I was bored, so I started writing. Its about two of my oldest Oddworld characters that I abandoned a while ago. I tweaked them a little, and now I don't even remember why I abandoned them in the first place. =/
I'll probably write two or three more chapters. And Fortress is hard to describe, so i'll try to draw a picture of her, and if the universe decides to make up for my lack of picture-posting, I'll put it up here. =]
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I’d first heard of Fortress a few months ago. The Boss described her as a fragile, delicate creature who knew fifty different ways to break a man’s spine without killing him, and that if we didn’t follow his orders, we’d become her new chew toy. He never told us what she was used for, or why she’d been sent to our particular facility.
Needless to say I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about having her around.
The first time I’d actually seen her, however, was about a week ago, in the cafeteria. I was just sitting around, reading my book instead of eating, as always, when I heard a slig yell out “Hey Look at that, a walking lunch box ” Before I could even turn to see who the slig was insulting, I heard a scream, followed closely by the sound of somebody’s metal pants being tied in a knot. I caught a glimpse of what indeed resembled a lunch box, only fifty times bigger, shaking the slig like a rag doll with one of its giant metal arms.
And that was my first impression of Fortress, quite possibly the most complicated person I’ve ever met.
|-|-|-|-|
My official name is 4-7-8-5. My unofficial name is Manhattan, or Manny for short. I don’t know what it means. I don’t know who came up with it. I guess that whoever chose it just thought it sounded interesting. I’m a young male slig drone inhabitant of the Aviol Institute of Avionics- you know, like airships.
You can call me whatever you like.
I like to think of myself as a very intelligent gentleslig. I can read. I can write. I can count to ten without using my fingers. Unfortunately, these levels of literacy aren’t mutual among the sligs here, and I found myself very lonely having to lead my one-person book club. That was before Fortress showed up, anyway.
I was sitting at my post, reading my book. I worked in the same miserable spot doing the same miserable job every miserable day of my life. I just sat, gun in hand, making sure the scrubs kept the floors nice and squeaky clean. Lame. I sighed and set my book aside, glancing around. The room was taller than it was wide, with huge windows near the top of the rectangular ceiling. Yellow-orange light filtered in, bright but not exactly uplifting. The sky outside wasn’t even blue. It was yellow, from the constant smog being pumped out of the Airship Assembly Line in the building directly next door. The pollution here was so horrible that grass didn’t even grow.
“Well, well, well, look who we have here!” I recognized that rough, whisky-soaked voice. I pretended not to notice, choosing instead to stare at the slightly-torn spine of my book. “If it isn’t my little friend
Manny.”
I saw a huge shadow stretch out in front of me. I glanced back over my shoulder, as though just noticing the ugly brute waiting for me to speak. “Hello, Cachous. I take it you’ve abandoned your post just to bother me again?”
The big bro slig snorted. He didn’t like my choice of words. His little brain couldn’t process such a long sentence in one go. “What are you reading, pipsqueak?”
Ah, targeting my book again. He must’ve felt like a comic genius by now. “Nothing you’d be interested in.” I sighed carelessly.
“Let me see!” Cachous demanded, snatching the book from my hands. He pulled it open and shook it a few times, making papers flutter everywhere. He looked confused.
“Its upside down.” I said, twirling a finger in the air. “You need to read it
facing up so the letters face
the right way.”
Grunting, Cachous turned the book upside down. But, being an idiot, he still couldn’t read. He growled, his hands clamping the book tighter.
“Can I have my book back?” I asked eventually. Cachous forced it back into my hands.
“It looks boring anyway.” he growled. I knew he was just using that as an excuse to drop the fact he was illiterate. I shrugged and glanced inconspicuously across the room, too bored to care. I blinked in surprise. I saw my glukkon Boss coming towards me, followed by a tall rectangular box with arms and legs that I recognized as the one and only Fortress. She was impassive, at least from what I could tell.
I stood up and held my gun at my side, out of respect. Deep down I had no respect for my Boss, but I knew that if I didn’t pretend to care about him being there, I’d be beaten to a pulp by the heavy creature that lumbered at his side.
“Hello, Sir.” I said, choosing to forget that Cachous was still standing behind me. “Is there something I could help you with on this fine... day?”
My Boss growled slightly. He didn’t like my literacy either. I think he thought it was intimidating. “Yes, there is...” he glanced at the name tag around my neck, “.... 4-7-8-5.”
“Actually, I have a name---”
He cut me off. “You’ve met Fortress, correct?” he looked back at the metal creature. “Well don’t just stand there, say something ”
Fortress gave a meek little wave. I raised an eyebrow. Maybe she was more coy than her violent actions had lead me to believe.
