#second snow

[everythingyelloww]

[hugsandchaos]

Second Snow, First Family

Summary: A week after the first snow, D-structs’s siblings show up in the crater; An older T-trux who goes by the name D-stroy and an unknown creature named Kali. This is part of a yearly tradition between the three siblings, but little does Skrap-It know, they’re about to make it a tradition between four siblings.

Skrap-It woke up to find D-structs gone from the cave, however as he looked around, he found that there were a few pieces of ore laying near him that weren’t there the night before. He knew from the last few times this has happened that D-structs was going to be outside for a while and wanted him to wait there for him. That was most likely the reason he had left breakfast for him. Skrap-It twitched and picked up the nearest piece of crumbled ore after hopping off of his rock near the lava pit. After retrieving the first piece of his breakfast, he climbed back onto the rock and turned towards the entrance. Skrap-It sat quietly as he ate, observing the falling snow outside the cave entrance from the warmth of the lava. He had always preferred warmth over cold, unlike his best friend, who could stand calmly outside during cold nights for hours before finally coming inside.

The scraptool often worried that D-structs was pushing his limits when it came to bad weather, especially in the cold, but he also had faith in him and trusted that he could handle himself enough to only voice his worries around an hour or so. As he watched the snow fall, he relaxed his previous, almost instinctual thoughts from when he realized that D-structs was outside and it was snowing. Skrap-It wasn’t sure how long he’d been out, and that worried him, but he also believed strongly that he’d hear the familiar sound of heavy treads at any second, and D-structs would roll into the cave to warm up. And then Skrap-It would ask him the usual questions when he goes out before he wakes up; How he slept, how his morning went while he was asleep, what he was doing, and if he needed any repairs. The answer to the last one was usually “no”, but he’d ask anyways. Just incase.

About twenty minutes later, Skrap-It had finished eating and left the rest of the ore that he hadn’t eaten where it was for later. He had left his rock to check on his scrap collection, just incase the winter winds had blown in during the night and messed it up. He was pleased to see that it wasn’t disturbed at all and was heading back towards the rock when he heard heavy treads outside.”D-structs?” He guessed, not speaking to anyone in particular. Skrap-It sprinted towards the entrance just as D-structs had finished the climb up the ramp.”You’re back!” Skrap-It exclaimed. The large T-trux greeted him with an expression Skrap-It knew to be softer than his usual “I look angry and probably am” face and nodded before rolling around him towards the lava pit. Skrap-It followed and noticed the snow that had built on top of his best friend during his time outside already beginning to melt. He sat down next to him.”So! Did you sleep well?” Skrap-It asked. D-structs nodded. The lack of verbal response used to disappoint the scraptool, but now he understood that D-structs simply prefers not to talk most of the time. He didn’t see anything that could hint towards his best friend being upset. In fact, D-structs turned to him with a look of expectation. Skrap-It knew what he was hinting towards and briefly twitched before speaking.”Yeah, I slept great! I had this really weird dream where the water was replaced with lava! I could actually swim in it! It was harder to see, there was red and orange everywhere and I’d have to get close to something to see it, but it was really warm and toasty.” He said, answering D-structs’ silent question. D-structs blinked and his eyes briefly widened, a sign of surprise and interest, but Skrap-It wasn’t done with his own questions yet.”Did your morning go well while I was sleeping?” He asked. D-structs nodded again.

“What were you doing outside?” Skrap-It asked. D-structs turned to face the lava pit and tilted his head down. The bit of snow that had yet to melt quickly slipped off his head and fell into the lava, making it hiss. He lifted his head back up.”Preparing.” He said. That answer peaked Skrap-It’s interest. The snow was completely gone from his friend’s body by now and the water left behind was slowly beginning to evaporate from the heat.”Preparing for what?” He asked. He twitched after he spoke. D-structs shook his head and neck, tilting one way then another rapidly. Skrap-It jumped behind a rock to get out of the way of the droplets of water that came flying off of it. Once D-structs was done, he cleared his throat.”Grab a snack, we’re going.” He instructed. Skrap-It smiled and did as he was told. He ran to the ore pile and picked up a piece big enough to be held with both front legs, but also be carried with just one. He sprinted over to D-structs and climbed up his tread onto the platform above it. D-structs turned around towards the entrance and they began to leave.

