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[the1975attheirverybest]

ATPOAIM Ep 4- Still...at their very best

As promised, here comes my break-down/ interpretation of yesterday's episode. I'm not really sure if I'm on to anything here. Just thoughts. a discussion starter perhaps. also, I do talk about the criticisms or problems that I have with this episode towards the end.

yeah, let me know what y'all think!

---

The opening scene does a lot to set the tone of this episode and let us know, from the start, that it is in stark contrast to episodes 1, 2, and 3.

For one thing, it's in color as opposed to black and white. The style of filming is difference. we see the wide open space surrounding Matty on his mattress, instead of the camera moving along with him, or, focusing on him.

He doesn't acknowledge the camera in the way that he does in previous episodes. In fact, he spends the first 59 seconds of a, roughly, 8 minute video just getting out of bed and getting dressed. Might not seem like a lot of time, but in a short video like this, every second counts. So, the decision to focus so much on this opening moment is deliberate.

The MUSIC, lest we skip over that, is also a big deal. It does have an eerie-ness to it that suggests we should feel unsettled by what we're seeing, maybe?

Of course, the first things that happen in the mid of the audience are: wtf? why is he sleeping on the floor? why does he sleep like that? where/what is this?

Curiously, the first thing that he reaches for is the oxygen mask? I wonder if it's sort of the opposite of reaching for cigarettes (or maybe im projecting as someone who has recently quit smoking, lmao). In any case, it's not normal. That is, it's not the sort of thing one usually does when waking up in the morning. Is it to highlight the artificiality of the set up? Is it the David Lynch thing? I know he had an oxygen tank for ATVB, but I can't remember how consistently he used it. Wasn't at every show, was it? idk. Or maybe it is simply to remind us of the strangeness of the seemingly mundane things that we are about to watch him do?

His clothes are laid out for him on the cart, which, again, makes the perfectly normal act of getting dressed in the morning very strange. Perhaps also eliminates the choice. He doesn't need to make a decision about what to choose, cuz there are no options. Kind of like a uniform.

First thing he does when he's dressed and has made his "bed" is go up to the wall. I'm interested in these.

Because, he is fixated on it, and because that's what we see later on.

The music and the tone of the moment changes when he moves on to making coffee (fuck, now im really craving a good cup of coffee).

The coffee-making scene is utilizing lab apparatus. Though, I will say, drip coffee does usually use a grinder, a scale, filter paper, etc. So, I suppose that process is, in itself, adjacent to working in a lab. It also requires exactitude, slow motion, a lot of waiting around for the coffee to finish brewing and dripping, etc. (side note: the coffee he makes is nowhere near as strong as he should be. What kinda color is that, Matty?!) So, is he dramatizing the process? exaggerating skills required for the task? or i he SO committed to his grass thing that he's taken to sleeping in his lab and this is legit just an obsessed scientist making coffee in his lab thats also his home.

Some of you have pointed out that the door he exits from and the door he enters through are two different doors to the same building. If that's the case, is he suggesting some sort of cyclical nature to this everyday routine (in contrast to the day in the life thing that we saw in episode 1? Two sides, one coin?

Now, he's in an entire different lab space! Here's everything we can see when he first enters.

The greenery certainly stands out in the otherwise monochromatic setting, and we shortly see him make very exact moves to snip a "sample" of the plant, and then mist it. But not before he puts on his "Matty" coat and tosses away the "Truman Black" coat in the biohazard bin (more on that in a bit).

He moves on from his potted plant to his ??? patch of grass perhaps? which, remember, we saw a picture of in the first minute of the video. on his wall of sketches and images. One of the images was showing the layers underneath the grass. Meaning that what we see at the top in only the surface?

Briefly, we see a crack in his "character." In contrast to making deliberate and precise moves, he's suddenly stirring chaos. Trying to ride the cart, fucking with the drill, and watching stuff on his phone. You can toss the Truman Black lab coat into the biohazard bin but you can't take the Truman Black out of the Matty?? after all, the Matty dude is just a coat that he put on. He can take it back off at any moment. Is he saying that every version of himself is, ultimately, a performance of selfhood? even if he were to be "Matty"? is he saying you can't totally separate the two?

He writes "la poesie eat dans la rue" in his notebook. "The Poetry Is In The Street" BUT WHY? Nothing he's doing has anything to do with streets or poetry. Hint for the future, but what?

Next, he gets pretty tactile. "touching grass" as we joked yesterday, but maybe also testing it a bit? We get a visual trick that makes him go from hovering over the small patch of grass to laying in a much bigger one. Followed very quickly by him posing for the SATVB Tour poster.

which is the very first time that we feel there's someone maybe with him? who's taking the picture for the poster? is it pre-set? but we didn't see any signs of it in the room prior to the shot. Has more stuff happened in between, that is conveniently left out? has more time passed by? is that why the grass is larger?

