#then railgun is the way to go

[greenteaandtattoos]

orrin getting to gush about one of their favorite series and characters in existence mikoto misaka from a certain magical index/a certain scientific railgun in the year 2024?? it's more likely than you'd think.

[atsuchiii]

I JUST FOUND OUT THAT ONE OF MY FAV MIKOMISA FANFIC JUST UPDATED

[technoarcanist]

WAR NEVER CHANGES. BUT,

WARFARE NEVER STOPS CHANGING

"I've seen countless reasons why most mech pilots don't make the cut, but one of the largest hurdles are the physical alterations. The implants and modifications done to the fleshware is so extreme that it's enough to push most would-be pilots away from day 1.

Back in the day, when mech tech was still in its wild west years, when the technology was still in its infancy, things were different. Levers, joysticks, switches, a chair, most of the first models were something between the cockpit of a construction vehicle and a fighter ship.

Pilots in those days still consisted largely of the usual suspects. Test pilots, army jocks, space force veterans looking for something new, the occasional crazy who lucked their way up the ranks. All you needed back then was to be fit enough to work complex machinery. 'Handler's wouldn't be a coined phrase for nearly a decade. I still remember being a kid and seeing repurposed older models in the mech fighting streams.

Everything changed with the Bidirectional Cerebellum Computer Interface. To say nothing of how it changed civilian life, it was a military marvel. The BiCCI saw the creation of Mechs as we understand them today. The first generation were just retrofits, older models with a pilot's chair, and even manual controls to use in an emergency, but even then we knew that was only temporary. Before long, sleek frames of sharp angles, railguns and plasma cannons were rolling off the factory floor.

Like many things, it began small, optimising first for cockpit space by removing the manual controls. Before long, my then-supervisors thought, "Why have this glass? Why not hook the pilot's eyesight right into the advanced multi-spectral camera system? Before long, cockpits were but soft harnesses made to house a living body, their very soul wired into the machinery. Obviously, for security reasons, I cannot tell you everything about how our latest cockpits work, but suffice to say we've been further blurring the line between pilot and frame ever since.

This drew a very different crowd. Out were the army jocks and powerlifters. The only ones who even dared to have the interface hardware installed into their brainstem and spinal cord were the dispossessed, the misanthropes, those who sought not to control their new body, but to be controlled by it. No AI can work a mech properly on its own, but our pilots are never really in full control either anymore. Those who do try to go against the symbiosis get a nosebleed at best, and vegetative seizures at worst.

And that was that. The only people left who pilots these things are those who had already been broken, those who sougt a permenant reprive from being anything resembling human. A lot of my department quit around this time. I've lost a few friends over it, I'm not shy to say. Did we knew we'd be bringing in the more vulnerable people? Of course we did. But, the wheels of progress must turn, as they say, and it wasn't like we were shy of volunteers.

In our latest models, we have refined an even more advanced frame. Again, security detail prevents me from divulging too much, but one breakthrough we've made is decreasing action latency by approximately 0.02s by amputating the limbs from our pilots and replacing them with neural interface pads.

Using the pads where the limbs once were, pilots are screwed directly into the cockpit, which itself can now be 30% smaller thanks to the saved space. And, of course, we provide basic humanoid cybernetics as part of their employment contract while they are with us. Not that most of them are ever voluntarily out of their cockpits long enough to make use of them. Even removing the tubes from their orifices for routine cleaning incurs a large level of resistence.

And, yes, some of them scream, some of them break, some become so catatonic that they might as well be a peripheral processor for their mech's AI. But not a single one, not even one pilot, in all the dolls i've ever trained, have ever accepted the holidays we offer, the retirement packages, the stipends.

As you say, there are those who like to call me a monster for my work. I can see why. After all, they don't see the way my pilots' crotches dribble when I tell them I'll be cutting away their limbs, or the little moans they try to hide when we first meet and I explain that they'd forever be on the same resource level as a machine hereafter.

Those who call me a monster don't realise that, even after going public with how we operate our pilots, even after ramping up mech frame production, we still have more than twice as many volunteers as frames.

Those who call me a monster cannot accept that my pilots are far happier as a piece of meat in a machine of death than as the shell of a human they once were.

Those who call me a monster never consider the world my pilots grew up in to make them suitable candidates in the first place."

-Dr Francine Heathwich EngD

Dept. Cybernetic Technologies @ Dynaframe Industries

[In response to human rights violations accusations levied by the Pilot Rehabilitation Foundation]

[pikahlua]

MHA Chapter 422 spoilers translations

This week’s initial tentative super rough/literal translations under the cut.

tagline 差しのべた手で送り出してーー さしのべたてでおくりだしてーー sashinobeta te de okuri dashite-- Sent off by the hand that reached out to him--

1 青山くん！ あおやまくん！ Aoyama-kun! "Aoyama-kun!"

2 走れ☆‼︎緑谷くん はしれ☆‼︎みどりやくん hashire☆!! Midoriya-kun "Run☆!! Midoriya-kun."

3 白く… しらく… Shiraku... "Shiraku-..."

1 攻撃が通じない‼︎固すぎる‼︎ こうげきがつうじない‼︎かたすぎる‼︎ kougeki ga tsuujinai!! kata sugiru!! "Our attacks don't go through!! He's too hard!!"

2 AFOと違ってマボロシにマジレスしてくンだけど！ オール・フォー・ワンとちが��てマボロシにマジレスしてくンだけど！ OORU FOO WAN to chigatte MABOROSHI ni MAJIRESU shitekuN dake do! "Unlike All For One, this guy is mad-seriously responding to my illusions!" (Note: The slang Camie uses here, MAJIRESU, means "a serious reply on a message board such as 2ch.")

3 "道"をつくるんだ‼︎ "みち"をつくるんだ‼︎ "michi" wo tsukurunda!! "Make a path!!"

4 死柄木に至る道を‼︎ しがらきにいたるみちを‼︎ Shigaraki ni itaru michi wo!! "A path that leads to Shigaraki!!"

1 「全因解放」 「ぜんいんかいほう」 「zen'in kaihou」 "All Factors Unleash,"

2 その本質は"感情任せ"に膨れ上がることではない そのほんしつは"かんじょうまかせ"にふくれあがることではない sono honshitsu wa "kanjou makase" ni fukure agaru koto de wa nai "the essence of which is not to leave all to my emotions and swell up."

3 数多の力を"抑し" あまたのちからを"よくし" amata no chikara wo "yokushi" "It's to suppress numerous powers"

4 "支配"してこその故 "しはい"してこそのゆえ "shihai" shite koso no yue "and control them."

5 数で勝ると思うなよ かずでまさるとおもうなよ kazu de masaru to omouna yo "Don't think you've outnumbered me!"

1 葉隠X はがくれX Hagakure X "Hagakure! [line cut off]" (Note: This text line is cut off. I assume the full text is "Hagakure-san!!" which wouldn't change the meaning here.)

2 光線の類Xわたし こうせんのたぐいXわたし kousen no tagui X watashi "The type of light rays X me." (Note: This text line is cut off. Based on the context, I can only guess she's saying something to the effect of "No matter the type of light rays, I can refract them!")

3 電磁投射砲！ でんじとうしゃほう！ denji toushahou! A railgun!

4 用意 ようい youi "Ready."

5 ウェイ UEI "Oui!"

1 小賢しい こざかしい kozakashii "Clever."

2 これ以上皆をーー これいじょうみんなをーー kore ijou minna wo-- "[You won't hurt] everyone any more than this--!"

3 全身ズタボロだろ！温存しろ！ 全身ズタボロだろ！温存しろ！ ぜんしんズタボロだろ！おんぞんしろ！ zenshin ZUTABORO daro! onzon shiro! "Your whole body is in tatters! Preserve [your strength]!"

4 あいつに届く力はおまえだけだ‼︎ あいつにとどくちからはおまえだけだ‼︎ aitsu ni todoku chikara wa omae dake da!! "Only you have the power to reach that guy!!"

5 俺たちが禦ぐ‼︎ おれたちがふせぐ‼︎ ore-tachi ga fusegu!! "We will defend!!" (Note: This word for "defend" is the same All For One used in chapter 363 when he said that heroes are the ones who "defend/protect.")

6 行け‼︎ いけ‼︎ ike!! "Go!!"

1 ママ！お姉ちゃん‼︎ ママ！おねえちゃん‼︎ MAMA! oneechan!! "Mama! Big Sis!!"

2 パパお姉ちゃ‼︎ パパおねえちゃ‼︎ PAPA oneecha!! "Papa, [it's] Big Sis!!"

3 梅雨っ つゆっ Tsuyu "Tsuyu-!"

4 ガンバレお姉ちゃあん ガンバレおねえちゃあん GANBARE oneechaan "Do your best, Big Sis!" (Note: From this point on, understand that I am using "Do your best" as this chapter's translation of ganbare. This word is something shouted when cheering someone on, such as at a sporting event. It could be translated in many ways into English, including "Do your best!" "You can do it!" "Go for it!" "Hang in there!" "Keep at it!" "Good luck!" "Give it your best!" etc. etc.)

5 障子くん… しょうじくん… Shouji-kun... "Shouji-kun..."

6 がんばれ障子くん…！ がんばれしょうじくん…！ ganbare Shouji-kun...! "Do your best, Shouji-kun...!"

7 俺たちの機動力じゃこの猛攻をかいくぐるのは難しいが おれたちのきどうりょくじゃこのもうこうをかいくぐるのはむずかしいが ore-tachi no kidouryoku ja kono moukou wo kaikuguru no wa muzukashii ga "With our mobility, it will be difficult to evade this onslaught, but"

8 少しだけあなたを運ぶことぐらいなら すこしだけあなたをはこぶことぐらいなら sukoshi dake anata wo hakobu koto gurai nara "if we can carry you just a little..."

