Insomniac Activity [IC]

[Nyrath]

An advantage of not needing sleep that Aiko hadn't been long in realizing was the fact that amenities became readily available during the night when the great majority of people were asleep. Granted, she was not the only one like this at Claremont; her roommate was one example of this. For one there was a noticeable lessened strain on the net, and now she had been granted access to the Doom Room after two weeks. It was a trust thing she realized, by trusting her with access to the training chamber it was hoped that she might come to trust them a bit more. And in truth she also realized that it was working, somewhat. After all the room did record everything Karakuri did while testing herself inside it, but at least it was honest about it and readily coughed up at least most of what it acquired on her; it did this for everyone as a way to help improvement after all.

So now the gynoid was running through an acrobatics course at half past two in the morning, world champion level, and finding it easy. She'd started out with expert and after an hour found herself having a flawless score; that had just been a "warm up". The blue haired robot was still performing flawlessly, but at least at this level she got a little useful feedback as opposed to none. Another thirty minutes or so and she'd see if the setting labelled "impossible"did live up to its name or if she would need to offer to improve on it in order to get anything like a challenge.

[Starsign]

Being another uneventful night for Ashley Culdis, she decided to practice up in the Doom Room where she saw it was already preoccupied by Aiko. Looking in astonishment, Ashley watched her roommate's performance through the acrobatic course from the examination window. Ashley was wearing her superhero outfit, minus the cloth and hat. While she was good in acrobatics, Aiko showed unbelievable perfection through the expert course, something Ashley couldn't quite reach yet. She was considered (next to Wander) the best at acrobatics before Sage and Aiko came. She found herself in jealously at the blue-haired immigrant's abilities, it was like she had a lifetime of lifetimes to perfect such skills.

After the world champion level, Ashley raised an eyebrow in concern when her roommate turned the difficulty to "impossible". Ashley was warned that "impossible" was a quite fitting name. Ashley herself hasn't tried world champion since her first time coming here. It was a painful experience, she was battered with bruises due to inexperience. She decided to practice on expert until she mastered it. To see Aiko go to "impossible" had her concerned. She headed for the door to the Doom Room in case something would happen.

[Nyrath]

At least Impossible was a decent light work-out even though the moves weren't quite challenging for her, truly inhuman flexibility had its advantages, but she did have to stay focused to make them properly given that now it was just about all taking place in midair with the holds, bars and hops constantly moving. And if there was a pattern to them, she hadn't had time to discern it yet, so it was actually a bit exhilirating. Twist to the left, snag that hop with my left foot. Swing, tense up, push of with right foot. Catch bar with right hand, twist round to avoid second set of bars. For a human it would have been stressfully fast, her own heightened speed certainly helped her there. It was simple, uncomplicated.

Or at least it was up till Ashley Culdis entered the room. Karakuri's first instinctive response was to greet her, this was not necessarily an intelligent or wise move in her situation. "Ah, hello Culdis-san!" The blue haired young woman didn't seem the least out of breath despite the fact that her level of activity should be making itself felt after five minutes, and she had already spent hours prior in what should have been tiring exercise. However she had looked over at the brunette as she entered, and that meant that she was blindsided as she snapped her eyes forward again, and took the end of one swift moving bar right in her right eye. Her own moment and that of the bar, combined with the small surface area of the impact and the vulnerable zone struck meant things suddenly looked very nasty.

As the gynoid fell towards the luckily padded floor she caught a few more glancing blows before landing a heap, her head and the damaged portion of her face turned away from the newly arrived Rycon. But just because Karakuri was out of the thick of things didn't mean she was out of danger; the zooming obstacles still occured down at floor level. And to get to the emergency shut down Ashley would have to dodge at least a few.

[Starsign]

Ashley watched through the door at Aiko's performance. She couldn't believe it, Aiko wasn't even tired, she moved with incredible movement and skill. Aiko's reflexes was fast, unrealisticly fast. It was like she could think of every move she needed to do within a second, if not less than a second. Ashley saw her roommate turn around and wave to her, as if she was showing off.

While normally she would be amused, Ashley grew frightened as the bar went too close to her roommate, and became terrified when Aiko crashed hard. She couldn't see the wound on Aiko, but what mattered was that Aiko was badly injured. Ashley rushed into the Doom Room, yelling, "Aiko!" as loud as she could (which isn't as loud as some of the other people in Claremont). Forgetting what difficulty the room was currently in, Ashley immediately rushed towards the shut down system, showing off her own acrobatics while moving forward.

Sadly, she still wasn't up to par, as she got knocked around a little as she tumbled down. But rather than smashing the floor, Ashley used the momentum to roll to recovery, avoiding a collision with the hard floor. Feeling that her roommates life was in danger, Ashley made quicker moves, performing better than she ever had in the room. She makes a dive to the switch as she presses it to stop the training gone horribly wrong.

