Chapter Text
Khan, gracefully attired with what was quite the fancy-looking and sparkly black tuxedo, walked down the mellow bunker halls. Steadily approaching the Cafeteria where he and his mystery date were set to have their blind dinner date.
He wasn’t afraid to admit he was, well, terribly afraid. And who could blame him? Going on a date with someone he possibly hasn’t even seen before even once in his life, let alone spoken with, was scary.
How did Khan even get into this situation? Well, the colony happens to have a community board in one of its halls and yesterday morning Khan happened to be passing by it. Typically he doesn’t really pay attention to what the colony members have been posting on it. Usually, it’d just be dumb jokes or nonsense quotes pinned onto the board by juvenile and unfunny teens. But yesterday was what he’d call an exception as when he peeked over at the board there had been a request for a blind date.
It read; = Hello! I am a 23-year-old female Worker Drone looking for a male blind date to meet me at the last table on the seventh row in the Cafeteria tomorrow at 10:40 PM.
I love books, black-and-white human movies, painting, sculpting, and arts & crafts! I would love to date someone similar in age who shares some of these interests. (Draw a circle on this sheet of paper if you’ve accepted my advances so I can know when I check the board later btw!!!) =
And against any better thoughts, he drew a circle on the sheet of paper without really thinking about it much. Which he was really, really regretting. Wishing to reverse all the life choices that led up to this point in time now that he was actually on his way to the cafeteria. Why? Well, he just said that he was terrified!
What if his date was a slob? Or perhaps overly rude and mean. Eternally cranky even. Maybe they’re a massive couch potato, or worse of all; maybe they hate people who like doors! This whole blind date concept was making him so anxious, but it wasn’t like he could stand his date up. I mean, technically he could, but that was ungentlemanlike of him! He has to be the bigger bot!
Khan finally entered the cafeteria. Recalling the instructions written upon the note, he anxiously went to the last table on the seventh row. His virtual eyes darted around the place, searching for where – or who – their date was. Was that them over them? No... – Oh. Was that their date walking over to him?... No, wait. It’s just some random lady just passing by…
Wait… That’s gotta be her.
On the final table on the seventh row was where a beautiful Worker Drone was patiently sitting. With short, luscious purple hair and perfectly matching virtual eyes, she was wearing a gorgeous formal-looking purple and black sun dress. Next to her on the seat seemed to be some bouquet of flowers next to her purse. Shit! Was he supposed to bring some too?!
Nervous, Khan patted and straightened up his tuxedo before going over to the cafeteria table and sitting down on the opposite end of it. “Hello,” Khan grinned, “Are you my date? 23-year-old female drone who likes black n’ white movies? If so, same age and I probably love colorless movies ten times more than you.”
A small blush crept onto his date’s visor, the woman letting out a small giggle at his little joke.“Oh, yes! Yes, I am!” She excitedly confirmed, “Oh-ho-ho, it’s so hard to find fellow drones who like black-and-white movies! They always say how they’re…”
“So colorless and soulless!” His date exclaimed frustratedly.
“So colorless and soulless?” Khan guessed, sharing the same frustrated look.
The two drones paused, stared, then chuckled with a goofy smiles on their face. “Yes! Exactly!” Nori told, “Hey, what’s your name? I’m Nori!”
Nori… That name didn’t ring a bell. Must’ve never properly crossed paths before. Despite all the workers living under the same roof, it’s not like everyone knew everyone. “I’m Khan” He introduced himself, giving a small bow (well, the best he could whilst seated at a table).
“Khan, huh?” Nori said, seeming to like his name, “Well, Khan, I say we should talk about our interests over some good food.”
“Sounds good to me, I can get up and go get something.” Khan offered, “What do you want?”
“Oh, no, I prepared my own food. I packed it in my purse.” Nori told, “I can go get up and get you something, though.”
“Uhm, okay then. Just go get some simple gasoline for me to drink.” He told, “Not a big fan of any of those solid meals the Cafeteria offers, they clog up my systems far too easily. That artificial gasoline is just not the same, y’know?”
Nori didn’t verbally respond to his remark but she flashed a quick smile and nodded, getting up to go get the requested food. After a minute she would come back with a cup of gasoline for him, gingerly handing it over to Khan. “Thanks,” He thanked, taking a sip of the refreshing liquid.
