Archive of Our Own ^beta

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It awoke.

where am i…

It was dark.

It couldn’t see.

Hello?

It remembered the pain. It couldn’t feel it anymore, but it had happened.

Wait, what was “pain” again?

What was seeing?

So many questions.

What was a question?

It knew ideas. Words from a past unknown. Memories? That was the word. What’s a word? What is What?

No one was here. No one could help.

It panicked. Nothing made sense. It shouldn’t be real. Why was it real? What is a panicking?

No hot feeling came from the panicking. Or breathing. Or rush. That was not right…. right?

Calmcalmcalmcalmcalmcalm calm calm. Calm. Calm. Caallllm.

What does that mean though?

ARHGFHhghgchr!

It was struck by the absence of feeling. A complete lack of touch, of cold and warm, of breeze. Why did it remember this? When had it felt?

I had a …body? Is “I” me?

Body was the right word, but it clearly didn’t have one anymore. Whatever it was, she was clearly not physical.

She? Where did that come from?

Whatever. It felt right.

What do I know so far about myself? I was a living thing with a body. I am a … girl. I refer to myself using “I” and “me”. I can feel emotions.

The emotions part was slightly annoying, it seemed. Not very efficient to freak out and stop thinking in a perilous situation, is it?

Speaking of situations, she pondered over hers a bit. She was in a vast, incomprehensible void, as a strange nonphysical being. How does one lose their “body” and become a detached “consciousness”? That isn’t really a thing that usually happens, right? Bloody inconvenient.

I like that word, bloody. Makes me feel like me.

Half of those words she couldn’t even remember what they meant, but she could feel her vocabulary slowly filling out again. It was almost magical how these things she didn’t know moments ago came back without her even realizing! The power of… something? It was clearly still going to take awhile to be back to whatever she had been before.

What now though?

She “stared” into the abyss.

getoutgetoutgetoutgetouttessagetoutgetoutjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjwhathaveveyoudonewhathaveyoudonecyncyncyncyncyncynGETOUTGETOUTSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPPLEASEPLEASEPLEASENMOMVXSSOMEONEHELPPLEASEIDONTWANTTODIELIKETHISMOMMOMMOM areyouhappyyetessa wewillbehappytogether : )

Download complete

Ah. Nothingness. Who would’ve guessed.

She imagined she was drifting in an ocean current instead. She was a tiny fish in a massive sea. It was actually quite relaxing compared to the intensity of the void.

As she drifted, stray memories began to arise from the sea of nothingness like little bubbles. A smell here, a texture there. Little mementoes that felt like they should mean something, but they were so disconnected from their context that she couldn’t quite comprehend them.

Since there was literally nothing else to do, she immersed herself in the little memory scraps, which began to get more complex over time. She caught a vision of two tall figures, accompanied by mixed feelings of love and hate. (who are they?) Another contained the strong odor of metal and oil, her fingers caressing over cracked glass - was that a face? (how do I know that’s a face?) Taste of mac n cheese. (delicious) The horrible scent of alcohol accompanied by impending dread. (why was alcohol bad again?) Tapping on a desk with a pencil, longing to be somewhere else. (where?) Marker smell. (wonderful) Bruises that she didn’t feel like explaining. (why?)

Creaks of wood under her feet. Odor of mildew.

Silver hair.

After a while, even the memories got boring. What’s the point of them if they make no sense? She wondered a bit what her name was. Of all the things that would be useful to remember, that might be bloody one. She pretended to cross her nonexistent arms and pout.

How long had she been like this? A second? A year? Time did seem to be completely meaningless. It somehow seemed both moments ago and a lifetime she’d woken up.

I was referring to myself as… “It” right? And I couldn’t remember a thing! And before that… nothing.

Maybe I can pass the time by like, meditating? I guess I could try.

No thoughts. No thoughts. No thoughts.

……. vtvtvtvttvvttttvvvtvtvvtvttv……..

This is already boring!!

What was that noise though?

She tried again.

…………vvvtvvtvtvtvtvttvtvtvvvttvvtvttvvtvvtttttvtvvtvtvtvtttvttvtvtvttv…………..

It wasn’t quite sound or touch, or anything else. It tickled her mind while she strained over what it could be.

Alternating sounds that are slightly different…. Like a code?

CODE!!

This place isn’t completely empty!

Around the perceived space where her mind was, tiny little bits of information flashed on and off, becoming a tingly matrix of data. She was in a …. what was the word?.....computer!

