Chapter Text
“It should allow the pod to go further than normal, searching instead of remaining by my side to aid in attack,” the healer explains as he stands up, smiling at his newly upgraded pod. This pod will have to be fixed again before they come back, this is far too much tampering for a pod that won’t be used like this forever.
“So should we just wait here?”
There’s consideration on the other’s face as he once again motions for the pod to hover in front of him. Instead of deciding for himself, he looks softly at it and pats its head, asking, “Would you like for us to wait for your return or would you be willing to find us again as well?”
“Scanning… Calculating…” The pod is hesitating more than planning, as if there’s been personality in the little cuboid this whole time, she recognizes the tone even through the robotic voice. “Your safety is most assured if you search within a 20m radius of the fountain.”
Something feels off, even more so than just being surrounded by machines that are doing absolutely nothing in response to them being around. Sure, she’s terrified in general and that is coloring everything around her, but should the pods be giving answers like that? Even worse, she sees the one stolen for her move.
“Safety within 20m radius of fountain certain, 1.00357% chance of problematic surprise, 88.517% of unpredictable behavior from machine lifeforms,” it almost sounds like her pod is trying to comfort her, say the fear is not necessary, it will all be okay, even if completely confusing. She hesitantly reaches up, patting the top of the pod to thank it.
“Okay, but can we stick together while we look?” It’s not smart to take too long, but it’s scary to be alone surrounded by such things. If it were possible, she would be wanting to hide behind her friend the whole time.
A chuckle comes out of the taller android, patting her head as she just pat the pod. “Of course,” he says, tone soft as he looks at her. “You don’t have to be alone, you will have me and three pods paying attention in a way we can’t.”
Three, the idiot was especially good at being on Earth, she’s heard multiple occasions of the pod snapping into action while he was mindlessly reporting back a story. Recalling her favorite instance, one where he was reading a story to her of a traveling troupe of actors, calms her down. She never did get to hear the end of that story, she wonders if the songstress was ever able to sing on stage for herself.
“There we go, O7. Are you ready?”
She nods once, a curt motion. The air feels kinder and the world around her feels brighter. A small piece of confetti falls directly onto the top of her pod. Like a bow… “I’m ready. We have to find that idiot fast, we should get him home.”
Why do the pods go so fast? She doesn’t need to be running at full speed, clicking her heels against the stone pathways, as the ownerless drone zips around, looking for its handler. And it certainly shouldn’t be snagged directly out of the air by someone doing a backflip off a broken down ride?
“Mr. Pod, I thought you were going home! You shouldn’t be around here, Tsukasa is hiding.” The pink flash from earlier suddenly makes more sense, another android is here, with dyed hair. “It is super wondahoi to see you again! Did you bring more people to see the show? We haven’t finished yet.”
“Um…” It’s difficult to get words out and suddenly, she finds herself behind her friend.
The pink android turns around to look at the two. She’s strange, it almost looks like she ripped off her own heels to make them more able to move. It’s almost terrifying, but she looks perfectly happy bouncing around on the balls of her feet.
“Pardon the question, but, who are you? We were expecting another android.” The question she wants to know is asked by the acting guardian in front of her. A sigh of relief escapes.
“My name is Emu!” The android says, holding the drone in her arms like a human might have hugged a doll to its chest. “Emu, meaning smile!”
The name is weird, but the hair is weirder. Still, 7O finds it impossible to act or speak, but her friend is much better at both. “I apologize, would you be able to provide your… designation, then?”
“No! I don’t have one anymore, only my name. Just like Tsukasa!” She hands the pod over. “Please take care of Tsukasa’s friend! Bye bye!”
She’s gone as fast as she came, jumping onto the platforms, her heels so close to the ground it startles the android. Of course plenty of androids can flip effortlessly through the air, but with a change to her feet like that, 7O is enchanted. But, wait… Tsukasa? She peeks around to the pod in her friend’s arms then looks up at him, clearly equally baffled. “I think he took a storybook name, to be more human.”
“I suppose we will resume our search for Tsukasa, then. If he wants to return or if he has found himself,” it’s a simple statement made but one afraid of the consequences if that is the case. “This act continues in the hands of… Tsukasa.”
The operator moves out from behind her friend and sighs as she watches him jump onto the same ride the strange android just flipped around on. Luckily, she just has to follow him, casually leaping as if just continuing his usual walk, and not her, who had been incredible, a show between each car.
