Tales of the Amalgam'verse: First Friend, Part 2 · 3:51pm Nov 21st, 2018
The transformation was visible in a freeze-frame. A week ago, Io Shinoda was the definition of a wallflower. Never moving faster than a slow walk, head usually down and looking aside, only perking up when her father finally got out from work to spend a few hours with her in the evening. Even her attempts at a new look by doing her hair up in twintails to keep a lot of it out of her face didn’t help, one could swear the hair was wilting from depression.
Now though? Near total opposite. The eight year old was either jogging through the halls or practically skipping with her backpack hopping and bobbing on her back with every step. Her twintails were brighter and perked up in a manner that might recall a rabbit’s ears. And the subtle beaming on her face never subsided. Happy as can be was an adequate description.
Skipping past several core course of laboratories and research wings heading away from the ESP school, she closed in on the far end of the hallway where a powerful-looking man was standing. Strong-eyed, broad-shouldered, and stiff-backed, Lt. Koji Shinjo fit the image of a model soldier in G-Force with a lot of experience in the field even before joining, have training and deployment with the US forces before being scouted. Not once did his gaze waver away from looking down the hall as he stood at attention with a taser on his hip and rifle slung across his back.
When Io skipped up to him, she barely even came up halfway between his kneecaps and his hip.
“I’m hereee!” she yipped happily.
Koji didn’t look down on her and instead stood at attention with only an occasional blink in his eyes to indicate he wasn’t just a statue. Io put her feet together and put her hands at her sides as she stood in front of them. The beaming on her face subsided into a stoic, serious expression bordering on a frown, that closely emulated his own. Bowing respectfully, she rose back up and with a hand raised her brow in a salute, she clicked her heels together and barked.
“Io Shinoda, reporting for assistant duties!”
Lt. Yugi’s stiff gaze came upon her with a shift in his eyes, before raising his own hand in a mild salute with the edge of his lips curling up into a smirk. He returned a half bow with a chuckle in his voice.
“Welcome back Young Miss Shinoda.”
Giggling and waving as the nice Mr. Shinjo tapped in the security code to let her through the access doors, Io skipped back inside and was soon greeted to the familiar sight of a large, forested paddock surrounded by a perimeter fence with several computers and animal-care utility scattered around the room. Breathing in the humid, warmer air which was a product of the artificial waterfall as well as the greenhouse roof, Io slung her backpack off and onto a bench and soon set upon trying to find her mentor.
“I’m here, Gojo-sensei!”
Her cheery greeting however was met with silence aside from the noise of running water. Tilting her head and not seeing Azusa Gojo tapping away at one of the computers or caring for their charge, Io jogged along the perimeter of the fencing to circle around the paddock and see if Azusa was just on the other side. She found herself running on a loop with not a single sign of the biologist in sight. Instead a low warbling responded to her. Wobbling out from the foliage, the Godzillasaurus chirped to his friend, but also seemed to be at the same task Io was given how much he was looking around.
Io tilted her head and projected her thoughts to the saurian.
-"She’s not in there with you?"-
The dinosaur clicked his jaws twice, something she’d figured out alongside his thoughts meant ‘No’. His demeanor was not the usual, his eyelids were hanging low and quiet whimpering was audible as he started fidgeting his hands together. Io shared the frown and reached through the fence towards him, the dinosaur lowering down and putting his forehead to her hand so she could stroke him.
-"Had another nightmare of that Gabara-boogeyman, huh?"-
The saurian chirped in affirmation. The doors to the paddock room slid open with a metallic whirl and both youngsters perked up. And while seeing the kindly face walking in wasn’t necessarily a bad sight, they were both hoping it would’ve been Azusa.
With a wide face and very bushy eyebrows, the G-force personnel was an eccentric engineer with a heavy emphasis on the “eccentric”, by the handle of Kazuma Aoki. While not necessarily a biologist, paleontology was a big interest of his so Kazuma liked four things to various degrees: Repairing mecha, building his own devices, pterosaurs, and trying to get a date with Azusa. Well, at least a legitimate date given he wasn’t quite sure his attempts to take the smart, tough, and by all accounts admirable to him biologist for a spin in his robotic Pteranodon counted. Particularly given that said attempt ended in a crash landing inside the dinosaur’s nest. Couldn’t be blamed too much though, he was no Don Juan and said dinosaur seemed to like him well enough. Any suggestions of bribery by him slipping the young saurian hamburgers, sushi, and doughnuts behind Azusa’s back were lies and slander.
Still, as bummed as he was at not seeing Azusa, he hid it better than the kids for their sakes.
“Heyhey! My two favorite tykes,” the engineer cheerfully chuckled as he paced over and patted the both of them, “Why the long faces?”
Io stuck her tongue out slightly when he pet her but kept otherwise mostly respectful, “He had a bad dream and wants to see Gojo-sensei.”
Kazuma frowned and shrugged, petting the baby dinosaur a bit more, “He tell you that with your telepathy?”
Io nodded, spurring Kazuma to shook his head and scratch the saurian behind the ears, “Poor little guy. I heard there was a meeting with Dr. Omae earlier but wasn’t sure if she went. She’ll be occupied for another hour or so.”
Before he could see or risk his heart taking the sight of two wilting tykes, Kazuma motioned for Io to follow him.
“Come on, hows about we give Azusa a hand then.”
Io tilted her head and following along when Kazuma walked towards the paddock door.
“How so?”
“I know she keeps a checklist of things to do, so we’ll lighten her load,” he flashed Io a smirk and nod, “You keep the big-little guy happy and I’ll see what I can do about upkeep; it’s my break hour.”
To his surprise as soon as he punched the gate code open, something Io was keen to watch and memorize, Io ran quickly inside around his legs but stopped soon after to turn around and face him.
“Team,” she quipped while holding her little hand out.
Kazuma couldn’t fight a chuckle as he brokered the deal with the eight year old, taking her tiny hand to shake it, “Team. Hop to it cadet.”
Io hardened her face in a way he couldn’t quite be sure was uncanny for someone her size and age, or adorable for the same reason, and saluted before jogging off to the dinosaur. Kazuma shrugged his shoulders while seeing to Azusa’s checklist, wondering how long she’s been around Lt. Koji to nail that impersonation so well.
Unfortunately Io’s ideas on how to entertain another glum kid off the top of her head were about as diverse as her ideas on how to amuse a puppy dog. Which given she had no human friends her age and never had a pet, was about zero. Usually Azusa suggested things for them to do like hide and seek or tag, and typically the dinosaur was already psyched up when she played with him like that. So, best idea was to wing it.
