2022-08-07: Can You Pet the Bunny?
- Log: Can You Pet the Bunny?
- Cast: Ovelia Metalspeaker, Rachiel Medry
- Where: Grandgrowl's hanger
- Date: August 07, 2022
- Summary: Rachiel seeks out the one bunny who might know anything about how to get Azoth's code from being a pile of erroneous murder.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
The finer, personal details of Azoth's situation may be obfuscated under the structure of Solaris' reports and paperwork, but the information on the basics are there to be found. The Azoth, a Gear believed to have been created in the Zeboim era, was discovered, undergoing testing until an incident caused Solaris to lose control. Later, it would be revealed the Azoth's AI systems had been spoofed, and the actual intelligence required to operate it was stolen.
The AI was reclaimed, the thief punished, and the project altered. Erica Axton largely oversees it these days, with the Azoth AI's operating in a smaller chassis, running surface missions to locate missing pieces of the Gear. A third class beastfolk, Ovelia Metalspeaker, is cited as getting the machine's programming under control and installing the overrides, and thus pardoned for acting as an accomplice in the Azoth's theft.
Ovelia was, however, transferred to work as an engineer on the Grandgrowl, and the hanger is where she can be found now. A rabbit-like beastfolk, standing about three feet tall (before the massive ears factor in), looking like someone yanked a garden variety rabbit upright and put her in a pair of overalls. A little goggled cap sits on her head, goggles currently down as she rummages around a crate for tools, her tuft of a tail sticking up in the air before she loses balance and lands right on it.
"Ow!"
Her too-big eyes are round and watery, lip quivering before she slaps her cheeks with her paws to get a hold of herself, hoisting up a hard earned wrench to and taking it with her to squint critically at a broken computer terminal. One deeply thoughtful assessment later and she swings her wrench like a baseball bat with a denting crack against the terminal.
It comes to life and she drops her wrench in favor of throwing both arms in the air up in victory. "I... I fixed it!"
This. This is the creature that reprogrammed the Azoth. This is the one person who figured out how to wake technology from a millennium ago. This is the only individual in Solaris who could understand enough of the ancient code to issue new commands the machine known as Azoth.
She's delightfully fluffy.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Rachiel Medry is a top graduate of Jugend. Despite how she acts 95 percent of the time, she is actually quite capable when it comes down to it. If the Elements weren't already filled, she would have been a contender, and if she wasn't so outspoken in class she might have ended up as a Commander rather than a lowly Operator. In a way, she was a perfect fit to be assigned to some kind of unruly cyborg minion, toiling away in a basement with this weird project rather than anything that let her near anything of actual military importance--and Rachiel excels at at information gathering and analysis--traits any Operator would need to have, particularly for someone like Lydia.
That said, Solaris doesn't usually pardon people regardless of their promise so this Ovelia must be someone impressive indeed (or she could have been pulled under Seraphita's protection). And so.
Rachiel's first experience with Ovelia is seeing her fall on her bun bum. Rachiel has deep sympathy for this klutz-like behavior. Rachiel's glasses are a little crooked actually and she hasn't noticed. Look, just trust me. She usually knows what she's doing so long as it doesn't have to look like she does.
She jumps faintly as Ovelia fixes a terminal by hitting it. Yeah, she thinks, Lydia would love this gear bunny. Lydia has a similar approach to repairing things.
She approaches, thinking about how to broach the subject of petting Ovelia when Lydia's voice enters her brain. It isn't the actual Lydia, just sort of a mental Lydiepproximation.
LYDIA: You're thinking of asking about petting her aren't you?
RACHIEL: N-nuh uh!
LYDIA: You KNOW that's offensive to beastfolk. You wouldn't ask Seraphita if you could pet her right?
RACHIEL: I kind of get the feeling that she'd let me though---
LYDIA: SHE'S SOME KIND OF SUPERGENIUS YOU DON'T ASK TO PET A SUPERGENIUS UNTIL YOU GET TO KNOW THEM BETTER.
