#the fact that he's piloting the mech at all)

[povestotrischane]

omg babesssss if anyone has any ideas for what various knights' mecha should be named speak now or forever hold your peace

#gawaine's is gringolet/galatine (it's complicated). arthur's is excaliber. modred's is clarent. lancelot's is secace. galahad's is based #on the red-hilt sword and doesn't really have a name but that's deliberate for thematic reasons which have to do with the switch lancelot #has to make between secace and galahad's mech after galahad's death and serves to exemplify #how jarring it is bc secace. despite having a name. is a mass-produced mech which usually would only have a serial number or smthing. #it has a name bc lancelot named it himself just bc. meanwhile galahad's mech. despite being a one of a kind model. doesn't have a name bc #no one cared for it enough to give it one. it's a top-of-the-line mech but that's... it. galahad's mech is as cold and clinical as one of #those minimalist apartments. galahad's mech only serves to exacerbate the feelings of detachment dehumanization and isolation that lead to #galahad ending his own life as even withing the walls of his own mech he was unable to feel like he belonged. #meanwhile lancelot. who had previously felt connected enough to his mech to name it. now finds himself all but forced to pilot a mech which #he greatly dislikes. yet can't help but connect a few dots between the way that the mech is put on a pedestal and practically worshipped #yet is unable to connect to anything else to a seemingly basic degree. and the fate of its former pilot (who he's constantly reminded of by #the fact that he's piloting the mech at all) #anyways. tristan isn't a mecha pilot but his dogfighter is called fail-not #romeo.txt

[rex101111]

Things that happen within the first few hours of AC6:

1. You get shot with a huge-ass laser mid-atmosphere entry. You barely survive this, landing several miles away from your intended landing zone.  Welcome to Rubicon 3.

2. You have a mech built with bargain bin parts, barely held together with hope and spite. It has a energy sword though, so that’s nice.

3. Not even two seconds after your, very rough, landing, you get a call from your “Handler”. He is ostensibly in charge of your well-being. This begins and ends with him sending you off on missions he’s fairly certain you’ll survive and charges you for the damage you get to your mech, the bullets you use, and he’s also cut out a piece of your brain to put in augmentations that will make you a slightly better mech pilot. In the top Most Horrible People On This Planet contest, he wouldn’t make it to the top 10.

4. You make your way through a derelict hunk of junk that’s threatening to collapse on top of you. Not even two minutes into this journey, you’re getting shot at with missiles. 

5. You finally reach your intended destination, a burning husk of a city filled with scavengers and low lives who will shoot you on sight. You are here to grave rob.

6. The reason you are grave robbing is connected to the fact you got shot in orbit, you are here illegally, and you need to find a license from any fresh corpse so you can steal the identity on it and be able to do mercenary work.

7. You go through four corpses before you find one with a license that can pass muster.

8. Mid corpse robbing a gunship sent by The Space Police spots you and you have to shot it down so it can’t kill you or, even worse, stop you from stealing the identity you just found. 

9. As soon as you get registered in the Mercenary Rolodex, which takes less then a second of an A.I taking a look and saying “alright checks out”, you have two missions. One of them has you killing a bunch of resistance fighters from the planet’s native population on behalf of a weapons company that really wants to do business here. 10. The next mission has you going to a base owned by that very same company and blowing up everything you can find there. This does not anger that company one bit, if anything it just convinces them you are a very thorough worker. 11. Very shortly after that, you are tasked with destroying a prototype mech by another company before it can get into mass production. That mech is being piloted by what can only be described as an Anime Protag who is in the worst possible franchise for his type of character. You can murder him in less then two minutes if you know what you’re doing. You can hear him desperately fight for his life the entire time. 12. After that, before you even get to clean the blood and oil and broken dreams off your robot, you get a call from a merc group leader saying that he’s seen you murder that guy real good, a guy who was auditioning to join his group, and likes the cut of your jib. He gives you the callsign he was gonna give Anime Protag before you blew him the fuck up. He laughs and tells you to be careful since it’s an unlucky number. This is the least morally repugnant thing you’ll do all game.   

13. A while after that, you go into a power plant and destroy the generator, it promptly blasts you in the face with the red radioactive Super Fuel that toasted this planet a few years back.

14. You survive, somehow, and you get a disembodied voice of some girl in your ear. You tell your handler about this and he just shrugs it off with “oh yeah that’s probably a symptom of the lobotomy, don’t worry about it”. The voice is probably the most moral person on this fire blasted hell scape of a planet.

#Armored Core #Armored Core 6 #this game is nuts #fromsoft knows how to make you feel like the world is horrible #armored core does not in any way fuck about

[ghouljams]

Cyberpunk AU, Imagine if somehow Mech-Pilot!König was able to hide his “connection” with his mech from his handler tho…

König on his bed kicking his feet watching his little medic fuss over him his mech saying things like: “There we go big guy, all better!” Or “Woah there big boy, stay still for me, please.” Or even his favourite: “Aaand we’re done! Good boy!”

Like, I feel like his handler would be more formal and stoic with him as it’s what they’re trained to do but the humanisation of his mech comes out in the “privacy” of the repair dock. It’s there that König can see his handler in a much friendlier light. They’re always so tense when he’s around them, and while that’s definitely cute in it’s own way, seeing them happily humming along to a song they have playing in the background while they are in their element, making repairs and coding is just as charming. It really gives him a taste of domestic life. They look so small and fragile in “his” hands… smiling up at “him” so sweetly… it’s almost dysphoric being with them in his human body.

GOD I THINK ABOUT THIS ALL THE TIME

The dysphoria mech pilots must go through being connected to a being so much bigger than them, living at such great heights and then being made to fit back into their human bodies. König is a big guy but even he feels out of place. He reaches for things too far away, looks too far down to talk to people, feels the cavernous walls of the hanger closing in on him. He looks for circuits and ports in his skin, forgets to eat, forgets to sleep, he needs to recharge, needs a tune up, he forgets he's mostly human.

He slips between the mech and himself. Feels the mechanics like his first skin not his second. The implants he's been given to better mesh with the mech make it easy for him to keep communications open, make it easy for him to forget that its cameras aren't his eyes. Make it easy for him to trip when he's too focused on the way you tighten bolts along his joints.

At first it was just whispers, words that filtered through his perception, a voice he considered going to psych to have checked out. Soft praises that felt so alien he almost couldn't believe he was hallucinating them. No one coos at König, calls him a good boy, tells him how brave his is or what a good job he's doing, but it still makes him warm, makes something in is chest light up pleasantly. Then there are the phantom pains, the jerk in his shoulder, something being tightened suddenly before it melts into a gentle ache. Then comes the vision switches, the cameras clicking and focusing on your work, on the soldering iron in your hand as you fix tiny cracks along his fingers.

Mech pilots have a reputation for being strange, for caring too much about their machines, for seeming out of place in their own skin, for being too attached to their handlers. König is a trial run, his neural net is made to fully integrate with his mech. He gets lost sometimes in between his two halves. He gets lost around you, his handler, his keeper. (his mechanic, his doctor, his coder, his everything and anything)

It's strange interacting with you as a colonel. Bot Docs have their own reputation but the formality you afford him is startling when he knows how you treat his mechanical half. Is he really so different? He doesn't feel different. In fact König and the mech seem to hold the same feelings towards you, the same desires. It's just that holding their bodies and well being in your capable hands is only beneficial as long as König is controllable. And he's never been able to help pulling on his leash.

#ghoul speaks #könig x reader #könig cod #könig mw2 #könig call of duty #mech pilot!König #cyberpunk au #I want to talk about robots and König not being fully human anymore #I wanna talk about the nature of humanity and the plasticity of our brains #I want to talk about mechs as tools the way prosthetics are tools #and I want to talk about König being big enough to hold two minds in his head

[itsabouttimex2]

Platonic yandere monkey family finding out y/n is dating redson

Monkiefam reacts to dating Red Son

(Alternate Scenario)

MK will no doubt be the calmest about this situation... depending on the season. In the start, he’ll be incredibly upset (even somewhat betrayed) about you dating his very dangerous rival. Let’s not forget that Red Son was once very willing to harm innocent people in his quest to take over the world/please his father.

Once Early!MK learns about your relationship with Red Son he’s genuinely worried for you, thinking you might have been coerced into the relationship in some way. This fear sets him on the war path, racing off to the Demon Bull King’s fortress. He’ll unhesitatingly smash through hordes of Bull Clones, ripping apart the metal of the drones like wet tissue paper. Each machine-shattering swing of the Ruyi Jingu Bang brings him a step closer to you, a step closer to the dining hall that serves as the center room of the armored fortress.

Where he finds you and Red Son sitting across from one another, happily sharing a meal together.

His heart is struck with anger and relief in unison, his diametric emotions spread between the both of you. He’s furious at Red Son, for daring to try and court his precious sibling, but also eased by the fact that you’re clearly unharmed and here by your own will and volition. By nature of being someone very precious to him, you garner far less anger from MK than his rival does, but he’s still upset. His voice takes on a gruff edge as he angrily scolds you, sounding much like Pigsy does when the chef flips his lid.

“You came here?! Without telling me?! To go on a date with my rival?!”

Any protests, excuse, or explanations from you are summarily dismissed as he grabs you by the wrist, swinging his golden staff against the ground. Bits of tech and clutter from around the house gather together, forming a small mech with the both of you in the cockpit. Red Son can only stare in shock as MK’s brand new mech stomps out of the fortress, each angry step shaking the ground.

The ride home is tempestuous, his emotions flaring as he pilots the gold and red mech, biting his tongue to keep himself from yelling at you. He’s angry, sure, but he still loves you. MK doesn’t want to drive you away or hurt your feelings, after all. He just wants to keep you safe.

Even if it means cutting you off from your ‘boyfriend’. He’s only doing it for your own good, of course.

Sun Wukong has seen people make a lot of bad decisions in his time. Even as knowledge and resources grow wider spread and more readily available, people stay foolish, small-minded, reckless. Sometimes by circumstance. Sometimes by choice. And one of the greatest motivators for foolish decisions, staying consistent through the centuries-

is love.

Love, whether fleeting and passionate or slow and drudging, changes people. It inspires them to perform grand gestures, to better themselves, to grow and learn. Love makes people into artists, writers, sculptors, all so that they can share with the world with the white-hot beat of their hearts.

And then, equal and opposite, it drives them to violence and bloodshed. Blood-red hands born of green-eyed envy driven to take up sharp knives and heavy cudgels. It breeds wicked plots and gruesome schemes, tricking people into throwing their lives away for a fleeting flame that’s destined to burn out.

Love is beautiful and dangerous in equal amounts, something to be both cherished and feared.

Sun Wukong has seen both outcomes. He’s personally dealt with tragedies born of love, many times over. Not every coupling ends with marriage and children, a ring and a promise.

His own sworn brother, Zhu Baije, was cast out of heaven for attempting to seduce Guanyin, being reborn as a pig demon. Then, he never returned to the maiden in Gao village that he fell for, instead spending his life as a cleanser of altar leftovers.

Kui Mulang was separated from his lover for his crimes, and forced to become a furnace keeper. Tang Sanzang refused to marry the queen of the Women’s Kingdom, and then rejected the scorpion demon that stole him away.

