Hiya! I’ll be drabbling a short bit of WTNV fanfic based on the Inktober prompts but turning them into writetober/jotober things instead! Block #writetober and #jotober if you don’t wanna see them!
Personal rules:
No less than 500 words featuring the prompt word or eluding to it.
No more than 1000 words.
Just write what comes to me and don’t go back and edit.
Day 14: Roam
Character focus: Lauren Mallard
Just a short while ago Lauren Mallard had had everything. She had risen the ranks of StrexCorp at an exponential rate. Of course she had. She'd given her entire life to StrexCorp. She'd taken on the viciously thankless job of handling Kevin - he'd resisted them till the very last moment and that made him dangerous even without his seemingly high ranking within a religion that held power and sway over Desert Bluffs like no other.
She put up with his passive-aggression and only enjoyed retraining him a little - just a little. Still she'd had her sights set higher. Now she could barely stand to lift her head. There suns here were numbing. Suns. Plural.
The Old Oak Door had opened in front of her and Lauren had jumped through. The armed child militia had not followed. Children. Urgh.
Lauren looked around. She had no idea where she was. If not for the two suns she would never have guessed that she wasn't in the same desert any more. Somewhere in the distance there was a mountain and on top of that mountain there was a light. Something told her to keep away from it. Lauren turned and started to hobble forward again.
She was nearing exhaustion. She didn't know where she was going. She only knew that she must keep moving. Stopping for too long would surely kill her. Bake her in the sun.
Night Vale…what a waste of a town. They could have made so much money. Now she would have killed just for a chance to be back in Desert Bluffs. Those people had been much easier to control and make money off of. Well except for Kevin. What a pain of a man. She hoped he was roaming around here too, just as lost and helpless as she was.
Helpless? No. She couldn't be helpless. She couldn't afford to be helpless. Lauren arched her back and threw her face into the glare of the sun, eyes closed, mouth stretched in a grim defiant smile. She was not helpless. Look how confident she was. Look how she could Smile.
Even with her eyes closed they began to stream the moisture running in rivulets down her cheeks and making her eyeballs throb. Still she beamed and when she turned away she did so slowly. Lights danced in her eyes. Lauren took another step, shook, continued to move. She bit into her lower lip until blood gushed down her chin. The metallic taste and warmth kept her from completely spiralling.
Against all the strong impulses she was experiencing which told her to avoid this place, Lauren turned towards the moutain and started to head directly for it. It had been weeks (she thought) and she was still circling the mountain. It was time to discover what was making that light. It was time to take control again.
Whatever was up there would be hers. She would find a way out and she would restart Strex herself if she had to.
Gavin jumped out of the car, barely putting it in park, not caring that he was too far away from the curb. Other officers, usually his friends but currently just background noise, shouted at him, tried to stop him, but there was no stopping him. He pushed his way past them, past the androids that came out of the building, wide eyed and flashing red.
Everything was blue.
Somehow, he got inside. He was coughing, wheezing. There was so much smoke. He could see shapes through it but the lights were the most use. He pulled up his shirt, covering his nose and mouth before calling out for one android in particular.
He called and called but those that were scrambling past him, those that grabbed at him, too broken to carry themselves out, were staring at him with as much confusion as he was showing worry.
One of them, a woman who was missing her right arm, thirium pouring down her side and staining her slightly melted face, put a hand on his shoulder.
“Who are you looking for? Who’s Nines?” she asked, her voice so calm she must not have been a deviant.
Of course, no wonder none of them had tried to help him. They didn’t know Nines, not by name.
“My partner. He’s a, uh, an RK900.” He hoped that was enough. He’d never memorized the serial number.
She tilted her head and thought for a moment as more androids shoved past, trickling instead of flooding now. There weren’t many left in the building that had survived the explosion or the collapse after, he assumed.
“It is upstairs, apartment 206. Damages are minimal to the unit.” she stated.
Gavin almost felt cold, even though he knew that the building was burning. He hated it when people, android or not, referred to Nines as an it. He rushed off, not bothering to thank her. She wouldn’t feel any way about it either way. The entrance had been mostly cleared out by those moving through it but there was more rubble, more broken walls and cracked floors the closer he got to the stairs. He’d never been to the android apartments before, but he found the stairs easily enough, he just had to find the long lines of blue.
