deercountry | august catch-all (open + closed prompts in comments)

[ it was strange to see so much peculiar gathering of things among the sleepers. 2B knew better than to swallow water, much less find herself in it— it's just unnatural for her, especially when she hadn't the habit of eating or drinking. higher ground has always seemed like the best place to roost, even though she hasn't found herself an actual "home" to go to and from her hunts. a trenchie has offered her a survival pack: a knitted wool blanket, a carved-out wooden cup, and a neatly folded paper containing an assortment of mushrooms and berries. she declines immediately to say: ]

No. You should save your resources.

[ oh, nonsense, please, the citizen retorts, clasping her hands around the tied package and holding it forth. in the split second it took to doubletake, the woman holds it away from incoming grabby hands, right against her chest in a protective shield. oh, not you again! she scowls, prepared to give the greedy, survival-hoarding sleeper maria thorpe a piece of her mind. 2B herself doesn't understand this concept. offering food and fabric to an android is okay, but another person who has (apparently) been seen before but . . . not given a package—? is not okay?

??? ]

Edited 2022-08-10 16:34 (UTC)

[Maria ignores the girl and scowls at the woman, focused more on the unreleased package. This is perhaps the third time Maria has crossed paths with the citizen today, and she does not see a problem with that; if they're meant to do whatever it takes to survive here, then why should she not take what she needs to survive?]

You are here, you are offering aid, I require aid; precisely what is the problem here?

[Seriously. It's obvious. This woman is strangely selfish in her benevolence.]

[ the trenchie pulls a longer grimace and retorts, sharply: "i am attempting to reach the needy, and you are certainly no longer needy, miss!" when 2B does absolutely nothing, the older woman seeks her support in a more invasive manner: "will you say nothing? she is wrong!"

2B is firm and immediate with her answer: ]

Your internal conflicts with one another aren't my own.

[ . . . that's how she'd like it to stay, at least. any more interference and taking select sides would mean even more conflict and confusion, especially on a psychological and emotional level. she is a soldier, so unless it is a direct threat, she will remain neutral.

"at least say something about it!" the woman plees. and, well, since she asked, the android replies, bluntly: ]

You are offering aid, I do not need it and she requires it. I don't see a problem.

[ maybe the problem here was greed, but who was to say from which side it was coming from? the trenchie, offended, huffs and flips her hand at the two young ladies. she does, of course, have her hand over the package, loose and beginning to shove it in maria's direction. ]

[Maria accepts the aid — nearly snatches it out of the woman's hand when it is finally, resentfully offered. It would be a lie to say that she accepts it gratefully, but perhaps it is for the best that she chooses not to acknowledge the local woman further once she has what she needs. The argument could only worsen from how it had already been.]

Finally. Someone with some sense.

[She finally glances over at the newcomer, her strangely burning need to acquire sated. For the moment.]

Why don't you need this?

[ at least the bickering is over. too much noise. 2B inclines her head and observes. she seemed— rather intense to take something she seems to have already had. she wonders briefly if there are third parties involved, like children. it is a passing thought, though. she isn't one of constant curiosity (this is something of a lie, but 2B lies plenty to herself). ]

I don't require food or drink to survive. [ neither is a nice warm blanket truly necessary, especially in warm weather. it feels like a luxury, like baths. she doesn't need it. ] You'll put it to better use.

Edited 2022-08-13 15:26 (UTC)

Of course you don't.

[Maria doesn't believe that for a minute, but if the woman doesn't want to share her reasons, fine, she's entitled to privacy. And anyway she really doesn't want to share it.]

...I suppose I should thank you for stepping in.

[How grateful of her.]

[ miss robot does not understand the use of sarcasm clearly enough to retort, not that she feels the need to. of course you don't. like. yes. obviously! maria gets it! ]

I only spoke the truth. [ or her opinion on it, at least. which was more toward truth and rationality than bias. ] Are you preparing yourself?

[ for.... who knew. it was good to know. ]

[They are in agreement. Maria's opinion of her continues to rise.]

Yes. It's the strategic thing to do, don't you think? We were brought here without warning, without knowing why. It's hardly a safe place to live. Why shouldn't we make sure we have the supplies we need to survive? You never know what could happen next.

[And yet that's not the whole reason. Something gnaws at her, tells her to gather and not stop. More. But she can't articulate that, not yet.]

