Blaise hissed as he was shocked by his newest invention in the making. He tinkered with it a bit more before he was rudely interrupted by his Godfather, Isaac. Isaac walked in long strides and set down a bag of delectable smelling donuts. When Blaise outstretched a hand, not raising his eyes to look at him, Isaac moved the bag out of his reach forcing the boy to tear his eyes from his invention.
"Take a break from tinkering for a minute and come sit and eat with me."
Sighing Blaise put his tools down and shuffled his way over to the only table that wasn't covered in nuts and bolts or food wrappers. Once he sat down Isaac pushed the bag over to him and Blaise happily stuck a hand inside and pulled out two donuts, not realizing that his stomach was aching from hunger. Before he knew it both donuts had vanished to the inside of his stomach and he was hastily grabbing two more. This made Isaac chuckle as he pecked at his own donut.
"What are you working on this time?"
"It's going to be a dog sized metal spider, he'll follow me around and help me around the workshop by handing me things and welding things for me. It'll make things go more smoothly and faster."
"So you're officially creating your own friends? That's... rather sad, Blaise."
"It's not sad! What's wrong with having a spider buddy?"
"It's not alive."
"He is to me!"
Isaac sighed heavily, he looked at Blaise narrowly.
"You can't just stayed cooped up in here all day everyday without any kind of contact with the real world."
"Watch me."
With that Blaise finished his other two donuts, grabbed one more, placing it in his mouth and returned to his workbench. Isaac followed after him, placing a strong yet gentle hand on the boy's shoulder.
"Look, I know you don't get on well with others but that doesn't mean you should shut the world out. You're missing out on so much already, you don't go to school-"
"I graduated already, what do I need to go to school for?"
Isaac continued, clicking his tongue at Blaise's interruption.
"You don't have any friends-"
"I have you."
Isaac sat down next to Blaise, moving his partially made spider out of the way gently. He moved Blaise's chin to face him.
"And as long as I'm alive you will always have me, but isn't it lonely just having me? Isn't that why you're making him?"
Isaac gestured towards the metal spider.
"I think that even if you're unwilling to admit it, subconsciously you are lonely. I can see it, and I don't want to see it. I want to see you smiling, laughing, connecting with others, falling in love, I want to see you happy Blaise."
Blaise looked away from Isaac, finding the design of the wood floor suddenly quite intriguing. He whispered as he fidgeted with his leather gloves.
"I can't connect with others... if I go out there it'll be just like school."
"Just because you couldn't connect with those asshole kids doesn't mean you can't connect with others. You just need to find those people you can connect with. But you'll never find them stuck in here, messing with your machines."
Blaise pursed his lips, staying silent.
"I'm not saying you have to do it all at once, all I'm asking is for today please, please just go outside. Feel the sun on your skin, the wind in your hair, it'll be good for you. Go down to the market, get a snack, a new shirt, just get out of this dark, cramped room. Please?"
"Okay."
Blaise risked a glance at Isaac and found a sincere smile forming on Isaac's lips.
"Thank you, now I'd better get to work. Have a good day, and remember go outside."
"Alright, alright."
Blaise rolled his eyes and moved his spider back, attaching another leg to the body and immediately getting shocked. He placed all eight of the legs on the spider and pressed the button on it's underbelly and it sprang to life. It moved around taking in the room and then it's glowing red eyes landed on Blaise. Blaise grinned widely and waved.
"Hi, I'm Blaise, I made you and this is your new home."
The spider nodded, which was more of a up and down motion with it's entire body. Blaise brought his thumb to his lips and chewed on the nail as he thought.
"I'll have to come up with a name for you... How about Ren?"
The spider nodded again.
"Alright then, Ren. Would you like to go to the market with me? My Godfather is highly recommending I go, so shall we?"
Another nod as the spider climbed down the workbench and to the floor, he then skittered to the door waiting patiently for Blaise to follow. Blaise followed after him and the spider skittered off, taking the lead, stopping at the doors patiently waiting for Blaise to open them. Blaise threw on his boots and jacket real quick before making his way to front door. Once Blaise opened the front door light flooded into the blocked out room.
Squinting and holding his hand up to shield his eyes from the harsh light of the sun Blaise looked at the outside of his house for the first time in weeks. The lawn was unkept and overgrown, the vegetation was slowly but surely taking over the house, long green vines climbed up the walls and the porch chairs. Weeds stuck out of the cracked concrete and the grass was so tall it was like moving through a small jungle. Blaise followed after the metal spider, it's sleek golden body being easy to spot in the glittering sunlight.
"Hold up, I think I'd better lead now. You don't know where the market is yet after all."
The spider adhered to his instructions and walked alongside him. Eventually the duo ran into the living, and no the mechanical kind. People stared at him wearily, muttering just loud enough for Blaise to hear.
"That's the Valravn boy."
