Mine Mind Meandering

some books i need to look into:

Sabriel- Garth Nix
Lirael
Abhorsen
Warrior and mage- valentin ivashchenko
Return- Vadim zykov
The quest of the unaligned- a.l. phillips

Hallelujah- Lindsey Stirling

Nightcore- Electric Angel

So, kind of in whiplash right now, because i've been fighting the shark giants in Bloodborne's Fishing Hamlet for awhile now, trying to get the rakuyo
and right off the end of one of my worst runs through it (ending with me getting invaded and killed), got another summon (pretty sure it was the same guy, actually) who helped my fight toe-to-toe with the giants and win, finally attaining the item i sought


also, i am incredibly stupid
because i've been wanting to do a Meical run once i inevitably finish with my current character (Jasmine), but i just had the urge to create a character based off Rayne from Bloodrayne
for some reason
oh well, it's been a pretty good day, all things considered

Sad Alice Said- Open Your Eyes

Undertale - The Death of a True Hero [Remix by NyxTheShield]

Undertale - You're gonna go far, Frisk (Genocide)

just some notes from my dash, in case i have problems with kissanime

trigger-chan anime
oreimo- sienen
sakura trick
ajin
gangsta

masou gakuen hxh

Vocaloid original- ECHO- Gumi English

Two steps from hell- merchant prince

Look at me, adding personal content to an already-existing universe

Worm--> Atlas -->OC bio-tinker modifications:
steamlined hydraulics
pituitary gland/shedding activated
thicken/improve armor
improve wings/add more
make digestive system more efficient
add adipose tissue for additional armor cushioning and extra fuel
turn 'blood' into something like antifreeze- high resistance to temperature changes
add brain tissue around the body- redundancies as well as improved transmission speed
increased myelniation
'switch' on glands to use fuel to quickly regenerate damage taken
glands like gregor the snail's- excretions of all kinds, if you know the chemistry. could theoretically make containment foam, or the enzyme to break it down
more 'hearts' and pumps that can be activated to increase transmission speed vastly, making him incredibly quick
local bacterial colony that renders him virtually immune to common diseases
'echo' to make him more readily controllable by Taylor
back-up system a lot like Rachel's dogs, making him virtually immortal

shaman's harvest- in chains

Me @ people who talk in the quiet study areas of the library: Kill yourselves

Need to talk about Worm, but for right now just need to jot down which fanworks i'm looking at:

Copacetic- regular worm, dated after the golden morning. taylor tries to adjust to normal life... and fails
Like Mother Like Skitter- taylor's mom is alive, and is the villain marquis, who is overjoyed that her daughter triggered, less so that she intends to join the wards
cenotaph- rework where skitter tags along with the wards for a couple days, wakes up from a coma and finds her dad dead. she gets a little more...extreme in this one. considered a necessary read for most worm enthusiasts
queen of the swarm- in addition to her canon powers, skitter picks up the ability to create zerg-like creatures and her body slowly alters to turn her into something similar to the queen of blades
Hunter- a crossover of worm and Bloodborne, where taylor gains the powers of the Good Hunter

EDIT: add Personification- a short fic that hasn't been updated in awhile, but a humorous piece that involves the Endbringers recruiting Taylor to become one of them to inevitably save the world. wish it were longer, but the bits it has are fantastic

Edit: adding Atonement to my list of worm fics to read
basically, au where taylor dies in the locker incident, and madison triggers out of guilt and becomes a hero to atone for what she'd done
clockwork- huh. more of a...tinker power, i guess? interesting. also has a lot more moments of heartwarming and awesome
confrontation- taylor's battel vs lung doesn't go so well and she ends up in the hosptial. taylor is a hero rather than a villain and somehow forms a friendship with shadow stalker
ex machina- taylor gets tinker powers, rather than bug control
learning to be human- possible endbringer personification?
monster- au where taylor triggers with night's powers. a bit more proactive in her attempts to deal with world-class threats. case in point, she starts with nilbog
Weaver 9- obvious reasons
hunter- again, obvious reasons

I really don’t know what is with me and taking so fucking long to post, but finally getting around to something that might make a few of my more recent posts make sense. Also, putting this here mostly because I don’t actually know where it belongs in any of my main topics…
…maybe I should make a topic for this specifically. Eh, I’ll think about that later

So, I’ve been reading a web series over the course of the past couple of months by the name of Worm, by Wildbow. This series is, funnily enough, about superpowers, and is probably one of the most realistic in how powers are obtained, how they influence people and the society they live in, and generally how even with powers the world is still a really fucked-up place.
And before you even ask, I’ve already mentioned it to Best, though whether he reads it is completely up to him.
The story is long, almost ridiculously so, clocking in at around 1.65 million words, which is half and again as long as the entirety of the Harry Potter series. It follows the path of a single girl who obtained powers and decided she wanted to be a hero. Without spoiling too terribly much, she quickly finds out that in the convoluted world of cape politics, some of the heroes aren’t much better than the villains they fight, and a few are markedly worse. Likewise, she finds out that some villains aren’t all that bad, just people who got a shitty lot in life, a crap roll of the dice in receiving powers, and are just trying to make the best of things as they are. Eventually, she actually decides that she is better off staying away from the heroes’ ocean of red tape and does the best she can to change things as a villain.
Worm is also really creative with powers, and in a fashion I really enjoy. If I had to sum it all up in a word, it would be Irony, but that probably won’t make sense until you actually start reading the story. What I will say is that some of these powers are incredibly creative, but that they also highlight that while some powers are stronger than others, it all depends on how the power is used. Case in point, the main character gets the ability to control bugs, which doesn’t sound like much considering she is in a world where there is a guy who turns into a literal dragon with no upper limit and a girl who can consume the essences of dead parahumans and does so to collect the powers of other heroes and villains like normal people collect Pokemon. That said, because she is smart in how she uses her powers, she actually manages to beat the aforementioned dragon-man. Twice. And a tech user who pilots giant mech suits. Twice. Hell, she actually goes up against people who are almost blatant counters to her powers, and still comes out on top.

