❧ кєяσ . . .

Feeling Watched

Snake chuckled again, pressing his buster further against Toad’s chin. Upon hearing his threat, Snake looked at him with amusement, clearly not phased by what he said.

“I don’t think you have the gall to call him. Besides…I’m not finished with you yet. I wonder how much damage would be done if I shot you from this angle. Do you want to find out?”

Toad swallowed hard. This wasn't fair, this was not fair, this was utterly unfair! Toad wasn't even in an adult body- he was physically twelve, even if he somehow got Snake in civvie mode and fought him that way Snake would have an advantage just by virtue of looking his age! (And to think: Toad was technically older in terms of AI age than Snake was...)

"Y-you wouldn't wanna get rid of your favourite plaything, would you?" Toad asked. "Because I'm 99% sure that would kill me... and that would just be no fun for you, r-right-?"

As scared as he was, he hated Snake. Maybe he really should drop his morals and call Skull...

Feeling Watched

He laughed, tightening his grip on Toad’s arm even as he struggled and deactivated his armor. “Oh? Are you actually going to try to fend me off this time?” He chuckled.

Lifting Toad up to eye level, Snake grinned, showing his fangs. “Are you saying that you want to fight me?” He asked. As he spoke, he changed his free hand into a buster, raising it to meet the underside of Toad’s chin. “I’d be more than happy to engage you in combat.”

Snake knew that the likelihood of Toad fighting him was practically nonexistent, but he liked to taunt him about it anyway.

Toad froze when the business end of the buster reached that close to him. He swallowed hard, the only movement being his shivering out of fear. Stupid Snake Man...! This was disgusting!

“D-don’t kid yourself,” he said. “I-I’m scared, not suicidal. B-but... I assure you, I can think of o-one of my siblings- an encounter with whom you would never survive--!”

Feeling Watched

The DWN snickered as Toad flinched away. He watched him with amusement, keeping his hand still as he listened to what Toad had to say.

“Oh, it doesn’t matter if the feeling isn’t mutual.” He replied, grabbing Toad by the arm as he leaned in.

“It only matters that I’m enjoying myself.” With that he stood up, easily lifting Toad off of the ground. It was all for the purpose of frightening him further, and Snake was going to enjoy every minute of it.

“L-let me go!” Toad demanded, immediately starting to squirm and kick as he was lifted off the ground. “Right now! Or you won’t be enjoying this for much longer-!”

That was an empty threat and he knew it. Again- there wasn’t really any exit out of this (and the one that there was would end in Snake’s death). Still, he kept squirming; and in his panic managed to deactivate his armour as if it would help him wriggle his way out of Snake’s grasp somehow. (Spoilers: it wouldn’t.)

Feeling Watched

“Good, good.” Snake replied, feigning interest in how Toadman was doing. “I’ve been doing fine myself.” Not really– after what had happened between him and Magnet, Snake still felt guilty over the whole thing.

Not that he’d say anything about it to the DCN. No, he wouldn’t focus on that, not at the moment.

He moved closer to Toad, stooping down to his level as he placed his hands on his knees rather than behind his back. “It’s been some time since I’ve interacted with you.” He said, reaching out for Toad, if only to startle him. “I’d say it’s time we changed that, wouldn’t you say? I’d love to spend more time with you.”

He flinched away from Snake’s hand, heavily tempted to try and kick the DWN in the face- but knowing that that was a terrible idea. Sure, Snake might lose a fang, but Toad would end up losing a leg. Or... maybe he’d be lucky and Snake would be too startled to do anything? Hnn.

Really, there was any number of violent solutions, but Toad was too chicken to try any of them. “Honestly, I think it’s a shame- we really should’ve waited longer to interact again,” he said. “It’s nice to know you appreciate my company, Snake, but the feeling’s not mutual!”

Feeling Watched

Not that he’d say anything about it to the DCN. No, he wouldn’t focus on that, not at the moment.

Toad flinched away from the hand; “S-stay away! Don’t touch me!” he said, hiding behind his work bag. He was fairly tempted to try calling one of his brothers- except the only one available today was Skull Man, and... as much as Snake terrified him, he knew if he called Vladmir, the DWN wouldn’t make it out alive.

“C-can’t say I really wanna spend any more time having you scare me out of my wits!” He thought of trying to smack Snake with his work bag- it was probably heavy enough to at least startle the DWN so he could try and bolt. “Is there really no one else you’d rather bug? Not even one of your own brothers or- or something?!”

Feeling Watched

Snake let out a quiet snicker at Toad’s reaction to him. He placed his hands behind his back, leaning forward in order to get closer to Toad, taking a few steps closer to him.

“Because it’s funny.” Snakeman replied simply, his grin not letting up. “To answer your question, yes, it is. Your reactions make it even better.” Hence why Snake tended to go after Toad more often than others.

“How have you been?” He asked mockingly, the tail on his helmet beginning to sway back and forth slightly.

It was times like these Toad lamented the fact that his weapon was a freaking rain dance. If it had been at least like, a missile or something that created rain clouds, then he could still defend himself- but no, no, let’s give him a design that is legitimately impossible to weaponize!

...Okay, to be fair, he couldn’t blame Dr. Cossack for that. Considering he already had Horus’ flame shooter, he didn’t want to risk giving any more potential material to conquer the world with. Granted, that didn’t work, but it would’ve been nice to be able to defend themselves...

“F-fine,” he answered, realizing how futile it was to crawl away and simply pressing himself back against the dirt. “Sh-should I assume the same on your end? (You crazy friggin’ sadist...)”

Feeling Watched

Snakeman was no stranger to intimidating others, even if it wasn’t required– and Toad was one of his favorites to torment. There was a certain charm to it, something about the DCN that drew Snake to him.

