24.11.2023
It is I, the short-on-time Absolute Madman and I'm back with your weekly dose of Stranded! But first, comments!:
Xyrothor - Praise be Omnissiah!
And now, the chapter!:
Once Martin departed, Izuku and the girls went back to planning their next few days. Their farms obviously took a priority for now, but there were also a couple of other things to take care of. They'd basically disregarded 99% of their duties in favor of, oh you know, constructing something that could guarantee their long term safety?! Except, the day they finished, they were informed that death stalks these lands and their puny walls would be a speed bump at best once push came to shove. And push will come to shove eventually, that's just how things are in the world.
Izuku and Ibara focused all of their efforts on bringing the farms back up to speed, but there was only so much they could do in two days, even with the other girls lending helping hands left, right and center. One Martha returned with one hell of a delivery, Izuku had to redirect his focus to helping her set things up, meaning that now they had substantially less manpower to weed out all the… well, weeds. This was a blessing in disguise however, for certain people at least, and they'd soon come to understand this.
First though they had matters of security to attend to.
Trying to understand all the designs was a massive headache, even for someone as smart as Momo. She'd then secluded herself in her own home - though this time she made sure to eat and take better care of herself overall - just to decipher what kinds of technological marvels were entrusted to them. It would most likely take them weeks to figure all the different pieces out and set up something even remotely functional. Thankfully they had all the knowledge in the known universe at their disposal - even if they weren't aware of it - courtesy of Martha's avatar.
The central piece of the entire system was something that Martha referred to as a sensory array. It was supposed to keep track of absolutely everything in their general vicinity - wind speed, biomass density, population of murderous animal-robots - you name it, there's probably a dedicated sensor for it. Let it be known that Martin was known to have paranoid streaks and a fuck-right-off-sized industrial complex… somewhere. He could afford to splurge on menial things.
Momo was a bit skeptical at first as the sensory array looked like a simple radio tower with satellite dishes and various means of short-range and long-range communication. She even questioned Martha about the design, to which the secretary merely pointed upwards with what Momo assumed to be unconstrained amusement. She couldn't see anything at first and was about to inquire further but then she saw a light high up in the sky blink. And that's when she understood - the structure in their base wasn't the sensory array, it was merely an uplink for the actual thing. The actual thing being a satellite in a really low orbit that was somehow able to stay perfectly still in the air directly above their valley.
That was probably the most groundbreaking moment of the entire endeavor. Everything else was very much down to earth in comparison, both figuratively and literally.
After witnessing the various marvels of technology that Martin unknowingly flaunted during his every visit, Momo fully expected their advanced security solution to involve drones. Welp, she was very wrong.
This was hands down the most underwhelming part of the entire setup. Instead of giant walkers, fully automated drones and heavy autonomous vehicles, the entire system was composed of… stationary turrets… They seemed powerful alright, just underwhelming in comparison.
When questioned, Martha gave a detailed explanation that enough stationary defenses could easily outperform everything else. Yeah, the additional mobility of drones, robots and vehicles was amazing and all, but compensating for the recoil was a pain in the ass. Doubly so for flying weapon platforms. Ever heard of the A-10? The brrt machine that couldn't fire too long or else the kickback would overpower the engine thrust and cause it to stall? Yeah, recoil doesn't like playing nice.
Positioned usually on tripods that were attached to the ground with long pegs, the automated turrets received all of their orders wirelessly and so could be placed basically anywhere without having to worry about running cables about the landscape and in turn creating perfect opportunities for your foot to get caught on one of them and send you tumbling to the floor. You could theoretically just run them underground, but wireless was still the preferred solution.
Powering those turrets seemed like it could pose a challenge, but Martha was quick to thwart that assumption. Every piece of the system was fully independent power-wise, ensuring that it couldn't be taken out by disabling a single piece of equipment - the power source. It still could be heavily crippled by taking down the satellite or jamming its communication to the uplink, but each turret also came with its own target recognition system, so it'd still work, just without the prefire feature.