RACHIEL: Eeeek! I'm sorrrry! ;o;.
Rachiel swings her hands behind her back. "H-hello, ma'am...!" Rachiel you outrank her. "You are Ovelia, Azoth's..."
She trails off.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
"Wah!"
Ovelia leaps up her own height as soon as Rachiel speaks up, landing on all fours with her nose wriggling accelerating in momentary panic. Slowly, she rises back up and lifting her goggles back over the brim of her cap.
"Azoth's..."
She eyes Rachiel warily, fidgeting her paws together, eyes darting from side to side.
"...Former, um, maintenance engineer?"
Her gaze is searching, like she's trying to see if this is the correct answer. Maybe she's given too much away already...?
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"I was gonna say Bunny Mom!" Rachiel beams.
Wait did she already mess up?
She clasps her hands together as she swings them back forward, her smile slightly goofy but with unhidden anxiety. This may not make things less anxious for Ovelia.
"I wanted to talk to you because he's been a real sweetheart, a lovely caring boy..."
She pauses for a moment. Didn't they say Azoth was for the Zeboim era? Does that mean Azoth is actually the Bunny Mom's dad? Rachiel's eyes go crosseyed for a moment as she struggles with this before shaking her head, clearing her thoughts. Empty Head No Thoughts, just like her teachers in swordsmanship taught her.
Maybe a little too well.
"If you're worried about him being in trouble, don't you worry! He's wonderful. He's just, well, he's just a teensy little widdle bit..."
"Uncontrollably murderous?" Rachiel offers. "But, you know, other than that a real lovely guy!"
"I, um... was hoping maybe you might have some insight to ... help him ... be less murderous? He doesn't seem to care for that part."
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
That certainly knocks the wary right off of Ovelia's face.
"M-MOM?!"
She gasps, grasping her cheeks in her paws, fretting back and forth. "H-He's so much older than me...! But then again he can't remember... and I guess I, uh, did make his hair color the same as my fur... A-And I was going to give him ears before they, um, took over the blueprints. But I also made him look like F--" She gasps out all of the air in the room and looks to Rachiel in panic. "My relationship with Imrea wasn't like that, I swear! I never -- n-not with a first class...!"
Why is she being this defensive. She can't make Falk's reputation worse.
But the way Rachiel speaks of Azoth has her blinking at her with those giant eyes of hers. She begins to circle around Rachiel to one side, then turns around and half-circles to the other from the front, as if dishonesty were a physical thing she could find.
Tentatively, she straightens up again. A friend of Azoth's...? The more positively Rachiel speaks, the more Ovelia seems to relax.
...But Azoth is a teensy little widdle bit murderous, isn't he? Ovelia cringes.
"I. Um. Well..."
Her long ears droop down.
"The overrides allow agents to issue commands. If they're sending him on combative missions... Th-That's the result, right? To fight and kill...? He's, um, a weapon first and foremost. So his programming is unfortunately well suited to such calculations..."
It seems Ovelia may not be aware of how glitchy the situation has become yet. As far as she knows, Solaris wanted a tool and they got what they wanted. But that someone outranking her seems worried about it is a little weird...
"Thank goodness he doesn't like it," she says quietly to herself, sighing with relief.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Rachiel Medry says, "Aww but what's age matter for a loving mother son relationship...?" She probably shouldn't tease too much though she can't help but find the idea of such a relationship adorable--even the one with Imrea--
--though her expression falters faintly when she remembers what had happened to Falk.
"Heh... I guess we just can't help but be charmed, huh...?" She asks rhetorically, avoiding looking directly at Ovelia for a moment.
Rachiel certainly has the capacity for sneakery but it doesn't seem to be where she lives. Dishonesty is a suit she has to put on.
"...Yeah. Thank goodness right?" Rachiel murmurs. "...I guess that's a weird thing for me to say. We are taught as Gazel that we are the Shepherds of the Surface but maybe we have that backwards... Well, I guess reflecting on it for too much longer won't do any good."
