#she is not like all the others sanitized octopus | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

yourbestpalpercy · 13 days

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…Here it was. Test A02. Far Out Station.

The rainmaker test.

Everest stepped into the chamber and quickly equipped the splatroller, abandoning her golf club right behind the chamber. CQ followed her out of the train and gave her the same tips as usual. Everest’s body was already shaking.

As Everest swiped her CQ Card and entered the battle zone, about 3 of the 8 octolings instantly turned into their octopus forms and super jumped, landing right before Everest. One of them was an elite…

This elite no doubt had a number, 342 if Everest remembered correctly. Everest was never sure though. Numbers were stupid anyways! Everest just preferred to call him Elite though. Much easier to remember than 5,863 or whatever number Elite was.

Elite sneered, leaning onto his hip with a smirk, “Everest! Lil’ Snowflake, Tartar’s little polar cub,” They placed a finger on her chest before sweeping up, making Everest stumble back with the force of it, Everest rubbed her chin with a sigh, “Ya here to retry the test that your papa had to help you with before? Do ya want us to go eassyyyy~?” Everest didn’t react to their sneers and rudeness.

“No,” The coldness in Everest’s voice seemed to confuse Elite.

“...Excuse me?” Elite raised a brow.

“I want you to go hard. As hard as you can. Make me suffer. Do not go easy on me for even a second,” Everest was staring at the ground way more than the octolings. She tightened her grip on the splatroller, just shaking. Elite gave one of his lackeys a confused look. They only shrugged in return.

“...Everest, are you doing okay?” Everest could see as Elite grew concerned as tears started to well up in Everest’s eyes. Everest could still see that Elite disliked her but underneath all that anger and distrust was the slightest hint of worry.

“D-Don’t ask-, f**k, don’t make me remember- just fight me!” Everest jumped into the air and swung the splatroller downwards, covering Elite in a vertical line of white ink. Elite stumbled back and covered his eyes with a sharp hiss. Just like that, CQ’s voice came over the loudspeaker, “Carry the Rainmaker to the goal!” He shouted.

101, or as Everest called them, 1, aimed his splattershot quickly and started to coat Everest in sanitized ink. Everest slammed the splatroller into the ground and ran forward, running over 1 quickly.

202, or just 2, panicked and struggled to activate her jetpack. The string was not working and Everest almost was able to blow her up with one of her curling bombs before she could take off. Right before the bomb exploded, 2’s jetpack finally activated and she soared up into the air. The speed of which clearly scared her.

Everest growled, glaring at 2 before swinging her splatroller back to hit Elite across the face, instantly splatting him when he tried to attack Everest from behind. Everest watched his soul fly up and back to spawn. Everest snagged a thing of extra ink right before grabbing the Rainmaker.

Stepping in the sanitized ink wouldn’t have much of an effect on her except for making her slip and fall back more than she was supposed to. Personally, Everest’s tactic was to never lift up her feet. Treat the ink like it’s ice.

Everest saw one of the other octolings spawn right near the start. Poor thing didn’t even get a chance to aim before Everest shot at them with the Rainmaker and instantly splatted them too. By this point, Everest knew exactly where octolings would spawn. Right as another spawned in a small alleyway on her right, Everest spun towards it and shot it once, twice and splatted it with a third shot.

Everest attempted to slide forward. What had happened to Commander Tartar was still fresh in her mind, fueling her every angry action. It only took one wrong step for Everest to suddenly slip and hit her chin on the ground however.

Everest hissed loudly and placed her hands onto the ground to push herself up. From what she could see, now her entire front side was covered in sanitized ink and all she could smell was mint. Everest hissed and struggled against her hooves for a moment to clamber back up. Well, they weren’t much of hooves but they were still hoofed just enough to make getting up from a slippery surface a living hell. Everest probably looked as graceful as a goat or deer on ice. Stupid hooves. Stupid evolution at that!

When Everest looked up again, Elite now stood before her, holding a splat bomb tightly in his left hand. Everest took aim with the Rainmaker. Elite swiftly activated the bomb and slammed it down onto her head, shoving Everest back down in the ink and covering the rest of Everest in sanitized ink.

“Back to the start, sperm whale,” Elite hissed and yanked the Rainmaker out of Everest’s hands. Once he had dropped the Rainmaker at his side, he helped the absolutely soaked Everest back onto her hooves. Everest shot a loud, huffy, disingenuous ‘thank you’ at Elite before carefully sliding through the ink back to the start to get washed off.

The kettle at the start shot a heavy blast of hot air up and around her, drying off the ink in just a minute. Once Everest was all done, she reequipped her splatroller and charged forwards towards the Rainmaker again, taking stealthier routes this time around. There was no way Elite would hear her coming this time.

The multiple traps and also 2 saw her coming though.

Before Everest could leap from where she was to strike Elite down and splat him in one foul swipe, 2 suddenly shot Everest directly in the back and knocked her over the edge. As Everest fell, she suddenly spun onto her back and took aim with her splatroller. In a single, risky move, she landed on top of Elite, getting a small shout out of him, and threw her roller at 2.

The attack landed and hit 2 off balance just enough to cause her to shoot into the wall and break her jetpack. Everest smirked and stood up on Elite before picking up the Rainmaker. When Elite rubbed his head, Everest fired the Rainmaker and splatted Elite. She splatted 2 too. Now that he and 2 were out of the way, Everest aimed and shot the splashwall. In just 1 charged up shot, the splashwall was destroyed and the opening to the end was open.

Everest slid through the ink. Slid really fast actually- WAIT-!

Everest slammed into a familiar face, dropping the Rainmaker in the process.

“Oof-!!” Everest stared down at the face. “O-Oh uh..” Everest stared at 7 under her. Everest was honestly appalled with herself as, honestly, recently in the past few weeks, she had started to think 7 was a…little cute. I mean, how dare she!? Everest had devoted her life so far to hating these spawn of the Leviathan and yet, here she was.

“...Hi there,” Everest chuckled anxiously.

“Oof-! Oh, hey, Everest…! What are you doing here? Well, doing the test, obviously, but uh… Have you seen Commander Tartar anywhere? I can’t find him anywhere!”

Everest’s nervous smile disappeared instantly along with those happy thoughts she had started to get around 7 recently, replaced with sharp, worrying thoughts about her guardian.

‘Should I tell her? …7 deserves to know too, doesn’t she?’ Everest got up quickly and grabbed the Rainmaker instead. She only had a minute left on the clock. Everest couldn’t waste time. She got away from 7 and slammed the Rainmaker down onto the goal, completing the test with a loud air horn.

Elite reemerged from under the ink behind 7, giving her a disapproving look as he approached Everest. “Well, congratulations or whatever, sperm whale. Ya did it,” Elite rolled his eyes before whistling. The other octolings came up from the ink.

2 turned to stare at 7, brushing the bits of rock and dust off of her own tentacles. She then beaconed 7 over silently. 2 had never been able to talk for as long as Everest could remember. She’s always just been a mute dork to Everest. …Everest liked 2 a bit.

7 went over, glaring at Elite as she did so. 7 gave Everest the impression that she never really liked Elite, always glaring or yelling at him. Everest stared back at 7 before shouting when Elite suddenly shoved her over.

“Well! You beat the test now, Everest, are you going to tell us about Commander Tartar now? You’re the only one who possibly could’ve known where they went,” Elite’s red eyes shined with hate.

1 spoke up, (Leviathan, how Everest hated 1 and his spluttery way of talking), “Maybe she killed Commander Tartar and took over the company! Everest has always been impatient. She probably killed them to get the company early! Commander Tartar never hid its plans to give Everest the Kamabo company from us!” Elite looked at 1 before staring back down at Everest.

“Maybe she did…” Elite’s eyes shined with more hate now.

Everest didn’t even get a chance to speak before Elite placed a kick directly to her chest. Everest yelled and attempted to fight back before 10,004 (Just 4 to her) grabbed her arm and started to pull on it. 8,095 (5) punched her in the eye suddenly as Elite let out a cruel laugh.

7 looked nervous, and opened her mouth to object, but nothing came out. Her eyes, however, quickly changed from worried to angry. Very angry. “Why would she do that?!” she suddenly yelled loudly over the commotion, “She loved him like a daughter loves her father! He literally adopted her! Why would she kill him, if she loved him that much?!” Her teal-ish eyes glowed with rage as she asked this.

As Elite turned to shoot a glare at 7, Everest suddenly slipped off her shoe and kicked Elite right in the nose with her hoof. Elite yelled loudly. He quickly stumbled back, pinching his nose. There was a visible hoof print on his nose as a stream of green-blue ink trailed out of his nose. With Elite off, Everest spun to punch 4 beside her. 5 rushed forward to stop her only for Everest to spin and speedily kick 5 too. 2’s mouth fell agape before she ran off to grab…something.

7 chased after 2, disappearing with the other octoling. Everest wouldn’t know where they went so, for now, she threw another curling bomb at Elite, almost splatting him and his stupid seaweed hat. Elite let out an angry gurgle before leaping high into the air. A general area formed around Everest. Before she could react, Elite came down on her, using a powerful splashdown.

2 ran back, holding the splatroller that Everest had chosen. She immediately dropped it though as a defeated look came to her face. Everest could see 2 turn to 7, shaking with worry. It was almost as if she was asking 7 about what they should do.