The Godzillasaurus perked up at motion in front of his face, snapping him out of a stupor from fear and longing to have her mother around to keep the dreams away. His eyes instantly trained upon the stick being waggled in the air by Io. He tilted his head and chirped, not sure what his playmate in the human hatchling was doing. Any time he’d seen humans pick up sticks it was to put them aside or in those weird containers to take them away and replace them, “litter” he thought he heard his mother call it. But some other instincts were starting to kick in as he followed the waving stick with his head movements.
“Want the stick? Want it?” Io muttered as she waggled the half meter branch between her fingers.
Her compatriot chirped in answer and looked to all the sticks around them with confusion as to why he’d want another. Her cheeks puffed up.
-"Yes you’re supposed to want to stick, don’t ask me why!!"-
Kazuma looked up from the pump apparatus connected to the waterfall, wiping some sweat from his brow after replacing the pump.
-Yeesh, if Azusa listing things like this constantly I’m gonna have to double my training in the Garuda courses to keep up!... Now what are those two up to?-
His thoughts were soon given an answer when he saw Io lob a large stick off to the dinosaur’s side, only for the dinosaur to catch it in a surprisingly dexterous hand and toss it back. After fumbling with it in her arms, she managed to catch it and returned it. The sight of an eight-year-old girl playing catch with a couch-sized saurian was a surreal one to be sure, but evidently not exactly what Io had in mind. Her eyes narrowed and her dark facial veins became a lot more visible against her chalky pale skin.
That was the sight Kazuma took longer to get used to than that of his perspective girlfriend having a dinosaur in her care. The Mysterians looked human, mostly human. The larger eyes, flatter noses, and grayscale coloration were odd enough, but the inky black veins across their cheeks, circling their eyes, going past her lips and down their throat while also showing up on their inner legs and wrists, were uncanny-looking. While many of the hybrids looked a lot more human to various degrees, it tended to be that they either looked almost entirely human with some odd proportions, or they looked almost entirely like their alien parent but with more human proportions. But any of the psychic ones using their mental powers or the mutants getting an adrenaline rush always had those veins visible regardless of how human they looked otherwise.
He’d gotten used to it and he certainly didn’t use it to judge, but it always was an odd sight, especially on someone who didn’t come up to past his hips.
Though his more analytical mind was curious as to what exactly Io was doing. She didn’t seem to be lifting anything up off the ground or projecting an image so mental suggestion or telekinesis were out. Telepathy maybe? Probable given Miki told him once that power tended to come easiest to the children. And given he was the only other soul in the room and didn’t get a voice in his head, he could presume it was aimed at the dinosaur.
“Huh, I wonder what they’re saying,” Kazuma’s whisper was cut off by Io’s voice shouting into his head in obvious frustration as she waved her arms up and down in a small tantrum.
-"No you big doofus! You let it fall and then pick it up! It’s fetch not catch!"-
The dinosaur walked forward as Io wave the stick up and down in her arm movements, lurching forward and chomping down on the branch. Not hard enough to break it, but enough it stopped the movements cold as Io couldn’t wretch it free from his jaws.
-"No no no! Not yet! You grab it after I throw it, after I throw it! Let go!"-
But her companion wasn’t yielding, grunting to himself and pulling his head to the side with his neck. Io dug her heels in and kicked at the ground to try and win the pulling contest. But in the competition between a 20 kilogram girl wearing sneakers and a 420 kilogram dinosaur with large claws to grip the simulated forest floor for traction, it was no illusion who was winning even as both tykes absolutely refused to let go. Soon Io was getting towed across the paddock by a backpedaling dinosaur, cutting discolored trenches into the leaf litter and hay with her heels while shouting commands that turned to requests that turned to pleas for him to let go and stop pulling her.
Until she heard a happy wattle from the saurian. Io opened her previously closed and grimacing eyes and beheld the surprise. Her friend had a visible beam across his muzzle, tail wagging behind him as he continued to backpedal into a loop around the back of the waterfall. His eyes were practically gleaming and his entire mood was perkier than before. Happier than before.
And it was infectious.
Putting her heels together in her impromptu hay-skiing act, Io giggled and gripped the branch.
“Hehe! Like the snow dogs! Mush! Mush!”
His pacing increased in speed and he made a turn around the rocky feature. Unfortunately he was cackling too loudly to notice two things. One, his feet had stepped over a change in the floor space which went from dry hay and leaves to chilled water. Secondly was Io’s loud squealing when she opened her eyes and saw where they were heading. Right for the pool under the waterfall.
Her twintails stuck up on end like a pair of giant surprised ears and her voice as well as eyes spazzed out.
“NO NO NO! NOT THERE YOU DUMMY WAAA!”
Due to her surprise of being yanked forward when the dinosaur’s foot went over a underwater step and into deeper water which caused him to tumble backwards, as well as fear of where her momentum might take her after being pulled off her feet, Io didn’t let go of the branch. In the span of a second they both went from dry and at sea level to several feet below it and soaked to the bone.
A pair of clawed hands reached out of the crystal clear waters and gripped the edge of the pool, hauling their owner up. A soaked Io perched atop his head, the dinosaur shook himself slightly while keeping his end of the snapped off half of the branch in his mouth. Io gripped his brow and her own, wobbling from vertigo she tried to ebb away. Shaking her head briefly, stopping as it only resulted in her slapping herself in the face with one of her twintails, Io grumbled and pried the length of wet hair out of her face.
“Blech!” she spat, coughing and sticking her tongue out, “I think I swallowed some of the pool water.”
There was a chirp below her and her face deadpanned.
-"Yes I know you drink it too but my papa said not I’m not supposed to drink pool water! I did that once and he got all spooked."-
The dinosaur’s head shot up a few inches in surprise and concern, warbling the name of his caretaker in his tongue. Io shrugged and patted his nose.
-"No no no, I’m a girl and you’re not. Little girls can’t drink pool water, it’s what my Papa said. You’re not a girl, you’re a boy so it’s okay!"-
Airtight logic to the hybrid.
Chuckling caught her attention and she saw Kazuma stepping into the enclosure with a wagon drawn behind him and a large towel slung over his shoulder.
“Hehe, you kids need a towel or are swimming hours not over yet?” He heckled before holding out his arms and hands to Io.
Io wrang out her twintails and took him up on that offer, soon throwing the towel over herself and set to buffering. She’d still be damp, but the water wasn’t cold enough to worry about chills. Turning to her friend as he helped himself out of the pool, the little psychic took a few tries to swing the towel over her dinosaur companion’s head, ineffectually sawing it back and forth to try and dry him off. To be honest in the warm sun and his smooth scales, he’d drip and air dry quicker than her efforts with the towel but that fact was lost on Io and Kazuma didn’t feel like spoiling her prideful smirk at “completing” her task.
