iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

“Not by conventional standards, anyway.” Ash fussed in her arms, babbling in that quiet way newborns did. “Looks like she’s done with me.” Hayden slowly handed Ash back to Cienn, making sure not to jostle the little package.

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

— surprising thing to happen to me in the last few years.” Hayden rested her head against the back of her chair, a long sigh deflating her chest. “New normals, y’know? Ain’t none of us ever gonna have a normal life.” She paused, brushing a part of the swaddling blanket away from her niece’s face. —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Hayden pretended to dodge the swat aimed at her, gently swaying Ash along with her movement. She looked down at the little life stirring in her arms. “See what your mom does to me?” Hayden said, shaking her head as she continued to gently rock Ash. “My niece being an alien would be the least —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

— Aunt Hayden has you for a minute.” She seemed to be a natural at this. That or she had done this before, once upon another time. “Let’s get one thing straight, kid. If you misbehave on my watch…I’ll help hide whatever you did from your mom.”

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

“Heeeyy, shhhh,” Hayden hushed, her voice softer and more soothing than anyone would have thought possible. Hayden couldn’t help but smile as she looked down at the cherubic face of her niece—a fragile, innocent little life that lay so light in her arms. “Quit your fussin’, hm? Your mom’s tired so —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

—niece then back to Cienn. “I…Okay,” she said in a near-whisper, gently reaching over the bed to take the offered bundle. Ash squirmed a little as she was handed over to the rough-hewn arms of her aunt, her sputtering and strange little huffs and groans growing a little more intense. —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Hayden sat down on the squeaky pleather chair, sidling close to the side of the bed. The question had caught her off-guard. So recently returned to Cienn’s life after years of secrecy, and it seemed not a mote of trust had been lost between them. Her eye flitted down to her peacefully babbling —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

— sister and niece. “How’re you feeling. Everything good? Nothing busted?”

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

— close to the bed, Hayden hooked a finger around the swaddling blankets around the baby to peak at her face. “Hey there, kid. You’re stuck with me as your aunt, so better get used to it now,” she said with a small, airy chuckle. Hayden gently grasped Cienn’s wrist, her eye flitting between —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

— her as her expression softened and softened until she looked so unlike herself that anyone other than Cienn would be suspicious. “And how many diapers have you smelled to make that comparison?” Hayden said with a rare smile that seemed to stay this time. Pulling up a rather uncomfortable chair —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Welcomed by the little tendril of darkness, Hayden entered the room as she would any other—habitually paranoid. Enter, check her corners, cover her blind spot. And all of those habits fell away when she heard Cienn call her “Godmother.” “Hey,” she said quietly, gently shutting the door behind —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

— hall, heels squeaking every now and then on the immaculate tile. Only slowing down once the desk nurse called her by her name, Hayden simply nodded her thanks. Given her usual stony expression, the nurse rolling his eyes once she had turned her back was to be expected. -

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Hayden hated how hospitals were always so cold and yet paradoxically made her sticky with sweat. She hated the smell most of all, that non-scent of scrubbed air and the sickly-sweet stench of disinfectant perfuming every room. Yet none of that bothered her now as her boots thunked down the —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Somewhere hot, somehow freezing. Years ago. “Hayden, wake up! Get up!” There was no questioning the urgency in her squad leader’s voice. She was up, dressed, fully armed, and out of her tent in twenty-four seconds. She timed herself with the stopwatch in her head. Slow. “Orders, sir?”

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Once @cienn.sunder.my’s baby had been born, there had been little reason to remain in her own apartment for the time being. “Thirty-three, ngh…Thirty-four…” Setting up her own spot in the apartment above the bakery, Hayden wasted little time getting back to her old workout routine. “Thirty-five…”

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

— over the seat. She didn’t bother to let the engine warm up, nor did she bother with tying her helmet down. She was on her way to see @cienn.sunder.my, on her way to see her niece or nephew.

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

— military-grade inspection. “Y’might want to just…Close down the shop ‘til one of us gets back.” Better that than returning to pure chaos, a day late and probably more than few dollars short. The bell above the door dinged loudly as Hayden walked briskly to her motorcycle and threw her leg —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Hayden was already halfway back across the room, only slowing her steps near the front door to wait for the tortured “Doctor…General” to leave Eddie’s mouth. Her hand paused on the doorknob as her gaze turned back to Eddie. She seemed to shrink behind the counter, as if Hayden were here for a —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

— crossed the space between counter and front door.

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Hayden was not one to waste time. The instant the word “doctor” slipped out of Eddie’s mouth, Hayden had already marched her way behind the counter with her two large sacks of groceries and set them down. “Which hospital?” She asked pointedly, keys already fished out of her pocket as she —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

“What was she? A government spook? Contract killer?” “No, something else.” “Meaning what, exactly?” “From what I could find, she started out in a culty paramilitary outfit when she was…Fifteen?” “Jesus.” “She’s a straight-up anarchist. Takes jobs on principle alone. Deadly mutual aid, almost.”

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

— a wound that looked poorly-healed. “Just gimme a minute, I’ll be fine. It’s not like I haven’t been carted off to strange dimensions before. Remember?” She smiled tiredly, her body seeming to sink into the couch. “I can probably get used to the idea of future-niece.”

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

— knew had changed forever. Still trying to find her sea-legs, Hayden crossed the room to the couch and plunked down into it, head resting against the back. “Gotta get my bearings, I guess.” The angry red scar across her clavicle and neck seemed even worse in the dim light, —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Hayden came to stand in front of mother and daughter, gaze still bouncing back and forth between the two. “Yeah, breathing room,” Hayden parroted. More and more she felt like an explorer of old. She was a woman who boarded a ship only to return years later to find everything she thought she —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

— locks as her gaze bounced back and forth between her sister and what was apparently her niece. Hayden shut her eye tight for a moment, trying to take everything around her in. It was all a bit of a stretch for the mind.