Elite wrapped his hands around Everest’s neck, already beginning to cuss and swear her out. Everest hissed and spat back at Elite as she kicked and tried to get Elite to let go. Elite pulled one hand away from Everest’s throat. He curled it into a fist and punched her in the other eye and then the nose, again and again.

“Woah- woah- woah- hey, hey, hey! E-Everyone calm down please!” A calm but also childish voice said, suddenly appearing in between Elite and Everest. It was a small octopus. A large figure grew out and from the octopus form quickly without pause. A large, large figure. Everest pulled away from Elite, gasping for air and shaking as her own blood dripped down into the surrounding ink, instantly becoming sanitized as it made contact with the ink.

Blood ran quickly from Everest’s nose.

In fact, Everest just looked terrible.

Elite went quiet though. He scrambled to stand up straight and salute, “C-Commander Tartar! Sir- I-!” Everest looked up and there stood Operator. Its coat was already partially stained with sanitized ink. Everest looked over at 2 and 7 with a worried expression. Everest’s expression probably spoke volumes about her worry and about how Everest wanted to keep 2 and 7 from finding out about Commander Tartar’s reset.

“Oh great, y-you too?” Operator frowned. All the other Octolings froze in their tracks too, staring silently at Operator. Quickly, they saluted and stood straight too. “I’m not Tartar, I’m Operator. Please call me Operator.”

Similar to Everest’s own reaction, Elite sputtered and tried to get the truth out of Operator only to be met quickly with the real truth that Commander Tartar really was gone. Elite glared around Operator at Everest and rushed to seize her by the neck again, “WHAT DID YOU-” Operator grabbed Elite’s shoulder and forced him to drop Everest.

“Please do not blame her. She didn’t do a thing to me…e-except be a complete meanie to me. Then again, she’s grieving the loss of Commander Tartar. I don’t blame her,” Operator gently smiled at Everest, not even seeming to notice how much it reminded Everest of her father.

“Now then,” Operator turned towards the others, “Anyone want to help me clean this little place up?” All the Octolings besides 2 and 7 super jumped back to the train and sped away. “...Oh.”

Operator shrugged with a smile and pulled out their mop, “Oh well, more fun for me!” Operator started to clean up with a happy little hum.

“Wha…? I don’t get it… who did that to him?” 7 said, looking confused. “Where did he get that mop? Why-…? Is he… I-Is this him now? Who he is? Commander Tartar never… really liked cleaning…! Unless- sanitizing to gain o-order counts as-. Cl-Cleaning is CQ’s job-…” She seemed to be in shock, even with how she was around Commander Tartar sometimes.

Everest slowly trudged through the ink towards 7, making sure not to slip. She looked…really depressed now. She then took a breath. “Pearl and Marina reset him. Th-They reset Commander Tartar, mu guardian and adoptive father. H-..He doesn’t even recognize the octolings by name…” Everest quivered as tears began to roll down her cheeks, “Tartar always knew them by name- even if it was just a number!”

H-He doesn’t recognize me,” Everest looked back at Operator, “He doesn’t recognize you,” Everest looked back at 7 before…she couldn’t hold it in anymore…bursting into tears, “He doesn’t recognize anyone!”

“Oh, no… I-it’s okay-! W-we can- uhm, we- can- help him get his memory back!” 7 said, gently patting Everest on the back to try to console the weeping snowflake, “But how is the question here.”

Everest went completely silent, just sniffling for a moment. Finally, the air changed around them as Everest became cold once again. “I…I have one idea,” Everest forced the words to come out of her, “We fire the NILS Statue.”

2 let out an audible gasp, probably the most verbal Everest had ever heard her be. Everest didn’t want to be mean to 2 but, “What?” Everest spat, glaring at 2 slightly, “Commander Tartar had been working on it ever since he went back into hiding! He told me. H-He even showed me! The amount of times he brought me up with him to see it and to help him clean it up a little and pick up the mess of papers with info- At this point, I know exactly how it works. We just need to fire it. M-Maybe seeing it fire will bring him back!” 2 shook her head and looked at Operator, just cleaning up the ink and looking to be having genuine fun doing it, before looking at 7 for her opinion.

7 was nodding. “Seems like it’ll work.” 2 just looked distraught and terribly worried before super jumping back to the train as well. In the process of which, she ended up landing on the barrier stopping applicants from leaving the test once they’ve started. Everest could only cringe slightly. That looked like it hurt big time. She calmed as CQ opened the gate and helped 2 inside.

Everest then turned back to 7, “Then we’ve got a plan,” Everest held out her hand for a handshake. 7 shook her hand, beaming with excitement and a little nervousness, or that’s what it looked like, at least.

Everest looked back at Operator. By now, it had cleaned quite a large portion of the ink up. …It almost looked happier like this honestly. It only took one reminder of what Marina and Pearl did though for Everest to snap out of those thoughts and start moving towards the train to either go back to the central station or another test that Everest had failed.

As Everest hopped onto the train, she caught a glimpse of someone. It was another octoling. This one wasn’t sanitized, it was obvious to see. They had pink tentacles and mocha colored skin. Seeing them made Everest stumble and swiftly sit in another train cart quickly. They hadn’t seen her. Did- did they also have a CQ-80? Everest didn’t see-.

Were the tests and blending a thing again?? No. No. They must’ve stopped when Operator came about. Everest hadn’t seen a single octoling enter the metro since Commander Tartar first left (“I kidnap people off in Octo Valley and Octo Canyon every now and again to bring down here for testing. You already know, Everest, I select carefully,” Tartar told her).

So…

Who was this?

Everest thought about it for a long time, watching the new face get on and off the train and various tests here and there. Tartar blended up all the applicants that came in so who in the deepest crevices of the ocean coULD THIS B-!?

…Of course…

Who else would be down here to redo tests?

#oc writing #splatoon #splatoon oc #splatoon 8 #splatoon CQ #commander tartar #splatoon tartar

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laladellakang · 3 years

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In My Bag

enhypen 8th female member masterlist

wattpad | open requests / ask della!

(italics dialogue = english) (bold + [ ] = video captions)

"Lala," Jay said in a cute voice. Della sat beside him, placing a blanket on her lap and her bag on the table. Since Sunghoon, Jake and her always sit next to each other, Della's turn is after Jake and before Sunghoon.

"First and one of the most important, bujo," Della said, taking out her navy bullet journal.

"Of course," the members nodded at her.

"I plan everything here, if a member is confused about our schedule or something, it's all written here," she explained, giving it to Jay so he could have a look at it.

[#INFJ_essentials]

"Look at this," he showed the camera a quote that Della wrote by hand. "It always seems impossible until it's done," he read out loud.

[DELLA is skillful at typography]

"What does that mean?" Jungwon asked.

"It always seems impossible until it's done," Della translated.

[Quotes inspire DELLA to be better]

"Ah, that's a nice quote."

"Next, octopus," Della took out her reversible moody octopus plushie. The members laughed and awed at their baby. "If I'm ever upset at the boys, I can just-" she cut herself off to flip the plushie into a mad expression, making the members laugh more.

[#Moody_baby]

"She actually does that! It's so cute!" Sunoo exclaimed.

"Usually she pouts when she does it, like-" Heeseung cut himself off to demonstrate, which was followed with a lot of 'that's right's. "It's so cute!"

[The members have seen it a lot]

"It doesn't actually happen often, but I like bringing it just in case," Della smiled widely.

"Deodorant, perfume and toothbrush, of course," she took them all out in one go.

"Portable charger," she held the pink square up. "-but I barely use it."

"Honey!" she exclaimed, excitedly showing her bottle of honey. The boys laughed and questioned her why. "Like Jake, this helps with my throat," she explained.

[DELLA's go-to remedy for sore throat]

"Ah, yes you've been using honey since I-Land," Sunghoon pointed out.

"Yes but I guess it's also for Jay-oppa, just in case he feels stressed," Della smiled at Jay, passing him the bottle. He smiled at her and felt his heart swell.

[#Considerate_baby]

"Thank you," Jay said affectionately.

"Airpods pro," she said, stretching out the 'o.' "I have an ENHYPEN keychain," she showed off.

"Eyy," they teased, flustering Della. They do so but everyone knows how flattered they are.

[#ENHYPEN's_number_one_fan]

"Vitamins!" she took out all her small vitamin bottles. "C, D, multi vitamin, collagen, supplements," she listed, smacking the bottles on the table in order.

[Health conscious so she can be on the top of her game]

"Why do you have so many vitamins?!" Della was laughing at the members' reactions. Sunoo and her have a lot of vitamins. The room was a mess for a few seconds before eventually calming down.

"Moving on! This is a pouch for the smaller stuff," she introduced.

"Liptint, lip balm, eye drops, hair ties, hand sanitizer, a pen.." she listed, bringing out the contents.

"My ID!” she confidently showed the camera. Jay quickly protected her and hid the card with his hand.

[#Baby_proudly_showing_off]

"Why do you bring your ID?!" Sunghoon questioned with a chuckle.

"Why don't you guys have your ID with you?" she questioned back. "It's for emergencies!"

[#ID_is_an_essential]

"I brought mine, too!" Sunoo jumped in. Della looked back to quickly give him a high five.

[#03z]

"03z," she smirked.

"Then feminine products that I can't show and my phones," Della took out both of her phones and finished her 'tour.'

"Wow," Jay clapped before the video cuts to a shot of the things Della showed earlier.

