wyatt
04-08-2001, 04:01 AM
I wrote this becasue the idea of the story seemed neat to me. I didn't intend to post it but with the influx of fanfics, I guess i will.
Marie is a RAcasel, green custume, Purplenum ID. She is as tall as RAcaseal gets and big boned but not wide or fat. Anyway, here is the story proper...
----
Dented
***** ?How did that feel?!?
***** Cola ran over Maries unblinking eyes as she saw the face of the driver laughing. She had turned her head just in time to see the cup coming her way before it hit her face and covered her in drink. The car sped up and away as she saw the outline of people high-fiving each other through the rear window.
***** ?Jerks.?
***** That kind of display didn?t happen often. But the sentiment was something she encountered everyday. It was perceptible in peoples body language and dismissive tone of voice. Like they were talking to? to a machine. That?s what they were thinking; machine. The derogatory word for android. It meant expendable. Unimportant. Most importantly, not cognizant.
***** The question of androids consciousness was an old one. Most people had realized that it can?t be proven (not yet anyway) but that the circumstantial evidence was overwhelming. The androids said that they felt like they were alive. Feelings. That was always the word at the center of the argument. But, like all old arguments that can?t be resolved, it had receded from the mouths of people and settled into the back of their minds.
***** Marie kept walking, but with her head down a little. She looked for a place that would be open this late so she could clean up. Walking was her favorite thing to do during the night. There were fewer humans to interact with. Let them have their artificial sunlight days to operate in. She could use that time to do the things that were needed, like training and working on the surface. She used the night for enjoyment. Too bad the frat boys had to ruin this one.
***** She found an all night diner. In the corner a young couple were laughing and feeding each other a banana split. They looked up and a curious expression crossed their faces. Why would an android be in a diner? She turned away and walked to the counter, where the waitress pointed out to her the direction of the bathroom. The bathroom was immaculately clean, no doubt thanks to a cleaning bot. The cola came off in front of the mirror with the help of water and paper towels. She did a final check, looking up and down at her reflection. Her gaze lingered on a dented scratch at her waist.
***** She had gotten it two days before earning some quick meseta in the warehouse district. If some machinery broke down, an android might find minor work moving things for the owners. She was hired to bring a transport of empty containers from a research lab and store them in a warehouse. The pick-up was smooth. The scientists were far too busy to give her a second look, just signing her invoice and shooing her away. After docking the large transport at the warehouse, a large swarthy man wearing ridiculous orange pants and a purple shirt approached her.
***** ?What took you so long??
***** ?I am not late. You told me on the phone to pick this shipment up at 3 o?clock. It?s 3:30 now.?
***** ?Well you took your time getting here.?
***** His demeanor and eyes said enough. The extra expense of hiring a worker on top of whatever it was costing him to fix a broken loading machine had irritated him. The fact that he had to deal with another ?machine? didn?t help.
***** Marie began the job of unloading the containers. She could lift the weight of them easy enough, but they were big and unwieldy. She wished that there had been a job at the guild but they had nothing to offer at the time. This job was under the table so to speak, and her employer knew that he could get away with more if the guild were not involved. And apparently what he wanted to get away with was making Marie do the work of two by herself. He could pay her less than two androids and avoid the guilds cut as well, but still pay enough to make the job attractive. She put her head down and worked.
***** It was tedious. There were many containers, and she had to take them one by one to the back, and place them high atop other stacks with a floating lift. She used the time to consider her work on the surface. Battle was something she loved, every Hunter did. If not, they weren?t Hunters for long. People joined up because of the image they had of Hunters. An unrealistic glorification meant the guild never had to recruit. It also meant a high flunk out rate for people. People, not androids. Almost never did an android get rejected. If one wanted to be a Hunter, just get the right body, apply, and barring any outside malfunction you were in. For whatever reason the job wasn?t so appealing to androids. If they were attracted to the job as much as humans, there wouldn?t be as many human Hunters. Android replacement. That was part of the reason for the underlying resentment. The humans were threatened at the thought of AI. An AI with more than thoughts, with emotions too.
***** Marie was considering this when the lift under her shifted hard to the right and she and a container fell 20 feet to the ground. She slammed down on her back and the container stuck her body and bounced off. The noise reverberated in the big building.
***** ?Shit! What the hell happened,? she heard the owner scream. Exactly what she was wondering. The lift had failed somehow. It was still in the air, but it was slowly turning in an awkward stuttering circle now. It came up against the side of the highest containers and began to bump itself against them over and over. The owner came running up.
