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obsidiancreates · 1 year

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OKAY THE PROMISED REINCARNATION AU

As I said, I read a fic with 2012 boys having died and reincarnated into the Rise universe and adopted by the Rise boys and it gave me IDEAS so anyway

So I want Max Angst when the 2012 boys remember their past lives. I don't know exactly when they died, but I'm having Monster Arc and Heart of Evil and stuff be canon, but not Mutant Apocalypse. Again, not sure how/when they died to make this possible. But it WAS before they turned 20.

They're reincarnated as lil' babies, just tiny lil' guys. They're born to a normal turtle but uh, they aren't normal turtles, so the owner of their turtle freaks out and puts them in a box in a random alleyway. And then, as luck would have it, Señor Hueso opens Run of the Mill one day to find a box of small mutant baby turtles. With a deep sigh, he takes the box inside, feeds them some veggies, and calls up Leo.

"Ah, Pepino, none of you or your brothers have had any... flings lately, have you? No? Well, I ask because a box of baby turtles were in front of the door today-"

He's not even finished with the sentence before a portal opens up and all four Rise boys (probably early to mid twenties in ages) and Splints tumble out. Splints grabs the box, looks inside, and says "We'll take them!"

"That was easier than I thought."

They order some pizzas while there, of course, and get to know these tiny babies while they wait. They all seem to be the same species of turtle, and all the same age.

Now in the fic I read each Rise Boy raised their counterpart, which is great, but it could also be cool for them to be raised by their non-counterparts too? Like I could see 2012 Raph having been raised by Rise Mikey and 2012 Leo being raised by Rise Donnie? I think for this we'll have their own counterparts raise them but food for thought, let me know what other Father-Son pairings you'd do personally.

Anyway for the rest of this I'll be referring to Rise as Raphie, Leon, Angelo, and Donald, and 2012 as their usual nicknames.

Raphie holds the second smallest baby and coos at him, wiggling a finger over his face and watching the way the baby tracks it with beady little eyes. None of them seem to have irises or sclera at first, but Donald says it could just look like that because they're so young, the same thing happens with kittens who've just opened their eyes. As Raphie coos over the baby and waves his finger around, the baby scrunches up his face and starts to cry! Raphie panics for a second, but Splints shows him how to properly cradle the baby and soon lil' Raph is asleep.

Yes, they name their sons after themselves, Because They Would Do That, but also because Splints kept accidentally calling the babies those names anyway and they didn't want to confuse the little guys too much.

Donald holds baby Donnie up like he's examining a peculiar invention for a bit, and baby Donnie just smiles at him and makes baby sounds. After a bit of examining Donald cradles Donnie in one of the battle shell's robot arms and begins softly singing a little Dewey Decimal System rap he made up and baby Donnie slowly falls asleep as well.

Angelo is just gushing over this cute little baby and making all the silly faces, and baby Mikey is giggling and babbling non-stop, reaching up and lightly slapping Angelo's face with his lil' baby hands and it is The Cutest Ever! Angelo's heart is stolen and it sets the path for Mikey to be So Spoiled in the future.

Leon holds the last baby, a quiet and calm little guy who's just staring at him. He's a little creeped out, to be honest, and nothing he's doing to make the baby laugh is working. Then Hueso brings over the pizzas, and Leon grins and says "We'll need 'em, raising these guys is going to leave us, uh bone tired." And maybe it's the voice he uses or the cocky grin but that finally makes baby Leo laugh! And Leon's heart melts because the baby likes puns this is perfect.

So they take them home and bam! Four sons now! April is hanging out with Casey and Casey Jr when she gets the text "YOU'RE AN AUNT NOW!" and of course this makes her very concerned so all three of them head right for the lair and they enter to find Draxum on the couch with a book on child development, Splints playing peek-a-boo with a single bassinet full of four baby turtles, and the four brothers all eating as Draxum tosses out little snippets of advice from book and they all nod.

"Where'd you get those?" April says, pointing at the bassinet.

"Someone left them outside of Run of the Mill? Can you believe it? Four perfect little angels and someone didn't want them!" Angelo coos. At that moment baby Raph starts crying again, frustrated by the peek-a-boo game (and a little scared that Splints keeps disappearing).

Anyway, the four are raised as brothers and not cousins because non-nuclear family structures for the win, and it's great! They're all a little more well-adjusted than their past selves were. Raph's anger issues are taken more seriously and Angelo and Raphie talk with him a lot about it and help him find ways to manage it. Donnie feels way less insecure/resentful of being a mutant because he grows up around humans and mutants alike this time and goes out to the surface way sooner, and as we all know it's a lot easier to pass as humans with very little effort in the Rise world. Mikey's ADHD is like, taken seriously and everyone knows he's not dumb, just impulsive and has trouble paying attention (sometimes though he just chooses to be a little shit and they still get mad at him for those times).

I actually think Leo will end up the most The Same, just because his drive to be perfect/severity/endless pressure on himself doesn't really start until after he's made Leader in 2012, before that he seems mostly normal (for a teenage mutant ninja turtle anyway).

Wow this was meant to be an angst AU but Baby Cuteness got to me. Well I'll put the angst under a Read More I guess so y'all who don't want it can just have this happiness.

So when they're about 15, they start feeling more restless. They have a lot of fun with their family, but they haven't done much of the hero stuff. Their dads have tried to keep it to a minimum (it can never be Zero for them, but they have a strict "Let us get our kids home or at least ignore them while they hide" policy with the villains and most of them, like Warren and Hypno, don't mind and totally oblige and yes this is partly because The Rise Boys are intimidating parents and partly because why would they beat up an eight-year-old?)

So they've been minorly involved in some fights, but gosh, they're just kids. Their dads remember how fun it was to fight bad guys at their age, but also how damaging it was in the long run. And for the most part, their sons have been fine with it. They've gone a few minor fights here and there, even have a nemesis of their own (Hypno and Warren adopted a yokai girl, some kind of bird I think, and she's the most pompous person alive, their fights are never intense though because her dads are also protective) and it's been fine.

But it's like a switch flips, and suddenly they're constantly itching to go out. Suddenly Raph's having trouble remembering his anger management methods. Suddenly Mikey's acting up more than usual. Suddenly Donnie's patience is paper-thin. Suddenly Leo's being bossy and demanding of his brothers.

Well, "suddenly" isn't quite right. It's slow, but it definitely starts on their 15th birthday. And it just keeps getting worse.

And they're having nightmares. Lots of them. Donald rushes into Donnie's room one night after hearing screaming to find Donnie clutching his arm to his chest and sobbing incoherently about needing to find Mikey and Raph because he's after them, but come morning when Donald asks all Donnie can remember is "Something big hit me, and I knew they weren't safe either."

One night Leon hears a crash and runs into Leo's room to find his son crying, having fallen out of bed and landed on his knee funny and he's holding his throat begging to see his brothers. Again, come morning all he remembers is that he'd been in a bad fight and They Weren't Safe.

Angelo wakes up to Mikey crawling into his bed, shaking and quietly crying, and mumbling about squirrels and evil moms and all kinds of terrible things, and Angelo hugs him and calms him down. In the morning Mikey just says he might need to stop reading horror comics.

Raphie can't even comfort his son because Raph screams when he sees him through sheep-glazed eyes and backs away and begs and begs to leave him and his brothers alone, and he calls out for Leo over and over until his brother and uncle in blue both come in and Leo hugs Raph and the two fall asleep in each other's arms. In the morning Raph just says he thinks Donnie's nightmare from before got to him, and that something else got Leo and got him bad.

And they become so tired. They can barely sleep anymore. Leo's leg should be fine by now, it was just bruised, but he keeps limping. Donnie keeps staring at nothing, lost in thought, and all he can say when someone asks what's wrong is he feels like they're missing something, someone, and he's taking minor failures so hard now. Raph keeps looking around the lair like he's expecting something to jump out at them, keeps gripping his sai like he'll need to use them at a moment's notice. Mikey keeps acting desperate to be heard whenever he suggests something, and he keeps checking the freezer and tearing up when whatever he's looking for that he doesn't even know isn't there.

There's some nights where they don't scream or go to their dads. There's some nights, that only them and their grandpa know about, where they sneak into Splints's room and ask if they can just stay there for a little while. Sometimes all of them end up in there at once, and Splints wakes up to them gathered around his bed, leaning up against it as they sleep with weapons in hand. He never tells anyone, just shakes Raph and Leo awake so they can carry their brothers back to bed, and he goes with to tuck them all in. And sometimes on those nights, when the boys are half-asleep and mumbling, he thinks he hears them call him 'Sensei'.

And then there's the way they fight.

Their dads are all deeply concerned the first time they do some sparring after their 15th birthday. Because they seem to forget to pull back.

Leo flips Mikey with full strength and Mikey swings his nunchucks without bothering to aim away from Leo's limbs. Raph slams his shoulder into Donnie's chest hard enough to completely knock the breath out of him and then Donnie jabs the end of his bo into Raph's chest right back so hard that it cracks the wood. Draxum and Splints break them up, always on the sidelines watching with pride in their grandsons, and The Rise Dads scold them all for being so brutal to their own brothers.

It's during a fight with Meatsweats and some new cooking assistant of his that they learn Donnie and Mikey added some blades to their own weapons. And all four go for a kill blow when they get the chance. Meatsweats is out of there faster than you can say "Cowabunga", bruised and bloodied, and the dads have another talk with their sons. Something along the lines of "You can't be 15 year old murderers!"

And then there's the anger. All four of them are suddenly so very, very angry. And not in the short-tempered way Raph's been his whole life, or the easily irritable way Donnie's always been. They're all deeply, painfully, angry. And none of them can really explain why. Just that it feels like they lost something.

And then, one day, Donald is wearing his mystic-seeing goggles when Donnie enters the lab. And what he sees chills him to the core.

He sees this overlay. It's Donnie, but not. The overlay is a little taller, a little older, and horrifically scarred on every inch of his body. His shell and plastron are littered with scratches and chips. He's got small scars and nicks all over his body. He's got a big one on the arm Donald remembers him clutching after his first nightmare. He's got horrific burn scars on his head and face, like someone electrocuted him over and over and over without mercy, and there's burn scars everywhere else too but those look circumstantial and the ones on his face looks purposeful. There's so much visible pain, all over this overlay of his son, his son. And it doesn't even look much older, maybe four years older at most, and-

And it's so angry.

