[Turn on the radio, use the shuffle feature on your music collection or your favorite streaming music service. Write something inspired by the first song you hear.]

Oooooh, this prompt is very creative. However, I won’t just write about the first. I’ll shuffle through until I get some really good inspiration. I won’t settle for a shitty post like yesterday’s!

Okay, I settled on the song Mother Machine by the band Delain. I REEEEEEAALLY recommend you listen to it before reading this so that you get where my inspiration came from!!!!!!!!

Seriously, the imagery I came up with for this prompt mostly came from listening to the song. If you don’t listen to it, I’m afraid this will be disappointingly boring.

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A world of darkness and soot, smoke and grime.

Even from afar, one could hear the city’s busy activity—whistles blowing steam, presses pounding metal into shape, conveyor belts crankily crawling, detectors letting sirens loose.

Mechanical monstrosities, rather than people, speedily marched their ways through the streets and alleys with extreme efficiency, delivering loads as heavy as their frames could support. Though, they resembled humans in shape.

Somewhat.

Within their heavy packages lied as many of a single type of good as could be compressed into a single box. Some robots carried food stuffs. Others, televisions. And even more, cellphones—it was that time of the decade for the newest models.

And at the center of it all, a little girl.

She had no idea of how she arrived in such a place, but she was alone, afraid, and in need of help. Tears streamed down her face and she coughed loudly, struggling to breathe the filthy air, as she tried to take in the details of her surroundings. Gigantic, undecorated, concrete buildings towered overheard, disappearing into the cloud of ash that replaced the sky. Around her, hulking metal figures marched along without any interest in her wellbeing. Their orderly, calculated paths allowed for a small amount of space within which she could travel without getting stepped on.

She sat within one such lane between the robotic traffic, trying not to wail as metric tons of steel shook the pavement and the cold, dirty air rushed by.

Reflected in her eyes was a mechanical city she didn’t understand…but it was a city, nonetheless. Her instincts lead her deeper in, searching for the warmth which she knew could only be found in another human being’s company.

The girl waddled about, dodging metallic feet and keeping an eye out for any life.

Any at all, because not even plants seemed to exist within that god-forsaken city. The closest approximation to trees were streetlamps, and for flowers, the random objects littered about which were occasionally dropped onto the hard floor by the metal men.

Some of those items the little girl recognized, like a box of cookies. The colorful packaging and clear plastic display of the sugary treats tempted her, but two lanes of steel people blocked her way. Other items, like the sphere of glass containing a liquid and a model of a building, she did not. That one shattered when it collided with the pavement, splashing the girl with water and bits of glass.

Then, by some miracle, something the little girl not only recognized, but dearly wanted, fell directly ahead of her. It was tossed and turned by the air currents on its way down, threatening to fall out of her reach…but it didn’t.

When she reached the red square of cloth, the girl gingerly held it up to her face, inspecting it for a moment. Then, she held it to her chest, allowing it to soak up her tears.

“Blankie.”

Now with slightly more moral support, the girl continued trudging on into the cities depths. At least, until…

A whirring sound unlike any other resounded from the distance, loud enough to be heard over the monotonous steps of the robot delivery army.

The girl’s grip on the red blanket tightened and her breaths came quicker as she recognized a tiny human figure far ahead, speeding toward her. Her sniffs even began to die down as her hope of finding another human in that dark city grew…

Until the figure got closer.

As it turned out, the whirring sound was generated by the wheels attached to the bottom half of the robot, and only the top half appeared human-like.

But that was okay, because it seemed to be there for her…

The girl watched as the robot came to a stop a foot ahead of her and its shiny, metal arms stretched forth toward her. In response, the girl also lifted her own arms, thinking it would lift her like her parents once did.

Then, it latched onto the red blanket the girl previously clutched, and yanked it out of her grip, the momentum pulling her forward and onto the ground.

“STOLEN GOODS: RECLAIMED”

The metal figure let out a high-pitched, almost gargled voice, scaring her further. After which, it bent down ninety degrees at the waste so that it “faced” the little girl, who lied, bawling on the ground.

“UNAUTHORIZED INDIVIDUAL IS TRESPASSING”