Idea from @redladydeath's compound AU for RAM Proto Vox
Verse: Randomly Accessed memories
Content warnings: Physical abuse
Following people around had become a daily routine for Vox; if Alastor hadn't told him to sit still in a room, he'd follow someone around trying to entertain them and make people pleased with him.
Vox had discovered people felt more at ease with him around if he was entertaining. They seemed less tense, never happy or delighted. He wasn't sure why. Alastor himself was the only one who seemed somewhat mildly happy. Or Irritated.
He couldn't tell.
It also happened to be one of those days couldn't tell what Alastor was feeling; his face was unreadable, despite the smile plastered on it. As he followed the deer overlord around, he tried to keep up with his pace, growing silent as he kept glancing up at Alastor's face. Looking away when Alastor finally seemingly paid heed to his staring. The man's smile quirked up further, inquisitive.
"What's wrong, dear Zenith? Not feeling chatty?" The tone seemed more amused than concerned; he couldn't really tell. He smiled at Alastor and shook his head. Alastor looked away, using the end of his cane to redirect the smaller man in a different direction than they had been going. "I've been in a mood! Follow me." He nodded and let the taller man push him down the hall into a room. He didn't recognize this room. It was decently decorated and looked like it was for parties. Despite how nice it looked, a good number of items were covered in cloth. Alastor removed his cane from pressing into Vox's back and walked away from the man, turning and putting a finger up, telling him to wait.
After a moment of waiting, Alastor walked over to one of the larger covered items, removing the cloth, revealing what was underneath.
A piano.
The overlord pressed a key or two, seemingly pleased with how it sounded. He sat down and started to play something; it was catchy and surprisingly soothing. Vox found himself bobbing his head to the sound coming from Alastor's playing, his antenna bobbing gently as he watched Alastor. When the song ended, Alastor turned to him and patted the bench next to him.
"Come, Zenith, sit down." Vox nodded and scurried over, sat down next to the overlord's left side, and excitedly pressed a key. It was a charming sound. He must have been bouncing in his seat because Alastor pressed a delicate, clawed hand into his shoulder. "Sit still. Let's play something." Vox nodded enthusiastically, his antenna bobbing in equal excitement. He didn't see Alastor roll his eyes.
Red claws touched the keys and started playing something jaunty; it was upbeat and not too difficult to follow along. Vox waited a moment before joining in. He played at Alastor's pace, standing up to be able to keep a better pace with him. It didn't take long for him to take the lead in the melody. Excited, he kept glancing at Alastor with glee and hopeful approval. It wasn't long before he overtook duet, playing for both of them. He had stopped looking at Alastor, who was staring at him.
Deeply displeased.
He said something, but it was drowned out, sounding like background buzz to Vox. Alastor said something after a bit, more irritated, he had less of a time to react. His arm was grabbed, and he was jerked to the side, tumbling a bit as he lost his balance and fell back. Alastor's hold on his arm stops him from completely falling to the ground.
"When I said STOP, I mean STOP." Vox head Alastor, clearly this time. He nodded his head and tried to pull away from the overlord. Alastor didn't loosen his grip at all. "You need to learn how to listen better..." Sharp claws dug into the fabric of his sleeve and into the material of his arm. Alastor pulled him forward, ignoring his shaking and small pleas to be let go. "Shut up." He shut up.
Alastor's grip tightened around Vox's arm, and slight cracking noises could be heard as the other hand came up and touched his head gently.
"You do these small things that irritate me. I tried to alleviate your boredom, and you treat me like this? Something never changes, huh?" Vox couldn't respond. "You know I don't like it when you ignore me." Vox looked down and away from Alastor. "Don't be ashamed now, you had your chance." The overlord lifted Vox by the arm, the smaller man dangling above the seat floor, as Alastor studied him for a moment, thinking of how to discipline him. "Naughty children need to be punished." Without much thought, he dropped Vox onto the floor, standing up himself. "Stand up."
