2022-08-06: The One Good Thing
- Log: The One Good Thing
- Cast: Azoth, Lydia Seren
- Where: Lake Macalania
- Date: August 06, 2022
- Summary: The robots are bitter and upset, but at least they've got friendship
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Shiva gave them an ultimatum. Solaris was scattered to the winds -- literally -- thrown in a blizzard by the geographically scaled aeon. Azoth was thrown from Lydia's grip, everyone scattered. Programming dictating that, despite his damages, he find and retrieve what personnel he could.
...
...
...
Later, Solaris' surviving forces to pull themselves from the snow and manage a rendezvous. As an asset, there's no need to stay around for any reporting, and Azoth stays on the edges, even as he 'patrols' around and keeps his eye out.
He remains in his unmasked, darkly robotic looking form. Blood splatters across his chassis, but not merely the small flecks after his battle with Tidus. It paints a thick streak across his front and his right arm. There's also something odd about his mannerisms. Usually, in such a visage, Azoth is twitchy at best, animated only by glitchy movements or violence. Now his posture's drooped, antenna fins drooped back like a sad animal and tail dragging across the ground.
If there is an occasional twitch, it probably has something to do with one of the frayed wires or severed cords dangling out of his open chassis.
There's who he's supposed to account for and who he wants to account for, and Azoth's visor glows and dims in an active hunt for signs of Lydia (or Rachiel, who could presumably lead him to the former).
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia Seren couldn't hold on.
...What else is new?
Lydia Seren is difficult--maybe even impossible to destroy but she still feels pain, she still experiences despair.
Azoth is bound to find Rachiel first who has been freaking out about having a hard time finding Lydia and wasn't about to return to base until she was found to be safe. This is not really neccessary. It might be even easier for her to rush back to Damzen becaue then she'd have access to her visuals, but Rachiel worries that by the time she gets there and finds her location she might be too hurt or damaged to recover.
She is shivvering and has this huge look of worry on her face, pacing around and shouting her name periodically before she finally catches sight of Azoth at the corner--her glasses are mucked up so her vision isn't too great.
"Azoth...!" Rachiel jogs over. "You're okay!"
Pause. "Oh there's..." She sees the blood. "......."
That's...
Rachiel looks a little dizzy. "Ah... Are you... Whose...."
This is the reality, Rachiel. Up close and personal. Right in your vision. You've been lollygagging but even if you weren't. He is beyond your reach...
"Azoth..." Rachiel murmurs. "...Lets... Lets find Lydie together, ok?"
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth is well aware that Lydia's unlikely to be damaged beyond repair, but he's also well aware that there's more damage than the one Solaris is chiefly concerned with. They are both machines, albeit different ones. Him, a solo unit who was once a member many programs, and her many robots who have become the one. And they both can hurt.
Rachiel first. And not with Lydia. He hesitates in silence as he stares back at her, faceless and unreadable. What is he supposed to do? He never knows how to behave anymore -- not in Solaris, not with those who've learned his secret, not with other machines. It's all a calculated choice, and the calculations are in a constant debate. There's too many unknown variables for a conclusion to be satisfyingly decisive.
But act Azoth must. And Rachiel... tries. She wanted to be friends, once, before he cruelly explained why it can't be so. Now the data's made him doubt even that.
"I'm... undamaged," he says, actual inflection in his tone. He sounds more like humanmode Azoth despite his spooky frame. "What about you?"
He doesn't need to ask to gather she's cold, adjusting his pace so he's closer and letting his core heat up to radiate warmth. It's better than nothing.
Whose.
Azoth's visor dims. He doesn't answer right away, trudging ahead with her on the search for Lydia.
"...It's Lan's."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Rachiel tries. Rachiel can only do so much though without sacrifice. She's learned that already. She can still step back though. Save her family. Herself. All she has to do is... not do anything.
It's hard to chase away those thoughts. Feels blasphemous. This isn't against the Emperor, she tells herself, it's against the people abusing his rule. But...
"...Lan's...?" Rachiel goes pale.
It seems like not too long ago they were having a pleasant adventure. That amount of blood. ... Well she's a shaman. Maybe... she magicked herself a solution?
"What...what happened?" This revelation is enough to stall her from approaching Lydia. She is considering whether or not she has to hide this or not.
She doesn't see the puddle of silver ooze slowly rising up out of the snow into the form of Lydia. She hasn't quite solidified into her usual appearance and she's being silent enough for a blizzard.
"Is she...?" Rachiel cups her mouth with both hands. IN DREAD.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
There was no compulsion to tell Rachiel. Not the way she hesitated. She didn't order Azoth to answer. But he did. Because this is what he is, what he does, what he's made and designed to do, and how Solaris has decided to wield that -- or is unable to control it.
"I happened."
Anyone who claims to care about him needs to understand it, but Azoth doesn't know how to make them really see.
"...Being cared for," is how he chooses to finish Rachiel's sentence.