Just as they exited the cave, Skrap-It remembered something and opened his mouth to say it.“And no, I don’t need any repairs.” D-structs interrupted. Skrap-It closed his mouth and looked at him with slight irritation.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The Dark Forest looked a lot like the rest of the crater, except the majority of its trees hadn’t lost its leaves in the fall. And it was oddly dark, as usual. D-structs said that the trees that were still alive were called “evergreen trees” and that they kept their pointy looking leaves even in the cold. Because of this, plenty of snow was piled on their leaves and branches, and the snow dipped down near the base of the tree in a circle. It was really cold, so Skrap-It remained close to D-struct’s side for the heat of his engines. The tall trees gave them a bit of protection against the slowly fading snowfall and the sunlight, so Skrap-It took the chance to shake the snow off similarly to how D-structs did, but with his whole body instead of just his head and neck. Once he did, he looked over at the ore snack he brought with him and picked it up.”We’re just passing through, right?” He asked before chowing down on his food. The Dark Forest didn’t scare D-structs, but it definitely put Skrap-It on edge. Still, he trusted his best friend not to use a dangerous path, so he remained as calm as he could. D-structs shook his head.”There’s a cave hidden in here with ore. We’re going to be staying in there. Don’t eat too much, we’re trying to save most of it.” He explained. Skrap-It nearly choked on his ore.

“What?!” He exclaimed. He twitched before continuing.”We’re staying here?! In the Dark Forest?!” He asked. D-structs nodded. As he rolled by, his body lightly brushed up against a branch that bobbed up and down when he had passed. The snow fell off the branch and onto the ground.“It’s only for a few weeks.” He said. Skrap-It looked around. Fog was beginning to form around them the further in they went, adding to the cold they already felt. Skrap-It went back to D-structs’ side for warmth again. Soon enough, though, he spotted cave up ahead. D-strucs turned to its direction and Skrap-It was more than happy to welcome its warm protection.

On the inside, the cave dipped down underneath the surface and into a large cavern. Surprisingly, it was much warmer than above ground. D-structs’ and Skrap-It’s lights revealed a large pile of ore on the far right side of the cavern, just waiting to be eaten. Skrap-It ran over to the railing on his friend’s tread platform and grabbed onto it with both front legs.”Look at all that — *skrrrch* ore! It’s like a feast, waiting to be eaten!” He exclaimed. D-structs rolled to the left side of the cave, where a bunch of scrap sat in a smaller pile, but the sight of it was still enough for Skrap-It to lunge off his friend and sprint towards the pile.”Look at all this scrap!” He said, leaping into the pile. The metal clanged and pieces slipped and fell, but the scraptool still managed to disappear into the pile.“Ow! Worth it!” He said from inside. D-structs rolled his eyes almost playfully and smiled a little bit. He expected this to happen, and it was practically why he got it together in the first place. Skrap-It soon poked his head out of the scrap pile, which was amusing to see.”Did you do this?” He asked.