I just finished the series about two weeks ago, and I’ve been suffering from need for more of it, so I’ve been dipping into some fan works on the series, which I’ll probably be mentioning in the following days. The series is fantastic, and I would highly suggest it to anyone who has the patience to sit down and read it all.

Edit: just realized that my current list of fan works to read is actually the post right above this one, so that's a thing

Forgot to mention a couple of really important points about worm:

first and foremost, it is sometimes described as having more world-breaking powers than most comic book settings. while this may or may not be true, the reason this postulate exists in the first place is that more people in this setting are willing to use their powers. Whether they just got screwed up as a result of their trigger event and just went rampant, or whether they were already loose a few screws and just got worse, there are parahumans in this setting who are perfectly willing to cause catastrophic damage to the world and the people in it

which brings us to the second point: worm is essentially a war story. there are good points, sure, but the world in which the story takes place is on the brink of destruction- unstoppable monsters make forays into places of importance, grinding down the number of parahumans as a result, and there is no visible way to stem the tide. due to the nature of trigger events, the number of villains vastly outstrips the number of heroes, and bureaucracy often holds those few back from actually doing much to help people.
as the death toll rises (and it will) people lose idealism and turn to being pragmatic, being harsh and brutal for the greater good, even if that means crushing upcoming optimism in the process.

worm is a wonderful story, but it is deeply screwed up. sadly, that's kind of why i like it

Sooo, just heard of, started and finished a short fan work of Worm called Broodmother

Similar premise to Queen of the Swarm, except while QofS was inspired by Starcraft, Broodmother is more or less a direct rip from it.
mind you, it was actually pretty okay; interesting take on the whole 'Taylor is not Kerrigan' schtick, but not all too terribly great and with some definite discourse

out of 8 chapters, the first 6 were of the above
the last two had one good thing, and after that it just kind of dissolved for me
the one good thing? they took Taylor from the end of canon- Khepri- and made her into a Fourth Endbringer, and it was an amazing take on what that kind of creature could be.
other than that, chapters 7 and 8 were a mix of 'bleh' and 'are you fucking kidding me?'

eh, not the best fic i've ever read, but i also don't consider it a waste of my time

Spider Jams on Spider Donuts - [Undertale, Spider Dance]

Sooo, reading the Worm fanfic Monster, and I'm honestly torn
on the one hand, it's a decent change of pace, understandable alterations, and all that jazz, but at the same time it is one giant fucking angst train and the writing is kind of...jerky, i guess you could say. not overall, necessarily, but the dialogue is almost impossible to follow in places. gonna read it, and it is actually updating at a decent pace- actually, the first 4 arcs were ALL produced within the past year, and it updated twice just this past week, so I have hope for it

basic premise is that Taylor did trigger, but instead of getting her canon bug powers, she got the power that was in canon attributed to a supervillain by the name of Night. basically, she has the ability to turn herself into a super-fast, super-tough whirlwind of bladed death...but only while people aren't looking at her. the moment a sapient creature gets her within eyesight, she reverts back to human immediately. on the plus side, she heals (physically) fully between changes, and switching to her monstrous form and back fills her with energy, so she doesn't really have to sleep

and i have to say that, angst aside, this is one of the more believable power swaps for Taylor. not being able to be seen except as normal, extreme social isolation, emotional disconnect, a personification of self-loathing- the monster that Night was is almost a perfect reflection of what Taylor could have been.
following for the awesome concept and hoping that she gets more efficient in dealing out death as time progresses, but we'll have to wait and see

This'll be the last set for Queen of the Swarm comments. there's still plenty more, I just got tired of looking for the good ones and want to get back to the story:

Hugs For All!
Lisa: "You can turn me off so she can turn me on."
Amy: "We're all underaged."
Lisa: "Hmm... cuddles?"
Taylor: "Works for me!"
Amy: "Look, I don't think I'm ready for-"
Taylor: *pulls Amy and Lisa onto a bed and promptly falls asleep*
Amy: *wriggles* "Uhh..."
Lisa: *whispers* "Yeah, that's the extra strength. We're basically stuck here till she wakes up."
Amy: *also whispers* "I don't think I'm ok with this."
Lisa: "Hey, the bed's pretty comfortable. We made sure to get her a really good one because she's a bit clingy. It's kind of a habit."
Rachel: *walks in, joins the pile*
Amy: "Umm, hi?"
Rachel: *grunts and falls asleep*
Lisa: "Also, there's that."
Amy: "But... I have to go. I can't stay here."
Lisa: "It's fine, we don't mind.
Amy: "Really, I need to-"
Lisa: "You know my power lets me know you could just paralyze her muscles and shift her out of the way, right?"
Amy: "..."
Lisa: "I know you're not used to it, but you're welcome here."
Amy: "But... you all barely know me."
Lisa: *reaches around to rub Amy's back* "Maybe we think we'd like to?"
Amy: *cries herself to sleep*
Lisa: *while hugging Amy* "Well, not how I thought things would turn out, but I'll settle for it."


