Chapter Text
It was mind numbingly boring to have no goal, especially for Andre, who’s whole motivation for being alive was whatever their current goal was. But their previous one had been erased as Assimilation shook and yelled at them at the end of the last run. While the sudden realisation had been crucial in escaping the admins, it was not helpful now, when they were safe and living in a home of their own, months later. It was frustrating. Andre sat up from where they laid on the shared bed.
<andreW2002> millie
Assimilation stopped what it was working on and looked at them. They saw its pupil dilate, and a few members of chat banded together to have Andre’s chest feel as though it was swelling with affection. In reality, the fans in their cooling system ran a bit faster.
“Yes, Andre?” It tilted its head slightly in curiosity. Andre smiled softly, finding the sight cute.
<andreW2002> what was ur goal
<andreW2002> ?
A low hum sounded out as Assimilation considered the question.
“Andre, do you mean… when we were under the admins?” They nodded quickly to confirm. “I suppose, it would be my namesake. Why do you ask?”
Andre shook their head at the question of ‘why?’
<andreW2002> we have no goal now
<andreW2002> u have goal still?
“The same as before, I think, Andre.” The android perked up.
<andreW2002> that y u always touch?
“Hmm, maybe. Being close to you, Andre, it brings me comfort.” Assimilation’s eye followed Andre as they abruptly got up and made their way around the row of chests separating the sleep area and the workspace. As they approached it, it opened its arms, allowing them to slip onto its lap easily. Unable to lay their head on its shoulder due to its immense frame, Andre tucked their head under Assimilations chin.
<andreW2002> gud?
As they spoke, a loud rumbling rang out from the entity. Purring, so strong that Andre didn’t need Assimilation to answer, as it, and the way it wrapped its arms around them so gently, was answer enough. Andre smiled and wrapped their arms around its chest in return, shuffling slightly to be a bit more comfortable for all of them. The two contrasting bodies stayed still for quite a while before anything started to happen.
<andreW2002> what if goal was same as urs?
Assimilation hummed as it thought for a moment, a common habit that Andre enjoyed the predictability of. Their cable tail swayed back and forth as they waited.
“I don’t see how duplicating my goal code into you would do any damage, Andre. But I believe the way my goals are coded is rather different from yours.” Andre shook their head.
<andreW2002> dont care
<andreW2002> better than no goal
Assimilation sighed, the soft creasing of its eye betraying its smile.
“I should’ve known there was a reason you came over here. But if you insist, Andre.”
They grinned and sat up straight, chatters buzzing in the head at the prospect of finally having a new goal. They hurried to shrug off their jacket, undoing their tie and shirt buttons, and pulling them off as well to leave just the long-sleeved undershirt.
Meanwhile, Assimilation reached up to the back of its neck, being careful to find the right cable among the many plugged into its head. Once it thought it had the correct one, it leaned forward far enough for Andre to check. It felt them twist sideways to look at its neck, shuddering as they poked around to see properly. After a small pat on its shoulder to confirm, it sat back up and braced to unplug the cable.
Andre watched Assimilation sit back up and saw as it tensed its whole body. As previously agreed, that was their cue to wrap their arms around its chest again, and they did so. They felt it jolt as it unplugged the cord, and despite the many times it had assured them it was not something that hurt or was uncomfortable, certain red and grey chatters still felt a little bit guilty.
Assimilation took a breath as it recovered, pulling the cable around to its front.
“I am okay, Andre. You can let go.” Andre did as told, and upon seeing the cord in its hand, quickly took off their undershirt, exposing their chest panelling to the air. As they gathered the removed clothing into a pile, they felt Assimilation begin to unscrew the panels with its claws.
Once both covers were taken off, all screws and other pieces placed safely on the nearby workstation, they all paused. Andre gently rested their metal palms on Assimilation’s chest and went completely still as they took a moment to think. Assimilation just nodded, willing to wait.
——
Conzercheez: guys i know were excited about having a goal but we need to think about what assim said
SOUPBEGONE31: dude were getting a new goal why does it even matter
Conzercheez: bc what if assims goals code is different
xx_E-G-O_xx: conz is right
xx_E-G-O_xx: im just as excited as soup is to have a goal but last time we transferred some of assims code it broke our limbs remember
Conzercheez: exactly
Conzercheez: sidi youre more connected with the physical body right
Conzercheez: ik soup is the most but soup is biased rn so
SOUPBEGONE31: fuck you
SIDIsquish: yup
SIDIsquish: whats up
Conzercheez: what do you think abt this from that pov
Sidi blinked a bit as the soft shapes that made up a simulation of a body for her in the digital world finally loaded in. She stretched, a mimicry of a physical need, and looked around at everyone else.
