A2 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
meaninglesscode) wrote2017-06-21 10:16 pm
meaninglesscode) wrote2017-06-21 10:16 pm
closed psl
[A2 has spent the last four years thinking of her body as a means to an end. As long as the parts still whir and function beneath her skin, as long as her mind remains uncorrupted, she'll be fine. Things like routine cleaning and maintenance are ignored almost entirely; she only addresses problems as they occur. A leaking ankle here, a pierced plug-in chip there.
It takes a while, after she wakes up in the forest, of fighting through long-dead-king-obsessed machines that ambush her at every opportunity, until one of the bigger ones knocks her arm out of alignment. She fights regardless, one-handed, letting the thing blow up while her sword dematerializes out of its back, and opts to simply pop her arm back into place. And that seems to be that, until she is looking for a place to power down for the night and realizes her fingers have been twitching uncontrollably without her knowledge.
Damn. She must have torn a wire somewhere in there or something. Or it's tangled itself with her joints somehow. She doesn't know, she's no mechanic, and she's only done the bare minimum of maintenance in the years she's lived down here on the surface. She knows where her parts are, but she can't diagnose hardware problems without digging in herself.
She finds a hidden cave and detaches the arm and, yeah, it's a few wires that have been fried all the way through. She'll need to replace them entirely. Which is not what she was hoping for, really, but what can you fucking do.
She goes to Anemone first. Surprise surprise, they are fresh out of nerve wires and won't have more for another week. A2 can't wait that long. Anemone apologizes and suggests going to Pascal, but an agitated A2 just insists that it's fine and runs off. She doesn't want to deal with explaining what happened to Pascal.
It's a goddamn long shot, but she's observed 9S wandering around from a distance in the past week or so since her memory was recovered. She knows he's got the knowledge to find a creative solution where she might not. And by now, the state of her arm has deteriorated such that it's barely movable when she tries to actually move the damn thing on purpose, only twitching uselessly.
So she corners 9S, dropping down silently from a higher level as he saves his data at the vending machine outside the abandoned factory's entrance, weapons not drawn but ready to fight if she has to. She doesn't know how stable he is these days and she doesn't want to take any chances, but she's relatively sure she could take him one-handed if it came to blows. He's just a Scanner model, after all.
She glares at him, silent as his back is turned. She doesn't want to say anything, but... God, she has to, doesn't she? It's like asking Pascal for a fuel filter all over again. She doesn't want to put herself in a position to rely on someone else.]
I need a favor.
[The demand comes after a pregnant pause, and it's likely clear what sort of favor it is right at first glance. Her left arm hangs limply at her side, fingers twitching uncontrollably. Anyone could see she was in need of repairs.
She doesn't know what to expect from his reaction, really. All she can do is wait for it.]
It takes a while, after she wakes up in the forest, of fighting through long-dead-king-obsessed machines that ambush her at every opportunity, until one of the bigger ones knocks her arm out of alignment. She fights regardless, one-handed, letting the thing blow up while her sword dematerializes out of its back, and opts to simply pop her arm back into place. And that seems to be that, until she is looking for a place to power down for the night and realizes her fingers have been twitching uncontrollably without her knowledge.
Damn. She must have torn a wire somewhere in there or something. Or it's tangled itself with her joints somehow. She doesn't know, she's no mechanic, and she's only done the bare minimum of maintenance in the years she's lived down here on the surface. She knows where her parts are, but she can't diagnose hardware problems without digging in herself.
She finds a hidden cave and detaches the arm and, yeah, it's a few wires that have been fried all the way through. She'll need to replace them entirely. Which is not what she was hoping for, really, but what can you fucking do.
She goes to Anemone first. Surprise surprise, they are fresh out of nerve wires and won't have more for another week. A2 can't wait that long. Anemone apologizes and suggests going to Pascal, but an agitated A2 just insists that it's fine and runs off. She doesn't want to deal with explaining what happened to Pascal.
It's a goddamn long shot, but she's observed 9S wandering around from a distance in the past week or so since her memory was recovered. She knows he's got the knowledge to find a creative solution where she might not. And by now, the state of her arm has deteriorated such that it's barely movable when she tries to actually move the damn thing on purpose, only twitching uselessly.
So she corners 9S, dropping down silently from a higher level as he saves his data at the vending machine outside the abandoned factory's entrance, weapons not drawn but ready to fight if she has to. She doesn't know how stable he is these days and she doesn't want to take any chances, but she's relatively sure she could take him one-handed if it came to blows. He's just a Scanner model, after all.
She glares at him, silent as his back is turned. She doesn't want to say anything, but... God, she has to, doesn't she? It's like asking Pascal for a fuel filter all over again. She doesn't want to put herself in a position to rely on someone else.]
I need a favor.
[The demand comes after a pregnant pause, and it's likely clear what sort of favor it is right at first glance. Her left arm hangs limply at her side, fingers twitching uncontrollably. Anyone could see she was in need of repairs.
She doesn't know what to expect from his reaction, really. All she can do is wait for it.]
no subject
For all intents and purposes, he should have been dead by now. Project YoRHa had fulfilled its main purposes, but the plan had taken a complete left-turn in the wake of the restarting of himself and supposedly 2B. That's what Pod 153 and Pod 042 had advised him, yet she still laid there. Unresponsive.