He ends the video by shutting things down and pulling the lever, just like he used to do at the end of ATVB shows.

I'm not entirely sure what the "studying plant in lab" is alluding to or suggesting other than bringing the natural into an unnatural space? experimentation? exercise of control over natural being? construct building? I think that's the key to putting together the subject matter of the following tour.

NOW FOR HANG UPS I HAVE these might not be legit criticisms. It may be that once we get more info/ see more episodes, these things will become clear, but for now,

I'm not sure that this needed to be an episode of atpoaim. Like, couldn't the tour announcement have been its own thing? the series seems to have had a very specific goal that it was trying to achieve in a very specific way, and this was different. Didn't Matty say atpoaim was meant to get to color gradually as the series also got more theatrical and dramatic? kind of as a parallel to the 1975? this wasn't gradual. this went into color right away!

We also know that Matty filmed this in NJ a few weeks ago. MUCH after filming other stuff for future atpoaim episodes. Does this mean he's scrapped all previous footage and changed the whole plan? is this a brief interruption and we get back to normal next month with episode 5? is episode 5 gonna be totally new and different from an original episode 5 that maybe he'd planned before? This is why I say, if the tour announcement isn't intrinsic to where atpoaim is going, then it should've just been its own thing.

ANYWAYS THOUGHTS???? I DONT KNOW ANYTHING ANYMORE.

[sigmadecay]

[preromantics]

Hey! In case you want a one-word-prompt even after the weekend, how about: Starker, Smile? Or if smuttier: Starker, lingerie ? I hope your week gets better!

I may take either 2 hours or forever to respond to ask box prompts, but I always want to try and get to them all so here's this one, anon! I combined them both <3

Semi-NSFW. Smiles and lingerie, just like it says on the tin. 1500 words.

-

"No, no, it's okay -- I'll just, change at home," Peter implores, trying to play it cool by brushing off some of the sticky acid web fluid from his thigh and instead hissing sharply as his hand starts burning.

Speaking of burning, his jeans are starting to smoke, fibers melting away into nothing and filling his nostrils with an unpleasant tang of some sort of glue, revealing inch by inch of his bare thigh as the fluid soaks farther down his pant leg.

Tony raises an eyebrow at him, his lips pursed, a few degrees from sarcastic and lined with tight worry instead.

"Really," Peter says, but the rest of his sentence ("I'm fine!") dies on his lips. There's no way out of it, his soft dusting of leg hair is burning now, followed by his skin as it works overtime to bubble then quickly turn pink and shiny as his powers try and heal him over and over again, and Tony is watching him critically.

"Really," Tony repeats, suddenly up close and pushing Peter toward the elevator with a firm hand on his back.

Tony is muttering as the elevator speeds upwards toward the penthouse; Peter doesn't catch much other than "biohazard shower installation" because he's focused on two things:

First, his skin is stinging to the point of needing to grit his teeth, the oily compound he was working with continually burning and fighting with his healing factor.

Second, he's wearing a red g-string under his jeans, the combination of an impulse late night purchase, curiosity, and hilariously poor timing to swap out his regular boxer briefs for the first time ever. Somehow, burning in his gut, he knows Tony will somehow see and Peter will -- Peter will not follow that train of thought.

While Peter tries desperately to not turn red, and not allow his brain to freak out, Tony is manhandling him out of the elevator and down the long hallway at the other end of the expansive living space, not for the nice little (bigger than Peter's entire bedroom) guest bath, or the second guest bath, but Tony's own bedroom.

Contrary to what Peter's brain might have him believe, he's never actually been in Tony's room, or his bathroom. Tony moves him quickly though the space, barely enough time to register anything until Peter is faced with the most enormous shower he's ever seen in his life, so big it doesn't even need glass, just a little lip of tile to designate the start of the space. There are two benches on either side, all of it in some grey slate that looks seamless, and no less than four -- wait, five -- showerheads are embedded in the ceiling and walls.

"Earth to Peter, are you going into shock, kid?" Tony asks, pulling at Peter's t-shirt with one hand and stretching out to tap on a complex screen that starts several of the nozzles at once.

"Peter," Tony says, more firmly, and Peter has to physically shake himself to reply.

"Sorry, just-- that's a shower," is Peter's genius response. On auto pilot, he walks over the little lip into the smooth slate space and into the spray, surprised to find it at the perfect temperature.

"What the fuck, Parker," Tony says, exasperated.

