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nerdzzone · 3 years

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Only For A Moment: December

Summary: A series of shorter one shots from Chris and Whitney’s life together throughout the pandemic. Some happy times, some harder times, some fluff and some things a little more sexy - they work through it all as they try to get settled in their new and blossoming relationship.

Chris Evans x OFC

18+

Part of the Once Bitten/More Hearts series

Only For A Moment: November [part two]

Note: This is the last part of this section of the series! Thank you to everyone who has read, liked, reblogged and commented so far, I really appreciate your support and love reading all your thoughts! There will be more, focusing on their lives as the world starts opening up again, but I’m not sure when it will be posted.

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December 2020

December was a somewhat bittersweet month.

There were quite a few positives as Christmas always brought plenty of joy - and it brought Scott back from L.A. which was a nice treat for everyone - and there was also the big announcement of an approved vaccine. The roll out wouldn't be immediate, of course, but there was hope on the horizon and a clear sense of relief.

However, there were some negatives as well. I still had my concerns about how well we'd adapt our relationship to the realities of real life and, as excited as I was about Christmas, the holiday season was making me miss my family more than ever.

Chris' family was a great substitute - especially as the case numbers were low enough that we were allowed to have small family gatherings which meant they could all to stay over at our house on Christmas Eve as they had the year before - but I hadn't seen any of my own family in over a year and I missed them terribly. It made me so sad to think of how much Grayson had grown since they last saw him and knowing that I had a little nephew that I'd never even met was starting to break my heart.

In an attempt to ease the ache caused by the distance, we had a video call on Christmas Eve since my family were all together too and I was relieved that our friendly, confident three year old had no problem making conversation with the grandparents and uncle that he could barely remember. It was heart-warming and refreshing to have that time with them even through a screen, but it wasn’t the same and it left me wanting more. I wanted to see them, to hug them, to help my mom make Christmas dinner and beat my brother at the card games we always used to play. I wanted to be less than three thousand miles away and it was starting to weigh on me.

I held it together pretty well, not wanting to put a damper on the happy festivities we were having, but later that evening, when I was alone with my thoughts as I finished tidying up the dishes from dinner, it was suddenly overwhelming. I leaned on the counter as my chin dropped to my chest and the tears finally came. I wasn’t going to let myself have more than a few minutes to wallow in my sadness, but almost as soon as the tears started, a voice from behind me interrupted.

"Whitney?" Lisa quietly announced her presence. "Are you okay?"

I sniffled and quickly wiped my eyes before turning around to see her standing in the doorway with Scott, concern on both of their faces.

"I'm fine," I smiled weakly, but Scott wasn't going to let it go that easy.

"What's wrong?" He asked. "Why are you crying?"

"I just miss my family. It's hard not getting to see them at Christmas," I admitted. "I know I didn't get to see them last year either, but it's been so long now since I've seen them at all. I guess that's just made it harder."

"Oh, honey, that's understandable," Lisa assured me. "I can't imagine how I'd feel if we hadn't been able to be together at all for as long as you've been away from your family."

"Usually I'm fine," I insisted. "I think just seeing them all together and not being there got to me a little bit."

"Well their loss is our gain," Scott informed me. "Because we're really happy to have you here. I know it's not the same, but you're part of our family too."

"I know and I'm so grateful that I have all of you," I rushed to assure them, not wanting anyone to think I wasn't happy to be spending the holidays with them. "It's been so amazing how you've all taken me in and let me be a part of your family. I know things were complicated with Chris and I, but you've always been so good to me."

"You've been a part of this family from the moment we found out about Grayson," Lisa said firmly. "Whatever happened between you and Chris never mattered to us. We're glad you've sorted yourselves out now, but we've always thought of you as family."

Scott nodded in agreement and their kind words brought more tears to my eyes.

"That really means a lot," I choked out, blinking frantically to stop myself from crying anymore. It took a moment to compose myself, but eventually I let out a laugh and wiped my eyes again. "Sorry, I'll stop blubbering soon. I don't think I realized how much I missed them until now and once I get all weepy, it's hard for me to stop."

Lisa crossed the kitchen quickly and pulled me into a hug.

"If you need to let it out, then you go right ahead."

I returned her hug and was about to inform her that it wasn't necessary when Chris - who had been upstairs putting Grayson to bed - appeared in the doorway and interrupted our little moment.

"What are we letting out? Why is Whitney crying?" he asked. "What did you two do to her?"

"We were just letting her know that none of us would judge her if she wants to dump your ass," Scott lied, a smirk on his face. "And now she's crying tears of joy."

"Scott!" Lisa scolded despite the laugh that fell from her lips as she let me slip out of her arms. "That's a horrible thing to say."

"It's not true," I assured Chris even though I was sure he'd figured that out. "I just had a little sad moment. I miss my family so your lovely family members were reassuring me that I'm part of yours."

"You absolutely are," he agreed, coming over and slipping his arm around my waist before pressing a kiss to the side of my head. "I'm sorry that you're sad, but do you remember what I told you last year?"

I'd spent a lot of time trying to block out the memory of last Christmas in the months after it happened and apparently I'd done a good enough job to not know what he was talking about.

"No," I shook my head. "What?"

"There's no time for worryin' at Christmas!" He reminded me. "Let's get you a drink and turn that frown around!"

"Alright, that sounds good," I laughed as I slid out of his grasp. "Lisa, can I get you another glass of wine?"

"Oh, yes, that's actually why we came in here," she smiled. "We were sent to get everyone another round."

"Perfect," Chris grinned as he opened the fridge and started pulling out supplies.

He poured drinks for everyone, but held me back as his brother and mother left the room with as many drinks as they could carry. He pulled me into his arms again before I could pick my drink up off the counter.

"Are you good?" He asked, rubbing his thumb on the exposed skin just above my jeans. "I'm sorry that you miss your family."

"I'm fine," I smiled up at him. "It was just hard seeing them all together tonight and not being there. I do miss them, but I'm okay. I'm happy to be here with you and your family."

"As soon as things get better, we can go and visit," he promised. "I think I'll have to head to L.A. in the near future anyway. Now there's a vaccine and things might start to improve, there's more talk of starting The Grey Man."

While the thought of a trip to L.A. was encouraging in theory, it made my stomach turn. Travelling while the pandemic was still around seemed very stressful - if Scott's journey home for the holidays was anything to go by - and the thought of Chris returning to work was something I wasn’t eager to think about. I knew he was trying to make me feel better though so I stretched up and placed a kiss on his lips.

"That would be nice," I smiled. "I'd like you to get to know my family a bit more."

"I'd like that too," he nodded. "As soon as we can, I promise."

As I slipped out of his grasp, I tried to focus on that hopeful promise and push any sad feelings from my mind.

The rest of that evening was pretty lowkey. We knew that the kids would be up at the crack of dawn as they were the year before and went to bed early in preparation for that. It was a decision that I was very grateful for at six thirty the next morning when Grayson woke us up by launching himself onto our bed.

“Merry Christmas!”

His little voice cut through the silence of the room, ruining any possibility that we might have been able to sleep a little longer.

“Merry Christmas, Gray,” I heard Chris answer as I rolled over. Just as I turned to face him, Chris dragged him down from where he was bouncing on the bed and pulled him against his chest. “Let’s go back to sleep. Okay, buddy?”

We all knew that wasn’t going to happen and Grayson proved it as he giggled and wiggled around, squealing loud enough to ensure that no one in the house could possibly still be asleep.

“Gray! Shhh,” I laughed, pulling him out of Chris’ arms and into my own. “Merry Christmas.”

I kissed the top of his head and he pulled back, grinning up at me.

“Santa came, Mama!”

“Did he?” I gasped. “That’s so exciting!”

“There’s so much presents!”

“Wow, I guess we should go see who they’re for!”

“Probably me,” Chris teased Gray. “I bet they’re all for me and maybe one for your mom.”

“And for me?”

The hope in Grayson’s voice had me interjecting before Chris could tease him any more.

“I’m sure there are some for you,” I assured him. “I bet there’s some for everyone.”

“Even Uncle Scott?”

That question earned a howl of laughter from Chris, but I nodded.

“Even Uncle Scott,” I smiled. “He’s been pretty good this year, hasn’t he?”

“No!” Grayson giggled. “He scared Daddy! And me!”

