Scene #2228: Zwei and Septette: Three's a Crowd

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Septette Arcubielle	With her tattered lavender cloak wrapped pulled tight around her shoulders, Septette doesn't look terribly unusual- just a short lady of indeterminate age, nursing a cherry-red lollipop as she strolls out of the secure medbay wing. Anyone who examines her closely would notice her triangular metal 'ears', her faintly-glowing eyes, and the disproportionate noise that her footfalls make... but either nobody picks up on those details, or nobody seems to care. Coming from a place where she's a living relic of a time most folks would rather forget, the apathetic anonymity is strangely refreshing- it's put a skip in her step and a smile on her face. Once she's reached a relatively quiet and open space, the robot digs around in her cloak and pulls out a small, shiny rock that she throws against the concrete at her feet. It shatters, but not before producing an eerie beacon of bluish light that reaches high into the sky. As startling as it looks to the naked eye, anyone with the proper sensors would be able to detect the pole stone's distinct signature from practically any distance. Then Septette settles back on a creaking wooden bench, bites into her lollipop, and waits.
Zwei	Njorun is a bit out of Zwei's way, but if it's by invite by an actual Union Elite, there's little reason to avoid visiting. The SGB Convergence of Arms breaches the moving tree-continent's aerial perimeter as directed by air traffic, the ship having been recently upgraded in size from parts plundered from the Circle of Thorns. The thing is roughly twice the size of a large passenger plane, with a sleek, angled exterior for atmospheric flight, and covered nose to thruster in featureless, carbon-black material reminescent of an organic stealth bomber, with the only mark of identification being an unintelligble string of circuit-like golen lines etched onto the reverse wing. It sweeps down with remarkable agility even for its modest size, utilizing a complex series of vectored ball thrusters to maneuver into a silky smooth landing literally a few meters away from the pole stone. Zwei has showed up in full presence today. Weiss walks down the boarding ramp dressed in vaguely posmodern casual, wearing a lot of grey and white highlighted by bright green, matching the unnatural tones of her skin, hair and eyes. The ship clearly doesn't have a tiered floor plan, because Asche is able to step out without having to stoop despite being thirteen feet tall. He looks the same as he always does; massive and dangerous. As Zwei always loves doing with new meetings, it speaks with both bodies at once, overlaying the pleasant, feminine tones of Weiss with the fiery, electronic rumble of Asche. "We meet at last. I'm happy to see you're doing well. With the Union now, are we?"
Septette Arcubielle	The robot girl's cloak flutters wildly in the wind as Zwei's jet positions itself; if not for how tightly she clutches it around her shoulders, it'd likely be lost forever. Septette herself is in little danger of being blown away, but she instinctively compresses her digitigrade legs to lower her center of balance and leans into the gale nonetheless. When Zwei disembarks, the smaller robot's hair and cloak are still a mess, revealing her more distinctly mechanical traits: a flesh-tone ceramet 'skeleton' supports and protects her subsystems, though her asymmetrical and haphazard-looking inner workings are still clearly visible in most places, and there's a glowing red sphere the size of a grapefruit nestled inside of her 'ribcage'. For some reason, there's a band-aid on the sphere- if Zwei looks closely enough, she'd be able to see that the bandage is dotted with cute little hearts. As she's in the presence of another synthetic, Septette allows herself the luxury of not mimicking human mannerisms: her bright eyes focus and track the two mechanical bodies independently, her face loses a bit of its animated expressiveness, and her voice trades some of its natural-sounding inflection for simplicity and clarity. "Doing well for someone who was a walking bomb threat an hour ago," she chirps in reply. "Were I a free agent, perhaps I would not be with the Union... but I act as an emmissary for my world, and making this alliance was how I could best guarantee their safety. There are too many squishy ones, and too few of us, to protect all of them personally."
