• This section is for roleplays only.
    ALL interest checks/recruiting threads must go in the Recruit Here section.

    Please remember to credit artists when using works not your own.

Futuristic ⊱ ────── ELYSIUM ────── ⊰

Cealen

★彡
Roleplay Availability
Roleplay Type(s)
My Interest Check
1b9f6246b2c59a5542ceb903a7c3b76f.gif


elysium.

closed rp between Cealen Cealen and Syntra Syntra
 
Violet was on the brink of a monumental discovery.

At least, in her head, she was. She quickly glanced around cautiously, checking her surroundings for any would-be disruptor of her discovery. Nothing but long grasses and wildflowers swayed in the cool breeze, the field she was standing in currently feeling almost eerily still. Her settlement knew of this area already pretty well- it was quite an interesting place for the resources it provided. The remnants of what used to be buildings were scattered nearly everywhere, the long grasses hiding the broken pieces of stone and slab, which were already picked clean of anything that could be useful, weren’t that interesting nor provided resources, but what loomed before her was. Violet watched her steps carefully as she moved closer to her target, making sure she didn’t accidentally step on top of one of the crumbling pieces of rubble that littered the ground, excitement obvious in her broad steps forward, her bag smacking loudly against her as she moved.

The bunker was the only thing left standing out in the empty field. Violet had tried multiple times to get into it with no luck, as well as the other scavengers, but today was going to be different! Because she was going to finally defeat the evil beast that was the lock system on it! Violet felt like putting it in heroic terms sounded more interesting than “the locks fell off finally because it rusted so much”. But she was the one to find out that they finally rusted off in the first place! So she was the one to have finally found a way to circumvent the locks!

There wasn’t much known about what was even inside of it. The walls had definitely withstood a lot- even though there were some nasty cracks in them, there were no holes broken through that showed the contents within the bunker. Judging by the small size of the bunker, though, it most likely wasn’t a bunker where families of the past hid in, trying to avoid The Cataclysm. There were a lot of those around, too, but they didn’t offer much of anything interesting in terms of resources but more just the history of what came before them. Violet loved exploring around those sorts of bunkers, but this bunker was more likely one where people of the past did research- or at least, that’s what Violet and all the other scavengers think these sorts of places were used for. It would explain why it was out in the middle of nowhere- there aren’t any other bunkers nearby this one for a long while- and why it was so small, because people only worked here, and they didn’t live here.

Even though its purpose it’s known, its contents are still an unknown, exciting possible treasure trove of… stuff. Violet didn’t know what half of these bunkers contained, really. But there was usually a lot of technology for her to scavenge, and the general awe of seeing what the people of the past were able to achieve and all, which made things all the more exciting. And for her to be the first one to step foot in something like this since… centuries, probably…! It felt like Violet was about to burst open with excitement, feeling her heartbeat in her chest and the blood pump on her ears. That’s why she didn’t tell anyone about this back in the settlement- someone would probably try to steal her thunder, wouldn’t they? She has to be the one to discover this!

Approaching the rusted door, Violet readied the heavy, sharp-pointed rock she found earlier on her way here in her hand and looked at the locks that were barring her from entering. Yesterday she had come over here to test if she could break away the locks finally, curiosity taking over her mind that day, and the bits of rusted metal that already littered from the locks she had broken off yesterday was proof her curiosity paid off. She raised the rock above her head and brought it down in a swift motion onto the locks, hearing the door buckle under the blunt force trauma as bits of rusted metal flew off. She continued to strike the door in rhythmic motions, the door buckling more and more with each strike.

Dammit… why did the people of the past put so many locks on these things… Violet mused to herself as she continued to strike the door, one lock not giving way to her blows. Violet huffed out a sigh of frustration, her arm tired now from how much she has been wailing away on this thing. She lowered her arm and dropped the rock onto the floor, disappearing into the grass. She then channeled all her frustrations into the door and swung her foot at it in a sharp kick, the door rumbling as it made contact with her foot. “Commeeeee onnnnn! Open up, you rusted thing!” She yelled at it like it could respond. She continued to kick the door until she heard something crack and a sliver inside the bunker was shown through the edge doorframe. Success! Violet moved to push the side of her body into the door, putting all her weight into it before it started swinging open slowly, it giving out a whine of protest as it opened up.

