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English
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Published:
2024-10-24
Completed:
2024-10-28
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2,872
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2/2
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Summary:

What if Ariane and Elster got to go home.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

Ariane lets slip that their relationship is sexual, and the information makes your skin crawl. But you say nothing for there is nothing you can say to dissuade her. After all, she had been trapped in that metal coffin for over a decade, drifting aimlessly through the stars with no one for companionship. A choice you had encouraged her to make. You had been so proud of her acceptance letter, and now you can hardly stand to look at her. 

You were ecstatic to hear of her return, something you were made to anticipate being impossible. You wasted no time writing to your sister that her daughter was back after so many years. The letter will take time to arrive, but you hope you can celebrate her return together at some point. But there is nothing to celebrate. Ariane spends a few weeks in the hospital before she is unceremoniously kicked to the street with no fanfare and no recovery plan. No one contacts you about her discharge so you do not know it happens until she arrives at your front door shivering in the arms of a Replika model you don't recognize. You are surprised when the Replika who carries her inside does not leave. It introduces itself as LSTR-512 and gives you a brief rundown of its functions. None of which include prolonged at home medical care. 

She is still a young woman, yet she is thin and frail like a woman three times her age. It's rare that she speaks to anyone but the LSTR unit who seems to operate effortlessly as her shadow. Your attempts at conversation always elicit only vacant stares. Worse yet, it is often the Replika who replies on her behalf, though on rare occasions it does prompt Ariane to speak. You can't stand its voice. Its flat responses in place of any meaningful exchange with your niece. But there's nothing you can do. You tried, once, early on to separate the two. You wanted to speak with Ariane without that thing looming at her side but all you had accomplished was making them both frantic. You realized quickly your attempts at social rehabilitation were nowhere near the kind of professional intervention Ariane desperately needed. And Ariane had dismissed any and all assistance in exchange for keeping the LSTR unit.

You hate the way they share a bed. You hate that when the Replika told you it needed to stay by Ariane's side because of her inability to walk without assistance you didn't have any kind of response. Even if you had told it to sleep on the floor, neither of them would have listened. So, instead you find them in bed together every morning clinging to the other as if one of them might vanish. You feel sick every time you check on them only to discover Ariane’s clothes discarded on the ground. She isn't a child, and it isn't your place, but you can't help how it makes you feel, and so you say nothing. Partially, you understand your niece's emotional dependence on the only other Gestalt-esque thing she had lived with in isolation. But the opposite you cannot fathom. At times, you catch yourself considering the LSTR unit’s feelings towards your niece, the possibility they exist at all. You are quick to remind yourself that Replikas are not designed that way, and no matter how physically affectionate they may appear together at times when they think you aren't around, there is no warmth in the gestures. 

It's easy to blame Elster. It makes everything hurt less. You can look at her and see the marks that brand her as property, as a tool of the Nation, as a symbol of the Penrose Program. Elster is strong enough to shoulder your guilt for you. She's an easy target because she doesn't complain. In fact, you've never heard her complain about anything. Elster diligently cares for your niece with an unquestioning devotion. She helps her dress, clean herself, feed herself, and even carries her around when Ariane doesn't have the strength to walk on her own. And you find that you trust her to do all of it. Maybe it's because you don't have any other choice. You still need to work, after all, and it isn't as if Ariane is in any condition to accompany you. Or, maybe it's that you know Elster has followed this same routine for longer than you care to think about. Ariane didn't become like this overnight, wasting away as a ghostly shell, that, were it not for Elster, you might not be convinced Ariane was still in there at all. You wonder how long she was sick for and your heart aches every time. This is your fault.

Elster calls you “Mrs. Yeong” even though you're married and that isn't your name. You never bother to correct her, first because you don't like interacting with her, then later because you know she's just trying to be respectful. She understands you're Ariane's family member, and seems to assume you should have the same family name.

You find you make assumptions about Elster a great deal. You struggle to get a read on her from her nearly expressionless face, her flat affect, to her generally stiff demeanor. But sometimes you think you catch her smiling with Ariane although you can never be sure. On the rare occasions she does communicate with you, Ariane tells you the things Elster likes and dislikes, or the mood that she's in. Your first impulse is to say she's personifying her and that Elster probably doesn't feel anything about anything, but you don't. It won't help. It's the only topic Ariane seems comfortable with anymore and you don't want her to shut you out entirely. You take whatever you can get.

