#then again the scanner isn't much of a big deal

[bonicexehog]

boom amy

[cerromoreno]

Starbula crumbs in the GOTG Vol 3 art book!!

Ok I’ve been meaning to post this FOREVER and life has been absolutely crazy…

But the GOTG Vol 3 art book finally released this summer… and the Starbula crumbs in there are kind of incredible. I don’t have a scanner, so please enjoy my low-tech photos of these pages. 😅

We start off with Peter and Nebula looking gorgeous next to each other on the back cover 🥲 And basically in the front of the group (aside from Rocket, the main character)? Delightful.

Ok, the next page of note isn't actually a Starbula crumb. It is a STARBULA FEAST WTF. Again, sorry for the low-quality picture -- it's super dark and I kept trying to take a picture at different times of day/locations to get a better angle lol. Take a look at this picture and its description:

Reading this for the first time, I literally couldn't stop laughing from disbelief and amazement. Starbula was potentially going to be SO in-your-face in the movie (more than it was already) and I am so happy to know this.

But honestly, I'm also kind of happy this moment wasn't in the film. Instead of Peter and Nebula having this ultra-cinematic, obviously-romantic moment where the world falls away and they stare at each other, the movie's focus is on Peter and Nebula beginning to truly move forward and heal from their pasts. That way, Nebula isn't just a Romantic Lead Replacement for Gamora, but is more of a subtle, farther-in-the-future (and endgame!) romantic partner. I really think that having this moment hidden just underneath the surface is amazing -- since I now totally headcanon that this is what happened in the scene, just off-camera. (In fact, you can actually see Peter run to Nebula's side in the distance of the shot of Nathan Fillian floating away!)

Maybe Peter and Nebula have been increasingly having these intimate, hyper-focused-on-each-other moments during missions, and they don't even notice it's a big deal. We basically saw this happening during the hallway fight near the end of the movie, too -- them being totally in sync and staring at each other instead of the henchmen they were fighting. Maybe some of their teammates are starting to notice, maybe not. But it's happening under the surface all the same. 🥹

Here they are zoomed in a bit:

And the last bit of Starbula content is this Star-Lord page:

Interesting who they decided to place next to Peter to show the different Guardians uniform options... 👀 Also, they look SO FUCKING GOOD TOGETHER

Ok, those are my GOTG Vol 3 art book Starbula moments! I hope these bring you as much surprise and delight as they brought me 💖 💖

[totesnothere04]

Deviant With a Big Defect Pt.2

The Bad Batch x Sister!Reader and Obi-Wan x F!Reader

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the fanart, screenshots, or gifs used with my stories.

Warnings: Mentions of bigotry.

Chapter 1 Part 3

Scientific Minds

You and Tech are sat around your scattered pieces of armor when you felt another pain shoot up your side. You whine and lay your head on the table.

"I do not believe you are okay (Y/n). It would make me feel much better if you go see Mistress Nala Se." Tech says with finality and you sigh as there's nothing you can do to fight him on this.

"Alright. I'll be back in a while." You say as you exit the room. You follow the familiar corridors of Tipoca City to the lab you spent most of your life in. On the way you bump into a clone by accident.

"Oh hey (Y/n)." He says and you take a closer look and realize you know him.

"Commander Garrett!" You say happily and give him a hug which he reciprocates. "How are the boys?" You ask him.

"They're doing alright. We're just ready to finally be out there in the action you know?" He asks and you nod slightly. You wince when another pain shoots up both of your sides this time. "Are you alright?" He asks worriedly.

"Oh yeah. I'm fine. Just some pain in my sides. Don't worry about it I'm going to see Mistress Nala Se about it." You tell him and he nods.

"Alright. You come tell me if it's anything serious. Say hello to Unit 99 for me." Garrett says and you nod.

"Only if you give my regards to the 75th for me." You tell him and he nods. "Bye Garrett!"

"Bye (Y/n)!" He calls back and as you walk away from him you shiver and look back at him. You brush off that feeling again and continue to the lab. It had been months since you felt that air of change. You shake yourself out of your thoughts when you see Nala Se. You catch up to her and stop when you reach her.

"Mistress Nala Se." You get her attention and she looks at you.

"Is something wrong (Y/n)?" She asks.

"Yes I've been dealing with pains running up and down my sides." You tell her and she hauls you into the lift to take you to her lab. The moment you sit on the table she's next to you with her scanner and datapad.

"Have you been experiencing an increase in appetite?" She asks.

"Yes." You say.

"Have you been experiencing these pains for an extended amount of time?" She asks.

"Yes. It started about a year ago, but it's been getting worse as time goes on." You tell her. She scans over you a second time and she chuckles.

"It is nothing to be afraid of. You are going through another growth spurt." She says and you look at her bewildered.

"But I thought standard clone height was 5 foot 11 inches. That's where I am now." You tell her and she shakes her head.

"You are a twin. Your brother is 6 foot 4 inches in height. Does it really seem so odd that you might be the same height, or atleast close to his height?" She asks and you shake your head.

"I guess not. Is that all it is?" You ask her and she nods.

"While you're here I would like to run a cranial scan to make sure this growth spurt is not effecting your brain wave activity." She says and you nod then lay back on the bed. You close your eyes and the flashing white light isn't as bad as it used to be. Time passes quicker than it used to and the bed is pulled out of the scanner. You sit up on the bed and she comes back in. "Your brain wave activity is at optimal levels, and you are free to go." Nala Se says and gestures to the door. You bow you head as you walk past her.

"Thank you Mistress Nala Se. I'll see you around." You say happily as you leave the room, and take the lift back to the main buildings. When you get back you head straight for the barracks. You feel a tap on your shoulder and you turn to see who it is. Your posture straightens almost immediately when you see Cody. "Commander Cody." You salute him and he chuckles.

"At ease soldier." He says and you allow yourself to relax just a little bit. "I'll wall you back to your barracks?" He asks and you nod in appreciation.

"Thank you Commander." You say and he nudges your arm.

"You can just call me Cody. How are you feeling? I know those pains have been getting to you." He says as he looks over at you.

"I went to see Nala Se about them, and she says I'm about to go through another growth spurt." You tell him and he seems shocked.

"But standard clone height is... Well, it's where both of us and Hunter are now." He says to you.

"She said that it's not odd for twins to be close in height." You tell him. "So I'll be somewhere near 6 foot 4 inches tall when I stop growing."

"Damn. I've already got to look up at Wrecker, Crosshair, and Tech. Now I've got to do the same for you?" Cody jokes and you chuckle.

"Sorry Commander. It's genetic... Manufacturing?" You say and he gives a full blown laugh.

"That it is I guess." He says and you stop outside your door.

"Thank you for walking me back to my barracks." You say and he nods.

"It's no problem. I try to be as nice to you guys as I can, because I know the regular clones don't really like you." He says and you shake your head.

"Eh who needs them? I've already got alot of accepting friends. I'll see you around... Commander." You tease him again and he rolls his eyes.

"I'll see you around (Y/n)." Cody says then leaves. You walk into the room and Tech turns to you.

"So? What's the verdict?" Tech asks.

"Well I'm not dying if that's what you're implying." You joke, but those blasted pains shoot up your sides again. "I'm about to go through another growth spurt." You tell him.

"Looks like there's one more that's gonna be taller than Hunter." Crosshair jokes and Hunter pouts.

"I'm not that short! I'm standard clone height!" Hunter says angrily and you chuckle.

"I'm sure I won't be much taller than you Hunter." You say with a smile and he puffs out a breath upset. You take a seat where you were before you left, and pick up your gear. "I'm going to have to wait to finish this until after I finish growing." You say and Hunter snickers.

"That's what you get for being tall." Hunter says and you shoot him a glare.

"Don't worry. It's an easy fix." You tell him and he rolls his eyes. You put your gear into your trunk and lock it.

~6 Months Later~

Nala Se measured you for probably the millionth time that month.

"I believe you are done growing. You have not been experiencing those pains for a few weeks, and your height remains the same." Nala Se says.

"So it's settled... I'm 6 foot 4 inches tall?" You ask her and she nods.

"The Prime Minister wishes to speak with you. Please make your way to his office." She says and you nod.

"Yes Mistress." You say and leave her lab. You follow the sterile corridors to Lama Su's office. You wait for the door to open for you and when it does you step inside.

"(Y/n)." He greets you.

"Hello (Y/n)." Taun We greets and you bow your head to them both.

"Please take a seat." Lama Su says as he gestures to a seat. You sit down and he continues to stare at you. "It has come to our attention that you got into a physical altercation with one of our science staff. May I know the reason?"

"She was trying to steal all my designs. She said that clones don't deserve the right to claim discoveries, or advancements in arms. It was heat of the moment and it won't happen again." You say and look down at your hands.

"And why is that?" He asks.

"Because I've resigned from the science division, and all of my designs will be reserved for my squad." You tell him and he nods.

