fandoms 26-30
26.
Title:
Fandom: Phantasy Star / Neko Atsume
Rating: T
Word Count: 285
Summary: Myau tries to trade unreasonably sized aquatic life forms with her interdimensional feline contacts for the service of getting the top off a bottle.
"What can you give me for this, meow?"
The cats all crowded around the stranger to look at the fishman. Even in death, it was terrifying to behold. Its claws were the same size as their heads, a grimace frozen on its fanged mouth, its slimy, scaled body a twisted mockery of both human and fish features.
Guy Furry pronounced it edible.
"Well, it's certainly a big catch, I'll give you that," said Xerxes, "Three hundred gold fish, no more, no less."
"Is that enough to get the top off a bottle?"
"Money can't buy miracles, sir. We're just ordinary cats. You're the one who can do magic."
Myau wasn't sure he would have called cats who could drive trains, cook food, lead communities and contort themselves into small glass vases without tipping them over 'ordinary'.
"Well, how about replacing its contents," he asked, "It's an Alsulin bottle. Powerful medicine. I need it to reverse petrification in a human."
"I know where there's a new human," offered Tubbs.
"I don't want any old human! This human's a legendary warrior!" said Myau, "Well, okay, so I already know a fighter and to be honest, I'm almost as good a fighter as her myself, and I'm better at magic than her, and we already have a second magician and we could do with attracting less attention from the monsters anyway, but... ah, forget it."
"I'd buy a box," said Tubbs, "Everyone needs a spare box."
"I don't suppose you've got any Laerma nuts?"
"Is that food?" asked Tubbs.
"Sort of. You eat it, and you grow as big as a horse, and you sprout wings."
"I knew you were making all of this up!" said Xerxes.
27
Title: Across the Street
Fandom: Nintendogs / Neko Atsume
Rating: K+
Word Count: 316
Summary: Putting their rivalries behind them in the hopes of stealing food, the Neko Atsume crew decide to visit the Nintendogs. Starring Chibi the wonder-Shiba
"I'm very sorry but we're all out of doggy cakes. Can you believe a huge, fat stray cat wandered into the back and ate them all? An entire, fresh batch. Didn't even run away. Sat there and just looked at me as if to say 'yeah, what're you gonna do about it?'. I'd throw him out but he looks a bit big to lift safely."
Chibi the Shiba lay in the corner with his head on his paws, pretending to be asleep. There were no other dogs in the cafe. This would make it easier to think without distraction. He hoped his owner would become engrossed in talking to the cafe owner and lose interest in him entirely, so he could sneak out and investigate.
There were definitely more cats than usual lately. First there had been those kittens, and now everyone was used to them. They rarely left the house and did little except sleep, pounce on Chibi's tail and chase toy mice around the house. Now there was this business with the food thief, and he had seen cats doing all sorts of other things today, out of the corner of his eye. There was the little train running down the lakeside path, on the other side of the mountain. He had seen a cat in a chef's hat walk past with a tiny pizza on a plate in its mouth, then stop at a cafe carved into a cardboard box in someone's front lawn, staffed by a cat in an apron.
Chibi wondered what it all meant. The humans never knew what was going on right under their noses. They wouldn't notice if the town was invaded by aliens, never mind cats. It would inevitably be left up to the dogs to make sure everything went smoothly.
He wondered whether it was wide for him to be the one to make first contact.
28.
Title: Red Static
Fandom: Ar Nosurge / Earthbound
Rating: T (mild language, spoilers, doom, I swear we had a fourth wall around here somewhere)
Word Count: 406
Summary: Ion isn't the only person who asks her directly for help, and the request on the other line is becoming kinda urgent.
Earthes was about to go into the ritual bath when his operator heard the voice, not over the headphones, but directly into their mind. It was distant and faint and desperate, with crackling distortion that was not just interference.
They had only used that username in one game. It was a silly username, upon reflection, but then it was a silly game, especially when Jeff's friends had randomly broken the fourth wall. Earthbound had been so light-hearted back then, but the mood of a game can change fast.
