animus_network | [text] ⚙ burn my dread

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[text] ⚙ burn my dread

I don't understand.

She was an experiment just like me, wasn't she? She should get how much it hurts. Doesn't she have a heart of her own?

I feel sorry for her, but I hate this place.

I hate this place i hate this placeihatethisplaceihatethisplace

[There was a pause--it was like a record had gotten stuck and a moment was taken to put the needle back in place.]

I'm not feeling well. I think I am going to be on floor 25 later if anyone needs me for anything.

[Sure enough, she'd stick around the terminal for a little longer before heading straight to the meadow. Sitting down on the ground and pulling her knees to her chest, the robotic girl looked remarkably like a human would if that human was trying not to projectile vomit in disgust.]

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Can't blame you honestly.

[ He sat down on the grass as well. ]

...this is way too much for me. What's the phrase, 'hittin' close t' home'?

'Striking a cord' is another way to say that phrase, I believe. [ He sighed, running a hand through his hair. Slowly; ] ... You were... experimented upon as well? Before this place.

I was...built and activated in a laboratory. Back then they called me Unit #031. There were a whole bunch a' androids like me--see, we were built to be able to develop a Persona and fight Shadows.

It was kinda like...a tournament. An' back then I didn't really know any better than to go along with it. They said 'these are targets', so I destroyed 'em like they were. That's what somethin' built to fight does, practice and improve.

Anyway, I ended up gettin' to know Unit #024--she'd had more time to be around and experience stuff, so she'd developed her own personality. That's part of what we had t' do in order to awaken a Persona...to fight Shadows, we were built with hearts. An' after talkin' to her for a while, I realized everyone I'd been fightin'...they were the same as me, ya know? It didn't matter who won to the scientists in charge, just that one a' us did.

Eventually the only one that was left became '5th Generation Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapon Labrys'. And the rest...the other one was destroyed too.

[ Hidetoshi sat through, listening attentively to her story and his face steadily processes through a stage of quiet interest in what the female robot in the odd getup had to say before morphing into an expression of dawning shock and going from there to solemn horror and at last stopping at avid disgust for what the scientists who had built her and her fellow robots had so callously devised as (.. what? Some sort of twisted process of natural selection via a tournament? A fight to continue existing by killing machines that were exactly like you? To earn a name of your own? No, that showed some disturbing lack of morals right there) a test, and sympathy for what ordeals his... friend had been put through.

The idea of mechanical beings being fashioned with hearts, and feelings of their own, and being self-aware in their right wasn't a new one; he'd spoken to Labrys and it was clear she felt and emoted as real as any human. But he'd read science fiction novels and he certainly hadn't known his own world had technology actually capable of building robots with hearts anytime soon; the public would have gone wild over that. So this entire affair... Labrys's creation and her creators' little tournament... must be a secret. Unit #024, created to specifically to fight Shadows, Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapons... Hidetoshi knew nothing about what he'd just told. It wasn't like he'd been expecting the sudden information dump.

It was not a surprise, in hindsight and knowing this information, that the red-eyed android had reacted so poorly to Ruana's post on the Tower's network. He took a deep breath; ]

... I actually don't know what to say to that.

[ Give him a moment to process all of that. Guess being a NPC has its benefits, such as Atlas not being able to devote all of their valuable thinking time to coming up a backstory horrible enough to fuck you over with. ]

Eheheh...sorry.

[She laughed quietly, a hesitant smile twitching across her face. Funny--not too long ago she'd hidden the truth from even herself. But sharing the honest facts of things with her friends was just another part of acceptance, right?]

[There was a lot Labrys wasn't okay with; a lot about her past that bothered her (though maybe not as much as it did) and a lot about the Tower that she outright hated. But there was very little of the near-feral desperation to force people to understand what she went through. There were better ways to communicate understanding than creating an illusory high school, after all.]

I know it's a whole lot a' stuff to understand. I really didn't mean t' just drop it all on ya.

It's fine.

[ He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, brow furrowing in thought for a moment. The entire situation the mechanical maiden struck him as... an deplorable way to treat any sentient being, let alone a being you have constructed yourself and therefore had the obligation to take responsibility and nurture and take care of said creation. And to force them to murder... Ugh. The thought left a bad taste in his mouth, just like the entire situation of being trapped in the Tower of Animus did.

He shrugged, and turned his head towards her. ]

I just, wasn't expecting it, that's all. [ Pause. ] I'm terribly sorry you have go through an ordeal such as that.

It's okay. It's 'cause of all that I was able t' meet everybody in Inaba, so I ain't gonna cry over it if I can help it.

Sounds like an interesting story. Were Personas involved? [ He dropped his hands to the grass, the coolness of the plantlife soothing on his fingers. ] Hm, no use dwelling on the past, I guess. It's not like you can change anything about it.

Yeah--it was this whole crazy mess with everyone, their Personas and my own Shadow. By the time it was over I ended up gettin' Ariadne.

Nah, I guess you're right about that. Seems kinda silly to keep cryin' about it, yeah?

[ He blinked, dark gray eyes showing his bemusement. ] It seems my homeworld had a great deal more interesting happenings going on than I originally gave it credit for, huh.

You can't spend your whole life looking back at your past... Or you'll never have the initiative to move forward. [ He nodded in agreement. He felt distantly glad that the android no longer appeared to be fighting off the desire to empty the contents of her stomach onto the grass out of disgust. ] Yeah, it would be rather pointless.

Heh...guess so. I woulda loved to just have been a normal high school student, t' tell ya the truth.

[Labrys sighed, posture relaxing slightly as she did.]

I'm sorry I went an' freaked out earlier.

It's fine... I was not behaving entirely rationally myself.

[ And she had, he now knew, a fair amount of reasons to be as distraught as she had been. Hidetoshi scowled, then shoved the stack of books slightly across the grass towards her. ]

But in the middle of that, you mentioned you harbored an interest in being a student council president. I... thought these might help you in that area.

[ He felt rather foolish now that he pushing some booklets on her out of the blue, and not nearly as self-confident as he had been in the library picking them out; Labrys was a robot and all, she probably already had all the information she needed programmed into her data banks. She didn't require his aide. ]

[Quite to the contrary, scarlet eyes lit up in excitement as a smile spread across her face.]

Really? Ya didn't have t' go and do somethin' that nice for me!

Edited 2012-11-28 04:17 (UTC)

It was no trouble.

[ He'd done it as much for distraction as to give Labrys some material to work with, regardless of whether or not she ever actually attempted to become a student president. >:|| It wasn't exactly like he had anything else to do that required his attention, and besides, he had the reputation of the student council to uphold! Standards and all, okay. ]

These include materials such as public debates, and notes on how to run a successful campaign. I found them useful myself. [ It was through the classes he'd took, which encouraged involved in school activities, he'd gained a knack for public speaking and debate and found himself happily in the position of the vice president of the student council in the first place. ]

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[text] ⚙ burn my dread

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