“Yes, I found these in Scraptor Valley. Your welcome.” D-structs replied with a nod. Skrap-It leapt out of the pile and scurried over to D-structs. Once he was close enough, he lifted his front legs and hugged his T-trux friend.”Thank you!” He said. D-structs nodded and very briefly lowered his head to carefully press himself against Skrap-It’s back in an attempt to hug back. He quickly lifted his head back up before Skrap-It could say something.”I still need to get a few things.” He said. That was a signal to let go, and Skrap-It obliged. He watched D-structs turn around and leave before going back to his new scrap pile.

~~~~~~~~~~~

D-structs had returned some time around lunch with more ore for said midday meal and nudged some of the leftovers towards the ore pile. After that, he began to circle the cavern and picking up any loose rocks he saw, then taking them outside. He only had to do this a few times since it was already pretty clean for a cave. Skrap-It decided to help out after watching him do that, and he actually made a difference since he was able to get the several small stray pebbles, leaves, and twigs that had somehow made their way in out of the cave. They two also cleared some snow away from the entrance to avoid letting any inside. There was almost no conversation between them during that time, and by the time they were all done, it was a little past dinner time.

“Whoo, that was a lot of running back and forth! But look at this cave! It looks so much nicer.” Skrap-It said. D-structs nodded and dropped the ore he had left to grab onto the cave floor. Some of the pieces broke into smaller chunks, which made it easier for Skrap-It.”Yes, you were a great help, Skrap-It. Thank you.” He said. Skrap-It smiled widely. It felt really nice to receive verbal thanks from his best friend since he usually stays quiet. He walked over to one of the broken pieces and began eating it while D-structs picked up one of the bigger ones. The two began enjoying their meal in the somewhat warm, dry, clean cave.

After they ate, the two ended up chatting about random stuff. Well, more like Skrap-It talking about random stuff and D-structs listening patiently and occasionally giving his input. They must’ve been deep into the conversation because neither heard the heavy treads coming into the cave.“The more things change, the more they stay the same.” A voice said. Whoever it was sounded a lot like D-structs, except smoother and a little deeper, almost like an older version of his voice. Skrap-It turned around and D-structs looked up from his small friend to see another t-trux standing there, bigger and a bit scarier than D-structs. He looked surprisingly a lot like D-structs, with black and white coloration and patterns that looked similar to D-structs’ coloration and patterns. He had two horns protruding from his head near the back, but one of them was broken off. On the same side of his face as the spiked horn, he had a scar behind his eye, as if something had cut through that part of his face. He let out a deep, amused chuckle. Skrap-It screamed before jumping off of the rock and sprinting towards the closest thing that would provide him with safety. He ran underneath D-structs and turned around, looking outside nervously.

He expected to hear a growl from his T-trux companion, or for him to spin and hit the newcomer with his tail, but he didn’t.“About time you got here. I was getting impatient.” D-structs said.There was a bit of lightheartedness in his voice, the kind he’s used when talking to Skrap-It a few times before. Hearing him use that tone instead of an angry one and understanding what he said made the scraptool quickly come to the conclusion that D-structs knew this stranger and trusted him. As shocking as that would be, it seemed to be true. Skrap-It slowly crawled towards the edge, where he would look up and see that neither actually looked angry. Well, maybe to someone else, but Skrap-It found the other T-trux’s expression to be unmistakably similar to D-structs’ “I-look-angry-but-this-is-actually-my-neutral-look” expression.”Don’t blame me. Blame your little problem in the Flat Irons for giving me trouble.” The stranger said. D-structs rolled his eyes.

“Of course they did.” He said. The t-trux glanced down at Skrap-It, nearly making him jump and scurry back under his best friend’s protection.”Who’s the scraptool?” He asked. D-structs looked down at him and rolled back, exposing him to the large stranger completely. When Skrap-It didn’t say anything and simply stared up at the stranger, D-structs lowered his head and gave him a small nudge. As if to encourage him. Skrap-It briefly turned his head around and glanced up at him, then turned back to the bigger T-trux. He twitched before speaking.”Hi, big, scary T-trux I don’t know.” He said, not realizing what he had said before it was already out. Immediately, he felt like an idiot, but the stranger laughed at his words. He faked a laugh for a few seconds before the T-trux spoke again.”My name is D-stroy.” He introduced himself. Skrap-It glanced back at D-structs again.”So you two aren’t going to fight? I mean, I’d prefer if you didn’t, but what’s going on?” He asked.

