#teen flick character voice ROAAD TRIIIIIIIP

[the-valiant-valkyrie]

okay. picture this for me:

the aftermath of project KBOOM from zoraxis' perspective… yet another grand failure to be added to the pile. yet another grudge to hold against that unstoppable agent phoenix. all of that is bad enough in its own right.

… but as if it couldn't be any worse, prism needed to survive as well. it's salt in the wound, really. it wasn't as though she was close enough to zoraxis' inner workings to have any key information. zor's hardly worried about that. but they know prism is smart- technology wise, at least… she's a useful asset to have. an asset they don't want the agency to have back. that matter was supposed to be tied up with the KBOOM test run at the factory, but by some miracle she survived that, and the ensuing confrontation to the volcano.

someone needs to finish the job. normally, zor would send the hit team to take care of any loose ends… but, that's for serious threats. prism is far from lethal- now more than ever, when severed from her robots. there's no need to jump through hoops and call in reinforcement. not when they can send the fabricator in a matter of seconds, and have the whole ordeal taken care of.

tracking prism down is a non issue, really… she's hasty, sloppy- leaves an obvious trail to her direct location. she doesn't even know she's been followed. it's the easiest target fabby's ever been sent to eliminate. all she has to do kill her.

… but she can't do it.

she can't bring herself to do it. and the worst part is she doesn't even know why. prism is far from the first person she's killed with her bare hands, nor the most innocent, nor the one she's had a personal connection to prior to doing away with. so she doesn't know why she can't just… do what the doctor told her to do.

(she does know. she does know why. it's because prism is so weak… from the helicopter crash. from the burns the lava's closeness left on her skin. it's because prism is helpless. completely alone and gutted at the loss of her beautiful machines, curled in a ball and sobbing into her hands.)

(it's because she looks at prism and sees solaris. hurt. defenseless. terrified. a woman who lost everything. a woman who should have died.)

stuck at a crossroads between her own indecision, the last thing fabby anticipated was prism noticing her. blowing her cover in front of the target she was sent here to kill was just about the worst thing she could have accidentally done. especially since it limited the time she had to think over her two options.

so she does what she does best. lies. spins the most believable story she can about being so concerned for her… about breaking protocol to seek her out… about having no idea zor planned to use the kinesium on her factory that way. and maybe it's just because prism is stressed beyond thought… maybe it's because she's exhausted, or desperate. but whatever the case, she… believes her.

but she can't just kill prism now (she could. she easily could). and since she can't kill prism, she can't go back to zoraxis (it would be effortlessly easy to return to zor having done what she was sent there to do). the doctor would be furious (only if she didn't do her job).

thus begins the pair's impromptu 'road trip', of sorts… they don't exactly have a destination in mind beyond 'keeping off of zoraxis and the agency's radar'. but, you know what they say, it's about the journey and not the destination.

the two of them take turns driving, keeping on the road for hours and hours on end… they can't afford to stop at hotels. they can't afford it financially, mind you, but spending too much time out in public is a risk in itself… too many financial transactions will leave a paper trail…

so they sleep in the car. they eat in the car. and neither of them have seen a shower in weeks. the both of them are debilitatingly miserable- splitting chips and jerky and lukewarm cups of coffee for every meal of the day. but it beats whatever zoraxis would do if they got their hands on them. it isn't as though they can be picky…

prism… is mainly overwhelmed. she hasn't gotten a chance to breathe and fully process what it is that's happened to her. she's miserable about her robots, but the stress barricades a lot of the grief. without a chance to mourn, her healing process never starts. she's miserable, of course… but she blinks back the tears. keeps her eyes on the road. neither of them can afford her losing her composure.

… after long enough she starts to think about everything with a little more clarity… puts the pieces together in her mind. she's overwhelmed, but she isn't stupid. it's only inevitable she wraps her mind around the fact that fabby was probably lying… at least, lying about the KBOOM project's true intentions. but, well... neither of them have the time to think about that right now. for as much grief as fabby has probably caused, she also went out of her way to help her- at the expense of her entire zoraxis career. that's worth something, isn't it…?

the fabricator spends the entire time stressed out of her mind… it's obvious that she is stressed, of course, but she makes sure prism doesn't know what it's about. she assumes that fabby is just scared about zoraxis potentially catching up to them. which, to be fair, she's not entirely wrong about.

… but what she's really terrified of is herself. her instinct. the voice in the back of her mind telling her how easy it would be to pick prism off. then she could get her job back. then everything would go back to normal. then zor would love her again.

fabby could tear her throat out while she sleeps. she could slip some poison into her coffee and not even have to get her hands dirty. if she did it right, prism wouldn't even know. she wouldn't even feel it. she wouldn't even have to suffer.

... she always reels herself back in… even if that means stepping out of the car when they should both be sleeping, and smoking until she can't feel her lips. it helps… to an extent.

regardless, prism is none the wiser.

#ieytd #the fabricator #roxana prism #i forgot what my au tag is #teen flick character voice ROAAD TRIIIIIIIP #(they are having a miserable fucking time) #me and mothbeasts running experimense on just how tormented you can make two women in a car #LONG POST #but im NOT sorry look at my flop au boy