In slightly less depressing thoughts, both Lisa and Emma will be happy with Taylor's newest mutations. Between her new height and skin tone, her entire wardrobe needs to be updated. Which means they get to force Taylor to model for them.
And that means that Taylor has to suffer through the hell that is shopping. Again.


Hmm, maybe they could get her to try on high heels?
Between her height and skin tone, she could do a royalty-themed cape costume better than Regent. Would be pretty.
"High heels? Why? I'm gawky enough already; do you really need me falling over too?"

"Well, first off, you'll loom over most people, which lends a lot of instinctive authority. Second, they'll make your butt look incredible..."

"Wait, what was that, Lisa?"

"You'll get a lot more authority..." *shiftyeyes*



Fetch for Fun and Profit
Heartbreaker: "I've finally arrived in Brockton Bay, now to find and acquire the newest edition to my collection."
Aisha: *pops up* "Hey, catch!" *throws a bright red ball at Heartbreaker*
Heartbreaker: *instinctively catches* "What? Who're you?"
Aisha: *Imps away as fast as she can*
Heartbreaker: "Hmm, where'd this ball come from? And who the hell put super glue all over it?"
*thuds in the distance*
Heartbreaker: "What was that? Sounds a bit like impending doom."
*thuds in the less distance*
Heartbreaker: *stares down at the ball in his hand and tries to pull it off* "Why do I have a bad feeling about this...
*thuds in the no distance*
Anastasia: *comes round corner and skids on the road*
Heartbreaker: "Oh..."
Anastasia: *stares at Heartbreaker then stares at the ball*
Heartbreaker: *stares at Anastasia then stares at the ball*
Anastasia: *stares at Heartbreaker then stares at the ball*
Heartbreaker: *stares at Anastasia then stares at the ball* "Uhh..."
Anastasia: "GREEASCAAAAAAW!"
Heartbreaker: *turns and runs* "ohcrapohcrapohcrap"
Aisha: *safely off to the side* "And to think, I was just gunna shoot the bastard."

Also also:
Jack: "Right, so everyone's happy with their nominations?"
Crawler: "I'm not!"
Jack: "Look, we can't all pick Skitter."
Crawler: "Fine. I'll go pick a fight with the monster girl then."
Jack: "Not Skitter."
Crawler: *totally got caught* "Fine! I'll go pick a fight with the other monster girl. Gawd."
Bonesaw: "Hey Jack, me and Siberian are going to go play with Panacea now!"
Jack: "Be back before it gets dark."
Bonesaw: *stomps off* "Whatever, you're not my real dad!"
Jack: "... damn teenagers. Always annoying and stupid."
Mannequin: *nods in agreement*
Cherish: "You know, she's kind of strange."
Jack: "Bonesaw?"
Cherish: "No, the Skitter girl. She's got strange emotions."
Jack: "How so?"
Cherish: "I think she's connecting with her creatures. Feeding her emotions to and from them."
Jack: "Will it make it hard to manage her?"
Cherish: "Nah, not once she's separated from them."
Jack: "What's she feeling now?"
Cherish: "Not entirely sure. I mean, it's familiar but... it seems wrong."
Jack: "What do you mean?"
Cherish: "Well, you know that feeling you get when you can't find your car keys?"
Jack: "We tend to steal them."
Cherish: "... You know that feeling you get when you lose a favorite toy?"
Jack: "We tend to find someone to replace them with."
Cherish: "Look, work with me here."
Jack: "Fine. So you're saying she's, what, looking for something?"
Cherish: "Something important's gone missing and she desperately wants it back."
Jack: "Oh? Enough to use it against her?"
Cherish: "No... Not like that. It's more a need to find it to stop bad things from happening."
Jack: "Hmm, something we should destroy then?"
Cherish: "I don't know. I'll have to get closer to get anything more specific."
Jack: "That's fine, it's our next stop."
Mannequin: *gestures*
Jack: "No, I don't know what you want to do with a ball. I mean, what the hell?"
Cherish: "Hey... does anyone else hear that?"
Jack: "That thumping sound?"
Cherish: "Yeah. Kind of sounds like impending doom."
Jack: "That's a stupid thing for you to think something sounds like."
Cherish: "No, it's like when I used to hear my father coming down the hallway. Except..."
Jack: "Except what?"
Cherish: "Except more wants-to-eat-my-face-for-stealing-his-precious-y"
Jack: *stares at her without talking*
Mannequin: *stares at her, talks no more or less than ever*
Jack: "That's not a real thing something can sound like. Like, at all. And we've been around Shatterbird for years, so we know what stupid things sound like."
Cherish: "But-"
Jack: "No."
Cherish: "I just-"
Jack: "No."
Cherish: "Fine."

