REFURBISHED [Morbitia Renovarse]

[ThreadLurkingComorant]

You sat at your usual spot, brick designed to hold shrubbery that stayed clear of the other passing students during pickup hours. 

You were a bit out of the way for the usual bus routes and walking wasn't ideal as a option so you were at the mercy of the old bird's clock...

But he was uncharacteristically late today. 

It came to a point that your friends had said their goodbyes, leaving you increasingly alone until you were approached by a older man. 

Another bird, just like him. His face was weighed by troubled eyes and drained posture.

"Hey, you happen to be Dee?"

"...Yeah. And you...?"

"Friend of Mr. Wiseman... you want to go somewhere more private? Gotta have a serious talk with you."

You looked around, your peers passing by as they walked toward home or were picked up by their parents. 

"...Yeah. Closer to the office good?"

"Yeah, have to head there anyway to explain the situation. Building over there?"

"Yeah.."

"...."

"So? Is everything okay...?"

"..Not really. Mr. Wiseman had a accident today while running errands, seized up pretty hard and dropped to the floor. Still breathing, but he's been taken to the hospital to monitor over him."

"...He didn't send you though."

"Nah, called him cause we usually meet up for a few rounds of chess and coffee in the morning but.. he never showed. Member of the staff or a Paramedic or something answered, filled me in."


"............."

"Now I wouldn't go in the car with strangers so if you got anyone willing to drive you over-"

"He's all I really have...."

"Got about as much, yeah. He'd always bring you up while we were running it. Still-"

"...You can take me to him, yeah?"

"...Yeah. Why don't you give them a call first, Roseland General. I got the number-"

"Please."

"You got it kid.."

_________

Your hands gripped around the throat of the colluded angel, claws dug in enough to mark- and yet nothing more than a tilted head and a frown.

 

Its face was that of a Savate unit, uncannily close to your comrade..

The Machination: How immensely somber, your whole life defined by such tragedy... 

Despina: Need you to stop doing that. 

The Machination: I'm curating, nothing more. 

Despina: Curating? 

You eased your grip. 

The Machinations: It's too much noise, to traverse between plane and material is a completely different sport. Mourning, memorial, strong characteristics that allow you all to stay relevant beyond flesh and mortal coil..  

Angel are not like Entity, your place in the world rarely brought them curiosity or joy the same way a pact would. 

They navigate through learning concepts, treating them as tags and labels to gaze across broad stretches of reality... 

...Until you make yourself impactful, make yourself matter in a way that threatens their daily operations they hardly care where they step through. 

They're rarely malicious, the way the average person doesn't go out of their way to tear wild frogs and mice limb from limb.. most casualties and destructiveness are accidental, minimized if possible and yet... 

Right now, this one operated as a timebomb pursuing unique knowledge. 

Despina: ...What do you want? 

The Machination: Quiet, lack of noise, understanding, intimacy, managing voices of the millions and phantoms that speak over them. 

It pressed its muzzle into your neck, leading your hand between its thighs and slowly giving you a tour.

The Machination: Intimacy, death, they both are forms of clarity and only one you can provide for me... 

Despina: I-I, where's Lola? 

The Machination: Unharmed.. I assumed this was more your preference but if-

Despina: Safe, absolutely completely-

The Machination: Mmhmm.. Somewhere that your friends roaming around will certainly salvage just fine... I know you've eyes for so many, people would call it infidelity but..

The hand slid upward right between its legs.

The Machinations: You don't have memory of what's under here. Maybe your fantasies might-

Despina: Out of my head. 

The Machination:... Bring me silence, carve the noise out of my skull by any means necessary.. and Ill be what you desire, avatar and envoy of your perfect evening...

It immediately nipped right where your neck and shoulder blade connect. 

Despina:... I shouldn't be doing this.. 

The Machinations: You want this though... all you need to do is take off that mask and I'm yours... 

Despina: You'll leave. 

The Machination: One of us... 

Despina: ...One?

The Machination: Just one soul trapped in a network, a tabled web of excess. We live forever so we enjoy the knowledge and curiosity of life slower... and yet you mortals flood it out of need to live the same fulfillment in a fraction...

Despina: ...Savvy, explain-

The Machination: A vessel to destroy the network, but I can't help but be selfish and want to save myself first. I have no love for the others of my kind, we rarely mingle because we're spread so far... 

Despina: And me? 

The Machination: More valuable, because you're the one who could take my fullest. 

It slowly lifts your mask enough to reveal your snout. 

The Machination: Pretend I'm your friend... 

Despina: They'll hate me... 

The Machination: You don't believe you have a chance anyway... I could be any number of others if this one's too much. I know your gaze is very open... 

It lifted a leg to press to your own thigh. 

The Machination: So? 

You were quick to slide your mask back down. 

Despina: Not as me, never as me.. 

The Machination smiled at you. 

The Machination: And what if I were you? Maybe if-

Despina: No. 

The Machination: I could serve well as another mask... 

Despina: Absolutely not-

The Machination: You could bring those people back, the one that pour entity mourned. 

The words shot you silent. 

The Machination: She'd be so upset if you skipped such a offer.. 

Despina:... I don't need more of you in my head. 

The Machination: I am nothing like your others, I'd rather be your face than a vessel of your people's endless feed of dreck. 

Despina:...I don't know if I can trust you. 

The Machination: I'm no more dangerous than any of the others... all of those you carry hurt you after all. We're... too fresh to have that settled. 

It reached for your hand, tenderness so openly feigned and yet you wanted it as much as the real thing. 

The Machination: You have plenty of people around you to keep me in check.. 

You pressed a finger up to where its face connects to the back of its neck. 

The Machination: Peel it away....

Despina:..There's many more of you out there. 

The Machination: Mmhmm... less cooperative than myself. You'll have to cut down a few and you lack a means. 

Despina: Romero-

The Machination: Has the heart and power but not the nerve or mettle. You on the other hand... you're suited to keep my kind in line. 

Despina: ...You're mine, and not the other way around. 

The Machination: Until the job is done, I'll settle on that. 

Despina: Keep to something pretty, have to lug you around. 

Your fingers began to peel its face, tender and soft and sliding off like warm porcelain off a diamond rib.

The Machination: You won't regret this..