[In response, an incoherent, but conceding grumble.
She crouches down beside Beta, in part to make this whole handholding thing less uncomfortable. Like the moss and fungi in this place, her own eyes are backlit by an eerie glow.]
Well, from what I read, stories made wolves out to be these...loners. Cool and mysterious. But once someone took the time to learn about them, they're actually very caring and friendly among their pack.
[ she gives A2 a gentle, experimental shoulder bump. ]
[A little noise of surprise at the shoulder bump. A2 rubs awkwardly at the back of her neck. It occurs to her to protest this reading of her personality, though she dismisses it almost right away. It's not really like she can pretend otherwise. Annoying.]
... Maybe. They're interesting animals. [...] Would you... be a particular sort of animal?
[A2 considers this. She'd seen mice before. Rodents who hid timidly in small nooks and crannies, in the dark spaces underneath buildings.
The comparison makes her frown, more to herself. She tries to formulate a response.] Those little animals? Mm. You're smarter than those things. They get killed all the time.
[By birds, usually. Or else some other predator.] The crows are smart. [... A shake of her head.] You're not loud enough to be a crow. They never shut up.
[After a delay:] Aloy's your sister. The "machine hunter." Right?
[ The thought of being like a crow had never occurred to her. They were smart, but she'd read they were known for being playful too. Was she playful? She was curious for sure... ]
Yes, that's her. With the long red hair in braids. Probably looking very serious and doing a million things.
[A2 nods in tacit approval. Crows were much better than mice, in her opinion. Clever animals with the ability to problem solve and work together for results. And they looked kind of cool.
The description of Aloy makes A2's mouth twitch up into a half-smile that is gone quickly.] Mm. We've met. She asks a lot of questions.
[ For a little while, it'd felt like they did nothing but argue. It felt inevitable sometimes when they'd started fighting immediately after Aloy arrived.
She loves Aloy, at least as much as she knows what it is to love someone, but it hadn't been this difficult in Second Time Around. ]
When we first met, we fought all the time. We didn't know the other existed until we met, and I think - we expected each other to be different. Aloy is everything I'm not...all the best parts of Elisabet.
[A2 is quiet as she listens. It's out of politeness, but it's also because she feels unsettled listening to this. No... unsettled wasn't right, not exactly. Troubled. It's troubling.
She isn't the best at the careful navigation of emotion, say nothing of dealing with another person's insecurities. She decides to ask a question, instead.]
[She remembers how she'd felt the first time she'd seen 2B. The coldness in the pit of her stomach at the realization that she'd outlived her usefulness to YoRHa. And then she'd been so angry, so disgusted and appalled. That had been their first meeting. In the meetings after, she'd learned the intricacies of her copy's weaknesses. She'd learned the ways in how to get into her defenses, break her guard, kill her before she was killed. And she had hated her still. Now...
Now she's not sure.]
It sounds complicated. [She says finally, quietly. She's frowning to herself.]
It is. Aloy...she really looks up to Elisabet, you know? Varl was part of the same tribe as her guardian, so he told me about them when we were fighting. Mothers are very important to the Nora, and Elisabet is the closest she has to one. And then suddenly I show up, and I'm nothing like her or Elisabet at all...
[ At first, she'd been completely unwilling to hear a thing from him that might soften her image of Aloy. If there was one universal trait that came with being a part of Elisabet, it was stubbornness.
But he'd tried anyway. Shared his thoughts about how Aloy's outcast upbringing had shaped her, how this was difficult for her too, if Beta just gave her some understanding. And as much as she might have pretended, she'd listened the entire time. For a time, the parallels to her own situation had only fueled her fury when Aloy rushed through the base, more concerned with knowing if she had any updates than how Beta was faring. Varl's insistence that Aloy asked about her even if she didn't see her had only helped a little. ]
We both thought the other would be Elisabet, I guess. But we worked it out.
[ Mmmmostly. ]
And there's been good parts too. She lets me ask questions as much as I want, and if I ask her to teach me to do something, she will. And she might not known as much about technology as I do, but she learns really fast, so it's fun to show her how to do something in return. She's very smart in her own way, even if she's so stubborn she does things that seem... [ for the love of her sister, she's not going to finish that. ]
And I know with Aloy here, everything is going to be okay.
[In patient silence, A2 listens. Having met both of them by now, she sees this easily — the clashing they may have had. Aloy was serious, more like a soldier. She would be focused on a mission. Beta seemed to have more human interests. How odd. She wonders if...