The system itself would activate on its own once it's ready, so all they had to do was lug the different pieces into place, which was actually quite the amount of work. Martha was very helpful and set up a fair part of the turrets herself, but Izuku by far contributed the most. Something about refusing to allow the females in his general vicinity to toil away in inhumane working conditions.
With his impressive drive - workaholism - the entire system was set up in a little over three days, creating quite the deadly lightshow above and around their hidden valley. Mina idly commented that it looked kind of like one of those setups you see at raves and stuff. Unfortunately the defensive systems lacked a smoke machine so making a rave of their own was out of the question. For now.
The immense relief and satisfaction at having their safety guaranteed by an absolute madman - not a set of words one would be expected to utter under normal circumstances - was quite brief, as it had to give way to a realization - during the past three days their fields had fallen into an even messier disarray.
Tall weeds with sprawling roots occupied most of the seed beds, with many smaller ones covering the ground and paths between the plots. It was painfully obvious that it'd take a substantial amount of effort to bring everything back in order. They were not afraid of hard work however and viewed this merely as yet another obstacle on their way back home.
Already fired up from all the work he did in the last couple of days, Izuku jumped into the fields head-first, weeding the fields with unmatched fervor and putting fear in the leaves of every plant he came across. The girls wondered whether or not they should stop him, but they figured he'd be alright if they let him channel his stupendous stamina into something useful.
His shoulders were absolutely killing him. It wasn't just his muscles being sore from getting overworked. It was as if his arms were turned into logs and then continuously stabbed with acupuncture needles. Painful to say the least. Still, he powered through, ignoring the pain for the most part and focusing on the job. It worked, for a bit that is, and they were getting closer and closer to restoring order to their fields.
It was then however that the Fire Nation attack- that his back joined his shoulders in protest. He was tempted to push through this pain as well, but there was only so much he could tolerate when having to move all the time throughout the day. Kneeling, crouching, leaning, bending down and standing up put a strain on his body and he eventually couldn't help but groan in pain during those movements and it was only a matter of time before someone finally noticed.
"What's wrong?" Ibara asked when she heard Izuku groan out in pain as he rolled his shoulders to try and stave off the torture.
"N-Nothing!" Izuku quickly responded, hoping to get away with murder.
Unfortunately, he wasn't nearly as convincing as he wanted to be.
"That didn't sound like nothing." She countered immediately, her head picking out over the weeds. "What's going on?" She pushed, basically demanding an answer and leveling Izuku with a gaze that he knew not to joke around with.
"My arms are sore, that's all." Izuku admitted, not wanting to disclose too much information so as not to worry Ibara. He just doesn't learn, does he?
"That sounded more painful than just sore shoulders." Ibara pointed out with a frown.
She stood up from the spot where she was weeding - just a plot or two away - and approached Izuku to check up on him herself. Call her suspicious, but Izuku's track record justified this action twofold.
It took only a few pokes - followed by pained grunts - for Ibara to confirm her suspicions and learn that Izuku was downplaying his current state just to be able to work. Never change Izuku, never change.
"Maybe I'm a bit more than just sore…" Izuku admitted sheepishly.
"I'll say…" Ibara sighed as she shook her head.
She was very impressed by the hard-working part of Izuku's personality, but as she was taught from her earliest years, everything should be enjoyed in moderation. Being a hard-worker was more than fine, it was basically desired and sometimes even revered. Becoming a workaholic though was crossing the line. When people get so focused on nothing but work they eventually burn themselves out, get bored or tired and their productivity inevitably plummets. Or they work themselves to death and their productivity inevitably plummets as well… along with their heart rates. Yikes.
Seeing as it was already pretty late into the day and they were the last two still working on the fields - the others going back to get started on dinner or otherwise preoccupied with different duties - Ibara decided to make the call and end their work for the day. They already had a couple of fields weeded and seeded back with some veggies so they could afford to cut the efforts early today, as long as they didn't make a habit out of it.
"I believe this will suffice for today." She began. "Let's go back and rest. You look like you need it." She added with a gentle smile.
"No, it's alright." Izuku countered, reciprocating the smile. "I've been dealing with this for a couple of days already so I'll be fine, but you can head back if you want to." He said, hoping to alleviate her worries.