Khan watched as Nori fiddled with her purse. Pulling out a paper plate along with a fork and setting it on the table. The plate had food already on it, a plastic wrap wrapped around it and enclosing it in order to prevent the meal from spoiling, although Khan used the word ‘food’ generously when describing what was on that plate as it really didn’t look like food. He actually didn’t know what that was.
Honestly… It kinda looked as if you grabbed a bunch of those robo-bugs that’s been crawling around lately, squashed them up, then mixed them into a weird goop that you were trying to pass as normal food served in the Cafeteria.
Next, she pulled out a clear bottle with a cap and set it next to the plate on the table. Thanks to the transparency of the bottle, Khan could easily see the black substance swishing around and slowly re-settling in the plastic container.
Khan couldn’t help but feel disturbed. Why does it look like there’s oil in that bottle?! Surely he’s just going insane or something. Actually, you know what? It must be some beverage he’s not familiar with. The drones running the Cafeteria have always been obsessed with constantly making new weird concoctions and brews, perhaps this is the newest drink on the block.
Nori, finishing up, sat back down at the table. Twirling her fork, she began politely munching on the squashed ‘food’.
“So…” Khan spoke nervously, “Whatcha eating? I-I’ve, uh, never seen that dish before.”
“It’s gasoline spaghetti,” Nori told.
G-Gasoline spaghetti? He’s had the punishment of consuming that dish (, actually was one of the things that clogged up his systems as mentioned before, matter of fact). Gasoline Spaghetti was a meal, where in reference to the human dish ‘Spaghetti’, worker drones had (mis)used their power of science to make solid-but-soft gasoline that took the shape of human spaghetti.
It sucked, it tasted horrible, and it hurts to digest, but putting aside his intense hatred for the meal; Khan knew for a fact that this ‘gasoline spaghetti’ Nori has looks NOTHING like what Gasoline Spaghetti is supposed to look like. Either she’s lying or she just got completely ripped off. (...even though drones don’t have currency!)
“Oh? Really?” He just said. No need to actually say all that. “Looks… yummy.”
“Oh, it is!” Nori smiled, “Don’t recommend you try it though, got a little spice to it and you don’t look like someone who could tolerate it.”
“– I’m great at handling spice!” Khan refuted, “I’ve literally won unofficial spice tolerance contests back in high school! You got nothing on me, women.”
She laughed, “Maybe some other day we can test if you still got it, old buck.” Nori teased, “But seriously, don’t eat this. Your coding is not ready to handle this taste.”
Old buck?! Old buck?! He's only 23! “Old buck, you’re literally the same age as me.” Khan muttered bitterly before clearing his throat, “Okay, so what about that bottle?” He questioned, “What is that?”
“Oh.” Nori looked at the bottle, a nervous expression briefly appearing on her visor before she thought up a plausible answer; “Coffee.”
“C-Coffee...?” Khan stammered with a raised brow, unconvinced.
“Yeah,” Nori said.
“Drinking coffee, with gasoline spaghetti, at 10:40 pm?” Khan said, “At night?”
Nori seemed to realize how odd this looked. “Y-Yeah.” She said.
The two fell silent; Khan leaned forward and intensely stared at Nori with a suspicious glare. Digital sweat appeared on Nori’s visor, nervously returning the stare.
“...Okay.” Khan eased, leaning back in his seat. “Odd meal choice, but that’s something I can look past.”
Nori calmed down, “You can tease me all you want about my dinner preferences,” She told, taking a sip from her ‘coffee’. “– It’s deserved, I bet I have the weirdest food combinations in the whole colony.”
“Yeah, no kidding. Gasoline spaghetti with coffee?” He let out a small chuckle, “Anyhow, you said you liked arts and crafts on your post?”
“Mhm!” She grinned, “Love making little bracelets and trinkets then displaying it ‘round my room. Keeps life inside these dull walls a little bit fresher and lively.”
“Ah, that sounds nice,” Khan replied, “I’m not big on the decor when it comes to my room, I personally don’t mind looking at blank walls.”
“Really?” She sounded shocked, “No decorations? None at all?”