She decides not to let the thought go any further, cutting it off in favor of listening again. Beta's voice filters in again, and not for the first time she is curious about this. Their genetic original. A human who created a machine that loved humanity so much that she recreated the world for them. So different from the Terminal, who had reveled in the androids' pain. And the androids, who had so hated their enemy. The machines too.
... Something captures her interest. The way Beta speaks of her...]
I see. [...] It's good that she's here, then. I do a lot of patrols. But I can't be everywhere at once.
[She often thought like this.] If a machine showed up, I think that you could handle it. But something more dangerous... I don't know.
[Perhaps some sort of martial training would be helpful. But anyway...]
She thinks of your original as a mother. [... She looks troubled again.] Do you?
[ She's about to question the logic-- How could she fight a machine? But A2's question stops her.
Has she ever thought of Elisabet in a motherly light since she learned of her? She didn't have Aloy's upbringing, the mother held up as something just out of reach for her.
What did a mother do, really? They taught you. They kept you safe, kept you fed, made sure you grew up. By that definition, wouldn't the servitors have been her mother? Or Til--
No, she's shutting that thought right down. ]
I don't think I do. I respect her, and I want to be what she was, but... [ she's fiddling with the moss again. ] In truth, I think the closest person I have to what a mother is Aloy herself.
Hm. [It's not surprising when she thinks about it, given Beta's background. She gets the feeling that motherhood isn't currently on Aloy's list of roles.] That makes sense.
[It's less odd to her, somehow, than viewing their original as a mother. Perhaps because she found being placed in such a role herself by some version of 2B distantly repellent.
...]
What about... 'Elisabet Sobeck?' What was she like? Did she really create a machine that powerful? And it doesn't hate humans...
I only know about her from the recordings and data left, but she was...much different from the people around her. She cared about the world, and using her knowledge for something good. She was incredibly intelligent. Ted Fario was credited with pulling the world back from the brink of climate extinction, but he couldn't have done it without the work Elisabet had done for him prior.
[ It's not like she wouldn't want to meet her too, but... Soemtimes she worried Aloy was expecting a different reaction from Elisabeth if it (somehow, illogically) ever happened than she was.
It's a depressing topic, but Gaia isn't, so she's more than happy to hop right onto that. ]
And when she made Gaia, Elisabet knew that if the world was going to be restored and humanity brought back, it had to be entrusted to something that really cared for it when no humans were left to guide it. The Earth needed a mother to be born again. Gaia grew under Elisabet's care, sharing her pain and struggles during her isolation to get the system running properly. She learned to feel, and love, and want to protect humanity too.
[How incredible, she thinks, that a human had created such a machine. A2 is beginning to come to terms with the fact that if the humans had created them — the androids — it was merely their distant ancestors. Some prototype long before YoRHa, before even the resistance androids. Perhaps that whispered-about set of twins, who had doomed them all.
A machine that was a mother to everything on Earth, a machine God that loved humanity because of her human creator.
...]
It sounds like a fairy tale.
[Her voice is soft. The words aren't condescending, though they carry a level of skepticism — A2's perception of both gods and machines could best be described as "negative." Humans too, in many ways. Everything she knew about humans, other than the ones she'd encountered here, was android and machine fables. And... their experiments. The cruelty they enacted upon one another for progress.]
What's she like? Gaia. Ah... her personality, that is.
[She did have an individual consciousness, right? Both Beta and Aloy have implied as much.]
[ Beta misses talking to her already. It feels like it's been years since they spoke. ]
She's very kind. We talked often when I got to the base. I'm used to AI only acting on its most basic programming; following procedures and that sort of thing. But Gaia...she'll ask how I'm doing, or we'll talk about what's going on with the tribes in the world. She's very curious about what's happening that she can't see, and how the people are doing. We even talk about what I can do to help them. She really wants to see the world thrive.
[How warmly that Beta speaks of this machine makes A2 frown to herself, discomfited. It's such a bizarre thing to hear from a human — to imagine that the enemy she'd hated for so long could serve such a magnanimous purpose to humanity.]
So she's capable of independent thought. [...] Like Pascal. [Like the machine children.] But the other machines from your world aren't — they're like animals, right? [A little huff.] That's so weird. The machines from my world are completely different.
[She appears to differentiate herself from the machines, however.]
Gaia's machines were intended to be part of the natural world as it repaired it. They wouldn't be violent if HEPHAESTUS weren't sentient and trying to make them more formidable.
[ she's turning curious eyes on A2. ]
What are the machines like where you're from? You talked about Pascal before. Are they your friend?