And that's when he heard 4 sound out directly next to him. He might've said a bit more than he should've, but it couldn't be that bad, right? So he hazarded a look to the side and was met with a stare that seemed to look directly into his soul. Okay, so maybe it was a bit bad.
"'A couple of days?'" Ibara said, her fists tightened and a frown on her face.
Okay, so maybe it was even worse than that.
"Izuku Midoriya." Okay, she used his full name, he was in deep shit. "Would you kindly tell me exactly when this ailment of yours started?" Somehow a smile appeared on her face, though it was unlike any he'd seen before. He was pretty sure that he was seconds away from facing serious divine retribution.
"About the time we finished setting up the turrets and started on the farmlands?" He admitted, sensing that no amount of sweet words would be able to bail him out of this one. With no other choice, blind obedience was the only way to go.
"So you've been dealing with this for nearly a week already?!" She exploded, the smile vanishing from her face and the frown coming back full force.
"It wasn't that bad at first?" Izuku hesitantly offered some input in an effort to reduce his sentence.
"Just, stop." Ibara stated, clearly already done with the situation. "First, we're stopping here for today and if your condition doesn't improve by tomorrow then I'll force you to take a time off." She said, her stern voice not leaving any room for a counterargument.
"Alright." Izuku nodded in confirmation. It's not like he had any other choice at this point.
Good. Now let's go." She commanded and turned on her heel before starting to walk away.
Izuku quickly scurried to his feet before running after the girl, catching up to her with a couple of big steps - his body screaming in protest at the sudden exertion. He was confused as to where they were going since the campfire was in an opposite direction and so he decided to risk it and ask.
"Where are we going?"
"To the springs." Ibara answered simply. "The warm water should help your body relax and work out some of the kinks by itself and the springs themselves have a strange set of properties, some of which might lessen your pain." She explained further when she noticed that his confusion had only grown at her short first response.
That was actually a pretty good idea. Izuku already made sure to wash up before bed so as not to stain his sheets with sweat, but it was mostly quick dips in the springs just to rinse himself off. He was absolutely exhausted by the end of the day and so he'd rather go straight to bed then float adrift in the water.
It was somewhat late in the day already, but still far away from their usual bathing times so the hot springs were expectedly empty. Ibara ushered him inside, telling him to jump into the springs while she went to fetch some things.
"What things?" Izuku questioned.
"Things." Ibara simply responded before leaving.
Since he was all alone he decided to comply with her last order and took his clothes off, folding the various articles as neatly as he could considering his current state before submerging himself in the marvelous waters of the spring. He had to admit that it was definitely nice, but he doubted it'd be able to make his pain vanish just because he was left to marinate here for a while. Still, relax was relax and Izuku thought that he might as well make the most out of it.
He was already idly lazing in the spring by the time Ibara came back, a handful of small items in her arms. He wondered for a few moments how she managed to open the doors with both of her hands tied, but dismissed that thought rather quickly. He didn't want to be caught off guard by a question or something like that.
"I see you made it in on your own just fine." Ibara noticed as she approached the pool he was in.
"Y-Yeah, it'd be way easier with a little help, but I managed." Izuku responded with a small smile, a slight blush creeping up Ibara's neck and onto her cheeks.
"Well, that's good." She summed up, coughing into her fist to get her blushing under control.
"What did you bring?" Izuku asked, leaning his head back to take a look at the items Ibara was still holding onto.
"Shu was trying to make sunscreen for Setsuna and the others and ended up making a couple of different salves that could help with strained muscles, so I was thinking I could apply them while you soaked in the spring." Ibara explained, a smile on her face.
Izuku was taken aback by the offer, but wasn't really opposed to it. He was already thinking about asking one of his girlfriends for a short shoulder rub or something, but he didn't expect Ibara to come forward with the same exact plan. Although he had to admit, there was something off about this whole shtick.
