Lizzy)
I opened the door to Dolly's hab, and--
"--I FUCKING EXPLICITLY TOLD YOU NOT TO MESS WITH IT, AND YOU STILL WENT AND SCREWED AROUND WITH NANITE ACID BY YOURSELF! I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT YOU WOULD DO SOMETHING SO MONUMENTALLY STUPID, DOLL!!!"
Uzi was shouting at Doll so loudly I physically recoiled, even as the front door closed behind me. Dolly was sitting on her couch with her hands in her lap and looked to be on the verge of tears as Uzi kept screaming at her.
I went to open my mouth, and then properly registered the words Uzi had said. "Nanite acid?!?" I shrieked out.
Everyone looked at me, and Joe stalked forward while calling back, "I'll explain it to Liz, you keep driving it into Doll's head that she was an idiot."
He tilted his head in the direction of Doll's bedroom, and I went to follow him, while Doll's expression wilted further as Joe led me by her and Uzi resumed her tirade, going to physically grab her cousin's shoulders and start shaking her as she screamed about how she and Joe at least have each other and now Darren and Rebecca to watch their asses when they do stupid shit, and how they all make sure to never do dumb stuff alone if they can help it.
"Mind the holes in the floor, by the way," Joe said.
"Holes in the--" and then I saw them. Six little holes, one a bit larger than the others, in the floor of Dolly's room. Holes that looked exactly like the aftermath of nanite acid melting into something, straight from the textbooks in school. I glanced over with hollow eyemotes to the stinger Joe had gotten for Dolly, and saw the case wasn't on it.
Joe sighed. "And of course she didn't put the case back on either." He shook his head as he went and carefully did that himself. "Well, given the circumstances, and how much Uzi's tearing into her," and I could still hear the shouting through the door, "I won't say anything if you don't."
"She didn't… " I trailed off.
"Oh no, Dolly did think that messing with the nanite acid we explicitly told her not to was a good idea, nearly splashed herself, did get a drop on her finger, and then proceeded to slice it off to save the rest of her hand." My optics hollowed, but before I could run to check on Dolly, Joe raised a hand. "Evidently, though, her Solver comes with regeneration like the Murder Drones have…" he paused, and his expression shifted to annoyance, " Fuck, that should have been obvious !" How so? I wondered, as he gave an explosive sigh. "Ah well, too late now. But at least her finger grew back."
Dolly was okay. I felt relief run through my circuits with such force I wanted to collapse. I had a brief idea of actually faking that and getting Joe to catch me, but that wouldn't be fair to him and I wanted to be better than that. Dolly was okay . I took in and then let out a shaky vent. Dolly had also waited until after I left last night to mess with nanite acid . I grit my teeth and clenched my fists. I cared about her so much … I loved her … and she went and did that behind my back. I would have helped her if she asked. It would have been stupid to not shut the idea down entirely, but I would have helped her if she'd just asked. She could have gotten killed if that went worse. I felt a bitter, acidic sensation in my circuits, and stood up, my eyemotes settling into a glare. I made it two steps before Joe clapped a hand on my shoulder, and I found that I couldn't move because of his stupid sexy custom frame that was like a million times stronger than me. I snapped my glare to him, looking up ever so slightly… and then I blinked.
"Did you make yourself taller with that custom frame?!?" I blurted out.
Joe snickered. "Congrats, you're the first person to notice I squeezed a little extra height into it. Over eight months, and not even Uzi's genre-savvy ass picked it up."
"Oh," I remarked. I swallowed, because him being a little taller than me was kinda hot , but I pushed that train of thought back down because I was still giving him time to sort his internal stuff and I had bigger priorities, like yelling at my other crush! "Let me go!" I told him.
Joe rolled his eyemotes. "For the record, I am not saying to not chew Dolly out, I'm telling you to wait your turn . Let Uzi finish, and then I'm chewing her out, and then you can go, okay?"
I blinked again. Joe always thought this stuff through , I thought. I pushed my anger at Doll to the side for now , and crossed my arms and grimaced. "Fine, I'll wait," I told him.
