#rtu

the post you made with the fish in birdcage song was SO GOOD IM SO ILL imagine ace finally gets a loop where things are starting to change for the better or theres just a day where the two of them are just chilling and everything's peaceful and ace is just suddenly tackling yuu into the tightest hug ever. hes shaking slightly as his murmurs are muffled from how close hes pulled them. something about how hes definitely going to save them this time. and yuu is just confused but seeing how ace was at the moment they just reach up and pat his back to try and soothe him as much as they could. bonus points if ace just holds them even tighter because in every loop before yuu dies, theyre also trying to soothe him by patting him exactly like that so he just gets another flashback lmao

ALSKJDALJKSFAKLJSF I AM WORKING ON THE FIRST CHAPTER ITS JUST A VERY LONG CHAPTER

I am essentially making each chapter the entirety of the Books, so chapter 1 is the prologue, chapter two is all of Book 1 and so on. Since they're such long chapters, I'm looking forward to writing Ace different to how he acts in canon.

There is something torturous for him though, you repeating certain actions, certain words, even the looks you give him. All they do is meld into one and cause him to have flashbacks.

A snap of a spine. The smell of burning flesh. Slick blood running through his fingers. They all blend in with the smell of your shampoo, with the feeling of your hands against his back, the sound of your voice.

🔩 A013 - KUKA KR 240 Industrial Robot... 7 axis RTU Robot Transfer Unit... KL1500 Track 8 mts... Linear Motion Track PositionTable Position Table KRC2 Ed05 ... picture via EuroRobots ▸ TAEVision Engineering on Pinterest

so this is for @the-nsr-family Roads to Unity au

my crack at the mayday fight

go check out their blog they got lots of fun stuff, also this is long i lost control and it’s like 11 pages

Phase 1

Zuke dodged a flash of lighting that struck the spot he used to be standing in. He skidded a little across the smooth floor since it was already completely wet from the storm Mayday summoned. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Neon J and Eve also dodging both lightning and attacks from May’s guitar.

“Mayday please just listen to us!” Zuke pleaded.

“NO! WHY SHOULD I?!”

“Because there’s something you really need to know! We know who is behind all of this!”

“Oh I’m sure you do.” May spat out sarcastically.

The guitarist jumped back onto a higher part of the platform and began to sing. “Show me how to lie, you’re getting better all the time.”

Zuke dodged a blast from her guitar and slipped in the water on the floor. He slid till he crashed into some equipment in the room. Zuke hissed from the pain and rubbed his head where he had hit it. He could hear May still singing but was more focused on the stars in his eyes. Zuke looked up just in time to see lightning heading for him and braced for impact. When he felt nothing but the rain, he opened his eyes to see that Neon J had thrown one of his weapons in front of him, making a sheild.

Zuke shakily got to his feet, trying to get a better foothold on the slick floor “Thanks.”

Neon J gave him a nod before returning his attention to the fight. “We may have no choice but to fight back like we did before.”

Zuke winced at that, as fighting these people hasn’t been easy for him. He loved these people, and hell, Mayday was practically his sister by all means but blood. But he knew Neon J was right. If they just kept dodging there was no way they were going to survive, Mayday was too angry to be holding back. Beside Zuke wanted to get through to her before she got REALLY angry. He knew what would happen if she did but his companions didn’t. And while he knew what would happen, he wasn’t sure if that would help him stand up to it.

“Alright. I’m really sorry May but we’ve really got to talk.” Zuke pulled out his drumsticks and charged forward.

“So you talk with your drumsticks now?” She sneered, before returning to singing.

“Now dance sucker dance! Man, we never had a chance. And no one even knew, it was really only you.”

Zuke flinched at the lyrics, knowing exactly what May meant by them. He could only hope he could convince her otherwise. As he continued to try and make his way to Mayday, Zuke found himself mainly dodging and just trying to keep up with her, but like Kliff said before, this girl was an acrobat. She was dancing around them and avoiding most of their attacks. So while she had gotten a good number off on them, they could count the number of hits on her on one hand.

“Well I’ll admit, this is definitely challenging~” Neon J’s auto tune singing carried over the pounding rains.

