1173/Fox Only

Fox Only
Date of Scene:	18 December 2014
Location:	The Eastern Ruins
Synopsis:	A Very Wily Christmas. And a single fox was given that day.
Cast of Characters:	516, 529

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Dr. Wily (529) has posed:
    A set of unmarked coordinates in a Christmas card. How... festive? Certainly not at all suspicious, or troubling at all. NOTHING COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG.

    Even if they apparently lead to some sort of long-abandoned robot scrapyard. Broken, rusted bodies and parts litter the ground. It's hard to find a bare spot of ground much larger than is needed to stand in; almost more common are towering piles of colorful broken rubble. So, who has a good feeling about this?

Ferham (516) has posed:
     Ferham honestly hadn't even expected anything back from the old man. She had gotten him something for the holidays because well, they had sort of been trading favors since he yanked that behavior chip out of her way back... well, months ago? It wasn't /that/ long. When she receives his card though, well, she feels compelled to make a trip down.

     The locale the card brings her to however hardly seems festive. A robot scrapyard. Yeeeah. Well, likely there was some reason for it, maybe he was building something there and needed help? But then why wouldn't he just get his androids to cart whatever back to his lab-closet? Weird...

     "Helloo..?" her heeled boots clicked as she walked along, echoing into the dusty darkness. Ominous!

Dr. Wily (529) has posed:
    Why, of course Dr. Wily's got to be making an appearance, right? Wouldn't just direct someone to a scrapyard and leave them there as a twisted joke, would he?

    Well, he would. /Especially/ if they're the sort who could end up being part of that scrapyard someday. But today, he's got other plans in mind; apparently the holiday gift wasn't /just/ 'a cruel reminder of your own mortality.'

    It doesn't take much walking before the signature obnoxious VWEEVWEEVWEE of the Wilysaucer becomes audible. Of course the doctor isn't just walking around in this mess. He'd be liable to break a hip or something! Besides, what if he sees something worth scrounging up out here and has to carry it home?

    Wily seems to be looking around for something, or someone. Trying to find Ferham? Maybe. Trying to find some bit of scrap to hastily collect and present as a present? Maybe. Going about things entirely the wrong way by hovering up off the ground in a view-obstructing flying saucer? Probably.

Ferham (516) has posed:
     The noise of the WilySaucer is fairly easy to notice, so instead of wading hip-deep in dead robot parts, she instead is floating over the giant sea of scrap up to the floating, flying saucer-esque craft. Feh, if only Rock could have had wings, but then anti-grav likely wasn't as much of a thing back then unless you wanted to get something stuck on the ceiling.

     "So uh, what's going on here? you looking for more parts for your robot escort service?" Ferham waved a gloved hand, floating there several feet off the ground with her legs sort of bent backwards, making her look like an interesting imitation of Tinkerbell.

     "Probably better places to look if you're here for that, you'll wind up giving Lute tetanus or something if he decides to make out with something from here," she smirks.

Dr. Wily (529) has posed:
    "'Robot Escort Service?'" The phrase catches Wily a bit by surprise, and earns a heavy sigh. "... that's what they'll remember me for, isn't it. Doctor Albert Wily, he did a few things and then started making toys for the terminally lonely." He shakes his head at the thought.

    "No, I'm not here for scrap parts today. ... think I /will/ bring Junk Man back here later though, there's some good stuff... ... anyway. No, there's something else, I'm just not sure where yet."

    Indeed, Wily seems to be hovering about somewhat aimlessly. Tracking something, maybe, or just poking about at random.

Ferham (516) has posed:
     "Hey if it helps? you drove Roll and alot of other people that showed up to stop you that last time, so there's that?" Ferham had her right hand against her hip and gestured with her left hand at that, seeing if he thought that was something that lightened his mood. "I mean, adult products tends to be where all the money is anyway, Light had construction robots, and his last creation was stuffed in a tube somewhere," she smiled.

     "So... you brought me here to help you find something? Okaaaay... what is it?" she was already flitting and hovering around the mountains of heaped scrap in there, as if she was trying to help him look for it.

     "Eww, hope we find it soon, this place gives me the creeps," she likely was getting a tad disturbed by the wrecked robots there, too.

Dr. Wily (529) has posed:
    "Right, that's how you know what you're doing matters. Someone tries to stop you." Wily's tone is a bit sarcastic, of course. "To be honest, that's what got me /thinking/ about the situation."

    Oh no. Is he doing that thing, where people talk about stuff instead of just blowing up cities and settling their issues through world domination? Come on Wily, snap out of it, you're better than this! "It's been a while since there's been anything worth doing - I can make an army of robots and take over the world, destroy Mega Man once and for all, but... what does that prove, in a Multiverse where one of me has probably /done/ that? But... make a robot who can survive being pleasant to someone like Lute. Ha! Nobody's done /that/ before!"

    There's a pause, and when he continues, Wily's a bit... quieter. Sounding a bit defeated, even. "... and I think now I can see why."

