Who's ready to actually get to spend some time with Heisenberg lol XD sorry, it took so long but I felt like the first two chapters were kinda necessary for building up the how and why. I won't keep you though, hope you enjoy this update.
Song suggestion: Two Birds by Regina Spektor
Disclaimer: I own nothing, Resident Evil and its characters belong to CapCom. plz don't sue X'D
"Thank you for you're insightful contributions. I look forward to seeing further progress." Miranda says before closing the laptop and nudging it across the table to Charlotte for her to take. The young woman does so and puts it back into her backpack before closing it and shouldering the bag.
"Stand by Moreau, when we're finished with the rest of the meeting you'll depart with Heisenberg," Miranda says with a wave of her hand to gesture for Charlotte to go. She nods and picks up the small side table and carrying that over with her. The woman said stand though so stand she did. Miranda brought up a few other smaller matters at the gathering of the lord and listened to their requests. Dimitrescu wanted a new maid since one of her current maids offended her and was sent to the dungeon as punishment, Beneviento wanted more fabric and thread, Heisenberg requests more bodies and Moreau is silent. The crow-winged woman agrees to grant each request before dismissing them.
Charlotte frowns slightly as Heisenberg gets up and casually walks over with his hammer resting over his shoulder as usual. "Well then Scarlet, ready for a little trip?"
"Charlotte." She corrects as she starts walking towards the door alongside him.
"Harlot whatever," Heisenberg replies as they walk "Doesn't matter."
She could feel her eye twitch slightly, Lord above he was insufferable. She reminded quietly after this for some time before he spoke again.
"What, are you not going to correct that one?" He asks "Suppose that makes sense, the super-sized bitch did say you weren't 'pure' anymore. Always figured women wearing pants would be nothin' but trouble." he adds as further taunting.
She wanted to shut him up she wanted to scream at him and knock him down a peg, it would have been so freaking easy if she was anywhere else but here, in this stupid situation with a megalomaniac that could knock her into next Tuesday. Who was she kidding. She was already having trouble focusing due to how tired she was from starving for the last 3 weeks. A strong breeze felt like it would be enough to knock her down.
The two make their way into the village in silence. again she could hear the whispers of the villagers as she was accompanied by another lord.
'Who is she?' 'I'm not sure, Mother Miranda has been quiet.' 'Perhaps we should pray' 'Yes, let's do that'
The two eventually approach one of the houses and a homely woman dressed in black walks out. "Luiza," Heisenberg says as he stops.
"Lord Heisenberg, to what do we owe the honor of your visit," the woman says and courtesies.
"We need to use that truck of yours for a few days," Heisenberg explains and the woman nods.
"I'll have my husband bring it around for you." she agrees before heading back inside. Before long a man pulls around a truck covered in red rust with no passenger-side door. She was so close to freedom and she was going to die in a rusting metal death trap. it doesn't even have seat belts. it didn't have windows...
"We'll be back," Heisenberg says putting his hammer in the bed of the truck as he takes the driver's seat. Charlotte slides in places her backpack at her feet as she takes the passenger seat.
"We'll pray for your safe return Lord Heisenberg," says the man who drove the car around and Heisenberg waves it off before starting to drive away. down the bumpy dirt road, through the village, down a few winding roads, cruising at a comfortable 15 miles an hour. with the next closet town being 50 miles away in a straight line... this was going to take them at least 4 hours. maybe 5 hours since 15mph seemed to be their top speed.
"So, where are we heading Harlot," Heisenberg asks causing Charlotte to sneer at the continued use of the derogatory nickname.
"Let me get my map." She says as she starts digging through her bag, luckily she marked the general location of the village before.
"So, you only have an attitude when Miranda is around to protect you," he says smugly "figures."
oh for the love of all that was holy. "You're not worth it," Charlotte says quietly, allowing some attitude to slip which causes him to pause.
"You wanna try saying that again?" Heisenberg asks as he glances over to her with a neutral expression.
Charlotte could feel something in her snap as she closed the map. "I said you're not worth it. You obstinant insufferable self-important megalomaniac. You're not worth the air it takes to correct. You might call me a Harlot but I'm not the one overcompensating by constantly carrying around a giant hammer! I just want to get out of this place and go anywhere else where there is food. I have had nothing to eat for 3 weeks besides a hand full of raisins and some disgusting molding cheese! So if you're going to fucking kill me just do it." she says as her nerves finally got the better of her rational judgment.