"Thanks Liz," he told me, and the nickname made me feel warm inside, "And…" he looked contemplative for a second, light grey hash-marks creeping up on his face. "I've… I've sorted through most , but not all of my issues…" I started to blush myself. "I…" he paused and took a breath, and I froze with anticipation. "I like you, Liz," he told me, and my blush got worse as I internally screamed with joy. "I'm not ready for a relationship just yet, there's some things I need to put on the table first, and they might be coming out sooner rather than later, and… I'd wanna wait until you're twelve regardless for reasons relating to the stuff I wanna talk about but I'm not quite ready to do so just yet… but I wanted to tell you that before anything else happens. You're smart, you're empathic, you're funny, you're cute, you're amazing ," I felt my blush getting worse with each compliment he gave, "and… I'd like to spend time with you, maybe as more than friends, if you still feel that way once I'm ready to commit to a relationship."
I forced down a squeal as I twisted and hugged him tight. He hugged me back, and it felt so warm and safe and just… everything I wanted from this moment. "I don't care if you're secretly somehow a Murder Drone running on a worker's OS or medical somehow fucked up putting Andrew back together so badly that you're actually a human brain scan, nothing you could tell me would make me not like you, Joe," I told him.
Joe snorted once, but then sighed. "I wanna believe that," he said in a tone that hinted at genuine fear lurking beneath his normally unflappable exterior. "I really do…"
I kept hugging him, enjoying every second of it. "It's the truth."
"I…" his voiced cracked, and I pulled back enough to see hollow optics on his visor. "I hope so, Liz. I really hope so, and I hope that you don't hate me for everything."
I gave him a comforting smile. "I'll never hate you," I told him.
Joe pursed his lips, but gave a small nod. Then he took a breath, and in the most blatantly obvious change of subject he could, said, "By the way, if… whatever we are does work out, I'm okay with you dating Doll at the same time."
I squeaked in his grip and pulled back out of his arms. I missed the feeling of him hugging me already. He grinned at me, teasing… but fragile . I swallowed and forced down my Bisexual Panic and embarrassment, and tried to channel my normal state of girlboss, for Joe's sake. "I… really?"
"Yeah," he said, "Really."
"Thanks," I told him, completely honest. Now… now I just needed to work up the nerve to confess to Dolly. Robo-god, I'm so fucked.
Joe cocked his head a bit. "Oh, Uzi's done yelling," he said, and I realized that he was right, Uzi wasn't yelling at Doll anymore. "Let's go then."
"Joe!" I whisper-called first, and he stopped heading for the door and looked back. I smiled back at him, grinning wide and with happy tears threatening to spill onto my visor just like my core felt like it was gonna burst from joy. "Thank you," I told him, completely earnest. "For being my friend… and for wanting to be something more than that…"
He smiled back at me, uncharacteristically nervous and fragile, but equally earnest. "Thank you… for being the best version of yourself you could possibly be Liz… I'm so happy I got to know you."
I held his gaze for another second, wondering what exactly he meant by that but still loving the compliment, before he turned and headed back out of Doll's bedroom. Doll was sitting with hollow optics on her couch, a couple digital tears slowly dripping down her display, hands still crossed in front of her. Uzi was standing in front of her, fists still clenched. "Cuz…" she said. "I… I got so mad because I care about you, damnit." Now that I looked, there were tears visible on Uzi's visor too. "I… I told you not to do it, and you could have… you could have died because Joe and I wanted to do something nice for you. I don't wanna lose you, Doll. I don't wanna lose you…"
Doll suddenly glanced back up at Uzi. " It's not your fault! I messed up! I-- "
"We got you that as a present, and then you hurt yourself with it. That makes it our fault." Joe cut in, and Dolly glanced over at him. "We're not just scared for you, we're guilty ."
Doll glanced away again. " I'm sorry ," she mumbled.
Joe sighed. "I hate having to make you feel bad," he said in Russian, and then Dolly perked up at the use of her native tongue. "So… uh… before I rake you over the coals myself, I just wanna say I like the braid you have going. Especially with the way it only braids past the shoulder. It looks like you crossed your old hairstyle with the braid that Raiden Shogun from Genshin Impact has. Really interesting, and it really goes well with the Soviet-style coat."
Doll looked away and blushed. " Thanks, Joseph, " she mumbled, and I forgot my own resurging anger as I was waiting for my turn to go off on Doll for messing with nanite acid. Did… did Dolly maybe also like--
The door to the hab was knocked on. "Yo!" Rebecca called through the door.
