, tugging down her light green underwear from beneath her skirt, then handing it to Yang: There. Congratulations.

Yang: Thanks. And here, lemme hand this over.

Penny, taking her hand back: Yes, thank you.

Advancing to the quarterfinals: Yang

~~~

Emerald v Neon

Neon: Yeah I’m about to lose.

Emerald: Really? I’m pretty sure you’re going to beat me.

Neon: I’m pretty sure I’m not known for upper body strength.

Emerald: Well neither am I.

Yang: Girls, I think the point of the is to prove who’s more strong.

Neon: Yeah, but....c’mon, look at me. I have trouble opening ketchup bottles.

Emerald: Same!

Yang: Just go for it! One of you has to win!

Emerald, sighing: Alright, I guess. Let’s go for it.

Neon: I’m warning you, if by some miracle I do win, I will be so extra with my celebration.

Emerald: Sure, go off. *they lock hands* Ready?

Neon: Set....

Emerald: Go!

They both begin pushing against each other, grumbling and growling, but their hands won’t budge.

Yang: Woah, you two are pretty evenly matched.

Emerald: This....is so hard.....

Neon: Ehhhhhh...!

Emerald: EHHHHHH!

Neon: Nonononono!

Emerald forces Neon’s hand back far enough for it to touch the table.

Yang: Nice one, Em!

Emerald: I won?!

Neon: NOOOOO!

Emerald: Holy shit I won!

Ruby: Go Emmy!

Emerald: YESYESYESYESYESYES!

Neon, cartoonishly crying: And I had so many dreams....dreams of victory, fame, fortune....

Emerald: Shut up and give me your underwear.

Neon: Wow. No one’s said that to me in weeks.

Emerald: Wait....who’s said that to you before?

Neon: Not important. And fine, I guess since you won and all... *sigh* Fine. *pushes down her shorts from beneath her skirt* Bet you think you’re pretty lucky getting your hands on these, huh?

Emerald, blushing: I mean, “lucky” probably isn’t the word for it.

Neon, quickly pulling her pink underwear off before covering herself with her skirt: Here. *tosses the garment to Emerald* Enjoy your prize.

Emerald: I don’t know what that means but okay.

Advancing to the quarterfinals: Emerald

~~~

Velvet v Cinder

Velvet: Uhm...you aren’t going to use your robot arm, right? That wouldn’t be fair.

Cinder: I’ll use my real arm, don’t worry. I’m still going to beat you, though.

Velvet: We’ll see. *offers her hand* Let’s go.

Cinder, taking her hand: Yes, let’s.

Velvet: Ready....and....go!

Cinder takes an immediate advantage

Velvet: Oh no....

Cinder, successfully pinning Velvet’s arm: Haha!

Velvet, pouting: *whines*

Cinder: Hey, I won fair and square. No sad bunny eyes.

Velvet: *whines some more*

Cinder, frowning: Goddamnit....

Velvet, giggling: I’m just joking with you. *sighs* And I guess I have to give you something.

Cinder, blushing: Oh yeah, that.

Velvet, taking off her shorts: But seeing as how I’ve already had to do a dare that involved much worse than this, this is nothing. *takes off her brown and black striped panties and hands them to Cinder* Congrats.

Cinder, even more blushing: Yeah, thanks....

And thus ends the First Round! Here’s the updated bracket!

The Quarterfinals will commence soon with these matchups:

Neo v Blake,

Nora v Ruby,

Yang v Emerald, and

Pyrrha v Cinder!