Pacifista

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

---

The evening was chilly but Jean was burning up. Her sweat beaded and breath came hard as she muttered into the phone, “B-Burnside Park! He’s overdosing!”

The fallen addict’s phone trembled in her hand. “Okay ma’am, are either of you carrying any naloxone? Or any other opioid overdose medication?”

Jean’s gloved hand felt around. “No!” When she cooled down she’d leave a mental not to carry some around. Following the operators instructions, she was able to restore his breathing with some clumsy CPR and put him on his side, using some floating flames to keep him warm until she saw the light from sirens approaching. The EMTs arrived to find the alleyway otherwise empty, Jean watching from above for a moment before flying off.

At another park she took some water from the fountain, recharging herself mentally, washing out her mouth, and rinsing her face off. Already tired she was prepared to just go home, losing hope and feeling like time was being wasted. She knew it wasn’t true: this wasn’t the first time she’d possibly saved a life. She’d halted a prospective home invasion by psychically taking away the offending firearm, forcing the robber to retreat. But she’d also been too slow to stop a stabbing and too fearful to use her own phone to call it in, instead carefully moving the victim to somewhere they could be easily seen after pressing the wound closed with her mind, then lighting a fire in a garbage can. She still didn’t know what had happened to them.

She wasn’t thinking about giving up, certainly not entirely, but her value in symbols might have been getting in the way of her doing real good. It shouldn’t matter if she was a ‘mutant with a conscience’ floating around helping people or a superhero, but in her head that made the difference between a rando with no idea what they were doing and someone who really could make the difference. That said, even in her green and gold, she would still only be pretending to know what she was doing.

Worrying about Nathan, she started to float home for the night to get some rest (if she was lucky). But an errant thought from a ways off crossed her mind and fluttered her heart. Floating over, she found a currently vacant residence, it was lived in but not populated, not by its owners. Jean waited in the air above until a figure crawled out, freshly showered and fed off water and food that was not his. Floating down to the green skinned boy, she blurted, “Hey.”

He jumped, reflexively lashing an arm out before running away. Jean took the slap across the face, mental resigning herself to the fact that she deserved that before giving chase. Well, ‘chase’ was a bit of an overstatement, she just floated after him after going up a little in elevation. She watched him scamper over fences and through stretches of backyards in the rundown neighborhood. Once the first dog started barking the whole block was up in paws. The mutant boy hopped into the wrong yard, a snarling bulldog bearing down on him only to lose traction with the ground, whimpering as it floated away. The boy was bewildered but moved along, finally reaching a completely condemned house, slipping into the basement. Jean easily followed. She led with her voice, “I’m not going to hurt you, or turn you in. I just want to talk.”

Lit by an LED lantern, the abode was more than humble. Littered with stolen clothes and blankets as a ramshackle carpet over the concrete, there was an array of stolen devices and electronics. Jean caught some tools, noting that a number of them were under repair, taken from the garbage. A few cockroaches and rats scampered away while the boy grabbed a serrated knife, aiming it her way. Jean raised her hands. “I’m not coming closer!”

“Then get the fuck out!”

“Can we talk?” She pulled her red hair out of her collar and watched the boy’s yellow eyes flash with recognition, then a familiar anger.

Throwing down the knife in frustration, the boy growled, “Here to mindfuck me again bitch?”

“I didn’t...I shouldn’t have done that, I know, but I didn’t want you to hurt anyone! And I didn’t know what to do on short notice! If you were seen it would have been even worse.”

“I FUCKING KNOW THAT!” His voice echoed in the small chamber. “No one wants to see me. Can you tell why? Can you fucking guess?” Jean winced, eyes going off in another direction for a moment. “FUCKING LOOK AT ME!”

Jean locked her eyes in, taking a breath. “I’m sorry, I worded that badly. I just- I don’t want anyone to get hurt. I want to help you.”

“You want to make me your fucking pity project? I don’t need your fucking help. The inhibitors don’t make me look normal. You can’t help me: no one can help me. I can take care of my fucking self. Doing a great job so far.”

“No, I can see that. You’re good with electronics, huh?”

The boy paused. Anger was still very evident, but the compliment seemed to have slipped through a crack. “...There’s a pawn shop that lets me sell to them. I only...” He stopped, shaking his head, “I ain’t telling you shit. Get the fuck out already.”

