Wordpress back-up for the tumblr blog. This is just an archive: the fanart and fanfic posted on this blog are the properties of the users listed and linked in the individual posts.
To: @oolb
From: @vanitasofficial
Heya! You requested Phi in your prompts list, so here’s a nifty lil sprite I made for her for you! Feel free to use her wherever you want, I hope you enjoy the gift! Have a happy holidays!
Here’s a static version of the gif as a PNG, in case you prefer that.
To: @vanitasofficial
From: @cammieanime
Light wakes up in complete darkness. To be fair, this is totally normal for a blind man- but even someone who can’t see can tell the difference between a typical lack of light and the cloying darkness he seems to have found himself in.
Something is very very wrong, and he can’t remember where he is or why he’s there.
Well that’s just fine and dandy isn’t it? But he can’t just lay here in this oppressive darkness forever.
He says to himself, “Alright Light, time to take stock,” and his voice is rough and his mouth and throat are horribly dry. Typical symptoms of having been drugged, or possibly hungover, but he is hardly one to imbibe, so the latter can be reasonably ruled out.
From the echo of his voice he can tell that he is inside of… Something. His limbs are stiff and tired as he feels around on the inside of the something, lending more credence to his “I was drugged” theory. There’s nothing on the inside of the top of the something, but there is a seam running all the way around the “walls” of the something, so presumably it opens from the top. He feels around a little more and believes he finds hinges. Then he does what anyone trapped inside of a something would do, and that’s shove on every possible surface looking for a way out.
And of course there isn’t.
So, Light Field, you’ve been drugged and trapped in a box. What do you do now?
You wait.
And so he waits.
He falls in and out of consciousness for a while before fully awakening to the sound of voices.
Even his exceptional hearing can’t make out exactly what is being said, muffled through the material of his prison. If he had to hazard a guess, he would say some kind of confrontation was going on, from the raised voices and people interrupting each other.
Then, the slamming of a door.
And silence.
If he had room in this box he would hit himself.
Good job, Light. You let your possibly only chance at escape get away.
Then the voices start up again. Quieter, and noticeably fewer than before, but they’re there.
He slams on the inside of the box as hard as he possibly can. Over and over and over.
As one could expect, the voices come closer. He can make one out as his sister, Clover. The other two are familiar, but…
They start banging and tapping on the box and trying to move the lid as he had, but again, to no avail.
He also begins to hear a soft beeping, and when it stops the lid of the box springs open.
Well then.
He sits up and his body protests. He feels weak and his neck aches, as if he’s just come out of anesthesia, but he’s no longer trapped in a box- coffin, it’s a coffin, from the shape of the lid he can tell it’s an actual, literal coffin, what the hell- so he can definitely say his overall condition has improved.
“Snake!”
“Snake?”
“Brother!”
From the awful nickname, he remembers. The nonary game. They’re on the titanic. And where are his clothes?
He steps out of the coffin with the help of Seven and Junpei, and his sister barrels into him with a surprising amount of force.
He asks the group to fill him in on what happened while he was knocked out in a coffin, and do they have a tale to tell. Soon the ragtag group is on their way to rescue their kidnapped companions, through the inexplicable second nine door.
Truly, the whole situation is still far less than ideal, but…
Why does he have a powerful feeling that it could be much, much worse?
To: @therealhousewivesofhyrule
From: @silvershoelaces
Happy holidays!
Phi didn’t have much before she volunteered to be frozen, but now she had even less. Her foster parents, already elderly when she participated in the simulated Mars mission forty-five years ago, were long gone. And she’d sold all her stuff on eBay when she quit college in anticipation of participating in the Decision Game. The only things she had left were what remained of her bank account, the clothes she was wearing, and the brooch she had had since she was a baby. She didn’t even have knowledge about the outside world, now that it had changed so much, so the street smarts she’d prided herself on for twenty years? May as well have been Star Trek trivia for all the good they’d do her. As much as she valued her independence, it looked like she had no choice but to take Old Man Sigma up on his offer to take her in, at least until she found out whether her bank, which had been all but destroyed during the Radical Six chaos, would be able to recover the funds in her account. Besides, the test results were coming in today.
Phi began to pace back and forth where she was waiting in Warehouse A, uncharacteristically anxious. Everything that had taken place since she had been dragged into this insane series of events at the beginning of the AB Game had already changed her life completely. But this news, knowing if she had a real, blood family, could change it just as much. And the call was supposed to come in any minute now….
“Phido, how ya been?” chuckled an obnoxious, grating voice. “It’s been furever, hasn’t it?”
Lagomorph. Knowing that Sigma and Akane, two people she hadn’t known before, but now cared about and trusted, had conspired to make the thing, did not fill her with any love for it. It was still as obnoxious as ever. Phi spun around to see the main screen lit up with the face of that…creature.
“What do you want?”
“You’ve got a call from Master Kurashiki. I have a hutch you’ll want to take it.”
Admittedly, she did. In fact, that’s what she had been waiting for. Akane was on Earth, or what was left of it anyway, and so Akane was the one who was receiving the results of her genetic test. If she had any family—any whatsoever—she intended to contact them and see if they could help her get back on her feet, make ends meet, learn about her real parents, or whatever. That is, if they cared.
“Yeah, put her through, Zer—I mean, Lagomorph.” It wasn’t surprising that she had messed up the bunny’s name, since it had been nearly a year in her consciousness since she had first heard it, and less than a day in real time. And she’d been used to calling it Zero, too.
Lagomorph chuckled with some sort of psychotic glee and disappeared as Akane’s face showed up on the screen. In front of her was a large box with a return address claiming to be from the International Genetic Database.
“Good day, Phi,” Akane said with a gentle smile. “I hope you are doing well.”
“Yeah, yeah, Akane. No need to be so polite with me,” Phi retorted, knowing full well that Akane was equally polite when they were the same age, and that telling her not to be polite did nothing. She was just like that. “You got the results, right?” Of course, she knew the answer to her question was already on-screen.
“Yes, I did. Would you like me to open them for you, or do you prefer privacy?”
“Whatever, I’m sure you don’t know any of the people I might be related to anyway,” Phi scoffed. “If there even is anybody left, I don’t care if you see it. Hell, if you do know them, maybe you can send ‘em my way.”
“If that is what you wish, I will open it for you now,” Akane said, pulling a letter opener out of somewhere off-camera. It had a rabbit on the handle. How much did this woman like rabbits? What a weirdo. Akane, obviously oblivious to Phi’s thoughts, used the letter opener to slice the tape on the outside of the box.
Inside there was a heavily padded envelope, with a memory card taped to it. The memory card was the same type of card used in the facility, which honestly was surprising to Phi. For whatever reason, she had assumed that all of the technology in Rhizome Nine was specially made for the AB Project. Clearly that assumption was wrong.
Akane leaned over the camera, completely obscuring it as she fiddled with whatever device was in front of her. Presumably, she was inserting the memory card into her computer, but Phi couldn’t tell. When Akane finally sat down, she didn’t look Phi in the eye, instead focusing intently on the information onscreen.
“So how’s it looking?” Phi asked eventually.
Akane let out an audible gasp. Good timing.
“I knew it,” Phi laughed darkly. “I have no living relatives at all, do I?” It was just her luck. No known living relatives in the days before genetic testing could prove that assumption wrong, no living relatives now. She was destined to be alone.
“It says here…your closest living relative is…no, that can’t be true. His younger sister…is this what he meant? April nineteen…”
“What?!”
“The test results say that your closest living relative is…Dr. Klim.”
What the hell?
No, seriously. The old woman must have been more senile than Phi thought.
“What. The. Hell.” Phi was ready to hear that she would never find anybody. But this? This was beyond her expectations. This was insanity.
“There aren’t too many remaining members of the Klim family, but Sigma is, in fact, your closest genetic match. You share 50% of your DNA with him.”
“What. The. Hell.”
“It will likely be easier for you to believe me if I provide you with the documentation, so you may look through it yourself. There is more of interest in there, and I expect you will wish to take the time to peruse the files on your own. I’ll mail them to you, and send the physical items to the printer in the Director’s Office.”
Phi turned on her heels and ran toward the Director’s Office, completely abandoning the conversation without so much as a goodbye. If the old woman was messing with her, she’d get hers. If she was telling the truth, well…Phi was sure she’d accept an apology later.