*moments later*

Cherish: *poorly mimicking Jacks voice* "That's not a real thing something can sound like."
Jack: "Shut up and run!"
Cherish: "That's a stupid thing for you to think something sounds like."
Jack: "If I had realized I had balls stuck to my hands I'd still have hands to use a knife to get you to shut up with!"
Anastasia: "SCREEEEEAAAAAW!"
Cherish: "Come to Brockton Bay, you said."
Jack: "It's gaining again!"
Cherish: "See the sights, kill the locals, you said."
Jack: "Mannequin, do something!"
Cherish: "Torment your brother, you said."
Mannequin: *does something*
Jack: "Something other than get trampled!"
Cherish: "Where exactly does it say 'get chased by fuckhuge monsters'?"
Aisha: *riding a raptor with a backpack full of red balls and superglue to stick on Jack* "Page 4 of the Brockton Bay visitor's guide. It also advises you not to take their balls, unless you're going to throw them back. We had it added to help boost available activities for tourists visiting the area, and it's received quite a lot of interest so far."
Jack: "I don't know! Shut up and run!"
Aisha: "I'm starting to rethink my primary means of dealing with threats."

Also also also:
Alexandria: "And he's just... been here?"
Skitter: "Yeah."
Alexandria: "All day?"
Skitter: "Well, it is pretty fun."
Alexandria: "And your creatures don't get tired?"
Skitter: "They stopped a couple of hours ago for a rest. Apparently they can cradle him in their Kaiser Blades, so I'm feeling pretty impressed with myself for getting that design down right."
Alexandria: "... Yes. Good work."
Scion: [DESTINATION] *tosses ball*
Hugalisk: "SCREEEEEAAAAAW!"
Scion: [TRAJECTORY]
Hugalisk: *scoops ball up and returns it*
Skitter: "Hey!"
Alexandria: *tenses*
Scion: [ATTENTION][INTERRUPTION][DISPLEASURE][CYCLE]
Skitter: "I don't know what country you came from originally, but we call it 'fetch' here."
Scion: [CYCLE]
Skitter: "Yeah, you don't need to stop."
Scion: [AGREEMENT] ... [FETCH] *tosses ball*
Alexandria: "Did... did you just..."
Skitter: "Well, I like helping people."


Hugalisk is Best Pony
We were on patrol and I'd just greeted the PRT officer in charge of the group.

It was a little depressing, actually, down on the Bay.

When we'd been transferred from under the Protectorate's wing to the PRT base in town, we'd left the Rig for the most part. But I still remembered it as a home away from home, thanks to being a Ward for longer than the others. Now? Now the bulk of it was washed ashore in the wake, no pun intended, of Leviathan's assault on the city.

To the sides, along the beach, larger remains were still scattered. The smaller parts had been cleaned up early in the recovery efforts, various bits of Tinkertech being dangerous if left laying around, not to mention the countless small bits of metal and glass. But there were still larger pieces that required equipment to move which simply couldn't make it through with the condition the roads were in.

Not to mention the core of the Rig. It sat there, half in the water, as a testament to... something. Our failure to protect the city? The idiocy of building large obvious targets in an Endbringer's chosen environment? Something. It felt important, to me at least. I didn't think the others really spent much time there, to be honest, so they wouldn't think of it the same way I did.

"Vista. Gallant." Ah. The helmets obscured the faces, but I recognized the voice as that of Harmon Little. He'd been with the PRT for a long time now. Not someone I liked, per se, but not one of the officers I disliked, either. Good at his job though. "Quiet enough round here. How's the patrol looking?"

Gallant, as the elder, for all that it grated on me, was the one to give the report. "Still better than it would have been months ago."

And that was welcome news. The Undersiders clean up efforts had added another group of heroes to the mix and Brockton Bay, for once in the last two decades, was standing on its own two feet again. Skitter, for the most part, had been the cause of that. Her emergence onto the cape scene had resulted in so many shake-ups that when villains started gunning for her the result tended to be less than satisfactory for them.

Though it still rubbed me the wrong way that one of them had been, well, one of us.

"We haven't seen much. Spooked a couple kids who were probably dealing, but other than that its been quiet." Gallant continued.

Little just nodded along. "Been the same here. What's your next stop?"

Before Gallant could answer, my eyes flicked across something I couldn't recognize. "What's that?" With the question out of the way, I pointed behind Officer Little.

He didn't even bother looking, knowing what I'd spotted.

"Ah, spotted our despondent friend, have we?"

"Pardon?" Gallant asked. Thankfully for me as I was just as confused.

Finally turning to where I was pointing, Harmon saw the problem.

"Oh, he shuffled back again."

We started walking around, Harmon seemingly eager to reveal whatever it was. I'd thought it was a strange spike, perhaps something left by Leviathan or a cape that had been present at the fight. Failing that, some kind of support structure to prop up part of the Protectorate Rig. But... it continued as we walked around.

And continued.

And curved.

I normally tried to maintain my composure. This was, generally, helped by my years of heroing, as I'd seen a lot. But...

"Damn that's big." I muttered under my breath, not really wanting to disturb the... whatever it was.

Hearing me, Gallant absentmindedly replied with an equally quiet, "Swearing." before we continued to stand there, staring.

"Yeah, he's one of Skitters." Harmon commented, almost startling me with how casually his volume was. "Hasn't been a worry. Well, to us. Had a couple of tourists who thought we'd captured him, if you'd believe it."

Thoughts finally connected in my head, making their way through the awe. "That's the S-Class threat we had, before Leviathan attacked!" We'd all heard about it, of course, and I'd known it was big, but being this close to it with the toppled Protectorate tower right next to it... It put it into proportion.

A large proportion.

Harmon, for his part, just chuckled. "Yeah, had a whole lot of capes running around for nothing. Big guy's a softy. Misses his back scratcher."

Unbelievably, utterly unbelievably, Harmon reached out a hand and patted it on one of the nearby giant fucking blades.

