lostcarnival | ⇨ THE PRINCE IS DEAD

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⇨ THE PRINCE IS DEAD

Who: Everyone!
When: Day 178 - B1: Day 6
Where: The Carnival and sometimes on top of the Heart of Stone.
What: Now that the Prince is dead and gone, there's a lot left to sort out. As the remaining servants are liberated and those captured by the Prince are tended to, it's time for recovery and goodbyes.
Warnings: Nothing in particular.

HOME GROUND↴

At long last, it is over. The Prince is dead, and all of his stolen Names have been restored - all that's left to do is treat the wounds and move on. For the first day or two, the Ringmaster will be arranging passage for the servants that are left, all of which have remembered their names for the first time in years. The earth elemental that had been trapped and forced to serve as the Prince's manor, the Heart of Stone, is happy to help for the moment. It appreciates the Ringmaster's mercy, and is free after untold eons of imprisonment.

Yet, there are plenty of aspects that are far from simple. There are still servants left mad and transformed into beasts, with no easy way to change them back. The Prince's spells outlive him, and those bearing his poison and his curses will have a difficult road ahead of them. Though most of the bestial servants have been rounded up, and a large number that had been reduced to unmoving statues returned, even the Ringmaster can't return them to normal so simply.

The next week is for rest and for settling remaining affairs. If you want to bid farewell to any particular NPCs, or assure care is given where it's needed, now is the time to do it.

► A CURE: The Ringmaster will tell everyone simply - there is no simple way to undo another fae's magic. The Prince's powers were essentially on par with hers, which means that those who have been transformed to stone and those that were cursed into beasts and driven insane are not something she can trivially fix. It will take the work of the carnival and a couple weeks of treatment to shed the curse of stone, and the maddened servants are an entirely separate matter. She will do what she can, but for the most part she is arranging for the Prince's servants to be cared for elsewhere. At least for now, the Ringmaster will be animating the stone portions of people's bodies with magic, though those portions will still be a bit clumsy and numb feeling.

► THE NEW HEARTSTONE: In the absence of the prince, the Heart of Stone will be taking over the remains of the Prince's realm and preventing it from collapsing into void. As it turns out, the manor had been an earth elemental all along - a form of Wyld Fae almost on par to the Prince and Ringmaster themselves. How the Heart of Stone was enslaved is a long story presumably, but the Ringmaster considers it to be a sign of the Prince's own depravity. The Heart will be allowing visitors for the first couple days of this period through the portal, but keep in mind you are essentially just walking around on its body. At least the realm has a floor, now, instead an endless abyss surrounding it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A new body... like what 9S had whenever he got killed, back home. Rita probably can't blame him for thinking that would be how she'd come back. It's not like anyone else could've known this would happen, either.

At least he knew she'd be back... That helps put some of her memories in perspective, even if it's hard to shake the disturbing images of 9S looking at her like she's some obstacle, his hands tightening around her throat...

She swallows, trying to keep her voice from fading, before replying, "You're in worse shape, from the looks of it." Her eyes focus on the hand nearest to her, looking over the exposed metal with a mixture of guilt and fascination.

As far as requests go, there's one that immediately comes to mind. "Water. And after that, we should start getting you repaired." It's hard to look at the damage she did, but it'll be easier to do so if she's also doing something about it.

Just water? "Pod?" He'd get it himself, but his suspensions feel odd, as if the gyros are unbalanced. It would be embarrassing if he fell over in the process.

< Affirmative. Commencing water retrieval >

With that, Pod 153 floats off towards the kitchen. 9S himself slowly and carefully lowers himself into the floor. "Are you sure? I don't hurt or anything." At least, not much. "It looks a lot worse than it is. I can wait until you're more recovered. It's only been..." he checks his internal clock to confirm, "hours since you died."

Rita winces a little at the blunt reminder that she died. People don't just come back from the dead. Is she... really a normal human now? If she even was one before she died...

She nods. "I'm sure. We don't have to do it all at once... just some of the high-priority stuff for now." It'll probably take multiple sessions to get him back to full functionality. And repairing all that lost skin will be tricky...

All that aside, there are a lot of things Rita wants to say or ask about, now that they're together again. It's hard to decide where to start, but...