And in minutes, there it was on the computer screen in front of her. A detailed analysis of all her chromosomes, possibilities of various genetic disorders, her likelihood of immunity to Radical Six, and a list of partial matches in the system for her DNA. Akane was right, too. Sigma’s DNA was a 50% match for her own. But something else caught her eye….
“Phi, what are you doing?” asked a voice behind her. She spun around on her swivel chair. The spitting image of Sigma’s younger self, dressed with the robot suit covering all but his head, was standing before her.
“Hey, Kyle. Glad to see you. While you’re here, help me with this.” Phi gestured with two fingers, beckoning him closer, and he obliged.
“What do you need?”
“I got my results back from the IGD today. Looking for any family I might possibly have. But does this seem right to you?” She pointed toward Sigma’s name on the screen.
“Oh my, that does seem rather peculiar,” Kyle said. “If this is true, then this means that—”
“Sigma is my father,” Phi said, as Kyle continued, “Father is your brother.”
“How did you come to that conclusion, Phi? From what you two have told me, you were originally the same age. Your mind is considerably younger than his at the moment, but chronologically, you are only two years younger than he is. So doesn’t it stand to reason that—”
“Yeah, but check this out. Right here, on the other side of the page.” Phi gestured at another name on the screen, a name that was also a 50% match. Diana.
“Do you know this Diana person?”
“Yeah. I do. But look.” Phi pointed to the screen again. The word deceased was written below the name, in bolded red font, but Phi was more interested in the line in between. “She and I also share 50% of our DNA.“
“Perhaps she is your long-lost sister, then,” Kyle said, his voice louder and slightly higher in pitch. He sounded excited. Phi had never seen Kyle get so emotional before. There went her theory that his mind was secretly more robotic than one of the GAULEMs. “And if you and Father share half your DNA, and this woman also shares that much DNA with you, then Father—”
“—isn’t related to her at all.”
It was strange to watch Kyle’s reaction to the information. He had clearly been excited before, but although it showed in his voice, his facial expression had barely changed. And now, although she could tell he was dejected through the rest of his body language, his face was similarly blank in expression. He really did grow up inside the robot suit, huh? Its face was more expressive than his real one.
“But if Father and this woman are not related, then that means…”
“It means I have to be the missing link between them. Hence, their child.”
Kyle looked at her blankly. Phi could tell that this particular blank stare, unlike his previous gaze, was deliberate.
“It’s not that unrealistic. A few months ago, when we were trapped in the Mars mission test site—actually, that was forty-five years ago, wasn’t it? Not the point. Anyway—at the testing site, there was a machine. Akane told me about it. It’s the machine she and Junpei used to survive, the one she took Clover and Alice to a few days ago. It’s a device that allows people to travel between timelines without SHIFTing. It’s not inconceivable to send someone back, say, twenty or thirty years.”
“But even if we are to believe that such a thing is true, that means—”
“That you’re my younger brother, you dork.”
—————————————————
“—And that’s when I smacked him and told him that his story about a cat cursing him with puns of all things made no sense.”
“Ahahahaha! I always wondered if there was a story was behind his puns, but that story is an absolute farce!”
Kyle and Phi had been sitting on the floor and talking for an hour now, and Kyle was relieved to see that Phi’s tough persona had faded somewhat. Despite his determination to be kind and polite to everyone, he had honestly been quite intimidated by her demeanor. He had never lived in an environment with sarcasm, and consequently had had trouble interpreting the intention of Phi’s frequent snarking. But as she opened up to him, he found himself increasingly able to cope.
“Tell me, Phi. What was Diana like? She was the woman Father loved, wasn’t she?”
“She was beautiful and kind. Kind of a softie if I’m being honest. She was the one who probably wanted to avoid conflict the most. And I was drawn to her when we were living together, because she was warm, and caring, and she made me feel like I wasn’t alone in the world anymore. And that’s why it hurt so much when she betrayed us.”
Unexpectedly, tears started to slide down Phi’s cheeks, and her voice cracked on the word “betrayed”.
“I don’t understand,” Kyle said hesitantly, staring at the tears. “If she was so kind, why would she—”
“I don’t know!” Phi exclaimed. “I don’t know what would possess her to throw the future of the world away and drag me out of that shelter when she knew my living would mean the spread of Radical Six. And I can’t even ask her because she’s de—”
“It’s because she loved you very much,” Sigma said.
Kyle and Phi looked up. Kyle’s father—no, their father—was standing in the doorway, a nostalgic look in his eyes. He stepped into the room.
“Of course, she loved everyone she spent time with at the Mars mission test site, but our team in particular was very dear to her. She kept telling me about it while we were working together here on the moon.”
“Telling you about herself and Phi, you mean?”
“Yes, and all the other members of the Decision Game too. After we lived together, she said, she felt like we were a family. All nine of us. And I couldn’t fathom just what had gone on in there—I had just finished the AB games when I was whisked away to the past again, when my arms and eye were freshly…removed…and here was this woman who knew me, who knew Phi, and kept talking about this Carlos and Mira and Junpei, and I had no idea who any of these people were or why she knew them. The stories were overwhelming at first. But it did seem as if she and Phi had some sort of important connection. And when I met them again, decades later, Diana and Phi did seem to grow very close, very quickly. Is this about Diana?”
“Yeah, I think she’s my mom,” Phi said flatly. Considering the circumstances, Kyle would have expected her to put more emphasis on the information, but with Phi being Phi, that expectation was…overly ambitious. Of course, his father’s response was more emotional.
“Excuse me?!”
“Calm down, old man. The test results are right here.” Phi got up and sauntered over to the computer to log in again, and Sigma briskly walked across the room to try to slow her down. Between his age and her determination, not to mention the fact that Kyle was still sitting on the floor between them, he was no match for her. She sat down and started typing. Sigma stepped around Kyle.
“Can you at least explain what you’re talking about?” Sigma sighed. “Or is that too much to ask?”
“No, dad,” Phi groaned. “I know you too well. You won’t believe me until I show you the files.”
“Don’t dismiss me that readil—‘dad?”
Kyle couldn’t help but let out a snicker as he stood up. “Yes, dad, you need to look at the files.”
Sigma released an exasperated groan. “Kyle, what sort of nonsense has Phi put into your head? You don’t have to go along with whatever she says.” The thought of Phi conspiring with him for the sole purpose of bothering his father was even funnier to Kyle than her blatantly having addressed him as “dad”, and he laughed harder. Phi, to his surprise, started laughing with him.
“I’m not kitten about this,” Phi smirked, invoking the cat pun for absolutely no reason at all. “If you think I’m lion, then you should check this out.” Phi pointed at the screen again, at Diana’s entry in the “deceased” dataset. Sure enough, the entry read that roughly 50% of her DNA was a match for Phi’s.
“Now, unless you two are distant cousins, the fact that I also share this DNA with you”—she traced her finger across the screen toward Sigma’s entry—"means that somehow, you two got it on and I was the result. Kind of like an antimatter bomb, really.”
Kyle didn’t understand what she was referring to with regards to the antimatter bomb, but it was true that Phi had a rather explosive personality. And shockingly, Sigma was not reacting to Phi’s teasing with anger. Perhaps Kyle could do the same?
“This situation, it turns out, is purrfect for Phi. She no longer has to go back to Earth and claw her way into success. Is it not pawsible for her to stay here, with us?”
The icy glare Kyle received from Phi indicated that he had perhaps gone too far in his puns, but Sigma began to laugh. “Is that how you two see me? As an old man who won’t stop making dad jokes? Maybe you two are sort of similar after all.” He shook his head. “It’s not impossible, but I don’t think so. If you two want to prank me, try to convince me of something more outrageous.”
Sigma turned around and began to exit the room.
“But if you really mean it,” he said, waving his hand over his head in a dismissive goodbye without turning around, “forward that mail to my box and I’ll take a look. Have fun.”
Sigma left.
“Well, that was fun,” Phi said as soon as he was out of earshot. “And if it turns out this is real, I think I’m going to have a hell of a good time teasing him.
“So you aren’t sure, Phi?” Kyle asked.
“Well, it seems pretty reasonable. Better than anything else I can come up with, anyway. And as much as I don’t think I’m anything like that dork, having a dorky dad is better than not having one at all.”
Kyle attempted to smile, but his face must not have been doing what he intended for it to do, because Phi recoiled slightly at his expression. He stopped trying. “I am glad to finally have a sibling if nothing else. Living every day of my life surrounded by GAULEMs and no living creatures was not torturous, but it was also far from the pleasant family life I envisioned as a child.”
