The nameless puppet put all his strength together, one last time. His weapon raised, his body moving towards and striking down. Geppetto tried to jump between his 'son' and 'creation', but he wasn't quickly enough. But someone else was. The sound of metal hitting flesh and blood echoed through the room. A cough shortly followed.
Between the Nameless Puppet and the puppet man was [Name], impaled by it's scissors shaped blade. "I... Know you didn't want to kill him... You just wanted... It to stop... But not like this Car-..." They dropped to their knees, quickly caught by P. Geppetto could only stare as the Nameless Puppet dropped to the ground while P held his injured lover. The man wanted to yell, to finish it himself, but what happened before his face stopped him.
"I am sorry... I... I was so scared. I had to do it", [Name] whispered while the blood filled their lungs. They could feel their lovers hand cupping their cheek, so gentle and warm. Has he always been like this? "Please... Be careful. Don't... Let anyone decide what you should do... With your life", tears started to drop down their cheeks. "Please. Just life my love... And you...", they pulled all their strength together to turn their head around, "Do the right thing... Don't mess up again... For Carlo... For him... Don't let new chance be a waste. Be a good father for him".
As they turned their head around, the felt another wetness on their face, but it was not from their tears. They looked at the puppetman's face to meet with tears filled eyes. He cried. He cried for the first time and it was for them.
With one last smile and the gentle touch of their hands they pulled him down for a kiss and spoke: "I... Wish... Your first cry would have been out of happiness and joy. I am... Sorry... That it came like this... Please don't cry anymore... Please... Forgive me... Have... A good life... I love... You"
muahahauahaha sgrb OC angst fanfic to warm up my typing skills
was gonna post this on ao3 but decided to post it here
Let’s be honest, Shiny was a Shipper of X and Thunder ever since he came back to earth, upon waking up in the e.d.f and seeing them standing side by side, he had immediately assumed they were partners- which seemed to stagger, insult the two and confuse them greatly when he brought it up and was surprised they weren't, and as he watched the two fight side by side and how accustomed they had grown to each other, his theory only grew, He’d made bets with coworkers of the e.d.f countless times, heck! Even Alex for that matter and once even creed, betting with the nonexistent money of his that one of them would eventually confess.
But, the months dragged on as neither of them confessed or looked like they ever planned on confessing, Shiny had known that X had arrived 4 years after he and vanished which would be around the time Thunder was built so they had known each other longer than Thunder and Shiny had known each other, one of them was going to admit their robot feelings…right?
Shiny, being his child self, grew even more impatient when even after the o.r.t had shut and reopened a couple of months later, X, who they had all thought was dead from a brutal fight with an opposing mech, was alive and repaired, heck even her voice box was fixed! Now she could finally voice her feelings correctly, maybe that was all she had been waiting for! And Thunder was bound to at least hug her, and congratulate her on being back and alive right?!
Every. Singal. Time. Shiny was proven wrong, Whenever quite an aggressive kaiju fight had happened in which one of the two almost died, Thunder and X’s gaze would linger for a couple of seconds longer than usual at each other before one of them would break the gaze and return to normal, or they would stand a bit closer than usual, neither of them would speak of it.
Then finally, Shiny had enough.
Another one of these scenarios had played out, and as all four mechs walked back to base, Shiny, Thunder, Ranger X, and Light (The recent addition to the team since a couple of months ago)
As they walked, they all exchanged small talk, talking about how the kaiju had been larger than normal and so on, and of course, Thunder and X walked next to each other, only centimeters away from each other.
As they neared the e.d.f, Shiny side glanced at Light who walked near, the two smirked and nodded,
Suddenly, Light threw her arms up and hollered, catching both the attention of Thunder and Ranger X who stopped a conversation and looked over confused.
“X! I JUST REMEMBERED SOMETHING!” Light blurted, suddenly rushing over to her at lightning speed and grabbing her arm, As X seemed startled.
“FOLLOW! IFORGOTSOMETHINGFOLLOWFOLLOWITSREALLYIMPORTANT!-” She rambled on, pulling on X’s arm and dragging her by the arm, creating an obvious trail as she dragged X away whose feet were firmly planted in the ground, extremely confused, and tried to manage a question before Light yanked her away.
The two brothers watched confused as the two female mechs got further and further away, X glancing back every once in a while, a brief word of “help” flashing onto her screen, before long they were far enough they were just colored dots.
“What's that about?” Shiny fake asked, trying to act oblivious, setting his hands on his sides and tilting his head.
When he looked at Thunder, He was already staring at him, that “I'm so done with you” look on his face.
