Making myself a snip thread, because I dunno, maybe I'll put prose and art-related things here whenever I get around to creating them; hope ya'll enjoy my lack of self-control and intense expert procrastination skills as I have my existential crises, thank you.
Insatiate - Appetite 1.1 [Worm AU; OCs] - A foodie, a shepherd, and a cape geek go on a road trip, they want to see the sights, try new foods, and maybe not to trip ass-first into a Kill Order. There will be friendship, cookies, and dead parahumans-! ... Wait, what-?
Not Quite Q [Star Trek TNG AU] - Snip 1 - A Qcard future-snip, Picard and Q had a one night stand that resulted in a Q-Human hybrid, K, and Q didn't tell Picard because they're both equally emotionally constipated. Then a preteen-equivalent K shows up, then the Q have a Civil War, now Jean-Luc has to figure out parenthood and K needs to navigate life outside the Continuum playpen.
Tang Shen doesn't get enough love in canon or in fanfiction(which is the greater travesty here), and I've noticed that the few times she's featured in fic, she's always pretty level-headed(there's a great AU where she survives in Splinter/Yoshi's place as a Cat Mutate that goes by the name 'Shard' [lol] floating around tumblr/Ao3), a woobie, or a morality pet. Well fuck that shit, gimme some intensely fucked up, angry, shard-powered Tang Shen! WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?!
If Lung's shard had a size-ceiling and instead of fire, intensely powerful hydrokinesis and storm-powers, Tang Shen is a Shenlong (or Shen-lung) who can create massive storms, and monsoons at a whim, makes up for less invulnerability and insane regeneration than Lung himself by being extremely fast and weather-related abilities.
"They say dragons never truly die. No matter how many times you kill them." ― Suzanne G. Rogers, 'Jon Hansen and the Dragon Clan of Yden'
OOOOO
Hatch 0.1
"Ie!"
The sting of the blade-
She's bleeding.
-bites into her flesh. [DESTI-]
She's dying. {iNTErruPtiOn} Flames that crackle, snap, roar higher-
Couldn'tcan'tstopthemnow-!
She took that blow for one she loves.
Seconds crawl in death and smoke. [QUERY] Eyes open, he's gonehe'sgonehe'sgone-!
Would've, could've, should've seen it. {InTeRfErEcE} She's afraidangryanda l o n e. [->PURPOSE ? ]
The angry gazes, their talks, him prodding at her doubts, how didn't she see-?!
Whereisshe-?
No place in the modern world for ninja-?! {COllaBoRaTIOn} Firefirefire.
Different institutions, different names, all the same-! It cannot continue to exist in its current form, let's move away from this place-! [QUERY] Look what that thinking got you- [-> DATA ? ]
Basic self-defense, what a joke.
Whereisyourdaughter-? {aPPeAL}
Look at her now, one blow and she's just bleedingdyingdead. {->> *data* } Whereishe-?!
Worthless! [QUERY] A stab in the back from the front-! [->OBJECTIVE ? ]
Weak! She's weak!
Ourdaughterwhereisshe-?! {->> *data* }
Pretty dreams of a life of peace with no power to enforce it. Too weak to protect that which is precious to her, couldn't even save him-!
Burningsuffocatingdying-! [ … ]
Weak like her ribcage snapping and cracking beneath a fallen beam of charring wood.
Her vain efforts! Her stupid pride!
If he was gone-! Then what happened to-?!
No… Nononononono-! [AGREEMENT]
Gone.
She'sgonegonegonetoo!
Why?! Why would she choose this weakness?!
WhereisyourloveN O W ? [DESTIN-aTioN}
Weak like her body, cooling swiftly with bloodloss.
Icantakecareofmyself?! Ialwayshave?!
Blind, unable to see seething, boiling betrayal on the horizon beyond her own problems.
See what your ignorance has gained you?!
Stupidity! So privileged, always needing to be defended-!
Can'tdefendyourselfworthadamn!
Burden! On everyone she's ever loved! {aGreE-MENT] Didn'tlovethematall-!
Between these dying moments- [TRA-jEcToRY} Nothing special, some mother, some w i f e… Can't even sA V E H E R S E L F-!
She B R E A K S- [{aGREeMEnT}] Can't save anyone.
It grows, too smalltoosmall-!
