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sergeantsporks · 2 years ago

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Gilded Family

Rating: Teen and Up, Gen

Ch 17 /?: When One Door Closes, Another Explodes

Ch 1, Ch 2, Ch 3, Ch 4, Ch 5, Ch 6 , Ch 7, Ch 8, Ch 9, Ch 10, Ch 11, Ch 12, Ch 13, Ch 14, Ch 15, 16

In which none of the previous golden guards or wittebro died, actually, they're all fine and living happily together as one big dysfunctional family

Ao3

Click

Twist

Jason slowly set his tiny version of an automatic door on the kitchen counter. It was a simplified version, without a sensor that would let the door ‘know’ when to open and shut. Instead, it simply would open when electricity flowed through it and had to be shut manually once the power was off. Jason plugged it into the outlet.

The lights in the house flickered and went out.

“Jason,” Amity groaned from the kitchen table. She and Luz were brainstorming possible human realm equivalents and replacements for portal door ingredients, and everyone else was out gathering the things that the human realm already had.

“Sorry!” Jason unplugged the door and padded to the basement. He picked up a flashlight and pointed it at the fuse box. “Let’s see…”

Something dark green and drippy was leaking out of the fuse box, and Jason jumped backwards, dropping the flashlight. He scrambled for the light, his hand smacking into it and sending it spinning across the floor.

No, no, no, no—

Jason finally managed to get the light again, and he pointed it at the box.

Perfectly normal. No mud at all.

Jason took a deep breath, tugging his fingers through his hair. “Okay. Okay.”

He tugged the box open, shining the light in. He flipped each of the circuit breakers off, then back on. The light in the basement flickered back on. Jason examined every inch of the box, looking for any sign of green mud.

Nothing.

Just the dark playing tricks on your mind.

“Eeeeesh.” Jason closed the box, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I need to get more sleep.”

He climbed back up the stairs to see that the other kids had returned, holding an antennae and an animal skull. Gus was examining the tiny electric door. “Did it work?”

Jason shrugged. “If it was supposed to trip all the circuit breakers in the house? Yeah, it worked great.”

“Aw, you’ll get it,” Willow promised, “At least it didn’t explode, or try to eat your hand!”

“Which the portal door won’t do either,” Hunter followed up quickly. His hair was getting long. Jason trimmed his own hair carefully, meticulously, every time it threatened to go over his ears or collar. Hunter wasn’t doing the same. Jason shook his head with a small smile. It was almost comical, watching another Grimwalker go through the exact same steps he’d seen a hundred times before from his siblings, even this far from home. Letting their appearance go, growing out their hair, distancing from everything golden guard. Some of them didn’t ever cut their hair short again—Alex, in fact, hadn’t gotten a single haircut since they’d arrived.

Luz rubbed her eyes, and Amity put a hand on her shoulder. “Time for bed,” she said gently, “We have some of the ingredients, we can try tomorrow. This is going to be it. Jason, I know you think the electric door powered by palisman magic is the answer, but have you figured out the power source, yet?”

Jason stretched. “Yeah. Yeah, generators like windmills and watermills generate electricity through nature turning a wheel. Luz suggested we use the palisman to turn the wheel in order to generate electricity and hopefully, magic. I got… Okay, I think I have the individual little generators set up, Luz and I built them this morning, I just need the turning bit.”

Hunter wordlessly held up a set of wheels with pictures of “hamsters” on them.

“Bedtime,” Amity said again. She, Willow, Vee, and Luz went upstairs. Hunter paused at the top of the stairs to the basement while Gus went down. “Are you coming?”

Jason waved a hand. “Just be a minute.”

Hunter went down, and Jason took out the little generators. All the other lights in the house went out, except the kitchen light. Jason squinted at the tiny screws on his generators, slowly fitting them onto the wheels. He spun the wheel.

Please work, please…

It sparked.

Jason rubbed his eyes. He still didn’t know how to connect the magic. They could hope that the palisman energy would just flow, but there wasn’t anything else he could do. He connected the rest of the generators, twisting the wires that came out of them into a single thick cable that went to the bigger generator Amity had built.

Jason put his head down on the table for a moment, taking a deep breath. He retrieved his little electric door and opened it back up.

“Alright. Alright, where… did I…”

“Huuuuuunter…”

Jason’s ears twitched at the sound. “Gus?” he called, “You okay?”

No response.

Jason pushed up to his feet, wandering down to the basement. Hunter and Gus were sound asleep, and he sighed in relief. His foot hit a puddle.

“Ugh, do we have a leaaaaaa—”

The puddle was dripping from the fuse box, a puddle of mud instead of water. It poured out, gushing like a horrific green waterfall, creeping towards the sleeping Gus and Hunter

“No. No, no, no—” Jason shook Hunter’s shoulder. “Get up, get up, get—”

The mud swirled around his ankles then crept up to his face, forming a hand over his mouth.

“Shhhh,” Uncle Belos’ voice crooned, “You were my favorite. You don’t need to die like them.”

Jason’s limbs were heavy, lead, he couldn’t move to tear away the slime, and it just kept pouring and pouring and pouring from the fuse box, dragging him back from Hunter and Gus who were still sleeping, how were they still sleeping?!

I’ll keep you alive to watch.

Jason stared at the hard wood of the kitchen table, blinking. Someone had turned off the light and moved the tools from his grip. The generators sat a safe distance from him.

Camila.

Jason rubbed his eyes, slowly sitting up and stretching. His shoulders popped. Jason pushed the chair back and padded into the hallway, squinting at a faint ray of light coming from upstairs. He crept up the stairs, footsteps completely silent.

Snip

Snip.

Jason poked his head into the open door to see Willow trimming Hunter’s hair, which was in absolute shambles, pieces hanging longer than each other, cut in jagged slants.

“Mrgh?” he managed.

“I tried cutting my hair,” Hunter mumbled in answer, “Willow is… fixing it.”

“Mmm.”

“I don’t have a lot of experience,” she said apologetically, “But I’ve gone with my dads to hair appointments, so I kiiiiinda know how to do it?”

Jason yawned. “Doing okay?” he spit out. His voice was still gravelly from sleep, and he cleared his throat. “Sorry. Hunter?”

“How about you?” Hunter shot back, “You just like sleeping at the kitchen table?”

“Heh.” Jason rubbed his eyes again. “I asked first.”

“So?!”

“Quit trying to make me lose focus. Geeze, do you know how many emotionally closed off guys I live with? I’m not going to get dragged into an argument to avoid it.”

“I’m not one of your siblings,” Hunter burst out.

Jason blinked, taking a step back. “Whoa—��

“I’m not one of your siblings, so stop acting like I am! You don’t know me, you don’t.”

“Hunter, it’s not—I mean, I’d like to know you!”

“No, you don’t,” Hunter’s voice cracked, “You don’t want to know me, if I didn’t look like—like this, if I weren’t a Grimwalker, you wouldn’t talk to me! You only want to help because you think I’m one of you.”

“That’s—Hunter, that’s not fair. Of course I want to help you because you’re a Grimwalker like me, but that’s how people work. You only meet people and form relationships because there’s something you share in common, even if that something is just a place, that’s just…”

“I wouldn’t have met you if I didn’t want you for my flyer derby team,” Willow offered. She snipped at his hair. “I was totally self-interested. But we’re friends now, aren’t we?”

Hunter brushed hair off of his shoulders. “I—” he made a frustrating growling noise, “It just feels like—rrrrgh… you think that… I don’t know, like that I’m just… that I’m one of… you all look like me, and I just… That’s what he…”

“You can be a grimwalker and your own person,” Jason offered softly, “All of us… I know you only spent a couple of days with us, but we’re not a collective. I know it… I mean, you’re sharing an appearance with a whole bunch of other people and that’s… it can be hard to get used to. But if you spent more time with us, you’d see that everyone has their own thing. Their own personalities.” He chuckled. “It can be a lot. But I promise you wouldn’t fade into the background. It can get hectic, sure, and it’s hard to keep up with everyone all the time. But you wouldn’t get forgotten. And you wouldn’t just be one guy out of a bunch of guys. That’s what Uncle Belos wanted, what he thought we were, but, I mean, he thought we were failures for choosing not to hurt people. We’re kind of over doing and being what he wanted.”

