WHY WAS I PROGRAMMED TO FEEL PAIN?! [Private, Alexander Davis, Following 'WAIT UP!!']

Loud sobs and the word 'no' being repeated over and over echoed throughout the frozen courtyard, yet they were heard only by the falling frosted flakes and met with no response. Lucy's heavy footsteps were met with no resistance, nor did the sobs coming from her heavy heart meet any quelling. Tears streaming down her face, flooding her face rougher than they ever had before, she was running as hard and fast as she could. She had no direction, no destination, she just wanted to get away from where she was as fast as she could. She was running away in the middle of a blizzard...running in a winter terror land.

She was running from failure, one of the things she couldn't stand, and the disappointment of others...which she could stand even less. The worst of it was that it wasn't even her fault, and yet she was taking the blame, and she couldn't handle that...she just couldn't. So she ran, ran away from fear and despair, tears soaking her pretty pink dress that she wore in literally the worst kind of weather for it. At one point, she slipped and fell, but she quickly pushed herself up out of the cold powder on the ground and continued to run. She didn't want to be caught, she didn't want to be found...she wanted to fade away, to never feel again, to cease existing. She didn't want to have to deal with what had happened, she couldn't deal with it, there was no way she could handle it.

She slipped and fell again, and after trying to pick herself up she slipped in the process and fell into the cold powder again, and this time she decided not to attempt to get up again. Maybe the snow would melt and she would sink away to the bottom of the lake it could form. Maybe the snow would never melt, and she would be locked away forever in a crypt of ice and snow, never to be uncovered again. Both of those options sounded great to her, and she laid there as the snow quickly covered traces where she lay and soon began to cover her tracks.

OOC::

OOC:

Not far behind Lucy, Alex was running through the snow in an attempt to find the young android he was in charge of protecting. And right now Alex really had to talk to her, mainly because as the way things were looking, she was in big trouble. He had taken her to the library to do a shadow mission and she was passing with flying colors. She was getting this right and that right. It was getting to the point that Alex was wondering if the librarian was going to offer Lucy a part time job of being a librarian herself. If that had happened then Alex would've either changed is schedule around so he could take her to the library when ever it was time for her shift, or he would get Headmistress Leena's permission to build a small stable by the library so when ever Lucy rode Silvana to the stable the horse would have a place to bed down while Lucy worked.

Then the disaster happened. The librarian had asked Lucy to put a book back onto the shelf, Lucy left to do so, and the next thing that Alex knew was that an entire book shelf fell over with it looking like Lucy had knocked it over. Alex had been surprised by this turn of events to the point that he wasn't sure what look had been on his face at the time. However what ever it was, combined with only a small handful of students laughing, Lucy had rushed out of the building, with most of the students' gaze following her wondering if she was alright. Alex had ran after her and had been trying to find her ever since to figure out what the heck had happened.

And thus far the survivalist professor was having trouble finding her. The falling snow was erasing her trail, but at least he knew he was still on her tail because he could still see her trail. However there was a report of a snow storm approaching soon so he had to find her or the two of them would get buried out here. That's when he heard a neigh coming from behind. Make that three. Since when did Silvana make it to the campus?! Alex thought as he turned around to see his female war horse standing there behind him, shivering slightly. "Silvana, I need your help finding Lucy. She's ran off." to this the horse responded by tilting her head to the right and blinking a couple of times, clearly puzzled. "Ugh. I don't know why she ran. Look I took her to the library for a shadow mission and she was doing great, next thing I know a whole bookcase has fallen over with her on top of it like she pushed it over!" at this the horse responded by squeezing her eyes shut, shaking her head rapidly, and opening her eyes again wide with surprise; Silvana's way of saying "Wait, what?" "I don't know how it happened. That's why I need to find her. Just help me look would you? That snow storm is approaching fast and I don't want her left out here in it."