I swear I felt Gallant freeze at the same time I did.

For the creatures part it simply popped an amusingly small eye open and I watched it rotate in its socket, first down to Harmon, then up to the Rig. With a thump I felt through my feet it shifted one of its truly massive limbs and braced, arching its back to scratch it against the downed tower.

And then proceeded to emit a heart-wrenchingly pitiable growl.

That my whole body vibrated from the sound didn't detract from how upset it sounded, and I eased up significantly.

"Oh, uh, standing tactics is to drop if it starts moving." Officer Little informed us. "It's kind of fast, and shakes you around a fair bit when it's time for it to go home for a feed."

God, what did that thing even eat?

Actually, scratch that. I decided I didn't want to know.

"What's wrong? It feels kind of sad."

Never let it be said that the Ward's empath couldn't pick up on the blatantly obvious.

"Was it the thing that kept walking out to the Rig to rub up against the forcefield?" I put forth. It had been fun watching Armsmaster fussing over 'inappropriate use of Protectorate resources'.

"That's the one." Harmon said, with a nod.

"Aw," I said, "it misses it's back scratcher."

Harmon chuckled a bit at that. "Yeah, its been kind of helpful in keeping the last few villains in town away from trying to salvage anything left in here, as well as the homeless from using it to sleep in. It was pretty much considered condemned as soon as the inspectors looked at it."

I cocked my head to the side as I considered the... well, I wanted to say 'behemoth' but that was hardly appropriate. "What do you do with it?"

"Do?" This was accompanied by a confused expression.

"Well, I mean, it just sits here all day, right?" I asked, gesturing towards it with my hands. "Do you, like, feed it, or move it or anything?"

"Heh, no. He just sits there and mopes."

"Oh." I started to move towards it, only to feel Gallant's hand on my shoulder.

He shook his head at me when I turned to him. "We've got a patrol to get back to, Officer. Enjoy your shift."

Gallant apparently knew how impulsive I could be. Just not well enough. As we took the first few steps away I flexed my power, and it in turn flexed space. Three steps forward...

Fifteen steps back and to the side of the massive creature. I heard a warning from Gallant as I reached my hand out and went to pet the side of its... barrel, I guess? When I was younger, I'd wanted a pony like any other girl my age, and knew a little about them from the books I had read. Now I couldn't wait till I was old enough to drive, or somehow convince Armsmaster to make me a motorbike like his, but I doubted Skitter's critters had fuel tanks. Well, probably not. For the most part.

I mean, who knew with that girl?

My hand fell to the creature's side and the reaction was instant. The earth shook with a massive thump as all four of its limbs sprung into action. I'd managed to startle something more than a hundred times my size, just because it hadn't known I was there, and the sheer size of it made any quick action on its part potentially fatal.

Of course, that only really counted if it hadn't been laying sprawled in the sand, with limbs pointing in every direction. Twisted as it was, the best it managed was to flip itself over onto its back, the giant pillars that masqueraded as its legs wiggling comically in the air in an attempt to find traction. I used the time to take a step back, leaving me quite some distance away through the grace of my bullshit powers.

It stopped kicking its feet, for lack of a more size-appropriate term, and moved its head around a little before rocking over onto its side and continuing to roll, standing up after only a few seconds.

At this point, all of the PRT officers had their weapons trained on it.

"You need to stand everyone down." Gallant hissed, through his clenched jaw, "That thing is startled and defending itself, and we don't want to give it a target."

Harmon Little nodded a little, trusting Gallant's emotion sense to give them some sort of reading on the situation, and he made a gesture with his hand that saw the other officers backing off, slightly, while lowering their weapons.

When we got far enough away, the frightened creature lowered its head to the ground and started circling, each footfall shaking us even from this distance. To me it almost looked like it was... ohhell. It picked up my scent and set itself on a straight course to me, bumping its face into me when it got too close, going cross eyed to keep me in view.

I wasn't sure exactly what I should be doing, but I saw Gallant and the PRT squad getting weapons ready. Seeing as that seemed like an absolutely suicidally terrible idea, I realized it was up to me.

So I slowly reached out my hand and patted it on what was probably its chin. It was just below a line of teeth larger than my arm, filling a mouth wider than I was tall, so I figured 'chin' was as good a word as any.

"Good boy."

This was both the right, and wrong, thing to say.

Right, because I think everyone there could feel the tension and unease drain from the critter as I praised it.

Wrong because I ended up sliding across the sand as he leaned his absolutely huge head into my hand. I braced with my feet and brought my other hand up and pushed as uselessly as I could.

Only to have my legs knocked out from under me when he flopped over in the direction I was pushing, leaving me scrambling on the ground. When I'd picked myself up and dusted myself off I found myself staring into his eyes as he looked at me. Taking no action was the wrong action, and he started scooting himself along towards me on the sand.

Well, there was only one way to respond to that.

Scratching him under the chin was definitely the right response, and he started to growl lightly again. It was, I suppose, a little like a purr, except there was a lot more of it. The sand underneath him was actually shaking away, and I could feel the sound running down my arms and up my legs.

Gallant decided that now was a good time to spoil all my fun, even if I had been, momentarily, scared out of my wits. "Vista? We've got to finish our patrol route."

I let the question stew for a few seconds before dropping my hands to my side and moving away. I managed to reply with, "Yeah, ok." before I was knocked off balance. Keeping my footing with a quick application of stumbling around like a drunk I turned and saw I was being followed.