"He isn't dead? Nobody's seen him in weeks, months even! Has he come back out to cause more trouble?"
"Careful not to get too close, the last person to get close to a Valravn lost two limbs."
"What's the mad inventor's son doing here? Why couldn't he just stay in that hole of his?"
"I hear he's making more of those inventions. Hasn't he learned from father's mistakes?! The last one blew up in his own face, taking out half the village with him."
Blaise pulled his hood up over his head and stuffed his hands into his pockets, his head going down as he tried to physically dodge their whispers as if that would make them go away. He was doing this for Isaac, he promised Isaac he would leave the house, so to prove he actually did it he was just going to buy a random thing and then go back to the comfort of his home. Blaise repeated the plan in his head as he approached a stall and pulled out some gold coins and grabbed an apple. The stall owner's eyes narrowed and he threw the gold back in Blaise's face.
"I don't want you around here messing things up, leave boy. You're bad for business."
"I just want an apple and then I'll go."
"Take it and leave quickly, go now!"
Blaise frowned, shoved the apple in his pocket and booked it. He ran towards his house as fast as his malnutrition body could take him, until he was cut off. A group of men blocked his path and before Blaise could turn on his heel and hightail it out of there the men surrounded him. Their faces were twisted in pure rage, one of the men threw rotten fruit at Blaise, making Blaise flinch as it splattered against his jacket. They closed in on him as they spit out their insults.
"How dare you show your face, Valravn! After what your father did to this village, to our families! And what has your family done to pay for all the damage they've caused? Nothing! Not a single fucking thing!"
More rotten food was thrown at Blaise as he dropped to his knees and cradled himself, trying his best to protect his vital points as they kicked and stomped on him.
"We ought to kill you for what you've done! Get some payback for your father's accident!"
The man scoffed.
"That's what the papers call it, a tragedy, an accident, I call it murder! And even after everything your family's done the mayor still let's you tinker away in there until you blow up the other half of the village."
Ren managed to climb onto one of them, freaking him out and causing him to run around trying to rip the metal spider off of his head. Unfortunately the spider was not made to fight people so it was quickly grabbed by all the men.
"One of your worthless inventions I take it?"
Blaise started tuning out their voices, his vision blurry with tears as he watched them tear Ren apart, throwing his pieces in random directions. He struggled to his feet long enough to snatch Ren before dropping to the ground again, clutching what was left of the spider to his chest with every ounce of strength he had as they kicked and stomped to their hearts content.
Finally after what felt like an eternity they left, spitting on him as they moved on. Blaise didn't find the strength to move for a while, his body ached as he stumbled to his feet, gasping for breath like a fish out of water. His sides were screaming in pain, the world was spinning most likely from a concussion, not to mention blurry from the blood dripping down into his left eye.
He couldn't manage to hobble his way home, his body protesting too much for him to ignore, so instead he fell against a tree and laid there underneath the shade. He coughed, which was a terrible mistake as it made his entire body erupt in fiery pain. He placed Ren in his lap as he assessed the damage. Blaise saw the dullest, faintest red light blink from Ren's right eye and he smiled, petting the spider gently.
"I'm sorry, I should have never left the house. I knew this would happen. Connect with others... I was never going to be able to do that."
Blaise slumped against the tree, letting his eyes drift close. He dreamed of a beautiful girl with long golden hair which was currently braided out of the way down her back with sun-kissed skin. She wore a golden circlet on her forehead, her eyes were currently closed and she was sleeping soundly. She was in golden armor, a sword in one hand and a shield in the other, with a long crimson cape embroidered in gold was a dragon. But the most interesting and by far the most beautiful thing about the girl were her long elegant silver wings, that were currently resting in a set position as she slept. Even so Blaise imagined they had to be at least fifteen, twenty feet long.
His dream self approached the girl, she was currently incased in glass like she was an artifact on display. His palm pressed against the glass of her case and Blaise gasped, jumping back. It felt so... real. Like he was actually touching the glass, like he was actually there. But that's impossible, Blaise thought as he looked around the temple they both were currently in. He didn't recognize this place, nothing about it looked familiar so that must mean that if she did exist she was nowhere near where he was.
He turned back to her and looked down to find a solid gold plaque, written on it was the words The Hero of the light, Cordelia. His eyes looked back up to the girl as he whispered.
"Cordelia?"
Suddenly he was yanked out of his dream by Isaac, who was currently shaking him awake.
"Blaise? Blaise! What happened?! Did someone in the town do this?! I'll have them whipped-"
Blaise put a hand on the older man's shoulder and shook his head.
"Just help me home please."
Isaac looked down sorrowfully at Blaise, his golden eyes looking in-between Blaise's honey colored ones. He then breathed out through his nose as he wrapped one of Blaise's arms around his neck and pulled him up and helped him back to the house.