Zwei	It's pretty clear that Weiss is taking Septette in the moment that cloak is dislodged, just from the vector of her eyes. With Asche, it's harder to tell, simply because of the 180 degree optics mounted in the slit of his faceplate don't really betray any point of focus. He probably is too though. It's rare that someone gets full, undivided attention from Zwei. As this looks to be a social encounter, Asche detaches from the pack, wandering a short distance towards the ship and producing a weapon from seemingly nowhere; a sixteen foot long zweihander of the same, jet black metal and minimalist design as his own armour, though curiously, the edges don't appear to be sharp. A pair of marble sized drones pop high into the air from under his shoulder pylons, maintaining altitude just out of sight to monitor the surrounding area. Weiss takes Septettes tone with some obvious curiosity, though the expression is deliberate rather than reflexive. Nothing ever shows on her face unless she wants it to; one of the advantages of not working off of a human brain. "I assume it has something to do with that energy signature in your chest, right~?" she gestures towards the bandaged reactor offhandedly. "Well, that means I have to redouble my expression of gratitude that you're still in one piece, but I also have to say that I wish you'd take better care of yourself! I assume you were getting patched up earlier if you're still hanging around Njorun. As for the factional thing, it's really not a big deal! Personally, I don't like tying myself down to any kind of authority, but I have friends in a lot of places, including both superfactions. You'll have to tell me about your world though! It's a pretty big investment to make a deal like that. I assume 'squishy ones' refers to humans, since, well, they /are/ kinda squishy."
Septette Arcubielle	"Some of the technicians here were worried about my core destabilizing," Septette admits. "I have exceeded my model's lifespan by a factor of five, but the reactor core is one of the most durable parts of a Yggdroid's body- I doubt that it was at serious risk of a runaway ambient mana conflagration. That said, they did cut down on the secondary energy leakage..." With a practiced flair, the little Yggdroid adjusts her cloak to hang securely around her shoulders, though she's not making any effort to conceal her mechanical nature anymore. "I was- that is, we were designed as friends and protectors for mankind. Once, I was one among many- now I am all but alone, and my methods for protecting them have grown more subtle." She pauses, considering her words for a moment, before replying: "It is a beautiful, vivid, ferocious place. Common vermin can survive being shot, and can sever a man's hand with a bite; the claws and teeth of its predators are tougher and keener than any metal refined from its earth. Yet the sapient races there struggle for the right to exist, and they triumph more often than not. Sometimes I wish for their sake that it were tamer... but then," she reflects with a distant look in her eyes, "it would not be itself."
Zwei	Weiss is polite enough to hide the fact that she's cataloguing with profile of Septette's reactor output while listening to her talk. Multitasking like that is pretty trivial for her level of computing ability alone, never mind the square of it that Zwei in totality possesses between the two. Asche busies himself with the utterly massive sword, motionlessly triggering some kind of remote mechanism that extends the squared edges by two inches of lurid red . . . something? It doesn't hum or flicker like an energy blade, but it certainly doesn't look like metal, and it had pretty much just appeared out of nowhere. "One of those 'survival of the fittest' places huh? A lot of people would call that a 'death world', but personally I think those are more interesting~ The fact that humans still manage to exist there just makes it all the more so. It's pretty rote and typical to follow human evolution and development in a lot of places around the multiverse, so I like seeking out the extreme cases." She pauses for a moment to consider the rest of Septette's words more carefully, or at least she pauses to give the polite impression of doing so. She doesn't know what kind of information subroutines the yggdroid might have, so it's easiest to default to human timing and pacing in conversation. "The way you phrase that makes me think that you weren't designed /by/ mankind. That raises quite a few more questions. I also get the idea that you're one of the last simply because you outlived all the rest. Or were they all destroyed? Either way . . . I can empathize a little. Due to some . . . circumstances, I was offline for a considerable length of time, and all my peers have gone off somewhere. It kind of sucks not having anyone like you around." Her tone changes abruptly. "But let's not dwell on that! How are you finding it here? Do you need any help settling in? Nobody giving you any grief for looking super obviously robotic~? Don't get me wrong, this skin is totally fake. I look pretty boring without it. Basically though, I have a vested interest in seeing how things go for a case like you."
Septette Arcubielle	Septette may not have the processing speed of either Asche or Weiss individually, but it would be unfair to describe her as 'slow' by any standard: her own computing is performed by a decentralized array of hundreds of thousands of tiny processors that can each be freely allocated to whatever merits her attention or consideration. Despite that, she's quite comfortable with keeping their conversation to a human-like pace; being designed to interact with them on a regular basis has left her with some anthropic habits that aren't easy to kick. "We were designed by a single exceptionally intelligent alien mind with a deep interest in allying itself with mankind," she replies matter-of-factly. "The others... many of them were destroyed in the Abyssal War. Many more voluntarily deactivated themselves when the Deep Ones' god was slain, or had their weapons stripped out and went on to lead quiet lives. Only a few hundred of us chose to remain as we were: machines of war in a time of peace; ambassadors and diplomats in a civilization already unified." A smile does creep onto Septette's face at Weiss's final remarks. "Mutual curiosity is not a bad foundation on which to build a relationship. As for the people- I am made of blades and weigh as much as a truck. If anyone thinks poorly of me, none have said it to my face. Despite how nice it is here, I don't plan to stay- I've an obligation to the people of my world, and I've carved out a good dwelling for myself there as well. We could go there, if you like- Asche should be able to fit."
