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Misc Prompt Sprints
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Published:
2026-06-28
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427
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1/1
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19
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Fledgling

Summary:

Fleta Z twitched his wings.

He was probably old enough now, all things considered, to return to the city he’d lived in as a pip, but the thought had lost a lot of its appeal, as he’d continued to grow up.

Notes:

Started for a Prompt Sprint with the prompt of “Travel”, expanded before posting.

Have been thinking about what growing up on Machina for different characters may have been like, given characters like Rock Crush do seem like kids, but we only see specifically parental roles back on Machina among Wild Cardbots, and even then only among some of them. In general, I like writing alieny social stuff, so I wanted to expand on it.

Wound up deciding to explore some of my resulting headcanons through Fleta Z.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

   Fleta Z twitched his wings.

   He was probably old enough now, all things considered, to return to the city he’d lived in as a pip, but the thought had lost a lot of its appeal, as he’d continued to grow up.

   He’d been anxious at first when he was brought to the edge of the city, as most of the other young cardbots there that day with him had been, but now the city seemed stuffy by comparison.

   In the time since his departure, Fleta Z’s confidence, fighting prowess, and size had all grown immensely, and he’d learned to love life largely on the wing, travelling wherever the winds led him, even within the bounds of Wild Cardbot territory.

   That related to another factor keeping him hesitant to return to the city. Before he’d been sent off from the city, he’d heard nothing but bad things about Wild Cardbots, but his interactions with them showed only the same variation in disposition that the other Metal Cardbots he’d met throughout his life had. For Deus Machina’s sake, it had even been other Wild Cardbots that made sure he healed up well after winding up on the wrong side of someone’s claws, keeping a watchful eye over Fleta Z as he recovered his strength in the aftermath of his infection with the Beast Virus.

   Would the city even let someone infected with the virus return? Fleta Z had found he had no definitive answer, with how young he’d been when he was last there, and he wasn’t sure about taking the risk of going to discover it firsthand, at least not until he’d improved his skills further.

   More and more, a continued life of travel seemed the better option for him, but he wasn’t sure if he was ready to fully commit, the thought of leaving the familiar area he’d grown up in being something that brought him excitement and nervousness in equal measure. On one hand, it’d be quite thrilling to explore more of what Machina had to offer, but on the other, if he were to travel away from the Wild Cardbot communities he was familiar with, especially when conflict seemed at risk of heating up along this portion of the border… 

   Well, Fleta Z wouldn’t even be able to guarantee they would still be living there upon his return. Or, for that matter, even be able to guarantee they’d still be living at all.

   If he was to commit himself to travel, he’d have to make sure to say farewell to them first, just in case.

Notes:

Some elaborations on relevant headcanons:

- Baby cardbots look just like how they will as adults, same proportions and everything, just smaller in overall size

- Common practice for Metal Cardbot children among the culture belonging to most of the cities within Metal Cardbot territory is to initially raise them in the city (are called “pips” like the marks on a playing card at this stage in their life), then at a certain age oust them from the city until they’re adults, with the intention that the self-sufficient portion of their adolescence will render them more capable adults

- Most of the infected Metal Cardbots in the show’s cast were infected with the Beast Virus during this independent adolescence, as how easily a lot of cardbots seem to pick fights would make scuffles that result in infection decently likely for any Metal Cardbots growing up near Wild Cardbot territory