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dandi-8nd · 2 years

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The Mundane

(short, TW guns and minor blood sploosh Death)

PREVIOUS PART👇

“Okay see that guy comin’ up pushing the cart with the yellow acid drums? Jump in that gap and ride it to the tanks on the far end of the room. You’ll be able to hide behind them, but I can’t cover for you like this, they’d definitely be able to find you.”

“Are you sure?” Dandy was a little weary of Kane’s advice. Even though they established a small amount of trust and acquaintanceship she still got feelings of uncertainty and flashbacks to when they tricked her into being trapped in the vents.

“Yea, it’s in a really closed off area, and they don’t like being around the vat anyways cause it freaks em out, they only put us workin’ here cause its not white collar enough for Sligs and they wanna desensitize us. So trust me when I say they don’t want anything to do with that gross vat”

“Yea but I’d have to be near it...”

“Well it’s the price you're gonna have to pay for safety Dandy, sorry!”

“They're only trying to find me because they caught me getting that med kit for you….”

“What? Really?! Shit, now I really owe you one for this.”

“…”

“Dandy?”

Kane gently shook Dandy. He tried to make eye contact with her, but she was staring at the floor trying to decide whether or not she would be able to take his advice at face value. She decided that if what he said was correct and he was actually looking out for her, that she would decide to trust him from now on. But was it worth the risk?

“Come on now. The cart is headed this is way, it’s your only shot!”

Kane pushes Dandy into the cart. She stumbles and hits her head on one of the drums.

“Yikes...” Whispered Kane. Dandy poked her head out of the cart looking back at Kane as she rolled away. He waved at her with a guilty grimmace on his face mouthing ‘SORRY’ ”

Dandy rolled her eyes, but accepted her circumstances. The bumps and turbulence of the wheels rolling against the textured laboratory floors stopped suddenly. The steel drum once casting a shadow was lifted, making Dandy feel like a roach exposed to light as she crawled underneath the cart to avoid being seen.

“Wait what did he say? The tanks?...okay so I’m on the far end but-”

Suddenly the cart begins to take a sharp left. Dandy frantically looks around and notices a long line of tanks stacked on top of one another leading to the 2 massive body vats. One of the workers feeds a tube into the steel drum and pulls a switch connected to the wall. The tube emits a harsh vaccuming noise as it sucks the green corrosive liquid out of the tanks. A small amount sprays slightly out of a crack in the tube and lands on the worker in charge of the Acid refills.

“Sheeesh that stings what the hell!”

They frantically try to shake it off as it eats through the top layer of skin on their hand and eats away at the fabric of their jumper. A small bit lands on Dandy, burning a little hole in her sleeve. She realized that she needed to get out of there as soon as possible and, running on all fours, headed towards the tank stack and squeezed herself between the tanks at the far end of the room leaning against the wall. She let out a sigh of relief and looked out to the rest of the lab from her hiding spot.

The two sligs split up and scoped out the area looking each mud in the face, examining their hands and pushing them around with their gun barrels like they were mere objects. The morale became uncomfortable and uneasy.

“Lynn, this place is giving me the heebie jeebies, is that creepy crawly mud head here or not?!”

“Sir, one correlation I’ve noticed between my encounters in the clinic and that of what the west guards at the sleeping quarters said last night was that this thing likes dark places! The vat room is the darkest place at Claviers during the day time!”

“Okay well then why aren’t there any Mudokons crawilng up on the walls? huh Lynn?!”

“They wouldn’t be in plain sight…they’d be in the shadows! Check in the darkest corners, like those tanks near the vat!”

The two look towards the read where Dandy is hiding and look back at each other. Nezkar straightens his barret and takes on a determined posture

"Okay you may have a point there...I'll go check. The tanks, you check behind the ph dials!"

"Yes sir!"

"Oh, and Lynn?"

"Sir."

"The only reason I'll believe you this time is because you've got the testimony of the south and west night guard officers on your side, So don’t get all cocky now.”

“Absolutely sir...”