Joe looked at me, and I nodded and went to get the door. I opened it, and Rebecca and Darren were waiting outside. I opened my mouth, but Rebecca, ever the gossip hound and my bestie (besides Dolly and Joe but they might be above bestie status which would technically land Becca on the spot by default) leaned around me as she heard Joe start saying, still in Russian, "Dolly, I'm mad at you right now, but way more than that, I'm disappointed," I sucked in a breath, turning around as I realized Joe was actually laying into Dolly with the "I'm not mad, I'm disappointed," speech, but he was also mad and was giving it in Russian to boot. "Because you went behind my back to do this rather than asked for help, Doll." Doll wilted, looking miserable, but Joe kept going. "You know that I would have come over in the dead of night to help you safely test this if you had just called me, and you still did this." Doll wilted further. "You scared the crap out of me. You scared the crap out of Liz. You scared the crap out of Uzi. You scared all of us with this stunt, and you could have gotten killed, and could have avoided all of this if you just asked for help."
"She fucked with the nanite acid and found out?" Rebecca asked, and for once, Darren gave her a light punch to the shoulder. "Sorry, that was like, too insensitive."
"Correct on the insensitivity, but also correct on what happened," Joe said, swapping back to English.
I spoke up again, this time to Doll. "I was here last night and you only did this after I left! I would have helped you too!"
" I… I only had the idea after you left ," Doll weakly defended, more tears starting to brim on her visor.
"I would have come right back if you just called me , Dolly!"
Doll wilted even further, and then Joe leveled a disappointed gaze at her and she sniffled, and I started to feel bad but forced it down because we really needed to make sure Dolly didn't do something like this again. Joe sighed, and walked over to her and gave her a hug. She stiffened for a moment, and then slowly, hesitantly wrapped her arms around him too… fuck, I hope we can all get together , I thought, and then I focused on my anger at Dolly being an idiot and stomped my crush down for once in my life. I needed to give her some tough Machiavellian love… and maybe fear here, and I wasn't gonna let my feelings get in my way this time.
"I'm being so harsh because I care about you, Doll. I…" Joe took in an unnecessary breath, a habit of his that I noticed he did way more often than other drones in conversation, and I saw him grimace. " Fuck , the more I think about this, the more terrified I get. Per favore, non farlo più , Dolly," Joe said. "Just… please don't do something like this again."
Dolly tightened her hug on Joe. " I won't! I won't! I'm sorry, I promise I'll always ask for help! " She sniffled again. " I'm sorry !"
"Why didn't I get an apology for having the crap scared out of me?" Uzi asked.
Rebecca walked past me and rolled her eyemotes. "You're the family member who screams and is justifiably pissed at her, and Joe's the close friend who gives the 'I'm mad and disappointed' speech that drives in the point you just blungeoned into her. Totes a classic guilt trip tactic," she said. "Props for swapping to Russian for the start of it though. That was a good twist."
"Thanks," Joe dryly said.
"You're taking this remarkably well, Becca," I told her.
"You don't drive too much guilt in, then you just leave Doll hating herself," Darren said. "It's about the right amount of guilt. Too little, and she does something like this again. Too much , and she goes into a depressive spiral. Disappointed looks from everyone else and maybe a comment or two are okay, but really, only Lizzy should also go off on Doll for this." Dolly and I gave Darren a look . Strangely enough, neither Uzi, Rebecca, or even Joe did. Darren shrugged. "What? I've been paying attention when Becca does gossip stuff. I've been picking things up."
"Fair," I conceded, and then looked over to Joe. "You done?"
Joe looked at Doll, raising an eyemote. " I won't do it again ."
There was another knock on the door. "I got it," Darren said, walking over. I waited a moment as I watched Emily, Trevor, Kelsey, and Penny file in. Before any of them could get a word in, Darren opened up with, "Doll messed with the nanite acid in the stinger last night. Sh--"
"Oh goodness!" Emily exclaimed, and she jogged in. "Doll, are you okay?!?"
"I was about to say that she was okay…" Darren muttered, shoulders slumping, and Trevor gave him a pat on the shoulder, before Rebecca walked up to Darren and gave him a hug.
"She's fine," Uzi said, "We're just mad at her and telling her off."
"They totes got it in hand. Be mad at Doll for being dumb, but like, they're already ripping into her. You're just gonna like, give her a depressive spiral if you pile on anything else."