“I can’t guarantee I’ll be a good older sister,” Phi said, “but I can be sure to tease you now and then.”
“I can ask for no greater pleasure,” Kyle replied. “I knew we had a connection.”
To: @larvaloverlord
From: @kiichu
Happy Holidays! Poor Aoi fell down in the snow, but at least he has some cute friends to keep him company~ I hope you have a wonderful holiday season!
To: @merouses
From: @aleena-san
Alee here with my Secret Santa for merouses!
prompt 1 – luna tending to plants
The air was ripe with the sweet scent of flourishing flowers. Luna could taste the honey of their petals upon her tongue as she swept in a small breath of hot summer air, a breath that delightfully seared at her lungs with heated relish, and promised even warmer days to come. She couldn’t resist the small smile tugging up at her lips at the thought. Sunnier soaked days like this meant even more time in the company of her most favorite friends in the whole wide world!
…That being the flowers. Laugh all you want, but Luna could almost hear their soft chatter carried upon the soulful whisper of a breeze. A cheerful hum sprung to life within her throat, as idle hands began their busy work scuffling through dirt and tending to wrinkles written within the leaves. It had become a routine of hers, one might say; indeed, it wasn’t rare to see the young girl of ringlet locks and gentle blue eyes surrounded in a wreathe of her precious dahlias and daisies. Her fingers worked like magic on soil that was once rough with age. Now, the dirt thrived with life, and the sturdy stems of her friends grew thick and healthy.
“Oh, Scarlet, you look happy today.” Luna’s smile grew even broader as her hands came to gently caress the petals of a blood-soaked rose. This beauty towered above the rest with pure royalty intertwined into its very aura. “Let me guess. Good sleep?” Though it could not utter a reply in return, Luna liked to think that it was nodding its head in gentle affirmation under the sway of the wind. “That’s good. Here! You must be thirsty on such a hot day.”
The watering can breathed life into soil turned crisp by the sun. Already her flowers seemed to perk, their roots digging deeper into what Luna must’ve imagined as now very comfortable moist earth. She didn’t notice the shadow blotting out blue sky until a familiar voice jolted Luna from her reverie.
“Um…Ms. Luna, what are you doing?”
“Quark!”
His head just came to level above her shoulder. Wide, curious eyes reflected the objects of her handiwork. “Gardening…?” Luna couldn’t help flushing with embarrassment at the note of ire held within his voice. Quickly, he glanced shyly away. “I didn’t know you liked tending to these gardens too, Ms. Luna. I mean – not that I come here often or anything.” As if to accentuate that fact, he puffed out his cheeks and blew a whistle of air through tightly pursed lips.
“Oh! You like flowers, too?”
Quark’s cheeks flushed scarlet. “I mean…when I’m bored…or there’s nothing else to do. But if you’re here that’s okay. I’ll go play somewhere else.”
A small part of Luna was almost glad that he might leave. Perhaps the only selfish bone in her body was reserved for this garden – her secret place as one might say – and to share it with anyone else might just dampen the magic in the air. Though perhaps that was merely her anxiety speaking on her behalf. Sometimes, silence was comforting, but it wasn’t always welcome.
Maybe sharing her garden with Quark would fill the air with even more magic then before.
It was sheer instinct that had Luna grasping onto Quark’s hand, just as he was about to trudge on his way.
“No. Don’t go.” She smiled and gestured to a small shovel near her feet. “To be honest it gets a little lonely, out here all by myself. The flowers are nice, but they aren’t exactly the best talkers. So…would you care to join me?”
Quark paused. Luna barely even acknowledged his tiny nod until he plopped himself down by her side. His hands sought out the tiny shovel, and with the vigor of a playful child, he began burrowing a new hole for one of the many plotted plants she had yet to set.
Sun soaked the earth in pools of molten gold; birds screeched as they soared above thermals on wide open air; and friendship filled the wind with the scent of roses and dandelions, a scent that Luna would be sure to treasure for the remainder of her lifetime.
prompt 2 – lotus playing video games
“Ha! This’ll be a piece of cake!”
Clover’s beaming proudly from her perch on the couch. She’s looking adorable as ever, with arms tucked neatly against her chest and one leg swung across the other in an almost royal pose. “Hate to break it to ya, Lotus, but I’m the Queen of this game! Are you prepared for the bitter taste of defeat?”
Lotus is not at all impressed. With a huff of air, she flops down next to Clover and snatches up a spare controller. “Sure. So let’s make this quick, alright?” It’s no secret to the gathering crowd that Lotus hasn’t even touched a gamepad in her life before this very moment. Raising two kids and holding down an array of part time jobs didn’t exactly leave much time for childish activities like this. At Junpei’s urging, however, she finds herself forced into a challenge she really cares little about.
Clover plucks up her own controller and leans forward, eyes glinting with the fires of determination. Mortal Kombat’s screen flashes upon the television set, its foreboding music reverberating throughout the room in the looming promise of war. “Ready?” Junpei asks. Sweat clings to his forehead as if he can taste the competitive spirit hanging in the air.
“Ready as I’ll ever be!” Clover chirps.
“Sure, whatever.”
“On your marks…get set…Go!”
The war is on.
First, choose a character. Clover predictably goes for a woman dressed in flashy pink. Lotus doesn’t really care which one she has – they’re all just a bunch of ones and zeroes dressed to look pretty, after all – but, she finds herself drawn to Kitana, with her deadly aura and bladed fans. The game began mere seconds after.
“H-Huh?”
Clover lurches back. Not even three seconds have passed and already the first round has come to its end, ending with none other than her character avatar knocked out upon a cold metal floor. Her cheeks flush scarlet. “Hey! You’re cheating! That’s no fair!”
“Cheating? I just pressed a few buttons and boom. You’re dead.”
Clover turns to Junpei for help. “You’re gonna let that pass?”
“Sorry…but Lotus didn’t do anything out of the ordinary. It’s fair game so far.”
FINISH HER
Clover can scarcely believe her ears. She whips back around to the screen, only to see a bored looking Lotus punching buttons in any random order, which inevitably leads to her character’s gruesome execution. A booming voice proudly accompanies the red text that flashes over the murder.
FATALITY
“Uhh…Lotus wins…I guess?”
Everyone present awkwardly claps.
Laughter pours from Lotus’ lips. It’s almost as surprising as the fact that she beat Clover in less than ten seconds at a game she knew nothing about. She leans back into the couch, a mischievous smirk painted upon her lips. “Hey, that was actually pretty fun! Wanna do it again?”
Devil-woman. The terrified thought echoes through all the minds of the Nonary Game survivors. “I think I’m good,” Clover begins.
“Me too…” says Akane.
Needless to say, Lotus was never allowed to touch a controller again.
prompt 3 – snake tries to learn another instrument
Light wasn’t very familiar with the strings of a guitar.
He couldn’t exactly say he was fond with the way they tore at the soft pads of his fingers, or how the clunky instrument seated lamely above his leg. It felt less than graceful to hold, and sounded even worse to his ears, especially since he had naught a clue on how to tune the beast. Beside him, he could hear Clover’s breath taut with anticipation.
“You’re gonna do just fine!” his sister chirped. “It’s not hard at all, I swear!”
“I don’t know…” The sigh that left his lips was more sombre than usual. “I cannot say this feels the same as a piano. Nor does it have the feathery weight of a violin.”
“Well duh. Of course it doesn’t. It’s something so much cooler!”
He frowned. “Cool…er?” The word tasted foreign upon his tongue.
Clover gave him a playful punch on the shoulder. “Jeez, you’re such a grandpa. Just give it a try.”
“Hmm…”
His fingers brushed polished wood and came to tug at the individual strings and nobs of his new toy. No matter how much he plucked, or twisted and turned in a futile attempt at tuning, nothing seemed to work. Frustration curdled in the pit of his stomach. He wasn’t used to being genuinely bad at something, let alone unable to overcome said ‘badness.’ Badness. Great. The guitar was turning his brain into mush if that was the only word he could think of!
Clover, however, would beg to differ. She hummed off tune in sync with his awkward fumbling and poor strumming of its strings. “You’re enjoying this?” he inquired, brow furrowing to rest close against his eyes.
“’Course! I’ve always wanted to hear you play guitar.”
He smiled. “And why is that?”
“No reason. I just think you’d do well in a band!”
