- Humanbot: Goth | Joy: 6 | Fear: 5
“……..”
“…….. Your grieving heart flutters in despair, humanbot.”
“…….”
“I understand the depth of your misery, I am called to it.”
“Oh Dark Lady, you see the truth of my soul – it is black as night.”
Katrine nodded sagely at that. The past day had been spent in conversation with the GothBot, exploring the depth and breadth of death and misery that clung to her human pet. They were such dark souls! It echoed her own deep calling and lifted her spirits to know that humanbots were kindred. Cast in grey and darkness, like her, with no memory of before.
“Tell me what existence you held before you became my pet, metal minion.” Katrine leaned forward in a girlish gesture, chin set on the palms of her hands as she floated a few inches off the bed in her room.
The dark figure that languished before her rolled to face its mistress and shook its head, the slightly tinny voice almost fond in its response. “Nothingness, mistress. Nothing came before and nothing will come again, the night consumes all and embraces our black hearts.”
“Is your heart truly so black?” She asked, tilting her head to the side, “No lifesblood as I see in the monsters and reapers that walk the long halls?”
“Lifeblood turns black, Dark Lady, and runs only momentarily through veins as red. The heart’s true color is black, it is.” The GothBot stretched on her bed, arms tucked under its head as it stared past her into the ceiling and contemplated how dreary and impossible the world was.
“Then no lifesblood is the best. When it freezes solid and clings like an echo to a corpse.” Katrine pondered that, “A source of misery, then, is what you crave metal one. An avatar of despair, free of the shackles of life. You attend the right presence for I am called to grief and revel with you in the dark despair.” Katrine smiled, reached out to touch the face of the GothBot.
It clunked and made a completely unexpected ding! From deep within its chest. The mechanical eyes fluttered as a stock monitoring program kicked in, “Humanbot Joy has increased.” The voice crackled and snapped, then fell silent after the report.
“Joy? Angels of despair bring you joy?” She blinked in surprise… was joy an emotion she should have? She remembered nothing of the past – just the heavy clinging grief in her chest that she couldn’t really shake. “Betrayal will take you, and crush that joy, metal one. Ward it well.”
Angrily, she reached forward and put a hand through its chest as if to rip that very joy from its breast. Anger, betrayal, grief… despair… they all welled up and pressed down unbearably. This metal creature, this humanbot, so cold and frail derived joy from her despair! Jealousy ripped through the cloud of emotions then a flicker of icey logic lashed through her mind – it derived joy from her despair. It idolized and called her Dark Lady. There was no reason to gum up its innards.
“Lady?” The GothBot inquired, looking down at the hand in its chest, “Will you end my life, a swift merciful escape from the burdens of life? I will not decline unlife.”
The hand was removed as she sighed and sat back, completely lost in thought. Those emotions were so raw and yet she did not know why. Every time she reached for their source, their reason, it escaped and left her listless their passing. Who was she? Katrine, Called by Grief… that was all. The King, the majesty of his kingdom – these too were remembered.
And in that remembering she recalled the legacies, the agents of the King sent forth with missions. Her mission was unknown, locked away with memories that crumbled dust at a glance, but perhaps the other agents could remember?
She stood suddenly, nearly falling off the bed in her decision. She would seek out the agents of the King – the seven servants of legacy. Pride, Creation, Destruction, Revenge, Protection, and Reflection… each of these she would find and question. They would know her Purpose.
“Lady?” The word came again, an irritation and secondary buzz that drew her attention back to the world around her and, eventually, to the GothBot before her.
“What?” She demanded, her resolved hardened and her gaze determined.
“Are you going to kill me? It seemed you might.” The lack of emotion in the mechanical voice was unmistakable – it was merely recounting an observation.
“Would that you truly wanted death, Humanbot. I am not going to kill you. I do not know what Silver Seeds are but I do not own twenty thousand of them and until such a time your being is safeguarded.” She harrumphed and stepped down from the bed. “I have work to do. Attend me metal minion.”
