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Jack In, Monika.CHR, EXECUTE - 1: The Boys Are Back in Town

The year is 20X7. It has been six years since the capture of Dr. Albert Wily and his incarceration, and Net Crime has been on a slow decline ever since. With the WWW ceasing all operations and any remaining operatives going into hiding or joining more petty criminal organization, Net Society has been much more peaceful than usual.

In this new peace, one of the greatest Netbattle pairs on the planet have grown into young adults. Can they solve the dark mysteries behind a new set of friends?

"Comin' through, needed for an experiment!" A young man skates through the SciLab lobby, deftly dodging around the various visitors and scientists in his path. Lan Hikari is on his way upward into the Netbattle testing area.

"Elevator's on your right, Lan!" A voice comes from the blue device clipped to Lan's belt. MegaMan.EXE, Lan's NetNavi and battle brother, is as helpful as ever. "I'd say you'll find it in... About 10 more near collisions?" As helpful as ever, and as beleaguered as ever. Even after being partners for nearly Lan's entire life, the excitable young man in orange hasn't slowed down nearly as much as MegaMan would have hoped. "I know you're excited to see Dad, but it isn't like we're late for this."

"Aw, come on, Mega. I could never miss the chance to be a part of anything like this. Besides, I know you feel like we're getting rusty." Lan swiftly leaps across a railing to reach the elevator. He holds the blue PET up to the elevator's keypad. "Key's in your hands, MegaMan, get us in."

"Roger!" MegaMan tosses the ID data over to the keypad's data reader, and the elevator opens for the two of them. "And... I can't say you're wrong about me feeling rusty. But it's not like we're slacking on our NetBattle training."

Lan steps into the elevator. "It's the only class I'm acing, this year. But at least I'm not doing too bad at trig. The only class I'm really kinda bungling is-"

"Literature Analysis." MegaMan doesn't even hesitate. He may already have a file open showing Lan's grades.

Lan immediately twists the PET upward to see the screen. "MegaMan, come on, that class is awful."

"You should still put more effort into it. Interpreting art is part of being a more well-rounded human."

"I don't NEED to be a well-rounded human, I need to be a sharp, focused scientist." Lan nods down at his device's screen.

"Focused might still be a little far away..." MegaMan sighs.

"Wh- Hey, we're here to do an experiment with Dad, I can focus on that when we get up to the testing floor!" Lan grumbles. He folds his arms as he clips his PET back to his belt.

MegaMan rolls his eyes. "Once I'm jacked in and fighting, at least. Do you even remember what this test is supposed to be for?"

"Yeah. A new Navi type. Something about a test for easier synchro ratings between Navis and NetOps. Which makes us the perfect pair to test against!" Lan smirks proudly.

"I think it's more likely we're just on Dad's speed dial. Anyone else would probably say ProtoMan and-"

"Aaagh, don't even mention them. Somehow they're even more insufferable, ever since we got into high school."

"Protoman's the same as he's always been, and Jiyuu's not that bad. She's just more herself, now that she ditched her dad completely. Among the other obvious changes." MegaMan chuckles to himself. "I remember she started laughing about you calling her an 'egg' because of her old hairstyle, once she was out of the closet."

"...I used to be such a twerp with her. I'm mostly glad she forgave me for that. You think I've gotten better about... I dunno, social things, since then?" The elevator continues rising, leaving the brothers to their own devices for just a bit longer.

"You're better in some ways, but you'll always be yourself, Lan. Especially with your chronic impatience and addiction to rollerblading..."

"It's efficient."

"It's reckless, and you're lucky you haven't smashed me to pieces under your own power."

The elevator doors open, releasing Lan and MegaMan out into the Netbattle lab. "Yeah, yeah, you're in a bulletproof, elephant-proof case, you'll be fine. Hey, Dad, I'm here-?"

Well, that's a surprise. It seems that, today, the Netbattle lab...

...is full of incredibly cute girls!!

#drabble

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By LabradoriteKing on Pinterest

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When a robogirl is sleepy she goes into sleep mode obviously, but if you turn on a big blocky PC monitor and connect it to her while she's in sleep mode, you can see a little cartoon doodle version of her having fun in the screensavers. Bouncing around the screen, or playing among the Pipes. That's her dreams.