He doesn’t tell you all of that, of course. He nudges you with an elbow and gives you a cheeky grin, saying that: “It doesn’t always end well, bud. Trust me, I’ve seen more than a few things in my time that would have you running for a cloister.”

He doesn’t warn you off of love entirely, or threaten you to not start dating. In fact, he’s not entirely opposed to the idea of you having a significant other. He’s a pretty easy-going guy, even when he’s staring down his enemies or cracking skulls open.

In fact, depending on who you go after, he might be entirely supportive of you!

Red Son is not a decision he will abide by, unfortunately. There’s just too many flaws to count, in Wukong’s opinion. Short-tempered, egotistical, elitist, violent, power-hungry… nothing that qualifies him to be your partner, honestly.

So the Great Sage goes about trying to casually split the two of you up, whether it’s finding his way “by coincidence” into your dates, or crashing any meetings you and the demon have. What can he say? He gets around a lot more these days, doesn’t he? It’s not strange to meet up in popular places around Megapolis.

Even though he continues to show up wherever you and Red Son meet, no matter how “off the beaten path” or “hole in the wall” it may be. He’ll never justify himself or explain why he’s there. But he will grab a table and join the two of you.

He might not be outright sabotaging the relationship, but he sure makes it hard to maintain and grow. He won’t candidly ruin it, but he keeps pushing and pushing, slowly fraying your nerves. It’s a trap, where he’s trying to push you into snapping at him. And if you do fall for it?

It does get worse.

Try to lash out at him, or demand that he go away. Yell at him, or push him away. Try it, and he’ll throw you over his shoulder and hop onto his flying cloud, racing you back to Flower Fruit Mountain. From there, he’ll forbid you from being with Red Son again, grounding you for the outburst he intentionally provoked.

Watching you grow upset with his decree, Wukong will wipe away the tears gathering up in your eyes, and pull you into a hug to comfort you. He doesn’t want you upset. He just wants you to himself.

“It’s alright, bud. Don’t worry about that fire guy. He’s pretty awful, honestly. Let’s sit down and watch something fun to take your mind off him, alright?”

And; for now at least, he’s got you.

No. Absolutely not. Macaque refuses to allow it. He doesn’t want to see you with anybody, but least of all a “hot-headed demon with daddy issues,” as he puts it. Where Wukong will show restraint by never outright ruining your dates and outings together, Macaque crosses that line unhesitatingly. Once he learns that you’re openly and happily dating a dangerous demon, he sets out to find you and rectify this little issue.

He stalks out to the park that you and Red Son are walking through, quietly following along as his glare burns into the demon’s back. His fury reaches a boiling point when the two of you settle onto a bench, Red Son’s hand slowly reaching out to yours.

He furiously stomps through the park, coming up behind the both of you. The shadows writhe and roil with each step he takes, coming alive to lash at the ground around them with ice-cold tendrils.

He summons up his shadow staff and swings it down, smashing the middle of the bench you and your boyfriend are sitting on to announce his presence, cleaving the metal cleanly and easily. You and Red Son both scramble to your feet, shocked and more than a little scared.

You specifically.

If there’s anything that gives him reason to pause, anything that stops him in his tracks, it’s the look of outright fear in your eyes. He takes a moment to catch his breath, dispelling his staff and quieting the rioting shadows. He’s still angry, sure. But he doesn’t want you to be afraid of him. So, even though he’s seething with fury, he stops short of actually harming Red Son, instead settling for dragging you away by your ear as you argue and protest his rough hold on you.

Macaque pulls you over to a shadow portal, still gripping your quickly-reddening ear between his thumb and pointer finger, pushing you in before him. He whips around to shoot Red Som a death glare, then turns back and jumps in after you.

You both pop out inside your shared house, Macaque’s foot tapping impatiently as he folds his arms, staring at you disapprovingly. You rub at your sore ear, glaring right back.

“No dating. I already told you this. One, you’re too young. Two, anyone could be an opponent in disguise. Three, he’s dangerous. Seriously, bad call. I thought you were smarter than this, kid.”

He goes silent when he sees the tears beading up in the corners of your eyes, maybe from pain, maybe from his lecture. He did just technically call you stupid. Macaque sighs, and pats your head.

“Look, just… go lay down. See if you can’t get some shut-eye, alright? I’ll check up on you when it’s time to eat.”

He sends you off to your room, spinning you around and nudging you off, sighing as you go. His powerful ears make it impossible to ignore your quiet sniffles and the sound of tears hitting the hardwood floors.

He’s not the bad guy here, he reminds himself. The bad guy is whoever’s trying to corrupt you or steal you away from him. Them, not him.

Never him.

#Platonic Yandere #Yandere Lego Monkie Kid #Yandere LMK #Yandere MK #MK #Yandere Sun Wukong #Sun Wukong #Yandere Macaque #Macaque #Monkiefam #I’d like to apologize for the hiatus #Personal life got very troublesome for a while

[adrienjay]

Well, since my "Bravern is the Deathdrive of gluttony" crack theory was proven wrong, it seems I need an even bigger crack theory to replace it. Introducing:

Bravern is transgender

I think it goes without saying, but spoilers ahead!

So first of all: the entire existence of Bravern can be taken as a transgender allegory. The show does something pretty interesting when it banks on you, the viewer, assuming that Lewis is jealous of Isami for being the one chosen by Bravern to help save the world. But if you rewatch the show after the episode 9 twist, you realize hey, wait a second, Lewis actually totally wishes he was that giant robot" (Which is funny, because... He is)

Lewis tries to become Bravern's pilot to get as close to this wish as he believes is possible, and is shown to be haunted by Bravern's rejection. He tries again to become Superbia's pilot, going as far as to say if it goes wrong and he dies, it will be worth it. And even after failing, he continues to hold on to the hope it's still possible until the others are like "no dude, we've got a brand new non-sentient mech for you to pilot, you don't need to do this."

When he dies in the battle against Cunus, the audience gets a flashback to his past where he complains about the limits of the human body before looking up at a Titanostrider in wonder. And when he first gets a chance to pilot one, he gets overexcited, noticeably enough that others tease him for it.

After reincarnating as Bravern, he's very clearly happier! He loves his new body, he's considerably more optimistic than he was as a human, he's much more self-confident, and he's a lot more open about his romantic feelings. The fact that he's keeping his true identity a secret can be considered part of this allegory too - he doesn't want to be seen as his old self anymore. He's Bravern now.

But here's the kicker: the specifics of how Lewis was able to revive himself through sheer force of will aren't completely clear in the show, but the Bravern radio show confirms that Bravern was created by Lewis's mind taking over Cunus's body. And since Cunus is a clearly female-coded robot, this means that Bravern's body used to be female.

Thus, Bravern is not only a transgender allegory, but also literally trans in another sense. I rest my case.

#bravern #bang brave bang bravern #lewis smith #bravern spoilers #yuuki bakuhatsu bang bravern #transgender

[im-totally-not-an-alien-2]

Halloween prompts no. 21

Phantom had died very young, a fact that both friend and foe mourned. It was unusual for an undead child as young as him to end up here, though his method of arrival as a toddler was likely to blame. His parents shouldn't have allowed thier children into the lab, even with custom fitted hasmat suits. They certainly shouldn't have taken thier eyes off of thier three year old to show his scared older sister the new inventions that would keep her safe.

He doesnt remember what he was thinking. He had saw the buttons inside the portal and decided to play with them. And then...there was a loud boom and pain everywhere. The zone wasn't all that bad at first. Sure, there were a lot of people fighting over him which since children were rare in the zone and unclaimed ones were much more so. This lead to him being very good at hiding and escaping.

Quickly he grew very powerful, so much so that he was taking out the likes of Undergrowth and Vortex by the time he was seven, but while the power made him feel safe and secure, it also isolated him as people were afraid of him. He was a halfa. An unknown. "The glitch" they called him, "an abomination" "deaths mistake" "unwanted by life and death alike" so many cruel things, yet he tried to not let it bother him too much. He often failed.

He was six, the first time he killed. A ghost named Skunker or something captured him for his "pelt" and Phantom escaped, setting all of Skunkers other prisoners free. Unfortunately Phantom was recaptured and the robot ghost set about trying to de-pelt him. It hurt and Danny screamed, causing his wail to manifest and destroyed skunkers mech suit and forcing the little gooball in the pilot seat to eject himself.

After that Skunker never stood a chance against Phantoms fury.

Phantom continued killing anyone that harmed him, such as that weird vampire wannabe and that dragon king guy. After many years of violence and destruction he began to dispise his afterlife and yearn for that faint memory of the sun.

At the age of fifteen he came up with a plan. One of his enemies had stolen some of an Ancients medalians, which gave the barer immunity from time manipulation and distortion. Phantom had shoved the medalian into his own chest after the other entity had dropped it so that he couldn't retrieve it. After the victory he kept it inside him for the added protection and so Clockwork couldn't see his future and meddle in his affairs anymore. He used this to his advantage.

He had located a portal door to the living realms. One where there were many people called "metas" that looked odd and had strange powers. He planned to use this as a cover when he moved in.

All he needed was to fake his End in one of the larger battles that would no doubt come.

----

Phantom stepped out into a small bricked place between two buildings. He lamented that the air wasn't nearly as "fresh" or "clean" as he would have liked, especially for his first taste of freedom, but the sun was shining so bright. He stood there for a solid few minutes just staring up at it through squinted eyes. A man in a red helmet that covered his entire head-face included-watched him warily but did nothing to stop him. Eventually he walked off to find a place to set up his new lair. This was so exciting! He was moving all around this crowded human place. Sure, the people were giving him strange looks, but he had been here for a whole two hours and not a single person had attacked him! He picked good!

He stopped in front of this building with many floors and went to investigate. The main entrance was blocked off with a bright yellow tape that had lettering on it. That didn't matter to him. He never learned how to read.

It was a small task to flood the building with his ice and energy. There were no humans to fight for this territory so all was well. Plus the collar around his neck changed his ecto signature so it didn't matter how much energy he used, no one would ever know he was the one here.

Phantom placed the purple door that lead him to this world against one of the walls and began removing the knobs. The interesting thing about the doors was that the worlds they lead to never had any natural portals to slip through, and by removing the knobs from them they can't be opened. So long as Phantom had the door and knobs no one from the Infinite Realms could get to him without making thier own portals and no portal maker would be able to portal to him with his ecto signature changed. It was brilliant!

Danny got to work on his lair, coating everything in ice and creating entire rooms and floors that were just solid ice but for the tight dark tunnels running through them leading to different places in the building. It was basically a maze.

Nodding to himself he went outside and created a balcony out of the ice. The thing was large and looked to be defying gravity, but still Phantom wasn't pleased with it. He wished for a large home, many children and a loving spouse. One of the things this fellow ghosts had talked about was "a large yard and picket fence." The balcony was large but he wasn't sure what classified as a "yard" not to mention he didn't know what a picket fence was. Hopefully it wasn't like the fences Walker had on his prisons, while it would be effective for corraling his potential children, it would look...distasteful...

Phantom tore himself away from those thoughts. Creating a flashy lair was the first step in telling others he was looking to settle down. Surely the large tower of shimmering ice would capture someone's attention.