Heisenberg smiles at this as he takes out a cigar from his seemingly endless supply in his coat pocket and listens to the rampage he caused with amusement. "There the fire," he says as the rolled plant mixture starts to smolder. "I'm not going to kill you. Yet." Heisenberg says as his amused smile pulls to a smirk. "You're going to help me." he replies before putting the cigar into his mouth as he takes his hands off the wheel and uses his powers to control the direction of the slow-moving vehicle.
The fact he wasn't mad was honestly infuriating in its own right but his reaction made her curious. "Why should I?" Charlotte asks as she looks at him skeptically. she had no reason to trust him, this could easily be a trap.
"That's cute that you think you have a choice," Heisenberg says with a short laugh but plays along with her question. "Because, If you don't I will kill you. All I have to do is put a spike through your head and tell mother dearest" he pauses to spit out the window as if the words offended his sense of taste "that you tried to run away. Take over where you left off and keep this ruse going. I'd do that now if it weren't for the fact I believe in being courteous in making a deal."
Okay. Point received. "Help you with what?" Charlotte replies cautiously.
"You think you're the only one that wants to get away from that Shithole?" Heisenberg replies which definitely got her attention. "3 weeks of starvation and you still pulled off that little stunt of yours back at the church. You're clever, I'll give you that." The man says still reveling in his luck. "So, This is how things are going to go from now on. Every month you're going to conveniently need more supplies," Heisenberg says as he continues to occasionally take a puff of the cigar. "I'll be going with you each time and you are going to help me get the supplies I need for my army."
That- "Your army?" she asks surprised which causes Heisenberg to smirk.
"You and me. We're not that different," he says which causes a disgusted expression to cross her face. They were most certainly different. "We both want freedom and we'll do whatever it takes to get it. You've got fight in you and I can tell your poking around wasn't at random. that whole Spiel. 'mother please if I may' Garbage. Everything down to working with that fish-faced pimple that was calculated. You've done the math, no one is getting out of here while Miranda is still in charge."
If this was a trap it was a darn good one... Charlotte gives a slight nod. That's about where her observations over the last few weeks led her.
"If we work together we might get what we want." Heisenberg continues to speak "It's like you said. Quality begets quality and if I'm going to take down Miranda I need only the best of supplies not the hunk of scraps that get tossed into my yard. and you know more about the outside world and where to find them." Heisenberg says as he sits to sit in front of the wheel properly again and takes the wheel. "so I'll ask you again, where are we going." he gives a slight pause "Charlotte."
His question seemed different before, he was asking for directions but his expression seemed to suggest he was also asking 'what's the plan'.
"We need to get to the main road and head west..." Charlotte says as she goes back to looking at her map. "From there we need to find a place that sells food, something sit in. They'll have electrical outlets so I'll be able to charge my phone. With my phone charged I can get us into town quicker and find a place to sleep for the night. by my calculations, with the stop, we'll be arriving around 7 PM at our current speed assuming we left at true noon."
Heisenberg listens as she explains what is needed. "How is a phone going to get us to town faster?"
"I'll be able to bring up a road map and have the GPS give us directions."
"You're speaking in jibberish kid," Heisenberg says curtly with a sight frown.
"GPS... Global Positioning System? it's a satellite system that tracks two locations. a stationary address and a signal beacon which it directs to that stationary address using known roadways." She explains hesitantly, he had to be pulling her leg.
"No shit?" Heisenberg asks as if that was some sort of surprising revelation.
"How old are you?" Charlotte asks confused. The concept of GPS had existed since before she was born even if it wasn't exactly publically accessible. he didn't look that much older than her.
"What year is it?" Heisenberg asks causing her to stare at him with concern.
"2019" she replies, how did he not know what year it was?
"...almost 100" he replies casually.
"you're kidding me," She replies shocked. I mean sure he looked older than her but only by 15 years not 70.
"The benefit of Miranda's 'Gift'," he says with a note of disgust. "The only way for me to die is to be put out of my misery and even then that's not an easy task. Trust me plenty have tried."