"I understand you-" He cuts himself off as an alert for an approaching ship sounds. "Taun We please go greet our guest." She stands and bows to him then leaves. "I understand you were upset, but you must understand. You are far stronger than a regular human being, and trained to kill. Our scientists are not practice droids." He says and nod.

"I understand Prime Minister." You say.

"Nala Se has informed me that you have finished growing." He says and you nod once more. "Very good. Please finish designing your armor once our guest leaves."

"You- You want me to stay with you as your guest gets a tour?" You ask him.

"Yes. You are a prime specimen from our ranks, and I hope that you are able to impress him." Lama Su says and you bow your head.

"Yes Prime Minister. I will be on my best behavior." You say and the door opens after a few minutes of silence. The man raises a brow in question at you, but you stand when Lama Su does.

"May I present Lama Su, Prime Minister of Kamino." Taun We introduces him then gestures to the man. "And this is Master Jedi..."

"Obi-Wan Kenobi." He introduces himself and the two bow to eachother.

"I trust you'll enjoy your stay." The seat Taun We had evacuated came back down for Obi-Wan to sit in. They both take a seat and you follow after them. "And now to business. You will be delighted to hear that we are on schedule. 200,000 units are ready with a million more well on the way." Lama Su says, and you sit a bit straighter when you realize this man is a commanding officer. You could feel the confusion from Obi-Wan as he looks between the 3 of you.

"That's good news." Obi-Wan says.

"Please tell your Master, Sifo Diyas, that his order will be met on time." Lama Su says and Obi-Wan looks slightly taken aback.

"I'm sorry. Jedi Master-" Obi-Wan says.

"Hmm. Jedi Master Sifo Diyas is still a leading member of the Jedi Council, is he not?" Lama Su asks and you narrow your eyes at the 'Jedi'.

"Master Sifo Diyas was killed, almost 10 years ago." Obi-Wan says.

"Oh. I'm so sorry to hear that, but I'm sure he would've been proud of the army we've built for him." Lama Su says and gestures to you. You stand for the Jedi to see you well. He looks you up and down then looks back to Lama Su.

"The army?" Obi-Wan asks.

"Yes. A clone army, and I must say one of the finest we've ever created." Lama Su said.

"Tell me, Prime Minister, when my Master first contacted you about the army. Did he say who it was for?" Obi-Wan asks.

"Of course he did." Lama Su said then wiped some lint off of his skirts. "This army is for the Republic, but you must be anxious to inspect the units for yourself." Lama Su says.

"That's why I'm here." Obi-Wan says. Lama Su gets up, and you follow behind him and Obi-Wan with Taun We walking with you. You round a corner and look out over the growth pods. Your future little brothers all in the making, and were all special in their own way. Obi-Wan looked at you over his shoulder then turned to Lama Su.

"They're very impressive." He says and Lama Su nods.

"I'd hoped you would be pleased." Lama Su straightened back up after saying that. "Clones can think creatively you will find that they are immensely superior to droids. We take great pride in our combat education and training programs. This group was created about 5 years ago." Lama Su said as he looked out at a slightly younger group of clones. Obi-Wan turned to look at you.

"You mentioned growth acceleration." Obi-Wan said while continuing to hold eye contact with you.

"Oh yes. It's essential otherwise a mature clone would take a lifetime to grow. Now we can do it in half the time." Lama Su said as he turned back to you. "This is one of our more advanced clones. She is only a standard 8 years old, but looks and acts nearly 20 standard years."

"I see." Obi-Wan said and you all continued on the tour.

"They are totally obedient taking any order without question. We modified their genetic structure to make them less independent than the original host." Lama Su informs the Jedi who continues to observe the clones.

"And who was the original host?" Obi-Wan asks.

"A bounty hunter called Jango Fett." Lama Su says.

"And where is this bounty hunter now?" Obi-Wan asks.

"Oh we keep him here. Apart from his pay, which is considerable, Fett demanded only one thing. An unaltered clone for himself. Curious isn't it?" Lama Su says astonished.

"Unaltered?" Obi-Wan asks.

"Pure genetic replication. No tampering with the structure to make it more docile and no growth acceleration." Lama Su says and Obi-Wan once again turns his gaze back to you.

"I shall very much like to meet this Jango Fett." Obi-Wan says.

"I will be very happy to arrange it for you." Taun We says.

"What is her story? I believe if they're clones she would not be here." Obi-Wan says and Lama Su pats your shoulder.

"She was a happy accident. She is a very rare multiple defect clone." Lama Su says and you look away slightly ashamed.

"Multiple defect?" Obi-Wan asks.

"Yes. She is a twin. Not from multiples made like her, but she sprouted from another clone when he was placed in production. She holds immense levels of intelligence and has one of the best scientific and developmental minds. Any information you feed to her, her mind holds that information and files it away for later use." Lama Su said and Obi-Wan took a step closer to you. He had to look slightly up to be able to still be looking at your face though.

"And she came out a girl?" Obi-Wan asked.

"We did not know she was a girl until we separated them a year after they started to grow. However, it has not hindered her abilities. She is one of our top specimens, and thought it would be wise for you to beable to meet one of the best." Lama Su said.

"If I may, Prime Minister?" You said and he nodded for you to continue. "Why didn't you have him meet Commander Cody? He's the best non-defective clone you have." You ask him.

"I believe it to be prudent to show that even our defective clones are just as good, if not better, than our regular clones." Lama Su says.

"Does she have a name?" Obi-Wan asks.

"We typically assign numbers to our clones, and she is CT-9902-B. However, her unit has taken to calling her (Y/n)." Lama Su answers. "You may return to your normal duties (Y/n)." You bow your head to the Prime Minister and then to Obi-Wan.

"It was nice to meet you (Y/n)." Obi-Wan calls after you.

~Obi-Wan's POV~

I watch her walk away for a moment before the feeling that she gave off left with her. Odd, very odd. Something about her future that I could sense that would be horrific and traumatic.

"If it would be okay with you Prime Minister I would also like to talk to (Y/n) again. The Force was trying to tell me something while she was around." I tell Lama Su.

"I will gladly set that up for you in the future." Taun We said and we headed off to find this 'Jango Fett'.

~Regular POV~

The feeling that was in the air dispersed the further I got from the Jedi. I sat down at the table in our barracks and pulled my armor from my trunk to finish it.

2,760 Words

[eveandtheturtles]

Started with a Kiss Chapter 8: Return the Favour

Ship: Donnie x OC

Warning: This chapter contains a graphic description of an open wound. Proceed with caution.

Summary: A simple mission goes South and forces Kara to act. Donnie says more than he'd like.

A/N: Check out previous chapters on my masterlist or on AO3 :) If you're curious about Leo's secret outings - Check out Through Fire and Smoke that goes into this ;) BetaRead by amazing @thoughtful-raven you are the best.

Tags: @madammuffins @turtle-babe83 @tinkabelle19 @thelaundrybitch @m1dnyt3-w0lf @scholastic-dragon @sharpwindow @pheradream-15 @dilucsflame33 @leosgirl82

After her confession, Donnie didn't know if the situation between them got better or worse. She still avoided him. No matter how much he wanted to go back and stop himself from mentioning that bastard's name he couldn't. What was done was done.

At least the missions and patrol could get his mind off of his issues.

"Alright team," Leo spoke during the debriefing. "Tonight we have a big mission. Together with Chief Vincent, we’re busting our friend Big Boss' weapon deal.” He looked over his brothers. “You all know the procedure. We hit them quickly, break formations and let the officers do the cleanup. Any questions?”

Raph raised his hand. 

“Related to the mission, Raph,” Leo replied, annoyed.

Raph and Mikey snickered, exchanging a fist bump. Donnie shook his head. Every damn time.

“But seriously though,” Raph continued. “Where were you last night?”

It wasn’t exactly a secret that for some time now Leo had been leaving the lair on his own. This wasn’t so strange when Raph was doing it. They all knew why and where he was going. Not that he’d share much of the info but Donnie knew. All he had to do was to check the news for a ‘mysterious lone fighter’. The red-clad turtle always came back smelling like smoke, with rips in his disguise, and blood on his clothes - never his. 

Leo on the other hand was coming back clean, sometimes with a nicer smell than the one he left with.

“Irrelevant. Let’s go,” Leo cut the talk shortly by heading to the turtle tank.

“We’re gonna getcha Fearless!” Raph called after him. 

Donnie shook his head. As long as his brothers stayed out of his business.

"We have quite the company," Donnie said checking the x-ray scanner. "The drone detects about 15 people inside."

"Sounds like a party," Raph said, excited about the fight.

"Easy, we don't want to go in blind." Leo tried to cool down his enthusiasm. "We don't know what weapons they have. Kara said they have been planning this for months and the seller is high on the list of most inventive."

"And expensive," Donnie added. "She mentioned this is a 'special commission'."

"So we’ll hit them hard and fast enough before they can." For Raph things were rather simple.