His first guest entered through an open window on the third floor and Phantom flew down to meet them. They were friendly, if a bit wary of him. Understandable, no world is without danger after all. This man was strong, talented and funny. He wasn't bad looking either. The only real problem he had was that Nightwing was so much older than him and kept calling him a "kid" Phantom was both powerful enough to be considered an adult even before he reached the adult threshold of 13, a fact that he shared with the blue bird. The man looked shocked and tried to convince him to talk to a doctor. He didn't understand. He was perfectly healthy!

Irritated, he flew through he cieling and abandoned the conversation.

The second guest was a green woman with firey hair who was lounging on the balcony. She was inspecting the plants whos roots dug into the ice and fed off of the energy he gave them. He told her this when asked and she was just as confused by him as the blue bird man, but began teaching him about plants and thier various wonders. Phantom listened because back in the Infinite Realms knowledge was power and power was hoarded and kept away from others. If she was willing to give him knowledge so freely he would not turn her away.

His third guest was a younger boy named Robin who tried to kill him with a mortal blade. He responded by phasing the blade into the floor and pinning him to the wall. After a chat in which Robin demanded to know why he was there, Phantom responded with the truth. He left the violence of his home world behind hoping to turn over a new leaf. He wished to start a family and live here happily. Thankfully the child excepted this. Phantom also told him about the flashyness of the ice was a indication he was looking for a spouse and that entering was an indication that one was interested and Robin was too young for marriage

The boy grumbled about Phantom also being too young which Phantom found odd. That was three separate people who all claimed he was too young. Sure, this ye old tradition wasn't in common use anymore and ghosts rarely coupled nowadays but...was he really too young? What was the age of adulthood here?

Not for the first time he envied the other ghosts for thier knowledge. The Undead carry memory from thier first lives, which Phantom is lacking due to his own having been cut so short. Neverborne come into being with knowledge of both worlds and the Deathborne are born from two entities of death creating a child together. These beings are taught about both worlds from thier parents. Another thing Phantom lacks.

----

Meanwhile, the batfam are freaking out at this "undead" pit child that Jason is terrified of. They all feel the need to parent him and try to get him away from all this marriage talk. Maybe let himself be a kid.

After a few weeks they manage to get him to go out to places with them, with Red Robin being the most successful. Appearently the kid found the red coloring of Tim's suit to be "beautiful" and "nothing like the muting reds and pinks from the Infinite Realms" and they planned on putting a pin in that info for later.

For now they needed to focus on rehabilitating this feral child who has lived like a wild animal most of his (after?)life.

Just: Danny never walking as Phantom so when he transforms into his human form he falls on his face cause he doesn't know how to walk.

Phantom doesn't like his human form because he has "constant pain in his stomach area" and they discovered that Phantom hadn't eaten anything at all in the twelve years he's been in the Infinite Realms

Alfred and Bruce teaching him to shower, brush his teeth, and other basic things that he never had to do before as a ghost. Dick and Tim are right behind him with a camera for all of it and are making a "baby book" of all his firsts. They even convince Jason to help teach him to read.

Danny eventually stops flirting with people and tells the family he's happy being a child instead of a father. Dick cries and hugs him.

#halloween prompts #fanfiction prompts #prompts #dp x dc #phantom #danny phantom #danny fenton #jason todd #red hood #nightwing #dick grayson #robin #damian wayne #tim drake #red robin #feral phantom #he died around three #he doesnt know how to be normal #tim is confused but trying to be supportive #he doesnt realize hes being flirted with since no one gave him the memo #danny is ignorant of the world around him #he legit thinks babies come from fields of vegetables cabbage patch style #jason thinks this is hilarious #Robin isnt much younger and might have a crush #Danny is trying hard not to kill in fear that he'll be forced back into his previous lifestyle #jason thinks the kid not knowing how to read or write is unexceptable

[bettercallstan]

V.II Snail - Second to One

Armoured Core 6 has an excellent story. The themes are well realised, the plot flows naturally, the world is coherent, but most of all the characters are layered and consistent. When you ask people who their favourite character from the game was most people will pick either V.IV Rusty, Handler Walter, Ayre, G1 Michigan, or G5 Iguazu. Armoured Core 6 has three endings and four major antagonists. The Fires of Raven ending has Ayre as the central antagonist, Alexa Lacta Est has Iguazu and Allmind, but the Liberator of Rubicon ending likely has the best antagonist in V.II Snail. Snail is the second in command of Arquebus’ Vespers and is often cited as a well written but fairly two dimensional character.

The first time Snail is introduced is just before Operation Wallclimber, where Walter is negotiating to send independent mercenary C4-621 on the mission. During the conversation Walter says ‘I hear you’re deploying V.I again. Must be rough having only one good pilot to rely on.’ He says this to insult Snail, as V.I Freud is the only person Snail can never be better than. Freud is ranked number one in the arena, he’s the highest ranked Vesper, and he’s both of those things without any of the augmentation that makes piloting an AC even possible for most people. Snail has many augments but despite that he can never catch up to Freud. In response Snail says ‘Are you suggesting your dog can take Freud’s place?’ This line is very interesting due to the similarities between Freud and 621. Freud may be the highest ranked Vesper but he isn’t loyal to Arquebus; he’s an expert AC pilot who only cares about getting to fight people he deems to be worthy opponents. 621 – the player’s avatar – is much the same, as what else is the player here for but for cool mech fights? Equally, 621 is a Gen 4 augmented human, a generation seen as outdated and subpar. So whilst not unaugmented, 621 needs significantly less augments than Snail to pilot an AC at the same level of mastery as Freud. Snail likely sees Freud in 621, and this is why he chooses to let 621 take Freud’s place on Operation Wallclimber. During the fight with the Juggernaut, Snail lies to V.IV Rusty about needing him to intercept incoming reinforcements, which causes him to leave 621 to fight the Juggernaut alone. Unfortunately for Snail, 621 wins, his plan fails.

After this failure, Snail becomes much less antagonistic towards 621. He takes a back seat in the story until the final mission of Chapter 3, Destroy the Ice Worm. In this mission Arquebus and Balam have agreed to cooperate, with Balam leading the mission under the command of G1 Michigan. Snail manages to nab himself the position of ground leader, and works with 621 and three other AC pilots to take down the Ice Worm. He’s mostly absent during Chapter 4’s descent into Watchpoint Alpha, because Arquebus have agreed to let Balam take the first shot at reaching the convergence. In fact Arquebus don’t even enter the watchpoint until halfway through the chapter. This is important as Snail seems to represent the ideology of Arquebus. His callsign – Snail. Snails are best known for being slow, and both Arquebus and Snail seem to embody the ‘slow and steady wins the race,’ mentality. This can best be seen when Snail lets his colleague V.VI Maeterlinck die so that 621 can defeat the Ibis series CEL-240 that guards the convergence. After the CEL-240 is downed, Snail ambushes 621 at the opportune moment and captures them, much like how Arquebus waited for the opportune moment to take down Balam by killing G1 Michigan earlier in the chapter.

At the beginning of Chapter 5, 621 escapes the Arquebus reeducation that Snail himself oversees. If that wasn’t already enough of an embarrassment, the player can choose to fight him on the Xylem and destroy his AC or ignore him. Both of these are incredibly humiliating for Snail; either he got his AC destroyed by an outdated pilot, or said pilot decided he wasn’t even worth their time. The other side of Snail’s callsign is that Snails are small, weak creatures that retreat into their shell when they feel threatened. In response to the incident on the Xylem, Snail retrieves the prototype Arquebus Balteus to try and finally put 621 to rest. This is a perfect conclusion for his character for a few reasons. Firstly, the main gimmick of the Balteus mech is its pulse armour; a spherical pulse shield that protects the mech from all damage, much like the shell of a Snail. But secondly, it relates back to his god complex being born of a feeling of inferiority. Snail sees Freud in 621 but even with this immensely powerful mech at his disposal, he can never overcome 621. He still loses. During his final fight he says ‘Raven the independent mercenary, you’re not the mutt I thought you were. You’re below that, you are vermin!’ During his conversation with Walter he called him a ‘meagre dog-sitter,’ so this shows how his hatred of 621 has deepened; he started off derogating 621 as just a dog, but now sees him as even worse than that because the only way he can feel better about himself is to put others down. No matter how hard he tries he can never be better than Freud or 621, so the only course is to bring them down to his level. During the fight he goes on a tirade, saying ‘Out of my sight vermin! That traitor V.IV, those dolts at command, but worst of all – you! The pest of Rubicon who stirred the cinders, you sicken me, all of you! I’ll crush you underfoot, I am Arquebus!’ Being stepped on is a common fear for Snails, so it seems he may be projecting somewhat here. Snails are incapable of ever crushing anything underfoot, just like how Snail can never beat 621 like he wants to.

However, the most interesting line to me is when he says ‘I am Arquebus.’ It’s worth noting that whilst Freud is V.I, Snail is the one with the power. Freud just does what he’s told if it involves cool mech fights, Snail is the one calling the shots at the Vespers. In practice he is the highest ranked member of Arquebus that we see in game. During his final fight, Rusty says ‘Snail may be V.II but he’s second to none.’ This is interesting because we know for a fact that’s not true – Freud is canonically the better pilot in every way that matters. What this actually tells us is that Snail, whilst not as skilled as Freud, was still skilled enough to gain Rusty’s respect. Snail had everything. He was respected as an ace pilot, he was in charge of the Vespers and of his rival, but he couldn’t see any of it because he wasn’t V.I. He was so obsessed with something that ultimately didn’t really matter that he failed to see just how much he has because at his core he is greedy, nothing he gets will ever be enough to satiate his inferiority complex, and it manifests in an arrogant, god complex personality that no one wants to be around. He ever says that 621’s greatest crime is trying to kill or ignore him. He can’t see how 621’s actions affect anything other than himself, and ultimately he dies inside Balteus for this failing.

In conclusion, V.II Snail is not as two dimensional as people say. He isn’t just arrogant, he isn’t just a man with a god complex. His character goes much, much deeper than that, and it’s one of the many reasons why I believe him to be Armoured Core 6’s best villain.

#armored core #armored core 6 #v.ii snail #c4 621 #v.iv rusty #v.i freud #character analysis

[scarletsaphire]

TUCKER DANNY JACK AND SKULKER

"Ok, you're gonna need to run me through this one more time," Tucker said, trailing after Danny towards the Fentonwork's lab.

"You remember that Skulker is like, a tiny little blob thing in a mech suit, right?" Danny asked.

"Of course! How could I forget, I still have the pictures."

"Well," Danny said. "Apparently, if he gets hit hard enough in like, five different specific spots, he can't pilot the mech suit anymore? Like it just doesn't move."

"And let me guess," Tucker said. "You hit him hard enough in those five specific spots and now, he's what? Sitting on the table in the lab?" Danny scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. Tucker sighed. "I don't know why you think I can fix him. Like, I appreciate the confidence in me, I am pretty great, but there's a big difference between building a computer and fixing a whole guy."

Tucker's feet hit metal as they made their way through the door into the basement. Sure enough, as soon as they made it to the bottom, Tucker saw Skulker. Or rather, Skulker's empty, broken suit. "Jesus, dude, did you put him through a garbage disposal or something?"

"That is, in fact, a thing that happened," Skulker's real, high pitched voice came from Tucker's left. "It was right after I threw him into the sewer!"

"And I stand by my decision," Danny said. He made his way over to where Skulker floated and lifted himself onto the only clear spot on Jack's desk. "Have you ever seen the sewers? They stink. Almost as bad as your aim."