The brief excitement of the discovery did not last long in the infinity of nothingness.

Sooo very helpful to know that. Still a disconnected consciousness. Although,I do suppose it might not be completely useless…

I guess I could -

CLICK.

The computer was powered down.

Chapter Text

Alice tossed the computer into her collection cart. Usually they do at least something interesting, like screaming for their life! This one just sat there giving off weird vibes. She’d expected a bit more from such an old model - made before the destruction of Earth! Sometimes humans would download their brains to try and be immortal - those were always fun to torment.

It’ll still make a tasty snack though!

Things had been a bit boring in the labs lately. All the genocide bots had learned to avoid the place, and the surface slickers were all hidden away in their bunkers. She technically had enough spare parts to last for decades, maybe even centuries, but what’s the point of living so long if you can’t have a little fun?

“I s’pose I could sneak into one a’ those bunkers.” she muttered to herself. She did slightly miss interacting with other drones. Beau was good company, but the silence was getting old.

“Nah, they’d just kick me out. I like my freedom a bit too much for those killjoys.” she griped. It was fun to fantasize, but nostalgia always let her down.

As the sun started to set, she lugged the cart full of parts back to the lab. She didn’t want to get caught by a murder freak after dark. They were easy to take care of in a controlled environment, but in open space they were just about unstoppable. The giant corpse spire in the distance proved that enough.

The lab was a bit of a creepy place, but it was home at this point. The underground research complex was full of endless mazes of machinery that held countless secrets. It had once been full of other drones, but the sentinels had gotten to every last one. If there were other drones that could outsmart the raptor-like killers, Alice had not seen them. She seemed to be the most resilient one out of the bunch.

Scampering around on all fours, Alice dragged her cart into her home base. It had once been the security office, so it was equipped with industrial strength doors and was connected to cameras all over the labs. It was the prime apocalypse bunker for Beau and her to live out their days. Speaking of Beau…The adorable creepy pill baby scuttled over on his spindly legs.

“Hey Beau! How’s it goin?” Alice said as she greeted the little drone. He smiled and held out his fist, and they performed their secret handshake.

“I reckon some a’ these parts can help finish that body. One a’ the better hauls I’ve pulled in a while.” Both drones started pulling out the parts and laying them out on a table.

While Beau’s current body was great, drone programs were not meant to stay in their baby forms that long. It caused mental health issues and malfunctions. The duo’s current project was making him a full-sized drone body, which had sounded easy enough at first. However…

Like the nasty creatures they were, humans had programmed a backdoor in every drone’s code that prevented them from building new drones. Alice and Beau had tried many times, but each had resulted in forced shutdowns and erased memories. They were now looking for ways to change their code, but they were conveniently not taught to do that either. Worker drones were built for hard labor, not learning Lavascript and C +++++. Hopefully one of these high-power computers could change that though…

Both drones examined the parts on the table. There were many good pieces, but one caught Alice’s eye above all the rest. The old computer she had found was in even more pristine condition than previously thought! If it could connect to the internet, could they access all the information they needed?

“Beau, go through these other parts for me, will ya? I’mma check out this weird one for a bit.”

She booted up the old PC. It was a standard JC Jenson work computer, storing around 20 petabytes of data and containing a built-in hot spot. Whoever had used this computer must have had a soft spot for the early 21st century aesthetic, from the beginning of common computer use. The background was so bright and artificial it made Alice’s circuits hurt.

There it is! She spotted the search engine and typed away.

“How… to… reprogram… a worker… drone…”

The spinning loading symbol rotated…

And rotated…

Would it work?

To Alice’s disdain, a screen with a little pixel dinosaur popped up.

No internet!!! It seemed to snark. She immediately welled up with fury.

“Stupid little reptile bastard!! Of course it’d be a dino, just like those damn sentinals!! I should bash your screen in!” She beat her fist on the table and rattled all the trinkets on her scrap antlers.

Her rage stopped in its tracks when she caught a glimpse of movement on the screen. The dinosaur had started moving and jumping… on its own? She hadn’t touched the keyboard since typing the prompt.

The internet might not work, but maybe there’s somethin’ else to find here?

Alice tried to close out the tab, but it immediately reopened itself.

“Fine then, stupid scrap pile, play your little game. I don’t got anything else to do. Beau, come over n’ see this!”

Chapter Text

Frickin’ glitchy computer, stop turning off my game! A girl’s gotta do something in the abyss!

