Oddworld Fanfiction: The way of the Odd...

(As a long time player of the Oddworld franchise games, I became curious if there was a fan-fiction archive and I found it!

I've read a lot of the works on this forum and found that many are a great read, I found myself inspired to tell my own tale through the eyes of a simple slave with a secret.

I know it won't be as good as some of the other works on this site, but I'll try my best, after all I write because I like to, and not to get the most reviews or followers. Anyways read and enjoy!)

The first chapter is going to be seen in first person by Sam and then by my anonymous character, whose identity will be revealed later on...(And sorry its not Abe :(, but he will appear sooner than you think...

(PS: Constructive criticism is very welcomed, just please be nice about it :), I get most of my Oddworld knowledge from Oddworld wiki and I apologise if some of the facts aren't completely true or inaccurate.)

Chapter one: Early years...

(At an unknown time and place...)

-Sam's POV

As the aging modokon hung from the ceiling and by the pillar like structures on either side of her, fastened by the metal straps and chains to prevent her from falling and being crushed under her own weight.

Sam let out a heavy and depressed sigh, ignoring the shrinks robotic voices as they whispered gentle praises and tales of false hope to her a short distance away, they too hung from their wires on the metal, unnatural ceiling of the metallic room completely surrounding her.

Her numerous dark gray head feathers were pulled into a strange makeshift bun on the back of her head, her yellow and bloodshot eyes blinked from the strain as she continued to avert her attention from shrinks bright monitors surrounding her.

Sam wasn't actually that far off the ground, only by a few meters or so. It was apparently more comfortable for her to have her weight off the ground as the vykkers had commented, as opposed to sitting on the filth covered floor with its cold metal tiles.

She took a moment to lift her tired head to avert her attention from the pestering shrinks, to look at her paws dangling helplessly beside her by their chains. Sam tried to move her fingers, all she felt was numbness, she had hung here for far too long, her paws had lost all feeling and were covered in scars from where the rough metal rubbed the skin on her wrists.

Her abdomen was swollen and in constant pain, she'd been over-breed, to the point where she could only bear to lay a few eggs a day. Sam tried to ignore the stitched mouths of the interns as their muffled complaints could only be faintly heard in annoyed grumbles.

She watched as one of the interns clumsily carried one of her eggs away, stumbling over the weight of the egg, they were almost half the size of them after all, for her children's sake, she hoped he wouldn't drop it.

She lived far longer than she had anticipated, a normal modokons lifespan was about forty years or so and a queen was expected to live for about a century at the most, but Sam had lost track of her own age after the last few decades, she only knew that she was elderly and tired, the wrinkles were evident as a shrink made vague portraits of herself to advertise the abused labour for her unborn offspring a short while ago.

She remembered the day the shrink showed her the image of herself on its screen, her gray wrinkled and depressed features only made her look away disgust, if only she'd never trusted the glukkons, then maybe her children would've had a better future.

She was shaken from those depressing thoughts when I shrink forced itself in front of her view, the screen had the same image of a modokon spirit speaking to her on the screen, she wasn't sure if she supposed to be offended by this, it seems her cruel glukkon overlords where trying to appeal to the more spiritual side of her culture.

"Look away from your nest Lady Sam, let me show you the outside world." It mused in it's strange robotic voice, Sam rolled her eyes, this was shrinks usual tactic when they were trying to take her mind off her unborn children.

She watched as its lights blinked red and green, the shrink swayed back and forth a little from its wires attached to the ceiling, it waved its metallic arms about as the images of her native forest appeared on the screen before her.

She began to relax, mesmerised by the calming images of her old home, "Everything will be fine..." The shrink mused again, but suddenly shot around backwards as the doors to her cell were hastily pushed open, Sam woke from her trance as she heard the all too familiar voices of the irritating vykkers, their high pitched voices were enough to give her a pounding headache.

"Well I don't care if she isn't laying enough eggs, that just makes them more rare and expensive!" The nurse vykker dressed in only a white apron strutted next the scientist, who grumbled annoyed for a moment before shooting back their own answer, "Is moolah all you ever think about?!, We need to keep the specimen alive!" The scientist shouted in the nurses face, who shrunk back in fear.

The scientist readjusted his glasses over his eyes as he stomped forward on his three tripod like legs, "This better be good shrink, if she dies the glukkons will have my head on a wall!" The vykker stood there with both sets of its scrawny arms crossed as the shrink obediently lowered from her face and down in front of the scientists view.

