pixal

She called in for a 'sick' day on Friday. Pixal was not sick. The reason, laughably, was because she was a robot.

Curled up in her favourite spot in her room - the hanging chair where Zane had first told her about Evan - Pixal stared at the bowl of soup warming her hands. If she was a robot, where did her food go? How did she sleep? How was her power source running if no Elemental Master had given her it? Ultimately, how? She wanted these answers so badly, but she was equally mad at her dad.

The good thing about living in a ginormous, over hundred floored tower, was that there were many lifts and floors to avoid her father in. Despite her earlier comforting words to her boyfriend, Pixal was shattered inside. Everything she had known, all her 'childhood' memories, all of it had been a lie. She was living a lie. Her fingers brushed against the knitted fabric of her cream sweater, over the most logical location of her power systems. Even though she hated her father right now, her curiosity was killing her.

Pixal was the cat, robotic or not, and she had to find out. She set the bowl of tomato soup aside, now lukewarm, and hopped out of the chair drawing the cuffs of her sweater up to her wrists as she padded to the private lift in her room. Time to confront her father. Time to get some answers she deserved. Time to find the truth behind those white lies.

On Friday mornings, Cyrus Borg took inventory of his new products going out into Borg Stores the following day for restocks. It was closer to lunch now, and if Pixal judged correctly, he would be holed up tweaking his drawing board of new ideas on his 80th floor. The 80th floor was where most of his harebrained plans were born, slowly adjusted to make more sense and realistic. Pixal's lift stopped in the lobby of floor 80. She picked her way through a sea of scribbled notes and blueprints, honed on the single sound of pen scratching against paper furiously.

She found him hunched over his desk, legs confined to a wheelchair that had been elevated with another invention of his so he could write comfortably. She stood silent, unsure of what to say as she waited for Borg to notice her presence. When he did, he let out a startled yelp and dropped his pencil.

"P—Pixal! What are you doing here? I thought you were...mad at me?"

"I think I was. But now I just want answers." she replied shortly, pulling a squat stool out for her to sit on. He blinked twice.

"Oh, of course! Anything you want to know!"

"How did you make me?"

His eyes widened and he tapped twice on the arm of his wheelchair. It lowered him down and he swivelled around to guide himself over to a locked cabinet. It took a scanning of his face, eye, fingerprint and a voice authentication for it to unlock. Gingerly, he retrieved a folder stuffed full of the thin, almost translucent paper he used to design inventions on and rolled back over to the desk. He then shuffled through the papers and selected two labelled Primary Interactive eX-ternal Assistant Life-form in classic inventor scrawl.

"Here," he handed Pixal the first sheet. "Your blueprints and diagram, all labelled."

She took the paper from him delicately and scanned the contents. A drawing of her, a little messy, but it was Pixal mapped out on graph paper. Arrows stuck out of her drawn body, messy scribbles and notes underneath. She'd assumed correctly that her control panel was located in her torso, though there was a side panel located in her lower arm with several switches.

"How did you find my core?"

"Hiroshi's Labyrinth." he responded automatically. She gasped in surprise at the name of a legendary location. Hiroshi's Labyrinth was a thick tangle of jungle, named after the explorer who had cut through it and supposedly found the heart of the jungle.

"There was a myth I was very intrigued in when I began the process of forming your exoskeleton. I knew that I had to find a core for you that would work to my measurements and specifications. The myth dictated that inside the centre of the Labyrinth, there was a jewel. There were few notes on it, but what I found indicated it was a clean, renewable power source. Not enough to power the city or a house, I'm afraid. But enough for you."

He slid the second sheet across the desk, and tapped on the image printed there. A glittering jewel, uncut and radiant in the jungle light cast over it.

"I almost gave up on it, but I had created you in my mind with so much detail I just couldn't give up. At that point, investors were getting mad at me for not producing new goods for the public, they even threatened to revoke their stocks and stop investing in Borg Industries, but I was so close. It took two and half years and forty five scouting missions to pinpoint the exact location, and the extraction had to be done carefully. As I predicted, it was perfect for you."