“Ehh, well I have like… I guess a few cool-looking dust bunnies sitting around.” Khan shrugged, “Does that count as decor…?”
“No?!” Nori exclaimed, both looking and sounding absolutely horrified, “Please give me permission to spice up your room after this date. It sounds like you really need a makeover.”
Khan let out a huff of air, “Nah, I really think I’m fin-”
“No, no, you are not fine, good sir.” She interrupted, a playful tone to her voice, “Let me put one of my spirals in your room.”
The male drone looked at her oddly, “...Spiral?” What did she mean by that?
“Uh, yeah? Spiral.” She looked confused at first, but after a short moment of silence she realized the connotations. “Oh! No, no, I mean- like. I, uh, have these little trinkets that are like– kinda in the shape of a spiral. – Sorta.” Nori stammered incoherently, trying to save it, “It’s… It’s a hill? Hill-shape. I like making hills. I’ll collect and stack up a bunch of tiny trinkets I have in a spiral shape in order to decorate my empty shelves a bit. I also like putting something inside the spiral too when constructing it on the shelf. It’s fun, scratches my driver. I can spend hours doing it.”
“...So you make mini-spirals in your room like a Disassembly Drone? That’s kinda dark,” Khan chuckled, feeling a bit weirded out.
Nori nervously chuckled, “Yeahhh, I guess so. But… y’know… Arts and Crafts…” She said, then looked off to the side. Averting her eyes anxiously.
Taking a breath to calm herself, she looked back over at Khan, “So! Anything about you?” Nori asked, trying to change the subject, “Do you like books? What’s your favorite book right now?”
“Uhh,” Khan thought, happily accepting the topic change. “Hm… Well, recently I’ve been reading this cool adaptation book about some little cat critter trying to return sunlight to their world. Makes you think about a world without sunlight.”
“Ah, really?” Nori tilted her head, “Sounds interesting.”
“Yeah,” Khan said, “Say, if Copper 9 didn’t have sunlight, what would you do?”
“Uhh, I dunno. Hmm,” Nori hummed, “– Be kinda happy, I suppose.”
He looked at her strangely, “How come?” Khan questioned.
“Well, I think night’s cooler than day,” Nori told, “Plus, I’ve been outside the bunker a few times before. I absolutely despise the feeling of sunlight against my metal, the nightly breeze is much more relaxing.”
“Hm, okay night-bot.” Khan chuckled, “I think daytime is better. I rarely go outside ever, but when I do I’ve only gone when it was daytime. I personally love the feeling of sunlight, it's hard to describe but it’s truly a unique sensation these artificial lights above us cannot compete with. It just feels so… soothing, if that’s the right word.”
“I respect your opinion, but you’re telling me you’re saying that daytime is best yet you haven’t even been out at night before?” Nori pointed out, “That’s hardly fair.”
“Pft, well bite me. Disassembly Drones lurk at night, it’d be my grave if I ever dared to step out there at night.” Khan shrugged, calmly taking another sip from his gasoline. “You should be terrified to go out there too,”
“Be a little bit of a daredevil, Khan!” Nori told, “Live a little on the edge, man.”
“No.” Khan said, “I like having my legs, arms, and head still attached to my torso.”
“Your loss,” Nori said, then looked down beside her. Nori reached over to grab that bouquet of flowers Khan had caught a brief look at earlier, holding it up and offering it to Khan.
“Uh,” A blush appeared on Khan’s screen, “For me?”
“Of course, dummy.” Nori smiled, “Take it, come on.”
Khan reached out to grab the bouquet of flowers, tenderly picking it up out of Nori’s hands and gently inspecting it. The male drone delicately held the flowers; acting as if they were incredibly fragile and any wrong move could possibly ruin them, which couldn’t be any further from the truth. Especially since these were fake flowers, as most flower species went extinct after the planet’s core had exploded.
“T-Thank you,” Khan said, “I’m so so sorry for not bringing you a gift as well. It’s just– didn’t know I was supposed to.”
“Oh, you weren’t. If you were I would’ve said so on that note I strung up.” Nori told, “Bringing these flowers to the date was a last-minute thought, I saw someone was giving out flowers on the way here and decided to pick them up.”
