Zero

[bleedingedgehunter]

Life check!

I owe anyone or anyone feeling froggy and want to start something?

[bleedingedgehunter]

Oh hey the blog turned 5 a little bit ago holy shit

[bleedingedgehunter]

gotta remember what the heck I was dooooing

[bleedingedgehunter]

Come to think of it, when is the last time I blew up

[bleedingedgehunter]

gotta remember what the heck I was dooooing

[bleedingedgehunter]

is this blog still active?

Okay truth be told I hid myself to repa--i mean I got distracted. But I still live!

[bleedingedgehunter]

Related: Oh gosh I don't remember if I owe anyone over here D:

[bleedingedgehunter]

is this blog still active?

Okay truth be told I hid myself to repa--i mean I got distracted. But I still live!

[bleedingedgehunter]

daxwebster​:

bleedingedgehunter​:

Despite himself, Zero found himself drifting back a little to the happier memories at the recounting. He really hadn’t taken time off before finding he found something…. someone that made him want it.

He’d actually started to smile at the memories before the present reality snapped back to the front of his mind. It just made it hurt more. “It seemed like the only option at that point. We couldn’t go back.”

“You know, I almost get that? ‘We’ve already done this much, might as well go in the rest of the way, huh?’ What a horrid way to base decisions. But I guess it does make a certain amount ot sense. As quick to judge as everyone was I imagine if anyone had pulled their head out their arse to second guess it would have just gotten bit off for the hesitation.” Dax paused a moment, before looking directly at Zero, his face calm and innocent as he tried to dig deeper.

“But you eventually did stop. When was it? It wasn’t when you found out the truth. You’d known, or at the very least suspected, before that. You admitted it yourself. So at what point did you stop? Did the hunters stop? What finally pushed the needle far enough that we had any survivors left?”

It was not something he wanted to be reminded of. “It was after it the fighting in space was over. After Sigma was stopped and...the station exploded. On the way back we sent a report back letting Headquarters knew what had happened. And for a while I guess we...the Hunters as a whole I mean, just...stopped. Command had to take time to process it and decide on what to do. How to handle the new information, what reaction to have, I don’t remember the way they put it in the report.”

Zero grimaced. “While I think that the correct decision was made, I hate that there was a need for anyone to think about it. Hate that there was even a choice to make. It should have been easy. ‘Hey Sigma did it stop the fighting’ would have been quick enough. But the higherups didn’t want to move right away. I’m not actually sure what all they had to think about, but that whole flight back to Earth I couldn’t help but imagine the worst. I’m at least thankful that didn’t happen.”

[bleedingedgehunter]

“You know, with all the times people try to nose into my personal life and then get shocked when I have one I haven’t really worked out why they do it. I should try it on one of them sometime. Wingman or set someone up, see if being on the other end of that is really as interesting as they make it seem to be.”

[bleedingedgehunter]

Valentine’s research Project

“I’m pretty sure flowers work. But is it just roses? Or do other flowers make sense? Keep seeing flowers bundled up with each other with some variety, so what else would work?”

He decided to go to the archives and see if there was a good option for a flower choice. There couldn’t be that many kinds of flowers, could there?

---

Half an hour later, he was still looking, having realized just how dramatically he was wrong. But he did find something that stood out and felt right.

[bleedingedgehunter]

“Okay but how do you even work Valentine’s Day?”

--A reploid who tried to find a manual only to find out that it doesn’t exist.

[bleedingedgehunter]

“I’m not against people having a good time I just hope they have time to clear out before they need to be back on duty.”

[mmxstrangers]

[bleedingedgehunter]

((I’m not idle, I just hid myself to repair myself.

By which I mean I’ve gotten sucked into new content in FF14 and kinda didn’t do much BUT I”m still here and pokable))

[bleedingedgehunter]

daxwebster​:

As much momentum as he thought he had, Dax had to collect himself after that. He’d file away the small win to process later: Zero had just admitted that there had been Doubt. That was an important detail and something that he’d been wanting to know about. Part of what he had decided to dig for once the conversation had been forced open.

But the indignation needed to be handled first. “So you weren’t certain. And you still killed your way through our roster. I know more than most how tense relations between Repliforce and the Hunters were at the time, how much friction there was between our two groups. I knew that we still had some gaps to bridge. But I never would have thought it was bad enough to turn into a rout like that. And I certainly would not have expected you to be leading the pack in body count, of all of the Hunters. I had gotten the impression that you liked us.”

That wasn’t enough.

“Bloody Hell, you even killed Iris. And I know that went beyond just liking.”

The silence was only broken by a quiet metalic creak, as Zero’s hands tried to ball into fists despite resting on his legs. In the background of his mind there were a couple notes added to the Deferred Repairs list, but he was too angered to consciously notice the scrape on the armor or that one of his fingers had strained against itself so hard that there had been internal sparking.

“Shut up! You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

[daxwebster]

“I assure you I do. My mission was to facilitate and report on how well Repliforce and Maverick Hunter assets were cooperating. That was, in fact, my business. While I wasn’t going to go around talking about it to anyone, I bloody well knew about it. You were the most promising part of my reports most of the time, you know that? Even without directly interacting with you, you’d pop up, and be a shining example of what could probably be if the problems could get sorted. You worked well with us. Had established a good rapport and friendship with Colonel while still working with our Rank and File.”

He paused, letting out a brief sigh. “My hope was that by finding out a bit more about your connections I could figure out why you were making such promising strides while the friction between our organizations as a whole was still chafing.”

Dax went right back on the offensive, “So yeah. I listened to whoever would wag their chin and I hear yours talking about you taking time off, or being uncharacteristically happy, or not immediately jumping on extra duties, I look into it. Find that there’s a pattern with the times and the rosters. It was not hard math to add up  So ….what the absolute falterdan fuck happened?”

[bleedingedgehunter]

Despite himself, Zero found himself drifting back a little to the happier memories at the recounting. He really hadn’t taken time off before finding he found something.... someone that made him want it.

He’d actually started to smile at the memories before the present reality snapped back to the front of his mind. It just made it hurt more. “It seemed like the only option at that point. We couldn’t go back.”

[bleedingedgehunter]

((Sorry but I’ve temporarily suspended y’all’s existence rights because PATCH DAY NEW CONTENT AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA))

[bleedingedgehunter]

Iris gently takes Zero's hand, and gazes into his eyes sweetly.

Zero had been intently watching report summaries and it wasn't until he felt the touch that he'd noticed she'd come over. Before he knew what was happening the smile was already pushing past the focused expression he'd had before. "Oh. Hey. How've you been?"

[bleedingedgehunter]

((pssssssssst. I don’t know who all is even on this time of night but people should totally come into my inbox and distract me while I try to work on things))