He guessed that it could be their animal-like themes, but…That wasn’t entirely it.

Oh, well. Why dwell on the details?

The DWN had stuck to the shadows, using his programmed and learned knowledge to stay out of sight and be as silent as possible. He was in his armor, if only to boost the intimidating factor he had. Snake was up on a platform, looking down at Toad with a grin spreading across his features.

When he was called out, he held in a chuckle, lightly jumping down and landing directly behind the other Robot Master. “You’re getting better at detecting when I’m around.”

The DCN shuddered hearing his voice; and when he turned around to see the DWN right in his face, he squeaked in surprise and fell onto his butt. Well, good. Not like this could end badly given Snake’s motives and capabilities.

“Wh-why do you always do that??” he stammered, trying to scrape up some semblance of bravery (which he did not have). “Is tormenting some helpless little industry robot just that much fun??”

Toad’s reactions didn’t exactly permit the opposite response. Still, Toad made an attempt to crawl backwards to put some distance between the two of them. Maybe he should invest in at least having a pitchfork of his own not only for when he went down to the farms to do the hard yard work that was very easy for him, but to at least be able to fend off Snake whenever he showed up.

... Not that Snake ever seemed to actually attack him.

Feeling Watched

It was something Toad had felt a lot while dealing with the DWNs back in the day. Well- more specifically, a particular DWN whose theme happened to be the predator animal to the animal Toad was themed after.

And even after the incident where Kalinka had been held hostage, he’d seen Snake Man often enough that Toad knew to see it coming. ...Kind of. Much like expecting a jumpscare in a horror movie, even if he braced himself, it still caught him off-guard when Snake did appear to intimidate him. Still, even if he looked like a child, Toad certainly was not one.

“I-I know you’re there,” he called out, holding on tightly to his work bag. He liked walking around before heading home, since there was a lot one didn’t get to see by just teleporting, but that came with the unfortunate disadvantage that he could be caught by Snake at any time. “Why- why don’t you just come out already?”

take-a-bite-make-a-mark-blog

The DWN wasn’t entirely sure how to go about apologizing— and he wasn’t confident that Toad would accept the apology, but he had to do it anyway. Hopefully it’d mean something.

Taking in a synthetic breath, the sight of Toad switching into his armor put Snake more on edge than he already was, although he couldn’t blame Toad for being cautious.

"…Icameheretoapologize." He said quickly, looking off to the side.

#takeabitemakeamark #ask game

The DCN blinked. After a moment, he registered what was said- and in another moment, went from slightly scared and wary to confused and mildly concerned.

Snake- apologizing? It- it sounded great to him, but things couldn't be that simple- could they? For heaven's sake, Toad might've looked like a child but he didn't have the mind of one! Taking an uncertain step forward to better scan Snake Man, he stopped at the maximum distance he could do so at.

"...Are you okay?" he asked.

#takeabitemakeamark

Awkward and uncomfortable fidgeting. "T-Toadman?"

… Why was Snake just coming right out into the open instead of sneaking up behind him?

That alone said something was very off with the DWN, and the awkwardness just strengthened that suspicion. Toad had been in civilian mode and switched into his armour just in case- it wouldn’t help him much if at all, but still.

"…Um- yes, Snake Man?" he replied, his voice cautious. What was going on here?

#takeabitemakeamark

★

LOUD SHRIEKING ENSUES.

This was about what he expected, honestly, having come back into contact with Snake again. That didn’t exactly make this welcome by any means- especially since Toad, even at his most paranoid and diligent, could never seem to catch Snake before getting caught himself. Okay, fine, Toad Man was a freaking irrigation and farming robot, not a spy ‘bot- but still…

He flailed, squirming as best he could in Snake’s grasp. Even when he had been weaponized he had been utterly helpless to stop Snake from doing anything to him, and by the time the plan had been set into motion he’d been kidnapped enough times that he just stopped trying to fight it altogether, but now that it had been a long while Toad was back to trying to get out.

"L-let me go!" stammered the DCN. "What do you even want with me?!" …Kind of a stupid question- Toad knew that Snake liked to scare him already, but regardless. He wasn’t exactly in the best position to think at the moment, carried over Snake’s shoulder.

queenofspies-archived

SEND ME A ★ FOR MY MUSE'S REACTION TO YOURS PICKING THEM UP AND THROWING THEM OVER THEIR SHOULDER

bonus points for the reason

#ask game

kibbybots

Kalinka looked up at hearing an unfamiliar voice talk to her in Russian. That was a very uncommon thing for her now a days as she and her family were staying in the US. However, who she saw was not what she was expecting. Although unlike with Skull Man she did sort of recognize who this robot must be, but still he wasn’t even a blueprint in her world yet, just an idea that her dad was thinking on after finishing Drill Man.

"Um… Toad Man?" That was what her dad was planning to call him right? Now how to explain what he was asking. "Я не думаю, что я твой Kalinka. (I don’t think I’m your Kalinka).” Ok probably not the best way to explain it but it was all she could think of.

She sounded very uncertain when saying his name, as if she didn't recognize it. That confused him and worried him greatly- though, that was already accomplished by her being way younger than she should've been. His Kalinka was already in her late teens! This Kalinka... seemed about the age that the incident happened at, almost...

...Not his Kalinka?

"Huh? What do you mean by that?" he asked. "I mean, you do seem much younger than you should, but I don't understand how that is." ...Kalinka was going to have a lot of explaining to do. Thank heavens he wasn't as young mentally as his physical age suggested, or this might have been even more of a headache!

#futurerussianprincess

toserveanewmaster

"My apologies, I was testing something, and I’m afraid I ended up a little… lost," the Wilybot said, and moved to back away. "I’ll get out of your way, now."