Thunder shakes the heavens.
Not enough-! Never enough!
Pit-! Pat-!
Raindrops fall now, and quench the dry earth.
Lightning flashes above-
More!
A bellow-! Roars of thunder, screaming heavenward-!
Tucked in a cradle of flickering flame and char, a beast howls, 'more wind! More rain!'
Look inward-inward-inward-! Look at you!
Naught but ashes remain of her, of it- This weakness-!
Left wanting. I- I am Flawed.
The storm overhead picks up, and rain pours.
So she grows.
Tall, fast and above all, S T R O N G.
Nothing of Hers shall EVER be taken from Her again.
A beast, Her sinewy body scaled and maw filled with knife-like teeth, Hers is the voice that speaks in tones of thunder, her breaths lances of lightning and her wrath the monsoons that never ebb-
She is the Storm.
What's Hers is sacred, and all whom oppose her-!
-An unknowing, broken man has long fled these ashes of his life, not that it probably matters.
She will drown them.
-FLASH!
A viscous jag of lightning streaks down from the sky, strikes the bony protrusion at her skull-
Sheds the weakness like a skin-
-and the scales light up, turn a shade of bright, brilliantly burnished gold.
Weak no more.
And so thus, Tang Shen dies.
"-what the locals are calling the storm of the century-!"
And with the soft sound of rolling thunder, in the eye of the storm from her cradle of drowned ash and embers, She rises.
She flies from her weak cradle, from defenselessness, from ignorance.
A great beast soars, twisting and twining gracefully through the wind and rain, screaming victory to the thundering heavens.
OOOOO
There is basically no TMNT-related anything on here, much less TMNT 2k12(where the Turtles are actually, gasp, teenagers) so I figured, eh why not? This AU takes place during-towards the end of the TMNT 2k12 Season 3 episode, "Tale of the Yokai."
Um, homelessness? Artistic liberties? OCs? Canon character with hardly any established canonical character traits as a main focus? Oh, and implied murder, cannibalism and mental health issues.
He couldn't even scrape up enough energy to crawl out of bed, much less care what Zeb brought home or not.
"Not really."
Another day in some hole-in-the-wall motel, him prostrate under musty blankets and serenaded by the sounds of a drug-deal going afoul through paper-thin walls.
"I'll get you something interesting then."
Maybe he could watch some TV?
"Mghmph."
He'd need to get up for that… The blonde sighs, nevermind.
"There's water and chicken nuggets in the bag, and money for pizza or that takeout place down the street, I'll be back in a couple days, so," – the casual back of a hand briefly pressed for a temperature against the forehead of a nigh-insensate Rex that peeked out of the snarl of blankets- "get some rest 'kay Rex?"
"Mm."
Rex isn't really hungry, or thirsty, or anything really.
The room's paid up 'til the end of the week… Rex remembers.
He slept for… He doesn't actually know, probably a while, hazes to and fro from the unsatisfying land of nod, unmoving.
His throat is so dry, so with great effort the boy crawled out of bed, managed to chug a bottle of water and ate all the chicken nuggets… Rex's palate registered nothing, stiff, cold, unsatisfying, like swallowing cold ash.
The clock's broken, he has no earthly idea how long it's been since Zeb left…
'And they say romance is dead.'
More water, bathroom break, eat more ashy nuggets, yuck.
Most of his 'day' was spent staring at the ceiling until he nodded off.
Back to bed.
'Lazy jackass, doing nothing all day.'
Sleep some more.
Rex is empty, a shell-
"Awful," a harsh, croaky voice declares to absolutely no-one, "just plain awful."
He's hungry.
Rex's attention is on the swivel, he thinks of coffee.
[Famished and posilutely wasting away to nothing.]
-Twinge- An itch in the back of his skull-
Awake-?
Limbs of former-definition dangle off the edge of the bed, their owner suddenly alert, eyes bright as the teen's mouth actually waters.
-Twinge-twinge- He's up, fast-walking and darting out the door, closer-! Closer! –Twingetwinge- The itching grew, blossoms, so close now, so close-!
Emptyemptyweakfeedmore-!
-Twingetwingetwinge!- The itching is more insist now, burning, the teen's entire body burning, thrumming with energy as he grinds his teeth, the ache in his jaw almost overwhelming. The teen's gone several doors down now, practically skipping with anticipation-
Huntherenownownow-!