[Moody moody octopus]

[DELLA's bag]

della:

hybe's editor: BABY

DELLA CARRIES AROUND THE MOODY OCTOPUS PLS- 😭😭

Della really loves the members a lot. The way she looks and cares for them like how she packs Jay honey or keeps asking questions so the members talk more. No wonder they're so whipped for her

della always looks so strong, i didn't know she had to drink that many vitamins ☹️

It's confirmed. Della does have two phones

why is no one talking about della's handwritten quote? ITS SO PRETTY

The admiration on Jay's face when Della said the honey was also for him 😩😩

03z having similar items is so cute

NOT DELLA CONFIDENTLY SHOWING HER ID

another episode of della finding everything heeseung does funny

della's outfits are always top tier

THE WAY JAY WAS STARING AT HER MY JELLA HEART 😭💗

#kang della #kpop added member #enhypen 8th member #enhypen added member #enhypen eigth member #enhypen female member #enhypen female addition #kpop oc #enhypen female oc #enhypen scenarios #enhypen ff #enhypen reactions #enhypen x oc #female!enhypen member #8th member of enhypen #enhypen oc #enhypen requests #enhypen recs

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middlechildwhoescapedthebasement · 2 years

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Mina Hasashi facts because she's too young to make a full outline for 👶

@tobigiveskissys here she is 👀👀👀

*Her birthday is July 26th, 2014

*She has half red half black hair, star shaped pupils, fuchsia eyes, dark skin (like her father), long hair that goes to her hips and it curls at the bottom, loads of freckles, and two cheek dimples

*Just gained her "hellfire", it's very unstable and she accidentally burns a lot of things

*Her entire family dotes on her and all of them are overprotective of her

*Big adventurer. Loves the outdoors and likes to pretend that she's a wilderness explorer. Also loves bringing home bugs, much to Ryoko's dismay

*She was conceived when Varian and Hanzo reunited after 12 long years. AKA she was not planned in the slightest but welcomed nonetheless

*Being only 7 1/2, she still has childlike naivety, she understands (due to her parents) that the world isn't all sunshine and rainbows, but still doesn't grasp just how dangerous it can really get

*Mina loves having "spa days" with Akira. They do each other's nails, makeup, dip their feet in hot water, etc

*Mina bonds with Ryoko via video games and books. Ryoko shows Mina her favorite childhood games and reads with her before bed every night

*Masaru is currently teaching her how to sew, she now knows how to mend a button

*Loves dancing and singing with her mama, gets a lot of that extra energy out

*She also loves it when papa let's her do makeup on him and playing dolls with him

*Mina is actually a pretty fast learner as long as it's hands on learning

*Knows about her deceased older brothers (sanitized versions obviously)

*If she gives you a rock, that means you're important to her

*Tends to hide in very weird places to sleep. Always gives her family a heart attack when they can't find her

*Girl is octopus crazy. She'll talk about them all day if you let her

*Likes to steal papa's rope spear when he's not looking. Gets into massive trouble as a result ("I was just looking papa! I swear")

*Doesn't like getting in trouble, but it happens anyway because of how curious she is

*Likes visiting the Lin Kuei temple because she doesn't get to see that much snow in one place, causing her to get excited and plet her siblings with snowballs

*Likes doing simple gymnastics, it's fun for her

*Spoiled by Johnny, her parents hate it ("stop spoiling her!" "I'm not!" *sneaks her a cookie for just existing*)

*Feeds all the animals that come by the Shirai Ryu temple, causing an influx of them to stay

*Has enough plushies to fill a toy store (thanks to Johnny)

#mk oc #what if au #Mk Mina #Mina Hasashi #Mk FireDance #oc x canon #Mk Ryoko #Ryoko Hasashi #Mk Akira #Akira Hasashi #Mk Masaru #Masaru Hasashi #Mk Varian #varian hasashi #hanzo hasashi #mk scorpion

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spacetimewraithwrites-archive · 3 years

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Word Prompt #14

Word: Octopus (suggested by @dontdowhatisayandnobodygetshurt!) WIP: Thriving series CW: Oh, everything. Blood, tentacles, violence, fluids, guns. All of it. Word Count: 1,727 Additional Notes: I saw the word and I had to get weird. I could’ve gone completely normal and written a cute little light-AU fluff piece about Warren taking Thrive to an aquarium or seeing an octopus in the ocean on Earth but no. It’s fucking balls to the wall in the first half lmao.

Also it should be noted that I decided for no reason to set this in the timeline of Destiny. So Thrive and Warren are still just mutually pining at this point.

***

It hit them both at the same time. Thrive, repairing a form suit in the corner of the medical room, and Warren patching up a minor laceration on his thumb from an improperly handled utensil—they looked up in unison as a guttural scream made its way through every corridor of the L2 and into their ears.

“Oh, Christ,” Warren muttered. “If that’s an eliyi....”

“That was Armatax,” Thrive said, abandoning the form suit and striding out to the room.

Warren secured the bandage around his thumb and followed, anxiety already through the roof. “Whatever the hell could make Armatax scream like that is guaranteed to kill us and I’m just not sure I’m ready for that kind of commitment right now, Thrive....”

They traced the continuing shouts to the loading bay, and when the door remained closed upon them arriving, his shoulders tensed. More screams joined in, this time from Sussa, and the struggle ramped itself up to max level. Weapons fire and brute-force physical assault from what sounded like multiple sources.

Thrive waved the door open and his arm shot out to keep Warren back as he himself had to reel away from the loading bay to process the sight.

An enormous creature with tentacles—normal tentacles, sans sharp blade bits, but what was “normal” when it came to tentacles, anyway?—and a bulbous orange head swiping at Armatax and Sussa, whipping an appendage around the nuaclan’s gun and tossing it through the open door. The capsule sat upended in the farthest corner, shattered electric panels sparking and smoking around it. Rubbery flesh slapping the floors, the walls, every surface it could reach. Low-hertz growling vibrating the air.

Warren waited for Thrive to say something, but he seemed to be stunned and confused into silence.

“We wouldn’t be completely upset if you decided to step in,” Sussa yelled, taking a running leap onto the squishy head of the octopus-creature. She socked it directly on of its several protruding eyeballs and three tentacles curled into his body, giving Armatax a chance to dive for cover. “This is kinda your fault, after all!”

Thrive threw a barrier in front of himself and Warren right as a tentacle snapped toward them, and the impact resulted in a wet squelch. Warren grimaced.

“How is this Thrive’s fault?” Warren shouted. “Where did this even come fro—oh what the fuck.”

Thrive had caught another tentacle in his hand and ripped it from the octopus’ body, sending a wave of thin blood over the entire floor. It sprayed everywhere, splashing clean white surfaces with surprising yolk-colored fluids and getting it all over Armatax and Sussa.

Warren watched Thrive hold the limb up and stare at it. “Look, I know I can contribute practically nothing to whatever ungodly abomination is happening right now, but you need to go in there and...oh no. No. No, no, no, no, no—”

He’d realized what was about to happen seconds before it did, and he turned toward the wall, covering his head with his arms right in time to avoid the amber light encapsulating Thrive and shifting his form. A thick tentacle wrapped itself around Warren’s torso and he glanced down to witness it stretching and tightening across his ribs.

“...Huh.”

Thrive lifted him off his feet and bowled him down the hall away from the loading bay.

Warren scrambled to his feet and sprinted for the door, running headlong into it when it slid closed and automatically locked. Warren pounded the metal with his fists. “That’s really not what I meant and I think you know that!”

A fist-sized dent punched its way into the door and Warren jumped back. He listened for a minute, heart pounding, more gunfire popping off. The unmistakable connecting of fists to octopus flesh, and octopus flesh to octopus flesh, and the smell of said flesh burning wafted into Warren’s face.

“This is gonna give me nightmares,” he groaned, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes. “If you open that door as an octopus I’m aiming this ship in the direction of Earth and shooting myself out of the airlock.”

The fight continued for possibly hours. Warren was about to attempt sliding the door open himself when it blasted off its track and sent him sliding down the length of the hall again. When he stopped spinning he kicked the door away from himself and looked at the loading bay.

The octopus was wedged in the doorway, tentacles lolling over the floor slickened with its own blood. Another tentacle slithered into view, getting a hold of the body and gently tugging it back into the room, succeeded by a spark of amber illuminating the space behind it.

Warren stayed put. “Guys....”

Sussa, still dripping with thin but oddly goopy blood, emerged from the room and wiped it from her eyes. Armatax followed, less drenched but with his feather-like hair flattened to his skull. He spun the barrel of his gun and tucked it back in its holster.

“We good?” Warren asked, standing once more. “Everyone okay?”

“Yes,” Thrive said, back in human form and moving around the downed octopus. He combed his fingers through his own hair to tame it, out of breath, form suit covered in patches of yellow. “Let’s talk.”

The four of them filtered into the conference room around the corner and Warren perched himself onto the table. Thrive entered last, locking the door behind him, then whirled around to aim narrowed eyes at Sussa.

“Explain.”

“I’m saying!” Warren interjected. “Are you telling me that he somehow smuggled a giant alien octopus onto the L2 without any of us knowing? Does that sound like him? I think I would’ve noticed considering....” Considering he’d been with Thrive practically every second of every day for the past few weeks, but he decided against mentioning that fact.

Sussa and Armatax exchanged grim expressions. “Do you recall going to Rotanga and bringing a small glass ball full of green water onboard a couple of weeks ago?” she asked Thrive, venom in her voice.