“Well, can I come back, just to talk a little more?”

There was a low rumble in his throat. “Would I be able to stop you?” To prove his point, he grabbed a pair of MP3 players and hurled them at her, the two devices stopping in midair, floating back to their original spot on the shelf. “The more you stay away from me the better off I’ll be.”

“Look, I want to help you. My husband and son are mutants too. I want this world to be better for all of us. But if I can’t even help one local kid then I don’t know what I’ll ever be capable of if I put on a cape and go out there myself.”

“You’re going to become a superhero? Pfft,” he laughed to himself, turning away and finding a spot on the ground to lie on.

“Well I don’t think I was literally going to wear a cape, but yes. I...can I get your name?”

Reclining, he bitterly answered, “Can’t you just fuck around in my head and find out?”

“I want to know, but it’s not worth hurting you over.”

Silence, then, “Leech. Cuz I’m a fucking parasite, good enough for you?”

Despite herself, she caught the truth floating on his surface thoughts. James Rowan. She kept that to her chest. “Okay, I’ll see you again tomorrow. Take care of yourself, alright?”

“What, the superhero bitch gonna take me in for stealing?”

“I mean, I’d rather you not, but taking property is different from taking lives.” She didn’t need to see his face to tell he rolled his eyes. Floating from the basement entrance, Jean went up and out into the night sky, hope and anxiety mingling within her. She later kissed Nathan goodnight and fell asleep leaning against his crib, until his early morning whining woke her before the alarm did.

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

Well, you cooooould give my posts more reacts to activate my monkey brain neurons. It won't lead to me posting more (I have that more than covered) but bweeeee react go BRRRRR.

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

This time was within 10 minutes! :3

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

@Pacifista at this point you're just reacting and not even reading them aren't you? You're just messing with me.

@Sep

I would never! React on a post I haven't read, that is. Messing with you is merely a by-product.

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

---

The small metal chamber was barely lit, monitor displays blinking under the flashing of a red light. A few bars and meters seemed to be low, but the lone occupant of the cramped space was paying them no mind whatsoever. Sitting in the chair that made up nearly the whole of the room, the red haired young woman had her eyes closed. Her hands, feet, and waist were trapped in heavy metal restraints, and a collar with a number of tubes bound her to the seat by her neck. There was liquid in them, but it was growing thin. With a pneumatic hiss, they released, the girl slumping in her chair. She had just begun to stir when the chamber began to open. Water spilled through the hatch, the girl waking with a start and a gasp. Taking stock of the situation, she moved decisively, kicking off from the seat and into the water. Split between deep blue and light, her arms and legs pumped until she broke the surface, a blue sky awaiting her. Green eyes squinting against a yellow sun, she treaded water for a moment before breaking from its surface entirely. Water dripping from her tall form, the silver trim of her purple leggings and leotard caught the sunlight, her long red locks swaying with every turn of her head, splashing water about. She ran her hands across her body, testing her silver bracers before raising her hand. Her eye glowed green before her hand did, a matching blast of energy vaulting into the sea. Relaxing a little, she ran her fingers through her hair before her hand found itself on the back of her neck. A small black diamond had been etched into the top of her spine, a brand in the skin. She frowned, falling back a little, floating in parallel with the unknown salty sea.

Koriand’r of Tamaran was free without being free. Her prison ship had malfunctioned, her captors branding and sealing away their cargo. She could only infer that she’d been sent off to the nearest habitable world to be retrieved later. How long could it have been? Her life support could no longer sustain her and thus had to release her before she could be retrieved. Her heart sank as she imagined the Gordanians swooping upon her, a fear that had her eyes shooting open, only to get another view of the wide empty sky, lacking in floating cities or starfleets. She wondered what other prisoners had been released onto this world, but that thought was quickly replaced by a curiosity: what was this world?

