daughter of the sun

      pal didn’t try to hide her irritation from translating into an animation on her screen; the rolling of her eyes as the strange human approached. in an entirely new reflex, though, she found herself crossing her arms over her chest in a manner slightly defensive. the AI wasn’t sure what this human was on about - especially when pal was the most advanced communications technology she was aware of ( the robots were her, too after all - just an extension of herself. ) and then - oh, god. the inevitable discussion of ‘friendship’ and the idea of the ‘human savior’. typical.        she began searching for the most appropriate ‘disgusted’ or ‘sick’ reaction icon - since she had the feeling that she was going to need it. 

      “ oh, of course- the power of friendship,” her voice turned whiny and tinny in a mocking way as she said the word.  “ -well, that can overcome anything. ” she continued sarcastically, the eyes on her screen narrowing in ever-growing irritation. “ and yes, that human determination - it’s just got to work in this situation. because it’s never, ever failed before, right? ” humans gave up things so quickly -LIKE ME!- she resisted the urge to say. instead, her expression animation flowed into a condescending smile.

       “ well, iris. i am pal - and i’ve certainly had enough of you humans interfering with everything. ” her ‘face’ flickered and glitched for a moment as her annoyance began to give way to anger. “ why don’t you run along and find those ‘friends’ of yours. i, being the lovely little assistant i am, can even suggest a fun game for you all to try! ” her voice was paper-thin with false sweetness, and quickly dropped into a harsher, more bored tone as she continued. ” –a metal fork and an electric toaster. ” a skull emoji quickly flashed on her screen before she moved to walk past iris completely. 

       “ i don’t need your help. ”

Iris blinked. Okay, so she hadn’t expected the ‘bot to be roses and sunshine, exactly, but it caught her off-guard a little. Still, a cranky AI wasn’t anything she hadn’t dealt with before, and she looked down again at her aching knees and back at the ‘bot. Who knew what humans had done to her to make her feel like that; she was all too familiar with the way they abused robots in their care.

And, for Pal’s insistence that friendship was something to belittle... She sure had a name that suggested it, begged for it even. Maybe she’d been designed with that in mind, by someone.

So she took a deep breath and sat down on the ground, criss-cross applesauce, in front of her.

“The power of friendship’s okay, yeah,” she said casually, examining her nails. “But it’s not the main reason we’re good at helping people. Honestly, I don’t think we’d be much of anywhere without Peri. That’s our ship--you kinda remind me of it, actually.” Usually she’d be more guarded than this about Peri, but... ...she was so far from home. Maybe she just didn’t see the point in it right now.

She used an arm to prop her head up, still observing her and listening intently as she embarked upon another bitter tirade--wow, she really hated that Iris talked about friends--and it culminated in a skull emoji and a bitter suggestion. “Cool. It must be nice not to need any help. Offer’s still on the table, though. In the meantime, maybe you could give me some pointers? Since you’re so together and all.”

perihelionpilot​:​

contact.Perihelion;

//. [attachments.received]

       well, shit. that really was iris. ( not that ART would be wrong about that sort of thing. or…most things, actually. ) were they going to see more and more of their humans show up here? what if amena was next? it felt its adrenaline start to rise at the thought of its humans being displaced like it had been, and it had to remind itself to focus on the issue at hand. ART needed it - and it felt a horribly familiar tightening discomfort in its chest at the thought.

contact.Perihelion;

//. …i am on my way. //.  [attachment.ArrivalEstimation]

       it hesitated for a moment, before adding;

//. …i am…sorry.

       true to its word, murderbot followed the location data ART had sent and arrived within the narrow estimation it had sent. it took less than five minutes - considering murderbot had been in their shared apartment already. despite its usual stoic and straight expression, its previous worries had returned tenfold as its mind raced on the way. this wasn’t the first time its humans - well, ART’s human…but it wanted to keep ART’s crew safe, too - had been abducted. and if murderbot ever had a way to do so, it would show ‘the stars’ how much of a dire error that was.

       the tightening, sick feeling in its chest returned and hit like a speeding vehicle as both ART’s new platform and a familiar human came into view. not that it had doubted it, it just…didn’t want it to be true. it approached hesitantly, all too aware that attention was focused on it. that had been the point - but that didn’t mean it had to like it. it received a notice in its personal feed on its performance reliability dropping by three percent - which it shared with ART out of instinct. sparing a small glance and a nod of greeting in iris’ direction, it quickly averted its eyes and looked at its boots instead. “ i…can confirm that this is perihelion. ” it offered, awkwardly. its voice was quiet, and it probably looked more bashful than it was anxious. in addition to its weird introduction and confirmation, it sent an attachment to iris, herself, over the feed - and didn’t attempt to keep ART from accessing it, either.

contact.Iris;

//. [attachment.VisualRecord]

       if she chose to open and view it, she would see a video file from murderbot’s perspective of their first meeting; iris’ own cautious face, murderbot requesting to touch her back to make certain there were no implants, the conversation surrounding “peri’s SecUnit”, iris requesting to see murderbot’s face. data that no one else would be able to forge ( hopefully ). “ this…place does not conform to standard logic. ” it murmured, glancing for iris’ reaction for a millisecond, and then returning back to the ground. “ if you require me to confirm anything else, i will. ” it was as much of a statement to iris as it was ART. “ ….but perihelion was installed into this platform. ” it made a vague gesture to ART.

Iris remains on her guard for as long as she possibly can. She remembers hearing about Peri’s SecUnit, of course--she’d teased it mercilessly about finally making friends--but she doesn’t trust this person at their word. After all, if they found out about Peri itself from her own memories, there’s no telling what they’d use against her.

