@arachnoheaux
sighing in relief as harlot steps out the employee exit to the back of the building and away from the party, harlot's fishing out their cigarettes before the door even finishes clothing. glancing around as they draw out two cigarettes and tucking one behind their ear and the other between their lips. one, they know, isn't going to be enough after how much they disliked that party. finding their unreliable lighter, a huff of annoyance passes through them as their lighter lives up to its description. it sparks again and again, but can't catch.
having seen someone when they'd come out, harlot looks up again, spotting... they think his name's angel dust. more importantly, his cigarette's already lit.
"borrow your lighter?" harlot asks, stepping closer but still keeping their distance.
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@protectivemuses said: Ryusei's staring at the male in front of him, mainly staring at the neck tattoo that they both seemed to have in common. Different animals, sure, but he could respect it. "Nice tattoo. Looks like it took a few hours, I imagine." Hands go into his pockets as he settles to sit on a nearby table instead of bothering with uncomfortable chairs. "You must be that friend of Keisuke's that he's really fond of. H.. Hanemiya, right? Think I remember him mentioning the tattoo and earring before."
“ Nice ink yourself. Snakes are pretty sick. “ He answers back with a cheerful grin, looking towards the tattoo. It wasn’t nearly as elaborate or expansive as his own, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t neat in its own right. “ Yeah. Took several hours. You get it, neck tattoos and all, more nerves. Plus I got it when I was younger so extra care. “ He confirms, posture relaxed and casual ( even with his eyes always open a tad bit too wide to be normal. ) He didn’t mind chatting with someone, his ink tended to get comments now and again. “ How about yours? “
The next bit catches his attention though. “ Keisuke? “ His expression brightens, latching onto the words like a bone throne to the strays. Baji had talked about him? It was knowledge that made something in his chest relax, tension uncoiling for a moment. He listens with interest and lifts a hand to flick the bell earring.
“ Mmm. He’s the one who pierced my ear the night we met. “ He lets his hands fall back down to his side as he regards the other tattooed boy. “ Yeah. Hanemiya Kazutora. Everyone just calls me Kazutora. Watcha go by? You seem cool. “
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A continuation of my Steampunk AU (6)!
Scar’s turned idle for maintenance. It’s been about half a month before he brought up a dripping oil pipe, and Grian finds himself staring at the bot’s two-toned face. They really do look like scars, raised and pale against the planes of his cheeks.
The newest addition to their team, Jellie, is asleep on a worktable behind them all and rattling pens with her purrs.
Grian hops off the table he’s on himself, closing the distance to brush a knuckle against Scar’s cheek to check if the metal’s warm. Having been scavenging and generally being around him for nearly every minute he was awake—Mumbo banned Scar from the workshop after one too many clumsy accidents, so Scar was his—it was bizarre to see him so lifeless again.
It felt wrong, to hold a hand in front of that metal grin and feel no breath from it. He’s usually so full of personality, but his eyes are dull and dilated, and his chest is open while Mumbo works.
He’s just a bot. Someone programmed to be likable and easy to talk to. He’s not anything important.
Don’t get him wrong, Grian’s gotten attached to bots before. There was Grumbot, the little, trashy fortune teller bot Mumbo patched up and then burnt out. There was N.P.C, the simulator that glitched onto an obsessivity with rustic homes.
Scar felt different. Feels different.
His voice changes, ever so slightly, when he wants to smile more than the metal will allow him. And when he gets super excited, the whirr of his fan gets louder and his speech comes faster until it’s almost incomprehensible.
It makes him feel warm, even in the sticky chill of the wastes.
“Where do you think he came from, Mumbo?” He asks, turning his attention to the mechanic.
“I thought you pulled him out of the wastes yourself, mate,” he replies, working on extracting the faulty line in Scar’s chest. His core is ticking steadily, a healthy beat to match the churning of mystery liquid inside.
…Maybe more oil?
He doesn’t care, actually. Redstone wants him dead.
“Well, yes, from the wastes, but I mean before that.”
“Maybe he came from outer space,” Mumbo says, and Grian has to grin.
“What?!”
“Don’t you reckon it was aliens who dump a bunch of mystery metals outside the bubble?” He asks, matching Grian’s smile. “Think about it. It makes perfect sense.”
“Aliens destroyed the world?”
“Definitely. Metal? 100% alien.”
Grian hears the clicks of his wings settling, and he tips his head back and laughs.
“Makes sense as to why the government’s banned him then.”
“Yeah, why he’s—” Mumbo breaks the momentum of the conversation, looking to Grain with his eyes behind his ridiculous googles. “Oh, that’s not part of the bit. He is?”
“…yes? Honestly I don’t see why, maybe something with the uncanny valley.” He punctuates the muse with the clatter of a dozen metal doodads, trying to make space to lean an elbow on the worktable.
“I’ll keep that in mind. I mean, it’s not like the laws are in place for a reason to keep us safe or anything! No, not at all,” Mumbo laughs.
“It’s too late to put him back.”
“I know.” His voice dips, and there’s all that worry Mumbo keeps in his chest. “He brought us a cat.”
“And it’s Scar. He’s more likely to hurt himself than anyone else. First law of robotics and all, those have been around forever.”
Mumbo’s frown doesn’t disappear, and Grian finds uncertainty worming through his mind in turn.
Why were androids banned?
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One of my favorite things is learning what words people used for this hand game—where you sit in a circle with your hands facing up, right hand on top of your neighbor's, left hand below your other neighbor's, and you sequentially go around slapping right hand into left— where they lived when they were kids. The regional variations are the best. It's in Wikipedia as "Stella Ella Ola," but for me (and many NE USAmericans) it's "Quack Diddly Oso."
The way these games are taught to younger kids by older kids and spread throughout regions is so fascinating; I want a visualization where you can see what happens when one random kid 50 years ago moved to a different state. I have no idea how widespread this game is, but I think it's all across the US and Canada, at a minimum. I haven't seen my kids play this—is it still a thing?
In my school in the 90s, it went like this—
Quack diddly oso,
Quack, quack, quack,
Señorita,
Rita, rita, rita,
Velour, velour,
Velour, velour, velour, velour,
1, 2, 3, 4!
I especially appreciate the versions that include “your mother smells like pizza,” “the toilet over fulled,” and “the cat peed on the floor,” “potatoes on the floor-a”
What about you? Anyone play it outside of North America?
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