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Post by Van-80 on Mar 26, 2020 11:45:52 GMT -6
Van-80 PL: 50,000
Ima PL: 25,000
Pr1de Zer0 PL: 25,000
“What am I even doing here…” Van-80 stared at his belongings. A single cardboard box sitting on the desk in his office. He had so many good memories here. They were plastered all around the office walls for him to bask in. Portraits of him and Carro at the beach wearing sunglasses and holding up two fingers. A cute shot of him and Tianum making a heart with their hands. Pr1de, the original android flipping off a nervous but otherwise happy Sulfur. Ima wrapping her arms around Sulfur and Tianum with a big almost goofy grin. Even a shot of her and Penne dressed as secret agents standing back to back with LOP in the middle.
All of these great moments forever captured on these walls. But where was he when it really mattered? He fought to protect his home once in his entire life. Yet it amounted to nothing. The goons would have wiped the floor with them. Even with Bloom going crazy their chance of survival was zero without Carro. Carro. The president. The ruler of Earth and Crop Co. Who the beauty obsessed android trying to kid thinking he could take over for someone like Carro Hofferson. Van could barely look after himself. All he could do now was…
Run?
It was better than nothing right?
He was just another liability for Carro to worry about.
“Carro! Carro please!” Ima frantically called the CEO. Why did it always seem like her calls were only for emergencies these days? Couldn’t she just call to say hi for once? “Carro if you can hear me you need to come here NOW! Van-80 he’s… he’s completely lost his mind. First, he was packing up his office and then he trashed his office and now he’s locked himself IN his office. Carro, I’m scared. You’re his best friend… I know you probably want to rest after what happened on Mt. Frappe but please… I don’t have access to his office but you would. Please can you just talk to him?” With that, the motherly android fell against the wall nearest Van’s door. Even her own synthetic skin was starting to tear and fray in random spots. Her teammate however barely had any left on his body. Even his face only had small scraps on the left side of his face.
Despite Ima’s claim to the contrary though, the pretty bot himself seemed to be fine. His office supplies were scattered around the floor, and his desk was completely splintered along with random parts of the walls, but the pictures were all perfectly intact. More notably Vanity himself seemed completely composed, just staring out the window overlooking Central City with a pensive but almost relieved stare. Heck he even felt better after taking his frustrations out on his office. At least that's what he told himself. Inside there was still a raging hurricane of mixed emotions that a robot like himself could barely understand.
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Post by Carro Hofferson on Mar 26, 2020 17:20:00 GMT -6
STUCK IN YOUR OWN HEAD
CARRO's PL: 100 (ANTISENSE)
Even if he was physically capable of resting, Carro wouldn't have considered it at this point. He was in the middle of trying to work up the courage to listen to a voicemail from Typha that filled him with an odd sense of dread, but before he could his phone buzzed to alert him to a different emergency. He wasn't ready to hear Ima's desparate pleas from the other line, nor the severity of the situation that had been unfolding right beneath his metaphorical nose. If he still had a heart, he felt like it would have stopped there and then as he listened to the other android. Prying off his hand that cupped over where his mouth would have been, Carro spoke before his thoughts could catch up with him. "I'm on my way."
"I'm on my way," he said. Things were going to be fine, he thought... What was he thinking?!? What was he even going to say, "sorry for being a horrible boss and causing everything bad for you and dying that one time?" And more importantly, why was he still sprinting through the city to his headquarters anyways? His mind was flooded with thoughts as he dashed down the sidewalk... From where he was looking, Van might have noticed a tiny green and orange figure slam face-first into a lamppost after darting around a corner in the distant city streets. He shook and gripped his floating head, shaking off the pain to continue his mad-dash to the company doors.
When he did finally shove the doors open to stumble inside, Carro found himself finally freezing in his tracks. The compulsive impulse to do something, anything, teared at his soul. He still didn't know what to do. He ignored the fact that his tail had tucked itself between his legs, steeling his guts one more time to run down the halls. His bleeding heart insisted that he had to try to prevent himself from losing even more than he already had.
"I-I'm here!!" Shortly after the tell-tale sounds of metallic footsteps echoed around the hall, the undead President himself scampered out from around the corner, nearly tripping his own feet before catching himself and gripping the wall for support as he skidded to a halt beside Ima. If there was one plus to his predicament, it was that he didn't have to worry about physical fatigue- or else he would have been a sweaty mess right now. He only had time to slip on a pair of jeans before urgency ushered him out of his home's doors, leaving his own robotic torso bare.