[HEPHAESTUS, HADES... subroutines, she thinks Aloy had called them. Networked machines, maybe, except their master program was benevolent, unlike those eerie children from her world. And yet they had broken free to defy her.
Beta's curiosity about Pascal and the other machines isn't unexpected, but A2 closes in on herself a little anyway.] ...
[She sighs.] At first they weren't anything. [This is said with some disdain.] They weren't like us. They were just mindless killers. That's what — what we thought. They were [she almost says "stealing," and amends herself.] learning from us. Some were cut from their network and started to... evolve. To change.
Pascal was... Pascal was the head of a machine village in the Forest. It was full of peaceful machines that had been separated from the main network. None of them wanted to fight.
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expiationlogs2025-02-10 12:12 pm
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[ that's reassuring, right? she gives Pod a quick thanks for the light and then scrutinizes the moss, turning it over in her free hand. ]
Don't you ever want to stop and look at how pretty nature is?
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She crouches down beside Beta, in part to make this whole handholding thing less uncomfortable. Like the moss and fungi in this place, her own eyes are backlit by an eerie glow.]
I see nature all the time. [...] It's fine. Calm.
[Long pause...]
I'm tracking wolves in the forest.
[Normal conversation.]
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[ she's absolutely content with the conversation, giving A2 a smile as she crouches down. ]
Wolves seem fitting for you.
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[After so much time alone, it felt most comfortable for her.
She doesn't say that she likes flowers as well. But she does turn to Beta, a question in her eyes.]
Why's that?
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[ she gives A2 a gentle, experimental shoulder bump. ]
I think you'd be a wolf, if you were an animal.
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[A little noise of surprise at the shoulder bump. A2 rubs awkwardly at the back of her neck. It occurs to her to protest this reading of her personality, though she dismisses it almost right away. It's not really like she can pretend otherwise. Annoying.]
... Maybe. They're interesting animals. [...] Would you... be a particular sort of animal?
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Sometimes I think I'd be a mouse. I'm not bold or brave like Aloy.
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The comparison makes her frown, more to herself. She tries to formulate a response.] Those little animals? Mm. You're smarter than those things. They get killed all the time.
[By birds, usually. Or else some other predator.] The crows are smart. [... A shake of her head.] You're not loud enough to be a crow. They never shut up.
[After a delay:] Aloy's your sister. The "machine hunter." Right?
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[ The thought of being like a crow had never occurred to her. They were smart, but she'd read they were known for being playful too. Was she playful? She was curious for sure... ]
Yes, that's her. With the long red hair in braids. Probably looking very serious and doing a million things.
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The description of Aloy makes A2's mouth twitch up into a half-smile that is gone quickly.] Mm. We've met. She asks a lot of questions.
So what's it like? Having a sister.
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[ For a little while, it'd felt like they did nothing but argue. It felt inevitable sometimes when they'd started fighting immediately after Aloy arrived.
She loves Aloy, at least as much as she knows what it is to love someone, but it hadn't been this difficult in Second Time Around. ]
When we first met, we fought all the time. We didn't know the other existed until we met, and I think - we expected each other to be different. Aloy is everything I'm not...all the best parts of Elisabet.
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She isn't the best at the careful navigation of emotion, say nothing of dealing with another person's insecurities. She decides to ask a question, instead.]
What did you expect her to be like?
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[ with a sheepish shrug, ]
Nicer.
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[She remembers how she'd felt the first time she'd seen 2B. The coldness in the pit of her stomach at the realization that she'd outlived her usefulness to YoRHa. And then she'd been so angry, so disgusted and appalled. That had been their first meeting. In the meetings after, she'd learned the intricacies of her copy's weaknesses. She'd learned the ways in how to get into her defenses, break her guard, kill her before she was killed. And she had hated her still. Now...
Now she's not sure.]
It sounds complicated. [She says finally, quietly. She's frowning to herself.]
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[ At first, she'd been completely unwilling to hear a thing from him that might soften her image of Aloy. If there was one universal trait that came with being a part of Elisabet, it was stubbornness.
But he'd tried anyway. Shared his thoughts about how Aloy's outcast upbringing had shaped her, how this was difficult for her too, if Beta just gave her some understanding. And as much as she might have pretended, she'd listened the entire time. For a time, the parallels to her own situation had only fueled her fury when Aloy rushed through the base, more concerned with knowing if she had any updates than how Beta was faring. Varl's insistence that Aloy asked about her even if she didn't see her had only helped a little. ]
We both thought the other would be Elisabet, I guess. But we worked it out.