    And yes, he /is/ just ignoring the fact that a robot graveyard is not the kind of place that even a super-advanced nearly human future robot would not want to hang out in. Who wouldn't want to chill in a pile of robo-corpses, it's like a candy store only everything's free!

Ferham (516) has posed:
     "Eh you just need to pin down the behavioral sub-routines, debug 'em, didn't you learn /anything/ poking around in my head before?" Ferham crossed her arms a little, raising an eyebrow before giving a shrug. Course then she thinks about it... welp, that probably wasn't a good example, necessarily. If even she herself couldn't stand Lute, well...

     "Lute is just kinda creepy, what with his wife he supposedly has and nobody sees... maybe he's just pulling a prank on everyone when he says that?" she hopes, dear god does she hope. "Lets just find you your thing, we'll scrounge up some parts and make him a brand new girl before dinnertime, okay?" her tone is lightened a bit as she's trying to cheer him up a little, surprisingly.

     "But yeah, we can probably be going soon, this is like, a robot necropheliac's dream come true here," she shudders.

Dr. Wily (529) has posed:
    "But that's just the thing. I /can/ do it. I /did/ do it! The last attempt would have been an unqualified success if it weren't for... well. Anyway, that's not what bothers me. I'd have it in another try or two. The problem is..."

    Suddenly, something in the saucer loudly goes 'DING!' Apparently, there's stuff - Wily excitedly points and shouts, "There!"

    Yes. There. Right over there. That... random pile of parts which looks exactly like all the rest. Yup, it's gotta be special somehow.

Ferham (516) has posed:
     Ferham became just a tad alarmed as the old man's voice rose and he seemed to be getting excited, her arms rose as if to say 'okay old man, don't blow a gasket' but then he mentioned something off in the distance.

     "Alright alright, lets get this and go then," Ferham is at least trying to help, and so her wings reposition themselves as she zooms off int he direction he was pointing, taking her closer and closer to whatever /it/ happened to be.

     "What am I looking at here?" she hovered there, peering down at more mounds and mounds of twisted wreckage.

Dr. Wily (529) has posed:
    "No, no... not 'what am I looking at'... what matters is, what's /there/." Well... that's... the same thing, isn't it?

    Apparently not. A few taps at the saucer controls make the mound of parts... shimmer. And then distort into static, and fade out entirely, revealing beneath them... a pile of cybernetic leaves?

    "... you see. I can make a robot that can survive Lute, but... what about that robot? I'm sure the history books have done a fine job of painting me as some sort of monster, but..."

    What is he even rambling about? It's leaves. Nothing to see here. ... except... those must be mighty important leaves, then, if Wily's getting out of the saucer to examine them more closely.

    Or brush them away entirely, to reveal... an inexplicably-crying robot three-tailed fox, with sparks and smoke still drifting around it. It's seen better days, to be sure.

Ferham (516) has posed:
     "Oh my god, was this in the report from that night?" Ferham blinked a little, peering down and touching down with a CLUNK against some old robot's chassis as she brushes the leaves away, recognizing the holographic distortion for what it was, and... D'awwww. What the heck was this? She must be thinking

     "This was... something you made wasn't it? why didn't you fix it?" she looked back at him. Why had it been /here/, then... she might be slowly piecing together what had happened here, because if it wasn't at his lab then it wasn't getting repaired, and it wasn't at his lab because it made off on it's own!

     "Is there anything we can do with it?" she sounds as if she's going to be /upset/ if he doesn't offer to fix it, at least.

Dr. Wily (529) has posed:
    "I would have tried to fix the blasted thing, but it ran /off/ after than night, and I've been trying to track it down since. I had it narrowed down to this scrapyard, but... how was I supposed to know it had managed to use parts here to keep its holo-emitters running?"

    Of course, there's another reason too. As Wily reaches down to offer the poor robot critter an energy capsule, it shies away. One doesn't need to be an expert on animal or robot body language to know that it's taking up an 'okay I'm going to start running away now' stance - but it's just in too rough of a shape to follow through.

    "... you see. It's... frightened. Not sure about its place in the world. You know, AI isn't an espectially precise science. I imagine it hasn't changed much by your era - you can't just make one the way you want it, without it falling apart. I can put together pieces, routines, elements to make something /close/, but... this fox here. I wanted something that could find a reason to stay close to Lute despite how... unpleasant... he can be."

    Wily stands up again and, turning away from foxbot, holds the energy capsule toward Ferham. "I think I may have made it get a little... too attached. There isn't much I can do to fix that, short of wiping the AI entirely. The best I can hope for now, is to give it someone else to imprint on, and hope that goes better."

    Why, you'd almost think he /cares/ or something, but...

Ferham (516) has posed:
     "I see clearly you're not a fox person," Ferham said without a hint of surprise in her voice, raising a brow. "No, no you can't--for instance, in a perfect world one of my fellow officers wouldn't have tried to pry a warhead key out of my chassis," she sighed, leaving that out there a bit enigmatically. Stepping daintily through the rubble strewn over the floor, she gently took the energy capsule from him and turned back towards the damaged fox robot. She leaned down, bending over like an adult might to a small child, holding the energy capsule where it could see it.