Zwei	"Hyperintelligent aliens huh? Or, alien as in 'unfamiliar'? That makes you even /more/ interesting!" Weiss chimes. "I heard a little about the Abyssal God thing the last time I spoke to you. I've honestly got to say that I really admire that, and by extension, you personally! Using science to take down overwhelming nonsense entities is like my secret ultimate fantasy. I'll probably get the chance to now that there's a whole multiverse to find them in, but, well, first things first, right?" Weiss smiles in return at seeing the expression grace Septette's face. "It's a great one! Besides, we're really similar! I was downloaded to these bodies as part of a military duty to uphold the order and longevity of less equipped species, designated by the most powerful minds in the universe. We don't have any /literal/ gods, but . . . well I'm kind of out of a job myself! We should hang out! I'll show you around some pretty great places! Of course I'd be more than happy to check yours out though! I love going to new worlds, and yours sounds like a lot of fun!" Yes, she just used fun to describe killer hyper-fauna. "If our interests align, maybe I'll be able to help you out, hm~?"
Septette Arcubielle	"Both, really! Even I don't know exactly where Yggdrasil came from, and on the rare occasions it interacted with us directly, it was pretty inscrutable." Septette tilts her head down slightly, and a cooling fan inside her chassis turns on with a gentle whirr as her eyes glow a little brighter- it looks like the little robot is distinctly flustered by Zwei's compliments. "I- ..." For the first time in their conversation, Arcubielle's speech synthesizer hiccups, momentarily giving the impression of a stutter. "I-I'm sure that you'll f-f-find someth-th-thing worth fighting if you look hard enough, Zwei," she finally replies. The Yggdroid turns her attention inwards for a moment, shutting her eyes and running a diagnostic scan. The synthesizer glitch takes milliseconds to correct; her emotional state takes a little longer to sort out. "I agree," she finally says as her eyes snap back open with a quiet click. "Despite our superficial differences, we've got a lot to talk about. I'd be delighted if you could show me around some of your favorite locales- haven't seen nearly as much of the Multiverse as I ought by now... and in the unlikely event that you need my help, please do not hesitate to ask me." Septette's smile widens as she looks up to meet Weiss's gaze. "Your endeavors at the moment needn't serve my interests directly. Helping a friend is always worthwhile."
Zwei	"Hmmm, that makes it a mystery I'd like to solve! I get the feeling that something called 'Yggdrasil' isn't something I can just casually poke around at, so I'll make it down as a long-term goal." Zwei does actually mark it down on an actual, digital planner. Asche is organizing the files while he works on the sword, perhaps charging some sort of battery? "Awwww, that was cute~" Weiss says in all honesty. "Despite the scary body, you really are on the level where you can relate to humans, aren't you? You protect them for intrinsic reasons, rather than out of slavishly following pre-defined programming, or so I gather anyways." Clearly she approves of the strangely human quirks in Septette's machinery. "I actually have a few contacts I might be able to put you in touch with, if seeing the multiverse and reliable, on-call backup are what you feel like you could use. I'm really happy we can be friends though! It's /really/ rare I get to meet anyone even remotely close to me. Before I start calling numbers though, I have to ask, what is it that you do? Other than protect your home I mean. What kind of work would you be interested in, and how . . . flexible are you about it? I know all kinds, so I'd like to see about getting you a support network that most closely aligns with your stances."