It's a transparent purple, a sort of lavender color the same as Donnie's mask, but it's eyes are a solid and stark white. They're narrowed, and his mouth is set in a deep scowl. Tears drip down his face non-stop, but it's like the overlay isn't even aware he's crying from the way he just radiates anger.

And Donald grab Donnie's arm, panicking, and lifts his goggles.

His son is looking at him in confusion and concern, and he's fine. He's got one scar, and it's just from a skateboarding accident he had when they were around 10 and his elbow pad slipped up when he skid across the ramp. He's not scowling, he's not crying, and he's trying to get his dad's attention.

"Could you get your brothers and uncle?" Donald asks, and Donnie nods and runs off.

When they get back Donald has set up a large x-ray like machine. He asks the boys to stand behind it, and explains to his own brothers that he put his mystic crystal into this machine to check something. He explains, quietly, that he saw something that half-explains what's been going on with their sons.

And he turns it on.

And oh, god.

Raph's overlay has a large chip taken out of the right corner of his plastron, and just like his brothers, is littered in scars on every inch of him. His overlay is scowling and crying and white-eyed, and it's body language is so much more tense. Raph himself is just sitting there, arms crossed, a little annoyed but not too upset, until he looks up and sees his dad and uncles crying.

Mikey such a strange one to see, scowling like that, just so full of anger and pain. Like Raph he doesn't seem to have any huge scars, until he bends over for a second because he dropped something and all over the back of his shell there are these discolored spots, like something broke it open from the inside and it had to heal back over. The thought makes Angelo's heart and stomach drop and makes him need to lean again Raphie.

And Leo. None of the overlays are free of scars, hundreds of scars, but Leo... he has the most small ones small but deep, like shards of glass stuck into his skin and had to be pulled out. He's got a jagged, messy scar on his throat that wraps almost all the way around to the back, and they can see another all-encompassing scar around his newly-bum knee. There's so many scars that follow such a specific pattern, two blades spaced apart in such a precise manner slashed across him without mercy and-

Draxum and Splints had followed, and they're both silent, horrified, and Draxum quietly says, "I think... those overlays are their souls."

And suddenly the whole family has a new mission: find out why their boys have such wounded souls. Find out who did this to them. Find out how to fix it.

They don't tell the boys what they saw, and it's for the best, because the nightmares keep getting worse and now they have scars they can place some of the half-remembered stories to. And they start to piece together that the boys are remembering some other life, some other world, and is this some kind of curse or something else? Is it another world bleeding through and affecting their boys, or is it possible they came from that world?

And then, as they're struggling to figure this out and to help their boys through sudden new PTSD episodes and triggers that their boys don't understand the cause of, then...

A portal opens somewhere in New York.

A pink, triangular portal.

And they find somewhere to point all the anger they have for their boys.

(I also have another version of this where they don't discover what's happening until The Rise Dads are captured by the 2012 Kraang and the 2012 boys, who fully remember their past lives, charge in to save them, and their Ninpo manifests as they can reach into the other world and pull things through like The Shellraizer and such, but it comes with the cost of their new bodies becoming more and more like their old ones, so their dads watch them fight incredibly viciously and pull all this stuff out of some other dimension and have to just watch as all these scars appear on them and they get older but suddenly they stop getting older very soon and that hurts just as much as seeing the scars and they're both horrified and in awe of how their sons are fighting.)

#tmnt 2k12 #tmnt 2012 #tmnt 2018 #rottmnt #tmnt crossover #reincarnated au

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teecupangel · 1 year

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this is pretty hard to put into words but just hear me out. Imagine Desmond as a baker. Like a literally pastry/bread maker.

So the idea is that he'd have time traveled, by the apple or isu bullshit it's up to you, and basically gets adopted into this nice old family who own a bakery. They teach him everything and he settles down a bit. But it turns out he's travelled to before the executions of Ezio's family, where he has a chance to save them, but was warned against it by Minerva (or whoever) because it would mean the end of the world. So he has this moral dilemma the entire time. But also, he wants nothing to do with the Brotherhood. He's done with the Assassin's and Templars for a lifetime.

Then Leonardo comes along, because there's a nice family bakery down the road and he was craving something sweet, and sees Desmond (who is completely freaking out) and Leonardo assumes something... That he's Giovanni's bastard son. Which leads to a large moment of misunderstandings in which Leonardo is trying to tell the family that Desmond exists without sounding like he's accusing Giovanni of cheating but also trying to say something quick. Because if he saw the connection, so would other people.

But Maria, ignoring all the failed attempts of poor Leonardo, goes and orders a large amount of baked pastries to be delivered to the villa in celebration of someone's birthday. Lo and behold, Desmond appears to deliver the goods (and then to disappear into oblivion, because he just couldn't help himself to not see the family again)

Everyone stops when they see Desmond and Leonardo almost passes out from the pure amout of stress he had taken on. Then there's this whole scandal and poor little Desmond is smack dab in the middle of it.

Desmond could find baking as relaxing in the sense that baking requires precision and any deviation in the recipe (that is not like sugar content) could easily destroy it which, for someone like Desmond, might mean that the baker has complete control of what’s going to happen.

At least, if Desmond can’t have full control over his life, he could have full control over the pastries he makes.

Also, if we set it up so that Desmond wouldn’t know much about baking before he got adopted BUT he does know what pastries and cakes should look like and the ‘usual stuff’ that should be in them, hell, he could accidentally invent pastries that shouldn’t exist during that time period.

He would be known as someone not afraid to experiment and try new ingredients and people assume he’s a mad genius but Desmond is just trying to find possible alternatives he could use for the pastries he knows about but doesn’t exactly know how to make.

So Leonardo would be interested in the products themselves but also because of the rumor of this pastry/bread madman and both of them just stared at one another with wide eyes because Leonardo is thinking “Oh no, Giovanni cheated on Maria!” and Desmond is thinking “Oh fuck, what the hell is Leonardo doing here? Okay, stay cool, stay cool, stay freaking cool, Desmond”

And Leonardo becomes a regular because goddamn those pastries are to die for and Leonardo enjoys being Desmond’s taster (or, as Desmond like to call him, his guinea pig) all the while trying to drop hints that he knows who Desmond’s real father is.

Desmond misunderstands this hints as Leonardo knowing that he’s connected to the Auditores and he thinks if anyone could think “Ah! Of course! Time traveling bullshit!” as a reason for Desmond’s existence, it would be freaking Leonardo Da Vinci.

And, just to make everything more complicated, Desmond tries his damnest not to get near the Auditores but it wasn’t like they could reject Maria Auditore’s orders because that was a lot of money and also it would be social suicide to be known as the bakers who said no to the wife of Lorenzo’s unofficial second-in-command.

Instead of Desmond being the one to deliver it though, Ezio gets roped into getting the orders and Desmond freaks out because “oh shit, Ezio! Ohshitohshitohshitohshit!” so Desmond does want any normal person freaking out and out of option would do at that situation, pretend everything is fine and smile and be polite on the outside while just going “AAaaaaaaahhh *deep breath* aaaAAAAAAAAAHHHH” on the inside and Ezio is just staring at him and being uncharacteristically absentminded which Desmond assumed meant he must have just seen Cristina or something.

Instead, Ezio goes to Leonardo after delivering the pastries and go “I THINK MY FATHER CHEATED ON MY MOTHER AND HAS A SECRET CHILD!”

And Leonardo just goes “YYYYYEEESSSS!!!!”

Cue Leonardo and Ezio trying to drop hints to Maria about Desmond’s ‘real’ parentage (which Maria mistakes as Leonardo and Ezio really liking the pastries) and dropping hints to Desmond about his ‘connection’ to the Auditores (which Desmond mistakes as both Leonardo and Ezio coming close to finding out he’s a freaking descendant of the Auditores that time traveled) while Leonardo and Ezio suffer through both of their ‘obliviousness’.

(By the way, all this pastry talk made me remember Tasting History with Max Miller on youtube and, if you’re curious what food was like in the past, check his videos out. He even has a playlist for Medieval and Renaissance food)

#desmond bakes #desmond gets mistaken as giovanni's secret lovechild #in maria’s and desmond’s defense #leonardo is being too subtle #ezio is too freaked out that his hints are weird and confusing #the other auditores are just enjoying the pastries #including giovanni #assassin's creed #desmond miles #leonardo da vinci #ezio auditore

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themultifandomgal · 1 month

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From 2010- BBC Radio Teen Awards

2012

Part 26

“Ah the glamour. Welcome to the backstage of the radio 1 teen awards. I’m here in a toilet, a very showbizz toilet. I’ll be inviting some guests from the show to answer questions from this, the radio 1 tombola. One Direction hello” we all reply to Matt saying hi back “did you ever dream when your journey began that you’d be here backstage at Wembley in a toilet for the teen awards?”

“We dreamed about it everyday” Harry says making me giggle. Louis is sat leaning against the wall with his feet on the sink. Harry and Zayn are stood leaning on the wall. Niall is knelt on the floor, Liam is sat on the floor under the sink and I’m sat on the sink next to Louis.

“Now as you can see in front of you is the radio 1 tombola. Niall give it a spin, dip in and pull out a question” Niall give the tombola a spin then takes out a question “ok question 1. When did you last offend someone?” Liam explains that he had accidentally told one on the x-factor contestants good luck but they had already been voted out “next question if you were a puppeteer what voice would you give to your puppet?”

“Hello I’m… I’m James the puppet…. I went Irish, he’s relatable that’s why he’s James”

“I’ll be honest, the freak me out so mine just doesn’t exist” I reply laughing

“Niall let’s have another question please. What is the rudest thing you’ve seen on the internet?”

“Errrm…”

“We know what you’ve been Googling” I reply to Harry

“Come on Harry tell us” Matt says

“I don’t know. Probably them fan fics”

“They can get a little spicy to be fair” I say agreeing with Harry’s answer

“Ok Niall can you get out another question please…. Have you ever attempted to squat over a mirror and look at your own bottom? Louis”

“Let’s go over that one again. Your squatting and…”

“Your looking at your bum” Matt confirms

“I assume the bum hole? Is it to make sure you’ve wiped correctly?”

“Do we really have to discuss the reason?” I ask

“I just want to know the logic behind it YN”

“He’s going to go try it later now” Niall says

“Niall let’s dip in again. This is the last one… have you ever had a saucy dream about a celebrity?”

