Floating Cities Are All The Rage (OxO//Closed//Dystopian)

Juniper took it willingly, her eyes focusing on the half-metal male outside. “Are you upset with him?” She asked softly. “He’s very sweet. Even if he’s a little confused and broken.” She murmured, taking a bite out of her apple.

Astrid furrowed her brows, taking a bite from her apple and gazing out at the window, the strange, robotic figure that resembled her brother worked mercilessly at the dirt, the sweat finally starting to show as he shows minor signs of exhaustion.
"I don't know what he's feeling right now, if he's feeling anything at all. But," Astrid adjusted her stance, shifting her weight onto her left foot. "If I were to be upset with him, it would only make it worse for him. I don't want to add to whatever weight he's carrying."

“Mm there’s something in there. I can tell.” She bit her lip, watching Roger some more. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s there… I didn’t know they experimented on humans here… and he called him 02…”

Astrid sighed, deep in thought.
"I don't know what that means. How many more people like him are out there?"
She takes another bite of her apple, watching Roger drop the shovel and sit down, taking a well-deserved break.

“There were many people I stumbled across who told of human experiments. I didn’t believe them but… look what they did to Roger…” she murmured, biting her lip. “Could there be more people like him? Emotionless, memory wiped, half-metal?!”

Astrid stared into space, listening to what Juniper theorized, certain realizations settling into her bones.
"What happened to 01? 03?"
Her voice was almost void of emotion, more questioning and too deep in her trance of staring into space to really add much emphasis to her words.
"What if they've gotten worse with each person they experiment on?"

Juniper bit her lip, shuddering. “01 didn’t make it…” she murmured, hugging herself. “Something had to have killed him or he went insane or some weird thing happened. Why would they make an 02?”

Of course there was the chance 01 was successful, and 02 was just another clone of 01. But then again… the first experiment never went well.

Astrid listened to Juniper's theories, finishing up her apple and watching Roger pat the dirt to level it, finishing up and wiping a bit of sweat off his forehead. However, instead of returning to the house, Roger took a seat next to the grave, lifting his knees up and resting his arms on them.
Astrid could see from the window that he was talking, but there was no way to tell what he was saying.
"Do you think Roger might be able to tell us?"

“I’m not sure. He said he remembers them tricking him.” She stated, biting her lip. “We could ask. Maybe he knows something.” She tilted her head and groaned. “I’m so confused, Astrid… too much has happened in such little time.”

Astrid nodded, landing her hands in her lap as she sits on the chair nearby.
"You're right, sometimes I wish the world would just stop for a moment so I could have a few seconds to process everything."
Roger had since stood up and made his way back to the house. He opened the door, the final light from the sun trickling through the leaves until all that remained was a brown-ish blue night sky.
"I guess we have a lot to catch up on." Roger uttered, gazing at the two.

Juniper nodded at Roger, smiling sweetly. “I’m just a bystander in this. Catch up with your sister. She’s been dying to find you.” She said softly, glancing Astrid’s way. “And after we have a few questions for you.”

Roger did his best to avoid talking about what happened to him, but Astrid quickly ran out of things to mention that happened in the past years. Astrid started taking walks in the morning to ease her stress, Jesse learned to be a bit more responsible in taking care of Astrid considering Roger usually took the responsibility of caring for both of them. With not much else to say, the silence grew. Eventually, Astrid glanced at Juniper, signaling that she's ready to ask about what they were discussing earlier.

Juniper nodded softly, smiling softly and sighing loudly. “What happened to you Roger? Are there more people? More people like you?”

(Sorry it’s short)

(You're fine! It's v understandable uwu)

Roger's eyes flickered to Juniper, then back to Astrid before inhaling deeply, straightening up in his seat and crossing his arms. His eyes almost started to glaze over as memories flashed through his mind.
"I thought I could take a risk, I wanted to learn the secrets that our parents kept from us."
He shook his head and scoffed at himself.
"I discovered the secrets, alright. Our parents worked with the organization that conducted human experiments, but I don't think they knew that the organization did such things."
Roger paused, his eyes flicking over to Astrid.
"Not until they were killed. Astrid, do you remember the days before they came and killed our parents?"
Astrid meekly nodded, opening her mouth to speak, but her voice coming out broken.
"They were home a lot more often than usual."
Roger nodded, sighing.
"They found out about the dark secrets of the organization, and they quit."
Roger shakes his head again, exhaling sharply and looking to the floor.
"I'd consider myself lucky. I'm the second successful experiment, but…" Roger paused, attempting to avoid his voice breaking.
"I barely made it. I was going to be another failed attempt. I still had some fucked up resemblance of human life, but they wanted perfect robotic creatures, so they were going to throw me out, leave me to die. I begged for my life, promising I'd do whatever they asked as long as they let me live."
Roger's eyes had completely become lost in space, staring through everything.
"I was never really accepted by anyone, but I tried my best to blend in. I committed treacherous acts without blinking to show that I was one of them. I just wanted to be accepted."

Juniper nodded as he spoke, her eyes furrowing. “Well, that’s not exactly nice to hear. Human experiments…” her eyes turned to the window. “I know of a few laboratories that could be doing such a thing but well… it just seems unlikely.”

