Deleted scene from Work's In Progress under the cut.
Commentary:
This scene's been bugging me the more I think about it. Narratively, it implies an eventual conclusion, and in terms of characterization it is screwy. Ren, for instance, would absolutely jump upright the moment they realize the person speaking to them isn’t hallucinatory regardless of how exhausted they are; and Doc's focus would he less on finding a sleeping person in a weird place (people sleep, it is a thing which happens) and more on the fact that it looks like this spontaneously present person looks esanguinated. However you spell that word (it's late and I do not care right now).
The original version of this scene, seen below, is also a lot more tender than the fic in a manner doesn’t make much sense— the only person Ren is comfortable enough to let carry them is Danny. If injured or in case of emergency, they're less strict on it, but that isn’t the case here.
Note: Ren isn’t conscious but is aware during this scene, sleep disorders are weird like that sometimes.
Bonus note: I need to practice writing the Saturdays, I'm having trouble hearing their voices as I do their dialogue.
Doc hadn’t been sure for the first half minute what to make of it. There had been no silent siren, no triggered alarm indicating a breach; had he not been looking for [gf], he wouldn’t have happened on this at all.
Lying curled on the ground, surrounded by miscellaneous stacks of misplaced literature, was a human young adult. At least, he thought it was human. They gave no indication of consciousness on his approach, slow breaths drawing in and out without ever disturbing the three slits stretched across the exposed side of their neck. A non-prehensile tail, marked with four red stripes and matching the sandy brown of their hair, was tightly clasped around as much of their bent limbs as its short length could manage. Other than that, the only abnormalities seemed to be aesthetic markings and resulting smudges on their skin.
Doc did recognize this person after a minute, they were an almost sickly pale now compared to the light olive, and the adorned clothes were less cohesive in their style, but the mechanism cuffed around the left wrist was unmistakable for the green ‘X’ of the Omnitrix.
Had Zak let him in? This was the person his son had been tasked with tailing- metaphorically speaking– but that was all in Bellwood, and no one had mentioned a house guest.
Unsure but unwilling to stand idle, Doc tread carefully closer. “Hello? Are you alright?” Explanations could come later. He knelt down an arm’s length away. It didn’t look like the visitor was injured in any way, and the assortment of half organized paraphernalia circling Ren implied a lack of suddenness to his position.
“I’m going to reach out to check your vitals.” Doc informed, pausing in hopes of a response. He didn’t receive one until contacting the soft skin behind the jaw’s crook, Ren making some hushed mutterance or moan, trying to shift away from Doc to return to sleep. And it was sleep, or at least had the appearance of it.
“If you’d like to rest,” Doc tried, consciously ignoring the question of why here, “I would much rather you do so on something softer than our metal flooring.”
Pause.
Doc pressed his lips into a thin line, brow creasing. “I think I’ll carry you. Tell me otherwise if you would rather stay here or walk yourself.”
Nothing.
Shuffling the slight distance, Doc slipped a hand under Ren’s neck and knees, wary of the different physiology. He didn’t know what the now fluttering, gill-like lines were, nor if they were real and not some trick on his eyes, but they seemed like something not to be touched. Without having access to their comprehension, this was a matter best left safe than sorry.
Doc maneuvered Ren upwards, drawing them to his chest so as to not offset his balance as he stood. The tail dangled and he wondered if he should lift it with the legs. However, strangely, the bulbous end quickly clasped to the youth’s thigh seemingly on instinct.
He was torn between bringing the nearly unresponsive human straight to the ship’s infirmary or to one of the much closer spare bedrooms. It would be easier to watch over the unconscious other without the obscuring walls, but as he cradled the far smaller person, he couldn’t help but notice the bruising shadows beneath Ren’s eyes and found the decision made.
What’s the lie your character says the most often?
“This is normal” or “I can handle this.”
How loosely or strictly do they use the word “Friend”?
Ren is actually incredibly seclusive with this word, as with “love”. They can and will lie about it if pressed, such as if someone asks if Rook or Kevin is their friend, but in truth Ren views them as associates or colleagues more than anything else; relationships of convenience or obligation. Ren feels attachments very intensely and has long given up framing things as personal or intimate (“friend” is intimate to them) unless they have consciously decided it would last.
How often do they show their genuine emotions to others versus just the audience knowing?
