All of the World (ARCHIVED & LESS BAD)

Part Four

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you: the defect!'' A voice called from above. Frances looked up to see a figure he knew very well, perching on the raised section of the main shed's interior. Dawn jumped down from the ledge and onto the floor in front of Frances. 

He was not amused. ''What's that supposed to mean?'' Frances asked dryly. 

Dawn scratched the back of her neck sheepishly. ''Well, you just abandoned everything you know for some random strangers, so-''

''Yeah, and you only tried to take over the entire island multiple times.'' Diesel muttered. The two stared each other down until Diesel finally sighed and walked away. 

''He's exaggerating.'' 

Frances shook his head and walked over to Splatter and Dodge. ''What, you're just gonna walk away? After I made them go get you?'' Dawn asked, confused.

Splatter patted his back and led him to an old leather couch in front of a small T.V. ''No offence, but I really don't think you've ever had enough money to buy a television.'' Frances commented. 

''Took it from behind Knapford. Easy grab.'' Dodge said, sitting on the far side and taking out a VHS tape. 

''A New Hope again? Dodge, that's three years old, we need some new movies.'' Dawn said, coming over again.

 ''Until we can find Empire Strikes Back at the thrift store, this is all we have. Be grateful.'' Dodge said, refusing to pick a different movie.

Frances hadn't watched it before, but it was made obvious that this was a cult classic from the twins quoting the lines perfectly, to Dawn imitating the sound effects.

"Nothing has been better than this masterpiece, and nothing ever will be." Splatter said after it had finished. No one said anything after that, and after a while, he began to fall asleep. 

"Good idea." Dodge leaned against Splatter and closed his eyes, adjusting himself every so often. Splatter looked at Frances, asking for permission, and he nodded, allowing the boy to lie his head on his shoulder. It was weird how the diesels were treating him as one of them, but it was nice.

He was used to cold distance and having eyes on him constantly, not... whatever this was. He wasn't quite sure yet. Dawn stood awkwardly to the side, not meeting Frances' eyes. The situation was weird, but he was going to try to make the best of it.

"Are you gonna sit down or what?" He said, deciding to initiate the conversation.

 "If you want me to." 

Pretty dry, but he could try to work with it. "Is there... anything you want to talk about?" He asked.

 They thought for a moment, hesitated, and said, "Um... maybe... I don't know."

Seeing that the conversation was going absolutely nowhere, Frances began to talk about politics, as you do in an awkward moment. "Tell me more about those revolution ideas."

Many, many hours later

_____________________________________________________________________

They talked.

A lot.

They talked about everything, from the ignorance of the steam engines, to the capitalist pig that was The Fat Controller.

"And all these responsibilities are on me, so of course, I'm a bit tense sometimes-" 

"I know right?! He doesn't even pay us!"

 "I'm expected to be big and scary by everyone, even the littles, so that's what I do-" 

Hours and hours, late into the night, until Paxton rushed into the main shed, panic on his face.

"Lady's coming!" Frances jumped up in alarm, but Dawn just stayed sitting calmly. 

"Wha- get off me, you green seagull!" Splatter cried, waking up to find Dodge almost suffocating him. 

"Is this normal for you?!" Frances asked, pulling on his hair. Dawn stood up with a sigh, stretching their back. 

"Well, Lady actually used to come around all the time, until-" Diesel started. 

"That's not important! Just go hide in a closet for a bit and you'll be fine." Dawn said, shaking her head at Diesel.

Frances nodded his head and ran into one of the many doors at the back of the shed. There, he was faced with several winding hallways filled with doors. He opened one at random and it was piled with dusty boxes. Perfect. He arranged them to hide him from view and sat behind the makeshift wall, heart pounding with adrenaline. How could they be so calm right now?

He heard echoes of voices from the main shed, but he couldn't make out what they were saying. He almost whimpered when the sound of the hallway door banging open reached his ears. Frances held onto his legs and shivered, not daring to think about what might happen if he was caught. But intrusive thoughts always come when you least want them to, so of course, his mind strayed to scrapyards and melting metal.

The door to his closet opened, and he heard the click of high heels on the concrete floor. "I told you, the little scamp isn't here. We left him at Brendam to drown."

 The clicks stopped and he heard the heavily accented voice of Lady reply. "Then I suppose we can put this behind us." Frances dared to look over the boxes and saw the white hem of Lady's dress a few inches in front of him. Luckily, her back was turned to him and she was instead looking at the dark silhouette in the doorframe.

"By the way, what's with your hair? You look like a woman." And with that, the brunette strode out of the room. Dawn waited for a bit and motioned for Frances to come out. 

"Good lord, that woman stresses me out." They sighed, then smiled a bit. "But hey, the braids are working!" She said, and Frances laughed at the stupid joke, since he was very obviously a simp.