Clasping hands together in prayer was difficult to do when you were trying to hold a controller at the same time. Prayer usually meant closing your eyes but you couldn't do that and keep an eye on two screens at once. Earthes was asked to pray too. Ion assumed her robot companion was just getting unusually into the spiritual aspect of the bathing ceremony. She smiled, wondering if he was also getting more into the part about two souls becoming one.
"Paula..." muttered Earthes. This earned him a black look from Ion.
Please help us in our darkest moments...
Just leave it to me... this is the sort of shit I'm here for...
Please give us the strength to fight...
Over the psychic channel, Earthes' operator began singing. The distorted music was probably not doing much for anyone's morale, even assuming they didn't have special magic singing there too. Oh, wait... they were fighting the same enemy that they had forced into retreat by singing at them in the last game... and there was the whole business of the Sound Stone... they began singing even more enthusiastically.
Please join our fight... share our burden...
The first wave of true psychic static came and he thought he had hurt his head putting the volume up too high. Your actual hearing wasn't supposed to distort, after all. Turning the volume down meant they couldn't hear the background music over that damn buzzing in their head. Maybe two games was too much... well, only one was in a position to save...
Earthes went silent. Disconnected, Ion realised. But for a brief moment, she had seen something in his eyes that really worried her...
Share our burden...
Not one to abandon someone, especially if they were actually being polite for once, they propped themselves up the best they could, grabbed the controller in both hands and turned the volume up even higher.
29
Title: Rarity Is Uniqueness
Fandom: Xenoblade Chronicles X/ My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Rating: K+
Word Count: 406
Summary: Resources are scarce and Princess Celestia sends Rarity out on mining surveys of other dimensions. The *real* story behind the Harrier Division's logo.
They called the stuff Miranium, presumably because they had called the planet Mira and they had even less imagination than whoever back home had decided to name everything after horse puns. (It's probably Princess Celestia, and if I ever repeated the criticism to Twilight, she'd freak out and tell us we'll never be allowed back home.)
Miranium is good quality but feels a little bland. It's sort of like the feeling you get when you design a well-made work uniform and someone asks you to make enough for the entire team but you don't really mind because at least they're doing it for a practical reason and not just starting a sheepish fashion trend. (I've met sheep, they actually have a lot more personality than people give them credit for. This world sort of has sheep but they're called Ovis and they look like armadillos too.) There are other, more interesting rocks around, some rare gems that apparently sell for a ton of money. They have different colour auras and songs and they make me want to design a different dress for each of them.
Describing how magical senses feel is really hard. It's like all my senses fire at the same time at full pace and I also have to deal with my artist's sensibilities at the same time. I don't know how Twilight does it, with all the extra magical senses she developed, whereas I only have those relevant to my work.
Anyway, they can be difficult and dangerous to mine. I tried to help the locals with their own mining operation and offer them something in return for the gems - maybe I could decorate one of their big machines with a diorama. But then the big human started screaming at me and calling me a 'Tyrant Progen' and I think he aimed some kind of weapon at me. He hit me in the horn and it's still kind of crooked so that sometimes my magic goes a little askew and my designs turn out very alternative. I managed to escape by undoing the seams of his trousers while he was running after me.
I thought I had offended the locals and I would be chased out of the world, but the next day, I was flattered to find that they had drawn a big picture of my face! I have since found out that these particular natives have a fascination with unique personalities such as myself.
I will be sad to leave this world behind. I believe our first surveys into worlds further afield has gone very well. I brought back something called a 'Nopon' which is like a turnip but with vestigial wings and sharp teeth. It seems to be eating all my food, so could someone please take it off my hands?
30.
Title: Calico Cat
Fandom: The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky
Rating: T (minor spoilers)
pairing: Angelica/George
Word Count: 451
Summary: Angelica doesn't just let anyone ride in the sidecar.
note: I didn't actually know this was canon when I wrote it, I just thought they would be cute together. I also didn't know *massive spoiler* about Crowe, so it made me laugh at the irony later in the story.