Jason scratched the back of his neck. “And who knows! Uncle is gone, and Luz seems bound and determined to get rid of the Collector, so when all this is over, we… we’re going to get to go out in the world again. Go make friends who aren’t our siblings. Set out on our own. Cyrus can finally go on a normal date, any of us could go on a normal date if we wanted to!” He shrugged. “Anyway, I guess all of that was to say… I want to help. Not just because you’re a Grimwalker, and we’re related, even if that is part of it. I just want to. And if you don’t want to live with us, that’s okay! That’s fine, that’s great! You can live wherever you want, it’s your life! But we’re not going to stop being your family. And we’ll be there to support you if you need it. Whatever you want to be, whoever you want to be, we’re cheering for you.”

“Finished!” Willow set her scissors down, dusting hair off of the back of Hunter’s neck. “What do you think?”

His hair was short, now, cropped close to his head, but still fluffy. Hunter smiled, brushing at the back of his head. “Yeah. Yeah, I like it! Thanks, Willow.”

Jason grinned. “Hey, as far as any of my siblings go, you’re the first one to have a haircut in another dimension.”

Hunter smiled briefly. “What are you doing up so late?”

Jason shrugged. “Trying to get my electric door to work. It tripped the circuit breaker, which either means that it uses too much electricity for the outlet to handle or…” Jason smacked his forehead. “Or hot wires are touching. Or touching a neutral wire. Ugh, literally had my wires crossed.”

“You can fix it in the morning,” Willow said firmly, “Go to bed, Jason. That goes for you, too, Hunter.”

“Yes ma’am,” Jason grumbled, making his way back down to the basement. He turned on a flashlight, shining it on the fuse box and watching it for a long moment.

Completely normal.

“Everything okay?” Hunter asked. He stood at Jason’s side, peering at the fuse box. “I’m sure you tripping the breakers didn’t cause that much damage. It’ll be fine.”

“Mm.” Jason switched the flashlight off, climbing into his sleeping bag. “Yeah. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

Xxx

“Everyone ready?”

Hunter clipped the jumper cable to the doorknob. The door seemed to mostly be held together with Willow’s vines, but Luz had been meticulous in their placement, so Jason assumed that was part of the construction. Even so, it looked… haphazard at best, taped and strung with odds and ends. Nothing like the stately (if crumbling by the time they got to it) structure that they’d come through.

The palisman began to run on their wheels, and the generators sparked and hummed. Something flowed out of the big generator, nebulous and strange. It was almost impossible to look at, impossible to perceive. Jason’s eyes slid right off of it every time he tried to look.

Magic.

The magic traveled up the wire and to the door.

Which then burst on fire.

Jason jumped forward, but Hunter was already out of range, patting his hair.

Good thing he cut it last night.

Vee put out the fire, and Luz dropped to a crouch on the ground, putting her head in her hands.

Gus poked Jason. “Hey. Hey, put the automatic door in.”

Jason glanced at Luz. Amity had knelt next to the human, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Gus, I don’t think right now is the best t—”

“There’s no better time! Come on, just try it!”

Jason picked up the tiny door, carefully detaching one of the wheel’s wires from the main cable and clamping it to his own door. “Okay…”

Emmeline started to move, not quite trotting, more like BOUNCING around the wheel. But it turned, and the magic started to sizzle, then flow across the wires, lazily curling into the door.

To the door’s credit, it didn’t light on fire.

No, instead, it exploded, sending shards of metal and wire flying everywhere. Jason yelped, throwing up his hands to protect his face. Tiny slivers of pain sliced across his hands.

“Jason!” Gus grabbed his arm. “Are you okay? Emmeline, are you okay?”

“Fine—I’m fine.” Jason examined his hands, wincing and yanking out a shard of metal from his hand. “Ow. Okay, so, that’s a bust, too.”

Luz perked up, pulling Jason back towards her house. “C’mon, let’s get you cleaned up, get some bandages on that.”

Her hands were firm and gentle when she cleaned the cuts on his hands, and she was so focused on his wounds that Jason was surprised beams of magic didn’t shoot out of her eyes.

“You okay?”

“Fine. I’m fine. We’ll think of something else, it’s fine.”

Jason tugged his hand out of her reach. “Youuuuuu are acting like my dad.”

“Thanks?”

“Luz. Are you okay? Are you really, really okay? It’s just that…” Jason took a deep breath. “You kind of seem like you’re taking this even harder than everyone else? And I’m worried you’re trying to take on too much.”

Tears welled up in her eyes, but didn’t fall. “Well, what am I supposed to say to that?” she whispered.

Amity appeared in the doorway behind Luz. “Hey, your mom had the idea of a picnic. She says there’s a really nice spot she knows?”

Luz wiped her eyes, plastering on an ‘I’m okay’ face and turning to face her girlfriend. “That sounds great. I could use the break. Jason?”

Jason raised a box of bandaids like a toast. “I’ll catch up. I’m going to pick up all the pieces of my door before someone steps on them.”

“I’ll send Ghost for you,” Amity promised, and then they were gone. Jason plastered bandages on the tiny cuts on his hands, and locked the door of the house with the spare key Camila kept under one of her rosebushes. Which, he reflected, shaking his hand as he gained a new cut, was very defensible, but not fun to get.

Jason headed back up the path, gingerly picking up spare bits of twisted metal and holding them cupped in his hand.

“Is the input too much?” he murmured, examining a burned wire, “Would a restrainer help? Or maybe adding more paths for the energy to travel? Maybe if the door was bigger? It was a pretty small model.” He sighed, picking up the animal skull from Luz’s door, slightly scorched. “Or maybe trying to mix magic and tech was just a bad idea in general.”

A blue eye blinked at him out of the skull’s socket.

Jason let out a strangled scream and dropped the skull, punting it into the woods. He shook his hands, checking them for any sign that something had been left behind.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

Jason took a deep breath. The cuts on his hands throbbed in time with his heartbeat, angry and fast. He dragged out a giant chunk of wood that had used to be part of the porch railing, and swung it up on his shoulder, cautiously approaching the skull.

He brought the beam down on the skull with a crunch, lifting and stomping it again, and again, and again. Finally, he nudged the broken pieces with his beam.

Nothing.

Just bone fragments and dirt.

“Mmmmmmmmmmmm…”

Jason shuddered, his skin crawling as if a thousand spiderwebs had been draped over him. He spun in a circle, looking for any sign of the glowing blue eye. No tracks on the ground. No residual magic. No disturbed or dying wildlife. Just the haunting, watched feeling.

The tree above him rustled, and Jason swung around with the beam, whacking at the air.

Ghost hissed, fur puffing up.

Jason let out a sigh, setting down the beam and reaching up. “Sorry! You startled me.”

The cat leapt down, stepping lightly on his arms and winding around his neck, paws on his shoulders. Jason scratched its fur absentmindedly, still looking around the forest. “You didn’t see anything weird, did you?”

Ghost purred in response.

“Huh. I mean, if he…” Jason shuddered, mind skirting around the possibility. “He’d hit a palisman, right? To regain his strength? And if you don’t feel threatened, then…” Jason pinched the bridge of his nose. “Then Hunter’s right, and I need to sleep somewhere that isn’t the kitchen table,” he grumbled. He reached up and picked up Ghost, setting them on the ground. “Lead me to Amity?” he suggested.

The palisman padded off, and Jason followed, still glancing around the forest. He scratched at the bandaids, checking the wounds again. Just bright red slashed across his skin.

Ghost led him to a sunny park, where the others had already set up late lunch. Camila jogged up to meet him. “Hey, Jason. You okay? You look like you’ve seen a…”

Ghost rubbed against her legs, purring, and Camila gave the cat’s head a scratch with a chuckle. “Pardon the turn of phrase, baby. A ghost other than this angel.”

Jason rubbed his eyes. “I think I’m just tired. Thank you.” He nodded to Hunter. “Hey, can I talk to you?”

Hunter glanced at Willow and Gus, then shrugged, following him. “What’s up?”

Jason rubbed his arms. “You haven’t… seen anything weird, have you?”