CEO keycard in hand, Carro again found his hand freezing for a moment before he could scan it to open the doors. "I--" He opened his pixellated mouth to say something, but closed it after a moment's worrying. He wasn't going to worry Ima more by asking what he should say, essentially telling her he had no idea what he was doing. With one hand instinctively clutched over his heart for a semblance of comfort, he'd swipe the card to unlock the doors, slowly pushing the doors open to peek his head in... What was he supposed to do now again?
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Post by Van-80 on Mar 26, 2020 18:16:09 GMT -6
So that little orange and green thing really was him then. It took him a surprisingly long time to get here. Ima was no doubt distraught over Van’s recent outburst. But there was no need for all this fuss. Okay, maybe he shouldn’t have locked his door after such a tantrum. He probably could have just gone home and taken the day off for the first time in what felt like years. As if Carro didn’t have enough problems, now he had to see this. Van and his office in utter shambles. A mirror into the sea of troubles plaguing him.
“Oh. Hi Carro.” His voice was calm. No hint of the worry slowly infecting his systems. “Sorry about the mess. I was cleaning out my office and… well, I guess I just got a little upset. But I’m fine now.” Ima peered in to see how her partner was doing. Unfortunately for her he immediately noticed. His left eye narrowed in passive frustration. “I’m actually still not talking to other people. So Ima’s going to have to go somewhere else.”
The motherly android lifted a finger to speak, but no words of comfort came to her. It was clear that her friend needed Carro for whatever reason. “I… well… If either of you needs me, Zer0 and I will be in my office. Just down the hall.” As she swiftly shuffled off to her own office, Ima sent a small text to Carro. “He is clearly not fine. Please do not leave him. Just let me know if you need my help.”
“Will Van-80 be okay Ms. Ima?” Pr1de asked as they comfortably placed themselves on her desk.
“I do not know. Maybe he just needed to, as humans would say, blow off steam.”
Meanwhile, Vanity carefully picked himself up, though he paid no mind to the dozens of small objects littering the floor as he walked. With sickening crunches and soft metallic squeals, office supplies were bent out of shape and snapping apart.
He then traced a hand over the picture of him Carro at the beach. “I made sure these were kept intact. Remember this? It was just before Sensoa attacked. You were beat to hell but you were okay in the end. Plus you stopped him. I heard he killed a kid last year though. Shame. You seemed really bent out of shape over it. Must have been a great guy if it made the entire world go crazy. Then what looked like two minutes later…” Carro died. Who cared about some random kid from the south? Sure it was tragic, but THE president died later.
“How are you though? You doing okay? Heard Mt. Frappe was crazy but you look okay. Though I can only imagine how you’re doing up here.” he tapped at his metal forehead a few times. Van-80 didn’t really have any of the details of the events that had transpired up there. All he knew was that the saiyan kingdom may have lost their collective minds and killed one of their own.
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Post by Carro Hofferson on Mar 27, 2020 19:36:00 GMT -6
CARRO's PL: 100 (ANTISENSE)
Carro knew better than to buy into the apparent calmness in Van's voice. That clearly was too good to be true, and the unsightly damages littering the room spoke otherwise in regards to his mental state. He tentatively popped his head a little further into the room, only glancing back when his fellow android called out Ima. Carro's pixellated brows furrowed as he glanced away for a moment. He still had no idea why Van still chose to only speak to him of all people, but he couldn't spend time questioning that when there were more important matters to address.
Forcing out the determination to fully walk into the room, Carro was much more careful to step over the fallen debris. He managed to hold back a flinch from the first metallic snap of a pen beneath Van's feet. Though he couldn't think on the memories of bones breaking and metal snapping as he'd pried his robot body out of the junkyards for long before eyeing the picture in Van's hand for a second. He shook his head to snap himself back to attention and looked back up to the android instead. Reopening the memory of Tarch's death was just more salt in his invisible wounds.
The topic shifted again, now to Carro's own mental state. "I've had worse." Carro shrugged. His tone was similarly composed in spite of the circumstances. His words were technically true- at least he didn't die again this time. "But, uhhh... I-I haven't exactly trashed my room over anything. Clearly you're not doing well. Let's not get off-topic." The art of deflecting discussion of his own problems to focus on another was an art Carro was much more trained in than Van. Still, there was a twinge of fear in his voice this time as he remembered Ima's call, talking about how he was packing up. He wasn't going to lose another friend- not over his dead body... or, well, his second dead body. He was the one that was supposed to be good at helping people, after all. "Give it to me straight. W-what's going on?"