Roger nodded, eyes still focused on nothing but remaining still.
"Exactly why I thought I could handle them when they tricked me. I couldn't have even imagined what they held behind their backs."
Astrid shook her head, looking down. She clearly wanted to say something, but appeared to hold her tongue as her eyes shift to Juniper, a knowing look on her face.

Juniper ran her fingers through her hair. “Was the first successful one 01?” She asked softly, looking at Astrid. She was starting to worry. “Do we know too much?”

Now Juniper feared the same fate would befall herself and Astrid. She worried they would come for her. She couldn’t become an experiment. She still hadn’t gotten to face her parents.

Realization hit Roger as he shuddered, burying his face in his hands.
"They're probably looking for me. I should have never come here."
He rubbed his face, revealing it as panic fills his eyes, switching between looking at Astrid and looking at Juniper.
"You two need to get as far away from me as possible. My tracker probably turned off when I started regaining memories, otherwise they would have come for me by now."
Roger shook his head, frustrated with himself.

Juniper walked to him and set a hand on his arm. “Calm down. It’s alright. Where is the tracker? Is it easy to remove?” She hadn’t worked on any sort of technology. She feared that if it was too complicated to get out, she could hurt or kill Roger. And she didn’t want that on her…

Roger's breath was shaky, his eyes darting everywhere as he wracks his mind for his memories.
"Th-the nape of my neck, I think." He utters, Astrid's stomach twisting into a bunch of knots. She wasn't sure how this would turn out, and it worried her.

"You think?" Juniper sighed softly. She rubbed at her face before suddenly freezing, her eyes wide. "I know someone who could check for us." Her eyes seemed to widen more. "And someone who can take it out. They're right here in this city. He's kind of a friend, more a flirt with me, but I am certain he will do a good job with it Roger. You wouldn't have to worry about anything. He even has stuff to put you in anesthesia."

Juniper seemed to be growing more and more excited by the minute. "It's worth a shot I think. But it's up to you Roger. Are you going to be a brother and stay for your sister? Or a coward and go back to them?" She knew her words were harsh but in order to knock him into some sense they had to be said at some point or another. If Roger was even one bit hesitant, the man she was thinking of would not do anything to him.

Roger flinched, his eyes flickering in a bit of fear as he shuddered.
"Last time I was under anesthesia, I lost what made me human."
Roger's gaze flicked from Astrid to the floor, deep in thought as he tries to calm himself down.
"I want it removed, but…" He looks back at Astrid, hesitating to finish his sentence.

Juniper faltered for a moment but then put back up Her front. “You won’t lose what makes you human this time. You’ll gain a bit of human thisntime.” She promised him, biting her lip. “Astrid will be right there too. I won’t let anything happen.”

Astrid nodded reassuringly to Roger, but her eyes did not hold the same intent. In fact, she was a bit nervous about it, too. But she didn't want to add worry to Roger, so she kept quiet.
"O-okay, where do we find him?" He uttered out, fingers curling in anxiety.

"The middle of town." She stated, pulling a few strands of her hair into her hand. She lifted a knife to it and cut the blue tendrils into her hand. If anything, it evened out her short hair. "He won't do it for free, however." She murmured, stuffing the hair into an empty bag she had on her and filling it up with a few coins and dollars and what appeared to be a ring. "That should be enough. Hair sells for more than you can imagine up in the higher cities." She explained. "Everyone wants hair extensions or wigs. A lot of people lost their hair in the radiation down here."

Roger and Astrid exchange nervous glances, wondering about the legitimacy of this guy. Nevertheless, Roger was nervous, but he didn't want to let the others see his anxiety, so he held his composure. He stood up and looked out the window, realizing the moon glowed high in the sky.
"It's late, we should go to sleep."

Juniper looked out to the moon, frowning. It's light could be seen even with the shadow of the city above. "Yes… We'll go tomorrow…" Her eyes fell to her arm, where her bandages were wrapped around. A soft, sad sigh left her throat. She would never get used to seeing death. Not ever. She hated it. The way the victim fell limp… the way the blood flew…

She shuddered and grabbed her blankets, throwing them around herself as she kneeled down and squeezed her eyes shut. "goodnight…" She whispered, trying to erase the memory of gunshots and the sound of blades through windpipes. She could hear the crushing, crunching sound now. it made her grit her teeth.

Astrid complied to the night sky and made her way down the hall, but Roger lingered. Something held him back from reality, something pulled him, and he stared at the floor intently. His eyes flashed, the memories haunting him; images of desperate eyes that begged for their life as Roger recited the rules to the thieves, street rats, white collar criminals, that just wanted to survive, finally lost their life to Roger's lack of empathy. Roger had to force himself not to feel for them, so that he could survive, but at the cost of other's lives. Roger started to question if his life was worth the countless lives he took, but he soon realized how much time had passed as he stared at the floor.
He snapped himself back to reality, looking around before sighing, shaking his head and retreating to the hallway.

By the next morning, Juniper had barely slept. Her eyes looked bloodshot and there was something distant about the way she moved to grab a slice of bread from her bag.

She couldn’t get the haunting sight of Jesse’s death out of her mind. It was horrible. It reminded her too many times of the death that befell everyone in the Outer Lands.