“Well, saw you two having a Tug-O-War with the branch and gave me an idea.”
Io and the dinosaur both perked up as Kazuma turned to is wagon and pulled out a thick length of reinforced rope with some reinforcement tape wrappings.
“Lucky for you tykes I’m an engineer, so I solve practical problems. Made this for tying up my Pteranodon flier and had a few... spare... meters, thought it’d be stronger than some branch,” he noted with a smirk as he presented the toy, “Call it an upgrade.”
Io gave her a wary look with one of her eyes partially closed and tilting her head, “Spaaare? You just happened to have this with you, or are you doing this to show off to Sensei Gojo more and have another invention nearby?”
Kazuma shrugged, “Hey, I deny nothing, but what kind of guy would I be to pass up helping a young lady?”
The G-Force engineer smirked and ruffed Io’s hair a bit, ignoring her minor protest. Picking up on it, the dinosaur squeaked and started to nuzzle and sniffle at his friend’s mane. Io hissed and held her twintails away from his prying snout and jaws. Io scrunched up her nose and lips.
-"Hey don’t you start now! Just grab an end of the rope, you dummy!"-
Seeing the dinosaur being a quick study and picking up one end of the rope in his mouth, Kazuma moved behind the end Io was picking up and took hold of the cordage.
“Here, let me back a young lady u-"
The moment a third party entered the fray and changed sides, Io dropped her end of the rope and ran to the dinosaur’s end, holding onto his tail.
“Team!” she chirped happily, earning a warble of content from the saurian as she shook his tail like a handshake and he wiggled said tail to return the gesture.
Kazuma jokingly deadpanned at the little girl, “Traitor.”
He pulled as hard as he possibly could, and was promptly ripped off his footing and dragged across the paddock ground. Amidst cheers of victory from Io and saurian chirping as the dinosaur nudging his head curiously, Kazuma had only a single thought in his mind while picking himself back up.
Time to call in backup.
Azusa Gojo was well familiar with the seating arrangements of the institute’s cafeteria, even if she didn’t eat in their often and mostly just observed it as he was getting her food. Captain Pentecost and the rest of the high-tensioned Mechagodzilla’s pilots on one table sitting quietly or conversing strategy, the MG and Garuda engineers on the next two tables but on opposite sides talking design specs, the M soldier wing cadets often in the midst of an arm wrestling contest or some show of bravado, and the biologists like her nose deep in their own projects while eating. There was one change to this pattern that was readily visible though.
Namely, she was almost the only one in the cafeteria. And the few remaining out of the usual two or three dozen were rapidly conversing before running off; one of which she saw pulling out her wallet.
Well, that was unusual. Enough so to check.
The paddock room was the opposite of the cafeteria in many ways, warm, humid, and usually having very few people aside from Azusa herself, her recent new assistant, and occasional colleagues who came to help. Now it was absolutely packed so much Azusa had to push herself to even seen the enclosure itself. The sight was surreal to say the least.
Her charge was holding onto a heavy duty rope with his teeth and hands, eagerly chirping as he tugged on it like a puppy would a rope toy. After kicking his feet into the earth for a purchase, he pulled back several meters of rope towards him and caused the trio of assorted engineers, soldiers, and pilots holding onto the other end of the rope to lose their footing. They yelped, crumbling over a boundary line scratched into the leaflitter.
“Aaaand that’s 5-0,” Kazuma called out while making another tick on a chalkboard that had been carted in.
Several groans and just as many fist-pumps and hushed cheers carried through the crowd as bets lost and won were passed around.
The owner of a pair of hands holding onto the rope behind the dinosaur cheered loudest, Io flashing a thumbs up to her Tug-O-War teammate, “Another for the win streak!”
One of the losing team shrugged and shot a joking glare to the audience as he motioned to Io, “Hey no fair! She’s obviously doing all the work!”
The dinosaur grunted indignantly, causing the engineer to look over at him with slight bewilderment on her face.
“He heard that, imbecile,” Io quipped as another team stepped forward to try their luck.
“Imbecile?” Azusa muttered in mild confusion, having never heard her say that word before.
Azusa tilted her head more before someone standing next to her nudged her shoulder with his.
“She just seemed to start saying it out of the blue and I'm not sure where she heard it,” the refined, massive Captain Stacker Pentecost noted dryly, “I think it’s become her new favorite word.”
Azusa shrugged at stumbling into another weird day at the institute where grown men and woman tried to play tug of war with an eight year old and her best friend of a dinosaur. She eyed the money exchange and gave Pentecost a hopeful glance.
“Please tell me you’re above this.”
Pentecost said nothing and let the moment pass, before holding up several bills he stowed into his uniform’s inner pocket, “Lt. Koji has a gambling problem. He’s lost twice now.”
A quartet of soldiers found themselves kissing the dirt. A similar number of cocky, young mutant cadets coaxed into trying by their superior got similar treatment, Kazuma noticing said superior cashing in a big bet and muttering something about a lesson in humility. Lt. Koji vindicated Pentecost’s assessment in managing to get himself and five friends yanked into the waterfall pool, much to Io’s jeers.
And now Kazuma was finding out how much peer pressure was a pain in the rear with him as the frontman of the last team of over half a dozen contestants. He caught a glimpse of Io Shinoda’s gleaming eyes poking out from atop the dinosaur’s beaming face, a predatory leer coming from the little girl spooking him more than the visage the fanged dinosaur had. She looked like Napoleon atop his steed.
-Contestants. Right. More like Io's victims…-
The saurian warbled to the familiar human and Kazuma shrugged into a chuckle, “Don’t worry baby-dino, I knew who to bet on. I’ll bring you a baker’s dozen when this is over.”
“This better not be a baker’s dozen of donuts or sweets,” a feminine voice quipped behind him.
Kazuma froze and slowly looked back to see Azusa stepping up to the rope while rolling up her sleeves, cocking an eyebrow at her suitor. Kazuma was red in the face and shut into silence promptly.
Io Shinoda giggled, holding onto the rope to give it a mighty tug as she stood on her friend’s shoulders.
“Onward! To the pool-WOAH! Wait!” she squealed while almost losing her footing, clutching the scaly neck to avoid falling off and flailing her legs into the air, “That’s the wrong way imbecile!”