“No doubt you had something to do with that.”
“What??? Noooo!!!” Shiny tried to object, but Thunder only folded his arms.
“What is it Shiny.”
Shiny sighed, thinking of where to start. “You and X,” He started, crossing his arms. “What's with that?” He cocked his head.
“What are you affirming too?” Thunder narrowed his digital dot eyes.
“What I mean is- you two have been friends for over seven years! When are you gonna confess?!” He blurted.
Thunder froze, his eyes widened and he grew dead silent. He just stared at Shiny for a solid minute, before Shiny could ask him if was alright or experiencing an error, Thunder quickly turned away.
“If you mean by confessing as in confessing ‘romantic feelings,’, that will never happen because we are robots, and robots do not experience love, shiny. Me and X are only companions, nothing more.” He quickly answered, looking as if he was about to leave.
“Wait!” Shiny quickly grabbed his shoulder, which made Thunder stop.
“Are you sure about that? No ‘companions’ look at each other like you guys do, nor do they confess their feelings for the other when they high-”
“WE DO NOT SPEAK OF THAT.”
Thunder's voice came abruptly and Shiny nearly jumped, he let go of Thunder and had to stifle a laugh.
“Hey- just saying!”
“My AI was simply being influenced by the spores, manipulated, I did not mean anything I said that day-”
He tried to explain, But Shiny continued.
“Didn't you tell me shortly after X ‘died’ that you had regretted not telling her some stuff?” Shiny smirked, but Thunders's solemn expression remained, he simply averted his gaze.
"I was mourning. Now that X is confirmed not dead, I..." He stopped before speaking again. "Robots do not experience love," he said, returning to the first statement.
"You love me, don't you? I mean I'm your brother!!" Shiny slowly asked. Thunder thought for a moment and was slow to answer, finding he had been proven wrong.
"That is family love. I love you as I love Alex. But loving anyone is a great enough threat as it is, that's why Alex got kidnapped all those months back."
Shiny thought back on the memory and how devasted and aggressive the two had gotten upon learning of this.
Thunder began again "If I am to love someone romantically, our enemies would discover it one way or another and will use that against us and use it to hurt more people."
“So…you do love her!” A grin crept onto Shiny’s face, but Thunder seemed unfazed, and maybe a bit irritated,
“Yes, But Ranger X and I are Companions, nothing more, and it never will be anything more.” He turned to leave, but as he did, his eyes flicked sideways for a moment and his facial expression softened for a split second, but he simply turned away and left Shiny in silence, pondering his answers. As he made his way back to the e.d.f.
Shiny stayed silent for a minute before letting out a heavy sigh and turned in the direction of where X and LIght were supposed to be in the distance, to signal them back over but froze upon facing the direction.
X and Light were already there, only a couple of feet away, Light’s pupils were shrunk and eyes were wide, she locked eyes with Shiny and slowly shrunk into her shoulders, knowing she had failed her job while X stood next to her, standing motionless and tall, the same blank look on her face, and deadly silent.
“X!” Shiny found himself blurting and nervously laughing. “How- eugh…um…” He cleared his nonexistent throat. “How much of that did you hear…?”
X didn't even turn to fully face him, her head was locked pointing straight forward, where Thunder had gone.
“Enough.”
She walked past Shiny, not looking at him or Light, making her way back to the base and saying no more.
Shiny watched the two go, X, was a good distance behind Thunder, keeping a steady pace to not catch up to him, and walked with power in her step like she usually did.
Shiny grabbed the sides of his head and groaned before muffling his face in his hands.
“That's bound to make the next couple of days awkward,” Light hissed as she approached her brother.
The two stood in silence for a minute, before Light sighed.
Some background is needed on Lepcis and Pompeii. They’re both equanthera. If you’re interested in what that means, I’ll try to explain - so here we go!
Bear in mind that this isn’t really biologically feasible - they were reimagined a few years ago for a speculative cryptozoology art show I did, and I haven’t revised many things since.
Equanthera were originally created by some scientists in a lab to be candidates for xenotransplantation donors (putting animal organs/parts in humans). Mixing different animals together and adding in human DNA allowed the recipient’s body to better accept the new part. Being surrounded by human DNA, the organ will take the shape of the human organ and stay that way until pulled out of the body.
But some equanthera escaped, as things often do. Over the years, the equanthera evolved into something much larger and more aggressive. They were found and shot on sight by anyone adventurous enough to hunt one down. Those that weren’t shot were captured and sold as pets (often juveniles) on the black market, and were bred until the fancy equanthera came about (a much smaller version with more fluff.)
