#while Vector is so excited to have this new kid on his floor

[hedgehog-university-au]

Vector and Espio meeting for the first time:

Espio: This is the most intense and intimidating person I have ever met. I'm aware I'm short but I have never felt this small until today. I legitimately think he could kill me.

Vector: New bro? New homie? FREND???? 👀👀👀

[stark-tony]

tododeku fic recs

* = incomplete

meet you again someday (after we take the long way ’round) by theroyalsavage

summary: Midoriya Izuku's life is saved by a boy with the strongest Quirk he has ever seen. 

Eventually - inevitably - he falls in love.(An AU in which Todoroki never attends UA, they never clash at the sports festival, but they come together all the same.)

pairings: tododeku

tags: hurt/comfort

warnings: none

that is just the way by celestialfics

summary:  Shouto has his first sleepover.

pairings: tododeku

tags: fluff

warnings: none

what is right and what is easy by theroyalsavage

summary: Midoriya Izuku is not chosen to represent Hogwarts in the Triwizard Tournament. He does not slay a dragon, or rescue innocents, or brave a maze of dark magic. He does not win accolades, or fame, or glory.

Instead, Izuku meets the son of the greatest dark wizard of the age, a Durmstrang student with hair like a sunrise and eyes like a war. And maybe, he just might win something else.

pairings: tododeku, kiribaku, tsuchako

tags: fluff, angst

warnings: none

First Time For Everything by kazzarole

summary: Midoriya is the catalyst of many of the 'firsts' in Shouto's life--it just makes sense that Shouto should share his first kiss with him, too.

pairings: tododeku

tags: fluff

warnings: none

alone together by celestialfics

summary:  Five times when other Class 1-A kids notice Todoroki and Midoriya in their own world.

pairings: tododeku

tags: fluff

warnings: none

A Simple Warmth by patster223

summary: “I’m trying to make Todoroki a sweater for his birthday, but…” Izuku pokes at the tangle of yarn. “It’s more complicated than I thought it would be.”

In which Izuku sucks at knitting, his classmates are eager to help out, Todoroki finally gets to be cozy, and knitting is a vector for romance.

pairings: tododeku

tags: 

warnings: none

Conventional Taste by WowBoring

summary: He didn’t think it would matter if Midoriya were taking him to a sewer convention; it was probably still going to be the highlight of his Golden Week.

In order to avoid a visit from his unpleasant grandparents Todoroki attends a hero convention with Midoriya, and learns a few things along the way.

pairings: tododeku

tags: fluff

warnings: abuse

pls respond by Esselle

summary: 'Midoriya: UR SO CUTE

Shouto chokes on nothing. How is he supposed to respond to that? Is he supposed to respond at all?

Midoriya: Look at your big head aaaaaaaaaaaaah Midoriya: *Image Attached*

Oh, Shouto thinks. He was talking about Shouto's Nitotan, which is now smashed to one of Izuku's cheeks in the image Izuku just sent, as Izuku squeezes it joyfully. Even if Izuku wasn't talking to him directly, the butterflies in Shouto's stomach feel a bit joyful, too.

He types out: I wish I were that Nitotan right now. Then he snorts, and erases it.'

--

Izuku has a wide variety of special moves, but his Key Smash might be the most powerful of all.

pairings: tododeku

tags: fluff, humor

warnings: none

i can keep a secret, could you? by handcrusher (ameliafromafairytale)

summary: The last thing Todoroki wants is for his father to figure out that 1) he's gay and 2) he's dating the boy he's supposed to overcome as a hero. So, he and Midoriya devise a plan.

Just how long can they keep it up?

pairings: tododeku, tsuchako, momojirou

tags: 

warnings: 

hold on tight by lunalou

summary: "What are you doing?" Shouto asks.

"Hugging you." Midoriya returns in a patient voice. His arms tighten around Shouto's waist and he presses his forehead more firmly against his back. "You know it's a hug, Shouto-kun. Don't play dumb."

or, five times somebody from 1-a hugs todoroki and the one time he hugs them first

pairings: tododeku

tags: 

warnings: 

If I'm Being Honest.... by I_dont_know_man

summary: Midoriya scrunched up his nose in confusion. “Uh, Shouto, why are you glaring at me like that?”

“I-” Todoroki began to lie, until nausea slammed him like a door to any room that Bakugou entered. “I--” Todoroki grit his teeth, and glared daggers into the wall behind Midoriya. Goodbye, friendship. It had been absolutely divine while it lasted. “Because you’re very attractive.”

They say honesty is the best policy, but it sure as hell had a knack for Todoroki making a complete and utter fool of himself. 

  In which Todoroki is placed under a mysterious truth-telling quirk and suffers, Uraraka laughs at him, Midoriya is confused but smitten nonetheless, and Twitter is the thirstiest site on the planet.

pairings: tododeku, kiribaku

tags: humor, fluff

warnings: 

Guiding Light by furihatachlookie

summary:  It was his mother's idea to enroll him at the local elementary school. His father believed a private tutor was better, but nobody can argue with a mother who's made up her mind, and a balanced exposure to kids his own age sways his father's judgement enough to agree and sign the papers.

pairings: tododeku

tags: fluff, angst

warnings: 

Todoroki and Yaoyorozu's Elite Study Club by hanwritesstuff (hannahkannao)

summary: “Well, as I see it, we have two options.” Shouto holds up two fingers. “We can either ignore this and pretend it never happened or... not.” He doesn't know which one he wants. “What does not entail, exactly?” Yaoyorozu asks. “...I don't know.”

In which Todoroki accidentally learns something about Yaoyorozu, Yaoyorozu accidentally learns something about Todoroki, and they spend a considerable portion of their study sessions... not studying.s

pairings: tododeku, momojirou

tags: fluff, humor

warnings:

Do What You Will, If That's What You Want by stanzas

summary: “What do you mean you’re retiring?” Bakugou asks nicely, or at least as nicely as someone like Bakugou can ask. The question is phrased more like a demand.“

Call it a mid-life crisis,” Shouto answers, like Bakugou asked him what the weather would be tomorrow, and takes a deep sip from his coffee. “I’m thinking of changing careers.”

The world of heroes is quick to adapt to surprises, but Pro Hero Entropy’s (very premature) retirement announcement throws almost everyone for a pretty impressive loop.

pairings: tododeku

tags: hurt/comfort, angst, humor

warnings:

extra, extra! by rythyme (pugglemuggle)

summary: Shouto & Creati: ACTUALLY Dating?! by Hitachi Hitomi at September 18, 2047 3:42 pm."Ever since heartthrob 

Todoroki Shouto and the Everything Hero "Creati" made their official debuts, the two 22-year-old heroes have been nothing but professional towards each other. But was this all a sham to cover up the truth?" 

Or: The media thinks Shouto and Creati are dating. Hint: they aren't. A multimedia TodoDeku & MomoJirou fanfic told through news articles, gossip columns, twitter, tumblr, text messages, and more.

pairings: tododeku, momojirou

tags: fluff, humor

warnings:

you broke the dark and my whole earth shook by aloneintherain

summary:  Shouto had imagined himself as the country’s top hero for decades. Endeavour had put those images in his head when he was a child, and they had stayed there, growing like a fungus, until Shouto had reached adulthood. Even now, he was only just beginning to realise he didn’t have to live his life according to almost thirty-year-old decisions made by his abuser. He could do more. Be more. Outside of the hero community.

