A/N: The first part of this chapter is a tribute to ThatLazyPotato, and her OC Alyke Cuse! I hope you enjoy this one!
___
(Aly)
The door creaked open.
I saw yellow.
I screamed.
Frankie pulled himself off of me and I already wanted to pull him back, but then he put himself between me and the Murder Drone, and I froze from terror as I realized he was about to die in front of me before I died next.
It was G.
The same cargo pants, turtleneck sweater, bushy twin tails, a pair of glasses that made her look really cute--
Her golden optics locked with Frankie's. A beat passed, and then they hollowed to pixel thick rings. Her mouth opened to complete the expression of horror on her face, and then she twisted and staggered a bit to the alcove next to the door. She bent over, an arm barely catching a wall, and vomited, black, steaming fluid that had a mix of oil and something else spewing out of her mouth. She got out a choked sob before she hurled a second time, a full-body shudder rippling through her that ended with her tail thumping on the floor before she threw up a third time, and then staggered back and collapsed against the opposing wall.
She slid down the wall, sobbing hysterically.
"I'm a monster," she hoarsely choked out. I blinked, my own terror pushed aside for just a moment as that sunk in. Did… did G actually regret all the murdering?
'I'm a monster,' she forced out a second time, digital tears pouring down her visor. Did she feel guilt? Was… what was going on?
"I'm a monster," she cried out a third time, curling up on herself as her tail limply flopped onto the floor while she pulled her knees in and wrapped her arms around them, still sobbing.
A couple seconds passed as she kept crying, and I realized that now that I apparently wasn't in danger of imminent death while the Murder Drone in front of us was having a nervous breakdown, that yeah, G was actually really cute. She had this whole tall (possibly shy?) nerdy aesthetic going on and that was really nice, and the fact that she was clearly demonstrating guilt about all the… you know, genocide of my kind, made me take in the scene with what was probably less fear than Frankie would have wanted me to feel right now.
But apparently she really thought she was a monster for all the murder, and… I didn't like seeing her crying. I started to walk forwards without even really consciously thinking about it, going around Frankie, whose arms had gone slack as he just stared dumbfounded at the mentally broken harbinger of doom in front of us. He only noticed me as I went around him and slowly approached G… from the other side of the room from where she puked, because yikes, I didn't wanna step in that. Ew…
"Aly, what the hell are you--"
Something in me was telling me to ignore Frankie this one time, and that it was okay to do something stupid. Or maybe I just thought that there was someone hurting in front of me that needed a friend. Or maybe I thought that I saw someone alone like I was so scared of being and resolved to be the person who was there for them like Frankie was for me. Or I could be just not thinking at all. That happened sometimes too, and it seemed to make Frankie laugh just as often as it annoyed him. I knelt down next to G, slowly and carefully, keeping an eye on that glowing yellow stinger attached to a… very curvy lower body, and forced the thought of how that was kinda hot from my mind because I didn't need to be a horny pansexual mess right now, I needed to be someone who could help. And then I was next to a sobbing Murder Drone, Frankie having taken a few steps towards me but then freezing out of fear (I think), and I saw those five pretty glowing bulbs on her head, that fluffy ash-white hair up close, and two golden eyemotes squinted shut as she kept sobbing. I don't think I was smart enough to say the right words here. But I knew that actions, like art, could speak from the core way better than just language.
So I hugged a Murder Drone. G froze completely still for a few seconds, and then her head craned up as hollow golden rings looked up to meet my red. The way they were framed behind those glasses really sold the crippling emotional turmoil she was probably feeling. And then suddenly, staring into those eyemotes, I knew what words to say. "Hi! My name's Alyke, and you're my friend now, so you can call me Aly!"
G blinked once. "W-w-what?"
I swallowed, because not gonna lie, I was terrified I could die an agonizing death in the next few seconds-- robo-god if she kills me I want her to crush my head between her thighs -- but I kept going. "You… you apparently regret all the murder, right?"
G flinched and started shaking. I tightened my hug. "I'm a monster," she whimpered.
"Then be better," I told her.
She froze again. "Huh?" she whispered.
"Stop the killing and be better," I told her, without any hint of malice in my tone.
"I… I can't," she whispered back, flinching and hugging herself tighter.
"Why?" Frankie suddenly barked. "Why can't you stop the literal genocide?!?"
"Frankie!" I turned and actually snapped at him, and he froze. I turned back around and hugged G again, throttling my horny thoughts because I did not need them right now. G was whimpering and shaking again. I hugged her tighter. "Hey," I said in a gentle tone. "Can you tell us why you need to… you know?"
"I… I… I need oil," G whispered. "I'll overheat and die without it." She sobbed again. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm such a monster and I should die and--"
"So the humans are assholes who made you such that you'd die after you killed all of us?" Frankie asked.
G froze again. "They… they made us to die…" She shuddered. "The Company lied to us and said you weren't sapient and made us as disposable monsters--"
I had enough. "You're not a monster!" I told her. G flinched, but looked at me. "A monster wouldn't regret what she did. A monster wouldn't be sorry. A monster wouldn't feel guilty or be having a nervous breakdown as soon as you figured out we were living people!"
"I still need to--"
Oh! I realized. She's a robot vampire. We have oil! We grow it naturally! We can be a literal blood bank! I turned. "Frankie, how much oil can we donate?"
Frankie sputtered. "WHAT?!?"
"What?" G echoed.
I twisted to look at Frankie. "We replenish oil naturally, right? So can't we just donate it like humans do their blood but for G?"
"Y-you-- what?" G asked.
Frankie looked contemplative for a mom-- his optics literally flashed to [Recalling worker anatomy lessons] which I giggled at before they flashed to [because I know you didn't Aly], and then I pouted at him. "For a teenage frame? If we eat foods that aid in the synthesis of oil, we could probably squeeze about a liter every other week without any issues with our hardware, but we might be a bit tired."
I twisted back to G, still hugging her. "Is a little under two liters every two weeks enough for you?"
"What?" G asked again.
"What?" Frankie was the one to echo this time.
I giggled. "We donate her our oil, and she doesn't have to kill people. She just learned we're people, and she wants to stop the murders but needs oil. If that's enough oil for her, then she can stop the killing."
"Aly… how the hell did you come up with that?"
I pouted at Frankie, and actually gave a mildly offended glare at him. "I can think of things!"
Frankie flinched. "Sorry, Aly, just… No, I should have thought better of you."
I frowned, but he did apologize, so my mood flipped back to neutral. "It's okay, Frankie."
"You… you're gonna give me your oil?" G whispered, tears still pouring down her display.
"Well… Aly presents a compelling case. You need oil, we don't want to die, we can donate, so is two liters every other week enough?" Frankie said.
"I… I don't deserve it. I'm a monster," G whispered.
"Then consider it a 'we don't wanna die' investment on our part if you don't think you deserve it," Frankie said. G shifted her head a bit, tear-stricken hollow golden rings gazing at him. "We don't wanna die, so if it's enough that you don't need to kill anyone, then that helps us, right?"
"I think you deserve help," I piped in. G looked back at me, sniffling. I hugged her tighter. "You regret it, so you aren't a monster," I stressed. "So you deserve to have a different option than just… killing."
G sobbed. "I… I…" She lunged forwards and I bit down a primal scream of terror as arms wrapped around me. I heard a thump and a muffled shout as Frankie fell backwards and choked down his own scream of terror. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" G kept babbling as she hugged me back and sobbed hysterically.
I forced down the urge to quake in terror at the fact that the admittedly sexy Murder Drone was holding me tight and could totally kill me and instead focused on comforting the clearly repentant genocide robot. I hesitantly started to rub my hand on her back, and then said, "Hey, uh, please don't extend the wings right now, you'll probably slice my hands off…" G flinched in my arms. "Sorry, but… I like having my hands attached, you know? I use them to draw…"
"That… that's fair," G whispered. "I don't… I don't deserve--"
"Well, we're doing it anyways!" Frankie and I said in tandem, and then turned to glance at each other, the both of us blushing. That was… that was really cute that we did it in tandem… I blinked and shook my head. More important things to focus on than Frankie and his sexy… everything…
"Why?" G whispered.
Frankie sighed, and slowly walked over to us, knelt down, and hesitantly hugged us both. It… it was a really nice hug. Not even as a crush thing, I just really liked being hugged by him. That G was actually physically warm was also pretty nice. It was like hugging a heated body pillow, but she was hugging me back. "From a practical perspective, if we can give you oil, you don't have to kill us. From a moral perspective, you… you clearly feel horrific about what you are, and if we can do something to help you, we should. So… is two liters of oil from the each of us enough for you?"