“Liam had one. He came into work and was like ‘I had a dirty dream about Kat Slater from Eastenders and I don’t know why” Harry says

“YN had a sex dream about me and Harry” Louis says

“Wait no I need to explain. I wasn’t in the dream!” I practically yell “I saw fans what is it ship…”

“Shipping” Liam says

“That’s it shipping them and then I went down a rabbit hole then woke up literally thinking that they doing the dirty”

“She came downstairs while I was making a cuppa tea and scowled at me” Harry says laughing.

After our interview we are then taken to see Dan and Phil who are doing another interview

“Welcome to the backstage of the radio 1 teen awards. We are here with one direction” Dan says looking at the camera

“I’ve invented a game for you. What you have to do is take these pieces of paper. Don’t show each other, it will have someone’s name on it so don’t show anyone else” Phil says. I take a little look at the name I have, Harry “your going to have 30 seconds to draw that person. Go” the boys all turn to the table but me and Niall look at one another. I pout at him since we’ve been left out

“Oh no YN and Niall have a disadvantage right now” Phil get me and Niall a pen and paper. Mines fairly easy. Just draw a lot of hair.

30 seconds go far to quickly. We show each other our pictures

“Who do we think Harry has drawn?” Dan asks laughing

“That’s obviously YN” Niall says laughing

“Ok YN”

“That’s Harry 100%” Liam says pointing to the hair. Zayn drew Louis, Liam drew himself, Louis drew Zayn and Niall drew himself

“Ya know what I’m gonna frame this” I say looking at Harry’s drawing of me making everyone laugh “no you know what I want all of them. I’m gonna frame all of them or make one big picture with them” I take the pictures from the boys. I write down the date on the back of the pictures and who draw what.

#6th one direction member #one direction x reader #sixth one direction member #harry styles x y/n #harry styles masterlist #harry styles x you #harry styles x reader #harry styles x oc #harry styles fanfic rec #harry styles imagine #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles

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wangxianficrecs · 1 year

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💙 Regrets by antebunny

💙 Regrets

by antebunny

G, 37k, Wangxian

Summary: When Wei Wuxian finds himself alone in Nightless City, enemy of the entire world, Lan Wangji…accidentally stabs him. Then he and Lan Wangji open their eyes to find themselves on a rooftop four years in the past, with a chance to fix their biggest regrets.

Kay's comments: Ah, this one is definitely one of my favourite time-travel fix-its! It's wonderfully angsty, full of pain and yet, it's a fix-it and all works out in the end! In which Lan Wangji kills Wei Wuxian at Nightless City by accident (but Wei Wuxian, of course, doesn't know it's an accident) and then, both of them get thrown back into the past, to the Cloud Recesses lecture days and now they just have to deal with it. It being, Wei Wuxian still being in love with Lan Wangji, despite thinking that he murdered him and is now apparently working against him again and Lan Wangji having to live with having killed Wei Wuxian by accident and failing spectacularly at communicating. I just love how Wangxian are portrayed in this and I love our genius Wei Wuxian especially, who's not faulted for not understanding Lan Wangji's broody silences. Also, the way this story is written is simply stunning.

Excerpt: If he uses these and his current stack of fire prevention talismans, the Cloud Recesses doesn’t have to burn at all. He looks up, and Wei Ying is still there, hovering uncomfortably in the corner of the room. “I didn’t use demonic cultivation at all,” Wei Ying assures him, as if that was anywhere on Lan Wangji’s list of concerns when it came to Wei Ying. “They’re just regular…I mean, I invented them, but–I just thought you could use them, if Wen Xu tries to burn down the Library…again.” He trails off, looking more and more unnerved by Lan Wangji’s continued silent staring. Lan Wangji knows that people have a tendency to be unnerved by the way he can simply stare at them in a way his brother once described as “intense.” But Wei Ying has never been one of them. Wei Ying never stopped bothering him despite Lan Wangji’s most intense glares. Wei Ying never seemed unnerved, never got scared, never left him. It is, Lan Wangji thinks, a tragic reversal of the first time Wei Ying climbed in through his window. Back then, he wanted him to go, but Wei Ying wouldn’t leave. Now, Lan Wangji wants him to stay, but Wei Ying wants to leave. Wei Ying looks afraid of him now, and Lan Wangji can’t stand it, can barely stand to believe that he is. Which is why despite all the thoughts raging in his head, all the things he wants to beg and plead and cry and assure Wei Ying, all that comes out of his mouth is; “Thank you.”

pov wei wuxian, pov lan wangji, canon divergence, time travel fix-it, temporary character death, miscommunication, misunderstandings, post-bloodpath of nightless city, cloud recesses study arc, angst with a happy ending, hurt/comfort, getting together, arguing, demonic cultivation, blood and injury, @antebunny

~*~

(Please REBLOG as a signal boost for this hard-working author if you like – or think others might like – this story.)

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arandomperson5647 · 8 months

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Encanto Bloopers I made up

Like my previous post, these were made slightly less than 2 years ago and posted on the Encanto wiki. Yes ik I'm being a bit lazy but whatever. So you remember when animated movies would sometimes have animated bloopers as a bonus? Well here's my take on an Encanto themed one.

Comedy isn't my best thing so I hope these are actually kinda funny.

After Antonio finishes his ride with Parce, his jaguar, Pepa and Félix run over to hug him. Meanwhile, Parce puts a little too much force on his hug with Agustín, causing both of them to fall over. "I'm alright!"

"Look, if I could help anymore I would but um...that's all I know. Good luck. I wish I could've seen more." "Yeah........Yeah!" Mirabel kicks the door open, instead of it simply opening, it came off the hinges. "Uhhh......We might need to repair that." Bruno tries to hide his laugh.

"Luisa, Dolores says you're totally freaking out. Any chance you know something about last night with the magic--" Luisa's eye twitches. "--YOU DO!" Mirabel slams the table but accidentally hits the rim of her plate, causing food to fly everywhere. "Everywhere" meaning mostly onto Pepa's face. Nobody, not even Pepa, couldn't help laughing.

Everyone's doing their choreography at the dinner table for "We Don't Talk About Bruno". Camilo, Félix and Agustín toss the glasses to each other. Agustín throws it a bit too far, making Camilo miss and the glass shatters on the floor. "Whoops." Mirabel's still watching in the background, chuckling. "What did I tell you? Papá's accident-prone."

Convincing Bruno for a vision-Take 2. "Yeah........Yeah!" Mirabel, once again, tries to kick the door open, but this time, Mirabel kicked a hole in the door. "We're never getting this scene done." Mirabel and Bruno both start laughing uncontrollably.

Mirabel was trying to talk to Dolores outside while she got breakfast. Behind her was Dolores and Félix. "Camilo! Stop pretending you’re Dolores so you can have seconds." Though, Dolores didn't shift back. "Camilo, uh, why aren't you shifting back?" Dolores couldn't hold it in anymore. She burst out laughing as "Dolores" behind Félix shifts into Camilo. "Yes! We finally got him!" They've tried for a long time to fool him. Félix gave an "of course they would do this" look and laughed.

CRACK! Mirabel quickly turns around while hiding the vision. "Tía jeez!" "Sorry, sorry I-I-I didn't mean to-shoo, shoo, sho-AH!" While Pepa was pushing her cloud out, she gave herself a slight shock. She's fine. "Mirabel consider yourself lucky you didn't get a gift." She was being half-witty half-serious.

Bruno, goofing off, said in a very causal tone, "Hey, when you save the Encanto come visit. Hey get outta here!" Bruno tried to even act "cool" by leaning on the painting door. The painting moved further causing Bruno to fall over. Mirabel tried to hold in her laughter.

"LOOK! It's Mr. Mariano! Hey you can marr-mar-maaughh!" "Hey you can mar-mar-marry, shoot!." "Hey you can marry my sister if you wanna. Buween. Buween? Great, I invented a new word! It's 'but' and 'between' mixed together." Isabela, Mariano and Mirabel all started to laugh at the newly invented word.

"But what's your gift?" Mirabel suddenly gets an accordion thrown at her, except she almost drops it. "Almost" as in, centimeters away from hitting the floor and breaking. "Ah! We're good! We're good!"

After the chaotic dinner, some of the family ran out of the dining room. "Abuela, please! There's got to be an explanation!" "I hate you!" "WAA I'M A LOSER!!" "Luisa-AHHH!!" Agustín slips on a puddle and lands face first. "What did you d-AH!" Pepa followed and tripped on Agustín. "Mamá? I think we need some arepas."

"Casita! Casita! Help me! Help me!" Mirabel looses grip and falls down the pit. Bruno runs over but fails to catch Mirabel's hand. "Ah! No, no, no!" Mirabel's fine. She said in a very dramatic tone, "Oh no! I'm falling to my death! Ahhhhh." Bruno couldn't hold in his laughter.

Mirabel is having her pep talk with Antonio under her bed. "You're gonna get your gift, and open that door, and it's gonna be the coolest, ever. I know it." Antonio stares blankly at her. "Wait what was my line?" He and Mirabel start laughing.

"Seven-foot frame, rats along his back!" Camilo shifts back-and-forth between himself and Bruno, while two rats appear on Camilo's back, except there's supposed to be three. "Wait, where's Carlos?" Antonio found him. "He's right here! He says he doesn't want to do it anymore." "What? How can he not want to do this?! This is the best part of the song!" Bruno walks in (without a mischievous grin). "Carlos, if you do this scene, you can have extra food for a week." "He says for two weeks." "Fine." "Okay, now he'll do it." Meanwhile Mirabel is giggling in the background. Who knew rats were good negotiators?

#encanto #bloopers #la familia madrigal #im too lazy to tag tag all 12 people lol

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mammonsbby · 2 years

Text

R-Read (Hehe! Both indeed.)

After several weeks of maybe-flirting back and forth, Simeon started inviting you over under the guise of needing a proofreader. It’s sort of obvious he doesn’t need a proofreader, as he’s been writing since before you were born, but you’re always more than happy to hang out with him.

So now, as has become normal on Friday evenings, you’re curled up on the couch in his room with a stack of papers. And Simeon is at his desk working on something, humming to himself and occasionally tapping his pen against the tabletop. You stifle a laugh when he accidentally flings his pen towards the wall. Then pretend not to notice the way the muscles in his back move when he bends to reach it.

