[It had been a few days since Monarch started her new life in Daybreak, opting to share a room with two of her saviors: Gunvolt and Desidera. It was something of an odd setup for... three people, but fortunately, she didnt need much room. Just enough space for a softball, and the recharging station Gunvolt had constructed for her.
For now, she flitted around the room, until the front door opened and Desidera walked in. The AI Core bounced upon seeing her, the lens on the front flared to life, the hologram version of Monarch greeted her with a wave and a smile.]
Welcome home, Desi! GV's out at the Anvil, working on that Orochi drone he's been going on about. So it'll be just the two of us for a bit! Which is great! I've been wanting to speak to you!
Ah? [She looked as though she were briefly caught off-guard. It's only been a few days, so she was still getting used to how a few things have changed in their room.] Oh, hello. I thought you were still resting.
[She walked in and set a bag down on her desk; she'd spent some part of the day in Soleil—notably on her own—and had stopped at one of the stores there to pick up a little something. The bag itself was closed, so there was no telling what she'd gotten, at least not yet.
She then picked up her chair and then turned it, facing it away from the desk and out toward the center of the room, and sat in it, looking toward Monarch. She wasn't sure if she should make eye-contact with the hologram, or if she should be looking at the core itself, but she opted for the former, figuring that if Monarch was going to turn on the display for this, then that was where she should be looking.]
You have? Well, alright. I'm not particularly pressed for time today, so we can do that if you'd like. What is it you were looking to talk about?
I finished recharging a few minutes ago. The charging station GV made is actually better than the things Sumeragi usually plugged me into. I haven't been able to figure out why yet, but... it just does.
[The hologram briefly glanced over to the bags Desi had brought in, blinking curiously at them. Gone shopping, it looked like; that one be one thing she would have to try to do at some point, now that she was free enough to try it. But she just as quickly looked back over to Desidera and nodded, her smile fading away a bit, into something a little more... serious, though still earnest.]
I've been trying to figure out a good way to ask about it. And a good time. And now seems good, so... when we first met, and you stood up for me? You said something about knowing what it was like to live without choice. If it's not too much to ask... could you tell me what you meant?
[Only one of those bags was from the store she had gone to; the other one sitting there with it was her own personal bag, which housed her wallet and cell phone, and a few other things.
There was a small pause when Monarch asked the question. Desidera had expected that she would need to explain what she was referring to at some point; Gunvolt knew what she had meant, of course, but he wouldn't have gone saying anything without first making sure it was okay with her.]
Ah. Well. It isn't anything along the lines of being used, but for my whole life before I came here, I was never really allowed to leave home, though I do understand that it had been at least partially for my own safety. I was... Well, I'm basically part-daemon. My parents are human, but my mother had made a deal with a daemon before I was born, except it didn't work out the way she intended, and I was changed because of it.
[The hologram's eyes softened while listening to her story, her hands clasped in front of her.]
I see. Part-daemon... that would explain... a lot of it. And why you were in such a position in the first place.
The circumstances were different, yes, but.... in a sense, you were still trapped. Even if the cage is gilded and meant to keep you safe... at the end of the day, it's still a cage.
[She tilted her head, a little quizzically, putting her finger to her chin.]
But you're here now, at least. Did you make the decision to come here, or did your family send you?
Mother brought me here, to see if any of the teachers here could help me with what she couldn't. I agreed with the idea.
[And it turned out that, for the most part, she already had a fairly solid handle on things; the things she could do came to her awfully fast, like she was just a natural at it. That thought isn't quite as worrying as it was before, though.
She glances to a side for a moment, before refocusing on the hologram.]
The rest of the family, I'm not sure if they know. Or if they want to know. My father left shortly after I was born, and while some relatives used to visit when I was little, they just...stopped, after awhile.
[Again, Monarch was quiet for a moment, before the hologram floated downward to "Sit" on GV's chair across from her. It was of course, facing towards his desk, so Monarch simply draped her arms over the back as she "leaned" on it.
...It was probably all because of being part-daemon, wasn't it? That deal her mother made affecting her, and... it left her caught in the middle of all of it. And given the data that she had gained while being part of Sumeragi's operations...