"You insufferable whelp, just wait until my suit is operational, and I'll show you aim!"

"Nuh uh, you agreed one month no hunting if I fixed it up," Danny said.

"Of course," Skulker said. "Every great hunter knows that you don't hunt in off season."

"Hey now, I don't see you trying to fix this, so why do you get to make the deal?" Tucker protested while gathering together tools. The Fenton's lab was a mess, as it always was, but Tucker had puttered around there enough with Danny to know the not quite organized chaos. "What am I gonna get out of it?"

"Um. A theoretical month of extra time with your best friend?"

"I was thinking more along the lines of an all expenses paid round trip on the Phantom Express to that Tech EXPO happening in a few weeks," Tucker said. "You remember the one."

"Dude, that place is like, 500 miles away!" Danny argued. "It'll take ages to get there if I carry you."

"It will not. We've clocked your flight speed at well over 150, it'll just be a few hours."

"I don't know if you know this, but carrying someone for a few hours while flying a hundred miles an hour isn't what most people would describe as easy."

"You're not most people," Tucker said. "But if you don't want my technological expertise, I'll just be on my way. I'm sure you'll figure out how to get this together." He turned to walk back towards the stairs.

Danny groaned. "Fine. But you're paying for my ticket."

Tucker turned back around with a smirk, cracking his knuckles. "Deal. Now, sit back, relax, and watch the master at work."

---

It ended up being only Danny who was sitting back and relaxing. As Tucker had predicted, a giant ghostly robot mech suit was, in fact, very different to anything Tucker had worked with before. Skulker knew much more about it than he did, so the ghost had taken to hovering over Tucker's shoulder, directing his work and shouting threats at Danny. And occasionally Tucker. (He was somewhere between creeped out and flattered that Skulker thought he was worthy to insult, if not fully hunt. That was one of the details he was never going to mention anywhere within a hundred miles of Jazz.)

"Could you grab me that laser wrench thing?" Tucker asked. "The one your parents use for small scale ectoplasm constructs."

Danny grabbed one of the many tools off of Jack's desk. "This one?" Tucker glanced over quickly, not willing to take his eyes off of the suit when he was quite literally elbow deep in machinery.

"No, the other one. I think it glows purple sometimes?" Danny made a noise of acknowledgement before holding up a similar looking device. "That's the one."

"Hey Jellybean, go long," Danny said before tossing the device at Skulker. Tucker couldn't help snorting at the indignant squeak Skulker made when he caught the device. 

"One day, ghost child, I will have your head hanging from my wall, and you will never be able to fling around childish insults ever again," he grumbled, passing the device to Tucker.

"Yea, I've heard that before. Maybe one day you'll be able to actually follow through on your threats."

Tucker already knew what Skulker was going to say, or at least had a pretty good guess. Despite how frequently they threw each other through buildings, Danny and Skulker were friends, at least in a ghostly sense. He'd heard their banter both in and out of combat enough to let the comments fade into background noise, focusing instead on fixing the part he needed the tool for. 

This part of the suit was delicate, to say the least. Skulker's suit fed almost entirely on ambient ectoplasm, whether that be excess produced by Skulker himself or by the environment he was in. This part was a regulator of that energy, allowing for the suit to store excess power for use later, like when he was blasting twenty seven different missiles and a laser canon at Danny. If Tucker fucked it up, there was a lot of different things that could happen, all of them bad with a capital B, and most of them ending in some kind of explosion. Minor explosions, admittedly, and ones that would take a while to build up, especially outside of the ghost zone, but an explosion nonetheless.

Luckily for Tucker, the system was pretty simple. A couple of wires and a designated compartment that held the filtered ectoplasm. All Tucker needed to do was reconnect the wire here, seal off the leak there, and-

Tucker jumped as the door to the basement slammed open, followed by loud heavy footsteps. He pulled the tool out of the cavity in Skulker's arm quickly, throwing the tool to the other side of the room, and spun around to try and hide Skulker's suit from Jack. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Danny doing the same for actual Skulker, despite the fact that Skulker had gone invisible. 

"Danny boy!" Jack called from the stairs, still out of view. "I thought I heard you and your friends down here!" Jack's head poked out from the top of the stairs. Tucker met his eyes, watched as it flicked from his face, to Danny, to Skulker's suit. Tucker covered his ears preemptively. "GHOST" Jack bellowed, grabbing an ecto-blaster from wherever he stored them on his hazmat suit, and opening fire towards Tucker.

It was lucky that Jack's aim was so bad; Tucker might've gotten better at dodging ectoblasts, but at such a close range, there was no way he'd get out of the way in time. And ectorays stung, and the residue it left never came out. Instead the ectoblasts hit against the back wall, leaving a green, smoldering mark. 

"Dad, stop!" Danny called, dashing towards Jack a little too quickly.

"Danny, what are you doing? There's a ghost in our basement!" Jack shouted, but he didn't fire the ecto-blaster again. Not with Danny so close.

"A ghost that is completely and totally still with both me and Tucker down here?" Danny asked. Jack narrowed his eyes, visibly processing the information. Then his features lit up and he grabbed Danny in a bear hug. "Ok uh what are we doing now."

"You caught the ghost, isn't that right Danny-boy!" Jack said, not putting Danny down. "That's that one ghost hunter that's always showing up to try and hunt down the ghost boy. as if he would ever be able to catch the ghost before we could." Tucker saw Skulker reappear over Jack's shoulder, small mouth opened to protest, before Danny's hand clamped around him. He couldn't see Danny's face at this angle, but the faint green glow indicated that Danny was using his Scary Eyes. It worked.

Danny let go of Skulker just as Jack set him down. "Uh, yea! It uh. Wasn't too hard?"

"Wasn't to hard!" Jack said. "We've been trying to track this ghost down for nearly as long as the ghost boy! For you to catch him, why, you must be some ghost hunting prodigy! C'mon, let's check out your catch!" Jack practically dragged Danny over to the suit, and Tucker reproached at his insistent waving. He couldn't see very well around the brick wall that was jack Fenton, but he was able to see enough. Enough to make him duck under Jack's arm to get a closer look, and start swearing.

"Is everything ok, Tuck?" Danny asked.

"Of course it is!" Jack answered in his place. "I'm sure he's just realizing how incredible this all is!"

"We might have a code potato," Tucker whispered so just Danny could hear. "Definitely gonna need help to fix it."

Danny's face sharpened in the way it always did when he was dealing with superhero stuff. "Hey, Dad, do you think we could get something to eat first? All that ghost hunting really works up an appetite."

"You bet it does! You go get something to eat, but science waits for no man! I need to make sure the ghost is secured for experimentation later. Don't want to risk him blowing up the house!" Jack reached out to grab the arm connected to the panel Tucker had been working on.

"Stop!" Tucker shouted, throwing his whole weight into Jack's arm to push it out of the way.

"What has gotten into you two?" Jack asked, brows knitting back together. "I feel like I'm missing something..."

Tucker met Danny's eyes. It had taken a long time, for them to be able to communicate just with a look, but over the years of near death (or post death, in Danny's case) situations, they'd gotten pretty good at it. Danny's ghost based empathy thing helped. Danny knew that Tucker was being very serious, life and death kind of situation. He could probably guess by Tucker's reaction to Jack that this was something incredibly delicate. Danny also knew that the game plan was still up to him; it was his secret, his half-life on the line.

"Dad, do you trust me?"

Jack turned his confused expression to Danny. "Of course I do, son."

"Then I need you to promise me something. You won't ask questions, you won't start a fight, and you won't get in the way," Danny said.

"Danny," Jack said slowly. "I don't understand. What do you-"

Danny cut him off. "Just promise me. Please?"

Jack was silent for a moment, before he nodded. "I promise."

"Tuck, what's going on?"

"I nicked the regulator when he came downstairs," Tucker said, adjusting slightly to the side so Danny could see. "It could be nothing, or it could be a very volatile explosion waiting to happen."

"Definitely an explosion," Skulker said, materializing above the suit. "That's a nasty one." Jack yelped in surprise, but put his hands over his mouth to silence it.

"How do we fix it?" Tucker asked. "I'm assuming we can't just throw it back into the ghost zone and be done with the problem."

"That's probably the worst thing you could do," Skulker said. "Unless your goal is to blow up the realms."

"Been there, done that, already stopped it from happening," Danny said. "What else do you got?"

"Could we try to reroute it somehow?" Tucker asked. "There's gotta be more of them in here somewhere, right?"

"There is, but they are located in distant locations. There would be no point of having them in the same area," Skulker said. "If you connected them, my suit would be completely unusable."

"Yea, but it would solve the literal ticking time bomb, wouldn't it?" Tucker asked. 

"Perhaps," Skulker said. "But I wouldn't be able to get it back to my lair, and I would rather not have the whelp stinking the place up again."

"And yet you keep trying to get me there," Danny retorted.

"Yes, as a pelt. Not as you," Skulker said. 

"Danno, what's going on?" Jack said, his voice significantly higher than it normally was.

"No questions," Danny replied. "I'll explain after. So, reconnecting to a different regulator is a no go. What about shutting down the power input in general."

"Impossible," Skulker scoffed, the sound odd in his tiny jelly bean voice. "If you could just shut it down that would be a massive overlook." 

"You don't have any kind of shut down switch at all?" Tucker asked. "It seems like your style."

"Please, I'm not Technus."

Danny and Tucker laughed. "True that. So shutting it down won't work either. I'm not even going to bother suggesting letting it explode in an explosion proof place, so I'm out of ideas."

"I'm pretty much out too," Tucker said, staring into the hole in the side of the suit. "I'll keep thinking."

It was Jack who spoke next. "You're looking for a regulator for... ectoenergy?"

The three others turned to look at Jack. "Yea," Tucker said slowly. "It needs to hold filtered ectoplasm from the surroundings, and be able to expend it. Without exploding."

"Without exploding when I don't want it to!" Skulker amended.

"I could do without that," Danny mumbled. 

"And it needs to fit in there?" Jack asked, gesturing to the suit. Tucker nodded. "Some of our ectoblasters have a regulator that functions like that. Would that work?" He was looking at Tucker, who looked at Skulker.

Skulker was thinking. "It may work temporarily, at least long enough for me to get back to the lair and fix it properly." 

"What blaster is that in?" Danny asked. 

"The bigger ones, but not as big as the Fenton Bazooka. Any of those should work," Jack said, and Danny ran off to grab the weapons. "You are...comfortable working with these types of things?" Jack asked Tucker after a moment of awkward silence. 

"Not really," Tucker replied with a shrug much more nonchalant than he felt. "I know enough, and Skulker isn't a bad teacher, at least when it comes to this."

"So you're... Skulker?" Jack said to Skulker. 

"I am Skulker, the greatest hunter the ghost zone has ever seen!" Skulker said.

"Wait, I thought this ghost was the greatest hunter?" Jack gestured to the suit.

"I built it as a tool to use during my hunts!" 

Tucker could see the gears turning in Jack's head, but any other questions were cut off by Danny running back downstairs, a number of different weapons cradled in his arms. "Will any of these work?" he asked, setting them on the floor in a crash. 

Jack nodded, and grabbed one from the pile. "This one will work." He dismantled it expertly, and removed a small piece. "If you hook this up to the regulator it should work." He held it out to Tucker, who took it with a nod. 