Silvana nodded and quickly trotted off, leaving Alex to continue searching. While the professor was getting off course, Silvana had better luck. Sniffing around, she picked up a rather unusual scent that she only picked up around Lucy. She had grown to like it while she was at the pet palace since it meant she was going to have Lucy to interact with. Following her nose, the horse found herself at the edge of the frozen lake. Standing there with snow falling on her and covering her back and mane, Silvana wondered if it was safe for her to walk on the lake. It had frozen quickly followed by snow falling, so there was no way for her to tell if the ice was thick from the cold or if the snow had formed some sort of thermal layer, thus preventing the water from freezing more.

However the girl's scent was coming from the lake, or at least from the other side of it. Hesitant, the horse took a few careful steps on to the ice. It held, at least for now. She took another step and then another, then another, until she reached a part of the frozen lake where the snow seemed to of piled up more then the rest of the lake, which meant something had to be under it. Curious, Silvana used her nose to push aside some of the snow, only to find Lucy's shoulder under the snow she had pushed away. Alarmed at the fact that she wasn't moving, Silvana used her teeth to grab Lucy's shoulder strap and gently shook the android girl, hoping that she wasn't frozen.

Lucy noticed the snow being pushed off of her, but she didn't budge as she didn't want to do anything but not exist. She just sniffled and sobbed, tears mixing with the snow. She did however respond to being picked up by something, and when she turned around she noticed it was Silvana, the beautiful horse she had gotten for Mr. Davis. She also saw Mr. Davis atop her, who seemed like he was going to say something, and that kicked up her panic again: she couldn't face him after what happened, her poor little heart couldn't handle such a thing, it was too much.

"Refusal: No no no no no no no no no! Insistence: It wasn't my fault, it wasn't my fault, I didn't do it! Overwhelmed: I can't do it, I can't do it, it hurts too much I can't do it!" she sobbed out as she flailed around trying to wriggle free from the horse...which she managed to do as her shoulder strap of her dress ripped due to her weight and she landed on her feet...and was off again.

She knew it was all over, that her friendship with Mr. Davis was ruined. There was no way she could fix what happened, and she couldn't bare to here all the bad things he had to say...so she kept running. Running...and running...and running...until she was in the middle of a frozen body of water, and she was tired from running and was very cold. It was now that Mr. Davis called out to her, he and Silvana no longer coming any closer to her, her barely able to make them out in the storm.

"Demanding: No, stay away from me, just leave me alone! Rambling: I didn't do it, but I can't fix it and you think that I did it but it's not my fault, I swear it's not my fault I didn't do it but they laughed at me and Ms. Airan was upset and even you...even you! Hurting: Even you, Mr. Davis, you think it's my fault, but it's not I didn't do it...I DIDN'T DO IT!"

Lucy then fell to her knees and started sobbing. It wasn't her fault the books fell and the bookshelf broke: the man she tried to help pushed her into the bookcase, but no one saw him...they only saw her, standing there trying to fix it, looking like she had done it all herself. She had done such a good job and tried so hard, and this is what happened: they laughed, she got upset, and he...he was...




It was clear at this point that something was severly wrong, because while Lucy had gotten upset before, this was way out of the norm for her. She didn't care about anything or anyone right now, she just wanted everything to stop and go back so she could never talk to that man in the library, so that nothing bad would have happened.

Mr. Davis was calling out to her, and he said things about wanting to just talk with her, but she couldn't believe him: his face had shown how he felt, what more could he say? "Disbelief: No, I don't want to talk, you just want to make me go and apologize when I didn't do anything wrong! Assertion: I was doing good and I did a great job, I did everything right, I didn't make any mistakes! Hurting: I...I always h-h-have to apologize, e-e-e-even when I don't do anything wrong, I always h-h-have to apologize..."

Her sobbing was being absorbed into the falling flakes around her, and amongst the freezing air, Mr. Davis said something that sparked hope in Lucy's sunken little heart: he wanted to hear her side of the story, he wanted to listen to what she had to say. No one had ever done that before, or even offered it: they just always assumed she had done something wrong and followed accordingly, but Mr. Davis...he wanted her to tell him what happened, rather than just assume she was wrong. The little girl stood up and wiped her eyes.

