Attention to all Followers of A Trial of Risk and Fall;
UPDATE (12/1/2017) - Thought I'd add some snippets of Inventor's Absolution here (up to Chapter 9 - The Dance) for your viewing~ the chapters that these snippets come from will be labeled at the top of each piece so you know where to find them, if you're interested in reading further!
CHP 2 - A Fun Experiment (P2)
"...It looks like we've only made it worse, Winnie." Amata responded glumly as everyone watched Butch walk out of the atrium with an awkward and glare-ridden silence that followed after him.
Winona's face was soft now—thoughtful, now—and she looked up at Amata. "Amata, I'm scared. What if he tries to beat me up?"
"Butch DeLoria is not going to beat you up. I'll be with you all the time! Or we can just tell your dad. Maybe even my dad."
"You know we can't do that. The last time you told your dad about all this, Wally nearly put a cherry bomb in your desk." She shook her head in the negative.
"Yeah, well, Wally's an asshole." She huffed her response. "But we can always get back at them if they mess with us. Anything they can do, we can do, and foolproof!"
"Amata, where did you hear that word?" The little inventor stared at her with rounded eyes of shock.
"...My dad."
CHP 3 - Grognak and Sweet Rolls
"Nice party and all," Butch spat in a bitingly sarcastic tone at Winona, causing her to turn and face him with a blank expression. "But the stupid robot destroyed the cake, and I'm starving!"
"S—? Stupid robot?" Andy echoed in a callous tone. "Why I never!"
Winona stared up at him silently before looking down at her sweet roll in its container, seeming to understand what he was saying. With a slight shake of her head, she opened up the box and tore the pastry down the middle, offering him one of the halves. Butch gawked at her in surprise, blinking down at the gesture. He half expected her (and really wanted her) to refuse so he could have a bit of fun and give him a reason to tease her. Snorting at her meek gesture, he knew just how to continue making it entertaining.
"I don't want half of it, freak! I want the whole thing!" He barked, seizing for both halves that were in her petite hands. She quickly shoved the offered half back into the container and snapped it shut on his fingers.
"...No." She muttered, staring up at him with her eyes glinting with some warning behind them; turn back now, you don't have to start a fight today.
But this was where the fun was going to begin... he could feel it.
CHP 5 - The Bad Feeling
"Hey, Butch, wouldn't you say we'd be doing a service to the vault by putting this mutant freak in quarantine? We could use one of the lockers!" Wally was pointedly grinning from ear to ear.
Freddie finally snapped his eyes upward and they were wide with panic, but when his mouth dropped open, nothing came out in protest to protect her.
Wally Mack quickly advanced on Winona and latched a hand onto her wrist, snagging the sleeve of her jumpsuit within clawing fingers and she hastily jumped back to escape his grip. Her opposing hand dropped her mitt to slap him off fearfully.
"D- Don't you dare touch me, Wally Mack—!" She cried thinly and all he did was laugh.
"Oooh, the mutant's gonna fight back? When there's four of us? Wow, you're a lot dumber than you look, Parker! Maybe your disease turned you into a stupid twerp, too!" Butch exclaimed as he came to Wally's side to help him capture Winona, advancing on her as well. "C'mon, Freddie! You wanna be a Tunnel Snake? Help us remind her why no one messes with us!"
CHP 8 - It's Like Riding On A G.O.A.T.
"You little twerp!" Butch spat with a hand seizing her jumpsuit collar. He had stepped over his friends as they collected themselves on the floor—prying apart tightly knotted shoelaces, fixing their hair, and straightening out their clothes to the best of their abilities. Red welts marked their foreheads from when their heads collided and Wally was grimacing at her with a dangerous narrowing of his eyes.
"It wasn't my fault," She argued calmly though she slapped Butch's hands off quickly. "Though you should consider yourself lucky. If it was up to me, all three of you would've been napping on the floor."
"Don't blame this on your little wind-up toy, bitch." A smirk came to his face—a taunting one—with his head rocking to the side in amusement as he stood over her with dark, hooded eyes. "Shame if anything happened to it, am I right? Like it getting crushed under my boot."
Winona frowned up at him, broadening her shoulders and she straightened up to his challenge. As the two grew—victim and bully—Butch had the advantage of being a man. He grew into the size of one with broad shoulders and strong arms while she remained nearly scrawny and small. If he ever tried to physically hurt her, he'd definitely win, as multiple times in her life he showed no reservation against hitting her and did so several times, if not grabbing her outright to scare her because he knew he could.
"You've got as much bite as an all-gums puppy. This is your last warning—you leave Amata alone or you'll be answering to me." She threatened with her voice firm.
He laughed in her face at the remark, but made no move otherwise. "Oooh, I see. Protectin' your little girlfriend. What're you gunna do, huh, Snowflake? C'mon, I'd like to see you try and pull shit like that with me."
"Widget already did the work for me." She answered back thickly, her jaw tightening slightly. "But I could've done better."
CHP 8 - It's Like Riding On A G.O.A.T.
"Oh—!" Amata exclaimed with her smile fracturing a little. "Well—! It's still a good job!"
"Good try. Next time, try saying it without looking at me like I just had a radroach crawl out of my mouth." She responded with dry sarcasm.
"Okay look, it's not bad. It could be worse, right? We'll talk about it more when we grab lunch."
"We don't have to—"
"You're obviously upset, Winona." She replied with her smile now completely gone.
At that, Winona looked back to Mr. Brotch, who was patiently waiting for the other students to finish, then looked back to her friend.
"I think I'll be okay, though." She answered with a sigh. "This was just where I was meant to be... no one expected anything differently from me."
