#(now(here)

#HNY2024

NOWHERE/NOW HERE #2011 #reflectingpainting #studio #bazaar #archive #peinturereflechissante #atelier #artinstallation #bazar #bernardcalet @bcalet

It was around midnight when they both were flying over that place.

It wasn't particularly prominent from the height on which they were flying on. In route towards one of the junkyards of Copper 9 to pick up some pieces for the pod. It was even less outstanding in comparison to all the other big ruins which plagued the Fallen City of Darlan. At least when compared to all of those charred ghosts of skyscrapers that flanked their advance through the street on flight. Uzi didn't have really the intent to make N stop there, but when she was about to withdraw her optics from the passing structure, the worker picked up with her sensors a small flashing flicker, visible due to the probably completely collapse of the roof which once covered it. And, from her point of view, her attention to it was justified, after all, who know which kind of opportunities could be behind it? there could even be something that helped speed up the pod repairs! ~ And while she could still call herself Uzi Doorman, she would not let something like that slip past her!

“N, Hey!” Uzi called his attention mid-flight, the disassembler stared at her with curiosity “Land there,” She pointed to the building with the small and alternating flash “There is something there”

N looked at it a bit, and he couldn’t deny either how curious that was.

“Okie Uzi!” His answer was very enthusiastic, and promptly he began the descent over the dense white mantle that was the ever pilling snow on the streets of Darlan.

He found himself on the floor on a brief time, and, after bending a bit. Uzi unmounted from his shoulders and stabilized on the snowy ground for some seconds before starting to look at the surroundings. The place was, our used to be, a Gas station. For what her countless hours watching anime could tell her: Some few gasoline pumps remained by some sort of miracle, and, despite the Armageddon unleashed over them and the whole surface of the planet, some retained agonizing traces of the old red paint that some time on the past had covered them. Likewise, no far from there, was the structure they had seen from the air, it was one of those utility stores that any gas station should have. The purple haired worker stared at the small building with interest, especially since the flicker kept repeating itself, this time, with them so near, on a way that was even more clearly visible. On an exercise of caution, and having learned far too much from the Solver Incident, she withdrew her gun from the straps that hold it to her back, and made some gestures for N to do the same.

After his optics wandered between her and the flashing coming from inside the building, he proceeded to swap his right hand to a grenade launcher. Both of them approached the structure with furtive care. With the wind howling and the dark outside merely interrupted by the phantasmagoric rays of moonlight that shined over the scarred and brutalized surface. Once inside, after having gained access through the main door, their steps separated from the other on a coordinated way; with the worker going through a separated aisle instead of following her disassembler companion, it was a silent agreement, so they could catch (should it be an enemy) the flash origin by surprise.

“It better not fucking be another abomination” Uzi thought, while they were approaching the source of that flickering flash “I had already enough with the esoteric centipede~” The shivering that ran through her metallic limbs justifies itself by the brief resurfacing image of that beast crawling through the vents.

They arrived, finally. N took a small detour through an accessible route from what once had been the post of the cashier of the convenience store. Uzi, on her part, placed her mechanic finger on the trigger of her reconstructed railgun. She bit her lower lip, giving some soft calculated breathing to calm her incipient anxiety caused by the anticipation…and she launched herself to the following room. She waved and pointed the gun everywhere, awaiting anything…yet, instead of some enemy, or even a fellow worker asking for help, she found herself staring at the weird model of a lamp. Which, having survived the detonation somehow, kept flickering on weird periods of activity. She heard from the other door, which led to what seemingly seemed to be the backroom of the store, N’s footsteps. Once she turned her head towards him, he had already hidden away his grenade launcher inside his arms, smiling and trying to fight back some laughs.

Uzi didn’t like usually to being laughed at, yet, N’s giggles made sense, most certainly, as they both had been fooled by a broken floor lamp that had managed to withstand the impossible circumstances and keep flickering. Uzi growled with some degree of frustration, being that she didn’t even got a small piece of something to further the advances with the pod. But also mixed into it was a small relief that behind the flickering flash was no abomination, no enemy, still, that didn’t save the poor lamp from being kicked, his light bulb smashing against the floor and breaking in thousand pieces, but bringing end to the flashing that had picked their attention.

“Stupid- silly- lamp- thing!” She whispered as she still, regardless of relief, stomped into it. Each single word being followed by a harsh stomp

“Aw-“ N made that cute noise before approaching and giving some soft pats in the head to the worker of purple hairs “It’s alright Uzi, I’m sure next time it will be something you can shoot and it will explode!”

Uzi wanted, truly, smack away his hand like she had done not too many days ago, but, in the end, the touches were too soft and comfy to do so again, she sighed, her good mood starting to return.

“Yeah…surely next time,” She rolled her eyes and the weapon went to her back “Probably-“ Once the pats grew a bit more, as N wanted to keep her optimistic, she blushed.

