#harunarei

[retrofightingrobot]

Status Quo: fanfic by @harunarei fanart

[feralkwe]

Driveby cursed prompt™: everything is the same, except Elidibus is 40% more lucid and Lahabrea plays matchmaker with him and Kit right around Totorak. You're welcome. ;D

This is SO fucking WEIRD. I was absolutely 9000% alone in Gridania by that dumb church of the Twelve last night thinking about THIS VERY CONCEPT.

See? ALONE.

Anyway, I try to keep prompt fills to about 500 words and this is a wee bit longer than that, so:

Everything which happened to Kit these days was weird. She had not expected life outside of Golmore to be anything she was used to—that had been much of the point of leaving—but she had not expected it to pitch her into one bizarre and inexplicable situation after another. She'd craved to see the world, to put her axe to use for those who might need it, and carve out who she wanted to be free from the confines of expectations place upon her by others. Now she stood in a room made of spun webs dripping with slime, her axe in hand, a power she did not understand often incapacitating her, and a mysterious man in black robes who knew more about it than she did introducing himself. Many things about her seemed to surprise him as much as he puzzled her. That she understood his words, that she had withstood the touch of Ifrit enough that she had felled him, and an odd amount about for whom she now worked. On top of that, in the space between smug words and cryptic tauntings he tilted his head. Not being able to see his eyes made it difficult to tell what look he turned upon her, but she had the distinct feeling she was being studied. "A purple-haired Viera." Lahabrea of the Ascians sighed, the sound falling somewhere between weary and amused. "Well, Bringer of Light," he said, "there may be a role for you yet." She tightened her choke up the haft of her weapon. "It might be putting an axe through you if you do not start answering questions." "You could try, but I promise you the result would be a disappointment." The eerie glow of the chamber where they stood cast harsh highlights against the reliefs of his mask, giving the effect that he was sneering. "If it is answers you seek, allow me first to pose this: while the Scions have you running from battle to battle have you thought to ask yourself to what end?" "To stop the primal threat." He did not need to know she had many questions to which she was promised answers and had yet to receive any. "To find a way to save the tempered." He puffed a breath through his concealed nose. "Indeed?" A low chuckle slightly shook his shoulders, the spiked pauldrons catching the sickening green light. "So focused you are on the sylphs, on Gridania. Have you thought to wonder what we Ascians might be doing elsewhere?" She frowned, her stance tensing. "No." So far she had managed to keep her focus trained before her, on the next immediate step to helping the next person. Those she could save when she had been helpless save so many others so far. "I thought not." He considered her, seeming to decide something. "Three days hence at dusk come to the Bramble Patch. Alone." She was young, not stupid. "That sounds like a trap." "Yes. I imagine it does to one such as you." His mouth drew in a smirk. "But a curiosity such as yours will only be sated by seeing for yourself." He lifted a hand, a swirl of deep purple magic casting the chamber into darkness as a portal opened behind him. "Or do not. Keep your mistrust a close companion and accept what you have been told. The choice is yours." He waved a hand above them into the webbing which criss-crossed the chamber ceiling, knocking loose one of the giant cave mites, kicking and squealing as it transformed into a massive, many-eyed creature. "Take your time deciding." Then he was gone.

You can read the rest on AO3. You menace.

[laryna6]

harunarei replied to your post: Now that I’m trying to work on showing emotion,...

Mm…I’d say eye contact is less a respect thing and more a social dominance thing. It’s not disrespectful to maintain eye contact insomuch as it’s a dominance move. A kid doing that to an adult could be construed as disrespect, since it’s breaking a social convention in dominance.

And yet adults will go ‘look at me when I’m talking to you’ to kids who are being scolded/yelled at and looking away to show they’re taking it seriously and trying to be good and obedient. 

So they have the choice between doing something that seems disrespectful and likely to piss their parent off even more, or being accused of disrespect and again, pissing their parent off even more.

Yeah. Screw eye contact. The advice of ‘force yourself to make eye contact’ did not work - it just makes you intensely uncomfortable, which people pick up on and is off-putting to them. While if you just learn how to fake eye contact instead, then you’re not being creeped out by making eye contact and can act calm and natural and people go ‘see you’re making eye contact like a normal person, see how much happier you are talking to people now that you’re doing that?’

Yes, much happier once I stopped listening to the canned ‘just be normal’ advice.

[laryna6]

harunarei replied to your post: The doggies. Ebony (the six-year-old girl) is...

It might take a few days for the dogs to settle in and take interest in the toys. Our fosters usually take 2-6 days to settle.

That’s good to know! I really hope they can at least be taught to play with toys. I’d like to provide some enrichment for them, but my friends’ puggle doesn’t seem to grasp the concept of a toy.

[shreedle]

Rock having a moment of childlike play in the midst of one of the wars. Bittersweet is better than sad, right? :P

This is the same verse as my Quint blog. Rock units are silly little things, aren’t they?

Title: Xs and ZeroesVerse: MidgardCharacters: Rock, Quint

It was always the same for Rock.

Find the Robot Master. Plead with the Robot Master to stop. Fight the Robot Master. Destroy the Robot Master. Because of what they were, it at least meant that they weren’t permanently gone forever, as long as their processors were recovered, and most of the time, the damage that Rock did wasn’t enough to destroy the processors.

It appeared to be no different this time around.

He hadn’t forgotten who he was chasing after, but the trek was long, and he was exhausted – not physically, an E-Tank could take care of that – but emotionally. He was tired of having to fight, of having to destroy others.

The path that he had been taking was thankfully clear of any mechaniloids at the moment, and he dropped down against a building, deciding to take a breather as he gazed out across the land. He physically had the stamina to continue, but it would do him no good if he was so disheartened by what he was doing that he ended up getting himself hurt or killed.