Azusa and her team stumbled back onto their backs when the rope they heaved upon gave instantly. Plodding footsteps approach and Azusa’s momentarily spinning vision was soon filled by a pair of beaming yellow eyes and the nuzzling of a scaly nose upon her cheek. The dinosaur had walked over the boundary line and thrown the match without a fight the moment he saw Azusa so he could greet her.
Miki smirked and innocently closed her eyes as she marked a dash on the chalkboard, “9-1, pay up folks.”
Her beckoning hand was soon filled with multiple bills. She knew who to bet on the moment Azusa showed up.
The dinosaur ignored the light tapping on the back of his head, happily licking his mother’s cheek while wagging his tail, oblivious to having just lost the match. With so many nice humans around and his mother here now, who could be angry?
“Ababpapa! Baby stop!” Azusa squawked as she kicked her legs and tried to get up, unable to resist patting her charge on the cheek and neck.
“That baby just cost me a lot over the past hour,” Lt. Koji deadpanned, sprawled out behind Azusa and resting his cheek on his fist.
“Funny, baby gave me the opposite,” his jeering compatriot quipped with a chuckle.
Lt. Koji shot him a glare, “Sato you traitor, we always bet together!”
“Yes, and I bet the opposite each time. Thanks baby,” Lt. Sato cackled as he gave the dinosaur a thumbs up.
But amidst the bets, laughs, and jokes, Io Shinoda didn’t join in. Not because she was repeatedly muttering the word ‘baka’ while repromending her teammate for bounding across the Tug-O-War line the moment he saw his mom, but because she kept hearing a word that gave her pause. She looked about, looked at her friend, mentally measured his size and looked even more baffled.
-"... Why do they keep calling him Baby?!"-
The next day was back to normal. A normal as life at a place that built giant mecha, super jets, housed alien-human hybrid schools, and a living non-avian dinosaur could be. In this case it was another day of faux normality that entailed an eight-year-old half-human sitting in a dinosaur nest with said dinosaur laying down across from her, looking to his friend’s backpack with a curious stare.
Io pulled free several very large books of various widths and placed them along the hay, letting the saurian sniff at them.
-"If I gotta learn, you gotta learn, and right now we need to learn you a- Hey stop that!"-
She yanked the romance book out of the dinosaur’s maw, the pages and cover catching on his teeth and are ripping half the contents out. Io groaned while her compatriot spat out several loose pages still stuck on his fangs, a visibly disgusted look on his face granted from the bad taste.
-"Not for eating, you imbecile!"-
She mentally snipped, looking at the room and book and tossing it over her shoulder.
-"Okay, looks like we’ll be skipping how to act around ladies. Not like it’ll likely happen anyways. If you want to know what not to do, do just watch Mr. Kazuma."-
She brought up another book and opened it, showing her friend the pages, words, and simple pictures. This one was meant for teaching children Japanese, Xilian, and English so the corresponding word from all three accompanied an illustration.
-" As I was saying, I’m smart so I have to learn all this. And you’re smart too, smarter than the adults think because they don’t make you go to school. So it’s up to me to fix that!"-
And thankfully being psychic came with another big perk with language learning. As Io pointed to the picture and trained the curious dinosaur’s gaze upon it and the words, she projected an image of the subject matter into his head so he would see it before him. It took some coaxing for him to understand that the image on the book wasn’t something physically there, but a representation, though the psychic projections certainly helped after some initial surprise. The vacuum already picked up on at least a few words by hearing the adults say them before doing something involving it helped to build some context even if he didn’t know the corresponding word.
Io pointed at a picture showing a person growing up, standard family, loudly distinguishing each word for each age stage.
-"Baaaaby… Kiiid… Teeeen… Aduuult."-
She tapped at each picture and was delighted to see the saurian following her direction. She pointed to the baby picture.
-" The adults keep calling you this, but I’m pretty convinced you’re actually this. At least in dinosaur years."-
She pointed to the child. The dinosaur saw her pointing between himself and the child picture, thinking things through and nodding slowly, something he had seen the adult humans doing and picked up on. A clawed hand pointed to Io… And then pointed to the baby.
Io narrowed her eyes, -"Baby? Who you calling a baby?! No I'm not a baby! I'm a kid! Eight and two-twelveths years old!"-
The saurian blinked and shook his head side to side to indicate his height, and then held a hand over Io’s head to point out how much shorter she was. A finger was then pointed to the child and then dragged over to the baby picture to show how much shorter they were in the lineup. The logic was sound enough.
Io fumed and viciously shook her head, -"Not. A. Baby! And neither are you."-
The dinosaur tilted his head and again indicated the height difference. Io quickly turn the page to just get away from the subject. After flipping through several more she came upon one of animals past and present. Thankfully they were all in the lineup with the human put in for scale. Io pointed to the man.
-"See? Human, short. Dinosaur…"-
Her finger dragged over to an illustration of a Tyrannosaurus, tapping on it before pointing at her compatriot.
-"Can be biiig!"-
Her friend chirped quietly, eyes moving across the page back and forth to distinguish the two forms. The Tyrannosaurus didn’t look exactly like him, but then again the human didn’t look exactly like Io. It was close enough for him to grasp what she was saying, enough he didn’t end up asking if the human was just a baby because the illustration was identical to the picture of an adult and even looked a bit like Mr. Aoki. But then his demeanor seemed to shift, both from pinpricks of fear as well as some confusion. He didn’t say anything, but Io was able to see the image he was projecting in his mind and focusing on. One of Azusa and himself.
Io snapped her fingers to get him off the depressing and worrying train of thought, quickly flipping the pages the one showing a family. For a moment the dinosaur’s confusion intensified when he understood at least some of the context before Io started explaining the words. The adult female parent and adult male parent looked like the hatchlin- the baby between them. Instinct already told him what an offspring was, but part of it was now conflicting with his imprinting. If Azusa with his parent, why was she human and he was a dinosaur?
-"Mooother… Faaather…. Kiiid…"-
The saurian chirped, listening but still confused to some extent. Io paused and pulled out a picture she had with her in her notebook, one of her and her father during her seventh birthday. It was just after she had gotten enrolled in the ESP school, but Yugi Shinoda had been so busy he wasn’t able to give her a party away from work. So instead he and his coworkers worked together and managed to make one inside the biology lab. It would be a weird story for the other children to talk about how she got a birthday cake baked inside an incinerator. Still it was a happy occasion, even if she was the only child present surrounded by sleep deprived human and mysterian scientists in a pale lab.
Io smiled and pointed to the image of herself in the picture and that of her father, projecting an image of her sire to her friend to help further the context.
