Post by ebonyviper on Mar 16, 2007 23:18:06 GMT -5
A LIFE INTERRUPTED
by EbonyViper
DISCLAIMER: Rosa, Ebony, Blaze, and the Desert Snakes belong to me. This is my submission for the project Evangeline started. Some names and relationships have been changed for legal reasons. Oh, and the song "Lithium" belongs to Evanescence, but I am using it for the purpose of this fic and that I think it describes Rosa's personality pretty well.
~~~~~
Somebody once told her that she was the reason that her parents were killed in that deadly road wreck a year ago and she believed it. She felt so alone and thought that nobody would listen to her if she said otherwise. Nobody cared about a six-year-old Ford Probe with chibi-like hazel eyes.
When they found her staring in disbelief at the wrecks that were once her parents, the authorities had thought it best to send her to an orphanage when no other relatives could be located. Nobody knew what to do when Roselyn Briar Swift had buried herself under her nightcover and cried for her mom and dad to come and take her away from this scary place.
“Poor girl,” said one of the orphanage staff, a pale green Nissan Skyline, “She doesn't yet understand that her parents aren't coming back.”
“I know,” agreed a light tan Plymouth Dart, "This child is too young to be really aware of the implications of death, especially in an accident, and it may be a while before she can truly deal with it."
"So it's your opinion that we should hold off talking about this with her until she's older?" asked the Skyline.
“Yes,” nodded the Dart.
The orphanage that Rosa spent the rest of her lonely existance at not a very friendly place. Every time prosprective foster parents came to inspect the children, it felt to them as if they were merchandise, put out for the customers' inspection. How awful that must have made them feel, especially Rosa. She felt that she wasn't good enough in their eyes. She withdrew further and further into herself, taking mental scars from each hurt, great or small, and weaving their calloused, disfigured tissue into barriers to keep herself safe and the rest of the world at bay, in fear of sustaining greater wounds. She was never kept long in a foster home for that reason and was always returned because the foster parents could not deal with her behavior or personality.
It was when she was about nine year old that Rosa decided that she had had enough of the orphanage and ran away. The night would be her cover to escape. When all the other children were asleep and the staff were busy elsewhere, the little Probe, having also feigned slumber, threw off her covers and stuffed some pillows beneath them to make it look as if she were still there. She then pulled out some sheets that she'd tied together in advance, and threw them out the open window.
Looping the sheet-rope around her front axle and using her antenna and windshield wipers to let let the sheets out, Rosa slowly eased herself down until her childlike tires touched the ground. She looked back up, wondering if anybody noticed her missing yet, but when she didn't see anyone's front sticking out of that window after a few minutes, the little Probe sighed with relief.
I'm not coming back here, ever, Rosa promised herself as she set off with only a few small items that she had packed away in her roofpack.
* * * * *
For the next half-week, Rosa hid during the daytime so that any cops wouldn't catch and take her back to that dreaded orphanage and traveled during the night only on small backroads where there was barely anybody except the occasional traveler or two, who never took notice of a small Probe such as herself. Why would they care about her? Nobody else cared and she preferred it that way.
“Hey, what are you doing here?” a new, childlike voice asked her, rousing Rosa from her dreams.
She looked up into the emerald green eyes of a young black Dodge Viper and seemed to freeze in place. This girl looked mean and could probably bully her whenever she felt like it. Rosa shrank down on her undercarriage to look as small as possible and to not provoke the Viper girl.
“N-nothing,” Rosa stammered, “I-I don't want to cause anything, really. Please leave me alone.”
“Why? Are ya running away from something?” asked the Viper girl.
“N-NO! I mean...” Rosa stammered, backing away from the girl that looked to be about the same age as she was. The Viper girl watched her curiously. What was wrong with this little Probe that made her so fearful of her?
“Are ya okay?” asked the Viper girl, tilting her front a little bit.
Rosa was quiet, not sure if she wanted to tell this complete stranger why she was running away in the first place. What would happen?
“I... don't know...” her voice wavered a bit, “b-but I don't want to get hurt.”
“Relax, I'm not gonna hurt ya,” said the Viper girl, “I'm just curious, that's all.”
“Y-you aren't going to hurt me?” asked Rosa, lifting up frightened eyes to the Viper girl.
The Viper girl shook her front, “Naw, I'm not that mean. I'm just wondering what a kid like you is doing all the way out here in California. Ya look like you're out-of-state, judging from your stance and your behavior.”
“I-I'm from Ohio,” stammered Rosa.
“Wow, that far?” asked the Viper girl, “It's a wonder ya made it all the way here and managed to survive. What's your name, kid?”