The railing was a curled twisting thing, the steps broken and sagging, even though they were cement and rebar. A gardener android pushed past him in his urge to get out of there, the upper half of a Traci, bleeding and sobbing wrapped around his chest, clinging to his neck.
The 3rd floor ceiling had collapsed. There were chunks of it everywhere but, in between 205 and 209 was the largest piece of it. That didn’t mean it was too big though, only about seven feet, and Gavin had a sudden, horrible turn in his gut as he realized that the apartments for androids, at least, those on this floor, were slightly larger than lockers. A place to go into stasis and nothing more.
He pushed through the dust and the smoke closer, to where he could see flashing flickering red in a synchronized pair.
Nines was on his knees, one hand hoisting up the massive chunk of concrete. Even though his muscles were synthetic Gavin could see the strain as he held it up. Beneath the slab was another android, one that Gavin didn’t know the designation of but had dark hair and a strong jaw and were pretty much everywhere. This one though was pressed flat from the waist down and was trying to drag himself out from under the collapsed roof. He wasn’t doing well.
“Phck!” Gavin growled and reached under the slab, grabbing the android by the armpits. He cried out as he grasped at Gavin back, the pain apparent in his face as Gavin dragged him out. Nines dropped the floor as soon as the android was free and panting.
“Get him out of here,” Nines ordered, “and yourself while you’re at it.”
“What the phck?” Gavin shot him a look but he was already helping the whimpering and shuddering android into his arms, so that he could carry him out of there. “I just phcking found you, you piece of shit!”
“You should not have.” Nines stood and stared at the ceiling, eyes scanning through the floor into the apartments. “This place is far too dangerous for a human.”
“It’s too dangerous for you too, dumbass! Or did you not realize that a bomb went off?”
“There’s another explosive in the building.” Nines pointed with that one arm. Gavin noted that the other was hanging limp and dead at his side. The white of his sleeve was a deep blue starting at the elbow. “You have to get out of here before it goes off.”
“I’m not leaving without you!” Gavin argued.
“I have a job to do.” Nines started to walk towards the part of the 3rd floor that hadn’t fallen but sloped. Gavin knew he was planning on climbing it, going up further. “If you remain here when the explosive detonates you will have a 3% chance of surviving.”
“What about you?”
Nines didn’t even look at him. “I have to get everyone still alive out of here.”
“You know what I mean, tin can! You gonna live or what?”
“If I am here when the explosive detonates I will have a 1.2% chance of surviving. I recommend you do not tarry me further.”
Gavin swore under his breath. There were fingers digging into his shoulder, a red LED pressed against his chest, wires and thirium dripping down his thighs from where he was holding the half crushed android. Nines was right though, he always was.
Getting down and out of the building was easier than getting inside and to Nines. There were techs everywhere, firefighters preparing to take care of the fire that was spreading, and the bomb squad, as well as the seemingly endless sea of androids and police.
“Everyone away from the building!” Gavin bellowed, walking as quickly as he could towards one of the tech vans. “There’s another bomb in the building! I repeat! Get away from the building!”
Someone must have heard him because the message was repeated over intercom and people started to move, getting further from the building than their initial training had told them to. Gavin set the android down with one of the techs, though his fingers were now half embedded in Gavin’s jacket and he didn’t seem willing to let him go. Guy must have been in shock. Gavin hated to leave him there but he also couldn’t leave Nines alone inside. He just had to hope that Nines would get everyone else out. He would never take care of himself first. Selfless to the end.
He knew it was coming. He knew that Nines was right about it. That didn’t help him brace for it when it did come, when the building shattered and glass flew out in all directions. The sound was like a single bullet being fired multiplied by a thousand and followed by a terrible rolling thunder that never seemed to end. Even though he was far enough away not to get hit by debris he could feel the wind hit him like little shards and a high pitched ringing took over his hearing.
He was rushing back. He wasn’t his own. His legs moved on instinct. 1.2% was a blaring red sign in his head. Nines was in there. He was probably dead or dying but Gavin knew he was in there. He couldn’t be in there alone. He couldn’t die alone. The others were better at slowing him down this time. Fowler even stepped in, put his hand on Gavin’s chest, threatened to fire him. He didn’t care. That didn’t matter. His job was all that he had, all that he was, but that didn’t matter. Nines had come into his life. He couldn’t let him leave it again, not like this.