For starters, Ibara was the only girl in their entire group that he had yet to be physically intimate with. Sure there were those two nights they spent cuddling in a cave - a vivid memory that was still extremely vibrant in his mind even after all this time - but that's that, just cuddling. Now she wanted to basically give him a massage while he was completely naked in the bath? He was sure as one could be that Ibara didn't mean anything besides the exact thing she told him about, but his traitorous mind couldn't be stopped and already made a couple of potential scenarios on how this all could go down.
Izuku disregarded all of them of course. If it was anyone but Ibara - like Mina, Tooru or Setsuna for example - then he'd be more than willing to give them the benefit of doubt even if they vehemently protested about having hidden motives woven in between the words of their offer.
Still, given his state, a shoulder massage with some ointment sounded too great to pass up.
"Would you like me to do it?" Ibara asked once she set the various bottles aside.
"Yes!" Izuku responded immediately, nodding his head vigorously. "You're a god send." He added with a grateful smile.
He then sat up straighter against the edge of the pool, bringing most of his back out of the water so that Ibara could have easy access to it as the girl applied some of the ointment onto her hands to prepare for the massage. As soon as they were both ready, Ibara started the procedure.
As soon as she pressed her hands against the tops of Izuku's shoulders she felt him tense up at first and relax a few seconds later. She wasn't an expert when it came to massages but she knew a couple of things about it and was determined to put her knowledge to good use. She made a vast miscalculation however, one that she was very quick to realize.
They had already cuddled buck naked - on two semi-separate occasions too! - but it was mostly just Ibara leaning against Izuku and him bringing his arms around her form as they slept. They were both asleep for most of it and their memories were mostly centered around the emotions that they felt rather than physical things that they experienced that night, like how safe Ibara felt in his embrace.
Now though it was all about the physicality - it was a massage after all - and Ibara had a hard time ignoring the muscles beneath her fingers. And that wasn't even the worse part. Whenever she'd push her hands into his skin to make sure the ointment could work its magic, she could easily feel all the tissues underneath moving in response to her actions. Every twitch, tense up and relaxed sigh made her painfully aware of what she was doing and even though she tried her best, there was only so much she could do to resist the thoughts slowly starting to swarm her mind.
"His muscles are so powerful yet pleasant to the touch." She idly noted as she continued the massage uninterrupted. "They look like mountain ranges with valleys in between the peaks."
Ibara cared more for the emotional part of relationships, but she had to admit that Izuku was a very handsome man and his body was very easy on the eyes. It was almost like looking at an ancient sculpture - clearly defined muscles and a nigh perfect symmetry. He wasn't perfect though - his body was ridden with scars big and small from all of the heroic stunts he'd pulled in the past, each notch a proof of his bravery.
And that bravery - coupled with his unmatched drive to help others - was what Ibara found herself falling in love with a long time ago. Yes, she was in love with Izuku, there was no point trying to deny that. She was sure that her feelings for him would falter with time when she learned about his polyamorous relationship with the other girls, but nothing of the sort happened. It was the exact opposite even! She wasn't nearly as suspicious about him as she was in the past, but her eyes were still drawn to him every now and then and each time she saw him with other girls she was sure that Izuku was the perfect man to make all of his partners happy. He'd never prioritize one over the other. If there was an issue then he'd give an arm and a leg to resolve it, working harder than anyone else just to make the people around him happy. How could she not love him?
But… should she love him? She was sure that he'd love to love her if she asked, but one doesn't simply disregard their entire childhood at the drop of a hat. Ibara thought and fought with herself for a while now already - her own feelings battling the teachings she was accustomed with from a young age. She used to be at a stalemate, but then she made a breakthrough.
If this truly was love, one that could last for the rest of their lives - and Ibara was more than sure that this would be the case with them - then why would they hold back? She was taught that a bond between a wife and a husband is a serious matter that should never be taken lightly. If they were both serious about it, then were there any other things they should think about? Ibara was usually a careful person, but this time she was more than willing to make an exception and take the risk, enchanted by the potential outcome.
You better know it's coming, cause it's coming, it's divine and it's gonna be amazing! I hope!
But with that cliffhanger I gotta bounce, bounce on your boy's dick, ha gottem.
And with that old throwback I wish you all a great day and I'll catch y'all in the next update!