“Er... m-my name is Rosa,” the little Probe answered quietly.
“Rosa, eh? Nice name,” smiled the Viper girl, “Goes good with your paint job. My name's Ebony.”
The little Probe picked herself up and gazed at Ebony. “Where do you live, Ebony?”
“Nowhere,” shrugged the Viper girl, “I don't have a home to speak of, but I do have a gang that I live with. They're nice and they'd take care of you if you need someplace to sleep and need something to eat.”
“Really?” asked Rosa, “They'd do that? They won't send me back to that awful orphanage?”
“Orphanage? What's that?” asked Ebony, “I never heard of anything like that. How bad is it?”
“It's an awful place where children go when their parents don't want them anymore,” explained Rosa, her eyes downcast, “But I don't know why I was sent there. My parents loved me.”
“You had parents?” asked Ebony, looking curiously at Rosa, “I didn't have any parents. I just have myself to take care of.”
“That must be a hard life for you,” said Rosa, getting comfortable with talking to this girl named Ebony.
Ebony tilted her front, “I don't see it as a hard life, but an adventure. Everyday, I discover something interesting. Like you, for example.”
“That... is interesting,” said Rosa, “Ebony? Where does your gang uh... live? What do they call themselves?”
“It's a big city in California, I think,” said Ebony, “called Sacramento and my gang 'live' wherever they find shelter. We don't have a fixed spot. And they call themselves the Desert Snakes.”
“Desert Snakes?” Rosa raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah, weird name, huh?” Ebony rolled her eyes, “but it's the name that our leader chose.”
“Ooookaaayyy...” Rosa seemed to take this all in slowly, “Can you take me to where they are now?”
Ebony paused, considering what the implications would be if she brought this girl, who was the same age as she was, to her gang. What would they do?
“If you follow exactly what I tell you, I'll take you to them,” answered Ebony.
* * * * *
When she met the members of the Desert Snakes, Rosa felt a little scared, but then she noticed that the Viper girl was not afraid of these tuners. It seemed to her that they really cared about the 9-year-old Viper. Rosa concluded that Ebony was not anybody's child here, but she belonged to the whole gang. What a weird society she's been taken into. What would it be like if she were a tuner?
Rosa didn't know what modifications were until she saw some on the other members of the Desert Snakes. Some of them were pointy, curvy, had built-in sound systems, or some form of liquid sealed in a canister to help them go faster. Those were all the more common modifications.
“And who did you bring back this time, Ebony?” asked a rather mean-looking tuned Mercedes CLK. He had a pair of fire-bolts along his sides and a raised spoiler.
“Just a girl I found outside the city, Blaze,” answered Ebony, gazing unafraid up at the leader of the Desert Snakes, “Says her name's Rosa and that she has no parents.”
“Don't we all?” Blaze rolled his eyes, “Does she know how to take care of herself?”
“I dunno, but I can teach her,” replied Ebony, “She told me that she came all the way from Ohio. That's something, isn't it?”
“Yes, I suppose it is," nodded Blaze, “Alright, Ebony. If you can teach Rosa here the basics within a week, she can stay with us.”
“I won't let you down,” replied Ebony, bending her little antenna in a manner of a salute. She then turned to Rosa and nudged the little scarlet Probe, “See, you're going to be accepted by Blaze. Anything or anyone that he accepts, they're in. And if you just stick with me, I'll teach you the basics.”
“Okay,” nodded Rosa shyly, wondering just what Ebony was going to teach her.
* * * * *
Maybe it was the time she spent with the Desert Snakes, Rosa wasn't sure, but she knew that she was feeling much more comfortable and more at home than she had been at the orphanage. It's been years now and she was now a pretty, petite Ford Probe, scarlet in color.
Rosa had watched Ebony get her modifications first, which consisted of thornlike spikes on both sides of her front fenders as well as a triple pair of spikes that folded up inside a pair of side compartments on each side. Ebony had gotten a shogun wing and three NO2 canisters attached to her back. To Rosa, Ebony looked vicious.
As for herself, Rosa had focused more on the spikes. She had a row of them folded up within notches in her sides and there were four folded against her roof that were set firmly in a rack. These she could launch them at a target if she wanted to. Her side spikes were permanently wired into her own nerves and if one was ripped out, she would feel pain.
As she reasoned it, Rosa no longer wanted to be hurt, by anyone, and wanted to keep all at a distance, even Ebony, although the Viper didn't mind the spikes. She became withdrawn and moody as she was never able to express her feelings to anyone and now that she was in a gang, she didn't want the members to tease her, although Ebony prevented that from happening. Rosa never felt like she belonged anywhere, except with the Desert Snakes, whom she now called her “family”.