9 障子くん しょうじくん Shouji-kun "Shouji-kun!"

10 梅雨ちゃん！ つゆちゃん！ Tsuyu-chan! "Tsuyu-chan!"

1-2 根性‼︎ こんじょう‼︎ konjou!! "Guts!!" (Note: I think they're shouting this word to hype themselves up.)

3 鋭ちゃん‼︎ えいちゃん‼︎ Ei-chan!! "Ei-chan!!"

4 三奈‼︎ みな‼︎ Mina!! "Mina!!"

5 頑張れ‼︎ がんばれ‼︎ ganbare!! "Do your best!!"

6 頑張ろ‼︎ がんばろ‼︎ ganbaro!! "Let's do our best!!"

7 うん!!!!!! un!!!!!! "Yeah!!!!!!"

1 何だ なんだ nanda What's this?

2 屍肉にしか見えぬ者共… しにくにしかみえぬものども… shiniku ni shika mienu monodomo... These people I can see as nothing but dead carrion...

3 何故 なぜ naze Why

4 死なない しなない shinanai won't [they] die?

5 ろくに動けていないのに ろくにうごけていないのに roku ni ugokete inai noni Even though they can't move very well,

6 目玉だけが めだまだけが medama dake ga only their eyes-- (Note: He's saying that the most they can move is their eyeballs, or in other words, they can only watch and do not much else.)

7 目玉をギョロギョロさせるだけの めだまをギョロギョロさせるだけの medama wo GYOROGYORO saseru dake no Helplessly watching on...

8 出来損ないに渡ってしまった事が間違いだって できそこないにわたってしまったことがまちがいだって dekisokonai ni watatte shimatta koto ga machigai datte Conferring this power to someone so worthless was a mistake! (Note: Text from speech bubbles 7 and 8 is a flashback to chapter 287.)

9 そうか緑谷 そうかみどりや sou ka Midoriya So that's how it is, Midoriya.

10 緑谷出久… みどりやいずく… Midoriya Izuku... Izuku Midoriya...

1 緑谷!!! みどりや!!! Midoriya!!! Midoriya!!!

2 おまえの omae no Your

3 弱さが よわさが yowasa ga weakness

4 ガンバレ GANBARE "Do your best!"

5 頑張れ‼︎ がんばれ‼︎ ganbare!! "Do your best!!"

6 オールマイトにはなかった OORU MAITO ni wa nakatta is what All Might didn't have.

7 頑張れ…！ がんばれ…！ ganbare...! "Do your best...!"

8 弱き強さが よわきつよさが yowaki tsuyosa ga The strength of weakness

1-2 こいつらを何度でも立ち上がらせているのだ こいつらをなんどでもたちあがらせているのだ koitsura wo nando demo tachi agarasete iru noda is what makes these guys stand up again and again

3 おまえがその��を止めぬ限り おまえがそのあしをとめぬかぎり omae ga sono ashi wo tomenu kagiri so long as you don't cease your steps.

4 射出座席は切った筈X ベイルアウトはきったはずX BEIRU AUTO (kanji: shashutsu zaseki) wa kitta hazu X "Must have bailed out (read as: ejection seat) X" (Note: This text line is cut off.)

5 あんたの仕業だな あんたのしわざだな anta no shiwaza da na "This is your doing, isn't it,"

6 オールマイト OORU MAITO "All Might?"

1 あの子らが目指したのは… あのこらがめざしたのは… ano kora ga mezashita no wa... "Those kids were aiming for..."

2 完全勝利だから… かんぜんしょうりだから… kanzen shouri da kara... "a complete victory, so..."

3 喪うものは少ない方がいい… うしなうものはすくないほうがいい… ushinau mono wa sukunai hou ga ii... "it's best if we lose fewer people..."

4 どの口が… どのくちが… dono kuchi ga... "Look who's talking..."

5 緑谷少年…あの日君が駆け出したから みどりやしょうねん…あのひきみがかけだしたから Midoriya-shounen...ano hi kimi ga kakedashita kara Young Midoriya...because you dashed out that day,

6 私も体が動いたんだ わたしもからだがうごいたんだ watashi mo karada ga ugoitanda my body moved, too.

7 あの日からずっと君はーーーー あのひからずっときみはーーーー ano hi kara zutto kimi wa---- Ever since that day, you----

8 頑張れ がんばれ ganbare "Do your best!"

9 頑張れ！ がんばれ！ ganbare! "Do your best!"

10 初日の下校を思い出す！ しょにちのげこうをおもいだす！ shonichi no gekou wo omoidasu! "I remember when we left school on the first day!"

11 今なら彼女が言っていた事もよくわかる気がするよ いまならかのじょがいっていたこともよくわかるきがするよ ima nara kanojo ga itte ita koto mo yoku wakaru ki ga suru yo "Now I feel like I really understand what she was saying."

12 麗日さん うららかさん Uraraka-san "Uraraka-san"

13 もう病院つくから… もうびょういんつくから… mou byouin tsuku kara... "is already headed to the hospital..."

14 頑張れ…皆も頑張ってる がんばれ…みんなもがんばってる ganbare...minna mo ganbatteru "Do your best... Everyone is doing their best, too."

15 でも demo But

16 「デク」って 「DEKU」 tte "Deku," well…

1 「頑張れ‼︎」って感じでなんか好きだ　私 「がんばれ‼︎」ってかんじでなんかすきだ　わたし 「ganbare!!」 tte kanji de nanka suki da watashi (literal translation) I like how it's got a feeling like, "Do your best!!" (official translation) It just screams, "Do your best!!" I kinda like it.

2 がんばれ…！ ganbare...! "Do your best...!"

3 今すぐ全ヒーローを日本へ向かわせろ！ いますぐぜんヒーローをにほんへむかわせろ！ ima sugu zen HIIROO wo nihon e mukawasero! "Have all our heroes head for Japan right now!"

4 しかし大統領AFOが勝利しー場合　我が国の保 しかしだいとうりょうオール・フォー・ワンがしょうりしーばあい　わがくにのほ shikashi daitouryou OORU FOO WAN ga shouri shi-- baai wagakuni no ho- "But Mr. President, if All For One is victorious, our country's protection-"

5 知るか行けえ しるかいけえ shiru ka ikee "Who cares? Go!"

6 皆の声が みんなのこえが minna no koe ga Everyone's voices,

7 聞こえる ��こえる kikoeru I can hear them.

1 頑張れ がんばれ ganbare "Do your best!"

2 がんばれ ganbare "Do your best!"

3 頑張れ がんばれ ganbare "Do your best!"

4 がんばれ ganbare "Do your best!"

5 ガンバレ GANBARE "Do your best!"

6 頑張れ がんばれ ganbare "Do your best!"

7 ガンバレ GANBARE "Do your best!"

8 がんばれ ganbare "Do your best!"

9 頑張れ がんばれ ganbare "Do your best!"

10 がんばれ ganbare "Do your best!"

11 がんばれ ganbare "Do your best!"

12 がんばれっ ganbare "Do your best!"

13 私の最高のヒーローだったよ！ わたしのさいこうのヒーローだったよ！ watashi no saikou no HIIROO datta yo! "...you were my greatest hero!"

1 頑張れ がんばれ ganbare "Do your best,"

2 出久‼︎ いずく‼︎ Izuku!! "Izuku!!"

tagline 1 No.422　緑谷出久：ライジング　堀越耕平 ナンバー422　みどりやいずく：ライジング　ほりこしこうへい NANBAA 422  Midoriya Izuku: RAIJINGU  Horikoshi Kouhei No. 422 Izuku Midoriya: Rising Kouhei Horikoshi

tagline 2 仲間が拓いた道の先ーーー みんながひらいたみちのさきーーー minna (kanji: nakama) ga hiraita michi no saki--- Ahead of the path paved by everyone (read as: [his] comrades)---

[dronebiscuitbat]

Oil is Thicker Then Blood (Part 7)

The one thing Uzi did not mind about her transformation was her ability to fly alongside N during scavenging missions. He often had to slow down (thrusters will always be faster than manual flying), but it didn't seem to bother him in the least, especially when she was sharing her favorite songs with him over short-range.

And no, it didn't all consist of Nightcore thank you very much. She was sharing the ones she thought he would like.

Of course, N liked all of them, so she probably could blare Nightcore at full volume and he'd like it, but she was still keeping it mostly mainstream, mostly because he seemed to like singing lyrics if he knew them, which was fun!

Because he was good at it.

He nailed nearly every note so long as he was familiar with the song, and it was gorgeous, his voice smooth as butter and just high enough to reach the minor keys without sounding off.

And yes, it did make her core flutter like it was full of a million butterflies, but that was besides the point.

“Hang on, lemme give you this one.” She sent another over to him, her wings flapping above her as they both glided comfortably.

“How many do you have?!” N asked excitedly, although it was definitely in the sense that he was eager to hear all of them and not that he wanted her to stop.

“Years worth of emotional repression leads to years worth of saved angst, what can I say?” She replied, poking a little fun at herself, she pushed ahead as he opened the audio file, scanning the ground for any parts she needed.

This one was a little angry sounding, but the guitar was nice, and there was a woman singing in the background that he wished didn't sound so sad, but it was pretty, at the very least.

“Do you want me to just give you my playlist? I've kinda just been sending you singles from it this whole time.” She fell back in line with him, wings beating above her, wow, he never realized how strong they looked before.

“Yes!” He beamed, being ecstatic to listen to more, it was leagues better than anything he'd ever heard play at the manor, plus he felt as if he was learning quite a bit about her just through her saved songs.

