#clickgamesshipweek

Viewing of the live feed from the trail camera showed that when Specimen 10K0 comes back from his hunting, he places the foraged food brought back in a small carved out hole covered with large leaves. Hunted game gets dragged into the center of the burrow, next to a large pile of grasses, leaves, fur and feathers. We have identified this pile as a nest. Collected water is kept in a large stone bowl which looks to have been naturally eroded. Specimen 10K0 uses an old metal tin, likely litter from hikers or campers, to collect the water and bring it back.

When within the burrow, Specimen 10K0 will often vocalize. Most vocalizations are a high pitched chirp or squeak, and he will look around after, as if looking for something to respond. Other vocalizations include low clicking noises and very rarely, hissing. He will also occasionally rub his wings together which will make a muted tapping noise, but it is unclear whether the noise is simply a byproduct of the action, or if there is any deeper meaning to it.

Other behaviors within the burrow include a type of movement we have elected to call ‘circling’, where Specimen 10K0 will make a full perimeter check of the nest, to the entrance of the burrow and then back around the nest again, as if looking for something. Refurbishing of the nest also occurs. We try to avoid humanizing Specimen 10K0 as best as we can in our observation of him, but there’s no other way to rationalize the amount of time spent on rearranging the nest components other than just plain fussiness. He gets annoyed with the nest and rearranges it many times, as if he’s never satisfied with it.

He’s intelligent, that much is clear.

> Datalog Entry; May 19th, Midspring. 2:13 PM.

After overnight observation of the live feed, much of Specimen 10K0’s behavior makes more sense. Last night, at 12:58 AM, there was a noticeable change in Specimen 10K0’s behavior, his antennae vibrated against each other and made a sound similar to purring and he moved to finally lay down in the nest, of which then a very small creature made its way on top of Specimen 10K0’s torso and buried itself into the fur there. Specimen 10K0 was noticeably gentle towards the creature, cupping his hand around it and moving slowly. It is difficult to tell on the trail camera but the creature looked to be spider-like in nature, with what appeared to be eight legs, a round abdomen and carapace, but had a longer torso like structure where the chelicerae of a normal tarantula would be. We’ve allowed the lab tech to decide the temporary name for the creature until we make an official one. For now, the creature’s being called “Bitsy”.

Specimen 10K0 treats Bitsy very softly, something we hadn’t seen him do with other animals. He moves around carefully and looks to see where Bitsy is when moving objects around. Specimen 10K0 has also been observed giving small pieces of meat to Bitsy. We are unclear about the nature of this relationship, whether it is symbiotic in nature or if Specimen 10K0 is intelligent enough to view Bitsy as a pet. We plan to continue monitoring Specimen 10K0’s behavior through the trail cam for a few more days before the next field rotation of researchers.

> Datalog Entry; May 23st, Midspring. 5:02 PM.

The nickname “Bitsy” has stuck around even after the official christening of the small spider creature’s tag, S41. Observation of Bitsy has shown that it too is highly intelligent, comparable to Specimen 10K0 at the very least. It is able to use rudimentary tools in the form of twigs, leaves, and acorn caps. We observed Bitsy scooping water out of the basin with an acorn cap and drink from it like a cup. We have also concluded that Specimen 10K0 does not view Bitsy as a pet. The two are some type of bonded pair, likely a mated pair despite the glaring differences in species and size. Specimen 10K0 and Bitsy are able to communicate between each other, as we’ve seen Specimen 10K0 vocalize directly to Bitsy, who will in turn take actions that make Specimen 10K0 pleased, qualified by the antennae purring. There is evidence that Bitsy communicates back via vocalization or other possibly hormonal responses, but either the trail cam is unable to pick up the frequencies or is it hormonal responses of which we cannot quantify without getting closer which would disturb the subject animals.

More observation is needed of these two before anything truly definitive can be asserted, but the evidence is certainly there. Today having been the last day for this groups’ observations, we elected to collect a small amount of mottled fur and a few of Specimen 10K0’s shedded wing scales from the environment to further research in the lab when we get back. As the rest of this research team begins packing up to get ready for the next rotation, there’s a bittersweetness to it all. We’ve all grown attached to these two despite our best efforts not to. We hope the next observation team treats them just as well.

“Really now?” Tomura’s raspy voice was dripping with sarcasm but the small uptick of the corners of his dry lips betrayed his true emotions. Sal hummed wordlessly. “Do you really believe in that kinda crap?”

Sal scrunched their face in thought for a moment before ultimately tilting their head and shrugging their shoulders in a noncommittal ‘I don’t know’, then picking up their phone again to begin typing their next sentence. Tomura watched them patiently, shifting one of his feet from the metal footrest under his own seat to Sal’s and starting to very lightly spin their stool as he waited. After a minute, the robotic voice sounded again. “I’m not sure. Maybe. It’s a nice thought,” as the voice spoke, Sal gained a mischievous expression. “There’s definitely one positive thing about it if it’s real.”

