Tanta Ralland "Data"'s Story

Randa looked back into her eyes, his own dialating just a bit as he thought back on the years and years of hardship they had, but always had each others backs. He was truly her best friend, and was elated to see how she supported his borderline insane planning. As she answered, he smiled and nodded. He knocked on the door, in a special sequence that the mystery occupant had said to use long ago. Hopefully he was doing it right...

He looked back to Zonia, who seemed to be a little nervous at the stipulations of their current voyage. As they began to hear rustling inside, he grabbed her hand with his own bandaged one and gave it a squeeze as he smiled to her. "Don't worry. We'll be fine." he said, slowly releasing her hand and breaking the gaze, looking towards the door as it opened, being caught on a chain that held the door. There stood a desheveled looking, scraggly Raccoon, with a grumpy expression on his face. "What?! I told you I can't get those no more. Stop askin!!" He went to slam the door, but Randa stopped him from doing so with his foot, letting out a yelp of pain as he gritted his teeth. " T!!! Its me! Noctus from the factory..." he said as the Raccoons face shifted from annoyance to amazement. "R. I haven't heard from you in months. I figured your dumb ass was dead by now." He said with a chuckle, one that Randa emulated. "Let us in, dick." Came Randa's response.

The door slammed shut and more shuffling was heard as the chain dropped, and they were allowed entry into the shack. It was clear why the "security" was so high. There was a lot of electricity running through the place, mainly to servers and computers dangling from every which way, cell phones, dozens of them strewn about. An old victrola style record player crooned softly in the backround, the hisses and pops almost louder than the music it produced. He waited for Zonia to walk in, and he closed the door replacing the chain as he did so.

"Well," Tanta said, taking a seat in a well worn office chair infront of several moniters. "You look like shit. Well, worse than usual I mean."

"Yeah, you got fat." Randa responded, to which Tanta countered: "Yeah, not a bad problem to have though." He began to type at a screen, human websites and social media scrolling past as one of the other monitors displayed source codes and encryption keys.

Randa continued, looking over to Zonia. "T, we.. we're done." He said. Tanta swivelled in his chair to face them. "About time." he said quietly. " So what now?"

Tanta put a paw to his face as he he thought, letting out a hesitant groan. "Well, I mean, what else? We try it peaceful, once, then thats it. If it doesn't go our way, I still know a guy with a printer, and connects to the other side of the wall. You still work at the factory?" he said, to which Randa nodded. A toothy grin came over Tanta's face. "Excellent. We'll have all we need then." He said, to which Randa corrected him. "We still gotta 'get' it." He said with a snort.

"Well good thing you still work there then! Try to keep up, ya stupid dog." Tanta said, turning back around and typing away.
"By the way, who's the chick?" He said nonchalantly.

"You know that Roomate you kept on thinking I was making up? Zonia?"

"Yeah."

"This is her, she's real. And she's also right here, so you can introduce yourself you antisocial git." Randa said with a snort, looking over to Zonia. "This is Tanta. He's a shutin nutbar with too much time on his hands. He's exactly what we need." He said with a grin before turning back to Tanta's screens.

"Mm. Fascinating." He said with a hint of sarcasm. "I'll need some time to think about how to get the fliers out without anyone seeing.. And we'll need someone to go across the wall... Do you still know anyone that-" He was abruptly interrupted by three loud bangs on the door. Randa moved instinctively over to Zonia, without hesitation as Tanta's ears fell back, looking to Randa, then Zonia. The room was dead quiet except the ceiling fan and the whirring of the hard drives. Then came another loud bang on the door, followed by muffled talking. Even Randa just about jumped out of his skin as Tanta slowly walked towards the door, picking up a baseball bat. "Just a minute..." He yelled towards the door, walking over slowly.

Akma shrugged happily as they continued further into the alley, before the door was pointed out to him. "Ah! Yes! This is where Data is." He said as he walked up to the door. "He is the one that will want to say hi, I bet. " he said happily, banging on the door three times. There was a hush from inside. They waited a few minutes, before Akma looked back to Marshall. "Um. Heh. He must not have heard me." He added, before banging on the door again, louder. "Come on..." He said, tapping his foot impatiently as he looked over to Marshall. "Hey! Come here and stand next to the door. He doesn't like surprises." He then thought about it a bit. "Well, you are kind of a surprise though in your self. " he said with a laugh, as he heard ffootsteps on the other side of the door begin to approach. "Ah! Here he is!" he said with a smile. The door handle slowly began to turn.

