a snakelet's rattle: tender talons - 2765 words

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The Flamemane didn't give him a choice. She knew that battery degradation could quickly become a death sentence.

 

You know the biggest city back home, Arcus had told him, go around its outskirts. You can't miss a mile-long line of wyfexes.

 

Icarus lifted his gaze from his trembling hands. He hadn't seen so many wyfexes in one place before. It was absurd.

 

Get there as early in the morning as you can, the fiery vixen's words echoed inside his cranium, you might have to wait the whole day, but at least you have a chance of getting in last minute.

 

He couldn't understand why she cared.

 

Icarus took his place at the end of the squiggling line of his own kind. His fake eyes lowered to the ground. He could feel his simulated breathing getting erratic and sharp. He didn't want to be here. The half-dead grass under his feet felt like needles. His hands shook. The cracks on his screen burned.

Something suddenly touching his shoulder made Icarus quite literally jump, and let out a distorted yelp. The wyfex turned around, bumping his back into the wyfex in front of him in the line. Icarus saw another FexCorp spawn before him, pulling back their hand.

 

"Sorry," they apologized, "I didn't mean to scare you."

The wyfex looked somewhat like a bird with the pointed, elongated shape of their cranium. Their silicone hide was mainly off-white, with green and orange stripes across their limbs and neck.

Icarus didn't say anything, only straightened himself to avoid leaning against the wyfex behind him. His fake eyes lowered to the ground once more, as he started to fidget with his quivering hands. The bird-like wyfex stopped him from turning his back to them.

"I know it's scary," they said, their hand on Icarus' shoulder. He turned back to them. His gaseous crux seeped between their jointed fingers. The other wyfex twitched their ears sideways, signifying a small, warm smile.

"They tell you all these horror stories about getting stripped to the bone, or getting modded and sent to those auctions," they paused for a bit, and continued:

"But we wouldn't be here if there was a risk for that - not all of us. There are enough shady places to go if someone wants to take the risk." The wyfex patted Icarus' shoulder and leaned away.

"She doesn't do that - no matter how unreal it sounds."

 

Icarus' ears drooped as he avoided looking straight at the other's screen. He turned around and rubbed his arm, as if it would've brought some solace.

 

A stranger's words didn't dissipate his fear. With every step closer to the workshop's door, the lump in his chest grew in size.

 

The sun started to slowly dip behind the horizon. The razor-sharp silhouette of the City of Calm drew itself over its orange and red hues, cutting the painted sky like a scalpel. Icarus had to use all his willpower to keep every single synthetic muscle in his body from shaking.

 

The workshop stood before him like the hungry maw of a bloodthirsty beast. The door looked like it had once been a garage. Probably converted and renovated from the inside, considering the building's size - connected to the house itself. All the windows were pitch black, slightly translucent brush strokes telling tales of black paint on glass.

 

Suddenly, the door opened with a rusty rattle so loud, that it sent echoes around it into the surrounding sorry fields of grass and sparse trees. A creature's dark claws peeked under it, as it lifted the roller door. The door slid up to its position from the momentum, and something stepped out right at the heels of a bipedal wyfex.

 

Icarus could feel his mechanical heart skipping beats that it shouldn't have.

 

"Alright!" The tall female yelled at the line of wyfexes in front of her workshop, "I only have time for one more - the rest of you, I'm sorry." She turned on her taloned feet, gesturing the next client to step in. Icarus glanced around as the line of his kind dispersed behind him.

 

He never thought being alone could feel so suffocating.

 

"Come on," a bright voice beckoned him from inside the building, making him flinch. The tall creature was nowhere to be seen.

"It's rightfully your turn, come on in," it repeated in clarifying detail. Icarus let out a wavering sigh, and walked inside.

 

The roller door closed behind him with the same, nerve-wracking rattle as it had opened. Icarus scanned the door before turning his gaze to the workshop opening in front of him. Strange chills of wonder and underlying terror raced around on his skin.

 

Unstable looking shelves, filled to the brim with boxes and parts. Nooks and crannies crammed full of blue and cyan LED strips for ambiance. Large tables, just as messy as the shelves - but a couple had stayed clutter-free, their top surface padded. One wall had nothing but pure white wyfex craniums hanging from it like trophies. Their soulless, bare vision sensor sockets stared eerily into nothingness with their empty gazes.

The room was divided into two, a large opening between them - but just framed enough to veil the deeper parts of the beast's belly with mystery. Icarus could see some of it, but definitely not all, as he leaned forward to take a peek.

 

The voice from before pulled him back instantly, and the wyfex straightened his posture under the fear of getting heavily judged:

 

"Have you reserved an appointment?"

