Swallow

[lizardgirl]

I honestly can’t remember if I’ve posted this up here or not. If I have, please lock this thread and revive the old one from the Archives, mods.

Anyway, this is just a little WALL-E story I’ve been sporadically updating. I don’t do much writing nowadays, so I’m a little rusty.

fanfiction.net/s/4423223/1/Swallow

Prologue-

Two and a half years had passed since the landing of the Axiom.

At first, the Axiom had remained a safe base for both the humans and the robots. They might have arrived home to Earth, but there were practicalities to be thought of. Plants may have been growing, but natural food was not yet available. There was not yet any suitable shelter, electricity, or plumbing, and such amenities were a real necessity for the humans, who hadn’t adapted to the great outdoors just yet.

But, soon enough, with the help of the Axiom’s robots, several buildings had been restored and renovated to the point of being liveable. Food was suddenly plentiful. Fresh water flowed in rivers and streams as the weather stabilized and the Earth regained its balance. Everything was flourishing.

Eventually, the Axiom was abandoned. Neither the humans nor the robots needed it anymore; the humans were able to live on the Earth just as their ancestors had, happy and free, and the robots were able to continue with their assigned duties in a way that would benefit mankind- they would look after the growing seedlings, develop housing for both the humans and themselves, and were slowly repairing the Earth.

The Axiom was simply a grim reminder of what had happened before.

It stood in its docking station, unchanging over those two and a half years aside from the growth of plants beginning to envelop it in a mass of green, the once fresh paint wearing away, old and tired. It may have lasted hundreds of years in space, but the Axiom did not seem able to handle Mother Nature. Slowly becoming a part of its surroundings, it faded away until it was both out of sight and out of mind.

Within its creaking hulk, the only sign of life was a few electro-mice, scuttling about in search of some scraps. It was home to hundreds of these strange little creatures, a cool and dark place to hide away, full of scrap metal to nibble on.

One such electro-mouse scurried up onto what appeared to be a helm, inadvertently flicking a switch with its tail as it passed by in search of food.