Vox stood up, his head hanging in shame... and possibly fear. He wasn't sure. He couldn't talk yet and couldn't muster an apology or let Alastor know he was sorry for his action.
Unfortunately, his thoughts were cut short. He was suddenly on the floor again, and pain was blossoming through his head and screen. His vision had gone out, and more pain came to his head. This time, he couldn't hear very well. He put his arms up, and something hit his arm, breaking it. He could hear Alastor faintly.
"Well need to replace that... Ah, you're crying, how cute." He felt another gentle hand on his head, "Look at how pitiful you are." His vision came back after a moment, looking around, there was glass on the floor and what looked like splinters. Likely from his head. "Let's go, I think you've learned your lesson. You can talk now." He plucked Vox off the ground as he stood up and set the short man on the ground. Alastor grabbed his cane and pressed it into his back. Vox didn't have anything to say right now other than nod his head with his head down, holding his broken arm. Grateful Alastor seemed to be in a better mood.
Not but a few tendays ago, the sky was alight with red, angry clouds, and fire coming down like rain. The roar of monstrosities borne of the peoples' despair still echoed in the back of his mind, in memory.
Even more so, the memory he couldn't shake, that still iced the very blood in his veins: of his daughter, barely five summers old, being chased by one of those damn things. While word had spread quickly of the Warrior of Light's success at the furthest reaches of literal creation, Ryce couldn't find it in himself to fully relax. Especially considering that the birth of their twins had come to pass hardly a day after miss Melody had prevented the literal end of the world.
He had to make a note to thank her, when he saw her again-
"Keep thinkin' any 'arder an' ye'll start steamin' from the head, babe."
He didn't even need to look right away to know who was approaching him - and already he could feel the tension ease away from his furrowed brows slightly. Ryce turned to the sound of heels clicking against the stone, and met the amused gaze of his wife.
It surprised him, to see her dressed up in her old adventuring gear (and gods she still looked fucking amazing in it). A rarer sight these days, what with their ever-growing family being their priority.
She waltzed up to him, that familiar sway in her hips that had drawn him in since day one, and her hand came up to rest on his lower back. Her eyes softened, as did her smile, as she tilted her head to look upward at him - safe, and unharmed from the chaos their lives had become.
"What's botherin' ya, Ryce..? Ye've been starin' out at th' horizon like it owes ye gil."
For a moment, he was silent. He couldn't deny that he was being hyper-vigilant, but nobody was blaming him. Many of the other guardsmen and women felt the same. Even his team at the Flames Barracks remained tense and ready in case anything else were to happen.
Ryce sighed, and turned his head to look out at the horizon once more - the sea of stars laid before them especially, now that he knew just how endless they were. He felt so small compared to all of it... Finally, he shifted to wrap an arm around Solana's shoulders, drawing her in close to his side.
"Ye shouldn't be movin' about so much yet, aye?"
She laughed, light and clear as a bell.
"I feel jus' fine. Th' kids are bein' watched an' the twins are in good hands." She reassured him, offering a teasing smack to his back. "...So what's really got ya worried, love?"
He hummed, more relaxed in knowing that their children were in good hands. Ryce moved forward a step or two, and sat down at the top of the steps that led up to The Sultana's Gate of Ul'dah. Solana wordlessly sat with him, watched him with a curious stare.
"Ye still tense from... everything?" She asked finally, and Ryce.. nodded, as she rubbed his back.
"Yeah. We came real close to everything just... goin' up in smoke. Hard not t' think about it all. Ask m'self what I could've done better. If I had been faster." He paused, frowning deeply under furrowed brows. "And.. we came so close t' losing Celeste... If I hadn't been there a moment sooner..."
Gently, she shushed him. "Ye made it in time, an' she's still with us, aye? Our brave girl..."
"Hmph. Too young t' be that brave..."
"She gets it from you."
Ryce couldn't help but laugh at that, and shook his head, amused. "And she gets th' recklessness from you."