Tomura lifted his chin off his fist, tilting his head in curiosity. “Yeah? And what’s that?”

Sal didn’t have to type their next phrase, having already had it loaded up in their text to speech app, they simply sat the phone down and pressed for the response to sound off. “At least your past life’s lover had amazing taste.” 

Tomura had barely enough time to make a small sound of questioning before Sal leaned over and delivered a kiss right to his mole just under his lip. Tomura blinked, face flushing with heat as affection swelled thickly in his chest. 

They both made the two characters continue forward, Tomura getting in many zombie kills along the way as Sal ran around them instead, still not very good with gamepad controls. The train horn sounded in game, letting them know it was on the way.

“Okay, move over to this-” Tomura was interrupted by Leon getting hit by the train. “-side.” Tomura raised his head up from where he sat on the floor to look at Sal sat above him on the bed. Red eyes narrowed slightly in suspicion. Sal smiled and blinked innocently, shrugging their shoulders nonchalantly.

“Guess I didn’t move him fast enough.” Their smile widened as Tomura continued to squint his eyes at them. “The dogs distracted me.”

“Uh huh. Sure.” He looked back at the screen and hit continue again. “I know you’re not that much of a noob.” Sal just bonked the side of Tomura’s head gently with their knee in response, which he then bit in return as the stage was once again restarted.

Everything was going well, most of the zombies were being dodged and those that weren’t were taken out with a couple kicks or knife slashes. Even the dogs were avoided mostly. It was going well. Until-

The train horn sounded and the red death screen popped up once again.

“You’re doing that on purpose.” 

Sal had gotten mad last week when Mikkun got too loud and close when they were playing heroes, and when he wouldn’t stop bumping into them, they had hit him. That outburst earned them quite the scolding from their teacher and a call home to their parents. Sal sniffed harder. They didn’t want to hurt Mikkun but he just wouldn’t stop yelling or touching and they couldn’t stop their arm from striking out. They just didn’t know what was wrong with them. No one seemed to want to tell them what was wrong. But everyone knew something was.

That’s why they sat back today. Because while they wanted to play animal shelter with their kitty stuffie, everyone else wanted to play heroes again. And Miss Takahashi made it very clear that if Sal had another incident, it would have very big consequences.

Taking a breath in, Sal plopped their kitty plush on the floor in front of them. The tears kept welling as they hiccuped through telling the plush that it was at the shelter because it was sick and needed to get better before it could find a home. The plush, Sassy as it was named, stared back blankly. Sal frowned and bit their lip to stop the shaky cry that was about to come out. It’s no fun playing shelter by themself. They wanted someone else to want to play with them. They sat in silence, glaring at the innocent plush on the rug, until a pair of socked feet came into view and Sal looked up to see who it was.

Tenko crouched down in front of them, concern drawn on his adorable, chubby face. “What’s wrong?” Sal just shook their head sadly, unable to articulate what they were feeling. “Do you want to play heroes with us? Mikkun isn’t mad anymore.” Another ‘no’ headshake. “Okay. What are you playing, can I join?” Sal hiccuped before slowly nodding yes.

“I’m playing-” a sniff interrupted them, “animal shelter. If you want to play, you should get an animal too.”

Tenko nodded happily in agreement. “Alright! I’ll be back!” The boy quickly scampered off to go grab a toy. For the few moments he was gone, Sal rubbed their nose, sniveling a little.

As quickly as he left, Tenko had come swiftly back, his carefully chosen toy in his grasp.

Tenko plopped the toy dinosaur, a brontosaurus Sal noted in their head, down on the ground. “There! He can also be in the animal shelter so the kitty won't be lonely.” 

Sal giggled, “no he can’t, dinosaurs are extinct! There aren’t any left to be in a shelter.”

Tenko smiled widely at having gotten Sal to stop crying and start laughing instead. “Well,” Tenko huffed playfully, “this one isn’t! And he is in a shelter, so he can stop all the other animals from being alone. He doesn’t like seeing the other animals cry.”

Sal shook their head, still giggling. “Okay,” they rubbed their eyes, “the brontosaurus can be in the shelter.” Tenko tilted his head curiously. “What’s a brontosaurus?”

“It’s what that dinosaur is! They have long necks and tails,” Sal stated confidently, eyes shining brightly, “they were really really big! I read it in my book.”

I mean, of course, there had to be someone else who played it at some point. Given that no matter how hard Sal tried, their high score would always get overtaken by the next time they swung by the arcade after their shift in the lab. Like clockwork, they’d show up to waste some time melting their brain with their favourite retro arcade game and wouldn’t you know it, “TMA” right there taking up the shiny top spot of the high score leader board, knocking their own “SAL” down to stupid number two. It was almost as impressive as it was absolutely Infuriating.

