Post by Deco on Nov 18, 2019 19:12:04 GMT -5
...easy does it.
Deco balanced on one foot, staring down the narrow edge she found herself perched on, looking down over the slums of New Mexico City. Deco planted her second foot on the narrow beam and pushed off, leaping forward over the gap. She reached out with one hand and...
Shit.
...she missed. Her left knee grinded against the jagged edge of the beam as she lost her balance. One of the cans of spraypaint in her hands got knocked away, clanging against the wall and tumbling down to the alleyway below, bouncing off fire escapes on the way down. Deco managed to get one of her hands on the ledge, digging in and stopping her from plummeting five stories down. She glanced down, dangling in the air above the emptiness of night, staring down at the bottom of the alley. Her comm unit crackles to life.
"Psst. Deco. What was that?"
"Just a slip. I'm fine, Eve."
Deco turned and looked back up to her half-finished tag on the side of the building. For now, it simply read "NO ESTAS"... with no ending. For those reading along in English, that meant "YOU ARE NOT", with the final punchline as-of-yet unfinished.
"Police are on alert. Moving in fast, a whole pack of bots."
A dim red and blue light rose from around the corner, a few blocks away. Deco couldn't make out how many of them there were, but sure enough, the mechanized police force had been mobilized. Deco looked over beside her to find a rickety fire escape a short distance away. With enough leverage on her poor fingers, she could get momentum rocking back and forth.
"They're closing in. Must've heard the noise. Damn, those noise sensors have range. You've only got... I don't know, maybe a minute."
"I'll be fine. Bail if you need to. I'll meet you back home."
Deco reached down and pulled up her facemask, digital LEDs showing the shape of teeth and fangs. She quickly reached over her back and shoved the extra can of spraypaint into her bag and then clipped it shut. With her second hand free, she managed to get a second grip up on the ledge above her.
Breathe. You've got this.
Deco closed her eyes. From her field of view, everything faded out. All the background noise and the ambient buzz of the city melted away into nothing. She steadied herself with meditation... a technique she had picked up as a coping mechanism over the years.
Breathe.
Breaaaaaaaaaaaaaaathe.
Deco felt her mind stretch back across time, bringing her back to...
Deco felt her mind stretch back across time, bringing her back to...
...a specific moment.
Thirteen years ago, in Seoul, South Korea, a much younger Yun Soo-Yun sat on her bed, notebook in-hand, sketching away underneath the covers. With them pulled over her head, she used a small flashlight to illuminate the pages and help her see. She traced the curve of an eye onto the page, filling in just one bit of the blank details on the face. She took a second and pulled away from the drawing, examining it, trying to think of what it needed next. Obviously, the face needed another eye, but she felt like the one eye she had drawn was almost too happy for what she wanted to portray. Just then, the covers ripped off of her and she shrieked in shock.
"Disappointing."
Her father muttered under his breath, clutching a handful of her bedsheets in his hand.
"Leave me alone!"
Soo-Yun slid back against the headboard of her bed and pulled her knees in close. Her father glared down at the sketchbook his hand, shaking his head.
"My daughter... the artist..."
Her father spit out the word with such a disdain, you might've thought he just bit into a lemon. Grabbing onto the drawing with one hand, he violently flung the rest of the notebook towards the wall. The top sheet of paper ripped as the notebook crashed against a framed vintage Stray Kids poster, knocking it to the ground. Tears swelled up in Soo-Yun's eyes. Her father grumbled and slowly turned towards her, with her half-finished drawing still in his hand. He began to form a fist, his anger unable to be contained, crumpling up her drawing in the process.
"You will not listen, Soo-Yun. Your sister... she is acing her studies. You are a laughing stock. Disgraceful, bringing home terrible grades and refusing to study. Spending time on these..."
He glanced down at the balled up paper in his hand.
"Pointless endeavors."
Her father shook his head and tossed the balled up drawing over his shoulder. He reached over and slapped Soo-Yun across the face. She yelped and held a hand to her cheek.
"Grounded. One month. And if I ever catch you with these supplies again... you can add a year. Every time. Like it or not, you will obey my rules in my house."
He quickly hurried out the door and slammed it shut behind him. Soo-Yun felt her face going flush. She felt a swell of emotion coming over her. She had felt like this many times before, with everything building up inside of her, clouding her thoughts, clouding her judgment... so she closed her eyes. Slowly, the sounds of her father's footsteps echoing through the house began to fade away. She kept her mouth closed and took in a deep breath through her nose, holding in for a moment, before releasing it slowly through her mouth.
Breathe. You'll be okay...
...You've got this.
Back in 2048, Deco still dangled from the wall. She slowly opened her eyes and all the sound came rushing back into her at once. Her eyes flooded with the neon lights from the city. The burning sensation in her biceps suddenly felt less vibrant as she pulled herself up, by sheer strength, lifting herself up onto the ledge. Just as she got a knee up to ledge level, a tinny voice interrupted her inspiring "mind over matter" moment.
