sweethymns | ʜᴜᴍᴀɴ ᴀғᴛᴇʀ ᴀʟʟ

Huh.

[She thinking back on when she healed Connor and how she had been able to seal him up and save him from losing any more.]

It kind of begs the question... Even when I healed you, are you going to replace what you lost? In a way, I was almost certain I wasn't going to be much help for you when we first met. I was kind of panicking, to be honest.

[His brow furrows a little at the question. This is something he’s given thought to before now.]

Your healing was a strange sensation, Ai. Logically, I don’t know how it worked, but I felt like whatever lost was no longer... gone after you healed me. As if I lost no blood at alll.

[Even if that doesn’t make reasonable sense.]

But if I’m lacking in blood, I can replace it when I return home.

[Ai puts her hands behind her backs, shuffling her feet.]

I'm just... A little confused about it when I recall how that developed. I don't think it makes me a fix-all for androids like you.

[She wonders if it's a psychological component on her part where she had to consider Connor a living being in order for her to heal him.]

Like, I definitely can't do anything if the damage was extremely extensive to your limbs and whatever is pumping the blood through your veins.

... Not that I wouldn't try though.

[He smiles, clasping his hands behind his back in reflective body language.]

Well, though it wouldn’t be preferable, limbs can be replaced for me. Maybe not in this world, where parts are unavailable, but back in my dimension it would be a viable option. You’ve never healed an android before though. I don’t understand it either, but maybe blood loss is just something in the purview of your powers, and you didn’t realize it.

...But I’m glad that you’d still try. To heal all my injuries, I mean.

I couldn't fail without trying first.

[Her team members had been hurt in front of her before and she had failed to heal them; it was a fading nightmare of a memory, but a nightmare nonetheless. There's a pang of guilt at the self-satisfaction she has for the gratitude she's received from Connor, but she tries to understand that it is what it is; there's no need to dwell on her hopeless self.

If anything, she's concerned about something else.]

I hope we get you home. If you don't mind me admitting it though...

It was fun. Having you around and getting to know you even if it was just a little bit.

[It’s a nice thing to say, and yet somehow Connor isn’t surprised to hear it from her. Ai has been nothing but kind to him; when he was hurt, when he was needing a place to stay. When he was being an imposition — and yet despite all that, she’s telling him that she enjoyed his company.

Well, he had fun too, he thinks.

Connor’s expression softens a little, his smile sincere but a little sorry.]

I did too. It was nice to have you as company. I really can’t reiterate how kind you’ve been.

And if... well. If this is going to be the last we see of each other, I just want to say thank you again.

... You're welcome.

[It's easier to say than "Goodbye." And the selfish part of her hopes that maybe, just maybe...

Of course, those thoughts are interrupted when she notices Lien has stopped talking and walking. Her sister's fingers are drumming against one brick, just a slightly-off colored one from the rest of the wall and it even makes her fingers spark.]

Hold on. I think she found something.

[She gently puts her hands on Lien's shoulders and tugs her away from the wall, looking at that brick. Lien herself is disoriented and not in a state to talk as she returns to normal, so Ai turns to Connor.]

Before we try anything else, do you think you can scan where she stopped? Just to check.

[His attention is brought over to the brick as well, and he looks at it — it appears nothing out of the ordinary, but one can never be too sure.]

Of course.

[He initiates a scan, one that only he can see. And where he would normally be able to tell that it was nothing but a normal brick, really, with just a smattering of blue blood where he had touched it (now disappeared), something strange happens. His scan doesn’t work; his vision shakes and buzzes when he tries to focus on it. Static plays behind his eyes.

Connor closes his eyes, shaking his head. He looks at Ai.]

I can’t scan it. It’s as if some kind of interference exists, but I can’t determine what it is.

[They have their door. Ai immediately gets down to business after she makes sure Lien is leaning against the opposite wall and she steps forward to their spot. Her right hand begins to spark and she tentatively reaches out to that single brick to see how it reacts to a forced charge.]

... Ow!

[Not that great it seems. Her whole hand snaps back as if it was magnetically being repelled.]

Alright. Connor, step back with Lien. I'm going to have to overcharge if we're going to force this out.

Here goes nothing.

[Both hands begin to glow and her eyes are closing too. The atmosphere around Ai changes in its flow and bits of soil and debris begin to shake and hover around her, and sparks begin to flicker as well.]

[With a reaction like that, it’s definitely their door.

Connor won’t interrupt this either. He steps back as told, and watches. The air twists with pressure, ringing in his ears.]

[Eyes open and they glow, a mix of violet and indigo once again. Ai pushes against the wall with more force and the spot, the doorway begins to glow white making for a scraggly white rectangle and then it turns blue, black, all three colors all at once, the color of a midnight sky, or of some unfathomable void. It resists Ai and the opposing energy source makes her feet skid backward. She refuses to give in.