Leo decided he didn't want to argue too much. "Donnie, do we recognize anyone there?"

"Well, there's Weasel, I don't see Big Boss there," the purple terrapin switched filters in the drone's camera. The soldiers were the regular assortment of minor criminals he easily pulled records of. The camera's angle switched. "Oh boy. Guys, you won't believe who is back."

"Who?" Leo leaned in. "No way."

"Who is it?" Mikey also got curious. He stuck his head between his brothers. "Hey! Isn't this that Boxman guy?"

"Baxter Stockman," Donnie corrected him. "And yes, that's him."

"What's he doing back here?" Raph shoved Mikey's head down so he could also see.

"Hey!" Mikey protested. 

"Well, he apparently switched to weapon deals," Donnie replied. 

"We need to be careful then," Leo repeated, pointedly looking at Raph. "We don't know what he has in store."

"Alright, alright," Raph huffed. "What do you suggest then, Oh Fearless Leader?"

Leo focused on the screen. He analyzed the way everyone was standing. 

"Let's go with Dragonfly formation."

Kara looked up torn from her thoughts when Splinter’s tail poked her forehead. They have been playing shogi again but her heart just wasn’t in it.

<What’s wrong?> The elder rat signed. He picked up on the language so quickly and tried to use it with her as much as possible, which was so kind of him.

His face was also very expressive once she got used to the whiskers and ears. 

She sighed. <Nothing.>

What he wanted to say next was too much for his knowledge so far so he still took a pen and paper and wrote: “You seem to be deep in thoughts my dear. I’ve been trying to get your attention for a couple minutes, I think there’s something.”

He was also way too perceptive to her liking sometimes. 

“Three days ago, I found a particular book with a page and a passage marked in it. I assume it was left for me. Do you know who it could be?” She replied, trying to turn the situation around. Get him to maybe confess.

“Perhaps it was April or your friend Cheryl? Leonardo keeps his collections close and for good reason.” Splinter wrote back. 

Kara narrowed her eyes. The rat was lying. She just knew it. She had no proof but her gut said otherwise. “It was Haruki Murakami. Kafka on the shore. Do you know it?”

Splinter stroked his chin, reading her message. “I do. In fact, it has been missing from my shelf for a couple of days now. I assumed Leo or you have helped yourself to it. How was it? I find the author quite insightful. What was the quote?”

He knew that she knew that he did it. No other way around it. But alright. Let’s play this game.

Kara sighed, stood up, and went for the book. She returned, sat down, and showed him the bookmarked page.

Splinter took the book. In a very dad way, he tilted his head back, lifting his chin up to look at the text. “You were hurt badly, and those scars will be with you forever. I feel sorry for you, I really do. But think of it like this: it’s not too late to recover. You’re young, you’re tough. You’re adaptable. You can patch up your wounds, lift up your head and move on.” He nodded thoughtfully and returned the book to Kara.

<What do you think?> he signed.

<It’s not wrong,> she replied, clearly ticked off. <But why they didn’t talk to me?>

<Hard to tell.> He looked over the marked quote. <It is a good quote, but it misses one thing.>

<What?>

Splinter sighed. Then he reached for a piece of paper and wrote his next response. “To truly move on, one must forgive themselves. For allowing themselves to be hurt. Being vulnerable isn’t a flaw of character. It’s a true strength and bravery to approach others with an open heart and mind. You’re never at fault for others' actions that hurt you.”

She read the message over once it was handed to her. She fought the urge to crumple the paper and throw it over her shoulder. <It’s not easy.>

<It is not, no.>

After that Splinter stood up, stretching his aching bones, and made his way to the kitchen to boil some water for his tea. The game came to a halt. Maybe that was for the best as Kara had a lot to think about. 

She moved to her usual spot on the couch. Not doing anything was out of the question but she needed something to keep herself busy. She grabbed her tablet and started sketching mindlessly - game controller, TV, pillow, teacup. Teacup? 

She blinked and focused back on her surroundings. A teacup and a teapot. And Splinter's back slowly moved away to his corner of the lair. He looked over his shoulder and smiled at her with a nod. Kara smiled back. She took her cup and inhaled the comforting scent of green tea. 

Things like these made her realize how much she missed her own family. Her dad. He wouldn't give her tea but a hot cup of cocoa. She wiped the tears forming in the corners of her eyes. It was a long time ago. She needed to get herself together. 

She didn't get much time to enjoy her drink. 

Right after the first sip, all four brothers rushed into the lair. They looked worse for wear but her eyes immediately zeroed in on Donnie. He was slumped over Raph's shoulder, barely holding on like a ragdoll. Their mouths were moving and they were clearly shouting. The noise echoed through the walls making it hard to understand anything. Clearly, their mission went very far south.

She and Splinter exchanged looks and rushed to the four brothers as they hurried with Donnie to the needle room. On their way, she looked down and her stomach went up to her throat as she noticed the thick trail of blood. Not good. Everyone was rushing about, freaking out. Raph had to push Mikey out of the room, while Splinter and Leo took charge but she could see both of them were at a loss. 

<What’s going on?> She asked Splinter.

The rat looked at her and replied calmly. “My sons are extraordinary. They heal fast but for some reason, Donatello isn’t.” 

<Let me take a look> She signed and took a deep breath before looking at Donnie.

He was placed on the table. He was weakly moaning in pain, while Leo was trying to hold him down as Splinter tried to stop the bleeding.

Splinter hesitated but allowed her. He stepped to the side. 

The wound was to Donnie’s right leg. Kara pushed the bandages aside and took a look. She tasted bile in her mouth but managed to hold it. It was nasty. Deep and wide, the bone was visible and splintered. She looked up from the gore and inhaled through her nose and closed her eyes for a second.

<Impartial, impersonal, think test subject, think theory,> she told herself then looked down again. 

Okay, so what was going on? The wound clearly wanted to heal but something was stopping it, reopening it. A chemical agent? She turned her head to Leo.

<What happened?>

“We went after the arms trade like you told us,” the turtle in blue started explaining. “They were trading some futuristic weapons, Donnie recognized some stuff as prototypes and,” he tried to recall more details, “Stockman was there. It got messy really quick. I noticed too late that Stockman was aiming a weapon at Donnie. I got to the bastard too late to stop him, only to change the trajectory.”

<What did he shoot him with?>

“I thought it was a bullet. I- we,” Leo paused thinking quickly. “I think Raph took the gun. Raph!” He yelled.

“What?!” Raphael rushed inside ready to fight if there was anything to fight. 

“Where’s the gun?”

“What gun?”

“That fucking gun!”

“Don’t yell at me! What gun?!”

“The one that shot Donnie!”

Kara winced from the noise of their arguing. 

“Boys!” Splinter struck the ground with his cane, immediately calling back some sense into the two brothers. 

“I tossed it in the living room,” Raph grumbled, his worried eyes on Donnie.

Kara tried to step into his line of vision. <Show it to me.> 

Raph merely glared at her then grabbed her around her waist and carried her downstairs. It was faster. The gun was on the sofa, discarded like a broken toy. 

“Donnie would know what to do with it, so I hope you do too,” the big guy said, letting her work.

The weapon was sleek and futuristic but she wasn’t interested in the design. The ammo was far more absorbing. She got a few round bullets from it and ran to Donnie’s lab to inspect them. 

The bullets were round. The seemingly liquid core, shimmering like glitter mixed with mercury, was encased in see-through material, smooth like glass but there definitely was more to it. This was easy. So much easier than the blood and… tissue and Donnie potentially dying… She shuddered and refocused on her work. 

A quick look under the microscope had her cursing. Nanobots. This was bad. So so bad. She immediately got to work. She pulled out all the tech she could and started building as fast as she could. Nanotech explained so much. The little robots were fighting the mutated immune system right now, hopefully, they didn’t get far. She didn’t want to think what might have happened had they already reached his brain or heart. 

Reprograming the bots could be useful but did she have time for that? Killing them was an option. But they had to make sure they left his damn system so… killing and purging? Fuck it. Let’s try that.

While working she was painfully aware of the timeflow and the fact that Donnie might… Not, thinking that. Once the device was ready she ran as fast as she could back to the needle room. Her hands were shaking and her eyes stung with the tears that threatened to spill when she saw Donnie again. 

He was ashen. His green scales almost lost all color. He wasn’t moaning in pain anymore, just painfully wheezing. He didn’t fight Leo anymore, just laying there still. 

Kara swallowed hard and put down a clunky prototype that hopefully worked. She set the generator on Donnie’s midsection and turned the dial on. On her phone, she typed in commands. She was aware that Leo and Splinter were talking to her but she had turned  and taken off her hearing aids as the impulse she was about to release might destroy them. Again.

She set up a petri dish next to the festering wound on Donnie’s leg and stepped back. One, two, three, she exhaled and pressed GO on her phone. The lights flickered. Four, five six… She counted in her mind. Then she switched the dial setting on the generator. Seven, eight, nine. 