D-structs gave his head a light shake.“He’s my big brother. We do fight occasionally, as any sibling would, but that’s not why he’s here.” He exploited. Skrap-It’s jaw dropped. He glanced between them, realizing that their similar colors and patterns wasn’t a coincidence.“Wait, you have a brother?! I didn’t see that one coming!” He exclaimed. He then heard another voice. This time, it was female.

“Oh my gosh, he’s so small!” The voice said. A creature stepped out from behind D-stroy. It was like nothing Skrap-It had ever seen. She stood on two legs and had no treads like him, but her legs were pretty skinny and had black and white hazard stripes on the lower half of her legs. The rest that he could see was white, but there was a weird thing covering them. Like an extra layer of... something. Skrap-It couldn’t recognize the material, but it was a light grey color. It flowed down from the front of the upper half of her legs and down behind her, giving the impression of a large tail, but that wasn’t her tail. Her tail was long and held in a position that looked like an S, and at the end of it was a glass cylinder with a dimly glowing yellow liquid inside and a metal point, which made it appear as if it was a stinger. The arms were similar, looking like they were made of the same white metal as the upper half of their legs. Their hands had four fingers and were bigger than a t-trux’s, and while they weren’t claws, they looked like they were great for grabbing. The shoulders, upper arms, and her chest were protected by the same material covering part of her legs. Just like the thing covering her legs, they appeared crossed at the front, and they were a darker grey than the thing covering her legs.

Even weirder, it seemed that their upper chest had two lumps. Her abdomen was made of black metal instead of white, which would’ve made it a bit difficult to see the difference between that and the thing covering her chest, but the headlights from the two T-trux’s made it easy. The next weird thing was her head; most of her face was pitch black with yellow lights that definitely looked like her eyes. The lower bit of her face was the same white metal, curving up to where her nose should be and then dipping down to either side of her face. It disappeared behind the weird stuff on her head that Skrap-It couldn’t quite describe, and her mouth was pretty flat compared to a trux’s mouth. Overall, she looked really abnormal, and it honestly scared him a bit.

The creature sped over to him and lowered herself in front of him. She seemed to smile, and that was when he saw how sharp her teeth were. Skrap-It took one look at those teeth and jumped back.”Kali, don’t crowd him.” D-structs said. The creature, or Kali as D-structs called her, stood up and took a few steps back.”Oh, right, my bad.” She apologized. She crouched back down and looked at Skrap-It.”So what’s your name?” She asked excitedly. Her tail moved side to side rapidly at the stinger, but the rest of the tail seemed to remain still. Skrap-It looked up at D-structs for help again.“Kali here is my sister. They’ll be staying in the crater over the winter.” D-structs explained. Skrap-It looked back at them.

“It’s part of a tradition between the three of us.” Kali added. Skrap-It had no idea what exactly the tradition was, but he had a feeling that this was going to be a long winter.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Only a few minutes later, Skrap-It found himself changing his mind. D-stroy was a lot like his little brother, except he was a little more talkative than him. Kali seemed to be talk the most out of the three siblings, and she was surprisingly easy to talk to. Once she and Skrap-It fell into a conversation, he realized she wasn’t so scary. Both of them had stories to tell, things to rant on and on about, and were eager to hear more from the other. It was really nice.“And then he brought me some ore and stole one of Ty’s bowls so he could bring me water until I recovered from the cold!” Skrap-It finished telling his story with a smile. Kali turned her head around to look at D-structs, who was near the ore pile with his big brother.“He sounds like he’s been a great friend.” She said. Skrap-It didn’t notice it, but there was a hint of pride in her voice.

D-structs seemed to ignore her comment and she turned back to look down at Skrap-It.“Hey, have you ever gotten scrap from a scraptor before?” She asked. Skrap-It perked up a bit hearing her question and set the bolt to the side. Scrapping a scrapper was unheard of. How would one scrap a scrapper?“No, I’ve never thought about it. How would I get it though?” He asked. He didn’t notice it, but D-stroy stopped eating and both he and D-structs turned around to look at the two with knowing expressions. Specifically, their gaze was focused on the not-trux in the cave. A strange, unsettling grin made its way on Kali’s face. Her fangs weren’t exactly big and tough looking, like most trux’s “teeth”, but their sharpness was very intimidating.”Oh, leave that to me.” She said. There was a sort of innocence in her voice, but something told Skrap-It that whatever she was planning was anything but innocent.