Watching George at work was one of Angelica's favourite pastimes.
The young man in the yellow overalls and cap, with the big broad goofy smile on his face, reminded her of a big, chubby Calico cat. He readily agreed with her that he was putting on the pounds but it always seemed to sit well on him, probably because he was always out doing something, fixing her bike, helping her test it or monitoring the orbal signature in some remote part of the countryside. He always had those portable computer things with him, too, the ones he had managed to get down to a sensible size. If it used orbal power, he knew how it worked and could improve it. When she went on a mission and he knew there would be trouble, he insisted on coming along as well to make sure the communications went smoothly. She wouldn't be surprised if he had some less legal skills with orbal computers that the military would love to know about, but that she would rather be kept secret just in case a mission went in a direction she didn't want to report back about.
George rode in the sidecar. Angelica didn't let just anyone ride with her, or even go near her bike, not even her favourite women. She told him time and time again that too many ladies were recognising her everywhere she went, even ones she hadn't met, as if the rumours she had started as a joke were spiraling out of control. Of course she liked women but she didn't always automatically seduce every girl she met. Even the thing with Towa was mostly just a joke. If Angelica was so desperate to meet girls all the time, she wouldn't have randomly decided to work down a mine for fun. There hadn't been any girls down there. Actually, she had mostly managed to find tunnels with nobody else working in them, where she only needed to speak to someone in an emergency. She got tired of companionship sometimes.
When she was pissed off, George just shut up and told her the bare minimum she needed to know, or just worked silently on whatever he was doing while she steered the bike.
She had missed Crowe when he decided to transfer into Class 7 along with Millium, but understood his reasoning. Someone had to look after those kids before they managed to accidentally cause an international incident. Besides, she sort of liked it just being herself and her derpy mechanic friend.
Okay, so cats weren't all that derpy, they could be stylish and mysterious as well. She had heard from somewhere that Calico cats were the luckiest of all.
Title:
Fandom: Phantasy Star / Neko Atsume
Rating: T
Word Count: 285
Summary: Myau tries to trade unreasonably sized aquatic life forms with her interdimensional feline contacts for the service of getting the top off a bottle.
"What can you give me for this, meow?"
The cats all crowded around the stranger to look at the fishman. Even in death, it was terrifying to behold. Its claws were the same size as their heads, a grimace frozen on its fanged mouth, its slimy, scaled body a twisted mockery of both human and fish features.
Guy Furry pronounced it edible.
"Well, it's certainly a big catch, I'll give you that," said Xerxes, "Three hundred gold fish, no more, no less."
"Is that enough to get the top off a bottle?"
"Money can't buy miracles, sir. We're just ordinary cats. You're the one who can do magic."
Myau wasn't sure he would have called cats who could drive trains, cook food, lead communities and contort themselves into small glass vases without tipping them over 'ordinary'.
"Well, how about replacing its contents," he asked, "It's an Alsulin bottle. Powerful medicine. I need it to reverse petrification in a human."
"I know where there's a new human," offered Tubbs.
"I don't want any old human! This human's a legendary warrior!" said Myau, "Well, okay, so I already know a fighter and to be honest, I'm almost as good a fighter as her myself, and I'm better at magic than her, and we already have a second magician and we could do with attracting less attention from the monsters anyway, but... ah, forget it."
"I'd buy a box," said Tubbs, "Everyone needs a spare box."
"I don't suppose you've got any Laerma nuts?"
"Is that food?" asked Tubbs.
"Sort of. You eat it, and you grow as big as a horse, and you sprout wings."
"I knew you were making all of this up!" said Xerxes.