Equanthera quickly found that if they ate human flesh, they could take on a more human form. The human DNA merged with the already present human DNA in their bodies, and allowed them to physically change their bodies (note: there is a transfer of mass that doesn’t make sense…) They could take on the human’s form and blend in. Especially useful when hunters were around. The form would only last a few days to a week, depending on how much they consumed. They would often stash the body and eat it as needed. When the body decomposed too much, the equanthera would go in search of another human.
Living in this style, equanthera tend to be nomads. Moving from one place to another, they often stick with one mate/companion their entire life.
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That’s about all I remember for now - I have a few notes buried somewhere about more of their behavior.
-
So with that in mind, I feel like mixing things up by just dropping Peii and Lepcis onto Alternia for a bit. They would adapt and continue to blend in as much as they could. Changing their names to Lepcis Magnae and Pompay Ignius would be one of the first things they would do once they learned more about troll culture. And for the sake of simplicity, let’s say troll DNA is similar enough to human that they could still take on their forms as well.
Winter of the Harmony Shoal Chapter 3: time to regroup
That evening, Osgood was attempting to make herself something new but such plans quickly fled as the ingredients amassed into some subversive force. Defeated, though not altogether too much annoyed, she resorted to preparing something simpler instead. She was in her apartment, a small, messy thing cramped intimately with decoration and a good distance from the Thames. It was a comfortable, if shabby, affair furnished lavishly, dimly lit, almost alive.
Once she had eaten, this wonderfully pleasant, unplanned meal she glanced toward her phone, noticing a new message; this took her by surprise, a relatively misanthropic wont having afforded an affable seclusion. Briefly, her attention diverted itself to a ramshackle stacking of books that she stared blankly at for a few minutes as her mind panicked slightly.
She theorised liberally about all manner of esoterica from work, especially the recent Harmony Shoal stuff. A flurry of speculation discarded ideas with as little reluctance as it took them up; facts were blatantly connected but reason unapparent. Truant truth was needed to explain those very strangest of circumstances that could steal away a brain leaving behind only a translucent trail, that had gripped Kate so.
On reading the text a flash flood of panic susbsumed her with worry for her friend, releasing her after its course. While Kate was struggling presently, she realised, the severity of danger would be rather heightened inspiring her own concerned desire for action. The sparse body spoke of urgency but this left her little to act on. Therefore, she could do little but linger sleepless and dispirited. Soon reaching the uneasy compromise of slumber that hardened her resolve to be of use the next day.
She woke early in an effort to be of use. Speculating the cause of this led her to make copies of most potentially useful UNIT files. She had to see Kate but the agreed time was hours yet. What could she have found? How was she? The text had been sent only shortly after they'd run into eachother so the Harmony Shoal case was a likely cause but it was best not to be too certain of any unproven hypothesis. She packed for the journey, ensuring to bring her laptop, a spare inhaler, anything even possibly useful- a first aid kit, some eccelctic paper documents, an old unused pocket diary, anything. She sat still for the eternity of a split second. Despite the early hour, she left in agaitation and grabbed a book to read in wait.
Unusually, Kate had been late if only by a few minutes or so. They sat adjacent on a plank of damp oak supported by dark legs of wrought iron. The smell of petrichor faintly coated all.
'Every night and every morn some to misery are born,' Kate stated.
'Every morn and every night some are born to sweet delight, every morn and every night some are born to sweet delight, every morn and every night some are born to endless night,' came the reply.
'Sorry about that, had to be sure it was you. The shibboleth is from a poem, you know, Blake but I know it from Agatha Christie. It's her favourite of hers.'
'You're trying to distract me or maybe even yourself from whatever you found. It's one of my favourites too.'
'Of hers or in general?'
'Both'
'I had to check because Harmony Shoal seem able to infitrate by replacing people, unnoticed. Remember that scar tissue you noticed,' she admitted.
'That's quite a lot. You're sure?'
'Absolutely. In fact, based on the fluid you found, I think it might be a biological mechanism.'
'Have you got everything you need from The Towe? We'll need some other location to return to after this.'
'You're right, sorry: I haven't been thinking straight. Someone trying to follow me here was a concern.'
Unhesitatingly, Osgood queried 'Have you got anything you need from home? It's probably best not to go back.'
'Some people were there last night so I haven't but there's nothing much important.'
'Do you have enough pills?' she quickly asked.
'I'll manage.'