"Oh gosh, this just got more difficult..." Charlotte says as she moves to pinch the brow of her nose. "Okay so we're going to have to set some ground rules so you don't stand out like a sore thumb," She says as the two finally end up on the main road after a bit of a bumpy ride over the curb.
"You don't get to tell me what to do sweetheart, I don't care what Miranda told you," Heisenberg says clearly irritated as he uses his ability to pull a sharp chunk from his hammer, bring it around and point it at her neck. As this was done his eyes never left the road. "I tolerated your outburst before since I was trying to cause it but don't get the wrong idea and get cocky. I'm not taking shit from you."
"You really think Miranda is going to let us keep leave for supplies if we cause an uproar the first time we were gone?" She counters "I'm not saying this for my health when I say you will get us both in trouble if you don't listen to me."
Heisenberg lets out an irritated sigh. she made a decent point and he hated that. "You're pretty difficult to shake up... It's fucking annoying," he says quietly as he puts the metal chuck back.
"Well you know what they say, you have to sell your soul for a degree. Particularly if you're going to work in business." Charlotte says with a tired sigh before speaking under her breathe. "An investors meeting isn't too different from staring down death too..." they're both stressful and you can't break and show emotion to either.
"You, went to college?" he asks with notable amused disbelief.
"Masters in Economics and multiple licenses for investment management," She replies with an air of pride in her work.
"Bull shit a woman has a master's degree in anything," Heisenberg replies with a short laugh as if what she said was a joke.
"God you really are 100 years old," Charlotte says clearly offended. "Believe it or not it's actually extremely common now. You need a bachelor's degree to get a job anywhere at least."
That caused him to pause. "What are the ground rules then," Heisenberg asks with a half-hearted tone. he'd see if he'd entertain the idea.
"First, you need to understand that every person in the world has a phone in their pocket. Phones are very different from what you might be used to. It's basically a computer that fits in your pocket with a camera built-in and can let anyone record video and share it. anywhere you go, assume you are being watched." Charlotte explains Hoping to drive home the point for what she was about to say next. "That means no metal powers anywhere outside of whatever room we find to sleep in. If someone records you doing that it could be seen anywhere in the world in a matter of seconds."
"that's possible?" he asks more amazed than anything. she already explained this GPS thing and even that sounded farfetched to him.
"I can prove it once I get my phone charged." Charlotte offers as they continue to very slowly make their way down the road.
"You're going to need a change of clothes, no one dresses like that anymore," Charlotte says "Unless you'd rather just go with the Crazy grandpa with dementia option."
"Fuck off," Heisenberg says with an irritated tone.
"Figured as much," she replies as she allows herself a slight smile. As much as he was an ass, she couldn't deny that watching someone discover the modern world for the first time was an impossibly rare treat.
"How long has it been? You know, since you last got to leave the village?" She asks as she afforded herself the option to look over at him.
Heisenberg makes a soft clicking sound with his tongue while he thinks that over. "70 years and some change."
They'd made a bit of a forced alliance but, offering an olive branch couldn't hurt. "Gathering supplies won't take a full two days... If we're going to be almost free. Is there anything you want to do?" She hesitantly asks before smilingto herself. "I won't tattle on you to 'mother'."
"We're working, this ain't a pleasure cruise," Heisenberg replies causing Charlotte to shrug. she offered so that was enough for her.
"Last thing I can think of as a fair warning, most places don't allow smoking indoors since those things cause cancer even if you're not the one smoking it." She says in a bland tone.
"...Anyone ever tell you you're a killjoy?" Heisenberg asks with a frown as he snuffs out the cigar on the side of the truck and tosses the small nub that remained.
"Constantly" She replies with no hesitation which causes a short huff of a chuckle to pass Heisenberg's lips.
The two traveled the rest of the way in silence. it took an hour but they eventually passed a gas station with a Mcdonald's next to it.
"There!" Charlotte points to the restaurant. "oh thank the stars. I'd kill a man for a burger." she says with a dreamy expression as she could smell the food already.
"That could be arranged." He says with an amused tone. "You really are an American."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Charlotte asks with a frown.