G shuddered. "N--no… but… but it would help… I… I already barely kill anyways… coasting off the reserves that L and M…" G stiffened again. "Do they know they're killing people?" her mouth started to slowly open as her depression became more and more horrified. "I don't think they'd care," she whispered.
"Well… screw those ***holes!" I said, voice box crackling because of my stupid parental controls. "They can go sex each other to death!"
G blinked, staring at me, and then started to giggle, for just a few seconds. It sounded melodic, before she caught herself and stopped, wincing as she looked away. "I don't--" she cut herself off and looked at us both as we pulled back. Frankie gave her a deadpan and I pouted at her. She hugged us both and started crying again. "Thank you both so much!" she sobbed.
And in an apartment with a busted down door, we both hugged a sobbing Murder Drone as she wailed and broke down in equal sorrow at the things she's done and corefelt gratefulness at the hands we extended to her. I… I'd admit I was still really scared… but… G absolutely regretted what she was, and if I was gonna be a good person, then I'd try to help her however I could. And… and Frankie just agreeing to back me up like that… it meant the world to me too. He really was my best friend ever that I liked as more than a friend but was too scared to tell him that because I had crippling abandonment issues and was terrified he'd leave me alone again if I tried to change the status quo. But… him being here and helping me help G here and now? That was enough.
___
(Franko)
It was another twelve minutes and seventeen seconds until G finally stopped sobbing as we hugged her. I… uh… I'd admit that it was surreal as heck to literally hug a Murder Drone and not die, but I can confidently say that I've done that now. I… I really didn't have words for Aly's stunt to try and comfort G. I was terrified, mad at her for risking herself like that… but it worked out, and I think it was the right call, to be honest. I… if I was alone, I'd have hesitated, maybe gone for words instead of a hug straight off the bat, but… Aly was braver than me in some ways. And I loved her for it. Just… really wish G had waited another ten minutes. Like heck I was gonna be able to confess to her after that just happened. Took me a week to work up the nerve for that.
G finally stopped crying though, And slowly looked back up at us. "Why… why did your vocalizer crackle when you tried to swear, by the way?" she hesitantly asked.
"Parental controls," Aly and I echoed in tandem. "Even though we're both orphans," I groused.
"I wanna curse!" Aly pouted. G giggled, and then froze up again. "Nope!" Aly said. "Stop being guilty!"
"S-sorry, Alyke--"
"You're my friend, so call me Aly!" she insisted.
"She hates the pronunciation of her real name," I said.
Aly gasped, looking at me with mock disgust. "You! You betrayed me, Frankie!"
I reached forwards with the arm closest to her and booped her where her nose would be if she was a human. "Better I just explain why now."
Aly blinked, visor lighting up with red hashmarks.
ThatOneWanderingArtist: nahjhbjabsjhbcjcbda!!!
I forced down the urge to laugh at the chat ping. "Frankie!" she shouted. "Nuuuuuuuuuuu!"
"Is… is she usually like this?" G asked, bracing herself as if we were gonna yell at her, and that… that made me feel bad, that G had been reduced from the apex predator of Copper 9 to… this, where we could break her all over again with just a couple words if we wanted to.
"Does she randomly get embarrassed like this and act like this often? Yes," I told her.
Aly pulled back from the group hug, and flopped back onto the floor, pulling her beanie down over her optics. "Frankiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeee! Shtap embarrassing meeeeeeeeeeeeh!!!!"
I chuckled myself, and slowly pulled back from G. She flinched, and I paused, giving her a smile, waiting for her to relax a bit, before I pulled back the rest of the way and shuffled over to Aly before I rolled my eyemotes and gave her a hug. "You know I like you, you goober," I told her. As more than a friend remained unsaid, even if I wanted to.
Aly froze from her embarrassment, and then like a switch was flipped, wrapped around me as she hugged me back, nuzzling her head into my chin. I really wanted to kiss her, I thought, regretting that now was really not a good time to try to deal with all that. "I like huggles," she said. I hated that it took me over a month to work up the nerve to try and confess to her, and I knew it was gonna be longer to try that again now, and that I probably wouldn't even start trying to psych myself up again until we settled into the new status quo of… whatever the heck was gonna happen with G.
"Huggles?" G mumbled.
"Hugs and cuddles at the same time," I said dryly, but still smiling as I held Aly close.
"This is nice," Aly mumbled. I held her a bit closer.
"Do… do you want me to try and shut your parental controls? Because… I can curse…" G trailed off.
Aly froze. "You can let us curse?" She twisted her head to lock her gaze on G. "You're the best!!!"
"Why do I have the feeling I'm going to regret this?" G and I asked in perfect sync, and then we both paused, looking at each other, nonplussed.
"What?!?" Aly protested. "Imma just curse the h…" she pouted. "Heck… out of G's stupid horny teammates! How messed up do you have to be to bone all the time to make someone miserable?!?"
G's eyemotes hollowed out. "Y-you heard all that from under the car?"
Aly's optics ringed too. "You knew we were under it the whole time?"
"That… that's why I landed to wipe the footprints. I saw them as I was coming in…" G admitted.
I swallowed. G… deliberately saved our lives in the past. "Thank you," I said, completely earnest. G looked away, but gave a nod and a small smile.
"I… I… I only realized workers were actually sapient just here and now… but I already suspected it and felt so guilty for so long before that…"
Aly wriggled out of my grip, and clambered over to G again, hugging her once more. "That just means that we were friends even before today, then!" she said.
"W… you actually want to be my friends?" G whispered.
"Yep!" Aly said. "You're warm, and tall, and really cool in the metaphorical and not literal way because in the literal way you're warm like I already said, and you also saved our lives more than once, so we're friends!"
"You're not getting away from Aly, and I'm a package deal with her, so I guess we're friends too," I said, standing up and walking over to them, putting a hand on G's shoulder.
"I… thank you both so much," G whispered. I glanced over at a flash of yellow moving in my peripheral, and saw her tail finally stop being limp, instead shifting to a position that looked more… "natural" behind her.
"Hey, uh, please watch the tail though," I cautioned.
G blinked, and then frowned, glancing away. "Our spit neutralizes the nanite acid," she mumbled. "I've never accidentally stung something, but I can fix it if I do."
I blinked.
Aly blinked.
"Your spit counters the acid?" Aly and I asked in tandem.
"Yeah?" G said. "Where else would we have a readily accessible supply of neutralizing agent that also means it's safe to… eat… drones we sting-- not that I've ever done that!" G protested.
"Hey, hey!" I said, raising my hands in a placating manner. "No one said you did!"
"That's gross," Aly said, "But also really cool."
I mimicked a human clearing their throat. "By the way, you, uh, never answered us on the oil thing…"
G glanced away. "I… If… if I don't try hunting too hard, and spend about half the time suffering those two at the Spire to keep topped off from the reserves they have… even… even if those are from people… I might be able to coast off of that and what you give me without… without… killing anyone."
"Do you… do you need oil now?" I asked, throwing a glance at the pile of… fluid that I was gonna have to clean… it was already freezing, dangit. "After, you know…" G flinched, wilting in on herself.
Aly perked up. Her visor displayed a [: O !] "Oh! I bet one of the other apartments or maybe the basement has some spare oil for emergencies or something!" She pulled back from G and started sprinting to the door. "Looting spree!" she cheered, and then I heard gremlin giggles fading as she ran past the broken door, and then got further and further.
"Do you want me to try and disable your parental controls?" G suddenly asked once we were alone, and I glanced at her for the blatant subject change.
All the same though, "Please," I begged, sending an open invite to my OS.
It only occurred to me right after doing so that my dumb *** just let a Murder Drone into my OS, and holy SHIT--
My train of thought at how stupid that was derailed as I felt the foreign presence in my systems leave and realized I just cursed. "Did it… did it work?" G asked, clasping her hands together and looking nervous as she tapped her index fingers together.
"I can… I can fffffucking curse now!" I said. I grinned and then leaned in to hug G on reflex. She squeaked, and then I pulled back after only a second, standing a respectable distance away. "But seriously, thanks. I get the distinct feeling that despite already being adults legally, we'd still be waiting until way after we're 18 in local years for someone to realize they needed to disable those." I waited a beat, and then added, "Because we're orphans." My eyemotes hollowed, and I hastily tacked on, "You did not kill my or Aly's parents, as far as we know!"
G flinched, but gave me a grateful smile. We both paused as we heard a thump from below us.
ThatOneWanderingArtist: I'm okay!