“This rain certainly isn’t helping.” Eve added, as she nearly slipped off the platform she was on.

“With a thousand lies and a good disguise, hit them right between the eyes”

“I feel like she might be saying something to you with this song choice.” Neon J muttered unhelpfully.

“When you walk away, nothing more to say.”

“Yeah I noticed.” Zuke droned out. He liked Neon J, but he had a bad habit of stating the obvious and not understanding rhetorical questions.

“Mayday please listen, none of the EDM artists had anything to do with those attacks, those were staged!”

“You call those attacks fake?! Do you even know how much damage they did?”

“He’s not saying their fake! Just that they were set up by someone who isn’t us!” Eve argued back.

Eve was using her reality warping abilities to redirect Mayday’s attacks away from her. At one point of redirecting lightning, she managed to make it strike Mayday in the back.

“Gah!” Mayday stumbled forward a bit, but quickly got her footing back and strummed an attack towards Eve. “And yet here you are, attacking all of us. Wasn’t you indeed.”

Eve jumped out of the way and landed next to Zuke. “I believe I may have just found a way for us to actually fight back.”

Zuke frowned, as he really didn;t like the idea of shocking Mayday with her own lighting but knew they had no choice. They weren’t getting anywhere going about this like a normal fight. Zuke nodded and dodged another attack by rolling out of the way. Banging his drumsticks together he sent a wave at Mayday who moved away, but left her open for Neon J to get a hit in on her.

“Nice work you did, you’re gonna go far kid, trust deceived!”

“Mayday, we don’t want to fight, But we’re also not gonna sit here and be wailed on. We really did talk to the others. I don’t know why you can’t contact them but we didn’t do anything to them, I swear!” Zuke called out again.

“Oh you swear? Yeah, like I’m supposed to trust anything you promise.”

Zuke winced. “Yeah alright I deserve that.” A dodge. “But please can we just talk, there’s a lot I have to tell you, a lot you need to know.”

“SHUT UP!”

Zuke jumped out of the way of a large bolt of lightning and counterattacked with his drumsticks. The fight continued like this for a while till Eve got one more of her lighting attacks to hit her, this one causing Mayday to slide down to her knees. Mayday huffed, whether from exhaustion or frustration was hard to say. She growled and forced herself back to her feet.

Phase 2

Mayday played a different tune on her guitar as the weather around them changed. The rains stopped, but the room turned white. A thick fog now permeated the area, reducing their field of vision to  where they could barely make out their hand in front of their own face.

“SHOT THROUGH THE HEART AND YOU’RE TO BLAME! You give love a bad name.”

Guitar riffs could be heard through the fog as musical blasts were shot at the group. Everyone dodged but when Zuke looked back up, he saw that they had lost each other in the fog.

“Eve, Neon J?!”

“An angel’s smile is what you sell, promise me heaven then put me through hell.”

Zuke felt the ground beneath him being blasted away and he was flung back. He grunted as he hit the ground behind him.

“We’re alright!” Neon J’s voice called through the fog. “But we aren’t going to be able to find each other much less Mayday in this fog. GAH!” Another guitar riff sounded off, clearly hitting Neon J.

“That’s kind of the point.” May’s voice drifted through the fog somewhere ahead of him.

Zuke acted quickly and smashed his drumsticks together in the direction he heard the voice. A small grunt greeted his ears, knowing he had hit her. Zuke then had to dodge again as a blast was the returned favor in his direction.

“Mayday those attacks really weren’t caused by the EDM artists. None of them even knew about the attacks till they were on the news!”

Another guitar riff was his only answer as he rolled to the side.

“Oh, you're a loaded gun, yeah. Oh, there's nowhere to run”

“Listen to where she is to find her! Use that to try and get to her!” Zuke called out and dodged another blast.

“No one can save me, the damage is done!”

Zuke continued to use his drumsticks to attack in the general direction that he could hear Mayday, and could hear his companions doing the same as well. Wherever they were in this fog. Of course this strategy went both ways. As they attacked they also made noise, which was how Mayday was finding them. Though to be fair, she had figured out that strategy long before Zuke did.

“I played my part and you played your game! You give love a bad name! You give looovvvveee---a bad name.”