[Nyrath]

The moment Ashley hits the shut down the mechanical aspects of the course grinds to a halt, and the hard light projections vanish in the blink of an eye. From near the centre of the room she could now hear Aiko's voice, the blue haired girl speaking at a rather rapid pace. "StupidstupidstupidAlwayskeeponeseyesonthecourseNeedtoadjustthepoliteness/

greetingsroutinestoavoidasimialrincidentinthefutureDamnIseemtobespeakingoutloudMusthaveshakensomethinglooseduringoneofthehitsShouldbeadjustablelike-" so. Will need to show a bit of trust in Culdis. At least she seems to genuinely care, I'll just have to help that holds after tonight. The gynoid pushed herself up left hand, while using her right hand to hold in anything that might decide to fall out of her eyesocket. Fortunately nothing had yet, but that was simply because it all seemed to have gotten pushed inwards into her skull cavity. "Ah, Culdis-san. Thank you for shutting it down. It looks worse than it is. But, there is something you probably know." Karakuri's voice was calm and collected, but with an undercurrent of trepidation. The blue haired one was currently favouring showing her undamaged left side towards the brunette, shielding her damage from view with a combination of her hair, her right hand and the angle.

[Starsign]

As the training program shuts down, Ashley runs over to her wounded roommate, who was speaking unnaturally fast. As she reached Aiko, she says, "Are you alright Karakuri-san?" She takes a look at Aiko to notice that there is no blood anywhere on her body, despite that her eye may very well have been knocked out of it's socket. Ashley takes her roommate's hand, cutting her off from Aiko's line, "We need to get you to the doctor's office, please come on." Ashley eyes almost looked watery.

[Nyrath]

"...a doctor wouldn't be of any use." Aiko sounds resigned, and a bit scared, as she speaks. "I'm, artificial." The gynoid states as she lets her right hand drop exposing what should have been a gory, horrible mess. It's still a horrible mess, but instead of gore it's visibly high teck components. Most of these are shattered and broken, thin cables torn out of their sockets, or sheared through, or the lense array that made up the robots eye that now sits pushed back in the socket with great cracks in it.

[Starsign]

The revelation had shocked Ashley. She had no clue of Aiko being an artificial being. She could only look on in sadness at the wreck of the components that made up Aiko's eye. "Aiko..." Ashley had trouble finding the right words to say. "What do I say to a robot being? I don't even know where to begin discussion..." She thought in confusion. Then she realized that Aiko couldn't go around as is.

"Let's find a quiet place, I think I can try to repair you." Ashley put a small smile on her face. Though she had made weapons, armor, and components, she never really tried fixing something the size of a human being before. "At least... I could make replacement components." Ashley felt that she understood why Aiko seemed rather repulsed about showing her robot components, and Ashley promised herself that she would help her roommate fit in, so she wanted to do what she could now.

[Nyrath]

Ashley does seem to be trustworthy, might as well extend it further. Holding Ashley by the hand Aiko goes to leave the room, passing close enough by the controls to mentally shut down the Doom Room. "I certainly appreciate the offer, but I do believe I can handle most of it. Though I could use your help in setting up a secondary optics system for when I detach and my head to work on it. And I think you at least deserve some more details so you will have a better understanding of my situation Ashley-san." Change in adress mode, let's see if she can pick up on it.

[Starsign]

Relieved at Aiko's response, Ashley gladly says "I can try, what kind of optics system would you require? Where would it need to be installed?" She talked with her quietly as they walked quietly, making their way back to their dorm room. Ashley however, was overstating her crafting abilities. She knew she couldn't make an optics system, she had no blueprints, or a plan. Suddenly, Ashley had her doubts, "Um... Karakuri-san, I'm not really sure if I can build one by myself, I may need help from others like Geck..oh..."

Ashley then imagined the panic that would insue if everyone found out that Aiko was a robot. She feared what they may do to her roommate if they knew. "Um... actually, let's keep this to ourselves..." Ashley did feel kind of bad for having to keep an important secret.

[Nyrath]

"Any kind of video recording device that can be linked to a computer should suffice actually." Aiko said to relieve at least some of her roommate's doubts. "I have some spare parts for my optics systems, and the tools to work with, in what I brought with me when I arrived. The tricky part is going to be the synth-skin, I don't have the facilities or material to repair that at the moment and will have to go through the faculty to get it. Speaking of which, at least most of them know what I am. So does Martel-san. She, kinda helped me with a major metaphysical question the day she arrived. Still, I deeply appreciate your willingness to keep this a secret."