While it's seldom you are alone with her, at times, Ariane will fall asleep in a chair and Elster will leave her there to rest, never straying too far away. Perhaps, it is because she is a Replika that she has such a drive to keep busy, but she never wastes time trying to make idle chatter with you. Instead, she occupies herself making repairs around your small apartment without being asked. There's not a broken light or wobbly table or leaky pipe to be found now, and you're grateful. It's one less thing to worry about. You can't help but wonder, so you ask her one day while she's busy adjusting an uneven cabinet door, why she feels the need to do all of this. 

“Because,” she says, not looking up from her work as she checks whether or not she's managed to level the door or not (you wonder if she'll notice the wall is uneven, not the cabinet itself), “it's what I'm used to.”

You expected the response, but you can't help but press a little further, and so you say, “I don't want you to feel obligated.” It feels odd to say, you think. Could a Replika even feel a sense of obligation? A sense of duty, perhaps. A purpose. But an obligation? 

Elster doesn't respond and you decide to drop it. You watch her finish up another unnecessary repair and carefully put away her well worn tools she'd managed to bring back from her deployment. To your surprise, she speaks again, and her voice, unprompted, makes you jump.

“I do it for Ariane,” she says, and you believe her.

Chapter 2

Notes:

People wanted to know what Iris would think so... in honor of Signalis' second anniversary (which i totally didn't forget about) I wrote a second chapter to this.

Chapter Text

You cannot see the stars on Rotfront. Between the endless snow storms and the pollution, you begin to forget what the night sky truly looks like. You remember seeing them on Leng every night but that time in your life was far behind you. 

You had been reluctant to let her go; any mother would be, but you convinced yourself it was good for her. Ariane deserved more than you could give her. A future. A life to call her own. Such a thing would not have been possible locked up in a remote radio outpost her entire life. You had settled but she did not need to. You told yourself you sent her away out of love, and that love was not always easy but was always necessary. 

And you missed her. School was hard on her. You knew she was lying in her letters home but all you could do was encourage her to push through it and she'd be fine in the end. Just a few more years. All you need to do is finish your service then you can start your life for real. It'll be worth it. I love you.

The last time you'd seen her, her hair had turned stark white. None of her letters had mentioned the change and by the time you received the photograph, she was gone. She looked so small standing next to that Replika, and her uniform seemed just a bit too big for her, but despite that she looked happy enough. 

Operation Penrose. You'd never heard of it before and never really did understand what the point was. At least Ariane would see the stars again. Had she missed them? How much of her life on Leng could she remember? She was young when you'd relocated after her father died. 

As soon as you received your sister's letter, you made plans to get to her. The harsh climate made travel difficult, and forced you to delay your arrival three times, but never did you give up.

Your sister answers the door for you and does not speak. She only stares at you for a moment then begins to sob, clinging to your gradually thawing coat. When she can form words, she begins to apologize over and over again, but you cannot understand why. 

You grab her shoulders and push her back far enough to ask the only thing that matters to you. 

“Where's Ariane?”

You find her, what's left of her, seated on the lap of a Replika, staring at the television. Neither turn to look at you as they remain preoccupied silently mouthing along to a movie in uncanny unison with one another. Part of you is grateful that you do not exist in their world because you find your gaze fixed on the skeletal frame of what was once your daughter and you fear their judgment if they see your face.

Kamilla informs you this response, or lack thereof, is normal for them. You press her for more information but she is unable to offer anything of use. 

When you cannot bear the wait anymore you throw yourself to the ground in front of them, grabbing Ariane's discolored hand and pleading with her. 

Talk to me. 

Look at me.

I'm here. 

I'm here for you Ariane.

I missed you.

I'm sorry. 

I'm sorry. 

I'm sorry.

Ariane's eyes lifelessly stare through you. You reach up to hold her face as you struggle to fight back tears yet still nothing changes. Where has she gone, you wonder, and will she ever be able to come back? 

The Replika behind her takes notice of you, or perhaps more accurately, stops ignoring you. Her eyes are cold and artificial and you notice parts of her face have started to wear away near the metal seams, beginning to reveal the mechanical frame underneath. To your shock and confusion, she reaches up and firmly removes your hands from Ariane's face, uttering only a simple, flat, “you're scaring her.”

You jump to your feet to protest as your jumbled emotions finally settle into anger. You demand to know who she thinks she is telling you not to interact with your own daughter, and what business a machine freak like her has holding her anyway. In the middle of your rant, the Replika simply stands up with Ariane in her arms and vanishes into the bathroom.