YoRHa is gone. 2B is still, technically, gone. He'd crossed paths with enough lifeless 2B corpses to find little to no joy in their reuniting. She is useless, soulless, and it's almost as if her existence is set to merely taunt him while he lay trapped on the surface. Alone and hopeless.
But his consciousness remained, and so did his reason to keep walking. While the Pods had done all they could to reactivate 2B with little success, they could at least update 9S' map for potential parts or weak signals that might contribute to her successful reboot. But it seemed he would continuously walk for a corpse that would eventually deteriorate and fade away. Much like she had before.
He's tired.
9S knows, objectively, that uploading any data he collects may be for nothing. But any code or observations he'd had gathered along the way might prove useful in the bleak, yet hopeful situation of his beloved partner. The sudden whir above him is sudden enough to catch him off-guard, but not strong enough to cause him to run.
He had thought his existence was entirely empty, save for the Pods, but as his visor gathers the data and analysis of the Android unit that appears before him, he's made to be completely wrong.
Immediately, his teeth grit.
A2.
Murderer. Betrayer. They are both vastly different, but completely the same. 9S is rid of the virus that had once made him far more hostile and overpowered; it would be unwise to attack her. But that doesn't stop him from very quickly taking hold of his blade just in case.
Her silence is maddening, but it doesn't last long enough to have him barking first. "I need a favor," requested both bitterly and out of desperation he can easily detect. His eyes lower, visor zoning in on the malfunctioning limb.
9S threateningly swings his sword at his side, as if to warm up. ]
That's a lot of nerve. Ever consider who you're asking?
no subject
You think I want to ask you?
[Even at her most vulnerable, she can't help but be hostile. It comes easily to her. She knows 9S still hates her for killing 2B, but she also knows he's free of the logic virus. It's a complete long shot, but she's not about to give up and just operate with one less arm.
She moves her left arm slightly, demonstrating its uselessness. It jerks up for a second and the fingers seize up, but it relaxes again at her side and continues to twitch intermittently.]
Thought you'd know how to retrofit it with machine wires or... something. I don't know.
[She sighs, frustrated, and flexes and unflexes the hand that still works.
She doesn't want to beg, so she doesn't. She doesn't appeal to his logic, doesn't appeal to his emotion. She doesn't see any use in groveling; all it'd do was give him sick satisfaction. More than he may already be getting.
She just hopes he sees that it's pointless for the last two YoRHa androids to be at each others' throats.]
no subject
But, of course, he keeps that to himself.
9S works to slide himself so he isn't sandwiched between A2 and the vending machine, feeling far more comfortable with the open expanse of land behind him. He notices her damaged arm right away, and it makes sense what she's asking for merely by her tone. He isn't stupid.
9S laughs. ]
Oh wow, you really do have some nerve, don't you?
[ Of course, there's an immediate, sick satisfaction in this. Obviously, A2's options have been completely exhausted. There's no way she would willingly seek him for the sake of repairs, especially since he, yes, still hates her.
Her hand is a mess, malfunctioning enough to be a possible liability. On his end, he could absolutely repair it quickly. That's a simple job, actually, and one that he's done for 2B plenty of times.
9S' existence has been completely empty. Devoid of any joy, and he can't even find hope in 2B's condition after everything that he's seen.
Of course, he's long-since initiated a scan of her. With her being still, safe for the casual movement of her good arm, it gives 9S enough time to gather what's in front of him. ]
Yeah, I could replace the wiring entirely. Good as new. I even have extra wires.
[ His free hand gestures at her entirety. It starts by pointing at her head, lowering his finger downward to gesture at her chassis. ]
Looks like your problems go a lot further than just a piece-of-junk arm. Sorry, but my time's better spent on worthwhile investments. Like, oh, myself.
no subject
Surviving despite the impossible odds is her final revenge against YoRHa. And now there's just the two of them left, she thinks, unaware of 2B's continued existence. They've both outlived Command. They've both won.
Really, sometimes she ponders why she bothers to continue living. She thinks she has to carry on everyone's memory. She thinks every year she lives on is another win against Command. She thinks 2B, No.4, Rose and the rest, need to be remembered by someone. She might have lost 2B's physical memory, but she has her own recollection of the data. It exists in some form within her. And that's all that keeps her going these days. That and what she considers mercy killing of all the remaining machines.
Aside from Pascal, of course. Pascal is out there somewhere, probably. Who knows where. A2 made a decision not to kill him. She's not about to go back on it now.
But that's beside the point. She needs this from 9S. She has to figure out how to convince him to fix her up.]
I'll owe you.
[Let's start with that.]
You'd benefit to have me in your debt, wouldn't you? No matter how much you hate me.
[What was it Pod 042 said, then? "Hostility... is pointless from an energy-usage standpoint. Proposal: form a friendly relationship immediately."
It seems like a longshot, but he was right that it was pointless in the end. Just like this back and forth is pointless. A2 doesn't expect to get friendly with 9S anytime soon, but they could at least come up with a way to benefit one another. They're each other's only remnants of YoRHa.
At least, they would be if 2B wasn't still functioning, just barely, unbeknownst to A2.]