Peter steps back further, alarmed as he watches Tony shuck off his shirt and pants -- with inhuman speed borne of practice, it seems -- to step under the water, too.

Maybe Peter is going into shock, just from some silly experiment gone wrong, his brain comforting him with some of his most buried fantasies while he's blacked out somewhere back on the lab floor.

Tony's hands are tugging at his shirt again and oh, it's all wet, Peter absolutely stepped into the shower with all of his clothes on, so concerned with having to take them off at all that he did a full 360 into ignoring their existence all together.

There was barely any acid splattered on his shirt, not even enough to make his stomach do anything more than sting a little as the material lifted away, Tony helping him peel his too-heavy shirt off and throw it on the ground in the corner with a wet smack.

"Not so bad actually," Tony says, thumb rubbing over a few red blotches of newly pink skin over Peter's abs.

It should feel perfunctory, just a kind gesture by his mentor to make sure he's not bleeding out but Peter is struck with how intimate it actually feels as his own brain comes back online a bit more. Tony is in black briefs, wet and slick against his skin, and staring down between them so his damp hair is the only thing at Peter's eye level.

"Looks like this is the worst of it," Tony says, thumbing down to the large burned out hole on Peter's left thigh, hissing when his own thumb encounters some of the sticky acid the water hasn't yet washed away. "Okay, pants off, kid."

"Uh, that's..." Peter starts, but Tony is already thumbing open the button at the top of his fly, and pulling down the--

Peter's hand flies down to catch Tony's wrist just a second too late, not spurred on by his danger senses at all but by pure heat crawling up his cheeks, and when Peter looks back up at Tony's face Tony looks shocked.

"Shit," Tony says, taking a dramatically large step back (still enough space in the gigantic shower that he doesn't even hit the wall yet) with his hands raised. "Sorry, overstepped, I--"

"No," Peter cuts him off, frantic, understanding the conclusion Tony made but wholeheartedly but absolutely disagreeing with it. He would take Tony's hands on his fly any day of the week, if it were something he was allowed to actually have.

Quickly, before he loses his nerve or Tony realizes this current moment they're in is largely inappropriate and leaves, Peter finishes lowering the zip on his fly and bends at the waist to roll his heavy-wet jeans down until they fall at the knee.

As he starts to straighten back up, entirely too aware of the way the g-string is pulling taught between his ass cheeks, and how the silky material suddenly feels so slick with the shower water, tighter than even before, he hears a small barely perceptible gasp from Tony.

"Kid," Tony says, low and disbelieving, quiet enough Peter isn't sure without his senses working overtime he'd have heard him over the spray of water steaming up the space.

"I know," Peter says, and feels anxious words bubbling up from the hot flush staining his chest as he struggles to raise his gaze back up to Tony, "I'm -- I was just trying it out, and I didn't know this would happen, obviously, or that you, you know, would be seeing, I know it's weird and--"

"It's not weird," Tony cuts him off.

Peter risks making eye contact, feeling like the rivulets of water coming down from his hair onto his face might start to steam at any moment. Tony is decidedly not making eye contact, might not even know Peter has finally looked up. Instead, he seems fixated on Peter's thighs, at the junction of them, where Peter knows the water has stained the red satin obscenely dark and cupped the tight scrap of barely-there fabric even closer to every embarrassingly growing curve of him.

"It's something," Tony continues, "that's for sure. Just -- not weird, Peter, jesus."

At that, Tony does glance back up, meeting Peter's flushed and frankly, he's sure, openly confused gaze. The contaminant has long washed away now, swirling down the drain between them, and yet Peter feels like his skin is burning even more than before, the cells of his being trying fruitlessly to knit themselves back into some order of sense where he's not standing naked save for a small g-string in Tony Stark's luxurious room-sized shower, across from the man himself.

"It's something," Tony repeats, a smile curling up on both sides of his mouth, not sarcastic or tight, or lopsided and charming for the flash of a camera -- all smiles Peter has catalogued over the past few years -- but a new one, entirely for Peter.

Peter wants desperately to understand it, the slow curve of Tony's lips, and wants to smile back to match it, but Tony is stepping closer again, one hand outstretched. Peter realizes that his smile is almost hungry in its shape, in the seconds before Tony is too close to even focus on, and before Peter can return the smile at all he finds himself opening his mouth on a gasp instead, tilting forward to close the space between them with his lips already parted.

"Oh," he manages, soft and drowned out by water, as Tony presses that smile into his mouth entirely.

"Yeah," Tony agrees, said directly against Peter's lips, warm and rumbling and still distinctly curved, just for Peter.

[droewyn]

Yuri!!! on Sims (6/??)

