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mindglitterTitle: Instruction Manuals
Universe: Here Be Dragons / Untethered
Word Count: 1412
Summary: When Beck's rebreather fails, there's only two options for her. Death or the tunnels.
Notes: Response to Yahtzee prompt.
Rebecca Brooks never felt closer to death than the moment her breathing apparatus failed, and her damaged lungs were filled with the poisonous air. It felt like drowning, and she had no one to pull her back from the ledge.
"Come with me," a voice said near her.
Was that voice speaking to her? She barely heard it over the roar in her ears.
A hand caught her by the elbow, and guided her toward one of the manholes in the middle of the street. Since cars were more airborne these days, Beck didn't understand why they still had them.
She would have giggled hysterically if her lungs would ever stop seizing. Some dim imitation of the sound escaped regardless as the person who had set themself up as her primary rival in the competition dragged her to a semblance of safety.
"You're not dying on this filthy street," they said as Beck stumbled along behind them.
"I... don't see... how... you can... stop that," Beck got out around coughing spasms.
"You'll see. Climb down."
Beck wanted nothing more than to snap at them her hands didn't work right, but if she was going to die from hitting her head on the surface below or from the fucked up air, she'd take hitting her head. It would probably be a less painful and drawn out death than what she was currently experiencing.
Surprisingly, the moment she reached the bottom of the ladder and Lorai blocked out the air coming from street level, Rebecca was able to breathe as well as though she had been in her own apartment in the skyscraper.
Without her entire focus being on the need to draw in sustainable air, Beck was able to take in their surroundings as Lorai hopped down off the ladder and came to stand next to her.
"What is this place?" she finally asked.
"We're not sure," Lorai said, likely referencing the street kids she ran with rather than their fellow competitors in the blood sport competition for a space on Generation Ship Victory. "Sometimes on bad air quality days, a bunch of us take refuge down here, because even we can't breathe on the surface."
"Ironic the only safe places are either the skies or the sewers," Beck said cynically, pulling off the breathing apparatus. Since she could breath clearly for the moment, she strode past the corroding structures to find a place where she could sit down and hopefully find where the mechanism had failed.
This place was a refuge from the surface, but their time here was limited. If she didn't make it back to the surface, she would be forced to concede her position, and the opportunity to get away from the world slowly poisoning them was as good as over.
"What are you doing?' Lorai asked.
Their curiosity had to be overwhelming considering the unspoken rule against friendly engagement, making learning about each other a weakness rather than a strength.
Because of course, the way to decide who could work together on a generation ship for gods only knew how many parsecs was to put them at each other's throats early.
For the first time, Beck wondered if she had lost her mind in trying to do this thing, but the same problem of remaining at the bottom level of the megaskyscrapers raised its ugly head.
Eventually even the closet-sized room she held there in return for the maintenance work she did on the building was going to be considered too valuable of someone of her low status to reside in, and she would be thrown out into the street.
She ran a hand through her short hair, and finished the repairs to her breathing machine before starting to get back into the harness that, in theory, was supposed to hide its presence from the general population. There was no hiding it from Lorai, who had seen her climb out of it when she had first arrived down here.
"Something went wrong with my rebreather. I've used it long enough I can usually fix whatever goes wrong with it. Kind of have to. Don't have the kind of funds to replace them as often as they break."
"But I thought you lived inside."
Beck paused. Lorai's assumption was common, but she had to weigh how likely it was Lorai would use this information against her. If the competition came down to the two of them, anything that she revealed during this conversation was likely to be used against her, but she was tired.
Tired of watching her back. Tired of not being able to trust anyone. Tired of the isolation her current life had become.
"It's a medical exemption," she said, holding up the machine she was in the middle of recalibrating. It wouldn't be perfect without the tools she had at home for the task, but it wasn't something she could do anything about for the moment. "For the most part, I live there so the richy-rich have someone to keep the rest of the building running for their convenience."
Lorai considered that. "That still sounds pretty shitty."
Beck shrugged. "Such is life."
As she got the machine as close to working as it was likely to get, she looked around at the area that surrounded it, and between this place of refuge and what she and Lorai were going to be headed back into once they returned to the surface, she was reminded of the book her mother kept around as a cautionary tale.