The dinosaur nodded, but the unease was still there. Even if Io was colored very different from her father, he could still see some similarities. A couple times he had met Yugi Shinoda and smelled them, he could even tell the man and Io were related because they smelled similar. He didn’t have that with Azusa, and his eyes traveled to another picture in the book. One of the family with a pet dog along with other possessions. His clawed index finger pointed to the dog.
Io’s lips flattened but she read out the word to him, -"Pet. An animal a family owns as a friend."-
Her heart nearly broke when her best friend pointed at himself and the word came back to her.
-".... Pet?"-
Even if he didn’t fully understand the full concept of ownership or relationship dynamics, it was close enough to what he knew for him to understand that whatever people had with them they possessed, but it didn’t possess them. ‘My’, ‘Mine’, and ‘Yours’ were words he was still grasping but was beginning to catch on to. If he took the shoe, but he still didn’t know that word, off Azusa’s and Kazuma’s feet and she and Kazuma chased him down to get them back, Kazuma wasn’t the one who put Azusa’s shoe on his foot and Azusa didn’t put his shoe on her foot. They each belonged to the like. And given the dog was pictured next to things like shirts, hats, toys, or shoes he was drawing the connection more between the canine and the property than between the people and the family.
Io hopped up and held his face, -"No! No that’s a bad imbecile, don’t be one!"-
The dinosaur stood up and whined still. Io ignored how her feet were dangling off the ground now, held tight onto his muzzle to look him dead in the eye. Teaching was a pain but she refused to let her friend hurt!
The little girl stubbornly pointed to a working Azusa manning a computer.
-"She loves you, so she’s your mother. No questions or you’re the biggest imbecile evers!"-
-"But…"-
Io pointed at his eyeball and scrunched up her face to look as imposing, or rather unintentionally adorable, as she could.
-"She care for you?"-
He nodded, causing Io to rise and fall while dangling off the ground; though neither noticed.
-"She make you happy?"-
-"Since I hatchling and egg. I imprint."-
He was still getting used to sentence structure but Io knew how to listen to him well enough.
-"And what does your imprint tell you?"-
The dinosaur looked over to Azusa, who caught the glance and chuckled at the amusing sight of Io dangling off his face.
“Be careful you two!” she laughed before going back to her work.
The happy sensations rushing through the dinosaur’s mind were infectious to the psychic girl, but it didn’t take a psychic to understand what the happy cooing and slight wag in his tail meant.
-"Imprint say, she am mother."-
Io giggled and climbed up on her friend’s head to sit on his snout, knowing he’d keep himself level so she wouldn’t fall off. She patted his brow and beamed.
-"Mother, momma, parent, she’s aaaall that! And you’re her kid. Way too cool to be a pet."-
The dinosaur crooned slightly and blinked, tapping at his arm.
-"Cool? Am not cold.”
-"Manner of speech."-
A grunt was her only reply as he lowered back to the ground. Io dusted her skirt off and looked up at her friend, happy to see his spirits back to their usual, happy-go-lucky self. Though a question did linger as he glanced about and tilted his head.
-"Have mother. Where father?"-
Io shrugged and went back to her book.
-"I dunno, I don’t have a mother though and I don’t think I’ll get one. So I guess we’re even."-
==========================
Back in Tokyo, Yuki Ichinose was coming back into the Bridgestone airwaves HQ with several loads of take-out clogging her arms and hands. Had been a bit of a dry week up until now at the news broadcast and print station, but the surge of activity by Godzilla, developments at Kyoto’s Biotechnics institute’s Mechagodzilla and Garuda projects, and some loony named Dr. Malcolm talking about dinosaurs in Costa Rica had flooded their channels. As much a reporter as she was a photographer, she’d been in quite a few tight spots before. Not exactly a fearless camerawoman, but she had managed to get a tiger and more than a few equally ferocious politicians to mug for the camera.
But after a piece covering an up-close look at Biollante and Godzilla in 1989 that got some of the few public stills of the plant monster’s final form, a piece that got her hired to Bridgestone, her career had slowed. Her more organized business attire she had to wear and standard short haircut made her look a lot older than she really was. She was already getting ‘Old Maid’ jokes and the fact she’d taken on an apprentice intern didn’t help. Still, she supposed it wasn’t all bad. Better than a not-to-be-named, “prestigious” news station calling her a “Delinquent 22 year old with a camera” back in 1989. So what if she likely… definitely trespassed onto a military operation to snag those pictures. Those pictures weren’t going to take themselves!
“Alright so we got that interview with Dr. Malcolm this week,” the younger redhead intern, Yuri Tachibana, getting the door for her muttered as she checked a PDA, “How likely do you think it is that he’s telling the truth?”
“About a park full of cloned dinosaurs in Costa Rica? Sounds like work of a sci-fi writer or an attention-craving imbecile. Who knows, it wouldn’t be the first time something weird happened and there was a cover up,” Yuki grunted while trying to keep her balance. An odd ringing sensation was coming into her head and giving her very mild vertigo.
“Cover up?” Yuri’s eyes twinkled and she bobbed up and down slightly in excitement.
“I just know InGen is up to something weird and I have a hunch it’s related, same week he came out about it I got some letter asking if I was available in the next few years.”
“Really?! What did you say?”
Yuki shrugged, “That I had my hands full with an intern and if they wanted a photographer or nature guide, I pointed them to some old acquaintances. Paladecki and Van Owen. On more concrete topic away from possible imbecile chaoticians, think your father can get us clearance to see the known dinosaur in Kyoto?”
Yuri Tachibana, daughter of a well respected G-Force commander, sniggered and shrunk her head down, “Ehehe, Iiii make no promises.”
“Well be sure to as-aaa-aaaaCHOOO! AACHOOO! AAAAA-"
Yuki convulsed, the ringing in her head growing louder and for a moment she thought she felt some wisp of a voice between her ears as a fit of sneezes over took her. Evidently someone had just tempted fate very hard because she was spewing out one every second so badly Yuri had to scramble to both grab the food and grab her before both went down the stairs.
==========================
-"But if you’re her kid you need to stop getting called ‘Baby’. You’re way too big to be a baby, and Gojo-sensei says you grow up quick so you wouldn’t stay one anyways."-
Io, dropping herself back onto the ground and landing on her toes, rubbed at her chin while the dinosaur sat himself down.
-"Do you have anything you’d like for a name?"-
He just shrugged and shook his head.
-"You have name Io, so you know more about names."-
Well she couldn’t fault that logic but she was pulling up blanks. Back to the books it was then to try and get something. Subject of the page was adjectives and it helped Io was combing through her memories regarding the creature her father was studying.
