2021-09-16: Hoperator Ovelia
- Log: Hoperator Ovelia
- Cast: Azoth (+ Ovelia), Seraph Ragnell
- Where: Etrenank
- Date: September 16, 2021
- Summary: Ragnell manages to get in contact with an old friend of Azoth's and learns some concerning (and/or exciting) truths.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth had once said of Erica Axton that she was 'someone unpleasant' and then did not elaborate further. Right now, he doesn't have to: the woman has him tangled in a spaghetti of wires and cords, hooked to numerous terminals, while probing code tears through his calculations -- his thoughts, his memories, his 'feelings', for what can be called there. But most of her efforts center around data new to Ragnell as well... everything that came into him when he installed the Void Drive in New Kasim City.
Like most of Solaris' first-class, Erica is a pale skinned, blonde woman. Her hair is tied in a tight, high ponytail, bangs wisping down the sides of her face, against the edges of square-rimmed glasses that she constantly tips down to look over as she squints at a lines of code.
"Just what the hell is all this data...?" she asks -- to herself, for now -- as she reviews it all. Though she's surrounded in computer screens, she seems to have another such device connected to them in the pocket of her white lab coat. Sometimes she pulls up the device, tapping notes into it before setting it back on her person. "Azoth."
He beeps to her in acknowledgment.
"Get me a cup of -- oh." She seems to have forgotten he's in entirely no position to retrieve anything. Erica heaves a sigh and rubs her temple. "Ugh, can't you just tell me how to connect this to your main body?!"
Azoth is silent.
"Override 6238. Tell me how to connect this to your main body."
A spike of something jolts through Azoth's code, seizing hold of it and forcing new numbers into a calculation that determines a new behavior. Azoth's chassis sparks with a surge just a hair too fast for Ragnell to catch this time. "Error. Data not found."
Erica sighs and slumps face first onto her keyboard. "Right. Of course. Why would you know?"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
While Ragnell has her own business to attend to and thus can't chill in Azoth's chassis all of the time, she does take to it with relative frequency--especially if she knows he's heading into Solaris, *especially* if it's on official business. That doesn't make her privy to all of his secret missions, again because of her own business... but it does mean that she can occasionally take advantage and get a glimpse of what Solaris wouldn't otherwise want people like her to see.
Like now.
As usual during one of these times of forays, she keeps quiet, watching the flow of data as a sort of 'background program' as Dr. Axton violates any semblance of Azoth's privacy. But then, can you really violate an inanimate object? That's the line of thinking Ragnell's sure Axton has. A pragmatic Seraph, she pays attention to the new data as Axton attempts to process it, even as her lip metaphorically curls at the way she treats her companion. It'll be good for her--and for Azoth too--for her to understand whatever she can.
Unfortunately, even Axton doesn't understand it, and based on how Azoth responds even with an override, he doesn't either. (The speed of that surge surprises her, too. She curses silently when it passes by... but she makes a note of how that override jolted through his code. She'll *definitely* need to know that if she intends to do what she can to *un*do it later.)
Why indeed, she comments dryly when Axton's distracted. If she wants to know so bad, I don't know why she doesn't try to work smarter. A beat. Then, with an undercurrent of concern: You hangin' in there?
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
For Azoth, hope and dread sometimes come inseparably linked. Ragnell doesn't see everything, and even if she were with him for his time on the surface, it wouldn't likely be damning. Here, it just might be -- Erica Axton has no reason not to ramble to herself, as she so often does. But will she say anything useful? ... And if she did, would it matter? But if Azoth thought he could convince Ragnell to give up, he might have tired already.
For now, I will be fine. She's not as skilled as she thinks, Azoth says to Ragnell. ...Sorry that you have to see this.
If she were skilled enough... well, that's the kind of thing Azoth's background calculations buzz with critical warnings about. But even unable to catch that quick override command, Ragnell can see the crudeness of it as she tries to study it. To put it metaphorically, Azoth makes a number of delicate calculations that go into taking even a single step, having to calculate for speed, balance, trajectory, and dozens of other little factors. What Dr. Axton just did was use a sledgehammer to send him forward instead.
Tappy tappy tap tap tap. Axton continues to stare at the screen a minute more before raking her fingers into her scalp and yelling. She flops down, then sinks to the floor because there's no one here to see how unprofessional she is. So she thinks. Robots are empty and Seraphim are invisible. "I have been staring at this for THIRTY SIX HOURS." This is an exaggeration. "Why can't you tell me anything?!"