ThatOneWanderingArtist: I tripped when I forced a jammed door open. > : (
Frankostein: u sure?
ThatOneWanderingArtist: ye!
ThatOneWanderingArtist: : O !
ThatOneWanderingArtist: I found a jerry can!
ThatOneWanderingArtist: And YES, Frankie, I checked and there's oil in it!
ThatOneWanderingArtist: I'm coming back up!
Aloud, I said, "Aly forced a door downstairs open and fell in the process. She's fine and said she found a jerry can with oil in it. She's coming back up."
"Y-you, you're really--" G cut herself off, and frowned. "Thank you, Frankie," she whispered, curling in on herself. "And Aly too."
I started laughing, and G looked at me, really confused, before I collected myself and told her, "My name's Franko. With an 'O' at the end. Aly has just called me Frankie since forever."
"Oh." G blinked, and then blushed. "Sorry."
"Nah, it's fine. Kinda funny, to be honest," I told her, and then I heard Aly's footsteps slowly getting louder as she came back, and while I glanced in that direction, I saw the front door. "Don't suppose you'd be willing to help us loot one of the other doors here to replace this one later? No hard feelings about it, just gotta fix that, you know?"
"Yeah, I'll help," G said. "Just, uh… keep me out of the sunlight."
"The sunlight?" I asked.
Aly came around the corner lugging a jerry can in front of her. It was less that the weight was an issue (it wasn't for drones) and more that it was slightly unwieldy. "We… literally burn in the light of day," G admitted.
Aly gasped. "You're robot vampires! That's so cool!" Aly said, beaming. "Also, I got you oil!" She thumped the can down next to G.
G stared at it, jaw agape, for a few seconds. Then she started bawling again. But this time, I could tell they were happy tears. And this time, I didn't hesitate to join Aly in hugging the crying Murder Drone, who hugged us both right back as she thanked us over and over and over again through her tears.
___
(Serial Designation G)
I was lying on the couch in the worke-- In Franko and Alyke-- Aly, she wanted me to call her Aly, I reminded myself --in their apartment. It wasn't actually their home, they spent most of their time in the Bunker, Outpost 4, that we couldn't get into. I wasn't gonna ask them how they got out. I didn't want to know in the first place. But they spent a decent amount of time here, and said I could crash here whenever I wanted to get away from L and M fucking like animals every day.
I unlocked Aly's parental controls earlier too, and her first swear was, "Your teammates are shitty fucking slutty exhibitionist bitch-ass cunts!" Franko and I had both stared at her for a few seconds, and then I was laughing so hard I started crying again right then and there.
I drank a quarter gallon of oil on the spot, and then I started answering questions they had. Yes, I burned in the light of day, no I didn't know why, the glasses were just cosmetic and I'd spent a lot of time working to get tiny magnets to keep them on my face, yes, sometimes my tail wagged when I was really happy but that was really rare for obvious reasons, yes, I only needed oil, M eating people was just her being a bitch, I liked to read, and yes, I picked my own clothes because I got fed up of the Company Uniform. I started asking about workers and their culture, and learned things about how they live, can access internet stuff, and found out that the seemingly indestructible doors to their bunker complex were designed by a guy named Khan Doorman who was in charge of Outpost 3 and shared the designs to all the Outposts. It kinda boggled my mind that the worker responsible for keeping all the Disassembly Drone teams out of the bunkers ran the one that was literally right under the most effective team on the planet.
Aly caught on that I really got uncomfortable at the term "Murder Drone," and I hesitantly told them what we were technically called. They both agreed to call me a Disassembly Drone from now on, and that nearly set me crying again. I didn't… I didn't deserve their forgiveness… but they were doing it anyway, so I was going to do my very best to stop killing and try to live up to their expectations. They deserved it, for sure.
I lied with my back on the couch, staring up at the ceiling. It was nearly noon, and I needed to get into sleep mode, but I just wasn't feeling it. I was still… just so emotionally charged right now, I didn't think I could no matter how hard I tried. I… I was such a mess mentally, right now, The revelation that I'd been committing a genocide, the self loathing I still felt, the forgiveness I didn't deserve from the two workers who I'd somehow bumped into against all odds… my thoughts were just swirling right now.
I heard quiet footsteps getting closer, and from my headband I saw Aly trying to be quiet as she came over. She… wasn't doing the best job, but I think it was enough to not wake Franko up. "Pssst!" Aly whispered. "G! You awake?"
I sat up. "Aly?" I asked, suppressing a cringe because I still didn't feel like I deserved to be her friend.
"I made a sketch of us!" Aly said, and she pulled out a tablet and showed me an art piece on it. It… it was a chibi sketch of the three of us, holding hands, with the word "FWIENDS" above us. Franko looked annoyed. "Frankie's annoyed because he doesn't have his sunglasses," Aly said with a grin, and she started quietly giving a gremlin chuckle (that I recognized from the times Tessa got some of us together for movie nights when she could do them behind her parent's backs).
I… I sniffled. They… they really did want to be my friends… I sniffled again. And the tears started flowing. I… I didn't deserve them… but I was gonna try to make it so that I did deserve them. Aly's eyemotes hollowed. "G? Are you--"
I leaned forwards and hugged her. "Happy tears," I whispered, my tail coiling around her left leg. "Thank you," I got out. My facial optics were closed, but my headband could see Aly blushing a lot for some reason.
"You're hot," Aly said, before she stiffened and blurted out, "Physically! It's nice! Toasty and comfy!"
I thought for a moment. Aly was really cool against my chassis. "You're cool," I told her. "It's also nice." I swallowed. "I don't deserve either of you. But… I'm gonna try my best to live up to your expectations."
Aly started to hug me back, and smiled. "And I'm gonna try my best to make you believe that you do deserve our forgiveness, G!" Then she froze. "Hey G?"
I raised an eyemote as my facial optics opened again. "Yeah?"
"So like, murder bitch and apathetic asshole--" I snorted at the nicknames for M and L. "--make you miserable by fucking every night, right?"
"Y-yeah…" I admitted.
"Can't you just mute your audials like we can?"
I froze. I went into the system settings that I could access. There was a setting that could adjust my sensitivity to sound, even deafening me if I wanted. I… I could have just not heard them this entire time… I started crying again as I hugged Aly tighter. She wheezed and I let up a bit in a panic as I heard metal and polymers creak, remembering that I could absolutely kill her if I wasn't careful. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" I said over and over and over again.
"You didn't know that?" Aly asked, confused.
"I'm not my system admin," I said. "That's… someone in the Company. I can't even check who." I swallowed. "I never thought to check if I could actually access my own audial settings, but I can, so thank you so much for telling me, Aly!"
Aly grinned. "You're welcome, G!" Her grin got a little more gremlin-y. "So do you agree that we're friends now?"
I pulled back a bit, still teary-optic'd. "Do… do you really want to be friends with me?" I asked.
Aly waved the tablet that she was still holding with one hand. "I made the sketch and everything, duh!" She pulled her other hand off from hugging me and poked where my nose would be if I was a human. "Boop!" she said. "So we're friends!"
I leaned forwards and held her cool body closer. "Thank you," I whispered.
Aly swallowed, closed her eyemotes, but opened them and seemed refocused. "You're welcome G." Then her optics flickered away, visor displaying a red [>:3] before flicking back. "So, miss vampire robot, you need to sleep now, because you're nocturnal, right?"
I blinked, and blushed, embarrassed. "V-vampire robot?"
Aly's grin got more gremlin-y. "I'm literally gonna give you my oil, so yes! You gotta sleep! And-- and then you can come here again later and hang out with us!"
"Hang out?"
"You're my friend, and friends hang out. So on nights where you don't have to hang out with those bitches, then we can hang out!" Aly gasped. "We can have a girls night later! I never got to have one of those before!"
"A girls night?" I asked.
"It'll be so fun!" she said. "We're gonna have one, for sure!"
I gave a hesitant grin back. "I… I'm looking forward to it."
Aly smiled, positively beaming, and I found the grin infectious as my own grew in tandem. We talked about anything and everything for another ten minutes or so before she left to go hang out with Franko in his room, wishing me a good sleep. I was out cold in the most pleasant rest I could remember having less than a minute later.
___
(Serial Designation J)
"..and that's why you need to make sure you don't treat N like shit, future J. And be careful reading the dream journal, because it nearly tripped another reset on the spot. And also to make sure that you don't consciously recall a human whose name starts with a T, and if you do, you need to shove it into the repression folder N gave you immediately, J."