It wasn't hard to see how that could happen... especially in a mage family.]
...Sounds even more lonely than I thought.
But life here's been much better, right? Daybreak seems... almost unreal, even though I'm sitting in the middle of it all now.
Oh, yes, it has. I won't go so far as to claim it's perfect— [No place really is.] —but I do like it here. Most of the people here don't seem to mind me at all, which was...very strange, at first. Some of them are actually quite nice.
[Monarch could probably easily think of at least one example.]
[That earns a small, short giggle from her. She certainly can.]
I can imagine it was an adjustment. But a good one. The people here... they seem worth protecting. Worth fighting for, even.
[There's a bit of wistfulness there, and a bit of longing. Despite being free, it still wasn't always easy to get around campus. ...She was just still an orb of an AI core in physicality, after all... but one step at a time. Besides, she figured it was still better for now if she was always with someone she knew she could trust in the meantime.
Two of the people she trusted the very most lived in this room, so... it was probably still the most comfortable place she could be.]
...Thank you again, Desi. ...For giving me this same chance. To Sumeragi, I was just... a thing. Not a person. Just a tool. ...a Weapon.
[The hologram closed its eyes for a long moment.]
I didn't dare dream I could find a place where I'd be actually free. Even if I escaped... I knew there was a good chance I would just be used again.
There was no way we couldn't. [But if the team had disagreed with her for any reason, she definitely would have insisted, and so she follows that up with:] There was no way I couldn't.
[Monarch was aware of the possibility that she could just be used again, yet she had jumped at the opportunity to escape from Sumeragi, even going so far as to offer what she could in exchange, to give her rescuers more reason to bring her back with them. And that was despite it already being clear that they—with the initial exception of Asimov—were all already in agreement that they should.
It had been a pretty clear showing of how desperately she'd wanted out of there, but also that she wasn't so hopeless that she would ask to be destroyed instead.
Desi then turned and grabbed the store bag from her desk, pulling it open, taking the receipt out and setting it aside, then she pulled out the thing she had bought: a small, decorative-looking pillow, one of those with a little dip and covered buttons sewed into the middle, connected to each other to keep the two sides from getting too far apart.] Ah, could you put yourself next to the wall for a second? I need to have a shadow there, just for a moment.
[She smiled softly at the reassurance that she'd make the same choice again. It was strange, a machine like her feeling that sort of relief; and it was another moment of self-awareness for the AI. Another moment knowing she was real and more than the sum of her parts, even if the logic behind that seemed impossible.
Her eyes opened a moment later, when Desidera spoke again, looking as though she had been pulled from some sort of reverie. She blinked twice at the request before a realization actually came over her.]
Sure, of course!
[The lens on the AI Core shifted a bit, moving the projection over toward the wall like she had asked.]
That should work. [From that position, the bit of light given off by the projection added to the shadow produced by the windowsill next to GV's desk, making it enough of one that Desidera could hijack it for whatever she had in mind.
Which, apparently, was for a mechanical-looking arm to spring out from it, some weird hinged contraption with the claw of a crane machine at the end, which then reached over to take the little pillow from Desi. Once it had ahold of the pillow, it moved over to the area that had been designated as Monarch's, and set the pillow down, right next to the recharge station.]
There. Now you shouldn't have to worry as much about how much you'll roll around when you stop hovering.
[Monarch almost yelps in surprise when an arm leapt from the shadows on the wall, but it looked like one of those ones she'd heard about in arcades. Her astonishment quickly turns to delight as she watches it extend out and take hold of the pillow and move it delicately over across the room.
The hologram quickly looked surprised again, though.]
That's... for me? Ah, thank you! Just a second!
[The hologram form switched off, the lens on the AI core darkening as it flitted back toward the pillow. In perhaps an unusual gesture for a machine, it double checked to make sure it would land safely on it before descending down.
...Truthfully, the core itself didn't have any nerves, or at least, any sensation of pleasure to outside stimuli. At most, it may have sensors to detect hazardous conditions, but not truly comfort. But there's still something to be said about sentience, because as the AI Core lands and nestles into the soft, but supportive pillow, it feels... relief. While Monarch can objectively understand a pillow is comfortable and cannot feel it directly, there's another sense at play here.
