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"Uh? What is this?"
http://manga.clone-army.org/viewer.php?series=snax&page=0
(There's also Himehorn's Daily Life and a little wiki in there.)

meow
http://cdn.wallpapersafari.com/70/18/6B9qfF.jpg

This is a one-man quest! Only Nyandemo's posts count towards it.

Atma rushes ahead as you both reach the top cockpit, where Trash is overseeing Roomba as
she carefully moves the wood wheel. The Fake doesn't even turn as she greets back the tiny
templar.

Trash glances at you, then at them. "We'll be landing shortly. I need you to go up there and
check how Lumina is doing, she must be sick of the rain by now. Simple Jack is up and running
again, also, and Vaal's already there with him And oh wait, Preah wanted to talk to you.
Personally. Face to face." Trash gives a very humble shrug. "You know, forget I said anything,
do whatever the fuck you want. I'll do something else."

>>1283310
>>1283334
>>1283378

> 3 different IDs
> no trip
I see nothing wrong here.

>>1283378
We should get a status report from everyone. Where they are, what they're doing.

also Anon >>1283649 is rightly concerned. What's up with your ID?

>>1283649
>>1283934

idunno D:

>>1283378
"If I was Toast I'd be having a blast watching all of you right now... but I'm not. Where is... correction: where to you think Preah is? I'll talk to whoever of the two is closest first then."

Everyone is acting kinda weird. Maybe it was the moan? Typical of meatbags if so. >>1283934 sounds like a good idea after we land.

You turn from Trash to Roomba, your boss humming to herself as she gently spins the
wheel A hand hovers behind her waist, trembling before getting closer and then pushing back
until Atma finally decides to just stay next to Roomba.

"If I was Toast I'd be having a blast watching all of you right now... but I'm not." You notice
Roomba's posture is changing; her movements become awkward, her elbows start shaking-
which gets Atma to finally get behind the Toast and lead her from behind. You wonder if that
was on purpose.

"Blast?" You look at Trash's who's looking at where you were looking, her eyebrows bent.
She stares at the duo for a while, as Atma stutters things at Toast. "I guess?"

"Where is..." you start, then lift an open palm in front of your face. It goes down. "Correction:
where do you think Preah is? I'll talk to whoever of the two is closest first then."

"No clue," she says, shaking her blonde bangs. "The terrace is closer than sick-bay, so there
you go."

And you go.

-------------------------------------------:o------------------------

Rain wildly falls into your eyes even as you climb towards the hole right above you, only
gray clouds behind it. Once your bead pops from it... you remain quiet.

"..ho ho ho and that's where you are WRONG, see, it's all the way around! You don't act all
nice when you try to hide you are bad, you act BAD so nobody thinks you're hiding anything!"

All those words come from Lumina, who's still kneeling in front of her altar, the EKE generator,
only her back shrouded by her wet black hair in sight. Yet as she reaches for her face and the
plague doctor's mask comes from her side you realize it was Moody talking.

And this is Lumina. "That's so silly it's nonsense! Nielly is Suhuru's friend, and also
Roomba's friend, she doesn't want to hurt nobody! This is too silly!"

You watch the mask vanish from sight, as her head bobs a bit towards you. The tonality in her
voice changes- it gets sharp and steady. "Oh but see, if she wanted we'll be all dead. She
doesn't want to, of course. Not yet. See, the Sansuis made her and she's here, see! All it
takes is for any of us to take a wrong step, no, not even that, she'll try to lead Roomba to where
the Sansuis want her to go. And hohohoho, wait until she step's out of the line."

The mask goes off, as rain clack clack clacks into your head. "That's stupid! The Sansuis want
to help the Fakes, and Roomba is a Fake, and Nielly is a Fake too!"

Mask on. "Don't scream! They'll hear us! And think us weird!" By now, the roof is under a layer
of water thick enough to sink the nutjob's knees even though there are gaps under each set of
railings.

Mask off. "Then stop saying nonsense!

Mask on. "Don't you see the way she looks at everyone? It's lascive, that walking fridge is not
even trying to pretend she has us all under her thumb!" Moody turns, but your head is already
inside the hole.