FIRST 

PREVIOUS

Yuuri hasn’t so much been burning the candle at both ends as chucking it directly into the fireplace.  Between trying to save the town, keep ends met, and give his dog the love and affection that he deserves, he is under an absurd amount of stress.

Is it any wonder that one day after work he just wades into the hydrangea bush behind his house and has a meltdown?

OR IS IT A MELTDOWN

No, he went into the bushes out back to GIVE BIRTH.

SURPRISE MPREG

(Well, not really a surprise to anyone who’s familiar with The Sims since 2...)

There really was no decision at all, here.

So I asked two different discords for names.  After much debate, they finally settled on:

*sigh*

Yuuri has two days off for paternity leave, so he spends them taking care of his family and cleaning the house.  It's honestly all he has time for.  Being a single parent is hard!

He's going to have to go back to work tomorrow, though.  I don't remember how much the babysitter costs.

Household finances are roughly $250.

This'll be exciting.

Victor’s still a zombie.

Next up, everyone’s favorite segment, the Victor Nikiforov Can’t Keep It In His Pants Report!

... you know what?  I’m not gonna use screencaps here.  I HAVE THEM.  They would just take up the entire post.  So, to sum up:

Victor and Makoto got back together.

Victor and Makoto broke up.

Victor and Makoto got back together.

Victor and Makoto broke up.

Victor and Makoto got back together.

Victor and Makoto broke up.

Victor and Makoto got back together.

Victor and Makoto broke up.

Victor and Makoto got back together.

Victor and Ellie Waif started going out THE INSTANT SHE STOPPED BEING A TEENAGER STOP IT THAT’S GROSS

Victor and Makoto went steady.

Victor and Laurel went on a date.

Victor and Laurel went on another date.

Victor went back to Makoto.

Victor and Makoto got engaged.  Again.

AND, OF COURSE:

GODDAMMIT NIKIFOROV

Okay, so who hasn’t Victor woohoo’d with in this town?

Usagi, Ami, Minako, Mamoru, and Christian.  I think.

OH AND OF COURSE YUURI.

I honestly feel bad for Makoto because Sailor Jupiter is everything that is good and pure in this world and if anyone other than Yuuri deserves to have Victor it would be her.

BUT SHE CAN’T HAVE HIM

...back to the Katsuki household!

Some randos sent Baby Dave-Jeff a creepy-ass doll.

There it is, in his crib.  It is clearly haunted.

The first few days of Dave-Jeff's life go quickly.  Yuuri does not have time to either visit Victor (which is fine because you can't actually socialize with zombies) or work on his alchemy practice; it's all about changing diapers and staying up with the baby and trying to keep the house from becoming a biohazard.  Just like real life!

The house is not helping.

Here is one of a string of indifferent-to-downright-neglectful babysitters.

Babysitters cost $75 per day.  Yuuri’s bringing home $125 per day.

REALISM!

At last, it is time for Dave-Jeff to leave the larval stage of his development behind.

(Sims 3 infants look like mealworms fite me)

Toddler!

Today’s babysitter decided to stay for cake.

He kept trying to flirt with Yuuri.  It did not go well for him.

Sadly, toddlers are not less labor-intensive than infants.  They are, in fact, MORE WORK.  Potty training and learning to walk and talk are top priorities!

YUURI IS A GOOD DAD

And, of course, he cannot neglect Vicchan!

Vicchan is learning what will prove to be an important skill: sniffing out Interesting Things and bringing them home to Yuuri.

CREEPY BABYSITTER

The good news with the babysitters is that they charge by the day and not the hour, so as long as Yuuri doesn’t go home first, he is able to spend a few after-work hours in the alchemy lab.

And then it gets a bit easier, because Vicchan is finally trained enough to start foraging for the family!  At first he just brings back some rocks and empty potato chip bags...

But then he manages to find a pair of moonstones, which sell for $550 each!

Which means that Yuuri can afford an alchemy station of his very own!

Not having to spend the driving time to go back and forth from home/work to the alchemy shop?  This is HUGE.  It’ll give Yuuri a couple hours of his day back!

Of course one of the babysitters immediately starts fucking with it.  I think she picked up a couple skill points and then got bored?  NOBODY IS PAYING YOU TO MESS AROUND WITH THE DARK ARTS KLARA.

To be fair, she’s actually Dave-Jeff’s best babysitter.  She interacts with him and everything!

And she doesn’t watch Yuuri sleep, so there’s that.  It’s... a low bar to clear.

Winter has arrived, and Oshibka is in elementary school!

There really isn’t a whole lot of Victor in him, to be honest.