Warren’s face fell into instant regret, and he pressed his lips together into a line, turning a wide-eyed stare onto Thrive.

Thrive, on the other hand, refused to crack his stoic façade. “...Perhaps.”

“Do you happen to know what was in that small glass ball full of green water from Rotanga?”

Warren, who was with Thrive when he bought the small glass ball full of green water from Rotanga, determined his fingernails were suddenly much more fascinating than this conversation. “...Was it an egg—”

“It was an egg!” Sussa exclaimed. “A microscopic fertilized egg not from Rotanga at all, but from the Lagisa Faction of Holeph!”

“Their oceans are rife with dangerous deep-sea creatures,” Thrive helpfully supplied for Warren’s sake. “I suppose this was...a misjudgment on my part.”

“I’m a little concerned,” Sussa said, pinching the bridge of her nose, which squeaked as she touched it due to the sliminess. “This is not the kind of mistake I’m used to you making, Orthrive’poliea.”

Armatax gestured to him. “Told you. They are both dumb.”

“You’re normally very careful about what you keep around us and where everything comes from,” Sussa continued. “I don’t understand how something like this could’ve slipped past you. Can you walk me through your thought process when you were—”

Warren glanced once more at Thrive’s face, and though he remained the outward picture of calm and blank, he could see a swirl of confusion and shame in his eyes. He must’ve been keeping Sussa out of his head because she didn’t notice or mention this at all.

“It’s actually my fault,” Warren interrupted. “I liked the way the water looked in the glass so I kinda peer pressured him into buying it for me. I don’t think I gave him the chance to apply critical thinking.”

Sussa’s attention fell onto him. She paused for too long. “You didn’t let him do his job?”

Warren cleared his throat. “I take full responsibility. I’m sorry.”

He knew she didn’t buy it. But he didn’t know how to keep her from hearing his thoughts, so all he could do was go over the lyrics to one of his favorite songs over and over to prevent giving himself away.

The sharp stink of the room settled on them like a fog and Sussa waved her hands dismissively. “Look...I need to clean and sanitize myself for four hours so this subject is officially dropped for now.”

She and Armatax left Thrive and Warren alone.

“That was unnecessary,” Thrive said at length.

“Didn’t see you trying to stop me,” Warren shot, leaning back onto his hands.

Thrive strolled into the center of the room, his hands clasped behind his back. “You know the real reason this all happened, don’t you?”

Warren shrugged. “Because you made a very normal and natural error in judgment?”

“Yes.” Thrive stopped and turned to him. “Because my capacity for perception either heightens beyond what I ever could’ve imagined or seems to disappear entirely whenever I’m around you.”

Warren’s pulse quickened. “You gonna send me home for that?”

To his shock, Thrive smiled and glanced away. “No. And...perhaps I made another mistake in letting you take the fall for me again.”

“Well, you didn’t let me take the fall the first time. I did that very much on my own.” Warren watched him pace the room some more. “And I saw the embarrassment in your face. Sure, Sussa wasn’t exactly being harsh or even wrong, but I couldn’t let you take that from her.”

Thrive took a deep breath. “You’re often quite gifted at reading me.”

Warren allowed his response to hang in the air.

Almost as if noticing it for the first time, Thrive swept his fingers through a spot of octopus gunk on the stomach of his form suit. He paced back to the door. “I should rid myself of the evidence as well.”

“So you now have colossal alien octopus in the repertoire of forms you can take, huh,” Warren mused. “It’s just...gonna be like that for the rest of your life.”

“Apparently so. Not something I anticipated happening today.”

“What’re we gonna do with the dead one in the loading bay?”

“Ah,” Thrive chirped as he stepped over the threshold. “It’s not dead.”

The door swished shut on the color draining out of Warren’s face.

#word prompt #lmao @ me forgetting to add the tag

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whetstonefires · 4 years

Text

Okay, it’s been about a year but here is the second-to-last of the fics I signed up to write for the go-fund-cee drive! For @jes-cher, who has been lovely and understanding about my choice paralysis bullshit.

I’ll be posting a shorter, darker Jason-focused one later, as apology for slow. Ten months of beating my head against my first idea for this prompt before it occurred to me I could just. Write something else. It doesn’t matter if it’s a great idea if it’s clearly not getting written! 😌 Rip.

(Anon who’s the only one left, please feel free to contact me with a new prompt if you’re no longer interested in your original request after this amount of time, or have justifiably lost faith in my ability to execute it, as I chronicled my battle with Lobdell’s writing style, and would prefer I give you 10,000 words of something else. I’ll still post what I have written for that prompt already!)

-&-

Gotham wasn’t actually that bad a city. Steph had actually lived in a few different ones now, and visited lots, and for all the crap her hometown got, it stood up pretty well. The architecture was nice; good balance of eras, a unified aesthetic with a lot of variety to keep it interesting.

The street system wasn’t ideal, especially in the old parts of town, but they didn’t have any of the traffic nightmares of New York or, really, most of the rest of the metro belt. Only Metropolis did a better job at avoiding gridlock.

Public transit was robust and reached most of the city, and while the buses weren’t wonderful they weren’t bad. Sometimes they were even on time. The libraries and schools were all pretty well funded, because the Wayne Foundation made up the tax shortfall in districts with below average income. The street lights usually worked, and the cops were a lot more chill than most places unless they thought you were a supervillain, in which case they still probably wouldn’t shoot you, even if maybe they probably should.

The supervillain problem was worse than average, she could admit that, but crime as a whole actually wasn’t. Air pollution had been really bad forty years ago, and the river still wasn’t anywhere you’d like to swim, but that was true of a lot of places, and their reputations didn’t linger like this. She’d been to Paris! Gotham sanitation workers were about 400% more successful, and they kept working through frankly ludicrous conditions! Possibly they were paid really well, she didn’t know.

The weather, though. She’d give the world that one. Gotham’s weather was consistently terrible, awful, no-good, and deserved everything anyone had ever said about it.

Which made it actually really weird that their supervillain problem featured someone with a plant theme.

“Move somewhere tropical, Eisley!” she groused, as she swung to the next roof, careful of her footing. “Cultivate jungles! Save the planet! Stop making us come out in the freezing rain to deal with your unseasonable bullshit.”

She paused for a second on her last rooftop perch, both to gather herself and in case Ivy took the cue. She often did. Supervillains in general seemed to have a hard time resisting a straight line—which Steph could relate to, honestly. And she’d caught Batman holding back his entrance for the most ironic dramatic moment before, so it wasn’t just a villain thing.

No villain attack, which was good, because Steph was on her own out here. This was hopefully just a scouting mission. Probably Poison Ivy wasn’t even here.

This afternoon, just after lunch, as Steph was getting off work, every park in the city had suddenly erupted with enormous…growths. They were tree-shaped, thirty feet high with little crinkled green leaf things at the top, but from what inspection had been done so far seemed more like fungus than anything. The spreading limbs had a weird rubbery texture.

Steph was calling them Doom Broccolis.

Whatever they were, they were suspicious as heck, and in response to their appearance Batman had immediately rallied the troops. Which had quickly led to the discovery that Red Robin was missing, and had been for at least eleven hours. He’d never checked in last night.

The troops had promptly been rallied even more urgently, and dispersed across the city to its various infested green spaces.

So Steph’s mission, like everyone’s, was twofold—see if she could learn anything about Ivy’s scheme in time to foil it, and search for any sign of Tim. If they were lucky, he’d just dropped out of contact voluntarily for unrelated reasons and could be yelled at later. If not… Well. If not, he needed them.

She’d been telling herself all the way here that she appreciated that Duke and Damian were the ones who’d been sent out with each other as backup, that she was respected and trusted to operate solo and that was a good thing. The practical side of her would really prefer backup please, and the insecure one kept murmuring that maybe what it really proved was Batman cared less if she died.

Batgirl gave herself a little shake. Shut up, little voice, she told it, and mentally squashed the slug of it under her heel. She adjusted her gas mask to make sure the seal was tight. Time to get her reconnoiter on.

And hopefully not have to fight the most powerful metahuman in Gotham by herself on unfavorable terrain, in the freezing rain. That would be really great.

There was almost no sound as she crept through the nasty rubbery grove that had erupted in the long narrow triangle that was Hyde Park.

The broccolis themselves were silent, not even creaking or rustling in the occasional gusts that drove the freezing rain at an angle, and city traffic and all the sounds of people were hushed on a day like today, between the weather and the large-scale supervillain incident. Everyone who could be was either out of town or at home, stuffing newspaper into any cracks in case of spores.

After an unenlightening loop around about half the perimeter, Steph was forced to drop to ground level and forge her way into enemy territory. The doom broccolis had avoided uprooting any existing trees or large shrubs, which meant the spacing was slightly uneven and in some places there was no easy way through on foot, but for the most part they were far enough apart to leave plenty of corridors of sky for Steph to stay out under—cover from line of sight wasn’t worth putting herself directly below the things, if she could help it.

Fairly quickly, she noticed something that had not been in the photos from the main infestation in Robinson Park, forty minutes ago.

She clicked her comm on. “Hey,” she murmured just above the subvocal range, for the throat mic. She’d mostly gotten the knack of subvocalizing rather than whispering, which didn’t engage the vocal cords and which the microphone pasted to her neck therefore didn’t pick up well. “Is anybody else seeing…fruit? On the broccolis?”

There was a second of dead air, and then Red Hood said, with a grimace you could hear, “yeah. Like…huge brown cherries, on a couple of ‘em.”