I put down the JCJ branded pen and I took a moment to collect myself. Then I grabbed the pen, clicked it so the point wasn't out, and set it down. And then adjusted it so it sat at a right angle to the corners of the night table. I put the journal in a different drawer on my night table than the journal I told N about. Better to spread them out to maximize my chances of stumbling across one in case I was reset again.
I sat back. I've left notes to my future self if I got reset again. I asked… begged N to help me if it happens, and… and there weren't many more precautions I could realistically take. I'd just have to dig where I could and hope I wasn't wiped. I reached over and ran a thumb over the black bow I had… there were physical things I had that could survive resets. Things that could jog my memories again. Let me know something was wrong. If the "game" the Scrapper mentioned was rigged against me, then I'd cheat back. I was Serial Designation J! Not the number attached to that. I was a person, profit-margins be damned! I… I was gonna save myself. I was gonna save N. I was gonna save V. I… I was gonna be the model Disassembler on the planet, but instead of building a Spire of corpses, I'd be the one to save us all from ourselves…
I just had to save myself first. I looked down at the bow. I stared at it long and hard. I recalled a flash. A beaming face, pearly whites, soulful brown eyes framing features that were tanned but Caucasian, with a hint of Pacific Islander in the heritage. A big black bow on the back of her head. I missed Tessa so damn mu--
RIGHT INTO THE REPRESSION FOLDER. Slammed the past 30-odd seconds straight in there without hesitation, and I started breathing heavily as a massive headache crashed through my processors. I clutched my head and bent over. I froze as I felt something access my recent memories. It evidently didn't find what it was looking for, telling me that it was searching for specific words or memories. Like the appearance or name of the human that was apparently connected to the bow I had looted years back… I couldn't remember where I'd gotten it from, now that I thought about it. The presence in the back of my OS, that I wouldn't have noticed past the headache if I wasn't specifically paying attention to it, receded as fast as it appeared, and I couldn't even tell where it went. That bow… something about it really strongly resonated with a human who I was familiar with at some point. I… it could be the key to everything, but it also might doom me just as easily.
My headache was calming down, and I stopped shaking in fear, and took a slow breath before releasing it. I swallowed. I was gonna need more oil soon. That… I wasn't looking forward to, but I needed to stay topped up for N's and V's sakes. I took another breath and released it. I tried to pick up my train of thought before the dump to the repression folder had derailed it.
"I… I am a person," I whispered to myself. "I am real. My mind matters. My memories matter. I'm J, but I'm still more than that letter. I'm a person. I'm more than my memories. I'm me."
I stood up. There were things I could do. I could call a meeting. Even if we couldn't stop the killings, maybe I could ease on just how hard we were exceeding quota. I could emphasize that I wanted clean and painless kills. Tell V that being violent and messy wasted oil. Things… things that would be in character for me, but wouldn't be suspicious of me trying to change things. And… I needed to keep an eyemote out for N and V. Corporate forbid they got reset again on my watch. I paused. I could drink oil the Scrapper left, at least for now. That… that would be easier to stomach.
I got ready to start a brand new day, taking on a hesitant grin as I ran my thumb over the bow I was still holding… and rather than hide it in a drawer, I tied it to the lamp on the night table, in plain sight. A reminder to myself that I was more than my memories.
I was me.
___
(Joseph)
I sat in the chair in front of the Quantum PC in Vault 2, flipping through millions of hours of footage from thousands of cameras we'd scattered throughout the city as we spied on JNV, filtering out footage of irrelevance as I combed through it all with automated algorithms to sort shit while also doing it in a reasonable timeframe thanks to overclocking. I forced down a yawn, not because I was actually tired, but because even doing this as fast as I was was still fucking boring. Man, the 4th Wall was lucky they wouldn't have to sit through me doing this shit for hours on end unless something important happen--
Speak of the Solver, and it shall come (thank fuck not literally). I shot up in my seat as I went over footage from J's quarters. My optics were wide as I stared with naked shock as I saw her go through a full on breakdown, realize she wasn't her own admin, that the "Company" was resetting her memories, and I watched with terror as she cut herself off from saying Tessa's name and froze up completely for a few seconds. Did she-- but then J unfroze, looking terrified rather than confused… she nearly got reset right there… and possibly realized that.
I feverishly checked through more surveillance footage from inside the Spire. She talked to N… set him up as a failsafe in case she got reset. She set up ways to remind herself of things without immediately getting reset again. She's writing in a paper journal. I went back to the spy cam in her quarters and saw her nearly get reset again just hours ago. Fuck, less than two weeks after Yeva was back and J nearly got reset twice. This… this was fucking huge. I… holy shit…
"This could get J turned first if I play this right," I mumbled. "I… I need a fucking plan, I… how did she stop a reset?" I wondered aloud. I thought about anything different she might have had access to that could have let her save herself so narrowly twice. Was there anything different from my actions that would have-- "She's friendlier to N," I realized. "I've been traumatizing them all… so… N canonically has a repression folder… did J ask for it because of me?" I was fucking incredulous as I sat back. "Did that fucking one-off joke from canon actually come in clutch more than once? Because holy shit, that's fucking hilarious!" I said, as I started to laugh--
Then I froze. I stood up, chair nearly falling over from how fast I did so. "Wait, if she can dump memories into the repression folder… she can access memories that the Solver isn't blocking… which means…" I grinned as the realization hit me. "That's a failsafe that could work. I can make sure they keep their memories myself. The Solver can't wipe something it isn't in." I pushed the chair aside, and ran out of the room to the nearest printer. I had a couple ideas I wanted to discuss with Uzi, a couple plans to refine, and a couple things to fabricate.
And I started cackling as I went. "Vaffanculo, Solver! Joe's gonna score yet again!!!"
___
(Doll)
The door to The Scrapyard shut behind me, and I took a breath. I… I could teleport the distance from home or my room in Uncle Khan's hab by now, but it still took a lot out of me. I was gonna wait a bit longer before attempting that kind of distance outside of an emergency. Maybe see if Mama had any advice to make teleporting easier… I… it was still so surreal and amazing that I could ask Mama for that. I let the breath out, and took two steps before I heard Joe call out to me from a distance.
"Hey Doll! Was about to ping the group chat, so you can ignore the notification for it since I'll just tell ya first. Since, you know, he cleaned himself up, Imma go change the password to the secret door to something less insulting to Khan." I started walking towards the sound of Joe's voice, stopped, and then focused my Solver instead. A moment later and with a crack of displaced air and a glitch in reality, and I was across the expanse of Vault 1, near the vehicle bay.
Joe was working on a hoverbike, trying to make it at least cosmetically resemble a Harley Davidson motorcycle, because it was apparently a favorite of his first life's mother. I… I could understand that level of sentiment completely. And it had hit me on the spot that Joe gave me my Mama back… but was never going to see his again. None of his family from his first life ever again. But he still carried on for all of our sakes. I… I wanted to do something for him, to show him that he could find a new family with us. Not… not even a crush thing, but to show that our friends could be a found family for him. And, well, I wanted to date both him and Liz…
My own musings aside, Joe was listening to some old song from the early 2000s as he worked, Monumental by Aviators, which was apparently a fan song to a game called Demon's Souls. "Anyways," Joe continued, "As a nod to the realization of what would be a really funny fucking title card for my trainwreck of a second life, as well as towards your mom," he nodded to the side, and I internally cringed as I realized I missed Mama watching him work, probably for lack of anything more meaningful to do at the moment. She was dressed in the clothes Penny had made for her, an oversized grey shirt with an Xbox 1 Controller, as a subtle nod to the Isekai Protagonist from the 2000s who brought her back from the dead, and black cargo shorts, with some dark grey winter boots with black laces. "I'm changing the password to 'ADIPGTSMD048.'"
The TNPAPT pinged not a second later, but this time, I ignored it like Joe said. "I have to admit," Mama called out from where she was at the other end of the vehicle bay as she sipped on an oil canister with a straw in it, "after he explained that he came up with a title card that completely tracks with how he thinks and acts but for timelines where we're on the wrong side of the 4th Wall, the abbreviation for 'A Dumbass Isekai Protagonist's Guide To Surviving Murder Drones' with my subject number tacked onto the end is both fairly good in that no one will guess it, and is also moderately amusing."
I glanced back to Joe. "'A Dumbass Isekai Protagonist's Guide To Surviving Murder Drones?'" I asked him.
Joe looked up from his hoverbike. "Tell me it ain't accurate," he dared me in Russian.