This is their normal, your sister tells you. She suspects you wouldn't have believed anything she told you about them unless you saw it for yourself. You can only stare at the door they vanished into as you hear water begin to run as your sister tries to explain to you that Elster is your daughter's “other half” now in every possible interpretation of the term. 

You shout at her. It won't fix anything, it won't even make you feel better, but you do it anyway. Taking Ariane away was a good idea, that's what Kamilla had said. Going to school in the city would be good for her. It would make her a proper upstanding citizen. And now she was barely a person, dubiously even alive. 

You leave the apartment for a while to cool off because you fear you may do something drastic in the name of Ariane. The perpetually frigid Rotfront air shocks some sense back into you after a few hours of pacing the streets alone. By the time you return, Ariane is asleep in her room with Elster. Your sister apologizes to you but you only shake your head and retire for the night as well.

You resolve to keep your temper in check for the following days as you try to force yourself to acclimate to their life. Other people are not welcome and it makes you hate Elster, even if you are reminded they cannot be separated. Elster has forgotten her place. Deep down you know your anger is directionless, but it feels more purposeful than the pointless meandering you're stuck with otherwise. Nothing feels like it matters. Ariane has wasted her life and has no future to speak of. Days and weeks pass of the same routine that you can only observe from afar. They neither need nor want you around. 

Ariane is rarely lucid enough to acknowledge you, and even when she does, she hasn't got much to say anymore. She doesn't want to talk about her time in school or in space, only her time with Elster.  On a particularly good day, she makes Elster show you a collection of old polaroids that the Replika keeps in a filthy hip bag. Most of them are difficult to make out given their age, but she shows you some of Ariane's paintings they'd saved this way, and many pictures of each other, often doing utterly mundane things. Elster fixing something, Ariane reading, one of them asleep somewhere strange on the ship. They were smiling in a number of them. Young and healthy and happy together. Days long gone.

On bad days, Ariane seems like a corpse being carried around the apartment, unable to keep food down or focus her eyes on things right in front of her. She's always bandaged up because her body cannot heal itself and her skin breaks at even the slightest impact. Was it mercy or cruelty? To keep Ariane alive in such a state, to prolong it day in and day out, you wonder what she is thinking. Are they happy together? You cannot fathom how, but you cannot get close enough to either one of them to get answers. Ariane does not need you anymore, even at her most broken and vulnerable.

She will never “get better”. While they seem to have accepted that long ago, you are struggling to come to terms with it. You love your daughter and you cannot stand to watch her suffer. The way her hands no longer react to touch, the way her legs buckle under her own meager weight after only a few shakey steps clinging to Elster's arm. What kind of a life is there for her? You are not the one who gets to decide that for her, no matter how little you understand.

Sleeping is difficult for you now. You blame the bed, the temperature, any excuse you can think of to not confront your own reality: that you've failed to protect your daughter. You give up and decide fresh air might do you some good, but first you go check on Ariane. Your sister warned you not to do that if you weren't comfortable with the risk of seeing Ariane naked or worse, currently engaged. You had seen them kiss and simply tried to pretend you hadn't. As far as you knew, Ariane had never dated while she was going to school, and this was not how you wanted to meet her long-term partner. 

You wonder if under different circumstances you would have minded your daughter dating a Replika. Elster was polite, caring, supportive… but she was a symbol of Ariane's downfall. Her damaged chassis still bore the markings of the Penrose program, forever following Ariane long after she was supposed to be free of it. 

As you approach the bedroom door, you hear something. Indistinct humming drifting into the hallway. It isn't meant for you to hear, but you recognize it as Elster's voice. You cannot help but look inside, and there you find them standing. Elster is supporting Ariane with an arm around her waist as they engage in what you think is supposed to be a dance. They do not look at you, but you do not stay to watch.

 

You step out onto the balcony and look up at the sky. You cannot see the stars on Rotfront.

Notes:

"Creep no one but you cares about a work being "too short" to put on AO3" My friend when I told them why I hadn't uploaded this to AO3.
Anyway, I've always thought that if somehow someway they did get to "go home" they'd be too screwed up to be able to re-acclimate into "normal" society anyway.
Oh also I know her last name is actually Yeong but when I wrote this I didn't trust what the wiki said because it didn't have a source but the Home save point at the end of the game is called Yeong Family Apartment in the game data so wouldn't ya know it her last name is actually Yeong. Just ignore that and pretend it's part of the AU nature of this fic.