He noted the complete lack of love songs, there were plenty of breakup songs, but it didn't seem that Uzi had either never felt that way about anyone or she may have just not liked the sappiness of them. He wasn't sure, he was kinda hoping for the latter, she deserved someone to make her happy, surely?

“Here. But we can't spend all night doing this, it not really what we're here for…” She sent him a massive folder that was going to take a bit to install, in the meantime. They both flew upwards, trying to spot things from higher up.

“No worries, what are we looking for?” He asked, just replaying the same songs he'd already listened to on repeat, just at a lower volume.

“A hardware store preferably, that explosion melted all my railguns internals… stupid J… pain in my ass even in death.” She added, sounding bitter. He didn't argue.

“Hmm, I think I saw one last night. I can send you the map data?” He offered, not noticing how closely they were flying, he could feel each beat of her wings. The urge to wrap his tail around her hit him suddenly. She wasn't in danger. What was this about?

“Sweet! Yes!” She gave him a thumbs up, and so he sent the map data to her, and she went silent looking it over intently.

And here he was admiring how she could intently focus of his map data while also flying near perfectly again, if he ever needed to revist a location he had to stop flying lest he hit something. Not her though, her mind was so lightening fast. Not just in this, but in everything.

Man his best freind was so cool. And pretty.

She… was pretty. But that was random.

“Yeah, you did pass one, this way!” She did pause in the air for a moment, but only to turn to him and make sure he was following, he nodded, letting her lead him.

Her tail swirled behind her as she kept herself aloft, it was graceful in it's own way, since she had to think more about consciously flying then he did, and so she ended up doing more spins and tricks in the air just by flying normally. It was almost like watching a dance, albeit a bat-like one.

“We're here.” He heard her shout before diving, and he followed without question, landing beside her with a metallic thud in contrast with her graceful perfect landing.

Okay, what the heck was going on with him today?

“Anything specific?” He asked, dusting the snow off himself before it melted and refroze to his chassis. Ignoring the random intrusive thoughts that seemed to be increasing in frequency and intensity.

“Small screws, wiring, oh! And capacitors! Lots and lots of capacitors.” He knew at least what two of those things were at what they looked like, so he nodded and followed her into the blasted out store after beating the snow out of his cap.

Her tail whipped around into a flashlight, pointing it at the rotten shelves and the icesicles hanging above them, a skeleton was at the counter, still in uniform, and still in the position of looking bored.

“Split up? I'll look for the capacitors, you get the screws and wiring?” She turned to him, with the absence of others she always seemed to smile, he gave her a thumbs up and beamed her one right back, before turning and wandering to the nearest shelf, leaving them both alone with their thoughts.

Uzi was already searching deep in the electronic section, trying to find capacitors that weren't completely broken or frozen, with a task at hand her mind was blessedly empty for once, enough that she was humming absent-mindedly whatever song had gotten trapped in her head.

She didn't sing, she didn't like her voice and thought it was too deep for most songs, but humming was fine, if it wasn't done in front of other people. Robo-God forbid someone hear her not being aggro for ten seconds. But here she was alone, and N was on the other side of the store, he couldn't hear her.

And even if he could, it was N. He wouldn't ever make fun of her for anything.

She smiled. At this point trying to deny her feelings was pointless, he made her feel so special, so wonderful. And he was so happy to spend any time with her, whether it be listening to her music or watching a movie or agreeing to visit a baby with her. He was always down, loving every second.

It rubbed off on her, she found herself smiling more, liking her life more, liking herself more. She was beginning to feel less like a freak and more like a person, all thanks to the lovable goofball she called her best freind.

And she wanted to call him more, connect with him more, but… she couldn't be certain he felt the same way. He was always so loving but he was like that with everyone, he cared, and that's just who he was.

So nothing he did proved he liked her like that. Romanticly. Never in a million years did she ever think she would be longing for someone, or even have a crush in the first place, but here she was, admitting to herself that… she was in love. Ew

But at the same time, the way he had been looking at her in the nursery, with a small smile on his face and his eyes digitally half-lidded. He looked… almost like he wanted to kiss her.

But that had to have been her imagination, he'd asked if she felt better right before, maybe he'd just been concerned.

With a victorious gasp she found a whole box of preserved capacitors and quickly stashed them in her bag before going off and trying to find the boy in question, core full of butterflies but also very very heavy.

N had finally finished downloading Uzi's monster of a playlist and was skimming through it while picking up his second box of screws, he doubted she needed this many, but being an overachiever never got him in trouble before.

He fingered the wiring he had in his pocket, feeling satisfied that he'd completed his task and yet still felt anything but.

He was… confused.

Uzi was his friend, his best friend. And yet the more he thought about her the lighter his core got, in a way that was new to him. Well no, that was it wasn't it? It wasn't new.

It was just attached to a new person.

But… he didn't have a crush on Uzi did he? He could form sentences just fine around her, he wasn't nervous or artificially sweaty. He just wanted to be close, to protect her. To be there when she needed him. That wasn't romantic. It was protective! Like all friends should be!

And yet he still felt unsatisfied, like he was missing something.

“Hey! Did you find what we needed?” He heard her before he saw her, bounding up to him with a crooked smirk, her tail twitching behind her and her wings folded against her back. She was cute…

He shook off his thoughts again.

“Yeah! Here!” He he presented the screws and the wire to her with a smile, his tail twitching as her hand grazed his as she took them, no that wasn't a spark you're imagining things.

“Thanks!” You ready to head back? It's going to be morning soon.” She asked, punching his shoulder playfully, a small laugh left his mouth.

“Yeah! And we can listen to music together on the way back!”

“Sure buddy.”

And with that they took off, commenting on songs and cracking jokes about the stupid ones, flying high to get home faster. With each minute he felt himself relax, whatever confusing mess his thoughts were causing right now didn't matter, they were laughing, and she was smiling. He would figure it out later.

“Is… is this song about a potato?” He asked slowly, causing her to snort before devolving into a fit of laughter.

“Y-yeah? I thought it was funny, and I rigged the teachers lounge to play it on repeat once.”

N didn't want to ask why, but he felt that it was a very Uzi thing to do.

“Hey, I might need to crash at your place tonight. Charge is low and I don't wanna pass out on the way home.” As she said that, a little low battery symbol appeared at the top right corner of her visor, showing she wasn't lying.

“Sleepover!” He shouted, making her smile again, he really liked her smile…

“Yeah, whatever.” She rolled her eyes, but her words lacked any sort of bite. There was a brief comfortable silence before;

“Oh… this one's kinda sad.” His face fell at little as he listened. An orchestral swell being out of place in the rest of the playlist.

I am tired of this dream….

Will it ever end for me?

“Sorry, I don't have a lot of happy ones that aren't also sarcastic…” She admitted sheepishly, she probably should find happier songs now that she was thinking about it. She felt happier now, what was the harm? So long that it was only her and N that would ever hear them.

I don't have the will to know…

Can you help me see?

“Oh! Duet!” He hummed happily, that fact alone seemingly making him feel better about it.

Let my body keep you warm…

Let my essence be your breeze.

Oh. This was a love song, and a rather longing one. He looked over Uzi's playlist, this one was added only recently. About three months ago, huh that was around when prom happened.

Can you hear me calling?

Please look out for meeee…

“N! Look!” Uzi shouted and he looked up, the gas giant was being eclipsed by Copper-9s barren moon, causing the entire night sky to be lit up in a burnt umber red. But he'd be lying if he said that was what caught his attention.

Can you set me free?

Will you take my soul away?

Uzi was silhouetted in the light perfectly, sending warm oranges and reds bouncing off her features like she was gazing at a roaring fire, she was hung in the air, snowflakes falling slowly around her, the light turning them to embers dancing in the air. She was smiling, her hands reaching out to touch one of the dancing flames.

Casting me in cold

Bury me in bones

Rest eternallyyyyyy…

He felt all the moisture in his mouth evaporate on the spot, and any further thought through his processors die. If flying wasn't an automatic process, he would have fallen from the sky in shock.

She looked beautiful.

Will you take me home?

Can we see the moon again?

Dancing in the dark

Till we fall apart

I can't end this dream...

Next ->

[inbabylontheywept]

The Vengabus is Coming

Alakan pinched the bridge of his nose. On one hand, certain death. On the other hand, human bullshit.

He weighed the options carefully. His self-respect fought tooth and claw with his will to live.

The will to live won. It was a near thing, but internal battles were winner take all.

“Fuck it. We need armor. Send them in.”

---

The radio crackled. It was a quiet sound, but still a welcome reprieve to the blisteringing swarm of beams from the nearby laser gatling. Alakan fished it out of his front pocket, raising it near his ear eagerly.

“Callsign ‘Ape-Mode’, do you copy? What is your ETA? We’re pinned down bad up here, if they can get a second angle set up we’re toast. ”

The speaker crackled again. There was a sound like a horn on the other end. Maybe an alarm?

“Callsign Ape-Mode, is your vehicle intact?”

There was no verbal response back, but a faint chanting could be heard in the background, just beyond the range of his hearing. Alakan cranked the volume knob to max, desperate for any possible information about when the armor would arrive. Instead, he seemed to catch the opening part of some kind of human war ritual.

“We like to party! We like, we like to party! We like to party! We like, we like to party! We like to party! We like-”

Then the radio cut off abruptly.

He took several deep breaths before pinching his nose again.

Fucking humans.

---

The Vengabus is coming! And everybody's jumping! New York to-

The chanting was back, almost incomprehensibly loud. The gatlings were earsplitting on their own, but the human war chant made them seem like whispers in a library. The noise was so loud that identifying the source was almost impossible. It seemed to be coming from all sides at once, a hulking wall of sound. He reached down to shut off his comm only to find it was already off.