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Post by Van-80 on Mar 28, 2020 10:51:02 GMT -6
That was true. Carro didn’t trash his room over his problems. “Maybe you should trash something.” Van-80 reached down to pluck a small metallic cup off the ground. He then grabbed a small handful of intact, or relatively intact pens and pencils and placed them inside. “Go ahead,” he offered the cup to his boss, “Give it a toss.” The smooth solidarity in his tone was completely betrayed by the quivering in his hand. The small office supplies looked as though they were the ones shaking in fear from their metal prison.
But Van was fine. It was Carro that wasn’t fine. He died and had to suffer life in a form he was never meant to. Meanwhile, the beauty-obsessed android was born like this. He was practically meant to be in a constant state of turmoil trying to find something that didn’t exist. So instead he had to help everyone else find it. But he could barely help anyone do anything.
Carro wouldn’t even get the chance to take the office supplies. With Vanity’s internal struggle and external trembling the cup clattered to the floor before either would get the chance to do or say anything else. Van gave a weak dry laugh.
“Maybe you’re right. Maybe. Something is wrong. And I’m looking right at him.” He placed his still shaking hand onto Carro’s shoulder. Were he able to breathe he’d no doubt be shuddering, his breath getting caught in his throat as he choked up. “Let me help you for once. You’re obviously in way worse shape than I am.” Van-80 was fine in comparison. Right? This was Carro’s problem. Yeah. If he could finally help him then his own problems would be over. He just had to admit something was wrong. Carro had to admit, not him. He had to be strong for him for once in his life.
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Post by Carro Hofferson on Mar 28, 2020 11:47:18 GMT -6
STUCK IN YOUR OWN HEAD
CARRO's PL: 100 (ANTISENSE)
Break something? Carro's expression twisted in a mixture of confusion and concern. He was Carro Hofferson- he was supposed to fix things, not break them. Nevermind the body count of two on his conscious now. He wearily eyed the cup in his friend's hand, glancing from it to the android. He never thought it was possible to feel sorry and concerned for an inanimate cup as well, but here he was.
The former saiyan's pixellated eyes widened when his trembling friend dropped the mug- acting on impulse, he leaped forwards to catch the cup before it hit the floor. His own footing faltered in the mess of supplies below- it was like trying to walk on ice! Though after a moment's flailing, he spread his arms out and managed to stabilize himself. Carro weakly yet victoriously raised his arms up with cup in hand.
Carro turned back to Van-80 when he began to admit something was wrong. Well that was easy- progress was progress!... Except Van wasn't talking about himself. Carro looked himself up and down as the spotlight was thrust back his way. He looked back to Van, then back to himself. The other android would get a glimpse of his own reflection in Carro's glowing screen as his beady, white eyes blankly stare back. If there was one plus to his condition, it was that it was much easier to mask his emotions as a machine when he could just will his fake mouth away or force his eyes to show a different emotion. "I, uh, appreciate the concern, but l-look at yourself! Let's not get off topic!" He repeated himself, pushing himself away. "Your skin's gone, you're shaking like a leaf, it looks like a tornado ran through this entire room, I-I can help you." The ball was deflected back into Van's court. Carro was much more adept at hiding his problems under the rug, unfortunately.
"I'll be fine- I promise. There's nothing to worry about, I'm used to this kinda stuff." Carro reassured one last time with a dismissive wave of his hand. Sure, being used to his world crumbling apart wasn't ideal, but that just came with the job description as President of Earth. Carro kept himself physically composed, still holding the cup of supplies close to his chest- he sure sounded like he believed the words coming out of his mouth, and he wasn't shaking like his friend either.
Inside his body was a different story, but he could put his lesser problems away for the greater good as per usual. Sure, he was worried about potentially never seeing his friend again if he really was packing up his bags to leave, or the fact that the war to save Earth's Dragon Balls was still ongoing, or that everyone looked at him like the freak he was, and a good dozen other things, but that wasn't important right now. He looked back to Van intently- Carro wasn't taking no for an answer when it came to who was going to help who.
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Post by Van-80 on Mar 28, 2020 12:20:24 GMT -6
Van’s eyes widened slightly. His skin was indeed falling apart. He was shaking like a leaf despite being made of metal. His office was a mess. Maybe Carro really was right. Maybe he should be the one opening up to him. The pretty bot had almost given in. Almost. That was until his president and best friend said one thing. The exact wrong thing.