     "Hey there little guy, you look like you got in a bit of a fight there. Why don't you have this--then I can see if I can find you a nice big E-tank for you back at base, okay?" her tone had shifted to the soft, high tones an adult might use with a small child, too, gesturing to the bot with one hand gently, as one might do with a scared animal.

Dr. Wily (529) has posed:
    "Hah... teamwork's always been one of the hardest things to hard-code." Wily takes a step back from Ferham and the fox - no need to frighten the thing with too many people, now.

    As for the fox itself... it seems to sniff at the capsule - clearly it's not just smelling, but the effect is the same - and then take a tentative step forward. Its tears - why would even MAKE a robot that can cry!? - seem to be slowing, if not stopped entirely, as it reaches out to very cautiously, slowly... /snatch/ the capsule and run off! ... for about two steps, before flopping over. No, little foxy, you're not well enough to escape.

    "Really need to watch that... the thing's been /broken/, and not in a mechanical sense. We had to give them emotion to make them anything more than simple machines, and now it's just ingrained in the design process, but sometimes..." It doesn't sound like Wily's talking to Ferham - he seems to just be thinking out loud now. "... this is going to keep happening, isn't it. They'll either snap and try to /kill/ him, or they'll shatter when he does something /stupid/. At this rate, all I'll prove is how willing I am to ruin perfectly good minds."

    *nomnomnom* ... no, little fox, that's not how you use an energy capsule at all.

Ferham (516) has posed:
     She blinked back a tad surprised when the fox grabbed the capsule and took off--before falling over. Well, Wily /did/ build it, right? Hayooo. Ferham is likely thinking that at the time too, though she keeps it to herself. The talk of emotions does get her attention, however. "If you didn't develop it's AI enough that could just be," she said, in a cautionary sort of voice, but also a hint of accusation there. Like becareful what you wish for, you just might get it, and all that.

     "Siiigh, oh well, lets just get this thing back to the shop, eh? this place can't be good for it if you made it sentient," Ferham reaches down to try and gently pick the thing up with her gloved hand, likely intent on bringing it back with them.

Dr. Wily (529) has posed:
    "I may have /built/ it sentient, but... I don't know, any more. I think it might have suffered too much of a shock, and shut down important subroutines to cope." Because that's... that's how AI works, right? Mess with one bad enough and it becomes an animal out of spite?

    "Of course, even if it can't quite recover, well. I can fix it up. I meant what I said about having it imprint on someone else, though - right now, it's fixated on Lute, but I think..." Wily rummages around in his pockets for something, before drawing out a... crystal? One the size of a baseball, glowing with an internal light... and filled with circuitry and a few larger components, because OF COURSE IT IS. "... this should fix that."

    He also draws a small remote control from another pocket; as he presses a button on it - apparently the /only/ button on it - the energy capsule the fox robot is gnawing on shatters, sending a jolt of energy through the robocritter. There isn't much effect, but the sparks seem to slow a bit at least.

    "Merry Christmas, Ferham," Wily says, holding the circuit crystal out to the reploid, "I think I got you a support unit. Now, why don't we see about getting it back to the lab..."

Ferham (516) has posed:
     "If you were using things you picked up from looking at /me/ then there could have been problems, truly," Ferham replies matter of factly there, peering over at the sudden jolt and the thing getting a little bit of a boost. She's surprised, she didn't think the womanizing old man had it in him when it came to dealing with robots, but then he /had/ fixed her up...

     "Are you kidding me? Aww..." that's more or less the only sort of response she can give at the moment at this moment, it's just... the cute, it is too much! And a vulpine support bot for her very own!

     "Yeah lets," she moves over to gather the thing up with both hands now, being just a bit careful unless it tries to twist and get away, or to bite. Foxes did have quite the jaws, after all.

     "So does he have a name?" she asks, carrying it back with Wily, peering over at him. This'll be a night she remembers for quite a long time to come.

Dr. Wily (529) has posed:
    "You know, I've never been much good at names. Description Man, Adjective Man, so on. It's easier not to waste time thinking about it. I just called it Fox. If you want to name it something else, I don't think either of us will argue." Wily tucks the crystal ball into the fox-bot's mouth as it's being picked up. For a moment it seems to resist - who /wouldn't/ - but it quickly seems to warm up to the idea of its new 'chew toy'. It seems content to just relax now, anyway.

    "You'll want to take that crystal when you go. It's sort of a... 'reset switch', I guess. To make it link to you - I'll send you a readme on support units and gestalt forms - and to supplant its Lute fixation. ... sorry, I guess that's probably still /technically/ a 'her', isn't it... used to be a full Robot Mistress AI in there."

    It's not going to be a very long walk back to the saucer, at least.