Sal stood, watching this person play for a minute, taking in everything they could about him, from the red shoes, to the baggy dark jeans that looked like they were slightly too short for him, the oversized black hoodie that was pulled up over pale blue hair, vibrant red eyes that were narrowed slightly in focus and the odd way he was holding the joystick control with his pinky and ring finger raised away from it. The scar that fell across his right eye and the textured skin around it. The little mole just under his mouth…

…he’s kinda.. cute..

No! Focus! This is the dickwad that keeps fucking up your leaderboard!

The man shifted on his feet as he played, pink tongue quickly making a swipe across the dry bottom lip in focus. A confident huff escaped him as the level continued.

…fuck he’s really cute. And!! Clearly he likes that old game! Something in common!

Hustling up faked courage, Sal saddled up to the side of the machine once the blue haired man completed the level, taking care to not be distracting during the actual gameplay. They crossed their arms in a way they hoped read as suave and laidback regardless of the way their chelicerae twitched with nerves. Just. Play it cool. Easy. This is a normal interaction, normal people do this all the time.

“So,” Sal started, catching the man’s attention, “you’re the one who keeps beating my high score.”

The man tilted his head, looking at Sal, intense red eyes flicking between features of their face and their brightly coloured mandibles. The spike of discomfort from being clocked as a heteromorph festered as he continued to stare, Sal about to say ‘fuck it’ and run off, never to come back to this arcade ever again, never attempt to talk to another person again and become a hermit with 20 tarantulas. But then he.. snirked, snirked! The corners of his lips ticking up unevenly, a small lopsided smile, and a playful glint shown in those red eyes. All the building tension in Sal’s body settled.

“Maybe you should stop making it so easy to beat then,” he snarked, pressing the button to continue to the next level, quickly glancing back at Sal as if checking to make sure his teasing wasn’t taken poorly.

Sal faked a dramatic gasp, pressing a hand to their heart. “Wounded! I worked very hard for those high scores, thank you very much.”

“And they were no problem to crush. Why don’t you watch how a real game pro plays it, maybe you’ll learn something.” He continued to mash the buttons, blowing up an 8-bit helicopter on the screen. Until his eyes widened and darted over, a faint embarrassed flush colouring his cheeks. “That’s- it’s not because you’re a girl. I didn’t mean it like- that,” he rushed out.

“Oh thanks but um.. not. Not a girl. Or a guy.” It was a quiet correction, one that didn’t have the air of teasing from before and one Sal was very hesitant to make. But despite the fear, all the blue haired man did was look back at the game screen and nod casually. As casually as someone who kept getting redder and redder could be at least. Sal relaxed their shoulders, having unintentionally tensed.

“Cool,” his tone was an attempt at being chill. “Cool, yeah.” He took a breath, the colour lessening on his face. Red eyes shot over to glance at Sal again as he continued his button mashing. “I’m a guy.”

Sal smiled gratefully, nodding. “Cool.”

The two stood in the friendly ambiance of the game sounds, buttons and joystick noises as the man, get his name idiot ask his name stop calling him “the man” get his fucking name, locked in on the mini battle happening on the screen.

“I’m Sal. But you probably got that from the scoreboard. You know, the one you keep pushing me down on.”

He laughed. It was raspy like the rest of his voice, but it had a wispy airy sound to it too, like he didn’t truly laugh very often. Sal could feel the stupid cupid’s golden arrow hit them right in the heart.

But that was gone now.

Master had warped them with the others to his location, right out from their shitty little apartment and into the middle of the final show down. Showing their face for all of Japan to see and ripping that normalcy away from them both.

And Master was gone as well.

In the aftermath of Kamino, hiding away in a desolate, condemned building acting as a temporary hideout, it was only a crushing defeat. For the League of Villains. For Master. For Tomura.

Curled up tightly in Sal’s embrace, Tomura felt the dredges of despair burn his throat. Everything had gone wrong. He felt pathetic, but he couldn’t help grasping onto Sal harder, firmer with his pinkies out, trying to root himself in place within their skin. To find a comfort familiar enough to dull everything else. 

Sal soundlessly held on to him, the free spider appendages curling around Tomura’s trembling form protectively. Warmth transferred between the two, Tomura’s eyes eventually falling lower and lower, body worn of all its energy. Sal pressed a kiss to the crown of blue hair.

The whisper was blearily registered as Tomura’s mind couldn’t battle the body’s exhaustion any longer.

“I love you.”

AND THAT CONCLUDES CLICKGAMES SHIP WEEK!!! guys writing is so hard, you authors out there continue to amaze me <3 Thanks to anyone who read this far and read my drabbles, kisa if you see this I APPRECIATE YOU SO MUCH i read all the nice stuff you put in the tags and it made me so happy, youre a wonderful person !