The Fall [Strawbreelcy x Pari]

Error404

Error404

The Ice Queen

The world is growing and advancing as the time goes by. Mechanicals are invented to help people's life get better and easier but because of that, humans are dismissed as manpower and no longer needed. Social status is clearly shown where the rich would stay and work in the city while the poor would fend for themselves and try to survive with anything that they could get their hands on.


It wasn't just the poor that were cast aside - no, there were also the cyborgs. Built in a lab, they're half human and half machine - some human enough when only having mechanical limbs, some more machine than man. Humans wealthy enough to work and the mechanicals made to work experimented on the cyborgs, but when all the experiments failed they were thrown away like trash and left to fend for themselves with the poor. The wealthy believe the poor are below them, but both the wealthy and some of the poor believe the cyborgs are below them all. It's a delicate balance.


Many of the poor and the cyborgs were left with a bitter taste in their mouths when they were cast aside. And with the balance that could easily tip either way, it was only too easy for the poor and the cyborgs to band together for a rebellion.


The uprising.


Everything was thrown into chaos. No place was safe. The wealthy had the upper hand with the advanced technology.


So what happens next?

​
 
Lance woke up and looked at his surroundings. Black and white striped walls were in front of him, along with an assortment of picture frames of the same color. He breathed in a sigh. Perfect. He pulled off the covers and began folding the sheets into their place, smoothing out any creased lines he saw. Nice and tidy, just how he liked it. The raven haired boy looked out the window as he touched the cold glass. It was bright like every day he woke up to. Not a single cloud I'm the sky. He saw the same people walking down the sidewalk, opening up their mailboxes and walking their pets. He wanted to talk to them, listen to the sounds outside. Lance left the window and headed downstairs to the kitchen. Little did he know that all the windows here were just an illusion that played out the same routine every day. But, he never questioned why the same people were doing the same things. This is normal... Right?


Lance walked down the cold marble steps down and saw a green post-it note on the counter. Picking it up, he scanned what it said:


Good morning Lance! Your teacher will arrive a little late, but don't worry! I love you. -Mom





Lance sighed and out the note back down. "Of course she loves me. Sure," he said to himself as he opened the pantry to take out a box of cereal. After forming his concoction of this amazing bowl of cereal, he began eating it, walking towards the window once again to look outside. That same girl biking down the sidewalk. The sprinklers were on again. He really wanted to go out there. 
(( I had an idea so that they can really meet. Maybe Roxy can walk by his house and the fake illusion of the windows start to crackle and mess up because of her. Lance can go outside to see what happened and stuff. ))
 
((That's a great idea!))


It was raining when Roxanne woke up, laying on the cold sidewalk. Her clothes already soaked through, and she sat up, shivering. Everything looked so unfamiliar. Where... Am I? Her head hurt ached, a dull throb against her temple. Everything seemed so fuzzy... How had she ended up outside? They never let her outside. With a jolt, she realized she didn't remember who they were. She realized she barely remembered anything. She could remember her name... Faceless people standing over her, injecting her with strange substances. The antiseptic smell. Her arm... She raised her left arm, the sight of metal greeting her. That's right... She was a cyborg. Her eyes widened, trying to remember something, anything. There was nothing else. Standing up on shaky legs, she looked around. She seemed to be in some sort of neighborhood... Drawing her arms close to her chest, she started walking, shivering from the cold.


As she passed one house in particular - the shutters were all closed, she noticed - a weird electric tingle went up her metallic arm. At first, she was scared water had gotten inside to the wiring. But upon stopping and inspecting it, she realized that was impossible. Her arm was of the best quality, seals so tight not even the smallest amount of damp would be able to squeeze inside. The feeling stayed, and she looked around, wondering what it was. Something seemed wrong to her, somehow knowing that whatever she was feeling wasn't natural. Roxy glanced at the house, noticing how quiet and surprisingly dark it seemed. She started walking away, and the strange feeling left. Surprised, she walked back towards the house - and it started back up again. "What... is this?" she whispered.
 
Lance left the window to head back to the kitchen, but before he could even take a step, a buzzing sound came across his ears. "Huh?" Lance frowned, turning around to see the windows faze a bit before returning back to normal. For a second, the sky looked really dark. "Probably my imagination..." he mumbled to himself, lowering his eyes to the ground. He stared at his empty bowl of cereal, pondering what it was.