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so like. obviously it's an immensely tragic route to take but sometimes it's just so satisfying for a story to go "there's no happy ending this time. resistance is futile in this scenario. the 'good guys' can't win. this is a pointless last stand. so for their final act, our beloved characters are going to rock the antagonist's shit so fucking hard it makes you stare at a wall struggling to process what just happened and how you feel about it for hours afterwards."

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Get bamboozled, you have to click through to AO3 and potentially leave a comment on this little writing thing.

#drabble

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I want a story about a king whose son is prophesied to kill him so the king is like “whatever what am I supposed to do, kill my own kid wtf is wrong with you” so he just raises him as normal, doesn’t even tell him about the prophecy, and instead of some convoluted twist of events that leads to the king’s murder the son grows up and when the king is very old and dying and in excruciating pain the kid is just like alright I'mma put him out of his misery.

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i love to have friends who care enough about me to do things like this❤️

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A concept: mermaids in wheelchairs

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finally decided to sit down and watch the incredibles again. there will be no commentary because i’m gonna be too busy watching it

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To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995)

Dir. Beeban Kidron

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Dreams Drifting

Tessa feels her consciousness come floating upward out of the darkness of sleep, only to have her nose filled with the scent of copper. Her eyes snap open, and she clutches her stomach, looking around in confusion.

There's blood everywhere, fountains of it. Literal fountains, and channels running alongside the stone road she's standing on. The smell is overpowering.

Tessa's mind twists about as her previous human disgust at the thought of this much blood and her new thirst battle inside of her.

[-1 Spirit, +3 Remaining]

[Roll: Endure Stress - 4 7 vs Heart 7 - Weak Success - No Recovery]

She falls to her knees, heaving. The fledgling vampire drops her hands to the ground to keep herself from completely falling over. This night just keeps getting worse.

Newborn... Stand on your feet.

Tessa immediately goes rigid. That was... A voice in her head? She feels compelled to obey. The shaken woman carefully gets to her feet, holding her arms close to herself. Her eyes are somehow drawn to the biggest fountain at the center of this... Courtyard...?

She takes timid steps toward the fountain. She dares not speak from fear and nerves.

The flow of blood in the fountain comes to a slow stop. The crimson fluid begins to hover upward, taking a humanoid shape at the peak of the fountain.

Hm. No progenitor to guide you. You poor, wretched thing.

Tessa sucks in a breath. This specter seems to, at least immediately, not mean any harm. She simply continues gazing upward at the imposing blood-person.

Feel welcome, as much as you can, to the Bloodcurse Nightmare. The figure gestures to the courtyard. The stone walkways stretch on much farther than Tessa initially noticed. Now that she's not fighting her instincts, she can see the paths stretch on for miles. They could even stretch on forever...

Tessa gazes upward at the figure, still holding herself.

I'm sure you have many questions. It is ordinarily the progenitor's job to teach their progeny the ways of our society. I can feel, however, that the bond between you and your maker has been severed by the knife of death.

Tessa almost spits. Her true feelings of betrayal bubbling up to the top of her heart in this realm of dream. Death isn't the only thing that would have left that bond severed. If he had his way, Tessa wouldn't still be here. She grits her teeth.

I'm so sorry... As a mere avatar of the cursed blood, I cannot teach you nearly as much as a progenitor would be able to. A new fledgling is a rare event, though, and I'm sure elder vampires will sense your presence flailing aimlessly and come to support you.

...At least she won't be alone forever. Tessa relaxes her arms. The oddly maternal presence of this thing is starting to calm her.

Fledgling, I do have one warning. Vampires do need to consume blood to merely exist. You have yet to fill your veins completely, and I fear you won't be able to find your hunger sated until you do. You will need to hunt again, precious Newborn, and more than you want to.

Tessa's eyes fall to the ground. She was hoping this wouldn't continue to be so awful. She can't just drink someone dry. It almost happened, already, she can't have that on her conscience!

I feel your hesitance, Newborn. It is a harsh truth, but the body you inhabit has inherited the need to steal life. You will yourself die, if you can't drink of the blood of mortals.

There has to be something else, surely... Tessa sighs. No. For now, this avatar of her curse, or whatever she called herself, is the only source of answers available to her.