She looks back to Ovelia, stiffening up a bit. Ovelia might be able to sense she's sort of putting on her Officer pants. Maybe just one Officer Pantleg at the moment because it's mostly affecting her posture, not her face.
"Well, I guess that's what they wanted. Personally I think he should have the freedom to choose but I'm not an AI specialist."
She crosses her arms. "But even disregarding that--there's been an 'accident' but to call something like that an accident..." She exhales a sigh. "Well, you know, if we willingly create a situation where we turn off someone's ability to judge for themselves--is it really an accident if we're in a situation where we can't issue orders quick enough and they hurt someone we don't want them to? I don't think so."
She is a victim of this willful negligence as wlel.
"Not too long ago, Azoth was briefly seperated from us and before we could issue an override--he cut Lan Lilac down. He said she'd survive but... Well he's reacting how you'd expect. Even if I can't do much, is there any way to give him a little more control over his actions? I don't want to get you in trouble but this is beyond my ability to personally handle."
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Rachiel's teasing is distressingly effective for getting Ovelia to drop her guard. Good thing Rachiel actually cares about what happens to Azoth and isn't here to learn something terrible to ruin him forever! ...Never mind there would be way easier ways to do that. Honestly, not doing anything accomplishes that. The lowest effort option.
"I-I mean, we all did say we were a family, b-b-but we didn't, um, assign roles! I could have been his big sister!" She puts her paws on her hips, looking directly at Rachiel. After a moment, she stands on the tippiest tips of her toes. Then falls over.
She's quick to get back up and dust herself off, frowning at Rachiel a moment with the rhetorical question. Her demeanor only wilts further getting into Solaris' purpose. This little bunny doesn't know all that much about that.
"They didn't think he had the capacity for 'choosing' before." She scuffs her foot on the ground. "When I first started him up for them, I didn't think he was going to be 'alive' either..."
Guilt shadows her face. Her whole posture is slumped. It doesn't quite fade even as she forces herself to look back at Rachiel, even with surprise to replace some of it.
"Oh. Uncontrolled violence..." She chews her bottom lip. "...I admit I was afraid there might be additional problems if he found more of his data -- his memories. There could be unexpected interference from his base programming... Errors and glitches that led to unintended behaviors."
She takes a deep breath, slapping her cheeks again to shake her gloom before looking up at Rachiel with the most determined big eyed face she can muster.
"Even if I had permission, I can't give Azoth what it is you're really hoping for. I could review the changes in his data and tweak the overrides so he behaves less autonomously and relies on more direct commands... Or something that smooths out the worst of the glitches, at least. I'd even give Axton that information outright and let her do it, if that's what it takes to help him...
"But I can't make him... be more him. He has to have objectives to operate... And the objectives that make him the Azoth we know are at odds with what Solaris wants."
Her ears droop again and she grabs hold of them, squeezing them together under her chin.
"...If his objectives were reprogrammed to match what Solaris wants without needing command overrides... Then Azoth's personality would change to match the new motivations." She looks suddenly at Rachiel. "That's not possible, of course! If -- If it was, Solaris would have done it. Made me do it, I mean. Um. It. It's not something I can do! At all! Can't do that!"
Her nose is twitching so fast it might vibrate off of her face.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Oh good, reprogramming Azoth to not be Azoth would be tragic." Rachiel says. "I don't suspect Krelian could manage it, but so long as he doens't care about him--he should be safe." She pauses. "And um. I guess I should have mentioned earlier but I'm going to be deleting the footage of this conversation prretty much as soon as we're done. I know I didn't ask permission to do that buuuut I think you'd prefer that I do that."
Ovelia is so cute. It's actually tough for someone raised in SOlaris to remind oneself that this isn't some kind of mystical fey forest creature it's an actual person with feelings, especially when you are this much a beastperson.
"I'd break him out if I could but I couldn't think of a way to do that. WIth those kinds of overrides even if I helped him escape they could just call him back. And I don't know where that stuff is stored."
