Just Bob

Flying was weird. The hands on their hips, somehow even weirder. The touch felt invasive, even if it was merely a safety precaution. A foreign sensation that had them wanting to snap their jaws around his wrists and chew them away from their skin.

They of course, didn't do that. Instead, they curled up in a ball shape as best they could, defensive, and waiting for the whole ordeal to be over.

It was faster than they thought, and their bare feet touching...well, it wasn't earth but it was solid...was a relief. They tilted their head curiously, padding behind him as he entered the kitchen area. Oh, that was a lot of new, shiny things. Sights, sounds, smells that made their brain tingle in a wonderful way. Their tendrils reemerged almost instantly, opening the fridge, the cabinets, anything that had food in it and began a sort of raid for snacks.

Alexx didn't know what a majority of these things were, but if they had nutritional value, they would consume it.

@thevoiid

"...!!..." Bob just watched them with pure fascination, silently standing by the counter as the fridge was invaded by those incredible tendrils. He glanced away whenever they were finished grabbing everything they could, and smiled meekly at them, pointing to the stack of it all. "Wow! You must be really hungry, huh?" He couldn't know the extent of what went down in that place, but he had an idea of it. After all, he was in a similar situation, sort of... even if he could hardly remember most of it. The pain. The hunger. Then just a void of darkness.

"But seriously help yourself. We can always get more... or order more. I know there's services here that Valentina provides for." How was he going to explain to Walker and everyone that they are low on most things? He'd deal with that later. Right now it was important that this one get anything that they could. Bob moved to sit at the middle counter, on top of a stool, and just went back to watching them. "If you need anything else, I'm here."

@deviiants

They followed behind him obediently, never once pulling away from his gentle grip. His hand was warm, perhaps warmer than most of the caretakers, but it was a sensation that they found strangely soothing.

They just hoped that the snacks didn't have little faces, like their childhood meals.

Upon stepping outside of the facility, their eyes widened and they started taking everything in at once. Sunlight. Clouds. Dirt and dust. Patches of grass. All these things they had never seen before in real life; only in pictures from books or video recordings.

But they didn't have time to process much of the new stimuli before the new person, Bob, they had to remind themselves, turned. Hold on? Why? At first they considered ignoring his request and taking off for themselves...but the promise of food was too good to ignore.

Alexx hesitated, then held out their arms as if for a hug- and with a faint popping noise, six more of those barbed tendrils seamlessly slithered from their spine, looping around various points of Bob's body for extra security.

@thevoiid

Bob was still getting used to the fact that he can actually fly, and it took a second for them to get off the ground. It was like magic, or something similar, to how he just levitated off into the air. His arms held firmly onto the other's hips, before awkwardly taking them to their destination. The flight was quite fast, and he had to make sure to cradle their neck just in case of accidentally hurting them.

When they reached the tower, he carefully set them down first, before landing beside them. "So, this is it! Uh... home!" The balcony's doors opened automatically for them, everything refurbished from when this was the original Avenger's Tower. "Let's go get comfortable then. You're probably hungry, yeah?" He asked them, before leading them both into the kitchen area. "We have this place loaded with food. So, feel free to dig in..."

@deviiants

catchameme

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pinkiemme

Playing around with the Void, I had fun doing it! 🖤

scorpiovelaryon

THUNDERBOLTS* | 2025

#gifs

Oh…that was a smile. The smiles they had seen previously were always joyful and excited, yes, but usually over to great breakthrough that came at a physical or emotional cost to them. This smile was— if they had to pick a word, was goofy. And that was oddly endearing.

They blinked silently at him, simply letting him ramble on about towers and others and all sorts of other things they didn’t fully understand.

Except snacks. That was a word they were very familiar with.

As if on cue, their stomach gurgled at the idea of being fed something after wasting away for so long. Their cheeks flushed with some semblance of embarrassment, the freckles along the bridge of their nose flickering faintly with a golden light.

“Snacks.” Alexx parroted, squeezing his hand.

@thevoiid

Bob couldn't believe what he was seeing with how the other was practically glowing, and it made him all the more curious to get to know them more. He smiled even brighter when they agreed with the snacks part, and his brows raised high in understanding. "Yeah? Snacks? Let's go then!"

He half-laughed, excited to see they were eager to get out of here, too, and led them off towards the part of the building that would have them be outside. A push of a large reinforced door, and he turned to them when they were slightly overlooking the area below. This facility was already so high up above normal elevation.

"So..." Bob faced them, and moved a bit closer. "You're gonna have to hold on, okay? Onto me. And hold on tight, because the wind can be pretty rough."

@deviiants

Bob? That was…a new one. Usually it was doctor this and nurse that. Just a simple Bob was a little out of place here, and that made suspicion rise in their chest-but only for a moment.

Their first instinct when he approached them and extended his fingers was to rip his entire arm off and beat him with it. It was a purely impulsive response born from the knowledge that physical touch usually meant pain.

But the difference was that they were never asked before.

And getting out of here did sound like a good idea…so they relented, slowly offering out one of their hands with a gentle huff.

@thevoiid

Bob smiled, actually smiled at them, before leading the two of them off and out into the hallway. "Yelena and the others should be ahead, somewhere. But don't worry. They're really cool people. Red Guardian can be quite loud, just a warning on that." He couldn't believe how talkative he was in this moment, a really high-high few seconds, before he realized how much and how fast he was just spewing information on this one.

A beat, and he paused to turn and look them over. "Unless, you'd prefer we just get back to our, uh... New Avengers Tower in a different way. I can easily just tell them I'm heading back, without letting them know about you, just yet." Bob was going through all the options over and over in his head. He could just imagine the other's being spooked at first by this 'unknown', but surely they'd all warm up, like they did with him!

