Cold, hard, concrete. The occasional lance like claw of rebar that reached from the claustrophobic walls that were the crowning achievement for the underbelly of outpost 3. A vein like tunnel system for the outpost that stayed practically unused for most of the mechanical inhabitants, save a few. Of course robo-roaches made their homes down here, the occasional small infestation of them thriving down in the dark and slinking up to the surface levels when they needed to pick on metal scraps. Occasionally a WDF member would be stationed at the only known entrance to this maze, or one at the spare parts room that counted as a graveyard for the drone populace in here. No worker drone dared walk the convoluted pitch black halls beneath the city, except for the body that owned the pair of piercing red eyes. Said eyes taking a second to glance down at a passing family or robo-roaches before stepping over them. Lazily but pointedly wandering the halls below until it came across exactly what it was looking for.

A galvanized steel grate in the roof, technically it was the floor of the hospital room above but it was the roof to the drone below it. The grate was small yet worker drones were small of themselves so it would be no problem to fit through. Even if there were... Other ways of getting to places that were beyond a normal worker. A normal worker that would most likely be asleep at this late time unlike Yeva, the red eyed mother having slunk out to acquire more oil to continue her day to day life without boiling over. the russian having chosen to ditch the bear onesie she usually wore for something else on this lonely trip out, said attire consisting of murky red leg warmers that fit snuggly, a plain black sleeveless dress and a sticker decorated tote bag that was slung lazily over her shoulder.

Yeva put her foot onto one of the rebar poles that had been purposefully shifted in the wall, forming a set of basic steps up to the grate. It held, they all would but sometimes double checking was worth it. After that she scaled the wall, using the steps to help her up as the inky blackness of the halls clung to her black dress. Once she got to the top she crouched between two rebar steps and flicked out her hand. Red light flaring from it in a triangular symbol before the grate simply shrunk to about the size of a small toy car. Failing to clink as it fell into Yeva's white gloved hands, gloves worn precisely to avoid said noise from occurring and almost revealing her presence like last time she had done this. Yeva then popped her head out of the hole, checking briefly around the hospital room for anything that could slip her scheme up.

The walls were their normal plain white, floor tiled as usual, blue sliding door closed, the table sized metal cylinder still huddled away in a corner. Only new thing was the body in the medical bed and the brunete wig and hat that sat on the desk, a small machine beeping next to the sleeping drone that was almost completely hidden away behind a curtain. A green light on the machine occasionally illuminating the words OIL TRANSFUSION DEVICE, or STABLE CONDITION before going blank again for but a second. The most interesting thing to Yeva however, was the small notepad that had been left on the edge of a small blue table, notepad almost hanging off it until it made its way towards the grate via the red solver symbol that carried it. The object being joined a few seconds later by her now full canteen of oil that was seized from within the metal barrel that held it. Extremely poorly stored hospital spares, far from the tastiest but one of the easiest ways to acquire the lifeblood Yeva had been cursed with consuming. Something she apparently had in common with the oh so often mentioned sky demons as she briefly saw with that one that her daughter had somehow befriended.

The girl teleported back down to the floor of the tunnel below her and replaced the grate back where it was supposed to be, as well as closing the barrel's lid, then sat on the floor and began to read the notepad. Holding it between her knees and using light produced from her free hand to do so, sipping on her flask of cold oil somewhat hastily. A single robo-roach crawled up to her, halting at her bare metal foot for a second whilst Yeva paid it no attention. She flipped through the first few pages and noted their blandness, however the fourth page held what she was looking for. An explanation mainly. 

"Left arm completely removed by unknown force, the patient does not remember what had happened in the seconds before they woke up bleeding on the floor. No culprit in sight and the victim's connecting wiring is too ruined for a reattachment of limb let alone a quick or economically feasible one.". 

Yeva hummed to herself as she thought, scanning briefly the rest of the notepads pages and flicked through the rest of the pages to find them all blank. The girl then chugging the rest of her stolen oil as she tried to rationalize why this would of happened or who would of done it. Idly flicking a rather brave but still small mechanical clean up bug off her knee and checking either side of the hallway she was in as she thought. Yeva both grateful that her passion for snooping had rewarded her with valued knowledge and annoyed that the knowledge could have rather distasteful implications. A hidden killer in the colony, was it just someone with a grudge, a bad accident or something worse...

Yeva then yawned, sensing a wave of tiredness wash over her as she drank the last of the liquid inside her flask and a chill like flush set upon her as the heat in her core died down. The girl already missing the warmth it had built up from before she had quelled it, the heat made her warm and warm made her sleepy. Which was really nice feeling considering her lack of the ability to sleep more then a scant few hours in the week.

She then got up again, clambering back up to the grate and shrinking it so that she could get a spare helping of oil for her flask. Keeping it for later and hopefully stalling her next trip down here for a day at most because despite needing it to live, Yeva didn't enjoy drinking oil nearly as much as the murder drones seemed to. The red eyed girl replaying dulled by time memories in her head from other more violent times when she had needed the substance as she crawled into the darkened room and stood on its tiled floor, replacing the note pad back where she had found it and internally losing the argument around whether she should or should not peak around the curtain. So she did, slinking through the darkness over to the edge of the bed and looking around to find a somewhat familiar drone lying in the bed. Asleep.