***** ?Your dammed lift malfunctioned. Look what it did to my side.?
***** ?What did you do to it? Look, the container lid is bent. And that lift has never malfunctioned. You did something.?
***** ?Yeah, I used it properly. Except that I didn?t have any supports on me. What?s the matter, you too cheap to buy any, like your too cheap to hire enough workers to do this job right??
***** ?Just shut up and do your job, your getting paid good enough. And get that thing under control. You should at least be able to use it, it?s a machine like you.?
***** Marie tried not to let the jibe get to her. She knew androids that would crack his skull for that remark, but she wasn?t the kind who was so militant about the issue. The radicals seemed silly with no outright object to attack. The prejudice was too hidden, too behind doors to change with that kind of strategy.
***** ?And if you think I?m paying for that,? he said pointing to her scratched waist, ?your wrong. I don?t ?feel? like it. Know what I mean?? He smirked and began to walk back to his office.
***** Marie was speechless. She knew she was powerless to hurt him. The police would throw her in jail quick, and she would be there for a good while. Not to mention being banned from the Hunters guild. That was something she could not bear. Her impotence left her shamed, but it was nothing new. Androids either learned to take the abuse or got in pointless pissing matches with people who disrespected them. You couldn?t reason with a man?s prejudices. She finished the job, collected her pay, and left with her head down.
***** Her mind came back to the present. She ran her fingers across the dent. She hadn?t gone to get it fixed like she should have. It reminded her of the confrontation. It wasn?t a nice thing to think about, but for some reason she didn?t want to forget it. Not yet.
***** After cleaning up, she left the diner and headed towards home. The night was quiet, as it should be. This was why she went out at night. The calm was something she needed to contrast her work, and if you never went to sleep, nighttime was the perfect for calm. The silence ended abruptly with screaming, far away. She heard much better than human ears, newman as well. She began to run in the direction of the sound.
***** A few minutes later she came upon the noise, which had quieted to a heated argument. Two older boys were apparently squaring off with a man in the middle of the street.
***** ?Where the fuck did it come from,? one of them screamed to the man. Marie drew nearer and saw it was the warehouse owner from a couple nights before. He threw her a nasty look.
***** ?It escaped from a container. It was an animal to be shipped to a research facility.?
***** ?What the hell are you thinking bringing animals up to the Pioneer,? Marie asked. ?That is incredibly illegal. Tyrell will throw you in jail for that.?
***** ?The scientists, they offered so much meseta-?
***** Marie cut him off. ?Which way did it go??
***** ?It chased our friend that way! Are you a Hunter??
***** ?Yes. I?ll go help him. You better hope he is ok,? she said to the smarmy man.
***** Marie ran in the direction the boy pointed. She heard cries for help coming out of an alley. She turned into it and ran further.
***** What she came upon was a Savage Wolf. It was circling a man who was obviously scared out of his mind. This was the way it hunted on the surface. One wolf would pace back and forth in front of you while three more attacked from behind. It was an ineffective tactic on the surface against any prey with a brain, and it was even more ineffective here with no other wolves in its pack. Marie knew she could handle this animal with relative ease, but she had to do so soon before it attacked him. She looked at the man and began to reassure him, but stopped with her mouth open. It was the face from the car that had thrown the cup at her an hour before. Marie?s hand unconsciously went down to the scratch. She thought back to her humiliation at the warehouse, the laugh of the man in the car, the stares of the couple in the diner.
***** She was off guard when the wolf leaped to her chest and knocked her down. The wolf was on her back now, had her pinned. This wasn?t how a wolf behaved. They used hit and run tactics, not a pressed attack. Maybe the thing knew it had no pack to help it this time.
***** Her right arm was pinned under her chest and her left was under one the wolf?s paws. It had her neck gripped tight in its mouth, and was jerking it hard back and forth like a dog with a toy. She had to get up, or the razor sharp teeth would tear through the soft plastic-metal alloy of her neck, which was more pliable to allow mobility. ?Dammit,? she thought, ?how did I get in this position??
The wolf began to use its back paws to rake at her back, but her neck was still her Achilles heel. She had to pry its mouth off, but couldn?t with her back to the thing. She began to twist herself under the animal. Worming her left arm out from under its paw, she placed her palm on the ground as if to do a one-handed push up and raised her body, just enough to get on her side. This only worsened the growing damage to her neck, giving the wolf a new angle to gnaw. She completed the turn, coming around to face the beast. Her eyes fixed on the animals own as she placed her left hand on its lower jaw and used her right to grasp over its nose and under its upper teeth. Her teeth were clenched tight, and she snarled as she forced the thing off her neck. She sounded as guttural as the wolf.