It’s almost exclusively for the audience. Ren has spent nearly the entirety of their life playing roles rather than acting as the individual. Their sincere, unfettered self is inappropriate and borderline socially incompatible. As a child, they were an overly sensitive and ‘wrongly’ aligned defective human (read: ableism); as a teen and young adult, they are a genetically edited demihuman whose neurology and physiology are drastically different from anyone around them, and the know better than to act without filter.
The only people who see Ren’s mostly genuine self are the few very close people they consider their cell (Vulp version of family), and they only ever see them as entirely themself when not fully conscious (like when half asleep) or in moments of intense passion (general overexcitement).
What’s a Hobby They Used to Have That They Miss
Ren used to enjoy video games, card collecting, skateboarding, and soccer. To explain one, these days they are too physically uncomfortable sitting still for long enough to play a game for longer than an hour (it’s understimulating and the stillness makes them restless or triggers their fatigue).
Can they cry in command? If so, what do they think about to make it happen?
They can barely cry when they actually need to, but are fairly good at forcing it to stop on command or talking wholly normally while doing it. So long as you don’t see their face and they get a moment to collect themself, you wouldn’t know anything was wrong at all.
What’s their favourite [insert anything] that they’ve never recommended to anyone before?
Ren quite likes horror movies, particularly psychological ones! They don’t recommend them to others because (1) aliens don’t understand human media; (2) humans try and nitpick Ren all the time; and (3) while Ren just skips past or ignores the sex scenes, they aren’t comfortable recommending these movies to anyone else because the idea makes them squeamish.
What would someone yell in the middle of a crowd to find them?
Danny would flare an ectoblast in his hand because he knows Ren can smell active ecto and it always gets their attention; Zak would yell Ren’s standard nicknames (“Ren”), Rook might say Ren’s nickname as well but in a much quieter volume, Danni flares some ecto then signs Ren’s name, Leo (ROTTMNT) would call for the formal version of Ren’s work title (“Mizz Ten”), Raven (TT) would probably flare some of her magic, and Robin would call Ren’s work title (“Tenspeed”).
How loose is their phrase “I love you”?
If the subject is another person, the usage is very tight. See also question #2.
Do they give tough love or gentle love most often? Which do they prefer to receive?
Ren uses tough love all the way. If they’re comfortable with you enough to ask you to use their intimate nickname (Vulps are weird) (“Aria”) then they will also be blunt as a pillow with you. Ren has been taught a philosophy of “If someone stops trying with you, then they see you as a lost cause”. Because of this, Ren functionally demands the people in their life to be explicit and communicative with their failings (and also a bit because they have trouble licking up on the subtle things sometimes, meaning it has to be explicit when there is criticism or else they assume there is always criticism going unsaid).
Ren simultaneously is in a work environment where everyone treats them as a moronic buffoon out to cause trouble and has to constantly prove that they are even potentially knowledgeable, which means they don’t really take people’s criticism seriously.. The systemised shotgun approach to feedback has shot their ability to listen to people unless they’ve proved themselves to be good sources of commentary.
Bit of a loose-loose, honestly.
What fact do they excitedly teel people about at every opportunity?
Ren is an infodumper. They also have a hundred and one NDAs and social awareness enough to keep them from talking about most of the things in their life they’re relatively sure the other person will be okay with hearing what they have to say. But when they can talk about it, they love blabbing about the L.E. practices (umbrella term for “magic”) and the sources of their warped physiology (they can talk for hours about chupacabras and how Vulps differ from Vulpimancers).
If someone was impersonating them, what would friends / family ask or do to tell the difference?
Whose definition of family/friends are we using here?
Rook would ask a question he doesn’t think Ren should know the answer to (probably about mechanics or rocket science); Max would ask something about vague responsibility; Gwen would ask something about Julie or Kai (because the show made her basically just a romance character and I funnel that into her using romance as her crutch in a hectic life just as Ren uses workaholism); Argit would ask about one of Ren’s alien forms; and Zak would also ask something about Ren’s alien forms, likely to ask them to transform.
Danny would ask something seemingly innocuous, such as to drink from a cup (Ren is very specific with what kinds of cups they drink from, what beverages they consume, how, etcetera— they would probably make a face if Danny asked them to drink out of a Mystery Cup, holding it with as little skin contact as possible). (Yes, Ren has ADHD and ASD, moving on!)