He walks like he used to, or better than he used to, confident, ready to take on the world-
It knocks twice.
[Who's the handsome devil~]
A man who smelt of coffee and cheap cigarettes threw open the door and barks at him, "'bout time you got here! Thought you'd never show."
[-knocking at your door?]
Rex should care, there are so many things he should've been in that moment, but apprehensive wasn't one of them.-there'stwotwotwotwo-!
[It's ME.]
"Yeah, 'course," Rex bluffs, fingers twitching, eyes going alight when the beyond the door the teen could taste-
"Just some backup is all," the man had caught him staring at the-thoughtblenddon'tlook- who sat, propped up in a chair, attempting to look like they weren't completely green, like this wasn't their first job.
The door was shutlockedlockedlocked-!
[Hello all~]
Now a smile-
[Talk about a feast fit for a King~]
OOOOO
"-and we should have enough cash to last us a bit," Zeb finished from the driver's seat, grey eyes flicking once toward his partner in crime.
"Mhm," the beast responds noncommittally as he spoons the mushy contents of the large freezer bag he was holding into his mouth with his fingers.
[On days like these-]
"Don't get any on the interior," Zeb warns, "or we'll have to torch the car, again."
"'Kay," the beast in the passengers' seat rumbles rather agreeably; notes the quiet shuffling of the third of their number in the back seat.
[-it's good to be alive.]
"There's Chinese takeout in the back if you want any," Zeb mentions quietly, "and I got you some stuff, it's in the bag near your feet."
That elicits a noise, tinny and elated, from his companion and soon loud, slurping sounds could be heard next to Zeb as he drives out onto a busy highway, "plan's still on track, Canada or bust, lotsa stops."
"Alright…" The blonde answers while licking his redredred and bloodslick fingers, "how was your day?"
So Zeb begins to chatter about many, many things, including how he and Tara-spawnpupjuvenile- found some lost pets and got to finally taste cookies for the first time, smiling brightly, and something in Rex's chest flutters.
Uhhh, remember my quest 'Deserter [a Pokemon Quest]' I'm thinking of reviving it soonish (maybe), but I'm probably not gonna restart it or anything (I'm NOT rewriting 22k words, no thanks), just might overhaul the system into something more manageable and keep going; because believe it or not I still barely know what I'm doing as a QM (plus I think I overreached in terms of complicated-y bits for the Quest's system) so I'mma just... Put the idea out there.
X/
OOOOO
Another Idea (sortakinda related but more like a fic idea):
Crossover my Deserter!verse with MCU, but MCU age has come and gone and is in the far past, Pokemon universe is basically waaaaaay post-apocalyptic, Steve Rogers wakes up to a world of Pokemon.
Uhhh, remember my quest 'Deserter [a Pokemon Quest]' I'm thinking of reviving it soonish (maybe), but I'm probably not gonna restart it or anything (I'm NOT rewriting 22k words, no thanks), just might overhaul the system into something more manageable and keep going; because believe it or not I still barely know what I'm doing as a QM (plus I think I overreached in terms of complicated-y bits for the Quest's system) so I'mma just... Put the idea out there.
X/
OOOOO
Another Idea (sortakinda related but more like a fic idea):
Crossover my Deserter!verse with MCU, but MCU age has come and gone and is in the far past, Pokemon universe is basically waaaaaay post-apocalyptic, Steve Rogers wakes up to a world of Pokemon.
More MCU crossover ideas being committed to the void: instead of landing on MCU-Midgard, Thor (from first 'Thor' movie) is hop-skipped a couple dimensions over and lands in Deserter!verse.
Then he learns to be a less shitty person or something, because character development and feels I guess, but with Pokemon and whatever-else being there.
Idk, I just want Thor to constantly attract Electric-types and become softer in general because I'm tired of people punching things in the MCU-universe/s; lol.
(Can somebody please Peggy Sue Taika Waititi into the past so he can direct or write for ALL the Thor movies? Thx)
More MCU crossover ideas being committed to the void: instead of landing on MCU-Midgard, Thor (from first 'Thor' movie) is hop-skipped a couple dimensions over and lands in Deserter!verse.