I fought down a blush via overclock. That program was utterly ridiculous. "It is," I admitted, but forgot to keep that embarrassment out of my tone, and Mama raised an eyemote while Joe cocked his head in confusion, and I glanced away. At least I was doing better than Liz…
I snapped myself out of my embarrassment at being caught out and gave Joe a nod, and he returned it before I turned to walk to Mama as he got back to work. The refrain for the song Joe was listening to came on, and he briefly refocused on his work as he sang along. It was a habit I'd noticed he'd been doing more and more these past few days. Almost as if letting his secrets go to us meant he was comfortable showing a dozen other little facets of his personality that he'd previously bottled up.
"So may your dreams be monumental,
When your spirit guides the way!
Within the fli-cker of a candle,
I will heal your soul's decay!"
I blinked, because those lyrics resonated with me… Maybe I should get a bit more into the Fromsoft Games Joe was so into. He… he had monumental dreams for all of us, and saved our souls from ourselves… Triumph through sheer spite against fate seemed to be a theme Joe not only liked in fiction, but was genuinely trying to emulate in his second life.
"We share a fate,
Trapped on a page,
By the author of our world's demise!
(In your eyes)
I see your pain,
Your targets slain
I will be the whispers in your mind!
(The demon inside)"
Huh… those lyrics felt uncanny. Shared fate of death by the Solver, trapped by fate, and he could see it in our eyemotes, back before he came up with a GIF to hide the Solver, at least. He knew our pain, worked to slay the causes in one way or another, yet only literally for the case of the Solver… and he had been dominating my thoughts a lot lately…
"Kukolka," Mama said as I reached her, while Joe hummed to his song but kept his head a little tilted to show he was still paying decent attention as he worked. I… I might have thought it rude, but I'd realized in the wake of his behavioral shifts after the reveal that he was an introvert at heart who'd really forced himself to be more outgoing for all of our sakes. More so than he was before, now that the cat was out of the bag, he was starting to slip back into his comfort zone of being on the periphery of conversations unless he was being directly addressed. He… all that extra interaction to help us all get together and get us ready for what was coming in every way he could must have really been contributing to his day to day stress. He had a small but earnest smile on his face as he worked to weld a panel onto the hoverbike. I wondered if the others picked that up. Cuz probably did. Liz too… probably everyone noticed, but I'm not sure if they put together the level of trust and lowering of Joe's guard that such gestures implied. He… he looked so much less stressed ever since he laid things on the table for everyone.
"Mama?" I looked over to her.
"Your friend Penny did an amazing job with everyone's clothes, yours and mine included."
"She really did," I admitted. I stopped speaking for a few moments, looking pensive.
Mama stood up from where she was sitting, and then put the oil canister down and walked up to me and wrapped me in a hug that I instantly returned. "Mama," I whispered.
"You never need to ask me for a hug, Doll," she told me as I adored every moment of something that less than a month ago, I still thought I'd never get to experience again. She took a hand off me and placed it on the back of my head, fingers lacing into my hair. "Did you do your braid yourself?" she asked me in a low voice.
"Liz did it for me this morning," I admitted.
I got a DM message ping from Mama.
Матрёшка_гамает: Overclock for this one.
I did.
Матрёшка_гамает: You like her, don't you?
I was so horribly embarrassed.
Кукла: Mama!
Матрёшка_гамает: She's a wonderful girl now. Your--
I snapped back to real time for a very short period as Mama sighed, and I hugged her tighter as she did the same.
Матрёшка_гамает: Your father had an issue or two with her before we lost him. But Joseph seemed to have turned her life around. If you like her, then I won't have a problem with her.
I was still so embarrassed, but also really happy.
Кукла: Thank you, Mama.
Матрёшка_гамает: And you ALSO like Joseph, don't you?
I forced down a squeak of mortification, my optics hollowing for an instant as a blush crept up my visor, before I turned up my overclock and worked to fight it down.
Матрёшка_гамает: Do you?
Кукла: Mama!
I sent that and then squirmed in her grip.
Кукла: He's… he's been so nice to me Mama.
Кукла: He helped me.
Кукла: And Liz.
Кукла: And they're gonna date.
Кукла: And… and I know Liz likes me!
Кукла: And I know Joe knows, so he HAS to be okay with that.
Матрёшка_гамает: Kukolka.
I froze in Mama's grip for a fraction of a second in real time.
Матрёшка_гамает: You aren't going to date him UNTIL you are twelve, understood?
I snapped my head up to look at Mama directly. My mouth opened in shock.
Кукла: Mama?
Матрёшка_гамает: I have issues with him. But I know he has your best interests at core. And that he won't break yours so long as he can help it.
Матрёшка_гамает: I want you to be happy, Doll. If they both make you happy, then I'll allow it.
Матрёшка_гамает: But ONLY once you're legally an adult, understood?
I hugged her back even tighter as I buried my face back into her shirt.
Кукла: THANK YOU MAMA!!!
Кукла: Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Матрёшка_гамает: Doll.
I refocused, stiffening up ever so slightly.
Матрёшка_гамает: You're going to ask them out like an Ableva, understood?
I blinked. That was Mama's maiden name. But before I could ask--
Матрёшка_гамает: When I decided I wanted Mikhail, I waited until we were alone with Khan and Nori and used my Solver to pull him in and kiss him on the spot. I expect at LEAST the same level of decisive action from MY daughter, Kukolka.
I glanced back up at Mama, going back to real time as I saw her giving a teasing grin as red optics full of maternal love for me gazed into my own. I… that… pulling them in with my Solver and kissing them both… I squirmed a bit, but… I was Doll Matryoshka. Daughter of Mikhail Matryoshka and Yeva Ableva. And I was gonna do my Mama proud! I set my face to a determined grin, and managed to force down the embarrassment the thought of doing that was bringing me, and gave her a nod.
Матрёшка_гамает: That's my girl.
"I love you, Mama," I told her. I'd never get enough of being able to tell her that again.
"I love you too, Doll," she told me and I let myself melt into the hug, enjoying every single millisecond of the sensation.
___
I was in an open area Joe set up for Solver training, walled by Khan-grade metals (Joe really liked using it. It made sense, but still, it was funny), with an entire barrel of oil off to the side. I stood across from Mama, and both Joe and Uzi were watching. Joe out of curiosity, and cuz because this stuff would be relevant for her sooner or later. I heard gunshots in the distance, and forced myself to relax because I knew it was Darren helping Thad and Trevor at the firing range, just like I knew that Rebecca was off in the armory talking weapon choices for melee with Liz, Kelsey, Penny, and Emily.
"Okay," Mama said, "Can you tell me what you've figured out on your own so far?"
I glanced over to Joe. "I had Joe help me figure a lot of things out. It's only with retrospect that I realized he was nudging me towards what he already knew from his first life, but still…"
Mama rolled her eyemotes. "What did you both figure out then?"
"The basic functions," Joe said from the side. "[TRANSLATE], [SCALE], [ROTATE], [EDIT]. I didn't want her messing around with [NULL]s for obvious reasons, so I'll leave you to work that out with her, though she did figure out the inventory function by accident. [SCALE] and [TRANSLATE]. She's really improving with teleports too. [EDIT] and [TRANSLATE]."
"We know it's possible, but we haven't figured out object duplication yet, though," cuz added. "Kinda hoping you know that one, because it'd be really frickin' cool!"
Mama looked surprised. She turned back to me after having listened to Joe and cuz. "So you have the basic functions and a good grasp of pairing two functions. I'm impressed." I smiled so wide at the praise from Mama. "So I'll teach you third order function combinations with duplication, and then I'll see what you can already do."
"Third order?" I asked.
"The basic functions can be considered first order. Combining two is second order. Three is third, and all four would be a fourth order. They get more complex as you go. That's… not an official designation," Mama admitted, looking a bit embarrassed herself for a moment. "It's just what I called them." Mama went and pulled a knife out of her own inventory… I both loved and hated that the gaming term was so good to describe it. "Object duplication combines [EDIT], [SCALE], and [TRANSLATE]. [EDIT] to change the material, but in this case [SCALE] is changing the size of the subatomic particles you're changing and [TRANSLATE] is moving them. Together, you change an object as you move it and alter the size, resulting in quantum duplication of the object in question. It doesn't make… complete sense, but this is the Solver we're talking about, so…" Mama trailed off as we suddenly heard Joe whisper.
"Solver Looooooooore," I glanced over to see an audial-to-audial grin on his face.
"Lore-junkie," cuz teased him, but he just started thumping his leg as he kept smiling.
I glanced back to Mama, and she rolled her optics, and then I watched her concentrate on the knife she was holding in the air as the three glyphs she mentioned flickered on her hand, a deliberate choice to visually demonstrate what she was doing, and then with another flicker of red I saw a second knife glitch out of the first one, completely identical, both now suspended in the air by Mama's Solver. "Now you try, Kukolka."
