imbalance

Aaaa you fish fry, Uno reversing me. Sure, I'll try to yap for a bit. I don't really know how to form this reply satisfyingly either though.

Mine is weird in that homie kinda just Is. Its primary mode of existence is that akin to an actual toaster. It has a function and it will do that without any emotional attachment, reasoning or anything. Just ,,ok, on it boss 😐👍".

I've got Two pictures in my mind when I idly think about Second and it's these two:

There is SHIT to be done, it is immediately on its way in a straight line to the goddamn target and if there is a WALL in the way and it's not property of the Almighty Citadel it will get Mowed Down. Aka very determined and straight forward in a machine way. There's a directive to follow and also kind of the 10 commandments of chivalry and by god, they are gonna be followed. That is all everyone is ever going to see of it Except its siblings and later Hornet.

With its siblings, most things that would define an individual sort of came and went- they aren't pondered over or acknowledged as part of itself. They do repeat, they Are actual parts of it, but they are brushed away in favor of staying within the expectations of the Citadel. The only emotion that is somewhat intended by the Citadel is anger, which is still subersviant to the directive. This is because that is a pro-active emotion, giving it a particular kick towards action.

(Which is why I assumed what I did regarding your interpretation [I apologize again o7]. If it were my take it would have gotten angry, because something is Very Wrong that the directive does not approve of. It has to be dealt with immediately no matter what. How can somebody dare to hurt a voice under its protection?) (I do like that yours is terrified instead. Them being more human is very interesting to me, what with me having quite a different take on them. The variety possible with Second is awesome.)

Amidst the sea of indifference, there's a spike of positive feedback when it gets to be gentle. There's something like protective indignation when a person is hurt on its watch and if the directive doesn't outright forbid it, its moving towards the other to check them over and offer help.

Those are purely its impulses, but then there are also those that come from its 3 silkflies.

There's a sort of... symbiosis going on inside when it comes to emotional experience. Second's hesitance when Hornet tells them about Citadel's alleged death or its trembling after their duel is a machine getting confused when its directive is challenged or threatened (in a way that takes higher priority than the directive itself), with the silkflies hopping in to supply a befitting feeling.

In regard to its dead siblings, the feeling that is purely its is a sense of "being lost". It doesn't feel lonely, per se, it more can't seem to understand how that could've happened and what is it supposed to do now without them (so it does miss them, there's just a lesser emphasis on the actual feeling of "being alone". "Alone" is a confusing fact to it). The silkflies supply that this situation is "sad" and its logic core agrees, accepting it, but it isn't exactly its own impulse.

Once Hornet manages to score herself a designation of "fellow sentinel", then it starts properly unraveling itself and actually developing/owning/thinking about its traits- being a Someone.

And that happens through a sort of fixation on Hornet. Things regarding itself still mostly draw a blank, things are factual, it isn't proud of being a master of the scissor blades, it just is. But it feels a want to be gentle and good to Hornet. It opens up to her the same it did to its siblings, because she now holds a similar post to them and she points these things out as something important it should think about and make its own. It isn't lost with her here and it never wants to leave her side again, not because its controllingly obsessed or thinks her in need of it, but because it isn't programmed to exist without someone else at least Vaguely there. It didn't know what to do with itself before she became more to it and it won't know what to do if she leaves at this point.

I imagine them going on some kind of trip through Mount Fay, probably to the City of Steel (covered in snow just like Fay), during which they figure out themselves better and each other too (aka observing each other, picking out what they vibe with exceptionally well & taping it on themselves to make it their own and what they vibe with while the other is parading it around leading to falling in love or something positive like that).

Sec learns that it dislikes ice, for example. It likes Hornet's laughter, but it doesn't appreciate being laughed At all that much. It doesn't like singing (hurts-), but when Hornet gave it her needolin to try messing around with, it was actually quite enjoyable (end game is cello). It learns that it likes listening to stories, keeping tabs on histories, notes on enemies and animals like Hornet does (she gets it its own journal). It likes going for a walk, but not when its raining- the noise of it is too distracting and makes the walk a nerve-wrecking thing.

Its final realization is that it(/the Citadel) was unkind to Pharloom way back when, because while Hornet is a child of Hallownest- having fond memories in nearly every corner of it, carrying its cultures with her- Second has only ever fought across the lands. The idea of bastardizing protection into needless offense is central to it (it first realizing this and questioning stuff is what landed it heartless and in a glass tube initially).

It wants to be more like Hornet (and then Sherma, Shakra, Tipp and Pill and and-) so its goal in life becomes patrolling the whole of Pharloom and helping out wherever it can, to be kinder to Pharloom- still mostly factual but not cold, learning more about itself and how to live alone (but not lonely).