Then he learns to be a less shitty person or something, because character development and feels I guess, but with Pokemon and whatever-else being there.
Idk, I just want Thor to constantly attract Electric-types and become softer in general because I'm tired of people punching things in the MCU-universe/s; lol.
(Can somebody please Peggy Sue Taika Waititi into the past so he can direct or write for ALL the Thor movies? Thx)
Not Quite Q
(AKA: The Star Trek TNG AU where Q and Jean-Luc Picard had a One Night Stand and now there's a Kid)
Picard and Q had a snippy, bickery and impulsive one-night stand sometime early in the first season, Picard wanted to pretend that it never happened because he's emotionally constipated and Q is equally terrible at communicating their true feelings or admitting anything. Q are all literally genderless/fluid alien, reality-warping energy beings from another plane, Delancie!Q has the equivalent of a Schrodinger's Starbaby that simultaneously is part human and is literally the first procreation in all of (these) Q's Continuum history [in the sense that they've had kids while in mortal squishy forms, but it's never FOLLOWED them into Q-form before].
Thus we get K (a nonbinary, Q-human hybrid OC), who grew up in a non-linear plane and isn't really showing signs of developing Q powers or not, unlike what happened in canon with Q Junior. Delancie!Q basically swaddles K because they're supersquishy and they never told Jean-Luc because Q didn't want to take the chance that Picard would disappoint or dislike the K. At some point a preteen K managed to sneak out, yeet themselves into the linear timeline, several months before TNG Season 1, and bumbled their way onto the Enterprise C as a stowaway in hopes of just meeting their Captain Dad. Needless to say, nothing goes as smoothly as they'd hoped and Picard is thrust into parenthood at warp speed while the Q have a Civil War.
K's only known power is a Perception Filter that applies to most cosmic level beings, making xyr essentially Unplottable/Unscryable unless the kid is physically standing right in front of them.
SNIP1: Midnight Qonversations
Jean-Luc wakes to the scent of cookies wafting through the air of his quarters.
'Still five hours to Alpha shift,' he notes tiredly, drowsily crawling from bed but thankfully cognizant enough to throw on some clothes before shuffling out to the living area.
The small dining table already has an occupant, all gangly limbs and short red hair, clad in sheep-print pajamas, mechanically dunking chocolate chip cookies into what looked like a mug of hot chocolate.
"K," Jean-Luc is stern, and too tired to keep the mild frustration from his voice, "you have school in a few hours, you'll ruin your breakfast with those sweets."
She-no, xe, looks up, unblinkingly contemplative, almost disturbingly still-
"Sorry," K's tone is rather flat, a far cry from xyr usual exuberance and oft energized expressions.
"You should still be sleeping," he can't help but grouse, it's then that he notices the tea, and a placement set up across the table from K.
Earl Grey, hot.
K's mouth twists as the child chews at the insides of xyr cheeks, and looks back down to the sugary contents of xyr mug before responding with a mumbled, "couldn't sleep."
After a near-disaster of a first contact, and yet another Red Alert, Jean-Luc is assailed, for what must be the umpteenth time in this absolutely ghastly two months, by the thought that he isn't at all prepared for this; and in the spirit of being honest with himself or having it wheedled out of him by Deanna, he wasn't even sure he wanted-
Jean-Luc sits, fingers moving to wrap stiffly around a cup of lukewarm Earl Grey.
"… Could warm tea up if… Want?" K offers, the French tumbling uneasily from xyr lips.
"No need," the man responds before rattling off a small correction of the young tween's grammar, something that's rather become a regularity in the Starfleet captain's life over the past few weeks.
K nods, and stirs xyr mug's contents with a half-eaten cookie, hadn't taken a bite since he'd entered the main living area of his-their shared quarters.
The thought of, 'I'm a parent now,' echoes on repeat in the starship captain's mind, inducing far less anxiety than the revelation had a weeks prior, but still far too much to label one Jean Luc Picard as any semblance of calm.
It's been a few weeks, will he ever get used to it? It then occurs to Jean Luc that he should ask what's wrong, good parents ask what's wrong, the growing awkward silence is deafening-
"'S fine you know?" K's voice cuts through his runaway thoughts plaintively, "dunno what I'm doing… Either."