"But she's okay?" Kelsey asked.
"Yeah, Doll is okay, right?" Penny said.
"Well," I said, drawing eyes to me, "She apparently got nanite acid on a finger and then cut it off to stop the spread, but her Solver apparently has regen like the Murder Drones have, so it grew back."
"Oh thank goodness," Emily said.
"Yeah, that was dumb, but I'm glad you're okay," Trevor added.
I rolled my optics while Penny and Kelsey also expressed gratitude that Dolly was okay and walked up to her. Joe gave me a nod and then let go of Doll as I stepped in and gave her a grimace. She looked… guilty right now, so I just sat down next to her and hugged her myself. She hugged me back. " I'm sorry, Liz ," she told me.
I tightened the hug on my other crush. "I'm glad you're safe, Dolly," I told her, and waited a few seconds for her to calm down. Then I pulled back and channeled every ounce of my inner Machiavellian Queen Bee that I've been cultivating ever since Joe gave me the idea… I'd have to directly thank him for that again at some point, but I digress. I took on a tone that left Uzi and Joe both with hollow optics for how cold it was. "Dolly," I said with a smile that was all teeth and didn't reach my eyes. The Russian drone gulped and looked at me with fear in her gaze. "If you ever do something that stupid again, I'm telling Hot Topic to beat all your high scores in Tetris."
" L-L-L-Lizzy-- " Dolly was starting to shake with terror, and I quashed down my guilt. I needed some fear to keep Dolly in line right now.
" No! " I told her. "You don't ever do something like that again, do you hear me?!?"
" Okay! Okay! Okay! Okay! Okay! I promise I'll never do it again, Liz! I promise!!! "
I narrowed my optics as I gave her a glare, looking at her for any signs of falsehood, and found none. I gave her a single cold nod, and then the mask that I wore when people pissed me off vanished as I dove back in and hugged her again. "I'm so glad you're safe. I'm super mad, but thank robo-god you're safe!"
There was another knock at the door, and I heard someone let Thad in and appraise him of the situation. He waited patiently as I hugged Dolly until she calmed down again, and then I let her go and stood back up. Thad stepped forwards and stood in front of Doll, expression impassive. Uzi went to open her mouth, and Thad held a hand up. Five seconds ticked by in silence, before he simply said, "Not cool, Doll. Not cool at all. In fact, that was uncool of you."
Dolly recoiled as if physically struck, and her eyemotes were replaced by the Cyrillic text [Эмоциональный ущерб]. Joe sucked in a breath. " Literally Emotional Damage, ouch !" he remarked. Doll slumped back on the couch. Thad shook his head and then walked away.
"So…" Uzi trailed off. "We're all on the same page? Doll has regen and we're not happy with her for the way she found that out?"
"I mean," Joe said, "Definitely an idiot move to FAFO with nanite acid, but you gotta admit that cutting off the finger to save the hand was kinda metal."
I wasn't the only one who gave Joe a look . Surprisingly, though, Thad said, "I mean, objectively speaking, slicing off your finger to save yourself from nanite acid is kinda metal. The whole situation is uncool because it's Doll's fault she was in that situation in the first place , but that part was kinda cool in a vacuum."
Doll's eyemotes blinked back on. " I thought of what Joe would do, and that was the first thing that came to mind while I was panicking, " she mumbled.
Now everyone was giving Joe a look , myself included, and he just crossed his arms and said, "It worked , didn't it?!? Like any of you would have had a better idea in the moment!" I blinked a couple times, and realized that… he was actually kinda right , damnit.
Darren suddenly facepalmed, and I glanced to him along with everyone else. "We've had nanite acid neutralizing agent for months and none of us thought to give Doll some." WHAT?!? I thought.
Uzi, Joe, and Rebecca all facepalmed in perfect sync, silent for a full second before Uzi said, "We're idiots."
"Massive fucking idiots," Joe agreed.
"Totes idiots for not thinking of giving Doll any," Rebecca remarked.
Penny blurted out my burning question before I could. "Wait, you have nanite acid neutralizers ?!?"
" How?!? " Trevor asked.
"You didn't think to give Dolly any?!?" I asked.
"In our defense, we thought Doll wouldn't have fucked around with nanite acid behind our backs," Joe remarked.
"As for how we got it, we reverse engineered it from Murder Drone spit after we stole a few of their heads when fighting them," Uzi explained.