Uncontented, Osgood looked through her bag to produce a packet and thrust it toward her. 'I've got some, you gave me them. If you haven't had any this morning, I have some water and biscuits so you can now.' She recieved them after a look shaded by worry.
'Thank you,' she responded to this gesture of care. 'I tried to get anything useful onto a USB stick but there wasn't enough time.'
'I've already got whatever I could find. We should go now; got anywhere in mind.'
'It's not great but there's a place near the docks. We can go more and share more information later,' she decided readily.
In a clearing of thick, unpruned trees, Kate informed her, 'Not far now. I should tell you, the enterance is a bit complicated. There was a proper way in but that was filled in decades ago. ' They approached a non-descript statue that glared with hard ivory eyes. Kate held a steady, secure gait as they walked past, while her companion looked about, curious as a herpetologist. It was not exactly the image of London. An increasingly convuluted path was enshrined by corridors of layered vegetation. Kate completed a series of motions before finally putting aside a large, rock-like door. It was still well over a few meters away but the drowning tension seemed to have fallen seveal orders. A new, ambivalent silence accompanied them down corridor after corridor until they arrived in an underwhelmingly unkempt room.
Invasive weeds tore up the acutely moulded paneling, exposing a firm, stony foundation. They viciously clawed their way up the lowest inches of the slightly irregular walls. I reeked of confined age, equally visible by the paint-stripped walls. A single remote corner was furnished, lonely as a sole mourner. Wherever they were was fortified against sound, dampening the outside world and insulated from the deepest of winter.
'It's not exactly an oasis,' Kate acknowledged, 'but it should be safe. There's no information about this emergency location in the UNIT database. As far as anyone knows, this whole place was filled in years ago.'
'It is quite dishevelled, although a somehat appealing abandonment,' she observed.
'I'm going to find out who was surrounding my house last night to get some estimate of their influence. See if you can find anything new based on what we know now.' Each adorned the room with their efforts, leaving belongings strung messily about the place.
Abruptly, Kate pronounced discovery that, 'From what I've found, it sounds like it was the Volunteer Fire Department. The organisation seems at odds with itself so infiltrating them is no great indication of power. Found anything interesting?'
Merilly they exchanged notes, ideas, thoughts freed from the danger if only by beckoning it closer, while Osgood glanced over her commonplace book. She realised over a few scrupulous reviews of the latest few pages, 'There slogan is Here to Open Your Minds.' After a brief, bleak laugh she continued, 'A bit on the nose. Though from their actions I'd say they're quite good at knowing how much to reveal. It seems anything remotely useful was removed from the file.'
'I suppose we know where not to look. Lucky then,' she smiled with a discreet pride, 'I still have access to most UNIT.' She motioned Osgood to an arrangement of numbers and letters, nearly without refrain, that formed logs. 'We should be able to look for anomalies, any changes. I'm going over everything since when the offices were shut down.
'In the meantime, we ought to look back over what we've done. See if we've missed anything.'
Osgood countered that, 'It's already getting late: just getting here took a while and we've been here ages. We should rest for now.'
Kate posited, 'It's fine. You can go to sleep and I'll just keep on for now.' Noting Osgood appealing expression she reassured, 'I'll be fine.'
'You need sleep too,' she replied with an articulation of care that Kate momentarily found as ineffable as the inevitable.
'Okay,' she conceded.
'Good night, have a good sleep,' wished both, each mutually assuring the other they would survive this. Thhe air was thick, its water content having gone minutely rancid over years of near disuse that made sleep an effort.
Another boring day waiting the almost empty tables of the WildKat. Nothing ever happens here. If it weren't for the income and free coffee, I wouldn't work here. Oh, and getting to see Kat's work first hand. That helps.
Neku's thoughts were interrupted by two young boys bursting through the door, almost taking it off the hinges. They stood doubled over, ragged breathing and all. They pointed to the pancakes sitting behind the counter.
"Sir, we need two of those, to go right now!"
"What's the rush boss?"
The other boy chimed in, before the first had a chance to speak.
"We are, uh on a mission, and we need those before the time runs out!"
Players? Wait, what kind of mission involves pancakes! Joshua sure does know how to hire freaks.....
Neku grabbed a To-Go bag and a napkin, placing the hot pancakes in the bag and handing it over.
"That would be 1060 yen."
One boy fumbled through his pockets, shakily placing 2000 yen on the counter.
"No time for change pops, gotta go!"
The other boy swiped the bag from Neku's hand and followed his partner out the door. Neku called out to them,
"Trust your partner."
For a moment, those boys swore the man knew. But they were dead and he was living, so how? They shook the thought and preceded with their mission.
