Miranda - Seeing nothing, "What is it ?"
Keeper - "Her name is Shumi. She didn't make it."
__
Nocturne wakes in the cave suddenly, breathing hard.
Bot - "It's this cave. It's wrong."
Nocturne - "No. It's not." She pulls off the blanket and crawls to the cave's near wall, digging.
Bot - "You make the human noise."
Nocturne - Holding up the tip of Musashi's broken blade, "Do I ... ?"
Bot - Looking across to the blade a moment, "It's broken. Human noise."
Nocturne wraps it with a smile and tucks it away then crawls over to him dragging the blanket.
Nocturne - Curling against him and closing her eyes, "Yep. Human noise for robots ..."
He shuts down, the distant sounds of war as his brow twitches.
__
The cruiser roars flaming over the old (our time) city, keeping altitude and turning for an attack between buildings, into a run against a greater demon sprawled across a park.
A tentacled blob stretching out between buildings, connecting them into another architecture altogether. Beasts leap from the towers to the decks in the ship's pass, met with bullet then bayonet.
Captain - Deck swarming over, "We're taken ! Launch all pods, gear up for ground time. It's dirty fucking hot ! Conversion code Three Six Two on the last pod out. ! GO !"
Killed by beast.
Pods launch from the hull, the last of the deck taken while it splits open to fists. Guns fire through the crawling beasts covering it to the massive creature. A tentacle whips to grab as it thrusts forward into the eye.
The bot throws a light to the ground hard before impact.
An explosion burning through the city.
__
He wakes to the dawn light in the cave entrance while Nocturne packs her gear.
Bot - After watching her, "They didn't name me."
Nocturne - Stops, staring away blankly, "Why ?"
Bot - "Because I'm older than that."
Nocturne - Still stopped staring away, a whisper, "me neither"
Bot - "Hector."
Nocturne - "Nocturne."
________
Miranda - Braiding, "Will you help her ?"
Keeper - Smiles back, "Okay."
~ 石 Tales ~
Hector exits the cave, Nocturne sitting near the entrance watching a flock of starlings as it weaves its dance in the sky in front of her.
Their hill overlooks another town, set upon another shore. Old cruisers and airships linger over a marketplace filled with denizens and tourists.
The flock dissipates and rejoins flying away.
Old market in style, stilt-walkers and carnival mixed with the heavy machinery of antique engines. Ship lots and sales pitches as they work their way through.
Through the busy part and past, thinning to nearly empty lands until a broad field lot before a high walled fortress structure, tips of rocket ships peaking over.
Nocturne - Bangs the door comm, "Let me in ! ... please."
Hector looks at a guard bot, high polish model. It glances at him, then away, arms crossed. "Sup."
Hector raises a brow.
The large doors slide open.
________
The formation of starlings flocks over the school in thousands, swirling and twisting, then spiraling together into a form hovering in the sky, looking down.
A cracked form of a face, much as the persimmon dervish.
The flock spreads and converges again on the platform before the entry doors.
From inside the doors, they start losing color and crack to falling pieces as it glides through, the students preparing for school. One walks towards distracted by her ice cream.
She exhales cold breath, stops and looks up.
It smiles down, she screams.
The dervish exhales and she goes grey and lifeless, falling backward and cracking to pieces.
____
The fallen student wakes screaming in bed, then looks around at the silence ... then down to her empty hand, still poised to hold ice cream.
Student - "Aw ..."
____
The other students look. Screams to panic running.
________
Daphne - "Did you just call us junkers !?"
Nocturne - "um"
Daphne - "We are not junkers. We are Antique. Dealers. Do you not see how shiny this all is !?"
Nocturne looks at the (very shiny) pile behind Daphne, a teddy bear crawls across it. Her eyes go wide ...
Daphne - "Are you even listening to me !?"
Nocturne - Eyes snap back, "Yes !"
As she lectures on into muffled silence, Nocturnes eyes drift to the teddy bears crawling around the workshop ...
Daphne - "! What !?"
Nocturne - "! Teddy bears !"
She stares tight mouthed back at Daphne.
Daphne - Turns back to look, then to her as though she's crazed, "What ? Whatever. Okay." Breathes ... "What do you need ?"
The doors slide open again, Hector walks in looking around.
Hector - "Wow. You've got some great ..."
Daphne - "Oh my god. You're ancient."
Hector - Looks to the side. "... not technically ancient ..."
Her eyes go wide, "Cassie ! Profane War bot ! Right ! Here !"
The sound of dropping tools.
Daphne - Looks him over, "So ... you want a job ?"
Nocturne stares all the teddy bears creeping around ...
Hector - "Already have one." Thunks on the ground next to Nocturne, "We're going to space."
Daphne - Looks at Hector a moment, then to Nocturne. "That's fucking brilliant."
Nocturne - "Whoo !"
Daphne - "But we're still deducting the cost."
Nocturne - "Aw ..."
________
('Knight of Sword' by Unlucky Morpheus)
The dervish punches the ground and hundreds more flutter out in swarming flocks before landing humanish. As they attack the halls, the students run ...
Halfway through, Ms Grainne grades papers, looks up as the screams and shadows pass the door window, rolls her eyes, continues.
They chase the halls. ________________