Azoth's eyes light up. Calculations run, then hesitate. "Installed software is incompatible with current hardware. Suggestion: contact hardware developer."
Ovelia, Azoth offers for Ragnell's benefit.
Axton tilts her head back to squint at Azoth in suspicion. "Didn't we talk about you not responding to rhetorical questions?" She bites at her cuticles in agitation. "But that is... a good idea. That I hate very much." She sighs and rolls over, getting back to her feet and dusting herself off.
"It would be advantageous to allow her to personally inspect --"
With a tap of a button on the terminal, Azoth's voice cuts out entirely, errors flashing through him when the calculations trying to speak fail a few more times.
"I'm not the idiot Imrea was, but nice try." She busies herself with cleaning up her work area. "You'll stay right here until I get back."
Dread starts to overtake hope.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell mentally snorts. Erica's not as skilled as she thinks? That much is obvious. Sorry you have to experience this.
It really is painful, having to see this, though. With as much time as she's spent in Azoth's circuitry, observing how his data functions and flows, watching Axton try to do anything with it is like sitting in on a classroom where the teacher consistently makes the chalk squeak on the blackboard, *and* gets the equation wrong at the same time. You just want to snatch it out of her hand and solve it for yourself, or maybe throw it at her.
But then Axton lets her temper open up an opportunity--one that Azoth takes. Ragnell perks even before he specifies that the hardware developer is Ovelia, his bunny beastfolk friend. Clever, she remarks approvingly. Now let's see if she takes the bait.
And she does--and she also doesn't. Axton might not be as skilled as she thinks she is, but she's also not *completely* an idiot. As much as she dislikes the woman, Ragnell admits that she'd put Azoth on mute at the *least* if she were in Axton's position.
Fortunately, she's not. She's in entirely her own position. And when despair begins to seep into her robot friend, Ragnell sends him a quick signal of reassurance.
Be back in a flash, she says with overt humor, just before she slips out of Azoth's body in light-orb form and zips down, around, and up towards that tablet in Axton's lab coat pocket. It's unlikely that Axton will see any of this even if she'd been looking at Ragnell dead on, but the Seraph takes due precaution anyway not to cross her direct line of vision.
Then it's just a matter of following her where she goes.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Panic spikes through Azoth.
Ragnell!
The nature of his circuitry means he isn't calling her name, exactly, but code surging with a signal that he comes to identify her with, wrapped up in concern and, of course, that hope again. It's too raw and exposed to take back, and Ragnell's already leapt from him into Axton's device. Maybe they couldn't hurt Ragnell if they caught her. Azoth doesn't want them to have the chance to try. But all he can do now, silent and bound, is wait.
Erica Axton walks with purpose through the halls, but mutters and mumbles to herself -- brainwashing robots this and irritating rabbits that -- along the long elevator rides and various walkways she's sent along on. Her destination involves a number of security drones, but they are not, evidently, in possession of resonance. Nor is the multi-layered set of doors that peel open so Erica can finally enter a tiny, egg-like chamber behind a final transparent pane that remains shut.
White, all of it. Cramped with accommodations like a prison cell.
Curled up on the bed is a tiny form. Unfurling, a the beastfolk rabbit lifts her head: far more rabbit than folk, not much more than three feet tall without her ears and wearing a goggled cap and overalls.
Ovelia Metalspeaker sees Axton and her tall, long ears fall into a droop.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Granted, it's not very cool to up and leave Azoth, especially when he can't move or communicate. Ragnell realizes that when he silently shouts after her, a surge of worry in his own concern as she leaves. Certainly it would've been nicer to at least give him a head's up. But Ragnell *did* say she'd be back, and when opportunities arise you have to be decisive. She'll bring Azoth back something that'll make the sudden departure worth it. At least, that's what she's decided she'll do.
And so, tucked away in Axton's device, Ragnell watches and listens. Initially, the most she learns is that Axton sure likes to talk to herself, which is frankly not new information. But she does make note of the passageway, of the drones and the doors and the steps until Axton and her passenger make it to that egg-like chamber where a small beastfolk lies imprisoned.
So she *is* alive. Ragnell marvels at that from within the device she's stowing away on, while continuing to keep her mouth shut... for now. Beyond that, half her attention goes to what manner of surveillance equipment exists in this chamber, while the other half stays on Axton and, of course, Ovelia.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
There does happen to be a surveillance camera in the cell, but... something's off about the electricity in it. This device has been tampered with.