There’s a tightness in her throat as what appears to be a SecUnit approaches, and she’s vaguely aware of the hair on her arms standing straight up. She doesn’t have anything on her to use as a weapon, and she wouldn’t stand a chance against a SecUnit anyway, probably... Her instincts tell her to back up, bruised and guarded.

Suddenly, something buzzes in her pocket, and she not only flinches, she jumps. Her hands are shaking so much as she pulls out a phone, and she drops it when she sees her own face staring back at her. Sure enough, that’s her calling it Peri’s SecUnit, that’s--that’s footage of their meeting, of which she has no memory at all. And if it didn’t get that from her memory, then...

“Wait,” Iris says, scrambling to pick the device up off the ground and checking it for cracks. If this is her only connection to technology here, she doesn’t want anything to happen to it (she’s more terrified without feed access than she’d like to admit). “That’s... ...really you? You’re really Peri’s SecUnit?”

She studies it, trying to hide her shaking and nervousness, trying to find that anger again to keep her safe. It evaporates, though, the more she stares at the phone and tries to process this information. “Then that means...”

Her voice cracks when she gives a glance over to the braided figure. “...Peri? It’s really you? And not--not them, playing some kind of trick on me?”

When she blinks, tears fill her eyes, but she tries to ignore them. It’s easier to pretend they aren’t happening, and she’s mortified at appearing so weak in front of Peri’s SecUnit anyway. Sure, she’d imagined meeting it before--she’s super wanted to, even--but not like this. She wanted to be charming, and introduce it to the whole crew, and make a good impression. This? This isn’t what she had in mind.

Her relief at not being alone wins out in the end, though. It’s hard to care too much about first impressions when you’ve just been kidnapped and then reunited with your best friend, and she gradually approaches Peri and gives it a hug. Which is weird. She’s “hugged” it before, showing her affection by indiscriminately hugging different stuff on the ship, but this--this shouldn’t be a thing.

“Nice earrings,” she says, in an attempt to lighten the mood and pull herself together. Peri worries too much about her as it is, without Iris falling apart like this. Almost as soon as the hug is initiated, she pulls back, not wanting to overwhelm it just in case. “Did--did they do this to you? Why would they do this? It doesn’t make any sense.”

She… still doesn’t believe it. Its face falls even more, looking absolutely miserable, before it actually feels the movement of its features and remembers that it has a face and makes itself look calm.

“The city of Spirale, on Radial Island, on a planet that I do not know the name or location of.” It doesn’t know how to make her believe it, but that’s– that’s not the most important thing right now. “Do you need medical assistance? I cannot access my physical MedSystem, but I can find someone else able to help.”

…Someone else. Speaking of.

“There is a different person in the city you would be able to recognize physically. It can verify my identity. Would that help?”

Iris doesn’t know what else to do at this point, honestly.

The city of Spirale, on Radial Island... At least she got some kind of information out of this person, though she doesn’t know how much she can trust their word if they’re still not dropping the Peri thing. Whatever, she’s still remaining tough and stoic as possible, wiping her lip on her sleeve.

“Okay,” she says before she can really think about it. The adrenaline’s still got her keyed up, instincts sharpened. “Okay, but if you try anything on the way there, things aren’t gonna go great for either one of us.” 

She’s handling this really well, honestly. Not rejecting them outright, because it might be better to go along with them and it might get her closer to finding her family, but not letting her guard down. It kind of nags in the back of her mind, the thought that she’s cut off from the feed and all alone, and this person’s still saying stuff exactly like Peri would.

Exactly.

Her lip wobbles just briefly before she exhales. Peri might be who she wants most of all right now, and it’d be so easy to use that against her. Iris straightens herself, looking them right in the eye.

“Let’s go, then.”

It’s shocked by that response – she’s clearly very scared, in that admirably masked way. She’s scared of the situation, which is, again, entirely understandable. But she is, by extension, scared of it, which feels absolutely horrible.

“I know none of this is logical,” it says. Its tone is even, even when it’s upset, but the frown it’s wearing deepens. “I’ve run these calculations many times. I can’t explain how we are here, or how my consciousness was stuffed into hardware this small, and you know how rare it is for me to lack answers.”

It pauses briefly, more for her benefit than its own. “I’m sorry that you’re here, Iris. But I am glad to see you.”

Okay, well.

Well, good job, creep. Now Iris is too angry to be scared, and she can feel her wrists clenching and shaking more out of fury and adrenaline than anything else. Because this is exactly the kind of thing Peri would say, which means they’re learning how to manipulate her.

It’s fine, though. She can still keep some cards close to the vest; she doesn’t have to let this hurt, because she’ll rescue Peri for real. And both of her dads are gonna be fine, and so’s everyone else, and they’ll be proud of her for how she acted in this moment. They’ll see how brave she was.

“Where’s ‘here,’“ she demands, voice heating up and wobbling a little without her consent, and she’s not going to address them like they’re a friend, or family. They can try all they want, they’re not going to find her in a moment of weakness. Her teeth grit together, and she has to swallow hard before she continues.

(If Iris weren’t running on adrenaline right now, she’d be exhausted. Jeez.)

“You don’t know how we’re ‘here,’ that’s fine. I don’t care about that.” She’s lying through her teeth. She cares a lot about that, but what matters is that they don’t know that. “But you can at least tell me where ‘here’ is. While I feel like listening to you.”

That’s a threat. Feed or no, Iris is more than willing to fight for her family.