A red light flickered on slowly in its centre, and a deep groan echoed throughout the room.

~~~

Wall-E and Eve stood on top of Wall-E’s little home, hands intertwined, calmly gazing upon the sunset. It had been another productive day for both the humans and the robots, as they had almost completed a large, windowless domelike building set on the outskirts of the city, which would be used as a food store- the surplus grains, corns, fruit and whatever else the plants bore had been left to rot, so the ex-Captain of the Axiom, now leader of the humans, had decided that a food store was necessary.

Both Eve and Wall-E had been busy since their return to Earth. They were needed in different ways; Eve, so agile and sleek, was able to apply herself to a number of useful jobs such as the regeneration of buildings or the cultivation of the plants, and Wall-E, despite being a glorified metal box on wheels, encouraged the still-developing humans with his cheery beeps and wide, curious eyes. There was not much else he could do, aside from gaze in wonderment at all that was happening around him, yet he was still a clear inspiration to all. He had almost sacrificed his own life for the sake of the humans, after all, and they seemed to be eternally grateful.

Wall-E sighed, flexing his fingers in Eve’s smooth hand and enjoying the touch of her metal against his. He looked down at himself, prodding his ‘Play’ button with his free hand, and sighed again as the well-known tune of Hello, Dolly was emitted from his little speakers.

Wall-E turned his eyes to Eve, full of the same wistfulness as when saw her for the first time. For some reason, this evening seemed special, more special than any other. The sky was so perfect, ripe like a peach, the air was so clear, fresh, invigorating, and their love for each other was stronger than ever.

Suddenly letting go of Eve’s hand, Wall-e stuck a finger in the air in a ‘wait just one moment’ pose, at the same time opening his front and rummaging around inside himself with his other hand, humming absent-mindedly. Finally, he found what he was looking for- a blue, small, velvety box.

Almost shaking in anticipation, Wall-E carefully took Eve’s hand and placed the box inside of it. She curled her fingers around the object, then inspected it curiously, soon recognising it as the box for a piece of human jewellery. Eyes widening, Eve opened it to find…Nothing.

She looked confused for a second or two, glancing at Wall-E to see the hesitant robot waiting patiently for her reaction. And then she realised- the gift was the box. Eve giggled, raising one hand to her face, and leaned forward, pecking Wall-E on the side of an eye. A spark danced between the two of them, illuminated orange by the setting sun.

This is why she loved Wall-E; he could something special where others would find something boring. Everything was exciting to Wall-E, and his childlike wonder was such a perfect match for Eve, who preferred to be in charge and in control.

She gazed at him lovingly, looking back down at the small box with a new found wonderment-

BOOM.

The two robots jumped in shock, peering about and trying to discover the source of the explosion.

“Ev-a!” Wall-E frantically exclaimed, bouncing up and down and pointing over Eve’s shoulder. Not far away in the distance, a thick ring of smoke was rising from a building.

Without a moment’s thought, Eve zoomed off, dropping Wall-E’s little gift before she left.

Wall-E picked the velvet box up, passing it between his hands before looking back at where the loud bang had come from, and where EVE had headed off too.

Couldn’t they get through a single date without something going wrong?

[Sky]

I love your descriptive and beautiful writing style, lizardgirl. This piece was easy to read, and it’s good to have a story that continues on from after everyone landed back on Earth. And the fact that WALL•E doesn’t have much dialogue, much like the challenge Pixar had when writing the movie, seems to have been overcome by you. In fact, I’d say that your way of letting us know what WALL•E is saying, without any quotes of his, is quite endearing. The part in the story when WALL•E gave EVE the jewellery box was really quite funny.

Nice work, you’re a really good writer!

[qxgnxamy]

This is a good beginning, lizardgirl! I like how it was an electro-mouse that woke up Auto. How could Auto interpret his directive next? Don’t tell me, I’ll just wait to find out. I did notice that there’s a word missing here: “he could something special where others would find something boring.”

[lizardgirl]

Thanks, Rachel! Writing the interaction between WALL-E and EVE was definitely the hardest part. Thanks for reading!

I keep forgetting about that, qxgnxamy- every time I read through it, I go, ‘I must add that word in at some point!’, but I never do. Thanks for reading and the feedback, I appreciate it.

Here’s the first ‘proper’ chapter-

fanfiction.net/s/4423223/2/Swallow

Chapter 1-

The skyline of the city had been unchanged over those seven hundred or so years, and when the humans had arrived back on Earth, the towering skyscrapers had generally been deemed too dangerous to inhabit. Despite this, a few humans had tried to use some of these old structures, particularly certain smaller ones on the outskirts of the city that seemed to blend in with the new haven currently being built out of recycled materials.

Smoke billowed into the atmosphere, its source immediately obvious to anyone within a mile of the area. EVE reached the large double doors of the blackened building only to be pushed backwards into the street by a wave of burnt robots and a single coughing human.

“Doc-ter?” EVE enunciated the word slowly. The professor didn’t seem to notice, instead muttering to himself and looking up at the burning building.

“Another experiment ruined! I knew I shouldn’t have mixed that yellow liquid with that blue stuff…”

As EVE continued to attract the professor’s attention, WALL-E finally zoomed around the corner, waving a fire hydrant about his head. EVE quickly took it from him and began blasting the white froth at any robots that were still on fire and then, once sure that everyone outside was alright, carefully floated into the building itself. She found just the one fire, apparently where the professor had been conducting his strange experiment, and efficiently put it out.