Righting herself relative to the world’s gravity, she shot upward, eyes scanning the horizon until she saw a mass of gray. By the time she reached the landmass, green trees and fields of gold stretching before her past a sheer rock wall. Touching her heeled boots to the ground, though to foliage was of different shape and color, it was still reminiscent of the lush green fields of her home that hadn’t been torn by war. Growing curiouser and curiouser, she took to the air again. A strange black streak caught her eye, weaving through the landscape. It was hard like stone, presumably processed. She didn’t care for its scent, like heat and oil, an archaic fuel source used by Tamaran in its history. She hoped it was an artifact: a remnant of this planet’s past civilization. But Kori was perhaps too hopeful. Her optimism was shattered with a blaring noise like the roar of a makango. She looked up to see a bright, two eyed beast with a shiny red shell barreling at her. She was out of the way in moments, soaring through the air as a painful shrieking noise was joined by an acrid scent even worse than that of the stone. A head poked out of the side, Tamaranoid (albeit with much darker skin tone and hair color), looking around, before they got out and kept up their search, checking a ditch on the side of the pathway. Kori, more than wary, kept to the blind spot, using the local’s vehicle as cover or moving high out of sight, until they lost interest and returned to their vehicle, moving on with their day. Koriand’r realized her mistake with a giggle: it was a road for transportation of these slow vehicles. If the inhabitants of this world didn’t have much better, then Koriand’r would have little hope of leaving without the Gordanians finding her, but it also meant their information network couldn’t reach here, allowing her some respite. With the road as her guide, finding civilization was no difficult matter.

-----

Koriand’r didn’t grasp any of it, but she didn’t mind it one bit. The air was filthy from the exhaust of their vehicles (more common than their people, it seemed). She was hesitant to use her means of understanding the local language, unfamiliar with the culture, but it may be a sacrifice she’d have to make. As she walked along the roads, she caught plenty of attention and stares. The small rectangular devices in their hands were often pointed her way, making her nervous. Tamaranians weren’t exactly the most well traveled in the reaches of the galaxy, so the girl standing above the average man or woman (much taller in some cases) in clothing much more upscale than the cheap and flimsy fabrics they were wearing was catching attention Kori couldn’t blame them for. This regard wouldn’t have been too unusual in plenty of neighborhoods back at home. Tamran had a number of fashions, but as royalty she was expected to keep to a certain array of colors befitting her position, and had been captured while in her battle dress, which would catch plenty of attention back home in any place other than the battlefield or palace. There was a bit of envy as she looked over the residents of this world in the varied colors and shapes of their outfits. Had she the time or money she’d have liked to try some out. A few of the folk tried to speak to her, so she smiled at them, hoping it was still a social sign of good faith on this world, and not, say, and expression of fear or loathing. At the very least it didn’t seem to aggravate any of her small interactions.

Just as she was starting to feel a bit tired mentally, her stomach’s hunger catching up with her, she was accosted by a slightly shorter man with dark coverings obscuring his eyes and slicked back yellow hair. His words were beyond Kori’s comprehension, and he was waving a paper card at her her with more text she couldn’t read. She couldn’t quite tell his mood: was he elated, or angry? And if he was angry, was there a problem? She felt a burning sensation on the back of her neck. It was not the tracking chip installed: she knew it was purely a psychological response of her own. Keeping out of arms reach, she floated upwards to a few gasps and shouts. The man’s jaw and card dropped to the ground. Kori didn’t linger on it for too much longer, floating off to an area with more quiet and hopefully more food. If they had nothing edible for her on this world then she wasn’t sure how she was going to cope...

The planet’s star was rather high in the sky, Koriand’r watching it lackadaisically from her seat on top a small building with a faint rancid smell in a secluded area of nature. Her mood was rather sour, her constant skywatch based in a reasonable fear. Yet, there was something more at odds with her. The masses of people roaming about, the vague interest in herself despite being a foreign body, the vast resources that seemed to be in use: these small, ignorant peoples were peaceful. The shadow of war was not on this doorstep. Had a neighborhood of Tamaran had this level of peace, it would be far louder with rancorous celebration in joy of life. They were simply existing, going about a day to day in ways Kori could hardly assume or predict without war to prepare for in one way or another. She was still hesitant to engage in her knowledge transfer, still afraid. She’d never done it with one outside of her race before. The Gordanians would attempt to bite of her lips should she try. Those of this world were complete unknowns: what would she learn about them? What would they learn about her? Were there ways they could call the Gordanians after all? Was trying to understand these people courting fate, or was she just meandering about in the face of inevitability?