Letting a satisfied sigh out and wiping her hands on her pants, she glanced around to see if she could make out anything in the dark insides of the bunker by the sunlight that was let through the opening she had created with the door. She could see a large array of screens and wires and other strange technology from the people of the past, confirming that their assessment was right that this wasn’t a residential bunker. She quickly unlatched her lantern from the side of the bag and lit it up quickly, the light coming from it illuminating the rest of the bunker by a hazy yellow glow from the yellowed glass of the lantern.

Well… at least there seems to be nothing in here that's moving… Violet let herself relax a bit, her muscles tense and ready for some animal to come over and think she is lunch. Common thing in these old bunkers. But it appears that she is truly the first being to have entered here in centuries- there was a thick layer of dust caked onto the floor and every single inch of the room, Violet noticing she left footprints in the dust as she entered into the building. She watched the dust fluttering through the air due to her disturbance in the light of her lantern, the whole bunker’s air feeling stale and… old, if the air could even become old.

She walked slowly down the bunker, her footsteps echoing each step she took. She took a closer look at the screens lining the walls, and looked down to see one of those weird machines with a bunch of buttons with letters printed on them that was connected to a bigger machine that connected to the screen. Violet wondered why she always saw these things in these places. Probably something really helpful to the people of the past, huh? She touched one of the strange buttons, grimacing as she felt the dust get onto her finger. As she was rubbing the dust off, suddenly the screen lit up in a bright white flash, and Violet shielded her eyes from it. As her eyes adjusted to the light the screen gave off, she saw the screen darken and blink in and out, obviously damaged from how many years it has been, making a strange whirring noise that was heard throughout the entire room. Violet backed away instinctually from it, but still squinted her eyes to see what it said.

…It seemed like it was asking for something. Oh, Violet has heard about this! Sometimes even the machines have locks on them, but they weren’t physical locks you could break. You would have to enter something in them instead. What that something was… no one knew. So this machine was useless to her. At least it actually worked, that was rare to see… Violet remembered that she felt like she ran into something when she backed up away from the screens earlier, turning around and bringing her lantern in front of her again, Violet nearly jumped back in surprise when she saw the silhouette of a person be illuminated, the jump instead running through her body in one go, like she was shocked.

She stood there for a solid minute watching the silhouette before she realized that it wasn’t moving. Or alive, really. Reaching out to touch them, Violet felt cold metal meet her fingertips. Oh… it was one of those metal people, huh? In a place like this? Violet had seen a ton of these metal people around before, usually in an almost unrecognizable state, but never in bunkers and more just the general ruins. Curiosity immediately took the forefront of her mind as she felt a rising feeling in her chest looking at the metal person before her, one of anticipation. Violet realized that the metal person seemed to be sitting down on top of another machine, but wasn’t connected to the machine whatsoever when Violet looked around with her lantern. She also realized it was facing the wrong way… turning it around, it being lightweight and easy enough to turn over with her free hand, she saw that the front of it wasn’t damaged at all. It had a weird-looking face compared to other metal people. Some looked exactly like humans, but this one had a black bar in place of eyes. Violet touched what was supposed to be the “hair” of the metal person, it long and silvery. It felt… soft, sleek. It wasn’t burnt or full of muck like the metal people she had seen before.

This metal person… was intact. Violet felt the anticipation that had been rising up within her finally overflow and spill out as she let out an excited yes under her breath. She knew this bunker had to be hiding something, but not something this big! She placed her lantern down on the floor and turned to face the metal person, trying to figure out how to hoist it up. She grabbed it by the… waist, she guessed you could say, and pulled it up with a grunt of effort, it being lightweight but still a bulky thing to carry. She adjusted her position until she had the metal person now hanging over her shoulder, balancing the weight with one arm holding the metal person in place with the other holding the lantern as she exited out of the bunker, her eyes taking a bit to adjust to the sudden sunlight when she stepped outside.

She placed the metal person gingerly onto the floor and leaned it against the side of the bunker, feeling bad if she just… dropped it off onto the ground. The fact that it looks like a person causes Violet to just naturally treat it like one. She always wondered what these metal persons were used for in the first place. They never moved, so in her mind, her theory was that they were statues made by the people of the past for… art stuff? But she had seen other statues and the like that didn’t look like the metal people. How strange… she decided she should still take a look around the rest of the bunker, though, now that she moved this big thing out. You always had to start with the big stuff first! Violet gave an excited look back at the surprisingly intact metal person, wondering what her family would say when they see this one, before grabbing her lantern and heading back inside into the darkness of the bunker.
 