CHP 9 - The Dance
"...Will my father have to use the Procreation Law?" She dismissed her prior, suspicious statement as she looked at Winona.
"That's just a dumb rumor, it's not an actual thing!" Winona argued in mild terror. "It's cruel and insulting, your dad isn't going to make you marry someone just so you could have kids!"
"Well it's not like going outside is an option for me!" Amata exclaimed in frustration, pulling her arm from Winona's shoulders to get up to her feet. Her posture softened almost immediately as she hugged herself. "I just—… it scares me to know that I'll never be in love. That I'll never have the kind of love I've always dreamed of... that I have to marry someone eventually just because I have to make babies, and chances are I'll have to do it with someone I hate! If my dad uses the Procreation Law against me, I know I'll be put with Wally Mack—I know I will because the computer'll say we're the most compatible. I feel cheated, Winnie... I feel cheated and angry and scared..."
CHP 9 - The Dance
Butch began grumbling when he saw Winona enter the atrium with Amata at long last, blushing and fussing with the belt on her dress and looking at her best friend nervously... though when Amata said something with her hand holding that of her friend's, Winona's face unexpectedly lit up and she smiled wide, laughing gleefully. Her big smile displayed the dimples he once adored a long time ago and he was suddenly grimacing at a weak little stir of fluttering inside him. It was quickly beaten down with mental fists and the threat of oh no you don't, 'ya fuckin' bastards!
Why'd his weakness have to be God damn dimples? Why'd she have to be the only one in the vault with them?
UPDATE (12/1/2017) cont'd - I hope these little snippets were enjoyable to read! If you like what you see be sure to check out Winona and Butch's complicated and tumultuous relationship inside Inventor's Absolution!
Happy reading, happy writing!
~Konfessionist, signing out
UPDATE (10/20/2017) - Inventor's Absolution is now posted to my profile with the first chapter (a two parter) ready for reading! Thank you to all the readers, old and new, who've taken the time to read and review AToRaF in the past. Enjoy the new adventure, you crazy kids. GO FORTH AND MULTIPLY THE FANFICTION!
Happy reading, happy writing!
~Konfessionist, signing out
UPDATE (10/19/2017) - Story will now be under the new title of "Inventor's Absolution" as the old title was awful, had nothing to do with the story, and was completely random. This new one is slightly less awful, has more to do with the story concerning Winona and the idea of forgiveness/guilt, and is a little less random.
And the story will now be posted tomorrow! Yay! That also means that all the prior chapters here, in AToRaF, will be deleted save for this attention chapter to keep the old reviews alive. As well the story will be posted on Ao3 under the name of "TheFaerieChild" if you'd prefer to read and review there instead.
Thank you for your time and have a wonderful day/night!
Happy reading, happy writing!
~Konfessionist, signing out
In almost two week's time (on October 20th) this story will be deleted. Not entirely—only it's chapter contents—and this is because I don't want to get rid of the fabulous reviews that have been left on it in the past. Many of them draw upon good points in the story (whether it was constructive criticism or interesting reader thoughts) and I didn't want to delete those things. They make me happy~
However, I do want to delete the chapters because... because why?
On that day (October 20th), I am ecstatic to announce that this story will be reposted under the same name of A Trial of Risk and Fall (Updated), under a different file on my account here on fanfiction. I might also post it on Archive of Our Own but I'm unsure. I don't want to post it in two different fanfiction websites but I love this story enough that I'd love more people to see it. Also, I don't currently have an account on AoOO, so I don't know the layout, or how popular the website is in comparison to FF here. If anyone has experience or comments about AoOO please message me privately to give your sagely advice!
Otherwise, back to AToRaF: The story—line will still have some similar plots to the original work but not entirely. There'll be new content early on, the plot has been reworked some after a certain point in the story (a point which was never revealed here, sorry about that), and you'll of course see some of your favorite characters from before ;) I can say that at this moment, as I write this, there are 17 chapters written, and of those 17 chapters, 10 of them are completely new, never before seen, while the other 7 are original rewritten chapters! It was to add more flesh to Winona's character, more backstory and interaction between her and Butch, and to show the thoughts of various other characters before the inevitable leaving happens... as well as allow for more drama before leaving the Vault. Please be kind as I've taken a lot of liberties in some events of the story!
That being said, the story hasn't been fully rewritten or met it's end yet on my side of things... but I want it to be in time. Winona's such a favorite of mine as an OC that she's been transferred into other works of mine—more original things—and I enjoyed writing for Butch DeLoria, and fleshing out Vault 101 as how I see it in my mind... I want to share all of that with you so I'm not all alone in there, haha.
I can't say that this story will be finished this time around in this revamp. I could lose steam, I could lose confidence or focus again, I could become lazy, tired, bored, or whatever else may happen on the road between here and now... but I want to try. I want to try my hardest to get to that end and I'd like to hope that, maybe, even if there isn't a clear or resolute end in sight, that some of you will want to be along for the retelling of this ride.
If you're willing to hop aboard despite that risk, I thank you for your bravery and optimism! If not, I understand. This story was left abandoned with barely a word from me four years ago, now.
If you impatiently await the revival of this story, please follow me as a writer on here so you can be updated when I post the story! As I said, it'll be reposted on October 20th, but I can't say what time. It won't be too late in the day, however, so have no fear, thinking you'll have to wait all damn day until the very last minute for the post!
Thank you for your time, and I hope—we, all of these colorful characters, hope—that you'll join us for the retelling of the epic adventure with Winona Parker, her father James, Butch DeLoria, and other OC characters that'll hijack the drama in no time at all!
Happy reading, happy writing!
~Konfessionist, signing out