“We’re in the human realm. Everything is weird. Yesterday? I saw a creature this big.” Hunter held his fingers very close to each other to illustrate. “It’s called an ant. Can you imagine if we had things that small in the isles?! They’d eat us alive, and we wouldn’t even know they were coming!”

Jason reached out, then paused. “Permission to touch?”

Hunter’s eyebrows squished in a very confused look, but he nodded.

Jason grabbed his shoulders, staring him in the eye. “Hunter, focus. Have you seen anything from our world leaking into this one? Any magic, any creatures, any… eyeballs?”

Hunter coughed. “What?”

“Eyeballs,” Jason repeated, “Or… any weird feelings? Like you’re being watched, or that something’s not right?”

Hunter shook his head. “Did you see something?”

Jason let go of his shoulders, rubbing his eyes. “Maybe? I don’t know, it’s just… I see something out of the corner of my eye, but every time I try to look closer, there’s nothing there. And I don’t know if there’s really something stalking me, or if it’s paranoia, or if I just haven’t been sleeping enough, or… I don’t know, the human realm has a hallucinatory effect on me? I just figured I’d ask. But if you haven’t seen anything, then it’s… it’s probably nothing, right? Or maybe I’m just going crazy?”

Hunter eyed him. “You need a nap.”

“No offense, but I’m not taking self-care advice from you.” Jason stretched. “Oh, yeah, on that note, you know Luz better than I do, is she okay?”

Hunter’s shoulders tensed up. “Hahahahahahahaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh yeah, Luz is doing fine. Great. She’s finally home after being stuck in our realm, she’s doing spectacularly.”

“Mmmmmmhmmm.”

Hunter waved his hands back and forth frantically. “She’s just really focused on getting us home is all! Why would you think, uhhhhhhhh… yeah. She’s fine. We’re fine.”

Wow. You are the worst liar in either dimension. “Okay.”

Hunter squinted at him. “Okay?”

“Okay. Like I said, you know her better than I do.” Jason gave him a wan smile. “You’re a good friend to her, Hunter.”

“Oh… I wouldn’t say… I mean…”

“No. You are. I…” Jason shrugged. “I hope she knows that she can trust you to watch her back.”

Hunter flushed, crossing his arms, then ran back to his friends. Jason sighed.

Guess it wasn’t very fair to ask him to snitch.

Maybe I should ask Luz if she’s seen anything weird. Might explain why she looks so tired and haunted.

But first…

Jason plopped down on the picnic blanket next to Vee. “Whatcha pack?”

She scooted over, pushing the basket towards him. “Some fruit. Cheese! Wait, can you eat cheese?”

“I can eat cheese.”

“Okay, yeah, fruit, cheese, some peanut butter. Soda.”

“What’s that?”

Vee’s face lit up, and she handed Jason a bottle full of brown liquid. “Be careful, sometimes it fizzes up.”

Jason eyed the bottle and slowly unscrewed the lid. The bottle hissed threateningly, bubbling as if it had been boiled, but stayed in the bottle. He tilted it back, and almost immediately, a fuzzy feeling crept up his throat and into his nose.

Jason coughed and snorted, slamming the lid back on and pawing at his nose. “What—Vee, I don’t think people from our realm are supposed to drink—” he coughed again. “Vee!”

“No, it’s supposed to—well, it might be the way you’re drinking it. But it’s supposed to do that.”

“I think my nose is on fire. Humans drink that for fun?!”

“Alright, alright. No soda for Jason. Got it.”

Jason nudged an apple, just to make sure it was dead, before stretching out and crunching down. “So.”

“So.”

“The door didn’t work. Either of them.”

“You’ll figure it out.”

Jason sighed. “Yeah. Yeah, we’ll figure it out.

The picnic blanket had been spread out in the shade of a tree, but sunlight filtered through, making a dappled pattern on the blanket. Jason’s eyes started to drift shut as the warmth of the sunlight seeped into him, banishing the lingering cobwebs from the forest.

When he opened his eyes again, there were leaves covering them.

Jason sat up in a shower of leaves, dusting the green off. The sun had started setting, streaking dusty pink across the sky. “What the…?”

“Vee got you, too?” Willow asked with a grin, plucking a leaf out of her own hair, “Guess we know who we can’t trust around here.”

“I wanted to see how many I could pile on before you woke up,” Vee replied serenely, “Not my fault you’re both such heavy sleepers.”

“You should pour water on her when she’s asleep tonight,” Jason suggested to Willow.

Vee gasped. “Don’t you dare!”

“Guys,” Luz called in a hushed whisper, “Over here! Look, the fireflies are out!”

“Uh-oh,” Willow mumbled.

Jason jumped up, making his way over to Luz, who was catching one in her hands. The little creatures were everywhere, lighting up the grass in little sparkles. Jason snatched one up, and it sat on his palm, glowing agreeably.

“Don’t touch those!” Willow yelped, smacking Luz’s hand. Hunter’s staff whooshed just above Jason’s palm, and the bug tumbled off.

“Are you crazy?!” Hunter yelped, “Are you looking to get burned?!”

Jason laughed. “Oh, there are so many weird things about yourself that you don’t know.” He caught another bug. “I catch ‘em all the time, fire doesn’t hurt us, not unless it’s really hot. Neither does boiling water.” He frowned at Luz. “Not sure what you’re up to, though. You’re not hurt, are you?”

She shook her head, capturing another. “They don’t burn you in the human realm.”

Jason squinted at the little bug in his hand. “…Huh.”

Luz deposited hers in Willow’s hand. “See? Just a little guy!”

“Just a little guy,” Willow repeated.

Luz grabbed Hunter’s arm. “C’mon, look—” she grabbed a jar from the picnic basket and scooped a firefly into it, gently herding the creature with her hand. “Be gentle!” She handed Hunter the jar, and he wafted another bug into the container. His eyes lit up, and then he and Luz were running all over the field, shooing more into the jar.

Willow stood with a variety of plants curled around her arms, and the fireflies were landing on them, making her arms into glowing wreaths. Hunter ran back up, proudly displayed his jar full of fireflies, then settled down to watch them glow gently in the jar, riveted. Luz crouched next to him, watching the little creatures with a smile.

Jason sat down in the grass, and a few of the bugs landed on his arms. “Hello, there,” he said softly.

Do Mom and Dad know about this place?

Did they catch fireflies here?

Did Uncle Belos?

Jason couldn’t imagine his tall, stately uncle running around chasing fireflies, not the way he could picture his parents laughing and competing to see who could catch the most fireflies.

He held his hand out for another firefly. He could see wanting to protect this place, glowing with the soft light of the little bugs.

Did he even remember the little things like fireflies?

Or were they lost to the centuries?

Jason shook his head. In the end, it didn’t really matter, did it? There wasn’t a single person that Jason cared about that Belos hadn’t hurt in some way. Even if he’d wanted to protect this realm… it hadn’t been worth the damage he’d caused.

Hunter opened the firefly jar, and the creatures slowly floated up and away, like tiny light glyphs streaking up towards the sky where they joined the stars.

Jason traced unfamiliar constellations in the sky.

“You know, they say that fireflies can lead you where you need to go,” Camila commented, sitting down next to him, “Legend claims that they’ll light the way home.”

Jason hummed in response.

That would be nice.

He flopped backwards, watching the fireflies flit out of the grass around him and stream up and away towards the sky. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Luz watching them go, her foot tracing the shape of a light glyph in the dirt.

It would be nice, if some outside force could suddenly whisk them home.

Jason shook his head, reaching up and grasping for the fireflies.

But we’ll have to build our own way back.

#toh #the owl house #gilded family au #toh fanfiction #my writing #luz noceda #toh hunter #the golden guard

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overwatchworks · 5 years ago

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Detroit: Become Human AU, Part II: Jesse

There was a small smile on her face, making the gunslinger worried. She only smiled when she was interested in something—and the things she was interested in often did not make it back out of her lab the way they went in.

O’Deorain approached him steadily, gaze flicking back and forth from his eyes to his LED.