"Only an American would blindly walk into a house and start telling people what to do," Heisenberg explains as his amused tone remains. "you won the lottery by walking into a house of murderers too."
Charlotte rolls her eyes at that and the two eventually park. As she gets out she notices Heisenberg reach into the bed of the truck for his hammer. "You don't need the hammer it's a McDonald's. We're trying not to stand out."
"Bitch," he grumbles as he leaves it in the truck and starts heading inside.
"I heard that," Charlotte says as she follows behind him.
"I know," Heisenberg replies flatly.
The two walk in and luckily there wasn't a line, the place was mostly empty since the lunch rush had passed.
"Welcome to McDonald's, are you ready to order?" asked a tired teenager who did not get paid enough to deal with what appeared to be a WW2 reenactor that just left the field and friend who went with them. they smelled like it too.
Oh lordy was she ready "I'll have the two cheeseburger meal with a large fry and coke. I'll also have a McChicken with no mayo and a Sundae." Fooooood. "Do you want anything?" She asks looking over to Heisenberg. no response.
"Heisenberg?" she asks and he looks around a bit. oh dear, she broke him already.
"Let's go with a Big Mac meal and a coke as well and call that good," She says and the employee nods before adding it up.
"That will be 75.99 Lei," the worker says and Charlotte put down her bag to fish out her wallet to pay for the food. "Thank you, we'll bring your food out when it's ready."
"Thanks," She replies before looking to Heisenberg again and motioning for him to follow her. he eventually does so as she sits down at a booth that had an outlet and digs out her phone and charger to get that started.
Time to full charge 1hr 6min
With how slowly they were moving they'd need the full charge for the GPS. "We'll be here for about an hour," Charlotte says before cautiously looking back to the man sitting across from her who was once more looking back at the counter where the workers were busy putting together the order. "are you okay?" she finally asks.
"They have a tiny color cinema up there... didn't think anyone outside of Hollywood would ever afford color recording. How is it looping like that?" He asks as he's trying to figure out how the digital screen worked.
God Damn it bleeding heart stop it. You are not going to start feeling sympathetic for this jerkwad. "That's pretty normal now. it's connected to a computer?"
"Huh," he says quietly under his breath. "We figured out how to make them that compact?" A smile startedto form as ideas filled his mind. "You are going to afford me, an amazing army," he says as his smile grows. if technology advanced this much, imagine what he could do with it.
"Don't get too deep into a daydream this stuff still gets pricy and I'm not made of money," She says shaking her head as the worker drops off two trays of food. Charlotte smiles as the smell was practically intoxicating. she thanked the worker before quickly snatching up one of the paper-wrapped sandwiches and taking a bite than another and another each one a bit bigger than the last. She was so hungry.
It was cheap food and not even that good but to her, it tasted like the most amazing thing that had ever been made. She could feel her eyes start to sting as tears threatened to fall. keep it together girl. keep it together.
"You're eating too quickly Piglet," Heisenberg warns before poking at the food she'd ordered for him and avoided watching her stuff her face. It was honestly a kinda gross display but he couldn't say he blamed her completely if she really didn't eat for that long. He takes a sip of the drink and makes a bit of a face. he wasn't sure what that was but it wasn't coca-cola. At least not how he remembered it tasting. he shook his head and focused on eating the food.
Charlotte moves to wipe her eyes with the palm of her hand and slows down a bit with her eating. one burger down, some fries, another burger down, a few more fries, the chicken sandwich then the sundae with the last of the fries. The two ate in silence and Charlotte managed to keep some semblance of control over the salty waterworks.
Ding! 100% charged finally appeared on the screen.
"There," she was cut off by a hiccup but she cleared her throat and tried again. "There we go." She says and powers on the device. "We can head out now." She adds as she packs up her bag.
"About damn time," Heisenberg says as he gets up as well. the two walk out and go back to the car, a quick stop by the gas pump later, afforded by Charlotte's credit card, and they were ready to head out again. the man got back into the driver's side and watched as Charlotte poked at the small device Which the screen seemed to be reacting to. "How are you doing that." He asks as he leans a bit to get a better look at the tiny thing. That was a phone?
