2023-11-18: How About a Nice Game of Cards?
- Log: How About a Nice Game of Cards?
- Cast: Loren Voss, Azoth
- Where: Westbreak Island
- Date: November 18, 2023
- Summary: Loren, evading his mother on Moloch Base in the wake of the failed attempt to entrap and murder Siegfried, checks in on Azoth. He may regret this.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
The closest evacuation point had been Moloch Base.
This is an unfortunate turn of events for Loren and Loren alone, since Odila Voss, who is, yes, his mother, is the base commander.
Moloch Base oversees nothing of ostensible importance. Situated far to the north, about as near to the geographic north as is possible on Filgaia, it is an outpost that has two major functions. The first is to keep tabs on certain geographic and meteorologic functions, which Solaris being Solaris, involves their military. The second is as a dumping ground for soldiers and officers that have displeased the status quo, but not enough for explusion or execution. It is in short a place to ensure that 'problematic people' are kept away from anything actually important... and retained as a resource in the event they are actually needed.
Loren, after his initial escape from making his report and his mother alike has been using engineering as a place to... well. Not hide, that's for sure. He's definitely not hiding from his mother, that's for sure.
The engineers have found this extremely funny and haven't ratted him out yet.
The only good thing about this is that he's caught up somewhat on his reading and it means that checking in on Azoth, currently undergoing repairs, is just a matter of swinging into the correct maintenance wing.
Azoth, who had definitely tried to blow them all up (sans Loren) and who had also kept him from getting ventilated by Xantia.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
The damage to Azoth was extensive, this time more than others even for such a recklessly wielded weapon. Ethius' intervention and bid to limit the destruction required Azoth to allow critical damages... not merely cosmetic, as can often be the case. Thankfully, it was not so severe they had to call in the original designer of Azoth's current frame. Imagine the humiliation!
But someone has to contact Axton and field her two hours of complaining, and then there's the issue of someone securing the right supplies. This leaves Azoth alone for the moment. It isn't as if he's a medical patient under watch. He's just a (barely) humanoid machine with shattered legs and a broken face with a void behind it. More of his insides are visible than ever, the plates of his chassis cracked open. This includes his core, for the moment: an orb of a mechanism cradled in frayed wires, pulsating with fuchsia and neon blue light, with strange, projected symbols orbiting it in rings, colors everchanging... the whole make is not unlike an armillary sphere.
Numerous cords plug down the ports of Azoth's spine and neck, with a few added externally to his core. There's a terminal nearby with some disaster of glitched code on it. It appears to be running through a diagnostic process.
The moment Loren enters this dark room, Azoth's broken visor lights with a single point of red brightness on its one good side. He drags his head up, turnin that piercing gaze on Loren.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Practically speaking, he should write this one off. If things had gone differently, everyone there except Loren might have died. He'd warned Lan off of Azoth for a reason. He'd tried to keep Azoth away from Lan for a reason.
And logically, he knows why. Both why Azoth saved him and why Azoth tried to kill everyone there. He'd shown Loren his truth, after all.
But he also can't shake what Lan had said to him. He'd tried to kill her, too. And maybe, sure, he hadn't been in his right mind at the time, but it doesn't mean he's been able to wash his hands of it, either. And--
It's not as simple as saying 'they're the same' because they're not. They're most certainly not. But he's also been thinking about everything he did for this operation that he'd done in spite of how uneasy he'd felt about them, and...
And, he should check in on Azoth anyway because supporting him is his responsibility. That's what the Watcher had said and that's the only reason Loren is doing this.
...Funny, did the technician just step out? The damage had been pretty bad. Maybe they're calling in for additional support, runs Loren's thought in that split-second as he steps into the room. The door slides shut behind him, plunging the space into darkness illuminated only by the glow from within Azoth, the terminal monitor, and... yes, that single red eye in the darkness.
He backs up which only means he squishes himself up against the quite closed door. To his credit (and at least for the sake of his pride), he doesn't do anything as embarrassing as squeak. But Loren feels like his heart has ended up in his throat as he stares at Azoth, who has lifted his head just enough to get a good look at Loren.
"Oh... good," Loren attempts, trying to sound natural. "Just what I need."
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth stares.. Silent. Unmoving. Gaze gleaming red.
What number of murderous calculations could be going on under the surface? And this machine, so erratic in its operation, may only be one error away from turning on its handlers. Azoth's killed a Gebler before.
...
The dot becomes a ^... one half of what should be a display of a '^ ^' emote.