I laughed, thinking back to the incident he was referencing. Ever since Scott returned from L.A., he and Chris had created some kind of ‘scare war’ where they were competing to see who could scare the other in the best way. They posted the videos on Instagram and their fans loved it, but it had gotten a little out of hand. Scott caught Chris off guard when he came home from a walk with Dodger the day before and got an excellent reaction from him, but he didn’t realize that Grayson was with him too. The poor kid was terrified and cried for almost fifteen minutes afterwards. Scott had been incredibly apologetic and tried to make it up to him, but apparently Gray wasn’t feeling particularly forgiving.

“He did scare us and that wasn’t very nice,” Chris agreed. “He’s probably on the naughty list!”

“Yeah!” Grayson grinned at his dad. “Let’s go see!”

He scrambled off the bed almost as quickly as he’d climbed up in the first place. Once the sound of his heavy footsteps faded as he ran down the hall, Chris pulled me into his arms.

“Merry Christmas, Win.”

“Merry Christmas,” I smiled up at him. “Crazy to think that we woke up like this a year ago too.”

“Almost exactly like this,” Chris smirked. “Until you snuck out of bed as if I wouldn’t know we’d been cuddling all night.”

My jaw dropped slightly.

“You knew?”

“Of course, I knew!” Chris chuckled. “I’d been awake for almost half an hour before you woke up, but it felt so nice cuddlin’ you that I didn’t wanna move.”

“That’s so embarrassing,” I laughed, burying my head in his chest as he assured me that it wasn’t. “But it’s so strange to think that if there hadn’t been that snow storm and I hadn’t stayed over that night, maybe we wouldn’t even be here now.”

“Do you really think that?”

“It’s hard to say,” I admitted. “I think we would have ended up quarantining together, but if we hadn’t had that slip up at Christmas, we wouldn’t have had the same incentive to talk about things during lockdown.”

“But that slip up showed that the feelings were there,” Chris pointed out. “So, maybe it would have happened while we were locked in this big ol’ house anyway.”

“I like to think so,” I smiled. “Either way, I’m happy it did.”

“Me too,” Chris placed a kiss on the top of my head as the sounds of excited children floated down the hall towards us. “I guess we should get up before they come looking for us.”

I reluctantly agreed and we dragged ourselves out of bed to join the festivities.

Christmas morning was much the same as the year before. The kids were overwhelmed with excitement at all the gifts, but very grateful and appreciative of everything they received. Chris bought me some new cameras that I’d mentioned wanting to buy before my work picked up again, but it was my gift to him that I was really excited about.

I watched as he opened the box that I’d carefully wrapped and pulled out the photo album that I’d put inside.

“Wow,” Chris murmured as he flipped through the pages with a soft smile on his face. “Are these all of me and Gray?”

“There’s some of Dodger too, but yeah, mostly it’s you and Gray,” I informed him. “I just thought, it’s been such a crazy year and there’s been a lot of stress, but there were some good moments too and I wanted you to have some memories of those.”

“This is amazing…”

He flipped through the pages that I’d filled - in order by month - of all the pictures that I’d taken since the start of the pandemic. There were some of him helping Grayson ride his bike, some of them reading together and doing puzzles, some of them playing in the pool, some of them raking leaves in the fall, carving pumpkins at Halloween, cooking dinner together, curled up on the couch watching movies and pretty much every other day to day activity that they did together through the lockdown. I was amazed by how many pictures I’d taken when I started compiling them, but I knew it was a gift that he would appreciate.

“That’s one of my favourites,” I giggled, pointing to a picture of bath time one night when Chris had fashioned them both beards made out of bubbles.

“I love them all,” he smiled, looking up at me with glassy eyes. “Thank you, Winnie. Thank you so much.”

I leaned in to place a soft kiss on his lips as Lisa moved to stand behind her son and sneak a peek at the album.

“That’s such a wonderful gift, Whitney,” she gushed. “Those pictures are beautiful.”

“Thank you. If you look through it later and pick out your favourites, I can make you some copies.”

“That would be great!” She grinned. “I would love that, if you don’t mind.”

I assured her that it would be no trouble and made notes of a few that I thought she might want as Chris and I spent the next half an hour flipping through the album and reminiscing on the happy moments we shared as a family during a very dark year. It was a rather odd feeling that such a bleak time had also been such a happy one for us. I was beyond grateful that our families had been relatively untouched by the virus plaguing the world and was more than happy to join Scott in his toast to all our continued good health when he brought out the mimosas as soon as all the presents were unwrapped.

The rest of the day was filled with plenty of love and appreciation of our little family and the opportunity to be together. As we had the year before, we called all the relatives who lived too far away to join us before spending most of the day playing games, drinking fancy Christmas cocktails and eating delicious food. We had learned something from the previous years celebrations though and didn’t let ourselves get quite as intoxicated as we had back then.

All in all it was a lovely day and my heart was feeling very full by the time we said our goodnights and headed to our room that evening. I was refreshed by the opportunity for such prolonged socialization and had a little extra pep in my step as I pranced off to the ensuite bathroom to brush my teeth.

However, when I came back out, I was surprised to find Chris sitting on the edge of our bed. He glanced up when I walked in, a soft smile on his face, but there was an air of nervousness around him that immediately put me on edge.

"You okay?"

My question was simply met with a nod as he beckoned me over. He grabbed my hand as soon as I was close enough and kept me standing in front of him.

"I have one more present for you," he informed me after a moment of quiet. "But I want to preface it with an explanation so you don't freak out."

I laughed nervously at that statement, wondering what kind of gift could possibly make me freak out. A car? A new house? A puppy? My mind was instantly running wild.

"Okay..."

"I know you're still nervous about things going back to normal and how we'll handle it - I can see it on your face every time it gets mentioned," he started, his words so far offering no explanation. "I've been trying to think of something that I can do to reassure you, something to prove just how committed I am to you because I am all in here, Winnie. From the moment I met you, I knew you were something special and it sounds a little cheesy and over the top, but you really are the love of my life. It took a little soul-searching and some brainstorming, but I eventually came up with something I think might help us both..."

He paused then and reached behind his back, pulling out a little box that made my heart start pounding in my chest.

"Oh my god," I gasped out as he slid from the bed to kneel on one knee in front of me.

He opened the box and looked up at me with hope written all over his face.

"Will you marry me, Winnie?" He asked, the question bringing tears to my eyes. I was biting my lip to hold myself together and didn't realize that I hadn't answered until he launched into some further reassurances. "We don't have to get married right away - we can wait as long as you want - but taking this step, making this extra promise and commitment, I thought it might give us both some comfort."

I was still stunned, completely blindsided by his proposal, but I took in his words and appreciated his reasoning as a grin slid onto my face.

"Yes, Chris! Yes, I will marry you."

Chris visibly relaxed at my acceptance and, with noticeably shaky hands, he took the ring from the box and slid it on my finger. As soon as it was safely in place, he sprung to his feet and pulled me into a breathtaking kiss.

"Holy shit," he let out a deep breath, moments later when we finally parted. "That was terrifying. I thought for sure you were going to turn me down and tell me that I'm insane."

"You kinda are," I smiled. "And everyone else is definitely going to think we've lost our minds."

"Well, we've never done things the traditional way and it just makes sense, doesn't it?" It was a question, but he didn't wait for an answer. "It hit me when we were talking in New York and you made a joke about me proposing, that it wasn't a bad idea, that it was something I wanted to do. I know we've technically been together for less than a year, but I haven't wanted anyone else since the day I met you so what's the point in waiting? I'm not gonna make decisions based on what everyone else thinks we should do - that would be crazy."

I smiled at his anxious rambling and stretched up to place another kiss on his lips.

"That would be crazy," I agreed. "And I don't care what they think. I don't want to be with anyone else either."

He matched my smile as he squeezed me even closer.

"And I mean it, we don't have to rush into anything or start planning a wedding right away," he assured me. "But I thought this extra step might make you feel better about things changing. I'm in this one hundred percent and I'll do whatever it takes to make this work for us."

I didn't need a ring to know that Chris loved me and wanted to make this work and being engaged wouldn't make any of the challenges that were ahead of us any less difficult to face. But there was something about how fearless he was in making such a commitment to me and something about the way he was so determined to reassure me of just how invested he was in our relationship that did put me at ease and fill me with confidence.

The fact that despite all the things we'd been through and all the things we still needed to work on - including my own insecurities - Chris was willing to marry me and make that lifelong commitment had my heart about ready to burst in my chest.

"I'm willing to do whatever it takes too," I assured him. "I love you so much, Chris."

"I love you too," he grinned. "And god, I'm so relieved you said yes."