The professor walked up behind her, shook his head and covered his eyes with a hand before being ushered out by a safety-conscious EVE. Ever since they had arrived back on Earth, the humans seemed to have been rapidly evolving and making up for the years lost floating around in space and gaining weight. Their individual differences were now becoming more pronounced, and they were learning about the world around them all over again, like toddlers going to the playground for the first time, or something equally as sweet and naive to that effect. Unfortunately, some humans were deviating to an extreme, insisting on finding out things that were once common knowledge. The professor’s experiments weren’t popular, but his discoveries (or re-discoveries) were helping to maintain the robots. There were only a certain amount of robotic parts available from the Axiom or left abandoned on the Earth, after all.

“I’m sorry, EVE,” the professor said, as the two of them stepped outside. “I thought that by recreating the metal used to make those microchips of yours, I might get that bit closer to understanding the link.”

EVE nodded. She, like most other robots in the area, knew much about the professor’s key aim- to understand how robots had come to be conscious, to have their own morals and sense of right and wrong. And she, like the others, agreed that it was a pretty pointless thing to find out. Never mind understanding how the robot mind worked- the human mind was still a mystery.

EVE, satisfied that her work here was done, rejoined WALL-E, who, in the meantime, had patiently been waiting, occupied by watching M-O try to clean the blackened building bit by tiny bit. His efforts were futile, but funny.

“Ev-a!” WALL-E squeaked at the sight of EVE, bopping slightly in excitement. He rummaged around inside himself, revealing the empty box once more in the hope of reminding EVE where they had left off. It worked, EVE’s eyes narrowing, giving the impression of smiling without a mouth, and they made their way back to WALL-E’s truck.

---

Auto looked around himself. Despite being a clinical, emotion-less robot, he couldn’t help but feel confused. He accessed his memory bank with difficulty, only able to recollect a few strange images of the Captain grabbing hold of him and shouting.

Auto shuddered, but without physically shuddering- there was just a slight feeling of repulsion. It was as though he had been…violated. In all of his years as an autopilot, he had rarely been touched, and had never been turned off. Once, he had been in complete control of everything around him, even able to influence the humans into doing what he wanted them to. Then something had gone wrong.

“Captain?”

Silence.

Everything was dirty, unkempt. No controls beeping, nothing lit up. The only source of light was coming from outside.

Auto processed this slowly, turning for the first time, right around. His censors processed this light as coming from the sun, but it was much closer- and therefore much brighter- than it had ever been before, even as it was setting.

He turned back around, swivelling exactly one hundred and eighty degrees, facing the inside of the Axiom once more. There was nothing there but darkness. No humans, no announcements on the billboards, no robots scurrying around, doing his bidding.

If Auto himself contained any human qualities, he would’ve broken down in racking sobs at this point, or at least would’ve been terribly frightened by the sights around him.

But, as it was, he just spent a nanosecond creating a list of things he should do, with the final point being ‘collect humanity on Axiom- return to space- achieve directive’, and got on with it. He began starting up the ship’s consoles, gauging how much power the Axiom still contained, and opened up some more external solar panels.

There was work to be done.

---

WALL-E switched the lights on in his little home. Hal’s antennae twitched as he and EVE entered, and WALL-E held out a hand for Hal to climb on before switching on the lights. WALL-E hadn’t always bothered with the lights when he had lived by himself, but now EVE was with him, it was always worth it.

Setting up the projector screen and sitting in front of it, WALL-E revelled in being able to enjoy his favourite film with his favourite robot. EVE hovered next to him, lowering herself as close to the floor as possible, and stared at the screen intently. No matter how many times they watched it, that moment when the two humans held hands in the film was just so immensely special to them that it never became boring or monotonous. If anything, their feelings for each other intensified during their daily viewing of Hello, Dolly!. Sometimes, even Hal felt the need to look away and give them a little privacy.

And now they saw humans doing it, holding hands all over the place. It was as if they’d rediscovered love and all the emotions connected to it, and it was so wonderful to see others following WALL-E and EVE’s example.

The music was now climaxing. Soon, the special moment would arrive, the two hands intertwined as a symbol of love for eternity. WALL-E glanced over at EVE, just as he did the very first time he had shown her this film, but this time, she returned the look, with eyes full of emotion and wonderment. She outstretched her hand. He outstretched his. The two became one.

WALL-E sighed deeply, his eyes lowering, triggering a little giggle from EVE. Things couldn’t be better.

[Sky]

Awww, a very touching and romantic chapter, lizardgirl. <3 I wonder when WALL•E will pop the question to EVE…?

I like how you covered how the humans started evolving again, if you could call it that, and developed unique facial features since, for some reason, in the movie, all of the humans looked the same. In the third paragraph, did you mean “docter” or “doctor”? I can’t wait to read exactly how AUTO gets humanity back onto the ship, just like his directive orders him to. That’s a very intriguing storyline. Well done in thinking it up.

PS Sorry for the late review. I’m really bad at regularly reviewing fan fiction. Just ask The Star Swordsman.

[DarkHandOfSigourneyW]

There are a few subforums that interest me here, and this is one of them. Scanning thru all this I found 3-4 Wall-E fics on this page and, whoops, a whole bunch from last year just after the movie came out, and yours seems to be the shortest of the most recent.

I’ve hardly ever done any criticism of any work outside of scientific experiments. But then again, I am an amateur film critic. Anyways, your Prologue, lizardgirl: 2 1/2 years?! If the first plant had started to come up, the environment would still have been harsh for large animals. You are clearly overly optimistic and a hopeless romantic to boot (with a plant in it of course). [spoil] I got out my red pen, the one I swiped from Sister Perfect Toenail’s desk, and mascercated that Prologue. But then it ran out of ink, and that’s why the rest of your tale is clean. Lucky for you.[/spoil]

***I’m going to reread this and see if I can come up with more concrete advice, I’ve been avoiding reading sequels so as not to prejudice my own ideas for a Wall-E sequel.