a secret life (dunn) // never let me go (ishiguro) // girl from the north country (dylan) // the americans (fields & weisberg) // freedom (ferrick) // confess (hoover) // write what you know (bartram & hill) // exile (swift) // this is a photograph of me (atwood)
*taps the mic* Happy belated birthday @marywhal! I was rereading These Unfinished Creatures the other day because my need for taakitz content is infinite and never ending. Hope your b-day was lit af!
edit: forgot to add ID whoops
[ID: Drawing of Taako, a tan skinned elf with blonde hair, and Kravitz, a dark skinned man with dark locs pulled back neatly. Taako wears a short black lace veil, a black victorian bodice, black gloves, black knickers, white knee length socks, and black heeled shoes with white bows. Kravitz wears a black collared shirt, dark purple vest, black bowtie, black gloves, black trousers, and black dress shoes. They are seated together and smiling. End Id]
It's @mightynein69's birthday!! They requested that I write a little something for their Cyborg Caleb AU and there was no way I could say no to that.
So here’s “Hit Me With Technology”.
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Jester rolled about the robotics shop grabbing the tools she needed. Roller skates were probably the greatest form of transportation known to mankind, but Jester's boss, Percy, didn't agree with her. But he wasn't around that day, so Jester could skate around the shop all she wanted.
Once she had gathered everything she needed, Jester glided to her workbench. "Okay, Caleb. I got a good feeling about today."
Caleb did not respond, but he never did. The cyborg sat of the table not moving. Jester wasn't quite ready to turn him on, but she was close she could feel it. Who knew maybe she could even turn him on that day.
Nott had found the cyborg in the forest. He was covered with rust and plants. The fact that he was still alive was a miracle. Caleb was so feverish he gave off heat, and Jester didn't even have to turn on the heater the first few days he was in the shop.
It took several months for Jester to take care of his processors, cleaning out all the rust and replacing all the broken parts. She barely had the chance to get started on his arms properly only stealing a moment to work on them a little now and then while waiting for parts for his robotic brain. The arms were so rusted they were locked into place. His legs with fully human, but Caleb's time in the forest had seriously atrophied them, so Jester was going to have give him some bionic braces to support his heavier upper body. Fixing up everything was going to take a lot of time, money, and work, but Jester thought that it was worth it. That Caleb was worth it.
"Okay, Caleb I think I got the last hard-drive you need and just a little bit of fine tuning and then I can turn you on," Jester told him. "How about that? Are you excited and ready to be thinking again?"
He was a handsome cyborg Jester had to admit. Caleb was pale, and his robotic parts were a bright bronze(once Jester and Nott had polished it) complimented by his coppery auburn hair. Half his face was metallic plating, but the human half had a neutral resting that had a soft sadness to it. His hair was long and matted along with an overgrown beard. Jester washed and trimmed it though not a lot, in case he liked it long.
The farther along she got in fixing Caleb, the more nervous Jester got. What if he didn't want to be fixed? What if he was mean? What if he was evil? Cyborgs were illegal for a reason. But she couldn't picture Caleb being a bad person.
"Do you ever get scared, Caleb? I mean I know your processors aren't on of anything, but do you ever worry that you're not doing the right thing?" Jester asked as put the RAM into place. "I mean, cyborgs were made illegal after the war, so maybe I should just stop here. But it feels wrong to just leave you out in the forest to just rust and die, you know?"
It was touch and go when Jester got started. The robotics were easy for her to handle, but the human part of Caleb gave her all sorts of trouble. On top of being hot and feverish, he was unable to eat or swallow anything. Jester only had luck to thank that Cad just happened to have an iv and the proper fluids Caleb needed to get healthy(everyone involved decided that it was for the best to not ask the mortician why he happened to have such things lying around). Caleb still looked thin and sickly, but he was free of the fever and once Jester got him on, he should be able to eat normal food.
"Okay, so Caleb, if you had to eat one food and one food only for the rest of your life, what would it be? Cause I think that I'd have to go with pastries. Especially pastries with cinnananamon. What about you?"
Caleb never answered, but talking to him helped Jester remember that he was a living thing, though she talked to all of the robots she fixed like that too. It was a lot more interesting than just working in silence. Her boss refused to get a radio and Jester's phone ran out of power already. She was working long hours fixing Caleb on top of her normal responsibilities at work.
Jester stretched and took a step. "You're looking pretty good Caleb. So who do you think you'll like the most when you're functioning again? Cause I think you and Percy might get along, but Nott was the one who found you. So she basically saved your life and stuff. And she's super fun. On days where I don't have work, we team up as the greatest detectives that the city has ever known!" True, after the war, the city has became a haven of peace and safety and no one breaks the law much anymore, but there was still mysteries to be solved. "Just last week we found where Sprinkle, that's my robo weasel you'll like him, had ran off to and brought him safely home!"
Caleb was not as enthusiastic outwardly as Jester was, but she was pretty sure that he was impressed.
"Right, so ummm, I'm done," Jester said rolling back from the workbench. "Just need to flip the switch." Her stomach twisted and turned nervously. This was a big step. There was next to no chance of anything going wrong, but that didn't stop her from worrying. The cyborg stared ahead at her. "I hope I'm doing you a favor." With a deep breath, Jester turned Caleb on.
All sorts of whirring and computery waking up sounds filled the shop. Gizmos and stuff were coming on line and Caleb's robotic camera eye focused in and out. He was as still as a statue and then the noises quieted. Jester's heart sunk. It didn't work. She tried so hard to fix him and it came to nothing. "Maybe something's faulty. I'll go over your wiring tomorrow."
Caleb's human eye snapped open and Jester jumped backwards. "Danke," he said. His face was neutral of expression, and his voice sounded as rusty as the rest of him. "Danke." He said something more, but it wasn't in a language she spoke.
"That's Zemnian right?" Jester asked. "I'm sorry, but I don't really know what you're saying."
A slight sadness pulled down Caleb's face and he said something more, but he was speaking too fast for Jester to catch anything of it.
"Do you understand me?" Jester asked.
His head titled downwards slightly in an almost nod.
"You do, don't you?" Jester whispered. "Are you happy? Do you want me to keep fixing you?"
Caleb kept still for a long moment and then nodded.
"So you are happy?"
A stiff shake of his head.
"Then you're unhappy?" Jester heart fell.
Another stiff shake.
"So you're neither?" A downward tilt. Jester frowned. "But I can keep fixing you, right?"
"Danke." Caleb barely nodded.
A sigh escaped Jester's lips. "I'm going to have to learn Zemnian aren't I?"
A nod.
Jester chuckled. "I guess I better get started then." She smiled to herself and could've sworn that she saw Caleb's lips quirk upwards. That confirmed it; fixing Caleb was totally worth it.