That was back before the general population was barred from privately owning books.
Had her mother in a better state of health, she would have been one of the first protesting that particular piece of nonsense, but as it was, there was no one left to protest with Beck at home trying to take care of her mother as best as she could considering her lungs wouldn't stop spasming, and the increasing amount of toxins in the air making it impossible for her to take one step outside their home.
She knew what her mother would have said in response to all of this nonsense, however.
"The Hunger Games was not supposed to be an instruction manual," Beck said.
She finished fastening the harness holding the machine back on again, and slid the thin tubing back into her nostrils before she realized Lorai was staring at her as though she had just been speaking a foreign language.
"What are the Hunger Games?" Lorai asked.
Beck rubbed her face with one hand. She should have considered that, since Lorai wasn't asking an uncommon question. Most people their age wouldn't remember the vid drama or the digital book, but her mothers obsession meant Beck had a better knowledge of old popular literature than most of their generation did.
"It was a book, I think. Back when regular people had access to books."
"A story?"
"Yeah, it was a story. She thought things were heading in that direction even then. What we're doing at the surface now would probably feed into that belief."
Beck looked around at the corroding structures around them, and the odd way the decay made it look timeless, as though it was one of the things in her mother's steampunk dramas that had brought her such pleasure in the final days.
"I'm glad to know she didn't live to see what we've been doing all week. Are you ready to head back?"
Lorai's more cynical expression was back on their face, the wonder erased as though it had never been. "I'm not the one who was choking to death at the surface. Think you can make it without keeling over?"
The difference between the person they had been only moments ago and the one they were now was stark. Beck shrugged off her whiplash and shrugged.
"Doesn't matter whether I can or not. The longer we stay down here, the harder it gets to explain where we've been. They might disqualify you or something."
Determined she would no longer be accepting any help from Lorai, Beck rose to her feet and ignored the hand Lorai extended. They had made it clear where they stood now, and Beck intended on taking them at face value.
She felt their eyes on her as she climbed up the ladder back to the surface, but she convinced herself she didn't care as she broke the seal and rejoined the masses.
It was better that way.
Universe: Here Be Dragons / Untethered
Word Count: 1412
Summary: When Beck's rebreather fails, there's only two options for her. Death or the tunnels.
Notes: Response to Yahtzee prompt.
Rebecca Brooks never felt closer to death than the moment her breathing apparatus failed, and her damaged lungs were filled with the poisonous air. It felt like drowning, and she had no one to pull her back from the ledge.
"Come with me," a voice said near her.
Was that voice speaking to her? She barely heard it over the roar in her ears.
A hand caught her by the elbow, and guided her toward one of the manholes in the middle of the street. Since cars were more airborne these days, Beck didn't understand why they still had them.
She would have giggled hysterically if her lungs would ever stop seizing. Some dim imitation of the sound escaped regardless as the person who had set themself up as her primary rival in the competition dragged her to a semblance of safety.
"You're not dying on this filthy street," they said as Beck stumbled along behind them.
"I... don't see... how... you can... stop that," Beck got out around coughing spasms.
"You'll see. Climb down."
Beck wanted nothing more than to snap at them her hands didn't work right, but if she was going to die from hitting her head on the surface below or from the fucked up air, she'd take hitting her head. It would probably be a less painful and drawn out death than what she was currently experiencing.
Surprisingly, the moment she reached the bottom of the ladder and Lorai blocked out the air coming from street level, Rebecca was able to breathe as well as though she had been in her own apartment in the skyscraper.
Without her entire focus being on the need to draw in sustainable air, Beck was able to take in their surroundings as Lorai hopped down off the ladder and came to stand next to her.
"What is this place?" she finally asked.
"We're not sure," Lorai said, likely referencing the street kids she ran with rather than their fellow competitors in the blood sport competition for a space on Generation Ship Victory. "Sometimes on bad air quality days, a bunch of us take refuge down here, because even we can't breathe on the surface."
"Ironic the only safe places are either the skies or the sewers," Beck said cynically, pulling off the breathing apparatus. Since she could breath clearly for the moment, she strode past the corroding structures to find a place where she could sit down and hopefully find where the mechanism had failed.