The somewhat tall blueish black haired drone laid still in the bed, their left arm completely missing and its stump covered up by a fair amount of practically pure white bandages that were secured by a couple pins and extended around to under their opposing armpit. Their blanket only going up to about that high and hanging down off the end of the bed Yeva stood at, trying to remember who this was and staving off sleep related thoughts. The answer came to her a second later along with a revelation that wasn't particularly welcome to the already tired mother.

"Oh, Mack- uhmm.. was, oh. It's Mackevilon. That's right, he's one of Doll's classmate's... Thad's dad??? yeah Thad's dad...". Yeva told herself in a whisper as she left the hospital the same way she entered and made sure to resize the grate to exactly its correct size. She then stored her flask in her bag, clambered down the rebar steps and departed for home in some form of slight hurry. Leaving the place as if she was never there as to avoid the worst possible outcomes that could happen. Getting home without being seen or before the slow storm of drowsiness brewing within her head made her fall asleep standing would be preferable for the older drone. As she travelled the underground maze back to the closest grate from her house something began to bug her mentally on the way back, the purple haired girl to tired to figure it out exactly but couldn't put her mind on it until she had arrived back home.

Entering the house that acted more like a den for her to notice something was missing. She flicked on the heater but left the lights off, itd small screen showing a 16bit winking emoji while it switched the heating system over to a pre-set temperature. The house was somewhat well kept as usual, had an oft unused but built in games room as it normally did. Said room containing an old and unkempt basketball hoop that was slightly bent from the amount of times it had been dunked in. The rest of the half court sized room was to her hazed memory mostly empty asides from the chain that hung through the middle and was decorated with a trio of hanging lanterns and an air hockey table that sat dejected in the far corner from the hoop. Their should also be an empty mattress sat on the floor right next to the table with a sleeping Uzi Doorman in it in the games room but Yeva would have to check on that.

The kitchen was practically empty, a small cult of candles sitting in their lonesome atop the smoothed polished concrete of the kitchen bench, the grey material meshing well with the steel sink that was embedded into it. The cupboards that made up the walls behind the bench were all of a similar form, with their handles being simple steel as well. Stood tall like stone towers as they beckoned through a non existent storm.

Yeva trod into the house, bare feet sinking slightly into the various rugs she had decked the lounge room in. Their multicoloured displays and patterns having dulled over the years since she had set them up as they were. The red eyed russian having internally complained that the room was missing the softness that the now unused and locked away master bedroom had until she had fixed it.

Mostly.

The rugs had the side effects of forcing older memories of hers to resurface once in a while but their added warmth to the room was something she rather have. They could make her remember every time one of her old friends or herself would come back to the house before the current situation developed. Shaking the remaining frost off of their coats and the salvaged furniture as Khan and Nori talked about whatever they wanted, admiring the patterns on newfound rugs, deciding where to put them or occasionally helping their husbands work on one of their many creations. Items that were now left to the dust and robo-roaches, more robo-roaches then dust now since Nori wasn't as fond at eating dust as she was for eating the mechanical bugs that pestered the various prototype items. 

However, and predictably. The games room was conveniently missing a certain purple eyed drone that was mostly forced or convinced into sleepovers in the building. She was supposed to be here, but wasn't and Yeva instantly knew that Uzi had left, again. Yeva checked the games room again as tiredness further set in, empty. Peaked into the bathroom for no good reason, avoiding looking at the mirror as she did. The mother starting to find thinking a little to hard as she lethargically trudged back into the living room. Maybe she should check Doll's room but sleep was calling her so she left it for later, and more so. Uzi wasn't exactly incompetent and of need to be watched over constantly but Yeva much preferred the emo drone to be in check.

The red eyed drone had barely taken a few steps towards her new goal when she almost jumped out of her metal casing as her bag vibrated, one of her hands shooting out and displaying the red glyph of the solver in front of it. Turns out the reason her bag was vibrating was because her phone was going off. At this hour, it was almost five in the morning and someone was trying to contact her. So of course Yeva picked up, this was far to unusual for her to let it pass up, pausing briefly to look at the unregistered number before answering. So much for sleep calling her.

"Uhh, Wo- wow. You actually picked up... neatto. Uhm, ok then... Yeva, I  jushhst wanted to apologize for something, sorry you woke up.". A familiar drone spoke with a both tired and somewhat ashamed voice through the phone. Yeva had half the mind to hang up and try to take care of herself for once, especially once she realised it was Sarah on the other end of the phone. She slouched forward slightly and sighed to herself as she remembered that nights events, then asks in a tone that almost failed to hide her lack of energy. 

"Mmmm, you called me... just to apologise?". She mumbled, somehow coherent enough in her blunt Russian, difficult accent on it and latent tiredness so that Sarah could understand it.

"Uhm yeah... look, I didn't mean for Dolll.". Sarah pauses for a second, maybe her probable lack of sleep was getting to her, or something else. Yeva was about to question her but she got her answer without asking the somewhat awkward question.