Where Azoth could provide translation of the Solaris language for Ragnell, he can't do so now. To call it an exchange would be generous. Axton goes on and on about something, gesturing wildly now and then and tapping at her tablet to unlock software. It's probably easy to imagine she's merely relaying a lot of information Ragnell already knows -- in fact, Ragnell probably knows more. She was there when Azoth found the Void Drive.
Ovelia, it seems, does not agree this is necessary. She speaks in common and holds out her paws in a grabby hands fashion. "I can't tell you anything without reviewing the data."
Axton eyes her. She says something under her breath. But the grabby hands are insistent.
"You have thirty minutes," Axton relents in common. She taps at a keypad by the cell and opens a slot to slide her tablet through, Ragnell and all (should she remain). Ovelia takes it up in her little paws and crawls back up on her bed to paw at it, unaware she's got a possessed computer.
She paws at the tablet, then stops, looking to Axton and hiding the lower half of her face behind the tablet. "I can't do it if you watch me."
Axton groans. "Seriously?"
"The metal doesn't speak in front of the impure of heart."
There is a long, flat moment where Erica Axton is deciding how to respond to that. She decides to do it by silently pressing the keypad so that the doors shut to give Ovelia her requested privacy.
... Which Ovelia immediately uses to start trying to abuse special commands in an attempt to break into parts of the tablet Axton didn't already release access to. Her cheeks puff up, and Ragnell can understand the frustration: this particular datapad isn't holding any other information outside what was going on with Azoth just now. Axton is, again, not that much of an idiot.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
A tampered surveillance camera... Interesting. Ragnell can't help but wonder who did the tampering.
It *is* true that she doesn't know Solarian--though she's been learning a few words here and there--so following Axton without Azoth's translations does make it a little rough. But Ragnell's pretty sure she can guess at most of it via context. After all, she *was* there when Azoth found the Void Drive.
More power to Ovelia for refusing to talk in Solarian, even though she clearly understands it. Though, maybe she doesn't understand it well enough to feel comfortable speaking it? That happens too, sometimes. Either way, Ragnell ends up quite literally in Ovelia's hands after a moment. On which note, Ragnell does indeed remain in the tablet. After all, she wanted to nose around Ovelia. What better way to communicate subtly than through a device designed for communication? Among other things, anyway.
When Ovelia speaks of the impure of heart, Ragnell laughs soundlessly within the tablet. It works, though, and she likes that. She also likes that Ovelia *immediately* abuses what little power she has the instant her captor is out of the room. It is a shame that Axton isn't so much of an idiot to knowingly give Ovelia access to potentially harmful information.
A big emphasis on 'knowingly.'
A chat window from an instant message program pops up on the tablet screen. The username is just a mishmash of symbols. The message is simple:
Howdy! Whatcha looking for?
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Ovelia resigns herself to reviewing the information asked of her. But this, too, undoubtedly has some importance. She crawls back on the bed and sighs.
Then... a message. Ovelia's ears perk straight up. She nearly falls on the floor, scrambling over the device to keep hold of it and hurriedly attempt to answer. She's got paws more than she's got hands, but she seems to manipulate the device well enough.
Who is this that speaks?
She is starting to vibrate in place as she waits for a response.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
You shouldn't fall TOO hard over yourself. You're still being watched. Something wrong with the security cameras, though--and maybe you know something about that? Ragnell non-replies. But, well, with Ovelia literally vibrating, she doesn't keep her in suspense too long:
A friend of a friend. Assuming, of course, you consider Azoth a friend.
...well, okay, there's still *some* suspense.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
I ate the wires!
Don't let rabbits run free around your computer equipment.
At Azoth's name, Ovelia's vibrating goes stone still. For a moment, she isn't breathing, and it takes a deep, hitched breath before she finds it in her to respond.
What do you want with the Azoth?
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
If this were a world in which internet speak were a thing, Ovelia's declaration that she'd eaten the wires would get her a hearty LOL. Alas, Ragnell only laughs within the confines of her device, not that anyone would be able to hear.
She does, however, note the abrupt change in Ovelia's demeanor when Azoth's name comes up. She also notes how she refers to him as 'THE' Azoth. Does that mean she doesn't see him as having personhood either? Or...
Either way, Ragnell considers her response carefully. Ultimately, she decides on a plain, undetailed, but brusque statement of truth: To help him become able to make his own choices. Because fuck Solaris.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Ovelia sits up a little higher, her ears perked straight up. She's hesitating despite a glimmer in her eye that wasn't there before.