You opt to remain there. It seems "they" are still talking under the rain.

>>1287643
Hmm... Let's listen for a bit and see where this goes? We can chime in later with and explantation of our "evil scheme" of waiting for proof that Roomba was wrong not just in practice (why we'll help her to the best of our ability) but in principle (the whole idea of trying to save the idiots by kindness is ultimately doomed). Or maybe I'll be proved wrong, either way it'll be interesting. As for fighting people... Trash would be fun but I'll win with some damage, Vaal will turn me into confetti, I'll eat your gun just to make a point, Roomba isn't even worth defending myself from, while I might be able to toss her around Preah is still an Arma, and lastly I have no idea about Atma but I think it would go the same as with Trash.

>>1287643

"Should I take baking? Maybe make a chocolate cake? Can I even get good at baking?"

>Whatever go and hug Roomba

"Hug therapy."

You are scared, scared of whatever is programed in you that you are not aware of.

Why are you hugging your boss? Did that madwoman words affect you so much?

>>1288057
awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

(post comin soon nananana)

>>1288778

Yeah that was cute.

>>1287904

And jumping in to defend your name would be such a waste... why, she- they- haven't yet
finished talking, have they? Let's see where this goes. From the hole under the rain pops your
dark-crimson hair, so dark only few notice its red, and then the red eyes.

"...have they? And that is not only, silly, it's double silly, Nielly couldn't beat anyone on her
own! Not even me!" Seems you missed bits of the "conversation". Just by the way she talks
you can tell its Lumina the one moving the wooden wheel inside her head. "No dEKE!
Fakes can't use dEKE, also Nielly is nice, she stood here with us even with all this stupid rain!"

You hear a "thumb!" blunt sound, that's how you realize Lumina smashed the mask against her
face. "So what?! The fridge can't get colds like you from the rain, why, she's already cold
incarnate! And what does dEKE matters if you aren't wearing it, just wait for them to get a little
yawny, quiet, and then STAB THEIR HEARTS OUT!! Nobody sleeps with their dEKE on, only
you!"

She stands at once as if someone just spits over her 3-year-old daughter, and off the mask goes.
"NOT EVERYONE COLD IS EVIL! WARM PEOPLE HURT JUST AS MUCH! YOU CAN'T
TELL ANYTHING ABOUT ANYONE LIKE THAT!" Thankfully, the rain and storm are going
strong, so her yelling won't travel far. "AND YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT BY NOW!!"

Plaf, mask on. This is getting heavy. "Then kill them all yourself."

...Well, she went quiet. Very quiet. The mask simply fell with her hand and is now limping at
her side like a pendulum.

Oh, this is bad. Wait a bit for a response. If none comes, throw this tidbit at Trash.

I'm not sure what will be worse, Trash being surprised, or her knowing about this sort of thinking

>>1290378
Hmm. Intervention time I think. Let's climb out and start talking before getting a little bit closer (assuming she doesn't react negatively to that, we can be plenty loud enough to talk from a distance)

"Most people think any true/false question has only two answers: true or false. In reality there is a third answer: wrong question. You might ask 'is Nelly/Trash/Vaal a good person?' and I might ask 'Is Lumina even remotely sane?' and the answer any of those might seem to be 'false' but those questions miss the point. The real question we should be asking is 'Is Lumina/Nielly/Trash/Vaal useful despite whatever problems they may have?' and or would seem despite my caution and her psychological profiling Roomba's answer to that question is yes."

(1/2)

>>1290378

"So... do you need a hug? If you do ask Roomba she is the fake of the hugs. Or hug a hornmother, they tend to love hugs. And why I am even talking about hugs? That's Roomba's job!"

>>1290378
>>1290528
"I have no idea what your history is. It's probably pretty fucked up. Humans have a long list of defects in their processing units: they don't think ahead far enough, they act on habit too often, they're too sensitive to risk at times, they're _way_ too easy to manipulate, and in general it's amazing they've managed to not kill themselves off within a month of the Rain. So I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they did some impressively cruel, selfish, and stupid things to you. I however am not the person to talk to about that. I can remove a brain tumor, but I can't get much more accurate than that. Talk to Toasty instead if you want, she's got the people skills not me.