"Inquiry: D-Do you pr-promise t-to l-listen to m-me?" she barely managed to sniffle out as she continued to wipe her eyes. Mr. Davis promised, but Lucy still wasn't sure. "Unsure: ...Cr-Cross your h-heart, and h-hope t-to die?" She saw a smile shine through the snowflakes as she heard Mr. Davis finish the rhyme, and she too then smiled. "Assurance: O-Okay, I'll stop r-running and t-talk, I pr-promise." So she took a step forward to meet with Mr. Davis...



And with a snap and slight rumble, the ice cracked open beneath her, and Lucy plunged into the cold icy waters below...

OOC:

As Alex continued to look around, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Silvana had stopped looking around seemed to be pushing some snow around with her nose.  Why would she be trying to gently dig with her nose when her hoof would've been far faster?  The only reason why his partner would be doing that was if... if she had found something!  Alex quickly rushed over as the horse had begun to shake Lucy to see if she was alright.  He heard some sort of out burst and arrived at Silvana's side just as Lucy's dress ripped and she took off again.  "After her!" Alex ordered Silvana as he jumped aboard the mare, and the horse took off like a rocket.

"Lucy!  Wait!" he called out as the pair chased after the distraught girl, but it was clear the the professor that Lucy wasn't listening to him out of fear.  Yeah she caused a large mess but there was no way she'd do that on purpose, so there had to be more to the story that no one else knew.  Finally Lucy stopped running and fell to her knees, but Alex had pulled on Silvana's reins to prevent her from going any farther.  He knew they were right next to a frozen lake and Lucy was on top of it, but the horse still weighed more the the android girl so Alex decided to walk out onto the ice with Silvana standing on the edge.

"Lucy, please listen to me." Alex began, but the young woman, seemingly hysterical with fear, seemed to believe that he was demanding that she apologize for the mess, but then Lucy said something interesting; it wasn't her fault.  "Was someone else there?  Lucy at the moment the only one who knows the truth is you, but unless you talk to me I'll never know it.  Please Lucy..." Alex asked as he slowly walked towards her with his right hands stretched out towards her.  The snow continued to fall, covering the three living beings that were in the area.  Finally, it seemed as if Lucy was listening to him.  "Yes Lucy, I promise to listen to you.  Cross my heart and hope to die." Alex said as he crossed his heart with his left hand but kept his right hand extended towards Lucy.  Finally, the android girl seemed to be willing to open up, Alex watched her take a step forwards...

"NOOO!!  LUCY!!" Alex screamed as he watched her fall through the ice.  Without thinking Alex dove in after her before the ice had the chance to close up the hole.  The freezing cold water struck Alex's skin like a thousand knives cutting him to ribbons, and he almost lost the breath he was holding.  However instead of heeding he screaming flesh Alex instead swam downwards while activating his semblance, hoping that the light from his aura would illuminate the ice cold water so he could see Lucy.  Soon the water surrounding Alex was glowing with an emerald light and Alex continued to swim downwards.

He couldn't see the bottom at first, but after a second or two of swimming Alex found Lucy off to this right at the bottom of the lake.  The kelp that was growing down there had wrapped around her limbs, getting her stuck there.  He quickly swam over to her and used his semblance to grow a pair of wooden shears and cut the kelp away, afterwards he recalled his semblance from the wooden construct and it shrank back into a seed.  Wrapping his arms around Lucy, Alex tried to swim back towards the surface but Lucy was so heavy that he wasn't getting anywhere.  Alex's lungs burned in his chest, a clear sign that he had used up the oxygen in them and he a new breath right then and there, but he couldn't breath underwater, and he had no idea what this cold water and lack of air was doing to Lucy.