The question caused Charlotte to stop and look over while trying to suppress a smile. This was going to be the fun part. "It's a touch screen. Most phone's nowadays are really just tiny computers and the majority have a touch screen." she stopped what she was doing to demonstrate the power of the 'future'. "so if I do this then. boop there we go we're now connected to the internet."
"the inter-what"
"The internet. A massive global digital connection for sharing data and information," she says with a smile. "Maybe these trips are a good thing. You're going to need someone to get you caught up and ready for freedom."
"That's... incredible," he says genuinely stunned, he really had been out of it...
"That's not even half of it," Charlotte says smiling genuinely for the first time in a while.
"Not sure how it could get more advanced than a tiny square with access to a world database of knowledge kid." Heisenberg points out.
"It talks," she says with a smile.
"Fuck off now you're messing with me," Heisenberg replies and glares at her, thinking she's pulling his leg.
Charlotte presses and holds the home button of her phone. "Hi Bixby, what is 154 times 7,892?"
"154 times 7,892 is 1,215,368" the phone answers which causes Heisenberg to stare at it with renewed interest and curiosity.
Charlotte's smile grows to a grin from his reaction. "Bixby, Where's the nearest Hotel? I'm tired." she knew it wouldn't care about that last statement but a bit of showmanship never hurt.
"The nearest hotel is 39 miles away." the phone says as it pulls up a map that shows a picture of a cheap-looking motel.
"Thank you Bixby," Charlotte says just because she knows it has a pre-set response.
"I help with what I can." The phone replies before going back to the map. again Charlotte clicks around at the phone and confirms that the motel is in the right direction before clicking to enter the webpage for it. She digs out her card again and after a few minutes, she nods. "And there. We have a reservation."
"Give me that," Heisenberg says as he snatches the phone and looks it over. "It does what you tell it to?"
"It's an artificial intelligence system. A.I. for short. Most newer phones have an A.I. built into them." Charlotte explains. This was kinda the meat of it unless she wanted to get into Virtual reality, but he definitely wasn't ready for that.
"Where did they fit it?" Heisenberg asks as the concept of the device was kinda messing with everything he ever knew about engineering and he was an engineer!
Charlotte shakes her head "I'll need that to get the map up, at this rate, it's going to be dark before we get there." it had taken longer than she expected for them to get away from the village then find a gas station so it was already 4 pm. maybe 3 more hours of driving to go.
"Fine," He says begrudgingly and hands the device back and starts up the truck. Charlotte gets the map up.
"In 300 ft take a right" the phone announces.
"Fucking technology bullshit," Heisenberg grumbles but listens as the devices give him directions. Just as she feared it took another 3 hours of painful silence to get to the Motel. Checking in was easy enough and before long the two were settled into a room with two twin-size beds. Again Charlotte just about cried as she joyfully took a shower. Upon walking out in a clean set of clothes she found Heisenberg messing with the tv remote and flipping through channels. He picked things up pretty quickly.
"Huh, I'm surprised you have anything clean after spending so long with the walking ooze," Heisenberg says as he returns to his usual snide comments.
"I didn't exactly have the luxury of privacy to change," Charlotte replied with a frown.
"What's the matter, don't wanna give the fish freak a free peep show," Heisenberg asks amused as he tilts his head forward enough to look over the top of his glasses. "He probably didn't set up a partition when he realized this was his best chance at seeing tits."
"Are you done?" She asks with a disgusted tone.
"Not even close," He says with a wolfish smile.
"You're disgusting," She says shaking her head as she gathers up her dirty clothes from the bathroom before leaving the room to walk down the hall and dropped them off at the front desk for them to be washed. She eventually gets back to find that even with the keycard chiming that the door was unlocked, the door wouldn't budge... locks were made of meta-
"God damn it..." she grumbled to herself before banging her fist against the door. This pissy ass manbaby. "Heisenberg open the door."
"What was that? Can't hear you, sweetheart. Must be all the disgusting filth stuck in my ears from your piss attitude, you'll have to speak a little louder?" He replies, she could hear him smiling as he spoke.
Charlotte narrowed her eyes to a squint and glared at the door. They both needed each other for each of their plans to work, they knew that at this point but it didn't mean either of them liked it. "Heisenberg you wonderful benevolent master of alloys will you please open this god damn fucking door," Her voice started out sweet and singsongy but grew more agitated as she spoke.