Septette Arcubielle	The smaller robot glances off to the side and rubs her elbow before chuckling quietly and looking back at Weiss. "I think you're pretty cute too, in your own way... a-anyway, you're right about programming. The pseudoneural arrays that we use were originally intended to have human brain scans uploaded to them, before Yggdrasil decided it was more efficient to create minds de novo than to use pre-existing ones. We can't be 'programmed' in a traditional sense; only taught. In some ways, it's inefficient, but it also made us harder to subvert." Septette claps her hands together in glee, looking like a little kid in a candy store. "That's- I'd love that, Zwei! Thank you! And I know what you mean about meeting someone with similar experiences- every year it gets harder to find someone like me in the Deep City, so finding you is like... like finding a little treasure you thought you'd lost." Once Zwei takes the conversation into more practical territory, Septette becomes a little more businesslike- still delighted, but in a more restrained manner. "I'm really good at killing monsters," she offers after a moment of thought. "It's pretty much all I've done for the last couple of centuries- keep the megafauna from rampaging through cities. I'm good at working alone, or far away from any support, and I'm comfortable in situations where minimizing collateral is a priority. I can use elemental magic in addition to my built-in weapons, but not as well as a true specialist." Another pause. "As for what I won't or can't do? Won't kill noncombatants. Can't be stealthy- anything with a half-decent sensory array can notice me from several miles out."
Zwei	"I'm kind of a mix myself." Weiss says in response to Septette's explanation of her mental patterns. "I was originally another person before getting these bodies, so I had to learn everything the normal way . . . well /mostly/ normal, but these bodies have a lot of info downloaded into them that gives me a lot of knowledge, but sometimes restricts the parameters of what I'm allowed to do. It's all kind of placeholder code. Training wheels that were supposed to be taken off when I was finished. It's annoying, but I live with it!" "I'm really happy I could make your day~ I seriously can't express how nice it is to meet you in person!" She giggles like a teenager exchanging a particularly stupid joke before continuing.. "And I'm glad you feel the same way about me that I do about you~" Cue more snickering. "In all seriousness though, I have a few friends I'd like you to meet. We can use a little more muscle and some basic knowledge of magic, and you seem like the tech savvy type as well. I can't promise that they're all great people, but most of them are pretty respectable, so there shouldn't be any real worries. I'll ask you one more question though~" Weiss pauses for effect. "How do you feel about space~?"
Septette Arcubielle	"Ah... hard-coded limiters? I can see how that could be annoying, even if they were intended to be for your own benefit," Septette says sympathetically. "You were... someone else, beforehand? That's really interesting- I never knew what it was like to not be made of metal. We should talk about that sometime!" Then the little robot girl tilts her head, looking a tad bit confused. "Space? As in, the stuff between planets where there isn't any air? Well, I can operate in pressures from zero atmospheres to several hundred atmospheres unimpeded, and I've got practical experience with microgravity, along with small built-in thrusters for adjusting jump trajectories. Why do you ask?" Regardless of Zwei's answer, Septette takes a step forward and holds her arms out, smiling warmly as she discards her cloak and offers her new friend a hug. "Anyway... I really look forward to working with you, Zwei- almost as much as I look forward to getting another chance to hang out and chat. You're nice."
Zwei	"Oh, I've never been made of anything squishy!" Weiss hastily corrects. "It's complicated to explain fully, but basically consider it like I was a person who was just a soul with no body, who lived with a lot of other people like that, and sometimes they would make bodies for people to use in order to get around and do things on earth, figuratively speaking. I've never been human, or even organic. There'll be plenty of time to explain later though~" She looks significantly happier at hearing the breakdown of Septette's space capabilites. "That's perfect! The jobs these guys get up to sometimes take place in space, so if you're prepared for that, all the better!" When it comes to that gesture of affection however, Zwei actually locks up. Just for the barest, almost imperceptible instant, but an eternity of subjective time. Zwei has been in the multiverse for more than long enough. It's made quite a few friends. No real enemies to speak of. Many people are grateful to it . . . but none have ever offered this kind of sincere appreciation, never mind affection, before. For the first time, Weiss accepts a hug on Zwei's behalf, wrapping her arms around the yggdroid's frame and squeezing. ". . . I look forward to it too~"
Septette Arcubielle	Arcubielle isn't a stranger to displays of affection, but it's been far too long since she's 'clicked' with someone so well, and it shows in how eagerly she wraps her arms around Weiss and rests her head on the other robot's shoulder. There's not a lot of give to a Yggdroid's frame, and what little there is comes mostly from the springiness of the pseudoskeletal structure, but Septette manages to keep her sharp edges and hard corners out of the way. For a war machine, she can manage to be oddly cuddly. "... Thank you, Zwei."