She knows she’s technically equipped for this as well, but trepidation sets in as she goes to follow her friend. The girl with purposefully broken feet managed to do this so effortlessly, but she was going much faster than the operator thinks she can manage. Even her friend was going at a fast pace, one that makes her wonder why he didn’t want to be a battle unit to start. He looks down from the top car.
“You can do it, 7O, but we can always find another way around if you need,” it’s a gentle reminder that she absolutely is capable of making this series of jumps, but that he would never force her to if it startles her too badly. “If you want, I could look into fixing the mechanical aspects of the ride and…”
“That would take too long.” It’s the simple truth, anxiety still folded into her voice. “I’ll do it, it’s fine.”
She jumps, the first is easy, the hesitation having to be shaken off with each overly-cautious leap. By the last two leaps, she’s smiling, thinking of how much fun the strange android seemed to be having and turning it into a game in her mind. It almost feels like she’s being led along by that strange android. She’s smiling by the time she can lean on her friend again, thrilled by the feeling of being brave.
“Hey,” her friend greets her with a soft smile specifically worn when he’d been worried moments before. “Let’s go find him.”
She nods as they venture further into the park. There’s some kind of beauty in the cracks in the pavement and the sounds of continued, hearing her heels click on the different ground and the joyous sounds surrounding her, she could get used to being on Earth. Maybe he isn’t so stupid after all, maybe he’s just forgotten what humanity needs them for. Though… perhaps, if this is the way Earth is, perhaps they’re ready for humans to come home?
“Why aren’t humans coming back yet…?” It’s a question that slips out without much expectation of an answer.
“From what you’ve told me before, this place is special, machines still attack us on sight and we are the closest they know to humans. It’s not safe for them, so we still have to watch for when it will be,” it’s gentle, but sad, and she can tell he wishes there was an easy answer that would let the goals of each and every android to be met. “It’s confusing why it’s safe here, but hopeful. I can see why androids might be tempted to stay.”
There is an uncomfortable pause between the two before he continues with, “But not… us,” as if it is at all true.
“Not us, yeah,” she echoes as she feels a piece of confetti settle on her shoulder. It’s green, like the trees, she hasn’t gotten to see much of that color before this journey, except from afar… It gets suddenly blown off her shoulder, swirling in the air next to others. Pink, yellow… purple… It’s a fond sight.
She is quickly shaken from the thoughts as a loud noise comes from a building a bit too far away to be anything but, “1S, he’s going to get himself killed if he’s still that loud.”
“Or saved, that helps us if that’s him,” the healing unit gently reminds her, who instinctively covered her ears. “And it sounds like he’s still in this park, nothing has attacked us, he’s likely fine.”
The operator sighs and nods, taking her friend’s hand and tugging him forward before letting go and breaking off into a run. There’s a faster way to get there, but it looks completely broken, maybe they could try to run along the track…
“It looks like the roller coaster would be the fastest pathway,” her friend states her thoughts. “I could repair it, if given some time. Do you think we have the time?”
No. They don’t. Not if they want to get home… “That should be okay.” What is she saying? “He knows we’re coming, he might just come meet us here anyways…” They need to rush. He won’t come home if they just wait. “And… you go fast. It’s okay.”
Her friend looks at her with some hesitation, but she knows the situation more than he does, so he smiles, nods, and gets to work trying to fix what is broken. Sending his drone to check the track for anything that may be beyond repair, he does things to the wiring she doesn’t understand and chooses to never. Something about the exposed wires upset her, so she looks away to the explosions in the distance. Somehow, she knows they’re joyous, just like the rest of this place. How could this possibly be, when the world around them has so clearly fallen apart?
She watches as the sparkles fade as the sky begins to color slightly, the light gray accompanied by just the smallest amount of orange. That’s a fond color, that light orange, it travels the horizon and fills her with a warmth not to be known from her desk back home on the station. It’s terrifying to feel such warmth before her. Covering her chest as if protecting a heart, she looks up to where her home orbits.
She doesn’t want to return, not yet, one wrong word from the scanner and she knows she will stay here, feet planted on the new ground, looking up at that orange sky she wants to become familiar with.
He goes fast, just like he said he would, and the sound of tracks clacking draws her attention back from the sun’s rise on this new day. The joy she sees on her friend’s face is met by the excitement she feels at seeing something move.
“This will take us further in, if we jump off at the right time,” he says, hopping onto one of the cars, turning back with an extended hand. “Do you trust yourself to?”