Xe had grown up on a non-linearly aligned plane of existence, Jean-Luc wonders what K means by-
"Q always… Knew? What I n-eeded, before I did, all in the… Contin-Contin-um, knew what I meant t' say," K looks back up at Jean-Luc again.
"Hmmm," the thoughtful noise buys him time, he's so well-spoken, but he doesn't know what to say-
Some of K's grammatical choices are often, muddled to say the least, xe could be leaving out the multiple meanings or ignoring them, or forgetting pronouns entirely speaking in passive voice, and that wasn't even taking into account the young teen's propensity to inject or switch to other languages they'd picked up, oft with clashing grammatical rules and verbal tics of other languages, making most of xyr conversations a bit of a puzzle to unravel.
The child had lived an entire life without a Universal Translator implant, still without one considering xyr native language could tentatively be labeled as 'Pure Concept Telepathy;' K only had two barely-functional spoken languages under their belt.
Jean-Luc wishes he could stop the guilty, mental litany of how he wasn't cut out for this or how much of K's life he's misse-
"Sound-talk's hard," K says, corners of xyr mouth quirking with a small frown, "and Human-talk in general."
"What don't you understand?" No dithering, a problem to solve, this Jean-Luc can deal with.
"There's a lot," K makes eye contact again, left hand having abandoned xyr cookie on a plate, the looks down, "a lot, a lot."
Jean-Luc glances down at K's placemat, noticing that the child hadn't touched their cookies since he'd walked sat down.
"It'smorelikeee," K's words slur together a bit, "how you say it mattersss more than what you say?"
"Body language," Jean-Luc realizes aloud, "you're having trouble with body language?"
"Mmmm," K hums their assent while tilting their mug to stare into the contents like it contained all the answers in the universe, "my classmates… They're hard to r-read?"
Picard wants to die, anthropology? History? Starfleet or diplomatic protocol? Any of these questions he could answer with barely a thought, but the social dynamics of children? Human or otherwise, he was at a loss.
Apart from their brow starting to furrow, K's expression was discomfiting blank.
"Did something happen at school?" Jean-Luc soldiers on while scolding himself, 'at least pretend you know what you're doing Jean-Luc, you fool!'
"Umm," the vocable rolls out of xyr mouth awkwardly, they're so still, "it's not jus' one thing? It's, um, that they don't like me?"
Strange, K was a bit strange, Jean-Luc would admit, but K was new to Federation culture, admittedly, he didn't expect xyr to act as if they'd lived here their entire life.
"They last for the first con-conversation," K's words grow fast, and their shoulders are rolling as if tense, "but when I wanna… Talk or hang out again, they, don't want to? And some of them aren't good secret-keepers, or liars, everyone thinks I'm scary and weird."
"Now," Jean-Luc hedges, "I don't think-"
"Even the grownups," K keeps going, "they don't… Say it, but it, shows and I'm not… Great at your diff'r'nt body languages but… Just, me being there makes everybody, scared and uncomfortable."
The captain's mouth shut with a click.
"And they talk as if," K stops, struggling to remember the words, "as if I don't get the tone, I get tone, I know."
K sounds so frustrated, and remains utterly, eerily still and-
…
"I tried making cookies," K says, free hand tracing invisible alien symbols on the placemat, "and um, talking about things I heard they like, orororor," K stumbles over the words, breathing suddenly quick, "statinggg my in-intentions of friendship, but they still don't-! I'm just-! They feel-!"
I'm not human, I'm not Q, what am I doing wrong?! The loudest words ever unspoken.
Did K know? Were they just, using this to accuse Jean-Luc? Like Q would?
"Are you sure you're interpreting their intentions correctly, K?" Jean-Luc bites out tensely, "maybe you did something they misinterpreted or are perhaps expecting too much?"
"But they-"
K is silent for an eternal moment, before then finally, finally let the mug rest back onto the table with an impossibly loud clink.
K doesn't look at him and the silence is deafening.
"Have you heard from Q lately?" Jean-Luc ends up blurting out, already off-balance and suddenly desperate for a subject change.
"No," Jean-Luc thinks that K's tone has a quality of frustration, but he can't be quite sure, "nobody's answering."
'Disconcerting,' the captain thinks pensively, 'perhaps suspicious-'
"You know what?" there's a sudden scrape of xyr chair and the sound of small feet retreating from him in the dim light, "good talk, thanks, sir."