The silvery liquid started trickling down onto the petri dish. Ten, eleven, twelve. The flow stopped. She pressed stop and removed the generator from Donnie’s stomach.

<He needs a transfusion,> she signed to Leo and started walking out of the room. The bathroom was too far away. She went to the kitchen and hurled into the sink.

Donnie woke up properly the next day. A proof of turtles' resilience. After a difficult night and tons of painkillers, he finally wasn't in danger of dying. It did leave him loopy though.

He looked around and smiled softly. Something inside him melted. His father was sleeping on a chair, Raph with Mikey on a pile on the floor. Leo, also in a chair, had his head on the bed, snoring softly. 

He didn't see-

A snap of fingers brought his attention to the door. 

<Hey,> Kara greeted him. She was leaning over the entrance wall, drinking her pink abomination. She walked further into the Needle Room and set the cup on a table. <Welcome to the land of the living.>

A dopey smile spread on his face. Ah, there she was. Even drugged up though, he noticed the deep dark circles under her eyes. Right. If anyone here had enough biotech experience to deal with whatever Stockman has done, aside from Donnie himself, it was Kara.

She moved to check his vitals and change the IV bag. 

<How are you feeling?> She asked.

<Like if I had a collision with at least three Raphs on Mach 3 speed,> he joked.

She giggled. <Something like that.> She smiled, wobbly but still.

The only reason he said what he said next must have been due to the amount of drugs in the IV. <If you're gonna be my nurse maybe I should get hit more often.> 

She snorted. <Correction. Leo was your nurse. I am the doctor.> 

Donnie looked at his brother and frowned. <Ew.>

She covered her mouth to stop herself from laughing. 

<You are very pretty,> he said. <And smart. I like you a lot. But you might sell our secrets to the highest bidder and I don't know if I can live with that.>

She stopped laughing. 

<You think I'd do that?> She tilted her head, frowning, concerned. She sat on the bed. 

<I have no point of reference aside from the fact you're HOAX and our enemies would pay you a lot,> he continued on. 

<I see,> she noted. 

<But I still sometimes want you to kiss me like you did in the van,> he added and she could help but smile and snort. <But you won't because you hate me now because I did a stupid.>

<We can have this conversation again once you stop being high as a kite.> She patted his arm. Then before she could change her mind she placed a kiss on his forehead. 

Quickly, she jumped off of his bed and left the room. She didn't notice Splinter and Mikey's open eyes following her out.

Donnie was recovering. As Kara played the doctor in this scenario, she wondered if he remembered the under-influence confessions but ironically the roles have reversed. 

Now it was Donnie who as much as possible, given the circumstances, tried to avoid her. Which gave her some incline into the state of his memory. 

She didn’t know if she wanted to continue the talk just yet though. Eventually, he realized she wasn’t going to push him to talk and so over the next couple of days they returned to somewhat natural interactions.

<9?>

"Go fish," Donnie replied. 

Kara grumbled and picked up a card from the stack. The lights flickered and she saw Raph enter the room.

"Sup nerds," he greeted them.

"Hi Raph," Donnie replied while Kara just flipped him off. 

"Nurse Leo has a night off. Again." The red brute smirked. 

"Joy," Donnie replied.

<Nah, that's in Pokémon,> Kara joked.

Donnie snorted. "Any 7s?"

<Go fish.>

"Come on, me and Mikey can't be the only ones who are curious!" Ralph huffed. "Leo somehow got a girlfriend!"

<Or a boyfriend,> Kara pointed out. <2s?>

Donnie handed her two cards with a pout. <Are you cheating?>

She blew him a kiss. <Any 8s>

<Go fish.>

"Boyfriend??" Raph frowned confused. 

"I told you," Mikey popped up jumping in immediately taking a seat on Donnie's bed, and pulling out markers to draw on the cast.

"Mikey, is there even free space?" Donnie looked at his younger brother. 

"Yep, and Michelangelo is fixing that!" Mikey grinned and Kara giggled. 

<Seriously, where have you been last week when we were watching the 90s Mummy?> Kara asked. 

"Huh," Raph blinked. 

<The only thing straight about him is his face when he lied about peanut butter,> Kara added with a raised eyebrow and a smug face.

Mikey cackled at that. 

"He ate the peanut butter?" Raph looked absolutely offended. “I thought it was Mikey.”

“And it wounded my delicate soul,” Mikey sighed, faking hurt.

"Our brother truly has dark secrets," Donnie deadpanned. 

"Pot - kettle, pop tart licker," Raph reminded him. 

Donnie flipped him off. "That was ages ago!" 

"Four years isn't long, brother," Raph smiled smugly. "And didya stop?" He crossed his arms. 

Donnie grumbled and looked at his cards. <Do you have any 4s?>

<Go fish,> Kara responded. <What's up with the 'pop tart licker'?>

Ralph grinned. 

"Don't you fucking dare, Raph," Donnie warned him.

"Hey, don't move!" Mikey scolded him. "You'll mess up my lines!"

"Oh, I am sure she noticed," Raph said, trying his best to incorporate signs he knew. "Donnie here has a thing for licking the icing off of the pop tarts then putting the cookie part back in the box."

<I see,> she grinned. There was a joke there she thought of in regard to his tongue skills but decided against it.

Donnie huffed and waved his hand to get the attention back to himself. Why was everyone picking on him?

<Are we still playing?>

<Sure,> she signed looking mischievous. <Poptart licker.>

Donnie looked at her offender. <Just you wait, I am asking Cheryl for something compromising you.>

<I am surprised you haven't dug something up already,> she shot back. 

<I said I was sorry,> he retorted, shifting uncomfortably on the bed.

That earned him a hiss of warning from Mikey. 

<And I forgave you, doesn't mean I will forget it though,> she gave him a pointed look. 

<Fair.> He sighed. 

<Give me your kings,> she told him and he handed her the cards.

She completed the set and placed it down. 

<Any 6s?> She asked next.

Donnie handed her his only 6 and she set the second set down. 

<Any 3s?> She looked so smug. How he hated that. Her lips were doing that thing, that one thing, where they quirked to the side and her lower lip just a tiny little bit stick out. Why was he even paying attention to that?!

<Go fish you card robber,> Donnie replied with an annoyed huff and she giggled at his expression.

Mikey and Raph exchanged looks over the pair's heads. 

"So, are we doing anything about Leo?" Raph tried to get everyone back on the topic.

“Why should we do anything?” Donnie asked. <Any 2s?> He glanced over at Kara knowing full well her answer.

She glared at him and handed over three cards. 

“Thank you~” he placed them in his hand. <Any 10s?> 

She stuck her tongue at him. <Go fish.>

“What do you mean why should we?” Raph stomped around the room. “Fearless gonna get himself and us in trouble!”

“Wow, who knew you’d worry so much bro,” Mikey snickered.

“I care for us,” Raph gruffed. “There’s no way some human would be interested in either of us like that.”

“Sounds like a bitter experience to me,” Mikey looked up and Donnie nodded.

“Are you not telling us something, Raphael?” Donnie grinned at his older brother.

“None of your business.” Raph shifted a bit and got this tone in his voice the two younger brothers recognized as ‘full of shit’. 

Kara decided not to weigh in on the conversation, keeping her personal opinion out of it. She glanced at Donnie. He caught her look and licked his lips on reflex. Kara bit her lips trying not to grin.

“Well, I don’t think we should worry too much, if Leo thought things were getting serious, I’m sure he’d ask me to run a background check on whoever it was,” the purple terrapin replied, trying to regain his composure. 

<Has that happened before?> Kara asked him, trying to hide her hand from Raph.

<Perhaps but don’t tell Raph,> Donnie replied also using his ‘whispery’ hands.

Raph glared at them. “I know enough ASL now to know when you’re talking about me, nerd squad.” He said slowly trying to incorporate signing although it was awkward and he made a few mistakes. 

<A+ for effort,> Kara grinned.

<Fuck you,> Raph replied. 

“Of course, you know that one,” Donnie shook his head amused, and Mikey cackled. 

That reminded Donnie… He glanced over at the next cast art. “Is that tiny Einstein?” He turned his head, staring at the figure with a tiny body and large head, like a Funkopop of the famous scientist.

“Yup! Kara gave me the idea,” Mikey replied and he and Kara high-fived. “Plus why wouldn’t a human be into us? We’re dead gorgeous! And we know plenty of humans who like us.”

“Yeah, as long as we protect them,” Raph shot back.

“April likes us,” Mikey pointed out.

“Well, yes but she did faint and tried to make us news when we first met,” Donnie reminded him.

“April’s like the one exception-” Raph started.

“Casey,” Donnie reminded him.

“One of two-”

“Verne,” Mikey tossed in.

“Three-”

“Chief Vincent,” Donnie added and he and Mikey fist-bumped.

“Fine!” Raph stormed out cursing under his breath.

