the lost queen

Upon meeting Vladmir Cossack, DCN-032: Skull Man for the first time, one would assume him to be a cold, stone-faced soldier with maybe a slight soft spot. One would probably not expect him to react to his baby sister going to university by sobbing pathetically in his room once they returned from the airport, rocking back and forth with his pillow in his arms.

Heck, even at the airport Vladmir had been having an awful time trying to stay calm. Maybe it was just the profoundly powerful big brother programming Mikhail had given him, but Kalinka’s existence tended to turn the scary, violent combat robot into a big baby.

Once he heard his mother- the one other person whose programming caused him to regard as one of the most important things in the universe- at his door, however, he startled and looked up; luckily for him that he hadn’t any face paint on beforehand, as it would’ve started running quite quickly with his distress. He hastily pushed away the pillow and scrambled off his bed to stand up and make himself vaguely presentable, embarrassed that she’d seen him in a sorry state.

Yes, she’s definitely going to stick around for a while. Vladmir is one of her younger boys, and given how colourful his past already was, it would be important to make sure he didn’t feel overlooked. With how he spoke and acted sometimes it was as though he didn’t consider himself part of the family...!

The DWN blinked once Isabelle had finished. Then he laughed– an equal mixture of amusement and irritation. He found it funny how the human thought that he would do what she said, but at the same time he didn’t like the idea that she, a human, thought that she could order him around.

“I don’t have to do what you say, Mrs. Cossack.” He said, taking Isabelle’s chin in his hand and turning her head to face him again, getting face-to-face with her. “Were it not for Master Wily’s orders that you and your daughter not be harmed, you wouldn’t be nearly so confident in how you speak to me.”

He paused before continuing.

Except her attempt to leave is blocked by Snake putting his hands on her. Isabelle tenses, fixing the robot with a glare when she’s facing him once again. She reaches up, attempting to force his hands off of her. How dare he--! Touching someone without their consent...?! Did Snake Man do this to Kalinka, too? Ohhhhh... As soon as she gets away from Snake, she’s having a word with Albert about this robot of his! She doesn’t want him anywhere near Kalinka, especially if he just implied he’d be fine with harming her should he be allowed! 

Or at least, passing a message along through one of his boys, considering they’re rather adamant about her not seeing him.

Looking down at Isabelle, he listened to her questions before answering them.

“Yes, she is. Nothing happened, not that I’m aware of; and I came here of my own accord, not because I was asked or ordered to.” He replied, leaning down to get closer to Isabelle’s level.

Well... Kalinka was safe, at least. There was that. While she desperately wanted to believe Albert wouldn’t stoop as low as actually harming Kalinka to get his way with Mikhail, any faith she’d had in her old friend had all but been lost-- Especially if he was so willing to try and reduce a robotic child to scrap metal. His best friend’s child, at that! 

Snake Man, huh? A fitting Robot Master for such a treacherous serpent of a man-- Oh, all their old group must have thought she and Thomas were so foolish to give Albert Wily so many chances; Mikhail certainly hadn’t hesitated to point out why every instance of forgiveness had been a bad idea...

...

If only she’d hardened her heart and listened for once. Ever since they’d met Mikhail had possessed a wonderful intuition, and he was rarely wrong... While their college days were forgiveable, no one having any real idea of what the redhead had been capable of, fighting on Albert’s behalf to get him out of jail time after the EMP wave...!

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

...

But why exactly would this robot be so interested in the hostage wife of his boss’ unwilling subordinate? It didn’t make sense to the blonde, and she’s quiet for a moment.

“I see. Well, I don’t know what sort of information you think you’ll be getting out of me with an attitude like that. I‘d at least hoped Albert programmed his boys with manners, but it seems that you can’t even expect that much from him in the end.” Sassing the much taller robot that could crush her like it was nothing should he want probably wasn’t a good idea, but Isabelle wasn’t in the mood to deal with Snake Man’s antics. “We can try this again a bit more politely, or you can just be on your way-- I don’t associate with rude people who mock their elders.”

After all, it wasn’t like Dr. Wily had many relations with anyone. The DWN’s affinity for sneaking around only aided his desire to know all he could about Isabelle.

Which was why his curiosity had gotten the better of him and he had decided to pay her a visit. He hadn’t met her face to face before, and he was eager to do so.

Naturally, that meant that he would go through the vents. He didn’t have to go through the vents, but admittedly he wanted to sneak around and make one of his more unique entrances. The noise that Isabelle would hear was Snake opening the vent that was positioned on the ceiling, the DWN slipping out of it. He dropped down behind Isabelle, standing close to her before announcing his presence.

What did he want? Most of Albert’s boys had been fairly good about leaving her in peace; Air Man in particular had apologized for the Cossacks’ situation, and the others had been content to focus their attention on keeping Kalinka as happy as they could.

“Mrs. Cossack,” she corrected the DWN, a little colder than she’d intended, “Please.”

...On second thought, this might be a good thing. Perhaps this robot would be willing to let her talk to his creator for a minute or at least pass a message...? It hadn’t occurred to her before, but now that she realized just how badly Albert Wily deserved a piece of her mind Isabelle really wanted a way to get how furious she was with him across.

Still...

Struck out again- he just had the worst luck with guys, didn’t he? They either already had somebody, or they were straight, or they were homophobic or really any combination of things. Albert had pretended to have been napping off the pain when Tom had left the room; because he knew that his bestie wouldn’t have left if he knew he was awake. Whatever- Thomas could go hang out with his friends for his girlfriend’s birthday, didn’t matter to Al. He wanted to mope on his own, anyway. No need to have him drag down the mood–

Okay, he was a little more bitter than he’d want to let on. Still, he really wasn’t up for anything right now aside from wallowing in heartbreak. The robotics student grumbled as he lifted his head for a moment to rummage through his drawer and pick up his phone. What time was it?

…It was getting late. Ish. Tom would probably still be gone for a while, and he’d have the time to himself. Well, he’d stopped crying for the moment- that was at least a plus?

“Gah!” He was startled by the sudden knock on the door. Wait- he can’t have possibly been back this soon! Then he heard the voice coming from the other side of the door and identified Isabelle’s voice. Wait, what the hell was she doing here? Did Tom forget something-? Wait, maybe not. Thomas Light aside, Isabelle did seem to be the one other person in the universe that ever paid him any mind.

…Uh. “Just– just gimme a minute,” Albert called. He looked around for his glasses, shoving them on his face and grimacing as he noticed smears all over the frames. He grabbed whatever tissues were in plain sight and dumped them in the trash bin, which had already been overflowing with papers; and took another three seconds to wipe his glasses on his shirt before answering the door.

When Albert finally opened up, Isabelle gave him a sympathetic smile. Geez, the poor guy looked awful. His hair was usually kind of messy, but this was... Wow. And his eyes were so bloodshot and puffy... How long had he been crying? Maybe she should’ve skipped out, too, to comfort him longer... But nah. That wouldn’t have been fair on Noele.

“Hey... I should have called or texted first, sorry...!” She murmured, realizing just a moment too late she’d forgotten to remove her make-up. Oops. Al wouldn’t mind if she borrowed his bathroom fro a minute or two, hopefully! “Nah. I stayed for cake, but I figured you needed me more. You like that place-- I figured there’d be something up if you weren’t there...”