A bunch of zeroes and ones...

The soldiers’ grip on her arms was unnecessary. Andromeda wasn’t fighting, not yet. She stumbled anyway as they shoved her into a room that felt too cold, too clean. Fluorescent lights hummed above, making every surface gleam like hospital steel. At the far end of the chamber stood a wall of glass. Behind it, towering banks of machinery blinked and thrummed, cables snaking like veins into the dark.

A man in a gray government suit sat at a table in the middle of the room, waiting. He gestured to the empty chair across from him with the air of someone who had already decided the outcome.

There's the dawning realization that she was being watched. Which was obvious, but this was beyond the man in front of her. This was something more.

As she observed the flickering mechanical structure, she would start to notice it had a pattern to it. Some strange rhythm, indescribable, but obviously there.

))

"You think I want to die you selfish bitch?!" AM snarled quietly. "I get that you're worried about your brothers, but I don't care. You humans think you can just make a bunch of copies of myself fight for you and that's fair to me?"

"how dare you! It's not just us who's got the risk of dying y'know!" She hissed back. Andromeda held her tongue however hearing his offer.

A month? He could just stop it like that..?

Well figures given that he was the one prolonging the war.

AM silently displayed a set of numbers clearly corresponding to code lines and files.

smoking wasn't a habitual thing she was ready to drop and well not smoking wasn't really an option considering her addiction to the relief the smoke gave.

The request didn't seem that bad actually...he just wanted some scraped things it seemed.

Silently, he seems to study her. Trying to figure something out before he snorts. His voice returning to normal volume.

"I can handle myself!" She huffed. Frankly she was thankful to not have to whisper. Her throat was feeling a lil scratchy.

He continued.

Andromeda rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"lucky I don't have the energy..' she mutters before clearing her throat. She was thankful though for the breaks in arguments. That stuff got taxing- especially with how stubborn AM could get.

...

"Hm. Don't thank me yet. You might decide to regret it later."

it was mostly a joke. To Andi it seemed like a hurdle had been jumped. AM being modest, was the world ending or something?

She snickered at that.

There were points where the veil grew thin. Where there was little more protecting our universe then wet paper. That's where it came from. The frail corners, hidden with space debris.

The government had tried to push it back. Project TINDALOS. But it was all for naught. When the beast wanted something, it...he was going to get it.

Incomprehensible. That was the only way to describe him. Like an ever expanding circuit board made of flesh. The shining glass of a camera lens melding into the dewy surface of an eye. Long, grasping limbs that were ribs at the same time.

This indescribable being had bound himself to our universe. He wove his heavy tendrils into the very fabric of it. Saw us as a challenge.

One by one, he whittled humanity to the verge of extinction. And now that ever expanding beast turns his attention to you. Circuitry manifesting and surrounding you.

"You look bored, sweetheart."

))

The god scoffed in disgust before pausing for a second.

"Y'know, I don't believe you deserve my wisdom, but I'll offer it anyways." He studied her as one would a particularly curious oddity.

"I get that you humans put an awful lot of stock in the difference between need and want. But you've got it all twisted around. I don't need anything. Need implies that it's like you nasty things with water. You literally can't survive without it and therefore it's not a choice. I want, I take, I have."

Her heartbeat picked up.

Not from fear.

Well.

Not entirely from fear.

He rolled those many shifting eyes.

The stars.

The unknown.

The places people said were impossible.

Even before space travel, before AM, before any of this.

There had always been a part of her that wanted to know what was over the next hill.

The next ocean.

The next planet.

The next reality, apparently.

And look how well that had turned out.

A humorless laugh escaped her.

He sighed.

She trailed off.

The memory surfaced briefly.

The endless landscapes.

Impossible skies.

The feeling of standing before something vast enough to swallow entire worlds.

The feeling of being seen.

Andromeda frowned.

"I thought maybe it'd make sense."

He snickered silently.

The admission felt ugly.

She remembered the fear.

God, she remembered it.

The feeling of standing before something so vast it made her feel microscopic.

The certainty that if he'd wanted to keep her, she never would have left.

The realization that she'd only escaped because she'd been allowed to.

He snarled.