Swssh.
The door of K's bedroom swishes closed before Jean-Luc could unclench his jaw. So here he was, sitting at the table, alone in the semi-dark of his living quarters with the distinct feeling that he'd definitely fucked up.
…Jean-Luc just needed to review the facts.
K was having a hard time adjusting, K didn't understand people's words exactly or cultural context, but… Xe understood general feeling without empathic powers proper?
'Thin-slicing,' Jean-Luc thinks, 'we humans do it all the time.'
And apparently so did Q-human hybrids.
…In K's case, at the very least.
K was lonely among xyr age-group, or at least in their group at school, which they'd been attending for over a month already. Good at mathematics and sciences, but had difficulties with language and reading, and showed very spotty subject coverage in general.
K spoke easily, enthusiastically, bombastically to just about anyone, regardless of age or species. Xey seemed to gravitate toward Lieutenant Commander Data, and by proxy La Forge, more than anybody else though Jean-Luc still isn't sure why.
K didn't emote much in private, at home, were they overcompensating in public? But other children or adults would, might, find the breakneck vacillation between almost not-quite-Vulcan-like blankness and explosive emoting unnerving. Even K's general intermittent twitchiness coupled with xyr patently inconsistent body language was usually off-putting and-
…Oh.
It was like, the beginnings of distaste, and annoyance, coupled with the undercurrent of discomfort. It's a little more familiar now, often it showed up whenever Q themself was around. But now was directed at K, more often than he'd like.
Jean-Luc artificial heart nearly stops.
Every time, that rush of put upon annoyance, hackles up, Jean-Luc defensive and easily proddable into a frenzy. It wasn't quite the same, that feeling Jean-Luc got when interacting with the two different Continuum members, but…
Did K know?
He stops in front of the child's door, there are strangle squiggle-symbols scrawled at the bottom-left corner in some sort of paint. He recalls K chirping that it was a physics concept that the Federation's species hadn't discovered yet.
Jean-Luc is the adult here; he should knock, and bumble through an apology.
K is a child.
The captain's tongue feels like it was glued to the roof of his mouth, and he doesn't knock. He walks back to his room, he has another shift in a few hours, and needed sleep. He ends up staring up at the dark ceiling and realizes that he'd forgotten to put away the cups or cold cookies on the table.
…
He decides to deal with it in the morning.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard was a diplomat, an explorer, and a Starfleet Captain, he shouldn't be like this.
'K came to you, for solutions, and the moment you feel mildly threatened by a pubescent child you turn it back around on them?' An unkind voice inside him spits, 'coward.'
Jean-Luc feels like the worst person in the universe.
A/N: Yeah, this scene started out as fluff, but then my brain decided that it wouldn't be IC for JLP to be on top of this parenting thing this early in the game, even by accident, because we can't have nice things, so I cranked up the angst. It's unpolished, and I'm not quite sure if I got the tone right for JLP, but I hope it's okay? The idea is that soonish he womans up and asks either Deanna or Beverly for advice and gets the kick in the pants he needs to healthily communicate like an adult, etc. *waves*
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Deserter [A Pokemon AU Quest] Title Card art - ARC 0
So I'm working on reviving my Pokemon AU quest, Deserter [a Pokemon AU Quest]. Then I ended up trying my hand with pixel art because I got frustrated with regular art (it's what happens when you stop practicing for a longlongloooooong time... Ugh) and made a new title card art for it.
If Then Something Else [A 'Detroit: Become Human' AU Quest Idea]
A/N: Interest check, who's down for a 'Detroit: Become Human' AU Quest? Future posts will probably be longer than this one, basically I figure I'd just mostly throw the players right into it. You're playing as a minor pretty-much-a-background-canon-character-in-name-only-because-the-canon-game-didn't-give-them-a-personality-anyways. Wouldn't be eternally long because I have an actual timeline on how long I want it to go roughly.