This place was a refuge from the surface, but their time here was limited. If she didn't make it back to the surface, she would be forced to concede her position, and the opportunity to get away from the world slowly poisoning them was as good as over.
"What are you doing?' Lorai asked.
Their curiosity had to be overwhelming considering the unspoken rule against friendly engagement, making learning about each other a weakness rather than a strength.
Because of course, the way to decide who could work together on a generation ship for gods only knew how many parsecs was to put them at each other's throats early.
For the first time, Beck wondered if she had lost her mind in trying to do this thing, but the same problem of remaining at the bottom level of the megaskyscrapers raised its ugly head.
Eventually even the closet-sized room she held there in return for the maintenance work she did on the building was going to be considered too valuable of someone of her low status to reside in, and she would be thrown out into the street.
She ran a hand through her short hair, and finished the repairs to her breathing machine before starting to get back into the harness that, in theory, was supposed to hide its presence from the general population. There was no hiding it from Lorai, who had seen her climb out of it when she had first arrived down here.
"Something went wrong with my rebreather. I've used it long enough I can usually fix whatever goes wrong with it. Kind of have to. Don't have the kind of funds to replace them as often as they break."
"But I thought you lived inside."
Beck paused. Lorai's assumption was common, but she had to weigh how likely it was Lorai would use this information against her. If the competition came down to the two of them, anything that she revealed during this conversation was likely to be used against her, but she was tired.
Tired of watching her back. Tired of not being able to trust anyone. Tired of the isolation her current life had become.
"It's a medical exemption," she said, holding up the machine she was in the middle of recalibrating. It wouldn't be perfect without the tools she had at home for the task, but it wasn't something she could do anything about for the moment. "For the most part, I live there so the richy-rich have someone to keep the rest of the building running for their convenience."
Lorai considered that. "That still sounds pretty shitty."
Beck shrugged. "Such is life."
As she got the machine as close to working as it was likely to get, she looked around at the area that surrounded it, and between this place of refuge and what she and Lorai were going to be headed back into once they returned to the surface, she was reminded of the book her mother kept around as a cautionary tale.
That was back before the general population was barred from privately owning books.
Had her mother in a better state of health, she would have been one of the first protesting that particular piece of nonsense, but as it was, there was no one left to protest with Beck at home trying to take care of her mother as best as she could considering her lungs wouldn't stop spasming, and the increasing amount of toxins in the air making it impossible for her to take one step outside their home.
She knew what her mother would have said in response to all of this nonsense, however.
"The Hunger Games was not supposed to be an instruction manual," Beck said.
She finished fastening the harness holding the machine back on again, and slid the thin tubing back into her nostrils before she realized Lorai was staring at her as though she had just been speaking a foreign language.
"What are the Hunger Games?" Lorai asked.
Beck rubbed her face with one hand. She should have considered that, since Lorai wasn't asking an uncommon question. Most people their age wouldn't remember the vid drama or the digital book, but her mothers obsession meant Beck had a better knowledge of old popular literature than most of their generation did.
"It was a book, I think. Back when regular people had access to books."
"A story?"
"Yeah, it was a story. She thought things were heading in that direction even then. What we're doing at the surface now would probably feed into that belief."
Beck looked around at the corroding structures around them, and the odd way the decay made it look timeless, as though it was one of the things in her mother's steampunk dramas that had brought her such pleasure in the final days.
"I'm glad to know she didn't live to see what we've been doing all week. Are you ready to head back?"
Lorai's more cynical expression was back on their face, the wonder erased as though it had never been. "I'm not the one who was choking to death at the surface. Think you can make it without keeling over?"
The difference between the person they had been only moments ago and the one they were now was stark. Beck shrugged off her whiplash and shrugged.
"Doesn't matter whether I can or not. The longer we stay down here, the harder it gets to explain where we've been. They might disqualify you or something."
Determined she would no longer be accepting any help from Lorai, Beck rose to her feet and ignored the hand Lorai extended. They had made it clear where they stood now, and Beck intended on taking them at face value.
She felt their eyes on her as she climbed up the ladder back to the surface, but she convinced herself she didn't care as she broke the seal and rejoined the masses.
It was better that way.
