Disposable

    There weren’t many long drops Battery was able to see for herself. Not many places she felt safe to access herself, in general. But a special little cliff outside of Polyhex was always empty, as it overlooked the Rust Sea. The wispy fumes that drifted over the jagged lip of the edge were very mildly corrosive, she knew, which is why she expected nobody wanted to be here. Harmless in passing, unhealthy in extended exposure. Not that she was ever in a mindset to care, when she stayed there. 

    Battery thought she was a good person. She always did her best to please others, even if she sometimes snapped and said cruel things. She tried to be good, to make up for that. It was so tiring. Even if she was just a disposable, she tried to be useful. It was just hard sometimes. She needed to sit somewhere no one would follow her and try to fix her thoughts. She needed to stop feeling sorry for herself and be happy with the life she had. A disposable had no right to feel that way. 

    “Um,  excuse me!” a voice called over the warped metal surface to her back. She uncurled, felt dread and anger equally, tilted her head just a little to glimpse who was there. When she noted another disposable, a miniscule mech trotting towards her, she first felt relief, then replaced by disgust.

    “Hey,” the disposable said, a little breathless as he approached, “are you okay? It’s a little dangerous to be here very long, you know.”

    “Of course I know,” she spat.

    “O-oh. Okay.” He seemed to curl in on himself a little. Not terribly confident. Battery determined to ignore him, expecting that he would go away soon. 

    Red dusty smoke billowed up slowly in front of her, catching orange light in its particles and dancing it through the air. It would hurt her the longer she stayed but it was beautiful. She had almost fallen back into her melancholy trance until some shuffling snapped her back to reality. She tipped her visor slowly to glance behind her, and of course, the disposable was still there. She felt a twinge of annoyance. She turned away.

    He, of course, sat down, because he seemed too concerned for his own good, though not so much that he would sit next to her precariously on the  edge, letting the toxic fumes whip against his metal. He may have already known what was happening. Maybe he was here for the same reason.  All disposables felt this way, sooner or later. Some handled it better than others. Some could push it down and continue to function. Some could force through the evil thoughts. Some gave in and destroyed themselves trying to act like they had more worth than they did.

    Battery would never delude herself into thinking she deserved better. That was just silly. She fit in where she was, so why would she want that to change? 

    And yet, the evil thoughts lingered. 

    “Everything will turn out alright,” his voice murmured, almost caught in the dying wind.

    “How do you know what’s right. How do you know that’s what it all is.” She felt her mood waver and sour further. Why was he even here. Why did he have to keep talking, making her… making her… There was really no reason for her to be mad at him. But she was, all the same. No, there was a reason, there was. She wanted to curl up and be alone  and maybe let the rust seep into her wires, but he was there. 

    “I don’t… I just wanted to help.” He sounded miserable, all of the sudden. 

    Was it that? That he was just as low as she was? Battery knew, not intuitively, that other people could express the same emotion in different ways. Maybe she was making him just as mad as he was making her. Maybe they were really just a couple of pathetic disposables, wallowing in their own pity because they couldn’t handle the bare minimum of their roles. How silly was that thought? Disposables were barely people.

    See, Battery always tried to be a good person. Even if she wasn’t. 

    She  turned to peek out the corner of her visor at him, sat somewhat slumped a few feet away. She sighed imperceptibly, and settled her feet to solid ground to stand. He looked up at her in silence as she stepped quiet and slow towards him. She commandeered an empty spot next to him, and sat down once again. 

    “There. You helped.” She said. The corrosive fog was a slightly different hue from further back. His eyes curved up in a glowing smile. Battery tried to resist rolling her eyes (not that he would see, but still. It would make her feel mean.)

    “Thanks. Or, I mean-- I’m glad!” A thin thread of tension seemed to release as he slumped ever slightly with relief. 

    There was a protracted pause. They simply sat and thought. Battery felt lighter than before, if only a little. Her mind was still uselessly plagued, but she suddenly felt like it didn’t matter as much as she worried it did. She wasn’t sure why. Then, he shifted, and turned to her again. 

    “I’m Technido, by the way. I’m a chronosmith.” 

    How sad.

    “Technido,” she repeated. “I’m just a battery. My name is…”