There was a cry in the locale language. Kori looked down to see a red shape heading her way. Snatching the disc out of midair, she investigated it, not recognizing the scratched and faded artwork emblazoned on it. The material was stiff, but not completely inpliable. She didn’t test it, as the young juvenile of this planet would have likely been distraught if she were to break it. She tossed it back like she might a Nuvanian fragmentation grenade, but it only flopped awkwardly, not moving the same despite vaguely similar shapes due to the weight not matching at all. The child laughed. Koriand’r smiled, glad that there was yet another constant, another familiarity between the two cultures so distant. She didn’t understand his words but she watched him mime the proper throw. A brown beast roughly his size stood on all fours next to him, covered in fur with a tongue lolling out, creating a stupid yet cute expression. The boy had no fear of it, so she assumed it wasn’t harmful. He threw the discus properly, and it sailed through the air until his beast reached it, having run straight for it and nabbed it from the air. The boy wrestled with him for a moment, taking the disc back before tossing it Koriand’r’s way. It went a little wide, so she floated from the rooftop and caught it before it touched the ground. The boy yelled out in fright, or surprise perhaps, looking at her with wide eyes but not reacting negatively. Koriand’r took a chance, giving the disc a good toss. In her great strength, she used a bit too much force, the disc catching the air and flipping upwards. Grabbing it again, she used a bit more grace, making an elegant toss and finally letting it fly, the beast running after it. With smiles and laughter, the three of them continued to play with the disc until Koriand’r’s stomach reached its breaking point. Once again she’d been humbled, forced to beat back her own hubris and ignorance. Aliens as they might be (to her of course, to them it was she who was the alien), her fear was the thing most holding her back from connecting to any of them. The future was full of reasons to be anxious, but all of life was transient, and it should be enjoyed as much as possible.

Returning to the city’s hustle and bustle, her nose picked up a rare scent that wasn’t noxious. Observing a metal podium with lines of heat radiating off of it and a covering on a pole shielding it from the rays of the planet’s star, she saw that the woman’s creations would indeed be consumed. Approaching, she apologized in her native language before leaning down and taking the middle-aged woman by the shoulder, leaning in and meeting lips. She let out a cry of fright, arms flailing before Kori pulled away. “I do apologize! Yo esperaba my behavior to be inappropriate, pero era necesario.”

“What is wrong with you!? ¡Capulla!” Though the words were harsh and angry, Koriand’r felt a wave of relief, glad to simply understand them.

“I wish to procure one of these artículos alimenticios.” She pointed at the flat surface where cylinders of processed meat and foodstuffs of other shapes and colors cooked.

The merchant looked at her with wide eyes. “Then pay, stupid. There’s a line! ¡Apúrate!”

Koriand’r’s face fell slightly. “Este establecimiento not accept account numbers from Interplanetary Banking?”

The stare she received might have gouged through the infamously dense iron heart of a Pholathian draz mole. “Fucking LA. Oi, officer! Can you get rid of this puta imbécil? She’d holding up my business.”

Sorting through the words she couldn’t quite parse, Koriand’r started to get nervous as a blue uniformed man approached, black coverings over his eyes (a fashion choice Koriand’r was finding it hard to take in good faith). He looked up and down the tall woman, before asking, “What seems to be the issue?”

“I’m simply seeking food...”

“She can’t pay, make her leave!”

The hand of a fourth party reached over, grabbing the pole of the large shield and pulling it aside, the whole podium on wheels taking a tumble, the lady letting out a cry before scampering a few feet away. A handheld device beeped repeatedly, its dull metal pointed straight at Koriand’r. A pair of red eyes met hers from above. She was within the bounds of typical height for those of this planet, but this man was easily two heads over her. His skin was white like a Pax’ilian wraithworm, black markings about his eyes. A vest hung over his hair speckled chest, and his belt buckle’s emblem was in the shape of a fanged skull. The shock of long, coarse dark hair hanging back shook as he moved his head down to her with a leer. He cracked a smile. “Kond olo, bastiche.”

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

@Pacifista How do you do it? How comes you're always the first person to react to my posts?

I will beat you at some point, I'm going to post at a time you're not around.