"Of course I'd say yes," I insisted. "You know I love you."

"I do, but I also know you're worried," he reminded me. "And I didn't want you to think I was using a proposal as a band-aid or something. I know that it won't always be easy and we'll have to work hard."

"We will," I agreed. "But now, at least when you're away, I'll have this pretty ring to remember you by."

I pulled my arm back from around his waist to look down at my finger. I was grateful that it wasn't a massive, showy ring, but it was beautiful and seemed fairly unique.

"It's alexandrite," he informed me. "It's one of the birthstones for June which I thought was fitting for both of us. I was gonna use Gray's birthstone, but apparently April is diamond and I wanted something different. There's diamonds on either side of the big stone though so he's in there too."

"It's beautiful," I smiled as he grinned proudly.

"I didn't think you'd want something too over the top, but I wanted it to be something nice."

"Well, you nailed it," I assured him. "I couldn't have picked a nicer ring myself."

He captured my lips in another kiss and I leaned into it, trying to wrap my head around what had just happened.

"Have you told anyone?" I asked once he pulled away. "Does my family know?"

"I told them last night," he nodded. "I called them back after I tucked Grayson in to let them know. And my whole family knows because I was stressed about the whole thing and couldn't keep it to myself. Oh, and Hannah because she scares me and I thought she'd be mad if she didn't know."

I laughed, letting my head rest against his chest.

"She would have been mad," I agreed. "But I can't believe she scares you, she's like a little chihuahua. She's all bark, no bite."

"She cried on the phone when I told her," he admitted, earning another bubble of laughter from me. "She assured me they were tears of joy, but swore me to secrecy about it so let's keep that between us."

"Oh, no way!" I giggled. "That is too good not to tease her about."

"Well, it'll be your loss if she kills me."

"Again, all bark and no bite," I reminded him. "Did your family know you were going to ask me tonight?"

"Yeah," he nodded, looking a bit sheepish. "I think they're all waiting in the living room to see what you said.”

“Then let’s go share the good news,” I smiled, moving to link my arm with his. “Then we can come back in here and celebrate properly.”

I shot him a wink to emphasize what I meant and he let out a low growl of approval before dragging me out of our bedroom.

Of course, his family were thrilled that I’d said yes, even though it didn’t seem like any of them were particularly surprised. I called my family and Hannah as well before sharing a celebratory drink with my soon to be in-laws.

But it wasn’t until we laid, curled up in bed after our more private celebrations that it really started to hit me.

Sure, some people would think we were moving a bit too fast and they might have been right, if we had any intention of actually getting married right away. But for us, it was just another layer of reassurance. The ring on my finger was like a little security blanket, a memento of support for when things got hard and our schedules grew busier. It was a reminder that we were determined to make this work no matter what happened and it had me feeling much more hopeful about the new year ahead of us.

Things would change, there was no doubt about that, but we could get through it and come out stronger in the end. I knew it wouldn’t always be easy and there would be times when we felt like giving up, but with a little love and perseverance, I knew our relationship - and eventually our marriage - would only benefit and grow from our efforts.

Tags: @maggotzombie @moonlacebeam @mizzzpink @zaylaugh @flowery-mess @flowerjewels @njrronaldo7 @hockeychick10 @partypoison00 @theladybiers @sidepieces @firoozehmoon @patzammit @sparkledfirecracker @mytbel0st @chvntelle-99 @mjey12

#chris evans #chris evans fanfiction #chris evans fic #chris evans fan fiction #chris evans fanfic #chris evans fluff #once bitten/more hearts #only for a moment

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urproblematicfav-ao3 · 5 years

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Unstoppable force/Unmovable object

What's up losers I haven't finished and posted anything in literally a year!!! Anyway here's some Krieg/Maya because there's not enough of that and I had a fit and wrote this in like a hour while very tired