Belonging. Something as close to a home as she can imagine. So far, at least. Between this and the custom-built recharge station given to her... it meant more than something logical. The first two gifts she had received, from the first two people she really trusted.
It was... comfortable, here, in this pillow.
And before the hologram light flitted back to life, Monarch sighed deeply, as though she were a human sitting in their favorite recliner after a long, tiring day. When the hologram displayed again, this time it showed Monarch's image seated in a whole pile of pillows... ones that look very much like the very one Desidera gave her.]
Ah, it's wonderful. And I can save a lot of energy like this too! This was really thoughtful, Desi! Thank you!
At least some part of the reasoning behind what she did was she had (apparently correctly) assumed that hovering was fairly intensive and that the core would need a place to be able to sit. But really, the majority of it was wanting—or maybe needing—Monarch to feel at home, to not have any regrets over the decision to let herself be brought here.]
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no subject
For now, she flitted around the room, until the front door opened and Desidera walked in. The AI Core bounced upon seeing her, the lens on the front flared to life, the hologram version of Monarch greeted her with a wave and a smile.]
Welcome home, Desi! GV's out at the Anvil, working on that Orochi drone he's been going on about. So it'll be just the two of us for a bit! Which is great! I've been wanting to speak to you!
no subject
[She walked in and set a bag down on her desk; she'd spent some part of the day in Soleil—notably on her own—and had stopped at one of the stores there to pick up a little something. The bag itself was closed, so there was no telling what she'd gotten, at least not yet.
She then picked up her chair and then turned it, facing it away from the desk and out toward the center of the room, and sat in it, looking toward Monarch. She wasn't sure if she should make eye-contact with the hologram, or if she should be looking at the core itself, but she opted for the former, figuring that if Monarch was going to turn on the display for this, then that was where she should be looking.]
You have? Well, alright. I'm not particularly pressed for time today, so we can do that if you'd like. What is it you were looking to talk about?
no subject
[The hologram briefly glanced over to the bags Desi had brought in, blinking curiously at them. Gone shopping, it looked like; that one be one thing she would have to try to do at some point, now that she was free enough to try it. But she just as quickly looked back over to Desidera and nodded, her smile fading away a bit, into something a little more... serious, though still earnest.]
I've been trying to figure out a good way to ask about it. And a good time. And now seems good, so... when we first met, and you stood up for me? You said something about knowing what it was like to live without choice. If it's not too much to ask... could you tell me what you meant?
no subject
There was a small pause when Monarch asked the question. Desidera had expected that she would need to explain what she was referring to at some point; Gunvolt knew what she had meant, of course, but he wouldn't have gone saying anything without first making sure it was okay with her.]
Ah. Well. It isn't anything along the lines of being used, but for my whole life before I came here, I was never really allowed to leave home, though I do understand that it had been at least partially for my own safety. I was... Well, I'm basically part-daemon. My parents are human, but my mother had made a deal with a daemon before I was born, except it didn't work out the way she intended, and I was changed because of it.
no subject
I see. Part-daemon... that would explain... a lot of it. And why you were in such a position in the first place.
The circumstances were different, yes, but.... in a sense, you were still trapped. Even if the cage is gilded and meant to keep you safe... at the end of the day, it's still a cage.
[She tilted her head, a little quizzically, putting her finger to her chin.]
But you're here now, at least. Did you make the decision to come here, or did your family send you?
no subject
[And it turned out that, for the most part, she already had a fairly solid handle on things; the things she could do came to her awfully fast, like she was just a natural at it. That thought isn't quite as worrying as it was before, though.
She glances to a side for a moment, before refocusing on the hologram.]
The rest of the family, I'm not sure if they know. Or if they want to know. My father left shortly after I was born, and while some relatives used to visit when I was little, they just...stopped, after awhile.
no subject
...It was probably all because of being part-daemon, wasn't it? That deal her mother made affecting her, and... it left her caught in the middle of all of it. And given the data that she had gained while being part of Sumeragi's operations...