Danni would probably just flare ecto without telling Ren first because Ren reacts like a cat seeing a bird to it half the time.
Robin would ask Ren to count to five on their fingers (Ren counts via knuckles rather than the whole finger).
Leo would ask Ren to explain their pronouns because Vulp-ens have a convoluted system about it (they default to “they” or “he” when in public, but that’s the easy version. It’s based off of degree of emotional intimacy to professionalism and plurality versus the individual).
Mikey would ask Ren to “Do the fang thing”, because Ren has retractable hypodermic incisors above the human set. (Ren would absolutely refuse because, Mikey is unaware of this, but it is considered highly offensive to ‘flash fangs’ at someone.
What’s something that makes them laugh every single time?
Rook likes trying to do English word play, but never learned the language instead speaks his native tongue while using a universal translator. Their two languages don’t mix well, leading to some odd mistranslations or overly literal expressions. There are a few bits of word play Rook has learned, however unsuccessfully, which the punster Ren can’t help but squawk at. Rook tries to memorize the ones that work.
Danny likes sending memes to Ren, as they are a mostly long-distance friendship, and has found a few that make Ren squeal (one particular baby animal gif) or cackle (probably a non-sequitur about textiles or somethin’).
When do they fake a smile?
Better question: when don’t they?
How do they put out a candle?
Via the lid, so as to not have to deal woth the smoke.
What’s the most obvious difference between their behavior at home, at work, at school, with friends, and when they’re alone?
Oh boy.
When alone, Ren is never without headphones and paces near constantly— unless they’re pacing out, because chronic fatigue does that when your not constantly fighting it.
When at their dayjob with the Plumbers, they are all bravado and charm, the most Human to have ever Humaned Humanly. Heroic and boastful. (Mostly sits still when with others, begins fiddling with things in their hands when they forget themself. Has a lost of subtle stims like tensing their abdominal muscles or digging their nails into their palm).
When doing their part time job for the System (interdimensional thing), Ren code switches into full Vulp-en mode, using more <Borrowed Pulse Sign> than spoken word and taking on the mannerisms and gestures more in line with a shapeshifter among shapeshifters. (Wings are very meaningful here and an inherent flex, for instance. Forming feathers on exposed skin is a milder comment.)
With friends, to say Ren is clingy is to say that water is a dense gas. Board? Hug the human. Need to recharge the social battery? Squeeze the friend. Just needy? Burrow yourself into their very soul. Also, some sporadic pacing. Also, might fall asleep if not moving around.
What kinds of people do they have arguments with in their head?
Mostly Max, Azmuth, their parents, Gwen, and Rook, for catharsis. There are a lot of things Ren has to play along with in order to keep their life civil, but they still need a pressure valve.
What do they notice first in the mirror versus what other people notice about them?
If actively looking, Ren immediately checks to see how appropriate their form is; how human. If it’s a passive glance, Ren admires their own beauty, as they find themselves positively stunning (Ren loves themself quite a fair bit).
Other people normally notice how normal and humany Ren is, how tiny and weak-looking. Ren wears a hologram which makes them look healthy (they have chronic anemia and are always a bit sickly) and which removes any incongruities (such as the spines in their back or gills on their neck). It also makes them appear more masc in that it narrows their pelvis/hips and flattens their chest, which is a feature Ren opted in for because people (especially fellow humans) treat them differently as a girl/woman then a man. (They prefer how they actually look but don’t mind the different too much.)
Who do they love truly, 100% u conditionally?
Not their parents, cousins, or grandparents, I can say that off the bat. They feel abandoned by their cousins and used by their grandpa (Max), which is something that someone else first made them think as a way to isolate and more easily manipulate them (Eon stuff). The thing is.. it was a manipulation, but one with a fair bit of truth. Max does treat Ren more as a utility than as a person, and only a grandchild as far as his own authority goes (“respect your elders” and “don’t you want to help your family”, that sort of thing).
With Vlad, there was attachment and respect, the closest thing to ‘love’ Ren had at the time. In the present day, Ren genuinely loves Danni, Danny, Cujo, Fo’va (a Ben from a few decibels over who crashes at Ren’s apartment sometimes), and Crisp-Clover (the Ren-9 who’s taken this Ren on as a full time project because xe’s a medical professional for other Vulp-ens, and who also knew Rem beforehand— so it is a smidge conditional.