[ to 2B, it was logical. it was something that humans needed to do, although she's never actually seen it happen with her own eyes until now. it made enough sense that there was no need to question the behavior directly, although . . .

something did seem to ping the back of her mind when she doesn't see others frenetically doing the same. strange? or just stranger, because humans were strange, to begin with? ]

—You're a Sleeper. [ a bolt connects to that thought. she was thinking about the populace at large. ] You're not wrong. Have other human Sleepers done the same?

[Maria had assumed that would be obvious, but perhaps she's doing a better job blending in than she thought.]

Perhaps? I don't know. [She frowns, reconsidering.] I have seen a few people carrying rather a lot of possessions here and there, but I don't know if they were stockpiling items of survival value, or something else. That's their business.

[Just as long as they don't try to stop Maria or take what is hers.]

[ stockpiling . . . other possessions. hm. that's not, healthy human behavior—? now that she's looking around— ]

You wouldn't consider that odd?

I think quite a lot of things I've encountered here are odd. I can't say that I gave much thought to what people choose to acquire.

[Not when she'd been focused on her own acquisitions.]

I would've thought pooling resources would raise chances of survival . . .

[ most of humans are odd, 2B thinks to herself. she doesn't have much to pull, from there. she wouldn't know and wishes—

in record timing, a hovering cube comes upon 2B's side, holding . . . oh, god it actually took another one of that woman's care packages. I have found materials necessary for human survival, it says, with an odd sort of pixilated pride under its robotic voice. ]

Some of us are doing exactly that.

[Sort of. She hasn't actually offered any of her gathered supplies to Altaïr, but she's taking them back to where they're staying, and he could theoretically make use of them if he needed to. Which is not to say that Maria would like it if he did.]

In small groups. You can't expect so many strangers to—

[?!]

What is that?

[ she would do it, but— it seems pod is already looking between them through its single lenses, almost expectantly. with a gesture of her hand for pod to continue, the hovering square begins to deliver: Hello. I am Pod-042. I am a support unit for YoRHa unit Number 2 Type B. a pause. I am pleased to meet your acquaintance. ]

I am 2B.

[ since the name is different to pick out compared to human names. ]

[The speech of the little...thing is mostly gobbledygook to Maria. The girl's name she parses as something akin to "tooby" — a foreign name, strange-sounding to her ears, but not the first in that regard.]

I'm...Maria.

[The hesitation comes from distraction, not uncertainty.]

What does that do?

[ I am a support unit for YoRHa unit Number— it starts again, since maria has asked a question and perhaps it wasn't clear? but 2B interrupts. ]

It helps me. With communication, intel, long-range combat, and height-based locomotion. [ that would've been odd to her, if she hadn't been told that time worked strangely in trench. sleepers came from anywhere, at any time. ] . . . Do you know what a "robot" is?

[ CORRECTION: I am a Pod support system, it's an example, 2B mutters. ]

I see.

[She doesn't really. Not well enough, anyway, but she's just prideful enough not to admit that so easily.]

I haven't heard the word before, no.

It's older human technology, where I'm from. [ of course that only means . . . maria is older than that "old" tech. ] They were . . . Mechanical units, similar to Pod.

[ CLARIFICATION: I was created by androids, and my technology is far more advanced than ROBOTS, pod adds! ]

I suspect you and I have exceedingly different definitions of old technology.

[It's said slightly defensively. Maria has never thought of herself as old before.]

There's nothing like this thing where I came from. Not even close.

[ she’s starting to think the same thing— or, even more, maria comes from a time too far back in the archives for her to take much interest. ]

What would you describe as technology?

I suppose...mechanicals? Trebuchets, firepots, siege engines...that sort of thing.

[This is perhaps conveying the particular sort of experiences Maria has had.]

I've seen an artifact that can do more, but I don't trust it.

Why is that?

[ an artifact that couldn’t be trusted has piqued her to be something alien, mechanical. the a bloodhound on the hunt, she smelt a stench and did not like it. ]

Why does it matter? It's not here.

[It's absolutely here, but Maria has no compunctions about lying. No one needs to get their hands on the Apple of Eden.]

[ the answer here was "curiosity", but that stuns 2B. there she went again, with her what is and whys. she corrects herself now with the best: ]

Then it does not matter. [ even if she must shove down the question still at the back of her mind, left unanswered. ] Do require any further assistence?

august catch-all (open + closed prompts in comments)

CLOSED: @givetheslip

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