***** Marie maintained her tight grip with her left hand, and pulled back her right fist as much as she could with her back on the ground. She began striking the wolf on the side of its head, just below the eye. It howled and shook, trying to escape now that the fight had turned. Marie punched harder and harder, until her right arm was covered in blood and the wolf?s caved-in head looked like a deflated ball. It was limp on the ground, blood running from its dead body.
***** She struggled to her feet and assessed her neck. It sustained major damage. It was leaking and sparking. That would have never happened on the surface, her armor protected her neck. She had to get to the hospital or she would slowly lose power and shut down whether she wanted to or not.
***** ?Are you ok?? she asked the man, with her hand placed on her neck. She noticed he had urinated in his pants.
***** ?No I?m not ok!? His was trying to mask his embarrassment with hostility. ?I was almost killed and you just stood there! What the hell took you so long, you stupid machine!?
***** She felt anger stronger than she did at the warehouse, stronger than ever. She had just saved this mans life, in spite of what he had done earlier, and he just called her that to her face. She walked slowly to the man, and he stood still with the same look of half-fear and half-indignation on his face. Marie was calm, her mind was clear. She stopped in front of him, looked at him for a moment with a cocked head, and broke the mans nose with a sharp jab.
***** The man fell to his hands and knees. Blood poured from his nose and his eyes began to water. He saw that the wolf was laying one foot from his face and startled, shuffling away from the thing as best he could with one hand now attached to his leaky face.
***** ?Whad dah hell! By fu-hing node id broke you bisshh!?
***** Marie stood tall. There was nothing the man could do. The wolf did it, she would say. But they would both know what happened. Maybe he would think about what he had done and how she had still saved him, or maybe he would only think about his nose and hate all androids. Either way, Marie didn?t care.
***** ?What is your problem,? he tried to say, though it came out sounding like he had a bad cold. Marie didn?t have a problem. Her neck was critically injured, but that didn?t bother her now. That punch was the most righteous thing she had ever done.
***** ?That felt great.?
Wyatt - HUmar level 100
Seraphina - HUnewear level 50
Pharaoh - HUcast level 40
Saria - Fomarl level 40
Marie - RAcaseal level 20
Metallic - RAcast levl 20
Mecha Wyatt - RAcast level 50 - R.I.P.
<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: wyatt on 2001-04-08 02:07 ]</font>
<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: wyatt on 2001-04-08 02:14 ]</font>
Marie is a RAcasel, green custume, Purplenum ID. She is as tall as RAcaseal gets and big boned but not wide or fat. Anyway, here is the story proper...
----
Dented
***** ?How did that feel?!?
***** Cola ran over Maries unblinking eyes as she saw the face of the driver laughing. She had turned her head just in time to see the cup coming her way before it hit her face and covered her in drink. The car sped up and away as she saw the outline of people high-fiving each other through the rear window.
***** ?Jerks.?
***** That kind of display didn?t happen often. But the sentiment was something she encountered everyday. It was perceptible in peoples body language and dismissive tone of voice. Like they were talking to? to a machine. That?s what they were thinking; machine. The derogatory word for android. It meant expendable. Unimportant. Most importantly, not cognizant.
***** The question of androids consciousness was an old one. Most people had realized that it can?t be proven (not yet anyway) but that the circumstantial evidence was overwhelming. The androids said that they felt like they were alive. Feelings. That was always the word at the center of the argument. But, like all old arguments that can?t be resolved, it had receded from the mouths of people and settled into the back of their minds.
***** Marie kept walking, but with her head down a little. She looked for a place that would be open this late so she could clean up. Walking was her favorite thing to do during the night. There were fewer humans to interact with. Let them have their artificial sunlight days to operate in. She could use that time to do the things that were needed, like training and working on the surface. She used the night for enjoyment. Too bad the frat boys had to ruin this one.
***** She found an all night diner. In the corner a young couple were laughing and feeding each other a banana split. They looked up and a curious expression crossed their faces. Why would an android be in a diner? She turned away and walked to the counter, where the waitress pointed out to her the direction of the bathroom. The bathroom was immaculately clean, no doubt thanks to a cleaning bot. The cola came off in front of the mirror with the help of water and paper towels. She did a final check, looking up and down at her reflection. Her gaze lingered on a dented scratch at her waist.
***** She had gotten it two days before earning some quick meseta in the warehouse district. If some machinery broke down, an android might find minor work moving things for the owners. She was hired to bring a transport of empty containers from a research lab and store them in a warehouse. The pick-up was smooth. The scientists were far too busy to give her a second look, just signing her invoice and shooing her away. After docking the large transport at the warehouse, a large swarthy man wearing ridiculous orange pants and a purple shirt approached her.