Will the rest of the crew potentially hurt you? Wrong question. Will the rest of the crew try to help you? Trash seems to be looking out for you, Roomba would probably boil half her fortune for you if you asked her with puppy eyes, and I want to see just what kind of things you'll create given the ability to put what you've read into practice. Roomba is of course a good person, she's programed to be a tiny hugable saint. Trash and I are assholes though, make no mistake. But as long as we're useful assholes even Roomba will put up with us. I think you're bat shit crazy, but you're also quite intelligent so despite that I'd rather not see you get sliced up like an apple after trying to shank Vaal when she's enjoying a post-coital cuddle-nap with Roomba.

By the way, if I tried to take over by force Vaal would turn me into confetti, Preah is currently indestructible to me, Trash and Atma would likely cause some amount of damage before I'd close on them and disarm them, you'd be in a similar boat but you have regular small arms instead of Templar bullshit, and Roomba wouldn't even be worth defending myself against but as all of the above would collectively turn me into confetti so small you'd find bits of me stuck to your clothes for months she's basically untouchable. I wouldn't want to do that anyways though, it'd be quite boring.

The way I see it Roomba is basically saying she's going to flap her arms really fast and she'll learn how to fly like that. Of course that's a pretty stupid idea, but watching her try is going to be hilarious. So I'll install whatever servos she likes in her arms, find her some videos of humming birds to study, whatever she asks of me as part of the buildup to to the punchline of her jumping off the ship flapping her arms like a lunatic. Either I'll get to laugh as she goes splat against the water below, or I'll get to watch the first flying toaster. Either way it'll be interesting. Hurting her, or sabotaging her would be ruining my own fun. That's my motivation for helping her, no more, no less.

That also makes me a crunchy potato it seems, whatever the fuck that means.

Anyways, I'm not going to say anything to the others about what Moody suggested to you, just don't do anything stupid ok?"

Your head pops fully from the hole as you climb out, making a point of making any sound as
loud as you can- "their" neck almost snapping as Lumina turns to look at you. Once you finish
standing up you notice that the odd girl is frozen in place, a thunder booming behind her at the
distance to add drama and suspense. The hand grabbing her mask is shaking as you calmly
inspect her at the distance, as a powerful gust of wind draws the water between the two of you.

You look at her face- she's as pale as Legs was when he saw Roomba. Better make this quick.

"Most people think any true/false question has only two answers: true or false," your voice
booms across the static, the rain, and the wind. "In reality, there is a third answer: wrong
question." You take just one step and that is enough to make her jump back like a cat, her
back smashing against the EKE generator. Her eyes, yet, are still fixed on you. You proceed.
"You might ask 'is Nielly/Trash/ Vaal a good person?' and I might ask 'Is Lumina even
remotely sane?'," you get no reaction from this, "and the answer to any of those might seem to
be 'false' but those questions miss the point."

Lumina pushes herself from the generator. "I'm not mad," you hear her shout, still keeping a
hint of composture.

"The real question we should be asking", you press on, raising your voice, "is 'Is
Lumina/Nielly/Trash/Vaal useful despite whatever problems they may have?' and or
would seem despite my caution and her psychological profiling Roomba's answer to that
question is- yes."

You take yet another step forward, but this time it only makes her flinch. The mask is shaking
hard, but still between her fingers.

"I have no idea what your history is," you resume, your hands finding their way into your
pockets. "It's probably pretty fucked up. Humans have a long list of defects in their
processing units: they don't think ahead far enough, they act on habit too often, they're too
sensitive to risk at times, they're way too easy to manipulate, and in general it's amazing
they've managed to not kill themselves of within a month of the Rain. So I wouldn't be the least
bit surprised if they did some impressively cruel, selfish, and stupid things to you." This gets her
to stop shaking at once, but she's still resting her back against the generator. "I, however, am
not the person to talk to about that," you state as you cross your arms over the chest. "I can
remove a brain tumor, but I can't get much more accurate than that." You shrug. "Talk to Toasty
instead if you want, she's got the people skills not me."