He gestured to her chest at tears pricked at her eyes. He'd done everything for her, risked losing investors, profits and everything that he'd worked so hard for just to find her core.

"Have a look for yourself."

Pixal stepped into the bathroom and peeled off her sweater and shirt, hands shaking as she discarded the tops next to the skin. With the blueprints in her left hand, she found where the magnetic spring release would open her control panel. She pushed lightly on the estimated post and let a soft gasp escape her lips as the panel sprung open. Inside was a neat maze of wires centered around her core, right where her heart should be. It glowed a pale minty green around the outer edge, fading into a pastel lavender focused on the centre.

There were also a few gold plated switches. One was a memory switch, and the other two were unlabelled. Her hand hesitated over the memory switch. Could she forget everything and go back to believing she was human? The thought was swiftly countered by the thought of losing everything she had right now. And forgetting Zane. Sweet, caring, her boyfriend Zane who was going through the same turmoil as she was. She closed the panel with a sense of finality and acceptance, allowing a small smile to cross her face.

She'd once said to Zane that you had to go with the flow until you had the power to stop it yourself. She certainly didn't have the power now, but she was stronger than before. And that's all she needed really.

kai

"I'm sorry, you got us a...puppy?" he shrieked. Said puppy yipped at the loud noise and Ray sent Kai an admonishing look. He quietened down reluctantly as the puppy, Ryu, his dad had said, yawned sleepily.

Nya was already cooing over the drowsy puppy in the most un-Nya like way, and his mother had joined in too. Kai spluttered to himself internally, and then the puppy yipped again and slowly opened his eyes, revealing doleful orbs of chocolatey brown and suddenly he was patting Ryu and making cooing noises too.

Ryu wriggled in Ray's crooked arm, yawning once more and Kai felt himself melt over a tiny puppy. The internal battle between it's just a freaking puppy! and, it's a freaking puppy! continued as his fingers brushed over silky soft fur, rubbing Ryu on his belly. Ryu responded by nipping at his fingers with tiny teeth that barely grazed over calloused skin.

"What breed is he?" Nya asked, tickling Ryu under his chin much to the tiny puppy's excitement.

"A Newfoundland pup," declared Maya with a smile. Ray set Ryu on his feet gently so he could toddle around. "Be warned, he's going to drool a lot when he gets bigger."

"Exactly...how big is he going to get?" Kai inquired with a nervous laugh.

"Pretty big," Maya admitted. "I used to have a Newfoundland when I was kid, and he got to seventy centimetres tall."

"Him?" snorted Nya as Ryu wound through their legs inquisitively. "Are you sure we're talking about the same breed here?"

"Very sure. Newfs can weigh up to seventy kilos when they're fully grown. This little tyke is gonna get big and very curious once he's older." Ray confirmed, scooping Ryu back into his arms again. "Magda is dog proofing the house as we speak."

Ryu already seemed tired from his short walk and dozed on and off in Ray's arms as Maya explained further.

"The breeder is a friend of mine, a very responsible lady who takes good care of them. She actually lives near the countryside so the older dogs have more room. Hayley's been working with dogs her whole life and they absolutely adore her. We were looking at shelter dogs," Maya paused there, "But Hayley wasn't sure if she could keep Ryu for much longer. He's taking a little longer than most of his litter to get up to speed with everything and a lot of those snobby posh people didn't like how he's also tadbit on the underweight side."

"Snobby posh people, eh?" Kai gave an airy laugh, taking a good, emphasised look around the fancy house. "Couldn't be us."

Ray shook his head as he stripped off his jacket and let it fall to the floor. "A lot of the clients have their Newfs as prize dogs for competitions or to show off to friends, and Hayley tries her best not to sell to them but they can be quite deceptive. Their thick coats are versatile for cutting and they learn very quickly as they were bred to be fishermen's dogs since they are quite strong. Of course, Ryu is lighter and a little..."