Izuku gets a job offer in America. Somehow, this brings Shouto and Izuku closer than ever before.

pairings: tododeku

tags: fluff, hurt/comfort

warnings:

count your blessings, not your flaws by PitViperOfDoom

summary:  Midoriya Izuku has never been asked out, confessed to, or flirted with, except as a joke.

pairings: tododeku

tags: angst, hurt/comfort

warnings: bullying

call the fire department (i'm burning up with love) by Edgedancer

summary:  An (abridged) list of things Todoroki Shouto did not have before U.A.: Loud neighbors. Fire alarms. Friends. Midoriya Izuku.

pairings: tododeku

tags:

warnings:

long nights and daydreams by dreamtowns

summary: According to the public, Pro Heroes Deku and Entropy are an amazing Hero Duo, best friends, and the most eligible bachelors in the world. According to their fans, they’re head over heels in love with one another yet oblivious to the others’ feelings. According to their friends and family, they’ve been in love with one another since high school, but, for reasons unknown to them, refuse to act upon said feelings.

According to said heroes, they have been (secretly) married for six years.

pairings: tododeku

tags: fluff, hurt/comfort

warnings: 

extra-salty/twitter-verse series by SportsAnimeRuinedMyLife (KnightOfRage)

summary:  In his third year at UA, Todoroki Shouto works in a burger place, catches on fire and falls in love. Only two of those things are on purpose.

Or...Todoroki Shouto's exciting adventures in customer service.

part one of the extra salty/twitter-verse

pairings: tododeku, kiribaku

tags: fluff, humor

warnings: none

More Than Skin-Deep by Emmeri

summary: It was a fact, really. That he was ugly. Having a scar which takes up half his face kind of does that, in Todoroki's eyes. So why does he overhear the girls call him the class pretty boy?

He'll just have to ask Midoriya about it; he has too little filter to tell anything but the truth.

pairings: tododeku

tags: fluff, angst

warnings: 

Your Biggest Fan by Latios

summary: He opens the bag on the floor to see what could have been left in there-- and promptly freezes, staring at the contents inside.

“Midoriya.” He calls.

“Hm?”

“You bought our hero merch?”

~

Aka, Class 1-A starts to see themselves appear on merchandise in their local stores. Todoroki tries not to buy things, and fails.

pairings: tododeku

tags: fluff, humor

warnings: 

Marry The Mole by Haurvatat

summary: “You're going to break up with him before he can propose.”

The hands went down and the steel wall of Midoriya's entire being went up. “...Excuse me?”

“And in return-” Enji gritted his teeth, “-I will deposit 20 million yen in your checking account.”

-

The gay drama fic based on a tumblr post absolutely zero people wanted to see but YOU'RE GETTING ANYWAY

pairings: tododeku

tags: humor

warnings: 

ascended fanboy by aloneintherain

summary: “I want to honour them,” Izuku said softly. “When I cosplay, I just want people to see how amazing these heroes are.”

Shouto brushed a thumb over his cheek, careful not to smudge his makeup. “They do. I promise.”

Or: Izuku and Shouto attend HeroCon, five years post-graduation.

pairings: tododeku

tags: 

warnings: 

[etraytin]

Quarantine, Day 75

This past week has been kind of stressful, but today turned out to be a pretty good day. I got up early so I could hit Walmart as soon as it opened, figuring that the best time to hit up a superstore would be as early as possible on a holiday where people might like to be sleeping in. I also made an extremely detailed plan beforehand, using Walmart's app tools to locate every item on my shopping list and rewrite the list in order of where I could find the items, working my way from the back of the store to the front. In an unfamiliar Walmart, especially one with one-way aisles currently, this somewhat tedious task saved a _lot_ of time. As it turned out, Walmart is about a hundred times better than Food Lion at safety practices, and with the place nearly empty anyway, I felt at least as safe as at Publix, and a lot more at home. No cart wipers, but a lot of social distancing and masks on just about everyone. 

Why start at the back of the store? Because that is where the toilet paper is, of course. I did well, too, picked up twelve jumbo rolls of Ultra Soft and Strong, far better than the Toilet Paper brand toilet paper that was all I could get delivered. There wasn't a huge amount available, but there were several different brands. I was able to get everything on my list except yeast, which remains stubbornly unavailable, but luckily there is always beer bread. The good thing about shopping at Walmart is that when you spent two hundred dollars stocking up at Walmart, you feel like you're actually stocked up. My cart was _full._ We should not need more groceries for at least another week, and then maybe just a top up. 

The thing that actually took the longest was my detour all the way across the store into the toy department. I spent a long time (less than five minutes, but subjectively very long when you're speed-shopping) looking at the Razor scooters, wondering if that would let the kid burn off energy and have some fun. The cheapest one that would really fit him was fifty dollars, which is not beyond our reach, but I realized I could only see him enjoying it with other kids around. Riding around in the driveway and the cul de sac alone seemed depressing even in my head. So instead I picked him up some other things. I got a pack of two generic super-soakers and two little squirt guns, a bouncy ball sized for throwing or kicking, a nerf football, and a four-pack of bubble wands. Stuff that also wouldn't be fun to use alone, but that his dad or I could use with him. Something to play with, but also the implicit promise that we would play with him. (I also got him some bubble gum because he likes bubblegum and hardly ever gets it.) 

Anyway, I got the groceries home and unpacked, then I showed the kiddo his new things. He was _very_ excited. I promised him that when the temperature got warmer in the afternoon, we would put on old clothes and run around with squirt guns, and he immediately filled them up and went on the deck to start practicing. There was a lot of yelling and posturing in front of the window for the benefit of us inside. The bouncy ball was another hit, and we're going to save the bubble wands to take on a visit to Papa so he can see them too. 

I decided on salsa chicken for supper because it is easy and takes five minutes in the morning to put together. Basically you cover the bottom of your crockpot with chicken breasts (a big one takes four or five), dump a packet of taco seasoning on them, and cover the whole thing with an entire jar of salsa. (I like the Walmart brand black bean and corn because it is good and extremely cheap for a big jar.) Turn on your crockpot to low and let it cook all day. Sometime at least an hour before you serve it, shred the meat with two forks and then wait until it has soaked up most of the liquid to serve it. Put it on tortillas with your preferred taco stuff. It's delicious! MIL ate two of them, another sign she's feeling much better after being sickly yesterday. 

While the chicken was cooking all day, we did baked potatoes and salad for lunch, and then it was time for The Soakening. At first it was just the kiddo and me because my husband is deep into writing a book and is trying to make up for lost time in the past few weeks. We went out to the driveway and ran around squirting each other and shrieking, then went to the hose to refill our guns. We did that twice more before the kiddo realized that just using the hose would be a more efficient vector for getting really, really wet. I agreed on the condition that he got to be the one getting wet and I would hold the hose. He agreed, so we began a hilariously one-sided water battle of Kiddo vs The Hose. He got very, very wet. I got pretty wet too, but not as much. My husband came out and we were going to give him one of the big squirt guns, but he pulled out the two little guns and started squirting in a very treacherous fashion, so of course it was the hose for him! After that it was mostly anarchy, with a lot of me getting Supersoakered in the back while trying to drench my husband with the hose. And yelling, lots of yelling. 

It took about an hour until we were all exhausted and soaked through and decided to call it a day. We had to use towels on the porch so we didn't soak Nana's hardwood floors as we sloshed off to our rooms to change clothes. There was resting time after that, then the kiddo and my husband baked a chocolate cake from scratch that turned out pretty good, then supper, a documentary about baseball, two episodes of Avatar, and bedtime. The kiddo didn't come out of his room after bedtime because he was stressed or sad even once. He just went right to sleep. It was a pretty good day. 

[siverwrites]

More of the raised-in-Figaro branch AU of the AU because it’s been stuck in my head for too long.

Context: As a kid Cabanela was taken by the much nastier Doctor Asbolus instead of Cidgeon and was intended to be raised and melded into some kind of weapon and tool. Cidgeon rescues him and they end up being taken in by Figaro. Kid’s a mess but getting there. Jowd’s mom, Queen Tabatha is on the case.

Tabatha sat cross-legged in the middle of the training hall floor. Breathe slowly. Let the stresses of the day wash away—load of idiots that lot. Where Zeno got the patience still escaped her after all these years. It had taken everything to hold her tongue and still a remark slipped out unnoticed by everyone except him though he’d shown no sign of his noticing until they were gone when his attempted rebuke was betrayed by the sparkle in his eyes. They had it and more coming. If she had to hear one more sniveling conniving… Breathe.