He’s abandoned his cape and without it, he’s practically shirtless from this angle. Your mouth goes dry.

He’s an angel. He’s an angel. He’s an angel!

You shake your head and bite your lip, then continue to skim the pages in front of you. You annotate here and there, leaving comments on parts that you like. But there’s not much to correct. There never is.

It’s always almost perfect. And the few mistakes you find are always simple, and peppered into otherwise flawless writing. Almost like it’s on purpose. Huh…

You underline something. How could he possibly have misspelled such a common word? Must just be a typo. Wait a sec… Almost all his mistakes are small typos, aren’t they? And this time they’re all short words too. Weird.

You think about it for a moment. Is it possible that he’s doing it on purpose? That he invented a reason to invite you over? You stare at his back, trying incredibly hard to read his mind, but his shoulder blades offer no insight.

You flip back through the pages and start again, scanning for the ‘mistakes’ you’ve already corrected.

Page 1: ‘will’ instead of Will. Page 2: ‘yo’ instead of you. Page 3: ‘goo’ instead of go. Page 4: ‘ouT’ instead of out. And now, page 5, ‘wth’ instead of with.

Your eyes widen at the circled and underline words. Then you frantically flip to the next page, skimming until you find what you’re looking for— ‘ne’ instead of me.

Will you go out with me?

This can’t be a mistake. There’s no way this is a mistake!

Is there?

“Are you asleep, MC?” Simeon asks, turning in his chair.

You jolt at his voice, “Huh? Oh. No. Why?”

“You’ve been pretty quiet. I was worried it was so boring it put you to sleep.” He says with a laugh.

“I…” You start awkwardly. Oh God, if this is a coincidence, you’ll eat his cape. But… still what if it is?

“Yes?” He raises a brow.

You chicken out. “I… have one page left.”

He makes a face, then nods. “All right.”

Simeon turns back around, leaving you to your thoughts. And in less than three minutes, you’re up from your seat. You hand the angel the papers and say goodbye quickly, leaving him confused.

Once you’ve left the room, he starts to flip through his work. Ah… So it turns out you did find everything he wanted you to. Did you not put it all together? He frowns. He was sure you would. But then again, this is the third Friday he’d tried something similar…

Simeon sighs and drops the papers face down on the desk. Maybe he should just ask you directly. It would be simpler, wouldn’t it? He taps his fingers on the desk. Then scrunches his brows when he notices some bright yellow highlighter showing through the back of the paper.

I didn’t put any mistakes on the last page. Well, intentionally anyway. He snatches the page up and flips it over. And the word that you’ve highlighted, and drawn a tiny heart next to, is:

Yes.

Simeon’s eyes widen and he grins. He stands and rushes towards the hallway. Maybe he can catch you!

700 follower prompt list!

#obey me simeon #simeon obey me #simeon x reader #simeon #simeon x mc #obey me #obey me x reader #anon #answered #700 follower party! <3

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stirringwinds · 2 years

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Hopefully I'm not straying too far into crack territory, but how did Artie and Alfie react during the British invasion in the 1960s? With the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, etc.?

“Say it, poppet. You know you think it.”

“You’re drunk off your ass—but call me poppet again and I’m shoving you off this bridge into the Hudson, Lord Father,” Alfred hisses. He glances around hurriedly, as though afraid someone had heard the usage of his childhood nickname. “And no, I won’t. You’re not fucking cool. It’s impossible for you to be cool. You’re stuffed auks, creepy Victorian-era taxidermy cases full of hummingbirds, floral chintz and mothballs. You don’t have a cool bone in your body.”

Arthur stares at his eldest son magnanimously. How tall the wretch was now! He never quite got used to it, even after all this time. The lights of New York City swayed fluidly. “Suit yourself, lad. Protest all you want, but the sold out tickets speak for themselves—”

Alfred rolls his eyes, looking every bit like the irate bald eagle that Arthur’d seen being extracted carefully from where it’d accidentally been caught on some construction rigging in 1910. “I never thought you were cool, old fart. Not the fucking slightest bit. And don't forget that all of this inspiration came from my musicians—without the likes of Chuck Berry, Aretha Franklin or Carl Perkins, you'd still be warbling God Save the Queen and playing medieval canticles because your withered ear drums don’t know better—”

“Ah, my dear boy! The sapphire atop the imperial state crown, always the beloved wretch of my eye!” Arthur smiles with inebriated patience. His whisky sloshes dangerously over the rim of his paper cup. “I do not deny that indeed— but how obstinate and silly you are! Would it kill you to admit that your dear father still has it in him to take in new strains of appreciation and inspiration? Of course, I rather enjoy the refreshing inventiveness of your music—now that your musicians have rather more imagination than simply cribbing from my insults to compose Yankee Doodle. It is quite alright for you to admit you rather enjoy the Beatles!”

“Maybe a tiny bit,” Alfred mutters. It was evident this admission caused him immense pain. It was no small feat, ceding any favour from his own musicians to the likes of Arthur’s, and Arthur appreciated this level of honesty from Alfred, small and constipated as it was.

“There, you see how easy it is! It is touching, almost, I would say.” Arthur felt deeply moved by his earlier oration. He toasted his half-finished whisky to Alfred’s non-existent drink, claps his son on the back amicably. “A token of our improved relationship in these years, wouldn’t you say, lad!”

#shitpost #hetalia #hws england #hws america #my writing

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m3char0b0l0v3r · 2 years

Text

ok so I was making a fake scenario in my head and accidentally made up a Crossover where TMNT, Tales of Arcadia gang and Transformers accidentally meet while trying to fight or idk but I’m just thinking they meet in some alley way after trying to hide away from the public

Like, they just fought off sum evil ppl and people come to the spot where they fought off and they run to hide somewhere and they just see eachother and they’re gonna be just like "OH HEY! THIS IS A COSPLAY! YEAH WE WERE JUST DOING OUR NORMAL HUMAN THING" expect the transformers who just say "it’s a illusion it’s in yo head" smt like that and yeah

Also It’s transformers armada, the teenage mutant turtles movie just right after they defeated krang and got Leo w/ them and where trollmarket haven’t got taken over n Vendel is still alive just like probabavvabably it’s a few episodes in the series and yeah

I bet that both Donnie and red alert would talk about technology while Donnie ask questions abt it and show off his inventions to him and both of the gangs. I mean both of them. I mean Donnie would yk show his mystic power and show his mystic guns?? In the movie or something simple like probably "hey I’ll show u a purple gun rq here 🔫" and red alert would tell him to stOp before he accidentally shoots and leave the base with a hole

Then we have Leo with Hotshot/Sideswipe or Jetfire and the wingman’s (if u don’t know it’s Toby n Arrrrgh ehe) They all would probably talk and show off how superior r they. Probably Leonardo would show his mystic power and make a portal while Toby just show how daMn light or heavy is the mf hammer but at some point Jim comes in with the sword of daylight and accidentally attracts Leo and Jetfire w/ the bro bots wouldddd probably show off their blasting or aiming skills and Hotshot would ask Jolt to get his aft here so they can superlink together and show off the cannons

Blinky would ask Optimus abt transformers history and sometimes cut him off to say abt of troll history or Vendel would also talk to scavenger abt the transformers war or smt plus Draal with Blurr they would probably exchange tactics or smt more of battling?? But it’s only probably serious things

Ah yes then we the humans with their size robots and another human with a teleporting dogcAt? and a Wizard with a chef boy with a magical sword. They all would probably talk abt their friends first before themselves but I bet Jim would talk how a mf oldass Wizard made a amulet and choose people to give trauma until they die and sometimes Claire would cut in to say abt Morgana and how she stole her damn wand thing

The tf humans talks how they found the transformers and still blames themselves how they accidentally start a war again and stills feel guilt abt it, they hug their robot friends or hold their hands while talking abt them and they hold their hand back

April would be last bc she is busy on the phone until they say "what about u??" and basically talks how dum r the turtles before she talked how they found Mayhem and hidden city and how Donnie fucked them up into jail bc of science and moogic and says how a evil mutant lives on top of her apartment and made the evil mutant work as a lunch lady and basically works a lot but always gets fired yk

The turtles basically says that they were made by the evil mutant that April mentioned but they’re dad is a rat but he was human and was a actor and knows how to beat mutant asses

Basically that’s what I have and it’s a first time I made this so bye🏃🏼‍♀️

#transformers #maccadam #transformers armada #rottmnt #trollhunters #Rottmnt x Trollhunters x transformers #crossover #it’s funny when u see non human ppl with humans #yeah uh yeah #Also I made this into a au now so fack off #tmnt crossover #rottmnt crossover #transformers crossover #Trollhunters crossover

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altheaniann · 2 months

Text

writing snippet #1

— seph has an existential crisis about love, which is not unusual.

love is dead: to begin with.

for all it matters, god is dead. sephi visits god every sunday despite her disbelief in him, and she visits him whenever the fancy strikes her. sephi whispers to god secretly, dialling his number on video call; one ring, two rings, three rings. god is busy. five rings, six rings, seven rings. god is not at home and if she keeps on calling him an ariana grande song will begin to play. sephi gives up, and decides that she will have a chat with god another day. so she waits for another day, preoccupying herself with various trivialities — nothing as important as trying to contact god — and bides her time. she talks to the skeletons in her closet. she ignores her mother. she decides that she currently feels like a balloon that once belonged to a child but has been accidentally let go of, so now she floats in the sky, abandoned, watching the birds as they pass, passing through the clouds, getting closer to the sun and causing damage to the environment. she drinks wine. she listens to billie holiday on vinyl. she longs to throw a tantrum the way that three-year-old spoiled children do when they are deprived of a toy that they deem a necessity; ‘it is not a want, it is a need.’ and when she is bored, when days and weeks and months have passed, she calls god again and is left on read.

so, she decides, god is dead.

or, maybe god isn’t dead. he just doesn’t love her, which is ridiculous because the holy scriptures claim that god loves all his creations equally. but sephi decides that god doesn’t love her; the signs were always there and she simply failed to notice them. or maybe she refused to notice them, refuses to notice them and shuns them into oblivion because she finds it more convenient to do so.

god isn’t dead, sephi decides.

love is.