"Uhh..."

"Vista." Gallant said, "We can't bring that thing with us. The director would kill us, if the sight of it didn't kill her first."

For some reason this made some of the PRT officers chuckle before Gallant continued.

"We don't even know what Skitter made it for."

"It's a... uhh..." Harmon was standing there, looking at the creature, as he sighed to himself, "It's called a Hugalisk."

"You can't call an S-Class-"

"We know!" Harmon said, interrupting Gallant in what sounded like a long-suffering tone. "We didn't. Skitter did."

The other troopers had begun moving away as I walked slowly backwards, remaining on my feet just barely as the Hugalisk followed me until he got fed up with waiting and nudged me with his face again, knocking me onto my butt. Thankfully I hadn't made it back to the road or it would have hurt more.

"No!" I raised my voice as I gave the command. "Sit!"

He stared at me for a few seconds and then his back half crashed to the ground, jolting everyone off their feet. Except me, because I was sitting already, so I didn't really care too much.

"There we go!" I said, proudly, "Problem solved."

Then I stood and turned away, took one step, and almost tripped as the Hugalisk began following me once more.

"No!" I cried out and pointed back at him. "Sit!"

He was quicker this time, which didn't work in my favor. Everyone else still hadn't picked themselves up, so they didn't really care too much. Damn turnabout.

As we all made our way to our feet, I pointed at the Hugalisk again and ordered it to 'stay'. He seemed well trained, so that should fix it. I gave him my best glare to drive the point home.

It worked for all of ten steps before he came bounding after me, this time crashing to a seated position without me even asking. Well, if nothing else it was excellent training for balance. I'd remained upright through the two thumping steps he'd taken to catch up to us, and wasn't that a humbling thought, and only lost my balance when he'd sat down.

Well... the first two plans had failed. There was only one thing left to do.

***

"Having fun, Vista?" Came the greeting.

There was only one correct way to that question: Complete and total honesty.

"No! I'm being forced against my will to remain here! He's holding the city roads, and likely a good deal of infrastructure, hostage!"

"I see, I see." Assault said, nodding along.

"I'm definitely not enjoying rubbing his belly either!" I continued from my perch above the upturned Hugalisk. That one was actually partially true, because I'd been rubbing his belly for a while but there was a lot of belly to rub. My arms would feel like jelly tomorrow, but it was probably a good workout.

"Well that's good to hear, because the director heard from Gallant when he came back that you were 'indisposed' by one of Skitter's critters and she had her secretary schedule a meeting with Panacea on the off chance she needs a tune up again."

"I haven't just been playing with Anastasia all day!" I called down, so he knew I wasn't goofing off.

"Also good to hear, because that would be against regula-" Assault cut himself off and looked to one of the guards that was hanging around before calling back up to me. "Didn't you say it was a 'he', Vista?"

I could feel myself blushing, but I'd enjoyed myself so much today that I didn't care about the slip. "I used to want a pony."

"Ah." Well, I suppose it did answer his question. "That's a little bit bigger than a pony."

"He's not mine." I said, rolling my eyes though he wouldn't see from this distance anyway.

Assault just crossed his arms. I'd seen that pose before, when he was about to spring a joke on you. "Gallant said it followed you."

"Yeah," I called back, "but he's still not mine."

"Gallant said he followed you after a few minutes of scratching his chin." Assault clarified.

I'd been here for over an hour now.

Scratching him.

Well... That was a problem.

"Assault!" I called out.

"What's up, kid?"

"I think I have a problem!"

"Nope!"

"What do you mean, 'no'?" I asked.

"Kid," he shook his head at me, "you've got a damn big problem."

"Oh... What do I do?" It was a good thing Assault was here, he'd be able to help me work this out.

Hopefully. I didn't have room at home to keep Anastasia. Or at the PRT office. Actually, where did Skitter keep all her creatures?

"Ok, step one? Stop rubbing its belly!"

Oh.

Right.

I completed step one. "Now what?"

"That's all I've got!"

Damn it, Assault. "Can you call Skitter?"

"We tried that one already. The Undersiders left to go do another talk show or something."

Damn it, Undersiders. "Well, what do I do?"

***

My first mistake had been listening to Assault's plan.

Or spending over an hour rubbing the belly of a gigantic, bladed, overwhelmingly powerful and absolutely adorable Hugalisk. One of them was my first mistake, but that really didn't feel like it had been a mistake at all.

Process of elimination completed, I obviously shouldn't have listened to Assault's plan.

"It followed me back."

"Kids," the director muttered. "every god damned time." With that said, she sighed and addressed me directly. This was aided by the fact she was talking to me from a second story window. "Yourode it back. It couldn't have followed you."

In hindsight, my second mistake was listening to the second step in Assault's plan. With that in mind, I ditched the rest of his so-called 'plan'.

"But he likes me." I said with a pout.

I must have misheard, because it sounded like Director Piggot muttered 'oh god there's two of them', but I didn't know what she could have meant by that.

"How did you even get that thing back here?" She ended up asking.

"Well, I compressed a lot of distance, and expanded a lot of shortcuts so he'd fit through. Assault showed me all the deserted alleys and roads that're closed off because of water damage." Somewhere below the most awesome pony substitute ever I heard a cry of 'turncoat', but didn't pay any attention to it because Hugalisks are awesome.

"I see." Director Piggot said, glaring down at things beneath my notice. I giggled a bit at the thought, wondering if I could pull off the image of a high and mighty monarch atop a glorious, but not as glorious as mine, steed.