Locked in a little cell like this, it doesn't seem it could get much worse, does it? Yet Ovelia remains guarded a few moments more before she takes the risk of responding.
FUCK SOLARIS!
Those big long ears fall again in a sad droop. The sense of triumph in a rebellious spirit goes short lived.
Then I take it you already know I'm the one who reprogrammed him so they could control him.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
It's a shame that Ragnell can't laugh more outright in this device. Instead, she offers an emoji of an outraised hand, followed by an emoji of an outraised hand facing the other direction from the first so that they come together and form a High Five. That rebellious spirit might be short-lived, but Ragnell appreciates it while it lasts.
She brings up an ugly truth. Mmhmm, Ragnell acknowledges simply. She's not here to wrest an apology out of Ovelia for that. She imagines the beastfolk did what she had to do, or else she wouldn't be locked up like this. Any tips on how to undo it?
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Ovelia peers at the attempt to communicate before she seems to get it, raising her paw in what maybe would be a high five if anyone else were there to give her one.
But there's a darker topic at hand: the overrides. She tugs the brim of her head down a little, hiding herself from an audience that isn't there. The angle the device is at means Ovelia's not shadowing anything about her grim expression.
/I designed them to feel "separate" from Azoth's objectives -- his sense of self. Instead of overwriting any code, they're intended to propose a hypothetical for him to calculate an optimal strategy for, then force him to execute the conclusion.
...His original body is set with a "trap". I installed a special device into it that will remove the source code for the overrides. No new commands will be able to be set. The hope was Azoth could untangle himself from the rest of the malicious code once he was finally restored...
But the overrides had a greater effect than intended. They adapted to Azoth's own ability to learn and rewrite himself to integrate deeply into his calculations for the sake of commands requiring long term strategies. With as complex a machine Azoth is, their removal would be a massive undertaking. An AI like himself would still be able to manage, except... he's been commanded to prevent their removal.
And he'll fight anyone else who tries. Even Solaris, unable to add new commands, won't be able to get control of him after that.
I fear I've created a terrible situation.../
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
/At least Solaris'll get boned afterwards. That'll be good for a laugh,/ Ragnell replies with pitch-black humor. /You're right though. That's going to be a giant pain in the ass. Fortunately, I don't mind fighting a friend in the short-term to help them out long-term, myself.
/So, let me recap to make sure I've got it right. The best way to rid Azoth of those overrides is to restore him to his original body, which is installed with a device that'll rid him of all the overrides automatically. The overrides also force Azoth to do what he can to prevent their erasure. I've actually fought him a few times already, both with and against, so I've got a good idea of how strong he can be, too.
Here's what I'm thinking, though. Azoth is currently trying to get his missing pieces back. This means he doesn't know about the 'trap,' right? Or else he wouldn't be doing that. If he doesn't know, then the best thing to do would be to guide him right into it with him none the wiser, then do something to 'paralyze' those overrides to make sure your trap works its magic thoroughly before they can launch a counterattack to protect themselves. What do you think of this assessment, Ovelia? Any flaws or hiccups you care to point out?
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Thinking she's alone, Ovelia can't help a vague gesture to herself at Ragnell's first comment, wincing, as if to say to herself, 'can't pretend I haven't thought about it that way'.
Her ears perk as she reads further, and then they go on a journey of drooping and lifting with her uncertain feelings, and getting so confused one's up and one's down by the end of it.
What you propose may work, but it's risky. If he's able to get a counterattack off at all, then a lot of damage could be done. Not just to where he's deployed, but to himself. An outside source helping remove the lingering override fragments would be best, if you could find one.
Presumably, Ovelia herself could do it, but certainly not while imprisoned.
She wiggles her foot idly with thought, squinting at the text with a realization that unsettles her.
/You may not have a full idea of how strong he is. ...Though I may not, either.
I didn't expect he'd find so much of his missing pieces. If Solaris only puts him in once he's finished, then you're not going to be fighting the Azoth you're familiar with.
You're going to be fighting a Gear./
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell chuckles, seeing that wince thanks to the video lens installed on the tablet. She has herself on mute as far as the tablet is concerned, though, so that doesn't come across. It's cute to see her ears perk and droop over and over, but it's not a *great* sign for what Ragnell's aiming for. Still, this is something she actually cares about, so she accepts it for what it is. You don't seize success without acknowledging the ways in which you might fail.
An outside source... Like what, exactly? she asks. But... then Ovelia suggests that Ragnell might not know *quite* how strong Azoth really is. That if he were to assemble all the pieces of himself, he would be a Gear.