She grinned up at him, and they shared another soft laugh, before Ryce leaned in to hold Solana close once more. He held her tightly, and leaned in close to bump his horn against hers in a gesture of affection. The chaos was over, he was certain - but he couldn't shake the feeling that the peace they had now was temporary.
This new dawn felt more like a calm before the storm to him, and he couldn't exactly pinpoint why...
The last day or so has been nothing but insufferable. Intense throbbing in the back of his skull. His eyes felt as if they were going to explode at any minute. How insufferable. No wonder goldbloods hated themselves; everything from top to bottom was unbearable. The skin, the mind, the eyes. It all sucked. He wasn't exactly sure how they dealt with it. Aside from negging each other in public and degrading others of the same color.
He started to understand why Mituna hated being touched; his shit must have sucked with how broken his mind had been after their session. He was lucky that Mituna was willing enough to help him. Even if he gave him what was their version of wriggler training wheels.
And the copper rod was helping, but only marginally. He turned it around in his hand for a minute before setting it down on the floor, staring at the inky darkness that illuminated his shared bedroom. Currently, only hosting him. Kurloz couldn't share a bed with him yet, not until he could calm down the psionics so that it didn't fry him while they slept. Or, in the very least, until he could stop hearing his thoughts when he tried to sleep. He had to get over it; it wasn't helping anyone, not even himself. All he could do was just bitch on his stupid blog and be miserable.
He just had to get over it and cope.
==> Cope.
It was rather rude of you to complain, bitch, and bemoan your situation. You had nothing special about you as a seadweller. Well... aside from the few physical mutations.
Otherwise, nothing special.
So how did you end up with the worst set of psionics and a fucked up mutation on top of that? You couldn't help but take what Data said personally. You liked Data a lot, and even if he was joking about killing you. You took it personally.
Maybe he was probably serious. He hates goldbloods so much. You hate yourself right now. You've always hated yourself, but right now, it was strong. Painfully so, you could feel it in your skin. It stung.
So.
Fucking.
Bad.
Which was fine. It was only for two weeks. You could do this; you've gone through worse. You can do this. You can. Nothing bothered you, you took the loss of your eye in stride, and you were hot while doing it.
You could do this.
You can do this.
You can...
Taste copper...
So much copper. You look down at your arm, and there is yellow blood everywhere. Oozing out of a bitemark.
You lick your lips. Gross. This was one way to deal with it. You stop yourself and lower your arm from your face. Your limbs unfurling from the position they found themself in. A disgusted sigh escaped your lips as you pressed a palm into one of your eyes. Turning your arm around as you stared at the bitemark. It wasn't bad. There was another on your hand. It wasn't bad either.
You pick up the copper rod again and squeeze it, yellow and blue electricity going through the rod. The blood on your hand fizzled from the energy coming out of it, the room smelling now of burnt blood and static. Lowering your hand to the electrical socket nearby, you press the rod to it and pass the electricity through. The lights in the room flicker for a moment before coming back on, the TV nearby thrumming back to life, noise filling the room again.
"Wow, this fucking sucks." Yeah, it did, and you were a pussy for not being able to deal with it.
send TRICKED for a scene from my muse's past in which they misled, tricked, or lied to someone
GLIMPSES OF THE PAST
//int. roses apartment #301 - day. november 2022
“Yeah, I know, I know,” Ash sunk into the couch at the Roses apartment, hand over half his face as the other held the phone up while his mother continued to nag before they ended their weekly face time calls. By now they all know the drill where she'd often ask him to pop by to say hi to the friends she knew - Ruth, Mal, Beau, Ria, always lastly ending up at the Roses for her to greet the siblings before they ended their calls.