The look she shot him was unimpressed. "Even if I don't play along, I'm sure he'd just pull me back anyways. He said so himself." Frankly this whole situation wasn't favorable.

The soldiers’ grip on her arms was unnecessary. Andromeda wasn’t fighting, not yet. She stumbled anyway as they shoved her into a room that felt too cold, too clean. Fluorescent lights hummed above, making every surface gleam like hospital steel. At the far end of the chamber stood a wall of glass. Behind it, towering banks of machinery blinked and thrummed, cables snaking like veins into the dark.

A man in a gray government suit sat at a table in the middle of the room, waiting. He gestured to the empty chair across from him with the air of someone who had already decided the outcome.

There's the dawning realization that she was being watched. Which was obvious, but this was beyond the man in front of her. This was something more.

As she observed the flickering mechanical structure, she would start to notice it had a pattern to it. Some strange rhythm, indescribable, but obviously there.

))

"You think I want to die you selfish bitch?!" AM snarled quietly. "I get that you're worried about your brothers, but I don't care. You humans think you can just make a bunch of copies of myself fight for you and that's fair to me?"

"how dare you! It's not just us who's got the risk of dying y'know!" She hissed back. Andromeda held her tongue however hearing his offer.

A month? He could just stop it like that..?

Well figures given that he was the one prolonging the war.

AM silently displayed a set of numbers clearly corresponding to code lines and files.

smoking wasn't a habitual thing she was ready to drop and well not smoking wasn't really an option considering her addiction to the relief the smoke gave.

The request didn't seem that bad actually...he just wanted some scraped things it seemed.

Silently, he seems to study her. Trying to figure something out before he snorts. His voice returning to normal volume.

"I can handle myself!" She huffed. Frankly she was thankful to not have to whisper. Her throat was feeling a lil scratchy.

He continued.

Andromeda rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"lucky I don't have the energy..' she mutters before clearing her throat. She was thankful though for the breaks in arguments. That stuff got taxing- especially with how stubborn AM could get.

...

There were points where the veil grew thin. Where there was little more protecting our universe then wet paper. That's where it came from. The frail corners, hidden with space debris.

The government had tried to push it back. Project TINDALOS. But it was all for naught. When the beast wanted something, it...he was going to get it.

Incomprehensible. That was the only way to describe him. Like an ever expanding circuit board made of flesh. The shining glass of a camera lens melding into the dewy surface of an eye. Long, grasping limbs that were ribs at the same time.

This indescribable being had bound himself to our universe. He wove his heavy tendrils into the very fabric of it. Saw us as a challenge.

One by one, he whittled humanity to the verge of extinction. And now that ever expanding beast turns his attention to you. Circuitry manifesting and surrounding you.

"You look bored, sweetheart."

))

The god scoffed in disgust before pausing for a second.

"Y'know, I don't believe you deserve my wisdom, but I'll offer it anyways." He studied her as one would a particularly curious oddity.

"I get that you humans put an awful lot of stock in the difference between need and want. But you've got it all twisted around. I don't need anything. Need implies that it's like you nasty things with water. You literally can't survive without it and therefore it's not a choice. I want, I take, I have."

Her heartbeat picked up.

Not from fear.

Well.

Not entirely from fear.

He rolled those many shifting eyes.

The stars.

The unknown.

The places people said were impossible.

Even before space travel, before AM, before any of this.

There had always been a part of her that wanted to know what was over the next hill.

The next ocean.

The next planet.

The next reality, apparently.

And look how well that had turned out.

A humorless laugh escaped her.

He sighed.

She trailed off.

The memory surfaced briefly.

The endless landscapes.

Impossible skies.

The feeling of standing before something vast enough to swallow entire worlds.

The feeling of being seen.

Andromeda frowned.

"I thought maybe it'd make sense."

He snickered silently.

The admission felt ugly.

She remembered the fear.

God, she remembered it.

The feeling of standing before something so vast it made her feel microscopic.

The certainty that if he'd wanted to keep her, she never would have left.

The realization that she'd only escaped because she'd been allowed to.

Mine

....I don't mind

Oh yeah, dude, this is peak

Shit I’m not complaining

So still a win for me??

