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Round 1 - laniña, "The Pallor of Her Brow" - Part 1 of 5, Fic (○)
Pseudonym: laniña
Title: The Pallor of Her Brow - Part 1 of 5
Characters/Pairings: Akari, Hikaru (for now)
Rating: G
Summary/Notes: Mecha anime AU. Part 1 of a planned 5.
They came upon the giant while wandering lost in the valley.
Akari blamed the weather for their predicament. This year's summer was seductively mild, the sun dazzling upon the water and broken metal, and the two of them had roamed through wood and meadow with no thought of the time or where they were. It was an old hobby of theirs, scavenging war treasure, and they were good at it, or at least Hikaru was. Hikaru was good at doing the things Hikaru was good at. Akari was good at keeping Hikaru -- not safe, precisely, but anchored. She packed lunches and navigated via GPS. She found lost items, reminded him to attend extracurriculars, and deciphered his haphazard communication style to classmates, teachers, and even his own mother.
Everyone believed she was his girlfriend. Akari had long ago given up on that hope, but old habits are hard to break, and hanging out with Hikaru was her oldest habit.
It was their eighth year treasure-hunting in the valley. They had been doing it since kindergarten, and Akari enjoyed it as much as Hikaru did; was, in fact, better at handing the monetary aspects of the business. It was she who identified the coins and currencies they gathered from dessicated skeletons, she who found buyers for the tanks and silent vehicles and rusted munitions that lay in in the shadows of rock slides and dead trees.
Hikaru's talent, on the other hands, was for spotting things. Akari was trying to triangulate their position -- their cellphones had abruptly lost satellite reception-- when he paused at the crest of a hill.
"There's something really odd about that pit there," he said.
Akari looked in the direction he was pointing and saw patchy grass, igneous rocks, and scree, extending for several hundred yards. "I don't see a pit. It's no time to start exploring new things. We'll be in trouble if we don't get to your grandfather's house by dark."
"It's right there. Stop walking, let me go first. You might fall into it." He walked forward with one hand outstretched. He'd gone about ten paces when the air suddenly shimmered and rippled where his fingers touched it. "Camouflage device. Whatever we've got here, its technology is still working."
Viable ancient technology was worth a great deal of galactic credits. Akari paused. "Be careful," she warned.
As if on cue, Hikaru walked through the shimmer and disappeared.
For several minutes she stood there staring at the space where he'd been, at the dry and empty plain. Waiting for Hikaru like she'd spent half her life doing.
When he finally emerged, he was brimming with excitement. "You're not going to believe this."
"What is it?"
He grabbed her wrist and tugged her forward. "Come and see."
______
The crater was humanoid in shape, created, it seemed, to fit the great gleaming machine that lay within. They stopped right at the edge of the pit, right where the ground halted and became darkness. Only a brief darkness, though, a footlong pause. It was an easy enough leap from where they stood to where the - robot? spaceship? war machine? - began. Hikaru jumped first, his hiking boots lodging on the machine's torso with a smothered clang. After a moment Akari followed.
"I don't remember anything like this being used in the Honinbou Wars," she said. Their years of treasure hunting had made her disproportionately knowledgeable about military history. "What is it, some kind of robot?"
"Not a robot, silly. Look at the glass in its chest; there's a cockpit. It's meant to be piloted."
"Some kind of humanoid mechanical suit, then."
"Duh," Hikaru said, but there was more awe than disdain in his voice. They'd never seen anything like this before, except in pictures. The machine was about four-storeys high, its paintwork pearl-white and pitch black. Its left arm was shaped as a great rifle, its right arm a gigantic curving falchion. On its head sat a black multi-barrelled crown - a three-sixty degree rifle. "Look, its eyes are lit up. Do you think any part of it's working, besides the cloaking technology?" Indeed its eyes were glowing with a soft grey light.