Kelsey gagged.
"Their spit ?!?" I called out. " Eeeeeeeeeeeeew !"
"Why their spit ?!?" Penny said.
"How did you even know their spit neutralizes the acid?"
Rebecca replied without missing a beat, which was a thing I'd noticed she and Darren had been doing more often ever since she found out Joe's secrets, like she could just think faster like Uzi and Joe did. "We saw N, the male Murder Drone on the squad outside, sting himself on the arm by accident while we were checking through some of our spy cameras outside, and he like, literally licked the spot he stung and the acid stopped melting himself."
"Why the hell would the Solver make spit neutralize nanite acid?" Thad asked.
"It actually kinda makes sense," Joe remarked.
"How?" I asked him. "How does that make sense ?"
"They'll always have spit on hand… in mouth… and that also makes it safe for them to eat drones that they sting. And if they get acid somewhere they can't lick, they can just spit onto their hand and rub that spot instead. Gross, but it actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Uzi and I have actually been looking into it, and the nanites in the spit are technically conventional science. I'm pretty sure the Solver uses Eldritch bullshit to provide so much of the spit, but we're making decent progress to modify our own synthetic saliva-equivalent producers to make the stuff themselves."
"You're giving yourselves nanite acid neutralizing spit ?" I asked him.
"Like Joe said, it's possible to do for us, and it makes a morbid kinda sense to do it. We'd always have some on hand if we did it," Uzi backed Joe up.
Joe, Uzi, Darren, and Rebecca all shared a glance that lasted less than a second, before Joe suddenly sighed, and took in an unnecessary breath yet again. "Right… Doll?" he asked.
Dolly looked up at him, " Uh, first, can I say something else? "
"Please don't tell me you almost killed yourself in a different way," Joe begged.
"W-what?!? I didn't! I just…" Dolly grimaced, and then looked at me. I gave her an encouraging smile. "My hair is actually growing out of my head now," she said really fast.
"Are… are you okay, cuz?" Uzi asked.
" No ," Doll answered. " The Solver keeps changing my body without my permission, and I feel scared all the time, and I don't know what's gonna change about me next --"
Uzi stalked forwards and gave Dolly a hug. I was a second behind her, and Joe was a second behind me. "I… uh… I have something to take your mind off of that…" Joe said while the rest of the room verbally expressed sympathy for Doll around us.
" What… Like what ?" Doll asked, eyemotes clenched shut as she shivered once in our grip.
"So… you can regenerate, but since it's a Solver thing, I assume it takes oil, right?" Joe asked.
" It did, " Doll admitted.
"And you got the Solver from your mom, right?" Joe followed up.
" Yes? " Dolly said, as confused as I was.
Uzi pulled back. "Shouldn't Aunt Yeva have regeneration too?"
I pulled back to stare at Uzi. Doll froze completely still. Joe slowly pulled back too. "Huh, wasn't the only one to come to that conclusion," he remarked.
" M-Mama ?" Doll asked in a small voice.
Uzi looked her in the optics. "You said… when you saw it happen… that v-- the Murder Drone responsible basically sucked all the oil out of Aunt Yeva through her guts?"
Dolly flinched, but nodded.
Joe cut back in. "What if, since your mother got all her oil drained so fast, she entered some kind of emergency hibernation state? What if… what if she could regenerate if we gave her enough oil?"
Doll froze. I froze. We had her parents in Joe's hab . That was a plausible conclusion. We could try it .
" W…we… we could bring back Mama ?" Dolly said in a small voice, tears brimming on her visor. " Y-y-you think we could actually bring back Mama ?"
"What?!?" Thad called out.
"Are you serious?" Penny exclaimed.
"So… necromancy?" Trevor asked.
"I mean… if it's possible, I think we should try," Emily remarked. "I think God would forgive us for playing with life and death like that… and technically, she wouldn't be dead in the first place, if that hypothesis is right."
"Huh, I totes did not wake up thinking we'd do Mechromancy today," Rebecca said.
"Mechromancy?" Kelsey asked.
"Well," Joe said, "necromancy feels a bit weird when we're talking robots, so Mechromancy kinda rolls off the tongue better."
" Can… can we really bring Mama back ?" Doll begged.
"It's… plausible ," Joe stressed. "We're not sure , but what we know makes it seem like it's feasible."