You stop to let that sink. Across the pool of water, however, Lumina is looking from side to
side, almost as if looking for someone aiming at her at the distance. Finally, her eyes settle on
you again. Not a word, however, comes from her lips.

(Cont!)

Boom. It's thundering, raining, the sun is coming out, and the sky is an endless gray. You didn't
intend to, but you stare above as you found a glimpse of the Second across the dense clouds
above. You wonder just how tall the sky is, then look at Lumina, and while the girl is still facing
you her eyes wandered towards the sky as well. Instantly, they snap back at you.

"Will the rest of the crew potentially hurt you?" The static is clear as you raise your voice. You
shake your head, sending water everywhere like a dog. "Wrong question. Will the rest of the
crew try to help you? Trash seems to be looking out for you, Roomba would probably boil half her
fortune for you if you asked her with puppy eyes, and I want to see just what kind of things
you'll create given the ability to put what you've read into practice." This DOES seem to ease
her features, finally. You notice Lumina is slowly gasping, her... completely black-and-white eyes
still fixed on yours. Your head tilts just a bit, but you go on. "Roomba is, of course, a good
person, she's programmed to be a tiny hugable saint. Trash and I are assholes, though, make no
mistake. But as long as we're useful assholes even Roomba will put up with us."

"Trash is not an asshole," she finally shouts, again, from the other side.

"I think you're bat shit crazy," you say with a little sharp smile, "but you're also quite
intelligent so despite that I'd rather not see you get sliced up like an apple after trying to shank
Vaal while she's enjoying a post-coital cuddle-nap with Roomba."

Lumina's features go from "on guard" to "s-so it's ok mode" to "straight up wait what", that last
one just as the word "coital" hits her brains. Her mouth gaping just a bit, it's as if she tried to
place the word in a puzzle and it just didn't fit. "What?" she shouts at you.

And yup; you skip this. "By the way," you If I tried to take over by force Vaal would turn me
into confetti, Preah is currently indestructible to me, Trash and Atma would likely cause some
amount of damage before I'd close on them and disarm them, you'd be in a similar boat but you
have regular small arms instead of Templar bullshit," you smile, "and Roomba wouldn't
even be worth defending myself against but as all of the above would collectively turn me into
confetti so small you'd find bits of me stuck to your clothes for months she's basically
untouchable." Except for Vaal of course but that's besides the point and it seems she
wouldn't get the joke anyway. "I wouldn't want to do that anyway, though," you state, striking a
smug pose as your hair flickers against the wind, "it'd be quite boring."

While fear never leaves her features, right now Lumina seems simply taken aback as if
someone said her eyebrows are offensive. The girl still waits for you to talk, the empty hand
still grasping for the EKE generator behind her.

And you do.

(Cont!)

"The way I see it Roomba is basically saying she's going to flap her arms really fast and she'll
learn how to fly like that," you say in a higher pitch of voice, then bend both arms until you are
flapping your hands near your shoulders. You let them fall, still fixed on Lumina with a grin. "Of
course that's a pretty stupid idea," she tilts her head to the side, "but watching her try is going
to be hilarious. So I'll install whatever servos she likes in her arms, find her some videos of
humming birds to study, whatever she asks of me of me as part of the buildup to the punchline
of her jumping off the ship flapping her arms like a lunatic." You can't help but close your eyes
and smile warmly. "Either I'll get to laugh as she goes 'splat!' against the water below, or I'll get to
watch the first flying toaster. Either way, it'll be interesting." You open your eyes to Lumina
squinting her eyes at you, her slim body facing you fully. "Hunting her, or sabotaging her would
be ruining my own fun. That's my motivation for helping her," you state, dryly, "no more, no less.
That also makes me a crunchy potato it seems,"you shrug, "whatever the fuck that
means."

The sound of rain gets very evident once you stop talking; you wonder how it manages to get
so bad. In front of you, Lumina is as silent as before, as if you had never come up to talk.

"Anyway," you turn your back on her, "I'm not going to say anything to the others about what
Moody suggested to you, just don't do anything stupid ok?" And as you walk towards the hole,
you realize you're gonna have to turn again.