Whee yoo, whee yoo!

Maya lacked the receptors to necessary for this to actually bother her, but from her experience, she knew that humans found the sound of a siren unpleasant. Something about it exceeding the acceptable threshold? She... she had known that, actually. She had known, at some unspecified point in the past, but the knowledge lay far beyond her reach now, behind a strange, shimmering fog. (Should she try to touch it? Maybe, maybe not. Not knowing what else to do, the android did just that, and... well, the barrier sizzled under her fingers. Sizzled, and then went up in flames.)

"Maya! Maya, shit!" And, yes, the android did hear that voice. She recognized it, too. How not? It was matched to one of the countless voice samples in her recorded in her memory, and easily, she was able to tell it belonged to Estrelle. Estrelle, to whom she played the role of an assistant. Regardless, her legs felt... were, leaden? Technically, the alloy Maya had been made of did contain lead, though that wasn't what this was about. Hmm, how curious.

"Maya, get up!"

"Leave her be, Estrelle," another voice, this time of distinctly male variety. "Not like that piece of shit is going to be any useful." ...piece of shit? Was he referring to her? Context would imply so, but Maya knew that she, in fact, wasn't a piece of shit. However exotic her components may have been, none of her organic parts contained... well, that. Of that, the android was fairly sure.

"Jack!" The height of her voice implied agitation, and Maya would have loved to soothe her. Estrelle feeling bad wasn't a desirable status-- humans tended to react to stress in unpredictable ways, you see, and unpredictability was an enemy of progress. Still, her arms... well, they refused to move. Most of her body did, come to think of it. How come her jaw wouldn't open, either? It had been designed specifically to be opened, so Maya would expect that basic functionality to be a thing.

"What? You can see the thing is broken. Just... leave her here. We can return for her once it's safer."

"But..."

"But what? Right now, she's a fucking burden. Leave it be, Estrelle. Give her enough time to self-repair and then we can extract your precious data." Why, though? Why would they do that? Maya wasn't broken, wasn't useless, wasn't-- wasn't a lot of things, actually, but as the darkness crawled behind her eyelids, it was getting difficult to remember the details. (In truth, it was getting difficult to remember most things. Her own name was shrouded in that impenetrable fog, nothing but a vague shape in nothingness. What was it? What was it not? Two questions with equally valid truth values, and Maya found herself unable to assign anything to them. Error. Error code: NX64. In case of error, contact your nearest maintenance center--)

"Alright," Estrelle sobbed. "Wait for me, Maya. We'll be right back."


And, long story short, they weren't. There was nothing, for the longest time-- just that soothing, soothing darkness, wrapped over her eyes like the heaviest of veils. The thing was, nothing lasted forever. Nothing did, not even her stay in that strange, featureless prison. The laws of entropy dictated that, and when the sun rays once again touched her face? Maya was happy to confirm that those teachings were true, indeed.

Ah. Is that... open sky? The android stared into the sun, trying to decide whether it was a simulation or the real thing. (The strength of the radiance did power her back up, yes, though that didn't necessarily had to mean anything-- any sufficiently powerful energy source would do. So, where was she, exactly? And what was she doing there? All questions that deserved their answers, yet she was no closer to unearthing them.) "Estrelle?" Maya asked, testing out her vocal cords. (They worked reasonably well, although she also thought that the metallic edge to her voice wasn't entirely normal. Hadn't they designed her with the intention of making her sound approachable? Oh, well! Months and months of not speaking had probably resulted in some rusty parts. Cosmetic damage at worst.) "I am happy to announce that all my systems are operational. Code NX75, ready for regular usage. What..." something in her voice cracked,"...what would you like to do?"
 
Violet hacked away as a dust cloud blew up into her face, obscuring her vision as well as making her throat feel raw and her eyes water. Turns out things that have spent centuries untouched cake on a large amount of dust. How shocking. Violet rubbed her eyes and then blinked several times to heal them up from the assault of the dust. A battle she lost. Looking down at what she uncovered, she was met with disappointment. the thing she dragged out was just a huge piece of metal. Probably a machine…? She had no idea what something like this could possibly be used for. It looked like it had screens on top, but they… looked a bit different from the computer screen. They were blue, and had lines running through them. There was no button to turn them on, either.