Doll lunged forwards, hands latching onto Joe's shoulders. " Do you really think we could do it? Please… please be honest, Joe, " she begged, the tears dripping down her visor.
Joe looked her in the eyemotes. "I can't promise that." Doll started to shake. "I can promise that we'll try though, okay?" She stopped shaking as badly.
"Cuz," Uzi said, and Dolly turned to look at her, "I want my aunt back almost as much as you do. We're gonna try everything we can, okay?"
"Doll?" Joe said, and she looked back at him. "I… I know this is gonna hurt to hear, but it needs to be said before we go further. We might be able to do this for your mother. We're gonna try to bring her back regardless. Your dad… he didn't have the Solver, right?"
I winced a second before the realization hit Dolly as she slumped. " Papa… Papa's still… still gone… "
I walked back up to Doll and wrapped her in a hug. "I'm sorry, Dolly."
She sniffled and hugged me back. She felt really warm. " It… it's not okay , Liz… but… " she trailed off.
"Not my fault?" Dolly nodded in my grip. "And you feel guilty that you have a chance to get your mom back but feel bad that you feel bad that your dad's gone when none of the rest of us can get back any of the parents we lost?"
"Doll!" Kelsey called out. "Don't feel guilty! It'd make me so happy if you could get your mom back!"
"I… I didn't even know my parents, Doll," Penny added. "It's okay."
"I technically suffered an identity death, so you can argue that Andrew's parents weren't even my parents," Joe remarked.
"None of us are gonna blame you for wishing you could get them both back, Doll," Emily said.
"I can understand missing my dad," Trevor spoke up, looking down at the floor for a moment, until Emily grabbed his hand and smiled at him, and he gave a small smile of his own back.
"Like, I want you to get your mom back, Doll. Don't sweat it, I've… I've come to terms with my own loss recently," Rebecca remarked.
Doll suddenly shifted in my grip. " What about your mom, cuz ?"
Uzi flinched. "We can worry about that later. And it's not like we know where Dad put her body after… you know… he put her out of her misery with a wrench he still carries…" Uzi said that last bit really fast.
Dead silence.
Dolly pulled back from me, and was staring at Uzi, slack-jawed, the present topic of conversation forgotten at that little tidbit. "I'm sorry," I said, "But Hot To--" I cut myself off, "Uzi, did you just say that your dad is still carrying the wrench he mercy-killed your mom with ?!?"
Emily started to pray for Khan's sanity. "Yeeeeeeeeaaah?" Uzi answered, a little uncomfortable.
"You didn't tell us that?!?" Rebecca asked.
"Kinda a personal thing," Joe defended.
"Dude, that's fucked up ," Darren said.
"Can kinda understand why he door-spiraled so hard now," Trevor remarked.
Uzi started to snicker. "Door-spiraled! Ha, I'm gonna have to remember that one!"
" Does he still have the wrench ?!?" Dolly asked.
Uzi sobered up. "With the oil-stains on it," she said in a flat tone.
"What the fuck ?" Kelsey asked.
"Maybe… maybe you should talk to him about that. At least… put it in a drawer instead of carrying it around?" Penny suggested.
Joe sighed for some reason, looking upset with himself.
"Probably a good idea," Uzi said.
"Okay!" Thad finally cut in. "How are we even gonna get Doll's mom's body?"
Uzi, Dolly, and I all froze… and so did Rebecca and Darren? What ? I thought. Joe managed to completely straight-face that somehow, and also replied first. He cleared his throat and said, " About that… "
Everyone in the room who didn't already know-- but not Darren and Rebecca, which made me really concerned --gave Joe a very alarmed look. Joe turned to Doll. " Joe ?" she asked, suddenly very scared in my arms.
In a gentle voice, Joe said, "Dolly, they're gonna have to know. We're gonna try to bring her back . Can I tell them? I promise it's gonna be fine."
Doll tightened her grip on me, nodding before burying her face in my shoulder. At a loss because I knew what was about to come out, I just hugged her tighter as well. Joe walked over, and gave both of us a hug at the same time, and holy shit that was hot , but I kept it under control because this was important and I needed to be there for Dolly instead of lost in my crushes both hugging me. I blinked twice and forced down a building blush. Doll needs the girlboss Lizzy, not the Bi Disaster Lizzy! I told myself. There was a ping on a DM chain between myself, Joe, Dolly, and Uzi.