There was only one thing to do.  Alex commanded another one of his seeds to grow, and the plant quickly grew downwards and secured itself on the bottom of the lake before the leafless branches positioned themselves underneath the drowning pair.  The plant started to rapidly grow, quickly pushing Alex and Lucy towards the surface... right at a thick sheet of ice.  Without anytime to make the growing plant place a protective layer of wood over the two, Alex positioned himself so he was between the ice and Lucy.  As the neared the ice, Alex was looking right into Lucy's eyes, and braced himself.

BAM!  CRACK!

Alex's right shoulder was slammed into the ice and it cracked from the force of the blow, and Alex nearly screamed out of pain as he felt his shoulder dislocate.  However instead he sucked in a pain filled breath as the emerged from the water and into the frigged winter air.  "S-S-Silvana!  P-Pull us over!" Alex called out as he rapidly grew a vine over towards the faithful war horse.  Silvana quickly grabbed onto the vine and walked backwards, pulling the plant that Alex and grown, which was now a raft, across the ice and back onto the shore before the ice to crack again and pull them back under water.

They were free of the water, but Alex and Lucy weren't out of danger yet, since the two of them were coated in ice cold water with freezing cold air around them.  They were in danger of freezing to death now.

Lucy had let out a frightened scream before she plunged into the water below. She felt very VERY frighten and she was sinking very quickly...but not long after that her eyes closed and she was unconscious. Her heavy body kept sinking and sinking until it hit the bottom and stayed there.

It only took a few moments before Mr. Davis was able to reach her, and only a few more before he was able to bring her up and out of the icy water and back onto land that was safe and stable. Lucy was still out cold however, and she wasn't responding, but there was a very faint crimson tint around her that appeared to be her Aura. Also Lucy's body seemed to be giving off a larger than normal amount of body heat than she normally would, and she was giving off the light humming noise of an appliance.

Still, she did not stir, which meant the journey home would be that much more difficult.

The instant Alex had tried to look into Lucy's eyes he found that they had shut. She was motionless and stiff. Trying to carry her through the ice cold water was like trying to carry a metal beam then a human. With only one arm to work with Alex had to lay her down on the semblance raft he had made in order to put his shoulder back into place. As he did so however he did see the faint red glow of her aura and hear the humming noise, but what his half frozen body noticed most was the heat coming off of hers, and he was reluctant to let go of her because he was freezing and he needed to get warm in a hurry.

However after half a second of thought and with the blizzard getting worse, Alex decided that his shoulder had to wait and getting shelter and warmth was a bigger priority. Even Silvana, who had a fur coat and wasn't wet, wouldn't be able to handle this weather without shelter. Boy Alex was glad he made her stable has his home completely weather proof and insulated. "S-Silvana! L-lay down n-n-next to us!" The horse gave Alex a perplexed look slammed her hoof down on the vines that she had used to pull him and Lucy to shore. She wanted to pull them back home, but Alex wasn't having it. "N-now girl! Y-you can't handle t-this anymore then m-m-me!" Alex said as he expanded the wooden platform with his semblance so there was room for the war horse. Finally Silvana relented and laid down on the platform.

Alex set to work on making a shelter right away, though being so cold he was having trouble focusing. First he commanded the platform to grow up and around them to form a domed solid wood shelter, with small holes for air. Another seed on Alex's belt, a plant that was so fire resistant it might as well be fire proof, and had it grow another dome to fire proof the inside of the shelter, along with creating a few shelves that ran along the edges of the shelter. They were similar to planters. Alex then pulled a vial containing some sort of gel from the back of his belt. It was his secret weapon; peet moss spores. Alex popped open the vial and dumped the entire contents of the vial into the shelves. He only needed one drop in each ring of shelves, but he was so cold that he couldn't think straight. Next he commanded the spores to grow, and soon every single shelf was full of peet moss. Alex then started to use his semblance to manipulate the chemicals within the moss. Peet was the one plant known to spontaneously combust into flames, and they burned hot... and Alex could make the plants burn on a whim with his semblance. However because of the cold Alex couldn't focus enough to get them to ignite... until finally they did. Soon there was a ring of fire held in the fire proof shelves. Silvana nearly jumped at it, then gave Alex a glare that basically said "Hey! Warn me next time!"

