lostcarnival | [open] bro bro bro bro

Entry tags:

[open] bro bro bro bro

Who: Rhys and you!
When: D48-D49
Where: Various Locations
What: It's time for Rhys to make himself at home (or more likely whine that he's not the boss)
Warnings: Probably low but I'll update if anything happens

[day 48 - all around the carnival grounds - what have i gotten myself into?]

Rhys doesn't regret the decision. He doesn't regret taking a deal from some shady Ringmaster (and he hates that he'd never thought of that as a nickname for himself) to escape August and Vasquez and a bunch of killer robots that would have surely ended his life.

What he does regret is leaving Vaughn behind. Fiona and Sasha less so. But, there's still a sliver of sadness that he's here and they're not. Hopefully, whenever this whole thing ends, he'll go back and they'll forgive him.

(Though he seriously doubts that. They'll either be dead or they'll kill him.)

For the first little while, he wanders. He gets his shoes dusty (a development that makes him frown) and his hair wind blown but what else is there to do but figure things out? His lodgings, a trailer in a park surrounded by similar metallic bumps, isn't luxurious but it's not a hole in the ground.

He'll take it. He'll whine about it later.

[day 49 - anywhere that needs cleaning up around the carnival - where's a loader bot when you need one?]

Rhys regrets the decision.

As soon as he reports for work and someone slaps a mop into his hand, he regrets the decision. Janitor. A janitor again. Somewhere, Vasquez is probably laughing his ass off. The only good thing, Rhys guesses, is that whoever's in charge isn't Vasquez and won't be making him run all over the place to do menial things.

He still has to clean though and the grimace on his face as he starts mopping a dirty floor is evidence of what he thinks about that. But, he tells himself it won't be for very long. He tells himself that time will pass quickly.

He tells himself that he can drown himself in his mop bucket if it gets too bad.

Mopping isn't a hard think to do but he still mops over various people's shoes instead of telling them to move and he steps all over his own freshly cleaned floors more than once.

The third time he does that, he curses loudly and then looks around, hoping no one's heard that. He hasn't memorized all the rules but he's pretty sure cursing on the job is frowned upon.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Pod 153," 9S repeats. Just in case the guy really actually didn't get it the first time.

What's with the arm, anyway? He would've expected a fae magic replacement to be organic, not metal. He didn't think mechanical appendages was a thing?

"My cool job is working as a scout for the Nightrunners. You know, checking out the worlds before the rest of the Carnival enters it? That kind of thing." He loves it! He has a great boss! And he was literally made for that sort of thing! But his next words are decidedly less enthused. "...Aaand repairs, I guess."

9S wipes his fingers on the hem of his shirt before he salutes, left hand over where his heart would be, if he had one. The effect is totally lost when he has a box of popcorn held in his right hand.

"I'm 9S. What's your name?"

"I'm Rhys," he responds, sending another look at the robot before shaking his head, shaking it off. He wasn't going to be able to program his arm to do anything that he didn't make it do. It was handy for other things but mopping and sweeping was not one of them. He had to actually put strength and stamina into the whole thing and making an effort was so damn boring.

"I'm a janitor," he says, frowning. He couldn't even try and fancy it up, make it sound better than it was. There was no way to make a janitor sound better and that sucked, that really sucked.

"What kind of repairs?" Rhys asks. The first part of his job sounds exciting and adventurous but something about fixing things doesn't make him too enthused. At least he's not going to smell like mop water.

9S waves a hand vaguely, handing the rest of his popcorn over to Pod 153 to hold in one of its clawed hands. "Everything around here, really," he explains. "You know, if the lighting gets busted, or the rollercoaster needs maintenance."

And he does almost none of these things. Look. The less he has to work under his alien boss, the better. Even if she's not as bad as he thought she would be.

After a brief moment he folds his arms and adds, "Some of the engineering team make mechanical objects in their spare time," he's fairly sure the various mechanical devices Peridot had in her trailer weren't something she arrived with, "but that's really not the sort of thing I was made for."

"Hey, join the club," Rhys says, smacking the mop against the wall and watching droplets of water slide down slowly. He wasn't made for cleaning up after people either. He was made for bigger and better things but he was having a hard time getting people to recognize that. Even before this, he hadn't been able to take that last step up the company ladder and he'd let himself be kicked down by Vasquez.

"So, what were you made for?" Rhys asks before adding quickly, "What, made? You were made? Like in a lab or something? Put together as in insert tab A into slot B?"

"Er. Insert tab A into slot B?"

That's not a turn of phrase he's heard before.

"I'm an android. YoRHa Number 9 Type S." He used to introduce himself like that with pride. These days, though... "I'm a Scanner model, so I'm built for scouting and hacking into enemy systems to disable them. Repairing them is the opposite of what I did back home."

Granted, he does perform maintenance on other androids, but it's more on the software side of things than hardware. Leave that up to the other androids on maintenance duties.