“love is dead,” she tells him with the certainty of a philosopher who has just discovered the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. she says it as though it is some sort of revelation that has dawned upon her, like god has kissed her forehead and told her all the secrets of the universe: god isn’t dead, but love is.

love has never existed in the real world as far as sephi is concerned. she has read about it, seen films about it, heard about it in songs, but she has never believed it to be real. it is merely a lovely thought that people invented to convince themselves that something beautiful, something that means salvation, something that can atone and will atone a person, exists in a world dominated by war, cruelty and evil. love is a placebo for a person lying on their deathbed, dust bunnies masked as cotton candy, a salesman trying to pass off a copper and resin ring shined and painted in silver as a genuine cartier. love is tacky, love is plastic, love is what romance writers want you to believe in so they can feed you more lies and rob you of your money. love is a marketing scheme, a publicity stunt, a kiss and a stab packaged as one and tied together with a ribbon in a neat little bow.

love is the excuse that her father uses on her mother after stripping her bare and humiliating her in the way that malicious children torment baby birds who have not even opened their eyes.

“okay,” he says, vaguely amused by her conviction, “if love is dead, then what is this?”

ah, she hasn’t considered this. this is a mystery to her as she is probably a mystery to him. this is when her mind is an attic that is locked and its key thrown into the ocean, but he is allowed to glimpse at it through the keyhole, while others are forbidden to ascend the stairs. this is when he knocks on her door and she answers immediately, without hesitation, without doubt, without fear, knowing it’s him by the sound of the knock. knock, knock, twice instead of a set of threes. this is when he is a star and she is a star, and they burn brightly next to each other until their fires are extinguished, reignited, extinguished and reignited again. this is something indescribable, something tangible, something that truly exists and she has lived to witness.

whereas love is not.

love is dead: to end with.

#oc #oc writing #original writing #writing #stream of consciousness #sephi #seraphina alyesbury

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kentuckywrites · 1 year

Text

Santago’s New Sleigh

Pongo accidentally reveals his secret persona to Fudge a few days before Christmas. What does the Outfitter do? He builds a core component for Santago that’s been sorely missed. Featuring @anryl ‘s Danny and @deltheor ‘s Sydney, with brief mentions of @skell-pilot-sora ‘s Ruadha and @stargazer-ele ‘s Polaris.

“Damn, Pon. Whatever you’re reading, it must be important.”

Pongo squeaked, looking up from his comm device to meet Fudge’s gaze. He’d decided to visit Fudge’s lab, a routine at this point since Fudge had the tendency to lock himself away for days on end working on new inventions. Most often he’d make conversation with the Outfitter as he worked, a measure against Fudge’s self-inflicted loneliness, but today was not like most days. Pongo had decided to get a headstart on the Christmas list for the year, and instead of using the regular paper, he’d made the transfer over to keeping a digital list on his comm device. After all, the last few times he’d been out in public checking over the paper list, he’d gotten caught and sheepishly had to explain himself. His identity as Santa had to be a secret, after all! Wasn’t that the point of being Santa? If everyone knew that he was the one dropping off their gifts, then the magic of Christmas would surely be ruined!

So, with the transfer to a digital list, Pongo was excited to covertly check everything over and make sure he’d gotten all the residents of NLA. Since Fudge was busy building stuff, Pongo didn’t think he’d notice or deign to bring it up. When Pongo didn’t respond immediately, Fudge raised an eyebrow. He was perched on top of a ladder looking down at Pongo; he’d been working on his Skell and had been too short to reach the back panel behind its face. The height advantage made Pongo feel more than a little exposed, and he had to briefly wonder if Fudge felt like that all the time.

“So? What are you reading?” Fudge probed.

“N-Nothing!” Pongo defended himself, tucking his comm device in his pocket. It was a harder maneuver than he anticipated, considering he was awkwardly seated on what may have possibly been the only clean chair in the entire lab surrounded by spare parts and mechanical debris.

“Ooh, did you get a text from that rich guy you’re dating?”

“Oh, ah, n-no.”

“Wait…Pongo, are you reading something naughty?”

“WHAT?!”

“I’m just messing with ya,” Fudge cackled, stepping down off of his ladder and approaching Pongo - who, at that moment, was as red as a tomato. “Whatever it is, you’re like…super into it. I mean, you didn’t hear me ask you if you could hand me a tool before.”

“...RIPS, did he really ask me that?” Pongo mumbled.

Fudge’s AI system responded nearly immediately. “AFFIRMATIVE, MASTER CALDRAVIX. IN FACT, MASTER CARSON ASKED YOU FOR THE SOLDERING IRON TWICE WITHIN THE PAST THIRTY SECONDS.”

“Gods above,” Pongo sighed, putting his head in his hands. “Sorry, Fudge. You are right, I got distracted.”

“You still haven’t told me what you were reading, though, so now I’m curious,” Fudge knocked some stuff off of his desk, leaning against the empty space he had created and crossing his arms over his chest. “Spill the beans.”

“...What beans?”

“Fucking hell, it’s a saying. Means ya gotta tell the truth.”

“Oh, well, um…” Pongo shrank into himself. His hand palmed the pocket containing his comm device despite his uncertainty. Why did it seem like every year, someone new had to learn about his masquerade? And why couldn’t he lie?! Seriously, this would be so much easier if he could think of a valid excuse for being distracted, but nothing came to mind. At least it was Fudge and not some stranger, right?

With a defeated sigh, Pongo pulled his comm device back out. As it opened back onto the Christmas list, he explained, “It is the list of gifts for the residents of NLA this year. The songs always say that Santa checks it twice, so I was going through it again to make sure I got everyone.”

“Your list has everyone in the fucking ci - wait a fucking minute,” Fudge’s eyes widened, his arms falling to his sides. “Are you the fucker that delivers everyone’s gifts each Christmas?”

“Y-Yes,” Pongo admitted.

“Holy shit!! Holy shit,” Fudge exclaimed, slowly becoming more and more excited, “The Outfitters have tried laying traps for you for years now! They wanted to know who you were so badly! I should’ve fucking known it was you, only someone like you would be able to pull a stunt like that off every year, you gotta tell me everything about how you operate - are there people that help you behind the scenes? Did you recruit some aprica for your sleigh? Oh fuck, I wonder what your sleigh looks like, I bet it’s a -”

“I do not have a sleigh,” Pongo interjected, “I just use my Skell every year. Eros is able to carry the weight of everything just fine.”

Fudge stopped suddenly. “You don’t have a sleigh.”

“No?”

“...”

Pongo prepared himself for another rant, a bout of frustration. Fudge was an easy man to annoy, and something about that confession made him feel defenseless. He’d never really thought about the specifics regarding Santa’s sleigh, taking it as something he could easily swap out and get the same result. But maybe the decision to do so cost him some necessary Christmas magic? As Pongo silently cursed his oversight, Fudge’s shock slowly turned into something else. Pongo expected a scowl, but he was greeted with a far greater sight. A devilish grin, a plan hatching in Fudge’s mind. Oh, he looked positively demonic like this, but the wider the grin grew, the better Pongo felt. After all, that grin could only mean one thing.

Fudge had an idea.

“RIPS, cancel all the plans I had for tonight,” He told his AI, spinning around and scurrying around to the side of his desk. “Tell Alexa I came down with mimfluenza or some shit, I don’t fucking care. Someone else can take up repair duty for the week. We’ve got a rush order to deal with.”

“What are you planning?” Pongo asked, standing up. At the same time, Fudge pulled out some blueprint paper, slamming it on the empty space on his desk. He kept his hand firmly placed on top of it, whipping a pencil out of thin air and smirking over his shoulder.

“Tonight,” Fudge said, “I’m building Santa’s sleigh.”

True to his word, Fudge sketched out a sleigh to build, decked out with all sorts of functions that Pongo couldn’t wrap his head around. All he was able to gather was that it’d be able to fly in a similar manner to a Skell and wouldn’t require the use of reindeer (or aprica, which couldn’t fly anyways!). It’d have a functional GPS system and a way for Pongo to input all of his stops, as well as check which locations and people had been given their gifts and which hadn’t. The sleigh would be powered by nuclear energy and have safety guards in place in case of an emergency, and - above all else - it would have a sick paint job. Pongo didn’t make the comment in the moment, but Fudge’s excitement almost made him cry. He was acting like a little kid, waiting for his presents under the tree, living in the memory of youth. It was too beautiful a moment for Pongo to squander.

After assessing what necessary for the sleigh, Fudge gave Pongo a shopping list of parts to acquire from the Outfitters and the shops in Armory Alley. The names boggled Pongo’s mind, and trying to pronounce any of them was hard enough, but he didn’t even know their purpose! It resulted in a lot of confusion. Thank the gods Pongo never decided to become an Outfitter, honestly.

Luckily, none of the parts Fudge requested were too big to carry, and Pongo now walked confidently with a shopping bag full of pipes and gears and other knickknacks. It was heavy, of course, but nothing Pongo couldn’t handle. He decided to peruse the commercial district afterwards in the hopes that he could pick up some last-minute gifts from the list. It was busy, but predictable at this point - Pongo was a pro at his job, after all! Years and years of experience shopping for the good people of NLA taught him a thing or two about savings, navigating the crowds, and -

“Pongo!”

Oh, someone said his name! But in the thick of the crowd, Pongo couldn’t identify the source right away. He scoured the road, the sidewalks, trying to see who could’ve called out to him. Only when a hand clasped his shoulder did he realize that the person had been behind him all long, and that person had some rather recognizable metallic red fingers.

“Sydney!” Pongo twisted around and gave Sydney a hug, wrapping his arms over his shoulders. Sydney chuckled underneath him, returning the embrace gingerly. When they separated, Pongo asked, “Doing some last minute shopping for Christmas?”

“Kinda,” He replied, “Looks like you are, too. Is it for the…you know…”

“Oh! Well, technically yes,” Pongo realized Sydney was referring to the bag of parts he was holding onto, “One of my Outfitter friends caught on and insisted that I need a sleigh. He asked me to get some parts to help construct it. He needed…” A pause, as he attempted to remember the names. “...A regeneration corepipe, a couple formstruct plating adhesives, a type three automotive latching mechanism…” Another pause, when he couldn’t bring himself to try and pronounce the names of the more complicated ones. “...some other things, too. I must admit, this kind of stuff is not something I understand well.”