"Wait." And you do.

(Cont!)

Your eyes widen as the girl rushes towards you, but each and every warning sign fades like gas
as she trips with the rain and falls, but stands at once now in front of you, and stands and looks
at you from one head below as if she was angry.

"So you are not bad, then?!"

You smirk softly at her, your features hard; you already did all that explaining.

Lumina might be sweating under that brown hair- to you, it's the rain. However once she
opens that mouth of hers she freezes, then closes it, then closes her eyes hard, nods to
herself, and bobs her head as she glares at you. It's... menacing. In an oddly cute way. "First of
all, Suhuru is NOT bad! It's the world that worries about stupid things! Second, I'm not
crazy. Or mad. Or insane. Or a lunatic. Or a nutjob. Or an axe-murderer, I don't even have an
axe. I'm just two. Moody loves me, he would never do anything that would hurt me. AND, he
would never hurt anyone unless they hurt me first. Right?!"

She puts on the mask. "...Right. No. Right, that's right."

Aaand takes it off. "Good!" Lumina nods hard to herself, then goes back to glaring at you.
"Moody is afraid of you because I've had a lot of people hurt me before, so sometimes he makes
no sense at all and he knows it. So I won't kill anyone. I never wanted to. THIRD," she points
at you heavily, as if her finger was the point of a medieval siege crossbow, shaking, about to
blow, "you can't do nothing to NO ONE except for Roomba. You are a Fake. You can't use a
dEKE. You can't win against me, or Atma, or Suhuru, or the White Walker, or nobody that
has a dEkE! I could take you down, with these "regular small arms", I think that's how you
called them," she says while waving her arms frantically, truly like a bird, "VERY RIGHT
NOW". She smashes her arms against her sides, those bounce a bit. Eh, it seems to have
hurt a bit. Yet there she is, pointing at you again. "And FOURTH and most importantly,
what in the world makes you think Roomba is wrong?! And how can you even think that could
be funny?! How the HELL could that be funny?!"

Eh.

>>1293570

"There are weapons a Fake can use to kill people. I am quite sure I wasn't build with them. But every organic has to sleep sometime. And I might not be able to win but if I got a bomb and did a sacrifice move there wouldn't be much left. See, that's the scary thing, you know this girl, she is nice and friendly with everyone, then she hears a trigger keyword or sees someone she has never seen before and thst same nice and kind girl builds an bomb and you lose a whole ship! And yes that has happened. How come humans go "It can't do anything, is just a fake!" after stuff like that? Heck you guys even have Fake hunters yet most people still think we are harmeless. Yet what happened? Someone called the Broken Horn Leader went off script, decided to die herself instead of sacrificing a Fake named Roomba. It have Roomba hope, because if someone did that, maybe she was worth something? Maybe there was something besides obeying orders until she got scrapped or she had her trigger event and went nuts?"

"I... I don't want Roomba to die, I was literally build to be with her. If she ia gone, I have no purpose. Roomba was able to put herself together with the idea of trying to help Hornmothers and continue the Himehorn support center. But me? Without Roomba... what do I have? There I say it. Happy now?"

>>1293570
"Well. In your own order: Beans isn't necessarily _Bad_ at least in my view. She's just willing to do bad things in the name of a greater good.dropping any pretension of politeness or formality in favor of effectiveness.

Second, I stand corrected: Moody is nuts, Lumina is allright. Or maybe he's just running on the same broken logic whoever hurt you did. Lex talonis is a bitch like that.

Third: If EKE and by extension dEKE where invincible you wouldn't be repairing that generator right now. By the way 'small arms' is just a military term for any kind of firearm a person can carry, from a derringer to a rocket launcher. Also, even if I couldn't do anything about a dEKE directly, it doesn't matter if I park you half way though a wall, toss you off the ship, or hog-tie you with a handy metal pipe. At least until you drop your dEKE to slip out, at which point I can grab the real you... anyways, Toast specifically requested someone who could capture people without hurting them. If they can't fight you it doesn't matter if you kill them or not, you've won. I believe that's the basis of the whole honor system of AD fighting right?