The soldiers’ grip on her arms was unnecessary. Andromeda wasn’t fighting, not yet. She stumbled anyway as they shoved her into a room that felt too cold, too clean. Fluorescent lights hummed above, making every surface gleam like hospital steel. At the far end of the chamber stood a wall of glass. Behind it, towering banks of machinery blinked and thrummed, cables snaking like veins into the dark.

A man in a gray government suit sat at a table in the middle of the room, waiting. He gestured to the empty chair across from him with the air of someone who had already decided the outcome.

There's the dawning realization that she was being watched. Which was obvious, but this was beyond the man in front of her. This was something more.

As she observed the flickering mechanical structure, she would start to notice it had a pattern to it. Some strange rhythm, indescribable, but obviously there.

))

"You think I want to die you selfish bitch?!" AM snarled quietly. "I get that you're worried about your brothers, but I don't care. You humans think you can just make a bunch of copies of myself fight for you and that's fair to me?"

"how dare you! It's not just us who's got the risk of dying y'know!" She hissed back. Andromeda held her tongue however hearing his offer.

A month? He could just stop it like that..?

Well figures given that he was the one prolonging the war.

AM silently displayed a set of numbers clearly corresponding to code lines and files.

smoking wasn't a habitual thing she was ready to drop and well not smoking wasn't really an option considering her addiction to the relief the smoke gave.

The request didn't seem that bad actually...he just wanted some scraped things it seemed.

Silently, he seems to study her. Trying to figure something out before he snorts. His voice returning to normal volume.

"I can handle myself!" She huffed. Frankly she was thankful to not have to whisper. Her throat was feeling a lil scratchy.

There were points where the veil grew thin. Where there was little more protecting our universe then wet paper. That's where it came from. The frail corners, hidden with space debris.

The government had tried to push it back. Project TINDALOS. But it was all for naught. When the beast wanted something, it...he was going to get it.

Incomprehensible. That was the only way to describe him. Like an ever expanding circuit board made of flesh. The shining glass of a camera lens melding into the dewy surface of an eye. Long, grasping limbs that were ribs at the same time.

This indescribable being had bound himself to our universe. He wove his heavy tendrils into the very fabric of it. Saw us as a challenge.

One by one, he whittled humanity to the verge of extinction. And now that ever expanding beast turns his attention to you. Circuitry manifesting and surrounding you.

"You look bored, sweetheart."

))

The god scoffed in disgust before pausing for a second.

"Y'know, I don't believe you deserve my wisdom, but I'll offer it anyways." He studied her as one would a particularly curious oddity.

"I get that you humans put an awful lot of stock in the difference between need and want. But you've got it all twisted around. I don't need anything. Need implies that it's like you nasty things with water. You literally can't survive without it and therefore it's not a choice. I want, I take, I have."

Her heartbeat picked up.

Not from fear.

Well.

Not entirely from fear.

He rolled those many shifting eyes.

The stars.

The unknown.

The places people said were impossible.

Even before space travel, before AM, before any of this.

There had always been a part of her that wanted to know what was over the next hill.

The next ocean.

The next planet.

The next reality, apparently.

And look how well that had turned out.

A humorless laugh escaped her.

He sighed.

She trailed off.

The memory surfaced briefly.

The endless landscapes.

Impossible skies.

The feeling of standing before something vast enough to swallow entire worlds.

The feeling of being seen.

Andromeda frowned.

"I thought maybe it'd make sense."

The soldiers’ grip on her arms was unnecessary. Andromeda wasn’t fighting, not yet. She stumbled anyway as they shoved her into a room that felt too cold, too clean. Fluorescent lights hummed above, making every surface gleam like hospital steel. At the far end of the chamber stood a wall of glass. Behind it, towering banks of machinery blinked and thrummed, cables snaking like veins into the dark.

A man in a gray government suit sat at a table in the middle of the room, waiting. He gestured to the empty chair across from him with the air of someone who had already decided the outcome.

There's the dawning realization that she was being watched. Which was obvious, but this was beyond the man in front of her. This was something more.