"Dumber?" Kai offered as said puppy walked smack bang into his ankle with a yelp. He was a bit on the scrawny side now that Kai could compare with a picture on the internet that Nya had brought up.

"That reminds me, I better get the documents for Ryu from the car and get them all in order. How long ago were his vaccinations?" remembered May abruptly, typing out a message, to Emille probably.

"He's had his first round just last week, so two weeks after that should be his second round. That also reminds me, which vet are we choosing? I thought—"

Kai tuned out the big talk to focus on the puppy that had captured the Smith's hearts so easily. Ryu had been placed in one of two dog beds that somehow had been magicked up out of the blue. One was a boxier sort, the other a round oval shape. Both were lavishly padded with comfy material, and Ryu ruffed his decision when he trampled around the red oval bed decisively and curled down to snooze once again.

Kai and Nya sat down on either side of the bed, their backs leaning against the sofa as they took turns in placidly stroking Ryu.

"Are you angry with them? For leaving us again?"

Kai's head snapped around quickly. "I dunno. I guess so."

"I think I am too. But they're trying hard, and we probably should too."

Kai made a grunting sound in his throat, absent-mindedly fondling Ryu's ears. The puppy stumbled to his feet again and stood out of his bed, circling and pawing at the ground.

Kai cocked his head. "Uhhhh...Nya?"

His sister leapt to her feet. "Idiot! He wants to pee! Hurry, before he does it on Dad's jacket!"

"Will he actually—RYU STOP!"

jay

Jay Walker had a relatively uneventful weekend. His Saturday morning was spent cramming all his homework into one chunk of his weekend so he could game the rest of it. After eating lunch, he'd been pulled away to help his dad with something on a Proton which had creaked into their junkyard late Friday night, then he and Ed had done a final check on the Bullet (the issue had been resolved while Jay was at school unfortunately). Some TikTok demon had possessed him to take another video of the extraordinary car, partially fuelled by Lloyd's comment on it being a potential moneymaker.

And Jay needed money. He'd checked the Fritz Donnegan game sitting in that room, finding several parts that needed to be replaced. His account had - surprisingly - blown up. He now sat at 15k followers (how, he wasn't sure) with 2.2 million likes from a single video, and with his comments requesting another video, asking how he got that flickering lighting.

So all Jay had to figure was how to summon lightning.

Ed and Edna had gone out to the city's border for a fun karaoke night with some friends, so Jay had the junkyard and the Bullet to himself for one night. Yep, the car of his dreams was being picked up Monday morning. Which meant school. So Jay had tonight (having procrastinated money making the entire weekend) to summon lightning like some human lightning rod.

His first method of research was Google.

Google thought he was trying to summon lightning in Minecraft.

Then he found an article that said he needed a big space (junkyard), a storm (there was rain pattering against his window, so that would have to do), some metal (he lived in a junkyard), and to time it right. So Jay stood outside in a yellow raincoat waving an improvised rod and a mason jar normally used for granola with a coil of metal in it hoping to attract some lovely lightning. The storm was fading, and his trusty guide Google told him that was an advisable time period, so he redoubled his efforts, straining short legs to jump up and down.

He could have just filmed the video without it, but Jay was bored, and had gone a long time without an experiment so summoning lightning in his mum's breakfast granola jar seemed like a good idea. Half an hour in, Jay was ready to give up as his arms felt like lead and rain had leaked through his boots to his thick socks. His back was turned, his grumpy mood amplified by the uncomfortable trickle of cold raid running rivulets down his back.

"COME ON YOU BIG UGLY STORM. JUST LIGHTNING—OR SOMETHING!"

His yells got lost with the whipping wind and he turned around, thoroughly disgruntled when a cackle of lightning responded to his demands. Jay's experiment half worked. He didn't exactly summon lightning, rather attracted it.