She takes his hand and hops up after him, nodding with a quiet, “Mmhm.” The train starts to move as if he had planned the timing with her response in mind for timing. She lets go and settles into a position that should let her keep her balance, even with the sudden increase in speed. She can hear a distant voice, shouting excitedly, perhaps that pink android from earlier.
Their drones keep watch so they don’t have to, distracted as they are by the new point of view. It’s something she’s glad she’s getting to experience, even if she has to focus, let herself go home after this is done. She wonders if the pink girl would come home with them, certainly she is also one of them, even if from before she could remember. Emu, she said… The operator wonders what her designation was and… foolishly, if she would be willing to find a name for the operator.
She likes Nene, the songstress from the same story Tsukasa took his name from. The scanning unit. Her friend who needs to go home with them instead of playing pretend.
“Nene!” She looks up, it seems to be approaching where her companion wants to jump. Did he say… “O7, it’s time.”
No, of course not… and how did she hear something so wrong from his mouth, they don’t even sound the same. She shakes the thoughts from her head and prepares to jump, hand going up to catch hold of the drone to float down, realizing quickly why he chose here.
Pink and yellow, both running quickly towards where they’re about to land. Did he color his hair too…? Ugh, this is going to be so much harder than she thought, isn’t it?
“Hahaha! I did not expect for you to come after me, but I can’t blame you for chasing after someone with such star quality!” His voice rings clear as her heels click onto the ground. “7O, it is good to see you in person once again!”
In person… she rolls her eyes. “We have to go home, Tsukasa.”
The wrong move, his eyes shine with excitement over her easy acceptance of what the strange pink android called him. Damn, if he’s going to look at her like that, she can feel herself caving to what she so desperately wanted to avoid. That yellow, matching the sun too deeply. It was too on the nose, just like the rest of him.
“I’m serious, don’t look at me like that,” she says again, putting her foot down in a figurative and literal sense with a little aggravated stomp. He gets on her nerves so badly, it’s hard to not find a rise in temper when he’s acting like this.
“If you’re here, could you join us? The machines are only so good at following scripts,” he says, gesturing back to where they just ran from. A building, well preserved for what it’s worth, seemingly some kind of home for a stage. She wonders if it’s not too late to go home already, if they might have time to follow along. He continues, before she can complete her thought, “We need a songstress and an alchemist, do you think you could play Nene, 7O?”
“I- No, I don’t think so,” she shifts back, looking to her friend for help. “We don’t have the time, even if that story isn’t very long.”
“Please!” The pink android, Emu, rushes to take her hands, looking up with such wide eyes. “Tsukasa told me about you! He said you really like her! And Rui!”
“You… you’d need someone else to play them,” the terror is being pried away from her heart to be replaced by those hands, somehow smaller than her own. “I don’t act, I’m just an operator.”
“You could be our Nene!” The pleas continue from the girl, Nene– 7O has to turn away.
“Ah,” she is being saved by her friend’s even voice. “If you could leave O7 away. We repaired your drone, there should not be any tracking available to anyone, operator or otherwise. If you won’t be returning with us, please use it well.”
As if only just seeing him, the scanning unit turns to 39H and smiles, bowing slightly in a display of formality not quite fitting him. “Thank you. As I told our friend here, I am a star destined for Earth, I have to stay. If either of you change your mind, our friends here would be accepting of you, I am sure!”
“Thank you for your offer, but we have to return. We were prepared to help you get home before anyone noticed, but it seems like it would be impossible to not notice… what you’ve done.” It’s harsher than the operator has ever heard him speak, there’s a part of her that wants to defend the stupid scanning unit, but she stays quiet, her hands falling free of the other girl’s grasp finally. Rushing to hide behind the healing unit, she clings to who still understands they have to go home. She will miss her scanner, but he’s making his own choice.
Nene…
“Well, I think that means we have to leave now. We will not be seeing you again, good luck finding your Nene and Rui.” With a quick motion, he turns around and scoops the operator to be in front of him, hiding her from view.
“Aw…” The pink girl’s voice is the one they hear first, it’s a surprise to the operator. “I was hoping they’d stay with us, Tsukasa. Can you ask them to?”
“It’s a lot for them to have even come here, I am happy to see them again, even just once!” It’s warm, Tsukasa’s response, he suits the Earth with its warm colors and invitingly strange park. It was stupid to think otherwise.