Tweak the overrides so he behaves less autonomously and relies on more direct commands? That might be for the best in one way, but how would Azoth feel about it? He might not want to slice someone up but it's hard to know if this is a superior state of existence. Maybe smoothing out the glitches.
"I understand," Rachiel says. "Whatever happens, I at least want him to remain Azoth." Needs objectives to operate.
"My brother," Rachiel says, moving near and sitting down because it's easier to talk face to face like that when someone's a 3 foot bunny girl. "He was a student at Jugend you know. He was really highly regarded but one day there was an 'accident' and he was killed alongside some other Gazel." Pause. "People. I think it's around then I started thinking: Surely this is not what the Emperor wants. An 'accident' like that--should have never happened."
She turns to Ovelia. "Maybe smoothing out those glitches will be the best move. I don't think Azoth wants to hurt people accidentally. ... Or when ordered to. If I can help at all before..."
She is quiet for a moment. "Well maybe it'll work out. And if it works out, maybe I can try something more later..."
She smiles at nothing. "But I think if I don't try to do anything right now, even if it's imperfect, I don't think I'd be able to face my brother again. Or even see myself as ... well... a person at all."
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
"Yes! Yes exactly! Tragic!" Ovelia's nose calms down as she nods enthusiastically. She is not being the most subtle bunny, but she does have a lot of plausible deniability. "YesIwouldpreferthatthankyou."
To be fair to Rachiel, Ovelia is very small and very fluffy.
At mentioning breaking Azoth out, Ovelia looks briefly Nervous, but nods. "Mm. There's a lot of commands they could issue to force him into actions they need... Recalling him is definitely one of them."
She sighs, grabbing her ears again, giving little fidgeting tugs. Rachiel sits and Ovelia flops down too. Thankfully this doesn't entirely ruin the effort. They're still much more on the same level than they were both standing.
"...I'm sorry about your brother," is what Ovelia manages to say first. "There... really should be less accidents..."
More determined, she nods to Rachiel. "I can make him less glitch prone, at least. That should help. And hurt him less. Even if it can't fix everything... I'll get together the information Axton would need in case she doesn't want me anywhere near him. I don't think she wants him glitching that badly either."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Rachiel is glad she gets to have a real conversation. "Heh... I shouldn't be telling you about any of this. I shouldn't have told anyone." The fewer people you tell the less likely something gets slipped. But it is all too human to need to talk to someone. And that person happens to be Ovelia apparently.
"Yeah I guess if I told him to report to you that'd be suspicious if he normally reports to Axton. Alright, I'll handle the paperwork. I can't imagine after what happened it'll need a lot of grease."
Ovelia is sorry about her brother. There really should be less 'accidents'.
"Yeah." Rachiel says. "...Yeah."
She smiles. "So it's a plan. It was nice to meet you--ahh, I guess I forgot to say my name?" She idly pushes her glasses back into proper place. "I'm Rachiel Medry by the way. I'm glad we could talk, Ovelia."
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Ovelia doesn't get much in the way of real conversations these days either. Not since Falk and Azoth. Those Seraphita's help has changed that. Having an Element on your side does perform a few small miracles. Maybe Ovelia's getting too comfortable. Or maybe she's feeling more and more helpless, despite everything.
A chance to do some helping has put a little more sparkle in her eyes.
"Yeah, they locked me up for a while so I couldn't see him, so I don't think they'd like that." Though 'they' may mostly be Axton. "At least they didn't kill me..."
She was too valuable for that.
"Rachiel Medry!" Ovelia repeats. "I'm Ovel-- wait you know that." She clears her throat. "Thanks for coming to see me. I... don't hear a lot about him."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Rachiel smiles at Ovelia. "Ovelia...! Got it! Heehee... Oval..."
Oh no, is that a nickname now???
"Hopefully I can see you again sometime," Rachiel says before leaving, her heart lightened. In Solaris, you see, you need to make the most of the little joys. The big ones are so often so very far away.