An almost maniacal laugh escaped as a small smile pulled at his robotic lips. “Aha… ahahaha. You’re used to this? You’re used to this kind of stuff?” His laughter grew to a raucous cackle. But this was not funny. This wasn’t joyful giggles. This was the cries of manic depression in laughing form. “NO!” he shouted over his own guffaws, “no you’re not!” he snapped, his laughter cutting off in the blink of his single eye. His smile was gone, his face twisted in a pained rage. “Carro, I am used to this. I woke up like this! I woke up barely functioning in a place a thousand times more wrecked than this office. No skin, no power, not even a voice!” He pulled back the tangled mess of hair covering his right side of his face. “I woke up without an eye! Just me and Ima alone. But that’s all I knew! A mess and no voice! I KNOW this!” he waved a hand to the disaster that was his office.
“But you…” it seemed his voice was once more being buried by the storm of emotions. “You’re not… you’re not used to this.” Van started making his way toward the small robot as if trying to back him into a corner. “For Chime’s sake, Carro YOU DIED!” A small explosion of staticky energy dispersed around the room, littering it with small bolts of electricity. Finally, the anger melted into sadness. If he had tear ducts he would no doubt be crying an entire waterfall of tears. “You died… Don’t tell me you’re used to that.”
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Post by Carro Hofferson on Mar 28, 2020 14:00:53 GMT -6
CARRO's PL: 100 (ANTISENSE)
And just like that, everything went horribly wrong yet again. Carro took a step back and hugged the cup closer to himself in a futile attempt to comfort his increasing dread as Van laughed like a madman. Oh kais almighty, was he falling to some evil mind control now also? That seemed to be all the rage these days. It was both horrifying and painful to see his friend like this. His worry and concern began to override his fear as he moved to take a few cautious steps forward, slowly reaching a hand outwards. "V--"
Carro didn't remember what he was going to say when his friend snapped at him. He stumbled backwards into the corner with his tail between his legs, eyes wide with shock and fear at the sudden change in his voice. Now it was his turn to be the one shaking, eyes wide, trembling, and unblinking- looking right at Van like he was about to hurt him as he ranted on about his own past conditions.
He shook and gripped his floating head. No- he wasn't going to think about any of that. It wasn't important. He just had to do his job. "T-that doesn't make doing it again any better!" The little hypocrite weakly tried to interject Van as he insisted that he'd been through this before while gesturing to the room. He pried himself off the wall like it was suddenly magnetic, regaining just enough composure to slowly sidestep to still leave himself ample getaway room. It would take a lot more than that to back him into a corner this time. He shivered again as a pulse of static rushed through the room and his body with the harrowing reminder of his murder. Carro remained still, slowly prying his eyes open He couldn't look his friend in the eye for more than a second. He wished he could tell Van he wasn't used to this, but...
"Y-yes. I... I am used to it." Carro believed those words. Defeated resignation hung heavy in his tone. How many times had he nearly died before finally having his heart torn from his chest? There was Sensoa obviously, the whole first hunt for the Dragon Balls on Earth, that time he ran into Badman City on his own, Banzo, Kraktus, the Fleet, Amber, the Stargoons, the list went on and on and on. A terrible chunk of his life had been spent in a hospital. "I-It was only a matter of time, w-wasn't it? Happens to everyone eventually!" Carro shrugged, taking another step backwards. "Besides, I made this thing like a year ago. It w-w-was going to happen e-eventually, so..." Carro trailed off. The last time he felt this vulnerable, he died. "S-so, yeah. No biggie. I knew what was coming." During the first hunt on Earth, he expected to be murdered in his sleep. When he learned of Sensoa's intentions, he went through a full bucket list. This was just another part of being President. This was hardly new. He was used to it. Right?
Anyways, enough making his friend feel bad, more trying to fix whatever horrible mistake he'd made. "...Y-you still haven't told me what's wrong with you, either. For r-real this time." Carro mustered the courage to take a single step forwards, but this time he couldn't hide the worry from showing in spite of his obvious attempts to put on a brave face for his bravado. He had to do this- he had to fix things. It was the only thing he was good at these days, so who was he supposed to be if he wasn't good at that either?
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Post by Van-80 on Mar 28, 2020 16:25:20 GMT -6
“...you what…?”
This only confirmed Van’s fears. He really had no reason being here. Carro didn’t trust him. Did he trust anyone? What did it matter? Until he could take on LEO or Sensoa himself why should he be trusted? His boss was right. Of course, he would have a contingency plan for this. That didn’t make it any better. If anything, it made it hurt more.
“...you had this for a year… AND NEVER TOLD US!?”