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

— did. Ripley seemed to return the affection Hallie declared as she trotted over and ran her big head beneath the young woman’s hand. “Th’ hell is going on?” Hayden said, an unbelieving half-smile on her face as she circled around Hallie. “Your…Daughter?” Hayden ran a hand back through her black —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Hayden started as Hallie suddenly appeared next to her mother like an apparition, a funhouse-mirror reflection of Cienn. What kind of madhouse was this? What sorts of things had she missed? “I-Uh. Nice to meet you.” Hayden said quietly as she stood from the floor, joints popping loudly as she —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

“I remember everything about that day. How my lips froze together, how close I came to frostbite, how badly my eyes stung after only half an hour in the cold.”

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

— more as Cienn asked about Hallie. “Mmm…Name doesn’t sound familiar.”

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

— As wonderful as that sounded, she would never stop feeling like an intruder, nor did she want to take up space in a new family’s home. “I…Got my old apartment back. Y’know, the one that wasn’t a rat-infested shithole? It’s only a couple of blocks from here.” Hayden shook her head once —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

“Great,” Hayden parroted, her own cheeks starting to hurt from how unnaturally long she had been smiling. There hadn’t been any reason for smiles in the last couple of years. She was glad to know her mouth could still stretch that way. She shook her head at the mention of moving in. —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

— very tired. Perhaps it was time to finally rest.

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

— trove. “And may we never fucking meet again.” And just like that, a life was buried. A new one waited with a family she never thought she would have. A sister, her husband, and a niece soon enough. What a strange world this was, and Hayden had seen quite enough of it. She was tired, so

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

— could ever build one now. Polite society had no room for people like her; kites who had cut themselves loose to fly wherever the winds took them whether they wanted to go there or not. Yet one person still made room for her. “Goodnight,” she whispered, placing the floorboards back over her —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

— thread of her past. Somehow it always found a way to stitch itself back in to the tapestry of her life, no matter how hard she tried. Yet this was it. Here she was, here she would remain. There would be no normal life for her, not now. She neither wanted, deserved, or believed she —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

— have understood. And it was over. Retirement at the ripe age of thirty-seven. Twenty-five years of endless proxy wars and work in shadows no one would ever thank her for, no one would ever know. Twenty-five years of being someone else’s weapon, then striking out on her own as she severed the —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

— and that was just in the United States. Dead drops and caches all over Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, even one in Australia. A network built over a lifetime. This was her life’s work. A life she had lived since she was a scared, confused child thrown into a world she couldn’t possibly —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

— Five other rifles, ten passports tied to ten fake IDs, three bundles of unmarked American currency, two bundles of unmarked euros, and a few thousand dollars worth of Japanese yen. There was so much more, so much spread throughout Gotham, Metropolis, New York, Los Angeles, Bludhaven, Miami, —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

— territory of her work. Ignore the pain, the bleeding, the ache, all that mattered was a job well done and an honest day’s pay for a dishonest day’s work. She placed the final rifle in its resting place, a hollowed-out space in the floorboards of her apartment. Her old friend had company.

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

— a tool of war that had served its purpose well and true. “Out of all of ‘em, you were the one that never jammed.” Her knees protested after such a long time kneeling on a hardwood floor. She ignored them like she ignored most aches and pains no matter how severe they may be. That came with the —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

— the final rifle from butt to barrel in lightly-oiled cloth. Her thumb brushed over the strip of pitted and worn metal where the serial number had been chipped away all those years ago. Hayden didn’t know how long she lingered there as her one good eye bored into the deep pits and scratches of —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Her handguns had already been scattered through her home in easy-to-reach and out-of-sight places, relicts of a well-earned paranoia. Old habits don’t die, they simply take a seat in a rocking chair at the back of your mind. The sharp smell of gun oil brought her back to old times as she wrapped —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

There it was again—that strange feeling deep in Hayden’s chest, her mind recoiling like the business end of a whip that had just drawn blood. That was the sixth and last rifle cleaned, oiled, and placed where it would remain forever. Where she hoped beyond anything it would remain forever.

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

like that you would ask me to…” Hayden wiped away a fresh tear as she looked back to her sister. “Of course I will, Cienn. Of course I will.” One mission ends, another duty begins.

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

“…Want me to be her godmother?” Hayden felt laughter creeping up her throat, a kind of manic laughter that doesn’t stop for several minutes. She suppressed it with a huff as she stared at the carpet for a long moment. “I’ve missed all of it, everything that’s happened with you, and just —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

“You want me to be what?” Hayden sat straight up, almost sending the sleepy dog on top of her chest tumbling off. “You…” Hayden swept a hand back through her hair, scoffing as an incredulous smile stretched her lips. It hurt to smile, but the pain was good. —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Safe, warm, still loved, remembered, and longed for. All these gifts Cienn had given her taken for granted, and yet they were still freely given again. And then something else, something Hayden could never have anticipated. —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

This is one I intend to keep.” Her hand once again found her sister’s, her grip cold and rough. Whatever toll she had paid to reenter her old life seemed to be taken from her soul itself, whatever was left of it. This was not the same Hayden who had left Cienn behind. —

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Haggard, weak, thin, her eye often so wide and alert that she looked as if a drop of a pin would send her straight through the ceiling. A deer in the headlights of an eighteen-wheeler would look less alert. “I can’t leave again. I won’t. You know how bad I am at keeping promises, but this…—

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Hayden Ishikawa @abrandedhound.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

she was…Home. Hayden felt Ripley’s weight pressing her down into the carpet where she could simply fall apart, sink into it and just be what she had not been for years—safe. In the dim light of the black room, Hayden looked so unlike herself. —

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