But Second Sentinel, because they are an automaton, powered by silkfly, they don't basically have a soul. So 'death' for them means silkfly escaping their shell. And no afterlife.

How do you think they would feel about that? Do they realise that if they die, they shall never reunite with Hornet, because they don't have a soul that could go to the afterlife world? That they will never actually go to some hypothetical 'place after death', while others might go?

gkldsgmklmcklg I'm sorry, in the context the statement is super valid to ponder and question but just- ,,You can die if you are killed"........ jgkdmkl That be direct hit to me kind of humor, I'm afraid...

Either way, hmm... I think what HK does with death and what comes after is something way less personalized than what we are used to with ideas of afterlife or reincarnation.

In our believes here in real life, a soul is what holds our essence, traits, memories, feelings and so on. There's a Something that's capable of carrying our substance to either the pearly gates, paradise or the next life. The self is considered incorporeal. In the HK universe, soul is a resource akin to water. Reminds me of qì a bit. Soul is energy that gives life and a mask is what brings all the traits- allows for the shaping of an individual throughout their growth. It defines a person- think of a glass sculpture that also works as a vase. The sculpture gives water poured into it a "personality". The self is corporeal, similar to atheist understanding of life- they define the brain as the one carrying the ,,I"/self.

By this importance of masks, the logic of it, we can come to the conclusion that the moment a mask shatters, the individual (what we believers in spiritual/religious would attribute to a soul,) ceases to be. There's is no heaven, afterlife or reincarnation, because there isn't anything concrete that could continue on. It's only the essence of life returning into the world like river water into ocean.

If Hornet dies- her mask breaks apart- she ceases to exist in the absolute, same as Second presumably would if its silkfly were to vacate the premises.

Which is interesting now that I think about it- the cogmatons and normal bugs aren't *so* terribly different, they still function with a similar sort of idea, I'd just argue that their soul- their water- is in the form of ice rather than in its liquid state. It's forced into its own form already, remembering a shape without a body to define it in personal detail- it doesn't fill the mechanic body so fully like normal soul does.

This all then would mean there is no difference between these two's expected experience post-death. They would both be blessed with a complete cessation of existence.

Then again- the ideas of haunting, separation of the fuelling soul from the defining physical is what Team Cherry has played quite a bit with under this worldly ruleset they've made. Soul Sanctum and Whiteward + the cogmatons deal with it.

Soul Sanctum, with the Mistakes and Follies, I'd say deals with the soul part of it- what happens to a soul undefined but physical; while Whiteward deals with what happens to a definition without a flame of its own to power it (Meemaw's puppeteering).

A normal form of soul does not remember, while silk (and by extension silkflies ig) is capable of catching and retaining memories because it is threaded (or maybe because Spider Glue™).

Therefore, funnily enough, Hornet is facing a complete oblivion while Second might have a shot at either eternity or reincarnation, depending on the answer to the questions ,,Do silkflies fray?" and ,,What makes up a Sentinel's selfhood- why is it so much better defined/complete than that of any other cogwork?" (Does the shell play a part [as I've made it with my mind rune nonsense] or is it all depending on the silkfly?)

Now, if you'd like a more direct answer to the proposed scenario containing reality with an afterlife, let's humor it with an AU and not bother with canonical implications for spiritual cycle of life.

In my opinion Second very much lives stuck in the moment. There's the Directive to heed. Only it and what may stand in its way is important. Death is just a termination of the capability to heed the Directive, it has self-preservation only so it could continue in its duty as long as possible. Voices come and go through its hands, passing through the moment of its responsibility for them. It's a sort of tunnel vision where nothing but the Directive matters. It means death isn't such a personal thing as it is to us- survival instincts so loud people are willing to kill another to live one more day. Second is willing to die so *another* may live one more day instead (is m'goddamn guess, man, toaster's a play-dough of a character rn). There isn't a reason to think about what comes after. The only issue with death is that it's a failure in duty.

If Hornet brought it up- in the form that she'd wish she could find Sec even after the death of the both of them- I think Second would feel rather... empty about it. Y'know that liminal feeling- something as so.

It wouldn't care about its existence ceasing. That isn't too important. If it will stop to exist what is there to even worry about, anyway? It won't have any senses to feel the sorrow with. The thing they'd take an issue with would be Hornet's desire of having them by her side going unfullfilled. Maybe they'd be reminded of how lonely they've been, left standing while their siblings are dead.

And Sec would frown and think real hard, before turning to Hornet, asking if she knows a way for them to follow her. She'd huff a humourless chuckle, shrugging with one shoulder, looking somewhere into the middle distance- either folding her hands in her lap with tired frustration or leaning against its side.