----
Quest Plan in a Nutshell:
Player Character: OG!DBHConceptArt!Emma Phillips [advice: Look up the DBH Concept Art in general, it's infuriatingly beautiful] Tags: Cyberpunk, Scifi-Fantasy, with a side of Slice-of-Life (? or more if enough Voters just wanna keep dawdling despite the system punishing them for it) In which I try to write a Quest Summary like a Shitpost: No SV, you are Cyberpunk Matilda (yes, like the Roald Dahl one)! Random Caveat: No Daniel-hate or bitching because I actually like and sympathize with him.
If Then Something Else [A 'Detroit: Become Human' AU Quest]
Sink 0.01
It's dark when you wake.
Your head bumps gently against the concrete and tiled siding of the pool, and then your body starts to thrash. Lungs burning, eyes open but staring unseeing into the abyss, and then your entire chest feeling both crushed and bloated at the same time.
Then it's as if your body goes electric, limbs fluttering and hand flailing for what must've, has to be, the pool's edge that had woken you seconds ago.
Your outstretched hand is met with nothing, just more water.
Cold…
Your struggles weaken, and your skull buzzes with echoed static. No thoughts, only death-
Your mouth opens again, still full with water and choking on muted terror unutterable. You find no purchase, no oasis of dry land from this watery grave as your limbs grow colder, heavier.
'Detroit: Become Human' a PS4 video game by Quantic Dream, an okay and very pretty game (except the food assets, omf those eggs and that bacon were so painful to look at; among other wasted potential, but still pretty fun). A cyberpunk setting that where the Megacorporation known as CyberLife has outright taken over the USA economy via the production of Androids as free (slave) labor while the entire economy suffers under a 40-50% unemployment rate. And Cyberlife is competing with other World Powers & it's implied that the US govt is puppeted by CyberLife & other companies (mostly CyberLife tho) bc Lobbying, etc. Everything's sorta gone the route of a capitalist cyberpunk dystopia, and the gameplay is where the player controls three different androids all with three different story paths that kinda intertwine (2 of them do fit with each really okay, but the 3rd, Kara's story, got shafted hard and I'm forever bitter.)
TLDR: Barely-a-Cyberpunk-setting where there's an AI Rights Revolution (and a budding Buddy Cop implied-possible-future-romance that dudebros insist isn't gaycoded at alllll, *coughs* okay, shipping goggles off now, I'll shut up) and you play as three different android characters.
Also I have this massive host of headcanons that I could talk all day about about how CyberLife has been trying to quash "deviancy" which is just code for "this AI has feels and thinks things that don't suit our financials, shut it down" quietly for years they just haven't publicized it. For the past few months on several discords I have been blethering about decent retcon worldbuilding and sooooooo much AU (and shipping), and like, okay I'm gonna just list the canon protags now.
Markus (RK200) - A home healthcare assistant who becomes the Leader figure for the Android (AI?) Revolution (Player chooses whether peaceful or violent, but not given enough time or fleshing out that it deserves, and it starts and ends in like 6 fucking days), he basically becomes Android!Moses.
Connor (RK800) - A prototype detective 'droid who is partnered with a sad alcoholic lieutenant (Hank, who is my fav and befriending him is the best and I SHIP them, and did I fucking mention that his actor is MR. KRABBS??!?!) by Cyberlife to "stop the Deviant epidemic" and crush the rebellion and make sure that CyberLife can continue to profit off of beings just realizing that they're people and have freewill and stuff. Connor has the chance of Deviating for the Revolution (and BECAUSE of Hank) or going full, unfeeling (feels like denial lol, but whatev floats ya boat) Machine and everything hurts.
Kara (AK400) - A thirdhand domestic maid 'droid who escapes with her abusive owner's kid(?) and seeks to eke out a safe and happy life for them both. Again, this story gets shafted SO HARD by the tight timeline and literally everything else imho.
Stuff about the AU Quest Protag:
The protag of the Quest is Emma Phillips, the human girl character (I'm using her Concept Art, not the final, which I think may have been whitewashed like Alice was :/) who is the hostage victim in the one of Connor's (1 of the game protags) play chapters where Connor has to negotiate with Daniel, a domestic manservant & childcare android who freaked out because the parents were going to replace him and he had thought that they were "family" and basically isn't used to high emotions and completely flipped his shit because of a combo of assured future abandonment or even death and the feelings of betrayal/heartbreak (and the fact that none of the family life is explored so I can literally HC whatever I want), etc. He's one of my fav two-off characters btw lol.