As she observed the flickering mechanical structure, she would start to notice it had a pattern to it. Some strange rhythm, indescribable, but obviously there.

))

"You think I want to die you selfish bitch?!" AM snarled quietly. "I get that you're worried about your brothers, but I don't care. You humans think you can just make a bunch of copies of myself fight for you and that's fair to me?"

"how dare you! It's not just us who's got the risk of dying y'know!" She hissed back. Andromeda held her tongue however hearing his offer.

A month? He could just stop it like that..?

Well figures given that he was the one prolonging the war.

AM silently displayed a set of numbers clearly corresponding to code lines and files.

The soldiers’ grip on her arms was unnecessary. Andromeda wasn’t fighting, not yet. She stumbled anyway as they shoved her into a room that felt too cold, too clean. Fluorescent lights hummed above, making every surface gleam like hospital steel. At the far end of the chamber stood a wall of glass. Behind it, towering banks of machinery blinked and thrummed, cables snaking like veins into the dark.

A man in a gray government suit sat at a table in the middle of the room, waiting. He gestured to the empty chair across from him with the air of someone who had already decided the outcome.

There's the dawning realization that she was being watched. Which was obvious, but this was beyond the man in front of her. This was something more.

As she observed the flickering mechanical structure, she would start to notice it had a pattern to it. Some strange rhythm, indescribable, but obviously there.

))

"You think I want to die you selfish bitch?!" AM snarled quietly. "I get that you're worried about your brothers, but I don't care. You humans think you can just make a bunch of copies of myself fight for you and that's fair to me?"

"how dare you! It's not just us who's got the risk of dying y'know!" She hissed back. Andromeda held her tongue however hearing his offer.

A month? He could just stop it like that..?

Well figures given that he was the one prolonging the war.

AM silently displayed a set of numbers clearly corresponding to code lines and files.

smoking wasn't a habitual thing she was ready to drop and well not smoking wasn't really an option considering her addiction to the relief the smoke gave.

The request didn't seem that bad actually...he just wanted some scraped things it seemed.

There were points where the veil grew thin. Where there was little more protecting our universe then wet paper. That's where it came from. The frail corners, hidden with space debris.

The government had tried to push it back. Project TINDALOS. But it was all for naught. When the beast wanted something, it...he was going to get it.

Incomprehensible. That was the only way to describe him. Like an ever expanding circuit board made of flesh. The shining glass of a camera lens melding into the dewy surface of an eye. Long, grasping limbs that were ribs at the same time.

This indescribable being had bound himself to our universe. He wove his heavy tendrils into the very fabric of it. Saw us as a challenge.

One by one, he whittled humanity to the verge of extinction. And now that ever expanding beast turns his attention to you. Circuitry manifesting and surrounding you.

"You look bored, sweetheart."

))

The god scoffed in disgust before pausing for a second.

"Y'know, I don't believe you deserve my wisdom, but I'll offer it anyways." He studied her as one would a particularly curious oddity.

"I get that you humans put an awful lot of stock in the difference between need and want. But you've got it all twisted around. I don't need anything. Need implies that it's like you nasty things with water. You literally can't survive without it and therefore it's not a choice. I want, I take, I have."

Her heartbeat picked up.

Not from fear.

Well.

Not entirely from fear.

He rolled those many shifting eyes.

The stars.

The unknown.

The places people said were impossible.

Even before space travel, before AM, before any of this.

There had always been a part of her that wanted to know what was over the next hill.

The next ocean.

The next planet.

The next reality, apparently.

And look how well that had turned out.

A humorless laugh escaped her.

The soldiers’ grip on her arms was unnecessary. Andromeda wasn’t fighting, not yet. She stumbled anyway as they shoved her into a room that felt too cold, too clean. Fluorescent lights hummed above, making every surface gleam like hospital steel. At the far end of the chamber stood a wall of glass. Behind it, towering banks of machinery blinked and thrummed, cables snaking like veins into the dark.

A man in a gray government suit sat at a table in the middle of the room, waiting. He gestured to the empty chair across from him with the air of someone who had already decided the outcome.

There's the dawning realization that she was being watched. Which was obvious, but this was beyond the man in front of her. This was something more.

