Conformity (Murder Drones AU)

Chapter 1 - Pls Help

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Cringe Level: 100%

Log: Day 08272024

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Snow swirled outside the lonesome library building, half-buried in the ice of the hollowed planet of Copper-9. The building was of two large circular parts put together, one slightly taller than the other, made of pure steel and checkered glass windows with yellow lights bordering its base and lining the outside walls halfway up. It was decently insulated against the far-subzero temperatures of the sunless planet, and it was fairly tall to house the many books harbored by the literally fanatical Ms. Ursula, a Disassembly Drone charged with the task of librarian. She would quite literally murder those who brought books back late or in less-than-perfect shape.

Tonight, she scuttled along the ceiling-high shelves of novels and dictionaries as naturally as a spider through its own web. The inside of the cylindrical walls were bordered with a dull golden plating of intricate linework, with four support pillars rising up from the floor to the ceiling. The floors wooden and the carpets red, it looked rather fancy and high-class, as though it were the parlor of some rich family's mansion. The dark wooden bookshelves were crammed together, as though the literature had been hoarded and shuffled into the library slightly haphazardly, arranged into a maze that only Ursula and a few other academically loyal students knew well. There were only a few students in the library, as it was so late; most students are at home recharging their batteries for the next day. In the center of the mess of bookshelves, the few students that were there were studying diligently... at least, as diligently as they could.

"In a galaxy far, far away-- Ugh, no. Too familiar.

"Once upon a time-- Ew, no. Too whimsical. Ahem.

"There once was a... UGH," Birdie groaned as she plopped her textbook down in front of her, her visor showing an angry neon-teal vein in her forehead as she thumped her head on the table. Her teal eyes narrowed into lines. Her gray hair was tied into drill curls at the base of her head with wide, black-and-white checkered bows. Her gray school uniform was a little big for her, especially around her sleeves which covered her hands most of the time, and the bandana around her neck was never properly held in place by the collar of the uniform. Her black skirt almost fell all the way to her knee-high socks. "Why the hell does Ms. A have to be so lame, we're never gonna use this in real life." Her pencil rested on a forsaken notebook with more doodles in it than notes; she snatched it up, twirling it expertly between her fingers. It then flew out of her hand, soared up over her head and squarely hit a student drone passing behind her in the side of the head. The student gave her a neon white glare and moved on. Birdie's visor displayed an eye roll. "Plus, we all have, like, the same origin story, why do we have to spew it back out at her? She's basically the only one who makes us do book reports, and they're EVERY DAY. Ms. L is lazy, but she's not as bad of a teacher."

"That's because Ms. L always just puts on a documentary video and has us record it into our files." Jaiden flipped his hair out of his orange visor and looked up from his phone, sitting across the study table from Birdie. Jaiden had a floof of darker gray hair that was set to the left side of his head. His school uniform was slightly customized to his liking, with some LGBTQ pins on his chest (one of which he had given to Birdie when they first became friends, which she proudly wore on the chest of her own uniform) and his sleeves rolled up to his metallic elbows, the inner checker pattern of the sleeve making a cuff. His uniform bandana was loosely tied to the right of his neck, as per custom to male-classified drones. He didn't have notes out; he never took classes seriously, but was Birdie's best friend and the two often did their work together. "Ms. A is just crazy, I swear. She never lets us use photographic memory, she says it's to 'keep our brains sharp.' I bet she locks kids in her basement or something if they fail their tests."