Bzzt!


This time, Lance was able to catch sight of the windows. They were crackling like a TV without signal. Lance put down his bowl and ran to the window, tapping it a bit. "What the..." he squinted through the window to see someone standing outside. Was it... Raining out there? "Impossible, it was just sunny outside," he said to himself before whipping his eyes to the front door.


"They never let me outside... What makes them think I'm a young boy who's dependent?" Lance said with distaste in his mouth. He reached over and unlocked the door, just in time to reveal the universe he had never seen before.


"Rain! It's... It's rain!" Lance said gleefully, stepping outside to feel it in his palms. He smiled with delight, forgetting everything else as he scanned the neighborhood. It was nothing at all from the windows he saw. Was it his parents' doing once again? Thoughts and ideas ran wildly through his head, he couldn't concentrate at all. But, his eyes landed on the figure of a girl. He tilted his head curiously and noticed she was just standing out there alone and shivering. "She looks, cold..." Lance thought, knowing by his better judgement not to make eye contact with a stranger. But, something made him want to call to her.


"Hello? A-Are you lost?" Lance called from his porch, stepping out to come near the girl.
 
Roxy had ventured closer to the house, wary but curious. The closer she got, the stronger the charge felt - she even started hearing a faint electric hum through the rain. She noticed the windows that, when she stood near the house, seemed to flicker a bit, and she could barely make out furniture inside. She looked from her arm to the crackling windows - was her arm doing it? The charge was feeling stronger, and had her arm been of any less quality, she would have been worried about something in it damaging. But she had faith in it. Something told her it was of the upmost quality, and the newest and most advanced technology currently available.


The sound of a door opening and a voice startled Roxy. Instinctively, she shrank back away from the porch, and hid her arm. There was a faint memory... People angrily pointing and yelling at her. She backed away from the house, seeing the boy and hoping he didn't notice her. That quickly went out the window when he asked her if she was lost. She shook her head quickly, her wet hair sticking to her face. She used her human arm to brush it out of her face.


It was cold, and she shivered in her drenched clothes. Something was telling her to run, to get away from the strange house and the boy, but she was rooted to the spot. The windows were obviously advanced, nothing like them on the other houses at all. Her mechanical arm was still hidden behind her back, her stance cautious. "Do... Where am I?" she asked suddenly. She knew it was completely contradicting the fact she had said she wasn't lost, but she found she didn't care. She was scared, and wanted to know where she was.
 
Lance noticed the girl had put her arm behind her back, curious to why she did that. "Is she hiding something? Or does she have a weapon?" Lance thought cautiously, pausing a moment before beginning to walk slower to the girl. He noticed that she was frightened by the way she was standing and the look in her eyes. Unsure how to approach the girl without making her run away, Lance attempted a quick smile before returning to his natural stoic face.


Before the raven haired boy could say anything, he heard her question. "Where are we...?" he repeated, a little slower. Come to think of it, his parents never really told him anything about the world outside his house. He didn't really care in the first place, but now he wanted to know. "Umm... I don't know..." Lance replied quietly before realizing how freezing it must be for this girl.


"U-Uhh, would you like to come inside? O-Or at least out of the rain?" he said timidly, pointing his his roofed porch. He didn't want to freak her out as much as he felt already. This was the first time he ever talked to someone besides his teacher who came over daily.
 
Roxy blinked. "You don't know?" she said, looking surprised. He didn't know...where he lived? Something seemed off about that, and she stared at him. She surveyed the windows of his house, and then the others. His were the only ones that looked dark, at least on the street they were on. She inched closer, the electric tingle in her arm strengthening, and she flinched. It didn't hurt, but she didn't like it, either. Ignoring the feeling, she timidly kept walking forwards until she was mere feet away from the boy.


She was still wary, but against her better judgement she didn't move away. He didn't seem threatening to her, in fact, he almost seemed as confused as she was. She glanced at him, but he didn't seem to have any robotic limbs. He wasn't a cyborg. Her brows furrowed together. He was human, but at the same time, she somehow knew he wasn't one of them.