/Yeah, that tracks,/ she replies, unruffled by this news. /I've seen a good chunk of the maintenance done on him, and there's aspects of it that don't make sense for a human-sized machine. Not to mention some of the equipment he's recovered, woo boy. And actually, the idea of fighting a Gear is pretty exciting. I know someone reliable who'd get a real *charge* out of that, heh heh.
/So if it comes down to a fight, I'm not worried. I just want to make sure the override removal goes smoothly. Tell me how to do that, and I'll make sure it happens.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Ovelia sometimes moves away from the messaging to look at the data Axton actually intended her to look over. She sighs at it, disappointed, giving it little attention before going back to her conversation with Ragnell.
/Another program designed to uninstall the remaining pieces. Or someone could do it actively, if they had the means. I think I could, if I weren't in here. Although, if I weren't in here, I could build another program to do it...
You'd need to find an expert in Zeboim technology. Manipulating his energy with sorcery is also possible in theory. In being designed to amplify it, he's sensitive to it./
Ragnell calls fighting Azoth exciting, and Ovelia's ears go zig-zagged as she makes a face like she's licked a lemon when she expected a dandelion. She moves closer to the tablet, squinting at it like that's at all going to help her figure out who this mystery friend of Azoth's is.
It does not help.
/Then if you think you can handle it...
Whether you can paralyze the overrides so Azoth can remove them himself, or whether you get a third party to help him remove the remnants, you'll need to be prepared to hold him off while it happens. Because until it takes, he'll attack whoever poses the a threat to their removal./
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Being within the data of the tablet, Ragnell of course 'sees' where Ovelia alt-tabs over to Axton's data and reluctantly taps a few keys before returning to the conversation. It's actually super-hilarious to the Seraph, though she keeps this to herself. Ovelia is an ally--an essential one for helping Azoth reclaim his self--but she's still a captive of Solaris's and in particular Axton's. The less she knows about Ragnell until she's out of this damned cage, the better.
Especially since Ovelia sounds like the most straightforward way of making a failsafe to get rid of those overrides. Ragnell considers this thoughtfully for a moment. She already knew that it's possible to manipulate his energy with sorcery, having been doing this for some time, but it's good to get confirmation. For the time being: How about you teach me what you know about code? I've been learning on my own from what I've been studying of Azoth's software, but it would be much faster and more efficient to learn from a master--especially one who worked on the machine in question herself. Ideally, we'd bust you out of this shithole and you'd do it yourself, but we ought to consider all options. I suspect I can come to you much more easily than you could leave here.
Of course she can handle it, though. Of that, she has no doubt. Of course, it would be with K.K.'s help, fighting the Azoth on the outside, while Ragnell dismantles the overrides from the inside, but details. I've got someone I trust to hold him off. I'll handle the removal. A beat. Then: You said you ate the surveillance cam wires. Did you eat ALL of them, or is there something still around that you could jury-rig to this thing? If not, let's connive to get Axton to poke you again for 'help' on Azoth, and we'll use that chance then. In which case, you might wanna do a better job on that data--though not too good. Enough to make her think you're useful, but not so good she doesn't need you anymore.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Another shadow casts over Ovelia's face.
/If you're willing to learn, then it's probably better you help Azoth than me.
I'll see what I can do about the camera./
She looks up at the camera, then cautiously to the wall, where Erica Axton waits on the other side, impure heart and all. Carefully, quietly, Ovelia puts the device in her mouth and wiggles her tail before making an all fours scramble up the wall, barely snatching onto the security camera to begin the elegant art of engineering.
Ovelia's version of this worryingly uses a lot of teeth. And how is she gripping at individual wires with those fluffy paws of hers, anyway...?! She works with disturbing speed, and even grabs something from inside her ear to add to the mix of whatever she has going on.
Her grip fails her as she finishes, and she tumbles onto the ground in a clumsy roll, landing in a pile of fluff. Her head pops up and she unfolds herself to get back to responding to Ragnell.
I've connected them. I think. But if they find out I broke another one, they'll move me again. I'll try with Axton... But she hates me a lot bit. I already know the answer to her question. She's not going to like it, and she probably won't believe me.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
It's fascinating, watching Ovelia at work from within the tablet. It is also worrying. But hey, as long as it works--and when the wires are connected, Ragnell sends out a silent ping to the rest of the network, riding alongside the normal signal feed. As long as she gets a response, that's enough. She'll be able to work out a way into this cell as needed through the wires, and from there pay a visit to Ovelia without having to rely on a shitty human who hates this beastfolk anyway.