Read it on archive instead if you want

Also friendly reminder I take commissions if anyone is interested in that ya know hmu or whatever

~~~

Maya had guessed something like this was going to happen. She didn't know much about Krieg's past–she didn't think he did either, honestly–but given what she did know about him she knew this was going to be rough.

Lilith made it mandatory to get the new vaccine that Doctor Tannis had made. Refusal meant a one trip phase lock off Sanctuary. Which made sense, it was pretty bad when the sickness was going around. Something about Skag meat that resulted in people throwing up blood and a small portion of Sanctuary's population going down. Luckily none of the Vault Hunters caught it and all managed to get their shots and moved on with their lives.

Except for Krieg.

Maya knew this would happen.

He was hiding up on the roof of the fast travel building. Pacing and yelling at himself, visibly upset about this whole concept.

"SHUT UP, BLOOD DOES NOT BELONG ANYWHERE BUT IN THE MOTHERS BELLY!!"

Yea, she knew a lot of things about Krieg but still had no idea what 90% of the Psycho gibberish he said meant.

Maya stood jumped up on the sides of the wall and started scaling the building. Which wasn't hard but still annoying to do but she knew Krieg probably wouldn't wanna come down from his hiding spot. He immediately quick his frantic pacing when he saw Maya land on the roof next to him. Still breathing heavy and twitching, though.

"Hey, big guy. You doing okay up here?" She cautioned Krieg was someone that needed a gentle and quiet kind of attention.

"WE DO NOT BLEED AND YET NEED BLOOD?!??"

Maya sighed and stepped closer to him.

"I know you don't wanna do this, I really do. But you need to get the shot now so you won't bleed later. You understand that, right?"

He seemed to genuinely stop and think about it before spasming again and hitting himself on the head.

"SH u T, u P"

Maya flinched for half a second at the outburst before gently places a hand on his mutated arm, pulling it away from his head where she could see a bruise begin to swell. His eyes still looked around frantic and unfocused but his muscles relaxed at her touch as he let himself be moved. Maya gently held his arm as she lifted her other one up."I know that this kind of thing scares you, and I know why it does. And I honestly don't blame you for being afraid, but you see this?" She quickly made a fist, causing a small blackhole to appear above them both. "This means that if Tannis makes one wrong move and hurts you, she won't have a head." Krieg twitched, his breathing calming down as he listened to her and stared at the void gently pulling at his flesh, begging to be soaked in fire and acid. Maya relaxed her hand and the power faded away. She slowly lifted a hand up to Krieg's face and pulled him down enough so her head was against his mask. "You have nothing to worry about, okay? I'll protect you." "Okay..."

She grinned and kissed the side of his mask where his eye was visible.

"Come down when you're ready."

She's far to good to us.

Krieg sat unreasonably quiet on the couch waiting for his turn to get the vaccine. Maya was going first, to show him that it was safe. He gripped his knees and dug his nails into the fabric of his pants while the little man forced him not to scream and stab the doctor lady when the needle full of purple liquid went into Maya's arm. She didn't even react as the needle was shoved into her, not a flinch of pain from the siren. And as soon as Krieg's rage started the whole thing was over and doctor lady was placing a bandage over the small spec of blood that was left on Maya's arm.

Maya hopped off the table and walked over to Krieg. "See? Completely fine." She held the arm the shot was put into. Holding her hand out for him to grab. "Your turn now." Krieg hesitated before gripping onto her hand enough for her to go numb within seconds. Maya slowly guided him over to the table where Tannis already had a knew syringe ready. Krieg flinched and pulled back. "Nonononono, the cockatiels still need to be crushed under theconveyor belt of pain!" Maya quickly placed a hand onto his mask covered face. "Hey, hey, hey. It's okay. I'm here, see?" She flicked her hand up again, the promise of fire and acid and death hovering above her like a halo of space and suffocation. "I won't let go of your hand the whole time, okay?"

Listen to her and get this over with.

Krieg growled at himself but let Maya pull him back to the table. Her hand turning pale from his grip as he squeezed harder when Tannis came close. "He's not going to bite me, is he?" He couldn't tell if that was a joke or actual concern. Maya rolled her eyes and looked to Krieg, smiling and rubbing her thumb in small circles on his hand. Tannis poured a liquid out on a small white hand towel before padding it on his arm causing him to flinch and jerk back violently but not move past that. Tannis made an annoyed sound but continued. As She began pressing the needle against his skin, Krieg felt his breath stop and a loud snap echoed across the room. It pushed past his skin and he could feel liquid go into his body like pain and guilt and screaming and bones breaking and blood oozing and he couldn't breathe and he couldn't brea–

And it was over.

He blinked slowly, looking down as Tannis was already throwing away the needle and leaving to do her own thing.

"See, that didn't hurt at all did it?"

He jerked to look at Maya, smiling and calm. He looked down again and saw his hand entangled with her own. Blood was slowly covering their hands. He relaxed his grip and saw how Maya's hand was snapped nearly in half, bones protruding out in morbid and painful ways.

Maya didn't even react.

She pulled her hand away and lifted the other and made a fist again, this time no void came to punish him but to slowly heal the broken bones and flesh. It was beautiful in that Psycho kind of way as the bones slowly were reset into place and flesh healed over. A small barely noticeable scare appearing.

Once done the siren goddess looked back at him.

"Wanna go on a mission to find a gun that will supposedly curse and kill us?"

"TEAR THE FLESH!"

"And salt the wounds."

Far too good to us.

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wheaterz · 7 years

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Testing Maintenance: Chapter 17

Virgil paced. Words could not be spoken and thoughts could not be conceived. He felt everything and nothing at all. The entire facility spun in his head like a hurricane of images from every camera installed into his walls. Thousands of images were fed to him, the android placing his hands to his head and closing his eyes just to concentrate as he repeated his walking cycle. Red hair and blue eyes. Tan jumpsuit and brown boots. A warm smile and sharp movements. These are what he had to search for, and when he found her he held onto her for as long as he could, until she was once again out of his sight. Virgil would have to switch to another camera and follow her through it until she was out of its range.

“Mel, that’s a dead end! Turn left!”

She listened to him without hesitation. He’d been so wrong to snap at her, and he had to wonder how much of it had really been his fault and how much of it was the Mainframe. He did truly and passionately want to see Mel happy and healthy and felt as if her staying here had been the better option than wandering around up on the surface with…nothing. What was the thing that drove her and told her that if she left everything would be okay? He had to ask her when he got the chance. She was so confident, despite having lived on the surface for the past few months with that nothingness. Then there was the part of him that had to face the logic that maybe there was nothing either of them could do and she was just damned to fail. To not go on. Virgil watched her run, even though most of her was not functioning properly.

“She’s got this…” Virgil mumbled to himself, then caught sight of a pit down the catwalk she’d chosen. “You’re coming to a drop!” That wasn’t there before. Must have happened after he’d come back from the control room. “There’s a white wall on the other side! Try looking for another one near you!”

Mel did just that, shooting the wall across the pit and back-tracking into a nearly empty office where there was conversion gel wall to wall. She was easily able to avoid the pit and continued on her way. She was coming close to the control room, now, since it was not terribly far from the main chamber. It was just a bit of a run around for someone who had legs. Virgil instructed her to follow a closed off, dark corridor that ran between offices all the way down to the end door. Mel opened up into a room with a cluster of robots still inside. She jumped at the sight of the turrets, but was quickly able to assess that they were friendly when they did not shoot at her immediately. The Music Core turned around in surprise, as did Atlas and P-Body, towards the woman leaning against the door frame.

“Oh-woah, woah, woah…where did you come from?” Music’s orange eye flared up, but Mel had no choice but to ignore him. She stumbled her way to the dash with a large monitor that nearly covered the whole wall. She could see through the cameras Virgil pacing in the chamber and she sighed with relief. She’d made it.

“Did you make it?”

Mel breathed a small laugh to herself, put her fingers to the keyboard in front of her, and typed in ‘yes’.

“Oh, excellent!” Virgil turned around to where he knew the camera feed would be coming from for the control room, his voice coming in through the desktop speakers. “Is Music Core still there?”

Yes.

“Alright, have him help you look for the instructions on how to vaccinate me. I can’t tell you how. Like, I physically couldn’t do it even if I tried.”

She believed him. There were a lot of very odd protocols that the Aperture robots were forbidden to do, whether they were rebellious enough to give a damn or not. Mel looked up at Music Core, not at all sure if she had seen him among the rest of the cores or not from how similar they all looked in a huddle, and pointed at the computer.

Music shook his eye at her. “I can’t help you past browsing, just giving you a heads up. I’m not programmed for virus vaccination. I’m made to sing sweet, sweet ballads.”

Mel raised a brow at the core. She would have been more perplexed, but he still was not the strangest of the cores she had seen. Following the Music Core’s instructions on where to go in the computer, the human set to work on curing her friend.

—–

Virgil had stopped pacing and sank to his knees. He could shut his vision off of the rest of Aperture and give himself a moment of rest from all the white noise and overwhelming camera footage. There was still one thing buzzing at the back of his mind, however, and it was the part of him that he hoped would be cured soon.

“Why isn’t science being done? You aren’t doing your work if you are just sitting here feeling sorry for yourself on your artificial behind. Get up and do your job!”

“This isn’t my job…” Virgil groaned, his voice quiet and fed up.

“What is your job?”

“I….I fix things…” He was only mildly aware that the voice in his head had finally answered him directly, but at this point he didn’t care. Everything was almost over. He’d be rid of it all and things could go back to normal. Or as normal as it could get around here.

“That’s not your job! You build things! For science! But then you go and break them for your own selfishness!”