Silver starts to make a Lydia, and Azoth's antenna fins lift weakly. He attempts a beep sequence of greeting -- it's not actually anything coherent she needs to understand, intended to be a pleasant sound, lilted up like a question.
As if anything were pleasant here.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
I happened
Rachiel lowers her head. "Ah..." Azoth isn't her project. If she asked for the kind of access she'd need... "This .... Leah..."
She's at a loss for words. When she looks up again she sees Azoth's antenna fins and then she hears the faint noise of Lydia forming into her wholly solid form.
"......" Lydia doesn't say anything. Did she hear what was said about Lan? The fact that she doesn't look relieved but rather her expression is as cold as Shiva--well that suggests she heard it.
"...." Lydia looks down at her feet, then her hands.
Then she sighs.
"....I'm not mad at you, Rachiel. I never expected you to do anything to help us anyway. So... Whatever. This is just another case of the thing that always happens. Why even get upset?"
"Y'all just too incapable to treat your people right. That's all."
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
"What about Leah?"
Azoth does not understand why Leah commands such respect among those of Solaris who have problems with Solaris. Even if she has different goals, they're all still tools to her, as far as he can tell.
Lydia's here, and she's silent a while. So is Azoth.
He's already confessed a sin just as bad to Lydia, and that didn't change anything. But maybe this is more important. This was Lan. Someone who under no circumstances could have ever deserved it. Someone who isn't a name in a memory, but a person they know.
She isn't the first. She won't be the last.
Azoth doesn't disagree with what Lydia ends up saying, and makes no attempt to contest it. Sorry Rachiel. He moves past her to approach Lydia instead, his voice softer.
"Lydia... how do you feel?" Because the answer to 'are you okay' is obvious, and being upset is futile but she might want to scream anyway.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
What about Leah?
"...She's the one who watches the shepherds." Rachiel says. "She surely knows what's going on. Once she has the capacity to move, I'm sure she will." Rachiel says. She can't let Azoth and Lydia know she already has a plan in mind because if she shares it then it might very well get back to people who won't take too kindly to it.
"...Sure," Lydia says to Rachiel. She doesn't even know if she should argue. However small, that is the one chance Azoth has right now. There's no point in souring that possibility by going off on her. Rachiel has no power so she might as well talk shit about her.
"You know, I thought... I was happy, before. Maybe it would've worked out. Maybe not. I don't know. But my life was looking better. I had friends, loved ones, someone I really loved."
How does she feel?
"I feel like killing everyone in Damzen Base." Lydia says. "I mean, at a certain point I'm being the coward right? If I'm not making you stop me?"
She exhales. "...But I know it's not really them. It's some nebulous up top jackasses who don't have to dirty their hands at all. Must be nice. Sitting up all high literally lookin' down on everyone. Emperor of Humanity? More like Emperor of No Humanity. Haha. Ha."
She runs her hand down her face. "Azoth is a good guy. I know he's a good guy. It's not fair. You know it's not fair. Hell, even if I was an evil emperor I'd probably, you know... GOSH. Try not to make my slave minions suffer. Maybe I'd even listen to their judgement but what do I know? I'm apparently not PSYCHO enough to run anything."
She shakes her head. "...What I feel isn't importnat right now. Azoth, .... she'll be alright. I'm sure of it. I'll find her."
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
"And have me programmed to serve her instead?" Azoth lets venom seep through his tone. "Or do you believe she would program me with logic that could oppose her own?" Maybe it's uncanny to be using the 'boy's' voice as the 'machine'. But it's not the cheerful boy. This one's bitter.
There's too many masks and Azoth predicts there's only going to be more, not less, by the time this mess sorts itself out. He already has a couple planned. Won't those theatrics be fun?
Azoth quiets to give Lydia his attention now. He may not have a face with eyes, but his visor's light is still gently glowing on her. For a while, both of them were pretending things would be all right. And Lydia had so much. She had Ivan, and her moms, and a family...
Solaris does not shepherd. It does not protect. It ruins everything it touches.
"Not to them. But it is to me," Azoth says. It's dangerous and it's stupid to be talking like this, in some ways. In others, it's more dangerous not to. And that's the logic that wins out. The risk calculated to be higher. It's calculations, all the way down.
But that's what he has.
"...Thank you. When you do, tell her... no, it doesn't matter." Apologies are as meaningless as anything else.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"...Leah..." Rachiel says. "Isn't a programmer so she can't do that!" She raises her head, conviction in her eyes! "...Though I guess she could...order someone to." She frowns. "But to be honest, you're such a complex AI I don't think there's too many people who could do that. If we had such talented programmers like that, it probably...wouldn't be as sloppy as this." Pause. "Sorry. Uh. I'm not trying to be rude just, you know, if we could program you to just be loyal to us--and we wanted to--wouldn't we have done that by now? Half the time you went out berserk you didn't even do it based on our orders. I don't think that's something we...entirely added in ourselves, at most we're tapping into it and rerouting it awkwardly into what we do want you to do."
"I know... I seem useless but..." Rachiel curls her hands into fists. "....I am trying. I promise. My reach isn't far, but... I'm trying."