"Won't your parents mind?" she asked uncertainly. Though she gazed at the porch with a look in her eyes akin to longing - it was a place to get warm and out of the rain. The boy's intentions seemed free of deceit. "Well... o-okay," she said finally, taking a hesitant step forward.
 
"My parents are never here, so it wouldn't matter either way," Lance replied straightforwardly, not including any other information. It was unnecessary to tell that. Lance felt a little glad inside that this girl, strange but interesting, seemed to trust him. He was aware of the ways of communication with other people, having been to a real school in his younger years, but that touch was lost when his parents secluded him inside. A strange longing to talk to someone overcame him, but...


Lance blinked as rain began to get on his face and sides of his eyes. "Come, I don't think this... Rain, will stop anytime soon," he said quietly, liking the sound of the sentence. Rain.


Lance walked up the steps and awkwardly motioned for the girl to follow. "Umm, please. Do sit," he lowered his eyes to the bench. He noticed the static becoming more intense on the windows and looked to the girl with piercing brown eyes. "Did you do this?" he said solemnly, making it sound like he was demanding a little harshly. This wasn't his intention, it was just the way he talked.
 
"Oh... Okay." Her voice was quiet as she inched forwards onto the porch and out of the rain. She was dripping wet, puddles already forming underneath her. The electric hum was audible, and she wondered if he heard it, too. She was expecting to be electrocuted, but nothing seemed to happen other than the sound and the tingling sensation, which didn't hurt her. The windows, on the other hand, were looking very much like static, the illusion they had been portraying fading. The cyborg sat down on the bench, keeping her robotic arm close to her.


She shrank away from him at his tone, as if he had jabbed her in the side with a needle. It reminded her... It reminded her... She squeezed her eyes shut and clutched her head with her human hand as her head throbbed painfully. Images flashed through her mind, too many to count. Memories of them.





Men and women swathed in white. Screaming at her. Yelling at her. Some using the same exact tone the boy had used if she did something wrong. Her eyes flew open. "I didn't mean to!" she said, her voice laced with panic. Her arm was pressed tightly to her side, hiding it from his view. She wondered if he was going to punish her, her gaze flickering to the windows and then back to him.
 
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Lance awaited her answer, noticing that she looked frightened and nervous. Was she scared of him? Did he do something wrong? Well, it was his first time going outdoors. And he had such little human contact that his conversational speaking probably sounded odd.


The girl scared Lance with her outburst, making him take a step back. "Oh-- Hmm? Are you alright? I didn't mean to cause you of it, yet alone scare you. I just wanted to clarify, that's all," he said with a slightly softer tone, trying to comfort the girl. Was he really that scary? He looked back to the rain then to her, giving a small sigh. "The rain must've made you a little sick. I'll get a blanket for you," Lance said, not wanting her to freeze.


He hurried inside, going to his bedroom scavenge for a blanket. He pulled one out, a white one of course, and walked back downstairs. The windows were still flickering.
 
It took a few moments for Roxy to calm down. She had to reassure herself that no, Lance was not one of them. He seemed too kind to be, and if he was, he might have recognized her. "Sorry," she murmured, "just some... some bad memories. I'm okay. S-sorry about the windows." Her voice was timid, as if nervous he would use the tone again.


He went inside to get her a blanket. She remained on the porch, watching the rain. It frustrated her - she couldn't remember anything. Only bits and pieces, but even those weren't enough. She didn't know where she was, why she was outside. She remembered they didn't let her go out. But she wasn't the only one. Rubbing her temple, she sighed. Her head hurt, though it was becoming less painful. More than anything, she was cold and confused. Her stomach rumbled, and she didn't recall the last time she had eaten, either.


The boy returned with a blanket, and when she saw it, she paled, her eyes widening. It was white. A small whimper escaped her, and she moved away from it. Images of white walls, white floors, white beds and sheets, white coats surfaced in her mind, as well as a smell she couldn't quite place but she hated. They hit her, if she did something they didn't like, she remembered. They hit her, stabbed her with syringes, called her useless. The whole time she was frozen in place, unable to tear her gaze away from the pure white blanket.
 
"I have returned," Lance said, holding up a blanket. He lifted his gaze from the blanket to the girl. She had fear in her eyes once more. "Now what is it this time?" he gave a mental frown. Was he that bad around people?