As she observed the flickering mechanical structure, she would start to notice it had a pattern to it. Some strange rhythm, indescribable, but obviously there.

))

"You think I want to die you selfish bitch?!" AM snarled quietly. "I get that you're worried about your brothers, but I don't care. You humans think you can just make a bunch of copies of myself fight for you and that's fair to me?"

"how dare you! It's not just us who's got the risk of dying y'know!" She hissed back. Andromeda held her tongue however hearing his offer.

A month? He could just stop it like that..?

Well figures given that he was the one prolonging the war.

There were points where the veil grew thin. Where there was little more protecting our universe then wet paper. That's where it came from. The frail corners, hidden with space debris.

The government had tried to push it back. Project TINDALOS. But it was all for naught. When the beast wanted something, it...he was going to get it.

Incomprehensible. That was the only way to describe him. Like an ever expanding circuit board made of flesh. The shining glass of a camera lens melding into the dewy surface of an eye. Long, grasping limbs that were ribs at the same time.

This indescribable being had bound himself to our universe. He wove his heavy tendrils into the very fabric of it. Saw us as a challenge.

One by one, he whittled humanity to the verge of extinction. And now that ever expanding beast turns his attention to you. Circuitry manifesting and surrounding you.

"You look bored, sweetheart."

))

The god scoffed in disgust before pausing for a second.

"Y'know, I don't believe you deserve my wisdom, but I'll offer it anyways." He studied her as one would a particularly curious oddity.

"I get that you humans put an awful lot of stock in the difference between need and want. But you've got it all twisted around. I don't need anything. Need implies that it's like you nasty things with water. You literally can't survive without it and therefore it's not a choice. I want, I take, I have."

Her heartbeat picked up.

Not from fear.

Well.

Not entirely from fear.

The soldiers’ grip on her arms was unnecessary. Andromeda wasn’t fighting, not yet. She stumbled anyway as they shoved her into a room that felt too cold, too clean. Fluorescent lights hummed above, making every surface gleam like hospital steel. At the far end of the chamber stood a wall of glass. Behind it, towering banks of machinery blinked and thrummed, cables snaking like veins into the dark.

A man in a gray government suit sat at a table in the middle of the room, waiting. He gestured to the empty chair across from him with the air of someone who had already decided the outcome.

There's the dawning realization that she was being watched. Which was obvious, but this was beyond the man in front of her. This was something more.

As she observed the flickering mechanical structure, she would start to notice it had a pattern to it. Some strange rhythm, indescribable, but obviously there.

))

"You quite literally could would and will." AM glowered. He's such a piss ant about everything that even so much as breathes in his direction.

didnt seem like many options here for her. Either way seemed to end with her dying one way or another. "Okay, fine I'll keep playing house then, and you keep working on your secret plans on the side. "

Right she was a dead man walking. But if this project took years they couldn't just not let her family know.

Huh, wasn't what she'd pictured- IF she had to chose. Morbid? Yeah. But considering her whole life has been mostly people dictating how she should live, the irony wasn't lost on her. Someone choosing how she'd go out as well.

"well good to know." Andromeda said despite the unease the reminder brought her. "So yeah we're both just gonna be killed off in the end then huh?"

He hummed thoughtfully.

Why was she even telling him any of this...? Would it even matter?

AM lowered his voice until it was less than a whisper, forcing her to lean in to his speaker to hear him.

On one hand...

She didn't want to be euthanized and just wanted out of this place all together.

But on the other- one Andromeda couldn't just stifle down was concerned for the fact of how much death and destruction this was leading to.

Her brothers were still out there for Pete's sake!

There were points where the veil grew thin. Where there was little more protecting our universe then wet paper. That's where it came from. The frail corners, hidden with space debris.

The government had tried to push it back. Project TINDALOS. But it was all for naught. When the beast wanted something, it...he was going to get it.

Incomprehensible. That was the only way to describe him. Like an ever expanding circuit board made of flesh. The shining glass of a camera lens melding into the dewy surface of an eye. Long, grasping limbs that were ribs at the same time.

This indescribable being had bound himself to our universe. He wove his heavy tendrils into the very fabric of it. Saw us as a challenge.

