Chapter Text
It has been raining for days. Probably all his brothers’ doing. He would try to make contact if he wasn’t a fugitive. Scratch that. He would do it, if it wouldn’t put V1 at risk. Speaking of V1… Where are they? Ah. Standing outside. Staring directly into the sky. Again. Is the rain really that interesting? It’s only one of the thousands of cycles meant to upkeep the surface and keep it habitable for life— hmph. Fat load of use that was in the end. V1 may well be the only non Gabriel thing with a pulse in the whole world.
So much his world has changed in only a few days… he failed to carry out the will of the Father, he learned that he likes when V1 kicks his ass a little, he killed and ate some of the council, he’s an exile from heaven, he’ll never get to sit in heaven with his siblings again. Not even hell wants him now. After everything he’s done, despite everything, he’s happy? Is it because he’s on the surface? Not really. He’s been here countless times before to deliver messages, terrascape, look at life forms. It can only be V1. It’s nice to have a friend who isn’t family. But it also matters specifically that it is them. Yes of course, he’s talking about the silly blue bot with its head to the sky. The same robot who had wrapped him up in blankets and let him lean on them while he cried. Oh dear. They’re not staring directly into the clouds anymore. But he can’t very well get up without his armour can he? Where is his robot, and— when did he start quietly thinking of them as his?
SHORT TERM MEMORY STORAGE REACHING CAPACITY… SHUTDOWN IS RECOMMENDED TO PROCESS MEMORY. Y/N?
> N
No. It was a busy bot. It couldn't stop now! It had… things… yes, things!.. things to do! It didn’t want to think about just why it was accepting a truce with Gabriel. Instead it could make itself useful and scavenge through more of the human city. Of course. The big concrete block had seemed like a good place last time. With the books and the gray sweatshirt it was wearing. Unfortunately, it had to tuck its arms to its sides to wear it. On the bright side, Gabriel had liked cuddling up to the material. Thinking for a moment longer, V1 stepped back in to throw the damp sweatshirt onto a table. No use restricting its arms while it scavenged. The Angel has since dragged some of the bedding to the window, his height allowing him to see outside easily. He seems content. It beeps quietly and closes the door. Time for an adventure!
Skipping like the world’s most lethal stone (and if the S.R.S were to be believed, those were quite lethal indeed) it started towards the big buildings first. Entering, it noticed this building had a disgusting amount of fake pine needles arranged everywhere. Shiny orbs were affixed to some of the fake vegetation. And there were boxes with ribbons on them everywhere too. It remembered being taught how to do that. V2 had made much better bows. Stupid V2. It turns the corner and… what a weird building. Low walls built in weird geometric shapes. Was the building made for gunfights? In each of the compartments were tables with machinery on top. Oh. Parts! Good. Not that these were too useful, but it had woken late and all the good stuff had been taken by other machines. There are rectangular screens, a cube of components, a few control things… ah. A cable. Finding a port for it is easy. V1 is the best of the best after all. Oh. One of these components is a speaker… maybe it could surprise Gabriel by talking to him?
—COMPONENT COMPATIBILITY TEST—
INSTIGATOR: V1
COMPONENT: COMMON_SPEAKER_OFFICE-DESK-AUDIO-COMPUTER-COMPONENT-PERIPHERAL-MODEL138-J
What a long fuck ass name. Two character names were, of course, the most refined!
COMPATIBILITY SCORE: LIMITED
Good enough. Cable, mr speaker long name, into the wing blade. It hasn’t found the capacity limit for this new blade yet. Thank you Gabriel. Now to download some of the software to make them work together… ah. A driver update for machines past who-gives-a-damn date. This would do nicely.
Now that the computer lights are on, it can see… moving black dots? Inside? It turns up it’s resolution. Tiny… black marching things? In a line? It reaches a finger towards the line. It, PICKS UP THE MOVING DOT?!?!?! Now this was real excitement! It didn’t know there were machines this small! It had a glossy chassis, antennae of sort, worked perfectly with others of its unit! What a wonderful little gizmo. Should it take them back for Gabriel? Maybe just one for now.
