Character Intros: Magnum and Opus

“Huh, wouldja lookit that.” Magnum said, in the dingy rec room of an ominous floating tower.

Between the peeling carrot-orange painted walls, adjacent to the yellowing refridgerator, was a tear in space, with a shadow swiftly approaching.

“Hey Opus!” Magnum turned her chitinous head towards the celling, one of her four bony limbs pointing towards the rip “Think it’s a new recruit for the union?” She took a swig of juice from her orange juice carton with her chitinous hand.

Opus opened a cross-pupilled eye. “***Perhapppppsss”***said the batlike creature, currently hanging by his tiny feet from the rafters.

Then the sign began blaring, “GARGANTUAN BATTLESHIP APPROACHING!” bright letters hovering in the air like the ghost of a neon sign.

“***Yep.***“ Opus said, flopping off the rafter, walking on his handlike wings to Magnum’s position.. ‘‘***Sssssooooo mote it be.***“

The creature only turned out to be moderately gigantic, though still it could only fit its snout through the rip from floor to celling. Its black-and-purple metallic frame might remind one of a model kit of a robotic shark if instead of glue the builder had used human stem cells as a replacement.

The words VOID SHARK drifted onto the air as the creature opened its mouth with a comical blretch, and a man stepped out, brushing a strand of purple-pink striped hair outside of his robotic eye.

“HELLO,” he said in the most refined voice a late-80s synthesizer could manage “OUR WILL APPRECIATION TO THE JOINING UNION?”

Both Magnum and Opus paused for a moment… “So, you wanna join the Union?” Magnum said, as Opus took out a form. The man brushed away his cloak dramatically as he pressed a button on the base of his mechanical arm.

Several overly ostentatious mechanical whirrings later, a pen popped out, and he began putting it to paper.

“Right, so,” Magnum continued, “We’re kind of a weird mix of freelance organization and Union, your dues will be taken out of each job you take under our banner, we’ll defend you from unfair treatment by employers and advocate for you in jobs you fit well with, and if you’re like super; turbo awful,” Magnum gave an aside under her breath “(Not that the standards for that are high mind you)” and carried on “We’ll kick you out, and I think I got all that, Opus, you got anything to say?”

Opus paused, hurgling in thought as was his wont, and then he responded with “***What was your reasonnnnnn for coming here? Most of thossssse who join us do not come from happy places.***”

The man paused while writing, and looked up. OUR WAS SICK THE FOR VIOLENT IMPERIALISM THE FOR SEAMON EMPIRE.” At that, Magnum gave a slight guilty flinch. She hadn’t worked for that empire, no, but she’d heard of it. And she’d heard that it was small potatoes compared to the creeps they’d worked for.

The man continued “AND OUR HEAR OUR CAN WORKED OF OURSELVES, TAKING THOSE THAT PERSON KNOW TO WHAT IT WERE APPRECIATION!”

Magnum juddered a little. Whereas Opus hurgled a bit more in pensive thought, before responding. “***Welllll, we will try to avoid that.”***as the man finished with his doctor’s scrawl of a signature “***We havvvvvve been trying, as godssssss know we mussssst…”***

Magnum noticed a bit of a downward turn in Opus’ speech. But if there were doubts beyond that his eyes did not betray him.

“THANKED YOU ARE!” the man said as he handed the clipboard to Opus, striking a glamourous pose as he did so. Magnum could swear she saw the Void Shark’s eyes rolling, even if they weren’t visible through the crack.

“Meeting’s tomorrow as 7 XM, Void Standard Time, we’ll brief ya more there.” Magnum said. The man gave a simple thumbs up and, with a flourish of his shiny red boots and glimmering cape, turned around and back into the maw of the shark, flying away and the rip in spacetime closing behind him.

Magnum paused for a moment., “Hey Opus, you ever have any regrets?”

“***Perhapsssss. As much as you have right now. But, the thing with regretsssss is you can only move forwarrrrrrd with whattttt good you do rrrrrright now. And I mussssst ask, do you have any unnnnn-regrets you are making right now?***”

And Magnum was left for quite a while thinking about that…

## Author Notes

So, yeah, I wrote this drabble after I drew the little thingie for it! I do hope I wrote the characterization well here and, rest assured, I do plan to write profiles out for VOID SHARK and H.O.R.S.E. (The name of the dude on there) eventually!

As per usual, this drabble is under a CC-BY-SA license for direct adaptation, but all the characters/concepts/settings/ect are free to use as you see fit under a CC-BY-Vanilla license so long as I; Thomas F. Johnson, am credited as their creator!

And, if you wanna support me, maybe check out my Patreon or even just send a Ko-Fi my way! Every penny is appreciated, and I am eternally grateful for those who donate!