Assuming she did indeed successfully connect them. But she seems quite good.
/Let's not let them find out you broke another one, then. Can you make up an answer that'll put her in a good mood, or is this a situation where that's not gonna be possible? Either way, I'm gonna erase our communication and focus on setting up a link to the outside so we can communicate again *without* me sneaking onto her tablet.
Once Ovelia gives the all clear, Ragnell will focus on exactly that, and leave Ovelia--mostly--to do what she must to butter up a rancid mortal.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
I'll do my best!
Ovelia sighs once the communications are over. That's probably the most social stimulation she's had in a while outside of visits from her captors. She turns the tablet over in her paws. "So I should... not chew on this..." she says to herself.
Sometimes revenge is tiny and petty.
She knocks on the wall, signaling for Erica Axton to command the layers back, who waits with an impatient look over the rim of her glasses. Ovelia beams at her cheerfully, but it dims to a nervous smile. Maybe all of that is a little weirdly familiar, even if the face is lagomorphic, but Ovelia sadly lacks Azoth's expertise in which face she should be wielding at a given moment.
She holds up the tablet device in both paws. "The metal has spoken!" Axton rolls her eyes, which Ovelia ignores, tapping her foot as she races with her thoughts for something Axton will not hate. "Ah, so... The line between software and hardware with Azoth is thin. You can't separate this from him to store inside the Gear without critical error." She swallows, then shuffles her feet. This is usually about the place she says something that annoys Axton. This time, she says something that hurts instead.
"...Azoth's chassis is designed to handle significant stress. So you shouldn't notice performance issues." If only Axton considered more than performance to be the issue. "But I could give you a better outlook if you give me regular updates. It doesn't have to be anything but his energy usage history."
Axton raises her brows at that. "...Regardless, we're done here." She holds out her hand.
Ovelia looks at the device uneasily, waiting a moment to see if there's a signal she needs before she hands it back to Axton. If Ragnell fails to provide one, then she'll hand it back over.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
It doesn't take very long for Ragnell to determine a connection within the surveillance network and circle it around to the surveillance over, say, the room where Azoth is currently in. Now that she knows the way back, she slips back into the tablet. The instant messages that she and Ovelia had shared have already been deleted; she deletes any record of herself in that program too. It'll be better all around if Ragnell can hitchhike in on Axton's tablet, but if that becomes infeasible, there's an alternate route in. They can work something out from there.
For the time being, once evidence of her presence and conversation have been swept clean, Ragnell bides her time within the device. When Ovelia looks down at it, the only hint that she'd ever spoken to anyone at all is a single flash of a green light. It could be a signal. Or it could be nothing. Ovelia will have to take it on faith before she hands the tablet back either way.
She's one smart bun, that's for sure. Whether Ragnell masters coding or not, she'll have to make sure this lady gets out of here *eventually*. It's what she deserves, at least.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Once the tablet has been handed off, there's not so much the effort of a goodbye. Axton presses the keypad at the side of Ovelia's cell, letting the layers seal it back up again. She points a pen at a nearby hovering security drone. "Sometimes I can't tell if it was the robot who inadvertently orchestrated this mess, or if the rabbit was behind it. What do you think? Which is less absurd?"
She blinks once, realizing who she's asking. "Fuck, I'm tired."
The exasperated engineer makes the journey back to the lab where Azoth is just as she left him: slumped and surrounded in a mess of wires. She turns her terminals back on and gets to work with basic diagnostics. "Your little bunny friend has condemned you and your incompatible hardware to a diagnosis of: deal with it. Seeing as I assume she's still delusional enough to not want you to explode, I have elected to believe that isn't going to happen."
Axton drops her face into her hand. She's talking to the robot again. "Fuck, I'm really tired. This was a waste of thirty six hours of my life." Pausing, she looks up. "What, no quip?" The muted icon is still on her terminal screen. "...Oh yeah."
Azoth wears no expression as he looks silently back at her.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Really, what kind of answer were you expecting, Erica?
Regardless, once she's returned to Azoth's lab and hooked the tablet back up, Ragnell slips through the wires to subtly return to Azoth's body.
She doesn't offer Erica a response any more than he does. She does, hwoever, send him a non-verbal pulse of reassurance, a wordless equivalent of 'I'm back.'
She'll tell her stories and make her lies later. For right now, both of them need to endure.