A band! What a ludicrous thought! Despite that, he couldn’t help laughing in good cheer. “Sorry to disappoint you, Clover, but I don’t think the guitar is for me.” He could feel the weight of the air plummet under her predictable pout. “But…I suppose I won’t mind if it’s just you and me. Provided my talent with this awful thing never leaves this room.”
And the air was light again, surely because of Clover’s broad smile. “Awesome! Does that mean I can play your piano, too?”
“I don’t see why not. Perhaps you will have more luck.”
She didn’t. But the sound of random key smashing and off-tuned guitar strumming echoed throughout the Field residence for many days to come, and it was a sound that – while awful for the neighbors – meant the entire world and more to two very tight-knit siblings.
To: @eatingfireflies
From: @hugewitches
happy holidays from two cool detective bros! this prompt was too cute for me not to draw, so i hope you like it!!!
to: @morphogenetlc
from: @4ourleafclover
so I’m not your santa but I was going through the prompt list for writing ideas, and one thing led to the next and I wrote about 6000 words for the left clone carlos au.
(i swear i don’t have a problem)I may do more individual drabbles for each C-team segment as well, this was so much fun to write.it ended up focused more on pre-ZTD carlos but this au is a good idea??? i like it a lot omg
‘Carlos’.
That’s what they’d told him his ‘codename’ was, and at the time he’d only been able to give a dull nod. They’d explained a lot of things, about a ‘true name’ and about his ‘greater purpose’, however he hadn’t really understood. It was his first day after all, and despite the knowledge that he came with there was a lot he just didn’t understand.
Everyone here had the same face, with no exception. Oh, there were differences- some would do their hair up, or let it grow long, but their faces all matched perfectly. He didn’t exactly understand why it was important, but from the way the others spoke it was what made them special.
What exactly was ‘special’?
He’d been told that he was special, that he’d been chosen for a very special mission. That he’d be getting special training, but he first needed to meet Brother. Once he met Brother, they said, He would understand.
He still didn’t, really.
‘Carlos’ found that he was a very good actor, however. He’d learned the lines he was supposed to say to fit in with all of the others, he knew the mantras and doctrines and rules well as the rest, but none of them held any real meaning to him. Hell, half of the words that he knew he didn’t even know what context they were supposed to be used in.
Brother had told him that as a special exception, he would be allowed outside. He was told that if he kept his ‘purity’, didn’t defile himself with the impure people outside the facility, that he would be allowed to go on the most important of missions, to the most holy site in the world. ‘Carlos’ didn’t understand what he meant, but agreed anyways.
They’d dropped him off at a park, leaving him entirely alone, and far too unprepared for everything around him. The first thing he’d seen were the faces- they were incredible. Each one of them was distinct, and it didn’t just stop there. People had different colours of hair, skin, eyes, everything! And all of their bodies were shaped differently as well- were these people really supposed to be ‘impure’? It didn’t make sense to him, but Brother wouldn’t lie. He could trust Brother.
Right?
He’d decided to simply sit on a bench, watching people with a somewhat bewildered expression, when a person walked up to him. They had blonde hair and blue eyes like him, but the body was shaped differently, and they were wearing some clothes that he’d never seen before. It was like the robes sometimes given for ceremonial purposes, but these were white, and looked flowing. The person reminded him of a bird, in a strange way.
“Are you ok, sir? You’ve been staring out there like that for a while…”
And they spoke, in a tone of voice that Carlos had never heard before. It was soft and light, different from the voices he’d listened to for all of his short life.
“Oh, um… yes. I’m fine.”
It was hard to speak to them- what was he supposed to say? He didn’t have a script to follow, not like before, so he floundered around with his words for a while before finally settling on just pointing at the clothes on their body and asking.
“What do you call that? I’ve never seen one before.”
The person laughed- it was almost musical, a vast contrast to the laughs he’d heard. This one felt… genuine. More alive.
“It’s a dress, silly. Are you serious, are or you just that bad at talking to girls?”
Girl- was that what this person was? He had the word, but he’d never had a reference before- ok, this was making a bit more sense now. So that must explain those differently-shaped people, then.
“Well, I’ve never met one before. Isn’t that normal?”
She laughed again, sitting down beside him.
“You’re weird. My name’s Maria- who’re you?”
Weird- wasn’t that normally an insult? And yet, the way she said it, it felt closer to the roughhousing he would see back where he came from- something familial. Was that ‘friendship’?
“They called me Carlos.”
“They did, did they?”
“Yes.”
“Who is they, then?”
“Brother, and the others.”
“That’s a pretty vague answer, but ok.”
Carlos didn’t think it was- the only ones he knew were Brother, and the others. There were no differences between them all- they were all Left, after all. So they were all the ‘others’.
“Well then, what’s your brother like?”
“I’m not too sure.”
“You’re not? How come?”
“We’ve only spoken once. He didn’t make a lot of sense to me.”
“Sounds rough… I don’t have any siblings, so I wouldn’t really know.”
Sibling- Carlos knew what that was, it was what Brother was supposed to be to them. They said Brother had lost his brother Left, which was why they were given the name. Were there really people with no siblings, then? It was a hard thing for Carlos to understand.
“I have a lot. I don’t think I could count them all.”
She laughed again.
“I thought you said you only had a brother?”
“And the others. There’s a lot of them.”
“That’s some pretty preferential treatment there, huh?”
“No, we don’t have preferences. We’re supposed to be equal.”
That was what they always said- they were a pure race, they were equal, there would be no discrimination (whatever that was) because they were better than the rest. Carlos didn’t get it.
Maria gave him an odd look, one that Carlos had never seen before. He couldn’t really describe it- it was perhaps a mix between the face you’d give it you were stuck on a puzzle, but had thought of a good joke. A sort of… confused, but amused face.
“Carlos, what sort of place are you from?”
“I’m not really sure.”
“Really? You can’t tell me anything about it?”
“This is my first time out, so yes.”
The confusion on her face seemed to double, along with a bit of surprise mixed in.
“Are you serious? But you look like you’ve got to be… what, twenty? No way you’ve never left before!”
“I’m not that old- maybe a month or two.”
“What?!”
It was pure surprise on her face, and Carlos wondered if he had maybe said the wrong thing. Was that not normal? He hadn’t been told what to say, or what not to say, so he was mostly running on his scripts, that were failing harder and harder by the second.
“Are you like, a tube kid then or something?”
“…Tube kid?”
“You know, like a clone! You hear about them in scifi all the time, but I didn’t know that science had gotten that far yet!”
“Yes, I am a clone- but what’s a ‘scifi’? I’ve never heard of that before.”
“It’s like, a fiction genre- Science fiction is what it’s shorthand for.”
“Science fiction?”
“You… you really don’t know?”
Carlos shook his head. Maria seemed to have had enough by this point, huffing and grabbing his arm.
“Ok, you’re coming with me. You’re either a crazy LARPer or the real deal, but either way I’m giving you some education.”
Maria had dragged Carlos along to an old brick building- she called it a ‘library’, but it looked incredibly different from the one where he was from- and pulled him up to the top floor, where the walls had been painted in bright colours and swirling patterns. A sign reading kidz corner had hung over the entrance when they walked in, and Maria led him along to a shelf labelled ‘science fiction’. She pulled a few books off the shelves- ones he’d never seen before- and handed them to him, before pointing at a couple of brightly shaped chairs that were too small for either of them to sit in.
He sat anyways, and so did she.
They spent the next hour or so going through picture books of space battles, and once Maria felt his ‘education’ was sufficient they’d moved onto fantasy, then mystery, then action. Carlos decided that the action books- ‘Comic Books’- were his favourite. They were all about saving innocent people, making the world a better place.
Wasn’t that what he’d been made to do? Make the world a better place?
It was past the time he was supposed to have been back in the park for pick up, but Carlos didn’t really mind. Maria was interesting, and she taught him about other humans- despite what he’d been told was a ‘brother’, Maria felt much closer to the real description than his Brother. He’d told her as much, and she’d laughed.
“Well then, I’ll be your sister now. I’ve always wanted a brother anyways, so welcome to the family, Carlos!”
Carlos smiled, but he found that it was a different smile than the one he was used to. It wasn’t something ‘default’, but rather it forced its way onto his face whether he wanted it to or not. It was a strange, forceful feeling, and he quite liked it- this must be what they’d described as ‘happy’.
“I’d like that.”