Then I leaned down to scratch at Anastasia's head plating. We totally could.

"Nevertheless," she continued, "you can't have that... Hugalisk following you around. It'll completely invalidate your secret identity."

"Maybe." I replied. I'd actually been a little worried about that. "But then there'll be people coming after the cape with the-" I managed, just, to not say 'awesomest pony', "-giant bladed death machine!" There, that was much better.

"Oh god, I don't even care anymore. Fine. You can keep him."

"Yes!"

"If you can convince the PR department it'll look good." Piggot finished with a devilish smile planted on her face. If there was one problem you couldn't have a Hugalisk stomp all over, it was the PR department.

Mainly because then you needed a new one to explain to the press what happened to the old one. Assault usually explained it to new recruits in the same way, though more 'punch the faces off of' and less 'Hugalisks are awesome'.

Probably because he didn't have one.

"Assault, my office, now. Vista, get yourself set up in an interview room for a video call."

***

"So, they didn't end up letting me keep him, and he ran back to Skitter when she got back a couple of weeks ago anyway, because he's a total softy, aren't you, boy?" I said, somewhat sadly but I'd gotten over it.

In response to my rubbing he stomped his back left leg by reflex, knocking over the gang members who were trying to get away.

"Good boy!" He jumped at that, getting the rest of them as I listened to the sirens getting closer. "Anyway, she still lets me take him for walkies. Isn't that nice?"

"Please, please don't eat me!"

"And look at how strong he's growing!" I finished off as the PRT vans rolled up the street, muting the sirens. "All this working out, he's such a big cuddly wuddly, yes you are!"

"Yes, yes! I'm sorry!" The thug said.

Seeing that the officers had everything under control I nudged Anastasia over to the next street on the patrol route. "Come on, Gallant!"

I didn't hear what he grumbled about as we stomped off. Probably regretting not petting Anastasia before I did, but the early bird gets the Hugalisk.

"Good boy!" I said again as we stepped over a car, leaving Gallant to walk around it.


Hey, you know what's awesome about omakes? I'm not sure this fits at all with the other related ones, and I don't need to care. But, yes, I decided, completely on a whim, that Vista named the Hugalisk. Poor thing, no more back scratchies from the Rig, but at least you get Vista!


YYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Edit: Our prayers have been answered brothers and sisters REJOICE!

Skittertale is official.


Director Piggot? It's... Skitter again"

" What has she done this time?"

"Well, apparently, the bad news is that she build a space critter bigger than Manhattan..."

"A 'space critter', you say? How do you distinguish one of her 'normal' critters from a 'space' one? And how did she manage to spawn that without no one noticing??"

"That's the good news, Dragon reported the thing is in high orbit."

"Bring me Skitter. This is going too far. Why does she want a space critter the size of Manhattan?"

"And that's the better news. The critter is chasing the Simurgh. Or playing tag with it, Dragon is unclear on that."



*Suddenly Contessa Shows up*

Contessa - How about we dont trigger, the end of the world just yet.
Jack - Oh I like you, your just a puppet, Tangled in strings...
Contessa - *Shoots Jack in the head* Let's keep the Pinocchio references to yourself.
Bonesaw - I love Pinocchio!
Contessa - *Shoots Bonesaw in the head* No.
Bonesaw - *Head fixes itself and heals at an accelerated rate* Awww, And I was just getting started with my fun.
Contessa - *Shoots Bonesaw in the head* No.
Bonesaw - Will you quit doing that! *Head fixes itself and heals at an accelerated rate*
Contessa - *Shoots Bonesaw in the head* No.
Bonesaw - ALRIGHT already, For Fucks sake! *Head fixes itself and heals at an accelerated rate*

Vicky - Kill...mee.... p-please... *Fate worse than death*

Contessa - *Gives Vicky a look* No. Your sister needs you. The world needs you. Your death will trigger the end of the world. I cant allow that to happen. *Picks up Vicky*
Vicky - ... Where?
Contessa - Door Me, Now.

*A door appears*

Contessa - *Walks through and flags down Taylor and Amy, gearing up to find her*

Amy - VICKY! *Runs over and immediately starts healing* What happened? Did you do this?
Taylor - Holy hell Amy... is she going to be ok?
Amy - Yes. I've got her now.
Vicky - D-Doesn't even ... h-hurt... Anymore... *Smiles weakly*
Contessa - No. I didn't do this. I just rescued her from the Slaughterhouse Nine.
Taylor, Amy - *Both Pale at the revalation*
Contessa - Have fun girls, *Pointedly looks at Taylor* Dont end the world just yet. I'm still trying to fix everything.
Taylor - Me? End the world? Whazzuh?


Never fear! Taylor can make new houses and utilities for everyone
Do not pay any mind to the fact that your new house growls, that just means it wants attention
Uh, Skitter? Can I get a new house? I don't like the way mine keeps looking at me...