Under his skin, his blood was thrumming with pumping adrenaline and excitement as he hopped from foot to foot, whooping his success loudly. Then he remembered he'd better film, so he crouched at an odd angle and hit the red button. The thing was, if you had a crappy phone like Jay's you had to work around it. Cleverly, he started the video out with an incomprehensible blur which eventually smoothed out to the final image - not great, but the effect was it appeared to be going from bad to best.

The lightning dipped out of frame for a second, and Jay poked his head up from staring at the rain-splattered screen. His cheeks heated up at the silly thought of what he was going to do next, but it was an already hectic night and Jay had a shot of confidence spiralling through him

"Hey...lightning? If could just just, y'know do your thing—"

It responded quick-flash, webbing down once again just how he'd imagined in his mind. A few shots later, Jay was satisfied with the work and stood up to stretch out all of the awkward cramps and kinks in his aching, cold body. He gathered the materials he used for the experiment though he had a niggling thought in the back of his brain that the article did not do much help at all and something else had beckoned to the lightning.

The storm died down the second he stepped foot in the trailer, and Jay shook himself dry like an over-excited puppy on the doormat, shrugging off the slick outer raincoat to hook it on the side of their fridge. His boots were next, and he peeled off sodden socks with a grimace, tossing them into the laundry to grab a new pair. He touched the back of his palm to his phone, finding it hot so he left it to cool down for a few minutes while he fixed himself a grilled cheese.

Editing didn't take long as the lightning had done most of the job - and the video was just captioned 'POV: you find the Bullet in a storm'. He hit post before his confidence could leave and threw his phone into a pile of cushions, notifications firmly off. After washing up, he settled down into his bed and picked up his Switch. AKA, his most prized possession. Three years of birthday money saved up from all his friends and family, plus two part time jobs cobbled together enough money for it and a few other games.

He inserted the card for Pokemon Sword and got to playing, his mind heavily off the subject of the Bullet. It was only when he finally noticed that his alarm had been squawking at him for fifteen minutes that it was well past his bedtime. Sleepily, he set his Switch to charge in the tiny area next to his bed and pulled out his phone, revealing notifications flooding his homepage.

Instead of whacking his head into the window, Jay smiled, scrolling through the comments.

user87294729: this is so cool! ♥ [liked by creator]

noahbecksneck: omg how did you get this?? ♥ [liked by creator]

avatarthelasteggbender: the lightning is a paid actor change my mind ♥ [liked by creator]

→superstarrockingwhisp [creator]: gasp how'd you find out?

pogchamp69: imagine beign frizts donnegn n finding out this kid is makin gbank off youre car ♡

dracomalfoyismybf: omggg this is so cool how???? ♥ [liked by creator]

Some were not the most positive but he found himself replying to the ones he liked and even liked some comments. He switched to Instagram and browsed through his home feed, scrolling past some poem and inventor posts and stopped at Nya's latest post. It was of a sleeping puppy, a Newfoundland, the caption said, and he was dozing off in the picture. He looked a bit underweight for a puppy, but Jay liked it nevertheless and dm'd Nya.

jaywalker_: your puppy looks really cute :)

nya_smith: lol he is but my dad's a bit mad with him cause he peed on his hugo boss jacket yesterday

jaywalker_: oof for your dad, 1 point to dog

nya_smith: can you blame him? The jacket was horrendous.

Jay was smiling at every damn message, and even though he didn't know it, an hour away in Ninjago City, Nya Smith was doing the same.

A/N: positivity??? For once dommie???? Yes lmao idk why but it ended like that. (someone tell my brain to stop using writing as an excuse and to do school work. But also, f school.) i think I estimate next chapter will have elemental related stuff as well. This doc is getting p h a t like bruh. Oooo and ryu did get chosen (votes from AO3 and wattpad ultimately)

Reminder for you today! Eat a full meal and drink some water cause your body needs it, i'm afraid. (i too wish i did not require substances to function)

And sleep! Yes slep is important.

Interesting dommie fact of the week: i used to be able to whistle but now i cannot. What's something you used to be able to do and now you cant?

-dommie out