Nezkar cocks his rifle and slowly walks towards the tanks. Dandy stops breathing. She ducks herself down and tries to not be too visible. Everything suddenly goes silent. When Dandy decides to look up to see if he’s still there. It's almost like her soul leaves her body when she suddenly was eye to eye with Nezkar; his rifle aimed right at her head.

Beck had just finished loading and stacking the last of the bone crates. He nailed the last box closed, but the sound of the hammer was painful to hear. He winced after each hit but had no choice but to hammer faster to get it over with.

On another day he would have felt accomplished to finish all his work early, but every breeze that touched his skin made him feel uncomfortable. The chatter of the other crate loaders to him were like nails on a chalk board. He even became overwhelmed by his own skin and had an urge to rip it off. Every particle that touched him he felt. It was like he was covered in insects.

Every part of him wanted to walk up to that group in the distance and set them on fire.

Beck clenched every muscle in his body whilst taking a big breath and then released. It soothed his irritable feelings but not enough to make up for his dependency on substances to make it through the day.

He walked up to them wearing the widest and fakest smile on his face that he could muster.

How've you been! Haven’t seen you around lately! Let me bum a few cigs off you pal!”

“A few? You've got some audacity!”

“Or just one! Heh...sorry, your man’s been dopesick due to some unfortunate circumstances”

“Oh yea! Frank lost last night! to that new guy Nipples or whatever. That's too bad you ain’t get your zaw! Better luck next time am I right?”

“Yep...”

The mudokon throws Beck a cigarette and Beck pulls out a match and lights it up himself. Beck joins the group on the bench.

“I thought Kane was gonna fight Frank...what happened?”

“Oh it's a long story, Kane is in no position to fight for a little while anyways since he got capped in the hip last night...”

“You’re kidding! Is that what those gunshots were about?!”

“Yea, it was my fault though, I was pullin aggro with some freak that was pushing my buttons and a slig enforcer saw. Kane was caught in the crossfire...literally”

“Damn, that’s crazy, I feel like I’ve never seen you that chapped, but then again you’re probably having the worst comedown in oddworld right now.”

“Yea, now I just gotta focus on getting back in with the fights, that’s why I haven’t stolen that zaw dust from Snips, if I can get him on my team we can earn way more stuff than that through bets alone.”

“What about kane? He survive the weeding or what?”

“Yea, it's crazy. This little kid from the new shipment snuck into the clinic and got him a med kit. If it wasn’t for that rascal he’d be in the vat by now for sure!”

“You two always somehow get lucky”

“Yep, I’m right about ready to get lucky again. See you ‘round!”

Beck gets up, completely inhaling all that was left of his cigarette and leaving an shy husk of the former stick with the butt still in tact. He flings it to the ground and walks away.

“Hey...what the fuck??? Where’s my darts???”

They pat themselves down looking for their box of cigarettes that was suddenly missing and the group get up to scour the area.

Once Beck is in a blind spot he pulls out the stolen pack and lights himself another cigarette

Snips was hauling Acid Drums like the day before. He was starting to get used to the routine and at first found the mindless back and fourth labor rather mind numbing in a good way. He had quite a bit on his mind and it was a good distraction. But that feeling slowly faded away more and more with each interruption.

"HEY ITS NIPPLES! YOOOO! YOU'RE CRAZY MY GUY! IM BETTING ON YOU NEXT TIME!

“Ayoo strippy! you fucking savage! Way to go! you almost got Frank weeded today!”

“STIPPLE THE GIANT!! YOU MENACE! YOU FUCKING MAD MAN!!

Passer-by easily were able to recognize Snips from the fight the night before and a few would throw a remark here and there. It never failed to irritate Snips from not only the unwanted attention, but also the constant mispronunciation of his name. Over time as more workers passed by, the calling was more and more frequent until he finally couldn’t take it anymore.

“SKIPS YOU’RE CRAZY MAN!!”