What would they do if stuck in a room with the person they’ve been avoiding?
They get along with the people who have actively tried to kill or mutilate them (in canon), so they’d be perfectly chummy during the interaction. They’d be either internally homicidal or depersonalizing the whole time, though.
I don’t understand the question.
What common etiquette do they disagree with? Do they still follow it?
Ren disagrees with most standard central U.S. etiquette and finds it performative, but complies with nearly all of it. They especially hate the social contract that says one ought to demonstrate their skills/abilities if asked, namely the “Can you transform for me” question. They find it rude, intrusive, and presumptuous— and it is why they think so poorly of Zak from the get go. (Zak would have accepted a “No” with little pushback, but Ren views that sort of resistance against allies as potentially dangerous, since they are, in canon, commonly punished for not being subservient.)
What simple activity that most people do / can do scares your character?
Sitting. Ren has undiagnosed and unmedicated idiopathic hypersomnia, and experiences sleep attacks that can be triggered by inactivity or comfort.
They are also wary of concerts due to their volume, traveling via vehicles as they prefer their own wings, and are repulsed by most foodstuffs people enjoy (particularly pickles and mustard).
What do they feel guilty about that the other person/people don’t remember?
During their first interaction, Ren tried to bite out Danny’s throat. Ren is functionally an exotic creature who was being accidentally starved and chronically malnourished with the only alleviation being an external moderation of the sensation of hunger (an enchantment that was given to them by Vlad), which promoted a pattern of very occasional crises. Ren needs to eat magic; Danny is a halfa. Danny is only alive because Anodites can consume via physical contact, meaning that physically hurting Danny was unnecessary. Ren pinned him and nearly depleted his ecto, and that was it.
Ren doesn’t remember it, for obvious reasons, but feels guilty in the present day. Danny doesn’t blame them (as Ren was very obviously in an altered state and acting in desperation).
Ren also feels a bit guilty about Rook bearing the brunt of their spite after being abandoned by Gwen, as Ren began to internally spiral which seemed externally as though they simply didn’t like Rook or thought he was beneath them. Rook did recognize that Ren was avoiding him and (canonically) asked if Ren was angry with him, but otherwise doesn’t remember this.
Did they take a cookie from the cookie jar? What kind of cookie was it?
Ren loves, loves, loves sneaking, and also free food. The kind of cookie doesn’t matter too much, so long as it doesn’t have recreational drugs in it. Ren sometimes orchestrates scenarios in which they can openly sneak, even if they already have permission to take that cookie. If they get caught, they burst into giggles or squeals. Ren can and will be incredibly dramatic about it, crouching to the ground and looking around corners (even though they can see through objects… it’s for the funsies).
What subject/topic do they know a lot about that’s completely useless to the main plot?
Textiles, herbal dyes, rock hardiness, crop rotation, and music theory. These are past hyperfixations.
How would they respond to be fired from a good boss?
N//A
What’s the worst gift they ever received and how did they respond?
Their parents kept trying to ‘gift’ them laser hair removal and hormone therapy. They wanted her to be either a girl or a boy, but he likes herself as they are. They politely but consistently refused, growing more and more disheartened by the persistence of their parents.
What do they tell people they want? What do they actually want?
Ren tells people they ‘want’ to be a hero; Ren ‘wants’ to be allowed to live their life without winding up discontinued or prosecuted and firmly believes that their existence is dependent on their usefulness as a tool and weapon. They used to save the day out of genuine morality; now they do it out of professional obligation and sinple practicality.
How do they respond when someone doesn’t believe them?
Ehh, there are a lot more questions than I realized. Depends on context. Ren can and will gaslight someone unless they’re a cellmate. They also have a tendency to construct half-truths or inflate the other person’s importance in a flattering way as a distraction tactic. Ren doesn’t often outright lie, valuing their trustworthiness, but isn’t above saying a misleading truth.
If what they originally said was a sincere truth, then they will probably respond to disbelief by just caving. They’re too used to people assuming they don’t know what they’re talking about to care anymore, and now just doesn’t often bother being frank with most people.