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If Then Something Else [A 'Detroit: Become Human' AU Quest] Announcement
I have started a Quest for an AU of the Quantic Dream video game, 'Detroit: Become Human,' which is basically a Cyberpunk setting with Androids/AI having a freedom/rights revolution somewhere down the timeline.
Full disclosure, you'll be playing as a human...? Or are you-?
The time? 2049. The place? Columbus, Ohio- Oh you mean our protagonist... Yeah, she's drowning.
OC
Cape ID: Crewel or Tailor
Civilian ID: (to be determined) Age: ~16
How Long have they Had Powers: 3-4mos (prior to Taylor's Trigger) Personality Traits: Intelligent, Loyal, Kind, Open-Minded, Creative, Mercurial, Spacey, Vindictive, Anxious, Paranoid Story: Meets Taylor during Locker Incident while skipping class on OC's first day (after transferring in), hid around the corner in effort to wait until the Trio left so OC could let her out, but just after OC waited long enough to absolutely make sure that the three were gone, Taylor Triggers and OC goes unconscious for an unspecified amount of time. OC eventually wakes up and bashes open the locker lock to open it, and ends up dragging a kicking and screaming Taylor (Taylor accidentally gives OC a black eye) to the showers to rinse her off before getting enough presence of mind to call for an ambulance. OC ends up visiting Taylor in the hospital while she's still insensate (and undergoing her 2nd Trigger I guess), enough times that OC is there when the Protectorate Heroes (which ones? Probably in disguise though) come knocking to check if she Triggered w/ superpowers and it leaves a terrible taste in OC's mouth (eventually coming to view them as "vultures coming to pick at the bones of the people they're supposed to be helping"). Taylor wakes up eventually, like in canon. Random Notes:
-Eventually OC starts baiting Sophia in school, if only to get more Swatches every time OC gets bodychecked or otherwise physically assaulted by her. Definitely tells Taylor about it.
-OC wears driving gloves most of the time bc their Thinker-power tends to automatically works whenever they touch things unless they suppress it
-OC volunteers at Hospital a few times bc Panacea and Glory Girl are seen there sometimes and wants Power Swatches dammit
-OC has a bit of a delinquency record (trespassing, vandalism, arson, lots of truancy), and thus their testimony over the Locker is waved off
-OC likes going to Protectorate PR events and tours that specifically give them a chance to shake hands or take pics w/ heroes, not because they idolize them, but because they want Power Swatches without having to fight anyone without having to join up
Powers:
-Tinker/Striker/Trump: Clothing Enchanter/"Soft Armor" Tinker
--Tinker: "Soft Armor" Tinker - Can make technology that produces woven or sewn into clothing or "soft" armors (including leather!), can also make super looms and sewing machines and other sewing/knitting/crochet/embroidery/etc tools.
--Striker: Swatch Shopper - By touching other parahumans OC gains a limited amount of Enchant Samples (a Swatch) from the other parahuman's powers, the potency or flexibility of each individual Swatch depends on how many or how long the touch lasts. This Striker effect works through clothes and thinner "soft" armors, but cannot penetrate armor of up to a certain density (plate armor).
--Trump: Enchanter - By applying a Swatch to things made by OC, the OC can essentially "enchant" the clothing to have an esoteric effect based on the Swatch they applied, multiple Swatches can be applied either separately for different effects, or Combined to make new effects entirely. Occasionally and under specific circumstances, OC can make clothing/etc that Grants Powers (though usually much weaker than the original user OC got the Swatch from if they didn't get a lot a lot); when this is applied to Tinker powers (if ever) and if OC tries to use them, other Tinker powers will always be filtered through the lens of their original Tinker power flavor and only really enhance the Tinker power that already exists but allowing for slightly more wiggleroom in terms of techtree, which is soft armors/clothes/clothing pieces/etc that do cool magic shit.
-Thinker: Eyeballing It - Ability to immediately know the measured dimensions (weight, volume, density, length, width, height, etc) of whatever target that the OC can sense (this applies to all 5 senses, but the OC usually uses sight, sound, and touch) regardless of shape; this ability is not Manton-limited. This includes the ability to measure the dimensions of spatial anomalies, including simply just knowing that they are there. The OC has a mental index of everything this power has ever measured and can recall every single one with ease.