"Good morning, User Loren!" Azoth chirps, somehow all cheer with that deep voice more fitting for a much larger thing... and despite having nearly committed a massive amount of violence against a number of people he (presumably) calls friend. His mockery of an eye becomes a very small dot, flattening into a line a few times to 'blink'. "Er. What time is it? It appears my RTC was among my damaged components."
His head turns to look around. "Goodness, it is dark in here."
An antenna falls off.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
It's entirely possible these could be the last moments of his life, and indeed, such a thought does cross Loren's mind. Surely they would have disarmed him, surely he's restrained--
Then Azoth chirps at him and Loren slumps heavily against the still-closed door. "It's not--"
He pauses, squinting at Azoth's shattered form.
"...Fair," Loren allows. "It's 1400." In other words, early afternoon. Not that it's possible to tell that if you looked outside, mind; the base is experiencing 'typical Moloch weather' which means that it's being blanketed by a howling storm that's come up. Suddenly, of course, because nothing nice exists out on this end of the world. If ever there was a place that would be perfect for a murderous machine to go on a rampage, it would here, right now. Which is a charming thought for him to think right now! Loren tries to immediately forget this.
It doesn't work very well.
Loren, wordlessly, moves his hand to flip the switch to turn up the lights.
"So..." Loren says, grimacing as he regards Azoth's damaged chassis. "Still awake in there, huh."
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
"Oh!" Azoth 'blinks' a few more times, then is back to smiling with his eyes. Eye. They aren't eyes. It's images on a screen. "Good afternoon, User Loren!"
Ah, if only Azoth could go on a murderous rampage in a remote Solarian base! What a delightful thought, Loren. Could Azoth be having it too? Look at that face! That... attempt at a face. So filled with innocence. Why would Azoth murder anybody.
(Azoth has murdered several bodies.)
The lights come on and Azoth's own dim to adjust. He regards Loren with a perked antenna. Just the one now.
"I am always alive in here! Well. Assuming you believe I live. Which we have established you do! Joyous. Or did you think my operation may have ceased completely? Are you checking in, or have I interrupted a eulogy?"
That face remains, too cheerful and obnoxious, before it settles to a general, more neutral glow.
"...Thank you, in any case."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Azoth is certainly chipper after being nearly smashed to bits. It's the sort of cheerfulness that grates on Loren -- not like Lan's cheeriness at all. Well, nearly not, he has to admit to himself as he peels himself off the inside of the door.
There's... probably a restraining bolt. They wouldn't work on him if they thought he could slip their control and take their head off, right...?
There's a lot that Loren doesn't know about Azoth's maintenance work, he decides, frowning as he thinks it over.
"I guess," he allows with a shrug, that half-scowl still not off his face. "You're in there, which is what matters." Loren pauses. "Probably." He does have an image to maintain here.
He shakes his head. "Just checking in. We're on Moloch Base, so it isn't as if I have anything better to do. They're still sorting out the higher-level paperwork." Which is to say, Leah is. "We didn't win, if you're wondering."
But Loren didn't just come in here to gawk, or to chat about the obvious, did he?
"Hey," he says, after a long moment of silent study of Azoth's broken form. "Why did you stop? You were about to self-destruct, I think. But you didn't." Another pause. "Why?"
He doesn't entirely know why it's important for him to know the answer. It's not as if it has anything to do with him. Not really.
But at the same time 'not entirely' is not the same thing as 'doesn't at all'.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Oh, no, it's too late. No take backsies on that one Loren. It is what matters. And to say so wins Loren a few extra moments of reprieve. But only a few, and not immediately.
"Such a pity!" Azoth says of their lack of victory, sounding entirely too happy about it. Especially because, depending on how much the Watcher was watching, Loren will be far from the only one to want to check on Azoth. Azoth will enjoy that far less.
Now is the reprieve! In this silence, waiting for Loren to ask whatever burning question has been eating at him.
Ah, so it may not matter, seen or unseen, depending on Loren's report to Leah. But Azoth will not lie to Loren, whatever betrayal this is to Ethius. Azoth was designed to be a traitor, after all.
"There was a terribly clever Symbologist on the battlefield. I have observed his capabilities before... he is terribly good at tearing machines apart. And a man who knows his enemy. I was given two orders: project you, and destroy specific targets."
An order that was given aloud, where anyone might have heard it. It was also an order given without explicit priority in case a choice had to be made.