Virgil paused. It had made out that distinction, and the android found himself still possessed with denial. “That’s not what I do. Robots come into my repair wing broken and I help fix them. Its that simple, disembodied angry voice in my head.”

“You worked for me, slacker!” The voice was growing all the more angrier the longer Virgil had decided to respond to him, the Mainframe getting surprisingly defensive and touchy of a subject that would not have otherwise concerned it. “But you decided you were too good for this place and turned your back on us! You caused us a lot of damage, a lot of money, and a lot of trouble, lug nut! Doesn’t matter if I was around to see it or not, you owe me! You owe Aperture!”

“That’s not me…” He grit his teeth, but he didn’t have the energy to snap at this thing anymore than he already had. If he got any more emotional he could see himself blowing a fuse. That could be taken literally or figuratively.

“It was you.” The voice continued to reply to Virgil directly now, and with each thing it spoke the Maintenance Core could feel a small part of himself slipping away from his own thoughts. The voice in his head barked again. “And you know what? I don’t think you’re qualified to run this place.”

Something was happening. Something very…very…monumentally worrying. Little by little Virgil’s vision faded out. It wasn’t instant, or even very quick. It was like a black mist slowly rolling in, and as it did the voice in his head became less clear, as did his own thoughts. The last thing in his mind was the human that was at the control room and how he had to get through to her what was happening. There was no fighting it, and he’d already tried. The simple fact was that it was just going to happen. While he still had a grip on the facility he patched himself through to the control room to speak to the woman putting her life on the line to save their hides, synthetic or otherwise.

—–

“Um…Mel? There’s been a complication.”

Mel looked up. Had Virgil said the exact opposite of what she was now hearing she still knew him well enough by the infliction in his voice that something had gone horribly wrong. She held a hand up to Music, who had been in the middle of helping her set up the vaccine, and the core went quiet so they could hear Virgil speak. When he didn’t say anything after a drawn out pause she turned back to the monitor that held a camera on him. Externally, he looked to be fine, but since he had not continued she typed something into the computer to egg it out of him.

What is it?

“I couldn’t tell you, honestly. I don’t really know, myself. But I feel like I’m not going to have your back like I said I would. You might be on your own for this one.”

Virgil, you need to try and tell me what is wrong.

“I can’t… I’m too tired…”

That made no sense. At all. Also, he wasn’t allowed to be tired. He was a machine for, heaven’s sake. She was the only one allowed to be tired right now. Mel was furiously typing, trying to get him to be less vague, but going on his voice alone it would have sounded like a human about ready to go to sleep for the night. His pronunciation was slurred, slow, and dull. Basically, everything that Virgil was not. Still, she tried to get through to him.

Hang in there just a little longer. We’re almost done.

“I believe ya, Mel. I’m not worried.” It sounded like it was getting worse. “Just hurry it up, yeah?”

That was the last she’d heard from him, and Mel looked back at the camera monitor beyond confused. What in the actual hell? He sounded like he had powered down, but Virgil still stood in the center of the main chamber like nothing had happened. She tried typing to him to ask if he could still read her, but with no response.

“Zoom in.” Music suggested, and Mel gave him a questioning look.

“That means you use the camera to look at him closer—hold on, I’ll do it.” Music Core moved in and stuck out a prong from his hull that hooked into the console. The monitor Mel had been observing closed in on the above view of Virgil so that they could see his face more clearly. The image was no longer as clear, but it didn’t need to be for Mel to see what had happened. Just like the times he had been in the assist droid storage room and helping her in the central chamber, Virgil’s face was a complete blank. The lights were on but no one was home, as her mother used to say to her. At no point in her life did this apply to anyone quite as much as Mel could see from Virgil. He was just standing there.

The woman turned away from the camera and motioned at Music to continue helping her, and quickly. He took the hint and hastily got on track. “Okay! Okay! I get it! Remind me to play you some smooth jazz when this is done so you can calm down a notch, huh lady? Look, we’re almost done. See that code at the right corner of that black screen. Its highlighted in neon green. Copy-paste that to your file like I showed you. Any other green text like that you are going to do the same and then you are done. We can shoot it on down and see if it works!”

She nodded, doing as Music said until the black window had nothing else for her to work with. The instructions that she’d pulled up directed her to a converter to put everything she had worked on through until she had what she hoped was the virus vaccine Virgil had spoken of. She found it interesting that the terminology used for machines was similar to that of humans and that they, too, could catch viruses that could be healed. To Mel, this vaccine looked like a mess of letters and numbers that, for the most part, did not form anything readable. If it made a difference for Virgil then it didn’t matter.

The computer beeped at her and from a small slot down the desktop a thin, rectangular object appeared from inside the computer console. Mel didn’t know whether to touch it or not, so she looked to Music for advice. She was disappointed to find he looked a little put off. She’d gotten very good at reading the core’s emotions just through their single eye, and his was squinting at the object protruding from the console in disgust. “Oooooooh, well that’s just great. Its asking you to do the vaccine manually.”

She only had a small idea of what that meant. Mel took the object from the console and inspected it.

Wait…she recognized this. Yes, the end point of this device. The hollow, metal bit that came out at the end with a square opening…it was exactly what she had used to plug into Virgil, but without the cord attached to it. He had a slot for this in his wrist! Mel opened the breast pocket of her jumpsuit and placed the USB drive safely inside. She would run like a bullet shot from a gun to get this down there to him.

That is when the lights turned off.

Mel froze, dropping everything that she was about to do and keeping perfectly still. Even the computers had shut off and the only light in the room to be had was from the colorful eyes of the Music Core, Atlas, P-body, and the empty turrets. They all looked just as confused as she did and the two testing bots trilled at each other in concern. The facility was silent. Before, Mel could hear the distant factory sounds of machines, but the white noise had died off. A moment ago the red glow in the room had been solely exclusive to the pacifist turrets, who had not made so much as a peep since Mel walked through the door. Red was no longer their color alone and Mel would find this true as she turned to Music to ask him a question, only to discover that the eye color of his optic had changed from bright orange to a deep crimson. Remembering what had happened to Virgil in the central chamber, this initially frightened Mel and she took the precaution to stand away from the Music Core. However, after time had passed he hadn’t so much as blinked, the optic staring straight ahead at…really, nothing. Mel raised her arm and waved a hand over his line of sight, but there had been no physical or verbal response to it. He simply hung there like a string-cut puppet, much like Virgil was now.

Mel looked up at Atlas and P-body. Neither of them seemed to have the same problem Music had, and both equally as concerned as she was. But there wasn’t time to worry about it or the lights. The woman weaved her way past the turrets, taking extra care not to knock them over as she passed, and was back in the hallway. At first, the pitch black had been daunting without any light source and she wondered to herself how on earth was she going to find her way back to the chamber. The trot of mechanical footsteps followed her and two lights appeared to brighten up her path. Mel turned around to find Atlas and P-body had followed her out and had turned on their flashlight functions through their optics so that she could see. Each of them chirped at her, P-body giving Mel a thumbs up. She smiled and nodded at them to show she appreciated it and kept walking.

She assumed that the testing droids knew exactly where they were going and eventually fell to the back of the line to let them lead. After only a few minutes of walking the first sound other than their own footsteps caused all three of them to jump as it blared off. In the distance was an alarm of some kind. The noise itself was certainly faint, and nowhere near where they were traveling, but to exist in an otherwise silent environment had been startling. They stopped and waited to guess where it may have come from, but following it soon after was a much closer alarm of similar purpose. Mel compared the alarms to the ones she used to hear wailing throughout the her hometown as tornado warnings. One had destroyed their crops when she was nine-years-old, her family huddled in a stuffy, mildewed basement as it passed right over their heads. The dark and the dread, partnered with the alarms, had given her some very unwelcome nostalgia and it hit too close to home for her comfort.

Despite the alarms that were going off, nothing else had happened and they needed to keep going. They passed a personality core on their way to the central chamber, and Mel had no way of identifying it to see if she had seen it with the others before. It was stuck in the same state the Music Core had been; staring off into space like an empty shell with its optic barely glowing at all in that deep shade of red. Sure, there had been red-eyed cores she’d seen with the others, but this was beyond a coincidence anymore. It would have morally bothered Mel if she kept going without taking a closer look at the sorry piece of metal hanging from its management rail. Pulling a box under the core, she climbed up onto it to get a better look and she frowned at what she saw. The optic was simple in shape and had no fancy iris like Virgil, Jonathan, or Rick, who were all three very decorated. However, the core itself was bent out of shape, cracked, scratched, and bandaged up. Glitchy had been on his way to check on them when the lights went off. She could only assume it happened at the exact same time the Music Core had gone catatonic.

There was really nothing Mel could do. Jumping down from the box, she motioned to the testing droids to continue on their hike back to the central chamber and leave Glitchy where he hung.

The alarms continued to wail through the dark facility and echoed off the towering walls of the testing chambers, and more joined in. Not after long the lights of the facility turned back on, but not as they had been before. Like the cores, they were dimmed to red or a dark, ruddy orange. It was how the sun looked from behind black clouds of smoke during a fire, or even the low glow of embers dying out over that very same blaze. It was eerier than anything Mel had encountered while she had been in Aperture, which spoke miles of the facility’s current state. P-body shivered and Atlas placed a hand on her side, trying to comfort the taller robot as they walked.