"They'd not be back for awhile, anyway. Give you and I time to just do a bit of -- er, well, we'd be by ourselves, I guess. We can do whatever. Tons of snacks there, too."

@deviiants

For a moment, nothing came through the door other than the mist that had been pumping out of the tubing. The fog slithered lazily out into new territory, breaking when the form of the strange individual rushed out- as if they feared it was a trick. That the door would close any minute or some trap would set off.

Their shimmering eyes looked left and right frantically, before settling back onto Bob. There was another beat where they didn't move, like a deer frozen in the headlights.

Then their body slowly relaxed, tension seeping from every muscle as they closed their eyes and exhaled. They weren't out of the ballpark just yet, still being in this terrible lab, but...it was something.

When the moment of relief had passed, they straightened and cocked their head again, staring a hole right through him. A hand raised, pressing against their chest.

"Alexxxxxxx...."

@thevoiid

All focus was on the other as they approached him, and to hear that name be spoken sent a jolt of surprise down his spine. He simply didn't expect it. "I'm..." His hand also trying to mimic the other's gesture, and his words trying to not come out as a huge stuttering mess.

"I'm Bob... And we should probably get going, yeah? Dangerous here, still." Not that he really knew, of course, but it didn't hurt to be cautious of their surroundings.

"I'm going to take your hand, okay? We're just gonna go out here and leave." He moved to get closer to them, gesturing with his fingers towards the other's hand. Essentially asking for permission both verbally and physically.

@deviiants

It had been a long time since the caretakers had come. It was simply lucky that its metabolism had slowed enough for it to not starve in the absence of regular meals.

it remembered the faces of the little salamanders they gave it. they always looked so sad. it felt guilty.

But this? This was the first face it had seen in....it couldn't pinpoint an exact timeframe. There was nothing here to indicate how long their isolation had been. But it clearly wasn't a caretaker. At least, not that it could decipher. Was this a weird test? A game of sorts. Was it being fed?

Did they hurt you in here?

Did they cut off its limbs. Vivisect it to remove vital organs without care, knowing they would grow back? Did they compress its flesh in various devices to see how it would withstand under pressure? Yes to all of the above and more. But talking was a...strenuous thing. No matter how much human DNA it assimilated, its vocal cords didn't function as well as it would have hoped.

So, a simple nod would have to suffice.

Golden orbs, like twin stars, regarded the hand against the glass with a low hum that seemed to reverberate against the frail surface. Slowly but surely, it raised its own hand to press a palm flat against his own and offered a smile. It was a wobbly, unsure thing from a face that hadn't smiled much in its life, full of sharp, almost shark like teeth.

But it was trying none-the-less.

@thevoiid

"........." It was in that moment that he saw the other smile, and their hands connecting through the glass like this, that Bob felt that he could take the initiative for once. To take charge in a situation that felt so impossibly out of his reach. A simple nod was given back to the other, determination now in his soft gaze. "Look, I don't know why they have you locked up like this, but... no one deserves this."

Was it a mistake to do what he was about to do? Quite possibly. Especially, considering the fact that someone decided to lock this one up in such a way, but he also didn't really care! So, Bob went over to one of the consoles and tried to understand the commands there. He knew just basic coding, and even with all these complicated symbols, something did click. His fingers glided over the keys, typing in what he could remember.

A brief hesitation in him, when he was close to figuring it out. One glance at the one in the glass, before he pressed one more button, and a secret door hissed open on the side.

"Yes! There we are!"

@deviiants

click. click. click.

The sound was painfully monotonous, emanating from a rather run down looking machine that had thick, rubber tubes pressed into the glass walls, creating the slight wall of fog.

click. click. click

It was almost impossible to see inside, save for a few objects laying carelessly on the floor: a few worn books, their pages yellowing. A few scattered puzzle pieces. A stuffed dog that had seen better days, missing a button eye. A rubix cube that three sides solved. As he inched closer and closer to the barrier, the wheezing machine began to get louder.

click. click. click....clickclickclickclickclick-

Something lashed against the glass- a long, ropey tendril of sorts that was braided together with iridescent flesh. It was tipped with a barb that tapped uselessly against the glass for a moment or two, then retreated back into the fog. After another moment of eerie silence, a person waddled out of the mist.

Thin, wiry, and rather frail looking. Dark hair falling in wild curls around their face. A smattering of freckles dusting their fair skin and piercing golden eyes. There was a...scar of some sort barely visible along the underside of their bottom jaw, running down the length of their throat before disappeared beneath the collar of a hospital gown.

The person blinked as they stood a few feet away from the glass wall, watching him in a manner similar to a predator assessing potential prey. But there was a sharp intelligence there. A curiosity.

The tendril against the glass made Bob flinch a tiny bit, but not necessarily out of fear. He was mostly in awe, thinking it could be some kind of sea creature above land, or maybe even an alien?? The thoughts were endless, until he actually saw the being coming out from the fog. Breath catches in his throat, briefly, and he raised a hand up near chest-height to lightly wave at them. "Uh, hey!... s-Sorry to disturb you, but um... Why're you in there??"

Bob genuinely did not know what to think of all this, but he couldn't stop staring back at that predatory gaze; almost like he was being pulled closer to the glass. A heavy step forward, then another, and he found himself with a hand pressed to the surface. Tentatively he lowered his gaze, and flicked back to that face over and over, almost nervously so. "Did...did they hurt you in here?" He asked so quietly, as if speaking any louder would somehow make whatever scientists come back into this abandoned place.

@deviiants