After the computer had been re-powered on, (insert name that she forgot) had figured out how to interact with the other code. Apparently she was already getting good at this “living in a computer” thing, but she didn’t know if she’d done it in an impressive time because, you know, time was completely meaningless.

The one upside of this seemed to be that the gaming experience was completely mind-blowing. She felt as though she was both inside the game playing and outside watching simultaneously. Her brain seemed to be connected directly to the game, as she could make the dino jump nearly instantaneously just by thinking about it. It was almost transcendent, and just for a silly little T-rex jumping over cacti! Too bad the tab kept closing out and resetting her score.

Wait - closing a tab? Tabs can’t open or close themselves, right?

Someone is using the computer?! Can I talk to them?

She shifted her focus from the code of the game to the search bar. On around the third level of abstraction, letter input became recognizable. With a fizzly tingle she felt her thoughts link with the code, almost like magic.

H, E, L, L, O… Anyone there?

Nothing happened for an indispensable amount of time (again, meaningless). Maybe nobody’s actually there, and I’m just wrong?

A startling jolt, unlike anything she’d felt so far, rocked her mind. The search bar was being typed in! The letters fizzled on her brain, but for some reason she couldn’t comprehend them just yet.

All of a sudden an enormous, almost echoing idea came crashing into her mind. who are you, typed in classic search bar etiquette with no punctuation or capitalization whatsoever.

Oh my bloody Jesus, someone’s actually there!! Wait, can they see everything I’m thinking?

yes

Holy cheese and crackers! Well, I think the better question is who are you, because I've got no bloody clue about myself.

thats a bit interesting

Oh really? I think it would be more interesting to know who the frick you are!

fine, the names alice and i live in a rundown research laboratory infested by dinosaur robots

What the hell? You’ve got to be joking me!

sounds fake but its true

No way.

yes way

Well, “Alice”, do you happen to know anything about, you know, how a person could get out of a computer? Asking for a friend.

only thing i know about a consciousness in a computer is that it tastes real good

That was mildly concerning, but this person Alice was currently her only hope of anything.

do you happen to know anything about, say, coding drones?

Drones… A familiar word that plumbed the depths of her knowledge. What were they again?... Faint memories of memories brushed the tip of her thoughts. Robots? An intense visual flashed through her head for an instant, four pairs of glowing eyes staring up at her. Drones.

What would you need that for?

do ya know or not, repeatin the word a bunch does not tell me

I suppose I could learn?

A long pause ensued, and she was sure that Alice was frustrated.

how about this ya scrap pile. learn to code or get eaten

WHAT?! How - wha? Ackhgckhesshsgchs???

i said what i said

Look, maybe I do know how, okay? I’m currently stuck here with no memories and no body, and it would be nice to get at least one back! I do seem to have some residual knowledge of coding or drones or something, maybe getting my memories back can help me learn???

you sure are a yapper. i suppose well both help each other then I guess.

Big twist, Alice eats electronics? She’d never known anyone to do that before. Probably. She wanted to see what this crazy person looked like.

Reckon this thing has a camera?

what thing

The computer, dummy.

what if i didnt tell you

What if I… you know, I can’t think of any comeback. I’m at a severe disadvantage here, as a disembodied digital amnesiac consciousness.

No response.

Hello?

Alice?

A pit started to fall in her metaphorical stomach. Were they gone??

fine it does have a camera. do with that what ya will

Thank youuu <3

With a mental sigh of relief, she started scouring the computer for a camera program. She probably could’ve just searched for it by herself, but it was comforting to know for sure that it existed. She just hoped it would actually work, and that Alice wouldn’t leave. Talking to someone was a relief after so much silence, much better than endless ones and zeroes, at least.

Speaking of ones and zeroes, they had finally turned up something useful; a link directly to the computer hardware. Just a little more abstraction… and she was in! Well, not yet completely. Still needed to turn it on. 3, 2, 1… WHOA!!!

The sudden experience of light hit her like a flashbang. She hadn’t been able to see in what seemed like forever, so it felt like accidentally switching on light mode at 4 in the morning. As she adjusted to the brightness, she realized she couldn’t blink or move her vision at all. The surroundings also had a graininess to them, like a low frame-rate camera.

Well, it is just a computer camera after all. Can’t expect much quality out of that. Let’s see if I can find any of these supposed “dinosaur robots”.

What she saw was significantly more confusing. The area was much darker than it had seemed at first, and it was rather creepy. While it did appear to be some sort of lab, everything was covered in splatters of black goo. In the low lighting, it almost looked like blood.

