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Sandrone's new skin sends signals down to her emotion module: Stress.
Her system authorized maintenance mode. Clicking sounds of cold cable attaching to her limbs and torso, and Sandrone can only sigh and succumb herself with the authorization. Sandrone tries to loosen herself from the wires, but a blaring noise of her system tells her otherwise. A recent mechanism that she implemented in her system that restricts herself from personally bypassing the maintenance.
It's mandatory, and Sandrone objectively understands it. Though the once puppet who views maintenance as a chance of relaxation, instead her emotion module recoils counter-clockwise, and her skin produces a translucent liquid trickling out from her neck.
"Don't make it harder on yourself," she mutters.
The maintenance pod is secure, as if rebooting and testing the safety procedures a couple times weren't the given facts she needed to be sure. But, her ears pick up rigid gears getting caught in-between with each other, locking in and slowing down her mobility to settle herself inside.
A physical issue that reflects on her emotion module: Sandrone feels uneasy.
The feeling of being trapped inside her pod.
Her memory drive connects with her emotion module, overflowing Sandrone with the sensation of her neck closing. Someone gripping her neck, and her airway slowly closing in as she says her final curses to a man. Before the surge of energy pierces her skin to her clockwork parts, destroying vital parts. Her key no longer can turn.
An immediate shutdown, no sounds of her system begging for her to stay awake.
"You look…" A gentle voice winds in, startling her gears, eyes snapping towards the unwelcome guest. "Nervous?"
"Y-You…" Sandrone immediately closes her eyes, feeling the cables tightened around her skin, "I thought you wouldn't come here."
"The kuuvahki currents are quite louder here than usual… which made me worried about you." Columbina gravitates closer, "I see… that it is maintenance day?"
Sandrone groans, "Is it not obvious? Does the sign on my door not stop you from coming—"
A small shock delivered from one of the cables, stunning Sandrone's series of complaints towards her unwanted "guest." Her voice hitches into an awful sound, catching both her and Columbina off-guard.
That stupid mechanism she implemented. Sandrone balls her hands to a fist.
The shock was only meant to restart a bit of her system, catching her off guard permits her maintenance pod to gain better control for Sandrone to be set into rest mode.
"A-Are you okay?" Columbina's hand immediately slam onto glass with urgency, Sandrone's eyes widen, noticing Columbina's nails digging onto the glass, she sensed distress from the girl's body, "Where was that electricity coming from—"
"I'm… fine."
"But…" Columbina urges their distance to be withdrawn, wanting to be closer. Her face almost rubs onto the glass, which Sandrone calculates that Columbina could break the protective layer if she believes Sandrone is in danger. "But… you look."
"Columbina, look at me."
Sandrone inhales loudly, trying to look calm in front of the Moon Goddess, despite her fingers trembling when she places them against the glass where Columbina's hand is on the other side. "I'm okay, just trust me."
Columbina's face flickers in conflict, wanting to believe in Sandrone's words. "You promise?"
Sandrone nods slowly, before she rests her hand back to her side. The toll of her body slowly shutting down has already been enforced, and Columbina watches, head drawn up to look at Sandrone's face.
"If you are still worrying about me, just sit down somewhere, and… let me rest. The shock was something… I implemented it because I was having a hard time placing myself in rest mode."
Sandrone's eyes are half open, inspecting the small scratches on the glass, and then Columbina's expression. An expression revealing many emotions that Sandrone can't decipher immediately at her state.
"Okay," Columbina obeys, retracting her hand away from the maintenance pod, "I'm sorry for causing a ruckus, my dear Sandrone. I will wait for you." Her figure turns away from the pod, walking towards the comfort of Sandrone's bed.
Sandrone's consciousness dissipates slowly, hearing Columbina's soft hums who is cuddling in her bedsheets. The veil hides her eyes, but Sandrone can feel the stare. It's gentle, yet heavy that Sandrone can detect a strong intent, and Sandrone can only reciprocate the eye contact for another minute before it becomes pitch black.
"Sleep well, Sandrone." Columbina whispers, watching the puppet closing her eyes again. Her fingers tightly clutching onto the warmth of Sandrone's blanket as she waits again.