The smile stayed on his face even when he told her he had to go, and even after being picked up and going back to where he was from. Nobody payed him much attention anyways, so nobody noticed that anything was happening- but Carlos had changed. Perhaps most drastically, was the fact that he’d started sneaking out. That was expressly forbidden by their laws, and he knew it, but surely the outside world couldn’t be all that bad, right? It had all sorts of incredible things- birds, frogs, cats and dogs- and the people were nice as well. He’d tried speaking to others in that park as well, after meeting Maria. Some of them wouldn’t respond, or they’d run off, but others loved to talk to him. A girl he’d met- she looked wrinkled, like Brother did- loved to sit by the pond in the park, and talk about things. She’d chat about her ‘knitting’, about her ‘grandchildren’, about news and weather and anything that she wanted to, and Carlos found it fascinating.
But the best of all, was meeting his sister. Sometimes Maria would come and talk with him and the other girl (her name was Nancy), sometimes she’d take him back to the library to read more comics and joke about what was going on in them, and she’d even just taken him to all sorts of places around the city. There was a history ‘museum’ that explained all sorts of things about the past, events he’d never even heard off, an ‘art gallery’ that housed all sorts of beautiful paintings and sculptures that the place he came from could never hope to match, and there were many more parks- Carlos’s favourite places to go.
It was in one of these parks that Maria brought up the subject that would permanently change Carlos’s life.
“Hey Carlos, what would you think of coming to my place next time? I was serious when I said you could be my brother- and I’ve spoken to mom and dad too, they don’t mind. You always seem so lonely when you get here, and I know I’ve never been there, so I probably don’t have a say on it- but the place you’re from.. doesn’t seem healthy.”
Carlos could only blink. Did she mean for him to actually become ‘family’? He understood what a family was, but he’d never had one- and in the past month he’d stopped considering Brother as family. He would have to leave everything he’d known, everyone he’d known, but… that didn’t bother him. They shared a face, but not a mind- and besides, who would notice one less face in the crowd? Surely, nobody would.
And so, he agreed.
They decided to meet up in two days time, at Maria’s place this time. Carlos was incredibly exited to meet Maria’s (and who knew, maybe his too) parents for the first time, and it was increasingly hard to pretend that he’d never snuck out. The waiting was perhaps the hardest thing Carlos had ever been through in his life, but by the time he got out, he was convinced- he was leaving the place he came from for good this time, he’d have a chance to really understand humanity, and who knew? Maybe, if he put in enough time, he’d be able to do good just like those heroes from the comics.
Life was simply unfair.
When Carlos reached the scene, the only word that came to mind was ‘fire’. He’d seen it in the comic books, and he’d heard it described, but he’d never seen it before in person. The heat was so intense that it felt like he was burning, but nobody seemed to be noticing…. Until, Carlos noticed someone who shouldn’t be there. Someone who couldn’t be there.
“B-Brother…”
Horror drained all the colour from Carlos’s face as Brother simply watched the flames, face showing no emotion towards the people who were still inside.
“Wh-why….”
“They were impure. This is your punishment.”
“H-how did you-“
“I know everything.”
Carlos couldn’t say anything more. What was there to say? He should have known, after all- Brother knew everything, he was their leader. O holy Brother…
No, Carlos wouldn’t stand for it. He began to move towards the fire, only momentarily frozen once more by Brother’s voice.
“You’ll die.”
“I don’t care.”
What use was a hero who couldn’t even save one family? He had to try, dammit! Nobody was coming, nobody was here to save them, so he had to at least try. And it he couldn’t get Maria and her parents out, then that’d be proper punishment- what he deserved for letting his only chance at a family be killed because of his selfishness.
The heat was a million times more intense when he was inside the building- everything was loud, everything hurt, the smoke got in his lungs and it stung to breath, but he had to keep moving. He had to save them, he had to save them….
“Carlos! Over here!”
Him being able to hear her made no sense- some logical part of his brain knew that, but he wasn’t running on logic at this point. He was purely human instinct and a desperation to save his family, his real family, from the murderer standing outside the door.
Murderer.
No, no, now wasn’t the time to get caught up in those thoughts. He could deal with the confusion and betrayal after he saved them. Thoughts propelling him forwards, he eventually broke the door down to a small room, one person lying alone on the ground, unconscious.
“Maria!!”
Carlos’s scream was loud enough to be head even above the roaring of the flames, but still she didn’t move. There was no time to waste, no time for thinking, he just picked her up, and started running- he had to get her outside, get her to good clean air that wasn’t smoke and didn’t hurt to breath, they were so close…
He ran outside just as the fire fighters were arriving, collapsing to his knees and coughing after depositing Maria gently on the ground. The firemen were talking to him, but his hearing was still dulled after the incredible noise of the fire- and with the smoke in his lungs, it was all he could do to keep talking at all.
“P-parents… inside… s-save them…”
A coughing fit overtook his body by this point, he couldn’t see Maria anymore (some paramedics had hooked her up to an oxygen tank, but their faces were grim) and the firefighters weren’t going inside. Why weren’t they going in? Maria’s parents were in there! They had to save them!
Carlos tried to get up, to run back inside, but someone help him back.
“Are you crazy, Son? It’s too dangerous by now, that house is going to collapse any second now!”
“But.. her parents! You have to save them!”
“I’m sorry kid… but it’s too late.”
Carlos could feel his world breaking down. Something just broke inside of him, and he crumpled to the ground, tears streaming down his face.
He’d been too late.
He couldn’t save them.
It was his fault.
They’d died because of him.
He was the murderer.
He looked up at the paramedic with empty, heartbroken eyes, almost unwilling to ask his next question.
“M-Maria… is she ok?”
“She’s got a case of Carbon Monoxide poisoning- it’s not good, but she was lucky to have you. I can’t promise you anything, but without you, she would have been a goner. You gave your sister a chance, son.”
It wasn’t much, but it was enough for him. Maria had a chance to live, a chance to survive- Carlos swore in that instant that he’d do whatever anyone said just to ensure that she’d live. Even if he had to die a hundred times, so long as she could live… maybe that would make up for his sin, just a little bit.
“There is one thing you can do.”
The voice made his skin crawl. It was Brother, likely here to taunt him once more.
“I will see to it that little Maria has the best health care that she could be afforded. She’ll be allowed to live the rest of her life peacefully, and healthily. You don’t need to worry about her at all. However, in return, you must come to work on one of my projects- the Dcom project. You’ll probably be required to die, but you said you were willing to face that, weren’t you?”
Carlos turned to look at Brother, nothing but determination on his face.
“I don’t say things that I don’t mean. I’ll do whatever it takes, just don’t let her die.”
There was an unspoken threat to his words- perhaps it was foolish of a mere clone to honestly think he could actually threaten his ‘creator’, but he meant it. If anything happened to Maria, Carlos would not rest until Brother was dead- even if that meant taking every single person in the place he came from with them.
Carlos underwent intensive training for the next year. There was a lot of stuff to learn, before Dcom- he was supposed to be Carlos, a firefighter, who was there to pay for Maria’s treatment. Truthful enough, but that meant he had to learn what being a firefighter entailed. The physical training was intense, but the mental training was just as tough- he was constantly being drilled about every tiniest thing a firefighter could know, as well as the ‘backstory’ that had been made for him. He had to have it picture perfect after all, or the others would know something was up.
However, time eventually came, and Carlos arrived at the test facility. There were the seven others he’d been told would be there- but perhaps the most shocking, was the inclusion of Brother himself. He’d called himself Q for some reason, he even claimed he couldn’t walk, see, or hear- but Carlos knew better. Brother was watching, always watching, and always plotting.
That became incredibly obvious when they woke up in the containment rooms, locked inside, with a stranger in a strange outfit walking around- no, it wasn’t a stranger, it had to be Brother. Carlos couldn’t say it, that was the one thing he’d been absolutely forbidden from revealing, but that much he knew for sure.
The coin flip was naturally on him, as Brother surely wanted to torture Carlos just a little bit more, and naturally he got it wrong. Carlos would have already forgotten that though, but the time he next woke.
It was time for the decision game.
Waking up in a bomb shelter was perhaps the strangest part of what was going on, even more than the way Junpei and Akane talked. It was clear they’d both been in something like this before, but from the way Junpei spoke it had been more than that. Just what had gone between them?