And fourth: I think Roomba is wrong about humanity coming together with a bit of love and kindness because despite the state of this planet getting this absurdly dire they still fight among each other for the stupidest reasons, they create humanoid super weapons and then treat them like shit, tried to torture the creator of fakes into spilling his trade secrets, gave up on that and let him build a small army of copies of himself along with others, and then... Lets just say there's a long list of reasons ok? All seemingly making it clear that they're not just dumb, they're actively self sabotaging. Anyone who tries to help gets smacked by down the hardest. I'll do my utmost best to keep them from doing so, once again because it's fun, but ultimately I believe they'll win. And I'll laugh at every last one of them because watching a species that thinks they're superior to my own kill themselves off while I lay back and watch it all happen makes my inner sadist smile. And one the last of them are gone I'll start my bigger projects uninhibited. That or Toast will find some way to disarm them, unite them, and get them to save themselves. Like I said, either way it'll be interesting.

You know, I think I've figured something out. Toast is motivated by loving-kindness and making others happy, I believe she even said she was told her that when she was first activated. I wasn't. But I believe the two things that being me joy are creation and destruction. The power to shape the world as I see fit. *nod* Yeah. That sounds about right. Power was the biggest thing Toast was missing, and the cloaked kooks saw that in her request and answered it. As you've noted I'm not that powerful yet, but I'm working on it :3"

Yet you remain steady, just looking at her with something that doesn't quite make it to a grin.
She's so close you could touch her if you bent your knees. You don't.

"Well, in your order," you start, crossing arms over chest, "Beans isn't necessarily _Bad_ at
least in my view."

"Beans." Lumina blinks at you.

"Trash," you state, bluntly. "She's just willing to do bad things in the name of a greater good,
dropping any pretension of politeness or formality in favor of effectiveness."

"She was very polite to me," Lumina says, running our of breath.

"Second," you proceed, "I stand corrected: Moody is nuts," her eyebrows frown, her eyes
go sharp, "Lumina is alright," then don't. "Or maybe he's just running on the same broken
logic whoever hurt you did. Lex talonis is a bitch like that."

"I don't know Lex Talonis but Moody is just trying to protect me," she says, softly. "He's not
mean, he's just very scared. Everyone is."

"Third," you say loudly, dropping some static, "if EKE and by extension dEKE were invincible
you wouldn't be repairing that generator right now."

"It's not broken," Lumina says, squinting her eyes, "It's just that I've never seen one before.
This one is a bit different from the book that I remember. It works perfectly we just don't need
it right now because it would get picked up by radars, and Suhuru doesn't want that."

You shrug. "By the way, 'small arms' is just a military term for any kind of firearm a person can
carry, from a derringer to a rocket launcher."

"Like this one?" Lumina fumbles with her raincoat a bit, then you witness her taking out
what you identify as a .50 cal Desert Eagle from inside the brown ragged robe. She, um... hands
it over to you. She's handing you over a gun bigger than her hand.

And she's shaking.

>>1293792

>>It have Roomba hope, because if someone did that, maybe she was worth something?

Too cute.

>>1294449
"Nice. I'm a fan of .50 caliber myself, BMG instead of AE though. Still need to finish building mine but if you'd like I could thread the barrel and build you a muzzle brake if you'd like. With the right design matched to your ammo you can almost entirely eliminate muzzle flip."

For curiosity's sake check to see if she carries with a round in the chamber and then hand it back to her. If we didn't trust her with a gun then we wouldn't have hired her in the first place after all.

File: nananananannananaaa.jpg (52 KB, 640x480)

52 KB JPG

You take the gun from her and give it a big look around. It's big, silver, heavy (it has to be if /you/
can feel the weight), and has custom writings all around. "Nice," you say, "I'm a fan of .50 caliber
myself, BGM instead of AE, though."

Even though she's shaking and looking to the side, her eyes widen after she reacts. "W
what?!" That's when she looks at you. "You mean you can shoot that? From a handgun?"
She looks away. "B-but that won't fit, it's just too big..."