As Snips was walking back empty handed to get his next Acid drum, he grabbed the one that the worker next to him was holding

“IT’S SNIPS. AND IF I HEAR ANYONE ELSE SHOUTING SOME WEIRD ASS VARIATION OF NIPPLE, SKIP. STIP OR WHATEVER; YOU’RE GOING TO GET WEEDED BY ME PERSONALLY. NOW FUCKING STOP THAT SHIT”

Snips threw the drum at the passing mudokons. A loud bang echoed throughout the cargo offloading area. The impact of Snips throwing the Acid Drum caused a thin crack to bust open, spraying acid out towards them and burning a few. Every worker both inside and outside of the Cargo area stopped what they were doing. The chirping and chatter went completely mute and everyone looked towards the overseeing slig guards. There were about 7 in the area, a few being woken from their sleep from the loud noise. They all looked at each other and then back at Snips. One piped up.

“Damagin’ Claviers company property is punishable by death”

Snips didn’t react, he didn’t even look at the sligs. He was unafraid, and unbothered by the threat. He looked up at the sky, observing the insects and birds flying past him. He reached out and caught a bug in his hand and pressed it in between his fingers, just enough to hold it still but not enough to kill it.

“So is mispronouncing my name.”

A few Workers gasped at his audacity to talk back to a slig. The murmurs and chatter began to grow again. The slig looked to his comrades and they all nodded.

“Alright” Said another slig “We’ll let this one pass...since you’re proving to be a rather useful Cog”

Snips apathetically shrugged, letting the insect in his lands fly away, he was about to continue with his duties when suddenly a slig shot their rifle in Snips direction, zooming past him so close that he could hear the bullet breaking the air next to his ear. Snips turned around to see one of the outside workers calling out to him fall to the pavement. His chest spewing like a faucet. The Mudokon instantly lost consciousness and died on the spot. his eyes still open and filled with fear. Snips was atonished at what had just happened but had no expression on his face. He looked back at the Sligs in charge.

“Someone’s gotta attone for this little incident. You should have just offed them yourself instead anyways instead of making a scene; makes our job easier since we have a death quota.”

A pool of blood began to grow from the fresh corpse it expanded across the ground and began to overlap the puddle of acid causing it to sizzle and foam up. The chemical reaction left an ominous smoke-like vapor into the air looking almost like a soul leaving it’s vessel.

“Well? Anyone gonna clean this shit up or do I gotta kill another one of ya’s and make this mess even bigger!”

Without missing a beat old fart came through with a bucket and rag and went right to cleaning. The disposition of the collective workers became instantly woeful and depressed. Everyone stepped away and carried on with their duties. Snips stood there looking at the ground before shaking off his brief disassociation, deciding to get back to work as well. He walked past old fart.

“If I knew they’d pull some shit like that I wouldn’t have-”

“Save it stripper nipples!”

“...Hm..”

“His name is Lerry by the way”

“Huh?”

“The guy ya got killed. His name is Lerry. Knew him since he was ehhh 14? 15? You know,”

“Oh..he liked watchin’ fight nights?”

“Yea, ever since he was a teen he’d love watching the fights. I took him to his first one and he was hooked ever since. I think watchin it was like an escape for him. He never participated though, but he always wanted to. He’d practice every single day during his break. I kept tellin’ him to just go through with his first fight, that the next day might be his last but he never listened. Always said he wanted to win his first fight and how he didn’t wanna mess up in front of everybody. He was gonna turn 30 next week I believe.”

Snips knelt down and grabbed a rag from Old Fart’s bucket and helped him clean up the mess.

“Old fart is it? What’s your real name?”

“I honestly forgot”

“But you remember the name of this guy?”

“I remember all 94 of their names, a fraction of them are alive now and it honestly kills me. I'm not gonna pretend like I don't care either cause I do. I may be old but I'm manly enough to not give a fuck what you think of me.”

Snips said nothing, but he did feel remorseful for what happened. He now realized how detrimental it was to make such a scene like that. His actions would have a bigger impact on others than himself if the sligs were deciding to keep him alive like that.

Old fart was about to speak before he inhaled some of the blood vapor

“ *COUGH cough* Listen I know what you went through with Rosco was hard. These boys are like sons to me; Even if they hate my guts and want me dead. I wake up every day knowing one of ‘em is probably gonna die and the inevitability of that is something I'm never gonna be numb to. I’m always gonna be left to pick up the pieces here.”

“...” Snips began to scrub faster. Even scrubbing at sports that we’re already seemingly clean.