“Ma!”

Tabatha blinked. Jowd hurried across the hall toward her, round face knit with unusual worry. “Have you seen Cabanela?”

“Not since this morning. I thought you were spending the day with him.”

“I was,” Jowd said, shoulders hunching, “but he ran away and now I can’t find him.”

“He… what happened?”

“We were talking. Then I asked if he wanted to come to that party thing with me and he said he couldn’t and I said he could.” He paused. “That’s okay, right?”

Tabatha waved a dismissive hand. “No one’s going to stop you. Go on.”

“He said he wouldn’t be allowed and I said he would, he’s my friend. Then he got really quiet like he was when he first came and he wouldn’t talk to me and I got scared and touched him and then he stood up and said he had to go and ran. I didn’t mean to upset him. I don’t even wanna go but dad said I had to and I thought it’d be fun if he came.”

Tabatha frowned. “And that’s all? You’re sure nothing else happened?”

“I don’t think so…”

“And you already checked their suite?”

“Yeah, Cidgeon said he wasn’t back.”

“Well, you know sometimes people want to be alone. You might be better off leaving him be. I’m sure he’ll come back soon enough.”

Jowd dug his foot into the ground and folded his arms. “I guess, but he’s never run away from me before.”

“He knows not to leave the castle unsupervised. He’ll be around here somewhere. I’ll keep an eye out okay?”

“Okay… but I’m gonna look around some more too.”

Tabatha watched Jowd hurry back out. No doubt they’d find each other and forget anything happened by the end of the day. However as she tried to turn her thoughts back inward images of the boy rose in her mind instead. Always at Jowd’s side, always there and a half-step back. Once she noticed she had to draw Jowd aside and ask if he’d noticed his new friend had taken a servant’s position. He hadn’t of course, but when she next saw them he was firmly at Cabanela’s side. The boy with eyes always cast down whenever in her presence or Zeno’s and crisp elegant bows she personally thought no kid needed to know how to do. Quiet, reserved… scared. It was the impression she most often got until she got caught sparks in the cracks. She saw excitement in his face when they visited the chocobo pens. She’d overheard them talking another time and with surprise realized she mostly hearing Cabanela talk, asking one question after another. Quiet sometimes. Reservations faded for that moment.

Quiet, reserved, scared… She frowned at Jowd’s description of what happened. Maybe a walk around the castle was in order.

 Tabatha found herself in one of the lesser used halls, ears trained for any out of place sound. And then a breathy sound caught her attention and she paused by a seemingly closed door. Almost closed; it hadn’t quite caught. Ahh. She gently nudged it open and peered into the room. There he was hunched in a tangle of arms and legs on the floor in the shadows of a pile of crates. She stepped into the room and closed the door behind her. Cabanela drew himself into an even tighter ball and his head shook rapidly back and forth with a hard sniff. Then he peeked up over his arms and knees. Reddened eyes and a tear-stained face met hers. She knelt in front of him.

“Hey there. It’s okay.”

He shrunk back and if he could have melded into the wall she was certain he would have.

“Jowd was looking for you. He was worried.”

“I’m sorry,” Cabanela whispered and he buried his face into his arms again but not before she caught the tears welling back up.

“It’s okay,” Tabatha repeated. “You’re not in trouble.” She reached out to grip a bony shoulder and shook her head. If she didn’t know any better she’d be asking Cidgeon if he was feeding the boy. Skinny as a cactuar needle, this one. Cabanela flinched. She drew back.

“I’m sorry. I’m going to sit beside you, okay?” She shuffled over until she was against the wall. He didn’t respond but she realized after a moment he was repeating something between choked and muffled sobs.

“Can’t cry, can’t cry, can’t cry.”

“Of course you can cry.” She thought it a wonder she’d seen no sign of it before now after all he’d been through. “Did Jowd upset you? He’s sorry.”

He shook his head.

“What happened?”

He lifted his head, tears still flowing freely and waved a hand before digging his fingers into his hair. “I don’t know,” he said in an agonized whisper. “I don’t know. I’m scared I’m scared I can’t be scared. I don’t know.” His eyes squeezed shut and his voice raised in pitch, frantic and cracking over his words. “He’ll end it, he’ll take me back. I’m wrong. I’m doing it wrong. It’s all wrong, it’s all wrong and it’s gonna end. I can’t I can’t I can’tIcan’tIcan’t!”

“That won’t happen,” Tabatha said firmly. “You’re one of us now. You’re safe here and we’re happy to have you.” Goddesses just what had they done to the boy?

His eyes opened wide, stared at her, hazed over with tears and a darker blue than she’d ever seen before. She could barely hear him when he spoke again, mouth opening and closing several times before the single word slipped out. “Help.” He gasped, hands clapping over his mouth and closed his eyes again, curling back into the ball she’d found him in.

Her mind blanked. She reached out and drew him in, wrapping her arms firmly around him. He shuddered and with a small wail that made her tighten her hug, a fresh wave of sobs broke loose.

“There, let it all out. You’re safe here.” She rubbed his back and rocked him uncertain of what else to do. Jowd wasn’t much of a crier and if anyone or thing caused him to break down like this, she’d see them broken herself. Unfortunately that wasn’t an option here—she took a moment to imagine Zeno’s face if she suggested they simply storm one part of Vector—tempting but sadly no. So she contented herself with simply holding him close while he cried and cried until the tears slowly died down leaving him shaking and sniffling in her arms.

She smoothed back some of the mess his hair had become and lacking a handkerchief, used her thumb to wipe away a stray tear.

“Better?”

He ducked his head.

“Why don’t we get you cleaned up and something to drink?”

“Y-yes, Your Majesty…”

She stood, lifted him to his feet, and took his hand. It was tense in hers, though he followed after without protest. She wasn’t entirely certain if that was a good thing or not. Regardless, she guided him back to her quarters where she sat him down at the table with a cool damp cloth while she sorted through her teas. Something soothing was in order here.

Cabanela’s eyes darted around the room at first, cataloguing she thought, before easing into something more studying and curious. She left him to it while the water boiled and then the tea steeped. He remained quiet when she gave him his tea until after a few minutes of sitting and drinking he suddenly set the cup down.

“I’m sorry!” he blurted out. “I didn’t mean to upset him. I-I…”

“Whoa now. He’s not upset, just worried. He think he upset you.”

Cabanela leaned forward, hands flat on the table and fiercely shook his head. “He’d never!” His eyes widened and his mouth clamped shut.

Tabatha smiled. “He’ll be glad to hear that. Now, about that party. Do you want to go?”

“He wants me to,” Cabanela said to his tea.

“He does, but what do you want?”

“It doesn’t—.”

“If you’re about to say it doesn’t matter, it very much does,” Tabatha said sternly.

“I-I would… like to.”

Tabatha stood. “Good, that ties that up. Finish your tea and I’ll go see if I can find Jowd before he tears the castle apart.”

As it turned out finding him wasn’t a difficult task. It didn’t take long at all to run into Jowd wandering the halls nearby looking a picture of despondency. What was she to do with the pair of them?

“I can’t find him anywhere,” Jowd sighed.

“I’ve got him.”

Jowd brightened. “You do? Is he okay?”

“He’ll be fine. Come and see.” And get this finally sorted.

They returned to the rooms and Jowd hurried forward. “Caba-oh.”

Cabanela remained where she’d left him. Seated and still and his head dropped to his shoulder, very clearly asleep. Tabatha gave him a sympathetic look. Poor kid had to be all worn out.

“What’s wrong?” Jowd asked.

“He just tired himself out.” Tabatha lifted him from the chair, arranged him in her arms to cradle him, paused for a moment, then shifted again to keep his arms from dangling all over. A lightweight in her arms, but limbs everywhere. “I’ll take him back to his room.”