Violet thought back to some of the technology that the settlement used in order to have some frame of reference. There was some weird technology that only worked when it was sunny out… and they had panels similar to this too. So maybe she should take this outside. What a good idea! Violet was proud of her own deductive reasoning. She mentally gave herself a pat on the back. Maybe once she takes it outside it will do something… special. Right now, it just looked like a big hunk of metal. It’s not like any sunlight gets into this old bunker anyways in the first place, so keeping it here won’t do her any good.

The metal hunk felt heavy in her arms as she lugged it up to hold onto it, holding it close to her chest. There must be something hiding within this hunk if it’s this heavy… metal that is just metal is surprisingly light weight. As she did that, she heard… someone outside. She froze for a second in place, thinking she was imagining hearing something. It nearly sounded like a name- the voice came back, saying something different. Huh? Systems? Codes? Violet must not be hearing this right. But… who even is this voice?

She knew everyone in the settlement’s voice by heart. They were a smaller settlement- it was natural for her to know everyone there. Strange voices always turned on her caution signal in her brian. Especially one that sounds as weird as the one who just spoke outside. Violet felt like a prey animal that finally noticed that a predator was stalking them, frozen in place, weighing all its options. Violet was out here alone. Even though she can handle herself, obviously, she’s not a dumbass. She doesn’t know this person, and they could be hostile. There were plenty of people out there that didn’t belong to any settlement, and just lived a nomadic life, doing anything they could to get by. This place was isolated enough to attract one of those people. Violet… did NOT want to deal with one of those people. Still… the voice could be someone friendly… ugh, who is Violet kidding, she’s far too curious to be cautious about this.

Moving slowly so her steps did not make much noise, Violet moved towards the door to the bunker, one hand clutching the lantern in front of her and the other holding the metal-hunk-machine-thing close to her chest in the other. It would be natural for someone to wanna poke their head in a structure like this- it’s the only thing around here in this field anyways- so Violet expected to see the owner of the voice the minute she reached the door. Holding a bated breath in, pulling her bags closer to her body in case she needed to grab her dagger quickly, she approached the door, anxiety and excitement becoming a cocktail of curiosity that she couldn’t resist.

…There was no one at the door. Huh? Against (probably) her better judgement, Violet looked outside, whipping her head back and forth to the side, looking for any human. There was no one but the metal person, still sitting where Violet placed it. Violet felt her excitement dissipate into confusion. Ok… so Violet did imagine that voice? She relaxed her muscles as she stepped completely outside, feeling the sun touch her skin again, a welcoming feeling compared to the cold dark inside of the bunker.

She gave another glance over at the metal person, and a funny thought came upon her, causing her to huff out a breathy laugh, laughing at herself for thinking such a thing. “Hey, you didn’t say anything, right?” Violet said, a playful tone in her voice, still laughing at herself imagining a voice talking to her. “I must be going nuts, imaging voices, and then imaging metal people talking… maybe there was something in that bunker that I shouldn’t have inhaled…” Violet thought about that for a second in seriousness, before laughing at herself again. “What am I thinking… I need to focus on what I came here for.” She reprimanded herself, turning her heel to go and place down the metal chunk she was holding, staring at the panels intensely, as if it would spring to life the moment it were exposed to the sunlight.
 
No response. At least not initially. It was frustrating, Maya supposed-- or it would have been, had they programmed the ability to get frustrated into her operating system. (Of course, they hadn't done anything even remotely close to that. Getting frustrated was a human feature, and thus one not available to an android such as her. Honestly, wouldn't that be a strange choice? Maya had never heard of, say, a television that complained about its owner, and that was the rough equivalent here. And, considering how vast her personal archive was, that was saying something! ...even so, that did not change the fact that this was inconvenient. Very much so. Without Estrelle reacting to her words, how could she tell what she wanted? Mind-reading was an unethical, banned practice, and it wasn't like Maya possessed the software for it, anyway. Most androids made after 54 AG didn't, as far as she knew.)