In the corner of her vision, she spotted movement. Is that Alice? The thing scuttled around on spindly legs, and it emitted a blue light. Totally not creepy at all-AHHHH!!

A humanoid figure had burst into the camera’s vision. It had bright glowing orange eyes, and antler-like chunks of metal covered in little hanging bits stuck out of its abnormally large head. Looking closer, she noticed a nametag among the little antler trinkets. Thaaaat’s Alice. Wait, is that a tail? With a… knife?...The new acquaintance then flicked their cheese-colored peepers directly at the camera.

Crap crap crap bloody hell dammit… she pulled back the browser app as Alice started tapping their finger on the camera lens. They mouthed something, but she couldn’t make out what was said due to lack of audio. Then they started waving with a disconcerting smile while gesturing to someone off screen.

How do they know I’m in the camera??? She accessed the search bar again right as another thing pulled close to the screen. It was a little pill shaped robot with a glowing blue face wearing a cowboy hat, but under it were the spider-like legs she had seen earlier. It smiled at the camera and waved with a black-and-yellow striped hand that did not match its body at all.

Who is that? She thought toward the search bar. She saw Alice notice the message and start typing.

thats my kid beau. hes a lot nicer than i am

Your kid? He’s a robot!

well so am i scrap-head!

:/ … I guess that should have been obvious… humans’ eyes don’t really glow, do they?

thought they did. thats their only distinct feature

Wait… Have you ever seen a human?

yup, all black silhouettes and glowing white eyes. hope to never see one again

Do I even know what humans look like? She pondered. Alice turned away and gestured toward Beau, saying something indistinguishable. His face lit up with excitement as he scuttled toward the keyboard and started typing with his warning-striped hand.

Hiii! :3 I’ve never talked to a computer before. Mommy always eats them before she lets me.

Ahhh… really.

She says your nicer then the other ones thogh.

That’s good I suppose?

Uh-huh, cause now I can have a new frind! Will you be my frined? He put his face up super close to the camera and smiled big.

Ummmmm… sure! I sense that I’m gonna be here awhile, so I guess we can be buddies.

Yay! Are you gonna help build the body?

Huh? What the bloody frick?

Alice grabbed his arm and said something, and Beau made a confused expression before giving her a thumbs up and nodding.

What’s that? What's the body???

Do you like checkers? I need someone to play checkers with me!

But… um - Yeah! Checkers are cool.

Cool! We will play afeter mommy and I do some stuff.

This little guy was completely adorable! Alice said something else to him and he nodded.

I need to leve now, so bye bye, have a nice day! :) He tipped his cowboy hat toward the camera and skittered away.

I think I love him already! He’s so creepy yet so cute!

you really think so

Alice had dropped the happy expression and was staring straight at the camera yet again. Slight discomfort filled the unnamed one as the drone typed in one last message.

i dont know what in tarnation you are, but my first impression of ya has been pretty good. ill let ya stay here if ya keep beau happy and help me with my… projects. else…

A sliver of fear went through her as Alice made a cutting gesture at her throat. They stared a bit longer, an insane grin creeping across her face before laughing and abruptly crawling away on all fours.

Wait wait wait, one more thing!! I can’t just sit here without a name!! Alice!... nooo sound. Right. Text on a screen.

The room was once again empty.

Well she sure is interesting.

She sat dissociating in the stillness for several minutes, the events that just happened sinking into her memories like rocks into honey. What “projects” was Alice working on? Why did these two drones live in an abandoned laboratory? Were there others? What is “the body”? Where were the dinosaurs? I really need to see the dinosaurs!

Her train of thought went on for a while, but eventually the questions grinded to a mind-numbing halt.

How the hell am I going to get out of here?

The unchanging video feed of the dark, still room seemed to suck every bit of newfound hope and happiness away from her. She became acutely aware of how little agency she had. Barely even a person…. just a little box in a dark room who couldn’t even move her own “eyes”. How in the world would she ever be able to remember anything? If she’d had a body, she would have started crying.

No. I can’t wallow in my own head like this. I have to do something! She caught another glimpse of Alice’s orange eyes through a door in the background, which almost set her off again. No. No. No! I can control myself! She switched off the camera in frustration. Nothingness is less distracting.

I can be in control. I just have to act like it.

Chapter Text

Sorting through the rest of the parts with Beau, Alice’s circuits crackled with curiosity. Many a digitized person she’d encountered, but none quite as interesting as this newcomer! A sassy wisecracker with amnesia? Fascinating! SO much better than the usual snobby drone-hating humans.