Jowd stared at the floor. “It’s my fault.”

“It was bound to happen one of these days. Long overdue I’d say.”

Cabanela shifted in her arms, and mumbled, “Jowd…”

Jowd startled and Tabatha looked down only to see Cabanela sinking deeper into her shoulder. She smiled at Jowd. “I think you’re just fine, kiddo. We’ll talk when I get back.”

Cidgeon’s expression changed rapidly from surprise to a deep frown when he opened the door to find Tabatha standing there holding Cabanela.

“What happened?”

“A bit of an upset. It’s all right now. Which room is his?”

“On the right.”

She strode in and settled Cabanela into bed, tucking the blanket over him while Cidgeon hovered at the bedroom door. Tabatha watched until Cabanela curled into the pillow and satisfied that he was comfortable, left again.

“I think he’ll be all right,” she said as Cidgeon closed the door. “From my understanding Jowd invited him to the ball next week and things got a bit too much. I found him crying.” Cidgeon looked startled at that. So she’d been right in the rarity of that. “And took him to our rooms to settle once he calmed down. He does want to go with Jowd to the ball. I assume you’re all right with that?”

“He can do what he wants.”

Tabatha nodded with satisfaction. “You’re welcome to come too of course.”

She chuckled at the look of distaste that twisted his face and wished him a good day before leaving. Jowd’s turn now. What a day.

[physicistdyke]

Voxman Teacher AU Ch 1

Notes: This is an AU where both Lord Boxman and Professor Venomus are teachers at a highschool. It’s meant to be a lot more realistic and slice of life then the show so some things are different. Venomus is not the tall purple snake boy he is, but probably a tall jewish boy now. Boxman has a prosthetic arm and glass eye from a collage accident. And all the other fun sci fy fantasy cool stuff will be translated as such. Hope you all enjoy!

"Jesus, how does a kid think like this?" Boxman mumbled to himself as he sits alone in his room grading quizzes. "I gotta switch to quia or something." He stands up from his desk and stretches, this had been the third lunch this week he's spent in his classroom, doing work. It hasn't been easy, teaching high school physics/technology and trying to go back to night school himself. Most days would be filled with coffee, algebra, and confused teens, like this one. He looks back down to the paper on his desk and gives a sigh. "Have any of these kids even had geometry yet?" The physics papers were the worst, maybe a small break would ease his mind. Besides, he had a freshman class next hour, he needs this. He walked through the science hall and turned into a “secret” (janitorial) passage to enter into the back of the teacher’s lounge without having to interact with anyone. Nice, Boxy. He gave a sigh of relief as he was in the cushy safe haven of soft drinks and occasional pastries. He made himself a coffee, and sat down on the 50 year old couch that had been purchased before even he had started working here. He gave a deep breath over his coffee, sometimes just a change of scenery was nice. "That stuff’s gonna kill you, Boxman." Boxman jumped a bit as he looked up to see the gym teacher, Ms. Carol, winking at him as she grabbed an electrolite-filled beverage. "Ugh, come on Carol, I'm just trying to relax" "And you think you're gonna relax with that? It's caffeine Boxy, that's not gonna do you no good!" She takes the towel from her shoulder and places it on the counter. "You know, I always offer an after school workout program for the faculty and it's quite popular!" Boxman gave a shudder at the thought of having to take PE again, gym clothes, gym locker rooms. Boxman rushed to think of an excuse. "Oh no, I'm sorry Carol, I have the classes I'm taking down at the university. I've been stumped with work." Nice, Boxy. Carol gave a laugh. "Alright Boxy, but one day you're gonna run outta excuses and then-” she went into a power stance, "-Push Up time!" Boxman was terrified and Carol could tell. She laughed and said "I'm just messing with you, you'd only do what you'd want to." "Alright, but social pressures would tell me that I'd have to do it, so..." Carol chuckled. "Touché, Boxman." She put the towel back over her shoulder and started to head out "See you soon!" "See you, Carol." he said as she walked out. He gave a relieved sigh, talking with Carol was, a workout in itself. He snuggled his way back into that perfect groove in the couch and started to enjoy his coffee. The period wouldn't be over for another, 30 minutes? And most teachers didn't have a prep this hour so he could enjoy his alone ti... the door opened again. Boxman gave an internal sigh. He looked up to see who was there and was thrown off when he saw before him new Biology teacher, Dr. Venomous. He had only ever seen him in a few meetings but had never been personally introduced. Venomous was, impressive to say the least. He was younger than himself, and had been able to get a doctorate. Not to mention he was,, aesthetically admirable. Boxman shuffled in his seat and straightened his back a bit. "Hello there, Venomous, was it?" He managed to get out. Venomous turned his head to him "Yes, hello, Mr. Boxman," Damn, he nearly forgot about his voice too. The man could melt Gallium with a voice that warm. Venomous headed for the Mr Coffee and filled his thermos. "Is this seat taken?" He asked as he approached the couch and gestured to the opposing corner. "N-no, not at all!" Boxman said, surprised by the sudden interaction. "Well, you know, I'm still pretty new here and I'd thought I should get to know some other adults in this place." He gave a smirk. "I honestly think I'll pop a blood vessel if I have one more conversation that includes anime, fidget spinners, or sarcasm." Boxman chuckled at the comment, oh had he been there. "I'm so sorry, usually the first few years here you get a lot of freshman classes. I think it's the collective way to see if a teacher can handle the education profession or not" Venomous smiled back. "Or nah, as they would say." They both gave a pained laugh at the bad and obscure meme humor of freshman. High schoolers in general. But particularly freshman who couldn't quite get the jokes right.

“Heh, well I'm glad you've finally found an adult to talk to.” Boxman said. It was strange, he usually didn't warm up to people this quick. “You teach, biology right? That's a fun subject”

Venomous settled into his cushion. “Yeah, but I wish I could could actually teach them the good stuff. Besides just telling them ‘the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell’, I mean come on. At least let me talk about ETP or something more than that.”

Boxman rolled his eyes, “I know right? I mean how do I get it across to them that vectors are going to be important if you want to learn about the really cool stuff. At least I have the AP class that's actually excited about physics and my tech shop classes.”

“You teach tech shop as well? What do you do in there?” Venomous asked, intrigued.

“Well, you know, it's a separate room, we share with the wood shop kids, but I teach more about circuity and metal working then the other mediums. It's only for upperclassman but all the kids who take it really tend to like it.” Boxman looked over from his coffee to see a beaming and curious biology teacher looking back at him.

“That sounds great! It's amazing they can have that at the high school level. I didn't even step into a lab with a good microscope until college.”

Boxman gave a soft laugh. “I'm glad you think that way.” He looked down at his watch. Still 20 minutes left to the hour,

“Would you like to see it?”

Venomous looked enthralled by the offer but returned to his calm demeanor. “That would be, very nice” he said blushing a bit, letting his nerdiness get the best of him.

They walked side by side down the open hall. Not a soul around except for them and the occasional kid going to the bathroom. Each class they walked past gave an insight onto a new subject and a new 30 set of kids bored to death by it. They reached the room at the end of the hall opposing the art room and Boxman took a key from his pocket. He unlocked the door, lead them both in, and then flicked a switch. Lights came on and a large ventilation fan started humming loudly.

“Sorry for the noise, it’s kinda set so that if you want the lights on and to work in here at all, you gotta have the fan on too.” Boxman said.

“It makes sense, safety you know.” Venomous commented as he looked down and smiled at the man.

Boxman gave a blush and looked to the floor “Hah! Yeah well I was actually the one who did the electric work for that and,, man you don’t know how many kids I get complaining.”

“I don’t think they’re old enough to see quality work when they see it.” Venomous gave a wink. Damn that man was smooth.