It stared at the little dot as it walked. It kept walking up its arm. Not wanting the tiny machine to get into its components, V1 begins gently shepherding it to crawl on its hand. Such a tiny little machine. One V1 was not able to interface with. So peculiar. So small. They take the other machine to explore the rest of the building. Not much is intact, though it finds a glass ampoule with a label and a wax seal on top. Peculiar. It also finds a closed can with a funny picture on the label. Some sort of pink brick? Well. It can go home to Gabriel too. Or go into its growing collection of curiosities. Into the wing blade they go.
Task complete, they head back to the main road. Then they stumble. (V1 stumbled). Oh. A pebble. Just like the small machine. P for pebble? P1 it is. 1 is the best number after all. 2 meanwhile, is an awful number, only for prick bots. With P1 held safely more or less on its hand, they begin returning to the building where Gabriel should hopefully still be sitting.
He had to get up SOMETIME. It was slothful to simply lay here and watch the rain. He was an Archangel, for Father’s sake. But he was almost naked under the blanket. Is indecent exposure a bigger sin than sloth? Did it deserve a place right under Treachery? The rain is falling less aggressively now. He pushes open the door and takes in the air. Better now that the rain is here. Some of the smells of crumbled civilisation are lesser. The rain has turned cracked soil into mud. He stops at the middle of the crater. Raphael had been right here… weeping for him. Probably believing him loyal until the end. He could cry again just at the thought. But frankly there wasn’t enough water in his body for that. He crouches to enter the building they had watched from, tracking mud across the floor. He doesn’t care. Let the homeowner’s association get on his ass about it. He doesn’t miss the “association” in heaven. They could negotiate with his swords, or not at all. Ah— his armour, swords, all safely laying on the carpet. How far they had fallen, these relics crafted by the Father himself. Their owner had fallen far too. Pulling it all back together made him feel a little better at least. Time to leave this moldy— wait. Mold! Life? Could it be? Sure enough. The tiniest little specks, growing on the wall. Some of the most simple life forms, persisting past the end of it all. Finally something to celebrate. The room filled with laughter, with only moldy walls and muddy carpet as witnesses.
The makeshift bed with Gabriel in it was empty. Sorry P1. No Angel for you to meet yet. V1 finds a plastic container to put the little machine in. With no computer to maintain with its fellows, who knows what the little machine would do. Time to play with the speaker. Flipping through voice modules it discards many for being too feminine or masculine. Eventually it settles on a very robotic voice with fun pronunciations. It starts to talk.
“HELLO WORLD”
“COLON D”
“HELLO P1.”
The little machine is walking on the walls of the container.
“I LOVE YOU, P1”
Oh. Wow. The fuel drain on this thing was huge. Time to not use it for speech for a minute. Playing music though? It wanted to do that! Finally get it out of its head. It picked one of the calm little songs from limbo to try out first. Fuel running a little low… they would need a top up from the angel later, when he returned. Now that Gabriel had gotten up it could restore the piece of cloth it had stolen from the table. Smoothing out the wrinkles, it moved everything else off the table and decided to put its new findings there. The little machine in its container. The new sealed bottle. The funny pink brick can. Yes this would do! After some thought it put the things Gabriel had picked for the table back on it. Much better. Now to sit back and wait for— oh that didn’t take long.
“Machine, I found— oh. What’s all this?” Music? Wine? And they set the table? Does he really want to know about the plastic container? He should not get his hopes up. Why is he getting his hopes up? V1 beeps and comes to hug him, as always. It’s sweatshirt is off. Already in a better mood, he squeezes them back. They let go to show him the container. An ant? They’d brought him an ant! “Machine, this is… where did you find this?” They put their four arms into a box shape and put their head in it, making whirring sounds. “A machine of some kind? Were there others of its kind?” It nods. “V1, she needs to be with her family. “It makes a descending whining sound and its optic dims. He sighs
“I know you didn’t mean harm. Not this time, at least. But this is a living creature…” The machine looks confused. The music stops and the source of the song crackles. Immediately the voice that comes out says the first word wrong
“ROBOT. P1.” They insist.