27
Title: Across the Street
Fandom: Nintendogs / Neko Atsume
Rating: K+
Word Count: 316
Summary: Putting their rivalries behind them in the hopes of stealing food, the Neko Atsume crew decide to visit the Nintendogs. Starring Chibi the wonder-Shiba
"I'm very sorry but we're all out of doggy cakes. Can you believe a huge, fat stray cat wandered into the back and ate them all? An entire, fresh batch. Didn't even run away. Sat there and just looked at me as if to say 'yeah, what're you gonna do about it?'. I'd throw him out but he looks a bit big to lift safely."
Chibi the Shiba lay in the corner with his head on his paws, pretending to be asleep. There were no other dogs in the cafe. This would make it easier to think without distraction. He hoped his owner would become engrossed in talking to the cafe owner and lose interest in him entirely, so he could sneak out and investigate.
There were definitely more cats than usual lately. First there had been those kittens, and now everyone was used to them. They rarely left the house and did little except sleep, pounce on Chibi's tail and chase toy mice around the house. Now there was this business with the food thief, and he had seen cats doing all sorts of other things today, out of the corner of his eye. There was the little train running down the lakeside path, on the other side of the mountain. He had seen a cat in a chef's hat walk past with a tiny pizza on a plate in its mouth, then stop at a cafe carved into a cardboard box in someone's front lawn, staffed by a cat in an apron.
Chibi wondered what it all meant. The humans never knew what was going on right under their noses. They wouldn't notice if the town was invaded by aliens, never mind cats. It would inevitably be left up to the dogs to make sure everything went smoothly.
He wondered whether it was wide for him to be the one to make first contact.
28.
Title: Red Static
Fandom: Ar Nosurge / Earthbound
Rating: T (mild language, spoilers, doom, I swear we had a fourth wall around here somewhere)
Word Count: 406
Summary: Ion isn't the only person who asks her directly for help, and the request on the other line is becoming kinda urgent.
Earthes was about to go into the ritual bath when his operator heard the voice, not over the headphones, but directly into their mind. It was distant and faint and desperate, with crackling distortion that was not just interference.
They had only used that username in one game. It was a silly username, upon reflection, but then it was a silly game, especially when Jeff's friends had randomly broken the fourth wall. Earthbound had been so light-hearted back then, but the mood of a game can change fast.
Clasping hands together in prayer was difficult to do when you were trying to hold a controller at the same time. Prayer usually meant closing your eyes but you couldn't do that and keep an eye on two screens at once. Earthes was asked to pray too. Ion assumed her robot companion was just getting unusually into the spiritual aspect of the bathing ceremony. She smiled, wondering if he was also getting more into the part about two souls becoming one.
"Paula..." muttered Earthes. This earned him a black look from Ion.
Please help us in our darkest moments...
Just leave it to me... this is the sort of shit I'm here for...
Please give us the strength to fight...
Over the psychic channel, Earthes' operator began singing. The distorted music was probably not doing much for anyone's morale, even assuming they didn't have special magic singing there too. Oh, wait... they were fighting the same enemy that they had forced into retreat by singing at them in the last game... and there was the whole business of the Sound Stone... they began singing even more enthusiastically.
Please join our fight... share our burden...
The first wave of true psychic static came and he thought he had hurt his head putting the volume up too high. Your actual hearing wasn't supposed to distort, after all. Turning the volume down meant they couldn't hear the background music over that damn buzzing in their head. Maybe two games was too much... well, only one was in a position to save...
Earthes went silent. Disconnected, Ion realised. But for a brief moment, she had seen something in his eyes that really worried her...
Share our burden...
Not one to abandon someone, especially if they were actually being polite for once, they propped themselves up the best they could, grabbed the controller in both hands and turned the volume up even higher.
29
Title: Rarity Is Uniqueness
Fandom: Xenoblade Chronicles X/ My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Rating: K+
Word Count: 406
Summary: Resources are scarce and Princess Celestia sends Rarity out on mining surveys of other dimensions. The *real* story behind the Harrier Division's logo.
They called the stuff Miranium, presumably because they had called the planet Mira and they had even less imagination than whoever back home had decided to name everything after horse puns. (It's probably Princess Celestia, and if I ever repeated the criticism to Twilight, she'd freak out and tell us we'll never be allowed back home.)