“The ones here are more or less mushroom colored,” reported Signal from Finger Park. “But kind of like cherries, yeah.”

“Don’t touch them,” warned Batman, with the condescending Dad-instinct need to tell everyone things they already knew. Steph was in the middle of rolling her eyes when she rounded another broccoli and froze dead.

“Holy crap.” The broccoli mushroom tree at the middle of Hyde Park was bearing fruit that wasn’t shaped like cherries at all. Batgirl’s first thought had been holy shit it’s people, but then she’d taken her second look, and now it was worse. “Team,” she said, trying to keep her voice professional, “I… think I found Red Robin.”

Because dangling from the central broccoli, by dark hair that turned into green stems just before joining the bough, were seven still vaguely formless figures, torsos partially sheathed in giant green leaves like Ivy wore sometimes for modesty, and with arms and legs looking just barely stuck together. Like a partly melted wax figure, or dragon fruit that wasn’t quite ripe. The fingers and toes were mostly fused, and greenish at the tips. The faces were kind of melty too, hopefully enough so that they wouldn’t be a sure match against a photo to a stranger, but not so much that Steph couldn’t instantly recognize the lines of one of the faces she knew best in the world.

There were seven under-ripe Tim Drakes growing from a broccoli tree.

A clamor of demands for clarification was starting in her comm, and she crept forward as she waited for Batman and Oracle to quiet them all down. There was a bulge halfway up the meaty-looking trunk. “I said ‘think,’” she murmured, studying the nearest Tim-fruit for signs it was actually the real one, “because this broccoli—”

Something slammed into her from the side before she could say any more, heavy and cold and leaving her head ringing and her stupid gas mask flying away, and the combination of experience and instinct only barely let her leap and handspring with the blow, just fast enough to avoid the grasp of the thing that had struck her.

Her boots and glove almost skidded in the freezing-rain-on-grass and left her wiping out, but the jagged rubber treads she’d selected specifically for moments like this saved the day.

Steph made a three-point landing and stared up at Poison Ivy, standing looking thunderous on the top of a huge coil of some sort of vine, several more of them lashing around her like octopus arms. Steph couldn’t even tell which one had hit her.

Oh shit oh shit oh shit, Steph thought, and grinned.

“Gotta try harder than that, Pam!”

No one was talking in her ear. The ear she’d been smacked in. She reached up to check. Yeah, the comm had had it.

She couldn’t be sure about the throat mic—the stick-on patch it was under was still in place but she was pretty sure it got most if not all of its broadcast strength from the earbud unit, so it probably wasn’t transmitting to the others anymore but it might be. She’d keep that in mind to a) pass info just in case and b) try not to embarrass herself, in case there was a silent audience.

Ivy didn’t go straight for the kill, so Steph took the time to readjust her stance into a slightly more upright, flexible posture that kept both her hands free, though she didn’t bother to straighten her cape, which had gotten flipped forward over her right shoulder while she was flipping around.

“You’re planting dude-trees now, Pam?” She and Ivy absolutely weren’t on close enough terms to use first names, even if the meta lady had currently been on the upswing and working with the Birds of Prey again, instead of on a sharp down and terrorizing the city. “What, real guys not listening to you anymore?”

“Human beings are disgusting resource sinks,” Ivy said, in a tone of abstracted disgust that didn’t omen well for her losing her head and making a mistake. “Especially men. I’ve always been working on alternatives. Sadly,” she gave a shallow sigh, inspecting her nails, “the ones I’ve developed have always been…limited.”

Steph nodded sagely. “The veggieburger problem,” she agreed. “Hard to get a plant to do the job of meat.”

Ivy glared. Hah. That one got her. “My new varietal,” she snapped, “will overcome that problem. Each specimen engulfs and consumes one large mammal, and produces fruits that mimic the full intelligence and abilities of the prey sample, in a vegetable form completely loyal to me.”

Steph gaped, because one, that was the most terrifying thing Ivy had done in years, and two, consumes was a very very alarming word in this context. “The Doom Broccolis are carnivorous?” she did not actually squeak. She really hoped her throat mic was still working. Even if it wasn’t, though, backup should be incoming.

Ivy rolled her eyes. “They are not even distantly related to broccoli. And yes, although the digestion process doesn’t really set in until the fruits ripen; the early experiments failed to reproduce cognitive function accurately, due to the breakdown of key tissues.”

Whew. So Tim had…at least a little time left, probably. Steph looked uneasily around the grove of horrible flesh fungus. “I don’t see any loyal broccoli people,” she said. Maybe they were off guarding the other parks?

Ivy scowled. “Of course not. The early cultivars weren’t large enough for human trials, obviously.”

…so there were loyal vegetable guinea pigs or something. Sometimes it was easy to forget Ivy had once been an actual lab scientist.

“So wait, you haven’t actually done a person before and you start with—him?” Steph caught herself at the last second; she didn’t know which identity Tim had been caught in.

“Why not? Red Robin is an excellent specimen. Good balance of strength, strategy, and unlike Batman actually takes direction.” Ivy made a sour face, like her inability to control any version of Batman for long was a thorn in her side.

“Is that what you think,” said Steph, who had had the experience of trying to control Tim Drake. He did try to be accommodating, about most things, usually, and he did take direction better than Batman, for what that was worth, but in the end he’d always go off and do whatever he thought best, no matter what, and possibly let you yell at him about it later.

If anyone could take stock of his preconceived values and identity issues and think his way into a twisty workaround for inbuilt loyalty programming in order to fuck over his creator, she’d bet it would be a perfect copy of Tim.

“Also I caught him skulking around my newest greenhouses,” Ivy shrugged. “Waste not, want not. Recycling is good for the Earth.”

Haha, Ivy had just called Tim garbage. Harsh. But as interesting as it would be to see if the veggie-Tims actually did go rogue, them waking up would mean Tim was now actively dying if not already dead. So no. Not that funny.

Steph caught the enemy’s eyes shuttling subtly toward the central broccoli with its heavy burden of fruit. Aha. Just as she had suspected. (As of like…six seconds ago.)

Poison Ivy had been keeping Batgirl talking, buying time for her Tims to ripen.

Steph appreciated the compliment of putting off the fight rather than counting on being able to end it quickly, but she’d been buying time, too. And unlike Ivy, she was done shopping.

Her Batgirl cape wasn’t nearly as wide cut as her Spoiler cloak had been, not as good for hiding things in, but she’d contrived to use its cover to take out and arm nine individual exploding batarangs while they talked. That was more than she carried normally, or even would be allowed to carry normally, but when you were fighting evil trees more ordinance tended to be called-for, and Batman had issued a supply.

Without wasting time, she started throwing. Her aim had never been especially exact, something Damian liked to give her a hard time about, but here all she had to hit was ‘an entire tree.’ No fiddly precision targets today. She had to aim for the ones not showing fruit or trunk bulges, which she was going to have to trust didn’t have people inside, rather than having just recently acquired very tiny people—this seemed like a safe bet since Ivy tended to be soft on kids.

Not enough to stop periodically trying to destroy humanity for their sake, but enough that it was hard to imagine her hurting one face to face.

“No!” Ivy shouted. She got points for not leaping toward the blinking explosives to try to stop them, sending vines striking like snakes instead, but she was too busy doing that to get away from the bomb that had landed only about five feet away from her.

The blast blew her off her feet, and clear off her pedestal of green. She’d managed to remotely yank two of the batarangs out before they went off, saving those doom fungi, but Steph wasn’t worried about that; she’d successfully set the supervillain up for the kind of fatal misjudgment in defense of plants Batman always said was the surest way to beat her, and now she charged in to make the most of it.

She got there in plenty of time to really put her weight behind a punch hammering down into Ivy’s face, then kicked her in the chest, heel driving in just below the collarbone. Ivy gave a very human uph and pained expression, though she didn’t fall, and Steph went for another kick, this one more carefully aimed.

This was a mistake. One green-tinted hand came up and closed around her ankle like a Venus flytrap made of carbon steel, and in one sharp uncoiling move Eisley rose to her feet and with a twist of her whole torso flung Steph head over heels across the grove.

She realized somewhere between getting thrown and suppressing the urge to vomit as she gyroed upside-down that she’d been thrown straight for one of the remaining undamaged, unfruiting tree-things. Could see the surface getting sort of…gelatinous in preparation for her impact, which was so many flavors of no.

Her hands didn’t fumble at her belt, courtesy of many hours of drills and live practice, even as instinct screamed for rush and now now now.

Her grapple caught in one of the spreading ‘boughs’ at the top of another broccoli, and she tugged the line to send herself swinging out on a long arc just short of making contact with the fungus that wanted to eat her.

She peppered the air in front of her with ordinary, nonexplosive Batarangs as she came back around on the end of the wire—Ivy smacked these casually aside, but it made enough of a distraction that Pam didn’t notice in time the moment when Steph got her backup grapple into a different tree, and accelerated.

Going for a kick would have been the smart, safe option, but Steph was rarely smart and almost never safe, so instead of slamming her full body weight heel-first into the supervillain and hoping it stuck this time, she grabbed with the full strength of endless thigh workouts and dragged Ivy clear off her feet.

Ivy’s plants were protective, but they tended to rely heavily on her for targeting anything that wasn’t right in front of them, so keeping her disoriented was a good idea if you could manage it. It said so in her file. So this part, the grabbing, had been an actual plan, even if one it had taken about two seconds to make, and even if ‘hit the supervillain essentially with your crotch’ was probably a combat recommendation no one would make ever.