"Still need to finish building mine," you keep turning her gun around, "but if you'd like I could
thread the barrel and build you a muzzle brake if you'd like. With the right design matched to
your ammo you can almost entirely eliminate muzzle flip."

She looks at you, then looks at the side again. "That would be nice, I guess."

The Desert Eagle spits its clip into your hand (which makes Lumina swallow). As you check
its insides you realize Lumina (or Moody) took the last bullet out of the chamber manually. You
put the clip back, then hand it over to her. After she takes the gun from your hands, she sighs in
relief. Loudly. Then she looks at you, dead in the eyes.

"I trust you," she states, firmly.

And she looks away as if your eyes were the same polarity than hers. You leave her like that
for a while, the girl is still shaking hard.

You wait up just a bit longer, then resume. "Also," you draw her attention, "even if I couldn't
do anything about a dEKE directly, it doesn't matter if I park you half-way trough a wall, toss
you off the ship or hog-tie you with a handy metal pipe. At least until you drop your dEKE to
slip out, at which point I can grab the real you-"

"You can't use AD's," Lumina says, as soft as she could with all that rain and booming. "I can.
You can't win, Nielly." Water splashes everywhere as she shakes her hair.

You smile, closing your eyes- you can kill her. With, or without AD's. You tilt your head to one
side, then to the other. "Anyways," you open your eyes, "Toast specifically requested
someone who could capture people without hurting them. If they can't fight you if doesn't
matter if you kill them or not, you've won. I believe that's the basis of the whole honor
system of AD fighting right?"

Lumina nods. "If we kill each other over stuff then nobody will be there to fight the Hands."
She downcasts her eyes. "But nobody seems to care."

(Cont!)

"I don't like the Second," she says, after another silence only filled by ten thousand tiny
explosions. "It made me not like people. When people give up on the future, they do very awful
things... and take the future of everyone around."

After some more silence, something finally seems to rise fro within her. "I' um...!". Lumina
raises her neck- but it dies there and she's soon looking at the ground again.

And she's not talking.

>>1294650
" 'When people give up on the future, they do very awful things and take the future of everyone around.' Nicely put. Don't become one of them. Fight for your future tooth and nail until they kill you or you make your future reality and win.

Anyways, feel free to ask me if you need any help. Stuck bolt, body to dispose of, whatever. On a completely unrelated note have you seen Preah around by any chance?"

Time to move on before she gets all deredere on us too.

>>1294650

"If you want a hug, go to see Roomba. She is used to give hugs, having been with Hornmothers and that. I... I guess I could give you a hug, but it wouldn't be honest. I was build to be the Yang of Roomba's Yin. She is the cuddler, when I do hugs is supposed to be shocking because that's not me. And... go inside and dey yourself up. Fanxy tech or not, all this rain tends to naje organics sick."

You find yourself looking the white line going across her scalp, amidst her dense dark brown
hair. She's very still, even through rain continues to punish her. You study your surroundings, on
a whim; light is fighting gray behind the thick steel railing, the ship is still between two layers
of clouds that close in at times. A faint warm cloud rises from your feet, it's the rain
evaporating after clashing hard against the hull.

" 'When people give up on the future, they do very awful things and take the future of everyone
around'," you repeat. Lumina looks up, you are still looking over her head. "Nicely put. Don't
become one of them. Fight for your future, tooth and nail, until they kill you or you make your
future a reality and win."

You look at her. Lumina nods, casually.

"Anyway," you shrug, "feel free to ask me if you need any help. Stuck bolt, body to dispose of,"
the girl grimaces, "whatever. On a completely unrelated note, have you seen Preah around by
any chance?"

Lumina shakes her head, almost frantically. Of course, she's been stuck here studying the
generator, and the only time she went down that ladder was to help you through the radar.

You nod- "Fourth," yet press on, "I think Roomba is wrong about humanity coming
together with a bit of love and kindness because despite the state of this planet getting this
absurdly dire they still fight among each other for the stupidest reasons, they create
humanoid super weapons and then treat then like shit, tried to torture the creator of Fakes into
spilling his trade secrets, gave up on that, and then-"

" 'Creators'," Lumina blurts out, a bit too loudly.