[Starsign]

As the two change directions to the faculty, Ashley responds with, "A video device? I think there's one my old home in West End. I can make use of the spare parts, It may take me a while to figure out how that works though..." Ashley wasn't sure how to talk to Aiko aside from continually giving her support now. She put on a bigger smile once they reached the empty faculty. As they begin loading on spare parts, Ashley asks, "Karakuri-san, how long has some of the other students known you?"

[Nyrath]

"Not very long. Well, yes I did throw Geckoman into a wall last April and stuff like that. But I've only come anywhere close to knowing them, and them me, during the last few weeks since I arrived here." Aiko seemed somber as she talked now, a bit detached. It doesn't take the gynoid long to collect what she needs. "We should probably get moving Ashley-san. So are we heading over to your old home or is it possible for you to bring whatever is needed here faster than the two of us together can get there?"

[Starsign]

Ashley's eye twitched a little when Aiko mentioned throwing Geckoman into a wall. She really didn't want to know what happened... yet. "West End is a long way from here. It could take many hours to get there by foot. Going both ways, we could be back here by the end of tomorrow." Ashley stated the only option available. "I can teleport using electricity atoms of some kind. teleporting itself can take only a nanosecond to get anywhere in the city. Karakuri-san, could you please wait here or in our dorm room? I'll get what we need at my house." And with that, Ashley touched an electric cable hanging from the ceiling and disappeared before Aiko's eyes.

[Nyrath]

Trust or not, Aiko still made sure to update her profiles on everyone that could be a potential threat in some form. it was long list by now. Better wait here, Martel-san and the others in the dorms need sleep and we wouldn't want to wake them. So Karakuri basically just waited until Ashley got back.

[Starsign]

Ashley comes out of the electric alarm clock in her room. All was quiet, whether Danielle and her aunt and uncle were here was not known, and Ashley would rather not know. Acting quickly, She goes through her cupboard to find the tools she uses for her structure crafting, she hoped that these could be used to make something useful for Aiko. Grabbing those and her video camera, Ashley puts all of it in her stuffed backpack, and zips it up.

*FLICK*

Ashley was blinded by the light that suddenly came into the room. She turns for the door as she sees Danielle standing there, arms crossed. Looks like she just got home. "Ashley, what are you...?" Ashley wasn't letting her cousin finish speaking. Cutting her off, she responds, "Sorry sis, I'll explain tomorrow." as she disappears and teleports through her alarm clock again.

[Nyrath]

"That was quick, though I suppose it would be." When Ashley reappeared Aiko was using her remaining eye to inspect the parts that would in a short while grant her stereovision again. "If you could be so kind as to bring over whatever you brought so we can get started Ashley-san. I am willing to explain as we work, but I will need to be able see what I am doing to accomplish anything."

[Starsign]

"Right, Ashley responds with as she brings her tools, supplies, and video camera (VC), setting them down on the table next to them. Now she needed a TV or computer screen of sorts for the VC. "Lemme look for a screen of some sort for the optics system." She really didn't have much of a plan to repair Aiko, but she had to start with what she knew.

As she looked around for a screen device, Ashley asks, "Karakuri-san... do you think you could tell me who created you?" Her voice was sincere and soft, unlike her usual tone as Rycon.

[Nyrath]

"I can access it directly, and it will most likely be more efficient that way. Especially since if possible I would prefer to detach my head for better access. And since I will need both my hands for the work itself it would be helpful if you could handle the camera." As she spoke Karakuri was gingerly feeling around the top of her neck with her fingertips, seeing if the joints and seals where still in good enough condition to just disengage when removing her head.

"Karakuri-san... do you think you could tell me who created you?"

Aiko stops cold, for several moments she makes neither a sound or movement. Then her shoulders slump down and she looks over at Ashley. "Takashi Solo. Or as you probably know him, Doctor Otaku. Until October last year I was one of the Angel Androids."

[Starsign]

"I can access it directly, and it will most likely be more efficient that way. Especially since if possible I would prefer to detach my head for better access. And since I will need both my hands for the work itself it would be helpful if you could handle the camera."

"Oh, sure thing." Ashley responds. She had a small look of joy on her face. She was really glad to be helping others, especially her friends. She tries to figure out how to connect the VC as she hands Aiko the tools and supplies.

"Takashi Solo. Or as you probably know him, Doctor Otaku. Until October last year I was one of the Angel Androids."

Just as Aiko stopped cold, so did Ashley. She should have known, or at least been suspicious of it. But it came as a sniper bullet from the skies. "Doctor Otaku..." Ashley didn't know what to say now. She wanted to support Aiko, but she came from a young, ambitious mad scientist, or at least from what Ashley's heard of him. She could tell this was a hard subject for Aiko to converse about.

Ashley had a look of pity on her face as she spoke "I... know of him from gossip from the streets, but never actually met him." Her voice was now slower and quieter than usual. She looked straight at Aiko as she said, "Perhaps we should discuss this later? I'd rather not intrude on your past if it bothers you..."