NEXT

[finding-the-path-to-your-heart]

Humanity

So remember when I said I wanted to fuck around and write that RevFinder Fic? Well, Uh. I kinda did and didn’t? I sorta just ended up writing about how the two would feel about the other human legends as a whole!The movie thing was  inspired by @zimtdraws so go check them out!

Words : 3k Characters : ...Pretty much all the Legends but mainly Revenant/Pathfinder Summary : Revenant, the Newest legend of the group, is asked to go find Pathfinder for movie night - in the process, he ends up finding a lot more than just where he’s hiding.

The Apex Complex was a mystery at the best of times. Seemingly springing up out of nowhere, it soon had a reputation as housing some of the most dangerous criminals, skilled soldiers and smartest engineers in the outlands. Nobody was allowed in, or out without the right clearance, and even then, the only way to get inside was via a huge dropship that would land and depart at regular intervals. Rumours were plentiful; was it secretly a huge testing facility to create the ultimate legend? A prison to keep the legends away from the population while they weren't trying to kill each other? Some kind of secret government coverup to hide the truth behind the entirety of the Apex games? There were even speculations that it was some kind of joint operation with Aliens. In reality though, unless you were one of the legends, you'd never find out about the dark activities that took place behind the high walls of the sprawling Complex...

 WHAM

 The head of the axe buried itself millimetres from the head of the speed-junkie, arms full of knives, ranging from intricately carved to plain and ordinary, a sharp yelp of surprise escaping Octavio Silva's - better known as Octane -  mouth followed by a bubbling laugh as he took off into a sprint, followed by the deep, grating breathing of Bloodhound, eyes flared and glowing as they round the corner and pull their axe out of the wall, only to point it towards the fleeing thief "You will bring those back, Octavio! My weapons exist for the hunt, not your insane stunts!" They let out a low growl, sprinting after the laughing figure and disappearing from view. In another room, 4 different images of the same figure, all wearing the same baggy jeans and loose jacket, pose together in front of a trio sitting on the couch; Ajay Chey, Makoa Gibraltar and Natalie Paquette, all trying to figure out what exactly they were looking at. Makoa was the first one to speak, shrugging after a moment of looking at the other two "Uh... Friday the 13th?"

 "Friday the?!-" 3 of the copies vanish after one of them turns to look at the trio, arms crossed as Elliott Witt stands to look at the three on the couch "C’mon! Les Misera-Misre-Mis- That French musical! Really you guys?" Ajay rolls her eyes, pointing one of the drumsticks she'd been idly tapping on the couch towards the now-pouting figure "T'be fair, NONE of those poses looked like you were singing. Dying, maybe, but not singing" laughter spills from the other two soon after, echoing throughout the living room and bringing a smile back onto the face of the engineer who falls back onto the couch, jabbing a finger towards the medic "Alright, let's see you do better!"

"Alright, I will!"

As she's getting up to start, a loud crash sounds out in the complex - followed immediately after by a loud, thundering "SILVA!" In the unmistakable voice of the complex's resident 'Mad Scientist'. Ajay sighs, rubbing her temples and giving the others an apologetic look "Sorry guys. Guess I'm on Octavio duty until Caustic stops threatening to use him as a lab rat" she turns, jogging out of the room with a yell of "OCTAVIO YOU DUMBASS! GET'CHA ASS OVER HERE!", her footsteps soon fading away.

A door swings open elsewhere in the house with a group of four walking back inside; Tae Joon Park, better known as Crypto, Anita Williams, Renee Blasey and, most curiously, Revenant, the newest member of the legends. Between them, they carry about a dozen bags, with 2 of them supported on Crypto's drone, his hands planted firmly in his pockets. Anita groans, rolling her shoulders and making her way toward the communal kitchen, the others following behind "I swear, if Witt tells me I've got the wrong type of cereal again, I'm gonna pour him an entire box and make him eat the whole thing. There's like 80 different types!" This draws a chuckle from the shorter figure beside her, Renee brushing some of the hair out of her face and setting two bags down on the counter "Oh, please. It's not like he's the only one with a particular quirk - you're the one who snacks on one type of ration bars and nothing else." She smirks, before Crypto navigates the drone over and sets the bags down "Frankly, I'm just surprised at how lax the security was in a store that big. I feel like we probably could have walked out with most of this and nobody would have raised an eyebrow." Anita shoots him a look and he raises both hands out of his pockets in protest "Just because we could didn't mean I did. Besides, if anyone is shifty, it's our newest addition over here" he glances toward the towering figure, as Revenant sets down his bags on the table, glaring across at the other 3 "Alright. I've done what you asked, now are you going to tell me why I bothered entertaining the thought?" A glance between the three ends with Renee leaning on the counter "Easy. It's movie night, and the new guy always picks the movie their first time. We just didn't tell you because we figured you'd say it was pointless" she smirks, the Simulacrum narrowing his eyes. "You'd be right. I have no interest in indulging this pointless activity. Unless there's anything else you want to bother me with, I'll be leaving." He turns, only for Anita to tap him in the shoulder "Yeah, actually. There's something else you can do. Crypto said he saw Pathfinder up on the roof and none of us really have a good way of getting up there besides Octane's bounce pads - and we banned those after the last incident. If you can grab him for movie night, we'll refrain from bothering you for as long as you want."

