#Jack Gathoway

[jellisdraws]

I wanna swim with you

Sit down, have a drink on me

Summer

Softer

Free

[jellisdraws]

A surprise Jack that willed herself into existence.

Excited to line and color this

[jellisdraws]

So anyway, I started blastin’

[jellisdraws]

Patreon update today with a new time lapse! Check it out (its free)

[jellisdraws]

Here’s the prologue from my current project. It’s been a long while since I’ve worked on it so I’m rereading again as a way to try to motivate myself and I figured I’d share here too and see what y’all think. Eep!

Prologue

It wasn't supposed to go like this. Not face down on the wet concrete spasming in pain, half paralyzed as some corpo-asshole half the world away took all control of her artificial limbs from her. Warning messages flashed across her vision, alerting her to her elevated heart rate - she was perfectly aware of this - and that her licenses to her current hardware were being revoked one by one - sadly, also not news; she could feel that too.

She convulsed as another wave of electricity pulsed into her body from nodes in her metallic right arm. She tried to focus, to move the limb as the doctors had taught her in rehab, as she now instinctively knew to. Just focus! The prosthetic forearm split as the eight inch titanium blade hidden within extended to spark against the hard ground uselessly. She wanted to scream as the pain arced through her but it came out as a strangled gurgle- she could feel her reinforced ribs on her right side squeezing down on her lungs. When the fuck had they even added that modification? Her right leg was nothing but dead weight, crippling her further as she tried to use her organic limbs to crawl, not that it was any use; they would be coming.

A strangled moan, barely sounding like her voice at all, scraped from her lips as she clawed her way forward. The panic was seizing her chest now, cutting her thoughts up like confetti and scattering them away. Her eyes were streaming from pain and fear, blurring her vision.

“Get up. Get the fuck UP! Gotta warm them- have to get moving. MOVE. I've got to-,”her panicked thoughts pulsed in time with the rushing of blood in her pointed ears.

The heavy throbbing of Arcano Anti-Grav thrusters arriving somewhere behind her made her redouble her efforts to crawl further down the tight dirty alleyway. She could feel her clothes getting soaked and filthy in the dank slurry of unmentionable liquids slicking the ground. She heard the sound of a heavy vehicle door sliding open and multiple pairs of boots impact the alleyway behind her. A grunt as a man was hit by the smell. Footsteps. Another strangled sob escaped her.

Her nails skittered along the ground, fingers scrabbling through garbage to find purchase, she pushed forward with her good leg, foot slipping in slick waste. She hated the hollow feeling of her artificial leg vibrating against the ground. She felt hands firmly grasp her ankles, tried to scream-her chest! She could feel herself choke, she couldn't breathe; they were killing her! They pulled her back, scraping her chin raw and she could taste blood and bile. She tried to kick free, failed miserably, heard the low laugh, knew her efforts were futile. She twisted, searching for something, anything she could grab, use to resist. Nothing.

Another figure loomed over her, grabbing her arms, she wriggled pulling her arm free and drove it back into something satisfyingly soft. A pained curse exploded behind her head. A brief sense of satisfaction was followed by a blinding explosion of stars across her vision, a warning sign declaring she was concussed scrawled across her eyes -she was going to have words with whoever designed this system. She was flipped onto her back looking up at the three figures silhouetted by the headlights of the Hovervan shining down the alleyway. Impossibly far above them, past the brick and steel of the buildings rising hundreds of meters into the air she could see a thin strip of sky: clear blue and mocking.

“Never free. I’ll never be free. I’m so sorry,” She mourned silently. Aloud, stuttering from the convulsions coursing through her, she said, “I've-got a shock absorbing skull, assholes. Y-you’ll h-have to try harder than th-that.”

“Jack Gathoway, you have been found noncompliant. Your debts have been transferred into the holding of Quantus technologies. An examination of your income stream reveals you are currently unemployed and have no way to pay down your debts. All personal property including but not limited to your current personal and physical enhancements are to be repossessed by Quantus as collateral against said debts. Do you understand this? We are legally allowed to take silence as an affirmative.”

Jack shuddered and managed to pull her good hand into a rude gesture.

The shit-eating grin stretching across her lips went slack as one of the silhouettes stepped forward, rough hands grabbing the horns extending from the sides of her head, and slammed her skull against the grimy wall with enough force to crack the brick, knocking her insensate to ground. Blackness took her, overcoming all, even the concerned message scrolling across her eyelids.

B: ‘Where are you?’