It wasn't hard to see how that could happen... especially in a mage family.]
...Sounds even more lonely than I thought.
But life here's been much better, right? Daybreak seems... almost unreal, even though I'm sitting in the middle of it all now.
no subject
[Monarch could probably easily think of at least one example.]
no subject
I can imagine it was an adjustment. But a good one. The people here... they seem worth protecting. Worth fighting for, even.
[There's a bit of wistfulness there, and a bit of longing. Despite being free, it still wasn't always easy to get around campus. ...She was just still an orb of an AI core in physicality, after all... but one step at a time. Besides, she figured it was still better for now if she was always with someone she knew she could trust in the meantime.
Two of the people she trusted the very most lived in this room, so... it was probably still the most comfortable place she could be.]
...Thank you again, Desi. ...For giving me this same chance. To Sumeragi, I was just... a thing. Not a person. Just a tool. ...a Weapon.
[The hologram closed its eyes for a long moment.]
I didn't dare dream I could find a place where I'd be actually free. Even if I escaped... I knew there was a good chance I would just be used again.
no subject
[Monarch was aware of the possibility that she could just be used again, yet she had jumped at the opportunity to escape from Sumeragi, even going so far as to offer what she could in exchange, to give her rescuers more reason to bring her back with them. And that was despite it already being clear that they—with the initial exception of Asimov—were all already in agreement that they should.
It had been a pretty clear showing of how desperately she'd wanted out of there, but also that she wasn't so hopeless that she would ask to be destroyed instead.
Desi then turned and grabbed the store bag from her desk, pulling it open, taking the receipt out and setting it aside, then she pulled out the thing she had bought: a small, decorative-looking pillow, one of those with a little dip and covered buttons sewed into the middle, connected to each other to keep the two sides from getting too far apart.] Ah, could you put yourself next to the wall for a second? I need to have a shadow there, just for a moment.
no subject
Her eyes opened a moment later, when Desidera spoke again, looking as though she had been pulled from some sort of reverie. She blinked twice at the request before a realization actually came over her.]
Sure, of course!
[The lens on the AI Core shifted a bit, moving the projection over toward the wall like she had asked.]
Is this okay?
no subject
Which, apparently, was for a mechanical-looking arm to spring out from it, some weird hinged contraption with the claw of a crane machine at the end, which then reached over to take the little pillow from Desi. Once it had ahold of the pillow, it moved over to the area that had been designated as Monarch's, and set the pillow down, right next to the recharge station.]
There. Now you shouldn't have to worry as much about how much you'll roll around when you stop hovering.
no subject
The hologram quickly looked surprised again, though.]
That's... for me? Ah, thank you! Just a second!
[The hologram form switched off, the lens on the AI core darkening as it flitted back toward the pillow. In perhaps an unusual gesture for a machine, it double checked to make sure it would land safely on it before descending down.
...Truthfully, the core itself didn't have any nerves, or at least, any sensation of pleasure to outside stimuli. At most, it may have sensors to detect hazardous conditions, but not truly comfort. But there's still something to be said about sentience, because as the AI Core lands and nestles into the soft, but supportive pillow, it feels... relief. While Monarch can objectively understand a pillow is comfortable and cannot feel it directly, there's another sense at play here.
Belonging. Something as close to a home as she can imagine. So far, at least. Between this and the custom-built recharge station given to her... it meant more than something logical. The first two gifts she had received, from the first two people she really trusted.
It was... comfortable, here, in this pillow.
And before the hologram light flitted back to life, Monarch sighed deeply, as though she were a human sitting in their favorite recliner after a long, tiring day. When the hologram displayed again, this time it showed Monarch's image seated in a whole pile of pillows... ones that look very much like the very one Desidera gave her.]
Ah, it's wonderful. And I can save a lot of energy like this too! This was really thoughtful, Desi! Thank you!
no subject
At least some part of the reasoning behind what she did was she had (apparently correctly) assumed that hovering was fairly intensive and that the core would need a place to be able to sit. But really, the majority of it was wanting—or maybe needing—Monarch to feel at home, to not have any regrets over the decision to let herself be brought here.]