"What were you thinking, anyway, going out and fighting by yourself?" Rita specifically remembers 9S telling her he's not a combat unit, he's really not good at fighting... It's no wonder he got messed up, and if things had gone just a little differently, he could've ended up a lot worse.

Yeah, okay. Fixing his legs would probably be one of the first things on that list if that's the case. Hopefully they don't need parts, otherwise that's going to be a pain.

But when Rita asks her question, 9S looks away, feeling awkward. "I know it wasn't smart," of course it wasn't; he's a scanner, not a combat unit. And he was operating under heavy restrictions, too. "But I... didn't want anyone else killing you."

It sounds weird to admit that aloud. It's not weird, is it??

Pod 153 returns with a glass of water, hovering nearby and offering it to Rita.

< Water obtained >

It's pretty weird.

Rita takes the glass of water and immediately takes a long drink from it.

"That's a stupid reason," she says bluntly. She doesn't really understand it. So what if someone else killed her? The result would be the same. It's not his responsibility, and it's not like...

Her mind drifts back to their dance in the ballroom, all those things he said to her... Did he really mean all of that? But he couldn't have, because obviously there's someone else, and why should Rita care anyway?

"...Anyway, you can't exactly run back to the bunker and get a new body while you're here, so... try to take good care of the one you've got."

9S goes quiet at that, hands curling into fists at the mention of the Bunker. "...I know."

There might not be a Bunker to go home to. At least, not one that is functional and full of androids at work or rest. With everyone corrupted... He still doesn't know for sure if it's true, he needs to ask the Ringmaster if she can confirm. But he gets the feeling... it is.

He draws his knees to his chest. He feels very small in this world. Strange had promised him that he would find a way to cure 2B, if the Ringmaster won't help. But it still doesn't stop the crushing feeling of being one of the last ones uncorrupted.

"...There might not be a Bunker for me to return to at all."

There might not be a Bunker...?

Rita's eyes widen and she leans forward, closer to 9S. "What do you mean?"

From the change in 9S's demeanor... it's clear that he's serious. Did that android woman tell him something? They said it might be the last time they ever talk...

"That woman at the ball... 2B. She told you that?"

At the mention of 2B, the feeling in 9S' chest tightens. She had been a fake, but seemed so real. His conversation with Strange had left him feeling that maybe her words were true, but everything else, ephemeral. He won't know her feelings for certain, not until he sees her, the real her, again.

"The fake?" He sounds more than a bit bitter about that, though. "...Yeah. She told me a lot of things. Things I didn't know."

He presses his face to his knees. He almost wishes he didn't know. But... in a way, he's glad she told him the awful truth. He'd rather know than... live in blissful ignorance. Or at least, he'd rather die knowing the reality of things.

"When it turned out she was just an illusion made by the Prince, I wanted to dismiss everything she said. But... I don't think she was lying. About the Bunker. About everything."

"Those people were illusions...?" Rita wasn't there to see them disappear. She didn't know. Were all of them fake? ...No, that's not what's important right now.

Seeing 9S in pain like this makes something in her chest tighten. Even though he's mechanical... the grief he's feeling is clearly real. Rita might not know much about the Bunker, nothing more than what 9S has told her, but she knows that losing it is an immense loss... for androids, for humans, and most of all, for him.

"What happened to the Bunker?" she asks, her voice strained but somewhat gentle.

9S lifts his head, only so that his words aren't muffled when he speaks. "Everyone connected to the Bunker is corrupted by a logic virus." His voice is flat. "It drives androids crazy, attacking non-infected before they eventually die. And it's incurable."

They have vaccines, but it's only useful in the very early stages. And the virus mutates quickly... often faster than vaccine manufacture can keep up with.

9S lets out a quiet laugh, but there isn't any mirth in it. "Is this stuff really something you want to hear? I mean, you just recovered..."

For a given value of 'recovered.' Being alive is pretty recovered compared to being dead, as far as he's concerned.

"I..." Rita begins, but her voice cracks, and she takes another gulp of water.

"I've never been the sort to be happy with blissful ignorance. I'd rather know than not." Sure, it's something to stress out about... but the alternative is for 9S to stress over it by himself, leaving Rita wondering why he's been acting so weird, and that would be stressful for both of them anyway. As far as Rita's concerned, the truth is always best.

