The Living condition

18

I decided i wanted to double update today so here,

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You'd dreamed of escapism. To leave your problems behind and find something better. Maybe you would find them among the stars, never alone amongst the vastness of space. Maybe you would find it in yourself to accept your home for what it was; A House. And nothing more. Maybe it was what you made it, and Nothing more. You dreamed of leaving, unsure whether it was the earth itself you would escape, or yourself.

You were never alone. You would never be alone.

You dreamed of escapism.

—

Man, your head hurt. You think it may have something to do with stress. This was a little much all for the heart to handle.

Your friend is dead.

Your–well, who you thought was another friend seems to be wearing her skin? You didn't get a well enough look between getting stabbed.

There's that too. Nasty wound in the middle of your palm that won't stop bleeding, and you can't stop looking at it blearily, the line between where the skin of your hand ended and the blood painting the broken grayed tiles of the church– incredibly blurred.

"Up you go, buddy," you heard muttering to you in a weak voice. N. A hand on your forearm, borderline dragging you up onto your legs, and you stand there. Perfectly still while you watched N swap his hand for claws, cutting away at the fabric of his uniform, holding the cloth between shaking hands. you can't imagine the stress. Too much for a robot to handle, too.

Tessa was dead. One way or another, no matter what he wanted to believe, she was dead. Earth was destroyed. There was no home to get back to. There was no planet to escape to, unless planetary exploration was your thing.

God you can't even fathom focusing on that right now.

The pain sorta takes priority.

You watched,just keeping as still as you could while N took your bleeding hand in one hand, holding the cloth in the other.

"It's weird..I think this is the clearest I've been able to make out..." The disassembly drone trailed off as he wrapped the cloth tight over the wound. It wasn't going to fix much. The both of you know that. At least it would soak up the mess and keep the wound covered. The drone let go of your hand, and you'd tried to curl your fingers in, make sure it held tight. While the thumb,pointer and middle moved just fine–and caused far too much pain for you to want to try this again–the ring and pinky were–delayed, you'd call it. Still movable, if barely. Didn't bend further than halfway. That doesn't seem great–in your opinion.

"N?" you ask while the Drone throws you over his shoulder like it was nothing. You don't bother questioning that. Later questions. "Do you think Uzi's–"

"I don't know, bud." He answers weakly. You watched metal wings spread and unfurl from his back. It's fascinating, sure. Too bad you're a little blurry in the eyes. Was that shock or blood loss? Is there a difference in the effect right now? You don't know. "I don't know."

"She's badass." you state "...and sorta like a cockroach, i'm sure she's fine."

—

You sat on the floor of a library, back pressed up against an old, dusty and unused bookshelf, with N and Cyn. Details of the room were a little fuzzy, you weren't concerned in the least. What does it matter to you if you can't quite tell if the bookshelf across the room seemed to be moving in an ebb and flow? It didn't affect you. You knew what you were here to do. Propping one leg up to rest the book in your hands on, you cracked the book open with a smile and started reading.