 

Icarus turned swiftly to the voice. In front of multiple, large screens, was a person, back facing the wyfex. She sat hunched on a saddle stool, the table seemingly too low for her. Her hair was strikingly bright green, two dark, curved horns jutting from her forehead and curving slightly backwards. Her shoulders were adorned with spikes, the sides of her tail following their crude example.

"N-no," Icarus replied with a stutter.

"Alrighty," the woman answered to verify that he was heard, "this'll just take a teensy bit longer, then. Any symptoms?" She kept tapping away at her hilariously wide keyboard - definitely wasn't any kind of standard model.

"I already know what's wrong with me," Icarus said, his confidence slowly building up.

"Ah," the female exclaimed, straightened her back, and spun around on the stool, "tell me whatcha need."

 

Her bright smile melted off her vein-framed face as she saw Icarus - it was like she had seen a ghost. Her eyes darted on his figure, like trying desperately to find any rhyme or reason on him. It almost stung to look straight in her eyes. Her pupils shrunk, starting to expand sideways, like a thorn was being pushed out of them from both sides. Icarus glanced to his side, then back at her. He knew he was a little different from his fellow wyfexes, but this felt like too much.

"What?" His voice was confused, rimmed with a sliver of frustration. The woman blinked profusely for a moment, her pupils returning to normal - still very much slit, but a lot less eerie and strange.

"Oh, sorry!" She apologized, and shook her head vigorously. She used her tail to push herself on the stool to the wyfex, its plastic wheels wailing against the rough floor. The female reached out her arm for a handshake.

"Greenheart - or Kate, whichever you want to use."

 

Icarus instinctively leaned back slightly, pulling his hands fast against his chest. Kate raised her brows.

"Not one for handshakes, I reckon?" She let out a snort and lowered her hand to her lap, "that's fine, many aren't. I just want to give the option. So, what do you have?"

"Um," the wyfex fidgeted with his fingers, avoiding the woman's piercing eyes.

"Batteries," he finally blurted. Greenheart tilted her head, her eyes almost radiating some sort of... warmth.

 

The fact that she cared.

 

"May I see?" She inquired gently, gesturing at Icarus with her hand. The wyfex let out an almost inaudible whimper, and took off his sleeveless hoodie. It would be easier that way. Icarus was left with a barely covering crop top, that was mostly constructed from fishnet. It made him feel vulnerable and bare. The wyfex held the long, jacket-like hoodie awkwardly in front of him with both hands, as Kate rolled around and behind him on her trusty, wheeled steed. She inspected Icarus' lower back for a moment with her eyes alone.

"Do you mind touch? Temperature's a good indicator," she explained to him. Icarus shook his head without saying a word.

 

In reality, he did mind - but anything that made the process faster, he would take. The only thing he wanted right now was to get out of there.

 

"I'm placing my hands on your lower back now," Kate announced just before doing just that. She could feel the wyfex wince under her palms.

"You alright?" She wanted to be sure. Icarus nodded, and Greenheart continued her work. Even when just standing still, the wyfex's lower back was almost too hot to touch. Something definitely wasn't right - the batteries of a wyfex were supposed to get quite warm only when under heavy exertion. These were hotter than just quite warm.

 

"How long have they been like this?" The woman asked as her hand slid to Icarus' side. The heat radiated all over his body, the metal building blocks conducting it with glee.

"I dunno," the wyfex replied, "but I blacked out once and locked up after that."

 

Kate froze, lifting her widened eyes to the back of Icarus' cranium. How in the living hell was this wyfex even alive? She exhaled slowly, and felt his other side with her hand.

"What happened when you blacked out? Any idea what made you lock up?"

"Got in a fight," Icarus answered almost instantly, his voice softer than before. A smile tugged at the corners of Kate's mouth.

 

A fight explained a lot.

 

The woman stood up, the saddle stool escaping somewhere like a rebellious pony.

"Come," she encouraged Icarus with a hand gesture, and walked under the room's separation point. The wyfex followed her cautiously, stopping right under the line between the two spaces. Icarus watched her go through boxes and trays of tools and spare parts. He scanned her body as it moved - the color shifts of her hide, her scratched scales, her sharp teeth and forked tongue as she spoke softly to herself. Icarus tilted his head.

 

"Are you and Athos?" His question was blunt, even if its underlying tinge had an aftertaste of cautiousness. Kate stopped in her tracks, and turned to the wyfex.

"Yeah. Why?" Her eyes narrowed slightly as she tried to decipher the cause of such question.

"You... um..." A childlike nervousness spread across Icarus frame as he avoided eye contact once more.

 

"You look sick."

 

Kate's eyes widened slightly as she raised her brows.