"Wow, you're...a lot different than the other robots I know," Rhys admits, eyes wide. Between the claptraps and Loader Bot and GORTYS, he suppose, all the robots had seemed pretty, well, robotic. Metallic. 9S could pass for a human and Rhys would have thought him that if 9S hadn't said otherwise.

"So, do you...feel things?" Rhys asks curiously. "Like emotions. Because all my robot friends were very literal. Didn't feel sadness or happiness. I think they cared in their own weird automaton like way but that was never a conversation we sat down and had because talking to robots is pretty boring. Where I'm from at least. You're not boring. Not yet, at least. Guess you could end up being boring but I'm not bored."

Now that get an annoyed grumble from 9S. Putting a hand on his hip, he says, "First of all, I'm not a robot, but an android. Robot makes me sound like a machine lifeform, which I'm not."

Sadly this isn't the first time someone's called him a robot, and probably not the last.

"Second, us androids are modelled after our human creators, so we have thoughts and emotions. So I'm a person, just like you."

Wow, that feels good to say. Actually feeling like he's actually a person is even better.

"Whoa okay, calm down! It was a mistake, a simple mistake! It wasn't like I put a sign around my neck and walked around, proclaiming you a robot. They're kind of almost the same thing in my world!"

Not really true. Androids weren't a thing in all the parts of the world he'd seen. Robots, yes. Man killing monsters, yes. But no life life androids that Rhys would mistake for a human if he didn't know better.

"That's pretty cool actually," Rhys says, nodding his approval. "All I've got is the metal arm and eye. I know, not an android thing, don't bite my head off, but it's the best I have."

9S practically preens a little at being called cool, standing a little straighter with a small smile. Even if he's abandoning the war to take back Earth for the humans back home, it still feels nice to be appreciated by a human.

"Why do you have a metal arm and eye? Mind if I hack into it? Just to look, I promise."

Usually he doesn't necessarily ask permission, but he's a human, so he gets marginally more respect.

"Because I wanted them," Rhys says, shrugging. "I thought it might give me an advantage at work."

And it had. For awhile. His modifications hadn't been able to prevent Vasquez from being an asshole but he'd still been able to step over some of the other employees on his way to being suddenly demoted by Vasquez's stupid face.

"You want to hack me?" Rhys repeats, eyes widening just a touch. No one's ever asked him that. There's been a few attempts here and there for nefarious reasons but no one's asked him. "How do I know I can trust you?"

Really? 9S gives the eye and metal arm a skeptical look. Well, if it gives him an advantage, he'd soon find out... if this guy would just let him look.

"I'm an android," he says, as if that explains everything. "You're a human, just like my creators. I'm not going to do anything that would harm a human." 9S folds his arms and huffs. "If you were a machine, I wouldn't bother asking."

This is absolutely helping his case.

"Because that makes me so much more willing to let you hack into me," Rhys says, mirroring 9S' stance and glaring. Again, it's nice that he's asked and hasn't just taken what he's wanted but Rhys is still wary of just letting someone into his head like that especially with Jack floating around, doing god know what. Rhys tries to warn him, tells him to scat but Jack's still there, lounging on some mental couch, fanning himself.

"I don't even see a wire that you'd plug into me," Rhys points out, tapping the port on the side of his head. "You're not going to use your tongue, are you? Or some other weird appendage that you might have and I can't see?"

At least he seems to be warming on the idea of letting 9S hack him.

9S balks and recoils at the idea of using his tongue to hack.

"What?! No! Why would I-! No." Gross?! "I don't need any sort of external attachment like that. I hack wirelessly."

So really, he doesn't actually need Rhys permission. Or cooperation. But for his own sake, he'd much rather do it with permission than not; it would feel kind of weird and dirty if he didn't.

That, and he's not entirely sure he can hack Rhys without his permission. Does his own programming disallow him to hack a human the same way he's unable to raise a hand against them? A troubling thought.

Well, that was a relief. A big one. Rhys really hadn't wanted someone's tongue in his port, doing...whatever it was one needed to do to hack him. So, he breathes and mimes wiping his brow. The question of allowing 9S to hack him still hangs in the air but Rhys feels a little more comfortable that it's wireless and he wouldn't be tied to anyone.

"Let's say I do this and you find something that might surprise you," Rhys says, trying to make it sound like he doesn't have something to hide, "would you keep it between us?"

"Something that would surprise me?"

Now he's really curious. Whatever could that mean? He's seen all sorts of things hacking the machine lifeforms. Sad to say that the machines have been the most complex things that he's hacked so far; even the alien technology he hacked while they attended the Space Olympics was a little disappointing.

9S unfolds his arms, interest in this human and his mechanical arm and eye rising. "I guess." He tries not to sound too eager at the prospect of being allowed to pry. "What's the surprise? It's not something dangerous, is it?"

"Well, if it was dangerous, I would let it inside of me?" Rhys asks. The answer is yes, absolutely yes, especially if he thought it would give him an edge. Jack's residence in his head isn't because of that but if he'd had thought for a second that Jack's presence could help him rise in the ranks, he would have done it.