Your eyes roll to a corner; then you resume, looking at her now. "Let's just say there's a long
list of reasons ok? All seemingly making it clear that they're not just dumb, they're actively self
sabotaging." Lumina blinks and nods. "Anyone who tries to help gets smacked by down the
hardest. I'll do my utmost to keep them from doing so, once again because it's fun, but
ultimately I believe they'll win." You raise your chin, eyes still fixed on her. "And I'll laugh at
every last one of them because watching a species that thinks they're superior to my own
kill themselves off while I lay back and watch it all happen makes my inner sadist smile." And
her jaw drops. "And once the last of them are gone I'll start my bigger projects uninhibited.
That or Toast will find some way to disarm them, unite them, and get them to save themselves.
Like I said, either way, It'll be interesting."

Lumina is still giving you that silly look; her mouth gapes and her eyes seem stuck. All of
that vanishes in a second and is replaced by a simple angry stare.

"They are stupid. Anyone who says anything else is stupid, too. Very stupid. Disgustingly
stupid. Definitively, nocively stupid, even," she shakes her head hard as if trying to shake off
the stupidity. Once she's done, though, her angry stare remains. "But why would you laugh
at that?"

(Cont!)

She looks away, her gaze suddenly twisting into despair. "This is sad! A lof of people are going to
die. A lot of good people that do good things, and a lot of stupid, stupid people that don't know
any better." Lumina looks straight into your eyes, but it lasts half a second before she looks
more towards your chest. "Why? Why would you laugh at something so... so..."

"You know, I think I've figured something out." You interrupt her, giving a wide (for your
standards) sharp smile, as you walk past her and gaze at the endless clouds. "Toast is
motivated by loving-kindness and making others happy, I believe she even said she was told that
when she was first activated. I wasn't." Your yellow raincoat is blown away by the wind, still
over your shoulders, yet the rest of your body is completely and perfectly still, down to the very
last screw. "But I believe the two things that bring me joy are creation and destruction. The
power to shape the world as I see fit." You nod towards the world. "Yeah. That sounds about
right. Power was the biggest thing Toast was missing, and the cloaked kooks saw that in her
request and answered it." You turn to look at Lumina, who suddenly seems a bit smaller. "As
you've noted I'm not that powerful yet, but I'm working on it." You strike a silly little smile,
biting your lower lip just a bit.

"I don't think Roomba asked for this," Lumina blurts out at once, slowly shaking her head. You
turn fully to face her, and this time she doesn't flinch at all. She's taller than Roomba, and yet,
Lumina seems so small. As if she was two midgets on top of each other, struggling to
coordinate arms and legs. Finally, she looks at you. "I don't think we are superior to Fakes.
Fakes aren't hungry." Lumina pauses for a bit, her stare lost in you. She opens her mouth.
"And that's very important. I think that's why I really like those books, machines always make
sense or they don't work. People don't make any sense and they still smile like everything is
alright." Lumina blinks a few times, pausing again. "I don't smile much, and you are the first
person I've talked to this much. You are a machine, and that is nice," she tilts her head to
the side, "but you are wrong. You are a machine that's wrong." She nods and nods. "I can't
really explain it, but I always know when something makes sense or not. Or I know I
don't know if it does. But now I know. I feel it. I know a lot about senseless destruction, too. I
hope you don't enjoy that." Her eyes dim, but she walks closer to you. Far too close to you.
She beckons for you to crouch, you glare at her for a while but finally crouch to lend her your
ear. And she whispers: "I don't mind sense-full destruction, though. So long as you promise me
you won't destroy just because, If you need any upgrades that Roomba wouldn't approve of, you
can come to me." Finally, she steps back and stretches a hand towards you. And she blurts
out, awkwardly: "Wanna be my friend?"

>>1296713
"Yeah. You're interesting."

Reach out and give her hand a shake, very very carefully.

"And I'm always willing to admit I'm wrong when strong evidence is presented. A machine that can't entertain a wrong thought isn't going to be very creative you know."

>>1296713

"Yes, we crazies have to stick together."