Guilt via mistakes! How does professional versus personal differ?
Ren’s job involves armadas, bombs, assassinations, war, and conquest. People get hurt. A lot of people can get hurt very quickly if Ren misjudges or even if they do everything right. Ren has empathy burnout and has been raised under the medical profession’s mentality of “People get hurt either way, at least we tried”, which is to say that they don’t especially care unless the consequences affect them personally.
(Zak’s role in Work’s in Progress was functionally to check on Ren’s functionality, which is a lot more warranted than the narrative treats it.)
With personal matters, Ren takes mistakes very seriously, especially per having RSD and fearing rejection. Ren does a lot to try and make it up to the other person, coming clean immediately and having a personal rule to tell the truth whenever possible.
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How do they greet someone they dislike/hate?
Tell (tail tip) pointed downwards, gills pressed shut, and grin as wide as their face.
How do they greet someone they like/love?
Wings raised and outspread (if present), tail raised at basal and bent with the Tell horizontal, gills gaping, spines raised, eyes wide and crinkled at the corners, smile either small or mouth open (most of their smiles are only in their eyes), and generally they will look for an invitation for physical contact (huggggssss).
They also love pressing their forehead or nose tip to the other’s, which is a human practice they were taught when very young. Danny uses this to nuzzle, because it’s fun; Danni treats it like how cartoon teens treat being told “I love you” by their parents; and Cujo tries to lick their face.
(With other Vulp-ens this has extra steps. A common intimate greeting includes tail twining at the sweep, but Ren’s is docked and is now only reaches their knees when at rest and the ground if stretched (sweeps stretch like rubber). Fo’va compromises for an adjusted twine; Crisp-Clover is a Chains Vulp, who don’t twine anyway (and so instead it’s the forehead touch and an arm twine).
What is the smallest, morally questionable choice they ever made?
There is an L.E. application that can reverse injuries to a person that occurred within three day’s time, which extends to emotional injury. Ren once offered to heal Danny after ‘taking care’ of Dan for him, which had the effect of negating Danny’s moral qualms of participating in murder (technically self defense, but Danny doesn’t see it that way). He is now more accepting of Ren’s occasional mercenary work than he’d be otherwise.
Who do they keep in their life for professional gain?
Basically everyone who isn’t a cellmate.
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How do they respond to a loose handshake?
Mild confusion.
What phrases, pronunciations, or mannerisms did they pick up from someone?
Ren’s main transfer is of the Midland Vulps, and they acquire the nutrition needed to support the given physiological systems from one of the main trade centers near the west coast of the Peaks geographical region. That is to say, Ren’s Vulp mannerisms are one part neurology (the reflexes and instincts) and five parts trade culture (commerce, safe harbor, etcetera— more species are met at these junctions than Ren would have ever met further down south).
When around the human public, Ren holds their tail in a manner reminiscent of earth mammals (downwards and sloped; very bad Vulp posture).
They sometimes move as if to pull the Prototool from their shoulder, mirroring Rook’s preparedness. Ren has never used the prototool.
N//A
What do they commonly misinterpret and why? Example, biases, upbringing, environment.
Ren’s natural inclination to physical intimacy and lack of sexuality (acespec) means they often come across as flirtatious, and flirtation in others is often mistaken as friendliness unless it is more explicit.
What language would be easiest for them to learn and why?
ASL; <BPS> is a close derivative, sharing the alphabet and most common words (deviating from there), meaning Ren would probably have an easy time learning the standard version.
They try learning Spanish and French but have trouble learning other spoken languages.
What’s something frivolous/unimportant that they hate passionately?
Coffee. Ren can’t have it, hates its omnipresence, and hates the expectation that they should be alert at all times because of the tired/wired culture around them.
Are they a listener or a talker?
A natural talker who listens out of discipline, respect, and practicality.
Who have they forgotten about that remembers them quite well?
They’re a celebrity and exotic creature; nearly everyone remembers them but they scarcely remember anyone else.
Who would they say “yes” to if invited to do something they abhorred?
To flip this question around, Ren is uncomfortable with most things and is more likely to say “No” to someone they care about because they trust the other person to not punish them over it. They wouldn’t be comfortable with them in the first place if trust wasn’t there, after all.
Would they eat something they find gross to be polite?