***** ?What took you so long??
***** ?I am not late. You told me on the phone to pick this shipment up at 3 o?clock. It?s 3:30 now.?
***** ?Well you took your time getting here.?
***** His demeanor and eyes said enough. The extra expense of hiring a worker on top of whatever it was costing him to fix a broken loading machine had irritated him. The fact that he had to deal with another ?machine? didn?t help.
***** Marie began the job of unloading the containers. She could lift the weight of them easy enough, but they were big and unwieldy. She wished that there had been a job at the guild but they had nothing to offer at the time. This job was under the table so to speak, and her employer knew that he could get away with more if the guild were not involved. And apparently what he wanted to get away with was making Marie do the work of two by herself. He could pay her less than two androids and avoid the guilds cut as well, but still pay enough to make the job attractive. She put her head down and worked.
***** It was tedious. There were many containers, and she had to take them one by one to the back, and place them high atop other stacks with a floating lift. She used the time to consider her work on the surface. Battle was something she loved, every Hunter did. If not, they weren?t Hunters for long. People joined up because of the image they had of Hunters. An unrealistic glorification meant the guild never had to recruit. It also meant a high flunk out rate for people. People, not androids. Almost never did an android get rejected. If one wanted to be a Hunter, just get the right body, apply, and barring any outside malfunction you were in. For whatever reason the job wasn?t so appealing to androids. If they were attracted to the job as much as humans, there wouldn?t be as many human Hunters. Android replacement. That was part of the reason for the underlying resentment. The humans were threatened at the thought of AI. An AI with more than thoughts, with emotions too.
***** Marie was considering this when the lift under her shifted hard to the right and she and a container fell 20 feet to the ground. She slammed down on her back and the container stuck her body and bounced off. The noise reverberated in the big building.
***** ?Shit! What the hell happened,? she heard the owner scream. Exactly what she was wondering. The lift had failed somehow. It was still in the air, but it was slowly turning in an awkward stuttering circle now. It came up against the side of the highest containers and began to bump itself against them over and over. The owner came running up.
***** ?Your dammed lift malfunctioned. Look what it did to my side.?
***** ?What did you do to it? Look, the container lid is bent. And that lift has never malfunctioned. You did something.?
***** ?Yeah, I used it properly. Except that I didn?t have any supports on me. What?s the matter, you too cheap to buy any, like your too cheap to hire enough workers to do this job right??
***** ?Just shut up and do your job, your getting paid good enough. And get that thing under control. You should at least be able to use it, it?s a machine like you.?
***** Marie tried not to let the jibe get to her. She knew androids that would crack his skull for that remark, but she wasn?t the kind who was so militant about the issue. The radicals seemed silly with no outright object to attack. The prejudice was too hidden, too behind doors to change with that kind of strategy.
***** ?And if you think I?m paying for that,? he said pointing to her scratched waist, ?your wrong. I don?t ?feel? like it. Know what I mean?? He smirked and began to walk back to his office.
***** Marie was speechless. She knew she was powerless to hurt him. The police would throw her in jail quick, and she would be there for a good while. Not to mention being banned from the Hunters guild. That was something she could not bear. Her impotence left her shamed, but it was nothing new. Androids either learned to take the abuse or got in pointless pissing matches with people who disrespected them. You couldn?t reason with a man?s prejudices. She finished the job, collected her pay, and left with her head down.
***** Her mind came back to the present. She ran her fingers across the dent. She hadn?t gone to get it fixed like she should have. It reminded her of the confrontation. It wasn?t a nice thing to think about, but for some reason she didn?t want to forget it. Not yet.
***** After cleaning up, she left the diner and headed towards home. The night was quiet, as it should be. This was why she went out at night. The calm was something she needed to contrast her work, and if you never went to sleep, nighttime was the perfect for calm. The silence ended abruptly with screaming, far away. She heard much better than human ears, newman as well. She began to run in the direction of the sound.
***** A few minutes later she came upon the noise, which had quieted to a heated argument. Two older boys were apparently squaring off with a man in the middle of the street.
***** ?Where the fuck did it come from,? one of them screamed to the man. Marie drew nearer and saw it was the warehouse owner from a couple nights before. He threw her a nasty look.
***** ?It escaped from a container. It was an animal to be shipped to a research facility.?
***** ?What the hell are you thinking bringing animals up to the Pioneer,? Marie asked. ?That is incredibly illegal. Tyrell will throw you in jail for that.?