Кукла: Thank you all.
Кукла: Thank you three so much for being willing to say this for me. For being willing to hold me.
Uzi stepped up and hugged Doll too.
Darkxwolf16: Anytime cuz.
Babeatron-Queenthousand: I'll always be there for you, Dolly.
Isekai_Protagonist: I'm ALWAYS gonna make sure you're safe, Dolly.
" Thank you ," Doll quietly mumbled.
Joe disengaged from the hug and physically put himself between Doll and the rest of the room. Uzi joined him. I… I was so thankful for the both of them for that. That Joe cared enough about Doll like that-- which was hot --and that Uzi cared about her cousin in all but code like this too. Joe took in yet another unnecessary breath, and I really wondered where he got that habit from. I felt Doll shift in my arms as she peaked past me at the rest of the room. "Soooooooo… you all know how the WDF let the survivors of V's break-in decide what to do with the… bodies?"
Silence, again. Thad broke it this time, as his optics hollowed, and he begged , "Please don't tell me that Doll still has her parents in her home !"
"Of course she doesn't!" Uzi countered. "You've been there a couple times recently."
Joe then cut in with, "Yeah, I moved their bodies to my hab months back."
I blinked a few times, and then just blurted out, "Holy crap, you actually just straight up said that ."
Joe shrugged, and glanced back with a shit-eating grin. "I wanted to just get it over with."
"First the birthday with you waiting to say you picked a fight with three Murder Drones, and now this !?! You're doing this on purpose, Joe!" Thad shouted at him.
"Oh yeah, I total --" Joe got cut off from reveling in being a jackass when someone else started shouting.
"WHY DO YOU HAVE DOLL'S PARENTS IN YOUR HOME?!?" Kelsey screamed.
Joe, as if commenting on how his day went, replied with, "Well, Khan being a better dad evidently led him into almost figuring things out himself, and Uzi overheard him planning a wellness check on Doll. So Uzi panicked and called me, and then I panicked, but like, I am literally the kind of friend to you all that would help any of you hide a body… so Uzi and I literally helped Dolly and Liz hide two bodies . In my own home…"
"WHAT THE HELL , JOE?!?" Thad yelled at him.
"Not gonna lie, I totes respect actually being willing to hide bodies for a friend," Rebecca said, which still left me suspicious because she hadn't been surprised before.
"I mean…" Trevor trailed off. " Everything you just said and that entire situation is fucked up, but I do respect the commitment to your friends."
Emily stepped forwards, and stopped when Joe went to get in her way. "I promise I'm gonna be nice," she said, and then Joe let her pass. The room watched as she walked up to Doll and I. Doll was looking at Emily with hollow eyemotes. "Doll," she started, "I'm not gonna lie and say that I'm not horrified by finding this out… but you have a chance to get your mom back. You deserve that, so it worked out in this case." She suddenly glared, and with a level of steel I very rarely saw in her. "We're laying your father to rest after this though, understood ?"
Doll stiffened, but managed to keep meeting Emily's gaze. " Can… can I at least say good… goodbye first ?"
Emily's gaze softened and she walked up to Doll and hugged her too. "Of course, Doll." Then her voice took on the steel once more. "We are laying him to rest after that, though."
Doll sniffled, but nodded. " Okay …" She suddenly shifted in my grip, and hugged onto Emily as well. " Thank… thank you for understanding, Emily ."
"This is so wrong from a moral and religious perspective," Emily said bluntly, before looking at me, and then let go of the hug and stepped back, turning to glance at Uzi and Joe. "You're amazing friends though. I'm disappointed in you three, but you're amazing friends… and I also understand that Doll has magic powers and that she was liable to flip out and kill people. 'Don't trigger the traumatized child with magic powers' was right there in the 'Final Girl Survival Guide' book, after all."
Joe blinked twice, and then started howling with laughter, Uzi giving him a side-eye before she begrudgingly grinned as well. Doll flinched, and then Darren was the one to cut in. "Yeah… I can understand that this is something really sensitive to Doll. It's… definitely not healthy, but…" he froze. Completely. Was stock still for a good three seconds before Rebecca put a hand on his shoulder. "Oh my robo-god, what if other kids also have their dead parents still in their homes?"
I felt my own optics hollow. So did everyone else's.