Zonia's eye's were fixed on the door that now remained slightly open, the voice that emitted from it, she wasn't familiar with. He was about to shut the door on us when Randa stepped in and told the man who we were. After exchanging a few words between them the door was shut and reopened allowing them entrance. Zonia hesitated for a minute but proceeded inside, seeing all the computer screens and computers, it all amazed Zonia. How did he get his hands on this stuff. She sat down in a nearby chair, watching Randas friend, Tanta sit down across from them. Zonia looked at Randa who had plopped down next to her, with him by her side she felt safe even in a strangers home.

"Nice to meet you Tanta" Zonia tells him politely giving off a warm smile. However her smile didn't last long, upon speaking they were interrupted by banging on the door. Her ears flew back, her tail curled around her. Everyone grew silent, murmurs could be heard from outside. As if on cue of the banging Randa was already in front of her as if it was of instinct to protect. Tanta broke the silence by telling them 'Just a minute' he walked towards the door. Zonia's heart was going a mile a minute, a lump in her throat caused her being unable to speak or move. It's bad enough she was already nervous about being in a strangers home, now someone wants in. Zonia starred at the door, and back at Randa, she didn't know what was going on or who was even at the door. It could be the SWATS going around questioning dims. Maybe even some bad people who aren't on good terms with Randas friend.

Zonia looked down at her paws which were visibly shaky, taking a deep breath she tried to calm herself down. She closed her eye's and reassured herself it was nothing to worry about. Upon opening them she gazed up at Randa and then back at the door where Tanta stood ready to see who the source of banging was.

Marshall immediately moved to do as Akma said, moving into plain view. He even went so far as to put his backpack on the ground in front of him, pulling off his zippered jacket, and held up his hands in a non threatening gesture. He really would rather not be mistaken for one of the SWATS again. Once was enough of that.

He watched as the door began to open, his blue eyes bright and curious. This was farther than he'd really expected to get without being caught by the guards. "I just hope your friend is... friendly," he mumbled quietly.

Randa and Tanta looked at each other one last time before the raccoon turned, baseball bat in hand, to open the door, letting it stop at the chain. He peered out with an inquiry: "Who is it?" he said, bracing himself in case it was the SWAT. But the only thing he could through the door was a pair of comically magnified cloudy eyes.

"Data!!" Akma said happily as he tried to get in the door, not understanding it was chained and only jostling it a bit. "Em.. Hrm..." He said, trying again.

"Dammit, Akma, stop." Tanta said, eyeing him suspiciously still. "What the hell is that on your head?"

"Oh! OH!" He said, getting visibly excited. "That is why I am here. I have found someone you might want to talk to, aaannnddd~" He said, with a dramatic wave of his hands, tapping them at the very end. "They're magic. Its not a big deal though." He smugly stated.

Tanta wasn't visibly amused. "You know, you were about to get your bell rung, Akma." he said, raising the baseball bat into view. Akma, either not understanding or not caring, simply smiled and shrugged. Randa, all the while, was intently watching the door, ears perked towards it. Shooting Zonia a glance, he gave her a reasurring nod, letting her know that everything seemed to be okay. Randa approached the door, peeking over Tantas much shorter head. He had seen the bat before, but only staring into the abyss, holding signs with incoherent words on them.

"SO! Come onnnnnnNNNN!" Akma said, again trying the door, adding to Tanta's suspicion about his motives. "Let me introduce you to my friend!" He obviously thought there must be some other reward in his escort quest other than the pride of knowing he helped. Perhaps, he wanted a bit more of Tanta's food. Eying the bat, Tanta slammed the door, leaving Akma to retract his long snout before it was slammed in the door. Turning to Marshall, he gave a nervous shrug. "Maybe... He went to get us snacks...?" he said, hopelessly optomistic.


On the other side of the door, Randa was colored unimpressed. "A homeless bat?" He snorted, taking out a cigarette and lighting it up. Tanta turned, looking down to the floor as he cupped his chin in deep thought. "He could be useful. He helped me a lot with data collection, witting or not when we still worked in the Tinderbox together. And he has never sought me out, so whoever this Dim is that he brought must be very important, or at least he thinks..." he stopped mid sentence, as he turned around to glare at Randa, stomping up to him and taking the cigarette out of his mouth, stomping on it with his foot. "Smoke is hell on electronics!!" He exclaimed. "Oh, and your lungs, or something. I don't know. "

Randa was obviously perplexed, but listened silently to Tanta's commands. "Well, come on then. We'd better not keep them waiting." Randa retorted. Tanta nodded, and walked back to the door.