Oh. They must be here then. That would explain the unwarranted assault on his earholes. He took a peek over the edge of his foxhole and froze.

Even by the standards of human bullshit, this was egregious.

The tank itself was standard DFP issue. The bright yellow paint job and makeshift stop sign definitely were not. And the speakers looked borderline illegal. Strands of copper wire poked from each of the generator sized boxes strapped, welded, and glued to random points all over the chassis. The conductor feeding each of the abominations seemed to be repurposed twinkle lights, cutting zigzags between each box before drawing into the hatch.

The gatlings stopped, evidently as taken aback as everyone else on the battlefield. The moment of relative peace was replaced by insane furor as every gun on the opposite side of the canyon seemed to realize that there was a big juicy target barreling towards them.

The tank took the swarm of beams like a champion. Faint clouds of yellow smoke trailed behind the racing vehicle as its makeshift paint job was incinerated, but that was probably a blessing in disguise. The wall of noise fell down several notches as one of the gatlings made a point of targeting the ear splitting speakers.

The tank had been content enough to just absorb enemy ammo as it barreled its way to the middle of the battle, but this was a personal affront. The railgun on the top of the vehicle locked on to the offending turret and began dropping ferroslugs. The first was more than enough to obliterate its hated foe, the other three were just to desecrate the memory. Each shot had the unfortunate side effect of distorting the noise coming out of the speakers, the voices going up like chipmunks with every thump of the MAC.

The wheels of steel are turning! And traffic lights are burning! So if you like to party, get on and move your body! The Vengabus is coming!

A kinetic slug slammed into the road just behind it. If the tank had been going anything less than max speed, it would’ve been splattered. Any sane tank operator would’ve launched their smoke cover, changed course, and avoided the slugs by serpentining.

These were not sane tank operators. The hatches for the smoke cover opened, but instead of smoke grenades getting flung from the hydraulic catapult, out flew hundreds and hundreds of gleaming chemlights. The laser gatling atop the main cannon opened fire, not at any enemy, but simply while spinning in circles at maximum speed.

None of this should have done a damn thing, but the effect was amazing. The lights, the noise, and now the laser effects-the enemy had been trained for what to do in a warzone, but they had no fucking idea what to do at a disco. All it took was one of them to break ranks, and the rest followed suit. Alakan watched in awe as the troop of 80 enemy combatants bolted up the far side of the valley, casually pursued by the still smoldering Venga-Tank, chipperly screaming out its war cry as the recording device on the inside hit a well planned loop.

The Vengabus is coming! The Vengabus is coming! The Vengabus is coming! The Vengabus is coming! The Vengabus is coming! The Vengabus is coming!

The noise, blessedly, faded to black as both made it over the hill.

He climbed carefully out of his foxhole, wiping the dirt from his palms onto the front of his pants when he was done. One of the newer soldiers jogged up to him, as baffled as he’d ever been.

“What… What the hell just happened?”

Alakan shrugged.

“Trust me, they don’t know either. Fucking humans.”

[kittydragondraws]

Murder Drones - Trauma and Healing

I was once of the opinion that Murder Drones never really had a theme or message. It was kind of just, watch the funny robots be funny.

But the more I've thought about it the more I've realized, Murder Drones does have a theme. And that theme?

Trauma, how it affects people, and how to heal from it.

In this essay I will go over five of the characters of the show, Uzi, N, V, Doll, and Tessa, and describe their traumas. How it affects their actions, and what they do to heal from them.

Uzi - Lonliness and Acceptance

Uzi grew up with no friends, classmates who either hated or ignored her, an emotionally negligent father, and a dead (*cough* in church *cough*) mother. Truth be told, she had no one. No one to talk to, no one who would listen to her, no one who cared about her.

She was alone and very vulnerable. However, she didn't like that. She didn't want people to see her as vulnerable, she didn't want people to see her as weak. So she developed her edgy, "not like other girls" persona to convince people that she wasn't dying inside. That she took all her pain in stride and was owning it.

However, her coping mechanism of creating her goth girl persona didn't help in the long term as it didn't combat her true problem. She was lonely, lonely and... just wanted someone who cared about her.

And one day, while going out to find the last piece of her railgun she needs to save the world and earn her dad's respect and stuff, she meets N. N, the bloodthirsty drone killer, who was willing to sit down and talk to her.

Sure he was blind and thought she was a fellow Murder Drone, but he didn't immediately push her away as emo. Sure he admittedly was used to much worse treatment from much worse people, and Uzi was probably a saint compared to them (which we'll touch on in his part).

But even afterwards, when he realized she was a Worker, and that he would get in massive trouble with J if he let her go, he willingly spared her life. Saw her father leave her to die, and took pity on her.

Where the two came to develop a connection and eventually, friendship.

Uzi had made her first friend.

N - Self Worth and Free Will

His whole life, N has been used and abused.

While we don't know much about his first life, his life before the Elliots, we can only assume he was still treated as a slave, as much as the rest of the Worker race is.

His life with Tessa and her family, while seemingly happy, he still lived with them as a servant. Tessa may have been a good owner, but she was still an owner. He, J, and V might have been good servants, but they were still servants.

His life as a Disassembly Drone was probably the worst. Not only did he have his entire body forcibly changed against his will, but he now was forced to take innocent lives as he relied on their bodies for sustenance. Not to mention he also had his brain swiss cheesed to hell and back, and didn't even know because well... can't remember things well when those memories are full of holes.

Not to mention, the people he was forced to serve under were awful to him. The most obvious one is J, who was him as a waste of materials and space. She literally wanted N dead, leaving a piece of paper that read "kill yourself" in a dog book that she knew N would read, as a Disassembly Drone telling N that if the company allowed it she would kill him herself, and literally stabbing him with a deadly virus after she saw he had dissented.

However the Solver, the Solver was worse. It killed him several times over, wiped his memories of his past deaths, turned him into a monster, and forced him to kill an unspeakable amount of humans and drones. It could clone him an infinite amount of times. If one clone learned too much or got too rebellious, there were always the next hundred. He was disposable, in episode 7, the solver literally said he had served his purpose. The worst part? There's no way of truly knowing what the Solver did to him or forced him to do. How many clones of N it tortured, killed, and replaced.

But what's even worse than this? He enjoyed it. Well, enjoyed is a strong word. But he saw it as okay. He believed that being treated like trash was normal. He literally thanked J for stepping on his neck. He thanked J for "looking out for him" after getting stabbed with the virus.

When Uzi questioned him about what the "company" would do to him after they were finished with their mission on Copper 9, he didn't know. He was blindly following orders, doing what he was told. With no thought to the consequences. He never considered that JcJenson would view them as a bunch of useless, worthless, disposable robots...

Then he meets Uzi. Sure she's a bit rough around the edges, but she doesn't hurt him or belittle him. She values his opinions and him as a person.

She doesn't see him as a means to an end. She sees him as N.

V - Protection and Attachment

V hid information from and hurt N, yet she did it to protect him. V remembered more than N from the manor. More of the killing, the bloodshed, the forced experimentation, more of the Solver.

She didn't want N to remember. To have the same painful memories she did. So she did her best to keep them hidden from him. Keep him in the dark about the Solver.

How did she do that? Avoid telling him anything she knew, anything that he could use to get closer to the truth. She wanted him to stay in blissful ignorance, something she would love to have.

However, her desire to keep N safe didn't just extend to keeping him safe from the Solver, but keeping him safe from her.

She was afraid of loosing N, and the pain that would bring. So if she developed a deep emotion attatchment to N, like say... reciprocating his crush... it would only hurt if she ever lost him again. And she wasn't ready to deal with that pain.

So she pushed him away. pretended to be mean, pretended to be crass, pretended to not notice, not care, literally pretended to forget his name. No attachment, no pain.

But then, Uzi comes along, and her eye starts glitching to show a Solver symbol. V remembers their orders, kill all the Solver infected drones on the planet. But N, N likes this little drone. he sees her as a friend. He won't let V kill her, becuase he doesn't know what she can do.

It would be so easy for V to go behind N's back and kill her, afterall, N's made friends with rocks before. He'd get over a pathetic Worker, right?

But as time goes on, V starts to understand more about Uzi, about why N likes her. She's smart she's kind, she gives a damn about his opinions. She tells him things... that's more than V ever could've done.

And when V realizes N doesn't need her protection anymore, she's willing to let him go.

Doll - Obsession and Isolation

Doll just wanted to be normal. She just wanted to be free from the Solver's influence and live a normal teenage robot life. But she also wanted revenge, revenge on the drone that took her parents from her, revenge on the drone that set her down this path on the first place, V.

After becoming an orphan, Doll became obsessed with getting her revenge on V, to the point she no longer cared about anyone else. Including who lived and who died. Of course, being Solver infected, she had to drink the oil of the Workers around her, so it's hard to fault her for that.

However, it's hard to tell how many drones she kills out of necessity, and how many she kills for other, less justifiable, reasons. The amount of oil she has in her house? You can't tell me she drinks all of it, at least, not before killing more Workers. The prom girls? That was to lure V into the bunker. Even at prom, She kills two (I think) other Worker Drones, for the crime of getting in her way. Why?

V, everything Doll does, is about V. All of the prom-related deaths she caused, were about V. Doll was obsessed with V, all she cared about was killing V to avenge her parents, not caring about who else she had to hurt to do so. All that mattered, was that V ended up dead.

But after Prom, when she had failed to kill V, and ended up getting killed herself. She learned that Uzi had the Solver as well, finally, someone who could understand her pain, someone she could help. But even after learning she and Uzi are in the same boat, she still chooses to go alone.