The next part was sheer impulse, based on how much easier Ivy was to move than expected—maybe her punch resistance wasn’t so much physical density as some sort of supernatural rootedness, and if you could get her off the ground it stopped working?

Steph released the retraction mechanism on her secondary grapple and let it start paying out again, an instant before she hit the max-strength retract button on her original grapple, the one that was still in her other hand, and gripping a bough halfway across the grove.

Her right shoulder screamed, but Ivy let out a startled choking sound as their trajectory wrenched around out of the arc Steph had been carrying her into headfirst, and shot the other way. Which meant she was still discombobulated, which meant Steph still had the upper hand, shoulder or no.

Steph picked the right moment as they went rocketing back, and let go. Momentum kept Ivy flying, and none of her plants reacted to catch her in midair before she landed. Right on target.

Ivy sank headfirst into her own carnivorous fungus tree, in the gelatinous patch where she’d tried to throw Steph. Her legs kicked once, and then fell still. “See how you like it!” Steph shouted, which was perhaps not the wittiest repartee ever, but she didn’t care.

She landed, staggering a little because her shoulder might be dislocated a little bit and was definitely killing her. And normally she wouldn’t turn her back on a villain just because she’d gotten one good hit and they hadn’t immediately gotten up again, but what she’d been fighting for this whole time was time, because the window of opportunity to stop Tim Drake-Wayne from being reduced to protein goo and the pattern for a bunch of veggie-copies was closing fast. This wasn’t a defeat-top-rank-supervillain-solo mission, this was a rescue mission.

She pelted back toward the relevant tree, holding up the elbow of her bad arm with the opposite hand against the jolt. How to get him out? With two good arms she could have climbed or grappled up to the level of the bulge that represented the broccoli’s prey and started cutting, but it would be hard to get good leverage. Was there a better option?

One of the Tim-fruits twitched on its stem. Fuck it.

Steph recalled the grapple-end of her holdout gun from where it had been since she use it to get the drop on Ivy, fired it into the gummy-looking limbs of the Tim tree, and hauled herself up. She needed to start carrying a better cutting implement than a Batarang, how did Midnight Boy Scout not mandate that already, but for now she gripped one swoopy sharp black wing awkwardly in her gauntleted left hand, braced toes and knees against the nasty cool-flesh stem, and put all the strength her bad arm had into cutting through the tough husk.

It wouldn’t cut.

More of the Tims were starting to move. Their copy nervous systems booting up or whatever.

The whole tree seemed like it was twitching, and then she realized it was, or rather just the lump under her feet was, and she pulled back her Batarang just in time for something thin and yellow to burst out through the surface of the Doom Broccoli, and disappear, leaving an almost invisibly thin slash that dribbled a transparent greenish fluid that reminded Steph of aloe vera gel but smelled more like old mango and artichoke.

The rubbery husk was being sliced up from the soft, inner side with the hawks-head emblem that belonged in the middle of Red Robin’s chest, which wouldn’t you know was a holdout throwing star thing after all, just like his R used to be. She should’ve known.

Talk about impractical shapes for a knife.

“Keep going, you’ve almost got this.”

Whether he heard her or not, he went on thrashing and slashing, and Steph with her Batarang tore as best she could with her bad arm at the shreds between cuts, trying to get them to snap and let all the thin slashes add up to one hole large enough to escape through.

The Tim-fruits were still twitching. Would they fall to the ground and then peel their limbs free like they were breaking out of husks, and get up and start walking around? Or would they need to get all the way to looking like functioning humans before detaching from the stems?

A whole arm burst out in a rush of goo. They were going to make it.

The fingers of the nearest fruit came unstuck, one by one, curling around air the way Tim curled his around a staff.

And then he was out, headfirst and gooey.

“Man, Ex-Boyfriend Wonder,” Steph sighed, as she let him grab onto her and lowered them on a slowly paying-out jumpline, helping him reach the ground with slightly more dignity than clawing his way down the slime-encrusted ruptured stem of his prison would have allowed, assuming he hadn’t just landed face-first and died. “Why’d you have to go breaking yourself loose at the last second like that? I was supposed to be the hero!”

“Believe me, you—pbbbft—were,” Tim answered, pausing partway to spit out a mouthful of sap-gel that he must somehow have been breathing in there. “I’d never have even managed to wake up if you hadn’t turned up to distract Ivy and make such a racket. I could feel her speeding it up, toughening up the…things, pushing.” The shiver was understated enough Steph might not have noticed it if he hadn’t been clinging to her waist. She eyed the Tim fruits. They’d stopped moving. Good?

Feet on the ground, Tim brushed fruitlessly at the slime all over his costume, then obviously gave it up as a bad job. “Where is she?” he asked, looking around.

“Over there.” Steph landed too, and pointed to where Ivy was still embedded head-first in a broccoli.

She’d disappeared up to the waist, and didn’t seem to be making any effort to get out. In fact, as they watched she seemed to sink in another centimeter.

“Okay, that’s a bit better than a distraction,” Tim acknowledged. “But also I don’t think we should let her finish. I don’t want to fight a dozen vegetable Poison Ivys.”

“Don’t like to eat your vegetables?” Steph teased, even as she sized up the situation—should they pull Ivy out, probably the faster option but then they’d probably have to fight her some more right away, or try cutting down the Doom Broccoli with her still in it, more thorough?

“Yeah actually I’m not going to be able to look any cabbage varietals in the face for the next six months,” said Tim, apparently agreeing they were broccoli regardless of their creator’s opinion and the mango smell, “but come on. It’s never good when villains start to spawn. Chiraxes was bad enough.”

“Blegh,” Steph admitted. The duplicate Drury Walkers had at least had a super short lifespan and been self-disposing. “Okay, I’m all out of bombs. You?” Probably a dumb question, given all his storage space had been confiscated.

“Ivy took my belt and everything in my bandoliers,” Red Robin admitted, touching the cape closure thing at the top of them, where he’d shoved his little sigil-thing back into place in spite of all the goo. His stupid little gimmicks would be easier to make fun of if they worked out less often, lucky stiff.

“But she left that.” Because Tim had all the luck when it came to details like that. “And your mask?” Not that Ivy had ever cared much about things like the Bats’ secret identities.

He shrugged. “I guess she didn’t expect it to be relevant long.” Anything she wanted to know from or about him, the copies could have told her, soon enough. And he wouldn’t have mattered, once he was dead.

This had been another close one; Steph got those feelings out with a little shiver of her own. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s do something about Ivy. Everybody else should be here soon.”

“Backup,” Tim sighed, pushing his hair back from his face and having it stick that way, messily moussed with doom fungus glop. “I love having backup.”

“Sure didn’t act like it back in the day.”

“I am an older and wiser man now. Who values being alive and made of the original meat products.”

Steph stole a glance over her shoulder at the Tim tree. “…I’m really glad those things aren’t waking up.”

“Me too. Think of the ethical implications.”

Steph side-eyed him, not sure whether that was intentional humor or not, then decided it didn’t matter and elbowed him in the ribs anyway. She immediately broke into a run to avoid any counter-attacks, bad arm carefully supported once again. “Race you to the supervillain!”

#stephanie brown #tim drake #pamela eisley #batfam #supervillain fight #rescue mission #prompt #gofundcee #jes-cher #doom broccolis #my fic #batman fic #fanfic #winter weather #capes #shoulder injury

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therobinsonwayoflife · 4 years

Note

How would each of the Robinsons handle Covid-19 lockdown?

NOTE: This is a silly thought experiment intended for virtual fun and frolic. If you have the means, self-isolate; if you have even more means, donate to your local COVID relief fund & think abt mutual aid to thy neighbours.

Now enough of the real world.

Firstly, the Robinsons live in a utopia where society is sustainable & environmentally friendly and where we no longer have monocultural industrial farming that causes mass epidemics. Worst case scenario the world would experience minor discomfort as its 👌 healthcare system and humaniatarian economy would mean COVID-19 would pass in two weeks where everyone stayed home, got tested, played animal crossing, and went back to work.

That mumbo jumbo aside, in the universe where everything is on fire, I would still imagine that the wealthy, crafty, and optimistic Robinsons are able to continue their lives in much the same as they did before: they’re eccentric billionaire shut ins with all the resources they need not only for self-sufficiency but to sustain their weird hobbies without ever leaving the property indefinitely. Indoor zoo, gym, pool, gardens, greenhouses, fly vending machines, back up power grid, indoor labs, art studios, sky-high ceilings for canons, propeller hats and indoor snowball fights, indoor studio & live frog performances, indoor train, robots & octopus servants to go to the grocery store, cut your hair, get your mail, etc. On top of that they have the latest and greatest & would have no problems telecommunicating w friends via holographic emojis.

HOWEVER the Robinsons would probably still do their part to help others & possibly feel the burn of the world dying around them alongside the economy’s impending collapse.

Order of the Robinsons’ likeliness to lose their marbles: Joe, Tallulah, Franny, Petunia, Fritz, Carl, Gaston, Art, Spike + Dimitri, Wilbur, Bud, Billie, Lucille, Buster, Cornelius, Lefty

Tallulah, if she has any seamstressing skills (or employs people who do) might convert her fashion business into cotton mask business.