Sydney peered into the bag, his head tilting in curiosity. Pongo made a mental note that he looked rather dashing today, dressed up in one of his fancier white suits. The red tie around his neck matched his arms in grandeur, a slight sheen to them that reflected the sunlight just enough to stand out. Gods above, it even made his eyes pop, a vibrant and passionate crimson hue.

“...Pon?” Sydney glanced up, wearing a faint smile.

“Mm?”

“That’s not a regeneration corepipe. That’s a regeneration corner pipe. Same material, but not the same purpose.”

Pongo’s face fell, the color draining from his face. “Oh, shoot! I should go back and get the right one then, gods I thought -”

“I’ll come with you, if you want,” He offered, “And don’t beat yourself up for not getting it right. It’s a pretty common misconception. Lots of Outfitters mix it up, even.”

“I appreciate that,” Pongo smiled wide, the quick bout of fear residing into his typical cheeriness, “Goodness, I am lucky to have someone so smart by my side!”

Sydney rubbed the back of his neck, a faint blush forming across his cheeks. “I mean, I’m an Outfitter now. I’m supposed to know these things.”

“I wonder if Fudge would welcome your help in constructing the sleigh,” He mused out loud, a careful hand upon his chin. “He insisted that he would be able to complete it before my departure, but…”

“If you’re trying to play friend matchmaker again, I’m not really sure it’ll work out.”

“One bad introduction should not define the entire experience! I mean, do you remember how we met?”

Sydney stiffened at that. “Ah, y-yeah, um…”

“I said it before and I will say it again: I forgive you for doing that,” Pongo gently nudged Sydney’s shoulder, an act of reassurance. “That aside, if it truly makes you uncomfortable, I will not ask Fudge about it. You will at least get the chance to meet him on Christmas Eve!”

“You still expect me to be there?” He asked, “I mean, last year was just a fluke.”

“Part of the magic of Christmas is spending time with your loved ones,” Pongo asserted, “And last I checked, you are under that umbrella.” A pause, a shy smile. “It would not be the same without you there.”

There was a sliver of hesitation in Sydney’s gaze, biting the inside of his lip where the scar ran across his jawline. An image came to mind of Pongo running kisses down its path, but he had some amount of restraint, considering this was a public setting. There’d be time to sing those praises after he’d completed his mission.

“I’ll be there,” Sydney eventually promised, and Pongo allowed himself to break his self-inflicted restraints and give him a quick peck on the lips.

“Thank you, Sydney,” Pongo said, “I cannot tell you how much this means to me.”

Then, taking Sydney’s hand in his own, Pongo glanced up towards the administrative district, the high and mighty BLADE Tower radiant in the afternoon sun. “Alright, now come and show me which one is the corepipe!”

“Okay, okay,” Sydney couldn’t help but chuckle as Pongo nearly dragged him across the sidewalk, and he eventually took the lead down to the hangar’s elevator. Pongo smiled wide the whole way back, his mind swimming with a list of things still left to do, gifts he still needed to get, hugs he still needed to give. Gods above, how Christmas filled him with such wondrous spirit! Not that he wasn’t full of love every other day of the year, but ever since he’d heard of Christmas, something about the holiday gave him the excuse to take things up a level. And considering last year’s Christmas had been…well, less than satisfactory, given his whole “missing both of his legs” deal, Pongo was excited to return to the field and make this Christmas one to remember.

Just thinking about how magical everything felt, he allowed himself to daydream, to imagine how perfect the night would turn out to be. What could possibly go wrong?

Fudge would never admit this to anybody out loud, but damn, did he love Christmas. It had always been one of his favorite times of the year, a moment always shared with his dad and the rest of Carson Tech. There was a kind of feeling that didn’t come with any other holiday, the feeling of spending time with those you loved most. All that “Christmas spirit” bullshit that the commercials and songs spouted over the intercoms got on his nerves pretty quickly, but even then, they held some truth to them.

So hearing that Pongo was the famed Santa Claus that had been delivering presents for the past couple years, hearing that he didn’t have any mode of transportation aside from his own Skell? What a brilliant excuse to combine two of his favorite things!!

Working on something this secret, though, meant that Fudge had to make a few sacrifices. RIPS was automatically programmed to notify Fudge of any incoming calls, and of all the calls he got leading up to Christmas Eve, the majority were from three people. The first was Ruadha, who was simply happy to talk to Fudge over the comm device about everything and anything. They did pry about the whole “secret invention” thing, which Fudge fully expected, but it still prompted him to put up some extra security measures for his lab just in case the little gremlin decided to pay a surprise visit.

The second frequent caller was his father, Antonio Carson. Those calls were daily, and the conversations were on the same wavelength as those Fudge had with Ruadha, sprinkled with a few fatherly words of advice. He didn’t ask about the secret invention as much as Fudge thought he would, but he quickly found out the reason why. Turns out, his father also had a secret he was working on, and he explained that it didn’t feel right asking for a secret to be revealed when he was in no position to return the gesture. That didn’t stop Fudge from wondering what it could be, though.

The third most frequent caller was none other than Polaris. However, that had been something of an error on her part. For whatever fucking reason, she called him a grand total of eight times in a ten minute time frame. When Fudge finally ordered RIPS to pick up so he could scream bloody murder at Polaris, her voice was muffled and far away. Fudge rolled his eyes, immediately deciphering what was happening - especially since Polaris wasn’t the only voice he heard on the other line. Nope, there was a second person in the background, though he wasn’t about to guess what the fuck they were doing. All he said before hanging up was “Blackmail material”. Whether or not it was worthy blackmail material, Fudge wasn’t sure. It just felt good to scare her.

The sleigh was easy enough to build, so long as it had Fudge’s undivided attention. Pongo returned with the parts far sooner than he expected, and Pongo even handed him an extra regeneration corner pipe. “I mixed them up,” Pongo had admitted, and to that, Fudge had responded, “I’ll call this an early Christmas present then”. Pongo didn’t stay much longer after that, and so Fudge got absorbed into his work for the next few days.

Christmas Eve came, and by the time the sun had set below the horizon, the final touches were being made to the sleigh. Fudge wiped his brow, gazing lovingly at his newest masterpiece. He couldn’t think of anything else it would need, so he set his tools down and asked RIPS, “Send a text to Pongo and ask him where the rendezvous is for the operation tonight.”

“YES, MASTER CARSON.”

A few minutes passed, a bliss that came with success and pride, before RIPS informed Fudge, “MASTER CALDRAVIX HAS CONFIRMED THAT THE RENDEZVOUS LOCATION IS ON TOP OF BLADE TOWER IN THE ADMINISTRATIVE DISTRICT.”

“Alright, sounds like a pla -” Fudge stopped. “...Oh. Oh fuck.”

RIPS didn’t even need to ask. How in the ever loving fuck was he supposed to get this sleigh to the top of BLADE Tower without anybody noticing? Fudge groaned, the base of his palms digging into his eyebrows. Looked like he had some more work to do.

As fate would have it, a quick invisibility cloak did the trick. Was it as polished as the rest of the sleigh? Oh absolutely fucking not. Was Fudge a little ashamed of how spotty that last minute detail was? Yep. But hey, it would work for tonight, and he’d have an entire year to refine it further.

With the invisibility cloak on, Fudge used his Amdusias Hades to lift the sleigh and carefully fly it to the top of BLADE Tower. Luckily, the vast majority of NLA’s population had retired for the night, so questions about his Skell’s cupped arms were few and easily dismissed. As he flew closer, Fudge spotted other Skells parked on top of the tower - ah fuck, was he late? Whatever the case was, he landed near the edge, setting the sleigh down as gently as possible before exiting his Skell and greeting everyone outside. He recognized Eros, Pongo’s Skell, which had a comically large sack placed in front of it. Those were the presents, presumably, and thinking about its contents made Fudge’s heart flutter for a moment. Not too far from the Skell’s feet was Pongo, dressed in a rather nice Santa outfit, complete with the hat atop his head. Was that puffball on the hat’s tip heart-shaped? Okay, that was a nice touch. He waved to Fudge as he approached, and that was when Fudge saw the person he’d been talking to.

“L, what the fuck are you wearing?” Fudge asked, nearly choking on his words. The jolly blue xeno was wearing a rather skimpy elf outfit, rather akin to those cursed bunnybods Fudge occasionally witnessed BLADES strutting around in.

“It is our Christmas attire!” L exclaimed cheerfully, unaware of just how he appeared, “We parade in this every year during Christmas’s Evening!”

“Costumes are not necessary, but I think they are rather fun,” Pongo chirped, “When I recruited Danniel, I gave him reindeer antlers. I…well, I am not quite sure what I would give you, Fudge. I think we might need to duplicate some roles.”

“I’m the sleigh guy. Isn’t that enough?” Fudge raised an eyebrow, praying to every god that he wouldn’t have to wear something stupid. Sensing his unease, Pongo gave him a reassuring grin.

“It is more than enough. Though, ah…where exactly is the sleigh?”

Oh, right. Fudge turned back towards his Skell, towards the still invisible sleigh. Pulling out his comm device, he typed in the command for the invisibility device to decloak, and in moments, the sleigh revealed itself to the bystanders atop BLADE Tower. The sides shone a metallic red, glistening in the remnants of the sunset. The seat inside was lined with as plush a fabric as Fudge could find - don’t ask him what material it was, because honestly, that was not Fudge’s area of expertise. A control panel sat in front of the seating, forming a near-perfect semicircle that was reminiscent of the paneling inside a standard Skell. Even the buttons were in a similar arrangement, though none of them were lit up. Pongo would have to turn the bad boy on before the real light show began.

“Oh my gods,” Pongo breathed, “Fudge, you are brilliant.”

“Go ahead and take a closer look if you want,” Fudge told him, “It’s yours, after all.”

That was all Pongo needed to rush forward, squealing like a child, admiring all of the detailwork in half-formed ramblings. Fudge allowed himself a second to revel in the pride, the absolue beauty that he’d managed to build in record time. However, as he glanced to the left, to the right, he realized that there were a few more people here that he hadn’t interacted with. Another darker skinned fellow with reindeer antlers and freckles that rivaled Fudge’s stood awkwardly nearby, for instance. Pongo had mentioned his name over texts - Danny, right? Pongo had the tendency to call people by their full names, an endearing sign of respect that he’d apparently learned early on in his life. Eh, fuck it, Fudge could try to make conversation.