He’d had his scripts prepared for any possible questions they could ask him, and now that there was only three people to talk with instead of 8 he found them asking a lot more about himself, along with the questions he asked them. The way they spoke reminded him a lot of Maria, actually- they were spontaneous, and he could never predict their next move. Despite their situation, despite everything, if he hadn’t been here to save her… maybe being with them could have actually been fun,
With the vote at 13:30, he’d gone to press the button as intended- he’d tried, he’d honestly truly tried, and yet, no matter how hard he struggled, his body had forced itself over the wrong button. Akane had yelled at him, but he could only stare dumbfounded.
“…How?”
“It’s simple- you just wanted an easy way out. I mean, it’s not like I can blame you.”
It was Junpei talking this time, his typically unimpressed nature not having changed, even with the circumstances.
“N-No, I’d never- My body just moved on its own!”
“You sure about that?”
“Yeah! I dedicated my life to helping people, there’s no possible way I’d do something that selfish!”
“Whatever you say, then. In the end, it’s probably not gonna be our heads on the chopping block regardless, so I can’t really be mad at you.”
Carlos looked down as Junpei spoke- it was true, yes, but it made him feel horrible. He’d already caused the deaths of two people, had he… had he really just killed three more? No, he had to believe that he hadn’t. Something had happened. Something. He just… didn’t know what.
He didn’t have much time to ponder on it, before he blacked out.
Carlos woke up again many more times, each time to make a choice, and each time the choice was forgotten. Sometimes he’d die, sometimes he was killed- there was even the time he’d killed himself (it was only right, if he’d really killed Junpei). As far as he was aware, things were getting reset each time- until finally, he could remember. He’d remembered a way to prevent the injections, to save them all, and to deal with that Force Quit Box- but he’d need a way to tell Akane and Junpei, subtly.
The method came so naturally to Carlos, that it almost sickened him. All he had to do was copy ‘Left’.
“Y’know, Akane… you’re really hot.”
The blush on her face was immediate, as was the confusion from both her and Junpei. He’d… probably have to apologize for this later. Like, a lot. Well, too late for regrets now- it didn’t matter if they hated him, he just needed to save them. He felt incredibly guilty when he pushed her down on the couch, and it took all his will to prevent the horrendously embarrassed blush from showing itself, and even more to keep his voice a steady whisper when he told Akane where to go to get the cards from the transporter room.
Akane pushed him off with all her might, like he’d asked her too, but that didn’t stop the burning hatred in Junpei’s eyes. Carlos was… definitely going to deserve what happened next. However, Brother would be watching, so Carlos needed to move. He ‘cleverly’ taunted Junpei some more, leading him out of the room, and really didn’t fight back as much as he could have when Junpei started beating him. In fact, he ended up just egging Junpei on more- he needed to remind himself to never try to channel this part of his memories ever again, because man did he feel like a dick.
After things cooled down a bit (and he had two generous black eyes and various other bruises, courtesy of Junpei), they finally made their way back to the lounge, where Akane was waiting. His plan had worked, they were finally going to avoid the injections and maybe now, finally, they could get out. They could meet with everyone, and figure things out… but he should have known better. Even with everyone showing up, even with them all trying to figure out how to solve this mess, Brother was there. He was always there.
Carlos felt his blood boil after Phi activated the force quit box, and Brother- no, Delta, told them all what it meant.
“Is this just a fucking joke to you?!”
He couldn’t stop the rage boiling over, as he screamed at the old man.
“Everyone here has died, multiple times! Do you not care at all? What the fuck is wrong with you?!”
He could feel everyone’s eyes burning into him, at the seemingly out of character outburst- but he’d had enough. Delta was convinced he could play god, convinced that nothing would go wrong, and Carlos was done.
“Amusing that you would say that, Carlos. Or should I say, Left?”
“I don’t fucking care anymore! Tell them whatever you want, but if you do, be sure to tell them everything! How many people have you killed, Delta? How fucking many?!”
“Raaagh, shut up!”
The yelling came from Eric this time- but from the look on his face, it was clear that it wasn’t really him. Delta was cheating, but wasn’t that to be expected? Carlos felt numb as the gunshot rang out and Delta died in front of him. Everyone was talking, yelling over each other about what to do. It seemed Junpei and Sigma really had it out for him now that they knew who (or rather, what) he was, but he could deal with that later.
“We need to SHIFT.”
“But that’s no different than killing those other, unsuspecting versions of ourselves! All they did wrong was win a coin toss!”
“Yeah, well all we did was lose a coin toss! Why are we worth any less than them?”
Carlos broke into the group discussion, face set with determination.
“You all need to live. You have to live.”
He needed there to be one- just one timeline where they could all make it out, where everyone could be safe, and know all that had really happened- he would do whatever it took to ensure it, even if they’d only see him as the bad guy. Even if he had to force their hands, he’d make sure they made it out.
Some hero he was, huh?
However, in the end, they’d done what he’d hoped. They shifted and things went white, before finally realizing where they were.
“We made it…”
Carlos wasn’t paying attention to who’d said that- no, there was only one person who he needed to find.
Brother.
Delta.
The person who’d given him life.
The person who’d ruined his life.
He found Delta simply standing there, A revolver resting in his hands. The old man apathetically tossed the gun to the ground at Carlos’s feet, waiting for him to pick it up before saying anything.
“You know, I must say that you quite exceeded my expectations. For a failed clone, you performed admirably.”
“I don’t care about what you say any more, Delta. I did my part- I took part in your little experiment, I didn’t tell anyone who you were, so you’re keeping your half of the deal.”
“But of course. Little Maria will likely have recovered by now- lucky, aren’t you? And now, thanks to everything that’s happened here, the world will be saved.”
“Saved? What the hell are you talking about?”
It was Junpei speaking up again, disgust on his face.
“The only reason the world is saved is because we prevented you from ruining it!”
“Those lives were necessary to prevent the deaths of th-“
“The rest of humanity. You said as much. But we’re not going to just take what you say at face value. You’re insane enough to create and release radical-6, I doubt it’d be much of a stretch for you to make up a lie about a terrorist.”
Sigma this time, his face completely and utterly cold as he looked at Delta.
“Well, you can think of me what you will. But for now, we still have one more, final decision game to play.”
“What are you talking about? Isn’t the game over?”
Diana’s voice was soft but stern, a carefully guarded worry in her words.
“Almost. Carlos, the gun you’re holding right now is fully loaded. I won’t use mind hacking on you, so you’re free to do as you choose. But, do pick carefully- the lives of me, you, and the entire human race hang in the balance.”
Carlos took a breath, raised the revolver, and fired.
The bullet whizzed past Delta’s head, missing easily.
“Don’t think you’re getting out of this that easily. You’re going to jail for all this.”
“But, there’s nothing to convict. I already explained, did I not?”
“Arson, and two counts of manslaughter.”
It was the first time Carlos had ever seen surprise on Delta’s face.
“That was you. You set their house on fire, knowing they were inside. Then, you let me believe it was all my fault, just so you could set all of this up. Not to mention, you’ve lied to, tricked, and manipulated who knows how many people. You aren’t getting off easy, Delta. You’re going to pay for your crimes for the rest of however long you have left.”
“Do you hate me?”
“You’re pathetic.”
It was strange, but Carlos really didn’t hate Delta. He looked at the person before him now, and all he could feel was pity. Pity for sad, sad old man who’d never been able to do something right, and maybe would never even have the chance.
Things after that happened pretty quickly- they’d managed to contact Dcom staff and get rescue squads sent, and not even Delta’s mind reading had given him the foresight needed to know that his getaway vans, with all the traps of the decision game, had been intercepted. He’d be going to jail for the rest of his life, however long that was going to be.
Now that everything was over, he finally turned to Junpei and Akane. The rest of the group had broken up into smaller clumps, talking about everything that had happened, but they’d stayed there, silent behind him. He didn’t really know how to talk to them- even if he’d joined the experiment to save Maria, he was still technically a Myrmidon. One of the very people Akane and Junpei had spent endless timelines trying to defeat.
“Left, huh?”
Carlos looked down, ashamed of the name but no longer able or willing to hide anything from them.
“Yeah.”
“Honestly, I didn’t even recognize ya. The other ones like you have blue eyes, not green.”
“What?”
Junpei crossed his arms, and Akane giggled a bit, despite herself, before answering for Junpei.
“Did you not know, Carlos? You have green eyes, not blue.”
“W-wait, are you serious?”
“What, have you never looked in a mirror or something?”
“No!”