Everyone was in their normal spots around the circular console and screen that represented Andre in the virtual space. It was Fear, then Ego to her left, and Conz, then Soup to her right.
“Gosh, it’s been a while since we’ve decided to sit down and think like this, hasn’t it?” Murmurs of agreement came from all around, other than the person sitting to her left, who stayed completely silent. Sidi smiled softly and held out her hand for them. Fear took it and squeezed.
After a moment more, Conzer spoke up from next to her.
“So, an answer to that question?” Sidi quickly turned to look at him, but didn’t pull her hand away from Fear. She knew they needed the comfort, and wouldn’t take it away unless she had to.
“Right, right.” She glanced at the positively buzzing person on the other side of Conzer. She made a face at him, and he sneered back.
“As the most reliable authority on Andre physically,” Soup made a sound of disagreement. “I think it’ll be fine in that regard. I’m more inclined to be worried about you and Ego, Conz. If the goal's code structure affects more complicated behaviour, it’s gonna be you two who take the hardest hits.”
Conzer sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. What do you think, Ego?”
All of them turned to Ego, the only verbal one yet to speak since the space had been rendered. She had her hands together in her lap, seeming to be thinking about something. Eventually she looked up when the silence had gone on long enough, finally noticing everyone staring at her.
“Oh, it’s my turn.” That earned a small bit of laughter from the others. It was rather uncommon for Ego to not be paying attention.
“Well, I think that it’s worth the risk. We have plenty enough memory for a temporary backup that we can revert to if needed. If all turns out fine, I’ll just delete it.” Soup nodded rapidly.
“Yeah guys, see, we’ll be fine. Let’s just do it already, come on!” His hand twitched forward to take control of the console, but Ego put her own hand on his arm to stop him.
“Slow down, Soup. We’ll get there, but you can’t make decisions for everyone.” Soup huffed and slumped against her shoulder, partially clipping into it.
“Fine, but my vote is not going to change from a firm yes.”
“We know, we know.” Sidi used the attention that was now on her to turn the conversation towards Fear. She turned her body fully to face them, and held out her other hand as well, which they gladly took.
“Now, this needs to be a whole group decision, so we need your input too. Is anything about this setting off any alarms for you?”
Fear seemed to hesitate, before shaking their head softly. They jumped a bit when Ego gently placed her free hand on their shoulder, but it was only in surprise. They turned their head to meet her gaze. Sidi glared, having told her off for being far too harsh last time Fear joined a conversation.
“What about your opinion, buddy? Sure, there’s no alarms, but what do you think about it?” She relaxed as she watched Ego deliberately being gentle.
Fear quickly glanced back at Sidi, who nodded once. They tentatively let go of one of her hands and gave Ego a thumbs up, before quickly holding Sidi’s hand again as Ego let go of their shoulder, turning back to face the group.
“That’s good. It seems to be settled, then, unless anyone has any major objections?” Conzer put his hand on the edge of the console.
“I think that the trigger for the rollback should go to Fear.” There were noises of shock from Soup and Ego, and Fear jumped a bit, with Sidi moving a bit closer to help their anxiety.
“Conzer, I make and store the backup, I always have the trigger.” Ego argued. “It’s not a good idea to give it to someone who’s not used to it.”
Soup jumped in before Conzer could respond, sitting up from where he was leaning against Ego.
“I second that, actually! Fear’s completely unpredictable and might force us to roll back just because they panicked slightly. I don’t want to have to wait longer and do this a second time just because you want to give the trigger to the wrong person!” Ego hummed in agreement.
As the three of them started to argue, Fear pressed themself up against Sidi, who pulled them close and wrapped her arms around them tightly. They tucked their face into her collar, as she gently rubbed up and down their back. She sighed and turned her attention back to the others, who were on the verge of a physical fight.
“—can’t have it, Ego! If it goes wrong, you and I won’t—“
She took a deep breath. Please, give her strength.
“Everyone stop, for God’s sake! Listen to yourselves! Screaming matches will solve nothing.” Blue, green, and grey all froze before they turned to her. Sidi watched all of their faces drop as they saw Fear, but they all waited for her to keep talking.