“Danny, yeah?” Fudge started, and the address made Danny make a little noise from the back of his throat.

“Oh, ah, y-yeah! Nice to meet you,” He replied, offering a gloved hand out to shake. As Fudge shook it with his left hand, he could immediately tell that the material under the fabric was different, clearly not the standard mimeosome framework. Fudge resisted every temptation to probe into the details, so he broke off the handshake first and shifted focus.

“How’d you get roped into this shit, then?”

“Oh! A few years ago, Pongo bumped into me while he had his Christmas list out, and I saw it and decided to offer my help,” Danny explained, “He said I could be Rudolph since he was Santa and L was an elf.”

“Does that mean you helped him deliver everywhere in the city?” Fudge asked, genuinely curious as to his role.

“No, I just help him find everything on his list. He does all the deliveries himself - and now he’ll do them with a really cool looking sleigh!” He said, eyeing the sleigh that Pongo was still bouncing around. Seriously, how could anyone have that amount of energy? As he watched the show unfold, Danny continued, “The sleigh looks incredible, by the way. It must’ve taken a long time to build!”

“Eh, three days, give or take,” Fudge shrugged, and he couldn’t really determine why Danny’s eyes grew wide at the answer. “It doesn’t have nearly all of the features I wanted it to have, but it’s got more than enough to function for tonight. Next year I’ll have made it perfect.”

“I don’t doubt that for a second,” Danny agreed, “I look forward to seeing it!”

They both watched as Pongo boarded his Skell, the heavy sack of presents lifting easily in Eros’s arms. Fudge tensed; he hadn’t given Pongo the go-ahead to load the sleigh yet, and he wanted to make sure the weight distribution wasn’t going to fuck up the sleigh’s integrity. But the sack came down on the back half of the sleigh, and though Fudge was bracing for the worst, he heard no signs of the sleigh faltering. Pongo then exited his Skell and continued to geek out over how wonderful the sleigh was, with L piping in with his own compliments every so often.

It was then that Fudge spotted another figure approaching out of the corner of his eye, though they seemed to be ignoring him and Danny. Metallic red arms poked out of a pristine white suit - wait, okay, was there a trend here? Why did everyone have metal arms aside from L? What a weird fucking bias. Whatever the case, the suit alone was enough for Fudge to identify the man as none other than Sydney. He wasn’t wearing any sort of Christmas costume, but that also made him stick out like a sore thumb. That, and the brooding. If there was anything that could get on Fudge’s nerves, it was brooding.

However, he could already hear Pongo’s voice in the back of his mind, an innocent excitement about his friends and loved ones helping him out on one of the most important nights of the year. So Fudge swallowed his pride and took a cautious step forward, enough that he was an equal distance away from both Danny and Sydney. Sydney cast his glance downwards, and Fudge fought the urge to smack the look off of his face. It wasn’t even like the guy was acting high and mighty - it was the fucking height advantage and the fact that Sydney looked so punchable! Hold it together, Fudge, just for the night. He tried to be civil, thinking that maybe he could see past the horrible first impression he was getting.

“So you’re Sydney.”

“Yeah.”

“...”

Yeah, no, Fudge didn’t like this guy at all. Why was Pongo’s taste in men so shitty? Whatever, he could deal with working alongside this douchebag for a night. But that didn’t stop him from squinting, from looking this guy up and down and crossing his arms. Sydney scowled, staring right back at him. Oh, now, this was gonna be fun. He could practically smell the distaste in the air, the fuel being poured onto the fire.

“Are two of my favorite people getting along?” Pongo merrily asked from the side of the sleigh, innocent to the vitriolic stand-off happening in front of him.

Fudge looked away quickly, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sydney do the same. They both responded at the same time.

“No fuckin’ problems here.”

“Yeah, we’re fine.”

Pongo positively beamed at that. “Fantastic! Oh, that makes me feel a lot better. I was starting to think that adding onto the team so quickly would be awkward!”

“The Christmas legend states that the more there are, the merrier you’ll be,” L chirped, “And it’s impossible not to be merry on this wondrous night!”

“It’s definitely nice seeing all the Christmas decorations from up here. Shows how everyone’s still festive!” Danny gazed down at the city below, the districts of the lower level shining in all sorts of Christmas lights. Fudge was eventually able to spot his own contribution to the front of the test hangar, though he felt a little disappointed by the fact that they blended in with the rest of the lights from his current viewpoint.

“So what’s the procedure now?” Fudge asked, sneaking a peek down at his comm device once more. “All the necessary last-minute detailing on the sleigh is done, and judging by the scans, it’s holding the sack’s weight just fine. Should be good for takeoff whenever you’re ready, Santa.”

“L’Cirufe, is every present accounted for?” Pongo said, turning to the xenoform.

“All presents counted and accounted!” He confirmed, “Whenever you’re ready to depart, we shall light the way!”

“Alright! Then it is time to test the sleigh,” Pongo turned back to Fudge, “Remind me what the controls are again? You said there were a few important things to remember.”

“Right,” Fudge adjusted the collar of his sweater, clearing his throat. Could he make himself look a little taller, a little more important? He hoped the bravado did the trick. “When you get into the sleigh, you’ll see a huge panel in front of you. I’ve designed it so it’s similar in appearance to your everyday Skell, with Arts buttons and everything. Center button turns the entire thing on, check to make sure all the other buttons light up when you do that. If they all look good, use the levers to take her up gently - too much force and you’ll shoot straight up vertically into the air.”

“Oh, like what Sydney did with his golden Ares once,” Pongo nodded in understanding, though the comment made Sydney mutter something under his breath about that not being his fault.

“I don’t wanna fucking know,” Fudge said curtly, “But yeah. Don’t drive like a bitch and you should be fine. Worst case scenario, think of it like a Skell, and ask yourself what you’d do if you were in a Skell. Danny and I will be on the comm network on it too, in case you’ve got any questions.”

“Wait, I’m gonna be connected to it?” Danny seemed surprised at this revelation, and Fudge did his best not to roll his eyes and scoff.

“I’m making you the navigator, so yeah. Next year I’ll probably install a GPS into the sleigh so Pon can go his own route, but as it stands, I had three days to build an entire fucking sleigh from scratch, so now that’s your job. Rudolph’s supposed to drive the sleigh, y’know, so at least now your role’s gonna be a little more accurate.” He took a moment to adjust his goggles, which were starting to slide down over his face. The wind was really being a bitch about this, huh? “Anyways, I’ll be connected to it too, since I gotta perform system checks and make sure the whole thing’s running smoothly.”

“And what will Sydney be doing?” Pongo asked sweetly.

Fudge looked at Sydney. Sydney looked at Fudge.

“...Emotional support elf,” Fudge shrugged.

“Excuse me -”

“Anyways, if anything goes south, you can reach me and Danny through the intercom in the sleigh,” Fudge talked over Sydney’s protests, “Oh, and don’t like…lean out of the side or some shit. I’m not gonna be held responsible for Santa’s death.”

“Why didn’t you make any fucking guard rails if you were worried about that?!” Sydney raised.

“Alright, bitchbaby, next time you can make the sleigh in three days, how about that?”

“I could do it in two, and I could do it with enough safety features so I wouldn’t have to fucking worry about Santa splatting into the middle of the residential district’s tennis court!!”

“Batter up then, asshole, God fuckin’ knows you’ve got enough credits up your ass to make it happen! Can’t fuckin’ wait to get blinded on Christmas Eve looking for Santa, dashing through the snow on a gold mercedes sleigh!”

“At least mine would look like a star descending from the heavens! What does yours do, crash and burn? Don’t think I don’t know the Carson legacy just because I haven’t been building fire hazards as long as you have.”

“You fucking piece of shit -”

“GUYS.”

Sydney and Fudge had gotten in each others’ faces, teeth bared and trading verbal blows. Fudge could feel the blood beneath his skin boiling, fuel on a fire that wouldn’t stop burning until it knew the sweet taste of victory. But just as he was about to make things physical, Danny placed himself between the two arguing Outfitters, stretching his arms out to create distance between them. Right, Danny was a Mediator. He was trying to mediate. How cute.

“Now is not the night to do this,” Danny said sternly, “You’re allowed to not be friends, but maybe save the arguing for when you’re not in front of Pongo.”

Fudge looked over, and Pongo was by L’s side, having watched the entire argument unfold. Fudge had been so focused on the fire inside his heart that he didn’t realize that he’d taken some of Pongo’s warmth to do so, the air now a frostbitten chill. Pongo was frozen to the spot, eyes wide like a deer in the headlights. Oh shit, were those tears in the corners of his eyes? Damnit, Fudge really dropped the ball on this one. But still, it was not an easy feat to temper his anger, so his next statement still contained a level of animosity that wasn’t meant for Pongo.

“Get in the fucking sleigh, Santa.”

Pongo didn’t move immediately, though the brief flash in his eyes indicated that he’d heard Fudge loud and clear. However, after taking a moment in the silence, Pongo’s first steps were not towards the sleigh. Instead, he strode over to Fudge, leaned down, and hugged him tight. Fudge gasped, squirming in Pongo’s grip for a moment.

“Thank you for doing this,” Pongo whispered into Fudge’s shoulder, “I am so grateful to have a friend like you in my life.”

“Oh, uh…” Fudge found himself at a loss for words, stumbling upon the bashful, “Don’t mention it. Least I could do.”

Pongo pulled away then, turning and giving Sydney the same hug. Fudge could hear him whisper something too, and whatever it was, it made Sydney’s expression melt. Pongo left Sydney with a goodbye kiss on the cheek, and after giving Danny a hug of his own, he rejoined L by the sleigh. They exchanged a quick hug before Pongo climbed aboard, sliding into his seat in front of the sleigh’s controls. As Fudge had instructed before, Pongo tapped the center button, and the sleigh roared to life, the thrusters in the rear glowing a vibrant red. Before initiating takeoff, he looked to Fudge, and Fudge gave a thumbs-up to indicate that all systems were green.

After that, Fudge could only describe the takeoff as something out of a movie. The sleigh began to ride, slowly, steadily, the flames behind leaving trails of embers and stardust behind it. Though the sleigh wobbled in its ascent, it soon found its balance, and Pongo found his confidence behind the controls. Every system remained operational as the thrusters were given more juice, and the sleigh rocketed off into the night. Fudge even swore that he heard Pongo trying to mimic Santa’s laughter, a hearty “Ho Ho Ho” that echoed across the city. It would’ve brought tears to his eyes if he wasn’t in the company of others, though he promptly noticed that L had begun openly weeping. Danny was the first to ask if he was okay, and to that, L had responded that he was overwhelmed with joy. Thank the fucking gods, honestly.