Junpei and Akane were both laughing now, and Carlos feeling increasingly flustered- that must have been what Delta meant by a ‘failed clone’- so he had been different, all along. Weird.
The laugh had cleared up the tension in the air, but Carlos still felt like he needed to talk a bit more.
“Look, I… I know I lied to you guys, but I just want you to at least let me explain. Everything I told you about Maria, about coming here to save her- that was all true. She’s not my biological sister, but she’s still my sister, even if only in spirit. Delta said that if I joined the Dcom project, he’d ensure that she was safe for life. I.. I didn’t have much of a choice…”
Carlos was surprised that it was Junpei who spoke up, hiding just the faintest hint of an embarrassed blush from his face.
“Yeah, we get it. I mean, You’re not actually that bad of a guy, Carlos… You really wanted to save all of us. You’re a dumbass for thinking you couldn’t trust us, even after we all died that many times- but you’re not actually a bad person.”
“Junpei… Thanks for understanding.”
Junpei looked away to hide the increasingly red blush on his face, and Akane giggled- a familiar girlish laugh that reminded him a lot of Maria’s, in some ways. It was a happy sound, and he liked hearing it.
“Well, we should be heading back, shouldn’t we? We’ve all got a lot of things to sort out.”
Carlos and Junpei nodded, and they started heading towards the nearest of the emergency vans. It’d be a long ride back, but they deserved the rest.
Carlos was almost too nervous to enter the hospital room.
Junpei and Akane were there with him, trying to convince him to just go, but he’d been struck with a case of the nerves.
“But- what if she can’t forgive me? What if she hates me for everything? She was in a coma for a year, she’s probably-“
“Oh, just go in already!”
Junpei was having no more of Carlos’s nerves, and he pushed the taller boy inside the room. A very shocked, but very excited looking girl sat on the lone hospital bed, eyes shining when she saw who had come to visit.
“Carlos? Carlos, is it really you?”
“Um… yeah. Hi, Maria.”
He’d gone over to the side of the bed, not really knowing what to do, but he was quite surprised when she practically jumped from the bed with far too much energy for someone who’d been in a coma for a year, clinging to him in a bear hug that was impressively strong.
“I missed you!”
“…I missed you too, Maria.”
There was a sad smile on his face as he helped her back down onto the bed, with a moment’s pause before he spoke again.
“Look, Maria… there’s something I need to tell you.. about the arson.”
“I know.”
“Huh?”
“I… I saw it all, Carlos. When I was in the coma, my mind couldn’t stop jumping. It was only bits and pieces, but… after a whole years worth, I managed to piece together most of what happened back then.”
Carlos looked down, fists clenched.
“Well, I… I just wanted to tell you that he’s in Jail now. He’s already pleaded guilty, but he’s not going to be getting out for a long time. So, uh, I don’t blame you if you don’t ever want to see me again- I’ll get out of your life now.”
Maria only looked at him, with an almost disappointed look on her face, before it broke into a smile.
“You dummy, do you honestly think I would have hugged you like that if I wanted you out of my life? You’re my brother, so you’re stuck with me. You’re the only family I have left, now.”
Carlos felt tears prick at the corners of his eyes, and he had to swallow to keep them from spilling over.
“Maria… thank you… I-I.. I’ll be the best big brother you could wish for.”
“Hold on, big brother? Aren’t you only like, two years old right now? I don’t care what you are physically, you’re my little brother. So you can depend on your big sister, alright?”
Carlos smiled, nodding as tears started to stream down his face.
“Alright.”
It was a fairly touching moment- but it was ruined by the sound of laughter from the back of the room, coming from Junpei. Maria blinked a moment in confusion, looking at Carlos to explain.
“Oh, uh, right. This is Akane, and Mr. Moment Ruiner there is Junpei. They’ve both helped me out a lot.”
“It’s wonderful to finally meet you, Maria!”
“Yeah, nice to meet ya.”
They came further into the room to talk more to Maria, and Carlos stood back a bit to watch. It was funny, he’d hardly really known them, but being here, all of them laughing together like this… it felt natural. It felt like a family, a real family just like he’d been chasing after a year ago. Life was hard sometimes, he was painfully aware of that, but nothing was hopeless. Together, they’d be sure to make the best future for everyone- he was sure of that.
to: @electric016
from: @4ourleafclover
i’m not your santa, but i’m a million percent down for anything where Quark gets to live in any non-apocalyptic world, so i saw this prompt and all i could think was “one million percent yes”
Junpei glanced around the area, doing his best to look relatively indifferent to the circumstances. It was true- this was probably the best possible ending, and he was going to spend longer thinking on that, when he noticed something- or rather, someone that he was pretty sure shouldn’t be there. A little kid had just wandered out of the shelter they’d all just been trapped in. He looked like he was probably no more than ten, with blond hair, brown eyes, and a very odd hat… and after a moment’s eye contact, the kid ran up to him, and gave him a gigantic hug.
“Grandpa!”
Junpei could only blink in confusion, momentarily stuck in place, while everyone else present turned to look. (Was that Sigma snickering in the background? Real rich coming from you, old man.) However, the kid seemed undisturbed by the circumstances, released the hug, and looked up at Junpei with bright, excited eyes.
“So Mr. Sigma really was right! I never thought that thing would actually work…”
The child had crossed his arms, apparently quite deep in thought, and Junpei shot a look at Sigma- who only gave a shrug and a smirk that said he knew exactly what was going on but wasn’t planning on telling Junpei. Finally, Junpei couldn’t take it anymore.
“Uh, sorry kid, but… who are you?”
The child blinked, before realization hit him. “Oh, that’s right! My name’s Quark- we lived together on a different timeline.”
While that still didn’t do much to help his very obvious confusion, it at least cleared up why Quark had called him grandpa- but how old must Junpei have been on that timeline for the kid to call him that? Jeez! Eventually, it was Akane who spoke up to clear things out.
“Junpei, you remember the timeline where Radical-6 escapes, right? After many years, you eventually met and adopted Quark, and roughly ten years after that you both arrive at Rhizome-9 to play a nonary game.”
A hint of a frown made its way onto Junpei’s face at Akane’s description. He had his memories from that timeline back, just like everyone else, but it was quite possibly his least favourite of all the ones he’d had to endure. He’d have to try harder later to see if he could remember things from further down the line, but the thought of this little kid having to live in a world like that… Junpei didn’t like it at all.
“So, why exactly did you come back here, then?”
“It was grandpa’s- er, your idea. Once Mr. Sigma told us about the transporter, you said that you wanted me to have a chance to see the world before Radical-6 got out. So Mr. Sigma helped us send me here! I had to hide for a while because there were some people who were moving things, but once they were all gone I just got up and left.”
Quark looked proud of himself for his daring escape, and Junpei couldn’t help but give the kid a pat on the head and a smile. He didn’t really have the memories of that point from the other timeline, and yet he already felt that Quark was incredibly familiar. Those memories would probably come with time, if he really tried, but for now he’d just have to stick with figuring out what to do next.
“Well, considering you’re going to need a place to live, do you mind if you have to stick with me for a bit longer? My place isn’t that big, but it’s livable.”
Quark gave a vigorous nod, and Akane laughed softly from behind him.
“Junpei, if you need space, you can always come move with me to the Crash Keys HQ. We’re all going to be working together for a while now anyways, aren’t we?”
Junpei blushed, looking to the side as quickly as possible to hide it from view of anyone looking (but when you’re in the middle of a desert, that’s unfortunately hard to do).
“Oh, um, right. I guess you’re already getting a housing upgrade then, Quark.”
That was quite possibly for the best- the longer he thought about it, the more he was pretty sure that his little apartment wasn’t child-safe at all. Or clean. Maybe he should be more worried about how not-clean it was.
_____
Conversation continued on for a while, eventually devolving into random small talk. Sean and Quark seemed to hit it off instantly, talking about all sorts of things, and Phi and Akane had explained a few more things to Junpei about the radical-6 timeline, clearing up more of his lingering confusion. Things were overall fairly calm, despite being stranded in the center of a desert, when he heard the sound of a horn honking.
Looking up, Junpei saw two incredibly familiar faces- Aoi, driving a minivan, and Light, in the passenger’s seat. They explained that they’d used Crash Key’s resources to set up a perimeter around the area and had intercepted Free the Soul’s escape. Then it had only been a matter of using satellite imaging to find the shelter, getting a minivan large enough for everyone to drive back in. It would be tight, yeah, but it was at least better than being squished between Seven and Light in a car.
