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 Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 6:49 pm
Another long day in the city. If you could even call it day. The intense feeling of dread and night that constantly swirled around it was hardly parsed by the time or season. Sometimes it seemed never-ending in this one mode.
Maybe it was purgatory.
It certainly was for one bot. Buried deep beneath the rubble, no sense of time, no sense of anything other than the cold dirt and debris that contained it. Days, weeks, years? Internal timers had long since distorted, just as the reality of the situation had.
The tower had crumbled around. Not even awake as Wily had diligently worked.
If you could call it that. The man had no appreciation for his work; not really. Being buried alive before one can really live puts a generally dampened opinion on ones creator.
Another day of nothing.
Except. Maybe not.
Breaking through the crust and dirt, a hand shot out from the debris. However the bot was far too weak to do any more today. The feeling of the air was humid and oddly cold.
Even more oddly, it was comforting. Something different for the first time in a long, long time.
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Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 7:32 pm
If this place was Purgatory, it sure seemed a lot like hell.
On a day to day basis Blues really had no idea how to feel. He had his days where he was pretty agreeable, even seeming to -like- being around others. Then he had days (like today) where he wanted nothing to do with the other Masters OR the Citizens and simply wandered off to be alone.
Yes, his day had started off with telling Wily to -shove it- as the doc wanted to do his usual upkeep on one of the City's Generals. Blues wanted nothing to do with the lab today and he most certainly wasn't going to let Wily do any repairs (he didn't need any -damnit-), so he had high-tailed it out of Tower 2.0 and came poking around the ruins of Tower 1.0. Really....wasn't much to see? Same old piles of useless crap laying around as usual.
The red bot sighed, kicking a rock out of his path. Some days he really just didn't know how to handle the emotional programming his father had bestowed upon him. This was one of those days. He -knew- he had friends...people who cared about him...so why was it that he felt so alone? Of course he did that to himself, coming all the way out here, just to see the same damn th---
Hold on a minute.
Ears twitched as they picked up the sound of movement. He had already made one sweep of the area and knew there was no one else here. So...what was that? Stepping forward to investigate...he didn't get very far as -something- tripped up his feet and he hit the ground with a yelp.
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Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 7:45 pm
Something rattled the hand, and the bot could feel it down in it's core, it couldn't hear the yelp, but that didn't stop the oddness of this all. Was that pain? It must have been, it was unpleasant and the fingers flexed out quickly, curling back in, trying to make the feeling go away.
The stinging sent the bot into struggling again, perhaps it was better to stay under the dirt. The cold, damp air had felt nice yes, but this? This was awful at best, and rather terrifying at worst given there was no ability to see what was happening.
The struggling beneath the dirt and debris caused a bit of shaking, loosening some scrap and letting it bounce around, some of it hitting the confused General.
Digits struggled to move back down into the earth, but to no real avail. It collapsed backwards, giving up; the bot below simply hoping it wouldn't repeat itself.
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Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 8:13 pm
Okay things were -definitely- weird. Blues was swiftly picking himself up off the ground, mostly to see what the -hell- was going on and partially to stop any more of the scrap from hitting him. Things only got weirder once he did get to his feet, because that is when he spotted it.
A hand....
Well really that sort of thing wasn't entirely uncommon. Countless bots and Audio had been buried in the rubble of the collapse, or killed in the resulting fire. There was also the numerous half finished projects and whatever else contained inside the Tower that could have left such debris.
But this hand was moving.
Blues cautiously moved forward, watching the hand a moment before kneeling down near it.
"Is...there someone down there? I can help you out...."
He reached out his own paw, slowly pushing away the dirt and debris around the strange limb.
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Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 8:22 pm
The voice managed to permeate the dirt, carrying down to the bot's ears. The hand lay still for a moment, but as the debris and dirt pushed around it moved again. It seemed to be searching.
The fingers moved and touched the General's paw, then stopped. The bot below the debris was shocked. The voice had certainly just been it's imagination, so touching something... someone.. ? It was a jarring feeling.
Beneath the surface the bot began to struggle again, fear that this other being would disappear and it would be silent underneath there again. No, it didn't like the pain it had felt, but the idea that someone was there, actually, physically there, and not some torrid delusion was almost too much for it to process.
The bot squeezed the General's paw, it was definitely there, and it did want his help.
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Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 8:33 pm
Blues' ears perked as he watched the fingers move, searching...eventually finding his own paw and squeezing. Yes, something was definitely alive (or online?..) down there, and he was going to help it out.
"Alright, I'll get you out! There's a lot of debris though so it may take me a bit but I promise I'll get you out..."
He pulled his paw away, only so he could get a two handed grip on his shield. The General planned on using it as a makeshift shovel, moving as much as the dirt away at a time as he could.
The other perk of using it in this manner? Well...likely one of the first things the buried form would see would be the word "Hope" that was etched into the General's shield.
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Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 8:40 pm
There was a terrifying moment of panic as the paw that it had been squeezing fled from it's grip. It searched out a moment, fear overtaking it in the brief milliseconds that passed. Was it going to leave? Was it an elaborate delusion and again it had tricked itself into company?
No... no it was speaking again. It was going to help.
Unmoving the bot stilled, hearing things move above it's head. The panic and terror sat there, on the edge of a blade, uncertain if that's what was properly felt or not.
When the shield appeared in front of it's face, it slid off the side, that fear welling in it's chest...
But it quickly died off as the bot's gaze fixated on the word now in front of it's face.
"Hope..." it muttered out, putting it's other hand there on the word before it could be pulled back again.
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Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 8:51 pm
The shield stayed there a moment before shifting to remove the dirt. Blues glanced down and noticed he had managed to uncover whoever it was that was buried. A small smile settled on his face as he moved the shield back to it's position on his back and offered a paw down to the other.