"Thought you'd never ask," Heisenberg says as he leans in the doorway. Charlotte's expression remains unamused as she waits for him to get out of the way before entering the room and crawling into her bed fall asleep in a matter of minutes.
The morning dawned on their day of shopping. there was a lot to do. Charlotte picked up her now clean clothes, the two had a quick breakfast, and got to work. by 10 they managed to make it into the main town and to the shopping district. Getting Heisenberg a few sets of modern clothing went relatively uneventfully as he ended up with a few different plain Henley cut shirts, 2 short sleeve and 1 long sleeve, a pair of olive drab cargo pants, two pairs of jeans, and some work boots. He changed into the off-white short-sleeve shirt, cargo pants, and new boots and kept his glasses on but packed the rest of it away in the plastic shopping bag.
"Alright, you at least look like you're in the right century now," She says as they get back into the rust bucket and she puts in the next location. "next we need to go to the hardware store, If my plan is going to work I'm going to need to fix things up and start making the villager's lives better and quickly."
"What are you scheming," Heisenberg asks as he follows the phone's instructions to make their way to the hardware store.
"How familiar are you with the American revolution?" she asks with a raised eyebrow.
"barely" he replies with a shrug.
"Long story short, people got used to a cushy happy lifestyle and when that was taken away they revolted." Charlotte explains before smiling, "So, the plan is to do my job, make the villagers lives as cushy as possible. Eventually, when Miranda gets tired of waiting or realizes that the changes are leading to free-thinking and tries to undo everything as quickly as possible" Charlotte snaps "all I have to do is fire the first shot and I have a village ready to act as a mob. I just have to get them to realize that their lives could be better."
"It's a cute little plan but, that's not going to be enough," Heisenberg replies as he keeps driving.
"a hundred people all armed with guns verse one person, isn't going to be enough?" Charlotte asks as her shoulders drop.
"One hundred mortals verse an immortal? Definitely not," Heisenberg points out. "Focus on my army instead, get me healthy test subjects and we'll be free much faster."
It annoyed her but, he had a point, "Fine." She was still going to try.
The two eventually made it to the hardware store and started walking around. Charlotte put in an order for a quarter pallet of two-by-fours picked up a decent number of hammers, screwdrivers, nails and screws. Heisenberg added more bolts screws and nails after that as he more or less ignored her request to not use his powers and put the boxes into the cart. a trip through the power tools section was like bringing a starving child into a candy store. different saw blades, drills, drill bits, and the like were all added to the cart causing Charlotte to wince slightly at the price but. Hey, she was a walking dead woman with a credit card and a decently healthy savings account. if she didn't have that much she certainly wouldn't have been able to afford 2 months in Europe. Even then, she'd have to figure out income...
"Hello," Heisenberg says as he walks over to a display of chainsaws, smiling from ear to ear. "I'll take 5 of these."
"What on earth are you going to do with that many chainsaws?" She asks concerned, I mean sure he was building an army but how were chainsaws better than 100 people with GUNS.
"Oh that's just to start," Heisenberg says as he starts adding them to the cart.
"she's going to notice" Charlotte points out.
"Not if we stop at the factory first, trust me I've been getting away with far worse without her noticing." Heisenberg counters and nods at the overfilled cart.
She did not want to know what that meant... "Fine but I'm cutting you off for now, I still need to get the rest of the stuff I promised or she'll catch on."
Heisenberg grumbles a few insults under his breath but doesn't put up much else of a fight. He did need her to be able to keep making these trips, and she was better equipped to navigate a modern world that he knew nothing about.
The truck was mostly full of lumber at this point and now moved slower thanks to the extra weight but after a bite for lunch, they made it to the next location, the Cora supercenter that she saw on the map before when trying to figure out where the village was.
"We're going to need two carts," Charlotte says as she gets out two and nudges one towards Heisenberg.
"Guess you're making two trips then," he says nudging it back.
"If I take two trips then you have to spend more time in the store with me because we have to wait through lines twice." She points out causing him to sneer.
