Kit Kuak

ALT From left to right: Arcee, Orion, Firestar, Moonracer, Hound, & Ratchet. Elita sits above the wall behind Arcee, and D-16 lies beneath Orion.

ALT I hope I'm not being a burden. I really, really hope I'm not being a burden. I love you, D-16.

ALT I couldn't tell you how scared I was - to be fully unwound, the last of my private spaces infiltrated by your warm and calloused hands. It felt like home. It felt like void. It felt like nothing at all.

ALT I'm not nearly as strong as I used to be, and I doubt that I ever will be again. Regardless, I feel myself beginning to become a person again (how nauseating!), your determination willing my undeserving spark back into ignition. There's a new hole forming beneath my pedes, and I'm not sure if I want to step out of the way, but your presence makes me hope for a slower fall.

ALT They drank the light which shone out of the man's exposed spark, chewed at his legs and pulled on his extremities until he was utterly sore. The attention was exhilarating, I'd never been so desired. You had the audacity to tell me that the white marks and burning sensation shouldn't be normal. The sentiment reminded me of nonexistent dread and discarded protocols.

ALT You have a way of getting under peoples' skin - I hated you for it. Each coil you'd managed to detangle itched more than the last. I felt stupid, laying there.

ALT Nobody stands before us. A nobody man with nobody goals... Despite all my running, their nobody memories still pervade my mind. How nauseating!

ALT At some point, this nobody had tripped. The hole he fell into was strikingly beautiful - he pulled all of its contents into his nothing heart and became complete. The transformation was slow but arduous all the same. Muscle and tender fibers disintegrated, steel and fat rearranged, aluminum-pliable chords torn out and replaced. Scared and vulnerable and finally perfect, I sighed.