warm like a gun | ot23 nct; ot5 red velvet

Chapter 1

Jungwoo shrugs on his overcoat as he walks past the sensor for the door. It opens as he reaches it, and he strides out into the brisk air, careful not to spill his coffee. It's still early autumn, but a cold front had swept over the city last night, leaving its residents to dust off boxes of winter clothing that had been lying dormant on the top shelf of a closet all summer.

Cars whir by overhead; the faint hum of electric engines is drowned out by the bustle of people on the ground, chatting and hurrying about their days. Advertisements flash and flicker brightly on the sides of skyscrapers. Ahead of him, the giant towers of corporate buildings loom, their windows gleaming in the weak afternoon sun. Ghosts of the original city remain, too—he glances down the street to his right and catches a glimpse of the night market at the end as he passes by. Now, it's mostly used for illicit trades and other business Jungwoo doesn't care to learn about, but before, when there was still an abundance of fresh crops, it had been a hub, a prime gathering spot for all the citizens of NeoCity to dance and drink and try exotic foods into the late hours of the night. Now, in the day, it lays dormant, gate rusted, tents covered in a layer of dust and grime.

Jungwoo looks up to his left as he exits the noisy shopping district. There's an old billboard, facing the main gates that lead to the outside world. The sign hasn't been tended to in many years, so the lettering is faint, and if Jungwoo didn't already know what it said, he isn't sure he'd even be able to make it out. To the world, welcome to NCity! The irony of the row of heavily armed guards stationed in front of the gates is not lost on him. He rakes his gaze over them quickly as he crosses into the business district.

Generations ago, NeoCity was flourishing. The parks were filled with beautiful plants; the farms had an abundance of food crops, as well as a small number of animals for consumption. The water was clean and pure; business was good, and so was tourism.

But then came years-long onslaughts of bad weather. Harsh, cold winters gave way almost instantly to scorching, dry summers, and then back again. Crops withered and died; sickness spread rapidly. Cities shut their gates to visitors. Wars broke out over natural resources. People everywhere were searching for someone to blame more than they were searching for solutions, so they didn't pay any mind to how they were polluting the earth. The soil became nearly entirely infertile. NeoCity only survived because it had very good tech and wise leaders. They expanded force field technology, and made a protective shield that ran over the walls and created a dome overhead. Communication with other civilizations is now not only impossible, but illegal, as it poses a security threat. Not that it matters anyway. As far as anyone knows, no one else survived. Those few who did don't live in societies, but are vagabonds, wandering and likely riddled with disease or poisoned by radiation. They don't let anybody in, and they're not allowed out, either. It's too dangerous. That's how it's been for eighty years.

Jungwoo cradles his coffee cup in both hands as he waits for the eye scanner to recognize him and unlock the doors of the office building. It's real coffee—rare, but not completely out of stock—not the powdered shit most stores sell. It's expensive, but that's not really why Jungwoo doesn't get it very often. He can certainly afford it, he just knows it's in short supply, and he doesn't want to hoard its consumption. So he only gets it on holidays or his birthday, or when he's just gotten a big project approved, and he needs to wrap up all his loose ends so he can send out his final results.

It's the latter today. The door opens and he heads inside, going straight to the elevators to take him back up to his office, sipping his coffee. He's set to roll out an update for their most recent droid model. Users had complained that their speech was choppy and sometimes didn't make sense, and he realized there'd been a bug when they'd downloaded language from their databases. Luckily, all droids are connected to the internet—it's illegal for them not to be—so once his update patch is tested and approved, they'll be able to upload the code and fix them all immediately. Also, then he'll be able to get back to the workshop instead of being trapped in front of his computer all day.