"Hey...welcome back to the surface world, hrm?"
It was about then that his very stupid wings decided to activate. The annoying things fluttered and glowed behind the General and he did his very best to ignore them.
Stupid
Damn
Things.
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Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 9:00 pm
It was fortunate this city was so dark, after being buried so long it would take some time to adjust. The bot squinted a bit as it's saviour reached out toward it, the voice that had spoken earlier sounding clearer now.
"Th-thank you..." the bot's voice crackled a bit, it clearly hadn't spoken in some time. Though it took the offered hand and let him help it out.
There was a sudden shine and the bot winced a bit, but bleary eyes turned to see the flickering wings on this other creature. Blinking, it didn't understand the relevance of them, though they were quite lovely.
"I..." it started, but shook it's head out, debris and dirt falling away from it. It looked at the General for a moment, eyes finally focusing enough to take him in as a whole.
The general would then find arms wrapped around him as the other bot hugged him. It had nothing else to offer, and simply wanted to share it's gratitude with him.
"Thank you, thank you..." it repeated, lost on other words.
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Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2015 7:22 am
Though the smile remained on his face, the General tensed up under the sudden hug. Physical contact was something he was not okay with about 98% of the time (the other 2% was when either Forte pulled him into it, or some member of his 'family' decided he needed a hug).
"Er...hey. Yeah it's fine, couldn't leave someone under there when they so obviously wanted out...."
Blues was rather keen on people helping -themselves- out, but since the hand had broken through the surface clearly this individual had been trying to escape. Just how long had they been down there?
"May..I ask who you are? And just why you were under the rubble? Are you hurt?"
Ugh they were still -hugging him-. This was so weird...
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Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2015 7:44 am
There was silence for a bit before the bot finally let go. Either it realized the discomfort or it was uncomfortable itself with the prolonged contact. It's ears flattened back against the disheveled blonde hair, knocking some of the matted dirt loose to hit the ground.
"Rhythm." it managed to crackle out, sounding far from anything that would have any of such a thing. The bot's nose wrinkled up, obviously irritated by the sound of it's own voice. Clearly it was not meant to sound in quite such a manner.
"I... don't know." the answer was to whether or not it was hurt. Looking itself over it began to paw off some of the dirt and debris that was coating it's fur and clothes.
"I remember the floor falling... that's about it." Yes. That's what had happened. The floor in the tower gave away as it crumbled down to the ground, the bot had been caught in it and it had no idea how long ago that even was. Green eyes flickered as it tried to process what was happening.
Finally it looked back up at him.
"I really can't thank you enough..." the crackle seemed to fading away the more it spoke, perhaps it simply a matter of use.
It had been a long time since it had spoke to anyone, afterall.
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Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2015 8:50 am
...s**t. From the sounds of it they were in the collapse of the original Tower. But..that was so long ago. Had they really been buried that long? That...was terrible. Blues had spent quite a portion of his own existence locked away in Wily's lab as he was being repaired. That had been terrible...and yet compared to this it seemed almost fun...
"Well hello there Rhythm...I'm Blues. General Blues. How about I take you back home and we'll get you all cleaned up hrm?"
Though if she had been in the Tower collapse....
"It's...a Tower. I swear to you it's safe. If you don't want to I...won't make you do something you don't want..."
She really did need to be checked over. But Blues hated repairs, so like hell he was going to force them on someone else.
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Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2015 9:19 am
"Tower..." she repeated. The word on her lips left a bitter taste and she frowned, stepping back. Despite his addition of saying he wouldn't make her, it still left her feeling on edge.
She really did need to be checked over, diagnostics were off, internal clocks not working; but the idea of going back to another tower seemed more terrifying than just letting that go.
This bot had helped her though... and had no reason to...
The conflict was an open book on her face as she fought with what she wanted to do. If she didn't go he'd likely leave to go home himself as well, and then she'd be alone again. It wasn't a thought she cared to hold onto.
Chewing on the inside of her cheek she stepped forward again finally and nodded, going against the better judgement that was internally screaming at her to stay away from that thing.
"Okay Blues."
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Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2015 7:30 pm
From the look on her face Blues really didn't think she was going to agree to go. It was a pleasant surprise when she did, and he offered her a small smile.
"Alright. It's a bit of a walk but we should be able to make it back soon enough."
He turned to lead the way back, making sure the other bot was staying close. Blues was pretty sure nothing else was lurking around but one could never be too careful. Besides, he wasn't sure just what the extent of her damage was, so he had to be sure she was capable of keeping up in her current state.
If not...well, rocket shield was always and option. He hoped it didn't come to that though.
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Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2015 2:48 am
The small smile that crossed his face momentarily drew her attention. She wasn't terribly familiar with the kind expression, and mimicked it, a small smile on her own face for a brief moment.
"Okay Blues." she repeated once more. She wanted to ask him questions, talk more, break the silence... but the crackling of her voice was upsetting to listen to, and for now it remained simpler to just give short responses, even if they were parroted from what she had already said.
While the extent of her damage was unknown, she easily kept up to the other bot, following at what she considered a respectful distance. It was for the best, of course, she never would have agreed to climb onto the shield. In the event he had convinced her she needed to it would have resulted in an unpleasant panic attack when it took off at rocket speeds.
When the new tower came into view, however, Blues would find the smaller audio shadowing him quite closely, trying her best not to become bothersome, but concerned and scared enough that she didn't want to be too far away from the bot that saved her from her living grave.
"That is it?" the crackle came back a bit more, the stress evident in the short question. This tower looked similiar to the older one, but bigger, more intimidating somehow.
It drew a shiver that ran through her spine.
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