Hmpf. Should I try to contact the central archive, then? They were only supposed to do that in case of emergencies, though, and she wasn't at all sure whether this qualified as one. Technically, nothing was wrong here per se-- there were no explosions, no visible signs of a catastrophe of any sign, and her human wasn't in danger. You don't know that, she told herself. Because she's nowhere to be seen. A brilliant analysis, right? The proper response to that would have been to go seek her, but for that, Maya's legs felt too stiff. How long had it been since she had used them, again? Months? Years? The readings on her radar were... inconclusive at best. Confusing, really, because the android couldn't imagine a reason behind that dramatic of a gap. (Had a virus infected her database? A concerning thought. Maya didn't really feel the presence of foreign matter in her body, but she also supposed that such things couldn't be detected so easily. A parasite which didn't know how to stay hidden wouldn't be very successful, now would it? Such a species would be sentenced to doom, most certainly! ...still, this did nothing to help her with her conundrum. Sigh.)

Perhaps I just need to wait for my battery to get fully charged. Had her diagnostics system worked, there wouldn't have been any need for words such as 'perhaps,' but here she was, Maya guessed. How annoying. Thankfully, before her circuits could get friend thinking of all the possible solutions to her conundrum, a... woman appeared in her field of vision? A woman who was distinctly not Estrelle, but who, for all intents and purposes, also didn't seem hostile. A convenient source of information, in other words. Although... was she? Was she, really? Her statement made little sense, even if the individual words did exist. Indeed, even the syntax was correct! It was just the matter of the larger context being indecipherable to the android, and that bothered her on a fairly visceral level. (Well, it didn't bother bother her. Again, androids didn't really have feelings-- that was a mere turn of phrase, convenient in its brevity. Right.)

"I cannot judge accurately whether you are going nuts or not," Maya frowned, "because I do not have the access to your medical records. Diagnosing you without that would be irresponsible of me. If you'd like to know more about the state of your mental health, I recommend visiting your physician. That being said, yes, I did say something. I was informing you that my systems are fully operational." ...more or less. Look, just give her more time, okay? Restarting the entire system wasn't something you could rush, just like you couldn't get crops before their time. "Have you met a woman named Estrelle around here?" she tilted her head aside, studying Violet from behind her visor. "I am her assistant, and I should think that she requires my assistance. That is the reason I was made, after all."
 
Violet’s attention was ripped violently away from the metal hunk the minute she heard the strange, foreign sounding voice again. On instinct, she reached for the dagger she kept attached to her right thigh, whipping her head to look behind her to just see no one once again but the metal person. The voice came back as Violet looked around confused, speaking some strange nonsense, its source somewhere nearby… the metal person? Violet felt even more confused as she stared at the metal person, trying to see if that was truly the source, before the metal person moved on its own. Violet’s hand gripped her dagger- still sheathed- even tighter as she took steps back, wide eyed and in obvious shock.

Ah, wait wait wait, I shouldn’t look so aggressive… Violet reprimanded herself in her head, losing her grip on the dagger, but still keeping her hand hovering nearby it in case of a sudden attack. Shouldn’t appear as a threat to this… thing… Violet had no idea how to respond to something like this. How was she supposed to? All the other metal people she had encountered before did not talk and did not move, all they did was… nothing. They were just cool to look at, that’s what Violet thought all these metal people existed for. So… why is one talking…? And saying something about being an assistant…?

Oh, Violet should answer the metal person’s question. “Ah… no, there’s no one named… Es-trelle? Is that how you said it? In my settlement…” Violet explained, then felt painfully stupid. Why is she answering this thing! It could now do… something!! Something bad!!! Possibly!!! “No, no…! You have to explain yourself first!” Violet asserted herself, her only solution to trying to figure out this mystery. “How are you talking?! And moving?! And who is this person you’re looking for!” Violet was being… aggressive in talking to the metal person. She felt a song of guilt run through her for being so assertive to something (or someone…?) who by all means did not seem like was going to attack anytime soon. Violet… can’t let her confusion about this situation take over, or she would regret it.

“…Ah… sorry. I’m just… metal people have never talked before. How are you different…? I don’t understand what you mean by assistance, either…” Violet sighed, feeling guilt completely overrun her for being so impatient in asking questions. But… she’s really having a conversation with a metal person right now, huh? The metal person sounded a bit weird, but it did sound sort of like a woman’s voice… are metal people actual real life people? And if so… Violet guesses she should be treating this metal person like another person, or human, right…? By not calling… her… ‘it’, right…? Violet thinks it’s the human-like appearance of the metal people that’s causing her to think this. It’s hard to not treat someone that looks like a person and talks like one too, apparently, like a person, isn’t it? But… metal people and people were different, weren’t they? Violet felt her head pound with too many questions as she shook her head, trying to not think about it too much.