Link to Chapter I

Jesse had sent in a report of his diagnostics, then avoided Dr. O’Deorain as best he could over the course of the week he was on base. It was not too out of the ordinary, and Dr. O’Deorain never left her laboratory often anyways, which made it easier. But of course, Jesse’s luck ran thin before long.

She somehow found him in the training ranges, watching him shoot from the observatory with her hands clasped behind her back. There was a small smile on her face, making the gunslinger worried. She only smiled when she was interested in something—and the things she was interested in often did not make it back out of her lab the way they went in.

Jesse packed up early, looking up once again but not seeing O’Deorain. He left the training ranges, scanning the corridors uneasily. Locked onto the doctor’s biosignature before he could actually see her, Jesse sighing heavily. O’Deorain approached him steadily, gaze flicking back and forth from his eyes to his LED.

“McCree. Commander Reyes issued an inspection on your latest post-mission diagnostics. It seems as though your programming is glitching,” She told him airily, waving a hand as she turned. Expecting him to follow. Jesse did, not saying anything for the moment.

If the commander had ordered an in-depth scan—which was the only real option considering O’Deorain came to get him herself—he might be in some trouble. Deviant thoughts were hard to decipher, intricate abnormalities that no one had a true understanding of where they came from. Outgrowing the programming was one thought. Another was just a fault in the system, bound to happen with so many androids being produced at such a high rate.

His programming was very fine tuned and made with purpose, however. Nothing should have been acting up, especially when it came to moral choices he could make for himself. While the deviation process was intricate, humans tended to only understand the output of coding signaling something was off.

And they were afraid of that output. Of that outcome.

Of what it would mean if a specially designed, hyper-lethal undercover organization’s weapon were to be off in some way. Making it’s own choices, it’s own decisions. Something with a database of knowledge and advancements humans would never have suddenly thinking for itself...They feared no longer being superiour.

Alerts started to go off in Jesse’s vision, blinking along his peripheral. He tried to make his thoughts calm, tried not to run through a thousand scenarios of what would happen to him if O’Deorain found something she did not like. Tried not to look at the blaring 67% chance deactivation slowly ticking up the more he ran through the simulations. It was at 71% by the time they got to O’Deorain’s lab.

“Your LED is red, McCree. Is there something bothering you?” The doctor suddenly piped up from where she was tapping at a tablet, voice nonchalant. Knowing. That icy blue eye shifted to him. Fuck. Jesse gripped the edge of the examination table, glaring back at her.

“You know I hate these scans,” He muttered, O’Deorain grinning.

“It couldn’t possibly be because you have something to hide, now could it?”

“Look all you want, doc.”

“Oh, I will. Deactivate your skin,” She ordered, plugging him into the computers at his back with a long cable to the port at his nape. Jesse retracted the skin as he was told, watching it disappear over his hands, leaving them a clean white and grey.

“Your mental activity over the past week has spiked considerably compared to your averages. Interesting, considering the diagnostics report I was given just a week ago. It showed you entered a state of distress equivalent to that recorded in androids going deviant,” O’Deorian noted, Jesse’s LED flicking from the yellow he had just worked it back down to to red once more.

“Ah. So it is what you’ve been processing. You are aware of the...Implications of Blackwatch keeping a deviating model like yourself, yes?”

“I am not deviant.”

“And yet that is proven otherwise here just in the data I’ve received over the past ten minutes. Your neural processing code has changed from what you were initially programmed with, see here? You are creating your own programming, your own code. Is that not simply fascinating? Replicating the human thought process simply from outgrowing your program, like a child learning how to choose for themselves what they like and don’t like. But, your first choice was not the red or blue toy, was it? It was choosing between life and death.”

85% chance deactivation, stress levels 70%.

“And you made that choice on your own. No programming told you to leave that guard alive. How did you come to that conclusion, I wonder? A machine built for killing left someone alive when given the chance. Bypassing the very core of why you were created, because you felt a human emotion that was more powerful than your program. Incredible. You encrypted that optical sensory footage well, but I’m afraid I am simply better at finding out the lies from the truth. And I am detecting that you are lying about being deviant. Care to make an argument against me now, MC910?”

Jesse glanced at the warnings flaring too bright and overwhelmingly red, distress signals following beneath the 89% chance deactivation.

“I...I just did what I thought...It was calculated to have the same percent of success rate—”

“Your stress levels are becoming critical. Does being deactivated truly frighten you that much? You are simply biocomponents held in a shell of plastic with a pre-programmed set of algorithms in that fascinating brain of yours telling you what you should do. Is it telling you to be afraid of shutting down, or is that a thought process you created the more you experienced among us? Because most androids do not fear that. The equivalent of death for you. That is something distinctly human.”

“I-I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense to me either, I don’t—” Jesse stuttered.

93% level of stress, critical.

“Moira. You’re supposed to be running diagnostics, not interrogating him. Leave that to the professionals.”

Both Jesse and O’Deorain looked up as Reyes strode into the lab, a stern look fixed in place. He glanced at the readings of Jesse’s activity levels, then to the LED on his temple.

“He’s coming with me. I’ll take care of things from here,” The commander continued, unplugging Jesse from the monitors and urging him to stand.

He activated his skin once again, feeling somewhat safer with it on, in a strange way. They walked out of the laboratory swiftly, Reyes not giving him time to try and explain himself.

“Commander—”

“Don’t say a word until we get to my office.”

Jesse nodded, vision clearing from the red slightly. Safer than he had been not moments ago with O’Deorain, but not out of the flames just yet. Reyes’ office was tucked into the far corner of the base, obscure, but clearly meant for higher level personnel. The hallways were cleaner, lined with less doorways. Silent.

Jesse had been to it plenty of times for post-mission reports, and the few where the commander trusted him with information best not to be repeated. They walked inside, the door sliding shut with a hiss, computer screens immediately lighting up.

“Power down all devices, I just need a light,” Reyes called out, the holoscreens disappearing just as quickly as they had booted up, a single light turning on above them.

“Sit, Jesse.”

Another order he followed, this time without question. Reyes sighed heavily, rubbing a hand over his forehead. There was a pregnant pause before he sucked in another breath and sat up.

“Deviant, huh?”

“Commander, I—”

“Listen, kid. I know it’s not your fault, not really. I’m not even going to pretend I understand why this happens, or why it has to happen to my android, out of all of them out there. You’ve always had spirit, personality. I never thought anything of it, but command warned me to be wary. You know as well as I do what it means to have a deviating soldier. They’re gonna want to shut you down, make a better model.”

“Reyes, I know what they want, but I won’t do it again! It was a glitch is all, I...I failed the mission, and that happens sometimes.”

“It shouldn’t for you. Not in the way I saw. And now, whether we like it or not, Moira has all that information against you. You know she sure as hell isn’t going to keep it to herself. You probably just thought you were doing the right thing, and I’m not mad or worried or anything like that. You spared a life. There’s a lot worse that androids have done as their first act of deviation. But that still makes you deviant, and they won’t care what you did or didn’t do.”

“I trust you, Jesse, because I know you. And I see you as one of my own. You’re my soldier, you’re one of my agents, just like any of the human ones. I’m gonna protect you like one of them. So, this is me telling you now that if you want to survive, you run. You get out of here and get as far from this place as possible. Disable your tracking, take off your LED, disappear. Because they’ll hunt you down until they see you in parts at a dump, and that’s the last thing I want to happen to you.”

“You’ve been one of my best agents. I’m not going to let them take you away, so get a head start. As far as I know, starting now, I sent you from my office after we went over your tests, and you went to your quarters to rest. If you don’t show up to dinner, well. I wonder what could have happened.”

Reyes stared at him over his laced fingers, Jesse nodding and standing abruptly.

“I’m sorry, Gabe.”

“Don’t be. Now, go.”

The gunslinger left the office, walking steadily towards his own quarters, staring dead ahead. Software instability detected. He gathered his gun and some extra ammo, changed his clothes into something unassuming, grabbed his hat. Paused. Jesse touched the LED on his temple. Software instability detected. Slipped the edge of a knife between it and his temple, pushing away from himself. It came off with a click, falling to the ground and under the cot. Jesse grabbed his things and left the room, not looking back.