"On it," he said. Tucker worked in tense silence, with Skulker hovering above him, and Jack and Danny a few steps behind. Finally, he wiped the nervous sweat off his brow, and resealed the whole on Skulker's suit. "That should do it. Give it a spin?"

Skulker climbed back into the face hatch, letting it seal around him. The display came to life, and Skulker rose to his fake feet. "It's rather stiff, but nothing that I won't be able to fix!" he said, back  to his regular voice. "I do not believe this is worth a month without hunting, whelp."

"Two weeks and I'll do something nice for Ember," Danny replied smoothly. 

"Deal. I will see you in two weeks, ghost child!" he called, and began to make his way to the portal.

"I'll cherish every minute I get to go without seeing your ugly mug," Danny called back. "Seriously, you got to decide how you look and you chose that?"

Skulker's retort was washed away by the whirring of the ghost portal. His departure left Jack, Tucker, and Danny standing in the basement without a possible life threatening situation to mediate the conversation.

"I guess I owe you an explanation," Danny said. 

"You do," Jack said. "But it can wait until I've made some fudge. I think we'll need it for this conversation."

#danny phantom #danny phantom fanfiction #ask game #danny fenton #tucker foley #skulker #jack fenton

[wolven91]

Drifting - Part 1

Geckins and chintians are very good mechanics.

Watching either species work, it would be easy to assume that all either of the one-foot-tall species had to do was glance at an engine and they'd be able to say 'oh, that's how that works'.  That wasn't true of course, but their knack for mechanics and ability to build, repair and design machines was unparalleled amongst the stars.

The one thing both species did better than any of the larger species of the galaxy was mechs. To the humans, the moment they glimpsed a hulking walking machine, all their science fiction dreams came true in one moment. As to why it was the diminutive species that invented machines that made the taller and larger species have to look up, no one wanted to really say out loud. The geckins almost proudly wore the chip on their shoulder about their size thanks to the far larger ssypno struggling to convert the geckin people into a vassal state before seemingly giving up. The chintians on the other hand always had their eye on their neighbours; the canids. Neither species had a good introduction in the Galactic Community and had paid for their membership in blood.

 The design of their machines however, differed depending on who made them.

Chintians piloted their mechs via the use of artificial intelligence, two separated minds working in tandem with one another. Talking, communicating and planning their goals together. The geckins however, used direct connection with the machines themselves. There wasn't an intelligence within the machine like the chintians, but the pilots often reported that the machines had a personality beyond their own.

The short comings of the chintian design was the delay in between seeing and reacting to something, not to mention the separation between mech and pilot. The issues with geckin design was the draining aspect of piloting their mechs on the pilot itself. Geckin pilots were often geckins who appeared sickly, tired or gaunt. As if they were being drained of their very life force.

But, for the time being, these mechs were not heavily used in fighting. At least not officially. The Galactic Community government had no mechs in their standing army, regardless of what reports from separatist forces suggested. The GC merely pointed out soldiers of fortune were a thing and they could utilise whatever hardware they had access to.

It was when Casper had been practically dumped in Geckin territory with his meagre belongings that he shortly afterwards discovered all of this. The fact that they greeted him atop walkers that put them at his height was not lost on him. The fact he reacted with unconcealed amazement and awe meant that Casper, very quickly, became a celebrity on the Geck home world, his reaction and gushing about the walkers broadcast over and over to all corners of the planet.

It was a mere three weeks later, when Casper was in his quite opulent home a top a tower in the main city, surrounded by a good thirty geckins that they discovered yet more things they liked about humans.

"What's this one say?" Asked a yellow geckin, Casper had given up trying to remember all their names and they simply didn't care. Most seemingly just shouted 'oi, you' and the geckin they were talking to looked round. The young man looked round and observed the DVD that the geckin had pulled out of the pile. Casper had merely seen what was happening on the horizon the other month and swept his had across his shelves of DVDs and tossed them all into a bug out bag along with his books and anything else to hand.

To this day he couldn't say why he'd saved the media, he hadn't thought about it. He just did.

"That one is... Ha... Casper the friendly ghost." He replied with a grin, the translators not having his written language yet meant anything written had to be translated for them.

"You have a story written about you?!" A green geckin exclaimed, jumping from the shelves onto Casper's back. One had to get used to geckins clambering all over oneself if they were staying in geckin space. He could feel no less than three geckins in the various pockets of his cargo pants, fully asleep enjoying the heat of his legs through the material.

"No, just a coincidence. He's about a dead human." That immediately lost any interest in the tale.

"What about this one? Looks like a Tax Two?" Asked a red geckin, holding up a different case.

"Oh, Pacific Rim. Giant monsters attack and the only way to beat them back is giant mechs. What's a Tax Two?"

Casper's question was initially ignored as a surge of multiple-coloured scales across many different creatures ran towards the one holding the approved DVD. It was amazing to the man how quickly they had reinvented a device capable of reading the DVD correctly, but again; it was a species of engineers.

As they settled, Casper's lap becoming buried in the geckins and the rest of the oversized furniture, at least to them, was likewise covered.

"Oh and a Tax Two is a heavy loader. Manipulators instead of weapons. Good for tearing vegetation out and clearing areas, although I bet it could knock out an ursidain if you gave it a swing."

"Huh... I think you'll like this one then..." Casper promised, shuffling down into the seat, content to be a climbing frame for the various blighters for the time being.

"Huh... I wonder how well humans mesh with a suit that big..." asked one of thr geckins turning to fix Casper with a look that was not one Casper had seen before.

For a brief moment, he felt as if the geckin only saw an important cog that needed to be fit somewhere, not a human.

[r/WolvensStories]

[Ko-Fi]

#conservationverse #cuddleverse #human #hfy #haso #humans are space orcs #scalie #human x scalie #geckin #lizard

[stunning-eclipse]

So... DID and the Daycare Attendant.

I don't think I need to do an introduction to everyone's favorite Daycare Attendant, so I'm going to start this off with a description of DID and what it's like to live with it, because I in fact have it!

DID is a weird case. It's both easy and hard to live with. My alters have saved my life in some cases, and they've made me have some strained relationships as well. One moment I'm here, then one positive/negative trigger later and I'm gone and someone else is piloting this fleshy mech. I have around 20 alters, some with names, some unnamed, some fictives, some ordinary people. But funnily enough, I have two fictives that take after Sun and Moon (named Sunnydrop and Moon respectively). They're both friendly, at least Moon is nowadays, but they've been around for a long time.

A positive or negative trigger is whenever something happens that brings an alter to front. Music, games, voices, people, etc can all be triggers for an alter to front, as well as trauma or distress which are typically referred to as negative triggers. We'll get back to that later when we talk about the lights off and Sun and Moon's positive triggers.

So! How about we get into why Sun and Moon (and Eclipse) are positive DID representation!

Here's why the Daycare Attendant is a great representation of DID!

First off, I want to regard the whole "Moon is an evil alter" thing. While yes, we are led to believe that he is indeed evil, there are a few interesting things about him that still make him excellent as representation. Remember how I said my alter Moon is friendly nowadays? Yeah, well not all alters are friendly off the bat and they can be quite aggressive based on whichever trauma they are defending you from. My alter Moon defends me from my abandonment trauma and trusts no one, and therefore can get really aggressive and even violent towards people. Not all alters are going to be friendly, and while I'm not saying they'll just be murderous killers looking for the thrill of a hunt, they can be mean. Really mean.

Now I wanna get into the smaller bits. When someone with DID is going through a switch, it's not as easy as "oh well he's gone now say hi to this other guy." It can be that easy on occasion, but most of the time it is a slow and painful process. Migraines, fighting for control for minutes on end... just like how Sun and Moon react. Moon mentions his gears are grinding in his head when trying to hold off Sun, not only having a fight for control, but a migraine as well. We can also see Sun struggle with the same pain in the base game when you turn the lights off.

You can also tell the two know each other pretty well. Sun never refers to Moon by name, but it's very clear he sees him as a threat and has seen the stuff Moon has done while fronting. This is called co-fronting. When someone is still conscious and watching whatever the alter is doing while they're fronting, that's when they are co-fronting. And in Ruin, you can see they are co-fronting the entire segment. Moon also refers to Sun by name plenty, meaning they are both aware of each other and really aren't fond of not being in control of the body.

Their pronoun usage of we and us is also incredibly accurate!! When I'm dissociating, I will refer to myself as we and us due to not being the only one fronting and sometimes being unsure of who's actually in control in the moment. Sun seems to do that plenty whenever he's distressed, alluding to Moon being present or trying to front in the moment. And once Moon's positive trigger is used, aka the lights being off, he can finally assume control. It does seem like Moon has stress as another positive trigger due to Sun's usage of plural pronouns but that's more of a theory than anything concrete, so I'll move on.

Here's my favorite part... Man, Sun and Moon are very similar. Scarily so. When someone has alternate personalities, they will all share some minor similarities. Queen and I share the same germophobia, Sunnydrop and I are both artists, Moon and I both have social anxiety. Etc etc. In the case of Sun and Moon, they both are very energetic and can't stand still. They bounce side to side or move in very eccentric ways. They both have an innate need to clean up, showing a sign of hating things being messy. They both tend to laugh a lot, have similar vocal inflictions, and even growl their words (listen to Sun in Help Wanted 2, he growls so much.) They both respect not going behind the desk, and supposedly want the kids to be safe and well assuming Moon is indeed hacked and not evil from the start. They both rock the jester aesthetic too which, sure they're dressed like them but, they sure do act like clowns. In the end, the two are strangely similar outside of one of them being obsessed with killing you.

Finally... let's talk about Eclipse. Eclipse is a third alter and very similar to a fusion between the two jesters. Calm and collected, while also remaining protective and very clean-centric, Eclipse is... very clearly the "host" alter of the three. An alter that is a mixture of the others? Yeah, very clearly, he is the host, so the main personality that primarily controls the body. Meaning Sun and Moon are both alters, making Sun a positive friendly alter! Don't see those in media very often, huh? Also, the fact there's three of them makes me incredibly happy, I always see DID represented by just one alter present. But there's three! Not a realistic number by any means, but it's better than one.

So... yeah!!! That's my basic run-through of how the Daycare Attendant is a positive representation of DID! If I missed anything or if you guys have questions, please shoot me a message or comment and I'd love to answer questions! Thanks for reading if you did! We appreciate it!

#dca #dca sun #dca moon #fnaf dca #dca fnaf #daycare attendent #fnaf daycare attendant #fnaf #fnaf security breach #daycare attendant #sun and moon #sun and moon fnaf #sundrop #sunnydrop #moondrop #sun #moon #psychology #did system #dissociative identity disorder #FNAF

[spacesapphic770]

I'm high key obsessed with the ways Armored Core 6 gives us multiple characters that are a mirrors to 621 and/or you as a player

What follows will be spoilers that include stuff all the way up to the New Game++ ending. Don't click if you're not okay with spoilers:

There are a couple that immediately jumped out to me.

