I, ROBOT }} giraffe && lalia

I’m no stranger to being shoved around, so when they literally throw me out of the train and onto the platform I’m ready to catch myself. Granted, I do stumble quite a bit, but I manage to stand up straight and give the Peacekeeper one hell of a mean look as he closed the door. The train laves in a heartbeat and I’m left standing somewhat awkwardly on the wooden platform.

I’m home, though.

I was never homesick while I was trapped in the cell but I’ve not been happier to see all these pitiful faces that wander aimlessly around Six. Without another moment’s hesitation I turn and leap off the platform, making a beeline for the seamstress shop and shoving out of the way anyone who stands between me and the only two people I want to see right now.

There’s no doubt in my mind that Vicky’ll be mad – as soon as I open the door she just sort of stares, and it slowly morphs into what I believe would be physical daggers driving into my body if she possessed such an ability. Honestly, she’s the only person that’s able to stare me down and reduce me to a quivering mess. I shrink back away from her gaze but quickly decide to change the subject. ”I’m going to District One to try and straighten out a bunch of wussy ‘rebels’ and get them hacking at each other.”

The look she gives me is amusing. “Why do you get to have all the fun?” I huff, placing my hands on my hips. ”What, do you wanna come?” She nods and looks at me as if I had just asked a very stupid question. “Of course I do.” She pauses, though, then asks: “What about Teddy? We can’t just leave him.”

Our little boy – the one thing I’m most proud of. There’s no way we can leave him behind, and even if we could I wouldn’t want to. I’ve been away from him for about a month or two and that’s a month or two longer than I would ever like to be apart from him. ”We can bring him along, I guess. Give him a butterfly knife or something, he’ll be fine.”

Vicky stares again. “A knife?”

”What? It’s got the word ‘butterfly’ in it, how bad can it be?”

We bicker, as usual, but progress and pack things up. We even get a little carrier bag for Teddy to sit and sleep in and he takes to it quietly, looking up at us with those big brown eyes of his. He stays quiet aside from the occasional cooing as we set out, crawling over the fence and heading into the wilderness.

During the trip (and switching Teddy off to the other person) I explain to Vicky what that sequin runt in my cell told me. Nothing but a bunch of shitty wussies – their so-called “gang war” hasn’t been anything but conspiring and maybe a bit of vandalism. Pathetic, really; if you’re going to call something a war then you need people to fucking bleed and die, not cry because you spray painted the side of their house. These rich folk don’t know how to do anything properly, I swear.

I’ve just about had it with the wilderness when we reach the looming fence of One. I let Vicky drop her luggage and climb over first, then I haul things up and hand them down her to, being extra cautious in handing Teddy over. The little guy only cried a few times during the entire trip, much to my surprise, and one time was because a hornet stung him (and I tore that hornet apart segment by segment), but other than that he’s been absolutely amazing. Once our few bags are over I follow, dropping down to the other side. With the force of the impact and my momentum still travelling forward I immediately lose my balance and fall right on my ass, unfortunately. Whether or not Vicky laughs I don’t know, but I grumble and get to my feet, wipe the dirt off, and pick up the things she’s not carrying.

The people here are…. strange. The buildings are much nicer than back home and it’s almost very easy to tell who’s a career and who isn’t – basically visible warnings as to who to stay away from until we figure out where we are and what we’re doing. We try to stick to the shadows or at least out of everyone’s way since it’s a little bit too obvious we’re not from here; not many people turn their heads in our direction so it’s a plus for us. The only problem now is where are we supposed to go?