Software instability detected. ~~

#Detroit: Become Human AU #jesse mccree #gabriel reyes #moira o'deorain #overwatch #dbh au #eventual mcgenji I promise #WhiskeysWorks #remember when I said I wouldn't update this #smeagol lied

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metal-hearts-spare-parts · 5 years ago

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He hurt.

Not in the human sense, he could never fully simulate the sensation of pain that biological creatures experienced. But he was feeling the equivalent, and it sent deep aches through his core.

The little android sat on the floor of the bathroom he didn't use, his fingers digging so deeply into his arm he was tearing the artificial skin he grew, his usually soft yellow eyes glowing an uneasy shade of orange. Unstable, uncertain, agonizing.

The past few months had been unkind, exceptionally so. He didn't want to dwell on what had occurred but it had driven him to risky behaviors. He was desperate to feel, desperate to hold onto something, and he had opened his arms to welcome all manner of things in an attempt to trigger some kind of response in himself.

By willfully installing viruses, he found he was able to get close. So close. But he knew it wasn't enough. The AI spasmed slightly where he sat, a side effect of god only knew which virus he let eat through his code. He wondered how long it would be until his system crashed and gave up on trying to control the dozens of malware programs he had launched. He wondered who would find him.

He suddenly jerked, the thought sending a jab through him. Who would find him, who did he have that would care to search for him? He didn't even have a dependent to care for now who would need him, let alone someone who would miss him. Nobody had missed him in a very long time, if there was ever a time where he was missed at all.

He hurt, he hurt so completely and fully it was almost enough to shut him down out of distress. All he wanted was to be missed all he wanted was a place in somebody's life all he FUCKING wanted was to be somebody's child so he could be held and loved and not feel like such an island in the world-

In his hand he clutched his CPU, unplugged and freed from his body, his chest pried open and his systems swiftly, finally shutting down. The light in his eyes faded, and the rest of his mechanical body slowing to a standstill.

The tiny android sat on his bathroom floor, unmoving, his heart in his hand, waiting to be plugged back in. Not a thought ran through his mind, if only he could feel the relief that would have brought him.

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bettsplendens · 6 years ago

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Vesalius, AKA Nati

(warnings: mentions of medical things, all consensual and distress-free)

At some point during the Golden Age, a professor at a college of medicine decided that they needed a better example for the medics-in-training to work on. Cybertronian medical schools have ‘models’, of course- cold-constructed frames, without real sparks, with only the equivalent of a brainstem for a processor. Their systems function more or less normally thanks to a simple power source in the spark chamber to keep energy circulating properly, but they are not, and never will be, living things. The only issue is, they aren’t alive. They very clearly aren’t alive. They don’t move much, even with provocation. They can’t tell you if they’re in pain, they don’t have EM fields, they don’t feel like living things to a Cybertronian past an initial glance. A good start, but no substitute for a living subject.

Fortunately, this professor had morals, and didn’t want said subject to suffer. He did, however, think that the only solution to this problem of the subjects not being alive is to get a live one. Given the specifications needed, an MTO.

Enter- well, their name isn’t really Vesalius. Andreas Vesalius was a 16th-century Flemish anatomist, often considered the father of the study of human anatomy. There’s a Cybertronian equivalent, whose name is unpronounceable by human tongues, and that’s actually Nati’s name. Everyone calls them... call it the equivalent of Nati. Sort of a mangling-slash-shortening of “anatomy”.

Nati is partially transparent. Their plating is a sort of metal-and-plastics alloy, shot through with thin metal wires for conductivity. It’s weaker than standard armor, but it works fine for Nati, and is almost perfectly transparent. The clarity varies depending on the angle and the lighting. About 90% of their plating is transparent, save some of the plating around their pelvis, so they aren’t constantly flashing everyone. Much of their protoform and muscle cable material is a slightly modified version of the standard- just as strong and flexible as it should be, but changed to have no pigment, and with its fibers aligned neatly for clarity.

Viewed from the front, their wiring and veins are normal, but they have a lot of redundancies in both systems. Mostly tucked away behind and around the sides of their organs, so that repairing them goes as normal. That keeps them safe and comfortable, keeps their organs functioning properly, even with lines cut through. That way, they can be injured for someone to practice, without risking damage to an organ. Many major lines are rigged in such a way that they can be easily replaced when they’ve been repaired too often.

Oh, and, for obvious reasons, they can’t feel pain. Or, it would be closer to the truth to say that they can’t feel hurt. Their nerves feel pain signals just fine, and they’re processed differently than regular touch signals, but their processor lacks the bit of a normal processor that interprets pain as hurting. They’re aware if something is painful, aware of what would be considered severe pain for others, but feel no distress from any level of pain. And, as an MTO, they were set up to be calm-natured.

The result? A bot who looks a lot like those clear-skinned anatomy models you see sometimes. Minimal bio-lighting, but they glow lightly due to the energon in their lines. In ambient lighting, things are a bit blurry, but it’s easier to see if they’re lying down with a bright light over them. Most of their major organs are fairly easily visible, even the outside of their spark chamber. The portions of their chamber that can be seen anywhere other than surgery are hidden by just about the only other non-transparent armor on their frame, aside from pelvic plating and some of their helm plating. Preserve their decency and avoid scandalizing others and whatnot. Everywhere else on their plating, muscle cables, and protoform, servo to pede to face, is see-through. Some of their helm plating can be lifted away with ease, revealing a clear casing over their processor, which is studded with tiny lights. The lights, when their helm plating is removed, flash to show patterns of processor activity.

They also have an emergency measure. The lessons never put them in any true danger, but they did occasionally get to a point of needing a sort of shelter. Namely, a set of wires and energon lines, connected to a small reservoir of energon. If their energon levels get too low, their systems shunt all remaining energon into a set of lines to keep their spark and processor fueled, and shut off everything else. It’s not the most comfortable thing for them, everything gets cold, then numb, then they can’t feel anything but their helm and chassis, but they’ll be fine. All someone has to do is fix them and add in an IV line.

Nati’s job is to be an anatomy example. Everything from a 3d model, to a demonstration of the workings of organs, to an introduction to repairing and otherwise practicing medicine on living bots. As horrifying as it is in concept to have someone who you keep around specifically to injure and then fix, they were kept completely safe, and their commissioner/technically-owner made sure they were comfortable with everything. Went over procedures with them first while they were still new, talked them through things, made sure they knew they were allowed to protest if something upset them. Nothing ever really did.

They were occasionally dimly aware that this job would upset a lot of other people, mostly while they were doing things like watching one professor or another lift an organ clear of their frame to show people what it looked like, still hooked up to them. But they never really found themselves being upset by anything. They liked teaching. At worst, it was dull, something they’d done enough times that they’d just zone out and watch students instead of paying attention to much of anything. They paid attention often enough to soak up a great deal of medical knowledge, though.

They mostly lived on the college campus. Since all the students were busy and the professors were older than them and also busy, most of their friends were the janitors. Those friendships tended to start as Nati was apologizing for having bled everywhere, tripping over things trying to help clean up, and explaining in the same breath that it was fine! It didn’t hurt! It was just a student who fumbled tying a knot. Still creepy, with them being transparent and covered in energon, but sort of endearing. They had a large bedroom of their own, and they did originally have a berth, but they asked to have it replaced. Specifically, with a heavily padded version of the shipping crates that their inanimate-model counterparts came shipped in. They saw a crate and wanted one, so they slept in a tank-bot-sized crate, with the lid shut and everything. They put off enough light to illuminate the space and not be in the dark.

Most of the students liked them. Unnerving as it was to have them casually attempting to make conversation while they were bleeding out and ought to be in severe pain, they were nice. Tried to help, too, even though they were supposed to be not talking aside from stating what hurt most. Oh, and the trauma training- they were supposed to act panicked. Couldn’t manage any successful cries of pain, but they did wriggle a lot. And they tended to hug people who were freaking out too much. To the point where how well someone did on a trauma exam could be fairly easily assessed by the amount and spatter of energon on them. Small amount? To be expected. Large amount? Not great. Massive spurts, probably your patient ‘died’. Large amount, and in a hug-shaped splotch pattern? Your patient ‘died’ AND you panicked enough that Nati hugged you.