All three of them jumped about a foot in the air when a very loud voice addressed them over the never-ending amount of speakers Aperture possessed.

“Welcome to Aperture Science Innovators —oh, no sorry. That is incorrect. I haven’t updated all my files yet. In any case, its good to have you on board! The enrichment center is the future of this world and the future of science! We are grateful that you have volunteered to help us in anyway you can!”

Mel had to stop and process exactly what she was hearing. The voice was more than familiar, but it was not Virgil’s. In fact, it belonged to no robot she had met in the past six months. This was the voice of the man she had signed up with when she volunteered to test. Though she had never met Cave Johnson in person, his prerecorded messages had followed her through most of the bottom part of the Aperture before it had been run down and decayed. In fact, she had even found a few after the fact when she’d woken up and was following Virgil’s lead to the junkyards. The first thing in her mind was that the facility was playing one of his many prerecorded messages, but the next time he spoke she was proven very wrong.

“Now, I know what you’re thinking. What can I do to help Science? Well, Miss Flanagan; for starters you can toss away that little thumb drive you’ve got in your front pocket.”

Mel gasped, teetering a step back in shock, but catching herself and her hand flying protectively to the pocket where she kept the vaccine.

“Yes, that! You’ll find that things are going to be running a lot smoother around here now that I’ve taken care of some minor details. So there’s no need to be using that scrappy piece of hardware anymore. Walk your pretty-self over to the nearest elevator and we can get started right away on testing. And don’t worry about your friend down in the central chamber. He’s the one assisting me run this place right now, so no need to bother him. He’s being very helpful! A true friend to science!”

Mel’s fists clenched together when Virgil was mentioned. The red lights of the facility around her flared up to a brighter setting until they were burning to stare at. The human looked away, the area around her resembling a photographer’s darkroom workshop and it was stinging her eyes to stare at it for too long. The floor beneath Mel shook and slid out from under her and she landed in a stark, white-lit room that vastly contrasted the black and red they’d been standing in. The testing droids had better reflexes than an exhausted human would have and were only just able to jump out of the way in time. Mel blinked against the bright light, which was practically blinding after she’d been in the dark for so long. She’d been placed in a typical testing chamber that looked like a simple faith plate puzzle over a pool of toxic waste. Even just glancing at it Mel had solved the whole chamber already in her head, but she refused to move. After taking a quick glance up at where Atlas and P-body were looking down into the chamber at her, she glared at the red-eyed camera in the corner.

“Oh, don’t be like that. Look, it was my mistake putting you in such an advanced chamber from earlier. I just assumed that by now you would be a highly skilled tester on these tracks, but here I’ve put us back to the beginning with an easy-to-solve puzzle. Just trying to ease you back into the groove. What do ya say, Olympian Bronze Medalist? Surely, this isn’t too much for you to handle.”

Whether she could handle it or not was not the issue and she wasn’t going to humor him any longer. With everything going on, she was going to ignore any further questions that came to mind like, 'Why is Cave Johnson alive and speaking to her over the intercom? Was he alive or was he a machine like Virgil?’. To someone that wasn’t fending for her own life and the artificial lives of the facility, these would be some very pressing questions, but her current concern was how to get out of the chamber other than the obvious route.

There was a high trill from above Mel and a red portal was popped onto the the wall beside her. At first there was nothing through the center ring except the bright, sunburst energy on a white surface. After a moment an opening appeared into somewhere dark and with cool, stagnant air. Mel looked up to see P-body waving at her. The two robots had been looking for another moon rock surface since Mel had fallen in and had found one by pure luck. The downside was it would put Mel much further away from the central chamber. It was a clean cut across a large pit and then downwards on a catwalk heading towards a giant, metal pipe as thick around as a house. Mel would come to realize all of this when she leaned through the portal to get a look at where it would lead her. She’d take her chances. Mel waved at the testing droids and jumped through, having no other choice. She waited on the other side for Atlas and P-body to follow her. They had every intention to, and Mel saw through the red side of the portal the bots jump down into the test to go after her. The very moment they hit the black, tiled floor of the chamber a large, flat panel with giant spikes melded under it came down on the robots and crushed them into pieces. Mel jumped back, horrified with the sudden, violent act and the Portal immediately closed and disappeared in front of her eyes. Mel’s chest heaved with her out of control breathing from the scare and an over-worked heart beat. The man over the intercom spoke up in a casual tone that suggested he had not just smashed two sentient robots into scrap metal.

“As you can see, testing with droids is not real science. But neither is running around the walls of this place and hiding out like a rat. We only just got rid of the last guy that was doing that, we don’t need another squatter in my facility. If you aren’t going to test then you can’t be here.”

That sounded cryptic. Mel was not going to stay in one place and find out what he had been implying. She entered the opening of the giant pipe, finding in the dim light an iron ladder that she could climb to the top. It was her only escape route, there for she did not hesitate to start climbing. The question hung over her about what she was going to do once she had reached the top. The facility was dark. It would have been the easiest thing to take the wrong step and plummet into a deep pit and she no longer had eyes or ears on where she needed to go. The ladder to the top was easily over one-hundred feet high, but she had taken steeper drops than that. Getting to the lid was tedious and on one more than one occasion she had to catch herself from blacking out and would quickly hold a tighter grip on the metal bars. She hoped she was going in the right direction. It was the only thing she could hope for at this point.

When Mel reached the top she opened a trap door above her, though it was solid and weighed a ton. She was sure that had she been here at the beginning of her time in Aperture that she would have had no problems lifting it, but she had to give it a few shoves before finally nudging it far enough that it fell open on its own the rest of the way. Mel crawled out of the pipe space and rolled over onto her back to catch a breather. She got on her elbows and pulled herself towards a corner of a wall beside her with plants hanging down over it to take five minutes. Just five minutes was all she needed. The Mainframe, Aperture, all the robots, her doom, and Virgil…they could all wait on her for five God forsaken minutes. While she took a moment to breathe, she noticed something funny about the plants that hung from the ceiling.

Huh. Potatoes.

There was a flash of light and Mel jumped. She coiled back, getting on a knee and ready to jolt at the first sign of trouble. The light was a warm orange color and Mel’s heart skipped a beat when it cascaded in fragments between the low growing potato plants hanging from the ceiling. Her first thought was the hope that Virgil had broken from the mainframe and had come to help her, but she realized that the movement of the light was too smooth for anything with feet. Along a management rail that she had not seen in the dark until now was a core with an orange optic; one that came to a stop and stared right at her. Unfortunately, it was a core she had the displeasure with meeting before.

“You don’t look so good, human.”

Mel got up, ignoring Nigel completely and carrying on her way to find the central chamber. She went the way the management rail had, since it was the only passage she could see, but that meant the core could follow after her. Mel hoped he wouldn’t, and she didn’t care to wonder how it was that he was still functioning when the other cores were not and how he had gotten out of his box.

“Now, I know what you’re thinking. Why is it that I am functioning just fine and how did I get out of that weighted storage cube. Well, I know that you can’t ask me these things because you’re mute and all, so I will answer them for you.”

Mel sighed.

“You see, I was not hooked up to my management rail when the Mainframe issued the other Personality Cores to shut down because they had put me in that box. So, when I heard what had happened I simply freed myself with one of the factory claws and – BAM! Here I am! Happy and free! Hanging around what is essentially the Aperture apocalypse and ready to help you–!”

Mel turned swiftly around and pointed a finger at him, glaring so ferociously the core shut his trap, so to speak, scooted backwards on his rail. Mel swung her portal gun at him a few times, just barely missing while he pleaded. She’d found hitting robots with her Portal device had been very effective in the past.

“Wait! No! Its not like that anymore! I’m here to help! I know where the central chamber is! I can take you there!”

The woman stopped swinging and stood there. As much as she wanted to smash this ball into a flat cylinder piece like someone stomping on a tin can, she was willing to hear him out if it meant reaching the chamber. Nigel blinked a few times, waiting to see if she was finished before continuing. “Look, this place is going to the dogs. I am not damaged, I can see that we’re all about to be in for a very bad time. I don’t want that. The other cores don’t want that. YOU don’t want that. I can show you to the chamber and you can make everything normal again. That’s all I want. To manage my testing track and to not die. I am being about as sincere as I can possibly be right now.”

Mel wasn’t having it, and she turned around to leave him behind again. She suspected that the management rail would split at some point and she could trail away from him. As she walked away, Nigel called frantically after her.

“No! Wait! Lady! Stop! Hole! HOLE!”

Nigel’s flashlight flicked on just as Mel stopped. The dark red hues of the atmosphere around her suddenly turned into a sharp streak of white light and black shadows, with no color variation in between. Everything was completely monotone. Looking down at where her shadow stretched out far in front of her it was split in half by a menacing black hole ripped straight down into the floor of the corridor. She didn’t want to guess at how steep of a drop it must have been, but she turned to Nigel, clearly spooked from nearly falling into it. Nigel shook his eye at her, looking both annoyed and proud with himself.