Columbina waits, and waits, waiting to see her blue eyes to gaze up at her once more.
—
It takes time to retrieve memories, and Sandrone could calculate the computational time it takes for a certain amount of memory to be processed and saved into her new system.
Though manually bypassing her self-regulated protocols that beg her to not overflow the process core, she's aware that she would cause more strain in her gears, overheating can lead to cracks on her new synthetic skin if she ignored the protocols. Something she can't afford to have, even if she didn't personally thank the people from the Fontaine Research Institute in accepting her will and helping her get fixed. A detection of "stubbornness" is recorded within her emotion module when she asked Arlecchino to send her letter of thanks on her behalf.
Regardless of the formality she had to do towards the Institute. The amount of bypass accumulated in her logs pin points Sandrone's lack of care. She knew it's irresponsible for her to keep neglecting her needs, especially at a moment where her body is more "delicate." Once again, Sandrone has no choice but to have her system restrict her control. A decision that she placed upon for the better good.
Columbina floats around Sandrone's room, wondering at the tiniest changes that have been made. The Moon Goddess stands in front of the pod, staring at Sandrone's peaceful body before shaking her head quickly. She plops her body back onto Sandrone's bed, rolling around with a sense of delight, humming to a melody that syncs well with the steady clicks of Sandrone's gears.
Sandrone's core is a miracle, despite not being blessed by the powers of Teyvat's moons. However, the damage slowed down her core by a devastating amount of digits. Causing a lot of worry for the Fontaine Research Institute when her and Pulonia's body and core was given to them, and their doubts rising as Sandrone's will repeats in the researcher's ears.
But, the question that echoes in the Research Institute, "Is it possible to salvage the cores made from the Lord-Artificer?"
Yes, by an offset chance it is possible to salvage it. Especially if the cores were self-preserved by Sandrone. Her backup plan almost guaranteed re-awakening, however it was her memories that Sandrone knew she couldn't guarantee if they could be salvaged if her body reset for too long.
Sandrone slowly opens her eyes as her system wakes her up.
She sighs, finally listening to the system's messages in her head.
[MEMORY_DIRECTORY/RECORD_62: 99.2% Retrieval]
[ESTIMATE TIME: 1 minute 49 seconds]
[MEMORY_DIRECTORY/RECORD_63: 1.14% Retrieval]
[ESTIMATE TIME: XX hours XX minutes 40 seconds]
A long progression, Sandrone scoffs mentally.
While her system continues to refresh itself, awaiting for more incoming memory files to be processed. Sandrone recalls back to her "young" prototype ways when Alain hands her tasks and "learns" through recording and scanning. Her blue iris glows, activating sensors that assist her in interpreting whatever is around her. She rarely uses them once her system begins to adapt and analyze similar to a human. Something that Alain has praised her for.
She stretches herself out of the maintenance pod while Columbina sits up from her bed, yellow blanket wrapping around cozily on her back. Sandrone approaches her guest, grabbing a chair and placing it in front of Columbina for her to sit on. Sandrone's brows furrowed, deciding on if she should continue her complaints or ask Columbina if she needed anything before Sandrone "politely" kicked her out.
Her eyes scan with an instantaneous rate that requires a moment of silence as her system sends out information to her of Columbina's status.
Former Third Harbinger - Codename: The Damselette.
Kuutar or Moon Goddess - The Moon Goddess of the Frostmoon Scions.
Columbina Hyposelenia - Columbina's "chosen" name.
Relationship Status: ???
A newly added title saved in Sandrone's database, emphasized in bold font and a small comment under it that reads: "Columbina likes to be addressed as just Columbina." Sandrone is courteous in what people requested her to be addressed as, though she lets her sharp-tongue get the best of her. Though, she refrains her sharpness in calling Columbina in any of her prior names, unless out of sarcasm. At least Columbina doesn't mind that in those situations.
The last time she called Columbina, "Miss Hyposelenia" was when she woke up after the researchers woke her up from her long slumber.
Her frown was small, bottom lip quivering, clearly gritting her teeth from making her frown bigger. Not wanting to scare the awakened puppet, she frames her face with such softness as she speaks. Yet, Columbina's voice carried weight, and her gaze reflected sorrow that Sandrone couldn't understand at first.