"There's at least one more technology working here," said Akari, as they trod across the machine. "Look at how clean it is - it's lying in an open plain and I can't even see a speck of dust. Either it hasn't been here that long, or---"
"Or it can activate a force field." Hikaru knelt before the cockpit and ran his hand along the seam where glass met metal. "Akari, this is the biggest find we've found, ever."
"It's too big a find," she said, sensing a familiar unease within herself. "Hikaru, we're not exactly the only people who come here looking for treasure. Why hasn't this been found before now?"
"I don't know." He shrugged, but did not look up at her, intent on examining the panels before him. "But there's only one way to find out, isn't there? Let's look at the inside of this thing."
"There's no way it'd be this easy to activate this..." She stopped her sentence midway as the glass covering of the cockpit pulled back, rapidly and silently, and Hikaru slid inside with a smile of triumph.
There little no choice at that stage but to follow, and so she did.
There were two seats within, for a pilot and a co-pilot, lying horizontal in parallel to the current position of the humanoid machine. There were dials and touchpads and circuitry, embedded within a translucent crystalline console.
Without warning Hikaru gave her a push and she landed in the co-pilot's seat. A cross-shaped safety harness emerged from the sides, quick and noiseless as the glass panelling from a moment ago, and held her snugly in place.
She struggled at her new restraints. "How did you do that? That wasn't remotely funny, Hikaru." She turned to shoot a glare at Hikaru, but he wasn't looking at her.
"Who are you?" he said suddenly. He had been strapped into his seat as well, and the glass covering of the cockpit had closed, unnoticed, over them.
Akari frowned at the sudden question. "Sorry, Hikaru, what were you saying?"
He made no response but suddenly struck his own head against the right temple, "Get out of my mind, you freak."
Alarmed now, she pulled at the straps of her harness, searching for some sort of release mechanism.
The console before them lit up in in gold and silver lights, and the machine produced the first noise she'd heard from it so far. The thrum of an engine, barely a purr.
She glanced to her left and saw Hikaru's eyes glazed and distant, as if he wasn't staring at all. She grabbed his shoulder sleeve. "Hikaru. Hikaru."
Then they were moving, the cockpit turning upwards as the torso rotated to sitting position. Through the viewing glass she saw the world shimmer - the camouflage cloak falling away.
It was when the machine rose to standing position that Akari finally started to scream. "Stop!" she cried. "Make it stop! Hikaru!"
Golden words flashed across the console's display screen. CO-PILOT DISTRESS, SITUATION 17-D. DEPLOYING AIRBORNE TRANQUILISER.
She scented the sweetness of the sedative that filled the cockpit suddenly, and resisted as the machine folded its legs, as its massive arms detached suddenly and flew in the air before her eyes, before reattaching on either side of the cockpit. A schematic diagram appeared on the display, in the same soft gold light, informing her that the machine was going into Flight Module, showing the jet-shape it had transformed into.
The anxiolytic must have done its work, then, for as she looked at what was happening she saw everything, and was not afraid. Hikaru, catatonic at her side. The great ancient machine, preparing to take flight. The impending sunset.
The knowledge that nothing would ever be the same again.
New words formed on the display, this time in gentle silver light.
It is the greatest honour to meet you, young lady. Please do not be afraid. I mean you and Hikaru no harm.
They began moving forward, accelerating and then taking off, easily and with minimal friction. In the pilot's seat, Hikaru slumped suddenly, his head bowed in unconsciousness.
"Who are you?" she said steadily. "What do you want?"
I am most sorry for forgetting the proper introductions. I am Sai of the Fujiwara Star Federation. I want to fulfil the mission for which I was designed.
They continued to gain altitude, the rocks turning to dots, the forests turning from trees into indistinct expanses of green.
Akari did not ask Sai what its mission was. It told her nevertheless.
Forgive me, but I must make Hikaru and you understand. I was built to conquer the stars.
Go to opponent's entry: Round 1 - Fido, "Dark Roast", Fic (●)
Go to vote: Kawahagi Middle School vs. Five-Colored Cloud - First Board Match
Title: The Pallor of Her Brow - Part 1 of 5
Characters/Pairings: Akari, Hikaru (for now)
Rating: G
Summary/Notes: Mecha anime AU. Part 1 of a planned 5.