That's all she can say.
Not to them. But it is to me.
Rachiel flinches and looks away. Just a little longer. It's the best that she can do.. This might be an opportunity.
Rachiel does provide one thing even if it might not seem like much. She doesn't report the complaining, the downright treason Rachiel spits. Krelian likely gives zero shits, but someone else might and that's bureaucracy for you.
"Meeting you is the best thing that's happened to me here, Azoth. Thank you. I know it feels like just words but... It does mean a lot to me." Lydia assures him. "And Lan, well. She's tough. And kind. I once talked to her about eating her hair because I wanted to mess with her. And we're pals now."
As if this is equivalent to making that blood splatter happen. She's being looked after. She'll be fine.
She has to be fine.
Star Sister.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Rachiel already has the right of it. Someone else could be ordered to. But she's also right that attempts to control Azoth have turned him into a coding disaster.
"That is all correct," he says, exasperated. It speaks for itself what a problem it all is. Maybe there should be something reassuring about it. They're able to make him do whatever they want, but he still gets to feel how 'he' would feel about it. Small mercies(?).
She's trying. Rachiel is trying. Azoth looks at her, but he isn't wearing the kind of face that says anything about what he's feeling, and he doesn't offer his verbal opinion. It wouldn't be unreasonable to take it as judgmental.
(That's the problem with communication, isn't it? Even saying nothing says something. This is complicated.)
Meeting you is the best thing that's happened to me here, Azoth.
Azoth's antenna ears droop again, and he makes a low toned beep. "Lydia..." Uncertain and with careful trepidation, he sets his clawed robot hand gently on her head.
...
"Please don't eat Lan's hair."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia closes her eyes. As a beastfolk who has some kind of goat or maybe some ram in her... .She does seem to enjoy headpats. It might be physiological.
"I didn't eat her hair!" Lydia protests. "I just...was trying to be creepy because I had this whole head problem going on. Like..this!"
Lydia thinks real hard--she can do this. She can do this.
Slowly Lydia's head shifts forms until she looks kind of like this but with her whole cyber armor deal: https:'dreamchasers.spaceimagesccbAsteroidTheKid.png
"So I mean I was trying to uh. Live up to my. Horror monster style, right?"
FWOOHP it goes back to normal. "I was pretty upset she still got to have pretty hair and all when my head was an asteroid with an eye and all."
She wiggles back and forth on her feet.
"...." She glances to the side. "Er." She pauses. "Yeah. Um. Yeah. That's the story. Hi Azoth I'm Lydia."
Rachiel doesn't say anything.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth lifts his claw up only as much as he has to in order to allow Lydia's head to become of the Asteroid. Then he pats that too, because apparently he has no respect for the horror monster style. Or it's a kinship thing. A different kind of monster.
He gives a reaffirming cheerful beep because he can't do any smiling. Except, if Lydia can shift the one eye...
Azoth's visor dims, and then only a single, large dot lights in it, mimicking a single pupil that splits into two.
They go ^ ^ for a moment before normalizing.
"Hi, Lydia."
He withdraws his claw. "...I'm glad I met you, too."
Even if it had to be here, he does not say.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia's eyes slant up for a moment. She sees--
A ^ ^. "Haha, y'dork." She says fondly. It'll be okay. Lan'll be okay. "Lets clean that off." Lydia suggests. The 'Even if it had to be here' is silent but, well, it's not as if Lydia doesn't know. She'll figure something out. She's escaped prisons before this is just a more elaborate one. Just needs to be indispensible right?
But... Seraphita can't be around all the time. What then?
...
There must be a solution.
"Doesn't match your color scheme." Lydia adds because dwelling into the actual reasons are depressing so just make up better reasons until you get out of here. That's sometimes the best you can do.
She can't leave him, she thinks. They have to both get outta here.
And underneath her consciousness...
Yet transmitted, silently, to Azoth's comms. And only for him.
Seek Elly.
OS doesn't give any other information than that. Leaves it all up to Azoth's imagination. OS understands programming. What to say, what not to say. But OS remembers what Elly had been able to do to them. Somehow, despite being but human, she was able to hack them.
To themselves and only to themselves...
The apotheosis is inevitable. Needless.
And Rachiel just watches the two of them as Lydia leads them off. It's time. She's sorry Azoth.
This is the best she can do.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth beeps cheerfully at being called a dork, settling into the tone Lydia's taken. It's gruesome, isn't it? To 'laugh' and beep and accept cheer after what he's done and will do. Lan's his friend. And... it didn't matter.
Why doesn't it ever matter?
He accepts her assessment, too. Get cleaned. Get rid of the dressing evidence. He's found Lydia now, so there's no other pressing navigation he needs to make. A transmission comes, and there's absolutely no outward hint or clue he's received the communication.
But he does. Seek Elly... Emeralda's... mother? Or someone close to it.
I am glad we met as well.
Better not to question it. Take the data and hold it close, and hold whatever they still have until it's taken from them.