At every turn she either leaves Uzi to her own, which usually ends in Uzi getting hurt, or she actively antagonizes her, setting back her own progress in terms of investigating the Solver to further her own goals. Even going as far as to sentence Uzi to death by dinesaw after getting to the elevator.

However, in the end, her relcutance to accept help would be her downfall.

Both Uzi and Doll ended up getting confronted by Tessa, whose goal was to have both dead. However, what separated them in those moments was that they had backup. Or at the very least, one did.

When Tessa had been pinned down by Uzi and was about to be stabbed N was there, knife as hand, ready to do whatever it took to save Uzi. He had had enough of Tessa's shadyness, and now only cared about her.

However Doll, Doll was all alone. When she was attacked by Tessa, she had to try to protect herself. She didn't have anyone she could turn to or rely on for help in that moment. So she ended up getting killed by the very monster she was fighting against.

In her last moments, all she could do was find Uzi. And hope that she'd be able to fight back.

Tessa - Love and Compassion (And Getting Skinned Alive By God)

Tessa's parents hated her. Her mom, Louisa, seemed to view her as an embarrassment and while we don't know much about her relationship with her father, James, it can be assumed he was either generally apathetic to his daughter or found her creepy.

Either way, he didn't care much about her, as he was complicit in Lousia's abuse of her, which included chaining her up to her bedpost like she was a misbehaving dog.

Yet, despite her loveless upbringing, when she was given the opportunity to essentially be a mother to the Worker (Zombie) Drones she rescued from the dump, she chose to be the opposite of what her parents were.

While her parents were cruel and demanding, Tessa loved her drones, flaws and all. She was them almost like her children, little ones she had to protect, keep happy and safe. Heck, she probably cared for them more than she should've, considering that they were robots.

However, there was one drone she had found. One who was different than the others, in a way she could never guess. Cyn, little Cyn. She was different than the other Drones Tessa rescued, she was small, had an odd way of walking, and an odd way of talking. But that was okay to Tessa, she was a Worker Drone deserving of a home.

Tessa could've never guessed that by bringing that Worker into her home. She's not only cause the deaths of her parents and countless other fancy rich people, but also her own and lead to the destruction of the entire human race.

The worst part? She couldn't find peace even in death. With her skin being worn by Cyn and used to masquerade as her, tricking her once beloved drones into assisting the very entity they were trying to defeat.

In Tessa's heartfelt attempt to try and break the cycle of abuse, she ended up causing something worse than she could even imagine.

Trauma is a complicated thing to talk about, and an even more complicated thing to get right. However, I do applaud this show for not only tackling the subject but showing such a wide branch of ways the characters cope with it. From finding others to confide in, to harming others in the pursuit of their own interests. And it pains me the fandom can't recognize this.

So many times have I seen people in this fandom either use a character's trauma as an excuse to absolve them of all blame, or ignore it and try to spin them as the second coming of Satan. When these characters are much more complex and fascinating than people give them credit for.

Anyway, thank you for reading and I hope you have a good day.

[allwormdiet]

Sentinel 9.4

Back in the saddle again

You know, I'm not sure if tinkers actually are "supposed" to be smart. The other examples we have to work off of besides Kid Win are Bakuda (constant state of fucking around and finding out until it killed her), Armsmaster (he of the dumbfuck raid boss solo plot), and Dragon (actually no notes on Dragon's relative intelligence), plus Chariot in just a minute here who literally only succeeds at being a mole because the Protectorate allows him to succeed as a ploy

I'll concede that they're adept engineers and scientists, sure, but you can know how to build a nuclear reactor and still be dumb enough to build it in your backyard. There's no single measure of intelligence that everyone measures high on, that's just not how it goes.

Then again like two-thirds of this chapter are lowkey about Kid having self-esteem issues so like, I get that he's being hard on himself. I feel like half the cape POVs we've gotten so far have self-esteem issues, never mind Taylor Hebert Queen of Self-Image Problems

I'm gonna skim over a lot of this fight like I had in 9.3, but while this can't feel good for one's confidence, honestly I'd mostly just be relieved. Like, yes, let the villains whose powers are Railgun and The Fucking Sun take it easy on me, that's fine, I like my body parts staying in the configuration they have.

Thank God he actually has a chance to feel like he's contributing, without the horror of accidentally killing someone

Wow, Trickster sucks. Why do they put up with this guy?

So, somehow I doubt he's somehow lacking in a specialty, but from the description of his apparent focus issues (plus the fact that taking medication to help with focus nearly took him out) I wonder if the way his tinker stuff goes involves having a bunch of little things, if the lack of focus is somehow a sign of what his specialty actually is.

Oh fucking boy

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay (sarcastic)

Also I don't know why they specifically would go to cities that have already been Endbringered but there's a real "kick them while they're down" energy to it that I do not care for. Goddamn jackals.

Is it the "another tinker" thing or the "that wasn't Armsmaster" thing that he's more excited about lmao

Weld's adapting a little better to his role, and Clockblocker is able to keep his mouth shut and play along, so things are improving.

I dunno man, it's a citywide apocalypse, does bedtime matter anymore?

Hey what the

Fuck

is going on here

Tinker-to-tinker communication

Y'know, now I'm curious what the wages are for a non-Tinker Protectorate member. Obviously Tinkers can have it made if they've got something the higher-ups want, but is Miss Militia making enough to own a house? Is your income tied to merch sales?

Think this is the first time someone has outright said triggering as a parahuman rewires your brain to some extent. Curious to see further elaboration on that.

I think if you're gonna hire a mole, you should make sure they can lie convincingly. That feels like step two.

(Step one is "make sure you can trust this person to be a mole for you")

Fucking gottem

Well hey Kid, looks like you're pulling your weight after all

Current Thoughts

I do think Sentinel is a neat arc but I'll admit, in recounting and rereading this it lost me a little bit. That might just be the Travelers fight though, I could feel the lack of stakes to the fight like a gap between my teeth.

Kid seems like a solid character, classic impulsive inventor with an actual exploration of what that impulsiveness does to his work ethic and self-worth. I'm glad he gets a chance to shine here and I hope he figures out his exact specialization so he can stop being so down on himself

The Wards do seem to be coalescing into more of a team as things progress, sure would be a shame if the resident lone wolf was to fall for obvious bait and disrupt that or something.

[dandorime]

MAGIC ANON TIME

Ur pheonix now has cat ears ^._.^

It is an ordinary day at the EOD headquarters. Phoenix is sitting at his desk as Reginald explains the details of their next mission, referring to slides on the overhead projector.

Reginald: ...which means the only way you'll be able to avoid detection is by making a HALO jump out of a B-2 stealth bomber. I do believe you've been trained and certified for low-opening jumps out at Red Rock, correct?

Agent Phoenix: ദ്ദി ._. )

Reginald: Excellent. Although, this might be a bit of a challenge nonetheless, as you're going to need to carry approximately 20 lbs additional kit -- that's the weight of the thermite you'll need to burn through the anti-ballistic armor, you see. I know that's a lot to ask, considering all the specialized radio tech we'll already have you carrying...

Agent Phoenix: ദ്ദി ._. )

Reginald: That's the spirit, Agent! Now, keep in mind you'll also need to deal will the automated railgun sentries on the production floor. They're heat-seeking and sound activated, so you'll have to be stealthy as a cat to avoid them. I'm afraid we can't help you with any special technology here, but...

Agent Phoenix: ദ്ദി^._.^)

Reginald: Good form, Phoenix. Good form.

[grandisknight]

keep a secret, please!

summary: MC has unannounced company one morning in the middle of handling a particular firearm.

tags: canon compliant, light-hearted, conversations, firearms, "MC" as a nameholder, she/her pronouns used

wc: 1.3k | ao3

notes: happy main story update and zayne branch release day!!! i saw simone's gorgeous face and knew immediately she was a girl's girl so this naturally came about ₍ ᐢ.ˬ.ᐢ₎ / references to sylus' myth pair (relentless conqueror) are made!

dividers from cafekitsune

“No. Way.” A voice punches out their discovery in awed breaths, looking over MC’s shoulder.

“Huh?”

MC thought she could have a moment alone at her desk, comfortably laid in the Alpha Team headquarters. That was usually the case on most days, with the team (more often than not) out on missions or convening at Captain Jenna’s beck and call when an important discovery is made. MC’s gaze quickly scans the room, to find it was just the two of them, and almost lets out a sigh of relief.

The two of them, yes, and an unissued firearm in her possession. The implications alone could send MC into a spiral of how the Association’s rules and regulations would tear her apart—she’d rather not deal with it on such a fine morning.

Though caught red-handed, MC makes an effort to turn in her chair and block the table top view with a tight-lipped smile.

“Simone.”

MC greets with feigned nonchalance to simmer the jump in her beating heart. She eyes her appearance, from the top of her ponytail down to the buttons of her uniform. “What are you doing here?”

It wasn’t that finding her former colleague of the Armament Tech division was unwelcomed—more so, it wasn’t an everyday occurrence in the first place. Only recently did the two become well acquainted after MC’s firearm enhancements and return to Linkon, clicking almost immediately following a fruitful conversation.

“I was going to get something Lead Andrew left at his desk,” Simone answers, though her gaze was anywhere but on MC’s poor acting. Rather, it was ardently glued to the desk space behind her, where the wrinkled corner of a small cloth greeted the eye.

“Oh, well, Captain’s desk is over there—“

“You have the Harrier 700?” Simone blurts out, and it’s only then that MC meets the girl’s gaze. Rounded with excitement and tangible curiosity, the gray orbs reflected MC’s own look of shock at the announcement.