He glanced over to Charlie chosen amongst her, Jeremiah and JP as if pleading her for help release him from the nagging reminders before thanksgiving. His mother was driving down this time for a week for Dawn to swing by without problems. Just that lovely time of the year again that he genuinely looked over to having family reunited again, but sometimes, his mom does go overboard with the celebrations, her and Charlie a pair in feeding into each other's enthusiasm. He was still trying to have a silent conversation with Charlie through their looks, half listening to his mother's questions, "yes." Not even sure what he said yes to until his attention was pulled back by a panic, "--yes, I'm.. seeing.. someone.." He didn't even comprehend the lie he just said that everyone in the room knew was a lie. He simply continued to placate her excitement and request to invite this "someone" for thanksgiving.
It was maybe another five more minutes before she said her final goodbyes to everyone and Ashton sighed, plopping his phone down on the couch he sat on. Grumbling over the brothers' amusement, "hey don't laugh." He was caught too off guard and by the time he realized it was too late the back track it right now without prolonging the call for twice the length. ..Whatever, he'll tell her the truth sooner or later, later being when she arrives next week. "I'll figure it out, and no, I'm not bringing a fake date," Ashton said pointedly towards Charlie, before her and JP took the opportunity to joke about him and Jeremiah again.
OOPS! ALL ANGST! PROMPTS
//I'm bad at sad so have happy.//
Two-Face had invited himself over to Jason's apartment and had been sitting quietly with the teenager, an unlit cigarette in his mouth as they both sat in somewhat comfortable silence on the apartment's balcony.
"I'm done with this place."
Two-Face looked up at the teen. The cigarette sticking up in his mouth as he raised his eyebrow. "Yeah?" His voice slightly hoarse, he cleared his throat and took a sip of the water he had with him. No beer, Jason was too young for him to drink around him. "Penny for your thoughts?" He held up his coin and flipped it watching Jason catch it and snort.
"...I think you know why." Jason was now fiddling with the coin in his hand looking at the scrapped side of it, not looking at Two-Face. He could feel Two-face's steady stare. Opting not to say anything else.
"Hm...I'm not good with words you know." He heard a snort from the teen. "You don't believe?" He got elbowed in his side lightly and he chuckled.
"Yeah, you're friends with me. That takes some good words and charisma." There was a brief smirk before it returned to a frown, deeper than before.
"I think that was less good words and charisma and seeing someone done wrong like I was." He cleared his throat again and drank more water before taking his lighter and lighting his cigarette. "Also you're the son of Bruce Wayne... There's some appeal." Jason said nothing. There was a lot left unsaid. He grunted as he felt the now warm coin press against the unscarred half of his face before taking it back. "Rude."
"Forget what I said." Jason sighed loudly and leaned back his eyes closed. Two-Face lifted a hand and stopped a moment before reaching over and pulling the teen into a lopsided and surprisingly not awkward hug. When not met with resistance, he patted his head and started ruffling it and got an annoyed grunt.
"You'd be missed. A lot." Jason ignored him. "You should bleach the rest of this side white."
"What? No, that's stupid." He elbowed Twoie in the side and moved away sitting back up.
"Sure, sure. I look good enough." He leaned back and closed his eyes. Jason glanced over at him and relaxed again and the silence returned.
[ i know you already added them AND i know NOTHING about them but. i wish to see snippets of either joyce or elizabeth from TTMC. gimme. ]
They're having coffee together. Rather, Joyce has a fancy, frothy coffee and Elizabeth has a strong, sweet cup of English breakfast tea. They don't have a murder to solve (though Elizabeth is working on it and is confident she'll have a cold case by the end of the day, which they'll have cracked by the end of the week), so they don't really have very much to talk about. That doesn't stop Joyce nattering away about anything and everything that comes into her head. Elizabeth listens, because that's what she does, and begins to suspect that Joyce feels as aimless as she does without a case.
"My Joanna was telling me about virtual reality when I spoke to her this morning," Joyce is saying. She has a little foamy milk moustache, but Elizabeth doesn't think it would be polite to mention it. "And I thought I'd mention it to you," Joyce carries on, "Because I thought it might be useful with our cases. Imagine if we could recreate the crime scene from the comfort of our armchairs!"