~~~~~
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN8mPXI4XXw
by EbonyViper
DISCLAIMER: Rosa, Ebony, Blaze, and the Desert Snakes belong to me. This is my submission for the project Evangeline started. Some names and relationships have been changed for legal reasons. Oh, and the song "Lithium" belongs to Evanescence, but I am using it for the purpose of this fic and that I think it describes Rosa's personality pretty well.
~~~~~
Somebody once told her that she was the reason that her parents were killed in that deadly road wreck a year ago and she believed it. She felt so alone and thought that nobody would listen to her if she said otherwise. Nobody cared about a six-year-old Ford Probe with chibi-like hazel eyes.
When they found her staring in disbelief at the wrecks that were once her parents, the authorities had thought it best to send her to an orphanage when no other relatives could be located. Nobody knew what to do when Roselyn Briar Swift had buried herself under her nightcover and cried for her mom and dad to come and take her away from this scary place.
“Poor girl,” said one of the orphanage staff, a pale green Nissan Skyline, “She doesn't yet understand that her parents aren't coming back.”
“I know,” agreed a light tan Plymouth Dart, "This child is too young to be really aware of the implications of death, especially in an accident, and it may be a while before she can truly deal with it."
"So it's your opinion that we should hold off talking about this with her until she's older?" asked the Skyline.
“Yes,” nodded the Dart.
The orphanage that Rosa spent the rest of her lonely existance at not a very friendly place. Every time prosprective foster parents came to inspect the children, it felt to them as if they were merchandise, put out for the customers' inspection. How awful that must have made them feel, especially Rosa. She felt that she wasn't good enough in their eyes. She withdrew further and further into herself, taking mental scars from each hurt, great or small, and weaving their calloused, disfigured tissue into barriers to keep herself safe and the rest of the world at bay, in fear of sustaining greater wounds. She was never kept long in a foster home for that reason and was always returned because the foster parents could not deal with her behavior or personality.
It was when she was about nine year old that Rosa decided that she had had enough of the orphanage and ran away. The night would be her cover to escape. When all the other children were asleep and the staff were busy elsewhere, the little Probe, having also feigned slumber, threw off her covers and stuffed some pillows beneath them to make it look as if she were still there. She then pulled out some sheets that she'd tied together in advance, and threw them out the open window.
Looping the sheet-rope around her front axle and using her antenna and windshield wipers to let let the sheets out, Rosa slowly eased herself down until her childlike tires touched the ground. She looked back up, wondering if anybody noticed her missing yet, but when she didn't see anyone's front sticking out of that window after a few minutes, the little Probe sighed with relief.
I'm not coming back here, ever, Rosa promised herself as she set off with only a few small items that she had packed away in her roofpack.
* * * * *
For the next half-week, Rosa hid during the daytime so that any cops wouldn't catch and take her back to that dreaded orphanage and traveled during the night only on small backroads where there was barely anybody except the occasional traveler or two, who never took notice of a small Probe such as herself. Why would they care about her? Nobody else cared and she preferred it that way.
“Hey, what are you doing here?” a new, childlike voice asked her, rousing Rosa from her dreams.
She looked up into the emerald green eyes of a young black Dodge Viper and seemed to freeze in place. This girl looked mean and could probably bully her whenever she felt like it. Rosa shrank down on her undercarriage to look as small as possible and to not provoke the Viper girl.
“N-nothing,” Rosa stammered, “I-I don't want to cause anything, really. Please leave me alone.”
“Why? Are ya running away from something?” asked the Viper girl.
“N-NO! I mean...” Rosa stammered, backing away from the girl that looked to be about the same age as she was. The Viper girl watched her curiously. What was wrong with this little Probe that made her so fearful of her?
“Are ya okay?” asked the Viper girl, tilting her front a little bit.
Rosa was quiet, not sure if she wanted to tell this complete stranger why she was running away in the first place. What would happen?
“I... don't know...” her voice wavered a bit, “b-but I don't want to get hurt.”
“Relax, I'm not gonna hurt ya,” said the Viper girl, “I'm just curious, that's all.”
“Y-you aren't going to hurt me?” asked Rosa, lifting up frightened eyes to the Viper girl.
The Viper girl shook her front, “Naw, I'm not that mean. I'm just wondering what a kid like you is doing all the way out here in California. Ya look like you're out-of-state, judging from your stance and your behavior.”
“I-I'm from Ohio,” stammered Rosa.
“Wow, that far?” asked the Viper girl, “It's a wonder ya made it all the way here and managed to survive. What's your name, kid?”
“Er... m-my name is Rosa,” the little Probe answered quietly.