She escaped the contact with courtesy. Before clearing up her metallic throat and returning to a soberer and Uzi-like tone of voice which didn’t compromised her angsty teen personality.

“Uh, whatever-“ She spoke with her back turned to the smiling N as she gave a look to the aisles of beyond the threshold of where a door probably once stood, the place was not big at all, and, like any other, had seen better times, when humans roamed those buying and taking home products “Let’s check up this place, there may be something useful!” She went straight to one of the aisles, named after a very frozen sign “Home Utilities” N, on his part, went straight to an unnamed one, following Uzi’s instructions, albeit he picked it up mostly because from the threshold, it looked certainly interesting.

His steps soon found themselves moving merrily and cheerfully through the aisle. His optics danced through some miscellaneous objects he couldn’t identify, but, in particular, ones near the end of the place called his attention powerfully. Those were inside some little plastic packages, a bit burned from the explosion, but otherwise intact, hanging all on a row on small metal sticks that emerged from the wall.   Inside those packages were small, and pretty figures of little trees in green color, from his generic knowledge on some topics, he distinguished them as figures of pine trees. Over all of them an almost burned and erased sign that had in big bold letters “Car Air Refreshers”. N knew all too well what a car was, but the idea of a “refresher” for a machine was something the enticed him to approach those.

With his waging happily behind him, he took one of the little trees on plastic and, after only a brief movement thanks to his powerful servomotors, he ripped open and cleanly the package, tossing it aside, he activated his smell sensors, usually designed for them to catch on workers by smelling their open wounds, and took a simple sniff to the little tree…only to find himself completely delighted by what he could smell. As the sweet fragrance filled a bit of his surroundings quickly, his tail wagged more, indicating how much he was enjoying it; not only where the trees small and cute, but also smelled like what probably was a forest, he started to compulsively take refreshers, with quick and furtive motions, staring behind himself in an exercise of funny and child-like discretion. With the greed worthy of a silly dragon of a fairytale, all with a smiles on his face and soft giggles, while he thought of perhaps sharing them with Uzi – She surely would love the smell to artificial pine!

Being all too wrapped up on his small world of little refresher treasures, carriers of a sweet fragrance that he liked all too much. N could not take notice of the fact that his partner was approaching him, having emerged from one of the separations that the multiple shelfs of products had to allow passage from one aisle to the other without having to take a turn at the end of it. She was carrying with her a red-5-gallon gasoline container, which miraculously, was not burned or charred somehow, in comparison to the gas pumps standing outside.

“N!” She called him, suddenly, making him turnaround from the sheer loudness and emotion from the call “Look what I found!” Uzi started to shake the recipient, which was filled with a not frozen liquid, a thing by far too curious due to the eternal winter on which Copper had found itself in after the core collapse.

The disassembler stood there, somewhat ashamed due to the interruption to his little greed for his new favorite smell. But the shame soon abandoned him, his sensors detecting another smell, emerging sharp through the fragrance his initial treasure had released. To him, it smelled like the most glorious and warm tasty oil!

N lunged forwards, it smelled too good to even ask for permission, and he could apologize for it after having a single taste from it! – He snatched the container from Uzi’s hands, and, slicing the lid off with a finger claw, he started gulping it down savagely.

Uzi, of course, was aware of what exactly was inside that…

“No, wait!” The worker screamed on despair, and even tried to topple it from N’s lips, but her shorter frame, like in so many occasions, played against her, it didn’t help that N became a little child and turned his back on her whenever his optics caught her whenever she tried to, yet, nonetheless, it didn’t stop her from issuing a verbal warning “N that’s gasolin-!”

N optic’s soon enough hollowed, and he dropped the container without a care and started to cough up the oil-based fluid from his mouth, he gagged at times due to how utterly disgusting and horrible the flavor was, and, even after managing to not have a speck of it on his mouth, the aftertaste was abominable, an utter insult to the tasty flavor his mouth was so acclimated to. On despair to get it off, he took from coat on of his little “treasures”.

“Smells good- should taste good!” He thought, forgetting in the hassle what had led him to this situation.

He gave a bite to the small little tree…only to regret it seconds later when the refresher went to his taste sensor. It was even more horrible than the gasoline, and once those two flavors mixed, it was like doom on his mouth.

N made all sorts of gestures as his visor showed two closed eyes, he now started to try spitting out on a complete random pace as to try to make the flavors go out, but all he managed was looking extremely funny…which a certain worker could not, after worrying a bit, let pass without crackling a laugh or two.

“I thought you guys would know the difference between oil and gasoline!” She teased N, the poor boy was now holding it barely trying to get past the aftertaste “Like really- It’s not the same thing you silly drone!”

“They smell the same!” He said, before groaning and allowing himself to sit and fall limb into the floor, hands and legs spread, his visor showing a “NonApprovedFlavors.Exe” executing on his operative system.