Mayday was definitely picking songs that expressed what she was feeling towards Zuke. What she thought was going on, even though it wasn’t true. They had to keep pressing through and prove to her that Grunge was the only problem here. Not the EDM artists, and not him. A louder cry interrupted Zuke’s thoughts as he looked up to see the fog slowly clearing away. As it cleared out Zuke could make out Neon J near to where Mayday was, the latter on the ground again, panting. He watched her fist clench around the neck of her guitar and she swung at Neon J, making the man fall back and off the platform when he tried to move out of its way.

Phase 3

Mayday hopped back to her feet, with a bit more struggle this time, and started playing once again. Neon J grunted as he hoisted himself up from his rather big fall, given that this platform was well off the ground. As Mayday played her guitar she backflipped up to one of her trapeze platforms. The rock girl hopped from platform to platform, doing tricks as she did, all while playing her guitar. Zuke was so focused on watching her, and trying to keep her in his sights that he didn’t notice the drop in temperature.

“Wh-why is it s-s-so c-cold?”

Eve’s stuttering brought Zuke out of his trance as he huffed and realized he could see his own breath. The air was bitingly cold, and he found himself shivering much like his companions. Though Eve had it worst of all. Her outfit was beautiful, but not exactly warm. Zuke shuddered again in a vain attempt to warm his body as snow began to fall.

“Oh p-p-perfect, as if it w-wasn’t c-cold enough-AAHH” Neon J’s biting remark was cut short as the cyborg took a step back, only to slip on the ice that had formed on the floor.

The snow picked up to be more like a flurry now. Great. So now that had to deal with snow, the cold, the ice, and that Mayday was jumping and leaping around above them. She was already a hard target before, and all of this just made it harder. Mayday glared down at them, though more specifically him. Zuke did his best to hold her gaze and not wither under that glare. It was hard to say if she learned that from her mother or Kul Fyra. A familiar tune reached his ears as the rocker began to sing again.

“I wouldn't hold my breath if I was you, 'Cause I'll forget but I'll never forgive you. Don't you know, don't you know? True friends stab you in the front!”

Zuke grimaced, it really did seem that May felt that all ties between them were cut. That he was a traitor of the worst kind. He tightened his grip on his drumsticks and got into his fighting stance. He had to convince her that she was wrong.

“Listen Mayday, We know who was really behind the attacks. She started out just sabotaging the other EDM artists.”

A rather solid blast of wind and snow pushed him back, with him sliding further due to the ice. He immediately had to dodge a guitar riff, which was harder given that the ice messed with his movements. After scrabbling in place for a bit, Zuke finally managed to skid out of the way, feeling the blast move his hair as it just missed him by inches. Zuke could see Eve and Neon J continuing to attack her, and struggling just as much as he was with all the ice and snow messing with their movement.

He watched as nearly no attacks were hitting her with her using her aerial equipment to swing around and avoid them. Zuke could feel his frustration beginning to build up and took some breaths to try and calm down.

“Mayday you have to listen to us!”

“Like hell I do!”

“Mayday! There’s an inside person at NSR! She staged those attacks, she set the EDM artists up to take the fall!”

“You got a lot of nerve, But not a lot of spine. You made your bed, When you worried about mine.”

“Gah will you just listen to me?! What is your problem?!” Zuke was losing his patience.

“MY problem?! Have you seriously not figured anything out yet?! How do you not understand?!”

The snow was beginning to pick up into something more like a blizzard, not that Zuke paid it any mind. Eve and Neon J however did notice,

“Um, Zuke?”

Zuke ignored Neon J. “Come on why are you being so stubborn? The Mayday I know would actually listen!”

The blizzard got stronger, and the air got a heavier feeling to it. “What the hell do you even know about me?! You abandoned me five years ago! You left me to deal with all of that crap on my own!”

“Zuke, this isn’t helping.” Eve hissed.

Zuke again ignored the words of his companions and continued to argue with his former friend. If she would just listen to him so things could be fixed. “For crying out loud it’s Grunge! It’s her fault all of this happened! She ruined EDM’s name, she arranged the attack on you, on everyone! She is the one to blame!”

“Seriously?! Now you’re blaming someone else! At least she stuck by our side through this, unlike you!”