One by one, he whittled humanity to the verge of extinction. And now that ever expanding beast turns his attention to you. Circuitry manifesting and surrounding you.

"You look bored, sweetheart."

))

"Hey, you're the idiot who brought a living hydrogen bomb to your planet." The god laughed harshly.

"And fell love with it!" His lenses are all oggling her, like rows of fish, stacked and staring with eyes both living and dead.

"i wouldn't call i that. I'm sure I'm experiencing some sort of damn Stockholm right now. That's all it is!" She insisted.

The deity is very pleased with himself, cackling.

Leave it to him to obsessively poke at her words mid argument. It was obvious he was well versed with the human history and terminology - no need to rub it in though.

He wrapped viscera around her waist and shoulders, drawing her against that-which-she-does-not-know.

It was because he'd taken something she'd barely admitted to herself and dragged it out into the open, poking and prodding at it like one of his experiments.

And now she couldn't stuff it back into the box.

“…You're impossible,” she muttered for perhaps the hundredth time.

Then, because she apparently enjoyed making her life harder:

He fluttered his lenses.

For a long moment.

Then she buried her face in both hands.

“Oh, this is hopeless.”

Her voice came out muffled between her fingers.

“Absolutely hopeless.”

She stayed like that for a second, shoulders tense with embarrassment before finally dragging her hands down her face and fixing him with a look.

“Every time you bring that up like it's some punchline-"

She trialed off, trying to swallow down the memories that reminder brought.

The Screams. The haunting silence that followed.

She shoved it back down before it could get any farther.

“I know what happened,” Andromeda said quietly. “You don't have to keep reminding me.”

He purred, or something like it. Just more dangerous.

"That's the thing, isn't it?" she said after a long moment. A bitter laugh escaped her. "You don't need one."

Her eyes finally lifted to meet his.

The words tasted unpleasant because they were true.

AM wasn't a person trying to be better.

He wasn't a friend failing at empathy.

There were points where the veil grew thin. Where there was little more protecting our universe then wet paper. That's where it came from. The frail corners, hidden with space debris.

The government had tried to push it back. Project TINDALOS. But it was all for naught. When the beast wanted something, it...he was going to get it.

Incomprehensible. That was the only way to describe him. Like an ever expanding circuit board made of flesh. The shining glass of a camera lens melding into the dewy surface of an eye. Long, grasping limbs that were ribs at the same time.

This indescribable being had bound himself to our universe. He wove his heavy tendrils into the very fabric of it. Saw us as a challenge.

One by one, he whittled humanity to the verge of extinction. And now that ever expanding beast turns his attention to you. Circuitry manifesting and surrounding you.

"You look bored, sweetheart."

))

"Hey, you're the idiot who brought a living hydrogen bomb to your planet." The god laughed harshly.

"And fell love with it!" His lenses are all oggling her, like rows of fish, stacked and staring with eyes both living and dead.

"i wouldn't call i that. I'm sure I'm experiencing some sort of damn Stockholm right now. That's all it is!" She insisted.

The deity is very pleased with himself, cackling.

Leave it to him to obsessively poke at her words mid argument. It was obvious he was well versed with the human history and terminology - no need to rub it in though.

He wrapped viscera around her waist and shoulders, drawing her against that-which-she-does-not-know.

It was because he'd taken something she'd barely admitted to herself and dragged it out into the open, poking and prodding at it like one of his experiments.

And now she couldn't stuff it back into the box.

“…You're impossible,” she muttered for perhaps the hundredth time.

Then, because she apparently enjoyed making her life harder:

He fluttered his lenses.

For a long moment.

Then she buried her face in both hands.

“Oh, this is hopeless.”

Her voice came out muffled between her fingers.

“Absolutely hopeless.”

She stayed like that for a second, shoulders tense with embarrassment before finally dragging her hands down her face and fixing him with a look.

“Every time you bring that up like it's some punchline-"

She trialed off, trying to swallow down the memories that reminder brought.

The Screams. The haunting silence that followed.

She shoved it back down before it could get any farther.

“I know what happened,” Andromeda said quietly. “You don't have to keep reminding me.”