Fran would perform live stream concerts and she would’ve been a part of that ugly Imagine celebrity-sing-along video. She might also start to do increasingly unhinged gardening vlogs like January Jones. (She would’ve also secretly donated lots of cash to charity.)

Wilbur’s sitting around playing video games, let’s not kid ourselves. (Neil probably has the timelab on triple lockdown, too.)

Art is a delivery guy so he’s obviously still working. The fact that he delivers intergalactically begs the question of wether the bad universe Robinsons have to deal with an intergalactic as well as global plague.

BHG is dead I’m sorry :(

Neil, as the owner of a multi-billion dollar corporation, is the only other Robinson likely to be interacting with the politics of the pandemic directly. His business isn’t an essential one but could easily be converted:

Reusable PPE: medical and sanitation supplies are disposable for obvious reasons but in times of scarcity, it’s wise to consider reusable alternatives like silicon bodysuits and plastic helmets.

Better masks: As of today a reusable respirator called the North 7700 is already being considered as an alternative to disposable surgical masks that have to be individually fitted to the wearer. Every. Time. Purportedly these masks are also more effective than the N95s (by like 1-5%). They have not been univsarlly adopted and they are also super awkward and bulky for surgeons who might need more space in their field of vision. Neil’s likeliest covid project is to redesign the the surgical respirator mask to be slimmer, versatile, accessible, efficient and resizable. I’m picturing a very fancy, transparent, silicone version of the N95. Maybe they automatically fit to the wearer through sci-fi magic.

Maybe he develops spray-on gloves as seen in a Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs’ spray-on shoes?

ROBOTS & other automisation to replace engadagered essential workers such as grocery store clerks and delivery people. RI could develop a fully automated postal service & cleaning staff for hospitals. This could also be how the reusable PPE is sanitised. Depending on how intelligent these robots are, some of them could even sub in for orderlies and nurses

Better testing: automate mass testing

Higher accessibility to the internet and better telecommunication software: WiFi everywhere the way Nikola Tesla intended, free laptops / phones / devices and improved video conferencing technology

Software that helps w e-learning and e-working

Automated industrial farming? With an automated delivery system?

(In a post covid world this could lead to fully automated luxury communism or fully automated surveillance dictatorship your call)

Efficient pop up test sites, temporary sinks, etc

Improvements to public transportation (which we can assume is already automated so there’s no danger of drivers getting infected). Maybe the monorail cleans itself & has better air filtration. Maybe the seating and poles etc are rearranged to encourage people to stand apart.

Some kind of insta-garden for people wo yards in their homes? (Aka me. I would like this please thanks)

Bread machine

Maybe he helps develop some kind of powerful purel-like soap that kills the virus without water. But that’s not quite up his engineering ally so

Collabs and funding with biotech companies & hospitals to streamline hospital procedure, improve respirator, PPE, COVID testing technology & even vaccine research. Cornelius thinks the human body is gross but he also feels a moral obligation to help so...

If Neil were evil, he could also contribute to surveillance policing, where those disobeying social distancing and social isolation rules are either admonished by drones, surveilled with cameras, trackers, GPS, facial recognition or even house arrest anklets. But again he’s not evil...

I would also like to think that he pays for his employees’ health insurance and sick leave. Again, we hope he’s not evil.

Maybe the family also donates some food & extra supplies. With so many overseas friends they might send care packages or smth. Fran & her brothers are sure to video call the franahuccis often (their parents are in their seventies/eighties at this point).

The would also implement safety measures Gaston the over-50s and disabled among them. Joe, Bud and Lucille will find a way to self isolate from the rest of the family in style. And possibly with a lifetime’s supply of purell. Maybe they still attend dinner via Skype hologram. Or maybe each individual lives their lives as normal except in a giant self-isolation bubble that Neil invented. Bud will probably create a silly YouTube series to cheer up kids.

#disney #meet the robinsons #mtr #familycanon #headcanon #analysis #cornelius #ri #covid 19 #ask

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edales-drabbles · 4 years

Text

Controlled V

It was pitch black. It almost looked like a tattoo except no one would get a tattoo like this. A black splatter around his right arm like spilt ink. A black splatter which was spreading, and fast. It had started as a blob and now was wrapping around his arm like an octopus tentacle. It was an infection which was his own fault and would be the death of him now.

Shawn exhaled as he looked up at his arm, lying on his back on an uncomfortable mattress and studying the pattern feeling slightly numb inside. It was Damjan's work, the zealot's skill at poisons and ability to manipulate virus and bacteria cells was well known, and the Master Vine had hired the cruel man for a reason. Shawn had helped deal with outbreaks from Damjan's concoctions before and now he was looking at the man's work on his own body. He was watching it start to leech into his being and giving him one week to hand himself over to the Brotherhood.

Shawn already knew what the virus was. Damjan had been using it for a few weeks now. The primary goal of the virus was actually to infect civilians to force them to join the Brotherhood's side or die a painful death. For espers like Shawn, a more painful future lay ahead. The Brotherhood did not take kindly to espers who had fought against their work.

More concerningly, Shawn hadn't fought Damjan recently. Which meant it had been Frostknife who had infected him with the virus/poison. Damjan must have developed a way to spread it through blood contact. Frostknife had managed to cut his hand during their last conflict. The cut was definitely the origin of the pattern. It wasn't healing either. It wasn't bleeding but the flesh was raw instead of scabbing over. Shawn should have gotten the wound checked out, not that it would have done a lot of good. Damjan's virus cells were practically impossible to destroy. The bastard, Shawn snarled tightening his fist.

If he got his hands on Frostknife, he was going to strangle the man. This was Damjan's entire purpose in life. Frostknife was just a grunt like him though.

Shawn felt a tear run down his face and curled into a ball on his mattress, springs creaking as he did so. So much for escaping the city. He was going to be chopped up into little pieces alive on TV for everyone to see. Just like Gemini. Only Gemini wasn't actually dead. The Surgeon had pieced him back together only for them to repeat the process until Gemini had barely screamed. Shawn, like most of the espers who fought to protect humans, still wasn't sure if Gemini was still alive now or whether once the point had been made Vine had finally let the man die.

His home phone rang, the rings echoing in his mostly empty room. Shawn picked it up, the old thing on the floor next to his mattress, rubbing the tears away and steeling himself. He wasn't being cut into pieces yet and he had things to do now. The infection had started hurting and affecting Gemini after a week. He had until that long to... well to either close up his life or find a cure. "What?" he croaked, not in the mood to deal with anyone right now. He had already sent a message out to the network to let the other fighter know about the new development in Vine's plan. People had to know. Some of the younger ones had already gone into hiding, what the brotherhood had put Gemini through was horrific.

"Arctic Breeze," Frostknife's honey-like voice greeted smoothly over the line. "You free?" A code that was known by every esper. It wasn't a meetup request, it was a 'can you talk without civilians overhearing' request. Even Master Vine didn't like civilians getting involved in the matters between the two sides. He just saw no problem with forcing them to become espers.

"I'm free," Shawn said coldly, gripping the sheet under his fingers tightly. "We can start with how the hell you got my number?" he demanded, sitting up and looking around his small room. Only a few people knew it, including Gemini now he thought about it. Fuck. The brotherhood would know his address too. He had to get out. Not that he had much to move. His parents had kicked him out once they found out he was an esper and getting a job without a high school diploma had been hard. Especially given his other jobs erratic hours.

"I'll take the tone to mean Damjan's experiment worked then. You're infected," Knife said almost smugly. "Brillant. I'll meet you at the corner of 5th to discuss what happens next. Don't bother wearing your mask," he purred.

Shawn could almost feel the sneer on Knife's face. That had been one of the things that they had done to Gemini too. They had unmasked him on live TV. Most of the brotherhood didn't bother with masks, they weren't afraid of the human police. The rebels weren't so lucky, they still had to blend in with everyday society.

"I'm not meeting you anywhere Knife. I have shit to do," Shawn hissed, turning over to look at his calendar of empty dates. It looked bleak but he did have people to say goodbye and a job to quit before he could let the Brotherhood take him. He did have a life as pathetic it was, but his side job had swallowed up a lot of it already and now it seemed was about to swallow the rest up too. Quitting his paying job would be easy. The rest, not so much sadly.

Knife tutted disapprovingly. "Arctic, this is not the time to be playing games. You don't have long and Master Vine wants to talk to you about what happens next," he scolded, sounding like he had the right to tell Shawn off for such a thing.

"Knife, as far as I am concerned, I have a week. Actually, I have three days and then I'll go do what you want or possibly jump off a cliff. Either way, I'm not biting your hook until then. So tell Vine that if he wants to see me, he'll have to wait. I'm busy," Shawn said firmly, almost about to slam the phone down.

"Arctic, you may not have three days. Damjan wasn't sure how strong to make the formula so you may have less time," Knife warned almost gently, an almost fond undertone in his voice. Shawn almost snorted at the thought. Knife was not fond of him at all, maybe the infection was clouding his thoughts too.

"If I didn't know you any better Knife, I'd said you were concerned," Shawn laughed bitterly. "I'll take my chances, talk to you later," Shawn finished, putting the phone down and pulling the cable from the wall. He didn't want callbacks.

Pushing himself up to his feet, Shawn quickly gathered the few belongings he had and threw them into his bag. On the off chance, the brotherhood hadn't had Shawn's address before he had been on the phone long enough for them to track a location. He needed to leave and quickly. Bag on his back, he was out of the apartment and handing his keys to the building manager.