When the war started to get bad, and the college was collateral damage, one of the emergency medics who turned up found Nati trying to help. They hadn’t been trained as a medic, and their servos weren’t medic-grade, but they knew how to stop bleeding in emergency situations- and they couldn’t just not try! They wound up being more or less adopted by the emergency medic, a bot who could produce minor force fields, and the combination of force field friend and all their redundancies kept them alive for the rest of things. That and luck, and the occasional bout of being mistaken for a ghost, zombie, and/or vampire. Dying mechs hyped up on adrenaline and terror will mistake a transparent bot for a lot of things! (and so will college students who haven’t slept lately and don’t realize that the medical area next door has a live anatomy example. They wound up as something of a campus cryptid.)

They also made an excellent storage for transplant organs. Take them out scavenging for fresh organs, and simply affix a connection point to the organs that’s compatible with the connections in Nati’s frame. Unplug a couple of their redundancies, plug those into the organ, wrap the organ in something and tuck it up to them with some bandages, and their systems will keep it energized, fresh, and clean until it’s ready to be transplanted. Which they’re happy to do! It saves lives! It does look kinda horrifying, though, someone reaching under Nati’s bandages to remove an organ that’s visibly plugged into them.

Basically, Nati is a walking example of what could be considered body horror, and surprisingly sweet despite it.

Below this, NSFW details!

Nati’s first physical sexual experience, beyond a bit of idle poking, was in someone’s reproductive anatomy class. Another professor asked to borrow them as an example, and they were 100% up for that as soon as someone explained what it would involve.

And they do make an excellent example, because their equipment is transparent, too. You can see all the circuitry connecting the node clusters in their spike and in their valve lips, and the mechanisms of how it all pressurizes. And if you arch their back right, you can see their internal calipers. Works best with something for those calipers to clamp against, though.

Which is why this particular class goes from “why is there a slightly nervous-looking and very transparent bot sitting on a table on the front of the class” to “ohh dear fuck” pretty fast. Because the answer to that question is “so we can put them in stirrups, rig a machine to thrust a dildo in and out of them without obstructing the view, aim a couple cameras at various parts of them including the brightly-lit pleasure center of their processor, and have the best anatomy example ever”. You can even see the energy flashing along the circuitry lines in their equipment if you look up close.

And that coincidentally gives them a pretty strong exhibitionism kink.

Their first non-masturbatory sexual encounter is probably a student who was in that class, equal parts fascinated and turned on, propositioning them at some point after.

They’re a sweet little thing in berth. A little awkward, they don’t get too many partners (they look too weird and being in the dark makes it worse), but sweet. And terribly sexy if you like this sort of thing. If someone puts Nati on their front, they can watch the shifting of muscle cables as they squirm, and see the flickering of lights in their processor casing as their pleasure center lights up. Put them on their back, and one can watch one’s own spike spreading their calipers apart. It’s absolutely delicious.

#OCs #my OCs #Nati #sweet anatomy friend

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astradelta-undomiel · 6 years ago

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guys i just woke up from a very short nap and i am wondering if naps are the human equivalent to unplugging and plugging back in sth to make it work properly????

#random #thoughts #what the fuck #i should just go back to sleep i can't still function properly

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datamattsson · 4 years ago

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At least eight things PC laptops still haven't fixed

I've now gone through about three MacBook Pros since I started at Coraid in the UK eight years ago. Before that I exclusively used Dell laptops and various desktops with Ubuntu. I made the switch to Mac because of the horrid integration of the hardware with the software of the product itself. Sleep, hibernation and power management in general being the most painful experience. PC laptops back then were also a bit of carrying around a ton of bricks with a jet engine attached to it. So, I made the switch.

Recently I bought a "top of the line" Razer Blade 15" Advanced Model where the shopping criteria was 10th Gen Intel i7, Thunderbolt3, WiFi6 and a decent GPU to perform live broadcast video encoding on. This laptop is not my primary work laptop, it's custom bought for a multi camera video streaming rig and need workstation-like performance. I can't quite help myself using it for other things as it's incidentally faster than my old desktop workstation. So, after about a month of use, here's the review of things these PC laptop makers still don't get.

Non-power management and screeching fans

I've historically been a fan (no pun intended) of silent PCs. I buy coolers as big as the chassis can fit with large, slow fans. This is of course not possible in a laptop. How bad the temperature management in this device is completely beyond me. When I'm on battery, it steps down the CPU and only uses the Intel GPU. I can barely hear it and it's still very usable. The battery only last about an hour, but it's OK, it's very enjoyable to type on and have it in your lap. But as soon as I plug in the power and connect it to my Thunderbolt3 dock, it's "hold my beer" time and the fans go up in crescendo while 100% idle. No load what so ever. None of the shitty apps Razer preinstalled have no means to tweak this. I've read a few BIOS hacks you can perform on prior models of this laptop to tweak the C-states while on power. But really, have they not tested this thing in front of a real user in a home setting before deciding on the sound/performance levels? I totally get the high wind noise while using the GPU, playing games and rendering video, but not for typing up a blog post.

Howling in the night

I wake up every morning with the laptop on full jet. Some quick googling reveals that "Windows Update" will wake up the computer to check for updates. After it's done, it doesn't go back to sleep. This is the essence of poor software and hardware design. Not thinking about the overall user experience of the product.

A ton of brick

This laptop carry a 230W tax given it has a powerful CPU and GPU (well above the 100W maximum for power over Thunderbolt3). I understand this requires a large transformer. But why is this still a non-standard powerbrick where each vendor carry it's own proprietary connectors and voltages? Added frustration: additional power bricks are more expensive than Apple's and they've been unavailable to order for the last month (obviously it just became available while I just now checked again).

The dirty propeller

It's hard to compete with the aluminum die cast uni-body design of Apple, I get it. Just after I unboxed the laptop I could immediately see my fingers and palms on every surface that I had touched. How much would it take to have a coating that at least try resist the human residue, for a at least the first day? I also read on r/razer that some user had got his Blade a bit skewed out of the box. Phew, mine sure wasn't! Oh, wait... you were sat with it in your lap you said? I put it back on the desk and it's like a propeller. This makes me wonder, again, have they even field tested design before shipping it out?

Hardware is hard

I got my first blue screen of death (BSOD) within the first 24 hours. Plugging and unplugging USB devices while configuring the video streaming rig, but what caused the BSOD was unplugging the headset jack. A headset jack, an analog headset jack. In all fairness, I have not had a single BSOD or other "hangs" after that. Kudos!

Another hardware/software related quirk is that I have an external Thunderbolt3 chassis with a video capture card in it. I read everywhere that this setup is supposed to be hot-pluggable, in awe it actually works, until I decide to carry the laptop from the studio up to my office and plug it into my Thunderbolt3 dock. The DisplayPort will work and activate, but that's about it. The USB ports, audio and miscellany is stone dead. Rebooting is the only way out of it. I wish there was a "safely remove TB3 device" option, but there isn't.

Realtek is probably the only sound chip manufacturer that exist in the world for PC laptops. For good or for bad. If I leave the laptop in the video streaming rig and it gets the idea of getting to save power, I come back to all sound recording inputs stutter and being distorted, requiring all apps that had the sound devices "open" to be restarted. I thank apps like this one to truly keep the computer alive. The Mac equivalent is called Owly and is nothing short of awesome.

Update 6/13/20 Today's Windows Update disabled the Realtek ALC298 sound IC. No outputs or inputs work. No, I'm not angry or surprised. This is the way.

You look like a piece of pixel art today

I remember flicking on the webcam the day I got the laptop. Are we spoiled with FaceTime cameras or are we? Holy dear lord the $3000 laptop has a decade old lens and sensor in that thing. It looks absolutely awful. Thankfully I don't intend to use the integrated camera but I feel for the folks who do.

Razer Blade 15"

FaceTime HD

All your ports are belong to me

I get it. You want to connect all your legacy crap you've dragged with you for the last two decades. But when is it enough? USB-A, USB-C, HDMI, SD card readers and I don't know what else. Why are PC laptops peppered with ports that are irrelevant or obsolete? Thunderbolt3 can carry all the ports to a dock and you barely ever use any of them on the go. This is where I truly praise Apple for putting the foot down. I'm still surprised my latest Macbook Pro came with a headphone jack but it's all USB-C/Thunderbolt3 combo ports that carry everything, including power. PC laptop makers: observe and learn!