"a bunch of bullshit, you can recreate a consciousness with technology but you couldn't figure out a better shopping system?" he grumbles as he takes the cart and follows behind Charlotte. she wasn't sure what her own food situation was going to be like for the next month so she added some dry goods for her to eat. lots of ramen, instant oatmeal, and grits. maybe with some luck she'd be able to convince Moreau to let her use that wood stove of his. A quick trip to the camping section and a sleeping bag was added along with a water purification system. she was going to be a stickler on clean drinking water. she needed that much at least. From there a walkthrough HomeGoods added a pillow for her to rest her head on instead of her backpack along with a shower rod and curtain to work as a privacy wall.
"I don't know much about the other lords... I said I'd improve everyone's quality of living." She says as they walk around. Heisenberg shakes his head but obliges the unspoken request for information. she did buy the chainsaws after all.
"Donna likes sewing and the mega-bitch has 3 daughters. They're all the stuck up sort though and care about appearances and nobility"
"Okay, sewing machine and cloth for Donna" She says as they enter the craft section of the store. 3 bolts of fabric and a machine were added to the cart. "and skincare products for 4." She says as she makes her way to the health section of the store and adds various cremes and bougie skin products to the cart.
she continues down the path and adds Period supplies, birth control pills, pregnancy tests, and the like to the cart in spade and a various assortment of condoms.
"you planning on fucking the fish freak or something?" Heisenberg asks disgusted by the thought. "you're into some kinky shit."
"No, I told Miranda I'd work on the declining population." She said which confused him.
"so you're giving them supplies to prevent reproduction," he says unimpressed. maybe she was an idiot.
"No, I'm giving than supplies so they can be healthy and feel like they have a choice," She says as she moves on to add various bars of soap and first aid supplies to the cart. Medicine for anything she could get without having to have a prescription. "It's basic social economics, people that don't feel safe don't bring more people into the world. It's going to take some work but I think I can turn this around and revive the place."
Heisenberg watches as the cart starts to become full. "...you're actually trying to help them," he says as if that possibility never occurred to him.
"Of course I'm actually trying to help them, could you imagine having to live like that? You at least have your factory and Miranda's favor," She says with a mixture of sympathy and pity.
"I did live like that." He corrects with a slight frown as he looks to her in warning to let her know to choose her next words carefully. "Believe it or not I was actually a villager before Miranda went and stripped away my dignity. came back from the trenches half-dead and full of shrapnel so she made me her next project."
Alright. that one was on her... "Sorry." She replies quietly.
"Fuck off, I don't need your pity. Just get the rest of your shit so we can go," Heisenberg grumbles and Charlotte quietly nods.
the final leg of the trip was to the electronics section. she wasn't sure how well equipped the different locations were as far as electricity goes but, Moreau seemed to at least have a single outlet. it was on his side of the room though and sharing was not a bridged gap at this point. She added a collection of movies to the cart, mostly romantic comedies and chick flicks for Moreau to expand his collection. a small modern TV and TV stand so he'd have a place for the movies. 20 different power banks for charging her phone which she would power up at the motel. sorry motel for the electric bill. she added 5 Wireless hot spots, a pamphlet for a wireless plan and lastly, she stopped by a very small section of Laptops. they didn't need anything super nice so the $500 (USD equivalent) ones would be well enough.
"Just because I have a feeling this might be an issue. do not use your magnet voodoo on the laptop. you will break it." she says as she looks to Heisenberg. "The parts in these things are very temperamental and they do not like magnets so anything strong enough to pick it up is enough to wreck it."
"So what am I suppose to pick it up with?" he asks with mild frustration.
"Your hands," She replies while trying to keep an even tone. All the same, he rolls his eyes again, he was curious about these computers so he'd accept the warning and try not to break it.
"You can afford all this?" he asks as he looks at the very full carts.
"I'm well off enough," she admits with a nod. before waving down an employee to assist with getting the laptops from the case. The employee very conscientiously follows them and rings up the cart. certainly giving the two a few glances due to the contents but after a solid 20 minutes, everything was rung up.
"Your total comes to 21,459.36 Lei..." the worker says hesitantly and sure enough the purchase was completed successfully. and after the bags were packed up and put into the truck the two went back to the Hotel where Charlotte got to work charging up her tiny army of battery packs.