The figure grumbles for a moment before turning and walking away, muttering "Fine" under his breath as the doors to the complex slide open once more, allowing him access to the outside. The others, having watched him go, soon begin to move food into the numerous fridges and cupboards, avoiding the fridge with a padlock and a biohazard symbol on it. One cupboard opens to reveal over a dozen boxes of cereal, Renee slotting in another one and putting a post-it note to designate it as the newest one. Energy drinks, quick meals, ingredients of all shapes and sizes, all put in their respective places in companionable silence, besides the occasional correction from Anita. When it was done, the three look at each other awkwardly for a moment, before Crypto raises a hand "I'll see you all later tonight. Till then." Before quickly heading off, leaving Anita and Renee face to face - there's a pause as the two both try and figure out what to say, before Anita nods, and the two head their separate ways, with the latter yelling out "Movie night, tonight! I better see all your asses in the main room at twenty-one hundred or you're not getting to pick your own snacks!"

 A slow, steady clanking echoes across the outside of the complex as the Simulacra makes their way up to the top of the main building, clawed hands finding enough purchase in the various nooks and crannies to support themselves until they were able to pull themselves up to the roof, where the blue robot was sitting, looking down through a skylight - one that looked into the main room of the building. From there, it was easy to see the trio still playing charades, Ajay sitting down a smoldering, injured Octavio and patching up several gashes and burn marks. Caustic and Bloodhound stand off to the side, glaring at the grinning daredevil - one, similarly smoking, holding the remains of a gas barrel with a large gash along the side, a smashed breaker in his other hand, the other holding the numerous knives that had been taken, several of which were melted. It was even easy enough to see the more independent legends - Renee leaning against the wall and watching the interaction with a smirk, Crypto sitting in another chair in the room and fiddling with his datapad, Anita flipping over a number pad in the corner which read 'Days since last Stunt' back to 0. Soon enough, Octavio is handed a broom, and trash bag and escorted out of the room by Caustic, head hung low dramatically as he trudges out. Bloodhound examines their ruined knives before shaking their head, walking out of the room as well. All the while, Pathfinder and Revenant watch quietly, the former of the two seemingly only noticing the latter once the room settled down once more, perking up as his face shifts to that bright yellow smile

"Oh! Revenant! What're you doing up here, friend?"

"I'm not your friend. I just came here because the others told me to get you."

"Oh, really? I'm sorry to have caused them trouble! Thanks for letting me know, friend!"

Either the robot hadn't heard him the first time, or simply hadn't acknowledged it, being called 'Friend' by this walking toaster grated on Revenant's nerves.

"I'm not your friend." He takes a moment, pausing before looking down at the skylight "What're you even doing up here, anyway?"

The robot takes a moment, looking down at the skylight again with a question mark on his chest, before looking back up "I'm trying to figure out what it means to be a human"

The Simulacrum was taken aback by the response. So taken aback, in fact, that all he can utter is "Why?"

The robot continues on "Well, it all started with Dr Caustic wanted my help with some experiments because I didn't have 'Useless Human Morality'. Then Octane wanted me to try out a new stunt, because he said he needed someone without ‘Human Limitations’…and then Bangalore told me that she liked having me on the team because I didn’t crack under pressure like a human would…and, well, it got me thinking; what is a human?”

