[img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/909715047918497815/1037211200871731300/Umbri_banner6.png[/img]


[img]https://i.imgur.com/4uuThLm.jpg[/img]



Several hours later, through a metal wasteland in the shadows between two sun lamps and miles away from her goal, Umbri was still walking.

Hobbling would be more apt. Time hadn’t healed her wounds, it left them festering. The adrenaline had ebbed out in the first hour and the weight on her back wasn’t the only thing dragging her feet. The woman was exhausted. But every time she blinked just a little too long her heart scared her awake, unsure if it was fatigue or the poison about to take her out. She knew her heart was the only thing that had prevented her from succumbing to it sooner and not just because it kept jumping.

So she was dying slowly. And on these crutches and under this weight she was walking even slower. At the very least, away from the bustle and flashing lights of her settlement, she could find in this quiet junkyard… a peaceful place to die.

[color=DC091C][b]“Hey. Hey, Hooker!”[/b][/color]

… Or not even that.

[color=DC091C][b]“This isn’t working out,”[/b][/color] the pile of scrap tied to her back spoke, having kept himself quiet for a moment that seemed too fleeting. [color=DC091C][b]"At this rate I'll rust before we get to Shieldtown."[/b][/color] He glanced over his shoulder and whispered, [color=DC091C][b]"And [i]you [/i]don't have that luxury." [/b][/color]

[color=#A4303F][b]“Thank you,”[/b][/color] Umbri replied, [color=#A4303F][b]“For pointing that out. I’ll make it faster if I drop you off here.”[/b][/color]

[color=DC091C][b]“...”[/b][/color] Temujin sighed. He shook his head and grumbled, having no way to refute her point. [color=DC091C][b]“Why’d you take me along in the first place?”[/b][/color]

Umbri’s eyes darted behind her. [color=#A4303F][b]“That’s - you were - Look. I don’t need a reminder going off every hour saying I’m gonna die. It’s not making me walk faster, just - just shut up. Shut up or talk about something else,”[/b][/color] she exasperated, looking back at the road. The long, dark, impossible road. Like she needed reminding.

[color=DC091C][b]“...Mmm,”[/b][/color] Temujin grunted in reply. From where he laid, there was only one way to look: the long way back. Had he had his legs, they could’ve crossed this whole trek in minutes. Seconds, if he was trying. He felt every ragged breath from her back, every creak of metal, every wasted second… it was all anathema to his very nature. [color=DC091C][b]“What do people even talk about?”[/b][/color] He asked. [color=DC091C][b]“All my… acquaintances… care about is that dumb video game! And cooking.”[/b][/color] The ninja shrugged. [color=DC091C][b]“I don’t need to explain why I don’t care for the latter.”[/b][/color]

[i]So he doesn't even have a stomach.[/i] [color=#A4303F][b]"Is there anything about you that's organic?"[/b][/color] Umbri asked, not knowing the first thing about anything else he mentioned.

[color=DC091C][b]“Of course there is!”[/b][/color] he replied, his pitch high and defensive.[color=DC091C] [b]“My brain - the only thing I had from before…”[/b] [/color]He shrugged his entire body in an attempt to gesture. [color=DC091C][b]“...All of this.”[/b][/color] He gazed upwards, to the dark, metal plates that passed for their skies. A few seconds of contemplation passed by, apparent only to Temujin himself. [color=DC091C][b]“...I don’t know why they bothered, but because of it, you’re stuck with this lovely personality of mine.”[/b][/color]

Umbri scoffed. [color=#A4303F][b]“You are [i]not [/i]self aware enough to say that,”[/b][/color] she said with a shake of her head.

Temujin looked over his shoulder, stretching his half-torn flesh to its limit. [color=DC091C][b]“Hey. I may be many things, but a narcissist ain’t one of them.”[/b][/color] He groaned, twisting his head back to its default position as he mumbled, [color=DC091C][b]“I’m ‘too intense’ to have friends… as Ako put it.”[/b][/color] He paused, staring up at the sky-plates again. [color=DC091C][b]“Huh…”[/b][/color] Flapping his servos like this was… preferable… to suffering in crippled silence. [color=DC091C][b]“What about you?”[/b][/color] He asked, then clarified, [color=DC091C][b]“You got… friends?”[/b][/color]

Umbri clammed up. Her smile, subtle as it was, fell away and the creak of the crutches was the only thing that answered him for a good few steps.

[color=DC091C][b]“...Right.”[/b][/color] Temujin exhaled. [color=DC091C][b]“I’m glad we found something in common.” [/b][/color]

Before she could process that, an otherworldly shriek pierced the air, headed towards them.