"And if I tell you, it wouldn't be a surprise, would it?" Rhys says, tsking 9S lightly. "If I let you look, you keep it between us. Promise. Swear on your mother's grave."

It occurs to Rhys a little too late that 9S is an android and probably doesn't have a mother. Oh well, hopefully the idea of how serious this is gets across anyway.

9S lets out a long drawn whine. Aw, come on! He's going to find out soon, so why not tell him? But he doesn't say that aloud, instead choosing to say, "I don't have a mother."

And what's a grave, anyway?

"Alright, alright, fine. I swear on my duty to serve mankind," even though he's technically abandoning that. Does it count if he's running away to be with another (mostly) human and help her change her world? "that if I find anything weird in your arm and eye that I'll keep it between us."

Unless it's something that he thinks someone else really, really needs to know, anyway.

Rhys balks again, still unsure but maybe someone else knowing about Jack won't be so bad. Maybe they'll even have ideas on how to get him out of there. Jack's harmless as he is and Rhys wants to keep him that way but sometimes it's hard to resist his honeyed words and extravagant promises.

"All right, fine," Rhys tells him, crossing his arms. "Don't make me regret this and if it hurts, you have to stop immediately. I've never let anyone do this voluntarily and I don't really want people digging around in my head but fine. Take a look, see what you can find and say nothing to no one if you do find something."

That's a lot of words for something 9S had thought would be a fairly simple process. There must be some kind of secret in his eye and arm... something he doesn't want people to know. Yet... if Rhys doesn't want people to know, then why is Rhys letting him look?

"Yeah, yeah. I got it the first time."

He doesn't bother correct Rhys over the fact that hacking his eye and arm shouldn't allow him to 'dig around' in his head, since surely his mind isn't mechanical? Unless... either his brain is mechanical, or there's some kind of mechanical connection? Hm. He'll really have to hack in and see.

He raises his right hand, a ring of light encircling his wrist. "Alright, hacking in."

And with that, 9S fires what appears to be a beam of light at Rhys' arm, throwing his consciousness into the arm, trying to determine the intimate details of the arm's functionality. If there's anything sentient connected to the mechanical parts, 9S would be able to communicate with them.

Rhys doesn't know what he's expecting but its not a beam of light going into his arm. He'd thought there would be some mechanical connection between 9S and himself. A beam of light isn't so bad. It tickles maybe a little but it doesn't hurt and it doesn't look weird either.

So, he just waits and watches, trying to see if he can feel the hacking happening. There'd been some attempts back home but nothing successful. Those had also been involuntarily and Rhys had fought but he's doing his best to let this happen.

Hopefully, Jack doesn't fuck things up and act like a big baby. Maybe he'll even like it, having a friend for the moment.

From the outside, it doesn't appear that 9S is moving. As an advanced android, hacking doesn't usually take long at all.

Still... He's not sure what he expected in hacking space, given all this reference to some 'surprise', but he isn't really expecting there to be what appears to be some kind of living area.

And if that's the case, that means there must be someone, something, living in here. Some kind of AI? Curious, he enters.

"...Hello?" he calls out within hacking space. His voice would only be heard by Pod 153 and anyone else occupying hacking space.

Jack hasn't had any visitors except Rhys in a long time so the sudden new voice surprises him. Not enough to make him stumble or startle but his eyes do widen and he stands up, trying to find the source of said voice.

"And who is that?" Jack singsongs, delighted. "Who has Rhys let come to visit me? I hope it's someone good. All of his other friends are boring. Useless, boring nerds with terrible fashion sense."

Well.

"Okay, August's earring is a bit nice but that's it. That's the only thing good about the lot of them. Hopefully you're better."

There really is someone here. Curious, 9S follows the voice to its source. He has to admit, he's a little excited; in all the time he's been in the Carnival, there hasn't been any AI that could come anywhere near the complexity of an android like himself.

Most people didn't even know what an AI is.

9S appears the same in this hacking space as he does out in the real world when he enters Jack's virtual room: a short boy wearing what seems to be a blindfold and a stupid shirt, cat ears poking out of his hair.

"Um, hi? My name's 9S, one of Rhys' coworkers."

"What the heck kind of name is 9S?" Jack asks, shaking his head. "It's a dumb name, that's what it is. Not strong, not legendary, not something like..."

He spreads his arms wide and affects a grandiose tone when he says, "Jack."

It's only too bad that there's no backup music to really drive the point home. Jack holds the pose for a few seconds before dropping his arms and eyeing her.

"Now, what are you doing here?" Jack asks. "Did Rhys let you into his brainmeat? Because spot's already taken. You are not welcome."

His mind automatically adds 'ass' to the end of Jack's name. It's not his fault that Jackass the android is particularly memorable! And, to be fair, he kind of is a jackass with that kind of first impression.

But man, this guy's weird. 9S shakes his head. "I'm not looking to take your spot. You can keep it."

He's quite happy in his own body, thanks.

9S folds his arms, tapping his foot. "How come you're in here, anyway? Usually an AI is inserted into its own body. It's kind of weird you're stuck in part of Rhys'. What's your purpose?"

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