They came upon the giant while wandering lost in the valley.
Akari blamed the weather for their predicament. This year's summer was seductively mild, the sun dazzling upon the water and broken metal, and the two of them had roamed through wood and meadow with no thought of the time or where they were. It was an old hobby of theirs, scavenging war treasure, and they were good at it, or at least Hikaru was. Hikaru was good at doing the things Hikaru was good at. Akari was good at keeping Hikaru -- not safe, precisely, but anchored. She packed lunches and navigated via GPS. She found lost items, reminded him to attend extracurriculars, and deciphered his haphazard communication style to classmates, teachers, and even his own mother.
Everyone believed she was his girlfriend. Akari had long ago given up on that hope, but old habits are hard to break, and hanging out with Hikaru was her oldest habit.
It was their eighth year treasure-hunting in the valley. They had been doing it since kindergarten, and Akari enjoyed it as much as Hikaru did; was, in fact, better at handing the monetary aspects of the business. It was she who identified the coins and currencies they gathered from dessicated skeletons, she who found buyers for the tanks and silent vehicles and rusted munitions that lay in in the shadows of rock slides and dead trees.
Hikaru's talent, on the other hands, was for spotting things. Akari was trying to triangulate their position -- their cellphones had abruptly lost satellite reception-- when he paused at the crest of a hill.
"There's something really odd about that pit there," he said.
Akari looked in the direction he was pointing and saw patchy grass, igneous rocks, and scree, extending for several hundred yards. "I don't see a pit. It's no time to start exploring new things. We'll be in trouble if we don't get to your grandfather's house by dark."
"It's right there. Stop walking, let me go first. You might fall into it." He walked forward with one hand outstretched. He'd gone about ten paces when the air suddenly shimmered and rippled where his fingers touched it. "Camouflage device. Whatever we've got here, its technology is still working."
Viable ancient technology was worth a great deal of galactic credits. Akari paused. "Be careful," she warned.
As if on cue, Hikaru walked through the shimmer and disappeared.
For several minutes she stood there staring at the space where he'd been, at the dry and empty plain. Waiting for Hikaru like she'd spent half her life doing.
When he finally emerged, he was brimming with excitement. "You're not going to believe this."
"What is it?"
He grabbed her wrist and tugged her forward. "Come and see."
The crater was humanoid in shape, created, it seemed, to fit the great gleaming machine that lay within. They stopped right at the edge of the pit, right where the ground halted and became darkness. Only a brief darkness, though, a footlong pause. It was an easy enough leap from where they stood to where the - robot? spaceship? war machine? - began. Hikaru jumped first, his hiking boots lodging on the machine's torso with a smothered clang. After a moment Akari followed.
"I don't remember anything like this being used in the Honinbou Wars," she said. Their years of treasure hunting had made her disproportionately knowledgeable about military history. "What is it, some kind of robot?"
"Not a robot, silly. Look at the glass in its chest; there's a cockpit. It's meant to be piloted."
"Some kind of humanoid mechanical suit, then."
"Duh," Hikaru said, but there was more awe than disdain in his voice. They'd never seen anything like this before, except in pictures. The machine was about four-storeys high, its paintwork pearl-white and pitch black. Its left arm was shaped as a great rifle, its right arm a gigantic curving falchion. On its head sat a black multi-barrelled crown - a three-sixty degree rifle. "Look, its eyes are lit up. Do you think any part of it's working, besides the cloaking technology?" Indeed its eyes were glowing with a soft grey light.
"There's at least one more technology working here," said Akari, as they trod across the machine. "Look at how clean it is - it's lying in an open plain and I can't even see a speck of dust. Either it hasn't been here that long, or---"
"Or it can activate a force field." Hikaru knelt before the cockpit and ran his hand along the seam where glass met metal. "Akari, this is the biggest find we've found, ever."