“Oh, oh yeah! Yesthankyou we can proceed with the tour!” He guided the taller man into the room further as he tried to hide the rouge he gained from that sick compliment he just received. He got more comfortable as he entered into his element. “Yep! We have everything here from mass blank blue prints to an industrial sized soldering iron! As long as the kid can show they can do something safely and have an idea, we let them go nuts!”

“Wow! That’s really cool how they can have an opportunity like that at such a young age!” He said as he admired the equipment around him. His eyes lit up with excitement, “IS THAT A 3D PRINTER?!?” He looked down to Boxman who was beaming at his own excitement. He gave a stifled cough and walked over. “Heh, why does it have the word ‘Jethro’ engraved onto it?”

“Oh, well after we got the printer, my AP design class decided we had to name it. You know how kids are with their creativity.”

Venom gave a snicker. “Hm, yep, it’s our job as the public school system to crush that.” he said jokingly to Boxman.

Boxman laughed “Hah! Yeah well this class found it particularly important and somehow decided on the name Jethro. So I real quick engraved it and he’s been Jethro ever since.”

“Charming.” Venomous said with a smile.

“Thank you!” Boxman said.

Venomous leaned back against a desk and looked at Boxman. Oh shit, is he checking me out? “I gotta ask, and if it’s not too rude,” Venomous made a motion pointing to his left arm and eye.

“OH! Yeah that,,” Boxman trailed off as he realized Mr. Hot Teacher was Not checking him out.

Venomous gave a panicked look “Oh I’m sorry if that was a sensitive topic! I was just cur-”

“No it’s ok! I’m willing to talk about it,” Boxman gave a laugh and leaned against a desk of his own. “You know I don’t even consider it most of the time unless I’m scaring freshman to follow lab safety procedures.” What the two men were referring to was the glass, mildly red tinted eye surrounded by burn scars, and a left hand made of a simple metal rig instead of flesh. “You see, it was my senior year of college, I was up late in the workshop finishing my final. While I was soldering I hadn’t realized some potassium had mixed in with my soder god knows how. And this particular invention was suppose to hold water, so when I filled it in to test and checked inside the cartridge to see what was making a sound… Well, the rest is chemistry.”

Venomous gave a shudder. “Jesus thats a lot, I’m so sorry, Mr. Boxman.”

Boxman looked up and gave a slight smile. “It’s really ok! It didn’t stop me from getting a degree in engineering or my teaching certificate! And please, call me Boxy.”

Venomous reddened a bit at the sweet genuineness of the man. Even though he was probably in his mid 40’s, and not the most conventionally attractive guy, he was still pretty damn cute. Venomous’ gay thoughts were cut off by an abrupt bell.

“Welp, heh, end of this period I guess. It’s been fantastic talking with you!” Boxman said as he started out the other door that lead to the science hall. Venomous followed to get to his own class.

“Yeah, it’s been great talking with, you.” Venomous trailed off as the two headed in separate directions. He had never felt so immediately felt comfortable with someone like that, and neither had Boxman. They both had the feeling though that this would lead to something great.

[tomans-darlings-au]

The Racing Challenge

[A/N: This Includes Multiple OC’s From Me And @thesheeplepeople‘s OC.]

The rare day off in the UA Dorms most students were relaxing in their building’s, some training in the gyms, and others hauled up in their rooms everybody needed their own breathers. Some students from other classes were roaming around other class buildings to see friends, Ryu currently has his friend and crush Shinsou over since Aizawa had cancelled their private training for the day. The two were enjoying some shows on the Albino’s laptop, while chatting it hadn’t been very long since Ryu returned to UA so he had been working relentlessly at catching up and the help of his classmates was greatly appreciated from him.

“I forgot how hard English grammar is, Yamada Sensei made me write an essay for extra credit.”

Ryu sighed tiredly rubbing his eyes and giving a pouting like expression on his face. Shinsou chuckled at the other’s mannerisms Ryu had bounced back from his trauma well and it was nice to see him back to normal.

“Well you can’t blame the teachers for pushing so hard, the school does have a reputation to keep.”

The taller boy said giving his signature smirk, Ryu responded with a playful nudge. In the same building energetic boy Roukan was visiting his friend Mio, the two hung around the common space along with a few other 1-A students. The loud excited pup was playing a card game with his friend and losing pretty badly, the commotion managed to get the two introverts attention as the headed to the kitchen for a snack.

“Where’s the fire guys?”

Ryu asked interested in their game and Roukan’s frustration.

“I’m totally beating Rou’s but at old maid.”

Mio responded beaming with pride as she won another hand causing the overdramatic pup to groan throwing his cards, all of which floated back down onto his face.

“Wanna play with us? You guys can both join if you want, we’re start a new game anyway.”

Ryu shook his head declining.

“Aren’t you supposed to be training with Aizawa Sensei today?”

Roukan asked from the floor still sulking over his loss but tossing the spare cards to Mio.

“Sensei said he was extra busy today.”

“We got the day off since he’s gotta catch up on grading or something.”

The two responded, Shinsou passed the albino a bottle of water and sat on the couch.

“Aw but it’s so much fun to train, I’d love to spar with Ishida some time.”

The wolf boy said hopping back up.

“Ryu just got out of the hospital Rou, he needs rest.”

Mio objected making Ryu give a frown and roll his eyes though that wasn’t really seen by the others.

“Oh well… How about a race? It’s a perfect day outside we shouldn’t waste it!”

“Roukan it’s raining.”

“So what that’s still perfect racing weather.”

The wolf said again his tail wagging frivolously at the prospect of getting in some good ol’ fashion exercise. Before Mio could object again the albino interrupted signing his response.

“Bring it on wolf boy.”

With that acceptance the two students rushed to get ready for some good clean fun, Shinsou stood in the common room with Mio both looking disapprovingly at the energetic school-mates.

“We have to go make sure they don’t hurt themselves.”

Shinsou said in grumbling tone giving the girl a side glance.

“Yep.”

Ryu prepared himself with padding he hadn’t gotten to train himself in awhile especially his speed technique with his vectors, he’d practically toppled himself the first day during the speed test. The teen knew full well if he ended up with new bruises his guardian would chew him out… Again. All four students gathered outside with Shinsou and Mio staying under the coverage of the dorm building to avoid getting soaked, Ryu and Roukan lined up on the path.

“First one all to make it back here after running all the way around the dorm buildings wins. Quirk use is totally allowed and encouraged but only on yourself, no sabotage.”

Roukan stated making the rules and goal clear the shouting had gotten the attention of a few other students who now also gathered to watch the two’s race. With a quick countdown the two were off with their friends cheering for them on the sidelines.

The two started out running without the use of their quirks and were neck and neck, the rain soaked them as they rushed through the winds. Roukan feeling more pumped by the minute was the first to use his quirk with the cloudy skies his quirk while weak allowed him to use his wolf features. Ryu huffed as the other took the lead leaping out of his casual clothes, he wasn't going to just stand by and let the wild pup beat him no contest. The albino crouched and focused all his effort to his feet rejecting the ground itself and pushing him forward with a good force, he hadn’t practiced this much but as long as he remained balanced he was perfectly fine.

Halfway past 1-D’s building Hizashi and Fumio heard the commotion coming from the dorm space, looking outside the main building they spotted the contest and the two students rushing around. Mic rather enjoyed the spunk from the kids he could understand the sportsmanship and competition between two dedicated heroes but on the other side Fumio saw the recklessness and worried about what could happen if they weren’t stopped so he immediately went to alert Aizawa considering it was not only one of his students but his literal kid involved in this.

Back down on the wet campus grounds Ryu was in the lead but definitely getting tired the more he tried to balance himself the more he huffed losing his breath. Roukan was running on all fours he’d even spotted Levi his own boyfriend cheering for which pushed him harder, wanting to prove himself and having fun he didn’t even notice the 1-A student struggling.

They were once again neck and neck approaching the finish line when a booming voice wailed.