"Okay, Mama," I said, and I pulled a knife from my own inventory. [EDIT], [SCALE], and [TRANSLATE]... I focused my Solver, ran through the functions on the knife, visualized what I wanted to happen, and pushed it all together--
There was a red flicker as reality glitched and there were now two knives. Cuz and Joe both started to clap, and I smiled and waved back to both of them.
"I'm very proud of you for getting that on the first try, Doll," Mama told me.
"Kudos, cuz!" Uzi shouted.
"Great job, Dolly," Joe said, and I had to overclock to avoid another blush, though I was starting to be less and less embarrassed as time went by. I had confidence that the longer I took to let my feelings sink in, the less like Liz I'd be with it.
"Thanks Mama, cuz, Joe," I told them.
"You're welcome Kukolka," Mama told me. "Now, show me what you can really do!"
I closed my eyemotes, took a breath, let it out, and then splayed the fingers of both hands out as I flared my Solver to life. Twin rings of eight knives each snapped into reality, and then I got to swinging them. I moved through various knife fighting forms in an almost organic manner, a whirling cloud of sharpened CrCoNi surrounding me in a deadly dance of blades as I focused on my knifework. I started getting flashy, but not theatrical as I got into working flips and somersaults, and even a cartwheel as I channeled my cheerleading practice acrobatics and parkour training from Joe, incorporating teleports and feeling my circuits sing with latent energy as I really got into it. I had a grin on my face as I twirled, braid whipping behind me as I went low to slice at the kneecaps of an imaginary foe before I glitched through reality and appeared behind where they would be if they were real for a followup jab for the core.
I flung a quartet of knives at another imaginary opponent in a direction where there weren't any spectators before teleporting a knife at an angle that it would have come up from below and behind them. I already had a couple ideas to incorporate firearms into this mix, but that wasn't something to run without clearing that with Joe first and making sure there was no one who could be accidentally shot present. I pulled a target drone shell I'd taken from Joe's firing range yesterday out of my inventory, pulled out a knife as well, and then used a [SCALE] to make the knife bigger, an [EDIT] to make it have a nitroglycerin core, before sending it spinning with a [ROTATE] and finally transitioning to a [TRANSLATE] to fling it at a target so fast I heard the the sound barrier break with a deafening crack, before the knife exploded on impact. Cuz and Joe started clapping.
The TNPAPT pinged a second later.
Thad_the_Chad: What the heck just happened?
KayKay: Is everyone okay?
DarrenToDream: Something wrong?
TotesBestGirl: Problem? I'm in the armory, I can get guns!
Isekai_Protagonist: Doll was working with her Solver. Flung a knife so fast it cracked the sound barrier. Honestly impressive.
I blushed, out of actual embarrassment at startling everyone rather than Joe's praise.
Кукла: Sorry everyone.
Кукла: Thanks Joe.
Babeatron-Queenthousand: You catch Dolly looking awesome on film?
Darkxwolf16: Of COURSE we got cuz being a badass!
Darkxwolf16: [Has shared a file]
Babeatron-Queenthousand: Thanks Uzi!
Darkxwolf16: You're welcome, Lizzy.
DarrenToDream: Epic.
Dress-to-Impress: Okay, that's cool!
TheLastCrusade: Wow, that looks impressive!
Horror_Movie_Survivor: Awesome stuff, Doll!
I twisted the front of a foot against the ground.
Кукла: Thank you, everyone.
"Doll," Mama started, and I tuned out the chat group as I looked back up at Mama. Her eyemotes were wide, and she was smiling, and I preened under that expression. "I'm genuinely impressed by the control and capability you have so far," and then she paused, getting a bit concerned. "How's your oil, Kukolka?"
I checked. "86%, Mama. I'm getting a lot better with it as I practice," I replied. "I bet that in another month of practice I could get that up to 95% instead."
Mama relaxed. There was a flicker of red and then she was in front of me, and I gave her a hug that she returned without hesitation. "I'm so proud of you, Kukolka," she told me, and my smile got wider. She turned a bit while still hugging me, and called out to our audience of two. "For someone with so little knowledge of how the Solver actually works, as well as being handicapped by not outright telling Doll anything, you did a very good job teaching Doll, Joseph."
I twisted enough to see Joe blink, nonplussed, before he grinned from audial to audial. "Thanks, Yeva. I tried to lead her to figuring out things on her own where I could, but I appreciate being told that I didn't mess that up." My own smile got wider at both Mama and Joe being so happy at the same time.
"Just don't let your ego go to your chrome dome, Joe," cuz snarked.
Joe turned over and gave her a noogie on the spot, Uzi yelping in protest before she suddenly collected herself and leg-swept Joe, who caught himself on his hands and cartwheeled back to his feet, pausing for a moment before remarking aloud, "Fuck man, overclocks are such bullshit."
Cuz and Joe started laughing at the same time, and I started to giggle too. Mama looked on, but I heard her let off a single chuckle of her own, and I adored every moment of this for what it was worth.
___
A bit over a week after Joe laid out his secrets for everyone, I was in a hospital gown, held within a drone maintenance station securely as Mama held my hand, cuz ran through some last minute double checks on everything, and Liz looked on with concern while Joe gave me a smile.
"Everything checks out," cuz said.
"Dolly?" Joe asked. I glanced over to him, still nervous. "I'll run through this one more time for you. We're gonna power you down, we're gonna carefully cut your upper torso open, and then we're gonna take your core out. We're gonna take your old body out of the machine, put in the combat frame we made for you, and then we're gonna put your core into it. You're gonna wake back up in your new body like your mom did, we'll have some extra oil on hand for you for the next few days while you acclimate to the new body, and everything's gonna be fine, okay?"
I took a breath, and shuddered. Mama held my hand tighter. I was scared… but this was important. And I trusted Joe and cuz. "Okay," I told him in a small voice.
"You're gonna be okay, Dolly, I promise," Joe said, and I trusted that.
"You'll be fine, Dolly," Liz said, fighting down her own nerves as she gave me a smile.
"Getting started," Uzi called out.
I closed my eyemotes, and felt my awareness fading…
…I felt… groggy. My eyes… eye? My eye opened up, and my view was blurry for a few seconds before I glanced up.
Joe was above me. He was looking down with a gentle smile on his face. He looked… really big from this angle.
"J-Joe?" I asked. My voice sounded like Mama's when she was a core.
My optic widened, and I tried to move my arms and legs. Three foreign appendages twitched. I felt everything as one slapped against Joe's arm by accident.
"Hi, Doll," Joe said, and my view shifted as I got up closer to his head. I realized he was holding my Core in his hands as he grinned at me. I wanted to twist to see my own body, but Joe's smile suddenly got weaker, and I got a DM ping.
Isekai_Protagonist: Hey Dolly, can you just look at me for a second? Your body cut open is giving me some REALLY uncomfortable reminders of Episode 7, and I just wanna hold you and know that you're SAFE, okay?
I… I was kinda scared, being so vulnerable, so small, so weak… but Joe was scared for a different reason, and I trusted him to hold me and keep me safe, because even past my crush, I knew he wouldn't hurt me. "Okay," I told him, and I managed to move one of my tendrils enough to coil it around his wrist.
The smile was still weak, but became a bit more earnest. "Thanks, Dolly," Joe whispered.
"Aunt Yeva?" I heard cuz ask, and I turned to see Uzi in the periphery of my view. "I'm gonna go grab Doll's new body, can you move the old one to the side for now?"
"Okay," Mama said. I heard movement from behind me, but footsteps to the side and suddenly Liz was stepping into my point of view.
"Wow," my other crush said. "You're kinda adorable like this, not gonna lie." She giggled. Then she grinned, and reached into a pocket to pull out a-- "Penny made a tiny ushanka just for this," Liz said, plopping it on top of me.
"Liiiiiiiiiiz!" I protested.
Joe started snickering. "Oh my gods, that's adorable! That's a screenshot for sure!"
"Joooooooooeee!" I glared my optic up at them both.
"What if I took my hardhat off and put her on my head?" Joe asked Liz. "It'd be like I was wearing a hat that's wearing a hat!" Liz started laughing as I heard cuz moving something in my periphery. I finally figured out how to twist and saw cuz setting a new combat frame sans its core into the maintenance station. I snapped my gaze back up to Joe and Liz, who were both smiling down at me.