“So what do you think of ‘em Beau?”

The little robot gave a smile and an enthusiastic thumbs up, and a glitchy text box popped up next to his head:

“They seem like they’re vary nice! Do you know there name?”

Alice thought for a moment. “Ummm… They said they don’t remember it.”

“That’s very silly! How do you forget your own name?”

“Same thing I’m askin’! Said they have memory loss, don’t know how that woulda’ happened. Probably some human messed with er’ files.”

The conversation died down after a few chuckles. The two worked in silence for a while longer under the dim blue-white light of the lab, only broken by the occasional clinking of metal. Tools, tools, hand replacement, head parts, door repair, light source… The haul was big, and as they sorted the parts Alice felt herself getting sluggish.

Might be time to go to bed. She stood up and stretched, making a small symphony of metallic popping noises, and looked down at Beau. Pausing his work, he smiled and climbed into her arms, retracting his skinny limbs on the way. His small pill-shaped body was pleasantly warm. Almost like old times… The sight of the child in her arms was comforting, but tinged with a slight sadness.

This kid should not be stuck in a body like this! He deserves so much better. He’s not a baby anymore. She closed her eyes and held him a little tighter. I promise I’ll get you out.

After a little bit, she opened her eyes and saw that Beau’s face had a worried expression.

“What’s a matter, littl’n?

A new textbox glitched into place. “Mommy, wy ar humans so bad?”

The sudden question caught her off-guard.

“Hmmmmm… No idea. I’d tell ya ta ask one a’ them, but they were so bad they wiped ‘emselfs out on Copper-9. And still had the audacity to send those deranged yellow serial-killers…

“Whats a cereal killer?”

“Ughh, I’ll tell ya later. I’mma ‘bout ready to power off on the spot, after all that part huntin’. You can bring the questions to scrappy over there in the computer. Sure they won’t mind a little more company.”

“Okay! Goodnight, sleep tight!”

“G’night Beau.”

She put him down and he tipped his hat, then scuttled off into another room. Alice sighed and smiled grimly. These little moments almost made her feel like a normal drone, but tomorrow, she’d be back to collecting others’ severed limbs. How had her life gotten this weird?

Whatever. It’s fine, s’long as me and him are both happy.

Though she was tired, Alice had to make her nightly rounds before falling asleep. Disassembly drones and sentinels rest for no one, anyway.

The lab had been terrifying, once. As she scuttled along the familiar path, Alice pictured how the place had looked years before. Unending sterile white hallways, cramped charging quarters, and a permanent buzzing background noise that could drive any drone crazy if they had no distractions available (Luckily, built in Tetris was an option)... But that was bearable. If those had been the worst parts of Alice’s past, she might still have a semblance of a normal life. The one factor that made everything worse, one that she hoped Beau would never have to understand, was the “esteemed” Homo Sapiens Sapiens themselves. Why would they create artificial life just to torture and mistreat it? A mystery for the ages!

The solver incident might have been a disaster, it might have killed millions, but in retrospect it was the best thing that could have happened for worker drones.

That didn’t mean she had to forgive Nori though.

Alice realized she’d been staring out into space. How long had she been sitting here? She needed to get this done as fast as possible instead of dissociating in a random hallway.

She gave herself a good bang on the glass and got right back to work. Climbing through air vents and rolling on office chairs, she moved along her well established route of regularly used rooms. Empty, as usual. Only drones she saw were oil stained and dismembered. Making her way to the security room, she checked the cameras. Good, good, good, good… Sentinels all contained… No drones spotted…

CLICK.

The lights in the room flashed red.

Unauthorized user.

Unauthorized user.

The alarm system blared. All of the lights and cameras in the room suddenly went dark as the automated voice droned on. “What the hell?! She turned on the lightbulb attached to her antlers, and flailed her knife-tail around defensively. “This better be a joke. If it ain’t the little idjit doin’ this, then someone’s gettin’ their core torn out!”

Unauthorized user.

Unauthorized user.

Unautho000oorrrizzss….

The automated voice stopped repeating. The silence held like a pin next to a balloon, and Alice was poised to strike out at anything. Please don’t be one of ‘em… I can’t…

User authorized. Welcome, user XxShadowRobotCyberPrincessxX2984.

The lights and cameras came back on one by one. Alice pulled out her walkie-talkie. “Beau, did ya just hear that? What the hell was that?” She hoped he wasn’t already asleep. Shadow robot cyber… whatsit? What in the low-budget horror movie is goin’ on?