She tells Sandrone that she wishes for her to skip formalities and address her as just "Columbina." Sandrone can only nod, calling her Columbina. Her blue eyes glanced away, disliking the sorrow reflected earlier. However, she misses the moonlight shining in Columbina's eyes when Sandrone calls her name.
At that time, Sandrone obliges Columbina's request out of guilt, not knowing that giving Columbina a formal respect for her new status as the Tri-Lunar Moon Goddess upsets Columbina. Only when her memories slowly have been retrieved, however not in a chronological order, just whichever memories that can be extracted the quickest. Sandrone slowly picks up the pieces that Columbina doesn't like the overbearing title of "Moon Goddess" and wishes for people to see her as just the girl she is.
A small ding echoes, one of the memory files has been extracted and analyzed, ready to be stored in whatever Sandrone puts it to be.
[Memory #1371 Recovered: Columbina left the Fatui despite her warnings. Sandrone could barely work on revising Pulonia's functions, and she keeps glancing at the moon out of her window.]
[Memory #595 Recovered: Columbina is her new colleague, her subordinates gossip about her beauty, and "unsettling" nature. She looks quite fragile, so much she doubts the rumour of her colleague's "unsettling" nature when she asks Sandrone if she wants to play with the snow in the garden.]
[Memory #1063 Recovered: Columbina sings a lot, and keeps bothering her during the night, singing in-front of her chamber. Because Columbina knows Sandrone is still awake, working on prototypes until the sun rises.]
Sandrone is starting to notice a pattern for the past few days, retrieving her memories after Alain's passing has become increasingly about Columbina… Her gears begin to grind faster, and her emotion module gets caught up with a series of verdicts that confuse her.
The feathers behind Columbina's head twitch upwards, the veil eyepiece hides pink pearl eyes. Columbina's face looks soft, or at least softens the moment Sandrone's sensors landed on her. A flush of pink appears on the goddess's cheek when Sandrone continues to stare. Sandrone can determine that the shade of pink is lighter than her eyes if her veil is removed.
Sandrone has one critique that she has refrained so far from not telling to her "uninvited" guest.
"I never asked, but why do you wear that?"
Columbina's eyes widened for a fracture of a second underneath her veil, "Hmm... to hide my eyes."
"But…" Sandrone's pupils zoom at the glimpse of pink-purple hiding under the white veil. "Your eyes are always open under it."
"Does it bother you?"
"It frustrates me." Sandrone's abrupt manner contradicts her insistence to be more ladylike , "I don't see the point of wearing it if you still want to see."
Columbina giggles in amusement as the puppet's brows furrowed as her sensors gazed up and down onto her. Sandrone's emotion module still lacks the memories of understanding the complexities of people's emotions. Her words were more blunt than elegant by any means, and her interpretation is not thorough enough as back then. Nevertheless, the moons in her eyes reflect a sense of endearment that Sandrone couldn't quite grasp.
"So, you want me to take it off?"
Sandrone's lips perched, "Hm."
A few seconds pass, Columbina hums through the sounds of gears deciphering.
Eventually Sandrone makes a decision. "Sure."
The goddess abides to her puppet's request and unravels her veil, moonlight in her eyes, reflecting Sandrone's sea of sensors. Though, Columbina blinks slowly, her head tilting into one side. Sandrone keeps quiet, hoping that the other doesn't hear her gears fastened exponentially for a reason she can't quite understand.
"What do you think?" Columbina's finger rises to point at one of her eyes, leaning her body towards the stiff puppet. "Are they pretty?"
Sandrone remains silent.
A warning message pops up.
[OVERHEATING DETECTED: Increase Cooling System to 25%]
Sandrone can sense she feels nervous. However, she can't fully conclude as to why she feels that way. She rather not analyze and figure out when the girl in front of her awaits her answer.
"I need more analysis…" Sandrone grumbles, her hand resting on her forehead, then digging her fingers onto her scalp. "Argh… my system is slowing down."
Columbina's hands tap into a random rhythm, a lingering smile that bothered Sandrone.