Kara’s neck was starting to hurt from all this back and forth. <How many humans actually do know about you guys?> She knew they were an urban legend and popular cryptid story on the Internet but she wondered who else was in contact with them.

<A few actually,> Donnie told her both signing and speaking so Mikey could follow. <The ones we mentioned: Casey, April, Verne, Chief Vincent, the police officers we worked with in the past, you, Cheryl, and of course our enemies, who are humans. There’s Granny in Harlem, couple of people in Brooklyn.> He paused to think. <Well, there are the people we rescued and had to show ourselves in order for saving to work…>

“The folk at the Chinese market!” Mikey threw in.

Kara grinned. <Keep going and I’m gonna start thinking that your ninja ways aren’t all that ninja.>

<If you’re getting involved in people’s business people notice you,> Donnie shrugged. 

<Speaking of business - I have one for you.> Kara set the cards aside. <I was thinking-,>

<Always dangerous with you,> Donnie joked and she playfully shoved him.

"Careful!" Mikey protested. "Almost done."

<Sorry. As I was saying! I want to collaborate with you on something,> she finally finished.

<Alright? What's the idea?> He furrowed his brow ridges, intrigued but cautious. 

Immediately, Kara jumped from the bed and ran outside. 

"Soooo…. You gonna date her?" Mikey asked, capping his markers. 

"Mikey," Donnie warned him. 

"Just asking," the orange turtle raised his hands up. "Gotta go bro." He got up and started heading to the main area. Just before leaving the room, he turned around. "But if you aren't tapping that lemme know," he made finger guns and clicked his tongue.

Donnie threw a pillow after him. Kara caught the last part as Mikey made his retreat cackling. She decided not to ask. 

Kara sat on the med bed next to Donnie, putting a stack of papers on his lap, and opened her laptop on hers. He shifted a little, having her so close to him. The heat radiating off of her made him so aware of her that it was hard to focus on what she brought him.

He looked up at her waiting for explanation and distraction. 

<So, while I’m stuck here, I got a bit bored and went through my old scrapped projects to see if I could maybe revive one.> She signed with one hand, starting up her laptop and navigating the folders. <This one I thought would be pure sci-fi but I’ve seen some of your inventions and that holocomputer on your arm and I think we can actually make it real.> She finally opened the right schematics. <Plus, it might come in handy for you guys.>

Donnie leaned in closer to the screen. His eyes widened. This… this would certainly be useful. While he read through her files she dove under him for the stack of papers in his lap. Waving her hand, she got him to glance at her. <I started doing some math and redesigns.>

They were so close. Her face was right there. Donnie cleared his throat. <Sure, it looks complicated but with us both on it?> He looked at the papers. <Some of the construction pieces might be hard to acquire.>

<Not if you have a fully equipped lab, which I do have,> she pointed out with a grin. <How long do you think you will need the cast for? 3 weeks?>

<Two probably, we heal fast.> None of them broke a bone before but taking in other injuries the brothers have recovered from this was a fair assessment.

The excited smile on her face made him swallow hard.

<Excellent,> she said. She spun a pencil between her fingers. <Okay, now help me with this bit here.>

Obediently, Donnie checked out her equations. Why can’t feelings be as easy as Math?

[iviarellereads]

Fugitive Telemetry, Chapter 3

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Murderbot Diaries, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

In which someone wants to display their cake and eat it too, sort of.

Murderbot isn't surprised to have been more or less kicked out of the investigation. StatSec still don't want it there, and they're not going to change their minds so easily, no matter what Mensah says.

As a demonstration of this, MB goes into the other restriction imposed on it by the negotiations with Indah: it must broadcast a feed ID, and stop concealing its presence. MB really, really didn't want to have a feed ID, because either it lists all the human markers, like a name other people can use and a gender, or it lists a local feed address,(1) indicating that it's just a bot.

Neither of these is MB's ideal(2) but it understands why Indah thinks it's not that big of a deal. And, maybe choosing something basic to broadcast would have been worth it to get out of that meeting. It chose to broadcast a name of "SecUnit" and a gender of "not applicable". It's not sure what Indah did afterward, but Mensah and Pin-Lee sought comfort in their own ways.

Two days later, someone sent a photo of MB to a news stream on the station, identifying it as the rogue SecUnit from the corporate rumours. The photo was not taken from security footage, more likely from a capture camera in an augmented human given the angle. And, it was taken after its memory repair incident, given the location and the company it was in. Supposedly, nobody in StatSec sent it to the news feed, but MB isn't buying it.

After that, Mensah gave it the two boxes of intel drones. Indah objected, but Mensah said it was necessary for MB's mental health.(3) MB is pretty sure she'd already ordered the drones as the bribe from the end of the Home short story, though it wouldn't put it past her to use the drones for both that and telling Indah to fuck off.

In the present, such as it is, MB does have things to do other than the investigation. Like visit Bharadwaj again, as they've started research for her documentary, and she wants to see MB regularly for more meetings and interviews. It finds talking to her comforting. It's also bene helping Ratthi with data analysis for his reports, and he's been suggesting MB could do that as a job for other researchers. MB thinks that would be boring, though, at least with anyone except Ratthi, who is excited about MB's reports and invites it to go watch live performances at the theater on the station.(4)

Still, it can't help but want the intel for the investigation, so that it can figure out if it needs to worry about GrayCris on this or not. It could've done quite a lot before StatSec even got Medical down there to scan the body, if it still had systems access. It's not likely to be a GrayCris incident, but there's so much MB doesn't know about what happened, and it hates acknowledging that.(5)

MB's train of thought finally comes to a slow point thinking about how the dead human would need housing of some sort. It doesn't have systems access to find what it needs, but it might have another way. It goes to the transient block, as the most likely place they were staying. It sends a ping, and receives an answer 1.2 seconds later, probably taking so long because of startlement. MB enters the hostel, and finds a restocking bot. The bot follows MB as it walks in, a behaviour programmed for human comfort rather than practicality since it has visual sensors all over.

(I don’t know why bot behaviors that are useless except to comfort humans annoy me so much.) (Okay, maybe I do. They built us, right? So didn’t they know how this type of bot took in visual data? It’s not like sensors and scanners just popped up randomly on its body without humans putting them there.)

The bot first greets MB as a human, but MB says it doesn't have to pretend it's human, and they have a more programmatical exchange where MB asks the bot to identify the victim. The human supervisor asks if everything's alright, but both the bot (who the human calls "Tellus") and MB confirm they're just talking. The supervisor is clearly uncomfortable, but returns to their business.

MB knows it makes humans particularly uncomfortable, because humans like neat categories like "human" and "bot", and MB is both and neither. And, the "free" bot guardian system is like a magnet for humans who like to be patronizing(6) which compounds both their reactions to MB and its annoyance with them.

At any rate, Tellus helps MB identify the victim, and to narrow down the number of potential rooms they might have been staying in by sharing only rooms where the occupant left before the time of death and hasn't returned. Tellus is concerned about occupant privacy, but invites MB to come on an unscheduled maintenance inspection of unoccupied rooms as long as it deems MB's item search not in violation of it. MB offers that it only needs to look at clothing, on a hunch, seeking to match what the victim was found wearing.

Together, they do find a scarf that MB determines matches the clothes in material and pattern, and it assembles a report for StatSec with images of the scarf as well as the location of the room and the feed ID associated with it. It sends the report to StatSec tagged for attention by Indah and Tural, so it's not ignored, as well as to Tellus so it knows what's up when StatSec come to ask questions.

MB signals that it's ready to leave, and Tellus accompanies it back to the lobby, but as it goes to help clients, it asks MB about its next action. MB still doesn't have enough information, so signals "task complete", but Tellus suggests querying the arrival data before the victim, if he is Lutran, arrived at the hostel two days ago.

I didn’t respond because I don’t need a critique from a “free” bot(7) and I couldn’t access the arrivals data without Station Security’s permission anyway, and fuck that. Huh, I just thought of another way to do it. It was annoying that the “free” bot was right, but I needed to go to the transit ring.

MB finds a chair near another plant biome and sits. It wants to identify the ship Lutran came in on, but doesn't want to hack the system. It promised it wouldn't, and StatSec will do just that with permission as soon as they read its report. But, asking for information worked once, why not twice?

So, MB slips into the feed, and queries the available transports. It's tedious, and it can't be backburnered to watch media. But, after 57% of the transports in dock, it finds an anomaly: a cargo-and-human transport that responds, not with a protocol, but a salutation. When MB queries it further, it starts spewing error codes.

MB assembles its drones and makes its way toward the malfunctioning transport. The weapons scanners detect it but stand down, and MB knows the system will probably alert StatSec of its whereabouts. At least one human recognizes what MB is, a SecUnit, and watches it closely. It hates being ID'd so quickly after all the work it did to blend in, even growing out its hair.

Still, nine minutes later it's at the transport in question, and there's an urgency to its transmissions. It needs to get onboard, but it can't give StatSec any room to fuck it over. Mensah and Pin-Lee, its first choices, are in separate meetings, and several of the other team members are on-planet, Bharadwaj visiting family, Arada and Overse preparing for the survey they've got planned next,(8) and Volescu having retired.