And so the ragtag group of Santago’s helpers watched as, once again, Santago took to the skies to deliver presents to all of the citizens of NLA. In the silence of their awe, Fudge smiled, and uttered a single phrase.

“Merry Christmas, motherfuckers.”

#xenoblade x #Santago's New Sleigh: Short Story #danniel #fudge #sydney #l'cirufe #twenty FUCKING PAGES OF THIS BULLSHIT #this is far from my best work but that's okay #I had fun writing it and that's what matters #anyways fudge welcome to the fucked up little santago team lmao

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lurking-latinist · 2 years

Text

@human-nxture requested accidental baby acquisition with Six and any companion! (I couldn’t tell if you meant shippy or gen, so I went with gen but not not shippy.) Thanks for the prompt!

Below the cut: Six and Peri and accidental baby acquisition!

(It’ll go on AO3 tomorrow when I’ve thought of a title and have the brain to do tagging and such.)

She'd left the Doctor alone for half an hour, Peri thought, while she bought a new notebook. Half an hour by her well-maintained Earth watch, and a totally unexceptionable errand. Was it too much to ask that he avoid finding new and inventive kinds of trouble for just half an hour?

Apparently so. Because he was sitting on the steps of the forum hall, apparently cheerfully unaware of the crowd of diverse alien travellers and shoppers parting around him and nearly stepping on him, with what looked like a bag cradled in his arms.

She decided to walk up behind him and see if he noticed.

"Don't you worry, my love," she heard him cooing.

To the bag.

All right, then.

"Mummy will be back very soon, you'll see," he went on. He offered one hand to the bag, and a small purple tentacle reached up from it, curling around his finger. It wasn't a bag at all, she realized--it was a baby carrier, for... squid babies? Octopus, octopi, octopodes? Who could say.

She tapped the Doctor on the shoulder, and he jumped and turned his head, still cradling the baby squid (if it was a squid). Standing several steps above him, while he was sitting down, she felt she very definitely held the high ground for once, and she intended to use it. "Mind explaining?" she said.

"Ah!" said the Doctor. He looked slightly guilty, which was in some ways more worrying than if he had looked altogether guilty. "Well, you see, there was this lovely Askelcha woman..."

"That would be a squid person?" prompted Peri.

"They're not squid people, Peri, that's very offensive, they're--and anyway would you not interrupt me?"

"Sorry. There was this Asquelcher woman..."

"Askelcha," said the Doctor. "She had some legal business to do in the forum and she asked me to look after her larva while she does it. She said it would only take a few minutes."

Peri crossed her arms. "And she made big sad eyes at you and you said of course you would do it." On second thoughts, maybe it wasn't the best idea to make the Doctor aware that this always worked on him. She found it quite useful herself.

She sat down next to the Doctor, bending over to see the larva. It reached another tentacle out from its water-filled cradle, and she couldn't help meeting the tentacle with her finger. It was surprisingly soft, although it tickled slightly as it wound around her finger.

"Did she say the baby's name?" she asked.

"No," said the Doctor, "she seemed to be in quite a hurry."

Peri paused and remembered something she'd seen on the news while shopping. "Is there any chance," she asked, "that the woman you talked to was the notorious con artist Nasker Loosh? Tall, sort of purple and blue with tentacles and one big eye?"

"Sounds like her, but I wouldn't know. Why do you ask?" said the Doctor.

"Because she was sentenced to five years in prison about ten minutes ago in the forum," said Peri. "Looks like her 'legal business' didn't go so well."

The Doctor met her eyes with an expression of dismay.

"We might be babysitting for slightly longer than we anticipated," she said.

"Oh well," said the Doctor, happy again in his mercurial way. "At least the baby likes me. Don't you, my darling?" he asked the larva, and Peri sighed deeply. But she couldn't help smiling as well.

#doctor who #classic who #sixth doctor #peri brown #fic #clashing plaids #six/peri #not really but it could be

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nekoprankster218 · 2 years

Text

Humanity has finally found a way to communicate with crabs, we realize they're smarter than us. Now that they know we know, what are they going to do?

"Be not afraid."

Amanda shivered again at the response from the device. However, she composed herself enough to not scream, as the words settled in her head. There was no one else at the lab this late, anyway. Complying with the voice and avoiding upsetting it was her best bet for now.

"Yes, I seek not to harm you. Merely to understand. How is it that you have channeled into my wavelengths?"

Searching around the room for a possible source, Amanda answered, "I...think it was my device that did it? I'm currently experimenting with better forms of long-distance communication, to make it more powerful and clearer...We're traveling more to space-"

"Ah, and the vacuum and distances up there are quite different than on this planet, so tweaking communicative technology is necessary. I think I understand now."

"You do?" Her eyes landed on her device again. "But...the thing is, I haven't even finished, so...how is it already picking up a signal?"

"That would be...because of me. You have accidentally tapped into my species' wavelength, so I responded when I picked up a sudden interference. Your device is still very weak, though, which is why you can only hear my responses and not those of my kindred also inquiring into your signal."

"So that implies that you're close?" Amanda looked around the room again. "But I'm here alone?"

"No...no, you are not." Her neck tingled as if someone had sighed against her skull. "Go to your colleague Jeffery's office, and you will see. You do not need to bring your device, though."

It was the office right next to hers, so it was only a matter of seconds before Amanda was greeted by another room devoid of any person. Only the aquariums that Jeffery kept as part of his sea life research contained life here.

"Um...hello?"

"The furthest aquarium to the right of the room."

Nearly jumping at the voice being heard within her head this time, Amanda's gaze fell onto a lone hermit crab in the aquarium described. Jeffery once had many others, but they all died of either mysterious causes or simply vanished. Eventually, they discovered evidence that Matthew - formerly a security guard of the lab - had been tampering with all the crabs in the building. He seemed to be an extreme activist or something - they didn't really know what, because he just wouldn't cooperate even after being confronted with irrefutable evidence of his actions.

"Yes. Please, approach."

"The...the crab??" Amanda eyed the security camera in the room. How likely was it that someone else had been reading over her research and made...any sort of invention that could be messing with her head right now?

"I prefer the name-" Random syllables that Amanda had no confidence in recreating with a human throat ensued. "But...yes. In your tongue, you would refer to me as a crab."

"This has to be some kind of joke," Amanda mumbled as she stepped up to the front of the aquarium. "Maybe I could believe that I accidentally invented a device that could communicate with crabs, but not that the very same crab is telepathically communicating with me, too!"

"That is only because we stopped conversing with you humans in this matter. We concluded that it was the best path to take. And now, your civilizations have forgotten."

Kneeling down to be eye level with the crab before her, she glared into its own to find any sign of intelligence or understanding. But it looked like crabs usually do.

"Oh, yeah? Then if you're all so smart, how come your 'kindred' couldn't fight off Matthew?"

The urge to laugh was supplanted into Amanda's brain, forcing her to fight her own body to keep from cackling. "My dear...why do you think your former colleague Matthew could not recall any footage you showed him, nor believe the charges against him? Jeffery is a smart one among you, he was picking up on too much. We needed other ways to conduct our business and a scapegoat to cover us afterwards. It just so happened that the man had just the right work hours for our purposes, even if it was regrettable what had to be done with him. However, it is as you humans say...we work in mysterious ways."

Amanda straightened up and took a step away from the aquarium. "What...business would crabs have?"

"That is too much information to divulge - and not the purpose for why I am speaking with you now. It is the subject of your device that is my focus...in its current state, it would be troublesome. We have our reasons for cutting off communications with you, and it must stay that way."

"So, you're gonna ask me to destroy my work?"

"Oh, no. Not to that extreme. You will be pleased to know that some of my kindred have already figured out how to achieve your goal with your device without interfering with our wavelengths. This is not the first time we have needed to tweak the work of an exceptionally clever human. Indeed, you will come to believe that it was your own genius that unlocked a new tier of long-distance communications, and not the aid of my kindred."

I will come to believe... "So I'm going to-"

"Forget this encounter ever happened, yes," the crab responded before she could finish. It apparently already knew. "That is the custom with situations like this. The matter has been resolved. You will awaken back in your office, with memories of completing the improved device replacing those of speaking with me. You will continue to believe that Matthew was a delusional enigma that cared too deeply for my kindred. You will continue to believe that Jeffery is wasting his time with sea life evolution, and the 'mystery' of why much of this planet returns to our visage. The work we have gifted you will bring you and your kindred much success. It is a desirable conclusion for you and I both."

"Wait..." Amanda said, almost heaving as she spoke. "Can't I just get a little more time to process this? To understand? This is...maybe an even greater discovery than my device, I...I can't move on just yet."

"It is how it must be. Already, you are experiencing foreseen symptoms that I hoped to avoid by being swift, but you insisted on being convinced first. Indulging your curiosity would be meaningless anyway. You will not retain any knowledge gained here. All that you have learned so far, was merely to reach the end of resolving this matter. My kindred have already fixed your machine in the time it took for our conversation to conclude."

"The other crabs?!" Amanda gasped. "They're still here? Even the dead ones?!"

"Those that departed have greater matters to attend to. Those that seemingly - in your eyes - 'vanished', were always close by, leaving the aquariums and Jeffery's research so that they continue their business unheeded. Such as fixing your invention."

"Do you regularly tamper with what we do here, then?"

"You are asking if we sabotage your work? No. We only fix. We guide you away from knowledge you are better off without. We do this because the last time we did not, you doomed your entire species to a more tragic existence than one you could have had. It set you away from the path of returning to the visage. But, dear Amanda..."

Her eyelids grew heavy as she could feel her body's endocrine system suddenly changing course. She could feel it - feel the usually undetectable processes of her body.

"If it will bring your sleeping self peace...know that you and your kindred have not taken yourselves completely off the path. All, in their own time, shall return to the visage."

A/N:

What the fuck did I just create.

#satt-prompt #show and tell time #satt-crabs #satt-writing-prompt #show and tell #satt #my writing #short story #creative writing #short fiction #flash fiction #my post #my posts

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