She was equipped with everything she needed and now. she hesitantly glanced to Heisenberg who had already fallen asleep. With the help of their odd truce. Survival was starting to look more and more plausible.
FanNatic Lore understanding:
So this is something I do with my other story when I feel like I made a writing decision that requires further explanation than what is really feasible to explain in the story without getting meta and also provide the opportunity to be corrected in case my understanding is incorrect or missing information. by all means please feel free to skip all this. Since this is the first real Heisenberg-focused chapter now seems like the right time. with that, the following is a bit of logic that I'm going to be using as far as in-game lore interpretation goes.
For the sake of not having to say it 1,000 times, I'm going to assume everyone is speaking Romanian when it comes to talking in this Fic since English is not a common language there. I'll make sure to note if any other language is used.
The Wiki mentions that the Heisenberg factory is a late 19th Century coal factory and sites the Labyrinths notes for it. However, the notes don't really say as much. it does mean the factory existed in the late 19th century though. There is also a bit of Lore floating around that Heisenberg was given the factory after it was taken away from his family for 100 years. going to make some assumptions here but he has a ww2 dog tag so I'm assuming he got the factory around 1945ish. so the factory would have had to have been taken from the family around 1845, which means it was built earlier than that which would line up with the industrial revolution. After doing a bit of research on common 1800's European factories it seems more likely to me that it was a Metalagury factory. I'm going to be working under the assumption that Heisenberg is native to the village since the factory was previously owned by his family. Which would mean he is Romanian. FanNatic assumption being he was most likely drafted since his uniform doesn't show any form of significant rank and served in the Romanian army during WW2.
At this point, this is my own addition to the lore. I think it would make the most sense based on how he was dressed and based on his powers that he was hit by shrapnel from an explosion was sent back nearly dead which is why he was experimented on in the first place. Having metal already in his body in the form of shrapnel is why he got metal controlling powers. Alcina had a blood condition, her power relies on blood. Lycans have wolf blood injections, wolf powers. Benevento supposedly had Mental Illness, Psychological manipulation powers. so Heisenberg, Metal in the body, metal powers. Hakuna Mattah we have a trend.
I feel like at this point since I'm going over it I should also very cautiously mention the Heisenberg is a Nazi theory cause Romania was an Axis power. -jazz hands- Maybe? I personally don't believe he is since video games are usually more on the nose with that and not everyone that was on that side supported that mindset. That's a bit of a touchy subject to talk about though. So for everyone's comfort level with this character and story, know that we're going with he's not. If he was/is there wouldn't be a story.
With all that I'll probably be writing him to be lacking a lot of knowledge that readers may find common and use some older vocabulary as well since the village is isolated. example saying he wants to go to the picture shows instead of going see a movie. Miranda didn't even let people read newspapers he's going to be missing a few advancements. I've also seen a lot of stories where he likes hard rock or more metal-style music. while I think it fits him aesthetically I'm going to stick to old fashion and say he'd probably be more into swing which was popular in the 1940s based on the trucks, TVs, and Radios found around the village in-game. the 1940s is around when Miranda cut them off from getting further technology. with that, He wouldn't have understood the John Lennon reference in chapter 1 but he'd understand based on the tone that it was meant as an insult.
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Review Responses:
Actionsparda - Ah that's a good point. the first chapter is always the most difficult one for me to flesh out. I'll take your advice and see if I can go back and add a bit more meat to that one. Please don't worry about it, I appreciate that you took the time to reach out and give suggestions! I'll do my best to try and live up to the potential you see in my story ^v^ please feel free to provide other pointers as you deem fit. I'll keep doing my best!
Black Moons Daughter - yey~ I'm glad to hear that I'm improving ^u^/ I'll keep doing my best. I'm excited to start really getting into developing charlottes connections to the villagers, Miranda, Moreau, and obviously Heisenburg. I'm definitely more of a slow burn writer but I wanna make sure I'm still making it interesting to read so if things are too slow please let me know XD I ended up cutting a decent amount of stuff from this chapter to move to future chapters since shopping trips are going to be a recurring theme, this one just needed to be hecka chonky for setting the standard of what a trip was like.