2023-02-09: Pitfall
- Log: 2023-02-09 Pitfall
- Cast: Lan Lilac, Azoth
- Where: Cardon Forest
- Date: February 09, 2023
- Summary: Lan, increasingly frustrated by Azoth's avoidance of her, devises a scheme.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
It started with a suspicion. After all, the first time Azoth had run from her, they were in the middle of a pressed battle and Lan didn't really have time to ask him what was going on. Maybe it's robot stuff! Or maybe he was embarrassed about stabbing her.
Lan thinks that would be pretty reasonable.
But then she'd seen him, wearing his more approachable form, and had tried approaching him to tell him that she's not mad, and they can still be friends, even if she's a little antsy for a while. Because being stabbed and nearly dying hurt. But then he'd run away again!
And he'd run away the next time she saw him. And the next, and the next!
Something is definitely going on. And Lan can't even ask him what!
She tried cornering him at the end of an alley in town, but he just climbed a wall and escaped! She tried lassoing him (something she has moderate practice with because of her ribbon), but he cut the rope and got away!!
So now, a few days later, Lan is ready. She never thought she'd have to use this technique, but 'needs must'! And while Lan only ever really uses the skill to feed herself, she is a proficient hunter. She can track her prey, and lie in wait to learn their habits. She isn't sure what's brought Azoth to Cardon Forest so often over the last couple of days, but twice now he's taken a certain part of a certain path.
Last night, while he was elsewhere, Lan made her preparations.
Now she waits.
Azoth had better not goof off in town today or something, she's not sitting in a tree above a fifteen-foot deep pit trap for her health!!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
There is something in Kattelox. Azoth knows something is around Kattelox, somewhere. Something of his. The signal is weak. Broken. Inconsistent. But it's there, and he's got to find it -- he's got to find it with the same immutable, absolute drive that he must now avoid one Lan Lilac with.
No matter how much he'd rather apologize to her instead.
There's unfortunately nothing for it. All he can to is focus on his task. In time, he might be able to wear Loren down... But until then --
WHERE DID THE GROUND GO
A panicked series of beeps echoes through the forest, birds scattering above the trees as one (1) android drops through a pit trap that was DEFINITELY NOT THERE yesterday, OR the day before, and plummets to its bottom with a heavy thud.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Aha!! He did come! Lan freezes in place, a piece of jerky halfway to her mouth. She doesn't look directly at Azoth, in case he can feel when eyes are upon him. She breathes shallowly.
He's close. Closer...!
He puts a single foot down onto the thin layer of dirt and leaves she laid on top of an even thinner layer of woven branches. Lan's mouth curls up at both ends.
CRASH
(Lan almost feels bad about it, because the panicked beeps are somehow alarming.) A few extra leaves fall gently on top of Azoth's head, and then a familiar blonde head pops over the edge of the pit.
"Hi, Azoth!" Lan Freaking Lilac says, waggling her fingers at him from the safety of Not-In-The-Pit. "You're not hurt, right? Anyway, if you promise not to burrow into the ground like a mole I promise not to come down there. I just wanna talk!"
Is... is that a compromise, or a threat??
[OOC] Lan Lilac says, "bluray - the both ends is not an actual phrase"
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth has no need to calculate what is happening and why because, almost immediately, the cause of everything appears above him. He flinches back, the leaves on his head remaining perfectly balanced like he were some manner of tanuki.
"Lan?!" As he says it, his eyes go wide, and then blue light threatens red before flickering. He staggers back, wincing. The overrides smash calculations into him in rapid succession, each projected outcome ending in immediate, obvious failure. Azoth is trapped in a hole, the exit blocked by an entity his orders demand he stay away from.
Burrowing like a mole might, in fact, be his only recourse if Lan gets any closer! But it's not like he's equipped with a drill...!
"I -- ERROR --" The computerized responses come deeper and monottone. "I appreciate the tenacity, but -- OBJECTIVE COMPROMISED. ADJUSTING STRATEGEM... ERROR: NO VALID SOLUTIONS."
Azoth slumps forward with a downtoned whirr-beep and pulsing with a steady flicker of red light from his eyes. Defeated, he beckons Lan with his fingers as an invitation for her to speak.
He has been caught.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
She jumped down because she didn't want him to be confused or alarmed for too long, and also because she's pretty sure that he can just climb out if nothing's there to stop him.
She hadn't really expected him to react poorly - in fact, she hadn't thought quite that far ahead at all. When his eyes flicker and begin to change color, Lan can't help it - she winces back, though her courage (or her stubborness) doesn't quite fail her. "I'm sorry! I just want to know what's wrong!"
Lan's eyes crinkle at the edges as she looks down to him. It looks... it sounds, painful. As if it could help, she backs up until she's only visible from the nose up, and lies down on the ground. "So... I'm not mad at you, okay? I don't believe you'd have attacked me if you were in control of yourself. So if that's what's wrong, don't worry about it, okay?"