-"How about Minilla?"-
The dinosaur straightened up and tilted his head, shifting forward and lowering his head down to look at the page. Io pointed to an image of a large horse and a miniature horse.
-"See? These are horses, but this one is a normal pony."-
She tapped at the smaller equine.
-"And this is my little pony, a Miiniiiiature pony. Mini means little."-
-"What’s ‘illa’?"-
Pulling out a few pictures from her backpack, Io brought out a copy of one her father had made regarding his research material. Ironically, one of Yuki’s pictures from 1989. She held it over a puddle of water and motioned for him to look down at both so he could compare himself too it.
-"This is a big beast named Godzilla. The ‘illa’ part comes from him."-
The child dinosaur inspected the picture and looked his reflection over. Differences were present to be sure, but he did pick up on some similarities. Pronounced canine fangs, dorsal plates even if his were just nubs, four fingered hands, claws, scales. He tilted his noggin.
-"I am like him?"-
Io patted his cheek.
-"Well, maybe only same type of thing. You seem a lot nicer. So do you like the name? Could make it more… name’y, how about Minya?"-
The dinosaur straightened up from tensed muscles and rapidly shook his head.
-"No. No. No. Bad name! Bad name!"-
He grunted in a manner akin to a donkey, causing Io to have a small laughing fit despite her trying to cover her mouth.
Azusa looked over from her work and smiled happily. Io and the baby were having a disagreement of sorts, that much she could tell, but nothing to be concerned with. Just playful back and forth between friends as Io struggled to stop laughing and the dinosaur hovered over her with a scrunched up face while stamping his feet in a tantrum. The transformation they’d made over the time they’d spent was astounding, and she couldn’t be happier for it. And apparently she wasn’t the only one fond of seeing it.
A familiar single father sighed contently, having just walked in but making no motion towards the daughter he’d come to pick up, instead pacing over to Azusa and offering her a soda.
“Really know how to treat a lady, don’t you Yugi?” Azusa giggled while pulling her tired coworker out a chair.
Yugi, the bags under his eyes smaller than from when their arrangement had started, chuckled and sat back, “Asuka always said I had a way with the fairer sex. I’m so cool around them I’ve managed to land a grand total of zero dates in sixteen years.”
Azusa raised an eyebrow, “Sixteen? But Io’s only eight-"
“Asuka was the one to ask me out, she never was one for customs,” Yugi corrected dryly before sipping his drink, “Ahg, I can’t profess to minding too much. I mourned my wife and know she’d want me to be happy, but between my workload and raising Io, I wouldn’t have much time anyways. Plus something I’d be doing it for is already fulfilled.”
“And what might that be?”
Yugi Shinoda nodded to the little girl having a mental argument with a dinosaur that resulted in her jumping onto his face and hugging it as he shook it back and forth to try and dislodge her; but thankfully in a gentle manner that told Yugi not to worry. He nodded towards Azusa.
“Single parenting can work fine but I’d want to make sure Io had a good role model, even if it’s passively. Someone smart to encourage her to study, kind to encourage her to care, and brave to encourage her will to be strong,” he hummed.
“Sounds like a fairy tale,” Azusa noted while cracking open her can and taking a drink.
“Well guess you’d know because it’s been you so far.”
Azusa nearly spat her drink back out before looking over at his smile. It was warm, even on that tired face; free of suggestive nature and echoing one single thought. Gratitude.
“You’ve got a PhD, so you’re definitely smart. You’re easily one of the kindest people in this building,” Yugi noted while extending a finger with each point, “And how many gals, or even guys you think would have the guts to walk around a multi-hundred kilogram dinosaur without an ounce of fear? She’s certainly picked up on it, look afraid to you?”
Azusa gazed up at the sight before her and her heart melted. The dinosaur was laying on his side and back, leg and tail shaking as Io ‘won’ their confrontation by savagely attacking his ticklish spot on his stomach and chin. Finally ceasing, she squealed and rubbed her head against the snout that nuzzled her head. With elated visages upon them both, they eagerly marched back to the books.
She didn’t know what she was prouder of more. The fact Io had changed from a shrinking wallflower who barely socialized with anyone to an energetic, if a bit sassy given her vocabulary, young assistant; or that her charge was more excited, happy, and eager than ever before but not once had let his strength or size cause a lapse in judgement. He’d been gentle as a lamb the entire time Io had been around. And now they were chirping and looking at each other and the book, doing so in such a way it was clear they were having a conversation of sorts.
Her smile grew and she had to wipe something out of her eye before it trickled out, “Hehe, I wonder what they’re saying to each other?”
Yugi chuckled, “Let’s give em another ten or fifteen minutes and ask before I take Io back home. Deal?”
His offered soda can was tapped by Azusa’s.
“Deal, and cheers.”
And when it was time for the playdate to end, it was actually the kids who marched up to the edge of the paddock with a very pleased look on their face. Io, who had been riding on the dinosaur’s shoulders, tapped on his head and signaled him to lower down. Dismounting, she walked up to her parent and ‘boss’, stopping to click her heels and stand at attention. Crossing her arms behind her back, the little hybrid piped up.
“Father, Sensei, we have been working… on a name! And… We have one. Not an imbecile name-"
Yugi grunted, still wondered where or who she’d picked up that word.
"-not a bad name... But a good name! A correct name! Because he looks like someone but smaller and cuter. Kinda like how my gran-gran calls me ‘Asuka-Junior’ because I look like her,”
Yugi stiffened for a moment, but soon any pain ebbed in pride. If his late wife could see their daughter right now, confident and proud, and especially compared favorably to her; she’d be giving Io resounding applause and try to take her and her friend out for ice cream.
“So in honor of my mom and so he can grow big and strong like the other guy,” Io closed her eyes and held her head up prim and proper as she motioned to her compatriot.
“Iiiintroduce yourself!”
The dinosaur stepped forward, raised up, and let out a loud chirp. Azusa and Yugi found themselves awkwardly glancing at one another, the former soon having to hide a snicker while Yugi scratched the back of his head.
“Eheh, translation Io? Sounds like a name you two are proud of but we didn’t quite catch it.”
Io cracked an eye open, “Is that so?.... Oh. Ahem.”
She wound up her arms and gave it her best introduction picture, “Ladies and gentlemen, meeeeet Junior!”
The same chirp was called out, evidently him trying to pronounce his name with a throat and mouth that was wholly unsuited for it.
“Oh, he doesn’t want to be called ‘Baby’ or ‘Little One’ anymore?” Azusa quipped with a snigger on her face as she reached up and patted her charge on the head.