Using her left arm to steady herself, Rita pushes herself off the couch and carefully sinks down to sit on the floor, at his level. "Besides, this is hard for you, right? You shouldn't have to deal with it alone."

9S looks up in surprise when Rita sits herself down next to him. She's just like Strange... treating him as if she cares about his life, as if it isn't expendable, as if it has worth. His human creators... Maybe it shouldn't be a surprise that they have more warmth and care than Command.

"Rita..." he murmurs, throat tight with emotion.

He almost wants to reach out and hug her. But she's a human. They're not anything like equals, no matter how much it felt that way when they danced together. So he keeps his hands to himself.

"...I said I would explain, didn't I?" Back at the ball. "What do you know about 2B?"

He doesn't expect it to be much; 2B isn't terribly chatty at the best of times. But understanding what Rita knows about her will help him figure out how much he needs to explain.

2B was definitely not much of a talker. But, thinking on what little she did say to Rita...

"Not much. Just that she's a combat model, and the two of you were assigned to each other as partners." And, to anyone who isn't blind and stupid, there's the fact that they obviously have strong feelings toward each other.

9S let out a quiet laugh at that. "So she didn't give detailed answers to your questions, huh? That's pretty normal for her."

Because he has no doubt that Rita would've had questions for 2B. Rita's just like a Scanner, in many ways.

9S pauses, gathering his thoughts as he leans back against the couch. "January 30, 11942 AD. 4:25 AM, Bunker Time. That's when my model was first rolled out. You could say that was when I was 'born'." He rests his hands on his knees, the metal of his palms slightly warm against the remaining skin on his knees. "I remember feeling happy. Happy that I was given life so I could serve mankind. But us Scanners... Unlike other units that get sent to Earth, Scanners work alone. So it was always just me, a whole bunch of machines, and my Operator on the other end of a spotty connection."

With Operator 21O being the way she was -- he can't blame her; who'd want to get attached to a unit destined to die? -- he had been so crushingly alone.

"That all changed on March 10, 11945 AD. I was directed to support 2B and destroy a massive goliath-class machine. It was my first mission with her... and we both died in the process. I don't remember it because my data didn't get uploaded to the Bunker in time. But she remembers, because the me back then uploaded her data first."

It sounds like exactly the sort of thing he'd do, too.

"Afterwards, she actually thanked me for it." Unbidden, a small, wistful smile curls the corners of his mouth. "I was surprised. I thought 2B models were kind of cold, you know?" Rita's met 2B, she should understand.

9S' goes quiet for a while, before he murmurs, "Thing is... That wasn't the first time she worked with me."

Looks like 9S already guessed that she was being nosy. She tried not to be, for like a minute. But, as expected, 2B completely stonewalled her.

Rita leans against the couch, sipping at her water, as she listens intently to 9S's story. It's weird to think that someone could actually remember their first moments of life. Being happy to serve... it's not easy for Rita to relate to, but it does sound like him.

Then three years of relative solitude before he met 2B... It's no surprise if he got attached to her, then. But it wasn't the first time...?

Rita's brow furrows as she puts the pieces together. "You mean... your data was lost before, too? From dying...?"

"Yeah." Though it's more complicated than that. "Other than the moment of my birth, my memories only last three months, including my time here. I thought... Maybe my memory data got corrupted, and Command had to reset my data from the beginning. After all, if I died, they'd just restore me from my last backup. My memory shouldn't be that short."

He'd put it out if his mind. He trusted Command. At least he did back then.

"After that mission, 2B was assigned as my partner to support me as I gathered data. I thought it was really weird. Why would they assign a combat unit to a recon mission?"

He lets go of his knees and curls his arms around his legs.

"...But that wasn't her assignment from Command. Her true mission... was to kill me."

"What...? Why!?" Rita blurts out, her voice cracking. She takes another drink of water, emptying the glass, before trying to talk again.

"Why would she..." no, it's not 2B who chose this, "...Why would Command want you killed?"

It doesn't make sense. 9S was happy just to serve their cause... wasn't he?

"Because..." 9S had only theorised, but 2B had practically confirmed it. "I would eventually figure out that Command is hiding something from us. I would investigate... and then Command would find out and order 2B to kill me."

Pod 153 hovers nearby, one of its arms outstretched as it silently offers to take Rita's empty glass.