Another burst of energy, this time large enough for the motherly android across the hall to detect. Ima’s gaze quickly snapped to her partner’s office. “Zer0 come with me! We may need Prima for this.”
“But I don’t-” the child went to protest. They knew that forming any of their fusions brought out the old Pr1de. Not a prospect they enjoyed. Not only was Pr1de much crueler than the child version, but they did everything in their power to suppress the innocent personality.
“I know you don’t like it. But if Van starts to get out of control I don’t know if I can stop him alone.”
All the while Van-80 stared down at Carro with a fading look of betrayal. This didn’t make anything better. Humans lived for a hundred or even more years these days. What was a human in his twenties doing worrying about his imminent death? Alone.
“No biggie huh?” he snorted, “No biggie that you thought were going to die? No biggie that you WERE going to die? No biggie that YOU DIED?!” He didn’t mean recently either. His lip quivered. This was a new feeling. A feeling that in his two years of life he never felt. He didn’t like it. Fury and sadness. Was this betrayal? “Did Tianum know? Did Sulfur know? What about Ima? Hell did you tell Garon or Penne? What about that new girl huh? Oh and I bet Lunatus would have loved to hear about this!” He looked down at the poor former saiyan’s arm. It wasn’t his, yet it was right there for a year.
“Van!” Ima rounded the corner with Pr1de in tow. Vanity didn’t even turn to notice the two. His eye simply flashed pink before the security doors to his office slammed shut. He then moved to grab Carro’s arm, with little regard for the cup he was protecting.
“Carro look at you! This is not okay! I thought you died months ago!” He’d yank the limb in front of the president’s face, assuming he managed to grab hold. “But now you tell me you died a year ago? Because you were ready to give up?! Because you don’t trust us?! Or is it just me because I’m not in your Plexroid team!? Is that it?! You were ready to die for A YEAR and I’m supposed to believe you’re okay now that you have?!” As his power surged once more, a small warning popped up in the corner of his eye. Unfortunately, he paid it no mind. In his indignant rage, he failed to notice a small warning, a familiar one that appeared whenever VanIma lost cohesion.
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Post by Carro Hofferson on Mar 28, 2020 18:40:23 GMT -6
CARRO's PL: 100 (ANTISENSE)
Carro should have known things would only keep getting worse by now.
He yelped in shock, losing his footing before being slammed back against the window by the burst of energy. The glass shattered around his arm, littering it with shards as he whined in pain. His wild eyes darted up when his friend screamed in agonized betrayal, causing him to crawl further backwards with another whimper and tremble. No, no, no- he'd died, he'd come back, he'd had worse than this. Why did this feel so much worse? This was his fault- all his, nobody else's. But that wasn't new- so why did it hurt so much this time?
Van ratted off all the names of his friends, causing his expression to twist further in pain. He wanted to go back, but it was too late to put his words back in his mouth. Fear, despair, frustration, everything he'd been bottling began to start to seep through the cracks. He'd crawled back near the door, whipping his head around at the sight of the other two androids. He opened his mouth to cry something out, but the door slammed shut before he could cry out for forgiveness.
'CARRO!' Alongside his friend's piercing words, another voice rang in his head. 'What in the name of the kais is happening to you-!?!' Oh no. The last thing he wanted was to rope more into this- LEO didn't need this pain, too. 'ANSWER ME!!' But he wished for her company- just one comfort to latch onto in his darkest moments. But that was selfish- he wasn't selfish. He closed his eyes and clutched his chest with his free arm when he felt his other arm, still pierced with glass shards, fall locked into Van's grip. 'I-I'm sorry!!' It was all he could think to tell LEO in those moments. 'I'm sorry- I'm so sorry! P-please--' From the cracks in his arm, a pale orange glow began to shine as his subconscious called out for help. It just so happened that the first thing to latch onto was the already prone hand grabbing his wrist, and then everything started to burn. A roar of pain echoed from beneath their feet, from the lowest labs housing the orange Plexroid.
Carro screamed out in bloody murder in unison, trying to tug his trembling arm backwards- though it was too late. The metal plating on his arm crept outwards, responding to his own subconscious and the call from his friend's fusing abilities. Carro started to thrash in a panic, though his fingers had already started to painfully merge in as well. This wasn't like his link with LEO. This burned and hurt- it felt wrong, and the flood of errors clouding his vision was eager to remind him of that.