“I… Well,” MC concedes, rubbing her temple in thought to conjure an explanation. To which, she ran to a blank—after all, how could she make excuses around someone whose expertise laid in weaponry modifications? She couldn’t, at least not in these circumstances, and turned to a proposed compromise instead.

“Promise not to tell the Association? I know we’re supposed to keep to the ones they issued.” MC turns back around then, slightly moving over to allow the newfound company a place next to her. Her hands hover above the weapon in thought. “But this one was a particular case, to put it mildly.”

Memories of her time with Sylus quick flash past her mind, and the very rooftop that bared witness to their exchange. That very night in a foreign country, which cemented another pillar in the foundation of their complicated relationship—a ‘mutual use of each other,’ one that simultaneously gives and takes while learning all the same.

“I swear on my beloved railgun this stays between us,” Simone assures. Hip to the desk, she gestures downwards. “And this beauty right here.”

Simone taps the exposed crystal nestled into the barrel, shining in a radiant crimson that resembles the gifter’s gaze. It rings MC back into the present, dispersing the clouds of memory in their recollection. 

She resumes her actions prior, taking the wrinkled cloth and delicately wiping between the engravings. She’s careful to dust away the surface, mirroring the care the peculiar crow boss demonstrated during one of their confrontations.

“You recognized the model so quickly,” MC mentions, turning over the heavy model in hand to rinse and repeat. 

Simone tilts her head, finger lifted in voiced thought. “It’s such a rare commodity in the market, how could I not? Everyone and their mothers would kill to own one.” She redirects said finger to MC, wiggling playfully and curiosity growing. “How did you manage to snag one of these bad boys, anyhow?”

“A crow’s nest has its treasures,” MC offhandedly remarks. Not wanting to ruffle any more feathers, she puts the cloth aside to change the subject. MC raises the weapon between the two of them in offering, akin to gracing a child with a candy they sought after. 

“Go on, I could tell from the moment you spoke up you wanted to take a closer look.”

Simone gasps in gratitude, “Oh, you rock!” 

With the grace of cradling a newborn, Simone carefully weighs the renowned firearm and gazes in awe. “Amazing, you don’t even need to modify it… ah, the protocore can go here… these barrels are…” Mumbles under her breath continue, fascinated that the illustrious piece of advanced tech was in her grasp. 

It truly was an impressive artifact, on a scale of its own and of greater weight in comparison to the Association’s issued weaponry. An overall hard exterior of onyx was decorated with trims of crimson, bulky to accommodate the powerful pellets within. 

MC’s eyes follow every contour of the metal as Simone inspects it—if she looked hard enough, swirls of familiar red and black could be imagined. Fleeting memories once more of the battlefield blink past, an energy storm magnified by resonance and raw ability perfected into every single bullet that rang out. The sensation of fighting with such a relentless conqueror has her heart surging, and her fingers twitch for a brief second.

“This is the real deal,” Simone concludes, thoroughly impressed. Her eyes glimmered with a sense of pride, as if it were one of her own. “My regards go to whoever handled it before you. They know their stuff—say, do you think I could get in touch?”

“He’s—I mean, they’re not much of a day person,” MC catches herself, biting her tongue when his name nearly slips from it. Nope, not today (or ever, possibly) was she going to expose her curious relationship with the Onychinus head. Though he enjoys the company of her colleagues, she wouldn’t hear the end of it with gossip floating about. And she doesn’t get paid enough to deal with more than one headache at a time.

MC nods instead. “I’ll make sure to pass on the regards.”

Simone raises a brow, but doesn’t press the issue further. With a wink and hand sliding the weapon over, a cheery demeanor repaints her face. “If you ever need a touch up or two, you know where to find me.”

Slotting it back into its hidden holster, MC regards her once again with a more relaxed smile. “You’re one of the best,” she spoke earnestly. “I’ll keep it in mind.”

A ring shrills from Simone’s watch then, to which the girl lets out a less than please groan. “Ugh, I forgot Andrew’s waiting on me.” She slides away from the desk space, waving to MC and her steps following behind. “Your secret’s safe with me! I’ll see you for the mission later?”

“Mm. See you then.” MC waves back, watching the girl quickly find the object in question before scowling at her watch—yet another call came through, and her voice faded into the departing hall with a ‘Yeah, yeah. I got it. Relax, won’t you?’

The office space resumed the tranquility from moments ago, specks of light and dust filtering through the air. MC leans back into her chair, mindlessly staring at the high ceiling before his face comes to mind. It had been a while since their last rendezvous, though his presence lingered in conversation today alone.

Faint buzzing shakes a small space of her desk, redirecting her gaze to the caller ID with pursed lips. Speak of the devil. A thumb swipe and press to the ear later, MC answers with, “It’s not like you to be up this early.” 

The voice that drips into the receiver is slightly rough around the edges, though laced with a fond chuckle. “That’s a new way of saying good morning, sweetie.”

[diorysuss]

i’m gonna be honest I do NOT blame khan for leaving uzi. the circumstances were not lined up in his favor, and we had an entirely different perspective from him as well, like

1. it was a complete lose-lose, he was going to lose his daughter either way if the dissasmbly drone got into the bunker, so he chose to minimize casualties.

2. he didn’t know uzi’s railgun worked, as uzi had lied to him and insisted she was inspecting doors. all previous renditions of the railgun had failed so logically he had no reason to believe it would work now

3. disassembly drones to workers at the time were the equivalent of a xenomorph. bloodthirsty. animals. khan did NOT know N like that.

4. he is obviously very guilty and mournful of leaving uzi. this is not a decision he wanted to make, hell he even hesitates before backing down.

now, am I saying this magically forgives khan? hell no !! he still emotionally neglected uzi, was a coward, and failed to connect with her in his grieving of his wife (which leads to his obsession with doors but yall ain’t ready for that conversation) but i’m tired of people completely assassinating his character for the sake of victimizing/traumatizing uzi more

he’s still my absolute girlfail

[shroudthecursedone]

YET another Murder Drones idea

J is the one to find Uzi instead of N and instead of attacking, J stalks and observes Uzi. When Uzi is making her way back to the Colony, she is ambushed and abducted by J. Uzi, panicking, falls back on Anime logic and tries to get J to monologue so she can escape.

"You will never get through the doors."

"I know, we will burn out before we get in"

"Which is why you are going to let us in little drone"

"I will never let you in"

"You won't let us in? I will have to fix that"

J rips through Uzi's neuronetwork and programming, leaving her personality and memories intact but adding new programming. When Uzi awakens, she cannot disobey J's orders or subvert them as J had remote access to Uzi's CPU. When Uzi makes her way back to the Colony, her railgun and the parts she needed having been returned to her, she does so with J in her head. J guiding her along and puppeting the anime loving goth worker drone, Uzi was made into an unwilling collaborator.

[alexanderwales]

I've been really enjoying Factorio: Space Age, but ... well, there are places where the game design starts to show through.

As a game designer, you want people to have fun playing your games, and to engage with the mechanics, and not optimize themselves out of the experience of solving challenges and having everything work together in harmony.

And players just do not seem to care, for the most part. You give them a goal and they'll do whatever they want, either the optimal thing, or the comfortable thing, and they'll bash their head against the game, not having fun until they give up.

So a game designer will sometimes sit down and say "alright, how do I make the player engage with the game in the intended way, rather than doing the stupid boring thing?" And sometimes, you can see where they've placed their thumb on the scale.

Factorio: Space Age has a few examples of the thumb on the scale, and I don't think it's bad, but they definitely stood out to me.

Small and medium asteroids can be destroyed with gun turrets. Large asteroids take rocket turrets. Huge asteroids take a railgun. Asteroid density is such that you face these as successive challenges. If players were allowed to, they'd simply add in more gun turrets, so the "damage resistances" button has been pressed down hard, effectively forcing a single goal (even if the path to that goal has many different solutions).

Factorio has logistics robots, which ferry things around from one place to another. Because that's kind of the whole game, a certain style of play can devolve into slapping two chests down next to any assembler, one for input and the other for output. There are a few different ways that they discourage bot use (like power requirements, fluids that the bots can't transport, heat pipes, etc.), but Aquilo has the bots just kind of suck because of ... the cold, I guess. You'd think that if the cold drained battery it would drain the accumulators too, but it doesn't seem to.

The game seems to really really want you to use nuclear. This is most obvious for the space trip to Aquilo, where your options are solar panels that weaken as you go, or nuclear power, which can actually power a full ship. In a normal game of Factorio before the expansion, it was very easy to just never do anything with nuclear (which didn't exist in the game when I started playing), but I feel like people who have been putting off learning it are finally getting pushed toward it headfirst.

[cerastes]

hey, i'm planning to get armored core 6 despite never playing any of those games before and since you seem pretty knowledgeable about them i was wondering if you have any tips for someone totally new to the series?

Sorry for the super late answer!

The first thing I can tell you about Armored Core is that you have to get comfy because half of the game is high speed intense high octane combat, and the other half is accounting. Brother, I know how much you want to go back to the part where rifles go bang and swords go swoosh and you have enough Gs on your body that you could passably cosplay a plate of mashed of potatoes, but you gotta do the Excel spreadsheet part, too.

It's really not as bad as it seems, and once it clicks, you know exactly what to look for. But if you want to get all the juice out of the tenga, you have to sit down and take a deep gander at how the systems click. Once you do, trust me on this one, an endless horizon of options will stretch before you because that's when you'll know exactly how to tailor your big death machine to your exact specifications and playstyle. It's deep, but also deeply rewarding!