"These?" She pointed at the side of her head with her index finger, and moved it up and down to her neck and back. The numerous, ashen veins on the edges of her face, neck, and stomach made her look like she should've been at least bedridden. Icarus nodded with small, careful movements. The eternal blew a raspberry.

"Oh, it's nothing," Kate said without even a hint of worry in her voice. She turned back to the shelves against the walls.

"I was forced into this form and can't change it, so it looks a bit rough. Nothing to worry about."

Icarus tilted his head.

"Is that... uncommon?" His tone was curious, but still wary. The last thing he wanted to do was to anger the mechanic - but somehow he just couldn't shut up.

"Mneh," she shrugged, "at this point I have no idea - but it seems to be a bit of a theme with us heavy-headed."

Icarus glanced around the workshop, as though he was searching for a definition for her answer. The wyfex stayed silent. He had asked too much already.

 

What Kate said was cryptic on purpose. It wasn't a term to describe one's condition - it referred to what she and someone else carried, whether they wanted to or not.

 

Heavy was the head that wore the crown of thorns.

 

The eternal pulled something off one of the shelves. It was wrapped loosely in leather, and tied into a bundle with elastic bands. She set it down on a table that was at least somewhat presentable, it's clutter to clean space ratio around thirty-seventy. Kate gestured Icarus to sit on the chair opposite of her, as she sat down and pulled herself closer to the table. Icarus placed his long hoodie on the chair's backrest. She waited for the wyfex to sit, before she grabbed the leather bundle, and set it closer to herself on the table.

"Okay - here's the deal," the woman lifted her eyes straight to Icarus.

"I will have to open you up, first thing. I can't choose the replacements without knowing what I'm looking for."

 

Icarus leaned against the backrest of the chair as far as he could. His hands started to tremble, his body following in their footsteps shortly after. Worry washed over the eternal's face, heavy and brutal. She swallowed, and reached her hand forward, placing it palm up on the table.

 

Like on instinct, Icarus slowly leaned back in, and placed his hand onto hers. The eternal cupped his trembling claws between her palms, giving his hand a squeeze. The wyfex tried to pull away, but her grip was just firm enough to keep him from doing so.

 

 

"I can never know how you feel," Greenheart sighed with her eyes closed, "and I can only give you my word." She opened her eyes, her gaze darting between the eyeholes of Icarus' mask.

 

"But this is about you, and we're doing this on your terms.

 

"No one else's.

 

"These things are usually done when shut down, but I understand that having control is often of utmost importance," Kate explained, clearly and calmly. She looked straight into Icarus' screen and aimed to keep eye contact even when the wyfex didn't.

"It won't be comfortable if you're powered on, but it's doable. I can give you a dosage that has a sedative effect by slowing down your systems, but it's completely up to you if you'd like to have that, or not. Whichever the case, I will need to insert a napecord to your socket. Otherwise all your drives and chipsets lose power completely when your batteries are removed, and wipe you out more likely than not."

 

The following silence was accompanied by different kinds of hums and whirs - the default background noise for Greenheart's workshop. She waited, quiet and patient, as Icarus digested the information he had been presented with. The wyfex slowly pulled his hand away from the woman's loose grip, and she replied by leaning away to give him space.

 

"I..." Icarus inhaled as he tried to come up with words to say. He twisted and pulled his fingers anxiously, his gaze wandering around the details and junk on the floor.

"I-I'd like to stay awake," the wyfex decided, his voice shivering like his muscles did, "n-no sedatives."

Greenheart nodded with a soft smile.

"Alright," she affirmed, but added:

"Are you alright with the thought of local relaxants, though? They won't affect your ability to think, but they might be necessary. Shaking muscles may get in the way of making the process as safe as possible, and the last thing I want is to hurt you unnecessarily. I will make sure to flush everything out before I finish."

 

"Okay," Icarus replied, his fake eyes drawing paths around his lap, "I'm fine with that."

Kate leaned towards him over the table once more.

"Are you absolutely sure?" Her voice was heavy and serious. If he would panic and bolt in the middle of everything, he'd most likely die - and neither could afford that. The wyfex lifted his gaze, and nodded.

"Yeah."

 

The eternal flashed a smile.

"What's your name? If you don't want to tell me, that's also fine."

The wyfex pondered only for a moment.

 

"Icarus."

 

Kate smiled again. Trust was important, especially when combined with fear. It brought her joy and peace of mind to see that she was able to disperse at least some of that fear.

"Alright then, Icarus," she removed the elastic bands around the leather bundle, and spread it open onto the table.

 

"Here are the tools I'll be using. On top of these, there's the napecord, syringes, probably some new bolts and screws, the replacement batteries..."

 

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