"Maybe…" Joe hesitantly said to the silent room… "Maybe we wait to address that until after we attempt Mechromancy and lay Doll's dad to rest?"
Penny spoke up next. "I'm not gonna lie, something like this is entirely on track for what Joe gets up to… but yeah, maybe we should approach Khan about doing a lot of wellness checks for all the other orphans after we… I can't believe I'm actually gonna say it ," she muttered, "After we attempt Mechromancy ."
"Told you the name was good," Joe snarked.
"Do we have enough oil for this?" Kelsey asked.
"Yeah," Thad agreed, voice a bit strained. "This… this is nuts, but… we might as well try . I am… not happy with you four right now, with you literally hiding bodies , but… do we actually have enough oil for this? I know we have a lot, but we still need some left over for Doll, we need enough on standby for Uzi, we'll need a lot for Doll's mom, more for her afterwards if it works--" Dolly flinched, and Thad actually winced. "I mean, I hope it works!" he backpedaled. "Sorry Doll."
" It's… it's okay, Thad ," she said. " I… I'm scared to hope …"
"I got this," Joe said, and everyone glanced at him.
"How the heck--" Joe cut Kelsey off.
"Trust me, everyone, I'll get oil." A beat, and then, " Ethically -sourced oil."
Trevor sighed. "This is gonna be one of your 'Secret until we're all twelve' things, isn't it?"
"Yeah," he confirmed.
Uzi clapped her hands. "So!" she said, making sure everyone was paying attention to her. "To recap! The Solver apparently gives regeneration. Doll was an idiot in the way she found that out, but what's done is done and we've yelled at her and she's not gonna do it again, right?" She directed her narrowed optics to her cousin.
Dolly flinched, but then pulled out of my grip and stood up straight, looking Uzi in the eyes. " I promise I'm not gonna do something stupid like that again, cuz ."
"At least not without supervision!" Joe added, I gave him a deadpan. "Look, we all have dumb ideas, the important thing here is that we run them by each other first so we can see if they're really dumb or if it's something that has merit but needs supervision."
I sighed. Dumb, handsome jackass , I thought. "Fair enough," I gave him. He grinned back and it annoyed me that the expression made me feel robot butterflies in my synthetic stomach.
"Right," Uzi took the reins of the conversation back. "I'm gonna keep Doll company with Liz. Joe's gonna go off to get the oil he's gonna get. We all break until tonight, and then I head out after around… 12pm, to hack any cameras Joe needs me to hack so that we can hide that amount of oil being moved. Everyone else, take a break for the rest of the day. We'll all meet around… 14pm sounds good for everyone? Thad, your parents gonna be okay with you being out that late?"
"They trust me… which makes me feel bad for what I'm gonna be sneaking out to do, but…" he sighed. "This is important for Doll, despite how messed up it is."
"So we all meet at 14:00 tonight?" Uzi asked again.
There was a chorus of assents from everyone.
"I think I need a couple hours to process this all," Kelsey said.
"Yeah," Thad said, staring blankly ahead. "Yeah… Holy crap ," he muttered.
"Ditto, Kelsey. Ditto," Penny agreed.
"It goes without saying, but I'm gonna say it anyway because my paranoia has steered me well thus far: We're all keeping our mouths shut on this, okay?" Joe spoke up.
Thad shook his head but gave a thumbs up.
"This is the kind of gossip you keep quiet about," Rebecca agreed.
"My vocalizer's muted," Darren confirmed.
"Yep!" Penny said.
"I'll keep quiet. You're my friend, Doll," Kelsey replied.
"Do you even need to ask, cuz?" Uzi said with a grin.
"What Uzi said, minus the familial relation," Joe added.
"Only us and the Lord will know," Emily affirmed.
Trevor gave a thumbs up with one hand while miming zipping his lips with the other.
Dolly looked at me, and I just smiled at her.
" Thank you …" Doll said quietly. " Thank you all ."
"You're our friend, Dolly," I told her. "We've always got your back. I've always got your back."
" Thanks Liz, " she whispered to me.
"You're welcome," I whispered back, giving her a nice big smile. I held her close as people started to file out of the room. Regardless of what happened tonight, what I said was the truth. I'd always be there for her. And robo-god help Robot Cthulhu Satan if that bastard thought it was gonna lay a hand on her.
___