“See? You can’t go anywhere right now and you don’t have any other options. Every core in this place is pretty much dead to the world unless the Mainframe decides otherwise. I was lucky! Now are you going to follow me or am I wasting my time here?”

Mel’s shoulders fell, totally defeated. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of any kind of response outside of a simple, but to-the-point, nod of her head.

Fine. Lead.

“You are sensible, then.” Nigel was very pleased with himself at this point and turned around to scoot down along his management rail. “You’re going the wrong way, anyway. There’s a turn up here. Just follow me and tread lightly. This place is coming apart…again. We don’t get any action for decades and suddenly two humans wake up and everything goes bananas a few months apart from each other. Are you and the Tenacious Test Subject related? I mean, you both have female human parts and…well, I was going to say you both wear your hair up, but it looks like yours isn’t anymore. Its a nice look for you, by the way. You should wear it down more often. Okay turn over here. Maybe I can find you some citranium while we’re wandering around here. You look like someone that appreciates soda…”

As much as she hated this core, Mel could not deny that she liked hearing the robots of Aperture ramble as she walked. Maybe not a couple dozen at once, but to have one give her some radio white noise while she traveled was always nice.

As Nigel had promised her, Mel began to recognize parts of the facility that lead to the central core chamber. She could see the blazing white lights of the dome shaped room far ahead and seemed to be the only place in Aperture that was still fully lit up anymore. Up until now the facility looked feverish with its dark reds, which looked to be pulsating, but could have easily been a trick of her tired eyes. She and Nigel reached the single long corridor that lead to what used to be GLaDOS’ station and Mel could see at the far end into the bright room Virgil standing at the center with not a single expression on his face or twitch of his fingers. All there was to be seen was a blank room and the single assist droid motionless in the middle of it all. Mel was cautious. She wondered if he was capable of attacking her.

Mel turned to Nigel, her eyes burning wordless questions into him and waiting for his response.

Nigel wiggled his handle-bars at her. “See? I took you right to him without any problems! Whether you decide to go in or not is your issue. I’m not following. I will tell you one thing, though. I wouldn’t be so hasty to go in here. The Mainframe probably has this place rigged-ded-ded-ded-dddddddddd-d-d-d…”

Mel faltered as Nigel’s voice rapidly started to sputter and cut out. The woman’s gut dropped when his orange optic suddenly turned red and he went uncharacteristically quiet. She waited for him to say anything more, and even reached her portal device up to tap the side of his hull, but there was nothing more from the Tag Core.

She was trapped. For once, she did not believe Nigel had meant for her to be trapped and genuinely wanted to see her solve their problems, but that didn’t change the fact that she had nowhere to go. It all seemed rather hopeless. She stood in the center of the split in halls and wondered which path to take. To go into the central chamber was obvious suicide. There could be any number of things waiting for her, planted there by the mainframe. She could attempt to leave. Find a way out herself, but her chances of succeeding were so little. Not with how things were right now, and not without help. She could test. She was so good at testing. She was confident that she could go through every puzzle in this place and solve them all. She could run around the tracks like a rat in a maze and satisfy the Mainframe.

But that was not Mel. She would not back down and she would not stop fighting with fang and claw. She was raw and mighty and among the best of athletically gifted humans of her generation. Mel was an Olympian. She felt it with every stride that she took into the central chamber. She felt it with every beat of her heart that she would conquer. Her steely blue eyes focused on Virgil and she did not flinch when she entered the chamber and the panels to the corridor closed behind her, locking her inside. Everything was still and quiet. There were no portal surfaces for her in here, rendering her gun useless unless she decided to throw it again. And she did.

Mel tossed her gun and it landed on a panel half-way towards Virgil’s still android body. There was not so much as a single beat when the floor from bellow the gun erupted in an explosion of fire. Mel did not flinch, the fire disappearing and as the smoke cleared she heard Cave Johnson chime in over the intercom. Every time the Mainframe spoke it sounded as if it were trying to explain simple instructions to Mel in a reasonable tone that was exceptionally unfitting for the malicious deeds it was actually performing on her.

“So I decided to test out an idea one of my previous avatars had where he booby-trapped one of the stalemates and I thought I would give it a whirl, but it seems like it wasn’t one of the best ideas in my library. Looks to me like a majority coming from him weren’t, to be honest. Kudos for trampling that so quickly, though. Lets look at some of what She had…hm…Well, good news is I don’t plan on using neurotoxin gas. Its been wildly ineffective in the past and its unorthodox, too. Regulations do not call for toxic gasses when shutting down a threat. We’ll go for something a little more classy.”

Mel was too tired to really give two hula-hoops about the regulations behind neurotoxin, just that she was relieved it wasn’t being used on her again. The effects from the last time she’d inhaled it were still making her sluggish and hadn’t been helping when pushing her physical limit. She’d even caught herself violently coughing on occasion. She did, however, have to wonder what he meant by 'classy’. The little voice from behind Mel was enough to tip her off.

“I see you.~”

40 notes · View notes

ecotone99 · 5 years

Text

[NF] A Cat Owner's Story

PROLOGUE

Ever heard the saying that cats mimic the behavior of their owners? It’s true that cats are one of the mysterious creatures in this world. They can be friendly and at some point, they can be fierce. They are also considered as low maintenance pets because of their slothful nature. All they do the whole day is sleep and being fed by their human slaves. I know some of us dreamt of living the cat life, a life where we could sleep all day and worry about nothing. A life where we can eat all we want and not worry about getting some extra weight where being judged is not a problem, for being a fat cat can be considered cute by the eye of most humans. What a life a person can imagine. But what about the behavior of these little fur balls? Is it true that their behaviors reflect who their owner really is? Do they act as a mirror and a copy of the true nature of their owner? That would be pretty clawsome, a person can be defined who they are by just a mere feline.

“Well don’t you think that’s neat, Oreo?”

CHAPTER 1: THE FIRST CAT

September 2015. It was my third year of junior high school. I got news from my mother that our neighbor’s cat gave birth to kittens and is planning to give one to us. I was delighted for I always wanted to have a pet cat. During my childhood days, I thought of having a pet cat means having a mandatory vaccine for anti-rabies. So, trying to adopt a cat frightened me but I guess my mother only told me that because I can’t handle such a big responsibility for a young age.

As weeks passed by our neighbor gave us the cat for it has already grown appropriate for adoption. It was two cute little black and white Persian tabby cats, both having tiger-like tail. I thought Oreo would be a nice name for one of them but since they are twins, I decided to name both as Oreo. So, the Oreo brothers were named upon by their great master.

These two cats are quite the playful little fellows. More and more days passed by and they just keep on getting jolly. There is a state where I call it the “hyper stage” wherein they would run around inside the house chasing each other as if there was no tomorrow. It was fun watching them little fur-balls play. My mom said that the other Oreo will be sent to my aunt for she also wants to take care of lovable cats. I was fine with the other Oreo being adopted by my aunt.

A week after, the Oreo brothers got sick, and I felt sad during those weeks. They were pale and not that playful anymore, but my mother told me that everything’s going to be fine and she will buy medicines for them to take up. I believed what she said and had faith that they are going to be alright. One day when I got back from school I saw Oreo walking slowly in the living room, but his brother is not around. I started to sweat and got all tensed up, I tried to convince myself that the other one is maybe just at the kitchen. My mother then greeted me for being home. I asked her where the other Oreo is.

“He’s already gone, he passed away when you were at school.”

A tear started to flow down from my eye. I hugged my little Oreo as tight as I can. “I guess we can’t give

your aunt a cat, I hope this Oreo will become better soon,” she said. After giving my cat a hug, I quickly hurried into my room. There I lie in my bed, sad and not being able to sync on what happened. I decided to sleep.

CHAPTER 2: A PARTNER?

January 2016. Months quickly passed by and Oreo grew and grew larger. Another neighbor of mine was planning to give us another cat, a female one my mother said. When this cat was given to us, she’s small and her fur is purely white. Though, her breed is more of the local cats here in the country, she’s still as beautiful as ever. I named her Shiro, a Japanese name that means white. After weeks of taking care of her, she got an infection on her right eye. Not only an infection but she got sick as well. I hoped and prayed that she doesn’t meet the same fate of what happened to the other Oreo. Weeks later, to our surprise she got well and well, but the cost of having her right eye disappearing. The infection may have eaten her eye away; however, she can still see using her left eye. Shiro then got healthier and was able to become playmates with Oreo. I guess Oreo found another cat to play with.

CHAPTER 3: STRAY CAT

February 2016. While going home from work my mom brought another cat. She said that it followed her on the way home, so she decided to take and adopt it. As I take a close look, his eyes where not the same color; one is green, and the other eye is blue. Truly fascinating. He is a bob-tailed cat and his fur was also purely white just like Shiro’s. I looked up Japanese names and decided to name him Yoshi, which means good luck in the Japanese context. One thing noticeable about Yoshi is his love for “chicharon”. A Filipino snack made from pork skin, deep fried so it would pop up. Every time I would open a pack of chicharon, Yoshi would come running to me and would not leave by my side unless I give him a chicharon or two. His meow is distinguishable from my two other cats, so I know when Yoshi is near. It was like having a playful dog, except it’s a cat. That makes Yoshi another playmate for Oreo and Shiro.

CHAPTER 4: H & H