Elizabeth agrees that, yes, that would be very useful. However, at their age, it really benefits them to get out and about and talk to people. Keeps them sharp. She doesn't want to waste away in silence, hidden away from the rest of the world. No, she's not going to fade away into obscurity.
"I think," she says, after some consideration and a sip of tea. "Those headgear things are horrifically expensive." Then again, if anyone can convince the Cooper's Chase resident services to splash out, it's Joyce. No doubt they'll have four by the end of the month. She imagines Ron and Ibrahim's delight; they'll be able to play a round of golf without leaving the rec room, rain or shine. They could build the house that she and Stephen lived in when they first married; she's heard it's good for people with dementia to have a connection to their past.
"But you're right, they could come in very handy." There, she knows that Joyce will hassle resident services until she gets what she wants, and who knows? Maybe they'll be able to use them for their next case.
Slaps the Zero PLA verse drabble onto the dash and phases out of existence. Spoilers ahead for, y’know, Legends Arceus.
((I’m sorry for tossing you into the middle of the Alabaster Icelands Zero but in all fairness you kind of deserved it))
No, no, no, NO! Panic and anger would wrack the scientist as he watched each system in the Mecha Giratina shut down, a blinking red light warning of system failures. It was over. His plan had failed, he had failed and now? He was going to die. He was going to die here in this fucking flower field of all places in an ironic twist of fate. Small pink flowers and grasses would take over the wreckage of his mistakes, create homes for wild Pokemon, and–
And then suddenly there was no field. It wasn’t even daylight anymore, and somehow a layer of frost had begun forming on the windows of the ship. Shouldn’t he have hit the ground by now? Did Giratina do something? Did he cause something? There wasn’t any time left to wonder before the ship roughly made contact with the ground, crashing through the snow and eventually skidding to a stop against some large rocks.
Everything was spinning, he was certain he had whiplash, but he was alive. For now at least. With the power completely out, there was no way to activate the door, and the mechanism to manually open the door was busted. He could do nothing now except just lean back, and stare up at the frosted window. Well, he can’t say he'd be too angry about dying here. He’d miserably failed, and wasting another 6 years trying to rebuild it all… it just sounded hopeless. Not to mention, the police would just hunt him down and he had no one to go to for help either way. What did he have now, that everything was ruined and he’d just crashed in god knows where? Nothing, absolutely fucking nothing.
Zero couldn’t help but laugh, one hand moving to rest over his eyes. It was funny wasn’t it? He lost everything in some desperate gambit to get the approval of the two people who’d effectively ruined his entire childhood. He’d made the only person who ever showed him any kindness hate him, and yet? He still can’t possibly think of how he would have done things differently, and somehow that makes him all the more bitter.
A buzzing sound would break him out of his thoughts, his hand moving from his face. Was it a Pokemon? Or something else. Suddenly a surge of power would shoot through the ship, causing all of the lights to flicker for just a moment. There would be silence for a moment, before the sound of glass shattering overhead and wind would startle the scientist, causing him to quickly shield his head from the rain of glass shards.
Before Zero could say anything, a familiar shape would appear overhead and he’d feel the first shred of relief since this mess began. “Magnezone!” He would scramble to get up, pulling himself up out of the ruined ship. Zero would receive some happy buzzing from his Pokemon, but once he was out his attention was immediately grasped by the state of their surroundings. From the path his ship had taken on the way down, there was a strange bubble of energy that took up a significant area. He’d never seen anything like it before, and without thinking he was immediately making a beeline for it.
Unfortunately, before he’d even made it halfway there, the energy was gone in a flash, just like that. Zero stood there, completely stunned. Was that what brought him here? What even was it? And where exactly even was he? His gaze would shift to Magnezone, who seemed fairly unconcerned about the situation. “We can’t just… stay here, I’ll wind up freezing to death. There has to be a town or something near by.” Zero would mumble, an uncharacteristic unease to his voice as he turned to head back down towards the ship, his partner Pokemon right at his side.