@Sep

Good luck I'm in your walls

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

---

A green eyelid cracked open at the sound of the door shutting. Within a few moments Garfield could plainly hear the rustling of fabric, the shifting of a curtain, and running water. Stretching out his paws and upper body, he took a few strides out of the corner and left his cat form. He was clean for the first time in weeks, having swapped to a cheap Fortnite shirt and cargo pants Rachel got from a Walmart. A few wrappers of their late night mockery of a meal still hung around so Garfield rounded them up and threw them away before taking a seat against the wall as he waited. He’d managed a shower last night, his old clothes left in a pile on the floor, but when he’d come out, Rachel had already passed out on the lone bed. She hadn’t been willing to pay for two rooms or two beds so Garfield had joked about just sleeping in the corner, expecting to be finding a place outside, but she had been too tired to argue.

Eventually, the water went off and the door cracked open. Garfield awaited her in the form of a Labrador, dutifully sitting at attention, tail wagging lightly. “You’re still here?”

Dressed down to a fresh black T-shirt and shorts with a towel over her shoulders, she took a seat on the bed while Garfield turned human and crossed his legs. “Uh, yeah? You were going to do the familiar ritual thing.”

“...You can’t be serious. Did you not hear me? I want to-”

“Yeah, destroy the world for your dad, I remember.” Gar saw her eye twitch as she stared. He thought she was trying to probe him for a reaction so he kept as neutral an expression as possible, but as she leaned over slightly, her still wet hair falling from her shoulder, his eyes scanned her up and down as he felt his heart start to race. He’d thought he kept it pretty cool, but her face broke into a smirk. A chill ran down his spine.

“Pathetic. I suppose I should have expected as much from a literal animal who can’t keep his paws off of me.”

Images flashed through Gar’s head of last night of himself lifting her up off the ground and keeping her from falling when the inter-dimensional corpse came through. “Wait, nononono, that’s not why I want to help you!”

Rachel stood. “Then why? What possible thought in your tiny little brain could justify the destruction of everything you’ve ever known? Don’t you have a single worthwhile attachment?”

“Don’t you?”

“Don’t change the subject.”

Garfield stewed to himself for a few moments. “Of course I do.”

“So you are lying to me to get into my pants.”

“When did I lie?” Rachel glared. “I said I want to help you and that’s that. Does the reason really matter?”

Rachel was still for a moment. She ran her towel across her head and tossed it aside before sitting down. “No, no it doesn’t. Once you’re my familiar you’ll have to heed my commands anyway. If I want you to fetch an artifact, steal something, or turn into a wolf and rip out a 5 year old’s throat: you won’t have the agency to deny me.”

Garfield leaned back, hands propped on the carpet. “Oh, okay then. How does the ritual work?”

Rachel’s eye flashed and she gritted her teeth. “You’re taking me lightly, aren’t you?”

Garfield shrugged. “What? I don’t think you’re as bad a person as you think you are. You helped those mages yesterday didn’t you?”

Rachel’s mouth shot open only to flop awkwardly. She struggled through her thoughts before finally belting out, “You made me do that!”

“Oh, does that make you my familiar then?” Rachel raised her hands, clutching at the air. Garfield felt a pressure around his neck, like he was in a headlock. He gagged, and after a moment it dissipated. He noticed a bit of Rachel’s dark magic fading away. Letting out a cough, he gasped, “Did you just Force Choke me?!”

“...I’m normally much better at controlling my emotions.” Garfield didn’t believe that for a second. “Besides, it doesn’t matter anyway. All the good I do, all the evil I do: Trigon will find his way into this dimension one way or another, and it will all be gone. That goes for you, me, everyone: everything. All those little chemicals in your brain are telling you, all the science and math you’ve learned, all the philosophy you’ve been force fed, the religion, even our souls and the metaphysical cycle: it’s just one universe. I don’t care if some God did make it all, Trigon’s conquered countless dimensions and he’ll conquer countless more. Everything turns to dust: what good is deciding what kind of dust you want to be when it’s all over?”

Garfield felt his spirit being weighed down. “What, so nothing matters?”