That left me with the human most likely to want to drop everything and come watch me break into a damaged transport and the human also most likely to come watch me break into a damaged transport but only so he could argue with me about it. So I called both of them.(9)

=====

(1) See, I feel like this kinda backs me up that the local feed address isn't what Art used as MB's passcode, because it's not something unknowable to humans. Yes, it implies that it's not actively broadcasting that address, but (2) The mortifying ordeal of being perceived is Murderbot's worst fear. Its "Murderbot" name is private, even though its friends know it, they know not to use it. It's not quite a dead name, it still thinks of itself as that name, but at the risk of projecting a little of my bias and interpretation onto it, I think it (fairly) fears what people will think of it if it admits that it still sees itself as a killing machine, when it's not even really ready to think about what that means for itself. I have a feeling if the series ever ends, it will end with MB setting aside that name and choosing a new one. But, for now, this is where I think MB wants to do the thing in my chapter tagline. It wants to be a person, but it doesn't want to do person things or be perceived as a person. We're six books in and we've only just begun to scratch the surface of its issues. I'm just as grateful it fell in with Preservation, a whole society that, once they understand its intentions, is absolutely primed to help and support it in whatever it needs. (3) It's not even a lie, it's much more comfortable looking through drones than with its own eyes. Being cut off to just itself is limiting in a way it's not accustomed to. Totally justified. (4) For all that he was a little overbearing in his attempts to be helpful in the first book, Ratthi and MB have become real buds. I love it. (5) One of the most relatable things it's ever thought. (6) At least on Preservation it's just people who have a patronizing streak, and not… well, guardianship over adult humans has been in the news a lot lately and I have my own set of emotions about it and the sort of people it attracts. (7) As much as it complains about human biases toward it, MB has its own biases toward both humans-in-general and bots. (8) Hey look, Network Effect setup. (9) Who does that leave? Who's coming to "help"? From those not named, I'm guessing Ratthi and Gurathin respectively. MB has so little faith in the latter.

[trubluebecca]

Submitted this piece to the local art guild's big show. It's open to everyone in the area, not just members, so I'm not guaranteed to get in just because I'm a member.

I started traditionally, but didn't like how the ink was going onto the paper, so scanned what I had and finished it up in Clip Studio. Digital rough for kicks. Also of note, I took the photo it's referenced from.

Going digital unfortunately left me with a printing dilemma. I ordered from CatPrint the other month, but they're not going to be able deliver before the show drop off unless I fork over $$$ for an expedited order. Not familiar with printers around here, so I'm not sure who does what I want. I was going to call/go around the local places today, but had another idea this morning.

Maybe it's time to order the new printer??? My printer is pretty much shot as far as color images go. It's ok at solid blocks of color, but they are so off. Even after cleanings. It's probably over 10 yrs old. It's an all in one, so it's my scanner too, but even that isn't working the best on the Mac OS I'm using now. So I spent the morning looking at printers again (I'd looked the other month.)

I had narrowed it down to two, one that printed 13 x 19 edge to edge, and one that printed 13 x 19, with a white margin. The edge to edge one was $150 more on most sites. Then I started looking for paper, because well, I'd need that for this project too. I found a sampler on one site, put it in my cart, and it'd be here by Thursday. Then I searched for the more expensive printer and it was $50 less on the same site as the paper, free expedited shipping, it should be here this week. So I went for it.

This will still give me time to go to a local printer if I can't figure out how to work my new printer, lol. I also need to pick up a new, dedicated, scanner at some point since new printer isn't an all-in-one. I'll keep an eye out for large format flatbeds, but figured my all in one's scanner will work for the time being. Should have done this the other month when all the electronics sales were running, but I ordered a new computer and didn't want to deal with it all at once.

[marionettejonesdraws]

Kacchako Positivity Week Day1: Fragile

Ah~ Finally got over my anxiety and finished this piece. Then I spent a few more hours writing a fic to explain the situation. I end up doing that for other pieces too I guess.

Do not repost

If you like my work, please buy me a ko-fi. I need to upgrade my laptop(so many bugs). And I do need a new scanner. I want to make big A3 pieces! Coz details!!! Also making a custom drawing table with lightbox. Extra funds would be really helpful with my restart on illustration. OuO/ Cheers

Introductions~ the ones not explained on the Roses piece anyway.

Todoroki as runaway dragon prince, will drink a bar dry. Aizawa's as fae clergyman under the Church of Ibara, might die if he manages to finish that mug. Kiri and Sero as human mercenaries. Jiro as fae bard. Mina fell asleep waiting for Ochako to come back after running off with a stranger. Toru as light fae bar maid, decorates the pies and everything else. Dabi as the missing dragon prince currently working for the Ones Cursed by the Sun. Toga as bloodsucking demon also working with Dabi. They like the food here.

Storytime~

If anyone would ask, some would say that nothing is as fragile as the Thorn Prince's ego. But they would be wrong. It hasn't been true for many years now. Some would say it is the Rose Princess since she's been confined to the castle all her life. That too is just a common guess. It is something not many would expect--a secret kept from the plebians, the knights, and even the nobles. That seemingly endless sky forms it's first crack, because of a chance meeting? What does the future hold for these two young lords, and how will they mold it?

This scene: (Sorry for the messy construction. I'm really sleepy.)

Katsuki and Ochako are just coming back to the tavern after spending quite a lot of time having fun finding out more about each other. Iida and Kirishima run in and abruptly grab hold of their respective lords to separate them. "I, Knight of Rose Tenya Iida, in response to your violence against the Princess, have a duty to imprison you. Surrender or face worse punishment!" Tenya declares while drawing his sword.

BK: Princess? Oy! You didn't tell me about that. What's the big deal? (taking a big step forward)

Kiri: Hey, stop. Where did you run off to anyway? You two have been gone for 4 hours. This guy kept threatening to run you through! And goddamn, he runs fast.

Ochako: I thought that if you knew, you'd treat me differently.

BK: Differently? What would YOU do if you found out that I am a demon prince?

Ochako: Eh?!

Kiri: He's no- (gets punched)

BK: Let go already! (Points thumb on self)I am Prince Katsuki Bakugou of the Thorns.

Ochako: (trying to get past Iida's arm) It doesn't matter to me, one bit. We were having so much fun swinging swords on the rooftops. I don't want to miss a chance to make friends with someone so skilled!

Iida: gasp* How dare you swing your sword at such a fragile girl?

Ochako/BK: I'm/She's not fragile!

Iida: Regardless, you shouldn't mingle with demons without charm markings. They're dangerously unpredictable. Don't you know how quickly they turn into beast at the slight smell of blood?

Kiri: That's nonsense! I've been living with demons for a few years now. I've bled from sword training, yet I have never been attacked.

Iida: Silence! It doesn't apply to you,dragon. (swinging his sword very close to Kiri's face and pulling it back to a defensive position)

BK: Point your sword at him again, and I'd cut that arm off!

Kiri: Hey, no harm done. Let's just go home. (turning to face BK, ready to fly him off)

Iida: Monsters like you just bring disquiet and adversity. Do you even know your place in this country, demon?

Ochako: Don't say such awful things! Those accusations are simply untrue. (Still trying to get past Iida) You can't keep being like this to them. It's just one demon who-

Iida: You, how many times have I told you to stay away from trouble! (Pulling her cloak and pushing her back a few feet) We will go back to the castle this instant.

Bakugou shoves Kiri aside not leaving his glare on the knight. "For someone so large, you sure carry a small sword."

Iida: It's so I can fight in narrow spaces to prote-

"I'm not talking about that metal stick, you self righteous brick." BK huffs, walking closer. "You smell of fear. Someone with as weak a heart as yours can't protect Ochako."

Kiri rushes between them, lines growing on his face as he prepared to match BK's strenght. "Calm down. Calm down! We don't want trouble. We're just going home, right?" Kiri turns to face Iida to apologize but was met with the tip of his blade. He jumped back, pushing BK behind him. Bakugou's eyes turned to slits, markings tearing out of his eyes and cheeks, "You really got on my nerves, but this is different. I'm going to fucking kill you!" Kirishima barely stopped BK from pulling his sword out, eyes enlarged as he struggles to hold down his friend.

The surge of demonic aura flung open Iida's shield. "Iida, put down your sword!" Ochako pleaded as she tried to pull down his arm. "I command you! Put down your sword!"

Iida: If it's my blood you want then come get it!

BK: I'm not just going for blood. I'm going to fucking devour you!!!

Mina rushes out of the tavern, woken up by BK's demonic aura. "What's happening here? It's dangerous to let your power loose. If Iida finds out."

Ochako: Mina! Help me stop Iida. He's going to get himself killed.

Kiri: Mina? What are you doing here?