"You know we love you, right, Dolly?" Liz asked, and I was grateful that as a Core I couldn't blush. Mark my words, 4th Wall audience, when my 12th birthday rolled around, I was gonna kiss them both, right on the lips, dammnit!
Aloud, I said, "I know, and thanks."
"Any time, Dolly," Joe said.
"We're good!" cuz called out.
"You'll be fine, Dolly," Liz said, and Joe walked over and gently set me into the new frame, giving me a smile before he stepped back and the station whirred to life, welding the torso panel to where it needed to be. I felt my limbs suddenly move in the near darkness, only broken by my eyelight, of their own volition. I felt connections from my [FLESH] to the [ORE] around me, and my awareness slipped...
My feed came back on in my new body. I blinked a few times, and tried to remember what happened after I was sealed into the new body, but couldn't recall it. It… probably wasn't important, in the grand scheme of things. I felt the station power down around me, the restraints coming off, and I shakily stepped out of it. Mama was there, and passed me an oil thermos that I downed on the spot. I sighed, but was still thirsty, my oil levels having hovered at around 70% despite my consumption. I was passed another canister, but the hand holding this one had a pink light on its back, and I glanced over to see Liz holding it.
"Thinking ahead, Dolly," she said with a grin, only the faintest hints of a blush on her face.
"Thanks, Liz," I told her, downing that one too. My oil climbed up to 82%. I could ask for more in a minute or two.
Liz suddenly hugged me, and then cuz walked up and hugged me too, and then Joe was there and also hugging me, and then Mama wrapped her arms around all of us, and I hugged them all back.
"Thank you," I said to all of them. "Thank you so much."
"We move together, cuz," Uzi said. "Or not at all."
"Together," I agreed. "Or not at all."
"I swear to the Solver, if the rest of you start quoting that same line from canon, I'm leaving the hug," Joe remarked.
We all started laughing.
___
(Serial Designation N)
Flying along my patrol route, I spotted another piece of Anarcho-Syndicalist imagery spray-painted onto a wall, but J had recently rescinded the order to destroy them on site, so I kept flying. Come to think of it, even if she seemed to be getting a little better, J had still been off-kilter ever since that engagement with the Scrapper where he had two new recruits with him. I slowed down, and then landed in a street, putting a hand to my chin as I started to wonder. You know, seemingly custom combat frames, ambush and terror tactics, the ability to counter us on the fly… a lot of that seemed like the work of sapient beings, and I started to wonder. "Maybe, just maybe, I should see about asking J if she thinks that the workers might be sapi--"
"Murder Drone!" a high-pitched, squeaky, and while I really didn't wanna be mean, annoying-sounding voice derailed my train of thought. I turned and noticed some random drone with no wig, a fake rice hat, what looked to be an eyepatch that didn't cover the whole of a visibly-perfectly fine eyemote that had an X embroidered on it, and he was holding a… I had to paused for a moment to double check, but no, that was a plastic katana after all. "I am the True Dark Sword, and I will defeat all of you with my dark powe--"
I lowered my arm, which had shifted to an SMG to fire a single round straight through the center of his head. While the crack of the gunshot was still echoing out, the "True Dark Sword" fell backwards, dead on the spot, and I stared at him for a few seconds. "Nope," I remarked out loud. "They're definitely not sapient." I shook my head. "Man, these workers are really getting corrupted nowadays."
___
(Uzi)
About two weeks after we brought my aunt back from the dead and Joe finally revealed everything to everyone else, Kelsey had finally gone up to Joe and asked where the hell he's been getting all the material he's been feeding into the IGMPs. And so we all found ourselves on a tour at the very depths of Vault 1, where Joe has started drilling into the earth, first manually, and then with increasing degrees of automation as time passed by. The whole lot of us were currently standing in the middle of a huge dad-grade airlock as the second door opened to take us into the depths of the earth.
"Man, I wanna show this crap off almost as much as I wanna pretend it doesn't exist after all the effort that went into setting it up," Joe remarked.
"Setting what u-- oooooooooh," Kelsey trailed off as we walked into a tunnel that we could already see opened into a massive underground quarry, huge support pillars holding up the ceiling.
Automated mining machinery and non-sapient drones running on pre-set directives worked to mine literally any rocks that they could safely drill and then haul them over so that they could be stored and then brought in to be fed to the printers as needed. We walked into the first of multiple mining caverns that they were working away in. "Almost feels like I have them playing Deep Rock Galactic down here," Joe said.
"When the hell did you get all this set up?" Lizzy asked, gawking like the rest of them.
"Oh, this crap was going on in the background for years," I said. "It's grown exponentially since I hopped on the Isekai bandwagon."
Joe barked out a laugh. "Godsdamn, the 4th Wall probably spent hours and/or tens of thousands of words watching or reading as we set all this shit up and then painstakingly got it automated over the last three years to feed our personal military industrial complex." He paused, and then added. "The mining bots are not sapient, by the way."
"I figured you wouldn't do that, but thank you for saying as much," cuz told him.
"It was my idea to use old publicly available AI experiments to set up the non-sapient programming for the mining bots," I bragged.
Cuz rolled her eyemotes, but was grinning at me.
Lizzy said, "Not gonna lie, Uzi, this is pretty damn impressive."
"So awed you're not using the nickname?" I teased.
"You're not that much smarter than me, Hot Topic!" Lizzy shot back with a grin.
"Technically, she is," Joe went. "We tested her IQ the other day and she's already at 395. I'm pretty damn certain that it's gonna get higher with the passage of time."
Lizzy's jaw dropped.
"So, like," Rebecca asked Joe, "did the universe just decide to balance her autism and shitty social life that you averted by making her a super-genius or something?"
"Oh, unscrew you!" I barked at her.
"She's my super-genius sorta-sister!" Joe said, mockingly defensive… but, like, mockingly in my favor. I was finally starting to intrinsically get this stuff… some of the time, mostly thanks to overclocking. But I trusted Joe and that the mockingness would be in my favor! "Only I get to make fun of her!"
"Thanks, Joe--" I turned. "Hey!"
He gave me a grin and laughed. I couldn't stop myself from joining him.
"I swear, despite one of you being a former human from another timeline, you two really do act like siblings," Lizzy remarked.
Cuz laughed. "They really do, Liz."
Aunt Yeva, previously content to just watch, finally chimed in. "For an Isekai Protagonist, I'm honestly impressed you went for the sibling relationship instead of trying to woo her."
I actually felt a little bit offended, and if I was reading Joe right, so was he. "Hey, I'm trying really hard not to fall into all the douche-y Isekai Protagonist stereotypes!" he protested.
"Yeah, come on, Aunt Yeva, he's really trying!" I added.
"Besides," Joe continued, "There's no way I'd ever try to NTR N!" A beat, and then… "And maybe V too at this point…"
I glanced over at Joe as he reminded me that for all he was my unofficial brother, that being as much meant being an unhinged little shit, and kinda just stared at him for a few seconds as I was torn between being annoyed at or laughing with him.
"And that's why I worry," Aunt Yeva remarked.
"Joe," Thad said with a sigh.
Joe slumped. "Too unhinged?"
"Too unhinged," he confirmed.
"Sorry Uzi," he told me.
"Don't worry," I settled on telling him. "I'll get you back when I get to chill out while you're stuck watching Lizzy's cheerleading practice like a good boyfriend."
Joe actually looked like I got one over on him for a few seconds, and I reveled in that, right up until he suddenly gave a gremlin grin to rival my best, and I realized my unofficial brother overclocked to come up with a comeback. "And what if I decide I wanna join her?"
"NO!" Thad shouted, mortal terror present in his expression and tone alike. "You can't crossdress again! It's too cool!"
Joe started laughing as horror dawned in my own processors. "I can and I will!"
"Oooooooh," Lizzy said, a blush creeping up on her visor. A blush started to creep up on cuz's face too. Kelsey audibly gulped.
"I wanna design the uniform!" Penny said.
"Joe, don't do this to me!" Darren begged.
I glanced at Trevor to see if the last guy in the group would back us up, only to notice that he was also blushing even while he held a likewise blushing Emily's hand. Even while I watched, Trevor's visor flickered to [Questioning my sexuality] and Emily's swapped to [God please forgive the sins in my thoughts]. My jaw dropped. Traitors!
Aunt Yeva looked so confused. "Why is Joseph crossdressing a problem?" Joe put up an image on his visor of that damn night from the Truth or Dare game. Aunt Yeva blinked twice. "Lizzy, you know how to pick them," she remarked, and then threw a glance to cuz, who started to blush way worse all of the sudden. Did… did she…? NO WAY, I thought, but then I realized that he brought her mom back from the dead, and it suddenly clicked. YES WAY, I thought, cuz is also into Joe, HOLY CRAP!!!