“No, not nothing, just everything humans have ever come up with or accomplished. It’s all the same for the entirety of this vast cosmos. All that matters is Trigon. The soul is far from immortal, but he is. When I herald in his reign, I’ll be the one thing in this universe he’ll find worthy of remembering. The only lament is that I won’t get to see it.”

Rubbing a palm in circles on his forehead, Garfield was exasperated. “And where did you hear all this?”

Rachel crossed her arms over her chest. “Trigon. My father. Keep up, I hate explaining the same thing twice.”

“...So your father told you he’s the most badass powerful God-killing inter-dimensional conqueror that ever existed?”

“...It...it felt...never mind.” She stood, grabbing her blue cloak off the end of the bed. Sniffing it, she cringed at the trace scents of garbage and sulfur still lingering. “I don’t have to justify myself to you. Once you’re my familiar I won’t have to hear a word out of your mouth ever again. I’m going to get the ritual book from my mother’s library. This is your last chance to run away.”

Garfield stood to his feet. As he took a step, he could feel Rachel tensing up. Raising his arm, he reached past her, swiping the remote from the nightstand. Plopping down, leaning against the bed, he flipped on the TV. “Sounds like a plan.” Rachel shot him one last nasty look before throwing her cloak on. The window shot open and she floated out into the LA morning. Garfield sat there for a few moments, pretending to watch TV, before he flopped his head back. He let out a long groan, “Oh maaaaaAAAAAAN!”

One Piece: The Devil's Due (Always Accepting!)

RICO

---

“What does chaos sound like anyway?” Pocketing a stray peanut into its cheek pouch, the squirrel scampered up the tree out of sight. “Well you’re no help!”

Stopping along the well tread and busy footpaths of Phoenix Beach, Rico started to stray from the busy areas and their merriment and revelry. “Chaos, chaos, chaos...if only Wicc were here, he was a smarty guy.” In his walk he ran into a few folk, and asked for their thoughts.

“Chaos is discord, so it’d be like banging your hands on a piano,” said an older gent.

“Prolly violence, like a fight. Got some money?” a homeless fellow had to say. Rico didn’t need to save his money any more so he gave him a few coins and one of the strawberry flavored candies.

“Well, screaming is a good indicator. I suppose it’s our job to follow the sounds of chaos,” said a Sootstrider. And that gave Rico quite the idea, the boy lighting up.

About 10 minutes later, the Sootstriders were involved in an incident, several of them being called to a tree in between a few of the complexes, some bystanders leaning out of windows to keep tabs on what was going on. Trapped in the tree was an old lady, the woman howling in fear. As they circled about, trying to climb the trunk, a red and green flash hopped in, scooping up the old lady in a flash, carefully dropping down with a cry of, “I’ve gotcha!” Once on the ground, Rico helped her onto a bench, her legs still trembling.

“What are you doing, that was dangerous!”

“Don’t worry guys, I had it, this kind of thing happens all the time.”

“...I don’t think that's true.”

“Sure! You wanted to feel young again, right?” Rico asked. The lady beamed, Rico’s kind understanding like a ray of light in the darkness of black uniformed Sootstriders admonishing her for adding some chaos to their day. She grinned, reaching up to grab his cheek. Rico held it at bay, clarifying, “Okaaaay, but you only get one! Ow.” Rico took the pinch in stride, doing a hard candy exchange before the crowd dispersed.

Finding the Sootstrider from before, Rico asked, “Mind if I pal around with you guys for a bit? I’m looking for, uh, the sound of chaos. Mister...Phenix? Fenix? Phonics? Mister Fred put me on a job to bodyguard the Prince since some guys are comin’ to kill him dead.”

The Sootstrider went pale. “The Trenders? You? That fits with what we've been told recently, but you don’t need to go searching. We know where he is since we’ve been keeping watch at a distance, but engage at your own risk. He’s bound to be more dangerous than any assassin that comes after him.”

Rico held up a hand, unfurling his fingers to reveal a hard candy lodged between each one. “I have a way with people.”

One Piece: The Devil's Due (Always Accepting!)

I made a new game discord so join when you're up for it!

Don't answer DMs of people asking you to play a game to help them with a college project ;~;

Also I'm working on a Rico post but needless to say I've been busy...

One Piece: The Devil's Due (Always Accepting!)

My discord account got hacked so please don't respond to any unusual messages!