A brief silence passes over the roof before the Simulacra sits down on the same jutting out piece of roof that Pathfinder was, lifting a hand up in front of him and examining the cruel metallic talons that made up his hand before looking off to the side as the massive city that surrounded the complex. So many humans. So many useless wastes of time. “I can tell you what a human is. A human is a waste of space. They’re annoying. Pitiful. Emotional. They brag and boast and fight, all to prove among themselves who’s superior in these useless competitions – and for what? So that they can live more of their frivolous lives killing and plaguing the world with their existence, so they can spend credits on pointless trinkets and useless objects that will end up as little more than scrap metal and forgotten junk within a few decades. But most of all, they’re weak – their body are fragile so they cover themselves in armour, their ability to kill is lacklustre at best, so they invent weapons to do the killing for them, and they claim that their intelligence is what puts them at the top of a food chain when most of them aren’t even smart enough to know how pathetic they really are!” all the while, Revenant has been leaning steadily further and further forwards, looking down towards the skylight and the group playing charades below – a group that’s now expanded out to include most of the legends, with Caustic in the centre holding what looks like a remarkable realistic skull out and monologuing silently to it. “I mean, look at them! Even now, when they could be training, refining themselves, getting even MARGINALLY more useful, they’re doing THIS!” they snarl, gripping the piece of the roof so hard that it splinters and cracks under his grip, before slamming his feet onto the ground and standing up, forcefully enough that Mirage looks up at the sight above him, eyes widening and face going pale at the sight of the two robots looking down at the group from above. He seems to make some kind of excuse, quickly leaving the room and disappearing from view.

Revenant stands, back to the skylight, staring down at his hand, twitching and trembling with barely contained rage after working himself into a state. His hand turns, looking at the symbol of Hammond robotics on the back, eyes flaring up for a moment before a voice cuts through the miasma of rage that’d be clouding his head. “Are you okay, Friend?”

Revenant turns, eyes flaring up again, turning towards Pathfinder looking towards him with a question mark on his chest, before he runs a hand back over his head and takes a moment, letting out a deep sigh “I’m done with this conversation.” He turns, making to leave before Pathfinder speaks once again. “I don’t agree with you, friend.” Revenant pauses. The robot was so usually accepting of what other people said and believed, that it was actually rather uncommon for him to disagree with anyone – and this had caught his attention. He crosses his arms, walking back over and looking down at Pathfinder without sitting down, disdain in his gaze. “And why’s that?” Pathfinder’s eye turns back towards the people below, all laughing as Octane has removed both of his legs, crawling dramatically across the ground towards Bloodhound, who’s holding a long pole in one of their hands. The face on Pathfinder’s chest shifts to a smile as he turns to look back towards Revenant “I think Humans are much more than all of that. I don’t think you’re wrong – humans are weak and pathetic sometimes, but they can be strong in ways that I can’t! Gibraltar makes everyone around him feel happy and safe, Octane makes people laugh all the time, and Lifeline understands how to make people feel better when they’re sad – I can’t do any of that, and I think that’s a kind of strength!” Revenant makes to interrupt, but he continues “I train a lot of the time with shooting and grappling, but I don’t think I’d be anywhere near as strong if I didn’t have the others as my friends! They make me want to be better, and I want to be better for them right back! If they help me, it’s only fair I help them too. Sure, Humans aren’t strong, they’re fragile and weak, but…they don’t make fun of me for being cold and tough…and they don’t make fun of you, either! Neither of us are humans, but…most of the time, they act like we are, even though they don’t have to!” He turns, looking back towards the humans down below, swinging his legs slowly as he does so “I might not know who my creator is, but…if they want to treat me as a human, then I know who my family is, and they’re all the people who make me want to keep fighting!” his screen lights up in an exclamation mark and he turns towards revenant excitedly, grabbing his hands as he stands up “That’s it! Being human isn’t about having skin or organs or making silly decisions. It’s about caring about people, what they think, how they feel! Human isn’t a thing, it’s a way you think, and I think I can be just as human as the rest of them…with enough practice, at least. Maybe you could teach me, friend?”

A moment of silence hangs in the air, confusion written across Revenant’s face as he looks at the robot quizzically “Why on earth would you want me to try and teach you how to be human? Look at me, do I look any more human than you are?” “No, but that doesn’t matter! Human is caring about people, and with how much you spoke about them needing to be stronger, smarter and more useful, it sounds like you care about the people down there a whole lot!”

A moment of realisation flickers across the face of the Simulacrum, as he turns his gaze down towards the group once more. This…Pathfinder was right, for once. Why did he care so much about these meatbags? They were weak. Pitiful. Pathetic…and yet, they were honest, brutally so. From ritualistic hunting to mad science, none of them had made any attempt to hide who they were, and none of them had treated him any differently than the others around them. To them, he wasn’t some twisted abomination of steel and plastic, pretending to be a person, he was just…another Legend. Looking down, the light of the setting sun casts his reflection in the skylight, showing – for the first time in a long time – a human face, looking so, so very tired, wrapped in his shemagh, smiling weakly.