Forcing herself to relax a bit, Violet kept a steady gaze on the metal person, making sure her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her. No, this was definitely a metal person… oh, on its- her neck area… there were those panels. The same ones as on the hunk of metal, after Violet quickly checked by referencing back to it (it still was just sitting there and being useless), breaking her gaze with the strange… metal person lady thing… for a few moments before returning her gaze over to her.

“Did… you wake up because of the…” Violet waved her hand around the general area, “… sun? I… took you outside from there…” She jutted her head towards the bunker. “Sorry… if you didn’t want to leave… I guess…?” Is Violet supposed to be apologizing for this? She had no idea. Interacting with… something as confusing as this is… strange. Would this metal person even feel those sorts of things? “Are you like… alive…?” Violet asked the most genuine question she had on her mind, staring intently now at the metal person. If curiosity was going to kill her, it would have done so by now.
 
Throughout her existence, Maya had encountered many people. There was a surprising variability in their personalities, she had to admit-- not at all like her android kin, who mostly defaulted to three or four archetypes. Still, even despite her vast experiences with humankind? This girl, this woman, struck her as strange. Exceedingly so. "A... settlement? My database doesn't seem to contain anything related to those. Not any current information, at least." Maya's database was currently in a sorry shape, however, and so it didn't necessarily have to mean anything. Sigh. Hopefully, the rebuilding process wouldn't be too painful-- had she not been hesitant to reach for such emotionally charged words, the android would have said that she hated, hated, hated the possibility of data loss. What was an archive without information, after all? That would have been like... like a confectionery without sweets, or apple juice without apples. Both of those struck the android as troublesome, to say the least. "Indeed, Estrelle. My companion. Or, technically, you can say that I'm hers? She did purchase me, so according to all the laws, the ownership rights belong to her."

"Should I not work?" Maya asked, dumbstruck. Now that was the strangest complaint that she had ever heard, even rivaling Estrelle's disappointment at the fact that she couldn't put a fish tank inside of her bowels-- the woman had dreamt up a scenario where she could be close to her pets at all times, but failed to consider... well, pretty much everything. Her actual dimensions, all the safety measures and the fish's comfort? All meaningless, in the face of Estrelle's grand plan. "I mean, I cannot hope to grasp the vision my engineers had, but I dare say that me being functional kind of is the entire point. I am sorry for causing you emotional distress, though." Was she, however? Was she? That was the standard protocol-- to apologize to a human, because they were human and thus had to deal with all those overwhelming, complicated emotions. I'm not, Maya decided, in the privacy of her own mind. Because she's being ridiculous and refuses to have an actual conversation. Really, what was up with her and questioning every little thing she did? Did you see her bringing up these non-concerns, such as wondering why she needed to breathe? Well, of course you didn't! Because, unlike most people, Maya had been designed to be helpful. Perhaps that was exactly what the android should be doing, however-- if only to highlight just how hollow this interaction was.

"If you're asking whether I'm powered by the solar energy, then yes. Most models work like that, if only because it's convenient. Hard to run out of... the sun, I suppose." Somewhat clumsily, Maya stretched her limbs-- the sound they made was worrying, much like opening a door that had been closed for centuries, but that they responded at all was good news. In time, they would adapt to movement again. Now, you know what wouldn't adapt? Maya's own mind, when faced with this onslaught of increasingly foolish questions. Estrelle was waiting, and yet she was wasting her time with this nonsense!

"Have you ever considered whether you are alive in the first place?" she pointed an accusatory finger at the woman. "Humans rarely pause and think about that, purely because they happen to have actual blood in their veins. For me, that's too narrow of a definition of life." The very concept of it seemed somewhat overrated to Maya, too. What was so great about being involuntarily turned off, with no chance of ever powering up again? The humans she'd talked to had been obsessed with 'living in the moment' and 'the fragility that made life precious,' and yet, curiously enough, they'd never stopped researching immortality as a species. What was it called? Sour grapes? Indeed, Maya did recall such a phrase! "What do you think life entails, woman?"

