#shroud dispatch

DEVIL COMES KNOCKING

What starts off as a routine call takes a dire turn. How much is a dream worth?

“STOP!”

Everyone froze as the third villain carefully stood, the only sound the muted shouting and pounding from the police outside the sealed lab and Phytorin’s wheezing gasps. She glared at Shroud and Vitalia, cradling her midsection. “You two j-just… just relax, okay? Or I’ll… I’ll break what I swallowed and give a real good belch. Aerosolized ricin. Kill every single one of us,” she said.

Jesus Christ. These fucking idiots.

Phytorin held out a hand to her as she wobbled a step forward. “No, Vora, you can’t–!”

“No! No, you said it, Phytorin: this is our one chance. Without these vials, we can’t make them listen. We can’t make them stop - they’ll kill the world. Better to die here, fighting for your dream, then suffer a slow death as they drain Gaia dry,” Vora said.

Shroud couldn’t stop his eyes from rolling, but fortunately the shadow of his hood hid it.

“Oh, Vora…” Phytorin breathed, moving to take her hands.

Vora smiled up at her with tears in her eyes, then glared at the others. “So you two, just sit down a-and behave. We need… we need some time to think, to come up with another plan,” she said.

Shroud and Vitalia exchanged glances. She didn’t look worried as she awaited his decision - she had almost as much trust in his implant as he did.

His first impulse was to keep fighting; his blood was up and he wanted to finish the job. But there were too many ways it could go wrong. Phytorin’s repositioning put Vitalia between herself and Shroud. If Vitalia tried to stop Vora, Phytorin would attack, and if Vitalia wasn’t keeping CirCut off him Shroud couldn’t stop Phytorin in time.

No, as annoying as it was, being taken hostage had the highest likelihood of them all walking out of here alive. He sighed, then tried to force himself to relax as he straightened. Vitalia sent a soothing flash of calm through him as she followed his lead, her blue-white glow winking out as she held up her hands in acquiescence.

Then CirCut stalked forward. “You almost fucking ruined my eyes, bitch,” he snarled, backhanding Vitalia hard enough to stagger her.

I received the most poetic comment on my fic! It was so perfect and wonderful that I had to make some art about it!! Thank you @tatersdoesstuff <3

"The meanest bitch in the room, with a soft cock and an attitude."

thinking of a shroud redemption au......

like the whole point of the phoenix program is to redeem villains and turn their lives around

it would be fun to challenge the question "can even the worst people change?"

Oh hey a very apt question regarding my most recent reblog of "turned into hybrid Robert"!

For those wondering what a Black Footed Cat is; it looks like someone drew a chibi version of a Serval.

This photo is of an adult Black Footed Cat held by zookeeper btw;

Yes, adult. Not a kitten. They don't get much bigger.

Their average weight is 2-6 pounds (or 1-2.5kg) - aka they weigh about the same as a small bag of sugar.

Here's a good graph of the size comparisons of small wild felids; the Balck Footed is all the way at the bottom.

They are also the cat with the highest success rate for hunts.

Elliot/Shroud picked out the smallest wild felid, thinking Robert's resulting instincts would make him meek and less likely to fight.

He thought wrong.

Robert quickly decimates the rat, mouse, pigeon, and cicada population in the Torrance area within months. His new instincts call for him to hunt and eat often.

The Red Ring should be wary if he decides to bite off more than a finger or two...

To those unaware, he seems just to be an especially small-framed feral cat hybrid. Despite having the face of a grown man, Robert has experienced unwanted physical attention and infantilisation from others in his new day-to-day life. It pisses him off to no end.

That does track as a thing Dad Shroud would do to "protect" his son.

I headcanon that in Elliot's mind; Mecha Man and Robert are separate entities. By destroying one, the other can be freed.

So he needs to stop Mecha Man Blue from ever flying that mech again.

(Getting the Astral Pulse in the process would also be nice.)

Elliot had no delusions about Robert's human fragility though. He knew that there was a good chance that when Mecha Man exploded over the Southland, Robert wouldn't make it out.

So he set up a little "insurance" in case the bomb proved a little too spicy.

Whether through magic, meta abilties, or genetic tampering; Robert awakens from his coma a little less human than before.

The homies on discord have me in two major camps of thought.

Wolf/Dog Hybrid Robert

Cat Hybrid Robert

Both species are exercises in thoughts on loyalty, domesticity, hybrid discrimination, instincts over logic, etc... Also, grown man getting shown affection like a touch-starved feral pet.