June 2016. Shiro gave birth to three kittens. Two were purely white and the other one is an orange tabby cat. It was my first time seeing a cat gave birth. Turns out that if cats have kittens they shift into their maternal instincts. It’s like a whole turn from Shiro from being a playful cat to a responsible mother to her kittens. After weeks, we gave one white kitten to my aunt and I decided to keep the remaining two of them. I named the white one, Haru, which means spring and the orange tabby, Hiro which means abundant, the reason is many cats in our area are colored orange. Thus, the HH brothers were named. They were quite the little ones but Haru is much larger than Hiro. Even though they are just little kittens, they were energetic and liked to move around the living room.

CHAPTER 5: YOSHI’S PURR

November 2016. It was November, my birth month. A week before my birthday, Yoshi got sick and haven’t eaten for quite a while. I gave him meds and took care of him a little more than needed. Though, his personality changed. He seemed to be not that playful anymore and whenever I tried to feed him chicharon, he has no appetite and would just

hide in a corner to sleep. I hoped that everything would be fine soon.

November 21, 2016. It’s my birthday. I went home from school and was greeted by a warm welcome by my mother. During my birthdays, it’s already common for me to not invite people at my house. I prefer to celebrate my birthday with me and my family only. So as my mother is preparing the food, I went upstairs to change clothes and as soon as I got downstairs, it was time to eat. I was enjoying the lasagna that my mother made when suddenly Yoshi, sitting beside me, started coughing hardly. I panicked and quickly got up on my feet. He then started to have seizures and I all I could think about was it still is not the time. I grabbed Yoshi, but my mother instructed me to put Yoshi down on the floor. I put him down and watched him continuously have seizures as it worsens. I tried not to drop a tear while watching my cat being in pain and agony. I stayed by his side hoping that he would return to normal. All the sudden he stopped moving, dark green bile started coming out of his mouth and all that’s left in front of my eyes was the lifeless body of Yoshi. I was trembled, I slowly reached out to Yoshi and before I knew it my tears started to drip out non-stop. All the memories started to flash back as if it was just yesterday. I wanted to believe that it was not real, and it was all just a dream. However, it was not a dream, but it was a reality. The reality that I’m holding Yoshi who have now passed away and what I’m holding is just nothing but a corpse. I cried, I cried like a part of me somehow was taken away painfully. I hugged the cold vessel of my cat. I yelled out his name. All that’s left of me is his recording of his purr in my cellphone.

"Yoshi… Yoshi… please don’t go away..."

CHAPTER 6: AM I REALLY PREPARED?

July 2017. Since I took up an exam at a university. My schedule from June as the start of the semester turned into August as start of the semester. My family along with my other relatives invited me to go swimming on a resort at Zambales. It was far away but my aunt went to our home to take care of my cats while me and mother is away from our house. It was a 3-day vacation. However, the day after the third day is my scholarship exam for the university. So, I really did not get the chance to study that thoroughly. I just hoped and relied more on my stock knowledge skills for the scholarship examinations. At the resort, I didn’t even bother thinking up of the exam, I just enjoyed myself of the scenery and the great beach that has to offer. It was fun hanging out with my family and relatives. It’s a once of a lifetime that we go out to do this kind of bonding. Guess I enjoyed being outside for a change.

Our vacation ended, and we got home at around night time. We were greeted by my aunt from our entrance. “How’s the trip?” she said. I said that it was fine and enjoyable. I started to ask about my cats and noticed that Oreo was missing. I got nervous, it’s the same feeling again. I asked where Oreo was.

“Oreo is not here anymore,” my aunt said.

I didn’t believe it at first. I rushed to my room and throwed my bag to the wall. I was stressed out, I panicked, I looked over the place and there was no sign of Oreo anywhere. I then knelt on the floor and started crying. I tried to keep myself calm but it seems that I could not get over the fact that my very first cat is gone. To make things worse, my cat left this world without me being by his side when his time is already counting down. The idea of not being able to see your cat during his final hours shattered me…

I was devastated…

I was torn apart…

It felt like my heart has broken into tiny little pieces…

Again, another important part of my life is taken away from me. I want to see Oreo one last time…

I tried to think about the upcoming scholarship examinations the next day. But all I could think was my pet cat, Oreo that night. The next day, I went to the university. I took the exam. It was hard not just because it is academically hard, it was hard because emotionally and mentally I was thinking about the death of my cat. I can’t seem to focus on the questions and half of my answers are unsure and just a wild guess. The week after that, the scholarship examinations results were released…

I failed the exam.

CHAPTER 7: CORNELIA: THE BRAVEST CAT

July 2017. Even though Oreo passed away. Shiro kept on giving birth to new kittens. This time the father is either Haru or Hiro. Talk about incest among cats. This particular cat is named Cornelia, named by my former classmate who will adopt her. This classmate of mine is an otaku and hence the name Cornelia, I think from the Code Geass Series.

Cornelia has another unnamed sibling. They would love to play around the living room and chase each other. One day while I was upstairs on the computer I heard a loud bang on downstairs. I quickly went down and saw blood coming out from a fallen wooden table in the room. I was shocked, memories started to come back and left me terrified. I quickly took off the table and what I saw with my eyes is the blooded body of Cornelia. I was in terror, I thought she was already dead. But I see a breathing. I see life. I rapidly got up and went to the kitchen to get some towel. I wiped the blood on her face and called my nearest friend to take accompany me to the vet. While inside the tricycle, I was crying, I was thinking to myself “Not this again, please”.

At the vet, it was a good relief that she was able to be recovered. The vet gave her medications and have her serum, much of how a human would be treated when brought to the hospital. I was relieved that it was not her time yet. After a week, the vet said that she can be discharged anytime, if medications are still given, and she is taken care of. I decided to take care of Cornelia at home. There I gave her meds, I looked after her all day, all week and even fed her using syringes because she can’t eat that normally. She’s showing signs of recovery and would always sleep beside me. I felt like I became a nurse for a moment. However, as the days go by. She seems to not recover in terms of her loco-motor movements. She would walk sideways and would always bump her head onto something. I worried that, but I still took care of her like my own patient.

August 2017. The first day at my new school. It was the freshmen orientation and it was my first time in a university. It was such a big difference from where I came from. Tons of new faces and new people. There I met my new classmates and I guess I had fun on my first day on school. When I got home, around night time. Cornelia was not around… I got a hunch. I asked my mother where Cornelia was,

“Her body became too weak and eventually passed away earlier.”

Hearing those words, as if they were already natural for me. I went upstairs with a blank facial expression and a blank mind. As if all the fun that happened earlier went away. I thought for myself that this is not normal. How could I not feel something after knowing the death of Cornelia? How could I accept the fact so easily? How could I, not even have a single drop of tear from my eye? It made me realize that I became accustomed to this kind of event. With my past experiences, I became cold of what seemed to happen to the cat that I took care of recently.

In this very moment... I became inhumane and heartless.

CHAPTER 8: A BLESSING OR A CURSE?

December 2018. After months and months, Shiro kept on giving birth to kittens. If I could count it all, I’m guessing at least twenty kittens were given birth by Shiro. Of course, we give it away to our acquaintances and my friends due to the reason that I can’t take care of them all. However, there is one generation of kittens that I decided to keep, one orange tabby cat was given away to my former classmate named Arthur, or Artoria Pendragon in which the name Arthur was based on. The other one is a black and white tabby cat, like the appearance of Oreo. I decided to keep this black and white tabby cat and named him after a similar cat that I saw on Instagram, his name is Domino. I started to think if this was a blessing or a curse, due to the number of cats that I took care of. It’s like the anime that I watched, Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo, or in English: The Pet Girl of Sakurasou. With me being the main character.

CHAPTER 9: LETTING GO

January 2019. Recently my mother gave Shiro and some of the unnamed cats that I’m taking care of to her co-workers. I was sad at first for Shiro, but I guess it’s for the best. Now all that’s left of me are male cats in which they won’t be able to reproduce anymore obviously.

Another thing that I let go is maybe the person that I liked during the past few months. This person is like a cat, not only that but she also likes cats. It’s like we share the same interests about anime, drawing, and lovely cats. It pains me at first, but I guess that’s how the world truly is. From all the cats that I loved, I guess she was the one that gave me a lot of lesson in life. Lessons that I can apply my life with. And lessons that lead to the growth of who I really am today.

I thank her for that...

Thank you and good bye...

CHAPTER 10: THE TRUE CAT

As for cats resembling their owner, I myself believe that it is true. These cats that I took care of not only became my pets, but also played a big role in my life.

Oreo resembles me being a silent person for he is always quiet and does not meow a lot.

Shiro resembles me who was blinded and cannot see the “right” path and is “left” with a challenging and dreadful path ahead.

Yoshi resembles my courage for having another chance to relive a great life.

Cornelia resembles the bravery of my soul that isprepared to fight of whatever I might face and keep on battling even on the verge of giving up.

Domino resembles the me that is greatly influenced by the internet.

Arthur resembling me being tough and strong just like the character Artoria Pendragon.

Hiro being me as a human that is able to fit in the society.

And lastly Haru, the extremely shy cat that I own, who resembles me for being timid in nature.

And all other cats combined all together makes up the very me.

The One True Cat.

EPILOGUE

Cats can be really dear to us. They are not only considered as pets, but also a part of the family. They are there for us for they can sense if a person is sad or lonely. Cats make us feel accompanied and is there for us even though they can be spawns of hell sometimes. Similar to people, all of us are different, some are nice, some are not. But whatever the circumstance is, remember to cherish the moment with whom the people you enjoy and love to be with, for you will never know when the time is up for them or either for you.

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