“STOP RIGHT NOW!”

Startling both kids Ryu and Roukan crashed into each other at a pretty high speeding making both tumble and roll past their own finish line. Aizawa, Nekomata, and Yamada all approached them umbrella’s in hand and very unamused faces.

“Yo are you kids crazy?”

Hizashi asked a hand on his hip and a stern disapproving tone of voice.

“There are gyms in every dorm building and literally no reason for any of you to be out here running around recklessly and in the rain no less.”

Fumio continued in his usual monotone though everyone could feel his stern words.

“Pushing each other and training is one thing but there is no reason to risk getting injured or sick! Everyone inside their dorms now and you two are coming with me.”

Aizawa scolded picking up the two racers and leading them inside for treatment of wounds and drying off. Roukan had turned back into a human half way inside leading the already irritated teacher to have to cover him while continuing his scolding. Oh boy were both of them lectures everything from talking about injuries to possible property damage to the weather, let’s not forget how the short wolf boy was practically naked. After their long scolding Roukan was sent back to his dorm building where he received an equally long lecture from his own homeroom teacher, Ryu stayed with his guardian who was now helping him dry off. The shivering teen now in dry clothes sneezed as Aizawa proceeded to blowdry his curly hair, his body still felt freezing inside even with air conditioning off.

“You see? Now if you get sick you’ve got no one to blame but yourself. Ryura what on earth were you thinking, you just got out of the hospital do you want to go back?”

The small boy looked at his guardian with puppy dog eyes.

“Ee just wah-ted tu ha-lf fuhn.”

Ryu admitted after the entire ordeal he’d felt awkward around his friends and classmates, everyone overly concerned about him as if he was some infant he didn’t want to be pitied. Being challenged by Roukan felt like he was being treated the same as his of classmates someone worthy of being in class 1-A. The pro-hero sighed and walked off return soon after with blanket tossing it at his kid getting a surprise yelp from him.

“Here bundle up.”

Sitting beside Ryu he waited for him to pop his head out.

“Look I get that you want to catch up and everything but you can’t do it by being so wild. Hizashi told me you’ve been working yourself to the bone in bookwork but you can’t do that with physical training you’ll break yourself. Once your stitches are taken out you can join me and Shinsou in extra training but you have to promise me no more stunts like today.”

The small boy smiled and nodded bundling himself up, Aizawa smirked ruffling the albino’s fluffy messy hair.

“You’re gonna give your old man a heart attack one day.”

A knock at the door had the man get up and open the door, Shinsou stood at the entrance with a warm cup in his hands.

“I brought some tea for Ishida so he won’t get sick or whatever.”

Aizawa let him in to give his recovering kid the drink watching the awkward teens interacting before cutting in.

“Thanks for the thought but unfortunately I’m gonna have to ask you to leave Shinsou, Ryura’s grounded for the rest of the night.”

Both boy were surprised especially Ryura who scowled at his dad very knowingly and intentionally being a killjoy. Shinsou said goodnight and headed back to his class dorm.

“What did you think you were gonna get off scot free? Sorry kid but I am your parent after all.”

The man had a very satisfied grin on his face as he left Ryu’s room giving his sentencing.

[wallpapernifty]

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[deathbyvalentine]

Regenesis Prompts

Lies

In hindsight, the revelation that his entire life was a lie wasn’t all that shocking. Unlike most of his family, who seemed to be having some sort of emotional upheaval in regards to the Combine’s operational efficiency as of late, he was relatively at peace with how they worked. What was more shocking to him was how little he apparently knew himself. He was a stranger in his own body. In his own mind even.

He couldn’t trust himself, not for a moment. All his motives must be second guessed, all his memories examined. He found there were holes where he had not thought to check for them, fuzzy hours with no explanation. 

Weirdly, this too he was at peace with. The Combine was ripping itself apart over nothing more than semantics. His other personality’s interference could do no more damage than they were doing to themselves, especially since death wasn’t particularly an option. All that part of him could do was watch and laugh.

He wondered, idly, which half of him was the lie, the fiction. It didn’t really matter of course. Not at all. 

Suffering/Revenge

If he was a crueller man, he could call this revenge. 

The left leaving the leaver, the broken breaking the breaker, the abandoned abandoning the abandoner. Let Petrol know what this was like. Let Petrol’s heart shatter into a thousand pieces. Let him have a thousand sleepless nights, let guilt consume him utterly, let him spend his life looking over his shoulder for a shadow that was no longer there. 

If he was a crueller man.

What he in fact called it, was freedom. Petrol didn’t need to worry about the dead weight that was his partner anymore. Diesel, always stuck in the past, always nostalgic, always pulling him behind. He could move on, forge his own future without any shackles of the past weighing him down. He could be a whole person. Diesel had never been - even if he was unfractured, Petrol was a part of him. His other half. But it didn’t have to be that way for him. This was his way of letting him go. 

He wasn’t a cruel man. Not really. Not anymore.

Goggles

His manner switched in an instant. The unconcious, graceful movements of Diesel somehow became sharper, predatory. Every movement became calculated. Though he wore a brighter smile on his face, seemed more cheerful, more full of joy, it didn’t quite reach his dark, dark eyes. It was only those who didn’t know him at all that wouldn’t be able to see the difference. 

Petrol’s eyes flickered over him immediately, a frown gracing his face as Indu-Diesel dashed past, grin painted on his face. Freedom suited him, not being locked in a box in the back of Diesel’s head, mostly asleep, sometimes awake, always shackled. 

The goggles were perhaps the only real thing that touched him. A gift from someone who had at least realised the Combine were made of mostly bullshit. The first gift he had ever gotten. The first thing he had ever really owned since he’d been shoved to the back of his own head.

That’s what people didn’t get. He came first. It had been that had been indoctrinated and forgotten. The other Diesel came after. After forgetting all that he was, all memories of fire and revolution. All that passion, all that cleverness, washed out and stored for when it was needed. He was here first.

He didn’t intend on going back to sleep.

Joining the Past and the Present

Nothing hurt like this hurt. He had taken bullet wounds, explosions, knife wounds, even poison once or twice. He had coughed up his own blood, fixed broken limbs, passed out, choked... This was something else.

Pain crackled up his head, making any light blinding, any sound deafening. He was grasping Petrol’s arms, or was it Vector or was it both - someone else was there, he couldn’t remember their name.

Something was making wounded animal noises in the glow from the house, and after a moment he realised it was him. Petrol’s voice was breaking through the white noise, asking him to try, to wait, while he begged for it to stop. After another moment, it did stop. The night was quiet and calm, and his mind was still fractured. This would not be easy to fix.

Maybe part of him didn’t want it fixed. The Before-Diesel desperately fighting any indication of them fusing. Or himself, not wanting to risk the danger of having an industroclast idea seep through and stay lodged. 

Or maybe he just liked being broken. Let him not be alright for once. Let him be wounded. It didn’t matter anyway. It would be done for once and for all soon enough.

Where He Goes, I Go

The light flared in the shared room, and Diesel groaned, throwing a hand over his eyes, trying to burrow further into his blanket. The alarm was still persistent, and on the other side of the room he could hear Petrol preparing. A hand reached down to shake his shoulder, and he made more muffled sleepy noises, attempting to evade it.  “Come on Dee. Get up. It’s time.” “Dunwanna.” “Don’t care.”

 The blanket was removed and Diesel sat up with a groan. He stood up and stumbled into his kit, Petrol occasionally reaching over to strap a gun to him, or tighten a buckle. It was second nature to them now, their routine becoming a fine tuned art, almost like a dance. They never bumped into each other, never got under each others feet. Diesel tossed Petrol’s jacket to him without even glancing across the room. 

They headed out together, nodding to the ProCorp that bustled and buzzed around them. The ship never really slept. There was always some group working, some group sleeping, some group eating, some relaxing. The shifts were near incomprehensible but instinctive. When a battle was approaching though, it was a hive of activity and everybody was awake. 