***** ?The scientists, they offered so much meseta-?
***** Marie cut him off. ?Which way did it go??
***** ?It chased our friend that way! Are you a Hunter??
***** ?Yes. I?ll go help him. You better hope he is ok,? she said to the smarmy man.
***** Marie ran in the direction the boy pointed. She heard cries for help coming out of an alley. She turned into it and ran further.
***** What she came upon was a Savage Wolf. It was circling a man who was obviously scared out of his mind. This was the way it hunted on the surface. One wolf would pace back and forth in front of you while three more attacked from behind. It was an ineffective tactic on the surface against any prey with a brain, and it was even more ineffective here with no other wolves in its pack. Marie knew she could handle this animal with relative ease, but she had to do so soon before it attacked him. She looked at the man and began to reassure him, but stopped with her mouth open. It was the face from the car that had thrown the cup at her an hour before. Marie?s hand unconsciously went down to the scratch. She thought back to her humiliation at the warehouse, the laugh of the man in the car, the stares of the couple in the diner.
***** She was off guard when the wolf leaped to her chest and knocked her down. The wolf was on her back now, had her pinned. This wasn?t how a wolf behaved. They used hit and run tactics, not a pressed attack. Maybe the thing knew it had no pack to help it this time.
***** Her right arm was pinned under her chest and her left was under one the wolf?s paws. It had her neck gripped tight in its mouth, and was jerking it hard back and forth like a dog with a toy. She had to get up, or the razor sharp teeth would tear through the soft plastic-metal alloy of her neck, which was more pliable to allow mobility. ?Dammit,? she thought, ?how did I get in this position??
The wolf began to use its back paws to rake at her back, but her neck was still her Achilles heel. She had to pry its mouth off, but couldn?t with her back to the thing. She began to twist herself under the animal. Worming her left arm out from under its paw, she placed her palm on the ground as if to do a one-handed push up and raised her body, just enough to get on her side. This only worsened the growing damage to her neck, giving the wolf a new angle to gnaw. She completed the turn, coming around to face the beast. Her eyes fixed on the animals own as she placed her left hand on its lower jaw and used her right to grasp over its nose and under its upper teeth. Her teeth were clenched tight, and she snarled as she forced the thing off her neck. She sounded as guttural as the wolf.
***** Marie maintained her tight grip with her left hand, and pulled back her right fist as much as she could with her back on the ground. She began striking the wolf on the side of its head, just below the eye. It howled and shook, trying to escape now that the fight had turned. Marie punched harder and harder, until her right arm was covered in blood and the wolf?s caved-in head looked like a deflated ball. It was limp on the ground, blood running from its dead body.
***** She struggled to her feet and assessed her neck. It sustained major damage. It was leaking and sparking. That would have never happened on the surface, her armor protected her neck. She had to get to the hospital or she would slowly lose power and shut down whether she wanted to or not.
***** ?Are you ok?? she asked the man, with her hand placed on her neck. She noticed he had urinated in his pants.
***** ?No I?m not ok!? His was trying to mask his embarrassment with hostility. ?I was almost killed and you just stood there! What the hell took you so long, you stupid machine!?
***** She felt anger stronger than she did at the warehouse, stronger than ever. She had just saved this mans life, in spite of what he had done earlier, and he just called her that to her face. She walked slowly to the man, and he stood still with the same look of half-fear and half-indignation on his face. Marie was calm, her mind was clear. She stopped in front of him, looked at him for a moment with a cocked head, and broke the mans nose with a sharp jab.
***** The man fell to his hands and knees. Blood poured from his nose and his eyes began to water. He saw that the wolf was laying one foot from his face and startled, shuffling away from the thing as best he could with one hand now attached to his leaky face.
***** ?Whad dah hell! By fu-hing node id broke you bisshh!?
***** Marie stood tall. There was nothing the man could do. The wolf did it, she would say. But they would both know what happened. Maybe he would think about what he had done and how she had still saved him, or maybe he would only think about his nose and hate all androids. Either way, Marie didn?t care.
***** ?What is your problem,? he tried to say, though it came out sounding like he had a bad cold. Marie didn?t have a problem. Her neck was critically injured, but that didn?t bother her now. That punch was the most righteous thing she had ever done.
***** ?That felt great.?
Wyatt - HUmar level 100
Seraphina - HUnewear level 50
Pharaoh - HUcast level 40
Saria - Fomarl level 40
Marie - RAcaseal level 20
Metallic - RAcast levl 20
Mecha Wyatt - RAcast level 50 - R.I.P.
<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: wyatt on 2001-04-08 02:07 ]</font>
<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: wyatt on 2001-04-08 02:14 ]</font>