The avatar begins sinking back into the fountain. Alas, dear Fledgling, the sun is setting once again. Time within a dream ebbs and flows beyond anyone's control. You may remain here, instead of awakening, if you wish to conserve your blood. But you may be better suited to returning to the physical realm. You will not solve the problem of your thirst and hunger by hiding in this realm of dreams.

She's right. Tessa shakes her head. As the woman sinks away into the fountain, she feels the tug of the rising moon at her shoulders. The way her new "Bloody Godmother" said it, it sounds like it has to be an active choice to wake up. She closes her eyes and tries to focus...

[Wake Up: -1 Blood, +1 Remaining]

Tessa slowly stretches herself out, coming back to the true waking world. She sits up, holding her stomach as it growls. It's not like she's starving like she was, last night, but she feels near it.

Her plan was to call for help. There's no way she can just drink one of her friends, but maybe she has to. Tessa pulls her phone from her pocket and stares blankly at the screen.

No. No, she can't. That's a complete betrayal of trust. She'd be just as bad as her asshole boyfriend. But what else can she even do? She can't just go out and drink some random person, that would be horrible!

Tessa gets off of her bed and puts a jacket on, slipping her phone into the pocket. This problem isn't going to solve itself. And she can't just sit in her room whinging about it. Her hand comes to rest on her doorknob, and she just stares down at it. She's shaking.

Her stomach growls again, and her grip on the knob tightens. She can barely think straight with this gnawing sensation in her guts. It's better than being near manic, like last night, but she can still barely put her own thoughts together.

The young woman grits her teeth and forces herself out of her apartment. She... Ugh, it's fine, if she doesn't kill anyone, right? Surely she can control herself that much? Maybe not for long, so she should push what little advantage she has over her life.

This sucks...

Tessa begins carefully lurking in the city's streets and alleys. Maybe she can get lucky twice? She ran into her victim, last night, by sheer chance.

[Roll: Gather Information - 1 9 vs Intellect 6 - Weak Hit]

[+1 Focus]

Signs are pretty poor that she's going to find anyone this close to her apartment. There are a few groups of people around, but nobody she can easily lure away or corner. God, what the hell is she thinking? Corner? What's wrong with her...?

As she mopes, she misses a slightly more imposing figure approaching behind her. A taller woman easily slides up behind Tessa and rests a hand on her shoulder. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're the new Fledgling in town, aren't you?" Her voice is calm and firm, ice floating in a pond.

Tessa tenses up immediately. Please don't be some kind of vampire cop, please don't be some kind of vampire cop. She can only nervously turn back to get a good look at the woman.

A slender, tall woman in black denim and silver chains meets Tessa's timid gaze. Black nails, incredibly pale skin, lips painted blood red. (God, Tessa hopes that's lipstick.) Her dark hair flows down her back, moving in the wind like a cloak. To say this woman has embraced her seemingly vampiric identity would be an understatement.

The woman pulls her sunglasses down, looking back at Tessa with matching ruby-red irises. "Mm, right on the money. Come on. From the mess you were in last night, I'm betting you're hungry."

"A-ah?" Tessa squeaks nervously. There's other vampires in town?! There can't be that many, surely? Oh, no, she's in so much trouble, she's a vampire cop here to get rid of her for causing a ruckus with that person she bit and ran away from. No witnesses, that's how they stay secret, and she totally left one and bolted, no no no no no no no-

Tessa is snapped out of her panic when the taller vampire brings her into the back of a clinic and sits her down in a very blocked-off patient room.

"Don't go anywhere." The woman nods at Tessa, barely waiting for a response before she heads out of the door. "Hey, Rick. Special patient's here."

Special patient...?

A Japanese man, some few years Tessa's senior, comes into the room with a blood bag. "One free pack, for you. And before you ask, my name is Dr. Shinkawa, not Rick." He rolls his eyes as he leaves the bag in Tessa's lap. The doctor exits the room. "Yours again, Tori."

Tori, huh? Okay. A name for her fellow vampire. But before that, food. Tessa starts drooling as she realizes this blood is for her. Her stomach demands it, and she sinks her fangs into the bag, desperately.

[+2 Blood, +3 Remaining]

Tessa feels her head begin to clear up, immediately, as the blood enters her system. She's not full, but now that she's not near-starving she'll be able to think more clearly. She relaxes in her chair with a sigh. So much better. Everything is still existentially terrifying, but now that her stomach isn't yelling at her so badly she can

"So. What's your name, Fledge?"