"Dr. Shrinkley, she's unresponsive to our therapy. Her egg rate is dropping fast." The Shrink gave its answer, Sam frowned from her own seat, Dr. Shrinkley was the supposed mastermind behind the whole Shrink program in the first place, they was also responsible for keeping her happy and full of eggs.

"Its your job to keep her happy you mindless piece of scrap metal!" The Doc slapped the monitor, the shrink was however programmed to be unresponsive to the vykkers disrespect.

Doc grumbled as it forced the machine to turn around and readjusted the wires in the back, the nurse quietly came up from behind and obediently handed the scientist various tools as they worked.

"There that should fix it, Frank remind me to run a maintenance check on the Shrink's later." The Doc said casually was he walked back through the exit, Frank glanced back at Sam once more with pity, before hurrying to catch up with its superior, "But Doc, she isn't going to live much longer..." Frank tried to protest, but Dr. Shrink poked Franks chest with a pointed claw, "You let me worry about that, I'm having a meeting with glukkens later today anyway." And with that the scientist hastily pushed past the nurse and back towards his lab as the minor reluctantly followed close behind.

Sam watched them leave with a relived look on her face, grateful the ugly creatures had left her alone for the moment, she wasn't exactly sure how vykkers reproduced as they are hermaphrodites, meaning they were neither male or female, or possibly just both genders mixed into those strange and twisted gray bodies of theirs.

With another sigh, Sam gave in to the shrinks protests at her side, yet again trying gain her attention. She closed her eyes and listened the gentle soothing music shrink played on his screen...

(Meanwhile further away in another room, at the other end of the faculty...)

-Unknowns POV

I had broken from my shell earlier today, I lay there squinting my eyes as bright lights were shone down onto my face. Big and strange creatures with twisted claws poked and prodded me, their high pitched voices hurt my new and sensitive ears, "Keep an eye on this one." Was all it said before it moved on to my wailing siblings close by.

I could hear my brothers, they were close not far from my own crib. I listened to their cries to try and determine the distance between each one of them and myself.

One of my siblings, the brother on my left, cried particularly loudly, he sounded sad. I lay there as he continued to cry, I heard the voices again, "Stitch the blue one's lips, he's hurting my ears!" The high pitched voice protested, I listened helplessly as I heard my brothers cry as he was taken away and into another unknown room I couldn't see.

"Blue one?" I thought, was that his name?, Do I have a name? I opened my eyes again, everything was a strange blur, and visions of gray walls were all I could see in front of me, the ceiling, the walls, and the floor, all the same gray.

I rubbed my eyes with my little paws, then I felt something, long tubes were attached to my head, I felt them with my paws until one of the creatures slapped my paws away and told me to leave them alone.

A deeper voice spoke up not far away, "So these tubes force-feed the offspring basic information?" The voice was gruff and harsh, I closed my eyes as the strange creature leaned over me with its ugly face, I dared to open one eye and look at it, it had scary red eyes and a stick coming out of its mouth, oddly enough it breathed smoke, it puffed some of its smoke on me and I coughed, the creature merely laughed with cruelty and turned away.

The high pitched voice spoke again, "Yes it teaches them to read and count, so hopefully there will be less...Casualties in the future." I heard the creature with the deeper voice scoff, "Shaddap your voice is giving me a headache!" I heard whimpers, "Ye..yes sir!" The higher voice stuttered, "I don't care if they all die, as long as they stop getting caught in the meat grinders...Hahaha!" The deeper voice ended his remark with a maniacal chuckle.

I listened as the footsteps faded away as they left the room, and once again all I could hear was my siblings cries, I heard more footsteps, I closed my eyes and layed there helpless as whatever it was walked past my crib. When it left, I could hear faint whimpers of pain to my left where my louder brother was before the creatures took him away earlier, "Blue one, they brought him back." I thought listened to more of his pained whimpers, if I could talk I would've tried to comfort him...

(What do you think so far? This is probably not going to end up as an Abe/OC sort of thing, after all Oddworld never seemed to be sexualised at all. And yes I'm starting from the very beginning, right after the egg-shell cracks to be exact :)

(PS, This my first Oddworld fanfic, so please tell me what you think. Happy reading :) (Disclaimer I own nothing but my OC)