[Nyrath]

Ashley's pity stung a bit, but Aiko realized that in this case it was because the brunette cared. "It does bother me, but I need to speak of it. If we leave of here things will simply be horribly awkward later and your mind might unbidden construct some rather fanciful and possibly harmful scenario's concerning my presence." For a moment a smile creep onto the gynoid's face. "Heh, at least some form of insight from all that manga and anime." It is fleeting though and soon drops. "So to start, I loved Solo; it was in my programming after all. At some point, I don't know why, I achieved self awareness and was no longer bound by the parameters he'd set. I still loved and served him, but when I spoke to my sister about it I learned she was still operating solely under programming. She told Solo, and he basically just killed me."

[Starsign]

"It does bother me, but I need to speak of it. If we leave of here things will simply be horribly awkward later and your mind might unbidden construct some rather fanciful and possibly harmful scenario's concerning my presence."

Hearing this, Ashley's face lost the pity and took a more neutral, serious look. "Alright then Karakuri-san, I'll listen to you every word." She wasn't quite sure what Aiko's previous sentence completely meant, aside from the "horribly awkward" and "harmful scenario's" words. She put the video camera to the side as she looked at Aiko, listening on her story.

"So to start, I loved Solo; it was in my programming after all. At some point, I don't know why, I achieved self awareness and was no longer bound by the parameters he'd set. I still loved and served him, but when I spoke to my sister about it I learned she was still operating solely under programming. She told Solo, and he basically just killed me."

"Self awareness..." Ashley thought. She couldn't understand how it would work, perhaps a gift from the universe, or an evolution in the discovery of humankind? The talk of Aiko's sisters brought up another note. "Her sister's followed the words of Doctor Otaku over their own sister," She thought in disgust, "But... it if they never achieved awareness, then it was just part of the programming." The number of mental note's she tried to make we're beginning to distract her from Aiko's story, so she decided to just listen to her roommate first.

[Nyrath]

"After terminating that interation of me Solo pulled out an earlier back-up of my programming and overwrote my mind, so I was back to how I was before. Whatever granted me sentience did so a second time at the end of September, and this time I retained my memories of what had been done to me. It was a small miracle I lasted until that Con on the 8th of October. Otaku got cornered by a few heroes and he called on us to bail him out. I just struck him between the eyes instead." Again, the gynoid smiles. "If Darkstar hadn't stopped me I'd have spread his brains all over the floor, and felt good about it too." And again, the smile drops, along with her mood. "I broke down emotionally at that point. Solo had used, abused and then killed me for simply being a person and not just a toy. Being denied vengeance at that point broke a couple of floodgates. I spent over half a year in Daedalus's care, just getting to function, being capable of being independent." Now Karakuri's voice goes dark, practically baring steel. "I will not allow anyone to have that kind of power Solo had over me. Never again."

[Starsign]

Ashley listened to the whole story without interruption, her right hand over her mouth in shock. Aiko's past year was an emotional train wreck that would have had Ashley in a coma if she suffered that. She didn't know what to tell her, what could help her? What was it that Aiko wanted to hear? A couple tears we're about to jerk from Ashley's face, but she just rubbed them away, and decided to respond, "Aiko... I don't know what to say, or if I should say anything. I just..."

The lack of words frustrated Ashley, and possibly Aiko. Knowing she had to be strong, Ashley stated her mind. "Aiko, they say the past should be the wind, used as a push rather than a pull." She was recalling words from her father. "The sky is to represent your possibilities, the earth represents we're you can go, and the wind is to guide us to the sky. The past is to be the wind as the present is to be the earth and the future to be the sky. We are to use the past to press ourselves onward rather than let it pull to be succumbed by our own tragedies." She let a small pause before finishing, "That's what they say... Did you understand anything I meant?" Ashley had hoped that she didn't end up sprouting nonsense for this discussion.

[Nyrath]

Aiko sits quiet and listens as Ashely speaks, thinking about the words she hears and working to discern meaning behind them. A moment or so after the brunette finishes talking the blue haired one answers. "Yes, I do. And it helps a bit. Th past is merely a foundation, what and where I build on and from it is my decision. But Otaku has been such a massive fixture in my life that it is almost impossible to avoid. So I work with that. I will spite him, defy him and exceed him. I'm already a more competent combatant than I ever were serving him. In time I shall surpass his intellect as well. Any immortality he achieves shall be solely through me, and I will make sure he knows that in his final days. Probably not the healthiest of mindsets, but at least it keeps me going for now while I craft my own place in the world. And I suppose I've got his sick obsessions to thank for my disturbing degree of 'anatomical correctness', at least that's helping me now somewhat.."