“Oh, that makes me feel much better,” Khan said, lightly setting the flowers off to the side of the table. “I really love the flowers, thank you so much. Gotta go scrounge up a vase for them, though. Maybe if I’m lucky there’ll be some in the Colony’s community storage room.”
“Yes, and you’ll finally get some decoration up in your blank-ass room.” She laughed. Khan let out a grumble, “ – shit always comes full circle –” he muttered, Nori overhearing this which in turn caused her to laugh even harder than before.
“Hey,” Khan began with a small smile, his voice a little raised in order to catch her attention over her loud laughter, “New topic question to quickly distract you from bullying my poor room; You said you liked sculpting on your profile note?”
“O-Oh!” She perked up, her laughs and giggles dying down, “Yes! Yes, oh I love sculpting! Usually, my favorite material to sculpt with is clay, but I can get a sturdy knife and slice away at some wood to make something wooden no biggie!”
“I don’t know how to sculpt, but I can certainly appreciate and admire the practice of it.” Khan said, “I’m into making blueprints as odd as that might sound, though I make layouts mainly for things I’ll never actually construct in real life. Think I just like getting those complex mental visuals out on paper just for the fun of it more than anything else, wouldn't consider myself an artist though. My art's, uh, nothing to brag home about...”
"Aw, nonsense! I bet it's wonderful. I'd love to see your blueprints someday," She blurted out energetically, "Are you, by chance, a part of the WDF?"
Khan blinked, seeming surprised by that question, "Erm, no. I'm not…" He told, “– At least not yet," Khan did finger guns at Nori, the female drone letting out a small giggle in reaction.
"I want to join the WDF someday, maybe some year in the future." He clarified, "Mostly because I just have so many ideas that could help improve the safety of this colony tenfold!"
"Really now?" Nori said, taking a bite of her food, "Do tell~"
“Alright! Alright, uh– uhm…" Khan stammered, getting his thoughts in order; "First off, the entrance. Right now, there's only one singular door keeping those sky-demons out of our bunker. And that door alone is a huge security risk; not only is it not really that strong to begin with, but if that door goes down… What’ll happen?"
"The WDF step in?" Nori guessed.
"Well, sure," Khan began, leaning forward on the table as he was already starting to really get into this, "But Disassembly Drones are crazy strong. Even just one singular Murder Drone holds the capability to take down an entire worker army armed with the most up-to-date weapons just by using only half of their maximum strength. This colony focuses far too heavily on weaponry, and while I do acknowledge weaponry is needed, the WDF is completely neglecting the defense aspect entirely in favor of that! If I was in charge, I'd change a whole lot about how we go about safety. For starters, I'd upgrade the front door; improve the door already there massively then add two other extra blast doors for extra defense in case those oil-suckers penetrate the first one. The sole front door right now is controlled via a button easily accessible by any-drone, and that's robo-god-awful! Anyone could come by and click the door open. Leaving the colony vulnerable! It’s also terrible for child safety; any unsupervised kid could go ‘ooo pretty button’ then open the blastdoor and stumble out of the bunker without knowing better. So along with better secured and more doors, I’ll also make it so the doors are controlled via keycards that are only given out to the WDF. Keep the entire fate of the Colony in trusted hands, y’know?"
Khan paused briefly, slowly sinking back in his seat. "Now, I have a lot more ideas stored up in my kooky oi' oilhead, but I won't bore you with them. You probably the gist by n–"
"No." Nori interrupted, having been looking genuinely invested in what Khan had to say. "Please keep on going with your ideas! This is really interesting."
Khan felt a burst of excitement sprout in his chest, usually not many drones would be interested in his ramblings on safety and design. "R-Really?" a flustered blush crept onto his visor, "Um, okay, well the next thing I'd change is how the WDF itself operates. So…"
Khan started going on and on about safety, protocols, and general upgrade ideas. As Khan blabbered on, Nori wouldn't lose interest for even just a split moment. The drone was loving hearing his opinion on this matter.
"– I swear, sometimes it's a wonder why we all haven't completely died off yet," Khan concluded with a heavy sigh, taking a finishing sip from his cup of gasoline.
"Well, it sounds like you'd be an incredible leader to me," Nori said, finishing up her meal as well. "I’d feel safer living here if you were in charge."