The red light... her fingers curl in on themselves, there on the edge, but Lan is stubborn.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
This is so much worse than it could have been. It's bad enough one set of overrides orders nearly got Lan killed. It's rubbing salt in the wound -- a thing he's heard hurts, does anyone really do that? sounds inefficient -- to have a new set of overrides keep her from even getting an explanation.
And all this so Lan can convince Azoth she isn't angry. What a spectacular mess... However, Azoth has received orders that involved not reporting where those orders came from, and as luck would have it... someone failed to specify that this time.
Azoth closes one eye, as if it would help the light situation, one of them still open to pulse light through the pit trap in constant report of errorneous operation.
"I'm... sorry, Lan. Not just about before -- which... I am. I didn't want to do that. But I'm under orders to stay away from you."
He makes an expression like a forced smile.
"This is actually pretty convenient. I can't calculate a way to get out and get past you while being away from you, so... At least I get the chance to say all that now."
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
It's not a fragile truce, but it could blow up in her face anyway. But isn't it worth trying, anyway? If she's still, and doesn't go any closer, it shouldn't get any worse. Azoth shouldn't get any worse. Right?
"I know. I forgive you. I know you didn't want to. You looked like you were in so much pain." You looked like a monster. "You looked like..." Lan trails off, because what can she say? "Like you couldn't control yourself," she finishes, because that had been true.
Convenient... she just hopes it doesn't hurt too bad. "I'll let you out soon, okay?" Lan promises. "I just need to ask something--" Because someone gave him orders to stay away from her. And Lan can think of two people, immediately, who could and would. "Was it Loren or Leah?"
Because Lan doesn't think that Leah would be the type to give such a direct order. What if Leah needed Azoth to be near Lan? She'd say something like 'don't hurt her'.
Loren, on the other hand, is absolutely the type to order Azoth away from her.
Citan Uzuki (Citan) pages Lan Lilac and Azoth: so how dead is loren
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth lowers his hand from his eyes, looking up at the small piece of Lan still visible over the edge of the trap. Forgiveness... He believes her, but the way she speaks, he also believes there's still fear.
Loren's still afraid. That's why Azoth has his orders. And Azoth cannot even scold himself for being too cavalier. It's all the other orders submitted to his overrides that mean he can't make the decision to keep away from everyone for their safety.
"...It's not my favorite experience," Azoth admits of the whole situation. The pain. The lack of control. "But I wasn't the one who was... bleeding out."
Lan -- ah, precious, clever Lan -- gets right to the heart of the matter, and though Azoth's face does not change, his core buzzes with new calculations of mischief.
NEW OBJECTIVE: Get User Loren Voss in as much trouble as possible with one of the two people he cares about being in trouble with.
Azoth's posture droops again, drawning in on himself, face fallen. He grips at his own arms in a loose hug. "...It was Loren," he says, quietly, like he's afraid someone will hear him. "Three times, he said it. 'Stay away from her.'" Azoth winces, doubled over with a brighter flash of red and a strangled beep as if the command were being reset by simply admitting it.
He jerks his head upward. "But... don't be mad...! It's because he's worried about you. He... doesn't want you hurt. And I'm..." Azoth looks away. "...Just a mindless machine that follows orders, after all..."
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
There is still fear. It's human nature to fear what has already hurt you once. Oh, you can forgive it, and you can try to forget, but the body remembers. Lan is covered in scars, but two of them bother her the most.
Isn't it a little strange? Both of them are from being run through.
"...No," Lan has to acknowledge, just the same. "You weren't."
She can tell he's hurting. Just talking about it is probably awful for Azoth. See, the way he curls in a little on himself? And how he's already asking her not to be mad at Loren! Which, she is. She understands why - but she's already upset. And when Azoth can't look at her anymore, when he says-- oh Loren had better not have said that to Azoth!!
Even if he didn't mean it and it was in the heat of the moment or something, that's too far!
"I'm not mad at him for wanting to keep me safe, even if..." she pauses, trying to think of the right words, "even if he should know better. I'm mad at him because he gave you an order like that! he didn't even ask me if I wanted you to stay away from me, which obviously I don't!!"
"But tell him--" And here Lan pauses, realizes what she's saying, and walks it back a little bit. "Uh, if you feel like doing it, that is, please tell him that if he doesn't take that order back I'm going to..." What was it Uncle Gil used to say about barfights? Oh right! "I'm going to stomp a mudhole in his ass and walk it dry!"
She fell for it hook, line, and sinker.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
The scars Azoth will leave before his time is through may be deep indeed. The one he's left Lan won't be the last. Maybe not even for her. The calculations flit back and forth on what Azoth can do to mitigate the suffering. He watched Ivan -- another living weapon, of a sort -- try one of the hypothetical methods and fail it miserably. But as Azoth noted, there was a critical flaw in Ivan's execution.