"A-ah, uh. T-Tessa, ma'am." Right, she was brought here by someone, she's not at home. She awkwardly hugs the emptied blood bag in her arms.

"Victoria. You probably heard Rick call me Tori. That's fine, too." The woman pulls a chair up, across from Tessa, and takes a seat. "It's nice to meet you, Tessa. Word is that you don't have a progenitor, right?"

"P-pro- um." The younger vampire shudders. "N-no. I, uh, I don't. He's... gone."

"Not my business, then. But... I'm betting you have a ton of questions. I can't really take the place of the special bond you should have had with your maker, but... I can teach you what I know. I've been around for a little over a century..."

[Roll: Make Connection 3 1 - vs Heart 7 - Strong Hit]

[Bond Forged: Victoria, the new teacher.]

Victoria's been around the block, for sure. Tessa learns the very basics from her. Vampires are hiding mostly in plain sight, often working at night and in somewhat sneaky places to obtain blood. She still isn't sure if she can handle needing to steal blood, but at least she's no longer alone in this struggle.

Tori, herself, is actually a volunteer at the clinic, taking blood donations and occasionally tipping off Dr. Shinkawa about someone having an unusual blood condition for a little extra cash under the table. Working at the clinic is actually what tipped her off to Tessa being around. Someone got rushed in with a particularly bloody neck injury they couldn't explain, right after a fight of some kind was reported by other people nearby. A fledgling vampire was written all over those, especially since the wounds weren't properly sealed. Victoria lets Tessa know she can heal a wound with her saliva, after she feeds.

That brings the topic toward the way Tessa was "Embraced", as the vampires apparently call it. Turning people into vampires is uncommon, especially nowadays, because it costs a vampire their own blood to turn someone. Tessa's even more certain that whatever happened to her bastard dead ex-boyfriend was a massive cosmic apology for him draining her completely.

Vampires can apparently have a mishmash of accursed talents, as well. Tori demonstrates her own power with Tessa, peering into her eyes and using some mystic empathy to see what Tessa might have.

A hypnotic gaze... That explains why she was able to catch the one person, last night. Tori warns Tessa to not try to use it until she feels like she has a better source of blood. Magic costs the energy within blood, and it's just going to make her hunger worse.

Tori provides Tessa with her phone number and sends her back on her way. Even with so much new knowledge shared, the night is still pretty young. Victoria encourages Tessa to go hunt and get filled up, and Tessa only responds in a noncommittal grunt.

The newborn vampire makes her way home, eyeing her phone. There is... one option in her contacts that could help her out. She doesn't want to drink one of her friends, but. Maybe it's worse to go out and just drink someone? Tessa sighs to herself. She can't have a comfortable moral victory, here. Either she betrays the trust of a friend, or she goes out and steals life from a random stranger.

And she can already barely forgive herself for hurting her previous victim, even if she wasn't in her right mind. And he didn't remember her, or her hurting him, so maybe it's fine...?

Fuck, she really just needs someone to talk to who isn't caught up in all of this. Tessa's mind gives her one answer, as much as she wants to resist involving her friends.

She enters her apartment, once more. Tessa sits back on her bed and looks at her phone. The best option is... Rani. If nothing else, she's a cryptid enthusiast and might at least entertain a hypothetical about vampires. Not telling her the truth about what's going on is better than drinking her, probably.

Tessa begins texting her.

[text>Rani] hey rani? can u come over? [text<Rani] ya gurl! brt

"What am I getting her into...?" Tessa sighs and lays back in her bed, rubbing her face. "Stupid jerk boyfriend... Could be getting an internship at the bakery... Now I'm craving blood."

…At least she's at the bottom and it can only get better? Maybe Tessa doesn't believe it, but it's something she can try to wish into reality.

#drabble

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Time shifting

––

I wanted this but the original poster is transphobic

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The First Night

The flames of life, nearly snuffed and drained completely, are sometimes saved by chance events. As her body strains and twitches, Tessa feels a burning sensation spread from the puncture wounds in her neck. She's so... cold. The young woman grunts and groans. Her body is changing in ways she could never have foreseen, as the cursed blood spilled into her wounds spreads its magic into her empty veins and forces her heart to beat once more.