He shoved past, ignored the continued yelling. He made it to the door, jumping over the bomb squad’s perimeter and their own little robot, and shoved through the buckled wood. It was now completely dark. There was no red to see by. There was just smoke and debris.
“NINES?” he screeched, pushing himself through it, feeling hands creeping up to him, trying to grab at him, trying to pull him back. They tightened in his jacket and he let them pull it off of him so he could dart further, climb the piles of cement, look for his partner. Look for his friend. “NINES YOU BETTER NOT BE DEAD YOU SACK OF SHIT!”
You pushed through and forward, trying to get to the stairs. Nines had been working his way up. He didn’t even get halfway there when he felt a thick smattering of water splash onto him. If it weren’t for that terribly familiar chemical smell he would have thought it was just water, anyway. It wasn’t.
With the flashlight on his phone he could see the blue that had landed on him. He was practically covered in blue by now but this large drop had landed on his heart, where his jacket had kept him clean before.
He brought his phone up, the light illuminating the floors above him, all exposed now. There was a hand, hanging over the side of part of the whole, dripping blue blood. The sleeve on it was also blue but he could tell it was once white.
“Shit! NINES! I’M HEADING UP THERE! DON’T MOVE!” He screamed as loud as he could hearing the building groan in response, as if it wanted to keep him away itself.
He pushed through harder, moved faster, some semblance of hope that Nines may have survived growing in his chest. His muscles ached, his lungs burned, and he could feel the heat grow as the fire started to eat at the walls, invisible to him but very much present.
He made it to the stairs but, that was it. He couldn’t go any further. They had completely collapsed. He felt the air leave him, his hopes also collapse. He couldn’t get there. He couldn’t find Nines. If he was still alive he was going to die alone.
The building shuddered and he heard a few thuds, more collapsing and falling. He didn’t have much time. He knew there were others in the building. They were coming for him.
A door crashed to the floor and smoke billowed out into the main space. Gavin couldn’t see at first, the flames within the room blinding him to what was coming. All he could tell from the silhouette was that it was vaguely human in shape. Then the smoke overtook the flames, and he could see.
Nines.
He was pulling himself through the doorway, walking on a leg that looked like it was ready to collapse beneath him with each step. There was a hole going through his thigh. His jaw was clenched, his eyes on Gavin and there was a look on his face, pure determination, intimidating and even more so because a large chunk of his skin had broken off. His teeth were visible, though they were stained blue as was most of that side of his face, even the sclera of his eye had pooled with it. And his arm. Of course, it was missing. What was left were tubes and mechanical parts, hanging from him. Blue was pouring out of him.
“You came back,” he stated. His voice was more machine than it had ever been before, not an echo but a tinny quality to it, as if he was actually speaking through a tin can.
“Of course,” Gavin showed his own teeth, not sure what he was supposed to do. A large part of him wanted to rush forward and grab Nines, hold him close like he had the half flat android. There was another part of him though that knew to stay away because Nines was strong and scary as hell and would never accept his help.
The fire fighters were shouting after them. They were almost there. They were going to be alright.
“Thirium levels at 27% and dropping,” Nines admitted, eyes flickering down. “Shutdown imminent.”
They weren’t going to be fine. Nines took another step and, without the door frame to keep himself upright he staggered, half falling. He didn’t catch himself. He didn’t need to. Gavin was there, hands calloused and rough on Nines’ waist. The android lay his head on Gavin’s shoulder, face half buried in his neck.
“It’s okay, plenty of thirium just a few yards away. You’re going to be okay.” Gavin promised.
Nines wasn’t a deviant, but he was certain he could feel him shaking as he stained Gavin’s skin with his blue.
I really liked how this turned out- I got a random color palette offline and a reference pose bc I am not pose creative.... which is the whole point of even drawing jojo stuff.... :(( sighh....
For much of winter, the world is dark and cold and dreary. There's wind and rain and a lacklustre attempt at snow from the british weather, and the sky always seems to be grey and muted and generally dismal.
For much of winter, Avery goes about bitter as the wind and complains that the sun seems to far away.
For one short week in winter, the country lights up in a thousand colours, a hundred glowing wonders that dance for a week long winter festival, impatiently waiting for Shortsol to bring bonfires and roasted chestnuts and toasted marshmallows and flamework displays and family gatherings.
The longest winter night stretches on forever, but there's always light to be found within it.