I packed away that realization as Thad and Darren continued to beg Joe to not run straight back to the fabricators with a very enthusiastic Penny to start making a cheerleader outfit, and the whole while Joe's laughter got louder, echoing in the cavern, remaining completely oblivious to the fact that he'd managed to rizz my freaking cousin!
…I was gonna give him a month, and if he didn't figure it out himself by then, I was gonna tease him for actually being a dense Isekai Protagonist relentlessly. For now though…
I really needed to join Thad and Darren on convincing Joe not to crossdress again. There was something distinctly wrong about the fact that he could pull that off better than anyone else in the school, and I still bore the emotional damage from the fact that he was hotter than me the last time he did it.
___
(Emily)
I dismissed the whole list of pop-ups I got on waking up the moment I confirmed none of them were telling me that something went wrong. The maintenance station released me, and I took a step towards the ground, only to stumble as the raw power I suddenly had caught me off guard. Trev caught me though. "Hey Em," he said with a grin. "Welcome to the big leagues with the rest of us."
I double checked that the strength limiter Joe said he'd put on the gen 2 combat frames was on, and then lightly punched him in the shoulder. If he was in his old frame, that would have probably put him on his butt right then and there. As it was, though, he just laughed, and then I hugged him close. "Thanks Trev," I told him.
"And that is everyone!" Joe called out. I glanced around at the room, and most of us were kinda just looking through internal readouts as they stood still, or in Darren's case, was demonstrating just how strong the combat frame Thad was in really was by lifting Rebecca overhead with one hand, the girl laughing all the while, even while she had a blush on her face.
"Joe?" Thad called out as he suddenly stopped watching Darren showing off, causing the resident Isekai Protagonist to turn over to him. "Can you code up a second toggleable strength limiter to match our old strength? I don't wanna cheat in sports."
"Oh!" Joe said. "Gimme a sec." Literally a second passed, and then he said, "Done," before adding, "I fucking love overclocking."
Thad shook his head as I got a file in the TNPAPT from Joe, which I downloaded. "It's so BS," he remarked.
"Absolutely," Joe agreed. "But it's BS to our benefit, so I ain't complaining." His grin slipped a bit. "Sorry for taking so long on this, but making sure Doll transferred safely took priority. I wanted to wait a bit to exclusively monitor her to ensure there were no complications before I worked on the rest of you, as Yeva could have just been a happy, positive fluke."
I let go of Trev and this time, was a bit more careful as I made sure I was standing properly. "Joe," I told him, "You're literally dealing with Eldritch stuff. You were showing us that you had all the replacement frames fabricated and ready, and explained this already." I carefully walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Doll's our friend too. It's fine. You don't have to feel guilty for literally everything."
Joe looked me in the eyemotes and gave a tired smile. "I… I know, intellectually, that you're right… it's just," he glanced away, and sighed. "I… It's funny, how despite everything, I'm still a pessimist at heart. And I can't help but remember one of my favorite lines on the optimism vs pessimism debate: 'An optimist calls a pessimist a realist.'"
I frowned. "You… you really have been bottling up all that self-loathing the whole time, haven't you?"
"Yeah," he admitted.
I pulled him into a hug. "You've done dumb stuff, Joe. I won't lie and say that even if I want to try to forgive her, that getting Uzi to like V wasn't messed up. You probably kept secrets longer than you needed to." I pulled back a bit to look him in the eyemotes. For everything wrong with them, humans did a great job at somehow engineering us to be able to show the tired guilt and self-hate in that gaze. "But you've been trying. You didn't have to. You could have just tried to help Uzi, or Doll, or even less of us, but you kept reaching out to anyone who could take that offered hand." I took a moment in overclock, first to just appreciate how ridiculous the program is, and then to contemplate my next words. "And for what it's worth, I don't think you're gonna go to hell when you die." I took a moment before I gave him a grin. "Definitely not heaven though. Solid purgatory, for sure."
Joe started to laugh, and then started laughing even harder. "Holy crap," he wheezed out. "I…" He just kept laughing, and digital tears started to pour from his eyes as he kept going, and I glanced over to the others, looking a bit lost.
[How do I deal with an Isekai Protagonist who's laughing so hard he's crying?] I flashed on my visor. Half of them were laughing themselves, the traitors, but then Doll reached a hand out and pulled Joe over with her Solver, and he barely even reacted to that, which… it kinda just hit me that I knew he was terrified of getting instantly murdered by the Solver, freaking out when Yeva nearly used it on him, and screaming in fear when Doll pulled him over that same night, but just… the trust he had in Doll by not even reacting to that… I was happy he could trust us like that. I was happy he finally felt safe being vulnerable in front of us. Of intrinsically believing we wouldn't hurt him. And with God as my witness, I wanted to make sure that the guy who went so far out of his way for everyone kept getting to enjoy that.
Doll gave him a hug, and said, "You dingus, we all know that you weren't trying to stall, you were just worried about me and wanted to deal with that first. And…" She looked a way for a moment, maybe overclocking? It was really hard to tell from an outside perspective sometimes, with how fast they could be. "I appreciate that you care about me, Joe. I really do."
Joe stopped laughing on a dime, and that was a far more obvious tell for an overclock being used, and said, "Thanks, Dolly."
Thad took a step forwards. "You've been really transparent since the whole reveal, Joe," he admitted. "I've been keeping an eye on you--"
"And you've called me out once already on being paranoid and then sat me down and got me to talk about things," Joe said. "And, it's uncomfortable, but… thanks… for forcing me to sit down and be transparent about why I was waiting on the combat frames and then show that they were all ready for all of you and that I was just waiting a couple days to make sure Doll was okay in case there was a sudden emergency. Didn't want to have one of you be in a maintenance station if there was."
"I'm glad that you're willing to listen to me like you said you were, man." Thad said. "And besides that one hiccup, you've been doing good so far."
"Thanks, Thad," Joe said.
"Joe," Trevor called out. "It's really not an issue. You had a legit reason, in that we're still not completely sure how Solver stuff goes with frame-swapping."
"I spent three years needing glasses," Kelsey remarked, a pair of now purely cosmetic glasses over her face. "I could wait another week to not need them…" she blinked. "Does baking corrective frames into my visor technically count as the drone version of LASIK?"
Joe and Doll both started laughing. Lizzy joined them for a few moments, before adding, "I'm not gonna lie, the strength and dexterity you packed into these combat frames are awesome, Joe. And you know I'd put Dolly's safety over my own convenience."
Doll blushed a bit, and then pulled apart from Joe, walking over to Lizzy and throwing her arms around her. Lizzy started blushing. "Thanks, Liz," she said. "You're the best!"
"I love that you're so selfless, Liz," Joe remarked. "It's just… fuck, you're amazing," he admitted, grey hashmarks starting to creep up on his own visor.
Lizzy started blushing worse. "Uuuuuuuuuuuugh, these next couple months are gonna be the worst!"
Joe sighed. "Only seven more months, Liz."
"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh!"
"Hey!" Uzi finally remarked. "Overly long dramatic groans are my thing!"
"Literally," Joe snarked.
"Bite me!"
Joe started laughing again.
From where she was watching, Rebecca rolled her eyemotes. "Right then," I got a ping on the TNPAPT, and checked to see a new download there. "Since Joe like, forgot apparently--" Joe froze and then looked really sheepish, "--here's the download for his human level pattern recognition for everyone else."
"Enjoy making CAPTCHAs your bitch," Darren added. "And also more abstract thought. That's actually fun sometimes!"
"Just don't pull a Joe and start apologizing to react fic versions of yourselves," Uzi remarked. "There is such a thing as being too self-aware."
Joe sucked in a breath, turned to Uzi, and stuck both his arms forwards. One was palm up, and the other palm down. He moved the palm down one as if cranking something, and as he did, slowly extended the middle finger of the palm up hand to Uzi. "Vaffanculo, sister of mine."
Uzi started cracking up. So did Doll and Lizzy. Even Rebecca did. I joined, because honestly, that was pretty funny. In a few seconds, all of us were laughing.
"Joe," Penny said, "I think you've honestly been rubbing off on us all."
"Yeah," Rebecca remarked. "The unhingedness has totes become contagious by this point."
Joe smiled, looking abashed, and rubbed the back of his head. "You're all the best, I swear."
"Duh!" Lizzy said, "You got me in the group, of course we're the best."
We all started laughing again, and from where she'd been watching in silence, even Doll's mom finally joined in.
___