Akma stood patiently, still at the door, hoping against hope these few minutes passing was just a friendly conversation inside. Suddenly, his ears perked up as the sound of a chain sliding off its hinges clattered into the alleyway. The brass handle began to turn and the door opened, three perplexed inhabitants inside, all looking towards the bat, and Marshall. Suddenly, the large Maned wolfs ears shot back as he darted towards the door. Pushing Akma aside, he grabbed Marshall by the collar and dragged him into the Room, surprisingly stronger than his tall wiry frame would lead on. Using his non bandaged hand, he pressed Marshall up against the wall, glaring into his eyes as his snouth almost touched his nose. "Close the door!" He barked at Tanta, which he dutifilly did, but not before Akma was able to slide in, looking truly confused. "What are you doing wolf man??" he exclaimed, running over to help. Randa simply shot Akma a glare, that froze him in his track, his large eyes blinking as his ears drooped.


"Tanta, the fuck?? You just let your people bring humans here??" He said, to which Tanta responded with a stutter and a shrug, looking completely amazed at the scene unfolding in front of him. "I, I, I mean.. L-l-ook, I didn't know this vagrant was bringing pinkies here! But look... He's not SWAT... Hes a.. He's a civilian! On this side of the wall!!!" Tanta exclaimed, rubbing his hands together in fascination. But Randa's paranoid mind would not let him off the hook that easily. He glared into Marshall's eyes, growling softly before setting him down on the floor, but keeping a grip on his shirt. "You have thirty seconds to convince me you're not a spy." Tanta and Akma both grew silent, slowly moving toward Zonia close to the computer desk, watching the scene unfold. The tension in the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Everyone's eyes were on Marshall, and everyone's next breath hung on his explanation.

Marshall couldn't help the small, startled laugh at Anna's insistence that the glasses were magic. He really couldn't. Nor could he help feeling almost astonished that Akma didn't know the door was probably chained. Didn't he say that the Dim was his friend?

When Marshall was yanked, his hands stayed held up in a defensive gesture. "He's right. I'm not a SWAT." He finally dropped his hands, brushing imaginary wrinkles from his shirt. "My name is Marshall Adonnis Shan, I am twenty years old, and I am a former employee of Malcon-tech. We programmed everything from safes to gates, to those cute little trackers that the SWATS use on the Dims that work in the fields outside the city. I was sick of seeing what was happening and not doing anything about it."

He pointed to the lenses on Anna's face. "Those are called glasses. They are two convexed lenses of glass set in a cheap wire frame. Humans have been using them to correct their eyesight since the renaissance period. Glass and Wire. No magic. No tech. And cheap as hell to make, yet we can't even seem to let you know about them? How is that even remotely fair?"

"You get almost zero medical attention. Which is terrible, because I can see from here that you have been shot. Akma is starving to death ever so slowly because we wouldn't help him find a way to work. Ten years ago, a young Aviary Dim got lynched because she had the gall to make friends with a little boy. A little boy who just happened to be the son of a geneticist. Why the hell would that little boy ever want to help those sons of bitches? Now, are you satisfied? Or do I take my knowledge elsewhere?"

Stunned Zonia sits in her chair watching everything unfold, when the door opened and was slammed shut she thought the worst of it. Her hear skipped a beat when he re opened the door in fear of being attacked. Zonia saw a bat, she didn't have a clear few of the other dim that was outside. Suddenly Randa was out of his chair and barreling towards the door, grabbing the other guy and pulling him inside. Upon him being dragged in, it wasn't a dim at all. The person in front of her eye's was a human..What if he was a SWAT. Did this bat just rat them out or put them at risk? Zonia heart was beating fast and her mind filled with worry.

Snapping out of it, she fixed her eye's on the scene unraveling in front of her. This human didn't appear to look like a SWAT, and maybe wasn't even a danger to them. Randa was out of control, he needed to calm down. Seeing he put him back on the ground, she rose from her chair and went over to him. Putting a hand on his shoulder. Her ears fall back as she speaks to Randa "Hey! Randa it's alright let him go." She pulls him off the poor boy. After pulling him off Zonia looks back up at the boy in front of her. She's never seen on up close without any riot gear on, he seemed so different than the rest she normally sees.

Zonia looks back at Randa "He could be harmless for all we know. Lets just give him a chance to explain himself. " She tells her friend, looking over at the scrawny bat who goes by Akma, he stands next to the human in question. Akam seems very sure of the human, like he's not a threat. She's not sure if he's just crazy or if he speaks the truth. Zonia shakes her head, she doesn't know what to think. Her tails flicked around it's a quirk of hers, it happens when she's nervous or scared. She stands next to Randa, her arms folded across her chest, her eye's fall on the human waiting for him to explain himself.