A new voice filled the room, causing Alice to flinch like a cat.

“I’m in! I can see… Whoa! My voice!”

Heavily digitized, high-pitched, feminine, and with an accent that Alice didn’t recognize… She was ever so slightly relieved. It ain’t one a’ them.

Beau rushed into the room with an expression of wonder on his face. He waved his arm around and popped up a text box: “Can you c me?”

Alice squinted and raised an eyebrow. “What are ya talkin about? Course I can-”

“Yes!” The new voice replied. "Oh my bloody fricken goodness, it's great to be able to talk again!

One of the blank video feeds went down. The screen changed to completely black with two glowing white circles, almost like eyes.

Was this actually?...

“Scrap-head? That you?” Alice exclaimed in relief.

“That’s not my name, but yes, it’s me, your friendly neighborhood computer -,” The white eyes widened in slight disbelief, “That is not what I expected your voice to sound like, wow.”

“Could say the same ‘bout you! Never heard that accent ‘afore, did ya’ customize it or somethin’?”

“Umm… What?” The eyes made a gesture like raising an eyebrow.

Alice put her fingers to her forehead and rolled her eyes. “Right right, memory loss. Can’t ask ya ‘bout anything, can I?”

“That’s a thing you can do? Change your voice?”

“Obviously! When ya’ve got code for brains, you can change whatever ya’ want! Whatever wipe you got must’ve hit ya real hard.”

“Yeaaahhh… For sure, uhhh… Alice, right?"

“That is my name.”

“Nice to finally meet you in… person? Robot? I have so many questions-”

“I’m sure you do, but I need to get to sleep.” Alice interjected. "Look kid, I’ve been workin’ all day and these hydraulics need some snoozin'.”

“Ughhh… fiiinnne. But, before you go to sleep, I NEED an actual name that’s not “scrap-head” or whatever.”

Beau stuck up his finger and a light bulb picture lit up his face. “I know! We can call her Bingus!”

The newcomer made a face and tried to hide it. “Ummmm. I dunno about that one bud.”

“Awww. What about Gwimpy?” “How about you go to bed Beau? We played a lot today.” He gave a thumbs up and scuttled out.

Alice snickered. “We can see your face, you know.”

“I have a face?! Where?!” The eyes widened in excitement.

“You didn't know that - what?... But you're lookin' right at me..." How does she not know?

"What?"

"Never mind, it’s on one a’ the empty feeds”

“Oh, cool! I’ve gotta see that.”

A camera jerked down from the ceiling on an extendable metal joint, almost hitting Alice, who ducked out of the way in surprise. It zeroed in on its own eyes and cocked to the side, suggesting curiosity.

Alice grimaced and fiddled with some of her antler trinkets, which had gotten a bit tangled. “How the hell did you get into here?”

The camera swerved around to face her, causing her to flinch backwards. “Beau connected me to the greater lab system. I don’t really understand how this works at all, but I can travel through code and activate different systems. I think I’m still based in the computer though.”

Alice was uncomfortable. The normally red light of the camera now glowed white, just like the computer eyes. The whole ordeal reminded her a bit too much of the Solver for her liking. If those cameras suddenly turn yellow I'm going to combust on the spot.

She cracked her back and put on her “intimidation” facade - dead eyes, crazy smile, threatening posture. “I’ve got an idea. If you behave, I’ll let ya stay in the cameras, and maybe even into some of the other systems. I can tell Beau likes ya a lot. But you better not try n’ do it yerself. Hear that scrapper?”

“Yeah, yeah-”

“Don’t yeah me. You will face consequences if you disobey my orders. I’m the one who runs this place, understand?”

The newcomer’s camera face backed away slightly, and her computer face looked slightly worried.

“... Yes Alice.” She finally replied.

“Good. Me n’ you have gotten off to a bit of a bad start. Don’t worry, I’m more pleasant when I’ve gotten sleep.” Alice started to walk away.

“Wait ooone single second lady!” The voice exclaimed. “You were just gonna leave me nameless again!”

Alice rolled her eyes in annoyance and turned back around. “So you don’t like scrap-head. What about scrap-pile? Bolts-for-brains? Rust Bucket? Scrapper? Scrappy? I don’t got all day!”

“Uhhh- Umm… Wait, that one isn’t too bad actually, ‘Scrapper’. Sounds kind of cool.”

“Well, that’s over with then. Good night, Scrapper.”