The road that he was sitting on was dirt, and there was a metal stick nearby, and Rock found himself doodling little images in the dirt as time went on. It was nothing amazing or inspirational; just silly images of dogs, cats, even a child’s family portrait of himself, Roll, Blues, and Dr. Light.

He idly wondered where Blues had run off to.

Rock debated scratching his pictures out and moving on when he heard a voice call out to him.

“Hey, Rock.”

He leapt up, Buster at the ready, only to put it away when he saw the familiar green  armor in front of him. “Quint? I almost shot you!”

His future self gave a sheepish smile. “…I should’ve expected that, so that’s my fault for sneaking up on you.” He paused for a moment, taking his helmet off and sitting down on the ground.

Rock noted, again, that other than his eyes being green, Quint looked identical to him. It was no surprise, he knew that his eyes changed colors whenever his armor did, but it looked like it was stuck on Quint’s as default.

“You up for a game, by the way?”

“…A game?” Rock stared at Quint, a little confused.

“Yeah! Something that we can do here. Tic-Tac-Toe, I Spy, Charades… I mean, you looked a little down,” Quint told him.

“…I don’t have time to play right now,” Rock said quietly.

“Yeah you do.”

Rock made a face. “Quint, come on. I’m trying to hunt down a Robot Master.”

“I know,” Quint said, trying not to smile. “And you have time to play something. Pick a game.”

“Um… Tic-Tac-Toe.” Rock eyed his future self for a moment. It was unlikely that Quint was making him drop his guard so that he got hurt, and if the other was so insistent on it, it was probably for the best that he just listen. Quint was not, in any shape or form, a masochist.

As far as he knew, at least. He took a deep breath, tried to relax, and smiled at the other Robot Master. “Did you wanna be Xs or Os?”

Quint looked at him, a little surprised but clearly pleased, and smiled back. “Xs~. Always Xs.” There was a glint in his eyes that suggested that he knew something that Rock didn’t.

Always Xs? Whatever. “Okay, I’ll be Os, then!”

“Zeroes.”

Rock blinked up at Quint. “Huh?”

“Not Os, but Zeroes,” the older Robot Master said cheerfully as he started drawing the Tic-Tac-Toe grid. “Xs and Zeroes go great together, I can guarantee that. I’ll go first.”

Xs and Zeroes going great together? That sounded weird, but maybe he had gotten a little eccentric in his old age; Blues was old, and Blues was weird, too. …Oh Light, was his future one where he turned into Blues?

Rock took a good look at Quint as the other pondered where to make a move and finally drew an X in the center square. Quint had the visor already and could be annoyingly cryptic sometimes. Maybe he should get his older self a scarf–

Wait.

Was that a yellow bandanna around his counterpart’s neck!? Oh Light! He really did turn into Blues in the future!

Rock started snickering, nearly falling over in laughter, and Quint just stared at his younger self, smiled, and shook his head.

“What’s so funny?” Quint asked, though it sounded as if he already knew.

“Nothing!” Rock giggled as he drew a zero in the middle-bottom corner.

The two of them played five quick rounds. Frustratingly enough, all but one of their games ended in a draw; Quint knew him far too well to know what he would pick and would often counter with an X right where he was praying that Quint wouldn’t put one.

He would have said it was almost like playing with Blues, but he wasn’t sure if Blues had ever played Tic-Tac-Toe.

The first game, Quint had victoriously trapped him by putting an X in the center and then in the two corners while Rock had gone for the sides. The blue Robot Master had felt completely foolish for doing that, but he had learned from his mistakes; he might not have been able to beat Quint in their next four games, but Quint hadn’t been able to beat him either.

Once the fifth game ended, Quint dropped the stick that he had been drawing with and stood up. “Feeling any better?”

Rock stood up as well, a little surprised – he was feeling better; a little lighter, he’d daresay. “Yeah… thanks.”

“Just doing what I have to,” Quint said with a wink, grabbing his helmet and putting it back on. “By the way, right now, you’ll find your goal this way: cross the lake, turn left about 59 degrees at the funky white and black-striped stones, and keep going for about five minutes. I delayed you just enough.”

At that, Rock blinked. “…You distracted me on purpose? To make this easier for me?”

Quint shrugged helplessly. “I don’t exactly know where he was before. And you had fun, right?”

Tic-Tac-Toe was fun enough. “Yeah.”

“Well, take care, Rock. I’ve got to go back before Kopin sets something on fire.”

Rock wondered for a moment exactly who Kopin was as Quint gave him a wave and turned around to leave. “Okay… bye.”

But he felt better; he could continue; and if Quint was right, then he could get this over with quicker and not have to fret about it so much.

Thank goodness.

[shreedle]

HARUNAREI SAID: NOT ENOUGH SLEEP AND/OR HIGH STRESS CAN MAKE FORGETFULNESS WORSE. CHECK YOUR PRESCRIPTIONS, TOO. ANYTHING THAT AIDS SLEEP CAN IMPACT SHORT-TERM MEMORY.

I’m not on any medications, and try to get at least 7 hours per night... though continuous sleep doesn’t happen because for some reason, almost every night without fail, I end up waking up at around 4-5 AM and I’m getting real sick of it. My body clock just doesn’t like my work hours, I’m guessing. I’m a lot more awake and less forgetful on weekends when I get the chance to sleep until at least 10 AM, no matter when I go to bed the night before.

In either case, I’ve always been super anxious about being put on the spot and presenting, and when that happens, I tend to forget more. Sometimes my mom will ask me to do something when I go upstairs, and I agree... only to completely forget about it when I go upstairs. And I’ve literally gone downstairs to get a glass of water, noticed the AC was running and decided to turn it off, and go back upstairs... and have completely forgotten I went to get water in the first place..