Mayday blasted her guitar at him and Zuke leapt out of the way. Zuke didn’t know what came over him, but he just felt so angry, so frustrated. It was like it was with West when he just didn’t listen to his side of the story. So he brought his drumsticks together and hard. The blast was too big for May to dodge and knocked her straight off her aerial swing to the platform below. Her scream of pain definitely snapped him out of it though. The snow died down and the temperature returned to normal, with the ice starting to melt away.

Phase 4

Zuke didn’t pay any of it any mind as he could stare in horror at Mayday just lying on the platform unmoving. He could vaguely see his companions getting to their feet, having no idea how they got knocked down, but guessed it was the blizzard. The two looked up to see May’s crumpled form on the platform, her guitar laying away from her, having fallen off of her when Zuke had hit her.

“Um, what happened? The blizzard made it hard to see.” Neon J asked, unhelpfully.

Zuke could only swallow hard as his ears rang. Mayday’s body twitched, and Zuke breathed a small sigh of relief knowing she was okay. The girl slowly dragged herself into a sitting position, and hugged her sides. She was breathing hard, head down, obscuring her face. Zuke couldn’t read her expression.

“...did we win?”

“Not the time Neon J!” Eve bit back.

Mayday’s breathing got harder, harsher, till she was huffing in what Zuke had to guess was anger.

“Get away.”

Mayday’s voice was low, shaky. If Zuke had been smarter he would have picked up on what that meant. But instead he just assumed it was because of her fall. He took a step forward and Mayday stiffened.

“Go away.”

It was a lot harsher this time, though still shaky. Zuke ignored her demand again and stepped forward once more. “May please, I-”

“Don’t. Leave.”

The wind began to pick back up, a strange sound filling the room. Rains started again, but much harsher than before. Zuke paused looking around at the weather, he had to get her to stop before the weather became a problem again. He stepped forward again, ignoring the  winds and rain worsening around him, even as his feet splashed in the water pooling on the floor.

Mayday’s body twitched, and her hands clenched into fists, slamming down on the platform. “I said”

“GO AWAY!” Mayday suddenly screamed, throwing her head back.

The winds were so strong now that they picked up the three companions and threw them to the back of the room. Everyone slammed into the walls and fell to the floor with a splash. Zuke pushed himself up to his knees and hands, and glanced towards Myday. Winds circled around her as the rain absolutely downpoured, reducing anything in the distance invisible. Mayday was hunched in the middle, shaking. Glancing up he saw exactly what he thought he would be forming above her.

“IS THAT A HURRICANE?!” Neon J screeched.

“Yeah maybe I should have warned you she could do that?” Zuke yelled back weakly.

“That would have been nice, yes!”

“Well we were supposed to have this taken care of before this happened.”

“We could have if it weren’t for you Zuke.”

Eve’s harsh voice made him flinch. “Hey what the hell does-”

“I may not have been able to see what happened when that blizzard picked up but I could hear it. You two arguing.”

The winds and rain continued to rage around them as Zuke stared at Eve. “She’s being stubborn! Nothing I say is getting through to her!”

“So are you Zuke.”

Zuke jolted back like he had been slapped. “I’M actually listening though!”

“Are you?”

“I’ve been helping you this entire time yes!”

“I’m not saying you’re not listening to us.”

“You just-”

“I’m saying you’re not listening to her.”

“...yes I am.”

“Are you? You seem to hear her when she argues back against us, total strangers to her. But you fail to hear the reason why she’s upset.”

“But it’s a misunderstanding!”

“Mostly yes. But she doesn’t know that, and you’re acting like she should. And like I said, mostly.”

“What does that even mean?!”

“She’s not wrong about you abandoning her.”

“Bu- hey!”

“She’s. Not. Wrong. And you have to accept that Zuke, she was attacked so badly that she apparently landed in the hospital for a week. And then, when she was recovering back at home, she finds out you’ve left NSR and are helping the people she believes attacked her. How do you think she felt in that moment?”

“...”

“And now you’re also throwing the blame all at Grunge’s feet, while not accepting your own fault in this. You could have handled how you left better. Not to mention you’ve come here and blamed her for being ‘too stubborn’ like it’s her fault she feels angry and hurt and betrayed.”