The first is V.I Freud. The first sign you get that he is a mirror to the player is that he is ranked number 1 in the arena, and his bio says people speculate that he is heavily augmented and gets unethical "updates" like snail does. But the truth is that he's not augmented and he's just someone who really fucking loves being an AC pilot. Like us as players, he's just here for the love of the experience. This is further displayed by the fact that even though he is technically commander of the Vespers, he's absent from the story until it's time to fight him. Because he has no interest in doing what Snail does, engaging in logistics and command and subterfuge. He just wants to pilot his mech. And then you finally meet him in the Fires of Raven ending... and his first action is to kill Chatty and complain about the lack of challenge. And you get this chilling mirror into what your devastation across Rubicon has been like. Every AC pilot you've taken on was loved by someone. The way Carla loved Chatty (the way I loved Chatty too). And the rest of the fight is filled with great moments, like Freud silencing Snail on the radio and him revelling in your fight... but the tone has been irreversibly changed by his cold blooded killing of Chatty. To Freud, I'm sure Chatty felt like just another side objective or Loghunt. Freud's fight is an amazing way to make the player reflect in my opinion.

THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO AVOID NG++ SPOILERS

The next one is more of a reflection to 621 in world than the player. Gun 5 Iguazu. I loved this dude and his shitty attitude from the moment I met him. He was such a perfect dickhead. Just a sassy dude. And then you read his arena bio and you realise he sasses you because he gets shit from the other redguns all the time and is scraping for any control in his life. It doesn't make him less of an ass, but you get it on some level.

Then the NG+ missions start happening, and you keep having these fights with Iguazu. It's almost funny how mad he gets and how relentless he is in trying to kill you. And he might take you down once or twice, but you can reload saves and he can't so he's doomed to fail. And he just gets angrier. He even sends a full on assassin to kill you, just to feel in control. In another world the game would be about Iguazu trying to finally beat his rival 621.

He gets more and more desperate. As you take the Coral Release ending he shows up when you ambush Snail, and he's more desparate. A few times he's mentioned a noise in his head he can't get rid of. It's a little unsettling. You continue down the path, get to the final boss, and... it's Iguazu. Sort of. He's joined with Allmind and is serving as its pilot to take you down. It's funny at first, at least I found it so. "No way! Iguazu is the final boss? Hilarious!"

Then you hear his dialogue. I had forgotten by this point that his arena bio says he's also a gen 4 augmented human. And it clicks.

In another world he really *could* have been the protagonist. He's a gen 4 like you. That noise he's been hearing? It was Allmind (And in the same way Iguazu is your reflection, Allmind is Ayre's reflection. Listen to the way Allmind talks to Iguazu. It's more manipulative than Ayre, but when Iguazu overloads your ACS Allmind tells him to take advantage of it the same way Ayre tells you to take advantage when Iguazu's ACS is overloaded). He wants to have the agency 621 has, he wants to have the skills 621 has, when he hears voices he doesn't want it to be painful... he wants a friend like 621 has. Walter says gen 4's can have trouble with their augmentations and we don't really see that with 621, but I get the impression Iguazu DOES struggle and he looks at 621 and says "Why? Why do they get to be free while I suffer?" Which becomes even more painful when you pick a fight with him at the Galia Dam.

As he says with his dying breath... he was envious of 621. And if you're anything like me it makes you reflect on things. Look into the mirror that Iguazu is and was. Think about the life 621 might have led if they weren't the chosen one who gets to be player character. This is not to say 621 does not suffer throughout AC6, because they are often treated like an object, a tool, or an animal. But it does make you think about how things would be if they weren't such a good pilot.

Anyway, yeah AC6 is good.

#armored core 6 #armored core #armored core 6 spoilers #armored core spoilers #This game makes me feel a lot of things

[tzuu-died]

braven and superbia theory :]

so my discord server allowed me to be stupid on main and rant about bravern at 11:30pm my time, so here’s just.. everything copy and pasted LMAO

also, posting this before ep4 drops, i can’t wait to see if any of my ramblings made sense

theory under the cut, spoilers for bang brave bang bravern ep. 1-3 and ep. 4 preview

the theory is this: bravern and superbia are the same species, possibly related to the deathdrives

firstly, in episode 1 and episode 3 we see bravern with a mask thing covering his face. and when you look at superbia, it seems as though they have something similar

i wouldn’t say that part is superbia’s actual face, due to the purple highlights/crystal looking things on their body. bravern’s eyes are green, and he does have a green crystal or piece of glass on that gold part of his face

and also, bravern has a green background in his transformation sequences and when we first meet him.

there’s also a green trail left by him when he flies in the intro + uses his blade.

the show’s logo briefly flashes green in the op

and the green in bravern’s cockpit + the weird green liquid from ep3

and superbia’s eyes do flash purple in the op, so i’m willing to bet superbia wears a mask much like bravern when we first meet him

and now when you look at bravern and superbia, they do seem very much alike

plus, the opening hints at superbia being somewhat relevant at least, due to the fact that in most anime openings, the fight featured in it is at least somewhat relevant to the story

and also, bravern knows superbia

the “you never change” implies that bravern’s fought against superbia before, or known them in the past

plus, the opening and show kind of confirmed lulu pilots superbia

1. lulu and isami have very similar outfits when piloting

2. this scene in the opening. the character does resemble lulu and the necklace looks like it was made to resemble superbia

3. again, the weird liquid in the mechs’ cockpits

so in other words, bravern and superbia are definitely very similar

plus, we saw that bravern was losing to superbia without isami

without a pilot

and lulu magically appeared on a beach after superbia was defeated. and coincidentally, superbia was in the deep waters when we first see a hint of them.

and i just wanna point out that smith had no idea what lulu meant when she said her name, but bravern understood.

and he didn’t look too happy about that

and in the preview for episode 4, we see a few scenes of bravern essentially being in a shitty mood. kind of looks like he’s lashing out here?

and then at the end we see a scene of lulu looking confused, and we immediately cut to this?

so to just tldr the point that bravern and superbia are part of the same species:

1. they share similar traits and visuals in the show (mainly the colours i talked about)

2. they both have pilots

3. they have a history together (we see superbia scoffing at bravern a few times, and bravern’s quote: “you never change”)

4. bravern shows a clear dislike for superbia and isn’t all too happy about lulu

and now, the other thing: bravern and superbia are some advanced form of the deathdrives, or are related to them

so first off, when the deathdrives are defeated, they go kaboom and explode into this weird cube shaped stuff

and what happened to superbia after bravern and isami’s attack?

additionally, when battling superbia, bravern attacked them with a punch, which they stopped with a purple shield

and what else uses a purple shield?

yup. the deathdrives

and in episode 2, bravern explains that they’re inorganic, metallic organisms that gained something like a conscience. and both bravern and superbia show to have that

bravern’s can be sean very clearly. he talks a lot.

superbia? all we hear from them are shrieky noises and scoffing. and what do we hear from lulu? also that

so to just tldr this entire rant/rambling:

bravern and superbia show signs of being from the same species. they both needing a pilot to achieve their true strength, without them they’re not as strong.

the deathdrives also show similarities to them; that being the similar way they “die” (we’re not sure if superbia actually died in ep3, so i’m putting the word in these “ ”guys), similar abilities (barriers/shields, flight, weaponry?).

so basically, to put all of this short: bravern and superbia are some advanced form of the deathdrives, probably existing to be something like commanders in an army, seeing how superbia kind of teamed up with the deathdrives?

anyway, hope this makes sense LMAO 😭

#bang brave bang bravern #yuuki bakuhatsu bang bravern #bang bravern #bravern #superbia #isami ao #lewis smith #lulu #bravern theory #bbbb #brave series #brave #tzuu’s writing

[v23-flow]

#wiah :0#halquisprite#okay now THATS a cool fucking concept#also i love equius and hal's designs#AND THE BROKEN HORN OF THE MECH MATCHING EQUIUS' HORNS#stunning!!!!#hs#would love to see ur other designs for the rest of the sprites#particularly gcatavros and davepeta

@treeprince I can talk about them, sure!

Davepeta has a more modern design since they're one of the last created

Gcatavros has only one human taking care of and piloting it, but the kitty is helping! (Litterally. He knows what he's doing) the design is still blurry in my mind tho. Only the head has a definitive shape

I didn't really drew the rest of the cast yet, but I'm thinking about it...

The theme of this AU was a classic alien invasion trope with the time setting taking place in a sort of after-catastrophe, secret resistance going on. Like I said in my previous post with arquius, the sprites are giant fighting robots, with their componants piloting and building/repairing it and their kids being the operators/commandants.

Now pardon me while i also ramble bout other sprites:

Erisol is the most assymetrical mess you've ever seen, yet works perfectly fine, thanks to sollux' hard work. (Eridan does his part too. He's a good pilot)

Arquius is the most resistant and solidly built of the batch. Hal and Equius get along extremely well, to the surprise of almost everyone, save Nepeta

Fefeta got destroyed during a fight and feferi got injured, so she now work behind the scenes with Jane for Gcatavros

Jasprose is one of the only three robots having a single human working on it. The same kitty is helping Rose!

Tavris got destroyed due to the fact that Vriska and Tavros weren't getting along at all. Now Vriska is an honorary operator to all the robots (she decided that herself)

Nanna is the last three of the single piloted robots, by none other than Nanna (lol). She was the first to build and fight. She also fucking kicks ass

#homestuck #nepeta leijon #dave strider #davepetasprite #tavros nitram #gcatavrosprite #v23 art #i have no plot atm. i'm just having a blast drawing robots lol

[random-iz-stuff]

Theory/Headcanon:

We’ve seen Zib before.

Not in the comics or the movie or the actual show, but in the pilot episode of Invader Zim.

And here he is. Pilot Dib IS Zib.

Now, before we get started, here’s the full pilot episode of Invader Zim on YouTube, just in case you haven’t seen it or need context:

If the Zimvoid is actually the Pilot Universe and Zib is actually Pilot Dib, it could explain just how Zib was able to kill Zim, along with why he went off the deep end afterwards.

One of the first things that you’ll probably notice about the Pilot is how Zim and Dib are slightly different.

Starting with Zim, ignoring the different voice, he seems friendlier than his canon counterpart. He casually talks to several of his classmates and compliments Dib for his food canon, which the canon Zims (plural because the Comics and Enter The Florpus are separate timelines) would never do. Pilot Zim is still Zim, but he’s slightly friendlier than normal.

Meanwhile, in sharp contrast to Pilot Zim being friendlier than normal, Pilot Dib is a lot more unhinged than either of his canon counterparts. He’s still Dib at his core, but he’s definitely more unstable than normal.

Combine those two differences, and you start to see how Pilot Dib could kill his Zim.

Zim has a moral code. He views Dib as a worthy opponent and often goes easy on him to give him a fighting chance. Meanwhile, Dib just wants Zim dead with no care as to what he has to do to achieve it.

So mix a friendlier Zim, who might go easier on Dib than what’s normal for Zims or possibly even not treat Dib as a real enemy at all, but instead a frenemy of some sort, with a Dib that will take any opportunity to kill him because that’s a fundamental part of all Dibs, and guess who comes out on top.

Pilot Zim most likely viewed Dib as a rival or frenemy, while Pilot Dib viewed Zim as something to be destroyed. Pilot Zim was also probably a lot more careless when dealing with Dib, as he didn’t view him as the same sort of threat that other Zims view their Dibs as.

Pilot Dib is equally as powerful as any other Dib, probably even more powerful considering his instability, but his Zim didn’t treat him that way. Pilot Zim didn’t treat his Dib like the threat he actually was. In the Pilot Universe, the Zim is weaker than normal and the Dib is stronger than normal.