The nerves were there. The nerves were important. They made you sharper, more awake, more aware. Next to the nerves was the excitement. Diesel vibrated with it. They were about to change lives. They were about to save people. He looked over at Petrol and grinned, receiving a raised eyebrow in return. 

An relatively new engineer greeted them with a clipboard and a frown. “Right, you two, how are you going in? We could send you in with different teams, and send the ships in to get you when the smoke clears. Diesel, you’d be on the west front - “ 

Petrol stopped them with a gentle hand on the shoulder. Diesel glanced across at him, knowing they were thinking the same thing. “We don’t do different fronts. Where he goes, I go.”

Goodbyes

“Hey baby...” He picked up the small cat, cradling it to his chest. Lying down, the tiny ball of fur stood on his chest proudly. He wasn’t supposed to have favourites but he was never any good at that role. Kibbles nestled into his neck and purred. Diesel loved the thing intensely. He was a little scruffy, a little broken, a little needy. Much like Diesel himself he supposed. Soon, neither of them would exist. 

The thought of the kitten disappearing was more upsetting than anything else. Diesel nuzzled it back, swallowing hard. “I’m sorry...” He wondered, idly, about shaping something that could transport one thing from territory to territory. He’d have to do it. He had to save something, just one thing. It couldn’t all disappear. 

There was a small mew, a nose being pushed into his ear, and he laughed, flinching away from the cold and the wet. He realised it was licking his cheeks from where a few stray tears had fallen. Fuck. This cat was about to have the best time of it’s life. 

Authority

He held his breath, fiddling with the radio furiously. He had shoved a chair under the door handle, but his heart was in his mouth for the moment the doorknob rattled. His knees ached from kneeling on the metal floor, his fingers shook. Speed was of the essence. 

White noise buzzed and fizzed, catching snatches of victory hymns, of marching tunes, of gameshows where people like him were tortured into compliance. No string of numbers. No announcements. Nothing. 

“Come on Leverage...” He wasn’t sure what had triggered his awakening this time. He had came to on his bed. First time in years, he suspected, if his height was anything to go by. In the back of this body’s head, it was hard to keep track of time. What managed to get through to him and what didn’t was random and infuriating. “Don’t leave me here alone. Tell me what to do.”

A few minutes later, he was forced to admit defeat. He kicked the bedside table, furious, terrified. He couldn’t breathe with something approaching panic. He could do so little on his own - the one thing the Combine and Industrioclasts had in common was the understanding unity was everything. One Industrioclast could achieve so little. And here he had no links, no contacts, no family. What the fuck had happened?

He slipped to the floor, his back leaning against his bed, putting his head in his hands. For the first time in his life, he wanted to be told what to do.

Capitalist Apparitions

“Oh for...” He looked at the situation in front of him, and took a moment to analyse it. A apparition held a bunch of ragged bits of paper Diesel took to be money. They seemed to be exchanging it for something. Something they could have got for free anyway.

He’d be a lot more passionate about explaining why this was wrong if he had any faith that the apparitions wouldn’t simply believe the most recent thing they had been told and that Opportunity were not a whole lot more persistent than him.  

He fundamentally couldn’t understand why anyone would think this was a better economics system. Who liked struggle and competition just to flourish? Some kids never learnt how to share their toys he guessed. Some kids liked things more than people. 

How to be a Lich

He thought the Soul Forge hadn’t had any effect, at first. Sure, he was paler, looked tired, looked... dead. He missed his deep brown eyes that were now completely black. But he was still him, his soul untouched and whole.

Then he noticed changes. Everything seemed... Intenser somehow. Colours brighter, sounds louder, everything more lovely and more terrible than it had been before. His emotions were deeper. All of them. He was quicker to anger than he had ever been before, quicker to sorrow. The emotions seemed to stick closer to his bones, harder to shake and get rid off. His love was unstoppable - anyone that threatened those he loved became a threat to be annihilated. 

It wasn’t all bad. He rested his head on Vector’s chest, listening to his breath, his heartbeat. He had never felt a contentment like one that had settled over him now. Like the world had ceased turning just for a little while, and nothing could stir them. He closed his eyes as Flare settled close by, the contentment only getting greater. He could feel watching, and he realised he didn’t give a fuck. He had his people around him.

He wasn’t sure what would happen if Vector died. If Flare died. If Thunder did. These were the people that kept him from being lost. These were the people that kept him being himself. Remove them.. He wasn’t sure who he would be at all. 

[hcsvntdracones-game]

“Birds are natural fliers,” Mr. Sannon began, addressing his classroom. “It's instinctual. They need a jumpstart, mind you, and they'll pick things up through a natural learning process, but the concept of flight, the ability to adjust pitch and roll, and knowing how hard to flare before they land, or how wide to spread their wings to soar, this comes with the territory of being a bird. When they look upward, they don't see something empty that exists separate from them. Unreachable. They see a road, and they know, innately, that they possess the tools to travel on that road. It's a bit like us, reaching out toward objects to manipulate them. That's something our body knows how to do. If we want to affect our world, we use our hands. The tool fits the task. Instinct.”

The classroom collectively nodded a bit. Those who were paying attention, anyway. Which was most, in this case. Flying was an elective course, and being here required certain physical attributes. Typically, students didn't go to flight class who weren't personally vested in the idea. Avian eyes stared eagerly back at him, young and excited. Feathers were fluffed with anticipation. The first day was always exciting. The second day was typically cautious and had half as many students.

“You are not birds.” He said flatly.

The class full of decidedly bird-like students looked sidelong at each other, some with bemusement, others with genuine concern that their professor may have taken leave of his senses. But a few remained still, having discerned the meaning of the statement.

“You are Vectors,” He continued, “Which means, at your core, you are a human dressed up in feathers. That grants you a great deal of instinctual ability, yes, but it is human ability, not bird or cat or dog ability. You didn't learn to lift things by using your beak or your claws, you used your hands. You didn't learn to hop and fly when you were little, you learned to crawl and walk.” He skipped over an amendment about infancy bypass education. At least, for the moment. “And I'm going to assume the majority of you don't have baby pictures of mommy throwing up in your mouths.” He smiled a bit at the chorus of gagging, and chuckled.  

“We miss a lot of these obvious cues, thanks to infancy-bypass tanks,” he explained, unable to avoid it further. “I'm betting most of you were putting solid food into your own mouths by the time you actually encountered any. But those of you who did nurse as children instinctively looked for a mammalian chest instead of chewed up bird vomit, which, I assure you, is an entirely un-birdlike thing to do. In short, if you were hoping to leap off a cliff at the end of today's lesson and take wing under nature's gentle guidance, I have news for you. At the moment, you have more in common with a rock than a bird, except that you'll be screaming more on the way down.”

There were chuckles among the students, but they were tempered by the gradual realization that today would be less glamorous than they'd hoped. Sannon took a moment to gauge the reactions. It was easy to pick out the ones who'd never tried to fly, they were generally attentive and agreeable, eager despite the warnings. Unsure yet how cautious they should or shouldn't be. There was always a group of students who'd had successful glides from playground equipment or rooftops. They tended to lean back in their chairs like they owned the place, confident in their ability and dismissive of the implied danger. He hated that. Parents loved to give their children a taste of flight before these courses to “warm them up,” but all it did was fill them with false security. He'd rather have a blank slate to work with.

Once in a while, there would be one or two in the back with genuine flight experience. Laterals, usually. Illegal at their age, even with their physical condition, but life happens regardless of the convenience of law. It was just a ploy to help sell body sockets anyway, and not everyone could afford one. These children were quiet and distant as they watched, un-involved in the conversations of the other groups. There was none of the posturing here. Despite having the most experience, they were generally the most attentive. Life had not given them the courtesy of doing without their wings, and they had already experienced the fear of that reality. Whatever had driven them to the skies at such a young age, be it anatomy or pressure from some other source, it likely hadn't left. Half of these students would never try flying again once they came to realize the physical demands, but these few were here to get better at something they couldn't do without. He had one, today. Lateral raptor of some kind, with a swallowtail. She was perched in the back of the room, waiting, as he spoke.