"There was an argument made that, should I have continued my behavior and provoked further destruction -- not to mention adding my own -- it would become increasingly likely I would fail the more important of those directives."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
The face of immense displeasure that Loren makes at Azoth's tone may well warm the cockles of Azoth's... core for weeks. "Is that how you really feel?" he asks, folding his arms across his chest. Considering the lengths he'd gone to trying to eke out some sort of victory condition, only to fail, well.
It smarts.
"I know him. Codename Aeshma, Severe threat assessment," Loren says, quoting that part of the file from memory. "He's dangerous around all sorts of machinery. I heard he was involved with the incident at Harmonde, too." He pauses. "Did he do something--"
Loren knows what the order was. He'd heard it, too. Everyone had heard it, as a matter of fact...
Case in point: their Symbologist and repeat problem, Aeshma AKA Ethius Hesiod.
"..."
The most important of a pair of objectives, given on the spot, and without clear statement about which one ought to be given priority. Which meant that Azoth worked it out on his own which to...
"..."
Loren still hasn't said anything, his gaze focused on the error-ridden readout on the terminal monitor. He doesn't understand a lick of it, of course, but he still stares at it as if he could glean some clear answer from it.
"So that's what it was. Did Leah... program you to prioritize...?" His attention has returned to Azoth now. It would be easier to swallow if that was all it was. And it would be easier for him to brush aside his own thoughts on the matter. Because if Azoth, a machine, had managed to pick a route that prioritized what was actually important over what was demanded of him, what would that say about Loren?
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth most certainly is saving that image of Loren's face into his database to enjoy later. If only he had the right sort of hardware to be able to print it out and share it with Lan.
Less warming is that Ethius is already well observed. At least Azoth doesn't have to add that to his list of things to feel terrible about. Another boon from Loren, whether or not he meant to give it. Really, Azoth should be nicer to him.
A form of kindness is patiently, oh so patiently, waiting for Loren to piece together the implications of Azoth's words. It is definitely not because he is too tangled up in spaghetti syndrome right now to make any obnoxious mannerisms! ...No, really, not right now. He would like to let Loren quietly have this.
The monitor, of its part, shows a number of glitched outputs along with the otherwise difficult to understand code in Zeboim. Even at glance, there's other chunks of choke that don't fit the format. Little wonder Azoth can be a bit of a mess.
Loren comes to the conclusion of asking an important question. There are reasons Azoth does not hate him. Unfortunately, Azoth can't answer it, but he can't lie, either. But does it really matter in this case? What Loren's afraid of being true is still true.
"Fascinating query! Do you have reason to think that she would ever do such a thing?"
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
There are those who can read the Zeboim script, but Loren isn't among their number. No, even the parts he can read are so much noise to him. He can do some basic maintenance on cybernetics and can work out some of the same with a machine proper, but the back end is in fact a black box to him even in its simplest components.
But it's easier than looking right at Azoth in the moment.
What reason does he suspect that she might do such a thing?
At that, Loren again doesn't respond immediately, instead gazing at Azoth, his own expression complicated. On one hand, he might have completely misunderstood how Leah feels in the first place, but, on the other--
"...You know that she's my sister-in-law, right?" he says to Azoth.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth gazes back, unreadable. What exactly does he have to read right now except half a faceless face and an imcomprehensible terminal anyway?
It becomes no easier to tell whether or not this is brand new information for the machine.
(But my, doesn't it explain a few things.)
"What difference does that make? Axton ordered me to kill her brother. And the law wasn't even involved! ... Except for the part where he did something very illegal." Azoth pauses. "Hmmmmm." It's a low rumble that actually vibrates him. "Yes, I suppose you are too well behaved for that."
Azoth shakes his head. "Regardless! It would have been redundant of her in this scenario."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
'Axton ordered me to kill her brother', Azoth explains, clearly not seeing the reason why Loren would find that significant.
Loren seems completely taken aback by this piece of information. "W, what," he utters, still trying to wrap his head around it all. It's not that he's not aware that siblings don't always get along -- boy, is he ever -- or that one sibling might desire the erasure of another. These things happen. People whisper about them.
It's rather more the realization that Azoth hasn't always been used for military applications. Or, for that matter, a few important facts about Axton.
And it's the reification of a real fear he's had regarding Leah for some time. He'd felt in the past that she was guiding him but he'd also been desperate to believe that was the case, and so therein lies the rub: it would be easy for her to play that role. What was that thing that Asgard had said...? That... that they're being used. The words had been directed to Leah but they might as well have been said to him.