D-structs and D-stroy turned their attention back to each other.”I’m starting to think she has enough in her to take down a dreadtrux.” D-structs muttered.“A bit unrealistic, but fair. She did take down that scraptor frenzy all on her own a couple years back.” D-stroy said.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The scraptors laid scattered, yet organized on their many personal nests along the walls of the canyon. Kali observed them from the top, crouched down and leaned over the edge a bit. Skrap-It also looked at the scraptors below next to her. His beams were strong enough to reach all the way down, but not enough to cause a disturbance and wake them up. He twitched and looked up at Kali.”So how do we get the scrap? And shouldn’t we get D-structs or D-stroy? They’re t-truxes.” He asked in a hushed tone. Kali turned to him with a smile.”You’ll see.” She said. She glanced back down at the scraptors.”Which one do you want?” She asked.

Skrap-It turned his attention back to the scraptors and didn’t take much time before he pointed at one practically straight ahead, except they were down below.”That one.” He whispered, twitching afterward. He heard the “FWOOM” sound Kali’s wings had made earlier when they seemed to appear from nowhere back at the cave when they left and turned. Kali stood up and used one of her legs to leap off the edge, tucking her wings in to dive down. She gained momentum as she got closer to the ground. When Skrap-It was worried she was going to crash, she opened her wings and glided towards the scraptor he had pointed at. Kali grabbed it once she was close enough, startling it awake, and she sharply pulled up with a flap of her wings. The scraptor thrashed around and roared angrily in her grip, but she didn’t let go. Once she was above the canyon, she turned around and flew back over to Skrap-It. Kali tucked her wings in and let herself fall down with the scraptor still struggling.

Skrap-It jumped back and yelped as the scraptor snapped its jaws in attempts to bite him. Kali seemed to practically ignore the obvious danger and changed her hands to claws. There were three of them on each hand, and they were bigger than the scraptor’s. She used them to wrap around the scraptor’s neck and held it above her head, then shoved her other hand into its body. Skrap-It’s jaw dropped as Kali tore something out of the scraptor and dropped it to the ground. The scraptor, now free, quickly stood up. Instead of fighting, however, it turned from them and began running. Kali held the thing she tore out and turned to Skrap-It.”It won’t stay alive for long, so it won’t get far.” She said. She lifted the container up and used her teeth to tear into it. She lifted it up to her mouth and tilted her head. In the cold, bright moonlight, the scraptool realized it was the scraptor’s oil tank. She was drinking oil. Skrap-It slowly turned in the direction the scraptor went in. Sure enough, he saw it stumble and fall in the distance.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day, Skrap-It had a dead scraptor in the cavern right next to his scrap pile. Kali was fast asleep with her tail wrapped around a stalactite and her wings out and folded. Her eyes were gone and some kind of written message in an unknown language was there instead while the five semispheres on her head were no longer glowing. D-structs looked at the dead scraptor, then at Skrap-It.”Kali got it for me!” He cheered, keeping his voice down so he didn’t wake her up. D-structs sighed. It was one of those “I’m a little disappointed, but it’s harmless and makes you happy, so I’m fine with it” sighs. D-stroy chuckled.

“I told you she’d actually do it.” He said. D-structs rolled his eyes and went back to eating breakfast with him and Skrap-It.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Over the next two weeks, Skrap-It would say he had become really good friends with D-stroy and Kali and found them to be easy to get along with. D-stroy and D-structs often fought, but it was more like play fighting or rough housing. Kali always said it’s something they do for fun and only occasionally joined in, usually to irritate them and then make her escape. Kali was the sweetest one of the three siblings, but definitely took joy in getting on their nerves every now and then. Some nights, Skrap-It would wake up during the very late hours of the night or early hours of the morning and the three of them would be outside talking.

During these chats, they’d laugh at every little thing, tell stories, talk about their issues, snack on ore and oil, talk about old memories, and generally seem to have an amazing time together as a family. Skrap-It would want to join, but then he’d remember that he’s their friend. Not a family member. So he’d either go back to sleep or go see if he could find some scrap. When he chose the latter, Skrap-It would find himself thinking about how his “family” was like. He had no siblings and his parents were unloving and neglectful of him growing up. He tried many times to bring them scrap and make them proud of him, to at least get a smile out of them, but they just pushed it away with disapproval or didn’t thank him for it. Nights like that, like this, weren’t very fun for him. Skrap-It paused his running shortly after exiting the Dark Forest and sat down. Thinking about how much he wanted a family like his friends, he sighed sadly and faced the ground.