The dinosaur, Junior, grunted and nodded partially… before promptly shaking his head and muttering several chirps and groans. Azusa glanced to Io for a translation while the little girl was walking up to have her hand taken in by her father’s.
Io just snickered, “Oh you can still, but just you-"
Junior happily cooed and nuzzled Azusa’s shoulder and arm, Io translating the rest of what he just said.
"-because you’re his mom, of course, he called you that!”
Azusa felt stilled even as the Shinoda’s departed, only feeling the dinosaur press up against her and hearing him utter the same series of cooes over and over again. She had inclinations, both when her mentor told her the egg imprinted on her voice and when it was discovered the dinosaur was sapient or very close to it. But this confirmation… He really did consider her his mother, not just an imprint. He was obviously smart enough to know he wasn’t human and that didn’t matter.
It took a bit to process and she could only hone in on the cooing sound he kept making. Even without Io to translate, she was quickly figuring out what that particular noise meant he was saying. This time she raised no hand to wipe the happy tear out of her eye, using both arms to embrace and rub the saurian acting so affectionate to her.
For the first time as a fully fledged, proud parent, her brown eyes looked into his burnt golden orbs as the mother beheld her son.
“... Hehe, my little boy,” she whispered, rubbing his cheek before leaning up on her tiptoes and kissing his forehead.
Io, holding onto her father’s hand as they started to turn away from the hallway leading to the paddock, flashed a thumbs up.
=========================================
In a later time, Junior lowered himself as far as he could, waiting for the little weight to climb onto his shoulders and collar before rising up. Io grinned and held onto her friend’s scutes and jokingly kicked his collar with her heel.
-"Giddy-up!"-
Riding the dinosaur through the safety doors to the paddock chamber, Io was having the time of her life for a good minute until she heard the sounds of clicking footsteps coming down a perpendicular hall.
-"To the wall, to the wall!"-
He beckoned telepathically and thankfully Junior heeded her advice.
It was fortunate Yuki Ichinose had her head down while adjusting her camera when she turned the corner. Or else she might have glimpsed a white haired girl and her saurian companion pressed up against the wall before the latter could project the image of the wall and hallway on top of them. Shaking her head mildly from the ringing she heard in the back of it and chalking it up to a headache, the photographer opted to write it off as a headache and muttering to herself.
“Okaaay, Yuri’s talking with her dad and should go well, only got an hour or so before most staff get out of their meeting an-APH!”
She suddenly found her balance yanked away and her face falling forwards towards the ground. Her camera fired off and flashed multiple times due to her finger clutching the button. It was only some practice and experience from past tumbles she’d taken with her camera out due to tripping over something not visible in the viewfinder she managed to curl around and avoid landing on her camera. Groaning from the shock in her shoulders, Yuki gripped her head with her good hand and shook it to try and dispel the vertigo.
Thankfully, while she couldn’t see what caused her to fall while she gathered herself up, she did gain some familiarity when she heard the standard click-clack of a particular pair of shoes. A bob of red hair came around the corner as Yuri, having heard the shout, came to her mentor’s aid.
“You okay, senpai?” She quipped while darting over to help Yuki fully up, “I got my father to give us free passes to low clearance zones and an interview with Captain Pentecost.”
Yuki grunted, “Yuri be careful there’s something slipper-"
“YEEP!”
It thankful she was already coming towards Yuki when she fell over too, or else Yuki might not have been able to catch her.
"-ry….” Yuki deadpanned as she avoided tumbling over despite Yuri crashing into her due to bracing, “Tried to warn you.”
Yuri groaned, thankful to be caught and rising back up with her friend, she jiggled her foot after feeling a tingling sensation like she’d stubbed it on something, “I-I don’t think I slipped. I tripped over something!”
Yuki stole a glance behind her, “Tile maybe? There’s nothing there.”
They both froze when they hard a low chirp, like a massive bird. After looking at each other for a moment or two, their eyes wandered to find the absent source. Yuri’s eyes trained upon a section of wall near where both she and Yuri had taken a tumble. She lowered her brow and looked at it more intensely, wondering why was the back of her head ringing. Thinking it was the headache coming on again, likely not helped by her tumble or getting her camera flash in her face multiple times, she closed her eyes and shook her head. Sure enough when she opened them, the blurry spot on the wall was gone.
-Huh, odd…-
Yuri’s exasperated groan soon took her attention away however.
“Aaaaah! Crap I left the passes with my father! I was so eager to run off and find you I totally bolted on him,” Yuri groaned while slapping her forehead with her hand.
Yuki’s previous confusion left and was replaced with a mix of mild annoyance, but much more humored understanding as she patted her protege’s shoulder, “Rookie mistake Tachibana, but you are still a rookie. Go on and get them, I’ll wait here.”
“Y-Yes, sorry!” she hastily bowed before running back into the intersection. A loud, feminine yelp sounding off soon after told Yuki she’d managed to trip again.
“Caaareful!” she called out with a hidden chuckle, “Seems to be a problem in this hall.”
Turning her focus back to the camera, she groaned at seeing the display reading she’d managed to snap twenty useless photographs in her fumble due to her finger jamming the snap button. Wishing she could do this by group, Yuki checked the basic interface and started deleting them all one by one. Just what she expected, blurry, undefined images of her feet, the floor, the ceiling, something vaguely resembling her arm and hair. At least for the first eight pictures. But on the ninth she noticed something.
A dark gray-blue blur underneath and behind her feet, laying across the ground.
The next few pictures showed the same, undefinable mass; but piece by piece they started to show something it was connected to which was up against the wall and much larger. It was the last picture that, out of sheer dumb luck, had focused on something behind Yuki’s flailing hair. Pressed up against the wall was a wide eyed, white haired girl in twintails with black veins across her face… standing on top of an equally startled looking dinosaur who’s tail had been apparently what Yuki and Yuri had tripped on. And apparently they had been invisible.
“What… the fuck...”
“Language!” A tiny voice piped up from around the corner.
Io, drilled into saying that on impulse by her father, promptly shoved half her hand into her mouth. Yuki was so flummoxed she didn’t move for a solid few seconds, only hearing the sounds of loud shuffling quickly rushing away from behind the corner.
This was loads of fun to read.
It is hilarious that some people think the events of Jurassic Park are far fetched in this world. Wait, the story said Junior didn’t know anything about reading until Blueberry Frost gave him lessons, yet Io gave him lessons. Since you established Junior has a photographic memory, this is inconsistent. Was Yuki’s little episode a sign that she is unknowingly psychic?
Happy Thanksgiving. Out of curiosity, did you check out She-Ra and the Princesses of Power?