Mina was startled to see both the princess and her childhood friend, but upon looking farther she froze. 'He's the prince. The Thorn Prince!' At that very moment her instincts forced her to grovel.

Iida was taken aback: Mina what are you doing. Get up!

Mina: Lord Bakugou, please spare my idiotic companion! He is just doing his duty.

BK: He pointed his sword at my friend. Twice!

Mina: He's just very verbal with his hands, my Lord.

BK: What does that even mean, pink hair? This guy has been running his mouth about us demons. Am I supposed to just let that go?

Iida: If there is a witness, then it is true isn't it?

Ochako: It was just one demon! Pleaaase, put down your sword.

Kiri legs are starting to tremble against BK's weight. "Stop, Bakugou! The sun is setting!!!"

BK: Not till I take his head!

Mina shouts even louder hoping that they'd acknowledge her. "Take mine instead! Both of you, take my horns. I can't let my Lord and my companion fight each other over such trivial things! If anyone should be punished it should be me. I let her out of the castle and left her to roam unaccompanied. It's my fault!!!"

BK can't stand being ordered around, but this demon was adamant in her plea. "Who is your master, pink hair?"

Mina: I am Princess Ochako's servant my Lord.

BK: And who is this obscenely judgemental man to you?

Mina: A work companion who is dearly beloved to the princess. He is like a brother to her.

BK looks over to Ochako, still pulling Iida's arm back in the verge of tears: Tsk... Kirishima we're going home.

Kirishima almost fell forward as the weight against him disappeared. "Thank goodness." He bends over to Mina to help her up. "Hey, I'm glad to see you again."

Mina wrapped her arms around him. "Wow, you really changed." Kiri hugs her back, "Yeah."

BK from high up shouting: Stop exchanging looks. The sun's almost gone. Mom's gonna kill me!

Kiri: What are you saying? Geez. See you later, Mina. You gonna be here tomorrow?(unfolding his wings)

Mina: I'll send you a bird.

Kiri: Aww yiss! Bye~

Mina and Ochako watched them fly off into the sunset as Iida sheathes his sword.

Ochako gave a sigh of relief, her hands still trembling in Mina's. Iida grabbed on to Ochako's arm. "It's about time we go too. Pick up your things." He tried saying it as softly as he can with his strained breath.

Mina threw a loud slap across Iida's face. "What was that? How dare you! You put our lady in danger because of your personal vendetta? You go to the barracks on your own! We'll take a carriage."

Ochako's tears started to flow. "Mina, please don't be mean to him. He was just trying to protect me."

"No. That was just him being a jerk. He must have unnecessarily provoked the Prince. You saw how nice that guy is."

"But... but... *hnnggg*" Ochako buried her face into Iida's chest. "I thought you were gonna die! Stop starting fights. I was so scared. What if you leave me too? What will I do? I'm not powerful enough to save you yet." Her legs finally gave in after a whole day of running about. Iida caught her and lifted her up. "Tenya, promise me you'd stay safe."

Her expression was too much for Iida. He can't bare looking at her so he hugged her tightly, his head resting on her shoulder. "I'll do my best to keep this promise."

Mina is annoyed, but her lady needed to be reassured. "Fine~ We'll all ride the carriage."

They already left~

Todoroki: Well that's unexpected.

Aizawa: Urgh What farce. To think they'd actually meet. This is going to be troublesome.

Todoroki chugging down another mug: The aura he released isn't even a portion of his real power.

Aizawa: With luck, the charms on his body will restrain him till he is able to control it.

Todo: I think I can handle him easily. For now~

Aizawa takes a sip: Have you noticed the darkness lingering about them while they went around town?

Todo: You mean, aside from you? (Aizawa looking a bit annoyed.) Not till just a while ago. They got drawn to him when he let loose.

Aizawa: sigh~ What was the queen thinking? Doing this so close to the ceremony?

Todo: She loves her son. (Raises hand to get another mug.

Aizawa: A bit too much.

Todo: Cheers (clunk)

Aizawa: For the blue sky.

Todo: And the blue sea.

[bad-pun-king]

Making that sequel post now. This time I'm covering classic aliens outside the original 10.

Cannonbolt. You unlock him after you've played as each of the original 10 aliens at least once, so that's a minimum of at least 3 runs. His passive is that he's immune to fall damage but deals damage on enemies he hits after falling a certain distance. His primary is that he curls into a ball and charges forward with some degree of turning control but not nearly as much as when not active. Actually, he rolls when not using this too, but he doesn't do damage by just moving. His secondary is a much more dramatic version of his primary, launching him at high speeds into enemies for a lot of damage, and he bounces off parts of the map he collides with, but other than the initial aiming he gets no control and can't even jump on his own. I'd give this a 10 second cooldown. His utility is that he curls around an allied unit to protect them from harm for a brief period. They are unable to attck or do much else, but they count as out of combot for the purposes of healing. He can only hold them like this for 5 seconds and cannot use his secondary while holding an ally. (Yes, this means you can troll your friends in multiplayer.)

Wildvine. You unlock him by killing 25 mini mushrooms in a single stage while playing as Ben or one of his alien forms, a reference to his debute in Camp Fear. His passive is that he regenerates at 5 times the rate of other characters. His primary attack is a somewhat ranged melee attack like Upgrade's, although not in the form of a combo this time so he attacks more quickly. His secondary is a grapple like Loader's spiked fist, except the enemy he uses it on becomes effectively stunned, restrained as long as the secondary is held. Bosses can break out of this on a 1/3 chance every second, dealing some damage to you as Wildvine. I'd give this a 7 second cooldown. His utility is that he takes those pods on his back and throws them like grenades, dealing big damage in a small area. He can have 8 ready at a time but they take 8 seconds a piece to regenerate.

Blitzwolfer. You unlock him by gathering certain items while playing as Ghostfreak, namely a fuel cell, an oldwar stealthkit, an unstable tesla coil, and a radar scanner. A reference to both the episode Benwolf where Ben originally got access to him, and a reference to his connection to Ghostfreak. His passive is the same as Wildmutt's, he can sense enemies nearby and players can see those enemies highlighted when they're through walls. His isn't as good as Wildmutt though, only extending to 50 ft instead of 100. His primary is a melee attack where he attacks enemies with claws, again like Wildmutt's but this time faster since there's no bite. His secondary is his sonic howl attack, doing hefty damage to enemies in a large cone in front of him. 12 second cooldown. His ultility is leaping forward at an arc. If he uses his howl while doing this, it can stop him midair. 6 second cooldown.

Snare-Oh. You unlock him by completing the void fields using Ghostfreak. His passive is that he gains double the amount of gold from any given source. I know this doesn't fit anything Snare-Oh actually does, but I can't think of anything better so I'm going with the logic of mummies being associated with royalty in ancient Egypt. His primary is another long ranged melee attack like Upgrade and Wildvine, the weakest but fastest of these so far. His secondary is that he targets an enemy and wraps them in bandages similar to what Wildvine's secondary did. However, unlike Wildvine, Snare-Oh doesn't have to remain tethered to a single enemy and can wrap multiple enemies at a time, but they have a 1/2 chance of escape every second and he can't wrap bosses. I'd say 5 second cooldown. His utility is to disassemble into a stream of bandages to float around as if using the volcanic egg, becoming immune to damage for the duration of 5 seconds unless ended early. Unlike the egg, this doesn't detonate, or do any damage whatsoever. 10 second cooldown.

Frankenstrike. You unlock him by defeating your Umbra from the Artifact of Vengeance while playing as Ghostfreak, a reference both to his connection to Ghostfreak but also to Ben fighting Ghostfreak. His passive is that he takes half damage from overloasing elites. His primary is just basic punching like Four Arms, but with less damage. His secondary is to shoot a beam of lightning. Togglable like Upgrade's eyebeam, but also less damage than just melee punches. His utility is that he elecfrifies himself, effectively making himself damage similar to a overloading elites until he uses his secondary which has an initial enhanced blast but then returns to normal. 20 second cooldown.

Upchuck. You unlock him by using Ben or one of his aliens to defeat the Alloy Worship Unit, a reference to his debute in The Visitor. And now we hit a scenerio I had hopped wouldn't happen, an alien without a passive. I thought about it for awhile, but I can't think of anything for Upchuck, or some of the others on this segment. His primary is to lash out with his tongues, eating enemies low enough on health but otherwise just damaging them. His secondary is to spit out an explosive loogie. How many he has at a given time is based on how many enemies he's eaten. There's a 1 second cooldown between uses. His utility is to swap out his equipment with another one stored in his stomach, like MUL-T's retool. He only keeps the active equipment upon switching forms, regaining access to the other when becoming Upchuck again.

Ditto. You unlock him by defeating 100 enemies on a single stage as Ben or one of his aliens while the Artifact of Kin is active. Ditto is another case where there's no obvious passive for him. His primary is punching, although probably the weakest hitter yet for that. His secondary is to generate a clone of himself that acts as a drone and shares his abilities and items but lacks access to the omnitrix. 20 second cooldown. His utility is to reabsorb clones to heal himself. 5 second cooldown.