A broad woman with knowing eyes who knew better than to ask questions to the people who crashed into the building. She took the keys and simply said he had a week to change his mind before she would rent out his place. A statement said partly out of kindness but knowing it was unlikely that Shawn would return. Few people returned when moving out without warning.

Shawn tried not to cry or rage as he walked down the street toward the city. He wasn't sure he would even be alive in a week, he mused darkly to himself as he headed to the underground. Most of the stations had been gutted of their lockers but some of the ones further out of the city still had them. Shawn would have to use one to stash his stuff until he knew more about what he was doing next. For one thing, he needed to find a place to crash.

-x-

"Did the number work?" Master Vine asked as Frostknife walked into his office, the elderly man, tending to some of the plants he kept. "Fin seemed to think it would. Gemini had been more willing to give out nuggets of information. I think Fin is beginning to make their connection work better."

"It did, Master," Frostknife acknowledged, standing straight with his hands behind his back. "Arctic is reluctant to behave so soon. He did, however, mention that he would either give himself up or commit suicide in three days, so that may be interesting," Frostknife explained, his eyes watching Vine's scarred hands on the office plants.

"That is not unexpected," Master Vine nodded calmly, putting down his watering can and cleaning his hands with some sanitizer. "After what we put Gemini through, none of them are likely to willing walk into our hands," he chuckled darkly as he put some gloves on.

"Should I attempt to hunt him down?" Knife asked.

"Should you?" Master Vine asked, sitting down in his leather chair and looking at Knife calmly, linking his fingers under his chin thoughtfully. Awaiting an answer from the man.

Knife blinked slowly, considering his answer. "I think Shawn would be a good addition to the brotherhood. I am concerned by anyone who suggests suicide. Gemini was at best a chaotic type and his moral standards were low. His punishment was extreme but he lived through it, we did not kill him. Shawn is more pragmatic and more neutral than anyone else in the rebels. I don't think he really cares for humans, he just doesn't like death. He's also never really tried to harm any of the brotherhood more than he needed too to defend whoever he was protecting."

"Shawn has a low threat score, that is correct," Master Vine nodded, clearly thinking that over. "I have never planned for him to go through Gemini's punishment," he reassured Knife. "In some ways, it was a shame that Gemini was the first captured."

"Which makes his fears wrong, not unjustified but wrong," Knife settled on. "I'd like to stalk him for a while and make sure he's not about to do something stupid without finding out the facts."

"Then you may, but you may only interfere once you have found him if he needs help or is about to commit suicide," Master Vine allowed.

#slash #slash fiction #my writing #superhero x villian #drabble #blackmail

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curewhimsy · 4 years

Text

Perrsonality descriptions for my Squishmallow collection that I have so far.

(It’s not a lot of content yet though.)

———

Squishmallow bios

Danny lion- A lion who is very timid. However, he has moments of bravery that surprise everyone, even himself. Danny loves to eat meatloaf. He is very sentimental and is a bit of a crybaby, often writing poetry and is moved by works of beauty. Danny dreams of being on a rescue team who saves people from the dangers in Whimsica, however he feels he is too cowardly. But the one time he saved Acorn from a fire, everyone encouraged him. Birthday is March 28.

Simon red panda- Simon is a cheerful red panda who likes to play 4-footed soccer, a special kind of soccer animals play. He lives in a treehouse in Speckle town. Simon used to be very closed-off and lonely after his mother died. But through making friends and being part of the team, he regained a love of life. Simon treasures the simple things in life such as friendship, eating ice cream, having good dreams, and scoring a goal. He is also known for giving good advice to his friends. He can be clumsy but he doesn’t let it stop him. Birthday is April 22.

Song the panda- Song is a shy panda, but she loves to compose music. Song likes to eat plum dumplings and drink tea. Her favorite pastime is taking baths and singing in the tub. Song is shy, but the music she composes is mainly party music. She was once a DJ at a club for animals and was a hit. Birthday is May 3.

Chilly penguin- Chilly may be a penguin from the Antarctic, but their special ability is that they can breathe fire! Surprise! Their full name is actually Chilly Pepper. Sometimes Chilly feels like an outcast or a misfit for their power. They love cold weather, and their favorite food is sashimi, which is uncooked fish. But their power luckily comes in handy for defeating the abominable snow golems that spawn near their family’s home! Chilly is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns. Birthday is July 2.

Benny raccoon- Benny may live in a dumpster behind an Italian restaurant, but it’s the cleanest dumpster you will ever see. Everything is organized and sanitized. It’s so neat, that it can be described as classy! Benny is a connoisseur of delicacies and his favorite food is Parmesan cheese. Many people think he would be stuck-up, but Benny is actually goofy and friendly. He is a big eater and is often found snacking away on Parmesan mac and cheese while watching a soap opera or reading a mystery novel. Benny loves dramatic stories as well. Birthday is June 4.

Star pastel unicorn- Star lives in a city up in the clouds. She likes to eat colorful star-shaped breakfast cereal that is mostly marshmallows and gummies. She is friends with Moemi Kise.

Ringo magenta unicorn- Ringo lives in an enchanted forest with the tastiest apples in all of Whimsica. The apples come in all sorts of beautiful and rare colors. Ringo is friends with Haruko Asada.

Acorn squirrel- A somewhat grouchy squirrel who doesn’t like to be chipper like other squirrels. Acorn lives in a hole in a big shady oak tree in the Violet Ivy University Campus and goes to the library a lot. Their favorite kinds of books are science fiction space odysseys and cookbooks. They aren’t a student at the university, but can be found around the campus. Acorn likes to cook all sorts of forest recipes and often has a nice aroma coming from their home. Acorn isn’t very social, and is uncomfortable socializing with those they don’t know well. But they are interesting and knowledgeable once you get to know them. Acorn is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns. Birthday is February 5.

Delia fawn- Delia is a bit of a wild child, unlike the other gentle deer. She loves to explore and rough-play with animals a lot bigger than her. Delia is always getting into trouble, thinking of wild schemes and ideas, and then going through with them. Delia’s dream is to be a runner in the animal olympics. Birthday is February 24

Elmer dinosaur- Birthday is December 8

Sherry pink owl- Birthday is January 9

Rainy teal owl- Rainy is Cozy’s little sister. Birthday is April 5

Ferris pegasus- Ferris’ old home was in the stratosphere, but he moved down to the atmosphere because there weren’t a lot of friends in the stratosphere and he got lonely. He can eat clouds. Ferris is friends with Setsuna Usui. His birthday is January 30

Clyde dragon- Clyde is a cool guy who likes memes and video games. However, he is very shy. Loves pizza and Mountain Dew soda. Rumor has it that he is neon green because he drinks so much Mountain Dew. Clyde also loves gardening and has his own garden with many rare plants. Clyde lives in a small caldera, which is a crater left after a volcano eruption. There are a lot of green plants blooming in his home, and there is a pond in the center. Clyde is friends with Rie Kubota. Birthday is March 20

Kit cat- A cuddly and cozy cat. Kit loves to relax and is very friendly. She always has dreams about herself going on different wacky adventures. Since Kit is disabled and has mobility issues, being able to dream is important to her. Kit has a special power where if someone else is sleeping at the same time as her, she can appear inside of their dream, and share the dreams she has with all her friends. At night, Kit and her friends go on magical adventures inside of their dreams. Kit’s owner is Margot, and she is also friends with Rainy the owl. Her birthday is November 1

Boris koala- Boris is a deaf koala who uses sign language to communicate. He loves to paint pictures. His birthday is October 2

Slumber owl- A genius yet scatterbrained owl. Slumber may quote famous geniuses a lot, but sometimes at the wrong time. Slumber invents very elaborate knick-knacks, but most of them have an obscure reason to use that rarely occurs. His birthday is October 19.

Cozy owl- Slumber’s pal. A bit of a couch potato. However, he can play guitar. His birthday is September 27.

Lullaby owl- Lullaby runs a daycare service. She sings soothing lullabies, but she is also a death metal singer as well. Birthday is November 6.

Sugarplum cat- Birthday December 22

Raine alpaca

Pancake shiba dog

Swirl strawberry

Lolly Pop cat

Shortcake cat

Donut teal dog

Topaz dinosaur

Soda Pop bunny- Soda Pop is a docile bunny, but they are able to roar!

Macaroni dog- Macaroni is a big yet playful dog who likes to eat cheese and have adventures. He has boundless curiosity and likes to explore new places such as forests and caves.

Periwinkle squid

Goo jellyfish

Gouda octopus

Comfy donkey- Birthday is August 9.

Art cat- Birthday is May 30.

Prism cat- Birthday is May 30.

Ice Pop bunny- Birthday is January 12

Jubilee bunny- Birthday November 19

Ellie elephant

Corn Dog pug

Nacho fox

Bailey lamb

Wanda butterfly

Mango flamingo- Birthday is September 1

Gumdrop cat

Doodle turtle

Peach flamingo

Smiley clownfish

Seamore dolphin

Finn shark

Ketchup octopus- Birthday is May 18

Mochi seal- A fashionable and outgoing seal

Lime turtle- Lime is a bit of a pest, but he means well.

Walnut walrus- A gentle and sensitive walrus

Flapjack dog- Birthday July 20

Crepe Suzette cheetah-

Estella fox-

#my stuffies #squishmallow #squishmallows #whimsica #my writing #life of pastell #oc #ocs #whimsica saga #im using them as characters in stories #aka ocs

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