CITIZEN. HALT. YOU ARE UNDER ARREST.
Deco sensed something wasn't right. She quickly pushed off the wall with her feet, backflipping just as a tazer bolt shot right at her position on the wall.
CONTINUED RESISTANCE WILL RESULT IN LETHAL FORCE BEING AUTHORIZED.
Deco twisted her body in mid air, changing the trajectory of her leap. She quickly extended an arm, latching around the side of the rickety fire escape, the mechanized police force below her showering her face in a wash of alternating red and blue. She used the momentum to swing onto the fire escape, in between two of the bars, sliding in on her back. Another two tazer claws sail through the air past her, clanking against the wall.
REQUESTING LETHAL FORCE AUTHORIZATION. FUGITIVE ON THE RUN.
Just for a little tagging? Corporate shits are cranking up the pressure.
Deco scrambled to her hands and knees. She peered over the edge of the fire escape from underneath the brim of her hat and managed to count at least five separate policebots down below. She just managed to pull her head back in to safety as another tazer bolt flies just past her, knocking her cap off. She quickly caught it and put it back on her head.
Well, that's... annoying.
LETHAL CLEARANCE OBTAINED. WEAPONS FREE.
Deco's eyes went wide.
SHIT!
With almost no delay, a FLOOD of bullets came raining upwards to her position. The first few rounds clinked and ricocheted off the fire escape, which proved to be a useful shield. She glanced behind her and noticed the ledge of the building runs along up about twenty more feet where it met an overlook from a nearby street. Deco tried to do calculations in her head... but she didn't get very far. Maybe her father was right. Maybe she should've paid more attention to math.
ARMOR SHREDDING ROUNDS ACTIVATED.
Deco knew that meant she had very little time. Insinctively, she kipped up to her feet, taking a running leap and springboarding off the side of the platform to reach the ladder to the next level hanging overhead. It's only moments later that a new hail of bullets flew towards her previous location, this time ripping through the steel flooring and shredding it to bits and pieces. Deco felt the entire fire escape buckle a bit from the weakened structure. One of the supports near her ripped out of the wall beside her, causing the entire structure to sway a bit and tilt slightly.
I've got one shot at this...
Deco took a few steps back and then charged forward, ramming her shoulder into the side railing of the fire escape. It creaked and a few more supports ripped out of the wall. She planted a foot behind her to steady herself as the entire structure began to topple forward towards the overlook ahead. As the structure fell from a vertical standing to one more horizontal in nature, Deco began to charge towards the top of the structure as it toppled. Just as the entire structure was set to crash into the road ahead, another flurry of bullets launched in her direction, and Deco closed her eyes.
Now!
With a sprint, she leaped off the edge of the structure. It crashed into the side of the road and collapsed in on itself. Deco landed with a roll and a thud on the street ahead, the wind getting knocked out of her. She gasped for air as she landed. Quickly, Deco turned and examined the chaos behind her. Dust had been kicked up into the air, illuminating the red and blue lights from the alley below. A warning siren blared out from the police, signaling that the bots had entered some escalated alert stage.
Get moving.
She scrambled to all fours, then up to both feet as she hurried down the road in front of her, entering a bustling marketplace. Seeing a secluded area, Deco ducked into an empty space between two market stalls, hidden between the walls of the She Deco quietly removed her facemask and reached behind her, fumbling with her hair. All at once, her pink ponytail turned a light shade of brown and settled gently down around her shoulders -- a very simple, yet effective cybernetic implant that allowed her to camoflauge her hair at any given moment. Such a tool was especially effective in her hobby. The Corporations would never allow for such implants to be sold openly, as it would fuck with their tracking systems, so Deco had to get it on the black market. She quickly pulled off her cap and jacket and stuffed it in her bag, leaving her in a simple white croptop with long black leggings. She threw her bag over his shoulder as her comms crackled to life. She pushed out of her spot between the stalls and entered the busy crowd in the marketplace.
"...Deco?"
Deco rounded a corner into the open market, where peddlers of various sundries were shouting at her, hoping to catch a new customer that day.
"I made it out."
A huge sigh of relief came through on the other end.
"Oh, thank God. I heard the shooting and didn't know..."
Eve's voice trailed off. Deco broke the silence.
"Are you home?"
"Yeah. I'm home."
"Good. I'll be there in a bit."
The comms line went quiet and Deco pushed all the noise and bustle from her mind, centering herself once again. It wasn't her first close call, nor would it be her last. But so long as Corporations continued to trample over human life all in the name of pursuing their bottom line, Deco was going to keep doing whatever little bit she could to send a message to those who felt trapped and suffocated by the world around them. She had one simple message she wanted to send to them.