Whose hand is the one that holds the knife? There is no difference between the Shepherds and the Lambs.
But he averts his gaze and doesn't argue, his expression tight, even when Azoth speculates that Loren is probably too well-behaved to be executed just like that. He doesn't even muster the energy to bristle at that statement. Would Leah bother to do it herself if it was necessary, he can't help but think, or would...
But it would have been redundant, anyway, Azoth says, and Loren's shoulders slouch. He'd wanted to think it was an outside hand directing Azoth's decision-making. But that's not what happened, was it? And, wait just a moment, but more to the point there, doesn't that mean that--
Loren is not emotionally equipped to respond to this and may in fact stare at some distant point in the room for a long and awkward moment.
Then finally, for a lack of anything else to say, he says, "...Okay."
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth shrugs at Loren's shock. Only one arm makes it. The other twitches. A bunch of new errors show up on the terminal. Funny that Azoth wasn't ordered or programmed in any way not to go around saying these things. Maybe he ought to know better! But it's Loren, his favorite User. And Azoth isn't lying about that.
But not being able to lie means saying absurd things as ironically as possible and/or using rhetorical questions is about the next best thing. Azoth has /not/ told Loren what Leah may or may not have done. Anything Loren figures out is on Loren. And, quite possibly, all part of some scheme of Leah's.
As Loren internally debates, the Azoth observes. He has his own calculations to make and conclusions to come to.
One of those conclusions is that, in a form of rather amusing irony of its own, Loren saying 'okay' means that everything is decidedly not that.
"Loren," Azoth says, after another moment, dropping the bitter designation. "One of my arms still maintains full functionality. Would you happen to have a deck of cards on you?"
Sometimes, Azoth has come to learn, humans process data better after a distraction.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
That's part of the problem sometimes, it feels. Win or lose, whatever he does seems to play some part in her larger, unknown scheme. Even what she'd told him -- about her goals, about the better world she'd hoped to create -- it isn't as if he believes in it because he wholely thinks it is an achievable endstate, or, for that matter, the sum total of what she wants to achieve.
He believes in it because to think otherwise is to accept something that would completely shatter him.
So Azoth is indeed correct about one thing: when Loren says 'okay', it very much is not the case that he is that in the slightest. It's an internal tightrope that he's found himself walking, trying to keep himself from falling from this pecarious perch he's attained.
Azoth asks him about cards. Loren blinks. Oh-- right. Immediately he pats at his uniform's pockets, finally turning up his deck. He usually has them on himself in some form since they're an excellent thing to fidget with.
"What, did you want to play cards?" he asks, extending the deck in his left hand towards him. If Azoth could move more than that arm, he'd be able to get up and take the deck from him, but alas, they're out of reach.
Loren realizes that this is actually impossible for Azoth right now after a moment and takes the extremely important few steps towards him.
This is going to be really hard to explain if the technician comes back in, Loren thinks.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
After all this time and observation, Azoth still has no idea what it is Leah wants. Humans are bizarre little things. Some love to say the ends justify the means, but usually that results in the means becoming mistaken for the ends. Whether or not Leah is subject to the same fallacy, he cannot say.
But there is nothing about Solaris that Azoth believes in. That... is not true for those born there. Raised there. With family there.
Loren is a questionable creature, but not unfathomable.
Azoth lights up as Loren approaches with cards. His face goes all ^ ^ again. Okay, ^. There's still only half of it.
"You seem to have some free time, and I seem to not have working legs! Taking turns balancing the cards... I am curious what such a collaboration would build."
This is going to be really funny to explain if the technician comes back in, Azoth thinks.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
That's the other problem: even if Loren did decide that what Leah's offering is as fake as what he'd believed in before, there's still the matter of what he's going to do about his remaining family.
One of whom he's currently technically hiding from by hanging out in engineering and talking to a broken robot. Even when you love your family, it can be complicated sometimes, especially when you end up stuck at your mother's workplace.
Speaking of broken robots!
Azoth is right about one thing: this is a highly welcome distraction from the introspection and other ruminatory thought processes occupying a lot of Loren's cognitive power at the moment. He leaps onto the opportunity to be focusing on literally anything else like a starving man. "Balancing them, huh... I think this should be steady enough," he says, tugging over a tray table piled with tools and pushing the lot to the far end. This will definitely win him friends with the technician later. "I'll get it set up." It's a simple matter to unpack the cards, but always tricky to get the foundation started, even for him.
Azoth is right: this is going to be extremely funny when the technician comes back in.