It needs to be corrected. She needs to do this for Connor. He needs to have a way home. It needs to be safe.

It takes a minute, but she begins to release more energy than the door, overwhelming it with her overcharge until the result is a blinding light.

The dust settles. Ai is breathing heavily, but isn't too worse for wear, save for some sweat on the side of her face. The light fades away and everything seems normal. She calls to Connor as Lien rubs her eyes, dizzied once again.]

I... I think it's safe. [One glowing hand pushes against their spot and instead of resistance, it just makes a luminescent light against her hand.]

Try scanning it now.

[It’s unlike anything he’s ever seen.

This sort of energy, these colors — was this the hidden fabric of the universe between universes? The stitching of a doorway that kept it all together? Theoretical scientists would be tripping over themselves to get a glance of this, he knows. And the power that it creates buffets him back, strands of hair falling across his forehead. It’s ineffable and powerful. It is something he’s not sure he’s meant to understand, even with a brain like his own.

But Ai? What sort of power does she possess to tame it? And yet when the dust settles, and the door is calm and even soft to the touch, there they all stand, a bridge to another universe stabilized as if it were merely an inconvenient chore that needed to be done.

He’s more than impressed. When she speaks, he looks at her in a slightly different light, now.]

I... yes, of course.

[He does as told. From his scans, the door is nothing but energy, flowing in both directions. It doesn’t make his vision crackle, but he’s really in no position to know what any of it means.]

It’s stable. I can tell at least that much. Beyond that, I’m not exactly qualified to summarize it in more specific terms.

[As Ai powers down, Lien is finishing recovering herself. She gives Connor a quick pat on the shoulder.]

Some mysteries remain unsolved bud. But at least it should be safer to use now.

[Lien walks up to the door and presses her index finger against the edge of one side.]

Mm. Yeah. It feels more gentle than when I was tapping against it. Before it felt like a semi-active volcano. You never knew when it was gonna blow. Now it should be more consistent, if small.

And all yours too.

[The pat on his shoulder is enough to bring him back to reality, to the matter at hand — that it’s now time to test this stabilized door, and see if it’ll send him home.

He nods at Lien and steps forward. Gently, he presses a finger against the door, and it feels... warm. It ripples against his touch, as if he were dipping a finger into a clear, calm pond.

Well. Now or never.

Connor inhales — a useless gesture for an android, but a little humanizing quirk that hasn’t left him. He turns to face both of the twins.]

I guess this is goodbye, if I don’t ever see either of you again. Ai, Lien. I can’t say it enough; but thank you for helping me, and for being understanding of... my situation. Of what I am, and your willingness to aid me despite that.

[He gives them both a smile — sincere, grateful.]

I’ll think of both of you, every time I pass that park bench.

[Ai had been quiet for a few seconds, but she musters up a smile and nods to Connor.]

Good. Keeping us in your thoughts is more than enough thanks. Get home safely, okay Connor?

[It really had been fun, like she said. And Ai thinks that if this is a final goodbye, then that's okay. They all enjoyed what they could, and that was enough.]

... Wait! Almost forgot, you're gonna need this.

[Lien digs into her tote bag that had been stuffed with something and that something is a rustle of fabric which she enrolls to present Connor with a beautiful tank top shirt.]

Here you go! One for the road.

[Ai opens her mouth to say something. Closes it. Opens it again, but looks like she gives up.]

[He blinks and takes the tank, holding it up by its top as it unfolds to read the text. Connor lets out a small chuckle. ]

I like it. Thank you.

[It’s funny; he gets the joke. Though perhaps the irony of him wearing it, being as lean as he is, doesn’t quite connect.

Still, it’s an appreciated thing. Another souvenir to bring home. Connor folds it neatly across an arm, then looks at them once more.]

I suppose I’ll leave now. Goodbye and... fingers-crossed, as the saying goes.

[No point in putting it off. Connor turns around, looking at the door, and takes a step forward. The light softly envelops him, illuminates him as a silhouette swathed in energy. It swallows him whole.

And like that, he’s gone.]

[The twins quietly see off the android, RK800 aka Connor. There's not much pomp and circumstance even if the sight of the tear in space and time is fantastical and unpredictable. But between the both of them they have the same inkling about him. That he'll be fine and that their own paradoxically mundane but unusual lives will continue on.

Lien looks at Ai Thao.]

You okay? You were starting to like him a lot huh?

[Their chance meeting was cut short after all.]

Edited 2018-06-10 20:50 (UTC)

... Mm. It can't be helped.

[Ai doesn't answer the question but they know what the unsaid words are.]

It's nice. Doing something good like this; it wasn't too hard to figure out. And he's got a job to do.

[And without another comment, and with one arm around her twin's shoulder, Lien leads Ai away, treating her to some late night pho later on.

Just another incident rectified. Nothing more. ]

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