Eye Guy. You unlock him by defeating 3 Hoards of Many in a single run as Ben or one of his aliens. His passive is that while using Eye Guy the player’s field of view is increased by a few degrees, think like those perks in Dead by Daylight that do that. How much would probably be something you can mess with in the config editor for mods. His primary is to just shoot an eyebeam, a ranged attack. Not huge damage but easy enough to aim. His secondary is to shoot an elemental variation of his eyebeam from his shoulder, either fire, ice, or lightning determined at random. 4 second cooldown. His utility is merging all his eyes into a single eye for that one really strong eyebeam, which can even be charged, but he can't move or use other attacks while using it. 10 second cooldown.

Way Big. Yes, I know, his size makes him as awkward to make for this as Greymatter, although I think Way Big is easier given things like Regiggas and Gurren Lagann have been modded in. You unlock him by defeating every teleporter boss in a single run as Ben or one of his aliens. Again, no passive, at least unless you want to count size. His primary attack is stomping, dealing massive damage to enemies on the ground. Counts as melee. His secondary is to swing his arms at any airborn or boss sized enemies, dealing heavy melee damage there too but in the air this time. No cooldown. His utility is to fire his cosmic ray, decimating enemies caught in its wake at range. 15 second cooldown.

I was recently taught how to add mods in Risk of Rain 2, and I had an idea for a character to add as a mod, but I'll never be able to actually make this myself nor do I know anyone who could, so I'm screaming it into the void of tumblr just to get my thoughts out.

If someone sees this and decides to actually make it, great! I'd like credit for the idea in the description or something, but I don't expect this to get that far anyway.

The character idea is Ben 10. He starts out in human form, with pretty weak base stats. His primary is just punching, his secondary could be a dodge roll, like Commando's but weaker, and his utility is just a higher jump. He has no passive. But his special is where things get interesting. You activate Ben's special to activate the omnitrix. After you press it, you can press your primary, secondary, utility, or special to select an alien to transform into, completely overhauling your moveset. Which aliens you can choose are chosen in the loadout segment of the character select screen, and you always change back into Ben after using a teleporter. The omnitrix cooldown would be long, but also the only thing that carries over between transformations besides items. Probably comparable to Preon cooldown.

Each alien has their own passive, primary, secondary, and utility, but retain the omnitrix as their special.

I imagine you could unlock other aliens via achievements later on, but to start out you have the original ten; Yes, even Greymatter, here me out when we get there.

Diamondhead is a defensive form. His passive makes him immune to effects that would reduce his armor such as Cripple or Pulverized. For his primary he shoots shards of crystal from his arms that would individually be comparable to the nails in MUL-T's nailgun, but fired straight at a distance instead of a short-range spread. For his secondary he turns his arm into a blade and does a melee attack, dealing a decent amount of damage at short-range. Cooldown on this attack isn't anything huge, maybe 3 to 5 seconds. For his utility he punches the ground, creating a barrier in front of himself which can be used as cover or as a platform. Barriers have their own health, I imagine scaled to level like a base MUL-T's hp would be, and there can only ever be one barrier at a given time. Cooldown would be 10 seconds.

Four Arms is a more offensive melee form. His passive is that he can jump 3 times as high as normal characters. His primary is to punch, but with 2 of his 4 arms at once. Comparable to Loader but with faster attack speed. His secondary is that he claps his hands together hard enough to make a small shockwave, dealing some damage but it's more to stun and knock enemies away. Cooldown would be like 8 seconds. His utility would be a super jump, sending him hurtling up and in whatever direction he moves, or just up if he's standing still. If he normally jumps 3 times the height of others, this would be around 9 times the height of others. I'd go 6 seconds for cooldown.

Ghostfreak is a more unique form. His passive is that he floats instead of jumping, using the jump button to gain height and slowly losing height otherwise, although he can also gain or lose height by aiming the camera so that up or down would count as forward. His primary is that he does a combo melee attack, punching with one hand, swiping with another, and then the 3rd hit he attacks with some of his tentacles. The 3rd hit does more damage and hits a wider area than the first 2. His secondary would be that he can turn intangible for up to 5 seconds. He can move through solid objects other than walls or the floor like this, and is immune to all damage and effects, but can't attack. If he becomes tangible inside a solid object, he takes some damage and gets shunted away from it. I'd give this maybe a 6 or 7 second cooldown. His ultility skill is that he exposes several tentacles at once, scaring things in a cone in front of him and stunning them for a second. This would have a 10 second cooldown.

Greymatter, one that seems a bit odd to have be playable I admit, but I have ideas. His passive is that because he's so small, enemies don't notice him as easily. He can get 3 times closer to an enemy without aggroing it. His primary would be jumping onto an enemy and pinching them a specific way, flavored as pinching a nerve or messing with wiring depending on the enemy. This doesn't do significant damage but gives the enemy a harsh stun. His secondary would be that he can enhance drones. He can only enhance up to 5 drones this way at a time, and the enhancements only last a single stage, but the enhancements give the drones big damage/healing boosts. His utility would be that he can choose a single item you have at random and treat that item as if you have double the amount you actually have for a single stage. Naturally both the drone and item enhancement should have lengthy cooldowns, I'd say maybe 15 and 20 respectively.

Heatblast, an offensive ranged form. His passive is that he heals rather than take damage from blazing elites, the healing being what the damage would've been. His primary is that he throws fireballs at enemies, like Artificer's but slightly stronger, slightly slower attack speed, and no cooldown on primary. His secondary is that he takes a second or two to charge up a bigger fireball, which then explodes on contact with an enemy or the map, kind of like a stack of will-o-wisps but in 3 dimensions, I'd give a 7 second cooldown. His utility is that he can rocket propel himself to fly, also leaving a trail of fire that damages enemies in his wake, cooldown is 8 seconds.

Ripjaws funnily enough was actually among the more difficult to design a moveset for. His passive is that the lower his health is the more damage he does. His primary skill is a melee combo attack where he swipes his claws at enemies. His secondary is that he takes a big bite out of an enemy, doing big damage, although unlike Acrid's bite it does not heal him. Only has like a 1 or 2 second cooldown. His utility is that he leaps forward around 10 ft. Only movement on its own but can combo with his bite to increase damage. I'd give it a 10 second cooldown.

Stinkfly, a ranged and somewhat aeriel form. His passive is that his stench lowers enemy movement speed by 10% within a certain radius of himself. His primary is shooting blobs of goo from his eyes, which deal some damage but also slow enemies down by another 5%, or create puddles that slow enemies. While other aliens will probably be able to do it later too, notably Heatblast can ignite Stinkfly's goo to cause enemies covered in them or puddles of them to explode. His secondary is to attack with his stinger, doing more damage than his primary but in short range. Works best if he's on top of an enemy. I'd give only a 1 second cooldown. His utility would be flight that is identical to how Milky Chrysalis works but only lasts 10 seconds instead of 15, and has a 30 second cooldown instead of 60 seconds.

Upgrade is another utility form like Greymatter. His passive is that he treats items that could be considered mechanical as if he has 5 more of that item than he actually does. Unlike Greymatter's utility which is stage based, Upgrade's passive only works while you are Upgrade. His primary is a melee combo, albeit with longer reach than most as his arms stretch for the first two attacks and one takes the shape of a mace for the 3rd and heavier hit. His secondary is to fire a beam from his eye that does continuous damage. It is togglable, no cooldown, but has lower dps than the combo. His utility skill is to upgrade his equipment, which unlike his passive ability ignores the 'mechanical' requirement. Doing this will double positive effects while halving negative ones. Notably, this doesn't work on lunar equipment. Cooldown is 90 seconds and the upgrade only lasts for 30.

Wildmutt. To put it simply, Acrid without poison. His passive is that he can sense enemies through walls, which to players highlights those enemies. Only works a 100 ft radius centered on himself of course. His primary attack is to swipe at enemies with his claws, with the 3rd hit being a bite. His secondary is to charge through enemies, knocking them aside and dealing damage. Has an 8 second cooldown. His ultility is essentially Acrid's frenzied leap, but instead of getting two charges he can walljump with it. 4 second cooldown.

XLR8, another melee but with by far the highest focus on speed. His passive is that he ignores anything that would slow his movement or attack speed. His primary is combo where he attacks with his claw, kicks, and then whips with his tail. His secondary is that he dashes 20 ft forward, homing in on enemies in that direction. Cooldown of 9 seconds. His utility would be running in circles to generate a small tornado, vacuuming in enemies and dealing damage while they're inside it. 20 second cooldown.

For skins he takes his Omniverse appearance as base, and this applies to each of the aliens too. Would probably be able to customize alien skins individually and seperate from Ben though if ya wanted skins for the classic and uaf versions of aliens.

I'll probably make a sequel post later about other aliens to add. This is it for now.