“I’ve met her before.” I said, nodding. “She tore a slig apart in the cafeteria last week.”
“Yes. She does that.” He shrugged.
“I had to clean up the mess.”
My boss couldn’t care less what I did or didn’t do. “How unfortunate. Well, I’m glad you’ve been acquainted before, because she’ll be working here from now on.”
“Whut?” Cachous piped in. I’d forgot he’d been standing right there.
The Boss smirked at Cachous. “I said, she’ll be working here. As you’ve seen, she’s very easily upset, and I can’t afford to lose more workers due to her outbursts.” he nodded back at Fortress. Fortress seemed to sink into herself. “Guarding the scrubs seems to be an easy enough job. Maybe if she’s given a calm job for a while, she’ll stop hurting people.”
Crap “Excellent plan, sir.” I said, attempting to smile. My Boss grinned.
“Yes, well, I did put some thought into it. Now, Fortress,” he turned to Fortress and spoke to her as though she were a child, “I’ll be leaving you here for a while. Just to whatever the good sligs here tell you to do, okay? And try not to kill them, sligs don’t come cheap.”
Fortress rubbed her huge hands together nervously. She was a strange looking thing- her main body was a box made of metal painted white, with two short, thick legs at the bottom and thick arms at either of her sides, made of some sort of black tube. In the middle of her metal armor was a huge glass circle, amber on the outside, so she could see out but we couldn’t see in. A few black wires looped along her back, and she had a small plate on her chest with the numbers ‘9-1-2'.
The Boss shrugged. “I guess thats a yes.”
As he turned to leave, a tiny, weak voice squeaked out from the speakers on either side of Fortress’s viewing glass. “
...Fortress does not want Boss to go.”
I was surprised by the puniness of Fortress’s voice. She sounded like a scared little kid. How could somebody so shy and quiet be so dangerous? My Boss scowled. “Fortress, you’ll be fine. I gave you an order. You will
stay here.”
“
....okay.” Fortress didn’t sound satisfied.
My Boss left, humming under his breath. He probably thought ditching Fortress would’ve been harder. I sighed and sat down again, looking over at Fortress. She was standing with her back to me, probably staring at where my Boss had left. What did she see in him that I didn’t?
“Watch the scrubs. Don’t kill anthing. Understand?” I said. Fortress paused. Then, with heavy, lumbering steps, she walked over and sat down on the bench a few feet away from me. I flipped open my book and continued reading. Cachous occupied himself with pestering the scrubs. Minus Fortress, we just did what we did every day.
After what might’ve been a couple of hours, I closed my book. I didn’t want to read it all at once. I wanted to savor it, to let the words soak in. I’d read a few more chapters tomorrow, I decided. I set the book aside and leaned back, letting my eyes fall shut.
I heard a faint grinding sound. I opened and eye and looked towards the direction of the noise in confusion. Fortress appeared to be sitting a little closer to me. Thinking it was just my imagination, I closed my eyes again. Soon afterwards, I heard the grinding sound a second time. I looked, and Fortress had scooted even
closer to me, so close that our elbows actually touched. I pulled my arm back.
“Can I help you with something?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. Fortress rubbed her hands together nervously. Then, after a long pause, she pointed towards a sign on the wall. I looked over at it. “What about it?”
“
What does it say?” She rasped. I shrugged.
“It says ‘Scrub Pens.’”
“
You can read?”
“Er, yeah, I just read that sign, didn’t I?” I crossed my arms smugly. Fortress wasn’t somebody I’d want to have a conversation with.
I could hear Fortress’s breathing from her little speakers. It was slow and heavy. Then, eventually, she spoke again. “
Slig show Fortress to read?”
I heard Cachous let out a bark of laughter. I frowned and looked away. Did she seriously want to know how to read? “Why do you want to read?”
Fortress’s hands were rubbing together even more violently than before. I wondered if I should try to make her sit still. After a while, she gave a quiet, embarrassed response. “
Boss hates Fortress.”
I considered these words carefully, trying to understand what she was talking about. Then, in no time at all, I understood what she was trying to convey. “The Boss doesn’t appreciate you.”
No response.
“You think that if you learn to read, he’ll like you.”
A pause. Then Fortress gave a little nod. I sighed and looked up at the ceiling, streaked orange from the polluted sunshine outside. I supposed that I would earn brownie points for teaching her to read. Plus, it wouldn’t hurt to be on her good side.
“Okay. I’ll teach you all the letters. But you have to understand, things like this take time. You won’t learn everything in just a day.”