"A-Are you okay? Is there something wrong?" Lance asked in a timid voice. He looked in her eyes to find what she was staring at: The blanket. He put it down beside him and cautiously sat next to Roxy. "Is it the blanket? Do you not like it?" Lance asked in a calm voice, finding it a little silly how someone could be afraid of a piece of cloth. Though, he was not going to judge others fears; it would be rude.


"Hmm, I'll put it away, see?" the boy said, tucking it under the bench and showing his hands to give "proof" that the blanket was gone. "I don't want you to get sick though. I know you don't know me and I have no clue who you are either, but if you'd like, you could come inside and warm up," Lance offered. He knew it was a crazy idea and his parents wouldn't approve of this at all, but what the heck. He deserved to make his own choices, especially at his age.
 
He didn't understand. He didn't understand what she had gone through, the terror she had endured. Not that she could remember much past the basics, but somewhere deep in the back of her mind, fear of the color white was embedded. She swallowed. It was okay. He was not going to hurt her.


He put it away, and she let out a small sigh. "It-it's just... You wouldn't understand," she whispered. He was human, unlike her. He probably grew up in the big, fancy house, whereas she grew up in... in... The white building. Robotic arm tucked behind her, she did not want him to see it, instinct telling her to look as normal as possible. Roxy shivered, water dripping off of her onto the bench and porch. She wanted a blanket, but not the white one. Never the white one.


He seemed trustworthy, whoever he was. His intentions were honest, as she looked him up and down with her electric-blue eyes. "If it's a-alright," she said. Something was telling her not to, but she was cold and he was nice. As long as he didn't find out about her arm, she'd be okay, right? As long as he didn't find out she was a, a freak, as the words echoed in her mind, a long-forgotten memory.
 
Lance gave a quick small smile before returning to his normal, somewhat stoic face. He stood up, motioning for the girl to as well, and opened the door, allowing her to walk inside first. "After you..." he mumbled, following behind. Though she was trying to hide it, Lance noticed something different about Roxy's other arm. It looked different than a normal human one. "Probably disfigured?" He thought, but it didn't seem to be that way. He read through so many books to know what was this from that, but, her arm was nothing he had ever seen before. Lance still was curious, but decided to not speak up just yet.


"Y-You can sit here, I-I'll be right back," the boy said, gesturing to the couch near the fireplace. He decided to light it up when he came back; just in case this girl got any ideas. Speaking of which, what was her name? Lance went back upstairs to search for a jacket or coat this time instead of a blanket. "Don't want to offend her again, but she needs to warm up at least," Lance thought, pulling out one of his rather heavy brown coats. "This will have to do," he sighed before returning downstairs.


"H-Here. I umm, at least it isn't a blanket, right?" Lance attempted to input some comedic value to his comment, but it came out kind of lame. He handed Roxy the jacket and turned around to start a fire in the fireplace.


"Say, I, umm may I know your name?" Lance inquired, his eyes focused on tending the logs.
 
Roxy stood up, cautious with her arm as she headed into the house. It was huge, she noticed, looking around inside. The walls were covered in all sorts of advanced technological inventions. It was a change from what she was used to, as all she remembered were plain walls and plain rooms. They seemed to be pretty much everywhere she looked. Following the boy to the living room, she was enraptured by the sheer amount of inventions he had displayed in his house. She didn't touch anything, afraid something would break and that she would get in trouble for it. She was already dripping water all over the house, and she felt bad enough about that.


She sat down on the couch, quietly looking around as Lance went upstairs. She could hear his faint footsteps on the level above. Shivering, she wrapped her arms around herself, looking curiously at the fireplace. She wondered what it was for. They hadn't had one of those in the white building. Frowning, she narrowed her eyes, trying to concentrate, but she couldn't remember anything more than what she already had. She couldn't remember, and it scared her. She was lucky she knew her name. When Lance came back downstairs, she was brought out of her thoughts and back into reality.


"Thank you." Taking the coat, which was brown, she noticed, she slipped it on. It helped disguise her arm, and for that, she was grateful. The coat was a little big on her, but she just wrapped it around herself to stay warm.