“Rosa, eh? Nice name,” smiled the Viper girl, “Goes good with your paint job. My name's Ebony.”
The little Probe picked herself up and gazed at Ebony. “Where do you live, Ebony?”
“Nowhere,” shrugged the Viper girl, “I don't have a home to speak of, but I do have a gang that I live with. They're nice and they'd take care of you if you need someplace to sleep and need something to eat.”
“Really?” asked Rosa, “They'd do that? They won't send me back to that awful orphanage?”
“Orphanage? What's that?” asked Ebony, “I never heard of anything like that. How bad is it?”
“It's an awful place where children go when their parents don't want them anymore,” explained Rosa, her eyes downcast, “But I don't know why I was sent there. My parents loved me.”
“You had parents?” asked Ebony, looking curiously at Rosa, “I didn't have any parents. I just have myself to take care of.”
“That must be a hard life for you,” said Rosa, getting comfortable with talking to this girl named Ebony.
Ebony tilted her front, “I don't see it as a hard life, but an adventure. Everyday, I discover something interesting. Like you, for example.”
“That... is interesting,” said Rosa, “Ebony? Where does your gang uh... live? What do they call themselves?”
“It's a big city in California, I think,” said Ebony, “called Sacramento and my gang 'live' wherever they find shelter. We don't have a fixed spot. And they call themselves the Desert Snakes.”
“Desert Snakes?” Rosa raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah, weird name, huh?” Ebony rolled her eyes, “but it's the name that our leader chose.”
“Ooookaaayyy...” Rosa seemed to take this all in slowly, “Can you take me to where they are now?”
Ebony paused, considering what the implications would be if she brought this girl, who was the same age as she was, to her gang. What would they do?
“If you follow exactly what I tell you, I'll take you to them,” answered Ebony.
* * * * *
When she met the members of the Desert Snakes, Rosa felt a little scared, but then she noticed that the Viper girl was not afraid of these tuners. It seemed to her that they really cared about the 9-year-old Viper. Rosa concluded that Ebony was not anybody's child here, but she belonged to the whole gang. What a weird society she's been taken into. What would it be like if she were a tuner?
Rosa didn't know what modifications were until she saw some on the other members of the Desert Snakes. Some of them were pointy, curvy, had built-in sound systems, or some form of liquid sealed in a canister to help them go faster. Those were all the more common modifications.
“And who did you bring back this time, Ebony?” asked a rather mean-looking tuned Mercedes CLK. He had a pair of fire-bolts along his sides and a raised spoiler.
“Just a girl I found outside the city, Blaze,” answered Ebony, gazing unafraid up at the leader of the Desert Snakes, “Says her name's Rosa and that she has no parents.”
“Don't we all?” Blaze rolled his eyes, “Does she know how to take care of herself?”
“I dunno, but I can teach her,” replied Ebony, “She told me that she came all the way from Ohio. That's something, isn't it?”
“Yes, I suppose it is," nodded Blaze, “Alright, Ebony. If you can teach Rosa here the basics within a week, she can stay with us.”
“I won't let you down,” replied Ebony, bending her little antenna in a manner of a salute. She then turned to Rosa and nudged the little scarlet Probe, “See, you're going to be accepted by Blaze. Anything or anyone that he accepts, they're in. And if you just stick with me, I'll teach you the basics.”
“Okay,” nodded Rosa shyly, wondering just what Ebony was going to teach her.
* * * * *
Maybe it was the time she spent with the Desert Snakes, Rosa wasn't sure, but she knew that she was feeling much more comfortable and more at home than she had been at the orphanage. It's been years now and she was now a pretty, petite Ford Probe, scarlet in color.
Rosa had watched Ebony get her modifications first, which consisted of thornlike spikes on both sides of her front fenders as well as a triple pair of spikes that folded up inside a pair of side compartments on each side. Ebony had gotten a shogun wing and three NO2 canisters attached to her back. To Rosa, Ebony looked vicious.
As for herself, Rosa had focused more on the spikes. She had a row of them folded up within notches in her sides and there were four folded against her roof that were set firmly in a rack. These she could launch them at a target if she wanted to. Her side spikes were permanently wired into her own nerves and if one was ripped out, she would feel pain.
As she reasoned it, Rosa no longer wanted to be hurt, by anyone, and wanted to keep all at a distance, even Ebony, although the Viper didn't mind the spikes. She became withdrawn and moody as she was never able to express her feelings to anyone and now that she was in a gang, she didn't want the members to tease her, although Ebony prevented that from happening. Rosa never felt like she belonged anywhere, except with the Desert Snakes, whom she now called her “family”.
~~~~~
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN8mPXI4XXw