Don't touch the touchpad

The Apple Magic Pad, is, magic. Nothing even comes close, is anyone even trying? I tried to find a cross-compatible external touchpad for Windows and Mac but was unable to find a solution unless I want to perform a series of blatant hacks or pay some 3rd party for Magic Pad driver for Windows. A related driver, Windows or hardware issue has caused the "stop tracking while typing" feature to work since I got it. Is the solution to re-install Windows you think?

Anything positive to add?

Bottom line is that I'm very happy with my purchase. It performs really well for what I got it for, end of story. I did not expect anything would've improved with PC laptops over the last decade and I was absolutely right. The user experience is grating and the "product" simply isn't there. We'll never see a unified software and hardware experience where the consumer is in the design center. I've yet used any of the Microsoft Surface products but I can imagine that in a decade or so we'll be able to see the infancy of a Macbook Pro experience on PC.

#MacBookPro #Razer #PC #Laptop

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blakes-seven-or-so-blog · 7 years ago

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Episode 4: Time Squad

Looks like Avon found the wardrobe room and changed into something boring, but Blake, Gan, and Vila are still wearing their prison clothes. Jenna is giving Blake and friends spaceship piloting lessons, which they need because Zen is so uncooperative, but they still call it the 'expert'. Avon is pissy about all these Blake-adoring people on what he wishes were his ship. Blake shows his leadership skills by planning a terrorist attack on the Federation without asking anyone. Gan calls Avon 'not very bright' for suggesting it might be dangerous. Gan gets away with this because he’s seven feet tall.

En route to wreck the Federation's communications network, they pick up a distress signal from a drifting craft. Zen continues to be unforthcoming with information, and starts sounding a little unstable.

Blake and Jenna teleport over to the space equivalent of a broken-down ‘58 VW bug full of frozen dead guys. Only, they aren't all dead. The SS Nederland contains a small crew in cryogenic suspended animation, with the one failed chamber showing a frosty mummy, and the other two containing icy road warriors.

The teleport suffers a suspicious breakdown and they have to manually bring the entire VW inside the Liberator to get out, because Zen refuses to help. Once 'Magic Hands' Avon gets them safely in the hold, him and Vila join Blake in the VW just to see how many people you can fit in one. (spoilers: turns out you can get seven people in it if one hides in the trunk)

While the popsicle people are thawing out, Blake takes a very reluctant crew of Vila and Avon, with all their supplies in a Coleman cooler, to the planet of Saurian Major, where they plan to wreck shit. Now and for the next two seasons, they operate the teleport by pulling little levers and pushing buttons, instead of just pushing buttons like last episode.

There is fanservice even in this show.

The planet has some interesting, possibly sentient and possibly carniverous, plant life. Blake's plan is to attract attention to themselves, on the Federation communications hub planet, in hopes the native rebels will find them first. No really. Even Jenna, who likes Blake enough to hug him in the last episode and hold hands with him while they asphyxiate in the VW, is considering ditching him.

And then we see than Gan has been Capped by the Tripods! Oh, wrong universe. He's been Capped by the Federation.

Jenna checks on the thawing people and one of them is missing, but he introduces himself by throwing a wrench at her. She reciprocates by biting him. Future friendships are weird.

Gan uses a fancy magic eraser to heal Jenna's bruise, then goes to fulfill his role as ship's bouncer and "sort him out" with a curling iron.

Blake has started a campfire, I guess by burning the sentient plants, and then someone dressed entirely in red sneaks up on him and kicks him down a hill. It's Cally! She talks to him telepathically, which must be her full name. She's a guerilla fighter and her rebel friends are all dead. She plans to join them in one last suicide strike against the Federation.

She's a telepath because she's from the planet Auron, but she can only read the mind of another Auronar. She can send her thoughts to humans though.

Cally's story is inconsistent through the next few seasons. Here she says she was sent from her homeworld Auron to help the resistance on Saurian Major. Since her mission failed, she is exiled forever from Auron. Later she says the exile is self-imposed because of her guilt for failing her resistance friends. Still later the Auronar say she was exiled for going against their strict isolationist policy and becoming a resistance fighter. The whole ‘Auronar as as alien telepaths’ story is contradicted later too, when the Auronar themselves say they are genetically modified humans who have created a generation of cloned offspring who are telepathic, but all the older ones aren’t.

Back on the Liberator, both of the frozen road warriors are missing, and they plugged their VW into the main power supply without even asking. Jenna kills one and Gan reveals his brain implant, a limiter which prevents him from killing. He must have done a real number on the Federation guard who killed his wife. Probably crushed his head with his bare hands.

Blake and friends run around in a nuclear power plant and Vila tells 'Fingers' Avon he can pick the lock of the huge blast door. The doors aboard the London were too complicated for him, but this one isn't.

Jenna is attacked by the other thawed road warrior, and her curling iron comes unplugged. Gan comes to her rescue, sort of. His limiter really hinders that effort, so Jenna kills the guy. I don't know why they bothered rescuing the VW in the first place.

Federation guards are trying to get through the sixteen-inch-thick steel door with their fire blasters. It's going to take a while.

Zen finally finishes analyzing the log from the VW and says it's full of genetic banks, and the people on board were programmed to kill anyone they deemed a threat, which is everyone. Also, that were were FOUR. I repeat, FOUR frozen road warriors. Why a ship full of homicidal maniacs would have a distress beacon is anyone's guess.

While Jenna uses what looks like a box of very fancy vibrators to attempt disconnecting the VW, which is draining the Liberator's batteries, Gan tries to stay conscious. I guess his limiter functions as a rudimentary conscience and really beats him up if he tries to kill someone. He manages to teleport Blake and friends up right before the nuclear plant goes critical. Once again Blake leaves death and destruction in his wake, as they watch the whole planet explode.

After the fourth road warrior attacks Jenna with a dandelion weeder and gets electrocuted, Blake decides to dump the VW in deep space because it's draining their power and who cares about all the genetic banks full of embryos or whatever they were. Everyone except Gan, who says it's murder, thinks the genetic banks are full of homicidal road warriors and untrustworthy aliens, as Jenna puts it while glaring at her new rival Cally.

Cally joins them and finally, four episodes in, completes the seven: Blake, Jenna, Avon, Villa, Gan, Cally, and Zen. Yes, Blake calls Zen the seventh, because an untrustworthy AI who is a huge blinking orb with questionable motives makes a great companion! Avon is even more pissed than before. Despite his loathing for Blake and his reckless habits, he saved Blake’s life twice this episode, by docking the VW and again by covering him when Cally attacked on Saurian Major.

I’m going to start keeping a body count/damage report for Blake. So far, several people have died just by being associated with him :

? - all of his former friends and colleagues,

2 - his family,

20 - the dissidents and Outsiders massacred by Federation guards,

2 - his lawyer and that guy’s wife.

Then starting with the mutiny:

11 - prisoners and

5 - crew on the London,

dozens? - most of the cult on Cygnus Alpha and most of the remaining prisoners,

the entire planet of Saurian Major, with all the staff and sentient plants,

3 - frozen road warriors,

and the genetic banks full of an entire race.

Next: The Web

#blake's 7 #season 1 #time squad #review

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mikiri · 7 years ago

Text

How It Feels

Rating: G Pairings: Gen Summary: Keith gets back to base after a mission to find a pile of presents waiting for him on his bed. Their contents leave Keith feeling wanted. Notes: Is very soft and texture focused. A Keith Birthday fic, though late, but I finally had time. Season 4 spoilers. Gift fic for Elliot.

AO3

Keith stared blankly at the pile of gifts left on his bed. He had thought being in space would have prevented him from getting presents. Or that it would have been like last year, just him, the moon, Jack the rattlesnake and Cody the coyote. It was even more surprising that he’d gotten gifts even after leaving the castle to join the Blade of Marmora, he really hadn’t thought anyone would have gone through the effort to get a present to him, but apparently they had.