"It must have happened over and over and over again. I must have died so many times... Just for Command to keep their secrets."

He can't help but laugh at the futility of it all. How many times... and in the end it doesn't even matter.

"And now it might all be gone."

Seeing the gesture, Rita passes the glass to Pod 153.

She remembers talking with 9S about dying, him telling her about how his data would be retrieved from the Bunker each time. At the time, Rita imagined relatively small periods of data loss. She never would have thought he'd have lost more memories than he's retained in his life. That's just...

"That's stupid. Collecting information is your job, it's..." It's what he was made for. What kind of secrets could Command possibly have, that they'd be so quick to eliminate a soldier who's too good at what he does?

What 9S is saying... it's bleak. Everything he's ever known could be gone. But if it's not, what would he be going back to, anyway? More years of getting killed again and again by his own allies? Still...

"Is there any way to avoid the virus?" she asks after a moment. Here in the Carnival, time doesn't move in their home worlds... There could be time to form a plan.

"2B said... everyone connected to the Bunker has the virus... including her." 9S seems to curl in on herself. "But she didn't have it while she was under the thrall of the Prince. Though maybe that's because she wasn't real."

If she isn't real, then there would be no circuits for the virus to spread through.

"But I thought the Ringmaster might be able to help. That she could work for the Ringmaster and stay in her uninfected state."

His fingers dig into the remaining skin on his knees, the feeling in his chest tightening.

"2B didn't want to join, at first. I think she... felt guilty for killing me all the time. That she didn't deserve to be saved. That... The only way for her to stop killing me was if she was dead. But I managed to change her mind."

Unintentionally, his voice grows louder, agitation lining every word. "She was... supposed to be here, free from the infection and free from her orders. We were supposed to be together!"

But she's not and the thought of losing her forever hurts more than he can bear.

So 9S really doesn't blame 2B for what she did...

In a way, Rita can understand that. After all, 9S killed her, and here they are... though she'd be lying if she said there wasn't a lingering feeling of weirdness about the situation. She knows he did it to save her. It's just -- whatever. It's behind them now.

Hearing 9S's anguish, she can't help but wonder... Why were androids made like this? Why were they made to feel love, and loss, and grief like this? If they were made for battle, meant to die again and again... isn't that just unnecessarily cruel?

But necessary or not... the reality is that 9S is alive, and he's hurting, and there could be a way to help.

"It might not be too late," Rita says, her voice quiet but determined. "When you came here... she wasn't infected yet, was she?"

9S shakes his head. "No, she didn't have the virus. We had just finished a mission and were preparing to return to Earth to gather more information."

It all seemed so long ago. In a way, it kind of was, with his memories being as short as they are.

"Everyone was still fine back then."

9S said there was no cure... Maybe that could change. But even if not... there's time to prevent infection. Isn't there?

"What if the two of you sever your connection to the Bunker before the virus starts spreading?" Rita might not fully appreciate what that connection is like, or what it means for an android, but if everyone connected to the Bunker ends up infected, that seems like a way to potentially evade the virus altogether.

"2B said I was fine. That I wasn't infected when this all happened. I must have disconnected myself from the Bunker for some reason. So... yeah, you're right."

Maybe by then, he'd already discovered Command's secrets and was looking to scatter and run.

"The other option... I think if I got to 2B before she's too badly corrupted, I'd be able to destroy the virus before it takes hold seriously."

Why hadn't he been there? 9S hadn't been entirely satisfied with 2B's explanation.

9S flexes his right hand. It had been cut with shards of glass from when he shattered the drink of water during the ball, but that particular injury had long healed. Now it's just the skin on the palm that's melted off, as well as the burns and scorches all over the back of his hand.

He was already disconnected? That's not something he'd do normally, is it...? Rita can't be positive of that, though.

"Maybe, but... it'd be ideal if she could avoid infection in the first place, right?" Rita has a feeling 9S would have tried to cure her quickly if he could. But for some reason, he couldn't. If he goes with his instincts on this, he could end up repeating whatever situation led to her demise the first time around.

His damaged palm catches her attention, and she gives it a long look as she thinks. "Are you... able to heal that?" She's not sure exactly how 9S's body handles minor injuries. It could be tricky, but maybe they'll need to find a way to synthesize the material that makes up his skin...

⇨ THE PRINCE IS DEAD

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