"It's too big a find," she said, sensing a familiar unease within herself. "Hikaru, we're not exactly the only people who come here looking for treasure. Why hasn't this been found before now?"
"I don't know." He shrugged, but did not look up at her, intent on examining the panels before him. "But there's only one way to find out, isn't there? Let's look at the inside of this thing."
"There's no way it'd be this easy to activate this..." She stopped her sentence midway as the glass covering of the cockpit pulled back, rapidly and silently, and Hikaru slid inside with a smile of triumph.
There little no choice at that stage but to follow, and so she did.
There were two seats within, for a pilot and a co-pilot, lying horizontal in parallel to the current position of the humanoid machine. There were dials and touchpads and circuitry, embedded within a translucent crystalline console.
Without warning Hikaru gave her a push and she landed in the co-pilot's seat. A cross-shaped safety harness emerged from the sides, quick and noiseless as the glass panelling from a moment ago, and held her snugly in place.
She struggled at her new restraints. "How did you do that? That wasn't remotely funny, Hikaru." She turned to shoot a glare at Hikaru, but he wasn't looking at her.
"Who are you?" he said suddenly. He had been strapped into his seat as well, and the glass covering of the cockpit had closed, unnoticed, over them.
Akari frowned at the sudden question. "Sorry, Hikaru, what were you saying?"
He made no response but suddenly struck his own head against the right temple, "Get out of my mind, you freak."
Alarmed now, she pulled at the straps of her harness, searching for some sort of release mechanism.
The console before them lit up in in gold and silver lights, and the machine produced the first noise she'd heard from it so far. The thrum of an engine, barely a purr.
She glanced to her left and saw Hikaru's eyes glazed and distant, as if he wasn't staring at all. She grabbed his shoulder sleeve. "Hikaru. Hikaru."
Then they were moving, the cockpit turning upwards as the torso rotated to sitting position. Through the viewing glass she saw the world shimmer - the camouflage cloak falling away.
It was when the machine rose to standing position that Akari finally started to scream. "Stop!" she cried. "Make it stop! Hikaru!"
Golden words flashed across the console's display screen. CO-PILOT DISTRESS, SITUATION 17-D. DEPLOYING AIRBORNE TRANQUILISER.
She scented the sweetness of the sedative that filled the cockpit suddenly, and resisted as the machine folded its legs, as its massive arms detached suddenly and flew in the air before her eyes, before reattaching on either side of the cockpit. A schematic diagram appeared on the display, in the same soft gold light, informing her that the machine was going into Flight Module, showing the jet-shape it had transformed into.
The anxiolytic must have done its work, then, for as she looked at what was happening she saw everything, and was not afraid. Hikaru, catatonic at her side. The great ancient machine, preparing to take flight. The impending sunset.
The knowledge that nothing would ever be the same again.
New words formed on the display, this time in gentle silver light.
It is the greatest honour to meet you, young lady. Please do not be afraid. I mean you and Hikaru no harm.
They began moving forward, accelerating and then taking off, easily and with minimal friction. In the pilot's seat, Hikaru slumped suddenly, his head bowed in unconsciousness.
"Who are you?" she said steadily. "What do you want?"
I am most sorry for forgetting the proper introductions. I am Sai of the Fujiwara Star Federation. I want to fulfil the mission for which I was designed.
They continued to gain altitude, the rocks turning to dots, the forests turning from trees into indistinct expanses of green.
Akari did not ask Sai what its mission was. It told her nevertheless.
Forgive me, but I must make Hikaru and you understand. I was built to conquer the stars.
Go to opponent's entry: Round 1 - Fido, "Dark Roast", Fic (●)
Go to vote: Kawahagi Middle School vs. Five-Colored Cloud - First Board Match
no subject
(Anonymous) 2012-07-20 11:49 pm (UTC)(link)no subject
(Anonymous) 2012-07-22 09:41 pm (UTC)(link)-Uchida.