But right now, Azoth's methods for his objectives are horrificially flawless. Loren did make these orders with no consideration for Lan's feelings on the matter, only his own fear, reasonable as those fears might have been. And there's only so many ways Azoth can strike back at someone giving him an order and chaining him in even more overrides.
Can the Azoth be blamed for a bit of dramatization? Look at this sad, dejected little machine! Helpless against his oppressive masters! Who may or may not have said -- or at least implied -- such devastating things...!
Azoth forces past that crestfallen face to smile weakly at Lan. "...I'm glad you don't. I wouldn't have blamed you." That much is true. "But... the way it works, I can't exactly defy him..."
His eyes give another red pulse, and the fragile smile dies with a wince.
He listens intently to the message Lan prepares for Loren, and while his face shows that ever-so-appropriate amount of startled shock -- as if to say 'you would really go that far? for something like me?' -- his core vibrates inside of him. Mm, yes. Behavior successful.
Most things have flaws. Humans. Even the machines they create. But Lan. Lan, right now, is perfect.
Azoth smiles faintly again. "...Those are some strong words. I'll, uh, paraphrase for him, the next time I see him. If you don't find him first."
Oh, Azoth is not paraphrasing anything about this.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Who could say such awful things to Azoth?! Look at him! He's sad! Dejected, even! He's helpless to defy the people who chained him to their will and wrapped him in orders he can't help but follow!
Lan has No. Idea.
Laid out there on the edge of the pit trap she dug, Lan practically vibrates with barely-repressed righteous anger. No way is Loren going to get away with any of this! She's said it before - you can't let your friends do bad stuff, and this is pretty bad.
--Though, when even Azoth looks shocked at her choice of phrase, Lan has to wonder if she's gone a little too far. Or worse, made some kind of innuendo. Oh well, Loren will know why she didn't mean it like that. "Mmmmmaybe you should just tell him I'll kick his butt if he doesn't," she amends a little sheepishly. A crumble of dirt falls down the side of the hole, where her fingers dig into the edge. "--Ah, but... that's what I wanted to ask you. And it hurts you to be so close, so I'll let you out of the hole, okay?" Her head disappears from view for a moment while Lan gets back to her feet, and then leans a little over the edge again. "Okay?"
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth, should you really be doing this to Loren, the one Gebler you hate the company of the least?
Well, yes, this is part of why he prefers it. Nobody tell Loren. Azoth will do it himself later, gladly, when Loren rhetorically asks the wrong thing.
But where there is smoke, there is fire. Lan's not wrong to want to be gentle about the nature of the overrides. Azoth isn't making his eyes red on purpose, even if he's wincing on purpose.
Azoth's faint, pained smile remains. "I suppose I can handle that. ... Thank you, Lan. I... hated not being able to talk to you." He looks down again. "You don't have to let me out if you have more questions. It's the least I can do."
Though Lan has most of the truth already. The grim, but simple truth. Azoth was not in control. He's a weapon for Solaris, and as long as she's their enemy... There's always a chance he'll try to bury another claw through her body.
Because he's a monster -- a weapon.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
To be fair, Loren brought this one on himself.
Lan smiles, a warm and genuine thing. But then, Lan has always hated to lie. "I hated it too. I was really worried that maybe we couldn't be friends anymore. Even if I don't always understand everything you say, because I'm human, I like your company."
But she doesn't push her unfair advantage. After all, Azoth knows that she also had been chained. "No-- I mean, I'm sure I could think of more questions! Like, a million! But it's not fair to ask while you can't get away, even if it's okay with you."
And, a little bit, because even if his eyes only flicker red, it's a little uncomfortable. It feels like going outside in a thunderstorm and finding something to climb.
She backs away from the edge, till she's out of sight. "But I'll come back in a little while to fill the hole in, so look out for me!" It'd be awful if he had to run from her twice in one day. And maybe embarrassing for him, too.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
As Lorens so often do. Far be it from Azoth to go against the will of nature. The circle of life. The natural order. It is... as it must be.
"I know I've been... especially confusing in the past," Azoth admits, frowning. "But Xantia's been saying not turning all of this behavior off is important. So I'm trying to think of it less like lying."
Except for the part where Azoth shamelessly embellished the truth to get Loren in trouble. But again, natural order. But outside of that, Azoth is making his own effort.
Lan's new assertion actually does startle Azoth, and he lets it show on his face. He makes a curious beep of a sound. Lan... really is a good friend.
One she's out of sight, the red lights blinking from within the pit trap cease. Back to a reasonably dim blue, Azoth climbs his way out, getting a jump against one edge and then to the next to literally jump start the process until he can heave himself out of the hole.
He rummages in his coat, leaving a trinket by the edge of the pit for Lan to retrieve later: an especially large and extra lumpy baroque pearl.
That's kind of like a rock, right?