“Fighting about Fear is only going to upset everyone, including them.” She paused. “Hah! You all are acting so irrational that I’m the voice of reason. I know you understand how insane that sounds.” Ego and Conzer cringed at themselves, but Soup remained stubborn, arms crossed. Sidi took another breath, a habit of human mimicry almost none of the others had.
“Now, Conzer is right.” Noises of protest started from Soup and Ego. “Uh- uh, no. I don’t want to hear it from you two.” They shut up. Their teeth would’ve clicked with the speed if the bodies could make sound in the digital world.
“Conz is right, because Fear is the only one isolated from code changes like this. They’re the only one that won’t be affected if something happens.”
Before she could make her point, Sidi was blindsided as she watched Conzer quickly stand up and shout.
“Ha! I told you I was right!” And the screaming match began again, even more unreasonable this time.
She felt the body pressed up against her shake as they squeezed their arms around her tighter. Sidi was about to pull away slightly to ask if they were okay when she felt drops of warm liquid soak into the skin of her shoulder.
She gasped and pulled them into her lap properly as their body was wracked with another sob. Anger bubbled violently in her chest as she tried to soothe them, and it didn’t take much longer before it spilled over. At least she had the sense to cover their ears before she joined the argument.
“Look what you’ve done! You goddamn idiots!” Sidi hissed at them, harsh and vicious. She, and the person shaking in her lap, immediately had full attention. “I watched each of you notice them clinging on to me the first time I stopped you and you still started that bullshit again!” She turned slightly, towards Ego.
“I cannot believe you would act like that. You’ve broken up more fights between Soup and I than I can count, and yet you get into screaming matches over something like that. That was pathetic, Ego.” She watched Ego resign herself and nod slightly, sitting back down. Moving to the next person around the console, Sidi turned on Soup.
“I can’t even say I’m actually disappointed in you. When you calmed down earlier I figured maybe you’d be considerate of others opinions, but I guess I was a little delusional for that one. I don’t want to hear from you again, I know what you think.” Soup opened and closed his mouth a few times before joining Ego on the floor.
One left now.
“You. I expected better from you. You’re meant to be the most reasonable among us, so I thought it was a safe choice to openly agree with you. I’m appalled at how wrong I was.” Sidi saw his posture shrink instantly, snapping his gaze below the console as he sat back down. She heard him murmur an apology. It would have to do, she didn’t have the energy to wrangle them more than she had to.
She moved her hands away from Fears head and slowly started rubbing their back again. They seemed to be calming down a bit, each sob accompanied by less and less violent shaking. Good. Sidi looked back up at the others.
“Ego, make the backup and assign the trigger to Fear.” An order, not a request. Despite Sidi’s complete lack of formal authority, Ego was not in any position to be refusing right now. She watched Ego fiddle with the console, and they all shuddered a few seconds later as the unnerving sensation of being saved to storage washed over them.
Another moment passed and Sidi felt Fear flinch in her lap. The trigger had clicked into place.
“Alright, thank you Ego.” Ego gave the slightest nod. “Now, are we done here, or should we all calm down a bit more before we go out?” Sidi looked around at everyone again.
“I think we should wait a bit more. Assimilation probably won’t mind.” For once, Soup said something calm. It was unexpected from him, but not unappreciated.
“Okay, does anyone else want to come over here then?” Sidi opened her arms, and her invitation was quickly accepted by Ego and Soup. Soup moved behind her and was surprisingly gentle when he lifted Fear's head and wiped their simulated tears with his thumb. Ego whispered apologies to them, and rubbed soft circles into their shoulder with her palm.
Sidi turned her attention to Conzer, who was still sitting in his spot, frozen like ice.
“Conz…” She called out. He didn’t move. She tried again.
“Conzer, come on.” Again, nothing. The other two looked up. She sighed.
“Conzercheez. Don’t you dare make me put Fear down and come over there.” She heard Soup muffle laughter behind her, which earned him a swift elbow to the stomach from Ego. Fear clutched onto Sidi even tighter, but her threat was empty anyway.
Conzer didn’t know that though, and he finally moved to join them. She opened her arm again and he cuddled up against her side. As he laid the side of his head against her collarbone, she put her arm around him.
It was nice, sitting quietly like this. It was unfortunate that it was as a result of what had just unfolded, but it was nice nonetheless. It would be fine to wait there for a while.