[ Mmmmostly. ]
And there's been good parts too. She lets me ask questions as much as I want, and if I ask her to teach me to do something, she will. And she might not known as much about technology as I do, but she learns really fast, so it's fun to show her how to do something in return. She's very smart in her own way, even if she's so stubborn she does things that seem... [ for the love of her sister, she's not going to finish that. ]
And I know with Aloy here, everything is going to be okay.
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She decides not to let the thought go any further, cutting it off in favor of listening again. Beta's voice filters in again, and not for the first time she is curious about this. Their genetic original. A human who created a machine that loved humanity so much that she recreated the world for them. So different from the Terminal, who had reveled in the androids' pain. And the androids, who had so hated their enemy. The machines too.
... Something captures her interest. The way Beta speaks of her...]
I see. [...] It's good that she's here, then. I do a lot of patrols. But I can't be everywhere at once.
[She often thought like this.] If a machine showed up, I think that you could handle it. But something more dangerous... I don't know.
[Perhaps some sort of martial training would be helpful. But anyway...]
She thinks of your original as a mother. [... She looks troubled again.] Do you?
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Has she ever thought of Elisabet in a motherly light since she learned of her? She didn't have Aloy's upbringing, the mother held up as something just out of reach for her.
What did a mother do, really? They taught you. They kept you safe, kept you fed, made sure you grew up. By that definition, wouldn't the servitors have been her mother? Or Til--
No, she's shutting that thought right down. ]
I don't think I do. I respect her, and I want to be what she was, but... [ she's fiddling with the moss again. ] In truth, I think the closest person I have to what a mother is Aloy herself.
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[It's less odd to her, somehow, than viewing their original as a mother. Perhaps because she found being placed in such a role herself by some version of 2B distantly repellent.
...]
What about... 'Elisabet Sobeck?' What was she like? Did she really create a machine that powerful? And it doesn't hate humans...
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[ It's not like she wouldn't want to meet her too, but... Soemtimes she worried Aloy was expecting a different reaction from Elisabeth if it (somehow, illogically) ever happened than she was.
It's a depressing topic, but Gaia isn't, so she's more than happy to hop right onto that. ]
And when she made Gaia, Elisabet knew that if the world was going to be restored and humanity brought back, it had to be entrusted to something that really cared for it when no humans were left to guide it. The Earth needed a mother to be born again. Gaia grew under Elisabet's care, sharing her pain and struggles during her isolation to get the system running properly. She learned to feel, and love, and want to protect humanity too.
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A machine that was a mother to everything on Earth, a machine God that loved humanity because of her human creator.
...]
It sounds like a fairy tale.
[Her voice is soft. The words aren't condescending, though they carry a level of skepticism — A2's perception of both gods and machines could best be described as "negative." Humans too, in many ways. Everything she knew about humans, other than the ones she'd encountered here, was android and machine fables. And... their experiments. The cruelty they enacted upon one another for progress.]
What's she like? Gaia. Ah... her personality, that is.
[She did have an individual consciousness, right? Both Beta and Aloy have implied as much.]
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[ Beta misses talking to her already. It feels like it's been years since they spoke. ]
She's very kind. We talked often when I got to the base. I'm used to AI only acting on its most basic programming; following procedures and that sort of thing. But Gaia...she'll ask how I'm doing, or we'll talk about what's going on with the tribes in the world. She's very curious about what's happening that she can't see, and how the people are doing. We even talk about what I can do to help them. She really wants to see the world thrive.
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So she's capable of independent thought. [...] Like Pascal. [Like the machine children.] But the other machines from your world aren't — they're like animals, right? [A little huff.] That's so weird. The machines from my world are completely different.
[She appears to differentiate herself from the machines, however.]
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[ she's turning curious eyes on A2. ]
What are the machines like where you're from? You talked about Pascal before. Are they your friend?
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Beta's curiosity about Pascal and the other machines isn't unexpected, but A2 closes in on herself a little anyway.] ...
[She sighs.] At first they weren't anything. [This is said with some disdain.] They weren't like us. They were just mindless killers. That's what — what we thought. They were [she almost says "stealing," and amends herself.] learning from us. Some were cut from their network and started to... evolve. To change.
Pascal was... Pascal was the head of a machine village in the Forest. It was full of peaceful machines that had been separated from the main network. None of them wanted to fight.
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[ from violent machines to peaceful...it's a dream compared to Gaia's corrupted machines or the Faro plague.
she manages to restrain the urge to start enthusing about that. now isn't the time. ]
It must have been a shock. [ almost hopefully, ] A good one?
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