While he reached his intact arm up in a futile frenzy to pry his other arm off before it could get worse, Carro howled again as his mind began to race even further. With their current state, the android on the other end may have been able to peer into the crumbling mindscape of the tiny robot attached to him. Desperate terror and horror swarmed at the forefront, though they weren't directed at Van, and much more as of yet indescribable, yet equally terrible things bubbling beneath it. 'I-i'M sorRy--!!' His tormented tone echoed internally for his friend to hear. What was happening to them?! 'I can't-t-- I-I'm sorry, please, I c-cAn't s-stop it!!'
The sight of his reflection in his arm drilled the message in his head. He was still the freak at fault here, and now Van was suffering because of him. He was the selfish one. That was all it took for the bottled despair in his mind to finally break free as his vision faltered and his voice began to crack away. He had enough energy in him to scream out one more time.
"H-hEeLP--!!!"
LEO uses [UT1] Life Link to telepathically talk to Carro, though it also oofs her with pain sharing.
and now we learn the hard way why player fusion is smitten by the staffer gods. note to other nerds who may be reading this, t'is not actual successful fusion and they shall split apart in about 0.5 seconds. hooray for pain juice.
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Post by Van-80 on Mar 28, 2020 19:26:00 GMT -6
What was Van doing?! He knew Carro was hurting so he decides to yell at him? What kind of friend was he? How hard was it for both of these robots to be hurting at the same time? Why couldn’t he have just agreed to tell him what was wrong if Carro admitted there was something wrong too? Now it was too late. In both of their rising panic and emotional distress, something started to happen to them. Something wrong.
At first, all he could do was stare on in horror. His hand… no, Carro’s hand? Their hand. Their bodies weren’t meant for this. Van-80 specifically created Ima’s body with the ability to fuse with him. It took countless hours of trial and error for the two to even reach seventy-five percent stability. Meanwhile, Pr1de was almost built with this in mind somehow. But not Carro. He was never put through the same trials or given the proper parts to allow him to fuse with Van-80.
As if to drive home the point, an error message displayed in bold red flashing letters. “Warning: Fusion Stability at 0.62%! Now defusing… defusing… defusing… WARNING! Failsafe is not responding! Recommended immediate action: manual defusal.”
Unfortunately, the searing pain shooting through the pretty bot left the words a complete blur. His single good eye was now dark as all of his systems began to malfunction. He tried pulling their hand free but to no avail. He simply pulled Carro with him. His fingers began to turn a familiar shade of green. IT felt as though his hand was slowly being sliced apart by a searing laser. Yet through the pain, he could hear his friend apologize.
“wHat…? WhAt arE yOu aPOLOgizInG foR?!” Despite not being able to see through the pain, Van-80 gave his friend a terrified but apologetic stare. Now that they were connected he could at least get his thoughts out. “ThiS is MY fAUlt! I’m the One who tHreW a TeMPer tAntrUM JUst because I…” He stopped. He was the one being selfish. Living up to his name, he wanted to be in Carro’s shoes. He wanted to go back to when he could actually be on equal grounds with LEO. Back when he was helpful. He tried to pull apart one more time, sending more jolts of searing pain coursing through the two androids. He had to think. He had to stay focused. Van grit his teeth. The ensuing panic he could feel coming from Carro was suffocating. Yet knowing it wasn’t directed towards him gave him just a tiny speck of hope.
“It’s okay,” he assured him, his tone now quiet with only small hints of terror. “I’m going to try something… It’ll probably hurt like hell… and maybe kill us if it doesn’t work but… well, when has that stopped you? Just hold still.” Rather than pull away, Van moved to bring his boss and friend close to him. If Carro didn’t resist the two would slowly fuse just a little more. The word pain had many meanings in the human language. None of them would even come close to the indescribable feeling tearing into Van. He could only hope Carro didn’t feel this too.
“Fusion Stability at 1%. WARNING: further attempts to fuse may result in critical damage to files! Failsafe... back online. Now Defusing.” That was what he wanted. He was hoping that trying to force the fusion would generate enough power for his programs to come back online. If Carro’s did the same, the two would be free in a resounding crash of energy. Van-80 was thrown back against the wall, seemingly offline. His single eye stared blankly at the floor while his mouth hung open in a frozen surprised gasp. For the first time in a long time, Van-80 appeared to be shut down.
and like that the fusion is over! This is why it can’t work though, this was so hard to do while not godmodding! Anyway back to the thread.