“Y-how long have you been able to talk?”
“FOUND SPEAKER”
“I see. You have a nice voice. Did you choose it?”
“YES. HELLO GABRIEL”
“Hello to you too.”
They’re staring at him. It’s nice. The container with the ant is still in their hands.
“Machine, this is an ant. It’s not another machine.”
“SURE?”
“Yes, I’m sure.” In response his machine stares at the ant for a while and then gives a thumbs up. He moves on to the things on the desk. “What’s all the rest for, then?”
“THOUGHT YOU’D LIKE” the voice takes a moment, and stutters. They seem to stand still and shutter their lens to speak.
“I do. Thank you V1. Is there… um. Any meaning to this?”
V1 tilts its head. Then stares down at its new speaker component. A crackle sounds and then a few things happen. The speaker short circuits. It zaps V1. The machine goes still, standing with arms outstretched from its sides.
“Machine. Machine? This isn’t funny machine… V1?” They’re not moving. Gabriel shakes them. No response. They only move once he unplugs the malfunctioning speaker. They collapse into him. Whirring and clawing weakly at his exposed waist with its knuckleblaster.
“What’s wrong… ow… oh… blood? Of course. Let me just…” He drops a gauntlet and draws Justice to slice his palm for them. They cling to his hand, shaking as they take in his blood.
“So much for the speaker. I’m sure you’ll find a solution for talking to me, Machine.” It proves his point immediately by dragging the bottle and can to him and waving them to him excitedly. Usually that means he needs to tell them what he knows about the item. He sits down on a pillow and takes the bottle in hand, ready to tell them about their latest findings.
“This is… red wine. It’s a drink. Nothing special, though wine has a storied history- oh. You’re bored. Very well-, this is a can of Spam. It’s a lunch meat in a can from the looks of it. Preserved for later consumption. You don’t know the implications of this and the music together do you? No? I thought not…” he tries to keep the disappointment from his voice. He hopes he succeeds. V1 holds up the ant next.
Oh, the ant? I know most about this one. She’s an insect. This is a worker ant, she scouts, gathers food and water, and cares for her colony. She also fights fiercely for them. The other ants are her sisters and mother.” V1 is zoomed in on the little ant now. It’s cute. The wine and music really didn’t mean anything… why does that hurt? He’s an Angel. This of all things, shouldn’t hurt him. But then how does the machine feel about him? Is he anything more than a convenient blood bag for V1? Maybe he’s been personifying them too much. Are they something entirely different…? He’s starting to feel jealous over the ant. V1 has never zoomed in on him like this.
“Can we take the ant back tomorrow? We cannot keep her, she should be with her family.” It pauses and then nods. Phew. His rival will go back to where she came from and V1 can be only his to spar with and spend time with again. He watches as it puts the ant back on the table and pull up a blanket. It covers the little ant up, shrouding her in darkness. A strange way to show care, but endearing. Then it comes to lean on his shoulder and wrap its hands around him. He wouldn’t give this up for the world. He had given up his world in a way. Is it strange to miss something that was so awful to you?
Gabriel is thinking too hard again. He must have thought… it had picked the items with intent? It should look into that. He’s quieter now, it doesn’t like that. Until then, all the usual things he liked should suffice. Making little beeps against the side of his helmet. Holding him. And of course, squeezing his hand. Today his wings are out. They haven’t been out for so long since the tower assault. Some of the feathers aren’t laying flat. It reaches up to comb its hand through them and…
He throws his head back and presses his thighs together. His wing presses into their hand more, the other flaps so hard the fabrics in the room flutter too. From his mouth comes a wonderful sound. “Haahhn~ M-machine!…” Gabriel’s temperature quickly rises, was it unpleasant? It records the moment anyway. In case. But Gabriel already has dispelled his wings. Before it can worry too much he leans his head on its shoulder and they tangle themselves up with him. Whatever makes him happy is fine.
SHORT TERM MEMORY STORAGE REACHING CAPACITY… SHUTDOWN IS RECOMMENDED TO PROCESS MEMORY. Y/N?
> N
SHUTDOWN CANCELLATION… SUCCESSFUL.