She watched, fascinated, when he turned to the fireplace to start a fire. "...It's Roxanne," she said after a while. "But I prefer Roxy. What's yours?" she asked hesitantly, watching him.
 
"Roxy..." he repeated under his breath. It was an unordinary name to him, well, in his opinion. He like it though, the sound of it. "My name is Lance," he replied to her question, turning around and standing up from his crouching position. He dusted off his hands, feeling proud of his "work" on the fireplace. "There we go, that'll warm you up," Lance said, sitting on the couch across from Roxy.


"So, Roxy... What were you doing out there? And, how did you make the windows here, well, you know," Lance asked curiously, hoping he didn't sound like he was an investigator. He really just wanted to know how it happened. This was all new and strange to him in the first place. Speaking of which, he checked the windows once again to notice that the fake images had disappeared now, replaced with the actual scenery outside. Rain.


Lance looked back to her and leaned a little closer to find out who this girl was.
 
Roxy looked at the fire, her eyes wide. "What is that?" she asked, looking amazed. It was orange, and red, and flickered and danced. It was hot, too, as she reached a hand towards it but withdrew it once her fingers got too hot. The longer she stared at it, the more beautiful it looked. She noticed that grey dust was collecting at the bottom, coming from the logs it was burning, the wood slowly turning black.


"Huh?" She looked at him, sitting across and leaning towards her. "Oh... I was... I was walking around, and I got... lost." It was a lame excuse, she knew, but she didn't want to tell him, in case he somehow knew what she was. "The windows? I don't know." It was only a lie. Her arm was doing it, somehow. She wasn't sure how, but she knew it was. Roxy was a little surprised, yet relieved, that he hadn't heard the humming coming from it yet. Though that was probably a good thing, she figured. The jacket did help muffle the faint sound, anyway.
 
Lance was about to ask another question, after receiving such a vague response to the ones answered, when he heard her own question. "She's hiding something, make a note of that..." he thought before sitting up straight in his chair. Arm, walking around, windows... He looked to the fireplace as well, then back to Roxy.


"That? It's fire. Have you never seen it before?" Lance said, watching her bring her fingers closer to the fireplace and learning the consequence by pulling it back. It was another rule he was breaking; lighting up the fireplace. "It's a hazard!" his father had said, "It could burn our inventions near it! Don't play with fire, Lance." The boy used to sigh, wishing that he could warm up to it.


As much as Roxy was interested in the fire, Lance had the same excitement for the sight and feel of rain. He hadn't seen it in such awhile, that he was glad to be brave and go outside for the first time. The soft pattering of it on the roof and wood sounded so exciting, like it was cereal that crackled in milk. The feel of it was cold to the touch. It was like taking a shower, but more... Freely.
 
"Is it... dangerous?" Roxy asked, looking at Lance curiously. It sure felt hot enough to injure someone. She furrowed her brows, the word "fire" sounding vaguely familiar. Something about... an accident one time, somewhere in the building? She closed her eyes, trying to focus and remember, but the fire cracked and popped. Her eyes flew open, startled, the hazy memory fading. She frowned, wishing she could remember. She felt like a small child, learning the ways of the world. "It sounds familiar, but... I don't think I have." She pursed her lips, looking annoyed.


"Hey, Lance?" She fidgeted, wondering if she should ask the question or not. Playing with the bottom of her jacket, she chewed her lip. "Do you know of a, an all white building?" she asked shyly, picking at the jacket. She was slowly drying, her hair not as sopping wet as it had been before. She was also getting warmer, her shivering had ceased and she looked comfortable as she sat on the couch.


She felt surprisingly at ease as she sat there, the occasional snap of the fire was almost comforting to her. Her metal arm was hidden in the jacket, which was tightly wrapped around herself. Roxy sensed that Lance meant her no harm, and it wouldn't hurt to try to gather information and regain her memory while she could. Just as long as he didn't find out about her arm, and she would be fine, she knew. She just had to be extremely careful.
 
"Dangerous? Well, yes if you get too close to it, you can burn," Lance scratched his chin. Of course he had experienced a burning sensation. It was back when his parents let him outside and have fun instead of seclude him currently. It was during the summer when he had nothing better to do but look at the bugs and trees outside with his newly bought magnifying glass. Little did he know the consequence of burning the bugs at a certain angle the light hit. Finding out this was possible, he stuck his finger where a bug would have been and let's just say it didn't turn out too well.