Also, I really love how you see the afterlife and soul in a philosophical way. A rather logical and reasonable, and beautiful interpretation, I like it.

And I just omg I imagine that conversation between them, about death and stuff, but it’s not angsty, just some kind of.. Well, soft grief? Anyways, also about what is it that defines Sentinel so well, now that I think about it, could it be like consciousness of babies? That they gain more and more of it as they do more actions, and the memories and thoughts pile up until there is just something, that can be called consciousness? Maybe.

He lets out a big sigh.

I wish you take a look

@fifth-sentinal-official

"Understood, Fifth-of-Make," The Twelfth Architect said. "I will t-t-take a look."

The Twelfth Architect approaches, and opens the maintenance panel on the Fifth Sentinel gently.

They stare for a long while.

We laid unconscious in the lab of weaver Yivel, until I heard the excessive soul I produce screech and squirm in delight. The soul had previously constantly stated that it wanted to be my organs and let me ascend to the power pale beings could only dream of, I had of course ignored the request.

When we woke up we had found that the soul had pushed our heart out of our body and solidified into a fleshy solid mimic of a heart, though it functioned like our old heart, an energy center that turned silk into a chemical that could extract energy out of food and distribute this to our muscles. So more a mix of a stomach and a heart.

We had found that this new organic heart actually greatly strengthens our muscles, on the status screen we saw that muscles strength was at 300/300, enough to lift a bell shrine! And since it's the highest the counter can go perhaps our muscles have grown even stronger than that!

...

Do you have any ideas tet- other crest?

I thought you would have ideas! It was your idea to come here!

I thought you would have ideas! You know the capabilities of an architect much better than I do!

This is beyond the capabilities of an architect! It's an organ made of flippin' soul!

I thought architects could do surgery! Though I'm pretty sure this is the exact description of a grand heart so yeah they probably can't do anything...

Not even a surgeon could deal with this! Architect I am sad to announce we don't know what you could do. Removal seems sub-optimal as it has proven to have positive effects but it also makes me really uncomfortable that this is in my body.

They can't remove it in the first place if they don't know surgery!

Both voices speak at once, though different things.

And I'm not trusting mizello with my life again!

"While it is true I am not qualified to perform surgery on an org-organic bug, I can certainly do it on automatons. And I have textbooks I scavenged from the Whiteward, as well," The Twelfth Architect stated.

The heart spoke.

The Twelfth Architect stood up, walked to another wing of the Underworks, got the papers from their Eternal Archive out, and came back.

He entered a maintenance position.

With that, the Twelfth Architect got to work building the heart. A few hours later, they were done. Getting the leather was... the hard part. That took multiple hours. They eventually just bought it off a random pilgrim.

They then built a machine to extract the soul-based heart. A giant mechanical arm.

They hadn't known soul tentacles existed.

Weaver in Red and Gold is obviously their beloved, Yivel. But she is far from mad! Third in Designation... likely the Third Sentinel.

But who were the others?

"... Understood..." The Twelfth Architect said.

They then paused.

... The Fifth Sentinel neglected to inform them of how to turn maintenance mode off.

HOLY GUACAMOLE WHAT IS THAT.

EVEN older and even more unfinished.

The road to City of Steel and the place itself has to be freezing and snowy not only for the winter aesthetic framing the warm colors of these two and hiding Steel enemies, but also so I have an excuse to make Sec and Hornet cuddle all the time.

Its hands may be cold, but its torso is nice and hot. Radiator. Toaster for real this time.

Sec has cold hands because: 1. I am not convinced there's enough mechanical/silk function in there to generate enough heat to warm the metal. 2. I wanna slap Hands by Flatsound on these two. Like REALLY really want to. 3. I have a fixation on romancing hands and screwing around with them, alright.

Examples of screwing around, not cold related: In my RW au, the number of fingers denoted a creature's sentience- 3 for animals, 5 for the people of the world. The people cut their fingers off in rituals to brand themselves as ridden of earthly binds. Their old forgotten God had 6. The people created themselves "children"- fantastical supercomputers smarter than anything- and gave them 3 fingers. A woman from the people fell in love with one of these "children", rather seeing him and his kind for the individuals that they were rather than just the leash of that fabricated familial title. And she made him 5 fingered hands. She loved him, enough to see him, complicated siphonophore as he is, enough to make everyone else see him as their equal. At *least* subconsciously. She left him only when death took her. But forever he'll get to feel the traces of her touch inside and out from within his hands, as she meticulously put all those components together.

There is nothing left of you, I can see it in your eyes.

Sing the anthem of the angels,

And say the last goodbye.