Uzi now laughed a bit more, certainly this evening had not gone all too bad. Despite this being objectively not a progress into their endeavor for the pod, it had been interesting, on a way...

“Well, at least you didn’t explode!” She pointed out, bringing herself with some bravery to go and pat a bit the disassembler in return to make him feel better. Deep down, she could perhaps have chosen to scold a bit due to the fact she wanted to make some more conventional explosives with the now frozen gasoline which had been dropped on the floor, but, on her heart, there was no way for her to be mean with this puppy that was hidden below the menacing figure of a disassembly drone.

“I’m sorry…” He spoke, still dazed due to the horrible flavor that went through his mouth, albeit the “NonApprovedFalvors.exe” was substituted by some slightly sad eyes “I spilled it all on the floor”

“Don’t apologize…you puppy-“ She whispered that nickname between her teeth due to the shame “Well make mistakes, and hey-“ She stood, and gave a look to the chewed tree and some that were peeking from his pockets “Were you going to do something with of those mini-trees?”

N gave a look to his treasures, and, after shoving the ones in his pockets deeper so they would not fall off, and standing on his feet again, he proceeded to explain.

“Oh, those!” He pointed out “Those are air refreshers; they smell very good!”

“…And that’s why you attempted to eat one just one moment ago?” She gave her a smirk look as an interrogation sign appeared on her screen.

“What? No! – That’s because of that gaso-thing that tasted horrible!” He went and snatched one more from the rows on the wall to replace the chewed refresher “And well, they could perhaps serve to make the pod smell less sterile, and some cute decorations would go nice, don’t you think?”

Uzi looked with some interests and thought about that idea for some seconds before answering.

“Well, if that’s good for you-“ Uzi looked a bit hesitant the objects in question “Workers cannot smell really anything else than gas leaks or more construction related stuff, but I guess some decorations aren’t going to stall the repairs…” She scratched her head “And, for real, do you really don’t know what is gasoline?”

N stared at her after a drop of digital sweat dropped on his visor, alongside some small sized interrogation signs.

“Gaso-leena?” He wondered, his tail making silly motions behind him, nervous one as his net searched and failed to find it on his dictionary “Hmm~ Nope!” He shrugged, sounding somewhat excited for not knowing a thing about the issue.

Uzi sighed.

“Well, look, is a petroleum based substance which can be used to propel things…“ And she started, from the top of her head, firm memories of her chemistry classes coming to mind.

Both drones stepped out of the building through the main door of the small store after some time. Uzi kept explaining all the gasoline theme to N all the way to the where they started this small interregnum on their scavenging hunt. Only once they went past the wrecked gasoline pumps, and were able to notice that the usually crazy and merciless weather of Copper had calmed somewhat, despite the fact they were going to return to their duties despite anything, it was a good sing on a scarred land where hope was as scarce as the few inhabitants the wasteland could still have.

“And that’s why it is an explosive element, which, despite being made from the same base as our oil, it isn’t the same. That’s the reason why it is such a horrible idea for you to try to drink it, despite how enticing the fragrance may be, alright?”

“Hmm!” He hummed, while he gave a small to their surroundings, making sure it was all clear, before turning towards the worker “Thank you Uzi, you are really smart and intelligent!” He threw that compliment with that fluidity on his talking that was present when he wanted to make anyone feel better “The most intelligent worker I know!”

Uzi got into a standstill really quick. She clenched her teeth in front of that praise as she blushed. She tried to calculate and smug way out, in line with her personality, but couldn’t, and, in consequence, she did the only thing she could think of:

“You and your complements, silly puppy-“ She gave him a playful hit on the shoulder “You really sometimes look more like a puppy than a disassembler!” She smiled, nonetheless. Being that I didn’t compromised her personality in any way shape or form.

“Hehe” N laughed a bit, before deploying his wings and bending slightly, inviting Uzi to get atop of him again, something they had used to do a ton by now.

As she approached, N made his little greedy check that his new treasures were going to be safe. And he didn’t stop until he felt Uzi firmly attached to his upper body, ready for him to take flight once more. He did so on a few seconds.

Once in flight and on a stable speed. Uzi talked again.

“So, you going to decorate the pod with those little trees, yeah?” She asked, N could pick up her face thanks to his almost 360° vision

“Yuppie yup!” He said, attention divided between the worker and the path ahead.

“Don’t go and put those in my room, please-“ She asked, kindly “Or I will find and slip more gasoline in your morning oil” She said, still kind, despite the promise not being so kind.

“Don’t worry Uzi, I won’t place those in your room!” He said, laughing and his laugh soon grew contagious towards Uzi

“It’s a joke N!” She said, patting his head, smiling.

They both were in for an interesting night. It was yet to be seen on which other antics they could get themselves on. But, the most important thing of this night, was the fact that they were together, like a team.

@rowlyyyynnn This has happened to me before! Sometimes the link gets doubled in the search bar when it should be just this