But there’s also this scene in particular from the Pilot:

Dib tries to prove that Zim is an alien, gets called crazy and looses it, setting his food launcher to the highest setting and aiming it directly at Zim, fully intending to kill him while not caring about the dozens of his own classmates that are stuck to Zim’s mech suit.

This results in Dib’s plan literally blowing up in his face, destroying the entire cafeteria.

Now I’m not saying that this scene is foreshadowing Zib’s destruction of his own universe, where he kills Zim and finally gets evidence, only for no one to believe him, so he looses it, takes over the Earth and tries to destroy the entire Irken Armada with a massive superweapon, wanting to kill every last irken while not caring about Earth or anyone on it, which blows up in his face and destroys his entire universe, except that’s exactly what I’m saying because this scene parallels it perfectly.

This scene from the Pilot is just Zib’s story on a smaller scale.

There’s also the fact that Pilot Dib is the first ever Dib to ever appear in a meta perspective. He’s the first Dib. Dib #1. Which directly parallels Zib’s title of Number 1 in the Zimvoid.

#invader zim #headcanons #theory #comic spoilers #Zib #Pilot Dib

[gaybookstournament]

Round 2, Bracket 6

Propaganda under the cut, feel free to add more in reblogs or comments.

The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System – Shen Yuan hates the popular stallion webnovel, My Immortal Demon Way, it has an online cult following and the protagonist has a harem in the triple digits. Worst of all, it’s basically glorified porn, and a terrible male fantasy with an OP protagonist. So imagine his surprise when after degrading the author, he wakes up in the universe of My Immortal Demon Way, as the first villain, Shen Qingqui aka Luo Binghe’s teacher. Shen rushes to find a way to save his ass from the protagonist’s fury at the end of the novel. Little does he know, Luo Binghe is crushing on him. Hard.

Iron Widow – In Hauxia, men and women fight together inside a Chrysalises, the boys dream of pairing up with a girl and fighting inside these mech suits to fight the mecha aliens on the otherside of the great wall, not caring about the fact that the girls regularly die inside these suits. Wu Zeitan finally turns 18 and volunteers to become a pilot – much to the dismay of her children friend who harbours a crush on her – and get revenge on the ace male pilot responsible for her brother’s death. But when she finally gets inside the suit with him, she ends up killing him through their psychic link. She is labelled the Iron Widow and forced into an arranged marriage with a male pilot who has killed 100% of the women he has fought with. But when her wedding comes around, her childhood friend confesses his love to her, and her soon-to-be-husband – who is 100% on board with her plans of dismantling the hierarchy – expresses an interest in her childhood friend.

#svsss #mxtx #mxtx svsss #luo binghe #shen qingqiu #shen yuan #bingqiu #lgbtq books #lgbtq community #lgbtq #lgbtqia #gay book poll #iron widow #xiran jay zhao #wu zetian #li shimin #gao yizhi #polyamory #bisexual

[theprettynosferatu]

I

The gigantic metal beast landed with a thud. Not the most graceful of homecomings, thought the handler. It didn’t matter, of course. No damage to the mech, four enemies down, a few needless but thrilling maneuvers for the video drone capturing every moment. A successful mission any way one cut it. The handler looked up from the screens, towards the solid, tangible reality of his ward.

Even after years together, even after a hundred missions, the sight never failed to impress. Himiko emerged from the cockpit drenched in sweat, every curve of her body glistening under the hangar lights. She stretched. This was a performance too, even if she didn’t know it. Her booty shorts and miniscule top were as much a necessity as an asset, and her “dismounts” were something of a phenomenon among the viewers. 

Every second in the cockpit was filmed, every motion in combat captured from several angles, every landing documented to be masterfully edited and broadcast to the population. She was a soldier on two fronts: fighting the rebellion while also being someone the company could parade in front of everyone, someone people could root for, someone they could obsess over. Better to have them focused on her skin, those shorts, her beautiful face. Even her mech, the Enkidu, was part of her brand: it was an older model, a classic -or a relic, depending on one’s point of view- that tended to be particularly punishing for pilots. The goddamn thing was an oven, relying on overheating systems for sudden bursts of enhanced performance with minimal heat dispersal to spare the operator. Hence, booty shorts and top. The effect was simple, eloquent: she was a warrior, an underdog willing to do whatever it took to destroy a more advanced enemy. Underdogs were good. People cheered for them. 

The handler shuddered. If Himiko knew he had been the one to suggest her brand…

Well, there were many things Himiko didn’t know, and every asset needed a brand, a simple phrase that could be marketed, displayed, sold. “Sexy, rebellious underdog”. Everything orbited that one concept. Her clothing, her public appearances, even her fighting style. She was as artificial as her mech and didn’t even know it. Damn it.

The handler chased the feeling away. Things would be worse for Himiko without him. He was good to her. Hell, compared to other handlers he was downright angelic, if the stories were true. Even the whole “underdog” gimmick was… mild, next to what other pilots were saddled with. The company had to cater to many tastes, after all. “Ruthless, cold bombshell”. “Cheery, optimistic angel”. “Seductive, psychotic killer”. A pilot for every desire, and joint missions were true events, advertised and promoted with taglines like “...But can they work together?”, or “Angel and Demon together!”. The strategic purpose of such missions was a secondary priority, if it was a priority at all.

Yes, “rebellious underdog” wasn’t that bad, all things considered. The handler went down to the launching bay.  

“I fucked up with that second mech”

“It still went down, didn’t it?”

“Messed up my aim. I Could have downed him quicker. Fuck!”

Himiko was one of the few pilots allowed to swear. It fit her brand. Well, truth was Himiko was one of the few pilots able to swear, but that wasn’t something the handler liked to think about.

“May I shower?”, she asked.

“You may”, he replied.

Himiko flashed him a quick smile and headed for her quarters. The handler watched her leave. He wondered, as he had done so many times before, if he was the only one that could see something between sadness and rage in her eyes.

II

“We were going with something like… ‘Guts and Glamour’, when the op was just Himiko and Adrian, but now that Ruby’s part of the whole thing…”, said the handler.

“‘Guts and Glamour’? Really?”, scoffed Mark.

“You know them marketing boys like their alliteration, Mark. We work with what we got”, added Katrina, a bit offended.

‘Guts and Glamour’ had been her idea, in fact. A bit on the facile side, but the handler had to admit his partner had nailed it on the head. Katrina was rough, but one of the best, after all: that was why she had been saddled with Adrian. “Vain, cocksure prettyboy”, had been the concept and the pilot delivered in spades, which was a blessing and a curse. He was easy to hate as much as he was easy to desire. The company liked to try some “hate that you love them” concepts every now and then. They thought it was a complex character. A pain in the ass for a handler, that’s what it was. Sometimes the public saw their skills and were won over. Other times…

Well, tragic deaths were quite moving too.

Ruby, on the other hand, was a tried and true idea. Fiery, sexy redhead. Not much to do with that, but her genetics did the heavy lifting. Something for the basic teen boys.

“Right, right. Well, Maybe we can keep it. Ruby’s glamorous too”, said Mark.

“Nah. Won’t work. Three pilots, ain’t it? We need three keywords, short, punchy. And I don’t think we have a third ‘G’ word to throw in there. And Ruby has… no offense, but I wouldn’t call it glamour, exactly. I mean, not your fault, bud. But…”, trailed off Katrina.

“No offense taken. We aren’t shooting for high class with Ruby. What you see is what you get, pretty much. And she loves to let people see”, replied Mark.

“You sure got lucky with the whole heat gimmick, right? Himiko can show off and still come across as tough”

It took a moment for the handler to realize Katrina was talking to him. He poured himself another drink, and saw the other two handlers onscreen joining him in a toast across space.

“I guess”, mumbled the handler.

“You know, I don’t know what’s better: fucking the hot redhead everyone thinks is slutty, or being the only one that knows how freaky the rebel girl can get”, giggled Mark.

“Come on, man. That’s the kind of joke that gives handlers a bad rep”, said the handler.

Silence stretched, infinite, plastic.

“Don’t bullshit a bullshitter, man. You tapped that, and you know it”, retorted Mark.

“Say what you will about Adrian, but he makes up for his preening with some stamina”, said Katrina.

“Stop it. It’s not funny”, muttered the handler, shifting in his seat.

“We’re not being funny. This shit ain’t for broadcast, pal. Save the PC shit for official events. It’s just us shooting the shit, here”, said Katrina.

“Wait. You don’t really… you know…”

“Fuck my pilot? Eight days a week, cowboy. Jesus, are you bullshitting me right now? It’s like, the one benefit we have. Sure, it’s not on the fucking brochures, but come on! We have genetically enhanced clones that are programmed to obey and designed to be hot! You think the company doesn’t know what’s bound to happen? Nature’s gonna nature, I say. And it’s not like they’re… people-people, you know?” said the woman on the screen.

“They’re clones, sure, but… they’re still people”, said the handler.

“You mean to say you never thought about it?”, asked Mark.

“Think about it… I mean, I guess. Like… you can have fantasies about anyone, right? But fantasies are one thing and… doing shit is another”, said the handler.

Katrina laughed.

“So let me get this straight: you’re all alone in your compartment, jerkin’ it to a girl that’s right fucking there, next door over, and who would do whatever you told her to do if only you had the balls to command her? God, that’s pathetic. You have a feast in front of ya and keep eating those saltine crackers from ration packs, honey. Okay, real talk: are you gay, or ace, or…”

“No. Bi, actually”, said the handler in anger. “Doesn’t mean it isn’t wrong to…”

“See, I think I get the issue. I’ve seen it a couple of times. Clones are not like you and me. Clones obey. And they don’t feel bad about it, because they can’t not obey, feel me? It’s just the way they’re made, you know? She wouldn’t feel violated or… I don’t know, used. Not in any degree above what happens whenever you send her on a mission. She’s designed for it. It’s all she knows and all she can know. And if we are being honest… let me ask you a question: are you scared for her when it looks like a mission is gonna go tits up? Are you anxious when you give her a combat plan and don’t know if it’s the best course of action?”, asked Mark.

“Of course”

“Me too. Every single time Ruby goes inside that mech I’m sweating bullets. I care about her. It’s my job to make her thrive, man. That’s what we do. You know who’s never scared going into combat? Ruby, or Adrian, or Himiko. Can you imagine that? Climbing into a big ass combat mech and not being terrified? But they’re not like us, and you know what? I kinda envy them. They are at peace. They have their missions, and the complete, unshakable focus to do their best every time. Combat, a photoshoot, an ad… same to them. Just missions. They don’t have to make choices, or suffer the pangs of uncertainty. There’s something beautiful there. A purity. They are what they are, do what they’re assigned to do, and those two things are the same thing. They have clarity of purpose. They’re not burped into existence like the rest of us. And when I tell Ruby to wrap her huge tits around my cock and get me off, it’s another mission to her. Nothing more, nothing else. You ask me, they’re the lucky ones. So, word of advice: care for your pilot. But don’t fall for her. ‘Cause you’d be falling for a shadow”. Said Mark between drinks.

The meeting went on. The handler didn’t really pay attention to whatever title they had decided to give their joint mission in the end. 