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Post by Carro Hofferson on Mar 29, 2020 19:26:59 GMT -6
CARRO's PL: 100 (ANTISENSE)
This all had to be ripped out of a horror movie. He had to be in the middle of a nightmare. Carro's screaming grew weak and hoarse, flashes of discolored static rippling across his face as he found himself looking back up to his friend, only to yelp in horror again as his eyes went dark. The metal from his own arm continued to contort and latch onto Van's in sickening clumps. The forced fusion had crept all the way up to their elbows now, leaving Carro nearly dangling, using his free arm to claw against the door in a desperate, futile attempt to get away.
Carro managed to silence himself when he heard Van's voice in his head this time. 'EVERYTHING!' His shrill tone echoed back when asked what he had to be sorry for. 'Stop l-lying! I'm th-the oNLY reaSon you're m-mAd in the FIRsT PLACE!' The once bright orange and green lights on his fusing arm began to flicker to gray. His frantic tugging and ripping at his own shoulder grew more frantic, but none the more successful. In spite of his earlier claims, Carro was afraid to die here.
Van's attempted reassurance managed to break past the little robot's hysteria, reducing his thrashing to still-terrified shaking. His terror only grew at the mention of potential death and immense pain with a loud whimper escaping past his speakers. 'I--' Amidst his suffocating fear, though, there was now something else to be felt. Carro trusted Van's reassurance completely. He allowed himself to be pulled closer, screen flickering as the flares from his vents grew brighter, lashing around the wisps of smoke trailing from his head. Cracks coursed across his face with sparks of electricity. He couldn't scream- he had to be strong so he didn't put anyone through any more pain. He had to. Carro wrapped his free arm around his friend in a weak hug with pained whimpers. He just had to stay quiet for a bit longer... "aa-aAaaAAaAAAAAaAAaAAAAAaAAUUHHGHH-hhh-h--!!" His blood-curdling shriek echoed down every hall in the building.
Carro didn't get a chance to think anything else before his vision went dark, senses finally going mercifully numb as he was sent flying backwards with a pulse of energy, slamming into an already-fallen shelf. Electricity surged through his head, snapping a hole in his scalp that piled smoke burst out of. His now-freed arm was warped and twisted, like it had been turned into putty before being churned in a blender. His face went dark, the flickers of orange and green on his body fading to a lifeless gray- save for the steady pulse of light from the orb on his torso.
His body was unresponsive, but the gears and wiring in his exposed scalp still churned. Though they'd torn apart the physical fusion, the mental link had yet to fade. The nightmare had just relocated itself from reality to memory and imagination. Both androids wanted to see what was wrong inside the other's head, but neither of them could have imagined it happening this literally.
and so dream/memory shenanigans begin soon™, fun times
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Post by Van-80 on Mar 29, 2020 20:00:59 GMT -6
“Oh no… Oh no no no VAN! CARRO!” Ima raised an open palm to the blast door. Out of instinctive fear, Zer0 backed away from the motherly android, cowering in fear from what was about to come. Sure enough, Ima put every ounce of power she had into blasting the metal, sending a large shock wave through the rest of the hall. The blaring sirens didn’t stop her though. She quickly scurried through the red hot metal hole and was greeted with a truly horrid sight. Both of her friends, down and unresponsive.
“V-Van?” she carefully tip-toed over to the lifeless pretty bot, “Van-80?” Gingerly, she cupped his face in her hands, lifting his eye to meet hers. Blank. A lifeless white orb staring unseeing back toward her. The motherly android trembled slightly. She then rushed towards Carro. He was easier to check given his more robotic design.
“A-are they…y-y’know...?” the child Pr1de shakily queried from the doorway.
Ima took a moment to stare at the two of them before answering. “I do not think so. If Van-80 died I think I would have gotten a notification or a warning of some kind. Thanks to some of my previous programming I have a strange sort of surveillance on him.”
Zer0 brushed a few of the scattered objects on the floor away with their foot before taking a step inside. “A-and Mr. Carro? I-is he okay?”
Her expression soured even further as she examined the seemingly lifeless metal husk. The only sign of life was the steady almost rhythmic pulse of light in his chest. “I cannot tell. I am only linked with Van-80. But that odd pulse…” She wasn’t linked with Carro. But she knew someone who was. “LEO…” Of course, the roar of pain she heard from before. Was she okay? If she was then that meant Carro would be too. But could she leave her friends alone? Perhaps more importantly, did Ima trust Zer0 enough to watch over them? Even if this was a seemingly innocent child, what if Pr1de somehow chose now to resurface at their most vulnerable moment.
“Zer0, I need you to do something important. Go down to the plexroid lab and see if LEO is okay. You know which one she is right?”