Yep. They find most food gross, with what food they can enjoy changing on a weekly if not hourly basis. Rook will bring Ren a snack, having seen Ren enjoy it in the past, and Ren accepts it out of politeness.
Ren is more likely to decline if offered by a trusted person.
What belief/moral/personality trait do they have that you, the writer, don’t agree with?
What’s a phrase that they say a lot?
They start most sentences with “So” and “Well”.
Do they act on their immediate emotions, or do they wait for the facts before acting?
Their immediate emotions aren’t trustworthy and neither are their perceptions, which is the result of sensory, processing, and emotional regulation issues. In the present day, they are often slightly delusional (in the literal sense as a result of chronic, severe sleep deprivation brought by unmedicated IDHS), thus they try their best to wait until they are reasonably certain of something.
Who would/do they believe without question?
Crisp-Clover and Cyborg.
What’s their stress response? Fight/flight/fawn?
Naturally fight, fawn by discipline, and freeze by force.
What’s something they’re expected to enjoy based off of their hobbies/profession but which they hate?
Large social gatherings. Ren once volunteered to be the person dunked in water at a carnival game as a way to stay out of the crowds (partially canon).
If they’re scared, who do they want comfort from? How does this response change based off of the kind of fear?
If it’s an emotional matter? Danny.
If it’s a medical issue (human health)? Cyborg/Robin.
If it’s a medical issue (Vulp or Omni health)? Crisp-Clover.
If it’s a medical issue (Anodite health)? Pen 10 (check the tag).
If it’s from C-PTSD, they’d likely self-isolate. Danny might sick Cujo on them if he clues into this, or spams them with cutesy memes and images.
What’s a simple daily activity/motion that they mess up regularly?
Swallowing beverages. Ren very frequently chokes on liquids and uses straws whenever possible.
How many hobbies have they attempted to have over their lifetime? Is there a theme?
Most of their hobbies are about hiking, visual arts, music, or textiles— but all of these takes time and care which their life does not allow. Plus art and academics were Gwen’s thing; Ren is supposed to be the brute— meaning those in their life tend to react to these hobbies with bafflement every time they come up or are noticed.
I've finally gotten to start the chapter in which Ren is examined by Drew and Doc for research purposes (alien exposure stuff). A large part of me really want to make it an exploration of Ren's wonky physiology and pathology, but there's no way Ren would sign off on that willingly. They agreed to the study under duress (not wanting to deal with the inevitable backlash from Max) but that doesn’t mean they'll actually comply.
The chapter is simultaneously an exploration of how drastically the tone shifts depending on whose perspective it follows, with Ren's granting insight to a bleak acceptance and nearly anyone else's being practically upbeat.
For my own sanity I need to chart out the Saturday's different disciplines, with the caveat that they're superhumanly competent.
Drew: Radiologist, historian, sociology, linguist; dabbled in a bit of psychology and martial arts.
Doc: Zoologist, medical physician, mechanical engineering, and genomics.
Writers note: while the two both know how to perform and interpret assessments, neither know the knitty gritty of such interactions. They do not, for instance, know how to apply tact to their practices outside of what general politeness would instill.
I've written myself into a bot of a corner here. As it stands, Vulp-ens have two sets of most vital organs (lungs, heart valves, etctera) but drastically different immuno responses. Or rather, different severities of responses.
When a human's body tries to remove and kill off a contaminant, it raises its internal temperature above what viruses and bacteria can withstand. It also reduces overall system functions to divert resources and mass produces mucous to trap invaders and protect areas which might be otherwise exposed to external substances (such as the air in our esophaguses).
Midland Vulps do all of those, but their fevers reach higher temperatures (as fungi are a much bigger problem on Vulpin) and their mucous contains toxins intended to (1) more quickly kill off contagions (2) dissuade other organisms from trying to take a bite of them while ill. (Imagine if trees could snap you up if they thought you were easy pickin's; that's about what we're dealing with here.)
The problem is that those aforesaid temperatures would exceed human limits, with 103 degrees Fahrenheit being the average for a fever. If the Vulp systems catch a low grade fever, would this serve as a high grade infection for the rest of the body?
