#kdnfhbhjbgd

[jincherie]

robokook sneep peep

........

Jeongguk's gaze occasionally strayed to the buildings lining the streets, to neon signs not yet lit with promises of what one would find deep in the establishment's bowels. Your own gaze finds itself back every few minutes to its favourite place to rest, the soft planes of Jeongguk's face as mesmerising and endearing as the first day you saw him.

It was a surprisingly peaceful afternoon, the streets oddly quiet— then again, you supposed, these weren't really their most active hours. However, you soon turned the corner, and the further down the street you got, the more your ears strained and began to pick up a foreign noise, one you couldn't quite pinpoint. The sound began to brush your eardrums softly just as Jeongguk started to speak.

"This area is full of weird smells," he started, closing his eyes a moment as he inhaled. "Lots of weird smells, but I think that it must look pretty at night time, with all the glowing signs—"

The two of you reached another corner, rounding it hand-in-hand, and simultaneously froze at the sight before you as the noise reached a crescendo.

Horror flooded your stomach, sinking deep into your veins, but you could only look on as the sight registered in your mind. A man, old and somewhat bedraggled despite the expensive, brand-name clothing over his plump form, was shouting obscenities several metres away. His arm came down repetitively, a metal pipe gripped in his hand, and it was with a nauseating cocktail of dread and panic mixing within you that you realised he was bringing it down upon someone.

"Worthless! I should have thrown you out from the beginning, nothing but useless scrap metal!"

An android, it was an android that was being abused right before your eyes. Another stood to the side, behind the man, pleading and begging for him to stop but it appeared to fall upon deaf ears. The shock of it rooted you to your spot, before you remembered the person currently gripping your hand like a vice. Your gaze whipped to the side and your heart fell to your feet at the sight of Jeongguk, staring wide-eyed as translucent fluid slipped over perfect cheeks and dripped from his chin.

Jeongguk was rooted to the spot, and at the scene in front of him something shifted, something snapped. He didn't need to breathe, but he found himself struggling to suck air in, joints of his knees beginning to malfunction and tremble. His hearing, impeccable and state of the art, began to ring and fuzz, static blurring the harsh, insulting words the man in front of him slew from his mouth. He could only stand still as the pipe came down again, and again. He couldn't hear what the man was saying, but still a voice filled his ears.

"No, stop! I won't do it anymore! I cannot take living like this!"

Sickening crunches filled the air of the street, onlookers freezing to take in the spectacle. Jeongguk just barely registered the wetness over his face as the android on the ground cried out, attempting to shield itself with its arms only for them to begin to bend and crumple from the force of the blows. Another swing, another hit, another voice— but who was talking? The earth began to spin as his system began to overload.

"Living? Filthy droid, you were never alive!"

Onlookers began to whisper, some shouting out. Another smash of the pipe into the increasingly compromised form cowering on the pavement and Jeongguk began to sway. He wasn't being hit, but he could feel every blow as though it was his body crumpling like foil beneath the thick, sturdy metal of the pipe. An image flashed in his mind, overlaying his current vision, and a sensation like his chest was going to burst filled him to the brim. His lips moved but his voice did not leave them.

"I am alive! I can think, I can feel! You cannot keep me h—"

Shouting began to fill the air as police ran with haste towards the man committing such a violent act in broad daylight, in front of the crowd that had gathered. But Jeongguk did not see it, only another image that filled his mind as black began to encroach upon its edges.

"You will never be alive! You were made to please and serve, and if you cannot even do that then I have no need of you. Filthy fucking android."

His mind blared with warnings as the image faded, and the last thing he saw before he fell was a look of horror on your face as you cried out, reaching for him.

"Jeongguk!"

Everything went black.