“Skrap-It.” D-structs suddenly said. Skrap-It yelped in surprise and turned around to see a familiar dark T-trux standing behind him. He hadn’t heard him coming and it was dark outside, dark enough to have no shadow unless Skrap-It looked for it.”Oh, it’s just you, D-structs.” He said, putting a claw on his chest where his main engine was. D-structs lowered his head to be more at eye level with him, something he often did.”I have a question. What’s your age?” He asked. Skrap-It paused. He took a moment to ponder why he’d want to know that, but since friends tend to share stuff like favorite colors, he simply assumed this was part of it and shrugged off his confusion.“Uh, I’m actually 20, believe it or not. Other scraptools always said I sound a bit older than my actual age.” He replied. D-Structs lifted his head and turned behind him. He let out a loud roar, and in only a few seconds, Kali descended from the skies landing on his tail and D-stroy rolled out of the cave.

“He’s the youngest.” D-structs told them. Skrap-It looked at them confused. Youngest of what? Of the group? Why was that important? Seeing his confusion, D-structs decided to elaborate.”We’ve decided that you’re one of us now, so naturally, we wanted to know what specific age you were.” He explained. Skrap-It was still left a little puzzled by the situation. He thought about what they could mean by “one of us now”. Did they mean that they could all be friends? That didn’t exactly make sense though since they weren’t just friends, they were siblings, and he said “one of us”. As he thought about that reasoning, what D-structs was talking about finally struck him. His eyes widened and he slowly looked up at them.

“Really?... One of you?” He asked, hoping with every bit and bolt of his being that he was right in what he was thinking. Kali’s smile grew bigger.“You mean... I have a family?!” Skrap-It asked, his voice cracking a bit at the last word. The word that described the one thing he had been secretly longing for all this time. D-structs nodded. Skrap-It’s jaw dropped as Kali hopped off of D-structs and quickly closed the distance between herself and Skrap-It with a few strides. She picked him up and hugged him the best she could without squishing him.”You now have the title of “Little Brother”!” Kali cheered. Skrap-It remained still for a few seconds, his body held up in the strange creature’s surprisingly warm embrace and his head resting on her shoulder. He let out a small “Oh!” that was full of so much relief and happiness that it almost couldn’t be put into words. Skrap-It lifted his hind legs to rest them better on one of Kali’s arms that supported him and lifted his front legs to hug back. He tilted his head so that it laid on the left side of his face and closed his eyes to relax and take in the new love he was overjoyed to finally experience.

The two dark t-truxes watching this both felt their hard gazes soften, but neither did much to fix it. It wasn’t a mistake after all, so it didn’t need to be. D-stroy glanced over at D-structs.”Guess this means you’re not the baby brother anymore.” He said. D-structs turned to his brother with an annoyed look.”I haven’t been the baby brother for a long time. I’m grown up.” He argued. D-stroy grinned sensing his agitation and decided to stir the pot without a second thought. It was practically a reflex at this point anyways.“Oh, but little brother! It doesn’t matter how old you get, you’ll always be the same little t-trux that would follow me around, needing my help, and trying to copy all that I did to make me proud.” He teased. D-structs snapped his jaws at D-stroy in a warning and D-stroy backed away, slowly gaining more speed.”What? Does my itty-bitty brother want a rematch?” He asked, cackling at the end of his “short” joke. D-structs roared out of anger and embarrassment and charged towards D-stroy, who roared back and rolled back only a little more. He quickly moved to the side before D-structs could hit him and clamped his jaws over his neck. He spun to the side and threw him to the side. D-structs slid a bit before dodging D-stroy’s tail swing. The two quickly began to fight each other and went in different directions as the fight progressed, but they made sure not to get too close to Kali and Skrap-It as they roared and growled at each other.

Kali watched them with a fairly unimpressed look before redirecting her attention back to Skrap-It with a smile.“While those two fight, how about you give me all the names and physical descriptions of anyone who’s ever hurt you and your new big sister will take care of them for you, okay?” She suggested, speaking with a fake innocence. She began walking, but Skrap-It couldn’t really tell where. He didn’t care, though, he was too focused on the fact that he finally had a real family. He may still not have a loving mom or dad, but he had two big brothers and a big sister now, and that was more than enough for him.

[clover-sky]

Second snow, under streetlight and moonlight.

[pretty-playingdumb]

if anyone needs me i’ll be curled up on the couch watching the grinch 💙❄️

[adena3ka2]

Snow! Snow!! Snow!!!

The second snowfall!! Hurray! Hurray!! The first snowfall was 2 days a go and today serves as follow up :D Downside - It's starting to get pretty freaking cold. And moi ain't liking it at all lol

[creaturesfromdreams]

Second Snow by thienbao

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