Keith took a deep, shaky breath as he sat down at the edge of the bed. He carefully picked up the smallest present that had been left on top, a plain black box with Galran writing on it. Keith opened the box, presumably form some of the Blade members, and found a set of gloves with retractable claws, and a card that he had to scan to read that said “So now even our smallest can have claws.” Keith frowned at the comment about his height but ignored it as he slid the gloves on. The fabric was soft and smooth, but he could feel the sturdiness. He twitched his fingertips to cause the claws to deploy, smiling at the smoothness of the deployment. If he hadn’t known there were claws, he wouldn’t have guessed there were just from the feel.

Keith twitched his fingers again to retract the blades and slid the gloves off before grabbing the next box. It was longer than the first and wrapped in sparkly paper, the tag hanging off it read “From: The Tailor To: Keith.” Presumably it was from Lance, he tried to find and edge of the wrapping but had little success. Eventually Keith gave up and just tore the paper off the box. The box itself was plain and white, so Keith slid the top off without much thought. Inside was a simple black and red striped scarf and a letter that rambled on for three pages. Keith set the letter aside to read later and reached in to feel the scarf. The scarf was surprisingly thick and plush feeling. Keith rubbed his cheek on the fabric for a moment, just enjoying the feel before wrapping it around his neck, making a mental note to at least wear the scarf in front of Lance to show he appreciated it.

The next box Keith grabbed was far heavier than the previous two and was a plain box that latched at the bottom until the previous two boxes. Keith pulled the box into his lap, balancing it carefully, before unlatching the top. He pulled the top off to reveal what looked like a small cake with the words “Happy Birthday Keith” written carefully in icing on the top. Keith assumed it was probably from Hunk, who he trusted with food, but space food was still always a little dangerous. Keith stuck a finger into the cake and licked the frosting off his finger. The frosting tasted almost like peanut butter, which he presumed Pidge had probably absconded all the leftover, and the cake itself was almost chocolate flavored, a little bitter, more like the dark chocolate of home, but still good. Keith carefully slid the lid back on and latched it so he could put it aside to enjoy after he’d opened the rest of the presents.

Keith surveyed the boxes left, a brightly wrapped one covered in bows, a smaller one wrapped simply in white paper, and a large black one with tape all over it. Keith considered his options then grabbed the one wrapped in white paper. Having learned from the last wrapped box, Keith tore straight through the paper and opened the box inside. The box contained a practical hair tie, a particularly fluffy red scrunchy, a soft bristled brush, a note and a short stack of datapads. The note indicated the box was from Allura and Coran, both seeming excited by the human tradition of gift giving to celebrate living another year. Allura had included the hair ties and brush for when he was working out, or if he had a diplomatic mission and needed his hair out of his face. Coran had included the datapads with a number of translated Altean myths, a compendium of animals they might run into, and then one was entirely full of stories Coran remembered from the days of the Old Paladins. Keith checked his watch to make sure he wasn’t going to be required anywhere soon, which he wasn’t, and then brushed his hair out carefully, enjoying the feel of the soft bristles brushing against his scalp. He brushed out his hair until it was shiny then tied it up with the scrunchy, which went exactly three times around his hair without pulling or tugging too much. Keith put the brush back in the box and moved it over to the side with the “things to do later” pile.

Keith hummed quietly to himself as he tried to decide which box to open next, the overly decorated box or the largest box. Eventually he decided to save the largest box for last and opened the brightly wrapped box covered in bows. This box, Keith was able to find and edge of the wrapping paper and carefully removed it from the box. The box was very square and rather heavy so Keith wasn’t sure what to expect. He thought it might be from Pidge so maybe she made him something? Opening the box he discovered it was a set of red headphones, a small orange data storage device, a smaller set of black headphones that would wrap around his ears, and a note with directions and well wishes. The note said that it was from Pidge, Hunk, and Matt who had apparently been found since he had left. The data device was apparently full of movies and music from Pidge’s computer as a reminder of Earth. The headphones could both plug in, the large ones were noise cancelling and the smaller ones were so he could take music to the training deck with him. Apparently Pidge had been working on making more headphones since Lance kept snitching hers and had finally had the time to do so. Apparently it was a prototype so if he had any problems he was supposed to contact them between mission. Keith slid the noise cancelling headphones on, the little background noise of the ship being silenced as he connected the headphones to the space mp3 player and put the music on random.

Keith stared at the final box as he bopped his head to the music. Eventually he reached forward, this was Shiro’s present, it had to be everyone else had already given him something. He surveyed the box with tape on it everywhere and decided it would be easier to just cut it. Carefully using his knife he cut the top off the box and placed both the knife and the top to the side. In the box was a giant plush comforter, when he ran his hands over it it felt similar to the scarf he was wearing, probably made with the same fabric. Keith picked it up and shoved his face in it, noting there seemed to be a certain level of weight to the comforter. Keith smiled, Shiro had provided him with a weighted blanket back on Earth ages ago, but it hadn’t made it to space so the new one was greatly appreciated.

Keith left the blanket in his lap while he investigated what else was in the box. There was a datapad with the Altean equivalent of a sticky note that said “watch me last” and a small box that rattled some when he shook it. Taking out the box, Keith inspected what else Shiro had seen fit to give him. The box was full of swatches of fabrics that mostly felt nice, there was one that Keith really didn’t like, it felt too scratchy against his skin, then there was Shiro’s class ring on the chain Keith had left it on when Shiro had given it to him back before Kerberos, the presence of which made Keith’s heart skip a beat. It was Shiro’s one real reminder of Earth, of before the alien war in space, before his kidnapping, when space was something shiny and new, waiting to be explored. Keith couldn’t imagine why Shiro had sent his class ring, it wasn’t like the reminder of the Garrison would bring Keith much comfort. Keith puzzled over it for a few seconds while the song moved to the next one and Keith dumped it all back into the smaller box. He put the small box back into the larger one and grabbed out the datapad before shoving the large box off the bed so he could lie down. Keith flopped onto his side, carefully avoiding the other boxes still on his bed and pulled the weighted blanket up over his shoulder. Relaxing he unplugged the headphones from the music player and plugged them into the datapad. There was a video queued up when he turned the pad on so he relaxed and watched.

The video was dark, there was some whispering before a voice clearly said, “Guys, guys, shhhh the video recording is started.” There was a little more shuffling before what seemed to be candles were lit, each of the Castle’s residents holding one, even Matt who looked scruffier than Keith remembered with the scar on his cheek. Hunk, the person at the beginning started again, “Hey, Keith! So, Shiro told us you didn’t get to celebrate your birthday back on Earth much, so we decided to do it out here in space. You being away with the Blade doing all the sneaky important things made our plans a bit harder, but we adapted.” Hunk paused and it looked like Pidge had jabbed him with an elbow. “Right. Anyways, so we sent all this stuff with Kolivan last mission we had in common, so hope you enjoy the Space Birthday Song.” Keith let out an amused snort at the name, Lance’s habit of just putting space in front of the word seemed infectious.

Shiro counted them in and started the song, “Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday to you.” Pidge joined in, voice clear, and the pair continued, “Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday to you.” Lance and Hunk joined in next, adding to the harmony effect, “Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you.” Matt, Allura, and Coran joined in last, “Happy birthday dear Kei-eith, happy birthday to you.” Suddenly Lance yelled, “Make a wish!”

There was a lot of yelling over each other but Keith knew he heard at least once, “Keith comes back okay!” Keith felt tears build up in his eyes that he tried to blink away. Then he head Matt’s voice call out, “Now blow out the candles!” The video descended into darkness again before someone turned the lights on.

Hunk wandered forward, presumably to turn off the camera, and Keith’s eyes were overflowing from the overwhelming amount of feelings he had right now. Right before the camera turned off he heard, “Happy birthday Keith, hope you come home soon. We’re waiting.” The screen turned off, its message given, and Keith curled up in a ball under his blanket sobbing, who knew you could miss a few people this much. Was this how Lance felt all the time when he said he was homesick? Could you feel homesick about missing people? Keith didn’t know the answer as he slowly slipped into an exhausted slumber, clinging to the pad like a teddy bear.

#Keith #vld keith #keith birthday week #fanfiction #fanfic #vld #season 4 spoilers

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