In the fic I've been tinkering with on-and-off, Work's In Progress, a combination of stress, willful sleep deprivation, mild malnutrition, menstruation, and consistent overworking causes Ren to get sick mid-fic, as it was originally supposed to be a slice of life story wherein Ren copes while being systemically disallowed from proper recovery (the Plumbers weren’t designed to accommodate chronic fatigue and Ren's learned to just fix things themself).
I do not know how sickness would work for them. I do not know if I should give them a high grade fever (by human terms); a lopsided sickness effecting their Vulp systems directly and the rest inadvertently; or if they should have some method to manage the extreme departures such that it doesn’t damage their human systems. Each would be portrayed very differently, especially since spoiler spoiler spoiler.
(Just kidding, Ren was volunteered for medical/psycnological observation by the Saturdays before they get sick, it was one of the things that was stressing them out. The Saturdays are well intentioned but wholly unprepared for the inner workings of the Plumbers, assuming instead that the leader with the supernaturally powerful offspring (grandchild) would behave similarly to themselves (familial/supportive rather than exploitative).)
(Ren is compliant with the Saturdays because they know it wouldn’t end well if they declined after having been volunteered by Max. For the Saturdays, this was originally a matter of networking; trying to get some business relationships in with the Alien departments given that their jobs occasionally overlaps. For the Plumbers and Galvans, this is part of a continuing political stunt on several fronts. (1) It reinforces that they have control over their potentially temperamental bioweapon (Ren/Omnitrix), (2) it signals that they surely care about this living person whom they certainly don't exploit as a scapegoat/lab rat, and (3) it functions as legal protection regarding Ren's functionality (healthy human versus machine versus dysfunctional animal).)
Quick design for chapter… four? I needed some quick characters for a thing and didn’t want to make OCs, because cringe. I might give Leo a larger role than first intended…
There's a conundrum in trying to get Ben (Ren), Zak, and Danny together that I can't override without considerable contrivances. As I have it now, Zak is being explicitly used as a peer for Ren so that the Plumbers and other interested parties can evaluate Ren on various departments (loyalties, social compatibility, agreeableness, etcetera). Ren knows this, even though they were never told it was happening; this sort of mind game is part of their life.
Zak is aware of it but takes for granted his own causality, assuming in good faith that Ren's grandfather has their best interests in mind and not that he, by virtue of spying on Ren, is perpetuating a sort of systemic abuse.
Ren has decided, before Zak arrives, to just bypass the whole thing as a passive aggressive jab at their grandfather. Ren does not get paid to give tours around the city nor act as a host, Max knew they had plans outside of the Plumbers that week, therefore they do as they'd intended.
Zak is, of course, frustrated with this. He came to spend time with a celebrity, not sit around and do nothing all day. Zak's parents are in a different pickle in that when the Saturdays agreed to do this, they also agreed to give Ren a medical examination (to see how intergalactic travel might have effected a human body).. only to realize they have no clue what they’re looking at in their scans (Ren has six lungs, for instance).
Danny is Ren's longtime friend and, while a bit jaded, is not disillusioned and distrusting like Ren. If approached by the Saturdays, Danny would probably try and sincerely befriend them. However, with Zak's involvement with the Plumbers and the Saturday parents providing health services under false pretenses (Ren knew but was testing to see if they'd confess of their own volition), the Saturdays have already ruined what goodwill Ren would have with them, and Ren isn’t one to forgive, even if they never truly confront..
Danny would probably give the Saturdays a chance if he doesn’t realize Ren has legitimate reasons to be suspicious, and even if the Saturdays prove it to Danny that they're good people it won’t matter because Ren still won't buy it. (Plus- Uh- There's history that Danny is uncomfortably familiar with involving Ren, Vlad, and medical malpractice— so Danny miiiight hold a grudge, too.)
It is unlikely that Danny would ever organically just happen to cross paths with the Saturdays, and even in the chunk of the story where he spends time in Bellwood (Ren gets sick and was too stubborn to go to Amity, so Danny decided to stick around), Danny would be too crafty to be seen unless on was on purpose.
One thing that could force Danny, Zak, and Ren all together is if Danny decides to get the Saturdays' help per Ren's sickness, but Ren knows and speaks with three better suited people, two of whom having teleportation capacities. For Danny to get the Saturdays would either require him doing do behind Ren's back (uncharacteristic) or for Ren to be too out of it to get help themself or for Danny to not understand who Ren is asking for.