Her gloved hand grabs onto Columbina's thigh, which Columbina lets out a surprised squeak. Sandrone grimaces, waiting for her system to cool down, not knowing she isn't the only one who is experiencing overheating
"S-Sorry. I needed a closer look." Sandrone realizes her hand placement, imprudent of her that she laid her hands to Columbina in that manner. Her ladylike facade is slowly breaking apart, and her system is discovering a new territory of Sandrone's feelings. As her hand tries to withdraw out of shame, Columbina grabs on her wrist, her thumb gently stroking Sandrone's synthetic skin.
"It's okay." Sandrone gulps at Columbina's straightforward response.
"R-Right, sorry this might take a bit."
Unbeknownst to Sandrone's lack of spatial awareness as she leans closer, only worrying over the inappropriate touching that happened prior. Sandrone's hand remains fixed on the Moon Goddess's thigh. Columbina's grip keeps her bound, but her fingers take turns in feeling Sandrone's soft skin. Her reaction to that touch comes from the sound of wheels slowing down by a second in each rotation.
Columbina follows along with Sandrone's "examination." Her other hand ends up clasping on to Sandrone's shoulder. The puppet allowed the "extra" support coming from Columbina. Each finding resulted her eyes to flicker a little bit brighter, so many flickers that Columbina stares in awe.
Sandrone mumbles, "I'm confused on what to say..."
Columbina's feathers slowly dwindled, "What are you confused about?" The grasp on Sandrone's shoulder tightens. "Is there something wrong?"
Sandrone shuts her eyes, struggling on what to say, not knowing that Columbina is pulling her body closer. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, which is an expression that solidifies that it can't be judged objectively. According to my evaluation, your milky white skin is pristine with no blemishes, and your eyes, noses and lips are perfectly aligned with one another. Symmetry is meant with a lot of praise, which is no surprise because you are a Goddess after all. The dust of pink on your cheeks reminds me of star clusters in the night sky. They are beautiful when you see them. As for your lips, they part like the crescent moon… though my memories recall the once false moon. I still believe my words hold truth for the true moon in Teyvat's sky. After all… it is rightfully yours. And, well your eyes... it's difficult for me to describe how—"
Columbina shoves her palm on Sandrone's lips. "O-Okay... that's enough from you." Her feathers move up and down frantically, as if they are ready to fly away.
"Hmm?" Sandrone's eyes open and she quickly scans on how more "pink" Columbina she is.
Did she misinterpret the question?
Columbina sighs gently, her other hand trails from her shoulder onto the edge of Sandrone's collar and pulls her even more. "I…I never thought you were a romantic, dear Sandrone. It made sense that you would be good with your words since knowing you."
"But, I would prefer that only I get to hear this from you."
A tick sound echoes in their ears, before Sandrone pulls Columbina's palm away from her lips. "A-A romantic?" Sandrone couldn't quite process the other words coming out of Columbina's mouth, only the word she echoes back gets submitted into her system in questioning.
Her… a romantic?
She's an engineer.
She's not a poet where love and dramatics is their living essence.
"Oh." Columbina hums, a smile appearing on her beautiful face that Sandrone feels somewhat familiar with. "Did one of your gears get stuck?"
Sandrone reacts with no thought, her emotion module reports a high level of annoyance. "You... I don't need your concern. I have already finished my maintenance check, and I don't wish to go back there because your nonsense confuses my system, resulting in an error. My suggestion for you is to leave soon."
"Aww... now this is something I am used to," Columbina coos her hand onto Sandrone's cheek, "Though your politeness module is on the higher-end.... Hehe, perhaps I shall cherish this side of you before your memories are fully recovered."
"Can you at least stop putting your hands on me?" Sandrone's eyes points on Columbina's hand on her
"Does it bother you?"
"...Yes."
"Then I will keep doing it."
Sandrone rolls her eyes, glancing at a book from her shelf, her sensors reading off the title, her system giving her a brief summary of the book's contents—
"Wait…" Sandrone stares back at Columbina, "I didn't ask you for permission."
"Permission to what?" Columbina's feathers point up, and then her head turns to the door, and then to the window, and then back at Sandrone. "Oh. Are you planning something? I don't think we have discussed taking this to the next level."