“I also know that Dandy is like your Rosco now. And don’t lie to me like thats not it er whatever the shmucks here like to front. You can’t deceive this old man, especially when you went out of your way to save me like that on your second day here without even knowing me like that. You got a good heart. My question to you is what you’re gonna do when the little scrounger eventually kicks it back and dies. Can you handle going through that all over again? ”

Snips wanted more than anything to get up and walk away from the conversation but something was compelling him to stay.

“You've got it all wrong old man.. I lost everything....Hell, I stay losing everything even now. Nothing can replace my wife and kids, nothing. And nobody can ever replace my son. Not even Dandy. Even if that wasn’t the case, I wouldn’t dare try if it meant I was gonna go through that shit all over again. Dandy, She’s not gonna die I’ll make her stronger. I’ll only look after her until she can take care of herself which I know won’t be too long. Then I’m letting her go; I can’t put myself through that again. I'm not getting attached.”

“Really now? I hate to burst ya bubble snip snap, but ehhh...almost all my boys here are dead. And yea, I guess you can count Beck and Kane as the longest living survivors here besides myself, but that's cause they were strong, they had what it takes. Dandy’s not only a little girl but she's pretty small for her age and I'm assumin’ she's 11 or older cause that's the minimum age to get landed here. She’s thin, weak, I mean-”

“Nobody saw what I saw. She’s got what it takes, if not more than that. If she wasn’t able to climb herself out of that vent I honestly would have let her rot in there forever. It would have been a far more merciful fate than if I had helped her out of there myself. If she can break out of a locked cell and steal fucking medical supplies to treat someone’s bullet wound and save them from gettin’ weeded, she’s not gonna die.”

Old fart let out a chuckle

"Well Nipple Stripper, if you think she's gonna live then I'll believe you...for now."

The two were able to clean up most of the mess together in a fairly short ammount of time. Snips stops and turns to old fart. He was going to correct him about his name but decided not to.

"I guess I'll weed him, since I'm the one who got him killed"

"Sounds good then" said old fart. They both get up and old fart places his hand on Snip's shoulder, this time Snips didn't shrug him off. "When the work day is over, I need ya to come see somethin with me. It's important, trust me."

"Uh...okay"

Snips grabs Lerry's limp body, rather than throwing him over his shoulders like he did for the others, he lifted and held the corpse in his arms in a more respectful manner and made his way to the body processing warehouse. He thought about the conversation he just had with old fart and whether it was worth it to keep looking after Dandy. He was turning a corner when suddenly he ran into Beck sitting on the floor leaning against a wall. He was holding his head in his hands with a cigarette in his mouth.

"Fuck stop spinning world!"

"What???"

"Everything is like spinning if I shift my eyes to fast and once it starts I can’t stop it. I have to close my eyes."

"You got a headache?"

"AND?"

"Sounds like a migraine. It's also not my problem I guess"

Beck opens his eyes slightly and sees a peak of snips before closing his eyes again.

"Oh fuck it's you!"

"Mhm."

"Listen man, I just wanted to know...what you thought about the fight last night. Do you think you should have won more? Cause I think you should've."

"Do most of the people here fall for that?"

"Oh ALL THE TIME, but it works better if I make eye contact which I can't do right now. Bur my question still stands. I mean, I'm not gonna sit here and lie to you; that was the mist entertaining fight night I've seen in YEARS. Warrants way more than a blanket and some narcotics"

"Okay."

"Do you agree or not??"

"I have to carry this body to the cadaver processing warehouse and you're enduring a migraine and knowing whether I believe I deserve a bigger reward for beating someone half to death is your main priority right now? And you're sitting here telling me EVERYONE falls for this??"

"Exactly except there's nothing to fall for and I'm prepping your ass for a win win scenario so would you just roll with it?"

"You want to collaborate with me on rigging bets"

"YES"

"Okay. I trust you."

"Welp I tried…WAIT- SHIT! Really!?!? You're down, guy? You trust me!?"

"If you ever betrayed me I'd just break your spine in half."

"Heh you're kidding"

Snips said nothing and kept walking

"You're kidding right?"

"How's Frank?"

"His spine concaved I heard"

"That's a shame.”