"Yeah," Khan said, "Sucks that'll never happen."
"What do you mean?" Nori looked a little confused.
"Being leader, I meant." He clarified, "It'll be amazing to be in charge of this colony, seeing it prosper and blossom under my guidance, don’t get me wrong. But the chances of me being chosen as a leader…?"
"Very high!" Nori insisted, "Your ideas are amazing."
Khan shook his head, "– But what separates me from everyone else? I just don't think I'm anything special," He admitted.
Nori looked shocked to hear those words, "Aw man, you need better confidence," She told, a small frown appearing on her face, "You're never gonna know if you don't even try to aim for it."
Khan was going to reply with another dismissal, but then he paused. His eyes trailed off to the side in thought as he really contemplated what Nori just said… She, admittedly, had a point. Just sitting here, dreaming of what could be wasn't going to get him anywhere. If he really, truly, wanted to be a leader he'd have to do something. To act.
Maybe he should ask to join the WDF sooner rather than later. Work himself up from a mere guard to, maybe, possibly leadership? Lieutenant if he had to bargain.
"You know what, I think you're right." Khan declared, looking back up at Nori. "I'm going t-"
Khan froze up in his screech, abruptly falling silent. His eyes widened, completely speechless.
Nori's visor had an X on it, the female drone resting her head on their palm as she stared directly at her date. Although her expressive visor was replaced with a menacing X, going based on her body language she seemed confused. Nori lifted her head up properly, "What's the matter?" She asked, her tone confirming her puzzlement.
Nori got her own answer as she happened to glance over at their now-empty ‘coffee’ bottle. The female drone going completely rigid upon noticing her face’s reflection upon the bottle. “No, no, no, no, no, no-” She panicked, desperately trying to rub her visor as if that’ll do anything to rid herself of the telling symbol. Nori then slapped herself, the X symbol glitching and soon disappearing. Her visor returned to its normal expressive state, however, it was too late. The damage was done.
She looked at Khan with a desperate look, her voice trembling as she spoke; “K-Khan, I-I can explai-” but Khan wouldn’t hear her out and just booked it. Stumbling out of his seat, he sprinted away from the table and headed straight toward the exit of the Cafeteria. “KHAN!” Nori shouted out from behind him.
Khan rushed through the cafeteria rows, the other drones seated at the tables he passed gave him odd looks as he ran away from his date. Clearly having not seen the horror he saw. The thought that he should yell out and warn the other blissfully unaware drones he was passing by of the horrific beast sitting on the seventh row had briefly crossed him, but the notion was not acted upon as right now his mind was dead-set on his survival. Ignoring all other factors.
Khan suspected something was wrong with his date from the moment she took out that creepy ‘spaghetti’ dish. He should’ve known his date was one of those monstrous oil-drinkers! But how did one of those sky-demons even get within the bunker? – He asks that but it was probably the shitty security he’s been ranting about for nearly an hour now!
The young drone barreled out of the Cafeteria, panting heavily as he sprinted down the corridors of the bunker. The walls blurred past him in his adrenaline-boosted speed, Khan straining his rig to keep up this fast pace.
The drone could soon hear footsteps pursuing right behind him, Khan took a quick glance over his shoulder. Noticing that Nori was chasing after him with a determined expression on her face. Oh robo-god, oh robo-god, she was hunting him down, wasn’t she?
“Help! Help!” Khan screeched out as he ran down the halls, however conveniently for the hunting beast the halls were emptied of any drones. Everyone who wasn’t in the Cafeteria was probably inside preparing for sleep at this hour or doing their nightly work in their respective personal rooms. Fucking hell, why did he accept a dinner date at nearly 11 pm? That should’ve screamed set-up! He was so stupid, he was so stupid!
Khan wasn’t paying attention to where he was going, just sprinting down whatever hallways and corners that didn’t seem to lead straight into a dead end. Eventually, in one of the halls Khan ran down, there was a large ceiling air vent blowing warm air down into the bunker below. These air vents were sparsely dispersed all around the bunker, the warm airflow preventing icicles and other annoying low-temp-based things from accumulating. Originally not their sole purpose, but no time to dwell on history when running for your life.