If Columbina was a bug in her system, it would give her the greatest grief in debugging.
"Not. That."
"Then what is it? Your voice sounds more shaky right now."
Sandrone slides her hand onto her face, "Did you notice anything about my eyes?"
Columbina places a finger on her lip, "Yes, I have. They glow now, and I didn't know you could inspect things like… like that."
Sandrone brushes her front hairs in disbelief, "and you didn't say anything about?"
Columbina pauses, her voice speaks with such honesty it comes across almost insulting, "I thought it was a new implementation that the Fontaine Research Institute has put in your new body. That is what I analyzed since I never saw you do that, and even back when my eyes were closed. I never heard the sound of your eyes scanning."
"I… I have always been able to do that." Sandrone quietens her words, "It just… I wouldn't do that to people unless I got their permission. Wouldn't you find it disrespectful if someone inspected you without you knowing?"
"Hm. That is true." Columbina considers, "But, I am okay if it's just you."
"You're," Sandrone catches herself malfunctioning for a millisecond. "You're weird."
Columbina laughs, "It's because I trust you, Sandrone."
—
"Why do I care about you?" Columbina curls into her pillows, her veil removed, but her eyes remain closed. "Why do you ask that, Sandrone?"
Sandrone's blanket covers both of them, a shared warmth despite their bodies not touching. Columbina's body is turned towards the stiff figure who doesn't meet her face.
"The memories that I retrieve, the more I realize that," Sandrone pauses, her system halts the words coming out of her throat. Columbina, ever so patiently waits for her puppet to speak. Sandrone places her palms near her stomach, remembering the pain, the fear, the emotion of everything that circuits her core.
The taste of death was oil escaping out of her mouth and a sense of not knowing if her plan succeeded.
"I realize that my emotion module had many backlogs that indicate my negative thresholds were far too great than usual ever since you left the Fatui. In short, my emotions were draining me." Sandrone feels Columbina's warm palm lay on top of hers, "it feels all too familiar, just like when Alain—I rather not think of it. The past has been written, and his life has come to a close. As for me…" She fiddles the silk fabric on her shirt.
"Your story doesn't have an ending yet." Columbina finishes for her, "Does it scare you?"
Scared? Sandrone isn't usually scared for her well-being, her soul being run by a mechanical core and a greater power that only Alain has mentioned a few times before. Now that Alain's framework of his creations have been buried by time, Sandrone doesn't know if she appreciates the idea of a "second chance."
"I don't know."
"Also…" Sandrone trails her word longer, "Do you easily settle into people's beds without their permission?"
"No," Columbina shook her head, "I only do it to your bed."
"Why?"
Columbina's hand slowly entwined with Sandrone's, and Sandrone would have pushed Columbina's affection by now. But, she didn't. Her emotion module must be confused again, and her system marks down a familiarity that Sandrone couldn't pin-point in one of her log files that is dedicated to Columbina's "odd" antics.
"You ask a lot of questions," Columbina mumbles, "I guess… It makes sense because you're the one wanting answers and not me. I finally have my answer."
"What was your question?"
"If the moon is truly my home."
Sandrone glances at Columbina, "Is it not?"
"It is." Columbina slowly gets up, letting go of Sandrone's hand in the process. "But, my home is also in Teyvat."
"Mm." Sandrone says.
The question that Columbina has held onto. Sandrone recalls in one of her files that she asked a similar question to Columbina: What sort of place would you live in if you could choose?
Her home.
Sandrone digs into the memory file, reading the contents of the memory log, unaware of Columbina's movement beside her.
[A place where people don't ask me for things I cannot give them. Where they don't worship me, or fear me, but just want to chat with me like a normal person… I'd also like the freedom to come and go as I please.]
[And, ideally, it would be somewhere with the smell of coffee and snacks…]
Wait, doesn't that sound like…
Sandrone shivers at the sensation of cheek being caressed, her blue eyes link onto pink pearl-like eyes. "Tell me if I'm overstepping this," Columbina states, her body on top of the puppet, trapping Sandrone with an overwhelming feeling.
But, Sandrone is certain that it's a feeling that can be reciprocated.