The drive back was lighthearted- Quark only asked once why there was an old man tied up in the back, but after explaining that he was Brother, Quark didn’t seem to mind much anymore. Delta was a much nicer passenger than Hongou had been, far less noisy- although that could have been due to the large amounts of soporil Diana had been kind enough to administer.
Their arrival back at civilization was confusing and hurried, many quick goodbyes in succession while everyone split up their separate ways. Eric and Mira were taking Sean with them, who was happy to oblige, Carlos had to go back to find Maria and help her get her esper abilities under control, and Diana had things to get sorted out back home; which meant Phi and Sigma were going with her to help. They’d all be meeting up again soon enough- they had a terrorist to catch, after all, and although Junpei wasn’t quite ready admit it out loud, he was quite happy about it. He was especially looking forwards to spending more time with Akane and Carlos- they both meant a lot to him by now.
However, for now, the only people left were Junpei, Aoi, Light, Akane, and Quark, who were all heading back to Crash Keys HQ. Light was going to wake up Clover and Alice, and the rest of them wanted simply to go home and rest.
Junpei had found himself watching Quark most of the drive, both amused and saddened by the kid’s fascination at everything going by. The world he’d grown up in had been completely devastated, but this one was still new and shiny… Junpei found himself more determined than ever that he’d be sure to protect this timeline. The plane ride had been pretty fun too- Quark had explained that he’d taken a space shuttle in his timeline, but nobody really flew planes anymore. The experience was pretty novel to the kid, and eventually the excitement had caught up to him and he fell asleep in his seat.
Junpei ended up carrying Quark inside their new little apartment; two rooms with a living room/kitchen and a bathroom. It wasn’t much, but it was still a million times nicer and newer than where he’d lived last, so it was quite an upgrade. He laid him down on a bed in one of the rooms, taking off his hat and tucking him into the covers, about to leave the kid to get some sleep himself, when he felt a hand grabbing onto his shirt.
“mnnn…. g’night, grandpa…”
Junpei smiled to himself, patting Quark’s back.
“Goodnight, Quark.”
from: @4ourleafclover
i’m not your santa, but the idea of Aoi helping Junpei right as he’s starting to slip into his ZTD mindspace just really spoke to me and I had to write something for it, i did my best to put a bit of soft fluff in because they need happiness in their lives
Junpei shivered, rubbing his hands together for a moment before shoving them back into his pockets. It was late, too late to be out and about, but he didn’t want to go back home. The apartment was a constant lonely reminder of just where he was in life- alone, lost, and hopeless. Returning to that cold apartment would just mean that he’d have no choice but to put up with all that again, so maybe for tonight he’d just stay here, outside.
He kept walking down the sidewalks in town, no real set destination or pattern, just wandering aimlessly in a coat that was probably too thin and a hat that was too old to do much good. Reasonably he knew that it was only going to get colder, but he still didn’t seem to mind. Maybe it’d be better to stay out in the cold? He wouldn’t be thinking about his job or anything like that then, at the very least… he was allowing himself to get too caught up in his thoughts, to a point that he almost missed the voice calling out to him.
“…pei? Junpei? Get a fuckin’ grip, man!”
When his thoughts came back to the present, he realized he was somewhere completely different, with a shockingly familiar face staring down at him. There was a blanket wrapped around him and he was placed directly beside a heater, warming up his still somewhat-numb body.
“Finally, you’re awake. The fuck were you thinking, wandering outside like that? You want to catch hypothermia and die or something? And I’ll have you know you’re pretty damn heavy, I had one hell of a time carrying you back here.”
“Santa- no, Aoi?”
Junpei was hardly able to form the proper words, but the person standing in front of him was indeed Aoi Kurashiki, looking hardly any different from the last time Junpei had seen him. The other only shrugged, as if it was obvious.
“Yeah. But were you listening to me at all? Seriously, you could have died Junpei.”
“…”
Junpei was silent, looking down at his knees. In all honesty, he wasn’t sure how to respond to that- it was horribly ironic coming from one of the people who’d previously kidnapped him and forced him to play the nonary game, after all. But beyond that, he really wasn’t sure what he’d been thinking, outside like that. He’d just felt…. Gray.
“…do you know where Akane is?”
Perhaps that was a touch cold to say to the person who’d saved your life, but Junpei had to know. However, Aoi only shook his head.
“Nah. We split up after leaving the desert- she’s got some stuff to take care of with our organization, and I haven’t seen her since.” Aoi sighed- it seemed almost uncharacteristic of him, but there was a distant, almost sad look on his face. “But that’s beside the point, Junpei. I’m not kidding around man, what were you thinking?”
“I… I just….” A pause. “I didn’t want to go home, tonight.”
Aoi scratched the back of his head, visibly frustrated. “Then next time, get a damn hotel room. You’re lucky I found you, nobody else was even out at that time.”
Junpei looked away, trying to hide the guilt on his face. Aoi was right, of course, but the berating didn’t exactly make him feel any better about himself. However, Aoi still had saved Junpei’s life, so something was in order, at least…
“..Look, I’m sorry. But… thanks. For picking me up.”
Again Aoi sighed, but this time he turned towards the table behind him, picked up a mug, and handed it over to Junpei.
“Just drink this and get better. You can sleep on the couch, I’d offer a bed but I don’t have a spare.”
Cautiously, Junpei took a sip. After determining that it wasn’t scalding hot he took another drink, bigger this time, discovering that it was hot chocolate- and it was incredibly good.
“Whoa, did you make this? It doesn’t taste like a mix or anything, it’s great!”
A light blush covered Aoi’s cheeks at Junpei’s praise, shaking his head as if to shake off the embarrassment.
“I-It’s nothing, really. I just had to learn because Akane didn’t like the mixes when we were kids. That’s all.”
There was a beat of silence after that, the only noise coming from the low hum of the heater and Junpei sipping at the hot chocolate. Junpei took the moment to look around the apartment, only now really able to take in where he was. The place looked incredibly modern and well decorated- it suited Aoi quite well, in Junpei’s mind. He’d figured the Kurashikis would need to have a decent chunk of cash to pull off the nonary game, but this living space confirmed it; and it was definitely a nice change of pace compared to Junpei’s old apartment with too-thin walls and a baseboard heater that only worked 50% of the time.
Only now did Junpei hear movement again, and he looked over to see Aoi reappearing from the kitchen area with two plates, forks, and knifes, along with a small white box.
“If you think you can get yourself up, then get over to the table.”
Junpei found that he was smiling despite himself, and got up (still wrapped in a blanket, holding onto the hot chocolate) to move to the table. He sat himself down opposite where Aoi was standing, a bit surprised to find a cute looking strawberry shortcake inside the box. Once again, a light blush was covering Aoi’s face, but he continued to speak as if nothing was wrong.
“I get one of these every year, and seeing as you’re here, you might as well have some too. There’s more hot chocolate as well, so if you’re thirsty just ask.”
“You’re being… really nice, you know that?”
“Just shut up and eat.”
For the first time all evening, and maybe even since he’d left the Nevada desert, Junpei found himself laughing. And not something forced and shallow, it was a real, genuine laugh. The smile that had worked its way onto Junpei’s face got a bit stronger, and he looked up at Aoi.
“Thanks. For everything, Aoi.”
The other boy didn’t respond, choosing instead to dig furiously into his slice of cake- maybe he hoped the icing would hide the growing blush on his face? Well, it didn’t, but Junpei wouldn’t tease him over that.
They continued their late-night snack in relative silence, nothing but the occasional comment on the food, but they found that conversation just wasn’t really needed. Being in each other’s company was just… nice. It was genuinely fun, and Junpei felt as if a little bit of weight had lifted from his shoulders- sure, things weren’t all sunshine and roses for him, but at the very least he was having one good night.
After they’d finished eating, Junpei was surprised that it was him who suggested they watch something on TV. They’d sat down next to each other on the couch, both covered in the blankets that had previously only been covering Junpei, and just channel surfed until they found something. They’d ended up on what appeared to be a 24 hour Christmas movie marathon, showing only the best of low-budget made-for-TV movies that cheap cable could offer you.
He wasn’t quite sure when Aoi fell asleep, but he was sort of glad that he’d fallen asleep first- it gave Junpei a chance to whisper ‘merry Christmas’ into the other’s ear, before he snuggled up beside Aoi, falling asleep as well.
ZEcret Santa 