Randa's grip released on the humans collar as Zonia convinced him to back off. His glare however almost kept him pinned to that wall. As Marshall spoke, Akma began to wander around the office, looking and poking at things he probably shouldn't touch. Tanta was too busy watching events unfold to keep an eye on the bat as he paroused around. As marshall pointed, Randa looked over to Akma as he adjusted his glasses, pretending he could read what a particular computer screen displayed as the green numbers flew past on the black screen. He knew several dims who were deaf or blind, and all of them were considered useless like Akma was, left out in the street to starve via survival of the fittest. If it wasn't for Tanta and other Dims charity, Akma and others would surely be dead. But with a pair of glasses, it seems that Akma, while crazy, could potentially be fit to work in the Tinderbox again with everyone else. Glass and wire.

Randa thought about that. This kid had points, and Zonia was right. He didn't look like a SWAT. Hell, they wouldn't even let him on the training course with how scrawny he was. What the boy said next, about the avian, about the wall, made him remember. That wall wasn't always there. But damn, they built it as fast as they could. Ever since then, he hadn't seen a human he liked. But was there a time when he did? It had been so long since he had seen a human not in a blue uniform.

As Randa fell into thought, Tanta had taken notice of Akma's poking and prodding, and had gone over to smack his hand off of a keyboard. Both of them were whisper arguing as Randa and Marshall talked before Tanta perked up. "Geneticist?" Randa had never heard the word, but Tanta had.


Marshall now had the interest of both Randa and Tanta. For Randa, he represented a link to the human world, and for Tanta, a trove of information that could potentially help better Dimkind, one Dim at a time. But most importantly, he could give insight into the world as it really were, not just behind the veil of the giant concrete and stone wall.

As Akma and Tanta went back to arguing, Randa approached Marshall once more.

"Well. I'm glad Zonia was here to calm me down. I hope you understand why I have my reservations... Not to mention something that happened last night. Its very wise for Zonia and I to be paranoid right now. "
He said looking around the room to her.

"But you need to help us." He continued. "We want change, and so do you. And if you help us out, maybe we can find out where your your friend was, if they're still alive." He didn't sugar coat it. But to show his opinion had changed, he held out his good hand, looking Marshall in the eye.

"Don't take this lightly, friend. This will be the first time I've ever wanted to work with a human. And this is the start of a revolution."

He waited to see if the young man would shake his hand.

Zonia was happy to see she had calmed Randa down. She knows he has a right to be so paranoid, they both do. She takes a step back giving Randa a little elbow room and she gets lost in her thoughts. She tired to remember the time where the wall was just being built, she can hardly remember interacting or even seeing other human who were in all blue. Zonia's eye's turned to Tanta and Akma whom were arguing in a whispered tone, then back at Randa and Marshall who's conversation she could hear more clearly. She listened to Randa tell the poor boy some details as to why they were so paranoid and that he wanted his help. Her eye's widened a bit. Her tail flicked in excitement, Randa wanting a human's help? He must be desperate, however Zonia can see this boy wants to help as much as we need him. By the way he was talking he made it seem like he's had enough of the separation of the two species.

Zonia's eye's were fixed on the boy, ears perked up studying him. She'd never seen one this close up before, their skin was relatively smooth. The fur on top of his head looked silky in a way, but also soft. His body was scrawny, no way they'd let him be on the SWAT force no muscle to him. She smirked, to think she was afraid of him when he first was drug inside. If things work out well for them, they could have their little organization going smoothly. There's just one problem, where would this boy be staying. Would he risking leaving and reentering through the same hole in the wall where he came? He could always stay in the basement of her shop, where the meeting would be held, but she's not sure how homey it is in there. She'd want to clean it all up and make it into a kind of livable place, even for their meetings and such.

"Hey Randa. If things all work out and he's going to help us where would he stay? before speaking again, she clears her throat. Her eye's shift around to everyone "I mean are we going to risk him going through the same way he got in here? It could be dangerous." Zonia adds, she'd want the boy to be safe as for him being on their side. He'd be a valuable asset to the dim community.

"Geneticist," Marshall quickly explained, while Randa was contemplating what he had said, "is someone who either studies or manipulates DNA. My father worked with the team that... Well." He gave Tanta a slightly sheepish grin, before returning his attention to Randa. The wolf was obviously agitated about something, but that was only to be expected. Ten years behind that damned wall would make anyone agitated. Hell, Marshall had lived on the other side, and he was agitated.

He couldn't believe it, he decided, when he listened to the request for help. Of course he planned on helping! Why else would he have crossed the wall? Marshall didn't even think to hesitate when the hand was offered, taking it in a firm shake that belied his small size. He might have been scrawny, but he was by no means weak. "Of course I'll help, you silly man. Why else do you think Akma brought me here?"

He looked to Zonia. She was right that he really didn't have anywhere to stay, but he hadn't been concerned about that. Normally, he was quite good at staying out of sight, though he had to admit, finding a place to stay without help probably wouldn't be a great idea. "If you have any ideas, miss, I'm all ears. And I can pay rent. Brought plenty of cash with me, in case."