“Th-the giant cat right?” Ima nodded, “Right! I-I’ll go check.” They quickly dashed back out toward the elevators. Ima sighed in relief. LEO could handle herself if anything bad happened.
Oddly enough, Pr1de was already down there. Not the child though. Having little to no security access, the little one had to take the stairs and even ask security to let them in. No, a different android was now conversing with the downed lion. “Hey there Kitty. Been a loooong time huh? Seems I’m not all here these days. Actually, I don’t think I AM entirely here. That kid… Zer0. They still mostly control me. Oh, but look at you.” Tall, almost angular build, and an almost constant sneer of arrogance. Pr1de rested against the unconscious and malformed LEO. They gave a cold laugh, “Vaney really did a number on you huh. I think that’s what woke me up. I figured with Hofferbrat out cold you would be too. I almost wish you were awake to see me like this though.”
oh hey and Pr1de is here. Ima uses overdrive and PR1de uses multiform but who cares they aren't doing anything that needs PL! Also anyone wondering how I know LEO is out 1. Sketch told me and B. I know how Life Link works. Now bring on the nigthmares/memory!
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Post by Carro Hofferson on Mar 29, 2020 20:43:51 GMT -6
CARRO's PL: 100 (ANTISENSE)
With the chaos unfolding around him, one might have expected Carro's dreams to be filled with fire and death. But silvery daylight shone through the gap in the pine trees surrounding Central City and cut across the morning dew. Birds chirped contently in the trees while the morning traffic had long since died down. Van would likely find more questions than answers coming to at the outskirts of Central City- though the distant spires of Crop Co's headquarters could still be seen. But the distant building looked a lot less expansive than it did before. Smaller, less developed, but just as oddly calm as the rest of the scene. It was like nothing had ever gone wrong to begin with.
"Carro!?" A voice called out- and a familiar one at that. Caper raised a hand above his eyes to block out the sunlight, brushing his hair out of his face with an uneasy sigh. Carro's father's attire was different- he wore a dress shirt and green bow-tie like his son did, coupled with a dark blue vest and matching pants. The most jarring thing, though, would be that he was up and on his own two feet instead of being confined to a wheelchair... He was a lot taller when he wasn't sitting down.
The younger incarnation of his father whipped up by Carro's memories looked off again, and then back down to his watch. "Kais, kid, you really know how to make me worry..." Caper ran a hand down his face before turning off again on his search. Though he wasn't the only one with more questions than answers nearby, albeit very, very different ones.
this caper is both a figment of carro's imaginationland and an NPC, smol PL time
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Post by Van-80 on Mar 29, 2020 21:23:59 GMT -6
Van rubbed his head. Despite his metallic nature, a throbbing dull pain ached at the back of his skull. He had to imagine this was what a hangover felt like. Nevermind that though! Where was Carro?! Come to think of it, where was anybody? Last he remembered he was at the office right? The pretty bot took in his surroundings. He was in a more lightly packed area, almost suburban area. He knew this place. Was he blown all the way to the outskirts of the city?
Van-80 froze in fear as he heard a familiar voice calling out. Slowly he turned his neck to see a concerned father looking for his child. “Caper. Caper I’m so… sorry?” Was he always this tall? At his full height, the Hofferdad looked to be even taller than Pr1-Van-Ima. That alone was no easy feat. “C-Caper?” Seeing him standing so tall only served to intimidate Van even more. What was he supposed to do? Apologize for nearly killing his son or ask how he was actually walking? “Caper, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to hurt him! He’s back at Crop Co if we can… if we can… What. The. Hell?”
As the beauty-obsessed android turned to rush back toward the city, he was completely blown away. The entire place looked so peaceful. No remnants of the Sensoa attack. No crowds gathered in fear of the saiyan attack. Just ordinary people going about their ordinary days. Most striking of all was Crop Co. It looked downright puny compared to how it normally looked. But that was impossible. The concept of dreams was just that. A concept for Van. He never had a real dream. For him, dreams were bits of code that continued to monitor the outside world whenever he was shut down.
“What is going on here?” Van glanced down at his hand. It was in surprisingly good shape. There was no wear or tear from the recent neglect or the failed fusion from moments ago. Even his synthetic skin seemed to be fully intact. Was he malfunctioning? A quick search of his recorded memory answered that. Everything from him packing his office to trashing it not once but twice was all there. Yet it still left him with questions, more so than before at that. The video feed was horribly corrupted but intact enough for Vanity to know it still happened. Maybe Caper knew something. “Caper? Where are we? Wait nevermind that! Where’s Carro?!”
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