...and then a realization hit her, belatedly. "Wait, you mean you've never seen one such as myself?" she furrowed her brow. "What is the closest city? It should be positively crawling with androids." They wouldn't just... abandon production, would they? There was no reason for that, aside from a few extremist arguments that nobody had ever bothered to take seriously. Just, android uprising? What kind of nonsense was that? Privately, Maya was convinced that scifi writers had all collectively given up on the single brain cell they possessed a few centuries ago.
 
There were a lot of things in the world that didn’t make sense. Like… a lot. There were fewer things Violet understood than things she didn’t understand. She had accepted that a long time ago- being able to just admit that you don’t know fucking everything is a trait that is almost required of scavengers. If you pretend you do know everything, you could accidentally bring back a price of tech that will explode in the middle of a home somewhere, because you were convinced it was “perfectly safe”. Even though Violet always wanted to bring back cool things to the settlement and gain her (rightful) fame, she wasn’t an idiot. When she got a bad feeling from something, she left it there. Trusting your instincts. All those good scavenger skills. Because she’s a great scavenger!

But… this one. She was at a total loss for. Staring at the strange metal person, who was now snappy at her for asking a genuine question- how was she supposed to know something she thought was an art piece 5 minutes ago was alive!- Violet felt total confusion. Ugh, her head hurts! Can this metal person stop talking so weirdly! Violet can’t even follow what she’s saying! Ugh, she couldn’t stand it when people- metal or not- decided to treat her like she was a total useless idiot. It was how everyone acted when she went on her first scavenging! Calling her dumb for going out alone! Well, if they didn’t all try to talk her out of going scavenging when she asked if they could go with her, she WOULD have had a partner! Ugh. She needs to defend her honor against the strange metal person.

“Yeah, of course I’ve never seen any you metal people move around before. How was I supposed to know you would be the exception?” Violet defended herself, crossing her arms. “All the metal people I saw before just… laid there. Some of them let out sparks when I touched them, or made noises that weren’t understandable, but none of them talked like you are doing right now. And you’re acting like I’m weird and stupid for being a bit freaked out over it! You’re the weird one here, not me!” Ok… Violet may be getting a bit too heated. Ugh, she still feels bad for yelling at someone, doesn't she…? That nagging feeling in her stomach is definitely guilt. Maybe this metal-person-woman-whatever didn’t really understand… What was going on?

Violet glanced back at the bunker, thinking to herself for a brief moment. If this bunker was locked for so long, that means she’s been in there for a long time, right? Uh… how long, though? But… if she was in there for a long time, she wouldn’t understand what is going on in the outside world, right? So maybe that’s why she was acting weird, because she was confused since it’s like she woke up from a long nap. Ok… Violet will forgive her for being an ass to her and treating her like an idiot. But, uh, asking where the nearest city is… that’s a strange question.

“We’re technically in a city now, you know. Well, I think it WAS a city at one point. But… it fell down a long time ago. Look in the grasses, you can see all the remnants of the old buildings that used to be here, can’t you? I think you can see out of that… black thing… where your eyes are supposed to be, I’m assuming…” This metal person definitely has made eye contact with her intentionally before, so… those are her strange metal person eyes then, she assumed. As much as she was confused (and still somewhat annoyed) at this… supposedly alive being, she was still as curious as ever to see how she exactly… worked.

“But, uh, if you wanna go to a city that has more actual buildings still up, that’s sort of far away from here. It’s fun to explore there, but it’s dangerous in that one city. Lots of things hiding in the old buildings, you know?” Violet got the feeling that this metal person would not know what the hell she was actually talking about, but continued on. “This archive is out in the middle of nowhere. I left the settlement before the sun rose and only got here when it was fully risen, so it’s quite far away from literally… everything. I came here to explore.” Violet had a realization dawn on her as she gave another quick glance to the bunker.

“Oh… wait, is that bunker your home? I found you in there, and all, and it seems like you’re looking for someone… did this Estrelle person live with you there?” Violet knew that people didn’t live in those archive bunkers, but metal people might have! It would explain why she was in there, too, wouldn’t it? Violet felt proud of her deductive skills! It made her somewhat forget how… weird it was that she was talking to something like this. Her curiosity is too strong to be confused for too long at something like this. She just has… to accept what's thrust onto her! She can do that, easy! Within… reason, of course.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top