4971195
Actually I did mention Junior could recognize some symbol in English and more so Japanese. But pretty much just isolated words and not actual sentences. So he couldn't read, say, a paragraph, but he did recognize what certain singular kanji meant but that be useless in Equestria which doesn't use that kind of writing. Here he was paying more attention to the pictures anyways. Still, capital memory there Ulti
And nope, Yuki isn't psychic. But that's not to say someone (possible future step-daughter) who's psychic isn't accidentally tethered to her.
As a matter of fact I have. Rather good in my mind, though I haven't had the time to watch it all.
Question is Faith still make art work for the bridge?
4971212
Yes. She's just been busy for awhile but something's coming.
Okay, that was just asking for it.
Edit:
Might have helped with Luna.
"And this is my little pony, a Miiniiiiature pony. Mini means little."
LOL
4971221
umm What's that suppost to mean?
-"Well, maybe only same type of thing. You seem a lot nicer. So do you like the name? Could make it more… name’y, how about Minya?"-
The dinosaur straightened up from tensed muscles and rapidly shook his head.
-"No. No. No. Bad name! Bad name!"-
LOL XD (showa)
4971227
You know what I'M asking for Zilla?
THIS! : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geNMz0J9TEQ
this'n had me alternately cooing and laughing
good shit, tarby
4971227
Kazuma picked up a lot from his eccentric Texan mentor (joking)
Makes me wonder if the Mako trip would have been better or worse if Junior wasn't Admiral Oblivious throughout most of it.
4971193
Hehehehehe, twas the intent. Along with adorableness.
4971195
Yep, the irony is thick! To be fair to them in this world Skull Island isn't public knowledge after the 1970s Monarch expedition and any instances of extant dinosaurs in historic times (like if Valley of Gwangi were canon) faded into rumor or myth. The exception would be the Godzillasaur becoming Godzilla but that might be chalked up to a one-off occurrence especially given their low numbers. Traditional knowledge would dictate any amber samples with dinosaur DNA would be far too degraded to be used. InGen and BioSyn (Carnosaur) kept their methods secret and drew from Cenozoic dinosaurs cloned by the civilizations Bagan destroyed.
Hence why Ian Malcolm coming forward with what happened on Isla Nublar would sound like a loony.
This is delightful and adorable. Cant wait for part 3.
I know him from SpaceGodzilla, but I can't quite remember which of the three guys he was.
Yes, any allegations of colluding with the young dinosaur to get into my prospective girlfriend's pants is Fake News. Any who dare claim otherwise is a horrible person, an enemy of the people.
Poor Io, hasn't Jurassic Park taught you that playing fetch with a dinosaur doesn't really end well?
Oh No! This looks like a friendship problem. Time for Princess Aoki to step in!
TR-8R!!!
And then we're gonna keep on winning until you get tired of winning, and you're like "Io, I'm so tired of winning that I don't want to win anymore," then we go win some more!
One of my subordinates has a habitual gambling issue that could potentially ruin his life, so I plan to financially exploit him.
TR8-TR!!!!!!!!!!!
WTH, is she psychic or something? Can she see the future!?
So CNN then?
Wow, a Mauve Shirt reference! I did not see that coming. How do you reckon Yuki and Gary met?
Anyway, this was a great read to break the lull. And how close do you think you are to finishing the next proper chapter?
4971308
This fellow.
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/godzilla/images/3/32/K_Shinjo.png/revision/latest?cb=20150813210416
Nah Stacker's a good leader. He'd make sure Koji had enough to live off of, but not enough to buy more than ramen noodles for drill week to get the point across. Pentecost isn't vindictive, fake news!
Thought you'd like that :)
Probably one one of those nature reserves or parks Gary likely was in at some point for his experience. Given Yuki's luck, it probably involved running from lions.
Probably some time mid or early December. I got finals this coming week and the week after with last assignment for the semester due on the 6th. I will have a LOT more time until January's start despite lab work continuing. While I will have ups and downs, this semester was killer because I had to take the most reading heavy course in the master's program given it was a requirement. I've had to eat through four full size textbooks with it alone and the class set up is bull**** so no joke, 70% of my school work time has been devoted to it alone.
..... Right. It's taken a heroic effort on my part, but I've Finally managed to Stop Laughing at Io and Junior's antics in this chapter.
I do have to wonder, though, how exactly will Io react when she does indeed learn that Junior is in fact still a baby.....
Also, to everyone who lost to Miki, Never bet against a Psychic. Especially a real one. It will not go well.
In your mind, what does the written language of the Amalgamverse Xilians look like? Does it bear a coincidental resemblance to any human language or does it consist of symbols?
4971419
Probably nothing like any Terran language, except maybe by possible coincidence, some ancient ones.
4971350
Hehehehe, I aimed to make this hilarious and heartwarming and it appears I have achieved both. Excellent!
Something tells me Io wouldn't care and say he just grows fast, beyond now lording it over him that she's older and therefore smarter and knows how to adult better.
Miki always wins poke night. When the in the USA, groups with her like to sneak her into casinos in disguise.
Io, stop being so adorable!
Also, slightly off topic and possibly slightly pervy, but the actress who played Io actually grew into a very attractive young woman. Look her up, her name's Mayu Suzuki.
4971598
She's basically cut from the same cloth as Chibi Moon (ironically they have the same hairstyle given I used Manga!Io's look), she can't help it!
Hey, I hold no shame. She was adorable as a child actress and grew up into quite the stunner. Io in-universe was likely similar if she cleans herself up.
4971605
Given your description of Io, very pale with platinum hair, makes me think she'd look like Salem from episode 6'03" of RWBY.
4971615
Take this
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DsfskoCUUAAAgi9.jpg
+shifted build (Io's short) +gray irises +facial and lip veins +different outfit = Adult Bridge!Io. Salem coincidentally looks quite a bit like how Bridge!Xilians and hybrids look. I was fusing the colors and veins of the Final Wars Xilians with the human-like Showa Xilians and it kinda ended up looking like her in Volume 6.
4971632
Also, massive side note, but appropriate since we're on the subject of RWBY; Volume 6 has been really good so far. Though the way things are going, I hope everyone's gonna be okay.
Edit:
Though given RT's feelings towards edgy nihilism, I have a feeling things are going to work out.
This is definitely a pleasent read, and made me smile.
Like the call forwards to Gabara's eventual appearance, and in general this is completely adorable.
And really interesting to learn Io taught Junior Japanese and also is the one that got him named Junior in the first place.
And Junior seems to have a soft spot for little girls with pigtails, or vice versa. It's adorable, just plain adorable.