Fortress inhaled. It made a hissing sound through her speakers. Then, after a pause, she released her held breath. “
Okay.”
I wasn’t sure where to start, exactly. I looked around for something to write with, but I didn’t see any pencils. Eventually I spotted a little pile of coal in the scrub pens. It was my job to light it every night to keep the scrubs warm, so they wouldn’t freeze to death. I walked over to the pens, stepped inside, and picked up a handful of coal. Then I clanked back over on my metal pants to where Fortress was sitting. I could see my reflection in her viewing glass. She was probably staring directly at me.
“Okay,” I sighed, sitting down on the floor. Fortress sat down hesitantly beside me. “First, lets start with the basics.”
I drew an ‘a’ with the coal on the tiled floor. A heard a few scrubs nearby grumble. They didn’t want to have to clean up our writing. I glared at them to shut up before turning back to Fortress.
“This is an ‘a’. It makes the ‘aah’ sound. Here, you try.”
I dropped the coal in her palm. She stared at it for a moment, then crushed it into powder with her fist. I stiffened. She flexed her fingers in surprise, black ashes falling to the ground.
“Okay,” I said slowly, “Thats not going to work.” I stared at the ashes on the floor. Then I swept them out between us, covering the floor black. I drew in the ashes with my finger. “Thats an ‘a’. Can you draw an ‘a’?”
She hesitated, then slowly trailed a thick finger through the black powder. The shape she produced looked more like a ‘Q’, but at least she was trying.
“
Aaaaah sound. For ‘a’.” She said, a little late. I nodded, trying to encourage her. I just wanted to get this over with.
“Good. Now, lets see if you can make a ‘v’...”
I had planned to teach her to spell ‘Aviol,’ after the company we both worked for. I thought that, seeing as she heard the word often, she’d start to remember the letters. And maybe she’d be satisfied with just that.
“Now,” I said after a few letters, “lets try the ‘o’ next.” I drew an ‘o’. “You try.”
She quickly drew something in the ashes. I looked. It looked like... a ‘Q’ again.
“No,” I huffed, rubbing out the letter. “We’re not trying to make an ‘a’, we’re trying to make an ‘o’.”
“
Fortress already draw letter,” She squeaked, pointing at the letter ‘a’ she’d made.
“Thats an ‘a’. This is an ‘o’.”
“
Fortress do good?”
“No, Fortress drew the wrong letter.” I paused. “I mean.
you drew the wrong letter. You shouldn’t talk in third person all the time, it gets confusing.”
Fortress started her nervous habit of rubbing her fingers together. She ended up smearing ashes all over her hands, which just seemed to upset her more. Afraid that she would panic and yank my head off my shoulders, I put my hands up defensively.
“Fortress, its okay ” I scratched out all the letters we did in the ashes. “I’ll just show you a trick so you can tell them apart, okay?”
“
Okay.” Fortress whispered. Her hands stopped rubbing.
I drew an ‘a’, then an ‘o’. “Just remember Oppels and Oranges. The ‘a’ represents oppels. It has a little tab on the side, see? So it looks like an oppel leaf. Oppels begin with... ‘o’, but they sound like an ‘a’, so that should help you too.” I doodled in the ashes while I talked. I could tell Fortress was watching my finger, because she tilted side to side every time it moved. “The ‘o’ represents oranges. They’re round, like oranges, and they begin with an ‘o’. Get it?”
Fortress paused. Then, slowly, she drew a letter in the ashes. I sighed and ground my palm against my forehead, rubbing ashes everywhere.
“Thats a ‘Q’, Fortress. We’ve been over this.”
“
Fortress write Oppels and Oranges.”
I was at my wit’s end with the female-robot-thing. I glared at her, my tentacles curled tight. “We weren’t writing Oppels and Oranges, Fortress! We were doing ‘a’s and ‘o’s!”
Fortress’s hands were grinding together now. “
But Slig said—”
“And my name’s Manny! I have a name too!” I stood up, dusting my hands off on my metal pants.
Fortress’s voice became frantic. “
Where slig going?!” She cried, fumbling to stand. She fell on her back with a
klunk and floundered her limbs in the air like an upside-down turtle, gasping.
“Somewhere else.” I growled, grabbing my book and sitting down on the edge of the bench. I forced it open and started reading, even after I said I wouldn’t. Fortress started sniffling, still on her back. Cachous just stood there like a total idiot, his eyes flicking from Fortress to me and back to Fortress again.
I had no idea that one simple act would change everything.
Oppels and Oranges [short story]
Fortress is a real interresting character.