He let out a small chuckle to himself before returning to his normal state. When he heard Roxy's question, his eyebrows furrowed. "An all white building...?" Lance repeated to himself. "Hmm, no, I have not. In fact, I cannot really tell you much about what is outside from here. You see, my parents never let me out of this house; they say it's for protection... Why do you ask?"
 
"...Oh." Roxy's shoulders sagged with disappointment. With all the technology he had in his house, she would have thought he would have known something - she could remember that the building was very advanced. Her head shot up. "Your parents never let you out?" It reminded her of the golden rule of the building - never leave. "Why not?" she was curious, looking away from the fire and at Lance, her head cocked to the side.


It puzzled her. Never having parents, she didn't know what they were like, but at the same time, she thought only cyborgs were forbidden from leaving. The notion that a human wasn't allowed to go outside was foreign to her. The people in white had came and gone as they pleased. But at his second question, she fidgeted in the brown jacket. "N-no reason," she stuttered. Telling him why would reveal her identity, if she told him about the people in white, and the... the... experiments. She didn't want him to see her arm. The windows short-circuiting were bad enough.
 
Lance felt a little bad for not being able to answer her question, but there was nothing he could do about it. She sure was asking some strange questions. Does she have amnesia? Maybe this white building she spoke of is the only thing she remembers. He would offer to take her there, but he had never been out... there.


"Hmm? Why not? Well, my parents used to let me go out when I was younger, but all of a sudden they stopped me from going outside many years ago. They said they wanted to 'protect' me from what was 'out there'. They never told me what it was though. I tried going outside once, but the apparently, my parents put a code on the doors. Hmmm it's strange though... When the windows started buzzing and you came along, the door let me out..." Lance said the last part with suspicion and curiosity. He scratched his chin and looked to the coffee table in front of him. Strange...


"So tell me, Roxanne, who are you really? Are you a spy? Are you here to find out my parents' secrets to their inventions? Because if you are, you aren't going to find anything here," Lance narrowed his eyes to the girl and pushed up his glasses.
 
"Oh... They told us never to go outside, or they'd do bad things to us," she murmured, huddling in the jacket. She could barely remember. A boy her age at the time, had escaped in the night, somehow bypassing the security and the people in white. she remembered, it hadn't taken them long to find him. Only a couple hours, she thought. Not very long, for as large as the city was.


When they brought him back, they took him away to a room no one but them had been inside. The boy had never been seen again. She suddenly shuddered, wondering why she was outside. She hadn't remembered escaping, or anything, but then again, she could barely remember anything. Roxy wondered which would be best: try to find the building again, or never go back? If she found it again, would they punish her for an attempted getaway? Or would they find her anyway if she just never went back, ever again?


At his words, she looked up. "A s-spy? No! And I didn't even know your parents made all this until now," she said, shrinking away from him slightly. Though as she looked around the room again, she couldn't help but wonder... "Would your parents know anything about the white building?" she asked, not meeting Lance's gaze.
 
"Hmm, okay," Lance said, relaxing a bit in his chair. She sounded honest, there wasn't a doubt, but still, she could be acting it all up. He still kept his guard up, knowing there was something about Roxy that he couldn't touch upon. "Come to think of it, she hid her arm a lot when I met her," Lance recalled. Was it a weapon? A knife for defence?


When Lance heard Roxy's question about his parents knowing of it, he was automatically going to answer that he didn't have a clue where his parents were to begin with. But then, something clicked in his head. "Mom and Dad used to drop me off at school before going to work... I remember seeing it once, the white building. Maybe this is the place that Roxy mentioned?"


The raven haired was about to answer her question when he suddenly heard that strange phrase,


"Oh... They told us never to go outside, or they'd do bad things to us."


"Wait, wait. What did you say? Who's they? What do you mean they did bad things to you? And also 'us'. I remember that white building now. I remember where it is. But first you have to tell me who you're talking about," Lance said with slight demand and curiosity, setting up a "deal" with her. Who is she talking about? Who punished her? Her parents? Did she have siblings?
 
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