Miranium is good quality but feels a little bland. It's sort of like the feeling you get when you design a well-made work uniform and someone asks you to make enough for the entire team but you don't really mind because at least they're doing it for a practical reason and not just starting a sheepish fashion trend. (I've met sheep, they actually have a lot more personality than people give them credit for. This world sort of has sheep but they're called Ovis and they look like armadillos too.) There are other, more interesting rocks around, some rare gems that apparently sell for a ton of money. They have different colour auras and songs and they make me want to design a different dress for each of them.
Describing how magical senses feel is really hard. It's like all my senses fire at the same time at full pace and I also have to deal with my artist's sensibilities at the same time. I don't know how Twilight does it, with all the extra magical senses she developed, whereas I only have those relevant to my work.
Anyway, they can be difficult and dangerous to mine. I tried to help the locals with their own mining operation and offer them something in return for the gems - maybe I could decorate one of their big machines with a diorama. But then the big human started screaming at me and calling me a 'Tyrant Progen' and I think he aimed some kind of weapon at me. He hit me in the horn and it's still kind of crooked so that sometimes my magic goes a little askew and my designs turn out very alternative. I managed to escape by undoing the seams of his trousers while he was running after me.
I thought I had offended the locals and I would be chased out of the world, but the next day, I was flattered to find that they had drawn a big picture of my face! I have since found out that these particular natives have a fascination with unique personalities such as myself.
I will be sad to leave this world behind. I believe our first surveys into worlds further afield has gone very well. I brought back something called a 'Nopon' which is like a turnip but with vestigial wings and sharp teeth. It seems to be eating all my food, so could someone please take it off my hands?
30.
Title: Calico Cat
Fandom: The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky
Rating: T (minor spoilers)
pairing: Angelica/George
Word Count: 451
Summary: Angelica doesn't just let anyone ride in the sidecar.
note: I didn't actually know this was canon when I wrote it, I just thought they would be cute together. I also didn't know *massive spoiler* about Crowe, so it made me laugh at the irony later in the story.
Watching George at work was one of Angelica's favourite pastimes.
The young man in the yellow overalls and cap, with the big broad goofy smile on his face, reminded her of a big, chubby Calico cat. He readily agreed with her that he was putting on the pounds but it always seemed to sit well on him, probably because he was always out doing something, fixing her bike, helping her test it or monitoring the orbal signature in some remote part of the countryside. He always had those portable computer things with him, too, the ones he had managed to get down to a sensible size. If it used orbal power, he knew how it worked and could improve it. When she went on a mission and he knew there would be trouble, he insisted on coming along as well to make sure the communications went smoothly. She wouldn't be surprised if he had some less legal skills with orbal computers that the military would love to know about, but that she would rather be kept secret just in case a mission went in a direction she didn't want to report back about.
George rode in the sidecar. Angelica didn't let just anyone ride with her, or even go near her bike, not even her favourite women. She told him time and time again that too many ladies were recognising her everywhere she went, even ones she hadn't met, as if the rumours she had started as a joke were spiraling out of control. Of course she liked women but she didn't always automatically seduce every girl she met. Even the thing with Towa was mostly just a joke. If Angelica was so desperate to meet girls all the time, she wouldn't have randomly decided to work down a mine for fun. There hadn't been any girls down there. Actually, she had mostly managed to find tunnels with nobody else working in them, where she only needed to speak to someone in an emergency. She got tired of companionship sometimes.
When she was pissed off, George just shut up and told her the bare minimum she needed to know, or just worked silently on whatever he was doing while she steered the bike.
She had missed Crowe when he decided to transfer into Class 7 along with Millium, but understood his reasoning. Someone had to look after those kids before they managed to accidentally cause an international incident. Besides, she sort of liked it just being herself and her derpy mechanic friend.
Okay, so cats weren't all that derpy, they could be stylish and mysterious as well. She had heard from somewhere that Calico cats were the luckiest of all.