"I'm sorry," Columbina lowers her head.
"I didn't even say anything," Sandrone clutched onto Columbina's side, "look at me Columbina." Urgency rang out of her voice box, and Sandrone didn't wish it came out like that, but it moved Columbina to look at her back.
"Am I... your home?"
Columbina can only nod slowly, not knowing that the pearls in her eyes still have drips of water on them. Her nodding stops, and her body shakes at the truth that she laid bare to Sandrone.
Sandrone's hands travel onto Columbina's back, wrapping onto her body with a firmness resolute, pulling their bodies closer. Columbina accepts the embrace, inviting her legs to be tangled loosely with Sandrone's. Her fingers grip onto Sandrone's upper arms, begging to not be let go.
"Columbina," she whispers into Columbina's ear, "I am sorry for making you wait."
Columbina buries her face in Sandrone's neck, "No… I am sorry for leaving first."
Sandrone rubs slow circles onto her back, trying to calm the wave of sniffles. Eventually, Columbina snuggles in closer, breaths no longer quiver, and her hands no longer clutch tightly onto the puppet's skin.
A sense of peace on Columbina's face.
The system in Sandrone's core remains steady in coming up with a full conclusion of what is Columbina's status to her. In spite of her emotion module in shambles, her reason and emotion slowly entwined.
The stares that she hides from her veil, but Sandrone notices. The itching of her fingers, playing on the fabric of Sandrone's dress, only to slowly reveal her true intention: feeling Sandrone's skin underneath. The unchangeable variable that keeps staying beside her. The anomaly that can't be deleted nor be ignored.
Columbina has been giving her signals, and waiting for Sandrone to dissect it. A Goddess letting her doll move freely, yet the doll's strings wrap onto the Goddess's fingers. Tugging the strings every so often, so the doll can look up at the Moon that awaits for her gaze.
Columbina pushes away from the warmth of Sandrone's neck, foreheads touching each other, her head angles down so Sandrone has no choice but to gaze up.
Sandrone didn't give the Moon Goddess an answer on what they were.
"Sandrone…" Columbina calls, needing, wishing for it to be true.
"Sandrone…" She calls again.
"S-Sandrone… please answer me."
Sandrone's system overheats, leaving reason and emotion to combine into one purpose.
Sandrone's fingers trace the perfections of Columbina's face, holding her as she fulfills her Goddess's prayer. She rests her lips onto the crescent moon, a small gasp escaping out of the Goddess before she hums with need that blesses Sandrone's ears. Sandrone feels her system spiking, a malfunction is what the system would be telling her. However, she no longer hears the system.
Sandrone nibbles Columbina's lower lip, prompting a trembling whine. Columbina's voice never felt so desirable, though she admits her singing is truly a blessing from the heavens. The raw emotion of desire muddles Sandrone's emotion module, leaving Sandrone to be run with pure instinct and devotion for the girl on top of her.
Columbina leans back, catching her breath, her pearl eyes become fuller, and Sandrone can feel her skin flushing red at the sight. What has Sandrone done?
"I…"
"Do you regret it?" Columbina interrupts her.
"No." Sandrone shifts her position to sitting up, leaving her Goddess sitting onto her lap as if it was rightfully hers, "I could never regret it. After everything…"
"Good." Columbina brushes her hair back, igniting something that Sandrone rather evaluates on later. "Because, I want more Sandrone."
"O-Okay."
Her system iterates the final answer: Love.
"Are you getting scared?"
Sandrone draws herself closer into Columbina's love.
"N-No. I just said I don't regret it Columbina. It's like you want me to say that I want you or something."
Sandrone knew there was something that needed to fixed. Even if her system is perfectly intact, her clockwork parts running smoothly, the emptiness inside of her remains.
"And if I say that I want you to say it?"
A priceless gem waiting for someone to cherish her.
"I… I want you."
A rusted cog left behind, waiting for something to connect it with.
"Again. Please?"
One with endless value, and the other waiting to be decayed from time.
"I want you, Columbina."
Two contradicting things, yet long for the same thing. To feel fulfilled.
"I want you too, Sandrone. I want every bit of you."
A pearl in the cog.