“...”

“I’m not saying you are a traitor, but you did leave her. And you need to own up to that. You can’t let your anger control you, or you’ll do things you’ll regret forever.”

“...” 

Zuke thought back to the second encounter with West when he disowned him, and how they had somewhat made up in the third encounter. He wonders what would have happened had he not run into him again. Would that have been it? Would he have never seen West again? Would his brother leave the city for good? Zuke thought on it further and frowned, remembering it was Kliff who got across what Zuke couldn’t say. Wouldn’t. Too stubborn to.

Zuke sighed. “...you’re right. I’ve only made things worse. I kept thinking about how this affected you guys, and how I felt. And completely ignored what Mayday was feeling.”

“So what do we do now then?” Neon J had walked over to the two as they had argued. It was slow going given that the winds threatened to throw him again.

“I’m gonna try talking to her again, but I need to get close. Can you two cover me? I don’t think I can get to her through the hurricane and if she starts attacking again.”

“What are you going to do?”

Zuke turned to Neon J. “What I told Kliff I was going to do. What I should have done from the beginning.”

The two nodded at him and Zuke began to walk forward. He had to take precise and heavy steps, the hurricane's gale force winds threatening to throw into the wall again. As he trudged onwards, May’s head snapped up slightly. He could just make out her eye’s glaring at him in not just anger, but pure anguish.

“GET AWAY FROM ME!”

Lightning began to rain down from the hurricane above him, and as Zuke braced for impact, Neon J and Eve came to his rescue. Neon J fired off his weapons to stop the lightning before it reached him, while Eve redirected it harmlessly behind them. Zuke continued to Mayday while his friends kept him from getting hit.

“NO! GET BACK!”

May’s attacks became more erratic and frequent. Though with how wild they were, more and more of her attacks were missing. Zuke finally reached the platform Mayday was on and gripped the beams holding it up. He hoisted himself up on the first beam and began climbing up, he didn’t have time to try and find the stairs. Heck, with what Mayday could do, there probably weren’t any. At this point Zuke wasn’t being attacked at all, and he couldn’t hear lighting cracking against the ground anymore. The hurricane was still going strong, but she had stopped directly attacking them. At this point she really was just trying to make them leave her alone.

Zuke finally reached the top of the stage and forced himself up on to it. He could see Mayday’s body trembling in the middle of it. Zuke had to drag himself across the stage, knowing that if he stood up he would be blown off. He could feel himself getting even more soaked from all the water pooling on the floor but he didn’t care. He had to get to May. Finally an outreached hand touched May’s leg.

She slapped his hand off. “Go away.”

Zuke pushed himself up so he was sitting in front of Mayday on his knees. “May, I’ve not done anything right by you since that day five years ago.”

“....”

“I left without saying anything, or explaining myself. I come back after all this time and I just hurt you more, and that’s not right. I’ve been so focused on what I want I didn’t consider how you felt.”

“...”

“I know my words are probably empty coming from someone who abandoned you, but I promise you the EDM artists won’t hurt you. They were sabotaged and set up by Grunge. She wants rock to rule as the top music genre, no matter the cost  And was going to ensure it by any means possible.”

“..is that all you came here for?” Mayday’s voice is quiet, quivering.

“No.” Zuke reached forward and pulled Mayday into a hug. The girl flinched, and though she didn't pull back, she didn’t reciprocate either.

“I’m sorry. For everything. For what happened to you, for what you went through afterwards. For just leaving you like that and not explaining anything. For not really trying to get a hold of you for five years. For being a coward. I’m so, so sorry May. You have every right to be mad at me, and I understand if you won’t forgive me. But I’m not going to hurt you. Not again. I promise.”

He could feel May’s body tremble against his and suddenly felt a tight grip around his back as she hugged him back. The winds began to die down and the rain stopped pouring. Mayday just sobbed into his shirt, letting out all that built up hurt she had been shoving down for five years. Zuke just held her for a long time, apologizing over and over again till she finally stopped crying. He had thought all he had to do was stop Grunge, but now realized that even when they beat her, and she was gone, there was still going to be a long road of recovery ahead of them.