Next up, something universally useful in Armored Core: Turning Speed. If you can mod, upgrade, or otherwise improve your "Turning Speed" (or equivalent) stat, crank that up as often as you can. It's always a powerful tool, it's always very useful, it's never superfluous. This ties in to the next point:

Your strongest weapon is your camera. When fighting other ACs, player controlled or otherwise, your strongest tool, throughout the games, has been to keep your opponent in your camera, and to stay out of your opponent's camera. Movement is huge in Armored Core, you need to move so as to 1) keep your enemy in your sights, 2) stay out of your enemy's sights, and 3) line up shots. We call this "lining up a vector" or "keeping the enemy in a vector". What this means is that you want to set up your enemy in such a way that they are moving in a direct vector relative to you -- directly towards you or away from you -- so that your shot with stronger, single shot weaponry will land and deal significant damage. You set up this vector while also trying to not be 'caught' in one yourself, and as you may think, this is hard, because if they are in your vector, you are in most situations also in theirs. So, the solution? Be outside of their camera while they are in yours. Can't shoot what they aren't aiming at, right? This is a lot to take in, I know, but you don't have to commit all of this to execution off rip, just keep it in mind, develop your playstyle and learn naturally with this in the back of your head until it clicks and you start being able to see, through your own playstyle, how it is you'll do that.

One final thing I want to recommend is that you don't fall for the allure of The Big Damage Number without considering other factors. Especially when learning, you want to make a balanced build: Have your single shot strong weapons, like a grenade launcher or sniper rifle, paired with a weaker but easier to land weapon, like assault rifles or machine guns, and compliment this further with some sort of auxiliary tool or weapon, like flares that give you leeway, or missiles that can put further pressure on your enemy. In general, when starting out their Armored Core journey, I recommend to people the following loadout: Grenade launcher, assault rifle, laser sword, missile launcher. This is a well rounded toolkit that'll keep you effective at most ranges, and more importantly, will reveal to you, your own preferences. Once you become a super Newtype ace pilot fuckhouse, you'll doubtlessly make your own deathkaiser machine with quadruple railguns or missileboats or pure melee builds, but to get to that point where you know exactly what you want to do, a balanced build helps in letting you learn where your heart leans, what kind of movement-to-bulk ratio works best for you, which weapons are your favorite, etc.

[dronebiscuitbat]

Oil is Thicker Then Blood (Part 3)

N followed Uzi at her side as they made their way through the maze of hallways that was the bunker. If he hadn't, he might have gotten lost.

“I think this place gets bigger every time I come here.” He pointed out, taking one step for every two of hers, he wasn't going to point that out though, lest she poke him.

Yes, poke, maybe shove or lightly punch. But he'd come to realize that when it came to the people she cared about, she didn't choose violence. Don't get him wrong, Uzi would often choose violence when it was an option, case in point; railgun. But when it came to him, and V to an extent, her mouth was the most dangerous thing about her.

That and maybe her tail, which did often actually bite.

“It's a maze on purpose, Dad thought it might throw you guys off to buy us time.” She hummed absent-mindededly, thinking as she lead him through yet another cross-section.

“It would definitely work on me. I'm already lost.” He laughed a little, looking over at her.

Her visor was lit up in an almost frown, eyebrows together in either concern or disappointment, her tongue was out again, which meant she was focused intently on something. N was always in awe of how she was always thinking, although she often overthought and made herself upset, he hoped that's not what she was doing.

His eyes drifted to the way she played with the ball joints of her own fingers, like she always had to have something in her hand, her tongue switched sides and her eyelights scrunched up, obviously trying to work through something in her head.

Cute… wait what?

“Oh! Crap I almost passed it. Here we are.” She stopped abruptly, causing N to nearly trip to avoid careening into her, there was a thick, fogged window looking into the nursery, where he could see a few blurry shapes of pillbabies recharging in their cribs.

“Ooooh! Babies!” N's eyes grew exceptionally wide, almost as if they had stars in them, his tail wagged behind him, his hands cupping his face and a squeal threatening to spill from his mouth.

“Yeah, probably here while thier parents are working. Come on, you can see them better inside.” She opened the heavy door with a swoosh, and a gust of sterilized air hit them both.

“I'm allowed inside? Wouldn't they… be afraid of me?” N took a step back, holding the wire of his tail in his hands, looking anywhere but her eyes. Thinking about how some of the workers still looked at him with fear.

“N, it's fine. And if they're not fine with it I'll make them fine.” Her tone shifted from soft to rough, and her fist balled to make her point. And, almost reluctantly, he followed her, head frantically taking in every single detail of the room.

The drone at the front desk wasn't paying attention. Wore glasses, and seemed to be from the same generation of drone as Uzi's Dad, with the slightly boxier body type typical from that generation. Her eyelights were a deep orange, and she was skimming through a magazine.

“Uh, Mrs. Rayn? It's Uzi, I'm back.” Uzi's voice seemed to immediately lack the bite it had a moment ago. And the elder drone peered over her glasses, first to Uzi, then to the disassembly drone awkwardly standing behind her. He smiled, trying not to look any kind of threatening. His tail wagging slightly.

“Not sure we can combine you two, and I'm not sure Khan would want me to…”

Oh robo-jesus-

“No! Uhm… No. I'm just here to pick up more oil! N wanted to see the babies…” Both of their faces exploded in blush, their eyes flicking over at each other briefly, which somehow made both their blushes far worse.

What would that even look like? Would they be a worker drone? A disassembly drone? Both? Would they have Uzi's eyes? His yellow ones? Inherit his white ones? Or would the colors mix and be brown? Or pink? Did it even work like that?

He should probably stop thinking about that…

“Ahhh, good! You two are a little young for that anyway. Uzi, you should have been good for another week! Is your condition getting worse?” She asked, and she immediately reminded N of a grandmother, voice soft, kindly, but crackly from age.

“No. N had to stay over at my house and was overheating, he needs a lot more than I do.” She gestured to him, which caused another nervous beaming smile to grace his face. He gave a small wave in return.

“I see…” Mrs. Rayn hummed, typing something up on the computer sitting in front of her. Every so often she would glance up at N, looking over her glasses, N felt as if he was being studied.

“Right, Uzi Doorman, upping your supply to five cans, instead of three. Just in case your “friend” happens to need to stay again.” She said as if she fully believed it would be happening more often, though neither young drone could discern why.

“N, was it?” She turned to him, making him jump, he nodded, his old worker programming forcing him to slightly bow, which would have been deeper had he not forcefully stopped himself.

“Yes, Ma’am.” He replied, taking a step forward, beads of sweat dripping down the inside of his visor.

“It's nice to meet you young man. If you ever need something, you come to me. Alright?” She smiled kindly at him, and his nerves immediately relaxed, and the next smile that came from him was far more natural.

“Thank you. I'll keep that in mind Ma’am”

“Well aren't you polite. Half the men here could learn a thing or two from you.” She gave a soft chuckle, motioning to the door that lead to the little dronelings.

“You're welcome to see them, just be careful. Let me go fetch what you need.” With that she was off towards the back, N noticed she heavily favored one foot over the other. Huh.

But an immediate distraction came in the form of pillbabies. He nearly sprinted, but felt Uzi grab his arm to stop him. Like it was a command from his own system, he stopped immediately.

“Careful, remember? Pills are made out of silicon, so they're squishy. They're also really sensitive to sound, so shhhh…” She explained, leading him into the nursery at a much slower pace. He nodded in understanding, keeping his tail tight against the floor to keep it safe and away from the tiny dronelings.

After realizing he was going much slower, she released him, finding a seat in one of the waiting chairs and crossing her arms, watching him as he made his way over to the closest baby.

It was so, so small, which he knew, but seeing one up close instead of in pictures didn't do it justice, the whole thing could fit in the palm of his hand. This one had white eyelights, but was currently in sleep mode, three little z's appearing and blinking on the little ones visor.

He smiled warmly, suppressing the urge to touch the little pill. He didn't want to disturb it, or hurt it for that matter.

The next one was green, and while it wasn't asleep it also didn't seem to be too concerned with his presence, too focused on dimming and relighting its eyes, N found himself chuckling, but moving on.

The last droneling was tucked into the corner, and as he approached he noticed that this one was actively looking at him, intently actually. And their eyes were a deep lavender, a shade lighter than Uzi's.

“Hey kiddo…” He wasn't sure what made him want to speak to it, maybe it was the eyelights, or the way it was staring at him. But he got the impression it wanted his attention.

The baby giggled, a smile appearing on it's screen as it began to rock from side to side. If it had arms, they would be reaching up at him.

“You're a happy one.” He felt Uzi come up next to him, her being a fair bit warmer than other drones, and he'd nearly memorized the sound of her footsteps by now.

“This one looks like how you did!” He pointed out quietly, trying his best not to disturb the others, Uzi didn't reply, instead leaning over the side of the metal crib.

“She's unclaimed… look.” She pointed to a tag at the foot of the crib. A pink tag saying “unclaimed” mocked him. Dang, how'd he not notice that?

“Oh… what does that mean?”

“It means her parents haven't come back to pick her up yet.” Uzi sounded concerned, her hand hovered over the pills chassis, before looking even more concerned.

“She's too warm, no one's fed her in awhile…” she looked from side to side, as if making sure no one was around, before gently picking up the small pill in her arms, something that seemed practiced, and natural.

“Oh no… do you think something happened to her parents?” N now shared her concern, although a part of him felt extremely giddy watching his normally edgy best freind hold a baby so gently. He wasn't sure why, but it made his core feel warm.

“Unless V went back on her word. I don't see what could have happened.” Uzi replied back, seemingly instinctually rocking the baby gently, one hand on top of the little one, holding her steady.

The little pill continued to smile up at her, giggling but eyelights getting droopy, and she stopped trying to roll to either side. His best freinds eyes softened, a small smile creeping up onto her face.