“We are not well designed for flying,” he continued, speaking over the chatter. “Sorry. It's a fact. That we can do it at all is pretty impressive; our anatomy isn't the best for that sort of thing.” he waved a wing limply, which was a little undermined due to the obvious strength in his arms.

“We're poorly balanced, too heavy, too bulky, and generally not strong enough to do what would be traditionally referred to as regular flying. But with training and discipline, you can get to a point where flying is...” he pondered the word to use. “Reachable. If only for short periods.

“You need to ponder what you're trying to do, here,” he continued, “understand it in your mind, before you try it. Flying upward to a building top from the ground is the functional equivalent of leaping up a ladder with two hands and no legs, an entire rung at a time instead of alternating, without stopping to rest.” The room dropped its volume level noticeably. Most of them had not considered what the actual physical requirements of a sustained climb were.

“And that's just getting aloft,” he continued, “then you need to stay there, suspended from that ladder, repeatedly doing chin-ups from the highest rung, until you can find a place to safely drop from rung to rung to the floor, fighting your own weight and momentum, or you fall and die.” The room had silenced now. The inexperienced group were looking nervously back and forth at each other, with lingering glances at arms that had probably barely passed the physical education requirements for their grades. The gliders were slowly realizing that what they'd done before and what they were now facing were substantially different. And there in the back, his veteran. Her breathing had not changed. Her posture had not fallen.

“How...” one of the students asked, “how do you practice something like that?”

Sannon smiled, and looked toward the back.

“It's Elysium, isn't it?” he called back to the lateral. She looked surprised to be addressed directly, but nodded. “How do you suggest they practice something like that, Elysium? Is there an easier way? Am I off my mark, here?”

The young kite looked about the room, as if seeking social permission to respond. It was always difficult being singled out. He knew that, and would catch up and apologize later. But they needed to hear it from one of their own. And as he'd expected, her gaze shifted ever so slightly, as he had seen happen in nearly every veteran that had ever graced his classroom on the first day. That realization that these kids were utterly unprepared for what they were facing. The knowledge that if they looked for a shortcut, they would end up broken and battered on the pavement. The need to convey the degree of effort they were facing now.

“Get a ladder.” She responded, and Sannon's smile widened. He tapped his toggle case, and the closet behind him opened, revealing a rack adorned with rows of long, extending ladders, fully equipped with the grim realization by the classroom that they would, in fact be doing exactly that. He looked back up at the sea of disbelieving stares, and pulled the first ladder off the rack.

“Shall we get started?”

-excerpt from the Full Disclosure lorebook

Hey folks! Fun stuff going on over here with the upcoming lore book. I’d say the text is about 80% written, maybe more, and general assembly has begun. Soon I’ll start working with artists and getting the imagery assembled, and we can move on to funding and publishing! I wanted to give you all a double treat today, so aside from this chapter bumper (each of the corp based chapters in the lore book gets a little slice of life story to help ground you, this one was for MarsCo) Im also going to toss up the in-progress Table of Contents. This isn’t final or finished, but it will give you some hints of things you can expect to see!

History

differences between history and fact

Who knows what and why

Current life

hierarchy of power

anarchy

perceived scarcity

megacorps

hotzones

darkwars

grottos

Corporate rule

advanced looks into corps

MarsCo

ASR

IRPF

TTI

Progenitus

Pulse

Lumen

independents/pirates

rivalry

Secrets

The war

Palemen

masters voice

Corps

trade secrets

lightspeed

body replacement

shadow presidents

Transcendence

hydra

owls

nephilim

legacy memory

natives

near-cuil

Humanity

What was

What remains

[eatcreatesleepstudios]

Dev Blog #136 - Late Night Bug Squashing

Panic, stress, not enough sleep and a lot of dead bugs: the pressure was high to get a working build ready until Wednesday evening before the start of Patrick’s “Tour d’Europe”. Find out what kept the team busy this week below... 

Community

Our preview build got delayed by one day because of complications. It was just too unstable and Johannes was busy fixing everything until the sun rose again this morning to make it as stable as possible, which is quite important for our upcoming showcases. The build is now live on Steam and we’ll try to fix some of the major bugs in the coming days.

Today also marks that start of Crest’s “Tour d’Europe” as we call it internally. The next two weeks Patrick will showcase the game at INDIGO in the Netherlands, ReVersed in Vienna and Develop: Brighton in the UK. Don’t miss anything about the tour by following us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram!

What’s Happening on the Floor?

Art

Martin is finally finished with the terraformer, which has been in the afterburner since forever (they feel). Now since that's out of the way, Martin can focus on new exciting possibilities, in this case working on new animals.

Christoffer has finished the animations for the hippo this week, so hopefully the other animals will have a new friend to interact with pretty soon. Other than the hippo animations, he’s also been working on company stuff this week.

Emma has finally started to import all the assets for the new UI, creating it as vector graphics based on the previous mockups. To not mess with the already existing code for the UI, all current images are simply replaced with the new ones. As some proportions and locations are changed, a lot of small fixes have to be done with the placement of the buttons and frames.

 It feels like what takes the most time, however, is finding all the elements in Unity! The UI system is huge, with a lot of different windows; some easy to find in the hierarchy, while others just hide in the prefabs folder. In the picture below, you can see a mix of the old and new UI, as everything isn’t changed yet!

Programming Johannes has put in all his effort this week to finish the island migration system before Patrick leaves for his event tour. Sweat has been spilled, but he managed to get it done. Tomas Tomas has fixed bugs in preparation for the build that will be presented at the Indigo games convention. Most bugs had to do with animals, carnivores were prone to hunt followers too easily. They now attempt to move their habitat closer to prey animals before hunting followers as a last resort.

Tomas has also added a scroll to the words collection part of the word tablet since so many words have been added that they no longer fit inside the window.

Jens has continued with fixing bugs and polishing things before INDIGO. The biggest fixes has been regarding the migration and how the followers' children sometimes wouldn't grow up. There is still some future work to be made since we want the kids to walk together with the parent when they are moving to a new city. The rest of the week will most probably be dedicated to fixing the most prominent bugs, as well as get a sense of what the current states of the remaining programming tasks are, before the release of the exploration module. 

Leo has been all about working towards a stable and bug-free build for Indiego as well like all the other programmers. As one might expect with a procedural generation-based game, which is also relying heavily on adaptive AI, bugs and weird behaviours pile up over time. Some are "classic" bugs which actually break the game or cause weird, glitchy behaviour, whereas other issues are more subtle, having more to do with balancing of variables and design flaws which only become evident in certain gameplay scenarios and situations. 

All in all, it's a very enlightening process, often shining a light on things you didn't think, making you more aware of how code and design together will affect a  gameplay system as complex as Crest's. The bugs themselves have been a little bit of everything. From followers getting "stuck" and just idling to colors on the map looking weird, to unforeseen migration patterns. Also, there is a lot of time spent just polishing. All stuff that's implemented as debug tools and for testing has to be deactivated, and everything fixed up graphically as well as game design-wise, so that the game is as presentable and playable for first-time audiences. 

Design

Emelie has been playtesting again this week. It was a bit hectic with the INDIGO build so there were a lot of small things coming up time and time again, which meant a lot of running around between programmers with issues. We had this one problem that the followers created too many cities too fast. In order to fix it, we implemented a cooldown timer which makes it easier to balance the pacing and the player doesn't get overwhelmed with having 6 cities in the very first cycle. 

She also started to balance a few values, namely the fertility of the followers because they get a lot of babies really fast but now it takes a little bit longer which in turn makes the game a little bit slower.   

Have a nice weekend!