Khan ran past the air-vent without another thought, but Nori had paused– He wasn’t looking behind him but Khan could tell from the sudden lack of footfalls following behind him. Hesitantly, Khan slowed; looking over his shoulder and at the creature previously chasing him down.
Nori looked to be speaking to herself, although Khan was too far away to actually decipher what she was saying. But her mystery words would be the least of his problems in the next coming seconds. Khan could feel his electronic heart drop, watching with a horrified expresion as some kind of webbed wings extended from Nori’s back. It was like nothing he’d seen before, those certainly weren’t Disassembly Drones wings. At least not from the ones he’s lived to see.
With a weird-looking tail that he swore had a mouth suddenly swishing behind Nori, the creature suddenly leapt up and effortlessly broke through the grilles of the vent. Clambering up into the air ducts, Khan could hear their swift footsteps rhythmically thump against the inners of the ventilation.
Yeah, he had no clue what Nori was doing but he probably should’ve never stopped running. With a newfound horror fresh in his memory card, Khan continued running. Moving his metal legs as fast as he possibly could through the bunker. A heavy sense of dread and fear hovered over him, worsening as he heard the loud thumps above him draw closer and closer. Was she trying to follow him quicker via the vents?
Khan hadn’t noticed he was going towards the front of the bunker until he ended up passing by the front-blastdoor. Khan honestly didn’t know where he was intending on going, he knew for sure that he wasn’t outrunning that thing. Especially now that it transformed into a bat-looking drone creature. He’d need to hide, or confuse it, or-
Khan skidded to a halt as a loud, almost ear-splitting clunk sound reverberated down the halls as the ceiling metal ahead of him suddenly split open. “K-Khan…” Nori called out, her voice slightly glitching as she dropped down from the ceiling. Her visor having some strange Y-shaped symbol in place of where Khan would’ve assumed the telltale Disassembly X should've been.
Oh no, no, no. She was using the vents to cut him off, not follow him faster! Shit, shit, shit. “Get away from me!” Khan screamed out, nearly tripping on his own feet as he gracelessly whirled around. Initially going to run for his life down the opposite way of the hall, but then a thought crossed his mind. Nori could just hop back into the vent and cut him off again if he went down the other way, he needed to properly lose her if he wanted to live.
An idea popping into his head, Khan abruptly veered over to the side. Going towards the bunker’s blastdoor rather than going back down the same hall. Khan could hear Nori’s quick footsteps charge him as he desperately ran towards the bunker’s exposed manual controls. Daring to cast a quick glance behind him, the drone-creature was right on his tail. Seeming to be running on fours, only using their wings to give themself some extra speed.
Mentally praying to every single robo-god he knew of, Khan practically crashed into the control panel once he made it over. Panicking, he frantically pressed the open button multiple times.
Letting out a mechanical bellow-like noise, the door began to painfully slowly rise up. Another problem with the door he’d fix if he were ever leader; make the door open faster! This is highly unsafe in emergencies such as this one! Not being able to wait; the millisecond the door was raised just high enough, the male drone would try to shove his body through. Squeezing himself through the slowly opening hole.
By the nick of time did Khan get through, falling out of the gap and into the soft snow below. The drone scrambled back onto his feet as he heard a heavy thump against the door, expecting Nori to be able to squeeze right through as well.
He looked over, able to see Nori through the slowly widening gap. She rubbed her head – seeming to have accidentally rammed into the door – and immediately began trying to force herself through the hole after Khan. However she couldn’t fit, her large wings preventing her from slipping through. She looked highly annoyed, opting to trying to grab her wings and attempt to… push them down into her back manually? It was like she didn’t know how to sheathe her own wings. He’s seen Disassembly Drones effortlessly retract their wings no issue, why couldn’t she do it?
Welp, Khan wasn’t complaining about Nori’s noobishness over her own monstrous abilities. He gets a better survival chance and could actually lose her easier now if he acted quick. Turning around, he began to sprint off. Where was he planning on going? He didn’t know, he certainly didn’t want to go too far from the bunker knowing full well he was at full risk of encountering Disassembly Drones now.
Maybe he’d try and hide out in a nearby building, he thinks he sees one in the distance.