Veto!
Taylor: "Ok, so I had this idea."
Lisa: "You don't usually say that unless it's going to be one of those 'look, I know it sounds bad but' ideas"
Taylor: "You're judging it before I've had a chance to say anything!"
Lisa: "That's my whole thing. Literally. It's what I do; annoy people by knowing things before I'm supposed to."
Taylor: "You're not supposed to do that with me."
Lisa: "I'm not. I'm doing it to the things you're saying."
Taylor: "Well it's annoying."
Lisa: *totes grins* "I've still got it!"
Taylor: "Look, I had an idea for a new critter."
Lisa: "That generally makes these ideas sound even worse."
Taylor: "I had an idea for a new critter."
Lisa: "Sorry. Please go on."
Taylor: "See, all my guys keep getting targeted because they're so awesome. So I figured I'd make something that could hide."
Lisa: "That... actually sounds good. What's the catch?"
Taylor: "What?"
Lisa: "The catch. What do they do that horrifies everyone except you because you think all your guys are adorable."
Taylor: "They are all adorable."
Lisa: "Except the uglybug."
Taylor: "Well, no. Obviously not the uglybug. It's in the name."
Uglybug: *forever alone*
Lisa: "Right. But what do these new things do?"
Taylor: "Well, then they see danger, they shoot spines at them from underground."
Lisa: "A little dangerous, but manageable."
Taylor: "Yeah, it's just a line of spikes about a yard wide and 10 yards long. That should take out-"
Lisa: "Hang on! Back up. A line of spikes?"
Taylor: "Yeah, about a yard-"
Lisa: "Collateral damage is a thing!"
Taylor: "... oh. Right."
Lisa: "Ok, veto."
Taylor: "But they'd be useful for-"
Lisa: "Accidentally getting random civilians killed."
Taylor: "Well, I'd be careful and-"
Lisa: "Never get them past the PRT's inspection."
Taylor: "They're not that bad. They could-"
Lisa: "Easily be the straw that broke the kill order's back."
Taylor: "... you don't like the idea."
Lisa: "Well I don't know. How bout we go ask the Slaughterhouse Nine?"
Taylor: "..."
Lisa: "Oh that's right, we can't!"
Taylor: "..."
Lisa: "Because you infested them and then the PRT made you blow them up instead of letting you keep them around the house to do your chores."
Taylor: "I was just carrying out the kill orders."
Lisa: "No, you were just helping the PRT make sure random capes don't wander around with weapons that accidentally kill civilians when they go off."
Taylor: "Fine. I won't make any new critters then."
Lisa: "Thank god. Look, just design something else."
Taylor: "Well, I did need something with a bit more maneuverability."
Lisa: "Any ideas?"
Taylor: "I've been thinking some sort of flier."
Lisa: "That'd help."
Taylor: "There's this reactive chemical payload that I think would-"
Lisa: "Oh god it's getting worse already!"
Taylor: "It's only a little explosive!"
Lisa: "Veto! Veto, veto, veto!"
Taylor: "You already used your veto."
Lisa: "Damn it. Brian! Get your ass in here now!"
Brian: "What's up?"
Lisa: "Veto her idea!"
Taylor: "He doesn't even know what it is!"
Brian: "Come on, I'll hear her out first."
Lisa: "Flying explosive suicide bombers."
Brian: "Veto."
Taylor: "You're making it sound worse than it is!"
Brian: "No, seriously, veto."
Lisa: "Done."
Taylor: "Oh come on! I never get to make anything new these days."
Brian: "I'm sure you'll think of something."
Taylor: "I did, but Lisa vetoed it."
Brian: "It can't have been worse than flying explosive suicide bombers."
Lisa: "Lines of spikes ripping through crowds of people."
Brian: "... good use of the veto."
Lisa: "Thanks."
Taylor: "Why do you always focus on the negatives?"
Lisa: "Because you keep focusing on the positives. That happen to be negatives, but you don't see them that way!"
Brian: "You're a great person, Taylor, but, and I mean this in the least offensive way possible, you can be scary as fuck."
Taylor: "Damn it. Stupid vetos."
Brian: "Look, you'll think of something, I'm sure."
Taylor: "..."
Brian: "Oh god, what is it this time?"
Taylor: "You're judging it before you've heard anything about it as well!"
Lisa: "Rachel! We need your veto!"
Taylor: "That's not fair!"
Lisa: "Look, you got away with the Hugalisks, that's pretty damn borderline. Just keep it around that."
Rachel: "What do you want?"
Brian: "Veto Taylor's idea."
Rachel: "Will it help the dogs?"
Taylor: "Yes!"
Rachel: "Sounds good to me."
Lisa: "Tell her what it is. Highlight the main points."
Taylor: "... kind of... mobile... flying artillery platform..."
Brian: "Oh for crying out loud..."
Rachel: "What? Sounds powerful. We could use that."
Lisa: "Splash damage."
Rachel: "What's that mean?"
Lisa: "It accidentally hits any of your dogs near the target."
Taylor: "It's not that-"
Rachel: "Veto."
Taylor: "Damn it!"


"We are Cuddlebuggus of the Swarm. You will lower your guard. You will be hugged. Your genetic uniquness will be absorbed and repurposed to assist in our cuddles. You will be asimisnugglated. Resistance is Futile."
"Does this mean I get more hugs?"
"Yes"
"Then why would I resist?"
"...We don't know. Our Queen wanted to make a Star Trek reference. Would you like to be hugged now?"
"Yes please*is swarmed but cuddlebugs*."

With as many things as I follow, you would think that I would get updates sooner...

Black Rock Shooter Game Opening Song Full

the greatest high noon in the universe

Kind of out-there, but you know that thing going around, where you find your stripper name is the name of your first pet and the name of the street you grew up on

weeell, i decided to stop dragging my feet on this and finally did the thing:

Sydney Saline

...I am surprisingly okay with this

Sweet Serendipity