An empty container, of course, can't supply energy to anything else. Tessa opens her blue eyes, staring at the moon as her unintended embrace completes and turns them ruby red. And yet with no blood for herself, they're dull and unfocused. She can't even comprehend the silver radiance hanging above her. All she can feel is a compulsion...

To feed.

Tessa's canines... no, her fangs, ache.

[Awakening: Loveless Embrace - 2 Health, 2 Spirit, 0 Blood]

[New Elegy: So Thirsty...]

As the burning unlife burns into her bones and muscles, Tessa slowly rises to her feet. She leans on the brick wall of the alley, panting as her lungs refill with air. Now, just to fill her stomach.

The smallish woman begins taking weak steps forward. Her hunger claws at her brain, dragging her toward the nearest sounds of food. A lone meal. Tessa hobbles ahead, only able to feel her insatiable thirst at the moment.

There. Prey. Her fangs almost twitch in anticipation. She approaches them, unconcerned with introductions. Their eyes meet Tessa's, and she feels an ancient magic stir in her eyes, weakly reaching out to captivate her victim.

[Roll: Feed - 2 10 vs Glamour 6 + 1 (Power: Hypnosis) - Weak Hit]

"Stay... Stay still..." Tessa watches them stiffen up, obeying the command. She approaches and greedily sinks her fangs into their neck. The gush of blood into her mouth relaxes her as she drinks away. Perfect... life is refilling her veins, and her hunger is slowly ebbing away.

Enough for her conscious mind to finally awaken and finally feel horrified.

[+2 Blood, -1 focus]

Tessa almost rips her fangs out of the person and darts off, terrified of what's happened. Blood drips down her chin, and the thought to lick it up sends a twinge of disgust and fear through her heart.

Home! Where's home?! Where is she...?

Her heart's beat calms as she takes cover in another alley, shaking. Now that she has some blood in her, she can try to calm down. Where's...?

The puncture wounds in her neck burn as she thinks of his name. Yes... She remembers. He bit her and drained her until she was barely alive, then... Some kind of scuffle...? All she recalls is that there was a warm splash on her neck as she was tossed to the ground. Then... nothing, until she woke up with her very soul hungering.

Fate has given this poor, timid woman another chance at existence. Even as this... bloodsucking beast, she figures it's karma paying her back for such a horrid demise. One she almost inflicted on someone else.

Tessa takes a shaking breath, holding her blood-stained face in her hands. She focuses on her heartbeat, trying to calm herself by mentally tracking its rhythm.

[Roll: Respite - 6 4 vs Heart 7 - Strong Hit] [+2 Spirit]

"Okay... Okay..." She lets out a deep sigh, relaxed for the first time for this entire night. "...I just... I just need to get home and rest... And hope no one sees all the blood..." Tessa swipes at her lips and chin with her sweater's sleeves. It's laundry night as soon as possible...

She carefully gets to her feet, holding the wall as her weakened body goes through a dizzy spell. Her stomach growls with her monstrous hunger, and she grits her teeth. "N-no, I can't... That was plenty..."

Thunder rumbles above her, as clouds slowly begin to fill the sky. That's... perfect, actually. People will ignore her on her way home, if it's raining. The air fills with heavy, soaking droplets. Tessa begins making her way home, hurrying through the pouring storm.

Soaked to the bone, Tessa finally shuffles into her apartment. She goes to remove her clothes and take a shower to get rid of all of this blood. Once she's cleaned, after a solid thirty minutes of boiling and steaming herself, she slinks into bed to sleep.

She'll need to call someone for help, tomorrow night, but for now she's simply too exhausted to continue.

[Roll: Rest - 1 9 vs Heart 7 - Weak Hit] [+1 Health]

#drabble #tried some solo tabletop writing

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Honestly? My main piece of advice for writing well-rounded characters is to make them a little bit lame. No real living person is 100% cool and suave 100% of the time. Everyone's a little awkward sometimes, or gets too excited about something goofy, or has a silly fear, or laughs about stupid things. Being a bit of a loser is an incurable part of the human condition. Utilize that in your writing.

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An Interview with Dot.

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vampirism poses the question "what if there was a fundamental, horrible, unending well of want in your soul that, if truly satisfied, would lead to great pain for all those you hold closest and, in turn, their absolute and total revilement of you?" and naturally as a person with no problems I don't relate to this in any way at all.