Alex only smiled weakly. The warmth of the peet moss fires was quickly washing over him, warming Alex, Silvana, and Lucy. A set of vines grew up around Alex's injured shoulder and arm. The vines straightened Alex's arm out to the side, and after Alex bit down on another vine, the vines around his shoulder popped his dislocated joint back into place. A pain fulled grunt exited Alex's mouth before he have the vines turn back into seeds.

Finally Alex looked down at Lucy again. He couldn't tell if there was any real change, so he picked her up and cradled her in his arms, holding her close. "Lucy... you're out of danger. You can wake up." Alex said in a soothing tone into her ear, hoping that Lucy would hear him. He glanced over his shoulder where there was a hole, commanded the shelter to 20 spider-like legs, and they slowly started to walk over the snow back towards the academy. Having all the weight distributed over so many limbs insured that if they found another pond and the ice cracked, only a single leg would go into the water instead of the entire shelter.

Lucy remained still, seemingly unconscious and unaware or her surroundings, stilling humming and giving off heat and a very faint crimson aura. Her mind was not active, and she didn't utter a sound...but that changed once Mr. Davis spoke to her and held her.

The faint glow of crimson quickly faded, the humming slowly fading alongside it, and after a few moments Lucy slowly opened her eyes and blinked a few times before going to what she did best: panicking.

"Afraid: WATER, DEEP DARK WATER, EVERYWHERE AND SINKING!" she jolted a bit and flailed her arms before she calmed down and hugged Mr. Davis and cried. She held onto him tightly for a moment before letting go and panicking even further.

"Interjection: OH NO! Panic: WHERE IS MR. FLOPPSIES?! Descent: OH NO PLEASE DON'T TELL ME HE'S BACK THERE, I NEVER TAUGHT HIM HOW TO SWIM SO HE CAN'T GET TO US AND I CAN'T LEAVE HIM THERE OR HE'LL DROWN, MR. DAVIS PLEASE WE HAVE TO FIND HIM AND SAVE HIM!" She got up and ran throughout the make-shift house, tossing things aside like a maniac and not paying attention to anything but things that looked like a bunny.

At first when Lucy hadn't responded to anything, Alex had grown worried. Did the ice cold water do something to her? Did she get so scared that she overloaded something? Or worse... did the activation process for her semblance already begin? These and more questions passed through Alex's mind before Lucy finally woke up. At first Alex let out a sigh or relief, but then he had to hold onto Lucy tightly as she started to flail. Her arm even struck the shoulder that Alex had just popped back into place so it hurt more then it normally would've. "Whoa! Easy Lucy! You're not in the water anymore. You're safe!" Alex's words seemed to do the trick since the girl calmed down and was hugging him now, to which he hugged her back.

However that quickly changed when Lucy realized that her bunny was no where in sight, and Alex mentally kicked himself. How could get forget about Mr. Floppsies?! Okay under the circumstances one could say he had a very good reason for forgetting about the bunny but he had to go back for it... him. Alex didn't even have a clue as to where the rabbit was. "Whoa whoa whoa! Okay! I'll go back to the lake and see if I can find him, okay?" Alex said when he stood up.

Silvana then whinnied loudly, making Alex turn and look over at the laying down horse. "What?" the horse only responded by looking back at her saddle, causing Alex to look there. This was followed by a sigh of relief. There, sticking out of Silvana's saddle bag, was the rabbit with a dabber yellow hat that looked quite good on the rabbit. The horse must have found and grabbed the stuffed animal while Alex had dived underwater to get Lucy. "Good girl Silvana." Alex said as he grabbed Lucy and turned her to face in Silvana's direction so she'd see Mr. Floppsies sticking out of the saddle bag.