“So…?”

“You can sometimes make a baby accidentally… leaving a portion of your code in someone. She might have been dumped here after her parents got her a body…” She explained, glancing around the room, searching for something.

“Theres a bottle station over there, she needs some oil. Could you bring me one?” She motioned to a dispenser near the door, the picture was of a plastic bottle with a very narrow black tip.

“Yeah, okay.” He closed the distance rather quickly, clicking the very clearly marked button on the dispenser and a very small plastic bottle fell into his hand. As well as… a siphon?

“What now?” He asked, handing it to her. And she sighed, lifting up her hoodie and undershirt to expose bare chassis.

N’s head snapped away, being reminded of her displeasure of him being naked, Uzi looked up at him and looked nervous, and embarrassed.

“I'm not stripping in front of you N, I'm trying to open a panel on my side.” She explained, holding the baby in one hand, and opening a small panel on her side with the other, sticking the siphon into it, which caused her to jolt.

“Agh… been awhile.” She murmured, pumping the siphon with the hand pump, after a few seconds, warm oil began to fill the bottle.

“Woah… what?” N was mesmerized, watching her fill the bottle with her own oil, and also at the ease and familiarity she seemed to do it with. It was also his first introduction to a side panel, did all the workers have those? He knew he didn't.

“I used to volunteer here. When mom was still alive. We both did.” She explained, sounding rather sad for a moment, before shaking her head. “Babies need warm oil, usually filtered by their mother since they can't yet. But, I'm all that's here right now so…”

The bottle was filled, and she pinched the siphon, wincing as she pulled it out, before sighing.

“Ugh, that wasn't painful before…” She trailed off, moving her hoodie back in place and training her eyes back on the droneling. Softly scratching the silicon of the chassis.

The baby made a raspberry, seemingly enjoying the feeling.

“Yeah… it tickles, right?” Her voice suddenly went sugary sweet, so much so N felt a blush light up his face, it was like it was made of caramel, gentle and kind and deeply maternal. He wasn't even aware her voice could go that soft.

“There's that panel.” She opened a small panel on the pillbaby's front, where there was a small opening where N assumed the bottle would go.

She tipped the bottle into the opening, and the baby's eyes flickered shut, seemingly enjoying the coolant, Uzi seemed to be lost in the moment, nodding her head as a coo that sounded almost unnatural came out of her mouth.

N stayed uncharacteristically silent, watching the scene before him while an ocean of different emotions ran through him. Curiosity, both about pillbaby anatomy and Uzi's time with her mom. Awe, at her competence at this, how confidently she had taken control of a concerning situation. And how soft her voice was whenever she spoke to the droneling, it made the sensors on the back of his neck stand up, filling him with a warmth he wasn't sure he'd ever felt before.

“Oh! There you two are. I thought you'd have had your fill by now.” Mrs. Rayn popped in though the door with a bag in her hand, five canisters of oil bouncing around inside, her face fell on Uzi, who was still looking at her task; feeding the baby.

“Well that's a sight I'd never thought I'd see again…” She said, trailing off when Uzi looked up sheepishly. A blush invading her face as she caught up with reality.

“She was too warm, old insinct took over. Sorry, I know non-volunteers aren't supposed to donate…”

“No it's quite alright, that one was printed out about a week ago. Parents were young, younger than you two. They haven't been back.” She looked sad, hobbling over to the two younger drones, and motioning to take the baby from Uzi's arms.

For a split second, N saw Uzi try to pull away, as if she wanted to keep the baby away from her. But that was gone a moment later, and she placed the droneling into her arms, the look on her face was indecipherable.

“It happens sometimes. Another week and she'll be put up for adoption, where someone who really wants her can take care of her.” The bottle was empty, and the pillbaby seemed to now be dozing off, purple eyelights dimming.

“Thank you for donating. My oil is getting a little stale at my age!” She laughed, though still smiled at them kindly, before looking at N curiously.

“Did you want to hold her?” She asked and her jumped in surprise. Raising his hands like he was defending himself.

“No! Well yes, but I'm afraid I'll hurt her and-” the baby was placed in his arms, shutting him up immediately, well aside from the “Oh Biscuits…” that came out in a whimper as he cradled them.

Uzi was right, she was warm, but N's sensors indicated she was beginning to cool down, she was also right about her being slightly squishy, as he felt her vents taking in air, and her silicon skin indenting even on a surface as soft as his overcoat sleeve.

He felt as if he had something priceless and oh so very fragile in his hands and he froze, his brain stuck between “this is the cutest thing in the world” and “don't screw up, please don't screw up”.

“You getting sleepy?” He asked, he didn't notice both woman next to him smile at his voice, or the way his tail began to wag as the baby sleepily smiled at him. He rocked them, much like Uzi had done, and slowly three z's appeared on her visor, and she rolled into the fur of his coat.

His core felt heavy, like it was made of solid lead. He felt tears prick on the edges of his visor as he looked up. Holding her close, he could feel a tiny core buzzing.

“She's the cutest thing ever!” He whisper-screamed. Causing both women to smile at him. Uzi's somehow looked bigger, with a look in her eyes that N hadn't seen before, but it made him swell with a warm sense of pride.

“You have good instinct, I hear it in your voice.” Mrs. Rayn said, smiling almost as if she knew something he didn't, though it didn't matter, his eyes were fixed on the droneling in his arms once again.

“I don't… understand how anyone could leave her.” At this, he felt something else rise in his chest, something angry, and protective, still warm but almost unpleasantly so.

“Young people make mistakes, sometimes they rush into things they're not ready for.” She replies sadly, Uzi looked away at her words, crossing her arms, her face falling into something that looked deliberative if not sad.

“Does she have a name?” He asked, reluctantly handing the small child back to the older woman. He could almost still feel the little ones core buzzing against him.

“Tera is what I've been calling her. But once she's adopted that's bound to change.”

“Tera…” He said under his breath, as if tasting the word, a small smile broke through. His eyes lingered on the sleeping pillbaby, before they landed on Uzi, who was taking the bag from Mrs. Rayn with a very polite “Thank you.”

Uzi was beginning to head towards the door, bag in hand, waving goodbye to Mrs. Rayn, who was placing Tera back into her crib. N followed, but not before giving a little wave to the tiny pill.

“Goodnight Tera.”

Next ->

[daydreaming-robot]

My thoughts for the Murder Drones Series Finale

MASSIVE SPOILER ALERT

I'm gonna start this here with being honest about the runtime. It's short, that's all. I was thinking that it would be almost 40 or 30 minutes because it's a series finale. But having it about 20 minutes isn't something new(from my experience)

The reunion with Uzi and Nori was short, but needed, with Uzi having a chat with her mom in the silent scenery of space. And the way to beat the Solver is to permanently separate the solver from it's host by taking out the core and destroying it. Only for N to accidentally hit her with the landing pod.

Nuzi is canon. I'll be honest, I'm not much of a Nuzi shipper, that's all. But seeing the two admit their love to each other and hug each other while descending into the planet while on fire is honestly beautiful. Also I love their logic; save the world first, do all the corny awkward robotic dating later

V IS BAAAAAAAAAACK MOTHERFUCKERS. Throughout the series, I started off disliking V. But as the series progressed I started to appreciate her character development. And I felt heartbroken upon seeing her supposed death on episode 6. So upon seeing V throw hands with J, I SCREAMED my lungs off seeing her again. And I like that she has a pet sentinel now

J admits that she was also tricked by the Solver was surprising, but still worked with it. Why tho. Her loyalty eventually became her downfall after losing to her former teammates

Uzi has her own singularity bomb(that's what I call the [NULL] thing)

If there's one thing I love the series for, it's the horror. I'll explain in a separate post lol

THE FIGHT SCENE OMG THE TEAM AT GLITCH IS COOKING IN THE KITCHEN. The nightcore music as Uzi and Cyn fought is something I laughed at cuz it reminded me of my childhood watching Creepypasta AMVs with nightcore music in the bg. It's not something bad but it gave me a nostalgic punch in face

"Nobody traumatizes these weirdly hot robots but me!" bi Uzi bi Uzi bi Uzi bi Uzi

The defeat of the host Cyn imo is very satisfying. Uzi destroying the outer shell of the core to reveal the singularity is a clean transition. But then a monochromatic singularity formed between the two as Cyn tries to get it back in her body in order to survive. And Uzi's quick thinking was to... eat it. It worked for a bit because Cyn LITERALLY MELTED IN FRONT OF UZI. But it caused her to pass out as her body cannot handle two cores in one body for a brief moment

Uzi now has a yellow and purple ombre eye color after she has fused with the Absolute Solver

I like how Khan had a feeling that's still Nori after she scrambled off, which make sense considered she was pronounced dead up until episode 7

Her saying that she's now a "Damaged OC" is hilarious and personally call out to all artists and writers because we gave our oc traumatic events character development that they're traumatized in the end lmao

I love how the teacher, throughout the entire series gave zero fucks about what's going on around him

I love in the ending scene is a parallel to the pilot episode with her giving off a presentation to her class. The difference being that N and V are now attending the class and her parents being at the door supporting her

I love how N is improving on his artwork, with V being supportive

Uzi flexing her newfound power to scare the shit outta her class mates is a classic parallel to her showing off her railgun in the pilot, never get old Uzi, never get old

The post credit scene, with Uzi glitching out and the Solver talking to her gives off the feeling that Uzi isn't safe yet. Especially with the look on Uzi's face throughout the scene, she looks exhausted, and she looks like she isn't all there at the same time

Anyway that's my thoughts on the Series Finale of Murder Drones. It was a rollercoaster all throughout