“I’m going to be going back down now. Are you coming, friend?” He’s snapped out of his staring by Pathfinder once more, currently in the process of dropping down off the side of the building, before nodding and dropping down with him, making his way back inside of the building alongside the azure robot, right as there’s a call of “Mamma Mia!” a laugh, and subsequent cheer that fills the room as the two performing in the middle collapse down. Bangalore turns, hearing the two walking back inside and smiling, turning towards Revenant and nodding her head “Thanks. You didn’t have to  do that, but you did, so…as promised, we’ll all leave you alone for the rest of the night. We’ll be in here, so you won’t have to worry about us disturbing you as long as you don’t come in” She turns around, heading back to the group before she’s stopped by his voice

“Wait. Would it…be alright if I joined you all for Movie Night?” Revenant asks, looking away, uncertainty written across his face before Bangalore laughs, grinning and patting his back, shoving him forwards until he’s standing in front of the group, confusion written across most of their faces – and fear across one – before she turns to the group “Our newest Legend here wants to be part of Movie Night – but I figure, if he wants to prove that he’s seriously interested, he should show us how good he is at acting, first!” what started as confusion soon turns into laughter, before a cheer of approval rings out, the tall, lanky figure standing in the middle of the room, confused for a moment before a faint smile crosses that skeletal face, dropping into a pose in the middle of the room and listening to the others starting to guess.

And were anyone to look into the room, they would see not a simulacra, but a human, a smile across his face as he rebuffs the various attempts made by the other people in the room, trying to guess what his gangly limbs and hard-to-read expression were trying to represent – they’d see something that looked less like a collection of killers, criminals and monsters, and something more closely resembling a family. An odd family, of course, but a family nonetheless.

[flowercuco]

fellowship ep 3

leaving off from last time, the fellowship follows Fa’s guidance towards her body, and probably her friend, Do. As they follow them down, Fa starts flirting with everyone! 

Nice headless dwarf flirting! Some of this summary might get fucked up because im a mess today.

Fa leads the party down the corridor, and the group starts to notice that there’s more plantlife around. Armistice gets tired of being followed and uses up her flame to prevent them from being followed! Cool! 

They keep going, notice that the chimeras in front of them have vanished, so Aisa notices a cool trap! The cool trap is a vine thing that unleashes a splash of slime on whoever trips on it. Vapor wanted that cool slime, and succeeded in grabbing some without fucking anything up. 

They notice cool bugs and cool moss and colors and Aisa feeds one to Fa and its cool and Theo doesn't get jealous at all. Fa also constantly is flirting with Vapor to which Vapor doesn’t quite understand. 

Then the team reaches this oval semi circular room that has the cool reactor in it! In front of it is a nice, carved, stone table with a bowl in it. The reactor is covered by various, grassy made decorations, and has intense overgrowth with various parts of its machinery being replaced with giant plant-life. They also notice various huts and hovels, and Fa assumes that her body is in one of them. 

Theo starts to approach the hovel and gets a bunch of plant stuff tossed on them, so Armistice gets tired and tells Aisa to tell all of the chimeras that if they don’t give her the dwarves, then she will kill all of them, something which she says is a bluff but as she gets more information considers seriously.

The chimeras agree, and then get mad at Armistice when she just says outloud that its a bluff, revealing that the chimeras can understand, but not speak common. The chimeras by the way, are mammalian mish mash creatures, like a cowpig, or the red panda with a fox snout who eventually introduces herself as Tender Heart, the leader of the chimeras.

Over the course of some rolls, the group discover that they captured the dwarves after being attacked for no reason, which is true and why the dwarves are still tied up (armistice forces them to apologize for their shenanigans), that the reactor is vitally important to the chimera way of life as it is entirely why they are allowed to live, and that it does this via the method of it being full of dragon blood. The reactor is fine, and stable as it is, moving it or changing it would require a lot of work. 

Before the group decides what to do with all of this information, they see the remains of the closed Biohazard Lab gift shop, a sign of the chimera’s scavenging, and Aisa gets a shirt with a 90′s style cartoon Artuira on it that says Arturia Rulez, Empire Droolz. Vapor gets a keychain flask to make up for all of the ones she’s had to use. Theo’s horse eats a shirt. Also the dwarves are mad horny for Vapor I forgot to mention this.

Back to not joke things Armistice explains that the reactor is an affront to her people and that she’d destroy it if it was up to her. It isn’t so they decide to leave the chimeras alone, although Theo does tell Tender Heart that they would be fine negotiating terms with the surface, far more impressed with their handling of the situation on the lab than the humans in charge. 

Satisfied with this, the fellowship makes motions to leave when Aoely calls Vapor on her cellphone, and in a panic, tells her that one of the overlords minions, the Titan of Wind and Storm, Lace, approaches. The fellowship springs to action to prepare for this threat, as Vapor calls for the Constellation’s Drift to come to the lab.

Next time! How do you deal with a storm titan anyway?