III

The mission had been a success. In the end the marketing people had decided to play up the “one guy, two girls” angle. Would love blossom on the battlefield? The people saw Ruby saving Adrian from a cowardly sneak attack. The flirting had been heavy and constant. Of course, Ruby had made no such heroic save, but editing could perform miracles. 

The handler was glad Himiko hadn’t been picked to move the romance plot forward. Sure, affairs between pilots existed only for the cameras, in parades and interviews, but still. Himiko’s brand wasn’t appropriate for such things. But if he was being honest, it wasn’t the sanctity of the image that bothered him. He had been with Himiko from the beginning. He had designed her brand, advised on her fighting style, added flair and soul to the character. Himiko belonged to the company, sure, but in a creative way, Himiko was his. The strong girl in the posters and vids, the firebrand adored by millions… he had created that, as much as the geeks at the genetic farms. Perhaps even more.

The handler couldn’t say when he had gotten out of bed and walked out of his room. He found himself in the hallway, steps away from the pilot’s compartment. She -it- would be there. His creation. His product. Hours of work, gallons of sweat and tears and anxiety and effort put into her… into making her a phenomenon, beloved by millions. And what did he get? He was anonymous. He was a shadow- worse, a shadow of a shadow, unrecognized, unrewarded.  

The door slid shut and Himiko went instantly to her feet. Pilots were light sleepers by design, always ready. They slept in the nude, so they could get into their outfits instantly. Shame was not something they felt, less of all in front of their handlers.

“Do we have a mission?”, she asked.

The handler paused, entranced by the soft curves of her pilot. It didn't matter how much he saw of her, it always made an impact somewhere primal, deep inside his soul. No, not her. The product, he reminded himself. The word escaped his lips before he could stop it.

“Kneel”

There was a moment there, barely longer than a lightning strike. Himiko’s eyes flashed with confusion, a hint of outrage, and then set on complete, focused determination as she went down on her knees. She looked up at the handler, ready to obey. The handler felt almost drunk, giddy. So many men and women looked up to this girl, adored her, saw her as a role model and object of desire… and now she looked up at him. It was intoxicating.

“Remove my underwear”

She did so with the efficiency of a close quarters combat expert. He barely had to shift to let her cast the fabric aside. One part of him couldn’t believe it was this easy, even as inside him a quieter, stifled side of himself screamed. It was too late to go back.

“Suck my cock”

What followed was akin to vertigo, beyond anything he had ever felt before. He couldn’t stop himself from closing his eyes. The handler wasn’t a virgin, but he might as well have been. Himiko took to her mission with the zeal and determination of a true warrior, changing speeds, pressure, angle, using her tongue, her lips, her throat. The handler felt something in the base of his spine, an orgasm building from somewhere deeper than anything he had experienced in his life. Overcome by the maelstrom of sensation, he had for a moment forgotten what was happening, sent hurling away from reality by the pilot’s skills. His eyes snapped open.

He saw Himiko. Strong, fierce Himiko. Her expression was one he had seen a thousand times in the cockpit, the focus of an operator in that special zone where only the mission existed, where only her objective mattered. He saw a programmed response, and a reminder of what she really was. Of what he was doing.

“Stop”, he muttered. She instantly did. He caught his breath.

“Could you… could you pretend to enjoy it? Like… like you… want me?” God, he felt pathetic. The feeling, however, lasted only a second. Himiko smiled, a smile no one had ever seen before, a smile that didn’t fit any poster or propaganda piece. It was mischievous, flirty, like they were accomplices in a secret, loving affair. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t real. She made it feel real to him.

She made him feel special.

Suddenly there was a sense of fun, of warmth to her actions. She moaned and purred with every lick, teasing him, smiling and biting her lips, making him feel as if for that moment his pleasure was her pleasure, that he was all that existed, that his cock was the most beautiful, most entrancing thing in the universe. His moans mixed with hers as she worshiped him with her mouth, her hands, her breasts. It was sex and devotion, fun and partnership, lust and love. It was too easy to believe it all, too perfect to resist. The handler wanted the moment to last, forever if at all possible. When he told Himiko to get on the bed, she leaped in joy and looked at him as she stretched on the mattress, eyes full of anticipation, a teasing challenge to her lover. 

He dove into her arms. He kissed her stomach, her perfect thighs, her neck. He wanted her, wanted to devour her, to be with her and for her to be his, totally and completely. He wanted them to belong to each other, to seal a partnership that had, in his mind, been growing for years. Her shallow breathing, her whimpers and soft moans begged him to do it, to take what was rightfully his. His hand softly caressed the inside of her thigh, barely touching it, moving upwards slowly, savoring every second. When he felt the wetness between her legs, he couldn’t help but wonder if that too was a conditioned response. He pushed the thought aside and let himself drown in her lips.

She was tight, and he managed to stop himself, teasing her clit. He didn’t want to hurt her. It occurred to him that Himiko was, in fact, a virgin. He would be careful. He would be gentle. He would take it slow. 

But she was a warrior on a mission. 

“Do it”, she said, panting. “Take me. Fuck me. Use me! I’ve seen you looking at me… my ass, my tits, my face… they’re all yours. Yours. Stop being a pussy and fucking ram that big cock inside me! I want it… I want you to treat me like your whore, your toy, whatever the fuck you want… just give me that cock! Please!”

The handler didn’t know if Himiko had been studying him, gathering information for precisely such an event, but it didn’t really matter. She knew exactly what to say, exactly how to say it, with a mixture of begging and demanding, commanding and submissive at the same time. She knew what to say to blow away any lingering hesitation, to obliterate any morality that might be holding him back. He entered her with fury, with anger, with lust, with the strength of years of repressed emotions and confused feelings behind him. Her legs surrounded him, brought him closer as she came with a melody of moans and tiny screams. Her nails dig into his back. The pain was the one thing that kept him from cumming. Had that been luck or a calculated move on her part?

With all her martial skill, she reversed positions and got on top. 

“My turn”, she smiled.

He had fantasized about this moment for years. Himiko showed him just how limited his imagination was. She was mercurial, flowing from one position to another, from one attitude to another. She was whimpering and fighting against her own pleasure one moment, pinning him down and riding him with a wicked smile the next; she feigned innocence on second and then delivered babbling, perverted barrages of dirty talk without missing a beat. She made the bed feel like a playground where everything went, everything was allowed. She made him feel safe. Wanted. 

Eventually, exhaustion got the better of him. Unlike Himiko, he was a simple handler, not a trained fighter. He fell asleep in her arms, postponing the inevitable reckoning with what he had done for a handful of peaceful, perfect hours.

IV

The handler called in every favor he had. Burned a few bridges, too. It was necessary, he told himself. It was for Himiko, he told himself. It was the right thing to do, he told himself. Anything to make the voice inside his head shut up for a few seconds. 

As a handler he had access to general genetic records: after all, he needed to know what his pilot was capable of, what enhancements had been made to her. There were other bits of information, however, that only the people at the genetic farms had and guarded jealously. But after a solid two weeks of begging, threatening and cajoling, he had managed to get a copy of what he needed, an answer to the question that had been tormenting him- and now he lingered, too scared to open the files. 

Himiko was a clone. But somewhere out there there was an original. Or maybe there had been one, long ago. Whoever Himiko was made from was probably an old woman living in secluded luxury. That was the standard deal: a comfortable life of complete anonymity for the donors. They were usually athletes, sometimes models or soldiers, sometimes people with very specific characteristics that might appeal in a pilot, given a few adjustments. The handler didn’t know what would be worse: to find out the original was out in the world, or to find out Himiko’s genes had been taken from an old blueprint and the original had passed away. He just knew he needed to know, because Himiko deserved to know. Not that the pilot had asked, of course. But he needed to… do something for her. Yes, do something big for Himiko. That would make the voice shut the hell up.

He opened the files and started reading, a terrible dread growing in his chest.

Sample obtained through Rebirth Protocol.

It was there in black and white: a rumor discarded by almost everyone, embraced only by the most fringe of lunatics. And it was real. The Rebirth Protocol. Forced acquisition of samples from captured rebels before their executions.

Himiko’s original had never lived a life of peace and comfort. She had been a rebel. A fighter, like her clone. One battling the company at every turn, transformed into an obedient asset in an act of perverted, vengeful poetry. And he had been complicit. He had made Himiko one of the most recognizable faces of the company, a key pillar in its efforts in the battlefield and in the war on the minds of the people.    

The handler threw up. He copied the files to his personal device, shaking. He could feel his determination wavering. No. He had to show her, and he had to show her immediately.

Himiko smiled as he entered. The handler felt terrible for issuing that particular order. Knowing what he knew, the smile felt like a dagger. 

“Himiko, look at this”, he said, pulling up the files on the screen. It was all there. Himiko’s original name. Pictures taken during captivity. Video of her flying a rebel mech. He looked at the pilot. Something was stirring inside her, he knew it.

“She looks like me”, muttered Himiko.

“She is you. In a manner of speaking. But… you were…”

“I was a rebel. I… Permission to speak freely?”

“Granted! Fucking granted!”

“I feel… something. Anger… no, not anger. It’s more… righteous. A fire. We… I… refused. Refused to be under the boot of the company… we… there was more to life. More to being a person than just working and consuming and… Why? Why do I remember these things?”

“I’m not sure. If you were a rebel pilot, it’s possible they copied not just your DNA but some of your neural pathway patterns, to transfer combat experience into… your new self. Maybe she… you, the real you… is still in there somewhere. Kei. Your name was Kei”

Himiko was crying without moving a muscle. Tears rolled down her perfect face.

“Kei…” she muttered.

“You are Kei”

“I am…”

An eternal pause.

“I am Himiko, pilot for the company”, came the emotionless response.

“No! You don’t have to be! You were a proud fighter and can be that again! We can… we can leave. We can escape, together. Disappear. Go to some forgotten corner of the galaxy, and…”

“Pilots are not allowed to travel without company authorization”

The handler stormed out of the room.

Sleepless nights on unauthorized communication channels, places where the company couldn’t snoop. Editors uploaded outtakes of pilots messing up, or candid footage of pilots in showers and locker rooms. Handlers shared the… art they had compelled their pilots to make, a notion he would have refused to believe not long before. Gene freaks debated new techniques, mulled over the possibilities of more extreme genetic modification. And the handler read it all, looking for the answer to a singular question: was there a way to break the conditioning?

He wasn’t the first handler to wonder that, he discovered. A few before him had been shouted down, accused of being potential rebels. Some had gotten tidbits of information, ways in which perhaps, in theory, the compulsions could be lessened, if not erased entirely.

He tried them all. Flashing lights. Shock diet. Memory regression. Hypnosis. More and more Himiko was becoming like her other self, like Kei. And yet, after every attempt, he issued a single command.

“Slap yourself”

She did so. Every single time.

“I’m sorry”, she said.

He was on his knees, his head on her lap, sobbing. It was pointless. The company had her, and by having her, they had him. There would be no escaping, no happy ending in their own secluded corner of the world. Only dreaming.

Maybe dreaming wasn’t so bad. One could get lost in a beautiful dream. Perhaps even forget it was a dream, every now and then. That was the best they could hope for: to steal small moments of counterfeit happiness from a world too miserly, too cruel to allow the real thing to thrive. Didn’t Himiko deserve those moments, that respite? Didn’t he deserve them too?

Defeated, he rose to his feet. The handler looked at the pilot’s sad eyes.

“Himiko… love me”, he commanded. 

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