"Doll to get kicked out, I'm shhorry just 'hic' wait no, no. I kind of encounterrrr- red a problem.". Sarah yawned halfway through the sentence and Yeva swore she heard something pop through the phone but she couldn't tell exactly. Yeva barely resisting her own urge to yawn as well as Sarah stayed silent for a second or two, seemingly doing something as a noise came through the phone. The red eyed drone was about to press Sarah for details but was cut short by the girl elaborating what she had mentioned before with a now slightly warped voice.

"Thad's dad, well. Whole family... You know what's been hap-'hic'... ening with them, right..?". Sarah stuttered as the mother asked, forgetting that Yeva barely left her house unless it was urgent and was definitely not up to touch with recent social events asides from the banishment of her daughter and the murder drone attack on the bunker. Along with the parent teacher interview and her consistent but secret ventures to find more oil, If any of those could be considered social events at all. All in all It was safe to say that Yeva was in fact not caught up socially, not even close. 

"Well, Mackggs in the hossh-pital as of n- 'hic'.. now and Alyssa...". Sarah stopped speaking, her words having slurred before the sound of her gulping down something came through the phone.

"Oh..". Yeva mouthed, words not entirely working as her head put two sets of everything's together. Alyssa was the one who had called her to the entrance of the outpost before, in the middle of the night as well because Doll had went missing from their house. The girl having apparently snuck outside the colony with that old crossbow thing that she had found and well, when Yeva got there it was apparent that something had gone very wrong according to the pair of murder drones that had spilt oil all over the hall in their rampage. The blackened substance steaming slightly as its aura tugged her towards it, hunger taking a backseat as she vaguely recognised the male drone at the back of the scene but not the newer blue one that had been holding her daughter up by the leg. It was honestly a miracle to her that Doll had survived at all to Yeva, but she was one who accepted a miracle without all to much complaint. 

Second realisation Yeva had come to was much simpler, Sarah had been drinking. Suddenly she coughed quietly, Yeva zoning back into the conversation and tensing towards the phone as the hopefully not that drunk girl sobbed out a strained apology. 

"Yeva... Sshhhe's gone, Alyssa's dead. I'm shhroy I'm shhrooy, I wansht fast 'Hic' enou-uff...". Sarah then stopped speaking, a saddened whimper coming through the phone before a yelp followed it. Finally a thud and the sound of a bottle smashing just as Yeva went to try and console the girl.

"Sarah, Sarah listen to me, whatever your drinking, stop drinking it... are you there..? Sarah?". After she had said this she waited, Yeva could barely hear the sounds of distant groaning and a set of steps approaching. They sounded hesitant for a second. More indistinguishable noises, then a trio of voices. Two distinctly sounding younger then Sarah's had before, even if the girl was surprisingly young sounding herself.

"Sarah? Are you ok?". Yeva asked once more as she heard a voice vaguely talk towards Sarah's phone, the owner of the voice sounding like her to some degree. 

"Ummm, Mum's fine Miss, uhh... Yeva. Just, she's just a little... woozy, id say.". Yeva recoiled a tiny amount from the phone as she realised what was going on, the whole situation rejuvenating her from her tired state for a while. Grabbing at her phone holding arm with her spare arm and then asking the drone on the other side of the phone for details of what happened. Yeva treading light steps in a circle while she listened to the unknown drone.

"Uhm Ok ok, well... Mums been, depressed i think, about Thad's mum dying. And well, she kind of uhmm...". The voice trailed off, seemingly sounding ashamed at admitting this. 

"She got drunk.". Yeva stated, finishing the sentence with a small sigh. She hadn't talked or even seen Sarah for ages but this wasn't what she used to be. Yeva never remembered Sarah drinking, if her memory served her well then she'd go as far as saying that the mother was supposedly adverse to alcohol entirely. 

"Mmhhmm, Im... Not exactly an expert on this all so I, I heh, could be wrong...". The girl, since Yeva had deduced the voice was female, went on before being interrupted by someone calling for her briefly.

A minute passed, Yeva worrying more until someone picked up. Relief soaring as they did.

"Miss Yeva?".

"Yes?".

"Kelsey, my big sister told me to asks you if... Uhmm, since we have Thad and his siblings here too, but K-kelsey says we should... P- probably all not stay here, sooo... Uhm, can we stay at yours. Please?". Yeva blinked when she heard this. On one hand, no wait there was no argument asides her own self health which was something they should be knowledgeable as to not disturb once she got them back to hers. Doll would just have to deal with the guests, as slight payback for almost dying on her and refusing to talk. As soon as Sarah was sober and Yeva wasn't feeling like she was going to fall asleep standing then they would be having a stern talk on several things, namely why she would banish a child, Yeva wasn't even that mad that it was her own child it was more that she had banished a child. Period. 

"... Ok, I'll be over to get you all soon.". She answered, barely hiding her small lack of confidence as to reassure the girl along with the invisible cannonball like weights that she felt laid atop her mind. Amalgamating thoughts as they compressed her into the ground and her sleep, they could wait, or moreso, she could persevere. She always had despite the losses dragging her further and further under, weathering away at the lonesome lighthouse.