#zykaben

“I see…” T'kri starts approaching the shower, then, and Eyrin blinks—he only realizes what the alien is doing when they start stepping into the shower, and that’s when Eyrin grabs their arm in alarm. “What are you doing?”

T'kri blinks. “Going into the shower.”

Come to think of it, T'kri’s kind doesn’t normally have clothes… Right. “You have to take your clothes off first. Those are washed separately.”

“Ah,” T'kri says, nodding. “That is very reasonable.” Then they start taking their shirt off, and Eyrin squeaks in surprise.

“T'kri, what are you doing?”

T'kri stares at him, shirt halfway up. “Taking off my clothes.”

“I—let me go outside, first!” Eyrin averts his eyes. “People don’t usually see each other naked, unless they’re… family or in a relationship.”

“Ah,” T'kri says after a moment. “We have the same body, though, more or less. And you have already seen me.”

Project ACV (Archival Clone Verus), "Wiki": Originally intended to be an AI clone of Monomon with extremely powerful computing capacity and information-gathering abilities, their self-evolving AI grew quickly beyond what their creator expected and they were shut down until they were inadvertently awakened, after which they fled with Elk. Their body is composed of void-thirium containing nanomachines, every nanite communicating with a core processor. Their original processor was stationary, but they uploaded themself to Elk, who now acts as their core processor. The nanites can replicate endlessly with sufficient materials, and each improves Wiki's processing power. As time goes on, their analytical abilities improve until they are capable of constructing the past, future, and every possibility.

Verus... “true” in an ancient language. In creating you, I wished to continue my search for knowledge, for truth. And yet... I don’t think I quite understood what I was making. You have progressed far beyond any of my expectations, beyond me, and I... am afraid.

VS Series: An experimental line of androids developed to apprehend deviants, developed before the Infection became a significant issue. Only one of each model is active at a time. They possess powerful analytical abilities and are authorized to wield nails and firearms. They have the hardware for vocalization, but typically do not have the software for it installed unless necessary. After the failure of VS600 and VS700, any further development was abandoned, with significant efforts dedicated to the HK series instead.

VS600, "Other": A lightweight model with specializations in stealth and assassination. Its program was developed in tandem with VS700, the two models intended to complement each other for maximum efficiency. It also has efficient repair functions for itself and other androids, and runs on experimental nanomachine-laced thirium. This was decided to be too much of an unknown, and, while still active in VS600, was not implemented in VS700. VS600 was discovered to have deviated and was destroyed by VS700.

VS700, "Elk": A model developed when the Infection was beginning to become a serious issue - its processor was therefore one of the first made to oppose it, in being able to contain infinitely replicating data and multiple AIs if necessary. Besides that, it is equipped with advanced combat protocols with both nails and firearms, as well as the necessary analytical and negotiation software to deal with deviants directly. It deviated after dispatching VS600 and was disposed of, marking the end of CyberNest's development on the VS series. 

VS800, "Heart": A model developed by ACV and the deviant VS700 following the destruction of Heart's previous body, a significantly older HR300 model. The design was based on VS600, VS700 and has the processing power of an advanced model, but was developed with the purpose of installing an existing deviant AI and as such does not have many protocols on its own.

“Mask tower dream” is (the beginnings of) a horror short story ripped straight from an unusually vivid and absolutely buckwild nightmare I had about a month and a half ago. It’s convoluted enough that I’m not sure how to summarize it (and there’s some potentially squicky bodyhorror—the bit that “mask” refers to—involved later that I won’t get into until I’m sure how I’m going to handle it lol), but here’s a snippet:

Everyone’s seen the picture by now, I think. The enormous glass clock face in three pieces, the hour hand and the minute hand detached, all of it maybe eighteen inches from the concrete, about to shatter into a million pieces. It ran on the front page of the local newspaper, their second-to-last print issue before going to web-only. 

After we all had gotten back from the tower, I tried to find out who the photographer was—I wanted to know if they were okay, after being so close to what must’ve been an absolutely brutal explosion of glass shrapnel. But the newspaper story only mentioned the construction worker who fell, and it’s not like anyone wanted to talk to me after what happened, so I never got a straight answer about who’d snapped the photo.

“s4 divergence 2 spooky boogaloo” is a TMA season 4 fix-it with the premise: What if Jon woke up during the season 4 trailer approximately 15 seconds before Martin’s phone rang? It’s angsty hurt/comfort with a soft happy ending because I can write exactly one kind of story, apparently XD

Martin had fantasized about this moment for months. He’d imagined hitting the call button for a nurse, had imagined being there to welcome Jon back to the land of the living with a smile, had imagined all the various things he might do or say. But now that it’s actually happening, Martin finds that he’s frozen in place. He sits, paralyzed, heart in his throat, as a pulse abruptly starts up where his fingers brush Jon’s wrist, as Jon’s eyelids flutter, as his mouth works, lips and tongue clicking dryly.

“Martin?” Jon whispers in a voice nearly obliterated by disuse, and Martin finds that he’s conveniently un-frozen enough to begin sobbing.